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Last updated October 13, 2018 By Avimanyu Bandyopadhyay Leave a Comment

Microsoft is currently extremely active in this era of Artificial Intelligence and has very recently open sourced its award-winning Infer.NET AI framework.

Microsoft’s ‘love’ for AI research is growing each day and at times it’s in the good direction. They have pledged $115 million for humanitarian related AI programs under its AI for Good initiative. Some of the AI for Good programs by Microsoft are AI for Humanitarian Action, AI for Accessibility and AI for Earth. Infer.NET is part of the program.

What is Infer.NET all about?

Infer.NET is a Machine Learning framework that can use a developer’s customized model to create a Machine Learning algorithm built around that model only. It uses Bayesian inference in graphical models and can also implement Probabilistic Programming.

This is in contrast to many learning models that require a separate learning algorithm that has already been developed previously.

Since the algorithm is completely based upon the model fed to the Infer.NET framework, interpretation and debugging becomes much easier as the developers can focus on their own individual models instead of a separate pre-existing learning algorithm.

The Model-based Machine Learning algorithm will evolve and work in only the way the developer has specifically designed the model.

You can learn more about Model-based Machine Learning from this free eBook from the developers.

Infer.NET has been in development since 2004 via Microsoft’s research centre in Cambridge, UK. It was released for academic use in 2008 and finally went Open Source on October 5, 2018.

Applications include but are not limited to:

• Information retrieval
• Bioinformatics
• Epidemiology
• Vision

Till now there have been hundreds of research applications of Infer.NET. Some of the following research applications can be used as examples to understand it better and its significance now as FOSS:

Three notable research initiatives through Infer.NET

• Trajectories of Lung Function During Childhood
• Bridging Medical Data Inference to Achilles Tendon Rupture Rehabilitation
• How do disturbances and environmental heterogeneity affect the pace of forest distribution shifts under climate change?

The above three papers make it clear as to why the framework, now being Open Source, is a Positive Step towards Humanity.

Infer.NET is available on GitHub and also as NuGet packages.

Do you like Microsoft’s new initiative? Are you interested in Machine Learning? Share your thoughts with us on the comments below.

About Avimanyu Bandyopadhyay

Avimanyu is a Doctoral Researcher on GPU-based Bioinformatics and a big-time Linux fan. He strongly believes in the significance of Linux and FOSS in Scientific Research. Deep Learning with GPUs is his new excitement! He is a very passionate video gamer (his other side) and loves playing games on Linux, Windows and PS4 while wishing that all Windows/Xbox One/PS4 exclusive games get support on Linux some day! Both his research and PC gaming are powered by his own home-built computer. He is also a former Ubisoft Star Player (2016) and mostly goes by the tag “avimanyu786” on web indexes.

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Oct 16, 2018, 08:00 (0 Talkback[s])

(Other stories by Karim Buzdar)

The Webmin console is your answer to on-the-fly management of Linux as an administrator. You can use any web browser to setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing, and much more. In this article, we will describe a step-by-step installation of Webmin on your Ubuntu system.

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Samba Configuration with Webmin(Apr 21, 2010)
• Ten Essential Linux Admin Tools(Sep 28, 2010)
• What to Look for in Open Source Systems Management Products(Aug 19, 2010)
• Ubuntu 12:04 with Webmin: Bootup and Shutdown Module(Aug 23, 2012)

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KDE Plasma (formerly K Desktop Environment and KDE Software Compilation and KDE Plasma Workspace and Applications) is an open source project comprised of numerous packages, libraries and applications designed to provide a modern graphical desktop environment for Linux and UNIX-like workstations.

A beautiful, modern and traditional desktop environment

It combines ease-of-use, superior graphical design and powerful functionality with the unique features and architecture of the Linux operating system. It’s comprised of the KDE Plasma Workspaces and KDE Applications components.

Additionally, it contains extra add-on for the panel and desktop, a download manager, an instant messenger, an addressbook, a document viewer, a multimedia layer called Phonon (similar to GStreamer on GNOME), and accessibility functionality, such as a powerful text-to-speech system.

Numerous GNU/Linux distributions use KDE

Numerous modern Linux distributions are built around the KDE desktop environment, either using it as their main computing environment or as an alternate one. Just like in the GNOME desktop environment, KDE tries to keep the same look and feel across all of its default applications. The entire KDE project is written with the Qt toolkit.

Under the hood

Under the hood, the KDE Plasma project is comprised of many core libraries that form KDE Frameworks and are required by all applications, various runtime components that ensure the proper functionality of the included apps, the applications, and the actual user environment.

Comes pre-loaded with apps for daily tasks

Users will find at least one application for each common task, including emailing, web browsing, news reading, painting, image viewing, video and music playback, and many more.

It also includes a collection of basic utilities, such as a calculator or archive manager, various scientific and educational applications, packages that contain extra themes, icons, wallpapers, window decorations and screensavers, some system administration tools, bindings for well known programming languages, and many games.

Bottom line

It is one of the first and best desktop environments for Linux distributions. During the last couple of years, KDE proved to be a very mature, reliable and stable project, backed by a talented community.

KDE dekstop Desktop environment Window manager KDE Dekstop Environment WM

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Over the past week, around 200,000 systems are believed to have been hacked by wannacry ransomware. Let’s start with some background first, and then move into the details-

Trojans

Before you know what Ransomeware is, it’s important to know what trojans are. We can broadly classify malicious computer programs into 2 categories-

1. Spread wildly and attack destructively
2. Spread surgically and attack covertly

The first category comprises the typical viruses that infect your computers, get inside your USB, copy themselves to every avenue they can. They slow down your computer, limit it’s functionality, and in general, make a lot of changes that make them easy to detect. These, in general, serve no particular useful purpose for the writer of the malicious code, other than perhaps giving them the lulz or maybe some sense of accomplishment. Also, once spread, there is very limited amount (or none at all) amount of control that the writer of the malicious code has on it’s actions.

The second ones are the precisely crafted viruses called trojans. These hide behind legitimate files, spread only through very few avenues as seen fit by their programmer. Let me make this point a bit clearer-

1. Most viruses would copy themselves to all devices attached to the infected system, try to spread via the network, internet etc. from the infected system.
2. Trojans will not automatically copy themselves. They will stay hidden and inactive.

As with everything else, the means of spread of trojan is also precise. The malicious code writer will hide them behind a legitimate file, and then spread this file using social networks, spam mails, etc. This way, only those computers will get infected that the attacker wants to infect.

What are some examples of trojans-

1. Remote Administration Tools (RATs) – These are trojans which, when installed on the system, silently position themselves in such a way that they allow the attacker to control the system remotely. This means that the attacker can browser all your files, read all your data, see what you’re typing (hence get all your accounts and passwords), get a live feed of your screen, and access your webcam. As you can clearly see, as opposed to other viruses, trojans have specific use for the malicious author. He now controls the infected computer.
2. Botnet – This is a special use of a freely spreading trojan whose purpose is to infect as many computers as possible with a RAT like functionality but less control on who gets infected. This reduced control and increase rate of spreading is important because of the purpose of a botnet. Botnet is basically a large network of infected computers which the attacker uses to do his bidding. They are often used to carry out DDOS attacks. Suppose the trojan spread to 1000 computers (a very small number, there are HUGE botnets out there). The attacker can then use these 1000 computers to simultaneously attack websites and take them down. Another use for botnets is bitcoin mining.

Recently, a new use for trojans has been seen-

Ransomware

If you have been paying attention so far, you’ll notice that once infected by a trojan, a computer’s files are under control of the attacker. That means he can easily say- “Give me money or I’ll delete all your files”. Unfortunately for the attacker, once the victim sees this message, the trojan is no longer covert. The victim may install an antivirus, backup his important data to the cloud/ external storage media/ USB, etc.

So, the attacker needs to do something which is equivalent to deleting, but reversible. Also, the reverse procedure should require the consent of the attacker. There is one solution – Encryption. If you know what encryption is, then you should see by now what’s up. Otherwise, here’s a simpler explanation (though not entirely accurate)-

What the attacker can do is similar to what happens when you find a compressed archive with a password. If you know the password, you can uncompress the archive, otherwise not. So, the attacker will take all files except the System files (without which your computer won’t work), put them into a compressed archive with a secure password, and then delete the uncompressed files.

Once he’s done with compressing (encrypting really) everything, he’ll inform you about what just happened, and tell you to pay him a certain amount in bitcoins in exchange for the password of the compressed archive (i.e. the decryption key). If you don’t pay up, he will delete the compressed archive and your data will be lost forever. Even if you manage to remove the ransomware after it announces it’s presence, it’s a bit too late. You avert the possibility of data deletion but that doesn’t mean that you can now get your data back. You still don’t know the decryption key, and unless there’s a cryptographic flaw/weakness in the encryption scheme used by the attacker (basically weak password is used), it’s almost impossible to find the key and decrypt the data.

What’s special about WannaCry?

So while there have been ransomware around for quite some time, this one has spread to epic proportions. Why?

NSA, Shadow Brokers and EternalBlue

The credit for this goes to NSA for discovering the EternalBlue exploit and Shadow Brokers for releasing it to the public. I won’t delve into further details of this, but EternalBlue exploit can hack any Windows machine which didn’t have the patch for it. What does that mean?

The standard Windows security update on 14 March 2017 resolved the issue via security update MS17-010, for all currently supported Windows versions.

“The issue” referring to the vulnerability. However, many systems have automatic updates disabled and didn’t have the patch. All these machines were vulnerable to this attack. Considering how often people end up disabling automatic updates (because they’re annoying), you can imagine the scale of the EternalBlue exploit. This is the reason why this particular ransomware was able to spread so quickly.

WannaCry

At this point, you already have enough background necessary to understand what WannaCry is, on your own. You know it’s a ransomware, and you know it uses EternalBlue to infect computers. The details can be seen n the pic below-

1. Files have been encrypted
2. You need to pay $300 via bitcoin
3. If you don’t pay within 3 days, you need to pay $600
4. If you don’t pay in a week, all files will be deleted permanently.

This is it for this article.

Suggested reading :

https://www.malwaretech.com/2017/05/how-to-accidentally-stop-a-global-cyber-attacks.html

– This guy slowed down the spread of the ransomware by registering a domain which he felt was suspiciously present in the source code. His diligence saved people a lot of money and hassle. (Oversimplified summary, please read post for more accurate analysis)

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Nine to five may be the hours you spend in your office (if you’re lucky), but it no longer describes a business workday. That’s because today’s organizations don’t close at night. Applications that power actions as diverse and common as mobile banking, ride sharing, flight booking, online shopping and invoice inquiries can’t shut down at 5 p.m. That means application downtime—whether planned or unplanned—can cost your organization money, time and resources. When it comes to ensuring a good customer experience, then, and maintaining the health of your business, application downtime is the enemy.

Unfortunately, at first glance, solving issues of application downtime can be daunting. Applications rely on so many moving parts, from server hardware to networking components to software services. Yelling at an application vendor won’t help. But working with SUSE probably can. That’s because SUSE provides the foundation of enterprise infrastructure. Solving issues of application downtime is just part of what it takes to become a nonstop IT shop, a goal we’re helping organizations with every day.

You can’t address application downtime without looking at your infrastructure holistically. Traditionally, different pieces of hardware (servers, switches, disk arrays, etc.) have limited what your infrastructure can do. These pieces have always been connected, but they had to be managed individually, which has never given IT departments the control they want. Today, more and more functionality is happening in the software. This software-defined infrastructure (SDI) approach acknowledges the connections in your data centers—and gives you the tools to manage them.

At SUSE, we believe that a move to SDI can best help organizations tackle the availability and access demands they face today. We’ve long believed that making software more reliable, flexible and easier to manage makes it better at supporting the applications that run your business. Our SDI solutions enable IT to drive innovation with greater agility, easier automation and reduced costs. They offer flexibility and efficiency so you can improve time to market while ensuring service availability. All so that customers and employees can access applications any time they need them.

One of the pieces of our software-defined infrastructure approach is SUSE® Linux Enterprise Live Patching. It allows you to apply critical kernel patches without interrupting the operating system for even a second. In the world of application availability, that’s huge. You can keep your operating system up to date for security purposes without interrupting the apps you rely on.

Just as important is ensuring that your servers are arranged in resilient clusters to help ensure availability. SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension and Geo Clustering for SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension can do just that. By building server clusters with automated failover, you create a rock-solid foundation for your applications, so a small issue in one server is unnoticed by your apps or the people who rely on them. By linking those clusters across long distances using rules-based failovers, you further insulate yourself from regional disasters and other issues. Ciclum Farma, the Portuguese drug manufacturer, achieved 100 percent uptime for its mission-critical SAP solutions using the SUSE high-availability tool.

Your customers and employees are out there relying on your services day in and day out. Your applications must be available to them. Luckily, with a software-defined infrastructure approach powered by SUSE, you can build a solid foundation for all the moving parts that keep applications available. And that reliability means that even though your apps can’t work only a 9 to 5, maybe your IT team can.

Check out SUSE’s solutions for Business Critical computing @ https://www.suse.com/programs/business-critical/ .

Jeff.Reser@suse.com

@JeffReserNC

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Nearly a year ago, Casey Stegman and I wrote a short blog on how we had (big) plans to “change up our marketing approach”… and how it might involve comic books. We also shared our new marketing mantra: Listen. Learn. Build. Well, I have some great news. We listened, we learned, we built—and today I’d like to share.

Listening

In the latter half of 2017 we took our show on the road. After that fateful encounter in Austin—where we learned that some developers just want the operating system to “get out of the way”—we knew there was an ocean of knowledge and experiences to learn from. From Cape Cod (Flock 2017) to Prague (Open Source Summit Europe 2017) to Las Vegas (AWS re:Invent 2017) to San Francisco (Red Hat Summit 2018), we spoke with literally hundreds of passionate problem solvers. We also had a blast discovering people’s various superpowers and illustrating them as the (command line) heroes / heroines that they are. Some folks you may recognize:

Learning

From these interviews we learned a lot about the challenges that developers, admins, and architects are facing. We learned that while many people are struggling with technical challenges, from embracing containers and re-architecting for hybrid cloud, others are facing equally impressive turbulence as they adopt agile development practices and DevOps workflows. Fun fact here: We also learned a lot about our heroes / heroines “origin stories.” While many got their start via some form of video game (Colossal Cave Adventure anyone?) others were given early access to various bits of hardware (think: “my father brought home this crazy machine”) and began their journey from there.

Building

What did we do with all of this newfound knowledge and information? We built. Specifically, a podcast, called Command Line Heroes, which we debuted earlier this year. It’s a podcast about the people who transform technology from the command line up. We found a successful formula by taking the stories we heard, digging into some additional research, and diving deep into everything from

• The OS wars of the 90s / 00s,
• The agile revolution,
• How DevOps got its start,
• The rise of kubernetes,
• The state of hybrid cloud, and
• The future of open source.

If you’ve been living in a (colossal) cave and have yet to subscribe to the podcast, it’s not too late! Command Line Heroes is available wherever you download / access podcasts today.

We’re not done!

More good news? We’re not done. As the fall event season approaches here in North America we plan to get back on the road. In August we’ll be in Boston at DevConf.us and then north of the border for Open Source Summit North America 2018. If you have plans to attend either event, find us—we’d love to hear more about your story.

But if you’re not traveling, here’s another way you can help us listen, learn, and build. We’ve designed a showdown of sorts. In fact, it’s a Command Line Showdown.

As we ramp up towards celebrating System Administrator Appreciation Day on Friday, July 27th, we’re going to pit various commands against each other and allow y’all to help us find “the most useful Linux command.” Quick note: The set of commands we chose was sourced from conversations with you at some of the aforementioned events. Of course, we couldn’t include them all, but if this takes off we can definitely look to a future with more polls, more commands, and bigger showdowns.

So get voting! But also don’t be shy (we know you won’t be) about giving us your feedback.

One final note. We’re hard at work on a season 2 of Command Line Heroes. And if you’d love to influence its direction, but can’t come to any of the events we’re attending, vote in “the showdown” or email us your thoughts (commandlineheroes@redhat.com). If all else fails, subscribe to the podcast and stay tuned for more news soon.

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Finally after several years of waiting, PlayOnLinux developers released the first Alpha version of PlayOnLinux 5

https://www.playonlinux.com/en/comments-1354.html
Installers:

https://repository.playonlinux.com/PlayOnLinux/5.0.0-alpha1
Unfortunately they are scripting games from scratch, which means there are currently 135 supported Games/Installers (scripts)

Report bugs here:

https://github.com/PhoenicisOrg/phoenicis/issues
They changed the names of the tabs so now we have:

• Library
• Apps
• Containers
• Engines
• Installations
• Settings

Library Tab
Is kind of confusing, specially with no games installed. It must be where the shortcuts will reside once you install something?

Apps Tab
This is where you can search their repository of scripted installers… or Games. Similar to clicking Install in POL4

Containers Tab
Shows you all of your wineprefixes and allows you to modify them like with Configure in POL4

They removed the “run a shell command line” in the virtual drive which prevents installing winetricks and ability to install other dependencies like:

• vcrun2015
• dotnet 4.5 or 4.6

Engine Tab
Where you can choose a version of Wine to install. The only reason you would want to do this is to test the script installed game with another version of Wine. I would think the script would be updated to newer versions as game/client updates break the script…

Installations Tab
Appears to show current script installations that are in progress. I’m guessing it will be blank when all of your games are done installing.

Settings Tab
Allows you to change graphical settings in Phoenicis and Network, Repository, File Association settings. Not all features are available yet.

I tried installing Dark Forces and there was very little feedback that anything was happening. After about 2 minutes the Steam installation began.

There was a Steam error and after clicking “OK” nothing happened. There was a pending installation in the Installations Tab, but my only option was to “cancel”
Then it disappeared.

Side Note:

• No manual installation to test your non-listed programs
• Most of the GUI is just like PlayOnLinux 4 wrapped in new Java graphics.
• All of the icons are re-used from PlayOnLinux 4
• I don’t see a debug option anywhere
• I don’t see any arguments for additional commands to run in the game console
• No Components installations for manual testing of non-listed programs
• No way to switch Wine versions on a Container (Installed Virtual Drive)

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Roam the cities of the future and take out criminals as a Mercenary of the Law. Take contracts for the police and upgrade your weapons & vehicle to eliminate growing threat of gangsters. Explore huge cities of skyscrapers and roam freely among busy public traffic.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Crime Cities in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Retail version of Crime Cities. Other versions may require additional steps.Tips & Specs:
To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 18.3 64-bit

PlayOnLinux: 4.2.12
Wine: 3.0

Wine Installation
Click Tools

Select “Manage Wine Versions”

Look for the Wine Version: 3.0

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 3.0 is installed and you can close this window

Copy Disk Data
Create a new folder on your Desktop

Enter Disk 1
Copy all the data from Disk 1 to the new folder
Eject Disk 1 (right-click icon on Desktop, slect eject)
Enter Disk 2
Copy all data to new folder

!IMPORTANT!
Leave Disk 2 in the drive

PlayOnLinux Setup
Launch PlayOnLinux

Click Install

Click “Install a non-listed program”

Select “Install a program in a new virtual drive”

Click Next

Name the virtual drive: crimecities

Click Next

Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next

Select Wine 3.0

Click Next

Select “32 bits windows installation”

Click Next

Wine ConfigurationApplications Tab
Windows version: Windows XP

Click apply

Graphics Tab
Check “Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows”

Click OK

PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next

Note: All packages should automatically download and install
Click “Select another file”

Click Next

Click Browse

Navigate to the new folder on your Desktop

Select “Setup.exe”
Click Open

Click Next again…

Click Next

Check “I Agree”

Click Next

Click Next

Click Next to install

• Uncheck “Create Desktop Shortcut”
• Uncheck “View the readme.txt file”
• Check “Install Intel Indeo(r) 5.0 (required for movies)
• Uncheck “Install DirectX 9.0

Click Finish

Click No

Click Next

Note: Indeo installation might crash or error, but it still installs
Click Exit

PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Select “CrimeCities.exe”

Click Next

Name the shortcut: Crime Cities

Click Next

Check “I don’t want to make another shortcut”

Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure
Back to PlayOnLinux

Select “Crime Cities”
Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 3.0

Note: Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine. Click the + to download other versions of WineDisplay Tab
Video memory size: enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses

CD Audio Hack
Before we launch Crime Cities we need to remove the CD audio bug

Otherwise the game with hang at loading the first level

Nagivate to Crime Cities install folder

Full Path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/crimecities/drive_c/Program Files/Strategy First/ Crime Cities/Scripts/
Rename cd.scr
to cd.scr-old

Launch Crime Cities
Back to PlayOnLinux

Select “Crime Cities”
Click Run

Note: Click Debug to see errors
Launcher

Select Video Tab

Adjust:

• Resolution
• Windowed Mode
• Visibility range
• Disable Fog
• Disable Extra Flares
• Texture Quality
• Low Video Quality
• Use Texture Compression If Available

Click Start

Conclusion:
After I figured out how to avoid the CD Audio crash Crime Cities ran perfectly. It a very old game and should run great on just about any laptop or netbook. Unfortunately if you do not have a DVD ROM drive, you won’t be able to play it, but you can always purchase Crime Cities on GOG.com

I was surprised that Crime Cities supported 1920×1080 resolution. That is impressive for an old game.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:

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