SBB odbija da pomogne svojim korisnicima
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Belgrade, Misc, Personal, Thoughts, internet
Još uvek sam na SBB-ovim prepaid flat paketima, i nakon ovoga što je danas bilo definitivno moram da pređem na postpaid sistem plaćanja (pošto mi se sigurno ne prelazi na Telekom).
Uglavnom se potrefi da zadnji dan trajanja paketa odem i uplatim sledeći paket. Danas nisam mogao da obavim to u toku dana, pa sam predveče zvao korisnički servis da proverim do kada rade. Ljubazna Nikoleta me je obavestila da korisnički centar u Kralja Petra danas radi do 18h. Pretpostavljam da je zbog protesta. I mnogo je glupo ako su zbog toga skratili radno vreme. Kako je tad već prošlo 18h pitao sam da li je moguće na neki drugi način rešiti problem, pošto mi je potreban Internet. Dobio sam odgovor da korisnički centar u Ustaničkoj danas radi do 20h. Kako je lepo od njh što su se potrudili da neki drugi korisnički centar radi puno radno vreme. Možda ipak misle o svojim korisnicima?
Pošto su roditelji išli do grada, onda su oni svratili do Ustaničke 65. Negde posle 20h sam pogledao da li ima novi uplaćen paket i začudio se kad sam video da nema. Zvao sam ih na mobilni i saznao da je i taj centar radio do 18h. Oh, sreće i radosti…
Pošto pre nisam zapazio obaveštenje o skraćenom radnom vremenu ni na sajtu, ni na forumu SBB-a, otišao sam još jednom da vidim da ga nisam nekako prevideo. I zaista ga nema. Zovem opet korisničku podršku, da vidim da li bi mogli da mi učine i da produže paket za jedno veče, pošto već nije bilo obaveštenja i delimično su krivi što danas nisam mogao da uplatim. Na to dobijam odgovor od Marka (ako se tako zvao) da je bilo obaveštenje. Na moje pitanje gde, dobijam odgovor … “Na vratima.” Samo tako, hladno, najnormalnije. Kao da ne živimo u 21. veku, kao da nemaju sajt i forum… Na vratima?! Da li treba svaki dan da idem redom od jednog do drugog uplatnog mesta da bih video obaveštenje? Što nisu mogli na neki pristupačniji način da distribuiraju to? I tako, na još jedno pitanje da li je moguće produžiti Internet za jedan dan, dobijam odgovor da mogu ujutru da uplatim ako hoću…
Eh, Srbijo… Da sam u nekoj razvijenijoj zemlji… prvo se ne bih cimao do korisničkog centra da uplatim. Drugo, bilo bi malo verovatno da zbog protesta skrate radno vreme. Čak i da skrate, verujem da bi bilo obaveštenje na nekom logičnijem mestu, poput njihovog sajta (ili im ta napredna tehnologija služi da reklamiraju “uživajte uz 50 kanala, i Internetu brzine čak 2Mbps od 350 din!”… uz “sitne uslove”). I postoje primeri gde firme izlaze u susret korisnicima i prave ovakve ustupke da bi korisnik bio zadovoljan. Ali ne u Srbiji. Malo ko će to ovde da uradi.
I šta sad mogu da uradim? Ništa, sem da probam da izrazim svoje nezadovoljstvo na ovaj način… I da se nadam da će se situacija ovde nekad promeniti.
Tags: internet, kablovski internet, korisnička služba, kritika, monopol, nesposobnost, problem, rant, review, sbb, serbia broadband, srbija
RATEL’s case on Global Voices
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Uncategorized
Danica Radovanović, web activist, researcher, PhD student in digital communications and Global Voices’ columnist for SE Europe, wrote an article for Harvard’s Global Voices. She tries to present both negative and positive sides of recent RATEL’s instructions on how to redirect and intercept Internet traffic for Internet Service Provider. She also summarizes the yesterday’s reaction of Serbian blogosphere on the published document. It might be an interesting read.
Misli o RATEL-u, Uputstvu, Zakonu i Ustavu…
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Freedom, Privacy, Security, Thoughts, internet
Dakle, jutros je okačeno famozno Uputstvo, za koje je čuo ceo domaći Internet. Nakon razgovora sa Danicom o ovoj temi, delova Ustava i Zakona o telekomunikacijama, koje sam pročitao na Svakodnevnici i SSpin-ovog komentara na istom postu, malo sam razmišljao o svemu ovome. Ustav je najviši državni akt, i svi Zakoni, Odredbe i ostale stvari treba da budu u skladu sa njim. Daleko sam od pravnika, ali da pokušam da izlažim meni logično obrazloženje. Član 41. i 42. Ustava kažu:
Tajnost pisama i drugih sredstava opštenja
Član 41.
Tajnost pisama i drugih sredstava komuniciranja je nepovrediva.
Odstupanja su dozvoljena samo na određeno vreme i na osnovu odluke suda, ako su neophodna radi vođenja krivičnog postupka ili zaštite bezbednosti Republike Srbije, na način predviđen zakonom.Zaštita podataka o ličnosti
Član 42.Zajemčena je zaštita podataka o ličnosti.
Prikupljanje, držanje, obrada i korišćenje podataka o ličnosti uređuju se zakonom.
Zabranjena je i kažnjiva upotreba podataka o ličnosti izvan svrhe za koju su prikupljeni, u skladu sa zakonom, osim za potrebe vođenja krivičnog postupka ili zaštite bezbednosti Republike Srbije, na način predviđen zakonom.
Svako ima pravo da bude obavešten o prikupljenim podacima o svojoj ličnosti, u skladu sa zakonom, i pravo na sudsku zaštitu zbog njihove zloupotrebe.
Dakle, Ustav definiše kada sme da se odstupi od navedenih članova.
Član 55. Zakona o telekomunikacijama, na koji se poziva Uputstvo, kaže:
Javni telekomunikacioni operator je dužan da kao deo sistema, o sopstvenom trošku, oformi podsisteme, uređaje, opremu i instalacije za zakonom ovlašćeni elektronski nadzor određenih telekomunikacija.
Njime se poručuje da je potrebno da operater omogući nadzor korisnika.
Uputstvo, koje se poziva na član 55. Zakona o telekomunikacijama, a trebalo bi da je u skladu sa Ustavom, samo definiše kako se sprovodi elektronski nadzor. I kaže ovo:
Javni telekomunikacioni operator obavezuje se da na zahtev nadležnog državnog organa dostavi podatke o svim komunikacionim sredstvima koja su se pojavljivala na određenoj geografskoj, fizičkoj ili logičkoj lokaciji u minimalnom periodu od poslednjih 48 časova, nezavisno od postojanja telekomunikacione aktivnosti.
Pružalac Internet usluga je dužan da nadležnim državnim organima omogući pristup ažurnoj bazi podataka o pretplatnicima i periodično na zahtev dostavlja eksportovanu bazu podataka u formatu dogovorenom sa nadležnim državnim organima.
Spominje se da na zahtev mora da se omogući pristup podacima. Ima delova gde to nije eksplicitno navedeno, što je možda loše. Ali, ako se Uputstvo oslanja na Ustav, onda bi trebalo da je zabranjen pristup informacijama bez zahteva suda, ili kad nije ugrožena bezbednost Republike Srbije.
To jest, Uputstvom se dozvoljava neograničen pristup informacijama, ali se taj pristup Ustavom i Zakonom o telekomunikacijama ograničava na specijalne slučajeve. Na primer, ako se počini krivično delo 1. januara, a zahtev suda se izda 1. februara, onda bi provajder dostavio traženu komunikaciju od 1. januara do određenog datuma. Moguće je da zato moraju da prate sve podatke. Tako nešto mi deluje razumno.
Voleo bih ako bi ovo pročitao neki pravnik, koji bi mogao da da svoje tumačenje. Možda je ovo tačno, a možda je i samo moj pokušaj samoubeđivanja da je sve u redu…
U svakom slučaju, zdrava doza paranoje nije na odmet ;). Enkriptujte vaše poruke, razgovore preko IM-ova, i tako te stvari… Čisto radi vaše sigurnosti.
Tags: internet, nadzor, privatnost, ratel, sigurnost, telekomunikacije, uputstvo, ustav, zakon
RATEL’s new law and our privacy
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Freedom, Privacy, Security, internet
Serbia’s Republic Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL), published the instructions (text in Serbian) on Internet traffic interception and redirection. Basically, it allows Serbian government to read each and every bit of our communication, including HTTP, VoIP, e-mail and IM protocol. It’s not that I have something to hide, it’s just that it’s serious violation of my privacy. And I don’t really like that.
Update: I think I overreacted a bit in my comment. This legal act is not supposed to talk about violation of privacy. Violation of privacy is forbidden by the Serbian Telecommunication law, and Serbian Constitution. The whole purpose of this legal act, as I see it, is to amend element 55. of Telecommunication law.
Another comment can be found here (in Serbian).
Since we can’t change the law immediately, the least we can do is to protect our privacy. We can use encryption methods to encrypt our communication. Here are few advices:
There are web servers that support HTTPS protocol. If you start with HTTP, your browser won’t transfer to HTTPS if it’s possible. So, I advise you to try HTTPS, maybe destination server has support for it. For example, most people will type in facebook.com, which will take them to www.facebook.com, using HTTP. Instead, try typing in https://www.facebook.com. If you’re using Firefox, you’ll notice that the icon next to the address bar is blue. If you click on it, it will inform you that your connection is secured. It should be harder to eavesdrop your connection with www.facebook.com, since it needs to be decrypted first.
Encrypt your e-mails
System of GPG public and secret keys enables to encrypt and decrypt content you need to securely pass to another person. It is possible to use it with e-mails. You need to install GPG software, set it up and generate you public/secret key pair. Then you need to install Enigmail extension if you’re using Thunderbird, or FireGPG if you’re using Gmail’s web interface. For Outlook, GPGol module should work.
Setting up Thunderbird and Enigmail
How to install GPG, and generate public/secret key pair on Linux can be found here. After that is finished, download and install Enigmail. How to install GPG, generate public/secret keypair and install Enigmail on Windows can be found here.
Setting up FireGPG in Gmail.
Just follow the instructions provided on FireGPG download page.
Setting up Outlook
Follow the instructions provided here. It should work with GPGol module, but I can’t test it. I don’t have Windows, nor Outlook.
Encrypt your IM conversations
Update: A list of IM clients that support OTR messaging can be found in Wikipedia’s article about OTR. If you don’t have or don’t like pidgin, you’re free to use something else.
Pidgin, a cross-platform, multi-protocol instant messenger client, has the capability of encryption of instant messages, using Off-the-Record plugin. If you still don’t use Pidgin, I would advise you to install it.
If you’re using Linux, I’m sure you can install it through your package manager. For Debian-based systems, search for pidgin package. Also, OTR plugin is available in pidgin-otr package in Ubuntu gutsy and later, and in Debian testing and unstable.
If you’re using Windows, download the installer from here. It’s easy to setup OTR after, and the instructions can be found here.
After you installed Pidgin, start it and go to Tools -> Extensions. Locate Off-the-Record plugin and enable it. Click on configure button. For each account in the list click Generate, and select Enable private messaging and Automatically initiate private messaging.
Note to some of my friends that use MSN: What do you care more about: your privacy, or animated smilies ;)?
At the end…
This short tutorial doesn’t cover all protocols… If you know something more, please post a comment and I’ll put it in this post. Thanks.
If you have any questions, post them in the comments, and I (or someone else) will try to answer them.
Tags: decryption, e-mail, encryption, gpg, how to, howto, http, https, im, interception, internet, Privacy, ratel, redirection, Security, traffic, web
Adapting Joomla database to UTF8
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Programming, SQL, internet
Few days ago I was searching for an easy way to adapt MySQL database used by Joomla from latin1 to UTF8 character set. I haven’t found anything, so I wrote this little script.
It’s easy to make a database which uses UTF8 character set when you’re installing Joomla by hand. Though, sometimes your hosting provider doesn’t give you the right to create new databases, so the only way is to install it using some software (cPanel, for example). It will usually set DB to use latin1 encoding. So, after it’s installed we have to modify database and its tables using SQL. This script should do the job, at least for Joomla 1.5, since it’s modifying tables used in Joomla 1.5.
Update: I’m not sure, but altering table jos_users seems to break the passwords. I think you can safely skip it…
ALTER DATABASE CHARACTER SET `utf8` COLLATE `utf8_general_ci`;
ALTER TABLE jos_banner CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_bannerclient CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_bannertrack CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_categories CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_components CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_contact_details CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_content CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_content_frontpage CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_content_rating CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_acl_aro CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_acl_aro_groups CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_acl_aro_map CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_acl_aro_sections CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_acl_groups_aro_map CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_log_items CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_core_log_searches CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_groups CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_menu CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_menu_types CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_messages CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_messages_cfg CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_migration_backlinks CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_modules CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_modules_menu CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_newsfeeds CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_plugins CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_poll_data CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_poll_date CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_poll_menu CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_polls CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_sections CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_session CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_stats_agents CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_templates_menu CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_users CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
ALTER TABLE jos_weblinks CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET `utf8`;
This script assumes that the prefix of your tables is “jos_”. In case it’s not, just change it in the script. This script can also be applied to any other database. Just open it, and use the names of your tables, instead of these.
In case there is an easier way, I would be thankful if it gets posted in the comments.
Little disclaimer: I’m in no way responsible if something goes wrong. Be careful when you start doing this.
Tags: internet, joomla, latin1, mysql, Programming, SQL, tables, utf8
Sending e-mails…
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Uncategorized
This might be well-known, but it wasn’t to me…
They say you learn either on other’s or your own mistakes. I had to send 20-30 e-mails using business e-mail address. I have configured that e-mail in my primary Gmail account, so I can send them from there. I thought it’s secure, and that it really shows as if you’re sending from some other address. But I was wrong.
One reply I received quoted my mail and had this:
From: my@primary.email On Behalf Of my@business.email
After further testing, I have found out that there are two headers in the e-mail message sent the way I did. One is From field, which contains the address that appears when e-mail is presented to the receiver. But there is the Sender field, which shows the actual address that is used to send the e-mail. It is easily accessible. If you’re using Thunderbird, just press Ctrl+U to see the source of the message, and there will be those two fields.
I suppose this is done in order to prevent spam and fake e-mails, but I felt a bit unpleasant when I found that out. Like all of other contacts now know my private e-mail address… Oh, well. Life goes on, and I have learned something new.
