OpenSourceForYou201504

Interview For U & Me At Open Source India QWhat are the areas in which start- Sushanto Mitra, founder and CEO, Lead Angels 2014, many tech start-ups ups need help and how does Lead institutions are not able to interact with wanted to understand how Angels pitch in? the outside world; therefore, the world they could leverage open beyond the campus walls doesn’t get to source technology.Well, A. Before I answer that, I would like to know what exciting ideas are brewing for a start-up, or any other share a bit about our origin. In the year inside. Students only get a hang of the technology-oriented firm 2000, I had set up a consulting firm, real world when they move out, which is for that matter, getting helping the early-stage companies to raise why a lot of alumni of various institutions the best tech solution at money. I continued doing that till 2007, want to give back to their institutes. They minimum cost is the way to when I joined IIT Bombay as the CEO want to invest in interesting ideas with go. But this is really not what of its business incubator called SINE. the aim of giving back in some way and we would focus on, in this It was a very interesting stint as I was also because they are more comfortable in article.While conversing coming across very early-stage ideas and their own alma mater. with the owners of start-ups incubating them. But the fact remains who were present at OSI that in academic institutions, even though There is a level of credibility and Days 2014, we understood there are very bright people, the exposure comfort already established when it that one of the biggest to business is very limited. Unfortunately, comes to the alumni. So that is the origin issues was generating funds even today, most of these academic of Lead Angels. We are an alumni- to move ahead in the game. focused angel network, with which Yes, this is pretty much an issue for almost every start- up, particularly in a country like India, where the start- up ecosystem is still in its infancy. As they say, if there is a problem, there is a solution too. As we all know, venture capitalists do come to the rescue of such start- ups, looking to be funded. But the road leading to a VC invariably involves a bumpy ride. In a bid to understand the entire process of reaching out to a VC and how to arrange funds, Diksha P Gupta from Open Source ForYou spoke to Sushanto Mitra, founder and CEO, Lead Angels, an alumni- focused angel network, and discussed several issues that hamper young entrepreneurs. Read on... www.OpenSourceForU.com | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | april 2015 | 101

For U & Me Interview ‘‘One of the start-ups that we are looking at, which the network are in a position to bring happens to be from Delhi, is using open source business to the start-ups. Let’s not components to build a fairly complex product. I think forget that for a start-up, getting that that as the IT availability increases as a result of cloud first order is the most important thing. and mobile technologies, it is creating a level playing So if we have a start-up that is into field between start-ups and large companies.” warehouse management, and one of our members is associated with a courier alumni from the IITs and the IIMs in investing in the companies. Right company that has a warehouse, it are associated, to invest in companies now, we have 70 investors on board as becomes easy for the start-up to get its emerging from these institutions. Of members, across Delhi, Mumbai and first trial. The fact remains that nobody course, there is nothing exclusive about Ahmedabad. wants to give business to a start-up, but either the investee companies or the members do take such steps, helping the investors. We are not saying that the IITs QSo, are you focusing only on tech start-ups get their first order. and the IIMs enjoy an exclusivity with start-ups? us; in fact, a majority of our members are A. No, not necessarily. As an investor, From the technology front, many not from these institutes. But yes, these one doesn’t want to be limited to any of the members come with technical institutes are our focus. We have our particular sector. One wants to invest in qualifications and experience. They meetings in the IITs and IIMs, and we anything and everything that makes a can also help on technology if are involved with their entrepreneurship profit. Of course, I won’t deny that tech required. Since it is a group of experts development cells or incubators. The and tech-enabled businesses are a major in the business, they certainly know simple logic is that investors are not attraction, because they are scalable. how to mentor and manage start-ups interested in merely investing in the But we are not restricting ourselves or in more ways than one. We also have name of any institute, although that can our investors to any domain. We are partnerships with multiple incubators be an advantage sometimes. An investor evaluating everything—from concept like IIIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Delhi, IIT- is more focused on interesting ideas. fast food restaurants to the healthcare Bombay and several such institutions. sector. We cannot deny that today IT is an So, if a start-up requires some Investees also do not want to integral part of everything we want to do. technical support or even interns, we restrict themselves to just the alumni. can arrange all of that. Essentially we Angel investing is not just about QAs you mentioned, IT is an integral aim to provide support to the start-ups funding —it is about mentoring, part of any business these days. at various levels. offering knowledge value-addition Do you help the start-ups develop their and about connections as well. For IT infrastructure? QAmongst the tech start-ups that the start-ups, business exposure is A. Before I answer that, let me share you have worked with, so far, as important as funds, to grow the with you who our members are. They do you see open source technology business. So, we just don’t arrange include people who have built successful flourishing? funds, we arrange for support in terms businesses over a period of time like A. Yes. In fact, one of the start- of mentorship, guidance and business Faisal Farooqui of Mouthshut.com, Alok ups that we are looking at, which exposure. Kejriwal of Games To Win, etc. Some happens to be from Delhi, is using of the members are from traditional open source components to build QHow many start-ups have you industries, like one of the founders of a fairly complex product. I think funded so far? Lawrence and Mayo. There are also that as the IT availability increases A. We have completed the investment members working in private equity and as a result of cloud and mobile process in two start-ups, as of now venture capital firms, in their individual technologies, it is creating a level There are two more companies that capacities. They bring the skills of what playing field between start-ups and we are in the advanced stages of they do as investors to the network. So large companies. For example, the funding. A couple of them are in the this network helps in evaluating the two competitors of this start-up pipeline. Getting funds and appropriate companies and when the investment is are Fortune 100 companies. Their mentorship for any start-up takes made, one of us becomes a board member product would be similar to what time. We had set up Lead Angels in or observer of the start-up to support and this start-up is making. In fact, July 2013. Our first angel meeting mentor the company, depending on what what these kids are creating is a happened in October 2013 in Mumbai. its critical requirements are. faster product using open source It takes time to build a sizable network technology and because it is going of like-minded people that can help Also, many of the investors in to be provided as a service, it will be easily and affordably available at any point in time. I am not claiming that 102 | april 2015 | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | www.OpenSourceForU.com

they will beat the biggies, but my Interview For U & Me point is that they will be operating in “There are start-ups operating in different domains the same market. that use open source technologies in one way or the other. The fact is that young start-ups cannot afford This start-up has built only two expensive proprietary software. More importantly, critical components on its own, and they get a good choice with open source for the rest, it is using open source. technology, so they happily resort to it.” It already has clients like banks and financial institutions, which means that More importantly, they get a good called the ‘idea pitch’ apart from critical domains like banking are open choice with open source technology, so the three formal presentations that to using open source technologies. I they happily resort to it. For instance, we have every month. Here people think open source offers a certain level we are a financial services start-up but can come and pitch their ideas and of democracy against large software we use open source technology for our take feedback from the investors and hardware product companies. The emailing system. And we keep looking present at the meeting. If we like an future is certainly going towards open for open source alternatives wherever idea, we invite them back to make a source, leading to a fair balance in the they can be deployed. formal presentation. We also attend technology market. events related to start-ups where QSo, how does a start-up reach out we have interactions with them QAre non-tech start-ups also going to you? and keep looking for interesting for open source technologies in a A. It actually works both ways. They ideas. As I mentioned earlier, we big way? can reach out to us and we also do have partnerships with incubators A. Yes, there are start-ups operating in keep looking for interesting start- and student entrepreneurship different domains that use open source ups. They can come to our website development cells. So all these, put technologies in one way or the other. where they can contact us. In our together, bridge the gap between us The fact is that young start-ups cannot angel meetings, we have something and the start-ups. afford expensive proprietary software. www.OpenSourceForU.com | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | april 2015 | 103

&TIPS TRICKS Generating a random password Using awk along with the ssh command Today, it is very important to use secure and random Many users have an issue when executing the awk passwords for various accounts. command with ssh and get the following error: The pwgen command on the Linux terminal generates #ssh server149.example.com “uname -a | awk ‘{print $2}’” passwords that are designed to be easily memorised by humans, while being as secure as possible. awk: cmd. line:1: {print $2}) $ pwgen -1 -s awk: cmd. line:1: ^ syntax error This command generates a single secure password. If bash: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching we need many passwords, we can skip the ‘-1’ option. `)’ bash: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file Note: If pwgen is not installed, you can install it by This error is due to awk considering $2 of the local using your Linux package manager. system and not the remote system. —Naveen H, To resolve this issue, you can use the awk command as [email protected] shown below: A script to check for a live host in networks ssh server149.example.com “uname -a | awk ‘{print \\$2}’” We often come across situations in which we need This will use the $2 value of the remote computer and to check for a live host/computer in the network. Here is a you will get the expected output. script that will do the job for you. Open a text editor and create a script as live-check.sh with the following contents: —Ravikant Tyagi, [email protected] #!/bin/bash for((i=1;i<255;i++)) Tracking a file in Linux do ##enter your network ip and redirect it to any text-file## If you have one important file named ‘/root/mydata. txt’ and need to keep track of who has used it, when it was ping 192.168.1.$i -c1 | grep “bytes from” | cut -d “” -f4 used and by which program or command, then you can |cut -d”:” -f1 >> ip_scan.txt monitor it using the following commands: done [root@ns1 ~]# auditctl -w /root/mydata.txt -k “myfile” Run the script using the following command and wait This command will start monitoring the activity on the for the scan to complete. file: $sh live-check.sh [root@ns1 ~]# ausearch --key “myfile” --raw | aureport --file Once the scan is complete you can check the ip_scan. This is how you can audit files and get the required txt file to see the live hosts. details about who used a file and when. —Pulkit Maheshwari, —Amit Setia, [email protected] [email protected] 104 | April 2015 | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | www.OpenSourceForU.com

Split larger files using 7zip /dev/sda6 on / type ext4 proc # 7z a -v200m -mx0 ubuntu.7z /test/ubuntu.iso (rw,errors=remount-ro) sysfs The command given above will create 200MB sized proc on /proc type ext4 files from the ubuntu.iso. The -v200m is the volume size cgroup (use k for kilobytes and g for gigabytes); and the -mx0 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) fuse. switch tells 7-Zip not to use compression, that is, to just split data into parts. sysfs on /sys type To extract a file, just type: (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) # 7z x ubuntu.7z.001 ... …or type: ... # 7z e ubuntu.7z.001 ... /dev/sda7 on /home type (rw) systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd) gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=naru) Note: You need to install 7zip if it’s not already —Narendra Kangralkar, installed. [email protected] To install it on Ubuntu, run the following command: Find listening network ports $ sudo apt-get install p7zip-full With the help of the following command, you can find the processes that are running and their associated port —Shiju V, numbers. This command can help systems administrators [email protected] troubleshoot various production issues (like when a process is killed and the port number related to the service is still in Setting up routes with ipv6 use). With this command, it’s easy to trace the port number and its associated processes. Add the ipv6 route using the ‘ip’ command, as follows: # netstat -tulpn Active Internet connections (only servers) #ip -6 route add <ipv6network>/<prefixlength> via Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign <ipv6address> Address State PID/Program name #ip -6 route add 2000::/3 via 2001:0db8:0:f101::1 tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:* Add the ipv6 route using ‘route’: LISTEN 1138/mysqld tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 850/portmap #route -A inet6 add <ipv6network>/<prefixlength> gw tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* <ipv6address> [dev <device>] LISTEN 1607/apache2 tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:55091 0.0.0.0:* #route -A inet6 add 2000::/3 gw 2001:0db8:0:f101::1 LISTEN 910/rpc.statd —Shreehari Dhat, —Munish Kumar, [email protected] [email protected] Formatted output with the column Share Your Linux Recipes! command The joy of using Linux is in finding ways to get around The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. problems—take them head on, defeat them! We invite you We can use this command to view the formatted output of to share your tips and tricks with us for publication in OSFY the mount command: so that they can reach a wider audience. Your tips could be related to administration, programming, troubleshooting or [bash]$ mount | column -t general tweaking. Submit them at www.opensourceforu. com. The sender of each published tip will get a T-shirt. The output is: www.OpenSourceForU.com | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | April 2015 | 105

OSFY DVD DVD OF THE MONTH Try out something new and fresh. MakuluLinux 8.0 ‘Cinnamon’: This is a Debian based distribution that provides a sleek, smooth and stable user experience on any computer. The new release is the first from the project to be built for 64-bit x86 computers. If you face issues in running the live edition, then try it out in the compatibility mode. The default user name in the live mode is ‘makulu’ and the password is ‘makulu’. The software bundled with the OSFY DVD works in the live mode. Tails 1.3: Tails is a live system that aims to preserve your privacy and anonymity. Tails comes with several built-in applications preconfigured with security in mind: a Web browser, instant messaging client, email client, office suite, image and sound editor, etc. You can find the ISO image of the live version on the DVD under the other_isos folder. Chakra GNU/Linux 2015.03: Chakra is a GNU/Linux distribution with an emphasis on KDE and Qt technologies. It focuses on simplicity from a technical standpoint and is free software. It features a graphical installer, automatic hardware detection and configuration, the latest KDE desktop, and a variety of tools and extras. Originally forked from Arch Linux, the distro comes with a stable core and bleeding edge applications. You can find the ISO image of the live version on the DVD under the other_isos folder. What is a live DVD? A live CD/DVD or live disk contains a bootable operating system, the core program of any computer, which is designed to run all your programs and manage all your hardware and software. Live CDs/DVDs have the ability to run a complete, modern OS on a computer even without secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive. The CD/DVD directly runs the OS and other applications from the DVD drive itself. Thus, a live disk allows you to try the OS before you install it without erasing or installing anything on your current system. Such disks are used to demonstrate features or try out a release. They are also used for testing hardware functionality, before actual installation. To run a live DVD, you need to boot your computer using the disk in the ROM drive. To know how to set a boot device in BIOS, please refer to the hardware documentation for your computer/laptop. 106 | April 2015 | OpEN SOUrCE FOr YOU | www.OpenSourceForU.com

136 January 2015 | ElEctronics For you www.EFymag.com

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