ArsGeek

How to get package info (including version and dependancies) on just about anything in Ubuntu

Do you know how to find out what version of SSH is running on your Ubuntu box?  How about what version of apt?  Would you like to see what certain packages depend on to run?  Or find the MD5 hash for already installed packages?

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Ubuntu Rdesktop vulnerability - pretty easy fix

Just noticed that there was a vulnerability found with rdesktop in Ubuntu (and probably other systems as well). For 99% of the people, running a software update or typing the following will fix it

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How to get a cool, ray-traced animated screen saver for your Ubuntu Linux box

I stumbled on a beautiful screen saver for my Ubuntu box today called Eternity which features several flavors of Ubuntu plus a default animation as well.  The screen saver is called Eternity and the flavors are plain old vanilla Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio and oddly enough, the Ubuntu Satanic release.

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Linux and Flash - cut the crap already!

Look, Adobe, can we please get with the times and start making a product that works on Linux?  Please?  It's getting closer to 2010 and we're still missing flying cars, meals in pills and a flash player that actually works most of the time.  You see that?  I'd even settle for most of the time right now.  The sad truth is, Flash locks up on my current Ubuntu install, with the latest Flash release and it happens all the time.

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Things you should never EVER type in Linux. Ever!

I feel that I need to put a warning at the top of this post because try as I might in the subject to be clear about what I mean, I know that someone will go and type/execute one of these things into their production server at work and then be horribly distraught and/or cause some sort of power grid catastrophe across the Pacific Northwest or something. So DO NOT, DON'T, NEVER EVER EVER EVER run these commands in a terminal session.  If you do you will render your system anything from useless without a forced reboot to devoid of any useful purpose ever.

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Ubuntu security notice - kernel vulnerabilities found in all supported releases

There's an important security notice from the Ubuntu folks.  A kernel vulnerability was found.  It's pretty much only vulnerable to local attacks but it's always a good idea to update your boxes to the latest versions of the kernel (as noted in the below announcement) so that you reduce your vulnerability to threats.

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How to get updated world weather maps as your desktop background in Ubuntu

I also like to see what's going on with the world, particularly the weather but often find myself not in orbit so I'm unable to track worldwide weather patterns like I want to. Then a though occurred to me - what if I set up one of my Ubuntu boxes to have a map of the world with clouds overlayed, updated every hour?  Neat!  I now have a map of the world with cloud overlays updated hourly for my background.

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How to run a dedicated Steam server on your Ubuntu box - Countestrike style

For a while now Valve through Steam have had a dedicated server for Linux from which you can launch your multiplayer fragfests.  I've recently started messing about with it and I've gotten Counter Strike, Counter Strike Source and Half Life multiplayer to launch off of it.  I'm still mucking about with server settings and finding statistics for it however I did not find a ton of documentation on this through Google so I decided to put up my notes here.

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Readyboost for Linux - a quick how to on getting more speed from a USB flash drive

Readyboost for Vista is a feature added to the OS where you can encourage your limping Vista install to jog a bit faster by essentially using a smallish USB drive as disk cache.  There's also some Vista Voodoo with Superfetch going on there. While Ubuntu (the distro that I use) and other distros don't really use Superfetch, you can still get an advantage using the disk cache functionality - particularily if you're running on a system that doesn't have a ton of RAM available.

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10 things I’ve overheard about my Linux laptop while on public transportation

I've been taking the train to work for 4 years now.  It's a 45 minute rambling ride in which I usually either read a book, sleep, or grab my laptop loaded up with Ubuntu and get some stuff done.  Over time, I've collected a few funny remarks I've either over heard, or that people have said directly to me. Here are the 10 best.

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Get Google Gadgets up and running on your Ubuntu install

Not to long ago Google released their gadgets for Linux.  Those fine folks at GetDeb.net have compiled an easy to use .deb file for us Debian based Linux folk to use.  It’s quite simple - here’s what you do. First, download this .deb file (or this one if you’re on a 64 bit Ubuntu install). Once you’ve [...]

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