Category Archives: Computing

My thoughts and works in computing and programming.

Security Alert: Storm “Loves You” to Infect Your Machine

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Ok, so I don’t do this often, but I gotta an email this morning:

I Would Dream
From:
########@#####.### (e-mails hidden to protect the innocent)
To:
########@#####.###
Date:
Today 03:59:41

For You….My Love http://###.###.###/ (IP address also hidden)

Turns out that e-mail probably originated from a system compromised by the Storm botnet. If you do visit that page, you will get a nice little love note that tries to download a with_love.exe or withlove.exe. Both reported are malware. DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR ATTEMPT TO RUN SUCH A PROGRAM. Don’t become another victim.

The malware will probably try to infect your machine, making just another node in the Storm botnet. Botnet owners use their botnets to extort money from legitimate companies and individuals. If the targets refuse to pay up the botnet launches a coordinated and prolonged DDOS attack. These attacks function by overloading a target server with requests, cutting off the server from the rest of the Internet. The botnet continues to cut the target off the Internet, until the target pays the botnet owner.

Related Links:
http://www.trustedsource.org/TS?do=threats&subdo=blog&id=21

KDE & Linux: An Explanation for the Uninitiated

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One of my friends after reading my last blog piece commented: “English please.”

So here is the English summary translation of my last blog post:

The short explanation would be:
I occasionally review new Linux software. KDE is a window manager for Linux. And the new KDE4 rocks my world!

Long explanation without too much techno-babble:
Linux is an alternative to Windows for computers. Now KDE is a window manager for Linux. A window manager handles the drawing of windows, various widgets, keyboard input, mouse input, etc. (Yes, KDE/Gnome users I know that window managers often do more than that.) Basically all the things you see (and hear) on a computer, are all handled (for the most part) by a window manager.

The KDE developers also make a number of additional programs (file browser, web browser, IM client, office suite, image viewers) that work closely with the basic KDE system programs. In the new KDE 4, the KDE developers basically rewrote most of KDE, letting them experiment with new and interesting ideas.

Now, you are probably thinking so what? Well unlike Windows or Mac OSX, Linux is free. KDE is also free. Free as in speech.

You see Linux, KDE and hundreds of other such programs are open source software or software libre. Software libre is a movement to give back freedom to both computer users and developers. (For the most part I use the terms free software, open source and software libre interchangeably. My apologies to RMS & the FSF for continuing the confusion.)

Open source software is licensed in such a way that you can download it legally, run it, look at the source code, whatever you want to do with it. The only restriction is that if you change the source code and plan on releasing it, you have to release your modified source code under the same license. (Extreme simplification here since I am talking only about the GNU General Public License version 2 or GPL 2. But nothing written as a binding legal document is simple. Fortunately GPL 2 is the most popular open source license.)

Now most people think that nothing of value is free. You might think no one would want to work on something that is free. Except there are probably a few hundred thousand open source developers including myself out there. Except that Fortune 500 companies such like IBM, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Asus, Google, Dell, Sony, etc. often run their business on open source software, and pay developers to contribute back to open source software projects like Linux.

Case in point: Yesterday, Sun Microsystems bought out MySQL AB, a company that produces free open source and extremely popular database for $1 billion USD. Google, Yahoo, Facebook all use MySQL as their database platform.

Back to my last story, the new KDE 4 is cool. Cool because its open source. Cool because its beautiful to look at. Cool because it works. Mostly. Cool because it will only get better.

So I hope that explains why I get excited about things like KDE 4.

KDE 4: My Desktop Just Got Cooler

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Tuesday, I decided to make the plunge and try out KDE 4.0.0 One word: amazing. So ever is my quick and unscientific review of KDE 4.0.0

Artwork
KDE 4 is a very sexy looking desktop. The panel is darker, the default wallpapers classier and artwork much more modern. The icon and widget theme Oxygen and the effects make the desktop stunningly pretty. The Oxygen window decorations don’t add much. I ended up switching to the Plastik. Also the artwork for the new KDE 4 games is simply beautiful.

Naturally artwork is a very subjective thing, but it does help with the user experience. If a user wants to look at a program, then he/she might want to work and experiment with it too. So far I am impressed by the Oxygen art team’s progress.

Stability
Older KDE 3 applications also work well. So the new KDE libraries are as stable as the KDE developers claim them to be. Unfortunately not all the KDE 4 programs are stable. I encountered a number of crashes with the new Plasma-able version of superkaramba. Other KDE 4 applications can seem a bit unstable at times too. Also interoperability between KDE 3 and KDE 4 applications is a bit weak too. The most stable apps so far the one related to systemsettings and the KDE games.

Again, since KDE 4.0.0. is a release directed towards developers and early adopters, I am not going to complain about this. I am sure other windows managers were less stable after such a massive API change. Things should get better with the next release of KDE 4. Probably by the time Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron will be out, most of these bugs will be out of the way. Remember KDE 4.0.0 is just the first version in KDE 4’s lifecycle.

Integration
One thing I love and hate about KDE is the tight integration between KDE apps. As of KDE 4.0.0 many of the integration pieces are missing. I will not harp upon my two favourite KDE applications, amarok & kontact (part of KDE-PIM). In both cases, the developers are not ready to get the code in place to deal with the new APIs, and the new features they want to add. A straight port to the new kdelibs is one thing. A new release worthy of the KDE 4 title is another.

However some necessary parts of the KDE integrated experience are not there. Example: the Regional/Language settings work… barely. Also the new kickoff menu does not always find new non-KDE programs, something the old menu did. (That might be more of a Kubuntu/Ubuntu integration issue though). Plasma whose ultimate goal is to integrate the desktop, kicker and applets with the rest of the system, has a long way to go.

…And Everything Else!
To finish off this off-the-cuff review, I want to point a few other things I noticed.

The new kickoff menu takes some getting used to. At first I frowned upon the limited space this new menu system takes up. After a few uses, it grew on me. The Favorites and Computer parts let you quickly get to a favourite application or location. The Recently Used keeps track of your recent documents and applications used. Everything is nicely compartmentalized. The regular applications menu is the part that takes use to the most. Displaying only one menu at a time gives a lot more information about each application. Only problem is when there a large number of applications in a submenu. If the KDE developers come up with a natural way of categorizing applications and keep the maximum depth of submenus to 2 then its all good. Also please, please make it possible to scroll between menus without all that clicking.

The new okular document viewer is awesome. With all the backends in place, it really does become the universal text document viewer. Excellent work. Also KDE 4.0.0 sports a new revision of the gwenview image viewing program. A few more plugins to do slight photo-editing would be nice. But I guess thats what digikam is for. Dolphin also got an update in KDE 4.0.0. Dolphin’s breadcrumb file displayer is now easily editable to let you navigate the file system path. I found this very useful to enter hidden directories without displaying all the . files.

The new konqueror is now an actually usable web browser. Kopete for KDE 4 is nice, but I miss having easy one-click access to my accounts. Now I have to click twice to do the same thing because of the whole profiles thing. KGet also shows promise to be more useful than it once was, with bittorrent integration.

Wrapping up, KDE 4.0.0 brings a lot to the table. Its a sexy-looking desktop with a lot of potential. Once all of the KDE applications get fully ported, and the few nuisances straightened out, KDE 4 will be the most fun free desktop out there. For now KDE 4.0.0 just made my desktop look and feel a lot cooler.

Review of 2007, the Promise(s) of 2008

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The year 2007 has been quite a dynamic year for me. Instead of writing a long article about each thing… cause that might take me an year to write and edit, I will just present a list of lists of things that happened.

Academics

  • Completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto at Mississauga.
  • Picked my diploma for Bachelor of Science.

Travel

  • Traveled to Italy and Poland.
  • Walked down Unter der Linden in Berlin, Germany.
  • Checked out the Tower of London, National Gallery and Museum of Natural History in London, England.
  • Saw the sights of Florence, Rome, Assisi, and bunch of the Umbria region of Italy.
  • Walked around Gdańsk, Szczecin, Poznan, Gdynia and Malbork in Poland.

Software Development

  • Increased my knowledge of information security.
  • Restarted my involvement with the justCheckers project.
  • Deepened my understanding on software libre and open source.
  • Learned Javascript, CGI-Perl and JSP.
  • Joined the Ubuntu Toronto Users group.

Business

  • Led a mock-up startup for a course.
  • Learned how to read and understand businesses.
  • Discovered the many aspects of open source businesses.
  • Read My Job Went to India, or how to stay in IT.

Art

  • Wrote six articles on quantum computing.
  • Wrote seven personal essays that form my Hacker, Gamer, Lover book.
  • Wrote and voiced in an audio documentary, Casanova.
  • Started writing a science fiction novel.

Social Activity

  • Learned of the open access movement.
  • Learned the basic ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Rousseau’s social contract.
  • Debated for network neutrality.
  • Read Stallman’s Free Software, Free Society.
  • Read about the anti-software patent efforts in the EU.

Personal

  • Went to Taize in Montreal.
  • Made a lot more friends.
  • Learned the subtle art of dating.
  • Survived the downs of 2007.
  • Got my G1 driver’s license. Again.
  • Invented task logs, an organizational tool.

Things to Do for 2008

  • Finish justCheckers.
  • Write and publish two books.
  • Get a software development related job.
  • Start a company.
  • Find a real girlfriend.
  • Learn to drive and get my full G license.
  • Learn C and C++.
  • Get involved in a major FOSS project.

Ubuntu Toronto Meeting @ the Linuxcaffe

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Today I went down to a small, cosy cafe called the Linuxcaffe on the corner of Harbord St. & Grace St. in downtown Toronto. Other than the fact, that the Linuxcaffe is way cool with organic coffee and free wireless; its also cool that the owner advocates Linux and free software. But what got me to go, was a seasonal meeting of Ubuntu Toronto.

I got to meet a number of enthusiastic Ubuntu users, and I may have helped create a new one by installing and configuring Ubuntu “Gutsy” 7.10 on a laptop. Thanks guys for the great afternoon. And even the weather cooperated by not dumping snow until much later.

Information Overload Via RSS

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Eureka! I found out where a good chunk of my time disappeared to. RSS feeds and my favorite feed aggregation tool: Akregator. RSS feeds are an invaluable tool and using them feels like holding a hand on the pulse of the Web. However, I realized how much time I wasted because I subscribed to a few news and planet feeds.

Every morning would start with firing up Kontact, and reading my e-mails. Then I would do the same with the RSS feeds. Then I would scan each story, decide upon its usefulness, upload the useful ones to my web browser, read them, bookmark and catalogue them. Only by the time I finished a good chunk of the day past by. Oh my.

I realized that I had become an information junkie, and nothing was getting done. Initially I switched off the automatic retrieval. But that was just a half measure. Instead today, I took the drastic step of deleting the news and planet feeds. Now I can get work done, and do the things I should do. Like updating this blog. 😉

The Open Source Gamer Looking for Work

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I am currently looking for work, so if anyone is interested in a software developer or software engineer position please let me know. I have experience from university (finished my B.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Toronto) and from my open source projects in:

  • Java development.
  • PHP and JSP scripting.
  • Database (MySQL and SQL Server) programming.
  • Technical, computer manual writing.
  • Graphics: mostly Java AWT and SDL.
  • Website development (XHTML, CSS and Javascript).

I am looking something that I can either do at home or commute to in Brampton, Mississauga or Toronto. So if anyone is interested please send me an email at:

dorian dot pula at gmail dot com.

Thanks in advance for all offers.

A Free Society Needs a Free Market and Free Software

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A few days ago I finished reading Richard Stallman’s “Free Software, Free Society”. The book consists of a number of interesting, well-written essays on the philosophy and history of the free software movement.

Most people heard of open source as a practical development paradigm and distribution method. Eric Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” describes that in more detail so I will not delve much into that topic. Besides I get the impression that many people understand the goals of open source. But not so many understand the reasoning behind free software, which made open source possible.

As Richard Stallman says, free software is “free as in speech not as free beer”. The goal of free software is to bring freedom to software. The freedom of letting users and developer do whatever they want with the software, within limits. The limits being not to take away the freedoms associated with a program and its source code. Richard Stallman explains the cultural heritage benefits and freedom benefits in his book very well.

Many critics of the free software movement voice their concerns over “ownership” of and “marketability” of free software. Some even go so far to call the entire movement “communist” utopia. Me thinks these critics don’t (or don’t want to) understand either how free software works or free markets for that matter.

I will not go into details why a free market is desirable. These ideas are well documented by theorists from Adam Smith to Ludwig von Mises to Milton Friedman. For sake of argument lets assume a free market is desirable. Free markets depend on people owning “capital”. These owners exchange their “capital” with a customer for greater material wealth, which becomes more “capital”.

Free software unlike proprietary closed source software, gives “ownership” to a user. You can only own a piece of software if you have its source code, be able to modify it for a task, and distribute it to whoever you please. The only restriction is that you must not take away those freedoms. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, Abraham Lincoln once said. The free software with its “give back others freedom” clause, maintains the software’s freedom in perpetuity. Interestingly, this “give back” clause meets the most opposition.

In proprietary software, you get a license to run the program. Usually only one program on one computer by one person, and you are not allowed to give out copies of that program. And you can’t change the program because you don’t have the software. You don’t own the software.

Lets compare this to what happens in real life. You go to the store, and buy a drill. Now you own that drill. You can do whatever you want to with it. You can sell it. You can use it. You can disassemble it. You can use it to power your motorboat if you choose to. It might void your warranty. But you can be sure whatever you do with that drill, and you don’t break a law while using it; you will not have the police coming to your door.

If anything free software is far from being communistic. It gives you more ownership than the closed source software does. Free software encourages a free market, but also asks you to do so ethically. It asks for you to respect the freedoms of another person. Respecting the freedoms of another person is what a free society is about. Respecting the freedoms of a customer is what an ethical seller in a free market does. Furthermore free software with its “give back” clause promotes the idea of giving away “capital” in the form of ideas, work, code, documentation and the software itself; which gives the giver more capital. In fact it gives back more capital for everyone. Everyone wins, and everyone keeps their liberties.

Communism tramples on the freedoms of individual ownership. Free software promotes the freedoms of individual ownership.

Free software promotes ethical behaviour in programmers, cause your code is for all to see. Free software promotes ethical, sustainable entrepreneurs, who know they benefit if everyone benefits. Also often free software ability to be given away, increases a software’s exposure to potential client, better than any sale force can. Free software is also probably the only thing that lets the software market have any chance of become free of interference from corporations and governments. Only a few greedy monopolies and individuals will suffer from free software, but these people don’t care about hurting others to make a bit of cash.
A few days ago I finished reading Richard Stallman’s “Free Software, Free Society”. The book consists of a number of interesting, well-written essays on the philosophy and history of the free software movement.

Most people heard of open source as a practical development paradigm and distribution method. Eric Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” describes that in more detail so I will not delve much into that topic. Besides I get the impression that many people understand the goals of open source. But not so many understand the reasoning behind free software, which made open source possible.

As Richard Stallman says, free software is “free as in speech not as free beer”. The goal of free software is to bring freedom to software. The freedom of letting users and developer do whatever they want with the software, within limits. The limits being not to take away the freedoms associated with a program and its source code. Richard Stallman explains the cultural heritage benefits and freedom benefits in his book very well.

Many critics of the free software movement voice their concerns over “ownership” of and “marketability” of free software. Some even go so far to call the entire movement “communist” utopia. Me thinks these critics don’t (or don’t want to) understand either how free software works or free markets for that matter.

I will not go into details why a free market is desirable. These ideas are well documented by theorists from Adam Smith to Ludwig von Mises to Milton Friedman. For sake of argument lets assume a free market is desirable. Free markets depend on people owning “capital”. These owners exchange their “capital” with a customer for greater material wealth, which becomes more “capital”.

Free software unlike proprietary closed source software, gives “ownership” to a user. You can only own a piece of software if you have its source code, be able to modify it for a task, and distribute it to whoever you please. The only restriction is that you must not take away those freedoms. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, Abraham Lincoln once said. The free software with its “give back others freedom” clause, maintains the software’s freedom in perpetuity. Interestingly, this “give back” clause meets the most opposition.

In proprietary software, you get a license to run the program. Usually only one program on one computer by one person, and you are not allowed to give out copies of that program. And you can’t change the program because you don’t have the software. You don’t own the software.

Lets compare this to what happens in real life. You go to the store, and buy a drill. Now you own that drill. You can do whatever you want to with it. You can sell it. You can use it. You can disassemble it. You can use it to power your motorboat if you choose to. It might void your warranty. But you can be sure whatever you do with that drill, and you don’t break a law while using it; you will not have the police coming to your door.

If anything free software is far from being communistic. It gives you more ownership than the closed source software does. Free software encourages a free market, but also asks you to do so ethically. It asks for you to respect the freedoms of another person. Respecting the freedoms of another person is what a free society is about. Respecting the freedoms of a customer is what an ethical seller in a free market does. Furthermore free software with its “give back” clause promotes the idea of giving away “capital” in the form of ideas, work, code, documentation and the software itself; which gives the giver more capital. In fact it gives back more capital for everyone. Everyone wins, and everyone keeps their liberties.

Communism tramples on the freedoms of individual ownership. Free software promotes the freedoms of individual ownership.

Free software promotes ethical behaviour in programmers, cause your code is for all to see. Free software promotes ethical, sustainable entrepreneurs, who know they benefit if everyone benefits. Also often free software ability to be given away, increases a software’s exposure to potential client, better than any sale force can. Free software is also probably the only thing that lets the software market have any chance of become free of interference from corporations and governments. Only a few greedy monopolies and individuals will suffer from free software, but these people don’t care about hurting others to make a bit of cash.

Free software is good for society. Its good for business. Its good for customers. Its good for developers and the future of software.

You can download a copy of Richard Stallman’s “Free Software, Free Society” here:
http://www.gnu.org/doc/book13.html

Countdown to Ubuntu 7.10

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To build up even more excitement to the release of Ubuntu 7.10, I am added this neat little countdown javascript app to the side of the blog.


Share and Enjoy!

Settling in with the Gutsy [BETA]

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For past few days I have been beta testing Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Overall, I have this beta release running on my main production system without too much breakage. By the time the real release occurs, most users will be grateful for a stable, reliable and increasingly user friendly release of Kubuntu.

Update Nightmares
Having lived through a year of Gentoo Linux and its weekly blending edge releases and updates, I feel comfortable helping out with the beta testing of the new Kubuntu. That said, beta testing is only for those that don’t get irritated at breakage. And open source software (Apologies to RMS, free software is like free speech and free markets, but open source has a nicer ring to it.) brings its own kind of beta breakage, since development happens at a much faster pace with the entire community collaborating on the same code. So the breakage and updates come fast and furious. My every computing day starts with an update. And sometimes fixing a crashed upgrade with dpkg.

The battle for Strigi continues everyday. After discovering the usefulness of desktop searching with Google Desktop, I want Strigi to work badly. However after submiting bug reports, installing updates and following a particularly cryptic lead involving pdftotext, nothing seems to work. Actually strigi is more responsive, and takes longer to eat up my processing power, in the end the daemon acts like one and possesses my processor. Only killing it, solves the problem.

Rocking with Amarok
First I used Winamp, and then I discovered Linux and XMMS. And while a soft spot for the ancient XMMS, rests in my heart, my current music player of choice is Amarok. Amarok with its iTunes layout, media library management and plugins beat the pants off all its competitors in both the open and closed source worlds. My favorite features include the seamless music player device management, the lyrics plugin, the podcast aggregator and the soundKonvertor plugin for changing my Ogg collection to MP3s that my MP3 player can handle.

The new version 1.4.7 of Amarok makes the smoothest player out there. Gone is the irritating stealing of keyboard bug that locked up my desktop. The moodbar feature now works out of the box in Ubuntu. Moodbar maps out the dynamics of the song in colours, and displays that info inside the song progress bar.

Gutsy Artwork
The Gutsy art team has added new artwork in this release. This includes a nice neutral aqua wallpaper. KDM login manager now includes a nice new theme that includes the standard user list that an unmodified KDM sports. While I personally have not gotten the theme to work (see bug), this new artwork makes Kubuntu more usable. Whoever said art is not functional, was a fool.

An OpenOffice.org Upgrade
OpenOffice version 2.3 is one of the much touted features in Kubuntu and Ubuntu. A new release of OpenOffice does not excite me much anymore. However it is an essential piece of software that I use everyday. Its nice to know that large commercial entites such as Sun Microsystems and IBM, continue to develop, improve and contribute to the entire free open source community. Its got some nice features and all the developers involved with the OpenOffice suite should be warmly applauded of their efforts.

More info on the new features in OpenOffice 2.3.

Progress in Remote Control
One of the few pieces of hardware that can work under Linux, but refuses to work under Ubuntu is my remote control. The issue was that the older version of Ubuntu were missing the kernel modules for Lirc, and hence the ability to use remotes. In Gutsy, the kernel modules are included. And with a bit of configuration, and restarting the Lirc daemon, I can get my remote to work. But the entire process is still a bit hit and miss.

Overall
The new release of Ubuntu and hence Kubuntu is working up to be a more user friendly release than Feisty. Most of the must have features are in the Ubuntu variant rather than Kubuntu itself. I believe that the uncertainty and development of KDE4 contributes to this lack of major features for the KDE side of Ubuntu. Also many of the bugs and issues I have dealt with, will disappear by the time the final release of Gutsy. The progress on even the irritating Strigi bugs promises to fix this showstopper bug. So keep your fingers crossed. This next release of Kubuntu maybe the most user friendly release yet.