tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75995332024-03-13T18:04:05.046+08:00TechsplatterMy take on Tech News and with living with Linux.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-48901040532109732022022-06-27T18:05:00.003+08:002022-06-27T18:05:45.152+08:00For VM junkies, the bridge to Docker goes through Bitnami<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixBFzA_uzJyQ5U-0qiu8SyZIHlV37I0U5iHUwVj0lNQ1Vd850yu4luhV-2bUfdMn5A7Tkw6NOb6WafssaKAa23_svwRwfHG62X9eaOtKLiE4xOe5wwB2EMe4xtw12iWNOUO2Pf-w_mbT-f20bk1G_l_XNqTTMUlcjBaU1HLvjhdrI9P8Auev-KrVXI8g/s800/247674.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixBFzA_uzJyQ5U-0qiu8SyZIHlV37I0U5iHUwVj0lNQ1Vd850yu4luhV-2bUfdMn5A7Tkw6NOb6WafssaKAa23_svwRwfHG62X9eaOtKLiE4xOe5wwB2EMe4xtw12iWNOUO2Pf-w_mbT-f20bk1G_l_XNqTTMUlcjBaU1HLvjhdrI9P8Auev-KrVXI8g/w199-h320/247674.png" width="199"></a></div><p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="3">I have been spending time trying to wrap my head around Containers, mainly the Docker container. There are others that are up and coming, but since Docker is the most popular, understanding it will prepare you to understand the rest. It is not easy for me, coming from a VM background. Especially, understanding some of the ways that things work in containers versus how they work in a VM environment. Trying to model Dcoker from a VM perspective is the fastest way for me, but there are some major differences.</p>
<div class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="5">But I haven't stopped using VMs. In fact, a recent discovery of mine has shortened the distance from "I want to try this" to "I have it running to test things out". <a>Bitnami</a> makes and maintains VMs that can be downloaded to be used. Each VM provides a specific function, essentially<span class="red-underline" data-endindex="279" data-paragraphid="5" data-startindex="279">,</span> a dedicated system delivering a service. It is in the OVF format, making it fairly portable. However, I had problems importing it on an old ESXi because the OVF format has changed and there are 'extra files'.</div>
<p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="6">I found a good web gateway to allow access from the Internet to a local server. It can be accessed over the web using a browser. Apache Guacamole is not a household name, but it offers access via SSH and Windows desktop through its web interface. Just click on a pre-defined link and it will bring you to the interface in the browser. </p>
<p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="7">I tried extracting the vmdk file (the <span class="red-underline" data-endindex="41" data-paragraphid="7" data-startindex="38">disk</span> file) and creating a VM around it. But the <span class="red-underline" data-endindex="89" data-paragraphid="7" data-startindex="86">disk</span> didn't like the way it was being booted and kept dumping me into EFI. A little reading made me aware that the Guacamole VM was running on Debian.. running GRUB, my mortal enemy. My clashes with it are here elsewhere, so I won't bore you. </p>
<p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="8">I then tried running it on a KVM host. Again, I unpacked the OVF, converted the VMDK to QCOW2 and created a VM around it. It worked straight out of the box. Bitnami VMs have a one-time startup sequence, <span class="red-underline" data-endindex="205" data-paragraphid="8" data-startindex="202">and </span>first time logging in does require a password change. But once the banners show how to connect to the Guacamole (or whatever service the VM is providing), it is intuitive to work with. Links and menu items can be spawned off into other tabs (showing a high degree of HTML compatibility). </p>
<p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="9">Making it work with SSH hosts is straightforward, and Windows Remote Desktop connections are not too difficult if you are the <span class="red-underline" data-endindex="129" data-paragraphid="9" data-startindex="125">Admin</span>. Windows requires some modifications to the server's Remote Desktop Connection server settings, but nothing that would cripple or make it more risky. </p>
<p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="10">I used to love SSL gateway devices before they were killed off by Java security updates and the lack of understanding by security professionals that always favoured VPNs. This gets it close to the connectivity level those devices used to provide.</p><p class="root-block-node" data-changed="false" data-paragraphid="10"><span></span></p><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2022/06/for-vm-junkies-bridge-to-docker-goes.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-67479293894799305572021-11-04T22:24:00.006+08:002021-11-04T22:24:55.541+08:00The Right Kind of Complex<p>I've always been interested in new technology. But I'm always worried about complexity for complexity sake. Now I know that some people push for this type of Technology simply to take advantage of it. By making it complex, they make it mysterious. When it's mysterious, it's magic. And when it's Magic, you can charge whatever you want. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NII8hEinYQ8/YYPqkYL4PLI/AAAAAAAA1Ys/MZA344g-otoB8hYOxZ6_K_aNu-xyzXSNACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/2003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NII8hEinYQ8/YYPqkYL4PLI/AAAAAAAA1Ys/MZA344g-otoB8hYOxZ6_K_aNu-xyzXSNACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div><div>There are also those the want to be in an exclusive Club. And complex technology is a way to build a clubhouse where only those who understand are allowed in. Well, not really. Those who understand, but still don't need that criteria exclusivity still don't get in. And it seems that way with systemd. now before you go on and skip this because it's going to be another systemd rant, rest assured its not.</div><div>I want to talk about something that is appropriately complex, yet Rewards those who Brave its complexities. I I'm talking about docker. I've heard about it for so long in numerous technology podcasts. I heard the podcast where the inventors of Kubernetes begin to popularize it. Yet I found no occasion to use it. Fortunately, I can set up systems pretty fast and never needed before to look at it to improve my delivery cycle. I believe in forward planning, and leaving enough space to handle the unexpected.</div><div>However recently, I was pressed for time to deploy A system that used multiple nodes 2 process complex data. There was a front end, a node manager, a back-end component and the nodes themselves. The authors of the system very much encouraged deploying the system using docker. The system was very intriguing to me and it had components that I haven't worked with before. But there wasn't enough time.</div><div>There were the usual challenges of setting up a system, such as dealing with dependencies and outdated components. On top of that, the client requested to migrate the system from its original Linux distribution to a distribution that the organization is used to managing. After giving it a few tries (and failing), I decided to follow the strong suggestion by the authors and deployed it using Docker. The system was deployed in almost no time at all on the distribution that was favored by the client. I was taken aback at how simple the process was. I understand that the distribution really didn't change. It was more or less contained and sufficient enough to make the system work.</div><div>I decided to take a deep dive into Docker. I wanted to know enough to deploy other Solutions and to deploy Docker as a tool that I would regularly use. I found that my experience Building Systems allowed me to understand not only what was going on but also gave me an insight into the decisions made by the people who created the Docker images. I found that docker is complex but satisfyingly so given what the rewards of using Docker are. It is complex in the right way. It is complex because it needs to be complex. It isn't making something previously simple, complex for it's own sake. It rewards those who are willing to brave its complexities but still offer riches to those who are just intent on using the basic functions. It isn't Magic but it does seem so.</div><div>I have only begun my journey with Docker. The mysteries off building and managing my own images lie ahead. From where I stand, some parts does look complex and where isn't, the decisions and issues around those decisions are complex. I love learning about systems like this and passing on the knowledge to those coming up from behind me. I also like sharing the issues and working out with my clients the decision around those issues. That way, I make the magic less mysterious. It still is magic to them but sharing decision making process creates collaboration and acceptance.<br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-68401377449022789012021-05-19T00:38:00.001+08:002021-05-19T00:38:43.920+08:00A problem not big enough to solve?<p>In open source, 'scratching your itch' is a source of birth for many a project. It makes the assumption that someone who has a problem a.k.a. "itchy", has the resources (e.g. time, effort) to develop a solution (or scratch that itch). With so many open source solutions already built using this time-honored method, the issue nowadays is more of finding the project that "scratches your itch" than actually building one of your own. In fact, this has lead to a lot of dead projects, some of which were brilliant but lost in the shuffle. </p><p>But it surprised me to discover an itch, a problem, that should have been so prevalent that someone should have done something about it. </p><p>I was setting a new MSWindows10 environment at home and decided I needed to be able to access a Linux box remotely and do so while being able to run X11 applications remotely from the box. My go-to solution has been <a href="http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/">MobaXterm </a>but since it is Freemium solution, I have always installed it with a caveat. I also didn't like it charging for was basically integration of existing open source solutions (in a way, at least). Okay, re-packaging. I remember seeing an alternative called <a href="https://mremoteng.org/" target="_blank">mRemoteNG </a>which sort of has the same features, is open source and expandable.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TwH6UeTCmPQ/YKPtFqx70uI/AAAAAAAAzU4/BJpsGWveUIA9Y3ARo_IVwCubMde16h2PQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/solved-the-problem.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="<a href="https://iconscout.com/illustrations/solved-the-problem" target="_blank">Solved the Problem Illustration</a> by <a href="https://iconscout.com/contributors/manypixels-gallery">Manypixels Gallery</a> on <a href="https://iconscout.com">Iconscout</a>" border="0" data-original-height="1869" data-original-width="2048" height="292" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TwH6UeTCmPQ/YKPtFqx70uI/AAAAAAAAzU4/BJpsGWveUIA9Y3ARo_IVwCubMde16h2PQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h292/solved-the-problem.png" width="320" /></a></div>I downloaded a portable version and in no time was able to reach servers via SSH tunnels. It does rely on external applications, like Putty, to do the actual connection. But the presentation and configuration management features it provided was very much welcomed. Finally, I decided to use an X11 application on the server. MobaXterm has a built-in X11 server and using it was a no-brainer. But mRemoteNG has no documentaion for it. Even on-line, people did provide suggestions like using the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/" target="_blank">VcXsvr </a>X11 server for windows but no clear indication anybody has successful done so. Which is odd considering running an application from a linux box would be one of the things one would do after connecting to a Linux box. Or have we been disciplined enough to limit ourselves to command-line?<p></p><p><br />I used XMing back in the day but there are warnings that it doesn't run on Window10. There seemed to be a myriad of things to consider when setting up VcXsvr (e.g. display number, permission settings) before being able to run a single X11 application. Which is strange considering the X11 architecture was intended to allow complex X11 applications to run and consume resources on the server and just provide the UI to the user. </p><p>So I chalk this up to an itch not itchy enough to solve. Nobody has done the work and shared the way to setup mRemoteNG with VcXsrvr. Someone has solved the connection part and the ability to run X11 on Windows. But no one has setup mRemoteNG together with VcXsvr. And that is a shame given that MobaXterm runs X11 apps straight from the ssh window. </p><p>Maybe MobaXterm is the problem solved but nobody it willing to take the extra step and make an open source solution for it. Like I said, not itch enough.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-91898523681924841372021-05-16T12:26:00.003+08:002021-05-19T00:39:34.403+08:00Pandemic and Mageia Madness<p>Fortunately, the pandemic has little negative impact for me. Working from remote, couped up in the house,endless remote meetings. Tell me something new. It's just more of it. And my exprience with work during the pandemic is opposite of most, I got even busier. New clients looking for a cheaper way of doing the same things. Companies looking at open source solutions mainly as a cost reduction option, suddenly okay with solutions that cost less even though it sticks out in their MsWindows environment. I'm not complaining but some days, I'm am at the edge of it. <br /></p><p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4vx_I_gBbg/YKCd6uttYXI/AAAAAAAAzRk/YEIAwDPcWxUTKA764adkZHfnmu8nNFi2wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1760/no-name-comes-under-public-doman-license.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1760" height="100" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4vx_I_gBbg/YKCd6uttYXI/AAAAAAAAzRk/YEIAwDPcWxUTKA764adkZHfnmu8nNFi2wCLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h100/no-name-comes-under-public-doman-license.gif" width="200" /></a>I've recently moved to the most recent version of Mageia. Well,
forced to was the more likely. A distro upgrade broke and screwed up
the loading of the kernel. I could try to fix it but decided to just
start fresh. The data directories were in a different partition (best
practice ever) and installing fresh would just mean I may had to deal
with the configuration setting differences between the older
KDE/Cinnamon with the most recent one (since it was reading my existing
home folder). Long story short, it worked like a charm (other than my
USB stick coming down with a case of bad blocks). <br /></p><p>Then came the
whole process of reconsidering the apps I really needed vs the apps I
wanted (but almost never use). This is where my thoughts of the needs of
the average user return. Does the average user use the apps I use or
need? Do they use apps that I don't? This is important to me as a Linux
advocate because if Linux doesn't meet the need of the average joe, then
the adoption will always fall short. </p><p>This was a slow start. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-71220357397115688242018-05-23T17:55:00.001+08:002018-05-23T17:55:39.709+08:00Thankful for past programmers of mature open source systemI am a big fan of Bacula. It is an enterprise-class backup system with a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to it's setup and the setup of the backup jobs. It was built to handle and manage tapes and has the most flexible way of selecting and choosing which directories and files to backup.<br />
I've since moved on to Bareos, mainly because they were adding features and functions to the backup system that moving with the times. The decision to build a web-based user interface also mae me gravitate to their orbit.<br />
Recently, I've been setting up Bareos with MySQL version 8. The main takeway when working with MySQL version 8 is that MySQL now made some default choices to be more of a secure variety.<br />
Which leads to problems installing Bareos. Basically, the scripts written to set up the database took advantage of the lower security requirements of the previous versions of MySQL.<br />
So I set about figuring our what to change and where. The scripts that were setting up the database were in /usr/lib/bareos/scripts/ . There were 3 scripts, create_bareos_database, make_bareos_tables and grant_bareos_privileges. All these scripts called another script called bareos-config-lib at the start of the scripts which provided the base functions and parameters. Running the scripts would throw up an error. I needed to see what was the command executing that was producing the errors. In this case, the commands were being provided through the bareos-config-lib script which itself called other files and scripts.<br />
After poking around, I decided to think like an open source programmer, looked at other files in the same directory and started reading the code for clues. I found another script called bareos-config which took in a parameter. The parameter was the functions called in the bareos-config-lib. So the bareos-config-lib file had a function called get_database_grant_privileges. So to see what function provided, I executed bareos-config get_database_grant_privileges which then provided the output of the commands that executed the function. bareos-config get_database_driver will tell me what database Bareos is configured for. bareos-config get _database_password provides me with the database password used by Bareos to access the database. And so on and so forth.<br />
This is a sign of a mature open source project. A tool exists to validate input or commands, created for the use of other future programmers. Now I know what my problem is exactly and I can fix it. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-30407351979120047292017-08-11T21:09:00.000+08:002017-08-13T15:26:54.934+08:00Why I think SystemD is acting like a bullyIt's seems that I post only to complain about Systemd. I have tons of other articles in draft but only the ones about systemd drives me hard enough to complete them and post them. <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2015/12/systemd-is-not-end-of-world-but-someone.html" target="_blank">My other post</a> on SystemD took some time longer but this was written in record time.. So much so that I write as a form of release or therapy in the face of all the roadblocks systemd has put between me and what I want to accomplish.<br />
Systemd is a way their developers of saying to all the guys who have been doing Linux longer than them, "Sorry, what you knew then, is worth nothing now. We are the next generation and we are changing the game." Typical talk from the young who thinks they know it all. It gets worse when you think they are also saying, "We saw something better and we are doing it that way." when what they really saw was Linux through a terminal session in Windows or a Mac. The behavior of pushing people up the stairs, even when you don't really know whats at the top. All they see is light but it could just as well be a cliff.<br />
While the dev seemed to claim they were seeing the light, it's that odd that one of the main things systemd did was blind others to what it was doing by making other people jump hoops through journalctl. It kicked syslog to the curb even though it didn't do everything syslog did. Being opaque was the order of the day. <br />
Systemd is a solution looking for a problem. Rather than building a layer on top of work done before, they decided to start over, which was ok but then said "It's my way or the highway." and "We'll redo the tools you made before but they'll only work with our stuff, our way." It doesn't necessarily improve anything, only just for completeness of control when it's just masking "I can't be bothered interfacing with anyone else's stuff". Systemd has a bully mentality and it probably rubbed off from the people who developed it. It also has a Windows mentality of "(more) complexity is the solution" and "security is what we do later". Which telling of where the developers get their ideas from.<br />
Basically, RedHat, who is funding this realizing this or not, gains the most. They can't control Linus and his kernel team. So, why not build a wall around the kernel and forcing everybody to go thru systemd to get daily things done. Linus can do what he wants in the kernel, RedHat controls the doors leading to the kernel. And a knock-on effect for them is more people require retraining because all that knowledge accumulated is worth less now with systemd.<br />
Let's get this straight, systemd works when it gets out of the way, like in desktop distros. I run Mageia and it's wonderful. I don't have to deal with it directly. But when it makes previously simple tasks complicated forcefully, then we have a problem. If it changes stuff while I am configuring other things and claims "but I told you so in the logs that you have to enter 4 parameters to make it readable", we have a problem. Look, things aren't perfect and improvements are always welcome. And Linux people love to learn new stuff. But it's hard to compare when the first thing done is say "I'm the only one competing." And being forced to learn is always a turn-off.<br />
But I guess we are living in times when bullying is ok.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-855548024872704292017-05-17T14:40:00.000+08:002017-05-17T14:40:03.275+08:00Top 5 mistakes new programmers make while developing Is programming an art or science? While numerous proofs can be made on programming languages on their properties, which puts it in the realm of science, inspiration is the source to a program that can be described as elegant as well as efficient.<br />
Being such so, in the early years, programming is often a singular pursuit that offers great satisfaction. As a programmer matures and Interest become Vocation, the nature of programming changes. What was a lone effort is now collaborative. And while there was none in the past, deadlines constantly looms high over the programmer. This change has led many programmers down the same path of discovery and maturity. Some become disillusioned, others trudge on and often making the same mistakes those ahead of them. <br />
Being a programmer myself, I am also guilty of some of the following mistakes. In no particular order,<br />
<br />
1. Trying to fix the problem on their own. A remnant of the lone programmer mindset or the advent of the 'lone programmer against the world' world view. Often followed by the belief that nobody else can help or solve the problem but themselves. This despite knowing well someone else has walked along the path before they did. Solution: a. Always repeat to yourself: This is not a unique problem. Someone else has solved it or solved something similar to it. Look for that solution. b. Talk to someone. Sometime the act of telling someone one provides another perspective. <br />
2. Dismissing bugs as 'small' in front of others. Those 'small bugs' can get very big. Treat all bugs the same or through the same process.<br />
3. Going down a rabbit hole. That is hyper-focusing on one issue which create more problems or needs changes elsewhere. Which goes recursively until a few hours is lost. Solution: Mandatory breaks where you stop thinking about the problem and have something to eat OR talk to someone about the problem and what you are doing.<br />
4. Not familiar with the production OS platform and not giving a care. Assuming just because it runs on platform, it must on the other. Followed by the attitude that because it doesn't, it's the platform's fault. The big picture: The customer doesn't care. All they want to see is that it's done and running. While the platform developers are at fault, you still have to care for the target's platform. What other services does it offer? Hoe do I use them. Classic example: while a lot know about <i>ssh</i>, not many have used <i>scp</i> despite both using the same platform and technologies<br />
5. Assuming the most technical/complicated solution is the right one to match the difficulty of the bug. Because only such a solution is 'worthy' of this bug. In reality, the best solution is often the simplest. Wield Occam's Razor wisely and the path to the solution will present itself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-15397157579076853182016-07-18T15:25:00.002+08:002016-07-18T15:25:47.358+08:00Pressing Save in Blogger doesn't mean it did<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSTGTnH9UtM/V4yAR4WJGbI/AAAAAAAAa2w/wPtZH_rekag3MFErBuuYcPMNSaQKs1lGgCLcB/s1600/savefile-800px.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSTGTnH9UtM/V4yAR4WJGbI/AAAAAAAAa2w/wPtZH_rekag3MFErBuuYcPMNSaQKs1lGgCLcB/s200/savefile-800px.png" width="164" /></a></div>
You are have been writing the post on and off for the past few hours. You have been diligently pressing save to make sure you didn't lose your magnus opus. Other tabs are opened to access other websites for reference. Before switching between them, you still press save, just in case. Finally, after reading and correcting the post, you are finally satisfied with it. A final press of Save should do it. Then you hit Close.<br />
The dialog box pops up and warns you that unsaved changes will be lost. You press Save again and hit Close. Blogger warns again. "But I just saved! What else do you want me to do?" You press ok and find yourself back in the list of posts. The time and date of the post was just a few seconds ago. You click on the post to add "one more thing". And half of the post is gone.<br />
Blogger warned you. So far, there is nothing that can be done. Pressing the back button has saved me a few times in the past but not recently. Especially with browsers driving the Back and Forward button into extinction. (Think about it, Firefox on PCs don't have the Forward button, Chrome on Android don't have the back button). <br />
So what should you have done? The moment the dreaded "unsaved changes will be lost" dialog come up, press Cancel. Select all the text in your post, copy and paste them to a text edit (like notepad). There is no other way. That post is Titanic. Pressing save doesn't save it. Pressing ok at the dialog will lose the edits but is the only way to move on. Re-open the post and past back the text. And edit the format. And add the pictures again. If your are wondering why Blogger didn't take over the world, this is one reason. <br />
<br />
Lesson:Don't ignore that "Unsaved changes will be lost" in Blogger.<br />
<a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2012/07/blogger-ate-my-post.html" target="_blank">If Blogger overwrote your post, there is a way to get it back</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-15325336852442152362015-12-28T20:34:00.001+08:002015-12-28T21:17:30.646+08:00Systemd is not the end of the world but someone needs to save us from it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>This post has been months in the making. I believed I've reduced the rant-iness to a minimum level. It add nothing to the discussion elsewhere on the Internet. It is however, a burden off my chest.</i><br>
I became aware of systemd as an init system in recent months as it gained traction in Fedora and it's competition with upstart. I didn't give it much of an interest as it primarily dealt with services that are more associated with the desktop: Plug and Play, power management etc. Imagined my surprise when I installed CentOS7 and it was the default init option. And going back wasn't an option.<br>
The discussion around it's adoption has been intensive. This is <a href="http://judecnelson.blogspot.my/2014/09/systemd-biggest-fallacies.html">a website that documents the fallacies in the arguments against for it </a>and <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7639170">the follow-on discussion for a now-dead website advocating for boycotting it</a>.<br>
<a href="https://openclipart.org/image/300px/svg_to_png/109645/Help-button.png&disposition=attachment" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://openclipart.org/image/300px/svg_to_png/109645/Help-button.png&disposition=attachment" width="200"></a>My main beef with systemd is philosophical. Systemd's complexity and how it goes against the concept of "many simple programs doing basic jobs well working together" is not where Linux should be going. While many deride this backward-looking, that concept has served us well and has brought us this far. Yes, I do know that not everything that has brought us this far can carry us into the future but that point is evident only in hindsight. We should try new things but not at the cost of what works. They should also be subject to discussion and mutual agreement. And finally there should be a transition between what is to what will become.<br>
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The opposite of this concept is "one big program doing many things complicated things", the best example being Windows. While some point out that systemd is a collection of applications, they are being developed together as a whole and made inter-dependent.<br>
Another beef is the sense of (or lack thereof) of community around the development. The <a href="http://youtu.be/UXGuxoY9i-Y?t=36m26s">fan-boy-ism around it</a> and the attitude of the developers (e.g<a href="https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64116"> the attitude towards corruption in binary logs</a>) is alienating. Although it runs both ways, <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/how-do-i-replace-systemd-init-4175504377/">it is more healthy on the sysvinit side of things</a>. I understand why there is a strong push-back from parts of the Linux community. This is the age-old difference between Linux users that are excited by solving problems and those that like to go home at the end of the day. Systemd is this complicated box / tool that can be used to solve complex problems in a complex way. <br>
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</div></div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2015/12/systemd-is-not-end-of-world-but-someone.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-30007952350588783082015-09-24T07:30:00.001+08:002015-12-20T09:10:30.001+08:00End of another hiatus<p dir="ltr">I've been quiet for some time because I've had quite a few interesting gigs. Basically, I was thrown deep into the corporate end of the enterprise IT pool. And enough time has passed that I can share something about it. <br>
I won't do that right now. Not the details. It's enough to say that it has reinforced some of the things I already know to be true. Like the difference between open source software and commercial enterprise software is just polish and the benefits that come with a large user base. Like finding obscure bugs. Really,  the average feature set and functions are the same. It's just that commercial software can be easier to configure (sometimes at the cost of flexibility) and someone is selling it. The user may say that what they're looking for is support but really they're just waiting for someone to sell them something. <br>
There were a few surprises, though. Like however great a system can potentially be, it's the way it's used that can make an ocean of a difference. <br>
Look out for this space for more. </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-3275695750417305462015-09-23T09:28:00.000+08:002015-09-23T09:28:14.326+08:00Dual booting Windows 8 and Mageia 4: Part 1 - The Prep<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I wanted to install Mageia on <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2014/10/i-touched-my-laptop-screen-and-i-liked.html">the Lenovo laptop</a> as soon as my work allowed me to mess around with it since it was now my main system.<br />
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My main worry was UEFI, Microsoft's effort to make it harder to install anything else along Windows in the name of security. After going through so many detailed explanations, I'm still not convinced that it was a good move. Protecting anything is a good idea so long as the bad guys don't crack the key. But with a target as valuable as Windows, the cost spent to crack the key may be justified. I figured it would be best to see how other people were doing it. I found this <a href="http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/05/install-ubuntu-1404-alongside-windows.html">great guide</a> and <a href="https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6668">how other Mageia users are dealing with it</a>. In this day and age, there was already someone who shared <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLu1NwsZr48">how they did it on YouTube</a>.<br />
After reading some more, I found out that Mageia 4 does already some of the work needed already (<a href="https://wiki.mageia.org/en/UEFI_how-to">https://wiki.mageia.org/en/UEFI_how-to</a>). This convinced me that the risk I would mess up everything was not that high (Famous last words).<br />
I tried to shrink the 400GB windows partition down into 100GB but could only go to 200GB<br />
cause is unmovable files. Now I'm thinking: Do I "screw it and use gparted" or do I "do the safe way". Since I don't have a backup copy of Windows 8 and I need A USB stick with 16GB to create a bootable recovery backup, I chose the safe way. Basically I disabled the windows system settings that were preventing me from shrinking the volume. These posts were helpful in getting me to that point.<br />
<a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2087466">http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2087466</a><br />
<a href="http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-shrink-a-disk-volume-beyond-the-point-where-any-unmovable-files-are-located-00432">http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-shrink-a-disk-volume-beyond-the-point-where-any-unmovable-files-are-located-00432</a><br />
I was able to shrink the partition to about 70GB and re-enabled the settings back, doing all the reboots that were required along the way<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-66850141210789325882014-12-28T23:46:00.000+08:002014-12-28T23:47:58.413+08:00Login failures and the joy of Linux<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xubuntujaunty-GDM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Screenshot of Xubuntu 9.04's login screen" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="256" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Xubuntujaunty-GDM.png/350px-Xubuntujaunty-GDM.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">Linux login screen (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xubuntujaunty-GDM.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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I have only Linux running at home, most of them <a class="zem_slink" href="http://mageia.org/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Mageia">Mageia</a>. Which means that I am also Technical Support. A few days ago, the kids complained that they couldn't log in on the shared computer near the kitchen..I tried logging in and after I entered my password, a dialog box appeared and said "The name org.gnome.DisplayManager was not provided by any .service files". Clicking on OK would land me back in the login page. Fortunately, I solved it pretty quickly.<br>
I found out that there was a power outage and the machine restarted with a filesystem error. It fixed itself but then the error message came out. I reckon one of the config files got mangled and needed to be re-installed. If you are new to Linux, this is not as bad as it sounds. This isn't the only Linux box in the house, so I had options. My first guess was that the Mate / Gnome config file in my directory was messed up. So I logged in as root. It logged me in without any error.<br>
A quick Google search did said that it was likely my <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Display_Manager" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="GNOME Display Manager">GDM</a> custom.conf file was mangled. I compared it with my laptop's version and it was the same. Then I remembered that Mageia didn't use GDM but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightDM">LightDM</a> instead. And then I realized that all I had to do was switch <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_display_manager_%28program_type%29">Display Managers</a>. Mageia came with about 4, so I was spoilt for choice. I opened up the Mageia Control Center and then chose Boot and then Display Manager. I chose GDM, saved and logged out. Problem solved.<br>
Sorta. I will have to get around to fixing LightDM but there is no rush. GDM is almost similar and Mageia developers went to great pains to ensure all the graphics were consistent. So the difference my kids saw was that instead of a drop-down list with their names to choose from, their names were now in a dialog box list. It was something they saw for about 3 seconds and knew immediately what to do.<br>
This is one of the reasons I love using and working with Linux. It not only gives you choices, those choices are modular to the point where one breaks down, chose another that does the same thing and move on. This would have been a major catastrophe on MSWindows. I'd be looking at a re-installation at least. If I knew, what file was corrupted, I could replace it but I wouldn't know whether it would be of the same version of the other MSWindows components.<br>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2014/12/login-failures-and-joy-of-linux.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-60901636842763423682014-11-11T02:56:00.000+08:002014-11-11T02:56:50.467+08:00Beware: Blogger deletes everything in HTML editing if you don't save<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some words of warning when editing in HTML in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://blogger.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Blogger">Blogger</a> and what you should do every single time to avoid disappointment.<br />
I am livid. I was working on a post for hours when I decided to edit something in HTML view of the editor. I saved the post before switching to HTML view. After some tweaking, I decided to drop the changes and revert. I clicked the Close (post) button and it warned me that all changes will be lost. I was fine with that and said Ok. When I opened the post it was gone. Blogger decided that since I didn't want to save, it should save nothing. Literally nothing. Blogger saved an empty page.<br />
Lost all the work for the past hours. Pressing the back key sometimes switches to the past state but not this time. Blogger was serious. Even though I had saved and closed and opened my post several times, it didn't changed the state of the page. I was working within one page as opposed moving from page to page. I wonder how many people done this and moved to wordpress or tumblr in disgust. Perhaps this is one small way Blogger is killing blogging.<br />
The way to avoid this and have backups before editing a post in HTML is use the preview function. Preview will generate the preview of the page in another tab. Then switch back and edit in HTML. If things go south, you at least have the text in the preview tab.<br />
Thanks Blogger, for nothing. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-14745962821420879192014-10-27T01:31:00.002+08:002014-11-03T16:41:58.222+08:00I touched my laptop screen and I liked it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I finally decided that I needed a new laptop. My 2008 HP Mini was really showing it's age and I wanted to do some work with VMs that would tax my desktop. I did my homework and was content to buying low end laptop, hoping that Linux would be able to detect the 'standard' configuration without much fuss. Through a surprising turn of events, I ended up with a Lenovo IdeapadS410p Touch, a laptop with a touchscreen. It was an Intel i5 machine with 4GB of RAM (which I bumped up to 8GB), both VGA and HDMI outputs and a DVD drive to boot.<br>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Touchscreen_IMG_2791.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Touchscreen" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Touchscreen_IMG_2791.jpg/350px-Touchscreen_IMG_2791.jpg" height="240" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">Kids love a touchscreen (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Touchscreen_IMG_2791.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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So how did it came about that way? I had done my homework and gone to buy the Lenovo laptop that didn't have an OS bundled or the 'DOS version' they called it. How many people buying new computers remember what the heck is DOS, is another question. But that range only came with AMD CPUs and having done that in the past (and got nothing other than a warm lap and mediocre performance), I decided to go for the Intel version, the i5 specifically. But to keep my options open, I decided to also keep an open mind on the the AMD A10 CPU which was by most reviewers as good as the i5 although meant to compete with the i7s.<br>
Next was to find someone who knew what they were talking about. Too many times, I have been besieged by salespeople who knew little about what they were selling. It was time to give the right guy their due. I finally found a chap who gave me several options and let me try the laptops. Finally, I decided to ditch the A10 and went firm with the i5. He found me two models that fit the bill, a Windows 8 machine with a touchscreen and the OS-free version without a touchscreen.<br>
For some reason, the non-touchscreen Lenovo laptop was slightly pricier and was a different model range. I did get the notion that the guy wanted to get rid of it because it was an older model. A quick check showed it was still listed as current on the Lenovo website, so I figured that it wasn't all that old. I figured I might as well see what the fuss was about Windows 8 and the touchscreen interface.<br>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2014/10/i-touched-my-laptop-screen-and-i-liked.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-66716041678891278872014-09-15T04:22:00.000+08:002014-09-15T04:47:19.608+08:00Going Minty 3 - Solving why Gimp is opening PDFs on Chromium<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Something I did not encounter on Mageia but cropped up in Linux Mint is something quite strange. It's strange because it also seems counter intuitive. Especially for a distribution that does so well in keeping things user-friendly. The odd thing that happened to me in Linux Mint was that Chromium opens PDF with Gimp.<br>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gimp-gnome-2.2.8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="A screenshot of the GIMP 2.2.8 raster graphic ..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="263" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Gimp-gnome-2.2.8.png/350px-Gimp-gnome-2.2.8.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">GIMP 2.2.8 graphic software. (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gimp-gnome-2.2.8.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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Now this is not too bad if you have a good PC. And it's not wrong either because Gimp can open PDFs and better still, edit them. But you want to open a multi-page PDF, Gimp will render each page up-front. Meaning that if the PDFs has a lot of pages, it's gonna take some time. If your rig has less than 1 GB of RAM, the wait becomes worse.<br>
The solution is obvious: change the default setting or program for opening PDFs. Unfortunately, that didn't work for me. Set what ever it is, the default is set to Gimp. I do get a choice to switch to another program each time, but it tends to get annoying. So how does one change the default application. Apparently there is common program called <i>xdg </i> that helps with opening of files. Applications under freedesktop.org call on xdg to help them open document files. So for Chromimun, after it downloads a PDF file, it calls on xdg to open it. xdg determines the actual viewer and passes the name of the PDF to the viewer for it to open. The definition for the 'actual viewer' is either set by the underlying environment (KDE, GNOME, etc) or by xdg itself. The command is as follows:<br>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/03/going-minty-3-solving-why-gimp-is.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-84597543627651150502014-09-14T06:51:00.001+08:002014-09-14T06:51:30.630+08:00Away and back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There is no way else to say it. I haven't posted much in the past few months. Simply put, work overtook free time. In fact, work overtook everything else. So much so, I had to come to a decision, choose work or everything else. <br />
Don't get me wrong. I loved working with the people I've been working with the last few months. They were, and still are, some of the smartest, most positive people I've worked with. Whatever came our way, we took on the problems and dealt with them the best way we could, with whatever we had. We played with the hand we were dealt with, no excuses. Inclusion was a big theme. Information was shared freely and bullshit was called out without shaming and without shame. Getting things done was the song of the day and it drowned everything else.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Work_life_balance_rat_race.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: An artist's depiction of the rat race..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="151" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Work_life_balance_rat_race.png/350px-Work_life_balance_rat_race.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">(Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Work_life_balance_rat_race.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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But it came with heavy costs. Free Time fell first. Health came next. I'm sure Sanity would have been the next casualty. It's a big problem for me because I've seen how lives and families were lost when work took over everything. I could learn from lessons past or forge ahead.<br />
So I made the decision. I value my life and my family more than work. Work is money but having gained hindsight the others, I've saved some just for a rainy day like this. Money can always be earned elsewhere. But love is life. And I love my life. <br />
I have a ton of posts in draft so expect to see more in the next weeks. Thanks for sticking around. </div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-52371917515747161292014-03-01T16:44:00.000+08:002014-03-04T08:36:48.854+08:00What Facebook saw in WhatsApp and Liked it enough to buy them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/86979666@N00/8689077655" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Sizing up WhatsApp and Twitter" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" src="http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8404/8689077655_5f821dc726_n.jpg" height="154" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="320"></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 320px;">Sizing up WhatsApp and Twitter (Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/86979666@N00/8689077655" target="_blank">Tsahi Levent-Levi</a>)</td></tr>
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A lot of people are scratching their heads about the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://companies.findthecompany.com/l/14143267/Facebook-Inc-in-Menlo-Park-CA" rel="fdbcompanies" target="_blank" title="Facebook">Facebook</a> deal with <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.whatsapp.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</a>. Most of those heads are in the US. They just can't see why Facebook would pay so much money to a company that charges a dollar a year to use it, with the first year for free. In fact, it seems that WhatsApp seems to be looking for ways to give itself away for free. In the early days, all you had to do to get another year for free was to uninstall and reinstall the app. In some countries, using WhatsApp doesn't count against the data cap.</div>
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So what is Facebook really buying? It's very simple: Facebook is buying users. The popularity of WhatsApp in the rest of the world is so huge that it dwarfs so-called popular messaging platform. But what makes it most interesting is how loyal users are to it. Rather than bore you with numbers, here are the 5 reasons it is so popular and why Facebook splurged serious cash for it. <br>
<b>It's cross-platform where it matters.</b><br>
To a lot of people, especially on IOS, WhatsApp was the way they communicated with their non-iPhone friends. It was also the app Blackberry users told their friends to install if they wanted to send messages to them ala BBM. Using WhatsApp allowed you to join your friends on BB and <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.sprint.com/iphone" rel="sprint" target="_blank" title="iPhone 4">iPhones</a>.<br>
While messaging platforms in the past were also cross-platform, the platforms they covered were traditionally computer-centric. WhatsApp is all about mobile platforms, from IOS and Android to all the way to the common Symbian phones. Which makes it accessible to more people than PCs. For the younger generation, especially in the rest of the world, a smartphone is their first computer. Which is partly why there are so many active WhatsApp users. <br>
<b>It ties in with your phone number</b>. This is the secret sauce. WhatsApp identifies you by your phone number. At first glance this may not be a big thing. But by making your phone number your unique ID, it ties you, the WhatsApp user, with a verified ID. Your phone company verified you as a paying customer, their definition of a "person". Different phone companies have different regulations for who can have a phone number. Each country has their laws regarding phone number ownership. WhatsApp rides on these laws and regulations to ensure that the phone number being registered to WhatsApp actually belongs to a person. This, plus the fact that users can only message to people in their phone book or to groups that they can leave any time, raises the bar of entry to bots and spammers. </div>
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Plus having a globally unique ID like the phone number is a programmer's dream. They now have a way to follow you from phone to phone and keep you connected to your friends. Switch your handphone, even switch to another platform. all you have to do is insert the sim card, install WhatsApp and you start getting your messages and continue discussions in your WhatsApp groups. For those of us who can't figure out how to transfer contacts, this is really useful because your friends' names appear next to their phone numbers in the discussions. You can then add them back into your contacts in the new phone.</div>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2014/03/the-5-things-about-whatsapp-that-made.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-82342709837839846752014-02-24T22:26:00.000+08:002014-03-03T09:33:03.214+08:00Recover from a bad superblock<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When things go really bad, you may not be able to recover a disk. In those times, think of salvaging the data, reformat and live to fight another day. Consider how valuable the data is versus the time spent on repairing something that is damaged and may not be salvagable. testdisk photorec ddrescue are the tools to think of when you come that decision<br />
But I do enjoy a challenge and when a USB disk was brought to me with mounting problems, I just couldn't pass it up. It was an uncommon setup. The USB stick had two partitions, one with an ext3 filesystem and the other with FAT32. I decided to focus on the ext3 filesystem first.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 240px;">FSCK (Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/32641069@N00/4636876597" target="_blank">SFview</a>)</td></tr>
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To cut a long story short, my efforts to mount the disk met with screens full of error messages and cryptic clues as to what went wrong. Running fsck seemed to clean it first but it still would not mount the partition. Running fsck again would yield more and a different set of errors. My previous boss love to used the expression "time to decide: Fish or cut bait". It was one of those times.<br />
This is probably the last ditch effect before you make that fateful decision. This is the line in the sand and the one you have to cross before deciding to put your effort in getting the data out and start all over again.<br />
The recovery process involves rewriting the information about the partition. Specifically, reinitializing the superblock and group descriptors. However, reinitializing does not touch the data part of the partition. It does not touch things like the inodes and the blocks themselves. So by starting out with a 'fresh' set of information that is used to mount the disk, there is a possibility that the data may still be readable. After that, the data part gets checked and hopefully what you end up with is a filesystem that can be mounted properly.<br />
The process can only be done when the partition is not mounted. If you have tried other ways, it most probably isn't. Mine wasn't, obviously.<br />
So here's the process.<br />
1. First, figure out the block size of the USB drive (in this case /dev/sdf1). I need that information to re-build the partition information. Run the command<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">dumpe2fs /dev/sdaf1 | grep 'block size' -i</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Block size: 4096</span><br />
<br />
2. Then format the superblocks. The command below won't format the whole partition, only the superblocks. It is critical that you use the correct block size gathered from the previous step<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">mke2fs -S -b 4096 -v /dev/sdf1</span><br />
<br />
3. Now that the partition information is 'fresh', I checked the inodes to figure out what else could be wrong with the filesystem. Remember ext3 = ext2+journalling. So, ext2 tools still work<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">e2fsck -y -f -v -C 0 /dev/sdf1</span><br />
<br />
4. Now that I've done with one element of the ext3 equation, it time to fix the journalling system or more specifically the journal data .<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">tune2fs -j /dev/sdf1</span><br />
<br />
5. Re-attempt to mount the partition. If everything went well, you should be able to mount the partition and read the data.<br />
<br />
After that, for hard disks, you have to determine whether the disk has reached it's threshold limits. Things like SMART properties will help you get that information.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Interested to know more: <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1681972&page=5&p=10434656#post10434656">http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1681972&page=5&p=10434656#post10434656</a><br />
<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-72293334089211324152014-02-16T10:01:00.000+08:002014-03-04T08:37:39.409+08:00Is Ubuntu is licencing Linux? Canonical looking for value in the wrong places<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Mint_Katya.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Linux Mint 11" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Linux_Mint_Katya.png/350px-Linux_Mint_Katya.png" height="265" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350"></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">Linux Mint 11 (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Mint_Katya.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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Full disclosure: I am no fan of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Ubuntu (operating system)">Ubuntu</a>. I applaud their efforts to put Linux in as many hands as possible with the free CD distribution effort but I'm of the opinion that Ubuntu puts itself above Linux while riding on the contribution of open source developers to Linux in general. I applaud their focus on making Linux user-friendly but I'm of the opinion that their effort is no more better than of other distro developers like Mandrake/Mandriva in the past. To top it off, <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/05/will-ubuntu-eventually-go-bsd.html">I've predicted the path Ubuntu will take eventually</a> once it has decides it does not need the community any more.<br>
So it comes to no surprise the latest move by Ubuntu to protect 'it's intellectual property' is to licence Ubuntu. Sounds harsh? Some people will think I am being unfair using language normally used to describe Caldera. How else should I react when <a href="http://news.softpedia.com/news/Canonical-Explains-Why-Linux-Mint-and-All-Other-Distros-Must-Sign-a-License-Agreement-426770.shtml">Canonical is asking derivative distros to sign a license to use 'Ubuntu binaries'</a>?<a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2014/02/13/community-council-statement-on-canonical-package-licensing/"> Ubuntu apologists have already made their stand known</a>. They have made light of the gravity of the act of demand to licence and trying to convince us that the issue is about protecting the Ubuntu brand when it comes to derivative distros, Linux Mint, specifically.<br>
I have ask: Why Linux Mint specifically? Does Canonical ask the same from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.kubuntu.org/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Kubuntu">Kubuntu</a> and lubuntu? Is it because Linux Mint is becoming increasingly popular at the cost to Ubuntu? I've been thinking about writing of the possible danger of other distros basing their work on Ubuntu and how dangerous it is to base their work on a source that is actively consolidating their hold on it. I guess I don't have to now.<br>
Really, I don't. At the end of this post are links to articles that go into this deeper.<br>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2014/02/is-ubuntu-is-licencing-linux-canonical.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-19006584209797643042013-11-25T12:31:00.000+08:002013-11-25T12:36:02.993+08:00In the shadow of DOS: DESQView and DESQView/X<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is a wonderful<a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/half-an-operating-system-the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-os2/"> article in ArsTechnica that summarizes the story of OS/2</a>, the competitor to Windows at it's infancy. I'll have something to say about the article later.<br>
The article made me pull out a draft I had kicking around on old-school tech. I had written on old-school tech like <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2011/08/will-webos-be-another-opportunity-lost.html">PCGEOS</a> and <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/09/tfs-internet-gateway-way-to-connect.html">TFS</a> before but this article reminded me of on another legacy technology that is no longer around: memory managers and the unintended competitor one memory manager spawned.<br>
When PCs still ran DOS (or command line to you younger guys), it had a big weakness: DOS programs can't use more than 640kb of memory. As programs got bigger, there was a need to use memory above that limit. Then programs got weird, they wanted to stay running in memory while you ran another program. These were called <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR%2C_Inc." rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="TSR, Inc.">TSR</a> (terminate and stay resident). There were programs that displayed alarms or provided a function that could be called on at any time. These programs caused more memory to be used.<br>
The memory manager was born. They allowed more memory to be used by swapping blocks of memory from under the 640kb limit with blocks of memory above the limit, fooling DOS into thinking it's still using 640kb of memory. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_memory_management">The gory details of DOS memory management can be found here</a>. The best memory manager was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMM">QEMM</a>. It allowed more programs to run at once simply be making more memory available. But it soon took that to another level with a companion product called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview">DESQView</a>. <br>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YJilngyBPMs/UpLGwv5RAKI/AAAAAAAAHYw/ZYhp78W36tQ/s1600/desqview.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YJilngyBPMs/UpLGwv5RAKI/AAAAAAAAHYw/ZYhp78W36tQ/s1600/desqview.png"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DESQView running DOS programs <br>
in windows</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Before DESQView, a program had to be programmed to be able to become a TSR. But with DESQView, any program can become a TSR. This allowed for the ability to switch to another application and then switch back, without stopping the first application. There were other programs that could provide that function. But DESQView also allowed DOS applications to run within something called "windows". This meant that applications that were programmed to run full-screen could now run in a smaller virtual screen or better known as a <i>window</i>. Some graphical applications could run inside a window, too. The picture shows 2 full-screen applications, WordStar and Lotus123, running at the same time. The top blue window shows other programs that are ready to run.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SR6pShkzHWI/UpLLuKS00gI/AAAAAAAAHZM/coW2QpFU-1s/s1600/desqview-x.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SR6pShkzHWI/UpLLuKS00gI/AAAAAAAAHZM/coW2QpFU-1s/s320/desqview-x.png" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If it run xeyes, it's XWindows.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Quarterdeck, the company behind both programs, upped the ante with DESQView/X. This was a program simply too far ahead of it's time. It integrated an X Windows server with<br>
DESQView. Not many people could fully wrap their heads around what that meant. It was mainly marketed as a GUI interface for DOS and a Windows alternative. It also provided <b>a tiled interface</b> to launch DOS applications. With some applications that used smaller fonts, it allowed them to run on-screen at the same time with programs using normal-sized fonts. It even allowed graphical applications, like AutoCAD, to run in a window alongside normal text-based DOS programs. Some pictures in magazines even showed MSWindows running within DESQView/X. Although it wasn't virtualization, that feature did seem like it was, mainly because MSWindows was essentially a graphical DOS program.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HTIALUxo1Kg/UpLLt0n0qVI/AAAAAAAAHZI/jEqgmfBsvJY/s1600/dvxmswin.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HTIALUxo1Kg/UpLLt0n0qVI/AAAAAAAAHZI/jEqgmfBsvJY/s320/dvxmswin.gif" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's right, Tiled GUI and Windows-within-a-window<br>
circa early 1990s</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What blew people's mind was that because it was an X Windows server running on DOS, a PC running DESQView/X could serve DOS programs to X Windows workstations (XWindows terminals still needed a start-up system for booting, IP management etc). If you are not familiar with X, the concept allows for Unix workstations to run DOS programs because they were running on the PC's CPU. Unfortunately, it didn't blew that many people's minds. The fact that the configuration meant bypassing some licensing restrictions also meant that if it was ever popular, it would have been shut down anyway.<br>
If you are interested in old technology and want to experience how it was done in the old days, there are now sites that give guides and clues as to how to rock it old school. Apparently, you can get QEMM and DESQView from <a href="http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html">here</a>. Quarterdesk was bought by Symantec but I'm not sure what they did with the technology they bought. My guess is that they bought it for patents.<br>
</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/11/in-shadow-of-dos-desqview-and-desqviewx.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-14539847123853722482013-09-18T15:39:00.000+08:002013-10-20T14:25:20.359+08:00Fix CMOS Battery Issue with NTP: the NetworkManager Edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While in <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/09/solve-cmos-battery-issues-with-ntp.html">the previous article</a>, I described a solution to trigger a script when the network goes up. This works on most server Linux setups but it does not work if you are using <b>NetworkManager</b>. NetworkManager has a different way of doing this. If you are not sure whether you are using NetworkManager, consider this: if you are using a wireless network and configuring it using an applet in the task bar or through a GUI program, it's likely that you are using NetworkManager. That and the fact that the script in my previous article didn't work.<br>
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NetworkManager.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: The default NetworkManager applet" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="220" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/NetworkManager.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="237"></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 237px;">NetworkManager applet (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NetworkManager.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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NetworkManager can still do it. It can run scripts after a network interface is connected or disconnected. It's just not apparently forthright about it. But first a little clarification. In Linux parlance, when a network is connected, it is known as "a network being brought up". This is because the network interface state is changed from DOWN to UP. And vice versa. When talking about network connections, both set of terms are used interchangeably.<br>
NetworkManager offers this feature through a mechanism called a <b>dispatcher</b>. Basically, the dispatcher looks into the <i>/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d</i> directory and run scripts saved in there. Scripts start with a two digit number that determines the order they are run. The scripts are passed two parameters from the main NetworkManager system. They are the network interface that was connected or disconnected and whether it was connected or disconnected.<br>
In my case, I didn't care which network interface it was but it had to be just connected. So the script looked something like this.<br>
<i><br></i>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#!/bin/sh</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"># Run ntpdate when network interface goes up using NetworkManager</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">#</span><br>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">export LC_ALL=C</span><br>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">if [ "$2" = "up" ]; then</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> /usr/sbin/ntpdate -u pool.ntp.org</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> logger Updated time due to network interface going up</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">fi</span><br>
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Save the file as <b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">10-ntpdate.sh</span></b> and change it's attributes to be executable. Drop that into the <b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><i>/etc/NetworkManater/dispatcher.d</i> </span></b>directory. That's it.<br>
</div></div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/09/fix-cmos-battery-issue-with-ntp.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-25687505996256786072013-09-12T21:15:00.000+08:002013-10-20T14:23:50.406+08:00Solve CMOS Battery Issues with NTP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HP_Mini_1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="A Hewlett-Packard Mini 1000 netbook computer, ..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="341" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/HP_Mini_1000.jpg/300px-HP_Mini_1000.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Hewlett-Packard Mini 1000 netbook Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HP_Mini_1000.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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I guess it was time. My HP Mini 1000 netbook was giving me the wrong time and date every time it booted up. It made going to websites with HTTPS impossible because I was apparently accessing them from the past. Resetting the time didn't work because it would forget the current time and reset back to 2002. I would then manually reset the time using <b>ntpdate</b>.<br />
After a few times, I got tired of this and decided that there is a better way. Since the netbook is connected to the Internet most of the time, I knew that a script could be triggered to run every time the network card started up. All I needed to do was to add the <b>ntpdate</b> command and options to it. Problem was I didn't know what script it was. I wasn't also big on making a custom change that would affect future updates.<br />
I knew the scripts that set the network configuration was in <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts</b></span>. My network interface family was <b>eth</b> so the script that set it up was <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-cfg</b></span>. At the of end of the file was the command<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>exec /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post ${CONFIG} ${2}</b></span><br />
<br />
Reading the<b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post<i style="font-size: small;"> </i></span></b>file, I found the following command at the end.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">if [ -x /sbin/ifup-local ]; then</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> /sbin/ifup-local ${DEVICE}</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">fi</span></b><br />
<br />
However, the file <b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">/sbin/ifup-local</span></b> does not exist. So I created one with the <b>ntpdate -u pool.ntp.org </b>command in it. So now, every time the network is configured, the time is correct.<br />
I know it doesn't address the problem of the battery being dead or needing replacement but it'll do for now.<br />
<br />
<b><i>This didn't work for you? Maybe you're using NetworkManager. <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/09/fix-cmos-battery-issue-with-ntp.html">Run NTPDate automatically with NetworkManager too</a>.</i></b><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-49775313902328860472013-09-11T20:18:00.000+08:002013-09-11T20:18:35.655+08:00Reveiw of Blogger for Android 2013 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr">
<i>Updated September 2012.</i><br />
I am posting this on Blogger for Android. I am happy to report that it is a better app than <a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/01/blogger-for-android-is-getting-better.html">the previous version</a>. I am also not happy to report that Google has delivered a product that seems to be uneven and confusing to first time users, again.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
There are many things to like about this app. All of your Blogger blogs and their posts are immediately accessible. It is faster and more responsive. Switching between blogs is almost immediate. It does feel like the Blogger App is pulling the RSS feed of the blog instead of pulling it directly from the Blogger system but it still works quickly. (Which should help explain the problem I had were<a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2012/07/blogger-ate-my-post.html"> the Blogger app just stomped over a published post</a>).</div>
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blogger.svg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="This is icon for social networking website. Th..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="256" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Blogger.svg/256px-Blogger.svg.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="256" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 256px;">(Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blogger.svg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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If you are a Blogger user and need to note ideas for posts and work on drafts, this is what this app seems to be built for. However, since there is little or no layout formatting options, sites whose design language calls for a specific layout (e.g. each post has to have a related photo on the left side of the post), will find that final posting will still have to be done at the PC. Which is odd is because one of the highlighted features is the ability to include photos taken from the phone's camera. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
In fact, if you are thinking of using Blogger for Android as part of your blogging workflow, consider this advice: opening a saved or published post is a multi-step processs. First, the app will show the complete post, including labels. Then you need to select or activate/touch the post text to edit it. The good news is that it now hides the HTML formatting and show the complete formatting. </div>
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Post settings are still missing from the Blogger App. But handling labels has improved. There has always been the ability to add labels to the post edited but now when you start typing, you get a list of previously used labels. Which is really useful if you have many labels and can't remember which one to use off the top of your head. There is still no Schedule option to schedule when you post will be posted. This makes using the App to post on Blogger seem like an all or nothing proposition. And knowing other Blogger users, they will miss the powerful SEO-friendly option of providing a search description because it still isn't available.The Blogger App for Android (2013) is now good to use for general blogging but leans towards immediate posting.</div>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7599533" name="more"></a>It could be that Google is now leaning towards Google+ a blogging platform. However, Google+ is still missing a killer feature: to customize the layout and therefore the user experience. If you blog using Google+, your posts is just a post in a stream of other posts. You can set up Google+ Pages but your audience will mostly come from reading your post in their stream as opposed to going to your specific Google+ page.<br />
Also is missing is a way to monetize your Google+ posts or page. This could mean people who do make money from Ads will not be interested in posting in Google+. They may post publicly there to reach a bigger audience but it'll just link back to their Blogger site. It may not be a big revenue generator for most but some prolific posters will find posting solely to Google+ to blog, a turn-off.<br />
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Again, download the Blogger App for Android because it is great for capturing ideas and first-drafts. It is also increasingly becoming an equal companion to the Blogger site. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-21253891663914041812013-09-10T03:34:00.001+08:002013-09-10T03:34:23.830+08:00TFS Internet Gateway: The way to connect commercial mail systems in the mid 90s<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z4PcYMRDDgI/ULgtSn6wdTI/AAAAAAAABBo/TQ4VUpFTiW8/s1600/tfs01.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z4PcYMRDDgI/ULgtSn6wdTI/AAAAAAAABBo/TQ4VUpFTiW8/s320/tfs01.png" width="235"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TFS Brochure from Australia</td></tr>
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Back in the mid-1990s, I was connecting businesses to the Internet. I was selling software to connect people to the Internet. This was back in the day when you had to buy software to connect to the Internet. It was even pre-Windows 95 times. What many people don't remember was that Microsoft wanted to charge extra for software to connect to the Internet. They called the add-on pack Windows 95 Plus Pack. I was selling a software suite called Internet-In-a-Box which competed directly with them. Truth be told, there were free software available to connect people to the Internet but this was early days and you had to have skills (like editing a text file) to setup things correctly. Strange thing was that I was still selling Internet in a Box pretty well even though competing with Microsoft. The Box had more software. Internet In a Box's big brother package, even had a sweet TN3270 terminal emulator. But I found out that people were buying it because the setup was easier and we provided phone support. Try getting that from Microsoft back then.<br>
My boss and I saw the writing on the wall and we started to diversify. We were talking to a lot of companies that were interested in the Internet. But most of them were interested in the Internet as a resource not for communication. It's not like they didn't have e-mail systems. They did have e-mail systems for internal communications but they were built just for that: internal communication. Most of the systems didn't have the optional module of connecting the e-mail system to the Internet.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zB7qBIWbG9c/ULgtVfurXMI/AAAAAAAABBw/XbFDgjHfgnk/s1600/tfs02.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zB7qBIWbG9c/ULgtVfurXMI/AAAAAAAABBw/XbFDgjHfgnk/s320/tfs02.png" width="320"></a>A little work on the Internet and I found this unique product from Sweden called TFS Gateway. They have been making a living building a system that allowed different commercial e-mail systems to talk to each other. They did this by using the mail system's API or mimiced a remote system via the e-mail system's remote gateway. TFS Gateway converted mail messages into a common format (pseudo X.400) before passing them on to their final destination. It supported Microsoft Mail, Lotus Notes and cc:Mail and Novell GroupWise. What interested me was that TFS Gateway also had a module that connected to Internet mail systems, specifically, an SMTP gateway. A market opened up as more and more companies saw the benefit of Internet mail communications and wanted to connect their systems to the Internet.<br>
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</div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/09/tfs-internet-gateway-way-to-connect.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7599533.post-61547087442607323682013-05-10T10:00:00.001+08:002013-05-12T01:30:02.783+08:00Will Ubuntu eventually go BSD?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At some point, I think, Mark Shuttleworth looked back and thought, 'I wish I chose BSD instead of Linux'. Imagine Ubuntu powered by BSD or FreeBSD instead of the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Linux kernel">Linux kernel</a>. Crazy talk? Speculation? Definitely.<br>
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But the thought couldn't help cross my mind when I look back at what Ubuntu have been doing the last year or so. The trend is very clear. They are moving away from Linux and perhaps GNU Open Source.<br>
First was the use of the term 'the Ubuntu kernel' instead of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel">Linux kernel</a>. You would be hard-pressed to find the word Linux on the Ubuntu website or paraphernalia. I can't fault Ubuntu for maintaining brand prominence. But why at the cost of diminishing the Linux brand. Surely, Ubuntu is not ashamed of it's Linux core. Some people have pointed out that perhaps they want to distance themselves from their Linux heritage. To this, I point out that it is only a heritage when you are generation removed. Like Linux's Unix heritage. Ubuntu is still clearly dependent on Linux. In a way, I do see their point. Perhaps there are almost no Linux references in the website because they really want to prepare us for an Ubuntu without Linux. </div>
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Then there is Unity. Maybe Ubuntu saw what I saw in the debacle of Gnome3. The sense was simply that the Gnome developers betrayed their user community. But instead of offering a safe haven for the majority that didn't agree with where Gnome is headed, Ubuntu saw this as opportunity to differentiate themselves even further. They created another environment, open source but definitely under their control. They were hoping that users will flock to that instead as an upgrade path from Gnome3. In the end, Unity didn't look much different than Gnome3, users faced similar issues and they even share design principles. Ubuntu just applied them to different parts of Ubuntu. And their goal is evidently the same, a touch-friendly, tablet interface. No matter how much the Gnome developers protest and claim otherwise, the proof is just in the result of their work. If fact, when taken from that perspective, both Unity and Gnome3 are really good. Problem is, most users still don't have touch screens. The Gnome developers may want their Star Trek dream to come true, most of us just want to check mail.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ToeRiNl9Io4/UYtCace1dMI/AAAAAAAAC8s/v9EpJePbAzk/s1600/ubuntu-bsd.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ToeRiNl9Io4/UYtCace1dMI/AAAAAAAAC8s/v9EpJePbAzk/s320/ubuntu-bsd.png" width="320"></a>The biggest step Ubuntu has taken so far is to move their graphical display technology away from X Windows to something that they themselves developed called Mir. Let's get something clear first. X Windows has a lot of problems. It is very simplistic in nature, mainly because it was designed in the 80s. It even needs a separate program to manage the windows and make them move, maximize and do even the most basic functions. That doesn't even include what we normally expect from a GUI like cut and paste between applications. KDE and Gnome were built to fill the need for a graphical system that does more. But at the core is the fact that X Windows offered cross-platform compatibility. I remember selling linux boxes as replacements to expensive Sun and HP graphical workstations. The X Windows applications still used the powerful CPUs of the servers while the workstation only busied itself with managing the GUI. Ubuntu moving to Mir breaks this compatibility. They had originally planned on using Wayland to replace X. Wayland respected X and offered a way to coexist and interact with X. Mir doesn't seem to care about that. What it also means is that future Ubuntu users can't share their applications with other Linux (or even Unix) distros and vice versa. But that is only good for Ubuntu because it create a lock-in. Ubuntu say it really wants to build a graphical display system that could be used for both desktop and mobile platforms. If it locks in their users and makes applications written for Ubuntu exclusive to them, then what downside is there for them?<br>
</div></div><a href="http://www.techsplatter.com/2013/05/will-ubuntu-eventually-go-bsd.html#more"><br> Techsplatter Post Continues Here »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0