A Race to Secure OS continues…

Just thought that it will be useful to list out Secure Operating Systems being developed across the glob…

+ China: Kylin OS, a Secure OS from PRC (People’s Republic of China)

+ United States of America: Secure Windows,a Secure Windows XP developed by Microsoft for US Air Force.

+ European Union: Europe has funded secure operating system research based on Tanenbaum developed Minix

Do you know any other OS being developed as secure OS? Let everyone know in comments below.

 

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Identify release version of Unix flavors

Another quick post…Hope someone finds it useful…

For Redhat Linux boxes,

# cat /etc/redhat-release

For SuSe Linux boxes,

# cat /etc/SuSe-release

For Solaris boxes,

# cat /etc/release

For AIX boxes,

# oslevel –g

# oslevel –r

And of course we can always execute  ‘uname –a’ CLI :)

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Google invites everyone to make web faster

Google has started with an initiative by inviting everyone to make web faster. Google code blog has post inviting different ideas to make internet more faster. Google has already published a Firefox extension called PageSpeed, used to test their own sites.

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Ubiquity 0.5 Preview Release is out and supports internationalization

 

In one of my previous posts, we had seen Ubiquity, a Firefox extension. Now Mozilla labs have come up with Ubiquity 0.5 preview which also support internationalization.

Download the ubiquity 0.5 preview. Ensure that previously installed Ubiquity extension is removed. Ubiquity 0.5 works with Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and 3.5.

A localization tutorial can be found here in order to teach ubiquity about your own language.

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How to find ESX server version that you are running

This is a quick post after a long time…

In order to find out VMware ESX server version that you are running, just login to your ESX server using SSH and type in following CLI,

# vmware -v
VMware ESX Server 3.5.0 build-<build-numbers>

That’s it.

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Blogger blogspot URL prompts users before redirecting to custom domain

Due to some reasons, one of the URL(s) to access techsutram blog, http://techsutram.blogspot.com, is prompting users with question “Do you wish to be redirected?” unlike its previous behavior.  It also states that “This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware.” (?).

Previously users navigating to techsutram.blogspot.com were seamlessly redirected to www.techsutram.com. I am not exactly sure about the cause of this sudden behavior.

The redirection page also states that “techsutram.com” is not hosted by blogger. This is again confusing as  “techsutram.blogspot.com” was moved to custom domain “techsutram.com” using blogger dashboard and all posts on this blog are indeed posted using blogger service.

Just found entry for this issue at knownissues.blogspot.com

Is there anyone facing similar issue?

Citrix XenServer 5.5: A free Enterprise class Hypervisor

Citrix has released Citrix XenServer 5.5, a free enterprise class virtualization solution (hypervisor). As compared to other free hypervisors, Citrix XenServer 5.5 supports powerful features such as centralized multi-node management, built-in storage and full live motion.

Citrix XenServer page lists all of its features and Citrix XenServer’s comparison with VMware ESXi.

Citrix XenServer 5.5 and XenCenter Management client can be downloaded for free from Citrix website.

There are also couple of demos available online.
+ XenCenter demo
+ XenServer demo

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Opera Unite: A Peer to Peer web service browser

Opera labs has just released Opera Unite (labs version), a new web technology that will be integrated into upcoming release of Opera 10 web browser.

So what’s new about web browsers? We already have bunch of web browser releases such as Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 RC, Google Chrome 2.0, Opera 9.6.

The exciting thing is Opera Unite has initiated change in web browser landscape from just a web client to web service browser.

Opera Unite will allow developers to write custom application called as Opera Unite services allowing peer to peer communication in between multiple web browsers. So basically anyone can write Opera Unite services without need of third-party servers. So all kinds of file sharing, photo sharing, games, web services right from the browser. And Opera Unite is available on Windows,Linux/Unix and Mac OS. Pretty cool?

Following video explains more about Opera Unite and instructions to use Opera Unite.

Read Introduction to Opera Unite for more details.

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Extend Firefox 3.5! Contest now open

Extend Mozilla Firefox 3.5 contest is now open for all developers. This contest aimed at developing Mozilla Firefox add-on(s) for upcoming release of Mozilla Firefox 3.5.

Find all details at Extend Firefox 3.5 contest page. All resources for entering into the contest are available online. And of course there are worthy prizes to compete for.

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MultiTail : A tail CLI replacement for all Unices

All Unix users know how it is difficult to tail output of multiple files at a same time. Though ‘tail’ CLI available with LINUX is capable of giving just right output for multiple files, this flexibility is not available on all platforms.

I just came across a handy tool called ‘MultiTail’. ‘MultiTail’ functions similar to traditional ‘tail’ CLI except for the fact that it will able to monitor tail output of multiple files at the same time. ‘MultiTail’ is supported on Solaris, Linux, *BSD, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, Tru64, SCO OpenServer platforms and also runs under Cygwin on Windows. ‘MultiTail’ has lots of features unlink ‘tail’ CLI.

Download MultiTail source and compile it on supported platforms and we are ready to go. MultiTail example page displays its sample usages. Don’t forget to look at screenshots before installing MultiTail.

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Yahoo! Distribution of Hadoop is released

Yahoo has released the source code for Hadoop (used in their own environment),an open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing. Yahoo!’s Hadoop distribution includes code patches to improve the stability and performance of Yahoo!’s clusters.

Hadoop is an open source version of Map/Reduce, the framework Google uses to support distributed computing.

Yahoo!’s distribution of Hadoop can be downloaded from Yahoo!’s developer network.

Read original post: http://developer.yahoo.com/hadoop/distribution/

 

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Top 10 programming languages to learn for better career prospect

eWeek published an article about top 10 programming languages to learn.

Interestingly only two out of 10 languages are from MS and all other are open source.

Original article at: 10 Programming Languages You Should Learn Right Now

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Browser war heats up: Safari 4 claims to be the fastest

With recent releases of web browsers such as Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 RC, Google Chrome 2.0, Opera 9.6, here comes another web browser release Apple’s Safari 4 to heat up the web browser wars. Each of these browsers competing with each other in terms of rendering (HTML,JavaScript) speed. Now Apple’s Safari 4 claims that it is one of the fastest of all web browsers.

It is interesting to note that all above screenshots displays latest Mozilla Firefox 3.0 browser considering that I am a fan of Firefox.

Apple’s Safari 4 can be download from here.  Below is CNET video for Apple’s Safari 4.

So from software developers and testers perspective, it will eventually become mandatory to support and test all major browsers for their web based products as eventually people will have multiple options for web browsers in near future.

So which web browser will you prefer?

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Free online Networking Tools

+ SSL Site Check tool:

A neat and handy SSL Site Check tool. It not only checks presence of SSL certificates for your web site but also helps detect quality of SSL connection to your web site.

It can be also used to test deployment of SSL certificates on your website (web server). It extracts good amount of useful information. Good for IT pros and software test engineers.

+ DNS tools:

Another useful tool is www.dnsstuff.com. It helps network administrators (and IT pros) to diagnose problems with their DNS servers.

www.dnsstuff.com has few more tools in their labs pages such as Vector Trace, DNS Traversal and Speed test etc…

 

+ Network Tools:

Another useful site is www.network-tools.com. It provides bunch of online tools such as Ping, Lookup, Trace, Whois (IDN Conversion Tool), DNS Records (Advanced Tool), Network Lookup, Spam Blacklist Check, Convert Base-10 to IP , URL Decode, URL Encode, HTTP Headers, Email Verification

If you know any other free online tools related to networking then let everyone know in comments below.

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Virtualization: Hyper-V R2 Demo Videos, a must watch

Technet Edge has a new series of video demos showing R2 Hyper-V goodies from Matt McSpirit

1. Hyper-V R2: Initial Installation & Configuration

2. Hyper-V R2: Dynamic Storage

3. Hyper-V R2: Building a Hyper-V R2 Cluster

4. Hyper-V R2: Making Highly Available VMs

5. Hyper-V R2: Introducing Cluster Shared Volumes

6. Hyper-V R2: Failover & Live Migration

7. Hyper-V R2: USB over Network with Fabulatech

These videos are must watch if one works on Virtualization.

YouTube XL: A Big Screen version

YouTube has launched a new version of YouTube called YouTube XL optimized for Big screens like TV screens.

YouTube XL has (currently) neat and clean interface without any ads and other clutters like www.youtube.com

Videos can be searched and played continuously without any interruption. If you are wondering why YouTube XL is required then check out http://www.pctvcables.com

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Structured web search with Google Squared

Google Squared, one of the latest Google labs services, is launched. Google Squared helps users to find facts about anything they search in itemized fashion just like spreadsheet.

Users can even add their own search items in their results and Google Squared tries to fetch relevant information from the web.

I have tried to search for terms “Security tools” and below is what we received.

As we can see, it returned 7 items. I tried to add another item in the list called “snort”

And Google Squared tried to search relevant information from web for newly added item “snort”.

Checkout other search terms such as Automobiles,Planets, Prime Ministers of India ( or your country) etc…

So next time you want to search the web, what kind of search will you prefer, Google, Bing or Google Squared?

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OpenSolaris 2009.06 : A brand new OpenSolaris release.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 was just released. Following is the list of  features released as a part of OpenSolaris 2009.06 from www.OpenSolaris.com 

+ Network Virtualization with Crossbow
+ Turn any host into a SCSI target with COMSTAR
+ Host virtual guests using xVM Hypervisor or LDoms
+ SPARC® support for Distro Constructor, Auto Install, and Snap
+ Intel Xeon 5500 processor support with deep power management
+ MySQL and PHP DTrace Probes in the WebStack
+ Improved usability of the package management system
+ ZFS Time Slider Snapshot Management
+ Contribute new applications with SourceJuicer
+ Get 24/7 support with OpenSolaris Subscriptions

Get more information about all these features from below video.

Go to www.opensolaris.com to get in depth information about OpenSolaris 2009.06 release. Download x86 release of OpenSolaris 2009.06 from here. OpenSolaris 2009.06 for all other supported architectures can be downloaded from http://www.opensolaris.com/get/index.jsp 

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Bing search is Live

Microsoft’s latest search engine Bing is live. Get the tour of Bing features at www.discoverbing.com

I have tried to search for term “techsutram”. This is how it resulted on Bing (in image below). It returned 26 results unlike 431 results from Google. ( This may be due to beta version of Bing unlike full-fledged GA version of Google search.)

Well! it was a quick test. You can try different terms such as politics, finance, MACD etc…

However, Bing has pretty good enhancements over Google results. That makes everyone easy to navigate trough Bing search results.

So next time when you want to web search, will you say Bing or Google?

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