Skype is an essential tool for a digital nomad. In some versions of gnu/Linux, you'll notice considerable audio quality issues and disturbance (white noise) in Skype. Had to resort to using Skype on Android until I found this solution on Skype community forum.
Run this command in the terminal to start Skype. You'll notice significant improvement in the audio quality.
$ PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 skype
Happy Skyping!
The Web is our largest shared resource. Let's keep it free and open for us, and for the next generation.
What kind of Web do you want? Tell us: http://mzl.la/1hHyqBq
Learn more about at webwewant.mozilla.org and WebWeWant.org global movement to defend, claim and change the future of the Web.
In my last post I talked about configuring static DNS entries. Let's go about choosing the fastest DNS servers near your location using Namebench. This tool helps you find the fastest DNS server based on web history, tcpdump output and standardized datasets. You can install it from your package manager or download from code.google.com/p/namebench/.
Here is the list of fastest DNS servers near Nairobi. Tests were run from Zuku Internet connection on Ngong Road, Nairobi
Here is quick tip to configure custom DNS services like OpenDNS and Google Public DNS servers on gnu/Linux. Using custom DNS services offers performance benefits and enhanced security.
Append add 'dns-nameservers' to your /etc/network/interfaces file. This over-rides the DNS servers assigned by the DHCP service.
dns-nameservers 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220
Happy Browsing!
Managing your /etc configuration files using version control is a good practice. Trust me, someday this will save your skin.
In the post I'll share setup notes for using etckeeper with git version control. You can install etckeeper and git using system package manager.
# Initialize etckeeper
sudo etckeeper init
# Commit all your /etc/ configurations into git
sudo etckeeper commit '...enable etckeeper...'
# Check the commit history of file
$ sudo git log /etc/passwd
commit 322b63ede6cf3073a8f48a883b49d5b3b60fdfb9
Author: arky <arky@localhost.localdomain>
Date: Wed Mar 5 07:11:47 2014 +0000
...enable etckeeper...
There is very little etckeeper documentation out there. You can learn more from this dated Ubuntu Server 10.04 etckeeper wiki page.
Robert Kaiser walks in with his Sunrizer bag and says "Here is what you need for Africa". This designer bag sports a flexible solar panel and provides USB connections to charge your devices while you carry. Stylish, Waterproof and rugged enough to hold your laptop, mobile phones, music player and charger cables. Love this bag but at €179.00 EUR it's expensive.
Checkout out www.So-fi.com for more solar products.
The mailman server I maintain for a local non-profit is running out of disk space.Time for some spring cleaning. Decided to archive all mailing-list archives older than 2 years. Grabbed the nifty Archivemail python program and installed with 'python setup.py'.
The archivemail is a tool for archiving and compressing old email in mailboxes. It moves messages older than the specified number of days to a separate mbox format mailbox that is compressed with gzip.
Don't forget to back up mailman mbox files before you start pruning mailman archives.
# Prune mbox file
$ cd /var/lib/mailman/archives/private
$ archivemail --days=550 name-of-list/list.mbox
# Wipe and rebuild archive
$ cd /usr/lib/mailman
$ bin/arch --wipe
