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    How to Resolve Windows 7 Blue Screen of Death of hp dm4-2191us laptop
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    Reviews – Hostgator
  • If you are new to Ubuntu and/or Windows networking, it can be somewhat daunting in trying to figure out how to share folders between the… [Continue Reading]

    Easy file sharing between Windows 7 (host OS) and Ubuntu 11.10 (guest OS)

Reviews – Hostgator

May 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Hostgator Review

Hostgator RocksIf you are aiming at building any kind of business from your website, the first thing that you will need is choose a best hosting company that satisfies all your need and charge as per your budget. There is one web hosting company named as Hostgator that will offer you world-class web hosting services at affordable prices. Hostgator is the ultimate choice for most Internet marketers and bloggers, as they know the importance of choosing a good host.

As far as I’m concerned, all of my websites are hosted on Hostgator now. Initially all of my websites including Bloggers Passion were hosted on some other web host. First I started using Hostgator web hosting services on one of my website. I become so happy with their services, customer support, features and pricing plans with huge discount coupons that I moved all of my websites now on to Hostgator.



Hostgator is a privately owned web hosting company that was started in 2002 and is based in Houston, Texas. They are claiming to be currently hosting more than 5 million websites and are currently having its clientage in more than 200 countries.

 

 

 

Filed Under: front-top-slider, hosting

Do You Hate Spammers?

March 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you but junk mails coming from spammers is out of control.  Akismet, Postini and others do a good job of filtering out spams but all of these fine apps are reactionary tools.

What I need or want is an infrastructure based solution that will prevent spammers from sending out their junk mails in the first place.  Enter “Project Honey Pot”.  According to PHP:

Project Honey Pot is the first and only distributed system for identifying spammers and the spambots they use to scrape addresses from your website. Using the Project Honey Pot system you can install addresses that are custom-tagged to the time and IP address of a visitor to your site. If one of these addresses begins receiving email we not only can tell that the messages are spam, but also the exact moment when the address was harvested and the IP address that gathered it.

To participate in Project Honey Pot, webmasters need only install the Project Honey Pot software somewhere on their website. We handle the rest — automatically distributing addresses and receiving the mail they generate. As a result, we anticipate installing Project Honey Pot should not increase the traffic or load to your website.

Now, I had some potential privacy issues in the beginning but not anymore.  Someone named Stanislav (link here) summed it up perfectly:

PHP most certainly will know that have you queried http:BL for each and every IP address you query. But that does not mean they will know those are the visitors to your web site because they do not know why you have looked up an IP address.

And they will not know where the query originated from, the way DNS lookup works. You query your DNS server, which in turn queries the root DNS server for .org, which then queries the DNS server for httbl.org. By the time your query reaches PHP servers, they do not know where the query came from. They do know which specific IP you were looking up with your key. But they do not know it started at your web site.

Also, your DNS server will then cache the result of that query for some time, an hour or so. Any additional queries during that hour (or so) will not hit PHP servers. So, even if a visitor to your web site goes to several web pages (or if you are querying for each image and things like that), PHP will only know that you made one single query about that IP address. But they will not know whether it was your web server doing the querying, or maybe you just manually checking up some random IP address from your home.

So, all they know is what IP addresses you have looked up. But they do not know why you looked them up.

Not much of a privacy concern then (as J.Yard2 pointed out, them looking up your IP reveals their intention to visit your web site to their own ISP, which is potentially more threatening). There is one security concern I can think of, though: Any one of those intermediate DNS servers between your web site (or home) and PHP can use their logs to steal your private key.

Best of all, this application is FREE so why not try it out and help out the internet community?

Filed Under: Product Reviews, software Tagged With: Eliminate spams, Honey Pot, Project Honey Pot

Solution to your trouble with HP zr2740w monitor with HP Elitebook 8560w?

March 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I needed some additional screen real estate to efficiently handle coding / graphics design work so I decided to purchase an external monitor for my HP Elitebook 8560w Workstation Notebook (without a docking station)).

I ultimately decided to purchase HP zr2740w 27″ LED monitor over Dell Ultra Sharp 27″, Apple Cinema Display 27″ and HP’s own 2711x because:

  1. zr2740w has superior IPS panel (advantage over 2711x);
  2. zr2740w has higher resolution at 2550×1440 WQHD (advantage over 2711x with 1920×1080 HD);
  3. zr2740w has superior LED lighting vs LCD lighting (advantage over Dell and Apple);
  4. zr2740w has cheaper price than Apple or Dell;
  5. zr2740w has a three year warranty (advantage over Apples one year warranty)

I purchased the monitor directly from HP Direct because:

  1. they offered free overnight shipping;
  2. offered a discounted price ($679 as of March 10, 2012)

Yes, I could have avoided paying sales tax by purchasing from an online retailer but HP offered 30 day satisfaction guarantee.  On top of that, if you made a purchase with an Amex OPEN credit card, you could receive up to 10% cash rebate (5% for purchases less than $1,000; 10% for $1,000 or higher purchase) from American Express.

Anyway, my excitement quickly turned sour when I hooked it up to my HP Elitebook 8560w workstation notebook (XU083UT#ABA) via the DisplayPort cable (included with the monitor).  All I could see was a (lighted) empty screen and no matter how much I tried tweaking the Windows 7 Professional display configuration, the external screen did not display any data.  After 30 minutes of frustration, I finally called the HP Small Business tech support (800.334.5144).

He made me go through the usual battery of questions to triage the problem:

1.  What is the notebook configuration (Model XU083UT#ABA, BIOS f.20, 16 GB memory, ATI m5950 1GB v.ersion 8.850.7.3000 – 20111116

2.  Is the master power switch on (in addition to the soft power on/off switch in front of the monitor, there is a physical on/off switch where the power cord gets plugged in)?

3. Is the DisplayPort cable HP OEM part (there are some incompatibility issues with third-party DP cables) and tightly plugged in?

4. Reset the BIOS to factory default

5. Try using a DVI or VGA cords (could not try DVI because my notebook does not come with one;  could not try VGA because the monitor does NOT come with a VGA port!)?

6.  Run scanning tools from here (http://www.hp.com/go/ispe) using the Internet Explorer (the scan did not work; app got stuck and got nowhere);

7.  Reset the monitor to factory configuration by unplugging the monitor from power, then hold the power button for 60sec while plugging in the power cord.

When I mentioned that googling “HP Elitebook 8560w zr2740w problem” produced results with people who are having same problems (with questions being posted at hp forums to boot with HP engineers providing a beta display driver!), the tech agent told me he would escalate my case to a level 2 support agent.

An hour later, a level 2 agent sent me an email with an ftp link to SP56103.exe file with the caveat that it is in BETA and that a final driver will be published at the end of March 2012.

When I was waiting, I found the newest AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software (v.3.00.0851) here and got my monitor to work (you may encounter some installation error messages; just ignore them and reboot) so I did not try the SP56103 driver.  I will uninstall my latest CCC app and install the final driver from HP later.

Now that the monitor is working (FHD or 1920×1080 on my notebook and 2560×1440 WQHD on my external monitor), I can get some serious work done!

Filed Under: LED monitor, technologies, Virtual Technologies Tagged With: 27 Monitor, HP Elitebook 8560w, LED monitor, troubleshooting, zr2740w

Where Should You Buy Your Next Cellphone From

February 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Confused with advertisements from gazillion merchants all wanting to sell you a wireless phone? Confused? I mean who has the time to cull through such monumental list and decide? Take a look at these 3 images from different vendors, offering Verizon Wireless’ Motorola Razr Maxx:

fig.1.1

fig.1.2

fig.1.3

Did you notice the price and other information were virtually identical? That is because most merchants use a back end platform offered by a company called Simplexity. Based on my quick googling, I found out that most big box merchants rely on Simplixity to provide ordering process, procurement and other services.  Basically, these merchants are doing what’s called  “white labeling” or re-branding Simplexity’s service.  There are some exceptions like Walmart, Costco and Amazon Wireless.  Bottom line?  Look at LetsTalk.com,WireFly (owned and operated by Simplexity), Costco or AmazonWireless for any deals and save time.  Of course, don’t forget to check the wireless operators themselves as they sometimes have BOGO offers are that are not extended to non-corporate stores

Filed Under: Cellphones

How to fix blurry or fuzzy DIYtheme header image

February 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment

DIYtheme has a nifty feature where it resizes your uploaded header image or logo based on page width (s1+s2+content columns). Unfortunately, that means if your logo is created with 150 dpi or lower, your logo might look fuzzy or blurry.

Rather than battling back and forth with resizing your logo (very frustrating), simply recreate your logo with 300 dpi or higher and save it as a .png file. That will most likely solve the blurry logo issue.

Filed Under: DIYtheme, technologies

Modify custom_functions.php and custom.css DIYtheme files

February 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

DIY Thesis Theme for WordPress is an awesome framework for WordPress that provides excellent web site customization flexibilities.  One cool feature allows users to modify  custom.css and custom_functions.php files via text editor that gives almost limitless possibilities in terms of design and functionality. Although there are number of other excellent fram

But the ease of which a user can  make changes to these two files can be a double-edged sword.  Especially if one makes a single typo in the custom_functions.php file which can instantly disable the entire sit.  Furthermore, if a person makes a change that causes a fatal error, the user may not be able to correct it using the WordPress application.

In this post, I will outline detailed steps to minimize the risk and what to do about it should you encounter that problem.

Back up custom_functions.php and custom.css files

Because there are many variations between hosting providers and graphical user interfaces, I am going to assume the following:

  • You have WordPress v3.1 or higher;
  • You have DIYtheme v1.8 or higher;
  • You have access to your hosting server via cpanel;
  • You can use cpanel file manager to access web files;

Step 1: Login to your host via cPanel (fig 2.1)

Step 2: Click on the File Manager icon (fig 2.2)

Step 3: If you have multiple domains associated with your cpanel, choose the appropriate domain (fig.2.3).  By the way, you will note that by “GO” button is grayed out.  That is because my account access timed out when I took this screenshot.  Simply log out and log back in and you will be able to click on the “GO” button.

fig 2.1-cpanel

fig 2.2-file manager

fig.2.3-select domain

Step 4:  Navigate to this path (“public_html/mvirtualoffice.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom“).  Please note that cPanel file manager works slightly different than that of Windows Explorer.  To drill down the file directory, you need to click on the folder icon (fig.3.1.A).  Clicking on the file or directory name allows you to change the name of that file/directory (fig.3.1.B).

Step 5:  Create a backup directory called backup-20120204 by first clicking on the New Folder icon (fig.3.2.A) then completing the name field (fig.3.2.B).  Because I frequently change my custom_functions.php and custom.css files, I use a date (yyymmdd) format for my own tracking needs but obviously you can choose any naming convention to suit your needs

Step 6: While holding down the CTRL button, click on the custom.css and custom_functions.php files (fig.3.3). While still holding the CTRL button, drag the highlighted files into the newly created backup directory. 

Please note that dragging and dropping the highlighted files while pressing down the CTRL performs a COPY function.  If you were to do this step without pressing down the CTRL key will instead perform a MOVE function.

fig.3.1

fig.3.2

fig.3.3

 

Modifying custom_functions.php

There are two ways to modify a custom_functions.php file.   You can do it directly through cPanel or DIYtheme.  I chose DIYtheme route because it is faster to make rapid, on-the-fly changes.

Step 1: Log into WordPress

Step 2: Click on the Thesis link to expand the drop down list

Step 3: Click on the Custom File Editor

Step 4:  Select custom_functions.php from the drop down menu and click edit

fig.4.1

fig.4.2

fig.4.3

Recovering from a custom_functions.php error

There are two possiblescenarios:

Scenario 1:  File is corrupted but you can still access the WordPress-DIYtheme application
Scenario 2:  File is corrupted and you CANNOT access the website,Wordpres or DIYtheme application

For scenario 1, fixing it is quite easy.  Just open custom_functions.php version prior to the broken one in notepad, copy and paste via DIYtheme’s Custom File Editor.

For scenario 2, involving a fatal error where you are unable to access the front end (website/WordPress/DIYtheme), you need to log in using your cPanel credential and either copy & paste using cPanel’s editor, or just upload the custom_functions.php text file version that is working.

Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Virtual Technologies

Where is the terminal application under Ubuntu 11.10?

January 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I have been using Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal for awhile so I was able to find what I needed quickly, including my trusty command line interface application called terminal.

After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10, I just couldn’t figure out where the terminal app was located.  After searching around a bit, I finally found it by clicking on the Ubuntu logo and typing in “terminal” in the search box.  Little bit clunky like how Windows Vista arbitrarily moved around applications from Windows XP (thank goodness Vista was retired though!)

 

 

Filed Under: Virtual Technologies

Easy file sharing between Windows 7 (host OS) and Ubuntu 11.10 (guest OS)

January 31, 2012 by 1 Comment

If you are new to Ubuntu and/or Windows networking, it can be somewhat daunting in trying to figure out how to share folders between the host operating system with one of the guest operating systems.

Unlike VMWare’s VMPlayer, VirtualBox does not support dragging-and-dropping files between the host and guest operating systems.  But VirtualBox does allow you to create a “shared folder” that can be used to exchange files between guest and host operating systems.

Before we get started, let’s make sure that we are all on the same page:

  • Laptop with Windows 7 (any variety) with Service Pack 1 as the HOST (or parent) operating system;
  • VirtualBox from Oracle (version 4.1.4 r74291 or higher) with “guest additions” module installed;
  • Ubuntu operating system(version 11.10 or higher);

I am going to assume nothing so I apologize in advance if I am outlining the the following steps in excruciating detail:

Step 1> Start Windows 7;
Step 2>Start VirtualBox launcher and start the guest Ubuntu OS;
Step 3>If you are unsure whether or not you have guest addition installed, simply adjust the window size when Ubuntu has launched.  If the desktop automatically adjusts to your window size, you have guest additions installed;  If not, click here (TBD) to learn how;
Step 4>In Windows 7, create a folder named ubu-shared (By the way, although Windows does not normally distinguish between the upper and lower case letters, Ubuntu treats them differently so please stay consistent)
Step 5>In VirtualBox window containing the guest OS, click Devices –> Shared Folder then type in ubu-shared

Step 6>Next, you need to create a mountpoint under Ubuntu before you can link to ubu-shared so open up the terminal application (see how) and type in sudo mkdir /media/windows-share
Step 7>You will need your superuser / admin password to execute the above command so enter it when prompted;
Step 8>You can mount ubu-shared using mountpoint windows-share by typing in: sudo mount -t vboxsf ubu-shared /media/windows-share (vboxsf = virtualbox shared folder; this step links two different folders together)

That’s it!  From now on, you can either place files under ubuntu–>windows-share folder or windows 7 –>ubu-shared folder to exchange documents.

After placing a test.txt file under Windows “ubu-shared” folder, you can access the same file under Ubuntu by simply clicking on the Home Folder on the left side nav bar (2nd from the top looks like a house), which will open up Ubuntu’s file manager.  From there, click on FILE SYSTEM  –> MEDIA –> windows-share.

Have fun with it!

Filed Under: front-top-slider, sharing folders with host OS, ubuntu, virtual machines, virtualbox

Monitoring applications on your desktop or laptop

January 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you’ll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you’ll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

Best of all, it is FREE from Microsoft.

Download the executable here (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653)

Filed Under: Product Reviews, software

Review of Vehicle Charger – Motorola Vehicle Power Adapter micro-USB Rapid Rate Charger

January 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Because my wife and I own Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic Touch and LG Optimus, I opted to go with Motorola version which provides extra amperage (up to 950mA) and ordered 2 chargers (one for each vehicle).

I ordered mine on Jan 12, 2012 and received 2 plastic packages marked PVN1616 (SKU 76049201772) which looked like they were part of bulk packaging.  Packaging inside indicated it was SPN5400A (P/N 11222-0817337). 

The label on the charger itself had a model # CHR-0291 and was able to find related documents from Motorola (Declaration of Conformity – if the link is broken, click on the archive CHR-0291_DoC_EU_RevA; Regulatory Guide, if the link is broken, click on the archive 13818101a).

Based on additional information found on the “cigarette lighter” connector side, words ENTRDA and SALIDA make me believe that this particular unit I received was made for the Spanish market (ENTRADA means INPUT and SALIDA means OUTPUT)

The charger itself had a small hologram sticker on the micro USB connector end (molded boot connected to the cable for durability).

On the cigarette light end, it had an attractive “M” hologram logo that lighted up when plugged into a power source.  Some vendor touted this feature as a map reading light, but considering where it would be positioned in most cars, I find that hard to believe.

In addition, the coiled cable was nice and thick, shielding any interference from the radio.

I had no problem charging either the Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic Touch or LG Optimus while using Sprint Navigation and some light email downloads.

Overall I am very satisfied with the quality and construction of this particular unit.  I highly suggest you stay away from car chargers that have separate charging unit and cable as they tend to loosen up quite easily over a short period of time.

I will be writing up additional product reviews related to Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic Touch soon.  If you are in a hurry and just want accessories that work, check out the list here

BTW, if you like to tinker around and build yourself an USB voltage tester, checkout this article at Instructables.com.

 

DISCLAIMER:  This site was not compensated in anyway for product reviews and recommendations.  This site will make a small commission if you visit the Amazon store via the link provided and then you purchase an item from Amazon.

Filed Under: Mobile, Product Reviews

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