Change is never easy, but sometime is required!

Paul

A Fork in the Road!

Imagine that you are on the long winding road where there is nothing but problems and hardship. Each step you take is nothing but effort and you don’t see any end in site. I feel like I have walked in hail, rain, sleet, and snow barefooted and no umbrella. I’ve worked past few months but nothing really seemed to help. I’ve done everything in my power but it seems that nothing could of change the out come. I’m at a fork in the road and when I look right I see nothing but road that is hot and no cover, the left side I see a lush forest which will protect you from all the elements of the world. This is how I feel, the impossible choice that will make me stronger or destroy me forever.

A Once in a lifetime chance!

Would you take the once in a lifetime chance to be happy or would you be so scared of change that you wouldn’t do it? This is the ever ending question in today’s society. Most people would not want to get out of their comfort zones. I am like that also because I hate stepping out and making a change that is necessary, which will in my case make me a better person to everyone involved. Being a dad has been nothing but a dream with me and now I have three fantastic children who I do cherish and love every day. Today is Father’s Day and I am glad my children is safe and that I have been a father to them. Have you hugged your child today? Have they wished you a happy Father’s Day? These are somethings you should expect today.

It’s not to late to give your father a Gift?

IT isn’t like you have much chance of doing anything wrong but you should give your father something this year and even a kiss on the cheek will go long ways to brightening his spirit and making him smile. Why not give your dad a great Gift card from Amazon, at least then he can find what he might of really wanted and you can show him your love him.

Happy Father’s Day Everyone,

Paul Sylvester

Five Essential Packages for Ubuntu/Kubuntu!

Paul

Why do I need these packages?

There is no right or wrong answer but when I say it is needed, it is because us as a community should be ready. I know I already talked about people getting a Virus on Linux, and that some people think you can’t get a Virus. In all aspects, the Linux community is in a holding when it comes to security and viruses. I will not discuss this enough but for today we will discuss what packages you should have already installed when you first start using Linux. Even the Ubuntu developers have talked about viruses on their main website, so it isn’t something that I am not a little worried about when people start to use Linux.

The Packages I have installed!

While there is no right or wrong package for your Linux system, I thought I would at least recommend the ones that I did install not just for security but also for convenience. It will be your decision on which ones you will be install and which ones you think you’ll need. This list is for those who are serious about security and want to avoid any chances of being compromised.

  • VLC Media Player — Although this has nothing to do with security it is something that will prevent those nasty attempts, claiming your don’t have the right Codex to play this streaming Video. At least, if you have this installed you are one step closer to and knowing that this is a fake because I have found to be very affective having all the codex I will ever need.
  • AVG Antivirus — I have personally installed means I am a little more safer but not out of the woods just yet. Although, I am much safer having installed there is a long way to go before there is a good enough Antivirus program for linux and that I hope that changes in the future.
  • Firewall — Although this is your choice, I picked arno-iptables-firewall, which seems to be what I need right now. It however is something of a personal choice and probably even an OS choice.
  • Password Manager — Yes you heard it right, if you have a good Password manager then you are less likely to give out your password to sites that look like the real thing, which is called phishing attacks. With a good Password manager, you can go to right the right site with a click of the manager. I personally recommend Lastpass, but it is all up to your which one you want to use. I really don’t know if there are more linux based password manager but I am sure you can find them.
  • VPN — Although this isn’t really a package per say, but one that talked about in the past. How to get a VPN on Ubuntu/Kubuntu. I am sure there are others out on the internet. I just don’t want to make it to complicated for beginners, so I did make my own tutorial on getting a free VPN. You really don’t want anyone listening in while at a public hotspot do you?

Your one step closer!

As you can see these are what I call essential because of most of these will make you a little more security conscience and that in turn will make you a better Linux user. for the most part your be more ready than a lot of Linux user but that doesn’t mean your invulnerable, just more educated the rest. If you have a recommendation, I encourage you to leave a comment and let others know, but for the time being these are just what I have installed on my Kubuntu 11.04 right now and I’m really happy.

See you on the Flip Side

Paul Sylvester

Win 2 10$ Amazon Gift Cards!

Paul44 Replies

Another chance to win!

Last month, I gave away two Pairs of eyeglasses. If you weren’t one of the lucky two winners, you can still enter this contest. So it is time to give away something else for this month. I’ve decided to give out two 10 dollars gift cards. This will be an easy to enter and you will also help me in the same process. Like last time, I will be using Random.org to find those two lucky people. So here are the rules!

Rules for entry!

First way to earn 10$ is a simple one. Just sign up for my Mailing List, nothing else is required. If your already signed up, your automatically entered into the running of the first 10$ gift card. Just sit back and wait!

The Second way, Is to tweet:

How to Win a 10$ gift card go to: http://bit.ly/iXi2iA #paulstechtalk #giftcard #free

You may only tweet this once per day, I will be watching the tweets if you start to spam people on twitter, I will know. So don’t do it to many times, or your will be disqualified for the 10$ gift card. The more you tweet the better your chances are at getting the prize, so tweet 30 times and you could be the winner, that is tweet from 06/14/2011 12:01am EST to 07/13/2011 11:59pm EST and I will be watching. Good luck to all the people who enter and We will see who winds next Month!

If you like me to give out even more from Amazon, please bookmark the Amazon link and use that anytime you shop at Amazon and that way I will be able to give away even more cards down the road.  For your convience, you can use this bit.ly url to buy from Amazon:

http://amzn.to/jCdF1y or http://www.amazon.com/?tag=paulstechtalk-20

Anytime you use that link, I will make a small amount off the sale of anything you buy that day.   So the more you use it the more I will make and in turn be able to give away even more stuff from Amazon!

 

Good Luck to All That enter

Paul Sylvester

 

River Song? A Good Man goes to war!

Paul1 Reply

It all coming together!

I just got done watching Doctor Who: A Good man goes to war and I must say the end of this mid season finale is something that even you can’t imagine. I did comment in the past about the possibility of Amelia Pond having a baby but I never would of imagine that Amelia would also bring about the famous River Song performed by Alex Kingston and She has brought many great ideas and even a possible spinoff of the show if they do decide to do that. I have been intrigued in the past and I am really curious about what will happen.

Spoilers — Ahh those Spoilers!

We first get to see River song in Season 4 : Silence in the Library but I never really connected with who she was until later in the season when we see her again until the Season 5: Time of Angels. Then only then we get to see what the future might hold. She would always talk about Killing a Good Man and we never really understood who but I did think it might of been the Doctor but no one could be that truthful and still be a great character. We do know that she is going to have to be the next or something is going to happen because of seeing in this season that the Doctor dies and doesn’t have time to regenerate. The Episode in question is The Impossible Astronaut. Everything that has happened in this season suggests that there will be a female Doctor Who but I wonder if that means that the Series for the Doctor Who right now is at the end of life.

Is the Series at its end?

I am not sure what will but everything that I have saw in this season suggests that there will be no more Doctor Who or at least a Male Doctor who. I will keep hoping that there will be more to come in the next season and that they will be keeping the series going. I just don’t know what the writers are wanting to accomplish or what their plans for the series. I also wished they didn’t do a mid season cut off just to have you hanging until the fall of 2011.

What do you think will happen? Will they keep the series going or do a Spin off??

Keep it Real

Paul Sylvester

Get Thunderbird to launch Firefox/Chrome browsers in Linux!

Paul

This isn’t like Windows!

If your like me you probably clicked a link in Thunderbird and thought you would be taken to your favorite browser but that isn’t the case with Linux. The pop up screen asking you which application to launch is quite similar to Windows but there is a problem. If you have had no experience with Linux then you might ask yourself “Where’s the program files?” It seems that Windows and Linux differs from each other in that aspect. I did have to do some things to get Thunderbird to get it to launch a browser. This quick tutorial will help those new to Linux to do what they have always done on Windows. I will warn people that clicking on links in your emails is the first way to get a virus or a credit card stolen but that is for another topic and discussion!

Some Preparations are in order!

For some of use this is something that should already be included, but it seems that Mozilla didn’t add some important config scripts into the Thunderbird application for Linux. Thanks to Google, I found the answers and I thought I would also share them with people so it would be much easier for others to enable launching the browser in Thunderbird.

You will need to add these strings in Thunderbird:

In Thunderbird: edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor

Right click anywhere in the list and click ADD > String. Then add these strings with values!

  • String: network.protocol-handler.app.http Value: x-www-browser

  • String: network.protocol-handler.app.https Value: x-www-browser

  • String: network.protocol-handler.app.ftps Value: x-www-browser

Once that is done, your ready for the next step of the process.

Where Do I find these files?

Most cases you will find these files in only one place and that is almost like a C: Drive. In order to find the right program, you first need to go:

  1. /usr/bin/firefox.sh (shell script)

  2. /usr/bin/chromium-browser.sh (shell script)

  3. /usr/bin/rekonq.ex (Executable)

These are the two files you will need to tell Thunderbird to launch the right application when you click on a link. You should only need to do this once for each type of link from http, https, and the last one is the file transfer protocol but if you do this, I see no reason why you would be able to launch your favorite browser. Depending on which browser you have installed, it should be easily found in the the bin directory and you should be able to launch your browser even if it is not a well known browser. .

Let’s Rock Linux

Paul Sylvester