The Linux operating system has a really nice tool for testing and optimizing your hard drive. This tool is called hdparm and can work with both IDE and ATA drives. NOTE: hdparm does NOT work with SATA drives. The hdparm tool is a command line only tool, and even though it should be only used [...]

Categories: Advice, Hardware, Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Advanced

Of all the Linux distributions, the consensus is beginning to become clear that Ubuntu is, hands down, the most user friendly of the Linux distributions. Naturally there are people that claim other distributions like PCLinuxOS, and Linux Mint are even more user-friendly than Ubuntu. But what exactly makes a Linux distribution user-friendly? I have been using [...]

Categories: ask the readers, Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems

We have all read the news that Google is planning to enter the operating system market with their soon to be released Google Chrome OS which is initially targeting the netbook market. Google Chrome OS is based on Google’s web browser Google Chrome and a Linux kernel. Little information are know as of yet. The [...]

Categories: Browsing, Google Chrome, Operating Systems

Most of us go away from our computers. When we do we don’t much care to come back to see our screen just the way we left it. We have been trained that a screensaver should take the place of our work or our play on our monitors. I have been asked numerous times “How [...]

Categories: Advice, Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Software, Tutorials Basic

I recently found the need to install Ubuntu on a machine with a poor CD drive (and no USB ports) that could not read large amounts of data, but could manage to read smaller amounts of data. As such, the machine could not read the 700MB but could read smaller amounts, like 10MB. I found [...]

Categories: Linux

Some web browsers don’t fully respect web standards and many WYSIWYG HTML editors produce absolutely revolting code. W3C set out standards as to how HTML (and XHTML etc) should appear and whilst some choose to ignore these, some are devoted to the following of these standards. Sticking to standards can therefore lead to issues with [...]

Categories: Software, Web Development

Until a couple of months ago, I didn’t know much about dual-booting. Yes, I knew it meant running two OS’s on one machine but beyond that, not much else. So when I decided to go ahead and set up a dual boot on my laptop, I definitely needed help. I got it in the form [...]

Categories: Knowledge, Linux, Operating Systems, Tutorials Basic

ATutor is an open source Content Managment System (CMS) focused on education and the class room.  If you think about it, a CMS is the perfect springboard for the creation of a tool designed to manage a class. With a CMS you get: Communication, Content management, file storage, feedback, FAQ, forums, news and announcements, and [...]

Categories: Advice, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Server, Software, The Web, Tools, Tutorials Basic

If you are an administrator then you know what a hostname is. If you are not an administrator then you should know the hostname of a computer is the name which a network attached device is known. Unless you have manually changed your hostname, or set it up during installation, your hostname will most likely [...]

Categories: Advice, Linux, Networks, Open Source, Server, Tutorials Basic