Italian God Fathers May Run Open Source

In the current economic challenges, many countries are looking at saving cost via ICT and Italy is not an exception. Umbria, a region in the centre of Italy that produces cheese, lentils, truffles and have a relatively large number of small industries. This 900,000 strong population region is home to an active GNU/Linux User Group Perugia.

In 2012, Umbria saw the start of a revolution to switch to LibreOffice, which is LGPL or open source software (OSS) licensed. LibreOffice provides office productivity tools that include a word processor (like MS Word), presentation (like MS Powerpoint), spreadsheet (like MS Excel) and more. Advantages of this software is that it is free to download and install for almost all computers as it supports MS Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. Most popular editable document formats can be open and edited and its interface is rather intuitive and easy to use. It comes with a portable version where users can install it on a USB drive and carry it around to run LibreOffice any where. A built in PDF converter allows any edited file to be frozen and to be distributed with read only access and consistent format.

MS Office have been introducing its OOXML format through the docx formats which will eventually required every organisation to purchase an upgrade license for MS Office and this will incur la high upgrade cost. LibreOffice by default save files in Open Document Format or ODF (International document standards ISO/IEC 26300:2006) and it also supports past versions of MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Through LibreUmbria, schools were introduced to use LibreOffice as their primary document editing applications before it was expanded further further to other organisations. This also received the government's top innovation award for Italian Government Projects in 2012/2013. Will the rest of the Italian Government and private organisations follow suit?

Read up news on the region of Umbria to switch over from MS Office to LibreOffice.

Jan 16, 2014 from ZDNet
Sep 26, 2013 from LibreOffice
Jun 5, 2013 from Document Foundation Blog

List of open standards can be found at ISO Public site

Passwordless root SSH Public Key Authentication on CentOS 6

Need to remote login to linux servers?

Create a public key and store it in the remote server. By default it is recognised as authorized_keys but this is fully configurable. The ssh-keygen generated the public key with RSA that is by default called id_rsa.pub

A well written article to do this can be found at Passwordless root SSH Public Key Authentication on CentOS 6

An alternative sshpass command as mentioned in January 31, 2014 Linuxpromagazine seems to force users to make the password visible. Good that this is no available in a default Centos 6, as this will help to maintain good password practices. I.e. do not have password kept where anyone can read it.

Top 10 Database Engines based on appearance in Internet

Ever wonder how to justify choice of database engines? Some have opted on comparison of specifications and limitation of the system. Now through manual use of ahem.."big data" we can see a list of top 10 database engines.

Among some of its criteria includes appearance in Google and Bing search engine. Frequency in technical discussion in Stack Overflow and DBA Stack Exchange. Then there are LinkedIn, Indeed and Simply Hired.

Information and table above above is from DB-Engines.com.

Backup Samsung S3 with KIES

Time to send the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the workshop as its difficult to charge despite changing several chargers. Problem: Need to wriggle the USB connection to charge.

Attempting to use KIES from Samsung.

A) Install KIES

Step 1. Download and install from http://www.samsung.com/my/support/model/GT-I9300RWDXME-downloads?downloadName=SW

Step 2. Update the KIES for PC (Final part of the installation above for 18 Nov 2013, version 2.6.1.13105_6_1 (See diagram below)

B) Run Backup

Step 1. Start Samsung KIES (not the LITE)

Step 2. Click the tab "Back up/Restore". Yes, they put a space between Back and up.

Step 3. Click "Select all items".

Step 4. Select which directory to store the backup. Click "Tools" ->Preferences ->Browse

Step 5. Click "Backup". Now they decided there is NO space between in this word.

Moodle support for Tin Can and SCORM 2004

If anyone have been said to implement SCORM 2004 engine, its never been highly compliant and Moodle is no exception. On Oct 2004, Moodle has officially abandoned further development of its SCORM 2004 engine. Details of its SCORM module can be found at
http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/SCORM_module

Surely lots of users will be in the lost or may drop SCORM development. Moodle News suggest the use of Tin Can SCORM for future development of learning objects. Moodle site suggest use of the SCORM cloud from Rustici Software where the SCORM Cloud plugin is free, but not the account.

The SCORM Cloud free trial account provides 100MB and 10 active registration (what does that mean?) at https://cloud.scorm.com/sc/user/PostSignUp

Following are helpful links to setup the SCORM Cloud

1. Getting the Moodle package
http://scorm.com/scorm-solved/scorm-cloud-features/app-integrations/moodle-integration/
2. Integrate with Moodle
http://support.scorm.com/entries/21366321-Installing-the-SCORM-Cloud-Moodle-Module

Manage log files from getting too big

Log files in Linux can be managed via the logrotate command (See man pages). If the log files start growing too big, it can be difficult to audit these log files.

Here is an example to create a new log file each week as the weekly cron (See man pages) service runs.

Following is an example where the cakephp application is installed. It will create a new file each week for 52 times before deleting the oldest file. Each file will be appended with a running number starting with "1". If the log file is missing, no errors will be printed/emailed and nothing will be done if the log file is empty.

Step 1: Create the configuration file

Create the file /etc/logrotate.d/cakephp with permission 644 (owned by root) and following contents;

/var/www/html/mymesyuarat/*/tmp/logs/*.log {
    weekly
    missingok
    rotate 52
    compress
    dateext
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create 640 root root
    sharedscripts
}

Step 2: Ensure that the logrotate service is running.

The above configuration can be tested with the following command;

logrotate -s /tmp/logrotatestatus /etc/logrotate/cakephp

Maxis site not supporting Mozilla or Chrome

A sudden change in policy at Maxis, one of the main telco in Malaysia or is it just my network problem?

Either way, last Aug 2013, Maxis customer support just informed me to use Internet Explorer (IE) or they can help email my bills. They tried, but the bill never arrived.

Now in September, I still can't login to get my bills using Chrome or Firefox. But wait, I see an additional notice at their portal....interesting. I added a text bubble.

I guess they are expecting me to call them for help on my bills.

2 Sept. Just spoke to customer service. Seems their Firefox is able to login and the Firefox version 23.0.1 that I am using not current enough. Huh? Is there a newer version since as of today?

On Firefox version 23.0.1, have disabled pop-up blocker, block reported attack sites/web forgeries, nothing happens when I click the "login" button. Ran IE (finally) and the login button works. Still not working on Google Chrome and Firefox.

Anyone else with this problem?

Sony Tablet S

Sony finally released update for Sony Tablet S?

It says for US but am looking forward for its arrival.

https://blog.sony.com/2013/04/jelly-bean-for-xperia-tablet/

User Identities in Thunderbird

Thunderbird have see lots of changes but the basic features for email have been retained. One of this, is being able to choose different ways to compose a message before it is sent out.

Example case 1; I have different signatures for friends, customers, special clients and for the general use. Switching signatures is so easy.

Example case 2; Some sent emails must be save to my SPECIAL folder.

Example case 3: Some emails must contain a CC or BCC to specific persons.

Example case 4: When I replay some quote of previous email is at the top and some at the bottom.

We can get this done is a few simple steps (I list the general steps here);

Step 1: In TB, click Tools ->Account settings...
Select the Email account and set the default email settings for

Your name:
Email Address:
Reply-to Address:
Organization:
Signature Text:

Step 2: Strongly suggest to create a text file and place the signature and name. 
Use the option for
Attach the signature from a file instead (text, HTML, or image)

Step 3: Configure following settings;
Copies and folders
Composition & Addressing
Security

Step 4: Click the Email account (selected in step 1)
Click button Manage Identities...
Click Add...

Enter the alternative email configuration. E.g. The alternative email signature.

Click OK, Close. You can continue to create as many identities as you like.
Click OK

DONE!
Try to send an email, click Write button.

Notice the "From" have a drop down list of all the different styles and configuration that you have created.

Using Handlerbars and JQuery in PhoneGap

Here is the very basic steps to use a template model in a PhoneGap application. I won't be going in details in this note.
"Those attending the PhoneGap class should incorporate the database as a practice. Thank you"

Ensure that the following steps have already been taken

1. Creating Android App with PhoneGap
2. Using Alert Pop-up

Step 1: Install the Handlebars and JQuery scripts

Download

1. Handlerbars from http://handlebarsjs.com
2. JQuery 1 from http://jquery.com/download/

Extract and copy the .js files to the Project's assets/www/lib folder

Step 2: Update the index.html

Replace the the contents within the body tags with the following;

 <h1>Hello PhoneGap</h1>  
  <script id="a-comment" type="text/x-handlebars-template">  
   <p><b>{{name}}</b> on {{date}}</p>  
   <ul>  
   {{#each comment}}  
   <li>{{description}}  
   {{/each}}  
   </ul>  
 </script>  
 <script src="lib/handlebars.js"></script>  
 <script src="lib/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>  
 <script src="js/main.js"></script>  

Step 3: Update the js/main.js
Remove the initialize: function() and add following codes;

      renderHomeView: function() {  
      var today = new Date();  
      var dateTxt = today.getDate() +   
      "." + (today.getMonth()+1) +  
      "." + today.getFullYear();        
      var data = {  
      name: "I am the One",   
      date: dateTxt,  
      comment: [  
           { description: "walking with you."  
           },   
           { description: "eating together."  
           },  
           { description: "driving around town."  
           },  
      ] };  
   $('body').html(this.homeTemplate(data));       
   },  
   initialize: function() {  
        var self = this;  
        var source = $("#a-comment").html();  
     self.showAlert('This is how its done','Info');  
     this.homeTemplate = Handlebars.compile(source);  
     this.renderHomeView();  
   }  

Alert Pop-up in PhoneGap

Using the native notification or browser alert pop-up

This is a continuation from the Previous notes: Creating an Android App with PhoneGap and Eclipse
Purpose: Display the Alert pop-up before the application display its contents.

Step 1: Create the main.js
In the project's assets/www create js folder, then create a new text file and name it as main.js
Place the following contents in assets/www/js/main.js

 var app = {  
      showAlert: function (message, title) {  
    if (navigator.notification) {  
     navigator.notification.alert(message, null, title, 'OK');  
    } else {  
     alert(title ? (title + ": " + message) : message);  
    }  
      },  
   initialize: function() {  
        var self = this;  
     self.showAlert('This is how its done','Info');  
   }  
 };  
 app.initialize();  

Step 2: Load main.js from index.html
Edit index.html. Immediately after the body tag place the following 1 line.

 <script src="js/main.js"></script>  

Step 3: Test the application.
See previous posting on how to do this.

Creating an Android App with PhoneGap and Eclipse

This is the basics on creating a HelloWorld using PhoneGap, Cordova and Eclipse (provided by ADT).

I have downloaded and extracted:

1. Android Development Toolkit (ADT): adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130729.zip
2. Phonegap kit: phonegap-2.9.0.zip

Note: ADT provides the Eclipse IDE.

In order to start development, an Android project is created in Eclipse.

Step 1: Create an Android Project
Open Eclipse (Its in the ADT/eclipse folder) and choose File ->New ->Android Application Project

Application Name: Hello World (This is the name that will appear in the Play Store)
Project Name: HelloWorld (This is the name used by Eclipse to separate each project)
Package Name: com.example.HelloWorld

Select the default option for the remainder screens.

Step 2: Insert the Android/PhoneGap Libraries
In the project, left click on assets and create a new folder: www

Open the extracted PhoneGap/lib/android folder and do the following;

1. Copy PhoneGap/lib/android/cordova.js to Project's assets/www folder
2. Copy PhoneGap/lib/android/cordova-2.9.0.jar to Project's libs folder
3. Copy PhoneGap/lib/android/xml folder to Project's res folder

In the Project's lib/cordova-2.9.0.jar right click and choose Build Path ->Add to Build Path

Step 3: Create the starting page

In assets/www folder, create the text file index.html with following contents

 <!DOCTYPE HTML>  
 <html>  
 <head>  
 <title>PhoneGap</title>  
  <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="cordova.js">  
  </script>  
  </head>  
  <body>  
  <h1>Hello PhoneGap</h1>  
  </body>  
  </html>  

Step 4: Configure to load the index.html

Edit the Project's src/com.example.HelloWorld/MainActivity.java

Before the first import statement, add

import org.apache.cordova.*;

Change extends Activity 

to extends DroidGap

or to extends PhoneGap

Change setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

to

super.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/www/index.html");

Step 5: Configure Android specific configurations
Edit the AndroidManifest.xml (if unsure where, just place it before the Activity Application tag)

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />  
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />  
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />  
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />  

Edit the Activity tag by adding configChanges

 <activity  
  android:name="com.tboxmy.simpledisplay.MainActivity"  
  android:label="@string/app_name"   
  android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize" >  

Step 6: Test the application
Right click the project name and choose Run As ->Android Application

Unless you have a fast machine with huge RAM, some waiting time is required for the Application to start, after the Android Emulator starts.

Cordova basic usage

Time to compile Phonegap using Cordova.
Basic commands;

1. Create an Android project called com.example.hello in folder hello.

cordova create hello com.example.hello 

2. Include Android platform for cordova. In the project folder, type;

cordova platform add android

3. Compile the project (some call this build). In the project folder, type;

cordova build

2. Start the android emulator with the compiled cordova project. In the project folder, type;

cordova emulate android

Install Android Emulator on Centos 6

Why would I want to have the Android Emulator? Well, I needed to test several custom Android  Packages and also develop apps for Android. This meant, I could keep testing the Android Packages without having to install on a physical Android phone such as the Sony Ericsson X10 or Samsung S3.

I have written on this topic for Centos 64bits, before and seems like it still depends on 32bit libraries:

• http://tboxmy.blogspot.com/2012/04/installing-java-on-centos-6.html
• http://tboxmy.blogspot.com/2012/07/develop-android-apps-with-eclipse-on.html

A good reference for everything Android is at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Here are steps for Centos 6.4 (64bits), open up a terminal as root;

Step 1: Install Java development kit (JDK)
# yum update
# yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk-devel.x86_64

Verify installation with following command:
# javac -version

Step 2a: Install library for 32bits 
yum install glibc.i686 ncurses-libs.i686 libstdc libstdc++.i686 libzip.i686 SDL.i686 gegl.i686  mesa-libGL.i686

Note: Optional package to install: 
libX11.i686 libXrandr.i686

Step 2: Install the Android SDK and ADT
Get the latest Android ADT from the Android Developer site or use following:
wget http://dl.google.com/android/adt/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130729.zip

This will provide us with (Size if 440MB):

1. Eclipse + ADT plugin
2. Android SDK Tools
3. Android Platform-tools
4. The latest Android platform
5. The latest Android system image for the emulator

Note: If you are in Malaysia and cant download because of Internet problem (Some day this will improve) and really have no other way of getting the ADT and JDK for Centos 6 64bits, just email me your contact details (e.g. address) and we can work something out.

Allow groups named devel to access development. Create the directory /opt/android and extract adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130729.zip

# mkdir /opt/android
# useradd -m devel
# chown devel.devel /opt/android
# chmod g+rwsx,+t /opt/android
# unzip -d /opt/android/ adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130729.zip

Step 3: Post installation.
What can we do after installation? Well, you can run the Eclipse IDE to develop application and there is also the Android Emulator (to test APK). Info on the Android Emulator can be found at http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html

I suggest that you login as the devel user or a user with that group access to continue (Represented as $ in steps below).

Start Eclipse with
$ /opt/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64/eclipse/eclipse

Starting with the emulator
1. Listing the available emulators
$ cd /opt/android/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64/sdk/tools
$ ./android list targets

Available Android targets:
----------
id: 1 or "android-18"
     Name: Android 4.3
     Type: Platform
     API level: 18
     Revision: 1
     Skins: WSVGA, WVGA800 (default), WVGA854, WQVGA432, WQVGA400, WXGA800, QVGA, WXGA720, HVGA, WXGA800-7in
     ABIs : armeabi-v7a

2. Creating an instance of the emulator
Here it is called practiceandroid4.3 with the target id 1 (as above). Items in RED are optional. For further details see http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/managing-avds-cmdline.html
$ android create avd -n practiceandroid4.3 -t 1 --skin WVGA800
$ emulator -avd practiceandroid4.3


APK can be installed into the Android emulator
$ adb install bin/MyFirstApp-debug.apk


Trouble shooting:

• If there is a problem running Eclipse or the Emulator, try the Step 2a above.
• For error "./emulator: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory", ensure the step 2a is done.
• When upgrade Centos 6.3 to Centos 6.4 on Virtualbox, it hangs at the boot progress bar. Fix is at http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=6306

Install MCRYPT for Centos 6.3

MCRYPT is used to encrypt data. For example, user login passwords.

The EPEL repository provides for the mcrypt package.

Step 1: Download and install the files to support EPEL repository
wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
wget  http://ftp.riken.jp/Linux/fedora/epel/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
rpm -i epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

Step 2: Install mcrypt package

yum install php-mcrypt

Autoconfiguration ipv4 address

A funny thing happen on a newly installed MS Windows 8. After setting the fixed IP on the network interface (cable), it kept getting a an IANA ip of 196.254.x.x.

Although, the fixed IP was entered correctly, 10.x.x.x, the command ipconfig showed that it was still using the 196.254.x.x. Driving me mad, this don't happen on Linux as far as I know.

Resolve this by disabling the interface that is causing the problem.

At the command prompt as Admin follow the steps given below;

Step 1: Identify the interface name (Idx)
> netsh interface ipv4 show inter

Step 2: Disable the interface, replaceing the XXX below with the Idx found in Step 1.

> netsh interface ipv4 set interface XXX dadtransmit=0 store=persistent

Thanks to Lyngtinh

Install Clamav antivirus on Centos

Clamav is a much misunderstood software, at least from the response of people I know.

This is a follow up of previous posting http://tboxmy.blogspot.com/2011/06/open-source-software-antivirus-called.html

A simple to read manual can be found at
http://www.clamav.net/doc/latest/clamdoc.pdf

However, here are steps I took for the installation on Centos 6.3 and Centos 5.6

Step 1: Install required repository for clamav
http://tboxmy.blogspot.com/2013/06/install-yum-repo-for-centos.html

Step 2: Install the clamav software
yum install clamd clamav clamav-db

Step 3: Edit the configuration files with your own preferences
/etc/clamd.conf
/etc/freshclam.conf

Step 4: Test the scan with an example directory [/tmp/samples] and save the results in [output.scan]
clamscan -r -l output.scan /tmp/samples

You should notice a warning that the virus database is outdated.

Step 5: Update the virus database. Make sure the server has internet access, then type
freshclam

By default update is done daily, but can be changed by moving the /etc/cron.daily/freshclam to another cron folder.

Step 6: Schedule the scan with crontab
Use the command in step 4 as an example

Step 7: Manage how files detected as virus are handled

e.g. use perl-File-Scan-ClamAV

Install Yum repo for Centos

Adding additional source of packages (software) for Centos will greatly reduce the need to recompile OSS packages. Epel provides open source software that is free for use. This includes clamav, atop, cacti,

Here are step to add a common repository.

Centos 5

Step 1: install and enable epel repo
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

Centos 6

Step 1: install and enable epel repo
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-5.noarch.rpm

Step 2: Enable priorities
yum install yum-priorities

Edit /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
add under [epel]
priority=10

TinyMCE

One of the widely used WYSWIG for web forms is called TinyMCE. Currently it is at version 3.5.8 and version 4.0 is in Beta. Licensed as LGPL, it is available for download freely from tinymce.com website.

I like its highly configurable options. Some of these are listed at http://www.tinymce.com/wiki.php/TinyMCE3x:Buttons/controls

Here is how it looks like from the demo site.

Backup selected rows from MyMSQL database

Just needed a few rows of data, after confirmed its existence with

> select count (*) from `attendances` where `meeting_id`=82;

Using mysqldump

mysqldump --opt -uroot -p development attendances --where='meeting_id'=19700 > outputrows.sql

Reviewed the extensive contents then inserted back into the db.