Fast storage using tmpfs

Here is a link to an article on using tmpfs (and the commonly pre-defined /dev/shm mount for tmpfs) as a high-speed, in-memory filing system.

This is very handy for small-ish amounts of data in files that get a lot of access. Just remember that you will loose it if the host crashes!

You can use this for SqlLite database files too.

Create turbocharged storage using tmpfs

Update on FreeOTFE

Thought I would add a quick update on using FreeOTFE under Windows and PocketPC. I tried it under Windows on a different PC and it does indeed work OK though it is nowhere near as polished as TrueCrypt.

I've also tried again a few times on a PocketPC with limited success and I think I know what is happening. Firstly, you must install FreeOTFE for PPC into system memory and not on a storage card - not terribly surprising really. However, you do not seem to be able to use a secure volume from a storage card either very reliably (I tried on a T-Mobile MDA Compact III). I did have some success creating a small volume (approx. 2MB) in main memory, it did load eventually. Sorry to say that this is unworkable and I'll be sticking to Keepass and Tombo on PPC with TrueCrypt on Windows and Linux.

It is worth noting in passing that TrueCrypt for Linux now has a native UI.

Living with Firefox

I use Firefox all the time. Both with Windows and Linux but I don't like the fact that it assumes that you are using Gnome under Linux and doesn't really play nicely with KDE.

Thankfully there are a few things you can do.

To get printing to use KPrinter (the default KDE print dialog). Choose the printer called Postscript/default and then change the command that is run to kprinter --stdin. Now, whenever you print to that printer, you will get the KDE standard print dialog where you can choose the printer (most importantly, output to PDF) and change the settings.

What is happening is that you are setting a configuration item (see the special Firefox URL about:config) called print.printer_PostScript/default.print_command. If you are happy to always use this setting, you might also like to set print.always_print_silent to true in about:config (add it as a new string entry if it does not exist). Now you wont see the initial print dialog, you will get a progress box and then the KDE print dialog.

You might also want to get rid of the nasty looking Gnome open/save dialogs too. That's easily done, again using about:config. This time set the option ui.allow_platform_file_picker to false.

Finally, you may well find that printing from Firefox takes an age. You can fix that by editing /etc/cups/mime.types (as sudo) and commenting out the two lines belonging to the mozilla-ps mime type. I am not sure though whether this has any impact on the quality of the output.

And people say that Linux is ready for the desktop? Hmm.

One command system update (Without password)

Here's a very handy tip about configuring SUSE to run a full update from the command line without requiring a sudo (and hence a password).
One command system update (Without password)