Everybody who follows the news in Brazil is getting use to reading and watching facts revealed by WikiLeaks. The information is irrelevant for most of Brazilian people, but the press insist on increasing the importance of the facts. The news is generally sensationalist and involves the USA. For example, the news about F-18 Jets. It is known in Brazil since January 2010 that the Brazilian Air Force have passed over the Rafaele Jet, even though the president Lula and the Defense Minister prefers the French tornado. WikiLeaks transforms fragments of speech into facts. The "organization" is becoming a source of information for Brazilian press, and this is dangerous when the information is not checked.
In an interview with the Estado de São Paulo the WikiLeaks founder said he had information that could interfere into the Brazilian election, but they didn't have time to publish them. People who have the minimal knowledge about Brazilian politics knows that it would be extremely improbable to affect the election of 2010, since president Lula had a very high popularity index. The less educated Brazilian people (the majority of the population) did what Lula asked them to do, that is, to vote in Dilma. Up to now, the facts that WikiLeaks has published about Brazil have not seemed that they would have affected the election. Small things, big buzz.
The news of today was the reveal of US sensitives. The list includes supply chains, communication cables, and pharmaceutical facilities. Everybody who likes war history or plays war games knows that these facilities are sensitive places. The only thing you need is to find them.
Most of these sensitive locations are very obvious. For example, the list includes the laboratory that produces Tamiflu. Tamiflu is produced by Roche, Roche is a Swiss company, Tamiflu stock should be in Switzerland. Brazilian press reported the leak, but did not discuss the content. So again, small things, big buzz.
WikiLeaks has its relevance when it leaks information. But, what they publish must be checked by the press when republishing. WikiLeaks is biased, and now that it has been persecuted by some institutions, it is imperative to verify the veracity of the information. Also, when it is possible, to present both sides. This is good journalism , something that some Brazilian journalists are not doing.
About Me
- Leonardo de Paula Rosa Piga
- I'm a Brazilian PhD Computer Science Student at University of Campinas. I'm 24 years old. More information about at my site.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Internet access at work
Some days ago, I read an article showing how the employers crack the internet access restriction systems of their companies. There were many methods, one of them was an excel spreadsheet like system that allow an user to post twitter messages as if he were working on an spreadsheet. The article showed many arguments supporting internet access restriction at work. Reading the article reminds me a conversation between two supermarket stock replenishers while I was gathering some cookies. One guy was teaching the other how to use VNC to access his home computer and have unrestricted internet access. They were very far from being geeks, they were justing sharing one more way to cheat the supermarket internet control system. Deny the internet access is an invitation to cheat and this creates a cat and mouse game between the company and its employees.
In contrast, at my university, we don't have any internet access control system. Once we follow the rules (basically do not share copyrighted material), we can access any web site. Personally, I never saw a student at the lab where I work accessing porn sites for example, we can but we do not do. If we had any kind of access control system we might try to crack it, as the stock replenishers did. If we didn't do, the temptation would be very strong. For the university it is easier to present the rules and make students follow them, they do not need to deny access. Once we do not follow them, we will face disciplinary proceeding if we are caught. Criminal law works this way, we can do anything we want, but we must be prepared to suffer the consequences.
Some companies argue that allowing deliberated internet access decrease their employees productivity; however, they forget that we are experiencing the internet era and if an employee want to access the internet he will. He can buy a smartphone and pay for a 3g internet access and the problem will be solved, for example. The only solution will be keep the employee cellphone while he is at work. It is created a dictatorial company. The solution is not deny, it is more an education issue.
In conclusion, an educated and conscious employee will know when it is time to open a web browser to procrastinate and when it is time to work. They should be evaluated based on their productivity and not based on the time they spend "working". Restricting internet access will only encourage cheating and the cat and mouse game will never come up to an end.
In contrast, at my university, we don't have any internet access control system. Once we follow the rules (basically do not share copyrighted material), we can access any web site. Personally, I never saw a student at the lab where I work accessing porn sites for example, we can but we do not do. If we had any kind of access control system we might try to crack it, as the stock replenishers did. If we didn't do, the temptation would be very strong. For the university it is easier to present the rules and make students follow them, they do not need to deny access. Once we do not follow them, we will face disciplinary proceeding if we are caught. Criminal law works this way, we can do anything we want, but we must be prepared to suffer the consequences.
Some companies argue that allowing deliberated internet access decrease their employees productivity; however, they forget that we are experiencing the internet era and if an employee want to access the internet he will. He can buy a smartphone and pay for a 3g internet access and the problem will be solved, for example. The only solution will be keep the employee cellphone while he is at work. It is created a dictatorial company. The solution is not deny, it is more an education issue.
In conclusion, an educated and conscious employee will know when it is time to open a web browser to procrastinate and when it is time to work. They should be evaluated based on their productivity and not based on the time they spend "working". Restricting internet access will only encourage cheating and the cat and mouse game will never come up to an end.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A shame, pathetic.
Sometimes I feel I am a clown.
Sunday, July 25th 2010, 9:00am(BRT). I woke up early to watch Hockenheim GP 2010. The Brazilian driver was at the first place. Then a "instruction" came from his engineer saying that Fernando Alonso were driving faster. Some seconds later, Alonso overtook Felipe Massa. What a shame Ferrari! The drivers will ever deny, but it was clear that it was a team instruction. Sport has been becoming an environment where business surpass ethic and personal values, where people are bending economic interests. Competition does not exist, it is part of the past.
Felipe Massa stuck by his team which pays his salary. Alonso, too. The villain was Ferrari that allowed this uncomfortable situation. I fear about the sport future. I hope that F1 is an exception. The economic interests won. The competition? Who cares when team, sponsors, managers are all the winner.
Imagine a situation where a powerful company sponsors two important soccer, basketball, volleyball, or whatever popular sport teams. Suppose that there is a third team that is not sponsored by this company. They are competing and the company order to its teams to arrange results in order to preserve the company interests. I hope never see this situation, but I don't think it is impossible.
I'm not a clown. Clowns are people who think and act as if we were.
Sunday, July 25th 2010, 9:00am(BRT). I woke up early to watch Hockenheim GP 2010. The Brazilian driver was at the first place. Then a "instruction" came from his engineer saying that Fernando Alonso were driving faster. Some seconds later, Alonso overtook Felipe Massa. What a shame Ferrari! The drivers will ever deny, but it was clear that it was a team instruction. Sport has been becoming an environment where business surpass ethic and personal values, where people are bending economic interests. Competition does not exist, it is part of the past.
Felipe Massa stuck by his team which pays his salary. Alonso, too. The villain was Ferrari that allowed this uncomfortable situation. I fear about the sport future. I hope that F1 is an exception. The economic interests won. The competition? Who cares when team, sponsors, managers are all the winner.
Imagine a situation where a powerful company sponsors two important soccer, basketball, volleyball, or whatever popular sport teams. Suppose that there is a third team that is not sponsored by this company. They are competing and the company order to its teams to arrange results in order to preserve the company interests. I hope never see this situation, but I don't think it is impossible.
I'm not a clown. Clowns are people who think and act as if we were.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Google vs China: Who is the winner?
Since January, I have heard, read and talked with people about the conflict involving Google and Chinese government. If you don't know what is going on, I'll tell you briefly. In January, Google told that it faced "highly sophisticated cyber attacks" from assailants that were against Chinese human rights activists. Google didn't say explicitly that the attacks were done by Chinese government, but it is implicit. Then Google has decide to not censor their searches at google.cn, showing Chinese that they are in favor free speech.
Google has failed at China. Talking geek's language, Baidu rules there. Yahoo, MSN, and some others internet companies have failed as well. Facebook is not as spread in China as it is in other countries, too. Since China has been growing rapidly for years, the country will become the number one economy in the world in just some years. But, being successful at China is tough. Foreign companies are trying to make business there more and more. But it seams they are not so welcome.
The nearest foreign companies' rival are the local companies that make copies of their products and sale them supported by the government. Ethically speaking this is not correctly, but it seams that, for Chinese government, it is perfect acceptable.
When I studied English at USA in a school for foreigns, I could know some Chinese students. They were very intelligent students, but they had difficult for understanding implicit facts, they were not able to see beyond. They have difficult to show their opinion. But it is not their fault, they had learned since they were a child that they were not allowed to do so.
Google has courageously decided to fight against Chinese government censorship. The question is: If more then one sixth of the planet is silenced by them, will Google be able to win? Chinese government has already told that Google will have to account for their acts. I just have to wait for the next facts.
Google has failed at China. Talking geek's language, Baidu rules there. Yahoo, MSN, and some others internet companies have failed as well. Facebook is not as spread in China as it is in other countries, too. Since China has been growing rapidly for years, the country will become the number one economy in the world in just some years. But, being successful at China is tough. Foreign companies are trying to make business there more and more. But it seams they are not so welcome.
The nearest foreign companies' rival are the local companies that make copies of their products and sale them supported by the government. Ethically speaking this is not correctly, but it seams that, for Chinese government, it is perfect acceptable.
When I studied English at USA in a school for foreigns, I could know some Chinese students. They were very intelligent students, but they had difficult for understanding implicit facts, they were not able to see beyond. They have difficult to show their opinion. But it is not their fault, they had learned since they were a child that they were not allowed to do so.
Google has courageously decided to fight against Chinese government censorship. The question is: If more then one sixth of the planet is silenced by them, will Google be able to win? Chinese government has already told that Google will have to account for their acts. I just have to wait for the next facts.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The modern life dependence on electricity and communication
Today, people, devices, computers are interconnected. You can contact other person whenever you want. You can find thousands of articles about a topic in seconds. People are getting used to having whenever they want in just few clicks. They text, send email, make searches on the web, use computers, watch TV, cook use the microwave. All these modern life habits are based on communication and electricity. The concept is so coupled that electrical facilities are also interconnected being able to communicate with each other. When one fails, it creates chaos on people life.
Last year (2009), Brazilians have experienced a huge blackout. After five hours, people were out of water because water pumps were powered off. Since the traffic lights were powered down, traffic jams were caused. People were unable to communicate; cell phone towers were not working because of the lack of electricity. Usually people only notice that something is important when they don't have it. Electrical power is among them.
Talking about communication, I notice that when a communication failure happens making people unable to access the internet, they feel disappointed. Being out of the internet for a long period causes an emptiness feeling. People feel as if they were not part of the world anymore. Not being able to check the email for some days causes anxiety and the impression that you are missing some important messages. Modern people are addicted on communication.
Reading an article on "The New York Times" [1] talking about a paper that reveals a theoretical attack on "a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S", it became clear to me that people must reduce their dependence on electrical facility system and communication networks. I don't mean that they must stop using electronic devices and become isolated from the world, neither I mean that a catastrophe will happen that the world will be in the darkness and on silence. I mean that we must find an alternative way for living when we are out of electricity and when communication devices fails, specially if this period is relatively long.
References
1. Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Here I am. No, I haven't forgotten this blog
Hi there! I 'alive. Long time without a post. But I haven't forgotten this blog. Today, I'll write about what I have been doing. Basically, I'll talk about my research and my daily life. Here we go.
On December 4th, I dislocated my elbow. I was playing soccer (the finals of our internal soccer tournament), when I was hit by an adversary player. I fell. The result? Ten days using a splint and 20 more days recovering the arm mobility. Now, I'm OK. But, sometimes, I still remember that I fell.
This semester will be hard. Many conferences deadlines, I have to write my PhD project, and, on the top of that, I assigned for two obligatory subjects. I was missing having classes. Last year, I just had them in the first semester. Anyway, a little pressure is always good. I thing I work better with a little pressure.
Since my last post, things have changed. That time, I was an MSc Computer Science Student. Now, I'm a PhD student. I just skipped to PhD directly (thanks to Institute of Computing of UNICAMP professors and my mentor).
Thus, as PhD student I have to expand my work, so I have one more month to outline what I'll research for the next four years. I won't change the whole topic, it will still be about analyzing power on data center, but my former work must be expanded.
During this three months, I have studied the Apache HTTP Server and I've profiled it. Thus, I've developed a library to use the Intel Core 2 performance counters, so that, I could profile the server. At this moment, I'm working on a model using this information. Sorry, but I can't give further details currently. I'm going to release this library as soon as I can. It will be under LGPL.
I have to developed it because I couldn't find any solution that makes possible to profile a program the way I need. This library runs under Linux, also, it needs a custom kernel having some custom system call. In the mean time, if you need more details about it, just ask.
On December 4th, I dislocated my elbow. I was playing soccer (the finals of our internal soccer tournament), when I was hit by an adversary player. I fell. The result? Ten days using a splint and 20 more days recovering the arm mobility. Now, I'm OK. But, sometimes, I still remember that I fell.
This semester will be hard. Many conferences deadlines, I have to write my PhD project, and, on the top of that, I assigned for two obligatory subjects. I was missing having classes. Last year, I just had them in the first semester. Anyway, a little pressure is always good. I thing I work better with a little pressure.
To conclude, I want to share my indignation against my hometown (Ribeirão Preto) authorities. I'll need to pay a fine for jumping the red at 3:42 am. Fair, OK? Not really. Let me explain why.
As everybody might know, we have much violence in Brazil. We are used not to stopping at the red light at the late night because you are giving opportunity for thieves to steal you. The police advises you to not stop for a long time on the red light at late night. But, somehow, I was fined. My loss? About US$ 100,00 and seven (seven of twenty) points penalty for a year. In that city, you have to choose: Give your money to a stealer or give you money to the State. At least, the State doesn't threaten you with a gun.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Kubuntu 9.10 - First impressions
Long time without a post. I've been very busy.
Today I'll write about Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I've installed the Beta version on my Sony Vaio VGN-SR290 with ATI Radeon HD 3400.
Now, after one painful day everything is working. I want to share my experience and hope it can save you some time when you decide to install it.
Installation
The installation was the easiest part. I download the ISO and created a bootable USB Disk using unetbootin. Everything worked as expected. I just want to mention the long time that it took to analyze my hard disk. It might have happened because I have nine partitions.
First Boot
When I booted, the X didn't come. So, I needed to use my six years of Linux experience. I logged in and installed the ATI proprietary drivers using text mode.
sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver fglrx-amdcccle
After rebooting the X came. I ran amdcccle and I was able to configure my dual head without any extra effort. Much better than 9.04 (I spent two days configuring my dual head).
I executed an apt-get dist-upgrade, one more reboot and everything was working. Everything? Not necessarily.
Recognizing my 4GB of RAM
Well, when I bought my computer I spent some extra money for more memory. Obviously, I want to use all of them. But Kubuntu does only see 3.2GB. Too bad!
I thought that it would be easy to solve this issue. I would just have to install linux-serve package as I had done with 9.04. I was totally wrong. At least in the beta version the linux-server is not there. I googled a little and found an alternative solution: Install the x64 version.
Too bad, again. I work with some old tools that does not run on 64bits environment. Thinking a little bit an I decide to compile my own kernel enabling 64GB of RAM.
Why Ubuntu developers don't compile the kernel with this flag? Do they think that it is possible to run this new version on old computers? I really don't understand.
Anyway, after about one hour and half I was rebooting my Kubuntu with my custom kernel. And it is recognizing my 4GB. Kubuntu 9.10 4GB RAM Limitation 0wn3d.
Other Softwares
I installed my favorite softwares (emacs, inkscape, firefox, latex, g++,...) everything seems to be working fine.
VMWare Server 2.0
The pain hadn't been relieved, yet. I had to install VMWare Server 2.0. Don't ask me why I need this on my laptop. The fact is that I do.
I got the tar.gz packet and uncompressed it. I installed, but VMWare modules didn't compile. It seems that they are not compatible with kernel 2.6.31.
But I didn't give up. I google a little bit and found an amazing patch here. It was not a straightforward process. I had to change the shell script a little bit. I needed to change the checksum values and I disabled the vmblock. Also, I edited the patch and removed everything that was related with vmblock.
I executed expecting that it wouldn't work since the patch was for VMware Workstation 6.5.2. However, it worked and I was able to compile VMWare modules.
Now that my VMWare server was installed, it was time to test my Virtual Machines. I booted my Windows 2000. The windows came right away. But I had some problem with the mouse pointer.
It flickered and I was not able to used it when the resolution was greater then 640x480.
Google is my friend. I hunted a solution. I'd need to set the environment variable VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK to forced. Thus, I edited my /etc/profile and wrote:
export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=false
And now it was working perfectly.
My impressions
Perhaps I'm not an human being since I have a PC with 4GB of RAM and want to use a 32 bits version.
Also configuring VMWare Server was painful.
Hardware compatibility
9 of 10.
Differently from previous versions I haven't have any hardware issue. The CAM is working fine, skype is working fine. And I have dual head with Composite, that is, 3D effects.
Neither is the finger scanner working nor brightness control functions. The finger scanner problem is due to Sony that doesn't provide the device specification.
Conclusion
My final grade is 8. I could use all the resources that I've been using with previous versions. Also, it took me one day less to configure and run everything.
References
VMware install fails w/ kernel Linux 2.6.31 on 11.2 factory
Workstation: Losing focus (mounse ungrabs) outside area of 640 x 480 (vga resolution)
Update
Today I'll write about Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I've installed the Beta version on my Sony Vaio VGN-SR290 with ATI Radeon HD 3400.
Now, after one painful day everything is working. I want to share my experience and hope it can save you some time when you decide to install it.
Installation
The installation was the easiest part. I download the ISO and created a bootable USB Disk using unetbootin. Everything worked as expected. I just want to mention the long time that it took to analyze my hard disk. It might have happened because I have nine partitions.
First Boot
When I booted, the X didn't come. So, I needed to use my six years of Linux experience. I logged in and installed the ATI proprietary drivers using text mode.
sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver fglrx-amdcccle
After rebooting the X came. I ran amdcccle and I was able to configure my dual head without any extra effort. Much better than 9.04 (I spent two days configuring my dual head).
I executed an apt-get dist-upgrade, one more reboot and everything was working. Everything? Not necessarily.
Recognizing my 4GB of RAM
Well, when I bought my computer I spent some extra money for more memory. Obviously, I want to use all of them. But Kubuntu does only see 3.2GB. Too bad!
I thought that it would be easy to solve this issue. I would just have to install linux-serve package as I had done with 9.04. I was totally wrong. At least in the beta version the linux-server is not there. I googled a little and found an alternative solution: Install the x64 version.
Too bad, again. I work with some old tools that does not run on 64bits environment. Thinking a little bit an I decide to compile my own kernel enabling 64GB of RAM.
Why Ubuntu developers don't compile the kernel with this flag? Do they think that it is possible to run this new version on old computers? I really don't understand.
Anyway, after about one hour and half I was rebooting my Kubuntu with my custom kernel. And it is recognizing my 4GB. Kubuntu 9.10 4GB RAM Limitation 0wn3d.
Other Softwares
I installed my favorite softwares (emacs, inkscape, firefox, latex, g++,...) everything seems to be working fine.
VMWare Server 2.0
The pain hadn't been relieved, yet. I had to install VMWare Server 2.0. Don't ask me why I need this on my laptop. The fact is that I do.
I got the tar.gz packet and uncompressed it. I installed, but VMWare modules didn't compile. It seems that they are not compatible with kernel 2.6.31.
But I didn't give up. I google a little bit and found an amazing patch here. It was not a straightforward process. I had to change the shell script a little bit. I needed to change the checksum values and I disabled the vmblock. Also, I edited the patch and removed everything that was related with vmblock.
I executed expecting that it wouldn't work since the patch was for VMware Workstation 6.5.2. However, it worked and I was able to compile VMWare modules.
Now that my VMWare server was installed, it was time to test my Virtual Machines. I booted my Windows 2000. The windows came right away. But I had some problem with the mouse pointer.
It flickered and I was not able to used it when the resolution was greater then 640x480.
Google is my friend. I hunted a solution. I'd need to set the environment variable VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK to forced. Thus, I edited my /etc/profile and wrote:
export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=false
And now it was working perfectly.
My impressions
Perhaps I'm not an human being since I have a PC with 4GB of RAM and want to use a 32 bits version.
Also configuring VMWare Server was painful.
Hardware compatibility
9 of 10.
Differently from previous versions I haven't have any hardware issue. The CAM is working fine, skype is working fine. And I have dual head with Composite, that is, 3D effects.
Neither is the finger scanner working nor brightness control functions. The finger scanner problem is due to Sony that doesn't provide the device specification.
Conclusion
My final grade is 8. I could use all the resources that I've been using with previous versions. Also, it took me one day less to configure and run everything.
References
VMware install fails w/ kernel Linux 2.6.31 on 11.2 factory
Workstation: Losing focus (mounse ungrabs) outside area of 640 x 480 (vga resolution)
Update
[One day later]
I did an upgrade and everything was broken. X didn't start. I tried to configure it and when it came kwin was having problem.
I reinstalled fglrx-driver and X came. But VMWare was not working anymore.
I decide to stop testing the Beta version and use Kubuntu 9.04.
I did a clean installation of 9.04 and, this time, it took me just four hours to configure everything.
Now that my Kubuntu 9.04 is working again I'll be using it for some more months. I'll keep my eye open for VMWare updates, too. I'll wait until it becomes stable. I'll give another chance to Karmic Koala by December.
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