When you look at the CPU activity of your computer, one of the parameters is the iowait. This value shows how much time your CPU wastes while it is waiting for I/O operations for complete. These include disk read/write operations, network, IPC, etc. Is this behavior a problem and, if so, what causes...

Xbox 360 uses UPnP protocol to stream multimedia files from computers on your home network. Normally, you would have a Windows PC running WMP and sharing files. But what if you have a Linux box instead? There are several applications capable of sharing videos and music from your Linux computer to Xb...

Both Xbox 360 and PS3 support a variety of video codecs and are capable of playing high-definition video files. One of the most popular formats for HD video files is Matroska (MKV), which provides excellent video quality, relatively small size, multiple audio tracks and many other cool features. Unf...

Let’s say there is a process on your Unix/Linux system that sometimes tends to consume all CPU resources and become unresponsive. At the same time, you do not want to terminate the process at the first sign of trouble, because momentary high CPU utilization may be legitimate. The solution is to cont...

DownThemAll! is a popular download manager for Firefox Web browser supporting multi-part downloading with ability to pause and restart downloads without losing data. A common problem encountered while using DownThemAll! is the dreaded “no free space” error. Before initiating a download, DownThemAll!...

A large number of WordPress directories do not have an index file. This is particularly dangerous in case of the plugins directory. If your server allows directory listings, a potential attacker may see which plugins you have installed. Most plugins have security vulnerabilities. One way of fixing t...

Running MySQL commands from a shell script is a relatively simple task that has a lot of people baffled. Some say its too complicated and suggest using PHP or Perl, others claim doing so is a security risk (a favorite excuse of the ignorant), and some resort to using a shell script to writing SQL co...

Whenever you upgrade your WordPress installation or do development work, it is always a good idea to be working on a copy of your main site and not on the real thing. Copying WordPress installation is not exactly difficult, but it is a bit tedious, which is the reason why many Webmasters apply chang...

It seems that only a year ago terabyte hard drives were a novelty item. Today they are on clearance at computer stores trying to free up the shelves for 1.5Tb drives and the 2Tb hard drive is just a few months away from hitting retail. Conventional wisdom is telling us that older, smaller-capacity h...

Imagine a busy street in the city with sidewalks packed with pedestrians. Hundreds of people are pushing and shoving, eating, arguing, talking on their cell phones and not paying any attention to each other. Suddenly, one of them stops and looks up, as if he was trying to see something on the roof o...