KBOX: Miniature Linux for Non-Rooted Android Devices

Jul 19, 2012 GMT

While it's possible to run Linux on Android, this usually means going through the rigmarole of rooting the system with the ever-present risk of bricking your precious Android device. If this proposition is not your cup of tea, you'll appreciate KBOX, a miniature single-user Linux distribution with an integrated terminal emulator that can be installed on non-rooted Android devices. KBOX is not available in the Google Play Store, so you have to download the apk file from the project's website and install it manually.KBOX comes with an assortment of Busybox utilities (find, grep, tar, vi, etc.), an SSH server and client, and the scp tool. A handful of other packages are available as separate...

PAFM: No-Frills Web-Based File Manager

Jul 17, 2012 GMT

PHP Ajax File Manager (PAFM) is decidedly bare-bones, but this simple application can come in handy when you need to set up a web-based file manager on your server in a pinch. Indeed, deploying PAFM requires only a few simple steps and can be done in a matter of minutes. Grab the latest version of PAFM from the project's GitHub repository, and unpack the downloaded archive. Open the pafm.php file in a text editor and edit the following two lines: define('PASSWORD', 'auth'); define('ROOT', '.');In the first line, replace auth with the password you want, and in the second line specify the path to the directory PAFM should use as its root. Upload the entire pafm to your server, and you...

Set up a Mailing List in Minutes with Simple Mailing List

Jun 29, 2012 GMT

Need to set up and manage a mailing list with a minimum of fuss? The Simple Mailing List application (SML) is the perfect tool for the job. This web-based application runs on the Apache/MySQL/PHP stack, and it offers all essential features wrapped into a lightweight and user-friendly interface. Although deploying SML requires a bit of manual work, the entire process in not particularly complicated. Grab the latest release of the application from the project's website and unpack the downloaded archive. In the resulting directory, locate the admin/tables.sql SQL file and use it to create tables in a MySQL database. Open the admin/config.inc.php configuration file in a text editor. All...

Generate Embeddable Galleries with Weblery

Jun 26, 2012 GMT

There are quite a few open source solutions for creating standalone photo galleries, but what if you need to embed a handful of photos into a web page or a blog post? Weblery can help you with that. This relatively simple PHP-based software lets you set up a no-frills web-based gallery and embed it into a web page using a single line of code. Better yet, Weblery requires no database back end, so it's easy to deploy and maintain. To run Weblery on your server you need only two things: the Apache web server and PHP4 or PHP5 with the PHP GD extension. To install Weblery, grab the latest version of the application from the project's website, unpack the downloaded archive, and move the...

eezUPnP: No-Frills DLNA Client

Jun 21, 2012 GMT

DLNA is a rather neat technology which greatly simplifies the way you access media content on your network. In real-world terms, it means that you can effortlessly access photos and videos stored on your DLNA-enabled Android device from your desktop machine, or stream videos from a DLNA-compatible digital media server to your laptop. But to experience the joys of DLNA on Linux, you need a DLNA client like eezUPnP. This nifty little utility lets you access and stream media content stored on DLNA-enabled devices with a minimum of fuss. eezUPnP is written in Java, so you need a Java Runtime Environment installed on your system to be able to run the application. To deploy eezUPnP, grab the...

Snap and Upload Annotated Photos with Jambunote for Android

Jun 19, 2012 GMT

An Android device is ideal for snapping photos of receipts, handwritten notes, and white board drawings. And you can use apps like Evernote, Catch, and Springpad to keep tabs on captured snaps in the cloud. But if you prefer not to rely on third-party services, then you can set up a DIY solution based on the Jambunote Python script cobbled together by yours truly. This script lets you snap photos, add text notes to them, and upload everything to an FTP server of your choice. In my particular case, all snaps and notes are uploaded to a separate directory on my FTP server, and I can then access, view, and edit them using the File Thingie web-based file manager.Obviously, this solution is...

Extension Watch: Chrome Remote Desktop for Google Chrome and Chromium

Jun 08, 2012 GMT

A browser nowadays is more than a tool for accessing the web. With the right extensions, you can put it to many other nifty uses. Case in point: the Chrome Remote Desktop extension which turns Google Chrome and Chromium into an instant, secure, and hassle-free solution for accessing and controlling remote machines. The extension works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, so you can, for example, access your Linux desktop from a Windows box. Using the Chrome Remote Desktop extension to access remote machines is ridiculously easy. First off, make sure that the extension is installed on the machine you want to access (remote host) and the client computer. Open the extension on the remote...