This is just a quick tip I’m putting up in replicating existing packages between Ubuntu installs. I tend to keep forgetting how to do it every time I do a total reinstall of my Ubuntu box. The following simple commands will list down all installed packages and export it to a file, copy to a USB thumbdrive, and import later after doing a reinstall/upgrade. In other words, the following steps will automate your package reinstall that will mimic your old Ubuntu install.

hw@myubuntu:~$ dpkg --get-selections > pkginstalled

The above snippet uses the dpkg command with the --get-selections parameter to read the installed packages and dumps them to a plaintext file. You can then proceed and copy pkginstalled to an USB thumbdrive for later, and proceed with the reinstall or system wipeout/upgrade.

After your new system has been reinstalled, instead of manually installing all the applications that you had previously, just do the following commands to automate the process.

hw@newbox:~$ dpkg --set-selections < /media/disk/pkginstalled
hw@newbox:~$ apt-get dselect-upgrade

The above snippet imports the list of packages from the file pkginstalled from /media/disk (USB thumbdrive) or replace it with the path where you copied you package list file. The next command does the actual package installation based on the list of packages imported.

NOTE: If you were using non-official repositories, please add the necessary third-party repo prior to doing the steps mentioned above.

Enjoy!

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It’s not always that I post an entry that is somewhat too far away from what this blog is all about. However, I just had to put this on in here. I just finished watching the final night of ABS-CBN’s Pinoy Big Brother along with the family and guess what? For me, it is the best season of Pinoy Big Brother ever. Yes, despite being a geek and a nerd, I too have a life, and I do watch PBB from time to time when taking breaks from the geek stuff.

What sets this season apart is that one participant came from Mindanao, most importantly from Davao. Although I grew up, lived, got married and had a kid in Cagayan de Oro, I was born a Davaoeño, and still have the heart of a Davaoeño. (Both my parents are University of Mindanao alumnis.) I was rooting for a fellow Davaoeño Ruben Gonzaga to become PBB’s big winner. And win he did! Nope, we do not know him personally. However, there’s just the feeling that somehow, the whole of Mindanao won along with him.

During the start of the season, it seemed as though the odds are against him. Typical “promdi” - colloquialism for “from the province”. His personality was way different from those of the other participants who either were big actors and actresses or ready-made, established, half-bred models.

Ruben’s biggest “bomb” that he showed to televiewers I think came during the Christmas season when each housemate was asked for the gifts that they would like to have for Christmas. Almost everyone asked for something material and mundane like that cool LCD TV, a laptop, an organ, and other thingamajig. Ruben asked that he be able to see his mom, his aunt, and his grandma. PBB reunited them all on the show. Yeah, it added viewership and drama to the show however for Ruben, reuniting his family is all that mattered. Added drama also was when he proposed to his fiancee, and when the show organized his wedding on public television.

I’m pretty sure the forums at the PBB site will be swarmed with tonight’s results. I’m also pretty sure that Davao will be preparing for a big welcome for their triumphant son. I on the otherhand will be looking from afar, clapping my hands and nodding my head for a job well done for Ruben who showed them that being a “promdi” is not such a bad thing and that the heart of a Mindanaoan transcends boundaries regardless of where you are, who you’re with, or where you’ve been.

Congratulations Ruben for a job well done! Enjoy your newfound leash on life!

And now back to your regular geeky programming…

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In a landmark move, IBM yesterday announced that it is joining with the OpenOffice.org community in the continued development of OpenOffice.org software. In a press release made through the OpenOffice.org website, Mike Rhodin, IBM’s Lotus Division General Manager expressed that “IBM is very pleased to be joining the OpenOffice.org community. We are very optimistic that IBM’s contribution of technology and engineering resources will provide tangible benefits to the community membership and to users of OpenOffice.org technology around the world. We’re particularly pleased to be teaming with the community to accelerate the rate of innovation in the office productivity marketplace. We believe that this relationship will improve our ability to deliver innovative value to users of IBM products and services. We also believe that the collaboration will lead to an even broader range of ODF-supporting applications (ISO 26300) and solutions that draw from the OpenOffice.org technology.”

John McCreesh, OpenOffice.org’s Marketing Project Lead welcomed the announcement by saying “We welcome IBM’s contributions to further enhancing the OpenOffice.org product. But equally important is IBM’s future commitment to package and distribute new works that leverage OpenOffice.org technology supporting the ISO ODF standard. ODF is a once in a generation opportunity for the IT industry to unify round a standard, and deliver lasting benefit to users of desktop technology.â€�

Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems, one of the staunch supporter of OpenOffice.org, welcomed IBM’s move with open arms. “In the seven years since Sun founded the project, OpenOffice.org has fueled and filled the need for document data and productivity tools that are open and free. Open source software and ODF are having a profound impact around the world, with numerous communities and organizations coming together to support these initiatives and governments, and corporations and schools standardizing on the software. We look forward to working with IBM and the other members of OpenOffice.org to ensure that this momentum continues. We invite others to join us in the community and participate in building the future as OpenOffice.org and ODF continue to gain popularity across the planet,” said Rich Green, Executive Vice President for Software at Sun Microsystems.

The OpenOffice.org project was stemmed from Sun Microsystem’s own StarOffice that offered document compatibility with Microsoft’s own proprietary Office document formats. OpenOffice.org, along with the Organization of the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), developed and promoted the use of the OpenDocument specification (ODF) which allows documents to be openly supported by any application free of proprietary restrictions. IBM for its part was said to have borrowed code from the OpenOffice.org software and integrated the code into their Workplace suite of products back in 2005. This move will in turn even things out with IBM returning the gesture and sharing code with the OpenOffice.org community. This will shift things in favor for OpenOffice.org, further cementing its viability as an office productivity suite that is worthy of attention.

The recent move by IBM also caught the attention as welcome news to Red Hat, Beijing’s RedFlag Chinese 2000 Software, and Ubuntu.

It can also be noted that Microsoft in its part is busy in lobbying its own “open” document format in the form of the OOXML specification for standardization which is currently under review at ISO.

OpenOffice.org Press Release

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Recently, I was asked by the Administrator of a client company to assist them in migrating their MySQL database running on top of Windows to MySQL running on top of Linux. The solution is not so obvious but rather straight forward.

As such that currently I am in a kind of hurry, I will cut to the chase and plunge straight down to the tip.

Back up to a file
To backup a MySQL database to an external file, you will need to use the mysqldump command on the terminal. You can commonly find this in /mysql_install_directory/bin . To do the backup, just execute the command:

linux_box:/usr/local/mysql/bin # mysqldump --user USER --password=PASSWORD DATABASE > DATABASE_FILE.sql

USER - the username of the MySQL or database admin
PASSWORD - the user password
DATABASE - the name of the database to back up
DATABASE_FILE.sql - the output file

Restore a database
The resulting backup file contains SQL statements that will recreate the database or contents of the database to a target database. Restoring/importing the database from the output SQL file is achieved by using:

linux_box:/usr/local/mysql/bin # mysql -u USER -pPASSWORD DATABASE < DATABASE_FILE.sql

This will execute the SQL statements in the SQL file in turn recreating the database.

For more details on the mysqldump command, visit the MySQL website.

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Do you happen to experience the following scenario?

1. A relative comes over from some home town of which you obviously are not familiar about. This relative is only known to either your father or your mother and the last time they’ve seen that relative was on their wedding day.

2. This relative did not bring any personal hygiene implements (toothbrush and stuff..) and expects to borrow something from you or from your siblings.

3. This relative is so eager about anything that he/she sees on TV. With the relative around, he/she would end up hogging the TV because he/she is watching his/her favorite show and you cannot switch to your favorite channel to watch your favorite show because your parents are giving you the “eye contact” that somehow tell you not to do anything lest you disappoint the visitor.

4. This relative would, early in the morning, use the bathroom ahead of you, use your soap and bathe for almost an hour while you have to wait till he/she finishes and looking at the clock, you estimate that by the time you finish bathing and having breakfast, you’ll be late.

5. After the relative has taken a bath and you get your turn, you discover that the relative used the toilet and did not bother to flush it. The relative also left an almost flooded bathroom floor because he/she plugged the floor drain. You also discover his/her personal undies and clothing scattered all over the bathroom and your extra towel that you normally use for drying your hair was used by the relative to wipe his feet before getting out of the bathroom.

6. The relative loves to sit beside you at the dinner table and would talk about all sorts of things while his mouth is full and will beat you at snatching that last piece of hotdog or fried fish with a fork.

7. You had to share your room with the relative because your guest room was not cleaned and is full of stuff stashed away and you have to endure an entire night of sleeplessness because the relative snores like an Semi trailer truck.

How I will deal with this difficult relative

1. I will welcome the relative. Though I do not know that relative, I will welcome him still and try my best to start a conversation.

2. I will let him borrow clothing only. And I will only let him use my clothes that I rarely use and are also comfortable. I will definitely not let him borrow my toothbrush, deodorant, hair brush, or anything _deeply_ personal.

3. If I want to switch to another channel while the relative is eagerly watching his favorite show, I will perform a distraction technique. While the show is on, I will engage in a conversation with him about the show he is watching. And since I am not an avid viewer of the show, I will ask him to tell me the background story. That will engage him into story-telling mode and he will not be able to concentrate on his watching. Then when the TV is on commercial/advertisement, I will ask him to transfer to my favorite channel _just to check_ what show is on. As soon as the switch is made and my favorite show is already on, I will engage in a story-telling mode about MY favorite show. I will then talk about some of the characters in the show and explain what is happening, building his interest. This will make the relative curious and will follow the show through along with me.

4. I will talk about my daily routines and schedule. And I will also talk about my current work and responsibilities just to give the relative an idea of what I do everyday. I will also talk about my boss and what I am subjected to while at work. I will then steer the conversation so that I can give the relative the idea that I will need to go first in using the bathroom in the morning.

5. Before I retire for the day, I will make sure that I have given the relative a tour of the house. And most importantly, I will show him our spiffy bathroom and talk to him about the features and so on. I will also show him how the washing machine works and where we will be putting our laundry. I will also tell him of the extra basket we use for our laundry and he can use it for his own. That will give him the impression that he has to use the laundry basket too. I will also inform him that the towels that we have in the bathroom are all body towels and not foot towels. I will also show him the bathroom drain giving him a trivia about how it works and why it is there and how we clean it up.

6. I will get hotdogs or fried fish first then urge him to get his share of hotdogs and fish. At least I already got all my share. I will then also tell a story about a friend (fictitious) who was eating at a school cafeteria and was talking to friends when she choked and had to be taken to the hospital. That will take care of him talking while the mouth is full.

7. I will inform the relative that I will be needing a longer sleep time because I will be very early for work the next day. I will also talk about some friends (fictitious) who were having some problems with snoring. I will then ask the relative if he has the same snoring problem then share with him the snoring solutions that my friends told me. This will make the relative to be considerate and will offer to sleep on the couch in the living room to let me sleep in relative peace and quiet.

To summarize…

It is never a good idea to snub a relative or somebody who’s visiting your house. In whatever you do, even if you dislike that relative, it is still a big mistake to be doing a hostile confrontation simply because he’s doing what you think are stupid things. Who knows, perhaps thats how they do things in their town. Instead of having a confrontation, it is best to approach the relative in a calm, polite and respectful manner. It will also be better if you impose what you want to the the relative through fictional stories and some thought-provoking stories then hope that the relative gets the idea.

I know how hard it is to deal with difficult relatives. However, chances are they are just accustomed to it at home and that’s how they do things. Regardless of how despicable a relative is, they still deserve respect and approach them about anything in a respectable manner.

Respect is easily given to someone who knows how to.

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Gmail has been widely used nowadays and for most of us, it seems indispensable. However, for others who would prefer to use a traditional mail client over a web-based mail client the following steps might be helpful.

As always the case, I am using Linux for my daily work routines. And I have the option of using either Mozilla Thunderbird or Evolution as my mail client. Whichever client I use, I am still assured I will get my mail in time.

If you are on Gmail, I’m pretty sure you would want to export your Contacts list over to your mail client. Here are the details how to do it.

- Click on Gmail’s “Contacts” link at the left.
- Click on “All Contacts”
- Scroll down the page, then click on “Select: All”
- Scroll up, then on the top most right corner of the Gmail page, there’s Import and Export. Click on Export.
- In the dialog box, you will get to choose either export as Gmail CSV or Outlook CSV.

To import the saved Outlook CSV contacts file:

- open up Evolution
- click on File, Import
- choose “Import a Single File”
- click on “Browse” and select the CSV file exported from Gmail.
- continue with the process then click Finish.

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This would appear to be a continuation of my previous posts that featured the iPhone. And it seems my prediction for a date of release overshot by a couple of months.

“Definitely, this means that we cannot as of yet buy one. The device may be release sometime October or later in the year.”
- http://baudizm.blogsome.com/2007/01/11/apples-nuke-iphone-3/

Instead of my prediction of October, Apple Inc. will release the iPhone on June 29 this year. And no, I am definitely not going to save up money for it (contrary to my previous post).

Primary reason why I will not go for the iPhone now is because 1.) there is no mobile provider in the Philippines that support the iPhone (yet); and 2.) it’s just so darn expensive. My hard-earned cash is better off for another more important expense than engaging in luxury which is beyond my means and lifestyle. Though I’m sure the iPhone will definitely turn heads towards the user once it penetrates the Philippine mobile market, if at all.

Apple’s iPhone release ads:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad1/
http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad2/
http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad3/

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A few days after Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, spearheaded the iPhone introduction at MacWorld, enterprise computing analysts are calling the iPhone to make no significant impact in the enterprise.

It comes to no surprise for me after reading InternetNews.com’s article regarding analysts “clamor” to hold the iPhone from being used in the business sector. Avi Greengart, analyst for Current Analysis is quoted as saying:

"As beautiful as the iPhone design is, physical design isn't what handset vendors are lacking,.."

"...there will be some reevaluation of the usefulness [of the iPhone] in the market,..."

"[the iPhone] will have very little impact on the business community,..."

"A lot of the innovation we see on the iPhone we've seen first on the Treo,"

"[The iPhone introduction] makes the incredibly crowded smartphone market even more crowded, ..."


Greengart’s assessment of the iPhone introduction is probably based on long-time experience in observing the mobile and smartphone markets. He’s right, to a point, that current phone offerings does not necessarily lack design oomph, and that some of the features included in the iPhone were indeed seen first with the Treo or other earlier released mobile phone.

The thing is, Apple is not necessarily claiming to have first developed some of the technologies in iPhone. Nor was Apple claiming to be the first to use these technologies. What Apple did was improve — again, the word is improve — on the currently available technology and adapted it for their target market. I for one find the Multi-Touch screen to be an even better option than using minute keys on an otherwise pitifully arranged keypad, or even using the stylus commonly used by current PDA models and smartphone. To me, the overall design improvement that Apple introduced to the otherwise docile touchscreen is a welcome sight.

The Apple iPhone. http://www.apple.com/iphone.
Image courtesy of Internetnews.com.

Missing features, security, and other qualms
Some things pointed out by Greengart and other analysts interviewed by InternetNews.com were that the iPhone did not include 3G making it unable to download content directly from its iTunes site, mobile TV capabilities, and cannot import applications (perhaps he means applications from other mobile phones). Another issue that enterprise analysts are pointing out is that the iPhone does not include secure corporate email and corporate-level controls.

Certainly, to the technically uninitiated, these sound like valid issues.

What Avi Greengart and other enterprise analysts has yet to realize is that the iPhone is still largely an “infant” product joining an overgrown, haphazardly organized, and tumultous mobile market. Knowing about Apple, the iPhone is in my own opinion only halfway complete. The currently unveiled product is pretty much targeted at the bottom level mobile user base, the ones that use their phone for virtually anything and everything without hindrance, and with simplified usability in mind. All the user could care for is that it is slick, it is cool, usable, and it works. The iPhone was made to be as usable to the very novice as well as the most technically savvy user, treating the user to as much eye candy as the user can handle. Clearly, the iPhone was designed with much emphasis being put on how the users will use their phones.

Apple always want to make their products to be set as far apart from other products as possible. 3G is pretty much standard in mobile phones today and I’m sure Steve Jobs doesn’t want his new pet project to be “just like the rest”. He wants it to be “better at best”. Ditching 3G perhaps is one indication that the iPhone is not your run-off-the-mill phone. But that doesn’t mean that without 3G the iPhone is trash. iPhone leverages pretty much on WiFi and Bluetooth — two technologies that Apple also widely used and popularized, perhaps even pioneered and helped to be introduced to the mainstream market. Since the iPhone is still largely under evaluation from the FCC for authorization, that will certainly not stop Apple from having second-thoughts later and incorporate 3G support before the final retail product ships within the year. After all, this is still largely Apple’s call.

As for application import, analysts should have noticed that the iPhone is indeed a different phone in its own right. It is using a slightly modified Mac OS X, which is in fact a full operating system embedded on a small frame with 4Gb - 8Gb of memory. In essence, the iPhone is in fact a computer that works like a phone, instead of the other way around. For applications, it doesn’t need the applications that can be found on other phones. Why? It already has applications and widgets from OS X that are waiting to be exported to the iPhone. This again sets iPhone apart from other phones. The stroke of genius, the “killer app”. Applications that only iPhone has and none other.

And with regards to secure corporate email and corporate-level controls, this once again falls back to the fact that Mac OS X has multitude of corporate users and applications. These can then be harnessed for inclusion and support for iPhone without much modification to the code perhaps only downsizing the application a bit. Email can even be accessed through the secure corporate intranet using traditional TCP/IP protocols like HTTPS, wrap in VPN tunnels, IPSec, or what-have-you. Anything is possible. In earnest, the iPhone is leveraging internet functionality on the go.

Bottomline is, analysts want to tone down the hype that Apple’s iPhone has brought. But reality is, it is still relatively very very early to conclude that the iPhone will not be supported in the enterprise. If your infrastructure supports WiFi, the TCP/IP Stack, VPN, Bluetooth, or Mac OS X, chances are that you are already welcoming the arrival of Enterprise iPhone without even knowing that you already are.

Will we see the iPhone being used on the enterprise? Will the iPhone go head-to-head with RIM’s Blackberry or other enterprise mobile handheld? Could be. All we can do is sit back and watch as the events unfold.

Apple, iPhone, enterprise, mobile, phone, communication
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