Category Archives: Technology

The good third choice: MATE desktop environment. The traditional but rock solid solution for the Unity unhappy users (when also Gnome fails)…

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-apt-repository "deb http://repo.mate-desktop.org/ubuntu oneiric main"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-getinstall mate-archive-keyring

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mate-core

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-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!

The Internet a Decade Later – Infographics

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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!

Watch your privacy! Upgrade your Firefox security with HTTPS Everywhere and HTTPS Finder!

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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 example:

<ruleset name=”Google”>
<target host=”www.google.com” />
<target host=”google.com” />

<rule from=”^http://(www\.)?google\.com/” to=”https://google.com/”/>
</ruleset>

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!

How to install and manage Screenlets on Ubuntu

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Screenlets are small applications to represent things such as sticky notes, clocks, calendars around on your Ubuntu desktop. You can launch a pre-installed screenlet from Screenlet Manager, or install a new one into the Manager for launching it. Here are the steps for installing and launching a screenlet, for example, WaterMark System Information.
– Install Screenlets Manager if it has not been added.
– Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Ubuntu Software Center.
– Enter screenlets in the Search Box.
– Select Screenlets, click the “Install” button.
– Download the screenlet e.g. “WaterMark System Information” to a folder.
– Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Screenlets.
– Click Install, select Install Screenlet and click OK.
– Browse to the folder, select the file downloaded and click “Open” to install the screenlet into the Screenlets Manager.
– Select the screenlet “WaterMark” and click “Launch/Add”. (Tips: you can add more than one WaterMark screenlet and set it to display other system information.)
More screenlets are available for installation from screenlets.org.

Video – Linux Wifi Mac address spoofing by peruzfinest08

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Happy Easter!

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Video – Mozilla Collusion privacy tracking add-on for Firefox

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Few Tricks to protect your web searches from Search Engines logging

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During the past weeks, we read many posts and articles about the new privacy rules that Google introduced for its web services. The goal of this specific post is not about discussing privacy agreements and the many interesting points of view about this kind of topics but we would like to focus your attention on a couple of “tricks” which can help you to increase the privacy level.

First of all, you can decide to use an alternative search engine which doesn’t log your activity and it is not possible to define your profile about your web activities.

Privatelee

Privatelee has been developed to offer better privacy to people who prefer not to have their web searches automatically analyzed by google.com.

This search engine can work on https mode and its search results are the mix between external search such as Google and Bing. You can also decide to use just one web engine or both. Comparing the results obtained we can affirm that Privatelee is really very effective and offers the same main features of Google and Bing.

Startpage

Startpage is based on Google and has many flexible features that can be selected using the “settings” page. This particular search engine deletes all the logs after 48 hours and you can anonymously visualize images and videos or define how to manage cookies. Moreover, Startpage allows you to save your settings without using cookies.

As for Privatelee, please be sure to type https and not a “simple” http when you insert Startpage address in the bar.

Secondly, if you use Firefox, you can use a specific add-on TrackMeNot. TrackMeNot is a simple but useful add-on you can install on Firefox to obfuscate user search data profiler on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and others. TrackMeNot automatically issues random queries on the main search engines using a list a generic list of words. In this way, search engines are not able to create a real profile about you as web user. Your real searches will be just few between the hundreds fictionally created by TrackMeNot. TrackMeNot is completely configurable: you can choose the query frequency or define the klog of your automatic queries. By default, TrackMeNot uses the words contained in the RSS of four primary websites: The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and The Register.

Last but not least, if you are using your PC in any area with poor Internet connection, you can disable TrackMe Not with just a click. Easy and fast!