Posts filed under 'Linux'
Anomos is a free torrent client that lets you share files anonymously. It is currently in beta, but works like a charm. It’s a very plain BitTorrent client –which doesn’t even show the number of seeds & peers. Only the tracker will know who’s downloading what.

Now that’s what I call an anonymous torrent client, and Anomos does it well.
Anomos is currently available for Windows and Linux – Download it here.
June 16th, 2009
Picture this…you set up Ubuntu, and forgot the password you had set for it. Or, someone gave you a computer running Ubuntu, but not the password. The password is an essential part of the Ubuntu experience. To make any changes in the system, you need to log in as root through the Terminal, and guess what it requires…a password.
This guide will explain how you can reset Ubuntu’s password:
1- Boot into ‘Recovery Mode’

If you have a single-boot (Ubuntu is the only operating system on your computer), you may have to press the Escape key during bootup in order to see the boot menu. If you have a dual-boot (Ubuntu is installed next to Windows, another Linux operating system, or Mac OS X; and you choose at boot time which operating system to boot into), the boot menu should appear without the need to press the Escape key. -thanks www.psychocats.net
2- Select the ‘recovery mode’ kernel

3- After the recovery boot-up process has completed- go down to the ‘Drop to root shell prompt’ option, and press Enter

The ‘Root’ account is the highest level of administrator in Linux, so be very careful what commands you enter into the root terminal
4- Once you’re at the root shell prompt, if you have also forgotten your user name, type:
ls /home
That’s a lowercase L, and not a capital i, in ls.
5- You should see a list of the users on your Ubuntu installation. In this case, I’m going to reset Linda Williams’s password.
To reset the password, type:
passwd username
where username is the username you want to reset. In this case, I want to reset Linda’s password, so I type:
passwd linda
6- You will be asked for a new password. When you type the password you will get no visual response acknowledging you’re typing. Your password is still being accepted.
Type the password and hit Enter when you’re done. You’ll be asked to retype the password. Do so and hit Enter again.
7- Now the password should be reset. Type:
exit to return to the recovery menu.

From the recovery menu- select ‘resume normal boot’ – you should now know the new password
June 11th, 2009
“How do I download a torrent?” This is a question that gets asked quite frequently- Torrents are the new form of P2P downloading these days. It is the new Napster, and just like Napster- you need to be careful with what you download. A lot of the files that are available through torrents are copyrighted, such as music, movies, and applications, so you are responsible for what you choose to download. Let’s get started shall we..
Step 1:
Download the Torrent client-
The best for Windows is: uTorrent
The best for Mac is: Transmission
The best for Ubuntu is: Transmission (search for it under Applications > Add/Remove)
Step 2:
Once installed, we look for a torrent-
Go http://www.thepiratebay.com (you have probably heard of these guys)
-We are going to search for “Ubuntu”, and specify the search by check-marking “Applications” below the search bar.

-You will be presented with the results of your search. Here is the important part- you need to know how to pick the torrents. These files are not hosted on 1 central server. They are spread out across a whole network of torrent users.
We need to pay close attention to “SE” (seeders), and “LE” (leechers). SE is the number of people hosting the file, LE is the number of people downloading the file.
- Click “SE” to sort by the highest number of seeders.

A good ratio of seeders, and leechers is one that has far more SE’s than LE’s. In my example, I found a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 with 98 SE’s, and 9 LE’s. We like this ratio- this means that the download will be pretty fast.

Step 3:
So we decided to go with the torrent mentioned above. Click the file name, and you will be taken to download page.

Click “Download This Torrent” > save the torrent file to your desktop.
Step 4:
Fire up the torrent client you downloaded during step 1.

Go to File > Open > and browse for the torrent file on your desktop (in uTorrent it will be called ‘Add Torrent’ and not ‘Open’)
This will start your download- once it is at 100%, go to the directory you downloaded the file to (you can find this under the program’s preferences menu), and move the file wherever you want.

Done!












May 28th, 2009

If you’ve ever used Quicksilver for the Mac, then you know what I’m talking about. Gnome-do allows you to simply type the name of the application or file that you want to open, and just hit Enter to launch it. A lot of us Linux users used to do this with the Terminal, I know- but this is so much faster. It’s incredible how intuitive it is.
One of the best parts of Gnome-do is how it learns from your previous queries. Let’s say you constantly launch Firefox from it- after a while, it knows to display Firefox first, right when you type ‘F’.
You can easily install Gnome-do by going to: Applications > Add/Remove > search: Gnome-do.
May 27th, 2009
These are apps every Ubuntu user should look into. They make life on Linux so much more pleasant and easy. As a new Ubuntu user, I don’t know how I would go on without them:
- AllTray – Allows you to minimize apps to the alltray system tray.
- amaroK – Music player
- Automatix2 – Makes it easy to install common applications
- Beagle – A search tool
- Beryl – an OpenGL accelerated desktop with a combined window manager and composite manager.
- CheckGmail – Gmail notifier clone
- Cinlerra – Capture, composite, and edit audio and video.
- Deluge – Bittorrent client
- Flash – Can’t surf the web without it.
- GIMP – Repeat after me. Photoshop is over priced and bloated.
- Gnomebaker – burn CDs and DVDs
- Gnome Deskbar Applet – An app launcher that is a cross between Mac’s Spotlight and Quicksilver
- KMyMoney – Quicken without the suckiness
- MythTV – TiVo for Ubuntu.
- Opera 9 – I love Firefox but sometimes a site won’t work in it but works in Opera.
- Scribes – Note taking application
- Thunderbird – You’ll never miss Outlook!
- Vim – Text editor
- VLC – media player that can play nearly everything.
- Wine – Allows you to run (some) Windows programs
(list by usrbingeek)
May 26th, 2009
Newer Posts