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Google dumps on Windows

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Tue, 1 Jun 2010 19:05:00 -0700

Google is phasing out its use of Microsoft's Windows on desktops, citing security concerns stemming from the recent Chinese hacking incident

It must be nice to be a Google employee. You get to work with the smartest engineers out there. You get gourmet cafeteria food and all kinds of amenities. But best of all, you aren't given some generic, locked-down PC that you aren't familiar with. You get to pick what platform you want to be on: Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Well, you were able to pick Windows, but now that option is off the table according to a story today from the Financial Times.

They get quotes from a number of employees who say the reasoning behind the move is security-related and specifically a result of the recent Chinese hacking incident...

"We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort"
"Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks"
"Particularly since the China scare, a lot of people here are using Macs for security"

The recent Chinese hacking of Google was done through Microsoft (MSFT) Windows computers on the Google's (GOOG) corporate network.

Windows is technically still an option, but you need to have some seriously good reasons to have it on your desktop. Those reasons need to be justified to the office of Google's CIO and approved. Otherwise, it is a Mac or a Linux box.

I'd imagine that some IE browser testing machines would need to be running Windows. Also, people developing Outlook migration tools for Google Apps and developers of Windows software like Google Earth and SketchUp will need the operating system.

Obviously, Google would eventually love it if its employees used its own Linux-based desktop OS product, ChromeOS, as soon as its is ready for prime time. For now, though, Apple's (AAPL) Macs and, to a lesser extent, Linux are the answer.

But ChromeOS is the future and it seems pretty apparent that Google is heading in that direction. A few more Googler quotes:

"Before the security, there was a directive by the company to try to run things on Google products. It was a long time coming."
"A lot of it is an effort to run things on Google product," the employee said. "They want to run things on Chrome."

File Sharing Service with Opera Unite

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:35:00 -0700

Opera Unite is an intriguing concept that aims to turn any computer or mobile device running Opera into a web server. This means you can easily share files or photos with other people without having to upload them first. There's more to it than that, though. Friends can leave messages for you on a virtual fridge and chat with you in your 'lounge', and you can even stream your music collection over the internet. The Unite download includes the Opera 10 browser. if you already have Opera installed, you'll be given the opportunity of upgrading to the new version.

To use Unite, you'll need an Opera account. Go to Tools, Opera Unite Server, Enable Opera Unite and fill in the requested details. Once that's done and you've validated your account, you're all set.

Opera will now display what looks like a web page but it actually being hosted on your computer. You can add a personal message here and active the various services you want to run. Each service, whether it's the fridge or photo sharing, has its own address that you can pass on to your friends and, best of all, they don't need to be running Opera to access your pages or content.

Obviously, you don't want just anyone being able to help themselves to your shared files or leave you messages, so Unite lets you choose a level of privacy and set passwords. It's early days for the technology but it certainly shows promise. The services on offer are simple but they give you an idea of Unite's potential.

Google may Boost Email Security

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sat, 4 Jul 2009 21:36:00 -0700

Google has promised to consider improvements to the security of a number of its services including Google Mail following criticism from US security experts.

The group of 38 computer scientists called on Google to use a standard encryption protocol, known as HTTPS, which is commonly used in online banking services to protect data while in transit. Google offers HTTPS, which stands for Hypertext Tranfer Protocol Secure, as an option in Google Mail, but is disable by default.

"Google customers face a very real risk of data theft and snooping, even by unsophisticated attackers," the group wrote in an open letter to Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive.

Responding to concerns, Alma Whitten, a software engineer for Google, said that the web giant is "currently looking into whether it would make sense to turn on HTTPS as the default for all Gmail users".

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 RC1

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:38:00 -0700

The Mozilla Firefox development team is currently releasing the latest public build of the upcoming Firefox 3.5. The first release candidate of Firefox 3.5 has already been transferred to all mirror servers. Users who already work with a Firefox 3.5x version can perform an update check right in the web browser in the Help > Check for updates menu to download and install Firefox 3.5 RC1 automatically. The version has not been made available for public download yet but major download portals such as Betanews are already providing users with the download of the latest version.

This version of Firefox seems to contain bugfixes which will be also included in the final release of Firefox 3.5. according to a post on the Mozilla Developer News blog. This update does fix the incompatibilities with the Wordpress blogging platform that were introduced with Firefox 3.5b99.

You may want to check the useful article about 40+ Add-Ons for Managing Firefox Tabs

The release notes that have been written for the RC release of Firefox 3.5. also contain a download link which users can use to download and install the latest browser version. They do not reveal many information about this particular release though but concentrate on Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate information.

Firefox 3.5 RC1 should be definitely installed by users of previous versions of Firefox 3.5 especially those who have been stuck with 3.5b4 because of the bugs introduced in 3.5b99.

Internet TV Almost Ready for Prime Time

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:49:00 -0700

A few years from now, we'll look back at today's hardware for watching Internet video on TV, and we'll laugh. That's not to say that the current technology isn't sophisticated it is. The problem is that in order to view Web based content in our living rooms (as opposed to on a PC monitor), we have to jump through far too many hoops. And that's why the Web over TV movement is still more of a minor uprising than a full scale revolution.

The best Internet video to TV options such as Apple TV, Roku, and Vudu are separate, dedicated boxes. For true mass market adoption to occur, providers must offer home appliance style functionality: plug in, turn on, and tune in.

The More Things Change...

This assigment evoked a strong feeling of déjà vu for the author. Today, though, we have plentiful bandwidth, great networking, mega HDTVs, and unlimited storage. So how come on one (aside from hard-core techies) has made the transition yet?

In a word, business. The entertainment industry simply isn't comfortable with having the Internet on TV. The networks like the fat checks that conventional television advertising provides; the cable companies like the cash we fork over cach month in subcriptions; and Hollywood likes the revenue that cable and TV send in for all that juicy, exclusive content. The cash cow could expire if consumers take the backdoor route and acquire content via broadband. That's why Web on TV content libraries are still very limited. The cable folks are keeping the good stuff--news, sports, premium movies for themselves.

If it were forward looking, the cable industry would have a tremendous competitive advantage in bringing the Internet into the living room. Consumers already have a cable hookup and a cable box plugged into their TV. With flick of the switch, that connection could expose a universe of online content, without costumers' having to patch in additional devices or mess around with a home network.

Sure, opening the floodgates might be a risky business move for cable providers, especially since the margins on Internet video are much lower that those from traditional broadcasting. But playing ostrich is far riskier. At some point, all of us will be getting our TV over the Internet. If the barons of cable can't figure out how to carve themselves a slice of the pie, they'll be out of business. Just look at the withering newspaper industry, which was similarly slow to embrace the Web as a delivery mechanism.

Ultimately, the consumer will win when accessing broadband based video and a full slate of programming, takes minimal effort. First up is Yahoo's soon to be released Connected TV platform, which will deliver a broad range of content directly to Yahoo enabled sets, including a model of Samsung that should be available shortly. Equally promising, Comcast is prepping a Hulu competitor and has already inked deals with television manufacturers LG, Samsung, Sony and Vizio. The future of broadband based TV, it seems, just might rest in the living room set itself.

And this time, we won't need to wait 12 years to get the TV we want.

RIAA Suspends File-Sharing Lawsuits

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:12:00 -0700

The music industry has finally wised up and changed tactics in its quixotic legal campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing. Rather than continue to sue consumers who illegally download music, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will get Internet service providers to send warning letters. If you ignore the letters, you may find your bandwidth reduced or your service eliminated altogether.

Between 2003 and 2008, the RIAA sued 35,000 consumers, although most of these cases didn’t make it into court. Instead, the would-be plaintiff usually demanded a sum of money $5,000 or so and dropped the suit. In cases that did enter a courtroom, the copyright law permitted the RIAA to demand statutory damages of up to $100,000 per song. The most flagrant downloaders we’re talking 5,000 tracks a month may still be sued, but the RIAA will no longer pursue small fry in court.

The new strategy will require the RIAA to work closely with ISPs, sometimes with the support of state authorities. At least one small ISP in Louisiana says cooperating with the RIAA will cost it time and money, and it’s demanding payment. Internet filtering is not part of the plan, although detection of illegal downloading will be.

Mobile Device Security Measures

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:31:00 -0700

Everyone is mobilizing. Our life, not just business but also personal, have become entwined with out cell phones (or is it vice versa?).

Cell phone isn't even the right term anymore for many people, who use their BlackBerrys, iPhones, and other smartphones almost as much as they use their computers. This make our mobile devices and the data they contain just as important as our laptops and desktops. Add a direct Internet connection (which very few people secure), and the likelihood of physical loss or theft, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

You may have some help from your security suite; some of these now include mobile features, although at this point we're not sure they're necessary.

However, there are a number of things you can do yourself to avoid a data-theft disater.

Home Networking: A Refresher Course

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:49:00 -0700

If you're reading this story, chances are very good that you already have a home network. As all we all know, the times they are a-changin' constantly in the tech world, and with so many new product and services being offered, some of you may want to rebuild your home network to accommodate all that you want to do with it.

You may also have a home network but have always wondered about it's mechanics, like what goes on in the brain of that little router of yours, or how the rourter's wireless radio actually works.

Beyond the basics of letting you share high-speed Internet access with computers and devices in the house, home network allow you to control what the kids are doing on the Web, share data and multimedia files, automate backups for all of your PCs, and even use webcams to see what that new puppy is doin in the living room while you're at work. The bedroom computer upstairs can print to the color printer in the downstairs study, and the media PC in the living room can show a movie on the PC-connected TV in the basement rec room.

Adding on network oriented products and peripherals makes the setup even more useful. Network attached storage (NAS) lets you create shared folders for each family member; these folders can be accessed both from the home network or from the Internet if you're away from home. NAS devices also make effivient places to store all those backup files.

Police can hack into your PC

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:34:00 -0800

Police and security services have been granted new powers to hack into personal computers without a warrant, following European Union proposals aimed at extending the use of intrusive surveillance.

They allow the use of keyloggers, which can be installed in a variety of ways, to monitor keyboard use including emails, web surfing and instant messaging conversations.

Authority must still be obtained from a chief constable, but the new measures have angered opposition MP's, and civil liberty and privacy organizations are threatening a legal challenge.

"The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issue," said Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve. "The government must explain how it would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place."

Shami Chakrabati, director of human rights group Liberty, added: "These are very intrusive power. The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judical authorization.

"Without those safeguards it is a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy. This is no different from breaking down someone's door, rifling through their paperwork and seizing their computer hard drive."

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) defended the move, pointing out that it would still be governed by the Regulation of investigatory Powers Act.

According to the police, 194 police hacking operations were carried out in England, Wales and Northem Ireland over the past two years: 133 in private homes, 37 in offices and 24 i hotels.

High-def 3D TV 'not far off'

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:35:00 -0800

Panasionic is pushing for a standard for 1080p high-definition 3D TV to enable services to get off the ground, its chief executive Yoshi Yamada told a CES press conference. He said the company would propose a standard in Japan in the coming months for the system it debuted last year at the Cebit show in Germany.

"Panasionic does not think that 3D high definition for the home is far away at all," Mr Yamada said. "We are at the start of another phase-change that will have an impact on Panasionic's business."

The standard is needed for both consumer and broadcast devices to encode and decode images. Panasionic has been working with studios and standards groups to develop a format.

"3D in the home will never flower unless we have a national standard," Said Bob Ferry, executive vice-president of Panasionic onsumer electronics. "But we are very excited because we believe that 3D changes the world from watching TV to an immersive experience."

Elsewhere in the show Mitsubishi demonstrated a system that translates 2D games and movies into 3D and does not require the use of special glasses to view the effect. It is based on a package from Nvidia called 3D-Vision

Philips sells software called Wowvx that does the same thing and it demonstrated an entirely different 3D system at the IFA show in Berlin last year. Intead of storing different stereoscopic data for each eye, it adds depth information to 2D pixels.

Several different 3D rendering technologies are also available, so a global standard will be hard to establish.

Lenovo pulls a dual screen laptop

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:31:00 -0800

We've long liked the idea of a notebook with two screens that opens out like a book, though we have yet to see one gaining success in the mainstream.

Lenovo's new W700ds Thinkpad notebook has a rather different take on the two-screen idea. It has a 17in main display and a 10.6in one pulls out from the casing when required. Lenovo hopes it will appeal to people in graphics-intensive fields such as digital media creation, geophysical exploration and computer-aided design. Pricing starts at £3,459.

End of the line for adapters?

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:11:00 -0800

A new industry initiative could cut down our need to lug around multiple power adapters - surely the single biggest irritation in computing.

PCW has been pointing out for years that the technology exist for smart power supplies with whatever a device wants. But the idea has never gained momentum, perhaps because vendors are making too much money from existing adapters.

The new initiative, launched in Hong Kong last month, would do away with the plugs altogether and deliver power wirelessly. This is alredy done by any adapter that transfered by wireles induction between the primary and secondary windings.

In the system proposed by the new Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), the primary and secondary would be separated respectively into the source and the device drawing power. There are eight companies in the WPC: National Semiconductor, Philips, Logitech, Convenient Power, Fulton Innovation and Shenzhen Sang Fei Consumer Communications.

Proprietary wireless charging devices are already available. The WPC aims to create a standard to allow any compliant device to be charged by any compliant source.

"This is a crucial moment in the development of wireless power," said Menno Treffer, senior director of standardisation at Philips and chairman of the WPC.

The standard relates only to power transmission across a short distance and is not about to do away with adapters. It will deliver only 5W, so is suitable for only low-drain devices. However, the WPC intends to move on to a higher power spec.

Pack Your life on to a 2-terabyte SD card

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:08:00 -0800

Memory firms plan to make a barely imaginable 2TB of storage available on SD card or Memory Stick. The move would enable the use of compact HD video cameran, as well as 'life recorders' that capture everything you say and do.

The SD Association announced a new SDXC (for Extended Capacity) specification at CES that will be published in the next few weeks. No timescale was given for reaching 2TB capacity but first implementation are likely to hold less.

Read/right speed are expected to hit 104Mbits/sec this year but the SDXC roadmap goes to three times as fast.

Sandisk and Sony announced a joint effort to create a Memory Stick Pro capable of storing up to 2TB, in a device measuring just 31x2x1.66mm, with a maximum transfer rate of 320Mbits/sec.

Windows 7 lifts CES gloom

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:40:00 -0800

Microsoft chose the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to launch the first public trial of Vista successor Windows 7. Chairman Steve Ballmer announced during has keynote that a beta version would be posted at www.microsoft.com/windows-7.

Microsoft is capping the number of downloads, so you may already be too late to get a copy. The new code has been generally well received.

It certainly look good in demos. The most obvious difference is in the revamped Taskbar, which uses the icons much better than Vista, and menus without forcing you to maximise. The icon are larger too, to facilitate finger control on touchscreens; Windows 7 also support multi-touch gestures, briingin iPhone-style control to suitable platforms.

Windows 7 is said to run on box than can run Vista - including Atom-powered netboooks. Ballmer also announced the availability of a new version of Windows Live, Microsoft's significant for beta tester as Windows 7 loses the current form of Vista's Calendar, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Contact.

Istead you are invited you to download versions which can be used standalone or act as client for Live versions that can be used from any browser. Microsoft gives you 25GB of online storage too.

some manufacturers may opt to pre-load the clients - Dell says it will. This Opt-in is persumably to avoid reviving accustions of monopoly abuse, using Window to lock people into Microsoft services.

The usual caveats about using beta code apply: don't install over a missing-critical system and back everything up. Windows 7 uses the Vista kernel and so should present few compatibility problems. But is reasonably stable.

Lucky number 7 for Windows

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:54:00 -0800

After all the dismal retail and business news over the past few weeks, it's been good to see at least the semblance of song cheer coming out of the annual Consumer Eletronics Shows (CES) in Las Vegas. This show run at the begining of january and while visitor numbers were being predicted to be down on last year, there was still plenty of glitz and hype to be found on products ranging from web-enabled TV's to 3D desktop scanners.

One of the first big stories was Microsoft's announcement of an initial public beta for Windows 7. By the time you read this, the beta download will problably have been stoppped, as we understand that Microsoft intends to limit the number of downloads.

It now looks as though Microsoft intends to launch Windows 7 before the end of 2009, perhaps in an increasingly precarious state. I'm not even going to attempt to make any predictions that far ahead - with intel issuing profit warnings and several top tech companies laying off staff. It's certainly going to be a rough this year.

Hacker Linux Uncovered

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 05:00:00 -0800

Concentrating on Linux installation, tuning, and administration, this guide to protecting systems from security attacks demonstrates how to install Linux so that it is tuned for the highest security and best performance, how to scan the network and encrypt the traffic for securing all private traffics in a public network, and how to monitor and log the system to detect potential security problems. Backup and recovery policies that provide a structure for secure operations are also considered, and information related to configuring an Apache server, e-mail service, and the Internet gateway using a proxy server, an FTP server, DSN server for mapping DNS names to IP addresses, and firewall for system protection is provided

Download Link: Here

5 Great New Features Of Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:37:00 -0800

Do not worry. This article will not contain the same old blabla that most of the other Windows 7 toplist articles will mention. It will instead concentrate on five lesser known but powerful new features that increase productivity by a large margin.

You might want to check out our article about Windows 7 which has all the information you need to download the beta of the new Microsoft operating system. If you are not convinced yet that this is a good idea read on; You might be surprised:

1. Opening multiple Instances of the same program

Want to open multiple instances of the same program? Maybe a second command prompt or another application that can be opened in multiple instances? Instead of opening the program again the usual way you can simply press the SHIFT key and left-click on the first instance in the Windows Taskbar to open a second one.

2. Problem Steps Recorder

If you ever had to do phone support you know how hard it can be to understand what the user on the other end of the phone did and wants. The Problem Steps Recorder is a sweet little tool in Windows 7 that can be used by the user to record his steps.

All that the user needs to do is start the recorder by entering psr in the Start Menu box and click on Start Record in the program interface. Screenshots will be taken from user actions. It is possible to add comments at any time if the user feels so. The whole recording will be saved as a zip file containing a slideshow of the actions.

3. Pin Favorite Folders

Windows 7 introduces several new keyboard shortcuts for window management. Some useful ones are:

[Windows Shift Left Arrow] or [Windows Shift Right Arrow] to move windows from one computer monitor to another.
Windows Left Arrow] or [Windows Right Arrow] to dock windows to the left or right side
[Windows Up Arrow] to maximize a window
[Windows Down Arrow] to restore or minimize windows
[Windows Home] to minimize all windows but the active one

5. Shortcuts to start pinned taskbar items

Pressing [Win Number] will start a new instance of a pinned taskbar item. You should also note that the items can be dragged and dropped into different positions easily.

SEH’s PS56 WLAN Print Server

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:24:00 -0800

SEH says that its new PS56 WLAN Print Server interface card will make your network printing more secure. Utilizing the highly secure WPA and WPA2 encryption standards, the IPv6-enabled PS56 will connect all HP output devices with an EIO port to a wireless 802.11g network. Because the WPA and WPA2 standards have not yet been cracked, offers SEH, they are regarded as the safest protection for WLANs.

To enhance security further, the PS56 also includes TLS/SSL encryption and several IEEE 802.1X authentication methods. The interface card simply slides into the respective slot on the printer unit and is easily configurable and manageable.

SEH

WaveMaker’s Visual Ajax Studio 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:09:00 -0800

As the Ajax wave surges on, one of its well-known providers, WaveMaker, is adding new Ajax-related tools, such as Visual Ajax Studio 4.0. The product is an open-source development tool that “makes it easy to build visually stunning Web applications”. The company claims that “with just 15 mouse clicks and zero coding, a developer can build and deploy a sleek, Web-based application”.

The new 4.0 release offers faster development time, better-quality applications, the company’s own Live Layout data display, enhanced drag-and-drop capabilities and IDE-quality editing that exposes the source code and offers syntax highlighting. Visual Ajax Studio 4.0 supports Linux, Mac OS X 10.5 and Windows XP and Vista.

Wavemaker

Super Talent’s Pico D USB Drive

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:05:00 -0800

The folks at Super Talent have added a new model, the Pico D, to its line of ultra-diminutive USB Flash drives. The Pico series of USB drives, measuring in at 1.4 inches, is an inch shorter than most USB drives on the market today, says the company. Other features include a pivoting lid that won’t get lost, shock and water resistance and transfer speeds up to 30MB/sec. Not to mention that the little guy is kinda cute too.

SuperTalent

Getting Samba Software

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:34:00 -0800

Getting Samba Software On your Samba server, you’re going to need your distribution’s packages for Samba’s libraries; the Samba dæmons smbd, nmbd and winbindd; the Samba client commands smbclient, smbmount and so forth (which are useful even on servers for testing Samba configurations); and also the Web-based configuration tool SWAT (Figure 1). Naturally, nearly all these things are contained in packages whose names don’t correspond neatly with the names of their component dæmons, libraries and so forth, but I give some pointers on those shortly.

First, a word about SWAT, which requires a modest security trade-off for Ubuntu users. Although normally in Ubuntu the user root can’t log in directly, Samba requires this to be possible, so you need to set a root password on any Ubuntu box that runs SWAT. Like so much else about Samba, this is not something I recommend doing on any Internetfacing Ubuntu box. However, SWAT is such a useful and educational tool, I feel pretty confident in stating that in non-Internet-facing environments, the mistakes SWAT will help you avoid probably constitute a bigger threat to system security than SWAT does.

As I mentioned, Samba packages are included in all major Linux distributions. In Debian and its derivatives, such as Ubuntu, you’ll want to install the following deb packages: samba, samba-common, samba-doc, smbclient and swat (plus whatever packages you need to satisfy dependencies in any of these).

In SUSE, you’ll want to install samba, samba-client, samba-winbind and samba-doc. (SWAT is included with one of these, probably samba.)
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its derivatives, you need samba, samba-client, samba-common and samba-swat.

Installing these binary packages should involve installation scripts that put startup scripts, symbolic links and so forth in the correct places for everything to work (at least, after you configure Samba to serve something). Using SWAT is the best way to get up and running quickly—not because it does very much work for you, but because its excellent help system makes it super-convenient to summon the pertinent parts of Samba’s various man pages.

There are two SWAT quirks I should mention. First, SWAT must be run by an Internet super-server, such as the old Berkeley inetd or the newer xinetd. Ubuntu configures inetd automatically when you install the swat package, but if your distribution of choice does not, you need a line like this in /etc/inetd.conf:

swat stream tcp nowait.400 root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/swat

Second, to get SWAT’s help links to work under SUSE 11.0, you may need to create the following symbolic links while logged in to a terminal window as root:

ln -s /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/htmldocs/manpages
-> /usr/share/samba/swat/help
ln -s /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/htmldocs/using_samba
-> /usr/share/samba/swat/help
ln -s /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/htmldocs/index.html
-> /usr/share/samba/swat/help
ln -s /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/htmldocs/manpages.html
-> /usr/share/samba/swat/help

Samba over the Internet?

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:08:00 -0800

If Samba is so very convenient, you may wonder, why not use IPsec or some other VPN/encryption tool to secure its use on the Internet? This is actually possible. As it’s been a while since I covered IPsec in this space, and in the intervening years, IPsec support has been added to the Linux kernel, I just may end this series with a quick tutorial on doing Samba over IPsec.

However, Samba is a very “chatty” protocol—it generates a lot of packets even if you’re using it only for small files or shares. This causes problems not so much for your Internet link as for Samba performance:
Samba can be very sensitive to dropped or delayed packets, which is more likely in your modestly sized Internet uplink than over your exponentially bigger Local Area Network (LAN) fabric.

So, trying to get Samba working over IPsec may or may not be worth your time, and it may or may not warrant my covering it in this series of columns. Have no fear, one way or another, you can expect me to provide a tutorial on using the Linux kernel’s IPsec functionality in a future Paranoid Penguin column.

[eBook] Wireless Communications And Networking

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:18:00 -0800

Over the past decade, wireless data networking has developed into its own discipline. There is no doubt that the evolution of wireless networks has had signifi cant impact on our lifestyle. This book is designed to provide a unified foundation of principles for data-oriented wireless networking and mobile communications.

Wireless technology and computing have come closer and closer to generating a strong need to address this issue. In addition, wireless networks now include wide area cellular networks, wireless local area networks, wireless metropolitan area networks, and wireless personal area networks. This book addresses these networks in extensive detail. The book primarily discusses wireless technologies up to 3G but also provides some insight into 4G technologies.

My basic motivation in writing this book is to provide the details of mobile data networking and mobile communications under a single cover. In the last two decades, many books have been written on the subject of wireless communications and networking. However, mobile data networking and mobile communications were not fully addressed. This book is written to provide essentials of wireless communications and wireless networking including WPAN, WLAN, WMAN, and WWAN. The book is designed for practicing engineers, as well as senior/fi rst-year graduate students in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Computer Science (CS).

TABLE OF CONTENT:
Chapter 01 - An Overview of Wireless Systems
Chapter 02 - Teletraffi c Engineering
Chapter 03 - Radio Propagation and Propagation Path-Loss Models
Chapter 04 - An Overview of Digital Communication and Transmission
Chapter 05 - Fundamentals of Cellular Communications
Chapter 06 - Multiple Access Techniques
Chapter 07 - Architecture of a Wireless Wide-Area Network (WWAN)
Chapter 08 - Speech Coding and Channel Coding
Chapter 09 - Modulation Schemes
Chapter 10 - Antennas, Diversity, and Link Analysis
Chapter 11 - Spread Spectrum (SS) and CDMA Systems
Chapter 12 - Mobility Management in Wireless Networks
Chapter 13 - Security in Wireless Systems
Chapter 14 - Mobile Network and Transport Layer
Chapter 15 - Wide-Area Wireless Networks (WANs) — GSM Evolution
Chapter 16 - Wide-Area Wireless Networks — cdmaOne Evolution
Chapter 17 - Planning and Design of Wide-Area Wireless Networks
Chapter 18 - Wireless Application Protocol
Chapter 19 - Wireless Personal Area Network — Bluetooth
Chapter 20 - Wireless Personal Area Networks
Chapter 21 - Wireless Local Area Networks
Chapter 22 - Interworking between Wireless LAN and 3G
Chapter 23 - Fourth Generation Systems and New Wireless Technologies

Download Link: Here

Password: ganelon

Word 2007: Beyond the Manual

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:23:00 -0800

If you're familiar with Word, but not Word 2007, this is the book for you. Word 2007: Beyond the Manual focuses on new features of Word 2007 as well as older features that were once less accessible than they are now. This book also makes a point to include examples of practical applications for all the new features.

Written by Connie Morrison, a university instructor of Microsoft applications, this book will help you grow into a confident Word 2007 user. (The book assumes familiarity with Word 2003 or earlier versions, so you can work effectively with the material here.) Overall, this book cuts to the chase by skipping over basic or obvious features to get you up and running with Word 2007 in the shortest possible time.

Download: Here

CharTr - Mind Mapping Tool

noreply@blogger.com (foel) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:54:00 -0800

CharTr is an artistic piece of software made for fun to give mind mappers good usability. For those unfamiliar with mind mapping, Wikipedia says the following:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making and writing. Currently, its stated features are as follows:

Basic mind map with curved links.
Link folding.
Colors.
Outline box of several selected nodes.
Audio/text/images embedded as notes.
Automatic saving.
SVG, PNG, PDF and PS export.
Numerous keyboard shortcuts (with an eased keyboard navigation, vim-like).
Idea bookmarking.
Search for text in nodes.
Math equations.

Installation:
CharTr does have a few obscure requirements, so you should look through your repositories. You need Python, PyGTK, Cairo, GStreamer, Numpy and python-plastex for mathematical equations. Once you have these sorted out, head to the Web site where you have a choice of a source tarball or Debian package. If you grab the .deb package, install it by entering the following in a terminal from whichever directory contains the file:

$ sudo dpkg -i chartr_0.16_i386.deb

Now, run CharTr by entering:

$ chartr

If you get the source version, download and extract the tarball, and then open a terminal in the new CharTr directory. You need to invoke Python manually, by entering the following:

$ python chartr.py

Usage Once inside, click that big shiny New button, and a new window appears, called a Map. In the big expanse of white, left-clicking brings up a text cursor allowing you to type in some text. Press Enter, and the text is placed inside a box. The first of these is yellow, allowing for a central idea from
which others ideas can flow. If you click on the original box and add some text somewhere else on the map, it is placed in a blue box, and a black line
links to it. Right-clicking lets you move the map around, and if you look at the toolbar at the top, you can zoom in and out, as well as add images. If you check the drop-down box toward the right, you also can add bits of audio, notes or some already-provided icons—very handy! Once you’ve finished making a mind map, you can export it to a picture file.

Check the documentation page at code.google.com/p/chartr/wiki/CharTrDocumentationEn for more information on general usage. All in all, this is a nice and simple application with some great aesthetics that will find favor with students and teachers alike. It’s still buggy for the moment, but I hope to see it included in major distros, especially educational ones.

If you would like to install CharTr on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), you can execute the following steps here from this site.