Friday, October 12, 2012

Google launches free SMS service for Gmail in India

Search giant Google has started rolling out free SMS for its free email service Gmail and paid email service Google Apps customers in India. The service allows users to send SMSes to mobile phones from chat windows. Users have to add mobile numbers of their contacts in the email address book and they are set.

The service starts with 50 SMS cr
edits for each user, every sent SMS costing one credit. Every reply received adds on 5 credits subject to the maximum level being 50 SMS at any given time. There is no official statement from Google on the launch of this service, however the service has gone live this evening in the chat windows of many users.

Google is rolling out the service in partnership with cellular operators, which means they would share revenue with Google out of SMSes users on their network send. It specifies a way to buy more SMS credits.

"You can always send an SMS to your own phone, and then reply to that message multiple times. Every time you send a reply message, your SMS credit is increased by five. Effectively, you're buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages," it writes on its chat help portal.

The service currently supports eight cellular operators including Aircel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom and some circles of Vodafone. BSNL, MTNL and Airtel are not supported yet.

The SMSes sent from Gmail chat are delivered to mobile phones while replies from the mobile phone come into the chat window. For the mobile phone user, the reply is charged at local SMS rate as per her/his normal billing plan.

If no replies are received to any of the 50 SMSs sent and the credit balance come down to zero, Google says, "...it will increase back up to one 24 hours later. So, you won't ever be locked out of the system."

Monday, July 2, 2012

The Android era: From G1 to Jelly Bean

Source:-  http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-20012566-251/the-android-era-from-g1-to-jelly-bean/


ANDROID VERSIONSDK RELEASE*NOTABLE UPDATES
1.0 (G1)February 2008
  • GPS and Bluetooth (but not stereo Bluetooth)
  • Multitasking
  • Tight integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Maps (with Street View), and Google Calendar
  • Apps: Amazon MP3 Store; YouTube
  • Android Market (about 35 apps at launch)
  • No Microsoft Exchange Server; no camcorder
1.5 (Cupcake)April 2009
  • Universal search box (search had been limited to the Web)
  • Revamped Android Market: Browsing categories (Apps, Games, Downloads) and filters (Top Free, Top Paid, Just In)
  • Camera: Toggle between camera and video modes; integrated photo gallery and camera with bulk photo deleting
  • SDK expands support for gestures, voice-to-text
1.6 (Donut)September 2009
  • Virtual onscreen keyboard
  • Camcorder mode for recording (and watching) video
  • Stereo Bluetooth
  • Home screen widgets and folders
  • Copy/paste and search within the browser
  • Direct upload to YouTube and Picasa
2.0 (Eclair)October 2009
  • Multiple user accounts
  • Exchange support; universal e-mail inbox
  • Quick Contact pop-up widget to launch communications with friends in the address book
  • Search saved SMS and MMS messages
  • Camera improvements include support for flash and digital zoom
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • Keyboard improvements: Adaptive dictionary that includes contact names in suggestions
2.1 (Eclair, second helping)January 2010
  • Live wallpaper; five home screens
  • Speech-to-text added to any text field; microphone icon for voice dictation in e-mails, texts, and so on
2.2 (Froyo)May 2010
  • Speedier OS
  • USB tethering and hot-spot support
  • Android Market update: Batch and automatic updates; installing apps to the SD card
  • Adobe Flash 10.1
  • File uploading in the browser
  • Improved Microsoft Exchange support: Security policies, global address lookup, calendar sync, remote wipe
  • Bluetooth support for voice dialing and contact sharing
2.3 (Gingerbread)December 2010
  • Redesigned copy/paste
  • WebM video compression support
  • NFC (near-field communication) support
  • Switch to front-facing camera from camera app
  • Virtual keyboard shortcuts
3.0 (Honeycomb)February 2011
  • 3D graphics support
  • Side-by-side browser tabs; private browsing
  • Dual-pane modes for address book, e-mail
  • Redesigned UI includes program thumbnails
  • Video chatting with Google Talk
  • Full-screen-mode photo gallery
  • Bluetooth tethering
3.1-3.2.6 (Honeycomb)May 2011-February 2012
  • Support for peripherals like keyboards and game pads
  • Resizable widgets
  • "Pay as you go" support for 3G, 4G tablets
  • Various bug fixes and enhancements
4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)October 2011
  • Support for virtual buttons in addition to touch-sensitive buttons
  • Create folders by dragging apps on top of each other
  • A new app tray tab for thumbing through widgets
  • Calendar app now supports pinch-to-zoom
  • Gmail gets offline search, swiping between conversations
  • Revamped Gmail user interface
  • New Chrome browser syncs with your bookmarks, saves pages offline, supports 16 browser tabs
  • More keyboard error correction, inline spell check
  • Customizable lock screen, launcher
  • Recent applications icon
  • Roboto typeface
  • New swipe/delete behavior
  • Improved voice integration and copy and paste
  • Face Unlock security feature
  • Data Usage tracking
  • Hide unwanted app icons
  • Shut down apps that are using background data
  • Native camera features include zero shutter lag, continuous focus, zoom while recording, taking a still photo while recording, panorama photos, time lapse settings 1080p recording
  • Face detection in the camera
  • Integrated photo editor
  • New gallery layout, organized by location and person
  • Phone app lets you swipe between favorite friends with integrated visual voice mail
  • Speed up and slow down voice mails
  • Quick message sends canned response text message when you decline a call
  • Android Beam, an NFC feature for exchanging information between two phones by tapping them
  • Wi-Fi Direct support
4.1 (Jelly Bean)July 2012
  • Faster, smoother performance with "Project Butter"
  • Expandable notifications with greater interaction
  • Voice search access by swiping up from bottom of the screen
  • Voice actions engine replies to some queries
  • Google Now
  • Offline dictation
  • Default Chrome browser
  • Resizable app widgets (for some)
  • Android Beam support for transferring larger files, like photo and video
  • New filmstrip view of recent shots in the camera app
  • Applications update in Google Play with just the changed code
  • Sound search widget for music ID
  • Higher-resolution contact photos
  • Greater accessibility options
  • Expanded language support, especially for Arabic and Hebrew
  • Interface tweaks
* The date reflects the SDK release rather than the over-the-air (OTA) update timeline since OTA release dates vary by carrier and handset model.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

BlueStacks [Your Favorite Android Apps Now on PC ]


http://bluestacks.com/

Download BlueStacks


Take a video tour of beta-1


BlueStacks' NEW Android App Player for PC. Run android apps on Windows PC. Soon you'll also be able to run android apps on Mac


Cloud Connect
Sync Android Apps from your phone or tablet to BlueStacks using our Cloud Connect mobile app.


Technology
At the heart of BlueStacks is a multi-OS runtime with breakthrough virtualization technology. Apps developed for different operating systems can execute simultaneously, side-by-side, on the same computer.
BlueStacks employs a lightweight, optimized, soft hypervisor with deep enhancements to support “embedded virtualization”. End consumers can enjoy the full Android environment through BlueStacks, or just install Android app icons directly on the Windows desktop. As is the case with any advanced technology, the complexity is completely masked from the end consumer.
The BlueStacks user interface is fully configurable. In addition, BlueStacks can integrate with the custom software experiences designed and developed by PC manufacturers.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

RHCSA RHCE RHEL6 Great Material Resources pdf Collections

Rackspace slides by Nathan Isburgh for  RedHat Enterprise Linux

Intro to Apache
Intro to Dns
Intro to Linux

Introduction     
Hardware    
Linux Big Picture
Shells          
Filesystems     
Processes       
SA-Users, Groups,..>
SA-Troubleshootin..>
SA-Performance  
SA-Kernel       
SA-Filesystem Adm..>
SA-Scripting, cro..>
SA-Software Insta..>
Net-Overview.pdf    
Net-Configuration..>
Net-Troubleshooti..>
Book.pdf               
Labs.pdf               
One Page Linux Refer..>
Skills Test.pdf        
Syllabus.pdf           
vim-ref-card.pdf       
vimcourse.pdf  


Linux TroubleShoot

Book.pdf
html


Mysql Troubleshoot

Book
Lecture
Maatkit


Mysql
Introduction       
MySQL_Overview   
RDBMS_Basics     
MySQL_Basics     
SQL_Basics       
MySQL_Access_Cont..> 
MySQL_Basic_Admin..> 
Storage_Engines  
Basic_Server_Perf..> 
Basic_Database_St..> 
Book.pdf            
create-moviedb.sql      
dumpdata-formatted.sql  
load-moviedb.sql      
moviedb.schema        
rhce-rhel5
 00-Intro.pdf            
 01-Boot_Process.pdf     
 02-Package_Managemen..> 
 03-System_Administra..> 
 04-Filesystem_Admini..> 
 05-Users_and_Groups.pdf 
 06-Kernel_Features.pdf  
 07-File_Sharing.pdf     
 08-Web_Services.pdf     
 09-Network_Services.pdf 
 10-Extra_Labs.pdf       
 11-DNS.pdf              
 12-Email_Services.pdf   
 13-Network_Security.pdf 
 14-Extra_Labs.pdf       
 Book.pdf                
 Syllabus.pdf         
rhce-rhel6
 00-Intro.pdf            
 01-Boot_Process.pdf     
 02-Package_Managemen..> 
 03-System_Administra..> 
 04-Filesystem_Admini..> 
 05-Users_and_Groups.pdf 
 06-Kernel_Features.pdf  
 07-File_Sharing.pdf     
 08-Web_Services.pdf     
 09-Network_Services.pdf 
 10-DNS.pdf              
 11-Email_Services.pdf   
 12-Network_Security.pdf 
 13-Various.pdf          
 Book.pdf                
rhcsa-rhce-rhel6
00-Intro.pdf            
01-Boot_Process.pdf     
02-Package_Managemen..> 
03-System_Administra..> 
04-Filesystem_Admini..> 
05-Users_and_Groups.pdf 
06-Kernel_Features.pdf  
07-File_Sharing.pdf     
08-Web_Services.pdf     
09-Network_Security.pdf 
10-Virtualization.pdf   
11-System_Administra..> 
12-PAM_Kerberos_RAID..> 
13-File_Sharing.pdf     
14-CGI_Squid.pdf        
15-Network_Services.pdf 
16-DNS.pdf              
17-Email_Services.pdf   
18-RPM_iSCSI.pdf        
Book.pdf  
rhcsa-rhel6
00-Intro.pdf            
01-Boot_Process.pdf     
02-Package_Managemen..> 
03-System_Administra..> 
04-Filesystem_Admini..> 
05-Users_and_Groups.pdf 
06-Kernel_Features.pdf  
07-File_Sharing.pdf     
08-Web_Services.pdf     
09-Network_Security.pdf 
10-Virtualization.pdf   
Book.pdf                
smtp
Book-Fullsize
 


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Advance Red Hat Linux System Administration (Version RHEL 6)


Audience:

IT professionals who have basic and intermediate level Red Hat System Administration knowledge and want the skills to be full-time enterprise Advance Linux administrators

Course Objective:

By the end of this course, candidates will be able to administer and troubleshoot file systems and partitioning, logical volume management, access control, and package management. 

Candidate will also get knowledge of automated installations, command line access, network configuration and troubleshooting, LVM & RAID administration, implementation of NFS, CIFS & autofs, managing user accounts, network user accounts with LDAP, managing SELinux, managing installed services like DNS/DHCP/HTTP, log management, hard disk health check, managing processes, tuning and maintaining the Kernel and System Recovery Techniques.

In addition this course will also discuss about Linux Security Model (IPtables, TCP Wrapper, PAM), Scripting basics (Perl/Python), Linux Virtualization and new features of RHEL 6.

 Prerequisites:
 RHCE level knowledge

Course Outline:

 DAY 1:

Unit 1: Automated Installations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
-Objectives: Create and manage Kickstart configuration files; perform installations using Kickstart

b) Explain Major version upgrade and minor version upgrade
c) Discuss about the tools available for Server deployment(Cobbler, RHN, Spacewalk etc..)

Unit 2: Accessing the Command Line
Objectives: Access the command line locally and remotely; gain administrative privileges from the command line
Unit 3: Intermediate Command Line Tools
Objectives: Use hardlinks, archives and compression, and vim
Unit 4: Regular Expressions, Pipelines, and I/O Redirection
Objectives: Use regular expressions to search patterns in files and output; redirect and pipe output

Unit 5: Network Configuration and Troubleshooting
Objectives: Configure network settings; troubleshoot network issues

Discuss and demonstrate Network  bonding
Static route
Different  native tools available for trouble shooting network issues
How to change network speed and other parameters of NIC

DAY 2:

Unit 6: Managing Simple Partitions and File Systems
Objectives: Create and format simple partitions, swap partitions, and encrypted partitions

How to  add disks to Linux server (Local and Network)
Discuss about NAS , SAN and ISCSI
How to  add a new LUN to Linux server
Concepts of Multipathing-Demonstrate Multipathing  using ISCSI devices
Concepts of Udev –Explain different udev command like udevinfo . etc..
Configuring  RAW file system
Different  file systems –ext3/ext4

Unit 7: Managing Flexible Storage with the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and RAID
- Objectives: Implement LVM and LVM snapshots

a)Difference between LVM1 and LVM2
b) How to migrate to LVM2
c) Demonstrate Export and import of VG 
d) Demonstrate restoring LVM after deletion
e)Important  commands –LVS,PVS,VGS etc…
Discuss and demonstrate LVM mirroring
Discuss and demonstrate RAID configuration and Software Raid
Different  levels of RAID,
Which RAID level  and where it is suitable
Manage LVM with Multipathing

DAY 3:

Unit 8: Access Network File Sharing Services; NFS and CIFS
- Objectives: Implement NFS, CIFS, and autofs

2) Mount and umount nfs share-
3) How to forcefully umount a file system – Its requirement
4) Difference between NFS v3 and v4
5) Various options with NFS export and when & where do we use these options.
6) Autofs- Different Maps-Built-in map  “-host”

Unit 9: Managing User Accounts
- Objectives: Manage user accounts including password aging

Unit 10: Network User Accounts with LDAP
- Objectives: Connect to a central LDAP directory service
Unit 11: Controlling Access to Files
- Objectives: Manage group memberships, file permissions, and access control lists (ACL)

Unit 12: Managing SELinux - Objectives: Activate and deactivate SELinux; set file contexts; manage SELinux booleans; analyze SELinux logs
Unit 13: Installing and Managing Software
- Objectives: Manage software and query information with yum; configure client-side yum repository files

Different methods to install software in Linux

DAY 4:

Unit 14: Managing Installed Services
- Objectives: Managing services; verify connectivity to a service

DNS/DHCP/HTTP - Explain and Demonstrate how to configure these services
How to configure Apache, How to  configure and load Plugins  with  Apache, Tuning Apache for better performance.

Unit 15: Analyzing and Storing Logs
- Objectives: Managing logs with rsyslog and log rotate

1) Discuss and demonstrate how to utilize the tool “smartctl”   to check the status of disk health.

Unit 16: Managing Processes
- Objectives: Identify and terminate processes, change the priority of a process, and use cron and at to schedule processes

Explain about Load Average
Memory management concept ( Buffer, Cache)

Unit 17: Tuning and Maintaining the Kernel
- Objectives: List, load, and remove modules; use kernel arguments

a) Discuss and demonstrate different performance monitoring tools and How to utilize the o/p of those tools for tuning the performance

DAY 5:

Unit 18: System Recovery Techniques
- Objectives: Understand the boot process and resolve boot problems

 Additional Topics (overview)

Security – Different Network security tools available in Linux-Iptables,Tcp  wrapper, PAM security modules.
 Scripting/Perl/Python-Give an introduction so that resource can start to learn themself
Demonstrate Virtualization
New features in RHEL6

Sunday, May 27, 2012

ITIL: Study Notes for “ISEB BH0-012 – The Foundation ITIL” Exam

Source :-  http://cosonok.blogspot.in/2012/03/

ITIL was built around Deming's plan-do-check-act cycle.

Definitions
+ Definitive media library (DML) = a secure library where definitive authorized versions of all media configuration items (CIs) are stored and protected
+ Governance = is concerned with policy and direction.
+ ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library.
Implementation of ITIL service management requires the preparation and planning of the effective and efficient use of the four Ps = PeopleProcessProductsPartners
+ Service Management = a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providingvalue to customers in the form of services.
+ Service request = a request from a user for informationadvice, or for a standard change.
+ SLA Service Level Agreement: An agreement between the service provider and their customer

ITIL Service Lifecycle
1. Service Strategy
2. Service DesignDesign the Processes
3. Service TransitionPlan and Prepare for Deployment
4. Service OperationIT Operations Management
5. Continual Service Improvement
1. Service Strategy
1.1 Strategy Management for IT services
1.2 Service Portfolio Management
1.3 Financial Management of IT Services
… ensuring that the IT infrastructure is obtained at the most effective price (which does not necessarily mean cheapest) and calculating the cost of providing IT services so that an organisation can understand the costs of its IT services.
1.4 Demand Management
1.5 Business Relationship Management

2. Service Design
A service should always deliver value to customers.
Resources and capabilities create value for customers.
The Service Design Stage is MOST concerned with defining policies and objectives, and includes:
Producing quality, secure, and resilient designs for new or improved services
Taking service strategies and ensuring they are reflected in the service design processes and the service designs that are produced
Measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of service design and the supporting processes
service design package (SDP) contains information that is passed to service transition to enable the implementation of a new service.
2.1 Design Coordination
2.2 Service Catalogue
The responsibility of service catalogue management:
+ Ensuring that information in the service catalogue is accurate
+ Ensuring that information in the service catalogue is consistent with information in the service portfolio
+ Ensuring that all operation services are recorded in the service catalogue
2.3 Service Level Management
The purpose of service level management = to ensure an agreed level of IT service is provided for all current IT services.
Service level management process is responsible for discussing reports with customers showing whether services have met their targets.
2.4 Availability Management
Reliability: Ability of an IT component to perform at an agreed level at described conditions.
Maintainability: The ability of an IT component to remain in, or be restored to an operational state.
Serviceability: The ability for an external supplier to maintain the availability of component or function under a third-party contract.
Resilience: A measure of freedom from operation failure and a method of keeping services reliable (e.g. redundancy)
Security: refers to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of that data.
2.5 Capacity Management
The capacity management process includes business, service, and component sub-processes. The high-level activities include:
+ Application sizing
+ Workload management
+ Demand management
+ Modelling
+ Capacity planning
+ Resource management
+ Performance management
2.6 IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM)
Involves the following basic steps:
prioritising the activities to be recovered by conducting a business impact analysis(BIA)
+ performing a risk assessment (risk analysis) for each of the IT services to identify the assets, threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures for each service
+ evaluating the options for recovery
+ producing the contingency plan / business continuity strategy
testing, reviewing, and revising the plan on a regular basis
2.7 Information Security Management System
2.8 Supplier Management
Third-party contracts are the responsibility of supplier management to negotiate and agree.

3. Service Transition
Service transition stage responsibilities:
+ To ensure that a service can be managed and operated in accordance with constraints specified during design
+ To provide good-quality knowledge and information about services
+ To plan the resources required to manage a release
3.1 Transition planning and support
3.2 Change management
The RACI Matrix – Who's Responsible, Accountable, Consulted... and kept Informed
R(esponsible) – Who is responsible for actually doing it?
A(ccountable) – Who has authority to approve or disapprove it?
C(onsulted) – Who has needed input about the task?
I(nformed) – Who needs to be kept informed about the task?
The main aims of change management include:
Minimal disruption of services
+ Reduction in back-out activities
+ Economic use of resources involved in the change
Emergency change advisory board: group that should review changes that must be implemented faster than the normal change process
3.3 Service asset and configuration management
The configuration management system is part of the service knowledge management system.
The configuration management system (CMS) can help determine the level of impactof a problem.
The relationship in service asset and configuration management describes how theconfiguration items (CIs) work together to deliver services.
Includes the following key process areas:
+ Identification
+ Planning
+ Change Control
+ Change Management
+ Release Management
+ Maintenance
3.4 Release and deployment management
Objectives of release and deployment managementTo define and agree release and deployment plans with customers and stakeholders. The goals of release management include:
Planning the roll-out of software
Designing and implementing procedures for the distribution and installation of changes to IT systems
+ Effectively communicating and managing expectations of the customer during the planning and roll-out of new releases
Controlling the distribution and installation of changes to IT systems
3.5 Service Validation and testing
3.6 Change evaluation
3.7 Knowledge management

4. Service Operation
Service operation stage of the service lifecycle, delivers and manages IT services atagreed levels to business users and customers. Service operations contribution to business is adding value, and the service value is visible to customers.
The following areas of service management can benefit from automation:
+ Design and modelling
+ Reporting
+ Pattern recognition and analysis
+ Detection and monitoring
List of processes:
4.1 Event management
The event management process is involved in monitoring an IT service and detecting when the performance drops below acceptable limits
4.2 Incident management
*Major incidents require separate procedures.
The objectives of incident management:
+ To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible
+ To minimize adverse impacts on business operations
4.3 Request fulfilment
4.4 Problem management
problem = a condition often identified as a result of multiple incidents that exhibit common symptons.
Objectives of problem management:
+ Minimizing the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented
+ Preventing problems and resulting incidents from happening
+ Eliminating recurring incidents
4.5 Access management
Access management process is responsible for providing rights to use an IT service.

5. Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
Where to we want to be?
Define measurable targets (Service metrics measure: The end-to-end service.)
Improvement initiatives typically follow a seven-step process:
5.1 Identify the strategy for improvement
5.2 Define what you will measure
5.3 Gather the data
5.4 Process the data
5.5 Analyse the information and data
5.6 Present and use the information
5.7 Implement improvement

Appendix A: ITIL Function – Service Desk (function of Service Operation)
Service desk features include:
+ single point of contact (SPOC)
+ single point of entry
+ single point of exit
+ make life easier for customers
data integrity
incident control: life-cycle management of all service requests
communication: keeping a customer informed of progress and advising on workarounds
Types of service desk structure:
Local service desk: to meet local business needs
Central service desk: for organisations having multiple locations
Virtual service desk: for organisations having multi-country locations
+ Follow the Sun

Appendix B: ITIL Function - Software Asset Management (function of Service Operation)
Software asset management (SAM) practices include:
+ maintaining software license compliance
tracking inventory and software asset use
maintaining standard policies and procedures surrounding definition, deployment, configuration, use, and retirement of software assets and the DML