Bandwidth Cap

I think my server got a huge traffic today, so i decided to even decrease the limit of connection available to public users on working hours so that the bandwidth is more utilized for the students that might be using the server.

Thanks to mod_bw, it's easy to configure such thing and even better, with some help of BASH and Crontab, i can even make it more flexible because once it's set up, they can work on themselves without having me to set up every day.

iPad 2.4 Untethered Jailbroken

Absinthe 2.0.4 has been released to include untethered jailbreak for iPad 2,4 which was the last iDevices that can be untethered jailbroken (except for Apple TV). Please visit Absinthe Jailbreak to get the new link for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

I wonder why they skipped 2.0.3 ? Was it because it's for iPad 2,4 ? Who knows....

SiriPort Activated

Finally i have been able to activate SiriPort on my iPad 1 after some trial and error for 1 day. SiriPort is a porting of the famous Siri that was only available for iPhone 4S to other iDevices, including iPad. It was created by the Russian hacker.

Here's the short tutorial that i performed to install SiriPort :

• Make sure you have iOS 5.1.1 and untethered jailbreak using the latest absinthe tool 2.0.2
• Open up Cydia and add a new repo: http://repo.siriport.ru/
•  You can search for SiriPort in Search tab and install it. 
• If it failed, you can download the deb file manually and install it using iFile
• Reboot your device
• Open up Safari browser and visit http://siriport.ru/1.crt
• Install the certificate
• Reboot your device
• Enable Location Services and Use Siri (or enable it on Settings > General > Siri)
• Activate Siri by holding the HOME button for 2 seconds until the microphone icon showed up and say "Hi Siri". This process might not be successfull at first attempt due to heavy load on Apple Servers probably, so keep trying doing this until she replied back. I got mine activated after trying for one day.
• Enjoy Siri :)

Knastik 2012

Tomorrow will be busy day as Knastik 2012 will be held and this year, it will be an international conference. We postponed Knastik 2011 until this year and it's upgraded into an international event.

There will be 3 keynote speakers for tomorrow, Gilbert Ooi from HELP Malaysia, Anne LAURENT from Univ. Montpellier, France, and Richardus Eko Indrajit from APTIKOM. The main theme for this year is "Business Intelligence : Extending Your Business".

Absinthe 2.0.2 Released

Just one day after Absinthe was released, Apple pushed a firmware update for iPhone 4S with a spesific build number 9B208. Right now, Absinthe are updated to 2.0.2 to include fixes to provide support for the new firmware as well.

You can still use the same method i used previously to perform an untethered jailbreak on your iDevices

FFmpeg Major Release 0.11

FFmpeg has released a new major release, 0.11 which brings a bunch of new features as well as bug fixes from git master branch. They include several security-related vulnerabilities,

CVE-2012-2772, CVE-2012-2774, CVE-2012-2775, CVE-2012-2776, CVE-2012-2777, CVE-2012-2779, CVE-2012-2782, CVE-2012-2783, CVE-2012-2784, CVE-2012-2785, CVE-2012-2786, CVE-2012-2787, CVE-2012-2788, CVE-2012-2789, CVE-2012-2790, CVE-2012-2791, CVE-2012-2792, CVE-2012-2793, CVE-2012-2794, CVE-2012-2795, CVE-2012-2796, CVE-2012-2797, CVE-2012-2798, CVE-2012-2799, CVE-2012-2800, CVE-2012-2801, CVE-2012-2802, CVE-2012-2803, CVE-2012-2804

- v408 Quicktime and Microsoft AYUV Uncompressed 4:4:4:4 encoder and decoder
- setfield filter
- CDXL demuxer and decoder
- Apple ProRes encoder
- ffprobe -count_packets and -count_frames options
- Sun Rasterfile Encoder
- ID3v2 attached pictures reading and writing
- WMA Lossless decoder
- bluray protocol
- blackdetect filter
- libutvideo encoder wrapper (--enable-libutvideo)
- swapuv filter
- bbox filter
- XBM encoder and decoder
- RealAudio Lossless decoder
- ZeroCodec decoder
- tile video filter
- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes demuxer
- OpenEXR image decoder
- removelogo filter
- drop support for ffmpeg without libavfilter
- drawtext video filter: fontconfig support
- ffmpeg -benchmark_all option
- super2xsai filter ported from libmpcodecs
- add libavresample audio conversion library for compatibility
- MicroDVD decoder
- Avid Meridien (AVUI) encoder and decoder
- accept + prefix to -pix_fmt option to disable automatic conversions.
- audio filters support in libavfilter and avconv
- add fps filter
- audio split filter
- vorbis parser
- png parser
- audio mix filter

How i Perform Untethered Jailbreak on iOS 5.1.1

I posted yesterday that i would wait for a couple of days, but this morning, i just performed an untethered jailbreak to my iPad 1. I just can't wait for too long when the tools has been ready and updated and the method is SUPER EASY to do.

OK, here's how i do my untethered jailbreak. This works on my iPad, but i can't guarantee that it will work on your iDevices. Make sure you have make a backup of your data before proceeding.

• Download the latest Absinthe releases (2.0.1) for Windows, Linux, or Mac
• Pick the correct method for your devices
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3G
• iPad 1, 2, 3
• iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G
• On my case, it's iPad 1, so i pick the second link
•  Make a backup of your device
• Right click on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu and click ‘Back Up’ on iTunes
• Remove all your data and settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster.
• Settings – General – Reset – Erase all Content and Settings. 
• Don't worry about the data if you have performed the back up process earlier
• Extract Absinthe 2.0.1 and launch absinthe executable. This will close iTunes. That's fine.
• Wait until the jailbreak button becomes available and your iDevices firmware version has showed up. Make sure it's already in iOS 5.1.1.
• Click on the Jailbreak and let the magic process begins. No need to enter DFU mode again manually. Let the Absinthe do the work for you :)
• Once completed, you can restore the settings and apps again from iTunes using the backup earlier
• Right click on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu in the left panel of iTunes and click ‘Restore from Back Up…’ then select the latest backup you created before
• Some "pirated" applications might not be able to be installed / synched at this point. Just sync the apps you purchased legally
• Open up Cydia and wait until it finishes preparing the filesystems and reboots your device
• Open up Cydia once again and let it download the repository packages
• On my case, i added two additional repository
• http://sinfuliphonerepo.com
• http://cydia.hackulo.us
• I installed iFile, OpenSSH, Installous, AppSync, and Hackulo Security (plus all the dependencies)
• Reboot your iDevices (optional, but i just wanted to make sure)
• Re-sync with iTunes and now, all of your apps (including the pirated one) can be synched perfectly

If you have upgraded to iOS 5.1.1 previously and have a tethered jailbreak, you can switch to untethered by using Rocky Racoon on Cydia.

I would like to remind you to purchase the applications legally in AppStore since applications that exists outside App Store is not tested by Apple and you are on your own when having problems with third party applications. It's also our way to give credit to the author of the apps.

Thanks to all jailbreakers who have provided this SUPER DUPER EASY tool to perform a jailbreak and tested it on almost all iDevices.

Untethered Jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 is Out

Well, it's as expected, pod2g has released untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 on Friday in forms of Absinthe 2.0. All iDevices (except for Apple TV) are reported to be working, including the latest iPad (3rd Gen) and iPhone 4S. The tool are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Some people have reported that they are having some issue after jailbreaking and my guess is that it was caused due to heavy load on the server. According to the reports, there are 300.000.000 iDevices are waiting for this untethered jailbreak, meaning it would cause a massive load and it could trigger a failure on your devices. I think it's quite safe to wait for another day before performing the jailbreak itself.

Here are the links to perform on several iDevices:

• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS
• iPad 1, 2, 3
• iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G

iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak is Near

There has been a lot of rumor about the issue about the upcoming untethered jailbreak for 5.1.1, but finally we have a new hope after the jailbreakers has confirmed that they have a working exploits and will release the full blown exploits for all iOS devices except for Apple TV. The new exploit will be implemented in Absinthe 2.0 and also a new version of redsn0w and probably many other tools out there.

Since these kind of news can be misused by other people by offering jailbreaker tools, the developer has warned that they haven't released an official release of Absinthe tool yet and don't get fooled by other people who offered a paid jailbreaker tool called Absinthe 0.5. They only want to take your money without giving you the real tool to work with.

For the latest and official news about Absinthe, please visit Absinthe Jailbreak

VirtualBox 4.1.16 Released

Oracle has managed to release a new version of VirtualBox, 4.1.16. As usual, this version comes with a lot of bug fixes and some new additions for better support of XOrg and new Linux Kernel (3.4).

Here's the ChangeLog:

• VMM: fixed a Guru Meditation VERR_ACCESS_DENIED with certain guests (bugs #7589, #8247)
• VMM: fixed a Guru Meditation VERR_PAGE_TABLE_NOT_PRESENT with Ubuntu 32-bit guests with nested paging enabled on AMD CPUs (bug #10183)
• VMM: preserve segment limits and attributes when switching to unreal mode required for some legacy guests to work properly (VT-x without unrestricted guest execution only; bug #9941)
• VMM: fixed a VM hang after a resume from pause / savestate with SMP guests in rare cases
• 3D Support: several fixes for the Windows WDDM video driver crash
• NAT: fixed a crash on attempt to process ICMP datagram under some circumstances (bug #10527)
• Host-only Networking: lifted the maximal number of interfaces to 128 on Linux and Mac OS X hosts (there is no such limitation for Solaris and Windows hosts)
• EFI: fixed wrong SEC/PEI Core entry point calculation (bug #10531)
• VRDP: fixed a display update problem (bug #10503)
• Main: set the proper VM state if savestate failed for some reason (bug #6189)
• Main: more useful error message if a medium is inaccessible
• VBoxManage: fixed controlvm savestate if the VM is already paused
• Mac OS X hosts: addressed issues running on Mountain Lion Preview 3 (bug #10267)
• Linux hosts: Linux 3.4 compile fixes
• Linux hosts: fixed wrong help path in some rpm-based packages (bug #10418)
• Guest Additions: fixed handling of custom environment variables during VBoxManage guestcontrol execute (bug #10581)
• Windows Additions: fixed guest driver crash of VBoxSF in certain cases (4.1.10 regression, bug #10408)
• Windows Additions: don't load the WDDM driver if 3D support is not available for Windows 8 guests to keep the guest maintainable in that case (still better to miss some features than providing a blank screen)
• Solaris Additions: added support for X.org Server 1.11 and 1.12

VMWare Workstation 8.0.3 and Linux Kernel 3.4 Patch

Linux Kernel 3.4 has been released by Linus Torvald yesterday and i have built the latest Linux Kernel on my machines and tested that VMWare Workstation 8.0.3 (and pressumably VMWare Player too) worked well with the latest Linux Kernel + patches.

First off, remove your old VMWare installation by removing all files under these directories:
/etc/vmware*
/usr/lib/vmware*

Next, start your VMWare installation using --ignore-errors parameter like this:
./VMware-Workstation-Full-8.0.3-703057.i386.bundle --ignore-errors

After that, you download the patch that you can fetch on my SlackHacks repository. Give execute permission to the bash script and start it using
./patch-modules_3.4.0.sh

It will patch and recompile all VMWare modules and in the end, it should work again :)

If you encountered any errors, please read the whole post, starting from the top just to make sure you started with a clean installation of VMWare. Also, give detailed specs if you wanted to report any problems with this patch.

Credit goes to the author of this patch, not to me.

Linux Kernel 3.4 Released

After having 7 RC releases, finally Linus Torvalds is convinced with the development of Linux Kernel 3.4 and just pushed out Linux Kernel 3.4 and announce it on Linux Kernel Mailing List.

There was a last-minute changes from Peter Alvin about the GNU ld bug, but Linus took the patch anyway.

As always, please read Kernel Newbies entry for Linux Kernel 3.4 for human-readable ChangeLog. The major highlights on Linux Kernel 3.4 are:

1. Btrfs updates
   1. Btrfs: Repair and data recovery tools
   2. Btrfs: Metadata blocks bigger than 4KB
   3. Btrfs: Performance improvements
   4. Btrfs: Better error handling
2. GPU drivers
   1. GPU: Early support of Nvidia GeForce 600 'Kepler
   2. GPU: Support for RadeonHD 7xxx and Trinity APU series
   3. GPU: Support of Intel Medfield graphics
3. New X32 ABI: 64 bit mode with 32 bit pointers
4. x86 cpu driver autoprobing
5. Verifiable boot path with the device mapper "verity" target
6. Support a external read-only device as origin source of a thin provisioned LVM volume
7. perf: GTK2 report GUI, better assembly visualization, branch profiling, filtering of users and threads
8. 'Yama' security module
9. QNX6 filesystem

Suhosin On PHP 5.4.3

Today, i cloned Suhosin tree at github because i wanted to try compiling it for my machine which is running PHP 5.4.3. As you recall, suhosin wasn't compatible with PHP 5.4 since there were a lot of changes introduced in PHP which caused it broken.

Steffan has started an initial steps to make Suhosin compilable with PHP 5.4 and he addressed any issues so quickly. I submitted an issue and in less than 24 hours, my issue has been fixed in the upstream tree and now Suhosin compiles on my machine running PHP 5.4.3. Looking forward to implement Suhosin on my other machines.

Sudo Needs Attention

If you maintain a server or a Linux machine and you often use sudo to give root privileges to your users, you might want to make sure that you have updated to the latest sudo version to fix a security vulnerabilities that can allow a legitimate user who is included in the sudoers file to run commands on other hosts.

The developer upstream has released several version to fix this bug, namely : 1.8.4p5, 1.7.9p1, and 1.8.5.

Mandriva Handed Over to Community

After struggling for some time, finally the executives of Mandriva has given their final word about the situation that has been unclear due to their financial condition.

They finally took the decision of transferring Mandriva Linux distribution to an independent entity that can ensure that this distribution can still goes on without the company that has been working on this distribution since few years ago. It's almost the same situation that Red Hat took in the past when they created Fedora but the difference is that Red Hat still on a good track in terms of financial status.

Since it has been turned over to the community, the decision about the future of this distribution will not solely made by Mandriva, but now it's handed to the community. Unfortunately, most of their developers has forked Mandriva into Mageia and they are now preparing to release Mageia 2 this year. I wish that they could be merged together to produce even better Mandriva experiences.


Mandrake (previous name of Mandriva) was my first Linux distribution that i used around 2002. It was a simple, easy to use Linux distribution at that time. I liked it a lot and i even contributed to the translation project and i got a VIP member at Mandrake Club at that time, allowing me to download the Power Pack edition of Mandrake which offer more packages than the normal releases.

If there wasn't any problem with Mandriva 2005 that couldn't be installed on my laptop, i would never met Slackware and probably i will still be using Mandriva as my primary OS.

New NVidia Linux Driver

NVidia has released a new Linux Driver 295.53. This new driver doesn't introduce new features, just bug fixes and brings more support  to their GeForce products, particularly

• GeForce GTX 670
  GeForce 605
  GeForce GT 610
  GeForce GT 630
  GeForce GT 640
  GeForce GT 645

Anyway, should you have problems with G-Sync configuration, then you might want to try upgrading to this version and see if it fixed.

Migrating Jogja LUG Website

Last week, i was notified that Jogja LUG's website was down because the account was suspended by their hosting provider. I don't know the reason why they got suspended this time (yes, they have been suspended before, but it was on different provider). The admin was out of reach, so the LUG member couldn't do anything about it.

So, i offered them an offer to host the web on a server that was donated by KavaLinux to me. I offered them to use PlanetPlanet instead of going back with WordPress and they agreed.

Next is my turn to work with the server. First, i changed the DNS entry to point to my server while i'm configuring it. Since it took some time to propagate, i can change the server's configuration to host the domain. At first, i had some problems, since the server is using nginx for the webserver, not Apache. Since it's my first time using nginx and also because it has unusual configuration provided by the provider, i need some time to adjust how it works. Luckily, it didn't took that long to complete.

Next is installing Planet Planet applications. Since it's an old application and not updated since 2006, it was dependent to an old Python. So far, i have managed to install PlanetPlanet on other server that uses Python 2.6 and it was working fine. On this server, which is running ArchLinux, the only Python available is 2.7 and 3.1. I tried compiling Python 2.6 using PKGBUILD, but i got the same error messages that i got from using Python 2.7.

Luckily, i found this article which solves my problem.  So, right now the website is running on PlanetPlanet and so far, it's running just fine and i like it. It still need to be polished on many areas, but the good thing is that it's now running well and not just under construction message again.

It's been a while since i was working as the maintainer of the Jogja LUG and now it seems that that position is coming back at me :)

Linux Kernel 3.4 Coming Up

Next week, Linux Kernel 3.4 should be released by Linux if there's no big major regression happening on the Linux Kernel development cycle. Even though it hasn't been released yet, some of the features are already written on KernelNewbies entries for Linux Kernel 3.4.

You can also see The H's article on Upcoming Linux Kernel 3.4 series which talks about Infrastructure, FileSystems, Storage, and Drivers, and Graphics Drivers. There will be another article which up to this point hasn't been released yet, but i think it will be released just before the final version of Linux Kernel 3.4 gets released. 

Blogger on iPad

I think i have posted this before, but since Google seems not noticing the post, i'll just post it again. New Blogger Editor is not usable in iPad (and probably other iOS devices). Whenever i edit a post using iPad, it will clear the textarea, making it like i deleted all the content of the post and since it have auto-save feature, it will save automatically without any chance to revert the changes.

I hope this time Blogger team saw this post and fixed the problem soon enough.

DNSCrypt Arrives on Windows

If you are hoping for a secure DNS in Windows, there's a good news for all of you. DNSCrypt, which was previously only available to Mac users are now also available for Windows users. You can get the binary from their download page or you can grab the source code from their GIT repository at GitHub.

The status hasn't changed. It's still considered technology preview, but it's usable for daily usage and it's still free.

Last Day of Semester

Today is my last day of this semester. Starting next week, it will be a final test and after that, it will be a long holiday until August. That also means that i'm going to have more time helping Slackware development by testing it and providing updates as much as i can to packages in Slackware which i posted on my SlackHacks repository.

I really wish that next Slackware is around the corner, but it seems that it's far far away from the final release. Usually XOrg inclusion is the sign for previous releases, but right now, XOrg stack has been included by Robby and i think there's still too much packages that needs to be upgraded and re-tested before releasing it.

Oh well, let's just enjoy the long holidays :)

New PHP Releases

PHP has released two new releases to bring complete fix for CGI flaw (CVE-2012-2311) that was exposed last week. Hopefully they bring the correct update and not partial update again.

PHP 5.4.3 also fixed another problem, which is apache_request_headers () functions (CVE-2012-2329). Go to the download page to get the latest source.

OpenOffice 3.4 Released

OpenOffice 3.4 has been announced and this is their first release after the project has been handed to Apache Project last year. Since then, a major undergone has been made into this project, including a license change to Apache License 2.0.

Some highlights on this new major release are:

• Faster startup
• ODF 1.2 Encryption Support
• Improvements on UI for Draw and Impress
• Improvements on charts
• Line Cap property 
• SVG support
• Support for MultiImage
• New regular expression engine
• New color picker dialog

For complete and detailed changes, please have a look on the Release Notes

As usual, OpenOffice 3.4 is available to Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X on their download page.

I really wished someday, both LibreOffice and OpenOffice can reunite so that there won't be any confusion to users because both came from the same source. By merging these two products, i believe the users can benefit more rather than having two split projects.

Announcing LibreOffice Certification Program

The Document Foundation has announced a new program called LibreOffice Certification Program. There are two certifications offered by this program.

I will just take the original text from the website:

One is to certify organizations that are recognized partners or franchisees and the second is to certify competence in specific sector skills. A typical certification program is divided into levels (most use the bronze, silver, gold, platinum scale) and sets different conditions for the partners, based on their level (paying a yearly fee, and having one or several people trained on the product). In return, the partner gets a "certified" stamp, and has some advantages like a dedicated hotline for support and several demo products). The partner is "certified" for selling and supporting the product, and for providing added value.

For individuals certification, you might want to see this:

Certified Developer

Is able to hack LibreOffice code to develop new features or provide L3 Support to enterprise users, researching and developing solutions to new or unknown issues, designing and developing one or more courses of action, evaluating each of these courses in a test case environment, and implementing the best solution to the problem. Once the solution is verified, it is delivered to the customer and given back to the community. Certified Core Developers need to be present TDF members, and part of their certification is peer review by the Engineering Steering Committee.

Certified Migration Professional

Is able to coordinate the migration process from MS Office to LibreOffice, working with the customer to manage the change in all aspects (integration, development of macros and templates, training and support) in order to have a smooth transition.

Certified Professional Trainer

Is able to teach the use of LibreOffice at basic, intermediate or advanced level.

Certified L1 Support Professional

Is able to handle basic customer issues, gathering the customer’s information and determining the customer’s issue by analyzing the symptoms and figuring out the underlying problem. Technical support specialists in this group typically handle straightforward and simple problems like verifying the proper hardware and software set up, and assisting with application menus. In a corporate environment, the goal for this group is to handle 70%-80% of the user problems before finding it necessary to escalate the issue to L2 support.

Certified L2 Support Professional

Is able to assist L1 support personnel in solving basic technical problems and investigating elevated issues by seeking for known solutions related to these more complex issues. If a problem is new or a solution cannot be determined, is responsible for raising this issue to L3 support. Technical support specialists in this group typically handle complex functional problems. Within a migration project, is able to develop macros and/or templates reproducing those developed for MS Office, in order to offer to end users of the suite the same functionalities they were used to.

New PHP Release Coming Up

PHP Team has released PHP 5.4.2 to fix some problems related with how PHP handles CGI flaw described in CVE-2012-1823, but unfortunately, the fix is partial as it doesn't completely fix the problem, so they are planning to release another version on May, 8. Hopefully this fix will be the real fix.

I'm waiting for the next update rather than downloading again and again.

Announcing SlackHacks

Today, i wanted to announce SlackHacks, my new repository at GitHub that contains updated SlackBuilds script that i modified to work with Slackware-Current. Some of them are scripts from SlackBuilds Project, but they have newer version and it's working on -Current (which may have different toolchain such as GLIBC and GCC). They also contains several other contents, such as translated SlackBook and SlackBasics in Indonesian language and also some simple bash scripts.

This SlackBuilds repository is more like a simple hack to help Slackware-Current development by providing and testing some SlackBuild script so that they will be ready when next Slackware is released. The content is not permanent as they will be removed once the same version has been published in SBo project or in the Slackware tree. I will just continue to work on newer version that might need some time to get into Slackware or SBo projects.

Major Releases

Today, two major open source project, KDE and LibreOffice releases updates to their products to public, KDE 4.8.3 and LibreOffice 3.5.3. Both are maintenance release, so don't expect new features implemented on this release, but it will contains bug fixes and translations updates.

KDE will be updated one more time next month and then KDE developers will shift the mainstream release to KDE 4.9 which is planned on August.

Meanwhile, LibreOffice 3.5 will be updated until 3.5.6 (scheduled for October), but the next major release will be available around August. It will give time for users to test LibreOffice 3.6 and if they are not ready to migrate yet, they can still use LibreOffice 3.5.x branch until October and at that time, LibreOffice 3.6 will reach 3.6.2, which is usually relatively stable for public usage.

The Avengers

We (me and my wife) watched The Avengers today and i think they have made a big chance on this movie, unlike the previous  single hero movie. They included Thor, Loki (both are from Ashgard), Tony Stark (Iron Man), Steve Rogers (Captain America), Bruce Banner (Hulk), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow).

I don't remember anything about Hawkeye (it's probably because they were never shown before on movies), but i had a bad impression on Hulk and Captain America based on the previous movies. Luckily, the producer of this movie has promised something different and he kept that promises. He made a big chance, thus my opinion about Hulk has changed after watching this movie. You will understand what i mean after watching this movie by yourself (no spoilers).

It was a great movie and i don't mind giving it 10/10, a perfect score. It has all the combination of a great movie, a plot, drama, action, special effects, comedy, and moral story. It also combines two worlds together (earth and Asgard). What a perfect combination.

Looking forward for The Avengers 2 in the future.

Planning to Migrate to Windows 7

My desktop at home has been running on dual boot (Windows XP and Slackware) for almost five years and i think it's time to start a clean installation of Windows 7 to replace XP (Slackware will not be changed at all).

I rarely boot to my XP and when i do, most of the case, i only perform an update to the OS itself and also to the applications that i installed on that machine.

Today, i boot to my XP and i guess it's getting slower and slower (probably due to 5 years without being reinstalled even once), and i can't stand it anymore. I need to get this problem fixed, so i decided to upgrade to Windows 7 after this semester ends.

I have burned Windows 7 64 bit which i got from MSDN AA along with the official serial numbers. I have also prepared ArchLinux CD to help me restore LILO after Windows 7 installation will definitely replace it with it's own loader. Let's hope nothing breaks after migrating to Windows 7.

I still have to backup lots of things on my C partition. Luckily i never put too much data on that partition. Everything is placed on other partition.

Upcoming Linux NVidia Driver

While it's still in Beta, but the upcoming NVidia Linux Driver (302.07) brings good news to Linux users worldwide. The new driver will fully support RandR 1.2/1.3, the Resize and Rotate extension for the X.Org Server. You can get them now for 32 bit / 64 bit system.

Another great news from this release is that NVidia will remove the "TwinView" X configuration option; the functionality it provided is now enabled by default. Which means, it will properly detect your multi display devices automatically. You can limit how many display devices are used with "UseDisplayDevice" X configuration option.

They also managed to remove some configuration which is considered obsolete and change the NVIDIA X driver's handling due to RandR being included.

Here's the complete changes since 295.40:

*Fixed a bug that caused OpenGL programs to leak file descriptors when calling exec() on themselves.
*Fixed rendering corruption at the start of new X server generation.
*Added X driver support for RandR 1.2 and RandR 1.3. See "Support for the X Resize and Rotate Extension" in the README for details.
*Extended the MetaMode X configuration option syntax with the following new attributes:
"Rotation" : specifies the display device's rotation
"Reflection" : specifies the display device's reflection
"Transform" : specifies a 3x3 transformation matrix to be applied to the display device
"ViewPortOut" : specifies the region of the mode in which to display pixels
"ViewPortIn" : specifies the size of the region in the X screen to display in the ViewPortOut

For example, "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select { Rotation=left }".
See "Configuring Multiple Display Devices on One X Screen" in the
README for details.
*Removed the "TwinView" X configuration option; the functionality it provided is now enabled by default.

Previously, the NVIDIA X driver only enabled one display device for an X screen unless "TwinView" was enabled. Now, the NVIDIA X driver enables, by default, as many display devices as the GPU supports driving simultaneously. To limit how many display devices are driven by an X screen, use the "UseDisplayDevice" X configuration option.
*Added a "CurrentMetaMode" attribute to the nvidia-settings command line, to query and set the current MetaMode.

As an example, these two commands are equivalent:

xrandr --output DVI-I-2 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 0x0 --output DVI-I-3 --mode 1920x1200 --pos 1280x0

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode= "DVI-I-2: 1280x1024 +0+0, DVI-I-3: 1920x1200 +1280+0"
*Removed overscan compensation configurability from NV-CONTROL and nvidia-settings. This can be configured, with finer granularity, through the ViewPortIn and ViewPortOut MetaMode attributes. See "Configuring Multiple Display Devices on One X Screen" in the README for details.
*Altered mode validation such that for digital display devices the X driver only allows, by default, modes which are reported in the EDID. Previously, the NVIDIA X driver allowed other modes, but implicitly scaled those other modes to one of the EDID modes. Now, only the modes in the EDID are validated and the X driver does not do any implicit scaling. Any desired scaling can be configured explicitly through the new "ViewPortIn" and "ViewPortOut" MetaMode attributes. See "Configuring Multiple Display Devices on One X Screen" in the README for details.
*Removed Flat Panel Scaling configurability in nvidia-settings. Any desired scaling can be configured through the new "ViewPortIn" and "ViewPortOut" MetaMode attributes.
*Hotplug events (specifically, the RRNotify_OutputChange RandR event) are now generated when display devices are connected and disconnected from the GPU. Many desktop environments automatically resize the X desktop in response to these events.
*Added display device name aliases, such that X configuration options that use display device names can refer to a display device by one of several names, including the RandR Output name for the display device. The X log reports the list of aliases for each display device.
*Updated EDID parsing to include more complete support for EDID 1.4 and more recent versions of CEA-861.
*Removed the "Rotate" X configuration option. This was used to statically rotate the X screen. Its functionality is replaced by the "Rotation" MetaMode attribute and RandR 1.2 rotation support. See the README for details.
*Removed the "RandRRotation" X configuration option. This enabled configurability of X screen rotation via RandR 1.1. Its functionality is replaced by the "Rotation" MetaMode attribute and RandR 1.2 rotation support. See the README for details.
*Removed support for the following NV-CONTROL attributes:
NV_CTRL_GPU_SCALING
NV_CTRL_GPU_SCALING_DEFAULT_TARGET
NV_CTRL_GPU_SCALING_DEFAULT_METHOD
NV_CTRL_DFP_SCALING_ACTIVE
NV_CTRL_GPU_SCALING_ACTIVE
NV_CTRL_FRONTEND_RESOLUTION
NV_CTRL_BACKEND_RESOLUTION
NV_CTRL_OVERSCAN_COMPENSATION
NV_CTRL_FLATPANEL_BEST_FIT_RESOLUTION
*Improved rendering performance for RENDER bitmap text.
*Enabled the OpenGL "Sync to VBlank" option by default.
*Added a new option, --restore-original-backup, to nvidia-xconfig. nvidia-xconfig creates a backup of the original X configuration file when modifying an X configuration file that does not appear to have been previously modified by nvidia-xconfig. This option restores a backup of the original X configuration file, if such a backup is found.
*Expose the following additional FSAA modes via NV-CONTROL, nvidia-settings, and through X visuals and GLXFBConfigs:
16X multisample FSAA on all GeForce GPUs
Coverage sample FSAA on G80 and above GeForce GPUs
32X multisample FSAA on G80 and above Quadro GPUs
64X multisample FSAA on Fermi and above Quadro GPUs
*Enabled conformant texture clamping by default in OpenGL.
*Removed support for the GVO Clone mode NV-CONTROL attributes:
NV_CTRL_GVO_DISPLAY_X_SCREEN
NV_CTRL_GVO_X_SCREEN_PAN_X
NV_CTRL_GVO_X_SCREEN_PAN_Y
*Added a new, higher resolution icon for nvidia-settings.
*Updated the NVIDIA X driver's handling of X configuration options that affect an entire GPU, not just a particular X screen running on a GPU (e.g., "NoPowerConnectorCheck"): for such X configuration options, the X driver will now honor the option on any of the X screens configured on the GPU. Prior to this change, the NVIDIA X driver only honored such options on the first X screen configured on a GPU.
*Added a checkbox to nvidia-settings to control the texture clamping attribute. When the box is checked, OpenGL textures are clamped according to the OpenGL specification. When it is unchecked, GL_CLAMP is remapped to GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE for borderless 2D textures.
*Removed the "Display" and "X Screen" tabs from the "X Server Display Configuration Page" of nvidia-settings, and added a new "Selection" dropdown menu for selecting X screens or display devices. This makes it easier to select X screens/Displays that are hidden. 

JoliCloud for iPhone

JoliCloud has sent me an email about their latest news: JoliCloud is now available for iPhone users in App Store. You can now track it on your iPhone.

Here's the description from the App Store:

Jolicloud is a service designed to facilitate access to all your online content. Jolicloud indexes everything you created, liked or received on the popular online services you use: Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, Instagram and more.

Jolicloud builds automatically a personal and searchable library with all your photos, videos, music, documents, and links. No more tiny URLs or obscure links, Jolicloud shows you the content the way it was meant to be seen. Access all the moments of your life captured from your digital trail. You can also create collections to sort important content or memories.

Explore and search your personal cloud like never before. Your Jolicloud is entirely searchable so you can find a document you shared on your Facebook wall a year ago or a Twitter link you absolutely need for a presentation.

 It's their first release and most of the users like it. Why don't you try it? I will try mine after posting this one :)