CAS Tech Bytes

Cloud Computing Now

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:05:00 +0000

First posted on: http://trainingtechnologies.blogspot.com/2015/08/cloud-computing-now.html

I wrote briefly about cloud computing before here. Back then, cloud computing in the Philippines was not that popular. Actually, even globally. Hence, I thought I have to update my knowledge about this concept, just in case somebody asks me.

Cloud computing as a term only became popular then, with people promoting it emphasizing economy and allowing the business to focus on its core functions rather than get bogged down with setting up their IT requirements (which big companies usually require of their supply chain partners). Those against it emphasize (just like in the paragraph before) security and location of data. Since then (about five years past), a lot of developments have happened. The Wikipedia article is a testament to that.

On September 10, 2009, the Wikipedia article on cloud computing described the concept as a “paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.” If you would access the same article today (August 30, 2015), it says that “Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources.” I agree with both, actually, but the latter definition has some terms which are highly technical, so I prefer the former.

As I said in my blog post in 2009, for me, it is just a way of computing (or doing your work with your computer) with your data or your applications--or both--on the Internet. To make the concept tangible, look at Google Drive or Zoho, both of which allow you to create documents (i.e., text, spreadsheets, presentations) on the web. Their online system constantly saves your work, so you don't need to manually save every few minutes or so.

Also, previously, when one thinks of a website, you use either your Notepad or Microsoft Frontpage to create your web pages on your computer, then upload them to your server (either your own server where you or your business is located, or to some webhosting provider). Now, you can create websites with Google Sites, which, among others, reduces your need to learn HTML or similar languages and hosts your webpages in their server. I will stop for now about the benefits of using Google Sites and talk about this later when I go to the Benefits part.

So we have an idea now what it is. What is it not? For example, is email a part of cloud computing?

In its previous form of POP3, email was not cloud computing. In the Philippines, however, we were introduced to its cloud-based form – the webmail. We used to access Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail from the web browser. Those email services, which you can access using your browser from any computer instead of an email client installed in your own computer with the settings preconfigured, are cloud-based.

Chatting, again, in its previous form of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), was not cloud-based, because there is a central server that moderates communication of messages among different users that access the chat through a preconfigured client. However, recent chat services through your web-browser (e.g., Google Hangouts and Yahoo! Mail's chat) would be considered cloud-based.

I am briefly delineating the difference between cloud and non-cloud computing to emphasize how cloud computing delivers its supposed benefits.

Cloud computing has a lot of benefits, and technical papers can list a lot. However, for us mere mortals (i.e., non-IT people), I will focus on what you may need to know.

Mobility and device independence (borrowed from the Wikipedia article) – You can access your data (e.g., download your data, make changes, create new file or record) from any device or location so long as you have internet connection and maybe a browser.
Cost – Particularly if you use public clouds (we will define what a public cloud is later). Creating information systems that will give you the intended benefit would be costly both in monetary and experiential terms. Adopting cloud computing avoids the experience cost and as well as capital costs associated with systems development, as well as leveraging on the learning of other users that have used the system (and provided feedback to the cloud service provider).
Focus on your core function – For small businesses, public organizations or educational institutions, all of which may not have very big capital budget for information technology, cloud computing allows them to use technology available to support their core function without the need to develop (and spend on) their own systems. Looking back at my previous example of Google Sites, it allows collaboration in creating a website; multiple types of access (down to the page level), and easy addition of content. An additional feature of creating websites with Google Sites is that Google takes care of converting the website to a form that is mobile- and tablet-friendly. As it is Google-hosted, it allows you to also integrate other Google services to the website, like adding a calendar that will display information based on the person's Google account. Imagine if you will have to write all these in code, and you are not a computer science graduate.
Security in data redundancy – While anti-cloud computing individuals say that it is risky, it can actually give IT people peace of mind as they know their data is stored and backed up in an off-site location (i.e. not in the place where the business is located). In the eventuality of disaster in the organization's area of operation, the company knows that their data is backed up at a place where the disaster is not likely to have taken place as well. Of course, this requires [and does not take off the organization's or its delegated responsible person's responsibility to conduct due] diligence in determining where the cloud service provider actually stores your data.
Collaboration – This feature of Google Docs (an example of a cloud-based software) ensured me buying into the idea. Google Docs (and its sister services, Google Sheets and Google Presentation), allowed multiple users to edit a file at the same time from different computers. Instead of sending back and forth different versions of a file, cloud computing allowed us to work on ONE file instead of sending back and forth different versions, which confused everyone which should they be using. Imagine if you have a web-based project management software, so that different project staff can update their responsibilities in the system, and the project manager can have near realtime update on how the project is doing.
Maintenance – Cloud computing also allows IT administrators (if they use private clouds) to update just the back end (maintained by system administrators) of a computer system without tinkering the software on the front end (used by the end-users). They can simply update everything and the front end will update as they (usually) access the system through a web interface.
Security in maintenance – As mentioned above, cloud computing allows system administrators to update the system without worrying about the end-users' client software. As most of the protocols are in the backend, cloud computing reduces the risk of a non-compliant end-user not updating his/her client software.

Of course, cloud computing, like any HUMAN ACTIVITY, has its costs and risks. Here are some of the most commonly cited ones:

You need an internet connection. For you to access your data, you need to have internet connection. Most of the cloud storage services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, however, allow offline access by downloading your data on your computer and synchronizing it with your online account when you get online.
You don't know where your data is located. As mentioned before, this requires you to conduct due diligence if your data is sensitive (e.g., related to national security or politics). Let me point out, however, that this is not limited to cloud computing. You could store your data in your USB flash drives. But if you are not careful, you could save your data to a virus- or malware-affected storage device, which may either corrupt the data or send it to an unknown person without your knowledge. Again, due diligence is required.
Virus affecting all data in a cloud or networked system. Even if cloud-based systems are inter-connected, it does not mean that anyone (including a virus or piece of malware) can access data to another system without proper credentials (which is one of the foundation principles of information security). So even if a virus finds itself in a cloud storage device, being there does not mean (most of the time, if your system is designed right) will not mean corruption of everything in it. Another way of mitigating this is actually to ensure that you have your data backed up.

Relatedly, if you are considering of outsourcing some of your information system processes, you should note what the contract says about ownership of the data.

To address the commonly raised concern on security and privacy, organizations may consider a private cloud facility. A private cloud facility harnesses the technical benefits of a public cloud (e.g., doing transactions on the server instead of installing applications in the end-users' computers) while ensuring that their data is in a facility they own. However, private clouds may not be able to leverage the economic benefits of public clouds as the organization will have to operate just as they have with a client-server system (i.e., maintaining a data center with its required supporting facilities, such as an airconditioned and secured room, back-up data storage facility, back-up power source, among others).

Personally, I am looking into the idea of getting a Network Attached Storage (NAS) with cloud capability, such as Western Digital's My Cloud Mirror or Synology's BeyondCloud Mirror. While we do have external hard disk drives, moving them makes the ports prone to wear and tear. I previously had to throw a 500GB external hard disk drive because I cannot access the data anymore (and I didn't know of any other way to get my data). With a NAS with cloud capability, my team can share files in a network environment (only those allowed through a username can access it) and access the same files when I am away through the internet.

Considering the benefits and the risks, and given due diligence in selecting the service provider or the facility, and being reminded of the supposed responsibility of ensuring security in designing ALL TYPES of information systems, I think cloud computing presents a real business case that executives should consider.

Encoded using LibreOffice

Sources:
Wikipedia, "Cloud Computing," accessed on 30 August 2015.
University of North Carolina, "Cloud Computing," accessed http://www.unc.edu/courses/2010spring/law/357c/001/cloudcomputing/examples.html on 30 August 2015.

Google Calendar: A User's Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 04:43:00 +0000

Originally posted on: http://distinctshadow.blogspot.com/2013/09/google-calendar-users-introduction.html

For this post, I will not talk about Philippine energy. I will briefly introduce Google Calendar, with the hope that you (I hope you understand who you are) will use it to increase productivity and collaboration.

Google Calendar is (obviously) Google's take on calendar and task management. As far as I remember, Yahoo! has calendar also in their Yahoo! Mail, but it was not as integrated to their other products, and did not have a lot of collaborative functionalities (why does Google say that 'functionalities' is incorrectly spelled?) that Google Calendar introduced.

Google Calendar is a simple take and presentation on how we see dates vis-a-vis tasks, activities, sharing and communication. If you have a Gmail account, just look up, at the gray ribbon of Google services available, and you will see Calendar on the right-middle part. Click it, and that's almost it. (You will probably need to agree to the terms of services.)

There are a number of features in Google Calendar that I like, such as:

Sharing of Calendar - By sharing calendar, this means you share one of your calendars. As people, we have different aspects of our lives. For example, we live as an employee, a part of a circle of friends, and member of a volunteer organization. For each of these circles, we can have a calendar, which we can share. And there are many ways of sharing: Allow certain people to see your calendar, edit existing appointments, create new ones, or manage the calendar, which means they can re-share your calendar to those who need access to your schedule. Of course, there is also the option of making your calendar public. When another user adds an appointment in your shared calendar, you get notified (via email or SMS, to be discussed next).
Mobile Notifications - For me, I configured my Google Calendar to send me SMS to remind of in advance of my schedules (many times for each event/schedule). This is, of course, in addition to notifications via the email. As discussed in the previous number, you also get be notified if a shared calendar is changed (someone requested an appointment or added a schedule, or edited an existing appointment, among others)
Integration with other Google services - If you use Google Sites, for example, for managing a project or a team dashboard, you can (and I did) integrate the Google Calendar gadget so that it displays your calendar there. If your Google Sites is login-based, it would display your own Google Calendar.

Google Calendar is a very useful productivity tool that I hope you would use to increase productivity (of course) and enhance collaboration in shared activities.

For more information on how to do the things I listed here, you can go to the Google Calendar Help site https://support.google.com/calendar/?hl=en

No, I am not a Google advertiser or stockholder. Just a Google Fan. :D

I may update this as soon as I have the time and realize its other exciting features.

Trying and Installing Drupal on an Ubuntu Linux Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:41:00 +0000

I underwent Drupal training two times, and so I can say that I have experience in configuring and organizing a college website using Drupal. But I have yet to install Drupal on a machine by myself - the whole thing, I mean.

So last weekend, as I set for myself, I tried doing it on my own, in my own Ubuntu Linux laptop. I installed LAMP server using tasksel. (I encountered an almost 2-hour struggle with that particular part, because I could not make Apache web server work. After about 5 to 6 times uninstalling and purging and reinstalling, it finally reactivated.)

Then, I followed the installation video (I will link the Youtube video soon), and also an Ubuntu guide on installing drupal. I used one distro in particular, Open Enterprise, because I was led to believe that all the capabilities I want (rotating banner, social integration, blogs, SEO tools, etc.) are already there and just needs activation. I was wrong.

After installing (of course, I had to create a database first with MySQL, download the package and decompress it to the /var/www directory of my Ubuntu), it worked, but the apps are not yet there, and when I tried to install (download the package and install), there were some problems.

I could not actually figure out what the problem was. I am not sure if I don't know the username and password, or I have not configured it right (I did a few more steps apparently to allow clean-url to work), or the software was not configured for FTP, or something.

I installed additional packages (vsftpd I think). Still didn't work, after that, but I tried a different username and password (my computer login and password), and the FTP installation for the additional App (rotating banner, SEO tools, social integration) finally installed.

And yes, besides installing, they did work!

So now, the next stage is to try what I did on a laptop machine on a real server environment. I hope I will be successful, because if I am, I will do the same for our CAS website. It will be cleaner, easier to maintain, and more integrated to the UP Manila website that IMS is planning to develop.

IT Developments at CAS

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:34:00 +0000

With the eUP of the UP System, and the OpenERP of UP Manila, what can CAS offer?

DPSM has started the Faculty Information System (FIS), which the IT Office hopes to improve. In the meeting yesterday, the Dean of the College of Dentistry, Dr Medina, mentioned the frustrating data collection done by the UP System - Forms 15 to 23. I wanted to answer that the CAS is doing that, but I could not. I don't want to. Not yet. I have to wait until the FIS is improved.

Also, the Office of the Dean has purchased wireless routers for deployment at CAS (and SSWC) to improve the coverage of the wireless (obviously) network. I simply hope our internet gets better for the students and faculty to appreciate the development our College is doing.

On my own level, as practice of my training in database, I will make an equipment / property information system. The aim of this system is for the College (through the Supply Officer) to track maintenance activities, purchases, expenses and utilization related to the various equipment of the College.

I wanted to type "What else?" but I had to erase that. I am not even an information technology or information system officer, so these things are not actually within my responsibility. I want to help, but I want to make sure I can help well. So I will limit my effort to the smaller things for now.

For the AAC meeting, I hope I can communicate effectively the desire of the College - a comprehensive academic institutional information system (educational ERP?) that can answer their information needs so that they can manage effectively and efficiently. It will be slow, but this is a start.

I know we can do it. We just need to have the will and engage.

Flame malware targets Microsoft Update system: Patch now (Security)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 01:23:00 +0000

Original Post: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/flame-malware-targets-microsoft-update-system-patch-now/7980?tag=nl.e019

Takeaway: Microsoft released a security alert and patch due to the disturbing news that the hugely complex Flame malware has spoofed MS-signed certificates, potentially making Microsoft Update a malware delivery mechanism. Yikes and double yikes.

In what security researcher Mikko Hypponen calls the “Holy Grail” of malware writers, the massive and complex Flame malware, linked to state-sponsored espionage and information-gathering, has managed to spoof Microsoft-signed digital certificates, creating the potential for man-in-the-middle attacks on the Microsoft Update system.

Clearly, as Hypponen points out, successfully exploiting this vast delivery mechanism for malware could be disastrous. If the Flame module successfully performs a man-in-the-middle attack, it drops a file called WUSETUPV.EXE on to the target computer. As of now, however, Hypponen says, “…It has not been used in large-scale attacks. Most likely this function was used to spread further inside an organization or to drop the initial infection on a specific system.”

Microsoft’s warning and patch are located on its support page. The full Technet Security Advisory is linked here:

Microsoft is aware of active attacks using unauthorized digital certificates derived from a Microsoft Certificate Authority. An unauthorized certificate could be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft is providing an update for all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. The update revokes the trust of the following intermediate CA certificates:

Microsoft Enforced Licensing Intermediate PCA (2 certificates)
Microsoft Enforced Licensing Registration Authority CA (SHA1)
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, but the main takeaway for now is to patch immediately!

CAS ICT Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:45:00 +0000

With my upcoming database systems training (initially, with Intro to Database Systems, to be followed by Basic PHP-MySQL, and then Advanced PHP-MySQL), I have this preliminary list of ICT-related ideas:

Information-Gathering Behavior of CAS Constituents - The end-goal is for the College to come up with a comprehensive strategic communication program for its various stakeholders and initiatives.
Faculty Information System 2.0 - Update the FIS to be more useful to both management (administrators' information needs and promotional purposes) and the faculty members
Database Implementation on Processes requiring them
FOSS, Ubuntu and LibreOffice Training for the Faculty
Google Apps Familiarization Training for Faculty (Design already 2 years old)

The wireless CAS campus is just delayed for a few weeks, but after this Holy Week, there will be more updates.

CAS holds first open source training

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:35:00 +0000

Cross-post: http://foss.upm.edu.ph/node/44

The 2-day training seminar on FOSS, Ubuntu and LibreOffice yesterday and today was not simply a training about open source software, but is an example of open source training.

Besides the fact that all applications used to prepare for the training were open source (OpenOffice.Org in 2009 for the training profile, LibreOffice for the request for funds, tasks management and tracking, and the presentation file, Scribus for the certificate of attendance, Freemind for the planning and mind mapping), the training was open for everyone for feedback and comment.

The training profile, including the content, was published for everyone's preview before it was implemented. The "source" or training design was reviewed not only by training or open source specialists ("programmers" in computing science lingo) but for everyone to view and give feedback for improvement.

Further, the training invited IMS participants to view the curriculum and its implementation for continued improvement, and share the idea to others (IMS who will continue to develop their curriculum for implementation with other colleges).

The concept of open-source emphasizes the opportunity of open-source concepts: continued improvement, sharing of knowledge and community of learning.

This is just a quick write-up on the 2-day seminar. It was not just a seminar on open source software. It was an example of open-source training.

The Case for a Faculty Database

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:46:00 +0000

There is a need for a database of the faculty. There is a real need from both the management, the individual faculty members and the external stakeholders. The management (College-level and up) needs to make reports about the status of the faculty as a whole with regards to their faculty loading, ability to service the courses requested by the students, how much overloading will happen (which means overload payment), and others. If the College wants to defend its choices (for example, opening classes or getting additional faculty), a faculty database which has a record of loading will easily present that data. It can also tell higher offices (eg, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Budget Office) that this is the load that we have, because this is the number of faculty items the University gives the College.

For the faculty members themselves, a faculty profile database can help them easily make professional profiles for promotion application or extension opportunities, because the database will have records of their research, publications, extension and career history and other recognitions and affiliations.

From outside, the faculty is not properly promoted and affiliated with the University nor the College. Sure, we have faculty members who are recognized by certain bodies for particular topic (eg, a faculty member for VFA, and another in health social science and AIDS), but they are recognized only by those certain bodies (eg, the Senate, AIDS Society of the Philippines, respectively). Anyone else (eg, a journalist) who needs an expert in any topic or field, whom we have here at CAS, have no way of knowing nor contacting our internal experts because there is no user-friendly way of searching for them.

From the University’s point of view, a CAS faculty database will be a good prototype to test how it will run and how it will be used and extended.

These are just some of the uses of a faculty database.

(I will not discuss if there is a need to promote faculty. It is the assumption that they need to be promoted not because of financial rewards but more so due to social issues and needs. The question we need to ask, probably, is do our faculty members want to serve that social responsibility call.)

With this, I am proposing a comprehensive faculty database that will be useful to management, the faculty members, and the various stakeholders.

Here are the general functions of the faculty database:

1.Allow management to collect useful information for strategic planning, faculty development, routine reports and academic decision-making.
2.Allow faculty members to have easy record-keeping of their academic, research and extension activities for their professional development
3.Allow stakeholders to know the strengths of the faculty of the College through an easy-to-use interface that will allow them to communicate with our experts.

In order to be useful, the faculty database is recommended to be able to generate the data required for the following forms:

1.HRIS / PDTS
2.Individual CV (Centennial Form)
3.PAASCU forms
4.CRS
5.UP Form 24
6.UP Form 03
7.UP Form 22 (Research)
8.UP Form 17 (Extension)
9.UP Form 18 (Extension)
10.UP Form 19 (Intellectual Property Rights)
11.UP Form 20 (International Publication)
12.UP Form 21 (Patents and Copyrights)

The faculty database will source data not just from one database but will be more useful if it is connected with the following existing database:

1.CRS – for loading
2.CAS Website
3.PDTS (of Personnel Office)

This table shows the relationship between the data requirements, data channels and data presentation properties (Everything is tentative.).

The table shows how useful the faculty database can be if planned properly from the users’ point of view.

Obviously, this project cannot be done by information specialists (IMS and CAS IT Office) alone. It must be done in collaboration with the data users, (eg, internal assessment, OCS, OADAA, OVCR, etc.), information specialists (IMS, CAS IT office) and the management (DO, OC, OUR, OVCAA, Budget, Accounting, etc.).

As a proposal, the following offices are proposed to be members of the project team:

1.IMS – Management and CRS Team
2.OCS
3.CAS IT Office
4.Dean’s Office
5.OADAA
6.Internal Assessment
7.Student Council
8.Department Chairs
9.ISPC
10.Administrative Officer (considering that faculty items assignment is maintained by AO)
11.OVCAA
12.OVCR
13.Budget Office
14.Accounting Office
15.Legal Office
16. Personnel Office

Obviously, every proposal has to end with what good will it do to everyone, besides addressing the issues raised above. No, a faculty database is not a reaction. It is a proactive proposal. Besides addressing the issues of faculty loading information requirements and internal assessment data problems, a faculty database can allow planners (college and departments) to assess with better data how they performed in the past, and see trends, relate it with particular events in their organizations, and make actions based on reasonable and evidence-based forecasts of the future.

For the financial managers, a faculty database will allow them to know in near-realtime how much they will have to spend due to the loading decisions and course assignments of these unit heads. Thus, control mechanisms can be implemented, and will be based on reliable information. Everyone will easily know if an inappropriate assignment of faculty or opening of a course has happened because the database will show how and when it happened, who made the decision, and how it can be stopped.

While this information initiative can be easily criticized as a systematic attack to academic freedom and rights to privacy, I dare say it is not. It is an eye-opening and open source (in the social sense of the term) strategy to make everyone know who makes the decisions, what the situation is, and what those limitations are. How do we make sure it is not? All offices are invited to be members of the project team and given the chance to participate. Their concerns and inputs will be taken into consideration. If they don’t participate, then they have given up their rights – a showcase of irresponsibility – and thus have no right to complain.

If a faculty member would not want to share his or her information with the University, I would dare ask that why then does that faculty member share more confidential information with social networking sites? Sure, you don’t share faculty loading data or career history (or don’t you?), but you actually share more personal information by sharing your pictures and activities.

Or do you avoid your social responsibility by hiding from public’s call for their needs?

Units to UPM: What’s in FOSS for us?

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 04:11:00 +0000

Another work in progress.

I am supposed to have a long introduction for this one, but I decided to remove the management perspective and get right into the opportunities FOSS offers to educational institutions.

Economy
Security
Ethical behavior (Intellectual property)
Innovation
Community

Economy is the most common reason for adopting open source software. While not all open source software are free, most of them are. And when we get FOSS, we do not just get the application for free. Most of the time, we also get updates to it for free.

In our University when we do not have a lot of funds for IT, FOSS really is a sensible option.

Security is an issue in information management that has finally (and thankfully) getting its breakthrough. Not a lot of people here at UP Manila care about security (Yes, the security guards are included in this issue, but not only them.) when it comes to computing, but that relaxed attitude poses great risk to administrators and other IT users.

Security is not only about hacking or cracking, or about protecting your computer from theft. Security includes protection of your data from observation, inappropriate copying or corruption. Among these three, we usually neglect the third. We have to remember that data lost is almost the same (or even worse than) data copied.

Open source software, particularly community-driven software, have better security processes than those created by few programmers. This is because the source code (the original, human-readable set of instructions and rules) is viewed by many contributors.

Ethical behavior refers to the use of legal software (in appropriate use, of course). Software piracy and buying pirated software are unethical behavior. No matter what you say your purpose is, the end does not justify the mean of getting pirated software. Let us not compromise the University’s credibility by using pirated software.

Getting free and open source software releases you from this ethical dilemma. Further, you relieve yourself of worries of pirated software which may either be broken or have malicious software embedded into it.

Innovation refers to the creative juices the FOSS community offers for your real needs. Because FOSS software development is driven by its community of users, FOSS has the tendency to better address the need of its immediate community.

Take note of the term ‘immediate.’ This is the operative word here. In today’s global context, community is always the whole World Wide Web. FOSS, in order to be really responsive, has to cater to particular communities.

And in UP Manila, there is such an opportunity. If you need a particular type of application, the IMS and the CAS IT Office are there to listen to what you need and see what they can help with to satisfy your IT needs.

Community refers to the unique community-driven and community-based approach among most FOSS. Take a look at all Linux OS distributions, the OpenOffice.Org, FreeMind and other popular FOSS applications. What drives them? It’s not simply being free, but in being community-based.

As mentioned in Innovation, FOSS is community-driven. This results not only to innovation but also in instilling a spirit of unity among the users. People get to share what they know about certain applications, how to do certain things in more efficient and more effective ways, and share issues that may or may not be related to their disciplines or personal lives. Proprietary software does not do that (Notice they almost always use the ‘i’ or ‘my’?).

Need help? You can either read the manual, or ask the community! There is a forum for almost all open source software out there, listening to requests for help and feedback to improve the software.

FOSS follows closely the motto of UP (Honor and Excellence) as well as the functions of UP faculty (Teaching, Research, Extension). Adopting FOSS in our software usage is analogous to freeing ourselves from the chains of economic and intellectual bonds set by proprietary software.

As for me, I just love to learn something new and use what I learned to use in helping my college do what it needs to do without fear of cost or usage limitations.

Typed in OpenOffice.Org 3.2.0 in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.Units to UPM: What’s in FOSS for us?

What is needed to implement the open source policy at UPM

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:12:00 +0000

This is a work in progress.

I think (this is based only on my conversation with numerous faculty and administrative staff) the main reason open source software and the UP Manila's policy of adopting open document formats (Chancellor's Memorandum No. RLA 2010-067, Subject: Protecting the University from Copyright Infringement) does not push is the lack of awareness and adequate appreciation about the issues (open source software, copyright, legal, etc.) and the software (eg, Linux, Ubuntu, OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice, etc.).

I cannot imagine that someone will say that the reason is financial - almost all open source applications are free. So long as you have internet connection - and UP Manila has one - you can get free software.

Neither is it technical. Before, open source software websites were restricted, like SourceForge.Net, but not now. You can download the OpenOffice.org office suite from that website, you can download Ubuntu and other Linux distributions from their respective websites. And their manner of installation is straightforward. Thanks to the FOSS community.

Neither is there lack of adequate software for our common use. Documents, presentations or spreadsheets, or even database? You have OpenOffice.org. Desktop publication and layouting? We have Scribus. Chat? We have Pidgin or Empathy. Browser? We have Firefox, Opera, Chrome and others (available in Windows and Linux). Photo or image manipulation? We have GIMP (comparable to Adobe Photoshop). Video editing? We have OpenMovie Editor or OpenShot Video Editor (just to name a few). These named applications are just a few of what are available out there.

True, there are customized software which we purchase which will not work in Linux. The software company decided that they would create the software for the operating system currently used by most people - and this same philosophy is the reason viruses in Microsoft applications and Windows environments continue to proliferate. But that is why the FOSS community exists. Tell them what you need.

The Computer Science program of the College of Arts and Sciences has been designing (planning, writing, implementing, etc.) applications and systems for many UP Manila units for years now - this was reported in the 2009 UP Manila Information System Strategic Planning Workshop. The CRS (Okay, it's not perfect. But not one system is perfect, because the software is limited by the users' way of using the software, not to mention its intended use.) for example, is one product of BS CompSci students, and it is now used by the University. They also made various applications for the PGH. All a UP Manila constituent needs to do is ask.

(Yes, the FOSS outputs are driven by the need of its community - profit is a far second, third or even fourth priority.)

How about format interoperability? Well, since open source programmers recognize that they are a small portion as compared to the whole information system users community - who is basically, the whole world - their software almost always has an option to produce the output in common file formats. For example, OpenOffice.org can save a file using the Open Document format or using Microsoft Word's file format (.doc). Another example is that VLC media player (yes, VLC is an open source software) can play almost any type of media format - be it .mp4, .mpg or .mov, among others.

The whole information community (worldwide) also recognizes the need to use open and international standards (hence, the Open Document format requirement in the Chancellor's memo). This means we will see more applications (open source or otherwise) complying with interoperability requirements for their users.

Any other reason for an organization's difficulty with implementing its FOSS policy? I cannot think of any. I have heard a lot of complaints, though, on the lack of training or knowledge about FOSS.

(I have my response to this, but I will hold it for now, in the interest of encouraging people to get into the idea of learning to use open source software.)

Just to be clear: There are some parts of the FOSS community who consider themselves elite by having unique and advanced knowledge of FOSS, and so distinguishes themselves (technocrats) by forcing new users go through the difficult path of self-learning (and frustration). This, however, is not the philosophy of open source. The idea behind open source is sharing - making things such as information and knowledge available - not hoarding them.

So I go to this very short conclusion: As the University wishes to implement an open source software policy (That is, it prioritizes open source software over proprietary ones, whenever possible; and it adopts open document formats and standards.), it should focus on doing two things: Operationalize and Enable.

Operationalize its various legalese policies - lagyan ng ngipin (o pangil?)
Make these operational procedures, policies and controls known - Communicate actively.
Equip and enable the people so that the policies will make sense to implement - through training and collaboration. FOSS@UPM is a good starting point, but people have to know both the how and the why, not just the what.
Monitor and implement control mechanisms (reiteration of Number 1).

I know. These are not so wisdom-requiring ideas. I have actually just heard them mentioned by wiser people (You know who you are.). But implementing these ideas require not just a few people who know what needs to be done. They need help in implementing them.

How to communicate with the Office of the Dean, CAS-UP Manila

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:15:00 +0000

The Office of the Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Manila, has VOIP/Chat accounts which you can communicate with regarding issues that you might have with the College. If you want to add them to your contacts, please fill out the form below.

Please note that the accounts are not always online. They have been set up for contingencies and emergencies -- situations when there may be a need for interactive group / multi-party communication and exchanging emails or comments in a status is not the effective way to resolve a problem or issue.

The Office has accounts in Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, and Google Talk. Besides these, you probably also know of the various social networking services that the College has subscribed to to engage its various stakeholders.

We hope that this initiative will be of help to you.

Click here to receive an invite!

Google Docs adds Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:46:00 +0000

This may be late. I probably haven't read a lot of Google Blog posts which resulted to me not knowing about this. Anyway, for those not familiar yet, Google added another service to its Google Docs: Drawing.

Google Drawing is like an online version of OpenOffice.Org Draw, or like the drawing feature of your Microsoft Office suite. Most of the icons are the same, while the basic capability of drawing diagrams is included.

What's the benefit of this new feature in Google Docs? For those into making everything online so that you don't need to save anything in your limited disk storage space (reference: first-generation netbooks), this will be another way to save data online. Another is with the file online, you can be sure that whatever you create will be saved as is when you upload it to your online presentation or document.

This is just a basic observation of the new Google feature. I hope to learn more about this to see how it will help teaching. 'Til next time!

Linux Magazine: Ubuntu 10.04: The Perfect Consumer Operating System?

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:29:00 +0000

It’s true, I’ve given Ubuntu a thrashing from time to time, but it was deserved. (See Hey Ubuntu, Stop Making Linux Look Bad and Two Simple Suggestions for Ubuntu) Now, it deserves a little of something else.

Last week the first Beta of Ubuntu 10.04 was released, providing a solid glimpse of what will comprise the final release in a month’s time. It looks damn good.

On the face of it, Ubuntu 10.04 appears to achieve what no other distro has been able to do yet - near perfect integration. From start to finish this looks like a highly professional, sleek, commercial grade operating system. Truly. Whatever Mark Shuttleworth has been doing in his new role, keep doing it, because this release looks to be the best ever (and it’s me saying this, so you know I’m not wetting my pants over nothing).

It’s Got the Look

Promises made, promises lost, we’ve been waiting a long time for a new, fresh, updated look and feel for Ubuntu. Really, no-one really liked the orange and brown, but we did put up with it. Thank the Heavens now we finally have a brand new, sleek look. I like it. I really like it. How else can I put this? It’s awesome.

The boot sequence is a sharp and the new corporate font looks great. Very sleek and modern. Thank goodness that horrible black and white pulsating Ubuntu logo is gone from 9.10!

Lucid boot splash screen

The login screen is simple, but light and well integrated. Here you get your first glimpse of the new color scheme including the new purple background. It does look somewhat Mac-ish, but it works really well.

Lucid login sreen

Logging into the desktop is where it will hit you. This is no regular Ubuntu. This thing is modern, sleek, purposeful. The default desktop theme is quite dark, much removed from the traditional Human theme and is called, Ambiance.

Lucid default desktop theme, Ambiance

However, there also a lighter option called Radiance.

Lucid alternate desktop theme, Radiance

Both sport the new widgets on the left (although in the screenshots they have been moved back to the right), which has caused no end of controversy. Speaking of which, what’s all the fuss about? Ubuntu users are happy to put up with poor quality releases, but move the buttons and all hell breaks lose.

Mark Shuttleworth has made it clear that Ubuntu is not a Democracy and that these decisions are not up for discussion. Quite frankly, that’s fair enough. Each Ubuntu team makes decisions about how things will be and you just have to put up with it, or change it. When it comes to OS X or Windows you are far more restricted than using any Linux distro. If you want ultimate control, fork it and make your own distro. In the mean time, use it, change it, or move on.

Buttons on the left or right aside, the Ubuntu desktop finally looks first class. This new branding is just what the doctor ordered, and will no-doubt make it much more attractive to consumers. Of course, one can also install Gnome Shell to get a taste of what’s to come!

Gnome Shell running on Lucid

The Complete Package (almost)

So Mark Shuttleworth’s benchmark for Ubuntu is OS X. This is what he wants to surpass and with 10.04 he’s definitely getting close. Commercial application support is still missing and while the Cloud Service is nice, an integrated backup solution like Apple’s Time Machine would be a great addition.

You can see the focus on this goal all over the distribution. It really is perfectly aimed at the consumer, with carefully chosen applications. The Ubuntu desktop is not designed for the power user, not by default anyway. All of the applications are specifically designed for simplicity and functionality. This new release drops GIMP, which has also caused a lot of controversy. Remember though that Ubuntu has a specific set of goals, focusing on simplicity. What do consumer end users actually want? Something simple. They want to be able to remove red eye from their photos, crop them, rotate them, enhance them and use them elsewhere. If GIMP doesn’t suit that, then out it goes. Simple as that.

Of course, if you still want GIMP then it’s a snap to install. You could even use the new Software Centre, which is starting to take shape very nicely. Once again, you can see here Ubuntu has clearly included the possibility of applications direct from third party vendors. This is nothing new, the partner repository has been around since the beginning, but now it’s plain as day, right there on the desktop. Currently, it only includes Adobe products like Flash, but who knows, perhaps Canonical will strike a deal to create native Linux versions of programs like Photoshop, delivered for a fee directly via Ubuntu’s Software Centre.

Lucid Software Centre

A perfect example of this desire to simplify the desktop is Simple Scan, a new program to Lucid. While Sane certainly made Scanner Access Now Easy, the user interface left a lot to be desired. Actually using X Sane to scan something is not the prettiest nor easiest of tasks. Simple Scan on the other hand, makes the act of scanning simple (you might have deduced that from the name). It’s a neat little app, that helps make using the desktop that much nicer.

The social networking client Gwibber is now built right into the desktop. Yes, users can connect directly with a myriad of social networking providers right from the comfort of a single user interface. Empathy is there too, integrated into the taskbar and ready to let you chat away on any network you please.

Lucid built in social networking with Gwibber

What else does OS X have out of the box, that Linux doesn’t? A video editor. That’s right, making its debut in this release also, is PiTiVi, a non-linear video editing program. This is one major application which has been sorely missing from the Linux desktop for far too long.

Over the last year or so, we have seen dozens of these suddenly spring up, and thankfully some are now at the point of inclusion in major distributions. Once again, the fact that Ubuntu includes this by default really shows the market they are going after.

Video editor in Lucid, PiTiVi

Also making its debut in this release is the Ubuntu Music store. Tied into the default music player, Rhythmbox, users can purchase MP3 music and synchronise it directly to not only their iPod, but their cloud based account on Ubuntu One. This has been one major feature sorely lacking on the Linux desktop, something that OS X has had well and truly sewn up for far too long.

Unfortunately, only MP3 files are available at present, but hopefully this will be extended to Ogg and more importantly, FLAC, down the road. Still, the ability for Ubuntu to satisfy this important component is crucial to its success in the consumer market. It’s certainly one less barrier to adoption, “Yeah, Ubuntu can sync your iPod and you can even purchase Music. You don’t need iTunes!”

Lucid Online Music Store, available via Rhythmbox

For the first time ever, it looks like a very attractive overall package. It’s focus on simple, useful applications is bound to please consumers (and possibly disappoint power users). All the modern tasks that users perform are integrated right into the desktop, and it’s all done really well. If this was on offer in the computer shops, I’m confident it would be turning heads and making sales (although some might dismiss it as an OS X rip off).

Quality Assurance

My biggest gripe about Ubuntu in the past is its lack of quality. Things break far too often, more often than they should (and more often than they do in other distros), for some reason. We’ve discussed this a lot in the past and I don’t wish to re-hash the same old arguments (but if you’ve only ever used Ubuntu, then you have nothing to compare it to). Still, I have much higher hopes for this release. Why? It’s a Long Term Support release. That means that people who pay Canonical money for support will be looking to upgrade to this stable version. Canonical has to get it right, or it’s really, really going to hurt.

The non-LTS releases are considered stable, but they certainly aren’t given the same attention as those of LTS status. They are built from Debian unstable for a start, whereas LTS is from testing. Still, that’s no excuse for some of the major bugs that have entered the distro, whether they come from upstream or not. This release should be great, but it’s still one month away and its final quality still remains to be seen. At least, we should get better treatment of bugs in this release as it has to be stable for a much longer period. Time will tell, but things should be much improved.

I’m certain that with 10.10, Ubuntu will go back to their old habits. For now at least, it looks like we’ll have a phenomenal release.

With the Lot, Please

This version really looks to have the lot - stable packages, a new look and feel, all the apps that count and near perfect integration. From a consumer perspective, it’s almost the perfect desktop. It includes most things they might want out of the box - browser, social networking applications, multimedia applications, full blown office suite and cloud based synchronisation services. There are lots of bits that Apple doesn’t offer for free and this runs on any computer. Ubuntu has a reputation for being the distribution you give to friends new to Linux when you want it all to just work. Hopefully it will be able to do just that.

If the final quality stands up to the test, this will be one hell of a release. Massive. It’s just the sort of thing you would expect to see for sale on computers at your local department store, and hopefully we will soon see just that. If so, this could be the real beginning of a great new battle with Apple.

Christopher Smart has been using Linux since 1999. In 2005 he created Kororaa Linux, which delivered the world's first Live CD showcasing 3D desktop effects. He also founded the MakeTheMove website, which introduces users to free software and encourages them to switch. In his spare time he enjoys writing articles on free software.

Originally posted http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7740/1/

TechRepublic: One big thing Ubuntu can teach Microsoft, Apple, and all CTOs

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:16:00 +0000

Ubuntu has earned a reputation as the most user-friendly version of Linux on the planet, but I would argue that the secret of success for Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) is not really about a great UI or an extensive hardware compatibility list.

What Canonical does really well is to methodically produce incremental upgrades to its OS. It is transparent about its goals and plans, and it releases its software on schedule. In fact, this incremental approach is Ubuntu’s most potent competitive weapon against rivals Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is also an approach that CTOs and other IT leaders who produce software, Web sites, and other product-based Web services can learn from.

Since the first version (4.10) of Ubuntu was released in October 2004, there have been 10 OS releases of Ubuntu (see chart below). During that same time period, there have been three new releases of Mac OS X and two new releases of Windows. If you want to include service packs, then you could kick up the number of Windows releases to four.

This preference toward incremental releases on a reliable schedule is a quality that appeals to IT departments. In fact, many IT leaders have asked software makers such as Microsoft to stop doing massive upgrades, but instead update Windows in smaller steps.

That allows IT to test and roll out OS updates much easier and quicker. IT has become averse to massive software upgrades, like Windows Vista and Windows 7. They cause too much pain — both in hardware/software incompatibilities and user re-training — and don’t offer enough benefits in return to make all of that pain worth the effort.

Some will argue that the business model is the primary reason why Microsoft takes a different approach to upgrades than Canonical. After all, Windows upgrades have a price tag attached to them and all of Ubuntu’s software releases are open source and free of charge (they make their money from support contracts). However, the financial impact is overstated.

Microsoft makes the majority of its money from Windows in two ways:

From the versions of Windows preloaded on retail PCs
From OS licenses sold in bulk to large organizations

No matter which version of Windows is preloaded on a retail PC, Microsoft still makes the same amount of money. The company doesn’t make any more money on a Windows 7 PC than it did on a Windows Vista PC last year.

With volume licensing agreements such as Software Assurance, Microsoft has pushed many organizations into renewable licensing agreements that give them access to all the latest Microsoft software. Whether a company upgrades its machines to Windows 7 or not, it still pays Microsoft a regular licensing fee.

So Microsoft has the financial foundation to switch to a more incremental upgrade cycle. The fact that during the past decade it has moved companies to Software Assurance and that with Windows XP it broke from its version numbering system (the XP was for “eXPerience”), is evidence that Microsoft had been preparing for a day when it would deliver OS updates on a more incremental basis.

But, it never happened. That probably has as much to do with legacy and momentum as anything else. The bottom line is that Microsoft’s huge Windows upgrades have put the OS at risk of massive stagnation, especially in the business world, which largely skipped Windows Vista altogether and is still on the fence about Windows 7. That has left most business PCs running Windows XP, while consumer machines have moved on to Vista or Windows 7.

Conversely, Ubuntu has established a disciplined upgrade cycle, made it a top priority, and stuck to it. Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu every six months. It has major releases, which it calls LTS (Long Term Support) releases, and those come out every two years. The first one, 6.06, landed in June 2006. The second one, 8.04, landed in April 2008. The next LTS, 10.04, arrives at the end of this month (April 2010).

Ubuntu supports these LTS releases for three years (five years for the server versions). There are companies who only use the LTS versions of Ubuntu for that reason. Canonical supports the interim versions of Ubuntu for 18 months (basically assuming you’ll move to the next LTS version when it arrives).

This type of transparent, methodical, and incremental upgrade cycle is the future of software. If you want to see another example, take a look at Zoho, an online productivity suite that offers an alternative to both Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Zoho pushes out new features, fixes, and updates on a continual basis. In fact, for some products there are Zoho updates as often as once a week.

This is not a matter of resources. Zoho has a very small team. Meanwhile, Canonical only has about 300 employees in the whole company (as well as its volunteer army of open source contributors). This is a matter of focus, priorities, and leadership. The successful software and Web companies of the next decade will learn this lesson well.

Originally posted http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=4028&tag=nl.e101

Official Google Blog: The next generation of Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Today we are hosting nearly 400 CIOs and IT professionals from around the world at Atmosphere, our inaugural event at the Googleplex dedicated to cloud computing. The discussion is centered on how companies can focus their technology expertise on projects that truly improve their businesses instead of managing complex applications, technology platforms and devices. We are also sharing details about improvements to Google Docs, made possible by a new codebase that will allow us to deliver richer functionality more quickly.

New document and spreadsheet features
We’ve responded to many of your requests for features you’re used to in desktop software. In documents, we’ve added a margin ruler, better numbering and bullets and easier image placement options. And in spreadsheets, you’ll now find a formula editing bar, cell auto-complete, drag-and-drop columns and other features not possible with older browser technologies.

Higher fidelity document import
We’ve made big improvements to our document upload feature so moving files from your computer to the cloud is easier now. Imported documents retain their original structure more accurately, so you can hit the ground running editing in the browser without having to fix formatting like bullets and text alignment.

Speed and responsiveness
New browser technologies like faster JavaScript processing have made it possible for us to speed up Google Docs significantly. Even very large spreadsheets are fast to work with in your browser now. Applications that run this fast feel like desktop applications but have the unique advantages of being in the cloud.

Faster collaboration
We’ve extended Google Docs’ collaboration capabilities too, with support for up to 50 people working together at once, and in documents, you can now see other people’s edits as they happen character-by-character. And now you can also collaborate on flow charts, diagrams and other schematics in real time with a new editor for drawings on Google Docs.

Learn more about these new capabilities and how to access them on the Google Docs blog, and if you’re with a school, business or organization, we’ve shared more details on the Google Enterprise Blog.

Posted by Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise

Originally posted http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/next-generation-of-google-docs.html

Thesaurus function in OpenOffice.Org Writer not working

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Issue: Thesaurus function in OpenOffice.Org not working
Application: OpenOffice.Org Writer (v 3.1.1)
Operating System: Windows XP, Ubuntu

Resolution:
Enable the Language to use for that particular document / file.

How
Tools >> Language >> For All Text >> English (If this is the language you wish to use).

After doing this, you may now use the Thesaurus and Spell Checking tools of OpenOffice.Org

How to make a USB flash drive installer for Windows-based netbooks

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:35:00 +0000

Issue: Laptop bootup error message: BOOTMGR is compressed Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart.
Cause: Ticking the "Compress drive to disk space" option in hard drive where the operating system is stored
Operating System: Windows XP and Vista
Challenge: Laptop without optical hard drive

Symptom: The computer would only turn on and it would give an error "BOOTMGR is compressed Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart." After that, nothing happens.

Resolution: Disable / Untick the "Compress drive to disk space" option in hard drive where the operating system is stored

Required Resources:

Windows Installer CD
USB Flash Disk (If computer with issue has no optical drive)
NoviCorps WinToFlash (downloadable here)
Extra laptop with optical drive (If computer with issue has no optical drive)
Laptop / computer with issue has USB drive

How:

If laptop (or netbook) has no optical disc drive, create a Windows installer USB flash disk.
Boot from Windows Installation Disc to untick the compression option.
Disable the "Compress drive to disk space" option in hard drive where the operating system is stored

Creating a Windows XP Installation USB Flash Disk

If the computer in question does not have an optical drive, you have to create a Windows XP installation flash disk from a Windows XP installation CD. To do so, download the WinToFlash software here.
The creation of the installation flash disk is fairly straightforward. Prepare your flash drive. Run WinToFlash.exe and choose the wizard.
Windows files path would be your Windows CD and USB drive is your flash disk. Next window will be copying the setup files to your flash drive. In took about 30-45 minutes using a 2 GB flash drive (I believe this result may vary depending on the speed of your source and your USB drive).

Booting up from the Windows XP Installation Flash Disk

With the computer with the problem turned off, insert the installation flash disk. If the computer has an optical flash drive, you may put in the Windows XP Installation Disk if the computer is on, then reboot. Turn on the computer to enter BIOS (This varies depending on the computer. This may be F9, F12, F2 or DEL.).
Set up the BIOS to boot up first from the drive where you have the installation disk (optical or USB flash). Save the settings and Exit.
Upon press the key to choose Boot Device, and select the appropriate drive from the list.
This window will appear. Select 2nd, GUI mode setup. This should allow you to boot using the files in the flash disk but with the settings of your computer's Windows XP.

Disabling the "Compress drive to disk space" option

With the Windows operating system running, go to the drive (not the folder) where you have your Windows operating system files stored. This is usually C:
Right-click the drive and then select Properties.
Untick the "Compress drive to disk space" option and click "Apply." This will attempt to uncompress the drive, and this may say some error messages, such as "unable to." Just select "Ignore All." (In my case, I just let it attempt to uncompress for a minute, after I saw the BOOTMGR file being uncompressed. After that, I discontinued by clicking "Cancel." You may continue the whole process of uncompressing if you have the time.)
Click OK.
Shut down the computer.
Remove the Windows Installation flash disk.
Restart the computer to see if you can log on.

It should start with your normal login window.

If this does not work, try the HP resolution for the same error message here.

Lessons learned:

Do not tick the "Compress drive to disk space" option.
How to repair BOOTMGR is compressed Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart here.
How to create USB installer from Windows CD here.

Resources:
How to Install Windows XP using a USB Drive / Flash Drive the EASIEST way,
http://www.edmartechguide.com/2009/09/how-to-install-windows-xp-using-usb.html, accessed January 20, 2010.
NoviCorp WintoFlash.Exe. http://wintoflash.com/home/en/ accessed January 20, 2010.
BOOTMGR Error Message. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01872275&cc=ph&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3979068, accessed January 20, 2010

Basic Connection Troubleshooting Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:28:00 +0000

This how-to has been written for the layperson who observes that he/she cannot connect to the Internet in the UP Manila Network while others can.

Note: This is not how technical support agents troubleshoot. These steps are for end users which have limited knowledge of networking or the network in which they are operating. Thus, the difference in steps of troubleshooting.

For Windows XP:

1. Check the physical connection. Unplug the internet cable1 (you should see an error message that the cable has been unplugged) and plug it back (you should see an update pop-up indicating the network has been connected. If you don't see any error about being disconnected when you unplug the cable at the back within 5 seconds, powercycle*. If after powercycling you did the same procedure with the same results, call IMS. If it gets connected but you cannot browse, go to Step 2.

*Powercycle - Turn off the computer, wait for 5 seconds, then turn it back on.

2. Clear cache and cookies.
For Internet Explorer – Go to Tools >> Internet Options >> Click "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files" and check "Delete Offline Content," then "OK." Wait for the browser to delete old corrupt files (called "cache"), close the browser and open it again.

For Mozilla Firefox 3.5 – Go to Tools >> Clear Recent History
Try browsing. If you still cannot, close your browser, open it again and go to Step 3.

3. Check proxy settings.

For Internet Explorer or Google Chrome– Start >> Control Panel >> Internet Options >> Connections >> LAN Settings: Proxy Server must be checked, and the field must contain “proxy.upm.edu.ph,” Port : 3128

For Mozilla Firefox – In Mozilla Firefox: Tools >> Preferences >> Advanced >> Network >> Settings >> Manual Proxy Configurations. Field must contain “proxy.upm.edu.ph,” Port : 3128

4. Check the website you're getting to. See if you could go to that website using the PC which could connect to the Internet. If you cannot connect to that website using that PC, then it might be a problem of the website itself. If this is not the solution (you can go to the website using the other PC or you cannot go to MANY websites with your own PC), go to 5.

5. Are you able to use chat (YM or AOL IM?)? If you can, you might have a problem with the browser. Try uninstalling and reinstalling. If you do not want this messy process, go to 6.

6. Repair internet connection.
Start >> Control Panel >> Network Connections. Right-click the "Local Area Connection" (if your computer is physically connected) or the "Wireless Network Connection" (if you're connecting using wireless) and then select "Repair." This will renew your IP and refresh your DNS Cache, among others. After doing this, close and re-open your browser and see if you could connect.

7. Disable your protection (eg, antivirus) software temporarily, repair internet connection, and then try to browse. If you can browse, enable again your protection software and see if you can still browse. If you cannot browse again, then there is a conflict between your antivirus software and your internet connection or your browser. Contact the manufacturer of your protection software. However, if after disabling the protection software you still cannot browse, go to 8.

8. Powercycle your computer, try browsing. If you still cannot, try Steps 2 and 6, and start connecting. If you still cannot, Call IMS.

Obviously, I advise you to print this out since you cannot read this if you are not connected.

to be continued: For Ubuntu and Mac.

Not-so-futuristic CAS Website

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:55:00 +0000

Looking at what technology offers now but is still not being utilized, here is how I envision a college website:

Faculty Profile - Website visitors can search for specific faculty member's profile, highlighting research interests, academic achievements, publications and consultancies and programs related. Visitors can also search for faculty based on specific specialization for possible consultancy work.
Student Enrollment Data - Visitors can get real-time data on enrollment of students, by program, by degree level. The data should be taken from CRS.
Research Database - On-going and finished research projects (including undergraduate student thesis), searchable by department, program, faculty adviser, keywords. There is also a summary presentation of number of thesis by department, program, keywords. Abstracts are viewable and the full document is downloadable as PDF.
Research Projects - Research projects recently finished by faculty members and which have been published in journals or presented in conferences. Faculty concerned is linked to his/her individual online profile.
Extension Projects - Extension or linkages are promoted. This section gives an overview of the nature and purpose of the project, what is the role of the faculty and the College, and links to the related faculty's profile.
Department Information - Individual departments' information and promotion of their achievements and their profile. Includes links to their active faculty and their research or extension projects.
Department News - Announcements from departments of their plans or programs.
Program Information - Promotional material of individual degree programs. Includes curriculum, member faculty members, notable alumni, course requirements, among others.
Faculty Database - Administrators can search for specific profile based on certain fields of interest. Administrators also can view summary presentation of faculty profile, based on departments, employment status, academic achievements, research interests, fields of specialization, residence, etc.
Working Contact Us - Yes. A working "Contact Us" page. Inquiries should also be stored to create an FAQ page.

Of course, the basic college information (VMG, management team, news, list of programs and departments, etc.) should all be there.

What else should there be?

Information strategy for an educational institution

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:27:00 +0000

After the University Information System Strategic Planning workshop hosted by the Information Management Service of UP Manila, most of the units saw the gap between opportunities and goals on one end and the current practice on the other in terms of information technology. The College of Arts and Sciences--with their BS Computer Science program and one of the few units which have its own server--was not exempted.

Professor Roli Talampas, IMS director, used a comprehensive strategic planning approach in integrating the information systems of the UP Manila, the Philippine General Hospital, and the National Telehealth service. Unlike usual corporate information systems strategy formulation which was limited to top-down or utilized information technology as a function to support core businesses, this involved both top-down and bottom-up planning approaches and allowed information resources be managed as a knowledge opportunity. I think it was commendable.

The ISSP workshop was the beginning--that was the top-down approach. Now, it is the turn of the units to do their part--to go to the nitty-gritty part of planning, identifying what needs to be done, what resources we have, how do we get to where we want to go in terms of our college vision and mission through appropriate use of information resources.

As of the moment, being the IT Officer does not mean anything--except being responsible for information technology without compensation, thus resulting to being unable to be really responsible because you don't have resources.

It has been pointed out by four colleges in the ISSP that there is a need for a dedicated person to be in charge of IT so that it will be responsive to the needs of the faculty and the students and so that units will be able to accomplish what they exist to accomplish. That is what the College IT Council (or something) hopes to be.

The Office of the Dean asked for a representative from each of the departments for the soon-to-be chartered IT group of the college. IT will be a policy-making and implementing body of the College and the University when it comes to information concerns.

Of course, this IT body will only be as effective as the people behind it are dedicated.

With that said, let me express my hope that this information initiative will be implemented, together with opportunities in knowledge sharing and utilization so that the College can better serve the students and the people.

Ubuntu 9.10 - released

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:17:00 +0000

I just updated my Ubuntu 9.04n to Ubuntu 9.10 last Friday. Aside from the impressive aesthetics, Karmic Koala (codename of 9.10) seems to have responded to various calls for it to be intuitive (that is, imitating Windows interface). So much for the unique gang of Linux users.

Of course, this is a sort of marketing campaign to attract more users and gain more share in the OS market--considering that there are even more coming, with impressive backers (such as Google's Android).

Windows users would find it easy to navigate with and find the same functionality in the right-click--it even contains "Compress" and "Format" if you do it on a disk space. Maybe, I did not understand what Ubuntu wanted to do then.

(Does the "compress" option mean that Ubuntu's file system won't be as efficient as it used to be, that it needs to compress?)

The promise of faster boot-up--I have not yet observed this.

Also, finally, Mozilla Firefox has been upgraded to 3.5 in 9.10, and OpenOffice.org has been updated to 3.1. All my basic extensions and add-ins are working--particularly Scrapbook and Twitterfox.

Of course, this is considering that my laptop is dual-boot with Windows XP.

For more information, go to www.ubuntu.com.

Available services for online discussions

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:51:00 +0000

Just today, Professor Anna Theresa Santiago tweeted that Vice Chancellor Josefina Tayag encourages professors to assign activities to students and/or conduct online discussions. In this line, I will talk shortly about available services for online discussions.

While there are many online services available, each has its strength. Let's take a look at some:

Instant Messaging

Using the Conference feature of your IM client (eg, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Chat, AIM, etc.), you can talk to many participants in a conference in near real-time.

Yahoo! Messenger or IM-only software
Strength: Number of participants almost limitless
Weakness: Text only. Sharing files available but participants need to download. Participants need to use the same system.
How to use: Assuming all your students use the same system, you ask them prior to logging in that you will be available online at a particular time. Once all of them are online, you invite them to join the online conference. You may want to set "house rules" in that particular conference as an online conference can be very unstructured.

Blogs

The good thing about blog is that you can talk at length about a topic (like a lecture), and then ask your students to give their comments.

Strength: Allows non-realtime interaction. Participants can respond to other participants even at different times. Allows posting of other online resources, such as online video from YouTube or online slideshows.
Weakness: Interaction not as dynamic as IM. You maybe typing a comment that someone else has already entered, so you are not able to support or respond to one another.
How to use: You create your blog. You share the particular post you want them to read, and then ask them to post their comments. Most blogs ask participants to register before leaving a comment.

Online forums

Also called message boards (eg, Proboards.com), Online forums allow one to post a comment/issue, then all other interested participants can respond. Your participants need to be registered (ie, like a member of an organization) to respond and leave a comment. Your participants are relatively permanent.

Strength: Captures your audience
Weakness: Not realtime.
How to use: You create a message board, and then invite your students to register. After they register, you create your first thread/topic, and students respond.

Online Presentations

If you use Google Docs or the UPM Post Mail (http://post.upm.edu.ph) you can upload your presentations or documents, have others read it, while you talk about it, in the same screen. People can also interact with you like in IM, also in the same screen.

Strengths: Multi-channel (text, visual and other available online resources) near-realtime communication
Weaknesses: People have to have Google Mail or UPM Post Mail.
How to use: You upload your presentation (or document) to Google Docs, then invite your participants by sharing them. People will need to log in or register using the link you send them.

Of course, you can use any combination of these.

If you have questions, just IM me.

How email service providers tag spam

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:03:00 +0000

As a former technical support representative for two big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States, I have come to understand how their mail servers work in reducing spam. Of course, the one I would like to discuss is just the basic manner of recognizing spam. Providers may have other means of identifying spam.

First: For definition, we will work on "spam" as unsolicited email--be it business, advocacy or commercial email. I will not talk about IM spam or SMS spam or gaming spam. I will discuss spamming in emails.

Spam identification is the key to spam reduction, so ISPs actually focus on that aspect. As soon as they determine that an email is spam, what they do with that spam is just a matter of creativity on the email address owner or the email service provider.

There are two key strategies in spam identification: Keyword monitoring and Spam tagging.

Keyword monitoring is (of course) monitoring key words in the email's subject line. Based on the ISP's pre-studied list of words that are most likely to contain spam, ISPs control the distribution of messages that have these words. Instead of going to the recipients' Inbox, they go to the Junk or Bulk mail folder.

This means that if you send email with words such as "tits" or "dicks" in your email, this will probably be sent to the Spam folder of the recipient if the email server has that approach in spam detection.

While this seems logical, the downside of this is not supported by certain groups as this same rule may be applied to the words such as "breasts" or "penis" which may be required in medical professions. Useful emails may be forwarded to the spam folder without knowledge of the recipient (obviously) even though they intend to receive it.

Spam tagging refers to the use of the "Report Spam" or "This is spam" feature of your email service provider to report that the email you are reading is actually a spam. Most of the email service providers have this feature, but the level of effect of the feature varies.

With this feature, what happens usually is that the email you use is transferred to your Spam folder. What you may not know, however, is that what you actually do is not just tag the email as spam, but tag the sender as a spammer.

This indicates that if a certain number of users tag that email sender as a spammer, the email server of the recipient will automatically tag it as spam, resulting to the future emails of that sender to be forwarded to the Spam folder, even for other receivers.

Spam identification focus on two parts of the communication model: the message (Email subject line)b and the sender (Email sender / address), with the channel (email service provider) processing also the setting of rules in spam identification.

The implication of these technologies is simply discretionary use of spam identification. Spam costs a lot of money for organizations as they have to deal with wasted resources (bandwidth) and time (for deleting spam), not to mention privacy and other security issues, so proper identification of spam is really useful. On other hand, be careful with tagging an email as "spam" if you are in an organization where the sender is sending relevant information that only you do not appreciate receiving. You may be costing the inconvenience not just to the sender but to the other recipients.

Resolution for recipients who have discovered they have received an email but it is in the Spam folder when it is actually not spam:

Use the "Unmark as spam" or similar feature
Add the recipient's email address to your address book. This adds a rule to your email that the sender is a valid contact.

What is cloud computing?

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Wikipedia defines "cloud computing" as a "paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet." For me, it is just a way of computing (or doing your work with your computer) with your data or your applications--or both--on the Internet.

To concretize, look at Google Docs, or Zoho, or ThinkFree. Also, previously, when one conceives of a website, you use either your Notepad or Microsoft Frontpage. Now, you can do so with Google Sites, which reduces your need to learn HTML or similar languages. Further, Google Sites allows collaboration, multiple types of access, and easy addition of content. Imagine if you will have to write all these in code, and you are not a computer science graduate.

Why "cloud compute?" As Eric Knorr and Galen Gruman say, it "comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software."

The previous paragraph summarizes the benefits. What are the costs? As I see it, it is minimal. Access to the Internet and necessary software for connecting to the internet (which can be free, considering open source solutions), which are all being used anyway.

I will stop here. But I hope this short post stimulates your creativity--focusing on your own interest while expanding your capability at minimal if no cost.

Understanding Patches

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:15:00 +0000

Cyber Security Tip ST04-006

When vendors become aware of vulnerabilities in their products, they often
issue patches to fix the problem. Make sure to apply relevant patches to
your computer as soon as possible so that your system is protected.

What are patches?

Similar to the way fabric patches are used to repair holes in clothing,
software patches repair holes in software programs. Patches are updates that
fix a particular problem or vulnerability within a program. Sometimes,
instead of just releasing a patch, vendors will release an upgraded version
of their software, although they may refer to the upgrade as a patch.

How do you find out what patches you need to install?

When patches are available, vendors usually put them on their websites for
users to download. It is important to install a patch as soon as possible to
protect your computer from attackers who would take advantage of the
vulnerability. Attackers may target vulnerabilities for months or even years
after patches are available. Some software will automatically check for
updates, and many vendors offer users the option to receive automatic
notification of updates through a mailing list. If these automatic options
are available, we recommend that you take advantage of them. If they are not
available, check your vendors' websites periodically for updates.

Make sure that you only download software or patches from websites that you
trust. Do not trust a link in an email message—attackers have used email
messages to direct users to malicious websites where users install viruses
disguised as patches. Also, beware of email messages that claim that they
have attached the patch to the message—these attachments are often viruses
(see Using Caution with Email Attachments for more information).
______________________________

___________________________________

Both the National Cyber Security Alliance and US-CERT have identified this
topic as one of the top tips for home users.
_________________________________________________________________

Author: Mindi McDowell
_________________________________________________________________

Produced 2004 by US-CERT, a government organization.

Note: This tip was previously published and is being re-distributed
to increase awareness.

Originally Published at: http//www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-006.html