Installing Ndiswrapper in Linux for wireless surfing

Ndiswrapper is a software tool where it will start up the network card in your machine due to the reason that most wireless card manufacturers do not program a software for linux.
Why? It is because not many people are using Linux. Why bother to create a software for such a small market.
Fortunately all are not lost. Experts have gather together and produce some of the wonderful software to work with linux. ndiswrapper is one of them,. Lets start to set it up.

Setting up the wireless network card in linux.
Type lspci to retrieve the hardware numer (On the extreme left column)
Type lspci -n to list out the number of the card(Listed on the right)

Use the number and go to http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net to view & download the driver file using the name of the hardware. For mine, i'm using
'Dell wireless 1390 WLAN mini card', number: 14e4:4311 (Some cards drivers can be found in mad wifi webpage if the driver for other network card is
not available at ndiswrapper)

Download the exe file

Start to install by create a new directory to hold the new downloaded exe file, /home/<name_of_directory>
Go into the directory
Type this command to unzip the exe file
# unzip -a R115321.exe
or use this command to unzip the exe file
# cabextract xxxx.exe

If ndiswrapper is install previously, use this command to remove ndiswrapper in the system:
# sudo make
# sudo uninstall
# rmmod ndiswrapper

Go into the driver folder after unziping the contents and type this command:
# sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
# sudo ndiswrapper -l (this is to check if the ndiswrapper is installed)
# ndiswrapper -m (there should be an output 'Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper)
# depmod -a
# modprobe ndiswrapper
# ndiswrapper -v (to see the version of ndiswrapper)
Sometimes after installing, ndiswrapper does not seems to be working for the first time in other flavours, my case in slackware. I will
type these commands to bring up the wireless network, wlan0

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# dhclient

Some linux flavours use the default bcm43xx to install the wireless card, I need to blacklist this file as it will conflict with the
ndiswrapper.

# echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules (after modprobe)

The steps below is to scan for wireless networks in linux.
# iwlist wlan0 scan ( to scan for wireless)
# iwconfig (to see if wlan0 is register)
# ndiswrapper -m (to list a line of code in the module)

Graham and Dodd, Security Analysis Chap 2: Survey and Approach

Most people should have know or heard about this book Security Analysis which is compiled by Graham and Dodd. I have start reading this book some time ago and sometimes i find the text hard to comprehend and therefore spent more time reading the text again and again trying to understand what they are trying to project to the readers.

I decided to post summary of some chapters over here hoping someone can discuss with me about the topics in this book or i can read the chapter summary if i'm free while i'm on the go.

Nevertheless, i shall start on the chapter: Survey and Approach.
Both gurus state that How an individual looks at an investment depends on the 4 elements, mainly: Price, Time, Personality and Security.

Price is always the decision factor to an investor. Some may invest due to the fact that the price is low and the investor has these limited funds to invest, or the price volatility is high caused the investor to think that he may have the chance to profit if the price continue to rise.
However the gurus also state that the decision to invest base on price volatility is a wrong concept as they have contribute to a higher probability of paying to much for a security

Time is an issue that may affect the conclusion in many ways.
A company may be a good company presently but it may become a bad company or vice versa due to market conditions and management style.
Economy changes with time. Example can be during my time, toys are the hot property for children in the 80s. Toys' R'us investing in toy business make big bucks. However these days, video gaming is the current hot topic for kids, not toys or action figurines anymore.

Prices of stocks changes with time or cyclical.

Personality of the investor affects the way he looks at an investment. If the investor looks at making quick bucks, he may venture into speculating instead of investing

Security, both of them touch on by asking, In what business is this company doing and on what commitment that it proposed? Be it preferred stock, bonds or common stocks.
The reason is because there are differences between the 3 of them. Preferred stock ranked above common stock but it have no voting power in corporate matters. Price in common stock then to appreciate more compare to preferred.
Discussing about company business and management, they stated that for eg: automobile industry company in an unfavored industry due to competition can be a good company if it has stable assets and strong earning power.

1. Less money is lost when investors purchase unattractive enterprise on attractive terms.
2. Judge an investment based on its value and margin of safety.
3. Blue chips companies does not mean that they will stay on forever.
4. Prices of companies will correct in time to come.
5. Risk of a security cannot be explain all by using mathematical formulas such as P/E ratios, Beta or standard deviation.
6. Reading and analyzing companies' financial statement does not guarantee the security will price fairly, soundly or high earning power. Companies have ways to manipulate the numbers.
7. The primary goal of a value investor is not to make big or short term profits but to minimize the probability of losing his capital.
8. The element of stability means that past results are not easily upset by unexpected developments
9. If price is higher than analyzed figures, security may experience no margin of safety
10. Figures are important as well as deciding factors of an economy, industry, management and madness of investors

Installing the MYSQL GUI Tools

Installing MYSql GUI tools

Sometimes using GUI makes things easier since i start out using computer preload with Windows OS.Its somehow a habit and hard to leave the comfort zone.

Download MYSQL GUI tools source files from mysql website
Download the necessary dev tools. The source websites can be found in the 'Read Me' file after expandiing the GUI tools source file.

Install 3 libraries if you are using the SUSE linux:
mySQL-client
sqlclient-dev
intltool

Install these libraries if using slackware
glibmm
gtkmm
libgnomecaps
libgnomeprint
libsigc++

After installing the libraries, enter into the GUI directory and enter these commands
# ./configure
# make
# make install

The above steps work well with SUSE and Fedora. I personally try it out myself. However for slackware users, it is better to download the mysql gui tools from the slackware library rather from the mysql webpage because the former has been update to be compatible with slackware os.
My slackware version may somehow old, but however the steps and concepts should be the same. The difference is just the version.

For slack gui tools, download from here.
They also host prebuilt dependencies which are :
cairomm-1.4.8
glibmm-2.14.2
gtkmm-2.12
libgnomecups-0.2.3
libgnomeprint-2.18
libsigc++2.0.18

They can be download as shown below. These links are provided by bgteddy in linux questions. Thanks to him for helping me in this area.:
cairomm
glibmm
gtkmm
libgnomecups
libgnomeprint
libsigc++


Afterdownload the necessary libraries, install them using the slackbuild and continue installing the mysql tools. Steps to install them, simply follow the steps above for SUSE and FEdora.

Wonders of Time Value of Money and Compounding Interest

I'm currently taking CFA lvl 1 and among the topics in the CFA lvl 1 curriculum, i find that one of the topics that can greatly help us is 'Time Value of Money'.
Basically it focus on how compounding interest and the time we have can greatly benefit us if we can make use of this knowledge in managing our money.
Naturally it will be a very great advantage if we have a lot of time in our hands as well as some cash.

A lot of us know that inflation is always around us. However many of us prefer to keep our money in bank due to the fact that most of us are risk averse.
However if we can make use of value investing techniques and invest for long periods, most of the time we can avoid heavy loses due to timing or fear.

I have listed down a few calculations which i did discuss with my gf on how to invest and save in order to enjoy a sum of $3500 every month for 20 years.I hope  i will read this article any time if needed anywhere and help you guys if you happen to chance upon this article.

通货膨胀率是一个隐形的大强盗。 它不会光明正大的抢你的钱，它会偷偷的贬低钱的价值。
一个非常好的例子， 就是十年前，一碗面只卖两块钱。今天的十年后，一碗面就卖了三块三毛钱。
十年后的两块，已经不再有十年前的价值了。
为了避免贬低钱的价值， 我们能做的就是：
第一：自己开生意
第二：赌博
第三：投资

要开个生意，就要有生意的头脑和一些有创造力的好点子。
去赌博的话，就要承受和面对很大的风险
要不然，就用另一个方法，那就是投资。可是投资不是没有风险的。
要减少风险方法， 就是长期投资和使用 'Value Investing'。

在我读CFA Lvl1的时期中，我觉得在那么多的课题中，一个对我们有帮助的，就是资金的时间价值(Time Value of Money).
以下是资金的时间价值的算法，只要每个月投资一笔基金持续34年，复合年均增长率在6%， 我们可以在老年拥有20年
的基金，每个月能拿大约$3500的钱来养老不做工。
当然要实现 这个梦想，就要提早的投资和长期投资。

The Minimum return that we hope to get from the investment, we set it to 6%.
Therefore every stock you purchase the returns must not be less than 6% and
compounded using 6%.

Inflation rate mostly average around 2% throughout every yr in singapore.
Nominal returns 6 %
Find the real return using this formula:
nominal rate = real rate * inflation rate
Real returns =(1.06)/(1.02) = 3.92%

================================================================
Assuming we want to have $3500($42000 per year) every mth for retirement
at age 62 and expected to leave the earth at age 82.
I set $3500 per mth is because we need to set aside for medical bills just in case.

The amount that we need now is:
N=20, I/Y= 3.92, PMT= 42000, Present value will be $597,393.

Converting the present value above to set the value on par to inflation
rate of 2%:
N=34, I/Y=2%, PV = 597,393, Future value = $1171293
This amt $1,171,293 is the amount we need to have in order to have $3500
after we retire in order to get $3500 every mth for 20 years in today
value.

Next using the above amt, we calculate the amt in today value, we need to
save at 6% interest rate compound yearly for 34 years.
N=34, I/Y=6%, FV = 1,171,293, PMT = $11,242
Every year, WE NEED TO SAVE $11,242 which is $936.83 monthly.

Install PHP into Linux

Install php into the system using these steps.
First unzip the files
# tar jxvf php-xxxx.tar.bz2

Ensure both apache and mysql are in /usr/local. Check the php documentation.
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql
# make
# make install

For the next following steps, do it according to how we install php in windows
Open up the httpd.conf file in /usr/local/apache2/conf/
Add in this line: LoadModule php4_module modules/libphp4.so
Add in index.php in the list of valid Directory index files
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
     DirectoryIndex index.php index.htm .php .foo
</IfModule>

Next add in additional file type extensions
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .foo
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Copy php.ini-recommend into /usr/local/php/lib/php.ini
# cp php.ini-recommended /usr/local/php/lib/php.ini
# nano /usr/local/php/lib/php.ini

If system has nano writer install, simply use nano command to open a notepad writer. This is available in Ubuntu.
For slackware, nano is not install. However i can simply use kwrite. If there are no programs to open up a text file, use vi editor.

Update the php.ini as follows (search for the doc root in php.ini)
doc_root="/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/"

Voila... php is install

Installing MySQL server in Linux

These are the steps to install the mysql database into Unix

Ensure these libraries in the system. Depending on which linux flavor i'm using, i can simply go into their database get the libraries.
Libraries that i require are

• libsdc++5
• libncurse5-dev
• g++

For SUSE, install these additional libraries

• termcap
• ncurses

Open the folder where you store the mysql tar installer.

# tar zxvf mysql-xxx.tar.gz


After unzip, cd in the directory we just tar

Create user and usergroups first.

# /usr/sbin/groupadd mysql

# /usr/sbin/useradd -g mysql mysql

Inside, type these commands (check mysql documentation for further explanation at their website)

# ./configure –prefix=/usr/local/mysql –localstatedir=/usr/local/mysql/data –disable-maintainer-mode –with-mysql-user=mysql –enable-large-files-without-debug

# make
# make install

Now lets install the default data into mysql. Make sure i'm still in the mysql directory
# ./scripts/mysql_install_db

Change ownership of the mySQL directory. (It is now in root status).
# chown -R root:mysql /usr/local/mysql
# chown -R mysql:mysql /usr/local/mysql/data

Start the server

# usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Check if server is starting
# /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin ping

If it says sqld is alive, its running.

Installing Apache in Unix

Yeah, the version maybe old but however the way and concepts of installing is still the same.

Download the Apache http server, the version i'm using: http-2.2.6.tar.gz
Next extract the file:

# gzip -d http-2.2.6.tar.gz

# tar xvf http-2.2.6.tar

Go into the folder by typing the command below:

# cd http-2.2.6

 

Now i need to compile the source codes for Apache Server. At this point of time, make sure the C++ compiler is installed. Use gcc c++.

# ./configure --prefix = /usr/local/apache2

 

Build the following Apache Server

# make

(Make sure to log in as root)

# make install

 

Start the server using these commands
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start

if configure with prefix
# prefix/apachectl -k start

See if the server really starts

# telnet localhost http < /dev/null

if results from the above command is this, server has already start
trying connect 127.0,0.1
connect to localhost 

 

Now to start up the server, execute this command

# /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start

 

Type htt://localhost in the web browser to see if it displays the page.