One of the annoying little setup items on my list of things to do every time I reinstall Kubuntu is changing the bootsplash screen resolution from 800×600 to something more appropriate for my monitor, specifically, 1280×1024. Here’s how it’s done:

sudo nano /etc/usplash.conf

The file should be altered to read:

# Usplash configuration file
# These parameters will only apply after running update-initramfs.

xres=1280
yres=1024

The final step is to update initramfs, the initial RAM disk used by the kernel when Linux first boots up:

sudo update-initramfs -u

If you skip the last step, you will probably only see your new usplash resolution during shutdown and not when your computer boots up.

That’s it!

So there was this web page, nothing more than a text file in fact, which I was compelled to check regularly. I had ordered something online from a company whose web-store design was still in the dark ages, and their “method” of letting customers know whether or not their products had shipped was to periodically update a web-viewable text file with a public list of all the order numbers that had recently shipped. Very private and secure, I know.

No, no, they couldn’t possibly email this information to you — you had to check the page manually. And if your products were backordered, as mine were, you’d be checking often.

Well, that’s just stupid, I thought, and since I had a computer sitting right in front of me, I thought it might be a good idea to automate the process.

So I cobbled together a little Python script on my Ubuntu box, which uses the pycURL interface to grab the URL in question, parse it, search it for my order number, and then fire me off an email (using sendmail) if and when it finds anything.

I automated the script to run hourly using cron, like so:

crontab -e

and then included the following line in my crontab file:

# m h  dom mon dow   command
7 * * * * /path/to/searchagent.py

Seven minutes after the hour (for luck), every hour, every day.

On the hunch that this script might be useful to somebody else, I decided to post it here. Fair warning to all: this is a huge hack, and I’m sure it needs work. Also, there’s probably a better method that I’ve completely overlooked. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome, as always.

Here’s the script:

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So let’s say you have a private LAN running in your secret underground lab. Maybe you’ve got a Linux box hardwired to a WiFi router, and maybe a Mac or Linux laptop floating around somewhere, and you need a quick way to transfer files or execute shell commands remotely.

What you need is SSH, the Secure Shell. SSH is a powerful tool which allows secure remote login over insecure networks. It provides an encrypted terminal session with strong authentication of both the server and client using public-key cryptography. This tutorial will cover the basics of SSH’s most useful features:

• Logging into a remote computer over a secure connection.
• Transferring files and directories between computers over a secure connection.
• Enabling public-key authentication.
• Passwordless authentication for use with scripts and cron jobs.

The following assumptions are made about the reader:

• You know what a terminal/command line/shell is and how to start a session.
• You have at least a basic familiarity with Linux/Mac command-line syntax.
• You’re on a private LAN with access to at least two Linux/Mac computers (or, you have a user account on a remote server that accepts SSH connections).

As always, comments, corrections, and suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

Installing OpenSSH

The Ubuntu (and MacOS X) flavor of SSH is called OpenSSH, a free, open-source implementation of the ssh protocol. It consists of two basic components, an openssh-client and an openssh-server. SSH clients communicate with SSH servers over encrypted network connections.

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LightScribe is an innovative technology that uses a special disc drive, special media, and label-making software to burn labels directly onto CDs and DVDs. The labels are laser-etched, not printed, so there’s no ink, no smudging, and no peeling.

LightScribe lets you create one-of-a-kind designs with your own photos, text, and artwork. The days of hand-labeling or printing stickers for your CDs and DVDs are over.

This short tutorial will describe how to install and run LightScribe software on Ubuntu. These instructions are tailored specifically for Ku/Xu/Ubuntu 64-bit users, since the LightScribe software is designed for the 32-bit architecture. Where necessary, alterations for 32-bit users are included.

What You Need

Before downloading anything, make sure you have the necessary hardware and materials at hand, or you may have to make an emergency trip to your local big-box electronics store.

LightScribe hardware

LightScribe-enabled disc drives do double duty. The same laser that burns your data will also laser-etch your customized CD/DVD labels. LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD burners are ubiquitous these days. You may already have one.

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My first computer was an Apple IIc. I was thirteen years old and, at that age, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. It had a gorgeous, green-on-black display screen, 128KB of RAM, no hard disk, and a Slim-line internal 5.25″ floppy drive into which you loaded whatever version of Zork you were in the mood for, and fired it up. All software was written in Applesoft BASIC, and although there was no official term for it at the time, everything was open source.

A simple Ctrl-C (or some such keystroke) was all that was required to break the flow of whatever program you were running and take a peek under the hood. I wrote my first computer program on the IIc. There might have been limits to what that little machine could do, but there were no restrictions. If you could imagine it, you could build it, and if you didn’t know quite how to build it, you just found someone else’s program that did something close, and figured out how they had done it. The Apple IIc was more than a tool, it was a teacher.

In college I used PCs and Macs, none of which I owned, of course — it just wasn’t expected in those days — and I reluctantly deciphered the library’s Unix terminals for the sole purpose of emailing friends with Pine. Until my junior year, by which time I was accustomed to using the university’s computer labs for my paper-writing and other needs, I kept that old Apple IIc around, with a dot-matrix printer, just in case.

It wasn’t until after graduation that I could finally afford (almost) to purchase my own computer. After buying and returning a couple of defective laptop PCs from a big box electronics retailer, I finally decided to go back to Apple, and I sprung for a Powerbook G3. It was beautiful, and it was definitely a Mac, but something was missing.

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Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use microcontroller hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

This short tutorial will guide you through the installation of the Arduino development environment on Ubuntu. These instructions reference arduino-0010 and have been tested on Feisty and Gutsy, both 32-bit and 64-bit installations. Thanks to this post on the Ubuntu Forums for the basic setup.

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Here’s how to get rid of that annoying “Busy Cursor” bouncing icon next to the mouse pointer in Kubuntu.

(1) Press Alt+F2 to bring up the Run Command dialog box.

(2) Type kcontrol and click Run.

(3) Select “Appearance & Themes” from the left sidebar menu.

(4) Select “Launch Feedback” from the sub-menu.

(5) In the “Busy Cursor” box, select “No Busy Cursor” from the drop down menu.

That’s it! Banished for good!

Skype is a free text/audio/video chat and softphone client for PCs. Version 2.0 for Linux finally includes support for webcam video. It’s still in beta, and it’s designed for a 32-bit OS, so AMD64 users have to do a little creative tweaking to get it to work.

Thanks to this tutorial on the Ubuntu Forums, getting the latest Skype up and running is a snap. Just paste the following code into a terminal. This snippet works on 64-bit Gusty (7.10), Feisty (7.04), and Edgy (6.10) installations.

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After a fresh install of Kubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon,” there are a few extra tasks necessary to get everything set up and running smoothly, especially when it comes to multimedia support and internet tools. This short tutorial will allow you to quickly enable some of the features missing in a vanilla installation.

The goal of this process is speed of setup, so I’ll use terminal commands rather than the more-familiar graphical menu, however I will make an effort to keep things simple and straightforward. Comments are welcome. (You might want to read all the way to the end before jumping into the commands.)

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Pretty URLs are URLs that have meaning for human readers, rather than just being seemingly random jibberish only a web server could appreciate. The following is an example of a “pretty” URL:

http://my.blog.com/archive/2007/10/pretty-urls

Note that every part of the URL is relevant for a human reader. For comparison, here’s an example of an “ugly” URL:

http://www.mysite.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=posting&mode=quote&p=14488&sid=0293840293840577

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