Friday, December 24, 2010

Managing Certificates on Windows

You can use Microsoft Management Console to manage certificates.

1.       Start->Run->mmc

2.       File->Add/Remove Span In… -> Add -> Certificates -> Add->Select ”Computer Account”->Next-> Select “Local Computer” -> Finish-> Close -> OK

3.       Here you can see a complete list of certificates that have been imported (Trusted/Untrusted/Revoked list and Personal Certificates)

You may create/import and export certificates from this console.  You can use File->Save As to save this console as a shortcut. All this can be done through the command prompt as well.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Could not find default endpoint

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'IMySOAPWebService' in the service model client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application or because no end point element matching this contract could be found in the client element

This error can arise if you are calling the service in a class library and calling the class library from another project.

In this case you will need to include the WS configuration settings into the main projects app.config if its a Windows app or web.config if its a web app.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Mobile - Location sharing and updating



Google Latitude App lets you share your location with friends.

You can also track your friends' location on Google Maps. This was released for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch recently and is available at the Apple Store for free. You can also toggle background updating and/or just choose to share the residing place.

I am not sure why people would like to share their location continously! Its a waste of battery and security issue :-)

Latitude is available for Android, iPhone and iPod touch, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian S60


Sunday, December 12, 2010

Windows 7 performance boost

  1. Delete
    1. %temp%
    2. prefetch
    3. temp
  2. Disk cleaner
  3. Disk Defrag

Thursday, December 09, 2010

2 (two) way SSL using soapUI as client and server

soapUI has been a wonderful tool for testing webservices. It can also generate MockServices  which can be used for testing the client if you have the WSDL contract. This is a very quick way to get up and running. You can also add WS-Security to it. There is a very good tutorial on soapUI to for using SSL as well. I wanted to extend this to use 2 way SSL. I have keytool command-line utility for generating keystore and certificates.

On Server
keytool -genkey -alias server -keyalg RSA -validity 3650 -keystore c:\server.keystore -storepass abcd1234 -keypass abcd1234 
keytool -export -alias server -keystore c:\server.keystore -storepass abcd1234 -file c:\server.cer 
keytool -import -alias client -keystore c:\server.keystore -storepass abcd1234 -file c:\client.cer 


Settings on the server prior to generating the mock service:-



server



On Client
keytool -genkey -alias client -keyalg RSA -validity 3650 -keystore c:\client.keystore -storepass abcd1234 -keypass abcd1234 
keytool -genkey -alias client -keyalg RSA -storetype PKCS12 -keystore c:\client.p12 -storepass abcd1234 -keypass abcd1234 
keytool -export -alias client -keystore c:\client.p12 -storetype PKCS12 -storepass abcd1234 -file c:\client.cer 
keytool -import -alias server -keystore c:\client.keystore -storepass abcd1234 -file c:\server.cer






Settings on the client prior to generating the request:-



client



Once the request is sent and the correct response is obtained after decryption :-



client after response



Raw response on client side :-



Raw response on client side



Raw response on server side:-



Raw response on server side









NOTE: Generate the request and MockService AFTER saving the SSL preferences and restarting soapUI. It might not work if you do it the other way around. Also, make sure you use https as the endpoint on the client end.



If wrong password is entered in client you will get bad_certificate response and it will not decrypt the response on the client end :-



bad_certificate

Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Ubuntu wubi installation and upgrade to 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat"

Ubuntu wubi installation is now at 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” and it is not recommended to upgrade to 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat". I tried doing this yesterday on my test PC and now I am not able to reboot into Ubuntu.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Fix is currently being worked upon: https://bugs.launchpad.net/wubi/+bug/653134

There are many posts that describe how to workaround this problem:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10180520&postcount=78

http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1596025

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9419667

I uninstalled wubi and will try a full installation 64-bit from Live CD. Seems like wubi is just for testing/ simulation of Ubuntu on Windows.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Dell Inspiron N4010

First pictures of refurbished Dell Laptop 14R used for testing :-

Click here to view these pictures larger

Configuration
Notebook,Inspiron,N4010,Configure To Order

Keyboard,United States,English,C11S,N4010

Hard Drive,500,5.4,P11,SGT-W,Across Line Of Business

Information,DHS,High, Value

Cover,Liquid Crystal Display,IMR,Blue,N4010

Processor,Arrandale,I5-460M,2.53,N4010

Software,Inspiron,N4010

Dvd+/-rw And Bd-rom,Hitachi Lg Data Storage,Inspiron

Card,Network,BLTH365,Consumer Notebook,Dell Americas Organization

Media,Digital Video Disk Drive,Driver,Resource DVD,N4010

Dual In-line Memory Module,4GB,1333MHZ,DDR3,2X2G

Digital Video Disk Drive,Multiple User Interface,NO-E

Liquid Crystal Display,14.0 High Definition,LGP,N4010

Software,Powerdvd,8.3,Blu-Ray Disk Playback,True Theatre High Definition,Factory Install

Software,LTG DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG

Software,Mcafee SAPPHIRE,30DAY,Multiple User Interface

Adapter,AC,LTON,65W,3P,Worldwide

Cord,Power,125V,1M,C5,United States

Software,Works,9 English

Software,Creative Camera,Consumer,1.4,Factory Install

Battery,Primary,48WHR,6C,SIMPLO

Documentation,English,Insiron,N4010,DAO/BCC

Bezel,Liquid Crystal Display,With Camera,N4010

Label,Intel,Notebook,CI5

Software,Certificate Of Authenticity,W7HP32/64

Label,Notebook Inspiron,Break The Seal Sticker

Label,Microsoft,Notebook,Windows7

Software,Roxio,BURN,1.0,Factory Install

Warranty Support, Initial Year

First impressions

  1. Cheap!
  2. i5 processor
  3. SRS surround sound
  4. Excellent keyboard and mouse
  5. Beautiful peacock blue color
  6. 1 partition HDD
  7. No bloatware/crapware from Dell
  8. Win 7, Ms Works 9, Driver CDs provided separately :-)
  9. No scratches. I was expecting scratches for refurbished models
  10. Quick shipping and good packaging

Saturday, December 04, 2010

HP Pavilion dm4t-1100 review

I had the chance to test a new HP Laptop. The configuration was :

HP Pavilion dm4t Entertainment PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-640M Dual Core Processor (2.8 GHz, 4MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.46GHz
• Intel(R) HD Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• No additional security software
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 6.25 hours of battery life
• 14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision Webcam and Fingerprint Reader
• Wireless-N Card
• Standard Keyboard
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope



Here are my findings:-


Pros:

  1. Sleek
  2. Thin
  3. Good battery life
  4. Many reviews complained about resolution but I was happy with the max resolution  (1366 x 768)
  5. Excellent HP TrueVision camera 

Cons:

  1. Comes with 4 partitions : Boot, C, Recovery, System
  2. Packed with lots of HP software and utilities
  3. Bloated Windows 7 system that takes a long time to clean
  4. Low quality sound and low sound level
  5. It is very difficult to use th mouse pad. Not compatible with Linux systems
When I talked to HP customer care here is what they had to say :-
We recently received the feedback you filled out and returned to us via the customer satisfaction survey. I assure you that your concerns are important to us.  Your feedback indicated you were not happy with all the extra software that was included on your computer.  This is standard on all of our computers and we do not have the capability to ask that the software not be installed.

I do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.


Sincerely,
Paulette
Customer Relations Team