After having had a hard drive fail on one of our servers here at Bite Of Tech and I searched Google for the best method for replacing the failed drive and re-assembling the raid without having to reboot the server. I found plenty of ways not to do this so I figured I would share the correct way to re-assemble a software raid 1 in Ubuntu Linux.

In the news there are increasing reports of Linux servers being compromised and turning into spam-bots or hosts to malicious websites. As a Linux admin I see scores of spam e-mails coming through my /var/log/syslog file and username/password guesses on SSH, e-mail, and website login forms.

For several years I have been frustrated with the lack of a LogMeIn.com alternative for Linux. When doing Google searches the answer has always been to use VNC. There are many limitations to VNC that do not cover all my criteria. First, I would like to not have to make adjustments to my firewall to gain access to the machine. VNC …

With the upcoming release of Windows 8 there will be a new interface replacing the standard desktop we currently know. This will be called the Start screen and consists of a customizable array of tiles that are used to launch applications. These live tiles have the ability to display real-time information such as weather information or stock prices. If you …

A great application that many people don’t know about is CCleaner. This application will clean out your temporary files, optimize your system registry, and increase your privacy with a number of products you use. Many people don’t realize it, but, you are accumulating files on your computer with typical daily use that don’t need to be there. Internet browser temporary …

First of all head on over to the RootzWiki.com website and check out the thread discussing this release. They have a number of videos and a lengthy description of what works and does not on the first post. http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?4011-RELEASE-ALPHA-Discussion-CyanogenMod-team-Touchpad-port This is a very early release of the product and a number of items will not be working completely. I will …

It has always been a pain in Windows to know what programs are out of date. A few applications will now update through the Microsoft Update system, however, there are many that do not. A majority of the programs do not have an internal updating system either. Over the years I have seen software updaters come and go. There are …

Back in February I wrote about a program from Microsoft called “Ribbon Hero”. I noticed a few weeks ago that they released Ribbon Hero 2 and it seemed to be a lot different than their original release. Microsoft has turned the program into a much more entertaining game and less of a training exercise. Your job is to help “Clippy”, …

I figured I would “nerd out” a little for this article and talk about a program that can unlock the capabilities of your home router. The program is named DD-WRT. It is a Linux based OpenSource firmware that can be put on quite a few WLAN routers and embedded systems. It has a graphical user interface much like what your …

I thought it would be fun to put a video up that Laura and I made along with some friend of ours. Here is the film we scripted, shot and edited in just 48 hours for the i48 film festival in Boise. We were required to incorporate the following: – Angel figurine – Character Casper Marshall, Attorney – Phrase “It’s …

I wanted to bring up a new program you might see popping up here in the next few months. It is very similar to OpenOffice and it is called “LibreOffice”. This new program is a fork of OpenOffice and is also compatible with all the other major office suites you may be comfortable with. One reason it has been so …

After giving a presentation on installing Linux there was interest in a follow up guide so people could attempt a Linux install for themselves. There are a number of different flavors of Linux to choose from, so, I will go over some of the differences between these versions. Depending on how old your computer is you may want to consider …