Installing Ubuntu 9.04 on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1

The default installation hangs somewhere. This is similar to Fedora Core 10 that I describe before. The solution is somehow similar.

Boot Ubuntu 9.04 up. On the first screen, choose [English].
Then press [F4] and select [Safe Graphics].
Then press [F6], but do not select any option. Instead press [Escape] and it will allow you to change the command line. Remove the option "quiet splash --" and replace it with "vga=791 noreplace-paravirt" instead.
Press [Enter] to start the installation.

I will expect more issue with the grub menu and other options later on, but my VM is still installing as I type here, so I won't know at this point of time. I will update again on a later post if there is any other issues.

Update: Yes, as pointed out by a commenter below, it is also possible to access command line by pressing [Esc]. However, you had better somehow remember the whole command, because it is not echoed onto the screen.

Update: Also note that during the bootup, it will take a while at the message that said squashfs.... Do not panic. That is normal.

Update: Near the end of the installation, at about 97%, there is a long wait to remove software packages. This is normal.

Slayers Evolution R Ending - Spoilers

Slayers Evolution ended about 2 weeks ago with some loose ends still unsolved. Lina Inverse has her hair turned white, perhaps due to the over usage of Giga-Slay. Although the ending, they did show her hair back to orange. One of them must be a glitch. Pokoda lose his hair/hand but was seen sew back by the villager in the ending. The truth of the Red Wizard Reizon was revealed, but was revealed to be a anti-hero rather than a villian. And the reason why the series was named Slayers is finally revealed.

1. But what happened to Maria, the enchanted armor? Where did she return to?
2. What happened to Gaori's Sword of Light? (Maybe I forgotten this... Was this in the past series?)

Well, I do hope we see more of Slayers. This is one wonderful series.

Ebay Still Thinks Linux Are Works of Piracy

Well, just because you can download torrent for Linux such as Mandrake, Fedora and Ubuntu from sites like ThePirateBay.com, it does not may these Linux needs to be works of piracy. For that matters, many things you can download from torrent sites are open source, freeware or public domain.

However, Ebay certain do not think so. Although after cutting and quoting GPL license and such, Ebay has reverted my account and standing, I believe they simply did nothing to their "robotic" engine which flag all Linux as Piracy. On top of that I still suffered more than 1 week of suspension which definitely equates to opportunity lost and a dent on my reputation.

I am not very thrilled to try and list another Linux for sale because of this. I had wrote to Ebay a few times and all I ever get back is cut and paste response with no regards to whatever I wrote in the question.

I guess I will just have to accept the fact. As far as Ebay is concern, all Linux are piracy and you will get severely punished for listing them.

Gamebooster FREE Software for Disabling Unnecessary Services During Gameplay

From the same company that made the FREEWARE Advance SystemCare and Smart Defrag, comes another FREEWARE product which enables the user to temporary disable background process and services during gameplay to enhance system performance. This is Gamebooster.

This is a free product which I find it useful when you want to run a intensive application or game and does not want the background process to weigh down the system performance for a while. This products works in Windows 7 as well!

Read and download from:
http://iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Linux is piracy... According to Ebay

Recently I had an incident with ebay which I felt very upset about. On one hand the linux world is trying so hard to push the concept of FREE open source software, then I got slam in my face because ebay consider linux pirated software.

My incident is pretty much similar to this:
http://www.linux.com/feature/27022
which was upssetting since it was in 2002. Basically, ebay pull the plug on my auction stating that the Linux I am selling is counterfeit and I should not list them again in the future.

Perhaps it people around south east asis is still very much stuff with the concept that software must come in a box and must be printed in factories. To be honest, even from Microsoft, I had tons of legal software which I do not even have the media for each license. All that matters was the piece of paper that state my rights to the software and the COA. In terms of moving ahead, Microsoft had done their parts not to make too much extra CD/DVD. Imagine if I needed like 101 copies of WinXP just to prove its original when I have the site license for it?

On the other hand, I guess open source software did not do its part to educate the world, well, at least not ebay. I had passed a friend of mine a DVD-R copy of Fedora and he whisper... "Err, we cannot use pirated software here... but btw, what's the CD-KEY?" I stared blankly at him. Obviously, FREE open source doesn't archive that it is suppose so.

But ebay really took it to the top. Linux IS piracy. Haha, I bet Microsoft guys must be laughing off their chairs now. Any copy, or for that matters, even my printed version of Ubuntu IS piracy. I am simply not allowed to sell Linux!!! That doesn't happens with Microsoft or other software. I listed them before and as long as I provides picture of the box, its perfectly ok.

I guess I could just walk and forget about Linux. It doesn't hurt because I wanted to do this more as a service than a profit. Some Linux are huge and I guess really painful for some users, I ust hope through me, it could reach out to them. Imagine downloading 4GB of data with a 2Mbps line.

Despite my contact to ebay, I believe I am speaking to a robot with the name of Sandra S. who simply cut and paste whatever ebay policy there is no matter what I ask or type in my request. This is probably something I did not need to do. Just tell myself, it is pointless fighting for it. Just accept the fact, Linux IS piracy. So, we all should stop selling pirated software such as Linux (including Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse) on ebay. Yes, just switch to Windows. Its the only legal operating system regconized by ebay.

Conficker Eye Chart AKA Conficker Scanner for Dummies

Loading 6 pictures will give you a status of whether you are (likely) to be infected. Unless the DNS has been screwed up or something, I see this check as perfectly easy and effective.

http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html

Foundstone Conficker Detection for B / C variants

Foundstone has release a Conficker detection tool which actually has a GUI. Grab it here and run a quick scan on your network to see if any system has potentially been compromised.

Grab it at:
http://www.foundstone.com/us/resources/proddesc/confickerdetectiontool.htm

Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 2007 for FREE

Formerly also know as Frontpage. Finally, Microsoft is offering it free. Maybe because not much people is using it in hte first place now that there is Expression around. But anywhere, just sign in with your .Net Passport and here you go :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

PSP Firmware 5.00 M33-6

I had not updated a while on PSP firmware. It seems that 5.00 M33-6 is out. The main bug fixes are as follows:

Changes in 5.00 M33-5:

- A setting has been added to recovery, that, when enabled it may increase memory stick reading speed. (only on the psp, not in the pc).

By default it is disabled. If you installed 3.71 fatmsmod, do not use this setting, as its perfomance with 3.71 driver has not been tested.

Instead, reinstall 5.00 m33-4 using dc8 and update to 5.00 m33-5

Changes in 5.00 M33-6:

- Fixed a bug that made unbootable psp without memory stick or with a bad one.

So, basically, up yours to 5.00 M33 at least. Then apply this patch to upgrade it to 5.00 M33-6.

Download

25 computer products that refuse to die

Here is an interesting article about 25 brands / items which we knew about back in the 70/80/90s but is hardly heard of or had totally died out.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9130874&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1

Top 10 Web Hacking Attacks

Here is a list of the top 10 web hacking attacks according to : Jeremiah Grossman, CTO and founder of WhiteHat Security. This was presented at the Web 2.0 Expo.

In summary, these are the top 10:

10. Flash Parameter Injection

9. ActiveX Repurposing

8. Tunneling TCP over HTTP over SQL-injection - Tunnel has always been the way to go. Basically if you can tunnel anything over something, you can get pass the firewall.

7. Cross-domain leaks of site logins via authenticated CSS

6. Abusing HTML 5 structured client-side storage

5. A different Opera - Yes, its about the browser!

4. Clickjacking / videojacking - This has been presented many many times. Clickjacking is dangerous. But so far, fortunately, nobody does it really good.

3. Safari carpet bomb - Again, browser!

2. Breaking google gears’ cross-origin communication model - Google gears, to use or not is not the question anymore

1. GIFAR - This is an attack on GIF and JAVA.

Read the full article at :
http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=908

Conficker Distribution Map

Its nice to see some map and blinking dots since there is no visible result of the conficker worm (as expected), anyway, not yet...

But here by CWG, is a nice map of the infection and how it is going :
http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/ANY/InfectionDistribution