Amol's Tech Blog

Unix commands on windows: Uwin

2009-05-23T14:21:00.010-04:00

Uwin is a superb alternative to cygwin, created by AT&T Research group and currently available as free download (AT&T says its "for students and universities", but in fact anyone can download it). Uwin is truly unix for windows because it is an official fork of the POSIX standard tools built for windows.

The official site for uwin (at the time of this writing) is very messy, and filled with links that keep throwing you back and forth, I find it hard to navigate, which is why I have to blog about it here.

Advantages:

@ Light-wight
Its much cleaner than cygwin and extrememtly light-weight. Seriously, the base package 16 MB in size, includes all common unix tools like sed, awk ....

@ Better integration with the native windows OS
You can run all the common unix commands right inside the windows command shell. You can even execute shell scripts from inside the windows command shell.

@ Power of Unix/POSIX
The base package includes ls, ps, pwd, cksum, diff, vi, grep, fgrep, egrep, awk, nawk, find, sed, cut, sort, ssh, scp, touch, tail, getopts, getconf, basename, dirname, cp, mv, date, sdiff, tr, uname, who, and much more (and also the unix tool more ;) ).

@ Add softwares
You can also build additional softwares from sources.

Dis-advantages:

@ SSH1
Like cygwin, the default version of SSH that ships with uwin is version 1. But, thank God there is a OpenSSH for windows update available, which will give you the SSH Version 2, so this is not such a big deal then.

Links:

- Uwin

- List of Unix commands that ship with Uwin

- Download Uwin Installer for Windows

(requires username and password)

Username: I accept www.opensource.org/licenses/cpl

Password: .

(thats rght, just a dot)

- OpenSSH Update

- Perl for Uwin

Additional Step:

Add Uwin's bin directory to windows PATH variable:

C:\Program Files\UWIN\usr\bin

This will give you easy access to all the uwin commands (like ps, pwd, cksum, vi, grep, fgrep, egrep, awk, nawk, find, sed, sort, ssh, scp, touch, tail) from a standard cmd window.

Scripting Windows using AutoIt

2009-02-27T17:05:00.009-05:00

On Vista, NVIDIA doesn't provide any convenient way to switch Display profiles. The default NVIDIA Control Panel allows you to save profiles, but there is no means to just launch these profiles by double clicking an icon, or from some context menu. This is quite inconvienient if you frequently switch monitors.

I came across a neat way to solve this problem. First, save monitor profiles for your liking. I have 4 profiles, from which I frequentl switch between 1 and 2.

I installed AutoIt.
[AutoIt is to Windows, as Expect is to Unix.]

The I created 4 scripts, one each to launch these Desktop Profiles.

..................................................................................
1 Monitor Only.au3

Run("nvcplui.exe")
WinWaitActive("NVIDIA Control Panel")
Sleep(1500)
Send("!p")
Sleep(100)
Send("l")
Sleep(100)
WinWaitActive("Load Desktop Profile")
Sleep(100)
ControlClick("Load Desktop Profile", "FolderView", 1, "left", 2, 100, 50)
Sleep(100)
Send("{ENTER}")
Sleep(100)
WinWaitActive("nvdisps")
Sleep(100)
Send("y")
Sleep(100)
WinWaitActive("Apply Changes")
Sleep(100)
Send("y")
Sleep(100)
WinWaitActive("NVIDIA Control Panel")
Sleep(100)
WinClose("NVIDIA Control Panel")
..................................................................................
2 TV Only.au3
(Just change the 10th line, and change the X, Y axis co-ordinates for mouse pointer to click)

ControlClick("Load Desktop Profile", "FolderView", 1, "left", 2, 100, 90)
..................................................................................

3 Monitor + TV.au3

ControlClick("Load Desktop Profile", "FolderView", 1, "left", 2, 100, 130)
..................................................................................

4 TV + Monitor.au3

ControlClick("Load Desktop Profile", "FolderView", 1, "left", 2, 100, 170)
..................................................................................

After this we can create a shortcut to these on the desktop or quick launch and assign keyboard shortcut to it for easy access like CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+1, CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+2, etc.

Another Problem solved ;).
Thanks to MJFox for his post and his script.

SSH Automation using Expect

2008-10-02T19:45:00.008-04:00

Here's a cool script that will login to an SSH Server without prompting for a password. It can execute any start-up commands if needed.

The password is hard coded into the script which is lame, but this is my first attempt, I'm working on better/encrypted ways, but hey sometimes simple is best.

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn ssh amol@sandbox

expect "amol@sandbox's password: "
send -- "PASSWORD\r"
expect "(sandbox:amol)$ "
send -- "pbsu -h sandbox root\r"
expect "Enter amol's pb-password:"
send -- "PASSWORD\r"
expect "(sandbox:root)# "
interact
# send -- "ksh -o vi\r"
# expect eof

Where:
Username : amol
Server : sandbox
Password: PASSWORD

The Last uncommented line "interact" is the point where you get the prompt for hand-typing commands. The script can be made Fully automatic by removing this statement.

The simplest way to remove the hard coded password would be to either prompt for it at stdin or to pass it using command line arguments. I'm thinking if we can do this in a more secure way like may be storing an encrypted passoword in a text file and then decrypting it on the fly while running the script. Storing it in a file will remove the need for a prompt and hence more convienient.

The Most secure way to do passwordless SSH automation is to use Public Key Authentication, however, if the SSH Server does not allow passwordless authentication then you cannot use it, which applied in my case.

Here's a good Tutorial on Expect.

Best Cars of Test Drive Unlimited

2008-06-18T19:48:00.006-04:00

The formula to finish Test Drive unlimited is "If you're having a hard time finishing a race, you're using the wrong car."

Here's my definitive best car list out of experience.

The first car listed in each car is best in my opinion, cuz it allows you to cross 100% of the races in that class, while the second or third cars listed which although are great, and can cross 80% of the races, but you need to chose a better car for those tough 20% races, because it is either really really difficult or impossible to beat races with them.

After finishing the game 2-3 times, I've realized that there is no point trying to finish the game with just one car per class. You should buy more and more cars as you proceed in the game. The last time I finished the game, I bought all of the cars listed below by the time I reached the end. Everytime I have a hard time in a track, I try all the cars I already have in that class, if none of them is good enough, then I go car shopping.

Car Price is really not in my criterion, cuz there are lot of ways to make money in the game as long as you dont go around wasting it on sh!tty cars you can comfortably buy 5-10 houses and 20-30 cars by the time you have completed 90% of the game, and after repeating some of the lucrative races can buy 15 houses and 50 cars which is one of the achievements in the game. Car delivery missions are the best, you make 120k per race by driving slow and carefully.

Class A:

Enzo Ferrari

(Hands down the best, for Class A races, handles like shit though on curvy roads, but you get your grip after some time.)

Mclaren F1

(Great car, but this car is too light and really tough to drive on some of the fastest races and this tends to go off balance and rotates.)

(Side Note: Maserati MC12 will be needed for some of the races, although its not the best. Lots of great cars in this class, and you can pretty much pick up anyone amongst Ferrari, Mclaren, Lamborgini, Maserati, you will be able to buy many/all of them by the end.)

Class B:

Ford GT

(Best in my opinion, it handles much better than those class B Ferrari's)

Class C:

Ferrari 575M Maranello

(Lot of good cars in this class but this is hands down the best handling, fastest, and most fun to drive car in the class, it is costly.)

Lotus Sport Exige 240R

(This car has really good handling, is a lot of fun to drive, it can do better than Aston Martin for many races.)

Chevrolet Corvette C6 Coupe

(This car has the best acceleration in this class, but is tough to drive on slower or curvy tracks.)

Class D:

Audi RS4 Quattro Saloon

(Best in the class, fun to drive)

(side note: I dont know why people keep saying Maserati GranSport is the best in this class, it drives like sh!t and really hard to handle.)

Aston Martin DB9 Coupe

(Pretty good, with good handling handling)

Lotus Esprit V8

(Pretty good, but rough handling)

Class E:

Nissan Skyline GTR R34

(Best in the class, speedwise, slightly rough handling, but will let you cross 100% races in the class)

Audi S4 Cabriolet

(Handling and speed better than mustang, downloadable car, fun to drive.)

Ford Mustang

(Good and cheap, fun to drive, Its a Mustang :) )

Class F:

Audi TT Quattro sport

(Hands down the best in the class, no compitition.)

Class G:

Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe

(Best car in the class but really costly and rarely available)

Shelby GT500

(I like this better than daytona coupe, it a bit slower but costs much less and great handling, you can complete 90% of class G with this car but for those 10% you'll need Daytona coupe.)

Class Am:

MV Augusta F4 Tamburini

Ducati 999 R

Class Bm:

MV Augusta F4 Brutale 910S

P.S. Google Maps can be used to find locations in the game.

Example you find from the booklet that the British parts are located in a certain city, you can search for the city in google maps, and then drive to that part in the game, and search around.

Favorite FireFox Add-ons

2008-03-06T01:47:00.002-05:00

Download Statusbar

IE Tab

Firebug

Pearl Crescent Page Saver

Theme: iFox Smooth

Live HTTP Headers

Caching in Apache

2008-01-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

There are many different Apache Modules which implement different kinds of caching behaviors using different mechanisms. Some of these modules are experimental and I don't exactly feel comfortable using them unless its for experimental purposes on my Home Web Server.

From what I understand caching, there can be 2 kinds of caching:

1. Client Side
Client side caching is primarily the Browser cache such as the Temporary Internet files in case of IE.
The Browser has its own default settings for these which the user can tweak per his requirements. But, aside from that, the behavior of this cache is controlled by HTTP header directives. Things like what to cache, how long to cache are determined by what values are set in the HTTP Header. In apache, this can be achieved using modules like mod_expires or mod_header.

2. Server Side.
Server side caching is done by any Server application which implements caching in some way. It could be a dedicated cache or a proxy server with caching enabled or a web server with caching enabled. In apache, this can be achieved using modules like mod_cache.

My personal favorite is client side caching because it can be achieved with little or no overhead and cost.

Mod_Expires
Adding the following to httpd.conf, can improve performance of static content by caching them in the browser for 1 month:

LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 300 seconds"

< Directory "/var/www/" >
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
# Added to improve Static Content Performace
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 1 day"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 day"
ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 1 day"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 day"
< /Directory >

Mod_headers




LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

< IfModule mod_header.c >
< FilesMatch "\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|css)$" >
Header set Cache-control max-age=2592000
< /FilesMatch >
< /IfModule >

How to find Hardware info on Solaris

2007-10-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

# uname -a
SunOS localhost 5.8 Generic_117350-44 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V890

# psrinfo
0 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
1 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
2 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
3 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
4 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
5 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
6 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
7 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:24
16 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
17 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
18 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
19 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
20 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
21 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
22 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31
23 on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31

# vmstat
procs memory page disk faults cpu
r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr s0 sd sd sd in sy cs us sy id
8 0 0 37846840 42028344 168 653 99 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4532 9880 6053 15 10 75

# mpstat
CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
0 41 0 378 220 1 152 201 595 686 0 775 17 10 0 73
1 42 0 109 226 1 250 207 636 712 0 744 16 10 0 74
2 40 0 641 245 1 320 208 657 727 0 707 15 10 0 75
3 38 0 462 229 1 378 209 675 742 0 680 14 10 0 76
4 35 0 155 215 2 363 203 687 740 0 623 14 10 0 76
5 34 0 69 229 2 470 208 723 0 0 656 13 10 0 77
6 33 0 736 229 1 480 209 751 753 0 648 13 10 0 77
7 31 0 301 662 494 768 82 376 127 0 74 15 15 0 69
16 43 0 484 289 45 308 226 712 621 0 736 16 10 0 74
17 47 0 200 224 1 288 204 677 645 0 20 17 10 0 73
18 47 0 111 273 46 315 208 673 653 0 769 17 10 0 73
19 46 0 666 239 9 355 211 674 664 0 748 16 10 0 74
20 45 0 489 689 1 389 211 675 675 0 716 16 10 0 74
21 43 0 260 227 1 420 207 674 702 0 687 15 10 0 75
22 41 0 65 230 1 416 201 666 687 0 653 15 10 0 75

Number of CPUs cores is actually equat to `mpstat | grep -v CPU | wc -l` which is 16 in this case.

Number of CPU's and cores:
# psrinfo -vp
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (0, 16)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (1, 17)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (2, 18)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (3, 19)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (4, 20)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (5, 21)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (6, 22)
The UltraSPARC-IV physical processor has 2 virtual processors (7, 23)

More Details:
# psrinfo -v
Status of virtual processor 0 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 1 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 2 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 3 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 4 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 5 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 6 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 7 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:24.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 16 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 17 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 18 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 19 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 20 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 21 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 22 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 23 as of: 10/29/07 13:10:21
on-line since 08/27/07 00:39:31.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 1350 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.

# uname -X
System = SunOS
Node = localhost
Release = 5.8
KernelID = Generic_117350-44
Machine = sun4u
BusType =
Serial =
Users =
OEM# = 0
Origin# = 1
NumCPU = 16

Rom's Rants: FIX: Far Cry: mouse not working in Vista

2007-08-12T14:24:00.000-04:00

Rom's Rants: FIX: Far Cry: mouse not working in Vista

I found out later that this issue is not only related to Vista, it happens on XP as well. I'm guessing it related to this particticular (patched) version of Far Cry.

Configure Network in Solaris

2007-06-18T19:59:00.000-04:00

Find out the internal IP Address of the router.
I am assuming IP address of router is 192.168.1.1
I'm assuming the IP address for the host to be 192.168.1.111
Also, I'm assuming the interface to be hme0. You can run ifconfig -a to find your interfaces. These things vary from system to system, so find out your configuration and replace these parameters from the following.

We need to edit the following files to configure networking:
/etc/defaultrouter
/etc/hosts
/etc/netmasks
/etc/nodename
/etc/resolv.conf

Become Root
# su - root

Back up the files, that will be edited
# cp -p /etc/defaultrouter /etc/defaultrouter.`date +%m%d%y`
# cp -p /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.`date +%m%d%y`
# cp -p /etc/netmasks /etc/netmasks.`date +%m%d%y`
# cp -p /etc/nodename /etc/nodename.`date +%m%d%y`
# cp -p /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.`date +%m%d%y`

Edit the files:
# echo "192.168.1.1" >> /etc/defaultrouter

# echo "127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\tloopback" > /etc/hosts
# echo "192.168.1.111\t`hostname`\t`hostname`" >> /etc/hosts

# echo `hostname` > /etc/nodename

# echo "192.168.1.0\t255.255.255.0" >> /etc/netmasks

# echo "nameserver\t192.168.1.1" >> /etc/resolv.conf

# reboot

Regards,

X on Cygwin

2007-04-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

At work, I primarily logged into a CDE desktop located on a remote machine, via local X-Windows Server, and in that session we would open multiple xterms to do our work.
Now, it was good except that I hate CDE and I could not customize my workspace because of restrictions on the server. Also when working from home or on a slow connection, this would result in very sluggish performance of X.

So the whole point was:

To reduce traffic (due to remote X Window Manager) between local machine and server, so as to obtain better performance.
To have a customizable and more friendly GUI Workspace.
To replace (DOS) batch files with shell scripts, to accomplish little tasks.

The answer to all this lied in cygwin.

Installed Cygwin.
Install X from cygwin setup.
Installed WindowMaker (I love Windowmaker, so this works for me)

Run the following:
# xwin -screen 0 @2 -clipboard -nowinkill -nounixkill -keyhook -nodecoration -logfile /cygdrive/c/amol/cyg_home/Xwin.log &
# wmaker &
# sleep 10 ; wmsetbg bg.jpg; xhost +

Linux Commands for Beginners

2007-01-28T11:34:00.003-05:00

Every now and then, someone new to the unix world asks me how to start learning unix. So here's a list of commands to start with.

Commands discussed here:
uname, hostname, env, ls, date, alias, ln, chmod, chmod, ps, top, netstat, ifconfig, kill, sudo, su, cat, grep, du, df, mount, find, who, ssh, scp, telnet, rlogin, ftp, put, get, mput, mget
........................................................................................
# uname -a
Linux host149.h0stm0nster.com 2.6.19-1_3.BHsmp #1 SMP Mon Jan 15 07:50:58 MST 2007 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Other commands to try:
# hostname
# echo $SHELL
# echo $USER
# env

# ls
lists Files and Directories

# ls -la
lists Files & Directories including hidden ones i.e. those whose names start with a dot.

# ls -ltr
lists Files & Directories with time stamps, with the most recently modified file at the bottom.

# date
Sun Jan 28 09:44:56 MST 2007
Displays date & time.

# date 012810502007
date format is MMDDhhmmYYYY
Sets date & time.

# alias l='clear && ls -l'
Creates an alias for command clear && ls -l, so when you type l and press enter, it gives the same result as clear && ls -l.

# ln -S /TARGET/DIRECTORY/OR/FILE SHORTCUT
Creates a Symbolic Link to /TAGET/DIRECTORY/OR/FILE in the current directory with name SHORTCUT.

# chmod -R username:groupname *
Change user and group ownership recursively for all files.

# chmod -R 750 *
Change access permissions to 750 recursively for all files.

# ps -ef | grep java
Displays Running processes with name java

# top
Displays Relatime monitoring of running processes
Similar commands are topas, nmon (on AIX).

# netstat -an
# netstat -in
# netstat -i
Displays all open ports, IP addresses etc.

# ifconfig -a
Displays all network interfaces, their IP Address, MAC address, MTU etc.

# kill 12345
Kills a process whose process id is 12345
# kill -3
# kill -9

# sudo rm -Rf /tmp/*
Executes the command with Super User credentials. For this to work, your user should be in the list of sudoers in file /etc/sudoers

# su root
From current user profile, get root shell .

# su - root
Get root shell, with root's profile loaded.

What is user profile in unix?
User Profile is a set of user specific settings like aliases, variables etc stored in a hidden file .profile in the user's home folder.
# cat ~/.profile

# cat filename
Display contents of text file on screen.
Similar commands are more, less and text editors vi, nano.

# grep error SystemOut.log
Displays only those lines in the file SystemOut.log which contain the word error.

# cat SystemOut.log | grep [Ee]rror
Displays only those lines in the file SystemOut.log which contain the word error or Error.

# cat filename | grep -v "^#"
displays lines which donot start with #

# du -h --max-depth=1
Displays disk usage i.e. size of current directory in Human Readable format (i.e. bits are rounded off to the Kb, Mb or Gb whichever is nearest).

# du -a | sort -rn | more
# du -g | sort -rn | more
# du -m | sort -rn | more
This is for AIX

# df -h
Displays Free disk space in all mount points.

# mount
Displays all File Systems currently mounted.

FIND is a very useful command and can do wonders when it comes to searching.
# find /PATH -name file_name
Searches for file_name at the location /PATH

# find . -name file_name -exec grep string to search {} \; -print
Searches for only those files in the current directory which have name file_name and which contain the word "string" in them.

Similarly,
# find /usr/WebSphere/ProcServer/profiles/ -name serverindex.xml -exec grep port {} \; -print
# find . -name httpd.conf -exec grep Listen {} \; -print
# find . -name httpd.conf -exec grep ServerName {} \; -print

# who
Displays all the users that are currently logged in.

Learn how the following stuff works for logging into remote machines.
# ssh URL
How to copy files & folders from remote host to localhost and vice versa using SCP?
scp
# scp username@url:/path_to_file/file username@url:/path_to_file/file
# scp index.html username@www.companyname.com:/usr/httpd/virtual/www.companyname.com/html

# telnet URL
# rlogin URL
# ftp URL
How to copy files & folders from remote host to localhost and vice versa using FTP?
use get, put, mget, mput, mget.

And the most important command of all, as pointed out by some experts "man".

# man
Above will show you the entire manual pages for the command
# --help
Above shows you a brief help about the command, this is usually a standard for most unix/linux apps or commands.

Following are some excellent articles on the basics of Unix covering things like Directory structure, System Startup, Users, scheduling etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runlevel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passwd_(file)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passwd_(command)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_ID

Security aspects of data on a Web Server, managed by a third party hosting service?

2007-01-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

Every now and then we see advertisements about free web space and domain names. And at some point or the other, we have thrown caution to the whim and registered on one of these sites and built up a web page. When we go about dumping our files on these online servers, there are some factors that should be considered.

I don't mean to say that Free web spaces are insecure or unsafe, but ..... they can be, if not used carefully. Besides, it doesn't matter if web space is Free or Paid, security should be considered eitherways.

Following article applies more to the cases where you have a Shell account (access using SSH or Telnet or Rlogin) on the server or at least FTP access, so that you can save files on the server. It does not really apply to myspace or orkut or similar websites, although some of the point should be considered even when storing files on these websites.

Security is directly proportional to Paranoia. I am being a little extra paranoid about security here, protecting as much as possible and from whosoever possible, not trusting anyone (human or any process). This is a general set of guidelines that should be considered while securing a web server, however their effectiveness depends largely on the extent upto which they are followed and how well they are implemented.

Who are potential threats to your data?

Web Users (Humans & Crawlers)

Any person on the web can be a threat. A crawler is not a direct threat, but a human can misuse the information that the crawler reveals, and so we should be aware of how they work so that we can use crawlers to our advantage and minimize the threat that they could pose.

Users of the Unix machine (where web server is located)

All humans or processes that have access to the hard drive on which the data is located, can be a threat.

System Admin's and root users (Super Users or sudoers)

For the most part one can trust the System Admin's but you never know. "With great power comes, great responsibility." And one can misuse the power, if one wants to.

How to Secure data?

Use File Access Permissions

Encrypt confidential data

Use htpasswd to restrict access to files and directories from the web (internet users)

Restrict Web spiders and crawlers

Archive data

File Permissions
This is the first and the foremost step towards restricting access to files and directories residing on any unix machine.

Assign general permissions to top level directories (example public_html) like 755 and keep it more restricted as you go down into subdirectories. I would, infact, assign a 700 permission to most of my files (All access to owner, no access to group or others ).

As for the html's, jpeg's and all other static web content (files that form the website) We are forced to assign a 755 permission, in many cases, so that the web server's executable can access them.

It all depends on how the unix machine is set up, or in other words, the contents of "/etc/passwd" and "/etc/groups" and how the Web Server is set up i.e. the httpd.conf and access.conf.

Encrypt confidential data
If you're planning on storing confidential information on your third party web space, Encrypt it. My favorite encryption algorithm is AES. 128 bit encryption is good enough but you could use 256 depending on your level of paranoia.

You can also use Double or Triple AES. Double encryption simple means that you encrypt text using a key, then encrypt the resultant encrypted text again with the same key or a different one and similarly for Triple encryption. It would be more work on your part because you would have to follow the same procedure in reverse order while decrypting.

You could either encrypt stream of text and save it in text files for quick access, so that the file is text but not readable because the content is encrypted, you can use a web based encryption tool that would execute in the browser. You could use a tool like ascrypt or acrypt on Windows or unix that encrypts files altogether.

It does not really matter which encryption algorithm or encryption tool you use (in this very context, not as a general rule), what really matters is HOW you use them. Try to use non-standard methodologies & practices while encrypting so that simple cracking tools cannot break them.

Use htpasswd to restrict access to files and directories from the web (internet users)
htpasswd is a web server module which provides a simple mechanism to password protect directories and files which are being accessed through the web server. This restricts web users from accessing the files. The System Admins can still access the files and so does anyone else who can access the hard drive on which the data resides.

Restrict Web spiders and crawlers

Lately, I've been seeing cases where google searches have shown an awful lot of information about people, more information than those people imagined, or wanted. Files that were stored by some friend of someone at some corner of some unknown server, had started to show up in Google searches. All because Google has Tons of spiders that keep on crawling the web all the time. I am not criticizing crawlers or Google. Trust me, I love google and its these crawlers that make google searches so good and effective and so useful. But a little care should be taken.

Use some mechanism to restrict web spiders to crawl only through certain directories and not through confidential stuff like photos or personal data.

This is very important because if the spiders crawl through all the files and directories of the web server's "document root" it does reveal some of the information (like directory structure) in Google searches.

This can be done using meta tags.

Look at the google screenshot to see what I am talking about.

Although, the information that shows up in google searches may not be accessed by a web user because the directory is restricted by htpasswd or the file is encrypted, but it still compromises the security by revealing directory structure or the names of files etc.
The files depicted above in the screen shot, are not online and the web server does not exist (at the time of this writing), but these files did exist some time earlier when the web spiders crawled through the website. It does show directory structure and file names, which gives malicious users with additional information over what we want.

Archive data
If you have directories filled with a whole bunch of files like text, html or even jpegs and the number of files is large its a good idea to tar these files, to say the least or even better compress them. You can also password protect these archives. This ensures no crawling and no access.
It also makes sure that automated scripts (involving grep, sed, awk etc) don't parse through your text files.

As a general rule, archiving is a good way of keeping files sorted and keeps the file system clean. It reduces number of files so if there's indexing of any kind, index would be small and searches would be fast. Of course, the downside would be that archived files will not show up in searches. Also, File transfers are faster and backups are easier.

History of Linux

2006-12-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Linux. It is interesting to see how various Unixes relate to each other and how they evolved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

nmon

2006-12-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

IBM's nmon page

nmon is one of the best system monitoring tool, with real-time monitoring capabilities.
It has a lot more features than top or topas. Once I switched from topas to nmon, these was no going back.

Download nmon

Here's nmon running on ubuntu:

nmon running on AIX:

Topas running on AIX:

Free Windows Stuff

2006-12-03T11:04:00.000-05:00

Here's 30 Essential Free and Open Source Software for windows
And Here Software's for Starving Students

Colinux Running Ubuntu

2006-11-28T21:41:00.000-05:00

If you have installed ubuntu the usual way, meaning:

You dual boot (Windows and Ubuntu)

You have ubuntu installed on some EXT3 (or whatever linux file system) partition

And You wanna run Ubuntu inside windows using colinux then, read on:

Assume the config file for colinux is ubuntu.xml; Edit it and add the following stuff:

(Please put the entries in the form of tags, refer to the default file for the exact format. Blogger is messing up my tags here.)

ROOT PARTITION
block_device index="0" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4" enabled="true" alias="hda5"

Look into Ubuntu's /etc/fstab for partition numbers. In my case, Ubuntu's fstab had an entry for hda5.
alias="hda5" lets ubuntu access / as /dev/hda5
path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4" is for colinux to look for Partition4. This number is 1 less than hda's NUMBER. Partition numbering in path variable starts with zero (Partition0).

SWAP PARTITION
block_device index="1" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition5" enabled="true" alias="hda6"

Folder's from Window's Partitions
cofs_device index="0" type="meta" path="\DosDevices\e:\" enabled="true"

BOOT PARAMS
root=/dev/hda5

NETWORK
network index="0" type="tap" name="ubuntu"

where ubuntu is the name of the colinux's TAP connection as seen in Windows' Control Panel / Network Connections /

BRIDGE Connection
In windows, Network Connections, Create a Bridge between LAN & colinux (By selecting them and right click: Bridge Connection). Configure the Network Bridge exactly like the LAN connection (DHCP or Static IP)

Start Colinux like this:
colinux-daemon.exe -t nt -c ubuntu.xml

To install Service:
colinux-daemon.exe -t nt -c ubuntu.xml --install-service "Ubuntu Linux"

SSH Server
apt-get install ssh
Use putty in windows to access Ubuntu Terminal and WinSCP to copy stuff from the Linux partitions.

VNC Server
Setup VNC Server on ubuntu and access it using a VNC client from Windows.

Customize xterm and aterm

2006-11-28T20:26:00.003-05:00

By default, xterm is unbelievably unreadable. So we do this to fix it and make text a little bigger:

# xterm -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-* -geometry 70x24 -bg black -fg gray

xterm is great, but aterm can be made transparent.

#aterm -bg black -fg gray -tr +sb +vb -geometry 70x24 -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*

These customaziations can also be made by modifying the .Xdefaults file located in a user's Home folder.

$ cat ~/.Xdefaults 
# ATERM SETTINGS
# Aterm*cutchars:               !"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^`{|}~
  Aterm*termName:               xterm
  aterm*loginShell:             true
  aterm*scrollBar:              true
  aterm*scrollBar_right:        true
# aterm*saveLines:              32767
  aterm*saveLines:              1000000000
  aterm*geometry:               120x24

# aterm*background:             #FFFFFF
  aterm*background:             #000000
# aterm*foreground:             #000000
  aterm*foreground:             #80FF00
  aterm*cursorColor:            #80FF00

  aterm*transparent:            true
  aterm*shading:                10
  aterm*transpscrollbar:        true
# aterm*tinting:                gray

  aterm*font:                   *-*-fixed-bold-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
# aterm*font:                   *-*-fixed-bold-r-normal-*--140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
# aterm*boldFont:               *-*-fixed-bold-r-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
  aterm*boldFont:               *-*-fixed-bold-r-normal--*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1

  aterm*backspacekey:           \010
  aterm*deletekey:              \177

# XTERM SETTINGS
  XTerm*backarrowKeyIsErase:    true
  XTerm*eightBitInput:          false

Must have Windowmaker DockApps

2006-11-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a bunch of Windowmaker Dock Apps which make life easier:

wmcalclock, wmmatrix, wmmoonclock, wmsun, wmnd, wmweather+, wmclockmon, wmdrawer, wmmixer, wmsmpmon, wmxmms

# apt-get install wmcalclock wmmatrix wmmoonclock wmsun wmnd wmweather+ wmclockmon wmdrawer wmmixer wmsmpmon wmxmms

You can find many more at http://dockapps.org/ or http://web.cs.mun.ca/~gstarkes/wmaker/dockapps/

Configure wmweather+

# wmweather+ -s STATION_ID

Find station ID for your location here: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/siteloc.shtml

Examples:
Station ID for Bloomington, IL is KBMI
Station ID for New York City is KNYC

Configure wmdrawer

This is one of the best dock apps and increases productivity exponentially. You can create shortcuts to your favorite apps here. Similar to Mac OS X dock, but in the form of a drawer.

Here's a sample configuration file ~/.wmdrawerrc

.................................................................................................
[general]
direction 1
icons_expand 1
transparency 1
btns_size 64
highlight 2
animation_speed 2
show_on_hover 1
hide_on_out 1
hide_timeout 250
border_size 0

[images_paths]
/home/amol/.pixmaps

# (tooltip) (image) (command)
[column]
(aterm) (aterm.png) (aterm -bg black -fg white -tr +sb +vb -geometry 70x24 -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*)
(X Terminal) (xterm.png) (xterm -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-* -geometry 70x24 -bg black -fg gray)

[column]
(Gedit Text Editor) (gedit.png) (gedit)
(Firefox) (firefox.png) (firefox)

[column]
(Thunar File Manager) (thunar.png) (thunar)
(Picasa Image Manager) (picasa.xpm) (picasa)

[column]
(VLC Video Player) (vlc.png) (vlc)

[column]
(Synaptic Package Manager) (synaptic.png) (synaptic)
(Ethereal) (ethereal.png) (ethereal)
.................................................................................................

Juice up your Fluxbox Desktop

2006-11-28T19:22:00.000-05:00

Recompile Fluxbox
Configure X to recognize fluxbox
Change Time Format on the slit
Set Wallpaper
Install Styles
Install artwiz fonts
Add apps to startup
Define Custon Keys
Customize xterm & aterm
Windowmaker Dock Apps

Recompile Fluxbox:

For Debian/Ubuntu users, the repositories don't have the latest version of fluxbox (at the time of this writing). You can make fluxbox faster by compiling it as per your requirement. Also, v1.0 has a transparency feature, not present in v0.9

Download the Latest Sources of fluxbox v 1.0 from http://www.fluxbox.org/ and compile them.

Recompiling fluxbox to a newer version decreased my fluxbox startup time from 10-12 seconds to almost 4 seconds.

Fluxbox Compile options:
# ./configure --enable-xmb=no --enable-RENDER=yes

The "--enable-xmb=no" makes fluxbox faster and "--enable-RENDER=yes" enables Transparency.
There's a bunch of other compile options available.

# make
# sudo checkinstall

Configure X to recognize fluxbox:

We need to do this so that gdm/kdm/wdm/xdm/*dm shows fluxbox in the list of available Window Managers.

# cd /usr/share/xsessions
# vi fluxbox.desktop

Create a Text file called fluxbox.desktop and put the following stuff in it.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Fluxbox
Comment=This is fluxbox
Exec=/home/(username)/.fluxbox/startup

Don't forget to replace (username) with your username.

Change Time Format on the slit:

#vi ~/.fluxbox/init
session.screen0.strftimeFormat: %a %d %H:%M

Set Wallpaper:

#fbsetbg SOME_FILE.jpg

fbsetbg doesnot stretch/center/tile wallpaper.
So I like to use feh instead.

#feh --bg-seamless FILE.jpg

You can use any of the following options with feh:
--bg-tile FILE
--bg-center FILE
--bg-scale FILE
--bg-seamless FILE

A really good website to find wallpapers is www.deviantart.com

Install Styles:

The coolest fluxbox styles ever, can be found at this site:
http://dugnet.com/klown/wallpaper/thumbs.php?dir=_themes/_fluxbox

Install artwiz fonts:

Make your fonts even cooler than they already are.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=95348

Add apps to startup:

Edit the file ~/.fluxbox/startup and add the following just before the text
exec /usr/local/bin/fluxbox
.....................................................
wmcalclock &
wmsmpmon &
wmdrawer &
wmnd &
wmweather+ -s KBMI &
wmmatrix &
wmmixer -w &

exec /usr/local/bin/fluxbox
.....................................................

Define Custon Keyboard shortcuts:

Edit the file ~/.fluxbox/keys
Here's my sample file:
.....................................................
# File generated by FluxConf
Mod1 Tab :nextwindow
Mod1 Shift Tab :prevwindow
Mod4 Right :nextworkspace
Mod4 Left :prevworkspace
Mod4 1 :Workspace 1
Mod4 2 :Workspace 2
Mod4 3 :Workspace 3
Mod4 4 :Workspace 4
Mod4 a :arrangewindows
Mod4 m :maximizewindow
Mod4 n :minimizewindow
Mod4 s :shadewindow
Mod4 c :close
Mod4 d :showdesktop
Control Shift t :execcommand xterm -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-* -geometry 70x24 -bg black -fg gray
Control Shift a :execcommand aterm -bg black -fg white -tr +sb +vb -geometry 70x24 -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
Control Shift i :execcommand firefox
.....................................................

Customize xterm and aterm

configure-xterm-and-aterm.html

Windowmaker Dock Apps

Must-have-windowmaker-dockapps.html

Conclusion:
Fluxbox is the coolest and fastest desktop ever.

Home Sweet Home

2006-11-27T11:04:00.000-05:00

Thats my home in India.

Deviant Stuff

2006-11-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

I recently uploaded a lot of my wallpaperish digital pictures on www.deviantart.com.

It's pretty cool, its a whole community of photographers and artists. And they comment on each other's work.

http://amolkolhe.deviantart.com/

My Deviant Stats

Silent WPS Profile creation

2006-11-10T10:57:00.001-05:00

I did lot of research before creating profiles and I found a bunch of arguments associated with the profile creator which I wanted to document somewhere. Here it is:

pcatWindows.exe -options ProcSrv01a.txt -silent

ProcSrv01a.txt

-W profilenamepanelInstallWizardBean.profileName="ProcSrv01a"
-P installLocation="D:\WID6_DB2Profile\ProcSrv01a"
-W nodehostnamepanelInstallWizardBean.hostName="localhost"
-W wbiCEIDB2DriverInfo.databaseServerName="localhost"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBHostName="localhost"
-W setnondmgrcellnameinglobalconstantsInstallWizardBean.value="Cell01"
-W nodehostnamepanelInstallWizardBean.nodeName="Node01"
-W wbiCEIConfigInputPanelBeanId.serverName="server1"
-W wbiAppSchedulerConfigInputPanel.appSchedulerServer="server1"

-W wbiCEIDB2ConfigInfoBean.databaseName="CEI01a"
-W wbiCommonDBConfigPanel.DBNameValue="WPS01a"
-W wbiCEIDB2DriverInfo.driverClassPath="D:\RAD_6\runtimes\bi_v6\universalDriver_wbi\lib"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBjdbc="D:\RAD_6\runtimes\bi_v6\universalDriver_wbi\lib"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBServerLocation="D:\Apps\SQLLIB"

-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.WC_defaulthost="9080"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.WC_adminhost="9060"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.WC_defaulthost_secure="9443"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.WC_adminhost_secure="9043"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS="2809"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SOAP_CONNECTOR_ADDRESS="8880"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SAS_SSL_SERVERAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS="9401"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.CSIV2_SSL_SERVERAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS="9403"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.CSIV2_SSL_MUTUALAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS="9402"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS="9100"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.DCS_UNICAST_ADDRESS="9353"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SIB_ENDPOINT_ADDRESS="7276"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SIB_ENDPOINT_SECURE_ADDRESS="7286"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SIB_MQ_ENDPOINT_ADDRESS="5558"
-W pctdefaultprofileportspanelInstallWizardBean.SIB_MQ_ENDPOINT_SECURE_ADDRESS="5578"

-W wbiSCAConfigInputPanelBeanId.doConfigureSCACheckList="true"
-W wbiSCAConfigInputPanelBeanId.userId="wpsadmin"
-W wbiSCAConfigInputPanelBeanId.password="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiSCAConfigInputPanelBeanId.passwordConfirmation="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiCEIConfigInputPanelBeanId.userId="wpsadmin"
-W wbiCEIConfigInputPanelBeanId.password="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiCEIConfigInputPanelBeanId.passwordConfirmation="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiCEIConfigInputPanelBeanId.database="DB2UDBNT_V82_1"
-W wbiCEIDB2ConfigInfoBean.createDatabaseChoice="yes"
-W wbiCEIDB2ConfigInfoBean.userId="wpsadmin"
-W wbiCEIDB2ConfigInfoBean.password="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiCEIDB2ConfigInfoBean.passwordConfirmation="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiCEIDB2DriverInfo.driverType="4"
-W wbiCEIDB2DriverInfo.serverPort="50000"
-W bpcConfigInputPanelBeanId.doConfigureSampleBPContainerCheckList="yes"
-W bpcConfigInputPanelBeanId.userId="wpsadmin"
-W bpcConfigInputPanelBeanId.password="wpsadmin1"
-W bpcConfigInputPanelBeanId.passwordConfirmation="wpsadmin1"
-W bpcConfigInputPanelBeanId.securityRole="Administrators"
-W wbiAppSchedulerConfigInputPanel.doAppSchedulerConfig="yes"
-W wbiCommonDBConfigPanel.radioButtons="create"
-W wbiCommonDBConfigPanel.DBProductList="DB2_Universal"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBUserID="wpsadmin"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBPassWord="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBPassWordConf="wpsadmin1"
-W wbiAdditionalDBConfigPanel.DBPort="50000"
-W wbiCreateProfileTypeSelectionPanelBeanId.selection="default"
-W winservicepanelInstallWizardBean.winServiceQuery="false"
-W profilenamepanelInstallWizardBean.isDefault="false"

FTP script

2006-11-08T17:07:00.000-05:00

ftp -i -s:ftpconf.txt

cat ftpconf.txt

open [FTP Server's Name or IP]
[username]
[password]

cd [Path where files need to be copied]
ls
mdelete *.ear
mput D:\Temp\EAR\*.ear
quit

Collector Tool

2006-11-08T10:06:00.000-05:00

The Collector Tool gathers information about your WebSphere Application Server installation and packages it in a .jar file that can be sent to IBM Customer Support to assist in problem determination and analysis. The information includes logs, property files, configuration files, operating system and Java data, and prerequisite software presence and levels.

There are two phases to using the Collector tool.
Execute the Collector program on your WebSphere Application Server.
Analysis of the Collector program output .jar file by IBM Customer Support.

Execute the Collector Tool:
cd [Path where back up is supposed to be stored]
/usr/WebSphere/ProcServer/profiles/bin/collector.sh

The above commands will create a file of the form
[hostname]-[cell]-[node]-[profile]-WASenv.jar

(This is the naming convention on Network Deployment. It may give different results on Base or Express)

Analysis of output .jar
To analyse the the collector output, we first need to extract the files from the jar.

Extract files from the .jar using one of the following commands:

jar -xvf WASenv.jar
unzip WASenv.jar

Here's IBM's official doc on Collector Tool

DB2 Help

2006-11-08T09:50:00.001-05:00

DB2 Commands

Connect:
db2 connect to [some_database] user [user_id] using [user_password]

Querry:
db2 select * from [database].[table]
db2 select [column_name1],[column_name2] from [database].[table] where [column_name]=[column_value]
db2 select * from siebel.s_lst_of_val_if where row_id='1+1Y+1'

Count:
db2 select count([colum_name]) from [table_name]
db2 select count(*) from [table_name]

Update:
db2 update [table_name] set [column_name]=[new_value] where [column_name]=[some_value]
db2 update s_asgn_grp set asgn_type_cd = 'One, Best Fit' where row_id='1+1Y+1'

Delete:
db2 delete from [database_name].[table_name] where [column_name]=[column_value]
db2 delete from siebel.s_lst_of_val_if where row_id='1+1Y+1'

List Information:
db2 list tables
db2 list tables for schema [user_name or schema_name]
db2 list database directory

Catalog:
db2 catalog tcpip node [server_name] remote [server_name] server [port_number]
db2 catalog database [database_name] at node [server_name]

Uncatalog:
db2 uncatalog database [database_name]

Create:
db2 create database [database_name] on [drive_letter]
db2 create database TEST on d

Execute SQL from text files:
db2 -tf [text_file_with_sql]
db2 -tf text.sql

Catalog Databases:
db2 catalog tcpip node X2I2D500 remote X2DBD500 server 50002 remote_instance db2inst2 ostype MVS
db2 catalog database at node X2I2D500 authentication dcs
db2 catalog dcs database as parms ',,INTERRUPT_ENABLED,,,,,'
db2 catalog system odbc data source

Disk Usage

2006-11-07T17:48:00.001-05:00

AIX:
du -a | sort -rn
du -g | sort -rn
du -m | sort -rn

Linux:
du -h --max-depth=1

HP-UX
du -ks| sort -nr

Mac OS X:
du -hd 1

Running Java Process

2006-11-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

ps -ef | grep java | awk '{print $2 "\t" $4 "\t" $(NF-2) "\t" $(NF-1) " \t " $(NF-3) "\t" $NF}' | grep -v "grep" | sed 's/\/usr\/WebSphere\/ProcServer\/profiles\///' | sed 's/\/config//' | sort +2

Following is the exact script that I used, which has different stuff for different reasons:

vi p1
echo Adapters:
ps -ef | grep Adapters | awk '{print $2 "\t" $(NF-3) "\t"}' | grep -v "pts" | cut -c 1-7,10-

echo
echo WebSphere:
ps -ef | grep java | awk '{print $2 "\t" $4 "\t" $(NF-2) "\t" $(NF-1) " \t " $(NF-3) "\t" $NF}' | grep -v "com.ibm.websm.refresh.WSMRefreshServer" | grep -v "grep" | grep -v "Adapters" | sed 's/\/usr\/WebSphere\/ProcServer\/profiles\///' | sed 's/\/config//' | sort +2
~
~
~
~
~

iBook Operation

2006-11-07T00:34:00.000-05:00

Indian stuff in Bloomington

2006-11-05T12:44:00.000-05:00

Crappy Bloomington Sites

www.desibloom.com
www.desipeoria.com
www.desichicago.NET
www.milwaukeeindian.com
www.desiindy.com
www.desicolumbus.com
www.madindians.com

Use google as free proxy:

2006-11-05T11:48:00.000-05:00

Use Google's language translation as a proxy, and visit blocked sites from behind a firewall:

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.orkut.com

Need For Speed V Porsche Unleashed

2006-11-05T04:01:00.000-05:00

How to make Need For Speed V Porsche Unleashed work on Windows XP ??

My Hardware
Processor : AMD Turion 64 Mobile
Processor Speed : 1.8 GHz
RAM : 896 MB
Display Adapter : ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200
Screen Resolution: 1280x800
Windows XP Home 32 bit Version 2002 Service Pack 2
Direct X 9.0

I got a new laptop with lots of RAM, good graphics and great configuration which I could also use for gaming apart from work. So I wanted to get my favorite racing game "Porsche Unleashed" working . I had to follow the following simple steps to get it working. But it seems simple now. I had to do lot of hit and Trial before I found the following patches and got them all to work.
These are the steps that I followed.

1. Install NFS Porsche Unleashed from CD or whatever.

2. Install the "NFS Porsche patch v. 3.5" from http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/
This file patches NFS PU to the latest version (3.5). The filename is "nfspu_v35.zip" and can also be found at http://www.edgefiles.com/files/3071.html

3. Install the "Porsche Unleashed 1st Enhanced Version 3.5.2004031"
(for Windows 2000/XP support and MORE.) from http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/
The filename is "NFS5-3.5.20040310.ZIP" and can be found at http://www.edgefiles.com/files/12820.html

4. This is very important. Right click on the file Porsche.exe in the game forlder or the shortcut to the game in Start Menu and open Properties. In the Compatibility Tab, Uncheck all the options. Make sure that "Run this program in Compatibility mode" is Unchecked.
Also, "Run in 256 Colors" is unchecked and "Run in 640x480 screen resolution" is unchecked.
If the above options are checked then the game Runs at a very slow speed like may be 1 Frame per second, in my case.

After doing all of the above I could turn on all the graphic settings in the game and it now runs at 1280x800 screen resolution.

I also tried to upgrade my Graphic Driver from the Factory installed driver to the newer ATI Catalyst driver but it did not help in any form. It may work for you though. For me it worked on the factory default ATI Driver.

Next, I wanna try to make this work on Windows XP 64-bit version.

Check this page for some great utilities for Porsche Unleashed:
http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/

Mac OS X Desktop

2006-11-05T03:50:00.001-05:00

Running Processes on the left, Mounted Drives on bottom left corner, Window Switcher on bottom right, Multiple timezone clock above it, CPU-RAM-Net Monitor on top middle and the rest of the stuff.

When I got my new Mac, I really enjoyed exploring the horizons of its GUI capabilities. These things do not increase productivity or functionality in any way. Just some cool stuff to do.

vi command reference

2006-11-05T03:19:00.000-05:00

Summary of vi motion and insertion commands.

Command	Meaning
0	Move to beginning of line.
$	Move to end of line.
a	Append text—move into insert mode after the current character.
^b	Back up one screen of text.
B	Back up one space-delimited word.
b	Back up one word.
Backspace	Move left one character.
^d	Move down half a page.
Esc	Leave insert mode, return to command mode.
^f	Move forward one screen of text.
h	Move left one character.
i	Insert text—move into insert mode before the current character.
j	Move down one line.
k	Move up one line.
l	Move right one character.
O	Open new line for insert above the current line.
o	Open new line for insert below the current line.
Enter	Move to beginning of next line.
^u	Move up half a page.
W	Move forward one space-delimited word.
w	Move forward one word.
:w	Write the edit buffer to the system.
:q	Quit vi and return to the UNIX prompt.
:q!	Quit vi and return to the system, throwing away any changes made to the file.

Basic vi commands.

Command	Meaning
0	Move to beginning of line.
$	Move to end of line.
/pattern	Search forward for the next line using a specified pattern.
?pattern	Search backward for the next line using a specified pattern.
a	Append text—move into insert mode after the current character.
^b	Back up one screen of text.
B	Back up one space-delimited word.
b	Back up one word.
Backspace	Move left one character.
^d	Move down half a page.
D	Delete through end of line.
d	Delete—dw = delete word, dd = delete line.
Esc	Leave insert mode, return to command mode.
^f	Move forward one screen of text.
G	Go to the last line of the file.
nG	Go to the nth line of the file.
h	Move left one character.
i	Insert text—move into insert mode before the current character.
j	Move down one line.
k	Move up one line.
l	Move right one character.
n	Repeat last search.
O	Open new line for insert above the current line.
o	Open new line for insert below the current line.
Return	Move to beginning of next line.
^u	Move up half a page.
U	Undo—replace current line if changed.
u	Undo the last change made to the file.
W	Move forward one space-delimited word.
w	Move forward one word.
x	Delete a single character.
:e file	Edit a specified file without leaving vi.
:n	Move to the next file in the file list.
:q	Quit vi and return to the UNIX prompt.
:q!	Quit vi and return to the system, throwing away any changes made to the file.
:r file	Read the contents of a specified file, including it in the current edit buffer.
:w file	Write the contents of the buffer to a specified file.
:w	Write the edit buffer to the system.

Advanced vi commands.

Command	Meaning
!!	Replace current line with output of UNIX command.
!}	Replace current paragraph with the results of piping it through the specified UNIX program or programs.
(	Move backward one sentence.
)	Move forward one sentence.
C	Change text through the end of line.
c	Change text in the specified range—cw changes the following word, whereas c} changes the next paragraph.
e	Move to the end of the current word.
^g	Show current line number and other information about the file.
R	Replace text until Esc.
r	Replace the current character with the next pressed.
^v	Prevent vi from interpreting the next character.
{	Move backward one paragraph.
}	Move forward one paragraph.
:!	Invoke specified UNIX command.
:ab a bcd	Define abbreviation a for phrase bcd.
:ab	Show current abbreviations, if any.
:map a bcd	Map key a to the vi commands bcd.
:map	Show current key mappings, if any.
:s/old/new/	Substitute new for old on the current line.
:s/old/new/g	Substitute new for all occurrences of old on the current line.
:1,$s/old/new/g	Substitute new for all occurrences of old.
:set nonumber	Turn off line numbering.
:set number	Turn on line numbering.

Colinux Rocks!

2006-11-05T02:38:00.000-05:00

Colinux Website http://www.colinux.org/
Colinux Docs http://wiki.colinux.org/wiki/Main_Page

Install colinux and download a Debian image.

Create a bridge between the "Local Area Network" and the "Colinux Tap ........."
Assign IP address to the Bridge.

Start colinux and login as user root password root
Add DNS address to resolv.confecho "nameserver 192.168.10.1" > /etc/resolv.conf

Configure IP address and Route
ifconfig eth0 192.168.10.114 && route add default gw 192.168.10.1

if the above works,

nano /etc/network/interfaces
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.10.114
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.10.1

adduser amol

Install stuff
apt-get update
apt-get install -y mc
apt-get install -y lynx
apt-get install -y links
apt-get install -y screen
apt-get install -y vim
apt-get install -y apache2
apt-get install -y ssh
apt-get install -y ksh
apt-get install -y nmap
apt-get install -y tcpdump
apt-get install -y wdm
apt-get install -y wmaker
apt-get install -y wmakerconf
apt-get install -y tightvncserver

Configure VNC Server
vi /etc/X11/wdm/Xservers
:0 local /usr/bin/Xtightvnc -desktop vt7 -depth 24 -geometry 960x720

Start VNC Server and set a password

Start colinux from windows using the following command:
colinux-daemon.exe -t nt -c debian.xml

To install colinux as a service:
colinux-daemon.exe -c debian.xml --install-service "Debian Linux"

Copy Music from iPod to Hard Drive

2006-11-05T01:45:00.000-05:00

Apple does not use any kind of encryption to store music on the iPod. All they do is rename all the MP3's to weird names and place them in a weird directory structure which is hidden.

Following method works on Windows (did not test on Mac, but I'm sure there's a way to do this on a Mac). Your MP3 files on the iPod should have at least some kindda tag for the file to show up in the search.

Enable show hidden files

In Windows, go to folder options and enable show hidden files. Now, connect your iPod, and browse the iPod Hard Drive.

Browse the iPod's Drive

All the music files are stored in the folder H:\iPod_Control\Music\ (assuming the iPod is mounted on drive H:) in folders F00, F01, F02 and so on.

Go inside any of those folders and switch to Detail view. Now choose details from the view menu and select Artist Name, Album Name, Genre etc. This is what it would look like in Explorer.

This is how you see the Music.

Do a Search in Explorer (Ctrl+F)

Now you wanna copy music from a particular artist say "Metallica". Go to the folder H:\iPod_Control\Music\ in Explorer and do a Search for files (Leave the name blank or *) containing text "Metallica". I bet the result would look like this:

You can do whatever you want with the files from here. Copy them, burn them ......

Rename the files

As for the weird names, use a Renaming tool like Ant Renamer or even better use an ID3 tag tool like ID3-tagit to rename the files and move them around.

Conclusion:
Over all, this is not the best way to back up music, from iPod but it does not involve additional softwares like Anapod or Yamipod (which also work but seem to break too often and cost $$).
Its FREE, it works (until Apple finds out, of course) and its almost too easy.