Pidgin 2.4.3 released - Fixes ICQ issue

Great job to the Pidgin maintainers for a quick response to the ICQ issues reported yesterday.

Downloads for version 2.4.3 are available @ http://www.Pidgin.im

ICQ users left in the dark

As is being reported around the net 3rd party ICQ clients Pidgin and Kopete are are stuck ICQ-less until patches get merged into the systems. Pidgin is affected in the Linux and Windows world, fixes are available but to my knowledge these are only temporary or proposed and not anything official.

Ubuntu temp fixes: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/244591
Windows temp fixes: http://developer.pidgin.im/attachment/ticket/6220/liboscar.zip

You have to love unannounced protocol changes! :)

Who says Microsoft filesystems are "dirty"?

Below is a screen shot of one of the computers we have at work. Needless to say it was in need of a minor disk cleanup / defrag.

Linux Power information

Striving to be Green is great, running Green in the Linux world is a bit of a hassle but can be done.

I don't have the time to explain in great detail, but I am going to provide some links to help you on your quest for a "Greener Linux"

Great write up on the usage of CPU-Freq utils:
http://polishlinux.org/linux/debian/green-pcs-cpu-frequency-scaling-in-linux/

Thinkpad Linux mailing list- An valuable resource for those with Thinkpads / Ideapads && Linux
http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad

Thinkwiki - Another great resource for Lenovo/IBM notebooks and Linux:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

Less Watts - Saving power with Linux and Intel:
http://www.lesswatts.org/

PowerTop Mailing List:
http://www.bughost.org/mailman/listinfo/power

Hopefully those links will keep you busy for a bit and help you reduce YOUR footprint on the world...

Cyber Armies

According to the following story the Air force is entertaining the thought of creating its own bot net. All your bot are belong to us.

The U.S. would not, and need not, infect unwitting computers as zombies. We can build enough power over time from our own resources.

Rob Kaufman, of the Air Force Information Operations Center, suggests mounting botnet code on the Air Force’s high-speed intrusion-detection systems. Defensively, that allows a quick response by directly linking our counterattack to the system that detects an incoming attack. The systems also have enough processing speed and communication capacity to handle large amounts of traffic.

Next, in what is truly the most inventive part of this concept, Lt. Chris Tollinger of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency envisions continually capturing the thousands of computers the Air Force would normally discard every year for technology refresh, removing the power-hungry and heat-inducing hard drives, replacing them with low-power flash drives, then installing them in any available space every Air Force base can find. Even though those computers may no longer be sufficiently powerful to work for our people, individual machines need not be cutting-edge because the network as a whole can create massive power.

After that, the Air Force could add botnet code to all its desktop computers attached to the Nonsecret Internet Protocol Network (NIPRNet). Once the system reaches a level of maturity, it can add other .mil computers, then .gov machines.

To generate the right amount of power for offense, all the available computers must be under the control of a single commander, even if he provides the capability for multiple theaters. While it cannot be segmented like an orange for individual theater commanders, it can certainly be placed under their tactical control.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/05/3375884

Have I found it?

Well, I think I have found the Linux flavor for my R61 Thinkpad.

I have tried:
Version of Linux / Reason(s) for not keeping on my notebook

Debian based-
1. Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 - the Ubuntu guys/community has done a great job of making Linux a more user friendly distro than most. Out of the box most everything works without a hitch this is great! But, I need more battery life than 2 hours which was the maximum I was able to obtain with Ubuntu tweaked with Powertop and all un-needed services swithced off.

2. Debian Etch - The tried and true base for most things *nix. But, I didn't have the time or the energy to manually configure everything that I needed to configure. For example the screen resolution, Wifi card and Suspend to Ram.

3. ParsiX - This little up and comer from Iran is a very nice "niche" linux. Only issue with this distribution is the use of Xorg 7.2 and the "bug" with the Lenovo screens. Whatever I tried to fix it with just would not give me the use of my entire screen.

Redhat based -
4. Centos 5.1 - It truly is wonderful that Redhat, even though they don't want to delve into the desktop arena are allowing the source to be put out for free "as is" this allows many people to use Centos as a highly reliable server for years to come. With many having great luck on older hardware and desktops. But for a newer notebook this is just flat out not the distro, I am not knocking it at all it is awesome and I still use it for server purposes but not for my R61. The Suspend to Ram, Suspend to Disk, Wifi are not able to be used without recompiling a newer kernel from scratch 2.6.18 just cant cut it these days.

5. Fedora - This is great if you are looking for cutting edge low life cycle Linux fun, but if you are looking for support longer than 13 months you are in the wrong place. There is a great wiki entry in regards to this, and that in and of itself is one of the few reasons I have to say nay to Fedora.

Novell/Suse -
6. OpenSuse 10.3 - This is/was my favorite distro as I have used Suse on and off since Suse7 and loved it. But the ports that seems to be made for the Suse SLED 10.1 that is shipped with R61's never seemed to make it into the 10.3 tree in time for me to be able to deal with. I really hated giving this one up but the lack of battery life and the screen resolution "bug" shared with Parsix made me switch.

Mandriva(Mandrake) -
7. Wow! I was always gun shy of a distro that asked you to pay for Linux. But after trying to free version I may deviate from that path. Everything works, less the Opek Finger print scanner but that will come in time. Add the availability or "Laptop" kernels for power savings and I am SOLD!

Granted I have not tried Slackware or Gentoo, maybe one day.

More to follow later.....

XP SP3 and the SPIN!

As everyone in the world now knows Microsoft has delayed SP3 for Windows XP, until it fixes an issue with interoperability in relation to its own Dynamics Retail Management Software. I was curious as to how many companies use this software and in the last few days looked at every store I went into and to my surprise none were using it. Not even the dry cleaners...

Is this a ploy to to push Vista into our faces and onto our computers? I don't feel this is the case as they have also pulled Vista SP1 from auto installation, but not manual download. I am thinking larger issue than DRMs one which they don't want to explain. But what is it? A backdoor? A severe kernel vulnerability? Who knows, all I have to say is:
*Conspiracy theorists unite!*

I do have it installed and running on my notebook. And my box hasn't been Pwned, yet....

Meet Theodore(Teddy)

Teddy is my pup. Here are some pics from yesterday:

Trying Vista SP1

Well with all the talk of Windows Vista and its failure to claim the "fame" on the desktop, I thought it fitting to give it another chance on my "new" ThinkPad R61.

As I have been a Microsoft Beta Guinea pig for a few years I have had access to the Service Pack for about a week now. Until today I had no desire to run it at all, to be honest I was just bored. So here goes;

Installation was very fast, I was done in roughly 30 minutes. Base install no special software from Lenovo mind you. Most everything worked right from the start.
I think Microsoft figured out what I have thought was the biggest obstacle of an install for years, having an active internet connection first, being if I have a wireless card I more than likely will not plug in during my install why should I? This really irritates me in Linux BTW.

Things I have noticed that don't work, IBM Powermanager, On Screen Display, and the battery life is dismal at best.....

Maybe more if I keep it installed, this is doubtful though.

US-193 Satellite Shoot via NewScientist

NewScientist story

About 40 seconds into the clip you will notice a sway in the camera, some of us know all too well what that rocking is from.. Video courtesy of the US Navy.

ThinkPad oddities

I purchased a new ThinkPad recently and have been noticing some nice features along with some odd ones. Namely the drive protection, with R61 on my lap and typing away I sometimes get the yellow "repetitive shock" warning... Anyone else notice this or is it just my fingers smashing the keyboard?

Newegg + UPS Things to look out for

This has me a little peeved. I ordered a new Lenovo Thinkpad from Newegg.com on Wednesday at 4pm PST I also added rushed processing to hopefully get it shipped out ASAP as my current notebook died. I totally forgot that with Newegg in order to actually process your request for fast approval it states that it must be done before 12pm PST. Ok understandable, but I really would appreciate it if they said so on the order page where they provide a check box also if you say guaranteed 3 day service deliver on Saturdays! Again, if I placed a "rush" order on Wednesday why did my package not get shipped until Thursday night at 11pm? I think this will be the last time I ever use them. I have been surfing around and noticed I am not the only one who has had this issue. They need to make things more obvious on the website, ie. where it says 3 day shipping make it "3 Business day shipping" or "UPS 3 business day shipping". The only day I would not expect a delivery option is Sunday, call me crazy but I have received packages on Saturdays before from UPS. I am fairly irritated if you can't tell and I am thinking about calling them today to find out why they are so crytpic in the shipping/ordering procedures. I have to say this is my first "bad" experience with them but for a purchase to take 5 days from order to delivery with express processing and "3 day shipping" is a little beyond me.

A little reality check

Fedora information linkage

This is really just a note to myself in order to keep track of these links, but others may find them useful also.

Fedora Service(s) info:
http://dnmouse.webs.com/servicesinf8.htm
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-services-f8.html

Sirius Satellite radio listen online - work around

Lately Sirius is having trouble with their website, certain areas are offline and other will not work all together. For example have an account and want to add a radio for the holiday trip to your Parent's in Sasqachuan? Sorry you can't.

I was so fedup with them I stopped listening online for a while, now I tried again and it is still offline! Apparently they hired some really great web designers and the code they wrote was busted! Good old script errors, dolts.

Anyhow if you would like to listen online I was able to pull a working link that doesn't use the oh so wonderful new Flash interface.

http://www.sirius.com/sirius/servlet/MediaPlayer

Beware of malicious Linux commands from "helpers"

Recently there have been a few malicious commands posted at the Ubuntu forums directed at "helping" new users. So if you are thinking about the switch to linux or even trying it out, beware as usual on the internet. Here is the link to the post at the Ubuntu forums about this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/announcement.php?a=54

I have not seen this at the Fedora or Centos forums but be on the lookout in any regards.

Gmail + IMAP + Thunderbird

What a great combination!
Nothing else needs to be said.

[How To] Install Zune theme on XP Pro x64 -

I know the Zune theme has been around for a while and may be old news to most of you but there is a simple solution to the error that is output when a user tries to install the ZuneDesktopTheme.msi from Microsoft on a x64 version of Windows.

1. Search Google for a file called orca.msi, this is a MSI "manipulation" tool from MS.
1a. Or you can download it from here
2. Install orca, the defaults are fine
3. Download the Zune desktop theme, the direct link from MS is above ^
4. Right click on the ZuneDesktopTheme.msi and select edit with Orca
5. Under the Tables section(left) go to InstallExecuteSequence
6. In the Action-Condition-Sequence section(right) highlight LaunchConditions and Del
6A. Or right click the LaunchCondtions entry in the database and select Drop row
7. Answer yes to the prompt and then save and exit
8. Install the MSI as normal

Enjoy!!

Belkin F5D7000 v3 fix

If you happen to have a Belkin F5D7000 v3 like I do you can more then likely relate to the dropping of wireless connectivity all the time in Windows XP. Read on...

I found a fix while looking for Linux drivers for this card. As this card uses a RaLink chipset you can go to http://www.ralinktech.com/ under the support section and download the latest drivers and RaLink wireless utility directly from their website here .

Updating your drivers will alleviate the dropped connections, I had to do the driver update manually as Windows told me it couldn't find a better driver than it already had. But now I haven't had a dropped connection in days!

HTH someone else!