A few drops about Linux

Shell Expansion

2011-08-27T21:21:00.003-03:00

This friday, my friend was developing a shell script in KSH for AIX. In this script, several files with a special naming convention should be selected, but only part of the name should be considered. The format is:

word1-word2-extension-serial1-serial2-name.cmt

Where:

word1: any length

word2: any length

extension: any length

serial1: 6 chars

serial2: 6 chars

name: any length

So, these name would be ok, for instance:

CONTAB1-PALAVRA2-NMT-123456-123456-gilberto.cmt

CTB1-PLV2-XYZ-654321-000001-joaozinho.cmt

From those names, everything before the serials should be extracted. That is:

CONTAB1-PALAVRA2-NMT

CTB1-PLV2-XYZ

At first, the nightmare are the 3 variable length parts and the NAME , which is also variable. But SHELL EXPANSION can beat it. And the best, not only BASH, but it does apply to KSH (I really didn't know that !!!).

So, the solution:

$ var='CONTAB1-PALAVRA2-NMT-123456-123456-gilberto.cmt'

$ echo ${var%%-??????-??????-*.cmt}

CONTAB1-PALAVRA2-NMT

The second example:

$ var='CTB1-PLV2-XYZ-654321-000001-joaozinho.cmt'

$ echo ${var%%-??????-??????-*.cmt}

CTB1-PLV2-XYZ

Once again, the apparently cryptographic hieroglyphic SHELL did it!!!

:D

Disk full with Squid3

2011-02-04T03:55:00.000-03:00

Besides working in an excellent company, I have some networks I help to administer. And recently, one of these friends called me complaining about the internet dropping. Immediately I got a SSH session to his firewall, and started my investigation job.

In fact, SQUID was not working anymore. Starting it was unuseful. Reading it's log gave me the following details:

$ sudo less /var/log/squid3/cache.log

CPU Usage: 0.044 seconds = 0.016 user + 0.028 sys

Maximum Resident Size: 23936 KB

Page faults with physical i/o: 0

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Starting Squid Cache version 3.0.STABLE19 for i486-pc-linux-gnu...

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Process ID 4628

2011/02/03 15:16:42| With 1024 file descriptors available

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Performing DNS Tests...

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Successful DNS name lookup tests...

2011/02/03 15:16:42| DNS Socket created at 0.0.0.0, port 35799, FD 7

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Adding nameserver 192.168.1.9 from squid.conf

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Unlinkd pipe opened on FD 12

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Local cache digest enabled; rebuild/rewrite every 3600/3600 sec

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Swap maxSize 10240000 + 8192 KB, estimated 788322 objects

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Target number of buckets: 39416

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Using 65536 Store buckets

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Max Mem size: 8192 KB

2011/02/03 15:16:42| Max Swap size: 10240000 KB

2011/02/03 15:16:42| /var/spool/squid3/swap.state.new: (28) No space left on device

FATAL: storeDirOpenTmpSwapLog: Failed to open swap log.

I figured the problem was solved, but surprisingly, space was not the problem, as I could notice:

$ df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 9,2G 2,0G 6,8G 23% /

none 434M 208K 433M 1% /dev

none 438M 0 438M 0% /dev/shm

none 438M 68K 438M 1% /var/run

none 438M 0 438M 0% /var/lock

none 438M 0 438M 0% /lib/init/rw

/dev/sda3 63G 42G 18G 70% /var

After some minutes mulling over this problem, I remembered that not only disk space is defined when a partition is formatted, but also the quantity of free inodes. To inspect this, I used df again:

$ df -i

Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 610800 70254 540546 12% /

none 110874 692 110182 1% /dev

none 111925 1 111924 1% /dev/shm

none 111925 36 111889 1% /var/run

none 111925 2 111923 1% /var/lock

none 111925 1 111924 1% /lib/init/rw

/dev/sda3 4153344 4153344 0 100% /var

The line above means I have no spare inodes, although there is a considerable free space. I have to look for which directory is consuming the inodes, or in other words, crowded with small files. Since I know it is in /var, there is where my search starts:

$ sudo du -s /var/* | sort -n

That will show the "heaviest" directory. In my case, it is /var/lib. So let's start again:

$ sudo du -s /var/lib/* | sort -n

The directory that was released was /var/lib/sarg, with the following files:

$ ls -l /var/lib/sarg/

total 52

drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2010-04-12 13:40 2010Apr12-2010Apr12

drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 4096 2010-04-15 04:00 2010Apr14-2010Apr14

drwxr-xr-x 45 root root 4096 2010-04-16 04:00 2010Apr15-2010Apr15

drwxr-xr-x 45 root root 4096 2010-04-16 16:45 2010Apr16-2010Apr16

drwxr-xr-x 41 root root 4096 2010-04-19 12:55 2010Apr19-2010Apr19

drwxr-xr-x 98 root root 4096 2010-09-06 14:22 2010Sep01-2010Sep06

drwxr-xr-x 168 root root 12288 2010-09-30 20:01 Daily

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-04-12 13:40 images

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 780 2010-09-30 20:00 index.html

drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 2010-09-01 02:38 Montly

drwxr-xr-x 49 root root 4096 2010-09-27 01:03 Weekly

Precisely, these are files done in a previous (unsuccessful installation of sarg). I may also notice that it happened almost one year ago. It was my fault to forget removing old useless files. After removing this directory, the inodes were restaured:

$ df -i

Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 610800 70254 540546 12% /

none 110874 692 110182 1% /dev

none 111925 1 111924 1% /dev/shm

none 111925 37 111888 1% /var/run

none 111925 2 111923 1% /var/lock

none 111925 1 111924 1% /lib/init/rw

/dev/sda3 4153344 1922631 2230713 47% /var

After that, squid could be started.

Installing a brand new Ubuntu box

2011-01-25T16:21:00.014-03:00

I am using a Dell Optiplex 780 as my desktop at my job now, and so I do need my environment back, that means, I have to reinstall Ubuntu.

Got a usb memory prepared to install it, asked Windows 7 to release some space in HD (almost 80% of space, in fact), and started the procedure.

Ubuntu 10.10 up and ready, let's start to make it the best I can, and that's the reason why I wrote this post.

Cleaning old lists
First of all, I need to rebuild the apt lists:

sudo rm -v /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo apt-get update

This is only needed because for an unknown reason the original lists has some errors. I am really not aware about these mistakes.

Basic tools
Before starting, I need to prepare my surgery tools:

sudo apt-get install vim aptitude htop ssh k3b ssh ipcalc \
vlc gnome-mplayer compizconfig-settings-manager \
compiz-fusion-plugins-extra

Compiz Configs
There are some adjustments I always do in Compiz interface. Of course, they are optional:

as_active_plugins = core;ccp;move;resize;place;decoration;gnomecompat;workarounds;neg;vpswitch;text;svg;ring;regex;commands;dbus;session;imgjpeg;mousepoll;shift;png;reflex;resizeinfo;animation;wobbly;fade;cube;rotate;3d;cubeaddon;scale;scaleaddon;expo;ezoom;
as_next_key = Tab
as_prev_key = Tab
as_initiate_key = Disabled

These configurations may be inserted through compizconfig-settings-manager, instead of dealing with configuration files.

Installing Java on Maverick Meercat

2011-01-25T16:12:00.003-03:00

~~I don't know why, but Java is not available from Canonical repositories anymore. I just came over that because I needed to have my job's desktop reinstalled.~~

~~So,~~ These are easy and single steps to provide Java-6 and Jetty application service in my Ubuntu server:

$ sudo aptitude install python-software-properties
$ add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner"
$ sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-jre
$ sudo aptitude install libjetty-extra-java libjetty-java jetty

Working fine now!!!

This was edited after reading http://x4nd3m4c.blogspot.com/2011/02/instalando-o-jetty-no-ubuntu-1004.html. Thanks, Alexandre.

Kernel vulnerabilities

2010-10-21T12:49:00.003-03:00

Some serious vulnerabilities in kernel are forcing an update for Ubuntu Users, since version 6. Before the press start to shout out loads of hyperbolics tales stressing how vulnerable Linux really "is", everybody must know that solutions are ready to be downloaded and applied.

Knowing Ubuntu, desktop users have already been alerted about this update, that must be installed. But for Ubuntu Server administers, it must be manually performed.

What you need to do is:

1) Update your repositories:

$ sudo apt-get update

2) Verify the kernel installed version

$ uname -r
2.6.32-25-generic

My kernel version is generic.

Install the right kernel version and dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install linux-generic

And reinstall the server.

Empathy does not access MSN

2010-10-21T09:36:00.003-03:00

Since yesterday my empathy client does not show my contacts from MSN anymore. It is an empathy problem, and I found the solution (workaround) for this. You can find this in this page, but I will show it here quickly:

If you are in text interface, type the following line:

$ sudo vim /usr/share/pyshared/papyon/service/description/SingleSignOn/RequestMultipleSecurityTokens.py

In graphic interface, press ALT+F2 and type:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/pyshared/papyon/service/description/SingleSignOn/RequestMultipleSecurityTokens.py

Look for this line:

CONTACTS = ("contacts.msn.com", "?fs=1&id=24000&kv=7&rn=93S9SWWw&tw=0&ver=2.1.6000.1")

and change it to

CONTACTS = ("contacts.msn.com", "MBI")

Save the file and restart Empathy. It will now work!

No more bootmisc.sh in Karmic Koala

2009-11-25T12:38:00.012-03:00

Until 9.04, /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh was used to provide automatic initialization to several services. It was invoked from /etc/rcS.d/S55bootmisc.sh, before X starting.

In 9.10, it does not work anymore, and I still do not know why. So, /etc/rc.local may be a replacemente for it. For instance, I have some VirtualBox shared folders I want to be available as soon as Karmic server is ready to work. So my /etc/rc.local now is like:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Shared Folders Mounts
if [ -z "$(grep '/media/SwitchFiles' /proc/mounts)" ]; then
/bin/mount -t vboxsf SwitchFiles /media/SwitchFiles
fi

# Shared Folders Mounts
if [ -z "$(grep '/var/cache/apt/archives' /proc/mounts)" ]; then
/bin/mount -t vboxsf AptArchives /var/cache/apt/archives
fi

exit 0

Some interestings notes:

- I do not trust /etc/mtab, but I'd rather believe in /proc information;

- Shared folders will just work if they are not mounted yet.

- The module vboxsf was provided by Virtualbox compilation process.

This procedure complements this article. Do not forget to comment and to tell if this was useful or not.

MSN forced update

2009-11-23T18:52:00.004-03:00

Until some days ago, My MSN Live was always reminding me to update. But, as lots of guys, I didn't. Right now, it refused to work until I accepted to update. I don't know what for, I did not received any comment about it, I did not authorized any download. But anyway, they did it again.

I am not one of the Linux evangelists anymore, I do agree with interoperability, I do think it is necessary. But I paid any single cent for my computer, so I am the one to decided what will be in it or not.

The reason I left MS Vista HP in my Toshiba was: it is legal. After some years only working with Linux in home and XP in the office left me behind in several topics. I tried to give MS a chance.

But they keep wandering around in my laptop, in and out, without telling why or when. It is just like this is not my laptop. I am aware that they allowed me to use Vista, and that I do not own it. Okay!!! But the laptop is still mine, I own it, I must decide what I want or not! and also when!!
Up here they allow me to choose yes (Sim) or no (Não) as an answer to "May I (MS) install the software I (MS) downloaded in your laptop (the sucker's laptop)? ".

They "offered" some stuff to install, and I answered them "no,thanks". Since I have no choice (not democratic!), just give me Live MSN, thanks. But they warned it would cost 160MB. Awful!

Not only this, but there is an interesting translating problem: Silverlight's is in English !!! Here in Brazil they always complained about our poor translation. But that, years ago. Now, in 2009, they did the same ? Shame on you ...

After, I spent some minutes to overview the contract, and there they told me:
- I cannot use the service in a "harmful way" (my translation) to MS or to the announcers. So, I can't use MSN to complain about my insatisfaction with MS? Is that correct ?
- I agree that they may use whatever I type in MSN, almost in the way they understand they should.
- In case of being prejudiced, the MS can refund me as compensation no more than the value I pay monthly. Not even a penny more. Also, it doesn't matter whether MS knew or should know about anything that could prejudice me!!!
- This contract is eletronic, but I can not copy/paste it or at least perform a search in it. And if I need to find any word in it? no way!
- MS does not guarantee anything. Software SHOULD work, OS SHOULD work. And where is the problem in using free software ? It is also not guaranteed.
- In my case, as it is for everyone who lives in any country of South America, most problems related to the service should be resolved in Washington. If I am complaining, and if in Brazil we have MS offices also, why in the world should I go to Washington ?

For now, I had to accept this all. I will still try to evaluate if it is really worthy to use a licensed Windows copy. I am not speaking about piracy. I am speaking about free software, mainly Ubuntu.

Root Security in Ubuntu

2009-11-20T20:56:00.011-03:00

Most of my Linux students always question about Ubuntu's root password. "It is not comfortable, it is unnecessary", and many more excuses. That led me to start changings in my Linux study-pack, in User Administration chapter.

Why ?

Definitively, it is really dangerous to use any OS with an administrative account. At any moment, you can be called to do something else, or for a phone call, or even something that only you can do (and since you work with computers, you ALWAYS forget to do!!!).

Anyway, if this happen, and you need to leave the workstation, maybe you are not editing a file or doing something more complex, or you are doing one of those heavy duties. If you aren't involved with this, that's okay.

If you are, you will either remember to lock your graphic desktop (or CLI environment) or not. If you remember, that's okay.

If you don't, someone else can do anything as the administrator. This is really unwanted. And worst, commands issued are not logged. Some of them may write something. But not them all.

One more thing, and I really dislike this: I do not want to give away root permission to my team. Root password (when exists) should be known by few members, all of them with administrative corporative responsibilities.

SUDO

Ubuntu Server root account has no valid password, by default. Since this is the only account common to all Linux distro, nobody will be able to access it. Since it is needed to know an account, system gets little bit less unsafe.

“sudo” allows a user to execute commands as any other, mostly administrative commands. At first, the user created at install time is included in this "administrative staff". This user can do anything with sudo, as root. The configuration file is /etc/sudoers. This is written upon Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10).

Including an Administrative account

If I want to include Thomas Martin (let's suppose his account is tmartin) as an administrative user, all I have to do is to add him to "admin" group:

sudo adduser tmartin admin

From now on, he can do anything as root. But, whatever he does will be registered in /var/log/auth.log. Watch this example from user "teste":

Nov 13 21:55:14 fw-tosh sudo: teste : TTY=tty1 ; PWD=/home/teste ;
USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/aptitude install vim

He installed (or tried to install) vim in Nov 13, at 21:55, in TTY1, he was in his home directory when issued this command, and it ran with "root" id We can also see that this happened in “fw-tosh” host.

What this line does not tells me is if his operation was well succeeded or not. But there are other log files, such as /var/log/dpkg.log that really help.

Shared Folders in VirtualBox with Ubuntu Server

2009-11-18T11:07:00.021-03:00

I really enjoy VirtualBox. After knowing it a little, I quit thinking about VMWare, for my Linux courses. Now, there is something really necessary when you work with more than one Virtual Machines: a shared folder.

A shared folder exists in the host system, and accessed by one or more guest systems. Thus, if VM1 needs to copy a file to VM2, just copy it to that folder. Easy like that.

Defining the Shared Folders

First, in Virtualbox console, you set one or more folders to be shared, as shown:

In the right panel above, you can see "Shared Folders". In this example there are already 2 shared folders. Click "Shared Folders", written in blue.

All shared folders are listed here. To add one more, click the folder with a "plus" signal, at the right side.

Write the host's folder full location, at "Folder Path" field. Optionally, this folder can be set as Read Only.

Virtualbox will suggest a name according to the folder's name, as you can see above.

Preparing Virtualbox Software

Now, let's make it available in our virtualized Ubuntu Server. First, we need to install it:

$ sudo aptitude install build-essential dkms

After that, "install Guest Additions" in "Devices" menu. It is an ISO image, and will work as if it is a CD.

Let's access it's contents

$ sudo mount /media/cdrom
$ cd /media/cdrom

In this folder there are several scripts, one for each system. You need to know wich version you have. Type the following:

$ uname -m
x86_64

My VM is a 64 bits. In my case I should type the following:

$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run

If the answer is "i686", the script must be "VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run". Any of them will first verify it's integrity, and after start some compilations. It will take a couple of minutes. Since we are using Ubuntu Server, a message warns that "X Window drivers will not be installed".

Building VirtualBox Kernel Modules

After all that, we are ready to build Virtualbox kernel modules, which is a really simple step. First, you will need to install kernel headers. Verify your kernel version with the command

$ uname -r

My system is kernel "2.6.31-14-server". My kernel is "server" type, so my kernel headers are installed with the following command:

$ sudo aptitude install linux-headers-server

It is a good idea to always update your kernel. When the headers installation ends, type the following command:

$ sudo invoke-rc.d vboxadd setup

After recompiling, Virtualbox recommends you to reboot. As you know, few operations require a system reboot, and most of them are kernel changings.

Mounting Shared Folders

We can now access it normally by mounting, using the module vboxsf (VirtualBox Shared Folders). To mount it manually, we need to know the Shared Folders' name, which is "Example". I choose "/mnt" as mount point.

$ sudo mount -t vboxsf Example /mnt

After that, you can copy files to and from /mnt folder. All these files will be available to the host system (in my case, Windows Vista System). If you want, with Windows Explorer you can access these files.

You can also configure Linux to automatically mount this directory. As "root" user, edit /etc/rc.local and add the following lines by the end of the file:

if [ -z "$(grep '/media/SwitchFiles' /proc/mounts)" ]; then
/bin/mount -t vboxsf SwitchFiles /media/SwitchFiles
fi

/proc/mounts show all mount points. If "/media/SwitchFiles" is not listed there it will be mounted. Of course, you should create this directory, case it does not exist yet.

My application

Since I have many VMs with Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop working toghether, frequently I have to install some packages, thus downloading them. With shared folders, I can download once, through any VM and use it in all the others VMs. My "/var/cache/apt/archives" is the mount point of a shared folder in Windows, in "/etc/fstab" in all VMs, as follows:

if [ -z "$(grep '/var/cache/apt/archives' /proc/mounts)" ]; then
/bin/mount -t vboxsf AptArchives /var/cache/apt/archives
fi

Of course, in my Virtualbox console, I have created "AptArchives" shared folder in each VM.

Do not forget to comment and to tell if this was useful or not.

ODT being read in MS Word

2009-11-12T12:52:00.011-03:00

Maybe I am late with this, but ...

Until 2 weeks ago, I could not have my ODT document edited in MS Word 2007. All of a sudden, I open my work with Vista Home Premium (Legal Copy), and I saw my work with MS Word Icon. WOW!!! These last couple of days, Vista has warned several times it needed to restart, because of updates, and things like that. I understand updates, but I don't agree with all that everlastings restartings.

Anyway, I tried to watch the way MS Word understood my book. In past days, OpenOffice tried to understand DOC documents, but several troubles of formatting always were there, for

sarcasm of all: "it is awful, it will never do it, you will loose your work", and on.

MS did a really good job, except for some details:

1) Headings got off the margin:

2) Bullets were not correctly interpreted

3) Background images were not imported. In this image, there is a wall image behind the text "notas importantes", but it was not imported. Notice that, when I wrote this box, I inserted the image in the original ODT file. Also the watermark I defined (a Creative Commons license, converted to JPG) was not imported.

Other features I used in OOWrite worked perfectly. After all, opening ODT files in this updated version of Word was not as complicated as opening old DOCs format in OOWriter, but it was not perfect. Anyway, it is a good step for MS, having in mind interoperactivity.

If you know about more details, let me know. Also, do not forget to comment and to tell if this was useful or not.

Update:

MSWord also does not natively export to PDF documents.

Colored man pages

2009-10-07T12:33:00.006-03:00

I found a really interesting post about in a brazilian site named DICAS-L, and thought it would be really helpful to have it here, for me or anyone else. Man pages may be read with colored keywords, what helps understanding the (usually complicated) text within.

Pagers

It should be good to first understand the idea behind pagers. They are tools that ease the reading of long texts, as man pages are.

For Unix, probably the oldest pager is more, created by Daniel Halbert, in 1978. With ENTER the text is rolled up line by line, with SPACE we can read the next page, and for search the "/" character is used, as it is in vim. Thus, more became very important for Unix operator.

After, less was created by Mark Nudelman, from 1983 to 1985, offering more resources than more. The names were meant to be a joke, obviously. less allows the use of arrow keys for "navigating" the document, and much more interesting features than it's predecessor.

And finally, John Davis, from MIT, creates most, a pager with more features than the well known less. It is the basis of our article.

MAN pages

I strongly believe that MAN pages are simultaneously the best and the worst Unix documentation source, because (generally) they are written by the software author, but at the same time, not only it does not offers (many) examples, as it mostly make wide use of technical jargon, which can be complicated to newbies. Another good point is that most of man pages are written in English, and usually not localized, or at least as it should.

As said before, man pages are huge, and a pager should be a great help. pager is the default pager, and it is a symlink to some pager, as we can see:

$ whereis pager
pager: /usr/bin/pager
$ file /usr/bin/pager
/usr/bin/pager: symbolic link to `/etc/alternatives/pager'
$ file /etc/alternatives/pager
/etc/alternatives/pager: symbolic link to `/usr/bin/less'

We will replace less by most. What we need to do is to declare it with the environment variable MANPAGER.

Installation

As usual, installing a software is really easy, specially in Debian-based distros:

sudo aptitude install most

Configuration

To manualliy configure most as man pager, type the following:

$ export MANPAGER="/usr/bin/most -s"

But, by finishing your user session, this configuration vanishes. We really need to make it permanent, and we do so making smooth changes to start scripts:

If this pager must be ready only for the current user:

$ echo 'export MANPAGER="/usr/bin/most -s"' >> ~/.bashrc

If this pager must be ready for all users:

$ sudo su -
# echo 'export MANPAGER="/usr/bin/most -s"' >> /etc/profile
# exit

From now on, man pages are all colored. Some tips about most

b - bottom of the text
t - top of the text
/ - search for
q - quit the text

Of course, we should always try to edit the files above (~/.bashrc or /etc/profile) and add those lines manually, with correct comments, and on. Enjoy it !

Don't forget to let down here what you thought about this article: useful, interesting or unuseful for you ?

Comments are welcome.

My old Acer has finally gone ...

2009-09-22T04:21:00.003-03:00

After almost 5 years wth me, my Acer laptop (Celeron) has been sold. Since it's arrival, it has mostly worked with Ubuntu in a partition, and Windows XP in another.

After some months, only Ubuntu, and until last month, Ubuntu 9.04. I bought a brand new one (thanks, Lon !!!) from Toshiba. And a friend of us asked me that laptop for his son. I told him to keep Ubuntu, for it is better, safer, and all the stuff we know about it.

- No, because he will have to learn lots of new concepts, and on.

And that is for studying only. After some words, I finally gave up, and had to start reinstalling Windows XP on it. Vista would not work well. My first problem was with drivers, since I didn't have them. Not that difficult, Acer's site is really a breeze. I downloaded almost 10 drivers and started a painful path of OS rebuilding. More than 8 reboots after, I had a fully functional Windows: sound, video and anything useful else. Typical. No Compiz, jelly windows, cube desktop, or many other useful stuffs. Hummm ... I mentioned it was only a Celeron with 1G ?

Office, Avira, hotfixes, all this stuff to be installed AFTER ending OS on Partition. More than 1:30 hours, My future ex-Acer is ready to serve someone else: a teenager ... (brrr).

One week after, all the system was compromised with "some" viruses. Now, after all that problems, he'll give Linux a chance. I'll let you know about it after.

Speed up your Internet in Ubuntu

2009-05-03T00:23:00.008-03:00

Where I live, fast Internet is a dream for most users. So, I need to do something to make my Internet speed increase. We will read here how to make a good use of the advantages offered by a Linux Distro as Ubuntu.

The scenario
I am using a 3G modem. Unfortunately here it does not work as it should, being unstable and slow, most of time. Only 10% of the full contrated speed is guaranteed. It still is expensive, but for mobility, it is what it is. One other detail: I am always in the same sites. A great number the sites, but usually the same.

The solution
A proxy is the best way to make it go faster. According to wikipedia, a proxy is "a server (a computer system or an application program) that acts as a go-between for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers".

Thus, every web access will be requested to the proxy, and it will fetch it in Internet. This web page will remain a little in the system, because if it is requested again, some components will already be downloaded. That means that your browser will show the page faster.

We will see some changes to be made in proxy server, and some others in browser.

The Software
We'll be using Squid, a well-known proxy server, famous, free and widely used. This configuration is not difficult, but requires attention. You should know how to use vim.

Squid installation
As usual, installing a sofware in Ubuntu is a breeze. We will work using CLI, instead of GUI. I recommend you to copy the commands written here and paste them in BASH, to avoid typos.

First, let's assure that Ubuntu has informtion about the most recent packages. Open the CLI, and paste the following lines:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install squid

Remeber that if you want, you can dispose the whole squid configuration with the following lines:

sudo chattr -i /etc/squid/squid.conf.original
sudo rm /etc/squid/squid.conf.original
sudo aptitude purge squid

You need vim to be installed. If you are not sure about it, copy this line and paste it on Bash:

sudo aptitude install vim

Squid Configuration
First of all, let's do a backup copy of it's configuration file:

sudo cp /etc/squid/squid.conf /etc/squid/squid.conf.original
sudo chattr +i /etc/squid/squid.conf.original

Squid Configuration file has lots of comments. They are really helpful, but can be annoying sometimes. So we will "clean" it all:

sudo egrep -v "^$|^ *#" \
/etc/squid/squid.conf.original > /etc/squid/squid.conf

We must know the version of our software. This is how I can identify squid version:

sudo dpkg -p squid

Package: squid
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 1748
Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers
Architecture: i386
Version: 2.7.STABLE3-4.1ubuntu1
Replaces: squid-novm
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libcomerr2 (>= 1.01), libdb4.7, libkrb53 (>= 1.6.dfsg.2), libldap-2.4-2 (>= 2.4.7), libpam0g (>= 0.99.7.1), netbase, adduser, logrotate (>= 3.5.4-1), squid-common (>= 2.7.STABLE3-4.1ubuntu1), lsb-base (>= 3.2-14), ssl-cert (>= 1.0-11ubuntu1)
Pre-Depends: debconf (>= 1.2.9) | debconf-2.0
Suggests: squidclient, squid-cgi, logcheck-database, resolvconf (>= 0.40), smbclient, winbind
Conflicts: sarg (<<>

This another way to do te same:

sudo dpkg -l | grep squid

In my system, this was the result:

ii squid 2.7.STABLE3-4.1ubuntu1 Internet object cache (WWW proxy cache)

Note that if your version is different, may ther be some differences.

Finally, let's start with the changes in Squid:

sudo vim /etc/squid/squid.conf -c ":set number"

I did the following changes:

...
35 icp_access deny all
36 http_port 127.0.0.1:3128
37 hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?
...
48 extension_methods REPORT MERGE MKACTIVITY CHECKOUT
49 dns_nameservers 200.169.116.23 200.169.116.22
50 hosts_file /etc/hosts

Line 36 makes my Ubuntu more secure. In line 49 I stated both DNS IPs from my provider. acrescentei a linha 49, com os IPs do DNS do meu provedor. If you don't know about these IPs (they should be given by your ISP), you may see them in your Ubuntu system:

sudo cat /etc/resolv.conf

In my system, I had the following:

nameserver 200.255.121.39
nameserver 200.169.117.14

After these changes, we need to restart squid. So, let's do it:

sudo /etc/init.d/squid reload

To assure it is working, we can search the open ports. Squid uses port 3128:

sudo netstat -ltnp | grep -i squid

In my system:

tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3128 0.0.0.0:* OUÇA 3216/(squid)

What is bold in this line, is the same content of line 36 of squid's configuration file.

Browser configuration
The changes in our browser will be much easier. Let's do it in Firefox, which is already present in Ubuntu:

Let's first access Preferences, in edit menu.

After, we need to push Advanced button. In network tab, click on CONFIGURE.

Do the same changes I did in this screen. Mine is in Brazilian Portuguese, but the fields are in the same place.

It is done. Proxy server installed and configured, and browser configured to talk to proxy server. In my computer, in about 8 days of use, I had the folowing use of HD:

sudo du -sh /var/spool/squid/
32M /var/spool/squid/

You should always control the space used by squid. If it increases too much, you can empty this cache. Type the following:

sudo squid -z

Don't forget to answer our poll, saying if this was useful, interesting or unuseful.

Reinstalling our best tools in Ubuntu 9.04

2009-04-26T12:00:00.005-03:00

Finally, Ubuntu 9.04 is right on the way. Since 8.10 version, I have installed lots of tools, and now it is time to install this 9.04 pearl. But, of course I get worried of wasteing some of the tools I was allways making use of. Here I'll show what to do to get all them again.

Levantamento de Software Instalado
I have been using aptitude instead of apt-get for some time, for it is already in the system by the default, in any Debian variant, as Ubuntu is. Besides, aptitude records in log every action. This log file is /var/log/aptitude.log.

Thus, the folowing line will reveal back all tools that have been installed by aptitude, in Ubuntu:

sudo cat /var/log/aptitude | grep "\[INSTALAR\]" |\
cut -d" " -f2 > ~/Desktop/Inst.txt
sudo zcat /var/log/aptitude*gz | grep "\[INSTALAR\]" |\
cut -d" " -f2 >> ~/Desktop/Inst.txt

Consider the "\" by the end of 1st and 3rd lines. It tells BASH that the following line is the continuation of the actual line. Thus I can assure that there are only 2 lines of CLI code. Instead of having them typed, I strongly suggest you to copy and paste them both on BASH CLI.

A file Inst.txt will pop up in the Desktop, and in it a list of the installed files. This is the content of my file:

alien-arena
avant-window-navigator
build-essential
chromium
compizconfig-settings-manager
debian-keyring
dia
extremetuxracer
exuberant-ctags
fdutils
ffmpeg
flashplugin-nonfree
frozen-bubble
gdm-themes
gnochm
gnome-ppp
gpaint
hping2
htop
idle
iftop
imagemagick
ipcalc
iptraf
k3b
mozilla-plugin-vlc
mpg123
msttcorefonts
nmap
p7zip
python3
rails
rar
smplayer
sox
ssh
sun-java6-jre
swat
traceroute
transcode
tree
unrar
vim
virtualbox-ose
vlc
wireshark

I removed the dependencies, because they will automatically be installed, but you don't need to.

So, after installing the new Ubuntu version , I will be able to install my stuff with this following line:

aptitude install $(cat ~/Desktop/Inst.txt)

Of course, this only applies to packages installed via aptitude. tar.gz and other ways of installation usually does not apply, because they are not logged by aptitude log file.

The top 10 Linux commands on BASH, and more ...

2009-04-21T19:10:00.006-03:00

I recognize I am an almost 100% Ubuntu user, either in home or working. But even with all the resources ready to use in a Ubuntu Desktop, and the usability it provides, I am frquently in a CLI (Command Line Interface).

Thus, almost with a new version of Ubuntu, the 9.04, I am searching for all the stuff I have installed in my 8.10, because I will probably reinstall them. Of course, registering this here will help others, and myself.

But, in the warmth of the battle, I questioned myself: what was the command I used the most ? "Googling" the web, I found a post written by MySurface, that shows a soberb pipeline :

history | awk '{CMD[$2]++;count++;}END { for (a in CMD)print CMD[a] " " CMD[a]/count*100 "% " a;}' | grep -v "./" | \
column -c3 -s " " -t | sort -nr | nl |  head -n10

Ok, great and terrible, Godzilla is a tiny and cute gecko, and so on. I assure you, it will not bite you, nor melt your CPU. What it will really do is to show the top ten commands you've issued in BASH. Copy it from here and paste on your console. The result in my root account was:

1 73 14.6% ls
2 37 7.4% ufw
3 37 7.4% cd
4 25 5% iptables
5 23 4.6% aptitude
6 18 3.6% ifconfig
7 14 2.8% man
8 13 2.6% tail
9 13 2.6% du
10 11 2.2% host

That means ls is my most used command: it represents 14.6% of all: it was issued 73 times, in different conditions. This pipeline researched my command history and gave me this results.

I have made a simple modification to see the whole list:

history | awk '{CMD[$2]++;count++;}END { for (a in CMD)print CMD[a] " " CMD[a]/count*100 "% " a;}' | grep -v "./" | \
column -c3 -s " " -t | sort -nr | nl |  less

In this case, press q to finish.

Conclusions
After that, I could see that:

To have a better information, I should no use sudo for my administration tasks. Instead, I should login to root ($ sudo su -). Now every command issued by root account will be stored in its history. Guys on Ubuntu does warn that this may be harmful, that's why they provide a so complete sudo resource. So be advised: USE IT WITH CARE! :)
Ubuntu default size for History File is 500 lines. I changed this to 1000 lines in ~root/.bashrc, adding the line HISTSIZE=1000 in this file.

MSN Messenger access Microsoft secretly

2009-04-19T12:31:00.003-03:00

At least, most of MSN Messenger does not know that ...

Recently I was called by a friend, to help him in his computer problems. A reasonable desktop box, with Windows XP and ESET anti-virus.

MSN 2009 had been installed, but just was not working. I started ESET firewall, and set him to block data traffic, incoming or outgoing. This way I could watch any MSN access. Unfortunatelly, it did not worked at all, so I started working in some others tries, but left Firewall working in the same way. Searching on Internet, I found this page, with older versions of MSN.

After downloading 8.5, I started removing the 2009 version. Surprisingly, ESET Firewall blocked an access try to the Software Vendor. And more than 3 times !!! I cannot understand this. If I was uninstalling the software, why to contact Microsoft ?

I immediately thought of VLC, as shown in this popup. This just did not happened with MSN. The software did not warned me of this, just did it. this is disgusting. They could at least prompt the user about what was about to be done.

After this bad experience, after breathing deeply, I decided to continue, of course. Having installed 8.5 version, I started it, and I was prompted by a warning of a new version to be installed. Of course, I denied, and ... nothing happened. Twice, 3 times, and nothing happened. That means, get the new verson, it is an order. Or else just does not use it.

Wow! Those guy are really bold!! The computer is owned by the one who bought it, if he wants to use it with an older version, it is his business, not Microsoft business.

Mais uma vez fiquei tremendamente irritado. O computador pertence ao seu dono, ou seja, a quem desembolsou dinheiro para o comprar, e o fornecedor do software se acha no direito de impôr suas decisões sobre qual versão do software o usuário tem que usar. It was his own money!!!

Went for a little (a lotta) water, to cool my hatred. I found some tricks to apply on Register (nothing that easy, as many says) and MSN 2009 (after being re-downloaded) was ready to be used. That's okay, it is a Beta version. It will be fixed.

But, I ask any of you: Why does it must be this way ? please, technical answers, and not those built upon a "I think" basis.

HTML errors messages

2008-12-16T09:09:00.008-03:00

Do you want to know what is the meaning of those weird error messages in your web browser, such as "error 407" or "error 400", whenever you try to access an internet page ?

Here is a helpful table, mainly when you are reading Squid's access log file. I found it in Stretched Out site:

Code	Description	Comment/Reason
100	Continue
101	Switching Protocols
200	OK	Action complete successfully
201	Created	Success following a POST command
202	Accepted	The request has been accepted for processing, but the processing has not yet been completed.
203	Partial Information	Response to a GET command, indicates that the returned information is from a private web.
204	No Content	Server has received the request but there is nothing to send back. (Empty Document)
205	Reset Content
206	Partial Content	The requested file was partially sent. Usually caused by stopping or refreshing a web page before it loads.
300	Multiple Choices	The request could fit multiple files.
301	Moved Permanently	Requested a directory instead of a file. The web server substituted the index.html file.
302	Moved Temporarily
303	See Other
304	Not Modified	The cached version of the requested file is the same as the file to be sent.
305	Use Proxy
400	Bad Request	The request had bad syntax or could not be interpreted.
401	Unauthorized	User failed to provide a valid user name / password required for access to file / directory.
402	Payment Required
403	Forbidden	Access to a protected or private password protected folder was attempted.
404	Not Found	The requested file was not found.
405	Method Not Allowed
406	Not Acceptable
407	Proxy Authentication Required
408	Request Time-Out	The server did not respond in the allocated time.
409	Conflict
410	Gone
411	Length Required
412	Precondition Failed
413	Request Entity Too Large
414	Request-URL Too Large	The submitted URL was too long to be interpreted by the server.
415	Unsupported Media Type
500	Server Error	The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request
501	Not Implemented	The server does not support the service required.
502	Bad Gateway
503	Out of Resources	The server cannot process the request due to a system overload. This is usually a temporary condition.
504	Gateway Time-Out	The service did not respond within the time frame that the gateway was set to wait.
505	HTTP Version not supported	The Web Server does not understand the version of http used by the browser.

Teacher says that there is no free software

2008-12-12T17:53:00.005-03:00

I have just known that (in portuguese), and it is astonishing. You can read more about this in Blog of Helios and The Contractor UK, both in English.

The summary
Karen (the teacher) saw students around a laptop, and went to understand it. She found one of them with the laptop showing what Linux could do in his machine (take a look at some of this videos). Not only this, but he was GIVING copies of it to his friends.

Karen kept them all and after talking to the students, she had a name: Ken Starks. She wrote the email with lots of wrong ideas. Both emails, from Karen and Starks' answer are in Blog of Helios.

The worst
Even in US, a great country, even in Texas, a great state, developed, with lots of technologies, lots of people just don't know that there are others possibilities besides MS Windows. A teacher, whose responsability is to prepare youngs , should know this. At least, not to be saying so many wrong things.

I have no doubt: she did what she understood as correct. Where she saw a threat to the kids, she reacted in defense of them. But she is indeed not prepared. Not in technology matters.

She needs to stay in touch with technoloy, as to other subjects. Or else, she may be teaching that the Earth is flat ...

Linux for simple users - Ubuntu and OpenOffice

2008-12-08T22:38:00.006-03:00

Since the beginning in my Linux story, Linux installations has been easier and easier. Up to now, what we see is Linux growing more and more in companies. Not on the desks, but working where the common user does not see.

There, there are no need to use graphic interface, or mouses. It is a completely different world, where all the commands are issued at a black screen with small white letters, completely senseless. At least, for common users.

Common users want to turn on the system, enter their login account and password, and use it by clicking the Internet browser. Oh, forgot the MSN also. We will try to discuss and show some details of Linux security and Linux installation.

High Cost of Aquisition
The problem is the cost of proprietary software. Here in Brazil MS Windows and MS Office are very expensive, as can be seen in the picture. In this famous Brazilan store, I choose Windows Ultimate with SP1 in DVD, an MS Office 2007 Standard version, in CD. Both cost R$ 1,798.00 (US$ 715.90 and EUR$ 555.00), today. Almost the same buy in Amazon.com costs a a little less, but with the more complete MS Office Professional 2007 full version: US$ 649.98 (R$ 1,632.43). I am not considering the Anti Virus (there is no chance for making use of MS Windows if you do not install such software).

No Cost of Aquisition
Considering all the functions that MS Office offers to you (and I believe that today there are no better Office Suit) I'd say that it is reasonable to pay such value. But, I believe that the majority of end users doesn't even know lots of basic procedures of MS Word or MS Excel. Many just need Power Point installed to read those presentations that come attached in many emails. So, in second hand, this money stars to get really expensive. If I consider the Linux I am using nowadays (Ubuntu 8.10, download here) and the Office Suite (Open Office 2) that is always helping me in writing my texts an sheets, I will conclude that I just "spent" the time to download Ubuntu, since OpenOffice is already installed in it. Nothing to buy, nothing difficult to use, and much more interesting (in brightness and cute stuff on screen). If you wanna know how, take a look at this, this and this. Just to start.

Compatibility
Of course, there are problems. No software made to Windows will work in Linux. In fact, some of then can, but not usually. Depending on the format of files, they can all be read. Except the new format DOCX. Ok, lots of people that yet use Office 2003 will have some troubles reading documents saved with MS Office 2007 also. Games and some other software will not work. But the problem is not resting on Linux. The software developers just make a version for Windows. Until they make a version for Linux (as they sometimes make an Apple version), their software will never work.

Open Software people are always looking for soving such problems of us. For DOCX problems, there is this solution. It is worhty.

Today, I am extremely used to work with Ubuntu 3D Desktop, and I get some frustated when I havo to use Windows and I find no especial effects, not only because it is funny, but because it is practical.

Conclusion
So, if you read/send emails, write some texts and sheets, and access Internet, Ubuntu may be for you. You should really give a try.

Next time, let's try to understand a little more about Linux security procedures and Linux installation. Feel free to post any questions.

Hello World

2008-12-04T18:39:00.005-03:00

Me and Mabuya were talking about something of FTP, and so I searched for some additional informations in Google. I then found a very interesting, funny and inteligent text, here about the famous first piece of most programmers. Have fun.

Who are you ? from Luiz Kobayashi.

Scholar:
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 END

Script Kiddie:
program Hello(input, output)
begin
writeln('Hello World')
end.
Computers lover:
(defun hello
(print
(cons 'Hello (list 'World))))
Post-graduated Professional:
#include
void main(void)
{
char *message[] = {"Hello ", "World"}; int i;
for (i = 0; i < ptr =" new" operator ="(const" operator ="(const" size =" strlen(chrs);" ptr =" new" str = "Hello World">

Master Programmer :
[
uuid(2573F8F4-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
library LHello
{
// bring in the master library
importlib("actimp.tlb");
importlib("actexp.tlb");
// bring in my interfaces
#include "pshlo.idl"
[
uuid(2573F8F5-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
cotype THello
{
interface IHello;
interface IPersistFile;
};
};
[
exe,
uuid(2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
module CHelloLib
{
// some code related header files
importheader();
importheader();
importheader();
importheader("pshlo.h");
importheader("shlo.hxx");
importheader("mycls.hxx");
// needed typelibs
importlib("actimp.tlb");
importlib("actexp.tlb");
importlib("thlo.tlb");
[
uuid(2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820),
aggregatetable
]
coclass CHello
{
cotype THello;
};
};
#include "ipfix.hxx"
extern HANDLE hEvent;
class CHello:public CHelloBase
{
public:
IPFIX(CLSID_CHello);
CHello(IUnknown *pUnk);
~CHello();
HRESULT __stdcall PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString);
private:
static int cObjRef;
};
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include "thlo.h"
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "mycls.hxx"
int CHello::cObjRef = 0;
CHello::CHello(IUnknown *pUnk):CHelloBase(pUnk) {
cObjRef++;
return;
}
HRESULT __stdcall CHello::PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString) {
printf("%ws\n", pwszString);
return (ResultFromScode(S_OK));
}
CHello::~CHello(void)
{
// when the object count goes to zero, stop the server
cObjRef--;
if (cObjRef == 0) PulseEvent(hEvent);
return;
}
#include
#include
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "mycls.hxx"
HANDLE hEvent;
int _cdecl main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
ULONG ulRef;
DWORD dwRegistration;
CHelloCF *pCF = new CHelloCF();
hEvent = CreateEvent(NULL, FALSE, FALSE, NULL);
// Initialize the OLE libraries
CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);
CoRegisterClassObject(CLSID_CHello, pCF,
CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER,
REGCLS_MULTIPLEUSE, &dwRegistration);
// wait on an event to stop
WaitForSingleObject(hEvent, INFINITE);
// revoque and release the class object
CoRevokeClassObject(dwRegistration);
ulRef = pCF->Release();
// Tell OLE we are going away
CoUninitialize();
return(0);
}
extern CLSID CLSID_CHello;
extern UUID LIBID_CHelloLib;
CLSID CLSID_CHello = {/*
2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820*/
0x2573F891,
0xCFEE,
0x101A,
{0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20}
};
UUID LIBID_CHelloLib = {/*
2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820 */
0x2573F890,
0xCFEE,
0x101A,
{0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20}
};
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "clsid.h"
int _cdecl main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
HRESULT hRslt;
IHello *pHello;
ULONG ulCnt;
IMoniker *pmk;
WCHAR wcsT[_MAX_PATH];
WCHAR wcsPath[2 *_MAX_PATH];
// get object path
wcsPath[0] = '\0';
wcsT[0] = '\0';
if (argc > 1)
{
mbstowcs(wcsPath, argv[1], strlen(argv[1]) + 1);
wcsupr(wcsPath);
}
else
{
fprintf(stderr, "Object path must be specified\n");
return(1);
}
// get print string
if (argc > 2)
mbstowcs(wcsT, argv[2], strlen(argv[2]) + 1);
else
wcscpy(wcsT, L"Hello World");
printf("Linking to object %ws\n", wcsPath);
printf("TextString %ws\n", wcsT);
// Initialize the OLE libraries
hRslt = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED); if
(SUCCEEDED(hRslt))
{
hRslt = CreateFileMoniker(wcsPath, &pmk); if
(SUCCEEDED(hRslt))
hRslt = BindMoniker(pmk, 0, IID_Hello, (void
**)&pHello);
if (SUCCEEDED(hRslt))
{
// print a string out
pHello->PrintSz(wcsT);
Sleep(2000);
ulCnt = pHello->Release();
}
else
printf("Failure to connect, status: %lx", hRslt);
// Tell OLE we are going away
CoUninitialize();
}
return(0);
}

Novice Hacker:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$msg="Hello, world.\n";
if ($#ARGV >= 0)
{
while(defined($arg=shift(@ARGV)))
{
$outfilename=$arg;
open(FILE, ">".$outfilename) || die"Can't write
$arg:$!\n"; print(FILE $msg);
close(FILE) || die "Can't close $arg:$!\n";
}
}
else
{
print($msg);
}
1;

Experimented Hacker:
#include
#define S "Hello, World\n"
main(){exit(printf(S) == strlen(S)?0:1);}

Super Hacker:
%cc -o a.out ~/src/misc/hw/hw.c
%a.out

Mega Enhanced Hacker:
%cat
Hello, world.
^D

Junior Manager:
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 END

Senior Manager:
mail -s "Hello, world". ze@b12
Hey, can you write me a program that writes "Hello, world"? I need this for tomorrow.
^D

Master Manager:
%zmail jim
I need a "Hello, world" program to this afternoon.

CEO:
%letter
letter: Command not found.
%mail
To ^X^F^C
%help mail
help: Command not found.
%damn!
!: Event unrecognized
%logout

Windows 7 and it's news

2008-11-30T14:17:00.000-03:00

For some time, I have been working with computers. In my blog in portuguese, I have detailed some funny moments of this road, although many of them were not so funny.Here in Brazil Windows is the OS market leader, and there is nothing anyone can say to change this. It's just that. But we must face a fact, things are really changing.

Apple in Brazil
Unfortunatelly, Apple does not do a good marketing work here. And that is really a pity, if you know what an Apple can do for you, you do know what I am talking about. Prices are always hiting the ceiling, almost no official reseller, and the few are concentrated in RJ or SP. The brazilian site itself does not shows the same stuff you find in american version. For sure, there are reasons, and I just don't know anything about them. So, Windows has been the choice.

A better Windows
Guys from networking knows that just since last years, Windows has become a secure option. Windows 2003 is a shift, if you see the bad steps of MS, in security, resource comsunption and so on. It is astonishing to see how a so unperfect OS has been working for so long. And not only to end users, but for the network basements. After 2003 (IMHO) things started to change. Lighter, faster, less unsecure. Okay, nobody is perfect. You still MUST be afraid of tons of new aggressive codes that works through loads of MS Windows weakness. not only about virus, but worms & Co. Just to remember, Unix OS also may be affected by them. Hummm ... in second thought: mostly server softwares may be, and much more than the OS.

NNF Technology
Anyway, there is another thing we cannot deny: Vista was such a wrong shot. Oh, there is the Mojave Experiment. That made think about the NNF technology wich is the knowledge basis of most computers technicians I know. Most of "computer guys" are not really prepared. But they know that reading the screens wil help them to make the work. They acquire that "knowledge", but are really not prepared to different situations. Let's then suppose that a Martian Ideas Transmission device is to be installed. That's the best moment for applying the , such as: it is not working, it is not compatible, your computer is not ready for that, it may be spoiled.

In another hand, the "Mojave OS" was already there, and correctly installed. And that is okay! End user are not to install an OS. Or it is ready-to-use or you should have someone to install it. Ops!!! As far as I can remember, MS warriors complained about Linux complexicity. Touché!

"News" on Windows 7
Why this all? There are tons of noise about Windows 7 and its innovative-brand new-shiny desktop. In Brazilian version of PCWorld, some shots of it is shown, and I got some disappointed to see that it is not that all. As an user of Ubuntu Desktop, I see some characteristics I have been making full usage since 04/2007. They were fully disponible in Ubuntu 7.04 version. If the goal is to prepare an eye-candy desktop, there are a lot to go through. I know it is just a preview, a Beta version, and so on. But all these has been ready to be used, as I told before. Not to commom users to install, but it was (and is) there.

The Windows Gadgets are available through gdesklets.
The Jumplists were first shown in KDE through SuSE. Note that this page is from April 2007. Windows Media Player also makes use of Jumplists.
The Device stage is somehow innovative, and not. It depends on the manufacturers to make available hardware specifications, and he correct drivers will be done. Here a petition for compatibility from VIA to Linux states the following:

While VIA has been on the market for a lot of time and claims to support Linux, this is not actually true. VIA does not support Linux (any distribution), at least regarding Video Chipsets support, since it's Linux drivers do not allow users to use their hardware up to the chipset specifications. However, using the same hardware on Windows, the manufacturer specifications are met. This shows that current driver developing efforts by VIA consider only Windows users (again, Linux is *not* supported).

The Media Collections (is that supposed to be correct in English ?) seems to be an development of Images, Video and Music folders in My Documents. I really do not know if there is something referred native to system. Of course, we have softwares that can work like this, but not native to the desktop environment. Since I am an Gnome fan, I haven't watched KDE yet. But the KDE guys really work hard on media stuff.
The User Account Control is something that has no corresponding item since securitty issues are dealt in different manners.
The Windows Solution Center seems to group several warnings in one place allowing the user to see them all. Guess some advanced users asked for this, but it can be a problem to common users, who are just used to make use of the sytem, and almost never care about security levels, warnings, and on. Most of time, they just want to know where is the OK button. Again, I don't know wether there is or not such a feature in an Linux Desktop Environment.
The Federated Search is an useful network search tool. Probably it will search for data in different versions of MS OS, like XP, 2003, and so on. Probably, it will not search in Apple or Linux hosts.
Themes should be easier to work with. It was not difficult, but the screen shows a broader range of options. In Ubuntu, it is really easy to make detailed changes in theme configuration. Here, one of the many videos showing how to do so.
Zoom effect is a quite useful feature, specially in a presentation. In this screen a square shows an magnified square area. Zoom in linux, as shown in this video, works in the full screen area.
When the desktop is crowded with many windows, sometimes is necessary to see the desktop, or the gadgets. Hiding the winows is a solution.
I don't understand how useful could be the resource of streaming. If videos and musics must be licensed, what will be done in my system to control this ? Only my medias can be deployed, but many will spread forbidden media, and that may arouse legal issues. Is this feature an effort against P2P networks ?
A lighter Windows Media Player. Hopefully, it will be. Linux has Totem, but it is way too slow and somehow buggy. Installing VLC and making it the default media player is preferred. It can be installed directly by Synaptic.
The MSPaint now uses the "brand-new" and complicated substitute for old-fashioned Menu bar. I did not understand what is new about this. I hope Paint records in JPG format by default.
Some visual enhancing to the calculator.
The Battery Monitor now shows minutes remaining, as Gnome always did.

Don't forget that I am only comparing what an review states abou the new Windows version with a few things I know in Linux. I'd love to receive opinions about Windows 2007.

AVG says Windows (only a file) is a big Virus.

2008-11-20T23:00:00.001-03:00

I have just received an email from my ex-student Rubenaldo. This email points to some interesting links that show AVG and a very tiny mistake: at version 7.5 and 8.0, user32.dll is a virus. Check it out:

http://apcmag.com/
http://www.geek.com/

So, let's open our minds, and understand what can happen:

1 - User starts AVG
2 - AVG complains
3 - User erases the file, and the SO stops

Unfortunately, most of end users, or home users, believe that anti-virus software can let them protected. As we see above, this just does not happen.

Others OS

Not only this, but the most popular end-user operating system is way too vulnerable, if we compare to others, mostly MacOS and Linux.

As my first post, I want to show, as impartially as I can, that there are other ways to do the same job. Of course, I want to show that nothing is a whole solution in itself.

In an cnet Review in 2006, Natasha Lomas remembered the famous Apple campaign, and pointed some flaws. We should never forget that softwares will allways have failures. The point is: Some are worst.

To state this, when you can, take a look at Security Focus Bugtraq Vulnerabilities List. Today (11-21-2008), I found the following results:

Vendor = Apple : 30 pages of vulnerabilities
Vendor = Ubuntu: 31 pages of vulnerabilities
Vendor = Microsoft: 68 pages of vulnerabilities

Note that I choose no software. Only the vendor. Also, most of the vulnerabilities there are solved. So, numbers here will not reflect the security information we are searching.

Usability

Besides, we must consider the usability question: "Will I know how to deal with that ?" The other Operating System may seem really secure, or less insecure. But, will I know how to deal with it's stuffs ? The text editor has the same controls ? My spreadsheet will have suffcient collumns/rows to work ?

I will make things worst then: Okay, I don't have sufficient time to re-learn it all. I will keep it simple. But I wish I could work without worrying so much about malwares. So, the end is to invest in a anti-virus solution, somehow expensive. And, sometimes it really does not work, or work insufficiently.

The question??? it is "How to lift security levels to the user ?"