Switch To GNOME From Unity
I know Ubuntu folks are touting Unity as the new desktop theme, but it doesn’t work well on the netbook where real estate is limited. The Launch Pad on the left seems very inflexible. With it, using a web browser [ in this case firefox ] seems difficult. The best option for me was to switch from Unity to the classic gnome desktop.
1. Select Applications from the Launch Pad.
2. Locate and click on the Login Screen icon. Then click on Unlock so you can change the settings.
3. You will have to authenticate with your login password.
4. Select Ubuntu Desktop Edition from the dropdown, for the default session.
5. Select the option to Log in as <Username> automatically and set the login timer to 10 seconds, then hit Close and reboot.
6. After reboot, you should get back to a login window. After you select your username, the taskbar will appear at the bottom of the screen. In the taskbar, make sure the desktop version is still Ubuntu Desktop Edition. Then simply login.
The above steps were written for Ubuntu 10.10, but I suspect they should work for 11.04. However, instead of going from Ubuntu Netbook to Ubuntu Desktop, you have to go from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Classic.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix
Got myself a Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 a while back, for work. I travel from office to office and I use it to remote into my main desktop at homebase. The netbook came preloaded with Windows 7 Starter, which is fine for what I needed to do. I’m not a Linux expert. Far from it. But I recently ran the Windows Update, downloaded and installed Service Pack 1, and basically blew up my netbook. Hey, s#!t happens. Sooo, after I reloaded Windows 7, I decided to also install the Ubuntu Netbook. So I figured I write about my experiences with it here.
HuffPost – Texas Exposes Private Records: State Accidentally Releases 3.5 Million Personal Records
Another case for making it mandatory to have peoples personal info stored in an encrypted database:
Read more at Huff Post…Texas Exposes Private Records: State Accidentally Releases 3.5 Million Personal Records.
Epsilon e-mail Marketing Breach
By now, you may have heard of the security breach at mass email marketing company Epsilon, where the names and email addresses of thousands, if not millions, of people have been stolen. The current list of companies include:
- 1-800-Flowers
- AbeBooks
- Ameriprise Financial
- Barclays Bank
- Best Buy
- Brookstone
- Citibank
- Disney Destinations
- Hilton Worldwide
- JP Morgan Chase
- Kroger
- Lacoste
- Marriott International
- McKinsey Quarterly
- New York & Company
- Robert Half
- Target
- Tivo
- US Bank
- Verizon
- Walgreens
The warning emails are starting to role in. This one from Target:
When will it become Standard Operating Procedure, and an industry standard, if you are storing customer info, to store it in an encrypted database! It can’t be that difficult!! The money you are spending on the resulting PR, could probably have been used to secure the database.
I blame, not only Epsilon, but also the companies that dealt with Epsilon for not making it a requirement that the customer info be encrypted.
Firefox 3.6.16 Back Button Not Working
McAfee Site Advisor Add-On broke my back button in Firefox!
Everything was fine and dandy until, my Firefox was updated to 3.6.16. All of a sudden, the back button wasn’t working. Sooo, if I searched for something via Google, and clicked on a found link, I couldn’t go back to the search results page if I wanted to because the back button was grayed out!
As usual with these sort of updates, some other third-party extension broke this functionality.
I went through my Add-Ons list:
- AdBlock Plus
- AddThis
- Evernote
- Garmin Communicator
- Google Toolbar
- Java
- McAfee SiteAdvisor
- Microsoft .Net
- NoScript
- Nuke Anything
- ShortenURL
- WOT
- XMarks
I disabled all the add-ons and one-by-one re-enabled them, restarting my Firefox each time. to see which add-on broke the back-button.
Turns out, it was McAfee SiteAdvisor. I compared it with another user who posted a list of add-ons he had, and who also lost the back button function. He too had McAfee SiteAdvisor.
Sooo, if your back button stops working, and you have McAfee SiteAdvisor, disable it and try it out. If you don’t have that add-on, try the method of disabling all your add-ons and re-enabling them, one-by-one, to isolate the culprit:
- From the menu bar go to Tools–> Add-ons [to open the Add-ons window]
- Select Extensions on top
- Click on the Add-on
- Click “Disable” then “Close”
- Restart Firefox
