June 2001

Games Week @ Linux.com Posted Friday, June 29, 2001 @ 2:40 PM by mayhem
For all of you keen game players and those of you who want to write your own, then you should browse on over to www.linux.com where its games week. They have many articles for you to read, programming games using SDL, Linux Gaming API's and even Linux gaming on your laptop, they are rather interesting and well worth the read.
 
Keeping the right time... Posted Friday, June 29, 2001 @ 12:09 AM by mayhem
Well since computers are not as exact as atomic clocks there is a need to correct the time every now and then, so this is how you can do it.

If the date is today 29th June 2001 and the time is 12:07 (you can check this by typing 'date') and the correct time is 12:09 then you must simply adjust it. The adjust to the new time simply type: 'date 06290009' and hit enter, the correct time will be now displayed and your done. (This is in 24 hour time format)

Note: To find the correct time you can call 1194 on your telephone (Australia only), when I have time I will write up how you can set your machine to automatically check its time and update using the internet.
 
Slashdot Back Online Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 @ 8:40 PM by mayhem
For those of you who are regular Slashdot readers then you will have noticed that it has been down for the last 3 days, well good news, they are currently back up and here is what they have to say:

"I'm still not exactly clued in as to why we're back online, but hey, we are. Sometime saturday morning our Cisco router melted down. Ordinarily this would only be the end of the world, but none of our qualified personel were available to fix it, thus triggering the end of several nearby worlds as well. Props to Yazz, KurtG and Scott from Cisco for managing to help get us back online. We'll post more when we know it."
 
Squid-Bannerfilter mini-HOWTO Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 @ 8:07 PM by mayhem
For those of you who are on Telstra and are aware of the new 3GB limit that is being introduced, then this mini how-to might be useful to you, it also maybe of use to anyone who wants to stop ads and reduce your bandswidth usage.

Davehill (some of you might know him from the forums) has written a how-to install Squid and Ad Zapper script to run a Transparet Proxy to Filter out Banners and Ads: "This document provides detailed instructions on installing a transparent-proxy, featuring banner ad removal, on linux machines running either the 2.2.x or the 2.4.x kernel."

To read our local mirror of this mini how-to then please follow this link here, or you can click on the "Banner Filter" link in the articles box on the left had site of the page.
 
CAT5 Twisted Cable Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 @ 1:38 AM by mayhem
Lately there has been alot of talk about networking in the forums (AusForum) and we have received a number of questions about making your own cross over CAT5 cable, for those of you who wanted to know and those of you that want to know then the following is how you can configure a cat 5 cable (note this is my colouring system, the links are all the matters, you can just follow the numbers as a guide).

 
DU Meter 3 Posted Friday, June 22, 2001 @ 9:45 PM by mayhem
For those of you who use DU Meter, a new version has been released, and its got a whole lot more features than the previous version.

New Features in DU Meter 3.0
  • Full support for Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windowx XP Beta 2.
  • Support for very high traffic rates (gigabits per second).
  • Semi-transparent main window on Windows 2000 or better.
  • Optional vertical grid in graph.
  • Maximum graph value label and horizontal graph line showing maximum value.
  • More pre-defined connection types: ADSL, Cable Modem, T1, and more.
  • Fully customizable traffic volume and dial-up connection time alert.
  • Fully customizable daily, weekly and monthly totals display, with ability to export data to Excel, Word, HTML, Text and other formats.
  • Optional computer shutdown when traffic volume drops below certain minumum.
  • Numerous bug fixes, too many to list all of them here.

    To download DU Meter, visit the homepage here.
  •  
    Window & Neon Review @ www.lostuniverse.org Posted Friday, June 22, 2001 @ 3:47 PM by mayhem
    Moleman over at LostUniverse has just released his review on the PC Case Gear Window Kit and 10" Neon. It is quite comprehensive and covers every aspect of the specs and installation, through to the testing and his final evaluation. For anyone who wants to give life to their case I recommend reading this review.
     
    More Than a Gigabuck: Estimating GNU/Linux's Size Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 @ 3:00 PM by mayhem
    The usual daily browsing of Slashdot presented this interesting article. Althought based on Red Hat 7.1 it talks about the code that makes up the distro, and how much it differs from previous version 6.2, its rather an interesting read. Click here to read more.
     
    Tux: Built For Speed @ ZDNet Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2001 @ 12:15 PM by mayhem
    ZDNet has an interesting article on Red Hats built in Webserver called Tux 2.0, they benchmarked it with the latest release of Apache and the results are quite amazing.

    "Tux's amazing speeds, even on low-end hardware, strongly validate its unusual design: First, Tux puts Web server code into the kernel and reads Web pages directly from Linux's kernel-mode file system cache for speed; second, Tux handles high numbers of connections very efficiently by using a small pool of worker threads instead of using one worker process per connection (as Apache does); third, Tux uses its own high-performance thread-scheduling algorithm to minimize the impact of disk activity."

    To read the full article click here.
     
    Avocent/Cybex KVM Review Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2001 @ 12:58 AM by mayhem
    Well we have been lucky enough to receive a Cybex SwitchView for review recently. For those that don't know about it, it is a KVM, that is it allows you to plug multiple computers into a single Keyboard/Video(Monitor)/Mouse set.

    Its a rather nice and neat little product that save alot of time of swapping cables and unplugging your monitor when you need to swap, or if you do have two monitors it reduces the amount of space as you only need one.

    To read the review and see the features and not to mention pictures then you can either click the "KVM Kit" in the review links or click here.
     
    Linux.com Security: Firewalls; IPtables and Rules Posted Sunday, June 17, 2001 @ 11:22 AM by mayhem
    Linux.com has a good security article up at the moment that details how to use IPtables (the replacement for IPChains) in the newer 2.4.x kernels available in new distros. It covers a whole range of issues: Blocking an IP address, Blocking service requests, and Syn Packets.

    http://www.linux.com/enhance/newsitem.phtml?sid=1&aid=12431
     
    Search Feature Added Posted Friday, June 15, 2001 @ 1:23 AM by mayhem
    Well a needed feature has just been added to the site, now you can search our content for whatever criteria you want. Hope this prooves useful for those having trouble finding their way around the site. Any comments please direct them to me.
     
    Large Memory Fix Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 @ 7:39 PM by mayhem
    For those of you with large memory (say > 64MB) and your Linux machine doesn't pick it up, then don't worry, its rather easy to fix, a step by step instruction set has be added to the INSTALL section.
     
    Mouse Pads Update Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2001 @ 4:12 PM by mayhem
    After enquiring about the bulk price for the mouse pads the current supplier is too expensive, and in order to make them feasible we must try and get the cost down to pass on to anyone who wishs to purchase one. We are trying to find an alternative supplier and will know about that in a couple of days.

    Also the design has been modified for legeal reasons, the @ symbol that was previously use is too similar to that of Optus@Home / Excite@Home and as such has to be scrapted, but this is for the best. Now the design looks genreal in appearance and will be more suitable for anyone interested.

    Here is the new design (click for bigger image):
     
    OpenBSD 2.9 CD's Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2001 @ 6:36 PM by mayhem
    Well in my effort to get OpenBSD 2.9 to trial on my nix box, I finally found a downloadable CD version located at ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/openbsd/. Please note that these are not official disc images, it comes in two CD's the first being the base install and the second the binary packages. It is available for i386 and Aplha machines, so go forth and download those who have been waiting.
     
    Intel Claims World's Smallest, Fastest Transistor Posted Sunday, June 10, 2001 @ 7:15 PM by mayhem
    Apparently Intel Engineers have designed and manufactured 0.02 micron transistors, that is only 20 nanometers in size, which is a drastic improvement on the current limits of around 0.18 micron present in todays Intel and AMD chips.

    This is pushing the physical limit that silicon can handle and designers across the world are trying to find a new material to use.

    If you want to read more you can find the article here.
     
    Patching Posted Saturday, June 9, 2001 @ 7:09 AM by unit
    As many linux users are aware, there are people that set out to make a nusence of them selves by exploiting your system, this is why you should always remember to check for updates, patches and or new versions of software which is generaly run by root or is required by the system.

    A good place to start is http://www.freshmeat.net/ there you will find more linux applications than you can point a bash-prompt at, and please, always read the manual or documentation first.
     
    Linux@Home Mouse Pad Posted Friday, June 8, 2001 @ 9:41 PM by mayhem
    Well I was just fiddling around the other day creating a desktop wallpaper for myself when my girlfriend told me that a local copy place (www.kinkos.net.au) makes custom mouse pads, this was quite interesting as I had never seen anything like this before.

    This was just too much to resist for a small fee of $15 I took down a printout of my design and 1.5 days later I picked up the finished product. And below is the result, no effort involved (these pictures don't do justise):

     

    If you would like to support Linux@Home by purchasing one of these then please send me an email (mayhem@linuxathome.net) and I will make enquires for a bulk if the demand is there, all profits will go to domain name registration and other site related costs.
     
    Apache 1.3.20 Posted Thursday, June 7, 2001 @ 1:26 PM by mayhem
    Wow, dunno how I missed this, but Apache has a new version of the 1.3 line out, its 1.3.20 and there is a list of about 20 main fixes that have been made.
  • To read the changes go here.
  • To download the tarball go here.

    Also as a side note, the following latest versions are out:
    Sendmail 8.11.4 is out (so is 8.12.0 Beta 10) more info here.
    ProFTPd 1.2.1 is out, more info here.
    NcFTP Server 2.7.0 and Client 3.0.3 are out here.
    BIND 9.12 is available and more information here
    DHCP distribution verion 3.0 (3.0rc8) and is available right here.

    BPA-Login 2.0.1 for those of you on Telstra BPA is available as RPM right here.

    Thats it from me for now...
  •  
    Poll Results Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2001 @ 1:54 AM by mayhem
    Previous Poll Topic:What is your Client OS?
    36.8% - (92 Votes) - Linux
    34.8% - (87 Votes) - Win2k
    14.8% - (37 Votes) - Win9x
    6.8% - (17 Votes) - WinMe
    2.8% - (7 Votes) - BSD
    2.8% - (7 Votes) - MacOS
    1.2% - (3 Votes)- Unix
    Total Votes: 250
     
    Security in Operating Systems Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 @ 5:57 PM by unit
    For those of you looking to upgrade, or just looking for an Operating System change and you have some experience in linux, maybe OpenBSD is for you.

    Said to be the most secure out of the box operating system, in the past 4 years it has never been released without a hole in the default installation, now thats pretty impressive.

    A part of the BSD family (FreeBSD:NetBSD:OpenBSD) OpenBSD is free, secure and stable, I recommend it to anyone wanting a change :)
    OpenBSD - http://www.openbsd.org
     
    News Time Adjusted Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 @ 3:45 PM by mayhem
    Well I only just noticed that the time settings on the new server are totally different from that of the old server so I have adjusted the news script accordingly.
     
    Tiny Little Computer @ Slashdot Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 @ 3:35 PM by mayhem
    Slashdot has an interesting link to an article about what could possibly be one of the smallest computers available. The EZGO as it is called has physical dimensions of 157 x 146 x 45 and weighs only 950grams.

    Inside this small packages comes a Celeron 733 or 800 CPU with 64MB of ram and a nice size 10gb Hard Drive, not to mention a CD-ROM, Inbuilt 56k CD-ROM, i810 VGA graphics card, and not to mention looks really cool.



    For all those interested you can find out more details here.
     
    "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 @ 2:38 PM by mayhem
    Sorry for the lack of information and updates recently, but I just like Xtracable and Unit have been really busy with other commitments.

    In about a weeks time I should be back for a while before exams with some more major updates and content for the site, until then please feel free to see whats going on in the Forum.
     
    Server Problems Posted Saturday, June 2, 2001 @ 4:29 PM by mayhem
    As some of you may have noticed over the last day or so (especially today) the server has been having some problems.

    These problems mainly affect the scripts (cgi, perl etc) that this site uses and as such you may not see what you expect everytime you load the site, if you have any problems then firsly try hitting the "Refresh" button on your browser or if you have more serious problems then please e-mail me mayhem@linuxathome.net.

    Hopefully these problems should be resolved very soon, sorry for the inconvience.
     
    Farewell CableUsers & AdslUsers Posted Friday, June 1, 2001 @ 4:00 PM by mayhem
    Well as of today CableUsers and AdslUsers are no more. Due to time and finance restrictions they have been closed down until a possible successor is found.

    I would like to thank Dean Wilson on behalf of all the supporters for his hard work and effort in running the sites. Although these sites are no longer Dean is still running the new AusForum and has no plans for closing it down.