Next, when the system finally booted, it gave a low graphics mode error message, along with options to:

• Run in low-graphics mode for just one session
• Reconfigure graphics
• Troubleshoot error
• Exit to console login

Every attempt to either login using the “low-graphics mode”, or login to the console failed. Several reboots and grub-fixing did not help. It turned out it had nothing to do with grub.

The problem was also experienced in a Virtualbox environment with several Ubuntu-like Linux distributions – Ubuntu 12.10, Zorin 6.2, Linux Mint 14, and Peppermint 3.

Ultimately, we were able to fix the low graphics mode error problem by reverting to an older kernel and removing the offending version (in this case, kernel 3.2.0-40).

Here’s how to fix the low graphics mode error message after a kernel update:

First, you need to revert to a “good” kernel – an older version that worked. To do this, at the kernel option screen, select “”previous Linux” and select an older version that worked. On systems running Ubuntu and its variants, you can get to the kernel option by holding down the “shift” key on the keyboard as soon as the computer starts.

Once the system boots successfully into the older kernel, open a terminal and type “uname -r”. You should see the current version of the kernel running on your system. Keep this in mind because you do not want to remove this in the next step.

Next, remove the “bad” kernel using the “Software Center” in Ubuntu, or “Software Manager” in other distributions. For new Linux users or people who do not want to mess up their systems, this is the safest option. Of course, advanced users can do it several ways (but they would not be reading this).

• Open the Software Center and type “linux-image” in the search box.
• In some distributions, you may see an entry to “Show xx technical items” at the bottom of the results window. If so, you should click on that link to show more items.
• Locate the problem kernel – in our case “linux-image-3.2.0-40 with a check mark showing that it is installed.
• Click “Remove”.
• After the kernel has been unistalled, you should open a terminal and type “sudo update-grub” to reconfigure grub and update the kernel list, then reboot.

That process worked for us.You can see the process in pictures here.

After successfully removing the offending kernel, you should be able to boot into a normal desktop and apply the guest additions in the Virtualbox machines (if using a virtual environment) – for access to full screen mode, clipboard sharing etc.

It should be noted that the problem also appears to affect kernel 3.2.0-39.

For a detailed discussion on possible steps to take in fixing graphics problems, see this resource.

As usual, your experience may vary and we always encourage you to back up your system before making any major changes. Use the tips here at your own risk.

Sure, they bombard us with International Data Corporation (IDC) statistics and charts to bolster their arguments. But like sports analysts who glowingly call U.S. MLB, NBA & NFL champions “World” champions, one is forced to ask “what “World” are they referring to?”

Is there really compelling evidence that the desktop as we know it will vanish in Africa, Asia, South America, China, Europe (East & West), and even the United states and Canada by 2017? Really?

Does the projection of smartphones and tablets garnering 67% and 16% of market share respectively really signify the “death” of the desktop? Is it possible that these mobile devices are bought and used as supplements to the desktop computer rather than a replacement, just like the writer of that article probably does?

Didn’t we go through this desktop is dead thing when the iPad came out? The fact is that as much as we talk about the shift in the mode of application delivery, the tendency or attempt to move local compute to the cloud etc., the desktop as we know it today will be here for quite a while – unless we can have 20-30″ tablets that will fit in a laptop bag!

There are some industries and jobs that do not work well with a tablet or smartphone. Engineering and architecture comes to mind readily and you can throw in avid gamers and graphic designers. Sure a graphic designer can whip up quick images and art on a tablet, but are we to believe that if a graphic designer has the option of using a tablet or a desktop in creating a complex design, they will opt for the tablet? Or that major corporations of the world will ditch their desktops and the myriad of legacy aplications sitting on them for the tablet? Not likely.

There are some things a tablet just can’t do very well, yet. For most IT services providers, I can’t imagine trying to monitor and manage the servers and desktops of several clients, including remote login and command-line ninjutsu on a tablet or smartphone, comfortably – as sexy as it may sound. I tried it on a Nokia N900 a while back and it was not fun.

There is also the issue of convenience and trust, if you will. I have several tablets and Smartphones, but I am very cautious about what I store on these devices because of the form-factor. The Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus smartphone for example, do not have external storage like an encrypted MicroSD card. This limits the use of the device because of the limited amount of information  one is willing to trust to the device (in case it “dies”). And before you say “use cloud storage”, that is not an option for the type of data some have to deal with, plus that may not be an option in some parts of the world.

And speaking of storage, I think we are still a couple of years off from a tablet or smartphone with four terabytes or more of storage.

And if we want to be picky about the term “desktops”, is it surprising that many tablet users are spending extra cash for keyboard add-ons? That is one of the reasons the Asus Transformer was such a hit – the desktop-like experience.

On a world-wide scale, consider the cost and availability factor. For a poor family, the cost of one high-end tablet could provide about two to three low-end e-Machine/Acer/Gateway desktops for the home – a no-brainer purchase. And in many parts of the world, people are just now being introduced to the world of computers and dial-up Internet access. For these folks, the tablet is an expensive luxury and I doubt that much of that situation will change by 2017. Not when you are trying to put food on the table and a roof over your head.

In addition, mobile data networks in many parts of the developing world are not ready even for regular Internet usage, and their costs are higher. For these folks, the desktop is going to be relevant for a while.

While it may be true that several homes and schools in the United States, Europe and parts of Asia are sold on tablets and smartphones, many universities, colleges and high schools in developing nations are still at the infancy stage in terms of the use of computers – some can barely afford good school equipment. So the question again is, what world was the writer actually referring to in pronouncing the “death” of the desktop?

Is it realistic to argue at this point that “The Desktop Is (Pretty Much) Dead”? Not when Lenovo is meeting with government and private organisations from across Africa to talk business and making plans on “leading in Africa PC market” in 2013!

How about this? “The retail network for computers in Dubai is next in size only to the network of foodstores, textiles, gold and electronics. The annual turnover of this market is estimated at about US$1 billion per year”. Those US$1 billion purchases have to be used somehow, right?

John Hiner observerd way back in 2010 that ” the tech world has been a bit over-infatuated with tablets this year — myself included, at times. While tablets are starting to make a lot of sense for workers who spend their days on-the-go, in conference rooms, and on-site with clients, there are still plenty of employees who remain tied to their desks for most of the day and are under a lot of pressure to produce. For these workers, the desktop computer remains the best tool for the job”. That observation still holds true today.

For “simple” tasks like  writing and editing articles, viewing web pages, making online purchases, or managing social media channels, there could be an argument for the “death” of the desktop given that new development platforms like Blink are focusing more on consumer-side rendering for smartphones and tablets than a regular PC. It will be interesting to see how it goes and what it does.

The biggest issue seems to be that developers have to add significant amounts of coding changes to make applications render in a way suitable to a smartphone and tablet as well as a regular PC. Given this inherent obstacle, it is safe to argue that it is a little premature to pronounce the desktop dead, even in the United States.

I don’t mind service providers hyping things up to make a sale, but this overly broad and unqualified statement is a little over the top and harkens to the typical sales stereotype that Daniel Pink referred to as “pushy”.

Apparently, the CentOS 6.4 upgrade broke X11 (the UNIX/Linux Graphical User Interface  or GUI). A few attempts at repairing the boot loader using the CentOS 6.4 installation disc did not help.

It turns out that removing the xorg.conf file takes care of the delayed or boot hang problem.

Here is the simplest way to get this resolved:

• Restart the system and when you see the “Press any key to enter the menu” message, press any key. The list of available kernels will be presented and normally the latest kernel will be the first:
  

• Press “e” to edit commands before booting.

• Highlight the list item with vmlinuz in it by using the arrow keys and press “e”.

• Now type “single” at the end of the line:

• Press enter to be taken back to the kernel list, then press “b” to boot the system into single user mode. This will present you with a bash prompt:

• To rename the xorg.conf file, change to the X11 directory and type “ls” to see the contents:

• Rename the “xorg.conf” file -  “mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak”:

•  Reboot the system by typing “reboot”

The system should now be able to boot into the GUI environment. Upon reboot, the system will create a new xorg.conf file with the correct settings.

As a side note, you can also easily rename the xorg.conf file by using a live CD like Knoppix to boot into the system, navigating to the X11 directory on the local disk and renaming the file.

If you experience this problem in a VirtualBox environment, you can re-install the VirtualBox Guest Additions tool by clicking on the “Devices” menu item and selecting “Install Guest Additions”.

Our focus in this article will be on the “stupid and lazy” part of this equation. We will take a quick look at the way users tackle mobile app permissions in the android market place otherwise known as Google Play. A cursory look at some apps on Google Play and the permissions required by these apps, and the ratings given by users, even to apps with seemingly over-reaching or meaningless permissions, explains a lot about why security will continue to be a problem for a very long time.

As mentioned in an earlier article, it is amazing how much people are willing to sacrifice in the name of using an app, or sheer laziness and the inability to do a little research and due diligence before using an app. For example, take apps that perform exactly the same function, like Gaming, Task List, Timer, or even a World Clock and compare the permission requested. The permission requested by one app will border on the ridiculous for its purpose while the other seems appropriate. In these days of ad-supported apps, it is not unusual for an app to request internet access or location service if applicable.

But does a clock really need access to your phone calls and the remote number connected by a call? Does it need the permission to:

“call phone numbers without your intervention”,
“read data about your contacts stored on your tablet, including the frequency with which you’ve called, emailed, or communicated in other ways with specific individuals”,
“read from the system’s various log files…to discover general information about what you are doing with the [device]“, “communicate with Near Field Communication (NFC) tags, cards, and readers”?

Not if another app that can perform the exact same function “Requires no special permission to run”. The main function here is to “tell you the accurate time about any timezone of the world”, period. Does this app really need all that permission to tell the user that the time is 3:00 P.M in Chicago, 2:00 P.M. in New York and 9:00 P.M. in Lagos, Nigeria?

Yet, a quick look at the user reviews show thousands of people who happily install these apps and give glowing reviews of how they “can’t do without it”. Yet they wonder why their phones or tablets are “suddenly” freezing, making phone calls at night and  can “unlock my device without me doing anything”.

Certain apps by the function they perform give us an idea of the type of permissions or access to personal data that may be needed. A contact manager, phone dialer or calendar can justify requiring access to pretty much everything. But does a Flashlight app with a declared function to “use your device’s camera LED / flash / screen as a torch” need permission to modify system’s setting data, change current configuration, such as locale, take pictures, access the contact list, send SMS and make phone calls?

It is very important to look at the requested app permissions relative to what its function is. So before installing an app, do a little research on it. Google Play displays the permission required for an app before installation.

Ultimately, as we’ve mentioned in a previous article, Google has to take on more responsibility in this arena. As a developer opined, “The reason for the permissions is actually due to the underlying development framework. [Apps are] developed using Corona SDK which was made by Ansca Mobile and is now known as Corona Labs. These permissions are included by default when the app is compiled and there is currently no easy way to remove them!”

According to one developer, “Many developers in the Corona community have requested that these be optional and only included if the app actually uses the internet for something. Corona Labs has indicated they are looking at this issue (granted they have been looking at it for some time now).”

But a bigger issue is that this could be a code problem. Indeed, the argument, according to Corona Labs, is that “We’re not ready to strip out the default permission from Android apps yet. We can’t just rip them out, because a lot of code and 3rd party dependencies such as InMobi, inneractive, OpenFeint, Flurry, etc. Ripping them out would cause crashes and generate a lot issues – but we haven’t forgotten about this and do hope we can come to a solution.”

For further discussions on this issue, see here and here.

So a lot of what users get in terms of unreasonable request for app permissions could actually be seen as “standards” set by Google and its partners. While many developer are adamant that these app permissions “don’t do anything”, it is a great risk for users to take.

It is not just Google. On Amazon AppStore, apps have permission issues as well. According to one developer, “People don’t even bother downloading, they just rate with 1 star”. Here is an example.

An interesting thing is that many developers are aware of this problem and are doing their best to help in alleviating the concerns users have by going the extra mile and doing the work. A few have already gone that route.

The best advise for users of apps, whether it is from Apple, Amazon, Google or others is to do their due diligence and know what they are getting into before installing an app, no matter how shiny and cool it looks. For example, at the Google Play store, users can follow these steps to check the app permissions requested by a particular app before installing:

• Open the app you want to install and read the “Overview” to get an idea of what the app really does, then
• Click on the “Permissions” tab to see the permissions required for the app to run.
• Read the reviews of other users, but focus on the “negative” reviews to see why the user did not like the app.

If you are not comfortable with the required permsissions, search the store for similar apps until you find something you are comfortable with. For example, take the Moon+ Reader. The overview describes it as a “Book reader with powerful controls & full functions” which allows you to “Read thousands of ebooks for free, supports online ebook libraries”. The permissions required are “Network Communication” and “Storage”. This is a great example of where the permission required is in line with the function of the app – internet access for “online ebook libraries” and storage for the books.

Within the book reader category, you will find apps that do not require any permissions like the “Nomad Reader”, the “50000+ Free eBooks Reader” which only need access to storage, and the extreme like the “50000 Free Ebooks & Reader” that wants access to phone features, location services and the ability for the app “to read data about your contacts stored on your tablet, including the frequency with which you’ve called, emailed, or communicated in other ways with specific individuals”  – totally unnecessary for a book reader, in my opinion. Note the similarities in the names of the last two examples.

For those who are bold enough to experiment, there are some apps for managing permissions at the Google Play store. One is called Android PErmission Filter System (APEFS), developed at the Siegen University in Germany.

APEFS  is an “An Infrastructure for Permission-based filtering of Android Apps” and “is able to filter apps that are interesting for the user by search in charts and searches for suspicious patterns and so allows controlled installation of apps. To do so the user can use filter options, like Internet access or Paid services, offered by APEFS that fit to his view of security issues. APEFS then discards apps that [are] questionable from the view of the user”.

It even works on already installed apps so you can review the permissions granted to those apps and remove them if needed.

Another one is called App Permission Watcher, described as an app which “helps you to monitor the permissions used by installed non-system Apps. It warns you about suspicious permission combinations that can be used to compromise privacy or to cause unwanted costs”. It was developed by Eric Struse as part of a thesis at Ruhr University Bochum and University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany).

There is also Permission Friendly Apps by Androidsoft. This app allows you to review the permissions granted to apps that are already installed and provides the opportunity of uninstalling suspicious apps.

As always, use with caution and at your own risk.

Please note that using filters like “SafeSearch: Strict” has nothing to do with permissions – read more about this here.

VoIP is a term that refers to Voice over Internet Protocol. It is a technology that allows phone calls to be made using high-speed Internet connections like cable, T1 or high-end DSL. Other common names for VoIP are IP, digital and Internet phones. The unique thing about digital phone technology is that it works with regular analog phones and this is important because since not everyone may have this technology in place, your calls will still be received whether the party you are calling has VoIP in place or not.

What is a hosted digital phone system and how does it benefit you?

Host digital phone simply means that all the equipment and service you need for the phone system is provided by a hosting company and you therefore do not need to have any equipment at your location. The only thing that is highly critical is that your business location needs a reliable high-speed Internet connection. The great thing is that your business location already have most of what is needed – computers, Internet connection, a computer network etc.

You can Cut Costs With Hosted Digital Phones and here are some of the advantages:

• There is no need to have a Private Branch eXchange (PBX), which is the very expensive box that major telephone service providers install on your premises. That drastically reduces the huge capital outlay required to install a PBX onsite because all that is required for a digital phone system is high-speed Internet connection and a router which is provided by the service provider. The flexibility of this system is truly great because most of the responsibility of handling calls rests on the service provider.
• Since digital phones use what is called a packet based technology, it is possible to make a lot of calls at the same time.
• You can select a fixed monthly fee that covers all the calls you make since your phones use Internet technology. In addition, it does not make any difference whether you have one or several locations. This is a great way to save on long distance charges.
• Digital phone systems allow you to receive faxes, emails and text messages as well as the ability to take your phone on the road if you are traveling.
• Support can be provided remotely and the result is instantaneous. This is useful for adding new users or extensions on configuring the phone without having to wait for a technician to drive to the office. It also makes it very easy to move phones from one location to another since they just need an IP address in order to work.
• The ability to have a toll-free number at a fixed cost.

For more information on how to cut costs and start saving with a hosted digital telephone system, visit our website.