Tech by Dennis Kioko

Nginx Upgrade Deletes/Overwrites Configuration Folder

2012-01-07T14:22:00.000+03:00

After an Nginx upgrade, the browser can't
connect to your server , yet your servers are
running and the error logs are OK

I was recently upgrading Nginx on Linux, and after the upgrade, I noticed that all my sites were unavailable, giving the error "couldn't establish connection to the server".

The next thing is panicking, and going through the logs to see what could have gone wrong. The logs claim to have no idea of any error, or wrong doing, and you are still clueless.

It took me a while to find out that my server configurations, stored under the /etc/nginx/conf folder in a file named default.conf had disappeared , and the file was blank.

It took me a while, and just as I was re-adding my directives, I noticed something in the install logs during the upgrade. The upgrade to Nginx had renamed the default.conf file to default.conf.rpmnew .

Renaming the file back and restarting Nginx (sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart ) in Fedora/CentOS/Redhat should have you sorted out.

Grub2: Booting from live ISO or Gparted

2011-12-29T23:12:00.000+03:00

Grub2 has gained traction and is now available in most major Linux distributions. At times, in Linux , you require to do some stuff, like for example boot an ISO located in your hard drive - I use Russian Fedora and wanted to see if there was much difference with Linux Mint, and decided to boot from the ISO as my DVD-ROM doesn't work. Of course my laptop is a Compaq.

Other reasons for wanting to boot into an ISO , is when you want to partition your drives, using a tool such as Gparted. Gparted sets up a Grub grub.config for you, however , if you upgraded from Grub to Grub2, Gparted may use Grub config and miss Grub2 which uses the different grub2.cfg.

Luckily, you can edit Grub during boot to boot into whatever your choice is. To boot a Linux Live CD, use these settings (settings can be added to grub2.cfg file or added to grub2 as comp boots, by pressing 'e' , however this is temporary and needs to be done for every reboot:

menuentry "Linux Mint live" {
      set isofile="/path-from-root-to-your-Linux-mint-ISO -file/linuxmint-12-gnome-cd-nocodecs-32bit.iso"
      loopback loop $isofile
      linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile quiet noeject noprompt splash --
      initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
    }

To boot Gparted into RAM(allows you to manage all partitions as none is mounted) using Grub2 , use:

menuentry "Gparted live" {
      set isofile="/home/projects/Downloads/or-whatever-path-gets-to-your-Gparted-iso/gparted-live-0.11.0-7.iso"
      loopback loop $isofile
      linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live config union=aufs noswap noprompt ip=frommedia toram=filesystem.squashfs iso-scan/filename=$isofile
      initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
    }

The above can be modified to boot from a USB. In case you are lost, you can use the ls command to list what's available to you and the Tab key as a shortcut to complete your directives.

Study identifies Kenya ICT access gaps

2011-08-26T17:57:00.000+03:00

Kenya's Ministry of Information & Communication
Permanent Secretary , Bitange Ndemo (with mic)
, CCK officials and consultants from Aolo Consultoria:
72% of the population lacks access to broadband

The Communications Comission of Kenya (CCK) has released the results of a study on ICT access gaps in Kenya. Commissioned in mid 2009 and carried out by Apoyo Consultoria, the study seeks to provide accurate and reliable data on the availability and accessibility of various information and communication facilities in the country. The launch was held Tuesday at Nairobi’s Ole Sereni hotel and was attended by acting CCK Director General, Francis Wangusi and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, Bitange Ndemo.

The study especially tackles the Universal Service Fund (USF) which was established in the amended Kenya Communication Acts of 2008. The USF is funded from licensee levies , allocation by Parliament , principal and interest payments on advanced loans and investment by funds and endowments. The interest comes from loans of which can be applied form the funds.

Mobile operators however so far posed opposition to the USF saying that it amounted to extra taxation that would logically be passed on to their customers. This lead to a partial compromise where the operators would establish digital villages in an effort to bridge the access gaps.

The report was compiled from data collected in the 2009 national census and information obtained from stakeholders in the ICT sector.”In the past five years, we have carried out studies on the Internet market, the telecommunications network costs , postal and courier market , competition, among others, “ says Wangusi.

The study sets out to determine the appropriate framework to achieve universally available and affordable ICT service . High cost areas that may not be covered by operators and might require support of the USF are then identified. Options to provide support for high cost areas are also identified and assesed together with a proposed implementation plan. Finally, the study also looks at extending the reach and utilization of the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure network (NOFBI) and the total magnitude of the required investment to bridge the ICT gaps.

Study Findings

The study reveals that while mobile phone penetration stands at more than 50% of the population , some sub-locations in Nairobi , Kiambu and Nyeri had more than 70% usage while several sub-locations in the Northern and North-Eastern areas of the country had less than 20% penetration.

The study pegs Internet usage at 5 % of the population with most counties having a usage below 10% . Recent estimates from operator filings with CCK however indicate an Internet penetration of 10%.

Broadband is defined at access to Internet at the speed of 256 kilobits per second (kbps) or higher. The study maps base transceiver stations (BTS) in the country as of June 2011 which reveals that 4,480,137 people (11% of the population) in 1,119 (16%) sub-locations occupying a total of 385, 651 square kilometres. Those who did not have access to broadband were at 29,483,790 (72% of the population) in 6,256 (88%) of sub-locations occupying 562, 872 (97%) of the country.

Contributing factors to the voice and data access gaps were found to low population in affected areas, lack of road infrastructure and lack of electricity. Commenting on this, Ndemo said that despite the high cost of providing electricity to Northern Kenya, at about KES 3 billion, solar energy should be used as an alternative form of energy.

There are 115 private mail and parcel operators in additional to the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK). While all counties have access to at least 3 post offices, only 677 (9.5%) of sub locations had post offices while 6,472 sub locations (90.5%) lacked post offices.

Study recommendations

The study recommends covering of the these access gaps through establishment of new base stations covering 10 kilometres and femtocells covering 0.5 km to address the voice gaps. The data gap is to be tackled through upgrading of base stations in sub locations with voice coverage to 3G base stations in the 2100 MHz range. For sub-locations with both a voice and data gap, new base stations would be established in the 900 MHz band.

Base stations in the 900/850 MHz band cover 6 km in urban areas , 10 km in rural areas for voice and 4km in urban, 6 km in rural areas for data. The 1800 MHz band covers 1 km urban , 4 km rural for voice and 1 km urban, 3 km rural for voice. the 2100 MHz band covers 1 km urban and 2 km rural for data.

Meanwhile, Ndemo says that the government is still pursuing plans to roll out a national LTE network (Long Term Evolution). The P.S. says that the network should be in lace in the next 8 - 10 months.

Three strategies have been proposed to close voice and data gaps .

A first-come first-served scheme: the objective is to waive spectrum fees to operators that compromise to expand services in access gap areas.

Private initiative scheme: the objective of this scheme is to promote private operators to present universal access projects and benefit from doing it. One of the main advantages of this scheme is that it reduces the administrative a costs of designing universal access project by giving this task to private operators. Operators presenting UA projects will have a bonus when participate in the bidding contest

Lowest-subsidy auctions: the objective of this scheme is to design a universal access project that will be partially funded by the Universal Access Fund. The main advantage of this scheme is that it is executed to provide voice and/or data services to non covered areas following the priorities of the USF.

Ndemo says that the Postal Corporation of Kenya must improve as the study shows it to be the only sector in decline. Kenya with 2.4 letters per person per year has a higher mail average that other countries in Kenya’s GDP range who have 0.83 letters per person per year. The study however recommends that the figure is not sufficient level to sustain a nationwide postal network.

Alternatives recommended for the Postal Service include new departmental Post Offices with PCK employees. This would provide a wider range of services but would be less flexible. A second alternative seeks to increase sub-post offices with licensees. This would have a lower cost but result in a narrower range of services. A third model suggests a subsidy arrangement with private operators.

Among facilities suggested for funding by the USF include ICT training centres, telecentres, E-health facilities, ICT facilities in public offices, school IT labs, research projects and content initiatives. The last two are to be wholly funded.

Policy recommendations

The study recommends that CCK have a USF department with additional staff.

Voice and data are to be tackled through waiving of spectrum fees for USF projects, obligation of data projects to connect public facilities, continued support of neutral competition , promotion of national roaming and promotion of network sharing particularly for transmission systems.

Recommendations for the postal sector urge for liberalization of the sector. This is in addition to pricing guidelines , defining of parameters for interconnection between operators and PCK and review of the PCK contracting process of sub-post offices.

Implementation

The study recommends closing of the voice gap in 889 sub-locations in the next 5 years and closing of the data gap in 4,374 sub-locations by 2030.

In the first scenario, with a USF levy of 0.5% targeting communication licensees and CCK contribution of 25%, it would take 10 years to close the voice gap and 47 years to close the data gap at a cost of between KES 1,250 million and 1,625 million. This would include between KES 375 mil. and 500 mil. from the levy and KES 875 mil. to KES 1,125 mil. from CCK.

A second scenario closes the voice gap in 7 years and the data gap in 36 years at a cost of between KES 1,625 mil.and KES 2,125 mil. This includes a 1% USF levy of between KES 750 mil. and 1,000 mil.and a 25% CCK contribution of between KES 875 mil. and KES 1,125 mil.

The above scenarios exclude the Postal Corporation. A third scenario with a 1% USF levy and 100% CCK contribution takes 4 years to close the voice gap and 15 years to close the data gap. This scenario also includes capacity building for PCK. The USF levy contributes from KES 750 mil. to KES 1,000 mil and CCK from KES 3,500 mil. to 4,500 mil. to congribute a total of between KES 4,250 mil. and 5,500 mil.

National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure

31 county headquarters are served by NOFBI against 16 that are not. US $ 6.8 mil. is required to cover all county headquarters with NOFBI.

Joomla White Page

2011-04-25T15:01:00.000+03:00

Just a few weeks ago, we were migrating CIO East Africa from a shared host to a Virtual Private Server (VPS). After a hectic time setting mail on server, it was time to set up the Joomla sites. One of the site worked but the CIO Site worked was a difficulty getting off the ground, always giving a blank page.

Restarting the server worked for a while before one of the section gives a blank page. Checking on the Apache/PHP logs showed that several of the modules were giving Fatal Error, predominantly from modules associated with images (cant rem the specific ones, it was a while back).

It took several days to narrow down the error to a PHP module.

PHP GD is a library that deals with imaging in PHP applications and is required by several of Joomla modules but is not required by Joomla itself to function. It may be hard to pinpoint the error to this library given the above reason, but I am sure it accounts for several headaches for newly set up Joomla Sites.

Several Linux flavours have specific binaries through which you can install PHP GD, just search in your package installer.

Resetting Your Forgotten Django Admin Password: The Easiest Way Yet!

2010-09-05T15:53:00.001+03:00

Well, often, developers break their normal habit of setting easy admin passwords such as "teknia - teknia" and set up a complex password and perhaps use the browser to remember the passwords.

After a while, you find that you cannot even remember your password.

Normally, to reset in django, we use the manage.py shell utility where we import the User models and use set_password() to reset the password.

Well, there is an easier way.

use the django manage.py createsuperuser utility to create a new superuser account
log in the Admin panel with the newly created account
go to the Users models http://localhost:8000/admin/auth/user/ and select the previous user
in the users' account details, use the "change password form" to create anew password for them
you can now log out and log in with the new password. You can keep or delete the second superuser account

Trouble shooting 503 Access Forbidden error for Drupal

2009-11-24T21:45:00.009+03:00

Forbidden You don't have permission to access /drupal/index.php on this server. Server at localhost Port 80

The above is a common error encountered on most Apache installations. You can confirm that you do have read/write permissions to the file by using the below command to check file permissions in a directory(Linux)
#ls -l /path/to/directory containing file

You can change permissions by giving the apache group ownership and read write permissions as shown below:

Adding Apache Group Ownership
#chgrp apache /path/to/directory containing file

changing Group permissions
#chmod g+rw /path/to/directory containing file

If the permissions are in order, then it is time to check the Apache Error Logs

Most of the times, the error is output by the apache server when you try to start it. This can also be checked by checking the httpd error log.
/var/log/httpd/error_log

From the error log, you can tell which module is causing the error. You can temporarily disable the module by editing it out from the Apache config file.

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Comment out the the module by adding a '#' before the 'LoadModule ....' line so it becomes

LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
#LoadModule offendingmodule
LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so

Restart Apache and see if it works
#apachectl restart

Webmin

Load webmin by typing http://localhost.localdomain:10000/ into your browser
log in with your root username and password.
Then Proceed to system->System Logs->Httpd error log

This helps identify the error.
To Edit out modules causing errors, proceed to Server->Apache Server->Global Configuration->Edit Config Files-> and Edit Directive File in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.d

comment out the offending module with a "#" as described above, then save and try to start Apache.

Installing Django on Fedora Linux Apache

2009-11-22T02:38:00.002+03:00

NB: This is a deprecated method of running django on apache. A better method can be found at http://docs.djangoproject.com

This tutorial assumes that you have webmin installed and running. It also assumes that you know how to use su and the webmin . Check previous posts for how to install and configure webmin.

STEPS

Install Apache,Django, mod-python and postgreSQL

yum install apache, mod-python, django, postgresql, postgresql-server

You can install the above via yumex too.

Start Apache, PostgreSQL via the Webmin module

Make the Directory where your project will be hosted

mkdir /home/projects

Set it as a Django path

cd /home/projects
/usr/bin/django-admin startproject mysite

Edit the python.conf file

su
*backup
cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/python.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/python.conf.bak

*edit
gedit /etc/httpd/conf.d/python.conf

*Add the following lines


<location "/mysite/">
    SetHandler python-program
    PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython
    SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE  mysite.settings
    PythonDebug On
    PythonPath "['/home/projects'] + sys.path"
</location>

*Make sure that you have this line in your configuration and its is not commented out (#)
LoadModule python_module modules/mod_python.so

Make sure that your site is in the apache aliases . You can add this by going to webmin->servers->Apache Webserver->Default Server->Aliases and Redirects
Add mysite (or whatever you want to call it) and set the path to /home/projects/mysite

Restart apache

su
apachectl restart

Go to your browser, type in localhost/mysite (or whatever you called it in the redirects)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Fedora Linux: Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL ,Webmin Installation and Configuration

2009-11-10T16:46:00.002+03:00

Installing other servers and services in Fedora can be a headache, especially without the right tools. There is all the documentation you have to read and all the commands you have to put in via the terminal. all this can be made easier with a few tools.

If you are intending to use Apache2, MySQL and PostgreSQL, you can install them with the appropriate yum commands. Better yet, you can install yumex (To install, type the command yum install yumex as root in the terminal) which is a GUI for yum and gives a simple and fast interface to search, configure, install and update packages.

When installing MySQL and PostgreSQL, make sure that mysql, mysql-server , postgresql, postgresql-server are installed. Several people tend to forget installing mysql-server and get errors when trying to run mysql.

Installing Apache2, MySQL and PostgreSQL is the easy part, configuring them can be quite hectic. To make configuring them easier, I recommend that you download and install webmin (http://www.webmin.com).

To log in to webmin, use your computer's root username and password. Webmin is accessed via your browser by accessing your localhost via port 10000, "http://localhost:10000".

Apache
To configure Apache on webmin, go to the "servers" section on the left tab and select "Apache Webserver".
This gives you an interface for your hosts, inclusive of your virtual servers. From the interface, you can start and stop the apache server on your system. Clicking on a host gives you an interface to configure aliases, hosts, SSL options amongst other configurations.

MySQL
Once you have installed MySQL, you can initialize it and create users via the MySQL module in Webmin. The MySQL module is accessible by clicking on "servers" on the left tab and selecting "MySQL Database Server" Option. From this module, you can start and stop the MySQL server, create, delete and manage users, create, manage and delete tables. When creating your first MySQL user, you should be careful enough to select all the permissions(under the tab labelled 'Permissions for new users') (By default it only selects the "select table" permission). Failure to do this will result in you having a user that cannot do anything including create tables. To remedy this, you will have to reset the privileges table( I will post on the procedure later).

As for creating and managing tables, I prefer phpmyadmin, which is a browser(web)based interface for the MySQL server. To install it, use the command "yum install phpmyadmin". To access it, go to your browser and use the adress "http://localhost/phpmyadmin". Log in with the usernames and password that you created in webmin above.

PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL doesn't have a lot to configure, but it can take hours or even days to figure your way around the configuration. Similar to MySQL, webmin has a module for configuring PostgreSQL. The module is under servers on the left tab again. With this module, you can initialize PostgreSQL (If you are running it for the first time), create and manage users, tables and access permissions.

To access PostgreSQL from other applications, you will need to change the host permission configurations. Under the PostgreSQL module, select that "Allowed Hosts" icon. From the interface that comes up, change the Authentication mode for the local connection to use "MD5 encrypted password". you can then create a user (other than the default postgres user) from the module.

To manage PostgreSQL, you can install the phpPgAdmin application ( "yum install phpPgAdmin"). To access phpPgAdmin, type in the dress "http://localhost/phpPgAdmin" in your browser (Note the capitalization, phpPgAdmin and phppgadmin are different on Linux). Log in with the username and password you created in the PostgreSQL webmin module.

Have fun with your Fedora Linux Apache MySQL PostgreSQL PHP (Fedora LAMPP) server .

To configure Drupal in fedora, go here.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tekniaonline Issue 2

2009-10-19T23:17:00.000+03:00

You Can now download/view the latest issue of Tekniaonline here free of charge. (http://bit.ly/tekniaonline-2)

Configuring your network with Fedora Linux DNS/Squid Transparent Proxy

2009-07-24T10:55:00.000+03:00

This is a guide for setting up your network using fedora Linux as a DNS/Proxy server. This guide assumes that you have a router/switch that acts as a DHCP router.
Requirements
A server with 2 Ethernet cards

We then configure the 2 Ethernet cards such that one card will be located within your LAN while the other is configured with your internet gateway. In my set up, Eth 0 is on my LAN while Eth 1 connects directly to the internet. you can use the Network configuration Tool (Gnome)
System->Administration->Network
Eth 0 will use the router as its DNS and Gateway
Eth 1 will use the internet routers DNS and Gateway

Make sure that Bind DNS server and Squid are installed. you can install this by running the command
$ yum install bind squid

We then configure the Squid Proxy as follows(root privileges -su):

//# service servicename status
The above command checks the status of a service.
The squid configuration file can be dited by the following command using the gedit editor
# gedit /etc/squid/squid.conf

Backup the squid configuration file by using the following command. Maintain this file as your failsafe in case yoou mess up your configurations
# cp /etc/squid/squid.conf /etc/squid/squid.conf.bak

the above file is restored with the following command
# cp /etc/squid/squid.conf.bak /etc/squid/squid.conf

Confirm for right IP addresses in the following section of the squid configuration files

#Recommended minimum configuration:
acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
acl lan src 192.168.32.0/19 10.0.0.0/16
acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8
acl SSL_ports port 443
acl Safe_ports port 80 # http
acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp
acl Safe_ports port 443 # https
acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher
acl Safe_ports port 210 # wais
acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports
acl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt
acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http
acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker
acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http
acl CONNECT method CONNECT
The bolded section above are the address of your internet routers network and those of your switch LAN(just in case they are different, though it can have one source.
To start squid service:
# service squid start
or to restart the squid service:
# service squid restart

Thats all for Squid.
Now for the BIND DNS resolver

Start the BIND service if its not running
$service bind start
# gedit /etc/named.conf
in gedit, copy the above file to a new file. Do not edit the file you opened. All changes should be made on the new file. After making your changes, save the file as /etc/named.conf
//
// named.caching-nameserver.conf
//
// Provided by Red Hat caching-nameserver package to configure the
// ISC BIND named(8) DNS server as a caching only nameserver
// (as a localhost DNS resolver only).
//
// See /usr/share/doc/bind*/sample/ for example named configuration files.
//
// DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - use system-config-bind or an editor
// to create named.conf - edits to this file will be lost on
// caching-nameserver package upgrade.
//

options {
listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; 10.0.0.1; 192.168.32.2; 192.168.32.250;};
listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
directory "/var/named";
dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
allow-query { localhost; 192.168.32.0/19; 10.0.0.0/16; 192.168.32.250;};
recursion yes;
};

logging {
channel default_debug {
file "data/named.run";
severity dynamic;
};
};

view "lan" {
match-clients { localhost; 10.0.0.0/16; 192.168.32.0/19;}; // our network
recursion yes;
zone "domain" {
type master;
file "master.local.domain";
};

zone "." IN {
type hint;
file "named.ca";
};

include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";
};
changes should be made in the bolded areas.
restart the bind service
# service named restart

Thats all for the BIND server.

Now to the most important area, the iptables.

List the nat table; the rest are mangle-used for bridging- and the default filter which you can easily configure via the GUI.
# iptables -t nat -L
Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

redirect all incoming traffic to the squid proxy
# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128

All outgoing traffic to the internet
# iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j SNAT --to 192.168.32.2

# iptables -t nat -L
Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REDIRECT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:http redir ports 3128

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
SNAT all -- anywhere anywhere to:192.168.32.2

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Additional Info about invalid rules
To edit(delete) invalid rules in your iptables

invalid rule on iptable filter FORWARD Chain
# iptables -t filter -L FORWARD
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

list the rule on a specific chain(FORWARD)
# iptables -t filter -L FORWARD
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

delete the rule; usage table-chain-rule_number(filter-FORWARD-1)
# iptables -t filter -D FORWARD 1

check the iptable settings for the nat table as shown in previous documentation above.
Restart the iptables service
#service iptables restart

For easier configuration of all the above, use the webmin tool

Monitoring your LAN traffic

This tools enable you to monitor traffic and give you logs. IPtraf offers live monitoring while ntop enalbles you to monitor various things like:

sites visited
network load
network flow

to install them
IPtraf
# yum install iptraf
to run
$iptraf

Ntop
To Install
#yum install ntop
To configure
#ntop
+ to exit
To start service
#service ntop start
To use
http://localhost:3000
(username admin password; password you configured

Enjoy your networking.

show mplayer in console in linux when opened from gui

2009-07-09T17:42:00.000+03:00

Operating mplayer in the linux console may be easy for beginners, but what about if you want to operate it from the GUI, such that double clicking a track plays it.

First of all, you need to have installed xterm for the below command to work.

Go to any media file that you would like to play, select, then on the "open with" tab, enter the following command:

xterm -e mplayer

That should now play your files in a command line terminal, which will be displayed, rather than hidden when use the mplayer command only.

Works in Gnome, KDE.

alternatively, you can download the Real Player for Linux, from their website. This is really easy to use and install.

Digg Like CSS paginate script, Fixing white font for navigation keys.

2009-07-09T16:14:00.000+03:00



class Paginator{

    var $items_per_page;

    var $items_total;

    var $current_page;

    var $num_pages;

    var $mid_range;

    var $low;

    var $high;

    var $limit;

    var $return;

    var $default_ipp = 25;

    var $querystring;



    function Paginator()

    {

        $this->current_page = 1;

        $this->mid_range = 7;

        $this->items_per_page = (!empty($_GET['ipp'])) ? $_GET['ipp']:$this->default_ipp;

    }



    function paginate()

    {

        if($_GET['ipp'] == 'All')

        {

            $this->num_pages = ceil($this->items_total/$this->default_ipp);

            $this->items_per_page = $this->default_ipp;

        }

        else

        {

            if(!is_numeric($this->items_per_page) OR $this->items_per_page <= 0) $this->items_per_page = $this->default_ipp;

            $this->num_pages = ceil($this->items_total/$this->items_per_page);

        }

        $this->current_page = (int) $_GET['page']; // must be numeric > 0

        if($this->current_page <>current_page)) $this->current_page = 1;

        if($this->current_page > $this->num_pages) $this->current_page = $this->num_pages;

        $prev_page = $this->current_page-1;

        $next_page = $this->current_page+1;



        if($_GET)

        {

            $args = explode("&",$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);

            foreach($args as $arg)

            {

                $keyval = explode("=",$arg);

                if($keyval[0] != "page" And $keyval[0] != "ipp") $this->querystring .= "&" . $arg;

            }

        }



        if($_POST)

        {

            foreach($_POST as $key=>$val)

            {

                if($key != "page" And $key != "ipp") $this->querystring .= "&$key=$val";

            }

        }



        if($this->num_pages > 10)

        {

            $this->return = ($this->current_page != 1 And $this->items_total >= 10) ? "items_per_page$this->querystring\">« Previous ":"« Previous ";



            $this->start_range = $this->current_page - floor($this->mid_range/2);

            $this->end_range = $this->current_page + floor($this->mid_range/2);



            if($this->start_range <= 0)

            {

                $this->end_range += abs($this->start_range)+1;

                $this->start_range = 1;

            }

            if($this->end_range > $this->num_pages)

            {

                $this->start_range -= $this->end_range-$this->num_pages;

                $this->end_range = $this->num_pages;

            }

            $this->range = range($this->start_range,$this->end_range);



            for($i=1;$i<=$this->num_pages;$i++)

            {

                if($this->range[0] > 2 And $i == $this->range[0]) $this->return .= " ... ";

                // loop through all pages. if first, last, or in range, display

                if($i==1 Or $i==$this->num_pages Or in_array($i,$this->range))

                {

                    $this->return .= ($i == $this->current_page And $_GET['page'] != 'All') ? "num_pages\" class=\"current\" href=\"#\">$i ":"num_pages\" href=\"$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]?page=$i&ipp=$this->items_per_page$this->querystring\">$i ";

                }

                if($this->range[$this->mid_range-1] < $this->num_pages-1 And $i == $this->range[$this->mid_range-1]) $this->return .= " ... ";

            }

            $this->return .= (($this->current_page != $this->num_pages And $this->items_total >= 10) And ($_GET['page'] != 'All')) ? "items_per_page$this->querystring\">Next »\n":"» Next\n";

            $this->return .= ($_GET['page'] == 'All') ? "All \n":"querystring\">All \n";

        }

        else

        {

            for($i=1;$i<=$this->num_pages;$i++)

            {

                $this->return .= ($i == $this->current_page) ? "$i ":"items_per_page$this->querystring\">$i ";

            }

            $this->return .= "querystring\">All \n";

        }

        $this->low = ($this->current_page-1) * $this->items_per_page;

        $this->high = ($_GET['ipp'] == 'All') ? $this->items_total:($this->current_page * $this->items_per_page)-1;

        $this->limit = ($_GET['ipp'] == 'All') ? "":" LIMIT $this->low,$this->items_per_page";

    }



    function display_items_per_page()

    {

        $items = '';

        $ipp_array = array(10,25,50,100,'All');

        foreach($ipp_array as $ipp_opt)    $items .= ($ipp_opt == $this->items_per_page) ? "\n":"\n";

        return "Items per page:\n";

    }



    function display_jump_menu()

    {

        for($i=1;$i<=$this->num_pages;$i++)

        {

            $option .= ($i==$this->current_page) ? "\n":"\n";

        }

        return "Page:\n";

    }



    function display_pages()

    {

        return $this->return;

    }

}

CSS

If you are using the above PHP paginate script from this site, you may have problems with the page buttons having white text, which becomes invisible. The clolor of the text in the buttons, is almost impossible to cahnge. the fix is to change the color of the button background in the css by adding the below line

a.paginate {
border: 1px solid #000080;
padding: 2px 6px 2px 6px;
text-decoration: none;
background-color: #yourcolor;
color: #000080;
}

Improving your Internert Safety: Internet Accounts

2009-05-12T17:22:00.001+03:00

Over the last few weeks, a lot of people and organizations have been having a hectic time online.

Take the example of my friend, who was walking along the streets of Nairobi. He met a friend who was surprised to see him in the country, reason been that his friend had received an email from my friend. The email claimed that my friend was stuck in Nigeria, and had been robbed of everything. In the email to all of his friends, my friend had given an account to which cash assistance could be wired to.

My friend then rushed to a cybercafe, where he tried to log in to his yahoo account, but the password had been changed, together with the security questions required for requesting a forgotten password.

Case number 2 involves Rihanna and Cassie, where the world has been invited to sample their albums. This weren’t the multiplatinum musical albums associated with the former, but a collection of nude photographs of the 2, whose demand rivaled that of pornography stars.

Case number 3 involves the Kenya police and Google Kenya, Uganda and morocco. They all had their websites compromised by hackers.

It is now evident that no one is safe on the web, from security institutions, web authorities to you.

Case number 3 is beyond most of us, while case 2 is beyond to some extent. As for my friend whose e mail account was compromised, it was probably due to the trust he has in Yahoo, his email provider.

What I mean, is that his account was probably hacked by a hacker who tricked him into giving out his password, thinking that he was giving it to yahoo.

To achieve this, most hackers collect e mail addresses from forums and websites where people display their email addresses to their friends, or perhaps a forum. Such websites do not secure such email addresses, e.g. by making them pictures or by using captchas (those things that tell you to enter the words in the image below) Such unprotected email addresses are then collected by computers that scan websites for such email addresses (this computers are called botnets)

After a hacker collects your email address, they then send you an email purporting to be from yahoo (or Facebook or the targeted account). This email contains a link to another site, telling you that you need to click the link to change your password or to see something. Following the link takes you to a site which looks similar to your yahoo (or Gmail or Facebook etc) log in page. Here you then give your username and password, thinking that yahoo (I am tired of repeating the rest, so yahoo shall now stand in their place) asked for it.

The hacker now has your yahoo details. So he or she (hackers adopted affirmative action long time ago) now logs in to your yahoo account, and may change your password and security questions. Of course they now send your friends mail telling them how you stuck in Nigeria.

Another way they use is by use of viruses and worms, which record everything typed into an infected machine, and the website requested before you typed it in. To avoid this, use an updated reputable antivirus. Avoid pirated antivirus software, hackers have been know to re program them to ignore certain viruses, as once happened with a certain cracked Kaspersky antivirus. Also make sure that your operating system is patched by downloading the latest hot fixes for Microsoft

Windows esp. (Google this or contact your local geek for further explanation) You may as well switch to the less targeted Linux operating system, or ensure that the cybercafe comp you are using is running on Linux (given that few update their anti virus software).

As for your email address, always make sure you type in the address yourself, don’t use links. If you use a link which asks for your password, it should not be in a message, but on the websites functions.

It is also useful to double check the address on the address bar. For yahoo, make sure it is www.yahoo.com/whatever else or www.mail.yahoo.com (.co.uk etc)/whatever else. Please note that www.yahoo.hackers.com and www.hackers.yahoo.com are completely different sites. www.yahoo.hackers.com is a page contained in www.hackers.com hence not part of www.yahoo.com. The www.hackers.yahoo.com site is under www.yahoo.com. What matters is the name before the .com, .co.uk, .org etc and not the one after www. or anywhere else in the address.

Hope that this jumbled up bits of information will help you keep safer on the net, and keep those exciting pictures of you safer a bit.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Download issue #1 February 2009

2009-02-24T22:20:00.000+03:00

You can download the current February free issue of tekniaonline at http://bit.ly/tekniaonline1. To read, you need a pdf reader which can be downloaded here

Introduction

2009-02-24T22:09:00.000+03:00

Tekniaonline is a Kenyan electronic magazine that covers issues in the Information Communication & Technology Industry, both in Kenya and worldwide. Articles are written both by our knowledgeable writers and readers. anyone can send in article to be published, subject to approval by the baord of editors.

Tekniaonline is produced monthly, in electronic portable document format(pdf) and is available to all for free. you can also distribute it to your friends for free. To view our contacts, please download our publications.