2 Useful SSH Tricks to Improve Your System Security

OpenSSH LogoA few days ago, Tavis wrote a great article on How to use SSH X-forwarding to Run Remote Apps. X forwarding is indeed a very handy feature of SSH, so I thought it would be a good time to expand on some of the other great uses for this excellent piece of software (and some related tools). Today, we’ll cover SCP and SSHFS.

To follow this guide, you’ll need the following:

- Client computer with openssh-client installed (for Windows, use Putty)
- Server computer with openssh-server installed (Available on any UNIX-style system)
- A working set of login credentials on the server
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Clean Up Your Windows Mobile Easily With CleanRAM

cleanram-logoConstant day to day use of a Windows Mobile device can lead to a slowdown in performance even on the highest spec devices with memory and by extension processor time continually allocated to applications that are to all intents and purposes closed.

Poor application programming is usually the cause of these apps retaining system resources and the usual fix is to perform a soft reset of the device – although a Task Manager is included on Windows Mobile 5 and later, it usually only assists in closing difficult to exit programs.

CleanRAM therefore is a vital tool in managing memory resources on Windows Mobile devices, and is available free from FreewarePocketPC.net. We’re going to look now at how to use CleanRAM in different ways to control allocated memory.
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Automatically Rate Songs in Your iTunes - Mac Only

autorate-iconIn my personal opinion as both Mac and Windows users, iTunes is the best music player I’ve come across. The simple yet intuitive interface alone is enough to make me ditch other players out there. And there are many other powerful features which hides behind the simplicity of the appearance.

One of the iTunes features that I like most is the rating system. Users can tag any song with one to five stars based on their preferences, and users can sort or filter the playlist based on the rating. A quick glance at someone’s iTunes display and you can clearly tell which songs he/she likes and dislikes.

autorate-partial-itunes-rating

The rating system really is a great idea; but, and this is a big but (no pun intended), the bigger the song list, the more difficult for users to give rating to each and every song. Can you imagine editing 2376 songs one by one? That’s the size of a tiny part of my current song list. (And I don’t know anybody who has less than 100 songs on their list).
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10 Awesome Features of Krunner in KDE 4

Krunner

Many KDE 3 users depended on Krun, a simple yet effective application used to execute commands. Executed simply by pressing “Alt-F2″, it was much easier to start applications using it, rather than navigating through a launch menu or opening a terminal window. The only catch with Krun was that you had to know the exact name of the command you intended to launch.  With the advent of KDE 4, that has all changed.

Krunner operates independently of the Plasma desktop system as a standalone application. It includes a ton of features that make it useful beyond simple command launching.  It has retained many of the features present in KDE 3 and greatly expanded them. We would fail to do it justice if we did not give it a top ten list.
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ShoZu - Social Network Updating Made Easy

shozu-logoThere are plenty of sites and programs out there that will let you upload your pictures or videos to one or two of your social media sites, but people like choice. Would 50 supported sites plus email and FTP uploading be enough? That should let you share enough stuff to make even your Kindergarten teacher proud.The whole point of the the social sites is to be social and show people whats going on in your life; ShoZu will help you do this on almost every popular sharing site out there.

When a picture or video and the accompanying text is uploaded, ShoZu will CC your email and/or other destinations you choose. If you upload the same thing to all of your sites, that feature alone will save you immense amounts of time. Below are a couple ways media can be uploaded a couple different ways:
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Top Three Web RSS Readers to Manage Your RSS Feeds

read-rss-feedThe Internet is quickly becoming many people’s one-stop shop for getting information. There are tons of newspapers, magazines, podcasts, blogs, etc. talking about something that will be of interest to a group of people.These publications usually offer RSS feeds that make it easy for their readers to continue viewing their content outside of their site. If you have more than ten RSS feeds that you read every day, you probably use (or need) a RSS Reader to manage them. These RSS Readers can be web-only or downloadable software.

Below are the top three web RSS Readers that you can use to manage your RSS feeds: Continue Reading…

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How to Install Software from a Tarball in Linux

tarballs-tuxMost of the time, installing software in Linux is a breeze. Package management utilities like Apt, Portage, and Yum have made software installation in Linux even easier than it is in Windows (in my opinion at least). If you know what you want, you simply tell your package manager that you want it, and it’ll find, download, install, and configure your new package for you.

Sometimes, however, the package doesn’t exist in your distribution’s repositories. Often, in cases like that, your only option is to download a tarball (usually .tar.gz, .tar.bz, or .tgz) which contains the source code for the program that you have to compile yourself. While it may be a little intimidating at first, compiling from source is normally a quick and easy process. Today, we’ll learn how. Continue Reading…

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A Quick Look At Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus Software

morrow-windowMicrosoft has recently announced that they will be releasing a free anti-virus software for their Windows platform. The free software, named Windows Security Essentials (previously codenamed “Morro”) would be available by the end of 2009 at the latest, but for those enthusiasts who can’t wait for the official release, the beta version is already available for download, though it is only available on a limited basis (capped to 75K download and available only for US, Israel, China and Brazil users).

To download the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials, you need to first login to your Windows Live account and complete a survey. Once that is done, you will be able to download the respective software for your Windows version (Win XP or Vista/7).

At MakeTechEasier, we will take you through the software and show you what to expect from this yet another Microsoft product.

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Speed Up Your Web Search With Inquisitor

inquisitor-logoMost, if not, all browsers come with a search bar at the top right hand corner of the window. To perform a search, you simply type in your search term and press Enter. The browser will automatically load the search engine result page with your search term. As easy as that.

Now, the question is: can this search process get any easier?

The answer is Yes, if you are using Inquisitor. You’ll be surprised how much faster, quicker and easier you can now search with the search bar. Continue Reading…

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How to use SSH X-forwarding to Run Remote Apps

200x-orgThere are times when it is just quicker, easier or even necessary to use a graphical application, and there are also times when you might be away from the computer that has your crucial applications installed. Whatever the scenario, Linux and other operating systems running an X server have the ability to forward a graphical application through SSH. Following a few simple steps, you can run a remote application in all of its full graphical glory. Continue Reading…

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