How to writing an Journal Article Summary

1. Read the article.
   

2. Re-read the article. Underline important ideas. Circle key terms. Find the main point of the article. Divide the article into sections or stages of thought, and label each section or stage of thought in the margins. Note the main idea of each paragraph if the article is short.
   

3. Write brief summaries of each stage of thought or if appropriate each paragraph. Use a separate piece of paper for this step. This should be a
   brief outline of the article.
   

4. Write the main point of the article. Use your own words. This should be a sentence that expresses the central idea of the article as you have determined it the from steps above.
   

5. Write your rough draft of the summary. Combine the information from the first four steps into paragraphs.

   NOTE: Include all the important ideas. Use the author's key words. Follow the original organization where possible. Include any important data. Include any important conclusions.

6. Edit your version. Be concise. Eliminate needless words and repetitions.
   (Avoid using "the author says...," "the author argues...," etc.)
   

7. Compare your version to the original.

   	Do not use quotations, but if you use them be sure to quote correctly. Indicate quotations with quotation marks. Cite each quotation correctly (give the page number).
   	Do not plagiarize. Cite any paraphrases by citing the page number the information appears on. Avoid paraphrasing whenever possible. Use your own words to state the ideas presented in the article. (Adapted from Writing Across the Curriculum 4th edition, L. Behrens and L. Rosen, eds., 1991, Harper/Collins, pp. 6-7.)

In the summary, you should include only the information your readers need.

1. State the main point first.
   

2. Use a lower level of technicality than the authors of the original article use. Do not write a summary your readers cannot understand.
   

3. Make the summary clear and understandable to someone who has not read the original article. Your summary should stand on its own.
   

4. Write a summary rather than a table of contents.
   Wrong: This article covers point X. Then the article covers point Y.
   Right: Glacial advances have been rapid as shown by x, y, and z.
   (see sample)

5. Add no new data and none of your own ideas.
   

6. Use a simple organization:

   	main point
   	main results: give the main results See sample
   	conclusions/recommendations

7. Unless the examples in the article are essential, do not include the examples in your summary. If you include them, remember to explain them.

Here is an easy way to begin a summary: In "[name of article]" [author] states . . . . [State the main point of the article first.] For example: In "Computer Chess"* Hans Berliner states that the CYBER 170 series computer can perform well in a chess tournament.

Cite the source with correct bibliographic form.
*Berliner, H.J. (1981). Computer Chess. Nature, 274(567), 745-748.
[ author. article title. journal title. vol(number)/month: pages. ]

So when you write a summary:

1. State the main point first.
2. Emphasize the main stages of though.
3. State the article’s conclusion.
4. Summarize rather than give a table of contents.

   Example:
   Wrong:
   This article covers the topic of measuring the extent of global deforestation. The article discusses reasons for concern, the technique, the results, and the project’s current goal.
   Right:
   According to the author of “Seeing the Forest,” the extent of global deforestation was difficult to measure until satellite remote sensing techniques were applied. Measuring the extent of global deforestation is important because of concerns about global warming and species extinctions. The technique compares old infrared LANDSAT images with new images. The authors conclude the method is accurate and cost effective.
   

5. Keep summary short: 3 to 7 sentences.

Procedure: Reset FreeBSD root user password

Step # 1: Start FreeBSD server/workstation

Step # 2: Press Enter key at boot loader

At Welcome to FreeBSD! boot menu press spacebar key to pause default booting

Type number 4 key (type 4 number) to boot into single user mode

(click to enlarge)

Next you will see following prompt from system:
When prompted Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:

Press Enter key to boot into single user mode. Next, you will be immediately dropped into a single user mode without a root password.

You need to remount / (root) file system in read and write mode with mount command, type following two commands:
# mount -u /
# mount -a

Setup a new password with passwd command:
# passwd

Next type exit command to boot FreeBSD into multi-user mode environment:
# exit
OR You can just reboot the system:
# sync;sync
# reboot

For more information read man pages of passwd and mount command.

The 4GB Windows Memory Limit: What does it really mean?

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the industry about what's commonly called the Windows “4GB memory limit.” When talking about performance tuning and server sizing, people are quick to mention the fact that an application on a 32-bit Windows system can only access 4GB of memory. But what exactly does this mean?

By definition, a 32-bit processor uses 32 bits to refer to the location of each byte of memory. 2^32 = 4.2 billion, which means a memory address that's 32 bits long can only refer to 4.2 billion unique locations (i.e. 4 GB).

In the 32-bit Windows world, each application has its own “virtual” 4GB memory space. (This means that each application functions as if it has a flat 4GB of memory, and the system's memory manager keeps track of memory mapping, which applications are using which memory, page file management, and so on.)

This 4GB space is evenly divided into two parts, with 2GB dedicated for kernel usage, and 2GB left for application usage. Each application gets its own 2GB, but all applications have to share the same 2GB kernel space.

This can cause problems in Terminal Server environments. On Terminal Servers with a lot of users running a lot of applications, quite a bit of information from all the users has to be crammed into the shared 2GB of kernel memory. In fact, this is why no Windows 2000-based Terminal Server can support more than about 200 users—the 2GB of kernel memory gets full—even if the server has 16GB of memory and eight 3GHz processors. This is simply an architectural limitation of 32-bit Windows.

Windows 2003 is a little bit better in that it allows you to more finely tune how the 2GB kernel memory space is used. However, you still can't escape the fact that the thousands of processes from hundreds of users will all have to share the common 2GB kernel space.

Using the /3GB (for Windows 2000) or the /4GT (for Windows 2003) boot.ini switches is even worse in Terminal Server environments because those switches change the partition between the application memory space and kernel memory space. These switches gives each application 3GB of memory, which in turn only leaves 1GB for the kernel—a disaster in Terminal Server environments!

People who are unfamiliar with the real meaning behind the 4GB Windows memory limit often point out that certain versions of Windows (such as Enterprise or Datacenter editions) can actually support more than 4GB of physical memory. However, adding more than 4GB of physical memory to a server still doesn't change the fact that it's a 32-bit processor accessing a 32-bit memory space. Even when more than 4GB of memory is present, each process still has the normal 2GB virtual address space, and the kernel address space is still 2GB, just as on a normal non-PAE system.

However, systems booted /PAE can support up to 64GB physical memory. A 32-bit process can "use" large amounts of memory via AWE (address windowing extension) functions. This means that they must map views of the physical memory they allocate into their 2GB virtual address space. Essentially, they can only use 2GB of memory at a time.

Here are more details about what booting /PAE means from Chapter 7 of the book "Inside Windows 2000," by David Solomon and Mark Russinovich.

All of the Intel x86 family processors since the Pentium Pro include a memory-mapping mode called Physical Address Extension (PAE). With the proper chipset, the PAE mode allows access to up to 64 GB of physical memory. When the x86 executes in PAE mode, the memory management unit (MMU) divides virtual addresses into four fields.

The MMU still implements page directories and page tables, but a third level, the page directory pointer table, exists above them. PAE mode can address more memory than the standard translation mode not because of the extra level of translation but because PDEs and PTEs are 64-bits wide rather than 32-bits. The system represents physical addresses internally with 24 bits, which gives the x86 the ability to support a maximum of 2^(24+12) bytes, or 64 GB, of memory.

As explained in Chapter 2 , there is a special version of the core kernel image (Ntoskrnl.exe) with support for PAE called Ntkrnlpa.exe. (The multiprocessor version is called Ntkrpamp.exe.) To select this PAE-enabled kernel, you must boot with the /PAE switch in Boot.ini.

This special version of the kernel image is installed on all Windows 2000 systems, even Windows 2000 Professional systems with small memory. The reason for this is to facilitate testing. Because the PAE kernel presents 64-bit addresses to device drivers and other system code, booting /PAE even on a small memory system allows a device driver developer to test parts of their drivers with large addresses. The other relevant Boot.ini switch is /NOLOWMEM, which discards memory below 4 GB and relocates device drivers above this range, thus guaranteeing that these drivers will be presented with physical addresses greater than 32 bits.

Only Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server are required to support more than 4 GB of physical memory. (See Table 2-2.) Using the AWE Win32 functions, 32bit user processes can allocate and control large amounts of physical memory on these systems.

by Brian Madden

How to WebDAV on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

WebDAV is a file manager that running on web server. You can access it like on your desktop. Easy and enjoyable.

Install Ubuntu 9.04 server as usual and select LAMP and OpenSSH when asked for choice. You can also install vsFTPd if you want to but it is optional.

Step 1 :

sudo a2enmod dav_fs
sudo a2enmod dav
sudo a2enmod dav_lock

sudo a2dissite default

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Step 2 :

To create a virtual host for the WebDAV.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/webdav
chown www-data /var/www/webdav

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/webdav

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/webdav

Make the a portion of the file as the following :


....
DocumentRoot /var/www/webdav

   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
   AllowOverride None
   Order allow,deny
   allow from all


   DAV On
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "webdav"
   AuthUserFile /var/www/.passwd.dav
   Require valid-user
   DavMinTimeout 600
   
      Require valid-user
   

....

Step 3 :

sudo htpasswd -c /var/www/.passwd.dav samiux

chown root:www-data /var/www/.passwd.dav
chmod 640 /var/www/.passwd.dav

suod chmod -R 0777 /var/www/webdav
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/webdav

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Step 4 :

To test if WebDAV works or not.

sudo apt-get install cadaver

sudo cadaver http://localhost/

If you got “dav:/” prompt, enter “quit” to quit. Otherwises, fix the problem.

Step 5 (Windows only) :

Download NetDrive at http://www.netdrive.net/ and set it accordingly. The port should be 80.

Now you can access your WebDAV server from Windows.

Step 6 (Ubuntu only) :

Go to “Place” > “Connect to Server“. Select “WebDAV (HTTP)“. Enter the IP of your WebDAV server and then press “Connect“. Submit the username and password. An icon will be displayed on your desktop. Double click it and go.

Now you can access your WebDAV server from Ubuntu.


OpenOffice
If you open the OpenOffice files on the WebDAV by clicking, you can only open it in read only mode. However, there is method to overcome this problem. You open OpenOffice Write (for example), click the “Open file” and at the “Name of file” enter the following :

vnd.sun.star.webdav://192.168.0.100/openoffice_readonly_on_webdav.odt

Now you can edit and save it on WebDAV.

Limitation of WebDAV

You can paste a file onto WebDAV directly but there is a file size limitation, that is, the file should be less than 1GB. If you want to paste a file larger than 1GB, I suggest to use FTP instead.

Make sure to change the ownership of the files that you have uploaded by FTP.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/webdav


Enjoy ubuntu... ;)

GSM-cracking software may help hackers spy on mobile phone calls

The Global System for Mobile Communications technology used by the majority of the world's mobile phones will get some scrutiny at next week's Black Hat security conference, and what the security researchers there have to say isn't pretty. On Friday, an open source developers had released a GSM-cracking software that breaks the A5/1 encryption algorithm used by some GSM networks. Called Kraken, this software uses new, very efficient, encryption cracking tables that allow it to break A5/1 encryption much faster than before.

The software is key step toward eavesdropping on mobile phone conversations over GSM networks. Since GSM networks are the backbone of 3G, they also provide attackers with an avenue into the new generation of handsets.

Read this full article at Tech World

HowTo: Secure your Ubuntu Apache Web Server

Setting up a web server with Apache on a Linux distribution is a very quick process, however to make it a secure setup takes some work. This article will show you how to make your Apache web server more secure from an attack by effectively using Access control and authentication strategies.

All the examples below assumes that you are using Ubuntu 7.10 with a basic Apache configuration setup. However, these examples will help any user running an Apache server to make it more secure since the concepts will still apply. This HOWTO should be used on a test server then once that is secure migrated to a production web server.

File Permissions and Access Control

Users and groups:

One of the first things to ensure is that Apache does not run as root because if Apache is cracked then an attacker could get control of the root account. Lets take a look at what user and group Apache is running as.

Run the following command:

# ps auwwfx | grep apache www-data 25675 0.0 0.0 10348 508 ? S Jan21 0:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 25686 0.0 0.2 231816 2208 ? Sl Jan21 0:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 25688 0.0 0.2 231816 2200 ? Sl Jan21 0:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

As you can see www-data is the user running Apache. However if it's not then you need to edit your Apache configurations and create a new user and group by:

# groupadd www-data
# useradd -g www-data www-data
# vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change:

User root
Group root

To:

User www-data
Group www-data

Do a reload to make sure the changes take effect:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Permissions to serve files:

One of the most overlooked security practices is correctly using the chmod command. For example, we just created a index.cgi in our Apache html root directory but when we go to open the file in our browser we get the error message permission denied. To get our index.cgi file working we do a chmod 777 index.cgi. Before you try this, every Apache administrator should think to themselves' is this secure? The answer should be NO! But how do we make the permissions secure enough and allow the index.cgi script to work?

chmod:

Apache needs to have permission to execute the index.cgi file. However, we don't want everyone to read and write to index.cgi. The owner of the file should have permission to read and write to the file. We do this by:

# chmod 755 index.cgi

Files outside the web root should not be served:

It's very important to have the following lines in your apache.conf:


Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None

Notes
1.The above lines prevent Apache from having access to files outside of its web root.
2.Some distributions have better default security configuration then others. EnGarde Secure Linux is one example where they include the above lines in their Apache configuration file by default.

We don't want users running CGI scripts anywhere on the filesystem but we do need them to run in the web root. The solution to this problem is the "Options ExecCGI" directive.

Example:
Add the following lines to /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:


AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

Reload apache:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

What if your have resources that should only be accessed by a certain network or IP address?
A solution to this problem is using our Apache configuration to enforce it for you.

Example only allow access to network 192.168.0.0.

Change the following lines in your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:


AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

To:


AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.0.0/16

Do a reload to make sure the changes take effect:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Now only users on you internal network can run CGI script in "/home/username/public_html/cgi-bin"

Authentication

How can we allow only users with the correct password and username to have access to a part of our web root? The following steps will show you how to do this securely.

Basic authentication:

Enable .htaccess

# vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change:

AllowOverride None

To:

AllowOverride AuthConfig

Do a reload to make sure the changes take effect:

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Create a password file:

# mkdir /var/www/misc
# chmod a+rx /var/www/misc
# cd /var/www/misc
# htpasswd -bc private.passwords username password
Adding password for user username

Create .htaccess

# cd /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin
# vi .htaccess

Add the below in .htaccess

AuthName My Private Area"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /var/www/misc/private.passwords
AuthGroupFile /dev/null require valid-user

Change:


AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.0.0/16

To:


AllowOverride .htaccess
Options ExecCGI
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.0.0/16

Do a reload to make sure the changes take effect:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Digest authentication:

Another method for authentication is called digest authentication. With digest authentication your password is never sent across the network in the clear because they are always transmitted as an MD5 digest of the user's password. This way passwords cannot be determined by sniffing network traffic:

Create a password file:

# mkdir /var/www/misc
# chmod a+rx /var/www/misc
# cd /var/www/misc
# htdigest -c private.passwords realm username
Adding password for username in realm realm.
New password:

Create .htaccess

# cd /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin
# vi .htaccess

Add the below in .htaccess

AuthName "My Private Area"
AuthType Digest
AuthUserFile /var/www/misc/private.passwords
AuthGroupFile /dev/null require valid-user



Tq http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/133913/171/

Enjoy ubuntu... ;)

Ubuntu Hacks: Tips & Tools for Exploring, Using, and Tuning Linux

How to Install Ubuntu as Dual

How to reset your password in Ubuntu

There are many reasons you might want to reset a password:

• Someone gave you a computer with Ubuntu installed on it but not the password for the user account.
• You just installed Ubuntu and forgot what password you selected during the installation process.
• You have too many passwords in your life and can't keep track of them all.

Well, this tutorial will help you reset your Ubuntu user account password, regardless of what reason you have for resetting it.

First, you have to reboot into recovery mode.

If you have a single-boot (Ubuntu is the only operating system on your computer), to get the boot menu to show, you have to hold down the Shift key during bootup.

If you have a dual-boot (Ubuntu is installed next to Windows, another Linux operating system, or Mac OS X; and you choose at boot time which operating system to boot into), the boot menu should appear without the need to hold down the Shift key.

For older versions of Ubuntu (9.04 and 8.04), you can press the Escape key during bootup in order to see the boot menu.

From the boot menu, select recovery mode, which is usually the second boot option.

After you select recovery mode and wait for all the boot-up processes to finish, you'll be presented with a few options. In this case, you want the Drop to root shell prompt option so press the Down arrow to get to that option, and then press Enter to select it.

The root account is the ultimate administrator and can do anything to the Ubuntu installation (including erase it), so please be careful with what commands you enter in the root terminal.

Once you're at the root shell prompt, if you have forgotten your username as well, type

ls /home

That's a lowercase L, by the way, not a capital i, in ls. You should then see a list of the users on your Ubuntu installation. In this case, I'm going to reset Susan Brownmiller's password.

To reset the password, type

passwd username

where username is the username you want to reset. In this case, I want to reset Susan's password, so I type

passwd susan

You'll then be prompted for a new password. When you type the password you will get no visual response acknowledging your typing. Your password is still being accepted. Just type the password and hit Enter when you're done. You'll be prompted to retype the password. Do so and hit Enter again.

Now the password should be reset. Type

exit

to return to the recovery menu.

After you get back to the recovery menu, select resume normal boot, and use Ubuntu as you normally would—only this time, you actually know the password!

Enjoy ubuntu... ;)

How To Hack Wireless Networks (WEP - Windows/Linux) - Part 2

How To Hack Wireless Networks (WEP - Windows/Linux) - Part 1

5 ways to speed up your PC

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows 7, Vista, and XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

1. Free up disk space

The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.

• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).

• Empty the Recycle Bin.

• Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.

• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.

• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

To use Disk Cleanup

Window 7 users

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, then clickDisk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

2. When Disk Cleanup has calculated how much space you can free, in the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.

   

   Disk Cleanup dialog box

3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.

   • For more options, such as cleaning up System Restore and Shadow copy files, under Description, click Clean up system files, then click the More Options tab.

4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

For Windows XP users

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

   

2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.

   

   Choose the files that you want to delete.

3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.

4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

---

2. Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:

• You add a large number of files.

• Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.

• You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

Windows 7 users

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

   

   Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter.

2. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

   Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3. To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment disk button. In the Current status area, under the Progress column, you can monitor the process as it happens. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4. To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, clickView Report.

5. To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6. You can also schedule the Disk Defragmenter to run automatically, and your computer might be set up this way by default. Under Schedule, it reads Scheduled defragmentation is turned on, then displays the time of day and frequency of defragmentation. If you want to turn off automatic defragmentation or change the time or frequency, click the Configure schedule (or Turn on Schedule, if it is not currently configured to run automatically). Then change the settings, then click OK.

7. To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

   

   Click Analyze disk to start the Disk Defragmenter.

2. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

   Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3. To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented.

   After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4. To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, clickView Report.

5. To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6. To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

---

3. Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

Run the Error Checking utility:

---

4. Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This scan is a free service and will help check for and remove viruses.

---

5. Learn all about ReadyBoost

If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.

Linux Mathematics Software Sage 4.4.4 Available

Sage is a comprehensive Open Source software package for studying and solving math problems. It covers the basics of math, including calculus and algebra, and a wide range of advanced areas, such as number theory, cryptography, graph theory, and linear algebra.

Sage provides both alternatives, as well as interfaces to closed source and costly math packages like Mathematica, Matlab, Magma, and Maple. The big plus of Sage is that you can employ the common easy-to-use programming language Python as scripting language, and you can therefore easily combine advanced math applications with other programming tasks. For more info see the Sage web site.

Sage Feature Tour

Sage is built out of nearly 100 open-source packages and features a unified interface. Sage can be used to study elementary and advanced, pure and applied mathematics. This includes a huge range of mathematics, including basic algebra, calculus, elementary to very advanced number theory, cryptography, numerical computation, commutative algebra, group theory, combinatorics, graph theory, exact linear algebra and much more. It combinesvarious software packages and seamlessly integrates their functionality into a common experience. It is well-suitedfor education and research.

The user interface is a notebook in a web browser or the command line. Using the notebook, Sage connects either locally to your own Sage installation or to a Sage server on the network. Inside the Sage notebook you can create embedded graphics, beautifully typeset mathematical expressions, add and delete input, and share your work across the network.

The following showcase presents some of Sage's capabilities, screenshots and gives you an overall impression of what Sage is. The examples show the lines of code in Sage on the left side, accompanied by an explanation on the right. They only show the very basic concepts of how Sage works. Please refer to the documentation material for more detailed explanations or visit the library to see Sage in action.

• Quickstart with Sage — explains basic concepts and gives you an impression of what Sage is.
• Sage Graphics — shows examples of useful plots and visualizations.
• Sage in Research — presents features useful for higher mathematics.
• Sage Benchmarks — compares speed or memory usage of Sage with other systems.

Documentation: A Guided Tour

• The interactive Shell
• Basic Algebra and Calculus
• Plotting, 2D and 3D
• Basic Rings
• Univariate and Multivariate Polynomials
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Linux / Unix Command: ifconfig

NAME

ifconfig - configure a network interface

SYNOPSIS

ifconfig [interface]
ifconfig interface [aftype] options | address ...

DESCRIPTION

Ifconfig is used to configure the kernel-resident network interfaces. It is used at boot time to set up interfaces as necessary. After that, it is usually only needed when debugging or when system tuning is needed.

If no arguments are given, ifconfig displays the status of the currently active interfaces. If a single interface argument is given, it displays the status of the given interface only; if a single -a argument is given, it displays the status of all interfaces, even those that are down. Otherwise, it configures an interface.

Address Families

If the first argument after the interface name is recognized as the name of a supported address family, that address family is used for decoding and displaying all protocol addresses. Currently supported address families include inet (TCP/IP, default), inet6(IPv6), ax25 (AMPR Packet Radio), ddp (Appletalk Phase 2), ipx (Novell IPX) and netrom(AMPR Packet radio).

OPTIONS

interface

The name of the interface. This is usually a driver name followed by a unit number, for example eth0 for the first Ethernet interface.

up

This flag causes the interface to be activated. It is implicitly specified if an address is assigned to the interface.

down

This flag causes the driver for this interface to be shut down.

[-]arp

Enable or disable the use of the ARP protocol on this interface.

[-]promisc

Enable or disable the promiscuous mode of the interface. If selected, all packets on the network will be received by the interface.

[-]allmulti

Enable or disable all-multicast mode. If selected, all multicast packets on the network will be received by the interface.

metric N

This parameter sets the interface metric.

mtu N

This parameter sets the Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) of an interface.

dstaddr addr

Set the remote IP address for a point-to-point link (such as PPP). This keyword is now obsolete; use the pointopoint keyword instead.

netmask addr

Set the IP network mask for this interface. This value defaults to the usual class A, B or C network mask (as derived from the interface IP address), but it can be set to any value.

add addr/prefixlen

Add an IPv6 address to an interface.

del addr/prefixlen

Remove an IPv6 address from an interface.

tunnel aa.bb.cc.dd

Create a new SIT (IPv6-in-IPv4) device, tunnelling to the given destination.

irq addr

Set the interrupt line used by this device. Not all devices can dynamically change their IRQ setting.

io_addr addr

Set the start address in I/O space for this device.

mem_start addr

Set the start address for shared memory used by this device. Only a few devices need this.

media type

Set the physical port or medium type to be used by the device. Not all devices can change this setting, and those that can vary in what values they support. Typical values for type are 10base2 (thin Ethernet), 10baseT (twisted-pair 10Mbps Ethernet), AUI (external transceiver) and so on. The special medium type of auto can be used to tell the driver to auto-sense the media. Again, not all drivers can do this.

[-]broadcast [addr]

If the address argument is given, set the protocol broadcast address for this interface. Otherwise, set (or clear) the IFF_BROADCAST flag for the interface.

[-]pointopoint [addr]

This keyword enables the point-to-point mode of an interface, meaning that it is a direct link between two machines with nobody else listening on it.
If the address argument is also given, set the protocol address of the other side of the link, just like the obsolete dstaddr keyword does. Otherwise, set or clear theIFF_POINTOPOINT flag for the interface.

hw class address

Set the hardware address of this interface, if the device driver supports this operation. The keyword must be followed by the name of the hardware class and the printable ASCII equivalent of the hardware address. Hardware classes currently supported include ether (Ethernet), ax25 (AMPR AX.25), ARCnet and netrom (AMPR NET/ROM).

multicast

Set the multicast flag on the interface. This should not normally be needed as the drivers set the flag correctly themselves.

address

The IP address to be assigned to this interface.

txqueuelen length

Set the length of the transmit queue of the device. It is useful to set this to small values for slower devices with a high latency (modem links, ISDN) to prevent fast bulk transfers from disturbing interactive traffic like telnet too much.