Microsoft Silverlight & Linux.......

It has been a long time since i wrote. Well it has been really a long time, stuck in the worst city Bangalore, then moving back. Being in there in certain things. Having a fifteen minutes of fame. Everything was there. I did miss writing here in blogger. Though there was twitter to write to, it is not fun. But a great way to say out ideas short and sweet.

Well, after a long time, and trying to figure a way out to make Linux my main os at work, i succeded last week... Yes! DimensioN Studio 2.4 started to work in linux, it took a little hard work to figure out which files were missing. With a little more help from winetricks, i did get it to work properly via wine. It was so much fun doing it. I was just happy that i need not have to move into windows anymore.

Then i just thought of giving the new browser based cloud product of ours a try from linux. But this darn Microsoft agains comes into frustrate me. Silverlight doesn't seem to work with linux. and every attempt to make the new product work with Mono Moonlight also failed. It was frustrating to think that i have to login back to windows just to work with something which is browser based. This is not fair.....

Talk about microsoft and fairness, what am i talking? So i had to give the error messages and i was able to only hope that either mono team will release Moonlight 2.0 soon and it would be compatible with Silverlight 3.0, or our engineering team will make sure it will make changes to accomodate the moonlight too. But who knows....

The suddenly today when we were just discussing things, suddenly it turned towards the new product and linux compatibility. And My interviewer asked me why don't you try with wine or whisky and run the windows version of browser and try to make it work. This was a nice idea. Firefox 3.5.3 was up in 5 minutes, but then again Silverlight decided to play bad. Everything i tried was in vain. Nothing worked. Now i have others in the race. It's got to be me or the Engineering who should find a way out.... But if others find, that is also fine.

Why?! Why is it that at everyturn a new obstacle arises......

Securing your DimensioN Portal - enabling https

I had to do this for one of the clients. This is the procedure which i followed. It was a real headache. Got into some difficulties and then found out things and stuff. I am writing down the exact procedure which i had followed, during development time, and during the setting up of the server with a thawte certificate, and enable SSL and HTTPS. Hope this helps someone.



DimensioN is based on JBoss, So SSL on JBoss should also be the same, but i can't guarantee

To Enable SSL in DimensioN.

For development
Step 1: keytool -genkey -alias [alias name] -keypass [password] -keyalg RSA -keystore [keystore name]


to get ssl certificate from issuing authorities.

Perform the steps to generate the key , CSR and install SSL certificate. (ref:1)

STEP 1 : keytool -genkey -keyalg RSA - alias [alias name] -keystore [keystore name] (use the password same as alias.)
STEP 2 : keytool -list -keystore [keystore name]
STEP 3 : keytool -certreq -alias [alias name] -keyalg RSA -file certreq.csr -keystore [keystore name]
STEP 4 : keytool -import -alias [alias name] -trustcacerts -file [downloaded certificate name] -keystore [keystore name]


for eg:
STEP 1 : keytool -genkey -keyalg RSA - alias tomcat -keystore dimension.keystore (use the password same as alias.)
STEP 2 : keytool -list -keystore dimension.keystore
STEP 3 : keytool -certreq -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -file certreq.csr -keystore dimension.keystore
STEP 4 : keytool -import -alias tomcat -trustcacerts -file mysignedcert.crt -keystore dimension.keystore


Use the CSR file which is generated after step 3 to apply for the SSL certificate from the concerned authorities.  apply step 4 with the file which you get back from the signing authority.

If after doing this procedure, if you still get the error that is a self signed certificate, then the certificate you have downloaded is not in PKCS#7 format.(ref:3)  you will have to create a chain certificate from the one which you have.  The procedure to follow in windows is as follows.(ref:2)

1.  Double click on the .crt file, which you had downloaded.
2.  Click on the Details Tab at the top
3.  Click on 'Copy to file'
4.  Click 'Next'
5.  Tick the third option: "Cryptographic Message Syntax Standard - PKCS#7 Certificates (.P7B)".
 also tick "Include all certificates in the certification path if possible"
6.  Click 'Next'
7.  Select a file name or browse to a path where you'd like to save this chained certificate.
8.  Click 'Next'
9.  Click 'Finish'
10. Your export should be successful, then click 'OK'.


configuration in DimensioN:

Step 1 : copy the generated keystore to [DimensioN_Server_install_Directory]\DimensionServer\server\default\conf

Step 2 : open server.xml file in [DimensioN_Server_install_Directory]\DimensionServer\server\default\deploy\jbossweb-tomcat50.sar

Step 3 : find the below section in that file.

         <! - - < port="8443" address="${jboss.bind.address}" maxthreads="100"
            minsparethreads="5" maxsparethreads="15" scheme="https" secure="true"
            clientauth="false" keystorefile="${jboss.server.home.dir}/conf/chap8.keystore"
            keystorepass="rmi+ssl" sslprotocol = "TLS"> - - >

  remove the comments by removing the < ! - - and -- >  from the beginning and end of the section.
  give the keystore name in the line
    keystoreFile="${jboss.server.home.dir}/conf/[keystore name]"
  give the keystore password in the line
    keystorePass="[keystore password]"

Step 4 : find the below section in that file

      < Connector port="6666" address="${jboss.bind.address}"
       maxThreads="150" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192"
       minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
       enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
       connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" compression="on"
       compressableMimeType="text/csv"/ >

       comment out this section by adding < ! - - and - - > at the beginning and end of the section respectively.


Step 5 : Start the DimensioN server.  now you should be able to access it via the url https:\\localhost:8443.
  you can even set the connector port to 443, so that you can call the url as https:\\localhost.

ref:
(1) https://search.thawte.com/support/ssl-digital-certificates/index?page=content&id=S:SO3143&actp=search&searchid=1240204108338
(2) https://search.thawte.com/support/ssl-digital-certificates/index?page=content&id=S:SO2995&actp=search&searchid=1240199136843
(3) http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/ssl-howto.html

I know this is ugly. i promise to clean this up and write it properly once i get some time.

Number 2

It was a long time since i had gone into a quiz competition. And what a way it went, the same way i always do. With the buzzer at the death, and a last minute, last question mad rush, with hearts pumping up high, and many at the edge of the seats. Would you risk everything you have got. Will the rest leave it for the tied two to fight it out.

I am, no 2. the 1 who drives no 1 to the edge.

The Best day.....

it was different this year. May be one of the best, i am wrong, the most best day i had ever had. Though it did brought back some painful memories, which i am still trying to forget, it was still wonderful. I went to office for the class, then to my Child's house for lunch, where i also watched the movie Gangster, and then went back to office, did some work and played a good TT. Wonderful. It was not as wonderful or fantastic as some of the many days i had, but it was really a wonderful day, when i was taken back in time, to delhi and back to school days. It was wonderful. I will never forget this day.

Multilevel Menus - ddlevelsmenu

Well, last time i had written that i was supposed to convert a menu from mouseover functionality to onclick. Somehow i had done it, to the satisfaction of whoever i had shown. I don't know for whom i am doing this, but now i am happy.

The approach was same as everyother attempt at reading code. i have uploaded the js file which i had edited to achieve the desire effect. which you can take it from here. I thought it might be helpful to someone. The original script can be obtained from here (ddlevelsmenu). It works on mouse over, which i had converted to on click. This is a old version of the file that exist over there in their site, just make the same changes over there, to convert it into onclick.

I had commented whatever i had done which might help someone. If there are any unusual or wrong ways, just lemme know, so i can correct it.

The menu still lacks the ability to be on screen, when the mouse moves out of the menu. But it still has made the product a little more usable. That, is what is important. May be another day, another time, after learning Java Script i will make changes to overcome that problem tooo. or may be another version where i can combine both the functionalities with the change of a parameter or something.......

Mount an iso image

After all these years of using Linux, atlast i got it to work, i don't know what i was doing wrong all these years. (though i did get it to work one time before, that was because of the help recieved from one another colleague of mine. But this time, it is my effort. I know i am going bonkers over a simple command, but you gotta celebrate every victory, and ponder over ever defeat...

The command i used

mount -o loop -t iso9660 filename.iso /mnt/iso

Federer Vs Nadal 0r is it Nadal vs Federer......

What ever it may, I wish Nadal wins again in a 5 setter, similar to what we all experienced in the earlier match day before yesterday.....

Rafa, you gotta win....

Me and Dynamic Multilevel Drop Down Menus......

You crib about something, curse the person (even in front of them) who designed / programmed something, suggest some improvements that could make it better, which that person is not able to do because of some constraints, and suddenly like a thunder lightning bolt out of the blue on a clear dark night sky, you get a chance to change it, to make it look better, to perfect it...... and you did not have the required skills to do. How it would feel :( ....

That is what, the situation i am in..... I had been cursing about the drop down menus implemented in my company's product. I don't know about the clients, but i certainly do criticize each everything which i feel is not worth to be there or in that way... Suddenly, the CEO calls and asked me yesterday can you do it. I was dumbstruck for a moment. Though i do not have the basic skills required ( i don't know javascript or even what css meant till yesterday), I accepted the work, because i am being given a chance to make something better than what it was previously. But how am i going to proceed.....

With the same belief with which i stepped into this company to work, i started off. i read the file a little, i could n't understand much, i took a few help from my Child, and then got off to some start, then did some small settings changes and made it a little workable, but it was still way off the mark. It was a work around to make people a little happy.

The task given was to convert the drop down menus from becoming active on mouseover, and getting deactivated on mouseout, it should be made to work on onclick event. I nearly achieved that, but yet again there was many a problem. Now i stand at the brink of the first level victory, it is nearly ready, yet it is not perfect, it does not finish off as the required. To be correct, it does not finish off at all. It does appear on mouse click, it holds even on mouse out, but it does not disappear on mouse click outisde the menu.....

Kino, KdenLive, OpenVideo Editior Vs M****S*** Windoze Movie Maker

After all these years of moving away from windows at every possible opportunity, last week, i had go back to windows. Video Editing is still not easy for a novice, or even to a slightly average user. (maybe i am wrong, i am writing what i faced).

We had shot some videos during the new year celebration in our office, and i was given the job of editing the video, add some subtitles, some title slides here and there, and such. I decided to give a try once more on linux. The last time i tried was in December of 2006, using LiVES on a Fedora Core 6 System, but i couldn't spend time back then.. This time i set up Kino, KdenLive, OpenMovieEditor on my Laptop which was running mandriva 2009. I did not have to time to compile and set things up, else i could have even given a try for cinelerra, about which i heard some great things. For audio, i went with Audacity which i feel is the best.

Kino was cool. I just could understand what is what, but when trying to use it, i had trouble at exporting. something was not right, and system kept hanging or it would end up doing the wrong thing,(i know, kino just does what i ask it do, so i can't put the blame on kino). KdenLive was also nice, the interface was interesting, and certain things were really nice, (i did not take time to note things down). But i ran into problem soon(may be i was ignorant to search the menus or google it). and Open Movie Editor just kinda freaked me out. ok i am not saying anything bad, but at the state that i was, i just kinda threw me out....

Since i was pressed for time, i had boot back to windows ( windows gets a point ), start up windows movie maker and start doing things. I can't say Windows Movie Maker is the most coolest editor ever, i have seen sonic something when i was in college and some other stuff, which were really wonderful. Coming back, i am using the software nearly after 5 years, the last time i used it was to set up a video of all the still pictures which we shot during our Karnataka tour with a background music, so i can say i was not much of an expert at movie maker too. But i was able to start off immediately and proceed and finish the job in a day.

May be the fact that i have seen people use Movie Maker, may have unknowingly made me know that these things are there, and how to do those things and stuff.

I will have to live with it for some time, but i will have to find something or do something, so that i can and the others whom i have created interest in and those whom i have converted to linux can do video editing. I wish i could it sooner, or atleast some more time to check out any of the above mentioned tools.

BloGTK

lately i have been on the lookout for an off line blog writing software on Linux. On windows, in office i had been using the Live writer (i know that is a MS product, still that is great), and now the scribe fire firefox plugin.

The Scribe Fire plugin is good, but somehow i am not so very comfortable with it. with every new version released, something is throwing me off, like holding the previous blog in the editor area, and stuff like that. Other than that it is great. But i want something outside of the web browser, on the desktop. (Again don't start, i know i am some one who lives on the internet, but i too need to do take a break and do something different). So had been searching a lot, and came across gnome-blog, blogtk, kblog. I needed something out of these K's and G's. It is boring to say i use Kthis Kthat and ....., So i zeroed in on BloGTK. The version which is installed on my home computer is 1.1, i have to check what i have got in my laptop in office.

It looks nice. I love the icon of BloGTK and their web site. Ok, though bit not easy to find info. I've been trying to configure it for blogger, for the past 3 hours then i came across a link which finally got me working, it is here...

In the Server URL textbox in the Accounts and Preferences window, enter the url as http://www.blogger.com/api/RPC2, the rest of the things are self explanatory. Fill in the rest of the details, and you are ready to go. Go to file --> connect, then you can start writing.

But i was not able to enter the Title for my blog, i tried to see if i had done anything wrong, Googled for it, but in vain. If i can find something for this title, i think i can get used to it. Though you can't say it to be user friendly (it slightly requires you to understand and use HTML), still it should do the necessary for me. But till i find out how to enter the title and solution to any other problem which i might face, i will be logging in to blogger directly and then posting.

and just in case you end up with a blank BloGTK.conf file in /home//.BloGTK, which makes BloGTK to crash everytime (which happened to me, i un-installed and then reinstalled), i am posting my .BloGTK configuration, which might be of some use....

[Default]

useutf = 0

system = blogger

publish = FALSE

server = http://www.blogger.com/api/RPC2

retrievalnumber = 10.0

user = nasarabna

pass = xxxxxxxxxx

font = Clean 12

defaultpublish = 1

It stores your password in plain text in this file.