Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Here’s a “HowTo” for a great backup solution for Ubuntu Linux!

Backup and Restore Ubuntu System using Sbackup

“Data can be lost in different ways some of them are because of hardware failures, you accidentally delete or overwrite a file. Some data loss occurs as a result of natural disasters and other circumstances beyond your control. Now we will see a easy backup and restore tool called “sbackup.” SBackup is a simple backup solution intended for desktop use. It can backup any subset of files and directories. Exclusions can be defined by regular expressions. A maximum individual file size limit can be defined. Backups may be saved to any local and remote directories that are supported by gnome-vfs. There is a Gnome GUI interface for configuration and restore.”

I would. Just think, “Open Source hardware!” Kind of a neat idea! This is an open letter to Mark Shuttleworth, who founded Canonical, makers of Ubuntu Linux:

Open letter to Mark Shuttleworth

“Now Canonical and Ubuntu have made great strides toward realizing your vision yet there remains a bottleneck – people still have to install Linux. Installing Linux is easier than ever, but installing any operating system is unfortunately not trivial and is a chore that most computer users have no use for and will avoid. Remove this impediment, sell Linux pre-installed…

In short;

– there is a market for pre-installed Linux
– you already have the support system
– potential partners exist in the hardware branch
– you already have the software”

I don’t know why… but it CAN be done! Thanks to Kelly, a faithful listener, who shared this with me! Windows Media Player in Windows… which we will call WiMP from now on (I love that one, Kelly!) will play Ogg IF you install a codec for it, available here:

Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC

So there you go… you can use WiMP and cruise on with patent-free media! Hoo-rah!

By the by… I just tried it, and it works! Kinda cool, actually! Don’t get me wrong, of course, I STILL prefer VLC Player… it is free, it is Open Source, and it is NOT Microsoft!

This year Daylight Saving Time is not at it’s normal time. The government changed the dates. Hooray for them! Anyway, your computer doesn’t know what the government has done (aren’t you glad?) So… for your computer to correctly automatically change the date as it has always done for DST, you need to apply some updates.

First of all, if you have Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, or Windows 2000… tough! They are no longer supported and you are hosed. (Actually, just turn off the “automatic update feature” on Daylight Savings Time on your machine and set the time manually!) If you have Windows XP, Service Pack 1, then upgrade to Service Pack 2! If you are at Windows XP, Service Pack 2, then do the following:

Go to:

https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Choose “Custom” and select “Windows Update (KB931836).” Apply it and reboot! NOTE: If you have already been doing regular updates… you MAY have already applied this one! If it doesn’t “show up” in the list as available, you probably already have applied it!

If you are using Microsoft Outlook, you will need to update it as well… Outlook has a separate update called “Time Zone Data Update Tools for Outlook Calendars.”

More info on that is here:

https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/931667

And, of course, if you have Microsoft Windows Vista… it is already “up-to-date” with the change, and you are “good to go!”

If you are running a flavor of Linux or FreeBSD, then check out this article:

Update Linux and FreeBSD systems for new Daylight Saving Time settings

Bottom line, you need to be sure that your machine is up-to-date with it’s latest patches before Sunday!

This is one reason it is not smart to do an immediate upgrade as soon as one is released! I like to “hold” back on upgrades to things like my WordPress Blog. It turns out that if we had upgraded to WordPress 2.1.1 as soon as it came out, we would have been in danger of having malicious code in the site! So, hooray for folks tracking these things down!

WordPress Code Subverted on Its Own Server

“Users who have downloaded the 2.1.1 version of the open-source blogging platform WordPress should upgrade all files to 2.1.2 immediately, since they could include a security bug injected by a cracker who gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, according to a release posted on WordPress’ site on Friday. WordPress received a note on the project’s security mailing address Friday morning regarding ‘highly exploitable code,’ the release said. After investigating the issue, the WordPress developers found that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original site. The Web site was taken down immediately for further forensic analysis. ‘It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file,’ the release continued. ‘We have locked down that server for further forensics.'”

Well… it was a LOOONNNG weekend. It was Maintenance Weekend at CCL, it was my Mom’s birthday, and we had special meetings at my church. Wow. It was the most hectic, crowded weekend I have had in many a weekend. So, the podcast will be up soon… and it will be very cool, since I have a lot to talk about… what with the “MP3 crisis” and more. So, stay tuned and it will be out soon.

By the way, my buddy, Scott Redmon, webmaster of Guilford County, says that my new config for the Blog is WAY faster. And when you can impress Scott, you know you are on the right track! Dewd!

To what?!?! OK, first let me explain what Ogg Vorbis is:

Wikipedia Ogg Vorbis format entry

“Vorbis is an open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and intended to serve as a replacement for MP3. It is most commonly used in conjunction with the Ogg container and is then called Ogg Vorbis. Vorbis development began following a September 1998 letter from Fraunhofer Gesellschaft announcing plans to charge licensing fees for the MP3 audio format. Soon after, founder Christopher ‘Monty’ Montgomery commenced work on the project and was assisted by a growing number of other developers. They continued refining the source code until a stable version 1.0 of the codec was released on July 19, 2002.”

Why do we care? Well, the fact that Alcatel-Lucent won their case against Microsoft (that I mentioned earlier in the Blog) may soon spell “the end” of our enjoyment of MP3. It is encumbered by patents. And, I don’t want to pay for using a file format! So, what if we all switched to Ogg Vorbis… which is TOTALLY FREE and OPEN SOURCE? Do we have the “guts” to do so? Should I use Ogg Vorbis for my Podcast? What about Naomi? (An obscure reference to an old “Electric Company” routine.) Let me know!

That is, of my Blog? I have moved “Dr. Bill – The Computer Curmudgeon” to another server in my server farm here at Dr. Bill Bailey.NET. The difference? Load balancing… and it is now running over the LightTPD web server running on one of my CentOS Linux servers. For more info on what LightTPD offers, check out the link:

LightTPD web server

“Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility–all of these describe LightTPD which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a webserver; as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) LightTPD is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it’s Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

light footprint + httpd = LightTPD (pronounced lighty)”

I also use LightTPD for my Dr. Bill.TV web site, because it natively supports Flash streaming!

FLV Streaming with LightTPD

Nice, clean layout, and it seems faster! Check it out… I use this weekly to watch DL.TV, Cranky Geeks, Kenneth Copeland’s Webcasts, and, of course, Dr. Bill.TV!

Get Democracy Player Version 0.9.5.2

Try it, you’ll like it!

Here’s one of the few times I come down on Microsoft’s “side” (I know, the end of the world has come!) But, here’s (as I say often) the thing: Microsoft actually paid for the right to license and use MP3 technology, yet a court awarded Alcatel-Lucent a judgment anyway. This seams unfair to me!

Microsoft slapped with $1.52 billion payout in MP3 suit

“Those federal juries in San Diego do seem to frown on MP3 patent infringement. They just ordered Microsoft to fork over $1.52 billion (yes, with a “b”) to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two MP3 audio patents with its Windows Media Player, the largest patent ruling in history. Naturally, Alcatel-Lucent seems to like this turn of events. “We have made strong arguments supporting our view, and we are pleased with the court’s decision,” said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion. Microsoft is singing another tune, and is going to ‘seek relief from the trial court, and if necessary appeal,’ according to Tom Burt, corporate VP and deputy general counsel. The irony in all this — if you can call anything in a $1.52 billion case ‘ironic’ — is that Microsoft payed the Fraunhofer Institute $16 million to license the tech in the first place, but since Fraunhofer co-developed the MP3 with Bell Labs, and Lucent owns those patents, Alcatel-Lucent decided to go for the gold, and seem to have done a pretty good job of it. This probably won’t be the last we hear of this case, and it’s only one in a long list of lawsuits between the two companies, but boy is that a hefty sum.”