Securing data transmission between computers is always high on our priority list. Whenever I am on a public hotspot and I need to access my email, I make sure that I have VPN enabled for all traffic (even if I can do selective routing). However, this involves a lot of setting up - determining whether to go IPSec or PPTP, etc., but what if you only need to secure the connection between two machines? You can tunnel via SSH anytime but that involves a whole lot of tweaking for other apps to use the tunnel. Here is where tinc comes in. What is tinc?

tinc is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) daemon that uses tunnelling and encryption to create a secure private network between hosts on the Internet.

Nothing beats being cautious with your data when you are on the public network. Remember, it is easy to sniff packets flying in and out of that hotspot.

So, if you want to know how to use it - check out Linux.com's tutorial as written by Dr. Ben Martin.

© Claudecf

There are things that we often take for granted, such as installing applications, relying on our crossed-fingers that it won't bork our Linux installation. Each of us probably have a thing or two to say about how best to install applications, some tips and tricks, some to-dos. However, Jack Wallen of TechRepublic, managed to come up and actually write the 10 common mistakes we make when installing applications on Linux.

I am guilty of committing some of these mistakes, like the first one, 'Installing from source when your system is primarily an .rpm or .deb system' and the seventh, 'Blindly unpacking tar files'. How about you?

The benefits of having a Mac is its support for the subscription-based .Mac services, of which synchronization between computers is one of its features. Whilst there are tools available on Linux and other *nix-based systems that allows you to synchronize subdirectories across networks, there is nothing like Unison.

Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

Check out this new discovery that I have made and see if it is useful for you. I know it is for me since I have several machines running on Mac OS X and Linux.

Skype may seem to be the de-facto standard in internet telephony (yeah, I know a lot will argue that it is not but which one seem to have the bigger share?) and I must admit that I have hooked on Skype myself. My conference calls are usually done thru Skype - either Skype-to-Skype or SkypeOut to an 800-number.

Whilst recording Skype calls on the Mac is relatively easy, an Ubuntu Musings blog entry proves the same for Linux. Scott Nesbitt, owner of Ubuntu Musings, shares his discovery of the Skype tools for Linux called SCX Tools.

Head over to Ubuntu Musings for a more detailed discussion of how to use SCX Tools to record Skype calls on Linux.

© rom

I played with Solaris on VMWare Fusion on my Macbook Pro before. However, I have been trying to tinker with ZFS but to no avail. Short of installing Solaris on its own on a separate machine, I resigned and instead told myself that it cannot be done whilst on virtualization mode.

Several weeks ago, Jim Laurent of Sun surprised me with his blog entry outlining the exact same thing that I was trying to accomplish. Yes, it was possible! Shesh. I guess I was not too resourceful in looking for ways to do it but hey, Jim did it for me - and he did more by adding USB thumb drives into the mix. Now all I have to do is follow.

Now, I wonder how this fares on my less powerful Macbook Air.

The next iteration of Solaris, OpenSolaris, is different from "your grandmother's Solaris", as described by the Sun folks. Watch the video and see what great things are coming in the next few days.



OpenSolaris targets Linux users and based on my experience with Solaris 10 so far, I'd say that they do have an interesting product that competes against Linux. What it does not have, at the moment, is the huge Linux community. OpenSolaris Community is a bit small but it is increasing.

I'd say, don't let this slip under your radar! This is one huge release - see you when they announce and release it in CommunityOne. :D

After you have installed or upgraded your Ubuntu and restored your user data, there are still lots of things to do. Tom of TomBuntu fame outlines his top 10 tips for new upgrades or installs. To summarize, his tips include the following:

• Install software faster
• Install restricted extras (and enable the multiverse repositor
• Silence the internal speaker beep
• Clear partition icons off the desktop
• Remove old configuration files
• Remove old kernels
• Give Ubuntu a cool new look
• Run Windows applications with the latest WINE
• Customize Compiz desktop effects
• Easily toggle Compiz on and off

For details, please see TomBuntu's entry on how you can do these tips.