Celebrate Software Freedom Day 2017 With Us at PUP Taguig

EDGEKIT will participate the SFD 2017 and be speaking about what OpenBSD can do for your business, please register to be able to enter the Polytechnic University of the Philippines - Taguig Campus tomorrow, 16 September 2017.
See you all, be there!

EDGEKIT Supports Software Freedom Day 2014 and Will Talk on OpenBSD

In its continuous commitment to free and open source technology, EDGEKIT Computer Systems will provide presentation on OpenBSD in the Software Freedom Day 2014 celebration at Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Sta. Mesa campus on 20 September 2014.

This Software Freedom Day (SFD) event is proudly organized by Computer Professionals' Union, they have successfully organized SFDs since 2008.

UPDATE:
The planned SFD celebration last 20 September has been cancelled due to flood and severe weather condition in Metro Manila and neighboring towns and cities, Software Freedom Day 2014 has been re-scheduled to be held on 8 November 2014, still at the same venue. See you there!

EDGEKIT: Sole OpenBSD Support and Consultancy Provider in the Philippines

In our passion and commitment to provide the best platform on which small- and medium-scale businesses should build their simple, secure and functional infrastructure, we at EDGEKIT Computer Systems are very happy and proud to announce that we are the sole OpenBSD support and consultancy provider in the Philippines as shown here, and we're very grateful to Sir Ariel Licas's blog for featuring us.

We have worked with and loved OpenBSD for some time now that we could sing the Beatles song "Two of Us", feeling the deep connection with the lines:

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Along with that passion and commitment, OpenBSD is one of the core foundation on which we built our Weapon of Choice technology stack.

Contact us now for your free consultation.

A Brief Date with Windows 8

As a gift from my sister, I was able to buy a new laptop, and I can say I got a bargain with an HP ProBook 4445s; with nice specs and clean design, I call it my weapon of choice and am very happy with it. Depending on how you look at it, blessed or cursed, it's already installed with Windows 8.

For me it was a blessing, at least initially, since it's been some time since I last used a legitimate copy of Windows, add to that this is a brand new version, so support for new and related software is abundant. This is the first Windows version I used where I never encountered the dreaded and legendary its-a-feature-not-a-bug BSOD aka Blue Screen of Death, but it doesn't mean I never force rebooted it, there were still instances when it hangs but it was rare and the incidents were far in between. Frankly, I was starting to doubt whether free and open source platforms, like the gazillion GNU/Linux-based distributions and BSDs, will have anything worthwhile to offer when Windows 8 and its stability and performance improved.

Having no access to other legitimate proprietary software, I opted to use free and open source applications like LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape and the like. This is where PortableApps really shine and make the use of Windows 8 pleasurable for the time being.

AppArmor and Server Security

I was tasked recently at work to create a new instance of MySQL in a server where there were two (2) instances already existing and running. This task should have been a breeze and done in no time. Unfortunately, I was working on a GNU/Linux distribution, okay Ubuntu, with AppArmor activated with security profile for MySQL, and I figuratively banged my head on the wall for almost a week why the steps I follow doesn't work, I already stripped the config file to the minimum and the setup still won't work. Turns out AppArmor is in my way in it's objective to secure the system it runs on.

Operating Systems Utopia: Alternative, Academic Systems and the System of the Future

My background with and enthusiasm for free and open source operating systems started when, back in college here and then here, I needed to use a computer and there's only MS-DOS (and its GUI for your personal confuser, Windows) together with its quirks and virus bandwagon, not to mention the agony of inconvenience they bring. As I mentioned in my previous article, I learned to program computer viruses and realized there's no creative, social or educational benefit from it. Frustrated, I pined for the day I can have an operating environment that's impervious to computer viruses, can run multiple applications, is free (haven't yet imagined it's source code is also accessible) and most importantly, shouldn't crash (at least compared to DOS and Windows that pulls this stunt on a regular basis).

Compromised Server Security Measures

Recently, my employer's web server hosted on Rackspace Cloud was compromised (yes I still have a day job), and I helped resolve the issue, consequently formulating some security measures which I hope to impart today wishing you won't have to go through the upheavels we had. You may also learn more on this from Linux Server Security and Secure Architectures with OpenBSD.

From the experience we had at work, here are some of the measures I would advocate (some advise you may have encountered somewhere else):

• Isolate access to the compromised server
• Secure the workstation that solely accesses the server
• For web application scripts, have trusted copy in version control systems
• Your .htaccess may be the culprit
• Setup routine file change monitor

As our modus operandi goes, below are the rationale and discussion of the measures above.

What a Tablet Computer Could and Should Be

With all the hype over Apple's iPad and the feasibility of having your own custom-made touchscreen tablet computer, I think we deserve a better user experience of how we can acquire and interact with a touchscreen tablet computer (which from here onwards we will refer to as tablet computers to save on tongue twisting effort). We will not discuss the usual desirables, like durable and eco-friendly parts and components, fast responding user interface, smooth graphics, and high fidelity (that's oldspeak for hi-fi) sound, they should be standard features.

Below is a list of proposed improvements every tablet computer could and should have:

• Have Dvorak keyboard layout as option
• Make Internet access via Wi-fi AND Bluetooth easy
• Fast, compact, standard compliant web browser
• Open standard video and audio support
• Text-to-speech book and news reader built-in
• Must be social network agnostic
• Interface port
• No cellular phone capability
• Use BSD operating system instead

Below are the rationale for the proposals we have above.

Bandwidth Cap: Twilight of the Internet Access Middleman

In early 2000, the historic Water Wars of Cochabamba happened in Bolivia, because a water concession corporation sanctioned water rates that are too high for many to afford and avail of decent supply of water, while forbidding people to collect rainwater, you can read about it on Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. In the documentary The Corporation showing footage of what happened in that part of Bolivia, people were so outraged, this is their battlecry: "It's our water, damn it!"
Proponents of bandwidth or bit cap cite justifications, such as this article discusses. They want to convince broadband consumers that internet bandwidth is a finite, limited resource like water, thus rationed . Unlike water, bandwidth is only artificially regulated and limited,  but like water, can be projected to be so for profits.

What is there to regulate when what the people contributed is what makes the internet valuable? The blogs and articles online? It's our content! The videos? It's our content! The pictures? It's our content! The social networks and forums? It's our content! The online game experience and scoreboard? It's our content! Internet is first and foremost an information highway, and with our right to know, we have right to have access to information, moreover, we have the right to access information we created and/or care about.

OpenBSD and GNUstep: Falling in Love with OpenStep All Over Again

Apple's MacOS X has head and shoulder advantage over the competiton for user experience and rapid application development thanks to Cocoa, based on NeXT's OpenStep, the pioneer in cross platform rapid application development with Interface Builder and Project Builder a.k.a. Xcode (Microsoft's Visual Basic still pales in comparison).

GNUstep is a free and open source implementation of the OpenStep standard, and ironically, I first read about it from Microsoft Bookshelf Internet Directory(pointing to a project mirror in Europe with URL that can be challenging to type to hideaway the project perhaps?) back when I was in the province. What piqued my curiosity about OpenStep in general and GNUstep in particular is that, once you've overcome the learning curve of Objective-C, it enables a developer to create distributed systems, fast software prototyping, cross-platform development, and can be used with Java and Ruby, all for free.

My favorite free and open source operating system is OpenBSD, with the release of version 4.9 having ready to install GNUstep packages, we have an opportunity to see how OpenBSD and GNUstep fits together to create a free and open source OpenStep environment.

OpenBSD CD: When the Net Install Fails

You can call me biased (or an evangelist), but my favorite free open source operating system is definitely OpenBSD because it's secure by default (turning off open ports off any Unix-like system should indicate incompetence rather than system admin machismo), easy to install and to manage. If you're like me coming from the so-called third-world country and cash-strapped, you can't afford the original CD (along with the heck of cash customs will make you bleed with) or worse, your internet access isn't fast enough to use the network install ISO provided by the project. So what are we to do to appreciate this very elegant, secure, free and functional Unix-like system? We can create our own installer ISO (provided that you don't have broadband access to use the network install ISO that will download the installation files).

What will you miss out when you go through the process we'll discuss in this article? You're missing out on the freebies that comes with the original CD: the nice artwork and a song (some swear by the stickers). But most importantly, when you buy the original CD, you support funding the OpenBSD project, so that they keep churning out new versions with new features and functionality while not compromising system security, safe in the knowledge that you have a system that's a labor of love.

My Oh My! This is How MySQL Daemon is Done in OpenBSD

If you were to setup a secure Unix-like server, don't walk, run for OpenBSD, probably the most secure operating system on the planet. On databases, I frankly have personal and professional bias for PostgreSQL, but for the benefit of the uninformed masses, most prefer MySQL.

Putting two and two together, one way or another, being a systems administrator, you will one day need to setup an OpenBSD to house a MySQL server. As of this writing, OpenBSD is version 4.8 going to 4.9.