Happy New Year 2008
and happy holidays
This is the last blog post for year 2007, I wish all readers of this blog the best and may 2008 bring you joy and prosperity and make all your wishes come true … welcome 2008
Monthly Archives: December 2007
The Economist makes three technology predictions for 2008, two of which concern web surfing and the third of which concerns everyone, whether they surf the web or not. The Economist’s third prediction is that the technology world will open up:
The embrace of “openness†by firms that have grown fat on closed, proprietary technology is something we’ll see more of in 2008….
Pundits agree: neither Microsoft nor Apple can compete at the new price points being plumbed by companies looking to cut costs. With open-source software maturing fast, Linux, OpenOffice, Firefox, MySQL, Evolution, Pidgin and some 23,000 other Linux applications available for free seem more than ready to fill that gap. By some reckonings, Linux fans will soon outnumber Macintosh addicts. Linus Torvalds should be rightly proud.
Well, I agree that Linux is making impact on OS industry, especially desktops, year by year and day by day. But the Economist says that it is Ubuntu that is driving this impact !!! I understand that now that Dell comes with Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is really a very big player and contributor, again in desktops segment, it is not only Ubuntu that is making this happen, as stated in the article. Other major players are out there, too, such as Red Hat and Novell SUSE, which are present in both desktop and server segments.
If you use Linux on your desktop, and you also happen to have a BlackBerry handheld device, you’re probably aware that Research in Motion, the company that develops the BlackBerry platform, offers nothing in the way of support for its devices on Linux — but the intrepid geeks in the free software world do. Thanks to to the efforts of the Barry and OpenSync projects, I just finished syncing my BlackBerry 8800 with my Evolution contacts on my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop.
If all you want to do is share data between your Linux box and the BlackBerry, no sweat. The 2GB Micro SD storage I inserted in my 8800 is available to my Linux system just like any other USB storage device. When I connect the USB cable to the BlackBerry, I simply say yes when Ubuntu asks if I want to enter Mass Storage Mode, and I can copy music and photos to the phone. I have run into a problem getting the audio for videos that were created with Kino to work correctly, but other than that, moving data back and forth between the PDA and the desktop “just works.â€The Barry and OpenSync projects aim to provide a little more functionality than just moving data. According to its home page, the Barry project “is a GPL C++ library for interfacing with the RIM BlackBerry Handheld. It comes with a command-line tool for exploring the device and a GUI for making quick backups. This project’s goal is to create a fully functional syncing mechanism on Linux.†Release 0.11, which I’ve been playing with the past week, goes a long way toward meeting those goals. With it, you can explore, backup and restore, and — with a little help from OpenSync — sync databases. There is, however, some assembly required.
Creating an AS400 terminal with an Old PC and Ubuntu
This how to uses Ubuntu 7.10 Server install. I am sure that this could be done with a much smaller install base, rather than server – I might have used the Alternative CD, or maybe even some other distribution like DSL, or Puppy Linux (if you needed GUI [graphical user interface] ). But for proof of concept this worked fine. I used an Old Dell GX100 Optiplex with 256 MB of RAM (I don’t think I need any more that 128 [maybe even 64MB], but this is what was in the box when I pulled it out of the pile). It has a small form factor, and runs pretty quiet. My steps are geared toward English & US, so you may want to change those if your using something else =).
Build A HylaFax Server With AvantFax Frontend Using Debian Etch
Install Debian. I used the basic barebones install option. I did
some things that were done because of preference, and not necessary. I
have marked them approriately. I encourage contributions from anyone
who would like to add or correct something in this HowTo to contact me
so I can fix it. I have installed this setup twice following these
instructions and used Avantfax 2.3.0. Thanks to all the resources who
helped me figure this out. Especially Razametal, who submitted a
fantastic Spanish language walkthrough on ecualug.org.
Get yourself some openSUSE apparel or a mug for this christmas.
Shop @openSUSE Store
Anyone wants to make a gift for me …. let me know, I’ll send you my postal address :-p Happy Christmas to everyone out there.
Wanna have Tango theme on your mobile phone?! This project is a theme for Symbian60 enabled phones/devices following the Tango Style Guidelines and using the Tango Icon Theme.
Features:
- Symbian60 2nd and 3rd Edition support
- Portrait support (Landscape soon)
- Most Icons are replaced by Tango equivalents
- Contains Icons for 3rd party applications
- Custom graphics using the Tango color palette
- Total replacement of all widget elements such as popups, tabs, scrollbars, clock fonts and others
- Music Player Skin (Not on 3rd party music players bundled with some phones)
- Free to download and use
- Free Open Source Software
Grab the .SIS installer from Martin’s website and have fun. Since I am a Windows Mobile 6 Pro user I cannot run it, but would if I had a Symbian S60 mobile. Also check out the openSUSE theme for your Symbian mobile here.
OpenID was originally developed by Brad Fitzpatrick of LiveJournal (now owned by Russian media company, SUP), and, as the term states, the Light-Weight Identity, Yadis, Sxip DIX protocol that was proposed at IETF, and XRI/i-names. The OpenID Foundation was formed to assist the open source model by providing a legal entity to be the steward for the community by providing needed infrastructure and generally helping to promote and support expanded adoption of OpenID.
OpenID has arisen from the open source community to solve the problems that could not be easily solved by other existing technologies. OpenID is a lightweight method of identifying individuals that uses the same technology framework that is used to identify websites. As such, OpenID is not owned by anyone, nor should it be. Today, anyone can choose to be an OpenID user or an OpenID Provider for free without having to register or be approved by any organization, being not proprietary and completely free. OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to.
For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing new web traffic. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.For geeks, OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity. OpenID takes advantage of already existing internet technology (URI, HTTP, SSL, Diffie-Hellman) and realizes that people are already creating identities for themselves whether it be at their blog, photostream, profile page, etc. With OpenID you can easily transform one of these existing URIs into an account which can be used at sites which support OpenID logins.OpenID is still in the adoption phase and is becoming more and more popular, as large organizations like AOL, Microsoft, Sun, Novell, etc. begin to accept and provide OpenIDs. Today it is estimated that there are over 160-million OpenID enabled URIs with nearly ten-thousand sites supporting OpenID logins.Currently work is underway developing OpenID Authentication 2.0, which will use the Yadis service discovery protocol. OpenID is now developing into a much more complete framework that will support other identity services besides authentication and is been made a high priority in Firefox 3 browser.
Here are some places you can visit to see where you can use your OpenID to log in today:
I am quite sure that Web 3.0, if I may say so, will include OpenID as it’s authentication and ID management backend. So, then what happens to IBM and Novell backed Higgins … or are they collaborating?
“The year 2007 has been the most active year for legal developments in the history of free and open source (“FOSSâ€). In fact, you would have been hard pressed in past years to enumerate even five important legal developments. However 2007 permits the creation of a traditional “top ten†list.â€
Interested what goes behind the curtain when it comes to all those legality issues going around with free and open source world? Then check out a post here to see the Top 10 list of legal issues compiled by Mark Radcliffe from Law and Life: Silicon Valley blog.
Writing Snort Rules On EnGarde
There are already tons of written Snort rules, but there just might
be a time where you need to write one yourself. You can think of
writing Snort rules as writing a program. They can include variables,
keywords and functions. Why do we need to write rules? The reason is,
without rules Snort will never detect someone trying to hack your
machine. This HOWTO will give you confidence to write your own rules.