Installing CCNx on Ubuntu OS

Here I would like to share how to install CCNx step-by-step. I am referring this site, but the java implementation gave me some issues that I have added the steps here, in case you run into those issues.

1. Ubuntu 12.10/higher/lower
2. Download version ccnx-0.8.0/or higher
3. Install the following packages:

$ sudo apt-get install ant autoconf libssl-dev libexpat1-dev libpcap-dev libecryptfs0 libxml2-utils 
automake gawk gcc g++ git-core pkg-config libpcre3-dev

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk (for Ubuntu 12.04)

               (OR)      openjdk-7-jdk (for Ubuntu 12/10)

4. (optional) Create a software link for ccnx folder and put the original file inside "src" folder

$ mkdir src
$ mv ccnx-0.8.x src/
$ ln -s src/ccnx-0.8.x ccnx

5. Go inside ccnx folder

$ cd ccnx

$ ./configure
$ make 
$ make install


This concludes the installation steps of CCNx. You can use the CCNx webpage for different experimentation. 

Thank you for taking time to read the post.

Installing OpenVSwitch in Ubuntu 12.10

USE: People who are planning to using OpenVswitch, these steps works for the latest version of OVS as of 12/16/2013

With my latest experience with OpenVSwitch, I wanted to write this blog to post all the information I was able to find and all the problems I came across while working with OVS.

The concepts I have covered here are only working with OpenVswitch. There are tons of study materials and tutorials to understand concepts of Openflow and Software Defined Networking out there.

Firstly, I would like to start off with some basic steps to install OpenVswitch and basic facts that you should be aware of:
1. There are many sources out there to help you install openvswitch, try to stick to the main openvswitch man page, they give you the most latest, the rest of the materials might not be updated to the latest one.
2. Openvswitch is Linux version sensitive. Not knowing this fact landed me with many kernel-based issues. Since OVS install some kernel modules, the compatibility of OVS with the OS version and kernel version is important to know.
3. Some of the very useful websites for OpenVSwitch are of Brent Salisbury and Scott Lowe and many others you could find by just googling OVS :)

Installation steps:
1. For latest OVS 2.0, Ubuntu 12.10 is the best performing OS. For earlier versions of OVS, earlier Ubuntu versions would work fine.
2. Following some of the directions from here. Install the following:
     

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install dkms

sudo apt-get install openvswitch-datapath-source bridge-utils

sudo module-assistant auto-install openvswitch-datapath

sudo apt-get install openvswitch-brcompat openvswitch-common openvswitch-controller

apt-get install -y git python-simplejson python-qt4 python-twisted-conch automake autoconf gcc

uml-utilities libtool build-essential git pkg-config linux-headers-uname -r

git clone git://openvswitch.org/openvswitch

cd openvswitch

./boot.sh

./configure --with-linux=/lib/modules/uname -r/build

make && make install

./boot.sh

./configure --with-linux=/lib/modules/uname -r/build

make && make install
make modules_install

/sbin/modprobe openvswitch 

touch /usr/local/etc/ovs-vswitchd.conf

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/openvswitch

ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
ovsdb-server --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock \

                     --remote=db:Open_vSwitch,Open_vSwitch,manager_options \
                     --private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key \
                     --certificate=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,certificate \
                     --bootstrap-ca-cert=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,ca_cert \
                     --pidfile --detach

ovs-vsctl --no-wait init

ovs-vswitchd --pidfile --detach

3. then bring_up_br0 using the following steps:
     - write a script file (*.sh) with the following lines and run it in command-line as root

        ovs-vsctl add-br br0

        ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0

        ifconfig eth0 0 && br0 192.168.1.x netmask 255.255.255.0

        route del default gw 192.168.1.1 eth0

        route add degfault gw 192.168.1.1 br0

4. Next add the controller IP Address to the switch. 

   ovs-vsctl set-controller br-int tcp:192.168.1.x:6633

5. Next you can start using OVS and Controller for any of your experimentations

Thank you for taking time to read. 

Power of Writing on your Palm

I write this post to make a very simple point. Have you ever been offended when a person writes something you told them on their palm? Well, from personal experience, I think you should not.

When someone makes a note in their phones, notebooks etc, the number of times they are going to see it is determined by when their brain tells them to do so. But on the other hand, without any conscious effort, one sees their palm many times especially when they wash their hand. Now when there is nothing written on the palm, one doesn't make an effort to recollect as "having seen" their palm, but if something is written on the palm, one makes an effort to read it and recollect the moment they wrote it. This may happen a few times, and each time they read it, they review the note and thus memorizing it eventually and effortlessly. Considering that are brain has a huge storing capacity, it is possible that even if they forget it in the short term, the memory will pop up at some point.

Next time, make sure you make someone write that important point on their palm ;-)

Thank you for taking time to read the post!

Happy New Year 2014

To this new year, to more posts and to simplicity and more originality.

To Family and Friends, near and dear ones. 

To Love, Peace and all amazing things.

To Hopes and Promises.

To Humanity.

Happy New Year 2014

Greenhouse Gas Emission in Highly Populated Countries

USE: Every human being

I write this post when I was triggered some thoughts after reading this post from SiliconIndia. I got to see the numbers from this post, but this problem is very REAL.

As a born-Indian, I visit my country ever-so-often and each time I go to India, the initial few days are a struggle between my respiratory system and the environment. The pollution in every major city is so much higher than a city in moderately populated country and now from this post, I get the number that CO2 emission has increased by 7.7 percent from the past year. Those days are the times I wonder, how are people even living here. But then the lung just gets used to the available environment and life moves on. From my perspective, this shouldn't be the case, something has to be done.

Comparing some stats from the post and other details:

Country	CO2 Emission	Area Sq miles (Sq Km)	CO2 Emission percent/sq mile	Population density/sq mile
China	27 percent	3.748 million sq miles (9.707 million km²)	7.2 x 10^-6	365
United States	14 percent	3.794 million sq miles (9.827 million km²)	3.69 x 10^-6	84
India	6 percent	1.269 million sq miles (3.288 million km²)	4.72 x 10^-6	954

The population density per sq mile was obtained from here.

I would agree that similar stats have been discussed in other posts, but my main purpose of this post was to discuss about these stats. I am considering only three countries as they are among the highest emitters of CO2.

Discussion on the above data:
China seems to be at a high threat, but as per latest news, "Consumption from renewable sources and hydropower in China grew by a quarter in 2012." This shows some good progress, although I do not have personal experience of the atmosphere in China.

From the statistics of US, it seems that the CO2 is so much more from other sources than just human beings, as on an average 84 people emit a relatively high amount of CO2.

And India, a lot of people, a lot of vehicles, a lot of CO2.

What can be done:
 Considering the huge amount of population and the need for more, what can be possibly done to solve this ever-rising problem. I believe awareness, above and more, a peer-pressure. For example, a while back, smoking had been one of the cool-factors, people were peer-pressured into smoking. And from the increasing number of lung cancer deaths led to awareness spreading of smoking as a bane and soon enough number of smokers started to reduce. Similarly, being green, should be a trend, people, kids, everybody could be peer-pressured to be green. In a way Tesla Motors is making this happen, the trend for owning a Tesla car has become a trend. (I hope they come up with their economy model soon!!)

Similarly, different ways to reduce CO2 emission, such as for example:
Each person: reduce the need for possessing machine-made goods. More machine-made goods, more factories manufacture, more CO2 emissions.
Each house: reduction in the number of vehicles per house, resorting to electric vehicles; more vehicles, more CO2 emissions. From personal experience, I am aware that most families own more than 1 vehicle, it would be a great step to make one of the vehicles electric for a start.
Each state/country: make ways to resort to renewable sources of energy (I am aware that a lot of people are already working towards this and I am making only a suggestion here :))

Finally, I conclude by saying, if all were to take this problem personal, we would start to adopt the various green ways of living.

Thank you for taking time to read the post!

Doctor versus Doctor

USE: This post is helpful for anyone who is young and making a life/career decision and for anyone looking out for general info.

As I am on my way towards a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering, I have always felt that Doctor of Science (PhD) is not the same as Doctor of Medicine (MD), while in most senses this is correct, from some reading/research and dutiful watching "Grey's Anatomy", I was able to conclude that both have the same value/range of difficulty depending on the path taken.

A general PhD candidate can be broadly classified as Type 1 and 2 as shown below.

Type 1	Type 2
Industry oriented	Academia oriented

The outcomes of both are slightly different. While both lead to becoming a Doctor. Type 2 is more respectful and close to a MD. But although does not pay equivalently to a full-fledged MD.

I would like to chart out the path of both types of Doctors inorder to prove my theory:

Doctor of Medicine	Type 1 PhD	Type 2 PhD
12 years of schooling	12 years of schooling	12 years of schooling
4 years of Undergrad (medicine oriented)	4 years of Undergrad (engg oriented)	4 years of Undergrad (engg oriented)
4 years of Medical School	2 years of Master's+3-4 years of PhD (or 5 year dual program)	2 years of Master's+3-4 years of PhD (or 5 year dual program)
1 year Intern + 2-4 year Residency at a Hospital	2-3 years Researcher in an Industry	1-2 years of PostDoctoral Research
4 years of Attending Physician (or) 2-3 years Specialty Fellowship	Senior Researcher	Assistant Professor
Full-fledged Doctor	Principal Scientist	Associate Professor
		Professor

The time frame for some of the positions I have not mentioned as they are completely based on performance and only approximate figures can be made.

While the path to both type of Doctor are strenuous and hard, the rewards vary differently and ofcourse the stress associated with the job are also different. The rewards and stress of a medical doctor is by far very high when compared to a PhD. Due to short of actual figures, I would not like to add approximate salary figures in this post.

As a conclusion, I think both are difficult in their own sense and ofcourse very valuable as people of this degree have a responsibility to the society to continuously work towards the betterment and should not be judged based on the commercial value they finally receive.

[PS: this post compares only the degrees mentioned above and the comments are not applied to any other degree]

Thank you for taking time to read this post and your critical views are always appreciated. 

Smart Touring Needs

My recent road trip to a Los Angeles (LA), California, my very first visit, helped me realize the pros and cons of technology. An otherwise mundane life doesn't require our tools to be smart. LA as we know is the Hollywood hub, with tons of people working in different in small jobs just to enter Film Industry. The traffic is challenging to drive in because of the roads and especially the drivers. That is the feeling when going from city like Phoenix, where traffic is so much more organized.

Since LA is a huge city, for a person going there for the first time, requires constant suggestions to get to know places. The tripAdvisor, Yelp are some of the apps helped quite a bit. But apart from the help, there were times the suggestions led us to trouble.

On our first day, we head to the Downtown LA, Grand avenue, Olvera street (oldest street in LA). We tried to find parking and all the suggestions provided by Internet suggestions were closed because it was Saturday and most parking lots are closed. Fortunately asking around helped to find the good one.

Then battery is one huge concern for smart phones. It gets impossible to talk to people, search places around and browse all day. A fully charged smart phone dies out by mid-Evening. Existing solutions for this problem are either stationary (need to attach the phone to outlet or external battery), or bulky (a double rechargeable external battery cover).

I am aware that these problems are already out there to be solved. These seems important issues to be voiced out. "Smart phones cannot be smart if it has no life".

Thank you for taking time to read the post and your critical views are always appreciated.