Random linux post October 27, 2009

Mixture of some posts i made on a techiedesi forum defending and promoting linux ( ocaasionally criticizing windows)

Who would edit or rewrite all this :-/
i assure you that there are not less, but no malware for linux.(ofcourse you someone could just write a simple 5 line script to get superuser rights, but if you use the computer with a little brain, you wont give root privileges to just any program. Also you install from reliable sources only).

If there is a buffer overflow or any other problem, evn then someone cannot control your computer. Because you dont run chat programs with root access!! thats is true for any other kind of program too. Plus there are much less exploits in open source proggrams.

There are virtually no malwae for linux because they are just not possible to spread. You gain control on one machine somehow, and thats it.

also, operating system does matter

One more thing. There are a lot of people who make viruses for fun, and linux is certaiinly more challenging than windows. But there have been no success in making a virus which could spread. Also, we have frequent kernel updates.

read http://librenix.com/?inode=21
even the wikipedia article, but it actually looks like one edited by anti-virus companies.

most of the big public severs servers are linux! and apache is the most popular one, which is open source. Google uses modified versions of ubuntu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goobuntu. Even this server probably is a LAMP stack, all open-source, although i’m not sure how to check.
Een z/OS is a certified unix OS!

Actually, if someone *REALL* wants to steal your credentials, then the operating system doesnt matter really. They could use man in the middle attack to spoof the website you want to log into. You might think its the real website, because there wouldnt be any suspicion. Same address, same webpage, etc. But, this doesnt usually happen, you need to be in the local network.
So, basically windows users are more vulnerable. keyloggers, viruses, and other malware etc.

1. Linux doesnt give you errors like you have described. If a file is not there, it just says so. And you almost never get any kernel messages. Windows assumes that the user is dumb, so it doesnt give you detailed messages describing the problem thinking it might just scare you away.

2. The non-availability of drivers is not a problem with linux. Its a problem with nvidia, they have not released their specs so that people can make drivers, so linux users have to use proprietary drivers. Ati, intel etc have. ANd regarding play and play, i plugged my arduino board into my computer and i could program it without any fuss. Can you do that on windows? And about framerates, they are as good and maybe better than windows. The problem is with flash video playback on youtube etc. because flash for linux sucks.

3. Linux has many filesystems which are much advanced than ntfs or fat, lesser probability of data loss, and with many backup and restore programs and its scripting abilities, you could automate backup. Not just that, you could automate anything at all.

4. Have you even seen the huge software repositories for various distros? And apart from that you can install a LOT of software from other sources. You have software for every possible use of a pc available. And most of it is free and also open-source.

5. There are many games available for linux, not a lot though, and only a few of them are great. But some companies have making games available for linux. Non-availabilty of games is because of game developers, i think good programming practices would mean easy portabilty of games to other platforms, not directx maybe, but openGL. This is not a problem for many, they can always play games on windows. Many dont play games.

6. Support for normal , non-corporate users is totally free and easily accessible on the internet. That is because someone has already faced the problem you are facing.

All these problems are because of microsoft’s monopolistic business.

If someone asks me to write a program to , for example, change the mac address of a LAN card, i could write a 5 line script( not even a program, because what i want to do, has already been done by someone else, all i need to do is just use his work for my own needs). On windows, i could research for a year and probably still not know how that would work. Like i still dont know, and probably wont ever.

Linux is not for you if you hate to learn. Its great for lazy people (let the computer handle the computing).

And, taking an example, suppose i want to install a web server which can handle php code, all i have to do is type ( on ubuntu )

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

and my LAMP server is installed.

To remove it (probably without leaving as much as a single file)
sudo apt-get remove apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

( you dont have to even remember the package names, either use tab completion, or google it, there are numerous tutorials about this )

This was an example to demonstrate just one powertool linux tool. There are others even more useful.

Some games that i play are, frets-on fire ( and a fork of it, Fofix ), Battle for Wesnoth, Nexius (awesome multiplayer game, (CS + UT2004) / 2 ) , The mana world, Alien arena, vdrift, America’s army( game developed by america’s army). There are other good ones too.

Well all the gui applications that i have seen have user friendly messages. And you dont really get error messages giving you error on line 868 unless you are compiling your code
Btw, im not a programmer, just a user.

Different distros use modified kernels( modified as in different configuration options, patches not in mainstream, etc) , but its still the linux kernel (btw, we get kernel upgrades almost each week). So, run levels are there, its a basic linux thing. And about about different package management systems, they might be different, but there are set rules for them, which are followed.

linux is actively developed by thousands of capable people, college students scientists professors etc etc, i dont understand why people want to either pirate windows or pay for it cand then whine. then you buy antivirus, still get infected and reinstall !
I use both linux and windows, but windows only for gaming and for photoshop. There is absolutely no reason which makes me boot into windows.

Also since this is a techie forum, it is already excpected that you like to try new technology! try it. Linux is just isn’t the UI you see, the UI is just a small piece of it. You can actually choose what desktop environment you want, you have Gnome – most usable i think
KDE – eye candy
Xubuntu – low system requirements

Then you have distros, you can choose according to your comfort. I recommend ubuntu, though there are fedora, OpenSuse, Xandros, and many dozens more.

#readathon October 25, 2009

I will contiunue reading today for the sake of it, I’ve almost finished the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Which i could read quite fast as i have seen the movie, maybe twice, heard the radio show too. So, i was basically skimming over it.

:/ #readathon October 24, 2009

ok, to get a sense of achievvmwnt, i am starting a short book, maybe a graphic novel. Will continue LOTR LATR.

Actually, im not feeling like reading right now. The books intro is sooo slooow…. i feel like reading some hp book again. Which were awesome. And some people dismiss it by saying ‘POTTERMANIA’. Its actually literary stuff, really good.

#readathon

starting Lord of the rings, the fellowship of the rings October 24, 2009

I like fantasy fiction, so i thought i should start with this one.

challenge 1 October 24, 2009

Participating in #readathon because i have nothing more to do  ( http://24hourreadathon.com/ )

I’m reading from my home in Delhi.

I’m a college student, i spend a lot of time on my pc , and i am lazy.

I have 5 books, may finish only 1-2.

I have a goal of reading 2 books.

First time read-a-thoner

Prince of Persia : The two thrones October 21, 2009

Review: Since i found this http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/prince-of-persia-the-two-thrones/ , there is no need for me to review the game. also i havent finished it yet.

Rating: 5/5 ( highly recommended )

Side-effect of playing chinese whispers for long time October 11, 2009

i was wondering how people from ancient got to believe in things like afterlife etc (i said afterlife right now because i was watching some program on egyptian culture and how important was afterlife to them). They had a pretty complex idea of how afterlife was, what all should be done to ensure a good afterlife, what should you take with you. I mean they knew that thay should pull their brains out of the skull through the nose, preserve liver etc in jars, bury cats with them, carry gold and food, ensure the tomb is never touched again(though they failed here) etc etc etc. People have gods for everything, and also all over the world there are things which have gods in a lot of places(like sun). So let us assume that a long long time ago a person came to respect the sun. He told his childern “sun is powerful and the source of life”. The next generation told their kids “the sun is fierce and the creator of life” and showed a picture of the sun. This was the thought process of people from a lot of places, then things seperated. In one place where the winds were strong, people had the wind god stronger than sun, in another place, people associated sun with some fierce animal and as the protector of the gates of heaven. And so on. Then people started asking gods for help, trying to please them, creating their own methods to do so, and each new generation kept on adding a new layer to these traditions. Civilization had become disillusioned. Different places, different molding of the views. And now, due to their upbringing in a world where questioning beliefs was wrong, and was almost never done, people have stopped questioning the basic things which they make as the governing rules of their lives.
Also, the things are not facts, just for . But they are still quite assumable.

Journey of discovery August 11, 2009

so i’ve been thinking about writing this for sometime, which seems like something possibly useful but still degrading somehow, to the worldwide exploding(as in population) society of students. the journey of discovery has been lost, we are now just bombarded with so much knowledge, and also have to mug it up that we just don’t know the important details and the importance of even the bigger things(or concepts). i was reading this article http://www.believermag.com/issues/200705/?read=article_taylor which i found with stumbleupon, some time back, and it tells the story of a college student studying English class called Eccentric Spaces and Spatialities(?), whose professor finds a rare book (which is recent, but still rare). read the article for the details of his ‘adventures’. the gist of the article is that its just too easy to get information today, computers, Internet, phones, fax etc. If this guy was in an earlier time, he would have find the book in some library, buy the book from someone buy travelling half the globe, since there were only a few copies. but now he actually found the scans of a few pages of the book on some website, contacted the blog owner who had put up the website, found a friend in him, somehow found the email address of the author and contacted him. the author replied, but when asked about what the book was about, he didn’t respond. If this plot was set in an older time frame, it would have made a good movie(just add some murder somewhere, and throw in some suspense, you know, something like da vinci code). Also something somewhat related to this, some people think we are getting is too censored, some others think we are getting so much info that we hardly know what matters. TV is the biggest culprit :-/ i cant find that pic, i saw somewhere, will post when found. do write comments about this,.

Eragon July 16, 2009

I recently read the fantasy novel Eragon by Christopher Paolini, who wrote the first draft of the book at age 15. I’m currently reading its sequel Eldest. I really haven’t read any fantasy books, so almost all my ideas about elves, dwarfs etc are from this book only, and maybe a bit from the Lord of the rings movie. I had seen the movie Eragon, it was crap, but the books are great. Maybe some parts are a bit slow but its worth reading, its entertaining.
It has a number of interesting and strong characters, one of my favorites is Angela the herbalist, who doesn’t have a big part, but is quite funny, and the werecat that stays with her is also quite interesting. Christopher says that his sister portrayed the role of Angela. Elves have been described as perfect beings, the most graceful species. It forces you to imagine how they must look, behave, and their emotions. I had to google some images of elves, and also of dragons. Saphira, the dragon has an interesting personality, she’s proud, strong and very independent. Eragon, the main character of the story is not really very special. His cousin has stronger parts than him in Eldest.
Overall, the story is very stereotypical, a bad guy ruling an empire, a journey, and a strong weapon(possibly, according to a hint given by the werecat), even a love story.

Another arduino post :-/ June 5, 2009

So, i finally got an arduino NG board from Delhi, AV Microtech delhi. I did some experimentation with it the first day. I had only one LED that day btw. I made it glow, glow in rhythms like in diwali lighting, then checked serial communication with the pc. Then finally made (mostly copied from somewhere on the Internet) a script to send the number of unread messages in my email, and change the brightness of the LED accordingly.
Two days later, i went to Lajpat Rai Market and bought stuff i needed to build a line follower

1. 2 motors
2. Wheels and a wheel with ball bearing
3. An H-bridge, L239DNE to drive the motors( motors require more power than the little arduino board can supply)
4. Some cheap LEDs. Cheap because out of 10 only 2 work
5. A breadboard
6. LDR (light dependant resistor), and 2 pairs of IR sensor-emitter
7. Soldering iron and other small stuff

I tested the LDR, and got it to work after an hour, because i was taking input from a digital pin of the board. Then to just test it, I made a simple circuit in which one LED glows in dark, and the other( of 2 total ) in brightness. Dark and bright according to the LDR of course.

I had to read the datasheet of the L239DNE chip, and set it it up to run a motor forward, reverse and stop according to signal from the serial port. So, i was ready to make the bot, but i didn’t have a chassis.
MEANWHILE!!! i had started reading Umberto Eco’s ‘The name of the rose’. Ive read just the beginning yet but its kind of incomprehensible to me at places. Its basically for Europeans. Latin (or maybe some other languages too) phrases have been thrown here and there for depth. BUT I DON’T KNOW LATIN!! Even though the phrases may be well known but i cant just keep searching google for what they mean, and btw google tells me the meaning of a lot of them. I just read that the book has some key, maybe to help people understand the book better. Will try it. Suggestions for really good fiction are welcome.

Back to arduino, i had not touched it for a couple of days. Thanks to BSES, there was no electricity for 3 hours, i was bored without tv or computer, so i decided to make the chassis etc for the bot. I thought i should try something which looks crude and even temporary. So i made the chassis and body with only plywood and wool. I am bad at soldering stuff so i didn’t want to burn that L239dne chip with my skills. So i wound small wires around each pin of the chip, and punched a Natraj eraser onto it, so that it looked a spider XD . The motors and the wheels were wound with a lot of wool for stability, then tied the chassis, and then M-Seal for even more stability. I feel like lol

This is going to be really a silly looking bot hope it works