Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

For those that always have to think about how to spell “The Computer Curmudgeon” we now have an additional URL (the old one will, of course, still work!) You can go to:

https://www.drbill.tv

or

https://drbill.cc

Get it? “CC” for “Computer Curmudgeon”… cute, huh? It will hopefully be easy to share with your friends… which, by the way, you should! Thanks!

“This guide shows how to install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) and 6.06 (Dapper Drake) server systems. Zimbra is a full-featured, open source collaboration suite – email, group calendaring, contacts, and web document management and authoring. It has a feature-rich AJAX web interface and is compatible with clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Novell Evolution so that mail, contacts, and calendar items can be synchronized from these to the ZCS server. It can also be synchronized to many mobile devices. ZCS makes use of many existing open source projects such as Postfix, MySQL, and OpenLDAP.”

How To Install Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) On Ubuntu

I know we’ve had a lot of Ubuntu stuff this week, but what can I say… it has been a geeky week!

“#$!VB@#^%^@!#!!!” That’s roughly what a lot of IT managers are saying about Microsoft this week! Why? Because of the need to run an update program on every desktop, sometimes with user input required (if the user needs to agree to a date in their Outlook calendar being reassigned a time.)

Microsoft Customers Irate over Daylight-Saving Time Woes

“The extension of daylight-saving time by a month in the United States is causing enormous grief for some IT administrators running Microsoft software, as many of the software programs running on their users’ systems need to be individually patched to reflect the change. This year, DST (daylight-saving time) starts on Sunday, March 11—three weeks earlier than usual—and ends a week later than usual on Nov. 4. Microsoft has been warning customers that unless certain updates are applied to their computers, the time zone settings for their system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. ‘In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated,’ the company said on its support site.”

Yep… they are mad… crazy in fact! Despite five new zero day exploits… Microsoft has called off it’s regular “Patch Tuesday” updates this month. Can you say, “Doom?”

No March Security Updates from Microsoft

“After a whopping twelve security updates last month, March will bring Windows users a welcome sigh of relief: Microsoft has no patches planned for next week. The company will, however, release a number of non-security updates; 2 will appear on Windows Update and 4 on Microsoft update. Because there are no security bulletins for March, Microsoft will not be holding its monthly webcast on TechNet. An update to the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool will be made per usual. Microsoft released six critical security updates last month, correcting flaws in Windows, Office and its anti-malware products.”

Not that there are no updates needed… just that they have decided not to bother! So it goes. Really serious about security, aren’t they?

Here’s a “HowTo” for a great backup solution for Ubuntu Linux!

Backup and Restore Ubuntu System using Sbackup

“Data can be lost in different ways some of them are because of hardware failures, you accidentally delete or overwrite a file. Some data loss occurs as a result of natural disasters and other circumstances beyond your control. Now we will see a easy backup and restore tool called “sbackup.” SBackup is a simple backup solution intended for desktop use. It can backup any subset of files and directories. Exclusions can be defined by regular expressions. A maximum individual file size limit can be defined. Backups may be saved to any local and remote directories that are supported by gnome-vfs. There is a Gnome GUI interface for configuration and restore.”

I would. Just think, “Open Source hardware!” Kind of a neat idea! This is an open letter to Mark Shuttleworth, who founded Canonical, makers of Ubuntu Linux:

Open letter to Mark Shuttleworth

“Now Canonical and Ubuntu have made great strides toward realizing your vision yet there remains a bottleneck – people still have to install Linux. Installing Linux is easier than ever, but installing any operating system is unfortunately not trivial and is a chore that most computer users have no use for and will avoid. Remove this impediment, sell Linux pre-installed…

In short;

– there is a market for pre-installed Linux
– you already have the support system
– potential partners exist in the hardware branch
– you already have the software”

I don’t know why… but it CAN be done! Thanks to Kelly, a faithful listener, who shared this with me! Windows Media Player in Windows… which we will call WiMP from now on (I love that one, Kelly!) will play Ogg IF you install a codec for it, available here:

Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC

So there you go… you can use WiMP and cruise on with patent-free media! Hoo-rah!

By the by… I just tried it, and it works! Kinda cool, actually! Don’t get me wrong, of course, I STILL prefer VLC Player… it is free, it is Open Source, and it is NOT Microsoft!

This year Daylight Saving Time is not at it’s normal time. The government changed the dates. Hooray for them! Anyway, your computer doesn’t know what the government has done (aren’t you glad?) So… for your computer to correctly automatically change the date as it has always done for DST, you need to apply some updates.

First of all, if you have Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, or Windows 2000… tough! They are no longer supported and you are hosed. (Actually, just turn off the “automatic update feature” on Daylight Savings Time on your machine and set the time manually!) If you have Windows XP, Service Pack 1, then upgrade to Service Pack 2! If you are at Windows XP, Service Pack 2, then do the following:

Go to:

https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Choose “Custom” and select “Windows Update (KB931836).” Apply it and reboot! NOTE: If you have already been doing regular updates… you MAY have already applied this one! If it doesn’t “show up” in the list as available, you probably already have applied it!

If you are using Microsoft Outlook, you will need to update it as well… Outlook has a separate update called “Time Zone Data Update Tools for Outlook Calendars.”

More info on that is here:

https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/931667

And, of course, if you have Microsoft Windows Vista… it is already “up-to-date” with the change, and you are “good to go!”

If you are running a flavor of Linux or FreeBSD, then check out this article:

Update Linux and FreeBSD systems for new Daylight Saving Time settings

Bottom line, you need to be sure that your machine is up-to-date with it’s latest patches before Sunday!