Category: VAULT Information

I have been looking at HTPC stuff as of late because Mike’s very sweat TiVO unit.  Well unknown to some is the fact that TiVO is Linux powered and any Linux enthusiast can make their own (and include whatever options they want.)  Things like xmame for video game playing, DVD ripping/burning, TV-to-DVD burning, web access controls, etc.. are just a Linux box away.

Found a couple good resources for this.  HTPC How-to is a great resource; as is mythTV (check out the screen-shots.. if you don’t know what Linux is capable of it will blow your mind.)

I hate spam!  Luckily if you are a Linux/KDE user your options for solving the spam dilemma are better than most. SpamAssassin is a heuristic email filter for tagging unsolicited commercial email.  It does text and header analysis, checks blacklists, and will even use Vipul’s Razor.

This innovative Open Source product can be put together with a properly configured email client to filter out unsolicited spam.  This is the tutorial I used to configure SpamAssassin with Kmail.  Some additional spam filter/Kmail information (including more information for using SpamAssassin with Kmail) can be found  here.

I have had several positive comments about last weeks Run Command article. The REALLY interesting stuff comes when you combine the Run Command with some of Google’s less known capabilities mentioned in this article.

For example I do a lot of conversions. I am constantly having to chance inches to meters.  Miles to kilometers etc..  Well using Google Calculator and the Run Command I can simply put into the Run Command this:

and I have an instant answer from Google! Need a pizza?  Hit Alt->F2 and type this:

(replace 73111 with your zip code) and you have the phone number of a local pizza place.  Make sure to read the Google article… you can do reverse phone number lookups, find a taxi, get a map, and much more… all using the KDE Run Command.

The Alt->F2 shortcut in KDE is one of the least used (by new users) and most useful functions in the KDE environment.  It is the KDE Run Command and not only can you use it to start applications but it can be used to automate searches, get help, and much much more.  I am dedicating this post to some of the lesser known functions.  Try typing some of these commands:

• <command>  Start an application without leaving the keyboard.
• kdesu <command>  Run a command as root without leaving keyboard.
• </path/to/directory>  Opens a konqueror window in the specified directory.
• gg: <search>   Does a google search and displays the results.
• dict: <word>   Look up an English word in the dictionary.
• wp: <topic>  Lookup topic material in an online encyclopedia.
• help: <appname>  Get application specific help.
• man|info: <sys tool>  Tool help (in a nice KDE GUI) throught the unix man or info pages.

The enhanced browsing functions are wonderful.  Some of the others I use are rf: (rpm find), bug: (find a specific bug report for KDE), ggi: (google image search), ggg: (google groups search), fm: (freshmeat search), cpan: (CPAN perl search) and many many more.  You can find the full list of browsing enhancements in the KDE control center “Enhanced  Browsing” Section.

As if I didn’t already have enough things to waist my time on.  May I present to you DHTML Arkanoid.

In addition to the above little gem, here is 10 things you didn’t know about google.  Some really great stuff in there.  Order a pizza, reverse phone number lookup. etc.. etc..

Most people I know think they don’t make what they are worth.  But this article lists the top 10 most overpaid  jobs in the U.S. Hey, maybe I need to find a new line of work.

Project Gutenburg is an online library of free Electronic Books.  They have reached a milestone today with the publication of The Magna Carta; their 10,000th book.  All of the books are available in plain text for easy compatibility.

Just a quick note for today.  I just received word that I am now a Red Hat Certified Technician (aka RHCT). I will be taking my RHCE exam in late January (assuming I am still working for my current employer.) I know some of you have about a dozen certifications but hey, this is my first (well besides that whole Business, Global Studies, and Computer Science degree.)

RecipeSource is a website devoted entirely to recipes. Had a pretty good hot sauce recipe. I am always looking for food recipes.. pretty good search function too.

My wife found a good way find food to cook with what we already have in the house. She puts the list of ingredents in google. Works amazingly well.

I am looking to take the RHCT in late September and as such have been keeping my eyes open for tutorials to study. 

One of the best links I found was RHCE 2 B an RHCE prep site with several useful tutorials. It looks like the best RHCE prep book available currently is this one, and although they are not RHCE tutorials; IBM has been running a series of tests for the LPI certification that seems to cover much of the same material.  I have copied the articles (in pdf form) locally:

• Linux fundamentals (77k pdf)
• Basic administration (126k pdf)
• Intermediate administration (128k pdf)
• Advanced administration (201k pdf)
• Compiling souces and managing packages (119k pdf)

This should keep me busy over the weekend.