As many of you Ubuntu users know, Flash can sometimes be slow and annoying on Ubuntu. UbuntuForums.org has some great suggested tweaks that can improve your flash speeds including removing of all flash plug-ins and re-install the latest version of flash and tweaking the about:config settings in Firefox.

2. How to Install OpenOffice 3.2!

OpenOffice has been slowly making great progress over the years, it’s probably one of the best open-source document software out there.  If you haven’t upgraded to the latest OpenOffice 3.2, try this guide that shows you how.

3.  How to Install Pretty Permalinks for Wordpress running on Ubuntu!

If you are hosting a Wordpress blog on a Ubuntu as a web server and you are using standard permalinks instead of pretty permalinks, you might want to read up on this great article that shows you how to convert to pretty permalinks in Ubuntu.

4. How to install VMWare in Ubuntu!

I used to run 100% Linux computers and would run bunch of VMware Windows OS inside it.  This was actually like 5 years ago but I stopped doing it because when you run an operating system virtually, it’s never going to run as fast as by itself, that’s just the simple truth.  But for those of you hardcore linux wannabes who want to keep using your Windows programs, the best way to do that is to use VMWare.  (or Wine although compatibility issues are harder there)  There’s a great guide out there on how to install VMWare Server over at HowToForge. It should be similar for all the rest versions of VMWare.

5. How to Make your Linux Box Energy Efficient! #GREEN

For Windows, there’s NHC, which can automatically adjust your CPU to save power plus your CPU will last much longer, especially on laptops. (You can read about that on my post about controlling your CPU speed) For linux, you can use PowerTop, which is a similar program to help you cut down on idle CPU usage by throttling down your CPU speeds.  For DIY howto guide for that, looky here.

6. How to Install DNS Caching on Ubuntu!

This is a must for all Ubuntu users.  Install DNS caching so your browsing will be faster and even for web servers that do  a lot of external queries, this can be power consumption/time saver.  I have it installed on ALL my linux boxes.  See my howto on this here.

7. How to Permanently Delete Important Files!

Did you know all computers, including Ubuntu, Windows, and Mac, still store your files on the filesystem after deletion?  The only true way to delete your important files permanently is to overwrite the exact sectors your files lie in with garbage or another data.  For Ubuntu, you can use Shred to delete files permanently, see this great howto guide here.

8. How to Install Bind DNS Server!

If you are setting up a domain name and you need your own DNS server to resolve your domain names, you can refer to this great guide on how to install Bind DNS server. Personally I use Plesk because I like the graphical interface and DNS settings in command line can get very hairy but for those of you studying linux, this is a must-skill to learn for sheezy.

9. How to Make Ubuntu File Server for Macs!

Regardless of what operating system you use, Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) are the perfect file servers.  Personally I use a Ubuntu box for backing up all my data, simply because there’s many programs on Linux to help me get things done faster like SSH.  Here’s a great guide on how to make your Ubuntu box into a File Server/Time Machine for Macs. I won’t get into more details on this post but watch out for a collection of great HOWTOs for turning Ubuntu/Linux into a file server soon.  (working on that next)

10. How to Install Ubuntu without a CD!

If you have a bunch of machines laying around and you want to install Ubuntu via a CD, that can be time-consuming and painstakingly a pain in the ass.  Instead, you can re-partition your hard drive and install GRUB to install Ubuntu without a CD, also much faster installation times.   See this guide here for that.

There you have it, I just covered some of the most basic grounds for Ubuntu.  Whether you are seasoned veteran or just starting out with Ubuntu, make sure you know how to do these as they will help you do get things done faster on Ubuntu.

And remember, most of these tips can apply to any kind of Linux, you might have to get around it by using a different command such as using yum instead of apt-get.  Don’t get frustrated, it’s all part of learning process.  As I myself learn more about Ubuntu and other Linux distros such as Fedora or CentOS, I am beginning to appreciate the greater power of open-sourced operating systems.  Even this website is running on CentOS with Nginx web server and Fedora as MySQL server.  Cheers linux-addicts out there!  #LinuxRocks!

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Ubuntu Hacks – Top 10 Ubuntu HOWTOs for Faster/Better Ubuntu(or Linux)!

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jQuery is basically javascript extended, helping you get things done faster instead of you trying to code javascript from scratch.  I just noticed on Twitter TripWireMagazine.com has a great blog post on Top 25 jQuery plugins that can help you finish your web project faster.

I’ve been working hard on TwitLi.st for last few weeks and regret I didn’t use any jQuery libraries instead I coded every single line of AJAX myself.

For those of you who don’t know about jQuery, you can read/learn about it here.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

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Believe it or not, this guy claims that he can start BBQ charcoals faster with his homemade wire-mesh and hair dryer.

You might want to consider trying this method for your Independence Weekend BBQ.

Whenever I have trouble starting coals for my BBQ I grab a hair dryer, point it at my grill and pull the trigger. One minute later I have red hot coals and I never have to use any lighter fluid to get them started.

Video after the jump!

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

via instructables

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

DIY – How to Start BBQ Charcoals Faster with Hair Dryer!

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Here’s are some great ways to watch your YouTube videos even faster:

(I’ve found the YouTube FireFox add-on most useful as I do like to listen to a lot of music on YouTube)

• Download SpeedBit Video Accelerator which makes videos from YouTube and many other video sites faster by reducing buffering problems.
• The URL Hacking: Add a simple &fmt=18# to the end of the normal YouTube video URL would make the hi res video, if it exists, to load On the other hand if you would like youtube videos which are of better quality then remove the # from the end.
• Search faster and Watch fast youtube videos with Youtube Seatch.
• Use an Firefox Addon which is really cool – YouPlayer (If you not using FireFox please excuse me.)
• Change the Youtube Video setting to better suite you.

via urbanread

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If you are like most folks who don’t know about DD-WRT and your Linksys router is dying on you, it’s time to switch your OS to DD-WRT.

DD-WRT also works on over 80 other routers, so be sure to check the supported devices list here.

DD-WRT is basically an aftermarket linux firmware for your Linksys router. It’s like putting an aftermarket turbo system on your hot import car, except this one is open-source and free to download.

There are many instructions floating on the internet but the most important thing is to identify what type of Linksys router you have.

You can refer to the instructions on the DD-WRT website wiki here. It might look a little hairy but usually it takes 3 simple steps of uploading a new firmware via the web GUI admin interface, TFTPing another file, then simple rebooting and wala you have a .

Check the back of your Linksys router to see what model it is. I have several different Linksys routers ranging from Linksys WRT-G V8, WRT-GS V5, and WRT-GS V7.

I’ve successfully installed the DD-WRT on my WRT-GS V5 and my WRT-G V8, but have bricked my WRT-GS V7.

If you have WRT-G V8 or WRT-GS V7, you can try this guide here. I’ve successfully installed the WRT-G V8 but bricked my WRT-GS V7, so be careful.

If you have one of the newer models or thinking about buying one, I highly suggest trying to get an old one off eBay or get the WRT-G models. Although WRT-GS V8 is supported, sometimes, it can brick your router just like it happened to me.

Bricked your router while trying to upgrade to DD-WRT?

Well, normally this doesn’t happen, but here’s resources just in case you do brick your router.

The only choice I have is to make a hairydairymaid JTAG cable which allows you to directly program and erase the flash and the Broadcom chip inside the router.

If you ever brick your router, you can always refer to the WRT54G revival guide before trying the hairy dairy method.

Click below for on the rest of the guide to tweak the settings and make the router go 10 times faster!

Modify the setting on the DD-WRT and make your internet go 10 times faster!

Okay, just by installing DD-WRT, you made your internet connection and your network about 5 times faster. With more little tweaking with the admin settings, you can squeeze out some more performance.

Now comes several steps that can REALLY make your internet and network faster.

Here’s how to do it:

After installing your new DD-WRT firmware and everything is working smoothly, go to Administration->Management and set the Maximum ports to 4096 from the default 1024. (This is basically the maximum number of ports available at any given moment. ) Now, I have cable internet and doing this made my internet much much faster, especially since I got about 7 computers hooked up to my network. My cable download speed went from 6 Mbps to 20 Mbps!

Another hack is you can also overclock your router, so set that to 250 Mhz and off you go! (I belive this overclock method is only supported with full versions of DD-WRT, not micro…so if you don’t see the menu, you can’t overclock it… :p )

QoS (Quality of Service) HACK

This is probably the most overlooked setting. I used to work with VOIP phones so QoS was always important in setting that VOIP packets to be high priority.

Basically QoS allows you to prioritize the data depending on what you type of data transfer you want to make it super fast. Although you might not see whole lot of improvement if your network is hummin’, you will see a great performance increase under network congestion.

Simply go to Application & Gaming->QoS like shown above, and add the services you want to prioritize and set them to “Exempt”.

For me, I put http (Port 80), which is my web browser. Since I use the web mostly, I want my web pages to load fast!

I also put in some other ones like ftp, pop3 (my Outlook e-mail), and httpvideo.

Other than those services, I don’t really use other stuff much but if you use bittorrent or something, you can set them here too.

You need to know the port numbers in order to set this up. You can refer to common list of port numbers here.

MAC Address QoS HACK

I used to work as an IT admin long time ago and I usually have admin access to all the routers where I worked. (or wherever I worked that is)

Since I like to browse the web faster and do things faster than everybody, I would always go into the admin and put in the MAC address of my network adaptor.

Basically, by doing this, your computer will always get faster network speeds than other computers in the network. This worked great so I could download videos, music, and etc…etc… while my co-workers complained that their internet was slow.

In the same screen as QoS screen more towards the bottom, you can enter your MAC Address of your network adaptor and add it. Now, your computer will be the fastest at your work! Yes, don’t blame me if you get fired for it, but I don’t think it’s THAT evil, it’s only increasing your work productivity.

How to find your MAC address?

Simply check the Details of your network connection on your computer. (You could probably google this if you get stuck.)

Conclusion

As you can see, it’s not just installing the DD-WRT firmware that makes your network and downloads faster, it’s also the little tweaking here and there that can make your router work like a race-horse.

Did I forget any settings?  If I did, leave a comment!

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

DIY Linksys HACK – HOWTO tweak your router to go 10 times faster!

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