2002 May

Destination Linux
http://www.destinationlinux.com/home.php
Destination Linux is a portal site with useful information and links for Linux users of all levels. I particularly liked the “Fun Stuff” section with links to free training, jokes and comics, and tips and tricks. The site also contains editorials, Linux business news, software reviews, and a link to Linux careers. All in [...]

Blackhole Spam/Virus Filter [261 Kb]
http://the.groovy.org/source/BlackHole.tar.gz
http://the.groovy.org/blackhole.shtml
“Blackhole Spam/Virus Filter provides spam and virus filtering using dot-files in all the major MTA/SMTP servers for UNIX and similar systems. It is easy for an individual user to set it up with shell account access and configure. It is different from other, similar programs, in that it executes a [...]

The Dictionary
One of the useful core functions of Linux is the dictionary file. It’s a system file that contains common words in the install language. The system dictionary is used by aspell and ispell, among others, to check your spelling when composing a document.
You can check for specific words in you system dictionary in a [...]

Checking Logins
It’s always a concern, when you’ve got an open pipe to the ‘net, as to who’s trying to access your machine. It’s good to take a look at logins periodically, just so you’re aware of any unusual attempted or successful logins to your system.
Today’s tweak is a quick script that checks logins on your [...]

  05.29.2002 PenguinREPORT

I have to say that for all my love of computing, there’s still nothing in life quite like the sound of an 1100 cc engine firing off for the first time in nearly seven months. It’s not so much the sound as the promise - a promise of wind and speed and the [...]

EuroLinux
http://www.linux.eu.org/
EuroLinux aims to be at ” … the crossroads of European Linux users.” The site contains an exhaustive list of Linux User Groups (LUGs) on the continent, as well as a link to the mother of all Linux user groups, the EULUG. Some of the LUG links are a bit out of date, though that’s [...]

Easy Firewall Generator
http://morizot.net/firewall/downloads/iptables-fwgen-1.03.tar.gz
http://morizot.net/firewall/
“Easy Firewall Generator is a PHP Web application that generates an iptables firewall script. The generated script is designed for a single system connected to the Internet or a system acting as a gateway/firewall for a small private network. The generator prompts recursively for a variety of options. When the selected options form [...]

Renaming Multiple Files
Linux is chock full of useful tools for file manipulation. These are core programs, available in nearly all Linux distributions. Editing and renaming files are core functions, after all, in any operating system. These tools are very valuable for getting the most work done with the fewest keystrokes - read “they save time.”
I [...]

XF86Config - Part IV
Finally, we’re winding down with the XF86Config series. By now, you should know all you need to know to configure you X server in a way that’s perfect for your hardware and your personal tastes.
We’ll close this series with a quick look at the latest in X Window configuration - XF86Config-4. This [...]

  05.28.2002 PenguinREPORT

Welcome back to the world. I hope your Memorial Day weekend was good. Mine was bit longer than anticipated, but we’re back with a vengeance and back on track with Penguin Shell.
I spent much of the weekend configuring Apache, PHP and MySQL after an old 40-gig hard drive failed on my machine at [...]

Laugh Along With GNU
http://www.gnu.org/fun/humor.html
We haven’t turned up the Linux humor for awile, and Fridays are a great time to do just that. Laugh Along With GNU collects the funniest Unix/Linux humor into one great links page. These humourous pieces include rewrites of man pages, bogus emails and press releases, and just plain funny jokes related [...]

Airtraffic [25 Kb]
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/airtraffic/airtraffic-0.3.3.tar.gz
http://airtraffic.sourceforge.net/
“Airtraffic is a game/simulator that puts you into an air traffic controller’s hotseat. Planes come into your airspace from various directions and you have to guide them safely to their destinations. It uses Python, Corba, and GTK.”

Sorting Text Files
The sort function in Linux can be very useful, though you might not think of using it without some prompting. That’s what Penguin Shell is all about.
I use sort hourly on my machine, via a cron job. What could possibly need sorting hourly? As you’ll recall (and as many of you have seen [...]

XF86Config - Part XIII
We’re moving on today from the Device section to the Screen section of XF86Config. There are still some possible subsections in XF86Config that we haven’t covered, but they’ve become irrelevant over the past few XFree86 versions. Such items as POSBase, COPBase and VGABase are rarely required for the proper operation of your [...]

  05.17.2002 PenguinREPORT

It’s a good time of year in Iowa. The weather is finally settling on something that resembles spring - temperatures in the 60s and 70s during the days. The morning’s dreadful cloud cover has blown off leaving an irridescent blue sky that promises to hold throughout the weekend.
If you’re an old hand at [...]

Linux Center
http://www.portalux.com/
The Linux Center is a portal site with hundreds of links to other Linux-related sites and information. It’s very well-organized, breaking out the main index into such categories as Applications, System, Politics, and Distributions. I found the Politics category especially interesting, with subcategories for Anti-Monopolies site, People and The Open Source Model. The Linux [...]

gPal [114 Kb]
http://www.atoker.com/gpal/files/gpal-0.92-1.i386.rpm
http://www.atoker.com/gpal/
“gPal is a friendly GUI frontend for the PayPal micropayment service allowing users to check their balance, send money, and make requests for money to and from other PayPal users. It uses SSL encryption to ensure the security of transactions.”

Dumps
As you spend more time in Linux, you’re invariably going to encounter a core dump. It happens for any number of reasons, of which the most common is a poorly-written program. If you’re a programmer, you probably already run into more than you care to count. Dumps, regardless of the reasons they occur, are a [...]

XF86Config - Part XII
Today, we’re continuing our look at the Device section of XF86Config. Bear in mind when reading today’s installment that many of the subsections described are special-use cases, rarely needed for the common user or common hardware. But, I promised you a thorough look at the XF86Config file, so we’ll mention these subsections [...]

  05.16.2002 PenguinREPORT

It’s been great to see the release of new Linux versions over the past few weeks. Whether you use their products or not, the commitment of Suse, Mandrake, and RedHat to continued inprovements in Linux. The OS that Linus created for fun continues to improve in many ways, providing powerful tools, solving complex [...]