amar-padhi

Android 2.3.6 OTA update rolls out to Samsung Galaxy Note

2011-12-03T13:36:00.001+04:00

I was a bit surprised to receive the notification for an update for my galaxy note device this morning. This was an update to release 2.3.6 and I just bought the device couple of weeks back. So I opted to install the same. On my network the complete process took less than 10 minutes.

The update was close to 10MB. It was pretty straight forward, but however it was not a one step process. I had to trigger the process 3 times (Accept terms, download file, Install it) from the notification bar. Each time I waited for something to happen before I manually triggered from the notification bar.

It did end well. The last alert told me that the phone was updated to version N7000JPKK2 (this is the UAE update version as per @SamKiesUpdates tweet).

I learned from forums that this update improves the performance and battery life of the device, will have to use it for few days to confirm this.

UAE to block fake phones

2011-11-25T23:35:00.001+04:00

I do not know how well the clamp down on fake phones would go, but if you are concerned about your phone, here is a method to check if your device is genuine or counterfeit. I did not invent this, it is published in Gulf News (link below).

If you picked your device from another country or from a back lane store (including Dragon mart), or an online store, or have rooted or unlocked it; I suggest you give this a try.

Identify your phone IMEI
Dial *#06#
Jot it down on a piece of paper
Next SMS this IMEI No to 8877.
Wait for few minutes. This may take some time. You will receive another SMS, like below one, that confirms your device status.

Reference
Gulf News article 24-Nov-11

Purple tint on Samsung Galaxy Note Display

2011-11-13T00:37:00.001+04:00

After a thoughtful day, I decided to finally buy the Samsung Galaxy Note. I was happy to see that the device had hit the shelves at the local electronic stores. So I picked one up, yes damn expensive (AED 3000/-) . I am told that the device will come down by AED 200 to 400 in about couple of weeks time.

I got a one evening chance to do hand-on session with the device, before I found out a fault with the display. During a dim light reading, I actually noticed a purple tint on one corner of the screen. This is not visible when the brightness is high or if the room is well lit. I installed the "Screen Filter" software from Market to further reduce the brightness to about 30%. This made the purple tint quite visible.

I had to explain and demo this to about 4 store staff, none found it convincing. It was just not visible in bright store light. I had also taken pictures of the purple tint in dim light, this was convincing. So I returned the device and the stock is also out! I will have to wait till the new stock arrives, this could take weeks..

Samsung Galaxy Tab (GT-P1000) personal review

2011-11-12T22:51:00.001+04:00

Yes, looks like a late review for a device that has been launched more than a year back. I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 few months back. This is the one with wireless as well as GSM/3G capabilities.

Interestingly, it is actually a sensible idea to buy a device after few months of launch. After the initial hype hoopla is over, the device value actually slides down to a more reasonable and rational level.

I was looking for a substitute for my 10" tablet that was becoming cumbersome to carry around and failed to keep with the multiple application processes. I used the Samsung Tab for about 20 days. Here are some inputs based on my experience.

P1000 is a 7" model and has all the Network and phone functions. You can get all the technical Specs on web, google it. In short,
- 7" inch TFT capacitive touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability, WSVGA resolution of 1024x600 supporting 16 million colors.
- 1GHz processor, 3MP back camera and 1.3MP front camera, Back camera support 480p video resolution quality at 30fps approximately.
- Has GSM, 3G/EDGE, Bluetooth, WIFI, USB connectivity.
- 16GB of internal memory.
- On Android 2.2 OS.
- Has slot for SIM and MicroSD card, 3.5mm audio jack.
- Good Battery life, can last about 2 days with normal use.
This is a perfect size to fit my hand and carry around. This however does not look like a suitable device for regular phone function, there is no ear piece to directly take a call. Ear plugs, either cable or Bluetooth based is needed (or call can be taken on the speaker directly).
I found it best suited to hold and use. I have had no issues in operating the device, lying down or slouching on the sofa. If you are looking for a larger screen experience with just about comfortable device to carry around, Tab is good to go.
Browsing internet is smooth and I have had no issues. It would be best to use a more feature-rich browser like Dolphin HD, this can be downloaded from Market.
The device is rugged and is built for rough use. It does not mean that we can throw it around, it is just that one need not be extra cautious when handling it.
Though I put on a screen protector, the device has scratch proof gorilla glass, the toughest there is at this time. So a screen guard is actually not needed for scratch prevention, I still put a screen guard for its other benefits - To reduce Fingerprints and light reflections.
The screen is very responsive. I don't recollect a moment when the screen delayed in responding. However there could be response delay if there are too many jobs or a few resource hogging jobs running at the same time and the 1 GHz processor is preoccupied.
After being disappointed with samsung's decision in the past to disable Android Market (possibly for devices being launched in this region), I was happy to see that this one came with the market app.
Samsung has put in a lot of bloatware on this device. It also came preinstalled with religious applications. I personally don't need this and I was disappointed to not find an uninstall option. Samsung decision to include religious software is probably a marketing strategy to cater to the larger masses, fair enough, but then not giving an option to uninstall is something I did not like. So the next option - root it.
I rooted the device and removed the unwanted bloatware. This also gave me superuser access. This gives access to a lot more software on the market. Software such as Appszorter are now available to better customise the look and feel. Rooting was a simple process, there are many sites out there who can give information on this.
The TouchWiz UI is good. However the widgets could not be sized. This is a disadvantage as the widgets do not benefit from the higher resolution and wider screen. So I decided to try the different launchers. All worked well, I chose to use ADW Launcher. This gave the option to resize my widgets to fit the required space and show more information. For instance, I was able to resize my Turtle photoframe widget to show a much wider frame and allow for more pictures viewing.

Custom launcher also give the option to remap available buttons. For instance, I could change the home button to actually open the application menu.

Bottom line, the default Android software with Samsung TouchWiz interface is good for normal use. However, if the need is to make the look and fell more richer, launcher software such as ADW Launcher or LauncherPro could be installed and used. Apart from this the device comes with its own office suite support and has some good seeded software.
Most android market software worked as expected. However some failed to make use of the wide screen. This is specific to software and nothing to do with the device itself.
The big screen also gives the advantage of a wider keyboard. This makes typing much easier. Yes it is possible to do thumb typing in portrait mode, I prefer it this way.

That's all from my side. Final comments, this is a decent device and I am satisfied using it for both personal and professional work.

Motorola Charm MB502 customization

2011-10-01T23:17:00.002+04:00

This note talks about the software customization I have done on Motorola Charm to make it usable, for what it is worth.

I bought this device for one reason - productivity. Read more about my thoughts in this note.

In-Short
A very good hardware and form factor, excellent keyboard, optimal performance using the 600MHz processor. Unfortunately, lacks in display (QVGA) and video (max CIF) support. The screen is indeed bad and some widgets look squashed.

Customization
I did some customization to improve on the UI and brighten up the pixelated looks. My current home screens..

Turtle Photoframe

Screen Filter, uptime, Weather, Agenda widget

Precious Metals Price Widget, aCurrency, Google Finance

Turtle Photoframe, Drinking Water

Mensa Word of the Day, Google+, Seesmic

Android's Fortune, Babyage, Calorie Counter

Lock Screen

I am jotting down the list of changes I did on the device.

root it
Don't do this if you are concerned about support. Else do yourself a favour and root the device. Motorola is not interested in upgrading this device any further, you are left alone (check official Motorola forums on this). This device is probably on end of life list and may not get any more updates.

I downloaded and extracted the SuperOneClickv1.6.5-ShortFuse.zip, and followed the instructions (look for reference link below). This also needs the Android SDK and Java SDK to be available on the system. Note, version 1.6 is required for this device, the higher version did not work for me.

Partition the SD card
This is required for the subsequent step for linking apps and moving them to SD card. I made use of MiniTool partition software to make three partitions on my 16GB SD Card (look for reference link below).

Cell1 - 11GB (for actual data)
Cell2 - 3GB (for link2sd app)
swap - 840MB (for additional memory space support)

link2sd - move apps to SD card

Downloaded and installed link2sd from market. The software link2sd requires a second primary partition. This basically moves all apps related files to the 2nd partition of the SD card and leaves a link in the internal memory that points to the actual file on SD. This saves huge amount of internal space and therefore allows installation of large number of apps. Something just not possible without rooting the device.

ADW Launcher as UI
Motoblur UI isn't that bad, but this is a small screen and I did not want it wasted on the dock bar and screen position indicators. The more space available for actual data and widgets display the better.

Installed ADW Launcher from market for easy screens. As the screen size is small and there is a physical keyboard available, I decided to remove the dock bar. Next I made some changes in the keyboard quick launch options to gain easy access to my frequently used apps.

Changed the home key to point to apps drawer and the double tap on home key to phone dialler. The quick launcher option also allows setting of search+ key to directly invoke apps. This is pretty cool as I can now avoid putting apps shortcuts on the desktop.

Font Changer

Downloaded and installed Font changer app from market. Font changer allows changing of font density from the default 120 to 140 or higher. This basically makes the font look bigger on the small screen. Though 140 was good to look at, it also increased the sizes of some of my apps. For instance, the ADW Launcher 5-icons panel extended beyond the screen size. At a higher sizing, even the default dialler misbehaved due to the spillover of
buttons. I decided to keep the density at 120 and change the default font instead. I copied the Liberation fonts from my Linux desktop to the font changer folder. Then set Liberation Sans font for display from font changer app. This is much more crisp and easy to look at than the default font.

I found out that using a Mono font, such as Droid Mono, gave a good reading quality that did not strain the eyes. However, this takes up lot of space and most short-cuts and widget data is truncated. So will have to stick to a type face font.

Quite a few apps also allow setting there own custom font, this serves well for such small screens.

Some of my widgets did not allow font sizing and are barely readable. You will be able to make out from the screen shots. I still keep them as they act as reminders to get into the app itself.

Issues
I faced following issues with the device.

Battery charger conked
The battery charger worked for the first use. It just failed to work after this. The phone is getting charged from the USB link when attached to a computer. The phone is also getting charged from my wife's Samsung charger (same Micro-USB port). So Motorola does have some quality issue here. Checked some forums and realised I am not alone. It is OK for me as the alternatives work.

Washed out pictures
I knew the video quality on this device is pathetic. Was not happy with the pictures, 3MP should have been able to deliver better. With no flash present, the pics are unbearable in low light. There is a Kodak app included in the device that does picture enhancement. This is working out good for most pictures I take. So will use this as a process to enhance my snaps.

Not much can be done of the video quality. The CIF format is the best one can get from this phone. This will remain a bad score for me.

keyboard Delivers

This is the best part of getting the device. I typed most of this note on the device itself. I setup quick launch keys for my most frequently used apps (calendar, Seesmic, catch, Springpad, MySettings, greader, email clients..). Gotten used to this now. The keyboard is where the device delivers.

Working apps
I use the following apps on the device. Haven't noticed any issues in these. Some show a smaller font size though, have tweaked the settings of some to give better looks. Have put some screen shots here.

- aCurrency lite
- Adobe Reader

- Astro

- Agenda widget

- Android's fortune 

- AVG Anti-virus 

- Babyage 

- Business calendar free

- Default Browser

- Default Dialler

- CamScanner

- Catch

- Calorie Counter

- Drinking water

- Font changer 

- Folder Organizer lite 

- Google+

- greader

- Default picture Gallery

- Link2SD

- Load Monitor

- Default Messaging

- Mensa word of the day

- MortPlayer Audio Book

- Market

- MySettings 

- Openoffice document reader 
- Precious Metals Price Widget

- Root explorer 

- Seesmic
- Screen filter

- Seven mail

- SMS backup 

- SMS popup
- Springpad 

- Turtle photoframe
- Google services (gmail, contacts, reader, maps, youtube etc.)

Final note
The device is much more acceptable with the above changes, but not quite there. Guess this is the maximum I can achieve on this hardware. I will be using this device till I get another up-scale qwerty device, may be in a few months time.

Reference
http://www.dkszone.net/root-motorola-charm-one-click-root-motorola-charm
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Droid-Serif
http://blog.wirelessground.com/motorola-charm-battery-issue/
http://www.diy-computer-repairs.com/partition-sd-card-android-installation/

Android devices with physical QWERTY keyboards - for Productivity sake please

2011-10-01T15:02:00.000+04:00

I have used Android devices for two years now, all touch screens with virtual keyboards. Before this, I was a Palm freak and relished the Treo series. Ironically, I am still struggling to achieve the productivity levels I had with my Palm Treo series.

Using touch screen makes me realize that while I have gained on the quality and richness of contents in my hand, I have somehow lost on the productivity portion. This means a lot to me as I use my device as a personal assistance - manage my calendar, tasks, todo, meetings, reminder, grocery, notes, take pictures/videos, quotes, read ebooks, track my activities etc., besides doing the usual phone calls and messaging. Yes my device also reminds me to drink water and track calories?? I sometimes type notes for hours while travelling around.

Now for me, the good part of Android is that it has a very good presentation layer for reading docs or viewing media. The bad part is capturing text. I am finding it difficult to feed data on touch screen. While the virtual keyboards and Word corrections have improved a lot and definitely add to faster inputs, I am still not there with the pace I had on Palm. I prefer looking at the text while my fingers do the capturing. This does not work out very well on touch screens as my gaze has to constantly shift between the keyboard, the word correction bar and the text itself. Adding special characters becomes even more cumbersome as another set of keys pop up for selection. I find myself searching for the home keys (F, J) to position my thumb and start the flow; but then this happens too often.

Physical keyboard also gave the option of having keys assigned for quick launch. For instance I could just press a combination to start capturing a task on my calendar. I did find some quick alternatives on touch screens to somehow make up for this part.

Inadvertently, I also find myself occasionally indulging in endless customization of my device to find the right looks and apps, rather than focus on getting things done.

I might sound stupid to people who are more focussed on media contents and text inputs limited to tweets. I believe most blackberry and Palm folks can relate to this. So in my quest to find the ultimate Android device for my use, I have decided to try my hands on physical QWERTY keyboard based Android devices. Unfortunately, not many to choose from at this time. I am looking for devices that give Portrait QWERTY keyboard and yes with the M aligned under K (not under J). This is how computer keyboards are designed and my thumbs are used to similar alignment on cell phones.

I did find few devices out there to try out.. will update my blog again..

Epic Browser for a Nation

2011-09-07T07:00:00.000+04:00

The only country to have a dedicated Web browser, based on open source Mozilla Firefox. It is also being promoted as the the first browser with an in-built anti-virus tool. Learn more..

http://www.epicbrowser.com/

Reliance 3G Tab out-for-grab

2011-09-06T23:47:00.000+04:00

This is the cheapest in branded models, you will get it for about INR 12-13K now. With some plus, it goes with a reasonable 3G data plan.

The other Indian make, Olivepad is now stocking at INR 14-15K. Google for more news...

What! you still want an ipad??

How to change User Name/Login name in Oracle EBS (FND_USER_PKG)

2011-08-15T15:38:00.000+04:00

A very rare requirement, this is what I did to change the name for an active login. Oracle provides a user maintenance package FND_USER_PKG, this has a routine that allows login name change. For example, existing application user name is AMARKP and this needs to be changed to AMAR.PADHI.

() Before Change
The Application FND tables have below information.

SQL> select user_name, end_date from fnd_user
2 where user_name in ('AMARKP', 'AMAR.PADHI');

USER_NAME       |END_DATE
----------------|---------
AMARKP        |

SQL> select user_name, role_name from wf_local_user_roles
2 where user_name in ('AMARKP', 'AMAR.PADHI');

USER_NAME              |ROLE_NAME
-----------------------|-------------------------------------
AMARKP                 |FND_RESP|SQLGL|MS_GL|STANDARD
AMARKP                 |FND_RESP|SYSADMIN|SYSTECH|STANDARD
AMARKP                 |FND_RESP|SYSADMIN|SYSTEM_ADMINISTRATOR|STANDARD

() Performing the change
Below simple routine call is made to change the user name.

begin
fnd_user_pkg.change_user_name(
                               x_old_user_name => 'AMARKP',
                               x_new_user_name => 'AMAR.PADHI'
                        );

commit;
end;
/

() After change

SQL> select user_name, end_date from fnd_user 
  2  where user_name in ('AMARKP', 'AMAR.PADHI');

USER_NAME         |END_DATE
------------------|---------
AMAR.PADHI        |

SQL> select user_name, role_name from wf_local_user_roles
2 where user_name in ('AMARKP', 'AMAR.PADHI');

USER_NAME              |ROLE_NAME
-----------------------|-------------------------------------
AMAR.PADHI             |FND_RESP|SQLGL|MS_GL|STANDARD
AMAR.PADHI             |FND_RESP|SYSADMIN|SYSTECH|STANDARD
AMAR.PADHI             |FND_RESP|SYSADMIN|SYSTEM_ADMINISTRATOR|STANDARD

The new user name is now being accepted at login time. Checked few old transactions created by the user, all are now showing the new user in Audit information.

Fedora 15 Installation issue - Graphics card Fan not stopping

2011-08-10T13:09:00.000+04:00

Just installed Fedora 15 on my workstation (HP pavilion p6610) that has a graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce G315). All went well except I kept hearing a paced-up wheezing sound of an internal fan. The fan failed to slowdown or stop even when there was no activity on the system. Never had this issue in Fedora 14. Little bit of analysis made me realise that card specific drivers are required. Fedora 15 by default installed the Nouveau driver for this card, this one is incompatible with Nvidia card I had.

I downloaded the driver file from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us site. Provided the applicable information about my card to get the appropriate driver. Following steps were then taken to resolve the issue.

- Ran "yum update" as root to get all latest RPMs installed.

- Blacklisted the Nouveau driver to prevent its usage. Below line added in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist nouveau

-Made a copy of the latest initramfs<>.img file present under the /boot folder.

- Rebuilt the initramfs file using following command as root.

# dracut -v /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

- Rebooted the system in runlevel 3. Note that the runlevel setup in /etc/inittab file is no more usable in Fedora 15. A new service and system manager functionality, systemd, is implemented in this release. This uses sysmlinks to manage runlevels.The link file is /etc/systemd/system/default.target. This needs to be pointed to the correct target. There are basically two commonly used targets as below -

multi-user.target : this is the equivalent of runlevel 3 (character, multi-user).
graphical.target : this is the default and equivalent of runlevel 5 (graphical access).

To get into character mode, I issued the below command as root.

# rm /etc/systemd/system/default.target

# ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

# init 6

- The machine now restarted in character mode. Logged in as root and invoked the nvidia graphics driver, followed on screen instructions and completed installation.
# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-280.13.run

- To get back to graphical mode, changed the symlink again to point to graphics file now.

# rm /etc/systemd/system/default.target

# ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

# init 6

- The fan will continue to wheeze every time the system is started, till the time Nvidia driver gets loaded as part of booting.

Links
I got most details from below links.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/nouveau-kernel-driver-825432/
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

Using Concurrent Requests for running sqlplus scripts

2011-05-22T14:11:00.000+04:00

Concurrent request execution method can be pointed to a Sqlplus script. This option is available in the executable definition screen.

(1) Advantages

Quick option to deploy a SQL script from outside the database and make it part of the application.

Less development effort and involvement.
Out-of-database solution, as script will be placed at OS level.
Quick alternative to regularize commonly used scripts (and avoid back end access to users).
Good alternative for administrative scripts that can be scheduled with application.
One more quick alternative to generate formatted output reports and even print them directly to printers.

(2) Possible Disadvantages

Not a good alternative to host important business logic. This should preferably reside within the database or in Java classes in mid-tier.
This alternative is not for a named "program" code, it is a script that is invoked every time the request runs.
Frequently used compiled program units are cached and save on execution time. This will not apply to a script call, though the executed SQL will be cached (and phased out as per LRU method).
Re-usability factor : external scripts are not as easy as reusing a database routine. Choose wisely.
Out-of-site, out-of-mind; could result in chaos and security lapses if not controlled and organized. Most shops focus on programming languages and the objects used there of. Such alternatives have to be made part of the regular change process cycle to ensure ownership issues and control.
Custom scripts may get removed during major updates to system. Have proper backups in place.

(3) Process of Deploying a sqlplus script
To explain this part, I am using a sample sqlplus script as an example that will return the market price of recently modified Inventory items. User will provide the organization and a date from when to pick up the items and the same needs to be passed to sqlplus script for generating the output.

(3.1) Create a SQL script.
- Makes use of FND_FILE to pass the output back to user as well as log errors.
- Make use of bind variables to accept defined argument values from the concurrent request call.
- If using a PL/SQL block, don't forget to add the slash at the end.
- Abort the script with error to mark the concurrent request status as Error also.

declare
l_buffer varchar2(240);
errexc   exception;

-- Try to pass the file name in error log
-- for immediately identifying the script..
l_prgnam constant varchar2(60) :=
               ' [xx_mkt_price_for_items.sql]. ';

-- The ampersand variable below get their
-- values from the parameters defined in
-- concurrent request.
cursor c1 is
    select to_char( organization_id ) inv_org_id,
           to_char( inventory_item_id ) item_id,
           segment1 code,
           to_char( round( market_price, 2 ) ) mkt_price
    from   mtl_system_items_b
    where last_update_date >=
                  to_date( '&1', 'YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS' )
    and    organization_id = &2;

begin

-- putting a column header with the below statement.
fnd_file.put_line( fnd_file.output,
         'InvOrgID ItemID    Code            Price' );

-- cursor to fetch the data and dump it into the output file.
for r1 in c1 loop
    l_buffer := rpad( r1.inv_org_id, 9, ' ' ) ||
                rpad( r1.item_id, 10, ' ' ) ||
                rpad( r1.code, 15, ' ' ) ||
                rpad( r1.mkt_price, 8, ' ');

    fnd_file.put_line( fnd_file.output, l_buffer );

end loop;

exception
when others then
    fnd_file.put_line( fnd_file.log,
        'Error : ' || substr( sqlerrm, 1, 100 ) || l_prgnam );
     -- Below exception will mark the
     -- request status as Error (Red)

    raise errexc;
end;
/

(3.2) Place the SQL script under proper application top folder.
For instance, my inventory related script will be placed in $INV_TOP/sql folder.

(3.3) Create a concurrent program executable with the execution method as "SQL*Plus".

(3.4) Create a concurrent program for the executable. In my case, the program will have a date and a number parameter that will get passed to the sqlplus script.

How are variables passed?
Oracle will by default pass all variables received from the concurrent request as &1, &2, &3.. (and so on) to sqlplus script. Make use of these in the script to perform needful action. The arguments are passed in the same order as defined in the concurrent request parameter screen.

(4) What Concurrent Manager does automatically

As per Oracle Development guide, Concurrent Manager will automatically insert the following prologue of commands in the sqlplus script call -

set term off
set pause off
set heading off
set feedback off
set verify off
set echo off
whenever sqlerror exit failure

The manager also inserts a command into the script call to set the LINESIZE as per the print style of the request. This is handy if the generated output is being sent to a printer also.

If you trap the error before exiting the script, the concurrent request will not receive any error status and will show as successfully completed. Instead, trap all errors at end of code (WHEN OTHERS) and raise an exception to abort the script after logging proper message.
I found that using single '&' calls multiple time will reuse the value already passed. No need to use '&&' to reuse existing argument values.

(5) Bad script?
- The error will usually show up in the output file.

- The log file will have something similar to below lines -
Concurrent Manager encountered an error while running SQL*Plus for your concurrent request 26577406.
Review your concurrent request log and/or report output file for more detailed information.

- Any trapped error should be passed to the log file, as in above case. Error like below will be easier to debug when they show in the log file.
Error : ORA-01861: literal does not match format string [xx_mkt_price_for_items.sql].

(6) Bind variable not declared error?
Try putting quotes around the bind variable of date/varchar2 type. Ensure the date format is as per what is defined for the passing parameter.

Dell low on quality these days?

2011-05-17T00:19:00.000+04:00

What's up with Dell these days? I was a die hard customer of Dell for about 10 years. The 3 notebooks I purchased during this period were from Dell and all had at least one visit to the service centre. The last series XPS M1330 was rigged two times to change the motherboard. The 2nd time around, I had to convince the Dell service centre to bear the expenses as this was a widely known issue on this model. I gave up buying Dell products in 2009. Moved on to Acer, have 3 of their units and not a single has been sent back.

Few months back I decided to take the Dell Streak mini-tab as this was the only 5-inch model available in the market. Guess what, it lasted me 4 months before having a hardware failure. I returned it to the shop and was informed that about 5 of these units have been returned due to hardware issues and there is no support available in this region (UAE) to fix these. Great, what a hogwash. Maybe it's just my stars..

I get a feeling that dell is more focused on the presentation than what the unit should deliver. For now, I am not wasting any more of my resources on Dell.

The dot in the Gmail email address

2011-03-27T09:22:00.000+04:00

Learned this recently, the dot in the email address of Gmail account does not have any importance, it is just a place holder for easy reading. Gmail is actually geared to identify the email address without the dot. In other words, Gmail will deliver the message to your in-box no matter where a dot is placed in your email address.

For instance, all below address point to the same email box.
thisis.cool@gmail.com
this.iscool@gmail.com
thisiscoo.l@gmail.com
thisiscool@gmail.com

This could be handy if there is a need to open multiple accounts on a site with the same email address. While most systems consider these as different email addresses, Gmail will simply point it to one box.

Picked this up from a tweet. Cheers.

Twitter or Facebook : Which one for what?

2011-03-26T02:05:00.000+04:00

This is my take on how I use the two most popular social sites and how these assist me in my day-to-day life. Note, I say "assist" and not control.

I created a Facebook (FB) account with the intention of staying in touch with friends as well as making it a single source for all the information I need. I got in touch with a lot of my friends, some way back from school days. Great. But then something was wrong. FB was slowly taking over my life. There were way too many updates popping up on my device and I soon realized that a good chunk of that was a waste of my time. While I did love to read updates on life experiences and personal views, I hated those typical bragging or aimless updates. Note, this is just my personal preference. While such updates would be good for some, it was no-no for me. The bad part was that some need-to-know or important updates were getting lost in the muddle.

So FB was slowly turning out to be a white elephant. At this age, I would rather spend time with my family and interests than waste time digging into the status updates. Maybe, I would have enjoyed all sort of updates if I would have been few years younger. Maybe, I have an introvert personality that does not gel with all the extroverts out there. Maybe, I am a jerk! Point remains - FB is killing my time.

I need a filtering mechanism that could do some category or priority based feed. Something that would collate the incoming information based on my choice and needs and then present it to me. FB does not have any category based mechanism to filter updates and I have tried whatever it had to offer at the moment. Nothing at present works except preventing further updates from a source. This has its pros and cons that will be obvious to online folks. Disabling updates from some of the sources actually saved about 80% of my time on FB. Though I am still friend with these sources and can have a private chat, I am saved from their global updates.

I tried Twitter next. Unlike FB, twitter is more in line with a short messaging system. You are allowed a short 140 characters tweet to all your followers and you got to make it sensible enough. I am currently following all sources of my interest. The good part is that the short no nonsense tweet gives you an idea about what is being fed, if interesting click further to read more or just let it pass. So I have got two advantages here - Follow what I am interested in and pick up what I want to read. Well, close enough for me. Yes I could make out that this service has also been abused and could feed you aimless tweets, choosing whom to follow is an important call here.

So my current status - I use Twitter for the information feed, the daily dose of tit-bits that I like to hog on and enrich myself.

I use FB to socialize in the true sense. Connect with friends and that's it. Of late, I am more active on Twitter and this is one reason why my FB responses have been untimely. Sorry folks, I am still working on it .. If you got a better idea, pass it on please..
.

Thunderbird : email data copy after reinstallation

2011-03-14T15:05:00.000+04:00

Just a quick note. I had to copy my wife's backed up Thunderbird email folder to a new installation. Old one was on Vista and I was copying it to an XP installation. Following steps worked.

* From the original system, copied the %APPDATA%\thunderbird\Profiles folder. This folder has all the data.

* After installing Thunderbird on the new system, copied the backed up folder to D: drive. The software is installed on C: drive and I wanted data to reside on D:.

* Then located the profiles.ini file under %APPSDATA%\thunderbird\ folder. Modified it as below -

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=D:\Thunderbird\Profiles\hlnnkhedk.default

I provided the full path in the profiles file and set the "IsRelative" flag to 0. The path points to the actual data folder that was copied on D drive. Parameter "StartWithLastProfile" was set to 0 also.

* Fired up Thunderbird. All old emails and contacts available. New emails synced automatically.

Cheers.

Asia-Pacific CACS Conference, Dubai

2011-02-26T00:21:00.000+04:00

I got the time and opportunity to be part of the Asia-Pacific CACS (Computer Audit, Control and Security) conference that was held in Dubai this week. Good climate, excellent folks around and some very highly qualified and experienced presenters. Key note was very impressive and a perfect fit for this event. Every presentation had something to offer and the coverage was great. This also allows me to get 14 CPE credits for my CISA qualification.

However I was unhappy about one fact - almost all presentation were kind of connected with and promoting COBIT. Like me, many expected that the presentations would be neutral in nature and focus on the subject matter at large. I personally noted that most presentation had some inclination towards COBIT. This to me is not the right way of presenting industry topics such as e-governance or risk management. I have given the same feedback in the aftermath survey. A dedicated presentation on specific subject like COBIT (there was one on first day) was good enough for getting the message out, but a recap and reiteration on most of the presentation was not expected and may be not appreciated by the participants.

Merging my sites again!!

2011-01-18T00:37:00.000+04:00

I finally decided to merge my three blog sites as one. Instead of having multiple sites to separate contents on subject matter, I can now use Google labels. Labels allow you to categorize all the published articles and the same can be made visible to users to allow them to choose their category of interest.

In case you are wondering how this is possible, this is what I did -

For the blog to be deleted, Selected Settings -> export blog
This creates an XML file on the local machine.
Next, import this to the blog that will be retained, Settings -> Import blog
Provide the same file name that was exported. Option exists to instantly publish all imported articles after importing.
Go back to the first blog and delete it now, Settings -> Delete blog.

One bad point would be that all site related hit statistics would be lost for the deleted blog, in case this is important.. another would be that if the deleted pages were being referred somewhere, these would produce missing links. I can live with this for now.. Cheers.

Facebook : how to reduce the information overload

2010-12-18T23:19:00.001+04:00

How much information feed is enough on Facebook (FB), or do we have to go through everyone's updates? I don't know, but from my experience this definitely is encroaching on my personal time. I am OK with FB as long as it does not intrude on my privacy and the quality time I need to have with my family. Honestly, it is waste of my time if my phone pops up a notification from a FB colleague who just posted an update such as "I just had a delicious ice cream" or "I am sitting at so-so airport" (yes this could be good for someone else). I don't care who my friends are friends with, it is quite annoying to have news feed filled with "x and y are now friends". I read on FB that there was a Firefox Browser add-on that could remove such updates from your stream, unfortunately the developer who wrote this was served with a legal notice. What the heck?

On the other hand, I am very interested in following updates on life and one's experience in handling circumstances or something new happening at someone's end etc. etc.. No social network has till date been able to categorize information and personalize it to that extent. We have to deal with such cases manually. I checked out few options to see how things work for filtering information that is being fed (or blasted) to me.

Under privacy settings, Facebook provides a setting as "Can See Wall Posts by Friends" that prevents postings on your wall from being broadcast to everyone. But unfortunately, this also prevents the first setting of allowing others to post on your wall. Facebook has linked both read and write in one privacy setting and therefore there is no clear way of blocking your own posts from going global or getting unwanted updates from other walls. I am kind of disappointed here.

The only viable alternative as of now is to mark "hide" a friend or a conversation topic as soon as you get an update from that person. When you click on the cross button for an update from a friend, following options are shown.

Hide this Post
Hide all by "Friend Name"

Now if your friend is just too much into blowing his/her own trumpet, you are well of by choosing the second option. If you just want to get rid of a post and what is going to be talked about thereafter on the same post, choose the first option. As per FB, the person or post being hidden is not updated of this action, so this is a call you take for what you want to go through. Another fact is that this option does not show up on mobile devices apps (the ones I have checked), so some effort is involved in logging on to a desktop and getting this done.

Get more details from http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=408

Quick Update : A third option "Hide all from Application_name" also popped up in the above list. This happens when you are trying to block a standard post from a news or application site. For instance, Daily Horoscope that is being fed to a friend of yours also gets shared with you. If you don't like it, use this one.

PS3 gaming console firmware updates

2010-09-12T02:40:00.000+04:00

PS3 runs XrossMediaBar OS, this is an extremely limited locked down Linux OS. PS3 is not just a Game player, it has been extended to work like a PC (prior to Version 3.21) and is geared for extreme multimedia usage. You can have all your picture, music and movie files stored on the internal disk and easily accessible when needed. Internet can be browsed and a keyboard can be connected to the device for easy interface.

Every new firmware update brings in new features and improves the performance of the device (though it does annoyingly remove some old features also). Latest firmware also gets rid of most bugs, support and dependency issues for the latest games. This note is to recommend and encourage readers having PS3 to update their consoles with latest version (read docs in case you are concerned about an existing feature getting disabled).

Saturday, April 10, 12:28 AM

PS3 comes with Wireless card and can easily be configured to connect with the home broadband router. My base version 2.5 could not recognize my home network and the Wireless settings were also not configurable.

Updated firmware version from 2.5. to 2.6. I did this by using a game CD that required minimum 2.6 (Bionic Commando to be precise). This can also be done by downloading the firmware and placing it in a memory stick (refer http://uk.playstation.com/ps3/support/network/detail/item48612/PlayStation-3-System-Software-updates/ for details).

This allowed me to use wireless LAN that was not visible earlier. I am not sure if earlier versions allowed wireless access, but for me the option was displayed only after installing firmware 2.6.

Once wireless LAN was established, updating the system using the Internet installed the latest firmware version 3.21. This download is huge and ran overnight. This particular firmware removes the ability to install other OS on the PS3 system. Yes quite a few people had one more Linux flavour installed and used PS3 as PC.

Sun 12 Sep 2010 01:49:31 AM GST
Version 3.42 released on 07-Sep-10. Updated the firmware to the latest release. This is just a simple auto-install process and can also be triggered from menu Settings -> System Update.

Available Applications
Following features are available and in use on my PS3.

Gaming
Photo Gallery
Video Gallery
Music Gallery
Media Server access (can access my WD media disk using wireless router).
Video Editor and Uploader
Playstation Store online
Internet Browser and Search
"Life with Playstation" (provided dynamic web-based contents pertaining to time and location).
Gaming community message and chat access.
Facebook connect (this came through recently).

Happy gaming.

Android 2.2 (Froyo) update with HTC Sense

2010-09-11T18:37:00.000+04:00

Last week I received a request on my device (HTC Desire) to update the Android version from 2.1 to 2.2 (Froyo). This was surprising as I am currently situated in UAE region and my device belongs to south-east Asia region. It is even more surprising as this device is not supported by HTC in this region*.

All my early pursuit to manually update the device had failed as HTC did not allow the update download when I entered the device serial no on their site. Anyway auto-update request was welcoming on my HTC Desire model. Below is the list of differences I noticed after the update was applied.

Note, some of these may be a feature of HTC sense interface rather than the base android OS itself. Also note that I am highlighting features that I have found to be new on my device and are not picked up from any existing sources.

Keyboard now has a setup option that provides user dictionary to allow addition and deletion of personal words. The control is available with user. All my before update fed custom words were lost. I need to rebuild now.
Recent apps window now show 8 entries of last used apps.
Video resolution 720p now available (1280x720)! This is wonderful and probably the most important feature. I did a sample video and verified the quality with old shots, excellent.
Torch light app available in menu. This gives you the ability to use your phone as a torch in darkness. The camera LED is used for this purpose.
New places app available in menu to quickly find places nearby to your current location.
For those using SEVEN app for receiving emails, the notification bar now actually shows the number of unread emails. This is possibly a feature of the app that has got activated after applying the patch. This does not apply to the default clients for Google and HTC.
The HTC Friend stream widget now shows the "like this" and "comments" counter for each message received.
New app Voice Search available. Spoken words invoke the search engine and shows the results on screen. Keyboard has a microphone button, short press invokes the settings, long press invokes the voice search software. This allows me to search the currently displayed text for specific word.
Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot app available. This converts the phone to a modem for a computer having wireless access. 3G network is used on the phone to browse the internet from the computer.
Android News and Weather app and widget available, along with the existing HTC news widget. I still prefer using Buzzbox app and widget for my feeds.
Apart from the existing Gallery app, a new Video Gallery app is available to display the Video titles on the device.
I don't have to enter the screen lock pattern if I activate the screen immediately after locking it. It is requested only after the phone screen is inactive for a specific time as set in the setup.
SMS app is more customized now. Shows word count as you type. There is an attachment option that allows attachment of audio, video, address book entry, calendar agenda or simply a file on the device.
Default gmail client, shows left and write arrows to shift between emails from the view screen. I don't recollect this option being there before the update.
New GPS navigation app showing up in menu.
Released good amount of free memory space. I had about 30MB left, after update 55MB is available.
Software installation can now be performanced on SD Card, this will remove the internal memory size limitation. The setup -> applications -> manage application view now displays 4 tabs and includes one for software installed on SD card.

From the manage application view, a particular app can be selected and moved to SD card. However not all app support this option at this time.

Copying apps to SD card not only freed my internal memory but also occupied lesser size on SD card, this was surprising. For instance one app had installed space (no cache) showing as 15 MB, moving this reduced the size to about 2 MB!

Setup -> applications -> running services has a new look providing more info on services and memory utilization.
Overall device performance has improved as compared to before update.
Apps listing shows Adobe Flash player 10.1 app also.
The market download tab shows an "update all" button. Clicking on this auto starts downloads of all available updates for installed apps, without prompting for more details.

A new flag "Allow automatic updating" is available against each downloaded app in the market. Enabling this will keep the app auto updated.
New 2x2 market widget to quickly launch the app. This looked quite static to me, just more of a shortcut.

The market app now shows two separate tabs as "About" and "Comment" for displaying details of an app.

* HTC Desire is available now in different retail outlets since last month, this was after I did the update.

Touch Screen on phones : Capacitive or Resistive?

2010-08-21T22:34:00.000+04:00

All touch screen phones look alike but there is a key catch in the technology that is being used underneath the screen. A touch screen can either be Capacitive in nature or Resistive. What is the difference?

Know this fact to make a wise decision when buying your next device. Also note that there are other lesser known screen technologies but these two dominate our gadget market as of this writing.

Technical Differences
A Resistive touch screen contains two electric conducting layers divided by a thin gap. As soon a we touch/press on the screen the two layers connect and this results in a voltage divide and the flow of electricity changes. This is registered as a touch.

A Capacitive touch screen consist of a single layer transparent conductor with electricity flowing. A human finger is also a conductor of electricity and carries electrostatic charge. So when a human finger touches the surface it results in electric signal interference. This is registered as a touch.

OK. That is as far as my understanding goes, don't ask me more on this!

Working Differences
A Resistive touch screen can be worked on with a stylus or some other pointing object. If you have long nails, this work too. As the name suggests, resistive screen require resistance or pressure to register a touch.

A Capacitive touch screen needs human body touch or some other similar conducting object. Long nails don't work and neither does most pointed objects. Capacitive will work well with soft touch (no pressure required). It is quite sensitive.

Resistive needs some pressure, it could be insensitive sometimes. I have found that Resistive sometimes fails to register a contact and this often needs a retry. So there are hits and misses here.

On the other hand, Capacitive screen may fail to register a touch if you have wet or sweaty fingers. So you need dry hands to have a more receptive screen.

Yes both screens can be fingerprint magnet, you can avoid this by using a good protective screen shield.

Which is better?
For human touch Capacitive screen are the best bet. Though they cost more than the Resistive ones. My recommendation is that if you plan to buy a touch screen phone, think Capacitive. The human experience is much more rich and interactive on this platform.

How to identify?
There is no visible way of differentiating the two, none that I know of. The only way is to use the surface and see how sensitive a device is to human touch. Before buying a device, go through the technical specification and identify the screen type.

Of the phones I have tried - iphone, HTC Hero, HTC Desire, Google Nexus etc. all come with capacitive screens. While Samsung Jet and some Nokia models are on Resistive screens. Devices that come with stylus are mostly Resistive. Devices that come with Google Android OS are mostly capacitive. Devices that come with Symbian OS are mostly Resistive.

Recently launched resistive screen devices make claims that the experience is as good as capacitive. Though both technology are evolving, I have found that swipe actions and virtual keyboard fair better on capacitive.

Oracle Apps : Adding custom text on Login and Home Page

2010-08-17T11:41:00.000+04:00

Corporate Policy mandate that proper Notice and copyright information be provided in the Oracle Apps login page to ensure that users are made aware of their actions and what they are trying to access. Oracle Apps provides parameters to customize the login page and header information. I normally set the below minimum parameters at my sites.

Following changes will reflect once the Apache Server is restarted. Though some settings like the "Page Header Info (Hope page Brand)" may not require a restart.

Corporate Policy Message
A short Corporate policy text can be displayed on the login page. The profile parameter "Local Login Mask" (System name "FND_SSO_LOCAL_LOGIN_MASK") has the site level value of 32 by default. To add corporate message on login page, increase this value by 64 (this number stands for Corporate policy messaging).

32 + 64 = 96

Set the profile parameter "Local Login Mask" to 96. Navigate to the following link and change the value.

Responsibility : System Administrator -> Menu : Profile -> Function : Systems -> Query for "Local Login Mask" (Site-level)

Next Navigate to following link.
Responsibility : Application Developer -> Menu : Application -> Function : Messages -> Query for "FND_SSO_SARBANES_OXLEY_TEXT"

FND_SSO_SARBANES_OXLEY_TEXT parameter defaults to "Corporate Policy Message". Change the "Current Message Text" box value to display the right policy information to users. For example, "Statutory Notice: This is a confidential and privileged Enterprise system of <Company>. Access is restricted to <company> employees only." Keep this text short as the text does not wrap to the next line on the same page.

Page Header Info (Home Page Brand Area)
The top part of the page shows the Oracle Logo and also the label "E-Business Suite". The Label can be customized for business needs. Navigate to below link.

Responsibility : System Administrator -> Menu : Application -> Function : Function -> Query for "FWK_HOMEPAGE_BRAND"

FWK_HOMEPAGE_BRAND function is by default set to "E-Business Suite". This can be changed to "<Company> E-Business Suite (TEST or Production)". I prefer adding the Instance type so that users can differentiate between multiple instances by looking at this information. Note, this does not reflect in Application Manager and Workflow screens.

Oracle Note states that Message Parameter FND_SSO_EBIZ_SUITE needs to be set to allow Login page Brand change. I have however found that the above function change works for login page also. If it does not in your case, set this parameter also, the link to this parameter is as below.

Copyright Message
Navigate to following link.
Responsibility : Application Developer -> Menu : Application -> Function : Messages -> Query for "FND_SSO_COPYRIGHT_TEXT"

FND_SSO_COPYRIGHT_TEXT : This text is displayed at the bottom of login page and has legal importance. Defaults to "Copyright (c) YYYY, Oracle. All rights reserved." Can be changed to "Copyright (c) YYYY, Oracle. All rights reserved. Licensed to <company>, <Location>".

Login Page Customization
I set the following to customize the login Page information. Navigate to following link.
Responsibility : Application Developer -> Menu : Application -> Function : Messages -> Query for below parameters.

FND_SSO_WELCOME : This text is shown on the Login page header and also shows up as the page title. Defaults to "Login". Can be changed to "Oracle Apps Production Login". This information also gets prompted when adding the link to browser favorites.

FND_SSO_PASSWORD : This text is displayed against the Password field.
Defaults to "Password". I normally change this to "Enter your Password".

FND_SSO_EBIZ_SUITE : This text is displayed on the login page brand display area. Defaults to "E-Business suite". I prefer setting this same as the function value "FWK_HOMEPAGE_BRAND" (only if the function does not work for login page).

Forms Window Title Change
The Forms applet title is set using a profile parameter. Navigate to following link.
Responsibility : System Administrator -> Menu : Profile -> Function : System -> Query for "Site Name" (Site-level)

Set "Site Name" to appropriate name along with the instance type. For example, "<Company> - <Production/Test>"

Reference
Metalink Note 468971.1

Measuring the Internet line speed : Kbps Vs KBps?

2010-08-14T15:55:00.001+04:00

This terminology is quite confusing for even IT guys. What is the speed of your broadband? What does it mean? Any hidden caveats here? This has been long told and we still forget the basics. Here is a recap again...

Kbps Vs KBps
First thing first. Understand the meaning of KBps and Kbps. The 2nd character "B" or "b" makes a world of difference. Capital 'B' stands for Bytes and a small 'b' stands for bits. 8 bits make 1 byte. So a 128KBps is much much faster than a 128Kbps (approximately about 8 times faster). These units are now common for Internet lines. Now we have Mbps and Gbps as things become faster

The rationality behind the two measurement units differ. For a person who is interested in understanding the download/upload speed of a connection it is more important to get an understanding on what scale is the internet line being measured in by your ISP. This would give an idea about how much time it would take for a 100MB data file to download or a 4GB DivX movie to come through. Note when we measure file sizes, we always talk about in bytes or multiple of bytes. We do not use bits per say. So when analyzing the speed of a line, try to compute in the same unit.

Here is an example, My ISP provides me a connection of 256 Kbps. That is Kilo bits per second.

-> 256 Kb
= 256 * 1024 bits
= 262144 bits
-> In bytes ?
= 262144/8 bytes
= 32768 bytes

-> In Kilobytes ?
= 32768/1024 KB
= 32 KB

So, if I have about 100MB data file to download, then it would take me about (100 * 1024)/32 = 3200 seconds = 53 minutes approximately (hold on.. this does not happen though, read further).

Now a days we have high speed lines that are being measured in Mbps. That is Mega bits per second. Using the same formula let look at an 8Mb line.

-> 8Mb
= 8 * 1024 Kb
= 8192 Kb
= 8388608 bits

-> In bytes ?
= 8388608/8 bytes
= 1048576 bytes

-> In Kilobytes ?
= 1048576/1024 KB
= 1024 KB

-> In MB?
=1024/1024 MB
= 1MB

So, if I have about 100MB data to download, then with this speed it would take 100/1 = 100 seconds = 1.6 minutes approximately.

Looking at the above calculation, one can safely conclude that whatever information is provided in b (bits) can be converted to B (bytes) by dividing it by 8. So you can bypass the above calculation headache and directly divide your bandwidth to get the right picture. For instance, 512Kbps = 512/8 = 64KBps

But it does not work in reality!!
Yes the next question is obvious. I never get a 256 Kbps download on my line even if it has this capacity. The download speed is always between 30-40Kbps. Check yours and you could have a similar condition. So my 100MB file actually takes me about 5-8 hours to download!! Ha. Few things to note here -

The broadband line you have subscribed to is part of a shared network that other users in the same data package are also using. So a group of users have to share the capacity of a line that your ISP is providing you. Hope your ISP did tell you about this, right?
The download/upload speed will greatly vary depending on the load on the shared network that you are part of. It could happen that your speed is much better at night because most users use it during the day. It Could also happen that you get a sudden bust of high speed connection because the broadband network is idle. It is also possible that the YouTube video you are trying to watch just does not seem to complete streaming for hours.
The ISP do have their own agenda to put a slab on the transfer speed so as to avoid over use by few individuals at the sake of others. So there is every possibility that your ISP has put a lock of 30/40Kbps download speed, though you are subscribed to a 256 Kbps line. Don't worry, your ISP will never tell you about this.
ISP will never guarantee you the speed of the line. They will only direct you on the current state and the charming numbers that will hike your imagination and lure you to take the plunge towards a more expensive data package. It is possible that as the number of users increase, the subscribed line can blow out of proportion giving you a speed equivalent to the old days classic Modems (I still love these).
In true network world, apart from the above there are few other jargon such as network latency and hops that also contribute to the transfer performance, I will keep this out for sake of clarity.
Hey Man, you are on internet! The virtual world that no one can control.

Are we getting cheated?
Yes and No.
Yes because most ISP do not give customers clarity on what they are offering (Customers don't ask for it either..).
No because you as an individual have not made yourself abreast of the latest trends and technical labels.
So it is 50-50.

None of the ISP I have come across has ever given me a clear picture in this area. No one has given me a clear indicator of how my speed would be. I do not want to know the speed of a website located some were on the web, I understand no one can guarantee that. All I want to know is how much time it would take to download a file from the ISP server to my desktop and if it can be guaranteed during my subscription. Sorry no takes here. You may say it doesn't matter, if my current speed is slow I will upgrade to the next package. Yep that is the catch. Can you guarantee that your ISP is not chocking your package bandwidth to compel you to move up to a higher valued package.

Any Good Moves?
I am on Linux and I have got ways and means to hike up my speed. Here are few that can be used on Windows and Other OS. Sorry I am no Windows/Mac expert. My experience is on Linux and below are just few tweaks that I have tried.

Apparently, the speed limit (if any) imposed on the line is on thread basis. I can download a file in multiple threads and achieve a speed of up to 200 Kbps on 256 Kbps line! A lot depends on from where the download is happening and what software is in use. For Window folks, check out the FDM (Free Download Manager) that replaces the default browser download software and allows use of threads.
Shutdown those junkie services and software that are automatically hogging your bandwidth. Try to put auto-updates download in a time slot where this does not interrupt with your activities. On Linux, I normally put this in manual mode and select the updates I want on a periodic basis. Yes Security alerts are immediately prompted and I do apply them ASAP.
Use BitTorrent supporting clients. BitTorrent is a protocol that creates a network mesh for file downloads. In this concept, every device connected in the mesh not only downloads the file, but also allows upload from it to other torrent connected clients. One file is split into numerous pieces and the Torrent client acts intelligently to identify the near by devices that can serve as download entities. Don't worry about the complexity of this protocol, just be aware that this will try to download in multiple threads and from multiple devices. For me, this option is not that fast in my region, but my download is reliable and I can start from where I stopped.
There are quite a few sites offering tips on improving internet performance. I suggest you try out some tips from reliable sources. For all you know, you may not require a higher data package and get quality speed on the existing bandwidth itself.

After Notes

By the way ISP is "Internet Service Provider".
And if you have guessed it, there is a difference between a lower case 'k' and an upper case 'K'. Lower case 'k' converts to exact 1000. Upper case converts to 1024. Yes this is one of the reason why you get 235 GB space when you buy a 250 GB hard disk. Since the difference is minor I am not too concerned with this right now.

BeBook One ebook Reader Firmware update 2009

2010-08-01T00:50:00.000+04:00

This note is for the BeBook One ebook reader only (2009 and earlier). This does not apply to BeBook bought in 2010 (there is a separate patch for this).

The latest firmware (version: 2.02NL.091127) patch for BeBook one can be downloaded from below link.

http://mybebook.com/a29/bebook-one-firmware/article_info.html

The installation process is not at all tedious.

Ensure that the BeBook is fully charged.
Download the patch
Unzip it into an SD Card that should not be more than 1GB in size (ensure this).
Take a backup of the data already present in internal memory. The patch will not erase the data but this is a safety measure.
Turn of the BeBook. Press and hold the power button on top.
Once the BeBook is shutdown, insert the SD Card into the slot.
Press and hold the Plus sign button (+) on the right side of the device followed by power button. This will turn on the BeBook reader and automatically take it to patch update mode.
Let the update finish (took about 5 minutes for me) and you will be prompted to restart.
Done.

The patch updates the following -
Update kernel
Update System
Update Logo
Update Parser App
Update Resource

picture shows the difference in versions before and after the update

Usable enhancements
I have found the following usable features -

Reflow of words
PDF files were badly handled. They were just shown as images and maximizing them just resulted in readjustment of the page. This patch now allows reflow of words, i.e., the words and sentences auto adjust to the screen size. Pressing the maximize button now actually increases the font size (and not the image itself) and resizes the text. I have found that I could maximize nine times, this is wonderful.

It also preserves individual document maximization settings. For instance I increased the font size of one document by 4 levels and another document by 2 levels. Both documents preserved their individual levels after I exited and returned back.

I used to recommend use of Mobipocket reader software to convert PDF to PRC files and then load it to ebook. With this patch, the BEbook reader offers excellent support for PDF format that can now be directly copied and read on the reader.

The old 3 mode maximize option is still supported for other formats. The firmware document also states that there are multiple level of maximization support for ePub format, haven't tried this.

Check the below images on how maximizing of same PDF page now looks like -

The earlier look

Maximizing perfectly resizes the pages content

Further Maximizing..

Further..

Search option
The patch now allows option to search using the provided numeric pad. A set of characters is represented by each physical button. The search will underline the words, pressing the next page button will take you to the next applicable entry. Exit search by pressing the backspace key.

Other enhancements
The firmware update document says that two modes are provided for pdf viewing (Adobe pdf default and XPDF). Besides Hyperlinks are also supported withing PDF document. I haven't tried these features.

There is also an option to track "Time & Date" using settings.

Well for me it is the PDF support and I am happy about it. Most of my technical manuals are available in PDF format and I can now refer these directly on my BeBook reader.

Enjoy..

Backing up Linux system using BackupPC

2010-05-08T12:47:00.000+04:00

Following is performed on Fedora 12 Linux on an Acer 3935 Notebook. This note is related to backing up a personal/office system using BackupPC software.

> Installation

simply issue the below command to instruct yum to download and install the required RPMs.

[amar@amar ~]$ sudo yum install backuppc

The installation process created a folder /etc/BackupPC/ for configuration files.
/var/lib/BackupPC - For runtime data folder. I modified this link to an external USB disk, details later.
/var/log/BackupPC - For logs. I modified this link to an external USB disk, details later.
/usr/share/BackupPC - For scripts, libraries and documentation.

It also added a configuration file, BackupPC.conf, for the Apache server under /etc/httpd/conf.d. This will allow BackupPC CGI interface for monitoring, accessing and configuring the software using a browser.

> New OS Users

It also created an OS user and group with the name "backuppc". The home directory is set as /var/lib/BackupPC/. Default user "apache" is also added to this new group (so apache user will have access to Backup PC system files). This user has "/sbin/nologin" set as login shell and Local password is locked, so no one can login with this user. the login will be used internally by the BackupPC tool.

[root@amar bin]# su backuppc
This account is currently not available.

Force logging is possible by explicitly providing the "-s" option. This may be required for running scripts for testing purpose.

[root@amar ~]# su -s /bin/bash backuppc
bash-4.0$ pwd

> Apache Configuration for the BackupPC tool
>> To allow access to the tool, a password file needs to be created for Apache login prompt. This is mentioned in the Apache server file created by the Backup PC. I issue the below command as root to create a web browser user called "backuppc".

[root@amar ~]# cd /etc/BackupPC/
[root@amar BackupPC]# ll
total 88
-rw-r-----. 1 backuppc backuppc 80952 2010-02-28 21:47 config.pl
-rw-r--r--. 1 backuppc backuppc 2209 2010-02-28 21:47 hosts
drwxr-xr-x. 2 backuppc backuppc 4096 2010-02-28 21:47 pc
[root@amar BackupPC]# htpasswd -c /etc/BackupPC/apache.users backuppc
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user backuppc
[root@amar BackupPC]# ll
total 92
-rw-r--r--. 1 root     root        23 2010-04-30 13:20 apache.users
-rw-r-----. 1 backuppc backuppc 80952 2010-02-28 21:47 config.pl
-rw-r--r--. 1 backuppc backuppc 2209 2010-02-28 21:47 hosts
drwxr-xr-x. 2 backuppc backuppc 4096 2010-02-28 21:47 pc

>> To allow access on URL from a name/IP that is other than the local IP 127.0.0.1, add it to the "allow" line /etc/httpd/conf.d/BackupPC.conf file. Changes are reflected without a service restart.

allow from 127.0.0.1 192.6.14.230

>> Set the following parameters to grant admin access to the above created user, in /etc/BackupPC/config.pl file.

$Conf{CgiAdminUserGroup} = 'backuppc';
$Conf{CgiAdminUsers}     = 'backuppc';

>> Restart the BackupPC Service after this change.
/etc/init.d/backuppc restart

>> To access the front-end using web browser, open Firefox and type in the local access URL with the BackupPC Alias. For me it is http://amar.padhi/BackupPC (note the alias is case sensitive).

> Moving my backup folder to external Linux disk

- Open the BackupPC URL in the browser and navigate to "Edit Config" menu from left side panel. Locate "TopDir" and "LogDir" parameters and modify these to point to the external USB disk folder.

- Next open command prompt and copy the all subfolder and files in /var/lib/BackupPC folder to the external disk location.

[root@amar ~]# cp -rpv /var/lib/BackupPC /media/PersoBKP/

- Note, the external hard disk cannot be on an NTFS or FAT32 File system as these are not supported for backup.

> sudo access for backuppc user

BackupPC Software on my system is prevented from using "root" user, it will use the dedicated backuppc user only. As backuppc user does not have access to read the complete file system, sudo access should be granted to allow this user to copy files. As root issue visudo command and add the following line in sudoers file. My preferred mode of copy on Linux is using "rsync" command.

backuppc ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/rsync

Also comment out the below line in sudoers file (visudo)
#Defaults    requiretty

> Create a node for backup

Fire up the URL (mentioned above) to view the BackupPC administration page. Click on "Edit Hosts" link and add your PC information there.
host = name of the local PC (or IP)
dhcp = click this if you are not having a static IP address on your machine
user = Name of the person who uses this machine, this is just reference data.

Click on the "Save" button to ensure that the data is committed. Once hosts are defined, the drop down list under the "Hosts" Panel entry will show them. Host specific setup can now be done by selecting the host from the drop down list. Select the local host name that was defined and click on "Edit Config" option. The displayed page will show subheadings such as - Xfer, Email, Backup settings and Schedule. Each of these can be modified to suite ones need.

>> Changing the Local PC backup calls
Click on "Xfer" button and change the required settings. I did the below for my local machine backup. Note, I am making use of sudo call to do the backup.

XferMethod = rsync
RsyncClientPath = /usr/bin/rsync
RsyncClientCmd = /usr/bin/sudo $rsyncPath $argList+
RsyncClientRestoreCmd = /usr/bin/sudo $rsyncPath $argList+

> Folders that can be excluded

I exclude the following folders from backup, restoring these can actually create havoc on a running system.

/tmp
/proc
/mnt
/media
/sys

> Access from Command line

Login from root to backuppc user using following option

[root@amar ~]# su -s /bin/bash backuppc
bash-4.0$

Refer BackupPC documentation to identify commands that can be used in shell. For me, I prefer the browser access as it is convenient to manage multiple clients.

> First backup
From the browser, navigate to the host machine link and click on the "Star Full Backup" button. The first full backup may take lot of time if there is lot of data to be copied. The existing default schedule does a full backup every 7 days and an incremental backup every day, this can be changed if need be.

> Referred sites

http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/unix-tutorials/71-install-backuppc-server-in-centosrhelfedora
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/ssh.html

> Next

- Backing up Windows PC data on network.
- Restoration scenarios

Massachusetts Data Privacy/Security Law basic points

2010-05-06T12:48:00.000+04:00

Massachusetts state, USA, has enacted a new data privacy and security law which puts the burden on all database owners and custodians. Mentioned below are some facts that I could make out from their published document. This actually acts as a good input regarding some basic points that should be covered for security hardening.

- Any database or system that owns or licenses personal information about a resident of Massachusetts should be encrypted. Even the transmission of such data should be in encrypted form. This is regardless of what your business line is, if you store personal information you are legally obligated to protect that information. Failure to comply results in heavy fines.

- All laptop and portable devices carrying personal information should be encrypted. Some portable devices do not support industry standard encryption, these should be avoided. Password protecting data when storing it on the laptop and transmitting it wirelessly does not satisfy the encryption requirement ! Data must be altered into unreadable form and password protection only does not alter the condition of the data as required.

- Backup Tapes also have to encrypted.

- For systems holding personal information and connected to Internet, there must be a reasonably up-to-date firewall protection and operating system security patches.

- It is not best practice to send unencrypted personal information in an email. Alternative method should be used, such as establishing a secure website that requires safeguards such as a username/password to conduct transactions involving personal information.

- Onus lies on the business to ensure that enough education and training is provided to employees on the proper use of the computer security system and the importance of personal information security.

- Access to personal information should be authorized and monitored.

References :
www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/idtheft/201CMR1700reg.pdf
http://datalossdb.org/statistics

TimeBox Management

2010-02-10T22:29:00.000+04:00

Time boxing is a project management technique commonly used in software development projects. It is primarily meant for Rapid Application Development (RAD) environments with key focus being the time constraint.

Basically a project follows the Agile software development methodology, where in, the full scope is split into multiple smaller components, each component having its own timelines, budget and milestones. The aim is to achieve the prime objectives by continuously prioritizing and flexing requirements. The project is progressively elaborated as completing individual chunks gives better visibility and decision-making ability.

Though the scope is pre-determined, it is possible that the outcome could differ because of the adaptive approach. The ultimate outcome is the desired result that the users require.

The traditional project management approach involves three prime constraints - Time, Cost and scope (Quality may also be included optionally). This is termed the triple constraint factor of Project management. The scope is pre-determined and fixed at the start of the project. Time and cost are managed to ensure that the required scope is achieved. In case of inevitable circumstances deadlines may slip or project may be crashed or fast tracked to achieve the scope. With time box management, the deadline is what is fixed and the scope is modifiable as activities are accomplished.

The traditional approach would require a Project Manager to ensure that thorough analysis and planning is done to identify all deliverables and plan all activities and schedules to the bone. TimeBox management involves performing a reasonable level of planning and getting on with the actual work, a bit at a time. Things become clearer as each milestone is achieved and analyzed.

I believe most RAD software development have knowingly or unknowingly been using time box technique to keep user satisfied. So if the saying "Scope cannot be frozen" is applicable to your site, TimeBox management is the right tool.

There are TimeBox project management tools available but I haven't used any.

When performing IT Audit at a site, it important that the auditor understand what Project management methodology is being followed. TimeBox approach might give the impression that there is lot of scope creep, but then that would possibly be the reason why this approach is being taken.

Moving my site postings to Blogs

2010-02-05T23:23:00.002+04:00

Hi Folks,
Thank you all for your continued support and feedback though the years. This is to update you that I am moving my website postings to blogs. This will allow me to achieve better control and meet the traffic needs. It will also allow you as readers to post comments on my blogs directly and carry out healthy debates. This also ensures that I am not invading your mail box without your consent (spam?).

To subscribe to one or more of my blogs, please read through this page. I am currently hosting Oracle, Oracle Apps, Linux, CISA and General IT blogs. Please note, you need to subscribe to continue receiving auto-updates. I will not be sending direct emails to individuals.

Below mentioned are the different blogs I write at.

Oracle blog - http://oracle-repo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
This is the oldest blog I have been writing on for almost 10 years now. Deals with postings on Oracle Database administration, programming and Solutions Design.

Oracle Apps blog - http://oracleapps-repo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
I had stopped this in between due to time constraints, decided to get it rolling again. If you work in or want to learn Apps, give this a try.

Linux blog - http://linux-repo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
This is also one of the oldest blogs but I have written very few notes. I intend to gear up this area and provide readers with more postings on my experience with Linux and Open Source software.

CISA blog - http://cisa-repo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
I have started this blog to publish CISA related articles to aid aspirants with their examination studies and keep already certified folks in touch with the base.

General IT blog - http://amar-padhi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
This is a general IT blog where I would be ranting on the extreme things I try out related to Technology, and general news on where IT is going.

What is RSS?
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It basically is an internet service that allows updates on a site to be automatically pushed to all subscribers. The term used for such updates is "Feed". You as a reader decide on which site you want to stay connected with by subscribing to their feed. For instance, if you would like to receive regular news updates, you can choose from the hoards of news sites out there. All latest web publication get delivered to your RSS reader/client automatically.

There are many popular online Feed readers such as Google Reader, Yahoo reader, bloglines etc. Apart from this you can also use your email client as RSS reader. Most popular email clients such as Outlook, Thunderbird and Evolution very well support this feature.

New to RSS? Read further to start using and join millions of web users out there.

How to subscribe?
It is really simple. In order to receive updates from a site, you need two things - an RSS Reader and the site URL.

If you have an online RSS reader, open one or more of the above links in Internet browser and choose "Subscribe to this feed..". Provide your favorite reader.
If you want to receive updates in your mail box, right click on the "RSS Feed" entry in your Folder listing and subscribe. Provide the above URL to switch on the subscription.

How to configure email client?

As mentioned above most email clients come equipped with RSS Feed support. Here is a screenshot of how my Thunderbird Feed looks like. It is simple setup here.

Same can be achieved in Outlook client also. From the Tools Menu, click Account Settings. On the RSS Feed Tab press new and provide the above mentioned links.

Segregation or Separation of Duties (SoD) vital to prevent Fraud

2010-02-04T11:37:00.000+04:00

"In 2007, Japan-based electronics company NEC discovered a US $18 million fraud carried out by 18 people. “The fraudulent transactions involved the trading of intangible assets such as services and construction,” according to a May 31, 2007, CFO.com report. “The company explained that the fraud was not discovered for some time because the system enabled validation of the orders through confirmation by the same employees that made the orders.”
Above excerpt is from Institute of Internal Auditor's site, read more at http://www.theiia.org/intAuditor/itaudit/2009-articles/segregated-duties-in-fashion/ site.

The control required to prevent individuals from having conflicting functions is referred to as segregation of duties (SoD) or Separation of Duties.

CISA mandates that Management takes proper initiative to ensure SoD in all areas of work. This is a very vital Preventive Control to prevent Fraudulent activities and achieve better control on the laid down processes. The Approver should always be an entity not involved in the actual transaction. To that matter, even the IS auditor should be independent of the business (should not have any vested interest or gains, directly or indirectly). Any deviation from SoD should be well documented, communicated and proper compensatory controls built-in.

Installing Oracle Apps 11i on Linux (Part 2)

2010-02-03T23:32:00.000+04:00

Install software
Trigger the rapidwiz installation

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ cd /home/oracle/app/product/Stage11i/startCD/Disk1/rapidwiz

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ ./rapidwiz 

Change the database name from "VIS" to "vis" for lower case context names.

The log file path is displayed in the command prompt from where the rapidinstall was invoked.

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ Database logfile - /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/appsutil/log/VIS_amar/12150705.log
While the process is running keep the running log file in the background to identify errors.

tail -f /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/appsutil/log/VIS_amar/12150705.log

Once the database setup is over. The command window will display the application log file also.
Appltop logfile - /home/oracle/apps/visappl/admin/vis_amar/log/12160832.log

Now tail this to identify application installation related errors.

You may or may not encounter the below errors, but I have documented it here for reference purpose.

ERROR 1
Error encountered during the installation process in front-end :-

RW-50004: Error code received when running external process. Check log file for details. Running Database install driver for VIS instance.

Navigate to the log directory and check the log error. If you had the running log screen, you can see the error shown there. My log had the following error-

Statusstring Executing Command: InstantiateFile -d addbtmpl.drv

Cannot execute configure of environment for database ORACLE_HOME

    RW-50010: Error: - script has returned an error:   1

RW-50004: Error code received when running external process.  Check log file for details.

Running Database Install Driver for VIS instance

Also check the dbInstancecfg.log file in the same folder to find the last script that failed.


[SETUP PHASE]
AutoConfig could not successfully execute the following scripts:
    Directory: /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/appsutil/install/VIS_amar
      afmkinit.sh             INSTE8_SETUP       127

AutoConfig is exiting with status 1

Metalink note 747424.1 has more details on this. Following steps were followed -

1. Edit the <9i RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/bin/adgetlnxver.sh file as below
2. Alter by replacing all occurances of LD_ASSUME_KERNEL with XD_ASSUME_KERNEL
3. Press the retry button in rapidwiz screen

ERROR 2

Cannot create control file for vis

    RW-50010: Error: - script has returned an error:   1
RW-50004: Error code received when running external process. Check log file for details.
Running Database Install Driver for vis instance
Database Availability Check

Navigate to $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/log// folder and open adcrdb_vis.txt. Following error may be present.

SQL> startup nomount;
ORA-27125: unable to create shared memory segment
Linux Error: 1: Operation not permitted

The solution given in metalink for settinv the "vm.disable_cap_mlock=1" in sysctl.conf file does not work for Fedora 12. Do the following instead -

cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
mv oracle oracle.bin
cat >oracle <<"EOF"
#!/bin/bash

export DISABLE_HUGETLBFS=1
exec $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle.bin $@
EOF

chmod +x oracle
E.g :-
[oracle@amar bin]$ mv oracle oracle.bin
[oracle@amar bin]$ ls -lrt oracle*
-rwsr-s--x. 1 oracle oinstall 52987082 2009-12-16 16:27 oracleO
-rwsr-s--x. 1 oracle oinstall 52987082 2009-12-16 16:28 oracle.bin
[oracle@amar bin]$ cat >oracle <<"EOF"
> #!/bin/bash
> export DISABLE_HUGETLBFS=1
> exec $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle.bin $@
> EOF
[oracle@amar bin]$ more oracle
#!/bin/bash
export DISABLE_HUGETLBFS=1
exec $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle.bin $@
[oracle@amar bin]$ chmod +x oracle
[oracle@amar bin]$ ls -lrt oracle*
-rwsr-s--x. 1 oracle oinstall 52987082 2009-12-16 16:27 oracleO
-rwsr-s--x. 1 oracle oinstall 52987082 2009-12-16 16:28 oracle.bin
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 oracle oinstall       75 2009-12-16 20:26 oracle

Optionally, I also navigated down to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs folder and modified the initvis.ora file to reduce the size of following parameter. This is not required though.

pga_aggregate_target=200M

Retry the process again. If it does not work, abort the process and restart the rapidwiz again.
[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ ./rapidwiz -restart
Specify the parameter file that you saved earlier during the first run. The runtime will autoselect all the parameters and continue from where it left.

Error 3
Statusstring Executing Command: InstantiateFile -d addbtmpl.drv

Unable to complete Instance Configuration

    RW-50010: Error: - script has returned an error:   1
RW-50004: Error code received when running external process. Check log file for details.
Running Database Install Driver for vis instance
Navigate to the log directory and identify the latest generated files by timestamp. Open the installdbf.log file to find the last failed script. In my case it pointed to the afdbprf.sh. The log folder also had an error file with the name afdbprf.txt, which had the below error -

ERROR:
ORA-12541: TNS:no listener

Manually start the listener.

[oracle@amar 9.2.0]$ cd /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0
[oracle@amar 9.2.0]$ . ./vis_amar.env
[oracle@amar 9.2.0]$ lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production on 16-DEC-2009 20:40:49

Copyright (c) 1991, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Connecting to (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(PORT=1521))
TNS-12541: TNS:no listener
TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
TNS-00511: No listener
   Linux Error: 111: Connection refused
[oracle@amar 9.2.0]$ lsnrctl start

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production on 16-DEC-2009 20:41:00

Copyright (c) 1991, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Starting /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/bin/tnslsnr: please wait...

TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
System parameter file is /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/admin/vis_amar/listener.ora
Log messages written to /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/log/listener.log
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=amar.jashanmal.ae)(PORT=1521)))

Connecting to (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(PORT=1521))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
Start Date                16-DEC-2009 20:41:00
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 0 min. 0 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  OFF
SNMP                      OFF
Listener Parameter File   /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/admin/vis_amar/listener.ora
Listener Log File         /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/log/listener.log
Listening Endpoints Summary...
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=amar.localdomain.com)(PORT=1521)))
The listener supports no services
The command completed successfully
[oracle@amar 9.2.0]$ lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production on 16-DEC-2009 20:41:12

Copyright (c) 1991, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Connecting to (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(PORT=1521))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
Start Date                16-DEC-2009 20:41:00
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 0 min. 12 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  OFF
SNMP                      OFF
Listener Parameter File   /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/admin/vis_amar/listener.ora
Listener Log File         /home/oracle/apps/visdb/9.2.0/network/log/listener.log
Listening Endpoints Summary...
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=amar.localdomain.com)(PORT=1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "vis" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "vis", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

Click on "retry" button.

ERROR 4
At the end of installation, most of the verification failed -

DBC File Check

   RW-00023: Error: - DBC file was not created:
      File = /home/oracle/apps/visappl/fnd/11.5.0/secure/vis_amar/vis.dbc

HTTP Check

   checking URL = http://amar.localdomain.com:8000
   RW-50015: Error: - Portal is not responding. The service might not have started on the port yet. Please check the service and use the retry button.

JSP Check

   checking URL = http://amar.localdomain.com:8000/OA_HTML/jsp/fnd/fndhelp.jsp?dbc=/home/oracle/apps/visappl/fnd/11.5.0/secure/vis_amar/vis.dbc
   RW-50015: Error: - JSP is not responding. The service might not have started on the port yet. Please check the service and use the retry button.

PHP Check

   checking URL = http://amar.localdomain.com:8000/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htm
   RW-50015: Error: - Login Page is not responding. The service might not have started on the port yet. Please check the service and use the retry button.

The logfile will give the exact files that are failing.

Some script is setting the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL from within APPS. On further digging, it was identified that the environment file /home/oracle/apps/visappl/vis_amar.env is setting this (it is internally calling some other script for this). Modify the file and add the below line at the end of the file to unset the parameter.

# 17-Dec-09 | Amar | unset the kernel par
unset LD_ASSUME_KERNEL

Login to sqlplus (from the database tier) and check data in FND_NODES table

SQL> select node_name,server_address from fnd_nodes;

NODE_NAME             |SERVER_ADDRESS
----------------------|------------------------------
AMAR                  |

Update the server_address, if empty, with the server IP.

SQL> update fnd_nodes set server_address = '192.6.14.230' where node_name = 'AMAR';

Set the midtier environment varialbles and run the adautoconfig.sh file.
[oracle@amar ~]$ . /home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6/vis_amar.env
[oracle@amar ~]$ . /home/oracle/apps/visappl/vis_amar.env
[oracle@amar ~]$ cd $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/vis_amar/
[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adautocfg.sh
Above will fail for adgendbc.sh file continue. Change the variable again. Manually run the adgendbc.sh file to generate the dbc file.
[oracle@amar ~]$ cd /home/oracle/apps/viscomn/admin/install/vis_amar/
[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adgendbc.sh apps apps Yes Yes Yes Yes

Review the generated dbc file to ensure that settings are correct. Now start other services also.

[amar@amar ~]$ su - oracle
Password:
[oracle@amar ~]$ . /home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6/vis_amar.env
[oracle@amar ~]$ . /home/oracle/apps/visappl/vis_amar.env
[oracle@amar ~]$ echo $ORACLE_HOME
/home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6
[oracle@amar ~]$ echo $APPL_TOP
/home/oracle/apps/visappl
[oracle@amar ~]$ echo $LD_ASSUME_KERNEL

[oracle@amar ~]$
[oracle@amar ~]$ cd $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/vis_amar
[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adstpall.sh apps/apps &
[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adstrtal.sh apps/apps &

Check logfile /home/oracle/apps/viscomn/admin/log/vis_amar/12171245.log for details

Exiting with status 2

The process this time started most of the services but 806 Listerner and Discoverer failed. Tail the above provided log file to verify this.

**Service Control Execution Report]**

  Service                                 Script         Status

  Oracle Apache Server vis_amar             adapcctl.sh      Started

  OracleTNSListener80APPS_vis_amar          adalnctl.sh      Failed

  OracleConcMgrvis_amar                     adcmctl.sh       Started

  OracleFormsServer-Forms60vis_amar         adfrmctl.sh      Started

  OracleReportServer-Rep60_vis              adrepctl.sh      Started

  Oracle Metrics Client vis_amar            adfmcctl.sh      Started

  Oracle Metrics Server vis_amar            adfmsctl.sh      Started

  Oracle Fulfillment Server vis_amar        jtffmctl.sh      Started

  Oracle Discoverer services vis_amar       addisctl.sh      Failed

  Oracle Restricted Apache Server vis_amar  adaprstctl.sh    Disabled

  Oracle Apache Server vis_amar for PL/SQL  adapcctl.sh      Disabled

  Oracle TCF SocketServer vis_amar          adtcfctl.sh      Disabled

  Oracle ICSM vis_amar                      ieoicsm.sh       Disabled

  Oracle iProcurement Bulk Loader vis_amar  icxblkctl.sh     Disabled

ServiceControl is exiting with status 2

Edit $AD_TOP/bin/adgetlnxver.sh and comment all LD_ASSUME_KERNEL lines, followed by unset option.

                #LD_ASSUME_KERNEL="2.4.21"

                #export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL

                unset LD_ASSUME_KERNEL

Run autoconfig again to rectify all links.

ERROR 5

Forms runtime is getting invoked with an error (from a windows client maching or Virtual Machine). Screen shows below error -

FRM-92050: Failed to connect to the Server: amar.jashanmal.ae:9000

Details...

Java Exception:

java.io.EOFException

at java.io.DataInputStream.readInt(Unknown Source)

Following error shows up in Apache error log -

"client denied by server configuration: /home/oracle/apps/viscomn/java/oracle/apps/fnd/formsClient/FormsLauncher.class"

Do a telnet to the port showing error (same machine).

[oracle@amar ~]$ telnet amar.localdomain.com 9000

Trying 192.6.14.130...

telnet: connect to address 192.6.14.130: Connection refused

Note 228610.1 applied here. Set the midtier environment variables and do the following -

[oracle@amar visappl]$ cd $FND_TOP/bin

[oracle@amar bin]$ ldd f60webmx | grep -i "not found"

                libXm.so.2.1 => not found

[oracle@amar bin]$ f60webmx 

f60webmx: error while loading shared libraries: libXm.so.2.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This is a motif library issue.

[oracle@amar bin]$ locate libXm.so.2.1

/home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6/lib/stubs/libXm.so.2.1

/home/oracle/apps/visora/iAS/lib/stubs/libXm.so.2.1

Download openmotif from http://www.motifzone.net/filebrowser, copy the rpm to the vislib library folder. Get the latest Fedora version that is 32-bit.

Extract the rpm to the vislib library folder we created earlier.

[root@amar vislib]# rpm2cpio openmotif-2.3.0-1.fc8.i386.rpm | cpio -idmv

Above creates a subfolder under by custom vislib/usr folder (/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/X11R6/lib). Navigate to this folder and create additional symbolic links.

ln -s libXm.so.4.0.0 libXm.so.2.1

Modify the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and test f60webmx again.

[oracle@amar bin]$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/X11R6/lib

[oracle@amar bin]$ f60webmx

No error is displayed now. To make the change permanent, let us change the original environmet files. Edit the following files and modify the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the new library folder.

/home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6/vis_amar.env

- restart the forms services.

[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adfrmctl.sh start &

[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adfmsctl.sh start &

[oracle@amar vis_amar]$ ./adfmcctl.sh start &

ERROR 6

Reports server error. Note 404500.1 applied here.

[oracle@amar bin]$ pwd

/home/oracle/apps/visappl/fnd/11.5.0/bin

[oracle@amar bin]$ ./ar60run

./ar60run: relocation error: /home/oracle/apps/visora/8.0.6/network/jre11/lib/i686/native_threads/libjava.so: symbol __libc_wait, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference

[oracle@amar apps]$ adrelink.sh force=y "fnd ar60run"

..

/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.2/libgcc_s.so: undefined reference to `dl_iterate_phdr@GLIBC_2.2.4'

/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.2/libgcc_s.so: undefined reference to `__stack_chk_fail@GLIBC_2.4'

..

Download and apply patch 3006854 to create the /etc/libcwait.so file.

[root@amar 3006854]# pwd

/home/oracle/apps/vislib/3006854

[root@amar 3006854]# ls -lrt

total 8

-rw-rw-r--. 1 root root 1360 2005-03-18 16:03 README.txt

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1254 2005-03-18 16:11 rhel3_pre_install.sh

[root@amar 3006854]# pwd

/home/oracle/apps/vislib/3006854

[root@amar 3006854]# . ./rhel3_pre_install.sh 

Applying patch...

Ensuring permissions are correctly set...

Done.

Patch successfully applied

Rerunning the adrelink.sh gave the same error as above, but directly calling the ar60run did not produce the error anymore. Copy the backup file (that would have been renamed by adrelink.sh) to its original state.

[oracle@amar bin]$ cp -pv ar60run.sav ar60run

After Note

SeLinux issue

My SeLinux policy trapped al access to the libcwait.so file and the errors where displayed in the console.

SELinux is preventing /usr/libexec/fprintd from executing /etc/libcwait.so.

SELinux has denied the fprintd from executing /etc/libcwait.so. 

SELinux is preventing /lib/dbus-1/dbus-daemon-launch-helper from executing /etc/libcwait.so.

SELinux has denied the dbus-daemon-lau from executing /etc/libcwait.so.

SELinux is preventing /usr/bin/xauth from executing /etc/libcwa.so.

SELinux has denied the xauth from executing /etc/libcwait.so. 

SELinux is preventing /sbin/unix_chkpwd from executing /etc/libcwait.so.

SELinux has denied the unix_chkpwd from executing /etc/libcwait.so.

Rebooting the system prevent me from logging in, probably because selinux was blockign unix_chkpwd from proceeding. I popped in the recovery CD and used chroot to disable selinux. I rebooted and logged in and enabled selinux with above access being enabled.

I checked bugzilla and identified that some bugs are registered that are fixed in latest update of selinux-policy-3.6.32-56.fc12 that is available as of this time. I installed the latest version to verify if it works out.

[root@amar ~]# rpm -qa | grep -i selinux-policy

selinux-policy-3.6.32-41.fc12.noarch

selinux-policy-targeted-3.6.32-41.fc12.noarch

[root@amar ~]# yum install selinux-policy

[root@amar ~]# rpm -qa | grep -i selinux-policy

selinux-policy-3.6.32-56.fc12.noarch

selinux-policy-targeted-3.6.32-41.fc12.noarch

The above update did not entirely resolve the issue. So I decided to keep the SeLinux option disabled till further updates.

Discover Service

Discover service pukes error on startup. I have not done anything to fix this as this service is not used by me or my clients. However, if you need this service, give it some try. If it does not come up, send me a note and I will look it up at my end.

--- End of Note ---

Installing Oracle Apps 11i on Linux (Part 1)

2010-02-03T23:06:00.000+04:00

** The information mentioned here is for generic purpose and specific information may change in due course. I advise learners to install the Vision demo database for practising purpose.

My Setup
I am doing this setup on the following machine configuration. Note some of the configuration are not supported as per Oracle Apps prerequisites. So I need to tweak certain setup to make things work on my machine.

Operating System : Fedora Linux 12 (Kernel 2.6.31)
Machine : Intel Core 2 duo 3GHz, 4GiB RAM, 300GB Hard Disk

DVD information
Oracle Applications 11i DVD set consist of a set of black and red color DVDs. The Red DVDs are the one that is mandatory required for the setup. The Black set is optional and installation depends on your choice and licensing factor. The documentation is on a separate black color DVD.

All DVDs can be divided into the following sets.

- Start Here (1)

- RDBMS (1)

- Tools (1, iAS)

- APPL_TOP (2)

- Databases (4)

Approx. 130GB is required for a Vision demo instance installation. 25GB of space is temporarily required if Staging area is created for installation from hard disk.

Environment Setup
- install xterm if not present already.

[root@amar ~]# yum install xterm
[root@amar ~]# yum install libXp

- Disable firewall (System -> Administration -> Firewall), select Disable to switch it off till the installation is over.

- Check the perl version should be above 5.0053 or higher

[oracle@amar product]$ perl -v
This is perl, v5.10.0 built for i386-linux-thread-multi

- If not existing already, create a user called "oracle" that will own the software and database (single-user installation).

groupadd oinstall
groupadd dba
groupadd oper

useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle
passwd oracle

- xhost setup is not required if gnome/kde desktop is running on the linux machine and you are installing using it. For remote access to graphics environment set the permission using the below command -
xhost +

- add the followiing in .bash_profile file
ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536

- Download gcc-3.2.3 from http://rpm2html.osmirror.nl/white-box-linux/4/en/os/i386/WhiteBox/RPMS/compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3.i386.html

- Download gcc++-3.2.3 from http://rpm2html.osmirror.nl/white-box-linux/4/en/os/i386/WhiteBox/RPMS/compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3.i386.html

- Download libstdc++-3.2.3 from http://rpm2html.osmirror.nl/white-box-linux/4/en/os/i386/WhiteBox/RPMS/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.html

- Download libdb.so.3 from ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.altlinux.ru/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/Master/2.2/Mandrake/RPMS/libdb2-2.4.14-alt2.i586.rpm

- Download glibc-core from ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.altlinux.ru/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/4.0/Server/4.0.0/files/i586/glibc-core-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm

- Download glibc-preinstall from ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.altlinux.ru/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/4.0/Server/4.0.0/i586/ALTLinux/RPMS.base/glibc-preinstall-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm

- Make a copy of original gcc.

[root@amar bin]# cd /usr/bin

[root@amar bin]# ls -lrt *gcc*

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 i686-redhat-linux-gcc

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 gcc

[root@amar bin]# gcc --version

gcc (GCC) 4.4.2 20091027 (Red Hat 4.4.2-7)

[root@amar bin]# cp -pv gcc gcc-4.4.2

`gcc' -> `gcc-4.4.2'

[root@amar bin]# cp -pv g++ g++-4.4.2

`g++' -> `g++-4.4.2'

[root@amar bin]# cd /usr/lib

[root@amar lib]# cp -pv libstdc++.so.6.0.13 libstdc++.so.6.0.13.16DEC09

`libstdc++.so.6.0.13' -> `libstdc++.so.6.0.13.16DEC09'

- Install the new old gcc version

[root@amar Downloads]# rpm -ivh compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm 

[root@amar Downloads]# rpm -ivh compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm 

[root@amar Downloads]# rpm -ivh compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm 

- The old version will now be visible in /usr/bin folder.

[root@amar bin]# ls -lrt *gcc*

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  84760 2005-04-28 07:23 i386-redhat-linux-gcc32

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  84760 2005-04-28 07:23 gcc32

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 i686-redhat-linux-gcc

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 gcc-4.4.2

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 gcc

[root@amar bin]# i386-redhat-linux-gcc32 --version

i386-redhat-linux-gcc32 (GCC) 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-47.3)

- move and point executables now.

[root@amar bin]# cd /usr/bin

[root@amar bin]# mv gcc gcc.16DEC09

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf i386-redhat-linux-gcc gcc

[root@amar bin]# ls -lrt *gcc*

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  84760 2005-04-28 07:23 i386-redhat-linux-gcc32

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  84760 2005-04-28 07:23 gcc32

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 i686-redhat-linux-gcc

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 gcc-4.4.2

-rwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 240296 2009-10-28 00:23 gcc.16DEC09

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root     21 2009-12-16 14:53 gcc -> i386-redhat-linux-gcc

[root@amar bin]# mv g++ g++.16DEC09

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf i386-redhat-linux-g++32 g++

[root@amar bin]# ls -lrt *g++*

-rwxr-xr-x. 3 root root  85016 2005-04-28 07:23 i386-redhat-linux-g++32

-rwxr-xr-x. 3 root root  85016 2005-04-28 07:23 g++32

-rwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 242824 2009-10-28 00:23 i686-redhat-linux-g++

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 242824 2009-10-28 00:23 g++-4.4.2

-rwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 242824 2009-10-28 00:23 g++.16DEC09

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root     23 2009-12-16 14:54 g++ -> i386-redhat-linux-g++32

[root@amar lib]# cd /usr/lib

[root@amar lib]# ls -lrt *libstd*

-r-xr-xr-x. 1 root root  409160 2004-08-03 18:53 libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root    5428 2004-08-03 18:53 libstdc++.so.2.9.dummy

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  375773 2004-08-03 18:53 libstdc++.so.2.8.0

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 1025339 2004-08-03 18:53 libstdc++.so.2.7.2.8

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 1144368 2004-08-03 18:53 libstdc++-2-libc6.1-1-2.9.0.so

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  995096 2009-10-28 00:23 libstdc++.so.6.0.13.16DEC09

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  995096 2009-10-28 00:23 libstdc++.so.6.0.13

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      27 2009-12-16 14:49 libstdc++.so.6 -> libstdc++.so.6.0.13.16DEC09

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      31 2009-12-16 17:54 libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 -> libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      30 2009-12-16 17:54 libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2 -> libstdc++-2-libc6.1-1-2.9.0.so

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      18 2009-12-16 17:54 libstdc++.so.2.8 -> libstdc++.so.2.8.0

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      20 2009-12-16 17:54 libstdc++.so.2.7.2 -> libstdc++.so.2.7.2.8

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      22 2009-12-16 17:54 libstdc++.so.2.9 -> libstdc++.so.2.9.dummy

--libdb.so.3

- make a copy of original library

[root@amar lib]# cp -pv libdb-4.7.so libdb-4.7.so.17DEC09

`libdb-4.7.so' -> `libdb-4.7.so.17DEC09'

[root@amar lib]# cp -pv libdl-2.11.so libdl-2.11.so.17DEC09

`libdl-2.11.so' -> `libdl-2.11.so.17DEC09'

[root@amar lib]#  cp -pv libutil.so.1 libutil.so.1.17DEC09

`libutil.so.1' -> `libutil.so.1.17DEC09'

[root@amar Downloads]# rpm -ivh glibc-preinstall-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm 

[root@amar Downloads]# rpm -ivh glibc-core-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm 

error: Failed dependencies:

    glibc < 6:2.5-alt4 conflicts with glibc-core-6:2.5-alt4.i586 

detail error :-

package glibc-core-6:2.5-alt4.i586 has unsatisfied Conflicts: glibc < 6:2.5-alt4

There is a conflict shown in the above depenency. Since I use the system for many other purposes, I do not want to replace the original binaries. Instead, I will create a separate library for oracle.

[root@amar Downloads]# mkdir glibc

[root@amar Downloads]# cp glibc-core-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm glibc/

[root@amar Downloads]# cd glibc

[root@amar glibc]# ls -lrt

total 1188

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1214737 2009-12-17 09:03 glibc-core-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm

[root@amar glibc]# rpm2cpio glibc-core-2.5-alt4.i586.rpm | cpio -idmv

[root@amar vislib]# rpm2cpio libdb2-2.4.14-alt2.i586.rpm | cpio -idmv

[root@amar vislib]# rpm2cpio compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm | cpio -idmv

[root@amar vislib]# rpm2cpio compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm | cpio -idmv

[root@amar vislib]# rpm2cpio compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm | cpio -idmv

[root@amar vislib]# cd usr/bin

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf i386-redhat-linux-gcc32 gcc

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf i386-redhat-linux-g++32 g++

Create a sub-folder under oracle directory and copy the libraries there. Put this folder in the path for oracle (given below). Register the library path by doing the following step.

/etc/ld.so.conf

[root@amar apps]# ls -lrt

total 28

-rw-r--r--. 1 oracle oinstall 1798 2009-12-16 15:56 config.txt

drwxr-xr-x. 3 oracle oinstall 4096 2009-12-16 15:56 visdb

drwxr-xr-x. 3 oracle oinstall 4096 2009-12-16 15:56 visappl

drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle oinstall 4096 2009-12-16 15:56 visora

drwxr-xr-x. 2 oracle oinstall 4096 2009-12-16 20:33 visdata

drwxr-xr-x. 7 oracle oinstall 4096 2009-12-16 20:43 viscomn

drwxr-xr-x. 5 root   root     4096 2009-12-17 09:07 vislib

[root@amar apps]# chmod -R ugo+rx vislib

[root@amar vislib]# cd ..

[root@amar apps]# cd vislib

[root@amar vislib]# ls -lrt

total 12

drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 4096 2009-12-17 09:03 etc

drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2009-12-17 09:03 lib

drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2009-12-17 09:03 sbin

[root@amar ~]# cd /etc/ld.so.conf.d

[root@amar ld.so.conf.d]# cat > oracle-apps-vislib.conf <<"EOF"

> /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib

> /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib

> EOF

[root@amar ld.so.conf.d]# more oracle-apps-vislib.conf 

/home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib

/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib

[root@amar ld.so.conf.d]# ldconfig -v

Verify if Oracle libraries are registered by checking for libdb.so.3 in the library listing.

[root@amar ld.so.conf.d]# ldconfig -p | grep -i libdb

    libdbus-1.so.3 (libc6) => /lib/libdbus-1.so.3

    libdbus-1.so (libc6) => /lib/libdbus-1.so

    libdbus-glib-1.so.2 (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdbus-glib-1.so.2

    libdbus-glib-1.so (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdbus-glib-1.so

    libdbus-cxx.so.0 (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdbus-cxx.so.0

    libdbus-cxx.so (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdbus-cxx.so

    libdbus-c++-1.so.0 (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdbus-c++-1.so.0

    libdb_cxx-4.7.so (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdb_cxx-4.7.so

    libdb.so.3 (libc6) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdb.so.3

    libdb-4.7.so (libc6) => /lib/libdb-4.7.so

    libdb-4.7.so (libc6) => /usr/lib/libdb-4.7.so

[root@amar ld.so.conf.d]# ldconfig -p | grep -i /home/oracle/apps

    libutil.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libutil.so.1

    libthread_db.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libthread_db.so.1

    libstdc++.so.5 (libc6) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5

    librt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/librt.so.1

    libresolv.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libresolv.so.2

    libpthread.so.0 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libpthread.so.0

    libnss_files.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnss_files.so.2

    libnsl.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnsl.so.1

    libm.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libm.so.6

    libdl.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdl.so.2

    libdb.so.3 (libc6) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdb.so.3

    libcrypt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcrypt.so.1

    libcidn.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcidn.so.1

    libc.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libc.so.6

    libanl.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libanl.so.1

    libBrokenLocale.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libBrokenLocale.so.1

    ld-linux.so.2 (ELF) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/ld-linux.so.2

Please note that ldconfig can maintain kernel-wise multiple links of the same file in different destinations for reference purpose by different applications.
e.g.:-

libthread_db.so.1 (libc6, hwcap: 0x0018000000000000, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/i686/nosegneg/libthread_db.so.1

libthread_db.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libthread_db.so.1

libthread_db.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libthread_db.so.1

librt.so.1 (libc6, hwcap: 0x0018000000000000, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/i686/nosegneg/librt.so.1

librt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/librt.so.1

librt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/librt.so.1

libresolv.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libresolv.so.2

libresolv.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libresolv.so.2

libpthread.so.0 (libc6, hwcap: 0x0018000000000000, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/i686/nosegneg/libpthread.so.0

libpthread.so.0 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libpthread.so.0

libpthread.so.0 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libpthread.so.0

        libnss_files.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libnss_files.so.2

        libnss_files.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnss_files.so.2

        libnsl.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libnsl.so.1

        libnsl.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnsl.so.1

        libm.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libm.so.6

        libm.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libm.so.6

       libdl.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libdl.so.2

        libdl.so.2 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdl.so.2

        libcrypt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libcrypt.so.1

        libcrypt.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcrypt.so.1

        libcidn.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libcidn.so.1

        libcidn.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcidn.so.1

        libc.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libc.so.6

        libc.so.6 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libc.so.6

        libutil.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.18) => /lib/libutil.so.1

        libutil.so.1 (libc6, OS ABI: Linux 2.6.9) => /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libutil.so.1

Change the link in the apps created library to absolute paths. This has to be done for all soft links. I have given a list of what I ran below.

[root@amar lib]# pwd

/home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib

[root@amar lib]# ls -lrt libdb.so.3

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root      11 2009-12-17 09:14 libdb.so.3 -> libdb2.so.3

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdb2.so.3 libdb.so.3

[root@amar lib]# ls -lrt libdb.so.3

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 40 2009-12-17 10:38 libdb.so.3 -> /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdb2.so.3

-- List

[root@amar lib]# cd /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdb2.so.3 libdb.so.3

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/librt-2.5.so librt.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libthread_db-1.0.so libthread_db.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libutil-2.5.so libutil.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libresolv-2.5.so libresolv.so.2

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libpthread-2.5.so libpthread.so.0

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnss_files-2.5.so libnss_files.so.2

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libnsl-2.5.so libnsl.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libm-2.5.so libm.so.6

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcrypt-2.5.so libcrypt.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libdl-2.5.so libdl.so.2

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libcidn-2.5.so libcidn.so.1

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libc-2.5.so libc.so.6

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libanl-2.5.so libanl.so.1 

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/ld-2.5.so ld-linux.so.2 

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib/libBrokenLocale-2.5.so libBrokenLocale.so.1 

[root@amar lib]# cd /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib

[root@amar lib]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5.0.7 libstdc++.so.5

[root@amar bin]# cd /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/bin

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-gcc32 gcc

[root@amar bin]# ln -sf /home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-g++32 g++

-- update database

[root@amar mlocate]# updatedb 

Kernel settings
- edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following line -

kernel.shmall = 4194304

kernel.shmmax = 2147483648

kernel.shmmni = 4096

kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

fs.file-max = 65536

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1025 65500

net.core.rmem_default = 262144

net.core.rmem_max = 4194304

net.core.wmem_default = 262144

net.core.wmem_max = 1048576 

[root@amar etc]# sysctl -p

[root@amar etc]# cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmall

4194304

- Add following lines in /etc/security/limits.conf

*               soft    nproc   2047

*               hard    nproc   16384

*               soft    nofile  1024

*               hard    nofile  65536

- Add following line in /etc/pam.d/login file

session    required     pam_limits.so

PATH Variable
Ensure that the /usr/bin comes before the /usr/lib/ccache folder so that the rapidwiz can pickup the right gcc library.

export PATH=/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/bin:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/sbin:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/etc:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/include/c++/3.2.3:/usr/lib/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/lib/ccache:/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib:/usr/openwin/lib:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/lib:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/lib:/home/oracle/apps/vislib/usr/include/c++/3.2.3

Verify the versions

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ gcc --version

gcc (GCC) 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-47.3)

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ g++ --version

g++ (GCC) 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-47.3)

[oracle@amar rapidwiz]$ which libdb.so.3

~/apps/vislib/lib/libdb.so.3

Creating a Staging Area
Staging area allows you to put all DVD content at a single location so that non-intervening installation can be done.

- Insert "Start Here" cd and run the folder creation script

[oracle@amar product]$ perl /media/11istart/Disk1/rapidwiz/adautostg.pl 

When prompted for mount point location, specify as "/media/cdrom" only, Linux mounts with the DVD Label. A soft link can be created to the DVD.
On the next prompt, install "1. Oracle Applications" only to stage all software compnents. The script will start copying all DVDs and will accordingly prompt for the next DVD.

Once the next DVD is inserted, drop and create a new soft link for the mounted DVD, this is repeated for all DVDs.

[root@amar media]# rm cdrom

[root@amar media]# ln -sf /media/orardb /media/cdrom

- Load all the DVD entities accordingly.

** To be concluded in next part

Google Tasks - Manage To-Do and sync online

2010-01-14T16:56:00.001+04:00

Google Task works across platforms and syncs with mobile or custom clients. The desktop popup can be invoked from the gmail login. Individual or Group level list can be setup. This auto-syncs with Google Calendar. Alerts can be sent in the form of email, pop-up and SMS.

If using Google apps on your mobile, all your device data will be auto-synced to your Google account. This will use configured 3G/Edge, GPRS or wireless network. So there is no need to take explicit backup of your data. In event of a device crash, simple connect to your account and all your data will be downloaded back. This includes calendar, tasks, contacts, emails, notes, docs etc .etc. This feature is readily available on Android phones, but can be configured with some effort on others.

Types of Controls in IT environment

2010-01-08T01:22:00.003+04:00

Per ISACA (www.isaca.org), multiple level of controls can defined and implemented in an Information system environment. Most organizations will have to plan for such controls and put them in place based on what should be achievable. Below is a list of different types of controls that can be implemented -

Preventive : Prevent the problem from occurring.

E.g: Anti-virus, contracts, organization charts, training, SLA/SLO, backups, firewall, encryption, fences, locks, CCTV, guards, access controls, username/password, separate test and production environments etc.

Detective : Identify a problem and raise alert.

E.g.: Auditing, intrusion Detection system, system logs, checksum, biometrics, forensic, digital signatures, alarm system, fingerprints, inventory count, stock take, burglar alarm, system audits, file integrity checker, motion detection, monitoring software etc.

Corrective : Rectify the problem after detection.

E.g.: data patch, data recovery/restoration, BCP, DRP, outsourcing, fire control sprinklers, humidity control, procedures, rollback transactions etc.

Compensating : Used to reduce the impact of an error or omission. These controls are used as alternative to normal controls that cannot be implemented due to some reason. These controls are used whenever there is lack of segregation of duties.

E.g.:- job rotation, reconciliation, supervisor review, transaction log, exception reports, audit trails etc.

Deterrent : Controls that reduce the likelihood of a deliberate act to cause a loss or an error. These are aimed at reducing security violations and warn in advance of danger that could occur.

E.g.: warning signs, barriers

Directive : These are the equivalent of administrative controls and direct that proper action be taken to protect sensitive organization information.

E.g.:- Policies, procedures, guidelines etc.

Is it Internet or internet?

2010-01-08T01:09:00.002+04:00

An internet refers to any network composed of inter-networked networks (networks of networks).

An Internet (with a capital I) is a proper noun and represents one global network.

So there are lot of “internets” but only one “Internet”.

E.g.:-

What are "Trojan Horse" programs?

(a) A common form of internet attack

(b) A common form of Internet attack

Option (b) is correct above.

References :

CISA questions

Etiquette for effective e-mail communication

2010-01-07T00:48:00.012+04:00

As per PMP, 80% of project Managers work will deal with handling communication management. Note, this is import for the success of the project. Effective communication is also important for individuals to survive and grow in both work place as well as personal life. Email has become the de-facto standard in managing communication in corporates. I have compiled below some standards laid down by successful organizations for optimal email communication. Remember, none of us was born with effective communication abilities, we have to do our bit to improve on this.

- Subject is important
Subject is important to convey the topic and purpose of the communication. Make sure you put an appropriate subject that expresses the content of the email.
examples:-
Bad : "Resolve this!" , more appropriate is "[GL Module] invoice posting gives error".
Bad: "Status", more appropriate is "[Cargo Project] implementation Status 12-Jul-08".

- Addressing Reader
The most common word to open an email is "Hi" or "Dear". For instance,
"Hi Hary" is preferred for most business communication.
"Dear Mr. Hary" can be used if the reader is being prefixed with a title before name.
"Dear Hary" is considered to be an intimate call and suggestion is to avoid it in business communications.

- Be concise
Keep it short and simple. A long email could encourage the user to skip some sections. At the same time, when sending informative or knowledge base emails, ensure that you elaborate on points that can be referred back in future. For instance this email couldn't have been any shorter.

- Do not write in CAPITAL
writing in CAPITAL resembles shouting in cyberworld, avoid it. For emphasis, try surrounding your text with *asterisks*. Note, when sending emails across different email clients, the formatting (italics, bold, font choice, color) may get lost, but the text data travels. So try to achieve what you want to express in text letters.

- Correct choice of words define the tone of the email
Please note the way you write your email speaks a lot about your attitude and personality to the reader. Your choice of words will send out either positive or negative vibes to the reader and can make a difference in how he/she reacts. Try to stick to emails that have a soft voice and at the same time make a point. For instance, "What is the status?" could be harsh and annoying for some readers (this depends a lot on how the sender and receiver are as office colleagues). Instead, "May I know the status of this one please" or "Please do advise me on where we are now" encourages the reader to act and respond on the subject matter. Read through your email before you hit the Send button.

Understand the importance of using "Please" and "Thank you". By being soft, you are not begging the reader, you are expressing the fact that you respect and appreciate.

- Keep your Colleagues/Manager/Stakeholders posted
It is important to keep your colleagues, managers and stakeholders aware of concerned activities. For instance, while you are working on an activity/project, you can send out weekly or periodic email to all concerned people regarding the current status. Such emails make the stakeholders aware of what is happening, what to expect and how to take decisions. Try to keep an open channel between you and your work place colleagues/managers.

(Some of us may have ego problem in giving status to others, here is a thought for them. In today's corporate world, no one is master or slave. We are all individual service providers. The people we deal with are availing our services and are paying us for the same. It is our job to present our services and assist others to make optimal use of these. )

- Timely communication is important to defuse pressure and tension
Do not put received emails on hold. If somebody requires information from you, be professional enough to respond in a timely fashion. This only speaks good about your time management and avoids confrontation and escalations. If you cannot respond to an urgent email, get back to the sender stating your situation and provide a date/time when you can get back.

Don't just say - "Man you are not in my shoes, I have lot of emails and I don't have time now". You are responsible for your mail box, so take control of it by making appropriate changes in your approach (or in your job!)

- Avoid that urge to slash back on stinker emails
Some situations demand rude language. Is it so? Not necessary, do not get negatively emotional in dealing with tight situations. Just do what is right. You can be affirmative about your point and at the same time soft on the language you use. If you get one of those stinker emails that makes you boil, do not respond immediately. Take some time to cool off and then respond in a professional way. Just because the sender does not have manners does not mean that you give up yours. Besides, make use of appropriate escalation channels to divert such calls rather than fuming over it. Be Professional, this will save you lot of headaches and heartaches.

- Do not attach unnecessary/huge files
Within the same organization, make use of commonly accessible public/Team drives or portals to share files, just send the link in the email. This saves lot of headache for the reader to manage files in the limited mail box space. This also avoids headache for the administrator to continuously monitor for network pipe clogs. For external emails, learn how to compress attachments to save space and network usage.

- Do not request Delivery and read receipts.
This is not a fool proof mechanism and besides it gives you an image of being a control freak. Give the option to the user to respond back. In case of urgency, inform the reader that you would like to know if you have received the email.

- Responsible disclosure
Certain emails are confidential and meant to share information between two people or parties. Understand the importance of being responsible for such emails that land up in your box. Do not try to show off by forwarding or showing such emails to colleagues or people around you, it just sends out a bad opinion about you. Also understand, what data you can send outside the office circle. Be Responsible.

- Put your signature on replies
all email clients provide option to create your own signature. Make use of this to communicate your professional outlook. For instance, a signature could include Your full name, designation, contact information, website, your qualification, important certification tags etc.

- Choice of Font and color
The conventional method was to use system fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, Times etc. Off late, lot of fonts are supported by email clients and unsupported fonts get converted to system fonts when email is received. Suggestion is to use a close to formal font in business emails and avoid comic or image designed fonts.

Individuals/Companies wanting to use this note for sharing may do so. I personally pass on this note to most of my sites with the hope that individuals wanting to can educate themselves.

Best open-source ERP softwares and technology stack

2010-01-07T00:20:00.000+04:00

With open source ERP systems getting attention in the market, it will be tough time for commercial ERP systems. The open source ERPs are built on independent and Free platforms (Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Apache etc.) and complete suite is available for customization. There are commercial vendors cropping up who are providing support for most of these systems at a nominal cost. At present the best source of reference is the Open source community.

Cost-wise, most of the takes are that the TCO will come down by almost 80%. The annual recurring cost also becomes an insignificant entity as these systems are well backed by open source community. Even you as an individual can download and learn the system and start supporting it remotely or on-site. Those under GPL can be customized and sold under a commercial banner also.

- Apart from Open Source Databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) some of these systems also support Oracle as back-end.

- On Language front- Java, PHP and Python are the preferred choice.

- Web-based systems use Apache as the preferred choice.

- Quite a few Open Source Business Intelligence tools are also gaining ground (JasperSoft, OpenI, RapidMiner etc.)

Some ERP Systems from the list -

openbravo (Java)

xTuple

OpenERP (Python, PostgreSQL/GPL)

Apache OFBiz (Apache, Java/Apache License 2.0)

JFire (Java/LGPL)

ERP5 (Python/GPL)

opentaps (Java)

Compiere (Java/GPL)

ADempiere (Java, GPL, fork of Compiere)

BlueERP (PHP)

Dolibarr (PHP)

Fedena (Ruby/Ruby license)

GNU Enterprise (PHP, Phython)

WebERP (LAMP)

References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ERP_software_packages

http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/10-best-open-source-erp-software/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence_tools