Archive for November, 2009

When open source software is better than closed source software

We recommend an interesting article by Bjørn Willum, published on the online news site, Berlingske Tidende, on November 25th, about the subject, when open source software is better than closed source software.
The article mentions changes from closed source software to open source software, such as operating systems and office applications, at major public installation sites [...]

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OpenOffice and file locking on network file system (NFS)

When opening an OpenOffice document, that is stored on a network file system (NFS), OpenOffice is known to crash due to a problem in OpenOffice, that has to do with locking of files, which prevents users from working in the same document. Unfortunately, there is no solution yet because OpenOffice believes, that the problem is [...]

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Creating an encrypted file system with FreeBSD

The cryptographic tools in the FreeBSD operating system are able to protect data on file systems from highly motivated people with significant resources. Unlike other encryption methods, that encrypt individual files only, such as PGP, the cryptographic tools in FreeBSD transparently encrypt entire file systems. No clear text ever touches the hard drive.
In our example, [...]

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Preparing Windows users for Xvid encoded movie clips

Xvid and DivX is a compressed high quality movie format, that is widely used on the internet in order to reduce file size. The word Xvid or DivX should appear in the filename to indicate this movie format.
Computers, that are based on the Windows operating system, might not be able to play Xvid or DivX [...]

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Keeping your Facebook clean from quiz results, application photos and more

Applications on Facebook and their automatic quiz result feed, photo feed and message feed are a huge problem on Facebook. These applications are annoying and they spread like virus by exploiting your friends. Some applications even lead to loss of money by exploiting your mobile phone or credit card.
In our example, we want to keep [...]

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Consulting for the FreeBSD operating system

The power, flexibility, and reliability of FreeBSD operating system attract a wide variety of users and vendors. We are now listed among the vendors, that offer commercial products, services, and/or consulting for FreeBSD.
Visit the homepage of FreeBSD. Point your mouse to Support and click Vendors. You will now see the page of Commercial Vendors. Click [...]

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Key management for Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

In order to begin protecting our privacy, such as protecting exchanging of private messages or protecting the storage of private files, by using signed and encrypted communication with the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) standard, we need to prepare our key rings, create our own key, share it and make it trustworthy.
Our key rings will consist [...]

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Configuring mail client for message signing and encryption

In order to sign and encrypt messages, your mail client must be configured, so it will be able to use signing and encryption software.
The goal is to be able to

sign and encrypt,
sign only,
encrypt only,
decrypt and
verify.

In our example, we want to configure an alpine mail client on a FreeBSD operating system to use GNU Privacy Guard [...]

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Live public service TV on Linux and Mac

For a long period, the public service television in Denmark, Danmarks Radio (DR), has been streaming their channels on the internet in H.264 format for their Linux and Mac users and their VLC client.
Now, new channels has been added, a new live page has been added, which uses an embedded flash player, that Mac and [...]

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