Published on
September 30, 2006 in
Info Tech.
Well, October 2006 is almost in full effect and lots of exciting and interesting news in the IT arena are starting to percolate.
Firefox 2.0 to Go Live Today
Wow, the web browser that took the world (er web) by storm in just a few short years is doing it again. And it looks as though they’ve fixed some annoying bugs.
“We will not take bugs unless they are of great benefit: crashes, Web compatibility, and major regressions. IMHO [In My Honest Opinion] FF2 RC1 is already a tremendously superior product to FF 1.5. So let’s wrap this up!”
Go Mozilla go! 
VPNs: $23B And Growing
Wow, I didn’t know the VPN business was “thaaaat” lucrative. But here’s what I don’t get. I’m quite comfy with SSL via HTTP (https) in my web browser because it’s fast and convenient…no nagging, “slooooow” VPN clients to install. Heck, I even use HTTPS to do all of my online banking with TD Canada Trust, which is one of Canada’s biggest banks that’s also highly rated in the web banking arena. Now, if it’s good enough for Canada’s Top 5 banks who are fussy about security, then what’s the big deal with these VPN clients? Oh well!!
SSL-VPNs offer the promise of simple remote access connectivity since from an end user standpoint they typically involve just a Web browser to access a corporate network.
They differ from their principal technology competitor IPSec VPNs in that IPSec typically requires an additional client application.
Earlier this year, Infonetics reported that IPSec (define) is currently dominant though losing ground over the next few years to SSL-VPN-based VPNs (define).
Now that’s more like it.
I’ll add more stuff to this later. After all, it “is” Saturday here in Nairobi, and I’m itching to do something exciting tonight…so I gotta make some plans.
Published on
September 17, 2006 in
Info Tech.
Thank you Rasmus
Without a doubt, PHP is the world’s most popular web-scripting language that’s used in hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of websites throughout cyber space (the Internet). TWit.tv had a chat with PHP’s legendary creator, Rasmus Lerdorf, to gather his thoughts on PHP and FOSS today.
Thank you Zeev & Andi
By the way, please note that PHP became a household name after Andi Gutmans (also see here) and Zeev Suraski (2 brilliant, hardcore Israeli C/C++ programmers) created the Zend engine, which now powers the language. If anything, these 2 dudes deserve just as much credit (if not more) than Rasmus. Let’s just say that creating (programming) programs that allows you to create other programs is one of the most complex tasks in all of Computer Science or Software Engineering. Ditto for programmers who create Operating Systems like Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Unix, Windows, Mac OS/X or VAX/VMS. Oh, throw in RDBMSs like Oracle 10g, DB2, Sybase ASE, Microsoft SQL Server, PostGreSQL, and MySQL.
Listen up
If you’d like to listen to the interview, just grab the audio files (Ogg audio 64kbps mono, 25.65MB – MP3 file). See the intro below, which I found on the TWiT website:
FLOSS Weekly 12: PHP Creator Rasmus Lerdorf
PHP Creator, Rasmus Lerdorf, talks about the origins of PHP, the challenges of open source development, and his favorite PHP programs…
Published on
September 17, 2006 in
Info Tech.
Wow, this is simply amazing. Just when you thought that the Open Source software movement couldn’t come up with any more ideas for practical software applications, along comes the kind folks (developers) at Sahana.lk in Sri Lanka.
“Sahana is a Free and Open Source Disaster Management system. It is a web based collaboration tool that addresses the common coordination problems during a disaster from finding missing people, managing aid, managing volunteers, tracking camps effectively between Government groups, the civil society (NGOs) and the victims themselves.” (Source: Sahana.lk)
A sad beginning
So, how did the Sahana project come to light?
The Sahana Free and Open Source project was quickly built over a 2-3 week period around the time of the Asian Tsunami to help coordinate the relief effort in Sri Lanka. It was initially built by a group of volunteers consisting mostly of the Sri Lankan IT industry and spearheaded by Lanka Software Foundation, a FOSS R&D NPO. An implementation of Sahana was authorized and deployed by CNO (The main government body in Sri Lanka coordinating the relief effort) to help coordinate all the data being captured. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
Seeing is believing
If by chance you’re involved with an NGO or a non-profit organisation that quickly needs to mobilize help in the face of a natural disaster, then by all means take Sahana for a spin (try online demo). Here’s a quick peek at the program’s snazzy web interface.
View more screenshots here.
Help the Sahana team
Are you able to lend a hand in these troubled regions?
Over the last week, the core Sahana team has been engaged with deployments in Lebanon, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka as a reponse to the natural disasters and conflicts.
The Sahana team calls for the support of everyone in the community who have links, contacts or can in any way support the deployment of Sahana in these countries. (Source: Sahana.lk)
Your thoughts?
If you are using FOSS applications in your organisation, please share some info with us. What did you install? Did you ditch a commercial alternative? Is it web-based or a desktop app?
Happy computing!
Published on
September 17, 2006 in
Info Tech.
What is Drupal?
For those of you living in the Dark Ages, Drupal is a CMS (Content Management System) that’ll quickly give you an unfair advantage (see features) when it comes to creating any type of website. But don’t take my word for it.
“Drupal is software that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a Web site. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to set up scores of different kinds of Web sites, including:
- Community Web portals and discussion sites
- Corporate Web sites/intranet portals
- Personal Web sites
- Aficionado sites
- E-commerce applications
- Resource directories
Drupal includes features to enable content management systems, blogs, collaborative authoring environments, forums, newsletters, picture galleries, file uploads and download, and much more. Drupal is open source software licensed under the GPL and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers. Drupal is free to download and use.” (Source: CMS Matrix)
Is this CMS a good pal?
Now, I’ve never used Drupal but I’ve been in the IT business long enough to know a good thing just from reading countless rave reviews. Web developers really love this CMS, and I’m not about to second guess them. Oh, Big Blue (aka IBM) is also gung ho on Drupal too. For those of you who’d like to see what it’s like to install Drupal on your web server, then I urge you to read more. By the way, I’m told the Drupal user community is also very helpfull to newbies.
Vote for Drupal
By the way, if you’re a Drupal user and would like to show your support for this venerable CMS, then by all means cast your vote. It is one of 5 CMSs duking it out for top honors. Take a peek at this:
“This is your chance to support Drupal by voting! Pakt publishing is running a competition for the best Open Source CMS, and Drupal is in the top 5 candidates. The final round of judging will be done by four judges, where the community vote is the fourth judge. That means it is time to head on over to the voting page and fill out the form to show that you choose Drupal above all others. The winning CMS will get US $5,000, the second will get US $3,000 and the third placed finalist will get US $2,000.” (Source: Drupal.org)
Enjoy.
A look at Database Management & Design tools
Since we’re using the free LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack to create our eCommerce web portal here in Africa, I reckon that it’s only a matter of time before our database becomes unmanageable. Thus it’s smart to use appropriate tools in order regain some control considering there’s well over 70 tables with more on the way – eventually.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about TOAD over the years, and was fortunate to find this quick review over at ITtoolbox. It looks as though a freeware version for MySQL database management is available. Why don’t you take it for a spin?
Other good DBA (database administration) tools include SQLyog (there’s a free edition) and DB Designer4 (completely free by FabFORCE). Of course, a lot of web developers use PHPMyAdmin, which is a remarkable web-based tool that’s 100% free, but these other tools are usually much faster since they run as a desktop application and use native C/C++ libraries to connect to MySQL.
A stroll down memory lane
I’m told TOAD is written in Delphi (Object Pascal), which is a very powerful language invented by Borland (inventor of Turbo C, C++ Builder, Turbo Prolog, Quattro Pro, Interbase, Turbo Pascal, Paradox, purchased DBase from Ashton Tate) and is on par with C/C++ for speed. Trust me! By the way, I got into programming via Turbo Pascal, which was then morphed into Delphi. Pascal is still one of my favourite computer languages to date. Perhaps it’s just nostalgia, but Dr. Niklaus Wirth from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology was “waaaay” ahead of his time back then. Too bad Pascal’s successor, Modula, didn’t gain momemtum.
If you need more info on LAMP, get it right here!
I blogged here about how the Indian state of Kerala has begun to take a serious look at using Linux and other open source apps in order to save money. No doubt this move will also reduce those dreaded Windows security bugs (holes). Read more…
If any of you have given M$ the boot, please let me know. Tell me what you did. What software you relied on before, and what alternative (Linux, Max OS/X, etc.) you’re using now.
Now, although I’ll give credit to M$ on their new security intitiatives, the fundamental fact remains that Windows (XP, and soon Vista) is still too expensive for most developing nations. In other words, Linux is more than good enough for these governments who could then use the savings on better education and health care for its citizens.
