FeedJournal
8/6/2012 - 10/16/2012
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How to launch Pogoplug online services (as local disk) on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 9/10/2012 6:44:01 PM
I confess that I use Pogoplug as cloud server for my external hard disks because it is really simple to configure and trustful. Unfortunately the Linux version of the Pogoplug management software is not so simple to configure and has fewer features than the Windows and MAC versions. Running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS I can manually mount the drives I connected to my Pogoplug device, following the path Network –> Windows –> etc.., but sometimes this way is not so fast and moreover I cannot access to Pogoplug Cloud. Waiting for an updated software from the producer I decided to use the current version to automatize the process and mount the drives connected to the Pogoplug and its cloud as if they were physically attached to my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. After a “classic” Google search on this topics I found different suggestions. Unfortunately I also had more than few problems to configure the software provided by Pogoplug because some tips were not so clear or easy as I desired. By my experience, the fastest and reliable way to configure Pogoplug drives on Ubuntu 12.04 is the following: - open Terminal and type sudo apt-get install fuse-utils - open Synaptic Package Manager and be double sure you have yet
installed these packages: fusesmb, fusedav, fiseext2, fusefat - download the Linux software provided into the Downloads section of Plogoplug website, unzip it and save the file in your Home folder - open Terminal and type: sudo usermod -a -G fuse $(id -u -n) - log out and then log in again on your Ubuntu account to be sure that Fuse is correctly running - open Terminal again and create a directory (in Media) to be used as mount point: sudo mkdir /media/ pogoplug - then type: sudo chown root:fuse / media/pogoplug - and: sudo chmod 0775 /media/ pogoplug - in Terminal launch this command:/ home/yourusernameonubuntu/ p o g o p l u g f s - password yourpassword -mountpoint /media/pogoplug -user yourusername where: 1. yourusernameonubuntu means you have to insert the name of User profile you use when you log in Ubuntu on your computer 2. yourusername and yourpassword ar e the username and password you use on the Plogoplug Website Now, after some seconds an many automatic text lines, an icon named Pogoplug will appear on your desktop and you will be able to manage the online Pogoplug features as a local disk. Don’t forget that you have to use
keys -control+c- in Terminal if you want to disconnect from Pogoplug. At this point the work is done but you might create a launcher icon in your (e.g.) Applications menu following this instructions: - go to: System Tools –> Preferences –> Main Menu and click on the group (menu) where you want to create your new launcher (in my case simply was Applications) New Item –> Create Launcher Then fill the required fields with: Type = Application in Terminal Name = Pogoplug Command =/home/ yourusernameonubuntu/pogoplugfs -password yourpassword -mountpoint /media/pogoplug -user yourusername (as for the example above) If you want to personalize the button you can also choose your favorite icon clicking on the picture on the left high corner. On my side I also preferred to automatize the launch of Pogoplug
command at each boot up in this way: - go to: System Tools –> Preferences –> Startup Applications - click on Add - fill the fields: Name = Pogoplug Command = Same command line you used to start Pogoplug drive:/ home/yourusernameonubuntu/ p o g o p l u g f s - password yourpassword -mountpoint /media/pogoplug -user yourusername (as for the example above) So, starting now, you will have your Pogoplug drive connected each time you boot Ubuntu. You will not have any annoying Terminal lines. Security Warnings: don’t forget that the data you move to and back Pogoplug, are directed through the web. This means that they could potentially be intercepted (and read) by third parties but it’s also necessary to specify that, if you configure it on the website Settings area, Pogoplug uses SSL (HTTPS) to encrypt the connection with its servers. Anyway, don’t forget that the data you store into Pogoplug are not encrypted. If you want to join a better level of security you can encrypt previously your data or your disks using different softwares as TrueCrypt or the command dmcrypt(for more details on this topic also visit http://archlinuxarm.org/ f o r u m / viewtopic.php?t=1761&p=9723).
YouTube changed its website parameters and DownloadHelper immediately released an updated, on the fly, version by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 9/17/2012 1:16:10 PM
Sunday night the (on the fly) updated version of DownloadHelper was released. After just few days of malfunctioning all the features offered by this add-on for Firefox are back again. In particular it is possible to download again all the videos to have
a local copy to watch when we are not able to use the internet. The team of DdownloadHelper was professional and fast to solve this annoying problem which was caused by changes operated by YouTube on its website. For all the people who has not already used this add-on before, I remind you that DownloadHelper is, in my opinion, the most advanced tool to navigate
Y o u T u b e v i d e o s , download contents for evaluation and
directly convert the format from flv to mp4 or other video format you prefer. For the record, this problem caused the same malfunctioning to all the software with similar features. In particular, you could have problems when using Gmediafinder for Linux(at least we have had this kind of matter during the past weekend).
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How to install Ubuntu 12.04 on old computers with non PAE CPU by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 10/15/2012 4:28:08 PM
When I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 on an old ThinkPad X40 I was surprised to discover this warning on my screen: This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae. Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU. In few words I wasn’t able to install Ubuntu 12.04 because the kernel on Ubuntu 12.04 was not supporting my CPU and I was really upset because I have always promoted Linux distributions as the most versatile and appropriate OS to keep using “old” hardware. Sincerely, as described in an older post, I previously decided to install MATE desktop environment because the graphic cards on many laptops didn’t support Unity and Gnome 3 but this was the first time I had to renounce the installation of Ubuntu. I didn’t want to surrender to this difficulty (that appeared to me as a bug)! First of all, I discovered that pae is “ a feature to allow 32-bit x86 processors to access a physical address space (including random access memory and memory mapped devices) larger than 4 gigabytes“. After I clarified this point, I was not sure that my processor was totally
“Unemployee of the year” a worldwide contest for young people by Unhate by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 9/20/2012 6:48:47 PM
inadequate to support Ubuntu 12.04. After some web surfing I discovery that there are two easy solutions to avoid this problem. 1 – As first solution you can install Lubuntu(my choice) or Xubuntu on your computer then you can install the ubuntu-desktop using the Package Manager. 2 – If you prefer not to use the Package Manager you can install Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10 and then upgrade Ubuntu to 12.04. More in general, it is also possible to assume that if you have a non PAE CPU, your hardware could not be able to support the Unity desktop.
For this reason you can keep your Lubuntu – Xubuntu (based on the light but effective LXDE desktop) or switch your desktop environment to Gnome (the Classic, of course) installing the gnome package instead of ubuntu-desktop. In any case, if you want to know if your CPU supports pae you have to open a Terminal and type: grep -color=always -i PAE /proc/cpuinfo If something like “flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8…” outputs on your Terminal, you have a pae CPU otherwise your CPU doesn’t support pae.
Usually I try to don’t promote commercial brands on my blog. Just sometimes I break this rule when I think the technology or the benefits could worth people attention. Today is one of that rare cases. Since few days, Unhate (a foundation directly related to Benetton) has created a special contest reserved to all people around the world. To participate you must be between 18 and 30 years old and you must not have a job yet. The best 100 projects will be funded with € 5.000,00 each. If you want to send your project or if you just want more information you have to visit the Unhate website.
The good third choice: MATE desktop environment. The traditional but rock solid solution for the Unity unhappy users (when also Gnome fails)… by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 10/8/2012 4:49:59 PM
My first Linux OS was a Knoppix but I had so many problems with the hardware drivers, the LAN configuration and the monitor settings that I was really discouraged. After many tests I decided that Ubuntu was the right OS for my notebooks and I continued to use it without any particularly matters till Unity. Unity is nice to see, intuitive but if you use your OS in a stressful way (I mean doing three or four different tasks all together: reading emails, talking with Skype and writing on LibreOffice), you spend too much time looking for the icon you need to launch the right program. The vertical monitor space has not enough room to visually show all the icons related to programs I use everyday. Surely this is my personal matter but I actually prefer the “old” graphic interface. For this reason I decided to install Gnome 3 but my vetust IBM
Thinkpad crashed a couple of time in a week. To my surprise also the Gnome Classic option encountered some crashes due to the amount and diversity of the software I installed on my laptop during the last years. As usual, after some web searches I found a solution: MATE. This
particular desktop environment is a fork of Gnome 2 and it really looks very intuitive and easy to use. If some software conflicts with the MATE environment, a pop-up message will appear on your sceeen and, if you have the patience to read the Details contained in it, you will able to solve your problems. In my particular case
(don’t ask me why) it helped me to focus my attention on Conduit which caused the crashes on Gnome. To easily install MATE, on almost every Linux distribution, you can read its wiki dedicated page or directly follow the below instruction if you use Ubuntu 12.04. - open Terminal and type these command lines: sudo add-aptrepository "deb http://repo.matedesktop.org/ubuntu oneiric main" sudo apt-get update sudo aptgetinstall mate-archive-keyring sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install mate-core sudo apt-get install matedesktop-environment When the Terminal finishes all the upgrade stuff, reboot your Ubuntu 12.04 and select MATE on the login screen (click on the upper right “gear” and choose MATE). That’s all! Have a good week!
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Don’t let them to track your internet behaviour! Use Ghostery for Firefox by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 8/15/2012 1:54:15 PM
We know that every time we visit a website we are caught by “invisible” robotized voyeurs which analyse our behaviour and share information to the site owner or to specialized datacollecting companies. These companies usually analyze the obtained information to improve the quality of their web service (in the most optimistic case) or to create a profile about the user with the specific goal to better sell services in the near future. The real problem is that normally we are not able to realize what is happening. all this “ghost” activity happens in a silent mode without any tangible trace. To avoid this data collection and protect in a more efficient way our privacy we can use Ghostery, a specific add-on for Firefox and Chrome. Ghostery defuses trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and more than 1,000 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers and companies interested in your web activity. As for every Firefox add-on, Ghostery is simple to install and
manage. After the installation you can choose if you want to share anonymous information with the Ghostery servers to improve the quality of its services or if you prefer not to collaborate with them. You also can decide if you want to automatically update your Ghostery library and choose the specific trackers you want to neutralize. You can also create a policy for your cookies or (recommended) define a Whitelist for the websites you trust. During my tests, Ghostery has not
Watch your privacy! Upgrade your Firefox security with HTTPS Everywhere and HTTPS Finder! by Galigio (Computer Borders)
Michael Moore, Oliver Stone Back Julian Assange In NYT Op-Ed by Huffington Post by Galigio (Computer Borders) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ mobileweb/2012/08/20/michaelmoore-oliver-stone-julian-assangenyt_n_1813747.html
example: If you prefer to save time and you don’t want to write some lines for every website you prefer to connect through https, you will install another add-on: HTTPS Finder. HTTPS Finder is perfectly interconnected with HTTPS Everywhere and it will try to reach every website you type into the address bar, using a https connection. If it finds a valid https website, it will ask you if you want to add a specific rule into HTTPS Everywhere rule list. At this point you have only to agree and the new rule will be stored in the list. Simple, easy, useful!
by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 8/8/2012 6:59:58 AM
OpenSource Tutorials Jump start the population on easy to use Open-Source web development…… OpenSource Tutorials by Matthew Carnali
The Internet a Decade Later – Infographics by Galigio (Computer Borders) Submitted at 9/28/2012 7:17:13 AM
Submitted at 8/22/2012 8:05:53 AM
Submitted at 8/6/2012 10:30:30 AM
As we already discussed many times in this blog, we know that web security is something very difficult to reach but we can always try to improve our security when surfing into the web. First of all, use Firefox! Do it! In my opinion it’s slower than Chrome but very “transparent” and so you have less risks to unintentionally share information you want to keep private. In my experience, Firefox could be safer than Chrome if you use the right adds-on. Then, install a particular add-on named HTTPS Everywhere. This add-on (for Firefox and Chrome) will automatically connect your browser to the https version of many websites contained in its “Rule list”. The number of https connections in the HTTPS Everywhere’s list is sufficiently wide and you can always decide to manually add new https addresses ( more info) as in the following
slowed the navigation speed in a sensible way also because I spent a little of time on creating a personalized Whitelist during my first use of this add-on. Last but not least, Ghostery provides a very powerful information section where you can learn about any tracker it has blocked for you. To conclude I can say that Ghostery is an add-on you must have on your Firefox to better protect your privacy!
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