Mostafa's Blog

I have moved my blog !, this is the last post here!

2009-06-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hello my readers ! ,

As I promised changes, I have moved my blog to my own domain

http://www.mostafaberg.com/blog

same posts are there now, move your RSS to the new blog please if any !:)

This is the last post on this blog !

thanks,

Mostafa

Changes !

2009-05-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone !,

I've been away from my beautiful blog for a while !

been too busy with lots of troubles,I'm starting to wonder why most of people's posts always start with "I've been away from my blog" hehe, it's probably just me and my lazy fingers that won't type !

Well, I'm finishing my finals on the 7th of June =], So afterwards , I'll do some major changes in my life, digitally !

Some teasers about what will happen:

-mostafaberg.com will be my main blog !! any other ideas ??

-webbstr.com -> will that be my first social project?!

-I'll blog about cars, other misc stuff !

-I'll publish videos about hacks, some DIY's

-Some tutorials about hacking in general, in terms of what i see it !, if you get what i mean.

-Something that has to do with music ! hehe

Those are still some teasters, they might change, they might even increase :)

so if you have any comments, ideas, please just write it down there and i'll make sure i'll think of 'em !:-)

see you soon

Sleepy Cat :)

2009-05-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Just testing my Picasa=], What you think about that cat too ?!?!:)

The WTF code quality

2008-10-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all :),
Recently, this photo showed up on my photoframe , and I found it really humorous :-D

my applause for the genius who sketched that ;-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31698344@N02/2968154073

my Aspire !

2008-10-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Just bought a new laptop :)

the 8.9" Acer Aspire One, It's a great laptop with the Intel Atom processor, should be great,

It comes loaded with crappy windows XP fully loaded with Spyware ;)

I'm going to install ubuntu Hardy, then add the Notebook remix to it to utilize the tiny screen :)

It's a great hacker toy ;) I love it, and will use it forever !

I'll keep you informed about how the ubuntu install went without CD !

stay tuned !

New Ubuntu :-D

2008-10-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

FireFox in Guinness !

2008-07-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

I'm So happy that FireFox did it :)

FF is now officially the most downloaded software on the internet within 24 hours :)

and I'm proud of it and so happy for Mozilla !:)

you can read all about it here: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

I'm using FF and has always been :)

if you haven't tried FF yet, you are missing alot !

have fun, browse safely !

Fring, I love you :)

2008-07-02T12:14:00.001-07:00

Yes I do !, Fring is really great and I just started using it today, after downloading easily to my phone and setting it up in no time, I really loved it and will always use it :)

so what is fring ?

simply:
MSN, ICQ, AIM, GTalk, VoIP, Skype, etc.. on your cell phone

so you can now take all of this into one contact list and just call them for free :)

it's really great , just a simple app like fring made my day, no, my entire week :)

i'll start calling friends way cheaper now using my cell phone !

so ttyl ;)

oh btw, It's got facebook, gmail checker, and many other sweet addons that you'll love

so make sure you get it now !

http://www.fring.com

Who wants to do that anyway ?:)

2008-05-29T14:35:00.001-07:00

I recently received a funny email from a friend of mine with this link
to a microsoft support page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314458

Crazy huh ?

Who wants to remove something great like Linux and replace it with something as dumb as M$ windows ?!

It's not me for sure, and I ain't visiting that link again :)

Webbstr.com Official launch !

2008-05-27T18:02:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone :)

I'm glad to announce the Official launch of webbstr.com !

The launch time stamp is : Wednesday, 28th of May 2008. 4:04:15 AM.

check the website and give any feedbacks you want !

we are all ears ;)

Google Hacker

2008-05-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone :)

I've been using Google hacker as my default start page for a long time now, and i thought i should share it ! for people that don't know what google hacker is:

It's a google webpage targeted for hackers, the entire page is written in leet speak "1337" ;)

the page can be found at:
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

also some other variations:

Google for linux
http://www.google.com/linux

Google for BSD (Cute lil beastie :D)
http://www.google.com/bsd

There might be others i'm not aware of, but those are the ones that caught my intrest :)

use one of them on firefox and you'll p0wn the world ;)

If you don't know what Linux, BSD, Hacker, Firefox or what even Google is, this post isn't for you :D

Have fun !:)

Webbstr.com Launched !

2008-05-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone !,

Just for your record, If you go to webbstr.com you'll reach me :)

the page is following web2.0 style, and is all about simplicity, That's how things should get done :)

bookmark it, within a few days the real website will launch and start receiving customers !

Any ideas? reach me and tell me !, I'm welcoming any ideas !
Thanks ;)

Webbstr Launching !:)

2008-05-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone !,

Finally, I made it :), I'm launching webbstr within a few days !

webbstr.com is my web development company, what it will do exactly is:

Creating Web applications
Creating websites

Generally, Creating Simple but Complex Clean web solutions !

bookmark the domain, it will come online within a few days !
"the domain was purchased, give it a couple of days to propagate !"

Refer it to anyone, help the launch !

Thanks,
Mostafa Berg

Ubuntu Hardy !

2008-04-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

Not so much to say:

Vodafone Egypt competition !, I'm in !

2008-04-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading the newspaper, I found a full colour page ad about vodafone's students competition in Egypt !

I checked the link they gave right away:
http://betavine.net/web/guest/projects/students/egypt_competition

It's a great way to develop better mobile applications, but the problem they're not getting lots of developers, till now "since yesterday", the competition's forum has only 3 posts :) me and two other guys !

It's really weird that we don't have much developers interested in the idea !

I'm in there not because of the money "5,000 EUR" , but because I'm interested in mobility and socializing using mobile devices !, It has much better and endless uses, and I'd like to test my potential in this field.

So I started working on my project right away and hopefully I'll reach something !:)

wish me luck :)

How to use your phone as a GPRS modem in ubuntu ! (Vodafone Egypt settings)

2008-03-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

I finally needed it:), a GPRS modem on my beautiful Gutsy ;)

I just wanted to use my Nokia N73 as a modem to get internet while on the go or in a place without a hotspot !, how ? read on !

First of all, I'm running on Ubuntu Gutsy.

secondly , I'm using a Nokia N73. Not all phones work same !

Third, My provider is Vodafone Egypt, Not all countries/providers work the same!

I started by connecting my phone to the USB cable into my box.
Check if you have a wvdial.conf file "/etc/wvdial.conf" you might want to backup ! "cp /etc/wvdial.conf /etc/wvdial.conf.bak"
Configure wvdial , type "sudo wvdialconf"
You will see some information text scrolling, wait till it's finished.
After wvdialconf has finished it's work, It dumps all it's settings into a new "/etc/wvdial.conf" file !
head over /etc and open it, type "sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf" I prefer vim, but you choose your favourite editor.
read out the settings for your phone device in my case: "/dev/ttyACM0" , yours can be "/dev/ttyUSB0" or something similar depending on your phone and USB ports !
To make it work in Egypt, I had to tweak the settings and find Init strings to make it work !, Finally , I have found the right settings and it works, Make sure your wvdial.conf file looks like mine : REMEMBER (Vodafone, Egypt, NokiaN73): http://www.mostafaberg.com/share/wvdial.conf
Now you are all set !, If you are in a different country, check this link out: it's a great place to find wvdial.conf files http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=633981
Now you're ready to connect !
Open up a new terminal window, connect using "sudo wvdial" command, watch what happens, if it works, you should get something like this output:

WvDial<*1>: WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
WvModem<*1>: Cannot get information for serial port.
WvDial<*1>: Initializing modem.
WvDial<*1>: Sending: ATZ
WvDial Modem<*1>: OK
WvDial<*1>: Sending: ATZ
WvDial Modem<*1>: ATZ
WvDial Modem<*1>: OK
WvDial<*1>: Sending: ATE0V1&D2&C1S0=0+IFC=2,2
WvDial Modem<*1>: ATE0V1&D2&C1S0=0+IFC=2,2
WvDial Modem<*1>: OK
WvDial<*1>: Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.vodafone.net";
WvDial Modem<*1>: OK
WvDial<*1>: Modem initialized.
WvDial<*1>: Sending: ATDT*99***1#
WvDial<*1>: Waiting for carrier.
WvDial Modem<*1>: CONNECT
WvDial Modem<*1>: ~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}"}&} }*} } g}%~
WvDial<*1>: Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
WvDial: Starting pppd at Tue Apr 1 01:59:32 2008
WvDial: Pid of pppd: 14872
WvDial<*1>: Using interface ppp0
WvDial<*1>: local IP address xx.xxx.xx.2xx
WvDial<*1>: remote IP address 1x.xx.xx.xx
WvDial<*1>: primary DNS address 1xx.1x1.1xx.1xx
WvDial<*1>: secondary DNS address 1xx.1x1.xxx.1xx

You are now officially online :)

Hope you like this mini tutorial :)

have fun !

I Spartanized myself ;)

2008-02-19T17:45:00.001-08:00

Djanitor on Launchpad !:)

2008-02-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hey !:)

It has been a crazy week (Month & year too) hehe ;)

I've been playing around topcoder till my eyes turned into a C shell ! lol

I've also been developing Djanitor, my Documentation generation tool mainly for C, and other languages too !

the idea behind the project started by a friend of mine Mahmoud aslan, he told me that our friend Ahmed Sammoud was writing Tornado OS, and wanted some sort of documentation generation tool, so I decided to write one, to be used by me in my projects, and to be the tool Ahmed wanted ;)

My code is hosted on launchpad, http://www.launchpad.net

It's licensed under GPL.

Visit it's home here:
http://www.launchpad.net/djanitor

The code is still too early to do anything, but soon it will, I'm always working on it in my free time !

want to contribute ? I'd love to !:), visit the project, contact me and we'll work all together !:)

have a great day !:)

Happy new year !:)

2008-01-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

Helo everyone !:)

My first post in 2008 !:p

Everything is going great here, I'm now on topcoder;), I just setup my computer to run the Arena !>:), hopefully i'll get familiar with the Arena and start coding too !

I'm in the phase of getting familiar with it , and deciding which language to use, I'm confused between C++ and Java !

If you've got any ideas , leave a comment !:)

Topcoder is a great place to have fun with code :), I really love the idea and will stay there in my spare time writing code..

check it out:
http://www.topcoder.com

Drupal!!

2007-11-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

I've finally decided to install drupal on my server,
It looks better, easier to manage content, and more professional !

you can see the installation here :
http://mostafaberg.homelinux.org

I'm using drupal as my worklog too, you can follow all my work there !

drupal is a great CMS that I plan to use in all my projects !

Google, My savior !:)

2007-11-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Google did something great to me today :).

I was looking for the task manager written by Aslan , but it was completely lost !,

I searched everywhere in my backups, the server and every single bit on my PC !,

I called Aslan out of desperation , he searched for it everywhere, but still lost:(

After checking out in my email archives in gmail , I found it lying there in one of the emails Aslan sent me !

Thanks Google for your email archiving idea ;)

Linux From Scratch !

2007-10-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been playing around with linux from scratch http://www.linuxfromscratch.org , Linux From Scratch is a great project that aims towards teaching you how to compile your own Linux distribution entirely from source !

It's a totally great thing to do, after finishing the first LFS dist., you will be able to follow up your dist. using BLFS "Beyond Linux From Scratch", to make your system more usable and fun to deal with !.

I've been compiling lots of stuff now , but I accidentally deleted everything I've compiled, including the kernel !.

I decided to write this post to make sure everyone understands that there are no patches for human stupidity !:-), So here are some guidelines to follow without losing your data:

-The process of LFS is long and you will get stuck very often and will have to bounce around directories and everything will become messy !

-It is a great practice to use the LFS Live CD , it has everything and all the sources that you will need to compile your entire system and make it functionable !, the LFS liveCD ensures that you have a complete tested environment that suits your LFS project !

-Playing around while you're a root is a very bad idea ! , you'll probably end up deleting something important, or moving some file/folder somewhere you forget !

-It's recommended to use another user account to do all your work, and su whenever you need to do something with higher privileges, like compiling a source , delete a file/folder , etc ...

-From my experience, building an LFS OS is not so time consuming if you did it right, IMO you should use an extra box to do the process, although you can do the exact same thing on your workstation , but think about how you want to check your email, do other work while you're compiling the Linux kernel ! , you can also try to use Virtual machines, I'm currently testing LFS using a virtual box using VMware Server, Virtulaization is great, but in this case, I guess it won't be of much use, I think it will just eat up your power and render your computer slow and useless "maybe in some cases"

In conclusion , I think everyone must experience LFS, it will help understand Linux and how everything works inside the OS!, you might even try to hack around !.

You might be accused of reinventing the wheel if you told anyone about the LFS project and that you're participating or using the project !, I just wanted to make it clear that LFS is not aimed towards releasing zillions of Linux distributions !, LFS just teaches you how to use Linux right, build your own dist. and know the bottom up, not top down !, is that reinventing the wheel ?

Linux is a great operating system, so why not build your own dist. with all the packages you need, tailored just for your personal use ?! would be fantastic !

Have fun folks, Use linux and encourage the use of Free software !

LFS, Tornado OS, CVS, viewvc, Sammoud's illness !:'(

2007-10-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

The title shows you why I've been away for some time !!

My Dear friend Ahmed Sammoud "The Tornado OS owner, developer", has got troubles with his Appendix. He's hospitalized now and will be for a couple of days , he's had an operation to get it removed, and since it was a big problem "infections, etc" he had to stay there.

I'm going to visit him tomorrow to check him out and hope he comes back :), Don't die Sammoud, we need you !:)

Just kidding, he's gonna be ok :)

I've been setting up a CVS / http server for Sammoud's open source OS Tornado
I needed to learn about the nature of CVS, after setting it up I had to create some user accounts for the developers "including me" that will use the server over SSH.

I've also used viewvc to create an HTML frontend so people can get the source anonymously without the need of logging in !, I've got some troubles first like no files showing up and getting this note :

"NOTE: There are x files, but none match the current selection criteria."
It bugged me for a while, but getting the viewvc from viewvc.org and installing it and setting up the server correctly made it work in no time !:).

The server is up and running now and it's open to the public via anonymous CVS !
http://mostafaberg.homelinux.org:8080/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/

Fantstic, now I'm going to be a contributor to the tornado project, I've always wanted to learn about OSdev, but never had a chance to do so, but since i'm with my cool OS friends "Sammoud and the Aslan family ;)", I have a great chance of doing that !

I've also been reading about LFS "Linux From Scratch", so I can build my distribution of linux , It's for pure knowledge and I never know what i can do later with my distribution !, building a LFS is a great process that I'll learn how linux works internally , and how everything is related to each other !, it's a great experience and i recommend it to everyone !

here's LFS

Anyways, I was on my way to sleep now !, I've got a long day tomorrow and will have no time to do anything extra than the planned !

have a great day and enjoy it as if you'll have your appendix removed at night !"Jk sammoud ;)"

Cracking the AAST !:-@

2007-10-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

AAST, well well well...
There's lots of stuff to say about AAST-"Arab Academy for Science and Technology"

This little post is just talking about the damn stupid administration!!
and to prove some stupidity in the AAST system !

Let's start by the weak username/password combinations, who has guessed "asd:asd" ?!, yup it's a root user password on their server !:-)

I was just trying to SSH their server and attempted to login using the "asd:asd" combo, it just worked !.

ofcourse I wasn't attempting to steal or do any harm, but who keeps their servers wide open that way ?, unless you're an ignorant or something !

Another thing was the stupid FTP users !
try FTPing aast.edu using "toto:toto"
Who the hell is toto ? and why is a person called toto supposed to get FTP access to the server ?!?! lol :-D

If you also try to FTP aastmtic.aast.edu using anonymous login, You'll get a fantastic reward, a file called "deployment_kit.zip", you must check that out !, it logs in to their sever, and manipulates student data and similar administrative tasks, the only problem is that you must be running the app while connected inside their network, being the AAST Alex or Cairo branch, i'm not sure ! you can test that yourself !.

Sometimes you can also get while FTPing aastmtic.aast.edu is a google earth photo of Mecca !:-), i think the webmaster is playing around or something, is he being paid to post photos of Mekka ? , the page has been under construction for about... since i joined AAST, about 3 years!, go to work you lazy bastard !

Now lets be so damn secure about the registration process !!, let's use javascript to disable some stupid textboxes so the studen't wont input how many hours he registered !, WAKE UP, IT'S JAVASCRIPT you moron !!.
Java script runs on the end-user's side , which is completely controllable by any little kid that's learning ABC !

Hey , disabling a textbox is not secure enough , let's put a Pin code and store it in a flat text file on each computer's desktop in the AAST !.. what do they mean ?!, are we stupid animals not noticing what the hell this pin code is for ?!

well if that's not enough, the damn smart administrator is thinking about being so damn secure, so he checks if your ip address is from inside their network or not, but just on the first page that asks for the pin code ! well, I just tried to open any other page in the registration process and it opens up as if i own the god damn university !, removing subjects, doing whatever I want !.

Well, I've notified the system admin, he did a great job , just deleted the files in the registration folder for a while, then put them back later, he was thinking maybe people would've forgotten by then !:-D

I've also discovered really stupid stuff, the webmaster was learning how to use PHP or something, there was like a ton of hello world scripts lying everywhere on the server !, the problem that he/she didn't even compile PHP into the server !!

there are like a couple of thousands listed directories available at google using simple keywords, try searching for that in google:
"site:aast.edu intitle:index of"

you'll get all the indexed pages !:-), you'll find lots of pin codes/passwords/ personal photos and stuff !:-)

I've been everywhere on the AAST servers that I can't even remember all of the places i've been !!

I've attached an archive of all the files i've got off their servers, including some important m$ access databases of students/workers data and stuff like that !

please feel free to take this files, and continue the crack I've started !:-)

but please make sure that you're not causing any harm , I've notified the Sys admin of all the mistakes on the server, and it's his/her problem of not taking action !.

I'm posting those files just for educational purposes, and I encourage you to take over what I started, just for knowledge and the hell of it!:-)

Stuff to put in mind that I discovered and wanted you to know:

-SQL injection is available on most of the pages, so put it in mind.

-Google hacking is your best friend while finding stuff on AAST, you can even find *.SQL files and juicy backup files :-)

-There's a MSSQL server now running somewhere and i'm 80% sure it has root access enabled without a password "default installation comes like that", find it !

-There's a M$-acess database with juicy student data, laying somewhere in http://aastmtic.aast.edu !, I've given up finding it ! , maybe someone someday will !:-)

-You can access lots of student data using the registration process pages:
http://aastmtic.aast.edu/ux-registration
I won't spoon feed you , but you'll find something for sure "i've found lost of stuff"

Get the files i got of the AAST servers here:
Download(45Mib)

Use those files and the info I've given you to learn about security of our university :-)

Remember : The main goal behing this project is just to LEARN , without causing any HARM or TROUBLES !!

If you need any help or have got any questions, don't hesitate to contact me !

Enjoy and have fun kids:-)

VMware server on ubuntu !

2007-10-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

Running Linux on all my computers gives me lots of power and stability !,

I'm currently running UBUNTU Feisty Fawn 7.04 and another server edition.

Depending just on Linux operating systems is great, but sometimes you are in need of windows in order to use windows only programs, check webpages in internet explorer , and the uses are endless.

I don't really like dual booting my desktop, so i've decided to create virtual machines !

I first tried Qemu, but it was too slow to use "Mouse responds slowly, installing OSes and applications take hours !"

I've finally reached VMware-server ! , it's a great emulator to use and operates at a speed nearly as fast as a real box would do !

Getting to install VMware server on ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn is not supported, but you can patch the server to work on Feisty Fawn. the server is not available as a Debian package , so you have to download it manually and do everything yourself "it's not really a hard job to do that though !"

here is a thread on the UBUNTU forums that will take you through the entire process easily

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=183209

I followed that thread and it got me up and running in no time !

the thing that wasn't mentioned is that VMware server requires a serial number that can be acquired for free by registering on the VMware website.

after getting through the installation simply run the vmware sever by typing
------
vmware
------
in your console, the window will show up and you can create a new machine from there.

I just loaded it up , created a new machine, inserted the windows XP bootable setup CD, and powered on the machine, it loaded normally , you can notice the mouse might be a bit slow and you might encounter some hiccups and slowdowns during installtion, this can be caused by anything slowing down the REAL machine you're using, so make sure you're not loading lots of apps and stuff before installing.

after windows has installed and run perfectly, the mouse was still slow and graphics were the same too, I installed VMware-tools to speed up the graphics and the mouse driver. this can be achived by clicking "VM" then "install vmware-tools"

this will start a setup program in your windows XP box that will fix all of the slow mouse troubles.

you can even run windows in a high screen resolution as you can do on a normal box and have it run in full screen mode, you won't notice the difference !:)

and you won't even need to dual boot, and when things get messy , you just delete it !!

Here are some screenshots of windows XP home edition running on a virtual machine:

in conclusion, I recommend VMware-server for this type of application of virtual machines !

The magic page finished !:-)

2007-09-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

Remember the toy I told you about ? the peter answers clone ?
It's finished, and running !:-)

you can give it a shot at :
http://toys.mostafaberg.com/magic%20page/

its really nice and funny , you can use this page to trick your friends and think it answers everything correctly while actually it's you typing in the answers without them knowing it ! "typing invisibly"

it's really a nice toy that most people enjoy !

you can learn how to use it on the help page !!

enjoy !:-)

mostafaberg.com up and running !:-)

2007-09-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone !:-)

i finally made it and uploaded my webby :-)
you can find it at http://www.mostafaberg.com !
enjoy it , you'll find useless stuff over there :-)

I'm also working on a new toy, nearly fnished, probably will be up and running in no time too, It's a "petrer answers" clone ;) , i called it the magic page !

for those who don't know peter answers, it's simply a page that you type in a questoin and it sais an exact answer that you're waiting for "ofcourse its a silly trick that you play on your buddies in work, school, etc.."

so keep on going to http://toys.mostafaberg.com/ , it will be there soon ! .

Enjoy :-)

mostafaberg.com coming !:-)

2007-09-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

I've recently purchased the domain www.mostafaberg.com !:-)
I was working on the design for some time now, and decided to go
with the simplest thing ever!!:-), so you should visit mostafaberg.com frequently as i'm planning to launch within the next couple of days...

It'll be just a page to let people know who am I and it will be linking to my computer lab so visitors can follow/test my projects.

have fun

Finally posted on youtube !:-)

2007-09-10T17:10:00.001-07:00

After watching thousands of videos, I finally started to post !!.
I wanted to try and see how many hits it gets and how many visitors are intrested in car audio !:-p
You can watch the video below, it's embedded.

This video is simple, it just shows my sub woofers' excursion test !

Welcome to my blog !:-)

2007-09-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hello ! ;-)
This is my first post to the blog !
I'll be posting mostly everything here.

you can get news about me here !