Wednesday, January 27, 2010

How to enable the root account - Ubuntu

In Linux (and Unix in general), there is a superuser named root. The Windows equivalent of root is Administrator. The superuser can do anything and everything, and thus doing daily work as the superuser can be dangerous. You could type a command incorrectly and destroy the system.
By default, the root account password is locked in Ubuntu. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the su command to become the root user. However, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges. This is where sudo comes in - it allows authorized users to run certain programs as root without having to know the root password. 
Logging in  as root may cause very serious trouble but if you really need to enable the root account you have to set a password for it using the command:
 sudo passwd













If you have enabled your root account and wish to disable it again, use the following command in terminal:
sudo usermod -p '!' root
 
Success! 

Wednesday 27 January - Apple tablet event

Wednesday 27 January, Apple will present the new iTablet. The new e-book reader, digital newspaper, music and video player, document-editor, your possible very advance work platform, the mysterious "iPad" will cost, according to the official Twitter page for Germany of MediaMarkt Company, 499 euro with Internet abandonment from T-Mobile and  899 euro without Internet abandonment.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Install MySQL on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

On Ubuntu 9.10 you can install MySQL using :
  1. Ubuntu Software Center, search for MySQL server and install it;
  2. Synaptic Package Manager, search for MySQL and install MySQL-server package with the dependencies, MySQL-client , the libraries and other packages you would need;
  3. Terminal, here you have to write the command(s) needed to install MySQL server;
If you choose the first two options the installation will be done automatically but you will have to set up a password after the installation is completed.
root/anonymous Password Assignment
shell> mysql -u root
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = 
PASSWORD('newpwd');
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'host_name' = 
PASSWORD('newpwd');
Replace host_name with the name of the server host:
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR'root'@'127.0.0.1' = 
PASSWORD('newpwd'); 
To assign passwords to the root accounts using mysqladmin
execute the following commands:
shell> mysqladmin -u root password "newpwd"
shell> mysqladmin -u root -h host_name password "newpwd"
Is there a default MySQL password? According to the MySQL documentation if you didn't set up a password, the initial password when connecting to the server is blank.

It is possible when connecting for the first time to the server, using the blank password or when trying to set up a root password to get the following error:
ERROR 1045 : Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

If you don't have enough time to go back and forth to see what went wrong and how would you fix it, the best solution at this point is to remove your MySQL server and try the third option, use the Terminal to (re)install MySQL server.
This is the simplest, the fastest way to install MySQL server on Ubuntu 9.10:
  1. Open a Terminal and execute the following command; you must have sudo privilege if you are a standard user to execute this command:


    sudo apt-get install mysql-server

     












2. The installation will begin and you'll be prompted to set a password for the root user. Don't leave your password blank , choose a strong password and better do not forget it.    
3. The MySQL server package is now installed , along with dependencies and client libraries and you can connect to the server executing this command in the terminal:
 mysql -u root -p yourpassword
 If you are using MySQL Administrator/similar tool you must fill 
in: Server HostName (127.0.0.1),Port (3306),Username (root) 
and Password (your password) to connect.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Online - the new way of watching movies




Online and free – this is a new way of watching movies at home, a great alternative of dvd's, multimedia hard disks or downloads. Free movies sites are places where you can watch high quality full-length movies and the latest TV shows. I will post here 2 of those sites where you can see new movies like Daybreakers (2010), Avatar(2009) or your favorite TV show.




Sunday, January 10, 2010

How to install and run Ubuntu 9.10 in VirtualBox

If you have a Windows operating system on your desktop and you want to use in parallel Ubuntu 9.10 or other platform you can use virtualization. One of the new incredible features of Ubuntu 9.10 is UbuntuOne, your personal cloud where you can store and share files. I use VirtualBox, a professional virtualization tool, developed by Sun and freely available as Open Source Software.
VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.
What are the steps?

  1. Download the VirtualBox Open Source Software for the Windows platform from here;
  2. Run the VirtualBox executable file you just saved on your desktop;
  3. Follow the installation steps, if you have less experience with virtualization, keep the settings as default; when installation is finished reboot your PC;
  4. Download the Ubuntu 9.10 also freely available as an Open Source operating system;
  5. Open your VirtualBox tool and click New to create a new Virtual Machine;
  6. Follow the wizard to create a new Virtual Machine, Ubuntu 9.10
  7. After creating your virtual Ubuntu, click on Settings → System → Motherboard and set the Boot Order with CD/DVD-ROM as the first boot sequence;
  8. Click on Storage → Attributes and add the Ubuntu.iso file on the virtual CD device;  
  9. Start the Virtual machine, it will boot from your Virtual CD device and start to install Ubuntu on your virtual partition; I can say it's the easiest and fastest OS installation;
  10. After installing Ubuntu, go to the Virtual Machine settings and change the boot order to boot from your virtual hard disk;
  11. If you want to use it in a Full-screen Mode , you have to install a few drivers for VirtualBox; go to System → Administration → Synaptic package Manager, search for virtualbox and install the following packages :   
  12. VirtualBox-ose
    VirtualBox-ose-source
    VirtualBox-ose-guest-sourse
    VirtualBox-ose-qt
    VirtualBox-ose-guest-x11
    VirtualBox-ose-additions
    VirtualBox-ose-guest-utils
12. The last step before enjoying your Full screen mode Virtual Ubuntu  is to reboot your virtual machine.
Any comments/questions are welcome!

    Friday, January 8, 2010

    Data Mining with R - ebook available for free

    A new Data Mining book "Data Mining with R: Learning by Case Studies" by Luis Torgo is freely available for download at the book web site. R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics available as Free Software and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms and similar systems (including FreeBSD and Linux), Windows and MacOS.
    Source: http://www.liaad.up.pt/~ltorgo/DataMiningWithR/

    Tuesday, January 5, 2010

    Is the Knowledge Navigator concept the ancestor of Apple Tablet?

    Apple will possible amaze the market with the new release of iTablet/iSlate in the beginning of this year. In 1987 Apple had a tablet concept called The Knowledge Navigator and described by John Sculley in his book, Odyssey. As we can see in one of the several concept videos produced by Apple, the Knowledge Navigator is a tablet style computer, opened as a book, with very advanced features including a multi-touch interface and a software agent as an animated character using a speech system and allowing the user to converse with the system; this animated software agent was criticized by many as being an unrealistic approach. The multi-touch screen presented in that concept was later included on the iPhone.
    Is the new iTablet including a powerful speech system and an intelligent agent capable of learning from his interaction with the environment and using his knowledge to achieve his goals?This is a question I would like to have an answer for.