Terminal Diary | techblog

setup lamp server on debian/ubuntu || the easiest & the best way

2011-08-17T20:02:00.002+05:30

The LAMP server is the commonly abbreated for Linux Apache MySql PHP server. This is a platform where web pages can be build/test/run using linux.

So setting up your LAMP server includes installing all those above said packages and configuring them to work together.

You can use either terminal or synaptic package manager to install these packages [and should have a working internet connection]. Anyway we may have to use the terminal for configuring them. So better move with the Terminal [Applications > Accessories > Terminal] itself.

1. Install Apache server
------------------------------
Below command will install apache server in your system

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

when the installation finishes, test weather it's working by pointing your web browser[firefox / chrome . . . ] to the following web address.

http://localhost/  

You should see a folder entitled apache2-default/. Open it and you will see a message saying something like > "It works!"

2. Install PHP
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

copy-paste the command given below onto a terminal and hit the enter key.

$sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

While PHP installation finishes, restart the apache web server to make it compatible with apache using the following command.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

testing PHP

To ensure there are no issues with PHP let's give it a quick test run.

Step 1. In the terminal copy/paste the following line:

$ sudo gedit /var/www/test.php

This will open up a file called test.php.

Add the following line into the test.php, save and close the file.

  <?php 
      phpinfo(); 
  ?>

Now open you're web browser and type the following into the web address:

http://localhost/test.php 

Note : You can change the location of the Document root [by default it is /var/www/] by reading this article.

Install MySQL
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

open up the Terminal and then copy/paste this line:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

install phpmyadmin
-------------------------

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Now just restart Apache and you are all set!

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart 

That's enough! your LAMP server is ready, and now you can can move up with your pretty codes >>

Change the DocumentRoot of Apache webserver (/var/www) in Debian / Ubuntu

2011-07-07T12:25:00.001+05:30

The document root (also called as the web root) of the Apache web server is located at the /var/www directory by default. Document root is the place where we find all the web pages and server scripts. These files are loaded on the browsers when we type in a particular url to point to that server.

The /var/www directory doesn't allow access for a user who doesn't have the root permission. It's a headache task to switch to the root mode by typing in the root password everytime even though you know the password, since you may have to change your webpages or scripts during its development stage very frequently. So a better idea to avoid this problem is to change the default Document root directory to some other location which doesn't require root permission for access.

Change it dude !!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -#

Inorder to change the document root,

#1. Make a directory somewhere inside your home directory to use as the Document root. (not necessarily be home... you can make it anywhere). I named it 'www'

$ mkdir /home/jo/www

#2. Now we have to edit the one of the configuration file of the Apache webserver. The file is located @ /etc/apache2/sites-available/default (requires root permission to edit it).

$ sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

The file will be opened up in the gedit text editor. Now you have to edit the DocumentRoot directive in this file. Replace the /var/www with the /path/to/your/new/document/root in the lines 4 and 9 as shown in the figure below.

#3. Restart the apache webserver.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now test it !!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -#

#1. Create a html/php file inside the Document Root directory (mine is @ /home/jo/www).

#2. Take the terminal and navigate to the Document Root directory (using cd command). Use chmod command given below to allow read+write+execute permission to all.

$ chmod 777 *

#3. Take your web browser and type in http://localhost and hit the enter key! The apache server will load the contents of your Document Root directory as in the figure.

Hope you have done it right!!!

Use the Debian Squeeze DVD/pendrive as a package repository

2011-07-07T10:46:00.002+05:30

The Debian Squeeze DVD contains many application level packages which are not installed during the base operating system installation. Only core packages are installed during the basic Debian Operating system installation. For example the DVD is loaded with the graphical display managers such as Gnome, KDE and XFCE, but during the installation you can select only one among them. There are a lot more stuff in the dvd, such as vlc media player, phpmyadmin, mysql etc. Here I am sharing how i used these Debian squeeze DVD as a repository to install those packages.

Adding the dvd to the repository

--------------------------------------------------

Take the terminal and type the following

$ sudo apt-cdrom add

This will add your DVD to the repositories list.

For those who are using the pendrive as the installation media, pendrive should be mounted on the /media/cdrom directory. This can be done in two steps.

#1. Plug in the USB pendrive, then the new block device will be added under the /dev directory. We have to find this block device location for mounting and using the device. Use the following command to detect the block device's filename (selected in the image).

$ sudo fdisk -l

#2. Mount the block device into /media/cdrom.

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/cdrom/

#3. Add the cdrom to the software repository list, as described earlier in the case of the DVD.

$ sudo apt-cdrom add

Installing Packages

-------------------------------------

Now install the packages using the apt package manager. Check the sample below :-

$ sudo apt-get install vlc

Thatz up...This trick will work for Ubuntu also...

Downloading online flash games and playing it offline in ubuntu 11.04

2011-05-31T13:51:00.013+05:30

Flash games are always the right option whenever you feel bored and frustrated sitting infront of pc. Here is a cool trick for downloading all your favorite flash games from any websites that we play usually online. Along with this i am just including the installation of a flash player for playing the .swf files we are going to download ( a browser installed with flash plugin is always enough, though just use it... ).

Usually all the flash games are embedded in the html page so that the browser first caches and loads the application. So the trick to find out the correct url of the .swf file (of the game) varies from website to website.. Dont worry we will go through some eye popping tricks :P

Installing swf player in ubuntu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Install swfdec-gnome package with your terminal as follows. U can use synaptic or Ubuntu software centre to install it.

$ sudo apt-get install swfdec-gnome

# Catching the fish <------ geeky way
-----------------------------------

Now it is the time to find a cool flash game that you call 'addiction'. For the timesake i am taking the famous game called 'appleshooter'. You can find it on the officegamespot website. Wait till the browser loads the game. Now just take the source code of the page using View => Page Source from the browser (or hit Ctrl + U). In the source page find the pattern ".swf" (Hit Ctrl + F and type .swf).

If you find this pattern as a part of a url then that is the original location of the swf file which we see embedded in the html page. Then copy paste the url ending with .swf on a new tab on the browser to load that game alone. If you dont get a url, we need to use some kind of guess work to find it out.

Here i am pinning the screenshot of page source of the appleshooter game on officegamespot website. They dont uses direct url to the .swf file in the page source.

I guessed the url to the .swf file from the above picture from this field <a href="arrow_shooter_03.swf" .....> and tried replacing the tail part of the url,

http://officegamespot.com/officegames/appleshooter.htm

with

http://officegamespot.com/officegames/arrow_shooter_03.swf

Hi hi, that worked !!! the flash game alone loaded in the browser.

Now save the swf file to your machines hard disk for using it offline. For this just go File > Save Page As from the browser itself. So we have done it almost, whenever you want to play the game just go to that folder and open the file with swfdec flash player.

# catching the fish <-------- firefox guy 1
----------------------------------

Here is another trick to findout the url to the .swf file. After the browser loads the game completely, open a new browser tab and type about:cache?device=disk in the address bar and hit the enter key. Now Find the pattern .swf file in this page. Copy the url of the one that is the flash game among the urls matchin the search for .swf pattern. Open another tab and paste the url (to .swf file) to load the swf application alone in the browser. Use File > Save File As to save it to your hard disk. Later you can play the game by opening the downloaded swf file with swfdec player or with any web browsers...

# catching the fish <------- firefox guy 2
----------------------------------

Another methode to get a copy of the .swf file of the flash game is to search on the browser cache for the file. You shold have to load the game on the browser to make this trick work. After loading the game completely in the firefox browser (no need to play till the last level to get the file completely !!), open a new tab and type about:cache in the address bar and hit the enter key.

Copy paste the value of Cache Directory under Disk Cache Device to the terminal after typing nautilus.

$ nautilus /home/jo/.mozilla/firefox/tu9q54ls.default/Cache

Then the cache directory will open up. Just sort the items by Modificaton date and you can find the .swf file among the recent files. Copy it from the cache to some other directory, other wise the file will be lost when the browser tab is closed or loaded with some other pages. Now open it with the swfdec flash player to play it anytime like a standalone application..

# catching the fish <------- for the lazy guys
---------------------------------
If you are too lazy to spend time on above tricks, then there is an option... Use the google's search engine to find the swf file for you, so that you can just download and play it. Just type in the search box like this pattern without quotes 'appleshooter filetype:swf'.

Copy the direct url to the swf file from any of the search result. Load it in a new tab. Save it using the browser itself. You can also use a terminal command called wget to download the files.

$ cd your/games/directory

$ wget http://vc02.free.fr/media/kangg/kang.swf

Hope you got the game, now play it ...

and Hope you like the post ! Comment on !! share your ideas ....!!!

സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ഇനിയും അകലെയാണ് ... (freedom is still away)

2011-05-25T21:32:00.006+05:30

ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ ഇത് ജനകീയ പ്രക്ഷോഭങ്ങളുടെ കാലമാണ്. ഇന്ത്യന്‍ സ്വാതന്ത്ര സമരത്തിനുശേഷം ഇത്രയേറെ ജനപിന്തുണ നേടിയ ജനകീയസമരങ്ങള്‍, ഒരുപക്ഷെ ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ ഉണ്ടായിട്ടില്ല. അന്ന് അത് ബ്രിട്ടിഷുകാരുടെ അടിച്ചമര്‍ത്തലിനും കൊള്ളക്കും എതിരെ ആയിരുന്നെങ്കില്‍ ഇന്നത്‌ നമ്മെ ഭരിക്കാന്‍ നാം തന്നെ തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്ത ഭരണാധികാരികളുടെ അടിച്ചമര്‍ത്തലിനും കൊള്ളക്കും എതിരെയാണെന്ന വ്യത്യാസം മാത്രം. ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ അങ്ങോളമിങ്ങോളം പൊട്ടിമുളച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരുന്ന ചെറു ചെറുത്തുനില്‍പ്പുകള്‍ പെട്ടന്ന് അന്ന ഹസാരെ എന്നാ ധീരനേതാവിലൂടെ ശക്തി സംഭരിച്ച. ജന്ലോക്പാല്‍ ബില്ലിനു വേണ്ടിയുള്ള ഉപവാസ സമരത്തിലൂടെ, സാമ്രാജ്യത്ത ശക്തികള്‍ക്കും കുത്തകകള്‍ക്കും കുടപിടിച്ച് കൊടുത്ത് അഴിമതിക്ക് കൂട്ടുനില്‍ക്കുന്ന ഭരണാധികാരികള്‍ക്കുമേല്‍ നല്‍കിയ പ്രഹരം, ഒരു നല്ല ഭാരതത്തെ സ്വപ്നം കാണുന്ന ഏതൊരു ഭാരതീയനും ആവേശത്തിന്റെ പുളകങ്ങള്‍ സമ്മാനിക്കുന്നു. ആ ചൂടില്‍ അവന്റെ ഉള്ളിലുറഞ്ഞുകിടന്ന പ്രതികരണശേഷിക്കു ചലനങ്ങള്‍ വച്ചുതുടങ്ങിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.

ഏറ്റവും ഒടുവിലായി, കാസര്‍കോടുള്ള കശുമാവിന്‍തോട്ടങ്ങളില്‍ തളിച്ചിരുന്ന എന്‍ഡോസള്‍ഫാന്‍ എന്ന മാരകകീടനാശിനി ഉല്‍പ്പാദിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്ന Hindustan Insectiside Limited എന്ന സ്ഥാപനം അടച്ചുപൂട്ടുന്നതില്‍വരെ അതെത്തിനില്‍ക്കുന്നു. ഭരണാധികാരികള്‍ ഈ ചെറുചലനങ്ങളെ ഭീതിയോടെയാണ് സമീപിക്കുന്നത്. അതിനുള്ള തെളിവാണ് social networking സൈറ്റുകളെ നീയന്ത്രിക്കാന്‍ പുതിയ IT ബില്‍ നിര്‍മ്മിക്കാനുള്ള കേന്ദ്രതീരുമാനം. ഉന്നതാധികാരികളുടെ കണ്ണില്‍പെടാതെകിടന്നിരുന്ന ഈ വെബ്സെടുകലാനു, ടുനീഷ്യയില്‍ പൊട്ടിമുളച്ച് പശ്ചിമേഷ്യയെയാകെ മുള്‍മുനയില്‍ നിര്‍ത്തിയ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യ പ്രക്ഷ്ഭാങ്ങളുടെ വിത്തിനു വെള്ളവും വളവും നല്‍കിയത്. ജനലോക്പാല്‍ സമരത്തിന്റെയും തീവ്ര ശക്തിക്ക് കാരണം ഈ സോഷ്യല്‍ നെറ്വര്‍കിംഗ് സൈറ്കളായിരുന്നു.

എല്ലാത്തിനും പിന്നില്‍ സാമ്രാജ്യത്വശക്തികളുടെയും വ്യവസായ ഭീമാന്മാരുടെയും വൃത്തികെട്ട കച്ചവടതാല്പര്യങ്ങള്‍ മാത്രം. അവരുടെ ലാഭാക്കണക്കുകള്‍ക്ക് മുന്നില്‍ പാവപ്പെട്ട ജനങ്ങളുടെ ജീവിതങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് വിലയില്ല. എന്‍ഡോസള്‍ഫാന്‍ നിരോധനത്തിനുവേണ്ടി സമരം ചെയ്തവര്‍ക്കെതിരെ ഉല്‍പ്പാദക കമ്പനികളും കേന്ദ്രസര്‍ക്കാരും ഉന്നയിച്ച ആരോപണങ്ങളും സ്റ്റോക്ക്‌ഹോം പരിസ്ഥിതി സമ്മേളനത്തില്‍ എന്‍ഡോസള്‍ഫാന്‍ നിരോധനത്തിനെതിരെ ഇന്ത്യ ഗവണ്മെന്റ് സ്വീകരിച്ച നിലപാടുകളും ഇത് തെളിയിക്കുന്നു. ആയിര കണക്കിന് ജീവനുകള്‍ അപഹരിച്ച ഭോപ്പാല്‍ വിഷവാതക ദുരന്തക്കേസിന്റെ ഇന്നത്തെ അവസ്ഥ എന്തെന്ന് എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കുമറിയാം. "വികസനം" എന്ന വാക്കിന്റെ മറവിലാണ് ജനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക്‌ ഈ ദുരന്തങ്ങളെല്ലാം ഏറ്റുവാങ്ങേണ്ടി വരുന്നത്. അതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ വികസനം എന്നു പറയുന്നതിനെയെല്ലാം സാധാരണ ജനങ്ങള്‍ ഇന്നു സംശയത്തോടെയാണ് നോക്കിക്കാണുന്നത്. ആ തിരിച്ചറിവിന്റെ ഫലമാണ് ഇന്നു കാണുന്ന ജനകീയസമരങ്ങള്‍.

ഈ ശ്രേണിയിലേക്ക് ഏറ്റവും അടുത്തായി ഉയര്‍ന്നുവന്ന സമരമാണ് ഇന്ത്യ-യുഎസ് ആണവക്കരാരിന്റെഭാഗമായി ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ നിര്‍മ്മാണം തുടങ്ങാനിരിക്കുന്ന ആണവനിലയങ്ങള്‍ക്കെതിരെയുള്ളത്. അധികം ദൂരെയല്ലാതെ ലോകവന്ശക്തികളിലോന്നാകും എന്ന് പ്രവചിക്കപ്പെട്ടിട്ടുള്ള ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ആ ലക്ഷ്യത്തിലേക്കുള്ള പ്രയാണം വേഗത്തിലാക്കാനുള്ള പദ്ധതികളുടെ ഭാഗമാണ് ഈ ആണവനിലയങ്ങള്‍. കണക്കുകള്‍ വെച്ച്നോക്കിയാല്‍ ഒരു വികസ്വരരാഷ്ട്രത്തിന്റെ ഊര്‍ജ ആവശ്യങ്ങള്‍ക്കുള്ള ഏറ്റവും നല്ല മറുപടിയാണ് ആണവോര്‍ജം. വികസനത്തിന്റെ കാര്യത്തില്‍ മത്സരിക്കുന്ന ചൈനയടക്കമുള്ള രാജ്യങ്ങള്‍ ഈ രംഗത്ത് കൂടുതല്‍ മുന്നോട്ടു പോയിട്ടുമുണ്ട്. അതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ വികസനം എന്ന ലക്‌ഷ്യം മുന്നിലുള്ളപ്പോള്‍ ഇത്തരം പദ്ധതികള്‍ക്കെതിരെ മറുത്തുപറയാനും കഴിയില്ല, അഴിമതി എന്ന ദുര്‍ഭൂതം എല്ലാശക്തിയോടും കൂടി, മുതലെടുപ്പ് നടത്താന്‍ തയാറായി നില്‍ക്കുന്നുണ്ടെങ്കില്‍ പോലും.

പക്ഷെ, ലോകത്തിന്റെ പലഭാഗങ്ങളിലും, ഇന്ത്യയടക്കം, ഉണ്ടായ വ്യാവസായികദുരന്തങ്ങളും ജപ്പാനിലെ ഭൂകമ്പത്തിന്റെ ഫലമായി ഫുകുഷിമ ആണവനിലയത്തിലുണ്ടായ അപകടങ്ങളും നമുക്കു മുന്നില്‍ ഒരു ചോദ്യം ഉയര്‍ത്തുന്നു. വികസനത്തിന്റെ പേരില്‍ മനുഷ്യജീവനുകള്‍ ബലികഴിക്കെണ്ടിവരുന്ന സാഹചര്യമുണ്ടായാല്‍, വികസനത്തിനോ മനുഷ്യജീവനോ വില? ആ ജീവിതങ്ങളും നമ്മളും തമ്മില്‍ ബന്ധമോന്നുമില്ലെങ്കില്‍, നാം രണ്ടാമതൊന്നു ചിന്തിച്ചേക്കാം, ഉത്തരത്തിനായി. പക്ഷെ മറിച്ചാനെങ്കിലോ, നിസ്സംശയം വികസനത്തിനെ എതിര്‍ത്തിരിക്കും. ആ ഭീതിയുടെ നേര്‍പ്രതിഫലനമാണ് മഹാരാഷ്ട്രയിലെ ജയ്താപൂരില്‍ നിര്‍മ്മാണം തുടങ്ങാന്‍ പോകുന്ന ആണവനിലയത്തിനെതിരെ ഉയര്‍ന്നുവരുന്ന സമരങ്ങളില്‍ കാണുന്നത്.

ജപ്പാനില്‍ ആണവപ്രതിസന്ധി ഉണ്ടായപ്പോള്‍, ഇന്ത്യയേക്കാള്‍ പതിന്മടങ്ങ്‌ സാങ്കേതികജ്ഞാനവും മാനേജ്‌മന്റ്‌ വൈദഗ്ധ്യവുമുള്ള ജപ്പാന്‍ ഗവണ്മെന്റ് നിസ്സഹായരായത് നാമെല്ലാം കണ്ടതാണ്. ഈ സാഹചര്യത്തില്‍ ലോകമെമ്പാടുമുള്ള ആണവ നിലയങ്ങള്‍ പുനപ്പരിശോധനക്ക്‌ വിധേയമാക്കിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ്. ഇന്ത്യയെ ഈ നിലയങ്ങളുടെ നിര്‍മ്മാണത്തിന് സഹായിക്കുന്ന അമേരിക്കയാകട്ടെ പുതിയ ആണവ പദ്ധതികളെപറ്റി ചിന്തിക്കുന്നുപൊലുമില്ല. എന്നിട്ടും, അമേരിക്കന്‍ നയതന്ത്രബന്ധങ്ങളുടെ പ്രാധാന്യം കണക്കിലെടുത്ത് ഏതുവിധേനയും ഈ പദ്ധതികള്‍ നടപ്പിലാക്കാനാണ് ഇന്ത്യയുടെ തീരുമാനം. 10,000 മെഗാവാട്ട് ഉല്‍പ്പാദനശേഷിയുള്ളതാണ് ജയ്താപൂര്‍ പ്രൊജക്റ്റ്‌. നിര്‍മ്മാണം പൂര്‍ത്തിയായാല്‍ ലോകത്തിലെതന്നെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ആണവനിലയങ്ങളിലോന്നാകും ഇത്. ഫുകുഷിമ ആണവനിലയത്തിന്റെ നിര്‍മ്മാതാക്കളായ ജനറല്‍ ഇലക്ട്രിക്‌ തന്നെയാണ് ഇതിന്റെയും നിര്‍മ്മാതാക്കള്‍. അതേ സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യതന്നെയാണ് ഇവിടെയും ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത്. ഇത്രയും വലിയ ശേഷിയുള്ള ആണവനിലയങ്ങള്‍ നിര്‍മിച്ചോ അത് നടത്തിയോ ഇതിന്റെ നിര്‍മ്മാതാക്കള്‍ക്ക് പരിചയം ഇല്ലെന്നതാണ് സത്യം. ഫുകുഷിമ ദുരന്തത്തിന്റെ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിലാണ് ഈ പരിചയക്കുറവ് വിലയിരുത്തപ്പെടുന്നത്. ജയ്താപൂര്‍ ഭൂകമ്പ സാധ്യതകൂടിയ പ്രദേശങ്ങളുടെ പട്ടികയില്‍ ഉള്‍പ്പെട്ടിട്ടുണ്ട് എന്നതും വസ്തുതയാണ്. ഇതൊന്നും മുഖവിലക്കെടുക്കാതെ നയതന്ത്രബന്ധങ്ങളുടെ പ്രാധാന്യം മാത്രം കണക്കിലെടുക്കുന്ന ഗവേര്‍ന്മെന്റിന്റെ പ്രവര്‍ത്തനങ്ങള്‍ ഇന്നു സംശയത്തിന്റെ നിഴലിലാണ്.

ലോകവന്ശക്തിയാകാനുള്ള പരക്കം പാചിലിനിടയില്‍ സാധാരണ ജനങ്ങളെയും പരിസ്ഥിതിയെയും വികസനവാദികള്‍ കണ്ടില്ലെന്നു നടിക്കുന്നു. സ്വന്തം ജീവന്‍ അപകടത്തിലാണെന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവു ഉണ്ടായപ്പോള്‍ ഏതൊരു ജീവിയെയും പോലെ ജയ്താപൂരിലെ ജനങ്ങളും പ്രതികരിക്കാന്‍ തുടങ്ങി. സമരത്തെ പ്രതിരോധിക്കാന്‍ സര്‍ക്കാരിന്റെ ഭാഗത്തുനിന്നും നീക്കങ്ങള്‍ തുടങ്ങിക്കഴിഞ്ഞു. ചര്‍ച്ചകളിലൂടെയും കൂടുതല്‍ നല്ല പുനരധിവാസ പാക്കേജുകള്‍ നല്‍കിയും ജനങ്ങളെ വരുതിയിലാക്കാന്‍ സര്‍ക്കാര്‍ ശ്രമിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്. പക്ഷെ, വരാനിരിക്കുന്ന അപകടങ്ങളുടെ തീവ്രതയെപ്പറ്റി നല്ല ബോധ്യമുള്ള ജനങ്ങള്‍ അതൊന്നും സ്വീകരിക്കാന്‍ തയ്യാറാകുന്നില്ല. ഇതുപോലുള്ള മറ്റു ആണവനിലയങ്ങള്‍ സ്ഥാപിക്കാന്‍ തീരുമാനിച്ചിട്ടുള്ള സ്ഥലങ്ങളിലെ പ്രക്ഷോഭകാരികള്‍, ജയ്താപൂരിലെ പ്രക്ഷോഭത്തിന്റെ തീവ്രത തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞ്, ഇവിടേയ്ക്ക് എത്തിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇന്നവര്‍ക്ക് ഒട്ടേറെ സാമൂഹ്യസാംസ്കാരിക നായകന്മാരുടെയും സംഘടനകളുടെയും പിന്തുണയുണ്ട്. തങ്ങളുടെയും വരും തലമുറകളുടെയും ജീവന്‍ സംരക്ഷിക്കാന്‍ മരണംവരെ പോരാടാന്‍ തയ്യാറാണെന്ന് അവര്‍ പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കുന്നു. നമ്മുടെയും നമുക്കു വേണ്ടപ്പെട്ടവരുടെയും ജീവന്റെ വില നന്നായി അറിയുന്നവരാണ് നാമെല്ലാം. അതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ സ്വന്തം ജീവനുവേണ്ടി സമരം ചെയ്യുന്ന ഇവരെ കണ്ടില്ലെന്നു നടിക്കാനാവില്ല. ഭരണഘടന നമുക്കനുവദിച്ചു തന്നിട്ടുള്ള '"ജീവനും സ്വത്തിനുമുള്ള സംരക്ഷണം" എന്ന മൌലീകാവകാശമാണ് ഇവിടെ നിഷേധിക്കപെടുന്നത്‌.

ഇത്തരം നീക്കങ്ങളെ മുളയിലെ നുള്ളിയില്ലെങ്കില്‍ ഒരുപക്ഷെ നാളെ, ഇത്തരം കടന്നുകയറ്റങ്ങള്‍ നമുക്ക് നേരെയും ഉണ്ടായെന്നു വരാം. അന്ന ഹസാരെയുടെ ഉപവാസസമരം വിജയിപ്പിക്കാനും HIL കമ്പനിക്കു തഴിടാനും ഇന്ത്യന്‍ ജനത കാട്ടിയ അതേ പോരാട്ടവീര്യം ഇവിടെയും പുറത്തുവരണം. ഈ നാടും ഈ പരിസ്ഥിതിയും ഇവിടുള്ള ജനങ്ങളും വിലപ്പെട്ടതാണ്‌. ലോകവന്ശക്തിയാകാനുള്ള കിടമല്‍സരത്തിലും അന്ധമായ വികസനഭ്രാന്തിലും പെട്ട് നശിപ്പിക്കനുള്ളതല്ല അത്.

written by Nikhil KV.
http://twitter.com/nikhilkv
mail @ infinitegravity.n@gmail.com

Setting up local dns cache and public dns address for "lightning" speed browsing in Ubuntu

2011-05-20T12:56:00.001+05:30

When it comes to internet, reasonable speed is always an uncomprimisable thing. That may be a crucial reason for making you sit infront of your machines for hours and days. So the lightning speed can be achieved with your ubuntu box in two ways. They are

Use faster and free domain name servers like google's pubic dns or OpenDNS (first throw the one provided by your service provider). Hope you will check one of my past article written in Crack Bytez.

Maintain a local dns cache in your machine itself. So that you can do a good amount of address resolution for frequently used websites within your machine itself, and that saves a reasonable amount of time.

Here i am planning to bring both of these techniques together in a simple manner. Though there are many applications for local DNS caching in ubuntu [ such as dnsmasq, pdnsd, bind9 ] are available, bind9 seems to be a good option for me...

Starting with BIND9 DNS server in Ubuntu

Bind9 (Berkly Internet Naming Daemon) is the most widely deployed DNS server. Bind9 is available in the ubuntu main repository itself. So you don't need to add some additional repository for installing it. Use the following command line or search for 'bind9' in Synaptic package manager to install it.

$ sudo apt-get install bind9

Bind9 allows different type of configurations, and our point of view is on configuring it as a caching server. In this configuration BIND9 will find the answer to name queries and remember the answer for the next query. This can be useful for a slow internet connections especially based on mobile internet. By caching DNS queries, you will reduce bandwidth and (more importantly) latency. It increase network performance by caching IP addresses of commonly visited websites instead of retrieving them from the public DNS servers maintained by ISPs at each request.

Configuring the BIND server

# First you have to set your machine's address (127.0.0.1) itself as the primary dns address. This can be done with the help of Network manager or by editing the /etc/resolv.conf file in your ubuntu box. Check the screenshot below..

using Network manager:: select the connection and click on the edit. Then choose the IPv4 settings tab and add 127.0.0.1 to the DNS servers field.

editing the resolv.conf file:: If you are using DHCP then you may have to edit the resolv.conf file every time you connect to the internet to make bind work properly.

Now change the bind configuration file to add some external DNS servers for resolving a new address that is not cached on your local cache at that time. If you are not adding an external dns server, then it will not be possible to resolve a new address request comes from the browser. Here i recommend google's public dns or OpenDNS addresses to add in the BIND configuration file. This servers may be sometimes faster and reliable than your ISP's Domain Name Servers. You can find the best DNS server applicable for you by checking in this post. Here is how i have added it

# First open the file 'named.conf.options'

$ sudo gedit /etc/bind/named.conf.options

# Now uncommend the section 'forwarders'. Replace the '0.0.0.0' with the dns server address applicable to you (Check the figure).

# Restart the BIND server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/bind9 restart

Thatz it. We are almost done. Now use the dig command to see the change in speed. If you "dig" a domain name multiple times you should see a drastic decrease in query time: between the first and second query. This is due to the server caching the query. See what happened when i dig twitter from my terminal three times concecutively. See the change in the Query time.

$ dig twitter.com

Time is up. Go Applications > Internet > firefox and experience the lightning speed...

Download your facebook account entirely [let's have a copy on the harddisk too]

2011-05-18T13:11:00.004+05:30

Facebook now provides a feature to download all the information that you have put on your account so far. This is a copy of all the personal information you've shared on Facebook. Many of the photos might not be there in your local harddisk. So this will help you to download all the informations that you shared, and someone tagged you. Also incase your account is blocked by any reasons it isn't possible to take back all the data at that instant. So better is to download your informations frequently so that you can avoid loosing your favourites...

When you download the information you get following list of information that you have shared on Facebook.

Your profile information (e.g., your contact information, interests, groups)

Wall posts and content that you and your friends have posted to your profile

Photos and videos that you have uploaded to your account

Your friend list

Notes you have created

Events to which you have RSVP’d

Your sent and received messages

Any comments that you and your friends have made on your Wall posts, photos, and other profile content

At present it is not possible to select particular items from the above list, entire information will be completely downloaded.

Steps to download the facebook information

Select Account > Account Settings . Navigate to the bottom of the page and click on the link labelled as learn more corresponding to Download your Information . Check the figure below.

You will be redirected to another page where it asks for your facebook password. Press the continue button after providing the password information to move on to the next page.

Click on the Download Now button to begin the download.

After downloading you will get a zip file. Extract it in some directory and click on the index.html to view the contents.

Access the blocked websites [facebook, orkut, youtube] using free http proxy servers

2011-05-17T09:10:00.000+05:30

Atlast that too happened. Ban for facebook on the computer lab, Damn proxyserver !! They first blocked youtube, then orkut, then torrents and now it's facebook's turn... Then how do a man live without all this things in such a technically overflooding world?

I can't agree with their policies... I want to talk, i want to chat and i want to tweet.. Squid proxy server was running on the network. It was powerful and configured well to block everything out of the rule. Then i started googling for a way to bring the blocked facebook onto my laptop within the same network, and found that some free http proxy servers outside the network will help me.Also port 80 (HTTP) was open, so that i can browse the internet.

What actually happens in the network when i am behind my college's proxy server is, whenever a url request for facebook comes from my browser, the proxy server which has been configured to capture such requests comes into action. But since we are allowed to browse on the internet, its clear that you can access servers other than facebook. Most of the free http proxy mechanisms work on this trick. They help you to cheat the squid server. Squid server beleive that your machine and the free proxy server on the internet (may be in US, Europe ) are the two endpoints of communication. See the image below to see how that http proxy server loads the facebook page on your machine [check the url area and the content area in the image]

Here the free http proxy server (faceoxy.com in image) communicate with the facebook server on behalf of you and serves the packets from the facebook within faceoxy's header. That was somewhat literally!!! So when the squid program analyses the packets, it can not find any traces of the facebook in the source/destination address feilds of the ip packets. I am not going to the advanced details of http tunneling, another post is on its way...

List of the free and reliable http proxy servers that help you to access blocked websites such as facebook, orkut, youtube etc.. are : Though they are classified most of the sites serves facilities such as

anonymous browsing
proxy bypassing
changing network location of your machine

HideMyAss.com – Free Anonymous Proxy Servers

Proxy.org – Directory of free proxy servers.

GlobalPandora – They give you a proxy address to add to your browsers netwrok settings

http://blockedsiteaccess.com/

facebook

http://facebookoxy.com/

http://www.faceoxy.com/

youtube proxy

Megabypass

Youtubeproxy

MegaProxy

proxybin.com

Another best trick that works well with these condition is the foxyproxy addon for firefox. Just install the addon for your firefox. FoxyProxy automatically switches an internet connection across one or more proxy servers based on URL patterns. Simply, it automates the manual process of editing Firefox's Connection Settings dialog. Proxy server switching occurs based on the loading URL and the switching rules you define...

Download your gmail inbox to harddisk for offline usage in Ubuntu

2011-05-16T16:39:00.000+05:30

I don't know when i have started using gmail. But now, i am wondering why it doesn't makes me bored eventhough i am watching the same appearence and 'looks of gmail' for more than five years. Gmail is something more than the 'appearences' since it provides a secure and fully fledged mechanism to communicate your personal and business affairs. That may be the reason why i haven't googled for something like 'best online email service' for those past years where i experienced the power of Gmail.

Here i am introducing an application named 'Gmail Backup' that helps you to download and back up all your mails from the Gmail inbox to your computer's hard disk. The collection of mails that you backed up can be viewed and read offline with the help of some text editors, browsers or email applications such as thunderbird without going online...

Setup and Installation

Since the Gmail Backup is a python based application you may need some additional python libraries for running the gui. So first install the latest version of wxPython on your ubuntu box with the help of Synaptic package manager or apt. The installation with apt pacakge manager using terminal is given below.

# First import the key into your apt's list of trusted keys (we both hate warnings !! and this is how we remove the warnings about the digital signature)

$ curl http://apt.wxwidgets.org/key.asc | sudo apt-key add -

# Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Change 'natty' to the suitable one if you are using an ubuntu distribution other than Natty narwhal.

#wxWidgets/wxPython repository at apt.wxwidgets.org
deb http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ natty-wx main
deb-src http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ natty-wx main

# Run the this command to update your local copy of the packages meta-data.

$ sudo apt-get update

# Now install the wxPython packages using the following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install python-wxgtk2.8 python-wxtools wx2.8-i18n libwxgtk2.8-dev libgtk2.0-dev

The packages libwxgtk2.8-dev and libgtk2.0-dev may need to be installed if a 3rd party application requires wxWidgets when building from source.

# Inorder to access the gmail with such an application you need to enable the IMAP option on the gmail settings. Go to your gmail inbox with your browser. Navigate to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP section on the gmail settings page to enable the IMAP as shown in the figure.

Now download the gmail Backup application from the link here. Extract the zipped file. Using your terminal navigate to the location of the zipped file.

# Use the ls command to list all the files

$ ls -l *.sh

# Run the file named gmail-backup-gui.sh to start the gui interface of the Gmail Backup application shown below.

$ ./gmail-backup-gui.sh

# Enter the required information and press the backup button to start downloading the mails. You can view the mails with the help of a browser/text editor/email application[kmail,mozilla thunderbird]. All the mails are stored in the specified folder seperately as eml files.

Does your Gmail account hacked yesterday ??? who knows

2011-05-14T08:15:00.001+05:30

You knows !!! Gmail is considered as one among the best email services today, so people are using it for both business and personnel usage. Then comes the issue of security that protects the mails in your inbox. Make sure that your gmail account is safe and open to you only. Google offers activity information mechanism for finding weather your gmail account is hacked or not. Its simple.., you don't need to be a geek. This post will help you to identify weather someone else is accessing your inbox.

Navigate to the bottom side of the gmail inbox. I just pinned the snapshot of mine here. Check for the line starting with the sentence 'Last account activity : x hours ago at IP x.x.x.x'. There you can find a link labeled 'Details'. Click their to see the log information on your gmail inbox and make sure that you are the only one used that account.

Make sure that the IP addresses listed are the same ones that you used. Check the country, date, time and access type also, and identify weather it matches with your usage. Once i have seen a log from a different ip address on my gmail's log. It appeared to be one from Aisanet's network. (That was a my first experience of being hacked). Later i found it was not an accidental one. This unwanted access was from an internet cafe once i used 2-3 days before the hazard, and what really happened was i really forgot to logout from my gmail account when i quit the cafe. If you feels the same, then understand this is the right time to change your google account's password. Do it now itself, else you may be the next victim. Changing the passwords frequently is always refered as the best methode to escape from hacks and unwanted access to your personals kept on internet...

Finding ip adress of your machine

If you dont want to go technical just visit the website tracemyip to know your ip address and related details.

If you are a unix guy, use the ifconfig command on the terminal to know your ip. The field shown as 'inet addr' corresponding to your mode of connection (eth, wlan, ppp) is the ip.

and, If you are windows guy, use the dos command ipconfig in the command prompt window to view your ip.

Note :

Ip address may not be the same for every time you connects, if you are not using a static connection..

6 best practises for a good kowledge researcher on internet

2011-05-11T20:04:00.001+05:30

The century where we defined the meaning of 'www' and 'internet' were over. Now these technologies turned to be the best flavour tied up with our life. A child even before he stands up for the first time in his life comes in touch with the latest flavour of technology by watching tv and playing with the mobile phone. So the internet is being a big phenomenon.

Internet offers the best services that connect and educates people across the world. Majority of the internet users utilizes internet as a tool for social networking and chatting only. While internet remains the best knowledge pool, we must follow some good practises to utilize and extract the best from it. Worldwide acceptance of free software and the sharing concepts might have played the key role in fuelling the era of blogs and forums.

I have always amazed at seeing the number of peple writing and contributing on free software platforms like ubuntu. Everyday how many tweets fly over the internet carrying links?? it might be millions..We have to break the rule that 'internet is nothing but a Goooooooogle search'. As the digital media is rapid and feature rich than the traditional and conventional printed media, we should follow a proper guideline for using it in better manner. My intention is nothing but introducing before you the best practises for online reading and keeping always in touch with the latest technology through this blog post.

1. Dont be the usual guy always :)

Find a little time for spending with the latest stuff in your favourite blogs and webpages other than facebook and myspace. Let's close the tabs of your favourite social networking sites while you read. Dont mix up the everything togeteher, instead find time for everything. You can make a better environment for learning, only if you have the gutz to do that...

2. Subscribe the best (its free of cost)

Whenever you move over an interesting and 'followable' web page, don't forget to use the subscribe button to subscribe to the feeds from that blog. Feeds are the topics that are written in that blog or web page that will be available on your feed reader (such as google reader) and can be organized as you wish. If you are using an online feed reader service, the advantge is that you don't have visit your favourite blogs individually everytime, every stuff will be available on the feed reader's inbox. That makes all your faourite contents from many web pages under a single roof. Its better to use an online feed reader rather than bookmarking the stuffs with your browser. Bookmarks will be lost on a system crash unless otherwise it is not backed up properly, and it is better for websites rather than blogs.

I have been sticking on to the Google reader for a while since it provides better services to organize and manage my feeds. It have features like slideshow, collections and more to make reading attractive and easy.

3. Inbox is not your waste box !

Many of the blogs and websites will allow you to subscribe contents through email also, along with the feed subscription. Think before you subscribe via email weather the contents are so important to sit on your inbox. Otherwise your inbox will flood with unimportant mails of blog subscriptions and that may be the reason for losing your job because of unnoticing the appointment order. It took almost one and half weeks for me to remove the unimportant subscriptions from my email inbox. I was forced to do it when my inbox crossed 4000 mails and lion's share of the subscriptions are 3-4 years old and are unread...

4. Comment on !! are you dead???

When you move over a blog post, just take a pause and comment if you have something to add up with the content described in the post. Most of the blogs allow the commenting feature to make discussions live. Remember your comments are always valuable to and useful for the next guy visiting the same post. I usually check for the comments area of the blogposts before reading the content of the post. My intention is nothing but to watch the feedback given by other readers. Soemtimes the trick given on that post might not work and may be the same is commented by someone. So a hawk eye view on comments section will let you decide weather to spend time on reading the post.

5. Share the spirit !!

Whenever you finds an interesting content don't forget to share that link to your friends also. Major social networking sites (twitter, facebook) and online bokmarking sites (delicious,digg) provides facilities to share the links. While sharing a link try to encourage your friends to read that post also. I think youtube videos are shared more than any other links in most of the social networking sites...

6. Watch it on your desktop

You can use applications for reading the feeds in on your desktop. In a better way. Many feed reader application and widget are available. Google gears can be used to read contents offline from your blog. Some of the applications for Ubuntu distributions are Akregator, Yarssr, Liferea, Blam ...

Hope u like the post. Bye till the next one !!

Installing Ubuntu 11.04 in pendrive persistently : time for pendrive OS

2011-05-10T08:32:00.001+05:30

What about the idea of carrying your operating system whereever you go? I am not talking about bringing your laptop everywhere you go, instead use your pendrive to carry your linux distro. Not simply the live distro, you can carry your operating system with all your configurations, favorite desktop background and personal files. We can call it as a persistent installation since the pendrive linux can not only used as a means for installing linux but also it can retain the changes you made (similar to a linux installation on a hard disk). In simple terms if you store a file on the desktop or installed any new application on the pendrive ubuntu it will be there next time you boot from that pendrive.

While carrying your operating system on a USB pendrive there are many advantages. I think the most appealing one is that you will get your favourite environment wherever you go. If you are a hardcore linux user then no doubt you will find it hard to work with a 'windows only' machine, then you can use your favorite ubuntu that boots from pendrive. Another aspect is related to the security. You can use your ubuntu on the pendrive inside an internet cafe where you can expect keyloggers or other applications that can cause security breaches. Simply your online money transactions can be made secure without the help of softwares or operating system available on a cafe.

Third advantage is somewhat geeky. You can use this pendrive to remain anonymous on the internet and hack safely. Move over many machines and many networks with your handy pendrive and diminish the possibility of tracing you with the help of MAC address and IP address.

And the practical way...

I am very much font of Ubuntu as it provides a powerful environment for application development and entertainment. So i am using the latest distribution of Ubuntu, Natty narwhal (11.04) as my pendrive operating sytem. I have tested it on a Kingston DataTraveler G3 8GB pendrive. Download the iso image of the Ubuntu 11.04 from the link here. Though there are a number of ways to make persistent installation we just use the most simplest one here. For this you need a Windows (vista/7) and application called Universal USB installer (click here to download).

Select the Ubuntu 11.04 iso image and the pendrive from the Universal USB installer to start installing Ubuntu on to pendrive. The installer will take a few mnutes for finishing the task... Done!!! your pendrive Ubuntu is ready, restart the system and boot from the pendrive to use it...

Install tweetdeck in Ubuntu 11.04

2011-05-09T07:15:00.002+05:30

TweetDeck is an adobe air application that helps us to perform all the online social networking activities using a single platform. It comes as a personal real time browser for connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more...

Installation

We need to install Adobe air installer prior to the installation of the tweetdeck. This is because the tweetdeck is built on adobe air framework. You can download the latest version of the adobe air installer linked here. Select .deb from the dropdown list asking for the version to download.

Double click on the downloaded file (.deb) to install it using the Ubuntu Software center.

Ignore the bad quality package error if it is shown by the package manager and continue installation...

You can access the Adobe air installer later from Applications >> accessories for installing other applications based on air framework.

Now download the tweetdeck.air file from this link. To install it first take the adobe air installer and browse for the tweetdeck.air file.

Then the tweetdeck installer will pop up and begin as shown in the following figures..

Thats all the information needed for installing tweetdeck in ubuntu 11.04. Tweetdeck will ask for authorizing your facebook, twitter etc... accounts in the first login itself... From my point of view tweetdeck is powerful and eyecandy since it provides better interface than any other desktop social networking applications does and it also integrates many social networking communities within a single interface. Lot of customizations are also possible...

Download flash videos without any applications in Windows

2011-05-01T00:04:00.002+05:30

Sorry for the title i had given, you need mozilla firefox also for doing this trick. You can use this trick to download flash video from any website that provide free video streaming. Let see an example from youtube itself. Browse for any video and click the play button to start playing the video. Its necessary that you have to play the video for caching it by the browser temporary for playing it soon. This trick will allow you to download only a certain portion of the video also by seeking to a particular position and playing the video from there.

Now navigate to the folder C:\media\disk\Users\###\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\g3atzu61.default\cache\ using your explorer (you have to replace the ### with your own username). After you reach this folder just arrange the items on the basis of the size. Press the F5 button to refresh the explorer and find the file whose size is increasing frequently. Confirm the file by double clicking/playing the the file using any video player that supports flv format.

You have to copy the cached file to some other folder for storing it permanently, otherwise the file will be lost from the folder when the browser cache is cleared. If you are running the firefox in private browsing mode you will not be able to do this trick since the the location that is used for caching during the private browsing is not the same as above.

Hope you have enjoyed the trick... :) Click here to read my previous post about downloading flash videos in ubuntu.

Tata docomo internet in ubuntu

2011-04-28T13:18:00.000+05:30

Tata docomo offers basically 3 kinds of gprs based internet plans for use in Kerala. They are providing reasonable browsing speeds but still Idea is faster among other counter parts.

Connect your mobile phone using the data cable or bluetooth to the Ubuntu box. If you are using datacable then opt for the 'phone mode' ('Nokia mode' in Nokia phones) from the popup menu shown in the phone when connected to the pc. The network manager will launch the new broadband wizard in the pc automatically. You can manually access this by clicking on the 'Add' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManger.

During the wizard you can find TATA DOCOMO listed under Mobile Service providers belonging to India. This case is true for versions of Ubuntu released after Ubuntu 9.10. For older versions of Ubuntu TATA DOCOMO might not be listed. In this case you can select any of the service provider (idea, airtel...) and editing it after completing the wizard. For editing the connection, select the 'edit' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManager. You have to change the feilds such as Access Point, Number, DNS servers etc... with new values as follows.

Connection name    :     tata docomo
APN                         :     TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET
Number                   :     *99#
DNS server             :     8.8.8.8

To change the DNS server, first click on the 'IPv4 Settings' tab and select the 'Method' as 'Automatic (PPP) addresses only'. Then fill the 'DNS servers' feild with the above given value. Check in the box corresponding to 'Connect automatically' and click on the apply button to finish the configurations.

Connection using the Bluetooth:

If you are using past versions of ubuntu till maverick Meerkat (10.04 LTS) then you may have to install an application called blueman for using mobile internet without any hazzles and terminal based configurations. Blueman provides a simple interface for accessing the mobile internet via bluetooth. Installation procedures have been discussed in another post in crack bytezz. Click on the 'setup' button and then select 'Dialup Networking' in the 'connect to' window popped up and forward to finish the procedure. The connection can be setted up as specified above

Dialling the connection

Now dial the connection from the Network Manager applet in the taskbar as shown in the figure.

Barcamp kerala 2011 : this time for Cochin

2011-04-28T08:16:00.003+05:30

"BarCamp Kerala is an ad-hoc gathering rooted in the desire to share and learn in an open & friendly environment. It is an intense yet cool, event with discussions, demos, and strong interactions."

The date and venue for the 10th edition of the barcamp kerala (BCK 10) has announced. BCK10 will be held at SCMS B-School at Kalamassery, Ernakulam on 15th May 2011.

The registration for the participants is open at http://www.barcampkerala.org/blog/register/ . The sessions registered for the discussion at BCK10 are

Why do people compare Apples and Oranges ?
by Praseed Pai
Making your First Dollar with your PC
by Arun Basil Lal
Sound of Music
by Ashwin K
Intelligence And Some Questions
by Kenney Jacob
Public Relations - Let the world know about you
by Richy D Alexander
Ethical Hacking & Cyber Security
by Amarnath Sankar
Social Intelligence
by Nelvin Joseph
E-Governance and Digital Divide
by Jayakrishnan Unnithan
Technology of Spirituality
by Aswin Nandakumar
Cyber Warfare – In a different perspective
by Gokul C Gopinath
Development: What they don't teach you anywhere
by Binny V A

Most interesting thing about the barcamp kerala is the rules that are to be followed by the participants. I just pins the rules that are given in their website.

Location Map

View Larger Map

SSLC results Kerala

2011-04-28T07:53:00.003+05:30

The results of the SSLC examination conducted on March 2011 are announced by the Educational department on 28th April 2011. The results are announced unusually early this time compared with the previous years. The results can be checked by visiting the following websites after 4.30 pm. This is been a record for the government to publish SSLC results so early. Last year results were published on May 3rd.

Results are available on following websites after 4.30 pm

http://results.itschool.gov.in

http://results.kerala.in

http://keralaresults.nic.in

http://keralapareekshabhavan.in

http://results.nic.in

http://www.sslcexamkerala.gov.in

education.kerala.gov.in

examresults.kerala.gov.in

How to change dns address in Windows

2011-04-22T22:59:00.000+05:30

The domain name servers plays a big role in the case of world wide web. It converts the human understandable URLs or host names such as google.com or yahoo.com into machine understandable IP addresses. It is very important to select the best DNS server from a list of available ones since the right selection will reflect in the browsing speeds. Actually when an internet user types some url and hit the enter key, the role of dns server (usually provided by the correspponding internet service provider for example bsnl or vodafone ) comes into effect.

The dns server converts the hostname to the corresponding IP address and returns the IP back to the browser.Usually the dns server uses tables to store the hostname and ip, also a domain naming system is also implemented as a distributed system.

Leave the theories ... lets findout the best dns server that suits you and change the your default dns value to the best one that is more fast and reliable using the following steps...

Before that, the public and free dns address available are

google public dns
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

opendns
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

dns advantage
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

others
209.244.0.3
209.244.0.4

1. Use the ping command to find the dns server with less average RTT (round trip time).

Take the command prompt and use the average value of round trip time in the ping command to spot the best dns address. Check the figure.

> ping <dns address here>

2. Replace the default dns address with the new one

Take 'Network and Sharing Center' from the control panel. Select the 'Manage Network Connections' from the left side panel. Select the connection and right click to select the 'Properties' from the menu.

Select the TCP/IPv4 under the Networking tab and click the 'properties' button to change its properties.

Inside the TCP/IPv4 properties click on the 'Use following DNS server' and add the DNS server address there as shown in the image below.

If the connection is already active you may have to restart the connection to make the changes take into effect.

That's all about the configuration. From my personal experience google's public dns addresses are fast and reliable than the others. Almost a lion's share of time i spend on internet is usually with google related sites such as google search engine, analytics, blogger... The method for changing the dns address in Ubuntu linux is explained in the post linked here

Kerala Entrance exam 2011 answer keys - the official link

2011-04-22T19:16:00.003+05:30

The answer key for the kerala entrance examination has published (KEAM 2011). You can download the answer key from the official site of cee-kerala. The answer keys for both the engineering and medical entrance exams are available in the pdf format for download in this site. Please note that the answer key published in many sites are wrong and not official. Please confirm that the key is same as the one published in cee-kerala website...

[Engineering Answer Key]

[Medical Answer Key]

python code for taking images with webcam in Linux

2011-04-18T02:47:00.001+05:30

Hey friends lets checkout a small, simple and cute python program for taking photos with with your webcam without the help of any third party application programs. Most probably the Ubuntu like linux distributions comes without a pre-installed application for imaging with webcam. I suggest this small piece of code because most of the linux distributions includes python as pre-installed.

I have simplified the code to the extend that any newbie to python can understand it. Also you should install the following python library for this program to work.

# python-opencv

You can install this library using synaptic package manager or apt. The package name is 'python-opencv'

Code

   import os
   import datetime
   import opencv.adaptors
   from opencv import highgui
   import Image

   def get_image(camera):
im = highgui.cvQueryFrame(camera)
      # Add the line below if you need it (Ubuntu 8.04+)
   im = opencv.cvGetMat(im)
   #convert Ipl image to PIL image
dir(im)
print "image taken"
   return opencv.adaptors.Ipl2PIL(im)

   #_______________find usernae___________
   a=os.popen('whoami')
   l=a.read()
   s=l.split('\n')
   uname=s[0]

   #______________find date n time _________
   now = datetime.datetime.now()
   now = str(now)

   im=None
   camera= highgui.cvCreateCameraCapture(0)
   im = get_image(camera)
   os.chdir('/home/%s/Pictures' %(uname) )
   fname='image_'+now+'.png'
   im.save(fname, "PNG")
   #### code ends here



You can run this program using the terminal as follows

         python camera.py

The images will be automatically stored inside the Pictures folder inside the home directory.

till the next post...

Social networking on mobile phone without internet connection

2011-04-18T00:11:00.001+05:30

Hai friends, in this post we will discuss two ways for accessing the most common social networking websites anywhere within india through mobile phones without an internet connection. Usually these applications updates your status or brings your recent wall posts on social networking websites by sending and receiving Short Messaging Service (SMS dude !!!). These applications discussed below offers access to twitter, facebook, google mobile services etc...

smstweet :: for tweeting on the go via sms

shorthand browser :: its a j2me application that can run on your phones that support java

# smstweet

Smstweet is a web based application for posting twitter feeds only. You have to register your mobile phone number with the website. After successful registration it will connect your twitter account with the smstweet server. That's you need to do on the website. You can start posting your tweets and mentions by sending the message as formatted below to the number :

09243000111 (Bangalore)

TWT <space > content of the tweet

# shorthand browser

Shorthand browser is an all-in-one mobile application for accessing many social networking sites and it is described as "the internet on your phone without a data plan". Shorthand’s apps use SMS text-messages to send and receive information but look so good you’ll think they use data (they don’t!). “SMS Apps” for all your favorite web sites are bundled within one super simple mobile application, Shorthand. Using shorthand you can access the following websites.

• Orkut
• Facebook
• Google - maps, cricket, horoscope, news ...
• Twitter
• Wikipedia
• Naukri
• SMS GupShup
• And more!

You can download the shorthand browser from the following links

getjar

shorthand home

That's all about the social networking mechanism that does not requires a data plan on your mobile phone...

a simple ftp program with python xmlrpc

2011-02-01T12:35:00.001+05:30

Hope you have read my post about creating a simple client server program with python xmlrpc. Now we will try creating a sample file transfer program through which we can transfer files (text, images, movie) over the network. The logic behind this is the same that we used in the client server program shown in the above link. The remote procedure call allows to call functions placed in a remote server, passing parameters to it and receiving return values from the remote function in the server.

1. Sending a file to remote server

Inorder to send a file, say a picture file we first open the file and read it's contents. Then we call the remote function in the server with file content (of the picture) as parameter. The remote function on receiving this contents as parameters will open a new file and write it into that file...

Check the ftp client and server program below...

ftp client

   import xmlrpclib
   server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://127.0.0.1:9009')
   filepath=raw_input('Enter path to file :')
   try:
   with open(filepath, "rb") as handle:
          data=xmlrpclib.Binary(handle.read())
          handle.close()
        a=server.UploadFile(data)
   except:
   print "Upload failed"

ftp server :

   import xmlrpclib
   from SimpleXMLRPCServer import SimpleXMLRPCServer
   def UploadFile(filedata):
        try:
            fp="/home/jo/Downloads/file2"
            with open(fp, "wb") as handle:
                    data1=filedata.data
                    handle.write(data1)
                    handle.close()
            return True
        except Exception,ex:
            return 'error'
   client.register_function(UploadFile)
   server.serve_forever()

2. Receiving a file from remote server

Here we call the remote function on the server with file path as the parameter, where file path is the path to the file that is going to be downloaded to the client. Server on receiving the file path, opens file and returns it's contents to the client which called the remote function. Client will open a new file and writes the above returned value to the file.

ftp server :

     import xmlrpclib
    from SimpleXMLRPCServer import SimpleXMLRPCServer
    def movefile(filepath):
try:
    handle = open(filepath)
        return xmlrpclib.Binary(handle.read())
            handle.close()
        except:
        return 'error'
    client.register_function(movefile)
    server.serve_forever()

ftp client :

   import xmlrpclib
   server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://127.0.0.1:9009')
   filepath=raw_input('enter path : ')
   try:
         handle=open("/home/jo/Downloads/file1","w")
         handle.write(server.movefile(filepath).data)
       handle.close()
    except:
       print 'Download failed'

remarks ::

In the above examples the data read from the file is converted to binary format before transferring it using the Binary() function in the xmlrpc library. Also you have to change the ip to desired on replacing 127.0.0.1 to run the program on a network.

Convert videos to 3gp, Mp4, Mp3 formats with Mobile media converter in Ubuntu

2011-01-31T11:16:00.002+05:30

I have been searching for a cool media converter for my ubuntu box to convert my favourite videos into mobile formats like mp4 and 3gp etc... last week. I ended up with the one called Mobile Media Converter. Here i share my experience with this application.

The Mobile Media Converter is a free video and audio converter for converting between popular desktop media formats like MP3, wma, ogg, wav, MPEG video, AVI, wmv, flv, mov and commonly used mobile devices/phones formats like AMR and 3GP video. Also iPod/iPhone and PSP compatible MP4 video are supported. Moreover, you can remove and add new formats or devices through the internet.

The Mobile Media Converter has integrated a Youtube downloader which can be used to download flash videos and convert to any other formats. You can trim your clips for ringtone creation or any other purpose and crop your videos for removing up/down black bars or other unwanted parts of the image. Additionally, embedded subtitles can be encoded onto the video for watching movies or shows with subtitles on devices that does not supports them.

You can download the this application from here. After downloading the debian package, open it with Synaptic or Ubuntu Software Center to complete the installation

python xmlrpc : a simple client server connection mechanism with greater possibilities

2011-01-27T21:19:00.002+05:30

A byte of theory . . .

XML-RPC is a Remote Procedure Call method that uses XML passed via HTTP as a transport. With it, a client can call methods with parameters on a remote server (the server is named by a URI) and get back structured data. This module supports writing XML-RPC client code; it handles all the details of translating between conformable Python objects and XML on the wire.

A byte of surprise . . .

Here the xmlrpc library of the python does the magic, by leaving the programmer give maximum attention to logic by freeing him from the concepts of the sockets, binding, listening, accepting, etc ... which are the primary constraints while developing a network based program. Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism allows the client to call any function defined and registered as 'remote' in the server.

A byte of reality . . .

xmlrpc library offers communication between the client and server in such a way that, we can define functions in one machine (say a server) and access those functions from the other machine (say a client). Here the communication occurs in two ways.
>< client calling the remote server function can

pass arguments to it. So the server recieves this

arguments
>< Server can transport some data as the return

value of the function that the client called

A byte of practical . . .

Inorder to make the client and server communicate together we need to create the server object and client object with the ip and port of the server. Here i am running the client and server on the same machine. You can replace 127.0.0.1 in sample code with the ip of the server where you need to connect the clients. Port should be greater than the 1024.

server program

   import xmlrpclib
   from SimpleXMLRPCServer import SimpleXMLRPCServer
   def add(a, b) :
   return a+b
   server=SimpleXMLRPCServer(("127.0.0.1",9009))
   server.register_function(add)
   server.serve_forever()

In server program we have to create the object of the server with a method called SimpleXMLRPCServer() with parameters as ip and port. Then the function has to be registered inorder to access it remotely. The serve_forever() function is used to put the server wait for the client request infinitely.
client program

    import xmlrpclib
    server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://127.0.0.1:9009')
    a=input("No 1: ")
b=input("No 2: ")
    result = server.add(a,b)
    print "Result : "+result

In the client program we will use the ServerProxy() method to specify the details(port, ip) of the server which is having a function named add() which can be called remotely. So two integers a,b are passed as parameters to the remote function. Remote function calculates the sum and returns the result to the called function.

I felt this xmlrpc library as the most awesome mechanism provided by the python. It makes the programming to the very simplest extent so that the users can give maximum attention to developing logic, instead of worrying about the networking constraints and errors related to it...

python urllib library : the basics

2011-01-27T12:38:00.000+05:30

urllib and urllib2 are Python modules for fetching URLs. It offers a very simple interface, in the form of the urlopen function which is capable of fetching URLs. It also offers a slightly more complex interface for handling features like basic authentication, cookies, proxies and soon.

urllib2 supports fetching URLs for many URL schemes such as ftp, http -- for example “ftp” is the URL scheme of “ftp://python.org/“

Fetching URLs : urlopen()

Now it is the time to play off the theories. The simplest way to use urllib2 to open urls is as follows:

import urllib2
response = urllib2.urlopen(’http://python.org/’)
html = response.read()

You can use the above method to store the complete contents of a file into a variable without writing it to a local file...

Sending Data along with url

Sometimes you want to send data to a URL (often the URL will refer to a CGI script or other web application). With HTTP, this is often done using a GET/POST request. This is what your browser does when you submit a HTML form that you filled in on the web. In the common case of HTML forms, the data needs to be encoded in a standard way, and then passed to the Request object as the data argument. In python encoding is done using a function from the urllib library.

import urllib
import urllib2
url = ’http://www.someserver.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi’
values = {’name’ : ’Michael Foord’,
’location’ : ’Northampton’,
’language’ : ’Python’ }
data = urllib.urlencode(values)
req = urllib2.Request(url, data)
response = urllib2.urlopen(req)
the_page = response.read()

This can be done manually as follows :

import urllib2
import urllib
data = {}
data[’name’] = ’Somebody Here’
data[’location’] = ’Northampton’
data[’language’] = ’Python’
url_values = urllib.urlencode(data)
print url_values
name=Somebody+Here&language=Python&location=Northampton
url = ’http://www.example.com/example.cgi’
full_url = url + ’?’ + url_values
data = urllib2.open(full_url)

Fetching files : urlretrieve()

We can use urllib's urlretrieve function to download a file over internet and save it in a new name. We can download text / image / video files using this function if the source file is available as a url.

import urllib
url=http://lh6.ggpht.com/_MJpU2t5NrVQ/TUApXxcKxbI/AAAAAAAAAfY/qs8BAzdjy_Q/s104/ubuntu.png
urllib.urlretrieve(url, new_image.png)

Hope you have enjoyed the basics of the urllib library of python...