Been using a lot of Ubuntu lately for work. Found out that running headlessly, it’s a pretty capable OS for a multitude of tasks. Figured why risk using Windows? At least if and when a virus break occurs, at least the mission critical servers will survive. With that frame of thought, I went scouring for hardening guides for Ubuntu server (yeah, I’m a Linux n00b). I found this - Boiling Linux and Windows: Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Hardening Guide and Configuration.

Frankly speaking, I know nuts about securing Linux so if you guys have any thoughts on this, let me know.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. Setup a development/source control/integration on the excellent Ubuntu Server Edition. Gotta hand it to these Debian distros, they’re really easy to use. Ubuntu’s community also makes it easy to solve problems or to get answer the many “How do I… ” questions for Linux n00bs like me.
2. Hook it up to DynDNS.org so that it’s accessible online (the server’s a VMWare virtual machine running in a desktop in my house). The Netgear wifi router has a support for DynDNS which allows it to automatically update whatever dynamic IP the server is currently using. Coupled that with port forwarding, I managed to host a cheap Tomcat server at home.
3. Crash course in setting up AppFuse, and in the process learned how to use m2eclipse to quickly build Maven projects in Eclipse. This plugin makes Maven easy to use by allowing searches for Maven archtypes, dependencies and plugins. Highly recommended!
4. Crash course in Spring Security (previously known as Acegi Security). I’m still cracking my head on this, but it seems too good to pass up.
5. Getting an integration server running by using Hudson. Hudson has support for CVS and Maven projects; it has the ability to checkout source codes from CVS and then run Maven with the project’s POM file to allow continuous build. I’ve yet to automate the deployment to Tomcat (using a simple bash script to copy to Tomcat’s webapps dir for now) and the automated build every CVS commit, but I’m happy so far.

The busy week is far from over though. All this is a small part of a larger project work I’m working on.

Go on, try it. Talk about a fix for the command-line addicts. It’s a command-line interface to the Google search engine, achieved using Web 2.0 stuff.

That’s a rhetorical question, since I’ve already filled it up. With flash storage prices so low, I got myself a Sandisk 4 GB microSDHC (class 4, if you must know) for my Palm Centro last week. Initially I had wanted to download the whole Tomeraider’s version of Wikipedia onto it but at 3GB++ for the complete version, I decided it wasn’t worth it. There wouldn’t be any room for anything else. Maybe when the 8 or 16 GB cards are more affordable, I’ll reconsider.

So here’s what I did instead

• filled it up with reference and dictionaries for the English language
• keep videos of my little nephew
• sync 600 or 3.02GB worth songs from iTunes using iTunes Agent
• copied a couple of ebooks for eReader and Mobipocket Reader

Even though PocketTunes Deluxe, the audio player software bundled with the Centro, has native syncing with Windows Media Player, I chose to go the long way so that I can sync with iTunes. This is because I find iTunes much easier to use, not to mention I rely on its smart playlists to compile my select which songs get synced. The smart playlist is like a query tool for songs, yes, it’s pretty neat. I use it to select songs that meets the following criteria for syncing

• a limit of 600 songs
• is rated 3 stars and above
• is frequently played
• hasn’t been played for the last 15 days (so I don’t forget about the older songs, happens when you have 13+ GB of audio)
• hasn’t been skipped more than 5 times (just to be certain I don’t sync songs I dislike)

By relying on smart playlists, I’ll almost guarantee only songs I like or songs I’ve not played for quite a while get’s synced to my Centro. Now if only there’s a way to rate songs on it.

I assembled my current PC on Oct 30th 2006. That’s more than a year ago. I was looking at the possibility of upgrading my processor to a newer one, considering Intel just announced a new affordable CPU - the Core 2 E7200. However, reading through the article, I notice its specs were much lower than my CPU (2.55GHz, 3MB of cache, 1067MHz bus, VT disabled vs 2.8GHz, 4MB of cache, 1600MHz bus, VT enabled).

How is it possible that a CPU I bought more than a year ago outspec the one just announced? Furthermore, the current high end dual-core CPUs max out at the lower end of the 3GHz spectrum - not enough to warrant an upgrade. Typically, you need a close to a GHz of clockspeed to see noticeable performance difference, all else being equal. The answer is simple - I bought my current CPU with overclocking in mind. The official speed is a measly 1.86GHz, 1066MHz bus.

In other words, done properly, overclocking does stretch your ringgit by quite a bit. Of course, the initial investment might be slightly higher - getting a good PSU and CPU fan is a must but in the long run, you save an upgrade cycle.

As do many others, and here’s a way to outright replace notepad with notepad2 on Windows XP - How to Replace Notepad.exe - Roland Weigelt. Get Notepad2 here. Even if you don’t crave for its added features (such as syntax highlighting, support for Unix & Linux formats, etc.) and wish to use it much like the original Notepad, you’ll appreciate its speed - it doesn’t get bogged down even if you open multi-megabyte text files. I’ve viewed and edited (log) files that are hundreds of megabytes with this little fella just fine.

Oh, if you don’t want it to replace notepad outright, it works as a standalone program as well. No installation required.