Ubuntu desktop colour switching behind a transparent wallpaper.

A fun little idea I had when I saw a transparent background on deviant art: Why not auto-rotate colours behind a transparent background? I am certain the idea is not original but I wanted to work out how to do it. Here it is:

gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/primary_color orange;

So far most common colours work: {red, blue, white, orange, grey, green, yellow, purple}

Enable a transparent wallpaper.

Here is the result:

SSH peeping through the little cracks in the Great Firewall

One of the HPAMakers has gone to China for a couple of months. We don't tolerate internet filtering. In fact we hate it- they even block facebook :'(

So we decided to help him peep through the cracks of the great firewall. We tried Tor onion router. No go. We tried PHP proxies. No go. etc...

I lost patience at this point and gave him a locked down SSH account on our server and we just tunneled the web and IM traffic through it so he could enjoy tasty unfiltered internet just like they make it back home.

Server: Ubuntu Lucid OpenSSH

Client: Windows XP, putty + firefox portable

Here is a guide that should show you how get the same system working: howto

1. The basic idea was to setup a local SOCKSv5 proxy from putty(tunnels menu), settings: port 7071, dynamic, auto

Since we chose port 7071 so the proxy will run on the client as: 127.0.0.1:7071.

When the SSH connection is made serverip:port, the tunnels are created dynamically and hey presto we have unfiltered internet. Speedtest from lhopki01's end indicates he is getting about

2. Then tell firefox et al. to use proxy server 127.0.0.1 and port 7071.

Then you think: hey great I am done. This all makes sense I can get blocked pages up woohoo. Then you realise that the Chinese govenment have been poisoning and changing DNS records. So you shout: what the f^&"*"£ hell are they playing at!?!

Then you take the final step to make sure the DNS lookups happen back home too: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20100121_how_to_access_twitter_and_facebo

ok_in_china.htm

3. In Firefox, enter "about:config" into the address bar (Yes, it is a strange URL, just in the location where you typically would enter http://....) After click "I'll be careful. I promise" button, you will see a long list of configuration options started with Filter input box.

Enter "network.proxy.socks_remote_dns" (without quotation marks) into the Filter input box, and you will see a line with network.proxy.socks_remote_dns as Preference Name appears. Double click it so the Value field changes from False to True (and you will also notice the line becomes bold).

[Linux] Do you Ubuntu? LiveCD Howto

Ubuntu has grown from strength to strength over the years and linux is fast becoming, if not already, a viable alternative to windows or mac for the average user.

How do you spend most of your time on the computer?
89% Facebook/Social Media, 7% Email/Chat, 3.7% Browsing and 0.3% Excel/Word/Powerpoint... Linux can do that.

Tinkerers should not be Linux haters.
Hack away! Just don't fail. That having been said, if you like to hack and tinker then your Linux system is going to need some extra love when you have borked it. Hackers and tinkerers you have been warned- no names *cough* Ro, Kal, Phil.

Linux?
If you are interested in Linux but have not yet given it a go then now might be a good time to head on over to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and have a look.

Live CD
The live cd feature boots Ubuntu on your laptop or desktop without having to install over your current OS.

1. Following steps 1&2 on this page to download and burn linux to disc:http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2. Ensure BIOS is set to boot from CD as the first entry otherwise the CD will not be checked before your OS is booted.
3. Insert the disc and on the ubuntu boot menu, select "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".
4. Enjoy.
Note: Although a LiveCD session is a good way to demo Ubuntu without making changes to a machine, a LiveCD will always be slower than a proper installion that runs directly from a hard-drive (because a CD will always be physically slower than a hard drive). LiveCD sessions are good for:
-a quick 'demo' on a machine before installing/upgrading Ubuntu
-checking if the hardware works as expected
-seeing if you like the look & feel of the distro

More info on LiveCD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Summary

Pro's
------
Linux is far more secure than windows.
Linux is free: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download/

Con's
------
It needs a little bit of love to get going properly but then so do all computers.

Any questions or comments? Give me a shout.
Sam

The good old days

A picture from the good old days! I hope to be reusing some of these computers to create some dedicated onion routers, file servers, ssh tunnels, webservers etc. Don't worry, I will put Linux on them. I would not trust XP to run as a server. Ubuntu all the way for those that can, and those that can't will take xubuntu or equiv low-spec OS. TBH it might be a case of: the processing power is not worth the electrical power the PC is consuming. So maybe I should content myself to have lots of large metal doorstops instead?
I also need a serial interface electrical switch / relay / control unit so I can bring my 32 port netgear router or a smaller 5 port one online when I need it (or for that matter anything else that plugs into the mains). I wonder if there is already a standard interface for doing such things. If I am not satisfied with what I find, I will make one from scratch as a project.
Back to the servers, I hope to be able to employ WOL magic packets to use the 'Wake on Lan' capabilities of the NICs (Lan Cards) to bring the computers online as and when I need them (to save some more power).