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Monthly Archive for September, 2006

Build your business with open source

Published on 23 September, 2006 in Related elsewhere and Using Open Source. 2 Comments Tags: .

This special report at InfoWorld covers many open source enterprise softwares including

  • business intelligence (BI),
  • business process management,
  • content management,
  • CRM,
  • ERP,
  • enterprise service bus,
  • identity,
  • directory,
  • portal,
  • point of sales (POS),
  • RFID and
  • VoIP.

Small or home business owners may not have the need for such entreprise class softwares but it is good to know the open source alternatives available.

Think about it, the day when a fortune 500 company and a SME uses the same open source CRM software. A possibility? Absoultely!

Reading Thunderbird mail between computers

Published on 22 September, 2006 in Chat & E-mail and Tips & Tutorials. 2 Comments Tags: , .

ThunderbirdThis was another note I wrote a while back with the Gaim profile note .

When moving from an old computer to a new computer, alot of profiles get left behind. Some we can afford to lose the baggage and start afresh.

But some, like IM and email, we like to transfer the data from an old computer to a new computer. You may need to read and reply to mails already downloaded on the old computer.

Instead of copying the mail folder everytime, what you could do is to put the mail data on a portable diskdrive. This way you could carry it around and read it at home and in office.

I do not use Thunderbird in this way anymore (using GMail) but this should still work (For the 1.0.x version at least)

It is really quite simple. On WinXP,

  1. Quit Thunderbird if it is running
  2. Look for Application Data/Thunderbird under C:Documents and Settingsusername
  3. Copy the folder and put it into the portable diskdrive
  4. In the (copied) folder, open the file profile.ini
  5. Change these 2 lines

    IsRelative=1
    Path=/Profiles/somenames

    to

    IsRelative=0
    Path=drive:/full/path/to/profile/

  6. Start Thunderbird and all the former mailboxes will appear. Done!

The GIMP

Published on 21 September, 2006 in Digital Imaging. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Undeniably Photoshop is a class of its own when comes to photo editing. Of course some people might disagree and suggest Fireworks or Paintshop Pro. Among these, there is also an open source alternative – GIMP .

GIMP is an Open Source photo editing software like Photoshop. Over the years GIMP had evolved and matured into an application that can rival Photoshop in functionalities.

GIMP is acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. As the name suggests it can be used for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

GIMP in use

GIMP is a big program with many powerful functions. That means it will take time to learn . However as you spend time, you will discover that it does not take any more time compared to learning a commercial software like Photoshop.

Of course for someone already familiar with Photoshop, many things had to be learn, unlearn and relearn. For me it is the keyboard shortcut keys and the multi-windows interface.

Continue reading ‘The GIMP’

Moving GAIM profile between computers

Published on 19 September, 2006 in Chat & E-mail and Tips & Tutorials. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

GaimThis was a note I wrote a while back for GAIM, an integrated messaging client that I use.

The frustrating thing about changing computer is that many of the data get left on the old computer. I am online most of the time and use Gaim alot to stay in touch with clients, partners and friends. On a new computer, suddenly all the contacts are “lost“.

It actually turned out to be very straight forward to move Gaim profile to a new computer.

On the new computer I just had to

1. Install a copy of GAIM
2. Copy the former .gaim folder which located on the old drive
Documents and Settingsusername Application Data.gaim
to
c:Documents and Settingsusername Application Data
3. Start Gaim. All the accounts and contacts will just appear. Perfect!

Automated update and install softwares

Published on 16 September, 2006 in Editorial and Using Open Source. 0 Comments Tags: , .

My Firefox had just auto updated to 1.5.0.7. The best part is I do not have to do anything except restarting it.

The update was quietly downloaded in the background and a message prompted me to restart. Upon restart, the update was, well, updated. Done.

The whole process was so simple and easy I sure many software will be following this update strategy. Automated update and install is a recent trend in softwares brought about by the ubquitious always-on internet access.

When the computer connected, the software could check for update, download update and even installs it.

I noticed the progression of different stages of update automation over the years.

Link to update. First there was a link to the download site or homepage, probably in the “Help->About” menu. Irfanview and 7-Zip are examples. With Internet, software don’t comes in disk anymore.

Alert to update. How often do you update your software? Not very often if you are like me. So why not get the software to alert you? This was the second stage in the evolution. ClamWin uses this strategy.

Download and install is the final holy grail. The update is downloaded and installed, with your permission and with little intervention. The latest Firefox does this very nicely.

In is a known fact that many security and stability issues are actually caused by old softwares that are not updated. Auto download and install is good news for the typical business users who may not be that tech savvy to keep softwares up-to-date.

This trend is sure to catch-on on more softwares. Will this trend spell the gradual demise of download sites like downloads.com and tucows.com?

Why Open Source Software / Free Software?

Published on 14 September, 2006 in Editorial and Related elsewhere. 0 Comments Tags: .

Came across this article:

Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers! by David A. Wheeler.

It is a very lengthy and indepth article with plenty of links and references. I have no time to read it in fully yet.

If you are not technically inclined, you might find it too dense. In a nutshell, the article provided much support as to why businesses should pay attention to Open Source .

I do not see this article as going to convince the typical small business user. It would however a good source of reference for open source evangelist who is sharing the Open Source good news.

Are you still using FTP? Beware

Published on 12 September, 2006 in Editorial and Security & Encryption. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Recently I acquired a software that required FTP access to my server, without which it cannot work.

I was shocked!

You see, in the last 7-8 years I have not use FTP on my servers. Even on the local office server I refuse to allow FTP to be installed. For file transfer I just use SFTP (Filezilla supports this).

Are you still using FTP, you might want to read the following and discover why it is time to take note

The traditional FTP protocol is highly insecure: it sends passwords in the clear. For this reason FTP has been recognized as one of the largest remaining security liabilities in most UNIX systems. As of 2006 FTP still remains one of the Internet’s most popular file upload mechanisms.

Another security risk lies not with FTP itself but with the widespread use of wireless internet connection.

With wireless, your FTP password travelling in clear over the air can be easily captured. You may be surprised that wireless attack is actually very easy. The kid next door may just be looking at your wireless traffic now.

So, if you are using FTP on your hosting server and at work, ask why. Security file transfer like SFTP, SCP, FTP over SSL are widely available. Perhaps it is time to ask if the hosting provider support them or move on to a more knowledgable hosting provider.

At this point I am still talking to the vendor to see how the FTP requirement can be relaxed or best removed.

Reference:

Punch through web filter with Tor

Published on 6 September, 2006 in Browsers, Security & Spyware and Utilities & Drivers. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

TorTor is one of those application that you most likely don’t need but useful to know that it exist when you need it.

Tor’s website describe it as “an anonymous Internet communication system“. Which doesn’t really helps to understand what it is.

The normal business user would not need to know how Tor works (read this overview if you want to know), only what it does.

One of Tor usage is to get pass blocked website. Which is what I am going to describe in this article.

If you work in some countries (no name here to protect this site) that filters web traffic you may want to read on.

Continue reading ‘Punch through web filter with Tor’

More free and open source softwares

Published on 4 September, 2006 in Editorial and Using Open Source. 3 Comments Tags: , .

At this juncture I had almost covered all the major free and opensource applications that I use regularly. There are still a handful of tools and utilities which I will cover.

Of course this is not all there is to opensource applications. There are still much more. Some I had planned to try, like Gimp and Inkscape while others I had heard alot but has no opportunity to use, like Blender. Still there are applications like Sunbird that I’m eagerly anticipating a release. Finally there are promising applications like Nvu that seem to have stopped development.

Do you have any favourite Free/Open source applications that you like to recommend?