Google Calendar: A User's Introduction

Originally posted on: http://distinctshadow.blogspot.com/2013/09/google-calendar-users-introduction.html

For this post, I will not talk about Philippine energy. I will briefly introduce Google Calendar, with the hope that you (I hope you understand who you are) will use it to increase productivity and collaboration.

Google Calendar is (obviously) Google's take on calendar and task management. As far as I remember, Yahoo! has calendar also in their Yahoo! Mail, but it was not as integrated to their other products, and did not have a lot of collaborative functionalities (why does Google say that 'functionalities' is incorrectly spelled?) that Google Calendar introduced.

Google Calendar is a simple take and presentation on how we see dates vis-a-vis tasks, activities, sharing and communication. If you have a Gmail account, just look up, at the gray ribbon of Google services available, and you will see Calendar on the right-middle part. Click it, and that's almost it. (You will probably need to agree to the terms of services.)

There are a number of features in Google Calendar that I like, such as:

1. Sharing of Calendar - By sharing calendar, this means you share one of your calendars. As people, we have different aspects of our lives. For example, we live as an employee, a part of a circle of friends, and member of a volunteer organization. For each of these circles, we can have a calendar, which we can share. And there are many ways of sharing: Allow certain people to see your calendar, edit existing appointments, create new ones, or manage the calendar, which means they can re-share your calendar to those who need access to your schedule. Of course, there is also the option of making your calendar public. When another user adds an appointment in your shared calendar, you get notified (via email or SMS, to be discussed next).
2. Mobile Notifications - For me, I configured my Google Calendar to send me SMS to remind of in advance of my schedules  (many times for each event/schedule). This is, of course, in addition to notifications via the email. As discussed in the previous number, you also get be notified if a shared calendar is changed (someone requested an appointment or added a schedule, or edited an existing appointment, among others)
3. Integration with other Google services - If you use Google Sites, for example, for managing a project or a team dashboard, you can (and I did) integrate the Google Calendar gadget so that it displays your calendar there. If your Google Sites is login-based, it would display your own Google Calendar.

Google Calendar is a very useful productivity tool that I hope you would use to increase productivity (of course) and enhance collaboration in shared activities.

For more information on how to do the things I listed here, you can go to the Google Calendar Help site https://support.google.com/calendar/?hl=en

No, I am not a Google advertiser or stockholder. Just a Google Fan. :D

I may update this as soon as I have the time and realize its other exciting features.

Trying and Installing Drupal on an Ubuntu Linux Laptop

I underwent Drupal training two times, and so I can say that I have experience in configuring and organizing a  college website using Drupal. But I have yet to install Drupal on a machine by myself - the whole thing, I mean.

So last weekend, as I set for myself, I tried doing it on my own, in my own Ubuntu Linux  laptop. I installed LAMP server using tasksel. (I encountered an almost 2-hour struggle with that particular part, because I could not make Apache web server work. After about 5 to 6 times uninstalling and purging and reinstalling, it finally reactivated.)

Then, I followed the installation video (I will link the Youtube video soon), and also an Ubuntu guide on installing drupal. I used one distro in particular, Open Enterprise, because I was led to believe that all the capabilities I want (rotating banner, social integration, blogs, SEO tools, etc.) are already there and just needs activation. I was wrong.

After installing (of course, I had to create a database first with MySQL, download the package and decompress it to the /var/www directory of my Ubuntu), it worked, but the apps are not yet there, and when I tried to install (download the package and install), there were some problems.

I could not actually figure out what the problem was. I am not sure if I don't know the username and password, or I have not configured it right (I did a few more steps apparently to allow clean-url to work), or the software was not configured for FTP, or something.

I installed additional packages (vsftpd I think). Still didn't work, after that, but I tried a different username and password (my computer login and password), and the FTP installation for the additional App (rotating banner, SEO tools, social integration) finally installed.

And yes, besides installing, they did work!

So now, the next stage is to try what I did on a laptop machine on a real server environment. I hope I will be successful, because if I am, I will do the same for our CAS website. It will be cleaner, easier to maintain, and more integrated to the UP Manila website that IMS is planning to develop.

IT Developments at CAS

With the eUP of the UP System, and the OpenERP of UP Manila, what can CAS offer?

DPSM has started the Faculty Information System (FIS), which the IT Office hopes to improve. In the meeting yesterday, the Dean of the College of Dentistry, Dr Medina, mentioned the frustrating data collection done by the UP System - Forms 15 to 23. I wanted to answer that the CAS is doing that, but I could not. I don't want to. Not yet. I have to wait until the FIS is improved.

Also, the Office of the Dean has purchased wireless routers for deployment at CAS (and SSWC) to improve the coverage of the wireless (obviously) network. I simply hope our internet gets better for the students and faculty to appreciate the development our College is doing.

On my own level, as practice of my training in database, I will make an equipment / property information system. The aim of this system is for the College (through the Supply Officer) to track maintenance activities, purchases, expenses and utilization related to the various equipment of the College.

I wanted to type "What else?" but I had to erase that. I am not even an information technology or information system officer, so these things are not actually within my responsibility. I want to help, but I want to make sure I can help well. So I will limit my effort to the smaller things for now.

For the AAC meeting, I hope I can communicate effectively the desire of the College - a comprehensive academic institutional information system (educational ERP?) that can answer their information needs so that they can manage effectively and efficiently. It will be slow, but this is a start.

I know we can do it. We just need to have the will and engage.

Flame malware targets Microsoft Update system: Patch now (Security)

Original Post: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/flame-malware-targets-microsoft-update-system-patch-now/7980?tag=nl.e019


Takeaway: Microsoft released a security alert and patch due to the disturbing news that the hugely complex Flame malware has spoofed MS-signed certificates, potentially making Microsoft Update a malware delivery mechanism. Yikes and double yikes.

In what security researcher Mikko Hypponen calls the “Holy Grail” of malware writers, the massive and complex Flame malware, linked to state-sponsored espionage and information-gathering, has managed to spoof Microsoft-signed digital certificates, creating the potential for man-in-the-middle attacks on the Microsoft Update system.

Clearly, as Hypponen points out, successfully exploiting this vast delivery mechanism for malware could be disastrous. If the Flame module successfully performs a man-in-the-middle attack, it drops a file called  WUSETUPV.EXE on to the target computer. As of now, however, Hypponen says, “…It has not been used in large-scale attacks. Most likely this function was used to spread further inside an organization or to drop the initial infection on a specific system.”

Microsoft’s warning and patch are located on its support page. The full Technet Security Advisory is linked here:

Microsoft is aware of active attacks using unauthorized digital certificates derived from a Microsoft Certificate Authority. An unauthorized certificate could be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft is providing an update for all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. The update revokes the trust of the following intermediate CA certificates:

Microsoft Enforced Licensing Intermediate PCA (2 certificates)
Microsoft Enforced Licensing Registration Authority CA (SHA1)
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, but the main takeaway for now is to patch immediately!

CAS ICT Projects

With my upcoming database systems training (initially, with Intro to Database Systems, to be followed by Basic PHP-MySQL, and then Advanced PHP-MySQL), I have this preliminary list of ICT-related ideas:

1. Information-Gathering Behavior of CAS Constituents - The end-goal is for the College to come up with a comprehensive strategic communication program for its various stakeholders and initiatives.
2. Faculty Information System 2.0 - Update the FIS to be more useful to both management (administrators' information needs and promotional purposes) and the faculty members
3. Database Implementation on Processes requiring them
4. FOSS, Ubuntu and LibreOffice Training for the Faculty
5. Google Apps Familiarization Training for Faculty (Design already 2 years old)

The wireless CAS campus is just delayed for a few weeks, but after this Holy Week, there will be more updates.