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Monthly Archives: February 2010

How to make Ubuntu to not ask for password when you do sudo?

February 13, 2010 Sudarshan No comments

There are some commands in ubuntu that do not work without ‘sudo’ing. Like while creating a text file you use ‘sudo vi’ instead of just ‘vi’ and then you had to enter password again. This is the security scheme used by Ubuntu to save your files from external attacks.

If entering password for every command is uninteresting and frustrating, then here is a solution to it.

Step1 -

Open your terminal and type the following -

sudo visudo

Now enter your password and visudo will appear. Visudo is an editor used to safely edit this file called – sudoers. sudoers is a file located in /etc directory and it contains the information of who can use sudo.

Step2 -

At the end of the file add the following line

%username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Make sure you replace username with the username of your account and don’t forget to retain the ‘%’ symbol at the beginning. Save & Exit.

That’s it. You’re done. Though this makes everything easy, it is not so recommended. By enabling this, you will be exposed to attacks since no password is required. There is an alternate way. You can specify all the commands in the statement itself so that only those commands do not need passwords. An example is here -

%username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /bin/kill, /bin/ls, /usr/bin/lprm

With this, you ll be able to use only kill, ls and lprm commands without password.

Google Public DNS – "What is?" and "How to?"

February 13, 2010 Sudarshan No comments

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DNS stands for Domain Name System. Let’s not delve deep in understanding the whole function of a DNS. For now, just remember this. It is a system that names all the computers connected to the internet in an hierarchical order. It is also a system to convert human-friendly addresses(domain names) like www.something.com to its computer-friendly address like 192.159.233.1. The DNS system is like a phone-book to all the devices connected to Internet. Whenever you try to connect to a website with its domain name, your computer performs a DNS look up. Without a DNS service, you will have to enter IP addresses instead of easy-to-remember Domain names. It is also the condition when your DNS server is down.

So now that you have a clear picture of what a DNS is, let me introduce you to Google Public DNS. It is yet again, a Google-brand. Google Provides you a DNS service to resolve the domain names. You need to configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 as your DNS Servers. Instructions to configure are given in the link -

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

If you’re wondering what’s the use of Google DNS, then it is the reliability and speed. Google DNS servers are always ON. I happened to switch to Google DNS only because my default DNS was down. It has never gone down since then. It also improves the security of browsing. It’s Google after all.

Happy Surfing.

Cool Gmail Lab features that you should enable

February 12, 2010 Sudarshan No comments

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Here are some Gmail Lab features that have become a part of my Gmail now. Not that they are must-have features, but they do make life easier than it would be otherwise. And there is no particular order in the list here.

Mark as Read Button

There are so many mails that you don’t want to open. Like notifications from facebook/gmail/twitter. The subject line itself gives you enough information that you will prefer to make it as read. Instead of selecting it from drop down menu, a “Mark as Read” Button just next to “Delete button” comes handy. Enable this features to have “Mark as Read Button”.
Google Docs preview in main

With so many office documents moving around in mails, I use Google Docs – an online Document editor. With this feature enabled, you can view your attached documents in Google Docs without having to download it to the system.
Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

You can browser your Gmail using your keyboard with this feature enabled. It lets you define various actions for various keys. Like reading mails, composing them, making it archive and many more.
Inbox Preview

This is one of the best feature I loved. This features enables you to see a preview of first few mails of your inbox right when your inbox is still loading. And you can sign out if you wish to without having to completely log in to the inbox. Try this once.
Add any Gadget by URL

This features lets you add many more gadgets to your inbox. You can add all the iGoogle Gadgets. This adds a new item in your settings from where you can add other gadgets.
Old Snakey

Not something really productive for your business or mailing work, it’s just the Old Snakey Game. This game to a kid is like “Hello, World!” code for a programmer. A Bonus. Didn’t want to include it in this list but I still have some childhood love for it.