tech.nocr.at » open source

AirPlay On Linux

Frank — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:55:42 +0000

Apple’s AirPlay is a great technology. It lets you stream music and video wirelessly to Apple products like iPods, iPhones and to the Apple TV. It also can be used to stream to Apple approved hardware like speaker docks, AV receivers and stereo systems. The problem with it, like most Apple technology, if your not on the “Apple approved” list your SOL.

The thought of AirPlay being supported in open source software is unheard of, until now. The Totem media player, which installs by default on most Linux distributions, now has an unofficial plugin that will let you stream media via AirPlay.

Instructions

Clone the git repository

git clone http://git.sukimashita.com/totem-plugin-airplay.git

Move the files you just cloned (make sure you create the appropriate directories if needed)

mv * ~/.local/share/totem/plugins/airplay

That’s it. Start up Totem, enable the plugin and start to enjoy streaming media from any other AirPlay capable device. Now that the open source world has nailed down the AirPlay standard, it shouldn’t be too long before we start to see it supported in things like XBMC or Android.

[Link to Totem AirPlay Plugin]

AirPlay On Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2011 | Permalink | 5 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: air, airplay, android, apple, apple tv, dock, ds, ea, id, iphone, ipod, ir, led, linux, loa, make, music, nda, nes, open, open source, os, pen, phone, plugins, rc, rod, stream, tech.nocr.at, technology, tor, video, wire, wireless, xbmc | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Motorola Tells Modders To Go Elsewhere

Frank — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:43:27 +0000

Android by it’s nature is an open source platform, a platform that is open to anyone and any changes as long as they comply with the Apache 2.0 license. So why have manufacturers like Motorola and HTC spent so much time fighting against people modding or creating their own ROMs? That might be a question that will go unanswered for a while, but today a rep from Motorola spoke out publicly and quite harshly against a custom ROM user on YouTube – leading Motorola to apologize to the Android community by way of their Facebook page.

Motorola has taken some heat from the Android community for including locked bootloaders on their devices. Today, a modder voiced his displeasure with Motorola’s policy via a comment to a YouTube video on Motorola’s channel, somebody using Motorola’s account wrote:

if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.

If you have ever spent any time reading YouTube comments then you would know that a comment like that wouldn’t be well received. A number of anti-Motorola discussions started to pop-up like weeds today all over the Internet in response to the YouTube comment which lead Motorola to apologize to the community via their Facebook page.

We apologize for the feedback we provided regarding our bootloader policy. The response does not reflect the views of Motorola.
We are working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users’ interests. More detailed information will follow as we get closer to availability.

A Tiger’s stripes never change and neither will Motorola’s. I’m sure we will never see them “enable developers to use our devices as a development platform” or see “More detailed information”. I stand behind the fact that companies who use open source software in a commercial product should allow it to be open and free, not locked down.

Motorola Tells Modders To Go Elsewhere originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2011 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, android, book, boot, bootloader, comments, commercial, ds, ea, ebook, facebook, follow, heat, htc, id, ir, led, loa, lock, mod, modder, motorola, number, open, open source, os, pen, rc, rip, rod, tech.nocr.at, time, tor, tube, ui, video, youtube | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Seas0nPass: 2nd Gen Apple TV Jailbreak

Frank — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:04:33 +0000

The guys over at fireCore have just released Seas0nPass, an application that will jailbreak your second generation AppleTV. Seas0nPass requires you to tether your AppleTV briefly during boot in order to preform the jailbreak by loading custom IPSW files onto your AppleTV.

fireCore is a name that is synonymous with AppleTV hackers. The group also released aTV Flash, unlocking software for the first generation AppleTV that added additional functionality like XBMC and a browser.

Seas0nPass is open source and free and only works on the second generation AppleTV, so don’t try using it on your iPad or iPhone. It currently only works with OS X 10.6 or later and a Windows version is currently under development.

Remember, jailbreaking an Apple device can lead to rendering your device useless if you don’t know what your doing. By the looks of it over at fireCore’s website most people seem to agree that jailbreaking the second generation AppleTV is riskery than other Apple devices. If your okay with the risk you can grab Seas0nPass here.

Seas0nPass: 2nd Gen Apple TV Jailbreak originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2011 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, apple tv, appletv, boot, cat, ds, ea, fire, flash, hack, hackers, ipad, iphone, ir, jailbreak, loa, lock, open, open source, os, os x, pen, phone, rc, ring, tech.nocr.at, tether, ui, unlock, useless, wind, windows, xbmc | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:30:11 +0000

In our next installment of Distros That Don’t Suck we will be looking at open source HTPC software. Sure you can load up VLC or even use Windows Media player, but having a dedicated solution with a UI that is made for a TV is a lot easier and pleasing. I’ve left the PVR-centric software like MythTV and Freevo off the list since their main purpose is to act as a PVR. I’ll be reviewing open source PVR software by itself at a later date.

XBMC – The Xbox Media Center Project started as homebrew software for the original Xbox gaming system and has since been ported to Linux, Windows, OSX, AppleTV and even as a standalone Linux based LiveCD/LiveUSB image. It offers a clean UI, intuitive interface and can play just about anything you throw at it. It offers a plugin system with a huge repository of community plugins to enhance the experience. It’s real easy to setup and it’s configuration is portable across operating systems. If you have an old Xbox laying around this makes a great HTPC that is powerful and best of all cheap.

MediaPortal – This is a Windows based HTPC software so technically it’s not 100% open source since it requires Windows and doesn’t offer a Linux port. If offers everything you would expect in HTPC software; Video streaming, DVD playback, Internet Radio, Picture Gallery and it’s own plugin system. You will need a compatible TV Tuner card to enjoy PVR features and to watch TV but it’s not needed to run the software. If you are a Windows fan and are looking for an alternate to Windows Media Center this is as close as you can get without the cost.

Element – Element is an open source HTPC system that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and the ability to play back just about any media locally or over the Internet. Element also has it’s own framework for offering add-on modules that allow you to play content from services like Hulu, Cooliris, Boxee, Clicker, Amazon on Demand and Youtube. They have adapted the UI’s of popular open source software like Firefox and Pidgin so that it fits the TV experience better than their native desktop versions. They also offer an Android app that allows you to use your Android phone as a remote control; definitely a neat idea for the times you can’t find the remote anywhere.

GeeXboX – A Gentoo based fully functional media center that can be run from LiveCD, LiveUSB, or be installed on a hard drive. GeeXbox is a very lean distro that doesn’t require a lot of processing power so it’s perfect for older hardware. It uses Enna as it’s primary media center application to play your music, videos or look at your pictures. This is the perfect distro for the no-frills experience when you just want to play your media and aren’t looking for any additional functionality.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2011 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amazon, android, apple, appletv, avi, boxee, car, cat, cheap, control, cross, distro, drive, ds, dvd, ea, evo, experience, fire, firefox, frame, freevo, Gaming, gentoo, hard drive, homebrew, htpc, ical, id, internet radio, ir, led, linux, live, loa, make, media center, mod, music, mythtv, nda, open, open source, os, pc, pen, phone, picture, plugins, portable, power, proc, pvr, radio, rc, remote, remote control, rim, ring, service, stream, tech.nocr.at, time, tor, tube, ui, usb, video, vlc, watch, wind, windows, xbmc, xbox, youtube | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Windows Phone 7 NES Emulator Barred

Frank — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 05:12:48 +0000

Looks like Microsoft is “pulling an Apple”; barring an emulator of the classic 8-bit video gaming system NES. Matt Bettcher has put some hard working into getting this emulator to work (video of it running after the break) and Microsoft has just shut him down.

Matt is looking to drum up community support in hopes of changing Microsoft’s mind, and in the meantime he will be releasing his project into the open source world. Come one Microsoft, every device with a screen and an input device should have an NES emulator.

Windows Phone 7 NES Emulator Barred originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Eavesdropping On GSM

Frank — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 05:30:07 +0000

Speaking at the Chaos Computer Club on Tuesday, a pair of researchers demonstrated a method of eavesdropping on encrypted GSM calls and text messages by using a few cheap pay-as-you-go cellphones and a variety of open source software.

The ability to listen in on cellphone calls has been available to law enforcement agencies for a while, but even if the average person could they would have to invest in about $50,000 of hardware to do so, until now. The modern day phreaking takes advantage of security flaws in the GSM network and puts the power within the reach of almost any tech-savvy user.

By using custom firmware that they built in a few cheap Motorola cellphones, they created a bunch of cell phone "sniffers" that send real time raw cell network data back to a computer via a USB connection. By sending a target phone an SMS, they were able to determine what random network ID number belonged to the target.

All that was left was to decrypt the raw information they captured. This was easily accomplished with the use of a 2 GB rainbow table.

I’m sure with time, the software and firmware that was used in the demonstration will make it’s way into the average Joe’s hands and we will all be doomed. It’s not really modern day phreaking, back then all of us were just curious. There is no other use for this besides grabbing peoples personal communications.

Eavesdropping On GSM originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2010 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: 2010, ac, air, cat, cell phone, cellphone, cheap, computer, ds, ea, firmware, gsm, hack, hacked, hacking, id, ir, loa, make, messages, mod, motorola, nes, network, number, open, open source, os, pen, personal, phone, power, rc, security, sms, tag, tech.nocr.at, text, time, tor, ui, usb, vest | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:07:18 +0000

Following our list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck, More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck and Even More Distros That Don’t Suck, we are going to start to narrow our lists to a specific role.

In this installment of our “Distros That Don’t Suck” we are featuring routers/firewalls. Sure you can use your default DLink or Linksys hardware router to preform these tasks but why not bring it to the next level with much more control and features like VPN and bridging?

NOTE: The contained list includes projects that are 100% free and open and don’t charge for additional components or functionality. There are plenty of projects that offer a lite or free version of their solution but charge you for more advanced features.

pfSense – pfSense is a FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall with a whole slew of features. Besides your basic NAT/Firewall capabilites, pfSense offers packages that can enhance it’s feature set like a transparent virus proxy for web surfing and Snort for sniffing packets. pfSense also comes with PPTP, IpSec and Open VPN support baked in and support for OpenBSD’s CARP hardware failover which allows you to have two boxes configured as a failover group. I’m been using pfSense for a few years now and love it. It’s an enterprise grade product with an easy consumer interface. Definitely my favorite.

m0n0wall – Another FreeBSD based stateful packet filtering firewall which is what pfSense is based on. It’s pretty much has the same feature set as pfSense with a few minor exceptions. It’s really stable and is one of the older distros in the firewall/router game. m0n0wall will run on pretty low end hardware and offers an embedded option so you can run it on embedded hardware like an ALIX board. A great option if you want something you can set and forget.

IPCop – Originally a fork of the SmoothWall project, IPCop is a Linux based stateful firewall built on the netfilter framework. IPCop offers a simple update mechanism to install updates and offers many addons that add additional functionality like QoS and virus checking. Geared toward the home or SOHO user, IPCop offers a highly configurable firewall/router that can run on almost and hardware you have laying around.

DD-Wrt – If you don’t have a spare computer laying around to power your router/firewall and would like to take advantage of a hardware WLAN you already own then DD-Wrt is right up your alley. A fork of OpenWRT, DD-WRT is a Linux based alternative firmware suitable for a long list of WLAN routers. If your hardware router is supported a simple firmware upgrade to DD-WRT will add a lot of the same functionality to your hardware that most of the distros in this list offer. A great way to mod existing hardware to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the unit. May I suggest the Linksys WRT-54G-L.

Zeroshell – Zeroshell aims to provide an easy to install and maintain Linux based firewall distribution. Zeroshell is powerful enough for an enterprise load but surprisingly easy to configure with complete set of options like VPN, QoS and VLAN support. Based on Linux and available as a LiveCD or Compact Flash image, Zeroshell falls into the “easy and powerful” category. Great for someone who doesn’t want to screw around too much and just wants something that works.

I’m sure I have missed other great projects that offer a firewall or routing. If you know of a distro that should be in our list let us know in the comments.

Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2010 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: 2010, ac, bsd, car, cat, comments, computer, control, dd-wrt, distro, ds, ea, fail, fire, firewall, firmware, flash, follow, frame, game, id, ipcop, ir, links, linksys, linux, live, loa, m0n0wall, mod, open, open source, openwrt, os, pc, pda, pen, pfsense, power, rc, ring, rod, router, tag, tech.nocr.at, ui, update, virus, zeroshell | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

RTCW Open Sourced

Frank — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:37:56 +0000

During the recent QuakeCon festivities id released something that should make the modding community super happy; source code. People can now access the source to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Return to Castle Wolfenstein via id’s FTP.

The code is being release under the GNU license which allows for both free and commercial use as long as credit goes to id and no one tries to claim it as their own.

I wonder how quickly we will see some awesome game modded off the source.

RTCW Open Sourced originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

RTCW Open Sourced

Frank — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:37:56 +0000

The code is being release under the GNU license which allows for both free and commercial use as long as credit goes to id and no one tries to claim it as their own.

I wonder how quickly we will see some awesome game modded off the source.

RTCW Open Sourced originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DIY: Auto Tracking Sentry Gun

Frank — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:22:08 +0000

Every wanted to build you very own auto tracking sentry gun? No? Me either, but now that I take a look at it I do want to build one. Not one that fires bullets or anything, but one that would have a water gun on it to keep people out of my office.

If you’re like me and wanted to make one of these you would probably ran into the same issues I have. So to help all you poor suckers out the software we developed is open source and freely available on the website. The only reservation we have is that you make it a point not to hurt anyone or anything, we take no responsibility for anything.
The point of making it open source is to encourage joint development of the software and hardware possibilities.
If you follow the instructions properly you will end up with exactly what you wanted. After collecting all the hardware you will probably spend a long weekend putting it together. It doesn’t take a genius but it helps to be able to solder and do some basic handcrafts.

You can head on over to his website where he has detailed instruction on building one and all the software you will need to make it work.

DIY: Auto Tracking Sentry Gun originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

In Case You Missed It: Week 42 Round Up

Frank — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:49:12 +0000

In case you missed anything this past week, we have everything from cooling with mineral oil to video editing on your iPhone. Enjoy.

Gadgets

Asus Keyboard PC

Gaming

Cool Your Xbox With Mineral Oil
PS3 Smashing Into A TV At 80 KMH
Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter
Black Wii For The Brits
Rock Band For iPhone Now Available

Hacking and Security

Remote Control That’s Impossible To Lose
DIY: Build A Solar Power Station
PS3 Laptop
Hard Drive Lock Pick

Mac

Dead: ZFS For The Mac
Rebel EFI: A Thorn In Apples Side
ReelDirector: Video Editing For Your iPhone

Tech News

Project Eagle Claw: Taking Out The Scammers
Skype And Chrome Go Portable
Microsoft’s App Lab
Windows 7: Will You Upgrade?
B&N Nook Officially Released
Super Fast Robot Hands

In Case You Missed It: Week 42 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amp, apple, asus, band, bluetooth, case, chrome, control, dead, diy, drive, ds, ea, editing, fast, Gaming, hack, hacking, hard drive, id, iphone, ir, key, keyboard, laptop, loa, lock, Mac, microsoft, mineral oil, nook, open, open source, os, pc, pen, phone, portable, power, ps3, rc, rebel efi, remote, remote control, robot, rock, rock band, roundup, rss, scammer, security, skype, smash, solar, tech.nocr.at, tor, ui, video, weekly, wii, wind, windows, windows 7, xbox, zfs | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Skype And Chrome Go Portable

Frank — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:13:34 +0000

The guys over at PortableApps.com have been turning out great portable apps for years now. Apps that you can easily put on a USB flash drive and run from any machine. All of the software that they offer is open source, until now that is.

PortableApps has decided to add a handful of closed source apps like Skype and Chrome to their list of offerings. Project lead John T. Haller offered a number of reasons for the move, ending with “it’s the right thing to do. Keeping an open platform and allowing all software to compete on a level playing field just makes sense.”

Besides fan favorites Chrome and Skype, Free Commander, SpyDLLRemover and 2x Terminal were added. IcoFX, XMPlay and a few others are expected soon.

[link to PortableApps.com]

Skype And Chrome Go Portable originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter

Frank — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:58:31 +0000

Gordan Savicic and Gottfried Haider of DSbrut have just released their open source bluetooth adapter for the Nintendo DS. The adapter will allow the DS to interface to other bluetooth devices like GPS units and keyboards. This should really open up the homebrew scene.

Almost two years in the making, we’re happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we’re making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.
In our design, we use a tiny ATmega168 microcontroller to make the Nintendo DS speak to the RN-41 Bluetooth SMD module by Roving Networks. Using this piece of hardware the Nintendo DS can scan its neighbourhood and establish connections to other Bluetooth devices (supporting SPP). The module can also be remotely connected to, allowing for a range of interesting applications. We also developed a software library for the Nintendo DS, making it easy to use this new Bluetooth interface.

[Link to Open Source Bluetooth DS Adapter]

Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Gaming | Explore more in: ac, avi, bluetooth, bra, car, cart, cat, control, controller, design, ds, ea, Gaming, gps, hack, hacking, homebrew, id, ir, key, keyboard, loa, make, mod, network, nintendo, nintendo ds, open, open source, os, pen, rc, remote, robot, tech.nocr.at, tiny, wire, wireless | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Use Chrome On Your Mac Now

Frank — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:22:59 +0000

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has already announced the arrival of Google’s web browser Chrome for the Mac in a couple of months, but if you can’t wait that long you can run a surprisingly stable early version of the fast browser right now. This isn’t even considered a beta yet so don’t start to cry if you run into any bugs.

Just a friendly warning. Although the early release seems pretty stable there are some things that still aren’t working properly or are lacking like certain privacy features. I wouldn’t go using this to do any online banking but if you want to use a browser that is super fast for general browsing it’s good enough.

You can also grab the nightly builds of Chromium which is the open source part of Chrome.

[Link to dev release of Google Chrome for the Mac]

Use Chrome On Your Mac Now originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Bedazzler – DIY Non-Lethal Weapon

Frank — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:18:08 +0000

No, this isn’t the original Bedazzler stud rhinestone machine but an open source non-lethal weapon. Modeled after The Dazzler (a $1 million sea-sick flashlight), the Bedazzler can be built for under $250 and will easily cause nausea, dizziness, headaches, flash-blindness, eye pain and vomiting. Based on that don’t be an idiot and point it at people, use it in self defense situations only.

This is a great Arduino project for all of you out there who really love blinking LEDs. All of the schematics and PCB files are up on Instructables

Mad props to ladyada for the deisgn.

Bedazzler – DIY Non-Lethal Weapon originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:44:43 +0000

I, much like every other hardcore geek on the face of the earth, have multiple linux based distro iso’s laying around. Some of them are for testing and some of them contain tools that I use on a daily basis. I have had many people email me about the best distro out there. The only answer I have for them is “depends on what you want to do”. I have spent sometime working on a list of Linux distros and what they are good for.

Now, before I start. Discussion distro’s with people is like discussion religion. Everyone has one and everyone feels something different towards other people who aren’t of the same faith. I just want to remind everyone that this list is just what I see, and how I feel about each distro. It’s definitely not a “what’s right and what’s wrong” type of list. Enjoy.

Knoppix – The one that started it all. Knoppix was the first major LiveCD based distro to hot the scene and open up a whole new world of bootable operating systems. This is probably the best known and most complete LiveCD distro out there. It contains everything you need to act as a full production replacement system. Word Processing, graphics editors, media players, browers, mail clients. You name is, Knoppix has it.

SystemRescueCD – This one I keep with me all the time. SystemRescueCD is a massive collection of tools to help you get out of a bind. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, …) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It is very easy to use. Plus, it can also be booted via a USB flash drive. A must for anyone’s collection.

Dynabolic – Billed as a complete media distro, dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more; all using only free software!. Just boot off the CD and your ready to go.

BackTrack – The king of all penetration testing and security distros. If you’re worried about security or exploits then this is the one for you. With more than 300 different up-to-date tools which are logically structured according to the work flow of security professionals. This structure allows even newcomers to find the related tools to a certain task to be accomplished. New technologies and testing techniques are merged into BackTrack as soon as possible to keep it up-to-date.

NimbleX – This is one of my favorite all around LiveCD based distros. It’s full featured but a lot smaller than something like Knoppix. With everything you need to act as a Desktop replacement in a 200 MB CD image, what more can you ask for.

Gentoo – The hardcore Linux distro. What makes Gentoo unique compared to other distros is the need to manually compile every part of the OS. I know that their are gui installers now and pre built packages for the mindless, but having the ability to tweak and optimize every aspect of the OS will not only give you a stable system, but one hell of a quick one too. Mind you, all of this compilation could easily take you days before you have a base system, especially when you make Xorg and a windows manager like KDE or gnome.

Debian – My day to day OS. Debian is one of the oldest and most stable distros around. The core to a bunch of other distros like Knoppix and Ubuntu. If your looking for something that will give you no headaches and carries a very stable branch of applications, Debian is the distro for you.

Ubuntu – Ubuntu is Debian to the next level. It’s a fork of Debian that has quickly become the most popular Linux distro in the world. It’s easy to install, easy to use, and is probably the best Windows replacement OS that is Linux based. Ubuntu’s software repository contains applications that are more recent than say Debian, but the down side to that is the fine edge you walk on when it comes to stability.

Fedora – The big boy on the block, and by big boy I don’t mean popularity, I mean in size. Fedora comes chalked with what seems like every application ever made. Although to some this might be nothing more than bloat, to others it’s a full and complete experience. Install Fedora and you pretty much have every open source application that is useful at your finger tips. If you have never experienced Linux before this is a great distro to get your feet wet with.

I know there are other great distro’s like Slackware, DSL, and OpenSUSE, this list is just a collection of distro’s that I find useful or that I have had experience with. Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | 23 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, audio, avi, backtrack, boot, bra, car, cat, comments, computer, debian, distro, drive, ds, dynebolic, ea, editing, email, experience, exploit, finger, fire, flash, gentoo, gnome, graphics, ical, id, ir, iso, kde, knoppix, led, linux, live, loa, lock, mail, make, mid, nda, network, nimbex, open, open source, os, pen, proc, rc, rip, rod, security, small, sound, stool, stream, system rescue CD, time, tool, tor, ubuntu, ui, usb, video, wind, windows, wire, wrong | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Industrial Strength Firewall, Poor Mans Budget

Frank — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:44:27 +0000

What in this world could protect your computer(s) or network better than a firewall? If you said not connecting your machine to the Internet your right, but most of us can’t live for more than a few minutes without being online. Hell, it gives me the shakes.

Now, here at the Frank residences we have multiple machines. A family machine, a MythTV box, various gaming consoles, a bunch of laptops, and a bunch of servers that preform various tasks. We also have multiple static IP’s to help out with the work load. It’s a lot of traffic coming and going, and although a basic Linksys or Dlink might do just fine, I was looking for something more flexible, something more powerful. I have gone through many open source firewall/router packages in the past and they all have their pro’s and con’s, but one the I have stumbled on and love is pfSense.

This project started in 2004 as a fork of the m0n0wall project, but focused towards full PC installations rather than the embedded hardware focus of m0n0wall. pfSense also offers an embedded image for Compact Flash based installations, however it is not the primary focus. It has a powerful packaging system that allows you to add additional functionality like a squid proxy server or Radius server to it’s already long list of features.

Right out of the box you get some neat features that you might only see in a massive commercial product.

Outbound Load Balancing – If you have multiple Internet connections you can use the built in load balancing feature to bridge them together into one fat pipe.
VPN – Built in OpenVPN, PPTP and IPsec servers for when you fell like calling home.
Redundancy – Setup 2 multiple firewalls. In case one pfSense server dies, the other one will pick up the slack.
Real Time Graphing – See exactly what’s going on with your traffic.

If you have a spare PC laying around and want the solid protection that a industrial grade firewall can offer then give pfSense a try. You really don’t need to be a BSD wizard to install it either. Download the iso, burn it to a cd, load the cd and choose install. All of the configuration and settings are changed via’s it’s intuitive web page.

Give it a whirl, you won’t be disappointed.

Industrial Strength Firewall, Poor Mans Budget originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/05/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | 4 Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: ac, bsd, case, commercial, computer, console, ds, ea, fire, firewall, flash, Gaming, hack, hacking, id, ir, iso, laptop, led, links, linksys, live, loa, m0n0wall, Mac, machine, mythtv, nda, nes, network, online, open, open source, os, pc, pen, pfsense, power, rc, rim, rod, router, server, time, ui | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

VisualHub Discontinued

Frank — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:01:28 +0000

My beloved VisualHub, oh how I will miss you. That’s right, Tyler Loch (founder of Techspansion) has decided to close the door. Now I know there are a lot of tools on the Mac to help your compress or re-compress video, but none are as simple and powerful as VisualHub. For less than $25 you got Flash, DVD, mp4, divx, WMV and more, plus it is super easy to convert a video into a format that is friendly to the Mac family of products like the iPhone and AppleTV.

Tyler says that it was a difficult decision and is a personal one. He’s readjusting his priorities. He also has no current plans to move VisualHub into the open source world.

VisualHub Discontinued originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Rockbox 3.0 Sneaks In

Frank — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:21:06 +0000

Rockbox, the open source replacement firmware for many mp3 players (see all supported players here) quietly release it’s first major update in over 3 years. Included in the update is support and stability for more mp3 player, playback support of more file types, last.fm support, album art, games, and tons more.

With this new release comes a streamlined installation tool called RockboxUtility that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It makes installation simple. So if you have an old mp3 player laying around that you want to breath new life into, Rockbox is for you.

[Link to Rockbox]

Rockbox 3.0 Sneaks In originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

XBMC ‘Atlantis’ Beta 1 Released

Frank — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:01:27 +0000

The uber cool open source media center application Xbox Media Center (XBMC) has just release the first beta of XBMC Atlantis for all platforms (Windows, OS X, Linux, Xbox, and even on a live cd or thumb drive). Don’t let the beta status scare you, these guys are really close to brining this to production. Mac OS X users get a pretty benefit out of their release, integrated iTunes and iPhoto support. This could easily replace Front Row on every Mac, even replace your AppleTV if you have a Mac Mini laying around.

XBMC is free as in beer and works on all platforms. It’s still in beta so if you experience a bug here or there report it, but it’s been running real smooth on my machine.

[Link to XBMC]

XBMC ‘Atlantis’ Beta 1 Released originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, beer, bug, car, cat, drive, ea, experience, front row, ir, itunes, linux, live, Mac, mac mini, machine, media center, mini, nes, open, open source, os, os x, pen, photo, rc, rod, wind, windows, xbmc, xbox | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

CrossOver Chromium Brings Chrome To OS X And Linux

Frank — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:48:57 +0000

The crafty open source developers at Codeweavers have beaten Google to the punch and release Mac OS X and Linux native versions of Google’s Chrome browser.

Before you start to jump for joy, this is more a proof of concept that and actual production run browser. The developers don’t recommend that you run their port of Chrome as your main browser. In my testing with the Mac port of the browser I quickly noticed that it was missing that smooth look and shine that you get with the Windows version. This might be okay if you just want to test drive Chrome and don’t have a Windows machine, but not something you might want to use day to day.

Maybe this will light a fire under Google’s butt and speed up development of Chrome for other OSes. Then again, maybe not.

[Link to CrossOver Chromium]

CrossOver Chromium Brings Chrome To OS X And Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DD-WRT: Bring Out The Best Of Your WiFi Router

Frank — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:37:23 +0000

By using an open source replacement firmware you can turn your $60 Linksys WRT54G into a feature rich router that would easily be worth over $600. All with variants of the OpenWRT firmware.

The DD-WRT firmware is a third party developed firmware released under the terms of the GPL for many 802.11g wireless routers based on the Broadcom chipset. No special hacking is needed. If your supported device is listed then you can simply download the firmware for your router and by using the web based upgrade feature found on every router you can flash it to accept the new feature rich dd-wrt firmware.

The list of feature os too long to mention, but for a quick tease you will have VLAN, VPN Server, and QOS available to you, just to name a few.

If you are looking to really bring out the best in your WiFi router or if you are like me and like to tweak ever possible setting then the dd-wrt firmware is for you. You can check their page for a complete list of supported hardware

[Link to DD-WRT]

DD-WRT: Bring Out The Best Of Your WiFi Router originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Opentape

Frank — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:08:21 +0000

I had never heard of Muxtape until it was shut down by RIAA. Thanks RIAA for brining such an awesome service to my attention and thanks for moving the open source project Opentape to the forefront so we can continue to enjoy this fantastic product.

Opentape isn’t affiliated with Muxtape, but it’s similar in functionality and best of all it’s open source and can be run by anyone who has a server that’s running PHP5.

Lifehacker has a great detailed step-by-step on installing Opentape on your own server so you too can go old school and build your very own mix tapes.

[Link to detailed Opentape step-by-step]

Opentape originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

TrueCrypt: Now On OSX

Frank — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:04:43 +0000

The super popular open source disk encryption software TrueCrypt is now available for the Mac OS.

TrueCrypt creates a virtual encrypted disk that mounts in the Finder and provides on-the-fly 256-bit encryption. You can keep this virtual disk on your drive or on a USB thumb drive and can even be hidden. TrueCrypt relies on MacFUSE to work all of itâ€™s magic.

Given the softwares roots itâ€™s not surprising that the interface isnâ€™t very Mac-like. Nevertheless, you mount and create virtual disks via the TrueCrypt application and interact with them via the Finder.

TrueCrypt is a free grab from sourceforge.

TrueCrypt: Now On OSX originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

BugLabs Now Open For Business

Frank — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:55:06 +0000

The BugLabs store in now ready for business. For those of you who donâ€™t know what Bug Labs is all about itâ€™s a modular â€˜snap it togetherâ€™ computer base. Essentially you mix and match various components like an LCD screen , motion sensor, camera, or gps receiver.

I can only imagine the sheer about of hacks that will quickly surface for this platform. I canâ€™t wait until I get my hands on these â€œlogo for grown-upsâ€ components

Link to BugLabs
Link to BugLabs Store

BugLabs Now Open For Business originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Macworld Keynote

Frank — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:59:46 +0000

Just like was expected the blog-o-sphere went crazy over the Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs. Almost every blog was live-blogging the event, live-blogging the live blogs, and live blogging the live blogging of the live blogging (you get the idea).

This is why I wanted to wait until all of the mass hysteria over the keynote was done and over with before I weighed in on what happened. Unfortunately the iPhone coming to Canada didn’t happen as I thought it would. I guess the whole ComWave Apple trademark dispute still hasn’t been resolved. Apple has a lot of money, and money can always buy you what you want.

Here’s my lonely take on the 4 things SJ talked about.

Time Capsule: A brilliant idea in my opinion. Time Machine has become the single feature of Leopard that made the upgrade worth-while. A built in backup solution that just works and works well, is something that every major operating system was lacking. Time Capsule takes it one step further. You no longer need to have a dedicated drive connected to each of your machines to preform backups, with the Time Capsule (essentially a airport extreme with a built in hard drive) backups can now be done over the network. With a 500gb and 1tb model set to ship, you should be able to backup all of your macs without a problem. I wonder how long it’s going to take some crafty hackers to create an open source version of this so that we don’t have to be limited to the dedicated unit.

iPhone and iPod Touch: Nice features but in my opinion stuff that should have been there from the beginning. An SDK was long over due, and the basic iPhone apps like Mail should have been on the iPod touch right out of the gate. Plus, what the hell is the deal with the $20 charge for the touch features? Just because they can call anyone they are being penalized. I really thought the Canadian thing would go through, but I’m sure they still have a stickler with ComWave which has been using the name iPhone here well before Apple introduced the product.

AppleTV and Movies: This was probably the single rumour that had been floating around that was correct. We all knew that Apple was planning on getting it the Movie rental business. Revamped AppleTV’s and free firmware upgrades for current AppleTV owners will bring Movie rentals right to your TV without the need of a computer. The AppleTV upgrade will allow you to purchase or rent movies directly from it’s interface without having to use iTunes on a separate computer. You can also subscribe to podcasts and videocast right on the unit. Fox also announced that they will be shipping DVD’s with embedded digital copies of the movie so you no longer need to rip em to watch them on your iPod.

Macbook Air: I want one, i want one, and i want one. Now that i got that out of the way. The worlds lightest laptop. I don’t know how that justify doubling the price when you move to a solid state drive, but it’s one hell of a jump from $1700 to $3000 based on a hard drive choice. I wonder how many will flock to purchase these units.

I was expecting something completely out of left field, which we didn’t get. Call me crazy but I think this was one of the most over hyped Macworld keynotes I have ever seen. Yes the Air is nice toy but it’s still just a notebook.

Macworld Keynote originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, air, amp, apple, appletv, apps, avi, backup, backups, blog, book, bus, cat, computer, drive, ds, dvd, ea, ebook, firmware, hack, hackers, hard drive, hysteria, id, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, ir, itunes, job, jobs, key, laptop, leopard, light, live, loa, lock, Mac, macbook, macbook air, machine, mail, mit, mod, movie, nes, network, notes, open, open source, os, pen, phone, rc, rental, ring, rip, rod, rumour, sdk, steve jobs, time, time capsule, time machine, touch, ui, video, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Quickly Install Open Source Software

Frank — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:30:28 +0000

Here is two great pieces of software to make sure that you are getting the best open source replacement software you can get your hands on. WinLibre (for Windows) and MacLibre (for the Mac) allow you to install and update some of the best open source software available for the two platforms. This is great if you are setting up a fresh system and want to grab all of the cool apps that you need like Firefox or Thunderbird. You can also run the application periodically to check for any updates or to install newer versions of the software you already have installed.

Both applications are free and available for their respective operating systems.

Quickly Install Open Source Software originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Neuros OSD – Hack Away

Frank — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:11:46 +0000

The Chicago based company Neuros Technology International has created a very unique product. The Neuros OSD (for open source device) is a versatile media recorder that, by using a memory card or a USB drive can record video from multiple sources that is then stored in MPEG-4 format.

The OSD has not only open hardware, but also open software: it is based on the Linux operating system. Neuros Technology encourages hacking of the device; it has contests with cash rewards for new applications for the OSD. One winner, for instance, designed a program that lets people use it to watch YouTube on their televisions.

A company that will sell me a product that I can hack without them being upset? Where do I sign up!

It’s what the AppleTV should have been. I hope that Apple and Sony are listening.

Neuros OSD – Hack Away originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Gadgets | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, car, cash, cat, contest, design, drive, ds, dvr, ea, hack, hacking, id, ir, linux, memory card, neuros, open, open source, os, osd, pen, rc, rod, sony, technology, tor, tube, usb, video, watch, youtube | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

MythTV and Zap2It Labs to offer TV Listings

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Fear-not fearless open sources PVR’ers, the people over at MythTV are real close to striking a deal (albeit a pay one) to have listing services continued.

Zap2It labs, which has provided free TV listings in Canada and the US announced last month that they were discontinuing their free service. Shortly thereafter a group of Mythtv and XMLTV developers joined forces to explore alternate avenues.

The answer, http://scheduledirect.org. They are offering the same level of service as was offered by Zap2It labs for $15 / 3 months. They aren’t quite ready to offer the service yet but they are assured that the service will be ready to go before the September 1 deadline that was set by Zap2It labs last month.

They have an announcement list setup to let everyone know as soon as they are good to go.

MythTV and Zap2It Labs to offer TV Listings originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Firefox: 400 Million Strong

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Firefox has made the 400 million mark, quite impressive. The open source browser has only been around for about 3 years, so achieving this number is quite impressive. There are reportedly about 120 million or so regular Firefox users, which makes me wonder what happened to the other 280 million went.

81% of our readers are regular Firefox users, good for all of you.

Firefox: 400 Million Strong originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Unofficial Linux Support For New iPods

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

We reported earlier that Apple had cramped the open source style of synching your new iPod with Linux, but now some crafty kids, 36 hours after the story made the rounds online, have got some code to get everything working. Details can be found here.

Unofficial Linux Support For New iPods originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

SIP for the SMC WSKP100

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

II’m a big fan of open source software. Probably the biggest piece of open source software that is heavily used (ok, besides MythTV) is our Asterisk phone system that runs all of the phones here at home. The problem with depending on Asterisk is the need for SIP based phones or SIP adapters, which can get quite costly. This is why I was delighted to see the guys over at SpriteMods.com hacking an SMC WSKP100 Skype phone to enable the SIP protocol.

Why is this exciting news you ask? Well, SMC currently sells an identical phone to the WSKP100, the WSP100, which has SIP enabled. The key difference, the price, the WSKP100 which only does Skype out of the box is almost $150 cheaper. Go figure.

Check out all you need to know about hacking the SMC WSKP100 to enable Skype at http://spritesmods.com/?art=wskpsip&f=had

SIP for the SMC WSKP100 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.