Learning to use RCS on Windows

Keywords: UNIX, RCS on Windows, Revision Control System, Tutorial

Yesterday, I was faced with the challenge of integrating RCS with Mercury Change Management. RCS is one of many available version control software on UNIX. As such Mercury ITG has out-of-the-box support for RCS. However, it is critical to understand the functioning of the actual software in order to integrate it with ITG. In order to understand the functioning of RCS, I searched the Net looking for tutorials. I found many, but none of them was specifically written keeping in mind Windows users. So, I decided to post what I did.

I had to post the article on my other site, as I originally created the document in MS Word and you know how difficult it is to get MS Word generated HTML to get accepted anywhere. Following the exact steps as given in the article, you can develop a good understanding of the product. The target of this article is to make you learn the basics of RCS on your own.

The article is available at: http://www13.brinkster.com/ranjeetrain/tutorials/

Mercury ITG architecture

Keywords: Mercury IT Governance Architecture, ITG, Kintana

Lately I have been working with Mercury IT Governance Center (formerly Kintana). This is not the kind of tools I have been working in past. Its a new experience. And I wanted to share with you tidbits about it. Mercury IT Governance Center, ITG Center hereafter, is an integrated suite of software tools for managing IT demands, prioritizing them and control project deliveries transparently. This is one of the unusual type of tools I have worked with so far, and has a bit of ERP feel. ITG Center comes preloaded with templates based on best practices, which can either be used as-it-is or can be customized to suit the need of a specific organization. Interesting thing about ITG center is that, many of its templates can be used with minimal customization.

Linked below is the top-level design of the tool, as published on the Mercury site.



ITG center is based on a modular design. Modules have been desgined to serve different purposes. Some of the ITG center modules are: IT Governance Dashboard, Demand Management, Project Management, Financial Management, Change Management etc. Licences can be purchased for individual modules depending on the requirement. A graphics containng the technical design of ITG Center is available at mercury site.



ITG center is based on a 3-tier architecture. The client/presentation tier has two kind of front-ends. One is a standard thin-client (a webbrowser) interface meant for end-users and the other is a Java applet called Workbench meant for developers (called configurators). Middle tier is an Application Server that combines a web server and the core ITG Center engine. Data storage is handled with an Oracle database server. This 3-tier architecture provides for unlimited flexibility in installation and configuration for scalability. ITG center has no internal databases and depends entirely on a Oracle database server. That means increased licensing cost but at the same time that also means increased dependability and availability. It can work with an external web server allowing for increased dependability and availability while at the same time opening possibilities of integration with other existing applications.

It is an interesting tool. I am likely to work with it for some time. You may expect to hear more on this from me. So, stay tuned folks!

BIOS password in Servers

Keywords: Administration tip These days I am involved into one of the most challenging projects of my career. It has been a tremendous learning experience. One very small but significant thing that I learnt today is - Don't attempt protecting the servers with a BIOS password. Well, this may sound strange as we always think adding a password to the BIOS adds one more level of security. Well not really. Any person who can gain physical access to the server can get rid of that password. Besides, adding the password to the BIOS means, you cannot boot the system remotely. Now this is a big setback. Rather you would like everyone to work on the server remotely and no one to have physical access to it. There would be a lot of people who will think otherwise. Logic would be - No physical access, no software access. Well, that can work in smaller organizations with a few servers and one or two administrators. But in case of large organizations and dozens of admins, that approach is not practical. The bottomline is: If you want your servers to be accessed remotely, don't add a password to the BIOS.

Fighting SPAM: Bayesian Filtering

SPAM has been the biggest nuisance for the Internet community off late. An estimated 74 percent of email being trasfrred over Internet in the year 2004 was identified as junk. Governments and organizations around the globe have been busy estimating the losses incurred due to SPAM and figuring ways to counter it. On the technology front, researchers and software companies have been finding ways to identify and isolate/eliminate SPAM. Over a period of time this has been a never ending tussle between the SPAMmers and the antispam software developers. Firstly it were simple software that filtered out mails based on a word-list. The administrator would prepare a list of words that will cause an email to be considered SPAM. This worked for sometime, but not long. Spammers soon found ways to dodge these filters. They would write v1agra instead of viagra and p3n1s instead of penis to get past the filter. Clearly, the techniqe couldn't be very successful due to the reason that word-list filters are easy to dodge and a too restrictive word-filter causes false positives, resulting in a loss of legitimate mails. Another techology that has been vastly in use is based on authentication method. Such a software works on a simple challenge-response method. The sender is responded back with a message asking him/her to reply back to a mail. Whereas this method literally gurantees to protect from SPAM, it is not feasible to use it beyond a limit, practically eliminating this as an infeasible solution. There have been other methods to identify SPAM and most of them work on some kind of "Whitelist" or "Blacklist". All such methods require continuous refinement in the list and are not very accurate. Recently, more and more email products are adopting a technology called Bayesian Filtering to fight SPAM. This technolgy is based on the works by Paul Graham [http://www.paulgraham.com/]. During the summer of 2002, he stumbled upon the idea of using Bayes Theorm (the work of 18th century English mathemetician Thomas Bayes www.fsu.edu/~geog/elsner/bayesian/post/Bellhouse2003.pdf) to eliminate SPAM. Rest, as they say, is history. Bayesian filters as being incorporated in more and more email products because of its accuracy. The thing that sets Bayesian filters apart from the rest is, its ability to learn by itself. According to Paul Graham, a "well taught" Bayesian filter can be as accurate as 99.5 percent, without any false positives. Some of the email products that are using Bayesian Filtering todate:

• Thunderbird
• Mozzila
• GFI MailEssentials
• TrustedMail
• SpamBully
• SpamAssassin
• SPAM Shredder
• PlexMailer
• Safe Express

Some intereting links:

• www.paulgraham.com/spam.html
• www.prismemail.com/bayesianfilter.php
• www.process.com/precisemail/bayesian_filtering.htm
• e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/h_gv00170e.html
• http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/h_gv00317e.html
• www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/internet.htm
• e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/vwapj/stopping_spam_May2005.pdf
• www.fsu.edu/~geog/elsner/bayesian/post/Bellhouse2003.pdf
• www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/bayesbiog.pdf

Shape of things to come

Keywords: Technology, Techonology for fun Wonder how powerful computers (software in particular) are becoming? How long before they will start ruling us literally? See this: http://s94009834.onlinehome.us/xyz/move.html Its just the beginning friends. May be sometime soon they will begin to move our monitor physically with JavaScript code activated from within a Flash movie. Be ready for to find your monitor next to you when you wake up in the morning despite you remember correctly you left it at the dressing table last night. Is it too crazy to be true?