Random Thoughts

Problem: I often need to have some files readily available online so that I can access them from any computer. There are many ways to go about solving this problem and each comes with its set of shortcomings: Yahoo! Briefcase - 30MB limit Online storage services like Box.net, Xdrive, MediaMax - usually cost money; signing up is cumbersome Email to myself as an attachment - enough said there It's time to find a home-made solution. The solution I am about to suggest is intended for -- A *NIX user someone with access to a *NIX web server Solution: I am a linux user and I have user level access to a web server. The web server is configured such that the public does not have access to directory structure. So, I would need to write a script that copies my files to the web server and creates an index listing my files. Password protection of the storage would follow after that. Client Side: Use the following script to transfer file to server, make the file readable by public and execu

Problem: Quite often with Ubuntu and a few other distros in Linux, I have had problems with programs not being able to share the sound card. For example, once Firefox gets a hold of my sound card, it would not give it up even when it is not using it. That means if XMMS wanted to access the sound card, it will fail because Firefox has a lock on the sound device. The way I would deal with this problem is simply restarting the sound daemons (/etc/init.d/alsa-utils or /etc/init.d/esound ...) and hope that resolves the issue. Now might be the time to seek a more scientific solution. Solution: For most sound cards, hardware mixing only allows for only one program to have an exclusive lock over the sound device. To enable more than one program to access the sound card, a layer of virtual/software sound mixing is needed. KDE based distros like Kubuntu use aRts for audio management, but aRts has been known to be very buggy when dealing with non-KDE applications. The more popular and relia

What can someone do to fine-tune and streamline a Linux system in order to make optimal and efficient use of limited resources. Here is my take: Check service configuration - for each runlevel, remove services and daemons that are not needed. CAUTION: Don't turn off any service whose purpose you are not completely aware of. Turn off automatic software update or schedule it to run less frequently. Turn off fancy animations and graphics - the eye candy costs ye. If you heavily use KDE applications, stick to a KDE environment and ditto for Gnome. Since KDE applications commonly use Qt libraries and Gnome apps use GTK+, sticking to one or the other saves you from expending a lot of resources loading both sets of libraries. Downgrade to less resource hungry desktop environments like Fluxbox, XFCE, or enlightenment. Upgrade memory; having a lot of memory makes your computer run faster and conserves battery. For notebooks, monitor the power management scheme. Sometimes cpuspeed and c

I have owned (and loved) my HP Pavilion zt3340us notebook for the last 3 years. It had taken the excessive use and abuse of some 10+ hours/day without any significant upgrade or repair until about a year ago when it's power adapter started acting up. I promptly bought an after-market (non-OEM) replacement($45) which lasted for some 6 months before dying itself. Following another replacement of the power adapter($30) and the purchase of a brand new after-market battery($50), the power issues persisted in different forms. Particularly, the power jack was getting too loose to charge up the battery or even consistently power the notebook. For a while, I compromised the mobility of the notebook by removing the battery, but soon the loose connection started oscillating so much that it was causing overheating around the power jack connection. The overheating led to some abrupt(thermal) shutdowns and an inability to reboot the notebook for days at a time. That basically deemed the