By the way, after trying Windows Server 2008 standard for a month or so, I found that there were too many hassles involved. It was good to have GUI or wizard to walk through but sometimes it just gave us more confuse. Believe it or not, I can’t even get FTP server on IIS work properly Although the alternative, like FileZilla server, works flawlessly, it’s just not right using 3rd party while using server edition and that’s already equipped with FTP server. It’s just like using Apache HTTPd on Windows server; why just use IIS or just change to Linux box for good =)

So I choose to have less complicated way–Ubuntu. Well, the reason why I choose Ubuntu is nothing but easiest. In Ubuntu server 8.10, there is no ftpd by default for whatever reason. So adding one of them is a must. Because There are many many choices, I don’t know what is good too. I just choose proftpd and I find that’s easy to configure. That’s simple.

Firstly, install it! — remember this is Ubuntu–it’s debian. Your distro might use something else, but that differs when installing only.

$ sudo apt-get install proftpd

Done with ftpd installation. That’s easy, isn’t it? Then we have to do configuration, briefly we have to:-

1. manage user
2. edit proftpd.conf
3. start/restart proftpd

For managing user, you might use the same account in OS, so that you don’t have to do a thing in this step, but if you want to use isolated user for extra security (?!?), go for it.

useradd [ -u uid ][ -g gid ][ -G gid [,gid,.. ]][ -d dir ][ -m ][ -s shell ][ -c comment ] loginname

You could just have only parameter you want, then the rest would be default value

$ sudo useradd -d /home/ftp ftpuser

$ sudo passwd ftpuser //for creating password for ftpuser

For configuring our ftpd, here is  the most important part–editing /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf. In my case, I have login thru ssh, so no GUI no gedit no mousepad, nano is my first choice of text-editor here. You guys might us different one as you like.

$ sudo nano /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

what you need to configure basicly are the following:-

ServerName            "10nas"
ServerType            standalone
# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User                nobody
Group                nogroup
# Set default root as a NAS
DefaultRoot /mnt/nas
# This is for keeping FTP user inside DefaultRoot only!
DefaultRoot ~
# Valid Logins
<Limit LOGIN>
AllowUser x1
AllowUser x2
AllowUser x3
AllowUser x4
DenyALL
</Limit>
MaxLoginAttempts 3
# well, <Directory> /mnt/nas> looks weird, but it’s not a typo!
<Directory> /mnt/nas/>
# This is basic security for setting initial permission for file & directory
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on
    <Limit ALL>
    Order Allow,Deny
    AllowUser x1
    AllowUser x2
    AllowUser x3
    AllowUser x4
    Deny ALL
    </Limit>
</Directory>

Commands to start/stop/restart the service is similar to any service

$ sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd start
$ sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd stop
$ sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd restart

Well, this should be enough for setting up basic FTP server securely. =)

With the period of US economy collapsing, many companies are gone. Customers spend less, things get more expensive. What the heck we can do about that? Nothing =) Just be alert for cheap deal, spend money as efficient as we can. Most of good deal online or in store come with rebate, it usually has only a question that how long we will get our money back. Nonetheless, now you might have to ask whether we will ever get our money back!! Surely, you are not likely to get rebate from store that use this rebate processor since it filed for bankruptcy!! The answer is uncertainty that you will get or not. If lucky, everything will work out well. If not, no one could help you either. Sue? yes, you can but for $40, $80, or $100? will you?

Anyway, in case you are in the US and you have tons of waiting MIR list. You may like to know this–the companies that use this rebate processor:-

ABBOTT LABORATORIES (FREESTYLE METERS)
ACRONIS SOFTWARE (TRUE IMAGE)
ACTIVISION
AD-AWARE
ADOBE
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS (Parts America?)
ANTEC - Called Antec and they are having problems. Said not to cash ! Antec CSR number 1-800-222-6832, Press 1
ArchBrook Laguna (Magellan Refurbished Rebate from Pep Boys)
ATDEC
AVG
BED BATH & BEYOND
BIC CORPORATION US - Shaver Division
BFG Tech - Told me to Call Rebate Status. Will re-email on Monday
BRIDGEVINE
CANON says DO NOT CASH http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=StandardDisplayAct&fcategoryid=2587&keycode=important_rebate_info edit atene
CHECKER / SCHUCK’S / KRAGEN Auto Parts
CITIBANK
CORE
COSTCO (COSTCO email says don’t cash at bank, take it to a COSTCO and they will CASH it. If you prefer to receive by mail call 1-866-355-3137)
DELORME
FUJITSU
HOME DEPOT
JOE’S SPORTS
KENSINGTON
LOGITECH (Called toll-free number Nov. 14, spoke with CSR. CSR said my check was good to cash. Not sure of others.)
MOTOROLA (SURFBOARD MODEM)
MURRAY’S DISCOUNT AUTO PARTS (oil)
NATURE’S EARTH (cat litter)
NERO
NEWEGG (certain products have rebates from newegg directly e.g. TATUNG, ROSEWILL)
PANDA DISTRIBUTION
PANDIGITAL
PC TOOLS –> Phone: (866) 431-5087
PRICEGRABBER - Don’t Cash Check (Even older ones you haven’t cashed in yet)! Will Send out New Rebate Check Directly
ROSEWILL (NEWEGG)
RUSTOLEUM - Menard’s July $4 Door Paint Rebate (Contact Rustoleum directly @ 1-800-323-3584)
SAMSUNG
SMITH MICRO SOFTWARE (ANONYMIZER)
SPOT (Satellite beacon)
TABLETOPS UNLIMITED
TRENDNET - Don’t cash check; make a copy and mail the original check to TRENDnet headquarters (can be found at trendnet.com along with a printout of email regarding this issue. ) New check will be issued.
WESTINGHOUSE
XFX
XM SATELLITE RADIO
ZEROTHERM
ZYXEL

Well, that’s a long list. Some companies are kind enough to take this responsibility, but some are just quiet about this. Who know the future? Just keep avoiding getting all rebate deals from the company listed above until things are clear.

This holiday season is just starting… be careful…..

Note: More information and progression at SlickDeals.net forum

I never ever see that in person though and I don’t think I will ever see that too However, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t use Envy 133 wallpaper!

Here you go, at first I think this could be super cool wallpaper but when I got it, it’s kind of so-so, disappointed a bit, but someone might want to have it.

If you guys have this very good looking machine and have extra more wallpaper from it, please share I would love to see that.

Brief specification of this mutant netbook:-
CPU: Intel Atom
RAM: 1GB of RAM
Hard disk drive: 60/80GB
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic
Screen: 12.1" Glossy WXGA (1280×800)
Connectivity: Bluetooth, WLAN 802.11b/g
Ports: 3*USB, VGA, Card reader, Mic & headphone jack.
Extra: Webcam
Thickness: 0.92" - 1.09"
Weight: 2.72 lbs

I am amazed of what netbook is going to be–from 7" Eee 70x to now in only less than a year!! No more portability in that sense. Not that I don’t like this, but this should mean things equipped Intel Atom shouldn’t belong to only netbook no more. Then it will make sense

IMO, eventually expensive ultra portable will fade away from the market. No matter how good they are, they are just like Vertu which offers none to other, but extraordinary price that no one considers buying one. Sad that some of them are such a great thing–Sony TZ. The question is whether we will see less and less innovation in that area too? probably so. :-/ [but we will see innovation in low-end side instead!! I don't know which is better honestly.]

check out more pics @ LaptopMag.com

[via Notebookreview.com & LaptopMag.com]

1. HP drivers are crap.
2. It comes with a lot of bloatwares.
3. Too many running processes required.

Windows also doesn’t have currently HP printer driver, so I couldn’t print that easily. The advantage of this method is you could just add a shared printer with minimum driver installed on your workstation. Please share if you have a better way to do so.

By the way, Microsoft put some trick making this more difficult than it should be. The idea is when you install the driver on the 64-bit box then share. This is simple. However, this will allow only 64-bit machine to use this shared printer since there is no 32-bit driver or any particular driver for your machine architecture. Simple solution is adding another architecture driver to that. That was an unexpected problem started.

1. Add drivers, then it will ask for driver for the architecture you choose–32-bit in this case.
2. Browse for the 32-bit drivers.
3. Then it will ask for Windows Media (x86 processor) [ntprint.inf file]
4. What the heck is that??
   • I put VIsta setup disc
   • download new drivers
   • find the file in %windir%

Those above don’t help. So, how do we know where and what that files are. I just found that it was located in your x86 machine.

%windir%\winsxs\x86_ntprint.inf_******************

That’s where you need to point to or you can just copy that folder out to 64-bit. That would be fine as well. After this, you’ve done. Sit back and relax. All your machine will be able to use the shared printer seamlessly.

Thanks to the development of network, so that we can live our lives much more comfortable

Note: For sharing printer from 32-bit box to 64-bit one, you just have to get the **_ntprint** folder from 64-bit machine, then add driver as procedure above. You will be all set. =)

Theme of this set is seasons; first 4 wallpapers are Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Very nice indeed. As usual, you may click on the thumbnail for original size (1920px*1200px.) These are all wide screen version. Believe it or not, Lenovo are so kind to give us full screen version also. If you guys like it, just let me know. I just think that most of you guys all have wide screen monitor, so these are all you need. Unlike me, with my 4:3 screen on the great X61T.

ps. Please don’t do direct link to these wallpapers, if you do and I find, I may have to deactivate the links. Just link to this post, thanks a lot =)

Click them to see the original size (1920px*1200px) and one more things, please don’t link to the Wallpapers directly–just link to this post. I know you guys don’t want to kill my bandwidth like when I shared Dell PRODUCT (RED).

Well, anyway, if you are restore your OS back with HP recovery partition or disc, you will not have Fingerprint Software with you and the thing is there are 2 different softwares available from HP; first is Bioscrypt VeriSoft Access Manager and another one is Digital Persona. Frankly you can use both of them–but should be only 1 at a time, ok? I believe that the first one is originally for older system (2007 or before) and the latter one is for newer one. I do recommend the 2nd one, it’s really good one. You can even save password for your IM or any programs since its logo would float almost all the time when there is password field show up.

Here is the link for Bioscrypt VeriSoft Access Manager and surely this is for Digital Persona.

Have fun swipe your finger!!

Note: if you are not yet doing restoration/clean installation, don’t forget to archive C:\SWSetup. That’s all you need–everything, all drivers and apps that you have since the first you got your machine.

Here is the what you have to call. I just wonder why they don’t provide this in normal User Account page. Then you just to select the account you want to access automatically, then uncheck this:-

It will ask you a password of the selected account. Then next time, you restart the computer, you will never have to put a password anymore

So I needed to fix this so badly. The problem was Adobe Updater didn’t have a shortcut available for easy access. You guys might find this after completing first update and be able to disable it. But if you are not that patient, so you have to get into

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5

You will see AdobeUpdater.exe file which oddly have no beautiful icon for even regular size. Seems like Adobe doesn’t like us to find this really. When you open this little app, you have to click "Preference" to customize its behavior.

Once you uncheck this, Adobe Updater will never bother you no more.

After couple days of trying it, it just works. There is no fancy feature or customized location yet. But it gets job done with less memory than Mesh, of course. It works flawlessly so far on my several PC and Mac. Since it’s only BETA, you will be expected to test its flow, report and suggest to the developer. If you guys would like to try, I have 10 invites available. =)

This might be the day Google trying to complete their circle after playing around web applications from the beginning.

Google Chrome is the browser based on AppleWebkit, the core that drives Safari nowadays. It sure is the proved solid browser.

Now it’s only on Windows OS. I could tell that it’s surprisingly fast, clean and nice UI. It’s also imported all my bookmarks from Firefox without a hitch. I’m pretty sure of that Google will release this on every OSes soon.

Now Google already moves to build its own platform. It just surprises me that they haven’t chosen Gecko as their platform after released so many add-ons for it. Probably it is way too many to be able to support them all [and other's too].

However, the only thing that keeps me using Firefox, instead of ie8 and others, is its add-ons!! Will see how Google will react on that issue.

Try here!

CPU: Pentium Dual-core up to Core 2 Duo
Memory: 1-4GB (SODIMM)
Hard drive: upto 320GB (in fact, you could grab 2.5″ 500GB HDD putting yourself)
Optical drive: CD/DVD burner and Blu-ray as an optional
Wireless: 802.11n (optional with PCIe)
Ports: 5*USB, 1*HDMI, 1*DVI, 1*Gigabit LAN, 1*IEEE1394 4pin [no VGA port, sorry =)]

Also, you can grab the extra colorful cover for just $17 each. This is starting at $499 [$399 usually if promotion is concerned] I think it’s pretty nice. With a notebook standard, this little box is also sucking the juice less than regular desktop. Moreover, all parts is easily accessible and upgradable.

Check out more detail @ desktopreview.com

And more importantly its form factor won any of their class, IMHO.

Whoa! What an impressive first look from UMPCportal.com. It’s Atom-based device, 1GB RAM, 30/60 GB HDD, 7" touch screen, 1024px * 600px, 830g (including battery) I couldn’t ask for more.

In fact, I don’t believe if this baby could really achieve 7-9 hours life. But by this approximation, I just wish it would get up to 5-hour-battery-life and that would be enough for my need indeed. If the price is right (less than a grand, please), I won’t hesitate to grab one.

Stay tuned! this will be out around the beginning of next year. I hope this company could make this dream come true.

Check out more gallery & info at UMPCportal.com

All P*lm developers should be aware, P*lm will follow you guys and ask you “politely and forcibly by the power of the law” to drop off “p” word you are using as your trademark or whatsoever.

This is what Dmitry, one of the most talented P*lm OS developers, had faced. As a result, he had to move his web site from http://palmpowerups.com [06/07/2005] to http://PlmPowerups.com to avoid such a confusion (perhaps because P*lm couldn’t do any better than him?) and change the SDHC driver to “PlmSDHC” since it has no relation or approval from P*lm [of course, since they DON'T EVEN CARE all predecessors' product]

here is the first post of palmpowerups.com:-

Palm Powerups opens

Palm Powerups opens today. This website will offer to you the software needed to make your palm more powerful, usable, interesting, and exciting. The currently available products include UDMH, warpSpeed, skinUI, Picsel Accelerator, and SysNfo. Of course you can expect many more great programs from Palm Powerups in the future, and your ideas are always welcome in the forums

Posted by dmitrygr on Tuesday, June 07 @ 16:50:43 MST (15 reads)
(Read More… | Score: 5)

I haven’t seen anything telling he worked at P*lm, just one developer that wanted to make Palm device more powerful! [which is a good thing for them, right? I'm not so sure if P*lm thought the same way]

P*lmRevolt [1/4/2006] and P*lmInsiderPro [03/20/2006] also got a notice and changed the names to pRevolt and ZInsider respectively. I don’t know what P*lm think really since all these programs and names has been up *PUBLICLY* for many years ; why now?

“The letters P-A-L-M reflect a prized brand with significant customer awareness and earned loyalty,” said Ed Colligan, palmOne president and chief executive officer. “Innovation, power, ease of use, and elegance all are attributes of the brand, and we intend to invest to turn what is a strong name today into a household word synonymous with leadership in mobile computing.”

What they are proud of when getting it back from palmsource [$30M -- 3.5 years installments from 5/24/2005]  — I just realized they haven’t paid off it yet! [few more months left =)]

Just putting a note ” *** is not affiliated with or endorsed by P*lm Inc in anyway” isn’t enough? They support you & they do everything to help you get better product but you just want to destroy that, what a shame! although you have all right to do so. How come you haven’t chose more mature way, e.g. releasing policy will effect the software released after this day or something or mentioned this at the first place. Oops I just realize that they probably use Garnet for a long long time without releasing newer OS, so they have to think of such a dated software as well.

It’s just plain STUPID. I think the doom day is closer than you think.

Go back to work, P*LM.

update [2 weeks later]: Palm seemed to react to this issue as they should do firstly which is letting PalmPowerups.com continues its name. However, all product names which has this-4-letter-word still need  to abandon their name. I think they ain’t busy working Nova enough.

new ideas from Logitech still continues. Now it’s innovative feature called Clip-and-Go

“To meet the demands associated with increased mobility, the V550 mouse offers a complete set of features to make it easier to use a mouse with a notebook when moving from the kitchen to the living room or from one’s desk to a meeting. Now, you won’t have to choose between grabbing your mouse or a cup of coffee.”

It’s real nice idea here. But wait! not only is this new feature, but shape & hyper-fast scrolling are also coming to Vxxx series. In addition, the battery life is extended to 1 and a half year. With the MSRP @59.99. I hope Vx series will be updated to make a distinct pretty soon.

This will hit the store around late this month! Stay tuned!

[via Engadget]

Added [8/17/2008]: the way it hangs on the lid is here and there will be two colors available.

And this model has been up on Logitech.com already!

The AC power adapter type cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and battery will not charge.

It’s what you see above; this machine was locked to run as slow as it could–always 800MHz instead of 1.73Ghz. Whether the adapter couldn’t provide enough juice or the DC jack on this board is malfunction was possible here. It was really hard to decide if you didn’t have a spare adapter to test. Therefore, it left me no choice but buying a new adapter to test. Luckily Dell adapter was cheap =) only $28+$9 shipping from portabledetails.com and it took 3 days to arrive.

After I got a replacement–new one has a ground line as a plus, Dell probably realized that laptop case was not the best place as a ground (electrical charge was noticeable on the chassis when I put the old adapter.)

Soon after I popped up new adapter, the Inspiron 9400 was coming alive again; battery was charging immediately and it sucks full 90W–Kill a Watt meter told me. It’s really surprise that this 17″ laptop draws power even more than my desktop!

Briefly, this machine is only 1 and a half years old, and surely out of warranty. If you have this problem and it’s in warranty, Dell should not have any problem replacing the broken adapter for sure. In fact, this adapter basically should last longer than the laptop itself. I really have no clue how Dell took care of this design & manufacturer at first place since I never heard this problem with another brand yet. Maybe that’s just me

Note: 90W draw occurs only when you have almost empty battery and/or run this machine simultaneously. 40-60W is a regular power draw for normal condition.

What really differ from Wikipedia is Google needs you to use your real name instead of "anonymous" you found in Wikipedia. In my point of view, it’s just better to put your real name in order to make you feel more responsible for what you write. However, I don’t know how Knol will go since it’s going to have a tough fight with a very large existed Wikipedia community. By the way, there will be only positive things come up after this fight–a lot more stuffs to make people more knowledgeable. Keep reading!

Well, I am not sure whether this should be UMPC or tablet PC. Actually, it should be something in between. However, pocketables.net got a review of this baby which you really have to check it out.

Brief spec:

CPU: Intel Atom Z520 Silverthorne 1.33GHz (single-core, hyper-threading)
Chipset: Intel SCH US15W (Poulsbo)
RAM: 2GB DDR2-533 (1GB standard, upgradeable)
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Hard drive: 60GB
Display: 7” swivel touch-screen (1024 x 600)
Wireless: 802.11b/g, [Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, GPS]*, 1seg tuner
Size: 7.44″ x 6.10″ x 1.00″-1.30″
Weight: 1.76 lbs.
Colors: Black or white
Price: around $1,000 [this is not Netbook indeed]
*[optional]

It’s smaller than Eee PC, but much more interesting since its screen resolution is quite large and more importantly, it’s a swivel screen!! I do hope it will ink as good as Fujitsu P16xx or as same as Samsung Q1–that should be alright.

According to Jenn in the review’s comment

Inking

Inking on the SC3 in portrait and landscape slate mode is actually pretty good. The display is a passive touchscreen, but it’s not overly sensitive. It responds to stylus taps and fingernails immediately but will only register fingertaps when done deliberately.

Handwriting recognition through the Tablet PC Input Panel is great. I’m not an inker, so writing on the screen feels unnatural to me. I know there isn’t exactly a “right” way to ink, but I’m pretty sure seasoned tablet folk would notice how awkward I am. Even so, the SC3 recognized every single word I wrote.

Writing directly on the entire screen through Windows Journal is not as great, but still quite good. The screen seems able to withstand light palm touches; vectoring is only an issue with heavy palms and when that sharpish bone right above the wrist taps it.

Posted by Jenn | 01:13 PM on Jul 16, 2008

Full review @ pocketables.net!

X200 will be the successor of X61 with 0.8" think design likely to be the same footprint as X300 and more interestingly it will start at $1,199 with 11.6" by 8.3" by 0.73"-0.8" & only 2.93 lbs. I can’t wait to see X200 Tablet here.

SL series will debut for small business section; from SL300 (13.3"), SL400 (14"), and SL500 (15"); $699-$1199 price range; HDMI, Blu-ray, 3G, and WiMAX as optional. I guess this would be in the same market as Dell Vostro series.

W series is another new series here separating form T series with an ability to switch back and forth between ATi Mobility FireGL and integrated one.

T400 and T500 will replace T61, similarly to W series w/o switchable graphic card.

R400 & R500 will be the budget series as same as R is.

For IdeaPad, there will be 4 new models as well. Quite a lot for Lenovo, huh?

U330 will be a bigger sibling of fabulous U110 with a little over 4 lbs and switchable graphic cards. Quite interesting really.

Y-series will unleash Y430, Y530 and Y730 as 14", 15" and 17" model respectively

They all are based on Intel Centrino 2 platform (aka. Montevina) which will utilize 1066 MT/s FSB and better RAM than DDR2-667 that we all have in Santa Rosa platform–that includes DDR2-800, DDR3-800, DDR3-1066, and DDR3-1333. It also will support DisplayPort–new digital display interface–along with full supplemental support of HDMI, DVI, and VGA standards and mini-PCIe adapter as well. For integrated graphic card, it will be X4500. We will see how this compete with AMD Puma platform. I bet Intel will win over everything but graphic card, which might be the most important factor. Stay tuned.

[via Engadgat, Gizmodo, and Yahoo! news]