video test

Fowler's Bluff

Fowler's Bluff has a new website set up at fowlersbluff.net . Fowler's Bluff is the original rock band in which I play bass and sing. Check it out when you get the chance. We are going to make extensive use of open-source software in the technical-side of the project. Right now we are working to figure out how to create effective video backdrops all through the use of OSS.

awk -F and two different separators

We had values in the /etc/passwd file that were separate by a colon : and then some separated by a comma , . I wanted to use awk to print the values from a field that was separated by a common and then a colon.

I ended up with this to make it happen:

# awk -F : '{print $field#}' | awk -F , '{print $field#}'

The first part grabs the colon separated field number you replace the pound sign with. Then the part after the pipe grabs the comma separated field you replace the pound sign with inside of the part extracted in the first part. I don't feel like I've explained that very well, so here is another way of looking at it:

from /etc/passwd
102:108:username:group:home directory:location,phone number:start date

In order to get the phone number but tell awk to stop printing there and not also print start date, you have to tell it to:
# awk -F : '{print $6}' | awk -F , '{print $2}'

First part tells it to recognize the colon delimiter and it grabs "location,phone number" values. Then the next part tells it that you only want the "phone number" value.

Good Article Discussing Upcoming Maverick Meerkat 10.10

Click here to read a good article highlighting some of the improvements in the upcoming version 10.10, aka Maverick Meerkat.

Rooting the Android

I also just got the Android. I was a little surprised to find out that AT&T limits what apps you can install. Why limit the openness? There are some cool apps like shark and wifi tether that require root access. The HTC Aria I got from AT&T didn't come with root access. After trolling some forums i thought it might not be worth the effort... until I found this website: http://unrevoked.com/
You download the file, connect the phone, and it will put the phone in recovery mode, flash an image and viola - you have root! Once its rooted you can install all wifi tether & shark and any other root app.

Use Ubuntu to Unlock Windows XP Account, Clear Account Password

Recently I had to get back into the XP partition on my dual boot set up with XP & Ubuntu on the Samsung NC10.  I quickly realized that I'd forgotten my XP password but thanks to the fact I had Ubuntu installed on the same HDD I was able to use the Linux command line program chntpw to unlock the user account.

Just boot into the Ubuntu OS (you can also boot the live version on a DVD or USB key if you don't have it already installed in a dual boot).  For this solution we'll use a command line program called chntpw.  You'll want to install this first if it isn't already.  At the command prompt type

sudo apt-get install chntpw

then follow the prompts to complete the install.

While still in the Ubuntu OS, open a terminal window and from the command prompt navigate to the necessary directory in the Windows file system by entering the following syntax:

cd /media/path/to/disk/WINDOWS/system32/config/

cd is the command for 'change directory' and then a space then the path to the directory.  In my case since I had Ubuntu already installed on the same HDD I had to mount that partition then use its name which was 72ECE49EECE45DBB.  So my exact path was:

cd /media/72ECE49EECE45DBB/WINDOWS/system32/config.

Once I was in that directory I ran:

sudo chntpw -u username SAM SYSTEM

replacing username with the specific Windows account username.  From the output I had to first select what you will see listed at the very bottom as option 4 to unlock the account since my multiple password failures had locked it, then ran it again and chose 1 to clear the password.

*Important note: my Windows user name had a space in it so I had to enclose it in quotes like:

# sudo chntpw -u "my username" SAM SYSTEM

Anytime you write something at the command line that should be recognized as a single term but includes a space you have to enclose it in quotes so the terminal will know it is a single term.

here is the last part of the output from # sudo chntpw -u username SAM SYSTEM.
- - - - User Edit Menu:
 1 - Clear (blank) user password
 2 - Edit (set new) user password (careful with this on XP or Vista)
 3 - Promote user (make user an administrator)
 4 - Unlock and enable user account [probably locked now]
 q - Quit editing user, back to user select
Select: [q] >

Then you can restart, boot into the Windows side and your account will be unlocked.

Moving the Window Control Buttons Back to the Right Side in Ubuntu 10.04

One of the most annoying new features to some people in Ubuntu 10.04 is the decision to switch the default window control button layout to be on the left side of the window. After installing it on my girlfriends laptop yesterday (I'll also mention that she is loving Ubuntu), it was the first change I had to make at her request.

How-To Geek already has an excellent guide on how to make this change here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/

I will give you a quick rundown on how to do it.

Use Alt+F2 to bring up the Run Application window. Type gconf-editor into the field and press Run. This will bring up the Configuration Editor window. Navigate to apps>metacity>general in the left pane. In the right pane, find the button_layout key and double click it to open a window which allows you to edit its value. Change the value to "menu:maximize,minimize,close" (minus the quotes) and click OK. The change should occur immediately.

First Three Weeks with 10.04

I've been running 10.04 as the primary OS on my Samsung NC10 netbook for three weeks and so far have had no issues.  Improvements and changes are subtle for the most part.  Every six months when I move to a newer Ubuntu I am reminded that I need to understand more about the brass tacks of the OS in order to really understand where the improvements are being made.

The boot time and shutdown times are both improved, although improvements in those categories are becoming harder to recognize since 9.10 was fast as well.  10.04 is faster but by a matter of only a few seconds.  I guess keeping up with those stats is a matter of following the increments until it is instant on both actions.  Sooner than later you'll push your power button and be up and running instantly and you'll shut down just as quickly.  Improvements in hardware (like SSD's) and software (like removing a redundant HAL) categories at the same time will speed the course to instantaneous start and shut-down.  Then we'll all have a few more seconds in our life to...?

Changes to Gnome and the GUI are noticeable as well, especially the fact that you are faced with the color purple now instead of earth tones.  With Linux based desktop operating systems though there is so much customization available that really you can only talk about differences in the default settings.   And when you like to start adjusting those immediately defaults don't last long.  Not long ago I learned how to change the splash screen so I'm going to get to work on that now with the Lynx.

Android OS Review

I just bought myself a brand new Android powered phone!

As some of you may already know, Android is an operating system developed for phones by Google and runs a linux kernel. However, it has already been used for other applications such as netbooks.

I just thought I'd give a quick first-impressions review of the operating system after having the phone for a little less then a day.

So far, I have to say, I like it! I could go on and on about its positives so I will allow you to do some research on it if you wish. I will focus mainly on what I did not like. It does lag occasionally; However, its not nearly as bad as my old windows mobile phone in this respect. It probably slots in just under an iPhone as far as peppiness is concerned. This is also largely dependent on the hardware, which, on my phone (a Motorola Backflip), is not exactly the best hardware available. One thing I am surprised is how restrictive it seems to be... I actually have less control over this phone then I did with my windows mobile phone. There is not even an option to turn data on and off! I had to download an app for that (APNdroid for those that are interested). Perhaps as newer versions of the android operating system are released, the amount of adjustable settings will increase. Currently, however, it does not give you much control over its inner workings without the use of risky 3rd party apps.

Overall, I am fairly happy with my decision to get this phone, its positives definitely seem to outweigh its negatives so far.

Open Source Enterprise Publications - Existing

Obviously I wasn't the first to think of how open source operating systems can present value in an enterprise environment. From what I can tell most of the dated literature focuses on open source application development in contrast to open source operating systems in a business environment. I did some queries to see what's already out there and available for free or via the library. I think I might have found some valuable sources. I am going to take a look at these and see what kind of approach these source reflect in terms of effectively using and deploying open source in a business environment. Let me know if you know of any other publications about this topic. The sources below aren't in any particular order:


Iansiti, M., & Richards, G. (2006). The business of free software Enterprise incentives, investment, and motivation in the open source community.[Boston]: Division of Research, Harvard Business School. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-028.pdf.


Woods, D., & Guliani, G. (2005). Open source for the enterprise: Managing risks, reaping rewards. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://bit.ly/aQDsf9.


Gupta, J. N. D., Sharma, S. K., & Rashid, M. A. (2009). Handbook of research on enterprise systems. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://bit.ly/aDNzEI.


St. Amant, K., & Still, B. (2007). Handbook of research on open source software: Technological, economic, and social perspectives. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://bit.ly/cromxE.


Baschab, J., & Piot, J. (2003). The executive's guide to information technology. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://bit.ly/8X99ih.
Second edition from 2007:
http://bit.ly/boMj8a


Vugt, S. v. (2009). Beginning the Linux command line. Berkeley, Calif: Apress. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-1890-6.
On Google Books @ http://bit.ly/aduQTO


Chao, L. (2009). Utilizing open source tools for online teaching and learning Applying Linux technologies. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Retrieved 4/21/10 from http://bit.ly/b95lkb.

HAL-less 10.04

There's already been some discussion here about how the newest distribution of Ubuntu (10.40 Lucid Lynx, final release scheduled for 4/29/10) was able to remove the HAL to speed up boot time and provide other advantages. I found a breakdown of where the processes where moved to here on the Ubuntu Wiki. This change follows the *.nix philosophy of using many small tools that are good at doing individual jobs and enabling them to pass information easily between present and future applications. I've read that the Ubuntu developers were coming to the realization that HAL was becoming redundant. Here is the link to the page on the Wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Halsectomy

Enterprise Ready Open Source

Being the preferred linux desktop distribution among the linux community, Ubuntu appears to be ready for enterprise level desktop deployment scenarios. Processing efficiency and reliability already give linux server distributions like apache a certain competitive advantage allowing linux to compete with Microsoft in terms of server operating system market share. I still need to find some credible up to date statistics on this, but that should only be a matter of searching the SPC library’s online subscription databases.

My boss, Shri, just came back from Korea from an IEEE conference with a new Samsung netbook and asked me to configure it for him. It had Windows 7 Starter on it and configuring it was just as fun as watching water boil. It wasn’t too bad once I got most of the bloatware off. But I know that the weak, but apparently cute little netbook would run much more effectively if it had some linux distributionon it. Maybe that’s why according to Computer world “Linux's share of netbooks surging, not sagging …”

With Ubuntu being open source and all, let’s not be blind to Cononical Ltd own agenda, which is to compete with commercial distribtuions like SuSe and Red Hat. It goes to show that the bread and butter of companies like Sun Microsystems and Red Hat is made by support contracts as opposed to licensing fees. Despite the advances in compatibility and usability, linux systems still haven’t been very appealing as an effective enterprise desktop solution to many experienced CIO’s. Indeed it does depend on the nature of the company if a linux solution would yield a higher return on investment (ROI) than a Microsoft/Citrix/Vmware solution. These are large companies with vast knowledge bases facilitating IT operations of client organizations. Not to say that the linux community doesn’t have its own vast knowledge base. However, the learning curve for IT staff is higher for linux systems. But with the advances brought forth by Ubuntu, the learning curve is now only marginally higher than for Microsoft. Being the education industry, perhaps we can help the pendulum swing from proprietary to open source IT infrastructure solutions. Cononical Ltd is hoping for the same and is hard at work, coming out with educational initiatives like Ubuntu Certified Professional similar to the Red Hat Certified Engineer. This might be a good time to write and publish about how exactly to use to open source solutions to maximize ROI… for small and mid level businesses first… enterprise later!? Who’s with me?

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Running 10.04 in VirtualBox OSE was not showing me the speed benefits of the newest distribution. So I went ahead and upgraded last night ahead of the schedule. I hit Alt+F2 and typed in "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box. Update Manager opened up with message: New distribution release '10.04' is available. I clicked on 'upgrade' and followed the instructions from there. The "-d" is critical since the final release is not out yet. "-d" (deprecated) is the switch that will list the distribution upgrade as available prior to its 4/29 final release. Running the new distribution on a Samsung NC10 netbook start up (<30 seconds) and shutdown (~5 seconds) are noticeably faster. Not as fast as if I had a SDD (supposedly <5 seconds) but still faster than the 9.10 distribution in both categories. This is, I've read, due to the fact that they have removed the HAL in this distribution. Although I'm not yet completely clear on what that means. If you know please leave a comment below explaining. During the upgrade there were a few common sense questions to answer such as do you want to keep the locally installed grub config or go with the package managers. Since I also have XP on this machine (haven't touched it in months) I stayed with the local one. During the process Canonical also gives a message that they no longer provide updates for a fairly long list of items, most of which I suspect are related to the fact that they dropped the HAL. Not a problem I would think as long as you have the right software respositories turned on. So I'm off to compute away on 10.04. As I notice important differences, I'll report back.

Are you afraid of Linux? Try Wubi!

If you have heard a lot about Linux and think that you must be a computer scientist to use it, fear no more. Try using Wubi to install an Ubuntu partition so that you can easily have Windows and Ubuntu on one machine. Visit http://wubi-installer.org/ and follow the few simple instructions and you'll be using Linux in no time.

Let us know your experiences in the comment section below. Have fun.

Mounting NTFS Partitions in Ubuntu

Information and quoted text taken from: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions

So, you have a multiple boot setup with one partition for Windows and one for Ubuntu. Now, lets say you want to see the files from your Windows NTFS partiton in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

This will install a nifty little system tool that will allow you to enable or disable NTFS capabilities within Ubuntu. You can find it under Applications->System Tools

"If you have at least one internal NTFS partition, it will allow you to check both boxes, otherwise you can only check the box for external devices.

If your NTFS partition(s) are not yet configured, it will ask you to choose a name that will be used as the mount point (please no spaces). Then enable write support for internal and/or external devices."

It should add the newly mounted filesystem to your desktop and "Places"

Ubuntu Release Cycle and Naming Convention

the following text is taken from the following text is taken from http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/7018/1/

"Typical Ubuntu Releases come out every six months and have 18 months of support.  Ubuntu LTS releases, however, come out every two years and provide three years of support on Ubuntu  Desktop, and five years on Ubuntu Server.  The last Ubuntu LTS release was the 8.04 release, codenamed the Hardy Heron which mades its debut April 2008." Breakdown of the naming convention, using the above mentioned release as an example: 8 for 2008 and .04 for April, hence 8.04 The upcoming LTS release is 10.04 codenamed Lucid Lynx. 10 for 2010 and .04 for April, hence 10.04

Install KDE in Ubuntu/Turn Ubuntu into Kubuntu

I wanted to try out KDE after Todd told me about it. I ended up not liking it very much due to its fairly steep learning curve and widget based system but I decided to post it here in case anyone would like to try it out.

It is actually quite simple to install and you should be ready to start using it within a matter of minutes.

Open up a terminal and input:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Thats it!

After it finishes installing, log out, select your name from the log-in screen and change the session from Gnome to KDE in the session selector on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.


NOTE:
The install will change your initial splash screen to a Kubuntu one... if you want it to go back to how you had it before...

sudo update-alternatives --config usplash-artwork.so

This should prompt you to select which splash screen you wish to use.
Restart and see if you still have the Kubuntu initial splash screen.
If it is still Kubuntu:

update-initramfs -v -c -k all

This command forces the splash screen to update in the initrd image. Reboot again and you should see whatever splash screen you selected before.

the Ubuntu Filesystem Hierarchy

*taken from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxFilesystemTreeOverview

The standard Ubuntu directory structure mostly follows the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, which can be referred to for more detailed information.

Here, only the most important directories in the system will be presented.

/bin is a place for most commonly used terminal commands, like ls, mount, rm, etc.

/boot contains files needed to start up the system, including the Linux kernel, a RAM disk image and bootloader configuration files.

/dev contains all device files, which are not regular files but instead refer to various hardware devices on the system, including hard drives.

/etc contains system-global configuration files, which affect the system's behavior for all users.

/home home sweet home, this is the place for users' home directories.

/lib contains very important dynamic libraries and kernel modules

/media is intended as a mount point for external devices, such as hard drives or removable media (floppies, CDs, DVDs).

/mnt is also a place for mount points, but dedicated specifically to "temporarily mounted" devices, such as network filesystems.

/opt can be used to store addition software for your system, which is not handled by the package manager.

/proc is a virtual filesystem that provides a mechanism for kernel to send information to processes.

/root is the superuser's home directory, not in /home/ to allow for booting the system even if /home/ is not available.

/sbin contains important administrative commands that should generally only be employed by the superuser.

/srv can contain data directories of services such as HTTP (/srv/www/) or FTP.

/sys is a virtual filesystem that can be accessed to set or obtain information about the kernel's view of the system.

/tmp is a place for temporary files used by applications.

/usr contains the majority of user utilities and applications, and partly replicates the root directory structure, containing for instance, among others, /usr/bin/ and /usr/lib.

/var is dedicated variable data that potentially changes rapidly; a notable directory it contains is /var/log where system log files are kept.

10.04 preview in VirtualBox OSE

Running Ubuntu 9.10 on a Samsung NC10 I installed VirtualBox OSE via 'Applications' - 'Ubuntu Software Center' - 'VirtualBox OSE'.  I also downloaded the Ubuntu 10.04 beta.  I booted from the ISO and realized that my netbook may be a bit underpowered for running virtual machines.  It was very sluggish during the boot and the performance was a bit sluggish once the OS was loaded.  Not too bad though.

The first window I saw was 'Install as superuser' and in this window there was an option to run the 'live' cd and an option to install.  Here's one instance of where I need to understand virtual machines a bit better.  If I choose to install would I be installing to the virtual HDD or to may actual HDD?  So I'll study up more on that.

First impression is that I'm not sure if I like the purple color scheme all that much.  Seems fitting being near Easter and all that it be colored like an Easter egg but still not sure.  Maybe it will grow on me.  I do like the new 'ambiance' theme though.

So I'm off to dig deeper now and I'll clean this post up later with better details.

10.04 beta in VirtualBox OSE

Currently downloading Ubuntu 10.04 beta to run in VirtualBox OSE on top of the currently installed 9.04. I'll report back soon with impressions and observations.