Ubuntu Linux, OpenSSH security update and /dev/null

After doing my security update for OpenSSH on my Ubuntu, I found out my /dev/null turned to be an ordinary ASCII file. If you encounter the same problem the fix is simple, just re-create /dev/null to because a character device again.

$ sudo rm /dev/null
$ sudo mknod /dev/null c 1 3
$ sudo chmod 0600 /dev/null

First Attempt to Blog with ScribeFire

This is my first attempt to blog with ScribeFire, a Firefox add-on which helps to post blog.

The extension is pretty impressive. The UI is very intuitive, simple and easy to use, even for newbie.

Permasalahan Maslahat

Imam Abu Ishak As-Syatibi (790 H), pakar ilmu maqasid Islam silam meletakkan panduan dan syarat berikut jika ingin mendakwa sesuatu itu sebagai maslahat:-

1. Mestilah tidak hanya memandang maslahat duniawi sahaja, bahkan mesti meneliti maslahat ukhrawi juga.
2. Maslahat hanya diterima pakai dalam hal kebaikan untuk Deenul Islam.
3. Maslahat untuk menjaga hak ramai didahulukan dari menjaga hak sekelompok.
4. Maslahat mestilah bersandarkan dalil-dalil yang jelas.

Python: Gregorian date to Hijri date conversion and vice versa

Ported from Javascript. Credit goes to the original author of the Javascript (the script is quite widespread but I've never seen those using the script write the proper credit). Below is the code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import math

def intPart(floatNum):
    if floatNum < -0.0000001: return math.ceil(floatNum - 0.0000001)
    return math.floor(floatNum + 0.0000001)

def Gregorian2Hijri(yr, mth, day):
    if ((yr > 1582) or ((yr == 1582) and (mth > 10)) or \
        ((yr == 1582) and (mth == 10) and (day > 14))):
       jd1 = intPart((1461 * (yr + 4800 + \
                          intPart((mth - 14) / 12.0))) / 4)
       jd2 = intPart((367 * (mth - 2 - 12 * \
                         (intPart((mth - 14) / 12.0)))) / 12)
       jd3 = intPart((3 * (intPart((yr + 4900 + \
                          intPart((mth - 14) / 12.0)) / 100))) / 4)
       jd = jd1 + jd2 - jd3 + day - 32075
    else:
       jd1 = intPart((7 * (yr + 5001 + \
                          intPart((mth - 9) / 7.0))) / 4)
       jd2 = intPart((275 * mth) / 9.0)
       jd = 367 * yr - jd1 + jd2 + day + 1729777

    l = jd - 1948440 + 10632
    n = intPart((l - 1) /10631.0)
    l = l - 10631 * n + 354
    j1 = (intPart((10985 - l) / 5316.0)) * (intPart((50 * l) / 17719.0))
    j2 = (intPart(l / 5670.0)) * (intPart((43 * l) / 15238.0))
    j = j1 + j2
    l1 = (intPart((30 - j) / 15.0)) * (intPart((17719 * j) / 50.0))
    l2 = (intPart(j / 16.0)) * (intPart((15238 * j) / 43.0))
    l = l - l1 - l2 + 29
    m = intPart((24 * l) / 709.0)
    d = l - intPart((709 * m) / 24.0)
    y = 30 * n + j - 30

    return y, m, d

def Hijri2Gregorian(yr, mth, day):
    jd1 = intPart((11 * yr + 3) / 30.0)
    jd2 = intPart((mth - 1) / 2.0)
    jd = jd1 + 354 * yr + 30 * mth - jd2 + day + 1948440 - 385

    if jd > 2299160:
       l = jd + 68569
       n = intPart((4 * l) / 146097.0)
       l = l - intPart((146097 * n + 3) / 4.0)
       i = intPart((4000 * (l + 1)) / 1461001.0)
       l = l - intPart((1461 * i) / 4.0) + 31
       j = intPart((80 * l) / 2447.0)
       d = l - intPart((2447 * j) / 80.0)
       l = intPart(j / 11.0)
       m = j + 2 - 12 * l
       y = 100 * (n - 49) + i + l
    else:
       j = jd + 1402
       k = intPart((j - 1) / 1461.0)
       l = j - 1461 * k
       n = intPart((l - 1) / 365.0) - intPart(l / 1461.0)
       i = l - 365 * n + 30
       j = intPart((80 * i) / 2447.0)
       d = i - intPart((2447 * j) / 80.0)
       i = intPart(j / 11.0)
       m = j + 2 - 12 * i
       y = 4 * k + n + i - 4716

    return y, m, d

Usage:

# Convert from Gregorian to Hijri
print Gregorian2Hijri(1972, 12, 9)
print Gregorian2Hijri(2008, 1, 8)

# Convert from Hijri to Gregorian
print Hijri2Gregorian(1392, 11, 3)
print Hijri2Gregorian(1428, 12, 29)

Facebook Profile Badge

I have set up my Facebook Profile Badge.

My blog feed is now viewable from Facebook

I've set my blog feed in Facebook. Now people (that translate to those tagged as friends in Facebook), can easily view my blog feed from the Facebook interface.

PHP: built-in function round() on 32-bit and 64-bit machines

My customer was complaining about a weird rounding problem recently. I do my development work primarily on a 32-bit machine, but the production server is a 64-bit machine. When I tested to run round(), a PHP built-in function, 32-bit machine and 64-bit machine produced different results. So here is my quick fix to properly round a floating number.

<?php

define('ROUND_HALF_DOWN', 1);
define('ROUND_HALF_EVEN', 2);
define('ROUND_HALF_UP', 3);

/**
* Round floating point number because the built-in round() function produces
* different results on 32-bit and 64-bit machines
*
* @param float   $value       Floating poing value
* @param integer $prec        Precision
* @param integer $rounding    Rounding option
*/
function myround($value, $prec=2, $rounding=2) {
 list($b, $f) = explode('.', (string) $value);
 $b = (int) $b;
 if (($prec - strlen($f)) > 0) {
     $f *= pow(10, ($prec - strlen($f)));
 }
 if (strlen($f) > $prec) {
     $f1 = (int) substr($f, 0, $prec);
     $f2 = (int) substr($f, $prec, 1);
     $f3 = (int) substr($f, $prec-1, 1);
     if ($rounding === ROUND_HALF_DOWN ||
         ($rounding === ROUND_HALF_EVEN && (($f3 & 1) === 0))) {
         $f = ($f2 >= 6) ? $f1 + 1 : $f1;
     } elseif ($rounding === ROUND_HALF_UP ||
               ($rounding === ROUND_HALF_EVEN && (($f3 & 1) === 1))) {
         $f = ($f2 >= 5) ? $f1 + 1 : $f1;
     }
     if ($f === pow(10, $prec)) {
         ++$b;
         $f = 0;
     }
 }
 $f = sprintf("%0{$prec}d", $f);
 return (float) ((string) $b . '.' . (string) $f);
}

?>

Then some quick tests:
<?php
echo "1.35: " . myround(1.35, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "1.425: " . myround(1.90*0.75, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "1.425: " . myround(1.90*0.75, 3, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "1.425: " . myround(1.90*0.75, 2, ROUND_HALF_EVEN) . "\n";
echo "1.995: " . myround(1.995, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "1.995: " . myround(1.995, 2, ROUND_HALF_EVEN) . "\n";
echo "1.995: " . myround(1.995, 2, ROUND_HALF_DOWN) . "\n";
echo "1.015: " . myround(1.015, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "1.015: " . myround(1.015, 2, ROUND_HALF_EVEN) . "\n";
echo "1.000: " . myround(1.00, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
echo "4.20: " . myround(4.20, 2, ROUND_HALF_UP) . "\n";
?>