Trace login activities

Commands:
last
lastlog
faillog
w
finger
who -H

Good reference:
http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2007/11/21/6-ways-to-monitor-login-activity-from-the-command-line/

changing linux password

passwd Change your own password.

passwd sleepy Change sleepy's password.

passwd -d sleepy Delete sleepy's password.

When you enter one of these commands to change a password, you will be prompted for the old (current) password and a new password. Your new password should be at least six characters long and not too easy for someone else to guess. Oh, and writing it down on a scrap of paper taped to your monitor is not recommended either. :-)

If you share your Linux system with multiple users, or if you have a dial-in modem attached, password security for each account is particularly important. But if you're the only one who will ever lay a finger on your system, you might want to delete your password, thus removing the need to enter it each time you log in. It's your call, but you never know when your five-year-old will wander by the keyboard!

By the way, you might get the idea from the preceding commands that users can go around changing each other's passwords at will, but that's not the case. Only a superuser (such as root) can change or delete another user's password.

For more information on the passwd command, see the passwd manual.

Reference:
http://lowfatlinux.com/linux-change-password-passwd.html

Change Google Desktop Data folder

Google Desktop Data folder:

• 1. Stop Google Desktop (Right-click the tray icon->Exit)
• 2. Move Google Desktop Data directory to the desired location.
• 3. Run regedit (go to start -> Run… -> regedit)
• 4. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Desktop\data_dir
• 5. Change its value to the location, chosen in step 2
• 6. Start Google Desktop again

Vista Performance

The new animations in Windows Vista look great for the first month or so but then they can become an annoyance since they feel like they increase the amount of time it takes to minimize and maximize a window. If you can live without the minimize and maximize animations that you can bring back the super fast feeling of your windows instantly disappearing and appearing by disabling the min/max animations.

Follow the steps below to make your windows faster:

1. Click on the Start Menu and key in SystemPropertiesPerformance and hit Enter.
2. On the Visual Effects tab uncheck Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing.
3. Click OK.

JavaScript open source library

http://demos.openrico.org/demos/corner

linux lm_sensors for CPU temperature monitoring

yum install lm_sensors.x86_64

watch sensors

linux extract bz2 files

bzip2 -cd files.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -

reference:
http://www.kde.gr.jp/help/doc/kdebase/doc/khelpcenter/faq/HTML/bzip2.html