Ashfame | Tech Blog

Check webdesign in different versions of IE

Ashfame — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:24:33 +0000

I am a freelancer web designer and as a web designer I design websites that are cross browser compatible. I know how much of a pain is IE for all web designers. So today I am sharing something that will help some, if not many of the web designers (front end developers).

Earlier I have written about BrowserShots.org which takes the screenshot of how a webpage will look in different browsers and save screenshots of it. But what if we need to take a look at a design which is not live yet? For this, every one including me uses (at least has installed) several of popular browsers like Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari & IE.

IE 7 got smarter and IE 8 is still holding that up. Things will improve in future but what about the people still using IE 6 or previous versions. Earlier I was using Multiple IE (10.3MB) which enables the installation of IE 3 to IE 6 by exploiting a known workaround called DLL redirection. It is no longer maintained but it it still available to download.

Today I found another software named IE Tester (24MB) which is an alpha release but works well till far I used it. It is a web browser of its own which allows you to have the rendering & JavaScript engines of IE 5, IE 6, IE 7 & IE 8. Its equivalent of running different versions of IE at the same time.

Did you find the share useful? What do you use for checking cross browser compatibilities of web designs. Let me know through your valuable comments.

Pimp your Gmail look

Ashfame — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:21:15 +0000

We all love Gmail. Don’t we? I even use Gmail on domains but one thing that it certainly lacks in is its look. Google don’t give much importance to the looks other than colors and all as it doesn’t want to compromise with performance at any point. Gmail addiction is too much already and here comes a firefox add-on which is created to completely change the Gmail look. It uses a custom stylesheet (CSS) for changing the looks in the user browser overwriting the default styling of the Gmail. It only works for Mozilla browsers. The add-on also supports pimping Google Calendar & Google Reader.

All you need is the Gmail Redesigned add on and you are good to go. It checks for style updates daily and will download & apply them. Once installed, you got nothing to worry about, just pleasure to your eyes. Although you have the option of disabling the style by right click on the extension icon in the bottom right of Firefox.

Here are some more screenshots:

It also supports Google Calendar.

and Google Reader too.

How cool is it? Let me know your reactions.

bbPress 0.9.0.5 has been released

Ashfame — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:38:48 +0000

While I have been waiting for the bbPress 1.0 which holds up many changes under the hood, I was today in a little surprised when I saw a new stable version of bbPress version and that too not 1.0

It fixes up many bugs in 0.9.0.4 so it came up before anything else. I am officially announcing my interest in bbPress and I might stick close to it as I am in love with it. (What’s so official about it anyway?)

I always check bbPress forum everyday and today when I saw the about the release, I wanted to see how to upgrade it (just like WordPress or something different) and how is its integration with WordPress.

Upgrading from 0.9.0.4 to 0.9.0.5 is pretty easy. You just need to take care of your configuration file (bb-config.php). Next upload the new files of bbPress by overwriting the files of previous version and you are good to go. However, upgrading from earlier versions can be a little different. I would recommend upgrading a similar setup on a localhost environment.

The next thing that I wanted to do was to see if the tutorial for bbPress integration with WordPress was working fine which I wrote a few days back. I tried on a localhost environment and it was working fine. So you can safely upgrade to the newer version without breaking anything with your existing integration. The same tutorial works fine for integrating bbPress 0.9.0.5 with WordPress 2.7.1

One thing that I would like to bring in everybody’s notice is that tutorial was for basic integration (having bbPress in a sub-directory of WordPress), deep integrations might work fine too but I am not sure.

I recommend using & sticking with the stable release on a live production site. You can upgrade to v 1.0 anytime but downgrade is not possible (although feasible).

Download bbPress 0.9.0.5

I offer integration of both the scripts (bbPress + WordPress) as a service when you hire me. If you have any questions regarding anything, then leave a comment here or get on with me on Gtalk (ashishsainiashfame) and I will be glad to help you out. Have your say! I am all ears.

Vaccinate USB drives to prevent virus infection

Ashfame — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:05:39 +0000

Earlier I have written about how to disabe USB autorun to save the computer from being infected with various sort of malware which adds action in the autorun.inf file to execute them self on the double click action. Hence if you double click open a pen drive or your USB drive (an infected one), then the virus will itself get executed. A virus residing in a folder does not harm unless it is executed. After all, virus is just a piece of code and before it can do anything, it needs to be in running state (execution state).

The earlier method that i wrote was a registry hack with the help of which one can disable USB autorun but a few days back, I found out a great tool from Panda which can disable autorun from your computer completely and moreover it implements a special trick which renders the virus attack of adding its execution to the autorun.inf useless.

It adds a autorun.inf file of its own which can’t be read or deleted. Hence even the virus can’t modify it and you are safe to go. An antivirus is recommended all the time though.

It can also be operated in command Line interface for making it run automatically each time when a USB drive is mounted or to perform network wide vaccinations. Best of all its free.

I would recommend creating a shortcut to the tool with the parameters USBVaccine.exe /resident /hidetray +system and copying the shortcut to startup folder so that every time a USB device is mounted on the computer and if it is not vaccinated, it will prompt you for vaccination. Nice. Isn’t it?

So why don’t you give it a try and enjoy what I call as “Safe Computing”.

Bonus Tip: How to practice safe computing?

Make a habit of never opening a pen drive / USB drive / thumb drive by double click. Always open the drive from the tree pane view. (Exploring My Computer opens that view only and moreover you can press the folder options in explorer to enable it). Why? Because the default action with this method is always viewing the content and not executing any file.

Similarly Optical drives can be inserted by holding the Shift key which disable the autorun feature temporarily. This tool can disable that for you. No worries!

Download Panda USB Vaccination Tool [380KB]

I would like to hear your words on the trick implemented by this tool. Do you like it?

Transfer domain to godaddy

Ashfame — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:08:22 +0000

Earlier I wrote about how you can cancel Godaddy domain registration order and now today I am writing about how you can transfer domain from any registrar to Godaddy. I would try to cover enough information that this tutorial will serve a good one for transferring domains from any registrar to any other but the screenshots will be of Godaddy as the gaining registrar.

Lets understand the process to make things easy.

How Domain Transfer is carried out?

Loosing Registrar – The one with which the domain is registered for now.
Gaining Registrar – The one to which we want to transfer the domain.
Domain Transfer is bought at the gaining registrar.
Domain should be unlocked at the loosing registrar and Domain Secret Key or Authorization Code is gained needed to initiate the transfer.
Gaining Registrar sends an email to confirm the transfer along with a Transaction ID and Security Code.
Gaining Registrar sends a notification to Loosing Registrar to transfer the domain.
Loosing Registrar sends confirmation for release of domain.
After confirmation, it releases the domain to Gaining Registrar.
A transfer success notification is sent & the domain control is now available at the new registrar.

Steps for transferring from any registrar to Godaddy

Select Transfer Domains at the homepage of Godaddy.

Enter the name of domain and proceed to checkout.

When you have purchased the domain transfer, then open Domain Manager by selecting My Domains under the My Products tab on the left sidebar.

From the Domains menu, select Pending Transfer.

Click the Authorization button on the right side and select Begin Transfer Authorization.

Enter the Transaction ID & Security Code received earlier in email.

Authorize the transfer.

Enter the Domain Secret Key or Authorization Code on the next prompt.

Wait for instructions from the Loosing Registrar to approve the transfer. If the domain is unlocked and no reply is received within 5 days, it will proceed forward.
After release of domain, it will soon be available under your new registrar’s account.

Now you have complete control of your domain on your new registrar’s account.

Have you ever transferred domains from one registrar to another? How was your experience? If you ran into issues or need more help, then leave a comment here and I will try to help.

Setup Google Apps for managing domain emails

Ashfame — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:30:25 +0000

I am using Google Apps for managing emails for some of my domains already and a friend cum client just showed interest in having a email ID on his domain. I told him that one can use Google Apps for letting Google manage their domain emails and he couldn’t ask for more. I was going to use it for one more of my domain so I thought I would write a post on it as the already available tutorials failed to satisfy my expectations out of a tutorial.

Alright. What we need to do is that as soon as the mail comes to our domain, we want that mail to go to Google’s server so that it can be collected and stored over there.

So Lets begin.

First of all, Sign up for Google Standard Edition here : http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
You may want to look at Premier edition before signing up as there are some restrictions in the Standard edition like accounts for only 50 users can be created under Standard edition.
Create a account that you will use to manage that domain account on Google Apps. For example : admin@example.com
Verify Domain ownership either by uploading a html file or by creating a CNAME record.
Create a new user as the email you wanted on your domain name. For example : mail@example.com
Now login with your new user by changing the domain name to the one concerned in the URL example : http://mail.google.com/a/example.com

Now we have done the setup on Google Apps. Lets proceed to making changes in our hosting account.
Login in your hosting account and look for MX entry or MX records.

Enter the values one by one which are as following :

Priority	Mail Server
1	ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
5	ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
5	ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
10	ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
10	ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

( The values were taken from Google Apps Admin Help. )

After making the changes, wait for the DNS to propagate which can take up to 48hrs.

You have completed the setup for having your own email on domain which is managed by Google Apps. Let me know via comments if you need more help or ran into issues.

Cancel Godaddy Domain Registration Order

Ashfame — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:12:43 +0000

Recently I was playing with the Godaddy cart and found myself into a position where I have placed an order of an unwanted domain and that too with no discount coupons applied (I could have saved some bucks) whereas I myself keep au updated copy of some of the Godaddy discount coupons for personal use or for anyone who would like to save some bucks.

Here are the instructions I followed to cancel the order and get a refund :

I wrote them a support request and told them that I have bought a domain in mistake and would like to cancel my order. I was already logged in (so my Account ID gets communicated automatically). I told them the domain in concern and the Order number. Less data may do the job too but I tried to put up as much information I had.

Then I got a email response from their support team asking me to follow these steps:

Select Payments and Renewing Items from the Renewals menu towards the left of your screen.
Check the box next to the item(s) you would like to cancel and click on the Cancel Item button.
Select Cancel Now in the menu that appears to the right and then click on Save Changes.

Let them know when you have done these steps by replying to their support email and you will be good with your part. In approximately 2 days time, I got my order canceled and Credit Card was refunded with a deducted amount. I am not sure if Godaddy deducted some of the amount or it was my Bank but I was satisfied that I almost got the whole of it refunded with a small deduction as a price of my mistake (Never Mind - Mistakes are the best teachers). So if you have accidentally bought a domain too then Don’t Panic, a domain registration order can be canceled within 5days. Have your say in the comments.

Integrate bbpress forum with your wordpress setup

Ashfame — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:51:47 +0000

You are already familiar with WordPress but do you know about the great forum script bbPress which is a less lot in code and gives you the functionality of a forum without the burden of extra bells & whistles.

Some of the benefits of integrating bbPress with WordPress are as follows :

Users need to register only once on your site to be able to login into both bbPress & WordPress
Existing users will be taken care of (although I have no idea of conflicts in two tables if you were earlier running both of them independently)
Users need to login only once and it will be reflected throughout the site (both in bbPress & WordPress)
Uses the same database (makes backup easy)

Before you get on with this tutorial I would like to tell you that the latest stable version of bbPress at the time of writing this tutorial is 0.9.0.4 which integrates easily with WordPress 2.5

The reason that bbPress 0.9.0.4 is incompatible with WordPress 2.6+ is the change in the way WordPress handles cookies and the addition of more authentication unique keys. So, I am writing this tutorial for integrating bbPress 0.9.0.4 with WordPress 2.7.1.

UPDATE: This tutorial works for integrating bbPress 0.9.0.5 with WordPress 2.7.1 too.

The release of bbPress 1.0 will ensure that the integration process with WordPress to be a painless experience but if you can’t wait to try on, then read on.

INSTALL WORDPRESS FIRST

I have gone a little more to enhance the security of WordPress so please observe carefully, I will point out that at times.

Recommended but not Mandatory Steps

These steps are recommended and only need to be done if you are doing a fresh installation of WordPress. Changing them in existing installation needs more things to be done.

Change the WP prefix table from “$table_prefix = wp_’;” to something else like “$table_prefix = ‘rocking_’;” in wp-config.php
Use WP secret key service to generate yourself authentication unique keys : https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ and paste them in wp-config.php

Required Steps

Open this URL : http://example.org/wp-admin/options.php in your browser and copy the following values :

auth_salt
secret
logged_in_salt

Now proceed to install bbPress.

INSTALL BBPRESS NOW

Make a sub folder in your WordPress directory so as to have the forums in the sub-directory. For example: Main site URL is http://example.org/ and forums URL is http://example.org/forums

Recommended but not Mandatory Step

Change the bbPress table prefix from “$bb_table_prefix = ‘bb_’;” to something else like “$bb_table_prefix = ‘life_’;” in bb-config.php

Required Steps

Install bbPress by opening http://example.org/forums/ and skip the WordPress integration part in Step 2.

Install it, login using the random password, change the password and then open WordPress integration settings under the Settings tab.

Fill the details :

WordPress address URL
Blog address URL
WordPress database secret (copied earlier from WP options page)

Add these two lines in bb-config.php

$bb->custom_user_table = 'wp_users';
$bb->custom_user_meta_table = 'wp_usermeta';

Change the table prefix if you have done it during installation.

Download this plugin : Freshly baked cookies

Install it in bbPress and open it for editing.

Fill the following details

LOGGED_IN_KEY (from wp-config.php)
LOGGED_IN_SALT (copied earlier from WP options page)
AUTH_KEY (from wp-config.php)
AUTH_SALT (copied earlier from WP options page)

Till now integration should be done but you might not be able to access the bbPress admin board anymore because we are sharing the USERS table and the bbPress is treating the admin user as a normal user so we need to get the rights back.

If you are using the default table prefix for both WP and bbPress, then you can use this plugin : Fix Admin Access or else do it manually in phpMyAdmin. If you are using the plugin, then you can delete it as soon as it give the rights back to the admin user.

How to fix access in phpMyAdmin

Open the table wp_usermeta or rocking_usermeta or as per whatever you are using as your table prefix.

Change the value of following:

bb_capabilities => a:1:{s:9:”keymaster”;b:1;}
wp_capabilities => a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;} (make sure this is the value)
wp_user_level => 10 (make sure this is the value)

You may have different fields if you have chosen to change the default table prefix.

Now you have got WordPress 2.7.1 and bbPress 0.9.0.4 integrated. Now they can do the talking. If you are having trouble then leave a comment & I will try to help.

Back to business

Ashfame — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:32:04 +0000

Hello everybody!

After a long gap of 5 months, I am back to blogging. I was not out of business but I was in a small shell where I was living my life and learning a great deal of things which will reflect now.

I have started freelancing as a web designer focused on WP based sites. As a part of designing static websites, I have given my homepage a new look (which is temporary till I get it match with my blog theme) I learned many things like maintaining Virtual Private Server (VPS), designing WordPress themes, experience with bbPress (upcoming great forum script from Automattic), experience in designing logos and setting up ideas for my upcoming projects.

My Portfolio is online too, although the latest work is not live yet. I would also like to let all of you know that now I am available for hire and offer a array of services.

I would also like to thank a lot of readers who subscribed after October. Now I have 500+ readers, but the traffic remains the same. I also apologize for not replying to comments. I did reply on some of the posts but most of them were buried unanswered

At present I am focused on learning PHP after which I will dive into WordPress and bbPress deeply because I want to be a part of open source community as being an active contributor.

I would also like to make a announcement that Rishi is designing a theme for this blog. Earlier I was designing a theme myself but I came up with something other than what I expect my blog to reflect, so I pumped it out of schedule because I have got other things to do having a strict deadline and meanwhile Rishi offered a theme design so I was convinced that he could come up with something better than the current theme which will be live for a few months and then I will pimp my whole portal to have an aesthetic look.

If by chance, any one of you have good experience in CSS, WordPress, PHP, Web Server Administration and if you would like to be friends, then please reach for me on GTalk – ashishsainiashfame or leave a comment here with details and I will get in touch with you.

Any more questions regarding where I was, which gal I was hanging out with or anything that you would like to know, just leave a comment on get in touch through the contact form.

See ya around.

Picreflect create reflection of images

Ashfame — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:35:08 +0000

A few months back many blogs were having logos with a mirror reflection of their brand name which in my terms was appealing and worth for the time you opt a professional logo design. Earlier Photoshop or Gimp (Image Editing Softwares) were used to create such effects but now there are automated scripts which can do the same job with a lot of ease. Picreflect (in beta right now) is a similar service I thought would be the worth the share with you.

You just need to make selections such as the height of reflection, transparency and resizing options along with some minor selections. Upload the image either via a direct link from the web or from your computer and click on “Generate”. From the next page, you can save the image on your computer.

Here is an example of reflection of my logo:

Have fun creating reflection in your images.