If he is in his sixties, he is likely to have attended Adisadel College, St. Augustine’s or Achimota. The generation after that went to either Prempeh College or Opoku Ware. If he could not get into OWASS and Prempeh, he would settle for Ahmadiya Kumasi Academy, Konongo Odumasi, or Osei Kyeretwie. The Ashanti man likes the schools in Ashanti. UST before Legon (except Medicine and Law). Cape Coast? Unless he did attend secondary school but went to training college.

There are things Ashanti man does not do. He does not swim, does not like wedding and the wife does not care not having one and won’t call his kids by non ? Ashanti names. He does not cook or wash; the wife does both. The things he does: have about a dozen funeral cloths, goes to funeral every weekend, build or aspire to build his own house if he can afford or uncle does not have any to inherit. Even the educated ones are likely to have a farm somewhere: a cocoa farm, cassava farm or citrus plantation. He takes care of his parents, sister’s children and the extended family. Ashanti man believes in litigation. Don’t cross his path, he will take you to court. He will spend his last cedi on chieftancy matters. His identity is linked to a stool in his family and he does not hesitate to tell you about it.

His political affiliation? A relative likely spent some time in Nkrumah’s Nsawam detention. His family supported National Liberation Movement and United Party. He later joined Progress Party, did not likeKutu Acheampong, supported Victor Owusu’s PFP. Detested PNDC and NDC and yes, is very happy NPP is in power. If he does not call President Kufuor uncle, he seems to know someone that grew up with the President.

He supports Asante Kotoko and hates Hearts of Oaks. He’s even against Hearts when Hearts plays a foreign team. He does not care if Cornerstones move out of the region. He refuses to eat fufu when Kotoko loses. Kotoko means more to him than the national team. Mfum, Osei Kofi, Razak, Opoku Afriyie, and Opoku Nti are his soccer heroes. He does not care about anyone that did not play for Kotoko.

The Ashanti man who did not continue his education past secondary school has lived in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, the US or Canada. He goes to Ghana to visit very often. He tells you how many houses he has built since he left Ghana; he visits “Atwumunumo” ? a popular hangout for fufu and bush meat. He even brings some bush meat back from Ghana to make soup in his Bronx apartment and the soup smells all over the place. In the big cities in Europe and USA, he goes to funerals in his cloth no matter how it is. He is very proud of his culture.

The Ga Man
He was christened Nii Ayi Aryee Aryeetey – no name can be more ultra Ga than that.

Your Ga man, from the standpoint of history falls into one of three categories – those who belong to the sea (James Town, Bukom, Teshie and Chorkor), those who belong to the sand (Nungua, Labadi, Accra City itself), and those who are lost and about (Adangbes, Hausas, Yorubas, Sierra Leoninans etc., born and bred in Accra).

If you are yourself a lady prone to picking quarrels, never fear, for in the Ga man you have found your lifelong bodyguard. At first sight, he tends to be somewhat gentle – that is, until provoked of course. Of all the men in other Ghanaian tribes, the Ga man is the most fearless – moreso after his balls of kenkey and red pepper. But tread softly. Because of their horrible sense of humour, every joke on him is a personal affront to his manhood. And since he applies the same code of honour to women and men, please for heaven`s sake, if he says.. “Ma yi bo eei” (I will beat you), don`t stand to challenge him, thinking it as empty threat. Woman, wife, lover, fiancee, he will turn you into a punching bag! But that is the core of the Ga man.

The icing on the cake is the educated Ga man. He is of a breed you can always count on. For even though he is capable of chewing his sponge to the airport to meet his cousins on the early morning Ghana Airways flight from London, he has gone to Achimota School and speaks the English language well. If he is from James Town (British Accra) and has a surname like Bannerman, Reindorf or Bruce, he has extremely good taste and mannerisms and is worth the ride. That is until a taxi driver crosses him at Bukom junction. Then his spirit of sexual frankness comes out. Expletives of descriptions of the various parts your relatives spew forth in a torrent from his well-trimmed moustache. These insults, too private to mention here, invariably begin with “Onyaeeeeeee………………….”

If Nii Ayi has any ambition, it is suppressed, perhaps for fear of failure. His faith is in the white collar job, where he fights with Fanti man over posts in the civil service. But the Ga man hardly ever gets to the top, because he will surely forgo his transfer related promotion to stay put in Accra – you see, he has the firmest intransplantable roots in Accra and for him Accra is the only place to be.

If you are a young ambitious lady who wants her man to get everything, forget it. Even though they can (with a little training!) make the most docile and obedient companions, his lack of drive will drag you down. But if you are a bit on the lazy, labour-saving side in the kitchen, rush for a Ga man. Not for him the elaborate three course meals – he is more than satisfied with kenkey and kenkey and kenkey, fish and pepper (N.B just vary slightly with sardines, tilapia, corned beef, etc.)

Ah! One problem though, he is already married to his grandfather`s family house! So if Mr. Aryeetey has already started talking about matrimony, ask him where you are going to live after the wedding!

The Brong Man
BA is said to stand for either “bankye akesie” or “brodie akesie” and the eating habits of the Brong man show his belief in the name.

As a kid, school is reserved for his spare time. There are more important things to do like trapping game in the bush or working on his father’s cocoa farm. It must be said though that the Brong man that goes to school tends to go all the way and comes out tops, no half measures. It is understandable if school is not a priority because the prevalent means to wealth in the Brong society has nothing to do with school.

Firstly, there is the big farm belonging to Egya, Bla, Wofa, etc. and then there is Gyaaman. Big bro has been there and back. He wears clothing combinations that in most communities would be reserved for the circus. Not so among his people; he’s revered by his people for his excellent taste in shadda – bright colours with red as a favourite dominate his trousers. Bright yellow, black and green dominate his shirts. Needless to say, all baggy.

In relationships, Brong men are direct, to the point! He lets his lady know exactly what he wants and so you ladies that set store by a bit of romance, you are forewarned. You better speak Twi to him because it’s only with a bit of imagination that his English is decipherable. And you, his lady, are required to speak, read and write English because he will get letters from his sons, nephews and nieces in Gyaaman, to which he has to reply. You can do no wrong if you can produce mountainous-sized fufu with the setting of the sun and as frequently as the sun sets.

A lady who is ambitious for her children is well advised to stay away from the Brong man. He sees no reason why his children can not follow his path through life but he is a proud father indeed if his children somehow manage to be educated and achieve prominence and he lets no one forget his extraordinary efforts.

The Fanti Man
By no fault of his own, the regular Fanti Man has been born with a pre-independence White Man’s name hanging over his head. Some of them love to pretend it’s a burden, (though they love it!) and redeem their nativeness with indigenous first names. Paapa, Fiifi, Yoofi and Kojo are all time favourites. Kweku, Kwesi and other weekday names are also favored.

Kwamena Smith, or Yoofi Van Dyck are examples of such a curious combination. Your potential Fanti Man is pompous and self-opinionated and believes that the biggest offense committed against him is ‘accusing’ him of belonging to another tribe. His answer to a question like “Are you from X town?” invariably is “Of course not! I am Fanti, a Fanti from Dutch Komenda!”

Seeking education, meaning higher education, to the Fanti man is as natural as seeking rain after a long drought. In the days of the ‘Matric’ Exam, they were the Greek and Latin Scholars – leave the Sciences (physics, maths, add. Maths) to others, theirs was the Humanities. Even the Post-Matric Fanti man of the 2000’s still believes that nothing is as good as a University Degree, any degree from Legon or Tech will do – Cape Vars is out. While on Campus, they still behave like they used to in Adisco and Augustines. In nobody else is the old boy feeling deeper than in the Fanti man. This is one of their fewer good points, for they are very loyal to old friends (even when they are down).

This ‘old boy’ streak is carried into the Civil Service, which is the Fanti Man’s mainstay and Principal Secretary in a Ministry or General Manager in a private firm is his ultimate ambition. They are very rarely businessmen and even so their business achievements are commonplace and mediocre. If you’re a lady who believes in wealth and all its trappings, steer clear of the Fanti man because so long as government bungalows exists, the Fanti man will not build a house. When they get around to build a house, like their business acumen, their houses are uninspiring.

Your average Fanti man is stingy, and mean with chop money, even though he enjoys his food. If after reading this article ladies, your heart is still set to get your Fanti man rush into the kitchen and start frying. Fry anything, he’ll love it, as long as it is fried! As the Fanti proverb goes “a Fanti man builds his mansion in his stomach.”

In relationships they are dictators and act like domineering feudal lords. They tend to colonise their women. In appearance, speech and taste, no detail on his woman escapes his attention. Stubborn and authoritative, the Fanti man can be cruel if you so much as change your hairstyle without consulting him. On the plus side, he has a terrific sense of humor and is incredibly cheerful, though he can be petty, quarrelsome and can really sulk.

To know if you are the perfect match for the Fanti man,

1. Did you go to Wesley Girls High School? (Upper Six mind you!)
2. Can you cook very well (and bake pies?)
3. Are you Fanti yourself or at least a Ga lady from British Accra (Chokor is out!)
4. Do you wear hats and gloves to weddings (and enjoy it?)
5. Are you ready for picnics, packed lunches and sandwiches(for afternoon tea?)
6. Can you pretend to be his slave (forever?).

If you couldn’t tick any of the above, please don’t waste the Fanti man’s time, or yours. On the other hand if you do have one in mind, please act accordingly and as they say, book early to avoid disappointment and Good Luck!

The Kwawu Man
THE Kwahu Man has been born with an identity crisis, history links him to the Asante Kingdom and colonization to a region he shares very little with its inhabitants beyond language. Their naming conventions donot help in this since Antwi, Owusu etc.. are so generic as to bestow any sense of uniqueness to anyone. Your potential Kwahu Man will always want a price comparison even when it comes to drugs for the common cold. He wears this tag as a badge of honor and pride. The biggest offense committed against him is to make superfluous purchases like pounds of beef when you could have substituted a pound with eggs. Left overs for the children are encouraged and promoted.

Seeking education, meaning higher education, to the Kw! ahu man is of modern day reality, he can afford the crowd. He does not see any value in Western education beyond seeing it as an insurance policy. He acquires his love for Kantamanto and a store somewhere in Accra is almost a sacred and primodial right. In every facet of the Ghanaian society they are seen as the least threatening amongst the eccentric and ubiquitous.

The Kwahu man has a covert disdain for public service since revenues from this business is not enough, involve him in the thankless and hopeless investment ventures, like building a huge 20 bedroom empty house is also by far the least ambitious when it comes to measuring men on prestigious appointment in government. He sells second hand tyres at Kokompe than take an ambassadorial job.

If you’re a lady who believes in wealth and all its trappings this maybe a risk worth taking, girls of the 90’s need to know that Wiafe is still an old fashioned polygamist at heart, struggling to accept the romantic 1960’s let alone make a pass century. His usual line is “I give you everything why are you complaining?” he just does not get it. If you think this price is too much, then enjoy your marriage through the happiness of your children, this is heaven on earth.

Your average Kwahuman is notoriously stingy, not because he cannot afford anything but he simply sees being at home as an ideological crusade, he abhors fancy eating habits. The purchase of a Mercedes and the building of mansions is like puberty to them and if you have eat but soup 3times a day to accomplish this, thy will be done in Kwaland.

If after reading this article ladies, your heart is still set to get your pseudo ? Ashanti man, less flamboyant and subdued just get your “Dumas” ready and be prepared for a gondola ride in a car to Kwahu mountains. To the Kwahu man Christmas is for the consumers. It helps if you have a Kwahu girlfriend accompanying you because they ! are still the most nepotic and inward looking amongst all the Akans, your girlfriend’s recommendation will be golden. In relationships they are impressionable and act like they have no strong opinions. But will certainly be commissioning a salon appointment and keeping the money, taste, style and such ladylike niceties on her woman escape attention. He has no time for compliments and has no regards for your level of education. He will easily leave her wife for a standard 7 without any regrets, it is that bad. To him the glory is in the houses, the power is in the store if every penny is saved. Amen.

On the plus side, there is a modicum of financial security, and an investment for your children but beyond attending an occasional large donation to the Anglican Church, he is clueless to any other form of entertainment. Take and do not tell me, I did not tell you the heartbreak hotel is fully booked.

Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com

I was reading  an article submitted to slashdot. by Dan Kaminsk It was titled  Taming Conficker the Easy Way. He talked about his work with Honeynet Project members Tillmann Werner and Felix Leder who have been digging into Conficker’s profile on the network. (Co-incidentally I’m currently doing my research on Honeypots/Honeynets ). That is when i started getting really interested in conficker

They published an article called “Know Your Enemy: Containing Conficker” I went trough the article on the 31st of March and found it very educative and Interesting. I would recommend  you take some time to read this article. It’s not too technical and it’s relatively simple to understand if you have little experience with Network. After reading the article i secretly came to admire the skill/knowledge/dedication and sophistication of the programmers who write conficker (I only wish they could channel their skills into something more productive ).  Conficker B even uses MD6 hashing Algorithm!

The couple of days leading up-to 1st April, Most system administrators were busy patching up their systems and making sure that they would be safe or protected when conficker activates itself.  But during this time there were also some System Demonstrators who were “busy”. They were not busy patching their systems, or updating their anti viruses, No they were busy doing other stuff The System Administrators i am talking about are those who use Linux systems on their network.  (I’m sure you can see where this is headed )

Yes I want to say it loud and clear! Conficker A/B/C doesn’t attack Linux systems! Conficker effects the MS08-067 vulnerability. (Yes the M stands for Microsoft ). So as you can see, once again Linux Rules the day!! I Therefore highly recommend that you try out any flavour of Linux and see. And don’t believe what others tell you about Linux being hard to use  and not user friendly. I have been using it for years now and believe me, It’s easier to use than windows once u get the hang of it. I personally recommend Ubuntu because of the good community support you get if you have any problems .  (Remember Conficker strains are still out there so switch to Linux soon )

Till then Stay Open Source

I’m an an avid user of Google and it’s other services. So i decided to blog about this year’s April Fools Prank by Google.  The last Google April Fools day prank i fell for was Gmail Paper

Google April 1,  2009 ‘Releases’

Youtube

New Viewing Experience for Youtube Users

Google Chrome

Now you can view Google Chrome with 3D

CADIE

CADIE-Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity  You can get more information Here,

gBall

A Prototype Ball to be used with Australian Premier League

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%27s_hoaxes

So here are the steps for installing Google Chromium on Ubuntu.

1. Add the necessary repositories to your sources.lst
Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

2. Now Update your repositories using the following command

sudo apt-get update
3. Now install The Almighty Chromium

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Here are a couple of  screenshots showing Google Chromium  running on my Ubuntu 8.10

Google Chromium On ubuntu

and..

Google Chromium on Ubuntu

i came across this from another website & i liked it so much. I hope you also find the commands cool

1. watch terminal star wars

To start this article off right, no Linux user can claim the status of geekhood unless they’ve seen Star Wars ASCII-style. To watch a fascinating version of Star Wars via the Terminal, type:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

…and press ENTER.

2. kill a process

It’s an embarrassing situation to have a browser fail to open due to the “process is already running” error, only to discover you’ve no idea how to kill that process (or any others, for that matter). To kill a process, open the Terminal and type:

ps aux

…and scroll through until you find the process you need to kill. The beginning of the data line will have a process ID number. Locate that number and type:

sudo kill -9 processID

…replacing processID with the actual number. Voila! Process terminated.

3. View Latest Log Messages

What to see the latest log messages? Type:

tail -f /var/log/messages

4. disable system beep

Linux insists on beeping at you; this isn’t just any beep, however–it is a system beep, impervious to the mute button on your computer. If the startling, abrupt sound is like nails raking over a chalkboard to you, then this trick will let you kill that little beep forever.

Type:

sudo rmmod pcspkr

…and enjoy the silence.

5. rip dvd

While your friends, trapped in the infernal shareware trap that is Windows, grapple for an easy way to rip their DVDs, all you need is one tidbit of code. Insert the disc into your optical drive, then open the Terminal and type:

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/cdrom_image.iso

…the disc will be saved as an ISO.

6. mount iso files

Lets say you’ve acquired a program’s ISO and lack an optical drive (or a black DVD-R); how shall you run it? By mounting it in a ‘virtual disc drive’ of sorts. To mount as ISO, open the Terminal and type:

mkdir /mnt/iso

…to make a directory for it, and then:

mount NAME.iso /mnt/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop

7. Monitor Non-SSH Network Traffic

A good pass time when bored and a better way to see what is happening on the network, type:

tcpdump not port 22

8. encrypt files

If you keep any sort of sensitive data on your machine, encryption is your best chance at keeping data pickers from sneaking around your files and perusing the forbidden info. If you’re running Ubuntu, you can just right-click a file and choose ‘Encrypt File’. If you’d like a different option, install GnuPG. Once it’s installed, open the terminal and type:

gpg -c filename.doc

…after which you will be prompted with:

Enter passphrase:

Repeat passphrase:

…choose a password you will remember, as you can’t recover it. To decrypt a password, enter:

gpg filename.doc.gpg

…you’ll be prompted to enter the password you chose and open the decrypted file.

9. filter websites

So your kid brother or new guest or workers are visiting certain websites you don’t want them to access. How do you block these sites? Open the Terminal and type:

gedit /etc/hosts

…replacing gedit with your favorite text editor. A file will open. In that file, add:

127.0.0.1 website.com

…replacing website.com with the actual website name, and they won’t be able to access that website.

10. Download a Website

You might find a website so good you just have to save it to a hard drive. Other times, you might need to archive a website before it goes under and find it easiest to download the entire site at once. To do this with the Terminal, type:

wget http://www.website.com/

…. to download it all.

11. log off other users

Is someone on your network doing something they shouldn’t? How would you like to bump them off the system without them knowing? To do this, open the Terminal and type:

skill -kill -u username

…replacing username with the actual system you want to shut down. This will only shut down their programs and then log them off, but it’s enough to get the point across.

12. run multiple x servers

Running multiple X servers allows you to run your own graphical interface when you’re using the computer, and allows a different user to run their own interface when using the computer. To accomplish this task is a bit more involved then this article wishes to cover. To view an excellent, in-depth tutorial on accomplishing this, visit:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=213756

13. Compile Source Code

At some point, you’re going to need to install something that isn’t compiled. You need to know how to install this, and it’s not as hard as it seems. This method should work; there are times that it won’t, however, as compiling code can be a time-waster.

Start by downloading the tar.gz and saving it to your desktop. Open the terminal and run:

tar xvzf program.tar.gz

…this will unpack the archive. Now CD to the desktop by typing:

cd desktop

…then enter:

./configure

…then:

make

…and finally:

make install

…to install the program onto your computer.

14. Sniff Your Wifi

Maybe it’s curiosity, or maybe you have a real need, but either way, it’s useful to be able to ’sniff’ your wifi; i.e, analyzing use, detecting networks, and detecting intrusions. There are a few different types of sniffers available, but the most popular one is Kismet. To install it, run:

sudo apt-get install kismet

…or the equivalent installation syntax for your distro. You’ll find the program in your Internet menu.

15. Monitor Live Data

This command will be enough to entrance any geek for hours. With this, you can monitor real-time shifting data on your system via the Terminal:

watch -n.1 ‘cat /proc/interrupts’

16. Blocking Ads

Do you ever get tired of seeing Google ads, particularly adsense? Some users try to mix the adsense in with actual links to maximize clicks, which can make it difficult to navigate a website. Other common ads come from DoubleClick, etc. If you want to block those ads from working, you can do so by entering the following:

gedit /etc/hosts

…and adding:

127.0.0.1 http://www.doubleclick.net/

….and any other sites you don’t want to work.

17. Block IP Addresses

If you’re running a server and having issues with a particular user, you can block that users IP address using IPtables. To install iptables, run:

sudo apt-get install iptables

…or whatever the equivalent is for your distro. Once installed, you can block an IP address by running:

iptables -A INPUT -s IPADDRESS -j DROP

…replacing ipaddress with the actual address.

18. Create a Ramdisk

Just the mention of a ramdisk might make your geek senses tingle. If you’re in need of super fast read speeds, you can make a ramdisk easily using this command:

mkdir/ ramdisk

mount none -t tmpfs -o size=128M /ramdisk

….to make a ramdisk that is 128MB in size. To make a different size, enter a different value.

19. hide your ip address

We won’t speculate on the reason you may want to hide your IP address, but it’s something every geek needs to do at one point or another. There are a few methods to do this, but by far the best and easiest method is using the wonderful onion-routing system that is Tor.

To install Tor, go to TORPROJECT.ORG and download the version for your distro. Install it according to your distro, then repeat the process with Privoxy

Now, I’m going to add the instructions straight from the Tor Project website so there’s no confusion on what to do next (as a mistake could mean your IP is still visible):

“Open Privoxy’s “config” file (look in /etc/privoxy/ or /usr/local/etc/) and add the line forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 . to the top of the config file. Don’t forget to add the dot at the end.

Privoxy keeps a log file of everything passed through it. In order to stop this you will need to comment out three lines by inserting a # before the line. The three lines are:

logfile logfile

and the line

jarfile jarfile

and (on some systems) the line

debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request

Depending on which default config file you have for Privoxy, you may also need to turn off enable-remote-toggle, enable-remote-http-toggle, and enable-edit-actions. You’ll need to restart Privoxy for the changes to take effect.”

Finally, install the Torbutton add-on in Firefox so you can toggle Tor on an off in the bottom right corner of the browser.

20 Watch System Logs

If you’re trying to get a device running or program working but something is going bonkers, it might be in your best interest to watch the system logs and see what’s being reported. To do this, type:

tail -f /var/log/messages

21. check system uptime

If you need to know how long your machine has been running, a simple system uptime command will give you that info, along with users and a few other tidbits of info. To check system uptime on Linux, open the Terminal and type:

uptime

…yep, it really is that easy.

22. start a geeky fire

If creative art-types curl up in front of a roaring fire for inspiration, where do left-brain geeky types go to get the creative juices flowing? How about a roaring ascii fire in the Terminal? To get the fire blazing, type

sudo apt-get install libaa-bin

…and to run the fire, type:

aafire

…in the terminal.

23. automatic backup

Automatic backups allow you to make sure your files are always backed up and safe from sudden loss or accidental deletion. The goal with backups is to be able to select files and have then update regularly. The method to do this is too involved for this article, so visit this excellent link to learn how: http://linuxgazette.net/104/odonovan.html

24. Check Processes Others are Running

In the same vein as terminating a process, why not check up on what other’s are running? To take a peek at your computer-mates running apps, open the Terminal and type:

ps aux | grep – v `whoami`

…and while you’re at it, why not kill the process free up some CPU?

25. Launch a Program from Terminal

After manually installing an app, you might discover that the pesky little program disappeared; no matter what you do or where you look, it seems impossible to add it to the system menu. For just such a time, you’ll need to know how to run a program using the Terminal. Type:

appname

…replacing appname with the name of the actual program you wish to launch. Note that when you launch an app via this method, the Terminal must remain open for the app to keep running.

26. Fix a Screwed-up Terminal

If you play around in the Terminal long enough, you’re bound to screw it up at some point. You’ll know when it’s borked–it starts beeping at you and spewing around random phrases like Uncle Sal after a kegger or two. To correct said problem, type:

reset

…and watch serenity overcome the chaos.

27. Unmount a Drive in Use

Have you ever tried unmount a drive, only to have an error tell you that some mysterious program you neither see nor remember starting is using said drive? The solution is to kill that process so the drive can be unmounted. How do you find out which process is tying up the drive? With this piece of Terminal code

lsof +D /mnt/windows

…and it’ll not only tell you what program is using the drive, but will also give you it’s process ID. Use the kill process tip above to terminate this process and safety unmount your drive.

28. Clear Personal Data upon Logout

When you logout, you want all traces of your activities to be cleared from the computer. Most distros will do this all their own, but if you’re running a particularly finicky system, you might have to manually add that feature. To make the computer clear remnants of your last foray on the system, open the Terminal and type the following:

gedit ~/.bash_logout

…replacing gedit with ‘kate’ or whatever your favorite text editor is. When the text file opens, add:

clear

…and hit Ctrl+s to save; if your distro allows it (ahem, Ubuntu), use clear_console instead..

29. Prevent SSH Root Login

You don’t want an unauthorized someone to log into your sever as a root user, which gives the full breadth of destructive powers to them. To prevent that, change the settings so that root login is impossible. To do this, open Terminal and type:

gedit /etc/ssh/ssh_config

…and add:

PermitRootLogin no

…to the text file that opens, preventing users from logging in as the all-powerful root user.

30. Find Old Commands

Looking for an old command you ran that you can only vaguely remember? To find it, you use this query in the Terminal:

history | grep -i “keywords”

…where keywords is the parts of the command you remember. It will search and display all previously run commands with those keywords and show you an ID number. To rerun that command without typing it again, you can type

! IDnumber

31. Erase all data traces

If you’re planning to delete something sensitive, such as a file or photo, and don’t want any traces of that data to remain on your hard drive, you want to use this command. Be very careful!

shred -z -u file

…will write over whatever file you point it to with different data a few times before deleting it forever.

32. Speed Up the Gnome Menu

If you’re a blazing fast type of person, you probably find Gnome’s menu delay more frustrating than stylish. If you want to rid yourself of that delay, type this into the Terminal:

gedit ~/.gtkrc-2.0

…replacing gedit with your favorite text editor. In the file that opens, add this text:

gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0

…save the file.

33. Restarting When Frozen

Sometimes your system will just freeze. When that happens, you’re left with the option of waiting it out or resetting. How do you reset without do damage to your data? Simple.

Press ALT + Sys Rq and, while holding those buttons down, type: REISUB. The system will restart safely.

34. Disabling Touchpad

How many times have you been playing a game, only to graze the laptops touchpad and have it mess something up? The solution is to disable it’s function. To do that, refer to this detailed tutorial on disabling the touchpad in Linux.

35. Backup Your System

Backing up your system is the ultimate way to be prepared for a system crash. To do so, follow these steps:

Run Terminal as root.

type: cd /

tar cvpzf backup.tgz –exclude=/proc –exclude=/lost+found –exclude=/backup.tgz –exclude=/mnt –exclude=/sys /

This will create an archive of your system. Be sure you have enough hard drive space to handle it.

36. Customize the Terminal

If you spend most of your time in the Terminal, then it’s only fitting to customize it to meet your needs. There are many different ways to change the Terminal’s look–too many to list here. To see the dozens of options available to you, as well as how to apply them, hit up this link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=674446

37. Ejecting CD/DVD Drive

Sometimes you’ll push the button on the DVD drive and nothing will happen. For those times, there’s a simple way to get it to open. In the Terminal, type

eject

…and it will pop open.

38. Collaborating Between Screens

Lets say you have two Linux users in the same space but different rooms. You want to show one person how to do something, but you don’t want to get up. How do you solve this dilemma? By collaborating the screen. This method will allow you to both see the same screen and see the actions each other do on it.

su – username

…where username is the username of the machine whose screen you want to see…

ssh machine

…replacing machine with the name of whatever computer the other person is on….

screen -S foo

…both of you type this into your own machines and voila! You’re both now sharing the same screen.

39. Examine the CPU

Are you in need of detailed info about your CPU? Then use this code:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

…and you’ll get a whole slew of info

40. Stopwatch

Every need to time something on the fly and happen to lack a watch? No worries!

time cat

…and press control+d to stop the timer.

41. Schedule a Download for the Middle of the Night

Sometimes you want to download something that is large and will take quite a time. The best time to do this is the middle of the night (or while you’re away). To schedule a download for a certain time, type this:

echo ‘wget url’ | at 01:00

…changing URL to the actual web address and the time to whatever (24-hour clock).

42. View Available Wifi

Do you want a quick and simple list of available wifi networks, as well as a whole slew of info about them? If so, type:

iwlist scan

43. Find Website IP Address

School and work proxies often block websites but not IP addresses–you can access a banned address by entering that websites IP address instead of it’s normal .com address. Some places ban the popular sites that allow you to lookup a websites IP address, but you don’t need them. To find out a website’s IP address, type:

whois website.com

44. Terminal Three-month Calendar

If you’re running a bare-bones window manager, such as blackbox, the fastest way to see a calendar is with the terminal. To see this, type:

cal -3

…and it will display a three month calendar.

45. HTML to Text Conversion

Do you want to quickly turn a text file into an HTML file? Use:

recode ..HTML < file.txt > file.html

46. Rip Music CD to WAV

What fun is working on the computer without a little music? While your friends are busy searching for a decent music ripping program, you can copy an audio cd to WAV files using this simple command:

cdparanoia -B

47. Find the Biggest CPU Hog

Is a certain process running your CPU right into the ground? How do you find said process without picking your way through the ps aux results? With this command:

ps -e -o pcpu,cpu,nice,state,cputime,args –sort pcpu | sed ‘/^ 0.0 /d’

…at which point you can kill it with sudo kill -9.

48. Reboot History

If you need to see your current machines reboot history, type:

last reboot

49. Battery Checkup

Is your computer battery lasting less and less every week? Check the charge capabilities of your battery by typing:

grep -F capacity: /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info

50. All the Little Filesystems

Particularly useful if you’re mounting different drives, using the following command will allow you to see all the filesystems currently mounted on your computer and their respective specs:

mount | column -t

Source : http://laptoplogic.com/resources/50-ways-to-impress-your-geeky-linux-friends

This demo — from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” This Video will Leave you stunned!! and of course Dazzled!

Honestly i hope somehow it ends up being open source or at least something in that area.

Seth & Arun (Mozilla) @ GNUnify 09

The just ended GNUnify will always be a memorable one. This year we had the great opportunity of having members from Mozilla coming for the event. We had Seth Bindernagel, Director of Localization and Arun Ranganathan, a Standards Evangelist giving talks during the event.

Seth held a session on Localization and introduced Silme ( a python localization library that has been structured in a multi-abstract level model) and Arun talked about the Open Web and showed  demos on (SVG, CSS, CSS+SVG, with Video bringing it all home). He also showed  Bespin.

I want to thank Mary colvig in a special way for arranging these speakers for us. and also sending cool Firefox T-shirts and LOTS of swag!. Mary has been involved with GNUnify for 2 years now and she’s really helped in making every years GNUnify better and better!

Thanks & Stay Open Source

Currently i am doing some research work on Honeypots. This is part of my internship course for my masters. It’s based on a computing technology called Honeypots. Honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network but which is actually isolated, (un)protected, and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource that would be of value to attackers. 1

There will be basically two Scenarios

Scenario 1: I will be initially setting up a controlled environment with 3 attacking systems and a honeypot.  Then i would try to simulate some attacks on the honeypot from the client systems. This will help me in knowing how the honeypot saves/records all the attacks/activities in it’s log files. Based on the types of attacks i launch and the corresponding log files generated i can be able to analyze them to see the pattern associated with an attack and it’s corresponding log files generated.

Scenario 2: In this scenario, i will release the honeypot into the wild (SICSR WiFi network).. and regularly monitor it and see how it “interacts”  with the network. You can check out this network diagram to get a clearer picture  network diagram

Presently  I am still in scenario 1. I will be setting up the honeypots using Open source software. The Operating System of my choice is obviously Ubuntu and the Honeypot software i will be using is Honeyd . I will keep you updated as my work progresses.

For more information on Honeypots you can check out these links.

1. http://www.spitzner.net/honeypots.html

2. http://www.tracking-hackers.com/

3. http://www.honeypots.net/

4. http://www.rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=210

5. http://project.honeynet.org/

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO: Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE: Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR: When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.

FIVE: When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye!

SIX: Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN: Spend some time alone.

EIGHT: Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.

NINE: Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.

TEN: In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN: Don’t judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE: Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN: When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’

FOURTEEN: Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN: Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN: When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN: Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility! for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN: Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN: When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY: Smile when picking up the phone.  The caller will hear it in your voice.

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

Steve Jobs at Stanford Commencement '05

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Source: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html