Tech Review: Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Ubuntu 13.04 boosts graphics performance to prepare for phones, tablets

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/ubuntu-13-04-boosts-graphics-performance-to-prepare-for-phones-tablets/

• Raring Ringtail
• supported for 5 years of 12.04
• interim release
• support for 9 months
• 12.04 Long Term Support (LTS) edition
• converge across mobile and desktops
• MIR a replacement for X

Ubuntu servers fly higher in the clouds

• high availability capabilities for OpenStack
• VMware to integrate OpenStack-based networks with VMware's server and network virtualization software
• joint support to customers
• Juju
• deploy to Amazon, OpenStack, and other clouds
• Charms
• open soruce workload
• for most major Web development
• databases
• MongoDB
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Cassandra
• allows developer to select best tools for application and reduce being tied to specific network

Ring-tailed lemur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_lemur

• Madagascar 
• not endangered

Bluetooth Keyboard - MOTOROLA ATRIX™ 4G

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/accessories/specialty-items/sku5100303.html#fbid=xEaRF2Sm9AX

• $10

Open source tool for test engineers

http://opensource.com/education/13/4/obsidian

• Obsidian
• JUnit
• Netbeans
• comprehensive 
• easy to maintain
• college of Charleston
• Senior project

Obsidian

http://www.obsidiantest.org/

Samsung Is Spanking Apple in Earnings, Sales

• Apple 
• first profit decline in a decade
• Samsung
• net profit grew by 42%
• almost two times more smartphones
• grew 9 times faster

Google outlaws Android app updates that don't come from its Play store

http://www.zdnet.com/google-outlaws-android-app-updates-that-dont-come-from-its-play-store-7000014574/?s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

Samsung Galaxy S4 teardown: Qualcomm is a big winner

http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-teardown-qualcomm-is-a-big-winner-7000014603/?s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

• user replaceable battery
• 9.88 Wh
• 2,600 mAh
• 3.8 V
• 13 mp camera
• 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second
• Snapdragon 1.9 GHz quad-core CPU
• glass fused to display and frame
• 8 of 10 repair-ability score

Quantify the impact of Agile app development

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/ios-app-builder/quantify-the-impact-of-agile-app-development/639?tag=nl.e550&s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

• desired outcomes not what's easy to measure
• balanced measurement regime or none at all

BoxCryptor vs. DropSmack: The battle to secure Dropbox

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/boxcryptor-vs-dropsmack-the-battle-to-secure-dropbox/9424?tag=nl.e550&s_cid=e550&ttag=e550

DropSmack: Using Dropbox to steal files and deliver malware

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/dropsmack-using-dropbox-to-steal-files-and-deliver-malware/9332

Citizenship and U.S. Immigration

Polly J. Price

https://www.coursera.org/course/immigration?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970224&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fimmigration-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fimmigration-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Android's two killer innovations since the iPhone 5 launch

http://www.zdnet.com/androids-two-killer-innovations-since-the-iphone-5-launch-7000014510/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

• Google Now
• SwiftKey

Asus PadFone 2 review

http://www.zdnet.com/asus-padfone-2-review-7000014571/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

Natural Language Processing

https://www.coursera.org/course/nlangp?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970276&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fnlangp-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fnlangp-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Natural Language Toolkit

http://nltk.org/

Natural Language Processing with Python

Analyzing Text with the Natural Language Toolkit

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596516499.do?green=FB4442F7-DEE2-529B-9974-AD2B1FBAD1E4&intcmp=af-mybuy-9780596516499.IP

Natural Language Processing

https://www.coursera.org/course/nlangp?from_restricted_preview=1&cid=970276&r=https%3A%2F%2Fclass.coursera.org%2Fnlangp-001%2Fauth%2Fauth_redirector%3Ftype%3Dlogin%26subtype%3Dnormal%26visiting%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fclass.coursera.org%252Fnlangp-001%252Fclass%252Findex

Tech Review: Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Parallella: The $99 Linux supercomputer

http://www.zdnet.com/parallella-the-99-linux-supercomputer-7000014036/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE

• sending out this summer
• Linux number one supercomputer OS
• credit-card sized parallel-processing board
• 90 GLOPS
• like 45GHz CPU
• Ubuntu 12.04

Parallella – Supercomputing for the masses

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/interviews/parallella-supercomputing-for-the-masses

• Epiphany 16 and 64 cores
• Parallella
• ARM Cortex-A9
• Epiphany based co-processor
• Releasing all specs under opensource
• C and C++

Fast, Faster, Fastest: Linux rules supercomputing

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/fast-faster-fastest-linux-rules-supercomputing/11263

• Beowulf was first a NASA
• 90% of the top 500
• supercomputers are running linux

http://www.adapteva.com/

• Nice video 
• host machine through USB port

http://www.adapteva.com/introduction/

• goal of 100TFLOPS by 2017

Xen becomes a Linux Foundation project

http://www.zdnet.com/xen-becomes-a-linux-foundation-project-7000014025/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE

Amid great expectations, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has arrived

http://www.zdnet.com/amid-great-expectations-the-samsung-galaxy-s4-has-arrived-7000012629/

• both cameras at once
• 25 pics per second
• common phrase translator that works off line
• 100Mbps download and 50Mbps updloads

Samsung Galaxy S4 up for preorder in U.S. today

• $639

Toshiba Excite 10.1" 16GB Tablet w/ Quad-Core Processor, Android 4.0 OS, 1GB RAM ($200)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200913635875

• Tegra 3 Quad core
• Refurb
• very nice for price
• 1.3 lbs
• 14 day return policy
• 1 Sale A Day
• 98% positive rating

Tech Review Linux: Thursday, September 6, 2012

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

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

• core member of the internet protocol suite (see below)
• can send with no previous communication

Internet protocol suite

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

• Internet Protocols
• Application Layer
• FTP
• HTTP
• SSH
• Telnet
• iSCSI
• Transport Layer
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
• Internet Layer
• IP
• IPv4
• IPv6
• Link Layer
• media access control (MAC)
• Ethernet
• DSL
• ISDN

Open System Interconnection (OSI) Model

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

• Application Layer
• HTTP
• Presentation Layer
• MIME
• Session Layer
• PPTP
• SOCKS
• Transport Layer
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
• Network Layer
• IP
• Data Link Layer
• IEEE 802.2
• ATM
• Pyhsical Layer
• USB
• Bluetooth
• IEEE 802.3

iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface)

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

• sends SCSI commands over the internet
• storage area network (SAN) protocol
• uses TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
• application layer in the Internet protocol suite

Tech Review Linux: Saturday, September 1, 2012

Error:  apt-get update

W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net precise Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 2EA8F35793D8809A

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/809-debian-apt-get-no-pubkey-gpg-error

• the apt-get management tool guarantees the authenticity of the server before updating the Debian OS.
• used to following command to resolve:
• gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu --recv-key 2EA8F35793D8809A
• gpg -a --export 2EA8F35793D8809A | sudo apt-key add -

Problems I had:

• Spelled the name of the key server wrong.
• MSG
• Forgot the run the second command.
• Get the original error message again

PGP: Public Key Servers

http://www.rossde.com/PGP/pgp_keyserv.html

• The MIT server I used is not in the list of recommended servers
• uses older SKS key server with bug that impairs synchronization from other, non-SKS servers.
• There is a long list of dead key servers.
• WARNING:  Just because one obtains a public key from a server does not mean that the key is authentic.
• Must verify the authenticity of the key and its owner.

How Do I Determine My Linux Kernel Version?

http://www2.essex.ac.uk/cs/services/shares/kernel-version.htm

• uname -r
• 3.2.0-23-generic

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit Wubi Keeps Locking Up

This has been going on for a while.  System often becomes slow and sluggish.  Even trying to bring up a terminal or going to a command prompt will take for ever or not work.  I have noticed that the mount.ntfs process is taking 99% of the processor time.   Have read some where (Sorry, lost the link.) that the NTFS partition might be corrupted.  Also read that updating the kernel might fix the problem.  Also might be a problem with the size of the partition. 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/993187

Going to try to see if a dirty or corrupted NFS could be the problem.  This seems like a good possibility to me because with Wubi, the Linux partition is running from NTFS.

http://linuxexpresso.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/howto-fix-an-ntfs-partition-in-ubuntu/

• List partitions in the system
• sudo fdisk -l
• I need to look at /dev/sda2
• Install tools for workingwith NTFS partitions
• sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs
• Repair the disk
• sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda2

I am a little concerned about running the ntfsfix command. 

• http://askubuntu.com/questions/93906/ntfs-drive-mounted-generates-huge-load
• NTFS drive mounted generates huge load
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ntfs-3g/+bug/395892
• 2009 and talk of high CPU usage with mount.ntfs-e3g
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntfsprogs
• says that ntfsprogs was merge with NTFS-3G on April 12, 2011.
• says that ntfsfix forces Windows to check NTFS at boot time.
• This is not consistent with an earlier link.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS-3G
• often uses FUSE file system
• says that Ntfsprogs project was merged with NTFS-3G
• http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/
• NTFS-3G + Ntfsprogs
• http://www.ntfs-3g.com/distributions.html
• Shows that Ubuntu and Mint are using NFTS-3G by default.
• http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-faq/#slow
• talks about why the driver can be slow

Which version of ntfsprogs am I using?  

Is the mount.ntfs the NTFS-3G driver?

Is the mount.ntfs using FUSE?

How risky is running this command?

• What if it destroys my Ubuntu partition?
• Mount the windows partition to examine it.
• sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda2 /mnt
• Mount the Wubi drive
• sudo mkdir /mnt2
• sudo chmod 777 /mnt2
• sudo mount -t ext4 /mnt/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /mnt2
• I was so amazed when this worked!!
• What would I loose on this drive?
• BMCS_src
• Downloads\Rover
• Downloads\FV_Opensource
• What would I loose on the windows drive?
• ubuntu/disks/root.disk
• the critical files are listed above
• Backup of Passport/DVDs
• Backup of Passport/home
• data/BMCSS_2010_05_03.zip
• FalconView Class
• source/Learning FV (* This is important not to lose *)

What does WUBI Stand for?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(Ubuntu_installer)

• Wubi (Windows-based UBuntu Installer)

OK, time to backup critical files.

• done

Ready to try fix

• Unmount the two drives doing the internal Wubi partition first
• sudo umount /mnt2
• sudo umount /mnt
• Try to fix
• sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda2

mint@mint ~ $ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda2

Mounting volume... OK

Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.

NTFS volume version is 3.1.

NTFS partition /dev/sda2 was processed successfully.

Doesn't seem to have done anything.

Seems to be working now.

Need to update makemkv

• sudo apt-get install build-essential libc6-dev libssl-dev libexpat1-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libqt4-dev
• no changes
• cd makemkv-oss-1.7.7
• make -f makefile.linux
• sudo make -f makefile.linux install
• cd ..\makemkv-bin-1.7.7
• make -f makefile.linux
• sudo make -f makefile.linux install

Tech Review: Linux: Friday, August 17, 2012

How to create a continuous digital clock in the terminal

http://www.linuxandlife.com/2012/08/how-to-create-continuous-digital-clock.html

• watch -n 1 data +%r

Oracle Releases VirtualBox 4.2 Beta 1

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1MzY

Tech Review: Linux: Friday, August 3, 2012

Google Releases Chrome 21 Stable for Linux

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Releases-Chrome-21-Stable-for-Linux-284134.shtml

• It was difficult to figure out how to download
• Installing 64bit version on HP Linux
• Ubuntu says it has not been reviewed yet.
• There is not good feed back while it is install in Ubuntu Software Center.
• How would I do this from the command line?
• This doesn't overwrite the current version of Chrome
• Sure can see a lot when I run this from the command line.
• found the command in Dash Home and drag to side bar.
• what is the difference between this 'Google Chrome' and the 'Chrome Web Browser'?

Tech Review: Linux: Monday, July 30, 2012

How do I tell the gateway address in Redhat?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/cant-find-gateway-ip-on-redhat-9-a-103968/

• /sbin/route -n
• The default gateway will be the bottom line and second column.

How to make your Nexus 7 not suck

http://www.zdnet.com/how-to-make-your-nexus-7-not-suck-7000001220/

• Uses Android Smartphone user interface
• has problems
• Install Apex Launcher instead
• Would have to hacking to fix otherwise