Install Linux in your Dropbox account using VirtualBox

Dropbox is a very popular online storage service which provides 2GB of free space to store all your files, and selectively share them with the public. What is really nice about Dropbox is that it provides tools which integrates with Windows, Linux and Mac OSX and makes uploading and downloading files to and from your Dropbox, and act as a conduit for backing up all your important files - a seamless affair.

LinuxHaxor has a nice writeup on how to use your free 2GB Dropbox account to install your choice of Linux distribution via Sun's VirtualBox. Make sure the Linux distribution you choose is less than 2GB in size when installed as you will be limited by the 2GB space on Dropbox.

The writeup walks one through the installation of Damn Small Linux on Dropbox using VirtualBox. Read the article.

online htaccess editor

If you have ever configured the apache web server, then you will realize the important part played by the .htaccess file. This file is especially used by people who make use of a shared web host provider to host their sites.

Some of the uses of .htaccess file that I can think of are :

• Redirecting the visitor automatically to the new location of the web page.
• Providing a 301 redirect [moved permanently] to search engine spiders.
• Setting up a username and password to access a part of or whole of your website.
• Restricting access to your website for all visitors originating from a particular IP address or IP range.
  

... and so on and so forth.

I have always found editing the .htaccess file as bit of a black art. Mainly because mastering the regular expressions involved to accomplish tasks takes a bit of practice and some hits and misses before you get the desired results.

Fig: The online .htaccess editor

Now here is a very nice find. An online .htaccess editor which will hand hold you in creating your own custom made .htaccess file. All you have to do is click on your desired options such as whether to allow or deny access to all files, basic authentication, the redirect directives and so on.

Download YouTube videos - A list of online file conversion tools

In the last couple of years, Flash has fast risen to the top as a very popular form of sharing video, audio and data content online. But creating Flash content has a big drawback which is that the end users need to install a proprietary closed source software stub (Adobe Flash Player) to view the content. To be honest, Adobe has already released a native Flash player for Linux and the Linux version is updated in tandem with the Windows and Mac version so it is a good thing. More over Adobe has been consistently improving and adding new features to its Flash player.

But those who do not like to have Adobe Flash player installed in Linux or those using other Operating systems such as the BSD's can make use of online resources to convert the Flash video files to a number of formats. Some of them which I have found useful are as follows :

1. ConvertTube.com - This online service converts YouTube videos to a variety of compatible file formats and provides a link for download.
2. Media-Convert.com - 100% Free online file conversion which includes images, audio, video and documents.
3. Vixy.net - This service allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube's videos,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. It is using a compressed domain transcoder technology (outline in Japanese). It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.
4. Flv2Mp3.com - This online service converts Flash audio files to Mp3 format.
5. Zamzar.com - Use this online service to save and convert YouTube videos and Flash videos from numerous other sites.
6. Viloader.net - This is another online service which allows you to convert media files from one format to another.
7. Hey! Watch - Hey!Watch is a simple and robust encoding platform for both individuals (B2C) and companies (B2B). It allows conversion of videos to a variety of formats. But you need to register with them first to start using their service.

Ubuntu sources.list online generator

I have faced a number of times the prospect of entering the web address of the online repositories just because I some how tampered the contents of the sources.list file which is residing in /etc/apt/ location. Agreed, it is not difficult to fire up ones favorite editor and enter a bunch of lines by hand. But then it would be nice to have a tool which creates the code to be entered in your sources.list file automatically.

More specifically if the tool resides online, you can access it anywhere. Enter the Ubuntu sources.list online generator. The USP of this unique online tool is that you can create your own custom sources.list from various available sources and it takes only two simple steps.

So next time you are faced with re-building your sources.list file in Ubuntu, visit the Ubuntu sources.list generator and populate your sources.list file.

Related articles :
Using netselect-apt - Tip to select the fastest Debian mirror.
A Concise apt-get / dpkg primer - For new Debian users.
A list of Ubuntu/Kubuntu repositories