First of all, Linux Ubuntu bases its version number on years and months. The 9 stands for 2009, and the 10 stands for the 10th month. Which is when they release a new version.

Knowing that, you must’ve come to a point where you realise we’re in the 10th month right now. Which means Ubuntu 9.10 is not too far away – in fact, the beta has already been released!

So, what would  be the changes in the upcoming release of Ubuntu? Well, here’s a quote from wikipedia!

“The desktop installation of Ubuntu 9.10 is expected to include, among other programs, GIMP 2.6, GNOME 2.28, Mozilla Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice.org 3.1, and Empathy Instant Messenger instead of Pidgin. The default filesystem will be ext4, and the Ubuntu One client, which interfaces with Canonical’s new online storage system, will be installed by default. It will also debut a new application called the Ubuntu Software Center that will unify package management. Canonical intends for this application to replace Add/Remove Programs (gnome-app-install) in 9.10 and possibly Synaptic, Software Sources, Gdebi and Update Manager in Ubuntu 10.04. Karmic Koala will also include a slideshow during the installation process (through ubiquity-slideshow) that will highlight applications and features in Ubuntu.”

So, make sure you stay tuned at the ubuntu.com website!

Screenshot (bootscreen):

RadioSure is a very tiny application that offers all kinds of radio-channels all over the world. From the biggest FM radio-station in your area to the smallest internet radio stations.

Therefor, RadioSure is unique in what it does. There’s no other program that comes with so many radio channels. For instance, if you just search for “jazz” (How many young people listen jazz these days? Not too many for sure) you’ll get 474 search results.

Isn’t that stunning? The amount of channels is just insane! And then again, it’s a very light and small application. There’s also a portable version available (which could be really useful on your PortableApps or U3 usb-stick, bring your radio everywhere you go!).

This program simply meets your taste, of that I am 100% sure. ’cause whatever genre you prefer, RadioSure allows you to tune-in!

Found yourself a channel which you REALLY like? There’s a very easy to use favorite button so you can tune-in on this specific channel again without searching!

Interested? Download RadioSure here.

However, you can not really choose from a lot of colours for your font, you can not colour your nickname nor make it bold, Italic or underlined!

Adding to that.. ADVERTISEMENTS! We all hate ‘em, don’t we? Want to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff and add a few cool extra’s? Then read this post!

Alright, so first of all – let’s enhance your messenger!

For this, we will use Messenger Plus! Live go here and download this wonderful application. The installation is quite simple, and does not require a guide at all. Just make sure you do not install the Ask! toolbar. So during the installation, do not just spam-click the “Next” button (actually, never do this in ANY installation, it’s just dumb to do that.) Just hit the Plus button in the menu (Next to “help”) to configure plus.

Few, that’s done.. Now, let’s get rid of those bloody ads!

Navigate to apatch.org Download Page (Or just click the link, way faster!) And download the one that fits your messenger. Probably the first link, as that is for the latest messenger. Unzip/Unrar the downloaded.rar file and run apatch.exe. Check what you would like to “patch” (Attention!: A few functions are for English Messenger Only. Do not apply those if you are using another language of messenger) and select next. Make sure msn is closed and completely shut down and click finish.

You are now done with patching! Congratulations, your messenger is cleaner!

Just a few more tricks..

Navigate to tools>options and select the “Layout” tab.

Uncheck the first 4 functions (Show Favorites, groups, tab bar, what’s new list)

Voila, a clean and nice messenger, without advertisement and a lot more enhanced. To get a full list of the added features, please visit this link about the Msg Plus! Live features.

Oh and remember, questions or comments are always welcome!

In the following steps, we will explain how you can play pretty much any LAN-game (there are a few exceptions) over Hamachi with your friends.

1)Obtaining hamachi

Hamachi is a free to use application. (It also has a pro-mode, but this mode is not necessary for gaming) Download it here.

2) Installing and configuring Hamachi

The installation is quite easy, just follow the on-screen steps and choose for the free mode. Start the application and hit the “Power” button in the bottom left. After that, either join or create a network by using the triangle button. Make sure the person who you wish to game with is in the same network.

3) Allowing Hamachi in the windows-firewall (Vista and XP only)

As hamachi is a completely new network-adapter the Windows Firewall will also recognize it as a network adapter. Open up your windows firewall settings (Via control panel) and go to the last tab. Once there, make sure “Hamachi” is not checked.

4)Set Hamachi as the first network adapter

Navigate to your “Network and Sharing Center” (On vista and Seven) and hit “Change Adapter settings” in the left sidebar.

Press the Alt-Button and a menu will pop down at the top of the window. Select “Advanced>Advanced Settings”

At the list of connections, move “Hamachi” to the top and hit OK

Note: This is also possible on XP, though I am not completely sure how.

5)ForceBindIP

1. ForceBindIP enables you to set your own IP-adress for a .exe file.
2. First, obtain ForceBindIP from here. (Scroll down and download the zip-file)
3. Extract the file and place the files inside the folder in your System32 folder (C:/Windows/System32)

6)Setting up the game to run through Hamachi

Navigate to the game you wish to play. Right-Click on the executable and select “Create Shortcut”.

Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. You will see the path (Example: “C:/Program Files/Game/Game.exe”). Right before the quotes you want to enter “ForceBindIP 5.1.1.1″ (Without the quotes, and the IP-adress must be YOUR Hamachi Ip adress, which you can find at the top of the hamachi screen)

That’s about it, you can now play lan games over Hamachi.

Note: Games by “Microsoft Live!” are a bit harder to play over hamachi as there is a maximum of a 30ms-ping. You can override this by using teknogod’s dll (Guides can be found on their website)

Goodluck!

Wouldn’t that be a great solution if you’re often traveling and do not have a note-/net- book?

PendriveLinux.com, the website that tries to get a lot of linux distributions working down from USB, allows you to make changes that will be saved (So you will not be running a standard live-bootable version) and lets you expand the memory on which you can save.

There are a lot of distributions that you can find on pendrivelinux.com. Guides are included in their posts.

Goodluck and have fun with your Linux!

Questions? Feel free to leave a comment!

Linux is, just like Windows or Mac OS, an operating system. However, Linux is open source and very often free to download (depending on the destribution). In the past Linux was quite hard to understand and to install 3rd party applications on. However, all that has changed.

For the “basic” users, Ubuntu is quite a good operating system. It’s easy to adjust to your own preferences and there are a lot of functions and 3rd party applications that make modifying the system.

A complete list of Linux distributions can be found here.

In this guide, I will explain a few ways of installing Ubuntu without actually partitioning your hard-disk as you might not like it or find it too difficult to use. However, if you like it, installing Ubuntu is basically the same.

1) Installing Ubuntu on a virtual pc.

This is basically the safest and most efficient way to test an operating system. You will run the operating system within your windows computer.

1. Download an application that lets you create virtual pc’s. A very good free application would be Sun Virtual Box.
2. Download Linux Ubuntu
3. As the iso of Linux Ubuntu completes downloading, create a new virtual pc and just follow the steps
   
4. Run your virtual pc. You might want to install the VboxGuestAddittions for Ubuntu to work properly (screen drivers, mouse capturing etc)

2)Install Ubuntu via WUBI (Windows-based Ubuntu Installer)

Burn the downloaded ubuntu ISO on a CD (With Nero, Deepburner(free), or any other burning application) or mount the ISO with Daemon Tools. It’s important you do not shut down windows. Navigate to the CD via my computer, open it and double click “Wubi.exe”. Just follow the on-screen steps to complete the installation. Once you reboot, you will see a boot-screen on which you can either chose to boot your windows or ubuntu. You have now installed Ubuntu within windows.

Want to get rid of Linux? Just go to the add/remove software option in the windows control panel, select Ubuntu and click remove.

3)Test Ubuntu without installing

This step requires you to burn the Ubuntu iso on CD. Keep the cd in the disk-drive and simply reboot your computer. Enter your bios, edit your boot priority and make sure your disk-drive is number 1. Boot the cd, and select the option “Test ubuntu without installing”. Voila, done you are.

If you have a question about this tutorial, please leave a comment.

Wireshark is one of the most famous network protocol analyzer. To understand the way networks work completely, I recommend you read at least this page about ARP packets

Wireshark has a lot of different features, but it mainly just sniffs all the packets sent over the network.

A list of the Wireshark features are:

• Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
• Live capture and offline analysis
• Standard three-pane packet browser
• Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
• Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
• The most powerful display filters in the industry
• Rich VoIP analysis
• Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Pcap NG, Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, NetScreen snoop, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
• Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
• Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platform)
• Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
• Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
• Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text

(Source: Wireshark)

It’s been tested on both Windows Vista and Seven and it works like a charm.

Installing Vista or Seven from USB is very useful on pc’s or laptops without a cd-drive. (The EEE-pc for example)

Note: This guide is based on usage within windows operating systems. I’m pretty sure this is also easily doable on Linux but the commands would be slightly different.

Requirements:

• A USB stick with at least 4GB of space.
• Windows 7 or Vista installation files. (Can be copied directly from the CD)
• Reading carefully.

The installation:

1. Back-up all the data currently stored on your USB stick. As the USB stick will be formatted in this process and all the data on the USB stick will be lost.
2. Assuming the USB stick is plugged in, open command prompt by opening the start menu and entering “cmd” in the search bar, hit enter. (Note: If you are not an administrator this might cause issues. In this case, navigate to All Programs>Accessories, right-click on “Command prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”)
3. We need to gain some information about the USB-stick. In command prompt, type DISKPART. (If all goes well, you will see the message below)
   
4. Type LIST DISK. In this guide I assume your USB-stick is Disk 2
   
5. Type the following commands one by one. Ofcourse, if your USB stick is Disk 1, use disk 1.
   -SELECT DISK 2
   -CLEAN
   -CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
   -SELECT PARTITION 1
   -ACTIVE
   -FORMAT FS=NTFS
   (This may take a little while)
   -ASSIGN
   -EXIT
   
   Minimize, but do not close your command prompt. As we will continue to work with it later.
6. Next step is to insert your Vista/Seven DVD and check the drive letter. In this guide I will assume that your dvd-drive letter is I and your USB-drive letter is K. (You can easily find this opening “My Computer”
7. Open the minimized command prompt and type I: (Still assuming your drive letter is I)
   Now type CD Boot
8. Type BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 K: (Assuming your USB drive letter is K:)
9. You can now copy the contents of your Windows Vista/Seven dvd to your USB stick.
10. Restart your computer or plug the USB-stick in the computer on which you wish to install Vista/Seven. In the bios, set the boot priority to boot from usb/flash drives first.

Goodluck! Feel free to reply if you strumble upon something or just wish to say thanks!