Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Avconverter: convert almost everything in everything

Do you need to convert JPG to PDF, PDF to PNG? Do you want to extract MP3 audio from an AVI or MPEG video? Do you want to convert MPEG to AVI? ...
With AvConverter it is possible almost every kind of file convertion. In Debian-like systems it is possible to install it as a nautilus script with this procedure:

1. install mandatory requirement packages launching in a terminal this command:

sudo apt-get install xterm zenity ffmpeg imagemagick mencoder links espeak

2. you can also install non-mandatory requirement packages launching in a terminal this command:

sudo apt-get install gawk antiword odt2txt odt2txt nrg2iso daa2iso uif2iso acetoneiso

3. download the package:

sudo wget http://gnomefiles.org/CONTENT/content-files/92533-avconvert.tar.gz

4. extract the package:

tar -zxvf 92533-avconvert.tar.gz

5. copy the script between nautilus scripts:

sudo cp avconvert ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

Now you can use Avconvert script to convert almost anything just by right clicking on the file to convert and choosing Script -> Avconvert.

Links:

http://www.avconverter.com/

http://www.edmondweblog.com/index.php/2010/11/12/avconverter-nautilus-script-per-audiovideoimmaginitextiso/

Monday, November 15, 2010

Project APOCRYPHA: complete collection in italian/english

[versione ITALIANA di questo post]

After several months I was able to started this project concluding a "first step": saving and sorting hundreds of apocryphal texts.
Why this interest?
First of all because of curiosity to the ancient mysteries of Christianity that are not the "usual" mysteries, as they refer the origin of a religious movement spread all over the world and a they also refer to a spiritual and cultural revolution took place 2000 years ago and beyond. Then, given the availability of free downloadable texts, I got the "collector mania" and I started the collection of apocryphal gospels downloadable online. I also noticed that many people ignore the fact that the Apocrypha are hundreds and they are very important from the perspective of literary history and many stories told in them are also funny. These people, also if they would be interested, give up easily in the search for these texts, because this is likely to get lost in an ocean of information.
So: why not gather all the apocryphal text available online (with relative information) and then redistribute them all in a tidy package?

I divided the original package in these packages.
I highly recommend to first download the package Indice-Introduzione.zip (156 KB) containing the index and introduction to the collection. You can then download the rest interested packages.
Links are here (from Adrive.com):

* Indice-Introduzione.zip [156 KB]
* APOCRIFI ANTICO TESTAMENTO.zip [68,5 MB]
* APOCRIFI NUOVO TESTAMENTO.zip [101 MB]
* LIBRI DEUTEROCANONICI.zip [4,65 MB]
* DOCUMENTI NON CATALOGATI.zip [332 MB]
* Documentazione generale varia.zip [5,64 MB]

I wrote that the project is "started" because my job is only a small percentage of the whole (just take a look to the section called DOCUMENTI NON CATALOGATI [not cataloged documents]). There are many other points to be completed (as indicated in the file INTRODUZIONE.doc). So I'm at your disposal for suggestions, changes, corrections, insights, updates, etc.

[If you have problems with links please send me a mail or put a comment down here. Thanks.]

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Differences between servers

In English, a small definition of the word server (related to computing) is: a central computer from which other computers get information. Talking about computer architectures (related to software, networks, etc.) this term is often used, but it is often misunderstood. Confusion is also due to the fact that many current software let a kind of intersection of features that were attributed to a single server.
What is the official definition of computer server? Evidently there are several "official" definitions but today this one maybe is the complete one:

In computing, a server is any combination of hardware or software designed to provide services to clients. When used alone, the term typically refers to a computer which may be running a server operating system, but is commonly used to refer to any software or dedicated hardware capable of providing services.
And how many types of servers are there? In general, currently every computer need is defined and provided as service (in particular web service). Talking about computer architecture we tend to associate an XYZ Server to every XYZ service. Example: a software architecture in which we need to store all the data, so we need a database service, therefore it exists a database server. This links from Wikipedia list all server types

These two links to Wikipedia list almost all types of existing servers in computer science (linking relative descriptions):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server

Some particularly common software known as server are:

WebSphere: it refers to a set of IBM software, but in particular to WebSphere Application Server that is a platform for implementing interoperable web applications.

WebLogin: it is another Application Server made by BEA Systems under Oracle; like WebSphere from IBM, it is also surrounded by a wide family applications.

Apache Tomcat: there is a lot of confusion about this software. Basically, it is an open source environment. Basically, it is an open source environment developed for servlet, that is a servlet container. However, in order to run Java code you need a web server and because of this Apache Tomcat also includes Web Server features (that is an HTTP Web Server purely for Java). Therefore Apache Tomcat is a kind of pseudo-server defined web container and is currently one of the most used because of its simplicity for installation, configuration and usage.

JBoss: it is an open source Application Server based on Java Enteprise Edition (JEE) platform, it is developed by JBoss under Red Hat e it is supported by a wide web community. In the last versions it includes also Apache Tomcat 5.5 as web container.

Apache HTTP Server: it is the most used Web Server software. It is also know simply with Apache and it is developed by Apache Software Foundation together with a lot of other open source projects for the Web.

MySQL: one of the most widely used database system. Currently it is developed by Sun Microsystem. It is an RDBMS including Database Server features.

PostgreSQL: it is an open-source ORDBMS, it is widely used too. It includes Database Server features.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Internet wired connection in Politecnico di Milano with Ubuntu

In some university residence of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) internet wired connection is provided exploiting a LAN network and a certification released by ASI.
Currently there are instructions for wireless network for many operating systems (in particular for Ubuntu read here). Instead, for wired connection there are this guides for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The instructions to follow (just in the first part) to set internet wired connection with Ubuntu are identical to instructions for wireless network:
Prerequisite for configuring and using the connection is the installation of:

After the download from ASI web site the certificate file must be extracted in another certificate file in PEM format. It's possible to do this by launching this command:

openssl pkcs12 -cacerts -in CertificatoASI.p12 -out asi.cer

Both certificate files (CertificatoASI.p12 and asi.cer) must be copied in some convenient position (like /etc/) and must be readable to user.

You must create the configuration file for wpa_supplicant (es. /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf).

To create wpa_supplicant.conf in a terminal launch the command:

sudo gedit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

The file must be structured like this model:

###
# wpa_supplicant.conf
##

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0

ap_scan=0

network={

proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
auth_alg=OPEN
pairwise=TKIP
eap=TLS

anonymous_identity="
SXXXXXX"
ca_cert="/etc/asi.cer"
private_key="/etc/CertificatoASI.p12"
private_key_passwd="
PASSWORD"

phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"

}

##
# fine wpa_supplicant.conf
##


Instead of X in SXXXXXX it must be indicated your matricola (you ID number for the university, so for example: S681612) and instead of PASSWORD it must be indicated the password of the certificate file chosen during download phase.
Once wpa_supplicant.conf is saved and the wire is connected to the PC, you must activate the interface (usually eth0) related to wired connection:

sudo ifconfig eth0 up

After that you launch the command for authentication with wpa_supplicant:

sudo wpa_supplicant -i eth0 -D wired -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d

Then the terminal will show a list of calls related to the authentication procedure. If authentication is completed successfully between last rows there will be some like these:

[...]
EAP: EAP entering state SUCCESS
CTRL-EVENT-EAP-SUCCESS EAP authentication completed successfully
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state SUCCESS
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state IDLE
EAPOL: authWhile --> 0
EAPOL: startWhen --> 0
EAPOL: idleWhile --> 0
[...]

Once authentication is completed you must request IP address launching the following command in a new tab of the terminal (keeping opened the previous one):

sudo dhclient eth0

After the insertion of the password, if the procedure conclude successfully, on the screen it will appear something like this:

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1
Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:13:d4:c1:f2:b1
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:13:d4:c1:f2:b1
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST of 10.162.134.150 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK of 10.162.134.150 from 10.162.134.254
bound to 10.162.134.150 -- renewal in 1645 seconds.

At this point configuration is finished and internet connection is active. Throughout the connection you must not close the terminal window in which it has been launched the authentication command wpa_supplicant, else you will redo the procedure.

For further informations about wpa_supplicant in a terminal launch the command man wpa_supplicant or man wpa_supplicant.conf.

UPDATE after for italian comment

To avoid all the connection procedure, after the above complete configuration, you can modify the file /etc/network/interfaces and enable auto-connection. Add this rows to the file:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wired
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Then kill the active wpa_supplicant process and then launch the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Modifications will be applied and now to enable internet connection you just have to start the OS and plug the cable.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Ubuntu 9.04: configuration ASDL Tele2 with modem ethernet Atlantis Land

I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 and I had to configure the internet connection ADSL Tele2 (Italy) because of updating the operating system. I have this laptop ASUS modello A6-Q021H, the modem ethernet (that is plugged to the computer with ethernet wire) is the model Atlantis Land A01-AE1. Automatic recognition of the modem has not been successful and it was not helpful to follow this documentazione ufficiale to set ADSL connection.
I finally solved with a wizard launched in the terminal to configure the connection according to the PPPoE protocol.
After connecting the modem to power, phone and laptop, opening a terminal and running:

sudo pppoeconf

wizand will be launched:

Where most options are already set by default so, except username and password of the connection, user will just confirm. In one of the last gray interfaces it's possible to set the starting of the connection at boot-time. Finally, they are indicated the commands to start the connection manually from a terminal:

sudo pon dsl-provider

To close all requests and disconnect the command is:

sudo poff

To control connection status:

sudo plog

For informations about the net inteface created:

sudo ifconfig ppp0


UPDATE 4 ottobre 2009:
here is a guide from italian Ubuntu community
http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/Hardware/Modem/AdslPppoe.