The short answer is that Linux is an operating system like Windows. Like Windows, you can use it to surf the Internet, create and edit word processed documents, create spreadsheets and presentations, listen to music, and create and edit graphics.

You've heard of "Unix" haven't you?

If you haven't heard of Linux before, maybe you've heard of Unix. Unix is what many people might consider a "hardcore" operating system, meaning it's generally used & valued by people who administer computer systems and networks. In other words, it's for computer pros. Unix is usually associated with having to type in text-based commands, rather than clicking on an icon and / or choosing options from a graphical interface.

Unix has been around for a very long time, having originated at Bell Labs back in 1969. It was built from the ground up to meet the needs of programmers & system administrators.

Over the years many Unix variants cropped up to suit the needs of various organizations and purposes. However, almost all of them were proprietary to the organization that developed them. In other words, they weren't "open" so that people could alter and adapt them to suit their needs--at least not without paying hefty fees or accepting restrictions on what you could or could not do with the operating system.

As an aside, Unix has evolved significantly and continues to be very popular--both proprietary versions and free, open source versions.

Linux Comes Along

In 1991, Linus Torvalds was working with a Unix variant called"Minix" but he didn't like its functional and license restrictions. So, he decided to develop his own operating system from scratch with functional and license "openness" that he thought were needed.

Because the first version of Linux had its roots in Unix, most people assume (correctly for the most part) that Linux is very similar to Unix. Consequently, many people also assume that Linux is as much a "hardcore" operating system as is Unix. Of course, there are strong arguments Linux is, indeed, a "pro" or "geek" oriented operating system.

Linux "Distros"

When someone refers to "Linux" they may mean a particular Linux variant of some sort. Linux actually refers to the operating system "kernel," which controls the very basic operation of a computer. A particular variant is called a "distribution" or "distro" for short.

"Distros" build on the Linux kernel to add functionality a person or organization may believe is needed. Many Linux distributions concentrate on making the operating system more "user friendly" or "mainstream." Making Linux more user friendly has mostly meant adding and improving a graphical user interface. Some new versions like Ubuntu are virtually as easy (some would argue they are easier) to use and install as Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system.

There are many Linux distros available, just as there are many Unix variants out there. Many distros are now focused on the same goal--simplifying the user interface for the user.

Linux is "GNU"

"The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system. Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the kernel called Linux, are now widely used; though these systems are often referred to as “Linux”, they are more accurately called GNU/Linux systems."

The above quote is from the opening paragraph of the GNU website. Visit the website for more information on the GNU project.

1. The site visitor clicks on a link to request a secure page.
2. The web server sends the requested page to the web browser, along with a public key so that the site visitor can send encrypted data to the web server.
3. The site visitor fills in the information in the web page and clicks on the submit button. When the visitor clicks the submit button, the data is encrypted using the public key.
4. A hacker intercepts the encrypted transmission. However, because only the public key has been sent with the transmission, the information is useless to the hacker. A private key, which resides on the web server, is needed to access the encrypted information.
5. The web server retrieves the encrypted information and decrypts it using the private key. The information is unlocked and accessible to the site owner.

It's a One-way Street

In a sense, when you enter data into an encrypted web page, you're entering a closed, one-way street. You can put data in but you can't get it out. The image on the left illustrates what happens when someone requests an encrypted form page, then submits the information requested in the form.

Why can you put data in but not get it out? Well, because when you request an encrypted web page, you get a "key" that allows you to put information in. However, you don't get the key that allows you to get the information back out.

Think of the concept in terms of a very secure delivery dock. The dock has two doors and conveyor belts. One door swings inward and the matching conveyor belt brings packages into the dock. The other door swings outward and the corresponding conveyor belt takes packages out of the dock.

Delivery people have only the "public" key so they can make deliveries. Only the dock owners have the "private" key to open the pickup door and turn on the pickup conveyor belt.

That's Like "PGP" isn't it?

Yep, it is. People familiar with "PGP" or "Pretty Good Encryption" will know that PGP works the same way. You give out a "public" key to people whose messages you want to receive. As a result, they can encrypt their messages using the key. Once the message is sent, only the private key allows access to the encrypted information.

Do I Need One for My Website?

Like the answer to so many questions, the answer to this question is "it depends."

Generally, most site owners don't need a secure certificate unless they're wanting to get potentially sensitive information from people who visit their web site. In fact, even if you are wanting to retrieve sensitive information from site visitors you probably don't need a secure certificate.

That's because you can use the Islandnet.com security certificate.

Using the Islandnet.com Secure Certificate

It's easy to use the Islandnet.com secure certificate. If you look at the address bar of your browser, you'll see something like "http://helpdesk.islandnet.com". Of course, that's the URL for the Islandnet Helpdesk. If you want to access the Helpdesk securely, all you need to do is put your cursor over the address bar, just after the "p" in "http" and just before the colon, click, and insert an "s."

It's just as easy to use the Islandnet.com secure certificate on your website. When you link to a page, you might simply reference the file you're linking to. So, your link might be to "form_page.html," for example. If, when people click on the link, you want them to access the page securely, all you need to do is use the full URL to your account and precede it with "https," where "s" means you're telling the server to serve up the page using the Islandnet secure certificate. Instead of linking to the file, you'd do something like the following:

https://islandnet.com/~myaccount/form_page.html

Of course, you'd use your real Islandnet username instead of "myaccount."

Why You Might Want Your Own Secure Certificate

Of course, there's the "cool factor." You've got your own security certificate--smokin'!

That might be enough for some but it's not reason enough for most people. A small drawback to using the Islandnet.com certificate and reason people might want their own secure certificate is the fact that the Islandnet.com domain name has to appear in the address bar of the browser, as illustrated by the URL in the proceeding section.

You cannot use an URL like the following one without having your own secure certificate:

https://example.com/form_page.html

Getting Your Own Secure Certificate

First, you'll need to choose a security certificate vendor. Some of the most recognizable names are VeriSign, Thawte, GeoTrust, and Entrust. At least those names are ones you see frequently when you're surfing the 'Net.

Currently, prices vary anywhere from $99 USD to over $500 USD. So, do your homework and choose the one that makes sense for you.

Next, you need to get a "CSR" from Islandnet.com. "CSR" stands for a "Certificate Signing Request" and it looks something like the following.

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----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-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

Getting a CSR from Islandnet.com costs you nothing. However, when Islandnet installs the certificate in your account, there is an ongoing monthly fee of $10.

Once you've got your CSR, you'll need to fill out the information requested by the company from whom you're buying a certificate. Expect to answer the usual questions about your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and so on. You'll also be asked about what kind of organization the certificate is being issued to, the address of the organization, et cetera.

You may also be asked to prove that you are who you say you are or that the organization you're representing is actually the organization being represented. You may also be asked to prove that you own the domain name under which the secure certificate is being issued.

It's a Cool Image File

People generally think 'Net-based images are either JPEG or GIF format. Generally, people are right because those two formats are the most popular and most widely supported ones.

There is another format though, PNG. "PNG" stands for "Portable Network Graphics."

If you'd like to read a nice long explanation of what a PNG is, you can do that by visiting Wikipedia. Click here for a basic demo of what you can do with a PNG (Clicking on the link will open a tiny browser window containing a slide show in the background with a PNG of a magnifying glass layered over top. You may need to disable popup blocking in order to see the demo).

What's so great about PNGs? Well, one cool aspect is the fact it supports many levels of transparency across millions of colours. While looking at the magnifying glass demo, you may notice the "glass" is not uniformly blue. Yet, all the colours represented are transparent--something you can't do with a transparent GIF. Moreover, the colours aren't simply transparent, they're semi-transparent: Giving the centre of the magnifying glass a "glassy" look.

So, Why Don't We See PNGs More?

Well, there are a number of reasons. Rendering PNGs by the major browsers has been in place since about 1998 or 1999. However, Internet Explorer did not render PNGs with the their full transparency capabilities, meaning some of the allure of using PNGs was lost, since Internet Explorer is a huge portion of the installed web browser base. Even the current version of Internet Explorer (6) does not render PNGs with their native transparency characteristics.

For the Internet Explorer flaw, there is a "hack" that web developers use so that PNGs are rendered correctly. The hack involves having Internet Explorer use Activex to access the native Windows operating system transparency rendering. If you're using Internet Explorer 5 to 6 and the transparent demo in the separate window appears to work, the only reason it does is because of the "hack" being used.

Another reason may be the fact there is no urgent need to adopt PNGs as a "standard." Back in 1995, Unisys, the company that developed the GIF standard, proposed charging a royalty on the use of all GIFs. This prompted development of the PNG format. Later, when it became apparent that Unisys would not enforce its patent rights by charging a royalties, adoption of the PNG standard was no longer urgent.

Islandnet Picks

Halloween.com	Pumpkin Masters	Science World	Oxford English Dictionary
Hmmm, it's October. What happens in October? Halloween, that's what! Here's a topical site then, halloween.com. You'll find all sorts of information about Halloween here and links to all sorts of other Halloween sites.	Maybe you've wandered past someone's home at Halloween and admired some intricately carved pumpkins. Maybe there's been a celebrity carved into a pumpkin face or a screaming witch or Vincent Price or Freddy Kruger. "Cool" you thought. "It would be great to carve something like that myself." It's easier than you might think! Drop by this website and see how it's done. Surprisingly, it's not as hard as you might think and you don't have to be some sort of pumpkin carving Leonardo da Vinci. Here's a clue--it's done with stencils, grease pens, and easy to handle pumpkin carving knives. Now, go ahead. Carve a pumpkin and have a screamingly successful Halloween! This is a commercial site so you'll be invited to buy their pumpkin carving paraphernalia.	Hey, this site is topical since the current exhibition has been covered on local television. The exhibition is about the human body and displays are actual preserved human cadavers in various degrees of dissection. A European organization perfected a method of "plasticizing" tissue. The result is an exhibition of real human bodies in various "see-through" states showing bones, muscles, organs, and more with bodies posed as they might be in everyday life. E-e-e-e-w-w-w-w! Well, yes, the current exhibition does seem a little macabre but it is arguably stunning. The company responsible for the touring exhibition says the displays are a "celebration" of a part of what it is to be human. We'll let your morbid curiosity take over here. Go ahead. You want to visit. Just click the link.	If it's English Language, it's here. Here's the definitive source for all things related to vocabulary, pronunciation, and English language word etymology. This site isn't free (you'll remember that's one of our favourite words) but after all, this is the mother of all dictionaries, containing "the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books" (from the website). You can subscribe to the OED and access it using a web interface. We don't guarantee it'll make you smarter but we'll bet it'll make you feel smarter. The question is, then, whether that's worth $30 / month to you.

Islandnet.com Hosted Sites

Mount Saint Mary Foundation	Swan's Hotel	Tweedsmuir Lodge	Robbins Parking
Here's a worthy cause. It's local too. From the website: "The original Mount St. Mary Hospital was built in 1941, but it was not until 2005 that a charitable Foundation was established to support the mission and values of the Hospital. Our role is to raise funds to support all programs at Mount St. Mary, especially those that the government does not fund, or funds only partially. These programs make a huge difference in our residents’ lives, helping to build a home-like environment and a caring community." The Mount Saint Mary's Foundation supports senior's care. Islandnet is very pleased that Mount Saint Mary's has chosen Islandnet.com to host their site.	Here's a local institution. Swan's Hotel is located in one of Victoria's heritage commercial buildings at the foot of Pandora Avenue, just across the street from Market Square and many other historical Victoria buildings. What sets Swan's Hotel apart from most is the fact it was at the forefront of a wave of rehabilitation and restoration of buildings in Victoria downtown's north side. Thanks to Swan's and some other early developers in the historic north side, Victoria retains many historic commercial buildings. We're happy to have the Swan's Hotel website hosted with us. By the way, they brew great beer and you can buy it in their store. Yum!	From the website: Tweedsmuir Lodge is nestled within Tweedsmuir Park, the largest protected park in British Columbia. 70 km's by road from the Bella Coola Harbour, the lodge is remotely situated on 50 acres of wilderness land. Originally built in the early 1930's as a hunting lodge it was rebuilt in 1952. The lodge is known for its warm, family style environment. You have to get a gander at this Islandnet.com-hosted website. There are some wonderful wildlife photos there and we think you'll really want to stay there for a while.	If you've ever parked your car in a downtown Victoria parking lot without paying, then dashed into a store to get some quick little item, chances are you've thought about these guys. Actually, chances are pretty good that you ended up paying these guys more than what it would have cost you to pay in the first place. In other words, they probably "gotcha" when you popped in to buy something without paying the parking fee. These guys are good. It's almost as if they're watching you. While we don't know whether they watch their lots with some sort of omnivision deadbeat-detecting camera, we do know Robbins Parking hosts their website with us.

We Love Websites!

Websites are our business--hosting them and building them. If you need a website--blog, retail, business-to-business, personal, database-driven, or something else--Islandnet has plenty of website development and programming experience. Call or e-mail us if you'd like anything from graphics to nit-picky programming.

Ahem--It's "Exif" not "EXIF"

That's right. Although the acronym "EXIF" is widely used, the "official" abbreviation is "Exif."

Saving the Shot

"Exif" stands for "Exchangeable Image File" and refers to data that gets stored when a digital camera takes a photo. Data like shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting, lens focal length, et cetera is stored in the image file when the image is created inside the camera. So, whether the image is a JPEG (the most popular format used in consumer cameras), a TIFF, or a RAW file, camera settings are always stored with the image.

Of course, this is all great information if you want to improve your photography. You can compare great shots with no-so-great shots and see where the settings might make a difference in how your photos turn out.

Preserving Exif

If Exif information is important to you, you need to exercise some caution when saving your photos. If you use an image manipulation program that doesn't support Exif information, when you save the file with that program, Exif information is lost. You should look for a setting in your image editing program that says something like "Preserver Exif Data."

If you're using the image editing program that came with your digital camera, you're probably safe.

A "Mutatis Mutandis" Standard

"Mutatis Mutandis" means "with those things having been changed that need to be changed." Despite its widespread use by camera manufacturers and many other organizations, Exif is a standard that's been adapted and changed to suit the needs of various applications.

For example, there are no rules governing how scanner manufacturers might use the standard to embed scanned image information into their files. Despite this fact, scanner manufacturers use Exif to embed scanning information into images.

Another example is the RAW file format often used by camera manufacturers. There is no specification in the standard for how Exif data is to be stored with RAW files. Consequently, various camera manufacturers have come up with their own proprietary method for storing the data. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a myriad of RAW file formats with some camera manufacturers even changing their RAW file format from one camera generation to another.

As new RAW file versions come and go, this pushes old photos into obsolescence. Eventually, people with large digital photo libraries will no longer be able to read their data and the photos will be lost.

Not surprisingly, Exif is not governed by any standards body.

Other Uses for Exif

Heh, heh, you can send secret messages. You may recall that two or three years ago some news stories surfaced that reported on school children (and others) sending each other secret messages embedded in image files.

Well, those messages weren't as "secret" as the news stories implied. It's not as if the data was encrypted using 1,024 bit encryption. Exif data can be created and edited using programs developed for the purpose.

In fact, if there is Exif data attached to an image, you may be able to view it from your Windows XP desktop. Select an image, right-click on it, then choose "Properties" and look for the "Summary" tab. The "Summary" tab allows you to view some Exif data.

A warning: Viewing your Exif data using Windows XP may damage or delete the Exif data. This is the case if you try editing the data by typing something into one or more of the Exif data fields, then clicking "OK" or "Apply."

This repeats an article we did back in July. We're repeating it here because our billing system is automated. As a result, when customers make a payment online--right on the day the payment is due--they are often surprised when our system charges them interest for being overdue.

Of course, customers who've paid this way believe they've paid on time. Unfortunately, it's not that simple and we often either call customers to deal with the small overdue (interest on the overdue amount) sum or we get calls from concerned customers.

So, here's the article from July in it's entirety:

We sometimes get calls from customers asking why their payment hasn't shown up, despite being made online through their bank. The answer is "you have to wait a bit."

Online banking is great. Click a couple of buttons and your payment is made. No licking cement-flavoured envelopes, walking down to the nearest mailbox, and then allowing a week for delivery, receipt, and processing of the payment. It's all done instantly. Or is it?

The short answer is "almost."

When you make a payment through online banking, payments still take time to process, though the process is still far faster than "real world" payments. When you transfer funds from you account to Islandnet (or any other "payee" for that matter), the money is deducted from your account immediately. This is where some customers believe the payment has been immediately applied to their Islandnet account.

However, once the amount is deducted from an account, the payment process is just started. The payment then has to be reviewed by a human being. Once the transaction is reviewed by a human being, the transaction is recorded (along with all other transactions that day) at Islandnet.com's bank. Islandnet.com is then notified of all the payments made during the previous 24 hours. Islandnet.com then credits customer accounts with the payments made.

It's worth noting that this online banking process can take as long as 48 hours. So, if you're very close to having your account suspended you need to allow at least 48 hours for processing of your payment. If you are paying less than 48 hours in advance of having your account suspended, you may want to give us a call to let us know the payment has been made via online banking to avoid having your account suspended.

Encrypting Passwords - How To

Creating a password protected directory is covered in our ".htaccess" help document. Help documentation mentions the fact that you can enter encrypted passwords in the .htpass file and gives examples. Ever wondered how that encrypted password was created?

Let's say you've got the following in your .htpass file:

john:secret
sally:letmein

The above text specifies that two users "john" and "sally" can access the directory using the passwords "secret" and "letmein" respectively. In the case where you have the above in your .htpass file, you would also have the following in your .htaccess file:

AuthUserFile .htpass plain

So, how do you encrypt those two passwords?

That's easy. You use the handy-dandy encryption tool provided on the Helpdesk. It's available at the following URL:

https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/encrypter.php

All you need to do is type in the password you want encrypted and press the "Encrypt" button. The resulting page will display the password encrypted using four methods, Base 64, DES, MD5, and SHA1. Typing "secret" into the encrypter tool will yield"e5e9fa1ba31ecd1ae84f75caaa474f3a663f05f4" as the MD5 string. Typing "letmein" will yield"0d107d09f5bbe40cade3de5c71e9e9b7" as the MD5 string.

Using MD5 encryption will mean your .htpass file will need to look like so:

john:e5e9fa1ba31ecd1ae84f75caaa474f3a663f05f4
sally:0d107d09f5bbe40cade3de5c71e9e9b7

Once that's done, all you need to do is change your .htaccess file to include the following line:

AuthUserFile .htpass md5

Of course, you can use Base 64, DES, and SHA1 encryption instead of MD5 by using the appropriate string from our encryption tool in the .htpass file and replacing "md5" in the .htaccess file with "base64," "des," or "sha1."

Need to Resize A Truckload of Images all at Once? - Have we got a tool for you!

Every now and then you run across a real "gem" that instantly causes you to wonder, "how did I ever get along without it?" We think this is one of those gems--Irfanview.

Irfanview promotes itself as "...one of the most popular viewers worldwide!" However, we think saying it's an image viewer is doing it a disservice.

Irfanview allows you to "batch" convert files in just a few steps. The program reads pretty much any image format on the planet and will convert those formats into whatever format you need. So, you can take those Canon or Nikon RAW image files and convert them to JPEGs, resizing, re-sampling, re-saturating, and re-naming them all at once! You can do a few or a few hundred images all in one "batch."

What's really great about Irfanview is the fact it's FREE to use. The author has a "support Irfanview" web page where you're invited to donate to support the program but you can try it for FREE.

This program is really remarkable because you might be tempted to pay even hundreds of dollars for programs that allow you to do this very thing. For example, DeBabelizer Pro converts various image formats but you need to pay well over $400 for it. DeBabelizer also comes in a "LE" version, which is just under $100.

We think once you've used this gem, you'll see the value in supporting the program author.

Here's the link to Irfanview.

Very slick!

A Half Hour Outage

We've been informed by the folks at Bell (who provide the lines that dialup folks use to connect to us) that they will do some maintenance and upgrades on equipment on the morning of Friday, October 20^th.

The work will take between 15-30 minutes, and will be sometime between 00:01 (just after midnight) and 06:00 on the morning on that day.

In case of difficulties, they have informed us that it may be postponed until the following day (Saturday October 21^st) if necessary.

During the 15-30 minute outage, the only service affected will be customers who dial into the Victoria based access lines (380-4731). You may receive either a "ring no answer", "busy signal detected", or what is referred to as a "fast busy". Dialup in all other cities is unaffected. As well, all our high speed customers will not see any impact on their access to us or the Internet.

This will in no way affect our connection to the Internet, so e-mail will continue to arrive, and web hits will not decline.

Legal Stuff

The information displayed in this newsletter and any previous or subsequent newsletters is for information purposes only. Islandnet.com, AMT Solutions Group, Inc. and related companies are not responsible for any losses or damages resulting from the use of information in the newsletter. While the information contained in this newsletter is believed accurate, readers must verify information for themselves. Sites we link to do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of AMT Solutions Group, Inc.