iSecurity First Arab Website Focusing On Information Security

isecurity is the first arabic website that consider information security. and they also work on building there own security tools. they are focusing on showing the real role of ethical hacker and what it really mean.

To register and check there website click here

Blender An Open Souorce Alternative To 3Dmax OR Maya

Blender is a 3D graphics application released as free software under the GNU General Public License.

It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle, and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications, including games.

Blender is available for a number of operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Blender's features include advanced simulation tools such as rigid body, fluid, cloth and softbody dynamics, modifier-based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node-based material and compositing system and Python for embedded scripting.

some screen-shots:



game designed in blender


you can download blender from ubuntu software center just type blender

Full Circle Magazine Issue 33

About Full circle magazine
Full Circle is a free, independent, magazine dedicated to the Ubuntu family of Linux operating systems. Each month, it contains helpful how-to articles and reader submitted stories.

This month:
* Command and Conquer.
* How-To : Program in Python – Part 7, Create A Media Center with a Revo, Ubuntu and Boxee, and The Perfect Server – Part 3.
* My Story – Ubuntu in Public Education, and Why I Use Linux.
* Review – Exaile.
* MOTU Interview – Didier Roche.
* Top 5 – Synchronization Clients.
* Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Games and all the usual goodness!

Grab it through the Downloads link on the site, or here:

*Hint: For Older issues visit there website to download

Ubuntu Directory Structure + Some Commands

this topic has to be the first topic in this blog but it was not. what i will show in this topic is the hierarchy of the ubuntu also all linux since they all have same hierarchy since it is a standard from FHS. Here is the file system structure with a brief explanation:



Navigating Through the File System

Now how about navigating through the file system in terminal. Use the cd command to navigate through the Ubuntu file system. This command is generally used with a specific directory location or pathname, like this:

$ cd /etc/apt/

Under Ubuntu, the cd command can also be used with several shortcuts. For example, to quickly move up to the parent (higher-level) directory, use the cd command like this:

$ cd ..

To return to one's home directory from anywhere in the Linux file system, use the cd command like this:

$ cd

You can also use the $HOME shell environment variable to accomplish the same thing. Type this command and press Enter to return to your home directory:

$ cd $HOME

You can accomplish the same thing by using the tilde (~) like this:

$ cd ~

Don't forget the pwd command to remind you where you are within the file system!

Another important command to use is the ls command, which lists the contents of the current directory. It's commonly used by itself, but a number of options (or switches) available for ls give you more information. For instance, the following command returns a listing of all the files and directories within the current directory, including any hidden files (denoted by a . prefix) as well as a full listing, so it will include details such as the permissions, owner and group, size and last modified time and date:

$ ls -al

You can also issue the command

$ ls -R

which scans and lists all the contents of the sub-directories of the current directory. This might be a lot of information, so you may want to redirect the output to a text file so you can browse through it at your leisure by using the following:

$ ls -alR > listing.txt

TIP
The previous command sends the output of ls -alR to a file called listing.txt, and demonstrates part of the power of the Linux command line. At the command line you are able to use files as inputs to commands, or generate files as outputs as shown. In later posts we will consider that matter.

How to Do Backup Manually in ubuntu (no need for any software)

in some cases we will not be able to use software's to do backups and restore. Such cases will be crash of your xwindow (xwindow is the unit that gnome or kde build on it). now let get into the steps of backup and restoring:

1: Backing-up

"What should I use to backup my system?" might you ask. Easy; the same thing you use to backup/compress everything else; TAR. Unlike Windows, Linux doesn't restrict root access to anything, so you can just throw every single file on a partition in a TAR file!
To do this, become root with

sudo su

and go to the root of your filesystem (we use this in our example, but you can go anywhere you want your backup to end up, including remote or removable drives.)

cd /

Now, below is the full command I would use to make a backup of my system:

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

Now, lets explain this a little bit.
The 'tar' part is, obviously, the program we're going to use.
'cvpfz' are the options we give to tar, like 'create archive' (obviously),
'preserve permissions'(to keep the same permissions on everything the same), and 'gzip' to keep the size down.
Next, the name the archive is going to get. backup.tgz in our example.
Next comes the root of the directory we want to backup. Since we want to backup everything; / Now come the directories we want to exclude. We don't want to backup everything since some dirs aren't very useful to include. Also make sure you don't include the file itself, or else you'll get weird results.
You might also not want to include the /mnt folder if you have other partitions mounted there or you'll end up backing those up too. Also make sure you don't have anything mounted in /media (i.e. don't have any cd's or removable media mounted). Either that or exclude /media.
Well, if the command agrees with you, hit enter (or return, whatever) and then set back and wait. it may take time.
Afterwards you'll have a file called backup.tgz in the root of your filessytem, which is probably pretty large. Now you can burn it to DVD or move it to another machine, whatever you like!
Alternatively, you can use Bzip2 to compress your backup. This means higher compression but lower speed. If compression is important to you, just substitute the 'z' in the command with 'j', and give the backup the right extension.
That would make the command look like this:

tar cvpjf backup.tar.bz2 --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tar.bz2 --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys /

2: Restoring

Warning: Please, be careful here. If you don't understand what you are doing here you might end up overwriting stuff that is important to you, so please take care!
Well, we'll just continue with our example from the previous section; the file backup.tgz in the root of the partition.
Once again, make sure you are root and that you and the backup file are in the root of the filesystem.
One of the beautiful things of Linux is that This'll work even on a running system; no need to screw around with boot-cd's or anything. Of course, if you've rendered your system unbootable you might have no choice but to use a live-cd, but the results are the same.
This is the command:

tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /

Or if you used bz2;

tar xvpfj backup.tar.bz2 -C /

WARNING: this will overwrite every single file on your partition with the one in the archive!
Just hit enter and wait. Again, this might take a while. When it is done, you have a fully restored Ubuntu system! Just make sure that, before you do anything else, you re-create the directories you excluded:

mkdir proc
mkdir lost+found
mkdir mnt
mkdir sys
etc...

And when you reboot, everything should be the way it was when you made the backup!

Soon ubuntu One For Windows Users

What is Ubuntu One?

Ubuntu One is your personal cloud. You can use it to back up, store, sync and share your data with other Ubuntu One users.(it is storage for you on the web that you can use to upload files and access it from any location using Internet)
Ubuntu One gives all features and 2 GB of essential storage to everyone (for free). If you need more space, choose 50 GB for just $10 a month.

Sync your files and share them with others

With Ubuntu One, your projects are as public (and your secrets as safe) as you want them to be.

Edit Tomboy notes online and keep them in sync

Tomboy notes (enable you to make notes) on Ubuntu One: always available and synchronized, wherever your ideas happen.

the new news
now they are on the way to support windows. as schedule it will be available at spring.


for more info on how to use click here

Digikam For Photographers (linux users)

A digiKam Overview

digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for KDE, which makes importing and organizing digital photos a "snap". The photos are organized in albums which can be sorted chronologically, by folder layout or by custom collections.



Tired of the folder constraints? Don’t worry, digiKam also provides tagging. You tag your images which can be spread out across multiple folders, and digiKam provides fast and intuitive ways to browse these tagged images. You can also add comments to your images. digiKam makes use of a fast and robust database to store these meta-informations which makes adding and editing of comments and tags very reliable.

digiKam makes use of KIPI plugins for lots of added functionality. KIPI (KDE Image Plugin Interface) is an initiative to create a common plugin infrastructure for digiKam, KPhotoAlbum, Showimg, and GwenView. Its aim is to allow development of image plugins which can be shared among KDE graphical applications.

An easy-to-use interface is provided that enables you to connect to your camera and preview, download and/or delete your images. Basic auto-transformations can be deployed on the fly during image downloading.

Another tool, which most artists and photographers will be familiar with, is a Light Table. This tool assists artists and photographers with reviewing their work ensuring the highest quality only. A classical light table will show the artist the place on the images to touch up. Well in digiKam, the light table function provides the user a similar experience. You can import a photo, drag it onto the light table, and touch up only the areas that need it.



The digiKam Image Editor has its own plugin subsystem with some common tools e.g. red eye correction or Gamma correction. Additional plugins are provided with the main application to process advanced corrections on image like color management, noise reduction, or special effects. digiKam Image Editor supports all camera RAW file formats, 16 bits color depth, Exif/Makernote/IPTC/GPS/XMP metadata, Color management, tagging/rating/comments pictures, etc.

A stand-alone image editor version named ShowFoto is also available. It runs without digiKam images database support, but provides all Image Editor functions.
*for details on the features click here

Showcases For ubuntu (ubutnu Rocks and Easy To Use)

while i am in middle of my browsing time of the day i get to this two wonderful show cases for ubuntu lets stops the talk and watch the videos:

PhotoRec, Digital Picture and File Recovery

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

PhotoRec is free - this open source multi-platform application is distributed under GNU General Public License. PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk, an app for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of file systems and making non-bootable disks bootable again. You can download them from this link.

For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or memory card you are about to recover lost data from. Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your lost data. This means that while using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files to the same partition they were stored on.

Operating systems

PhotoRec runs under

* DOS/Win9x
* Windows NT 4/2000/XP/2003/Vista
* Linux
* FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
* Sun Solaris
* Mac OS X

and can be compiled on almost every Unix system.

File systems

Photorec ignores the file system, this way it works even if the file system is severely damaged.
It can recover lost files at least from

* FAT,
* NTFS,
* EXT2/EXT3 filesystem
* HFS+

ReiserFS includes some special optimizations centered around tails, a name for files and end portions of files that are smaller than a filesystem block. In order to increase performance, ReiserFS is able to store files inside the b*tree leaf nodes themselves, rather than storing the data somewhere else on the disk and pointing to it. Unfortunately, PhotoRec isn't able to deal with this - that's why it doesn't work well with ReiserFS.

Media

PhotoRec works with hard disks, CD-ROMs, memory cards (Compact Flash, Memory Stick, SecureDigital/SD, SmartMedia, Microdrive, MMC, etc.), USB memory drives, DD raw image, EnCase E01 image, etc.
PhotoRec has been successfully tested with various portable media players including iPod and the following Digital Cameras:

* Canon EOS300D, 10D
* HP PhotoSmart 620, 850, 935
* Nikon CoolPix 775, 950, 5700
* Olympus C350N, C860L, Mju 400 Digital, Stylus 300
* Sony Alpha DSLR, DSC-P9
* Praktica DCZ-3.4
* Casio Exilim EX-Z 750

Known file formats

PhotoRec searches for known file headers. If there is no data fragmentation, which is often the case, it can recover the whole file. Photorec recognises numerous file formats including ZIP, Office, PDF, HTML, JPEG and various graphics file formats. The whole list of file formats recovered by PhotoRec contains more than 320 file extensions (about 200 file families).

How PhotoRec works

FAT, NTFS, ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems store files in data blocks (also called clusters under Windows). The cluster or block size remains at a constant number of sectors after being initialized during the formatting of the file system. In general, most operating systems try to store the data in a contiguous way so as to minimize data fragmentation. The seek time of mechanical drives is significant for writing and reading data to/from a hard disk, so that's why it's important to keep the fragmentation to a minimum level.

When a file is deleted, the meta-information about this file (file name, date/time, size, location of the first data block/cluster, etc.) are lost; e.g., in an ext3/ext4 file system, the names of deleted files are still present, but the location of the first data block is removed. This means the data is still present on the file system, but only until some or all of it is overwritten by new file data.

To recover these lost files, PhotoRec first tries to find the data block (or cluster) size. If the file system is not corrupted, this value can be read from the superblock (ext2/ext3/ext4) or volume boot record (FAT, NTFS). Otherwise, PhotoRec reads the media, sector by sector, searching for the first ten files, from which it calculates the block/cluster size from their locations. Once this block size is known, PhotoRec reads the media block by block (or cluster by cluster). Each block is checked against a signature database which comes with the program and has grown in the type of files it can recover ever since PhotoRec's first version came out.

For example, PhotoRec identifies a JPEG file when a block begins with:

* 0xff,0xd8,0xff,0xe0
* 0xff,0xd8,0xff,0xe1
* or 0xff,0xd8,0xff,0xfe

If PhotoRec has already started to recover a file, it stops its recovery, checks the consistency of the file when possible and starts to save the new file (which it determined from the signature it found).

If the data is not fragmented, the recovered file should be either identical to or larger than the original file in size. In some cases, PhotoRec can learn the original file size from the file header, so the recovered file is truncated to the correct size. If, however, the recovered file ends up being smaller than its header specifies, it is discarded. Some files, such as *.MP3 types, are data streams. In this case, PhotoRec parses the recovered data, then stops the recovery when the stream ends.

When a file is recovered successfully, PhotoRec checks the previous data blocks to see if a file signature was found but the file wasn't able to be successfully recovered (i.e., the file was too small), and it tries again. This way, some fragmented files can be successfully recovered.

links for documentation and how to:
PhotoRec Step By Step
How To Help
Working with CD-R/CR-RW/DVD/Floppy

TestDisk, Data Recovery

TestDisk, Data Recovery



TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

* Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
* Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
* Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
* Fix FAT tables
* Rebuild NTFS boot sector
* Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
* Fix MFT using MFT mirror
* Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
* Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
* Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.
Operating systems

TestDisk can run under

* DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),
* Windows (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista),
* Linux,
* FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
* SunOS and
* MacOS

Source files and precompiled binary executables are available for DOS, Win32, MacOSX and Linux from the download page
Filesystems

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems:

* BeFS ( BeOS )
* BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
* CramFS, Compressed File System
* DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
* Windows exFAT
* HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
* JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
* Linux ext2 and ext3
* Linux LUKS encrypted partition
* Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2
o RAID 1: mirroring
o RAID 4: striped array with parity device
o RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
o RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
* Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
* LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
* Mac partition map
* Novell Storage Services NSS
* NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
* ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
* Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
* Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
* XFS, SGI's Journaled File System
Conclusions and how to use:
this tool can be used from ubuntu live cd and then installed using internet connection or you can use an ubuntu rescue remix live cd and there is a lot of documentation on how to use it here is a formel documication from ubuntu on how to use

Gambas Easy As Visual Basic For Programing in linux

for the people who like visual basic and would like to do programing by that way i found this IDE called Gambas here is some info:
Gambas is a full-featured object language and development environment built on a BASIC interpreter. It is released under the GNU General Public Licence.

Its architecture is largely inspired by Java. So Gambas is made up of:

* A compiler.
* An interpreter.
* An archiver.
* A scripter.
* A development environment.
* Many extension components.


you can install it from the ubuntu software center or directly from the there website

Shutter An Excelent Screenshot Application

What is Shutter?

Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window.

Features:

* take a screenshot of your complete desktop, a rectangular area or capture a website
* take screenshot directly or with a specified delay time
* save the screenshots to a specified directory and name them in a convenient way
(using special wild-cards)
* Shutter is fully integrated into the Gnome Desktop (TrayIcon etc.)
* generate thumbnails directly when you are taking a screenshot and set a size level in %
* Shutter session collection
o keep track of all screenshots during session
o copy screeners to clipboard
o print screenshots
o delete screenshots
o rename your file
* upload your files directly to Image-Hosters (e.g. http://ubuntu-pics.de), retrieve all the needed links and share them with others
* edit your screenshots directly using the embedded drawing tool


Shutter is an open-source program, licensed under GPL v3.

here is some screenshots:

Xournal try it

Xournal is an application for notetaking, sketching, keeping a journal using a stylus. It is free software (GNU GPL) and runs on Linux (recent distributions) and other GTK+/Gnome platforms. It is similar to Microsoft Windows Journal or to other alternatives such as Jarnal, Gournal, and NoteLab.
Xournal aims to provide superior graphical quality (subpixel resolution) and overall functionality; however it lacks the collaborative features of Jarnal. Since Xournal is still in its early development stages, it may not be fully stable, and some features have not been implemented yet.

How to install in Ubuntu:
just click on Applications>ubuntu software centre> then type xournal and then click install and that's it you will find the it in the Applications>Accessories menu


Related links:

* The user's manual
* Various third-party patches that haven't been included in the distribution yet

sudo vs. su

One of the things that makes Linux more secure than some operating systems is a permission system and separate logins. This adds the complication that some administrative tasks must be done using the administrator login (called root) but that is a small price to pay for the added level of security.

Different Linux distributions offer different ways to become root to perform these administrative tasks. The differences are not complicated to understand and there are valid reasons for each approach. In this article TUX explains these differences and how to get the job done using the various approaches.

If your system presents you with a graphical login screen (SuSE and Debian are two examples) then you would expect that logging in as root instead of your personal login would be the approach. While it can be done, it is the most dangerous approach from a security point of view.

Once you have logged in you will be running your typical graphical interface but with system-wide permissions. This means an inadvertent mistake could have systemwide consequences. For example, you could drag an important system file or program to the trash can. Without your typical user-level restrictions, the file would be removed and the system could quickly come to a grinding halt.

SuSE systems warn you that you are the root user by displaying a red background with bombs on it but this is just a warning to you to be careful. The system isn't checking your work so it is up to you not to make a mistake or you will just pay the consequences. A better solution would be to have you use your normal login for most of the work but be able to temporarily become the administrator as needed.

YAST, SuSE's graphical administration program offers a level of protection. You can start YAST from the menu and it prompts you for the root password and then keeps you within its graphical environment. Thus, you at least have the level of hand-holding that YAST offers before you can make a fatal mistake. But, besides still having the ability to make a mistake, a bug in the YAST software itself could result in system damage.

The real goal is to do the various tasks with the minimum permissions that allow the task to be performed. For geeks, Linux (and UNIX) has always had the su or substitute user command. This means that from the command line, you could become the administrator or any other user as long as you had the appropriate password. No need to log out and back in.

The most common place where this capability would be used in in building new software from source code. Typically, this is done by running three commands, ./configure, make and make install. Only the last one of these commands (make install) needs to be run as the administrator. Thus, from the command line, the user can use the su command before running make install to run only the one command as root. Not much overhead for a large amount of added security.

While this approach is a lot safer than just logging in as root, you still must remember to exit the administrator level with either exit or Control-D to get you back to your own user permissions. That means forgetting a step or just being lazy can be dangerous. A safer approach would be to require you to take action each time you want to run a command as root.

Enter the sudo command. Unlike su, sudo changes your permissions for only a single command. Once that command completes your permissions revert back to the ones you had when you logged in. Note that while sudo has additional capabilities, 99% of the time this is all you want. For the geeks out there, read the sudo man page by entering man sudo in a terminal window.

Using sudo, the build sequence described above just becomes ./configure, make and sudo make install. No other changes other than adding sudo to the third command and no need to exit to get back to your normal user permissions.

Both the Knoppix and Ubuntu/Kubuntu distributions don't include the su command nor do the have root logins. The only way to get administrator privileges at the command-line level is to use sudo. With Knoppix running from a live CD there are no user logins so sudo happens with no questions asked.

With Kubuntu, it works a bit different. When you enter the sudo command for the first time, you will be prompted for a password. What password? Yours. That is, the password you normally use to log in. This is to prevent someone walking over to an unattended system from getting root access. In order to make it more convenient to do a series of commands as root, Kubuntu remembers that you have run as root recently and doesn't require the password. But, after a short idle period, you will be asked for it again.

Hopefully this article has filled in your knowledge on how to get administrator access. The most important information in this article is, however, to always try to do as much as possible without administrator permissions. Using this approach you will find that you say "Oops!" a lot less often.

The Definitive 9.10 Broadcom Solution Guide

Broadcom hardware only. Credit to respective solution providers included below. Feel free to chime in if I've missed something.

Broadcom BCM4311/12/21/22 Hardware (STA driver):
NOTE: ASSUMES FRESH INSTALL. FOR LAPTOPS, ONCE THE SYSTEM REBOOTS AFTER INSTALL, REBOOT AGAIN
AND TOGGLE THE WIRELESS BUTTON (YES, IT COULD BE THAT EASY).

Plug into the network via cable:

1. IF WIRED CONNECTION WORKS:
1. Open System -> Admin -> Update Manager
2. Check for updates, install, and reboot
3. After reboot, open System -> Admin -> Hardware Drivers
4. Look for "Broadcom STA wireless driver";
1. IF DRIVER IS PRESENT AND ACTIVATED:
1. Remove network cable, toggle wireless button, and log into network.
2. IF DRIVER IS PRESENT BUT NOT ACTIVATED:
1. Activate and reboot;
2. After reboot, remove network cable, toggle wireless button, and log into network.
3. IF DRIVER IS NOT PRESENT:
1. Open System -> Admin -> Synaptic Pkg Mgr
2. Search for "bcmwl-kernel-source" (if not available, move to step 2)
1. Right-click and mark for installation
2. Apply changes and reboot.
3. Repeat steps 1.3-1.4.2
2. IF WIRED CONNECTION DOES NOT WORK:
1. From LiveCD (solution provided by jomtois here - edited for clarity):
1. Open Sytem -> Admin -> Synaptic Package Mgr
2. Ensure 9.10 LiveCD is in the drive
3. In Synaptic Package Mgr, open Settings -> Repositories -> Ubuntu Software
4. Check "Installable from CD-ROM/DVD" and close
5. Reload (disregard connectivity errors)
6. Search for "bcmwl-kernel-source"
7. Right-click and mark for installation
8. Apply changes and reboot
9. Repeat steps 1.3 thru 1.4.2
2. From LiveUSB:
1. Navigate to pool -> main -> d -> dkms
2. Run "dkms_2.1.0.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb"
3. Navigate to pool -> restricted -> b -> bcmwl
4. Run "bcmwl-kernel-source_5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4_i386.deb"
5. Reboot
6. Repeat steps 2.1.6 thru 2.1.9 and 1.3 thru 1.4.2

Broadcom BCM4301/03/06/09 Hardware (B43 driver):
NOTE: IF YOUR CARD IS A BCM4306 REV 2, OR ONLY HAS 802.11B CAPABILITY, IT USES
B43LEGACY. ALL OTHER MODELS USE B43. THE STEPS BELOW WILL BUILD BOTH B43 AND
B43LEGACY (AND GET FIRMWARE FOR BOTH TOO). THE KERNEL AUTOLOADER WILL
AUTOMATICALLY DO THE RIGHT THING AND LOAD THE CORRECT DRIVER FOR YOUR DEVICE.
ADDITIONAL INFO HERE. ASSUMES FRESH INSTALL. FOR LAPTOPS, ONCE THE SYSTEM REBOOTS
AFTER INSTALL, REBOOT AGAIN AND TOGGLE THE WIRELESS BUTTON (YES, IT COULD BE THAT
EASY).

Plug into the network via cable:

1. IF WIRED CONNECTION WORKS:
1. Open System -> Admin -> Update Manager
2. Check for updates, install, and reboot
3. After reboot, open System -> Admin -> Hardware Drivers
4. Look for "Broadcom B43 wireless driver";
1. IF DRIVER IS PRESENT AND ACTIVATED:
1. Remove network cable, toggle wireless button, and log into network.
2. IF DRIVER IS PRESENT BUT NOT ACTIVATED:
1. Activate and reboot;
2. After reboot, remove network cable, toggle wireless button, and log into network.
3. IF DRIVER IS NOT PRESENT:
1. Open System -> Admin -> Synaptic Pkg Mgr
2. Search for "b43-fwcutter" (if not available, move to step 2)
3. Right-click and mark for installation
4. Apply changes (answer yes when asked "Fetch and install firmware?")
5. Reboot
6. Repeat steps 1.3 thru 1.4.2
2. IF WIRED CONNECTION DOES NOT WORK:
1. From LiveCD (based on solution provided by jomtois here - edited for clarity):
1. Open Sytem -> Admin -> Synaptic Package Mgr
2. Ensure 9.10 LiveCD is in the drive
3. In Synaptic Package Mgr, open Settings -> Repositories -> Ubuntu Software
4. Check "Installable from CD-ROM/DVD" and close
5. Reload (disregard connectivity errors)
6. Search for "b43-fwcutter"
7. Right-click and mark for installation
8. Apply changes (answer yes when asked "Fetch and install firmware?")
9. Reboot
10. Repeat steps 1.3 thru 1.4.2
2. From LiveUSB:
1. Navigate to pool -> main -> d -> dkms
2. Run "dkms_2.1.0.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb"
3. Navigate to pool -> restricted -> b -> bcmwl
4. Run "bcmwl-kernel-source_5.10.91.9+bdcom-0ubuntu4_i386.deb"
5. Reboot
6. Repeat steps 2.1.6 thru 2.1.9 and 1.3 thru 1.4.2

Transfer Files from Another Computer
NOTE: IF NECESSARY, THE STA AND B43 PACKAGES CAN BE
DOWNLOADED USING THE LINKS BELOW. BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE
APPROPRIATE DEPENDENCIES.

STA Driver Source
http://packages.ubuntu.com/da/karmic/bcmwl-kernel-source

B43 Driver Source
http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/b43-fwcutter

The GNOME Activity Journal

The GNOME Activity Journal is getting better and better by the minute!



Developer Seif Lofty posted the following video of it in action and i can confirm that it as every-bit njoayble to use as it is to look at! Take a peek at the video - it's quite short - or skip directly to the installation instructions below.


How To Install Zeitgeist & GNOME Activity Journal In Ubuntu
I'm going to assume you already have bzr installed. If you don't then you'll need to install it. [You can click here to do so]

First you'll need to get and install Zeitgeist - the engine behind GAJ.

Open a terminal and carefully copy the following commands.

* bzr branch lp:gnome-zeitgeist
* cd gnome-zeitgeist
* ./autogen.sh
* make && sudo make install

Make Zeitgeist auto-start-up when you login to save you the hassle of manually starting it.

* System > Preferences > Startup Applications
* New Item
* Browse through to your Zeitgeist folder and select 'zeitgesit-daemon.py'
* Click 'okay'

Now let's grab the Activity Journal itself: -

* bzr branch lp:gnome-activity-journal

You can run it using: -

* cd gnome-activtiy-journal
* ./gnome-activity-journal

It may be helpful/easier for you to create a shortcut to the GNOME Activity Journal.

* Right-click the main menu on the upper GNOME panel
* Choose 'Edit Menus'
* Click 'Accessories' in the left hand pane
* Now click the 'New Item' button on the upper right hand side

* Give it a name (Like, maybe, 'GNOME Activity Journal'?)
* For the command you will need to click 'browse' and navigate to your GAJ directory
* select 'gnome-activity-journal' and click 'Ok'

Updating
You can easily update both Zeitgeist and GAJ by navigating to the relevant folders in a terminal and issuing 'bzr pull'.

Open Office --How do I make my first page a cover or title page and start page numbering (Page 1) on the second page of my document?

How do I make my first page a cover or title page and start page numbering (Page 1) on the second page of my document?

1. Open a new Writer document.
2. Enter some or all of the text that you want on your cover page (or simply press the Enter key a few times).
3. Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window. Choose "Page Styles" from the icons (hover with your pointer on each icon to open the note). Double-click on "First Page" for assigning the "First Page" style to the first page of your document.
4. Place the cursor at the end of the first page. Select Insert->Manual Break from the menu bar.
5. Select "Page Break". Then choose the style to use for the next page (pick one from the menu - such as "Default"). Then mark the check box called "Change page number". In the box below this check box the number 1 should appear. Click OK.
6. Now you should have two pages. Put the cursor in the second page, then select Insert->Footer->Default from the menu bar. A footer area will appear on the second page.
7. To insert the page number, select: Insert->Fields->Page Numbers. A number '1' should appear on the second page of the file.

Note: each page style can have different characteristics (headers, footers, page numbering, etc.). The page style that is assigned for each page of the document can be seen by clicking into the desired page. Look below the document window area, to the right of the "Page x/n" block to see the page style name for the current page/section.

OpenShot 1.0 Stable Released; Best Linux Video Editor

Video Editor OpenShot announced the release of it's seminal version 1.0 earlier today packing in so many new features, improvements and bug fixes I'm not sure I'll be able to mention them all!

The full list of new features can be found in the official OpenShot announcement, however here is a quick "summing up", giving you an over-view of some of the new features in OpenShot 1.0.

* Stable as a house - OpenShot themselves say "Just try and crash OpenShot now. We dare you."
* 28 new video transitions
* 29 new titles in both 4:3 and 16:9 ratios
* Two new themes for OpenShot itself including a 'simple' theme and a non-glossy blue one
* New Languages
* Help Manual integration
* Chroma Key fixed

OpenShot Video Editor - Version 1.0 Released! from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

Any regular reader to OMG! will know that OpenShot Video Editor is a firm favourite of ours, so we congratulate the OpenShot developers for yet another awesome release.
The release of OpenShot 1.0 has truly raised the bar for Desktop Video Editing on Linux.

Download
OpenShot 1.0 can be downloaded using the instructions on the official site @ openshotvideo.com/download

websites and blogs about ubuntu it helped me so much

this is a list of websites that helped me so much to find solutions and how to tutorials:

1. http://ubuntuclips.org/ (got videos on how to and introductory videos on ubuntu).
2. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk(a very popular blog about ubuntu include many new news and applications tips and how to)
3. http://www.ubuntugeek.com (the most popular got many good things for beginners intermediate and professional users)
4. http://fullcirclemagazine.org (an online magazine for ubuntu)
5. http://ubuntuforums.org (the official ubuntu forums can get many things there and it is up to date and always active).
6. http://www.ubuntux.org (another blog for ubuntu)
   

Back track 4 avialable now

Offensive Security has announced the release of BackTrack 4, an Ubuntu-based live DVD containing a large collection of tools for security audits, computer forensics and penetration testing: "BackTrack 4 final is out and along with this release come some exciting news, updates, and developments. BackTrack 4 has been a long and steady road, with the release of a beta last year, we decided to hold off on releasing BackTrack 4 final until it was perfected in every way, shape and form. This release includes a new kernel, a larger and expanded toolset repository, custom tools that you can only find on BackTrack, and more importantly, fixes to all major bugs that we knew of. This release has received an overwhelming support from the community and we are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the success of this release." Here is the full release announcement. Download (MD5) the live DVD image via BitTorrent: bt4-final.iso (1,497MB).
they did renew the whole website go and check
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/

Ubuntu Tweak - whole renew

Introduction

Ubuntu Tweak is an application designed to config Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn't provide. At present, it's only designed for the Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, and always follows the newest Ubuntu distribution.

LICENSE

Ubuntu Tweak is a free software, which means you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License published by the Free Software Foundation. More information can be seen in the package's LICENSE file.

Features of Ubuntu Tweak

• View of Basic System Information(Distribution, Kernel, CPU, Memory, etc.)
• GNOME Session Control
• Auto Start Program Control
• Quick install popular applications
• A lot of third-party sources to keep applications up-to-date
• Clean unneeded packages or cache to free disk space
• Show/Hide and Change Splash screen
• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes
• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash or Network icon
• Tweak Metacity Window Manager's style and behaviour
• Compiz Fusion settings, Screen Edge Settings, Window Effect Settings, Menu Effect Settings
• Set the Shortcuts to archive quicker access your favourite applications
• GNOME Panel Settings
• Nautilus Settings
• Advanced Power Management Settings
• System Security Settings
• And many other in process..

for download click here
or go to the website and download it directly as a Deb package
http://ubuntu-tweak.com/