Friday 29 July 2011

Spamming attack resolved

It would appear that recently an email account on our web server had been compromised and was being used to send out spam mail despite the security measures we have in place.
We believe we have now solved the problem and have put further security measures in place to revent this from happening in the future.
We apologise to any user who has received spam email emanating from our server and to those webmasters who may had had an increase in traffic resulting from the use of false email accounts purporting to reside on their servers.

Friday 22 July 2011

First week without Windows

It has now been just over a week since I set up my Windowless system.
What are the issues? Well none really.
I have copied over all my data from my old system. A mixture of putting the old Hard Disks (one for Win XP and one for my old Ubuntu setup) and copying the data across. No problem. Other than that I brought across other data on a USB memory stick. Again no problem.
Ok I still have to import my old emails from Outlook. Just a 3.5 GB file to port across first. Evolution seems to do the job OK. I have imported calendar entries that have been sent to me. email set up was easy.
I have used Banshee to import some music. I am not mad with this, I still prefer to play from CD on my separates system but I have brought some files across. Can I sync with my Creative Xen, Well no. It doesn't like ogg files and I haven't found a way of converting them to mp3 to port across. Is it a big issue? Not really for me.
I have tried to connect my Blackberry. At the moment it is not having it. Is that a real problem for me? Well it should be but I have been very lazy about syncing my Windows and my Blackberry so why should it now be a problem. On the other hand maybe I shall see if I can swap the blackberry for an Android phone.
I have put my personal Accountz program on. Only problem were of my own making in making a mess of copying the old data from backup.
What is really good?
I have set up a number of users on this machine. It is nice to be able to log on to one account whilst remaining logged to the first account. For example, I was logged on to my personal account and playing some music through Banshee. I logged on to my work account without logging off the personal account and the music kept on playing. When I logged off the business account I simply logged back on to my personal account and carried on working from where I have left off.
After one week my impression? Great. Should have done it sooner.

Friday 15 July 2011

I have gone Windows free at home

Ubuntu wins! Having to rebuild my home computer I have decided to go entirely Windows free.
I have used a Phenom II 555 processor, ASUS motherboard, on board dual head graphics, Genius 5.1 Audio card. I am using a previously used 500GB hard disk.
From start to finish the install took 20-30 minutes, including updates. I am using Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal).
Every device was configured to work, including the add on audio card. (I thought I was in trouble with this until I realised that the sound output was being directed to the on board audio device).
I configured Evolution mail client to my mail account - no problem. I set up a couple of extra users so I can keep work separate - no problem. I set two users to be in the same user group so they can share data - no problem. I popped an audio CD in the drive and Banshee picked it up and played it - no problem. Also able to rip this to disk - no problem.
I popped my old XP hard disk in and copied all relevant data from it - no problem. I popped in my old Linux hard disk (from dual boot machine) and copied off all relevant data - no problem.
What issues are there. Well I would like a 64 bit version of Flash player - come on Adobe. I would like to sync my Blackberry with Evolution. I want to see if my Creative Zen can sync.
This tale should convince some of you that you do not need to use Windows operating systems. There is a perfectly good alternative.
To find out more visit Linux Computing UK where we can help you. For the more adventurous who want to go it alone try Ubuntu themselves.