Ubuntu n00b? Here's A Free Ubuntu Pocket Guide!

A lot of you out there subscribe to Bauer-Power because you are fellow Ubuntu users, and like hearing about cool Ubuntu tips, tricks, and other geeky Linux goodness. Many of you are Linux n00bs, and that is okay. You have to start somewhere right?

For those of you just dipping your big toes into the big Linuxy pond of Ubuntu there are lots of cool, free resources available online to help you learn the ways of Ubuntu. Just like Bauer-Power, there are other groups that strive to help out Linux n00bs.

One such guy went above and beyond in my opinion. A man by the name of Keir Thomas wrote a pocket guide for Ubuntu, and made it freely available for download online! The book is called "Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference."

Here is a direct download link: (UPG&R Download)

For those of you who prefer not to download PDF's, and would rather just purchase a book, the book is also available to purchase for the nominal price of $11.99 here: (Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference Purchase)

Seriously though, how cool is that? How many free manuals are there for Windows? I may be wrong, but there probably aren't any (If there are let me know in the comments). Know of any other free linux manuals for say, Gentoo, Fedora, Suse etc? Let us know in the comments!


Technorati Tags: free, ubuntu, pocket, guide, reference, download

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Is Your ISP Throttling Down Your BitTorrent Traffic?

If there is one thing I hate it is ISP's telling me what I can and can't do online! WTF? Who the hell do they think they are? What ever happened to net neutrality? I pay for something, and I expect a certain level of service with that. That service better not include restricting whatever it is I want to do with said service.

Well, a lot of ISP's think that it is their job to police your network traffic. That includes limiting your bandwidth while downloading BitTorrents, using P2P networks etc. Once again, to that I say WTF!?!?

A group called Glastnost feels the same way, and in an effort to fight back they are offering a free online test to see if your ISP is limiting your BitTorrent downloads. Here is a description from their page:

Certain ISPs have been shown to rate limit or block BitTorrent traffic sent by their customers. While there are multiple reports of this on the web, only a few ISPs have admitted that they manipulate BitTorrent traffic. And, to date, it is hard for users without networking expertise to gain evidence about the behavior of their ISP.

This test suite creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic. This is a first step towards making traffic manipulation by ISPs more transparent to their customers.

I just did ran the test and lucky for me there were no indications that my ISP was manipulating my traffic at all (Whew). That doesn't mean yours isn't. Comcast has been all over the news for doing this. If you are a Comcast user, you may want to run this test, and if they are throttling you, you may want to switch to a different service.

I want to know what your ISP's are up to. Let me know in the comments if your ISP is throttling you down, and also let me know which company you are with. I am curious to see which companies we should stay away from.

Technorati Tags: isp, bittorrent, bit torrent, throttling, manipulating, blocking, glasnost

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Can You Control Your Car With an iPod?

I subscribe to a lot of IPTV shows through my Tivo. I love them! They are so informative, and you learn about things you wouldn’t otherwise have heard of through standard media channels. I suppose that is why you all visit me on Bauer-Power right?

Tonight I was watching one of those IPTV shows (GeekBrief.tv) and they mentioned a guy who hooked up a Linux powered operating system to his Mazda RX-8, and can now control many aspects of his car with his mutha friggin’ iPhone!

Here are some of the features of his geeky car mod:

• OBD-II interface
• 3G mobile broadband
• Ignition manager
• Wifi
• GPS
• RFID reader
• iPod Touch / iPhone / 3G cellphone control

Check out the video from this geeked out RX-8’s owner:

 

You can read more details about this geeky RX-8 project here: (Jon’s RX-8 Project)

If you want to try doing something cool like this with your ride, check out the Wiki over at GeekMyRide.org for more projects like this one, and how to get started on geeking out your ride!

Technorati Tags: geek,cars,linux,modify,control,ipod

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Creating Simple Animated GIF Images Using The Gimp

Yesterday I was hanging out with my downstairs neighbor when we got to talking about the movie Tropic Thunder, and of course the conversation turned to Tom Cruise's awesome dance at the end of the movie. You know the dance, where his character, Les Grossman, busts a move or two to some Ludacris.

I decided I had to rip that dance seen so I could make an animated GIF of it. On Windows, I usually use Beneton Movie Gif, but I had to do it using my Bauer-Puntu laptop. What program will make animated GIF images on Linux? The Gimp of course! Actually, The Gimp can do it in Windows too, but that is neither here nor there...

Anyway, creating animated GIFs in The Gimp is pretty easy, just do the following:

1. Get the images you want to animate in a single folder for easy importing.
2. Open The Gimp
3. Click File > Open As Layers then browse to the folder where your images are located.
4. Select the first picture, then press CNTRL+A to select them all, then click OK.
5. The pictures will all open as layers.
6. Click Filters > Animation > Optimize for GIF to save space
   
7. Now click File > Save As and save it as a gif, then export it as animation.
   
8. You will be prompted to set the timing at this point, select whatever you think is appropriate
9. BAM! You are done!

NOTE: If you want a different timing for a particular frame, you will need to change Miliseconds number in the layer name to whatever number you want. For example, if you you will have to change your layer from "File_Name.jpg (100ms)" to "File_Name.jpg (500ms)".

Here is my Tropic Thunder animated Gif:

(Best Viewed in Firefox)

I love me some animated GIFs! I want to see what you have created! Post me some links to your animated GIF work in the comments!

Technorati Tags: animated gif, the gimp, how-to, tom cruise, tropic thunder

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Yet Another Defrag Utility!

Here at Bauer-Power we believe in keeping machines running at peak performance. At the forefront of peak performance, in Windows anyway, is keeping your hard drive defragmented. Think about a fragmented hard drive like your desk at work. When everything is nice, neat, and in the right place it is easy to find what you are looking for right? When your desk is messy, with random junk scattered around it makes things harder to find.

The same goes with hard drives. When your hard drive is heavily fragmented, it is like that messy desk. It takes a few extra seconds to find all of the missing parts to each file you want to work with. When everything is nicely defragmented. Everything is put away in nice orderly blocks, and it takes less time to find everything the computer needs to run.

We have recommended a few defraggers in the past. Namely Dirms, JKDefrag, and Defraggler. So what's one more right? I heard about this new one on Tekzilla. It is called Smart Defrag. Here is a brief description from IObit, the makers of Smart Defrag:

Disk fragmentation is generally main cause of slow and unstable computer performance. Smart Defrag helps defragment your hard drive most efficiently. Smart Defrag not only defragments computer deeply but optimizes disk performance. With 'install it and forget it' feature, Smart Defrag works automatically and quietly in the background on your PC, keeping your hard disk running at its speediest. Smart Defrag is completely free for home, organization, and business.

Smart Defrag works on all versions of Windows including all server editions. This is good news, because keeping your servers running smoothly is just as, if not more important than keeping your workstations running smoothly. Also, server disk defragmenters can be expensive. Why not save a few extra bucks with this and put it to better use.... like upgrading RAM ;-P

What defragmenters do you use? Do you tend to stick to the built in defrag utility? Would you trust a free defrag utility on production servers? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: defrag, scheduled, free, server, windows, smart

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Using Technology To Inform Friends and Family of a New Baby

Hello everyone out there on the interweb! I come to you today with some really fantastic news! I became a father once again on Monday March 30th at 4:40pm Pacific to a healthy baby boy!

If you have been following me on Twitter, you probably noticed that I was able to keep everyone I knew up-to-date with almost play-by-play up to the minute reporting using all of my social network accounts. I was also able to do that at the same time!

Some of you out there may be familiar with this awesome service already, but if not let me enlighten you! I signed up for a Ping.fm account a while back, but never really started using it until recently. I didn’t start really using it until I realized that plenty of Twitter clients have Ping.fm built in!

The client I mainly use now days is Twhirl, and yes it has Ping.fm functionality built in. “So What?” you are probably asking. Well, now all I have to do is send my normal update to Twitter using Twhirl, and now my Facebook and MySpace statuses are updated as well! Bam! A literal one stop shop!

So back to my baby boy (Brayden Bauer), during my wife’s entire labor process I was able to keep friends and family up-to-date via Twitter, or whatever social network they preferred (Mostly Facebook). I did it from the hospital by emailing Ping.fm from my Blackberry.

Also, Ping.fm lets you email in Pictures similar to Twitpic, with the exception that all of your social networks will get the links to your pictures, not just your Twitter followers!

Speaking of pictures, here are some from Monday, and Tuesday:

Left to Right: Paul, Brayden, Mary, Anne

Momma (Mary) and Brayden

Brayden’s Close-Up

My Beautiful Family: Kayla, Mary and Brayden

You can still read the play by play action on my Twitter page here: (Paul’s Twitter)

What social networking services do you like to use to get the word out? Know of any that do the same, or better than Ping.fm? Let me know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: twitter,facebook,myspace,ping.fm,client,baby

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Get Mozy Online Backup!

I have written about Mozy in the past. I decided to start using it right after my run-in with Acer tech support. It is just a good idea to keep your stuff backed up. Not only to separate storage, but also off site. I mean, what would happen if your house burned down today? Not only would your computer be toast, but your external hard drive could be severely damaged as well. You shouldn’t take that chance because our entire lives are on our computers!

Now you can support Bauer-Power, and get a little peace of mind. For only $4.95 per month, Mozy offers you unlimited cloud storage to back up your important data. Try it free by clicking on the ad below:

 

Tell your friends! http://mozy.bauer-power.net

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