Although modern routers handle most functions automatically, some applications will require you to manually forward a port to that application or device. Fortunately, it’s really simple to do if you know where to look. What Is Port Forwarding? There are plenty of projects we’ve covered that use your computer as a server for other devices. When you’re inside of your network, most things will work fine. But some apps, if you want to access them when you’re outside your network, make things significantly hairier....

Apple users have been swiping, pinching, and rotating Mac’s user interfaces to their fingers’ content. In today’s article, we’ll show you how to do groovy things like expanding and reducing windows, and changing desktops using finger gestures. To accomplish this, we’ll use a piece of software called TouchEgg, which enhances Ubuntu’s multi touch capability by allowing us to configure actions to the finger gestures that TouchEgg supports. If you’re a Windows user and like the idea of finger-gestures, we also wrote a tutorial on how to enable MacBook-Style finger gestures on Windows....

Some who say this are pretty humble, though they probably know quite a bit about PowerShell. Others tend to think knowing about PowerShell qualifies as knowing how to use it. For those who don’t know how to use it, which is still a large portion of the systems support and engineering crowd, it can be quite a daunting thought to think about where to even start with utilizing PowerShell. You’ve heard countless technical speeches, read pages of articles, and have had plenty of conversations with peers about all that it can do for you....

What Is Image Hardening? “Hardening” an image refers to analyzing its current security status and then making improvements to address any concerns. Picking a prebuilt base image like ubuntu:latest may seem straightforward but using it as-is could expose you to lurking threats. It’s a bit like provisioning a new bare metal server from the Ubuntu install image, then never updating it. Like that install image, Images on Docker Hub can come with outdated software packages too....

After upgrading Firefox 3 to version 4, when you first launch the new release the interface is drastically different. If you find you are more partial to the Firefox 3 interface, with a few configuration changes, you can easily make Firefox 4 look like its predecessor. Note: we’re using the Windows classic interface in many of the screenshots, but it works the same in Windows 7 with Aero enabled....

Zenity adds graphical interfaces to shell scripts with a single command. Shell scripts are a great way to automate repetitive tasks, but they’re normally confined to the terminal — Zenity brings them out of the terminal and onto your desktop. We’ve given an introduction to shell scripting in the past. You don’t have to be a programmer to get started with shell scripts — they require little more than knowledge of Linux terminal commands....

Have you ever safely removed your USB device only to see that the LED activity light on your device remains on? This is caused by a change to Windows that has affected every version since Windows Vista. Here’s how to fix it. Note that we’re not necessarily recommending you apply this change unless you need it. Thanks to reader André Torga for this solution. Why is This Happening? Back in the days of Windows XP, when you safely removed a USB device the device was marked as removed and the USB hub port to which the device was connected was marked as disabled, which means that the device could no longer receive USB power and therefore the LED status light would turn off....

Ubuntu’s Grub boot loader lets anyone edit boot entries or use its command-line mode by default. Secure Grub with a password and no one can edit them — you can even require a password before booting operating systems. Grub 2’s configuration options are split across multiple files instead of the single menu.lst file Grub 1 used, so setting a password has become more complicated. These steps apply to Grub 1....

Whether you want to shrink your Ubuntu partition, enlarge it, or split it up into several partitions, you can’t do this while it’s in use. You’ll need a Ubuntu live CD or USB drive to edit your partitions. The Ubuntu live CD includes the GParted partition editor, which can modify your partitions. GParted is a full-featured, graphical partition editor that acts as a frontend to a variety of Linux terminal commands....

Over the years, Windows has gotten much better about how it handles networked printers. But if you want to share a printer over the network, you may still need to do a little legwork to get it all up and running. Here’s how it all works. Setting up a printer on your network involves two steps. The first step is getting the printer connected to the network, and there are three ways you can do that:...

The latest accessory to join the Philips Hue line is a motion sensor that can not only turn on your lights when you walk into a room, but can also activate certain scenes depending on the time of day. Here’s how to set it up and have motion-activated lights ready to go in just a few minutes. RELATED: How to Set Up Your Philips Hue Lights What Makes the Hue Motion Sensor Better than Other Motion Sensors While you can use third-party motion sensors with your Philips Hue lights using various services, the Hue Motion Sensor ($40) makes it easier to turn your Hue bulbs into motion lights in your house....

Most people these days use some type of online backup like Dropbox, but what if you just want the same feature, but backing up to an external hard drive instead? Here’s how to do it the easy way. In the past, we showed you how to synchronize files and folders with SyncToy, however, SyncToy only works for Windows. On the other hand, Rsync is an open source tool that works on any computing platform....

If you have an Apple Health profile, every step you take is being recorded on your iPhone. If you don’t want it stored on your iPhone, you can stop your iPhone from collecting it in the first place. Here’s how. First, open Settings on your iPhone. In Settings, select “Privacy.” In “Privacy,” tap “Motion & Fitness.” In “Motion and Fitness,” locate “Health” in the list and turn off the switch beside it....

A virus breaks out of a lab somewhere deep underground, society falls into chaos, and now the Jones’ from down the street have a hankering for brains like their lives depended on it. So where will you be with the zombie outbreak comes? And who knew your smartphone might be the only tool you could depend on to keep yourself alive through the worst of it? SAS Survival Guide Written and collected by the very same SAS operatives enlisted in the service of the United Kingdom, the SAS Survival Guide is an in-depth, excruciatingly detailed manuscript on everything you’ll need to know when the virus strikes and your neighbors are hungry for human flesh....

Kubernetes is a complex system with many moving parts. Correct configuration rules are essential for your service to operate reliably. Errors can occur when you write Kubernetes manifests by hand without a comprehensive review process. Datree is a rule-based tool that automatically finds problems in your manifests. You can use it to uncover policy violations without leaving your terminal, enabling a consistent approach to Kubernetes configuration. In this article, you’ll learn how to use Datree’s CLI to perform on-demand manifest scans....

Incorporating error budgets into your application reliability strategy provides a methodical approach for balancing risk-taking with stability. Error budgets acknowledge that occasional outages, buggy deployments, and simple mistakes are inevitable. Their role is to tell you how many of these incidents you can endure. The available error budget also decides whether your next task is building a new feature or tackling another bug fix. What Is an Error Budget? A service’s error budget is simply a measure of the maximum time it can be in a failed state without incurring contractual, financial, or regulatory penalties....

We previously covered watching Netflix on Linux and concluded that using a virtual machine was your best bet. There’s now an even better solution – a “Netflix Desktop” app that allows you to watch Netflix on Linux. This app is actually a package containing a patched version of Wine, the Windows build of Firefox, Microsoft Silverlight, and some tweaks to make it all work together. Previously, Silverlight would not run properly in Wine....

While many people feel searching in Windows is less than ideal, 7’s abilities are fairly amazing. The big trick to unlocking them, however, lies in Advanced Query Syntax. Using these advanced operators can make finding files dead simple. Advanced Query Syntax Windows 7 eschews a proper “Advanced Search” option in favor of using Advanced Query Syntax. It was developed alongside the Windows Search tool and has been seamlessly baked into 7’s goodness....

What loophole? As they document over at Digital Inspiration, Pandora seems to skip the IP location check for requests coming in through HTTPS. You simply need to install an extension for your web browser that enforces HTTPS (such as HTTPS Everywhere for Firefox and HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome). Install them, open Pandora, and you’re in business. Listen to Pandora Anywhere Without Using a Proxy [Digital Inspiration]

As of Ubuntu 10.04, the minimize, maximize, and close buttons on all windows were moved to the left side and the system menu was removed. Prior to version 11.10, you could use several methods to restore the original button arrangement. To move the windows buttons in 10.04, 10.10, and 11.04, you could use Ubuntu Tweak or the Gnome-Art Manager or manually move the buttons using the Configuration Editor (gconf-editor). However, in Ubuntu 11....