e-mail to SMS (email2SMS )

We talked about how to set up a simple SMS based service before using free and open software. Next we'd look how we can use this in to more practical use. In this example I will try to demonstrate how to develop a simple e-mail to SMS solution. It is assumed that the mail server is an internal server on the local LAN (example the intranet server).

Here again we will use Linux but this can even be applied on FreeBSD and alike. We will use Kannel as the SMS gateway, postfix as the MTA. As for a MDA (mail deliver agent) we will use procmail. You need to install all of this on your system before we start. Also we will be again using Perl as the scripting language. The diagram below illustrates the simple over view of how the system works.

The system is designed to send sms using the internal mail system. The sender needs to be a predefined user of the mail system to use this system. A set number of sms recipients is set. Example send to 10 people (customers) with a single mail. Logs of emails sent will be kept on the system. System will also sent the sms to a given list of numbers; for each email (system usage).

To start off we first setup postfix. The default configuration of postfix is used. Please insert the following line to the postfix configuration file fount at /etc/postfix/. Append the line below to the file main.cf, to edit this file login as root and use a text editor like vim.

mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail

Explanation:

The mailbox_command parameter specifies the optional external command to use instead of mailbox delivery. The command is run as the recipient with proper HOME, SHELL and LOGNAME environment settings. Exception: delivery for root is done as $default_user. Other environment variables of interest: USER (recipient username), EXTENSION (address extension), DOMAIN (domain part of address), and LOCAL (the address localpart). Unlike other Postfix configuration parameters, the mailbox_command parameter is not subjected to $parameter substitutions.

- from the man pages -

IF YOU USE THIS TO DELIVER MAIL SYSTEM-WIDE, YOU MUST SET UP AN ALIAS THAT FORWARDS MAIL FOR ROOT TO A REAL USER.

To overcome the above issue please edit the fie aliases in /etc. Append the following line to the bottom of the page.

root: sms

also add the following line to file virtual at /etc/postfix.

@intranet.ourcompany.com sms

This will make the system to catch all mails to the sms user account.

Also add(modify) the following 2 line to the main.cf file.

myhostname = intranet.ourcompany.com
mydomain = ourcompany.com

Procmail configuration

create a file named .procmailrc in the /home/sms folder. Add the following line to the file and save the file.

TO=`formail -xTo:`
SUBJECT=`formail -xSubject: \
| expand | sed -e 's/^[ ]*//g' -e 's/[ ]*$//g'`
SENDER=`formail -xFrom: \
| expand | sed -e 's/^[ ]*//g' -e 's/[ ]*$//g'`
BODY= `formail -I "" \
| expand | sed -e '1,/^$/ d' -e '1,/^$/ d'`
BODY=`formail -I "" `
SENDER=`formail -rtzxTo:`
:0
| perl /home/sms/massms/newsms.pl $SENDER $TO $SUBJECT $BODY >> /home/sms/massms/maillog.txt

The above configuration sets up variables for each required filed and then passes these as parameters to a scrip called newsms.pl located at /home/sms/massms/

The script (newsms.pl)

use POSIX qw(strtod);
use LWP::Simple;

#if ($#ARGV !=1) {
#        print "usage :sendsms  \n";
#        exit;
#}

$from = $ARGV[0];
$number = $ARGV[1];
$subject = $ARGV[2];
$text = $ARGV[3];
$maxsend = 10;

print 'params: ' .$from . ' ' . $number . ' ' . $subject . ' '. $text . "\n";

sub getnum {
 my $str = shift;
 $str =~ s/^\s+//;
 $str =~ s/\s+$//;
 $! = 0;
 my($num, $unparsed) = strtod($str);
 if (($str eq '') || ($unparsed != 0) || $!) {
     return;
 } else {
     return $num;
 }
}

sub trim($)
{
my $string = shift;
$string =~ s/^\s+//;
$string =~ s/\s+$//;
return $string;
}

my @orinum = split('@', $number);
print 'orinum: '. $orinum[0] . "\n";
$orinum[0] =~ s/^;
$orinum[0] = trim($orinum[0]);

$words = @ARGV;

$text= "";
for ($r=3;$r<=$words;$r++){
$text = $text . " " . $ARGV[$r];
}
$text = trim($text);
print 'text: '. $text . "\n";
#$text =~ s/<(.*?)>//gi;
# $orinum[0]=~ s/\D//gi;
#print $text;

@months = qw(Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec);
@weekDays = qw(Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun);
($second, $minute, $hour, $dayOfMonth, $month, $yearOffset, $dayOfWeek, $dayOfYear, $daylightSavings) = localtime();
$year = 1900 + $yearOffset;
$theTime = "$hour:$minute:$second, $weekDays[$dayOfWeek] $months[$month] $dayOfMonth, $year";
print 'time: ' . $theTime;

sub authuser {
my ($fromuser) = @_;
print 'in function ' . $fromuser . "\n";
$okuser = 0;
my @user = split('@', $fromuser);
print 'passed to authuser as @: ' . @_ . "\n";
print 'the user:'. $user[0] ."\n";
open (CHECKBOOK, "/home/sms/massms/access.list") || die "couldn't open the access list file!";
print "file open \n";
 while ($record = ) {
     if (lc(trim($record)) eq lc(trim($user[0]))) {
  $okuser = 1;
 }
 print lc(trim($record)) . " <> " .  lc(trim($user[0])) . "\n";
 }

 close(CHECKBOOK);

return $okuser;
}

sub sendEmail
{
     my ($eto, $efrom, $esubject, $emessage) = @_;
     my $sendmail = '/usr/lib/sendmail';
     open(MAIL, "|$sendmail -oi -t");
     print MAIL "From: $efrom\n";
     print MAIL "To: $eto\n";
     print MAIL "Subject: $esubject\n\n";
     print MAIL "$emessage\n";
     close(MAIL);
}

$orimail = 'smsdemon@intranet.ourcompany.com';
print 'da user is: '. $from . "\n";
$isitoktosend = authuser($from);
my $sent = 0;
if ($isitoktosend eq 1) {
#if user is authorised to send sms
print "auth ok \n";
my @sendlist = split (',',$subject);
my $listcount = @sendlist;
print $listcount . ' > ' . $maxsend . "\n";
if ($listcount <= $maxsend) {
 #send list cannot exceed more then maxsend if only less 
 print "in if list and max\n";
 my $longnumbers = 'sms sent to ';
 foreach (@sendlist) {
  $ournumber = $_ ;
  if ($ournumber =~ /^9609/i) { # all numbers should have 9609
   my $url = 'http://127.0.0.1:5034/cgi-bin/sendsms?username=usr&password=password&from=' . $orinum[0] .'&to=' . $_ . '&text='. $text ;
   $html = getprint ($url); # ok shoot to kannel to send sms
   $lognumbers = $lognumbers . ',' . $_ ;
   $sent = 1;
  }
 }
 if ($sent eq 1) {
  $lognumbers = $lognumbers . ' with the message : ' . $text;
  sendEmail ($from, $orimail , 'sent sms status' , 'sms sent to ' . $lognumbers);
  open(FILE,">>/home/sms/massms/log/sent.log") or die "cannot create file";
   print FILE $theTime . ' ' . 'from:' . $from . ' ' . ' sent through: '. $number . ' >' .  $lognumbers . "\n";
  close(FILE);

  # enable to send every time to follwing numbers the sms for control
  my $alwayssendlist ='9609620001,9609620002'; #change as needed
  my @loopsend = split(',',$alwayssendlist);
  foreach (@loopsend) {
   my $url = 'http://127.0.0.1:5034/cgi-bin/sendsms?username=user&password=password&from=' . $orinum[0] .'&to=' . $_ . '&text='. $text ;
                             $html = getprint ($url); # ok shoot to kannel to send sms
  }

  print "sent";
 }
} else {
 sendEmail ($from, $orimail , 'sent sms status' , 'error : cannot send to more then ' . $maxsend . ' numbers');
 print "send list exceed err:";
}
} else {
# sendEmail ($from, $orimail , 'sent sms status' , 'error: sorry you do not have authorization to use this service');
print "cannot send";
}

A close look at the code. I've designed it to have some security levels. You can modify as you need. The control measures are that there is an access list. You need to have your email address in the access file for you to send the SMS. Next I have implemented a control to copy all SMS to a given list of numbers. These can be taken off the script as you wish. But the basic thing is there.

This demonstrates how simple and easy it is to get these sort of things done. Maybe next time I'd try to post about how to do the reverse. SMS2email. With little effort the script can be changed together with the system to bring better improvements.

1980's, 1990's, 2000...

Been a long time... long long time. I remember my first Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I wrote my very first programs on it. BASIC was the language. When I needed to save them or load games, I had to connect it to our cassette player. I used the normal audio tapes. It did not come with a VDU. So I had to connect it to our TV. I never owned it, but was able to borrow it from a friend (who did not find any use of it), in exchange with my Atari 2600 game console.

We have come a long way since then. Today, we have access to almost everything. The internet is here, latest gadgets is in local shops, etc. Parents try to educate the kids about all this stuff, they teach computers with our "ABC". How have we changed? Better gamers? What has changed, what improvements have we seen or will see? The kids who had access to nothing but casio programmable calculators or the kids of today? Will the access to new improved hardware and information only enough? "Too much games"? Too much information? What can be the issue?. I have all these questions now. Are we improving; will we have a good generation of kids who will make us proud? Are they being directed in the right direction? Are they being motivated enough? Do they have a proper educational system? Back then, we did not have all these facilities and stuff, and it was too expensive. Not any kid was able to afford a computer. Things has changed now, but has it improved? Are the talented kids recognized and taken care of? I don't know. Yeah sure, we do get kids coming in after graduating. Make their parents happy and all. Make us all proud, but do they have enough skill or the talent? After they come back, or identified are they given the right opportunities to develop further?. I had a chat with a guy who's back from his studies after doing computing and the job he got was to work for a companies "HR" department. I know a real talented guy who's won first place in his class for his diploma and higher diploma from Singapore; who prints t-shirts for living. Is it just me who thinks something is wrong? Maybe.. I don't know, but this is how I feel about it. A few months back, I was looking for local programmers and system admins. Sad to say I was so frustrated not to find good people. I hope these will change and it will improve. At the same time I have been amazed at some kids skills, and talents.. I hope it does not go wasted too. Seen too many of that. The system and the lack of recognition is to blame? A stupid thought maybe...

The Island

Usually I spend all of my week ends at office. This Friday I thought I would take a break. Went out for a walk all around the island (Hulhumale'). Its mostly empty; except for a small area where people live, there is not much vegetation, since its all a man made island. Anyway I took some pictures and thought I'd share them. I don't own a camera; so just took them using my phone.

Road Flower

Badi Magoo & Bon'bigadu

What do you call them?

The road to Male'

Motivation or not Demotivating?

I was doing some research and came across an interesting article about why your employees are losing motivation by David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer. In their opinion it is not about motivating employees, but about not demotivating them.

In the article they talk about the following three goals of employees:

* Equity: To be respected and to be treated fairly in areas such as pay, benefits, and job security.
* Achievement: To be proud of one's job, accomplishments, and employer.
* Camaraderie: To have good, productive relationships with fellow employees.

What shocked me was that according to this it saying that this is not strictly a top-down process and if the company doesn’t work that way you simply have no chance of achieving these goals for your employees. According to the article individual managers can make a difference for their employees, either for the better or worse. - The fact itself is not a big surprise, but having this statement in this article really surprised me.

I guess a lot of companies have these issues; but are often ignored. In the end its not the employees who loose, its the companies. I guess its high time for most of them to give more attention to HR issues. Productivity often is directly related to these factors. These are good things to study and learn from. Who knows might come in handy at a point in life.

what the f**k is Web 2.0 ?

We hear and talk about Web 2.0 so often now. Ask most of the web designers what is it? Hardly anyone is able to answer straight. Same went with me; I am not a web guy at all. But just want to be kept informed about these stuff that goes around us.

Anyway whats the big deal about this Web 2.0? The new world wide web? hmmm! now I don't think anyone should look at it that way. I guess for most people Web 2.0 means a combination of technologies implemented on to a web site, like namely AJAX, DHTML,RSS,CSS and a few. More to add to those, sites which are more interactive and open socially. Also I guess no longer we have simple web pages, mostly its small applications and systems. These systems should work inside a web browser ; without having to launch external applications.

I guess the biggest contributor to this vibe was and is google. But I guess nothing new has come up in reality or there is not much major new stuff, compared to the so called "Web 1.0". Its just the same stuff; with new names and with improvements. Yeah sure; there is new stuff, but maybe just based on the same old techniques and concepts. You throw out; ActiveX and Applets and bring in AJAX, etc. But over all the web has developed and maybe we call these new developments the "Web 2.0" era. For me the biggest change was things becoming more platform in depended. Also the fact that data is made more available and easy accessible.

As for us Maldivian and our sites, we need to improve too. Mostly the web sites are very static and too much focused on hard core graphics. Too much useless content and images. Yeah! the travel sites. They do have loads of content and pictures, but how informative and easy its to access them and locate what you are looking for. Simple things like that is ignored. We do see some improvements slowly, but I guess mostly the developers don't care much about web standards or any such issues. But I do sure hope and wanna see better stuff coming up.

Maybe I am not the right person to talk about web development and standards, so guys out there who are more experienced in this field would like to shed some light on this? What can we do to improve the looks and functionalities, what do we need to stop doing, etc.

wooo hoo!

my new toy.

ripping web sites with perl

I was working on a small project, and thought I'd share part of its code. A lot of web sites like www.haveeru.mv and some travel web sites, like to display the local weather. Very often this is taken from global weather web sites, etc. I thought since we do have the local met department web sites; we could use it. All you need to do is modify the script to be more presentable for web pages.

Also this is an example which demonstrates how easy it is to rip data off external web sites using perl.

#!/usr/bin/perl use LWP::Simple; use HTML::TreeBuilder; use XML::Simple; my $url = 'http://www.meteorology.gov.mv/?PD=WEATHER&ID=2'; my $page = get($url) or die $!; my $p = HTML::TreeBuilder->new_from_content( $page ); my @links = $p->look_down( _tag => 'table', width => '656' ); for my $row (@links) { my @cells = $row->look_down( _tag => 'td' ); $text = join ( "\n", map { $_->as_trimmed_text( ) } @cells )."\n"; @lines = split(/\n/, $text); } $p = $p->delete; # don't need it anymore print "\nWeather Forecast for Maldives\n"; for ($r=0;$r<6;$r+=2){ print $lines[$r] ." : " . $lines[$r+1]."\n"; } $xml = new XML::Simple; $raw = get('http://www.meteorology.gov.mv/xml.asp'); $data = $xml->XMLin($raw); foreach my $ST ("HANIMAADHOO","MALE","KADHDHOO","KAADEDHDHOO","GAN") { print "\n"; print ('Temp. for '.$ST .': '. $data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{TEMPERATURE}->{CELSIUS} .' . ' .'Wind speed: '. $data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{WIND}. ' . '.'Sun Rise: ' .$data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{SUN}->{RISE} .' and set: '. $data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{SUN}->{SET} .' . '.'Rain Fall: '. $data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{RAINFALL}.' . '.'Humidity: '. $data->{STATIONS}->{$ST}->{HUMIDITY}); print "\n"; }

TVM , fahimagu ?

I don't watch TV much; specially the local TV. A few reason behind it; which rather not be discussed. Anyway I've seen parts of a few program called “fahimagu”. Its been around for sometimes now. The program is about computers and IT. A local presentation. One of my x student and a friend of mine presents it. Its good to see them on TV. Anyway the producers need to improve this program. I am really sorry to say its really bad; in term of content. I feel the program being a local presentation; it lacks local content a lot. Not much focus is given to the local IT or vibes. Yes; they do cover all major events; so does the news. But seriously if anyone knows the producers of this program they need to be told about this.

There is a lot they can cover and focus on; which I feel hardly they even know. IT is growing in the Maldives and we have new things everyday. Why not cover them, or try to make it more informative to the locals. I agree they do pick on local stuff every now and then, but I feel they can do better. End of the program the views should learn something new or get some information out of it. Whats the point in telling that MS Word is a word processor. We all know that. Educate us, enlighten us and entertain us. Maybe my expectations are too high?

So; what can they do to make a change. Well thats what they need to figure out. One suggestion I can think of is make people aware about current events and vibes. Talk about them discuss about them. Example www.mvblogs.org. There is so many out there who use it and so many bloggers now. But at the same time there is a lot of people who don't know what is blogging. The power of blogs and what it can do, etc. Simple things like these can be looked into. Recent events like www.dhivehin.net and other online communities and their contributions. WiFi networks in male', the forums,irc,etc. These are all good topics. Things like IT jobs in male', what the employers are looking for. Things like that. Other stuff like ; “will the marine fiber give me more speed, etc”? These are all areas that can be covered and which is good topics.

But then again; I wonder too. Do they really want the general public to know about these things? Internet already has caused so much problems (for some people) socially and politically. This might be a factor too, to keeping somethings closed and untouched. Again, I maybe wrong. I am told the country is in reform and more transparency is being introduced. Maybe soon we will see all this. Who knows?

Writing a SMS Service with Free Software

So what we will do is set up a simple SMS based service using Kannel and Linux. Kannel is a famous, powerful, open source and free SMS gateway and WAP gateway. You can use it to connect to a mobile operator's SMS center (SMSC), or using a GSM mobile phone or GSM modem as a virtual SMS center. Kannel can handle multiple SMS centers and virtual SMS centers.

Kannel supports the use of AT-capable mobile phones as virtual SMS centers. Most GSM mobile phones are capable to work with AT commands these days. A small list of mobile phones and GSM modems that are known to work as virtual SMS centers with Kannel is available on its web site.

The SMSC access protocols supported by Kannel include SMPP, CIMD, UCP / EMI and SMS2000 / OIS. In addition, Kannel has an HTTP / HTTPS interface that you can use to send and receive SMS messages.

I use Fedora Core 6 as my OS (desktop). A few methods to setup kannel using FC is, log in as root. Then execute the following command on your console

yum -y install kannel

or download the tarball from Kannel web site and compile it

This will get kannel installed on your box. Next is if you are using a GSM mobile, you need to make it work with your linux box. One easy way is setup the mobile as a GSM modem, via bluetooth. In my case I use the Bluez library for bluetooth connectivity. If you don't have it get it installed. All from FC3 up come preconfigured with Bluez libraries and all. In case you are using other distributions please get Bluez libraries and install them. On FC do the following. In any case your box needs to have bluetooth support.

yum -y install bluez-libs bluez-pin bluez-utils bluez-hcidump bluez-utils-cup

That should get you all fixed up. If you are using a bluetooth USB dongle you need to do the following

modprobe hci_usb

then

modprobe usb-uhci

If all goes well, type the following

hciconfig

then your output should be something like the following

hci0: Type: USB
BD Address: 00:0F:B3:90:86:46 ACL MTU: 192:8 SCO MTU: 64:8
UP RUNNING PSCAN
RX bytes:5159 acl:5 sco:0 events:129 errors:0
TX bytes:1599 acl:5 sco:0 commands:83 errors:0

This means youe bluetooth device is all set to go. Now you just need to configure it. To test if your bluetooth is working, you can do a simple scan of all devices as follows. type

hcitool scan

which should give you an output simmiler to

Scanning ...
00:0F:B3:90:7B:6E WTM--LAP-07
00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F Dark
00:10:C6:82:A8:6F WTM-ITLAP-03

Anyway, the configuration is very simple and straight forward. If you want to bind to your mobile you need to configure Bluez.The configuration of blues will be located in /etc/bluetooth/ edit the following files and do medications as per your requirements. Add the following lines to rfcomm.conf

rfcomm0 {
bind yes;
device 00:00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F
channel 1;
comment "darkumoonu";
}

here 00:00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F is the mac address of my mobile. You need to change that accordingly . When you do a “hcitool scan” you'd get all the devices that your box finds. To make sure you are able to reach it you can even ping the device. Type l2ping mac; example

[root@darkmoon bluetooth]# l2ping 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F
Ping: 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F from 00:0F:B3:90:86:46 (data size 44) ...
0 bytes from 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F id 0 time 58.93ms
0 bytes from 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F id 1 time 17.34ms
0 bytes from 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F id 2 time 17.31ms
0 bytes from 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F id 3 time 16.31ms
4 sent, 4 received, 0% loss
Next you need to start the service. Do the following, type “etc/rc.d/init.d/bluetooth restart” or simply “servic bluetooth restart”

Now to talk the mobiles modem, type the following command.

rfcomm bind 00:0E:6D:CC:04:7F 1

This will essentially bind the Phones Modem to /dev/rfcomm0. Now we can check by issuing rfcomm.

[root@darkmoon bluetooth]# rfcomm
rfcomm0: 00:00:0E:6D:CC:04 channel 1 clean

You should get something like that. Ok, that about all you need to do to get your GSM device working with Linux. There is other configurations that you need to do if needed.

Ok, lets get back to Kannel. The Kannel configuration file will be localed in /etc/ edit /etc/kannel.conf

remove all the lines in the file and add the following

group = core
admin-port = 13000
smsbox-port = 13001
admin-password = bar
log-file = "/tmp/kannel.log"
log-level = 0

group = smsbox
bearerbox-host = 127.0.0.1
sendsms-port = 13013
global-sender = 13013
sendsms-chars = "0123456789 +-"
log-file = "/tmp/smsbox.log"
log-level = 0
access-log = "/tmp/smsaccess.log"


group = sendsms-user
username = tester
password = foobar

#Nokia Modem

# SMSC GSM
group = smsc
smsc = at
smsc-id = nokia_smsc
modemtype = nokiaphone
device = /dev/rfcomm0
speed = 9600
pin = BlueZ


group = modems
id = nokiaphone
name = "Nokia Phone"
detect-string = "Nokia Mobile Phone"
init-string = "AT+CNMI=1,2,0,0,0"
speed = 115200
enable-hwhs = "AT+IFC=2,2"
need-sleep = false
no-pin = true
no-smsc = false
sendline-sleep = 100
keepalive-cmd = "AT+CBC;+CSQ"
broken = true
message-storage = "ME"
enable-mms = true

Now do the following

[root@darkmoon etc]# service kannel start
Starting kannel bearer box: [ OK ]
Starting kannel sms box: [ OK ]

That will get Kannel started as a service. If you fail look into the logs at /tmp/ /tmp/kannel.log and tmp/smsbox.log. That will help you to get started to debug and solve the problem.

Ok, So now if kannel is working you should be able to send SMS using the kannel web interface. Example

http://127.0.0.1:13013/cgi-bin/sendsms?username=tester&password=foobar&to=&text=hello from kannel

Type that in your browser. Again. If it gives any problems get back to logs and if needed google around. There is not much help for kannel out on the web, except the kannel documentation and the mailing list. But its easy to figure out most of the issues.

If you have access to a SMSC (if you are a telecom operator) you will need the following to connect to the SMSC. Add the lines to the kannel.conf and bring the needed changes.

group = smsc
smsc = smpp
smsc-id="change"
denied-smsc-id="change"
host = "ip of your SMSC"
port = "port"
receive-port = "port"
smsc-username = "change"
smsc-password = "change"
system-type = ""
address-range = ""
interface-version = 33
source-addr-ton = 1
source-addr-npi = 1

You will need to have routes added to access the SMSC from your network. In my case, I have a FC5 box setup a SMSGW running Kannel and using SMPP to communicate to the SMSC.

So what do we do next. A simple service we can setup is one like Dhiraagu has to offer. Example the Haveeru news service. If someone sends you a SMS with the text “haveeru” we want to SMS him/her the new headlines. To do this we need to write a simple script to fatch the news from haveeru. For this perl is a good choice. So you need to have perl installed on your system. You would also need a cpan library to read the RSS feeds. Execute the following command first

cpan install XML::RSS

This will get the library installed. Next create a perl script called haveeru.pl with the following lines.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# import packages
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use LWP::UserAgent;


# initialize object
$rss = new XML::RSS();

# get RSS data
$raw = get('http://www.haveeru.com.mv/xml/index.php');

# parse RSS feed
$rss->parse($raw);
my $news='(*) ';

foreach my $item (@{$rss->{'items'}}) {
$title = $item->{'title'};
$url = $item->{'link'};
$news = $news . $title .' (*) ';
print("$title\n"); # we will only display the news titles
}


So now to add the service, you will need to add the following lines to the kannel.conf file.

group = sms-service
keyword = haveeru
exec = "/usr/bin/perl /home/darkmoon/perl/haveeru.pl"
accepted-smsc="change as needed"

When the subscriber sends a SMS to a set short code, with the text "haveeru", it will execute the script we have. Then the output will be sent back to the subscriber. So there you go. Now you have a SMS based service up and running. There is a lot more you can do with kannel and others; just play around. Simple and easy.

New iPOD addons

A new iPOD addon which is being marketed by a friend of mine. Interesting stuff ey!

digg the dhivehi way?

I came across this web site (http://www.dhivehin.net/), I'd have to say this is something I really like. Maybe there is not much as of now, but might turn out good (I hope). What I would really like to see is a platform for IT guys to discuss and share stuff. Where people can openly ask questions, share the experiences, etc.

We have been very closed in terms of sharing the knowledge and knowhow. When IT started off in Maldives (back in late 80's and early 90's) not many were willing to share. It was very much a closed platform. Even people did not want to share the softwares they had or even explain how things work or are done ("complicated stuff, they told you"). This I guess really staled a lot during those days, and I guess we never developed enough as we should have. Even now simple things are made to look as big deals. Those days we use to have a gang of "foxpro" lovers; who competed among themselves for projects. Most of these people never evolved (most). I guess mostly the reason was there was not much knowledge sharing and R&D works. No one was really interested all, what mattered was making money out of what you just learned. Maybe this was good for the individuals. As a community I guess we did not benefit much from the pioneers of IT in Maldives. Maybe I might be wrong. I am sorry if I am being too general.

The closed source model as I would put it, is really bad for a community like us. We don't have good universities or even companies who do R&D work or even invest in technology. This I feel results in us being left behind compared to the rest of the world. Example; even if we look at Sir Lanka , they have got institutions, individuals and even communities who are doing so much contribution to technology. Sri Lanka have been contributing to projects like apache(which is the most famous web server) and other projects. Recently Google has given the Lanka Software Foundation USD 25,000 to drive open source software projects locally. So what can we do to improve? Well; I guess it all depends on individuals. Rather then us always telling "what are they doing about that". We hardly say "what can I do about this". Simple if you don't wanna be part of such contribution, just ignore such things (stop even commenting). One good starting point can be the schools. I guess the education system now "sucks"; even if you agree with me or not. Something that can be changed is to try and educate our kids more, lead them in the right directions. Now some kids finish school after doing Computing, without even writing a single line of a program. Its a problem with the system; they don't encourage such things at all. Even the teachers we bring in to teach these kids are not really good enough or have the knowledge. Anyway I don't think these things will change in a near future.

Even though this is the case, I am happy to say there is real talent in Maldives. Hardly people notice these kids and individuals. If anyone would identify these individuals and help them to improve and give them more opportunities, it would really make a difference. If people and companies would set aside the immediate commercial factors and invest on them, it sure would be a good contribution. Simple things like even a word of encouragement is a lot. Anyway I always hope to see a change. I am seeing things change and people developing. The best part of such developments is you get to share what you have learned and also learn from them.

The Virtual Employees

The concept might not be new, but I've heard of this term and seen it in a totally different concept. Around a year ago, my boss explained me that "I am looking for virtual staff", who will not be hired by the company and NOT work on our payroll. But will be working for us, in our premises and paid by another company. So the catch is, we pay another company a big amount (yearly) for this service.

Now I don't know how effective that will make things, but sure is being done. I hope to learn from this. So example is; if you have an IT infrastructure , and you need to give support and maintain the network. So what do you do?. Yeah! you hire another company who gives you this service. They will give support and provide you with all the needed help and work. You just relax and your employees are happy too. Why? cos they won't need to do much. They just need to get to the requirements, then pass em on to the virtual employees. So the result is "happy staff", who will not have much stress or load. Plus, you don't need to train your staff too or employee skilled people. cool ey? And yeah you still have to pay the employees and also keep the numbers same. Nothing is changed here. I hope you got the concept.

The Virtual Employee (Dilbert episode)

So this might be just a start, who knows in future we might get companies who will have virtual CEO's, CTO's and even HR Mangers. Even now I know some companies do this. The difference is you keep your staff as they are (with the titles), pay them and hire others to do the work. Neat! Well, I don't know much about management concepts but I am learning. Someday I'd know the advantages and the reasons. As of now I am not "experienced" enough to understand and know the "concepts and reasons"

Lights, Camera. And.. Action

Seems we are almost connected to the rest of the world via marine fiber cables. WARF Telecom International hit the land first ( a joint venture between Wataniya, Focus Infocom, and Reliance Infocom of India ). The second cable which is owned by Dhiraagu and SLT (Sir Lanka Telecom) has also made it to the shores. This means we should get a lot of bandwidth? Well, lets hope so.

Whole of Male' is a big fiber network now. 2 companies (3 networks) already have their own fiber networks (Cable TV operators). The government owns its own network in Male' as well, and there is talk of another big investment for digital eyes (again utilizing another optical fiber network).

My guess the government will take a share of the Dhiraagu-SLT cable, example take charge of the ".MV" domain, etc (they deserve it anyway). At this point its hard to say. NCIT of Maldives, has been very quite and inactive. They have setup a building with loads of cameras (hmm! the new trend) and a lot of talk about the government network has been around for few years. Although I would like to think that, there is no proper infrastructure plan. But most likely it is goona be a good entertainment network. You'd be able to share your "prison break", mp3's and other stuff with your friends in other offices. And yeah with good network speeds (hopefully). So thats good news for all you government employees, yeah with good internet speeds (again hopefully, depending on how good your local Network is). As for the digital eyes on the roads, it will be good for the people who own them. A warning to the rest of the guys; "don't bother picking on a girl of men in blue". They'd find out. :) Also it will be good entertainment for them to monitor and watch the birds as they walk by. If you are a girl, who is hooked up with one of them. an aah! you will be so busted on that evening rides. So yeah! its a lot of entertainment on the way. The digital media age is here. Welcome the lights!

Binux

OMG! read this Micro$oft CEO says Linux "uses our intellectual property". Come on Mr. Ballmer, have you run out of things to say? or were you addressing a bunch of stupid people?. I just can't understand why this guy would say that. I mean he is the CEO of Micro$oft. hmmm! maybe thats why he said so. If you really think about the facts, he does not make any sense. I don't get it at all. So did he mean Winbows and rest of M$ code was on the public domain and the OSS community just used the code into Linux? If we really think about the whole thing, its M$ who has been using other peoples intellectual property. Yes from the very start, they have had a history of steeling code. Starting from DOS. Now they wanna claim that Linux belongs to them? This really is a good joke.

Ok I can understand if they are talking of patent. Then its the totally different case. But if M$ tries to show to the rest of the world that Linux uses or copied M$ code, then that is hilarious. Linux was a multitasking and a network OS way before Winbows. Linux has always been far ahead of Winbows and still is.

Ok Ballmer, show us the stuff (code) which was taken off M$... and yeah PROVE it. I make a promise I'd take off Linux, off my System and switch to Winbows. From what I can see, M$ knows they have lost the war. Now they are just trying to be part of the OSS world and trying to change the history. Maybe they want to rewrite it as; when Gates was in University of Washington he started a project which later become "Linux". hmmm! or maybe "Binux". Might just be true. They are on the track now. Novell owns the rights to UNIX, and a key player of the Linux world, M$ is trying to buy over them now? (who knows).

Finally, FOSS Java!

I think its worth a note that Sun has decided that Java will be open sourced. Its really a good news for the open source movement and for Java developers. Since Java's introduction 11 years ago, it has been leading in the middleware space. Maybe the openness of Sun, has been one of the key factors of the success of Java. The recent move to open source Java will likely bring Java to more platforms and better performance.

The way I see it, the dot Net and Java war is not over. It just started off. A lot of enterprise platforms are dominated by *nix and Micro$oft has already made its move to tap in, by supporting Novell. This move by M$, could be a step to push dot Net to the Linux world (maybe by supporting the mono project?). Lets see what happens next.

Google Reader

Yapee! Just tried the Google Reader, its really a cool service. Now I can read my favorite blogs and news from one single site. There has been any RSS readers and tools, but I guess Google always does thing better them most. Best part I like about such tools is the minimization of navigation. Example, I don't need to go into www.mvblogs.org and browse through the list and jump to each blog. I can create a list of all my favorite blogs and read everything from one spot. Plus it works some what like an email client. You are able to distinguish between unread posts and post that you have already read. Ah, so all thanks to Google.

good deal!

June 19, 2006

Pro-whaling countries within the International Whaling Commission celebrated yesterday after a resolution was passed which stated that the commission's 20-year moratorium on commercial whaling is "no longer necessary" and which went on to blame whales for depleting fish stocks. 33 countries voted in favour of the resolution, with 32 voting against, and China abstaining. The vote is considered a victory for Japan, which has long argued for a return to commercial whaling, and has been 'recruiting' sympathetic nations to join the IWC in order to bolster its vote.

The vote does not directly enable a return to commercial whaling, as that would require a three quarters majority, but is significant in being the first time that a major vote at the IWC has sided with the pro-whaling nations in two decades.

also...

June 20, 2006

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has accused Japan of creating a rift between Pacific Countries. She accuses Japan of influencing the voting of some member nations of the Pacific Island Forum at the International Whaling Commission by supplying vast amounts of aid to certain small pacific nations.

New Zealand provides a total of $23 million a year in aid to three of the six Pacific nations – Kiribati, the Solomons, and Tuvalu. Japan pledged approximately 45 billion yen (NZ $633 million) in aid for all Pacific nations. New Zealand's annual budget for aiding pacific nations on the other hand totals merely NZ $173 million.

Miss Clark is quoted as saying "One would hope that over time Japan might reflect on the damage this is doing to [its] relationships around the world" and that it "sprayed a lot of money around" to garner support.

The Prime Minister has ruled out any retaliation against the islands, saying it would not affect any future aid funding.

source
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/IWC_passes_pro-whaling_resolution_after_close_vote
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/New_Zealand_PM_faults_Japan_over_Whaling_Commission_vote

Linux at homes?

I needed an OS that could work for humans! meaning it should be able to watch movies, surf the net, chat, word process and lucky no games much (not windows) . So I decided to move to Ubuntu, only problem was the Dhiraagu ADSL usb modem was giving problems. Then I decided anyway since I too use my notebook at home, I'd dump the USB ADSL modem and go for a wifi router. That way everyone can share the net. So finally I got a D-Link DSL G604T. And installed ubuntu on my wifes notebook (yeah migrated her from windows to linux. pls note that , she did not have a choice here) . Works like a charm. And even my notebook which runs on fedora works cool. No complains thus far. So I am assuming ubuntu lives up to its name, linux for humans.

Anyway, so you'd say I am a freak and I installed ubuntu at my home. No one else would. Well, no I know a few more guys who do use nothing but linux. But the point now I wanna make is, Linux is at your homes, maybe without you knowing it. yeah! Like in my case I got down this ADSL router. This is a common device for the offices and homes now. The chance is, if you own one then you are having linux at your home/office (like it or not). Yeah this baby run on linux and acts as your firewall/gateway and AP. Its got an easy to use web interface for you to set things up and works good. If you wanna play around more you can telnet to the box, and can do a lot more.




If you do a version check on the device it should get you something like this.

Linux version 2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le (lily@products.adsl) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release/MontaVista)) #60 Wed Nov 10 09:49:30 CST 2004

new template

I kinda been blogging for like 3 years now. Mostly my templates been very static for long. I am not much of a visual designer. Anyway a lot of the guys think its too dark and it needs a change? daaa? ok. so a change, from black to white. :) Someone help me with this CSS shit, I hate em'.

dhivehi version 1.6.1a?

its amazing; the dhivehi language. It really is. Anyway its not about how rich the language or how poor and stupid it is. This is about the dhievhi version 1.6.1a, which is the bangaalhee version of dhivehi. I don't know from where it came or who invented it. Seems its is there. No one knows the origins, they talk in that language and we to them. Take for example you want to ask a bangalhee if he has had lunch or dinner, etc.
you would say " ކަލޭ ކާވައްތަރު ހުއްނަނީ؟ " , which kinda means are you edible? or close to that. but in reality when said this to a bangaalhee or any other foreigner, it means have you had food? (lunch, dinner, etc). I some times wonder, why we use this method of communication when it comes to talking with foreigners using dhivehi? common answer might be "our language is too complex and if we talk normally they won't understand" ? WOW ? is it that complex ? I don't know the answer. But it sure is funny to listen to these conversations.

compiz and swing

FC6 rocks, thats the first thing that i'd have to say about FC6. All most everything worked fine for me, except my IDE did not work. I use NetBeans 5.5 for some of my development work. Since FC6 came with the compiz and it had some good eye candy options, I had it enabled.

My other Java based applications (desktop apps) did not work as well. I did not get any errors. Just that The display was f*cked up. So next I installed KDE (I don't know why), and gave it a try. Seemed it was working fine with KDE. hmmm! So after a little look up, I realized that it was a problem with Java Swing when run under compiz wm. Or its a problem with compiz? I don't think thats the case. But it does not work, unless you have the desktop effects disabled. So no more eye candy. I am not sure if this is the same with XGL, my my guess is it will be.

Likely its related to the some problem with the Swing/AWT? Not so sure. But I am sure there will be workarounds to fix this problem.

...And the headlines..

* Dogs and cats are sleeping together
* Pat Robertson simultaneously converts to Judaism and Islam.
* Osama gets laid, changes his mind about destroying world.
* Scientists discover smoking is good for you.
* Microsoft is supporting Suse Linux.

-- From http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/02/1957252.shtml --

M$ Zend?

Zend the PHP development frame work have stuck a partnership with Microsoft. For me this looks like a move by Microsofts to dominate the WEB Server market. As PHP runs on around 22 million Web sites and is used inside 15,000 companies. Why Zend ?, Zend is a key promoter and developer of of PHP.

A lot of development of PHP based web sites is done by individuals; but mostly when it comes to hosting maybe 90% of them host them on Linux or BSD based servers. One major reason being the performance. Also there is few hosting companies and people who recommend PHP based sites to be hosted on Windows Servers. How ever this is not a news which will be very welcomed by the open source community. There will be others who might take this as a positive move too. Maybe the road to PHP#? :P So next will be mySQL? Maybe Microsoft has finally started to realize that ASP sucks ? and that they can't beat the OSS community and its best to join them, if they can't beat them? Who knows. Its a well known fact that Microsoft has used code from the open source communities. Example a lot of the network layer of initial Windows 2000 code used BSD code. Also the new vista has been working hard to mimic the look and feel of Gnome, KDE and even Mac OS X. And yeah the "power shell"? a replacement for the weak CLI in windows. Anyway thats a totally different story, which will lead no where. The best answer is stick to something which you are confabulate and easy with. Thats the best choice for you. Be it Windows, Mac, Linux or daaa! a PS3 (woo, Linux again)?

This move might be something good for most M$ Maldivian developers, who really are used to the M$ stuff. Lately PHP has also gained a lot of popularity as a web development language. We do have a few ASP guys too, but I would say most people still prefer PHP over ASP. I remember a time back in early 1990's foxpro was the thing here. Back then if you tell them about a language like VB they will joke at you. Late 90's that changed and by mid 2005 its now M$ dot NET. Even the government want to move to .NET platform and M$ SQL? People hardly look into other options like Java and Java based frameworks. Same goes for even PHP, I only know a few developers who have worked with PHP frameworks, like Cake and seagull. But these are good options to look into if you are into PHP, makes your life a lot easier. Also there is other alternatives people can look into like Ruby on Rails and Python with Zope. Personally I don't have much experience when it comes to web development, so I don't wanna comment more on the topic. But my guess is the reason why most hardcore developments with PHP is based on *nix hosting is beyond performance issues. There is a lot of advantages that you get on *nix over windows, when it comes to servers.

Fedora Core 6

FC6 is out for real (?). The official site is down maybe due to the high traffic, and its damn slow for the downloads again due to traffic issues. Hopefully I'd be able to get hands on it by this week end. Here is the download mirrors link http://fedoraproject.org/static-tmp/FedoraMirrors.html

Its expected that this time FC6 will come with a lot of eye candy stuff as well. And for some odd reason yum on FC5 is kinda f*cked up since yesterday. hmmm! I suspect this is again due to the "traffic issues" ?

Firefox Party

People are celebrating the launch of Firefox 2 on Oct 27th, 2006. This is a world wide event. There is talk about one here in Maldives too.

To join the fun, register for a Firefox Party account, and sign up.

mobile computing

Its now become a day to day life thing, the mobile phones. Our computers are also no longer just used to type documents and do spreadsheets. Its no longer a business tool, its also become a personal thingy. The introduction of GPRS has brought so many applications to the mobiles. Now we can be online anytime, read mails, IM, etc. One application which has gained a lot of attention was the mig33, now there are even better concepts and clients. Which is not only used for IM's but even to bring your desktop to your mobile. Even push your emails to your mobile. A college of mine showed me a client called morange, which is worth having a look into. One of the features I really liked was people can access the desktops (remote desktop access) from the mobile to your office and home system. There are loads of other functions as well,like push email and mobile camera access.

From http://www.morange.com/

Remote Desktop Access
There must have been cases when you need to access documents on a remote PC while you are on the go. For example, customers may want a product brochure urgently, or you may want to access your pictures to show to your friends. MORANGE enables a fast and secure access to a remote computer from mobile phone. Users can read and send documents, and you can control all different PC resources remotely. Furthermore, you don't have to have your computer always on, you can enjoy the "virtual thumb drive" to store all your files:

• Browse folders on a remote PC.
• View documents such as Word, JPEG, Text, Excel.
• Send documents as attachment to emails recipient.
• Enjoy 5M of free server space as remote driver.

use Perl;

I've been working on a glue project for the last few days, and finally finished the first phase. Started off with a mix of stuff. Perl, sqlplus and even some shell scripts. Did not go very well. It started to get bigger and messy. Perl is a very flexible language, and has really good and large module support (CPAN). It was a big help. Got things done really fast. But Perl is a messy language. I know you can make it really neat too. But one reason why I use Perl is since I can get things done really fast, thus this results in ugly code. Well; I say ugly cos lately I have been too use to python and I love the looks of python code.

As for Perl its is too permissions related, and too messy to deal with. But this time Perl really did the job. I was able to make the system which was at the center of 5 different systems. The job was to integrate and communicate between them. One of which included an Oracle based system too.

I have to admit Perl really helped. Perl is really good to get things done fast. Lately its been that way, since I need small scripts on and off. All of which is mostly developed in Perl. Now I am starting to wonder, if I should keep things the way it is and go on with Perl. The problem is I know this system is gonna grow really big, and I am not so confident with large Perl based systems. One thing I will hate is if I have to migrate the code to python or Java. Then it will be like hell again. Anyway lets see.

The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software

Below is a mail I got from the general MLUG mailing list. Thought I should post it here as well.

From: NRCFOSS
To: "Bangladesh1 Bdlugmaintainer" , "Bangladesh2 Bangladesh Linux Users Alliance" , "Bangladesh3 Ankur Bangla Linux users" , "Bhutan1 PL from DIT, Dzonkha Localization Project" , "Maldives1 MLUG" , "Nepal1 Linux Nepal" , "Nepal2 Nepalinux" , "Nepal3 Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya" , "Pakistan1 Linux Pakistan" , "Pakistan2 Foud Bajwa FOSSFP" , "Pakistan3 Chairman FOSSFP" , "Pakistan4 Project Manager (OSRC)" , "Pakistan5 TreMU" , "Pakistan6 Computer Society of Pakistan SIG" , "Sri Lanka1 LKLUG" , "Sri Lanka2 Lanka Software Foundation"
Date: Monday 18:56:40

The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software


The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) is a
program of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. Managed
jointly by C-DAC, Chennai and AU-KBC Research Centre, NRCFOSS
(http://www.nrcfoss.org.in/) aims to contribute to the growth of FOSS in
India through Research and Development, Human Resource Development,
Networking and Entrepreneurship Development as well as serve as the
reference point for all FOSS related activities in the country.

C-DAC Chennai has now become the South Asia node for the International
Open Source Network (IOSN), an initiative of the United Nations
Development Programmes's (UNDP) Asia Pacific Development Information
Programme (APDIP) and supported by the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

An excellent source for primers and resources on FOSS, Open Standards,
Education, Localization, Licensing, Government Policy, Networking and
Security; IOSN South Asia is poised to become the clearing house of FOSS
Information in the South Asia region. You can visit the site at
http://www.iosn.net/.

We would like to invite all LUG groups and FOSS enthusiasts to contribute
to the following subcategories of IOSN under your region -:

1)News
2)Events
3)Organizations (non-commercial)
4)Commercial
5)Projects

Kindly send your information with the Country and Subcategory as Subject
headings to nrcfoss@cdac.in.

You could also suggest new ideas or Subcategories to enhance its purpose.

We look forward to your co-operation to foster development in the region.
_______________________________________________
general mailing list
general@mlug.mv
http://mlug.mv/mailman/listinfo/general_mlug.mv

the cables laid beneath the sea

Finally, they are gonna hit our islands soon. Hopefully very soon. This is good news. Number one reason being that this should bring down the cost of communications. More bandwidth. Hopefully more stable communication channels.

Its not a easy job, as it sounds. A lot of logistical issues and technical issues need to be resolved. It will be easy to say just get the damn thing laid and add the interfaces and do the routing. If everything was as easy as it sounds, we can do so much. Anyway that's a different story, but lets hope this will be a major break through for Maldives. The cost of communication has been coming down, since competition was introduced. Its been so much improved, that people have almost forgot how things were a few years back. The call charges, and the internet charges. Not to talk about the services that we use to have. All that seems to have changed over night. Suddenly things are improving so fast. This is really good. Even the customer are getting more aware and demanding more. That again is good news, it helps the companies to develop and deliver better quality service. But then again things don't happen over night. If you are the one who is suppose to do all the work then only you will know. One thing we often forget is, its easy said then done.

Unicode to mIRC

Finally, Khaled added support for display of UTF-8 text as Unicode to mIRC 6.17. Now I think its 6.2, which I tested. Works ok I guess.

The display of UTF-8 can be enabled by default for all windows in the Options/IRC/Messages dialog, or individually for any window you like via the Fonts dialog. Use the /font command to open the fonts dialog.

I guess you need to have Dhivehi as a language installed on your windows to have it fully working.

open source knowledge base

from http://www.opencyc.org/

OpenCyc is the open source version of the Cyc technology, the world's largest and most complete general knowledge base and commonsense reasoning engine. OpenCyc can be used as the basis of a wide variety of intelligent applications such as:

• rapid development of an ontology in a vertical area
• email prioritizing, routing, summarization, and annotating
• expert systems
• games

to name just a few.

I'm not sure about their claims, however, the project looks very interesting. I just got it up on a system and now my part is done. I hope the people who are suppose to use it enjoy it as well. buhahahaha.

how safe is safe?

Hello

dont worry the situation in Kabul is quite stable there are many forigner workers here and there have not been any kidnapped cases or murder many Europian UN worker drive around kabul and go for shopping and there isn't any problem so i hope you will enjoy working in Kabul to let you know i cant recommand you to work in the south and eastern provinces because there are some enemies and they are trying to kidnapped the foreign and government workers but Kabul is Safeeeeeee

so i hope you come and have a great experience in Afghanistan take care

Regards W

This was a email I got. According to it, its safe. The question now is how safe is safe?. There is another email I go too, which had a good point.

One more thing: there are much more chances to die of autoaccident in Minsk, my native city, then here of a rocket explosion and car crash together.

This was a good point. But I don't think still all this will convince my family and friends for me to take up a job at Kabul, Afghanistan. But I guess, if not for them I would have considered taking the offer. Well no one will know what holds for us, but most will say better not take chances with your life. So nothing much can be said. I am kinda sad, cos I think I have to let down the chance. It would have been a good experience and the pay was damn good. Plus I needed a change.

Form the looks of how things are going, things are stalled. Most will say its a very "harudhaana" choice. But for me, I'd rather move on and learn more. I don't think I would wanna be working for one place for a long time. I think its better for us to move on, find better options and gain experience. But most "harudhaana" minded people will disagree with me on this. That's fine. Its just my view that I am expressing here. One reason being, the more exposure you get the better chances you have to learn and improve. But if you wanna rule and take over a place or make it look as if you are the boss, or will be soon. Then stick on. Or maybe if you think you will never get a better job. Stick on. But as of now, I guess I'd be always on the look out for better options. Maldives is obviously out. There is nothing much I can learn from here. Even most jobs the pay "SUCKS". But I hope this time, I'd get a saffer offer.

The art of saying 'yes sir' and 'sorry sir'

I guess I have already posted about saying 'NO'. This time this is another experience. It is also very smart to say 'yes sir' and 'sorry sir' to your boss, as often as you can. This will keep you out of trouble and will make you successful. Never say 'no' to a boss, who does not like to hear the words 'no' and 'why'. Always and always say 'yes' and 'sorry'. Easy way out too. Just ignore the rest. Do what you have to do. There is no way you will win in some wars, or fights. It is even stupid to confront. Just give them what they would like to hear, and just walk out. Doing things how you want to do is a different story.

Need a change!

I guess I have had enough of something. I really need a change and some good stuff to work on. Its very frustrating when you feel different and have conflicting ideas then the rest. To watch and wait when things are done wrong and time is wasted. You wanna shout out loud but at the same time, you know its best NOT to say anything. Anyway end of the day, its not your business, so what the f**k? But for some reason it matters and its frustrating.

So the solution. I guess its to get out as soon as you can, before you start to have nightmares every night and it starts to effect you. Change is the answer. Be is for the best or worst. Who cares.

idhikeeli

Some people talk big. Hide behind crowds and shout. Use anonymous names and publish web sites and articles. We have seen all this. Hardly you will find people who will come up with their names and say stuff out. Maybe they are scared, and they have good reasons. Why? cos if you do, there will be a team of people who will attack you back. Anyway this is not new at all. For the past few years we have been witnessing this show for a while.

now the country is divided into two or three, politically. Some choose one party , since they hate some individuals or had enough of someone. For others they choose a party since they think its the best choice for the nation. There are also people who choose a party cos that is their life line. If you go against a party or choose not to support them, then you won't have a car to ride or the rest of the luxuries they have been so used to. For others its an opportunity to go to these heights. There is also people who choose a party cos of religious reasons. What ever it is, truth is its all divided. Does not matter for what reason you choose a certain party. Its our freedom to choose and decide. No one can force it on us or we should be picked upon for it.

right now the issues is what system we should select. Do we go with the presidential system or the parliamentary system. My view is and I support the presidential system. Why? I feel that is the best system for us right now. Just cos its been practiced in UK or else where does not mean we should go with that. When we select or vote it should be decided on what is best for our country and our children for the future. Now is not the time to fight or try to see which party is best, or who will win or loose. Its a matter of what is right and good. Its not about being political but about deciding our future. When you make a choice or stand up for what you think is right, does not mean you are being political. Anyway, no need to drag that talk.

idhikeeli is a blog run by a few individuals, who are just like you and me and most of us. They don't have a party to defend, or get paid by some people for what they write. Even they are not trying to over throw some other party, or defend their regime. I got a call today from a friend of mine, he called to let me know that he has emailed me the URL of the blog. I thought I could help him/them/us to spread the words. So if you get time too its worth a visit. Now I know we all have different views, I am just standing by mine. At the same time I guess we should fully respect others views as well.

the URL of the blog is http://idhikeeli.blogspot.com/

To: Span King(s)

Its not new that we get SPAM from the internet. Old story, but recently the SPAM is not from outside, but from inside. I have been getting junk SPAM on my inbox from the internal office server. Seems there is a big cult of people who love to SPAM. Please, please take me off this list. aaaaaaar! Vampire the Spammer!

މެހިމާލެ or ހުޅުމާލެ

.ވެދުންސަލާމައްފަހު ލިޔަމެވެ .
ކަމާބެހޭފަރާތަކުން އެއީކޮންމެ ފަރާތަކައްވީނަމަވެސް މިމެހިތަކުގެ ބަލާއިން ސަލާމަތް ވާނެގޮތެއް ހަދާދީބަލާށެވެ

What's that on top?

Ok, a few times I have been asked this question. What's on top of my blog on the banner. So here it is. Its just some thing I have had for two years or more. Its got some good memories of good times.

http://www.mvhackers.org/

Been killing time on http://www.mvhackers.org/ last two days. Me and two of my friends from work, have been working on the challenges on the site. It was a good time kill. I think its kinda very educative too, once you complete a challenge. Maybe a little kiddy for most people, but hey its a game. I guess I am done with the site, but would like to thank the guys who did it. Nice work.

Team

Person A , slaps hard on Person B's face
Person A: how did that feel?
Person B: it was ok
Person A: will you dance to my drums?
Person B: why, yes sir, sure sir.

Now that's what I call dedication and motivation.

USA and world domination!

We are living in a time where after the world war II, the USA has been trying to take over the world. The US uses lame excuses to invade nations and kill innocent people (all acts of self defense). If another nation does anything in self defense its is always considered to be acts of terror. The exception being that nation is a nation like Israel. This has been going on ever since US has come to power. Any voice who stands up against them is always considered to be terrorists. This has lead the world to what it is now. All thanks to the US. I need not go into any details. Guess this has been kinda same through out the history. From the Roman days to the British and German. Now the Americans.

I guess its time for the Americans to think and re think. If they continue like this, it is them who might have to suffer all the losses. No matter how much they try simple things just might lead them to destruction. My fear is them dragging the rest of the world too to this hell. War is not the answer. Killing people is not the answer. How can they declare them as right, after killing innocent children. There is no way anyone can be innocent after killing innocent people for what ever the cause is. What is happening to the Arab world is partly there own fault too. We can't only blame the Israel and USA for what is going on in the middle east. If the Arabs where united and talked the same language and did not back stab each other this day would not have come.

My guess is one reason this war is being dragged is the USA is looking for a way to get Iran involved in the war. If they do, then this will take the war to the next level. First the USA invaded Iraq with "lame" and stupid excuses. Now its Iran's time. It was not long back, when the US invaded Iraq saying they had WMD's and were a threat to the USA. This was on CNN and every where. This is what "G W Bush" SAID. When they could not find anything even close, the story line changed. It was liberation of the the Iraqi people. hmmmm! Nice joke. So this is how the world is run today. We just have to live with this and wait. Lets see where this leads us.

Finance and human resources

Combination of finance and human resources is the worst thing possible that a company can have. Finance department is always into cost cutting and against most developments where they don't see any financial benefit (mostly). HR should be neutral and should manage the staff in all aspects, including making sure the development of staff and benefits, etc. So you can imagine what will be the result if both of these comes under one person or department. Result is most likely that you will have a lot of de motivated staff. Further more, you can forget about anything good to happen to you; if you even talk about this or point things. Consider your self getting a promotion to the cleaning department. :P

Contra

The story begins when New Zealand (A.D. 2631) reports that a meteor crashed into the nearby ocean. Two Years Later the "Red Falcon", begins the destruction of humanity. Two of earth's marines, Bill & Lance, become the Contra. Their mission: Stop the world's destruction.

What ever the story was about, be it two guys with no shirts on or a stupid alien name called "Red Falcon". It was the best games of the 80's. I guess I never played any game more ever. Contra was the game. It had a good music, good graphics and most of all game play was good and fast. Considering the machines it ran on and the time. This was the best game on the Nintendo. Ok, some of you will say Super Mario was the game, hmmm! Ok, but for me it was not so. Before that I would say River Raid of Atari was the best.

Blog Stats

This blog stats for the first half of this year. (2006)

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Today 28th July is the System Administrator Appreciation Day 2006. So I guess its worth saying; "Thank You", for the guys who keep the networks up and running. Its no easy job. Plus through out the year, you always hear and read others blaming these guys. Hardly anyone ever appreciates them. So its good that least this one day you say something nice about your system admins. Mostly its easy said then done.

Ibrahim Nasir Day 2006

Today Maldives celebrates another independence day. One individual who greatly contributed to this day is president Ibrahim Nasir. I would like to thank him for his efforts and contributions to the nation. What ever anyone has to say, in my view he should be appreciated and given the due credits for his part of the contributions. Thank you sir?

Evolution must fully Exchange?

As usual the very first thing you do when you walk into office is read the emails. Today I did just the same and to my surprise; I could not connect to my email server. Our email server is based on Microsoft. Since I don't run windows on my box, I don't have Outlook. The email client I use is Evolution. Its been working ok thus far. I can read and respond to email and access to calender services. I have been having trouble with global directory service, which I can afford to compromise since the organization is not so big. Anyway, seems our administrators been doing some work on the Exchange server over the week end, and the some settings on the web fount end has been changed. This was the issue, Evolution works with exchange over the web interface and now I am kinda off the email system until they fix it. The next choice is just use the web interface from a browser. Plus I still can't understand why the web interface is up but I cannot connect with Evolution. Obviously some settings has been changed, including the IP(maybe even the physical server?) and the port its running on.

After all this stuff; I went in to digg just to get an update on the news. Ah; guess what I found an article which kinda was addressing the same problem I was having. But this was talking about why people were slow in adopting Linux (or not) and the author brought up the Evolution and Exchange issue. Hmmm? Well I don't really agree with him, yeah its slow, but it works and I don't think there are many people who use the 100% full features of Exchange and Outlook. If we can read the mail and take care of the appointments and stuff, thats good enough for most. Plus for example in the case of this country, not many even run on Exchange. I think there is more then an email client which has limited access to exchange that is stopping people from switching to Linux. In my view I guess mostly people or the administrators and management is not fully aware of where Linux is today. I mean the things like Open Office and a stable Desktops, and networking environments (Windows connectivity via Samba,etc). I would say its the lack of awareness that is stopping from people to migrate. Most people just don't give it a try and see. Maybe they used a live CD and clicked around and came to conclusions. I wonder how many people really did try to install an alternative OS in the work environment and gave it a real try. To see how it is to live Microsoft Free, and in a FREE software world? I agree if you are into graphics Linux is still not the choice; like for PhotoShop and CorelDraw. But then again my question is: is Windows or Mac the best choice for these kinda applications? Next comes games, yeah Windows rules! But you don't need to play games at your office do you?

WAR AGAINST TERROR?

What is Terror? Its become an abused word, use to justify killing people and children. When some people die, and are killed : its an act of self defense or liberalization act. When some people act in retaliation and and in self defense and out of frustration its named terrorism. It all depends on which side you are! Its nothing to do with justice and humanity or even the most boasted word democracy.

I just saw these pics on this site; and it really hit me. This is really sick and so uncivilized. Shame on UN and US (who talks about freedom and humanity). And yeah here is an equation

2 Israeli solders = thousands of kids and innocent people of Lebanon ?

cool ey! This is how much human lives are worth and valued by the civilized world.

Free Linux CDs

TheLinuxStore.ca as part of the mission to help spread Linux and open source software around the world, is giving away free Linux disks. The distribution which is being shipped are SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, Gentoo, Debian and Knoppix. Maldives is included as well.

Free/Open vs. Closed Software

Sometime we very often are mislead by the term “open source”, and by “free” software. For some this is the same; which is wrong. There is some differences between these two. By definition OSS is, “Open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is the most prominent example of open source development” . Where else the definition for free software is, “Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Freedom from such restrictions is central to the concept, with the opposite of free software being proprietary software and not software which is sold for profit, commercial software. The usual way for software to be distributed as free software is for the software to be accompanied by a free software license (or be in the public domain), and the source code of the software to be made available (for a compiled language).”

So, whats the difference? The distinction between Open Source and Free Software is a matter of philosophy and approach. The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, ``Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.'' For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.

The open source movement which started off 1998, was mostly aimed at making free software more acceptable to the main stream business world. If I am not wrong, I think thats how it all started. Over the last few years it has also proven itself, that this model is a successful one. Even though the GPL(GNU Public License) model has been around since mid 80's, was not making much business. Surely it is the start of it all. Thats how it all started, but then the boost came in in the early 90's with Linux. The FSF movement was started in 1985 by Richard Matthew Stallman (frequently abbreviated to RMS), or simply Richard Stallman (the man). He was not happy with how things started to turn out in the software world. People like Bill Gates and others who tried to close software and take away the freedom which software was having until that point of time. The open nature of software helped it to improve and makes life better, that was more or less his philosophy. Stallman argues that software users should have freedom — in particular, the freedom to "share with their neighbor" and to be able to study and make changes to the software that they use. He has repeatedly said that attempts by proprietary software vendors to prohibit these acts are "antisocial" and "unethical". The phrase "software wants to be free" is often incorrectly attributed to him, and Stallman argues that this is a mis-statement of his philosophy. He argues that freedom is vital for the sake of users and society and not merely because it may lead to improved software. Consequently, in January 1984, he quit his job at MIT to work full time on the GNU project, which he had announced in September 1983. So whats GNU? Simply GNU mean GNU's Not Unix. This was chosen because its design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and by not containing actual UNIX code.

So what is Linux? Linux is simple a kernel developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and subsequently developed with the assistance of developers worldwide. The GNU project was developing its own kernel was named; HURD. This had some bugs and was not very stable at the time when Linus made Linux public. The difference was again the approach to the kernel design. I think its the fact that Linux is not a microkernel and HURD was. Even Stallman has agreed to the fact that Linux took a better approach in developing the Linux, though HURD might have been more systematic and a better design. In any case, people started to use the kernel Linux developed and started to adopt it along with other GNU tools. Also Linux was released under the GPL model. This was nothing planned, it just happened. As UNIX is composed of lots of tools and a kernel, the combination was perfect. Even to date some people still argue that Linux should be called as GNU/Linux.

This is what changed the world. When people like Bill Gates changed things with letters such as The Open Letter to Hobbyists. At that point the world was started to get slowly dominated by Microsoft. Internet was at the verge of exploding. People considered software source code to be something of crown jewels, suddenly work of few individuals changed everything. They not only contributed the computing world, but also disproved the business models which has been laid down by companies like Microsoft and others. Companies like RedHat and a few others have proven that there is money in the OSS and Free software models. The point which most people still don't get is, this is not about money, its about FREEDOM. The freedom to choose software, modify and to distribute. Where you were not stuck with one vendor for the product and for the support. YOU NOW HAVE THE CHOICE TO CHOOSE. Of course, when you look for service you have to pay. Example consultation and support. That is if you are a serious company, and running a business or an organization. The advantage being lower cost in most cases and better service. Why better service? Because you had the freedom to choose rather then depend on one company (only) to give you support and updates.

Its interesting to note that Linux grew with a lot of other technologies. Most importantly, the Internet. Probably the biggest boost that Linux got was from Apache web server project. It too was a free software like the Linux, and at that time ISP's saw the advantage of Apache over others. Apache and Linux went on very well. Loads of ISP's started to adopt Apache along with Linux, for advantages like security, easy administration of remote servers. Things like the advantage that Linux ran on loads of platforms and cheap hardware. Then the rest was what we see today. Database developers and other application developers acknowledged Linux and boom, now its even competing on the desktop too. Projects like the Open Office project by Sun Microsystems and other contributions from companies like IBM and Novell has made Linux what it is today. But most of all its the individuals who made it happen, and the theory and love of “Freedom”. Its simply amazing.

References:
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.gnu.org/

OSS and Developing Countries

Free software is a matter of freedom, not price. In developing countries Open Source Software(OSS) has not been as popular as it should have been. There have been many factors contributing to this, one major factor being that there have not been much or any enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights(IPR). Software piracy is epidemic in most developing countries. Starting from the individual home users to the government bodies. There is not much respect to any copyright laws. Mostly software is taken for granted. This is not even taken into consideration while making policies. Mostly the only costs involved are the cost of hardware. It is very rarely that cost of software is ever taken into consideration.

One other factor which contributes to this that; it is some times believed that anything “Free” can't be good. A lot of times OSS or free software is looked down by some people. This happens mostly when people are not very aware of the technology and when people who make decisions are not practically involved in the industry. A lot of times, the people who are selected to make decisions in the developing countries are long term bosses who have been sitting behind a desk just signing documents or they are fresh and green graduates, who lack any experience other then school assignments and projects.

So, why go for free and open source when its all free anyway? Well, nothing is free! (almost). To start with we all know that even though its free software a lot of times we need to pay for support; if we want it. This is true in any case. Be it Free and OSS or commercial software. Also there is consultation costs. This is true when it comes to large projects. There are many advantages we get when we move to OSS platforms and to Free software. Example the flexibilities we get over the software; if we are to customize or even to localize. In other words there is more control over systems when you move to GPL-style projects. This is a very wide subject to be discusses and it all depends on where it is applied. There is no one general answer to these kinds of questions.

I think there is a lot of advantages that I see if an organization migrates to Free and Open platforms. Example if an organization were to adopt Linux on an enterprise-wide scale, they would have advantages like more security, keep malware and viruses at bay. It would also cut down on the IT budget on the long run. This is very much acceptable thing now, but why does these migrations never happen? I think one reason is the lack of support and knowhow. Also FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) is the other factor. While we know that these migrations and adaptations will be far better, we still fear them. For some if not most administrators; its hard to think of a world without Microsoft. They are too used to the wizards and the next, next finish methods. Even if this meant compromising performance, security and even cost.

Lately this has started to change. OSS and Free platforms has not only been started to get popular with developing nations but also the developed countries like Germany and Hong Kong. Recently Indian government has been adopting Linux into the government operations along with countries like China.

Anyway I think its a good factor for the governments to consider the costs which will be involved if they have to pay for the licenses and the upgrade costs. Which are not considered now. Its also a very sad fact that the people who are to enforce laws are also the people who break them. Just because these intellectual propitiates are software and developed by other countries does not mean they should be illegally used, stolen or sold. But having said that I know this is something that can never be stopped in a near future. Piracy is here to stay for a while. I think it will take a few years and a lot of mistakes for the developing countries to realize the reasons for choosing GPL-style projects for solutions. The next major factor which will only bring this change is people. As of now man power is something that we lack, people who are experienced and have the skills and knowledge to adopt and deploy projects successfully. Till then its just an idea and a dream for these islands where I live.

Off to land of Bajaj

Very soon(in a few hours) I will be in the land of Bajaj. Most probably riding on three wheelers, on and off. Anyway who is the real Bajaj? I did some read up into this guy, and here is what I found out.

Jamnalal Bajaj (1886 - 11 February 1942) was an industrialist, a philanthropist, and Indian freedom fighter. He was also a close associate and follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is known to have adopted him as his son. Several institutions in India bears his name, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He founded the Bajaj group of companies in the 30s. The group now has 24 companies, including 6 listed companies. Besides Bajaj Auto Ltd, the other major companies in the group include Mukand Ltd, Bajaj Electricals Ltd and Bajaj Hindustan Ltd. One of his great-grandsons, Rahul Bajaj runs the family flagship company Bajaj auto.

But lately; his name has been taken over by some charactor in a Indian TV Show. :) But let us not forget the real guy too.