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RHEL – Xen vs. KVM
Let me just say I’m a big VMware fan. And since they started giving out ESXi for free, I try to pass on the love as much as possible.
However, sticking to open source values is very important to me for many reasons, and I recently discovered Xen is going away in RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I kinda figured it would die out as soon as Citrix bought up Xen.
So I dug around after a few emails with another virt guy.
Red Hat’s official statement:
http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2008/virtualization.html
I guess if you’re sticking with RHEL’s way of doing things, you had better give up on Xen and start working with KVM / Ovirt etc.
It seems Xen will continue to be supported through the 5.x series, as they have lots of customers using it. (hmmm…)
So I guess there will be a tool or some article for transitioning later on.
Ovirt – http://ovirt.org/
KVM – http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/Front_Page
FreeIPA – http://www.freeipa.org
However, this is all in a beta area for now.
My thoughts would be to simply go with VMware Server or ESXi server for production and then start testing the KVM solutions for future configurations. That’s just my two cents.
HTH
Backing Up Tons of Email
I have about a dozen email accounts I try to manage locally with Thunderbird. By and large, things run pretty smoothly until I need to move it all, as I did recently when upgrading from XP to Vista.
I have been a big fan of MozBackup in the past, but as my email accounts grew and I had more and more email stored in folders, MozBackup started taking a long time to process it all. After my move to Vista, I realized I had over 2GB of mail backed up, and restoring it from Mozbackup didn’t work. It recreated all my accounts and folders, but all the folders were empty.
After the initial panic faded, I found some forum threads discussing the manual opening of MozBackup archives and restoration of email. I finally got it all back, but it wasn’t without more than a few sweat bullets hitting the keyboard.
Since this episode, I have been looking for something to put my mind at ease in regards to email storage, backup, and even reduction. I don’t know why I had never heard of it, but I stumbled across MailStore, which offers a free home version called, get this, MailStore Home.
MailStore Home will back up and archive email from many different clients, including Outlook, Thunderbird, Exchange, GMail, Yahoo mail, and others. At first I thought it was too good to be true, but after installing it I was quickly impressed with the simplicity and ease of use.
I had soon archived my two biggest email accounts, and even burned them to DVD through the MailStore application itself. Knowing DVD’s aren’t indestructible, I also backed up the archive using Carbonite (another of my favorite apps).
Going back into a MailStore archive is very easy, and it lets you read email, open, and even search mail and contents of attachments.
Once I was convinced that I had succesfully archived and backed up all my email, I was able to go through my Inboxes and delete over 1GB of email. Hopefully, this will allow MozBackup to run more smoothly, if I ever really need it again in the first place.
If you find yourself with an unweildy inbox and a nagging feeling that you haven’t done anything to back it up, go grab MailStore Home now.
mailStore Home: http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx
OpenJDK6 – Java 1.6.x on CentOS 5.x
Just a quick tip that might help out the folks needing something better than gcj and still using an open version of Java.
On CentOS 5.2 :
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-2.noarch.rpm
yum install -y java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel java-1.6.0-openjdk
😉
Hope that makes someone’s life easier!
I’m Back!
As you may have noticed, I ditched my blog here at www.www.willchatham.com back in October in favor of trying out Tumblr. I ended up enjoying the Tumblr service, and I will probably still use it occasionally.
However, WordPress 2.7 came out, and after trying it on some of my other blog sites, I soon realized I really wanted THIS site to have it again.
So, here I am, with a brand new theme to boot!
I have a few things I plan on doing to spruce this place up, including a brand new message board. That’s right–it’s the return of the Gangsta Haiku Repository!
Stay tuned…
Google Notebook Is Being Ditched
Move Your Web Clippings Out of Google Notebook. Now. The free service has already stopped allowing new registrations, and will no longer be updated.
I can’t express the grief I have over this, as I have been a hardcore Notebook user since I discovered it about 9 months ago.
In case you haven’t heard of it, Google Notebook is a tool which allows you to save clippings, notes, and bookmarks which you run across while cruising around the information highway. It’s easy to save parts of web pages using the Notebook plugin for Firefox, and you can add bookmarks, pictures, and notes, and to boot.
There are alternative services offered, the most popular of which seems to be Evernote, but being forced to switch services is just not cool, not matter how good they might be.
I have had an Evernote account for quite a while, but I never used it because I preferred Google Notebook’s ease of use and simplicity. The worst part is that in order to import half of what I have saved in Google Notebook, I will have to purchase Evernote’s premium service and do it all by hand.
So, check back soon for an Evernote review!
Microsoft to lay off 17% of its staff in January.
Fudzilla reports that Microsoft is about to lay out 17% of its staff. Apparently, most of the cuts will likely be in overseas areas, as well as in the MSN division of the corporate giant.
Will other major vendors follow suit?
Sim City for iPhone Cheats
With the recent release of Sim City for the iPhone and iPod Touch, there has been a scurry to hunt for working cheat codes. Anyone who has played any of the original Sim City series knows that at least half the fun of the game is in the building of the city, and many times it’s nice not to have to worry about the budget management side of the game. Thus, cheat codes became desirable.
In the Sim City for the iPod game, which you should definitely purchase if you haven’t yet, cheat codes are equally important.
To enter cheat codes, you simply shake your device to trigger a box that will show up for entering the code.
So far, there are only two known working codes, and they are case sensitive:
- i am weak – makes it free to build anything.
- pay tribute to your king – bestows all gifts (city hall, statue, spaceport, science research centers, etc).
So far, those are the only known working cheat codes, even though other folks have tried all of the codes from previous version of the game. If you know of any more, post them in the comments, and I’ll update this post once they are verified to work.
Practical Security: Web Browser Vulnerabilities
Secunia, a computing security clearinghouse, has issued a warning regarding a new, zero day vulnerability in the Internet Explorer web browser. This includes Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 6, and Internet Explorer 7 on fully patched Windows XP systems.
Attackers can craft web pages in such a way to use this vulnerability to issue commands on your computer. There are active exploits currently being used on the Internet to do this.
Your safest immediate course of action is to not use Internet Explorer until a patch is issued by Microsoft. Instead, use Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. Unless you are using version 9.3 of Opera, you should quit using it as well.
On another note, there was an article in the news recently which named Firefox as the most insecure application of 2008. The article is highly biased, however, and the criteria for defining insecure applications ruled out the inclusion of Internet Explorer. Still, it’s worth a read to help raise awareness about the vulnerabilities of computing on the Internet these days.
Whatever browser you use, you should know that exploits are found in all of them. As exploits are discovered, they are usually patched as soon as possible, and it’s well worth checking for and installing the latest versions often. Until patches are released, however, it’s a good plan to switch browsers.
Apple Attacks On The Rise?
We here at Geekamongus are by no means partial to one operating system over another. We love Macs, we love Linux, we love Solaris, and we love those other guys. Seriously, in no way do we ever intend on taking sides, and articles such as this one are not to be mistaken as an attack upon a particular vendor, nor should they be misconstrued as a statement proclaiming that we prefer other platforms.
That said, some news items of late have raised a few eyebrows upon the foreheads of the security-minded regarding Apple and their operating system, OS X. For example, there seems to be a new variant of an OS X trojan out there, according to the folks at macnn.com.
Judging by the responses from the opinionated users at the bottom of that article, the Mac fan base may be smart enough to avoid such malicious software. Cynicism aside, it is clear there is an entirely untapped user base upon which Phishing attacks may be starting to prey. One must consider the fact that people who have used Macs their whole lives may not be as familiar with such vulnerabilities, where web sites attempt to trick you into downloading a plugin with ulterior motives in mind, and that they could be more easily fooled into taking the bait. Heck, it would seem the folks at Apple could use some tutelage about Microsoft viruses too.
Seeing as Apple still considers themselves to be rather impervious to viruses, trojans, worms, and their ilk, I don’t forsee this getting better any time soon, even though they did briefly post a note about using antivirus software on their website. One thing Microsoft users have going for them is that they are by-and-large more aware of common Internet vulnerabilities because they run into them more often, and they must take steps to avoid them. Some may even have received training in the workplace or from a geeky neice or nephew.
Granted, OS X is based upon a relatively secure Unix kernel and the Apple marketshare is much smaller than that of Microsoft. That can certainly help when talking about the prevention of spreading traditional viruses, trojans, and worms. However, when a user is unaware and clicks “OK” to download and install seemingly legitimate plugin, all bets are off. And who know what evil is brewing in the basements of evildoing jerkfaces to target OS X itself in ways which Windows users are unfamiliar with.