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Submitted by Charles Nutter on Sun, 03/28/2010 – 14:37.

This year, no major Ruby organization got accepted to Google’s Summer of Code (even though a half dozen Python projects got accepted, but I won’t rant here). What do we as Rubyists do? Take it sitting down? NO! we make our own Summer of Code!

Thanks to Engine Yard, Ruby Central, and the Rails team, Ruby Summer of Code has raised $100k in just three days, allowing us to run 20 student projects! Hooray!

Ruby Summer of Code

Now of course we really would love to have some JRuby projects involved. There’s so much exciting stuff going on with JRuby, and I believe it’s the most promising platform for really growing the Ruby community. So we’ve set up a page for JRuby Ruby Summer of Code 2010 ideas. Here’s a few to get you started:

• JRuby on Android work, including command-line tooling, performance work, and all the little bits and pieces needed to make Ruby a first-class Android language.
• Porting key C extensions to JRuby, so there’s an alternative for people migrating.
• A super-fast lightweight server similar to the GlassFish gem.
• A full Hibernate and/or JPA backend for DataMapper or DataObjects, so that all databases Hibernate supports “just work” with JRuby.
• Work on JRuby’s nascent suport for Ruby C extensions by building the API out
• Help get JRuby’s early optimizing compiler wired up, to take JRuby’s perf to the next level
• Duby-related projects, like IDE support, better tooling, codebase cleanup, features, documentation.

And there’s dozens of other projects out there just waiting for you! Add yourself as a student on the RubySOC page, add some ideas to the JRuby ideas page, and let’s get hacking!

Ruby Summer of Code 2010

I am looking to host a website and use various PHP scripts. the hosting site that I am looking at offers “CGI based PHP”? what does that mean for me? does that mean I cannot embed PHP into my web pages? Do I have to put all PHP scripts into the cgi-bin?

What does it mean when a hosting company offers CGI Based PHP?

Hostway Corp., which specializes in web hosting and cloud hosting services, has attracted $110 million in financing to support a “continued growth plan.” the deal is the latest example of (A) a web hosting company attracting money and (B) a web hosting company trying to search engine optimize around the cloud hosting term. here are some quick details for managed services providers.

Launched in 1998, Hostway provides dedicated hosting, shared hosting, colocation, domain name registration, ecommerce solutions and other Web-based services to over 1.4 million Web sites and 600,000 customers worldwide. Veronis Suhler Stevenson along with Fortress Capital, Regiment Capital and Phoenix Life were involved in the latest round of funding.

So, where does cloud hosting fit into this picture? the company in 2008 launched a Cloud Server effort, which mainly leverages Microsoft’s Windows Server and SQL Server database — though Centos and Red Hat Enterprise Linux also are supported.

Hardly surprising, most of the major hosting firms have been adding some cloud language to their marketing and financial promotions in recent months. From publicly held hosting firms like RackSpace to privately held companies like The Planet, the race to recruit VARs and resellers into cloud hosting partner programs also has intensified. and yes, Hostway has been promoting a private label program to partners.

Still, differentiating in the hosting space has becoming increasingly difficult. some firms, such as Verio, have pushed beyond Hosted Exchange and other traditional Microsoft options to introduce hosted SugarCRM, an open source CRM system that competes with Salesforce.com.

We’ll be watching to see how Hostway invests its latest round of funding.

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Read More About This Topic

• The Planet: Value Hosting Leader?
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Cloud Hosting: Hostway Attracts $110 Million in Funding

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(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Managed hosting and application management solutions NaviSite (www.navisite.com) had the most reliable hosting company site for the month of February according to a monthly survey from Internet research and security firm Netcraft.

According to its announcement this week, NaviSite, which uses Apache on CentOS to run its own website, responded to all of Netcraft’s requests in February. This month, NaviSite announced it would be selling its Lawson/Kronos Managed Application Service business in an effort to re-focus on its enterprise-class cloud solutions for large organisations with complex environments.

DataPipe was the second most reliable hosting company site in February, responding to all but one of Netcraft’s requests. using Apache on FreeBSD to run their own website, DataPipe provides custom managed hosting solutions for businesses with complex Internet facing infrastructures with over 1,000 customers in seven data centers across the US, Europe and China.

Including NaviSite, six of the top 10 sites in February were identified as running Linux. Of the remaining identifiable hosts, two ran FreeBSD and one ran Windows Server 2008.

Netcraft measures the response times of forty top hosting providers’ sites at 15 minute intervals from separate points around the Internet. Netcraft’s ranking system is based on the number of failed requests, with results averaged over each day. According to Netcraft, the percentage of failed requests is more important to customers than shortest periods of outage, because it gives a pointer to the reliability of their routing.

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NaviSite Named Most Reliable Hosting Company Site in Netcraft's February 2010 …

I know a fair share about web servers I just need to know how to get one set up. I am looking at running a public web server from my house. it will run Debian Linux and I am wondering if anyone has a number of things that have to get this thing going. Does anyone have any tutorials to point to you.

How to set up a Debian Web Server?

132. At 08:48am on 18 Mar 2010, Laumars wrote:

@129. at 06:41am on 18 Mar 2010, lambrettamike wrote:
1/ Sure, other platforms have an extensive array of 3rd party applications available, but they cover the huge number of handset variants of the said manufacturer, OS versions etc.. from a commercial standpoint, users find this frustrating and often useless to locate the particular App for their model of phone, and when they locate it, they find it often crashes, or simply does not do what it says on the tin!!

My reply:
You’re still vastly over stating the problem.
I’ve never once had a problem you describe regardless of whether I’m running Android, Symbian nor Windows Mobile.
The whole point of an OS (be it mobile or desktop) is to provide a stable set of APIs to interface between the hardware and running applications. Thus it shouldn’t really matter about the range of different handsets providing the APIs are stable – which they for commercial mobile platforms.

Furthermore, I seem to recall iPhone OS 3.0 breaking many of the existing iPhone apps and that wasn’t even a changing in hardware. So your point application stability across platforms is somewhat hypocritical.

You said:
Show me the statistics of download numbers that come anywhere near Apple, where we are speaking about ONE Mobile platform that virtually ALL apps will download too (the ‘virtually ALL’ means where some apps will not work on a specific iPhone/iPod Touch variant because, for example, that earlier variant may not have a camera). When a particular App will not work on that hardware variant, it states so clearly in the App store.

My reply:
Now you’re contradicting yourself. You’re talking about the iPhone (et al) range as one platform then go one to admit that there is hardware differences.

The iPhone genius (for want a better term) is NOT one platform – so your point is somewhat moot.

You said:
Oh yes SDK’s are very relevant to the SUCCESS of the software repository or App Store.

My reply:
No they’re not. I’ve already explained the difference and being a software developer I’m well versed in SDKs and software repositories (having used a SDKs for a variety of platforms and APIs ranging from DirectX to Android).
So please stop spouting your nonsense that SDKs have a direct baring on the success of a software repository. The two are completely separate entities – period.

You said:
3/ Google’s Market (Android’s app store), whilst being the nearest to Apple is still a long way off in terms of providing such an easy to use & compelling experience beause of the points made in 1/ above … the number of variants of Android phones (hardware) and specifics for each network provider (app versions).

My reply:
And as I stated in point 1 – you’re hugely over stating the problem.
Google’s app store is 2nd to Apple’s App Store for 1 reason alone: you can’t do a mass update like you can on the iPhone.
This makes it frustrating when several apps release updates at once (which happens more often than on the iPhone as Google are currently running a slicker application authorisation process than Apple).
So I will admit that Android is a little lacking there – but in terms of the arguments you’ve put forward, well they’re massively overstating an issue that rarely happens and is quickly rectified when it does.

You said:
The Ubuntu’s Synaptic & Microsoft Update, whilst they might be easy, do not exactly resonate as commercial successes for the masses,

My reply:
Wrong again.
Ubuntu’s package manager is what drives many a Linux newbie to Ubuntu.
Windows Update is critical to the stability, security and thus the commercial success of Windows.

While they may not distribute pay-for 3rd party applications, that is not their intended role (Ubuntu is open source so everything is free – selling applications through Synaptic would be somewhat daft. And why would Microsoft charge users for Windows patches?)

You said:
the Microsoft example is great, providing users with patches, when what they want is Apps that work!!

My reply:
Ahhh, so you’re an Apple fanboy then. that explains the extremely narrow-minded pessimistic view of everything outside of the iPhone.

1/ Windows Update exists in one form or another for every OS. EVERY desktop and server operating system (including OS X) on the planet needs patching as OSs are an infinitely complex beast and new and ever more elaborate forms of attack are always being developed. So to use Windows Update as proof that apps don’t work on Windows is absolutely absurd.

2/ I hate Windows as a platform (for reasons not even worth deviating the topic for) and even I know that Windows is a good platform if you just want an application to work. In fact, one of the reasons Windows is such a popular platform to develop for is how easy it is to develop for Windows. Microsoft have some fantastic development tools around.
Sure, there are bucket loads of other reasons why Windows is the #1 OS, but development is certainly one of them.
So don’t even try to pass off comments like “Windows app’s don’t work” because it’s clearly completely rubbish.

You said:
I am in no way trying to insult the hard work that competing software houses have developed over the years, just to point out the new commercial reality of what the customer finds easy to use that is ‘fit for their purpose’. Those customers are simply voting with their wallets and buying Apple products. Wake up and take notice.

My reply:
If that was the case then the iPhone would be the number 1 handset. It’s not. It’s not even the #1. In fact, Apple have to lie in the sales figures and include iPod Touch with their mobile handset sales figures to even stand as proud as they do.

So yes, people are voting with their wallets – and buying other platforms.
And so yes, I do take notice. I take notice of the facts and not the newspaper headlines that have been composed by spin doctors.

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dot.Rory

Apache’s West Kalabsha I-1X discovery in the Faghur Basin of Egypt’s Western desert tested at 4554b/d and 10.1mmcf/d, the US-based operator said on 25 March 2010. The well, located 10 miles southwest of the operator’s Phiops field flowed from 105ft of net pay in the Jurassic Safa formation.

The West Kalabsha I-1X is the most recent in a series of oil discoveries in the Faghur Basin. Apache is expanding processing and transportation infrastructure to raise production capacity in the Faghur from 8100b/d to 40,000b/d in late 2010.

“Apache previously established production in the Safa formation at West Kalabsha-C and Phiops in the Faghur Basin,” said Tom Voytovich, VP of Apache’s Egypt Region. “This most recent discovery solidifies the Jurassic Safa as a primary objective in the basin. The well, on a structure identified by 3D seismic, encountered pay in over 200ft of total sand, demonstrating the potential size of Safa accumulations in the Faghur. this discovery certainly adds a new dimension to our exploration focus.

“West Kalabsha is proving to be a fertile hunting ground; with the ongoing infrastructure expansion, the time from concept to actual production should be shortened dramatically,” Voytovich said. The company has two new 3D seismic surveys completed in the basin, and is about to begin acquisition on its largest survey of the year to the west, along the trend established by recent discoveries, in an area where no previous 3D data exists but regional 2D data indicates promising geological features, he added.

Apache owns 100% interest in the West Kalabsha concession and plans to drill four more exploratory wells targeting the Alam el Bueib (AEB) and Safa formations in the Faghur basin this year. Apache plans to drill an appraisal test two miles southwest of the latest discovery before full development plans are formulated.

by: Jennifer Pallanich,jpallanich@offshore-engineer.com

Apache has another Faghur hit

I want to create a home file server but I don’t know what OS to use. I was thinking of how to make it. If you have any tips or links I would greatly appreciate it.
I was also considering Windows Media Center

Is Debian a good OS to use for a home file server?

fwknop is a tool used with the iptable to provide the single packet authentication.

I know the fwknop since i brought the bok Linux Firewalls by Michael Rash. he is the guy who created the fwknop, PSAD, fwsnort and etc security tools.

fwknop is a tool use to add the SSH service with specific IP into the iptables’ rule and it is just available for 30 seconds to connect to server. once time exceed, it will remove the rule from iptables, so that no one can connect to server.

For more information , please read the book Linux Firewalls and official website from Michael Rash http://www.cipherdyne.org/fwknop/

Now I have 2 boxes,

Node1 = 192.168.145.41 ( also known as server )

Node2 = 192.168.145.42 ( also known as client )

Node1 has been setup with firewall block the port 22

At, node2, now we do ssh to node1

1st, i scan the node1

[root@node2 ~]# nmap -P0 192.168.145.41 Starting Nmap 4.11 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2008-11-23 11:56 MYT

Interesting ports on node1 (192.168.145.41): Not shown: 1677 filtered ports

PORT STATE SERVICE

80/tcp open http

113/tcp closed auth

8080/tcp closed http-proxy

MAC Address: 00:0C:29:5E:8B:28 (VMware) Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 22.151 seconds

2nd, i do ssh to node1

[root@node2 ~]# ssh 192.168.145.41

It has no return result.

At node1, let see the log

Nov 23 09:04:18 node1 kernel: Shorewall:net2all:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:0c:29:5e:8b:28:00:0c:29:23:90:aa:08:00 SRC=192.168.145.42 DST=192.168.145.41 LEN=60 TOS=0×00 PREC=0×00 TTL=64 ID=32176 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=44194 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0×00 SYN URGP=0

See, my firewall has blocked out the 192.168.145.42.

[root@node1 fwknop]# vi /etc/fwknop/fwknop.conf

EMAIL_ADDRESSES chenghui81@gmail.com;

[root@node1 fwknop]# vi /etc/fwknop/access.conf

SOURCE: ANY;

OPEN_PORTS: tcp/22; ### for ssh (change for access to other services)

KEY: a13xch0ng;

FW_ACCESS_TIMEOUT: 30;

start the fwknop service

[root@node1 fwknop]# /etc/init.d/fwknop start

Starting the fwknop daemons: [ OK ]

tail the log

[root@node1 fwknop]# tail -f /var/log/messages

Nov 23 10:03:29 node1 init: Trying to re-exec init

Nov 23 11:33:28 node1 fwknopd: starting fwknopd v1.9.9 (file revision: 1353)

Nov 23 11:33:28 node1 fwknopd: flushing existing iptables fwknop chains

Nov 23 11:33:29 node1 fwknopd: imported access directives (1 SOURCE definitions).

Nov 23 11:33:29 node1 fwknopd: imported previous tracking digests from disk cache: /var/log/fwknop/digest.cache

Nov 23 11:33:29 node1 kernel: device eth0 entered promiscuous mode

(see the service started with the promiscuous mode, that mean it is sniffing the packet thru interface eth0.

you will see such message when you running sniffer )

Node2, now we do the Single Packet Authentication by using fwknop client

[root@node2 ~]# fwknop -A tcp/22 -a 192.168.145.42 -k 192.168.145.41

( note:: tcp/22 is refer to the port you wanted to connect, -a is refer to your source IP, -k is refer to your destination IP )

[+] Starting fwknop client (SPA mode)…

[+] Enter an encryption key. This key must match a key in the file

/etc/fwknop/access.conf on the remote system.

Encryption Key:

(it is asking the encryption key, the key is referring to the key you setup in the server side )

[+] Building encrypted Single Packet Authorization (SPA) message…

[+] Packet fields:

Random data: 2421962114322037

Username: root

Timestamp: 1227411567

Version: 1.9.9

Type: 1 (access mode)

Access: 192.168.145.42,tcp/22

SHA256 digest: uBZSsbkeoAH/pA44IHxLGvHt3rC8F513ry4XCVKimkU

[+] Sending 182 byte message to 192.168.145.41 over udp/62201…

Once you see such message that mean you are successfully initiated the connection.

Node1: from the /var/log/messages

Nov 23 11:39:45 node1 kernel: Shorewall:net2all:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:0c:29:5e:8b:28:00:0c:29:23:90:aa:08:00 SRC=192.168.145.42 DST=192.168.145.41 LEN=210 TOS=0×00 PREC=0×00 TTL=64 ID=43837 DF PROTO=UDP SPT=64210 DPT=62201 LEN=190

Nov 23 11:39:45 node1 fwknopd: received valid Rijndael encrypted packet from: 192.168.145.42, remote user: root, client version: 1.9.9 (SOURCE line num: 26)

Nov 23 11:39:45 node1 fwknopd: add FWKNOP_INPUT 192.168.145.42 -> 0.0.0.0/0(tcp/22) ACCEPT rule 30 sec

(note : see the last line that has added our IP to the iptables in order to let us connect the SSH in 30 seconds)

Node2 : I login the node1 asap

[root@node2 ~]# ssh 192.168.145.41 -l root

The authenticity of host ‘192.168.145.41 (192.168.145.41)’ can’t be established.

RSA key fingerprint is be:73:8b:27:48:96:ce:f5:16:7c:c5:0d:81:99:c7:3d.

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Warning: Permanently added ‘192.168.145.41′ (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

Address 192.168.145.41 maps to node1, but this does not map back to the address – POSSIBLE BREAK-IN ATTEMPT!

root@192.168.145.41’s password:

Last login: Sun Nov 23 07:04:39 2008 from 192.168.145.1

( note: yes, we connected to the server thru ssh )

See the cool things from node1 , /var/log/messages

Nov 23 11:40:56 node1 fwknopd: add FWKNOP_INPUT 192.168.145.42 -> 0.0.0.0/0(tcp/22) ACCEPT rule 30 sec

Nov 23 11:41:28 node1 fwknop(knoptm): removed iptables FWKNOP_INPUT ACCEPT rule for 192.168.145.42 -> 0.0.0.0/0(tcp/22), 30 sec timeout exceeded

See the last 2nd line that told you the iptables has added the new rules to allow IP 192.168.145.42 (aka node2) to login thru port 22 within 30 sec

See the last line that told you the iptables has removed the rules from the iptables which is ip192.168.145.32 port 22 after 30 seconds

Yet, my email, please take a look : -

see that 2 unread emails, one is telling you the IP has been added into the iptables and another is telling you the time is exceed and the rule has been removed from iptables

fwknop is designed used to prevent the 0 day exploit..

cause once they scan your server, there is no ssh port opening

so, no way they can access into your server thru ssh.

cool is it??

quickly implement into your server to make another security layer for ssh.

Little Unix Admin: fwknopd – Firewall Knock Operator aka SPA …

FUEL Database on MontaVista Linux Whether building a mobile handset, a car navigation system, a package tracking device, or a home entertainment console, developers need capable software systems, including an operating system, development tools, and supporting libraries, to gain maximum benefit from their hardware platform and to meet aggressive time-to-market goals.

Breaking new Ground: The Evolution of Linux Clustering with a platform comprising a complete Linux distribution, enhanced for clustering, and tailored for HPC, Penguin Computings Scyld Software provides the building blocks for organizations from enterprises to workgroups to deploy, manage, and maintain Linux clusters, regardless of their size.

Data Monitoring with NightStar LXUnlike ordinary debuggers, NightStar LX doesnt leave you stranded in the dark. its more than just a debugger, its a whole suite of integrated diagnostic tools designed for time-critical Linux applications to reduce test time, increase productivity and lower costs. you can debug, monitor, analyze and tune with minimal intrusion, so you see real execution behavior. And thats positively illuminating.

Virtualizing Service Provider Networks with VyattaThis paper highlights Vyatta’s unique ability to virtualize networking functions using Vyatta’s secure routing software in service provider environments.

High Availability Messaging Solution using AXIGEN, Heartbeat and DRBD this white paper discusses a high-availability messaging solution relying on the AXIGEN Mail Server, Heartbeat and DRBD. Solution architecture and implementation, as well as benefits of using AXIGEN for this setup are all presented in detail.

Understanding the Financial Benefits of Open SourceWill open source pay off? Open source is becoming standard within enterprises, often because of cost savings. find out how much of a financial impact it can have on your organization. Get this methodology and calculator now, compliments of JBoss.

Embedded Hardware and OS Technology Empower PC-Based PlatformsThe modern embedded computer is the jack of all trades appearing in many forms.

Data Management for Real-Time Distributed SystemsThis paper provides an overview of the network-centric computing model, data distribution services, and distributed data management. it then describes how the SkyBoard integration and synchronization service, coupled with an implementation of the OMGs Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard, can be used to create an efficient data distribution, storage, and retrieval system.

7 Advantages of D2D BackupFor decades, tape has been the backup medium of choice. but, now, disk-to-disk (D2D) backup is gaining in favor. Learn why you should make the move in this whitepaper.

Compact, fanless home server runs Debian Linux