« Newer Entries  
  Older Entries »

Howto Abuse DNS to Blacklist/Block Sites

By Martin L, on 21st June 2012

This is yet another utility for converting the format of one or more hosts files listing nasty or nefarious or advertising/tracking or other unwanted sites and domains to be blacklisted, into a zones list format suitable to be included into a bind9 config file. (Note: “bind9” is called “named” on some Linux distributions.)

Greater detail . . . → Read More: Howto Abuse DNS to Blacklist/Block Sites

2 comments   How

Installing the Ultimate Boot CD to USB Memory Stick

By Martin L, on 25th April 2012

The Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) is a good compendium of PC diagnostic and repair utilities. However for more recent PCs, a bootable USB memory stick version is much more convenient, especially for when there is no CD/DVD drive… Also, you can easily add your own utilities into the mix.

The instructions in the “readme” on . . . → Read More: Installing the Ultimate Boot CD to USB Memory Stick

Leave a comment   How

“ntpq -p” output

By Martin L, on 25th January 2012

The Gentoo (and others?) incomplete man pages for “ntpq -p” merely give the description: “Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state.”

I had not seen this documented, hence here is a summary that can be used in addition to the brief version of the . . . → Read More: “ntpq -p” output

Leave a comment   How, Time

Linux Sound /dev/dsp PulseAudio Interface for old Applications

By Martin L, on 9th December 2011

This is one little snippet of Linux ‘hidden knowledge’ for getting old applications that use “/dev/dsp” for their sound device to transparently interface to use instead the much more recent and powerful PulseAudio sound server system:

padsp

From the padsp man page:

padsp(1)

NAME padsp – PulseAudio OSS Wrapper

SYNOPSIS padsp [options] PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS . . . → Read More: Linux Sound /dev/dsp PulseAudio Interface for old Applications

Leave a comment   How

Howto HDD and SSD Alignment

By Martin L, on 29th September 2011

“HDD and SSD Alignment”: What’s that?!

HDD: Hard disk drive, utilising spinning disks to store data that is physically accessed using moving arm mounted disk read/write heads; SSD: Solid State Drive, utilising solid-state integrated circuits (typically flash devices) where the only movement is with electrons.

In the days of old, when HDDs were the size . . . → Read More: Howto HDD and SSD Alignment

11 comments   How
« Newer Entries  
  Older Entries »