Search Profiles - Protect your privacy

Will try to be brief - though this may seem a bit techy, thought would be useful for my friends.

An article today in the newspaper set me thinking. It was an article on 'tracking' search results ( the word tracked was 'sex') to profile regions, people etc. ('The Economic Times, 12 Jan 2012, Page 24 - Last page). Check the e-papers here.

The article brought out which areas (states, cities etc) were searching for particular words etc, and based on this 'Google' threw up the analysis of who is searching for what (Check out Google Trends and detailed analysis from Google  Insights for Search  on the horrors of what all you can find out from searches) !! That is fair enough! But what set me thinking was - not only issues about privacy, but what all other information that these search engines can gather and analyse??

What about profiling what interests a community has - say like a 'government' colony (bureaucrats, defense, railways etc) who have shared/captive Internet access - and maybe build up some kind of scenarios etc?? It can also single out a particular IP Address for search tracking - just to know say what the CEO (of heads of Government Organisation!!) of a company is interested in (just track his home PC IP Internet searches when the defenses are down!!) !!! The possibilities seems endless. Just left to your imagination!!!

To cut a long story sort - my thought was are there search engines that liberates us from these 'search history' or 'profiling'?? Can I do something to stop this sort of profiling possibilities??? Well, of course resorted to 'Google' (maybe for the last time!!) and did a bit of my own search (being on leave does give one some time :) and came up with a solution that neatly fits into my requirement - that is 'no tracking my searches!!!!' - thus 'me-excluded-from-profiling'

The solution is : http://duckduckgo.com

(You can add it to Firefox search option, or bookmark the site - check your search results on http://www.duckduckgo.com

to believe the great search results. Also check out the simple-easy-to-understand settings etc. )

and read all about privacy issues here: http://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html

To get an illustrated idea of the issue, visit: http://dontbubble.us/

And watch this TED Talk video to know more about the concerns: http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html

Why this funny 'duckduckgo' ?? Well, for one, this website explains it all: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/duckduckgo.html

Can we trust it? Well, I use Open Source Software exclusively, and use 'Linux Mint' at Home and Office - and 'Linux Mint 12' now has offered 'duckduckgo' as a default search engine!! That seals my trust! But am sure there are many world wide experts who agree with it too! Lots of great things have been written about 'duckduckgo' (just go duckduck it!!)

Let me end it here - by saying, take steps to minimise risks to your privacy, and use 'duckduckgo

' to read up more on the issue.

And noooo, am not paid by 'duckduckgo' :-) - just my interest to have a safer Internet experience for my friends!
Pass it on to your friends if you find this useful!!

Happy searching - duck-duck or quack-quack whatever !!!

Unix/Linux mastering source - great compilation

Came across one of the most comprehensive Unix/Linux command site - an easy to follow/try listing that would definitely make even a new user a master of Linux (of course - you have to spend time in the exciting command line :)

Those interested, do try! And bet even if you learn 10% of the commands - you would be a Linux Zen master!! :)

Check it out at : http://cb.vu/unixtoolbox.xhtml

And this: http://floppix.ccai.com/labs.html

Office suite freedom with LibreOffice 3.3 release this Republic Day

A special gift this 62nd Republic Day 26 Jan 2011 for all those who value their 'Freedom' - the release of 'LibreOffice 3.3' - a solid replacement for MS-Office Suites and OpenOffice (bought over by Oracle) on 25 Jan 2011.

Check out: http://bit.ly/eNnh09

Though MS-Office is indeed a great software with loads of features, it is mired in licensing requirements and proprietary formats! More so when such a great 'can do nearly all our office work' suite like 'LibreOffice' is available for free, why bother with MS-Office? Moreover, MS-Office is not available for Linux (you can install MS-Office using Windows emulators like Crossover etc! but why bother?)

Just try out LibreOffice - and checkout what you can do with it. ITs FREE after all!!! And yess, LibreOffice can open all your doc, ppt etc formats of MS-Office - so no sweat there.

Download LibreOffice for Windows/Mac/Linux from: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

For Linux users those who are using Ubuntu or Mint, its pretty easy to install. Follow this steps:-

(a) Start a terminal window and issue these commands (you’ll be asked for your password):

                sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa 

        sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libreoffice

(b) To complete the integration to Ubuntu (Gnome) or Kubuntu (KDE), you will also need to either

      sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gnome

                or

      sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

Thats it - as easy as that !!
If you are adventurous enough and want to add on more features, get the 'extensions' for LibreOffice available from the OpenOffice extensions repository at : http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:OpenOfficeExtensions/List

Enjoy!!

Configure Tata Photon+ on Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Refer to my blog of Wednesday, February 24, 2010 regarding configuring USB Dongles for Internet (Reliance NetConnect, Photon+ etc) on Linux.


Well, today I was configuring the latest Tata Photon+ (model: EC 1261, Huawei Chip) on Linux Mint 9 which required some additional steps to the ones mentioned in my referred blog. Thought would share it!


Though followed every step as mentioned in my referred blog, the Internet connect was of no success. The dongle just wont be recognized as a modem - but just as a 'USB generic converter'. 

Post addition of 'usbserial' module as mentioned in my blog, the USB dongle was no more recognised as  storage device. Did a bit of Googling and visited various forums - and finally came up with the solution (In Linux, there is always a solution :-) - and learnt something called the 'ZeroCD' feature!!!


Steps as follows:-

1. Did the 'lsusb' to find the vendor and product id after inserting the Tata Photon+ dongle in the system

2. Did the 'sudo modeprobe usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1446' thing.

3. Removed the dongle and reinserted it.


4. Checked the 'lsmod' command to ensure that usbserial module is available and usb-storage module is not available (else usb-storage makes the dongle to be seen as a storage device), If usb-storage would have been there, would have done a 'rmmod' for it.


5. Cheked 'dmesg' and found that the dongle is being seen on ttyUSB0.


6. On running 'wvdialconf' - it could not find the dongle at ttyUSB0


7. checked 'dmesg' and found that the dongle is being recognised as 'USB Generic Converter' and not as a modem


8. Based on googling/forum inputs, downloaded 'usb-modeswitch-data' and 'usb-modeswitch' debian packages from the Debian repository.

Why use this? Explained in the repository:

mode switching data for usb-modeswitch

Several new USB devices have their proprietary Windows drivers onboard, especially WAN dongles. When plugged in for the first time, they act like a flash storage and start installing the driver from there. If the driver is already installed, the storage device vanishes and a new device, such as an USB modem, shows up. This is called the "ZeroCD" feature.
On Debian, this is not needed, since the driver is included as a Linux kernel module, such as "usbserial". However, the device still shows up as "usb-storage" by default. usb-modeswitch solves that issue by sending the command which actually performs the switching of the device from "usb-storage" to "usbserial".
This package contains the commands data needed for usb-modeswitch.

9. Installed them using 'dpkg' - 'sudo dpkg -i '


10. Re-inserted the dongle - and Viola! - it was recognised as a GSM modem!!

11. did the 'wvdialconf' (can also use 'gnome-ppp' ) and the system was swinging on the Internet!!!

STEPS 8 AND 9 WERE CRITICAL FOR SWITCHING THE USB!!

Linux Cheat Sheets compilation

1. Linux Command Line

• Linux Reference Card – Great reference published on FOSSwire website
• One page Linux Manual – Great one page reference to the most popular Linux commands
• Unix Tool Box – An incredibly exhaustive reference for all things Linux.
• Treebeard’s Unix Cheat Sheet – A great reference with Dos comparisons
• Terminal Shortcuts – Cheat sheet for the most common terminal shortcuts
• More Terminal Shortcuts – More shortcuts for history and X

2. Linux Security

• Linux Security Quick Reference Guide – An awesome security checklist reference
• IP Tables – If you are interested in Linux firewalls this is a must have
• TCPDump – Great cheat sheet to an awesome security tool
• Wireshark Filters – An awesome list of filters for the best packet sniffing utility
• IP Access Lists – Cheat sheet for IP Access Lists
• Common Ports – In case you don’t have all common ports memorized
• netcat – Reference to the swiss army knife of networking

3. Linux Administration

• Linux Admin Quick Reference – PDF cheat sheet of common Linux administration tasks
• Crontab Reference – Also see Learning Cron by Example

4. Gnome/KDE

• Useful Gnome/KDE shortcuts
• KDE Cheat Sheet – KDE specific cheat sheet

5. sed/awk/vim and other tools

• Vi Cheat Sheet – Who doesn’t love Vi/Vim. Also check out my guest post on Vim.
• Concise Vim Cheat Sheet
• awk nawk and gawk cheat sheet – Awesome awk sheet, also check out awk is a beautiful tool
• Sed Stream Editor Cheat Sheet – Savvy Sed
• Screen Quick Reference – Quick reference to a must have screen emulator, Also check out Introduction to GNU Screen
• Screen Terminal Emulator Cheat Sheet – PDF cheat sheet for screen
• Vi/Vim Cheat Sheet – Nice vim/vi keyboard layout reference

6. Distro Specific

• Ubuntu Cheat Sheet – Ubuntu specific cheat sheet
• Debian Cheat Sheet – Debian specific cheat sheet

7. Everything Else

• Online Man Pages – The ultimate cheat sheet repository. Also use the ‘man‘ command.

Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software

Check out 'MindTouch' - a great Open Sorce alternative to Microsoft Sharepoint - for Enterprise collaboration! http://www.mindtouch.com/

If one wants to buy support for MindTouch - once can easily buy the same

I see many of our organisations getting trapped into using MS Sharepoint - without realising that they get locked to a single vendor, and will not be having any choice to use products but from a single or limited vendors - and most importantly, with very serious security implications!! 

=========EXTRACT from MindTouch Web site======

MindTouch transforms businesses with a new class of enterprise software that cuts costs, increases revenue, and provides greater transparency across the organization. It is time for enterprise software to take a giant leap forward. MindTouch provides wiki-like ease of use with a sophisticated web services framework for rapid application development, creating flexible workflows and rapid integration. MindTouch creates a vibrant real-time information fabric by federating content from across enterprise silos, such as CRM, ERP, file servers, email, databases, web services and more.
MindTouch is an open source leader in enterprise Collaborative Networks and powers next generation intranets, extranets and knowledge bases.

Configure Reliance TATA USB modems on Linux

Many have been querying on configuring Reliance/ TATA USB Modems on Linux machines (for both Laptops and Desktops).

The USB Modems available in India today use either Huawei or ZTE chips (check the USB Modem - must be mentioned on it!!). Follow the undermentioned procedure to configure your Linux system for using these modems.

1. Connect your USB modem to the USB port

2. On a terminal window, run 'lsusb'

3. Check for output like this:

Bus 005 Device 009: ID 12d1:140b Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

(for ZTE chips, lookout for ZTE in the out put and note the ID)

4. In the output, the 4 characters after ID is the Vendor ID, and post the next column, the 4 characters is the Product ID.
(you can also find these IDs  by reading the 'devices' file cat /proc/bus/usb/devices)


5. Now use 'sudo' to load the usbserial modules

$sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0×12d1 product=0×140b

6. On the terminal type 'dmesg' - and check for which ttyUSB port has been allotted  for the modem - maybe ttyUSB0 or ttyUSB1 or ttyUSB2 (if required, remove and reconnect the USB Modem to check for the ttyUSB)

7. Then configure 'wvdial' by modifying the 'wvdial.conf' file using any editor"

$ sudo vim /etc/wvdial.conf

[Modem0]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 115200
SetVolume = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Init1 = ATZ
Username = You Phone Number Here
Password = Your Password ... usually same as your phone number
Phone = #777
Stupid Mode = 1

8. Now run 'sudo wvdial' - post some brief message, you would be connected to the net!

Get in touch for any queries!!

Push Google Buzz buzz onto Twitter and Facebook

Until Google Buzz supports pushing updates natively here is a quick guide how to push your buzzes to social networking websites.

1. Click 'buzz' in your GMail account
2. Click on your name
3. Click “Google Profile”
4. Click on rss button in your browser to get the feed (http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/NNNNN/public/posted where NNNNN long string of numbers from your Google Profile URL)
5. Go to twitterfeed.com to set up pushing your buzz feed to Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook or pretty much to any social site using Ping.fm 

(from http://bit.ly/ahGKla)

Open Source applications - update

An excellent compiled list of the best 10 Open source software can be found at this web site of Infoworld. Very common applications which we generally take for granted!! quoting from the web site:

"To many, free open source software and Microsoft Windows seem to be mutually exclusive. After all, the open source development model is most closely associated with the Linux OS and, to a lesser degree, various Unix derivatives. So when you mention the two together, you often get some rather strange looks. This is a shame because there exists a growing landscape of compelling free and open source solutions just waiting for the intrepid Windows user.

You probably already know one of them well. Firefox has long stood as a prime example of how the open source development process can work to deliver a first-class solution that rivals, and in many ways surpasses, the best that the commercial side has to offer."

And if you enjoy having your web life in one place, check out this Open Source Aggregators from this blog.  Especially StoryTlr which has recently gone open source.

What Are Social Aggregator Applications?

Before diving too deep into this conversation, let me first explain to you what Social Aggregators are. They are basically web based applications that aggregate or gather data/information from various 3rd party social applications. A basic idea of this would be a web application that aggregates your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube etc. information into one location, allowing viewers to see all of that information in once place.

Open Source Hardware Projects - 2009

This is phenomenal! 125 new Open Source Hardware Projects for the year 2009!! The Geeks amongst you would surely be drooling. Check out this site. From Electronic Prototyping and Green Power to music, bio-medical everything is there! My favourite is the 'Development platform and tools' section!

From the web site:

"Welcome to definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009. First up - What is open source hardware? These are projects in which the creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and "board" files to recreate the hardware - they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source software like Linux, but this hardware centric.

Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! - it's incredible! Many are familiar with Arduino (shipping over 100,000 units, estimated) but there are many other projects just as exciting and filled with amazing communities - we think we've captured nearly all of them in this list. Some of these projects and kits are available from MAKE others from the makers themselves or other hardware manufacturers - but since it's open source hardware you can make any of these yourself, start a business, everything is available, that's the point."

Connecting USB Net Connect Dongles in Linux

Solution to connecting USB Net Connect dongles on Linux

There has been queries on connecting the USB Net Connect dongles (Of Reliance, Idea, Airtel etc.).

Those using windows, have to struggle with 'Loading drivers from CDs', configuring etc. etc.

In Linux, especially Ubuntu and Mint, it is fairly simple. No playing around with Driver CDs :-) Here is the procedure (Same for Reliance, Idea, Airtel etc)

Step One: Just plug it in (Of course on a booted machine running Ubuntu or Mint - Not the C-DAC BOSS Linux-OS being used in some Offices!! :)

Step Two: Go to  “Preferences>Network Connections> Mobile Broadband”. It should detect “Auto Mobile Broadband CDMS connection”
Step Three: Select the connection to add phone number “#777″ (for reliance and Idea) and you username/ password, both of which should be your 10 digit phone number (read it off from the purchase document!!).
Step Four: That is all.Choose the connection from notification area and enjoy.

In case it does not work. just try the following command on the terminal (you can also use this instead of the above steps!)

“sudo wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf” which will detect the modem and install it for internet connection.
Easy - is not it??

OpenDNS response to Google's DNS Service

Continuing with the news of Google's new free DNS Service which I posted earlier, the response from the OpenDNS founder is interesting and relevant. From his blog at:
http://blog.opendns.com/2009/12/03/opendns-google-dns/

Visit the site to check out the interesting comments readers have also made
- gantayet

====Extract from the blog=====

Some thoughts on Google DNS 

by David Ulevitch, Founder on Dec 3rd, 2009

Google launched a DNS service today, almost exactly four years after I started OpenDNS. This comes as no surprise as it was only a matter of time before one of the Internet giants realized the strategic importance of DNS. I’ve received a lot of questions from bloggers, journalists, friends and most importantly, our users. And so I want to share my thoughts on what this means for the recursive DNS space and what it means for OpenDNS.

First, it’s not the same as OpenDNS. When you use Google DNS, you are getting the experience they prescribe. When you use OpenDNS, you get the Dashboard controls to manage your experience the way you want for you, your family or your organization. People use OpenDNS because we are pioneers and innovators in the DNS space, offering the most secure recursive DNS service around. We run the largest DNS caches, the fastest resolvers, and we offer the most flexibility in controlling your DNS experience. For example, IT folks want to block malware in the DNS, parents sometimes want to block certain content from kids. All of that and more is possible with our DNS. It is not with Google DNS. Of course, we don’t force those things, we offer them as controls that you manage the way you see fit. Providing people with choice is core to our offerings.

Second, it means that Google realizes that DNS is a critical piece of our Internet’s infrastructure and that it’s of strategic importance to help people safely and reliably navigate the Internet. This is something we’ve championed since day one and will always keep as our primary mission. This is why big enterprise customers are switching to OpenDNS too, not because it’s free but because it’s the best and we add value to DNS and improve the security of their networks.

Third, Google claims that this service is better because it has no ads or redirection. But you have to remember they are also the largest advertising and redirection company on the Internet. To think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naive. They know there is value in controlling more of your Internet experience and I would expect them to explore that fully. And of course, we always have protected user privacy and have never sold our DNS data. Here’s a link to our privacy policy.

Fourth, it means that Google is bringing awareness to a wide audience that there is a choice when it comes to DNS and that users don’t have to settle for what their ISP provides. And we believe that having choice is a good thing — just as Internet users have unbundled their email to services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail people have been unbundling their DNS and switching to OpenDNS in huge numbers for the last 3+ years because we’re better.

Fifth, it’s not clear that Internet users really want Google to keep control over so much more of their Internet experience than they do already — from Chrome OS at the bottom of the stack to Google Search at the top, it is becoming an end-to-end infrastructure all run by Google, the largest advertising company in the world. I prefer a heterogeneous Internet with lots of parties collaborating to make this thing work as opposed to an Internet run by one big company.

So how will this impact us? It’s too early to tell, but largely I think this is a good thing for us. Google DNS currently offers none of the choice and flexibility that our service does. It’s new and untested. Having said that, it encourages us to keep making our service better. And ultimately, we’re a business that has been growing aggressively since we launched and has been competing in fair markets and winning. It raises awareness about the importance of DNS and it motivates us to continue providing world-class services to a global audience and to keep innovating.

We will continue to do that without distraction from Google or any of the other players in the DNS or security space. But we welcome Google to the neighborhood.

Faster web browsing using Google's DNS servers

A great news that I was waiting for!! You can now have faster web browsing experience using Google's DNS services!!

Google has launched a Public DNS (Domain Name Service) server and the details are available here.

Simply put, you can abandon the DNS IP addresses given by your ISPs like MTNL, BSNL or local Broadband provider and use the Google DNS IP addresses 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 

What is DNS? Simply put - when you type in a website address 'Name' on your web browser, say like http://www.google.com, your computer queries a DNS server (setup by your systems DNS setting IP address!!) to get an IP address (in this case http://www.google.com translates to http://209.85.231.99), and then proceeds to connect to the IP address that it gets from the DNS server. The above process is called as 'Name to IP address' resolving and is a very critical part (and time consuming) of every web browsing activity.

Generally, if the DNS server of your local ISP server is not configured/ administered properly, the 'Name to IP address' resolving takes some time. And when you realise that a single web page has many such 'Names', using the Google Public DNS server will save considerable time during the web browsing.


The Advantages?? Definitely faster browsing speed which would be noticeable. On a Linux machine, you can check yourself the speed advantages by giving these commands at the command prompt and comparing the time shown (my results showed a 50% time saving!!):

time dig @ www.blogspot.com

time dig @8.8.8.8 www.blogspot.com

time dig @8.8.4.4 www.blogspot.com

Other advantages (quoting from the Google Blog!):

• Speed: Resolver-side cache misses are one of the primary contributors to sluggish DNS responses. Clever caching techniques can help increase the speed of these responses. Google Public DNS implements prefetching: before the TTL on a record expires, we refresh the record continuously, asychronously and independently of user requests for a large number of popular domains. This allows Google Public DNS to serve many DNS requests in the round trip time it takes a packet to travel to our servers and back.
• Security: DNS is vulnerable to spoofing attacks that can poison the cache of a nameserver and can route all its users to a malicious website. Until new protocols like DNSSEC get widely adopted, resolvers need to take additional measures to keep their caches secure. Google Public DNS makes it more difficult for attackers to spoof valid responses by randomizing the case of query names and including additional data in its DNS messages.
• Validity: Google Public DNS complies with the DNS standards and gives the user the exact response his or her computer expects without performing any blocking, filtering, or redirection that may hamper a user's browsing experience.

How Google uses Linux

A great article on how Google uses Linux - http://lwn.net/Articles/357658/

An interesting read for the technical minded friends!!

On licensing issues, the below comments found at the site is very interesting. Have quoted here for quick read!!

====Some Comments to article quoted below=====

What a waste of resources...Google could just work tied with the kernel community. Come on Google what are you waiting for? Besides this fact, if linux kernel code is GPLv2 why don't they release their code and respect GPLv2 license terms?

===>> Reply==>>

KS2009: How Google uses Linux

Posted Oct 21, 2009 14:36 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333)

I don't know if you noticed or not, but the GPL licensing terms only kick in
during distribution. Seeing how a corporation is a independent legal person I
don't think that moving software and hardware around internally really counts
as distribution. And I don't think that Google has any plans on selling its
systems to other people.

So the GPL is pretty irrelevant.

So it is just a business case of whether working with the kernel community is
going to be more profitable or not. And so far they decided that taking care
of stuff internally is a better approach. Maybe that will change.

===>> Reply ==>>

GPL doesn't require, but maintenance kills you

Posted Oct 21, 2009 15:00 UTC (Wed) by dwheeler (subscriber, #1216)
Correct, the GPL doesn't require the release of this internal source code. However, the GPL does have an effect (by intent): Google cannot take the GPL'ed program, modify it, and sell the result as a proprietary program. Thus, what Google is doing is almost certainly wasting its own resources, by trying to do its own parallel maintenance. They could probably save a lot of money and time by working with the kernel developers; it's a short-term cost for long-term gain. And as a side-effect, doing so would help all other kernel users.
There's probably some stuff that will stay Google-only, but if they worked to halve it, they'd probably save far more than half their money. Google can do this, in spite of its long-term inefficiencies, because they have a lot of money... but that doesn't mean it's the best choice for them or anyone else.

US Department of Defense embraces Open Source

It is official now! As of the 16th of October 2009, the United States Department of Defense recognizes Open Source software at Commodity, Off the Shelf (COTS) software, eligible for purchase, read implementation, under the purchasing rules of the Department. Check out this web site dated 28 Oct 09:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/us_department_of_defense_embraces_open_source.php

Quoting:

At the US Department of Defense, open source and proprietary software are now on equal footing. According to Defense Department guidance issued yesterday (PDF), open-source software (OSS) should be treated just like any other software product. The document also specifies some of the advantages of OSS for the Department of Defense (DoD). These include the ability to quickly alter the code as situations and missions change, the stability of the software because of the broad peer-review, as well as the absence of per-seat licensing costs. The document also stresses that OSS is "particularly suitable for rapid prototyping and experimentation, where the ability to 'test drive' the software with minimal costs and administrative delays can be important.

From one more source at: http://ostatic.com/blog/u-s-defense-department-cozies-up-to-open-source

From the Defense Department's guidance document:

"To effectively achieve its missions, the Department of Defense must develop and update its software-based capabilities faster than ever, to anticipate new threats and respond to continuously changing requirements. The use of Open Source Software (OSS) can provide advantages in this regard."

You can find the entire guidance document here. In it, there are many indications that the Defense Department likes the idea of "peer review" of code from a reliability and security standpoint. The advantage of "many eyeballs" that open source has from this perspective is often cited.

I am sure the Indian Government and Defense services follow suit earliest!!

Linux booting problems - 'GRUB' recovery

This is for the 'Linux Advanced Users'. It is based on a requirement of a friend (Mickey - hands up!! - and for many others who have faced similar problems and taken help!!) to recover his messed up booting disk, luckily on Linux, ostensibly due to inadvertent power supply switching off problems!!

Intro: When your system boots up, post the BIOS, a small software/program in the hard-disks boot sector loads up to 'pull' in your Operating System basic core (kernel) into the RAM , which in-turn loads other parts of the OS (putting this rather simplistically although its a pretty hard-working/complex process!!!). The initial 'small software/program' is called the boot loader. 

A boot loader, also called a boot manager, is a small program that places the operating system (OS) of a computer into memory.

If there are multiple Operating Systems in your system, the boot-loader presents you a menu, from where you choose which OS to load. For example, in a multi-boot system, if you have, say, 'Windows 7', 'Ununtu Karmic Kola' and 'Mint Gloria', the boot loader will initially show you a simple menu asking you to choose which one to use for the session.

Windows has its own proprietary boot-loader (not discussed here!!). Linux has many boot loaders that a user can choose from, and generally two are offered by the Linux distributions - LILO (Linux Loader) and GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader).

From experience, I have seen (don't worry! doesn't happen enough times! :-) ) that in case there is a power supply interruption, or improper shut-down, the sectors where the GRUB is written (boot sectors et la) do act up (generally of older/much-used hard disks!!). This will result in you being faced with GRUB menu screen that would have run partially (called 'stages') and you may not get to the part of the 'Operating System' choice screen!! It will be panic time, and rightly so as most users are not expected to handle 'boot loaders' acting funny!! In the Windows world - you get some kernel panic messages like NTLDR not found etc etc., obiviously followed by a 'blue screen of death' with lots of cryptic alphabets, words and numbers in white font - and you have no option but to reformat the disk!!!


In the Linux world, you can recover from this scenerio!! Will mention about the widely used GRUB boot loader recovery (and also because my friend 'Mickey' is stuck up with a funny GRUB!!). There are a few many ways to do it, but let me mention the the most widely used ones (this is standard procedures for most Linux Admin - but can be done by a general user too, as very logical sequence of steps!!).

1. Boot from a Linux Live CD (any one would do like Knoppix, Ubuntu etc.). You can get an extensive list of Linux Live CDs from here.

2. Open a 'Terminal' (its that command line, friend!! Generally found in the 'Accessories' menu item).

3. Check if its a 'root' login (prompt will have a #) else, just type 'su' at the dollar prompt ($). Most live CDs give you a 'root terminal' - check this out.

5. At the root prompt (important to be in the root prompt - signified by a #), type 'grub'. This will take you to a GRUB prompt.

6. At the grub prompt, type 'find /boot/grub/stage1' (without quotes of course!!). You'll get a response like '(hd0)'. In my case I got (hd0,1). You have to next use whatever response shown.

7. From whatever response you got above, at the grub prompt, now type 'root (hd0,1)'.

8. Follow this up by typing 'setup (hd0,1)' at the grub prompt.

9. Thats it - your GRUB is restored - just type 'quit', and reboot the system, making sure you have removed your Live CD from the CD-Drive.

Simple isn't it?? :-) Enjoy

Windows 7 - Pricing in India and other Tit-bits for the impatient

Windows 7 has finally been released (22 Oct 09) and it comes in five different flavours in India – Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.  (US has only four flavours - Home Basic missing there!!)

Here are the approximate rumoured pricing in India (not yet on the stores self!!):

• Windows 7 Starter - Not found in retail stores. Comes pre-installed in systems
  
• Windows 7 Ultimate – Rs 11,799
• Windows 7 Professional – Rs 11,199
• Windows 7 Home Premium – Rs 6,799
• Windows 7 Home Basic (not listed in official US site - only available in India)– Rs 5,899

For any reasonable use, you need atleast the 'Professional Edition' - as per me of course!!! Rs 11,200.00 approx!!!

You can compare the features of Win7 over older Windows versions here. For details of features of each of the different versions of Windows 7, see this CNET article here.

Surprise of surprises was when I wanted to check the Windows 7 licensing policy - or what they call the End User License Agreement(EULA)!!! The Microsoft Official site for the EULA said "The Windows^® 7 operating system is currently in development." (see snapshot below!!) Wow!!!!

However, you will not be able to buy the Windows 7 software off the self (OTS) in India yet!!! This is because all importers of packaged software (Microsoft products included) to India are caught in a dispute with the country's customs department over the interpretation of new taxes on packaged software that were introduced in July 09. In view of this, the consignments of the Windows 7 packaged software for retail sale is stuck and will not be available in retail stores soon!!

Hardware issues. The Windows 7 hardware requirement claims to need 1 GB RAM minimum, and recommends 2 GB for good performance!! However, read the fine print on the Windows 7 site if you want to use the system in Windows XP mode, which states "Windows XP Mode requires either OEM pre-installation or post-purchase installation of Windows XP Mode (which runs on Windows 7, Windows Professional or Ultimate) and a virtualization technology, such as Virtual PC."  This would also require an additional 1GB RAM and 16 GB Hard disk space. Hard disk no problem - but be sure to have a minimum of 3 GB RAM in your systems if you want to comfortably use Windows 7.

And if you don't want to spend the $$$ for yet another Windows upgrade, do consider using any Linux Distribution for Free :-)

Recovering Linux root password

Many people have been getting in touch with me to recover the Linux Admin passwords of their systems. This is mainly because they have forgotten their Admin passwords (unused for long time surprisingly!!!) or the Admin Personnel has gone on leave or just disappeared!!!

The simple procedure explained below will hopefully sort out all your woes!!

First of all, you will require a Linux live CD (like the Ubuntu Live CD or my favourite 'Knoppix' CD. (download it free from here!!!). You can also use the convinient  bootable Linux USB pendrives too.

A long list of available (for free!!) Linux Live CD can be found here!!

"A live CD or live DVD is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive. Live USB flash drives are similar to live CDs, but often have the added functionality of automatically and transparently writing changes back to their bootable medium. The term "live" derives from the fact that these CDs each contain a complete, functioning and operational operating system on the distribution medium. While a live CD typically does not alter the operating system or files already installed on a computer's hard drive, many live CDs include mechanisms and utilities for altering the host computer's hard drive, including permanent installation. This is important for the system management aspect of live CDs, such as removing viruses, drive imaging, and system recovery." - from wikipedia

You will recreate a user that has administrative permissions on your server as mentioned below.

1. Boot from a rescue CD such as a Knoppix Live CD or bootable pen-drive. It doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you can boot Linux and get access to a shell prompt. Make sure to mount the /dev and /proc directories and establish a chroot environment that points to your server's root directory. 
2. You are now root on your server's file system. Use the passwd command to reset the password for the user root. From now on, you have re-established access to the root account.
3. Reboot your server without the Knoppix CD and verify that you can log in as root, using the password that you've just set.
4. Recreate an administrative user account that is not root. If for example the name of this user account is Gunz, use useradd -m gunz. To use sudo to execute commands as root, you must make sure that the user account is a member of the group adm. To make a user with the name gunz member of the group adm, use usermod -G adm gunz.
5. Use passwd gunz to give the user you've just created a password. You have now re-established a user account that can be used to perform administration tasks on your server.

Of course, to fix this problem you need physical access to your server and something (Linux Live CD!!) that boots a Linux shell and allows you to mount your server's file systems.

Facebook fun hacks

Earlier I had posted on the aspect of security on Social Networking Site. There is no reiterating the fact that 'the Web' has many risks which a normal net user may not be aware off. Luckily for us, most of the popular sites are pretty security conscious and make the extra effort to be 100% sure of their site and their users security. But its also easy to change a web page from what the original developer intended to do and maybe look like!!! And that's what the Cyber terrorists exploit!!!

Just to show you all how easy it is to change the default ways of some of the popular sites, lets have some fun on the Facebook site (your login of course!!). Mind you - this is not a SECURITY issue or concern - just a fun hack!! 

The below 'fun hacks' will not cause any harm to the web site - and the site will be restored to its  original form when you refresh the web page!!! So have no worry - just try these out for an experience (trust me???) !!!!

And ofcourse I got these tit-bits browsing online and Googling!!! The credit goes to the annonymous coders (certainly not me!!! I am just one more impressed bloke!!)

Ok, go ahead and login to your Facebook account.

Once the home page opens, on the address bar (the one where you type http://www.facebook.com :-) copy paste this line of code, and hit enter:

 javascript:void(document.getElementById('fb_menubar').style.background='red');

Hmmm..... impressed??? (the above will change your top menu background colour to 'Red'!!)

Try this too...

    javascript:buddyList.toggleTab();

The above will bring up list of your online friends!!!!

Easy, yeah????

(there are quite a few such 'javascript' hacks available!!! Stopped here so as to keep this post brief!!!)

Let the fun continue.....

Ok, now go to you status update box (where you type in your status message), and using your UP-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT keys, type out the following sequence of keys :

    [up] [up] [down] [down] [left] [right] [left] [right] b a [enter]


pictorially:

(hmmm.... of course, you will not see any letters there except 'ba')

Then click anywhere on the page!!!! And tell me what you see!!! :-)

The above is an 'easter egg' in Facebook famously called 'the konami code ' (check out what is 'konami code' here )

"For the uninitiated or nongamers out there, the Konami Code (UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A) is arguably the most famous cheat code in video games. It has been used in countless games and lately, some sites have taken to using the code to trigger amusing events on the page."
















 


Trusting the Administrator

Read this interesting article in Slashdot

"I'm a manager at a startup, and decided recently to outsource to an outside IT firm to set up a network domain and file server. Trouble is, they (and all other IT companies we could find) insist on administering it all remotely. They now obviously have full access to all our data and PCs, and I'm concerned they could steal all our intellectual property, source code and customers. Am I being overly paranoid and resistant to change? Should we just trust our administrator because they have a reputation to uphold? Or should we lock them out and make them administer the network in person so we can stand behind and watch them?"

Very relevant to my current job requirements and something that I have been persistently asking around.

The most apt answer that I felt answered this query was by mysidia:

"This suggestion above is equivalent to proposing that managers have to learn electrician skills to wire the most important room in the building, for fear the paid electricians might sabotage it, or they have to learn locksmith skils to key the locks on the most sensitive file room, because they can't trust locksmiths not to share a copy of the key or sneak in one night.

The simple fact is the management of key systems should be entrusted to skilled IT professionals whose primary responsibility is maintaining consistent, operational, available systems.

That doesn't just mean setting up systems and forgetting it, it also means implementing secure backups, monitoring audit trails, managing the complex access controls, monitoring system logs, and correcting problems."

And by Eskarel

When you hire an outsourcing company, you're hiring the company, not it's employees. You do due diligence on the company, it's achievements, it's reputation, and you hire the company. You sign a contract with them, with the same sorts of conditions you'd stick in a regular employment contract to try and ensure that you're going to get what you're paying for. The employees of the outsourcing agency are not your employees and there's really nothing you can do about them because your contract isn't with them, it's with the agency.

That doesn't of course mean you just go with "whatever you decide" on non staffing issues, the company works for you the same way an employee would and you take their advice as appropriate, but who they hire is really none of your business, so long as the company meets its contractual obligations to you. Most of the outsourcing problems are caused by companies not realizing that the outsourcing agency is essentially an employee and not writing stringent enough contracts, or hiring the cheapest option without looking at their ability to actually deliver(which is no different than hiring an18 year old to do a job which requires substantial education and experience simply because you can get them on the cheap).

Not all outsourcing is done on the cheap, sometimes it's done because it's more efficient that way. It's always good to have multiple people with your skill set to bounce ideas off of, and to have backup for absences and the like, but most smallish companies can't afford to have 3 or 4 DBA or sysadmins, etc. So they contract out to another company who, because they provide services to a number of companies, can afford to have more extra people to fill key roles. Their economic situation allows that.

There are advantages to outsourcing beyond just being cheaper, but there are disadvantages to. You don't have the same control of the staffing, you don't have the same kinds of relationships with the staff, and the loyalty of the staff is generally to their employer and not to you. That's not always a huge problem, but sometimes it is, and if it is, expect to have to pay for a redundant DBA or sysadmin so you can keep your place going when they go on vacation. There are pluses and minuses to everything, including outsourcing, and sometimes outsourcing isn't done because it's cheaper, and sometimes when it is, it doesn't turn out to be. When you run your business based entirely on trying to reduce costs, generally you eventually go out of business, that applies to pretty much every field, not just IT our outsourcing.

This is pretty interesting!! You have to follow the comments on this article to understand the passionate views of many, some pretty sane like this one, which I completely agree:

Right, and it's not just an issue of outsourcing. The reason you should trust your network administrator is that you *have to* trust your network administrator. Whether it's in house or outsourced, you have to trust someone to do the work. The only alternative is to do it yourself-- like literally you, personally.

If I'm your network administrator and I come into your office and work for you directly, I could still read your emails, steal your IP, etc. You could ask me to set up the security so that I can't do that, but you still have to trust me to do that well and not leave a back-door for myself. Also, you should understand that it might inhibit my ability to do some things. For example, if I encrypt your disk so that I can't even access it myself, and then you lose the password, I won't be able to recover anything on your hard drive. Sorry.

So that's the deal. You can try to institute some checks and balances, but there's a certain amount of trust inherent in the job. If you're concerned about security, then make the effort to find people that you can trust, and recognize that you might have to pay extra for better employees. It's an issue of what your priority is when you hire someone (or hire an outsourcing company). Which is most important, getting the person you trust most? Getting the person with the best resume? Getting the cheapest solution available?

Those might be 3 different people. Under most circumstances, I'd pick the person I trust.