>Alexandro Colorado: tech

Getting information from URPMQ

Here are some options to get the information from the packages. When you are on the command line and plug some options to urpmi so we can know the description of the package.

urpmq -i package

The i is for the info of the packages, this displays the name, versions, release, group, size and summary.

The summary will have the packages information.

[user@localhost user]$ urpmq -i urpmi

Name             : urpmi

Version          : 4.4

Release           : 37mdk

Group            : System/Configuration/Packaging

Size                : 2141739                                    Architecture: noarch

Summary       : User mode rpm install

It can also show some descriptions of the updates of that specific packages and why you needed the upgrade which is pretty cool in case you need that information. I did a

urpmq -i wget

and I got the following.

Last updated        : Thu Oct 13 15:12:45 2005

Update importance   : security

Reason for update   :

A vulnerability in libcurl's NTLM function can overflow a stack-based

buffer if given too long a user name or domain name in NTLM

authentication is enabled and either a) pass a user and domain name to

libcurl that together are longer than 192 bytes or b) allow (lib)curl

to follow HTTP redirects and the new URL contains a URL with a user and

domain name that together are longer than 192 bytes.



Wget, as of version 1.10, uses the NTLM code from libcurl and is also

vulnerable to this issue.



The updated packages have been patched to address this issue.

Upgrading my Vacation Pictures with Gimp

So I am not a great photographer, however I have some skills using photo editing software. Not for anything did I had an A on a course on digital image manipulation. Even if I am not the world most creative and artistic person I have been able to master a couple of tools to make my pictures just the way I wanted or at least close to it.

So while I was in Veracruz I took some pictures of me and my girlfriend. Really nice Pictures by the way. I enjoy the time we were there but even if the hotel was just a street away from the beach we didn't go to that beach as much. However Irina had fun in that beach and I had fun watching her splashing in the waves from that beach.

I snap a few pictures of her in the Sea and even if it was a bit cloudy I tried to configure my camera for the perfect pictures. However I realized I failed misserably as I put the wrong filter which make me had some images a bit yellow.

So after watching this vidcast called MacBreak I was able to see some Photoshop expert working on this image to make it look dramatic. I inmediately have this feeling of, I can do that without using Photoshop but instead my trusted Gimp program and I did exactly that.

I shoot out my Gimp program and I started looking for images I really wanted something more on them. I saw the Veracruz pictures and man I really think they could have looked better, so I open them.



This is a bit embarassing not just because of my geek belly fat which is a different thing but also because I want the day to be not so well... yellow.

So I open the image on the Gimp, and the next thing I did was go to the Curves. Curves are strong and have a really nice impact on the color set of the image without damaging the context on them. I have to say that I am not very familiar with the actual edges of the curve and I just deal with the middle node.

First I notice that Blue is the key curve to modify, this enables me to bring the curve a lil bit higher. Not too blue as this might actually damage my not so blue skin. I just want the see and sky to look happier.

The next is also bring the red so my skin can contrast again keeping the balance alive. I have notice that I dont usually substract which makes my modification at least simpler.

After the curves are done, the contrast of colors can be seen right away but usually there are other variables such as overal light of the image. Here is where I use the second tool which is the Brightness and Contrast.

We really want to avoid the actual sliding bar and concentrate on the numeric level. The changes should be very very subtile. Make a range of +10/-10 to assure that the levels wont get out of control.

Contrast and Brightness sometimes look like directly opposed so be careful when using it.

Finally the last tool I use in case the Brightness burn the pictures and strip it of it's warmness I go to the next tool, the most subtile of all, the Color Balance.

Color balance is an interesting tool, it has 3 levels, Shadows, Midtones and Highlights and the official RGB,CMY levels. Play arround with the combinations, remember where your shadows are, to have a better view you can also look at a thershold and see where the shadows actually reside and where the highligts.

In the end I couldn't get rid of my unathletic belly but at least I make as if I knew what I was doing with the cammera.



Thanks Gimp...

Updating Mandriva from the CLI

With the Mandriva operating system you have a control panel that will go through the process of updating your system. However the package manager can also have a command line interface which makes it really easy to update. However the CLI is not so explained to do the things you do on the GUI, like updating the system with the latest packages.

After looking around the internet I finally came to a good FAQ with detailed question and answer. With URPMI will be able to configure to the full ammount. There are many options and will make them go through.

• --update


• --keep


• --fuzzy


• --parallel alias


• --wget

To view the whole list you can go here however I couldn't get the auto-update and auto-select.

Too Cool for IE

So september 1st is the intenational day to get rid of IE. I just use IE a few minutes ago when I had to install (remotely) a Linux server for a friend who has a windows store.

Full of IE boxes and no firefox except for his own box the setup is rather odd since there is simply no way that people will react to Firefox. With this international day on get rid of IE might be a nice excuse of him to spread the word.

There is only one problem, is technically impossible to get rid of IE.

Adobe Suck Ass

Listening to one of my favorite podcasts called LinuxActionShow which mention one of the developers from Adobe to get Flash 9 running on Linux.

The post is a bunch of excuses about complexity and just that Linux is way too hard to get Flash 9 running on it. How could they find no hassles with the Mac OSX version?

there are some standard facilities and APIs that Windows and Mac operating systems provide to applications that Linux simply doesn't. To be sure, it's not that Linux can't do XYZ, it's that there are so many ways to do XYZ.

Maybe if he was more specific about what parts are those he can actually get this problems over it.

What exactly has to happened for Linux to make it compatible with Flash. I mean the compilers are the same on both OS, OSX and or Linux and Unix.

I like the fact that at least he is testing it on Gentoo so there aren't many changes to the source. However not providing with the information to fix the bugs, it just becomes a baby cry and castrating the linux community from getting an update to the extremely old Flash 7.