Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Playing Old Game

I usually never play a game on my computer during my study unless when holidays or there is a game which attracts me, such as The Sims 2 that i want to try. But, right now, i'm a little bit bored, since i have done all my task and i only have to wait for the final exam and a presentation on my field work. So i just fill my daily activities with reading ebook or blogging as usuall.

When War Craft III came, i bought the CD and i have played it until i finished the campaign. After that, i uninstalled the game, so it won't fill up my disk space. Yesterday, i decided to install it again so i can play it at my spare time such as now. I'm looking for the expansion pack: The Frozen Throne. I used to have it installed on my computer, but i forgot who lend me the CD.

War Craft III is a splendid game, evolve from War Craft II which i have played before. It was a great game and the best Strategy game i ever played for. It has great graphical environment with lots of goodies that can be found at their websites, such as WallPapers, Trailers, etc.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Browsing and Reading E-mail Safely

Are you browsing the Internet or reading email by using your administrator or root account? If you do, please take a good precaution, since this is not a good idea, since administrator or root account has super privileges, such as installing backdoors, changing system behaviour, and controlling access or service on the computer. It can be exploitted by another user if you don't have enough protection on your computer and your computer will be a zombie and can be used to launch a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.

Your first task is always creating a non-root account and use it as your daily activity. Second, you must use a better application that provides a better security parameter. Obviously, i would recommend using OpenSource application that is popular, such as Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. If you come from Windows's user, you might want to read an article from Michael Howard, Microsoft Security Engineering that discuss about you can run as an administrator and access Internet data safely by dropping unnecessary administrative privileges when using any tool to access the Internet.

He also writes a program that apply his teory. DropMyRights is a very simple application to help users who must run as an administrator run applications in a much-safer context—that of a non-administrator. It does this by taking the current user's token, removing various privileges and SIDs from the token, and then using that token to start another process, such as Internet Explorer or Outlook. This tool works just as well with Mozilla's Firefox, Eudora, or Lotus Notes e-mail. If you are interested in his full article, please visit MSDN website and download DropMyRights.

If you come from Linux platform, there are another approach that can be taken to prevent this situation. You must upgrade the software to their newest version to fix a vulnerable hole. Just get used to it and join some security mailing list or your distribution's mailing list to get updated information about new packages that fixes some glitches.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Database Comparison

Are you looking for a new database products? If you are, then you should see this article first. It discuss about database comparison, based on their feature. This article was published by MySQL AB, a company who made MySQL, an OpenSource, powerfull, robust, and most popular database application in the world.

crash-me is a program that automatically detects the limits and capabilities of an SQL DBMS. It is also our input reference for the MySQL benchmark program. At MySQL, we have worked very hard to make crash-me as fair and accurate as possible, but there is always a possibility that a particular test will fail for a DBMS -- even when that DBMS has the capability it appears to lack. We are always willing to correct this as soon as it is brought to our attention. Note that some tests may fail because the DBMS in question does not comply with the SQL Standard (SQL:2003) or ODBC 3.0 requirements. In such cases, we regard this as a failure in the DBMS.

We plan to add as many tests as possible to the crash-me program. But you may find that we do not test for some DBMS-specific function or capability in which you are particularly interested. If this is the case, please let us know, and either try to patch the crash-me program yourself or provide us with an example so that we can add the necessary test.

Note: The crash-me table is normally generated from DBMSs started with default parameters. If this is not the case, the fact is noted in the comment row. Some detected limits may also be configurable, OS dependent, depend on the Perl DBI driver, or depend on the license of the DBMS version used.

-- Read the Full Article + Comparison Table

Saturday, November 27, 2004

AntiVirus on GNU/Linux?

There has been a fact that GNU/Linux is not vulnerable to Virus, Worms, or their variants, but in reality, GNU/Linux is being used as the main web server, proxy server, mail server, firewall, file server that it's client is Windows-based and therefore, it should hold up as many virus, worms, or other threats that will penetrate to the internal networks. Here is a good article about consideration using Antivirus on GNU/Linux :

Should I get anti-virus software for my Linux box?

The problem with answering this question is that those asking it know only OSes where viruses, trojan-horse programs, worms, nasty Javascripts, ActiveX controls with destructive payloads, and ordinary misbehaved applications are a constant threat to their computing. Therefore, they refuse to believe Linux could be different, no matter what they hear.

And yet it is.

Here's the short version of the answer: No. If you simply never run untrusted executables while logged in as the root user (or equivalent), all the "virus checkers" in the world will be at best superfluous; at worst, downright harmful. "Hostile" executables (including viruses) are almost unfindable in the Linux world — and no real threat to it — because they lack root-user authority, and because Linux admins are seldom stupid enough to run untrusted executables as root, and because Linux users' sources for privileged executables enjoy paranoid-grade scrutiny (such that any unauthorised changes would be detected and remedied).

Here's the long version: Still no. Any program on a Linux box, viruses included, can only do what the user who ran it can do. Real users aren't allowed to hurt the system (only the root user can), so neither can programs they run.

Because of the distinction between privileged (root-run) processes and user-owned processes, a "hostile" executable that a non-root user receives (or creates) and then executes (runs) cannot "infect" or otherwise manipulate the system as a whole. Just as you can delete only your own files (i.e., those you have "write" permission to), executables you run cannot affect other users' (or root's) files. Therefore, although you can create (or retrieve), and then run, a virus, worm, trojan horse, etc., it can't do much. Unless you do so as "root". Which it's simple to avoid doing.

The first "virus" (arguably, actually a trojan or worm) for Linux was named "Bliss", created in September 1996 as a proof of concept. If a user executes an infected executable, the viral code appends itself to all executables for which the user has write permission. But thereafter, it can't go anywhere else or do anything else — and cannot take over (infect) the local machine (or any other): It lacks permission to do so. Nor can the other Linux/Unix viruses / worms / trojan horses thus far known. And claims of "Bliss" infections outside deliberate lab-only deployment by virus researchers are, in point of fact, considered suspect. New Linux viruses (such as Simile.D) emerge continually, too. But guess what? They don't go anywhere, either.

Most people asking this question have no experience with true multi-user systems built around a pervasive, ground-up security model. On their systems, any process the user executes, directly or indirectly, can modify, destroy, or manipulate anything on the system. This is true to a degree even on MS-Windows NT/XP, which tries to be fully multiuser as Unixes are, but has numerous fundamental security flaws.

By contrast, on Linux (or any other Unix), your processes cannot harm the machine (or damage other users' files) — because you yourself cannot.

Thus, even a Linux user who deliberately wants to activate a Linux virus (trojan horse, worm, or other program designed to do mischief) will have extreme difficulty getting it to circulate. If you're a programmer, try and see. Viruses aren't difficult to write on Linux: Write one, run it (as a non-root user), and watch it bollix your files. But nobody else's.

-- read the full article --

Friday, November 26, 2004

CCNA Exams

Yesterday i have finished one of my subject that i took on this semester, which is CCNA. I had my final exam yesterday and it was difficult, since the Internet connection was pretty bad at the beginning and it has a lot of material to be covered. It had eleven modules and there were 55 questions that should be answered. We only got about two hours to finish the exam, but i made it before the remaining times reached 0. In the grade exam, i missed 19 questions, so i made 74.4 and it was enough for me to get A grade since i passed over 85 which was the minimum requirement to get an A.

My final test will be held next week and there will be three test that i should take, robotics, compiler, and ethics plus one presentation about my project. I hope everything goes well and i can finish this semester with higher grade. Tomorrow i will do a presentation about ethics for my ethics subject. This is my last change to do the presentation, since there will be no other change.

My ISP is down for the last two days, so i couldn't send any email from my ISP account, so i have to use another ISP to get connected with my other friends. I hope this will only last for today and tomorrow, it will come back to normal again, since the other ISP cost much much more expensive than my original ISP.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

New Mozilla and Firefox Updated Roadmap

Mozilla Foundation have updated their roadmap for their two mainstream products, which are Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox. The Mozilla Foundation is planning a Mozilla 1.7.5 release for mid-December. This update will include all the checkins to the 1.7 branch since Mozilla 1.7.3 was released in September. It's intended to provide a Mozilla Application Suite milestone that features a virtually identical Gecko version to Mozilla Firefox 1.0. You can join the Mozilla's talkback if you like or if you prefer to read the full article, please refer to Mozillazine.

For Mozilla Firefox's roadmap, there are several version of roadmap. Here are the roadmap press release by Ben Goodger:

We are planning for a Firefox 2.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.1 (March 2005), 1.5 (unscheduled) and 2.0 (unscheduled). All development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs.

For full information about the Mozilla Firefox's release, please refer to Mozilla's Firefox Roadmap. You will find additional information, such as Mozilla's goals, localization, marketting, and branding issues regarding to Mozilla Firefox 2 roadmap.

One good news related to Mozilla and Firefox is Mozilla's browsers global usage share is 7.35 percent, which is a good score for now and i think that this score will keep flying until Microsoft launches their new browser, which will be in Longhorn's release (probably 2006 if there aren't any delays). You may find this information from OneStat

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

New Technology From Opera

After a long freeze, finally Opera launched a new technology, called Extensible Rendering Architecture technology that is implemented on their latest version Opera 7.60 Technical Preview 3. Here is the news from Opera :

Oslo, Norway -- Nov. 23, 2004 -- Opera Software today announced that they have solved the problem of rendering Web pages effectively regardless of screen size. Opera's new Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA) means no more horizontal scrolling and improved ability to print entire Web pages. In combination with Opera's Zoom function, ERA also presents a compelling accessibility feature with which users can magnify Web pages dramatically and still view them without having to scroll sideways.

Opera's rendering technologies have previously included Small- and Medium-Screen Rendering (SSR/MSR) to render Web pages on mobile devices, as well as TV-rendering (TVR) for effectively displaying Web pages on regular television sets. ERA is the architecture that incorporates all of Opera's rendering technologies in one dynamic framework, and thus concludes Opera's effort to solve the rendering problem regardless of screen size.

The rendering challenge has been that most Web pages are designed with desktop or laptop users in mind, and are usually set to a fixed width of 800 pixels or more. Consequently, if your screen or window size is smaller than the minimum width of the Web page, you have to resort to horizontal scrolling. Opera's ERA technology enables dynamic resizing to adapt Web page content to fit any width – from projectors to mobile phones, and everything in between. Furthermore, printing Web pages will often leave out parts because the Web page is wider than the paper, and ERA can make the Web page fit the width of the paper for complete printouts.

"Opera's vision is to enable people to access their favorite Web sites on any device, and ERA means that users can have a great Internet experience on any screen regardless of a Web page's width, tables, or frames," says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "With its unlimited applicability, ERA technology is truly a milestone in Web page rendering."

An integrated feature of the next version of the Opera desktop browser, Opera 7.60, a preview of ERA is available by downloading the Opera 7.60 Technical Preview 3 at under "Beta Testing."

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browser technology, targeting the desktop, smartphone, PDA, home media and vertical markets. Partners include companies such as IBM, Nokia, Sony, Motorola, Adobe, Macromedia, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Sharp, Motorola Metroworks, MontaVista Software, BenQ, Sendo and AMD. The Opera browser has received international recognition from users, industry experts and media for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers.

Opera's browser technology is cross-platform and modular, and currently available on the following platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, BREW, QNX, TRON, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mediahighway.

Opera Software ASA is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linkoping and Gothenburg, Sweden. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Demonstration

In the next few hours (two and a half for exactly), i will demonstrate my project to my lecturer in my faculty. At first, i'm planning to discuss my reports with my lecturer, but it seems that i haven't demonstrate my works up until now, so i guess it's the perfect time to do that. I also need his signature to fullfill the minimum requirement to perform a final presentation which requires six signatures (and i only got three so far).

One thing that i hate is that i have to bring my own computer and that means i have to unplug all the cables and replug it again when i got home later. I also have to adjust my monitor settings since i'm using 1024x768 resolution with 32 bits in depths, and also 85 hertz for my refresh rate which should be out-of-range in my faculty monitors. I'm planning to bring my own keyboard and mouse, so that it won't load any additional driver and that would cause a longer operational time.

Just wish me luck and i get my demonstration goes well today.

UPDATE:
I made the presentation session goes well and nothing bad happened. I finally fulfill my signature requirement, since i got three signature today because yesterday i supposed to meet up with my lecturer, but he was busy and i still get the signature. It's time to update my reports since there are still minor revision. I also have to prepare for the final presentation at 8 December 2004.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Not Enough Information

As i wrote in my blog few days ago, i have bought a book about GNU/Linux GUI programming using GLADE. Later that night i read the book and find it suprisingly that it didn't contain enough information about the materials it self. I was quite dissapointed by how the authors wrote that book. It didn't give details information and only explains some steps and shows a picture about the results. Luckily i have downloaded GTK tutorial from the original site, but i haven't read them yet, since i was quite busy with my task right now.

In the future, i will be more selective when i want to buy a book, mainly for computer or programming books, since some author just write or translate from the manuals without a real implementation or any suggestion about the materials. I prefer to buy foreign books, even though they are more expensive than the local books. My favourite books are Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS. It contains a detail information and also a practical materials with some tips from the CSS guru. It also has a full color page, so i can see the result in the real color, not just black and white. If you are looking for a book that discuss about CSS, i suggest you with this books as the first try. You will not regret it.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my father's 50th birthday and we were celebrating it Pizza Hut along with every people on my house, 10 in totals, plus my girlfriend. We left to Pizza Hut at 12.50, since i watched Total Football in my girlfriend's house and didn't noticed that my sister was calling me (i watched the tv shows at the third floor and my phonecell was left at second floor). My sister was a little bit upset when i got home :)

This night, i attended at a engagement party in Vidi with my fater, my mother, and my grandmother. I met some friends there and tried to enjoy the party as much as possible. The foods was quite good, but i'm still full so i didn't eat too much at the party. We came back at 20.15 and i went to the book rental, but it was closed. I got home at 21.20 and started to get online to reply any incoming message that i can reply. I checked my old email and i still forgot to change my preferences on some sites, so i update my preferences quickly so that any incoming email will be sent to my new email instead of my old email. I found that there was one person that sent me an email and ask for something. I replied him back and told him that i have moved my email to my new email address. My new email address is willysr@jogja.citra.net.id.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Hanging Out

Today i hanged out with my girlfriend again, but this time i went with my sister and my three cousins to eat and having fun together. We ate at 'Cak Koting', in front of Mataram Theatre and ordered a lot of food. Yes, it was yummy and i was satisfied with the food. We got there at 18.40 PM and finished eating at 19.30 PM (i'm not quite so sure about this).

After eating, we traveled to Gramedia book store to look for books. My cousins bought two comics books, while my sister bought a novel book. I bought a GNU/Linux's programming book, called "Pemrograman GUI di GNU/Linux Menggunakan Glade" or "GUI Programming on GNU/Linux Using Glade" in English. I started to get interested in GUI programming on GNU/Linux, since i have seen many great GUI application, such as Gaim, Liferea, and many other that uses GTK library and the result was excellent.

I will try to learn this new modules in my spare time. For now, i have downloaded GTK's documentation from GTK, but it seems that it hasn't been updated for a long time. The GTK 2.0 documentation was last updated at 2003 and GTK 1.0 was even worse. They were last updated at 2000. I hope i can get even better documentation out there in the Net.

After i came back, i watched the remaining MU-Charlton football match that has reached 73 minutes and finally it was won by Manchester United by 2-0. I'm happy to hear that fact, since i love Manchester United so much.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Having Fun

After finishing my class at 12.30 PM i drop my girlfriend back to her house and i went back to campuss to do some consultation with my lecturer about my reports, but unfortunately i have to wait for him until 13.10 and he would have a meeting with Mr Phillip, so i just send him my files and i went home to take a rest, because i will play basketball at 4.00 PM.

I wake up at 15.35 and when i was on my way picking up my girlfriend, suddenly it was raining heavily and i got wet and i decided to got back to my house. I called my friend and we had some talk. While we were talking, the rains stopped so i decided to continue playing basketball. I got to the court at 16.40 PM and we started to play basketball as usual.

After playing basketball, we went to Galeria Mall with our friends. We supposed to met at 19.00, but as usual the party started at 20.00. We played at Timezone and Fantasia for relaxing. When we played at Timezone we unaccidentaly broke one of the games by holding the crocodile and hitting them hardly. The machine was tilting and they didn't update the score and we finally only got 1 ticket for the result.

We continued our journey by travelling down to see around because some of us have never been to Galeria for a long time. Finally we ate at the basement and we got back at 21.29 PM. What a nice hangout. We were having fun for about one hour, but i was satisfied. Can't wait for the next party :)

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Indonesian Setup Guide Updated

Few days ago Scott Carr, the curent maintainer of OpenOffice.org Documentation Project released an update for the master document for the OpenOffice.org Setup Guide in documentation-developers mailing list. I joined this mailing list since i joined the Documentation Project and right now i'm the current maintainer of Indonesian Documentation Translastion Project.

I haven't update the Indonesian Setup Guide for a while (a year maybe) and i have the responsibility to update this documents. So i downloaded the latest version of the master documents and started to update the Indonesian version. It seems that the documents have changed a lot since my last updates. Some screenshots have been replaced with Linux's version of OpenOffice.org and the StarOffice's screenshots were removed for clarity since this is OpenOffice.org's documentation, not StarOffice. Few commands have also been replace to reflect the OpenOffice.org's method of installation.

One of the biggest changes in the Setup Guide project is the current maintainer. When i joined this project, the current maintainer was Derek Dreger and now he didn't maintain this project anymore and was replaced by the Scott Carr. I don't know why but i must say to Derek that gave me a lot of information so i could joined this project as my first experience joining an OpenSource project.

I have submitted the updated documentation to Scott, but it seems that it uses some screenshots from the previous master document so i have to update them along with the screenshots as well. As you read this, the Indonesian Setup Guide has been updated and it will be posted on OpenOffice.org's Documentation site on Setup Guide section. If you are looking for an updates, here is your change. Go get the files and have fun with OpenOffice.org.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Microsoft Releases Windows Update Beta

Microsoft Corp.'s oft-delayed WUS (Windows Update Services) is finally ready for public testing. A public beta of WUS was released at the Microsoft IT Forum show in Copenhagen to give system administrators their first look at the tool that handles the download, installation and management of software updates. Microsoft has been privately beta testing WUS, formerly Software Update Services 2.0, since the summer. It is seen as a crucial part of the company's enterprise patch-management strategy makeover. The product is due to ship by mid-2005, a full year off the original schedule.

It falls under the company's new Microsoft Update Service, which is styled as a new patching system designed to provide fixes to not only Windows, but also Office, SQL Server, Exchange Server and other core Microsoft products. Microsoft has been heavily criticized over the years for its hodge-podge approach to helping customers download, test and apply software products. With WUS, Microsoft is promising a complete architecture makeover with new technology to minimize reboots, save bandwidth and distribute updates in a streamlined way.

It provides a free mechanism for IT administrators to apply updates to Windows 2000-based servers and Windows Server 2003-based servers, as well as to desktop computers running Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP Pro. Microsoft Update is the evolution of Windows Update. The client component of WUS is Auto Update.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Gentoo and Ubuntu

Yesterday, or i should say this morning (since i chat with my friend at 1 AM in the morning) i talked with my friends via YM and we talked about Linux distributions that can be installed on a low spec PC. He wanted a small, flexible, and robust Linux distributions and avoided big distributions like RedHat, Fedora Core, SuSE, and Mandrake since it was a big distros. He needed X since he want to use Firefox and some web editing tools. The computer will not be connected to the Internet, so there are no security updates service available but it's ok for him, since he only tried to utilize his old computer.

Our discussion comes to Ubuntu Linux and also Gentoo. Gentoo is rather hard to install but it is fully configurable and also optimized for all purpose. It can be used as desktops, servers, graphical operations, or any other purpose. Gentoo don't use versioning on their products, since Gentoo's users can update their package using emerge command which will update their portage tree and update all their package to the lastest version.

On the other hands, Ubuntu Linux is a new Linux distribution and based on Debian. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". Some friends that have installed Ubuntu said that this distro is not intended for developers who don't have Internet connections since some development packages such as GCC is not installed by default and they have to download it from Internet manually.

I have downloaded all Gentoo documentation, starting from installation, portage, emerge, and kernel updates. It's very well documented and i'm happy with that. No other distro have such a great documentation (exception for those who sell commercial products, such as Mandrake, SuSE and Red Hat). In fact, Gentoo is a community based Linux distribution. This is what makes me happy when i realize this fact. I'm looking for the Gentoo's CD right now and hopefully i can try Gentoo as soon as possible (but maybe not in my computer since it is already full and it's too risky to sacrifise my Mandrake)

Monday, November 15, 2004

Mirror Site

Few days ago my OpenOffice.org Documentation project sites contains some errors on the database since there were some migration and i didn't notice that failure. I noticed that when i tried to update the files and i couldn't login to the site. I asked the hosting service and they tell me the problems and i finally knew it. I have fix this problem and the sites is up and operate again as normal again.

For backup solutions, i have made a new mirror for the site which is located on the Jogja's Linux User Group website. Here is the real URL: http://jogja.linux.or.id/project/Dokumentasi-OOo. There might some difference with both site regarding the path, since i have to change some settings so they fit with the new settings in different hosting services. There might be some gaps between this two sites when there are updates, since i have to manually updates them and i can't use rsync to do synchronizing on both sites.

Let's hope that there are no future crash on both servers :)

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Liferea-0.6.2

In the last two days, i got unpredictable updates from OpenSource application. Yesterday it was Gaim who updates to 1.0.3 and now it's Liferea. After launching their first 0.6.x version, Liferea has a VFolder support and it's quite stable enough in 0.6.1. And now it's time to updates to 0.6.2 to get a stabler version of Liferea. This month, Lars is planning to do some code cleanup and also bug fixes to prepare the first final release that is scheduled by the end of this year, that means next year. In the final release, it will be equipped with documentation so you don't have to be online to read the Liferea manual or FAQ.

Unfortunately, until now Lars haven't updates his website, so you won't see any updates available right now. If you want to update your Liferea, you can directly go to Download Section and you will see this updates. Have a nice weekend with updates from Liferea and Gaim :)

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Another Updates For Gaim

Three weeks have passed and now it's time to update your Gaim into the latest version of Gaim which was released in 11 November 2004, that means two days ago. In fact, i just read their RSS news today, so i missed two days since the release date. No big deal, since i haven't logged into my Mandrake. I'm using my Windows to do some activity, such as making reports and testing my personal website and also another website.

Here are the changelog for the latest Gaim 1.0.3:
Bug Fixes:
* Jabber authentication fixes (Michael Plump)
* Yahoo buddy idle reporting is more accurate (Evan Schoenberg)
* "Allow All" privacy setting works on Yahoo (Peter Lawler)
* Fix a crash when dragging a buddy to the conversation entry area
* Fix a crash removing chats from the buddy list
* Correctly display buddy pounces for aliases with &, < or > in them
* Correctly follow the per-conversation logging option
For details, you can view the full Changelog.

Gaim is a multi messaging client that can communicate with other protocols, such as YM, MSN, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Zephyr, Jabber, etc. You can get the latest version via their official website, http://gaim.sourceforge.net.

Friday, November 12, 2004

POP3 On Gmail

For you who loves downloading and reading emails using POP3 (Post Office Protocols), you might have disappointed since GMail, the free 1GB webmail from Google doesn't provide that protocols, so you will have to login to their website and read them online, just like Yahoo! (exception for Local Yahoo!, such as Singapore, Australia, Germany who still ofered their POP3 opened) and the other webmail services.

But time has proven that Google cares about their consumer's wish. One of the main wish is access to POP3 protocols and also Forwarding services. Google has just announced that they will add this facility, but i'm not sure when will it be realized. If you visit the About Gmail site, you will notice that they have released this facility, but if you log in into your GMail account, you can't find any setting about POP3 and SMTP.

If you visit the GMail Help Center, they have published a new help page, called POP > How do I enable POP? and they have also published a simple howto to enable your POP3 Access, but still i can't find it on my GMail account.

Finally i can get the answer. Look at the bottom of the page and you will see the answer. Well... here you are: We're rolling out POP access to all users in phases. Once it's available to you, a 'Forwarding and POP' tab appears on your 'Settings' page. You need to have this tab in your Gmail account before you can configure POP in your mail client.

That means, not every user can find this tab in their GMail account for now, since they give them in phases. Just wait and keep logging in to your GMail account and when you have your POP3 tab, start POPPING down your GMail account :)

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Party is NOT Over Yet

Mozilla Firefox has been released, party has been celebrated, so what next?
Should this joy end like the previous fenomena (i mean Microsoft and Internet Explorer who reached their peak and finally stopped their development process to make a better browser application with less bugs and added functionality)? I don't want that to happen on the development process of Mozilla Firefox because i believe that Firefox has a longer roadmap than IE does and it does have. You can search in the Mozilla's website and they have published their roadmap for 2004 and 2005. Maybe you can find it also in my previous blog.

Right now, every electronic media is talking about Firefox. It is definetly a true big leap since IE dominates browser market for about five years (or maybe more). It's Firefox who cracked their domination in this year, even though the market share still dominated by Internet Explorer, but it already dropping down to 3-4% and Mozilla Foundation is hoping that they will get about 10% by the end of this year. You can view Firefox's articles in PCWorld, Extremetech, eWeek, CNET, The Guardian, CNN, Libération, BBC, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and Aljazeera.

There are also some third party support for Mozilla Firefox, such as Vivisimo has released the Clusty Toolbar for Firefox, which lets Firefox users easily perform searches using Vivísimo's Clusty search engine. In addition, the extension's ClustyClips feature provides access to pop-up dictionary definitions or encyclopedia articles relating to any term on a page. There's also a Mini-Mode option, which allows users to collapse the toolbar into the standard Firefox Search bar, saving screen space.

Another third party support is the launch of the new Bloglines Firefox Central site, which offers two community-developed Firefox extensions. The first, Bloglines Toolkit, adds various Bloglines integration features to Firefox, such as a notifier that informs users when new information is posted to their Bloglines feed list. The second extension, LiveLines, changes the Firefox Live Bookmark icon (in the Status Bar) so that it adds feeds to a user's Bloglines feed list instead of creating a new Live Bookmark.

You can view some blog from the persons behind the Firefox development team, such as Blake, Mitchell, and also Ben. They showed their opinion about Firefox development process.

Some reports stated that Mozilla Firefox has been downloaded more than one million times in the first day it was released. That's an extraordinary fenomena that ever happen in the OpenSource environment, since Firefox is not only for Linux, but also for Windows and Mac OS platforms.

I believe that Firefox will not stop like this and enjoy their victory, but they will keep moving on making a better, safer, and faster browser that can be enjoyed by all people around the world. They still have a lot of tasks to be done for the next release for Firefox.

Updates:
Bradley has posted his Extension, called LookAhead and i think that's a great Extensions. Here are the summary :
"The Lookahead extension for the Firefox browser was created to provide for efficient usage of time while a user performs Google searches.

The extension adds functionality to the existing SearchBar in Firefox. See the screenshot page for an idea of how it will look after installation.

The Lookahead project was conceived as a result of an idea the project lead had for a year or so of making use of the ability of a machine to download multiple web pages while the user was viewing one page for the desired information. In utilizing the time the user is viewing a web page for relevant information to retrieve additional resources, the time normally spent waiting for the next resource to download is somewhat avoided.

The idea is fairly simple and little code is required. After the user chooses the LookAhead mode for Google searches in the toolbar, subsequent searches use the Google Web Service to query for URLs matching the search and these URLs are loaded into multiple tabs in the browser (the default is to open 5 tabs but is configurable). The user can then quickly scan the returned resources for the desired information and close those windows providing nothing of value.
"

If you want to install this extensions, you can visit MozDev and search for LookAhead or you can install it from here.

Thanks to Bradley who read my blog and gives this blog an updates :)

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Extensions: Need Attention

Firefox has introduced a new alias for plugin that were used in Internet Explorer as Extensions. Extensions will improve Firefox's capability while keeping Firefox's base file as small as possible to reduce unwanted growth (it makes no different to Mozilla if every extensions are included in the installer packages). As new developers start their new project, they will add new extensions and publish them at Update Page. Here you can find extensions and also themes for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

Unfortunately, as Firefox releases their new versions, some of the extensions aren't compatible with the newer version and they will be disabled or have to uninstalled when Firefox reopened for the first time after installation process. Some of the extensions are compatible until the latest version, such as ColorZilla and Web Developer Toolbar. This is the most important extensions for me at this moment since i need it in my daily work.

Things that need to have more attention for the developers are not just extensions, but also themes. Some of the themes available for Firefox 1.0 RC2 is not compatible with Firefox 1.0, so they also have to be uninstalled since they can't be used anymore unless the developers released newer version that suit with the latest version of Firefox.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Party Time: 1.0 Released

Today is the day where many MozParty2 is celebrated around the world. It is the day where Mozilla Firefox comes and filling the computer around the world with Firefox packages. Here is the press release from Mozilla Foundation:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - November 9, 2004 - The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving choice and promoting innovation on the Internet, today announced the worldwide availability of the Mozilla Firefox 1.0 web browser. Development of Firefox has been driven by a desire for a more robust, user-friendly and trustworthy web experience. Mozilla Firefox 1.0 arrives on the heels of last month's highly successful Preview Release that over eight million people downloaded, contributing significantly to the final phase of its open source development.

Today's announcement marks the worldwide launch of Mozilla Firefox-with immediate availability for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux-as a free download from mozilla.org and by CD from the Mozilla Store. Firefox is now available in over a dozen languages, with many more on the way.

"We are delighted to be announcing this major milestone for the Mozilla Foundation and for the Firefox browser, which has been made possible thanks to the tireless effort of hundreds of community volunteers and developers around the world," commented Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation. "Now millions more will be able to enjoy a better web experience."

Award-winning Web Experience
The Mozilla Firefox browser has already garnered rave reviews and awards for its stability, trustworthiness and innovative features.

* Pop-up Blocking - Firefox includes an integrated pop-up blocker that lets users-not websites-decide when they will view pop-ups. Mozilla continues to set the standard in assisting users avoid annoying pop-ups.
* Online Fraud Protection - Firefox helps users protect themselves against online fraud such as "phishing" (attempts to trick users into giving away their passwords) and "spoofing" (fraudulent sites masquerading as popular, trusted sites) by clearly displaying the true identity of secure sites.
* Faster, Easier, More Accessible Search - Firefox tightly integrates support for leading search services into the toolbar, including Google search, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, Dictionary.com, Creative Commons, and more. The new Firefox Start Page also provides access to Firefox information, resources and application tips, coupled with an integrated Google search box.
* More Efficient Browsing - Firefox's innovative Tabbed Browsing allows many web pages to load within the same window, improving the speed and utility of web browsing. Firefox also introduces Live Bookmarks, which allows users to easily glance through the latest news and blog headlines.
* Extensible with Hundreds of Add-ons - More than 100 extensions are available for Firefox today, including the A9.com, Google, and Yahoo! toolbars, which make Firefox even more customizable and convenient to use.
* Easy Migration - With Firefox it's easy to switch from Internet Explorer and other browsers. Firefox imports your existing bookmarks, passwords, cookies, and other data.

Firefox has received numerous endorsements and industry awards including Laptop Magazine's Editor's Choice Award, Best in Show at Linux World Fall 2004, Best Open Source Solution at Linux World Fall 2004, and first place in Maximum PC's Softy Awards for 2004.

Extensive Support Network
With thousands of technology contributors and advocates engaged in the development, documentation, testing and marketing of Mozilla Firefox, a rich ecosystem of support resources and tools is available. Online documentation, tutorials, FAQs and links to commercial support partners are available online at http://www.mozilla.org. Independent news, commentary and community support is available from mozillaZine at http://www.mozillazine.org/.

Getting Firefox
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 can be downloaded for free or purchased in a CD-ROM Edition with Firefox Guidebook from the Mozilla Foundation at http://www.mozilla.org.

About the Mozilla Foundation
Established in July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization hosting a collection of leading innovators whose mission is to preserve choice and innovation on the Internet. The Foundation provides organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open source software project. The Foundation is based in Mountain View, California and is the heir to the legacy & tradition of the Internet's first widely used browser, Netscape. Learn more about the Mozilla Foundation at http://www.mozilla.org.

Press Contact:
Colin Crook
Sparkpr
colin@sparkpr.com
+1-415-321-1887

Monday, November 08, 2004

Expat, Sablotron, PHP and XSLT

Yesterday i compiled PHP from source code and it worked, but it left me with one problem that i haven't been able to solved yesterday, which was the XSLT module that couldn't be installed or activated. When i was using RPM version of PHP, it was just fine since i only have to install php-xslt packages, but since i'm using source code packages, i have to manually reconfigure the source code to give the module that i need.

In general, XSLT modules requires Expat and Sablotron for their backend XML parser. I have downloaded the latest version of Expat and Sablotron today and i will try the process maybe in the next few days since i have to do other task, which is finishing my reports before next thursday (it's not mandatory but sooner the better, since i will have more time playing with my Linux box).

Yesterday i tried to enable XSLT module by adding this parameter on the configure script: '--enable-xslt' '--expat-dir=/path/to/expat' but the configure script couldn't locate the path where i installed Expat. Maybe i should add another parameter: '--with-xslt-sablot'.

Anybody has an idea about this?
Any suggestion will do as long as it's related

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Compile Time

I'm having a trouble testing my project's website since i encountered a bug in PHP 4.3.4 which leads to session errors. When i login with user A and i looked at members page which displays user B, the sessions thinks that i'm user B. This is obviously not a good security implementation. I encountered this problem if i'm using Linux because Mandrake doesn't release newer PHP version, except for PHP 4.3.8 which is designed for Mandrake 10.1. I have also tried to upgrade from those RPM packages, but it would need to upgrade pam-devel and glibc as well, so i decided to try compiling from source code.

I'm used to compile an application from source code, but not for big application, such as Apache, PHP, and MySQL so i stayed with the old version that was included with Mandrake 10.0. Recently i need to upgrade to the newer version to solve my problems. The first application that i update was MySQL. I found a RPM package for Mandrake 10.1 and it worked for Mandrake 10.0 as well, so i just use that RPM packages rather than installing from source.

I encountered a problem when i want to compile PHP. I'm using parameters that was used by the RPM version of PHP developed by Mandrake's developers and it won't worked, since it couldn't find libphp4.so. I asked my friend Jaya via YM (i'm using Gaim) and he told me to install Apache2-devel that includes APXS2 library that was required to build Dynamic Shared Objects (DSOs) for Apache2. I tried his suggestion but still it won't worked. When i view my website on my computer, the browser will display download prompt rather than displaying my websites. I decided to delay this process since i thought that i need to recompile Apache2 from source either, so i asked my admin in campuss to download source code for Apache2.

Today i have all the application needed and i started by writing down my PHP packages installed in case the installation doesn't go smoothly, i can restore it by installing it again from Mandrake's CD. Luckily, the process was so smooth and i'm able to see my website again from my local browser. Now my computer is equipped with the latest version of PHP and that would solved my problems :)

Here are the parameter that i used to compile my PHP

'./configure' '--prefix=/usr/local' '--enable-discard-path' '--disable-force-cgi-redirect' '--enable-shared' '--disable-static' '--disable-debug' '--disable-rpath' '--enable-pic' '--enable-inline-optimization' '--enable-memory-limit' '--with-config-file-path=/etc' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php' '--with-pear=/usr/share/pear' '--enable-magic-quotes' '--enable-debugger' '--enable-track-vars' '--with-exec-dir=/usr/bin' '--with-versioning' '--with-mod_charset' '--with-regex=php' '--enable-track-vars' '--enable-trans-sid' '--enable-safe-mode' '--enable-ctype' '--enable-ftp' '--with-gettext=/usr' '--enable-posix' '--enable-session' '--enable-sysvsem' '--enable-sysvshm' '--enable-yp' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--without-kerberos' '--with-ttf' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-zlib=/usr' '--with-zlib=/usr' '--with-zlib-dir=/usr' '--with-apxs2=/usr/sbin/apxs2' '--with-gd' '--with-png-dir' '--with-jpeg-dir' '--with-zlib-dir' '--with-tiff-dir'

Saturday, November 06, 2004

DeBritto 2001 generation Reunion

I'm one of the DeBritto's 2001 generation and today we had our first reunion at DeBritto's canteen. Unfortunately not everybody can attend this reunion, since some guys can't came to Jogja today and they will arive here tommorow. Some other are still abroad, such as Raymond (Deutch) and Othie (Australia). Total peoples that came to today's reunion were about 60 persons, but not everybody stayed on the party till the end (i was one of them) for another reasons.

We shared our experiences for the last three years since we separate from DeBritto in our graduation day. I haven't finished listening of my friend's experience since i have to left the canteen at 18.45 PM and went to my girlfriend's house.

We will hold a bigger event next year. This events was just an event to collect information about our generation and submit many contact person because we were separated in some cities, even countries. Hope i can join this next event.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Book Fair ... No... Book Store

Yesterday, i was planning to go to book fair with my girl friend, but somehow, my girlfriend's friend who was actually became one of the sales promotion boy on one of the book stand sent my girl friend an sms notifying that the whole place was used for a church concert and he advised us not to come to the JEC (Jogja Expo Center). We agreed and finally i decided to go to book store, Gramedia with my girl friend.

We looked at the third floor, where the books were located. First floor was used to sell various items, such as sports, sellular phones, computer items, toys, bags, etc. Second floor was used to sell office and education items, such as pencils, pen, notes, cards, etc.

I was one good book from I Made Wiryana called "From Germany With IT". He was considered as one of the main fanatic supporter for OpenSource development. He is studying in Germany right now for his Doctor degree. I want to buy it, but after a while i decided not to buy it, since it wasn't a technical book, just his thought and he viewed it from managerial aspect.

After finishing our book session, we ate at Mister Burger and having some ice cream. Next we went to book rent to rent some comics book. I rent Dandoh, a golf comic book.

Finally, i want to write this blog yesterday, but unfortunately Blogger was down so i decided to write this today and post it as yesterday :)

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Preparation For the Parade

Mozilla Foundation have announced that the final version of Mozilla Firefox will be launched at November 9th this year. That means five days from now on, but it seems that Firefox developers have not reached a standard level for final release, since they have just released their second Release Candidate (RC2) version today as soon as they found a glitch on the first Release Candidate. The Firefox developers please ask that you look at the following areas:

* site authentication (especially over SSL)
* extension installation via update.mozilla.org and other sites
* MacOS X builds
* software update

They also suggest to continue doing a carefully testing on
# the find toolbar
# gecko and website rendering
# migration from other browsers on first run
# opening links in Firefox from external applications
# focus interaction between tabs

Along with English builds, a number of localizations are also available for testing. More information on what looks to be the final RC before 1.0 can be found on Ben's weblog.

Ben also write some information about the next trunk of Mozilla Firefox, called Firefox 1.1 which will come out at sometime around March 2005. "We don't have ambitious goals for this release aside from getting the branch landed on the trunk and ongoing HIG compliance work for Aqua/GNOME, as well as general bug fixing.", ben Said.

For more information about Firefox's roadmap, please refer to Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Roadmap

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Embedded System

In the next three weeks, which will be on 24th of November, there will be a guest lecturer that will explain about embedded system basic and maybe some about implementations in the real world. This guest lecturer is a guest of my lecturer, Mr. Hendro Setiadi and he has many friends that are willing to spend their time to give a short explanations about robotics or embedded system.

Mr Hendro has allocated a place which can hold up to 75 persons approximately, and he gives us a change to invite our friends who are interrested in embedded system to come and see the class. If you want to join this class, please contact me first via my email in order to fulfill the quota allowed so that you will not be disappointed if the quota is overloaded.

Thank you :)

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

PCStuff, the new player

World of OpenSource is truly an amazing environment. Many people are willing to support and donate their knowledge to help spreading information to other people. In the last three years, many OpenSource resources are available around the world, from magazines, books, events, workshops, etc. They were made by individuals or with another company as their funding sponsors.

One of the new player on the OpenSource resources is PCStuff, an OpenSource Software Magazine which has just released their first issued which discussed about Knoppix, a famous LiveCD Linux distributions, OpenOffice.org 1.1.9 m54, the current development branch of OpenOffice.org, the most widely used office application on GNU/Linux platform, and some other hot topics.

They also opened up an invitation for other people to contribute. Below are the rule if you want to contribute:
1. At the moment PC Stuff does not generate any profit, so we cannot pay our contributors.
2. You are welcome to choose whatever topic you like as long as it covers open source software and aimed at beginners and i ntermediateusers.
3. You agree that your contribution will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
4. PC Stuff reserve the right to reject and to edit the final article.

I have submitted my article, but i don't know whether it will be published or not. It's my first article written in English and for foreign magazine. Anybody will join and contribute?

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Monday, November 01, 2004

Intel Itanium 2 9M

Intel, the world greatest processors manufacturer is issued to release their latest generation of server-class processor, Intel Itanium 2 9M next week. If it is true, than it will be on the same day with the official announcement of the world's fastest supercomputer ever made. Columbia, made by NASA is the first candidate of the world's fastest supercomputer competition.

This new processor will have code name Madison, like the New York Knick's stadion, Madisson Square Garden. Madison will have up to 9MB cache and it will be 3MB higher than the previous version. Intel will also updates their itanium processor products and also suppying dual-processor model which will consume less energy than the previous models.

Columbia was build based on Intel Itanium 2 9M using 130 nanometers fabrication process. By using this new processors, Columbia gained 51.9 terraflops while the current champion (Earth Simulator) which made in Japan gained 35 terraflops.

In the Intel roadmap, they will develop a new processor by using 90 nanometers fabrication process that will be called Montecito and also 65 nanometers called Montvale. It seems that Intel is pushing Itanium's technology to the limit to cover their failure when they released Intel Itanium and was beaten by AMD 64.

What will AMD do with this? We will find out in next few weeks. I'm preety sure that AMD also have some surprises on their roadmap before the end of this year :)