Tech tip: using mutt to access mailfence.com
tl;dr: make sure smtp_url definition starts as smtps. I needed to set up access to a paid-for email provider, mailfence.com
Category: open source
open source stuff
Of trust, transparency and privacy – TraceTogether
It was announced in parliament on 4th January 2021 (first time the proceedings were livestreamed which means item 7 in
Let’s Encrypt and self hosting at home
I have a NextCloud instance running at home and I need to make sure that the SSL certificate on it
The vibrancy of open source projects/products
On 8th December 2020, the other shoe dropped: the project known as Community Enterprise Operating System (CentOS, and I pronounce
My ESP8266-01 Adventure
I undertook many projects this year, some that I did not even think would be something I would be doing
Being part of a tradition
I am really glad that I am able to contribute something back to the community and society around amateur/ham radio.
Of trust and obfuscation
[image above from http://chloescheffe.github.io/trust.html%5D Last Friday, 19th June 2020, I was part of a group of four from the local
Seriously? NRIC for TraceTogether?
[Image from https://www.solarwindsmsp.com/blog/what-pii-and-phi-and-how-do-you-secure-them and added NO to it using gimp.] I wrote earlier that asking for a phone number when
Looking forward to a recyclable, open sourced, wearable, contact tracing device
So, the other shoe is about to drop. Gov is planning on providing everyone a wearable contacting tracing device to
A flawed idea. Zoom does not get it (or maybe they are pretending).
Earlier this week, a report came out that the video conferencing provider, Zoom, would be providing End-to-End-Encryption (E2EE) but only
Curated playlist of videos
I did not realise that there are plenty of videos of events at which I spoke, interviews I gave and
Working Remotely with FOSS tools
These last few months have been really wonderful in enabling me to catch up on making sure that as much
Jit.si if you care and Zoom if you don’t.
So, last week, from 8th April onwards, the Singapore Government imposed a partial lockdown (PL) – or as they say
A tip to play audio (and video) in a browser
So, the teacher in the house, aka my wife, asked me to help with the online teaching she has to
No. Internet voting is still a No Go.
I was asked by a friend why is it that we can’t do voting over the Internet. With all of
BuildTogether – data, code, people for the world
The Singapore Government Technology Agency released, at the end of last week (Friday 20 March 2020) a mobile phone app,
Of NUCs and Bastions
[image above from https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/ssh-proxy-bastion-proxyjump%5D Just documenting the systems I have on my home network so that I know what to
Fa(r)cial Recognition + Parliament = Smart Parliament?
If the Singapore Parliament aspires to be a smart Parliament, it should live stream proceedings in full on the Internet with no delay (Facial recognition system to track MPs’ presence in Parliament, Nov 8). By doing that, MPs’ attendance can be tracked using software that is already available.
The Enormous Empowering of Free and Open Source Software Ecosystem
It is quite disappointing to see the escalation of bad behaviour on the part of some of the partners in
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal
This. There was a time when I was so happy to be able to connect to the Internet with my
Simple life hack
Turn your mobile data to the OFF as a default when out and about. Why? Read on. Since about October
Working around censorship
The Internet is a wonderful and absolutely essential resource that needs to be looked after, managed well and secured so
NASA Space Apps Challenge 2018 – Singapore
It was wonderful that Red Hat’s Open Innovation Labs is a sponsor of this year’s NASA Space Apps Challenge event
Not allowed to code? Really?
[image from: http://cdn.blog.safe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/no-coding.png%5D Lots of interesting, but not surprising, information is being made public about the Singhealth data breach. The
Happy 35th Birthday GNU!
The GNU project was officially announced on 27 September 1983 by Richard Stallman. Thirty-five years of a project that has
A healthcare IT foundation built on gooey clay
Today, there was a report from the Solicitor General of Singapore about the data breach of the SingHealth systems that
What I’ve learned in 15 years at Red Hat
[image credit: https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Spock-shades.jpg%5D In September 2003, I was asked by Gus Robertson to consider joining Red Hat – essentially to
You gotta love the UNIX way of doing things
A colleague was asking for some help in a demo he was planning on that would involve him editing a
My updated GPG keys: 0x61AFA27B
I have just updated my GPG keys. The fingerprint is: 0x61AFA27B And my public key is: —–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY
SingHealth, PDPA, Smart Nation, sigh!
Looks like I am clear from the data breach at SingHealth. My Mom’s data, however, is not. This is the
ssh tunnel via userspace systemd service
[image above is a screenshot of 0pointer.de – in place of a systemd logo] This is short how-to on setting
So, you want to do computer science, huh?
This has been on my mind for a while. Lots of friends are asking me for advise about their interest
And, they are online now
Over a week ago, I was pinged by @l00g33k on twitter with a picture of a description of a piece
You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep**
Lots of what we take for granted found expression in the thoughts and writings of John Perry Barlow. He crafted
Seeking a board seat at OpenSource.org
I’ve stepped up to be considered for a seat on the Board of the Open Source Initiative. Why would I
Wireless@SGx for Fedora and Linux users
Eight years ago, I wrote about the use of Wireless@SGx being less than optimal. I must acknowledge that there has
This is very interesting! (it is proprietary though)
I just came across something called hashgraph that seems to be able to replace blockchains as the basis of distributed
Three must haves in Fedora 26
I’ve been using Fedora ever since it came out back in 2003. The developers of Fedora and the greater community
A better model to work with citizens
I have been putting off installing the SGSecure application on my phone. I finally decided to do it via the
This is quite a nice tool – magic-wormhole
I was catching up on the various talks at PyCon 2016 held in the wonderful city of Portland, Oregon last
UEFI and Fedora/RHEL – trivially working.
My older son just enrolled into my alma mater, Singapore Polytechnic, to do Electrical Engineering. It is really nice to
I know more than you do
I cannot help but continue to be baffled by the way the G responds to some of the continuing challenges
A blast from the past
I was searching for advertisements that I recalled seeing in the Linux Journal back in the mid 1990s that was
This is too cool!
[harish@phoenix ~]$ traceroute 216.81.59.173 traceroute to 216.81.59.173 (216.81.59.173), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 registerlafonera.fon.com (192.168.10.1) 2.473 ms 2.937
In a word, wow!
I am not sure if this is a report that contains stuff taken out of context, but if its true
Doing the right thing and a proposal
I am glad to read the the Prime Minister has decided to probe the sale the applications (built and paid
It’s not a contest per se, it’s a Sahana-moment!
So, my 3 am post from January 3rd 2013 is now on http://www.tremeritus.com, probably not a good thing, but then this is
Why Open Standards and Open Source Matters in Government
I have offered to the powers that be (TPTB) running the various Town Councils in Singapore an opportunity for the
My Conscience Is Bugging Me
I cannot let the media statement put out by the “Coordinating Chairman of the PAP Town Councils” regarding the sale
Software for Public Sector Applications
The ongoing egg-in-the-face of the PAP over the “tender” (thanks to Alex for posting it via an anonymous source) awarded to AIM
Open Source and Government
[11:05 am Dec 26th: updated to reflect some clarifications given to me via other walled-garden social media] The recent events
A helper note for family and friends about your connectivity to the Internet from July 9 2012
This is a note targeted at family and friends who might find that they are not able to connect to
And it’s live now – SCO Open Server 5.0.5 running in a RHEL 6 KVM
As promised earlier, the final bits of getting an application that runs on the old hardware on to the VM
Microsoft’s “open technology” spinoff
While I would like to stand up and cheer Microsoft on them setting up the “Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc”, I
Exposing localhost via a tunnel
I came across this tool, localtunnel, that offers a way to expose a localhost based webserver (for example) to the
What does it take?
I am an organizer of a programming contest that will be using some really cool technologies (HTML5, Python, OpenShift, just
The Value of being Heard and Consulted
Some of you would know that I am employed by a company called Red Hat since September 2003, it will
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 comes to the rescue of SCO Open Server in a VM!
After about two years ago to the day (plus or minus), I’ve finally gotten around to moving a friend’s ancient
Cool tech tip
Saw this on identi.ca feed: “@climagic youtube-dl -q -o- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zscrs94_pFc | mplayer – cache 1000 – # Watch youtube streaming directly to
OSCON 2011 – Tuesday July 26
Finally, I’ve found time and motivation to attend the O’Reilly organized Open Source Convention 2011 in Portland, Oregon. It has been
Change and Opportunity
Change and evolution are hallmarks of any open source project. Ideas form, code gets cut, repurposed, refined and released (and
Now all machines at home are on Fedora 15!
I spent 30 minutes this morning upgrading my sons’ laptops to Fedora 15. I used a Fedora 15 LiveDVD (installed
Printer/cups tip
Every time I update the OS on my laptops, I have to add the CUPS printer settings for the in
Early thoughts on GNOME 3
I must admit, the first time I installed Fedora 15 alpha, I did it only to test out what GNOME
My must-haves on any new Fedora installation
So, I’ve taken the plunge and gone ahead and updated my Fedora 14 to the next rev of Fedora 15.
Open Source Java all the way
I am really pleased to see that the IcedTea project doing so well that for all the sites that need
Is Vietnam blocking Facebook?
I am sitting at a lounge in Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport and connected to the wifi. Interestingly, I
It’s May 8th 2011 and it is a Brand New Singapore!
Good morning Singapore. Together we broke the back of the PAP with them being routed in the polls, with the
Wear A Rubber Band On Your Right Wrist As You Go To Vote
We have four days till Polling Day. Here’s what I would like to see happen. The BIGGEST challenge with the
Way before 2016 – The Open Party
I think Singapore will be a dramatically different place come the early morning of May 8th, 2011. The tsunami of
Managing open source skepticism
I had an opportunity to speak to a few people from a government tender drafting committee on Wednesday. They are
Glad to have participated in the Cloud Workshop in Penang
I am pleased to have spent two days at the National Cloud Computing Workshop 2011 held in Penang, Malaysia April 11-12
Cloud for Academics
I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak from both a Red Hat and an open source presective about
Believing in your own BS
I spend pretty much 100% of my waking hours in the IT world. A world that changes and evolves rapidly.
True Leadership and The Open Source Way
I live in the Free and Open Source World. A lot of what the FOSS movement’s ethos and principles are
NASA’s inaugural Open Source Summit
I missed the live streaming of the NASA OSS Summit but it is mostly all captured and available on ustream.tv.
Taking the higher ground
I am disappointed with the kinds of ad hominem attacks being made at the person from the PAP who is being
Interesting post from a non-techie moving to Fedora
A good friend of mine sent me a note about his friend’s experience in moving to a Fedora and Red
Data analysis sought
I’ve extracted the stats from the Singapore elections department‘s site and set up a tabulated voting results from the very
Unfiltered feed from Al Jazeera
If you are running Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can watch the raw feed from Al Jazeera using
The magic of brand loyalty
We are all slaves to perception. What you perceives essentially drives your actions. Yes, we can think through the issues
Virtualization and the Internet
I had the privilege of speaking to a great group of network operators as part of the South Asian Network
Temporary fix to StarHub’s illegal code injection
StarHub continues to do their illegal code injection into the return stream and here are four ways to you temporarily
This is what thought leadership is an example of!
I am pleased to see this note by Michael Tiemann, President of Open Source, Inc. As 2011 opens up, I
Was I fair?
I read with amusement some of the comments that people made with regards to the chat I had with the
Security breach of addons.mozilla.org
Thanks to Mozilla for this pro-active reporting of the security breach. If any of you reading this blog have an
Interesting to see me quoted
I was pleasantly pinged by someone who said that I was being quoted in an article saying: “The best moment for me
How to buy a Dell WITHOUT windows
I was asked by a friend to get a Fedora CD to her and her friend so that their children
National Convention for Academics and Researchers, Hyderabad, India
I had the distinct privilege of attending and speaking at the National Convention for Academics and Researchers 2010 in Hyderabad
FOSS.in Day 2 and feeling sick! Really sick!
Day two of the very last FOSS.in started a little late for me. I was developing a cold, a really
FOSS.in day 1 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 launch
FOSS.in in Bangalore (their Xth edition and allegedly their last), started off “in true FOSS.in style” – an hour late
Participate in this info-comm survey
I think this survey, being run by the Nanyang Technology University and the Singapore Computer Society could use responses from
This is so clever!
When something clever, it deserves pointing out. Google posted a video about their Chrome OS and that video had some
GPG Keysigning at FOSS.in 2010
I will be attending the FOSS.in event from December 15-17 in Bangalore, India. As part of the Fedora participation at
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 launch in Singapore
Red Hat is launching the next version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, version 6, on December 3rd 2010 in Singapore
Fedora 14 launched in Singapore
Fedora 14 was officially launched on November 29, 2010 at the Singapore Management University. The event was jointly held with
More twists and turns
News is coming in that Novell is being bought out by Attachmate for about US$2.2 billion along with Novell’s “intellectual
Reflections of a week of ISO/IEC JTC1 meeting in Belfast
Interesting meeting and great opportunity to meet with people who to me seem to be caught in a world that
Standards work
Not sure how the upcoming week will pan out, but I am definitely eager to learn what are the nuances
Being part of Community Architecture
It is time to tell the world that I have the distinct pleasure to become part of the Community Architecture