Consumed Consumer . org

After a few attempts which ended in failure, I managed to format my 2 x 2TB 4k Western Digital drives . Now that it’s done, it seems incredibly simple. It is also “sticky”, meaning it does not need to be performed on each reboot (DUH!).

After having a look at the more specific driver issues related to installing the latest version of Ubuntu linux on my Toshiba Tablets , it’s time to have a more general – and, hopefully, useful to more readers – look at what’s new and what needs to be changed in this new install. Obviously, I’m building upon my previous install notes ( 10.10 ).

I have recently resurrected some older devices with flaky connectivity and while ssh-ing into them had to use some terminal tricks (aka multiplexers ) to restore connections if disconnected (or to purposely disconnect/reconnect on long commands). I used tmux where possible, but occasionally only GNU screen was available, making a summary of features opportune.

After discussing options in choosing a cheap, low-end, learning VPS , we take a look here at how to set it up for secure use, for when you get a so much for so little, you want to make sure it’s only yours!

I purchased my gaming laptop ( .ca ) in a hurry, at a time when many others were buying theirs, and was unable to get all that I wanted. Compromises had to be made. But this past December, I took the plunge and upgraded the memory and the hard drive (which was already quite fast, but a little too small).

I recently had to play a bit with a new installation of Ubuntu and again, old unnerving ghosts came back to haunt me. Since these ghosts have a habit of tormenting indiscriminately, I am sharing my solutions with you.

I recently had difficulties connecting to a cable modem / router combination and since it took me a while to find its default username and password, I decided to share it here.

Now that we know what VOIP is and the hardware and the provider have been chosen, what's left is to do some finer configuration of our service and start VOIP-ing!

Although I have purchased my WRT-610n router (pretty much the same as the newer E3000 ) many months ago, only recently was I forced to install the Linux firmware on it – mostly due to lack of time and procrastinating. This is primarily due to some issues with my Internet connectivity, which I am hoping could be solved with a better router.

When working on the CLI (command line interface) or, as it is widely known, "the prompt", most people prefer to set certain shortcuts as typing the same thing over and over is not something anyone enjoys. In Linux, such shortcuts are called aliases. This is a continuation from choosing and then setting up your first VPS .

After wasting time and intense frustration, I have decided that waiting for videos of photos to upload to online services is not something I want to do from my laptop. I shall thus explore alternatives..

After my RAID-0 has recently failed catastrophically, the time has come to set up another pair of HDDs in my DNS-323. I figured a step-by-step howto on what I've done would not be useful only for me if I had to do it again, but to any other owner of this extremely popular unit. This is a rather long article, as it contains several smaller articles, but it is hopefully complete and suitable for a reinstall, cuz that’s the way I roll.

Ubuntu Linux as a desktop has many advantages, one being that you have more power to do things you need to do. One major disadvantage is that few people know what to do well. I recently started to get random lock-ups and decided to force a filesystem check.

I recently installed 11.10 on an old Toshiba tablet - color me impressed. I was itching to try this new version especially since I just inadvertently blew up the linux 10.10 partition in my old dual boot Toshiba Tablet and rather than fix it I had decided to wait for the new release.

Continuing my SSD saga with windows installation. For what is worth, I have original Windows licenses with COA for all the new computers and laptops I purchased plus I even purchased and additional Windows license from DigitalRiver, as a student, for about $39. Unfortunately, that license was supposed to be for Windows Professional, as I ordered and was instead for Windows Home, which although at the same price point, lacked important functionality. I tried to contact the reseller to get the problem rectified but that was not possible (no response). Needless to say, I’m not as happy as one could be.

BcS is the target of numerous demands and criticism. As no major overhaul is in the books, numerous hacks have mushroomed to respond to its users’ desires. We’ll be looking at: A. Embedding the comment form, B. Numbering comments, C. Show Author Photo in Comments, D. Highlight owner’s comments, E. Recent comments, F. Top commentators, G. Add Reactions

For a long time I’ve been toying with the idea of running a TOR relay for my own privacy reasons and to give back to the community as well. Though my router and NAS (and possibly even my WD Live box) have enough chutzpah to run it, I prefer to use a very old computer instead for reasons of separation (security). For a while, I even considered buying a Raspberry Pi or some other similar cheap gizmo, then I remember I have a bunch of old computers I've never used..

In the previous article on the joys and pitfalls of freeing your Apple portable devices from Steve Jobs technoid BDSM prison, we briefly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of jailbreak. In this article we get a bit more hands-on and look at the actual methods of achieving this. Although just released, iPad has already been jailbroken (see video below) and an announcement will be made about iPhone OS 4.0 soon.

Now that we recovered passwords and we're in, it's time to do a little clean up of this older Win XP / BT5r1 box.

Now that the latest LTS is out, I thought the time is ripe to upgrade.