Configure Linux Bind to Answer Active Directory Services

Ever wonder how to mix and match Linux and Windows in the same network environment? Here's a quick DNS entry using BIND (DNS Server) on Linux to interact with Microsoft's Active Directory. Works like a charm. Following needs to be added on your zone file:

_ldap._tcp.DOMAIN.COM. SRV 0 0 389 DCHOSTNAME.DOMAIN.COM.
_kerberos._tcp.DOMAIN.COM. SRV 0 0 88 DCHOSTNAME.DOMAIN.COM.
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.DOMAIN.COM. SRV 0 0 389 DCHOSTNAME.DOMAIN.COM.
_kerberos._tcp.dc._msdcs.DOMAIN.COM. SRV 0 0 88 DCHOSTNAME.DOMAIN.COM.

226: Ubuntu

South Africa is in the eye of the world cup storm. The Spirit of Ubuntu (Humanity towards others) in full swing. Incidentally my favorite (so is Dr. Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory) Ubuntu Linux use the Ubuntu philosphy in developing software for the world to use. Back to soccer,  I always like Argentina. More so with the legendary Diego Maradona ( now in his 50's) who instead of firing those booming goals is now calling the shots from the sideline.

#152: Test drive the new abrenian.com site

I started abrenian.com back in 2002 as a hobby to learn web technology. Little that I know, that the site would become the most widely (even controversial) read website for Abrenians around the world. The site has become a major source of information for Abrenians living abroad.

Through the years, the site had undergone a couple of make-over to keep up with the technology at hand. And for the past few weeks, I have been working (on my spare time) on a completely redesigned website. The new site is currently accessible at group.abrenian.com and it's still on beta testing.

The new site uses elgg, an open source social networking software with features similar to popular sites such as facebook, myspace or friendster.

I invite everyone to test drive the site and would appreciate your feedback. 

#147: What a fraction of a second can do

I had expressed my frustration about elastix VOIP PBX System on this post a couple of days ago. Not anymore because I finally solved the puzzle.

It took just the letter "w" that made the difference. A "w" when dialing a phone number from a handset translates to a 0.5 second pause before dialing the rest of the number. 

0.5 Seconds is eternity in technology when you think of high speed computers running millions of processes in seconds. Or when you have to have 99.9999% system availability. So it's not surprising that a fraction of a second can make or break this PBX system.

I spent more that 30 hours trying to figure out the solution. It wasn't a waste of time though, because I also learned more about the core asterisk codes which is the underlying platform of this amazing open source PBX System.

Lesson learned: Sometimes complicated problems can have very simple answers, you just have to know where to look for it.

#125: Ubuntu on the move again, Clooney's quote

There's a new version of my favorite distro, Ubuntu Linux. Version 9.10 code name Karmic koala offers great new features for the Desktop and Server environment.

Notable enhancement in the server edition is a built-in cloud computing feature that enable you to create your own private cloud.

There's also the Ubunty Remix specifically designed for netbooks users. This distro is awesome as an alternative OS. Best of all it's free and you can also have thousands of free applications software.

Can't wait to upgrade my computers.

 ----------------------
Oh before i forget here's a quote from George Clooney (I read this on a magazine while doing a VOIP phone system install for a client) about Facebook: "I would rather have a prostate exam on live television by a guy with very cold hands than have a facebook page."

#117: Microsoft vs Linux

Big news in the tech world, Windows 7 just hit the PC market. Microsoft is hoping to redeem itself after the infamous debacle of Windows Vista.

Executives from Microsoft have fanned out to celebrate the launch of the company's core product upon which the rest of Redmond's empire has been built. The software giant is counting on favorable reviews and new features to help Windows rebuilt its image in the face of a disappointing response to Windows Vista.  

As always home users who will buy a new computer will be the first to experience the new OS. As for businesses it will be hard to predict when or if they will ever switch to Windows 7.

But of course Linux is again challenging Windows 7 with IBM and Canonical for Ubuntu Linux  announcing the launch of Linux and cloud-based desktop software in the U.S.

IBM and Canonical in their press release have stated that the cost of migrating to Windows 7  will be as much as $2,000 for most PC users, with hardware accounting for much of the expense. Linux (and specifically Ubuntu) together with the IBM software is according to the two partners, cheaper to deploy.

"If a company is a 'Windows shop,' at some point it will need to evaluate the significant costs of migrating its base to Microsoft's next desktop and bolstering its defenses against virus and other attacks," said Bob Picciano, general manager, IBM Lotus in a statement. "American businesses have asked for a compelling alternative and today we are delivering IBM Client for Smart Work in the U.S."

 Our office had stick to windows XP and even run Ubuntu Linux on some of our desktop. I don't foresee the use of windows 7 in the near future. Our major applications such as our Medical Software, Email and knowledge-based system are all using web-based technology, This means that all we need is a web browser such as Firefox to run our applications.

With the release of windows 7 and eventually the sun-setting of windows XP, there's no choice but to switch to Linux.

#109: Time to migrate to Linux

Windows Vista was definitely a disaster. Now Microsoft is about to release Windows 7 this month. Although I read great reviews on Windows 7, I'm personally not looking forward to upgrading. So does a lot of businesses I'm sure who would still prefer Windows XP since most of their applications could have some compatibility issues with Windows 7.

Another problem with Windows 7 is Microsoft wants to squeeze out every penny from the users thus they have 6 different version. Of course different version different pricing and features and capabilities.

Well it's time to migrate to Linux. Linux is free. No complicated pricing or crippled versions. You install Linux, you got the whole nine yards. Does your computer seems too sluggish even though you got all the computing power? Most average user would think that they need a new computer. But the problem is actually windows itself.

So here's a good way to ease migration to Linux and get the life back in your computer.

#56: Hannah Montana Linux

The hit TV show Hannah Montana products are everywhere. It's printed on shirts, bags, even shoes. But what about a computer that has the look and feel of Hannah Montana?

Well there's Hannah Montana Linux powered computer!

I am a little bit familiar with Hannah Montana. I've seen a glimpse of the TV show when Nadire's watching it. For the benefit to those who's not familiar with the show:

Hannah Montana is an Emmy Award-nominated[1] American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.

The Linux Distro is based in Kubuntu, a variant of Ubuntu. Interestingly, you can grab a live CD to try it on your (or your kid's) computer at the project's official website. Creating such a distribution is easy due to fact that Linux codes are available to anyone and can be freely modified.

So next time your kid's acting up and you know Hanna Montana is their favorite show, pop in that live CD and turn your computer to a Hannah Montana nanny. And Don't worry because the program won't modify anything in your computer

#52: Open Source Project for Health Centers in the Philippines

I've been involved with HIT (Health Information Technology) in a community clinic setting for the past 10 years using open source.

In my earlier post, I mentioned about my involvement with the ClearHealth Project. This project is more usable in the U.S. health care system.

So what if this project can be used in the Philippines? It could probably work but needs to be customized to reflect the health care landscape in the Philippines.

But then, I just stumble on an existing project called Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS.

according to the official website,

The Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS (www.chits.ph) is an extensible, modular, open source information system for rural health units (initially for the Philippines). It collects existing routine health data from vertical programs in the Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS) and integrates them into a unified, comprehensive computerized information system. Through CHITS, community-based health information is made available not only to public health agencies requiring community level information but also to the community itself which generates the information. It enables the community to use this information for local decision-making and health planning. In addition to software, CHITS also includes structured capability-building programs designed to improve the health information systems within local health centers, regardless of the level of automation. CHITS began in Pasay City and is now in 18 health facilities (July 2008) around the country with requests for installation from many more.

This is such an exciting project that can power up Health Centers in the Philippines at a low cost. Checking the system requirements, the program was written in PHP and uses MySql database and Apache web server. A platform that doesn't require expensive hardware. In fact, the project would cost around P20,000.00 per install.

The Philippines has 1,495 towns. If we have a community center per town that will cost about P30M. Quite an amount.

But there's a way to reduce this cost. Each province can establish a data center and install a higher capacity server to be shared by each health center within a province. Let's say a data center average cost is P200,000.00 x 81 (provinces), the cost will just be around P16M.

There may be some other cost not included such as maintenance and program development cost but think about a nationwide Health information system that will improve the delivery of health services in the rural areas. Think about a system that is free from the clouts of proprietary vendors.

Maybe the Provincial government of Abra might want to consider this project...

#51: Host multiple websites in one machine

Running multiple websites in one machine using a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) stack requires some heavy and dirty hacking on the different configuration files of each of the programs mentioned.

To simplify installation and maintenance, the best way to do it is to use a Web Hosting Manager/Panel. Popular products such as Plesk or cPanel are good programs only if you are willing to shell out some monies. Or you can opt for ISPConfig.

ISPConfig is a free and open source hosting control panel for Linux. Major features includes creating virtual hosts, FTP servers, email servers and MySql-based Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla. Since it's a hosting manager, you can set disk quotas, traffic control, antivirus, billing and even a trouble ticket system. The full features are listed here.

I'm currently using ISPConfig on Ubuntu with multiple Joomla installs to host websites in the office and some other personal sites. A real perfect low-cost hosting solution.

#48: Bleed Normally?

I just came back from a 2 day Open Source World conference in San Francisco.

In a nutshell, the conference showcased the next big thing in technology which is Cloud Computing. I did talked about this technology earlier in this post and it looks like a wave of companies are getting into it. Pretty soon, the cloud will most likely dominate the way we do business online.

Anyway, it's always a great experience attending this type of conferences. You got to see emerging trends that could spun a new revolution in the computing world.

It's been two years since I last visited San Francisco and each time I didn't had a chance to see the city. Although, I was surprised to see a Jollibee just across the Moscone Center on 4th and Howard. I quickly snap a picture of it.



The trip is quite hectic. I spent most of the time in the conference center, going in and out of the countless sessions. Information is enormous. It would take me a couple of days to review all the materials I gathered. By mid afternoon on each day, I was struggling to keep up and what made it worse is they stop serving coffee after 10am.

By the time I finally boarded the plane back to San Diego, I was so exhausted that I thought the stewardess said on the intercom "...although we don't expect any change on the cabin pressure, if needed, oxygen masks will drop down. Clobber your mouth and bleed normally" (the correct phrase was actually "Cover your mouth and breath normally").

I let out a short chuckle, closed my eyes and relish the thought that in an hour Ill be arriving in sunny San Diego, back in the comfort of my home...

#47: Dead Zone

I'm in San Francisco attending the Open Source World Conference.

I am typing this on my phone via text to blog.

I can't believe I am on a dead zone considering I am probably in the most high tech place on earth.

Anyway, I hope this will reach my blog. I will tell you more about my trip on tomorrow's post.

#40: Building web applications using open source tools

I'm an Engineer by profession but sometimes my job calls for some code hacking.

Recently I tried my hands using PHP, a very easy scripting language to build a resource and article directory for the San Diego API Health Network project. The site was built using joomla, an open source CMS (Content Management System). The Directory and Resources though was a result of integrating 68kb, a knowledge based system based on CodeIgniter.

It's amazing that you can build web applications with these freely available tools. That's the power of open source.

#38: Free Enterprise Email Server

For every business, email is very important. And if you want to be taken seriously, you should have an email address that reflects your company's name. Imagine trying to make a million dollar deal and you are still using those public email services such as yahoo, gmail or hotmail?

Well why not try Zimbra, a a free Enterprise-Grade email server that rivals the features of say Microsoft Exchange Server.

I have been using zimbra as our company's email server and it's been very reliable. It's features are just awesome. You can have multiple domains in just one install, it relies heavily on ajax. Thus makes it look like a desktop application.

There's so many features of zimbra but personally I like the way you can share email addresses with a group (say your technical support department) and able share documents and calendars.

Installation is quite easy. I've installed zimbra on CentOS (community version of RedHat Linux) using this howto, and I was up an running in 20 minutes.

Zimbra was since bought by yahoo, fortunately they still maintain a free version of the program.

#33: Recovering your data from a windows crash

Yesterday, I blogged about how to recover your windows login password.

Now, what if you have a failed windows installation. Meaning your computer won't start up properly. You get confronted with the dreaded BSD (Blue Screen of Death) or windows won't just load. Chances are, your ultimate solution is to reformat your hard drive and reinstall windows.

But wait, what about your files? your photo and video collections from your fabulous vacations. If you have been backing up your data, you're in luck. But what if you don't?

Enter Knoppix or systemrescuecd. These nifty tools are both linux based systems designed to boot from your CD and be able to access any hard drive in your system. Make sure you have a usb flashdrive handy to transfer data from your hard drive. I've used these system countless times and it never fail.

Bottom line though, I suggest you always have a backup of your data. USB flash drives or external hard drives is so cheap nowadays. It won't hurt to have one handy just in case.

Never mind the software, then can be re-installed, but your data can never be recreated.

#24: Hello am a Linux

Ever watch the "Hello am a PC and a Mac" commercial? You think it's funny? Watch these videos



Here's another one


and another one


can't view from facebook? click here to see the original post

#21: Leveraging Open Source in Health IT

I was interviewed by linux.com in August 2008 (FOSS app eases the pain for San Diego community clinic) regarding my works in leveraging Open Source Technology in Health Care particularly to non-profit community clinics.

I first presented the idea on a round table discussion with other clinics around San Diego back in 2003. The discussion was attended by CEO's, CFO's and IT Manager. Unfortunately, the feedback was all negative and somehow even elicit some faint laughter. I remember one of the attendees said to radical, too good to be true and emphatically declared "if it's free it must be worthless". I left that meeting disappointment but not discouraged.

Six years later, I succeeded in bringing a cutting-edge Health Care software that enabled our clinic to survive the rapid changes. While other clinics are now struggling and confused on what to do next, our clinic is at full speed ahead in our implementation of a low-cost sophisticated EMR (Electronic Medical Record).

Every time I look back on what had happened through the years, I'm always reminded on Mahatma Gandhi's famous quote, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win".

#9: Try Ubuntu Linux the easy way

Linux is an OS (operating system) much like windows. Both are used to control the operations of a computer. A big difference is that Linux is free. Free means you can modify the codes to your liking.

There are hundreds of variants (more popularly called distos) of Linux you can choose from. Redhat, Debian and Ubuntu are some of the more popular distos out there. The way to choose the right one for you is to try some and with your experience you can decide which one to use.

I have been using Linux for quite a while. For server I like installing Ubuntu or CentOS. For the desktop or laptop, I like Ubuntu.

The safest way to try Linux in your existing windows-based computer is to do dual-booting. In this way, you will not mess up your windows installation while test driving Linux.

A cool program to do just that is using wubi - an Ubuntu Installer for windows, you can install and uninstall Linux much like you do when installing a windows application.

Once you completed the installation, you will notice when you restart your computer, you will now be prompted to choose which OS you want to load. To uninstall Ubuntu, just go to your add/remove program in your control panel and remove the software. That's it!

I've tried wubi on different desktops and laptops and it's quite great detecting every devices. It even detects my PCMCIA aircard for my anywhere internet connection.

note: the initial file installer is very small but when you start the installation, it has to download the complete OS which is about 650MB. So make sure you have a broadband connection to speed up the process.

#8: Serendipity on the web

Serendipity (not the movie by John Cusack) according to wikipedia is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. Often times this happens to me a lot when I am on the web finding something.

Today, I downloaded a program called winscp, a program i normally use to access my remote linux servers. As I started installing the program, I was asked if I want to install Flock too. Flock? I have no idea what it is but it sound harmless, I thought. So sure why not.

After some few minutes, the installation was completed. I have my winscp and flock. I fired up flock and what do you know, it's an internet browser. As I play with the program a little bit, it looked like it was designed to streamline interface with popular social networking sites, video sites, photo sites and webmails.

Digging more information, flock actually was built on mozilla firefox code according to this review from cnet.

My first impression is that it's a little bit overwhelming at first because there's to many icons. it may take me sometime to get used to it. Flock maybe useful to social networking junkies who want to have a convenient screen to access all their accounts.

Try flock and who knows you might love it. Now back to my winscp, gotta start building the new abrenian.com web 2.0 beta.

#2: Desktop Software Applications for free, anyone?

It may not be known to a lot of people but there are abundant desktop applications that can save you hundreds of dollar.

If you can't afford to buy Microsoft Office, you can opt for openoffice.org which is a complete suite that includes wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentation. Don't even worry because files you created on each of this applications can be saved into different file formats such such as word, excel or powerpoint. Openoffice runs on windows, linux and mac operating systems.

What about editing your photos and adding some special effect? Most would say photoshop right? Well there's gimp which has all the features comparable to expensive graphics editor. Again this software is available for windows, linux and mac.

Can't afford quarkXpress, Pagemaker or Microsoft Publisher for your newspaper layouts? check out scribus.

And lastly, I love using thunderbird and evolution for my email clients instead of using outlook or outlook express. These email client can access virtually any type of email server (e.g. gmail, hotmail, yahoo).

These are just some of the thousands of free software on the internet. A great place for searching free and open source applications is sourceforge.net

So why pay if you can get them for free?