Notes

A few programs:

• Tor: “enabling Internet anonymity by thwarting network traffic analysis”
• Privoxy: “It has filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and selectively removing content such as ads, banners and pop-ups.”
• Enigmail: “It enables you to write and receive email messages signed and/or encrypted with the OpenPGP standard.”
• Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR): “cryptographic protocol that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations”

An interesting talk on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHWnHxmnXg (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEMv0S8AcA (Part 2)

Using Firefox and Adblock Plus, you can block some unwanted “features” of Facebook: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/how-to_avoid_facebook_malware.html. For example, it should prevent Facebook from sharing information with other websites.

Or if you want, you can completely delete your account, thanks to the The Consumerist. You could also just deactivate your account if you plan on re-using it.

To be able to access my Adsense account, I had to add the following exception filter in Adblock plus:

@@https://www.google.com/adsense/

Note: I use the Easylist (USA) subscription.

Skype 2.1.0.47 beta uses pulseaudio as the default sound device, so you need to change the default sound device fo skype using a pulseaudio.

1. Install pavucontrol if it’s not already installed
2. Start pavucontrol
3. Play a sound in the application where you need to change the default sound device.
4. While the sound is playing, switch back to pavucontrol and change the sound device.
5. that should be it.

I needed to set my Logitech Clearchat Wireless Headphones as the default sound device for Skype 2.1.0.47 beta in Ubuntu Karmic Alpha (pavucontrol was not installed).

Using Digi Watchport/H USB Serial Humidity/Temperature Sensor in Linux

Ubuntu 9.04 has everything you need except for minicom. So all I had to do was to:

• plug it in

  dmesg should get you the following output:

  usb 2-9: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 50
usb 2-9: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
io_ti 2-9:1.0: Edgeport TI 1 port adapter converter detected
usb 2-9: Edgeport TI 1 port adapter converter now attached to ttyUSB0

• Install minicom: sudo apt-get install minicom
• Edit minicom settings: ~$ minicom -s

  1. Change the Serial Device to /dev/ttyUSB0

  2. Change the Bps/Par/Bits field to 9600 8N1, (9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit). These are the default settings used by the Linux kernel; they can, if necessary, be overridden from the kernel command line by adding extra parameters to the console= option. See kernel-parameters.txt and serial-console.txt.

  3. Turn off both Hardware Flow Control and Software Flow Control.

  4. In the Modem and dialing menu, remove the Init string and Reset string completely if required.

  5. Save your new config
  6. start minicom
  7. more details
• Use one of the following commands:
  

  Command	Description	Return Value
  ?<CR>	Tells about the command set available for this Watchport	as described in this section
  I<CR>	Tells what kind of Watchport is connected.	Watchport/H<CR>
  H<CR>	Gives the percentage relative humidity.	38%<CR>
  T<CR>	Gives temperature in Celsius.	+22.2500C<CR>
  TC<CR>	Also gives temperature in Celsius.	+22.2500C<CR>
  TF<CR>	Gives temperature in Fahrenheit.	+72.0000F<CR>
  TF+<CR>	Repeats the TF command every 3-4 seconds until the next keystroke. Appending + also works with the TC and H commands	+72.0000F<CR>
  L4<CR>	Adjusts the slew rate of the data line. When “L” is followed by a numeric value, 1 through 8, Watchport responds with OK. Other values return Invalid Command. The default setting is 4. Adjust the parameter until the data transmission becomes error-free. The setting remains in effect until the Watchport is power-cycled.	OK

Download Watchport’s manual

Now all I need is a perl script to automate the posting of these values to twitter?