On Thunderbird, the only way to be 99% sure nobody will read your emails is to save your profile on an encrypted folder (or disk partition) using e.g. TrueCrypt but if you are not concerned that you are under surveillance, you can simply use a quick and useful trick that allows Thunderbird to ask for the Master password every time you launch it.
In Ubuntu you have to follow two different steps. First of all, go to Edit —> Preferences —> Security —> Passwords and create your Master Password. Secondly, go to Edit —> Preferences —> Advanced —> Config Editor (click on “I’ll be careful, I promise”). Then in the filter bar, type password and change the parameter for mail.password_protect_local_cache to True. The next time you will launch Thunderbird nothing will be displayed (old and new emails) before you insert the correct Master Password.
If you are using Thunderbird on Windows you have to modify mail.password_protect_local_cache going to Tools —> Options —> Advanced —> Config Editor (click on “I’ll be careful, I promise”). Then, as for Ubuntu, in the filter bar type password and change the parameter for mail.password_protect_local_cache to True. 
Installing software on Ubuntu is really easy but sometimes we can have problems to uninstall it if we have not used the Package Manager (Synaptic till Ubuntu 9.04 and later through the Software Center) or a .deb package. To fastly uninstall all the software you do not need or you are not fond of, you can type in the Terminal:
sudo dpkg -r your_file
An alternative and powerful way is typing:
sudo apt-get remove your_file
(where your_file it is the name of the software you want to remove)
or, if you want to completely cancel also the configuration files:
sudo apt-get --purge remove your_file
If you want to check what software is installed on you Ubuntu you can use:
dpkg --list
and you will obtain a complete list of software and a very short summary for each package.
What about losing your laptop? Obviously the chances to find it and have it back are very few! But there are several software you can install on your laptop to trace the ip and geo-location of te laptop and with a bit of fortune you could find it. Prey is one of these programs you can use and it is particularly interesting because it is open source and free up to three laptops. After the download of the proper version for your OS (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X or Android) you have to run it on your machine and configure it through a very simple interface (on Ubuntu: Applications —> System Tools —> Prey Configurator). Do not forget to select Enable guest account and Wifi autoconnect to improve the possibilities to trace your laptop. You are also asked to provide an email account where you will receive the geo-location reports if your laptop is stolen. When you activate your Prey account do not forget to fill in the Configuration and Modules tabs. Personally we suggest to switch to ON the following commands: Auto update, Notify new reports and all the commands contained in the left column of the Modules tab. At this point, if your laptop is missed, you have to log in your on-line Prey account and, in the Configuration tab, switch the Missing option on YES. Since this moment, Prey software on your laptop is activated and will start sending reports to your email and to your Prey webpage. Last but not least, to better protect your laptop I suggest to hide or cancel the Prey Configurator icon from the OS menu (in Ubuntu: System —> Preferences —> Main Menu —> System Tools and deselect Prey Configurator).
Hace unos días he encontrado esta nueva aplicación para Linux, se llama CLI Companion. Aunque Linux ha evolucionado muchísimo y hay que reconocer que ya casi no hace falta hacer uso de la Consola para ejecutar programas y tareas varias, pero también hay veces que gracias al uso de la Consola se puede solucionar pequeños problema que de otra forma seria bastante mas complicado. En esos casos CliCompanion nos hecha una mano añadiendo una lista con diferentes comandos junto a nuestro terminal. La lista de los comando no es infinita, viene con unos cuantos; para cada comando hay una referencia donde se explica la función, también es posible añadir comandos y los parámetros correspondientes. Además CliCompanion tiene un apartado de búsqueda donde es posible encontrar el comando que mas nos interese en cada momento. Desde cuando lo instalé en mi Kubuntu 10.04, tengo que confirmar que es una muy buena aplicación y puede ser instalada con lo repositorios correspondientes y tener futuras actualizaciones o directamente através el paquete .DEB. Os dejo el enlace de la Web: http://okiebuntu.homelinux.com/okwiki/clicompanion
Recently, Mozilla presented a concept phone created by Billy May, a Mozilla Labs community member. Perhaps this phone will never be available for sale but the ideas behind it are really innovative and it let us dream. Compliments Billy!!!!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we would like to share our personal list of the 10 best freeware websites. Of course, this is just our personal opinion but we are 100% curious to learn new website from your comments!
#1 http://sourceforge.net/
In our opinion FileHippo is the #1, a lighthouse for all the other freeware distribution sites. The programs here are open-source and you can find freeware for all the most used OS: Linux, Windows and Mac
#2 http://www.filehippo.com/
Full of real freeware, well structure and it has developed a powerful “update checker” http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/
#3 http://www.techsupportalert.com/
Well organized, contains brief but effective review about each software
#4 http://download.cnet.com/
The software is categorized between Windows, Mac, Mobile and a very interesting Webware category for the online stuff. Use “The Download Software Finder” to be sure to surf between real free programs
#5 http://majorgeeks.com/
Good site, full of stuff and Shareware programs are clearly labeled!
#6 http://www.tucows.com/
An evergreen site; it was one of the first to share freeware, interesting but it does not contain a huge variety of freeware as others site
#7 http://www.nonags.com/
Elementary graphics but it contains a site menu and the proposed software is really freeware so….
#8 http://www.freewarefiles.com/
Interesting site but sometimes you find old version of proprietary software distributed as free…
#9 http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/
Well structured, easy to navigate and updated. Watch the tags (freeware or free trial) before downloading programs!
#10 http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/
Basic graphics; it has many freeware but you have to dig them from the lists.
This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a new ebook (in EPUB format) reader for Ubuntu: Lucidor. This software is not a simple ebook reader but it also allows you to search ebooks through an embedded search engine which is able to scan Google Books, epubcatalog.org, Lexcycle, Feedbook and – of course- your personal local library. Unfortunately, the Lucidor search engine does not support the Project Gutenberg that, we believe, at the moment, is the most interesting free project for ebooks. Lucidor is complex, well structured and flexible. To conclude we would also suggest another reader FBReader that has not any search engine but it manage very well the EPUB ebooks and offers very readable texts. Something to try!
This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a brief post about Instantbird which could be actually considered as the most complete and flexible software to manage all your instant messenger client you normally use (IRC, ICQ, AIM, SIMPLE, SILC, YAHOO, MySpaceIM, XMPP, Sametime, Google, etc..). Moreover Instantbird is completely free, open source and cross platform so you can use it on every PC you have (also at work). We have tested Istantbird for a couple of weeks, without stressing it too much, and we really did not find any bugs so we are really satisfied from the results. Frankly speaking, this software does not contain any “revolutionary” new feature but it can be considered as the state of the art software in its category; something everyone has to benchmark if he (or she) is planning to develop a new instant messaging client! Recommended!
Today, on our Linux Page (in Spanish), we have posted an enthusiastic review about Linux4One a very stable new Linux distribution which represents a real opportunity if you want to test a new OS on Your Acer Aspire One. Linux4One website is essential but well structured; unfortunately it does not contains many information so the best thing yo do is downloading their specially developed Ubuntu based Linux4One and test it. This particular distribution, with a customized Kernel, perfectly runs on our Aspire One: we did not find any problem with the hardware and smoothly passed all the tests. Last but not least, the Italian guys are developing a Linux4One special edition which should be mounted directly from a Usb key, we hpe it will be ready ASAP. Something you must try if you like Ubuntu and want it on your Aspire One!
Computer Borders 