Saturday, December 09, 2006




Ericsson and NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, have launched a two-month trial of mobile TV advertising across three of NBC's channels, including a 'made for mobile' programme based on a popular Norwegian TV show. Twenty local and national brands are participating and advertising will be provided by Proximity Oslo, part of global agency BBDO. The promise is to deliver highly personalized, interactive advertising formats which the parties are hoping will provide value, win acceptance and in some cases be offered in return for discounts.

The momentum behind mobile advertising is growing and there has been a flurry of announcements and trials by major operators, including 3, Orange and most recently Vodafone with its headline grabbing deal with Yahoo! for display advertising. Mobile operators in mature markets see mobile advertising as a potential new revenue stream in a scenario where money from voice services is declining but revenues from data services are not growing quickly enough to compensate for this.

Most advertising initiatives we've seen so far have been driven by mobile operators and specialist mobile advertising intermediaries, rather than by a national broadcaster and major infrastructure and solutions vendor. But what makes this trial more significant is the fact that NRK and Ericsson are promoting interactivity and personalization as a key feature. This is a bold move as this kind of promise is often made but rarely delivered when it comes to mobile advertising. It is particularly difficult for mobile TV, where viewing sessions are very short - typically around three minutes. In this context, interactive advertising could be very intrusive. But we think NRK and Ericsson stand a good chance of getting it right as they have a track record in working together on mobile TV projects, particularly interactively.

NRK and Ericsson held a nine-week trial in February of this year to test interactive services for mobile TV, which they claimed was very successful and doubled the average viewing time to just over five minutes. The interactive mobile TV solution is based on a platform developed by Ericsson with conVisual and Communology. The current mobile TV advertising trial builds on this, and likewise requires a downloadable Java-based client. The current trial will use a range of advertising formats, including videos, banners, ticker texts and branded downloadable content. Adverts will be customized according to individual users based on age, gender, location and personal interests. Presumably much of this detail is gained on registration to the service. Interactivity is particularly valued by advertisers as it is high involvement marketing tool and useful metric for mobile advertising - a user clicking on an interactive advertisement is a tangible measurement. Of course, what they do after that is another matter. NRK and Ericsson are hoping the trial will not only test user acceptance to different advertising formats but also help set the foundations for mobile TV advertising business models. The lack of clarity over business models is a major challenge for mobile advertising, and if Ericsson and NRK can do anything to help then the whole industry will benefit. We won't know the outcome until the trial concludes, but we wish them luck in a very challenging task.

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Friday, December 08, 2006

Conerts Updated

G Love and Special Sauce

Electric Factory

Philadelphia, PA

11/24/06
11/25/06

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Week in Review


Well, this has been a pretty eventful week. Lots of good stuff has happened, let me see if I can recount it all. To do so, I'll use a few tricks to jog what's left of my mind.

Monday

First thing at work on Monday I ran into a friend and colleague from our UK office, Owen Hanks. He put in a request for some beats. I was more than willing to oblige

It was announced that my entire company management would be in a meeting the entire week, with lunch provided for everyone. Not a bad way to start. That day it was burritos.

After a half day, we went off to GoKart Racer in Burnlingame, which I refer to as Burnlinghole. I came in 8th which was close to last. It was still fun.



Tuesday

Lunch again, this time wraps. Bumped into the mergizzle for shizzle.


Wednesday

Lunch then I went to Splunk in the afternoon to meet with Jef Bekes and his team. They are a great bunch of guys. I appreciated the opportunity to give feeback directly to the designers of my favorite UI. I also appreciated the fabulous dinner at Paragon.

Thrusday

Still lunchin (shout to cousin Gregg). This time it was pasta. Mmm. Then the holiday party. It was at the Sheraton Palo Alto, a really classy joint. I had a nice time and came home with a fat prize, a gift basket loaded up with wine and some gourmet treats.

Friday

Pizza.

All hands meeting. This was the breakdown from the weeks discussions at the management layer distilled down to the rest of us.

Beer and

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Mobile Advertising

There are four types of mobile media that will enable brands to build presence in a manner that is appropriate to nurturing a stable and long lasting relationship with mobile subscribers: SMS, Mobile Web, Mobile Video/TV, and Downloadable Applications and Content, said Nick Holland, senior analyst and author of the report at Pyramid Research. Advertising embedded in downloadable applications will become increasingly pervasive as brands recognize opportunities for content sponsorship and the benefits of being part of a less transient medium than WAP and mobile TV. Action Engine has developed a significant level of expertise in on-device advertising that may make them an indispensable component for a downloadable application strategy.

With the worldwide mobile phone market approaching one billion units shipped this year, the big brands are obviously looking to the wireless device as the next strategic medium to reach their customers. Mobile advertising is the catalyst that will make mobile services affordable for the average consumer and will drive a new source of revenues for media companies, said Scott G. Silk, CEO and president, Action Engine. Our technology provides a permanent home for brands on the mobile device, and by avoiding the painful download times associated with most browser-based mobile advertising solutions, we can drive greater impressions and click-through rates for mobile advertisers.

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Monday, November 13, 2006

Free Cell Phones

Posted by Zonk on Monday November 13, @04:20AM
from the i-have-no-friends-you-insensitive-clod dept.
Salvance writes "Google's CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a day when all cell phones are free if the user agrees to watch targeted ads. While he provides no specific plans for Google to give away phones, the implication is that he expects such moves in the future given Google's current pilot successes with delivering text ads on phones." From the article: "Schmidt also said his company was working on how to allow users to maintain basic control of their personal data. Currently, Google stores consumer data on hundreds of thousands of its own computers in order to provide additional services to individual users. The company is looking to allow consumers to export their Web search history or e-mail archives and move them to other sites, if they so choose."

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Sunday, November 12, 2006

Ticketmaster Records

Partial list of concerts and games I've seen over the past three years. I dug this up verifying my tickets for the current G Love tour, which I'm ready to go see Friday and Saturday nights after Thanksgiving. There's also a number of Chicago Fire games in here. I had a great time watching them, especially at Soldier Field in the playoffs.

11/12/06 7-46229/PHI G. Love & Special Sauce
The Electric Factory,Philadelphia,PA
11/25/06

11/12/06 25-28621/PHI G. Love & Special Sauce
The Electric Factory,Philadelphia,PA
11/24/06

01/10/06 47-25671/NCA G. Love & Special Sauce
The Warfield,San Francisco,CA
01/28/06

09/25/05 12-43643/NCA San Jose Sharks vs. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
HP Pavilion At San Jose,San Jose,CA
09/25/05

02/26/05 17-22433/NCA G. Love & Special Sauce
The Warfield,San Francisco,CA
N/A
08/22/04 7-21308/NCA Beastie Boys
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium,San Francisco,CA
N/A

07/29/04 14-18823/NCA Beastie Boys
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium,San Francisco,CA
N/A

05/09/04 19-30414/NCA Live 105's BFD #11
Shoreline Amphitheatre,Mountain View,CA
N/A

04/09/04 16-45051/NCA San Jose Earthquakes vs. Chicago Fire
Spartan Stadium,San Jose,CA
N/A
11/11/03 11-18045/CH1 Chicago Fire vs. New England Revolution
Soldier Field,Chicago,IL

10/19/03 8-47565/CH1 Chicago Fire Playoff Game vs TBD
Soldier Field,Chicago,IL

09/22/03 6-16327/CH1 Chicago Fire vs. Colorado Rapids
Soldier Field,Chicago,IL

09/22/03 3-30381/CH1 Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew
Soldier Field,Chicago,IL

04/29/03 13-21673/CH1 Chicago Fire vs. San Jose Earthquakes
North Central College,Naperville,IL

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Thursday, November 02, 2006

1 - 2 - 3 Down for the Count The Result of my Lyrics Oh Yes No Doubt

http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/dm/article/598046/digital-mobile-mobile-firms-eye-ad-value/

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Novell and Microsoft to Partner on Linux

This one is just crazy.

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19526&hed=Holy+Source+Code!%26nbsp%3BMicrosoft%2C+Novell+in+Linux+Pact§or=Industries&subsector=Computing

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

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3Com and IBM Team up to Release VoIP Platform on iSeries

I met with 3Com and IBM back in March to scope out the work to migrate from Linux on i386 to Linux on iSeries Power architecture. My company at the time, Nuasis, was a partner with 3Com providing a VoIP contact center. The prices announced by IBM are schockingly low. I wonder what the hardware costs come out to be.

http://www.voip-magazine.com/content/view/5158/

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Respin Respin

The latest news indicates that Oracle's recently announced Enterprise Linux is not a respin of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux at all. Rather, it is a respin of CentOS, which itself is a respin of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6328/1/

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Sunday, October 29, 2006

The Unbreakable Unfakeable Linux

Oracle just dealt a body blow to RedHat by offering what amounts to an upgrade path for current Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or 4 subscriptions. By changing the "up2date" program on a RHEL server, you point to a new RHN server, or in this case what Oracle is called ULN, the Unbreakable Linux Network. Now RedHat's answer to this, RHN, or what's on the server side happens to depend on Oracle's Database.

So, one interesting observation is that unlike RedHat, Oracle seems unwilling to sell the ULN "Satellite" equivalent. Which begs the question, maybe Oracle is in fact using an RHN Satellite server to host this ULN. At the very least, they are endorsing this design by imitation or even reuse depending on how much of the RHN Satellite infrastructure they may or may not have redesigned ore replaced. My guess is very little. I'll make an effort to find out exactly what ULN is. I'm downloading the UL isos now and will install them on a test machine Monday.

Red Hat's stock took a 30% dip on the news.

Any way you look at it, you have to give it up to Larry Ellison. This is an aggressive business move no doubt designed as retaliation against RedHat for scooping up JBoss before he could. This also puts to rest all the speculation that Oracle was going to throw its weight behind Ubutnu as a third alternative supported OS on which to run Oracle.

I've also got to hand it to Michael Suzlick of Red Hat. He immediately responded with the Unfakeable campaign and announced that Red Hat would not be dropping prices to compete.

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

26 and 27

Two of my lucky numbers are 26 and 27. I am not particularly superstitious or anything, I just like both numbers. Given that today is October 26th, and tomorrow the 27th of 2006, I'm feeling like it's my time.

Here's something I read today which I really liked. I'll admit it starts out geeky but the rest is just plain fun.

> 1) What value is ICMP if everybody pretty much considers it's accuracy
> suspect?

because for some uses, narrow precision is not needed. like is it
pingable? what is the current path?

my eyes are not highly accurate at measuring distance, color, size,
motion, ... accurately. but i'll keep them, thanks.

> 2) How does ICMP's suspect nature affect Path MTU?

pmtu is hosed for other sicker reasons

randy

---

on precision
guy is at mummy exhibit in british museum
asks guard how old mummy is
guard says 2007 years
guy asks how he knows 2007
guard replies that he's been here seven years and mummy was 2000
years old when he got here

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Splunk Notes

http://www.splunk.com/base/LargerInstallations

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Monday, October 16, 2006

Bears 24-23 over the Cardinals


That was the craziest football game I've ever seen. The Bears trailed nearly the whole game, down 20 points at one time. The score 3 touchdowns without their offense on the field, two on defense and one on special teams.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap/NFL_20061016_CHI@ARI

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Splunk Integration with Log4j




Hey. I'm back with some new tips on Splunk integration. This time, I'm documenting how to hook up an existing log4j based logging system with Splunk. This post details some of the work I've been doing in my development environment lately and includes a really great quote from a co-worker impressed with my demo of the new setup.

Let's get to it.

First, what is log4j. Log4j is an open source logging tool from the Apache Software Foundation.

http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/

It is used by the majority of Java application servers these days, including Tomcat and JBoss. I covered a Splunk Integration with JBoss in an earlier post here:

http://dmourati.blogspot.com/2006/02/splunk-integration-with-jboss.html

Now I'm on to Tomcat, a slightly lighter weight web application server. Another diffference from the JBoss example, and the reason for this post, is that the Tomcat server does not live on the same server as Splunk. In this case, getting the logs from Tomcat into Splunk is a bit trickier.

Luckily, the good folks at Splunk have solved this problem for me already. They have provided a log4j TCP appender. This is a bit of client code in the form of a jar file that gets installed on the Tomcat side. Combined with a configuration element, this code sends log4j traffic in real time to the Splunk host over a TCP connection, by default on port 9555.

Here's my configuration stanza which I added to log4j.properties on my Tomcat server:

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, SplunkAppender

#SplunkAppender - Sends events to port on Splunk box

log4j.appender.SplunkAppender=com.splunk.appender.SocketAppender
log4j.appender.SplunkAppender.address=ops2.lnc.rnmd.net
log4j.appender.SplunkAppender.maxRetries=100
log4j.appender.SplunkAppender.port=9995

log4j.appender.SplunkAppender.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.SplunkAppender.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}] coreservices %-5p: %m%n

Thanks, nhauser, for the config snippet.

After setting up the client side, move on to the server where you'll need to find and enable the config.xml file for the listener input module on the Splunk server.

http://www.splunk.com/docs/view/data/2/10

A few ACL firewall changes later, I was in business. A new source showed up on my Splunk server, source::tcp:9995. This corresponds to traffic on port 9995 from all my Tomcat servers. I can see the data sorted by hosts, in my current configuration, I have five hosts configured to use this data path.

Some other cool features, the host portion of the splunk event metadata is published by reverse DNS lookup. Good thing I run the DNS so this works flawlessly. I noticed one small configuration element that I needed to tweak, namely adding some detail about which web application under Tomcat was generating the log entry. This way, I have a searchable way to distinguish my various web apps.

In all, I'm very happy with the new setup. It beats the pants off the old local files tailed by logminion and send via syslog approach. By using a native log4j logging appender, I have the abillity to keep multiline Java logs in tact which is a huge improvement. Also, this solution feels cleaner. I don't have the duplicate tiemstamps I was seeing before and I'm not dependant on a third piece of software to complete the flow of data.


To get the configurations just right, I brought in a friend and co-worker who specializes in java development. When I showed him the configuration I had going, he replied:


This is really cool. You just did the work of five ops guys in my previous company. They tried for years to do something like this and got nowhere near as cool as this.

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

graffiti-EB


graffiti-EB
Originally uploaded by dmourati.
Breakin 2

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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Macworld: News: Google launches Wi-Fi network in Mountain View

I write this post to you sitting directly atop the very first Google WiFi hotspot located at Kapp's pizza, here in Mountain View, CA. I first learned about the Kapp's WAP some time last summer. I remember thinking how cool it would be to have wireless internet access across all of Mountain View. The day has finally arrived:

Macworld: News: Google launches Wi-Fi network in Mountain View

Here's more info directly from Google:

http://wifi.google.com/support

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Sunday, August 06, 2006

Amazing Stop Motion Video - www.2BlogGadgets.com

Check-out this excellent use of stop motion video to create some amazing footage.

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Lemonade Drops



G Love's new album Lemonade dropped today. I was lucky enough to attend a record release party last night at the Tower Records at Bay and Columbus in San Francisco. I pre-ordered two CDs at the store shortly before the show. G played about 6 songs, two from his new album. After the show, he held an autograph session for all the fans. I planned ahead and brought my self-titled record along. A funny exchange took place when I got up to the front of the line:

D: Hey G, would you be so kind?
G: Aww, where did you get this?!?
D: It's a secret
G: Heh, okay
J: Ohh, check out this old school shit!
H: Cool!
D: Thanks fellas.
H: Nice watch man.
D: Thanks, you guys have a nice trip down the coast and back. I'll see you Sunday up in the mountains.

Here's a link to the Yahoo review:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060731/ap_en_re/music_review_g__love

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Monday, July 31, 2006

DJ Qbert - DMC World Championships 1999

DJ Qbert at the DMC World Championships 1999

scratch
scratching
hiphop
turntablism
Q-Bert

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Sunday, July 30, 2006

Mentos and diet coke

Over the house

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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

World Cup Preview Italy v Germany

Unbelievably, Nationalelf have never beaten the Azzurri in a competitive match, and were soundly beaten 4-1 by the Italians in a friendly in March.

Italy, though, have a proud record of being unbeaten in their last 23, dating back to October 2004, and have come through their own domestic turmoil to reach the last four.

Germany is without on of their start midfields, Frings, after he was seen on post-match footage of Germnay victory over Argentina in penalty kicks. A melee broke out after the game and Frings punched Cruz. To call it a punch, is perhaps an overstatement. More of a tap, really. Nevertheless, he's out and could theoritcally return to play in the Final as his second game suspension has been suspended for 6 months.

The melee saw much worse injuries and conduct by other players. The end was marred by pushing and shoving on the field, and Germany assistant coach Oliver Bierhoff said "Per Mertesacker was struck with full force in the leg by an Argentine reserve player, he was on the ground, the players started going for each other."


Suffice it to say, the German team has been negatively affected by the controversy surrounding the fight. Losing Frings is one thing, loosing your cool at this stage of the world cup, however, is much more damaging.

Italy is not without their own demons. Match fixing is a serious allegation, bringing into question the character of some of Italy's major stars. They are also without De Rossi after his brutal elbow thrown into the face of USA's McBride. Still, Italy is playing great and has had its fair share of luck, the best indication of who will win.

Italy 2 Germany 1

Look for Toti and Pirlo to hook up throughout the game and for at least one goal.

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Thursday, June 01, 2006

Been a While

It's been a while since I posted anything original here so let's take a stab at it, shall we.

What's new?

I've been working like a dog over here at the job trying to fix up some virtualization stuff. I've made some good progress.

I'm taking tomorrow off for a sick day to undergo oral surgery. Not exactly looking forward to the procedure itself but it will be nice to have it finally over and done with.

Laine and I are looking at renting a house here in Mountain View. That would be soo nice. It's over on Mariposa drive, not too far from downtown Mountain View and the Caltrain.

That's it for now.

More details to follow I'm sure.

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Thursday, May 25, 2006

MIcrosoft MSN to Buy Third Screen Media

Welcome to RCRNews.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Microsoft in talks to acquire Third Screen Media


We predicted that advertising via mobile phones would heat up this year, and now it looks like mobile marketing firm Third Screen Media might make some pretty hefty cash as players like Microsoft want to get into the mobile advertising game. Rumors are suggesting that Microsoft's MSN unit is in negotiations with Third Screen Media, which already offers a full-service advertising solution to content publishers seeking to port their content into the wireless market. Third Screen is in a position where it could wait for other suitors and cash out with the highest bidder as larger players like MSN have to build their capabilities from the ground up. Operators are looking to bring outside advertising onto their decks as a way to subsidize the content on their portals. Carriers like Verizon are in the midst of testing different advertising models while content publishers are pushing operators to allow them to sell ads in their content.

To read more about Microsoft's talks with Third Screen Media:
- check out this report from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)

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Sunday, May 14, 2006

Werewolves of London

saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook's
Going to get himself a big dish of beef chow mein
Werewolves of London


Right, so following up on my post about the Dragon Bar, here's a list of the record shops I hit up in Soho and what I was able to find:

1. Sounds of the Universe

Small joint with heavy emphasis on vinyl and three turntables for your listening pleasure. Good number of Hip Hop finds here, though I had to be very conservative as this was my first stop.

2. Scenario

Far and away my local favorite. All Hip Hop and very well layed out. The DJs in the place seem very knowlegeable as well as technically compentent. I ran into two guys at Scenario who I saw later than night at Lock Side Lounge. Great finds here and they have a website.

3. Sister Ray

Largest of the indie shops with a very nice store front. I had already gotten my fill of records to take back with me to the states but wanted to check it out for future reference. Decent Hip Hop selection here.

4. Reckless Records

This place is special. When I first walked in, I didn't see any Hip Hop records so I wandered downstairs following the signs for additional vinyl. Downstairs was a really nice collection of 12"s from blues to jazz to rock and roll. If you are looking for an original issue of something and willing to shell out the bucks, this is your place. I found the Hip Hop section in another building next door and was equally impressed. Again, I had already made my purchases for the trip but this place was definitely well stocked.

So those are four shops I found and really liked. There are others to visit depending on your tastes/genres. For Hip Hop, I solidly recommend Scenario Records. They definitely seemed the most in tune with what I was after. I'll also mention that I wandered into the Virgin Megastore in Soho as well and that they had 5 Technics 1200s all setup and ready to go. The thing was, you needed your own cartridge and headshell which I didn't bring out with me. This would be a fun place to screw around on the decks and maybe even bring in a mixer.

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Friday, May 12, 2006

FILELOAD (application/pdf Object)


FILELOAD (application/pdf Object)

Here's what I have to say about the Dragon Bar:



Berwick St
Soho w h smith

A to Zed

Sounsd of the Universe
P Money
Steve
Black Market
Rhythm Division
Ruff Trade
Scenario
Old Blue Last
Sage Francis
Touretts (MC)

weak ass b-boys

tight DJs, MCs, who knows about the grafitti artists or b-bos. Seemed like noone at Dragon knew what the wiz was talking about.

y\

Two blokes trying to steal some BMX bikes!?!

I saw that shit and I hope they were your bikes!

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In Case You Didn't Know

Dragon Club
London, England
FOOL!

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:MFVv-hLs5YUJ:pitabred.dyndns.org/albums/artwork/dragon.png

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://pitabred.dyndns.org/albums/artwork/dragon.png&imgrefurl=http://pitabred.dyndns.org/gallery/view_photo.php%3Ffull%3D1%26set_albumName%3Dartwork%26id%3Ddragon&h=1600&w=2038&sz=2444&tbnid=MFVv-hLs5YUJ:&tbnh=117&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddragon%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D&start=1&ei=izhlRJLoBJKUiAKh8eEq&sig2=3RyS54NXBFltEltDEaKFxA&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=1

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Monday, May 01, 2006

Oracle Comes Calling in the Telecom Space

Oracle Comes Calling in the Telecom Space: "Oracle came to talk telecom, and aside from a few throwaway comments about open source, execs did just that, outlining the company's first foray into a vertical market for its middleware.

To that end, Oracle on April 18 announced yet another acquisition: This time, it's Net4Call, a Norway-based provider of Parlay and SLEE (Service Logic Execution Environment) technology."

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Nuasis Competition Goes Open Source

Aspect Software announced today that they are going open source. By selecting Asterisk as the IP PBX solution, Aspect has chosen the smartest path. The business case is simple. There is a huge community of open source developers working on the Asterisk code. In addition, there exists a large installed user base. This adds up to rapid development and fast bug fixes.

The alternative, which Nuasis is clinging to, is a proprietary model where the company keeps the source code closed and does all the development and integration work internally. This has caused an interesting set of effects. First of which is a huge pressure on the Nuasis voice team. Currently at two members, the developers are throttling between feature development, bug fixing, and general firefighting. This in turn has lead to high turnover in the group. The current team average tenure is less than 1 year.

By chosing open source as its VoIP platform, Aspect positions itself to leapfrog Nuasis very quickly, perhaps as fast as 6 months to one year. This is the death blow. Aspect is a big company, and slow to change. When the big guys start adopting open source faster than the small startup, you've seen a sea change.

Aspect wasn't the first contact center company to realize open source was the correct path. Check out Aheeva. They integrated with Asterisk back in 2003 and have several contributors to the Asterisk open source project. Additionally, they chose SugarCRM, another hugely popular open source project. Picking these components off the open source shelf and tying them together is much faster then building it all yourself. The benefits of open source tell us that the development time is quicker and so is the time for bug fixes.

Aspect Goes Open Source

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Sunday, April 23, 2006

04-23-06_1703.jpg


04-23-06_1703.jpg
Originally uploaded by dmourati.
balloon boy santa clara

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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

WSJ.com - Portals

How Virtualization Led Microsoft
To Support Linux, and Other Tales
April 19, 2006; Page B1


WSJ.com - Portals

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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

FOXNews.com - Dvorak: Apple Needs to Make OS X Open-Source - Science And Technology News | News On Technology

FOXNews.com - Dvorak: Apple Needs to Make OS X Open-Source - Science And Technology News | News On Technology:

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iPod Killers?

Here's an article in Business Week that describes the current state of technology around music on cellular phones. Seen as a major threat to Apple's iPod, the cell phone has many advantages, not the least of which is the massive installed user base.

iPod Killers?

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Sunday, April 09, 2006

GLove 004


GLove 004
Originally uploaded by dmourati.
I just saw G Love with the Extra Special Sauce last night in Santa Cruz, CA. What a great show. I have to say it was one of the best performances I've ever sene. Opening up was San Francisco's own Samantha Stollenwerck. She was really cool and rocked the crowd while downing tequillas brought up by the fans. G Love arrived on stage shortly after her set with the Extra Special Sauce including Chuck Treece and Boyd (?) on keys. I really enjoy the new linenup. The coolest part of the show for me was watching the interplay between Houseman and Chuck Treece each on their own drum kits. They play really well together and have incorporated some really cool back and forth drumming that is fun and exciting. Another treat was seeing Jimi Jazz playing bass guitar. It's nice to know he can rock it out on the guitar in addition to his signature standup bass.

I had the chance to catch up with the boys after the show and pay my respects. Houseman and I talked a bit about the extended lineup and how he and Chuck get down on stage. It was a real treat to meat Chuck Treece in person and congratulate him on his performance. I love reggae and he defintely brings the dub style into G Love's performance in a rad way. I'm told Chuck is a former pro-skater and that he has worked as a session drummer for many high profile acts. What a nice addition to the G Love sound.

Some snaps from my (shitty) auto-jammy are up here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmourati/sets/72057594102934465 /

Peace out and I'm out.

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Friday, April 07, 2006

On log sharing - O'Reilly Sysadmin

Here's a nice little article describing some concerns with log sharing ala Splunk Base. I decided to put my thoughts into a comment on the blog hoping to shed some light on how Splunk Base deals with the issue to my satisfaction.

On log sharing - O'Reilly Sysadmin

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Thursday, April 06, 2006

From PBX to VoIP: Making the Change - -

This article covers the market Nuasis is going after in great detail. It takes the point of view of the customer and helps explain how to chose a vendor and why some companies are considering a hosted service versus the Nuasis-style deployment in the customer data center.

From PBX to VoIP: Making the Change - -

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PRESS RELEASE EMI Music Partners With Rhythm NewMedia to Trial Ad-Supported Mobile Music Video Business

Music vidieos on your cell phone baby! Brought to you by Rhythm NewMedia.

PRESS RELEASE EMI Music Partners With Rhythm NewMedia to Trial Ad-Supported Mobile Music Video Business

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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

XenSource looks to invade Windows base | The Register

XenSource looks to invade Windows base | The Register

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Splunk launches IT troubleshooting wiki | InfoWorld | News | 2006-04-03 | By China Martens, IDG News Service

I was quoted in a news article written by China Martins announcing the launch of Splunk Base.

One of the 3,500-plus users who has been beta testing Splunk Base is Demetri Mouratis. He's a systems administrator at Nuasis Corp., a vendor of Internet Protocol-based contact center software based in Mountain View, California.

Wading through log files contained on hundreds of servers to pin down the cause of a particular IT problem can take hours or an entire day, according to Mouratis. Typically, an administrator will have to log into each server manually to check out its log files. Using Splunk Base on a properly configured system "can greatly decrease the time," acting as a shortcut to help to resolve the issue, he said. "You don't have to cut and paste the query or go and Google (Profile, Products, Articles) it," he added.



For the full text of the article, please follow this link.

Splunk launches IT troubleshooting wiki | InfoWorld | News | 2006-04-03 | By China Martens, IDG News Service

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Saturday, April 01, 2006

04-01-06_1446.jpg


04-01-06_1446.jpg
Originally uploaded by dmourati.
balloon boy rwc

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Friday, March 31, 2006

Splunk Integration With Xen


I've been dying to get my hands on a Fedora Core 5 for some time now. After a day of downloading, today I finally got to run my first FC 5 install. As expected, everything just works. I used CDs for my first install, but quickly setup the standard Red Hat/Fedora tree on my kickstart server. I'm glad I did.

The main draw for me with FC 5 is the integration with Xen. Up until now, I've had to use the live CD to try out Xen because I couldn't justify the time patching and compiling kernels to run inside Xen. With FC 5, all that work has disappeared. Here's a very good doc describing how to get started:

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraXenQuickstartFC5

Now, I had one limitation on my development box, namely that it didn't have any outbound access to the 'net. That's okay, I setup squid on my workstation and was able to move on to configuring yum. I'm not sure what the problem was, but yum kept complaining about not being able to reach its repositiories. Whatever, I would think a default config file ought to have good default vaules in there but I guess not. After whacking that into shape I was able to install Xen on top of my fresh vanilla FC5. A quick edit to /etc/grub.conf (while I was talking to my Mom I might add, "Hi Mom) and I was all set to create domUs.

FC 5 provides a script to setup new domains automatically. This is nice.

Here's how I created one of my domUs, called xendomain2:

/usr/sbin/xenguest-install.py -n xendomain2 -f /home/xen/xendomain2 -r 256 -l http://kickstart.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/fedora/core/5/i386/os/

This is okay, but I want an automated way. I don't like dealing with anaconda, enkay?

xenguest-install.py -n xendomain4 -f /home/xen/xendomain4 -s 25 -r 256 -l http://kickstart.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/fedora/core/5/i386/os -x ks=http://kickstart.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/cfgs/xen.cfg

Pow!

Here's whats going on at the moment on my xen test box:

[root@dev3-rep01 ~]# xm list
Name ID Mem(MiB) VCPUs State Time(s)
Domain-0 0 995 2 r----- 1103.9
xendomain2 13 256 1 ------ 39.2
xendomain1 14 256 1 -b---- 12.9
xendomain3 20 256 1 -b---- 13.7
xendomain4 25 256 1 r----- 481.4

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -qi kernel-xenU
Name : kernel-xenU Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 2.6.15 Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release : 1.2054_FC5 Build Date: Tue 14 Mar 2006 02:22:51 PM PST
Install Date: Fri 31 Mar 2006 12:15:31 AM PST Build Host: hs20-bc1-3.build.redhat.com
Group : System Environment/Kernel Source RPM: kernel-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.src.rpm
Size : 13268213 License: GPLv2
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Tue 14 Mar 2006 03:25:11 PM PST, Key ID b44269d04f2a6fd2
Packager : Red Hat, Inc.
Summary : The Linux kernel compiled for unprivileged Xen guest VMs
Description :
This package includes a version of the Linux kernel which
runs in Xen unprivileged guest VMs. This should be installed
both inside the unprivileged guest (for the modules) and in
the guest0 domain.


All above OSs are FC5 at the moment. I'm cool with that until I can figure out how to patch/install RHEL 3/RHEL 4 ontop of Xen on FC5.

I noticed some weirdness with ganglia, my open source cluster monitoring tool during and after the initial xendomain1 install. This is not surprising given all the virtual network and mac address forgery going on to support nesting OSs like this.

So, on to Splunk. I'm running v1.2.4 (thanks guys, for the quick turnaround on the installer). I wanted to capture these new logs coming out of the Xen install and configuration. I decidied to streamline my syslog-ng configuration on my splunk box a bit. Until now, each time I would add new machine, the syslogs wold end up under /var/log/remote-syslog-ng/$HOST/* where $HOST was the hostname/IP of the sending system. This is great for keeping logs seperate but sucks when it comes to modifying splunk configuration each time. So, I simplified my syslog-ng and have one "melting pot" for all my remote syslogs, regardless of originating system.

A few changes to my config and I was ready to restart syslog-ng.

That was fun!

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Sunday, March 26, 2006

Realer than real-deal Holyfield


This is the best article about the film I just saw Awesome, I Fucking Shot that.




I like wired, so I'm glad to see they covered this in the most detailed fashion. Interviewing MCA, aka Cap't Crunch, gives the story if full effect.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/play.html?pg=4

There were some other really cool effects that Yauch fails to mention. My favorites were the bass boom on Paul Revere and the total color wash out for a black and while nearly comic book effect.

And one more article, this one from the Sundance Review.

http://www.cinematical.com/2006/01/21/sundance-review-awesome-i-fuckin-shot-that/

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Friday, March 24, 2006

Sourcefire Network Security - News & Events

I just got a very interesting email about the merger of Sourcefire and Checkpoint.

From: Jennifer Steffens
Update on Sourcefire Acquisition
2006-03-23 18:55

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to make everyone aware that Check Point and Sourcefire
withdrew their application today after carefully considering the
complexities of the CFIUS process, the lengthy ongoing delays in the
CFIUS process, and the current climate for international acquisition.

There is a press release with further details available at
http://www.sourcefire.com/news/press_releases/pr-13.html.

This in no way changes our commitment to the Snort technology or
community. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Jennifer



--
Jennifer S. Steffens
Director, Product Management - Snort
Sourcefire - Security for the Real World
W: 410.423.1930 | C: 202.409.7707
www.sourcefire.com | www.snort.org

Sourcefire Network Security - News & Events

Reading the above email and the corresponding press release,
it seems the reason the merger was called of was because of
complexities in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
United States(CFIUS).

Here's another link on the aborted merger

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GCGILUQ1SVFLOQSNDBECKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleID=183702698


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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Hacking the Hack of Hacking Red Hat Kickstart

O'Reilly publishing has released a series of books called the Hacks Series. They define hack as "A clever solution to an interesting problem."

I'm a big fan.

I've read:

Google Hacks
Linux Server Hacks
Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two (Electric Boogaloo)
Mind Performance Hacks (just bought this one yesterday in fact)
Network Security Hacks

They're all really cool and eminently useful books.

Last Friday, I was assigned the task of creating a single CD based install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the purpose of unattended installation (Kickstart). This is opposed to the option of physically swapping all four CDs as released by Red Hat. Until now, we, and our customers, had been leveraging Kickstart using the stock RHEL Update 6 CD 1 to do network based installations. In my opinion, going over the network is more elegant than hacking up a custom CD any day. However, our "Partner" got our "Marketing Department" to agree that we would provide CD media for the entire installation of our product. As such, the network approache, while technically greatly superior, would have to take a back seat.

My starting point was an excellent article written by

This article, unfortunately, is based on Red Hat 8.0, which is now obsoleted and past its end of life. Luckily, other Red Hat Enterprise customers have updated the doc with their tweaks to support all the latest RHEL distros. In this post, I will consolidate all the work done previously by Brett and add in the fixes/tweaks as added by the community. This follows the O'Reilly approach covered in their Hacks series "Hacking the Hack."

As Slick Rick says, "Here we Go."

First, get your hands on the 4 CDs for the RHEL release in question. For me, this was RHEL ES3 Update 6. Here are the CDs and their md5sums. (Yes, I know RHEL 3 Update 7 is out, so is RHEL 4 Update 3, and Fedora Core 5.) Again, full credit to Brett for all of these steps. They've just been tweaked as necessary to support newer RH releases and documented end-to-end here.

[root@kickstart iso]# ls -lah rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 152M Sep 21 11:54 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc1.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 627M Sep 21 11:43 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc2.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 637M Sep 21 11:48 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc3.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 282M Dec 6 16:38 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc4.iso

[root@kickstart iso]# md5sum rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc*
2a695a0dc773b2172b35f8164b10f2f3 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc1.iso
68e7b2f34cb1903c24da02e25bcf5462 rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc2.iso
8aa48608434065fb481d462d8495583c rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc3.iso
3b35b450ecec27c5a9c63300f7518d3f rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc4.iso

[root@kickstart iso]# mkdir Update6
[root@kickstart iso]# mkdir -p CD{1,2,3,4}
[root@kickstart iso]# mkdir onecd

Let's mount these badboys, and I don't want to hear any shit about the FHS right now either.

mount -o loop /kickstart/iso/rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc1.iso /kickstart/ES3/Update6/CD1/
mount -o loop /kickstart/iso/rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc2.iso /kickstart/ES3/Update6/CD2/
mount -o loop /kickstart/iso/rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc3.iso /kickstart/ES3/Update6/CD3/
mount -o loop /kickstart/iso/rhel-3-u6-i386-es-disc4.iso /kickstart/ES3/Update6/CD4/

Copy the RPMS:

cp -a CD1/* onecd/
cp -a CD{2,3,4}/RedHat/RPMS/* onecd/RedHat/RPMS/

Now the tricky part, coming up with a complete set of RPMs that fits on one CD and is internally consistent. Let's use Brett's python scripts to get this started.

cd /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/

getGroupPkgs.py comps.xml > /kickstart/ES3/Update6/pkglist
syncRpms.py onecd/RedHat/RPMS/ pkglist > pkgs_rem

(Note, I had to make a few changes to the syncRPMS.py script to reflect the newer arcitecture) Here's the modified script:

#!/usr/bin/python

#
# Removes packages that are not part of a package list from
# a given directory. This is used to remove RPMs that are
# not needed in a custom distro. The package list specified
# is just a text file with a list of package names, one per
# line.
#
# syncRpms.py /some/path/to/rpms/ /tmp/pkglist
#
# Copyright (C) 2003 Brett Schwarz (brett_schwarz@yahoo.com)
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
# 02111-1307 USA
#
# Version History
# ---------------
# 0.2 08-04-2003 Added fix from Alain Tauch for accepting
# /path instead of /path/
# 0.1 22-03-2003 Original release

import rpm
import sys, os, glob

if len(sys.argv) != 3:
sys.stderr.write("Usage\n")
sys.stderr.write("%s \n" % (sys.argv[0],))
sys.exit(1)

tgtdir = sys.argv[1]
pkglist = sys.argv[2]

#
# get pkg name to file name mapping
#
name2file = {}
ts = rpm.TransactionSet("", rpm._RPMVSF_NOSIGNATURES)
for fname in glob.glob(tgtdir + '/*.rpm'):
fd = os.open(fname, os.O_RDONLY)
hdr = ts.hdrFromFdno(fd)
name2file[hdr[rpm.RPMTAG_NAME]] = fname
os.close(fd)

#
# Read in packages from package list
#
fd = open(pkglist, "r")
pkgs = {}
for l in fd.readlines():
if l[-1]=='\n':
l = l[:-1]
pkgs[l] = 1

fd.close()

#
# Remove unwanted packages
#
for n, f in name2file.items():
if not pkgs.has_key(n):
os.remove(f)
print n

#
# Check to see if there are pkgs not in tgt dir
#
for p in pkgs.keys():
if not name2file.has_key(p):
print "Package not in tgt dir: ", p

OK. Now to test the resultant set. Again, cool trick Brett.

mkdir /tmp/testdb
rpm --initdb --dbpath /tmp/testdb
rpm --test --dbpath /tmp/testdb -Uvh *.rpm

For whatever reason, Brett's script didn't do a very good job of gettin the right set together. No matter, the rpm command tells you about failed dependencies so all you have to do is go locate the missing RPMs and copy them into the oncecd tree. I ended up building up a third file called pkgsadd and then ran:

for i in $(cat pkgsadd); do src=$(find CD* -name $i); /bin/cp -f $src onecd/RedHat/RPMS/; done

Eventually, the set was consistent.
[root@kickstart RPMS]# rpm --test --dbpath /tmp/testdb -Uvh *.rpm
warning: acl-2.2.3-1.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e
warning: package glibc = 2.3.2-95.37 was already added, replacing with glibc <= 2.3.2-95.37 warning: package kernel = 2.4.21-37.EL was already added, replacing with kernel <= 2.4.21-37.EL warning: package kernel-smp = 2.4.21-37.EL was already added, replacing with kernel-smp <= 2.4.21-37.EL Preparing... ########################################### [100%]

One more test, for good measure: rpm -K *.rpm | grep "NOT *OK" Now, here's where my steps differed from the initial doc.

Pay attention.

First, you need anaconda and anaconda-devel.

up2date anaconda anaconda-runtime
export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/anaconda
/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/pkgorder /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/ i386 > /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/RedHat/base/pkgorder
/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist --withnumbers --fileorder /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/RedHat/base/pkgorder --hdlist /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/RedHat/base/hdlist /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/

Now, I'm going to add all the ks.cfg files to the CD repository.

[root@kickstart onecd]# http://satellite.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/ks/label/ncc-3.0
[root@kickstart onecd]# wget http://satellite.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/ks/label/ncc-3.0-ide
[root@kickstart onecd]# wget http://satellite.priv.nuasis.com/kickstart/ks/label/ncc-3.0-md

This almost bit me:

[root@kickstart CD1]# cp .discinfo /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd/

One more fix I had to do. My ks.cfgs out there on the satellite serve all point to a network based install. To make this new kickstart go off of the cdrom, I need to point to cdrom instead of url inside each of ncc-3.0, ncc-3.0-ide, and ncc-3.0-md.

The big step:

[root@kickstart root]# mkisofs -r -T -J -V "ncc-3.0-rhel-3-u6-i386-es.t1" -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -v -o /kickstart/iso/ncc-3.0-rhel-3-u6-i386-es.t1.iso /kickstart/ES3/Update6/onecd

154528 extents written (301 MB)

301 MB, not bad.
[root@kickstart root]# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/implantisomd5 /kickstart/iso/ncc-3.0-rhel-3-u6-i386-es.t1.iso
Inserting md5sum into iso image...
md5 = 12bf4c82d5d59b854e00d343b02d7cc6
Setting supported flag to 0

Cool.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5

Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5

Hi, my name is Fedora Core "Bordeaux", and today I am 5.  When I
turned 4 last year, they got a funny salesman to talk about me like I
was a toy. I like toys. But today Teacher said I am a big kid, and I
should talk about myself. I can do lots of big kid stuff now, and
everyone tells me that I play really well with all the other kids in
class, even the ones who are mean like bullies. I always try and
share, which is what Teacher says is the best thing.

Sharing is a really good thing to do. I like to share all my toys and
books and stuff with all the other kids so that they can play with
them and even learn things, too. I have a lot of neat stuff to share,
so I made this cool list to tell you all about it. Teacher gave me
some things to put in the list, but since I'm a big kid I think I
should get to say what I want, too.

* GNOME 2.14

"Improved speed and usability, and new and better features for power
management, file sharing, user help, system administration,
teleconferencing, picture browsing, and networking." I think it's
easy enough for even my little brother to use, but Mommy and Daddy
like it a lot too.

* OpenOffice 2.0.2

"Enhanced productivity features, extensive compatibility with other
popular office software, database connectivity functions, and improved
use of system libraries for faster loading and better responsiveness
overall." Mommy says she can make slide shows for work even easier
than before, and Daddy uses it to organizes all our books, music, and
movies in databases.

* KDE 3.5.1

"New and exciting features for users and developers, including stylish
and attractive applets, educational and entertaining games, incredibly
standards-compliant Internet tools, and enhanced multimedia and
usability." Plus it looks REALLY cool, especially when my big sister
fixes it just the way she likes.

* Mono

"Support for .NET means a new generation of dynamic and powerful
cross-platform applications, with some already included, such as
Tomboy for note-taking, F-Spot for photo management, and Beagle for
content searching and indexing." See, I told you I'm really good at
sharing! Plus, I don't ever have a problem remembering or finding
things, like pictures, homework, or messages. Mommy says she's really
proud of me.

* Yum-based Package Tools

"Installation and software management tools are all based on the
flexible and powerful yum utility for easy selection and upgrade of
new and existing software." And soon, I'll even be able to get my own
special software at install time!

* Xen Virtualization

"The best framework yet for installation, management, migration, and
monitoring of software-based virtual domains, allowing system owners
to effectively leverage and force-multiply existing hardware for
maximum efficiency, scalability, redundancy, and flexibility."
Teacher says I get more work done faster than any other kid in our
class, too.

* Apache HTTP Server 2.2

"Enhanced authentication, database support, proxy facilities, and
content filtering, all built on the most stable and customizable
platform for Web services."

* Enhanced Security

"Support for SELinux binary policy modules means that users and
developers can now ship their own specialized policies with affected
software. GCC's best of breed features, such as stack protection, NX,
PIE, and compile-time buffer checks, pile on additional layers of
assurance to effectively block illegal ingress." I know all my safety
rules, and Mommy and Daddy say that it's really, REALLY hard for
monsters to get in our house!


So at school, I got awards for "Best Attendance," "Teacher's Pet,"
"Honor Roll," and "Good Manners," plus Teacher lets me stay after to
clean the erasers until Daddy comes to pick me up. He always tells me
how good I am compared to the other kids he knows and that he's really
proud of me. He says it's because I'm 100% free and open source, and
because I always try to do the right thing just like he and Mommy
taught me.

I told him I didn't just learn it from him, but from all the nice
people at Red Hat and the Fedora community, who teach me new things
all the time. They're all different kinds of people -- users,
developers, writers, translators, testers, editors, and so many other
things I can't even write it all. They're the people who make it
possible to build a complete Linux platform from open source software.

But they say we're not done yet, and we can ALWAYS use more friends to
help, so if you think this sounds neat, you should definitely visit:

* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted

All right, I have to go now. There's always more things to learn and
do and I am a very, extremely busy kid. 'Bye!

- - -

Fedora is a set of projects sponsored by Red Hat and guided by the
contributors. These projects are developed by a large community of
people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open
source software and standards. Fedora Core, the central Fedora project,
is an operating system and platform, based on Linux, that is always free
for anyone to use, modify, and distribute, now and forever.

Fedora Core 5 is available at absolutely no cost. To download it:

VIA BITTORRENT (RECOMMENDED):

* http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-i386.torrent
* http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-x86_64.torrent
* http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-ppc.torrent

For DVD and other formats, refer to http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

If you run an earlier version of Fedora Core, you can get BitTorrent
from Fedora Extras. If you are using another platform, you can get
BitTorrent at:

* http://www.bittorrent.com/

VIA WEB:

Visit the main Fedora download site listed below. You will be automatically
redirected to a mirror of Fedora Core 5. There may be delays due to site
congestion, especially in the days immediately following the release, so
BitTorrent is recommended instead.

* http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/5


VIA CD/DVD:

Visit the following site for a list of vendors of Fedora Core CD/DVD
media:

* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/OnlineVendors

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Argogroup : Home

Argogroup : Home

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Advertising: mobile marketing conversion rates

Advertising: mobile marketing conversion rates

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MMA Global - 89% of Major Brands Planning to Market via Mobile Phones by 2008; Mobile Marketing to Accelerate with More Than Half of Brands Planning t

MMA Global - 89% of Major Brands Planning to Market via Mobile Phones by 2008; Mobile Marketing to Accelerate with More Than Half of Brands Planning to Spend up to 25% of Marketing Budget (Airwide Solutions)

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Syslog-ng

shib·bo·leth (shÄ­b'É™-lÄ­th, -lÄ•th')
n.

  1. A word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another.
    1. A word or phrase identified with a particular group or cause; a catchword.
    2. A commonplace saying or idea.
  2. A custom or practice that betrays one as an outsider.
http://www.campin.net/newlogcheck.html

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/bssrvrlnx/chapter/ch10.pdf

http://www.balabit.com/products/syslog_ng/

http://dmourati.blogspot.com/2006/02/splunk-question-and-answer.html

http://dmourati.blogspot.com/2006/01/splunk-and-syslog-ng.html

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Sunday, March 19, 2006

Splunk Integration With OpenSSH

This blog post covers Splunk Integration with OpenSSH. OpenSSH is the lifeblood of any distributed Linux system. I practically live inside and SSH session. During any given day, I may SSH into 20 different system all around the world. As such, it is important to keep track of what SSH is doing. What better way than with Splunk?

This integration actually picks up after some work I did earlier integrating Splunk with Syslog-ng. For more information on how I'm setup, please read my earlier post

Splunk and syslog-ng

Now that I have remote syslog enabled, I can do all kinds of cool stuff. This is especially useful for troubleshooting large networks of interconnected systems where SSH is undoubtedly already in play. My syslog-ng configuration is already being processed by Splunks tailingprocesser which is looking at all the stock syslog-ng files plus per host syslog-ng directories for remote syslog. Here' s a look at my central syslog-ng configuration:

[root@demetri05 log]# find remote-syslog-ng/
remote-syslog-ng/
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/secure
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/messages
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/cron
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/boot.log
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/maillog
remote-syslog-ng/demetri04/kern
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/boot.log
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/cron
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/secure
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/messages
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/maillog
remote-syslog-ng/demetri05/kern
remote-syslog-ng/splunk
remote-syslog-ng/splunk/demetri04-messages
remote-syslog-ng/splunk/demetri05-messges


To get a sense of just how pervasive SSH is in my environment, take a look at the following splunk. This shows that in the past day, there are over 10,000 events relating to SSH. Wow. So far I've uploaded all the standard SSH messages I could generate. That turned out to be around 20 types or so. Now, I'm going to make some changes to my SSH server to increase its logging level. Take a look at the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file for reference:

# Logging
#obsoletes QuietMode and FascistLogging
#SyslogFacility AUTH
SyslogFacility AUTHPRIV
#LogLevel INFO

You'll notice a large uptick in the number of events starting in the 12:00 PM hour today. That's becaue I've changed the LOGLEVEL configuration in my /etc/ssh/sshd_config file to DEBUG. WARNING, don't do this on any system with real users. According to the manpage "Logging with a DEBUG level violates the privacy of users and is not recommended." This is my system and I'm the only user so I can proceed but I won't leave this in place beyond my work today for reasons of privacy and also to keep my log files manageable.

Here's a look at the type of events generated by the inceased LOGLEVL in SSHD. This time I'm splunking for sshd debug1.
That's kind of cool, actually. Now I have a whole set of new event types to upload to SplunkBase. Again, the fact remains that real systems shouldn't be configured with this level of logging for SSH but I'll make sure to note that in all my event descriptions once they're uploaded. I'm going to simplify my work by sorting the events into event types and then uploading each event type on up to SplunkBase for integration. That way I'll be sure to get all the event types up there without worrying about duplicating log submissions. At the moment, I see 36 event types related to SSH and the new DEBUG loglevel I've put in place.
I'm drilling down on each of these event types, then uploading the corresponding log entry up to splunk base one at a time. It seems like this is uncharted territory as far as SplunkBase is concerned. Each of these event types are new which is cool.

As I go, I'm keeping an eye on the total number of event types I've submitted to SplunkBase by watching my splunk user page here:

http://www.splunk.com/user/dmourati

At the moment, I'm at 383 total event types submitted and counting. Completing this SSH debug logging should push the total above 400 types.

Now I'm going to reset the LOGLEVL on my SSH configuration to turn off all this DEBUG level logging.
That in turn generated a bunch more event types moving the total from 36 to 43. Hmm. Let me add those for good measure. The new event types are easy enough to spot because they each have only one associated event.

Here's a link to the last event type from my SSH DEBUG testing:

http://www.splunk.com/event/SP-CAAAC5H



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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Splunk Integration with Firefox

OK, so this isn't much of an integration, per se. But a nice tip nonetheless.

I've been doing a lot of splunking lately. Here's one tip I wish I had back when I got started.

First, upgrade to Fifrefox 1.5. I downloaded a linux tarball here:

http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-1.5.0.1&os=linux&lang=en-US

Go to Edit->Prefences
Select Tabbed Browsing
Select "New Tab" from the "Load Web Browswer Links into a:" pulldown.

Note, under windows, the option was slightly different. There I had to
Go to Tools->Options->Tabs

Force Links That Open New Windows in:
* a new tab

Next, for either platform, open the following url in your location bar:

about:config



Look for the preference name

browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction

Set it to 0.

Now when the JavaScript windows for SplunkBase pop up in the Check splunk.com links, they resulting page will open in a new tab instead of a new window.


One more tweak was to overcome irritating messages about unresponsive scripts. I used about:config again this time to set

dom.max_script_run_time

to 30

Other users have reported a similar need to tweak the script runtime max for Yahoo sites as well as gmail.

Here's more info on the above:

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips

Nice.

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$1000 Laptop

"Hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support.




Bill Gates mocks MIT's $100 laptop project - Yahoo! News






You know what I like about Microsoft?

Nothing.

You whow what I like about Bill Gates?

Nothing.

Yesterday I could have appluaded him for his humanitarian efforts, cover of Time, all that jazz. But now? What kind of sick bastard endows a foundation with $29 million for global health and learning then turns around and slams the $100 laptop?

It's a project from MIT. Oh, yea, I guess those guys don't know what they are talking about.

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

$100 laption, pshaw.

No, what you really need is my $1000 "ultra mobile computer." Just say that with your geekiest voice "ULTRAMOBILE COMPUTER!! UBC!! NNNAAAAA NAAAA"


What Is the Ultra-Mobile PC you ask?

The Ultra-Mobile PC is a new kind of computer. It combines the power of Windows XP with mobile-ready technologies that make it easy to access and use your software on the go.

With small, lightweight, carry-everywhere hardware designs, you can connect and communicate, accomplish any task anywhere and at any time, and be entertained and informed wherever life takes you.
Would whoever wrote that please stand up and report for beating with a wiffle ball bat?

Thank you.

So, what OS do you suppose runs on the MIT project?

Ask Nicholas Negroponte.

The machines, which will run a version of the Linux operating system, will also include other applications, some developed by MIT researchers, as well as country-specific software. "Software has gotten too fat and unreliable, so we started with Linux," he said.

Hmm. Sounds about right.

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Monday, March 13, 2006

Nuasis NuContact Center 3.0

Here are some press links around the recent release of the Nuasis NuContact Center Version 3.0.

CRM Magazine/Destination CRM
Article headline: All the Talk at VoiceCon: The contact center market continues its migration to IP as vendors make a host of IP-related announcements
http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=5894
NOTE: Nuasis spoke to writer, Coreen Bailor, and the analyst who is quoted, Joe Outlaw. While the article states that there were a "slew of product enhancements, new services and rebranding" at VoiceCon, only Nuasis, Cisco and Avaya are referenced in the article.
Destination CRM is the CRM industry's largest, most successful website which includes the newsletter, CRM eWeekly and the digital version of CRM Magazine, both with 95,000 opt-in subscribers. Readership is mixed between IT management, corporate management and sales/marketing/services.
VoIPLoop: IP Telephony for the Enterprise
Article headline: VoiceCon Spring '06: Interview with Kevin McPartlan, Vice President of Nuasis
NOTE: Before VoiceCon, Nuasis spoke to Alex Dunne, editor of VoIPLoop - the written interview is the link above.
Podcast headline: VoIP Security with Brendan Ziolo of Sipera Systems and IP Contact Center Issues with Kevin McPartlan of Nuasis
NOTE: During VoiceCon, Nuasis spoke to Eric Krapf, VoiceCon conference co-chair and editorial director of BCR Magazine. Eric conducted a podcast interview with Kevin McPartlan.
Blog headline: VoiceCon Conference within a Conference Preview
NOTE - Nuasis talked to Sheila McGee-Smith before VoiceCon. The panel that Sheila discusses in her blog had a standing-room only audience and a standing-room only crowd outside the meeting room who listened to the panel discussion through the room's open door. Panel participants were executives from Avaya, Cisco, Genesys, Nortel and Nuasis' Kevin McPartlan.
VoIPLoop is an online interactive forum for analysts, press, end-users and vendors. It is a CMP Online Publication that was launched in late 2005.
Customer Interaction Solutions/TMCNet
Article headline: Nuasis Says NuContact Center 3.0 Now Available
Article headline: First Coffee - Cingular Announces Video, Nuasis Announces NuContact Center 3.0, Parature Announces Another Customer
NOTE: Also mentioned in this article is Nuasis' newest customer, Southwest Gas.
TMCnet.com is the online site that accompanies TMC's four print publications. TMCnet.com imparts information that helps readers become communications and call center technology advocates who make purchasing decisions and participants who will make these technologies work in any given implementation -- whether it be call centers, the central office or a corporate enterprise. The site currently averages over 7 million page views and reaches on average 650,000 unique visitors per month.
CRMAdvocate - Everything CRM - Read Less. Know More.
TODAY'S NEWS

Nuasis announced the availability of NuContact Center 3.0 software. This release supports agents located anywhere, higher system scalability, and advanced conditional routing based on customer intelligence and business analytics.

NOTE: Nuasis' announcement of 3.0 was the lead story in the March 7 edition of CRMAdvocate.

CRMAdvocate is the definitive and most complete source of information concerning technologies, strategies, and trends for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Contact Centers. Providing real-time and on-demand industry news, webcasts, case studies, white papers, research, and product information, CRMAdvocate allows end-users, editors, research analysts, system integrators, consultants and others to stay current on industry trends. Owned by RealMarket, CRMAdvocate is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Call Center Magazine/CommWeb and Communications Convergence.com
Article Headline: Nuasis NuContact Center 3.0: The Updated System Supports Remote Agents and Has Greater Scalability
CommWeb and its sister site, CommunicationsConvergence.com (Call Center Magazine online) reach the people who make the business communication technology buying decisions.CommWeb/cConvergence's editorial provides end users and the telephony resellers that serve them the information they need to get their jobs done.

CMP Call Center Network

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