Guide to adding a new partition or drive to an existing system

Suppose you are required to create a 10 GB partition on your server running Linux, you have got two options namely :

• Create a partition from the unpartitioned space on your machine or
• Add a new drive.
  

If you are opting for the latter then it is a simple thing of plugging in the new drive, letting the system detect it, using a partitioning tool to create the requisite partition, formating the newly created partition and finally mounting it. But if it is the former namely, creating a partition from unpartitioned space, then the task gets a bit trickier.

Joey Prestia explains the exact steps needed to add a new partition to an existing system. The task can be broken down into the following steps :

1. Determine what partitions need to be created and where.
2. Create the partitions (I use 'fdisk' here but any Linux disk partitioning tool should work)
3. Re-read the partition table either with 'partprobe' or by a reboot
4. Make a filesystem on the partition, label it, and create the necessary mount points
5. Add the appropriate entries to '/etc/fstab' so the partitions are mounted upon reboot
   

Check out Joey's notes to know the exact commands used to accomplish the above tasks.

Put Paypal Donation Box to Blog

Do you want to put this box in your blog/site? Well many of us want put this code on their own blog/site like those popular sites but they don't know how. Well i am very glad to teach you and going tell you how.
If you don't have a paypal account, click here to sign up one. Well i supply the code, and you just simply copy and paste it, is that simple.
Ok here we go.


Just copy the code and change some values in red.
Change Blog/Website Title to your own Blog title example change to "The-Online-Quest".
And change Your paypal email to your own paypal email.

Code:

<!-- The-Online-Quest Pay Pal Donation Form Code Start -->

<center>
<table border="1" width="143" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bordercolorlight="#FFF8E8" bordercolordark="#EFE0C9">
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center"><b>Please Donate To My Blog</b>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="145">
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/row/cgi-bin/webscr" name="_xclick" method="post">
<input value="Thanks for Your Donations - Blog/Website Title" name="item_name" type="hidden"/>
<input value="Your paypal email" name="business" type="hidden"/>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<input value="_xclick" name="cmd" type="hidden"/>
<!-- input type="hidden" name="amount" value="1.00" -->
<b>Amount</b> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <select name="Amount" size="1">
<option selected value="1.00"/>1.00
<option value="2.00"/>2.00
<option value="3.00"/>3.00
<option value="4.00"/>4.00
<option value="5.00"/>5.00
<option value="10.00"/>10.00
<option value="15.00"/>15.00
<option value="20.00"/>20.00
<option value="25.00"/>25.00
<option value="30.00"/>30.00
<option value="35.00"/>35.00
<option value="40.00"/>40.00
<option value="45.00"/>45.00
<option value="50.00"/>50.00
<option value="100.00"/>100.00
<option value="200.00"/>200.00
<option value="300.00"/>300.00
<option value="400.00"/>400.00
<option value="500.00"/>500.00
<option value="1000.00"/>1000.00
</select>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><b>Currency</b> <select name="currency_code" size="1">
<option value="AUD"/>Australian Dollar
<option selected value="USD"/>USD
<option value="GBP"/>British Pound
<option value="CAD"/>Canadian Dollars
<option value="CZK"/>Czech Koruna
<option value="DKK"/>Danish Kroner
<option value="EUR"/>EUR
<option value="HKD"/>Hong Kong Dollars
<option value="HUF"/>Hungarian Forint
<option value="JPY"/>Japanese YEN
<option value="NZD"/>New Zealand Dollars
<option value="NOK"/>Norwegian Kroner
<option value="PLN"/>Polisg Zlotych
<option value="SGD"/>Singapore Dollars
<option value="SEK"/>Swedish Kronor
<option value="CHF"/>Swiss Francs
</select>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<input border="0" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!" width="60" src="http://www.blogpulp.com/imagehost/images/5971708800.gif" name="submit" height="30" type="image"/>
</p>
</p></p></form>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="right"><b><font face="Arial" size="1">Powered by <a href="http://djyano.blogspot.com/2008/04/put-paypal-donation-code-to-your.html" target="_blank"> The-Online-Quest</a></font></b>
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>

<!-- End of The-Online-Quest Pay Pal Donation Form Code -->

For blogger, after you have copied and changed the values, just add a new page element. Click add HTML/JavaScript to blog, paste all the codes in and save changes.Enjoy blogging and have fun, if you have put this code in your blog/site, post a comment about it and please let me know.

Original post by : The Online Quest

Put Paypal Donation Box to Blog

Do you want to put this box in your blog/site? Well many of us want put this code on their own blog/site like those popular sites but they don't know how. Well i am very glad to teach you and going tell you how.
If you don't have a paypal account, click here to sign up one. Well i supply the code, and you just simply copy and paste it, is that simple.
Ok here we go.


Just copy the code and change some values in red.
Change Blog/Website Title to your own Blog title example change to "The-Online-Quest".
And change Your paypal email to your own paypal email.

Code:

<!-- The-Online-Quest Pay Pal Donation Form Code Start -->

<center>
<table border="1" width="143" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bordercolorlight="#FFF8E8" bordercolordark="#EFE0C9">
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center"><b>Please Donate To My Blog</b>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="145">
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/row/cgi-bin/webscr" name="_xclick" method="post">
<input value="Thanks for Your Donations - Blog/Website Title" name="item_name" type="hidden"/>
<input value="Your paypal email" name="business" type="hidden"/>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<input value="_xclick" name="cmd" type="hidden"/>
<!-- input type="hidden" name="amount" value="1.00" -->
<b>Amount</b> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <select name="Amount" size="1">
<option selected value="1.00"/>1.00
<option value="2.00"/>2.00
<option value="3.00"/>3.00
<option value="4.00"/>4.00
<option value="5.00"/>5.00
<option value="10.00"/>10.00
<option value="15.00"/>15.00
<option value="20.00"/>20.00
<option value="25.00"/>25.00
<option value="30.00"/>30.00
<option value="35.00"/>35.00
<option value="40.00"/>40.00
<option value="45.00"/>45.00
<option value="50.00"/>50.00
<option value="100.00"/>100.00
<option value="200.00"/>200.00
<option value="300.00"/>300.00
<option value="400.00"/>400.00
<option value="500.00"/>500.00
<option value="1000.00"/>1000.00
</select>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><b>Currency</b> <select name="currency_code" size="1">
<option value="AUD"/>Australian Dollar
<option selected value="USD"/>USD
<option value="GBP"/>British Pound
<option value="CAD"/>Canadian Dollars
<option value="CZK"/>Czech Koruna
<option value="DKK"/>Danish Kroner
<option value="EUR"/>EUR
<option value="HKD"/>Hong Kong Dollars
<option value="HUF"/>Hungarian Forint
<option value="JPY"/>Japanese YEN
<option value="NZD"/>New Zealand Dollars
<option value="NOK"/>Norwegian Kroner
<option value="PLN"/>Polisg Zlotych
<option value="SGD"/>Singapore Dollars
<option value="SEK"/>Swedish Kronor
<option value="CHF"/>Swiss Francs
</select>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center">
<input border="0" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!" width="60" src="http://www.blogpulp.com/imagehost/images/5971708800.gif" name="submit" height="30" type="image"/>
</p>
</p></p></form>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="right"><b><font face="Arial" size="1">Powered by <a href="http://djyano.blogspot.com/2008/04/put-paypal-donation-code-to-your.html" target="_blank"> The-Online-Quest</a></font></b>
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>

<!-- End of The-Online-Quest Pay Pal Donation Form Code -->

For blogger, after you have copied and changed the values, just add a new page element. Click add HTML/JavaScript to blog, paste all the codes in and save changes.Enjoy blogging and have fun, if you have put this code in your blog/site, post a comment about it and please let me know.

Original post by : The Online Quest

Enable DVD playback in Ubuntu

I am sure any Ubuntu user will swear by the fact that it is a piece of cake getting multimedia to work in Ubuntu. In fact Ubuntu walks a fine line in ensuring that the users who are passionate about freedom and those who are keen on functionality are provided for.

But playing encrypted DVDs is a bit trickier. Tech-recipes.com provides a simple way of enabling DVD playback in Ubuntu.

In fact there are just two simple steps namely,

$ sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3

and

$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

Linux file system hierarchy - the fun easy way

I have been asked by many people to explain the file system hierarchy in Linux because they find the file system in Linux quite different from what they are used to in Windows. To put it simply, it can be visualized as a tree with its roots and all. At the top of the hierarchy is invariably the root path which is represented by '/'. All other directories are created beneath this root path. And each of the sub directories have a specific purpose. For example, '/etc' contain the configuration files, the '/opt' directory is used to install third party software, '/boot' contain the grub files and the Linux kernel and so on.

Today I came across this very beautiful image which explains the Linux file system in lucid detail at linuxconfig.org.

Fig: Linux file system hierarchy

100s of beautiful wallpapers free for the picking

No matter what OS I am running on my machine, one thing I really like to do is, adorn my desktop with is a beautiful, aesthetic, less distracting and pleasing to the eye wallpaper. I like my wallpapers to be vivid with colors but at the same time not be an eye sore. Nature, animals, abstract art, blue swirls ... are all my favorites.

Here are a couple of links which collectively have literally 100s of wallpapers of different hues, colors and designs. All of them are eye catching and quite a few are actually stunning. But I will let you be the judge of that.

• 218 HD Resolution Desktop Wallpapers for Nerds - This is a collection of wallpapers which are literally stunning. I do like the ones by Hamad Darwish who claims to be one of the few photographers commissioned by Microsoft in 2005 to shoot photos to be used in Windows Vista's Wallpaper Collection.
• Social wallpapering - This is a community effort to classify, rank, and distribute high resolution images for use as computer wallpaper.
• Wallpaper images - And if you are a nature lover and like to swoon at flowers, leaves, pebbles, rocks, vegetables, fruits and what not, then this is the right place to be. Mike Swanson is a technical evangelist for err... Microsoft and he has made available his entire collection of wallpapers as a free download.
  

The best news is that you do not need to have explicit permission of Microsoft to use these wallpapers on your Linux desktop ;-) .

Understanding XML in 10 seconds or less

XML also known as eXtended Markup Language is a language created to structure, transport and store data or information. But that is the most simple explanation. In reality, there is much more to the semantics of XML. When you embark on the path to mastery of XML, you invariably come across terms like XLink, Namespace, DTD, Schema and so on.

To get a fair idea on what XML stands for, check out the following article which explains XML in 10 points. It took me just 10 seconds to read through the article. Put in a nutshell, these are the main points sans the explanation -

1. XML is for structuring data
2. It looks a bit like HTML
3. It is text, but isn't meant to be read
4. It is verbose by design
5. XML is a family of technologies
6. XML is new, but not that new
7. It leads HTML to XHTML
8. XML is modular
9. XML is the basis for RDF and the semantic web
10. It is license-free, platform-independent and well supported.