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Using pets/Sfses compiled in one pup in a different pup
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Joined: 16 Jun 2008
Posts: 3319
Location: 500 seconds from Sol
Posted: Sat 26 Jan 2013, 14:37
Post subject:
Using pets/Sfses compiled in one pup in a different pup
Hi All,
I don't compile, but do run or test various Pup(let)s as they develop. This has been my experience regarding the utility of using pets and SFSes in one Puplet that were compiled in another puplet.
First factor to consider: on which distro, if any, was the Pup(let) based. Different distros use different libs using the same name. Installation may overwrite a lib, breaking the application which used it, or try to use an existing lib which is slightly different and so unusable. Trying to use an SFS built in a different Pup is safer than installing a pet from a different Pup. The SFS may not work, or interfere with other apps, but unloading it will eliminate the conflict.
Uninstalling a problem pet doesn't reinstall libs which were over-ridden.
If you have a favorite pet, you may want to use one of the apps to convert it to an SFS.
Rule 1: Before installing a pet from a different Puplet ALWAYS backup your SaveFile. If you have a Full install, don't install pets from other puplets. Or set up a second version of your Puplet as a frugal install and test the pet there first.
Rule 2: Hardware specific drivers --such as for graphic cards and wireless adapters-- are kernel dependent. Consequently, a graphic driver compiled in, for example, Version A of Exprimo using Kernel A, probably won't work in Version B of Exprimo using Kernel B. But it might work in a version of Precise using Kernel A. The first post in a puplet's thread will usually tell you what kernel was used.
Wary, Racy, Saluki, Carolina and 'lina-lite are T2 builds from sources, with Saluki, and the Carolinas being themselves based on Racy. Their pets may, but probably won't, work in non-T2 Pups. Saluki pets usually work in the Carolinas. Usually Racy and wary pets will work in Saluki. Insufficient experience at present to say anything about Racy and wary pets under the Carolinas.
Perhaps strangely, pets built in Puppy 4.31 --also a T2 build--will often function in any Pup. But they may overwrite libs, so see Rule 1.
Slackos are based on Slackware. Their pets will usually only work in other Slackos.
Lucid and Lupu were based on Ubuntu 10 & 11, Precise is based on Ubuntu 12. Exprimo is based on debian squeeze. But the Ubuntus, themselves, were based on debian or often employed debian libs. Its rare that a pet compiled in Lucid, Lupu, Precise or Exprimo won't function in the others of this group, except to some extent newer pets are not backward compatible with older pups. Warning, see Rules 1 & 2.
FatDog 64 and LighthousePup 64. I have little experience with these Puplets. Although I have a 64-bit computer, my testing of both indicated only an insignificant speed advantage. Currently I prefer the simple windows managers and more extensive software available in the 32-bit pups. It is my understanding that both Fatdog 64 and LighthousePup 64 can run 32-bit pets & sfses but only if a pet has been installed or an sfs loaded enabling them to do so. It is further my understanding that while older versions of these Puplets were T2 builds, newer versions are based on slackware. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Warning, see Rules 1 & 2.
64-bit pets and sfses will not run under 32-bit puplets.
Wine is an application interface layer that enables you to run some XP applications. It is not dependent on which puplet you are using, except that a 64-bit wine won't run in a 32-bit puplet, and a 32-bit wine requires the installation of a pet or loading of an sfs enabling the use of 32-bit applications before you can uses them in a 64-bit puplet. Once wine is installed/loaded, almost all
applications will run under 32-bit wine. Are there 64-bit portable xp programs? Your guess is as good as mine. Two portable xp applications I usually install are 7zip and Foxit Reader. I'm not sure that Linux (de)compression apps have caught up to 7zip. Portable Foxit Reader is currently superior to Linux pdf readers, including the Linux version of Foxit Reader, as the XP version permits you to highlight and annotate texts. Before trying to install non-portable xp programs, see what the wine organization has to say about their usability, and what advice it gives regarding pre-installation requirements. Portables do not have to be installed in the .wine directory you'll find by opening your file manager to root and showing hidden files. That's where they'll be installed by default. I run portables from /mnt/home by placing the setup file in its own directory there and installing it to that directory. You'll find a post under my signature explaining how to create desktop icons and adding them to menus. I've had less success trying to run non-portables from /mnt/home. XP programs can safely be tested under wine in any pup. If it doesn't work, or is no longer wanted, you can just delete the directory into which they've been installed. If you didn't create a directory outside of wine, you find the program's directory was installed to /.wine/drive_c/Program Files. Portables don't write to wine's imitation XP registry. Non-portables do and just deleting the folder will not remove the registration entries, but they take up little space and appear to do no harm. I've never bothered to use wine's uninstall module. But there are only two non-portable xp programs I frequently use.
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Joined: 11 Feb 2013
Posts: 572
Posted: Tue 12 Mar 2013, 11:06
Post subject:
Last edited by simargl on Sun 01 Sep 2013, 10:39; edited 1 time in total
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Karl Godt
Joined: 20 Jun 2010
Posts: 4208
Location: Kiel,Germany
Posted: Thu 21 Mar 2013, 23:49
Post subject:
Perhaps strangely, pets built in Puppy 4.31 --also a T2 build--will often function in any Pup. But they may overwrite libs, so see Rule 1.
The main hurdle to run pets or sfs in another Puppy Version is the GLIBC-VERSION .
Since Puppy 4 is GLIBC-2.6.1 these programs likely will run in any later Puppy with GLIBC-2.7 and above.
Slacko already has GLIBC-2.13 which is higher than the one of Puppy-Lupu-5 that has GLIBC-2.11.x , so won't run on Lupu . But actual Wary-5 and Racy-5 have GLIBC-2.10.x and likely will run also in Lupu environment , though Lupu is older but relies on the Ubuntu GLIBC.
GLIBC is a little beast to compile, much more difficult than the kernel . Compiling GLIBC is safest having a static toolchain of gcc, make, binutils, coreutils, find, busybox and probably some more , since installing would break many needed tools like cp, ln, chmod which are segfaulting after the install script copies the ld-GLIBC-VERSION.so into /lib , even if it is the same GLIBC Version but different compile options.
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Wreckily Ever After
Parents beware! Some of today's wrecks are not appropriate for kids.
Oh, and to my knowledge only two of these were NOT served at actual weddings. Let's see if you can guess which ones. [evil grin]
Someday my prince will come
Someday I'll find my love
And how thrilling that moment will be!
When the prince of my dreams comes to me!
He'll whisper, "I love you,"
And steal a kiss or chew:
Though he may be far away
I will find my love someday
(The porcelain throne?)
Someday when my dreams ...
... come true!
Thanks to Lynn G, Anony M., K.J., Serena M., Carol M., Alan R., Katie L., Solli S., Marisa F., & Stephanie L. for the royal treatment.
Oh, and for a sweet little palate cleanser, here's the version of Someday I listened to while writing this post. You should watch it. It's pretty. And Felicia Day is, like, too adorable. :)


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At the Hilton Hotel Main Pool // Starts @ 8pm // Limited Tickets Available at the Door.
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The purpose of this site is to be a centralized calendar of events for the LGBTQ community, particularly lesbians. The idea came about during one of our many travels around the United States. I would research girl/lesbian events in whatever city we were in and the results were often the same: the information was either inaccurate, non-existing or only gay-boy events were listed. Granted, the boys do go out a lot more than we do. Nonetheless, it was inconceivable to us that we could not find any reliable information on where to go if you're a girl…interested in girls… wanting to get out of the house… to meet other girls :-) With that in mind, "The Lesbian Agenda" was born.
At first, the site was only supposed to have a calendar of lesbian events throughout the country. Then, due to over-enthusiasm or just plain A.D.D., we decided to incorporate other content as well, such as current affairs, history, art, music and pop culture. The emphasis of the site, however, remains the same. That is, all our content is geared towards the LGBTQ community, particularly lesbians and what appeals to us. As such, "The Lesbian Agenda" focuses on empowering lesbian/bi/trans/queer women by promoting their events, showcasing their work and ultimately, connecting with a larger audience. Despite the name, we welcome all gender and sexual orientation.
LEZ: Lesbian Bar/Club
GL: Gay Bar/Club Hosting Lesbian Night
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FR: LGBTQ Friendly and Unofficial Homo Hang
MXD: Straight and LGBTQ crowd
HIP: Hipster Events Bars/Clubs. This is your "FR" on steroids (i.e., All Are Welcome).


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- The Wall Street Journal
- February 19, 2013
That, at least, is the experience of Lynas. For over a year, the Australian rare-earths mining group has come under fire from Tan Bun Teet and his band of tech-savvy campaigners here on Malaysia's South China Sea coast.
The group, called Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, has disrupted Lynas's plans to open a refinery here with a nimble, internet-based campaign, drawing nationwide support through regularly updated blogs, Twitter feeds and a Facebook page. In a recent interview, chief executive Nick Curtis said Lynas underestimated the extent to which the protesters had enlisted the organising power of the web, forcing the company to delay the opening of the plant until this past November, a full year behind schedule, and to raise money it didn't initially plan for.
Sydney-based Lynas, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market value of $1.2 billion, appeared to be onto a winner when it broke ground for a new plant near here five years ago. Global demand for exotic materials such as lanthanum and neodymium was surging as the world's appetite for hybrid cars, wind turbines and ever-faster phones with better screens grew.
The prospect of weakening China's choke-hold on 95 per cent of the world trade in these critical elements helped convince Malaysia's government that the project would be a success. It offered the firm a 12-year tax holiday to set up shop in Pahang, the home state of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Instead, construction of the $US800 million Lynas refinery kicked off a venomous debate with local residents about how to handle the low-grade radioactive waste that comes from processing rare-earth elements. The company and the Malaysian government say the plant is safe.
The clash is also now spilling over into national politics as opposition firebrand Anwar Ibrahim incorporates the cause in his bid to topple the coalition that has governed this predominantly Muslim nation since independence from Britain in 1957. Elections are expected to be called this spring.
"If we can't challenge the government in the courts, then perhaps the election will change the game," says Mr Tan, a wiry, methodical 64-year-old.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements valued for their magnetic and conductive properties. While harmless by themselves, they are frequently found mixed with potentially dangerous radioactive ores such as thorium. Separating and refining them can be complex and messy.
That has raised alarm among Malaysians who fear their government hasn't done enough to ensure the safety of the Lynas plant. "We can't trust them to do what's right," said Yu Siew Hong, a young mother who lives near the new facility.
Last month, Lynas secured a victory when the High Court in Kuantan dismissed protesters' allegations that Malaysian authorities improperly awarded the firm an operating license. The company's stock is also regaining interest among wary investors: J.P. Morgan Chase upgraded its recommendation on the shares to "buy" from "hold" in recent weeks.
The company's stock has continued to drift south, underscoring the difficulties still facing Lynas's plans to become a breakthrough player in the global rare-earths market. Lynas shares fell 2.4 per cent to 61 cents yesterday.
Among other things, the company still faces another judicial review sought by Mr Tan's group.
The upshot: Lynas's outlook "is still very uncertain," said Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Terry.
Mr Tan, who serves as Save Malaysia Stop Lynas's spokesman, isn't your common variety of eco-warrior. He and the other protesters hadn't taken much of an interest in environmental issues until Lynas began building its plant at the Gebeng industrial estate near Kuantan. Unlike groups such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, the group didn't have experience in organising protest campaigns.
Their emergence is part of a growing trend of smaller and smaller groups targeting corporations and markets, rather than governments, to achieve their goals, sometimes with spectacular effects.
In an extreme recent example, Australian activist Jonathan Moylan organised a hoax in early January in which he and his cohorts temporarily wiped $315m off the market value of Whitehaven Coal. Mr Moylan issued a statement, purportedly from the company's bank, saying it had withdrawn funding over concerns about environmental damage. The shares later recovered and Australian market regulators are now investigating the matter.
Mr Moylan couldn't be reached for comment. Local media have quoted him as saying he issued the statement.
Mr Tan and his friends, for their part, filed a series of actions specifically aimed at damaging Lynas's ability to secure additional funding and force it to give up.
"Refining rare earths is a dirty business and we want people to know what it involves. We might not win in the courts, but whatever action we take, it bleeds Lynas a little bit more and makes it more difficult for them to raise money," says Mr Tan.
The group's flurry of writs delayed Lynas obtaining a temporary operating license until this past November, a full year behind schedule, driving a decline in the company's share price from $1.59 in February 2012 to the 61 cents now, and forcing Lynas to raise more money to keep going.
"We've raised $175m more than we wanted. It's cost our shareholders," Mr Curtis, Lynas's chief executive, said by telephone. "It's not acceptable, but it is what it is."
The government is taking notice of the protesters' growing pull, too. In December, four cabinet ministers warned in a joint statement that Lynas must export all waste material from its plant or see its operations suspended.
Lynas says it intends to process the radioactive waste into other materials, such as road surfacing, diluting it. The company plans to export the material to comply with Malaysia's requirements.
Analysts say the obstacles Lynas has faced in Malaysia prevented it from enjoying a boom in rare-earths prices. The plant is finally operating but prices for some rare-earth elements are now 80 per cent off their peaks.
Lynas's Mr Curtis concedes the opportunities lost, but views the market as now being on a more sustainable growth path.
"Hopefully, when the election is out of the way, we'll be able to get down to business," he said.
~ The Australian


text:
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet in Turkey Saturday with senior Turkish officials and Syrian opposition figures, amid signs of deepening international involvement in the Syrian conflict.
With events accelerating in Syria – from high-profile defections from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to rebel progress in taking and holding territory – Secretary Clinton says her meetings in Turkey will focus on "the day after" Assad's fall and how to help a post-Assad Syria avoid sectarian warfare, reprisal killings, and a rise in extremism.
Yet while Clinton says her discussions will focus on "what happens next," the reality is that her interlocutors – both the Turks and the Syrian opposition – want to talk about what is happening now: a raging civil war that analysts say is taking an average of 200 lives a day and showing worrisome signs of engulfing the neighborhood.
"As the situation in Syria heats up, so does the region," say Robert Danin, a senior fellow in Middle Eastern affairs at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington. Iran, he says, is just one country that has considerable stakes in Syria and will want to remain a player there.
Turkey does not want to get dragged into the Syrian conflict, but it is already dealing with thousands of refugees fleeing across its border and is concerned about the destabilizing aspects of a prolonged conflict next door.
Syria's rebels have opened up a corridor from the embattled city of Aleppo to the Turkish border. But they say they need more and heavier arms to make further progress, and are pressing the United States to provide such weapons as anti-aircraft missiles for what some say could still be a long fight ahead.
The US currently is providing communications equipment, and some special operations forces are reported to be on the ground in Turkey – primarily to provide intelligence on Al Qaeda's role in the anti-Assad rebellion and presumably to offer some assistance to the rebels. But so far the Obama administration has stopped short of a more robust intervention.
Clinton's added stop in Turkey at the end of a 10-day swing through sub-Saharan Africa underscores the administration's growing concerns in the face of evidence of growing involvement by outside players that the US would like to keep out of a post-Assad Syria.
On Thursday the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, described Iran's role in Syria as "nefarious" for how it and its proxy, Hezbollah, are providing assistance to a regime that is massacring its own people.
The Obama administration on Friday designated Hezbollah for Treasury Department action for its material support to the Assad regime. "Hezbollah's extensive support to the Syrian government's violent suppression of the Syrian people exposes the true nature of this terrorist organization and its destabilizing presence in the region," said David Cohen, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.
Also Friday, the Treasury Department designated 29 Syrian government officials and five Syrian companies for their role in the regime's repressive actions and for developing non-conventional weapons.
The US has listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 1995, but Friday's order targets the Lebanon-based group specifically for its operations in Syria. Hezbollah is coordinating its support for Assad with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, the Treasury Department said in its statement.
Iran displayed its deep interest in Syria this week by holding an international conference on the Syrian conflict that attracted diplomats from Russia, China, and other countries that have opposed United Nations Security Council intervention in the conflict.
Earlier in the week Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, dispatched his chief national security adviser to Damascus to underscore Tehran's support for Assad. Iran's national security adviser, Saeed Jalili, told Assad that Iran supports Syria as an "essential part" of an "axis of resistance" that Tehran would not allow "to be broken in any way."
The CFR's Mr. Danin says Iran's outspoken commitment to Assad is worrisome because Iran has already demonstrated that it is "willing to take risks in the use of force" to further its aims. But he and other experts say Iran is far from the only challenge the US faces in a transitioning Syria, and they say the growing presence of Islamist extremists in Syria is of particular concern.
"Syria is becoming a magnet for jihadis globally," says Ed Husain, who is also a senior fellow at CFR in Washington. "In our enthusiasm to see the fall of the Assad regime, we're at risk of encouraging the rise of jihadi elements," he says.
That "risk" is just one of the factors explaining Clinton's focus on "what comes next' in Syria, Danin says. "We have to be concerned about what happens afterwards," he says, adding that the "after" will nevertheless be determined in large part by how Syria gets to a post-Assad period.
"The way Assad is brought down," he says, "will shape the way the country evolves afterwards."


text:
Friday, April 07, 2006
The Classics
Ben Jonson, Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman, Act 2:Newer› ‹Older
SIR JOHN DAW: There's Aristotle, a mere common-place fellow; Plato, a discourser; Thucydides and Livy, tedious and dry; Tacitus, an entire knot: sometimes worth the untying, very seldom.
NED CLERIMONT: What do you think of the poets, Sir John?
SIR JOHN DAW: Not worthy to be named for authors. Homer, an old tedious, prolix ass, talks of curriers, and chines of beef. Virgil of dunging of land, and bees. Horace, of I know not what.


text:
Hello everyone!!! this is my last outfit post from 2012! this sweater is a gift from my mom... she bought it in her honeymoon in London in 1981...so it's 30 years old!! it's incredible how the good quality clothes can last generations! I hope I can leave my daughters clothes from my time... fashion trends come back always... and here is the proof!
suéter / sweater: Vintage
Blusa/tshirt: Oysho old
Jeans: Berschka
Bolso / Handbag: Westies
Loafers (zapatos/shoes): Rubik Plaza Universidad Guadalajara


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Under Permit
All business at Saguaro Lake operate under a permit issued by the USDA Tonto National Forest.
Saguaro Lake Marina
Saguaro Lake is located within the Tonto National Forest just 20 minutes from Mesa,
Arizona. Click here for directions and maps of Saguaro Lake and the area.
There is so much to do at Saguaro Lake! Visit Precision Marine and rent a runabout, fishing or pontoon boat, or take a relaxing Desert Belle tour boat ride around the lake, then eat at the yummy Lakeshore Restaurant.
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Contact the marina office for current slip rates and information at 480-986-5546,
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Pump-out facilities
Ships Store and supplies
Marine hardware and certified mechanics
Electricity & water available
Weather Conditions At Saguaro Lake
Brief History Of Saguaro Lake
Saguaro Lake was formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam, which was completed in 1930. It was the last of the reservoirs
to be built on the Salt River.
The lake is named for the Saguaro Cactus, which stand majestically in the surrounding desert landscape. Saguaro Lake has more than 22 miles of shoreline, creating a great environment for boating, kayaking, sailing, skiing, jet skiing, fishing and camping.
The Saguaro del Norte Recreation site is near the dam and includes Saguaro Lake Marina, which includes a restaurant and boat concession, a Maricopa County Sheriff's aid station, picnic tables, restrooms and boat ramps. Butcher Jones Beach, which can be reached by a road a few miles north of Saguaro del Norte, features swimming, picnic and restroom facilities.


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Great news: The Honeynet Project was accepted as a mentoring org for GSoC 2012. Thanks Google! :-)
This page contains a list of potential project ideas that we are keen to develop during GSoC 2012 (we also have additional project ideas currently undergoing internal review, which will be added here too once project deliverables and available mentors have been confirmed). You can also find our previous GSoC 2009 project ideas here, our previous GSoC 2010 project ideas here and previous GSoC 2011 project ideas here too, if you are looking for inspiration or would like to work on one of our existing tools, rather than working on something new.
We are always also interested in hearing any ideas for additional relevant honeynet-related R&D projects (although remember that to qualify for receiving GSoC funding from Google your project deliverables need to fit in to GSoC's 3-month project timescales!). If you have a suitable and interesting project, we'll always try and find the right resources to mentor it and support you. Please note - even if you aren't an eligible GSoC student, we are also always looking for general volunteers who are enthusiastic and interested in getting involved in honeynet R&D.
Each sponsored GSoC 2012 project will have one or more mentors available to provide a guaranteed contact point to students, plus one or more technical advisors to help applicants with the technical direction and delivery of the project (often the original author of a tool or its current maintainer, and usually someone recognised as an international expert in their particular field). Our Google Summer of Code organisational administrators will also be available to all sponsored GSoC students for general advice and logistical support. We'll also provide supporting hosted svn/trac/git/redmine/mailman/IRC/etc project infrastructure, if required.
For all questions about the Honeynet Project, the GSoC program or our projects, please contact us on #gsoc2012-honeynet on irc.freenode.net, subscribe to our public mailing list for people interested in GSoC at https://public.honeynet.org/mailman/listinfo/gsoc or email us directly at [email protected]
To learn more about the Google Summer of Code event, see the the GSoC 2012 Website.
This year our internal honeynet R&D focus is primarily directed into a number of priority areas, which are:
So unsurprisingly a number of our suggested potential project ideas fall into these research areas.
However, we are also interested in receiving project proposals and tool updates/new tool developments outside these research focus areas too, so hopefully this provides potential students with a wide variety of exciting topics to contributed to and be engaged with this summer.
1. Further extend Capture-HPC with possibility of detecting malicious behavior on Linux Machines
Primary mentor: Adam Kozakiewicz (PL)
Backup mentor: Paweł Jacewicz (PL), Thanh Nguyen (VN)
Type: Extension of existing tool
Skill set required: Python/Java/Groovy, Linux development
Project Goal: Extension of tool to monitor malicious behavior on Linux operating systems.
Project Description:
Capture-HPC is a high-interaction client honeypot developed to detect client-side attacks. It consists of two parts: server and client. Server part manages multiple client instances run on virtualized Windows systems.
Recently a basic Capture-HPC client for Linux machines was developed by Mr Maciej Szawłowski as a part of his BSc thesis at Warsaw University of Technology. The main goal of the project is to further extend functionality of this client software and to better integrate it with Linux operating system architecture
As Linux operating systems gain popularity, it is highly probable that soon a new line of threats targeting Linux users will arise. Extending Capture-HPC with functionality proposed below will greatly contribute to the knowledge of attacks against Linux client software, especially the web browsers.
Goals of the implementation:
The main problem is to implement an efficient method of near real-time system events and modified files collection from the monitored Linux system. It can't be done by simple modifications of the existing code as it uses half-realtime system state monitoring technique. Developing a system kernel module, which will support client monitoring software is the natural way to solve this problem. However, if the goal of efficient and thorough collection of data can be achieved by some other means, the results will be just as acceptable.
Additional information:
2. Expand Cuckoo Sandbox
Primary mentor: Claudio Guarnieri (IT)
Backup mentor: Tiffany Youzhi Bao (CN), Dario Fernandes (IT)
Type: Extension of existing tool
Skill set required: Python, C/C++, Windows internals
Project Goal: Expand Cuckoo's stability, capabilities and support for
multiple platforms
Project Description:
Cuckoo Sandbox provides a complete, extensible and customizable
solution for performing analysis of malicious artifacts of various
nature. The goal for this project would be extending its current
According to the selected student's skills, the work to be done could
be relevant to:
That could include:
Additional information:
3. Improve our Android application sandbox (DroidBox)
Primary mentor: Patrik Lantz (SE)
Backup mentor: Felix Leder (DE) and Anthony Desnos (FR)
Type: Improve existing tool
Skill set required:Android framework, C, Dalvik opcodes, Assembling/Disassembling, Python, Web development
Project Goal: Improve our Android application sandbox (DroidBox)
Project Description:
Maintaining and porting DroidBox is rather qumbersome. So another possible direction for DroidBox is to skip the dependency of TaintDroid and modified API framework to instead try to patch an APK before analyzing it. This patching would inject necessary code, producing an instrumented APK. With the injected code we would call a proxy class before actual API calls we are interested in monitoring. Some of the API calls might also be used for emulator evasion techniques and these calls would have to be replaced with our own, returning values as a real device would.
Students can also propose their own ideas around this project.
Additional information:
TaintDroid OSDI '10 paper
Dalvik opcodes
[1] https://sites.google.com/site/taintdroid23/
4. Improve Androguard tool
Primary mentor: Anthony Desnos (FR)
Backup mentor: Cong Zheng (CN)
Type: Extend existing tool
Skill set required: Python, Android, Java, Qt
Project Goal: Improve Androguard tool http://code.google.com/p/androguard/
Project Description:
Androguard has a set of tools which can be use to detect plagiarisms. To detect something, androguard needs to use specific database which has been filled by someone. It can be very interesting to have a list of android adwares and to build a database of each adware in order to detect them out of the box with androguard.
There exists a set of tools which can be use to perform diffing between two android applications. But for now, we display the results in the console, and it can be difficult to read for everybody, so the idea is to build a generic GUI framework to be usable by any project in order to display differences, and android will be a good example of this framework.
5. Network Analyzer
Primary mentor: Nicolas Collery (SG)
Backup mentor:Adam Pridgen (US)
Type: Develop new tool
Skill set required:
Project Goal:
Project Description:
Open source web based and command line network analyser inspired by netwitness, chaosreader, tcpflow, honeysnap, pcapr, splunk... The purpose is to display in a nice manner know traffic (incl. known protocol but non std port), identify unknown traffic and allow plugins to interact with other systems (like cuckoo). For example if the traffic recognise some malware familly (yara for pcap) then pass some info to cuckoo (name=spyeye) then wait for a feedback (decryption key=xxxx) to decode traffic. The information can be passed to other system for a more complete analysis.
6. IPv6 attack detector
Primary mentor: Hugo Gonzalez (MX)
Backup mentor:
Type: New tool
Skill set required: protocols, python programming
Project Goal: Write a software to detect specific IPv6 attacks (specially thc-ipv6 attacks)
Project Description:
There are specific attacks on IPv6 networks, and specially on IPv4 networks with IPv6 enable hosts. Basic attack is over router announcement for example, this could generate from DoS to MitM, so the proposal is to write a software to detect this specific attacks to IPv6 hosts.
First, I'm thinking something similar to arpwatch, but for IPv6 router announcements. Detect uncommon neighbor requests.
This should be the "shield" for the thc-ipv6 attacks.
7. Network malware simulator
Primary mentor: Hugo Gonzalez (MX)
Backup mentor:
Type: New tool
Skill set required: protocols, network programming, python programming
Project Goal: Write a software to simulate malware network behaivor.
Project Description:
There are some papers about simulating malware network behavior, but so far there are no tools available. This tool should emulate/simulate the behaivor of different malwares in the network, like worms, bots, downloaders, etc. It should have client/server architecture. This tools will help to evaluate security systems or network detectors. This should be modular to include new behaviors.
Related information:
8. Improving APKInspektor
Primary mentor: Cong Zheng (CN)
Backup mentor: Anthony Desnos (FR), Kara Nance (US)
Type: Extend existing tool
Skill set required: Python, QT, Dalvik opcode
Project Goal: Improve APKInspector
Project Description:
1. Improve the installation process. QT's environment is a little bit complex to install, this should be automated.
2. Improve the capabilities for configuration. Goal is to interact with every instruction. Right now interaction is only possible with blocks. This should be more fine-grained.
3. Improve some graph features. The call in/out should be showed in a call graph.
4. Repackaging ability .You can modify the smali codes and repack them to a new app by Apktool. For example if you want to log the register's value after you add a log api into the smali codes.
Now, the CFG's codes are using the dalvik codes in Androguard. We should change that to smali codes. Smali code sometimes is much more powerful and readable.
5. Data flow analysis. Goal is to be able to trace the register's source in each instruction. Some program analysis technologies are needed, such as backward slicing and simulation execution.
Related information:
APKinspector : http://code.google.com/p/apkinspector/
Androguard: http://code.google.com/p/androguard/
Apktool: http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/
Dalvik opcodes: http://pallergabor.uw.hu/androidblog/dalvik_opcodes.html
pyQT: http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/static/Docs/PyQt4/html/classes.html
9. Wireshark Forensics Extensions
Primary mentor: Guillaume Arcas (FR)
Backup mentor: Jianwei Zhuge (CN) />
Type: Improve existing plugins and developping a new one
Skill set required:Network programming, C, wireshark/pcap
Project Goal: Adding more network investigation (forensics) plugins to Wireshark
Project Description:
Wireshnork and WireViz are two Wireshark plugins developped during GSoC 2011. Both can be improved: for example, Wireshnork currently works on all packets of a pcap file, it could be easier to be able to run it only on some selected packets or streams. Another improvement to Wireshnork could also be to take advantage of the pcap-ng format. WireViz also can be improved by adding, for example, colorization on links between graph elements to show frequency of an event's occurence.
Beside improving these two plugins, development of a File Extractor could be very usefull. The goal is to extend current Wireshark file extraction features for HTTP (see the actual Export/Objects/HTTP menu) to other commonly used protocols like SMTP, FTP, SMB, etc. This plugin would act like tcpextract, foremost or chaosreader do.
There's also a new plugin that can be very usefull: WireMap. WireMap will do geolocalization of IP and Google-mapping its. The goal is to draw Google Maps with IP of a PCAP file with the help of Maxmind GeoIP databases. If lines can be drawn between IPs, it's even better.
Note that the student can choose to improve Wireshnork and WireViz or developp the File Extractor or WireMap plugin.
Additional information/Usefull links:
GSoC 2011 Wireshark
WireShnork Plugin
10. HoneyProxy
Primary mentor: Guillaume Arcas (FR)
Backup mentor: Jamie Riden (UK)
Type: Develop new tool
Skill set required:HTTP/HTTPS, Python
Project Goal: Develop a light HTTP/HTTPS Proxy for Web Traffic Investigation
Project Description:
Web Proxies can be usefull to inspect and investigate HTTP and HTTPS flows. Some OpenSource proxies like BURP or OWASP WebScarab already exist for Pentesting, can also be used to investigate Web Traffic but are quite "heavy", as they do too much unneeded things in a Forensic context.
HoneyProxy will provide the same features as BURP Proxy does :
For HTTP objects catpure, requests and answers may be logged "as is" in plain text or in their native format for non text files (fash, jar, exe, etc), HTTP headers must also be logged (in text).
Logging traffic in PCAP file should also be considered.
Programming language is free of choice even if Python can be a good choice to add portability to HoneyProxy.
Additional information/Usefull links:
BURP Proxy
Decoding malware SSL using Burp proxy
11. Automated Attack Community Graph Construction
Primary mentor: Julia Cheng (TW)
Backup mentor: Claudio Guarnieri (IT), Thanh Nguyen (VN)
Type:Data analysis and integrated onto exising Splunk system
Skill set required: Python programming, Shell scripts, Splunk(optional), Honeypot technology, graph theory
Project Goal:Constructing attack community graph from multi-sources honeypot logs to recognize the attack approaches and relationships via social network analysis
Project Description:
Large amounts of honeypot logs result in difficulties in data analysis and interpretation. This GSoC idea is to construct attack community graph from multi-sources to recognize attack approaches inside large-scales attack community.
Goal of implementation:
12. Malicious URL pre-filtering
Primary mentor: Julia Cheng (TW)
Backup mentor:
Type: Develop new tool
Skill set required: Python programming
Project Goal: URL pre-filtering
Project Description:
Pre-filtering malicious URL for improving the performance of honeyclient.
13. Printer Honeypot
Primary mentor: Franck Guenichot (FR)
Backup mentor: Sebastien Tricaud (FR)
Type: New tool
Skill set required:
Project Goal: Extend dionaea with a new module or write a new tool.
Project Description:
Given the recent findings in the printer exploitation field, the goals of this project is to develop a dionaea module
which is able to catch potentially malicious documents sent to tcp port 9100.
The module will have to :
emulate (basically) a printer to catch the documents sent
answer some specific PJL commands like @PJL INFO ID with real values to avoid detection.
Detect potentially harmful PJL commands (UPGRADE, FSUPLOAD, FSDOWNLOAD, etc...) that can be embedded in the document sent
Basically parse the document to detect its personality (PS / PCL)
Use the incidents handling functions of dionaea to report all the incidents in log files (ip source, detailed information on the document sent)
Stores the potentially malicious documents (in a file) on the honeypots for further analysis
Capture the network conversation (bistreams) between the "attacker" and the honeypot.
This module or new tool must be able to use HPfeeds to log all the incidents or to send the captured documents to specific communication channels.
Andrei Costin's research papers
Ang Cui's research papers
HP Printer Job Language (PJL) Technical Reference
Adobe PostScript (PS) reference manual
14. Glastopf improvements
Primary mentor: Jamie Riden (UK)
Backup mentor: Lukas Rist (DE)
Type: Extend existing tool
Skill set required: Python and a bit of PHP
Project Goal: Extend Glastopf with new features
Project Description:
Machine learning based request classification improvements. So far classification is based on patterns. Goal is to improve the patterns using collected requests and machine learning to extract the unique features.
Source IP profiling will give us a deeper understanding about an IP's history and shows us eventually if two IP addresses belong to the same botnet based on their request patterns.
POST handling will allow us to properly reply to attacks using the POST method. We will store and analyze the payload of the request and try to reply according to the adversaries expectations.
The internal sandbox needs a lot of tweaking to make it more secure and more accurate but also less "fingerprintable".
Suggestions from students are very welcome and a high priority selection criteria.
Additional information:
Glastopf project page
Project repository
15. KVM management
Primary mentor: Tillmann Werner (DE)
Backup mentor: Claudio Guarnieri (IT)
Type: New Tools (HP) or Extension of existing tool (non-HP)
Skill set required: C/C++, Python
Project Goal: The goal is to have a control and data collection library for KVM
Project Description:
Management tools for VMWare and Vitualbox have really nice management tools that enable the collection of information that are interesting for forensics and malware analysis.
KVM is, for multiple reasons, a very interesting platform for these
types of analysis. The ease of use for analysts and tools for collecting
important information are lacking a bit.
This project is about extending existing libraries or writing a new
library that enables features like easily managing snapshots, collecting pcaps from the VM network device, create memory dumps, ...
16. Python in the Kernel
Primary mentor: Felix Leder (DE)
Backup mentor:
Type: New Tool
Skill set required: C, Windows kernel development, Python low-level
Project Goal: Port Python to the Windows kernel for forensics tools
Project Description:
Python has proven to be a very powerful language for forensics (e.g.
[1]). This is based on the rapid prototyping and data parsing features
of this language.
PyBox [2] is a project that already allows to create monitoring and
forensics utilities for the user-space programs. It takes only a few
lines to write powerful monitoring applications.
It would be awesome to be able to quickly and easily write new forensics and analysis tools for the Windows kernel with scripting. In order to do so, it is necessary to port Python to the Windows kernel and to create an interface for loading scripts. This will likely require to strip down parts of the Python core.
[1] https://www.volatilesystems.com/default/volatility
[2] http://code.google.com/p/pyboxed/
17. AfterGlow Cloud
Primary mentor: Raffael Marty (US)
Backup mentor: Ralph Logan (US)
Type: Building user interface and cloud-enabling an existing tool
Skill set required: Python / Perl / HTML5 / (D3.js) /
Project Goal: AfterGlow is an existing open source visualization tool. This project is about cloud-enabling the tool. Currently the tool is command-line focused and it needs a Web-based interface to run it as a service.
Project Description:
The project will require the development of a Web service. The Web service will allow people to upload CSV files and visualize them as a network graph. AfterGlow is an open source visualization tool that already exists. It allows users to convert CSV files into representations of a network graph (DOT or GDF files). The tool is completely command line based right now and needs a user interface for configuration and rendering:
We need two separate components to be developed:
The input from step one is fed into the existing AfterGlow tool to compute the DOT or GDF files that can then be rendered.
18. SSL Trust
Primary mentor: Jeff Nathan (US)
Backup mentor: TBC
Type: New tool
Skill set required: Network programming, browser plugins
Project Goal:Improving web brower SSL trust
Project Description:
Develop a system to enumerate SSL certificate data such as fingerprints and dates valid from sites on the Internet and store the results so they can be queried later.
Then, develop a system that allows this data to be queried securely and without SSL by users on remote networks.
Finally develop a browser plugin to securely validate the SSL certificate presented by any site against the repository of SSL certificate information.
The purpose of this project is to expose legitimately signed but potentially unscrupulous SSL certificates that allow network operators to see the content of SSL encrypted data. The risk of legitimately signed but potentially unscrupulous SSL certificates exists in two forms:
A) Subordinate root Certificate Authority signing keys
B) Countries where the Government also operates a root Certificate Authority
Appropriate technologies and tools to be chosen by the student.
19. Droidbox Heuristic Detection of Malicious Applications
Primary mentor: Jeff Nathan (US)
Backup mentor: TBC
Type:Extension of existing Droidbox GSoC tool
Skill set required: Android development
Project Goal:Extend droidbox by adding heuristic detection to quickly identify potentially malicious applications
Project Description:
The purpose of this project is to reduce the continually growing set of Android applications that need to be analyzed using using manual and sophisticated mechanisms. This reduction would be aided by adding the following simple classification methods to our Droidbox project from GSoC 2011:
A) Identify applications that download additional application packages when downloaded and treat them as
B) Define sets of application permissions as being potentially malicious and identify applications that utilize these sets of
C) Define obvious sandbox evasion behaviors and identify applications attempting to evade being executed within a sandbox
Experience in Android development needed, ideally with some exposure to Droidbox.
20. HonEeeBox User Interface
Primary mentor: David Watson (UK)
Backup mentor: Arthur Clune (UK), Ben Reardon (AU), Raphael Marty (US)
Type:Development of new Django/JavaScript UI for HonEeeBox
Project Goal:Build a new user interface for our HonEeeBox distributed low interaction honeypot sensor network, using data from our HPFeeds system
Project Description:
In GSoC 2011 last year we ran a project to build a new backend and user interface for our HonEeebox distributed low interaction honeypot sensor network. You can find more information about this project at:
This project successfully built a new submit_http submissions backend and data enrichment system for our first generation HonEeeBox system, which used Nepenthes as the low interaction honeypot. It was less successful at building a working web based user interface, running out of time before it could be completed.
Since last year, we have upgraded our HonEeeBox system to use the next generation Dionaea low interaction honeypot developed during previous GSoCs (including VoIP honeypot capabilities). We have also switched from the older submit_http data transport system to a new internally developed HPFeeds data transport system that we are currently piloting.
You can find the internal slides about HonEeeBox from our recent March 2012 annual workshop held at Facebook in Palo Alto here.
This year we would like to focus on building a new web based user interface for HonEeeBox - ideally using Django plus Javascript against a PostgreSQL database, although we are open to alternative technology suggestions too. The goals will be initially to display information (both public and private - where public does not reveal the source IP addresses of sensors) about the number of HonEeeBox sensors actively submitting data, attack rates, types and sources of attacks over time, plus AV and sandbox data about the malware samples downloaded. Data will be provided to develop against from an enriched HPFeeds data set, adding IP Geolocation, ASN lookup and AV/Sandbox analysis results. The deliverable will be a working v1 user interface, followed by the addition of extra geolocated and time series based data analysis as project time allows.
Longer term we will be looking to integrate existing and new data visualizations using tools like Processing, Google maps/Google Earth, previous GSoC work, etc so experience or familiarity with that type of web visualization would also be helpful.
If this list of potential project ideas doesn't interest you, or you want to work on a previous project or tool, you can find more details at:
* GSoC 2009 Project Ideas
* GSoC 2009 Accepted Projects
* GSoC 2010 Project Ideas
* GSoC 2010 Accepted Projects
* GSoC 2011 Project Ideas
* GSoC 2011 Accepted Projects
* Honeynet Project Tools
Finally, please remember that you are also free to suggest your own project ideas and we'll try our best to find you a suitable mentor for GSoC 2012 too.
Good luck with your student applications! :-)


text:
Carbon, water, food: quo vadis agriculture at Australian universities?
16 February 2012
First published in The Canberra Times on 16 February 2012.
This week's cancelation of the intake of students to the agriculture program at the University of Western Sydney has justifiably rung alarm bells. Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, was quick to argue that a strategy of hope was not going to address the decline in the number of students selecting agricultural science as their first preference at university. We need to do things differently.
It is in our national interest to better support agriculture at our universities. It is in our national interest because - as the Chief Scientist and his team recently noted about Australia's involvement in international agricultural research - we are good at it.
Australian science more generally cannot hope to be good at everything; we are too small a community. But in agriculture we punch well above our weight and it makes no sense to throw away that hard-won advantage. Naturally, we are good at it because of investment, especially in the post-war period when governments properly recognised that without R&D we would struggle to maintain the international competitiveness of our export-focused agricultural industries. This was followed up by far-sighted decisions to extend our R&D prowess to education, not just for Australians but for international students as well. Remarkable successes such as the Colombo Plan, which promoted technical co-operation and assisted in the sharing and transfer of technology among Commonwealth countries, might be revisited now.
The goal of making our Faculties and Schools of Agriculture and their degree programs more attractive to students has to include re-thinking of the role of agriculture academics in research and in teaching programs. An artificial divide of 'fundamental' science belonging solely in science departments and 'applied' science belonging in agriculture faculties and departments, is plainly dumb. After all, it suggests that the best and brightest should aspire to work in science rather than agriculture faculties and departments. It is dumb because students take their lead from the staff who teach them and because it has created a profound anti-agriculture culture amongst those who take part in the annual ritual of anonymous peer-review of grant proposals to the major source of funding for fundamental research - the Australian Research Council. Ever since the rise in the 1980s and 90s of the Research and Development Corporations that fund applied research supported directly by industry, there has been a steady erosion of ARC support for key fields such as soil science and plant production research. This is not an RDC or an ARC problem per se - it is as much about the way universities have treated agriculture and its constituent science disciplines as anything else. Even so, we now need a serious and sustained effort to fix the problem. Restoring an ARC panel for agriculture (and forest) research would be a good start, especially if the RDCs contributed to the funding pool and the peer-reviewer pool was appropriately re-balanced.
All of this requires a compelling narrative that captures media attention. A few years ago I spent four days at the UN in Nairobi, listening as speaker after speaker - including Rajendra Pachauri, the Chair of the IPCC, M.S Swaminathan, a founder of the green revolution, and Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program - stressed the urgency of producing sufficient food for a few billion more people.
What can be more important? Yet in Australia, and up till around 2009, we had more than a decade of bad agriculture stories in our capital city news outlets as we went through the worst drought in a century. Agriculture was to blame for everything from losses of biodiversity to polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases to dust-storms and killing our redgums. Yes, of course, we need to better manage our plants and animals and soils and water, especially our soils. Our agricultural scientists and economists focus on solutions but the media love to highlight those who wish to shout about 'the problems'. The Australian agricultural R&D community has calmly lead the way in developing new knowledge to improve water use efficiency and optimize management inputs for both production and the environment. That knowledge should now be exported since many of the world's food producing regions mostly now have less water and more vulnerable soils than they once had.
The green revolution showed Australian agriculture, and agriculture at Australian universities, have global opportunities and responsibilities. We have to learn and teach how to produce more food whilst reducing reliance on fossil fuels and nitrogen fertilizer, and halting and then reversing our history of degrading the atmosphere, soils, habitat and biodiversity. The 'perfect storm' - more mouths to feed with less water and fossil fuels to do it with - requires that Australian universities celebrate their agriculture faculties, schools and departments, promote them to students, and encourage them all to develop solutions to the problems.
It is ironic that collaboration and cross-disciplinary studies now attract such attention in the rest of academia and that some institutions are now considering financial incentives as a way of encouraging their staff to engage nationally and internationally, across fields and institutions (as, statistically, this is the way to get ahead). This will be a boon to Agriculture that has been cross-disciplinary and necessarily collaborative all its life in Australian universities. Which other degrees or which other school or faculty provides strong training in botany, animal science, soil science, microbiology, chemistry, hydrology, economics and others, all within one place and a framework of systems thinking? Perhaps just give the incentive funds to the agriculture faculties and let them get on with it. One thing is sure, we know how to spend it usefully.
I can think of nothing more important than the challenges of food, water and soil security. Every incoming student in every Australian university should be compelled to take a first year course focused on these issues. Perhaps only then will they take a different view of agriculture.
Contact: Katynna Gill
Phone: 02 9351 6997


text:
Seven years in the making, the most important network standard since 100-Mbit/s fast Ethernet (100Base-T) was ratified in the summer of 1999. Now, wireless LANs are a viable complement to their wired counterparts.
Like cordless telephones, wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) offer the same functionality as their conventional-wired cousins, but with greater user mobility and a higher price. They also have a limited range, are typically slower, and don't have a comprehensive set of standards. But that won't necessarily continue to be true, once the guidelines set forth in the new IEEE 802.11 standard take hold.
IEEE 802.11 covers a number of applications, such as connecting Ethernet and Token Ring networks. The goal of this standard is to ensure interoperability among vendors of wireless LANs and to increase their use in many applications. For example, a hospital might use the same wireless LAN to serve patient-monitoring equipment, wireless notebooks for nurses, and doctor access to the patient database. It may also use the wireless LAN as a data link for technicians who maintain hospital equipment.
Public and private systems. Wireless communications function in two separate spheres: public and private. Public wireless systems depend on a network provider or operating company to provide an infrastructure. Then, it charges you to use it. These systems are comparable to the wired/switched telephone lines or private line circuits you can rent from a telephone company. Public wireless systems include cellular telephones as well as packet radio systems, designed specifically for carrying data.
Private wireless systems, on the other hand, are owned and operated separately from a telephone company or other service provider's system. You operate the wireless equipment in such a way that both ends of a connection are under your control, and there is no need to pay by the call or by the packet.
In the past, wireless links sold by a telephone company for voice or data communications operated at frequencies requiring a license. And while you had a specific frequency reserved for your use, this usually meant your license was tied to a specific location.
Rather than using licensed frequencies, the newer private wireless communications systems use frequencies reserved for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical equipment. As such, these frequencies are known as ISM bands. They are reserved at 902 MHz to 928 MHz, 2.40 GHz to 2.483 GHz, and 5.75 GHz to 5.82 GHz . IEEE chose the 2.45 GHz radio frequency band because it already received worldwide approval for wireless LAN use.
Transmitting and receiving information. The 802.11 standard defines two methods of transmitting and receiving information. Both use radio frequency (RF) transmission as the media. The first method uses a transmission technique called direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). The second uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS).
DSSS technology involves changing rapidly between many different frequencies in the ISM band during transmission. By changing frequencies, a spread spectrum transmission will only interfere with another user's transmission when both happen to provide the same frequency simultaneously.
On the other hand, an FHSS system divides its operating band into channels, with transmission hopping from one channel to the next in a random sequence covering each channel in the band. To pick up the signal, receivers must match the transmitter's hop sequence both in frequency and time. Frequency hopping is only affected when the transmission hops into a "bad" or conflicting channel. When another user jams a portion of the band, it will affect the first user for a limited time only.
Selecting between DSSS or FHSS is basically a choice between the higher performance and cost of DSSS and the lower price and performance of FHSS. This performance level depends on the interference encountered and type of data traffic processed. To a certain degree, the DSSS and FHSS schemes are incompatible, since each knocks out the other's signals.
The access point and an interface. A radio frequency wireless LAN has two basic components: the access point and an interface. The access point includes the radio transmitter/receiver (transceiver) and antenna, which plugs into the wired LAN. The interface is the wireless LAN adapter, which includes the transceiver and antenna on a small PC card (PCMCIA card) for each desktop, notebook, or laptop computer.
The standard defines 1W as the maximum power level, so the distance is also limited, generally between 500 ft to 800 ft from an access point. For greater range, you can use more access points or highly directional antennas.
Interference with a RF wireless LAN depends on specific conditions. Potential causes of interference are other ISM wireless LANs, ISM devices (such as 915 MHz cordless phones), and high power adjacent channel users. Interference can also come from other equipment sources, such as microwave ovens.
Most RF systems are nominally rated at 2 Mbit/s data rate. But for all practical purposes, only the DSSS type will likely be able to handle this data transmission rate without significant performance degradation. A 2 Mbit/s data rate is satisfactory for most applications, especially if the data is sent in ASCII format. Typical response times depend on the transmission protocol.
The original article has a table that shows a comparison of delivery speeds for three different tasks, each of which are sent on a wireless LAN and Token Ring LAN.
Costs continue to come down. Not long ago, a wireless LAN cost about four or five times more than its wired counterpart. Now, the ratio is closer to 3-to-1. The average price for an access point is between $1000 and $2000, down from $1500 to $3000 just a year ago. The wireless LAN adapters, which you need for each portable PC, add most of the cost to a project. These, too, have come down in price; dipping well below $500.
Still, compared to the $150-to-$300 price range for a wired Ethernet connection, you'll have to justify most wireless LANs by improved productivity rather than equipment costs.
Other considerations. Even though the standard was under development for seven years, it wasn't until June 1996 that two manufacturers pointed out the standard did not address roaming. They proposed a roaming specification seemingly having proprietary aspects favoring their product lines. As a result, the push to provide roaming in 802.11 stalled. Currently, roaming is left to be implemented by "higher layers" in the ISO "Open Systems Interconnection" (OSI) model. Although, roaming is a requirement of 802.11, the standard does not explain implementation.
The new standard also does not provide much information on the hard-wired LAN attached to the access points. A typical 802.11 installation has a mobile PC with a wireless LAN card communicating to an access point. The access point passes the data from the mobile PC to the wired LAN, which connects to a server. However, after data arrive at the access point the 802.11 standard does not detail what happens to the data from here. This omission could lead to incompatibilities between drivers at the access point, used to convert to one of the wired LAN standards. This uncertainty has led vendors to make flexible hardware designs.
Obviously, for more demanding applications such as a multimedia program, the 802.11 standard should support higher transmission speeds. The FCC opened up two new bands in the 5 GHz area of the spectrum in January 1997. The first is in the 5.15 GHz-to- 5.35 GHz area; the second is in the 5.75 GHz-to-5.85 GHz range. Currently, we're seeing about 10 Mbit/s to 20 Mbit/s data rates in this new part of the spectrum. But look for further developments in the future, since the standard is always open for revision.
Cable performance demands. When the wireless operating frequencies were in the 150 MHz range (as was the case some years ago), installers and designers had few problems using standard coaxial cable for antenna feeders, as well as to interconnect transmitters, combiners, filters, and other components. But with the new popularity of frequencies in the 2 GHz range, the coaxial cable specification must be more stringent in terms of line losses and proper matching of connectors.
Because the attenuation of a cable increases with the increase in transmission frequency, designers have to use larger cables, accept higher losses, or specify higher-performance cables to keep signal losses to a specified minimum. As wireless LAN applications grow, however, look for manufacturers to bring new affordable, low-loss cable designs to market.
Infrared not included in standard. When the 802.11 committee was formed, there were quite a few proponents pushing to include infrared (IR) optical transmission as an accepted media. But as products came out, it became apparent infrared was not going to work well for longer distances. IR optical networks work best in same-room applications because the transmitter and receiver have to be in the same "line of sight." The IR people ceased attending the committee meetings, and IR optical networking was dropped from 802.11. It is still valid to design and install an IR wireless communications link in a Telecom network, but it will be outside of the standards requirements.
Even though it's not part of the new 802.11 standard, a designer can still use infrared as a wireless LAN option. The technology is similar to that used in the remote control device for a television set. Bandwidth isn't a problem for IR LANs; some products offer full, 16-Mbit/s Token Ring performance.
Range and reliability (transmission is adversely affected by inclement weather, including fog) are real drawbacks. A directed type IR LAN can' t penetrate opaque barriers, and it must operate on a line-of sight basis requiring that the laser diodes, or light emitting diodes, aim directly at each other.
Newer diffusion or reflection type IR LANs attempt to overcome the limitation of a directed system by focusing the light beam on a target mounted on a ceiling or wall. The signal then reflects around an open area. The diffusion method offers more configuration flexibility, but users pay a bandwidth penalty.
Other standards/specifications. If you're planning on a wireless LAN, you should know about the Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum (WLI Forum). Created in May 1996, the forum developed an open specification for the mobile market. Founded by 15 companies and currently with 22 members (principally from the United States and Japan), the WLI Forum completed its final specification in April 1997. Completely separate from the IEEE 802.11 committee (but coexisting with it), the WLI Forum provides a migration path to any future wireless LAN standard.
The WLI Forum specification focuses on a frequency-hopping spread spectrum architecture operating at a data rate of 1.6Mbit/s per channel, with 15 independent channels (hopping patterns) available. This multi-channel architecture enables up to 15 independent wireless LANs to function in the same physical space, providing up to 13 Mbit/s of aggregate network bandwidth (15 channels21.6 Mbit/s).


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Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket
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Author: Brian Halweil
237 pages
November 2004
"Part journalism and part manifesto, Eat Here is the definitive work on the most interesting and encouraging change in the way Americans eat now."
—Michael Pollan, Professor Science and Environmental Journalism, UC Berkeley and author of The Botany of Desire
"Halweil does something more than simply listing today's problems in the food chain he focuses on the variety of exciting solutions available to the public when it comes to eating."
—Carlo Petrini, founder and president of Slow Food International
"Finally someone has put this all together! Now it's up to the rest of us to do something with this amazing gift of a book."
—Mark Ritchie, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
"Eat Here should be on the bookshelf of every serious student of our modern food and agriculture dilemmas."
—Fred Kirschenmann, Director, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
In Eat Here, author Brian Halweil points to a surging local food movement that is rediscovering homegrown pleasures and changing the way we eat.
With Eat Here, you can
- Discover why eating local food is one of the most significant choices you can make for the planet and for yourself.
- Find out why food shipped over long-distances can be dangerous.
- Get practical advice on finding homegrown pleasures amid the same old standard choices.
- Learn why local food is better for your health, small farmers, and the environment.
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Origin pub fight leads to fatal shooting
A pub fight on State of Origin night led to an 18-year-old man being gunned down on a western Sydney street, police allege.
Matthew James Perry, 21, is accused of fatally shooting Jed Coates in the neck on Wednesday night after they'd both spent the evening watching NSW wrap up the Origin series with separate groups of friends at the Colyton Hotel.
Less than an hour after the full time siren, Coates was dead.
Neighbours living in Nevada Avenue, Colyton, reported hearing an argument in the street not long before police and paramedics arrived about 11pm. They tried to revive the young man, who reportedly worked as a carpenter.
He was taken to Westmead Hospital but died soon after.
Police arrested Perry, a panel beater, at his home on the same street just after 3am.
He was charged with murder and refused bail at Mount Druitt Local Court on Thursday morning.
Court documents say Mr Coates encountered Perry, who went to the same high school as him, at the Colyton Hotel while drinking and watching the Origin match with a mate.
They were kicked out of the pub after allegedly getting into a fight with Perry and his friends.
When Perry took a taxi home shortly afterwards, Mr Coates and his friend were waiting for him at the end of his street with Mr Coates allegedly armed with a shovel.
According to the documents, Mr Coates yelled "shoot me, shoot me", before Perry shot him with a rifle just below the right side of his neck.
He then ran away after failing to find the cartridge in the dark.
Homicide detectives lined Nevada Avenue with police tape and conducted an extensive search of one of its houses and a car parked outside.
Mr Coates' best mate Dean White watched on with another friend on Thursday morning, the pair holding back tears as they hugged each other.
Mr White said he'd decided to give the pub a miss and watch the game at home. He learned about what happened through phone calls from other friends.
"I didn't think it was real until we saw the news this morning," he told AAP.
Mr Coates' family were informed of his death overnight.
The 18-year-old's twin brother, Sam, paid tribute to his sibling online.
"Rip Jed my brother my twin your a king in my eyes love you bro."
Friends of the young man are posting messages on Facebook.
"Rest in peace. You we a good kid. Didn't deserve this," read one.
Perry will appear at Penrith Local Court in August.
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People affected by cancer may face challenges related to work. Macmillan can offer information and support.
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USA TODAY Sports' Scott Gleeson previews Monday's championship game between Kentucky and UConn
ARLINGTON, Texas — It seems like ages ago now, but Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein remembers quite vividly his reaction to finding out the Wildcats were given a No. 8 seed on Selection Sunday.
"It was like a slap in the face," Cauley-Stein said. "I felt bad for the people ahead of us. I mean, we shouldn't have been an 8 seed.
"They didn't screw us; they screwed the people ahead of us."
That would be No. 1 seed Wichita State, a casualty of Kentucky's round-of-32 game. Then, No. 4 Louisville, which the Wildcats beat in the Sweet 16. No. 2 Michigan went down in the Elite Eight, the victim of a game-winning shot from Aaron Harrison. Another No. 2, Wisconsin, met the same fate in the Final Four.
BRACKET HUB: Everything March Madness
CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW: UConn's defense will test Kentucky
Kentucky's next opponent is a team that's done much of the same thing.
No. 7 Connecticut's path to Monday night's national championship included wins against No. 1 seed Florida, No. 2 Villanova, No. 3 Iowa State and No. 4 Michigan State.
It will be the first time a No. 7 and No. 8 seed face off for a national title, and the highest combined seeding of any championship game in NCAA tournament history.
Neither team is a Cinderella or a program unfamiliar with this stage – but it remains a rather unlikely pairing.
KENTUCKY: Takes out Wisconsin with Aaron Harrison three-pointer
UCONN: Knocks off No. 1 Florida
Connecticut was barred from the NCAA tournament last season due to poor academic standing; Kentucky missed the event after a disappointing regular season. Monday's championship game will be the first since 1966 featuring two teams that were not in the NCAA tournament the previous season.
Neither Connecticut nor Kentucky inspired much confidence in this sort of run during the regular season, either. Southern Methodist, a team that did not make the NCAA tournament, swept the Huskies. The young Wildcats were wildly inconsistent and incapable of beating elite teams all regular season, in which they were swept by Arkansas and suffered an embarrassing loss to South Carolina.
And yet, somehow, some way, these two teams got on a roll quite unlike anything we've seen during one of the craziest NCAA tournaments in recent memory.
BRACKET BRIEFING: The 10 best tourney memories
"What I think people fail to understand is that teams get better throughout the year," Georgia coach Mark Fox said. "There's so much weight on November games, for instance, and almost less of a emphasis put on league games. Teams in the non-conference have to establish the league's power reputation. Teams are going to change and keep getting better.
"Kentucky's much better today than they were in December. Teams come into their own and improve throughout the year; Kentucky, with a chance to win it, is perfect evidence of that."
Seeding, however, doesn't take a strong finish into consideration. The Division I men's basketball committee – the group responsible for selecting, seeding and bracketing – evaluates teams based on their entire body of work.
So, despite Kentucky players' assertion that they should have been seeded higher, and Connecticut freshman Terrence Samuels' belief that the Huskies could have landed a No. 5 seed, plenty see the reasoning behind the No. 7 and No. 8.
"I think it was the right fit at the time," Connecticut senior Tyler Olander said. "We hadn't had a stellar regular season. We lost to Louisville a couple of times pretty bad. SMU beat us twice, and they didn't even make the tournament. We were happy to be a part of it, to be honest.
"After that, it's just a number, just a ranking that somebody gives you."
Those who handed down those seeds feel confident in their choices, even though the No. 7-8 matchup is unprecedented. When asked if the pairing made him re-evaluate any seeding decisions, committee chairman Ron Wellman said he "didn't think so."
"It reflects the parity in college basketball, and the fact that these teams have improved throughout the year," Wellman said. "Kentucky, from where they started and even the way they performed late in the year – South Carolina – they still weren't performing like they are right now. The committee's job is to look at the entire season and kind of determine where they deserve. … We knew the talent was there; that was very, very obvious. If they all came together and played as they did now, they could in fact be in the championship game.
"It's not all that surprising. We felt we seeded them where they deserved."
Wellman said, despite fans clamoring about Kentucky's region of the bracket – some called it the Region of Death because it featured three of last season's Final Four teams – he and other selection committee members are confident that regions were balanced and nothing was unfair for the No. 1 seed in that part of the region, Wichita State.
"As long as we are following the principles of bracketing and seeding, we feel we are on solid ground," Wellman said. "That isn't to say at the end we didn't look back and say, 'Oh, jeez, look at this, look at this matchup, look what could happen if they go to the Sweet 16, look at these games potentially in the Elite Eight.' We do that, but we don't go back and change any bracketing as a result of what those potential games are.
"The whole idea of the conspiracy theory and all of that has nothing to do with this. That conversation has never taken place during our seeding or bracketing."
Even so, the two teams used the perceived snubs however they saw fit.
"I don't think there are two more deserving teams," Olander said. "I give Kentucky so much credit. People doubted them all season, just like people had doubted us."


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The Andrew Wiggins Decision Drama ended Tuesday, when the mega-prospect selected Kansas over Kentucky, North Carolina and his parents' alma mater, Florida State. But now that Wiggins has decided to spend his one pre-NBA season in Lawrence, it creates a number of other questions that will have a significant impact on the 2013-14 college basketball season.
1. What does this do for Kansas' personnel?
The Jayhawks will be replacing all five starters from last season's Sweet 16 team, so landing a player who is a near-lock to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in 2014 (or whenever he decides to declare, if he somehow wants to stay more than one season in college) is an enormous boon. But the Jayhawks were bringing back (and in) more talent than a lot of people were acknowledging prior to this announcement. As a result, the addition of Wiggins not only gives the Jayhawks a bona fide star, but also makes all of the quality pieces around him that much more formidable. Complementary players can now focus more on what they do very well without the pressure of having to do more than that.
Sophomore forward Perry Ellis came along well down the stretch of last season. He was an excellent rebounder (by percentage) at both ends of the floor, actually grading out as a better overall glass man than 7-footer Jeff Withey. He also got to the free throw line a ton for a freshman big, and made 74 percent of his attempts from there. He was productive carrying a solid usage rate when he was on the floor, and with Wiggins and others arriving, he doesn't have to be a primary scorer for this team, which should make him a really good piece in the equation for this season.
The other crucial returnee is junior point guard Naadir Tharpe, a quicksilver pass-first specialist who now should have an array of options to look for, both in half court and in transition. Tharpe's shooting struggles were well documented last season, but with the firepower elsewhere on the court and the way KU likely will play more this season (see below), Tharpe will probably improve offensively. He'll have more open 3s and be able to finish more on the break, as needed. Imagine Kendall Marshall's role at North Carolina as a desirable outcome.
Kansas is also bringing in numerous other elite freshmen, starting with Joel Embiid, a rapidly developing 6-foot-11 big man from Cameroon, a product of the "Basketball Without Borders" project in Africa. He lacks significant high-end game experience, but his raw rebounding and shotblocking ability combined with very nice extended range with his shot make him scream potential. Wing Wayne Selden is another top-20 recruit, a strong-bodied player who should thrive in transition as the rest of his game continues to develop. Add point guard Connor Frankamp and 2-guard Brannen Greene, both of whom also are arguably top-50 national recruits, and this newcomer class is loaded.
Add in sophomore Jamari Traylor and redshirt freshman Landen Lucas, and Bill Self will have a lot of options to sift through as he designs his approach and rotation. And that doesn't even count Memphis transfer Tarik Black, who is also considering the Jayhawks and would provide additional shotblocking.
2. What will this do to Kansas' style of play for this season?
There will be a number of questions to answer, but defensive excellence is an annual thing at Kansas. Per KenPom.com, the Jayhawks have ranked in the top 10 in adjusted defensive efficiency in each of the last eight seasons, and have been in the top four in defensive 2-point FG% in seven of those eight years. So while it's easy to look at Jeff Withey's departure and assume losing his shotblocking prowess will hurt (and it does), Bill Self has established this as his footprint. With the various pieces at his disposal, this season shouldn't be any different, at least once the team matures and gels over the course of nonconference play.
The offensive side of the ball has been where the Jayhawks have been more variable, with the last two seasons being relatively less potent (and moderately slower in tempo) than the two before that, where Self had the Morris twins, Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins and other efficient offensive talents to use. Eyeballing both the inexperience and style of players Self will have at his disposal, you'd have to believe this team is going to run more and be very, very potent in transition. In the halfcourt, there likely will be a heavier move into earlier high and off-ball screening to create space for a team that may be better going to the rim than it may be shooting from the perimeter, at least when they're challenged. This roster also should be better on the offensive glass than the last two seasons, getting closer to where KU historically has been under Self.
3. What does this do to the college landscape now?
Well, Oklahoma State has a problem, and the games between the Jayhawks and Cowboys are now absolute must-see TV. At the very least, with Self's track record and Wiggins in the fold, Kansas now has to be considered the favorite to keep its league title run going. In the bigger picture, the Jayhawks are now a legit threat to make the Final Four, joining Louisville, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona and others in what is an increasingly competitive and compelling list. If these teams come anywhere close to living up to expectation next season, it's going to be incredible, and that's without mentioning any surprise teams of the sort that make college hoops so much fun.
It also makes the Jayhawks' incredibly loaded nonconference schedule that much more compelling to follow. Kansas plays Duke in Chicago in the Champions Classic, so now we get to see Wiggins and Jabari Parker square off (as well as Kentucky's wunderkinds against loaded Michigan State -- what a doubleheader!) right out of the chute. The Battle 4 Atlantis now has a cornerstone team. Games against New Mexico (in Kansas City), Georgetown and San Diego State, along with trips to Colorado and Florida all grow in overall watchability and competitiveness.
Wiggins would have made North Carolina a strong national title contender and watching a Kentucky Experiment with Wiggins rounding out the greatest recruiting class in history would have been fascinating, but Wiggins going to Kansas creates more intrigue and overall options for next season.
4. Why did Wiggins choose Kansas?
Maybe the reasons will come out now that the decision has been made, but all the schools involved (and everyone else) were really in the dark heading into today. I had tweeted earlier in the week that, given everything we believe we know about Wiggins as a player and a person, that I would have picked Kansas for him.
The Jayhawks have a ton going for them -- blueblood program, an elite coach, a track record of good NBA draft placement, a great fanbase, a great national schedule with huge TV exposure -- but they offer all of that without the accompanying level of craziness of Kentucky and the possible pressure/potential clash of egos/crazy competitive league of North Carolina. Plus, there's the talent on tap and his brother, Nick, is relatively close by at Wichita State, and Wiggins' family focus has been a large part of this process. For a young man who, through his actions and the descriptions of those who know them, doesn't seem to actively seek out the most attention or biggest spotlight, the decision to come to Lawrence made a ton of sense.
You can argue from a purely financial/connections/global brand standpoint that going to Kentucky and tapping into the Calipari Machine would have made the most sense. But Wiggins' approach has been more nuanced than that from the outset, and when you're probably worth $100 million in contract and endorsements the minute you step off the college court, you probably can mix in comfort level as part of the decision process. You can also argue that by picking KU over the other bluebloods, he's shining the biggest spotlight on himself since Kentucky and North Carolina were perceived as having more equivalent talent, but as addressed above, I think this is the perfect mix of "No. 1 option" and "fits well in a bigger picture with good talent."
5. Where does Wiggins go from here?
In an immediate sense, the pressure to make this decision is finally gone. The lone media member at the announcement, local reporter Grant Traylor, tweeted afterward that this was the happiest he had seen Wiggins in six months. College is a huge life decision, let alone when you are a basketball prodigy and when your parents and best friend seem to have wanted you to go elsewhere than where you ultimately felt was right for you.
In the same vein, now the pressure of expectations will start to build. In articles like this and elsewhere for the remainder of the spring and summer, we can speculate as to Wiggins' impact on the college game, Kansas' status as a contender, how Bill Self will bring all of this together, etc. Then, once official practices start and then the games come, the expectations on "the best prospect since LeBron" will be enormous. Wiggins' game, which like any prep player's isn't fully developed, will be picked apart by media, fans and scouts. He'll be on national TV a ton. There will be comparisons to other elite freshmen and how they're playing, and to the teams he snubbed and whether he should have gone there instead. He'll have to deal with team expectations created by his own presence. There's going to be a lot on his plate as he navigates his way through a high-level college season and, lest we forget, a college environment for the first time.


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