Category Archives: Tech

How to install Android on a Nook Color using a Linux OS – Practical Tips

First of all, I wanted to test one of the latest version of Android 4 but I didn’t want to spend money for a new device so I decided to use/sacrifice the Nook Color that I used rarely because I am a Kindle enthusiast.

Secondly I didn’t want to void the Nook warranty or permanently modify its ROM.

Last but not least I never pretended to discover a new way to modify the Nook but just find the most simple and practical tutorial into internet.

After some hours of internet surfing I found some interesting commercial solutions (e.g. n2acards) and a lot of good tutorial posts and my final choice was one by xda-developers.

I bought a class 4, 8 GB micro SD card and I followed the detailed instructions described into the xda-developers post…, but I had some practical problems because I didn’t read carefully all the text.

The xda-developers tutorial is really well done and full of right information but, as for my experience, it is best to focus your attention on some few points/steps.

In particular:

– you have to create a bootable micro SD card using these commands on Terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

(in this way you will discover the right address of your SD card, in my case was “sdc”. Pay attention! If you choose the wrong address you risk to wipe your hard disk)

sudo dd if=generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img of=/dev/sdc

where generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img is the the image file you find in the xda-developers webpage and sdc the right address of your SD card

– when you download the three necessary “software”, be sure to choose the right one for the CM you have chosen. I mean: if you choose to install CM 9 you need gapps-ics but, if you prefer CM 10, gapps-jb is the right software for you. If you don’t use the proper file, you will have this type of “error message” when you boot your new Android:

Unfortunately, Google services framework has stopped

Unfortunately, Setup Wizard has stopped

Adding the zip files suggested on the xda-developers guide you are now ready to test the Android 4 on your Nook. During the first boot up the Linux software on the SD card will inflate the proper files creating all the right folders and compiling the libraries. To complete this step you will need about 8/10 minutes and, at the end, the Nook will automatically shut down.

In my case I installed CM 10 and during my first boot-up, after I completed the installation, I was not able to use the Android Keyboard and I read this error message on the screen:

Unfortunately, Android keyboard (AOSP) has stopped

Luckily, I was not the first user to have this kind of problem and I read the right tip into another xda-developer blog. I had to come back at the beginning of the Tutorial and change the gapps zip file to an older version, more precisely the 2012-10-11. After this, the new installation the Android 4 run properly on the Nook Color.

For my experience, the Android 4 on the Nook Color is slowest than I supposed but it is not so slow to force me to come back to an older Android version. When I installed a couple of free apps, Startup Manager and Memory Booster, the speed improved and Android was more fluid.

The – solved – mystery of the disappeared Yahoo Notepad

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Disappeared Yahoo Notepad The 2012 is ending and Yahoo has recently decided to update its services. I don’t actually like Yahoo new graphics and the GUI but this is really marginal.

The real problem with this Yahoo services upgrade is represented by many users who were not able to find the Notepad service previously offered into the Yahoo email.

The worst thing is that some of them had saved “confidential” information into the notes. I prefer not to say much about this point but…, please,… 2013 is coming and none can till think to “save” unencrypted confidential information in an online services like Yahoo Notepad…

To solve the mystery of disappeared Yahoo Notepad you can stop searching into the email menus and go directly to http://notepad.mail.yahoo.com where, using the same old (sic…) Yahoo mail password, you will be able to rescue all the notesa you previously have saved there.

Happy New Year!

AuctionSieve: the best multiplatform (Linux, MAC OS, Windows) software to manage your ebay searches

How to configure Firestarter to use VPN services on Linux

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VPN Linux In my experience Firestarter is a effective firewall and, on Linux, it starts automatically every time we boot up Ubuntu. But, when I decided to use a VPN tunnel through openvpn, I had some connection problems. In fact I was able to initialize my VPN services but, after a while, all the internet connections were mysteriously shut down.

The “problem” was Firestarter which cut off the connection as forbidden considering my inbound/outbound Policy.

To solve this matter you have to open a tunnel on Firestarter to allow VPN working:

1- open the configuration file my VPN provider gives to its users (generally its a text file containing all the configuration info used, in my case, by openvpn) and I searched for the IP address of the default starting connection used to authenticate the VPN services (e.g. 177.458.563.25). Save somewhere or memorize this VPN IP address.

2- open a Terminal and type:

sudo nautilus

3- using nautilus go to File System (it’s before home folder) and open etc–>firestarter and open the file user-pre using Gedit (or your preferred text editor)

4- the user-pre file is usually empty so don’t panic and write these lines into it:

iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -sports isakmp,10000
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -i tun+
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -dports isakmp,10000
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -o tun+

Now you have to substitute the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the VPN IP address you have found at step 1 (in my example was 177.458.563.25).

5- Save the user-pre file and close Gedit and Nautilus

6- open a new Terminal and restart Firestarter typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/firestarter restart

That’all! Now your VPN works on your Linux computer and Firestarter has accepted a new Routed IP Tunnel into its allowed policies configuration.

Solve audio troubleshooting on Ubuntu and start planning to migrate to another Linux OS

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It was just a simple system update which dropped off audio on my Ubuntu 12.04. It was really strange to admit that I had experienced a crash (better: an audio crash) on a Linux but the 12.04 Ubuntu actually caused similar problems to a numerous bunch of long-term aficionados around the world.

The real problem with the last Ubuntu versions is that this OS is not supporting properly “old” hardware as it did previously during so many years. Reading some other bug reports on the web I discovered that these audio troubleshooting crashes happen principally to “old” IBM ThinkPad and Dell. I hope Ubuntu developers will consider to solve immediately these kind of issues or many users certainly migrate to other Linux version.

In any case the best and complete guide to solve audio troubleshooting has been developed by Ubuntu itself. The guide is very detailed but, if you want to definitively solve this bug, you have to spend more or less 40 (forty…. sic!) minutes and follow all the 17 (seventeen… sic!) steps.

In my case the audio was back after the first step and I decided not to follow the other instructions but the audio troubleshooting comes back, more or less, every two months. Just to you if you want to spend 40 minutes only one time or a couple of minutes every two/three months.

When I consider all the problems I had with Ubuntu on “old” hardware starting from the 12.04 version, my advice is to start thinking about a migration to another Linux OS. I am testing some Ubuntu alternatives and in the next weeks I will post something about the tests I’m doing on old laptops. Stay connected!

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A list of the best free online University courses in USA and UK. Some tips to choose between them, successfully attend only the best ones and create your aside University career without spending a cent!

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Today opportunities

During the last two years the number of free online University courses exploded on the web. Today it is possible to attend prestigious courses by important USA and UK Universities and receive a final certification without spending a cent.

The good news are that these courses are interesting, well structured and you have a real possibility to increase your knowledge if approach them in the right way.

The first time you look for the free online University courses you are disoriented by the number and the many different topics they cover. The problem is to make the right selection in order not to waste time and energies for something you (and you career) don’t actually need.

How to select the right courses

1- Make a first selection between courses choosing only that are really interesting for you
2 – Check if you will receive a participation certificate if you complete the course
3 – Honestly evaluate your real, deep, interest for the courses that will not provide any written certification. I mean: “Do you really think that they will increase your knowledge and will be determinant for your career or life?”
4 – Don’t overestimate your capacities. Read very carefully the required background to attend the courses
5 – Don’t underestimate the time you need to attend the courses and do all the “homework” and the suggested readings
6 – Finally, select two (or more) courses and “Create” your free aside University career. Try to choose courses that have logical and “career path” connections between them. The important thing is what you are really learning on particular related topics you consider important for your career, not the number of disordered certification you can write on your resume.

A list of free online University courses in USA and UK

1- https://www.coursera.org/

2 – https://www.udacity.com/

3 – http://gtmooc.com/how-it-works/

4 – http://www.udemy.com/

5 – https://www.edx.org/

6 – https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/

7 – http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/course

8 – https://code.google.com/edu/security/index.html

Please, add a comment to this post to inform or recommend other courses we have not mentioned here!! Thank you!

How to install Ubuntu 12.04 on old computers with non PAE CPU

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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 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.

How to launch Pogoplug online services (as local disk) on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

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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, fuseext2, 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/pogoplugfs --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 are 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/pogoplugfs --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 dm-crypt (for more details on this topic also visit http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1761&p=9723).

Don’t let them to track your internet behaviour! Use Ghostery for Firefox

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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 data-collecting 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 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!