Laptop and notebooks are being stolen at an ever-increasing rate. In 2004, Safeware Insurance which sells computer insurance, estimated 600,000 laptop and notebooks a year were being stolen. In 2006 an estimated 750,000 were being swiped, according to Absolute Software a company that makes computer tracking products — and does not support Linux. LoJack For Laptops, another computer tracing company — which also does not support Linux — says FBI statistics show 2 million laptop and notebook computers were stolen in the US in a recent year. While the figures may not agree in detail, they all show that laptop and notebook theft is a major problem — and if you’re not careful, your Linux laptop might be next.
While you can find dozens of products to secure Windows laptops, security products for Linux laptops are scarcer — but they do exist. We found a range of products and fixes ranging from security patches for the operating system to encryption to the equivalent of computer bicycle locks which can help keep your Linux laptop or notebook safe.
Continue reading ‘How to Secure Linux laptops for maximum security’
Each day, I come across someone on the blogosphere complaining about the design of a Web site. Some don’t like screaming text, others don’t like banners, and still others hate ads. My pet peeves include pop-ups and unwanted JavaScript and cookies. Removing such junk can speed up your Internet connection, since you’re no longer wasting bandwidth downloading data you find useless. Here are some tools you can use to filter the content a Web site renders to you.
Privoxy
Privoxy is a standalone application full of impressive features. It’s a breeze to install. Its default settings are ideal for most users. Fedora and Ubuntu users can respectively install it with the commands yum install privoxy and sudo apt-get install privoxy, or you can grab the source tarball and install it with the commands ./configure, make, make install. Once installed, Privoxy will bind to localhost (127.0.0.1) at port 8118. You can choose a different port and network interface during the manual installation, or specify it under section 4.1 of the /etc/privoxy/config file.
Continue reading ‘Keep Internet junk content away with content filters’
As part of my year-end planning I look at what charities to donate to, since charitable contributions are tax-deductible. Here’s a list of charities with ties to free software, open source, and information technology.
Even people who don’t live and die by their mobile phones sometimes need to send SMS messages. Did you know you can do that from your computer? Likewise, it’s easier to clean your mobile phone of all the numbers you’ve not been dialing in the last few years using a mouse, rather than navigating repeatedly through the phone’s menu system. Here are some Linux tools that can help you manage your cell phone.
If you want to make the most out of your Java-enabled handheld device, you can write Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) applications (also called midlets) on Linux and run them on your mobile platform. Here’s how easy it is to get started; we’ll write a HelloWorld application you can run on your cell phone.
Thomas Howe is a telecommunications developer and consultant who is passionate about the role of open source software in the telephony industry. He calls open source the "next generation" of telecommunications, and works with large enterprise companies to help them design phone systems that fully integrate with their business flow. "Only open source can do that," Howe says.
High-end project management tools and low-end to-do utilities are a dime a dozen these days. But what if you need something less complicated than a full-blown project management application, but more flexible than a simple to-do list? In that case, give jWorkSheet (JWS) a try. This tiny Java-based tool offers basic project and task management features sprinkled with worksheet-like capabilities. The result is a simple yet functional tool for keeping track of your projects and tasks and the time you spend on them. It’s especially useful if you bill per hour and a need a simple utility to track your time.
Whether you refer to online maps occasionally or on a daily basis, you can add several extensions to your Firefox browser to make Web-based mapping services even more useful.
