Some usefull IT tips

1.1. Basics on the Athlon Power Saving Mode

The HLT signal which is used by the normal idle-loop of the Linux kernel doesn’t normaly bring any significant power-saving on processors of the Athlon/Duron family (hereafter referred to as Athlon processors). To get real power-saving on an Athlon processor, you have to put the processor in the STPGNT-Mode (Stop Grant Mode). In this mode, the processor is disconnected from the front-side bus (FSB), and can turn off parts of the CPU as well as reduce the clock to save power.

Some modern Motherboards/Chipsets also support a Function to make a STPGNT when a HLT signal is detected.

Read the rest of this entry »

[description taken from ubuntuforums.org but might be usefull for all Linux distros]

Some people have problems using mailto links with Thunderbird. To fix the “choose user profile” problem, follow this howto.

THUNDERBIRD: Open with firefox an URL contained in an email

1. Open Nautilus and type this in the address bar: ~/.thunderbird (if that doesn’t work, try ~/.mozilla-thunderbird)
2. Go your profile directory (with a random-generated name, like this Xbcgev.default). To be sure you’re in the correct directory check if a file named prefs.js exists.
3. File > Create Document > Empty Document highlight it and press F2 to rename the document user.js (If it already exists skip this passage).
4. Open user.js and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end): user_pref(”network.protocol-handler.app.http”, “/usr/bin/firefox”); /usr/bin/firefox is obviously the path to execute firefox
5. That’s all

FIREFOX: open thunderbird when clicking on a “mailto:” link

1. Open Nautilus and type this in the address bar: ~/.mozilla/firefox (if that doesn’t work, try ~/.mozilla-thunderbird)
2. Go your profile directory (with a random-generated name, like this Xbcgev.default). To be sure you’re in the correct directory check if a file named prefs.js exists.
3. File > Create Document > Empty Document highlight it and press F2 to rename the document user.js (If it already exists skip this passage).
4. Open user.js and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end): user_pref(”network.protocol-handler.app.mailto”, ”/usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird”); /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird is the path to execute thunderbird
5. That’s all

How to password protect web directory/folder

1. Create .htaccess file with the content below:

AuthUserFile /home/username/htdocs/.htpasswd
AuthName “Password Protected”
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

Of course in the AuthUserFile type in the location of the .htpasswd file (i.e. when you want to store that file, you’ll create it in next step)

2. Set password for the user(users) (-c option creates .htpasswd file)

If it is your first user’s password - use -c option

htpasswd -c .htpasswd username

type and confirm password

that’s all

(for other users you should ommit -c, because you not need to create .htpasswd file, simply write

htpasswd .htpasswd anotherusername

type and confirm password)

How to get rid off all bad Windows line endings?

it’s simple, for example to convert all *.php files in directory write:

for x in *.php; do dos2unix $x; done

Do you know that you can have many aliases to your Gmail e-mail? You can use aliases as an intelligent spam protection. In that case you don’t need special anti-spam software, because you use intelligent anti spam solution :-).

Example:

Original e-mail: sample.email@gmail.com
Allowed aliases:

• sampleemail@gmail.com
• s.ampleemail@gmail.com
• sam.pleemail@gmail.com
• s.a.m.p.l.e.e.m.a.i.l@gmail.com

Original e-mai: foobar@gmail.com

Allowed aliases:

• foo.bar@gmail.com
• f.oobar@gmail.com
• fooba.r@gmail.com
• f.o.o.b.a.r@gmail.com

Now, you think it’s useless? In fact it can be very usefull.

Example:

You wanna keep your original e-mail private and for your best friends only. Every day you use usenet groups like for example: comp.os.linux.admin or any other group, forum, mailing list.Gmail alias might be usefull. How?

Let’s assume you want to use your f.oobar@gmail.com alias.

Posting messages to a usenet group you can inform anyone who can write to you:

“Writing to me use [7e48c9] in mail subject or message body. Any mail without [7e21c9] will be deleted”.

Now, in your Gmail account you should use a filter to delete any message (addressed to f.oobar@gmail.com) that Doesn’t have: [7e48c9]

That’s all. Spam bots do not know they should use [7e48c9] in any mail addressed to f.oobar@gmail.com, so you should not receive any spam to your special Gmail alias.

Using Google search you can find many usefull or useless info, but what you find - depends on you (your search skills).

Finding web cameras is quite easy, all you must to know is:

- camera name and some specific info
- how to use “inurl:”
- how to use “intitle:”

Of course some of web cameras might be password protected (if camera’s owner doesn’t want to show his camera’s view to all internet users. Some cameras might be offline, but there are many online all over the world.

So… let’s find some cameras using Google

To find out Canon Webview netcams use search string:

intitle:liveapplet inurl:LvAppl

If you wanna find cameras in selected country you can add:

site:*.xy

string, replacing xy with country domain. For example to find web cameras in Finland add

site:*.fi

Another usefull search strings:

intitle:”EvoCam” inurl:”webcam.html”

AXIS cameras:

intitle:”Live View / - AXIS” | inurl:view/view.shtmlinurl:indexFrame.shtml Axis

intitle:”Live View / - AXIS”

intitle:”AXIS 240 Camera Server” intext:”server push” -help

Panasonic Network Cameras - you can move it up and down, left and right:

inurl:”ViewerFrame?Mode=”

Sony Network Cameras

intitle:snc-rz30 inurl:home/intitle:snc-z20 inurl:home/

intitle:”Sony SNT-V304 Video Network Station” inurl:hsrindex.shtml

Another cameras:

intitle:”toshiba network camera - User Login”allintitle:Brains, Corp. camera

“Display Cameras” intitle:”Express6 Live Image”