Presenting ideas with Mind Map

Was on the internet today and saw a long time software, Freemind. How I miss working with Mind Map.

Mind mapping was traditionally used on sheets of paper or mahjong paper to present ideas and later it was also used for teams to work together to build an idea together. The mind mapping technique I learnt was something made popular by Tony Buzan, UK. Looks like branches from a tree, but from what I have also learnt, mind mapping was around long before Buzan and appears in many forms to pictorially describe an idea. Officially, I learnt a great deal of mind mapping during the courses at SMR.

Many of the mind mapping software subscribes to Buzan way of doing things. There are 2 software that is open source software; (1) Freemind is a Java Technology based mind mapping tool that allowed users to use data interchangeably on Linux and MS Windows. (2) XMind is considered one of the more popular tool in the Internet, but it didn't really stick with me. Note taking tools such as Evernote provided even more flexibility for mind mappers as it is integrated with XMind.

Saw good reviews on Mindomo, why not try it, as its advantage is that it is available on MS Windows, Mac and Android. That is if you don't mind installing Adobe Air.

Today, there is even a mind mapping tool built into Chrome web browser.

See https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mindmap/gdaeohpmcenmffofpikllphdhlkkocfa?utm_source=gmail

It saves the mindmap in Google Drive and I can access it pretty much any where.

Serious exploits in August and Sept 2014

These recent months have shown how the open source software model could handle (or is still handling) bugs that could be turned into an exploit of Linux servers. These are;

Shellshock (Sept 2014) - remotely take over a server.
BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29361794

Heartbleed (April 2014) - OpenSSL data could be intercepted.
BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28867113

The sheer number of Linux servers affected means that it is a serious threat and is wide spread. In Heartbleed, its patched but Shellshock is yet to have a patch to fully resolve the bug.

Interesting technical discussion on Shellshock is found at stackexchange.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/157329/what-does-env-x-command-bash-do-and-why-is-it-insecure

How do you know if your shell is vulnerable? Hackernews recommends to run the following command in all the shell being used;

env X="() { :;} ; echo shellshock" /bin/sh -c "echo completed"
env X="() { :;} ; echo shellshock" `which bash` -c "echo completed"

If you see the text output "shellshock", please find a patch.

Chris, a contributor at Buzzfeed News, provided a good material on how 2 persons maintained the OpenSSL package, Steve Marquess and Stephen Henson. The commercial entity for this is known as OpenSSL Software Foundation.

Now doesn't it make you wonder who is responsible of bash shell and is it the same package for every Linux distro?

What is FTP?

FTP or File Transfer Protocol
"... is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and the server."

wikipedia.org

One reason why this is being replaced by other network protocol is in its exposure of the user password in plain text for a traditional FTP server. SSH and encrypted FTP sessions have replaced almost all new implementations these days.

Which ports are used by this service?
Standard ports used are port 20 (data) and 21 (command) but this may change depending on the server's settings. On the client FTP site, free standard ports higher than number 1023  is used.



This service by the FTP Server can provide active or passive connection and sometimes both. A simplified explanation in Slacksite.org entitled "Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation" is a good read.

Typically, on the FTP server in Passive mode will require connection to several higher standard ports and this allows larger number of connections. In Active mode, limitation on the server is to how many connections can be done over that one port 20.

How to determine if its in Passive more?
After login to FTP server, type
quote PASV

How to establish connection to an FTP server?
Use an FTP client and enter the FTP server's URL. E.g. on Linux, to connect to the FTP server ftp.myserver.com

ftp ftp.myserver.com

-end-

Microsoft's Windows Defender

It was time to uninstall the McAfee antivirus that came pre-installed with the Windows 8 laptop. Just by doing that I noticed that the bubble appear to say that I am no longer protected and to click it. This is when Windows Defender application started, which makes me wonder if its good enough to replace the previous antivirus.

Doing an update to virus and spyware definition version 1.183.1668.0 on 5th Sept 2014. Will continue to run this with Basic membership setting where this means almost anything could be sent to Microsoft.

Quick start to Mozilla Firefox OS 1.x

For those of you who were looking for a new smart phone, it might be good to also look at Firefox OS. This is being developed by Mozilla and will be a game changer.

Quick notes:

1. Initially known as B2G (Boot to Gecko) in the Mozilla Project and initially demonstrated in 2012
2. Has a Linux based operating system
3. Target for smart phones, tablets and smart TV.
4. Among the first adopter was ZTE Open phone
5. Its has 4 software layers. I.e. Gonk (Linux kernel), Gecko (application services), XUL Runner (Application run-time) and Gaia (User interface system)
6. Supports HTML5
7. Website at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS
8. Apps can be found at the Firefox marketplace.

Current development is at Firefox OS 1.3 (Stable) and Firefox OS 2.1 (Unstable)  and you can try it out via a simulator.

Following are steps to install and run a simulator:
Requirements: Firefox version 30+

Step 1. Install the simulator.

Open Mozilla Firefox web browser and access "App Manager add-ons" by typing in the URL
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/fxos-simulator/

Click "Install Firefox OS 1.3 Simulator (Stable)" or which ever version pleases you.

When the Pop-up appears, Click "Allow" then wait till the download starts (There isn't any indicator onscreen) and when the Software Installation box appears, click "Install Now".

Click "Firefox OS 1.3 Simulator has been installed successfully."

Step 2:  Check installation

To determine if its installed, open Mozilla Firefox web browser and enter URL as
about:addon

You should see "Firefox OS 1.3 Simulator ...."

Step 3: Start up the App Manager

In Mozilla Firefox web browser enter URL as
about:app-manager

At bottom of the  App Manager click "Start Simulator"
The Firefox OS Simulator will appear as a new Firefox Window.

Congratulations...you now have access to the latest Smartphone OS.

Howto Turn On Menu and Back Button Lights on Samsung S3

The Samsung S3 is a clever device to conserve energy, but to some users who keep forgetting where is the frequently invisible "Menu" and "Back" buttons, they should have it lit all the time (and off when screen is off).

These buttons are on the left (Menu) and right (Back) of the Home button. By default, each time either keys are pressed, the lights will stay lit for about 1.5 seconds only.

Here are step to have "Menu" and "Back" buttons lit all the time (and off when screen is off).

Step 1. At the Home screen, go to settings.
Simple? For the unacquainted, just touch the Apps button (usually the centre circle at bottom of the screen) and choose settings.

Step 2. Choose "My device", scroll down and touch "Display". 

Step 3. Scroll down to touch "Touch key light duration".

 Step 4. Choose "Always on".

Press "Home" and you will notice the lights are lit next to the "Home" key. If the screen if off, these lights will also go off.

Howto Turn Off Samsung S3 keyboard sound

For some reason, the keyboard on Samsung S3 (GT-I9300) started to beep with each press and this gets annoying after having to type lots. Instructions can be applied for most Android 4, but here the screenshot are for Android 4.3 kernel version 3.0.31-2429075 dpi@HP20 #1.

To turn off/on the sound in 3 simple steps;

Step 1. At the Home screen, go to settings.
Simple? For the unacquainted, just touch the Apps button (usually the centre circle at bottom of the screen) and choose settings.

Step 2. Choose "My device", scroll down and touch "Language and input"

Step 3. Scroll down and find Key-tap feedback "Sound". To turn keyboard sounds off, uncheck the "Sound" box.

Press the "Home" key and you can test out keyboard sound, off or on as you have  selected.

Writing Equations in Moodle - Part 2

This is a follow up post on enabling users to write equations in Moodle. In the previous post, the required tools were installed on Linux (Centos Linux) and we resume from there.

Step 1:

Login as administrator in Moodle. In the Administration menu, click on Plugins-> Filters-> Manage filters
Choose Filter for Tex notation and change Active? to On. If you click Settings it will bring you to the same screen as in the next step below.

In the Administration menu, click on Plugins-> Filters-> Tex notation
Verify that Path of Latex, dvips and convert binary all contain the linux tools that was created in Part 1 of this tutorial.

Latex = /usr/bin/latex
dvips = /usr/bin/dvips
convert = /usr/bin/convert

Change the convert output format to PNG.

Step 2:

Within a course, create a content and notice that the Insert equation button is visible in TinyMCE editor.

OSS Meetup in Kuala Lumpur

Those who are keen to meet fellow OSS in Kuala Lumpur should register for the Malaysia Open Source Community Meetup Q2 2014.

Date: 31 May 2014
Time: 9Am to 2PM
Registration: Required

Please go to the above link for further details.

Writing Equations in Moodle - Part 1

Moodle leverages on MathML for users to enter Math equations. Moodle 2 comes with DragMath and this reduces the need for complicated installation of libraries. On Linux, equations can be displayed with Latex through the use of MimeTex (http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/mimetex) and the newer MathTex.

Examples on the use of MathText can be found at http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html#examples

Inserting math equation on a Moodle require certain filters to be enabled but before doing this, the related linux tools need to be installed. End users will need to ensure Java's JRE is installed and enabled in their web browser.

The required Linux (Referring to Centos Linux) tools to be installed include packages mimetex, texlive, texlive-dvips, texlive-latex, ImageMagick and their dependencies. The important tools that should be working and that is needed by Moodle later includes;
/usr/bin/latex
/usr/bin/dvips
/usr/bin/convert

A good tip on enabling Java in web browsers can be found at the Java site. (https://www.java.com/en/download/help/java_blocked.xml)

Managing PostgreSQL with pgsql and pgAdmin3

The command line interface (CLI) tool that comes with Postgres server is known as pgsql. Alternatively, pgAdmin3 and phpPgAdmin can be installed.

The pgsql

Among some of the commands for pgsql can be shown as below;

Example of common commands

Login to the Postgres prompt

$ psql -U postgres -h 127.0.0.1

Create a role to create database

postgres=# CREATE ROLE dbadmin CREATEDB;

Create a role as administrator

postgres=# CREATE ROLE admin SUPERUSER;

Create a role to create group roles

postgres=# CREATE ROLE dbadmin CREATEROLE;

Add a user to any of above role groups

postgres=# GRANT dbadmin to userone;

Assign role to a database and allow to login

GRANT all privileges on database dbname TO dbadmin;

ALTER ROLE "dbadmin" WITH LOGIN; 

Remove a user from a role group

postgres=# REVOKE dbadmin from userone;

A user can change their roles if they are assigned to several roles. 

postgres=# SET ROLE admin;

A user can restore to default role group 

postgres=# RESET ROLE;

Remove a role

postgres=# DROP ROLE admin;

List available users and roles

postgres=# \du

                               List of roles

   Role name   |                   Attributes                   | Member of 

---------------+------------------------------------------------+-----------

 admin         | Create DB, Cannot login                        | {}

 dbmsuser      | Superuser                                      | {admin}

 dbmsuserlogin | Superuser, Cannot login                        | {}

 postgres      | Superuser, Create role, Create DB, Replication | {}

Change privileges of a role
postgres=# ALTER ROLE admin WITH LOGIN CREATEDB;

Create a database and assign to a role

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE mycms WITH admin;

Delete a database

postgres=# DROP DATABASE mycms;

Done

The Window pgAdmin3

Try out SQL statements within these tools. I found one nice reference at http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/ctg/dm/sql_examples.htm

Installing PostgreSQL on Centos 6

PostgreSQL being an OSS licensed database is very different compared to MySQL. PostgreSQL (or Postges) maintains a repository for Linux systems like Centos to install the database. This repository is known as pgdg and is maintained at yum.postgresql.org or yum.pgrpms.org

Installation of the Postgres comes with psql, this is a CLI to manage Postgres.

Installation of PostgreSQL 9.3 on Centos 6.4 is as follows;

Step 1:
Open a CLI as root user and retrieve the pgdg repo RPM, then install it. This will allow the Centos to find for software from the pgdg.

wget http://yum.postgresql.org/9.3/redhat/rhel-6-x86_64/pgdg-centos93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh pgdg-centos93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm

wget http://yum.pgrpms.org/9.3/redhat/rhel-6-x86_64/pgdg-centos93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh pgdg-centos93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm

Step 2:
Install the client and server.

yum groupinstall "PostgreSQL Database Server 9.3 PGDG"

yum install postgresql93 postgresql93-server

(-)

Step 3:
Initialise database and tables, and start. This creates the default user postgres.

service postgresql-9.3 initdb

service postgresql-9.3 start

You can now login with the default user to the Postgres terminal as follows;

[root]# su postgres

bash$ cd
bash$ psql -d postgres

If you get the error "psql: could not connect to server: No such file or directory...." Ensure the postgresql server service is running.

Step 4:

As the postgres user, create an administrative user, then log out from the psql (use \q), then the shell (Control-d).

CREATE ROLE dbmsuser LOGIN PASSWORD 'password' SUPERUSER;

As reference, here is summary of the syntax:
CREATE ROLE name [ [WITH] option [ . . . ] ]

 where option includes:
SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
LOGIN | NOLOGIN

Step 5:

Edit Postgres configuration file;

vi /var/lib/pgsql/9.3/data/postgresql.conf

Uncomment the line and save.

#listen_addresses = ‘localhost’ and change it to listen_addresses = ‘*’

vi /var/lib/pgsql/9.3/data/pg_hba.conf

Add a line at bottom of the file to allow non-local connections, e.g.

host    all             dbmsuser        10.0.0.1/32            md5

Post installation

chkconfig postgresql-9.3 on

Ref: 

How to Install PostgreSQL 9.2 on CentOS 6.3/RedHat EL6/Fedora

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/