Unable to connect to https websites due to

The following text copy pasted from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1065417

Helpful Reply

Hi OnTheRoad41, this error message indicates that the site is trying to use an obsolete encryption cipher which is vulnerable to the "Logjam" attack that was in the news earlier this year.
What does that mean?
Even though you trust the server, a "Logjam" attack compromises the security of your individual connection to the server, lowering the protection normally provided by SSL to a level that is easily cracked and read by others on the network. That is why Firefox protects you from making this connection.
What can you do now?
The very best solution for the protection of all users of that server is for United to change some settings on the server. If the information you can view on the server is sensitive, then this fix is overdue, so we encourage you to report the problem ASAP.
If you cannot wait, you can try disabling these old ciphers in your Firefox, which hopefully will force the server to try some more secure ciphers when connecting with you. Here's how:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste dhe and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the security.ssl3.dhe_rsa_aes_128_sha preference to switch it from true to false (disable Firefox from using this cipher)
(4) Double-click the security.ssl3.dhe_rsa_aes_256_sha preference to switch it from true to false (disable Firefox from using this cipher)
Then try the site again; you might have to reload the page using Ctrl+Shift+r to bypass cached information.
Success?

Dark blue on Linux terminal difficult to read

Change Blue into Cyan ... it is just a lot more readable.

How?
Very easy once you know it:

Open a shell and stay in your home directory.
Do the following:

$> dircolors | sed -e "s/34/36/" > setColors.bash

This will create the file setColors.bash containing the current color settings for the terminal with the value of 34 changed into 36.

To try the setting, do the following:
$> .  ./setColors.bash

Your current terminal session will now show directories in cyan instead of blue. Use ls -l to see the difference. Notice also the dot followed by a space in front of ./setColors.bash.

To make the change for all your future sessions, you need to modify the profile script which is run when you create the terminal session. In case you're using bash, look for the .profile_bash file.

You can then either copy the content of the setColors.bash file into the profile file or call the execution of it. Make sure to execute the script in the current shell  and not in a subshell by using the mentionned dot space notation.

Reference and solution found here

I needed to remove the screenshots ... thanks blogspot ... just doesn't work.

Example of how it looks before the change:

The output of dircolors: (notice the 34's)


Create the setColors.bash script:


The content of the setColors.bash file: (notice the changed values for 34 into 36)


The line appended in the .bash_profile file in the hone directory of the user:



Example of how it looks after the change:

About Oracle: Setting up journaling using flashback data archive

About Oracle: Setting up journaling using flashback data archive



Very nice showcase of alternative solution for journalling tables ... including a demonstration of what should rule out this solution in some cases !!!

Thanks to Rob !!!

Vasco card readers on Mac OS X 10.9

Having to use 'a card reader' bought myself a good looking Vasco 905 device.
You may run into this problem because of the fact that for example KBC is distributing the same device but not with the vasco logo but with ... KBC.

After the upgrade to Mac OS X v 10.9 the thing did not work anymore.

Looking around on the net I found the following post on the Vasco website: https://retail.vasco.com/du/install/faq/20100114_990081.aspx

In this post a clear distinction is made between version 1.1 and version 2.0 of the card reader.
How to determine the version is also indicated.

Actions to take:
Version 1.1 -> ask for a new one. the procedure to do so is clearly indicated
version 2.0 -> use terminal session -> pcsctest
if this doesn't show all details:

Ubuntu - Setup Eclipse wiht Java EE, Maven for Spring development

Context

Starting with a new toolset requires a clean drawing board and - as I believe this is currently the best solution -be able to go back in time where things still worked ;-)
The aim is to create a VirtualBox VM with Ubuntu as OS.
The toolset to be installed for the development is Java (and EE), Eclipse, Maven, Spring) ... for now at least. I suppose a number will need to be added to the stack but I'll add them along the way.

Thanks to a number of sources I used to fall back in the need to sharpen (better but not to say is build) my knowledge of the Ubuntu Desktop environment. It's yet an other kind of Linux than the one I'm used to. (Redhat, Fedora, Oracle Linux ... )

Ubuntu is based on Debian and ... if I recall well Debian is also the basis for Mac OS X ...my platform in favour.

Software download links

• Virtualbox : www.virtualbox.org
• Ubuntu : 
• Java JDK 7 : with apt get 
• Java EE SDK : from oracle website
• Eclipse : www.eclipse.org/downloads
• Maven : 
• Spring
• Oracle Express Database ( https://forums.oracle.com/thread/2303639 )
• vim  and vim-gnome via apt-get ( not needed but a personal favour)
• Maven for eclipse (software install url to be used within eclipse) 
  http://q4e.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/updatesite-iam/
• Spring IDE 3.4.0 Release (Software install and update url to be used within eclipse (can be found in the marketplace of eclipse) Google search arguments sprint ide 3.4.0 release eclipse marketplace, then click the download button on the right)
  http://dist.springsource.com/release/TOOLS/update/e3.7/
• tomcat download
  

  wget http://mirror.atlanticmetro.net/apache/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.29/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.29.tar.g 

References

• Install Eclipse with Maven for Spring development : See Eclipse Spring video's on Youtube. Free intros by Cave Of Programming (http://www.caveofprogramming.com)
• Installation of Java on Ubuntu ... just to get the standard java version:
  http://askubuntu.com/questions/309900/installing-java-7-update-25-on-12-04-lts
• Installation of Eclipse on Ubuntu:
  http://askubuntu.com/questions/26632/how-to-install-eclipse
• Installation of Tomcat on Ubuntu 12.04
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-apache-tomcat-on-ubuntu-12-04
• Installation Oracle Express Edition
  http://askubuntu.com/questions/198163/how-to-install-oracle-express-11gr2

VM Creation

 Create Virtualbox VM with following specs:
 - 8 GB memory
 - 4 virtual cores
 - disk of 60 GB
 - nic connected to internet via NAT Network (new from 4.3 vbox)

Ubuntu 1204 LTS

Install from Iso File 64 bit
Install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit
Update as far as possible

Oracle Java jdk 7

install java on ubuntu ... 
http://askubuntu.com/questions/309900/installing-java-7-update-25-on-12-04-lts
Steps to be executed :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

The first step adds the repository to the apt 'namespaces for repositories'
The next step will update the packages in the Ubuntu installation ... all of them. Took an hour to execute.
The last step finally installs the java jdk
Execute a java -version to verify the version of java your running now.

Oracle Java EE

Download from the Oracle website.
File is called : java_ee_sdk-7-unix-ml.sh

Uses the installed Java JDK
And installs also the Glassfish Middleware server from Oracle (Sun inheritance)

Glassfish server 4848

Starting domain
_______________
Executing command :/home/jhelling/glassfish4/glassfish/bin/asadmin start-domain domain1

/home/jhelling/glassfish4/glassfish/bin/asadmin start-domain domain1
Waiting for domain1 to start ..........
Successfully started the domain : domain1
domain  Location: /home/jhelling/glassfish4/glassfish/domains/domain1
Log File: /home/jhelling/glassfish4/glassfish/domains/domain1/logs/server.log
Admin Port: 4848
Command start-domain executed successfully.


Java EE + Glassfish installation.

Please see the detailed summary report for an overview of this session, including next steps for using this installation.Please see the log file for detailed information.
 2013-12-15-01-29-install-summary.html 2013-12-15-01-29-install.log
Product Name
Status
Update Tool Bootstrap
Installed
GlassFish Server
Installed
Uninstallation Software
Installed
Update Tool Bootstrap
Configured
GlassFish Server
Configured

Eclipse

Advice to download Eclipse for Java EE Developers (Also for building web interfaces). The steps to install Eclipse on Ubuntu are xplained here:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/26632/how-to-install-eclipse

Optain maven for


Install the Glassfish tools for Eclipse
This is documented in the following post :
Steps:

• open eclipse
• in the Window > Show View > Servers
• In the new opened pane right click and select New Server
• Click in the link to download the additional server adapters
• and ... wait ... 
• From the list of providers select GlassFish tools (Oracle)
• Install the software 
• restart eclipse.
• After restart go to the servers and add a new one
• select as type the correct version of Glassfish server.
• Select as install directory of glassfish the directory where it was installed
  (~/Glassfish4/glassfish)
• Provide credentials ... ( by default leave the password empty )
• The local server will be viewable in the list of the servers. 
• Right clicking on the server will show a number of adminstrative actions that can be taken on the server and further on on the applications that will be installed.

Drawing Electrical Plans of Houses

Basis : Mac OS X

Download locations :

• Dia drawing software : https://projects.gnome.org/dia/
• Sweet Home 3D : http://www.sweethome3d.com/index.jsp
• Electrical Symbols for Dia via DiaShapes installer : http://dia-installer.de/shapes/Electrical/index.html
• Make an electrical dossier using LibreOffice ( http://www.LibreOffice.org ) or OpenOffice.org ( http://www.OpenOffice.org )

Steps to install software:

• Install Sweet Home 3D
• Install Dia software
• Install DiaShapes
• Install the symbol libraries via DiaShapes in Dia
• Install LibreOffice

Steps :

• Create the floorplan of the house with different floors in the plan
• Name and draw the different rooms or parts of the surface of the floor
• Export the different floors as SVG files to the filesystem 
• Open Dia
• Import a floorplan in SVG format
• Resize the imported svg drawing object to suite the needs and in a way that the drawing symbols make sense
• Put the symbols on the required location.
• Where needed add reference labels to the plan
• In a spreadsheet in LibreOffice make a list per floor and room of all the reference labels
• Per label give accurate information about the electrical component that is present at that location.

RadiAnt - Open folder with context menu

RadiAnt is Such a wonderfull Dicom viewer. (download)
The only thing missing by default is to open a folder immediately with Radiant.
In order to do this you need to add a registry key which will define the "Radiant" action for all directories.

The steps to do this:

• Open Regedt
• Go in the registry to the following location:
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > Directory > shell
• Verify that you can see at that level two entries: cmd and find
• Create a new item called “Radiant”
• Go to the newly created item “Radiant”
• Create a new item called “command”
• In de standard REG_SZ string enter the path to Radiant between double quotes followed by %1

For example:
"c:\Program Files\RadiAntViewer64bit\RadiAntViewer.exe" %1

VirtualBox on Mac os x - Can not find com service

Context

Mac Mini Server edition, 16 GB ram, ssd 250GB + hdd 750GB
Mac OS X server
Oracle VirtualBox
Changed (decent word for testing if something would fail) with the Mac OS X server settings, in particular the hostname.

Symptoms

Trying to start the admin screen of VirtualBox fails and gives an error telling that the tool could not connect to the COM service or the VirtualBox com services.
In the details of the error you will find something link NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)

Explain

Do not know what is going wrong, but something is smuthering up the file and directory permissions when the hostname is changed and/or Mac OS X server services are recreated and/or restarted

Solution

Go to disk utility (Utilities > Disk Utility)

Select the main disk of the computer on the left pane

Select the first aid tab (the default one)

Click on the button to "Repair the disk permissions"

In the log file you'll see things that seem not to interfear with VBox ... at first ... but looking deeper in the stack ... 

Hope this solves your problem too ... 

References

CAlso : Apple Forum post

Win Server Z008 r2 - Run applications as different users

Problem:
An administrator installs an application on the server.
Other non-administrator users are unable to run the application.

References:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee791868(v=ws.10).aspx

Problem:
Application locker is to restrictive

Solution:
Adapt the permissions of the program and probably the folder.

a. Program Permissions
windows-run : secpol.msc
Select Application Control Policies > AppLocker
Create a new rule in the Executable Rules for the program.

b. set sharing of files/folders permissions.
Some programs require access to the file folders or to specific files.
Click on the file/folder and in the context menu select "Share".
Add the correct users or groups and set the permissions to read/write according to the requirements.

Win Server 2008 r2 - iPad rdp connection to server

Problem:
When connecting via an RDP client app on iPad, you get the message "The requested session access is denied".
This connection is possible when connecting as an Administrator user but not as a 'normal' user.

Reason:
Most clients connect to the console by using the /console option, which is only possible for administrators.

Solution:
Found an iPad app that contains the option to define a connection to the server with the option not to specify /console : 2X (website www.2x.com)
Create a profile to connect via a specific user and in the profile of the server the last option is "Connect to console" which has to be set to Off.

OEL - VBox Guest Additions

On gui-less linux installations it is not always clear how the guest additions can be installed.

This article tries to show how to do this.

The steps to do this are:

• Get the additions mounted (supposing no cdrom is attached yet) 
• create cdrom directories 
• determine the cdrom device 
• mount the device loosely 
• install the guest additions 
• (Install missing packages ... ) 
• (Retry installation) 

Just click devices > install guest additions
The cdrom will become attached to the vm
Best is to reboot the system at this instance. (Have encountered that for some reason the cd device was no immediately available.)

To be able to mount the cdrom within some instances you will require a directory to mount it to.
Go to the /mnt directory as root user and create some directories with a trailing number.

For example:
mkdir cdrom0
mkdir cdrom1
...for as many as you will find cdroms required ;-)

The trailing number starts best with 0 ... why ... see later.

Determine the cdrom device.
The name of the device depends under which link the cdrom is attached.
If a cdrom is defined as a SATA device the cdrom will become available as sr0, sr1 ...
For the further documentation let 's suppose the device is /dev/sr0

Mount the cdrom by using the following command:
mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom0
So ... that is why 0 at the end ... ;-)

The output of the command will be something like this:

root@wlspfrd mnt]# mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom0
mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

Go to the cdrom drive:
cd /mnt/cdrom0

[root@wlspfrd mnt]# cd /mnt/cdrom0
[root@wlspfrd cdrom0]# ls
32Bit runasroot.sh VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe
64Bit VBoxLinuxAdditions.run VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe
AUTORUN.INF VBoxSolarisAdditions.pkg
autorun.sh VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe

To install the additions execute the VBoxLinuxAdditions.run command.
./VBoxLinuxAddtions.run

In a 64-bit Oracle Linux environment you will encounter a problem which is indicated by the line:
Building the main Guest Additions module [FAILED]

The reason is that the build requires the header files of the correct version of the Linux OS.
The line preceeding the FAILED error gives a clear hint:
The following command should solve the problem.
yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.32-200.13.1.el5uekPut the package name, in this case kernel-uek-devel-2.6.32-200.13.1.el5uek in the copy buffer

To install this package, the yum repository must be configured (context Oracle)
See the website for this: http://public-yum.oracle.com/
Follow the instructions.
cd /etc/yum.repos.d
for Oracle Linux 5:
          wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-el5.repo
for Oracle Linux 6:
          wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-el6.repo
In the obtained file enable (value = 1) the correct version (warning if you enable the latest version the update may take a long time ... ).

After installation of the yum repository, retry the installation of VBox additions.
This should now succeed.

After this any shared folder will become available in the /media directory.

Update dd 02-feb-2014

When using version 6 update 3 of Oracle Linux, it seems not possible to get the correct Kernel headers for the uek. At least it should be possible to find them ... but I did not find them, or at least ... not as fast as I wanted. Just used a short-circuit to get things working fast ... 

I followed these steps:

• boot with the non-uek kernel
  This can be achieved by:
• or change the kernel at boot time
• or change the default boot instance in the /boot/grub/grub.conf file
• Make sure gcc and the kernel-devel packages are installed (using yum install gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers)
• running VBoxLinuxAdditions.run -> this should not fail anymore
• you will find in the /media any shared folder
• now ... reboot in
• uek -> seems to work ... but not really guaranteed because of the difference in the compile-time and runtime-kernel versions
• run in the version as was compiled 
• make the kernel version permanent in the grub.conf if not already done so

Update 4-feb-2014

Context Delta : Oracle Linux 6.3 base installation with Database Server option.
Even though the kernel was booted with the compatible version (RHEL) the openGL compilation failed. All major requirements like folder sharing and screen sizing do not work.
Found on a site the hint to do an export  MAKE="/usr/bin/gmake -i " before launching the VBoxLinuxadditions.run command.
This solved immediately the problem of the shared folders not being accessible under /media/sf_*.
It did not solve the problem of the windows resizing.
After a reboot with the original UEK kernel (in OL 6.3) which caused the Shared folders not being accessible anymore.
Starting to update to really latest version of OL v6 ... see if things will be more smooth then ...
... and yes it did.
So ... changed  config file in the yum.repos.d directory to retrieve the latest versions, which at this moment in time seems to be 6.5.1. Performed a simple yum update which took 40 MB to download and install. Rebooted with the new kernel.
Mounted the cdrom again and started the installation of the VBoxGuestAdditions again.
This time no errors were encountered ... with the exception of the Window System Drivers.
Will try to fix that too.

Good Luck

OEL - Kickstart documentation

The following link, this link, points to the doc of redhat kickstart.

bash - doc

Just ... this link

bash - Substitution of variables

This link explains variable substitution in the Bash Shell.
For convenience a copy of some info in that post:

• ${VAR-default}
  If VAR is set (to any value, even null, then return $VAR, otherwise return the default value provided. VAR is unchanged. If the - is preceded by a colon (':') then the default value will also be returned in case the value of VAR is null.
• ${VAR=default}
  The same as '-' except that the value of VAR will be changed too. The use of the colon is the same in this case.
• ${#VAR}
  This returns the number of characters in VAR. (Unicode ???)
• ${VAR#pattern}
  Returns VAR with the shortest instance of pattern removed from the front.
  Pattern is not a regular expression but a glob. If ## is used instead of # the longest matching pattern is removed from the front.
• ${VAR%pattern}
  Identical to # except the front will be the end of value of VAR

Installation of Forms on OEL r5 u5

This post is currently only a wrap up of links I found interesting in installing the forms environment.

Envirionment:
Two hosts: one ... a vmware environment with oracle VM Manager the other with Oracle VM Server.
Next to these I have a NAS which is used to provide the software to all guests on the VM server for sofware and other feeds (a Thecus N5500 with 10TB disk capacity) (NFS is choses over iSCSI because the fact that iSCSI has to be considered as a hardware layer and is therefor dedicated to one controlling machine. Because I want to use it on all machines ... I had it configured as a NFS share)

The VM server has an Intel i7 920 processor with 6GB of ram and 4 TB of disks installed (Acer brand)

On the VM Server the following guest systems will be installed:

• db server: OELr5u2 with Oracle DB 11g, running with 2 cores dedicated and 1.5 GB ram.
• wls admin server: OEL r5u5
• hosts to run managed servers: OELr5u5, initially only one server, with the intention of running 4 managed servers.
• Later on the host with managed servers will be copied to try the concept of clustering ... 

The network ... well very simple ... all hosts will get a fixed ip address within the same subnet.
Since the virtual NIC's are on the same physical system, they use the softnetworked network ... which provides rather high speeds.

Software

The following software is used:
Oracle VM Manager r 2.2.0
Oracle VM Server r 2.2.0
VMWare Fusion (is used to create a linux vm and install the VM manager in it) running on Mac OS X.
Oracle Enterprise Linux r5 u 5.
Weblogic server 11g r1 (10,3,3,0)
FMW - portal, forms, reports and discoverer v 11g r1patch 1 (11,1,1,2)
Patch to FMW - portal, forms, reports and discoverer r11g r1 (11,1,1,3)
For convenience a VM with DB11g.

Installation of the Virtual Machines

To be done

Installation of FMW on the server

Install the WLS server.
Install release 11,1,1,2 of FMW-PFRD
Install on top of that 11,1,1,3 (this is a pure patchset ... big but a patchset)

That's it for now ... 

Links:

• Oracle system requirements and specifications for FMW
• Download the software
• A tutorial on installing forms on windows 
•   

Android - Copy Nokia Contacts to Android Phone

In this link you can find the HowTo on how to do this.
In case the link wouldn't work anymore here's how:

• on the nokia go to contacts and mark all the contacts.
• Copy all contacts to the inserted microSD card
  The phone will ask to replace all existing contacts on the card. Confirm yes.
• Connect to the MicroSD card. This can be done by browsing the card after connecting it through cable or bluetooth to a computer or by simply inserting the MicroSD card into a expansion to SD card.
• Copy the contents of the contacts folder to a local folder. (I'm assuming you're a wise person and using a Unix based OS such as Linux or Mac OS X.
• Create a single file from all the vcf files by using the command cat *.vcf > MyContacts.VCF
• Now you need a Google account ... Android is based on Google and ... they seem to work very well together (See later)
• Go to the contacts and simply import the MyContacts.VCF file into the Google Contacts.
• Now you can modify the data as you require (merge them, clean them out and so on ... )
• Now ... in case you had already defined a Google connection on your phone ... you will be amazed but ... all your contacts will be present on you phone ... be amazed by it !!!
  In the other case, simply connect from the phone to your newly created google account ... and also in this case ... be amazed by the wonder of integration!

OpenOffice - Mailmerge and blanc pages

When performing a mailmerge sometimes a blanc page gets inserted.

When searching for this problem on the internet you will surely find this solution which suggests to set the insert blanc page when printing to off.

That solution is a workaround which has to be set in a document. It controls the fact that if a previous section ends on an odd page and the next section starts on an odd page, when printing an even page gets inserted, which is used when printing in duplex/double sided. In a mail merge this section end by default generates the 'even' page and by this the blanc page ...

The problem basically comes from the fact that while doing a print mailmerge to a new single document every instance of a record will be printed to a new section which starts on the odd page. You will notice this in the line starting each printed instance which is in fact a section break.

So you should be able to control the behaviour of the 'section printing' in the document.

This link shows the wiki page on sections in OpenOffice.

TBC

Google - Hoe meer efficient zoeken

Het zou bijne common knowledge moeten zijn ... maar door de sturing van de zoekmachine van google is het soms gemakkelijker naar een meer relevant resultaat te komen.

Het is interessant om een keer door deze lijst te gaan kijken en een keer alle mogelijkheden te doorlopen.
Het is nog handiger om deze lijst bovenaan uw bookmarks te houden omdat het dikwijls zo zou zal zijn dat je meer tijd wint door een betere zoekopdracht te geven dan door een eindeloze lijst van niet-relevante zoekresultaten te lopen.

Andere plaatsen om hier informatie over te vinden van Google zelf:
- Help bij het zoeken: algemeen
- Basisbeginselen bij het Google zoeken.
- Uw zoekervaring verbeteren.

GSM - Rinkeltijd verlengen

Gekopieerd voor de memorie van de blog van Peeters en Pichal: ( link )

Luisteraar Annelies schrijft: ‘Sinds lange tijd storen we ons hier met z'n allen aan de korte rinkeltijd van onze GSM's. Voordat we de telefoon kunnen opnemen zit de beller al op de voice mail.’

Volgens Annelies wordt de rinkeltijd zelfs voortdurend korter en zitten hier snode plannen van de operatoren achter. Wat is er van aan?

In de uitzending bleek dat je de beltijd (de tijd voordat je voicemail opspringt) op de volgende manieren kan verlengen:

Proximus: **61*+32475151516*11*30#
Base: **61*+32486191933**30# of *61*+32486191933**30#
Mobistar: **61*5555**30#
Telenet: **61*5555**30#

Na het hekje moet je op verzenden of op de groene knop van je gsm duwen.
Enkel geldig voor mensen die met een abonnement bellen.

Brother - reset Drum Status

To reset the status of the Brother MFC-8840d(n) open the front cover, press the clear/back button and when asked select yes (=1) to reset the status.