Steve Jobs building NeXT

Excellent Script to change MySQL Table Prefix in Drupal

Note: This script is applicable to any website using MySQL as its database.

I wanted to change my MySQL table prefix for my Drupal installation and googling and trying various methods that I bumped across in various websites, but to no avail until I landed upon this awesome little script. I've tried and tested this script and it's an excellent little but powerful script to change your MySQL Table prefixes.

Just download the script provided here MySQL Table Prefix Changer and place it in your document root folder. Then enter something like this in your browser "www.example.com/prefix-dxc.php" and fill in the form with the relevant inputs. And within seconds your table prefix should be changed/updated.

Once all's done you will get a final report. One error I noticed during my process was this:

Deprecated: Function mysql_list_tables() is deprecated in C:\xampp\htdocs\prefix-dxc.php on line 109

There is nothing to worry about this as it's just a message telling the above function is no longer supported by my current MySQL version.

FUCK It: Face Your Fear

How to install Django in Windows 7

To Install Python and Django with Xampp on Windows 7: http://www.leonardaustin.com/technical/install-python-and-django-with-xampp-on-windows-7

If the above methods don't work try this:


If the mod_wsgi file is malfunctioning and stopping Apache from loading you may try these mod_wsgi files from here. Please note the correct version before downloading. There are different types here depending upon the OS (32 bit or 64 bit):
http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#mod_wsgi

Restore VHD File Backup in Windows 7

If you have made a backup using Windows 7 Backup option where the backup is a large dump of VHD file and unable to recover the back up please follow the methods explained below. I've collected a handful of handy links which should serve your purpose:

Case #1: How to restore VHD file backup?

Answer:

The reason why you’ve a VHD file is because you’ve created a system image backup. A system image includes Windows and your system settings, programs, and files. You can use a system image to restore the contents of your computer if your hard drive or computer ever stops working. When you restore your computer from a system image, it is a complete restoration; you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced.

You wouldn’t be able to restore VHD files using backup and restore center. You can mount the image by following the steps below.

Method 1: Steps to mount VHD files in Windows 7

a.    Open Start Menu, right-click on Computer and click Manage.

b.    Click on Disk Management.

c.    Click Action -> Attach VHD and specify the external hard disk location on your computer.

Check out the section in the link below about how to extract files from a system image (advanced)

http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/11/12/recovering-your-files-in-windows-7.aspx

Method 2: How to restore your computer from a system image backup

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Restore-your-computer-from-a-system-image-backup

For more information about system image backup, you can visit the link below

Learn more about system image backup

http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/10/31/learn-more-about-system-image-backup.aspx

Backup and restore: frequently asked questions

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-and-restore-frequently-asked-questions

Hope this information is helpful.

Mouneshwar R – Microsoft Support

Source: http://bit.ly/SUOhjB

CASE #2: Restore your computer from a system image backup: http://bit.ly/127HwPd

CASE #3: Restoring Windows 7 VHD Backup Files with Acronis True Image Home: http://kb.acronis.com/content/3648

Steve Jobs about cloud computing in 1997

Here is Steve Jobs introducing the iCloud in 1997.

Creating Virtual Host on Xampp 1.8.1

Firstly, please follow all the steps mentioned in this post of mine: http://soluzione08.blogspot.in/2012/02/creating-virtual-hosts-on-apache.html and then add this line 'Require all granted' as below for all your virtual host setup.The changes should be made to the file 'httpd-vhosts.conf'

<Directory "c:/vhosts/sandbox.wp">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Require all granted
  </Directory>

Note: The above code is an example for a Name-based Virtual Host. For and IP-based Virtual Host you will have to replace the Name with the IP which usually is "127.0.0.1" on a localhost.

Zencart unable to connect to database

If you were fiddling around with Zencart for the first time and experience some problem connecting to your Zencart database and the errors is because of a password changed you made, like I did in the Godaddy shared hosting account try the following steps:

1. Change the password in the includes/configure.php file
2. Change the password in the admin/include/configure.php file.

Do check whether other details like the server name, website URL etc. are also set correctly.

Even though you might have kept your folders in a folder which makes the domain name as:
http://www.example.com/folder_name

the following values still should be just your site name:
  define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.example.com');
  define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www.example.com');

The following values should be as (including the trailing slash):
 define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/folder_name/');
  define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/folder_name/');

And make sure you don't overwrite any one of the configure.php file with the other. Although they both have the same filename they are different and server different purpose.

Inspiration for Internet Startups

Here are some dose of inspiration that I've managed to garner so far along my Internet business journey and undoubtedly they are nothing but SO TRUE!!!!

1. One of the co-founder of reddit.com (one of the top website in the world and America) says, "Don't try to build an awesome product in the start itself. That barely happens. Start small and then go on building on it."

2.  "Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you'll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don't think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn't solve some fairly immediate need, it's almost certainly over-designed. And don't expect people to jump in and help you. That's not how these things work. You need to get something half-way useful first, and then others will say "hey, that almost works for me", and they'll get involved in the project." - Linux Times (2004-10-25), Linus Torvalds (Main man behind Linux Operating System)

3.  It's hard to tell with these Internet startups if they're really interested in building companies or if they're just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don't really want to build a company, they won't luck into it. That's because it's so hard that if you don't have a passion, you'll give up.  -Steve Jobs

 4. For Facebook, though, hacker means something different. It’s an ideal that permeates the company’s culture. It explains:

 - the push to try new ideas (even if they fail),
 - and to promote new products quickly (even if they’re imperfect).

The hacker approach has made Facebook one of the world’s most valuable Internet companies.
Hackers “believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete,” Zuckerberg explains. “They just have to go fix it - often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.”

The Hacker Way: Minimum, Viable: http://leanstartupmachine.com/2012/03/minimum-viable-and-viral/

Advice From An Old Programmer - (a must read)

This is an awesome read I came across yesterday penned by an amazingly talented programmer called Zed Shaw. Here's an excerpt:

"Of course, all of this advice is pointless. If you liked learning to write software with this book, you should try to use it to improve your life any way you can. Go out and explore this weird wonderful new intellectual pursuit that barely anyone in the last 50 years has been able to explore. Might as well enjoy it while you can.

Finally, I'll say that learning to create software changes you and makes you different. Not better or worse, just different. You may find that people treat you harshly because you can create software, maybe using words like "nerd". Maybe you'll find that because you can dissect their logic that they hate arguing with you. You may even find that simply knowing how a computer works makes you annoying and weird to them.

To this I have just one piece of advice: they can go to hell. The world needs more weird people who know how things work and who love to figure it all out. When they treat you like this, just remember that this is your journey, not theirs. Being different is not a crime, and people who tell you it is are just jealous that you've picked up a skill they never in their wildest dreams could acquire.
You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool."
To read more: Advice From An Old Programmer.

Changing Site's Default Email Address in Drupal

This is a pretty simple solution for changing your site's 'default email address' in Drupa 6.

1. If not using MIME mail try this: admin/settings/site-information

2. If using MIME mail use this: admin/settings/mimemail

The Future of Learning, Networked Society - Ericsson

Learn more at http://www.ericsson.com/networkedsociety

Can ICT redefine the way we learn in the Networked Society? Technology has enabled us to interact, innovate and share in whole new ways. This dynamic shift in mindset is creating profound change throughout our society. The Future of Learning looks at one part of that change, the potential to redefine how we learn and educate. Watch as we talk with world renowned experts and educators about its potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression.

Default Ports of XAMPP

ftp             21/tcp              # File Transfer [Control] (XAMPP: FTP Default Port)
smtp          25/tcp             mail # Simple Mail Transfer (XAMPP: SMTP Default Port)
http           80/tcp             # World Wide Web HTTP (XAMPP: Apache Default Port)
pop3          110/tcp           # Post Office Protocol - Version 3 (XAMPP: POP3 Default Port)
imap          143/tcp           # Internet Message Access Protocol (XAMPP: IMAP Default Port)
https          443/tcp           # http protocol over TLS/SSL (XAMPP: Apache SSL Port)
mysql        3306/tcp         # MySQL (XAMPP: MySQL Default Port)
AJP/1.3     8009               # AJP/1.3 (XAMPP: Tomcat AJP/1.3 Port)
http-alt      8080/tcp         # HTTP Alternate (see port 80) (XAMPP: Tomcat Default Port)

Python Programming #1

So, here's my first post related to Python. Got this wonderful chance to enroll for a course in www.coursera.org with the University of Toronto for a class titled ' Learn to Program: The Fundamentals." It's been five weeks since I joined the class and have been doing pretty good.

But to be candid, I really do not know much about it other than reading a lot of awesome stuffs about it on the internet. Since the past four years I have been more of a 'web guy' dealing with Open Source Stuffs and currently getting my hands strong with Drupal. But don't know without any reason I feel pretty excited about Python and without thinking much have decided to dive deep into it; as much as I can.

Lets see how much posts I can continue to roll out in the upcoming days. & this post shall act as a checkpoint for me to see how far I've traversed in my journey with Python.

Six methods to crack Windows admin password, remove unknown Windows admin password

The following methods can be used to hack / crack / reset Windows Administrator Password in case you forgot it:

Six methods to crack Windows admin password, remove unknown Windows admin password from passexpert

Hack, Crack Windows 7 Admin, Administrator Password

The following method is tried, tested and successful of cracking Windows 7 Administrator Password:

Please visit the link below and download the required utility viz. Offline NT Password and Registry Editor:
http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/


& follow the Step by Step instruction here:
http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/walkthrough.html


Hope that helps. I've executed this solution myself, if in doubt feel free to post comment; if I can I shall help.

phpMyAdmin: Bypass File Upload Size Limit

When you want to import a large SQL query in phpMyAdmin, you can run into problems as the default upload size limit is restricted by whatever it is in the php.ini file - and often, you cannot change this or simply don't want to. It tends to default to a measly 2MB.
However, there's a feature that will allow you to FTP your SQL file to an upload directory of your choosing, and then instruct phpMyAdmin to run the query file. Here's how you do it.

To read more please visit: http://www.givegoodweb.com/post/82/phpadmin-upload-restriction

Alan Turing - The Original Father of Computer Science

 Breaking the Code: Biography of Alan Turing (Derek Jacobi, BBC, 1996)

As I happen to know more and more about Alan Turing I realized he was the man who can rightly be titled as the "Father of Modern Computer Science" & not Charles Babbage as I was taught in my school days.

Software Engineering, VTU, 2006 Past Question Papers

I was hunting Software Engineering Past question papers (2006 Scheme, 5th (fifth) Semester / 6th (sixth) semester for a friend of mine. I did found some papers from some random websites but I noticed these idiots have disabled printing those question papers as though it was there father's property.

I have disabled all their password protection for printing and you can download them from the following link: http://www.mediafire.com/?o7nn22sdh44hth1 There's also a file where you can find the link to the website where you can disable these PDF protection, password etc. Or here's the link: http://www.ensode.net/pdf-crack.jsf.. Note: The download  file defaults to .jsf extension - SAVE it as .pdf file.

Hope that helps!

Disabling, Hiding the Date in Views slideshow: DDblock

This is a simple trick by which you can hide, disable or conceal the date or submitted by information in the  Views slideshow: DDblock in Drupal. Just add the following lines to your theme's css file:

/*hiding the date in the slideshow*/
div.views-slideshow-ddblock-cycle-duplex div.slide-body-inner .submitted {
display: none;
}

Access Denied to Super Admin in Drupal 6 after Logging in

Today I faced a strange issue with my drupal 6 website. I was in the concluding phase of my site finalization and just as when I was about to deploy the site to production I got this queer error:

Access Denied. You are not authorize to access this page. 

A quick solution that I found to this were:

1. Build or clear your node access permissions, just hit this link with your browser:

http://www.yoursite.com/admin/content/node-settings/rebuild

2. Clear your cache including menu cache.

My Google search for this queer problem:

http://bit.ly/JolIaZ

Organic Group Search Not Working

Many of you must have experienced this issue with the organic group search which comes as default in a block. The issue I faced was every time I made a search instead of the results being displayed I was being redirected to OG home.

Trying this and that I finally found some solutions through Google Search.

Skim through these pages, might help. The one that worked me was importing the views mentioned here: http://drupal.org/node/333072#comment-3059310

or you can try this too:

http://drupal.org/node/434934#comment-1961696 or

http://drupal.org/node/434934#comment-2256214

Learn To Become a Better Visual Web Designer then a Developer

Well this title isn't the thumb rule, but if you are in the Web business like the way I am, then this certainly holds true for you.

My own experience is that the general client is least bothered about how strong a website you might have build in terms of programs and web-software, but unless your website is visually appealing, they don't care about your inner-development. Now, that doesn't mean you develop a lousy website which is just visually appealing! But if your website is strong in terms of the programs and also graphically chic, it holds a lot of value for your product.

As, I am writing this blog-post, today I read in the news today that Slideshare has been bought by Linkedin for about $119 million. And as I started exploring about the team members and person involved with Slideshare I came across this wonderful line from the CEO of Slideshare, Rashmi Sinha. It read:

"Good software comes from a true collaboration between developers and designers." You can read more at: http://rashmisinha.com/about/

& I fully agree with her.

Here's a video you might have a look at which conveys the same with wonderful reasonings:

How to view Apache error log files in Windows?

If you ever wanted to view your Apache Log files from your local computer or Windows Operating System (Xp, Vista, Windows 7) and were unable to do so, this awesome software can do the task for you. You must have noticed the log files are usually very large in size  and won't open in text editors like Notepad causing them to hang.

As the website states "Apache Logs Viewer (ALV) is a free and powerful tool which lets you monitor, view and analyze Apache/IIS logs with more ease. It offers search and filter functionality for the log file, highlighting the various http requests based on their status code. There is also a report facility, thus you can generate a pie/bar chart in seconds. Together with this there are also statistics where you can get the top hits, top errors, number of status codes, total bandwidth and more."

So here are the links:

1. Setup File: http://www.apacheviewer.com/download.php?new=1
2. Help File: http://www.apacheviewer.com/ApacheLogsViewer_Help.pdf

How to export themes in prestashop using Theme import export Module?

How to export themes in prestashop using Theme Import Export Module?


How to export themes in prestashop from devilthemes on Vimeo.
This is tiny tutor without sound , how to export themes from prestashop .



Regards

DevilThemes

http://www.devilthemes.com

Shortest, Fastest, Quickest Way to Check Your IP Address

This by far has been the shortest, quickest, fastest way to check my IP address and I just discovered it today.

Go to www.google.com and type this query ==> "check my ip" and see what happens. The first result you get should be your IP address, something like this ==> "Your public IP address is 100.141.09.555". To know more about IP address here's what Google says, "IP Address"

Enabling Friendly URLs and Generating .htaccess file in Prestashop

WARNING: This tool can ONLY be used if you are hosted by an Apache web server or if your server allows URL rewriting (recommended). Please ask your hosting provider if you are not sure.

1. First to generate a .htaccess file you must enable "Friendly URL: at  Preferences  >>  SEO & URLs.
2. You may also enable Canonical url for redirecting example.com to www.example.com. Effective for SEO. (Recommended, but your theme must be compliant).
3. You can now generate a .htaccess file at  Tools >> Generators.
4. You can also generate robots.txt for restricting search-engine crawlers from crawling certain pages of your website such as your about page, login page etc.

Creating Virtual Hosts on Apache Web Server

For setting up Virtual Host in XAMPP 1.8.1 please visit the following page: http://soluzione08.blogspot.in/2012/12/creating-virtual-host-on-xampp-181.html

Note: The settings below are for general websites. For Drupal specific settings visit the following page: http://drupal.org/node/161975

When it’s first installed, Apache is capable of hosting only one website, which is identified in a local testing environment by the URL http://localhost/. To get around this restriction, it’s common practice to develop websites in subfolders of the Apache server root. For example, if you have two sites called site1 and site2 and create separate subfolders for them in the server root, you access them in your testing environment as http:// localhost/site1/ and http://localhost/site2/. This works perfectly well as long as you use document-relative links all the time. However, if you want to use links relative to the site root, you need to create virtual hosts for each site.

Virtual hosting is a technique that web servers use to host more than one website on the same machine. If you have bought a web-hosting package from a hosting company, it’s almost certainly on a shared server that uses virtual hosts. Continuing with the previous example, once you create virtual hosts for site1 and site2 in Apache, you can test them locally using http://site1/ and http://site2/. This is essential for testing sites that use links relative to the site root. If you’re serious about web development, you should learn sooner or later how to set up virtual hosts in your testing environment. Once you have mastered the technique, it takes only a few minutes to set up each one.

You can call your virtual hosts whatever you like, as long as you don’t use any spaces or characters that would be illegal in a domain name. I always use the same name as the actual website, without the top-level domain. For example, for my own site, http://foundationphp.com/, I have created a virtual host called foundationphp in my local testing setup. This means that I access it as http://foundationphp/. It’s then a simple matter of clicking in the browser address bar and adding the .com to see the live site. Whatever you do, don’t use the top-level domain as the name of a virtual host in your testing setup. If you do, your computer will always point to the local version of the site and never access the real one on the Internet.

Apache allows you to create as many virtual hosts as you want. It’s a two-stage process. First, you tell the operating system the names of the virtual hosts, and then you tell Apache where the files will be located. There are separate instructions for Windows and Mac OS X.

Registering virtual hosts on Windows

Although you can locate your virtual hosts anywhere on your hard drive system, it’s a good idea to keep them in a single top-level folder, as this makes it easier to set the correct permissions in Apache. The following instructions assume that all your virtual hosts are kept in a folder called C:\vhosts and show you how to create a virtual host called dwcs4 within that folder.

To edit the necessary files in Vista, you need to select Run as administrator even if you are logged in to an administrator account. For Notepad, go to Start ➤ All Programs ➤ Accessories, right-click Notepad, and select Run as administrator from the context menu.
Enter your administrator password when prompted. Inside Notepad, select File ➤ Open and navigate to the relevant file. The Open dialog box in Notepad shows only .txt files, so you need to select All Files (*.*) from the drop-down menu at the bottom right of the dialog box.

STEPS For Configuration:

1. Create a folder called C:\vhosts and a subfolder inside it called dwcs4.

2. Open C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad or a script editor and look for the following line at the bottom of the file:
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 is the IP address that every computer uses to refer to itself.
3. On a separate line, enter 127.0.0.1, followed by some space and the name of the virtual host. For instance, to set up a virtual host for this book, enter the following:
127.0.0.1 dwcs4 or 127.0.0.1 sackid.local and also set ServerName (see bottom page to know more) also to sackid.local if you want something like http://sackid.local
4. If you want to register any further virtual hosts, add each one on a separate line and point to the same IP address. Save the hosts file and close it.

5. Open the Apache configuration file, httpd.conf. The default location is C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf. If you installed XAMPP, it should be at C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf.

6. Scroll down to the Supplemental configuration section at the end of httpd.conf, and locate the following section:

7. Apache uses the hash sign (#) to indicate comments in its configuration files.  Uncomment the command shown on line 463 in the preceding screenshot by removing the #, like this:
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
This tells Apache to include the virtual host configuration file, which you must now edit.

8. Save httpd.conf, and close it.

9. Open httpd-vhosts.conf. The default location is C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf. If you installed XAMPP, it should be at C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf. The main part of the file looks like this:

10. Position your cursor in the blank space shown on line 15 in the preceding screenshot, and insert the following four lines of code:

<Directory C:/vhosts>
Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

This sets the correct permissions for the folder that contains the sites you want to treat as virtual hosts. If you chose a location other than C:\vhosts as the top-level folder, replace the pathname in the first line. Remember to use forward slashes in place of backward slashes. Also surround the pathname in quotes if it contains any spaces.

11. Lines 27–42 in the preceding screenshot are examples of virtual host definitions. They show all the commands that can be used, but only DocumentRoot and ServerName are required. When you enable virtual hosting, Apache disables the main server root, so the first definition needs to reproduce the original server root. You then add each new virtual host within a pair of <VirtualHost> tags, using the location of the site’s web files as the value for DocumentRoot and the name of the virtual host for ServerName. If the path contains any spaces, enclose the whole path in quotes. If your server root is located, like mine, at C:\htdocs, and you are adding dwcs4 as a virtual host in C:\vhosts, change the code shown on lines 27–42 so they look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot c:/htdocs
ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot c:/vhosts/dwcs4
ServerName sackid.local
</VirtualHost>

For XAMPP, use C:/xampp/htdocs instead of C:/htdocs.

12. Save httpd-vhosts.conf, and restart Apache. All sites in the server root will continue to be accessible through http://localhost/sitename/. Anything in a virtual host will be accessible through a direct address, such as http://dwcs4/.

What to do when caught by Windows Activation Technology (WAT) for Windows 7

Just sometime back I was trying to use a feature from Microsoft called Virtual PC and XP mode. While trying to download those software, Microsoft asked me to validate my Win 7 with their WAT tool.

In the process the WAT detected that my OS was not authentic and the computer behaving queerly, like, my desktop turning black, my Antivirus (Microsoft Security Essential) showing "expiry" warning messages.

I freaked out a bit because with my current situation I am in no position to install a new OS with the amount of installing of various software, backups and etc...

I worked around a simple solution instead. I simply restored my system to a day earlier before the WAT was updated and voila the process worked!

Else you can try one of the solutions mentioned here: http://geekmontage.com/how-to-uninstall-windows-7-activation-update-kb971033/