Open Source Auditor

Redirect... to Evernote

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 14:26:00 +0000

I am now blogging at http://browncp.blogspot.co.uk/

It felt wrong to keep blogging here because I'm no longer an Auditor using Ubuntu & Android. Instead I'm a Business Analyst using Mac and iOS. This Change of scenery has to mean a change of topic: How I live my life in the cloud...

My life in the cloud and the tools I use to acheive it

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:02:00 +0000

I have been backing up to the cloud for about 7 years but it wasn't until 3 years ago that I switched my thinking: my local files are my backup/cache for the cloud services. At about the same time I switched to Ubuntu Linux because it was cheaper to run than Windows, I was a student . The transition was easy because all I needed was a browser.

From Wikipedia entry on clouds

From having my life in the cloud I have noticed the following benefits:

Sharing/Collaboration - My Father-in-law collects stamps and he uses dropbox to store his spreadsheet of presentation packs he owns and wants. Every Christmas I open the file and check knowing that it is accurate and up-to-date because it is his file. I could update it but I don't that would spoil Christmas morning .
Platform independence - I regularly use different platforms (Windows, Apple, Open Source etc) during my personal and professional life, so having my life in the cloud means all I actually require is a browser.
Offsite copy - Disasters that effect me at home are unlikely to effect my data in the cloud. Unless I live close by to a Google data centre. In seriousness this distances my data from my personal disasters. AND Who is likely to have the better backup and redundancy of its IT infrastructure Google or me and my wife?

I am not, however, blind to its flaws:

Internet accessibility abroad - Within my home country I have no issue finding the internet for a reasonable price. I have a Mifi, a phone with tethering and plenty of cafes for wifi and Cappuccino. But abroad is a totally different story. Data usage abroad is a seems to be a cash cow for phone companies. Many phone operators in EU are owned by the same parent companies so in alot of cases their is coverage. So is the air abroad more expensive to transmit through?
Business closures or government seizures - What happens to my data if a company goes out of business or gets its servers taken by the local government (Like with megaupload). The forma I "try" and mitigate by paying for the service in the hope that my contribution will help . But latter: unless we have relatives in the police/FBI we are unlikely to get wind of a seizure up front. So we need to either accept this risk or encrypt the data.
Applicable laws - kind of linked to the last point, my data is under the jurisdictional of the country in which it is stored. When Megaupload assets were seized, the authorities didn't distinguish between the ownership of the hardware and the data. So all the data was lost and open to scrutiny by the FBI. Even the data owned by citizens who live outside their jurisdiction. Those of us in EU have Safe Harbor but I am unsure how much this protects.

So moving on from the doom and gloom here are a few of the productivity tools I use:

Google mail and Calendar - obvious right...
Evernote - Note taking app that can be used to "remember everything". I couldn't live without this service. I love it so much I am a premium member even though I don't require the additional features it brings..
Google Drive - Is not as full featured as Microsoft Office but I don't need these features for writing the rare letter or spreadsheet of party guests for my wife's 30th birthday party.
Dropbox - Dropbox has the additional feature of syncing files between multiple computers. Although I do not use it. If you want to join dropbox use this link: http://db.tt/kJTMyIX
IFTTT (If That Then This) - This is a tool that does a good job of connecting cloud services together. A couple of examples: Photos I am tagged in on facebook are moved to dropbox; Emails starred in gmail are duplicated in Evernote.

The result of being so far in the clouds is that I have convinced myself to buy a Chromebook. Maybe inspiration for a future post:

Should open-source morals stand in the way of Linux world supremecy?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:44:00 +0000

In the recent past Valve and Blizzard have both come out with damning comments regarding the up and coming Windows 8. Valve has backed these comments up, announcing that they will be porting Steam to Ubuntu. Windows 8 and metro is a gamble and Valve thinks that it will fail. Could this mean Linux has an opportunity to gain market share from windows? Is Linux ready? Is what has made Linux now becoming its own worst enemy?

Microsoft’s Gamble

The Metro interface has been developed to take full advantage of touch. Not unlike Gnome 3. The problem with Metro and Gnome 3 is that the shells primarily cater for touch while alienating traditional PC set-ups. Gnome 3 has become very unpopular for that reason and Microsoft may be starting to make the same mistakes. Just as Debian has now dropped Gnome3 in favour of xfce, many developers like Blizzard and Valve could reduce development on the platform.

In my opinion only Ubuntu has managed to create a interface that is as good for touch as it is for PCs. Only problem is there is no Ubuntu tablets. LOL! Apple on the other hand continue to develop two separate operating systems one for touch (iOS) and one for Macs (OS X). Windows has ignored the signs and continued to develop for touch.

But this is the least of Microsoft's problems: Microsoft are alienating their corporate customers by providing a operating system that isn't office friendly. I cannot imagine writing documents and/or emails just on a touch interface. It would take too long. Or trying to navigate through Metro with a Mouse and keyboard. Metro is an innovation too far. Ubuntu's Unity is the compromise...

To make things worse, Microsoft is going into competition with their OEM partners with the Surface. This is sure to make enemies of partners who through mutual benefit created a monopoly of the PC market. Dell already has a history of shipping Ubuntu PCs/Laptops and could do again in the very near future.

It couldn't be a better year for Linux to gather pace and steal market share from Windows. Valve has already committed to porting Steam to Linux with Ubuntu being first. So is this the year or Linux or Ubuntu.

Linux Fragmentation

Like it or not Linux is fragmented. The advantage to fragmentation is choice. Choice is a good thing for those who know that their is a choice. But for the majority of users they don't want choice they want to watch kittens doing funny things on youtube. Companies on the other hand wants stability and long term support.

So is Linux ready? Ubuntu is ready:

Its already popular
Recent release of a Long Term Support
Already has an good brand.

While the rest of the open source community are discussing whether it is ethically right ot wrong to allow Steam on to Linux. Ubuntu has positioned its self as a real alternative to windows.

Conclusions
In my opinion only Ubuntu and maybe Mint (Ubuntu derivative) are ready for the mainstream. The "Linux" brand will indirectly benefit from Ubuntu's market share gain, but it will be Ubuntu who will really benefit from when it breaks free of its Linux branding and becomes its own Brand. I can only hope that in the future Ubuntu;s brand will stand up and not out of place next to Windows and Mac OS.

For more thoughts see my post on How Unity has helped Ubuntu branding.

References

My excitement at Doctor Who Season 7

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Seeing the trailer and hype around the new season of Doctor Who, reminded me of the Darl-egg

I made an easter long past.

And a picture asfter the doctor arrived...

More pictures can be found here

Should Linux acknowledge windows viruses?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:34:00 +0000

I believe that a good internet citizen must understand the threat caused by malware, regardless of whether the malware affects you. We all must attempt to try and stop the infection for others. Windows viruses often do not infect linux architecture but that doesn't stop linux contributing to the spread.

This blog post will explore viruses for Linux and to try and decide whether virus protection is really required for Linux distros.

In life there is no right or wrong only choices. If you choose to run Linux on your home computer then you have chosen a largely malware free architecture. Why? Because:

Malicious individuals are more likely to focus on a architecture with a large user base like windows. Although it is a blessing it is not in the interests of distros to keep the numbers of users low.
System architecture is designed to ensure only authorised process have access to root. This starves the malware of root and so restricts or stops the damage it could inflict.
Due to the open source nature of Linux updates are coded much faster.
The viruses that are written are confined to labs.

But Linux is not a choice suitable for everyone. So for the mid to long term windows will remain a popular operating system. So does it make sense to use your system resources to ensure due diligence before you send on files to windows users? Or alternatively a user who chooses to use windows must ensure they protect themselves?

In my experience of the corporate environment both Linux and Windows are used to achieve company goals. We do not utilise anti-virus on our Linux servers because all our windows machines are protected. Wonderful when you can rely on policy and standard windows images to ensure this.

I suggest using clamav before sending files to users you like but as good internet citizens we should all influence the windows users we know to install a virus protection system. Do it now!

But beware viruses for Linux do exist. Cross platform applications like Firefox, Chrome and wine give viruses a chance to use these apps as a common interface. Javascript can be executed in the browser of any platform and could using the browser to infect your OS.

In closing SecurityFocus columnist Scott Granneman writes

"To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it"

References

Who benefits from Humble Bundle?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:28:00 +0000

Humble Bundle made over $5,000,000 but who was the real winner of this promotion. Humble Bundle is a collection of cross platform, DRM free independent games that can be purchased at a cost you determine. You also have the control of the proportion you pay to, developers, charity and Humble for setting up and hosting the promotion.

Ethical direction

The games involved are not open source but the scheme does feel very open and fair. Probably because:

All games are DRM free
No Operating System is left out
Consumer pays what they want/think its worth
Charities benefit.

Financial viability

The humble scheme offers developers addition revenue and/or advertising. The consumers get to decide how much to pay, meaning on average cheaper games (saving of around $146.47), and help a charity if they desire. Charities benefits as they have no costs in the scheme.

Being associated with a project like to humble is great advertising. Their software maybe being sold at extreme sale prices but their brand benefits from being associated with a charitable and open scheme.

The games "donated" look to have just passed their peak in revenue and industry focus. Nothing wrong with that: I buy mobile phones that just stop being popular/expensive enabling me to benefit from an upgrade without the cutting edge price. At worst case a developer is selling their games for nothing, charity and Humble benefits from 5 million dollars of revenue, their older games get regenerated and their brand receives public respect for their involvement.

Case study: LIMBO (http://limbogame.org/)

LIMBO was released 2 years prior to Humble V.
From Xbox sales alone it made 7.5 million dollars.
During Humble V it cost £9.99 in Ubuntu software centre.
599,003 potential downloads by new customers.
At least one new fan (me)

Conclusions

In utopia I would want everything to be sold in a similar manor. Imagine being able to decide how much money each person is deserving of (Distributor, Developer, Tax, Charity etc). I guess the concern is that no one would pay. I would suggest that if you are worrying people wouldn't pay it then maybe your not worth the amount. Humble Bundle looks to be a success but they do manage the risk by: making it time bound; Selling "older" games; and having charities benefit. Would the scheme work if it wasn't time bound, with brand new games?

Only one criticism, As a native English speaker, I never noticed anything on the site that suggested the games were multi-lingual, which would make the scheme even more accessible and open. I may have missed it and happy to change this post if I have.

Best of both SSD and HDD for your Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:52:00 +0000

The old rule of thumb for when I wanted a cheap upgrade of performance was to install additional RAM because this increased the amount stored in fast memory and reduced usage of the slower HDD. Now SSD is comparable with RAM speed we have more choice for improving performance. But there is always a but. SSD is still expensive so storing all your MP3s, pictures and videos could hurt my wallet. But there is another way thanks to a piece on lifehacker Podcast: Install a small super quick SSD into the laptop for OS and apps and keep HDD in CD bay for multimedia.

Here are the advantages:

Fast boot times
Fast application loading
Perfect balance in cost
Only a small SSD is required
Reuse HDD for storage

And disadvantages:

You lose your CD rom drive (I bought a external USB dock for sending drive)

Required hardware and Software:

SATA to SATA HDD caddy for laptop cd drive bay
SSD drive (60gb)
Ubuntu LTS 12.04

Steps:

Backup
I used TAR command to back up contents of the /home/. Alternatively you could use Deja Dup.
Remove CD drive All CD drives will be different so please consult your manual on how to remove the drive.
Remove HDD
Same as the CD drive... consult your manual.
Insert SSD
Slide the SSD into the location that used to be inhabited by the HDD
Insert HDD into caddy
Insert Caddy into CD drive bay
Reinstall OS and restoreI installed Ubuntu 12.04
Configuration changes
- I made sure SWAP is on the HDD
- I made it s RAM needs to be 85% utilised before it will use the SWAP
- Updated /etc/fstab to use TRIM, disable meta data and move tmp file system to memory:
- Changed the file system scheduler to deadline which is better suited to SSD

For more infomation go to
http://apcmag.com/how-to-maximise-ssd-performance-with-linux.htm

_____________________________________________________________________
References

War on Piracy is hurting the legitimate consumer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:53:00 +0000

This post started life as a rant towards Samsung for breaking my blu-ray player with a firmware update in Jan-2012. But this one event has made me realise how damaging the war against piracy is on the innocent legitimate and paying consumers. I will interject my tale with other examples.
Blu-ray distributors continually change the encryption algorithm they use for their new discs to stay one step ahead of pirates but this means that all blu-ray players relie on the mother company to issue it firmware updates. Often the discs are distributed quicker than the firmware and so your excitement is diminished when your disc doesn't play. But some times the firmware can break the device: like it did for me.

In the news this week, Diablo III's release was damaged by server issues. These server issues affected everyone and not just the online multi-players. EVERYONE! Blizzard only allows consumers to play the game unless it keeps a constant connection with Blizzards software. Developer hopes that this will make piracy difficult but at the cost of the honest consumer. No off-line play, your at the whim of their servers, and there is no trust. I think if you are a paying customer you should be treated with respect.

Back to my blu-ray player: It was out of warranty but I am still in need of the firmware for the reason stated earlier. But Samsung have still not admitted blame and have offered me next to nothing in compensation. As a consumer I do not want to be blamed for issues that come about by a companies lack of trust.

DRM has always been a pain for paying consumers. eBooks, mp3s and videos all have had DRM attached to it by companies like Amazon, Apple, BBC, Channel 4 etc etc. Restricting who can play a media is beneficial again to the distributor but at the cost of the consumers flexibility: Only certain devices (ipods), restricted number of devices, no sharing nor freedom. I do not care about company profits especially if that company treats its consumers with distrust.

Again back to Samsung: all I want is a working blu-ray player that works with all blu-ray titles.

So anti-piracy controls MUST be invisible.
The paying consumer MUST be trusted.
Flexibility to use the media however and whatever way they wish.
If DRM does restrict enjoyment then distributor MUST accept blame.

Hopefully, Samsung will now see the error of their ways....

In parting I want to propose an idea: If you have purchased a book in paper format why the hell could you not trade it in for an electronic version?

Win your privacy back... with TOR, DuckDuckGo and others

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:22:00 +0000

When you are watching a spy movie and the agent is trying to track someone on the Internet. Only to be foiled by the Nemesis' protecting his anonymity by bouncing his traffic around the world, making it impossible to trace. This is not just the thing of fiction. Its called Tor. Its real, free and open source...

This blog post will cover why you should use services like Tor, Duck Duck Go or others to protect your privacy and hopefully discover that it isn't wrong to want to keep some of your life private and not feel like a criminal.

When your using the Internet assume that your being watched. There are the accepted watchers: ISP, Search engines, Social networks and cookies. There are the unacceptable watchers, the ones with evil intent: Using snooping software or trojan. And many in between, so it's a safe assumption that you are being watched. Be it in real time or by reviewing the trace you have left. A server log, facebook post, viewed YouTube video or search history are left behind for who knows how long. So before you delete your Facebook account, cancel your connection and go back to pen and paper, there are things you can do.

Search

If you trust google then there is nothing to worry about. They will store your OS, browser, IP address, location, search queries and clicked results, and you in return get access to their search index. For most searches this is acceptable but you should have a choice when to be private. So what are the choices:

Logging out of your Google account: this will not stop them collecting the data but it is no longer assigned to your account. This makes it slightly harder but not impossible to track you. Google has also made it nearly impossible to log out because it's account is required for all its services: Gmail, Calendar, blogger and even Android.
Using another search engine: again this will not stop them collecting the data but it will stop just one company monopolizing your data. But why do this sounds like too much effort to me.
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that doesn't track you. PERIOD. It really is a geeks search engine because there are loads of commands or !bangs that enables you to do tailored search of specific websites or features. Some examples are: !ducky which is like the "I'm feeling lucky" feature; !images shows only images; and !XDA will search xda. There are many many more. My only negative is I don't like the interface but it could be because I am used to Google.

What I do: I use a combination of DuckDuckGo and Google for when I choose to be tracked or not.

Social network

Using services like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter is a double edged blade... The obvious privacy concerns are that people who over share could end up diverging information to family, friends or potential employers that could be negative. But these sites will track you outside the wall of the website by using services like Facebook's "like" and Google's "+" this information is then sold to advertisers. It might be acceptable to be traced using a social network but not after you have left it....

The "named internet" is necessary if you want to use facebook or google+ but there are alternatives. Out of the anonymous social networks, the most popular of them is 4chan. But be warned with anonymity means 18+ material.

What I do: Lifehacker has a great article on how to lock down social networks from tracing you outside its domain. I also turn off third party cookies.

In Facebook specifically I have created groups for colleagues, real friends, family etc, these help me separate my social groups and I also approval all content my friends tag me in...

Everything

Developed by the US Navy and code donated to the open source community. TOR makes you pretty much 100% anonymous. By bouncing between nodes, your location and IP address are hidden. All traffic is encrypted and each node only knows its last node so all traffic is encrypted and origin-less. Your ISP will see encrypted traffic, websites will not see your location or IP address and cookies are deleted after the session. The overhead however is performance, encryption and node bouncing take its toll on speed.

TOR gives you a platform to do anything anonymously but you cannot sign into any website (facebook or google) because once you do you will be trackable.

What I do: Download the TOR-Browser bundle for linux (other OS's are available) and you will have everything you need to get started.

Conclusion

This blog has brought together the tools but you need to decide how you would like to use them. Privacy is a personal and private decision. You have a right to be anonymous but that doesn't mean you have to use it. You can read and acknowledge this blog and decide to ignore it. That's your decision. If you know of any other tools please post in comments.

In closing its a good idea to review your Internet footprint and think about what you would leave if you died tomorrow.

Top Andoid apps that a power user would use

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Here are the Android apps I use and roughly how I configure them...

Disclaimer: My phone is a rooted HTC Sensation with a ICS rom called Revolution HD and all prices quoted are at time of posting.

Lets start with System Apps

Titanium backup is the only real choice for backup but it does requires root. This app is your friend after installing that new rom which required a wipe of all your data. TB enables you to restore all your apps with data back on to your device. Key features I use are:

Backup scheduling - Every other night at about 2am I backup any changed apps or new apps. Then once a week backup jobs runs during the night to redo all apps. Other possibly helpful scheduled tasks are clearing cache once a week and deleting backups of uninstalled apps.
Syncing to Dropbox - other services are available like box and google drive but I use Dropbox. Setting it to automatically sync after a full redo of all apps is my preference.

You will need the premium version if you want to use it like me. At time of writing it was £4.50

Rom Manager is basically a front end to ClockworkMod recovery. ClockworkMod is a replacement of the phones recovery and is mainly used to install custom ROMS. So most functionality requires the phone to reboot into recovery to complete. As a result I use this mainly to control:

Full backups of the phone to enable full recovery if things go wrong. Very usefull even if you do not plan to install a custom ROM.
Set up installation of new ROMS

I have the premium version but cannot remember if the free version was good enough. The premium version costs £3.99.

Dropsync Pro. A backup is not disaster proof unless you store it in a location that will not be affected by the disaster. For example: My phone is stolen, but don't worry, my backups are on the SD card in my phone. FML! However, this app allows you to pick folders on your phone to sync to folder on Dropbox. Folders I back up are:

Pictures and videos
Titanium backups
ClockworkMod backups

The Pro version allows for uploads of large files, so this is essential and costs £3.49.

SetCPU does exactly as it says on the tin if you have root ;) . The idea behind it is when your not using the the phone why would you need your single/dual/quad core going mental. So this app tames or overclocks (if your kernel allows) your CPU:

Create profiles for low battery, Screen off and plugged in.

This app is free!

SMS Backup+ saves all your SMS to gmail, not only acting as a backup but also making it all searchable from the web interface. But not only does this app backup all your SMS, it can also be used to backup your call log, also to gmail.

I usually have it backup once a day

The app is also free :)

NOTE: To save Battery and Data ensure that you only sync when using wifi and the device is plugged in. Most apps have these setting built but for those that do not you can use Droid Wall

Opps I forgot Droidwall. A very basic friewall for android that lets you decide what apps can access the internet over wi-fi and mobile.

I use the blacklist function so apps like dropsync and Listen (see below) cannot get access to my precious mobile data allowance

Droidwall is my third free app in a row!

Lets finish on Personal Apps

Feedly is a RSS reader interface which turns RSS feeds into a more magazine like experience. I prefer this over Pulse that is too complicated and like currents you are limited to feeds that they provide.

I sync it with google reader which enables me to use any device (PC, mobile, tablet or work laptop) and it remembers what I have read.

I am on a roll cos this app is free.

Listen is also a RSS interface but for podcast feeds. Brilliant for listening to my favorite podcasts (Tech Weekly, BBC Click, Lifehacker, Ubuntu etc).

To save mobile data I have set it up to download new podcasts directly to my phone each night while I sleep.
And it automatically deletes the podcast once I have listened to it.

Another free one!

Last and the favorite is Evernote. I use this on EVERY platform I have. I love it and I pay for it. It is a cross-platform note taking software.I use it to rule... I mean plan my entire life... Some ideas of how I use it are below:

I save things I want to it
I use it to manage my todo items
It stores my ideas for later
Project planner
Shopping lists
etc

It perfectly good for free but I pay just because I do not want this service to stop.

Why get a tablet when you have a laptop and smart phone?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:49:00 +0000

I was inspired by this post by Joe Wilcox and conversations with fellow IT colleagues at work.

To help profile me, I own a rooted HTC Desire, rooted Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a laptop running Ubuntu 11.10 I have to admit when the iPad was released I couldn't see the point in it. I had a iPhone and a laptop and there was no room in my life for a tablet. That's because there was no gap...

When I got my tablet it had to steal market share / functionality from my phone and laptop. The games, apps, reading, web browsing, photos and video viewing is now the job of my tablet. It has become my "fun" device. Its easier to sit and relax on a sofa with a tablet while watching tele, than boiling my balls with a laptop or straining my eyes on a small mobile screen.

But... anything creative and/or work related (video and photo editing, blogging and financial planning) and I must resort back to using my laptop because tablets are just not very good for typing or multitasking. My tab is wifi only so I still need a smart phone for calls, texts and remote browsing.

NOTE: I am making this blog post using my laptop.

I had hoped when I bought my tablet that it would replace my laptop eventually and I think it could for most people. If you are anything like me then it won't be long until you crave a keyboard, need more power or multitasking. But I love my tablet because I associate it with fun...

New York New York

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:44:00 +0000

After my 6 day trip to New York, I have had a few people ask me to write down the things which I learnt that may help future trips to this amazing city. However this is my first hand experience in June 2011 and other experiences may differ.

Tips
An integral part of New York is its reliance on tips. Call me tight but I often will only give about 10% at a restaurant for good service. It is something to be earned. In New York 15% is expected for OK service because these people are on below minimum wage and the 15% makes up that shortfall. Most restaurants include a helpful guide on their receipts offering 15%, 18% and 20% for OK, good and excellent service respectfully.

During our break we often gave tips greater than 15% because the service is much greater than that I am used to in the UK and so we felt it was deserved. But it doesn't stop there...

We tipped the room maid a dollar a day for cleaning our room. A small price to pay when that person has access to your room without you present. The bell boys expect around a dollar a bag for taking them to your room or calling a taxi. Remember to also tip the taxi driver 15% too :s .

Booking in advance
If you want to traverse to the pedestal or crown level of the Statue of Liberty you must book tickets at least 2 weeks in advance as these often sell out. These tickets also give you a reserved place on a ferry.
Unless you get a reserved ticket you will need to join a massive queue for available seats on which ever boat has room. Flexible tickets will also need to join this LONG queue. Reserved ticket holders get to join a MUCH shorter queue to the ferry but must get the ferry the tickets relate to. Get your tickets at http://www.statuecruises.com/choose_tickets.aspx

NOTE: Remember to check Jedward's schedule before booking

Empire state building offers tickets to the 86th and 102nd floors with an optional express privilege that lets you skip ALL the queues. We bought tickets to the 86th floor only without the express privilege. This ticket could of been used at any time within a year of purchase. We got to the ESB at about 11am and as we had a ticket we never had to queue to get one. BONUS. We then got an escalator and a express elevator to the 80th floor. So far no queuing but here it starts. Although the queuing now started it wasn't as long as the queues could be judging by the length of winding barriers we had to walk through to get to the queue. My advice is to get there as early as possible and you will save yourself $20 not getting the express ticket. Get tickets at https://ticketing.esbnyc.com/Webstore/Content.aspx?Kind=LandingPage

Subway
If you know me you will be aware how amazing I am at using metro systems... like the one in Madrid :( Compared to Madrid this subway system is EASY. Each line is named after a single letter or a number and you have a choice of a local stopping service or an express service that stops at a subset of stations.

Each trip is $2.50 so there and back again costs $5. Metrocards can be purchased from automated machines with many denominations of $10 already loaded available. As you use the card you will be notified of your current balance at the barrier. This metrocard can be topped up at any time but it maybe cheaper to get a 7day metrocard with unlimited travel for only $29. We only used the metro to get to the ferry for the statue of liberty and the Brooklyn bridge costing us only $10 in total per a person.

For more information and route planning you can go to http://www.mta.info/

Chatty Shop keepers
In every shop we entered on 5th avenue we found very friendly shop assistants who asked us how we were. It is worth being polite back as they will offer great advice. For example in Macys they told us about a 10% discount for foreigners which we made use of :)

Note: that the costs shown in the shops and restaurant do not include tax. Tax is added at the till and is a little random. We think its about 8%.

Freebies
Hours can be lost in Times Square just watching people. It has to be experienced for yourself.

Brooklyn Bridge is free to cross on foot and is great for views of lower Manhattan.

Central Park is great for a walk if the weather is nice but we took a relaxing horse ride for $50 plus tips for 20mins. This was expensive and isn't necessary but I felt it was worth it. The ice rink is closed in the summer and is used as a fair.

M&M World is an amazing shop to visit... it is free to visit if you can resist the urge to buy anything. My hint is to be gentle with the M&M dispensers as it is easy to spend a fortune on M&Ms.

If you are so inclined you can visit the New York Library and catch a glimpse of the original winnie the pooh and friends, which the stories are based upon.

The Rockefeller centre and all Starbucks offers a free WiFi network. In case your interested.

A missed opportunity
The Rockefeller Center will offer better views of central park and the empire state building than the empire state building :P

A friend of mine (Thanks John) suggests the ferry to Staten Island because it is free and offers great views of the Statue of Liberty. Alternatively

Restaurants
Everyday we went to a diner called Primeburger at 51st street east of 5th avenue for breakfast. Would recommend it for cheap pancakes and cheap coffee.

Benash was our favourite restaurant at the corner of 7th avenue and 55th street. Would recommend any of the pizzas or cheesecake.

Other places we visited:

Tiffany's
Apple Store
Macys
Madison Garden
Grand Central Station
China Town
Little Italy
Lion King - Broadway show (Book in advance - about £100 each)

Avoid
We avoided the open top buses as they were very complicated and very expensive compared to the subway.

Top apps not installed on Ubuntu by default

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:58:00 +0000

There are hundreds if not thousands of these "Top 10 linux apps" and "Apps you must have following Ubuntu installation" type blog entries but in my opinion these are useless unless you can identify with the author. To help you identify with me:

Been using Ubuntu for home use (DVDs, photos, internet) for over 5 years.
Mainly use open source applications but not exclusively.
Prefer to pay nothing for the software.
It should just work "out the box", no command line or extensive "how to" required.
Could be said I am a Google fan boy

Now to it:

VLC
VLC is a multimedia player that I suspect could play a LP if you could just get it installed on a gramophone. In all seriousness it will play anything you throw at it... out of the box! This app can be installed on any operating system and is open source. Only one thing irritates me about this app and it has wound me up everyday since I first installed it. It eats away at me it makes me want to cry some days..... what is it? Its the icon!!!! A traffic cone? WHY?!?!?!?!?!? Maybe I am the one with the problem.

Available from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ or the Ubuntu repositories
Chromium / ChromeThe open source project behind Chrome is called Chromium. Google packages chromium with Google branding and proprietary codecs (like flash) under the Chrome name. So depending on your persuasion ill let you decide which one to use. It is extremely well made with each tab as a seperate process which means that no one tab can crash the browser, It is extremely fast and has a user interface that is almost invisible.

Chromium is available from the Ubuntu repositories but for Chrome go here: http://www.google.com/chrome/
Synapse

Everyone talks about Gnome-Do but I have three problems with it: can never get a PPA that works with the newest versions of Ubuntu, the Ubuntu repositories version has a bug that makes Ubuntu unusable and finally the development of it is slow if not dead. So I now use Synapse... It has almost, if not all the functionality of Gnome-Do and works GREAT. It is faster than the Ubuntu Dash so defiantly still adds value to my Ubuntu system.

Get the PPA from http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/synapse-gnome-do-launcher-app-review-ubuntu/
Picasa

I think the windows version of Picasa maybe on version 3.7 when the beta linux version is still only 3.0. Its annoying but I love the Picasa application and its web integration. I have tried shotwell and f-spot but it just isn't as easy nor fun to use.

Get it here: http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html
GIMP
This app used to be part of the applications that by default was installed with Ubuntu but no longer. I respect Ubuntu's decision to remove it because if you was making a "Windows for human beings" it wouldn't include Photoshop. But lets stop that analogy there because if you have used Photoshop then you would find it hard to use. Took me some time but it is a very powerful tool. But there is always a BUT. Imagine my terror if I ever have children and they decided to edit some of their photos on Ubuntu. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I think what I am trying to say is that although I am open minded and very liberal: most companies and people might not see the funny side of its name.

Although removed, Gimp is still available from the Ubuntu Repositories.

At last Working Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 14:49:00 +0000

4 Attempts to try and convert to linux (Once a year!)
A few sleepless nights (This time not anything to do with Wireless)
Lots of coffee
4 reformats
A a couple of crashes later (Two of which was in attempt to login to blogger)

I have converted to Ubuntu... I am now an official Linux Geek!

Something I read from Google...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:16:00 +0000

"As we move toward the "Store 100%" reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online copy more secure than it would be on your own machine."