If you are using KDE in your linux box, you can use your Symbian Smart Phone to make your desktop a little more secure.
For security, now I mean, not allow anyone to touch your desktop without you knowing it.

I do not know if I’m the only one, but sometimes I forget to lock my desktop when I’m not around.

The version of KDE that ships with Kubuntu 7.10 cames with a handy tool called: KBlueLock
You can start it by running the command kbluelock, or starting the kdebluetooth icon (the one that will show the task icon like the screenshot bellow)
And when you click the icon, the following menu will appear, after that, just click in the KBlueLock iten.
The screen bellow will show, and when you select the first check box, your device will be shown in the list, just select your cell phone (ot any other bluetooth device that fits in your pocket), and the desktop will be locked automatically if you walk away from your PC.
If you select the second check box too, it will automatically unlock unlock your desktop for you, that way you have your desktop working only when it knows that you are around (of course you can allways use your password to unlock it).

The only problem with this approach is that you have to keep your bluetooth enabled

PS.: is there any software that does this on Windows?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Very long time without posting, but a good one now, it is getting easier
to sync your cell phone with your linux, I have just upgraded my Kubuntu
to gutsy (7.10) and just got a very good surprise, not it comes with the
new version of Kitchensync, this one makes it really easy to setup the
synchronization, and you do not need to touch a single configuration
file, you can do everything from the great KDE GUI.

When I open Kytchensync (K Menu, Utilities, KitchenSyncFilter), I can
see the list of all “Sync profiles” I have already created, to sync my
phone I need only to click on the Synchronize button at the tool bar, or
in the “Synchronize Now” at the bottom of the selected profile.

Lets take a look at the setup I use to sync my Nokia N80 with Kontact
(you can use it with any symbian device).

I just clicked in the Edit Group, but you can create a new group, and
just add a KDE PIM and a “SyncML over OBEX client”.


You have lots of possible endpoints, I have just a few installed on my
machine, but Kitchensync uses opensync as its backend, so it has support
for Evolution2, Google Calendar and many more client/server points. The
great thing is that you can sync more than two points at a time.

The KDE PIM member does not need any configuration, the only problem is
that you need to close Kontact before synchronizing, the OpenSync group
tells that when KDE 4 is out this problem will be fixed.

Now I need to configure the connection to my Nokia N80, configure the
MAC address of your symbian smart phone and select channel 13 (for the
N80 13 is the right channel, for other models this can change), you can
use Konqueror to discover the MAC address of your cell phone Bluetooth
port (I do not know if there is any key combination to show this number
in the display).


In the Data Bases tab, make sure your contacts database is named
“Contacts”, your calendar and tasks database is named “Calendar” and
your notes database is named “Notes”, if you have changed this on the
cell phone, change here according,


In the options tab, configure the same username and password that you
configured in your cell phone to the “PC Suite” synchronization profile,
I could not make it work without a username and a password, so you need
to choose one.

I had to choose the version 1.0 of SyncML for synchronization because in
the tests the synchronization freezed 3 times when I tested the version
1.1, and I cound’t even connect to the cell phone using the version 1.2.

Make sure the application identifier in this screen is “PC Suite” I have
tried some other names but for some strange reason this one is the only
that seems to work (yes, I created the other test profiles in the cell
phone too).


If you want to sync another point with your cell phone and Kontact, for
example google calendar, just add the member and configure it as in the
screenshot bellow (if you want to know my password, it is 10 stars )



Well, I think now you can get your cell phone to sync to your linux box
too.

I’ll make some tests with gnome and evolution and will post here the
step by step.

If any one of you test this procedure with any other cell phone please
let me know if it works and what changes to this setup ware needed, then
I’ll keep here an updated list (or if you want to give-me a cell phone
to test I’ll be very happy )

Thanks for taking time to read this.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ok, VoIP is cool, and you can spend less money with it, but I think it is not as cool, as if you could click in a phone number in your desktop browser, and call the number using your cell phone or send an SMS message …
And all this without any wires …
All you need it to read my previous post about an apache server running in your phone with support for python.
and after it you install the another library in your apache and a plugin in your Firefox, you can download it form this link.
Then when you are browsing the web, for example for booking a table at Restaurant Zetor in Helsinki.

and when you click in the phone number this dialog appears allowing you to call it with your cell phone.

You can add a contact from your browser …

Send SMS messages …

This is wat I call Cool Factor, I`ll have to show it to all my friends
and with a little more work it can become a perfect integration between your cell phone and your desktop

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Do you know you can access your S60 phone using a web browser?
Yes, it is true …
This is possible using a modified version of the Apache Web Server …
The port was created by the Nokia team, and you can get it in the Nokia Open Source portal
And there is a free service too, that you can use to enable the access to your phone from anywhere in the Internet, to enable it you just need to ask for a password by e-mail …
After you have your Racoon running (this is the name of the apache for S60), you can install Python for S60 and use mod_python to create dynamic content and make your phone content available to all internet users …
Think about a blog in your cell phone, with all your latest photos available …
or your contacts and schedule available to you from any web browser directly from your phone …
This means no more need for synchronization for your desktop apps, you can edit it using your browser …

Ok, I know that it is too geeky and that data plans are too expensive for this kind of thing …
but you can enable it only when you have an Wi-Fi connection available too …
Or use only your local Wi-Fi network for it if you do not want it available to all the world …

Think about the possibilities

I have already asked my user and password, and have already tried it in my local Wi-Fi

There are no contacts or schedule “gateways” written yet, but I loved the idea
for now I still using Mobical for it, and the SyncML from my phone since I do not have an Outlook license … (I Sync my contacts from Thunderbird to Mobical too )

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!