Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS

Upgraded to new LTS version of Linux Ubuntu 10.04 64bit




But still my lapbox is in dual boot with Windows 7 and using GRUB as my boot loader to select either OS. I use linux most of the time, whenever some work related compatibility doesn't seem to run in linux, thats the time I use to run windows 7.

My Untangle Box

I have recently put up a dedicated server box for my Firewall Enhancement in replace to OpenDNS. This serves my IPS/IDS, Spam Blocker, Ad Blocker, Phish Blocker, and most importantly the Web Filter. Below are the change log feature of version 7.2 from 7.1 you can check out full version features at www.untangle.com



Untangle 7.2 Release Features

We are pleased to announce general availability of Untangle 7.2. Our latest version includes a new free application for internet access control, as well as a host of enhanced features and improvements.
Captive Portal

Terms-of-Use Acceptance: Most businesses, schools and government departments have an Internet policy in force. However, raising awareness of it, and ensuring adherence to it, remains a problem. Untangle Captive Portal enables organizations to display a mandatory default web page to all users, before they are able to access the internet. This Captive Portal web page can display and enforce an acceptable use policy, as well as authenticate users, to control internet access.

Organization may wish to require users that want access to the internet to first agree to the organization’s terms of use. Only on acceptance are they given access to the internet.

Authentication Mechanisms: Captive Portal supports a wide array of authentication mechanisms, from basic local directory-based authentication (on the Untangle server) to authentication through an Active Director server or RADIUS server when coupled with Untangle's Directory Connector.

Maximum Flexibility: Captive Portal is highly customizable. It allows organizations to establish User Defined Capture Rules, to handle a variety of exceptions that may be required. For example, authentication may only be required during a specific time period; certain computers and users may be exempt from authentication by adding them to Pass Lists

Customizable: Captive Portal has a completely customizable log-in page, which allows for organizations to add their own messages to the log-in screen. Web developers can write fully custom login pages allowing for more complex setups, like charging users for internet access.

Access Logs: All attempts to log in to the internet through the Captive Portal are automatically logged. This provides a clear acceptance-of-terms audit trail for organizations and with it the teeth to enforce policy.
Directory Connector

Untangle's AD Connector has been renamed Directory Connector. This is because it now supports both Microsoft Active Directory server, and RADIUS server. This provides a wider range of user directories against which Untangle administrators can authenticate users.

Directory Connector now supports the notion of groups in Microsoft Active Directory server. This significantly reduces the administrative burden for Untangle administrators, as polices can be set for existing AD groups and will automatically apply to all users and subgroups within that group.
Reports

Many enhancements have been made to Reports, including:

* Daily, weekly and monthly reports
* New Highlights: a Summary of all reports
* New "Server" reports show memory, disk, CPU, swap

Other enhancements

For a full list of improvements in Untangle 7.2, please visit
http://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/7.2_Changelog

ZTE MF637 internal parts "SmartBro Plug-It USB"

I was eager to put an external antenna to my USB modem ZTE MF637, an HSDPA/HSUPA 3.75G from SmartBro Plug-It. I found two internal antenna, one might be the GPRS/EDGE and the other one is for 3G. Though I can't determine well which antenna is 3G and the other. Both has different frequency of operation, whereas 3g UMTS is 2100Mhz and so on.

There is only one internal antenna connector, and which I think is for GPRS/EDGE only.

Earth Hour

Switch off your lights for (1)one hour, tonight 8:30pm-9:30pm March 27, 2010.

Ethernet over power lines: Netgear makes major improvements

(from TechRepublic)
Using in-house electrical wiring for networking computers usually only happens if wires can’t be run or Wi-Fi connections are less than adequate. Netgear’s new Ethernet over power-line devices may change that.

————————————————————————————————–

Last year, I went through what I consider the perfect storm of network cabling. To explain, I was asked by a client to set up an Ethernet network at one of his rental facilities. For some reason, I could not run cables. To make matters worse, there was an inordinate amount of grounded metal (galvanized studs) acting like RF sponges. That eliminated Wi-Fi gear as an option.

Out of options, I tried Netgear’s Powerline equipment and was disappointed. Bandwidth never came close to what Netgear advertised. Still, the client was not deterred by the limited throughput. They were happy to have anything at all. I guess sneaker networks get old fast.

New and improved

Previously, Netgear offered two product lines, one rated at 85 Mb per second and one at 200 Mb per second. Both were lucky to achieve half that throughput. Still, Netgear seems determined to make Power line Ethernet a viable solution. They just announced a new product line that may take care of the bandwidth problem. The new adapters have the following enhancements :

Throughput speed of 500 Mb per second.
The first devices to comply with IEEE draft P1901 standard.
Prioritized Quality of Service (QoS), important for streaming media applications.
Simple 128-Bit AES encryption, using the “Push-and-secure” button.
Backward compatible with other Netgear Powerline products and equipment from other vendors, if it’s HomePlug AV certified.

Two models

Netgear is offering two models, the Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit/XAVB5001 (courtesy of Netgear):





As well as the Powerline AV+ 500 Adapter Kit/XAVB5501 (courtesy of Netgear):



Netgear mentions that the devices are designed to leave the second socket of an outlet pair open for use. Also, the XAVB5501 provides a filtered power socket, if outlets are in short supply. Each kit comes with two adapters.

Install 64-bit Adobe Flash Player on Ubuntu (updated to 9.10)

FlashNow that there is a java browser plugin and a working wine for 64-bit on the Ubuntu repositories, there is not much holding back 64-bit Linux on the desktop. Maybe the only thing missing is the Adobe Flash player. Most of the time Flash is just annoying, nevertheless sometimes needed. Luckily, there is now a Flash Player release for 64-bit Linux (however, still beta alpha but stable so far) . I am pretty sure the instructions are identical for other Linux distributions.

To install it:

1. Download it from here (now here).

2. Unpackage it using a terminal (with the assumption your firefox downloads into your Desktop as default):
cd Desktop
tar xvzf libflashplayer-10.0.32.18.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz

(The name of the tar.gz file may change when a new version is released, change accordingly).

3. Create a plugin directory in your $HOME (instead of a system directory):

cd
mkdir -p .mozilla/plugins

4. Move the file to the plugin directory:
mv Desktop/libflashplayer.so .mozilla/plugins

5. Restart firefox. Go to about:plugins to see if it’s enabled:
about:plugins

That’s it.

Edit: Alternatively, you can use the graphical approach:

1. go to the download pages and click on “Download 64-bit Plugin for Linux (TAR.GZ, 3.64 MB)”.
2. select “Open with ” in firefox (you have to click on open to enable the ok button) and clck on OK.
3. The archive manager will open and show you the libflashplayer.so file.
4. Click on extra and a save window will open.
5. Type ctrl + h to show hidden files. Go to .mozilla (dubble click).
6. If no “plugins” directory is present, click on “Create Folder” on the top right and type as name “plugins” (without the quotes). Press Ener.
7. Click on Extract.
8. Click on Close on the windows showing the result.
9. Close the archive manager.
10. Restart firefox.

The US war on open source

(Credits to Chin Wong, Digital Life, http://url4.eu/1VdVO)

FOR years, American companies have been beating developing countries over the head for copyright violations, egging the US government to threaten trade sanctions against those who do not toe the intellectual property line. Now the same US companies are trying to bludgeon countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam into abandoning policies that favor open source software for use in their own public agencies.


Let’s think about that for a moment.

These US companies want to dictate to our government how to go about procuring the software that we use. And the weapon they wield is the annual Special 301 Report issued by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, a federal agency responsible for developing and recommending trade policy to the US president.

As part of its yearly review, the US trade agency studies the recommendations submitted by various American trade associations, and puts the worst violators of intellectual property rights into its Priority Watch List, a group that could face US trade sanctions.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), an umbrella organization of about 1,900 US companies from the publishing, film and TV, music and software industries, has been religious in making its voice heard in the annual review.

In its latest report, a 498-page document, the IIPA recommended that the Philippines be moved into the Priority Watch List for a number of continuing copyright problems, including our easy access to cheap DVD entertainment.

Then, in a portion on draft legislation, it added: “IIPA was concerned regarding reports of consideration of a Free Open Source Software bill which would require government offices to use open source software. Passage of that bill would deny technology choice regarding software usage and ultimately would stunt the growth of the IT industry in the Philippines.”

The group was even more hostile when it came to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, which already have such policies in place. In these instances, the US trade group argued that open source doesn’t really reduce piracy and may even encourage it by not giving software its proper value.

In one part of the report, the IIPA takes Thailand to task for wanting to bundle free and open source software on 1.4 million computers for the school system as a way of saving money and ensuring that the programs used are not pirated.

Elsewhere, the association strongly urges the US Trade Representative “to consider the implications that Indonesia’s open source preference policy has on IP protection and access to Indonesia’s market for US goods and services.”

“The Indonesian government’s policy… simply weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness by creating an artificial preference for companies offering open source software and related services, even as it denies many legitimate companies access to the government market,” the IIPA said. “Rather than fostering a system that will allow users to benefit from the best solution available in the market, irrespective of the development model, it encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations. As such, it fails to build respect for intellectual property rights.”


The last sentence is a steaming pile of cow manure. Open source advocates and developers respect intellectual property rights; that’s why open source projects are covered by licenses, too. Users just don’t have to pay exorbitant fees for them.

In attacking open source, the IIPA neglects to point out that major American technology companies, including IBM and Oracle, already do a substantial amount of business using this model. Would they, too, be denied access to government bids that required open source solutions?

In any commercial transaction, the buyer must be free to set the terms of the sale. In the case of public agencies, that buyers is ultimately the government. If the government wants to buy, say, combat boots that are built to certain specifications, manufacturers who cannot meet those requirements should not whine about limited market access. They should just build better boots.

If the government wants to save on licensing fees by going open source, nobody, least of all software companies with vested interests, should be able to stop them from doing so. Nor should the US government, which itself uses open source software, buy into this rubbish that doing so somehow corrodes intellectual property rights. That’s just silly.


Posted by Chin on 03/02/10 at 08:49 AM

3G vs. Terrestrial Broadband

3G vs. Terrestrial Broadband
Lincoln Spector

Jan 5, 2010 12:16 am

Phil Kunde wants to know if the 3G Internet access available through his cell phone provider makes a viable alternative to conventional broadband such as cable or DSL.

Not in my book. While cell-based Internet access has one big advantage--you can access the Internet on your PC anywhere you can use your cell phone--it contains some very serious negatives.

For one thing, it's slow. Cell carriers like Sprint and Verizon promise download speeds that top out at only about 1.4Mbps--and can drop as low as .6Mbps. "Wireless signal, by its nature, is extremely variable; that is, many things, such as obstruction by fixed objects (buildings, trees, etc.), weather, network load, cell tower locations, and time of day, can affect the quality of the signal," says Mark Sullivan in A Day in the Life of 3G. (I'm sticking to 3G numbers here because, as I write this, the much faster 4G is still relatively rare in the United States.)

By comparison, 6Mbps DSL and 16Mbps cable connections are readily available.

The difference gets more extreme when you take price into consideration. AT&T charges the same $35 a month for 6Mbps DSL and 1.4Mbps (if you're lucky) 3G. But the $35 3G plan sticks you with a 200MB monthly allowance; I've downloaded individual files bigger than that. For $60 a month, you get 5GB, which is more reasonable but still wouldn't cover my family's Internet habits.

Speaking of families, a 3G connection can be shared in a way similar to broadband--one point in its favor. You do this with a small, router-like MiFi device that you purchase from your carrier. It's small, portable, and can connect up to five WiFi-enabled devices to your 3G Internet signal. Using one regularly with several people, of course, pretty much guarantees that you'll hit that 5GB limit early each month.

Depending on your lifestyle or working conditions, cell-based Internet access may very well be invaluable. But unless you're like George Clooney's character in Up in the Air--constantly traveling, never at home, and with no family--it's not a valid replacement for DSL or cable.

At least not yet.

Add your comments to this article below. If you have other tech questions, email them to me at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum.



See more like this:internet,broadband,mobile broadband,networks,routers

MiFi: The Best Product of 2009

MiFi: The Best Product of 2009

Posted using ShareThis

QR code (2D)

My updated QR code.

SSD - Solid State Drive

- replacing the mechanical motor driven hard disk drive for computer storage devices.

What is a Solid State Drive?

Solid state is an electrical term that refers to electronic circuitry that is built entirely out of semiconductors. The term was originally used to define those electronics such as a transistor radio that used semiconductors rather than vacuum tubes in its construction. Most all electronics that we have today are built around semiconductors and chips. In terms of a SSD, it refers to the fact that the primary storage medium is through semiconductors rather than a magnetic media such as a hard drive.

Now, you might say that this type of storage already exists in the form of flash memory drives that plug into the USB port. This is partially true as solid state drives and USB flash drives both use the same type of non-volatile memory chips that retain their information even when they have no power. The difference is in the form factor and capacity of the drives. While a flash drive is designed to be external to the computer system, an SSD is designed to reside inside the computer in place of a more traditional hard drive.

So how exactly do they do this? Well, an SSD on the outside looks almost no different than a traditional hard drive. This design is to allow the SSD drive to put in a notebook or desktop computer in place of a hard drive. To do this, it needs to have the standard dimension as a 1.8, 2.5 or 3.5-inch hard drive. It also will use either the ATA or SATA drive interfaces so that there is a compatible interface.

Why Use a Solid State Drive?

Solid state drives have several advantages over the magnetic hard drives. The majority of this comes from the fact that the drive does not have any moving parts. While a traditional drive has drive motors to spin up the magnetic platters and the drive heads, all the storage on a solid state drive is handled by flash memory chips. This provides three distinct advantages:
Less Power Usage
Faster Data Access
Higher Reliability

The power usage is a key role for the use of solid state drives in portable computers. Because there is no power draw for the motors, the drive uses far less energy than the regular hard drive. Now, the industry has taken steps to address this with drive spin downs and the development of hybrid hard drives, but both of these still use more power. The solid state drive will consistently draw less power then the traditional and hybrid hard drive.

Faster data access will make a number of people happy. Since the drive doesn't have to spin up the drive platter or move drive heads, the data can be read from the drive near instantly. In a recent demo of two similar equipped notebook computers, Fujitsu was able to demonstrate a roughly 20% speed increase in the booting of Windows XP on a SSD over a standard hard drive.

Reliability is also a key factor for portable drives. Hard drive platters are very fragile and sensitive materials. Even small jarring movements from an impact can cause the drive to be completely unreadable. Since the SSD stores all its data in memory chips, there are fewer moving parts to be damaged in any sort of impact.


Why Aren't SSDs Used For All PCs?

As with most computer technologies, the primary limiting factor of using the solid state drives in notebook and desktop computers is cost. These drives have actually been available for some time now, but the cost of the drives is roughly the same as the entire notebook they could be installed into. This is gradually changing as the number of companies producing the drives and the capacity for producing the flash memory chips grows. Drives announced at the 2007 CES were priced at less than half of the drives of the same capacity from the previous year.

The other problem affecting the adoption of the solid state drives is capacity. Current hard drive technology can allow for over 200GB of data in a small 2.5-inch notebook hard drive. Most SSD drives announced at the 2007 CES show are of the 64GB capacity. This means that not only are the drives much more expensive than a traditional hard drive, they only hold a fraction of the data.

All of this is set to change soon though. Several companies that specialize in flash memory have announced upcoming products that look to push the capacities of the solid state drives to be closer to that of a normal hard drive but at even lower prices than the current SSDs. This will have a huge impact for notebook data storage.

RunCore 128GB Pro SATA 70mm Mini PCI-e PCIe SSD for ASUS EEE PC 900 900A 901 and S101  
Part#: RCP-I-S7028-C
Brand Name: RunCore
MB/GB Size: 128GB
Read/Write Speed: 125/95