Unfortunately it seems that part of the metro city lifestyle along with an increased exposure to folks from all kinds of cultures all over the world is an additional increased exposure to unsavory individuals who are looking for the opportunity to snag a free lunch (on you of course since nothing in life is truly free). In the past 2 years since I started living in a metropolitan city after having grown up in small town environments, I have faced having my wallet stolen or pickpocketed five times. I'm definitely a common target, possibly because I'm a single mom that is often preoccupied with her two little ones while we are out and about. However, not a single one of those times has anyone managed to steal anything of value from me, nor have they managed to cut me off from accessing my bank account funds, even after I cancelled my cards. Thefts happen and are to be expected: you can try to protect yourself from them, but there's always going to be a loophole somewhere. However, you don't have to actually be a victim to wallet pickpocketing and theft when it happens. Here's a list of tips you can use to help protect yourself in the event of your wallet being lost, stolen, or pickpocketed:

1. Don't carry your social security card in your wallet. Most appropriate situations only call for you to know your social security number, not present the actual card. If you don't know your social security number by now, now is the time to learn it. No one can steal a number that's only in your head...
2. Don't carry (much) cash in your wallet. Obviously, if it gets stolen, the cash is gone forever. If you only have debit/credit cards, there's a window of opportunity to cancel them before any damage is done to your finances (not to mention most banks will insure you against theft and restore any missing funds). 
3. Do not carry your cell phone with your wallet. In the case that you lose your wallet or it's stolen, you will need your cell phone to take immediate action. You won't have it if it's gone with your wallet. Avoid wallets with built in cell phone cases. 
4. Create a plan for if you have to cancel the card associated with your bank account so you have a means to funnel funds directly from the account even if the card has been canceled. Of course, for many folks this will mean just a simple trip to their local bank, but for those of us with PayPal, prepaid debit accounts, etc. it will call for a little bit more ingenuity. This will differ depending on the bank. Some ideas though include: keeping checks at home for backup, transferring to your personal PayPal account with a PayPal debit or credit card attached to the account which you keep at home for such an emergency, transferring to a Google Wallet account with an attached Google Wallet card which you keep at home for the same reason, transferring to a prepaid GreenDot account, etc.
5. Be aware of your surroundings and the location of your wallet as much as you possibly can, especially when in close proximity to crowds, at moments of high distractibility, and at night. These are the windows of opportunity thieves look for the most. 
6. Keep your wallet close on your body or deeply secured in your bag to make it more difficult for a pickpocket to go undetected. 

If your wallet gets lost or stolen:

1. Stay calm. Check your facts - the time, place, contents of the wallet, etc. The cops will want a lot of details about the loss/theft.
2. Make sure you will have access to some funds using your preplanned backup method before you cancel your cards. Then cancel your cards ASAP. 
3. After you cancel your cards, file a report with the police immediately. The report will help reduce the costs of recovering any ID cards, and also provide a point of contact should someone recover your wallet and want to return it.
4. Take steps to prevent future incidents by troubleshooting how the incident occurred and brainstorming ways you can prevent similar circumstances surrounding the loss or theft from reoccurring. This may involve changes in the way you treat your wallet or how you carry your cards/cash. 

This guide/how to is written from the perspective of a Ubuntu user, but the concept should work across a wide variety of Linux distributions. It has been confirmed to work in Fedora Linux at least, as well as Ubuntu. I am personally using Kubuntu 15.10.

This should work for all HP/Hewlet-Packard branded laptops, and has been confirmed to work in the Pavilion (DV6, DV7, etc) and Envy series. My laptop is an HP Pavilion DV6-7010US.

Sensitive skin can be pretty fussy about what products you use on it, especially when it comes to facial care. This can be made even more difficult if you have sensitive skin that's acne prone, since most products labeled for treating acne can cause even worse irritation than products that aren't labeled for this use.

A major issue I have had since returning to the Linux distros such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint has been that my Amazon Prime Instant Video has ceased working by default with the Linux version of Adobe Flash. I was constantly being told that I needed to update my Adobe Flash Player by Amazon Prime Instant every time I tried to play a video.

After only about two months of ownership, I have finally managed to get my flat iron to make my 3b curly hair straight!

I just recently acquired a Zyxel media server, which I wanted to use to backup my files over the network. The only problem was that there are no Linux backup programs (that I know of) capable of backing up over SMB, which meant I would have to write a script that could accomplish this. In my research I found a lot of hints at what could be done to backup over SMB but no real step by step guides on how to do it. That's why, now that I have gotten it accomplished thanks to some help from the guys over at LinuxQuestions, I'm writing an article on how you can backup your files over SMB automatically in Linux. Hopefully this will help someone out there that may not be tech savvy but can follow some simple instructions. 

By default, the virtual ethernet service in VMware Player 4.0.4 will fail when you try to start it. Fortunately there is an old patch that will fix this issue. I've updated the patch so it is compatible with VMware Player version 4.0.4. You can download it here.

In this article I will discuss everything you need to get started with Linux Mint 13 Maya. This is going to be a really long article so kick back and relax while you read it. This article assumes the user has installed Linux Mint 13 Maya on their system and has a basic knowledge of how to set up an internet connection. 

Hardly a day goes by that I don't see a post in Yahoo Answers about how someone installed Linux, messed up the installation beyond repair, and now is facing the possibility of losing all their personal files. This doesn't need to be an issue in Linux, however. In this article I'm going to tell you how you can defensively partition your hard drive in Linux. 

Installing the latest VMware Player in Sabayon 8 with the 3.2 Linux kernel was an absolute pain. There are positively NO recent resources on how to get VMware Player working in Sabayon. So in this article I'm going to share with you how I got VMware Player 4.0.3 working in Sabayon 8.

Most people already know about the Incognito mode in Google's Chrome/Chromium browser. It allows you to browse the internet without leaving behind any footprints - no temporary internet files, no history, no cookies, etc. However did you know you can use this handy tool from the command line without ever having to open up Google Chrome/Chromium?

This is just a list, partially for my reference, of the tweaks I'm using in Ubuntu 12.04. 

Wow, I only left Linux a few months ago but coming back it seems like it's been a year since I left. One of the many changes that has taken place on the Linux playing field is Google no longer supports Picasa for Linux. I kind of feel like Google is shooting themselves in the foot - after all they use Linux for practically everything, including their Android operating system. Why wouldn't they support the operating system they themselves show a preference for? But whatever. The fact is you can still run Picasa on Linux. It just takes A LOT more steps to do so.

1. First you will need to backup your LG Optimus V's current OS. Go to the Android Play Store (Market) and download ROM Manager.

2. In ROM Manager, select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and wait for it to finish.

So far all the guides and how to's I've read on how to root the LG Optimus V (Virgin Mobile) have been outdated. Here's an up to date guide on how to root the LG Optimus V (Virgin Mobile) without ever touching the command line.

WARNING: This process involves deleting all the data on your phone. Make sure you have a backup and be aware you may total your phone attempting this!

Now that my HP Pavillion DV7-2180US laptop is working again I ran in to a little snafu getting my Intel Pro 5100 ABGN wireless adapter to work in Linux. I tried every Linux distribution in my arsenal - Sabayon, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mageia, Mepis, and others - trying to find one that would work properly with my Intel Pro 5100 ABGN wireless adapter. All of them had the same problem: they would connect, but the connection would be extremely slow. I finally went to Google to try to figure out what was going wrong. There I found that I was not alone. There were several fixes posted but none of them worked right - they either still left me with a slow connection or made my Intel Pro 5100 ABGN wireless adapter unusable.

Today I bought myself an early birthday present. The ever so beautiful and useful HP Officejet 4500 G510. But I was baffled by how to install it in Sabayon Linux. CUPS didn't work, Samba didn't work. None of the protocols I tried worked.

Ever wished you had a color coded terminal like this?

There's currently a bug in Sabayon Linux that makes you re-enter your administrator password and network password for your wireless network every time you log in. Not only is this annoying it's a time waster as well. Well, fortunately there's an easy fix to it:

In this article I'm going to tell you how you can add a random quote to Terminal, like what you see below: