How-Tos

Some Linux distributions allow you to install all of your partitions, save the boot partition, onto encrypted partitions. Doing this can be a big increase to the security of your data, should your computer be stolen, but can be an inconvenience when installed on a server that has no input devices connected. Fortunately, initramfs, the same program allowing you to boot an encrypted root partition in the first place, can also be configure to allow ssh connections.

All of the following must be done as root.

Initramfs (wikipedia) is a temporary filesystem that can boot a Linux system. Using initramfs allows you to use complex file partition schemes for your root directory, such as storing your root on a raid array, or on an encrypted partition.
Because it is designed to do such complex tasks, it allows for a number of utilities to be installed, including a basic shell (Busybox), and an ssh server (dropbox).

A SSH Key allows you to log into a remote server without ever having to enter the password for you user on that server. In some situations, you can use this to increase security, by configuring the remote host to only allow SSH to be used when the client has a key. It can also be useful when the remote host does not have a password, such as when using Dropbear on initramfs. Or, if you need to be able to set up a cron job that can log onto a remote host, you could setup a passwordless key (although there are inherent risks to doing so) and use that to allow the log on.

Whether you have a OEM edition of Windows installed on your computer and you don't have an install disk, or you have finally gotten your Gentoo system up and running, it's a good idea to make a complete backup of your operating system. Although you can generally simply copy the files that make up Linux over onto a different hard drive or partition, with Windows you need to make an image. Making an image also has benefits on Linux, not the least of which is it contains the entire operating system backup in a single, compressed file.

Recently I was working with someone who suspected that their laptop had a virus, and so wanted to do a virus scan. Needless to say, I recommended to them a couple of freely available virus scanners for Windows, but I also recommended that they boot up a LiveCD and run a virus scan from there. Being able to run off a LiveCD for a virus scan ensures that no techniques that the virus can employ on the host operating system to hide itself (such as a rootkit might do) will work.

For most purposes, the built-in features of Nautilus to browse and mount smb shares will suffice. But in some cases, such as when you wish the folder to be automatically mounted, or need to have another application read from the folder, it needs to be mounted differently.
In my case, some of my music happens to be in a shared folder on a Windows server. I use Amarok to play my music, and so unless I have the shared folder mount automatically, and in a regularly accessible location, problems ensue with accessing the music through Amarok.

For anyone with multiple email accounts that they regularly check, being able to view all of the contents of every inbox at one time is a great boon, and is one of the few reasons that email clients are still more worthwhile then the web interface.
To find a way to set up all of your inboxes to be viewable in a single inbox, while still being able to access each one individually when necessary, is described as "Unified" by Thunderbird.
To turn on the Unified inbox:
Go to View >> Folders and select Unified in the list of options under Folders

This morning I updated my desktop. When I returned, I soon discovered that wmv files would no longer play in VLC or Mplayer. Apparently the file libx264.so.78 no longer existed. Thus began one of those searches that Gentoo sometimes subjects me to, a search to find out why something no longer works (which unfortunately isn't always tied to an update, but instead just happens).

OpenOffice has a helpful feature which suggests possible endings to a word that you are typing, something that can really come in handy if you have regular difficulty spelling the word. However, the default key to accept one of these suggestions is the Enter key. I find this to be very confusing because I use the terminal often, and so I am used to hitting the Tab key to get suggestions, thus to make OpenOffice have a more natural work flow, the Word Completion key must be changed.