Author Archives: Alex Costa - Page 2

Auto start a program on Gnome 3

This is probably my shortest post, but I hope it’s as helpful to others as it will be for me as I need to remember how to auto start a program in Gnome 3.

  1. press: alt + F2
  2. Type: gnome-session-properties
  3. Click on “+ Add”
  4. Name: Application Name
  5. Command: Application command e.g: skype
  6. Click “+ Add” and you are done.

 

Gnome session properties

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Show Desktop icons in Gnome 3 on Open SUSE 12.1

Open SUSE 12.1 comes with the completely redesigned Gnome 3 desktop, which in my opinion is the best one so far. I have been using Gnome for a few years now and even though I like the clean design of Gnome 3, I still like to have some desktop icons. To Show your Desktop icons on Open SUSE 12.1 is a very simple procedure,

  1. Go to Applications > Advanced Settings
  2. Select Desktop
  3. Set option “Have file manager handle the desktop” to ON

For other Versions of Linux you may need to install dbconf

Gnome 3 Applications Gnome 3 Desktop settings

 

 

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Arduino the Open Source hardware

If you are a thinker, a mad scientist in the making or just a curious ADD person like me, the Arduino boards are just what you are missing in life.

Arduino Uno BoardArduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple micro controller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board.

Arduino can be used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other physical outputs. Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer .

Arduino hardware can be used in Windows, Mac or Linux. The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased pre-assembled and the open-source IDE (programming environment) can be downloaded for free.

There’s a great starting guide at http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage, but I have also been recommended this book:

30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius

This guide shows you how to program and build a variety of projects with the Arduino microcontroller development system. Covering Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, it gets you up to speed with the simplified C programming you need to know–no prior programming experience necessary.

You can find more books and arduino boards and components on here.

Examples of what one can accomplish with Arduino:

 

 

 

 

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Clear space on Windows Server 2003 with Symbolic Link

I kept getting “out of space” warnings on a  server 2003 at work , backups were failing and updates were reporting error.

From my online research I see that  many systems Admins are now having the same problem with a Windows server 2003 installation in a 25GB partition, which was the default guidance from Microsoft.

I  looked into some partitioning software to make use of my large D: partition, but was wisely warned away from doing it as it may cause future problems if you need for some reason to restore your server.

As a Linux Admin I am very familiar with the concept of Symbolic Links, which has been around for a long time. On Linux the command LN is all you  need.

Well, to my heart’s content Microsoft does have a very useful, and yet not well publicised, command line tool called LINKD.exe, which is part of the Windows server 2003 Resource Kit.

Please note that a symbolic link is not the same as a Windows shortcut file, which is a regular file. The windows shortcut may be created on any file system (such as the earlier FAT32), and is not transparent to applications. SymLink is transparent to applications making it great for clearing space on your drive, without compromising file structure.

My example scenario.

  • Drive C:\ free space 2Mb
  • Drive D:\ free space 200GB
  • Identified a large folder to move to D:\ -  (Drive C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp -  size 6.5GB)
  • Moved the large folder to D:\  (I created a folder called “moved from C” and saved the large folder inside it)
  • Installed Windows server 2003 Resource Kit  (also to Drive D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS)
  • Opened Command Line (START\RUN\CMD), navigated to D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS
  • Run command: linkd “C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp”  “D:\moved from C\BackupAmsp”
  • Done.

Disclaimer: I used Symbolic Link on a non system critical folder. If you plan to use this on a system critical folder, do at your own risk.

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Jumbo LED Binary Clock

Jumbo LED Binary Clock

The binary system works under the exact same principles as the decimal system, only it operates in base 2 rather than base 10, so instead of using the digits 0-9, it only uses 0-1.

Binary started out as a way for geeks to master the world of computing, but we understand that binary is mostly just another way for you confuse your friends and co-workers.  Simply slap this stylistic one foot square binary clock on the wall or on your favorite flat surface, select BCD or pure binary mode, set the time, and voila! You’ve just created an Instant Confusion Device (ICD) that actually tells the time. Congratulations! Read more »

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