Download from OTN slow? Check DNS

Sometimes download from Oracle Technology Network (OTN) is really slow, but it may not be Oracle's fault. Oracle is using Akamai Technologies  to distribute the software. You can see this if you do an nslookup on download.oracle.com and see it resolves (finally) to a host under akamai.net.

They have servers all over the world and when things work as they are supposed to the box on your end should connect to a host physically near you and not on another continent. If your download is really slow find the IP address that your DNS resolves for download.oracle.com (or the host you are downloading from) and then use a geo-lookup site to see where it is located.

Just now the DNS server for my local ISP (get.no) resolved download.oracle.com to two servers in California:

[root@rio ~]# nslookup download.oracle.com
Server:         84.208.20.110
Address:        84.208.20.110#53

Non-authoritative answer:
download.oracle.com     canonical name = download.oracle.com.edgesuite.net.
download.oracle.com.edgesuite.net       canonical name = a1961.d.akamai.net.
Name:   a1961.d.akamai.net
Address: 64.209.77.10
Name:   a1961.d.akamai.net
Address: 64.209.77.18

I used www.infosniper.net to find where this host was located. Me being in Oslo this was obviously not optimal. The only DNS server I can remember is 8.8.8.8 which is one of Google's public DNS servers. I decided to change /etc/resolv.conf to use 8.8.8.8 as the primary DNS server, and download.oracle.com now resolves to two servers in Germany:

[root@rio ~]# nslookup download.oracle.com
Server:         8.8.8.8
Address:        8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
download.oracle.com     canonical name = download.oracle.com.edgesuite.net.
download.oracle.com.edgesuite.net       canonical name = a1961.d.akamai.net.
a1961.d.akamai.net      canonical name = a1961.d.akamai.net.0.1.cn.akamaitech.net.
Name:   a1961.d.akamai.net.0.1.cn.akamaitech.net
Address: 46.33.72.121
Name:   a1961.d.akamai.net.0.1.cn.akamaitech.net
Address: 46.33.72.129

Here is the link if you like maps... I then flushed DNS in Firefox, restarted the download, and confirmed with netstat -an that the connection now went to a server in Germany. The download went much faster, well, at least for a while... YMMV.

Actually I thought that using Google's DNS server could give a suboptimal response if Google's DNS server was located somewhere far away (like in USA), but clearly they have some magic here that returns an IP address better than the DNS server of my local ISP.

+Linux  +Oracle 

Finding corrupt XML files on Linux

Here is an easy command to find corrupt XML-files on a Linux box.

A couple of days ago I had a problem with OBIEE and weblogic. Googling and search on My Oracle Support indicated that the failure may be caused by a corrupt XML file. And you know that there are many of them in an OBIEE installation. In fact MOS in Doc 1475146.1 blindly suggests to move a bunch of them to a backup location, because in some cases they had become corrupt for some strange reason. I was not satisfied with just deleting a few random files that have caused problems for others earlier, I wanted to find the file.

I then came up with the idea that I could find the corrupt file by parsing every XML file below a point in the file hierarchy.  On Linux this is quite easy. The command xmlint is possibly not standard on every system, but should be easy to get with yum or similar. In my case the file I was looking for belonged to user weblogic, meaning the corrupt file would reside in a directory called weblogic, hence the command. But you can of course tweak the arguments to the find command to search the files you want:

1|	#find . -wholename \*weblogic\*.xml -ls -exec xmlint {} > /dev/null \;

Any normal output will be discarded and only failures sent to stderr (on your screen). A similar command to parse every file with extension xml below $ORACLE_BASE:

1|	#find $ORACLE_BASE -name \*.xml -exec xmlint {} > /dev/null \;

If you (re)move the file you usually have to restart stuff with opmnctl.

A Red Hat® Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) is able to perform the following tasks

► Understand and use essential tools for handling files, directories, command-line environments, and documentation.

► Operate running systems, including booting into different run levels, identifying processes, starting and stopping virtual machines, and controlling services.

► Configure local storage using partitions and logical volumes.

► Create and configure file systems and file system attributes, such as permissions, encryption, access control lists, and network file systems.

► Deploy, configure, and maintain systems, including software installation, update, and core services.

► Manage users and groups, including use of a centralized 

directory for authentication.

► Manage security, including basic firewall and SELinux configuration.

Google Changing Google Apps Sign-In for Users in 2014

Google is moving all of its Apps sign-in pages to have the same look for consistency and security, which means that users will lose their personalization options.
Google Apps users will see some noticeable changes in 2014 when they log in to use their apps, including a consistent look for the sign-in pages for all of the apps. But what they'll also see is something that may not make them as happy—they'll be losing the ability to customize their Google Apps sign-in pages with their logos and other branding information.

The coming changes were unveiled in a Nov. 26 post on the Google Apps Updates Blog, where they were touted as a security and simplicity move for users.

"Early next year, the sign-in page for all Google Apps customers will be updated to be consistent across all Google Apps services," the post states. "In other words, the sign-in page for Gmail will now be identical to the sign-in page for Google Calendar, Google Drive, or any other Google Apps service. This change will improve security and make it easier for users to switch between accounts."

At the same time, the changes mean the end to the Apps personalization that was used by many organizations, the post states. "The Google Apps sign-in page can no longer be personalized with colors and custom logos. It will now look the same across all Google sign-in pages."
In addition, users will no longer be able to log in to the Apps by using just a brief user name. "Users will have to log in with their full email address (example: joe@company.com)," the post states. "For SSO domains with a network mask, users will be presented with the new Google sign-in page when they log in from outside the SSO network mask. This change does not affect SSO domains without a network mask."

More details of the coming changes will be arriving in the next few months, according to Google. The changes will affect users of Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government.

Earlier in November, Google Apps announced that it will soon be will ending its support for Apps on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 browser as it transitions users to the two latest versions of IE, Versions 10 and 11. That means that Apps users who are still browsing with IE9 will have to upgrade soon to IE10 or 11 to be able to continue to access and work on their files using Google Apps. Those upcoming changes affect users of Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government, according to Google. Google Apps only supports the latest two versions of supported Web browsers.

The last time that Google Apps made a similar transition was in September 2012, when IE8 users had to make the same transition to either IE9 or IE10 as Google Apps dropped support for the IE8 version of the browser, according to an earlier eWEEK report.

The Google Apps policy of supporting only the latest browsers began in June 2011 as big changes were beginning to arrive from new Web standards, such as HTML5. Newer, modern browser versions support many new capabilities that are not possible using older, outdated browsers, according to Google.

In October, Google unveiled a new feature that allows Google Docs users to share files with others who are not using Google accounts. The new capability allows guest Docs users who are not signed in using a Google account to be able to view a file, but not make changes or edits, according to Google. The new feature permits, for the first time, users to share such documents with others who may not have their own Google accounts. Previously, users could only view such files if they were also logged into their Google accounts. Administrators and Google Docs users who already have file-sharing permissions can change the sharing settings as desired. The new file-sharing feature is available for users of Google Apps and Google Apps for Business, Education and Government, according to Google.

In December 2012, Google dropped its then-free Google Apps for Business services. Google made the move after deciding that most business users were quickly outgrowing it and signing up for paid accounts that offered additional services. The paid Google Apps for Business accounts started in 2007 when Google began charging $50 per user annually, a fee that provided larger inbox mail storage, access to Google APIs to allow businesses to build custom apps and other extra services. Google also added apps versions specifically aimed at governments, universities and schools.

In October 2012, Google added some key benefits—phone and email support—for paying customers of its Google Apps services when they are accessed through Google's Chrome Web browser. That means that Google Apps for Business, Education and Government customers can get direct support on Chrome installation, functionality, security, browser policy settings and Google Apps interoperability for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Customers with free Google Apps accounts are not eligible for phone or email support, but can continue to use Google's free online help services and forums. 

Microsoft Boosts Encryption to Guard Traffic Against NSA Snooping

Following revelations that the spy agency tapped the Internet links of major tech companies, Microsoft is reportedly working to increase encryption of its traffic. 

Microsoft is taking steps to expand its encryption efforts to safeguard its Internet traffic after classified documents released by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden shed light on the NSA's data-collection capabilities.

Last month, the disclosure of NSA's Muscular program revealed that the agency had gained access into the private networks of Google and Yahoo by tapping the Web connections that linked their respective data centers. From its vantage point, the surveillance program could intercept raw, unprotected data as it was transferred between data centers.

While there is no proof that Muscular also ensnared Microsoft's network, its Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger services were mentioned in connection with the program, The Washington Post reported. So Microsoft isn't taking chances.

Suspicions had been building at the company for "several months," according to the report. It finally boiled over in October when it was disclosed that the NSA was tapping Google and Yahoo. 

Sources with knowledge of Microsoft's plans told the newspaper that the company "is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic amid fears that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications links." Top executives are reportedly involved in the project and will determine how it is implemented.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith weighed in, saying that if the NSA targeted the company in the manner it did Google and Yahoo, "it would be 'very disturbing' and a possible constitutional breach if true."

The exact nature of the NSA's data-collection capabilities remains cloaked in mystery. An anonymous U.S. government insider did offer to The Washington Post "that collection can be done at various points and does not necessarily happen on a company’s private fiber-optic links."

In an Oct. 31 analysis, eWEEK's Sean Michael Kerner explained, "In the Muscular approach, the NSA has cleverly managed to insert itself at a point where it can intercept all Google and Yahoo traffic. You see, both Google and Yahoo use robust sets of private links between data centers." He cites an earlier Washington Post report stating that the NSA enlisted an "un-named telecom vendor to offer secret access to a cable or switch through which Google and Yahoo traffic passes."

In the months following the Snowden leaks and growing concern about NSA's activities, major tech companies have repeatedly requested that the U.S. government provide more transparency over its intelligence programs and how they impact user data. Last month, they stepped up their efforts.

In an Oct. 31 letter, AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo voiced their support for the USA Freedom Act, legislation that would curtail the NSA's surveillance activities. In the letter, addressed to the bill's authors and sponsors in Congress, the companies said they "welcome the debate about how to protect both national security and privacy interests." Further, they "applaud the sponsors of the USA Freedom Act for making an important contribution to this discussion." 

+Microsoft +NASA 

How to Recover Data When Your Hard Drive Goes Belly Up

Imagine this: you're busy working on your computer and need to access documents saved on your external hard drive. You connect it, get ready to find your data, and...nothing happens. Your hard drive isn't working. Uh oh. Before you panic, there are several things you can try on your own before calling in the pros.

Data loss can be due to a number of factors, but two are the most common. The first (and easiest to resolve) is software related. You've accidentally deleted an important folder and emptied the recycle bin, or gone and formatted the wrong drive by mistake. The second—and probably most common—cause of data loss is a fault with the hard drive itself. Given the complexity of modern drives it's no wonder that somewhere along the line something will go wrong. When the drive suffers from some form of failure there's often little that you can do yourself to get the data back—professional data recovery services are usually required. However, there are certain failures that you can attempt to resolve yourself.

Recover Your Data with Software

When dealing with a software data loss, the first and most important thing to keep in mind is not to work with the drive in question. Every second that the drive is connected to a running system is a second that you lose your chances at recovery. Your operating system is reading and writing to your drive constantly, whether you're actively doing something or not. Now that your system is seeing the deleted data as ‘free space' it will happily overwrite this area—along with your chances of recovery.

1. Shutdown the machine connected to the drive you've deleted data from. Now that your drive is ‘safe' you can make a clone of the drive and attempt the recovery from the clone. There are a number of ways to clone the drive, some easier and quicker than others.
2. Scan the clone with a few different recovery programs. There are numerous options here, both free and paid-for packages are available. Recuva is a good free option, while Zero Assumption Recovery works well if you want to splash out a few dollars.

Pictured: The basic components of a hard drive with top cover off and PCB removed.

Recover Your Data with Hardware

Having covered the ‘deleted data' section of data recovery is all good and well, but what happens if your drive is not even being detected by your machine? Or your machine can see the drive, but just hangs when you try to access it? What about if the drive is completely dead and won't even spin up? Let's briefly cover the main components of a drive, see which components can fail, and what symptoms each failure might exhibit.

PCB: This is the (often green) circuit board attached to the bottom of your drive. It houses the main controller (the equivalent of your computer's CPU) along with many other electronic controllers. This is the interface that turns your 0s and 1s from the platter into usable data that your computer can understand.

Platters: Your drive contains one or more thin, circular platters. These spin around at anywhere between 5,900rpm to 7,200rpm on consumer drives and are the media that actually store your data. Made of glass or some form of alloy and coated with a magnetic layer, they can store anything up to 4TB of data.

Head assembly: Data from your drives' platters is read by means of a series of read and write heads. While in operation, these heads are not actually in contact with the surface of the platters. In fact, they ‘fly' nanometers above the surface of the disk, reading and writing data. Typically a drive will have 2 heads per platter, so a large capacity drive with 3 platters will be paired up with 6 heads, one for each side of each platter. If these heads fail physically or the drive is dropped or knocked over, the drive can experience a ‘head crash' where the heads no longer fly over the platters, but instead make contact with the surface and destroy your data at a few thousand revolutions per minute.

Firmware: Your drive runs its own mini operating system in order to deal with all of the data and operations required to access it. Most of this firmware is stored on the platters. A small portion is stored on the PCB, which is required when the drive starts up. Firmware can go wrong, leading to inaccessibility of your data. Unfortunately hard drive firmware is not similar to your mobile phone or tablet—you cannot just update or reflash it. Each drive has its own unique modules and parameters and is highly complex in nature.

Now that we understand the basic components of a hard drive let's look at some common failures and symptoms you might experience, determine which component could be causing the problem, and see if we can tackle some of these problems DIY style.

If Your Drive Isn't Spinning Up At All

This is the one instance where you have a relatively good chance of resurrecting your drive if you're prepared to put in some time and effort. If the drive does absolutely nothing when you apply power to it (no noises at all), it is 99% a PCB problem. With older drives, you could sometimes find a matching PCB from another matching drive, swap it over, and voila. However, on new drives, technology and architecture have changed and each drive contains microcode unique to the drive it's attached to. Simply swapping the PCB with a matching, working equivalent has almost no chance of working and can be outright dangerous to your data.

There are two main causes of failure here, either a TVS diode (fuse) has shorted due to overvoltage, or a vital component on the PCB has failed. Hard drive PCBs often have two TVS diodes which act as fuses to protect your drive in the event of a power spike. There will most likely be two of these: one for the 5v and one for the 12v rail. If you accidentally plugged in the wrong power adapter to your external drive, or you experienced a power surge, a TVS diode might have sacrificed itself. If the shorted TVS diode is the only casualty and the rest of the PCB components are OK, then simply removing the shorted diode is enough to bring the drive back to life.

You can test this with a multimeter—if the diode reads zero ohms, or close to it, then it has indeed shortened. When shorted these diodes often have a noticeable burnt smell and might have visible burn damage. Note that when a TVS diode is removed the drive is no longer protected, so ensure that the power supply you connect to the drive is correct and healthy.

Pictured: A PCB with the TVS diodes highlighted

If the TVS diodes don't smell burnt and show the correct digits when measuring them, then the problem is the PCB itself. A replacement PCB is required, but not just a straight swap. There is an 8 pin ROM chip on most PCBs that contains unique firmware info that is required to start up the drive. This needs to be moved from the old PCB to the new in order for the replacement to work. Some hard drives, especially Western Digitals, do not have this 8 pin chip—the firmware is stored in the main controller which is virtually impossible to move.

If you want to replace the PCB then you'll need to fine a matching replacement and have the ROM chip moved. There are many online providers that will sell you a matching PCB. Some of them even offer to move the ROM chip for you, saving you the hassle of soldering and possibly damaging the chip. If the PCB was the only damaged component and the drive's internals are OK, then after the replacement and ROM swap, your drive should be up and running again. Another PCB-related item to check are the head contacts. Sometimes they corrode with time, but are easily cleaned with a rubber eraser.

Pictured: The contacts on a PCB can cause problems when they become tarnished like this.

If Your Drive Is Spinning Up and Making Clicking Noises

This is a serious failure and indicates a failed head or heads. It could also mean that your drive has suffered from platter damage if a head crash has occurred. Either way, this is a job for the pros. The drive will need to be opened in a clean room environment in a lab and a replacement head assembly fitted in order to try and recover your data. If your drive is clicking, it's best power it off and leave it in this state until you can send it to a professional recovery company. Powering it up in this state could degrade the disk further, to the extent that it's no longer recoverable.

Pictured: A hard drive that experienced a head crash and made a deep scratch. This can render a drive unrecoverable.

If Your Drives Spins Ups and Is Detected by Your Computer, But Hangs When You Try to Access It.

This usually means that the magnetic media is degraded. Basically, there are a large amount of bad sectors that the drive is trying to read, failing to do so, and hanging. This is a common problem that occurs over time and can be worked around, but only with professional data recovery equipment, more specifically a hard imager. If you look at the SMART values of the drive you'll notice and large amount of reallocated sectors to confirm your suspicions. If the data is important then send it off to the pros.

If you want to have a crack at it yourself (and risk making the problem worse or losing your data altogether) then you can try a software imager that can work around bad areas. Seeing that software commands ultimately goes through the BIOS, the effectiveness is limited. The best option if you want to go this route is a free Linux application called dd_rescue. It can skip bad areas and image in reverse.

If Your Drive Makes a Beeping Sound When You Power it Up

The beeping sounds you are hearing is the motor trying to spin the drive up and failing to do so. This is caused by one of two things, both serious mechanical failures. The most common is what's known as stiction. The heads of your drive park either in the center or on a ramp at the edge of the drive when not in use. Remember, the heads don't make contact with the data area of the platters, they fly just above. Sometimes, the heads can fail to park properly and the platters stop spinning with the heads still over the data area. Because of the extremely smooth surfaces of both the platters and heads, they literally stick to each other, hence the name stiction. The drive needs to be opened up in the lab, heads carefully removed and most likely replaced, definitely not a DIY job.

Pictured: The head assembly with drive turned off and heads in the parked position. With stiction, they would be stuck somewhere on the platters.

The other cause could be seizure of the motor spindle. This is the spindle around which the platters rotate. It can become seized if the drive suffers a hard knock or drop. It's not a particularly common fault, except for Seagate drives as they have a particularly fragile spindle. There are two ways for this problem to be resolved, both of which require pro intervention. Either the spindle can be replaced or the platters are moved to a new hard drive casing along with heads, PCB, the works.

If Your Drive Sounds Normal but is Not Detected, or is Detected as the Wrong Capacity

This normally indicates a problem with some area of the firmware. Either it's not being read properly which could actually be head problem, or there is some corruption that needs to be resolved. A few years back there was a well-known bug with Seagate 7200.11 drives with firmware version SD15 known was the BSY bug. Googling this provide a wealth of info of the huge amount of failures were caused by this firmware glitch. There was a DIY solution for this particular problem, but with today's drives there is nothing that the end user can do but to send your drive in for professional help.

So, there are a few instances where you can attempt to recover your own data. If you've accidentally deleted your data then you might be in luck. If the drive is completely dead and won't even power up then you could go the DIY PCB route if you wish to tinker. Other than that, if your drive is making unusual noises or acting in a peculiar manner, you'll need to hand it over—together with some hard earned cash—to a data recovery professional. Remember, ANY attempts at data recovery are risky. If the data is important, take it directly to the professionals.

---

Nick Parsons is the Founder of SouthBit Data Recovery, leading data recovery service provider in South Africa. He founded SouthBit after receiving his honors degree in digital forensics. SouthBit Data Recovery rovides recovery services to all media including hard drives, SSD drives, and RAIDs.

---

+Database 

Google lets developers look into Glass

 Developers can now purchase a Google Glass to get acquainted with the hardware and start making applications for it.

Google is now letting developers get their hands (and eyes) on Glass.
The search giant on Monday sent out invitations to developers to purchase Google Glass. Google hasn't said how many developers were included or whether the offer will be extended to more developers.
The move follows the company's recent launch of its Glass Development Kit. Google has also offered its Mirror application programming interface to developers who want to create apps for the hardware.
CNET has contacted Google for more details. We will update this story when we have more information.

+Google  +Google Glass  +Wearable Technology - Augmented Reality 

A Tale of Two Browsers: Chrome v. Chromium

 Is Chrome or Chromium more secure? Numerous security experts place their bets on Chromium, suggested Paul Hill, a senior consultant at SystemsExperts. "Chrome's code has to be able to tie into Flash Player, for instance," Hill explained. "So more code is involved to integrate with other third-party products. This all introduces more complexities and more code paths."

 

If you've ever used Google's free Chrome browser, you may or may not be aware that it's closely related to another, similarly named Google project called "Chromium."

Chrome and Chromium share a heavy portion of their core browser code, but Chrome is a proprietary Google product, while Chromium is open source. Both serve Linux, Windows and Mac OSX platforms, however, and both continue to vie for user share with Mozilla's open source Firefox, their distant cousin.

"Firefox and Chromium-based browsers are likely to continue to leapfrog each other in minor ways," Paul Hill, senior consultant at SystemsExperts, told LinuxInsider. "Each development community is aware of the other and each benefits the other."

Given the apparent duplication between these two projects, it may seem an exercise in redundancy to have both maintained by an overlapping team of developers. Why have both? What are the differences? Which one is better? Read on for a closer look at what sets these two popular browsers apart.

Chrome's Lineage

"Chrome was a big bet five years ago and has made browsing the Web simpler, speedier and safer," Avni Shah, product management director for Chrome at Google, told LinuxInsider.

"Chrome adds a small number of features to Chromium such as a built-in PDF viewer and Flash plug-in, and the official Google Chrome branding," Shah added.

Google released a large portion of Chrome's source code as an open source project called Chromium for the Windows platform in September 2008. The intent was to encourage third-party software developers to review its underlying code and contribute to porting the browser to Linux and Mac platforms.

The Chromium project remains viable and valuable to Google because it was mostly started by Google. The whole idea was to use it as a core open source project to set up a public code review, Hill explained.
A Thriving Open Source Community

Google continues to take an extremely active role in the Chromium open source project, but there's also a thriving open source community behind it, with many contributions from other individuals and organizations, Shah said.

The portion of Chromium that contains Google-authored code is released under the permissive BSD license. Other portions of the Chromium source code are subject to a variety of open source licenses.

That licensing distinction highlights some of the key intellectual property differences. 

Chrome is the non-public version because Google added features that the Chromium community cannot include in its open source project, noted Hill.

Other distinguishing features include various plug-ins and codecs that have licensing fees associated with them, he said. For instance, the code that Google incorporates into Chrome for MP3 and MP4 files does not appear in Chromium.

Complicating Complexities

As an open source project, Chromium has no licensing fees associated with it. So, anything that has licensing fees for its use is only going to appear in Chrome. That in part is why the two browsers appear as two different projects, Hill said.

On some Chromium installations, a direct connection with the user's Google account is evident. Not so other Chromium installations. This distinction goes far beyond the two-tone blue browser emblem that Chromium sports -- as distinct from Chrome's four-color treatment.

"Chromium is an open source project, and some other organizations may choose to modify it to give their users a tailored experience," said Shah.

Family Ties

One of the main commonalities between Chromium and Chrome is access to the Chrome Web Store. Google introduced this open marketplace for Web apps in 2010.

With this Web app platform, users and software developers have a common tool in both Chrome and Chromium to discover apps and extensions to customize their experience on the Web. Developers can take advantage of convenient distribution to hundreds of millions of users, and they can monetize using the platform as well, noted Shah.

That connected marketing platform stretches across Windows, Linux and OS X operating systems. It is one monetizing feature that is lacking in the development of most other Web browsers.

Chromium users can even log into their Google accounts to have all their Google Services data accessible in the Chromium browser.

Growing Pains

Increasingly, Chromium is being included as the default browser in a growing number of Linux distributions. Chrome, on the other hand, -- because it is not completely open source, although still free -- must be downloaded and installed independently. The same goes for Windows, where the default browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mac OS X, whose default browser is Apple's Safari.

In terms of community contributions, Firefox had a head start over Chromium, but "Chromium has outpaced Firefox in both total contributors and growth rate over time," Dave Gruber, director of developer programs at Black Duck Software, told LinuxInsider.

The growth curves of Chrome and Firefox, shown as a mirror of their adoption curves.

Community size and growth reflects the momentum and evolution of a project. While the architecture of a project can affect the overall number of contributors, the growth curve of the project over time often mirrors the adoption curve, acting as a bellwether for future uptake, he explained.

Security Differences?

Chrome is viewed by many to have a reputation for security, but a lot of security experts actually take the view that Chromium is superior in this respect, suggested Hill. After all, Chrome is a more complex version of Chromium, so it stands to reason that it it probably is a little bit less secure, at least from a theoretical standpoint.

"Chrome's code has to be able to tie into Flash Player, for instance," Hill explained. "So more code is involved to integrate with other third-party products. This all introduces more complexities and more code paths."

That aspect of Chrome's integration can not be publicly reviewed because those elements are not part of the open source version. So, people just do not know for sure if there are security vulnerabilities that appear in Chrome that are not in Chromium, he said.

"There are a number of security-related plug-ins available for Firefox that provide features that are not yet available for Chromium or Chrome," said Hill.

How They Stack Up

Vulnerability data from the public National Vulnerabilities Database shows considerable variation among Chrome, Chromium and Firefox, Black Duck's Gruber pointed out.

For instance, Firefox has had 1,097 vulnerabilities reported in its all-time history, whereas there have been 845 for Chromium and 1,001 for Chrome, he said.

Over the past 3 months, there have been 48 for Firefox, 51 for Chromium and 52 for Chrome.

Looking back over the past 3 years, Firefox has racked up 471, compared with 708 for Chromium and 775 for Chrome.

Of course, such statistics don't factor in the fact that Firefox has been around longer, noted Gruber, who said he assumes Firefox to be more stable.

More Private, Right?

Another common assumption is that Chromium is not under Google's direct control and so offers better privacy from intrusions such as those recently revealed on the part of the National Security Agency.

"I would say that is still an open-ended question," Hill said. "You are giving developers less information when you are using Chromium. If you go to the Chrome store in Chromium, it is hard to say what additional tracking you are providing."

The bigger risk is if you use Chromium and plug it into Google services like Gmail. If, from within Chromium, you do the sign-in authentication and do your Web browsing, you are probably providing just as much tracking information to Google as if you were running Chrome itself, according to Hill.

"That is where the developers get the majority of information from users," he explained. "It is not necessarily limited to any IP code in the Chrome browser itself."

Chromium Alternatives

Users who really want to avoid as much tracking as possible would be better off using one of the Chromium derivatives or Linux distros that use tweaked versions of the Chromium browser that specifically address that ad-tracking feature and related information-gathering issues, suggested Hill.

Another advantage of this alternative-browser approach is additional security evaluations. For example, with some of these Chromium-based browsers, every time the Chromium community releases a new version, the smaller developer communities actually will evaluate the additional code.

That leads to decisions on whether or not to include the newer releases in these other third-party derivative browsers. This could have an impact on privacy and tracking that might not otherwise arise with either the Chromium core project or Google Chrome.

Google Advantage

Unlike other third-party software distributed through different repository systems in Linux, Google maintains a direct path to avoid updating delays. Chrome has an auto-update feature, while Chromium does not. That remains an advantage for using Chrome rather than Chromium on Windows and Mac platforms as well.

Chrome is supported directly in a number of cases, according to Google's Shah. For instance, Google maintains package repositories for popular Linux distros to keep Chrome in Linux up-to-date.

"However, we have found that some Linux distribution maintainers prefer open-source software that they have built themselves," he added. "It is possible for maintainers to build Chromium and modify it (if necessary) to work in supported releases of their distro."

Chrome or Chromium?

So, bottom line: Is Chrome or Chromium better? There's even a list of feature comparisons to help you decide.

In general, though, people should choose Chrome or Chromium based on their use case, Shah advised. Since Chrome includes a few additional add-ons such as built-in Flash and a PDF viewer, most people find that it works well for them.

"However, open-source developers may prefer Chromium," he concluded, "if they are often tinkering with source code or modifying their own distribution." 

+Chromium  +Chrome Life 

What you need to know before upgrading to Windows 8.1

It’s nearly a year since Microsoft released the divisive Windows 8, and this week sees the launch of Windows 8.1 -- an update to the tiled operating system that aims to fix many of the perceived wrongs of the first version, while introducing some very welcome new features.
If you’re a Windows 8 or RT user you’ll be able to download the update for free starting at 4AM PDT (that’s 12pm in the UK) on 17 October. You’ll be able to get it directly through the Windows Store.

 

Anyone running the RTM version of Windows 8.1 will be able to get the latest fixes and changes by installing the GA Rollup A through Windows Update.

If you don’t have Windows 8 (or 8.1) but want to make the leap to the new operating system you’ll need to purchase it. Windows 8.1 is priced at $119.99 for the basic edition, while the more advanced Windows 8.1 Pro will set you back $199.99. Both are available to pre-order now, if you haven’t already done so. The new OS will go on sale on 18 October. You can of course also purchase the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade now (priced at $199.99) and grab the free update when it becomes available.
There’s good news if you’re thinking of upgrading to the new OS from Windows 7 -- you’ll be able to do so without losing your personal files. Sadly there’s bad news too -- you’ll need to reinstall all of your existing software.
You’re screwed if you’re hoping to upgrade from Vista or XP as that’s not a path Microsoft has catered for. Instead you’ll need to boot from disc, perform a clean install and then install all your programs, and copy over any personal files and settings. Sorry about that.
Neither Windows 8.1 nor Windows 8.1 Pro come with Windows Media Center. If you want that and are running Windows 8.1 Pro you’ll be able to purchase the add-on for $9.99. If you’re running the standard Windows 8.1 you’ll need to spend $99.99 for the Pro Pack which includes Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows Media Center.
If you’re updating the Windows 8.1 Preview to the full release, you’ll find the process simple, but potentially time consuming as you’ll need to reinstall of your existing desktop programs and Windows Store apps.
Windows 8 users who were able to avoid temptation and not upgrade to the Preview will have a much smoother time of things. You’ll be able to update your system without losing any programs or personal data.
Should you decide, having made the switch to Windows 8.1, that the OS refresh isn’t for you, you won’t be able to simply uninstall it. Instead you’ll need to restore an existing backup, or do a fresh install of your previous OS.
So that’s everything you need to know about upgrading to Windows 8.1. Are you excited for the new OS, or will you be giving it a wide berth? Leave your comments below.

Red Hat Official Responds to Criticism of OpenStack

Last week, I covered a debate that continues to swirl over whether OpenStack has emerged as a successful cloud computing platform in terms of actual deployments, or whether it is overhyped and immature. The post was prompted when Gartner Research Director Allessandro Perilli came out with an essay that paints a very gloomy picture of actual OpenStack deployments.  Now, officials from Red Hat and other organizations are publicly discussusing Perilli's comments.
Bryan Che from Red Hat has a blog post that challenges Perilli, where he makes the point that open source projects are not the same as products.  To put Che's points in context, Perilli originally suggested four reasons why OpenStack isn't more of a success in the enterprise.

+OpenStack  +Cloud Logic 

This Infographic Shows Which Sites Properly Encrypt Your Data

This Infographic Shows Which Sites Properly Encrypt Your Data

No company out there wants to admit it, but the fact is, there's always a reasonable chance they'll get hacked. If they don't encrypt your data, those hacks reveal all kinds of information about you very easily. So, to see who's doing encryption well, the Electronic Frontier Foundation decided to come up with a chart that looks at a number of the big companies.

The EFF looked at major companies like Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, and Google. They then looked at what type of encryption options they offered users and what they use to keep your data out of the hands of hackers. The results are pretty surprising, with some companies, like Comcast and Microsoft not doing very much at all to keep your data safe. You can find the full infographic below, as well as the EFF's full report.

OpenSUSE 13.1: What's New in the Latest Linux Distribution

1) OpenSUSE 13.1

This past week marked the on-time debut of the openSUSE 13.1 Linux distribution.

Among the big highlights of the release is full support for the KDE 4.11 and the GNOME 3.10 Linux desktops. For cloud users, the release includes the latest OpenStack Havana platform. ARM is another key focus for openSUSE 13.1 though it's not yet quite as mature as x86, according to Agustin Bethencourt, openSUSE team lead at SUSE. "openSUSE on ARM is not yet as mature as on x86/x64, though we are making good and steady progress," Bethencourt said. "We are working to bring those improvements and new ones to openSUSE 13.1 and will announce them when they become fully available."

2) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5

Red Hat's flagship enterprise Linux release was update last week to version 6.5 providing new capabilities to users. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5 is the first from Red Hat to support the Precision Timing Protocol (PTP) which offers the promise of sub-microsecond accuracy for timestamping. The new release also includes the ability to hot swap virtual CPU capacity inside of KVM, enabling new virtualization scale up and down capabilities. Red Hat is also making moves with RHEL 6.5 to provide support for the increasingly popular Docker container technology.

"Red Hat and Docker have jointly collaborated to ensure that Docker images can be run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, but customers should refer to Docker for supported versions,"Siddharth Nagar, principal product manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux said. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 now includes the necessary support in the operating system for Docker; however, users will need additional software directly from Docker to manage and manipulate images."

3) Linux 3.13

Linux creator Linus Torvalds is wasting no time getting the next (and likely final) release of the Linux kernel out in 2013. Typically Torvalds releases RC milestone on the weekend, but for the first Linux 3.13 RC he came out a bit early.

"So you had an extra week to prepare your pull requests, and if you were planning on sending it in the last two days thinking I'd close the merge window on Sunday as usual, I can only laugh derisively in your general direction, and call you bad names," Torvalds wrote. "Because I'm not interested in your excuses. I did warn people about this in the 3.12 release notes. As it was, there were a few people who cut it fairly close today. You know who you are."

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Linux Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist

Why Is the Linux Foundation Growing?

VIDEO: Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, explains where growth is coming from and why legal aspects and open-source collaboration are crucial.



Linux is one of the world's leading operating systems powering much of the Internet and rapidly becoming a core mobile and embedded technology, as well. Helping to lead Linux forward is the Linux Foundation and its charismatic leader Jim Zemlin.

Jim Zemlin has been the executive director of the Linux Foundation since the organization was created in 2007, after a predecessor Linux group, called the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), collapsed. In a video interview with eWEEK, Zemlin explains why the Linux Foundation continues to grow year after year.

"It's not important for us to grow just for growth's sake," Zemlin said.

Zemlin explained that he asks a few key questions before the Linux Foundation takes on any new effort. The first is whether the initiative will, in some way, move the needle on adoption for Linux and open-source software. The second question that is always asked is if the initiative requires collaboration, as opposed to being something that might be better handled by a single vendor. Finally, before the Linux Foundation undertakes any new effort, Zemlin needs to be sure that his organization can get the required resources to be successful.

In recent years, the Linux Foundation has expanded beyond just Linux to be a host for Collaborative Project development, including the Xen Hypervisor and OpenDaylight SDN efforts.

Overall, the Linux Foundation is growing because Linux itself is growing.

"We're a mirror of Linux, so it's not that we're growing; it's that Linux is growing," Zemlin said. "We reflect the technical adoption that is happening."

Watch the full video interview with Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, below:




Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 arrives

   . Summary: Red Hat's newest update for its flagship enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, is ready to go.

 

Red Hat, the world's leading Linux company, has announced that the newest version of its flagship operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5, is ready to go.

According to the Raleigh, NC-based company, this latest version of the RHEL 6 line is "designed for those who build and manage large, complex IT projects, especially enterprises that require an open hybrid cloud. From security and networking to virtualization, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 provides the capabilities needed to manage these environments."
This version also includes tools that aid in quickly tuning the system to run SAP applications based on SAP's published best practices.
In a statement, Jim Totton, Red Hat's VP and general manager of the Platform Business Unit, said, “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 provides the innovation expected from the industry’s leading enterprise Linux operating system while also delivering a mature platform for business operations, be it standardizing operating environments or supporting critical applications. The newest version of RHEL 6 forms the building blocks of the entire Red Hat portfolio, including OpenShift and OpenStack, making it a perfect foundation for enterprises looking to explore the open hybrid cloud.”

To help all this work, RHEL 6.5 features "integrated security functionality that combines ease-of-use and up-to-date security standards into the platform. The addition of a centralized certificate trust store enables standardized certificate access for security services. Also included are tools that meet leading security standards, including OpenSCAP 2.1, which implements the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) 1.2 standard. With these additions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 provides a secure platform upon which to build mission-critical services and applications."
This version of RHEL also pushes into real-time operating system territory with application latency that is measured in microseconds, not seconds. The new RHEL is designed for use in the financial services and trading-related industries, where Red Hat has long had a presence in such important stock markets as the New York Stock Exchange Euronext, Citigroup, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Specifically, RHEL 6.5 fully supports sub-microsecond clock accuracy over local area network (LAN)s using the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). Precision time synchronization is key for high-speed, low latency applications such as stock trading programs. RHEL 6.5 can now be used to track time on trading transactions, improving time stamp accuracy on archived data or precisely synchronizing time locally or globally.
RHEL 6.5 also boasts new comprehensive views of network activity. These capabilities enable sysadmins to inspect IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) data to list multicast router ports, and multicast groups with active subscribers and their associated interfaces. This means that RHEL can now easily be used for media streaming .
The new RHEL also improves its virtualization tools. For example, you can now dynamically enable or disable virtual processors (vCPUs) in active guests. This makes it work well with cloud-based elastic workloads. The handling of memory intensive applications as Red Hat Enterprise Linux guests has also been improved, with configurations supported for up to 4TB of memory on Linux's built-in Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.
The KVM hypervisor also integrates with GlusterFS volumes to provide direct access to the distributed storage platform, improving performance when accessing Red Hat Storage or GlusterFS volumes.
RHEL 6.5 also now supports deploying application images in containers created using Docker. Formerly known as dotCloud, Docker is an open-source container project. Containers, in turn, can run applications as if they were on virtual machines (VM)s without a VM's memory, proessors and storage demands.
Put it all together and what you have is a major step forward in the RHEL corporate operating system family. Businesses using RHEL for their servers should be certain to examine this release closely. In particular, companies using RHEL for SAP, financial transactions, and virtualization should give RHEL 6.5 a close look sooner rather than later.

 +Linux News Here +Red Hat