Sunday, October 04, 2009

Indefinitely offline

In case anyone is wondering what happened to me, I have some real life issues to sort out. I will have some basic internet access and email, but nothing fancy.
Hopefully I will be back online within a year or so. Until then! :-)
If you liked any of my posts or projects or backports so far, the donation link on the right-side menu is a good way to express your gratitude. Cheers!

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

How to enable man pages search in Google

 I was messing around with Google this morning, when I realised that you can actually "subscribe" yourself to a custom search for linux manpages. You have to be logged in of course. :-)

 I say "subscribed" in quotes, because it's not really a subscription, but rather a pointless (my opinion) feature. The only good thing about it is the icon that you notice directly what you want to search, giving a simple explanation of what the command does - in other words, the title of the manpage.

 The steps are quite easy! You go to http://www.google.com/search?q=man+nmap and press the "Sign in" link on the top right corner. You log in with your Google account, then you are redirected back to the Google search page.

  Afterwards, you go to Settings ⟶ Search settings.

 Next, scroll down to "Subscribed Links" and click on the Subscribe button next to the "Unix Manpages". Click "Save preferences" and you're redirected back to the "man nmap" search. The search result is listed third here, so the result might be different than yours.



 Finally, let me justify why I consider this pointless. If you use Firefox, you can easily integrate a quick search keyword with your favourite operating system's manpages website. Not all of them have this feature/website, but Debian and Ubuntu have it!
 - Head on to http://manpages.debian.net.
 - Select Man -> All sections -> Debian Sid.
 - Right-click in the white text box next to "Man Page or Keyword Search".
 - Select "Add a keyword for this search".
 - Name: Manpages, Keyword: man
 - Click Save.
 - Head to your location bar text box and type in "man nmap".

Voila! Have fun keyword-ing!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Blogger and Firefox - How to save your password

 Some websites don't allow you to save your password in Firefox built-in password manager, for example Yahoo and Blogger. Really irritating!

 One beautiful day (my irony tends to build up under 35 degrees Celsius), I noticed that the Blogger page actually redirects you to a Google account sign in. Therefore, I've come up with this little link that will allow you to save your password and take you back to Blogger:


https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&continue=http://www.blogger.com/

Someone might make a good use of it. I also hope someone will find a way or fix the yahoo login page. Enjoy!

P.S. Make sure you install Secure Login add-on - it's a really handy application that allows one-click installs!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Swine/Avian flu comeback?

We've seen  the avian/bird flu to "fly away" from the media attention, as soon as a new wave of infection, called swine flu, popped out. There exist 3 main "types" (genus / species) of influenza virus - A, B and C. Their "subtypes" (serotypes / strains) are really easy to merge with each other and create a whole new subtype, which isn't covered by a vaccine. If you still didn't understand it, imagine crossing a black cow with a white cow and ending up getting a black cow with white spots (or vise versa) - that's a rather simplistic comparison!

Now, CDC and the pharmaceutical companies (and subsequently the doctors that cooperate with them) warn about the widespread influenza virus infection. They expect the same or similar strains that have appeared so far. To some of you, this might look like "a big game" played by medicament-related companies. I have no idea what's going in the background and in the behind-closed-doors meetings, but one thing is sure: You have to be prepared.

Note for employers: this really concerns you, if you don't want to have insufficient personnel unexpectedly!
CDC has a well-written article about how should businesses and employers be prepared for the winter: http://www.flu.gov/plan/workplaceplanning/guidance.html




It may statistically be a pandemic crisis, but if people and public areas are well-prepared there's nothing to be afraid of. Quite honestly, I doubt anyone of you reading this post will face any serious symptoms. Surely pre-schools, schools and libraries can provide better hygiene control, teaching children how to wash their hands properly is a great way to start. Secondly, liquid hand sanitizers should be available in some rooms. Moreover, it should be possible to "recycle" the air in the premises, providing a fresh set every now and then; for instance, leaving a window open for a couple of minutes while on break.


Sneezing, coughing and even talking might expel liquid (droplets) along with some particles (droplets nuclei). One of the best ways to trigger attention while warning other people is to show why sneezing and coughing are bad, and some pictures of the actual moment are a good way to start:
- http://pileofphotos.com/view/188/People-sneezing
- http://www.immediart.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=434



It's common sense that some people will get sick during the winter. That doesn't mean that they all will catch the bird or the swine flu. Babies should of course be taken care of and checked by a paediatrician, whereas adults and teenagers should also take precautional measures.

The easiest pathways for a micro-organism to enter our body is through the mouth, the eyes or the nose. The droplets from sneezing and coughing are really contagious. Therefore, "nose-picking", "eye-rubbing", "thumb-sucking" etc. should be avoided at all times; or at least until you get your hands cleaned! :-)


Also note that one of the first symptoms is almost always a sudden fever, followed by a runny nose/sore throat/higher fever after 8-12 hours; they might not all be expressed and might be in a different sequence!

There is one thing though in this whole bird/swine flu story that drives me nuts. The western capitalistic countries seem to be in a non-infective bubble. Many people in the least developed or developing countries don't have the adequate medical equipment nor the vaccines to combat and prevent the virus from spreading. Because of this, people might die, and only a few of us care. The media simply draw attention to what happens in the "western civilization", avoiding to show deaths that happen in other places of the world, where - under famine and food shortage - pathogenic micro-organisms spread wildly and only some of us provide help.

If the flu was just a marketing trick to cause mass hysteria and sell out their vaccine merchandise, I have a brutal comment for such companies, but then again I prefer not to  express my opinion.


Finally, I recommend taking the "Flu I.Q." test, it's a fun way of being informed about general information and facts regarding the influenza virus:

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Workaround: brasero - slow speeds while burning

Brasero is a cd/dvd writing application for the Gnome desktop manager. Its advantages are ease of use, a lot of burning options and support for plugins!

Currently in Ubuntu 9.04, if you try to burn a disc, you might notice that:

  • Everything goes well until about 50%.
  • Afterwards, it continues, but the report does not show anything (empty progress bar).
  • The speed is less than 2x, from 600 KiB/s to 800KiB/s, but the burning keeps going.
  • Somewhere in the end, brasero shows progress again, but starts from 0%!!
  • Burn was successful.
Note: You should consider that this might not always be your issue with slow speeds. For example, maybe your drive is not working well, or maybe your power supply unit (PSU) does not have enough "W" to supply all your hardware with adequate power.

The bug information is extensively reported here:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=582261

One of the developers detected and corrected the problem, which seems that it was using the wrong plugin ("wodim" instead of "growisofs"). Since Ubuntu's binary package brasero has wodim as a dependency, it might cause problems if you try to remove wodim.

There is a workaround though that seems to do the trick:

Don't forget to install the package for growisofs: dvd+rw-tools

1. Tell brasero to use growisof:
  - Press Alt+F2, and execute this command:
gconf-editor 

  - Head to apps ⟶ brasero ⟶ config ⟶ priority.
  - Change the number "0" next to wodim-burn to "-1" in order to disable it.
  - Change the number "0" next to growisofs-burn to "1" in order to set a higher priority.



2. Instead of using "Max" in speed burning options, set it manually at a high speed - e.g. choose 16x for a DVD or 52x for a CD.

That's it!


Credits go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/370999/comments/15
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/370999/comments/16

Friday, July 24, 2009

People are practically showing off where they got their songs on last.fm

I just stumbled upon the famous http://last.fm/ website - really great website that tracks down your audio preferences. Useful to show off your stats and music to your friends.
It's unfortunate that many people practically show off the origin of their (illegally downloaded?) songs, take a look: http://www.last.fm/search?m=all&q=www.

Makes you think again before posting your audio along with your personal information... ;)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Nikola Tesla: the forgotten wizard

To Nikola Tesla, a great Serbian-American who has given the basis of most electrical/radiological machines we use daily in our era. He provided the basis for an uplift of the way we live and work. Thank you, Nikola and happy anniversary.

Friday, April 24, 2009

belimantil.info hacked

About 2 days ago, I saw this on belimantil.info:




Astounded my first thought was "What the hell?!". I was looking for a revision text one of my colleagues wrote, and fortunately it was available on another site. medforum2 (a forum created by medical students for general talk, exams and medicine-related discussion) was hosted on that domain, I thought of visiting and saw one of my colleagues complaining about the same thing.

Today I re-visited the site, only to find that it wasn't working! Naturally, my techie side kicked in several minutes afterwards, and I started looking into whether it was their fault (probably) or the web administration (why not?). So the whois command revealed the nameserver, I decided to visit oklopsrbija.com, their hosting provider.

Poštovani klijenti,

Prekjuce je izvrsen napad velike grupe palestinskih hakera koji su "u borbi protiv Izraelaca" uspeli da zaobidju sve zastite na serveru i ishakuju sve naloge. Juce je ceo dan bila rekonstrukcija fajlova i pojacanje zastite.
Nocas je uglavnom proradilo sve. Otezan je jos pristup cPanelu. Klijenti kojima je hakovanjem ostecena indeks stranica a nemaju backup tog fajla, neka ostave ticket sa subjectiom: "backup index fajla" i uradice se parcijalni restore podataka za te klijente, pocevsi od petka ujutru, i samo za klijente koji zatraze restore indeks fajla. U nemogucnosti smo da uradimo full restore svih podataka posto je vecina sajtova, pogotovu foruma, vec online i pregazili bi tim full restore njihove sveze podatke.Probijanje zastite nije nista novo na internetu, postala je nazalost svakodnevnica, igrom slucaja smo prekjuce odabrani mi.
Ako hakeri mogu da provale u NASA ili Pentagon servere, sto ne bi i kod nas. I nismo prvi a na zalost ni poslednji domaci provajder koji je imao komplet ishakovan server.Takodje vas molimo da pratite dalja obavestenja logovanjem na vas oklopov nalog i pregledanje sekcije "Obavestenja".
S poštovanjem,
Vojin Petrović
direktor Oklop Srbija

In short, they are claiming that "Security breaking is nothing new on the internet, it has become an everyday event unfortunately, by chance we were chosen the day before yesterday" and "If hackers can break into NASA or Pentagon servers, why wouldn't they break into ours?". If understood them correctly, they're claiming it's not their fault they're not secure. Not even a single "We are sorry for not being careful" or "We'll take extra security steps to provide you with a safer hosting in the future" sentence. What an arrogance! I guess they should scratch the word on their website title, "Pouzdan" (=Reliable).

P.S. I hope this doesn't happen to me :)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Unable to connect server irc.ubuntu.com port 6667

Yesterday I received a message like one of the following:
Unable to connect server irc.ubuntu.com port 6667 [Name or service not known]
Could not resolve irc.ubuntu.com/6667: Name or service not known
Connection to 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1) for irc.ubuntu.com failed: connection refused.

If the same has happened to you, I suggest using chat.freenode.net for a better IRC experience. :)

P.S. I know, I know - long time no blog.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Millions for beating / Not a penny for students - Reason? This is Serbia.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us The Serbian government decided to pay the amount of a million dollars ($ 1,000,000) for a "student" (basketball player more likely), in exchange for his freedom. Namely, Miladin Kovačević is charged severely for injuring US colleague, Bryan Steinhauer. The newpaper that reported this, Borba, was charged for revealing "Governmental secrets" - the news was investigated and proven correct.

Meanwhile, students in Serbia are outraged, because there was a change in the law for students of higher education
Here's the pdf announcement for the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12733383/Uslovi-Za-Upis-2009-2010-medicinski-fakulter-u-beogradu-izmena-statuta
http://www.med.bg.ac.rs/?init=news&nid=2963&sid=5


Until now, students in Serbia were allowed to continue being on "budget" status, meaning they could study free of charge, even if they had repeated an academic year. Things changed and after this announcement, whether it is the first time you repeated the academic year or whether it's your second or third, it doesn't matter - the minute you repeat the year, you are automatically sent to , without the possibility to go back to on budget free studying.

Such acts as the one above and the event with Miladin Kovačević, really raise eyebrows, not only among students, but the whole working community of Serbia is opposed to this.
The next step the Government of Serbia is about to take, is to block ALL students and keep the ones that are regarded as the "best" - *ahem* no comment. Here's a news article about it:
http://www.24sata.rs/vesti.php?id=45826


Apparently, giving out millions for unknown (and classified as "top secret"!) purposes is more important than funding students (not basketball players), willing to learn and work.

And this is Serbia - a country where politicians promise and spend everything on unnecessary trips, on expensive cars and 101 suits; where politicians act like children in the Serbian Parliament, instead of teaming up together to resolve an issue; where politicians beat each other up; where politicians accuse fellow politicians for syphilis (or whatever it was), and the latter go and spend government budget on (many) unnecessary blood check-ups, just to prove them wrong; finally, this is a country that pays 1 million dollars and marks the situation as highly classified to free a guy that has beaten up one of his colleagues.

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009

    Independent Kosovo - the "thank you" of several world countries to Serbia

    Regard this as a "my opinion" post before spraying ethnicism over it.
    The day of independence of Kosovo and Metohija (17th February) is a day that every Serbian will remember, definitely more if they have lived the terrifying moments when the sirens go wild, when everyone tries to save - or better yet grab - whatever possible while the NATO began dreadful bombing over cities, military and general infrastructure buildings as well as civilians.

    I will not argue the fact that both sides suffered, but in the end, no-one respected to see both sides, just what the CNN and all other western propaganda showed.

    I would like to list several good links to show you my point of view:
    1) What Serbia did for the world? I'll take you back several decades - Heroic actions of the Serbian people during World War II:
    http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2006/11/heroic-serbia-wwii.html

    2) What happened after WWII, how it reached to demographic changes which favoured Albanian ethnics and imperialistic ideas of a "Great Albania"?
    A Czech TV documentary answers most of these questions (mostly one-sided stories, but do see the video):
    - http://www.apatin-city.com/4um/index.php?topic=4964.0
    - http://serbblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/brave-czechs-brave-film-stolen-kosovo.html
    Note: They're not my uploads. Look for "Stolen Kosovo video english" in Google if this isn't available.

    Amongst others, you will see:
    - French Foreign minister Bernard Kushner, Hashim Tachi, NATO officers and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
    - Madeleine Albright exchanging how-do-you-do's.
    - Havier Solana disturbingly nodding to a woman that was forced away from her home.
    - Atrocities.

    http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/03/nato-aggression-anniversary.html

    3) The thank you for Serbia's heroism during WWII? NATO bombing and proclaiming Serbians as vicious murderers.

    Kofi Annan endorsed NATO bombing in former Yugoslavia:
    http://link.history.com/services/link/bcpid1681730307/bclid1729287264/bctid1601261895
    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/un/timeline/timeline5b.html
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/318104.stm

    It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed, but there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace," Annan notes, but emphasizes the Security Council should have been consulted.
    (For the "diplomacy has failed" argument, see "More links" below)

    4) NATO's "oops" bombings, accidentally targetting not only foreign embassies, but civilians as well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/340966.stm
    See (2) if you think you can handle watching the holocausts (the bus over the bridge, the village).

    An article quoting an eye-witness at the bazaar market in Niš NATO bombed:
    http://www.haroldpinter.org/home/florence.html

    5) The final outcome?
    - Billions of dollars in damages.
    - Cultural damages, including churches:
    http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/world_report/2000/yugos_2000.htm
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm
    - Blood-lust and monuments of historic importance destroyed:
    http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.nato-tribunal.de/varvarin/photo_documentation.htm

    More links:
    Albright's "Take it or leave it" plan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo1jJkIfWbc
    Albright & Kosovo - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/315053.stm

    NATO bombings operation:
    - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Allied_Force
    - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Bombardment_in_the_Kosovo_War
    - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_of_NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
    - http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/nato_targets/default.stm

    "Humanitarian" military intervention:
    - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_intervention
    - http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol5/v5n01hmi.html
    - http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks45.pdf

    Other:
    - http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.cpa.org.au/garchive/960yug.htm
    - http://www.unmikonline.org/DPI/PressRelease.nsf/0/BA2CB1DFE04FAFD5C12571790054E673/$FILE/pr1555.pdf
    - http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/yugoslavia/military_situation.html
    - http://www.againstbombing.org/WPworldreaction.htm

    As a final note, I'd like to quote this site:
    Certainly the atrocious crimes of the Serbs against Kosovars should not be tolerated, but any child knows two wrongs do not make a right. The rule of law also needs to be made universal by democratic processes. Individuals must be held accountable for actions that violate the rights of others. But to use the blunt instruments of war to punish whole nations and peoples for the crimes of their leaders and supporters tends to escalate the violence and the crimes.

    Last, but not least, I would like to personally condemn the single-sided independence of Kosovo, the illegal approval and the ignorance of several international laws. The other thing I would like, is simply that Ms Madeleine Albright and Havier Solana apprehend the Serbian language and try to live in the Kosovo they've so desired to create by force - without their bodyguards and escorts that is, to see just how things actually are, behind the cameras, and during the terrifying nights of raids and attacks towards the few remaining serbians in Kosovo & Metohija.