So, you want the LATEST ISO of the top hundred or so Linux distros! Is that what you want? Well, do I have a great Windows program for you! Yes, a Windows program to find the latest Linux distro… how geeky is that?!?! And, it is free and Open Source! (Of course!)

GetLinux

“Get Linux is a portable and open source download client, which interacts with a server side library for downloading numerous Linux-based operating systems. With the help of this utility, you can download more than 100 Linux distributions, by simply selecting their name from the available list. This makes it easy to obtain the most updated Linux OS, without having to manually search and download the ISO file via a browser.”

It has a nice, clean graphical presentation of the information for the distros as well!

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Cloudberry Explorer, the freeware version for Windows XP and Windows 7 is awesome… however, the Pro version (which costs money, well, $39.99) is even MORE awesome! It allows something that I REALLY want, the ability to transfer via FTP from an existing (external) host to your S3 account WITHOUT bringing it down to your local PC first. Very, very cool stuff! Highly Cloud geeky!

Cloudberry S3 Explorer – Freeware Version

“CloudBerry Explorer makes managing files in Amazon S3 storage EASY. By providing a user interface to Amazon S3 accounts, files, and buckets, CloudBerry lets you manage your files on cloud just as you would on your own local computer.”

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So, I needed a way to automate updates on my Citrix servers from a script, so I searched for a command line utility that would simpify all this. And, hooray! There is a tool that is freeware called WUInstall! It works with or without WSUS! Cool stuff!

There is also a Pro version with additional features. However, the Free version can be used commercially, or at home!

WUInstall – Automatic Command Line Windows Updater

“WuInstall enforces Windows updates and makes the entire updating process user friendly. The basic version WuInstall 1.1. is freeware.

Basic functions

Searching for updates:

/search – lists all update which are available. It either searches on the Windows Update Server in the Internet, or, if configured, on your WSUS. It has no impact on your system at all, it just does a search and lists what was found.

Download updates:

/download – does the same search as WuInstall /search and then downloads the updates which were found. WuInstall itself does not download anything, but it triggers the Microsoft Windows Update Engine, which downloads the updates.

Install updates:

/install – searches the updates, downloads them (if they have not already been downloaded by a previous wuInstall /download command) and then installs them.

New features in version 1.1:

/reboot [nseconds] possible in combination with other parameters, reboot is done after executing WuInstall with a delay of nseconds (default: 10) seconds

/criteria “query string” – searches for updates, which match the query string. For query strings see MSDN. The default criteria is “IsInstalled=0 and Type=’Software’”.

/match “search string” – searches for updates which match the search string (no regular expressions possible so far!)”

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So… there was no GSotW last week, so, we have two this week! How’s that!?! This is a good one! I use it all the time. It is a purchased product rather than free, but it is really nice and very convenient!

Flashboot – Create Bootable USB Media!

“FlashBoot is a tool to make USB storage devices bootable. FlashBoot supports USB thumbdrives and USB HDDs. FlashBoot partitions, formats USB storage device and then automatically installs operating system files to it. Supported operating systems: Windows 7/Vista, Windows XP, SysLinux-based disks, GRUB4DOS disks, Linux kernel etc.

You may create blank bootable USB flash with minimal set of system files and then manually tune it for your needs, or convert a full-featured bootable CD-ROM or floppy disk to bootable USB Flash keeping all functionality.

Most popular FlashBoot feature is a convertion of Windows installation CD/DVD into bootable USB disk to install Windows XP from USB or to install Windows 7 or Vista from USB on netbooks and other devices without CD/DVD drive.

FlashBoot is a tool with rich feature list:

• Convert Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 installation CD/DVD disc to bootable USB disk (to install Windows on netbooks and other computers without CD/DVD drive)
• Create USB disk to reset password for any user of Windows XP/Vista/7
• Extract Windows XP recovery console from Windows XP installation CD to bootable USB disk
• Convert BartPE bootable CD to bootable USB disk
• Convert IsoLinux, SysLinux, GRUB4DOS and DOS bootable CDs/DVDs/floppy disks to bootable USB disks
• Duplicate USB disks

You get all the features “in one box” if you use FlashBoot.

FlashBoot can either format physical disk or write an image file. So you may create customized USB disk manually or with another tool and use FlashBoot to create image out of it and redistribute it in local network or online.

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Now you can map your Amazon S3 Cloud Service as though it were a “local” Windows drive. You can download the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Pretty cool if you are using the S3 service from Amazon!

TNTDrive – Bringing the Cloud Closer

“TntDrive is a new Amazon S3 Client for Windows. With TntDrive you can easily mount Amazon S3 Bucket as a Windows Drive.

Unlike many other Amazon S3 Clients, TntDrive offers incredible simplicity of accessing your Amazon S3 Buckets and files.

You can work with your Amazon S3 files as easily as if they were on your local drive!”

Posted by DrBill | 1 Comment »

This week we have a VERY unusual Geek Software of the Week, I am publishing my “crib notes” om how to build the perfect (for me anyway, your mileage may vary) Fedora Client using Fedora 16! I spent a good part of Christmas vacation searching for, and finding, methods to build my perfect client, and, now, all the info is gathered in one place… enjoy! (BTW… this is for the 32 bit version of the build.)

Download Fedora from:

http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora

Burn the .iso file to a CD, boot from it, and choose the local hard drive install.

—

Install Remmina RDP Client, and plugins, from Add/Remove Applications within Fedora itself.

—

Install LibreOffice from Add/Remove Applications

—

Download and install the Adobe Flash Plugin via Firefox from Adobe:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

—

Install Citrix Receiver from the downloaded file located at:

http://www.drbillbailey.net/files/fedora/openmotif-2.3.3-1.fc14.i686

Or, use these commands in a terminal session:

sudo yum install openmotif-2.3.3-1.fc14.i686
sudo yum remove cjkuni*

If you get a blank window named “PnaAuthDialog_popup” when running Citrix Receiver, the following solved this problem for me:

Adding an extra line in /etc/sysctl.conf at the end of the file, using your favorite editor with root privs:

net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0

…and reboot.

—

Then, install the Chromium Web Browser by making Chromium available (add a new repository)

Place this file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory (files content between the lines below)

——————————
# fedora-chromium.repo
# Place this file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory

[fedora-chromium-stable]
name=Builds of the “stable” tag of the Chromium Web Browser
baseurl=http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/spot/chromium-stable/fedora-$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=1
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=0

[fedora-chromium-stable-source]
name=Builds of the “stable” tag of the Chromium Web Browser – Source
baseurl=http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/spot/chromium-stable/fedora-$releasever/SRPMS
enabled=0
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=0
—————————–
(The next command is all one line, be sure to enter it as such)

sudo rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Then install Chromium from Add/Remove Applications

—-

Install Adobe Flash in the Chromium Browser (download from the Adobe web Site)

flash-plugin-11.1.102.55-release.i386.rpm

sudo rpm -ivh flash-plugin-11.1.102.55-release.i386.rpm

—-

Download and Install the VMware View Open Client:

http://code.google.com/p/vmware-view-open-client/downloads/list?q=RPM

Download and install:

sudo rpm -ivh VMware-view-open-client-4.5.0-297975.i386.rpm

—-

Download and install Dropbox from the Dropbox web site:

http://www.dropbox.com

—-

Set up vpnc (a Cisco compatible VPN client)

This info will help you convert your .pcf file to a .conf file for vpnc:

http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-connect-to-a-cisco-vpn-using-vpnc

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:vpn

cp the vpnc.conf file that you create to /etc/vpnc/

—

Install vlc player from Add/Remove Applications

—

Set up Java:

Enter this command:

sudo yum -y install java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin

—

Install Codeweavers (Purchased) Standard Edition

http://www.codeweavers.com/account/downloads/

crossover-standard-10.2.0-1.i386.rpm
Install after downloading

—

e-Sword Install:

Download e-Sword
Download the e-Sword Crosstie from Codeweavers:

http://www.codeweavers.com/via/e-sword

Install using Crosstie

—

Install audacity-freeworld from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install EasyTAG from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install GIMP from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install Inkscape from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install Filezilla from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install KompoZer from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install clamz from Add/Remove Applications
(Allows downloading MP3s from Amazon Cloud Reader as .amz files)

—

Install Bluefish HTML Editor from Add/Remove Applications

—

Then install ClamAV (Yes, an Anti-Virus for Linux!)

sudo yum install clamav clamav-update

Edit the configuration file with your favorite editor

vi /etc/freshclam.conf

and perform the following change:

1-add a # in front of “Example” (to comment/disable it)
# Comment or remove the line below.
#Example
2-uncomment (remove the # in front of) the line “DNSDatabaseInfo current.cvd.clamav.net”
# Use DNS to verify virus database version. Freshclam uses DNS TXT records
# to verify database and software versions. With this directive you can change
# the database verification domain.
# WARNING: Do not touch it unless you’re configuring freshclam to use your
# own database verification domain.
# Default: current.cvd.clamav.net
DNSDatabaseInfo current.cvd.clamav.net
3-Localized the virus database source to the nearest one by adding a new line “DatabaseMirror db.XY.clamav.net”, and changing XY by your 2 characters country code, here for Vietnam it will be:
# Uncomment the following line and replace XY with your country
# code. See http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm for the full list.
# You can use db.XY.ipv6.clamav.net for IPv6 connections.
#DatabaseMirror db.XY.clamav.net
DatabaseMirror db.vn.clamav.net
4-be sure that the following line is uncomment
DatabaseMirror database.clamav.net

—

Install clamtk (a graphical interface for ClamAV) from Add/Remove Applications

—

Webmin is a great web-based tool for system administration.

Install webmin from webmin-1.570-1.rpm (Download from http://webmin.com site)

—

To display desktop icons, run this command as a normal user, in your account:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true

—

To allow Brasero to work to allow CD Burning of Audio (MP3) Files:

yum install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-ffmpeg

—

Speed up Firefox under Fedora with these steps:

Open Firefox
In the location bar enter the following:
about:config
In the filter bar enter the following:
network.http.p
Select the line that reads “network.http.pipelining”.
Double-click “false” so it changes to “true” for this value.
Next select “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests”.
Double click on the line and a text box will appear, enter “8″. The default is 4.
Next select the value”network.http.proxy.pipelining”.
Double-click “false” so it changes to “true” for this value.
Close and restart Firefox.

—

Install Skype

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/linux/downloading.fedora

—
Install beesu (allows you to run nautilus (file manager)) quickly and easily, however, you have to install it from yum, not Add/Remove Applications; use this command:

yum install beesu

Then, you can use it by typing:

beesu nautilus

—

Install gedit-beesu-plugin from Add/Remove Applications

—

Install nautilus-beesu-manager from Add/Remove Applications

—

A Note on File Associations in Fedora:

You may associate file extensions (like .mp3 or .m3u) with specific applications graphically. Go into nautilus (file manager) and right-click on a file with the extension you want to set. Click on “Properties” and then click on the tab marked “Open With” and select the application you want to use to open it, and set it as Default in the interface.

—

Also, an EXCELLENT resource to find answers to Fedora problems and issues is:

http://fedorasolved.org/

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So, a media server. It serves out media on your computer to your local area network (LAN) and makes it available to other PCs, and devices internal to your network. Well, Plex is that… but MUCH more! There is also a Plex client for Roku! In your Roku account just enter code word “Plex” and you can add the Plex app to the Roku, and get stuff streamed from your Plex Media Server software on your local network PC! But wait, there’s more!

Plex Media Server

“The solution for your local and online media. Plex/Nine is a flexible Media Center made up by two major components – the Plex Media Server and numerous Plex Clients. This lets you create a true server-based Media Center where information about all your media is stored in one single location. Plex/Nine also gathers information or metadata about your media and displays it in the Client making choosing which show to watch a rich and pleasant experience.

Plex on Your Desktop

Experience your media on a visually stunning, easy to use interface on your TV. Your media has never looked this good!

Plex for Mobile Devices

Effortlessly connect to all of your favorite local and online content, all presented seamlessly on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android devices.

LG Connected Devices

LG Electronics has integrated the Plex platform technology into its 2011 Netcast™ enabled HDTVs and LG Smart TV Upgrader, making the Plex experience available through a range of products from a global leader in consumer electronics.”

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Help others! Access your home computer from work! Transfer files! Free for personal use! Awesome!

TeamViewer – Remote Access Software

“TeamViewer – the All-In-One Solution for Remote Access and Support over the Internet! TeamViewer connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Find out why more than 100 million users trust TeamViewer!”

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Firefogg is a web site, and a software plug-in for Firefox, that allows you to convert videos to Ogg Theora and WebM from their web page. Very neat, and very tight, compact WebM videos!

Firefogg Web Site

This is what I use to do my transcoding of an M4V video to WebM for the Dr. Bill.TV show!

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This is awesome FREE software! Very, very useful. I needed to pull one file out of an ISO image that I had. I was able to install Virtual CloneDrive, mount the ISO as a drive letter, and get the file! “Awesome!,” I say!

SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive

“Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.

Probably the best virtual drive software, Virtual CloneDrive allows you to enjoy the freedom of a virtual drive and is completely free.”

Features:

• Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD
• Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time
• Easy to use – just double-click an image file to mount as a drive
• Virtual CloneDrive is freeware, you may use it at no cost.

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