Category Archives: windows

Remote Control your Ubuntu

Managing the Remote Desktop on Ubuntu is quite easy. You can allow users to access your desktop with VNC Viewer utility that is included in Ubuntu pack and can be downloaded for free also in Windows PCs. The Remote Desktop feature is very useful but follow, at least, one important safety tip: when your desktop remote control is enabled, the only defense against attacks is your firewall and it must be properly installed and configured correctly. In any case, do not forget that Remote Desktop still represents a first level security risk.

To tune up the Remote Desktop just follow these simple steps:

– go to System > Preference > Remote Desktop on the Gnome top menu:

– check the first two check boxes for remote to be enabled.

– if you want to connect your PC through the web and a “Your desktop is only reachable over the local network” notice appears, please do not forget to forward Port 5900 to the IP you see a line below in the menu

– in the Security section, when selecting the “You must confirm each access to this machine” check box, you will be needed to be at the computer to allow the other person to access your desktop. If you are trying to remote access one of your own computer, you would want to uncheck this box

– do not forget that the password check box should always be checked and you should enter a real secure password You will be prompted for this password when you try to log on

– for a better safety be sure that an icon will be displayed on the Ubuntu upper bar when someone is connected

“Your Desktop is Only Reachable Over the Local Network”

Strategic market analysis through Twitter – Know your competitors’ strategy and fight them!

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Your competitors are on Twitter and they are very active. Good to know but is their strategy really effective? Difficult to know because normally you have not enough time to constantly monitor more than a couple of them. A good market analysis strategy is to read their posts in a certain period of time but Twitter doesn’t keep this easy because you have to spend hours to expand their tweets before have a good view of what information your competitors wrote. Moreover, Twitter allows you to view only the last 3,200 tweets. For this reason I normally use Twitter XL. This online free service allows you to catch and save the last 3,200 tweets just inserting the Twitter name and click on Get Tweets. After a bunch of seconds (or, more often, some minutes) you will have a complete list including the last 3,200 tweets (retweets included) and you can export them in a CSV format. This file can be imported in a spreadsheet (e.g. OpenOffice) and clearly visualized. If you really know what you are looking for, you have a terrific picture about timing, source, contents and trends of the competitor you are monitoring. Not only you can discover when and about what your competitor is more active but you will also know if he/she is using some particular online service to tweet. This data mining tool is recommended for business or just for fun if you are a meddler.

DupeGuru: potente applicación para encontrar Archivos, Música y Fotos duplicados

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Hoy os quiero hablar de un aplicación disponible en 3 diferentes formatos. se llama DupeGuru . Me parece una de las aplicaciones mas practicas y sencillas para encontrar: Archivos, Fotos o Canciones repetidas. Desde la propia pagina Web es posible descargase la que se necesites; es disponible para Windows, Mac OS X y por supuesto Linux ( 32/64 bit ) para usuario Debian/ Ubuntu es posible descargar directamente el paquete .deb e instalarlo en un par de click. Con esta aplicación podremos ver los archivos que tengamos duplicados y gracias a los datos que vienen incluidos será posible decidir cual nos interesa guardar y cual eliminar para recuperar espacio y tener mas orden en nuestro PC. En la pagina de descarga es posible elegir cual de las 3 aplicaciones se quiere descargar según nuestras necesitad. En la misma pagina hay disponible otras aplicaciones: MoneyGuru, PictureGuru y MusicGuru. La primera es una aplicación especifica para mantener controlada nuestras finanzas y las otras son aplicaciónes especificas para mantener organizada nuestra colecciones. En fin, os animo a probarlas porque yo ya lo he echo y tengo que decir que merece la pena.
Descarga DupeGuru

Upload, store and download files with no limits! (up to 2GB single file, no space or time limitations)

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Depositfiles is a very flexible online hosting service to upload files (up to 2GB) and share them with your colleagues and friends. There is no limit to the quantity of files you can store on Depositfiles and you can protect your files and folders with a password. Depositfiles has a gold plan with faster uploads and downloads but we obviously tried the free one. After the registration, you can start uploading your files. You can choose between a multiple or a single file upload and, if you prefer, it is also possible to use your favorite FTP client. The online interface is complex but intuitive and after few tests you will able to upload big files, create folders and annotate your online file links. The free plan upload is enough fast and smooth; e.g. we were able to upload an Ubuntu 10.10 iso image in almost 3 hours. In the Tools section you find the code for a flash uploader for your website and a files checker to be 100% sure your uploaded files are till active also after months. The Depositfiles Filemanager software is free and very useful add-on for your browser if you plan to download different diles at the same time. Moreover, Depositfiles has 4 different loyalty programs which allow you to earn points to use in pro features.

Rediscover Prism by Mozilla (Ubuntu, MAC and Windows tips)

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In 2007, when Prism was launched, there were some enthusiastic reviews about this application. Then the widget era began and Prism popularity decreased. Anyway, Prism is still a powerful application for all that people who desire to run their more often used web application saving RAM and CPU resources. Prism, based on XULRunner, is multi platform, easy to use and very flexible. To use it on Ubuntu you can launch the Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install prism

or using the Synaptics Package Manager (System —> Administration —> Synaptics Package Manager). Then go to Applications —> Internet —> Prism and a small windows appears. Now, fill in all the required information: the web application URL, the name you prefer, settings and do not forget to click on the Desktop shortcut option. At this point you will find a new rough icon on your Desktop with the name you chose. The first time you use it, with the right mouse button click on it and go to Properties —> Permissions and Allow executing file as program. If you want to change the icon you have to click on it (with the right mouse button), go to Properties —> Basic and choose your favorite icon clicking the icon on the upper left corner. If all are steps are annoying for you, it is possible to use Prism as add-on for Firefox. In this case, on Firefox, go to Tools —> Add-ons —> Get Add-ons and type Prism on the search bar. You will install Prism as a simple add-on for Firefox. Now, you can automatically generate a Prism application just clicking on Tools —> Convert Website to Application when you are in the web application page.

On Windows or MAC we suggest to download the standalone package directly from the official web page or install Prism as Firefox add-on following the same steps we described for Ubuntu. If you use the Prism standalone package you have to decompress it in your favorite location. For Windows users: when you set up a new Prism application, try the tray menu option but do not forget to click on the Desktop shortcut or you will not be able to find again the application after you close it.

In my experience, Prism is really useful with all the Google web applications, with Zoho services and Pandora. Try and enjoy it!

A brief but useful video about using yahoo.com (and others) through WebMail on Thunderbird 3.1 (Windows version)

How to read yahoo.com (and many others) email accounts on Thunderbird 3.1 (Ubuntu and Windows tips)

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Many on line email providers don’t allow you to use their accounts with POP email clients such as Thunderbird 3.1. To solve this “matter” we have a couple of possible solutions: FreePOPs and WebMail. Today, we will discuss about Webmail that we tested on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Windows XP. WebMail is substantially a Thunderbird’s add-ons but it is not featured by Mozilla. Using this add-on you are able to manage Yahoo, Hotmail, mail.com, GMail, Libero, and AOL email accounts. The installation is similar in Ubuntu and Windows; on both, you have to install the core WebMail add-on and restart Thunderbird then you can add all the other components (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc..) you prefer. Then you have to modify the Thunderbird server settings following the instructions provided by WebMail:

POP
Server Type : POP
Incoming Server: localhost
UserName : username@domain

SMTP
Server Name: localhost
UserName : username@domain

Do not forget to set the Connection Security to None.

Only on Ubuntu, you need also to manually modify the incoming and outgoing ports because when you use Thunderbird through WebMail on Ubuntu, you will have a “could not connect to server local host; the connection was refused” message. This problem can be easily solved substituting the default ports on both WebMail add-on and Thunderbird ports:

– Thunderbird —> Edit —> Account Settings. Highlight the account you want to manage and go to Server Settings. There you can modify the POP Server Mail port setting it to a number bigger than 1000 (in my case I put 1250). Then go to Outgoing Servers and Edit the SMTP account you want to modify (I changed the default port to 1025).

– Thunderbird —> Tools —> Add-ons —> WebMail —> Preferences and put the same port numbers you have set on the previous step.

All this because ports below 1024 seems to be blocked on Ubuntu (if you know why, please post a comment).

For security, restart Thunderbird and it will immediately download and send your emails. Last but not least, if your on line email account is not supported by WebMail, do not forget to try FreePOPs.

BleachBit: a free, powerful software to increase your privacy on Ubuntu and Windows

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Since the first release many thins has been changed on BleachBit. I perfectly remind its first version that I uninstalled because I didn’t feel comfortable with the possible disaster I could do on my Ubuntu computer. Now BleachBit is very different: more powerful and easy to use! This software can be used on Linux (in my test I used Ubuntu 10.04 LTS) and Windows. To install it on Ubuntu you have to use Synaptics ( System —> Administration —> Synaptics) and search for bleachbit in the search bar. For the Windows installation please, download the .exe file and install it. After the installation on Ubuntu, open BleachBit going to Applications —> System Tools —> BleachBit. Now, you have a very understandable menu bar in the left side of your screen. If you click on the main sub-menus you can automatically read some information about what every option will delete on tour PC. Moreover, if the delete options you choose are potentially dangerous, a pop up mini alert will inform you about the risks. We recommend to use the Preview option before bleaching your PS. In this way you can have a final picture of what you are doing and how many bytes are you deleting. On the preference menu you can decide to overwrite files to hide contents or to run BleachBit every time you start your computer. Last but not least, BleachBit supports many languages that you can select from Edit —> Preferences —> Languages.

Firefox vs. Chrome

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Save your status, energy and time using the Hibernate shutdown option on Windows XP

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Usually, when you shut down your Linux OS, you have the option to Hibernate your computer. Using this option you are 100% sure that, when you power-on again your PC, you will find exactly the same programs, browser tabs and system configuration you. In Windows XP you have the same option but often it is hidden. If you have access to your XP computer as Administrator, you can follow the following instruction to restore it: Start —> Control Panel —> Power Options. Find the Hibernate tab and then click on Enable Hibernation. That’s it!