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IT Salaries Projected to Rise in 2010

Jul 24

Posted by in Linux | No Comments

This article by David Needle, Slight Increase in IT Salaries a Ray of Hope is a much-needed bit of encouragement. He writes:

“Computer Economics found that IT organizations plan to increase operational budgets by a median of 1.8 percent in 2010, and that more than a third are planning to increase staff, restoring some of the positions shed over the past two years.”

I know that for a lot of my friends, the best news is the part about hiring more staff. They’ve been over-stretched for a long time now, trying to do too much work with too few staff. The prospect of having a saner work schedule is going to make a lot of people happier. Having a sane work schedule is difficult enough, as tech culture seems to view that with disdain, and would rather say silly slogans like “Work smarter, not harder!” and “Don’t let your work drive your life, let your life drive your work!” Which are code for “We own you.”

Keep in mind there are wage and hour laws, and in most states they have real teeth. Salaried workers are protected too, and any expectation of massive unpaid overtime for salaried workers is most likely outside the law.

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Opera 10.6 includes AVG enhancements

Jul 3

Posted by in Opera | No Comments

By Seth Rosenblatt, CNET News.com

Opera 10.60 for Windows, Mac and Linux incorporates security enhancements provided by popular freeware antivirus vendor AVG, improves performance, adds further HTML5 compatibility and makes a minor but noticeable tweak to the browser interface. The first beta of Opera 10.60 was released only two weeks ago, and on Thursday it graduates to a wide release and sheds its beta tag.

Opera users will now encounter this warning page when they try to load sites that have been identified by AVG's real-time detector as malicious. (Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The new security feature indicates that while Chrome and Firefox are looking to further isolate plug-ins and add-ons, Opera hopes to address the immediate threat from malware-infected websites. Opera now comes with AVG’s real-time web threat data feed built in. What this means is that when you encounter a page that’s been detected by the AVG network to be malicious, you’ll see the warning instead. The network is fed by data supplied anonymously by 51 million AVG users from around the world.

According to AVG’s press release, the feature uses multiple techniques to protect users. It uses exploit signatures to detect sites serving drive-by downloads, the AVG Online Shield and contextual analysis to detect social engineering scam-driven viruses, and reputation lists for safeguarding against malicious domains and URLs.

Opera is also claiming the same dramatic performance improvements in version 10.60 as it did in the beta, saying that the browser is 50 per cent faster than the previous version using the Peacekeeper test. ZDNet Australia’s sister site CNET’s tests performed on the beta showed it closer to 33 per cent faster on the Peacekeeper test, which is still a massive improvement, but only 5.6 per cent faster on the SunSpider JavaScript test.

Version 10.60 supports several nascent HTML5 features, including the next-generation video and audio codec WebM, geolocation compatibility, Web Workers and App Cache. This update places Opera at or very close to parity with beta and development versions of Chrome and Firefox. Opera has also created an HTML5-geolocation-powered map showing real-time downloads and active users of Opera.

In other changes, Bing finally makes it onto Opera’s default search options list, and Opera has tweaked the “O” logo menu that debuted in Opera 10.5 by adding the word “menu” to clarify what it’s for. The Windows changelog, Mac changelog and Linux changelog are available at the Opera website.

Via CNET

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10 Steps to Convert a Windows User to Linux

Jun 14

Posted by in Linux | 2 Comments

By Jonathan DePrizio in Techthrob.com
 
Introduction

With Linux becoming more popular and easier to use, more and more people are adopting it as their primary operating system. But the transformation from Windows user to Linux user can be a tough road to take. Most new users become long-term users because they have friends that introduce Linux to them, and help them through the first few weeks of rough-patches. Here are ten steps to help you introduce Linux to a would-be convert. 

1. Select your mark

Let’s face it – Linux isn’t for everyone. Your grandmas, your uber-gamers, your technophobes; all of these are bad candidates for Linux conversion. You want someone that’s interested in computing, and someone that is decently tech-literate. The ideal candidate is one that has heard of Linux, but for whatever reason believes it would be too complex for him or her to use. Another important quality in a mark is someone who’s willing to take some time and work through the initial phase of changing to a new operating system. If a candidate doesn’t have these qualities, it might be best to look somewhere else. 

2. Introduce the mark to free software on Windows

Once you’ve selected your potential convert, introduce him or her to free software on the Windows platform. It’s likely that he or she is already using Firefox (if it’s an IE user, you might want to pick someone else to convert), but there’s a chance that he or she doesn’t realize that it’s free software. Drop a hint about how Firefox was written the same way Linux is written; by a community of developers, rather than by a giant corporation. Explain why you think this is better: more eyeballs equals fewer bugs, more features, and more developers. For a full list of free software that runs on Windows, check out this page.

3. Show off your Linux desktop

One of the reasons that people get the “gotta have it” syndrome over Linux is the eye-candy of the Compiz-enabled desktop. Sure, it’s superficial, and we all know that there’s more to Linux than just a rotating cube and windows that minimize in a ball of fire, but it’s a great way to quickly grab someone’s attention and get them asking questions. “What is that?” “How did you do that?” “How can I get that?” Your answers for all of these questions will be points towards Linux.

4. Give your mark a LiveCD

You don’t want your to-be-convert to rush into things and get frustrated. This is a quick and easy way for them to go running back to Windows. Instead, give them a LiveCD; it’s a great way for them to become familiar with the Linux desktop, the interface, and the features included in the installation. Think of it as a toy that they can play with in their spare time. Don’t push it on them, just say “if you want to check it out, you can boot off this CD without making any modifications to your hard drive.” It’s a great way for the mark to get their feet wet.

5. The initial install

Hopefully, your mark has been impressed with what he’s seen on the LiveCD, and is ready to take the initial plunge. Great for him! Encourage him that it’s really no big deal. Walk him through the installation, and explain that he can keep his Windows partition and duel-boot with Linux, picking whichever he prefers to use at the moment. This is a great way for people to slowly become accustomed a new operating system. It’s imperative that you be around to help out the new user. The most important thing about Linux is that it has great community support – by sticking around and being a helpful hand, you’re encouraging your mark to use community channels to find solutions to problems.

6. The first boot

Again, you must, must, must remain helpful even after the operating system is installed, but let the new-convert try to figure things out on her own. Let her find her way around the desktop, check out the included programs, browse the web, and do the things she wants to do with her computer. Your job now is to sit back and just remain available when she has questions. Show her how to add and remove software; recommend programs when she asks, “what program do I use to do [insert task here]?” But throughout all of this, let the new user do her own thing. 

7. The first few days

If all goes well, the newly-converted user will be enjoying her first Linux experience. But of course, there will be problems. Remain available to help work her through the tough times and the initial shock of a completely new desktop experience, but don’t force your advice when you aren’t asked. 

8. Week two

This is a good time to start explaining other ways of getting help with Linux. The idea here is to make the user self-sufficient in trouble-shooting and problem solving, but still try to be the most valuable resource you can possibly be.

9. The first month and beyond

If your convert is still using her new Linux desktop at this point, it’s probably safe to declare success! Congratulations! You’ve turned someone on to a free-software operating system. By this time, her desktop should probably be well-configured, and all the programs she needs should be installed and working properly. By this time, you’ll probably be starting to get more advanced questions than before; things like, “How do I customize function [x]?” or “What does it mean when the update manager does [something]?” If you’re lucky, you’ll know all the answers; otherwise, use these valuable resources to find out some solutions! It’s always important to learn more yourself, so that you can proceed to step 10:

10. Repeat step 1 through 9

If you’ve been lucky enough to successfully convert a Windows user to Linux, you should definitely try it again with someone else! Use what you’ve learned with your previous experience and adapt it to fit your style and your mark. If all goes well, you should have your own personal army of Linux converts in no time at all!

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Capistrao web enable and disable

Jan 6

Posted by in Application Deployment | 3 Comments

Using a simple cap disable_web command allows my Rails apps to be completely disabled while I perform maintenance on the site without having to worry about users accessing it. Being able to suspend the site with a single command is cool…

First create a generic page that you want your users to see when your site is disabled and name it maintenance.html. Then throw it into your /config directory.

Cap Tasks

Next, write a disable_web task for Capistrano.

desc "This will disable the application and show a warning screen"
task :disable_web do
  run "cp #{current_path}/config/maintenance.html #{current_path}/maintenance.html"
end

This simple one liner will copy the maintenance.html file into the root of your application. Now lets write a task to re-enable the application.

desc "This will enable the application and remove the warning screen"
task :enable_web do
  run "rm #{current_path}/maintenance.html"
end

This will simply delete the maintenance file.

Ok, so, basically, when you run cap disable_web, Capistrano will move your maintenance file into the root of your app, and enable_web will delete it. So far this does nothing to disable your PHP application.

mod_rewrite Magic

The trick to this is using mod_rewrite to look for your maintenance file. If it’s at the root of your application, then all requests will be directed to it. Otherwise the application works as normal.

RewriteEngine On

# Check for maintenance file and redirect all requests
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/maintenance.html -f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !maintenance.html
RewriteRule ^.*(\.html|\.php)$ /maintenance.html [L]

This will look for any requests of .html and .php files. All requests that fit that condition will pointed to the maintenance.html page if it exists at the root of the application.

Thunderbird 3 released

Dec 29

Posted by in General | 1 Comment

If you like Firefox’s tabbed browsing, you’re going to love tabbed email. Thunderbird 3’s tabbed email lets you load emails in separate tabs so you can quickly jump between them. Search results open in a new tab too. New tools like our timeline and filtering tools will help you pinpoint the email you’re looking for, whether it’s the one from yesterday, last month, or several years ago.”

You can read the release notes from http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0/releasenotes/

General linux commands

Dec 27

Posted by in Shell Scripting | No Comments

1. How to know in which shell you are working on ?

echo $0

2. The default  shell in your passwd file :

echo $SHELL

3. The environmrnt variable path is given using the command :

echo $PATH

4. To list all the files in a directory :

ls

5. To list the files based on modified date:

ls -lrt

6. Free memory available :

free -m

7. Hard Disk space left/available:

df -h

8. To know the server load statistis use the command:

top

9. Command used to tar a file ;

tar -cvzf <filename.tar> <filename>

10. To find the count of files in a directory

cd directory

ls * | wc -l

Shell Script to print the multiplication table from 1 to 7

Dec 27

Posted by in Shell Scripting | No Comments

for i in $(seq 1 7); do
echo “Multiplication Table of $i :”
for x in $(seq 1 10); do
result=`expr $i \* $x`;
echo “$i * $x = $result”;
done;
echo “==========================”
done;

Securing Apache 2 using SSL : How to

Dec 26

Posted by in Apache | No Comments

We access websites using the protocol http. To make our site secure we need to access the site with the protocol https (port number 443). For this we need to add SSL certificates to our apache configuration. The document below describes how this is done:

1. Install Apache.

2. Enable the SSL module. Add the line “SSLEngine on” to apache congiguration file or in the 443 virtual hosts entry.

3. Keys:

The first step is to use OpenSSL to produce the keys that are used to secure your site. These keys are used when encrypting and decrypting the traffic to your secure site. To do so, run

openssl genrsa -out mydomain.key 1024

Typing the above on the command line will create a 1024 bit private key and
puts it in the file mydomain.key, which will later be placed in the proper
directory. This private key is not encrypted and protected by a pass phrase.
To encrypt the key, add -des3 to the above command line. Be aware in doing
so that you will always need to be available to type in the pass phrase
whenever the server restarts. If you choose not to encrypt the key, be
sure to keep it secure. In particular, it should be placed in a directory
that is only readable by the web server.

4. Certificates
 Self Signed Certificates
 Generate your own certificate by going back to the command line and
 entering the following:

  openssl req -new -key mydomain.key -x509 -out mydomain.crt

   This command creates a self-signed SSL certificate in the file
   mydomain.crt, which will later be placed in the proper directory.

5. Installing the Site Certificate


It is now time to place the private key and the certificate
in locations where they will be found by Apache.My installation
wants the private key (mydomain.key) to be placed in /etc/apache2/ssl.key/
and the certificate (mydomain.crt) to be in /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/.
Assure that the ssl.key directory is only readable by root and that
if you keep any other copies of your private key, that they cannot
be read by others.

Configuring Apache


To configure Apache, you will need to edit the httpd.conf file that for my
installation is found in /etc/apache2. 

To support secure traffic over SSL, Apache needs to have mod_ssl installed
and enabled. To enable SSL in apache give the command

a2enmod ssl

And restart apache.

The rest of the work in involved in getting /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default
right. Apache's virtual host capability is used to provide the secure site.
Edit the /etc/apache2/ports.conf

NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *:443
Listen 443

Edit the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default file :

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@mydomain.com
DocumentRoot /srv/www/htdocs/mydomain
ServerName www.mydomain.com
ServerAlias mydomain.com
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin webmaster@mydomain.com
DocumentRoot /srv/www/htdocs/mydomain-secure
ServerName mail.mydomain.com
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/mydomain.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl.key/mydomain.key
</VirtualHost>


Debugging Apache


You may refer the log /var/log/apache2 directory to look for


the access and error logs for Apache.

Installing and Setting up Apache in Ubuntu server

Dec 26

Posted by in Apache | No Comments

This scenario applies to the Ubuntu version of linux.

1. Install Ubuntu

2. apt-get install apache2

Before this make sure you are connected to the internet. You may also check the DNS entry at the file /etc/resolv.conf

3. /etc/init.d/apache2 start

4. The conficuration file for the port 80 is at

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

How to print the nth line of a file

Dec 25

Posted by in Shell Scripting | No Comments

head -(n+1) <filename> |  tail -1

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