Ogilvy How To Friday: Nic Haralambous

Following on from the previous Ogilvy How To Friday videoes, the latest is from Nic Haralambous.

This video is by Nic Haralambous, who gives a presentation about designing, promoting and socialising mobile networks. His experience is from successfully running his own company, MoTribe, whom he set up with Vincent Maher.

He empahsises a point that I have long believed, and yet so many people forget: less than 10% of phones sold globally are smartphones, and the current user market is low-end Nokia, Motorola and Samsung phones! Which makes iPhone app development seem pretty insignificant (…for the moment), when Apple sold over 50 million phones last year and Nokia sold over 150 million!

Daft Punk

I have been a big Daft Punk fan since first hearing Around the World in Ministry of Sound, in London. I can not remember the DJ, but it was the very last song of the night (…6am!) - and left me feeling a little better as I left the club to face the Sunday morning sunshine. Since then I have gone on to collect their albums, adore their anime films, and pretty much defend them against anyone who says otherwise!

My one big annoyance is that don’t play live enough, and I regret not seeing them play Hyde Park in London, back in 2007. Yet, perhaps their reclusive behaviour is what makes everything about them more enjoyable, by adding a level of mystery.

To show my dedication, I have harvested some cool graphics and videos as a mini-shrine to them!

The poster above is a visual timeline of the Daft Punk helmets as worn by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter; put together by one Daft fan wolf_boy2027.

I just found the following image, super cool!

Composing the TRON: Legacy soundtrack certainly bought Daft Punk back to the limelight, especially with the song Derezzed. Below is the trailer, and it just seems to suit the French disco house aura, but in a twisted-futuristic manner.

The video below, is however, the crown jewel, giving a synopsis of the history of the French pair.

Ogilvy How To Friday: Fred Roed

Following on from the previous Ogilvy How To Friday video, the latest is from Fred Roed.

To be honest, I have never heard of him before; then again, I don’t work in the marketing environment – and I very much doubt he has heard of me!

What I have been informed about Fred, is:

Fred is a very tall chap, legend, and the founder of digital agency World Wide Creative and Heavy Chefs. He has been perfecting the skills of how to build successful opt-in online social communities, see the video above for the how to guide as well as learning a little something about bears and how not to hurt kittens.

Configuring CentOS v5 x86/64-bit on Hyper-V 2008 R2

I have already posted the three part mini series on how to create a VM on Hyper-V 2008 R2, install CentOS on the VM and install the Hyper-V 2008 R2 Integration Components.

Now that we a CentOS VM up and running, it’s now time to configure the base OS, before we start installing any applications. The purpose of this task is to further secure the OS as well as provide basic remote monitoring and connectivity tools.

The following instructions will go cover:

• Creating home directories
• Installing the APF Firewall
• Disabling unnecessary services
• Installing SNMP for remote monitoring
• Forwarding the daily Logwatch emails
• Create a local user
• Configuring SSH

1. Creating home directories is for storing scripts, backups and other useful tools in the root home directory.

mkdir /home/backups

mkdir /home/scripts

mkdir /home/software-library

Backups is for application/configuration backups. Scripts is for any scheduled scripts we wish to run on the machine. Software-Library is for storing any application installers – I normally remove the installers once I am done with them.

2. Installing the APF Firewall will provide a much more feature reach software firewall than the built-in CentOS offering.

cd /home/software-library

wget http://www.rfxn.com/downloads/apf-current.tar.gz

tar -zxvf apf-current.tar.gz

cd apf-9.7-1

sh ./install.sh

cd -

rm  -rf apf-9.7-1

You may see an error during the install, saying that it can’t findeth0 – this is not an issue as the default configuration file for APF specifies the default NIC as eth01; we will be changing this below. Now that we have installed APF and removed it’s installer, we can configure it (I am basing the current setup on a BIND DNS server I run, with SNMP monitoring):

vi /etc/apf/conf.apf

• DEVEL_MODE=”0”
• IFACE_IN=”seth0”
•  IFACE_OUT=”seth0”
• SET_TRIM=”0”
• TOS_8=”53”
• IG_TCP_PORTS=”22,53”
• IG_UDP_PORTS=”53, 161”
• EGF=”1”
• EG_TCP_PORTS=”21,25,53,80,443”
• EG_UDP_PORTS=”20,21,53,162”

The above bulletpoints indicate the following:

• DEVEL_MODE = When set to 1, the firewall starts based on the configuration and runs for 5 minutes then turns itself off – incase you lock yourself out! Set this to 0 when you are satisfied with your configuration
• IFACE_IN = The name of your external NIC, where traffic comes in
• IFACE_OUT = The name of your external NIC, where traffic goes out
• SET_TRIM = Controls the max allowed entries in the deny trust system, defaults to 50 lines with older entries
• TOS_8 = Ports for maximum throughput and minimum delay
• IG_TCP_PORTS = Incoming TCP ports to open
• IG_UDP_PORTS = Incoming UDP ports to open
• EGF = When set to 1, allows the firewall to lock outbound traffic. Set this to 0 if you want to allow all outbound traffic
• EG_TCP_PORTS = Outgoing TCP ports to open
• EG_UDP_PORTS = Outgoing UDP ports to open

Now, we have started out configuration, we need to start APF:

/usr/local/sbin/apf –s

You will see APF generate all the rules – now it is a good time to test.

3. Disabling unnecessary services can be done either via the commandline or via Setup. Seeing as we installed the base package, setup is a quicker process. Type setup to enter the Firstboot/Setup wizard

• Select System services
• Use the spacebar to unselect the following services:
  • anacron
  • atd
  • autofs
  • avahi-daemon
  • bluetooth
  • cups
  • firstboot
  • gpm
  • hidd
  • mdmonitor
  • netfs
  • nfslock
  • pcscd
  • portmap
  • rpcgssd
  • rpcidmapd
  • smartd

Here is a list of services (daemons) to help you decide what to disable. Here is another list. Even if you do disable a service from startup, the system can still start it if need be. If you chose not to install base, you can use the following command lines to disable a service, using chkconfig <ServiceName> off:

chkconfig anacron off

It is worth doing a reboot soon afterwards to make sure the system starts up without all the unnecessary services still running.

4. Installing SNMP for remote monitoring is a simple process using yum:

yum install net-snmp net-snmp-utils

Now we need to configure SNMP:

mv /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.orig

vi /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

• rocommunity public
• syslocation MyDataCentre
• syscontact me@email.com

Once we have finished our configuration, we need to set the service to auto start, and start it up:

chkconfig –level 2345 snmpd on

service snmpd start

 5. Forwarding the daily Logwatch emails is a very simple process:

vi /etc/aliases

• root      me@email.com

/usr/bin/newaliases

The next lines will send any messages that are currently in the root mail spool (if any), and then delete the mail spool for root.

cat /var/spool/mail/root | mail -s “Old Root Emails” me@email.com

rm /var/spool/mail/root

6. Create a local user and set a password, so that we can disable remote root access:

adduser username

passwd username

• <Password>

7. Configure SSH for remote access if terminal access is not available or you need to remote work. We will also be disabling root from logging in via SSH and locking down SSH to only allow logins, using the username we created above:

vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• AllowUsers     username
• DisableRootLogin    yes

service sshd restart

That’s now CentOS configured, and ready for setting to a specific role. I normally do a reboot right about now, and take a snapshot of the VM or backup the VHD so that I have a pre-configured base layer to work from.

Ogilvy How To Fridays: Rich Mulholland

I came across an SA blog, written by Chris Rawlinson. Since November 2010, he has taken up an exiting new challenge with Ogilvy Cape Town, to drive digital marketing innovation and helping brands with their social media marketing tactics and strategy.

One of the initiatives he started is Called How To Fridays. How To Fridays are an Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy (ODMA) initiative that aims to help inspire people around online and mobile marketing. This video features Rich Mulholland, sharing his insights on his companies Missing Link and Thunk Lab, as well as why balancing horns can be a hindrance.

I have seen Rich speak live at NetPhrophet 2010, and he is by far one of the most engaging speakers I have ever seen! He talks are entertaining and comical, but at the same time, inspirational and eye-widening.

My Desktop

I spend a fair amount/all of my time on my laptop working away. I have always wanted a clean Desktop that is free from clutter and files, and nothing to vibrant that will cause distraction. Until recently…

The first website I found was Simple Desktops. A website where users can upload Desktop images with simple graphics; albeit very cool graphics I might add. From this site, it took me days to find the one I wanted. I did experiment with a few but I finally rested on this one: La Pieuvre.

I did want to start to make use of the space with Windows Gadgets to add a more dynamic feel to it. I have always disabled this in Windows Vista, to reduce the load on the system. Windows 7 runs much better on my ThinkPad X41 Tablet, so I decided to give them ago. I am always wary of 3rd party freeware, as I don’t like bugs and I don’t like anomalies. So I stuck to the free MS Office Outlook Upcoming Appointment Gadget and Outlook Tasks Gadget. These were designed to work with MS Office 2007 and not Office 2010. There is a version checker in the VB code that you need to update for both gadgets to pick up MS Office 2010.

• Install the gadget
• Navigate to C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\<GadgetName>.gadget\en-US\js\
• Open Outlook.vbs in notepad
• Edit the two lines below:

if value = “Outlook.Application.12” then to if value = “Outlook.Application.14” then

and

if mid(outlookApplication.Version, 1, 2) <> “12” then to if mid(outlookApplication.Version, 1, 2) <> “14” then

Do this for both the Outlook Upcoming Appointment Gadget and Outlook Tasks Gadget. Once you have made the changes, close the outlook.vbs files and then open/restart Outlook to populate the gadgets.

I have also found (just now), that the gadgets come in either grey or blue, depending on your Windows theme. As my theme is the default blue theme, my gadgets stay in blue and there is no way to set this; unless you dig around in the code.

• Navigate to C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\<GadgetName>.gadget\en-US\
• Open appointment.vbs or tasks.vbs (depending on the gadget)
• Edit the line below:

default: // Blue
themeName = “blue”;

to

default: // Blue
themeName = “gray”;

• Close the gadgets if they are open, and re-add them to your Desktop

I did install a WordPress Gadget to help having quick links for blog administration, but I found that I rarely used it, so decided to dump it. I have just recently installed the TopProcess gadget to get a dynamic look at the processes using up the most CPU on my laptop. I will give it a whirl and see how it goes.

I came across a LifeHacker post, where people had used gadgets or Widgets  alongside static graphics to get very cool looking Desktops. There is a flickr group where everyone has uploaded their own designs and there is some great stuff! Well I thought I might so the same. Below is what I have ended up with:

I have tried to keep it very clean to prevent distraction, but I have loads of different graphics I would love to throw in!

3 Minutes (Star Wars Inspired Short Film)

OK – this might be a bit too much Star Wars, but whilst uploading those awesome film posters, it made me remember a short film that I watched a few months ago that had an awesome Star Wars theme to it. So I wanted to a) share it, and b) make sure I could find it and rewatch it again!

The film is called 3 Minutes, and features some pretty well known actors. I won’t create a spoiler-alert, but the punchline for the film really is in the last 3 seconds. Enjoy.

Star Wars Film Posters

I am a big fan of Star Wars, maybe because I was lucky enough to be growing up when the first films were released (…to VHS – I am not that old!), or perhaps the films just make great viewing. Either way, I love Star Wars. I must admit, that I am not a diehard collector nor a fanboy that loves the spin-off stories. I just love the originals for what they were.

I found this article on the Wired.com, where a British poster artist by the name of Olly Moss has redesigned the Star Wars film posters. The original posters were pretty cool, but these are just ace!

Olly said this to Wired.com:

“It was so intimidating!” the artist told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “There is such a wealth of great Star Wars art out there already, from paid professionals and from enthusiastic fans. I suppose my main aim was to make a set of Star Wars posters that were a little different from what people are used to seeing from the franchise, but still retained that essential Star Wars feel. I started by re-watching the original movies with a sketchbook on my lap, and just sort of went from there.”

Still, there was no backing away from the challenge. “If you’re as big a nerd as I am, you just can’t say no to Star Wars,” Moss said.

You certainly need to have seen the films to get the charachters in the silhouettes and spot the planets in the backgrounds. But even if you don’t like Star Wars, you can still appreciate the art. Love it.

Installing Integration Components 2.1 in CentOS v5 x86/64-bit on Hyper-V 2008 R2

In Part One of this mini-series, I described how to correctly configure a VM to install CentOS v5 x86/64-bit. Part Two documented the process to install a minimal install of CentOS. By now, you should have CentOS updated and running on your Hyper-V box, ready to install the Integration Components – this will allows the VM to make full use of the the hardware resources available.

Before we get started with the actual Integration Components installation, we need to install a few additional extras.

1. First off, we need some useful tools to work with, and to compile the Integration Components.

yum install kernel-devel

yum install gcc

yum install make

yum install vim-enhanced.x86_64

2. As our version of Linux is 64-bit, we also need to install adjtimex. This is used to counter systematic drift in the system clock. You won’t need this if you installed the i386 version of CentOS.

yum install adjtimex

3. We need to download and install dkms – this allows us to update the linux kernel without the need to recompile it with the Integration Component modules. If you run a yum update kernel* after installing the Integration Components (without dkms installed), then the VM will boot up with the error:

“Unable to mount root file system”

You would need to boot in to the previous kernel to get the VM up. This Microsoft Support article will give a much clearer run down.

wget http://linux.dell.com/dkms/permalink/dkms-2.1.1.2-1.noarch.rpm

rpm -ivh dkms-2.1.1.2-1.noarch.rpm

4. With dkms installed, we need to download the Integration Components 2.1 ISO from Microsoft and load it into the VM.

mkdir –p /mnt/cdrom

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

cp –rp /mnt/cdrom /usr/src/linuxic-2.1

umount /mnt/cdrom

cp /usr/src/linuxic-2.1/scripts/dkms.conf /usr/src/linuxic-2.1/

5. Edit modprobe.conf to load Integration Component modules. Open /etc/modprobe.conf, and add the following lines:

 alias scsi_hostadapter1 vmbus

 alias scsi_hostadapter2 blkvsc

alias scsi_hostadapter3 storvsc

alias scsi_hostadapter4 netvsc

6. Compile and install the Integration Components

dkms add -m linuxic -v 2.1

dkms build -m linuxic -v 2.1

dkms install –force -m linuxic -v 2.1

shutdown –h now

7. With the VM now shutdown, we can remove our Legacy Network Card and install a fully integrated Network Card. We can also increase the processor count if we wish.

• Open Hyper-V Manager
• Right click your VM and select Settings
• Select Processor and set this to the value of logical processors you require
• Select DVD Drive under IDE Controller 1 and eject the Integration Components ISO
• Select Legacy Network Adapter and select Remove
• Select Add Hardware, highlight Network Adapter and select Add
• Select the new Network Adapter, and set the Virtual Network that the VM will be connecting to. I have read that Dynamic MAC Addresses can cause confusion on Linux VMs when Live Migrating in a cluster – so I always set the MAC Address to a static value
• Select Apply to make sure all new changes are applied then select OK to get started
• Select the Start button

Your VM should now start up, and you will see the modules loading, before any of the services start. You will see the startup status of seth0 flag as “Failed” – ignore this as it doenst have any details configured – unless you are running a DHCP server.

If the CentOS doesn’t detect seth0, do a further reboot. I find that I have to close the VM terminal window, and access the VM’s settings direct from Hyper-V Manager to avoid the this.

8. Once the server has started up, we can remove the backup file of the Legacy Network Adapter.

rm /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.bak

9. Now we need to configure our new synthetic network adapter. Type setup to enter the Firstboot/Setup wizard

• Select Network configuration
• Select Edit Devices
• Select seth0 (seth0)
• Enter the IP address and Prefix (Netmask), the Gateway
• Select OK
• Select Save
• Select Save & Quit

10. Final step is to now restart the network service to bring up seth0 with the new settings.

service network restart

And that is it. It is a bit of a long process, but it does the job! When you next update the kernel, you will see some warnings about vmbus, storvsc, blkvsc and netvsc not being loaded as the new kernel is being installed – just ignore them.

Installing CentOS v5 x86/64-bit on Hyper-V 2008 R2

In Part One of this mini-series, I described how to correctly configure a VM to install CentOS v5 x86/64-bit. The next part will explain how to install CentOS and get it ready for installing the Hyper-V Integration Components. I always choose to install the least minimal amount, and install additional features later on, using yum.

Minimal installs are essential to increasing security, as it reduces the attack surface to the outside world. Logistically, minimal installs cut down the bandwidth used and time taken to run a yum update directly after the install; as well as their being less packages to maintain and update in future. I will provide How-Tos on installing Web Servers, DNS Servers and MySQL Database Servers later on, so we don’t need to install those packages just yet.

Install CentOS:

• Open Hyper-V Manager, right click your new VM and select Connect
• Select the Start button
• Type  linux text to To install or upgrade in text mode
• Select Skip to testing the CD media
• Select OK to Welcome screen
• Select English for Language Selection
• Select us for Keyboard Selection
• Select Yes to initialize this drive
• Select Remove all partitions on selected drives and create default layout
• Select No to Review and modify partitioning layout
• For eth0, select Activate on boot and select Enable IPv4 support
• Select Manual address configuration, and enter the IP address and Prefix (Netmask)
• Enter the Gateway and Primary DNS and/or Secondary DNS
• Select Manually for Hostname Configuration, and enter a computer name
• Select Africa/Johannesburg for Time Zone Selection and unselect System clock uses UTC
• Enter the root password
• For Package selection, unselect Desktop – Gnome and select Customise software selection
• In Package Group Selection, select only Base and unselect Dialup Networking Support, Editors, and Text-based Internet
• Select OK for Installation to begin
• Select Reboot when the installation completes

Depending on your (virtual) hardware, the install will take around 10-15 minutes to complete. THe VM will now reboot and startup all the system services (some of which we will be disabling later, to increase performance).

Now that CentOS is installed, we need to initially configure it:

• When CentOS starts for the first time, you will see the Firstboot/Setup wizard
• Select Firewall configuration – for SELinux, select Permissive and then select Customise to close ALL firewall ports (we have terminal access so we don’t need SSH open just yet!)
• Select Exit to return to the login prompt. Login using root and the password provided during the install
• In the Hyper-V window, select Media and Eject the CentOS ISO if it is still mounted
• Type yum update to update all kernel and all system packages
• Once the download and installation is complete, type reboot to restart the system and load up the latest kernel and system packages
• Check all system services start up after the reboot

CentOS is now updated and locked off for us to safely work on. Next post will describe how to do install the Hyper-V Integration Components.