A Strange ICQ Message

Today, I received a very strange ICQ message from one of my friend:

Hi, you've just received a postcard.

To view the postcard click this link or copy it to your browser's address bar.
http://cards.vertionpilinhertunfendsa.com/1/show.xml?id=201e624becfd36e0b7663089da805de0

The postcard will be kept for 10 weeks.

The link in the message points to an executable file named "postcard_flash.exe". Why does a postcard need to be executable? It most likely is a virus or a worm. From the Internet, I found some information about this kind of virus:
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/w32mydoomal.html
A very "clever" worm which spreads via email and ICQ messages. The worm tries to disable the firewall, as well as anti-virus program. Moreover, the worm changes the HOST file to prevent the compromised computer connecting to anti-virus and security web sites.... So what! I am using Linux.

C Macro Tricks

If you know C programming, you should know C macro as well. Macro is very powerful. However, it also makes the code difficult to read, especially macro with multi-level expansion. In complication of source code, the macro expansion is handled by "C Preprocessor". To do trouble-shooting on macro expansion, we can use the "-E" option in gcc. The "-E" option tells the compiler to stop after "C Preporcessor". With "-E" option the output file of gcc will be a text file containing the source code with all macro expanded and #include files merged.

gdb stops at SIGPIPE

By default, gdb captures SIGPIPE of a process and pauses it. However, some program ignores SIGPIPE. So, the default behavour of gdb is not desired when debugging those program. To avoid gdb stopping in SIGPIPE, use the folloing command in gdb:

handle SIGPIPE nostop noprint pass

Installing Solaris 10 x86 in VMWare

Yesterday, I tried to install Solaris 10 x86 in VMWare virtual machine. Overall, the installation was quite smooth. I faced a little problem in the harddisk partitioning stage. I selected "auto-layout" but failed at first time. Then, I went back one step and try "auto-layout" again and it worked for second time. Maybe there is a bug in the installation.
After installation, the resolution of X window was low. I had to run "/usr/X11/bin/xorgconfig" to config the resolution.
Next, I installed vmware-tool for Solaris. After installed the vmware-tool the NIC is changed from pcn0 to vmxnet0. So, I need to copy the hostname.pcn0 to hostname.vmxnet0 and dhcp.pcn0 to dhcp.vmxnet0.
Then, I tried to run mozilla to check the Internet connection. Unluckly, the browser always report unknown host. I have verified the "/etc/resolve.conf" for DNS setting. It is correct. I also tried to use "dig www.google.com" to resolve the IP address successfully. Finally, from forum of Internet, we had to modify the "/etc/nsswitch.conf" as well.... -.-"

Linux VPN Client for Cisco VPN Router

The desktop of my office is in private network behind a firewall. If I need to access the desktop of my office, I need to use VPN by connecting the Cisco VPN Router in my office. It is not a trivial task to connecting VPN router in Linux platform, and there are seems several ways:

1. Use the official Cisco VPN Client for Linux. During the installation, it needs the kernel headers for module complication. It should work in most cases. However, this software package is not freely available and open source.
2. VPNC is an open source VPNC client target for cisco3000 VPN Concentrator. It works well for me. However, some features are not supported, e.g. re-keying, digital certificate authentication....
3. Openswan is an implementation of IPsec for Linux. It is not only a VPN client, it can act as VPN router. I found some document about how to use Openswan for connecting Cisco VPN router. However, it fails in my Ubuntu box :<.

There is some web pages mentions that the XAuth of Cisco VPN router is non-standard. No wonder open source software packages don't support it well.

Free Advertising for Your Blog

Here is some suggestion for advertising your blog. First you can register your blog to some blog directories:

• http://www.blogcatalog.com/
• http://blog-you.com/

Second, you can reply posts in some popular newsgroups and forums. Include your blog's info in the signature of your replies.
Third, ask your friends to add the link of your blog in their homepage or blog.
The more web pages pointing to your blog, the higher ranking you can get in Google's search engine. To know the ranking of your homepage for some specific keywords in search engines, you can visit http://www.googlerankings.com/index.php. Now, it supports Google, MSN Search, Yahoo and Ask Search.

Ubuntu with Compiz

Compiz is a window manager with amusing visual effects. You can find some screen captures in YouTube. Yesterday, I installed Compiz in my Ubuntu (Edgy) Linux and it works great. The following the screen capture of my desktop:



The following is the How-to about installing Compiz in Ubuntu:
http://gandalfn.wordpress.com/howto/howto-compiz-aiglx-on-edgy/