My Hibernation

It seems like I have been unplugged from the real net for a while. It is just __good__ to stay connected. My blogging hobby was off the list, when I reached Bangalore. Well, now it is time to break the silence.

 

The File-system dilemma

I recently bought Seagate GoFlex FreeAgent Desk 2TB 3.5inch [ 😦 ] hard-disk. And I wanted to know which is the best file-system suited for my use.

I usually use ext2 for my pen drives. I wanted to know that, is there any added advantage using btrfs over ext4. My use is to store books of size (usually <20 MB ). Seperate partition for movies and tvseries ( 300MB < avg-size < 4GB) and tutorials (size <100MB) and lecture videos (size <350MB).

After some discussion I decided to go for ext4. And this post explains why.

When formatted to Ext2
command $: mkfs.ext2 -L “” /dev/sdb1
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398933504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006ec2e

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1      243202  1953513472   83  Linux

When Formatted to Ext 4
It took painstaking 18 minutes

I personally prefer to use ext4 after reading this link.
Also ext reserves 5% disk space for root.

The reserved blocks are there for root’s use. This allows the system to continue running if non-root users fill up the file system and also assists in preventing file fragmentation because the filesystem does not fill up completely.

So, in short, if the drive doesn’t contain /var or /tmp, then there’s not much point in having space reserved for root.
You can get that space back. By using tune2fsIt is a good tool.

sudo tune2fs -r 0 /dev/sdX to disable it. /*Here we set the “-r=reserved-blocks-count” to zero */

Some forums prefer that minimum 1% is recommended. You can modify the percentage of reserved block percentage too using tune2fs.

sudo tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdX to modift it. /* Here we modify (-m) “reserved-block-percentage” to 1% from the default 5% */

My earlier plan to format to Btrs was foolish at this point of time as it lacks tuning and debugging support. And gave a 100GB buffer space with the inferior FAT32 and 30 GB with NTFS so as to connect to my friend’s computers using windows.

With a larger maximum file size, fast fsck and journal checksumming ,  I chose ext4. Some benchmarking showed that ext4’s sequential read is better than sequential write as ext2 makes lesser writes than ext4 thereby increasing lifetime for your flashdrives.

Though ext4 makes more sequential writes to disks degrading performance for drives with data rarely modified. Unnecessary writes to your device can be avoided by using noatime flag in mount. You can over ride the default mount option again with tune2fs.

Further Read

• Migrating to Ext4
• Barriers and Journaling File Systems
• Discussions in forums
• noatime mount option
  

 

Insecure Vodafone femtocells allow eavesdropping, call fraud

Insecure Vodafone femtocells allow eavesdropping, call fraud

via Ars Technica by peter.bright@arstechnica.com (Peter Bright) on 14/07/11

Hackers have reverse engineered the femtocells used by British mobile operator Vodafone, and discovered that they can be used to eavesdrop on callers and used to fraudulently place calls and send text messages. Femtocells are being used increasingly often to provide better phone reception in areas with a weak signal. They contain short-range mobile base stations—typically with a range of 30-60 feet—paired up with Internet connections. Users within the range of the femtocell have their calls routed over a home Internet connection to the mobile operator's system.

Vodafone calls its femtocells Sure Signal. The Sure Signal costs £50, and supports up to 32 phone numbers belonging to 3G phones or Internet dongles. They can be used by any Vodafone customer, whether contracted or pay-as-you-go, with an Internet connection of 1Mbps or faster.

Read the comments on this post

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~ah/f/p5t6ra2auo51hja7iblc9aiftc/300/250?ca=1&fh=280#http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fsecurity%2Fnews%2F2011%2F07%2Finsecure-vodafone-femtocells-allow-eavesdropping-call-fraud.ars%3Futm_source%3Drss%26utm_medium%3Drss%26utm_campaign%3Drss

 

Jan-Lokpal vs Joke-pal

A mail I got. Thought, its worth sharing it.
—
Arjun S R
http://about.me/arjunsr

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ricken Patel – Avaaz.org <avaaz@avaaz.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 15:48
Subject: Jan-Lokpal vs Joke-pal
To: "arjun1296@gmail.com" <arjun1296@gmail.com>

To ensure you receive emails like this, add Avaaz to your contacts (how?). Or, click here to unsubscribe.
Dear friends across India,

The Government is breaking its promise to Anna Hazare and proposing a toothless "Joke-pal" bill. On Sunday, they'll appeal to all the opposition parties to stand with them in defending the corrupt status quo. Let's flood the parties with faxes in the next 72 hours calling on them to represent the people of India and support Jan-Lokpal not Joke-pal:

The Congress party is breaking its promise to Anna Hazare to agree on a strong bill and proposing their own sarkari Joke-pal provisions which make the bill toothless. To get the Joke-pal passed, they're appealing to all the other political parties to stand with them in defending India's corrupt status quo — holding an all-party meeting this Sunday.

The BJP and other parties have already spoken out strongly for parts of Jan Lokpal, now it's time for them to put words into action and prove to us that they share our desire to end corruption.

The parties all pay close attention to the faxes they receive from citizens — let's flood them with faxes calling for Jan Lokpal, not the sarkari Joke-pal. Add your voice now by clicking the link below or editing in your own personal message — our tool will fax the message to the leaders of the BJP, CPI, CPI(M), SP, TMC, JD(U), and the rest of the political parties:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/jan_lokpal_vs_joke_pal/?vl

Sunday is a crucial day for our Democracy — a special all party meeting — to set the terms of the historic Lokpal. For the government, the all party meeting is a chance to win allies for undercutting the Lokpal's most vital anti-corruption tools. But for us, this is a major opportunity to get the opposition to endorse the people’s version!

Corruption is a problem for virtually all the political parties, so there will be strong pressures in each of them to endorse the Joke-pal bill. But through massive citizen engagement we've forced the Congress party to at least include Jan Lokpal as an option — now through the same pressure we can press the opposition parties to choose it.

Faxes are the best way to reach party leaders on this urgent timeline. Click below to use a simple online tool to edit your own message or to send a pre-drafted letter by fax to all 17 party leaders, and help build our numbers by forwarding this email to friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/jan_lokpal_vs_joke_pal/?vl

Across the country, a movement against corruption has exploded, driving a media storm of pressure. Politicians have and will try every trick in the book to wriggle out of their promise to us and to Hazare. But every time they do we can come back even stronger — showing that our will to fight corruption is stronger than their will to defend it.

With hope,

Ricken, Saloni, Ben, Shibayan, David and rest of Avaaz team.

SOURCES:

Manmohan Singh calls all-party meeting on Lokpal Bill on July 3
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-06-25/news/29703009_1_lokpal-bill-anna-hazare-monsoon-session

Treat both Lokpal drafts equally: Team Anna
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Treat-both-Lokpal-drafts-equally-Team-Anna/articleshow/9019704.cms

Government not presenting factual picture of civil society's Lokpal Bill draft
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/government-not-presenting-factual-picture-of-civil-societys-lokpal-bill-draft-shanti-bhushan/articleshow/9019727.cms

BJP deplores UPA for "delaying" Lokpal Bill
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bjp-deplores-upa-for-delaying-lokpal-bill/162399-37-64.html

Lokpal: Anna reaches out to govt, Opposition
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/team-anna-reaches-out-to-govt-may-meet-sonia/163726-37-64.html

Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way — donate here.

---

Avaaz.org is a 9-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

This message was sent to arjun1296@gmail.com. To change your email address, language, or other information, contact us via this form. To unsubscribe, send an email to unsubscribe@avaaz.org or click here.

To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).

 

Finger simulated with RPC

The link is –>
https://github.com/arjunsr /myfinger

Click on the download button and do it as tar.gz file.

There is a README file attached

Just extract it
tar xvzf .tar.gz

There is a tutorial file. just go to the project tree directory and execute
“./play_tutorial”

compilation overhead is solved by to naive scripts ./clientcompile and
./servercompile scripts. Could have used “make” but was lazy. So
kindly bare with that.
Sorry once again to overkill the problem

 

Education in Kerala

This content is a mail that I sent to a mailing-list of which the identity will be kept secret for personal reasons.

Hi guys,

I  am   writing  this  mail   with  great  frustration  due   to  many
reasons. Well, I am from kerala. And  I am studying in one of the most
pioneering institutions of kerala. My  comments and reply to this mail
will be  solely based on  my experience in  the college. You  can take
this as a DISCLAIMER or whatever you feel like.

For who those wish to read this reply its a NOTICE that it may turn this
discussion to debate and it may turn political.

Q1) What problems have you faced in FOSS advocacy in your college? What are
the hurdles in FOSS/OpenSource adoption?

Let me be frank. I am a strong follower of Free Software, but some hackers
use the term OpenSource curtailing its Freedom. College has taken enough
steps to promote Free Software by installing GNU/Linux on almost all the
systems we(not only CS but also EC, EEE and ME branches) have in the lab.
I have been using linux for 4+ years. I feel it very soothing ‘coz every
day you learn *something*.

To promote FOSS we[4-5 of our group] formed a group called FOSSCET and was
giving lectures(courtesy:zyxware) on compiler technologies, GDB, BaSh
scripting etc. In the first day it brought a huge crowd but failed to
attract or seek attention of the people on the next sessions. Moreover we
were isolated thinking that we are aliens. Some of our seniors formed
“zyxware” and we seeked help from them. They supported us whole-heartedly
and even gave lectures on algorithms and so on. But later due to the indiff-
erent attitude of the students we had to discontinue the sessions.

AFAIK, people are not using Linux simply because they don’t want to learn
or try new things. Well, if they can’t WTF why being an engineer? Moreover
when I asked about the situation in other colleges came to know that their
condition was pitiable.

Thinking on “why they don’t want to try or learn new things?” I came to->
Our country or state is targetting at vocational education or job oriented
studies. Kerala alone produces 24,000+ engineers annually.
* From school age students are not encouraged to ask questions
* Teacher don’t support it because they are incapable of guiding kids
or they are simply helpless.
* So, after 10-12 years of school education it nearly converges students
questioning capability or in simple words __curiosity__ to ZERO.

School is the place where every kid starts there experiments with the world.
In school, for computer science we learned MS WORD, MS EXCEL, ORACLE
etc. Why can’t the curriculum make it as simple a word-processing package,
spreadsheet package, and DBMS with MySQL. Moreover for 11 and 12 grade CS
students, it was *turboc*. I mean WTF? Using a 16bit compiler in a 64-bit
world. Curriculum itself is flawed.

But now after learning LaTeX. I would recommend people to use LaTeX to make
documents and presentations(beamer). Anyway this may seem a big headache for
small kids to learn LaTeX(it would rather be a burden when there is a simple
WYSIWYG Free Software solution like LibreOffice).

Culture of the people in kerala(‘coz i dont know condition about other
states) is like they are very egoistic and want their kids to be engine-
ers and doctors. They don’t like kids to follow their passion. By this
the nation loses kids with inborn talent on the wide facet of knowlege.
Its a matter of prestige for parents to say that their kid is a ENGG or
a Dr.

Well, some of us maybe very lucky to fall into hands of good mentors to
not to follow the herd and start to make choices of our own.Kids when
they start thinking of career and higher studies, parents starts to say

– This is our tradition. Our family is full of doctors so you should
also be a doctor
– Their relative Appukuttan is an engineer. He earns 1lac a month.So you
also become an engineer.
– This is our prestige issue beta. please make a wise choice.

There are even people who think that Computer Science is all about browsing
chatting and emailing. [how sad]

College life is like ” Go get what you want ”
In College,we waste 1 complete year(first yr)learning the following papers

1) Basic Mechanical Engineering
2) Basic Electrical Engineering
3) Basic Electronics Engineering
4) Basic Civil Engineering
5) Physics
6) Chemistry
7) Mathematics
\8) Graphics
9) Mechanics
10)Mechanical Workshop

(Anyways not Basic Computer Science Engineering)
Except Physics and Mathematics, It seems to be a total waste to spend time
in studying useless papers which obviously the guy is not going to use in
his lifetime.

After 10-12 years of schooling the *Go get what you want* model won’t work
really well(‘coz of their deteriorated curiosity). Apart from these problems
there is the FUD factor who are willing to take a look at FOSS technologies.

However,to increase the Free Software usage in our college we setup a mirror
for ubuntu, debian and archlinux. As of now the systems within the college’s
network use our mirror. Got to see how will it be success.

Q2) What are your suggestions to improve FOSS/Linux adoption in your
college?

I would like to emphasize that
* schooling is almost flawed
* outlook of people need to change
* political initiatives regarding education needs a radical change
which obviously isn’t going to happen in the near future.
* For CS branch,papers like Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Distribut-
ed Systems, Microprocessors(still use the 8085), Theory of Computation and
Compiler design is 5th-8th semesters. If it were in the first half of
B.Tech it would have given students enough time to explore the details and
try out something in it.

Solution :

* Make massive speech on the issues of software freedom.
* Make both govt and private schools to use FOSS technologies or make it as
a standarization criteria for private schools and colleges.
* Adoption of Free Software technologies need to be there in the accredtati-
on standards
* Change the syllabus.
* Make use of social media as a firm platform of development of FOSS, which
obviously every people use nowadays.
* Make advertisements in channels to inform them about the impending danger
on using proprietary technologies. [though sounds absurd, its the only way]

Q3) What are the methods do you consider will be good for FOSS adoption. I
will name one.. Seminar/Workshop.. What are the option option ??

FOSS is famous only among the techie community rather than common man, so
it is very important for naive users to know about FOSS. Though some of the
methods that I suggest may sound absurd, one or the other way it will surely
help us.

Community tasks

* seminar and workshops ( y )
* good, liberal and active helping and supporting community[which we have]
* Like Google does GSoC we should start a small hackathon for both school
and College students. It has to be regular and un-biased on any basis.
Else the event may sound as a competition b/w colleges and so on.
* Conferences like FOSS.IN should be made regularly.
* Well, illustrated and organized video tutorials on GNU Emacs, VIM, GDB,
GCC, familiarization of GNU Coreutils, PERL, PYTHON3, LaTeX, Qt, GTK+,
IDE’s, git, hg, drupal ; including its customizations etc [Lang:English].

Though the tutorial making thing is very difficult as developers won’t
be able to dedicate there valuable time doing this. It will be really
worth doing.

Advertising tasks

* moving speeches in public meetings regarding free software can people
atleast __think__ of switching to free software
* celebrity promotion is needed [though they may don’t give a F*** on FOSS]
it will surely seek attention of the people
* Goodies can attract students to the events and it will be a WIN-WIN
approach. eg: T-shirts etc.

 

Election going on!

Today I voted the 3rd time. First time it was for Lok Sabha election, second it was for the state level election for counselors and blah blah. Now, its to select the new government in the State of Kerala.

With satyagraha of anna hazare going on and the central government is too helpless in bring out a proper rule.

Hindu reports

For people who don’t know anything about Hazare. Read this

I pity them. Whenever I think about politics the first thing that comes to my mind is corruption. I don’t know why is it so. Maybe the movies I saw in my childhood must have made me think like that or the deeds of our fellow politicians. I know that I am not perfect nor I don’t want everybody to be perfect. I am not of man who want the world to be Utopia anyways.

But I just don’t want the world to be blind and ignorant towards the injustice done to us. In all the black money, all the corruption, all the injustice and with thousands of cases as examples.

We know many of the politicians have been arrested for goonda kind of activity, fights, killings, mafia relations, child molesters, rapes and on and on. They don’t even give a f**k about the society and they dare to contest in the election. [WTF??]

Why has the world gone so blind? Though the politicians are guilty of heinous crimes why are these people voting for them. Isn’t there any good leader? Is Kerala or India lacking proper leadership?

As far as I know Indians are very ignorant. They ignore every sort of mistakes that happen around them. Think i have to make a separate post about it.

Today I just saw one of my cousins he says the election in Tamil Nadu is going to interesting. And said there is a news of people promising Cable TV sets to family if DMK wins and Laptop to family if AIADMK wins the election. How sad? We all know that the well known ministers from TN is accused of 2G scam. AFAIK the amount that can be spend on a candidate for election is about 16Lakhs. Have people gone blind? And still they dare to spend so much money and give such provoking promises to citizens or in other words BRIBING CITIZENS

Politicians BRIBE the citizens once in 5 years and ask or force CITIZENS to BRIBE them for the next 5year term to do even legitimate and legal things in the proper channel. Come on people wake up. Use your power at least once in five years.

Its high time for a social-cultural-technical-legal-political Renaissance.

PS: I have just expressed my views in this post. People who says that hey I think this kid is from our party and blah blah. Just one answer.

ans: P*** OFF
I am an INDIAN. I don’t have any party. Any similarity of views in this post to your views is merely coincidental.

 

How to read my blog !

Friends,
I am well known for complicating my speech and confusing people. I will be having only simple things to say. But friends blame me of making my speech confusing and obfuscate it so that none of them listening know what I talk about. So there is no point in writing how to read my blog.

I love topics like Physics, Computer Science, free software, distributed computing, system programming, scripting, psychology, religion, politics. . .  . There are more subjects to be explored to check my interest. So this blog will be containing my views on various subjects under the sun.

However I am writing this just to make sure how posting is done through the mechanism that is available. If found any serious technical mistakes, kindly ignore it. 😉