Better Late Than Never

“Better late than never.”

Or so the saying goes. Well, this article is more than a tad late, seeing that its been over two months since my last post on this blog. To top it off, this post is about an event that tookj place on September 19, about a month and half ago.

The photos you will find here are from the last gathering of the Cebu GNU/Libux Users Group (CeGNULUG) at the Casa Verde restaurant in uptown Cebu City. Present were the usual suspects including the group’s President, John Clark Naldoza who presided over the meeting.

The gang's all here (at Casa Verde)

Much time was spent on introducing new members to the group and explaining the basic concepts of free/open source software (especially the legal aspects). Aside from that, however, was the usual shop talk and practical problem-solving. Probably just as much time was spent on eating — and going nuts over one of the largest hamburgers I have ever eaten from.

As I write this, there are already plans for another meeting. Not bad. At least now we’re getting together more than twice a year (and I’ll have more photos to post on this blog).

Hopefully I’ll get to update this blog more often than that!

Somehow, John Clark and the monster burger just go together

As you can see, even a burger that size is no match for the combined appetite of CeGNULUG members

IPv6 at Home!

What’s this?

That’s part of the output from the ifconfig command, which is used (among other things) to show the status of my computer’s network interfaces. This little bit here describes the IPv6 tunnel I managed to get running on my home PC. I’ve blanked out the IP address, of course , so don’t get any funny ideas, hackers.

The tunnel was createed using the Gogo6 client (you can get it from Gogo6.net) and a free IPv6 tunnel account on Freenet6. Linux users will have to compile the client software from the source code. This is easy if you have the all your development tools and libraries installed (I didn’t so I had to do some major updating). The only configuration you have to do is choose your installation directory and edit the file gogoc.conf to enter your Freenet6 credentials and make sure you use an authenticated login. In my case, I chose a non-standard installation directory and had to do a bit of debugging to make sure the client software found all the necessary files.

Not everything is rosy, of course. The tunnel seems to drop every few minutes (its brought up again automatically). I can’t seem to get IPv6 DNS working even though I’ve entered the nameserver in my resolver file (/etc/resolv.conf). That means I can’t ping IPv6-enabled sites using their names. I can, however, ping an IPv6 address.

I guess that means I have to do some more tinkering. Second Internet, here I come!

IPv6 Book: The Second Internet

The founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cebu-based InfoWeapons Corporation, Lawrence Hughes, has written a new book on IPv6 entitled The Second Internet: Reinventing Computer Networking with IPv6. Published in digital format by InfoWeapons, the book has gained critical acclaim from IPv6 and networking experts around the world.

Hughes began InfoWeapons in 2004 to develop and market secure, IPv6-capable network appliances. The company’s research and development facility is in Cebu City.

“I felt that the existing books did not go into enough detail,” Hughes said as he explained his reasons for writing his book. “I tried to help engineers build a bridge from what they know (IPv4) to the new concepts (IPv6). The two main chapters (one on IPv4, one on IPv6) use the same subchapter numbering sequences. So an IPv4 concept might be in section 3.1.2, while the corresponding IPv6 concept would be in section 5.1.2. Kind of like ‘how do I say this in IPv6?’”

“I also created a series of very detailed and complete labs that can be done with generic PCs and open source software, to create a full featured IPv6 testbed network,” he continued. “All labs are done first with just IPv4, then migrated to dual stack (IPv4 + IPv6)… Anyone going through the book together with the hands-on labs will have a fairly complete knowledge of IPv6.”

Although it contains a great deal of technical material, Hughes explained that it will still appeal to a wider audience. “Parts of the book would be suitable for management types that don’t need or want the bits and bytes, but may need to understand timing, transition issues, how to identify products certified to be compliant, and the role of various organizations involved in IPv6,” he said.

CentOS 5.5 on Dell Vostro A840

When I purchased my Dell Vostro A840 last February, it came pre-loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. This version of Ubuntu was a Long Term Support (LTS) release, which means that it is still being updated with security patches and (hopefully) new versions of the installed applications. That being said, I found that this situation left much to be desired.

For one, everytime I upgraded the kernel, I found to my dismay that my sound drivers would go on the blink. Not being familiar with Ubuntu, I didn’t want to go around compiling software (even granting that I could find proper drivers for the hardware). I also found that my applications — updated or otherwise — were very, well… dated. They were usable, yes, but way behind the times.

Upgrading to another version of Ubuntu would have been a solution. But the best way to do that would have been to burn a DVD installer and make a clean installation. If I was going to do that, I thought, then why not go the whole hog and switch to a Liunux version with which I was familiar, such as CentOS?

I checked online and saw that thewre was a new version of CentOS: version 5.5. Now that looked attractive.

I Got My Penguin

Chin Wong gave me a penguin!

Well, at least a personalized drawing of a one on the penguin collection graphic on his website (www.chinwong.com). You can see my penguin (notice the beard) in the blown-up version on the right . The original is a cool, high-resollution affair, and you can get your own penguin on it simply by asking Chin. His site has a form just for that.

Chin was the Editor-in-Chief of Computerworld Philippines, a position he ably held for many, many years. He is also a happy convert to Linux, having made the switch in 2006. In his blog article, “Secret Weapon“, he says this of the tale:

Two years ago this month, I erased Windows XP from my home PC and installed Ubuntu on it and have not looked back since. Today, the Linux-based system I have is more secure, more efficient in its use of resources—and more fun to use— than any Windows-based installation on comparable hardware. It certainly blows Windows Vista out of the water. Remarkably, it’s also 100 percent legal and 100 percent free, which is something you could never say about Windows, whether you used a licensed version or a pirated knock-off.

Now how’s that for a ringing endorsement? it’s these success stories — and helpful users like Chin — that win new converts to Linux.

I first began using Linux in 1999, when I installed Red Hat 5.0 on my 180MHz clone. Just like Chin, I had my ups and downs. Linux was certainly not as easy to install then, and the Red Hat graphical desktop was usable but had some pretty rough edges. I’m now running CentOS, a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

If you have a Linux success story to tell, let Chin know about it and get yourself a penguin. You’ll be in good company.

Investigating the OOXML Vote

Although Microsoft managed to get its OOXML ratified as a “standard” via a spectacularly flawed fast-track process, that travesty has caused quite a ruckus in the ISO itself, and may have mortally wounded the credibility of the standards approval process. It’s not all over yet, however, as reported in the ZDNet story, “Venezuela and India appeal OOXML ratification“:

“After the two-month appeal period, we now have four appeals — Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela,” Jonathan Buck, the director of communications for IEC, told ZDNet.co.uk on Monday. “The appeals are now with our CEOs, IEC General Secretary Ronnie Amit, and ISO Secretary General Alan Bryden, who have a 30-day period to make sure appeals conform to directives.”

Since groups in at least four other countries have had the courage and integrity to question how their representatives could have voted “yes” to such a mockery of standards and the approval process, perhaps it’s about time Filipinos do the same. When will an investigation of the Philippine vote take place? After all, the Philippines voted to approve a “standard” whose final form had not really fully discussed, and which cannot even be implemented by it’s creators (Microsoft). How can the interests of the Philippines be represented by such silliness?

Those in the Philippines who voted to approve the OOXML non-standard should not be allowed to get away scot-free with such a disservice. It’s about time someone send a letter of protest — not just to ISO but to the Commission on ICT as well!

Resources

Groklaw has done a great job keeping track of “ISO-Gate”, which is quite an appropriate name for this fiasco. Some resources include:

• An Open Letter on OOXML Happenings in India
• A Reminder: ISO’s Code of Ethics & What Happens Next – Update: Venezuela Appeals Also
• Now an OOXML Protest from Denmark’s OSL – Updated 3Xs: Official English Translation

Making Elections Open and Transparent

A group of concerned citizens called the Advocacy for Open Systems in Elections is offering a free, open source solution for automating the counting of election results. Ito Gruet, a member of the group, was interviewed by Erwin Oliva of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the video of the interview is available on the Inquirer website as “Pushing open source solutions for elections“.

Gruet revealed that the group advocating the use of open standards and open source software for the automated election system, which would help ensure the transparency of the electoral process. Gruet explained:

Basically it’s to ensure that we are able to track and trace back to a source document and audit the results of the elections. And what we are proposing is the we make this process tranasparent to the public… to all the voters. Transparent in terms of the technology to be used, so we should be using open standards. We believe that the software should be open source so that people in the know can look at it, can review, and see if it’s really a working system. Transparent in terms of the data itself, which means that results should be easily verifiable by the public, and anybody can do their own tabulation.

Ya Gotta Hear This (Updated)

I thought that I had heard the worst ravings and silliest nonsense from some of SCO’s people concerning their claims about Unix and Linux. SCO, after all, claimed that some of their code was in Linux, but never managed to prove it.

(Image on the right is from the film “Reefer Madness.”)

After over six years, it seemed that the case was winding down: Judge Dale Kimball ruled that Novell, not SCO, still owned the copyright to Unix; and SCO filed for bankruptcy. Despite some news that SCO might be bought out and get enough money to continue the case, to me it pretty much boiled down to when — not if — SCO would just plain lose once and for all. Now, like some bad gas emanating from a crypt, we hear this latest whopper from SCO CEO Darl McBride, as reported by Ars Technica in “Deluded SCO CEO on witness stand: ‘Linux is a copy of UNIX’“:

McBride said that SCO holds the rights to UNIX and that “many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers.” Specifically, he said, “We have evidence System V is in Linux,”—directly contradicting what Sontag had previously testified. Due to the witness exclusion rule invoked by both parties, McBride was not present during Sontag’s testimony and wasn’t aware of what had been said. McBride’s claims also directly contradict internal SCO memos from 2002, which reveal that the company’s own extensive source code audits had uncovered no UNIX code in Linux. McBride attempted to reinforce his argument with analogy. “When you go to the bookstore and look in the UNIX section, there’s books on ‘How to Program UNIX’ but when you go to the Linux section and look for ‘How to Program Linux’ you’re not gonna find it, because it doesn’t exist.” Then came the real humdinger, and my jaw dropped when I heard the following come out of his mouth: “Linux is a copy of UNIX, there is no difference [between them].”

OLPC Caves In

Looks like the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project may abandon one of its most important features: free, unfettered software.

(The photo on the right is by Mike Mcgregor licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.)

Computerworld, in “Report: OLPC may eventually switch from Linux to Windows XP” noted that:

One day after the resignation of the One Laptop Per Child project’s president was publicly revealed, the OLPC’s founder and chairman said that the group’s XO laptop may evolve to use only Windows XP as its operating system, with open-source educational applications such as the homegrown Sugar software running on top.

OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte also told The Associated Press on Tuesday that an insistence upon using only free, open-source software had hampered the XO’s usability and scared away potential adopters.

This turnaround — and it’s clearly compromising justification — drew immediate comment from Michael Tiemann, President of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). In his post “Damn disheartening news from OLPC“, Tiemann said:

I believe that without open source, the fundamental purpose of OLPC will fail, because it will create another generation of slaves to proprietary technologies and corporate largesse. In other words, it will perpetuate the status quo, rather than rearrange it.

He ended his post in this manner:

But if OLPC abandons its open source roots, then I do not see the project accomplishing any of its goals. And while I can afford to throw away the three XO laptops I bought, the world cannot afford to throw away the goal of ending poverty in favor of preserving monopoly control of technology.

Real-world security

Many people who know or care about computer security probably won’t be surprised to hear claims that Linux or BSD is generally more secure than Windows. That conventional wisdom seems to have been confirmed yet again by the results of a hacking challenge last March 28, Friday, at the CanSecWest 2008 conference. This was reported in the InfoWorld article, “With Vista breached, Linux remains unbeaten in hacking contest“:

Earlier this week, contest sponsors had put three laptops up for grabs to anyone who could hack into one of the systems and run their own software. A $20,000 cash prize sweetened the deal, but the payout was halved each day as contest rules were relaxed and it became easier to penetrate the computers.

On day two, Independent Security Evaluators’ Charlie Miller took the Mac after hitting it with a still-undisclosed exploit that targeted the Safari Web browser. After about two minutes work, Thursday, Miller took home $10,000, courtesy of 3Com’s TippingPoint division, in addition to his new laptop.

It took two days of work, but Shane Macaulay, finally cracked the Vista box on Friday, with a little help from his friends.

Macaulay, who was a co-winner of last year’s hacking contest, needed a few hacking tricks courtesy of VMware researcher Alexander Sotirov to make his bug work. That’s because Macaulay hadn’t been expecting to attack the Service Pack 1 version of Vista, which comes with additional security measures. He also got a little help from co-worker Derek Callaway.