BlueProximity: Leave it – it’s locked, come back – it’s back too..

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Ahmed Tawfik

This is a MARVELOUS piece of software!! I couldn’t believe myself at first :S, here is its description from the official website:

This software helps you add a little more security to your desktop. It does so by detecting one of your bluetooth devices, most likely your mobile phone, and keeping track of its distance. If you move away from your computer and the distance is above a certain level (no measurement in meters is possible) for a given time, it automatically locks your desktop (or starts any other shell command you want).

Once away your computer awaits its master back – if you are nearer than a given level for a set time your computer unlocks magically without any interaction (or starts any other shell command you want).

You can find it in the Ubuntu repositories; just Applications -> Add/Remove Programs, Enjooy!!

Note: You should have a screensaver set, don’t set it to “Blank Screen” as this might cause the software not to work properly. If you’re using Compiz, then you’d better use a simple screensaver, such as “Deco” as it might crash your desktop.

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Firefox Add-ons that I cannot live without

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Ahmed Tawfik
  1. DownloadThemAll: A very nice download manager with resume and massive download support.
  2. Adblock plus: Ad blocker that makes pages load much faster by filtering ads from any websites you visit, you can also add more entries to its list of blocked items. Enjoy Surfing without ads!
  3. Mouse Gestures Redox: Do everything using the mouse! Go back, go forward, open a new tab, close a tab, move between tabs, zoom in and out & a lot more!
  4. Xmarks: Sync your bookmarks and even your passwords across different browsers, you will no more lose your bookmarks! (Note: This addon was previously named Foxmarks)
  5. Foxyproxy: Easily switch between different proxies via profiles and rules, I prefer the basic version as it contains just exactly what I need

Another cool add-on – but I can live without it 🙂 – is the cooliris add-on that allows you to explore and preview thousands of photos in a very attractive way.

All of the above addons are free! Enjoy!

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VirtualBox with USB Support on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Ahmed Tawfik

http://www.samlesher.com/ubuntu/virtualbox-with-usb-support-on-ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex/

There are two versions of Virtual Box:
– OSE (Open Source Edition) which is in the repos
– Closed Source Edition, or Standard, or just plain “Virtual Box”
OSE does not have USB support. There are a few other features from the closed source version that aren’t included in OSE, you can see the list here. So, if you want to have USB support in VirtualBox, you need to install closed source edition and make a change to /etc/fstab. Here are the steps:
1. Remove OSE
$ sudo apt-get autoremove virtualbox-ose
2. Add the VirtualBox repo for Intrepid Ibex. Click System > Administration > Software Sources. Click the ‘Third Party Software’ tab. Click ‘Add’ and enter:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free
Save the VirtualBox GPG key from here, then import it into Synaptic by clicking the ‘Authentication’ tab and then ‘Import Key File’.
Click the ‘Reload’ button in Synaptic to reload the repositories.
3. Install the latest virtualbox package (as of this writing it is virtualbox-2.2) by selecting it in Synaptic, or running this command from a terminal:
$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.2
4. Add yourself to the vboxusers group:
$ sudo gpasswd -a YOURUSERNAME vboxusers
5. Find the devgid for ‘vboxusers’:
$ grep vboxusers /etc/group
It will return something like:
vboxusers:x:125:username
Add this line to the bottom of /etc/fstab, replace the devgid number with your devgid:
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=125,devmode=664 0 0
After you reboot you should now have USB support in VirtualBox.
Last tested on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.

Notes:

  1. This also works with version 2.1 of VirtualBox
  2. After modifying the /etc/fstab file, it’s not necessary to restart to enable the USB support in VirtualBox, you can just run “sudo mount -a”
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Latest Screenshot From My Ubuntu IBM Desktop

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Ahmed Tawfik

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How to increase AIX swap space

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Ahmed Tawfik

“lsps -a”

This will display something like:

Page Space Physical Volume Volume Group Size %Used Active Auto Type
hd6 hdisk0 rootvg 512MB 1 yes yes lv

This means that hd6 is the logical volume used for paging. To increase it, use the following command:

“extendlv hd6 10G”

This will add 10G of space to hd6, now reboot and then re-run “lsps -a” or you can simply use the “topas” command to check the paging space available.

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