Alive and Proud

FreeBSD

2012-02-11T18:25:00.008+01:00

Credits:

http://www.freebsd.org
All content here is for information purpose only. The whole content and many more information could be found at FreeBSD web site

What is FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible (including Pentium® and Athlon™), amd64 compatible (including Opteron™, Athlon™64, and EM64T), ARM, IA-64, PowerPC, PC-98 and UltraSPARC® architectures. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by a large team of individuals. Additional platforms are in various stages of development.

History

FreeBSD development began in 1993 with a quickly growing, unofficial patchkit maintained by users of the 386BSD operating system. This patchkit forked from 386BSD and grew into an operating system taken from U.C. Berkeley's 4.3BSD-Lite (Net/2) tape with many 386BSD components and code from the Free Software Foundation. After two public beta releases via FTP (1.0-GAMMA on September 2, 1993, and 1.0-EPSILON on October 3, 1993), the first official release was FreeBSD 1.0, available via FTP on November 1, 1993 and on CDROM on December 30, 1993. This official release was coordinated by Jordan Hubbard, Nate Williams and Rodney W. Grimes with the name thought up by David Greenman. Walnut Creek CDROM agreed to distribute FreeBSD on CD and gave the project a machine to work on along with a fast Internet connection, which Hubbard later said helped stir FreeBSD's rapid growth. A "highly successful" FreeBSD 1.1 release followed in May 1994.

However, there were legal concerns about the BSD Net/2 release source code used in 386BSD. After a lawsuit between UNIX copyright owner at the time Unix System Laboratories and the University of California, Berkeley, the FreeBSD project re-engineered most of the system using the 4.4BSD-Lite release from Berkeley, which, owing to this lawsuit, had none of the AT&T source code earlier BSD versions had depended upon, making it an unbootable operating system. Following much work, the unencumbered outcome was released as FreeBSD 2.0 in January 1995.

FreeBSD 2.0 featured a revamp of the original Carnegie Mellon University Mach virtual memory system, which was optimized for performance under high loads. This release also introduced the FreeBSD Ports system, which made downloading, building and installing third party software very easy. By 1996 FreeBSD had become popular among commercial and ISP users, powering extremely successful sites like Walnut Creek CD-ROM (a huge repository of software that broke several throughput records on the Internet), Yahoo! and Hotmail. The last release along the 2-STABLE branch was 2.2.8 in November 1998.^[9] FreeBSD 3.0 brought many more changes, including the switch to the ELF binary format. Support for SMP systems and the 64-bit Alpha platform were also added. The 3-STABLE branch ended with 3.5.1 in June 2000.

Linux compatibility

Most software that runs on Linux can run on FreeBSD without the need for any compatibility layer. FreeBSD nonetheless still provides a compatibility layer for several other Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. Hence, most Linux binaries can be run on FreeBSD, including some proprietary applications distributed only in binary form. Examples of applications that can use the Linux compatibility layer are StarOffice, the Linux version of Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer, Oracle, Mathematica, Maple, MATLAB, WordPerfect, Skype, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Doom 3 and Quake 4 (though some of these applications also have a native version). No noticeable performance penalty over native FreeBSD programs has been noted when running Linux binaries, and, in some cases, these may even perform more smoothly than on Linux. However, the layer is not altogether seamless, and some Linux binaries are unusable or only partially usable on FreeBSD. This is often because the compatibility layer only supports system calls available in the historical Linux kernel 2.4.2. There is support for Linux 2.6.16 system calls, available since FreeBSD 7.0 and enabled by default since FreeBSD 8.0. However, there is currently no support for running 64-bit Linux binaries.

Cutting edge features

FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features today which are still missing in other operating systems, even some of the best commercial ones.

Powerful Internet solutions

FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server. It provides robust network services under the heaviest loads and uses memory efficiently to maintain good response times for thousands of simultaneous user processes.

Advanced Embedded Platform

FreeBSD brings advanced network operating system features to appliance and embedded platforms, from higher-end Intel-based appliances to Arm, PowerPC, and shortly MIPS hardware platforms. From mail and web appliances to routers, time servers, and wireless access points, vendors around the world rely on FreeBSD's integrated build and cross-build environments and advanced features as the foundation for their embedded products. And the Berkeley open source license lets them decide how many of their local changes they want to contribute back.

Run a huge number of applications

With over 20,000 ported libraries and applications, FreeBSD supports applications for desktop, server, appliance, and embedded environments.

Easy to install

FreeBSD can be installed from a variety of media including CD-ROM, DVD, or directly over the network using FTP or NFS. All you need are these directions.

FreeBSD is free

While you might expect an operating system with these features to sell for a high price, FreeBSD is available free of charge and comes with full source code. If you would like to purchase or download a copy to try out, more information is available.

Contributing to FreeBSD

It is easy to contribute to FreeBSD. All you need to do is find a part of FreeBSD which you think could be improved and make those changes (carefully and cleanly) and submit that back to the Project by means of send-pr or a committer, if you know one. This could be anything from documentation to artwork to source code. See the Contributing to FreeBSD article for more information.

Even if you are not a programmer, there are other ways to contribute to FreeBSD. The FreeBSD Foundation is a non-profit organization for which direct contributions are fully tax deductible. Please contact board@FreeBSDFoundation.org for more information or write to: The FreeBSD Foundation, P.O. Box 20247, Boulder, CO 80308, USA.

FreeBSD offers many advanced features.

No matter what the application, you want your system's resources performing at their full potential. FreeBSD's focus on performance, networking, and storage combine with easy system administration and excellent documentation to allow you to do just that.

A complete operating system based on 4.4BSD.

FreeBSD's distinguished roots derive from the BSD software releases from the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Over ten years of work have been put into enhancing BSD, adding industry-leading SMP, multithreading, and network performance, as well as new management tools, file systems, and security features. As a result, FreeBSD may be found across the Internet, in the operating system of core router products, running root name servers, hosting major web sites, and as the foundation for widely used desktop operating systems. This is only possible because of the diverse and world-wide membership of the volunteer FreeBSD Project.

FreeBSD provides advanced operating system features, making it ideal across a range of systems, from embedded environments to high-end multiprocessor servers.

FreeBSD 7.0, released February 2008, brings many new features and performance enhancements. With a special focus on storage and multiprocessing performance, FreeBSD 7.0 shipped with support for Sun's ZFS file system and highly scalable multiprocessing performance. Benchmarks have shown that FreeBSD provides twice the MySQL and PostgreSQL performance as current Linux systems on 8-core servers.

SMPng: After seven years of development on advanced SMP support, FreeBSD 7.0 realizes the goals of a fine-grained kernel allowing linear scalability to over 8 CPU cores for many workloads. FreeBSD 7.0 sees an almost complete elimination of the Giant Lock, removing it from the CAM storage layer and NFS client, and moving towards more fine-grained locking in the network subsystem. Significant work has also been performed to optimize kernel scheduling and locking primitives, and the optional ULE scheduler allows thread CPU affinity and per-CPU run queues to reduce overhead and increase cache-friendliness. The libthr threading package, providing 1:1 threading, is now the default. Benchmarks reveal a dramatic performance advantage over other UNIX® operating systems on identical multicore hardware, and reflect a long investment in SMP technology for the FreeBSD kernel.
ZFS filesystem: Sun's ZFS is a state-of-the-art file system offering simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability. From self-healing to built-in compression, RAID, snapshots, and volume management, ZFS will allow FreeBSD system administrators to easily manage large storage arrays.
10Gbps network optimization: With optimized device drivers from all major 10gbps network vendors, FreeBSD 7.0 has seen extensive optimization of the network stack for high performance workloads, including auto-scaling socket buffers, TCP Segment Offload (TSO), Large Receive Offload (LRO), direct network stack dispatch, and load balancing of TCP/IP workloads over multiple CPUs on supporting 10gbps cards or when multiple network interfaces are in use simultaneously. Full vendor support is available from Chelsio, Intel, Myricom, and Neterion.
SCTP: FreeBSD 7.0 is the reference implementation for the new IETF Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) protocol, intended to support VoIP, telecommunications, and other applications with strong reliability and variable quality transmission through features such as multi-path delivery, fail-over, and multi-streaming.
Wireless: FreeBSD 7.0 ships with significantly enhanced wireless support, including high-power Atheros-based cards, new drivers for Ralink, Intel, and ZyDAS cards, WPA, background scanning and roaming, and 802.11n.
New hardware architectures: FreeBSD 7.0 includes significantly improved support for the embedded ARM architecture, as well as preliminary support for the Sun Ultrasparc T1 platform.

FreeBSD has a long history of advanced operating system feature development; you can read about some of these features below:

A merged virtual memory and filesystem buffer cache continuously tunes the amount of memory used for programs and the disk cache. As a result, programs receive both excellent memory management and high performance disk access, and the system administrator is freed from the task of tuning cache sizes.
Compatibility modules enable programs for other operating systems to run on FreeBSD, including programs for Linux, SCO UNIX, and System V Release 4.
Soft Updates allows improved filesystem performance without sacrificing safety and reliability. It analyzes meta-data filesystem operations to avoid having to perform all of those operations synchronously. Instead, it maintains internal state about pending meta-data operations and uses this information to cache meta-data, rewrite meta-data operations to combine subsequent operations on the same files, and reorder meta-data operations so that they may be processed more efficiently. Features such as background filesystem checking and file system snapshots are built on the consistency and performance foundations of soft updates.
File system snapshots, permitting administrators to take atomic file system snapshots for backup purposes using the free space in the file system, as well as facilitating background fsck, which allows the system to reach multiuser mode without waiting on file system cleanup operations following power outages.
Support for IP Security (IPsec) allows improved security in networks, and support for the next-generation Internet Protocol, IPv6. The FreeBSD IPsec implementation includes support for a broad range of accelerated crypto hardware.
Out of the box support for IPv6 via the KAME IPv6 stack allows FreeBSD to be seamlessly integrated into next generation networking environments. FreeBSD even ships with many applications extended to support IPv6!
Multi-threaded SMP architecture capable of executing the kernel in parallel on multiple processors, and with kernel preemption, allowing high priority kernel tasks to preempt other kernel activity, reducing latency. This includes a multi-threaded network stack and a multi-threaded virtual memory subsystem. Beginning with FreeBSD 6.x, support for a fully parallel VFS allows the UFS file system to run on multiple processors simultaneously, permitting load sharing of CPU-intensive I/O optimization.
M:N application threading via pthreads permitting threads to execute on multiple CPUs in a scalable manner, mapping many user threads onto a small number of Kernel Schedulable Entities. By adopting the Scheduler Activation model, the threading approach can be adapted to the specific requirements of a broad range of applications.
Netgraph pluggable network stack allows developers to dynamically and easily extend the network stack through clean layered network abstractions. Netgraph nodes can implement a broad range of new network services, including encapsulation, tunneling, encryption, and performance adaptation. As a result, rapid prototyping and production deployment of enhanced network services can be performed far more easily and with fewer bugs.
TrustedBSD MAC Framework extensible kernel security, which allows developers to customize the operating system security model for specific environments, from creating hardening policies to deploying mandatory labeled confidentiality of integrity policies. Sample security policies include Multi-Level Security (MLS), and Biba Integrity Protection. Third party modules include SEBSD, a FLASK-based implementation of Type Enforcement.
TrustedBSD Audit is a security event logging service, providing fine-grained, secure, reliable logging of system events via the audit service. Administrators can configure the nature and granularity of logging by user, tracking file accesses, commands executed, network activity, system logins, and a range of other system behavior. Audit pipes allow IDS tools to attach to the kernel audit service and subscribe to events they require for security monitoring. FreeBSD supports the industry-standard BSM audit trail file format and API, allowing existing BSM tools to run with little or no modification. This file format is used on Solaris and Mac OS X, allowing instant interoperability and unified analysis.
GEOM pluggable storage layer, which permits new storage services to be quickly developed and cleanly integrated into the FreeBSD storage subsystem. GEOM provides a consistent and coherent model for discovering and layering storage services, making it possible to layer services such as RAID and volume management easily.
FreeBSD's GEOM-Based Disk Encryption (GBDE), provides strong cryptographic protection using the GEOM Framework, and can protect file systems, swap devices, and other use of storage media.
Kernel Queues allow programs to respond more efficiently to a variety of asynchronous events including file and socket IO, improving application and system performance.
Accept Filters allow connection-intensive applications, such as web servers, to cleanly push part of their functionality into the operating system kernel, improving performance.

FreeBSD provides many security features to protect networks and servers.

The FreeBSD developers are as concerned about security as they are about performance and stability. FreeBSD includes kernel support for stateful IP firewalling, as well as other services, such as IP proxy gateways, access control lists, mandatory access control, jail-based virtual hosting, and cryptographically protected storage. These features can be used to support highly secure hosting of mutually untrusting customers or consumers, the strong partitioning of network segments, and the construction of secure pipelines for information scrubbing and information flow control.

FreeBSD also includes support for encryption software, secure shells, Kerberos authentication, "virtual servers" created using jails, chroot-ing services to restrict application access to the file system, Secure RPC facilities, and access lists for services that support TCP wrappers.

Applications for FreeBSD

Experience the possibilities with FreeBSD

FreeBSD can handle nearly any task you would expect of a UNIX® workstation, as well as many you might not expect:

FreeBSD is a true open system with full source code.

There is no doubt that so-called open systems are the requirement for today's computing applications. But no commercial vendor-supplied solution is more open than one which includes full source code to the entire operating system, including the kernel and all of the system daemons, programs, and utilities. You can modify any part of FreeBSD to suit your personal, organizational, or corporate needs.

With its generous licensing policy, you can use FreeBSD as the basis for any number of free or commercial applications.

FreeBSD runs thousands of applications.

Because FreeBSD is based on 4.4BSD, an industry-standard version of UNIX, it is easy to compile and run programs. FreeBSD also includes an extensive packages collection and ports collection that bring precompiled and easy-to-build software right to your desktop or enterprise server. There is also a growing number of commercial applications written for FreeBSD.

Here are some examples of the environments in which FreeBSD is used:

Internet services. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) find FreeBSD ideal, running WWW, Usenet news, FTP, Email, and other services. Ready-to-run software like the Apache web server or the ProFTPD FTP server make it easy to set up a business or community-centered ISP. Of course, with FreeBSD's unbeatable networking, your users will enjoy high speed, reliable services.
X Window workstation. From an inexpensive X terminal to an advanced X display, FreeBSD works quite well. Free X software (X.Org™) comes with the system. nVidia offers native drivers for their high-performance graphics hardware, and the industry standard Motif® and OpenGL® libraries are supported. Both the KDE and GNOME desktop environments enjoy full support and provide office suite functionality, with further good functionality available in the OpenOffice.Org and TextMaker products.
Networking. From packet filtering to routing to name service, FreeBSD can turn any PC into a Internet firewall, email host, print server, PC/NFS server, and more.
Software development. A suite of development tools comes with FreeBSD, including the GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger. Java® and Tcl/Tk development are also possible for example, and more esoteric programming languages like Icon work just fine, too. And FreeBSD's shared libraries have always been easy to make and use. You can also choose from a wide range of popular and powerful editors, such as XEmacs and Vim.
Net surfing. A real UNIX workstation makes a great Internet surfboard. FreeBSD versions of Firefox and Opera are available for serious web users. Surf the web, publish your own web pages, read Usenet news, and send and receive email with a FreeBSD system on your desktop.
Education and research. FreeBSD makes an excellent research platform because it includes complete source code. Students and researchers of operating systems or other computer science fields can benefit greatly from such an open and well-documented system.
And much more. Accounting, action games, MIS databases, scientific visualization, video conferencing, Internet relay chat (IRC), home automation, multiuser dungeons, bulletin board systems, image scanning, and more are all real uses for FreeBSD today.

FreeBSD is an operating system that will grow with your needs.

Though FreeBSD is free software, it is also user supported software. Any questions you have can be posted to hundreds of FreeBSD developers and users simply by e-mailing the freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org mailing list.

FreeBSD also has a worldwide group of programmers and writers who fix bugs, add new features and document the system. Support for new devices or special features is an almost constant development process, and the team keeps a special eye out for problems which affect system stability. FreeBSD users are quite proud of not only how fast but how reliable their systems are.

What experts have to say . . .

``FreeBSD handles [our] heavy load quite well and it is nothing short of amazing. Salutations to the FreeBSD team.''

-- Mark Hittinger, administrator of WinNet Communications, Inc.

Internetworking

FreeBSD was designed for the Internet

FreeBSD includes what many consider the reference implementation for TCP/IP software, the 4.4 BSD TCP/IP protocol stack, thereby making it ideal for network applications and the Internet. FreeBSD 7.0 also includes the reference implementation of SCTP, thus making it an ideal platform for telephony and other data streaming applications.

FreeBSD supports all standard TCP/IP protocols.

Like most UNIX® systems, the FreeBSD operating system enables you to

Serve static and dynamic web content over HTTP
Share filesystems with NFS
Distribute network information with NIS
Handle and provide email services over SMTP, IMAP and POP3
Support remote logins over SSH and rsh
Do remote SNMP configuration and management
Serve files with FTP
Resolve Internet hostnames with DNS/BIND
Route packets between multiple interfaces, including PPP and SLIP lines
Use IP Multicast services (the MBONE)
Provide services over IPv6

FreeBSD lets you to turn a PC into a World Wide Web server, mail server or an Usenet news relay with included software. Using the included SAMBA software you can even share filesystems or printers with your Microsoft® Windows® machines and, with the supplied PCNFS authentication daemon, you can support machines running PC/NFS. FreeBSD also supports Appletalk and Novell client/server networking (using an optional commercial software package), making it a true "Intranet" networking solution.

FreeBSD also handles TCP extensions like the RFC-1323 high performance extension, plus SLIP and dial-on-demand PPP. It is an operating system suitable for a home-based net surfer as well as a corporate systems administrator.

FreeBSD's networking is stable and fast.

If you need an Internet server platform that is reliable and offers the best performance under heavy load, then consider FreeBSD. Here are just a few of the companies that make use of FreeBSD every day:

Walnut Creek CDROM ran one of the most popular FTP servers on the Internet, ftp.cdrom.com, exclusively on FreeBSD for many years. It was a single FreeBSD machine supporting 6000 connections, and capable of transferring more than 30 terabytes (as of June, 1999; yes that is terabytes!) worth of files every month to more than 10 million people.
Yahoo Inc. runs the ultimate index of the Internet, serving scads of daily net surfers with information about the World Wide Web. Yahoo, as well as the companies that advertise on Yahoo, rely on FreeBSD to run reliable and responsive web servers.
Netcraft is the leading researcher of web server software usage on the Internet. They use FreeBSD and Apache to power their website, and FreeBSD/Perl for all their Internet data collection.

FreeBSD makes an ideal platform for these and other Internet services:

Company-wide or world-wide WWW service
Proxy WWW service
Anonymous FTP service
Enterprise file, print and mail services
Routers, firewalls and intrusion detection systems

The FreeBSD ports collection contains ready-to-run software that makes it easy to set up your own Internet server.

High performance and security.

The FreeBSD developers are as concerned about security as they are about performance. FreeBSD includes kernel support for IP firewalling, as well other services, such as IP proxy gateways. If you put your corporate servers on the Internet, any computer running FreeBSD can act as a network firewall to protect them from outside attack.

Encryption software, secure shells, Kerberos, end-to-end encryption and secure RPC facilities are also available.

Furthermore, the FreeBSD team is proactive in detecting and disseminating security information and bug reports with a security officer and ties to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

What experts have to say...

``FreeBSD ... provides what is probably the most robust and capable TCP/IP stack in existence ...''

---Michael O'Brien, SunExpert August 1996 Volume 7 number 8.

Advocacy Project

Much of the success which surrounds FreeBSD is due to people advocating its use to their friends, colleagues, and employers.

This page provides links to more information to help you do this.

Mailing lists

FreeBSD advocacy mailing list

Web resources

*BSD Myths

Describes and debunks some of the myths that surround the *BSD projects.
On Advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo

Jordan Hubbard's response to the infamous Halloween memo, posted to the FreeBSD-Advocacy mailing list (and republished with his permission).
FreeBSD in the Press

Contains many links to articles that have appeared which mention FreeBSD.
FreeBSD CD Artwork

Artwork for a FreeBSD 4.6 CD cover by Oliver Rapp, available for non-commercial use.

Sites using FreeBSD

Hosting Providers Performance by Netcraft is tracking the reliability of major webhosting services, many of them are using FreeBSD.
The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors.
BSDCan, the annual BSD Conference held in Ottawa, Canada.
EuroBSDCon, the annual BSD Conference in Europe.

Marketing Materials

This page contains presentations, white papers, and other marketing materials for FreeBSD.

White Papers

Thinking of using FreeBSD in a project? Finding it hard to convince your boss, the CTO, the CEO? Read through these real life examples of FreeBSD successes with shipping products, then give them to the decision makers at your company.

Presentations

28 April 2005, FreeBSD in the Enterprise, an Introduction for Linux Users, Murray Stokely (Open Source Forum, Moscow)
2 September 2004, Enhancements in the FreeBSD 5.3 Network Stack, Andre Opperman (SUCON 04)
18 September 2002, FreeBSD Release Engineering, Murray Stokely (Japan Unix Society)
10 June 2001, FreeBSD for Linux Users, Nik Clayton

Flyers

What is FreeBSD? (PDF | PostScript)
BSD Success Stories (27 pages) (PDF), O'Reilly.

Press Highlights

2005 April, Host Department Transitions to FreeBSD - http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/hos042505.cfm.

FreeBSD Art

This page contains miscellaneous FreeBSD art. Suggestions for additions can be sent to www@FreeBSD.org. Please note the usage policy for these graphics.

BSD Daemon


Created by Poul-Henning Kamp Source: /usr/share/examples/BSD_daemon/ on FreeBSD systems.

Powered by FreeBSD Logos

Old Advertisement Banners

Graphics Use

The Powered by FreeBSD logos above may be downloaded and displayed on personal or commercial home pages served by FreeBSD machines. Use of this logo or the likeliness of the BSD Daemons for profitable gain requires the consent of Brian Tao (creator of the power logo) and Marshall Kirk McKusick (copyright holder for the BSD Daemon image).

Poul-Henning Kamp's rendering of the BSD Daemon is released under THE BEER-WARE LICENSE. See the README for more information.

Trademarks

The FreeBSD Foundation holds several FreeBSD related trademarks (among them the trademark for the term FreeBSD itself). For more information about these trademarks read the FreeBSD Trademark Usage Terms and Conditions.

FreeBSD Logo

Usage Guideline

FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation. The FreeBSD logo and The Power to Serve are trademarks of The FreeBSD Foundation.

All images listed under the heading "Resource" are available for use under license from The FreeBSD Foundation.

For more information on how to obtain permission to use the logo, please refer to the FreeBSD Logo Usage Guidelines at The FreeBSD Foundation.

Resource

Standard Logo (fullcolor)

Standard Logo (fullcolor for dark background)

Standard Logo (black and white)

Vector formats

Format: Adobe(r) Illustrator(r), SVG

Sample

NOTE: "freeBSD" text in these images were created based on draft version of logo contest. Correct version of this text should be rendered by one black color, not two colors and first "f" character should be spelled capitalized as "F".

CD/DVD package

Postcard

Wallpaper

Here are sample wallpapers.

Reference:

1. http://www.freebsd.org

2. Wikipedia

HP TippingPoint Next Generation Intrusion Prevention System

2012-02-06T15:10:00.002+01:00

What Is It?

HP TippingPoint’s NGIPS uses adaptive intelligence to protect your network from the most advanced and sophisticated attacks, delivering these threat protection capabilities:

Application Awareness and Enforcement

Through HP TippingPoint AppDV, GeoLocation, and RepDV services, we identify and classify applications in real-time and then take action to block attacks and/or families of attacks by geographic origin or destination, at the application layer, independent of port or protocol.

Context Awareness

Provides increased confidence and visibility into alert severity by evaluating user information, GeoLocation, Reputation Awareness, and ThreatLinQ intelligence. Then, by integrating that information into a single console, the HP TippingPoint Security Management System (SMS), you get more actionable event data and better policy decision making.

Content Awareness

We prevent the spread of malware by inspecting inbound and outbound communications for content and executables, giving you the ability to identify and stop malicious traffic that may be communicating with command-and-control servers or attempting to steal user information.

Agile Engine

We easily integrate new services from HP TippingPoint’s DVLabs such as AppDV, WebAppDV and RepDV to ensure you’re protected against new types of threats. New defense techniques are dynamically incorporated into the NGIPS, providing you with investment protection and reduced capital expenditures.

First Generation IPS Features

HP TippingPoint has a long history of providing in-line, real time vulnerability threat protection featuring high inspected throughput and low latency.

What Makes Us Better?

In addition to our award winning NGIPS device, HP TippingPoint provides industry leading intelligence research through our unique HP TippingPoint DVLabs organization. Our DVLabs team defines, develops and delivers our NGIPS security services, including Reputation DV, Application DV, Web Application DV, Digital Vaccine Toolkit, and our Digital Vaccine filter service. When combined with our HP TippingPoint Security Management System (SMS) and ThreatLinQ security portal, you get instant visibility into the global threat environment, and integrated event data, resulting in better policy decision making, better device management, and a better security posture for your network.

Model	Description
S660N	750Mbps 5 Gig-T/5 1Gb Fiber Segments IPS (JC019A)
S1400N	1.5Gbps 5 Gig-T/5 1Gb Fiber Segments IPS (JC020A)
S2500N	3Gbps 5 Gig-T/1 10GbE/ 5 1GbE Fiber Segments IPS (JC021A)
S5100N	5Gbps 5 Gig-T/1 10GbE/ 5 1GbE Fiber Segments IPS (JC022A)
S6100N	8Gbps 5 Gig-T/1 10GbE/ 5 1GbE Fiber Segments IPS (JC577A)
S5100N	10Gbps IPS Bundle
S6100N	16Gbps IPS Bundle

Services and Support

HP TippingPoint Networking Services add value to your business The warranties on HP TippingPoint Networking products provide a robust foundation for ongoing network support. HP offers an affordable, comprehensive portfolio of networking services for organizations of all size and is the only vendor in the IT industry that can provide integrated and consistent support for your entire technology infrastructure worldwide.

Linux File System Fsck Testing

2012-02-06T12:05:00.004+01:00

Credits:
Jeffrey Layton

FSCK Testing Plan

It has been a while since we started the fsck project to test fsck (file system check) times on Linux file systems. The lengthy delay in obtaining the results is due to the lack of hardware for testing. The original vendor could not spare the hardware for testing. A number of other vendors were contacted and due to various reasons none of them could provide the needed hardware for many, many months if at all. In the end, Henry used his diplomatic skills to save the day, persuading Data Direct Networks to help us out. Paul Carl and Randy Kreiser from DDN contacted me and agreed to provide remote access to the hardware (thank you, DDN!). Paul used a DDN SFA10K-X with 590 disks that are 450GB, 15,000 rpm SAS disks. He used a 128KB chunk size in the creation. From these disks he created a number of RAID-6 pools using an 8+2 configuration (8 data disks and 2 parity disks). Each pool is a LUN that is 3.6TB in size before formatting or actually 3,347,054,592 bytes as reported by "cat /proc/partitions". The LUNS were presented to the server as disk devices such as /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdd1, ..., /dev/sdx1 for a total of 23 LUNs of 3.6TBs each. This is a total of 82.8 TBs (raw). The LUNs were combined using mdadm and RAID-0 to create a RAID-60 configuration using the following command:

mdadm -- create /dev/md1 -- chunk=1024 -- level=0 -- raid-devices=23 /dev/sdb1
 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1 /dev/sdg1 /dev/sdh1 /dev/sdi1
/dev/sdj1 /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1 /dev/sdm1 /dev/sdn1 /dev/sdo1 /dev/sdp1 /dev/sdq1
/dev/sdr1 /dev/sds1 /dev/sdt1 /dev/sdu1 /dev/sdv1 /dev/sdw1 /dev/sdx1

The result was a file system with about 72TB using "df -h" or 76,982,232,064 bytes from "cat /proc/partitions". A second set of tests were run on storage that used only 12 of the 23 LUNs. The mdadm command is

mdadm -- create /dev/md1 -- chunk=1024 -- level=0 -- raid-devices=12 /dev/sd
The resulting file system for this configuration is about 38 TBs using "df -h".

The server used in the study is a dual-socket, Intel Xeon system with Nehalem processors (E5520) running at 2.27 GHz and an 8MB cache. The server has a total of 24GB of memory, and it was connected to the storage via a Qlogic Fibre Channel FC8 card connected to an FC switch that was connected to the storage. The server ran CentOS 5.7 (2.6.18-274 kernel). The stock configuration was used throughput the testing except for one component. The e2fsprogs package was upgraded to version 1.42, enabling ext4 file systems larger than 16TB to be created. This allows the fcsk performance of xfs and ext4 to be contrasted.

Building the file systems was done close to the default behavior that many system admins will adopt -- using the defaults. The commands for building the file systems are:

XFS: /sbin/mkfs.xfs -f /dev/md1
EXT4: /sbin/mke2fs -t ext4 -F /dev/md1

Mounting the file systems involved a little more tuning. In the case of XFS, I used the tuning options as stated by Dell, XFS -- rw,noatime,attr2,nobarrier,inode64,noquota. In the case of ext4, the mounting options used are.
defaults,data=writeback,noatime,barrier=0,journal_checksum.

The journal checksum was turned on within ext4 since I like this added behavior.

Step 1: Filling the File System

One of the keys to the testing is how the file system is filled. This can be a very time consuming process because you must create all of the files in some sort of order or fashion. For this testing, fs_mark was used. Ric Wheeler at Red Hat has been using it for testing file systems at very large scales (over 1 billion files). Fs_mark wasn't used for testing the file system in this article, but rather, it is used to fill the file system in a specific fashion. It uses one or more base directories and then creates a specified number of subdirectories underneath them that are filled with files. You might think of this as a single-level of subdirectories. It is much more complicated to create specific subdirectory depths and number of files since that configuration depends on the specific users and situation. You could also use some sort of random approach with the hope that a random distribution approximates a real-world situation. It is virtually impossible to have a representative file system tree that fits most general situations, and the single-level deep directory tree used here should represent one extreme of file systems -- a single subdirectory level.

One of the nice features of fs_mark is that it is threaded so that each thread produces its own unique directory structure with a single layer of subdirectories underneath a base directory that contains a fixed number of files. Fs_mark also allows you to specify the number of files per thread so that you can control the total number of files. Although the server has eight total cores, running eight threads (one per core) it resulted in the OS swapping. When the number of threads is reduced to three, the server did not swap, and the file creation rate was much faster than running eight threads with swapping.

Using three threads causes some issues because it is an odd number. This made it impossible to determine an integer number of files per thread, as using the old file counts was not possible. The number of files per thread was changed to a reasonable integer number that is close to the original numbers of 100,000,000, 50,000,000, and 10,000,000. The numbers chosen were: 105,000,000, 51,000,000, and 10,200,000.

The goal for all fs_mark commands was to fill the file system to the specified number of files while filling about 50 percent of the file system. The following fs_mark command lines were used to fill the file system for 72TB:

./fs_mark -s 400000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 35000000 -D 35000 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test
./fs_mark -s 800000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 17000000 -D 17000 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test
./fs_mark -s 4000000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 3400000 -D 3400 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test

The commands for filling the 38TB file systems were:

./fs_mark -s 200000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 35000000 -D 35000 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test
./fs_mark -s 400000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 17000000 -D 17000 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test
./fs_mark -s 2000000 -L 1 -S 0 -n 3400000 -D 3400 -N 1000 -t 3 -k -d /mnt/test

Notice that the number of files per directory is a constant (-N 1000 or 1,000 files).

After the file system was filled using fs_mark, it was unmounted, and the file system check was run on the device. In the case of xfs, the command is,

/sbin/xfs_repair -v /dev/md1

For ext4, the file system check was,

/sbin/e2fsck -pfFt /dev/md1

Notice that the device /dev/md1 was the target in both cases.

Step 2: Running More Fsck Tests

DDN was kind of enough to offer additional testing time so I decided to try some tests that stretched the boundaries a bit. The first test was to create an XFS file system with 415,000,000 files and filling about 40 percent of the file system on the 72TB file system. The second test was to try to increase the fragmentation of the file system by randomly adding and deleting directories using fs_mark for the 105,000,000 file case also on the 72TB file system.

For the first test where 415,000,000 files were created, the original goal was to test 520,000,000 files in five stages of 105,000,000 files (creating 520,000,000 all at once caused the server to swap badly). However, due to time constraints, only four of the five stages could be run (fs_mark ran increasingly slower the more files were on the system). The final number of files created was 420,035,002 which also includes all "." and ".." files on the directories.

For the second test, approximately 105,000,000 files were created on an XFS file system in several steps. A total of five stages were used where 21,000,000 files were added at each stage using fs_mark (a total of 105,000,000 files). In between the stages, a number of directories were randomly removed, and the same number of directories anf files were replaced using fs_mark on randomly selected directories. The basic process is listed below:

Use fs_mark to create 21,000,000 files using,
- 3 threads of 7,000,000 files each
- 7,000 directories
- 1,000 files per directory
Randomly remove 700 directories and their files ("rm -rf")
use fs_mark to add 700 directories with 1,000 files each to 700 randomly chosen existing directories (one directory is added to one existing directory)
Use fs_mark to create 21,000,000 more files (42,000,000 total at this point)
Randomly remove 1,400 directories and their files
Use fs_mark to add 1,400 directories with 1,000 files each to 1,400 randomly chosen existing directories
Use fs_mark to create 21,000,000 more files (63,000,000 total at this point)
Randomly remove 2,100 directories and their files
Use fs_mark to add 2,100 directories with 1,000 files each to 2,100 randomly chosen existing directories
Use fs_mark to add 21,000,000 more files (84,000,000 total at this point)
Randomly remove 2,8000 directories and their files
Use fs_mark to add 2,8000 directories with 1,0000 files each to 2,800 randomly chosen existing directories
Use fs_mark to add the final 21,000,000 files (105,000,000 total at this point)
Randomly remove 3,500 directories and their files
Use fs_mark to add 3,500 directories with 1,000 files each to 3,500 randomly chose existing directories

Because of the random nature of selecting the directories, it is possible to get some directories with many more files than others. However, the total number of files won't be 105,000,000 since of the random nature of selection for deletion and insertion. If we count all fo the files including the "." and ".." files we find that the process created 115,516,127 files.

FSCK Results

The table below lists the file system repair times in seconds for the standard matrix cases as specified in the previous article but with the new number of files. These times include all steps in the file system checking process.

File System Size (in TB)	Number of Files (in Millions)	XFS - xfs_repair time (Seconds)	ext4 - fsck time (Seconds)
72	105	1,629	3,193
72	51	534	1,811
72	10.2	161	972
38	105	710	3,372
38	51	266	1,358
38	10.2	131	470

The FSCK time for the additional tests are listed below:

415,000,000 file case:11,324 seconds Fragmented case: 676 seconds Notice that the 415,000,000 case took 6.95 times longer than the 105,000,000 file case even though it had four times as many files. During the file system check the server did not swap, and no additional use of virtual memory was observed. The "fragmented" case is interesting because it took less time to perform the file system check than the one-level directory case. The original case took 1,629 seconds and the fragmented case took only 676 seconds -- about 2.5 times faster. Time did not allow investigating why this happened. In the next article in this seriesHenry writing about his observations of the results. Please be sure to post your comments about these testing results. A Big Thank You At first glance it seemed simple a vendor could provide about 80TB to 100TB of raw storage connected to a server for testing, but this turned out not to be the case. It was far more difficult than anticipated. I would be remiss if I didn't thank the people who made this possible: Of course Henry Newman for pushing various vendors to help if they could. Thanks go to Paul Carl and Randy Kreiser from DDN who greatly helped in giving me access to the hardware and helped with the initial hurdles that crop up. Thanks also to Ric Wheeler who answered several emails about using fs_mark and about Linux file systems in general. He has been a big supporter of this testing from the beginning. Thanks also to Andres Dilger from Whamcloud who provided great feedback and offers of help all of the time. Jeff Layton is the Enterprise Technologist for HPC at Dell, Inc., and a regular writer of all things HPC and storage. Henry Newman is CEO and CTO of Instrumental Inc. and has worked in HPC and large storage environments for 29 years. The outspoken Mr. Newman initially went to school to become a diplomat, but was firmly told during his first year that he might be better suited for a career that didn't require diplomatic skills. Diplomacy's loss was HPC's gain. Reference: http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com

How to keep your face out of LinkedIn ads

2012-02-06T11:29:00.003+01:00

credits:

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Google has unified its privacy policies, Facebook is rolling out its Timeline feature, and the FBI is looking for help to monitor all the social networks. All that has people feeling a little twitchy about the personal information they’ve placed online. And, now some people have noticed that LinkedIn, the business and jobs social network, may use some of your public information in advertising. Whoops!

A note that’s going around LinkedIn circles reads: “I received the following message from a contact and I am posting it for your awareness and consideration. Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions. Without any action from your side, LinkedIn is now permitted to use you name and picture in any of their advertisements.”

That’s sort of true. Actually LinkedIn has long claimed the right to use your name and picture in advertisements.

In fact, there’s really nothing new here at all. LinkedIn first used public network information in ads in the summer of 2011. After a test run, the popular social network stopped using photos, and came up with its current policy.

LinkedIn comes right out and spells out what’s what in its Privacy Policy: “We use the information you provide to … Create and distribute advertising relevant to your or your network’s LinkedIn experience. If you share your interactions on LinkedIn, for example, when you recommend a product, follow a company, establish or update your profile, join a Group, etc., LinkedIn may use these actions to create social ads for your network on LinkedIn using your profile photo and name.” That’s been the social network’s policy since at least June 16, 2011.

But, as LinkedIn also says, “You can control whether LinkedIn uses your name and picture in social ads.” Here’s how you do that:

Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the screen. From the small pull down menu that appears, select “settings”
Then click “Account” on the left/bottom
In the column next to Account, select the option “Manage Social Advertising”
Un-tick the box “LinkedIn may use my name and photo in social advertising”
And Save

You can also do it from the Privacy Policy page. The link there, after the clause explaining how LinkedIn can use your name, likeness, and information in ads, takes you straight to the Manage Social Advertising box.

Personally, I like that LinkedIn makes it so straightforward to control how the company uses my information. Facebook, in particular, is always changing its privacy settings and makes it difficult to control who can see what. LinkedIn makes it simple… just so long as you knew in the first place that your information could be used in advertising without your express permission.

Reference:

http://www.zdnet.com

Android malware makes use of steganography

2012-02-06T11:22:00.001+01:00

Credits:

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Security firm F-Secure have released details on how Android malware makes use of steganography to hide the control parameters for rogue code.

First, what is steganography? It’s the technique of hiding messages within something else, in this case, an icon file.

F-Secure first suspected that Android malware was making use of steganography when researchers came across this line of code:

Image credit: F-Secure

Further digging revealed more code, and it soon became clear that the image file being referenced here was the icon file bundled with the rogue application:

Image credit: F-Secure

So what’s this hidden information used for? It’s used to control how and when premium rate SMS messages are sent from the victim’s handset, which, as far as the bad guys are concerned, is the primary purpose of the rogue application.

You’ve got to admit, that’s a pretty clever use of steganography.

Reference:

http://www.zdnet.com

Apache OFBiz™

2012-01-28T18:10:00.004+01:00

What is Apache OFBiz?

Apache OFBiz (The Apache Open For Business Project) is an open source enterprise automation software project licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0. By open source enterprise automation we mean: Open Source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), Open Source CRM (Customer RelationShip Management), Open Source E-Business / E-Commerce, Open Source SCM (Supply Chain Management), Open Source MRP (Manufacturing Resources Planning), Open Source CMMS/EAM (Maintenance Management System/Enterprise Asset Management), Open Source POS (Point Of Sale), and so on.

Apache OFBiz is a foundation and starting point for reliable, secure and scalable enterprise solutions. Use it out-of-the-box (OOTB) or customize to suit even your most challenging business needs. With OFBiz in place, you can get started right away and then grow your operations as your business grows, without the huge deployment and maintenance costs of traditional enterprise automation systems.

Apache OFBiz is a project of The Apache Software Foundation.

Being open source under the Apache 2.0 license and driven by a community Apache OFBiz offers both flexibility by design and by access to code, and a solution where you're not alone but rather can work with many others to get things done.

For answers to your questions you might find the following documents useful:

Apache OFBiz offers a great deal of functionality, including:

advanced e-commerce
catalog management
promotion & pricing management
order management (sales & purchase)
customer management (part of general party management)
warehouse management
fulfillment (auto stock moves, batched pick, pack & ship)
accounting (invoice, payment & billing accounts, fixed assets)
manufacturing management
general work effort management (events, tasks, projects, requests, etc)
content management (for product content, web sites, general content, blogging, forums, etc)
a maturing Point Of Sales (POS) module using a rich client interface
and much more all in an open source package!

Who is Using Apache OFBiz?

It's hard to say who and how many organizations are using Apache OFBiz because you don't have to tell us when you use it, but there are lots of public sites.

http://www.cache.com/

borngifted.co.uk

actusbike.com

Reference

1. https://cwiki.apache.org/OFBIZ/apache-ofbiz-user-list.html

2. http://ofbiz.apache.org/

Install Linux Mint’s New Cinnamon Desktop on Ubuntu

2012-01-27T16:51:00.012+01:00

Credits:

Chris Hoffman

Tired of Ubuntu’s Unity desktop environment? Try Cinnamon, the latest desktop environment from

Linux Mint. Cinnamon offers a more traditional, GNOME 2-like layout, but it’s based on the modern GNOME Shell — and you can install it on Ubuntu.

One day, Cinnamon will be Linux Mint’s default desktop environment.

It’s forked from GNOME Shell instead of being based on GNOME 2, so it can take advantage of modern technologies and shed GNOME 2’s outdated software.

Cinnamon vs. MGSE vs. MATE

Linux Mint has quite a few different desktop environments. Mint G

NOME Shell Extensions (MGSE) offers several extensions that modify the way GNOME Shell works — Cinnamon builds on MGSE and replaces it. Linux Mint also includes the MATE desktop, which is a fork of the outdated GNOME 2 desktop environment. Cinnamon is more forward-looking than MATE, but doesn’t abandon GNOME’s traditional interface like GNOME Shell does.

Installing Cinnamon

You don’t have to use Mint to get the Cinnamon desktop. It’s available in a personal package archive (PPA) for Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04.

First, you’ll need to bring up a terminal and run the following command, which adds the personal package archive to your Ubuntu system as a software source:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:merlwiz79/cinnamon-ppa

Press Enter when it prompts you

Second, download a list of available packages by running this command:

sudo apt-get update

Now you’re ready to install Cinnamon’s packages with this command:

sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session cinnamon-settings

Type Y and press Enter when prompted.

Use another Linux distribution? You can find instructions for your distribution, or just a link to download the source code, on Cinnamon’s official download page.

Starting Cinnamon

Cinnamon doesn’t replace your existing Ubuntu desktop envi

ronment. It just adds a new option to your login screen. You’ll need to log out before starting Cinnamon.

After logging out, select Cinnamon from the login screen and log back in.

Using Cinnamon

Cinnamon comes with a single panel on the bottom of th

e screen, just like Linux Mint’s GNOME 2 desktop environment did. At the left side, you’ll find a menu that’s more similar to Linux Mint’s traditional applications

menu than it is to GNOME Shell’s full-screen applications menu. Unlike GNO

ME Shell, the panel also contains a traditional window list.

At the right side, you’ll find music and network icons, a clock and workspace switcher. The music applet is particularly polished — it lets you control music players from your panel.

You can launch the Cinnamon Settings application from the menu, but it has few options at the moment. Linux Mint want Cinnamon to be much more configurable — another difference from GNOME 3 — but most options aren’t available yet.

Disabling the Global Menu

You might notice Ubuntu’s global menu bar still appears at the top of the screen. If you want to get rid of it, just run the following command, then log out and back in:

sudo apt-get remove appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt

Want it back? Just replace “remove” with “install” to reinstall the packages:

sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt

Cinnamon is still new, so don’t be surprised if some features are rough around the edges. Still, it’s an impressively modern take on a traditional Linux desktop layout. Cinnamon and Linux Mint are projects to keep an eye on.

Reference:

How-To Geek

The Open Source Apps That Could Improve Your Life

2012-01-26T19:43:00.003+01:00

Credit
Cynthia-Harvey

Tis the season for New Year's resolutions. But if you're like many Americans you may have already fallen off the wagon. One study by psychologists at the University of Scranton found that 36 percent of the people who made New Year's resolutions had already broken them by the end of January, and less than half (44 percent) were still going strong in July.

Fortunately, the open source community has created a lot of tools to help you keep your promises to yourself. We last researched these types of open source apps in 2010, so we updated the list for 2012. We found apps to help you improve your financial situation, lose weight and get fit, quit smoking, break a bad computing habit, start your own business, get organized, make better use of your time, take up a new hobby, learn a new language, improve your mind and become more spiritual. At the end, we've also included a list of suggestions for those few people whose resolution is to try out an open source application for the first time.

As usual, feel free to make use of the comments section below to note of other apps we should consider the next time we update this list.

Improve Your Financial Situation

1. Buddi

Designed for home users who have "little or no financial experience," Buddi aims to offer all the features most people need while keeping the interface as simple as possible. It tracks account balances, transactions and budget categories, and it creates simple reports. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

2. Financisto

This open source Android app lets you track your budget from your smarphone or tablet. Key features include Quicken and CSV import, support for multiple accounts and currencies, recurring transactions, budgets and advanced reports. Operating System: Android

3. HomeBank Now nearly 17 years old, this personal finance solution boasts powerful filtering and graphing tools. It imports and exports data to other financial software, and it offers helpful features like auto-completion, transaction reminders and a "car cost" report that tallies up all your vehicle-related expenses. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

4. iFreeBudget

This extremely simple double-entry accounting budget is aimed at home or small business users. The interface is very basic, but the Android support is nice for tracking purchases as you make them. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android

5. jGnash

Java-based jGnash offers double-entry accounting for your home finances. It imports data from Quicken and Microsoft Money, and it tracks investments and supports multiple currencies. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

6. JStock

This portfolio manager offers near real-time data from 24 world stock markets. Two features that set this project apart are the cloud-based storage option and the integrated chat capabilities for exchanging tips with other investors. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

7. KMyMoney

This app from KDE claims to be "the BEST Personal Finance Manager for FREE Users, full stop." If you've ever used Quicken or Microsoft Money, you should find it easy to use, and it also imports and exports Quicken files. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

8. Money Manager Ex

With "all the basic features that 90% of users would want to see in a personal finance application," Money Manager Ex offers a very user-friendly, simple interface. Key capabilities include AES encryption, one-click reporting, the ability to run from a USB drive without an install, depreciation tracking, investment tracking, international support and import from CSV and Quicken file formats. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

9. StockManiac

StockManiac describes itself as an "investment time machine" for private investors. It tracks transactions and stores documents related to your portfolio, and it makes it easy to track multiple accounts and multiple portfolios. It automatically updates stock prices with Internet data, and it includes a feed reader that lets you keep up on relevant news. Operating System: OS Independent

10. UnkleBill

One of the newer double-entry accounting apps on our list, UnkleBill offers a particularly attractive interface, complete with a cute UnkleBill cartoon character who offers tips and advice for new users. It supports multiple users and multiple accounts, and it creates PDF reports. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Lose Weight/Get Fit

11. Cronometer

If you're on a restricted calorie diet, this app can help you track the calories in the foods you eat as well as other health data. The link above will take you to the free Web app; you can find the source code at SourceForge. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, iOS

12. eFit Calorie Counter

With a database of nutrition information for 10,000 foods, this app helps you plan meals and count the calories you consume. It also includes a helpful recipe creator and a tool for tracking your body measurements. Operating System: Windows

13. iDiet

This app supports multiple diets, including Atkins, Summer Fresh, The Zone and Body for Life. Simply input the diet you're following and your goal. The app calculates how many calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc. you should be eating and then tracks your actual food consumption to see if you are staying on your plan. Operating System: OS Independent

14. My Tracks

This Android app uses your smartphone's GPS to trace your path when you go running, walking, biking or hiking. When you're finished, you can import your time, distance, speed and elevation change to a spreadsheet so that you can track your fitness or share your stats with others. Operating System: OS Independent

15. SportsTracker

Whether you're training for a specific event or just want to track your progress toward a more healthful lifestyle, Sports Tracker makes it easy to set up a plan and track your statistics. It also integrates with several popular heart monitors. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

16. TurtleSport

If you have a Garmin fitness device like the Forerunner or the Edge, this app can retrieve your data and create reports. It also integrates with Google Earth and Google Maps so that you can see where you've been. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Quit Smoking

17. QuitCount

This Linux-only app helps keep you motivated to stop smoking. You tell it the day you quit, and it keeps a running total of how much money you've saved, how much tar you didn't put into your body and how much time you have added to your life expectancy. Operating System: Linux

18. Smoke Reducer

Smoke Reducer keeps track of how long it's been since your last cigarette. It plays an alarm when it's time to smoke again, gradually lengthening out the time between smoking sessions until you stop completely. Operating System: Android

Stop a Bad Computing Habit

19. Amanda

Short for "Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver," Amanda is one of the most popular backup solutions available. It's designed for businesses or other other organizations with a large network of computers that needs to be backup up regularly. Operating System: Windows, Linux

20. Areca Backup

Not backing up your system is one of the worst of the bad computing habits. Fortunately, Areca Backup makes it fast and easy to copy your files to an external drive, and it offers advanced features like compression, encryption, delta backup and more. Operating System: Windows, Linux

21. BleachBit

How long has it been since you performed basic system maintenance on your PC? BleachBit helps speed up your system and protect your privacy by cleaning out your cache, deleting temp files and other junk, and erasing cookies. It also includes a file shredder to eliminate completely all traces of files containing sensitive or personal information. Operating System: Windows, Linux

22. AxCrypt

If you store personal information or data from your small business on your PC, you really should encrypt those files, especially if you are using a laptop. Downloaded more than 2.4 million times, AxCrypt integrates with Windows Explorer to make encrypting or decrypting individual files fast and easy. Operating System: Windows

23. TrueCrypt

If you don't want other people to be able to access any of the data on your drive, try TrueCrypt. It encrypts entire drives or partitions on the fly. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

24. KeePass

If your bad habit is using the same password for everything, KeePass can help. It stores unique passwords for every site or service you use in an encrypted database—you just have to remember one master password, and KeePass does the rest. Operating System: Windows

25. PWGen

Using easy-to-guess passwords is just as bad as using the same password all the time. PWGen creates strong passwords for you, so you won't be tempted to use "password" or "123456." Operating System: Windows

Start Your Own Business

26. Apache OFBiz

The Apache Open for Business Project includes much of the software you need to run a business—ERP, CRM, e-commerce, warehouse management, fulfillment, accounting, point of sale, and more—all in one free package. If you need support or consulting services to help you get started, check out the list of service providers on the site. Operating System: OS Independent

27. PrestaShop

If you're considering starting your own online business, PrestaShop might be for you. This award-winning shopping cart has been used to power more than 100,000 online stores, and it's very easy to use. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

28. Magento

Acquired by eBay last year, the Magento e-commerce platform powers more than 110,000 sites, including stores for Office Max, Harbor Freight Tool and The North Face. The community version is free; paid professional and enterprise versions and an SaaS version are also available. Operating System: Windows, Linux

29. Zen Cart

Designed in part by actual small business owners, this e-commerce tool is aimed at users without a lot of technical skills. The site includes plenty of tutorials and links to other services that are helpful when you're starting your own online business. Operating System: Windows, Linux

Get Organized

30.Data Crow

If your resolution involved organizing a large collection of CDs, DVDs, books or other stuff, Data Crow can help. This self-proclaimed "ultimate media cataloger" connects to online services to provide detailed data about the items in your library, and it even includes a feature to help you keep track of who borrowed your things. Operating System: OS Independent

31. Dia

Need to create a flowchart or org tree? Dia is the perfect tool for the job, and it's free. Operating System: Windows, Linux/Unix

32. GanttProject

If you're organizing a very large project, you may want to check out GanttProject. It's similar to Microsoft Project, and it allows you to divide a project into smaller subtasks, assign people to each task, and schedule it all. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

33. FreePlane

This fork of FreeMind (see below) has been racking up thousands of downloads. It offers traditional mind-mapping features, plus some advanced functionality. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

34. FreeMind

This mind-mapping software makes it easy to organize your thoughts, plan your activities, brainstorm or take notes. It's like an electronic whiteboard that lets you draw arrows and lines between words to show the relationships between your ideas. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

35. Gourmet

Gourmet helps you organize your recipes. It imports recipes from multiple formats, including websites, plus it generates shopping lists and counts the calories in the meals you're making. Operating System: Windows, Linux

36. OpenProj

OpenProj offers similar features as GanttProject and Microsoft Project. Note that the feature that allows you to export to PDFs is not open source, but the rest of the software is. Operating System: Windows, Linux, Unix, OS X.

37. PNotes

Much like real-world sticky notes, PNotes lets you leave virtual sticky notes for yourself on your computer. Interesting features of this app include audio notes, scheduling, password protection, encryption, transparency and more. Operating System: Windows

38. Stuff Organizer

Stuff Organizer makes it easy to organize and find any kinds of files on your computer—whether they're music, video, or just documents. Features include a compression extracting utility, tagging support and integration with several Web services that provide data about multimedia files. Operating System: Windows

Make Better Use of Your Time

39. eHour

If you're a freelancer, consultant or other professional who bills by the hour, eHour can help you track and bill for the time you spend on projects. It also has some multi-user capabilities suitable for small offices. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

40. Rachota

One way to make sure you're being as efficient as possible is to track the amount of time you spend on tasks. Rachota does just that—for both work and home situations. It's also portable, so you can take it with you. Operating System: OS Independent

41. RedNotebook

This innovative app adds a text editor to a calendar/to-do list app. The result is perfect for keeping a diary or making notes about upcoming events. Operating System: Windows, Linux

42. Makagiga

Makagiga offers the same schedule/journal functionality as RedNotebook, plus it adds a sticky notes widget and a feedreader. Other optional add-ons are also available. Operating System: Windows, Linux

43. qOrganizer

Like several of the other options in this category, qOrganizer offers a calendar, to-do list and an integrated journal. However, this one also adds special student-focused features, such as a booklet for tracking grades and attendance, a timetable for tracking classes and an extra loud alarm in case you've dozed off while studying. Operating System: Windows, Linux

44. Task Coach

Unlike many similar to-do list managers, Task Coach allows you to break tasks down into smaller sub-tasks. It also allows you to tag and organize tasks, and it integrates with some of most well-known e-mail clients, including Outlook and Thunderbird. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Take Up a New Hobby

45. Storybook

If writing a novel is on your to-do list for this year, Storybook can help you get started. It keeps an overview of characters and scenes in one place, helps you organize your book and includes features to help you maintain continuity. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

46. Celtx

Planning to tackle writing a screenplay or producing your own film? This "all-in-one movie pre-production system" can help you write scripts, produce storyboards, and much more. It boasts more than 1.5 million users in 170 countries. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

47. Stellarium

Have you always wanted to learn more about astronomy? Stellarium can show you the stars in the night sky as seen from any point on earth at any time—it's the same software used by many planetariums. You can use it to help plan your nightly viewing or just to learn more about the universe. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

48. Celestia

Like Stellarium, Celestia helps amateur astronomers explore the night sky, but this project goes one step further. It also lets you virtually "fly" throughout the galaxy and see how the stars would look from Mars, Jupiter or any other point in space. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

49. Gramps

Short for "Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System," Gramps is one of the best acronyms we've ever seen on an open source project. It's a professional-quality genealogical program with a very active user community and more than 1,100 pages of online documentation to help you trace your own family history. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

50. GenealogyJ

Like Gramps, GenealogyJ is a tool for viewing and editing your family history, but it was designed for amateurs, not professionals. Java-based, it creates family trees, timelines, maps, reports and more. Operating System: OS Independent

51. Sweet Home 3D

Determined to spruce up your home this year? This app helps you create 2D and 3D layouts of your rooms, complete with a preview of how the finished product will look. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

52. LenMus Phonascus

Phonascus is a music theory and aural (ear) training program for musicians of all levels. It includes a wide variety of audio and written exercises, as well as a score editor for composing your own works. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

53. GNU Solfege

You might not have been born with perfect pitch, but you can get better with practice. This app will help you improve your ability to identify and sing intervals, chords, scales and more. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

54. ScoreDate

First, let's make it clear that this app is not at all about dating—the "score" refers to musical scores. ScoreDate aims to teach anyone the basics of reading music. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

55. Numismatic

Yes, there's even an open source project for coin collectors. Numismatica stores data related to your collection in a MySQL database that you can access through a Web app. Operating System: OS Independent

Learn a New Language

56. jVLT

The Java Vocabulary Learning Tool, aka jVLT, aims to help users learn vocabulary for new languages. You can make up your own cardset or use the pre-built sets to learn French, English, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, German, Czech, Finnish or Russian. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

57. Parley

KDE's flashcard program can be used to learn any type of information, but it's particularly well adapted to learning new vocabulary. In addition to standard flashcards, it also offers anagram, multiple choice, fill in the blank, conjugation and other types of exercises. Operating System: Windows, Linux.

58. Step Into Chinese

This app can serve as both a Chinese-English dictionary and a flashcard system for mastering vocabulary. It includes pronunciation, translation and contextual information for more than 26,000 modern Chinese words and concepts. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

59. Zkanji

Zkanji is an elaborate English-Japanese dictionary. Included features can help you learn to write Japanese characters, study vocabulary or find meanings for words you don't know. Operating System: Windows

60. ZWDisplay

ZWDisplay helps those studying Chinese learn to pronounce Chinese words and read Chinese text. Clicking the Chinese characters displays a pinyin pronunciation guide and an English translation. Operating System: Linux

Improve Your Mind

61. Brain Workshop

Research suggests that dual n-back activities can improve working memory and fluid intelligence, and they also seem to help some ADHD/ADD sufferers. Downloaded more than 384,000 times, Brain Workshop lets you give your brain a workout by trying dual n-back exercises for yourself. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

62. CoolReader

If your resolution was to read more, this app can help. CoolReader lets you read e-books on your desktop, laptop or Android device. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

63. FlashQard

This learning tool is founded on two basic principles: different cards for different purposes and the Leitner System. Developed in the 1970s, the Leitner System is a proven methodology for spending more time on more difficult material and less time on materials that's already been mastered. As with many of the flashcard-type apps, this app lets you create your own cards or download sets that have already been created. Operating System: Windows, Linux

64. Genius

If you need to memorize something—anything—Genius can help. It's a spaced repetition flashcard program that can help you pass a test, master a subject, prepare for a speech and more. Operating System: OS X

65. The Mnemosyne Project

Another flashcard-type study aid, The Mnemosyne Project relies on a sophisticated algorithm to determine which card shows up when. Users also have the option of transmitting their data and progress to the project's owners, who are conducting a research project about the nature of memory. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android

66. Pauker

This flashcard app claims to help strengthen your ultra-short-term, short-term, and long-term memory. You can make your own cards if you want to learn something in particular, or you can use one of the many pre-written lessons, which include foreign languages, states/provinces and capitals, chemical elements, multiplication tables, musical terms and even European license plates. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

67. OpenCourseWare

The Open Courseware Consortium offers links to hundreds of "open source" university classes. Study nearly any subject you want with materials from institutions like MIT, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, University of California and dozens of others. Operating System: OS Independent

Become More Spiritual

68. BibleTime

The BibleTime free Bible study software includes data from more than 100 Bibles, commentaries and other reference materials. It's a good alternative to similar commercial software which can cost hundreds of dollars. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

69. Xiphos

This app works much like BibleTime and even links to the same set of free reference materials. However, Xiphos' modular design allows for user-built add-ons, including some that add journaling and prayer list features. Operating System: Windows, Linux

70. Zekr

Zekr brings the text of the Qu'ran to your PC with advanced search, read aloud and other functions. It's open source because the project owners believe you should "never profit off the prophet." Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Give Open-Source a Try

71. Firefox

One of the most well-known open source projects, Mozilla's Firefox browser boasts fast performance, personalization capabilities, and good security. Now it also comes in mobile versions, including a version optimized for tablets. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android

72. OpenOffice.org

Now an Apache Foundation project, OpenOffice.org offers an office productivity suite that reads and saves in Microsoft Office formats. It includes a word processer, spreadsheets, presentations, database and graphics applications. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

73. OpenDisc

This project combines many of the most popular open source apps for Windows into one package. It includes LibreOffice, Firefox, Celestia, The Gimp, Inkscape, Dia, and many other very good open source progams. Operating System: Windows

74. PortableApps.com

This project also collects a ton of open source apps—only this time the apps are formatted so that you can put them on a USB thumb drive and take them with you wherever you go. The standard download comes with some of the most popular open source apps, but the site also includes a library of hundreds of other apps that you can add to your portable drive. Operating System: Windows

75. Ubuntu

Used by 20 million people every day, Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions and one of the most user-friendly to people who are switching from Windows or a Mac. If you have an older PC sitting around, it's easy to install Ubuntu to take it for a test drive—and it comes with a huge library of free apps.

Reference

http://www.datamation.com

How Small Business PrintedArt Uses Linux and Open Source

2012-01-25T20:05:00.004+01:00

CREDITS:

Rikki Endsley

Sure, Linux is great for big organizations like Google, Facebook, and others, but what about small business? Take a look at PrintedArt. Founded in 2010, PrintedArt is an online shop that sells limited-editions of fine art photography. It now has three full-time and three part-time employees and eight sales representatives. According to President and CEO Klaus Sonnenleiter, Linux and open source play a number of roles in the company's success.

"We started with CentOS initially and our Web service is still run by CentOS," Sonnenleiter explains. "Our internal infrastructure is mostly Ubuntu server." He says the company is considering moving its Web server to Ubuntu, too, to simplify maintenance.

PrintedArt.com is a Drupal site, but Sonnenleiter says that several other content management systems were also evaluated. "Before settling on Drupal, we went through a major evaluation shoot-out between the different CMS options," he explains. "After looking at a fairly large number of options, Joomla, Drupal, Alfresco and Typo3 became the 'finalists'."

Drupal came out on top because of its layered API that lets PrintedArt plug into any place of the event model and create their own integrations and modules. "Aside from our own modules, we use mostly a standard line-up of relatively popular modules," Sonnenleiter says. Image modules, including ImageAPI and ImageCache, are particularly important for the PrintedArt.com site, as are Views and the Taxonomy modules. Ubercart, the free, open source e-commerce shopping cart module, is also a core part of the PrintedArt system.

Sonnenleiter says that in most cases the company creates their own modules rather than customizing existing code, with the exception of attribute-based pricing in Ubercart. "In its current form, it is limited to substitutions and additions, which are typical for product attributes that cover minor tweaks to a product," he explains. "For our model, we needed more complex price formulas that support prices being recalculated based on a dynamically generated item size in combination with the material chosen by the customer. There is unfortunately no clean way to plug into an API for this, so we reluctantly chose instead to create a patch that we apply to each new release of the uc_attribute module."

Using Git for Drupal Deployment

With limited resources, PrintedArt's complex Drupal infrastructure can present maintenance challenges. "We needed to choose between investing far more than we were comfortable with into day-to-day IT infrastructure work, or setting up a system that is rigid enough to allow a simple process without limiting us too much," Sonnenleiter says. "We found a good compromise through the use of Git as our deployment tool."

Although it might not be the original use case for Git, using it as a distributed repository for everything – including code, metadata, and files needed for the system to work – provides the fix PrintedArt needed.

"We maintain dev, staging, test, and deployment branches of the entire system, and thus we are able to bootstrap a fresh system within less than half an hour – whether it is for testing new functionality, verifying that no regression has occurred, or for disaster recovery," Sonnenleiter explains.

In addition to free and open source solutions, PrintedArt does use some commercial tools, too, such as page layout tools. "We use Apple's iWork suite of office products and we use a fairly large number of image manipulation tools, including open source and commercial applications – Lightroom, iPhoto, Pixelmator, HDR Darkroom, GIMP, HQPhotoEnlarger, and many more," Sonnenleiter notes. He says that the right tool is determined on a case by case basis, with functionality as the first factor followed by maintenance cost. "Purchase price is really a very minor factor in the cost of maintenance," he says.

"ImageMagick produces all our image derivative formats," Sonnenleiter says. "We do not publish the original hi-res formats of the images in the collection. Instead, we create resized derivatives using ImageMagick. The same process works when sending images – collection images or customer-supplied ones – into production. ImageMagick creates the file with the proper size and density for the print process from the original we have on file or that was submitted with a print order."

Open source even runs the phone system at PrintedArt, which uses Asterisk as their voice response unit that routes calls. "Since most of our extensions are remote, we allow all our sales agents to connect via SIP from their extension or to have incoming calls routed to their cell phones," Sonnenleiter says. "Voice mails are automatically copied to email, and we also use the Asterisk conferencing capabilities as our call bridge."

Linux by Proxy

And then, of course, there's Google, which runs PrintedArt's email, calendar, and other office infrastructure. "In addition, we use Capsule running as a Google App as our CRM," Sonnenleiter adds. "We also use MailChimp as a Google app, and we are evaluating Producteev as our project and todo-list manager."

Open source gives PrintedArt the advantage of being able to customize things the way the company needs them, Sonnenleiter explains. "It's not a way to get cheap software, since the purchase price is almost always a very minor factor in the cost of running a complex software system," he says.

The hidden cost of maintaining the system and making sure it runs correctly is a bigger issue for the company. "Asterisk, for example, has run in my basement for many years without creating any maintenance overhead, whereas any of the phone systems I have used in the past all needed constant attention." The fact that Asterisk is also open source and available without an initial investment just makes it even more appealing.

CREDITS:

Rikki Endsley

Reference:
https://www.linux.com/

FABULOUS ANDROID APPS

2012-01-23T11:48:00.050+01:00

1) Fuze Meeting HD
Need an audio- or video-conferencing solution for your Android device? Look no further than this app from FuzeBox. You can invite schedule and start meetings, as well as invite attendees from your address book, and even upload PowerPoint decks, Word documents, PDFs, and HD movies and images from your device. The app is free but the conferencing service is not, though there is a free trial period.

2) N e ws Republic
Are you a news junkie? Now your Android device can help you stay on top of all the breaking news with this app. Its feeds include many of the top news agencies, and it will organize relevant stories for you through its interactive interface.

3) Vlin go
Need to text, call, tweet or set your Facebook status and your hands are already occupied? That's no problem if you have Vlingo, which allows you to operate your Android phone with your voice. It even works with a wireless Bluetooth headset.

4) Se esmic
This Twitter client integrates streams from Twitter, Facebook and even Salesforce.com Chatter into a single client, allowing you to stay on top of all your messages from various sources. Unlike many clients, it supports multiple accounts, giving you the ability when composing a message to send it out via one of your accounts or all of them at once. You can also customize a large number of features.

5) S pringPad
Need help keeping track of notes and tasks and simply organizing important information? This app can help. You can save lists, tasks, products and recipes with relevant links.

6) The Weather Channel
Keep up with everything you need to know about the weather with this app. It features hourly, 36-hour and 10-day forecasts and live video from the TV channel.

7) SlideScreen
This app replaces your traditional home screen with one that shows summary information for SMS, Gmail, phone calls, Calendar, Google Reader, Stocks and Twitter, making seeing all your important information at once a snap.

8) iTriage Mobile Health
Use this app to help take better care of yourself. It was designed by two emergency room physicians to help users identify their systems and find a health care provider.

9) Mastercard ATM Hunter
This highly useful app uses your phone's location to find the nearest ATMs. You can even sort according to criteria including: drive through, 24-hour service, wheel chair accessibility and surcharge fees.

10) T iKL – Touch to Talk (PTT)
Turn your Android phone into a walkie-talkie with this app. It provides push to talk capabilities between Android phones without additional hardware and without using minutes. Communication is near instantaneous on 3G and 4G networks.

11) Phonebook
Looking for an alternative to manage your contacts? Phonebook displays your contacts with contextual information like missed calls, unread text messages and even birthdays.

12) Amazon Kindle for Android
Want to read an electronic book, newspaper or magazine but don't have your Kindle with you? Or don't have a Kindle at all? It's not a problem with this app, which allows you to read any of 900,000 Kindle-formatted books with your Android device. And Amazon's Whispersync that your last page read, bookmarks, notes and highlights will sync across your various devices.

13) aCurrency
This currency converter provides exchange rates for more than 160 currencies and updates the rates hourly. Its widgets provide access to historical charts.

14) Thinking Space
Thinking Space is a mind mapping application that allows you to visualize, structure and classify ideas. You can create nodes, add notes to them and arrange them, all with a UI that makes it a snap to work with. The maps you create with this app are also compatible with PC-based Xmind and Freemind.

15) M ightyMeeting
Manage a library of PowerPoint presentations directly from your Android phone with this app. You can use the app to share the presentations via e-mail, blog, Twitter and Facebook, and you can also start or join Web meetings using it.

16) JuiceDefender
Is the battery on your Android phone consistently running on empty? JuiceDefender can help you extend it! The app intelligently manages your mobile connectivity and other battery-sensitive components to ensure your phone runs as efficiently as possible. For example, the default mode switches your phone from battery-intensive 3G mode to the less-draining 2G mode when you're not actually using the phone, and it turns of the Wi-Fi radio if the charge goes below a certain level. The Advanced Mode allows you to tune the app's triggers based on your individual needs.

17) Wertago for Nightlife
Need help keeping track of the hottest nightclubs and parties? Wertago helps you find the best places to party and coordinate with your friends.

18) Free Dictionary Org
This simple, no-nonsense English dictionary provides definitions, synonyms, pronunciation and spelling.

19) Skifta
This app turns your Android device into a global remote control. Certified by the Digital Network Living Alliance (DNLA), Skifta allows your Android device to stream onboard media to any DNLA-enabled device, include TVs, stereos, PCs and the Sony PlayStation 3.

20) Save MM S
Ever get a picture through an MMS text message you wish you could save for posterity? This app lets you automatically save pictures, audio and video received in MMS text messages to your SD card. You can then access the saved files from your Pictures and Music apps.

21) Bluetooth File Transfer
With this app, you can explore and manage the files on any Bluetooth-enabled device, receive files and send contacts. It's built on FTP and Object Push Profile (OPP).

22) Kongregate Arcade for Android
Want to stay up on the newest and hottest Flash games around? This app gives you free access to more than 300 games from the Kongregate community and fully integrates with your existing Kongregate Web account.

23) Howcast for Android
Need to know how to change a tire, make banana pudding or survive a long airport layover right now? Howcast puts instructional videos in 25 categories right at your fingertips. Each video also comes with text instructions.

24) TED Mobile
Since 1984, the world's best and brightest have gathered at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conferences to spend no more than 18 minutes talking about the thing that fascinates them most. It's always illuminating, and with this app you can search and watch more than 700 TED Talks right from your phone.

25) Handcent SMS
Handcent SMS supercharges your texting with full support for SMS and MMS, group sending options and backup and restore features for SMS and MMS. Other features include the ability to customize your look with themes and SPAM filtering options.

26) TuneWiki
A replacement for your Android's default audio player, TuneWiki is a social music player that provides timed, subtitled lyrics to your music in more than 40 languages. It also includes charts and real-time maps of what people are listening to around the world.
27) eBuddy Messenger
This comprehensive IM client allows you to connect to multiple MSN (Windows Live), Facebook, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, GTalk, Hyves and MySpace accounts all at once. It shows all your contacts in one list and runs in the background. IMs are sent as data, not SMS.

28) Evernote
This app allows you to log, index and search all manner of information, from notes to audio to photos. For instance, you can take a photo of a white board and Evernote will recognize the text in the photo, index it and then allow you to find it later by entering a search term from the information on the white board. It even synchs with the Web.

29) EverPaper
EverPaper is a simple but excellent Instapaper client. It doesn't support folders yet, but it's under constant development. It also syncs with EverNote.

30) Yelp
Yelp for Android determines your current location and then lets you search for nearby businesses, read reviews and so on. It also lets users filter by "Price," "Open Now," "Special Offers" and "Hot on Yelp."

31) Time R ecording
Time Recording is an app that lets you manage your time sheet, including options like tasks, target time, hourly rate, paid overtime and multiple data/time formats. It also supports CSV export.

32) CallTrack
This app logs your phone activity to your Google Calendar, allowing you to track who you've called or received calls from and when.

33) ActionComplete
ActionComplete is a robust task manager. It is built around projects you create, which are made up of individual actions that serve as milestones in the project. The app is based on the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology created by David Allen in his book: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.

34) Google Chrome to Phone
Run the Google Chrome browser on your computer? This app lets you share links, maps and currently selected phone numbers and text between your computer running Chrome and your phone.

35) S MS Backup +
This app automatically backs up SMS, MMS and call log entries to a separate label in your Gmail account.

36) Fu sion Voicemail Plus
Centralize all your voicemail boxes, including mobile, home and office, on your Android phone with this app. It can receive and display FAXes too.

37) Parcels
This handy app lets you track all your packages in one place. Carriers supported include: Apple, Fedex, UPS, UPS Mail Innovations, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de, DHL Express National (Germany), DHL (Germany), DPD Standard (Germany), GLS (Germany), Hermes, TNT, TNT International (Netherlands), TNT National (Netherlands), OnTrac Shipping, LaserShip, Posten (Norway), Post (Austria), Post (Switzerland), Posten (Sweden), USPS, DHL (USA), DHL Express (GB), Home Delivery Network (GB), Japan Post Int. Mail, CNE Express, Royal Mail, Spee-Dee Delivery (USA), Parcelforce.

38) Read It Later
A simple, reliable tool that adds Instapaper to your sharing menu, so you can quickly tag articles as you browse.

39) Astrid Task Todo List
Get yourself organized with this todo list app. It features tagging, timers, reminders, smart task sorting and even tracks partial progress. You can sync your todo list with Remember the Milk, which can sync with Gmail.

40) Mint
Manage your money and keep track of your budget while on the move using Mint. It gives you up-to-date information on your accounts and lets you edit transaction info right on your phone. And it's password protected to make sure your information stays safe.

41) aCar
This app allows you to track the maintenance, fuel mileage and expenses of your vehicles. It provides notifications when it's time to change the engine oil, air filter, oil filter, etc.

42) GDocs for Android
This editor/viewer for Google Documents allows you to create, edit, view, import, export, send documents and sync them with your Google Docs account.

43) Dial Zero
Need to get in touch with customer service and don't want to wait on hold? Dial Zero maintains an index of more than 600 companies and how to cut through their automated answering services to get a live human being in no time.

44) Dropbox
Dropbox is a client for the Dropbox cloud-sharing file storage service. It makes it easy to get files onto your phone without explicit synching. You can add files to it from any of your computers and then access them from any other computer or phone.

45) Wikidroid
Use Wikipedia often? Wikidroid formats Wikipedia articles for your device with a sleek interface. It even includes voice search and bookmarks.View all of Wikipedia's articles formatted perfectly for your device in a fast and sleek interface.

46) Memory Booster – RAM Optimizer
Keep your Android phone running at its fastest with this app. Memory Booster optimizes our phone's memory by recovering memory leaks, flushing temporary libraries and defragmenting your phone's memory.

47) ESPN ScoreCenter
Get comprehensive ESPN sports coverage on your Android phone with this app. It provides near-real-time scores and schedules.

48) handyCalc Calculator
The app adds just about every calculator function you can think of to your Android phone, allowing you to put your scientific calculator in the drawer forever.

49) NewsRob
This is an excellent, plain but functional Google Reader client with built-in syncing for off-line reading.

50) TunIn Radio
Browse and listen to radio -- live, local and global.
Listen to the world.TuneIn is a new way to listen to the world through live local and global radio from wherever you are. Whether you want music, sports, news or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations and 1.2 million on-demand programs for you to choose from. The TuneIn Radio app lets you take this entire experience with you on your Android device.

51) Mobile9 client
mobile9 is an app store and more. Truly open, truly social. Millions of members are sharing the fun and billions of free downloads served.

52) WiFi Key Recovery
Have you ever forgotten the password of your home WiFi network, or the one you setup for your parents a few months back?This application will help you recover the password of a wireless network you have connected to with your device in the past.You can then either tap on an entry to copy it, or export the list to SD, or share it using the standard Android sharing facilities.It does not crack the network, or use the MAC/SSID address to deduce the password. It simply reads it from the device itself. Essentially it parses the wpa_supplicant file.

53) GAE Proxy
GAE Proxy App is a GAppProxy / WallProxy / GoAgent client for Android System.

Credits:
1.Thor Olavsrud
2. http://www.datamation.com
3. Android Market

The Secret World of Alternative Operating Systems

2011-12-30T13:10:00.022+01:00

Step into the world of operating system alternatives to Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Credits:Benj Edwards

Would you recommend this? YES85 NO20

The Background

When it comes to desktop operating systems, there are three obvious choices: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. But a whole world of alternative OSes lies below the mainstream radar.
These little-known products are actively or recently developed, and some folks actually use them to get things done. Here are twelve of these strange beasts, all of which run on modern x86-based PC hardware, and many of which can be downloaded for free. Impressively, none of them are based on Linux.

Sabily

Sabily (Arabic literary meaning: My Way) is a free, open source operating system designed by and for Muslims. It is based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution which is a Free and Open Source (FOSS) operating system and has pre-installed packages for the Arabic language. Sabily includes a set of packages that customizes Ubuntu. Ubuntu is easy to use for a novice user, with the most-used Office, Internet, Graphics and Video applications already installed.

With Sabily, Muslim users have “out of the box” Islamic software and tools installed as well. Sabily includes Islamic software (prayer times tool, Qur'an study tool, Hijri calendar etc.) and has a custom design. Sabily can be downloaded for free from the official website.

OpenGEM

GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) began its life in 1985 as Digital Research's graphical

shell for CP/M. It made its way to MS-DOS and was the Atari ST's interface. Caldera, which ended up owning GEM, open-sourced it in 1999. Since then, enthusiasts have updated and extended the code, which is typically released as FreeGEM or OpenGEM.

You can download an OpenGEM package that runs on just about any PC and includes apps-I recommend the "Full CD" package of FreeDOS, a DOS workalike that comes with OpenGEM. Just don't expect too much: GEM retains its primitive look-and-feel so it can run on old hardware.

Syllable

Syllable is a free, open source OS with a strange pedigree. It began in 2002 as a fork of AtheOS, an earlier open source operating system (no longer developed) that once aspired to be an AmigaOS clone. Syllable uses the AtheOS file system (itself similar to the BeOS file system) and retains partial POSIX compliance that makes it easier for Syllable enthusiasts to port Linux applications over to the platform if desired.

The ultimate result is an operating system that is neither here nor there and has very little application support. But its developers keep chugging along with the goal to provide a free, easy-to-use desktop OS that is not based on Linux.

MenuetOS

As a capable graphical OS, MenuetOS pulls off a remarkable feat: it can be booted and run off a single 3.5″ floppy disk. Of course, if you want a more sophisticated setup, you can install it on a hard drive.

A key feature of MenuetOS that lets it run in such limited space is that it is written entirely in x86 assembly language. The author's dedication to assembly-only programming keeps the OS and its included apps lean and speedy, and these properties have attracted a small but dedicated following over the past decade.

Breadbox Ensamble

Breadbox Ensemble traces its ancestry to PC/GEOS (cousin of the more well-known 8-bit GEOS), released by Berkeley Softworks in 1990. Like GEM, the environment failed to catch on in the face of Windows' success, so ownership of the OS changed hands over the years while maintaining a user base.

Ensemble, in its current configuration, looks and feels much like a cousin of Windows 95, and its capabilities are roughly equivalent. Unlike most of the operating systems on this list, it's not free software. Breadbox Computer Company still sells it from their website for $99.95 a copy.

Inferno

Inferno began in 1995 as a research operating system at Bell Labs. Its designers wanted to incorporate lessons learned in an earlier Bell research OS playfully called "Plan 9 From Bell Labs." Both are notable for being distributed OSes, which seamlessly allow users to utilize computing resources distributed across a network of machines.

Inferno differs significantly from Plan 9, however, by its inclusion of a virtual machine that ensures applications and the user interface are consistent across all platforms (which include x86, ARM, PowerPC, and SPARC). Inferno can be downloaded for free from its official website.

eComStation

After 1996′s OS/2 Warp 4, IBM's OS/2-the OS that was supposed to replace DOS-fell off the radar for most PC users. Behind the scenes, however, loyal users began to clamor for updates and upgrades. Within a few years, a company called Serenity Systems-with permission from IBM-began to deliver them. Serenity wrapped its OS/2 upgrades and OS/2 itself into a new OS distribution called eComStation, which Serenity still actively develops today. eComStation, currently at version 2.0, sells for $149 (Home Edition) to $219 (Business Edition).

Seal GUI for DOS

While Microsoft abandoned plain old MS-DOS back in 1995, that hasn't stopped die-hard users of the classic command line OS from keeping its spirit alive. A number of Windows-like graphical shells are available for MS-DOS and its workalike cousins (notably FreeDOS and DR-DOS) - we've already seen one in the form of OpenGEM.

Another well-regarded and capable GUI for DOS is Seal, a colorful 32-bit windowing system with low system requirements (it runs on a 486 CPU and up). It's also free, open source, and tweakable.

KolibriOS

KolibriOS is a small and speedy assembly-based hobby operating system that forked off of MenuetOS code in 2004. Like MenuetOS, this free, open-source OS can be run off a single floppy disk, but is also capable of expanding to meet larger needs on a hard disk installation. While Kolibri and Menuet are similar under the hood, each subscribes to a different user interface philosophy. Each is equally capable in its own way.

SkyOS

It's rare that someone undertakes a project to write a completely new x86-based operating system from scratch and sell it as closed source, proprietary software. But that's exactly what happened with SkyOS, which began as a simple bootloader program by Robert Szeleney in 1996. Over the next 8 years, Szeleney transformed it into a full-blown graphical OS with its own file system and API. He aimed to sell it and launched a paid beta program in 2004. Around 2008, updates began to dry up due to changes in Szeleney's life. Currently, development for SkyOS is on hold as Szeleney ponders the fate of what he has created.

ReactOS

If you've ever wanted to run Windows without actually running Windows, you're in luck. ReactOS is a free, open source Windows NT clone that aims to be 100% binary compatible with software written for Microsoft's NT-based operating systems (a la Windows XP).

This Windows clone is still in an early Alpha state, but it looks very promising. You can download a copy to try yourself from its official website.

Visiopsys

Visiopsys is a GUI-based hobby operating developed from scratch by programmer Andy McLaughlin in his spare time. The result, while limited compared to a commercial operating system, feels impressive for a one-man operation. It's open source and available for free download on the Visiopsys website.

Haiku

Of all defunct OSes, BeOS may have had the most promise. It emphasized simplicity, elegance, and support for parallel processing. The cancellation of development in 2001 upset BeOS fans.

Enter Haiku, a free, open-source BeOS. Over the past 10 years, Haiku developers have made impressive strides, despite the fact that the OS is still in an early alpha state. Due to Haiku's BeOS compatibility, many quality applications are available for this actively-developed OS. If Haiku continues to improve, the OS could become a mainstream, alternative desktop OS on par with Ubuntu Linux.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories. Downloa d Linux Mint for free from the official website.

References:

1. http://www.sabily.org/website
2. http://www.pcworld.com/article/228048 /the_secret_world_of_alternative_operating_systems.html
3. http://www.distrowatch.com
4. Benj Edwards, Technologizer

Openmeetings

2011-12-28T13:30:00.010+01:00

How to install Openmeetings 1.9.1 on Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS

First we need to add the partner repositories, editing the sources.list file and removing the comments for the partner lines

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo add-apt-repository “deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner”

sudo apt-get update

Then install the necessary packages

sudo apt-get install -y java-package sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-jre mysql-server openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-calc

sudo apt-get install -y openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-math imagemagick gs-gpl libart-2.0-2 libt1-5 zip unzip bzip2 subversion git-core checkinstall

sudo apt-get install -y yasm texi2html libfaac-dev libfaad-dev libmp3lame-dev libsdl1.2-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev zlib1g-dev libogg-dev sox libvorbis0a libvorbis-dev libgsm1 libgsm1-dev libfaad2 flvtool2 lame swftools

sudo apt-get install -y ghostScript imageMagick libpaper-utils msttcorefonts openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-filter-binfilter openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev openoffice.org-headless openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-writer pstoedit ttf-dejavu netbeans

Now, for the ffmpeg, it is necessary to download, compile and install it:

wget http://www.ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-0.6.1.tar.gz

tar -zxvf ffmpeg-0.6.1.tar.gz

cd ffmpeg-0.6.1/

./configure --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libxvid --enable-libvorbis --enable-libgsm --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree
make

sudo checkinstall

Now that all the dependencies for Openmeetings are met, let’s start the Openmeetings installation.

Get openmeetings (this includes the Red5 server):

wget http://openmeetings.googlecode.com/files/openmeetings_1_9_1_r4707.zip

Extract it and move it to /opt

unzip openmeetings_1_9_1_r4707.zip

sudo mv red5 /opt/

Change owner to nobody

sudo chown -R nobody\: /opt/red5

Make all the scrips executable

sudo chmod +x /opt/red5/*.sh

sudo chmod +x /opt/red5/webapps/openmeetings/jod/*.sh

Now let’s create the startup script for openmeetings:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/red5

Paste the following code:

#! /bin/sh
#
# red5 red5 initscript
#
# Author: Simon Eisenmann .
#
set -e
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DESC="Red5 flash streaming server"
NAME=red5
RED5_HOME=/opt/red5
DAEMON=$RED5_HOME/$NAME.sh
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
# Gracefully exit if the package has been removed.
test -x $DAEMON || exit 0
# Read config file if it is present.
if [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ]
then
. /etc/default/$NAME
fi
#
# Function that starts the daemon/service.
#
d_start() {
start-stop-daemon --start -c nobody --pidfile $PIDFILE --chdir $RED5_HOME --background --make-pidfile --exec $DAEMON
}
#
# Function that stops the daemon/service.
#
d_stop() {
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name java
rm -f $PIDFILE
}
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting $DESC: $NAME"
d_start
echo "."
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping $DESC: $NAME"
d_stop
echo "."
;;

restart|force-reload)
echo -n "Restarting $DESC: $NAME"
d_stop
sleep 1
d_start
echo "."
;;

*)
echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
exit 1
;;

esac
exit 0
exit 0

Now the same thing for openoffice startup script:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/openoffice

Paste the following code:

#!/bin/bash

# openoffice.org headless server script

#

# chkconfig: 2345 80 30

# description: headless openoffice server script

# processname: openoffice

#

# Author: Vic Vijayakumar

# Modified by Federico Ch. Tomasczik

#

OOo_HOME=/usr/bin

SOFFICE_PATH=$OOo_HOME/soffice

PIDFILE=/var/run/openoffice-server.pid

set -e

case "$1" in

start)

if [ -f $PIDFILE ]; then

echo "OpenOffice headless server has already started."

sleep 5

exit

fi

echo "Starting OpenOffice headless server"

$SOFFICE_PATH -headless -nologo -nofirststartwizard -accept="socket,host=127.0.0.1,port=8100;urp" & > /dev/null 2>&1

touch $PIDFILE

;;

stop)

if [ -f $PIDFILE ]; then

echo "Stopping OpenOffice headless server."

killall -9 soffice && killall -9 soffice.bin

rm -f $PIDFILE

exit

fi

echo "Openoffice headless server is not running."

exit

;;

*)

echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"

exit 1

esac

exit 0

Make both scripts executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/red5

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/openoffice

Now let’s make both services start automatically:

sudo update-rc.d red5 defaults

sudo update-rc.d openoffice defaults

Almost done, now to create openmeetings database (we have created a database user named openmeetings with the password password):

echo "CREATE USER openmeetings@localhost;" | mysql -u root -p

echo "CREATE DATABASE openmeetings DEFAULT CHARACTER SET 'utf8';" | mysql -u root -p

echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openmeetings.* TO 'openmeetings'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;" | mysql -u root -p

echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES;" | mysql -u root -p

And now configure openmeetings to use the database user created above:

sudo nano /opt/red5/webapps/openmeetings/conf/hibernate.cfg.xml

In the User / Password section, configure the correct database username (openmeetings) and password (password)

Now start openmeetings and openoffice:

sudo /etc/init.d/red5 start

sudo /etc/init.d/openoffice start

Go to a browser and point to the following link:

http://localhost:5080/openmeetings/install
or
http://[server ip]:5080/openmeetings/install

Press “Continue with step 1”

Then, fill the following fields:

Username

Userpass

Email

User time zone

Name

Default language

Then, finally click on the “Install” button, and Voila!

Credits

1. Nicky Hajal
2. http://www.757.org/~joat/wiki/index.php?n=Main.InstallationOfOpenMeetings
3. http://www.sherin.co.in/red5-flash-media-server-development-how-to-install- and-configure/
4. http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/wiki/InstallationOfRelease051
5. http://code.google.com/u/110427356855791826607/

Ntop

2011-12-27T15:17:00.016+01:00

Contents

1. Installation
1. Compiling ntop from source or SVN
2. Configuration
1. Fixing "Physical Host Location" feature (mapper.pl)
3. Access
4. Links

Ntop shows the current network usage. It displays a list of hosts that are currently using the network and reports information concerning the IP (Internet Protocol) and Fibre Channel (FC) traffic generated by each host. The traffic is sorted according to host and protocol. Protocols (user configurable) include:

* TCP/UDP/ICMP
* (R)ARP
* IPX
* DLC
* Decnet

AppleTalk
* Netbios
* TCP/UDP
FTP, HTTP, DNS, Telnet, SMTP/POP/IMAP, SNMP, NFS, X11
* Fibre Channel
o o Control Traffic - SW2, GS3, ELS o SCSI

(In human-readable, this means you can very comprehensively monitor your network traffic, connections & bandwidth via a web output)

Installation

UBUNTU

Packages needed for installation are:

ntop

You can just type the following to install it (make sure you enable the Universe repositories): https://help.ubuntu.com/7.10/add-applications/C/extra-repositories.html

sudo apt-get install ntop -y

Compiling ntop from source or SVN

The ntop source can be retrieved from Ubuntu's servers using a command like:

apt-get source ntop

which will unpack the source package into the current working directory with a name like ntop-3.3.10. You can also follow the instructions at ntop.org to retrieve the latest version from SVN (trunk):

svn co https://svn.ntop.org/svn/ntop/trunk/ntop

Most of the packages which will be required to build ntop from source on an Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) can be retrieved with the following command:

sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev libgdbm-dev libevent-dev librrd-dev python-dev libgeoip-dev

You must first run ./autogen.sh in the ntop directory to create the configure script, Makefiles, and such, as described here. The configure script is pretty good about telling you which dependencies are missing, if any. Don't forget you can pass configure options to autogen.sh, as in:

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/local/stow/ntop-svn

RPM - RedHat, CentOS, ClearOS, etc

Download latest ntop

Visit ntop project to grab latest version. You can use wget to grab the same, enter:
#cd /opt
#wget http://freshmeat.net/redir/ntop/7279/url_tgz/ntop-3.3.6.tar.gz

Untar tar ball, enter:
#tar -zxvf ntop-3.3.6.tar.gz
Configure and Compile ntop under RHEL

You must have RRDTool installed. You also need to install libpcap, enter:
# yum install libpcap-devel libpcap

Type the following commands to compile and install ntop:
#cd ntop
#./autogen.sh

Just type make to compile ntop:
#make

Just type make install to install ntop:
#make install
#make install-data-as

Configuration
UBUNTU
When first installing & configuring the ntop application you need to set an admin password.

sudo ntop --set-admin-password

restart the service with

sudo /etc/init.d/ntop restart

RPM - RedHat, CentOS, ClearOS, etc

Type the following command to run ntop as ntop user, enter:
#useradd -M -s /sbin/nologin -r ntop

Setup directory permissions

Next, you need to setup directory permissions, enter:
#chown ntop:root /usr/local/var/ntop/ #chown ntop:ntop /usr/local/share/ntop/

Setup ntop user admin password

Type the following command to set ntop admin password, enter:
#ntop -A

Sample output:

Mon Jul 28 03:38:34 2008  NOTE: Interface merge enabled by default
Mon Jul 28 03:38:34 2008  Initializing gdbm databases
ntop startup - waiting for user response!
Please enter the password for the admin user:
Please enter the password again:
Mon Jul 28 03:38:42 2008  Admin user password has been set

Start ntop

Type the following command to start ntop:
# /usr/local/bin/ntop -d -L -u ntop -P /usr/local/var/ntop --skip-version-check --use-syslog=daemon
Sample output:

Mon Jul 28 03:42:19 2008  NOTE: Interface merge enabled by default
Mon Jul 28 03:42:19 2008  Initializing gdbm databases

If you have multiple interface (eth0, eth1 and so on), start ntop as follows:
# /usr/local/bin/ntop -i "eth0,eth1" -d -L -u ntop -P /usr/local/var/ntop --skip-version-check --use-syslog=daemon

The host location results com from http://geotool.servehttp.com instead, a service of MaxMind, who provide the libgeoip1 library also used in ntop.

Access

To access your network statistics via the web visit the web address:

http://localhost:3000
OR
http://server-ip:3000

References:

1.
http://www.ntop.org/download.html
2.
http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/ - helps manage source packages without sullying /usr/bin, /usr/share, and so on
3.
http://didar15.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/install-ntop-on-redhat-linuxcentos
4.
http://csmartonline.com/blog/2011/12/21/installing-ntop-for-clearos/

Find Hidden Processes and Ports - Linux / Unix / Windows

2011-11-30T09:12:00.004+01:00

Quick Tip: Find Hidden Processes and Ports [ Linux / Unix / Windows ]

by Vivek Gite on November 24, 2011 · 9 comments

Unhide is a little handy forensic tool to find hidden processes and TCP/UDP ports by rootkits / LKMs or by another hidden technique. This tools works under both Linux / Unix, and MS-Windows operating systems. From the man page:

It detects hidden processes using three techniques:
The proc technique consists of comparing /proc with the output of /bin/ps.
The sys technique consists of comparing information gathered from /bin/ps with information gathered from system calls.
The brute technique consists of bruteforcing the all process IDs. This technique is only available on Linux 2.6 kernels.

Most rootkits use the power of the kernel to hide themselves, they are only visible from within the kernel. You can use unhide or tool such as rkhunter to scan for rootkits, backdoors and possible local exploits.

How do I Install Unhide?

It is recommended that you run this tool from read-only media. To install the same under Debian or Ubuntu Linux, enter:
# apt-get install unhide
Sample outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
rkhunter
The following NEW packages will be installed:
unhide
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 822 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,872 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze/main unhide amd64 20100201-1 [822 kB]
Fetched 822 kB in 5s (162 kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package unhide.
(Reading database ... 166644 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking unhide (from .../unhide_20100201-1_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up unhide (20100201-1) ...

FreeBSD: Install unhide

Type the following command to install the same using the port, enter:
# cd /usr/ports/security/unhide/ # make install clean
OR, you can install the same using the binary package, enter:
# pkg_add -r unhide
unhide-tcp is a forensic tool that identifies TCP/UDP ports that are listening but are not listed in /bin/netstat through brute forcing of all TCP/UDP ports available.

How Do I Use This Tool?

You can use it as follows:
# unhide-posix proc # unhide-posix sys
OR
# unhide-linux26 proc # unhide-linux26 sys # unhide-linux26 brute
Sample outputs:

Unhide 20100201
http://www.security-projects.com/?Unhide
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through kill(..,0) scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through  comparison of results of system calls
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through getpriority() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through getpgid() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through getsid() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through sched_getaffinity() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through sched_getparam() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through sched_getscheduler() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through sched_rr_get_interval() scanning
[*]Searching for Hidden processes through sysinfo() scanning
HIDDEN Processes Found: 1

# unhide-tcp
Sample outputs:

Unhide 20100201
http://www.security-projects.com/?Unhide
Starting TCP checking
Starting UDP checking

However, I found something interesting:
# unhide-tcp
Sample outputs:

Unhide 20100201
http://www.security-projects.com/?Unhide
Starting TCP checking
Found Hidden port that not appears in netstat: 1048
Found Hidden port that not appears in netstat: 1049
Found Hidden port that not appears in netstat: 1050
Starting UDP checking

The netstat -tulpn or ss commands displayed nothing about the hidden TCP ports # 1048, 1049, and 1050:
# netstat -tulpn | grep 1048 # ss -lp # ss -l | grep 1048

Featured Articles:

Culled from nixCraft

Daybreak Afrika Technologies Facebook Fan Update

2011-11-29T09:58:00.004+01:00

Cool Websites

Cool Websites and ToolsCheck out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email

PowerInbox – Facebook users usually get an email from the social network each time they receive a wall post, comment, or any other type of notification. To view this notification you have to click on a link in the email that opens in a new tab. Here to save you from those extra click and new browser tabs is a web service called PowerInbox. Read more: PowerInbox: Use Social Networks From Email

		Smozzy – One of the major reasons people purchase smartphones is to browse the Internet. But increasing costs of data plans that phone carriers charge discourage smartphone owners from Internet browsing. Here to offer a workaround is an Android app called Smozzy. Instead of making you browse directly through your phone’s browser, the app lets you send your URL to it as an SMS. Read more: Smozzy: Browse The Web Without The Data Plan [Android 2.1+]

		Dropboxdiff – TextDiff programs let you compare texts and resolve any conflicts between them. They are most helpful while comparing and resolving multiple versions of the same file. In case your file versions are stored on your Dropbox account, you would normally first need to download them and then send them to your textDiff program. But an extension called Dropboxdiff does this for you in a single step. Read more: Dropboxdiff: Easily Compare File Versions On Dropbox

Culled from Make Use Of

Ensemble gets some juju!

The project with working title Ensemble, will make its first release under the name juju as part of Ubuntu 11.10’s Universe collection of packages. We will have a series of planned 11.10 Stable Release Updates for juju throughout the push to 12.04 LTS, which will mark the first enterprise release of the product.
Juju is the word for “magic” in the same African languages from which the term Ubuntu comes. Formulas will become charms (such magic is conducted with charms) and Principia will become the Charm Collection.

Why the name change?

While we liked the sophistication and refinement that went along with the name “Ensemble”, we were struggling to find a cohesive link between the tool itself, “formulas” for deployment, and “Principia” (the shared collection of formulas we want to grow a community around). All three were great names by themselves, but when combined didn’t connect well as a whole. First we considered going for a more music focused theme, with formulas becoming “collaborations” “chords” or “sheets” for example. However, given there’s already the Ubuntu Orchestra project, we felt like we might be taking the music theme too far, plus we were already having confusion around the two because of the name similarities. So we decided to go with something that had a bit of excitement and “punch” to it, that could also represent the same fun we’ve found folks having when using our project. We figured it should represent the complexities and mystery that often surround those skilled in the DevOps field, and be something that played on the same “u” sound and etymology as Ubuntu. Thus, “juju” was born!

When will the change happen?

Immediately! We’ve already created juju.ubuntu.com, with a redirect from ensemble.ubuntu.com in place. We also have the irc channel #juju reserved on freenode, and will soon rename the mailing list to juju@lists.ubuntu.com. Over the next week, we’ll update documentation, the associated Launchpad projects and teams, the code itself, and update the packages in Oneiric. Everything will be done and ready for testing in the Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 release. We’ll follow that up with updating the charms and will make new cloud.ubuntu.com related screencasts where feasible. For the record nothing else is changing, but the naming…the code and formulas will behave the same.
If you run into any problems or having any questions, please send them to me or post to ensemble@lists.ubuntu.com.
Thanks!
—
Robbie Williamson <robbie@ubuntu.com>
On behalf of the juju development team

Culled from Ubuntu Cloud Portal

The Song Thieves

2007-08-10T13:44:00.004+01:00

There goes a boy, within the ages of late teens, twenties and early thirties. He has a mobile phone- very expensive- playing loud music that is likely disturbing anybody who cares. He wears a very noticeable perfume. Clean outfit, I think he has a car. Very arrogant, with proofs he is all out to oppress not impress anybody who cares. Relate him(his affluence) with his parental background, most of the time if not always not comparable. Does he has a job? One million naira question.

Be it "Yahoo Boys," 419, Advanced fee fraudsters, spammer, scammer or whatever the plague that has eaten up into our innocent industrious and ever resilience society. This unfortunate phenomenon has reared its ugly head into a seemingly acceptable norm among youngsters, the supposedly leaders of tomorrow !!! Only God knows where a set of former government leaders hitherto political leaders that currently undergo trials concerning financial and other official excesses must have got their experiences from. Unarguable, corruption and sharp practices have become pervasive world wide from Far East to Middle East, East, West, Sub Sahara, etc. To say the least, corruption is a world menace.

The most disturbing of my concerns about these young evil geniuses is what will eventually become of them when their time to payback becomes present. Whether the society that praises, honours, crowns, condones, encourages and accepts these polished thieves likes it or not, that same society will bear the brunt of their eventual destitution !!! The end is near, even 30 years time is near. Forget that they will payback by the way of EFCC, ICPC or any other government agencies. The ultimate payback lies with The Almighty. No plea bargain !!! The nature has a natural way of taking care of nature. Days of reckoning. The results are not far fetch, look around, meet the elders, check histories. People that have not even got to this level of abysmal human inhumane tendencies to fellow human did suffer a great deal of retributions .

In reality, the losses and/or gains as well as the pains, joys, trauma and razzmatazz which usually are the aftermath of these nefarious acts are, however, transient. The ultimate losers in the long run are the "Yahoo Boys," 419, Advanced fee fraudsters, spammers, scammer because they are going to stay a long time down the ladder after they might have fallen from their devilish heights . Less I forget, it takes two to tango. An appreciable percentage of the preys are a little different from their predators. This is never a blanket cover as some became preys only because of trust, therefore, in my opinion it is high time people became conservative with TRUST, in fact, absolute trust. The biggest percentage of the prey are the innocent and industrious Nigerian who bear the heaviest brunt of these corrupt actives. Like I wrote, earlier, corruption is a world menace. Nigeria, my country is not the only origin of sharp practices that has become the bane of the Internet. Most, if not all, of the software that were being used to perpetrate this unholy acts were never written by Nigerians. I plead not to be misunderstood, not all software that are being used to commit these ungodly acts are designed for the purpose of malicious activities but the fact remains that some software have been conceived, planned, designed, written, debugged and distributed primarily with malicious intentions. It is only a big loss to Nigeria and Nigerians as the information or misinformation has been unusually mismanaged. This unfortunate situation is portraying the serious and genuine Nigerian business fellow in bad light. It is becoming more difficult, by the minutes, to carry out business across international borders, especially for the Small and Medium Enterprise(SME). Even when you have your money to pay it has not been this difficult to pay for goods and services. A personal experience from my last ordeal when I made a request for information on certain equipment. The response was that "we do not deal with Nigerians"!!!

A fair solution to this phenomenon is for all hands to be on deck. It is never enough for the police and/or other law enforcement agents to go into every cyber cafe to arrest just anybody on site but this is a manifestation of systemic failure in the systems and should be addressed such. Therefore, the relevant institution empowered to do this job should be left, though monitored, to do the job. There is a need for public enlightenment on the part of government. This will go a long way to educate some innocent parents of these dare devil sons and daughters as some unsuspecting parents have been schooled to believe that their wards are involved in legitimate jobs. Also parents that are found to be collaborating and/or encouraging their wards in committing these heinous crimes must be made to face prosecution in the court of law. Likewise, youngsters should also be educated on real values, which also include hard earned money not stolen money, the fear of poverty is never a holy but a devilish excuse for stealing and deceit, on African value of pride as this has nothing to do with oppression and intimidation. The fear of God, Almighty, as the bedrock of freedom. It will be my joy, especially as a member of the Information Technology community to be free of any prejudice as a Nigerian.

Alive and Proud

2007-05-15T17:11:00.000+01:00

Alive and proud-thanks to The Almighty

I am learning to die for what I love, even when am
wrong- therefore, I must also learn to carry out
proper evaluation before commitment to love

I will live to tell my stories another day