Upgrading to Wordpress 3.0

Wordpress 3.0 has been out for almost one month now. This new version 3.0 has many new features that are listed in the following page.

I have tried to upgrade my Wordpress on the day it was released, but I got into a problem with locales.php file. I suspect it has something to do with one of my plugins, but since I can't even logged in to my administrator page, I decidec to revert back to version 2.9.2 until the plugins are supported. And apparently, I was not the only one facing the problem. Here's a report about others who have encountered some kind of problems when upgrading.



Here are a few links on how to upgrade to Wordpress version 3.0:

1. Updating WordPress. This is from Wordpress.org itself, the official guide to upgrade.


2. WordPress 3.0 Upgrade: What to Expect


3. 3 Tips to Ensure a Seamless WordPress Upgrade

Good luck!

Ailurus - A Useful Ubuntu Tweak Alternative For Beginners

Just found this article that showcase a simple program to help newbies configure their Ubuntu system. I personally haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be able to help the basic needs of configuring your Ubuntu without using multiple GUIs or even using command lines to change the configuration files.

The original post is located here.

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Ailurus is cross-Linux-distribution GPL software, which aims at making Linux easier to use for beginners. Rather than a Ubuntu Tweak alternative, Ailurus is the kind of app you can use along Ubuntu Tweak. Ailurus is available for Ubuntu, Fedora and Mint while Ubuntu Tweak is a dedicated Ubuntu only application.

[singlepic id=263 float=center]

Ailurus Features

• 'Study Linux' feature included in Ailurus is pretty good at teaching the Linux basics to beginners. You can even set it to display Linux tips each time you login to your system.


• Install many useful applications easily.


• Enable a number of third party repositories quite easily.


• Display of basic hardware information which is so useful at times.


• Clean APT/YUM cache.


• Backup and recover APT/YUM status.


• Change GNOME settings. Ailurus invokes GConf API, to change GNOME settings.


• Easily enable Gnome Control Center using Ailurus.

How to install Latest Ailurus 10.06.93 in Ubuntu Lucid, Karmic?

• Open Terminal (Applications - Accessories - Terminal) and copy-paste the following lines one by one into Terminal.


     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ailurus
     sudo apt-get update


• Done. Now install latest Ailurus in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.


     sudo apt-get install ailurus


• Done. Launch Ailurus. Goto Applications - System Tools - Ailurus.

Ailurus for Fedora and other distros can be downloaded from here.

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Securing Data in The Cloud

I just found an interesting article about securing your data in the cloud. Now that cloud computing has gained quite a number of followers, it will be good to understand the additional necessary steps to ensure your confidential data are secured in a cloud computing environment.

The original article can be found here.

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Storing data in the cloud is arguably the most important aspect of public cloud resources, but it is rarely treated as such. Two practical steps to take when securing cloud data are:

• Protect your data in a real world environment.
  
• Meet compliance requirements.
  

What are the issues?
There are two primary issues that we have to deal with when talking about data security in a public cloud:

• Protection of the data: Dealing with the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) criteria. Answering the important questions, such as, "What is the risk to the data? Are the controls in place adequate to mitigate the risk?"
  
• Location of the data: Dealing with the physical location of the "bits" and answering questions like, "Do I know where the data resides? Does this violate any of my compliance requirements?"

Location is often doubly important because we do not think about it; it may easily slip by unnoticed and have significant impact if a data loss ever occurs.

An example is the conflict between the U.S. Patriot Act and Canadian laws on the privacy of certain personal information. The U.S. government says if there is a compelling reason, they are able to see data in their jurisdiction. Canadian laws say that the data of certain Canadian citizens is protected and cannot be disclosed. If you handle Canadian data (i.e., data that is protected), then you had better be sure it is not physically located on systems in the U.S. Note that this is something providers will need to ensure via contracts.



Where to start: Data classification
If you don't take time to understand your data, then you are setting yourself up for failure in a public cloud environment. Therefore, securing data must begin with data classification.

Here are some steps to follow:

1. Identify the data that will be processed or stored in the cloud.
   
2. Classify the information in regards to sensitivity towards loss of the CIA criteria. This would include identifying regulatory requirements for the data.
   
3. Define the rules by which particular information classes of instances must be stored, transmitted, archived, transported and destroyed. Many handling requirements result from contractual or regulatory requirements.
   

A thought on physical location
As stated earlier, if there are restrictions on the physical location of data, you'll need to find a provider that can handle them. Amazon Web Services uses regions, and many of the other cloud providers offer similar structures. However, you need to ensure the service-level agreements meet your locality requirements.



Protecting data in the cloud
In the cloud, your data can be in any of the following locations:

• Local storage of the virtual machine (i.e., processing engine). Data is tied to the virtual machine location and state.
  
• Persistent data store (i.e., Amazon EBS or S3, Azure SQL, etc.). Data is independent of virtual machine location and state.
  
• In transit on the wire.
  

You will also need to use one of the following methods to meet your data protection requirements:

• File system and share access control lists: This would be using the access control mechanisms in the offering to ensure appropriate restrictions on the data. This would be used in all cases, but it would not protect from malicious IT staff at the provider.
  
• Encryption with a mixture of public and private key solutions: This would most likely be used to protect against malicious IT staff at the provider.
  
• Transport level encryption: This would be used as a matter of course whenever sensitive information was being passed or transmitted.
  

In closing
I strongly insist that everyone classifies their data. Once that is done, there are a couple of cloud issues you need to think about:

• Is my data stored where is should be?
  
• If there are any physical location limits, are those met?
  
• Am I protecting against malicious IT staff?
  

The rest should be basic security practices, much like those used in your non-cloud environment. There is nothing obscure about securing data in the cloud. Just remember that "good security is good security" and you should be good to go.

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Google Chrome on Ubuntu (well, sort of)

Most of us already know that one of the fastest browser out there is Google Chrome. Sadly enough, Google Chrome is only available on Windows platform, while the Mac and Linux users are left to run Safari or Firefox. The good thing is that Google has listened to those requests and are currently developing the native version of Chrome to Mac and Linux.

But for those who can't wait, there is a way to get Chromium (the open-source platform on which Google Chrome is based). Here are the steps (originally taken from here):

First you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

     sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add add the following lines if you are using Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala):

     deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
     deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Save and exit the file.



Now add the GPG key using the following command:

     sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

Update the source list using the following command:

     sudo apt-get update

Then you can install chromium using the following command:

     sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

After a successful installation, you can open chromium from Applications—>Internet—>Chromium Web Browser:
[singlepic id=261 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Here's a sample picture of what Chromium looks like on Ubuntu:
[singlepic id=262 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Alternatively, there's a script created by Jeff Rader to automate the installation of Chromium. His script can be downloaded here. Do not forget to change the permission to executable before running the script.

Enjoy!

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Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 3

A continuation and final article on how to set up cloud computing on Ubuntu. This information is originally posted here.

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In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we saw how to set up a minimal cloud infrastructure and bundle a basic image (and test it). In this final article, we’ll play with our cloud from an end-user perspective.

Setting up the web UI

First of all, before accepting end users, as the administrator of the cloud you will have to setup a few things on the web UI. Using your favorite browser, you should:

* Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
* Log in using the default user/password: admin/admin
* Change the default password, setup the cloud admin email address
* Logout

Setting up the cloud client

We’ll use Ubuntu 9.10 beta for this purpose, as it includes all the needed packages, and it’s so great ! You will have to install the following packages:

      $ sudo apt-get install euca2ools unzip



Registering on UEC, getting credentials

As the end-user, fire up your favorite browser and:

      * Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
      * Click “Apply” and enter your end user details

If you set up the email correctly on your cloud controller, it should send an email to the cloud admin address asking him to approve that request. Follow the instructions on that email to approve the account as the admin.

You should then get an email at the end user email address asking you to confirm the account request. Follow the instructions on that email, then you can log in on the web UI:

      * Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
      * Login using your end user username and password
      * Click “Download Credentials” in the “Credentials” tab
      * Note the EMI reference you can use on the “Images” tab

Starting up an instance

You should unzip the credentials zipfile you just downloaded, then source the eucarc file and test the connection:

      $ unzip euca2-enduser-x509.zip
      $ . eucarc
      $ euca-describe-availability-zones verbose

Setup a SSH key and allow connection to the SSH port:

      $ euca-add-keypair enduserkey > enduserkey.priv
      $ chmod 0600 enduserkey.priv
      $ euca-authorize default -P tcp -p 22 -s 0.0.0.0/0

Then starting up an instance is just a matter of passing the right EMI and type:

      $ euca-run-instances -k enduserkey emi-XXXXXXXX -t c1.medium

Enjoy !

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Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 2

A continuation on how to set up cloud computing on Ubuntu. This information is originally posted here.

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In part 1 of this series, we saw how to install the cloud infrastructure. In this article, we’ll bundle and upload an EMI (Eucalyptus Machine Image), based on Ubuntu Server 9.10 Beta, and validate that we can run an instance of it.

Download required elements

Go to the cloud/cluster controller and download the required items.

For a 64-bit image:

      $ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
      $ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64.img.gz
      $ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-vmlinuz-
        2.6.31-11-server
      $ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-initrd.img-
        2.6.31-11-server

For a 32-bit image:

      $ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
      $ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386.img.gz
      $ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-vmlinuz-
        2.6.31-11-generic-pae
      $ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-initrd.img-
        2.6.31-11-generic-pae



Bundle the EMI

First you should unpack and resize your image to the desired size, lets say 4Gb. This can take a very long time (15 minutes !) on slow disks as you unpack 10Gb-worth of image space:

      $ zcat -f image.gz | cp --sparse=always /dev/stdin image
      $ e2fsck -f image
      $ resize2fs image 4G
      $ truncate --size=4G image

Then bundle and upload the kernel:

      $ . eucarc
      $ euca-bundle-image -i vmlinuz --kernel true
      $ euca-upload-bundle -b ueckernel -m /tmp/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
      $ euca-register ueckernel/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
      IMAGE eki-KKKKKKKK

Take note of the EKI reference, you’ll need it later. Then bundle, upload and register the ramdisk:

      $ euca-bundle-image -i initrd --ramdisk true
      $ euca-upload-bundle -b uecramdisk -m /tmp/initrd.manifest.xml
      $ euca-register uecramdisk/initrd.manifest.xml
      IMAGE eri-RRRRRRRR

Take note of the ERI reference. Finally, bundle the image with the kernel and ramdisk, upload and register:

      $ euca-bundle-image -i image --kernel eki-KKKKKKKK --ramdisk
        eri-RRRRRRRR
      $ euca-upload-bundle -b uecimage -m /tmp/image.manifest.xml
      $ euca-register uecimage/image.manifest.xml
      IMAGE emi-XXXXXXXX

Bundling will also take a lot of time ! Take note of your EMI reference.

Start an instance of your EMI

In order to access your instance using SSH, you’ll need to setup a few one-time things (create a SSH key and authorize access to port 22 of your instances):

      $ euca-add-keypair mykey > mykey.priv
      $ chmod 0600 mykey.priv
      $ euca-authorize default -P tcp -p 22 -s 0.0.0.0/0

Now it’s time to start your instance !

      $ euca-run-instances -k mykey emi-XXXXXXXX -t c1.medium

The “c1.medium” VM type is sufficient by default to run a 4Gb instance. You should take note of the i-YYYYYYYY reference that is displayed on your INSTANCE line. The first time you start an EMI, it can take some time (like 10 minutes) to move from “pending” state to “running”, depending on size. You can use the following command to automatically watch the output of euca-describe-instances, every 5 seconds:

      $ watch -n 5 euca-describe-instances

Take note of the first ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ IP address mentioned in the output of the command. When the instance is “running”, ctrl-C to exit watch, then:

      $ ssh -i mykey.priv ubuntu@ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ

You are in ! When you’re done playing with your instance, just run the following command on the cloud/cluster controller.

      $ euca-terminate-instances i-YYYYYYYY

In the third and last part of this series of articles, we’ll talk about how to run instances from another workstation, as a cloud “customer”.

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10 Most Useful Google Plugins for WordPress

Original post is located here.

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WordPress is a great and most popular blogging platform for it possibility to extend functions with plugins. WordPress Plugins make blogging easier for all of us who have chosen WordPress as our content management system. This time we want to present you 10 Most Useful Google Plugins for Wordpress.

Google is best known as a search engine and Internet giant, but this time we will check what Google can offer for WordPress users. This post lists the most useful Wordpress plugins related to Google starting from XML Sitemaps and ending with FeedBurner subscribers counter.

We also are using some of listed plugins like Google XML Sitemaps, Google Analyticator or FeedBurnerCount.

1. Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

2. Google Analyticator

Google Analyticator easily adds Google Analytics tracking support to a WordPress-powered blog. Google Analyticator also comes with an easily customizable widget that can be used to display specific information that is gathered by Google Analytics using the Google Analytics API.

3. Google Analytics for WordPress

This plugin adds the possibility to tag and segment all outgoing links, so you can see whether a click came from a comment or an article. It also adds the possibility to track just the domain, instead of the complete link, so you get a better view of how much traffic you’re sending where.

4. Google Website Optimizer for WordPress

This simple plugin lets you optimize your landing pages (as posts or pages) using the Google Website Optimizer without needing to edit the HTML code of the theme.

5. Google Doc Embedder

Google Doc Embedder will allow you to embed a PDF, PowerPoint (PPT), or TIFF file directly into your page or post, not requiring the user to have Adobe Reader, PowerPoint, or other software installed to view the contents.



6. Easy AdSense

Easy AdSense provides a very easy way to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. With its full set of features, Easy AdSense is perhaps the first plugin to give you a complete solution for everything AdSense-related.

7. XML Google Maps

This plugin allows you to easily insert Google Map or Google Earth Plugin Maps into your blog.

8. Google AJAX Translation

The Google AJAX Translation WordPress plugin provides a quick, simple, and light way to add translation to your blog. A “Translate” button can be added to the bottom or top of posts, pages, and/or comments.

9. Google Custom Search Plugin

The default search engine that ships with WordPress is not the best search engine and bloggers every where should make the switch to WordPress Google Custom Search plugin. This plugin is a drop in replacement and works with minimum hassle.

10. FeedBurnerCount

A well-optimized and reliable plugin that connects to the FeedBurner Awareness API to retrieve your readers count, that you can print out in plain text.

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As for me, I have been using Google XML Sitemap and Google Analytics for Wordpress. Might want to try the other plugins when I have the chance to do so. :-)