So my Dad's computer had a few Trojans on it - Such a pain, so much so, that he install Ubuntu!

But He still needs XP, so here's how to remove those nasty viruses with ClamAV

This would work from a Ubuntu liveCD as well, so you could just boot to a CD, and run these commands

Install ClamAV

Update Virus definitions

Find Windows Partition - You want the partition that is NTFS - That's the root windows partition - /dev/sda2 in this case

A quick walkthrough on setting up scripts in the Nautilus right-click menu

I've been using Bonjour chat for Home automation updates - When someone calls, a chat box will appear with the caller id info.
But Bonjour chat isn't working in Ubuntu 9.04 - It crashes Pidgin.

So why not use the slick new notification system?

Awhile back I wrote a tutorial for setting up a LAN instant messaging system.
It works quite well for in-home stuff, like sending links and small files to other people in the household.

I've wanted to send IMs via the command line - My servers could update me with stats and the like.
And here's how to do it in Ubuntu 8.04 (May work in others, haven't tested)

We'll need a few programs - mzclient to broadcast our presence to other IM clients, and telnet to send IMs (telnet _should_ already be installed!)

When things finally click in the brain and work on the machine, happy things happen!

I keep adding to my home automation server. This time I got an old ISA modem. Found it in the piles of cards in my chicken coop (which I use for computer storage now). And I got caller ID working on it.

Setting Up the Modem

If your modem already works, skip this!
Had to get the modem detected and IRQs all set right. Yup, it's that old! Found a free IRQ by running

PXE Network booting allows you to boot a computer over the network.
This means I can install an OS, or run a live cd on a computer that doesn't have a CD-ROM drive or Hard drive.
I can also install Ubuntu without needing to burn a CD every time.

It's pretty sweet.

I'm using Ubuntu Server 8.04 for my PXE server.
A PXE server consists of two things (Same for Windows based OSs):
* A DHCP server that hands out the correct info (In Windows DHCP management it's options 066 & 067)
* A TFTP server that shares the bootable files over the network.

Just got unlimited texting on my cellphone....

Items needed:

1. A dedicated email address for the relaying (POP3, SMTP, no ssl)

I've wanted an Instant Messenger to use between our home computers. Useful for sending links and small files easily to each other.
But I don't want to make everyone sign up for a gmail/whatever account.

Here's how to do it using Pidgin and Zeroconf!

Make Gnome look like XP by running this simple script:

WARNING: Run at your own risk! I take no responsibility for anything that happens to your computer!

Before / After

(click on screenshots for a bigger picture)

VPNWiz uses cisco PCF files to connect a GNOME linux desktop to a cisco vpn server.

Download the VPNWiz zip file, and run the install.sh file.

Go to "Apps -> Internet -> VPNWiz" to start it - follow the wizard to connect.

Click on the VPNWiz icon in the system tray to disconnect.