This post features RomRaider, an open source software that is used for tuning. Not tuning or optimization in the traditional sense like optimizing shell scripts, but rather automotive tuning, specifically for Subaru’s.

It supports a lot of Subaru models and is able to tune supported ECU’s from various countries.

If you like living on the edge and can get over the risks it would totally be worth it. The consequences may not be for the faint hearted though:

• An unreadable/unusable ECU.
• A blown motor and its subsequent damage.
• Unexpected behavior on the road or track that may cause injury or death to the user as well as others.
• Violation of local and/or federal laws due to the modification of the factory ECU.

RomRaider is written in Java and is cross platform (Windows/Linux) Sorry Subaru driving Mac owners, you get no love. The interface, although clunky (I mean, it is Java after all) has some pretty cool graphs that display various information in a visually appealing format. If you own a Subaru and are interested in tuning, I’d give RomRaider serious consideration before other commercial solutions.

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Accredited online
colleges have web development classes for those who want to learn more.

TOR is a nice little network service application that lets you do things over the Internet more anonymously. I’ve always been fascinated by it but never really used it. I always assumed it was hard, but getting set up to use tor doesn’t have to be hard. If you want a virtual machine that is configured to browse anonymously, check out Vatlator.

Tor comes with most distributions these days, in Fedora and Ubuntu you can just install Vidalia. Once installed open Firefox (if thats what you use) and install TorButton from the Add-ons. Fire up Vidalia from Menu->Internet->Vidalia (Gnome), wait for a connection and then toggle the Tor Status in FireFox.

To verify you are connected to the Tor network, goto check.torproject.org

Thats it, its a simple as that!

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Today we have a guest post written by Whitney from Technected. Whitney majored in journalism and has been using Linux ever since. She now works for a large automotive corporation in the Midwest. In her spare time she enjoys playing video games, gardening and watching Dr. Who.

You already know Linux is superior. There’s a reason you downloaded it, even if you had to overwrite your pre-programmed OS. You painstakingly created partitioned files for your /boot, /swap, root and /home files. You even bought a stuffed penguin — the Jesus fish of Linux users — to proudly display on your desk.

With great power comes great responsibility, though. Suddenly, everyone is asking you why Linux is so great, and if they should download it. Once you’ve worked with an OS for so long, it’s sometimes hard to simplify your answers for them, so here’s a handy list of answers for the masses

(Read on …)

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Ikea is a great place for affordable furniture that makes it an attractive resource for technology enthusiasts. IkeaHackers.net has a lot of interesting hacks that could be used by Linux users.

The kids shoebox dual computer cabinet looks like it runs Ubuntu. It also looks like kids would love it. I need to know where I can get a keyboard and mouse like that.

This may be old news but it is cool none the less. If you haven’t seen it I Introduce to you the LackRack mount your switches, or small 19″ rack mount equipment in a table. What another genius use for a piece of Ikea furniture! Here are the handy lack rack Ikea instructions in a handy pdf.

People who want to advance their knowledge sometimes look into an online PhD.

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Mikogo is calling for beta testers for their Linux version. The best way I can explain it is an alternative to webex, goto/live meeting or perhaps Bomgar. While not open source it is a free service and anyone making an effort to bring quality applications to the Linux desktop deserves a mention. I believe this is an application that Linux users could really benefit from using (I know I could) so sign up to be a beta tester and give them some feed back that will help them produce a great product people will want to use.

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Due to lack of interest, they are now FREE!

If you want to pick them up, if not just cover shipping.

Since I got the Linux Journal archive CD (2007 edition) a few years ago I’m going to get rid of my old ones up to December 2007, Issue #164. I don’t have every issue and they vary in condition, but they’re all in decent shape. If you don’t see an issue listed, the chances are it was either a subscription lapse, I lost it or it was loaned / given away. Anyway here is what I have: April 2005, July – December 2005 (7 issues) January -  September 2006 (9 issues) January – December 2007 (12 issues) Make an offer! I’d rather sell / ship them all at once, but can part with them individually if needed. I have no idea how much shipping would cost but can figure that out. If you’re located in or near Charlotte and are willing to drive, even better we can arrange a pickup, although with gas prices it might cost the same to mail it :). I’ll adjust the list above when they’ve all gone. If I ever get around to buying the 2010 edition DVD my 2008 – 2010 will be up for grabs too. Once I get rid of them I’ll have some more room on my book shelf for future editions or maybe some new books.

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Connecting to WPA networks isn’t the hassle it used to be, it is often very handy to be able to connect without the use of Network Manager. Today I’ll share with you a quick way to get connected to a WPA encrypted network from the shell.

(Read on …)

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I’ve written before about using one computers keyboard and mouse across multiple computers by using x2vnc and x2x, there is however another tool called Synergy. I never really messed around with it because of x2x and x2vnc but it is a valuable tool worth mentioning. QuickSynergy is available in most repositories that is a handy little tool to get your computers set up using Synergy and as the name suggests; quickly. If you apt-yum-get-fu it it will install all your dependencies for you and make setup a breeze.

Take a look at the screenshots:
(Read on …)

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I was in need for a way to clone virtual box vms so I wrote a quick bash script to clone them. After writing it, I realized that I could just export a VM, and then import it. There are limitations such as no snapshot support and probably a bunch I’ve never thought about. Either way, hit the jump to see the outcome.

(Read on …)

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SSH is an amazing tool, I often find myself finding new and interesting ways (at least to me) to use it. It is a great tool to have in your toolbox.

This may be hard to explain in works, but here goes.

Picture this: you have 3 hosts, Host A has outbound access only and is on the same network as Host B. Host B has port 22 open, accepts ssh and is allowed to ssh to Host A. Host C is the computer you are sitting at and on a different network. So, you need to connect to Host A from host C. The way to do this is with SSH port forwarding.

Lets say Host A is 192.168.1.2, Host B is 192.168.1.1 and Host C is 10.0.0.1 on the different network. Host C also has port 22 open.

So, in order to connect to Host A from Host C you can do the following with local port forwarding:

(Read on …)

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Management… What more is there to say? Management has the ability to either make your life easier or make your life a living hell, server management can go the same way. With these utilities Linux Server Management doesn’t have to be quite as grim. In fact having the right server management software can be very rewarding. In this post we’ll cover some of the Linux Server Management software that is available. As always, feel free to contribute your favorite tools!
(Read on …)

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