Hexspeak: Making hexadecimal numbers speak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexspeak

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The fall of the mighty: On Gadaffi's death

A man who ruled over an entire country for 42 years like God, was dragged out of a drainage pipe and killed in cold blood.

However good or bad a ruler he was, its sad to see someone who lived like a king for 42 years being brought down to a state wherein he begs for his life on the streets to a bunch of hooligans. Some of his sons were also killed in cold blood.

The uncivilized nature of mob justice was in full display.


Saddam Hussein is a similar name that would come immediately to one's mind. But he at least had the chance of a trial.

Dennis Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011)

Another great pioneer passes away.  Just a few days after the death of Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie the man who gave us C and one of the great influences in Unix, passed away. May be less famous than Steve Jobs for non-techies, but in no way lesser.

Steve Jobs (Feb 24, 1955 – Oct 5, 2011)

The irreplaceable loss of a business visionary, innovator, creative genius and thought leader.

Setting up Reliance Netconnect on Linux

It can be a very confusing and frustrating to setup wireless broadband like Tata Photon, Reliance Netconnect, etc. on Linux. Here's my experience on successfully setting up Reliance Netconnect on Fedora 15 using the wvdial PPP utility. The same could work for Tata Photon or any other modem based Internet service.

The concept is fairly simple. All such services work through a modem connected to the computer via the USB interface. We need to setup a PPP connection to the service provider via the modem. the wvdial command is more intelligent wrapper over the basic ppp utility.

1) Connect the USB Modem (Huawei EC 150 in my case)
2) Open terminal as root (or run the commands using sudo)
3) Type wvdialconf on the command prompt. This will create a default configuration file /etc/wvdial.conf with the following contents

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = Phone

ISDN = 0

Username = Username

Password = Password

Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0

Baud = 9600

Note: The values for some of the properties might be different based on your modem type

4) Modify /etc/wvdial.conf as follows:

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = #777

ISDN = 0

Username = your MDN number
Password = your MDN number
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 9600

5) Type wvdial on the command prompt. By default it takes the setting from  /etc/wvdial.conf if required you could place this file anywhere and pass it as the first argument to wvdial.

[root@juby juby]# wvdial

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61

--> Initializing modem.

--> Sending: ATZ

ATZ

OK

--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

OK

--> Modem initialized.

--> Sending: ATDT#777

--> Waiting for carrier.

ATDT#777

CONNECT

--> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.

~[7f]}#@!}!}!} }8}"}&} } } } }#}$@#}%}&"7Hj}'}"}(}"e[12]~

--> PPP negotiation detected.

--> Starting pppd at Fri Sep  2 10:38:55 2011

--> Pid of pppd: 1836

--> Using interface ppp0

--> pppd: <

--> pppd: <

--> pppd: <

--> local  IP address 115.242.244.59

--> pppd: <

--> remote IP address 220.224.141.145

--> pppd: <

--> primary   DNS address 202.138.103.190

--> pppd: <

--> secondary DNS address 202.138.117.60

--> pppd: <

6) Add the primary and secondary DNS addresses to /etc/resolv.conf with the following entries:

nameserver 202.138.103.190
nameserer 202.138.117.60

7) Make sure that Internet traffic is routed through the PPP interface using ifconfig command.
If there are other interfaces (say LAN) turn them off by typing ifconfig if-name down
8) Ensure that the default traffic handler goes through the PPP interface. Type route on the command prompt. You should see something as follows:

[root@juby etc]# route

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

220.224.141.145 *               255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0

192.168.122.0   *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 virbr0

default         *               0.0.0.0         U     0      0        0 ppp0

The default entry ensures that Internet traffic is routed through the PPP interface.

Till step 5) is usually straightforward and the procedure is explained in many other articles and blogs. However many people typically face problems from  step 6) onwards, wherein inspite of having their modem setup and connected, they are not able to access the Internet.


Note: Please see the man pages for wvdial, wvdialconf, ifconfig, route for the details of these commands.

This approach should work on most Linux distros and versions provided wvdial is installed and the system is able to detect the USB dongle.

Innovation is as much about "not doing" as "doing"

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away..

 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Steve Jobs says: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on.  But that’s not what it means at all.  It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.  I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.  Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

Full article here.