Slackware Linux Tips
Slackware Linux is arguably one of the oldest, surviving versions of Linux; it is my distribution of choice. I am currently running Slackware 12.1 with the shiny 2.6.24.5 smp kernel. Slackware is very robust and secure, it does not use a lot of system overhead to run. This means that Slackware will run very efficiently on high-end machines and also on older hardware. Slackware has a reputation for being very difficult to use, this reputation is partly deserved.
Slackware does not use many graphical interfaces to set-up, configure your computer. You will be required to use a text editor and a root shell prompt to set-up many of the system functions. The installation procedure uses a ncurses based installer, an easy-to-use text based installer. If you are willing to learn, read, and have a lot of fun, then give Slackware Linux a try. If you feel comfortable with navigating on the command-line interface and using a text editor you will love Slackware. Once a Slacker, always a Slacker:-)
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Jailbreak without a computer
Ok, this is neat.
With every update of the iPhone firmware, the hacker community has stepped up and created a way to install third-party apps on the iPhone. This is known as a “Jailbreak.”
The approach taken with the latest version of the iPhone and iPod Touch firmware, 1.1.3, is a little different.
Since the iPhone and iPod touch are running a version of Mac OS X, they have a nice BSD Unix layer underneath. So some hackers (including a 13-year old kid) have figured out a way for the jailbreak operation to take place right on the iPhone itself. No need for a computer. It downloads the firmware from Apple using “curl” then decrypts it and jailbreaks it.
All without any intervention. Check it out: iJailBreakMobile 1.0.
I did this today and it took about 45 minutes. It worked flawlessly.
Screenshots inside.
Posted by miguel Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Categories: Tutorials
Tags: apple, iphone, iPod & iPhone, jailbreak
Windows Fundamentals on an ASUS eeePC
The Asus EeePC is an awesome little machine. I have the 701 model, which has 4GB of hard drive space (basically a 4GB flash card), and 512MB of RAM.
This model comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. Xandros is very useable out of the box. By default, the EeePC is in “Beginner mode” but you can switch it to use “Advanced mode” which is a KDE-based Linux desktop.
Linux is just fine for 99% of what you’ll want to do, especially since all the apps (OpenOffice, etc) are preinstalled and preconfigured. There’s no reason for most users to want to change the OS on the EeePC. But we’re going to install Windows on it, just because we can.
This is where Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs comes in. This is an OS that Microsoft put out to its corporate customers to install on Windows 98-Class machines. The requirements are super light — it needs 64MB of RAM, and 700MB or so of hard drive space. I had used Windows FLP before, but mainly on really old hardware or inside VMware virtual machines. It’s basically a very light version of XP SP2.