Here is a tip for anyone like me that is running 64 bit Ubuntu on AMD processors and wanting to install Skype.  This is what I ran into recently and I found a solution so I wanted to share.  This is a one liner that will take care of it for you, or at least it did with me on 8.04 Hardy Heron.

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32asound2 libasound2-plugins;
wget -O skype-install.deb http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu;
sudo dpkg -i --force-all skype-install.deb;

See? That’s all there is to it! This installs some supporting libraries as well as Skype itself. I broke this into multiple lines at the semicolons so it would display properly, but you can run it all as one big command or seperately. Enjoy!

OK, so I am late on this bandwagon, and I probably don’t have to tell you about it already. However, on the off chance that you haven’t tried or even don’t know what it is, let me tell you about something cool that I have been playing with. If you hadn’t guessed it already, it’s called Skype. Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) software package that allows you to not only text and talk from one computer to another (Skype to Skype), but also to call land and mobile phones and talk as well.

Not everything is free, Skype itself is free and Skyp to Skype communication is free, but calling real phones costs you something. Right now I am signed up with a plan that gives me unlimited minutes to the U.S. and Canada for $2.95 per month … how about that?

OK, let me give you the goods. First, how does it sound? It sounds great, I honestly cannot tell it from my regular phone and neither can those who I have called so far. Naturally this will depend heavily on the speed and quality of your Internet connection, but the technology itself seems solid.

Second, how much does it cost? Well, I have already mentioned the $2.95 for unlimited U.S. and Canada calls, they also have great rates for over seas and more. Outbound calling is quite reasonable it seams. If you want a number that people can call you on, and voice mail, that costs extra but the costs are not bad, especially if you have a subscription with them instead of simply paying as you go. Depending on where you live, availability of local numbers might be an issue.

The only downside is that you need to use your computer, so you are tethered to it. But wait! You can get a VoIP phone for under $60 that let’s you use it just like a cordless phone. Of course, you can spend more and get something fancier too.

All in all, I am liking my Skype experience, I’ll share more as time goes on but I suggest you check it out if you have any need to VoIP, chat or video chat software.

It appears that if you are running Windows XP Service Pack 3 and using ZoneAlarm firewall software, when you install patch KB951748 (MS08-037) that came out yesterday’s “patch Tuesday” bunch, it breaks ZoneAlarm. You cannot access the Internet until you either uninstall the patch or turn off ZoneAlarm. This patch is related to the DNS poisoning exploit that came out recently, so it should be applied. What to do? Well, one suggested workaround (other than the two mentioned above) was to lower the security settings to medium in ZoneAlarm. At least then you don’t have to disable it entirely. Another suggested fix has been to leave ZoneAlarm at High and set the Internet Security Zone to Custom and add the following rule “Allow outgoing TCP Ports:80,443″. I cannot verify that these fixes work, I don’t use ZoneAlarm myself, but others hit by this problem have had success with them.

Here is the Microsoft link with information about the patch:

http://www.microsoft.com/ … /ms08-037.mspx

Here is the official link from ZoneAlarm about the problem:

http://download.zonealarm.com/ … /LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html

OK folks, this is one of the coolest things I have seen in a while, so I just had to share with everyone. It seems that a nifty fellow has written a command line interface or “shell” for Google. When you pull up the page (http://goosh.org), you get a command prompt and can search, browse, whatever all from the command prompt. For nix geeks like me that live on the command line, this is awesome! So, get out there and check it out!!

Also known as, the best little firewall in … well, anywhere! I have been using SmoothWall (the free, open source version) for years. I have used it with modems for dial-up access, as well as with cable and DSL connections. It’s a great product that is robust, feature rich, easy to manage and above all, very secure.

Not familiar with SmoothWall? Read more at http://www.smoothwall.org

I used to run an ISP and the majority of our customer base were dial-up customers. Even now, there are a majority of dial-up users out there still. SmoothWall is a great tool for dial-up users because it is essentially a hardened Linux distribution built solely to be a firewall/router. The IP stack in Linux is more efficient and much faster than Windows, so even on dial-up, you will get a performance boost running SmoothWall, plus the added security of a top notch firewall.

For all of the broadband users out there, you will get a tremendous performance boost when comparing it to the White Box store Linksys products. I am not knocking Linksys or anything like that, but in my own tests, I got almost double the throughput from my SmoothWall box versus my Linksys router. Plus, the SmoothWall box has loads more features and version 3 has even more piled on.

With built in features like this:

• Bandwidth usage graphs
• Transparent caching proxy server
• VPN support
• Anti-virus scanning of incoming pop3 email
• Dynamic and static DNS support
• QoS and more

There are really tons more features than I can list here, the ones listed above are just some highlights. Best of all, this wonderful product is free. Yep, that’s right, free. They do have commercial versions if you have a need for that, but they still maintain the open source GPL release that is absolutely free. So, all you have to invest is the cost of an old low powered pc that has been laying around the house anyway! I very highly recommend you check it out if you have a need for a good firewall product.

I wanted to write up something about the latest WordPress release, version 2.5. I have updated all of the WordPress powered sites that I manage which is more than ten and the upgrade went flawlessly on all sites. Each upgrade was the same, no variances. Why do I mention this part of the process? Well, because I have seen many instances (*cough*Win*cough*dows*cough*) where the same upgrade went very differently (and sometimes even failed) on different computers, even though they had been built or imaged or the application installed off of the same baseline. So, when I can install all of the WordPress upgrades and every one of them not only works, but operates as expected, that’s a big deal to me. This has been the norm in the past as well, not just in this last upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »