Just about anyone who uses a computer has come across one inevitable question - where did all my hard drive space go to? Sure, applications (especially games) get larger every day, but what accounts for all the missing space after you clear out programs you no longer use. What about when you're not installing anything, but the space is still getting gobbled up? What if you're on Windows and bereft of Disk Usage Analyzer? Read on for the answer.

On Linux, there are a few tools that a person can use to see where all the space is going. GUI-wise there is Disk Usage Analyzer for GNOME, and from the command line there is df. Both get the job done and are quick.

For Windows, there is nothing built in, but there is a free program called SpaceMonger. There are two different versions, both a paid and a free version. The free version is nothing but the older, original SpaceMonger 1.4. For most users this will be more than enough to see where all the space is going.

Just download the archive and run the program inside. You tell it what disk to analyze and it gives a graphical breakdown of where all your space is. The larger the square, the more space that folder/file is taking up.

Download it here: http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/v1x.php

So far your IPCop router has been working flawlessly, and all of a sudden you suffer probably the worst case scenario for a router - a port dies. Luckily, since IPCop is running off of a beige box the port is nothing more than a standard network card and can be replaced. How do you activate it once you've swapped them out? Read on.

Depending on the NIC, you may or may not need to be at the console for the machine. For example, if your GREEN network card died, you will need to plug in a monitor and keyboard into your IPCop box to run the following commands. For other interfaces, SSH should be fine.

What to do?

1. SSH into the box

2. Run /usr/local/sbin/setup

3. Select 'Networking'

4. Select 'Drivers and Card Assignments'

5. Select 'OK' to the question of 'Do you want to change these settings?'

6. It should find the new card, assign it to the empty color, and load the modules

7. Select 'Done', and then 'Quit'

8. Restart the IPCop box

When the router comes back up, the new card should be operational.

With more and more complex code coming along at work, one thing I wanted to get set up early was a bug-tracking software. Initially I tried to install Bugzilla on a few boxes, but always ran into issues trying to get it up and running. If it wasn't perl modules not being found in CPAN for some odd reason, it was something else.

I ran across a virtual machine prebuilt with Bugzilla installed called Virtual Bugzilla Server, from ALM Works.  Just download, extract, and run in VMWare Player or Workstation. If you are running ESX server 3.0 at work, the Virtual Bugzilla Server can be run through VMWare Converter and runs fine on ESX 3.0