SIM Card Registration Failed Solution

Few days ago I sent a message on twitter "Anyone know the reason for Nokia's SIM Card Registration Failed problem?". Got quite a few solutions from my friends . It is the most common problem with Nokia mobile phones. Restarting the phone few times or removing SIM and cleaning the contacts also fixes the problem. Try some of the solutions that worked for me.

Solution 1: Blocked SIM or Faulty SIM

In countries like India, you need to register your SIM card. The cell phone company blocks the SIM if they don't receive the application within few weeks of activating the phone. Please check if this is case.

Take out the SIM and test it with a different phone, if the phone fails to read the SIM, get the SIM replaced. Few days ago this worked for a friend with a brand new Nokia handset here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Solution 2: Clean SIM Contact Pins

Take out the battery and SIM card. Use a clean eraser to wipe the gold contacts of the phone and on back the SIM card. Replace the SIM and make sure its firmly held in place. Few phones tend to start to working when you bang them on your palm a few times due to this reason. Tighten the tiny screws on the back panel of the phone near the SIM card if they are loose.

Solution 3: Phone Software/Hardware Issues

Despite all your efforts, the phone refuses to work then try to the phone repaired or replaced. Some users found that the cellphone firmware upgrade tends to fix this issue. I got a Nokia phone firmware upgraded, it fixed the problem for few months. But the phone started to have the problem again.

Unfortunately there seems to be no sure fix for this problem. Most cell phone service centers including Nokia Authorized shops often fails fix this annoyance. They even charge you service fee just for checking the phone :( .

I would love to hear your experiences, have you had this problem? Did you manage to fix it. Thank you ajuonline, BasilKurian, geohacker for your suggestions.

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Google Nexus S

You heard about Google Nexus S and all the buzz right. Well, I asked a friend what he thought about his shinny new Nexus S. He said the he found the 4" Contour phone display screen little odd and the phone does seems to get hot.

What are your thoughts about Nexus S?

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Create Android apps with a web browser

Googlelabs Inventor for Android lets you create Android applications with a web browser. No programming experience needed!

Creating an App Inventor app begins in your browser, where you design how the app will look. Then, like fitting together puzzle pieces, you set your app's behavior. All the while, through a live connection between your computer and your phone, your app appears on your phone. Read more...

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MeeGo Road Show in Hanoi

Vietsoftware and Intel co-hosting a MeeGo roadshow in Hanoi on December 28, 2010 in Hanoi.

MeeGo Roadshow Event Details

• 9:30 to 10:00 Registration and Welcome guest


• 10:00 to 10:15 Welcome speech


• 10:15 to 10:30 Introduction MeeGo Core


• 10:30 - 10:45 Introduction Asianux distribution on the MeeGo Lite 2.2


• 10:45 to 11:00 Demo Lite Asianux 2.2


• 11:00 to 11:30 Introduction Intel AppUp and development programs.


• 11:30 to 11:50 Gifts!


• 12:00 to 13:30 Lunch

Location: Saigon Hotel - 80 Ly Thuong Kiet, Hanoi

Get in touch with Trang or Hoa for registration

Ms. Trang: trang.nguyen @ metanvietnam.com

Ms. Hoa: hoaptt@asianux.org.vn

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Google Mobile Maps 5.0 for Android

If you are excited by the Google Maps UI features demo by
Google's Andy Rubin @ Dive Into Mobile. You can try them out on your android phone with the new release of Google Maps 5.0 for Android

With Google Maps for mobile 5.0 you can explore maps in 3D—tilt,
rotate and try “compass mode” to see new perspectives that can help
you navigate around. Maps are now more reliable when you’re offline,
and we’ve added offline rerouting in Google Maps Navigation (beta). To
get the latest version, search for “Google Maps” in Android Market and
update. Note that not all new features will be available for all
phones. Read our blog post for more information.


http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/next-generation-of-mobile-maps.html

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Firefox 4 Daily builds on Ubuntu 10.10

Last evening I met Firefox Hacker Dietrich Ayala in Hanoi. He was surprised that I don't use firefox 4 yet. So here what I did to get the daily builds of firefox 4 onto my Ubuntu 10.10 machine.

# Add the mozilla daily builds PPA 
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox-4.0

# Make Firefox 4 as default browser
sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
There are 3 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/chromium-browser   40        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/chromium-browser   40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/firefox            40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/firefox-4.0        40        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/firefox-4.0 to provide /usr/bin/x-www-browser (x-www-browser) in manual mode.

Testing Firefox Babies

Firefox is my most commonly used application, coming next only to terminal and Emacs text editor. Perhaps I would able to isolate and report more problem in the coming months. Accessibility and UI issue are at the top my list right now.

Have a look at the presentation of how you can help to make firefox better.

Testing Baby Foxes

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How to install Sun JDK on Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick meerkat”?

Surprised to find that Sun Java packages were missing in Ubuntu Maverick (10.10). The new Ubuntu release uses OpenJDK by default. I needed sun-java6-jdk package to use a eclipse IDE development Android ADT plugin.

Found the solution in this StackOverFlow thread
How to install Sun JDK on Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick meerkat”?

# Add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk 

# Get rid of OpenJDK 
sudo apt-get remove openjdk-6-jdk openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib 

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Managing Creative ZEN Mozaic with mtp-tools

Using the Creative Zen Mozaic in Ubuntu 10.10 is a nuisance. The ubuntu standard Rhythmbox Music Player has problems with this MTP portable player. In previous version of Ubuntu Gnomad2 was used to manage these devices, but it is no longer available in latest verion.

My solution is to use the mtp-tools on command line. You can install the package by typing the following line on the terminal or use Ubuntu software center program.


sudo apt-get install mtp-tools

Next get rid of the Gnome Gphoto2 VFS program that will try to automount the device as a camera.

killall gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

Now you are all set. Connect the device and lets see if we can detect the player with mpt-detect command.

$ mtp-detect
libmtp version: 1.0.3

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=041e and PID=4161) is a Creative ZEN Mozaic.
   Found 1 device(s):
   Creative: ZEN Mozaic (041e:4161) @ bus 1, dev 6
Attempting to connect device(s)
USB low-level info:
   Using kernel interface "usbfs"
   bcdUSB: 512
   bDeviceClass: 255
   bDeviceSubClass: 0
   bDeviceProtocol: 0
   idVendor: 041e
   idProduct: 4161
   IN endpoint maxpacket: 512 bytes
   OUT endpoint maxpacket: 512 bytes
   Raw device info:
      Bus location: 1
      Device number: 6
      Device entry info:
         Vendor: Creative
         Vendor id: 0x041e
         Product: ZEN Mozaic
         Vendor id: 0x4161
         Device flags: 0x00000001

Now to get the list of folders on the device, use mtp-folders command.

To deleting a folder, type mtp-delfile -n <id> .

Lets create a new folder and copy all the mp3 files from the current folder to the device.




mtp-newfolder Classic_Hits Music 0


find -name *mp3 -exec mtp-sendfile {} <folderid> \;




If you have a similar MTP portable player, hope this short tutorial will get you started.

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Change Samba Password Expiry Setting with pdbedit

We have a Zentyal (Formerly EBox) Linux Small Business Server running as our office file/print server. Its runs smoothly hardly needs any maintenance. Except for this one issue, every few weeks I hear complains from staff that they can't logon to file server.

Quick peek at the Samba server logs reveals that 'password expired'. So there is password aging setting in force here.

 
[2010/12/05 17:33:45, 1] auth/auth_sam.c:sam_account_ok(179) sam_account_ok: Account for user 'tom' password expired!.
[2010/12/05 17:33:45, 1] auth/auth_sam.c:sam_account_ok(180) sam_account_ok: Password expired at 'Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:20:57 SST' (1291515657) unix time. 

Lets remedy that using Samba pdbedit tool. We are gonna reset the 'Password must change' policy to all the users on the server.

Zentyal uses LDAP to manage the passwords, so we use '-b' option to point to the LDAP backend. And we change the default policy to passwords never expire.

pdbedit -b ldapsam:ldapi://var/run/slapd/ldapi  -P 'maximum password age' -C -1

account policy "maximum password age" description: Maximum password age, in seconds (default: -1 => never expire passwords)
account policy "maximum password age" value was: 0
account policy "maximum password age" value is now: 4294967295

# Defaults Before reset 
Unix username:        tom
NT username:          tom
Account Flags:        [U          ]
User SID:             S-1-5-21-3818554400-921237426-3143208535-5056
Primary Group SID:    S-1-5-21-3818554400-921237426-3143208535-513
Full Name:            Tom Thumb
Home Directory:       \\filesrvr\homes\tom
HomeDir Drive:        H:
Logon Script:         logon.bat
Profile Path:         
Domain:               SRV
Account desc:         Thumb Sucker
Workstations:         
Munged dial:          
Logon time:           0
Logoff time:          never
Kickoff time:         never
Password last set:    Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:46:51 SST
Password can change:  Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:46:51 SST
Password must change: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:46:51 SST
Last bad password   : 0
Bad password count  : 0
Logon hours         : FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
init_sam_from_ldap: Failed to get password history for user director

# After reset

Unix username:        tom
NT username:          tom
Account Flags:        [U          ]
User SID:             S-1-5-21-3818554400-921237426-3143208535-5056
Primary Group SID:    S-1-5-21-3818554400-921237426-3143208535-513
Full Name:            Tom Thumb
Home Directory:       \\filesrvr\homes\tom
HomeDir Drive:        H:
Logon Script:         logon.bat
Profile Path:         
Domain:               SRV
Account desc:         Thumb Sucker
Workstations:         
Munged dial:          
Logon time:           0
Logoff time:          never
Kickoff time:         never
Password last set:    Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:46:51 SST
Password can change:  Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:46:51 SST
Password must change: never
Last bad password   : 0
Bad password count  : 0
Logon hours         : FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

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How to switch to OpenDNS in Ubuntu

I prefer using OpenDNS instead of local ISP DNS servers. OpenDNS is faster, better and totally free. Read the How to switch to OpenDNS in Ubuntu for faster browsing post on OMG Ubuntu to learn more.

What OpenDNS can do

OpenDNS is available to use for free and comes with plenty of features that make it a more desirable option over that of your ISP – not least of which is speeding up your browsing!

OpenDNS works anywhere in the world via a global network of servers that ensure all of your DNS requests automatically go to the OpenDNS server that’s physically closest to you.

“The result is an immediately-noticeable faster, more reliable Internet for everyone in your household.”

The service is so good it’s even used by many well-know brands all over the world, with customers ranging from Nvidia & BP to Lush! cosmetics and DC shoes.

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How to Convert .BIN/.CUE Files to .ISO in Ubuntu

Here is another way to convert BIN/CUE’s files to ISO CD format in Linux. Before you start install the ccd2iso package using your system package manager.

 ccd2iso <.img filename> <.iso filename>
 ccd2iso cdimage.bin newcdimage.iso

Another solution would be to use the bchunk program explained in this post

bchunk filename.bin filename.cue filename.iso

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KeePassX Cross Platform Password Manager

Ask me my phone number, I have to look it up. But I do have uncanny memory for passwords. May be I type them so often that they are etched in my brain.

If you have manage a large set of usernames and password KeePassX is a good choice. It is good way to manage all your access information for the a SME organization. You can organize the data into different categories (Local Networking information, Mail Server, Webserver, Emails account information etc)

Automated password generation is another feature that I use often. You can choose the length of the password and the combination of numeric, special characters. Its cross platform available for multiple operating systems so if your boss uses Windows, it will still work.

KeePassX Features

• Extensive management- title for each entry for its better identification
  
  - possibility to determine different expiration dates
  
  - insertion of attachments
  
  - user-defined symbols for groups and entries
  
  
  - fast entry dublication
  
  - sorting entries in groups


• Search function
  
  - search either in specific groups or in complete database


• Autofill (experimental)


• Database security
  
  - access to the KeePassX database is granted either with a password, a key-file (e.g. a CD or a memory-stick) or even both.


• Automatic generation of secure passwords
  
  - extremly customizable password generator for fast and easy creation of secure passwords



• Precaution features- quality indicator for chosen passwords- hiding all passwords behind asterisks


• Encryption- either the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or the Twofish algorithm are used
  
  - encryption of the database in 256 bit sized increments


• Import and export of entries
  
  - import from PwManager (*.pwm) and KWallet (*.xml) files- export as textfile (*.txt)


• Operating system independent
  
  - KeePassX is cross platform, so are the databases, as well


• Free software
  
  KeePassX is free software, published under the terms of the General Public License, so you are not only free to use it free of charge, but also to redistribute it, to examine and/or modify it’s source code and to publish your modifications as long as you provide the same freedoms for your modified version.

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BlindLead.org HTML5 accessible wordpress website

Few weeks ago I received a email from Ted Moallem, we collaborated on Blind Lead project in August this year. The BlindLead.org project website seems to be inaccessible to screen readers users. Ted used the latest version Wordpress 3.0 content management system (CMS), but Black Letterhead wordpress theme and the page structure were creating some problems.

Decided to attempt redesign the website using HTML5. HTML5 offers many accessibility improvements with new elements, ARIA landmark roles etc. Initially I thought of building with Starkers HTML5 theme. However Wordpress ships with a HTML5 complaint theme Twenty Ten so I decided to stick with it. Added some rounded corners, little bit of typographical changes, disabled the sidebar widgets for now. And the site looks better already.

Next I set about cleaning up the inline styles in the page content. Some of the styles were introduced by the wordpress editor and other external editors.The pages structure needed some re-organizing as well. Added headers instead of just bold text. The Web Developer Document Outline feature comes in handy here. You can access it from Web Developer > Information > View Document Outline menu item.

Right now we have only few pages, blog posts, photo gallery and accessible widgets would be added to the site soon. This is my first HTML5 website, there is lots of things to be fixed. So give me your feedback and share your experiences working with HTML5 accessibility.

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Nina Universal Braille Teacher

Here is yet another innovation from N.Krishnaswamy the creator of Universal Braille Kit (UBK)

Nina Universal Braille Teacher is battery operated handheld device which aids teaching and learning of braille alphabets. This model is designed for the English language, but other languages are also supported. The Nina Universal Braille Teacher is available two models, a teacher model built with LEDs to provide visual indicators for sighted teachers and the student model with audio messages only.

The device is manufactured at Workshop For Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped (Worth Trust) in India.

If you are interested to procure the device, please do get in touch with Worth Trust.

Worth Trust
48, New Tiruvalam Road

Katpadi, Tamil Nadu (India)

Phone: 0416-2242739 0416-2243464

Email: worth@md3.vsnl.net.in

Website: http://www.worthtrust.org.in

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AEGIS project video

AEGIS is an EC-funded FP7 project that seeks to determine whether 3rd generation access techniques will provide a more accessible, more
exploitable and deeply embeddable approach in mainstream ICT (desktop, rich
Internet and mobile applications).

You can now view the AEGIS project video online here.

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Drupal Installation Profiles, Distributions and Features

When you think you learnt all about Drupal CMS. You stumble across across few new features that boggle your mind. Have you stumbled across Drupal Installation Profiles, Drupal Distributions and Drupal Features yet?

If you haven't heard about these, don't worry. Read Isaac Sukin wonderful article Simplifying Use-Specific Drupal Sites: Installation Profiles vs. Distributions vs. Features

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Japan-Vietnam Workshop on Software Engineering 2010 (JVSE 2010)

JVSE 2010 is the third joint workshop on
software engineering aiming to further strengthen the progressive
R&D collaboration between Japan and Vietnam. This workshop intends
to exchange on-going research topics in software engineering and
related fields as well as to find possible research collaboration of
all participants. In particular, theoretical researchers are encouraged
to present the research results that would be implemented as tools.
Graduate students and young researchers are encouraged to present their
on-going research and initial results, and to participate to obtain new
ideas and overview of current trends. JVSE 2010 is a special event to
celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Establishment of Faculty of
Information Technology, University of Engineering and Technology, VNU
Hanoi.

The workshop is about all aspects related to software
engineering. The topics include but are not limited to the following
categories:

• Software specification and verification


• Software testing


• Formal methods and industrial case studies


• Component-based development


• Software evolution


• Software metrics and measurement


• Software process improvement


• Real-time and fault-tolerant software


• Modern software architectures


• Multi-agent systems


• Software services and cloud computing

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Keijiro Araki, Kyushu U., Japan


• Zhenjiang Hu, NII, Japan


• Hiroyuki Iida, JAIST, Japan


• Atsushi Ohori, Tohoku U., Japan


• Kazuhiro Ogata, JAIST, Japan


• Mizuhito Ogawa, JAIST, Japan


• Koichiro Ochimizu, JAIST, Japan


• Masahiko Sakai , Nagoya U., Japan


• Hiroyuki Seki, NAIST, Japan


• Akihiko Takano, NII, Japan


• Shoji Yuen, Nagoya U. , Japan

Event Details

• Event Name: Japan-Vietnam Workshop on Software Engineering 2010 (JVSE 2010)


• Date:
  Thursday, December 9, 2010
  
  11:00p - Friday, December 10, 2010 12:00am




• Location: Room 212, E3 building, 144 Xuan Thuy rd., Cau Giay dist., Hanoi, Vietnam


• Website: http://www.coltech.vnu.edu.vn/~hoangta/jvse2010/

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Jackie Sawiris: He Must Be a Friend

My friend Jackie was assaulted in Amman. She has been fighting harassment through the objecDEFY harassment project.

objecDEFY Harassment is a women-powered, Arab world-based, self-perpetuating system that empowers women to combat harassment.

Please help break the silence and spread the word. Jackie speaks about her ordeal here.

"He Must be a Friend" (www.7iber.com)

"Must be a Friend" (www.sawtalniswa.com)

Visit the www.objecDEFY.com website and join the efforts to fight back.

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Go Rock Portable Speakers

Love listening to music while hacking on my computer. The go-rock portable speakers are my prized possessions. I use the go-rock single portable speaker
to listen music on mp3 audio player. The battery lasts for few days, always carry this speaker when traveling or spending time outdoors.

Got a second go-rock portable stereo speakers for mostly watching DVDs on my laptop. This speakers are designed in shape of an over sized pill, they break up to form two left and right speakers. The USB and Line-in cables can be retractable easily, just pull the cable and spring action will retract the cable smoothly.

The audio quality of go-rock portable speakers is good. You can unscrew the top for BASS mode. They are small enough to fit into my laptop bag and can be recharged with USB. Never had any problems with these speakers, except once I broke the locking notch by applying to much pressure. If you are looking for great portable speakers, go for go-rock.

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George the robot makes a come back at 60

Robots, the stuff of my childhood dreams. Tony Sale revives the much loved robot George, the 6 foot robot made from scrap metal. It is remotely controlled can walk, move the arms and turn his head. The robot inspired the whole generation and found its way into popular fiction.

Newsreel From 1950

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Getting Started With Sahana-Eden

I was introduced to Sahana Open Source Disaster Management Platform few years ago at FOSS.in 2008. But never contributed any code to this project until the SahanaCamp 1.2 in Hanoi last week.

Sahana-Eden is based on web2py python web development framework. Coding with Model-View-Control(MVC) framework is breath of fresh air and I dived headlong into the code on day one of the event. Thanks to Fran Boon, for helping creating this quick tutorial for Sahana-eden developer setup.

# Get all dependent packages for sahana-eden 
sudo apt-get install python-lxml python-reportlab python-xlwt python-shapely libgeos-3.2.0

# Create a directory to store web2py and sahana-eden source files
mkdir ~/Sahana

cd Sahana

# Checkout web2py source code
bzr branch lp:~mdipierro/web2py/devel web2py

# web2py applications are stored in directory
cd web2py/applications

# Checkout sahana-eden source
# Note web2py doesn't like - in directory names (Thanks fran!)
bzr branch lp:sahana-eden eden

# Change to base directory
cd ~/Sahana

# Launch rocket web server with password 'eden' 
python web2py/web2py.py -a eden 
web2py Enterprise Web Framework
Created by Massimo Di Pierro, Copyright 2007-2010
Version 1.85.3 (2010-09-18 07:07:46)
Database drivers available: pysqlite2
Starting hardcron...
please visit:
       http://127.0.0.1:8000
starting browser...in 5 seconds

# Open the webpage and login with password 'eden'
firefox http://127.0.0.1:8000/eden

# On first run, sahana-eden creates 000_config.py and cron/ files
# Change FINISHED_EDITING_CONFIG_FILE = True in 000_config.py file
nano web2py/applications/eden/models/000_config.py

# You are done! Start hacking and send it your patches!

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Installing mod_pagespeed

You must have heard Google released mod_pagespeed module for the Apache web server. The mod_pagespeed module improves web page speeds by delivering optimized formats of CSS, Javascript and images on the fly and turning on HTTP caching options. If you are interested read the in-depth technical details on mod_pagespeed filters page.

So you want to get started with mod_pagespeed?. Site Point has published a good guide to Apache mod_pagespeed installation Optimization Made Easy with mod_pagespeed .

Dreamhost users can take advantage of this module right away, it takes less than a minute enable mod_pagespeed using Dreamhost Panel.

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Convert MagicISO UIF to ISO

This morning I have the unfortune task of converting MagicISO (Universal Image Format, used by MagicISO) to standard CD image. Thankfully Ubuntu linux has 'uif2iso' program for this purpose.

First install the package and then run the follow command to convert the .uif file.

sudo apt-get install uif2iso   
 
uif2iso image.uif image.iso

UIF2ISO 0.1.7
by Luigi Auriemma
e-mail: aluigi@autistici.org
web:    aluigi.org

- open image.uif

  file size    000000003118ba6d
  version      4
  image type   8
  padding      0
  sectors      494134
  sectors size 2048
  blhr offset  0000000031184e6c
  blhr size    27649
  hash         8f60ec4f532c6729852bab2b1f082890
  others       00000040 00000000 01 02 01 00 00000000

- enable magiciso_is_shit encryption
- ISO output image format
- create image.iso
- start unpacking:
  100%
- 0x000000003c51b000 bytes written
- finished

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Apps for Development Competition

The Apps for Development Competition aims to bring together software developers and development practitioners to use World Bank data in the creation of innovative software applications.



The Competition challenges participants to develop software apps related to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The apps could serve to raise awareness, measure progress, or
help achieve the MDGs. The app should also use one or more datasets from
the World Bank Data Catalog, found at http://data.worldbank.org.



For example, a technology student or an employee in a
computer company can create a program that predicts the concentration of
internet use in various parts of the world 5 or 10 years from now.



Or, a government office can get data from Doing Business
and create an application that would locate the country that is most
conducive for the country's investment based on trading across borders
and taxes.



The following link has a video with many other ideas that
came out of a meeting between software developers and development
specialists in the warm-up to the competition launch: http://appsfordevelopment.challengepost.com/resources#ideas



Who can enter? Entries may be made by any individuals or teams, including researchers, academics, policy makers, non-profit or civil society organizations, private sector companies, statisticians, software developers, social entrepreneurs, etc.



What kind of “apps” or applications are eligible, and
how will they be assessed? Any software application—whether web-based,
mobile, SMS, smart phone, desktop, or tablet—that includes World Bank
data will be qualified, as long as it meets the eligibility requirements
set forth on the official Competition website.



Prizes



First Prize $15,000 USD

Second Prize $10,000 USD

Third Prize $5,000 USD

Honorable Mentions (5) $2,000 USD Each

Popular Choice Award $5,000 USD

Large Organization Recognition Award: The Large
Organization Award winner will receive public acknowledgement, but no
cash prize.



Deadline for submissions is January 10, 2011.



For more information, rules, and submission guidelines, go to www.worldbank.org/appsfordevelopment





Apps for Development Competition Video Conference - Hanoi


This video
conference session is organized to brief you about the competition in
details.
The video conference will be held on Tuesday, November 02, 2010, from 6pm to 9pm.



Venue: Vietnam Development Information Center, 2nd floor, 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi.



For registration, please contact Ms Vu Thi Nha, office phone: 04-3934 6845, email: nvu2@worldbank.org.

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Sahana Camp in Hanoi Vietnam

SahanaCamp 1.2 will be held from November 2-5, 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam, sponsored by IBM Vietnam

SahanaCamp 1.2 is a 4 day event to show participants how information technology can help with Disaster Management through the Sahana Eden Open Source Disaster Management Platform. Sahana Eden has been deployed in numerous disasters including the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and Pakistan Floods. SahanaCamp will be an intensive, interactive and participatory event, where participants will get hands on experience using the Sahana Eden Platform. The event will be facilitated by Fran Boon and Michael Howden from the Sahana Software Foundation, who have extensive experience in using technology for Disaster Management and have run similar SahanaCamps in India and Taiwan. SahanaCamp will contain general sessions for people interested in using Sahana Eden for disaster management and technical sessions for people who are interested in supporting the use of Sahana Eden in Vietnam and contributing to the Sahana Eden project.

Spaces are limited. Applications close Thursday, 14 October. Register for SahanaCamp 1.2

For more information, please contact Michael Howden or visit SahanaCamp 2.1 home page.

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Web Accessibility Initiative in India: Technology, Standards and Implementation workshop

W3C India office and Yahoo! India Research & Development is organizing a Workshop on Web Accessibility Initiative
in India: Technology, Standards and Implementation on 11 December
2010, Bangalore. Workshop would provide the technology developers, web
service and solution providers, Policy makers, NGOs and users a unique
platform for understanding the common needs and implementation issues.

The special focus of workshop will be on multilingual requirements in
web accessibility area and capturing the requirements for Indian
languages as per W3C WCAG 2.0 Standards.

The details of the workshop may be referred at: http://www.w3cindia.in/wai_conf/waiweb.html .

The workshop is free of Cost and the last date for registration is 25th November 2010.

Topics to be Covered in Workshop

W3C and Web Accessibility Initiative

• Overview of Web accessibilty and role of W3C Standards


• WCAG 2.0


• WAI-Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0

Web Accessibility Status in India

• Challenges Multilingual web Access


• Adoption of W3C WCAG 2.0


• Guidelines for Indian Government websites-Roadmap from Web Accessibility respective and Accessibility of PDF and OFFICE documents


• Certification,Compliance and Evaluation tools



• Casestudy : Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Emerging Technology and Web Accessibility Implications

• HTML 5.0 and Accessibility


• Mobile Web and Accessibility


• Accessibility Issues for Next Generation Devices

Technology Development for Multilingual Accessibility in India

• TTS In Indian Languages



• Braille Interface in Indian Language

Business and Strategic Perspective of Web Accessibility

• Industry Session

Summary and Recommendations

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Reset Philips GoGear MP3 player

Had a real bad panic attack today while charging my Philips GoGear Mp3 Player. The player freezed on 'Do not disconnect' screen. :)

After a quick google search I found that we do a soft reset by pressing the power button and volume up (+) button together. It didn't work. So I decided to do a hard reset by pressing the reset button (its a small hole next to usb connection socket) with a safety pin. It worked. Thankfully it didn't delete any of the content on the device either :)

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Handbrake : Video Encoder For Everyone

Just discovered HandBrake video encoder. It is free software encoder that allows you to convert your videos into various video formats. Whether you are sharing videos on Youtube, Vimeo or transferring them to portable devices like iPod, iPhone and Android based devices. HandBrake is the tool for you and its cross platform video encoder that also available on Windows and Mac.

Why use HandBrake, when you got powerful video encoders like mencoder, ffmpeg. Well, I find HandBrake interface far more intuitive, it does not expect the user to know a lot of video encoding or use arcane command line options.

How to install HandBrake on Ubuntu

You can get the HandBrake packages from John Stebbins HandBrake PPA.

# Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid 
 sudo apt-add-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-snapshots  
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

# Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick 
# Add a deb line to your /etc/apt/sources.list & Get the publickey 
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/handbrake-snapshots/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

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Sumatra A PDF reader for Windows

If you are looking for a FLOSS alternative to Adobe PDF reader on Windows OS. Check out Sumatra PDF . It is a free software release under GPLv3 licence.

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Ubuntu On ARM : Changing Game Plan

My friend Tim Denny believes that ARM powered devices will drive the future of netbook and tablet computer technology. I agree with him, ARM delivers great performance and its low power usage makes it ideal. Perhaps the lightweight Ubuntu Netbook desktop would be a choice distribution for ARM powered devices.

The new release of Ubuntu 10.10 has all the right ingredients. There is better support for ARM, the Ubuntu netbook desktop is lightweight and Unity bring fresh design thinking for small screens. And now there is multi touch support as well. Here are some of the stories that that deal with this trend.

Ubuntu Gives Maverick a shot in the ARM

Excuse the dodgy pun but Ubuntu 10.10 is going to be a fantastic release for many reasons, not least of which is improved ARM architecture support.

Toshiba AC100 hacked to run Ubuntu 10.10 RC

The Toshiba AC100 is one of the first netbook-style devices to ship with Google Android installed. The operating system is typically installed on smartphones or tablets with touchscreen devices — not computers with keyboards and touchpads. The Toshiba AC100, on the other hand, looks like a netbook, with a 10 inch. 1024 x 600 pixel display, a keyboard and touchpad, and no touchscreen.

Marvell Armada 510 running Ubuntu 10.04

Is not it amazing when you see these power-sipping ARM processors running a powerful operating system so smooth? Here is an ARM processor, the Marvell Armada 510 running Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition.

Unity and uTouch

One of the most exciting things about the Ubuntu 10.10 release has been the delivery of the Unity ‘shell’ in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. For the uninitiated, this delivers a very different user experience to that in the main desktop edition.

Ubuntu 10.10 Multi-touch

As many are aware, we released our maverick Maverick a few days ago. Part of what comes with Ubuntu 10.10 is the new uTouch stack.

Multitouch And Qt

Until recently, there has been no Multitouch stack for Linux. The great news is that the folks at Qt are very interested in getting Qt to work with uTouch.

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Installing Python on Android

Had left the Openmoko Linux phone and aging Nokia N70 back in India. Now I travel with a basic model phone, do miss hacking phone.

This morning I decided to change all that. Checking out Python Scripting Layer For Android using the Android SDK. My Nokia also ran Python S60 until the project lost wind. Getting the android environment on Ubuntu was easy thanks to Eric's tutorial

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Broadcom BCM4311 Wifi driver for windows

Finally found the MS Windows driver for the  Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN . It was really difficult to find this wifi driver that worked on Lenovo R3000 laptop computer. 



It is not the first time I had to search for this driver. Perhaps its a good idea to blog it. :( 




http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/BROADCOM-Wireless-802-11b-and-802-11g-Download-14408.html

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Drush command line shell and scripting interface for Drupal

I haven't heard about Drush command line tool until recently. Books about Drupal do not talk about this nifty tool, not even the advanced ones. Drush takes the power of command line, it can be savior for lazy hacker like me. The only prerequisite for using drush is secure shell access to execute commands on your web server server.

First thing I learnt to do with drush is download, upgrade and enable modules. It a quick and efficient way of upgrade modules.

# /usr/share/drush/drush disable link
The following modules will be disabled: link
Do you really want to continue? (y/n): y
Link was disabled successfully.                                                                                                                   [ok]
# /usr/share/drush/drush uninstall link
The following modules will be uninstalled: link
Do you really want to continue? (y/n): y
link was successfully uninstalled.                                                                                                                [ok]
# /usr/share/drush/drush dl link
Project link (6.x-2.9) downloaded to /var/www/drupal/sites/all/modules/.                                                                        [success]
# /usr/share/drush/drush enable link
The following modules will be enabled: link
Do you really want to continue? (y/n): y
Link was enabled successfully.       


 
 Another favorite feature of drush is ability to execute sql commands to debug problems.


/usr/share/drush/drush sql cli

Learn more about the various options and rediscover of the joy of Drupal.

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Software Freedom Day 2010 Hanoi Linux User Group Vietnam

Photo blog of Hanoi Linux User Groups Software Freedom Day 2010 event.

Software Freedom Day 2010 , Hanoi, Vietnam

The Day Begins ....

Keynote Talk

The Audience

OLPC Vietnam Sugar On Stick Talk

Talks video streamed live across Vietnam

Hanoi LUG members having a good time

Linux Gaming.. Tux Racers

Linux Gaming, I love my score :)

Linux RPG Gaming

Linux First Person Shooter Game

Linux Multi Player Gaming

Linux CD/DVD burning, Game Contest running in background

Video Conference between Hanoi and Saigon LUGs

Kudos to Hanoi LUG Team

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Ubuntu Accessibility Talk at Hanoi SFD, 2010

This weekend I gave a short talk highlighting Ubuntu Accessibility at Hanoi Linux User Groups Software Freedom Day 2010 event. Giving this talk was quite a challenge, I had to remember to stop every few sentences for Yang to do the Vietnamese translation. (Thanks for a splendid job Yang!)

You can download the slides online from the Ubuntu Accessibility Scribd page.

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Origamic pop-up greeting cards

Spent the Sunday evening walking through the night market in Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. Among the mire of people, stalls, street vendors I saw something truly extra ordinary. The origami pop-up greeting cards made by Anh's and her family. The craftsmanship and detail of these cards are amazing. It is not very easy to find this stall at the night market, you can visit the ORIGAMIC shop at 85 Hang Gai Str, Hoan Kiem Dist. Hanoi( vn.origamicATyahoo.com.vn #084-4-39386787).

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

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Ralink Wireless support in Puppy Linux

My Gecko Edubook has a Ralink wireless USB adapter. Later models of this ultra-cheap netbook shipped with more ubiquitous wireless cards from Realtech. You have to get the download the firmware and blacklist few modules to be able to use Ralinux wifi wireless card in puppy linux 5.1.

Download the firmware for RT28XX/RT30XX USB series (RT2870/RT2770/RT3572/RT3070) zip file and extract the rt2870.bin file to /lib/firmware.

Next use the BootManager configure bootup program to blacklist rt2800usb kernel module and enable rt2800sta module instead. These steps should enable Ralink usb wireless card support in puppylinux.

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Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) UI on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid LTS

Transformed my standard Ubuntu Lucid Desktop into Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) this morning. This interface allows netbook users to make better use of screen space and few great interface enhancements.

The Ubuntu UNR wiki page gives all the information about the packages and the required steps to convert your standard ubuntu desktop to UNR interface. Don't forget to report bugs to
Canonical Desktop Experience Team.

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Universal Braille Kit (UBK)

The Universal Braille kit (UBK) is brainchild of octogenarian N.Krishnaswamy. It is designed to teach braille to blind children at home in developing countries with no access to special education. The Universal Braille Kit has a braille cube, an alphabet plate, a braille slate and stylus, a standard abacus and instruction manuals. This kit is produced by Workshop For Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped (Worth Trust) in India.

Last year I traveled to Chennai to meet N.Krishnaswamy (NK) at Vidya Vrikshah. We remained in close contact sharing ideas on various braille projects. Last week few accessibility designers met at Worth Trust factory in Katpadi, Tamil Nadu. NK was there, full of energy and ideas. NK never fails to surprise me. " Arky, At my age I am in a terrible hurry" he says with a chuckle. Just as he was leaving I managed to corner him and shot this video.

In this video N.Krishnaswamy explains the story behind the design of the Universal Braille Kit (UBK) and explains the concepts by demonstrating various devices of the kit.

The Universal Braille kit (UBK) from arky on Vimeo.

If you are interested to procure the Universal Braille Kit, please do get in touch with Worth Trust.

• Worth Trust


• 48, New Tiruvalam Road


• Katpadi, Tamil Nadu (India)


• Phone: 0416-2242739 0416-2243464


• Email: worth@md3.vsnl.net.in


• Website: http://www.worthtrust.org.in
• 
  

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Nortec SurfBoard Running Ubuntu 10.04

Just heard that Lekan got the SurfBoard running ubuntu 10.4. The video shows Google Chrome running Youtube videos. The video perform flawlessly in fullscreen mode.

The SurfBoard is an ultra low-cost, energy efficient computer keyboard selling for only $119.95. Ideal for classrooms, thin clients, hotels, banks and anywhere else where an energy efficient, silent, low cost computer can be used.

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How to resize photos with Bash shell script

Ivo Kaspar wrote this guide to resize multiple images using simple Bash shell script. It uses the convert program from ImageMagick, the swiss-army knife of command line image processing software. The original guide is edited and rewritten in some places.

You'll find this guide interesting if you want to resize a lot of pictures to upload to your website or email them. First you need to install the 'imagemagick' package if it is not installed on your computer. To install imagemagick, copy this line into your terminal application and confirm with your password. Close the terminal after it finished the installation.
sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Open the text editor and paste these lines into it:

#!/bin/bash
for i in *.JPG; do convert $i -resize 10% $(basename $i .JPG).jpg; done

Save the document and give it a sensible name to recognize it later on.

Note that this script will work only with files that has uppercase '.JPG' extension and renames them to lower case '.jpg'. Some digital cameras follow this kind of file naming schema. You may like to change this to suit your needs.According to its manual page ImageMagick can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (about 100) including GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PNG, PDF, PhotoCD, TIFF and DPX.

If you want to define the size of the picture replace the "10%" with the amount of pixels you want it to have, 400x600 is a usable resolution. Of course it is also possible to keep the relative scale with any value instead of the “10” followed by "%" postfix. To change the file format to something other than “.JPG” you have to change the last “.JPG” into the format of your choice.

If you want to rename the pictures, you have to add something behind the "(basename $i .JPG)" and the ".JPG". I usually add an "­-s" (for small) to indicate the reduced size of the pictures.

When you run the script it will proceed to resize all the pictures in the current folder, but not in any sub folders.
Keep in mind that:

• Small pictures are small forever, you can't revert them.


• The filenames must not contain any space


• The filename must match to the first two “.JPG” or “.jpg”

Examples Scripts:

# capital .JPG files, 10% size, no rename, it will overwrite the old
pictures
#!/bin/bash
for i in *.JPG; do convert $i -resize 10% $(basename $i .JPG).JPG; done
---
# lower case .jpg files, 10% size, renamed to capital .JPG (with ubuntu it's
a different file, not with windows!)
#!/bin/bash
for i in *.jpg; do convert $i -resize 10% $(basename $i .jpg ).JPG; done
---
# capital .JPG files, 10% size, adds an -s in the name of the new ones,
keeps the old ones
#!/bin/bash
for i in *.JPG; do convert $i -resize 10% $(basename $i .JPG)-s.JPG; done
---
# capital .JPG files, 600x400 size, no rename, it will overwrite the old
pictures
#!/bin/bash
for i in *.JPG; do convert $i -resize 600x400 $(basename $i .JPG).JPG; done

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THE THIRD WAVE A Volunteer Story

Returned to my hotel room exhausted. The noise and heat in the braille labeler workshop drains me at the end of the day. Its my second week in Vellore (Tamil Nadu), I'm here to help Ted Moallem build braille labelers with a team of blind workers. There isn't much to do in this town, expect watch television until I can't keep my eyes open. While channel surfing I found The Third Wave playing on Sony Pix. Its a movie you shouldn't miss, it will move you to tears.

The documentary tells the story after the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka. A group of four volunteers come together to rebuild the village of Peraliya. They are not part of any non-profit organization, they are people who just want to help and meet each other by chance. Some had sort help of friends to buy tickets to Sri Lanka. They arrive with few hundred dollars in their pockets. The story follows Alison, Oscar, Bruce, Donny and countless volunteers who fight against odds to bring medical care, relief and supplies. They start a medical aid station in the village school and take care of a relief camp.

Children are the most affected by the Tsunami, many lost their family right before eyes. The volunteers work with children and take them to beach. The children are nervous, its their first time in the sea after the 40 foot wave wiped out their village. Soon the children overcome their fears and have a gala time until they stumble upon a dead body half buried in sand. The reality of life aftermath the tsunami is capture vivid in this movie. The volunteers fight exhaustion, frustration to regain the piece of paradise lost.

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