Poncho´s Blog

com.pivotmobile.android.metrics file on my Android phone

2021-04-27T18:26:00.003-06:00

I recently ran an scan on my phone using MVISION, the scan indicated that com.pivotmobile.android.metrics was sideloaded and that it should be deleted. I could not find any valuable information of its origin on the web, but looking at the application tab on my phone setting, I could find out that it was installed by Claro, my mobile service provider. So I went ahead and deleted, without a problem

Take this with a little caution (backup before deleting, bla, bla, bla), but it looks to be a mobile service provider tracking file.

How to place Adsense ads in Wordpress

2021-02-09T23:47:00.001-06:00

I guess there are hundreds of ways to do this, but I found the Google natural way of doing it, and I guess it could no be simpler:

Install Site Kit by Google plug-in to your Wordpress site. No need to change themes or anything.

It is a simple plug, where you just click the default options, and Google will do the rest.

Detailed instructions are located here:

https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7527509?hl=en

Cannot open my wordpress site after restore on MAMP

2021-02-06T18:51:00.000-06:00

I was not able to open my wordpress site, and getting the error

"safari cant find server"

the problem seem related to a misdirection of the port not being redirected and trying to run the local wordpress site on port 80, as I have deleted or ruined something in the restore process.

As a workaround, in MAMP, I went to Settings > Ports & User and then set server ports to the usual defaults, not MAMP defaults (80, 81, 443, 7443, 3306 & 11211). Then I could start the site. It is just a workaround, because, going back to "Set default MAMP ports" won't fix it.

Then I tried to open in a fresh browser (I tried opening on Edge), and it worked! So, next step, opening on a Private Window in Safari did the trick. So I deleted history from today, and it all worked fine.

phpMyAdmin - Error Incorrect format parameter restoring sql database on phpAdmin using Mamp

2021-02-06T13:23:00.002-06:00

When I tried to restore a mysql database on phpAdmin, I got the following error:

phpMyAdmin - Error

Incorrect format parameter

after a small search found the following article

https://sitenetic.com/techie/mamp-error-phpmyadmin-error-incorrect-format-parameter/

The problem for me was that the database dump file was bigger than 32MB, and php was limited to 8/32 MB

The fast solution for me, on MAMP console, selected Languages>PHP> and Open the default template

There I changed the following parameter

post_max_size = 128M

and the following parameter

upload_max_filesize = 128M

MAMP offered to restart the servers, and I did, and then, I was able to restore my database!

Problems installing KB2770917 in Windows 8

2012-11-19T10:15:00.000-06:00

I was having some problems installing Windows 8 KB2770917 update, it stopped at 15% and then it rolled back the installation. As being diagnosed as having CUD (Cumpulsory update disorder) I found a solution in Microsoft site:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_update/i-cannot-install-windows-update-kb2770917/e2189ae7-e86a-4bf2-931a-d985b25ad950

Run msconfig (Windows+R, msconfig)
Go to Services
Select Hide all Microsoft services
Disable All non Microsoft services
Setup KB
reboot
run msconfig again, Services and Enable all Services
reboot again to start the services
and it worked for me.

How to find out if you are running 32-bit or 64-bit version of MySQL

2012-10-24T08:22:00.002-06:00

I neeeded to update MySQL, installed using an automatic installer, so having passed a lot of time after I did the installation, I needed to know which version of MySQL I was running.

I found two was:

Inside MySQL console:

mysql>show global variables like "version_compile%";

The answer was:

+-------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+-------------------------+-------+
| version_compile_machine | x86 |
| version_compile_os | Win64 |
+-------------------------+-------+

As I understand this means that I am runnig x86 version of MySQL on a Windows 64 machine, so the answer for me is that I am running the 32 bit version.

x86 32 bits
i686 32 bits
x86-64 - 64 bits

The other way to get this information is using the command prompt, in your mysqld.exe location run:

mysqld --version

and you will get mostly the same information. As I understand Win64 refers to the machine I am running, and the other value to the mysql version.

http://localhost/sys/en/classic/login/login page not found installing ProcessMaker

2012-10-23T16:03:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to install ProcessMaker using Wamp to avoid having several installations of MySQL, Apache and PHP. After serveral attemps I kept getting errors and could not make it work.

My goal was to setup ProcessMaker in the following way. I tried using an alias instead of a Virtual Host.

http://localhost/ProcessMaker

As it turns out, it cannot be done that way. Whatever you do, you will not make it work (I guess there is a way, but yet have to find one, and would be not supported).

The correct way would be something like

http://ProcessMaker.localhost

This would requiere changes in my hosts file and I guess I will have to go that way. The reference I found was this:

http://forum.processmaker.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=249

Hopes to save you some time.

Problems after upgrading Wordpress

2012-10-23T09:23:00.002-06:00

I've have this problem a couple of times after upgrading Wordpress to the latest version. Trying to go to the admin page in Wordpress, I received the message that the page does not exist with the following line in the address bar, after my site name

http://..../wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F

I do not remember what I did the last time, I believe I reinstalled the update from Goddady's site. But this time around it did not work. After doing some research I found this at the Wordpress site:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrade-to-34

The post by chowsir had the solution for me. The way I see it it is very simple, if you read the line. The page that does not exist is upgrade.php, so I look into my wp-admin directory, and it is true, the file is not there, there are other files with similar names update.php, upgrade-functions.php, update-core.php, but the file upgrade.php is not there, at least, not anymore.

Go to http://wordpress.org/download/ and download wordpress again
unzip the files and go int wp-admin folder
copy the file upgrade.php to your site.

I received a message about the need to update the database, gave it a click, and now is working again.

Hope it helps, if not, now I know what to do the third time around.

Problem with USB drivers

2012-07-13T16:47:00.000-06:00

Having messed up my USB drivers, doing things that shouldn't be done on Windows I ended up with the following problems:

1. USB Hubs (specifically a Belkin hub first, and all including internal notebook hubs) were not recognized as such, I made them work as USB Root Hubs installing the driver manually, but with problems.
2. Kindle Fire not recognized as a external drive, the was no way I could find a driver for it.
3. Livescribe Echo Pen not being recognized, even installing the driver manually with an error 257, and connecting and disconnecting by itself every 5 to 10 seconds.

Being desperate, I decided to remove all Universal Serial Bus controllers from the "Computer Management" or Device Manager in Windows, using the reasoning, how worse can this be. To my surprise, nothing was now recognized, even when I re-installed the USB Host Controller with the original Chipset drivers from Intel/Lenovo.

Then, something magic happened, I found an article in the Microsoft Support site:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/trying-to-install-usb-hubs/e46ebc32-c968-4a24-ad86-8399ae91f95b?auth=1

Basically it suggested updating the driver software from the following location "C:\windows\winsxs" as it turns out, this is very important windows folder, that I wasn't aware of, it is huge, and has every version, of everything that has been installed in your machine. I first updated the drivers for the USB hub, and magically, everything started to fell in place, it took a while, maybe 15 minutes to install the USB hub, but then, everthing started to appear, even the Kindle Fire as an external drive. The only thing missing was the Livescribe Echo, but again, I updated from drivers to c:\windows\winsxs instead of the Echo drivers location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Livescribe\PendriverV2.2). You don't even have to look for a directory inside of it, just choose the complete folder. One of the internal USB hubs kept being recognized as a unknown device, but working, I updated it also form the same location.

At the end everything returned to work. Hope this helps if you run in the same of similar problems.

Installing Android ICS on Amazon Kindle Fire

2012-05-21T11:48:00.003-06:00

I love my Kindle Fire, it was a good buy, and worked great. Rooting is a must, as you cannot buy or install much on it if you do not have an US Bank issued credit card. But after getting a iPad, it seemed liked getting behind. Having Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on my Galaxy S, I knew the problem was not the device, but the OS version. I tried installing ICS a while ago, but could not run Netflix, and YouTube, almost everything else worked, but the video part was important. So after a short while, I went back to the Kindle OS (Android 2.x, with a "you cannot get lost" interface).

But reading about the developments in ICS, and that video is now supported, I decided to try again. The process is real simple, but risky. For a couple of hours, last time I tried it, I ended with a bricked kindle. But in the end it all went back to normal.

The first step for me was installing Kindle Fire Utility:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1399889

The instructions are there, and with this took, you can root your Kindle, once rooted you can install TWRP Recovery. With this software, you can also return your Kindle back to stock, so don't worry about "much" leaving your Kindle useless. There is also an Kindle "unbrick" utility available somewhere.

Then you can install a new ROM, the one I found was here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1591850

I have tried 05-12 Kernel #10 full stock CM9 and it is working like a charm.

You will also need Google utilities, that have to be installed after that, the place I have downloaded them, and it works great is:

http://goo.im/gapps/

ics-20120429 version has worked for me.

In general it works very good, just like any other tablet running ICS. Netflix and YouTube work, as well as Zinio, and Kindle. Google new Play Store works, Google Chrome beta and many more. The interface is nicer that Amazon Kindle library style interface.

You can also change the language on you Kindle, specially to avoid the annoying corrections.

Problems found:

I will say there are three problems affecting me, right now, none of them have convinced me to return to Amazon old interface.

Some magazines are not available in Kindle for Android client
I could not find Kindle 100 free books list , strange as it works on ipad, but you can use Amazon full website list: Kindle Free "Bestsellers"
Kindle cannot be accessed through the USB port, there is no option to share the USB to you computer, the best work around is to boot the Kindle and use the USB mount in TWRP Recovery
Battery would discharge in around a day, the battery life is kind of OK, maybe around 4 hours using video, but when not use, the battery would discharge anyway. Charging indicator and lights do not work either.
Microphone still does not work for me, but if you program requires audio to launch, it will work, but input audio will not be usable.

Bottom line:

If you use your Kindle Fire outside of the US, and use you Kindle mainly in your house or office, you will have a better experience tranforming it to and ICS Tablet.

Ubuntu does not recognize windows partitions

2012-05-11T16:20:00.001-06:00

Trying to install Ubuntu 12.10, the Ubuntu installer does not recognize that a Windows partition exists. Looking around, it seems kind an usual problem, but with not many real solutions. Browsing around I found an utility to "fix"my partition table. My partition table was working great in Windows, so "fix" is more appropriate than fix.

http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

Being myself I Windows person, I selected the Windows version of the program:

to run it I used

fixparts 0:

The first thing I got was:

NOTICE: GPT signatures detected on the disk, but no 0xEE protective partition!
The GPT signatures are probably left over from a previous partition table.
Do you want to delete them (if you answer 'Y', this will happen
immediately)? (Y/N):

Now I understood the problem. I used this disk to install MacOS, and the leftovers made the problem. I selected, Y (for yes) and then w to save and exit. Booted Windows again to see everything was OK, and then reran the Ubuntu installer. Now it recognizes my partitions. Now I might even try to install MacOS again, instead of Ubuntu.

The solution to this problem came from:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1712153

So if you do not understand what I did, maybe you will from there.

Problems with iPhoto, iBooks Author and Photo Boot in VMWare Virtual Mac

2012-04-22T20:52:00.000-06:00

The only real problem I still have running Mac OS X in a VMWare Windows PC is related to graphics in a limited number of programs. I found the following thread:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=274878

But no solution in sight. Is a shame I spend my first $15 in the Apple store buying iPhoto and the program is completely useless right now, I hope you guys at insanelymac.com find a solution soon, but for those looking for a solution, I can tell you that for now, I now I have problem, like you.

Adding sound to VMWare Lion 1.7.3 computer

2012-04-22T20:45:00.001-06:00

As my research on running Lion on a PC, one of the problems I found was installing audio. The process looked rather simple, install the following driver:

EnsoniqAudioPCI_v1.0.3_Lion.pkg

No big science there, the speaker audio appeared, itunes ran without a problem, but still no sound. My solution, really studid really:

Go to System Preferences
Select Sound, then Output
Chose Line Out,

The problem was solved and it works OK, not great but OK.

Experiences with Lenovo S10-3t and Mac OSX

2012-04-19T16:20:00.003-06:00

I am doing some research on Mac OS X running on ordinary PC's, and after a while, my overall conclusion it is a better investment to buy a mac mini, but I will not buy it for now.

Some issues with the installation

The installation procedure can be found here:

http://iatkos.me/2011/12/readme-en/

Use iATKOS 2 to install, the most important are:

"If you have a NetBook with an Intel Atom CPU, then press F8 at boot screen, type “mach_atom” without quotes and hit enter"

Then when you install, you have to select the Atom option, and the PS/2 option for the installation to work.

Cannot boot in OSX after installing VoodooHDA Audio Controller

One of the problems I had is that I tried installing Voodoo HDA drivers to make my sound work. After installing the drivers, I got an error about not being able to install the driver, and the installation program locked up.

After some research on the web, I found a solution to restore the machine

Boot OSX again, while still in the Chameleon Screen, press F8, then write -s to enter single user mode. To write -s just type at the screen, and a boot line will appear at the bottom.

The computer will boot in text mode.

Type (remember to write in the correct case, as the system take caps different that small letters):

fsck -fy (This will check the disk)
mount -uw / (This will put the disk in read/write mode)
rm -r /System/Library/Extension/voodooHDA.kext (to remove the offending driver)

then you can reboot your machine. There is no need to re install Mac OSX again.

After booting I typed the following command in a Terminal window

voodoohda-uninstall

This deletes all traces os the voodo HDA driver

AzaliaAudio

Tried Azalia Audio package also, but .after a long time installing, and booting the machine, still no sound.

Network adapter

Another issue was with the network adapter, after a long time I found this

http://www.osx86.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=1785

It works, but only when I updated to 10.7.3. Right now only the cabled network is working, hope wireless eventually works.

Starting all over again

At the end, I decided to re-partition my hard drive, as all was devoted to Mac OSX. Installed Windows 7 on one partition, and tried to install again, but got hooked in the circle/backslash screen, and nowhere to go. After forgetting the issue, and leave the machine with Windows only time went by.

It seems to be a problem with the partition table, when I tried to install Linux, I also had problems, to solve it for me, look at the article about recognizing Windows partitions to install Linux later in this blog, but to give you a hint, fix it with the tool found here:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

after fixing the partition table, the OS installer worked again.

Kindle Fire Overseas experience

2011-12-05T18:29:00.000-06:00

I bought a Kindle Fire to replace my old Kindle (less than a year old). I live in Guatemala City, Guatemala and that is considered overseas (I do not why, if you can go thru México to here). Living overseas is considered almost a sin, and the Great Wall of the AAs (MPAA and RIAA) is worse than the Great Firewall of China.

Back to the Kindle Fire, the first thing you can notice is that you can buy Kindle books without a problem, sometimes at a higher price, but it works. You can buy at the normal Amazon Store also. You can download e-mail (including gmail) using the included mail app. You can browse the Internet. Buy, download, read Kindle books.

You cannot stream movies and music.

But you cannot buy at the Amazon App store, and it is my understanding that you have to register a credit card with an U.S. address and from an U.S. bank to buy at the app store, having a U.S. registered address in your credit card or in Amazon is not enough; it has to be from a U.S. bank. The only apps I could install from the Amazon App Store were a couple of apps I downloaded one day that the store was open to the world, I believe by mistake, and that's it, no free apps, no paid apps, nothing.

My first option was to look for alternate stores; Android Market is not available either. And did not want to root my Kindle Fire on the first day, so I looked for alternatives. First you have to allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources (located in Settings, Device), then look for stores that have an apk download option, these are the ones I am using:

· SlideMe (http://slideme.org)
· Soc.io (http://soc.io)
· Aptoide (http://www.aptoide.com)

Each store has many apps, but you cannot find everything here, but there is a wide selection of apps. The Kindle Fire defaults to Amazon App Store, so is a little annoying but it works. Not all applications work so you have to do your homework. Google Apps, including Gmail do not work either and I believe you have to root your phone to make them work (I will take about this, another day).

Workout pauses while running with Nikeplus on the iphone

2010-02-01T11:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend I had my first real run with my Iphone and Nikeplus sensor. Usually I use my iphone only when running in a treadmill, and my ipod nano for running outside, buy since this was a 21K run and had the need for a phone, just in case, I decided to use my iphone. After 6 miles, things got weird, my iphone paused the workout for no apparent reason, so I began receiving the message, pausing workout, sometimes it came back on it´s own, sometimes I had to press play again, with my wet hands to continue. I tried moving it to another pocket to avoid any contact, but, it was locked, so there was no way that I could pause it by contact.

The solution

As always, easer that you may imagine. I took the earplugs out, and voila, the problem apparently was that there was a false contact in the earplugs, I was using the earplugs included with the ipod, with them, you cand do two things while running, turn the volume up and down, and .....

PAUSE THE WORKOUT

so, my advice to you, use conventional earplugs while running, maybe you won´t be able to talk in the phone while running, but after all, this is one of the reasons to run.

Mass Storage Controller error with Windows 7 and Tecra A6

2009-12-05T12:48:00.000-06:00

I was unable to use my SD Reader on a Toshiba Tecra A6, the reader apparently was recognized, but the card did not show while browsing my computer. There was also a couple of devices not recognized by my windows 7 installation a Mass Storage Controller and another Unknown device. At this moment I have not cared for the unknown device, but I guess that it is the HDD Protection device that used to lock my PC when I moved it in Win7 RC.

The solution:

I downloaded a new controller for the device from cnet:

http://download.cnet.com/TI-CardReader-v2-0-0-8-zip/3000-2110_4-200929.html

when I tryed to installed it and got an error message about unable to install, so I updated the device, directly telling it to Update Driver Software from the following address

C:\CardR\Windows\tiinst\Vista64

By the way I installed the driver in the CardR directory at root. Now I can use my card reader and was able to enable the ReadyBoost option with my SDHC 8GB card. Hope it really helps and that I am not wasting my card.

vmware.exe - No Disk

2009-09-13T13:33:00.000-06:00

I was trying to run vmware last nigh, and started receiving an error message, trying to open vmware, the moment I tried to opened, it a received the error. Vmware player was working OK, but I wanted to create a new virtual machine so I had to find a solution. The error message was:

wmware.exe - No Disk
There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive \Device\Harddisk3\DR2. I looked everywhere, including the registry, trying to find a configuration option or something that could be wrong, and nothing helped. Then I discovered a couple of entries on vmware site that helped solving it. Apparently there is something wrong with the preferences file, locate in

%APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini for Windows
~/.vmware/preferences for Linux

Not wanting to spend all night trying to solve it, I first deleted de preferences.ini file without looking into it much with no luck.

The solution:

I deleted the directory VMWare, first I typed cd %APPDATA% in a command window to look where the directory was. In my case, running windows 7 it was located in:

C:\Users\Alfonso\AppData\Roaming

then opened it in the windows explorer and deleted it, and this worked, I lost my favorites and open files history, but truth is, that is almost irrelevant. The other thing I learned, and I guess it had always worked, is that typing %APPDATA% in the start menu, went directly to the directory, I mean it replaces the variable, as it should and does in a batch file.

My ipod pauses for no apparent reason

2009-09-04T14:46:00.000-06:00

Hi, at least I understood why. While driving, usually on a bad road my ipod kept on pausing for no apparent reason. The most strange thing was that sometimes it would do it and sometimes not. Knowing it has a hard drive (160GB) I assumed that because of the bad road the buffer was getting full, and had not enough time to get the new info from the disk, and some other geeky reasons why this was happening.

The solution:

Simpler than I could imagine. I bought a $2 cable on a electronic shop, and I guess it does not fit as well as the ipod headphones, so all I have to do is make sure that the plug gets well connected. As you know when you remove the headphones plug, the ipods goes to pause, and if it has a bad connection, or I guess plug, it will pause. How I can go back to my bad streets (and shock absorbers too, I guess).

Being tired of taking my DLSR everywhere!

2009-08-29T21:40:00.001-06:00

So I love my DSLR, I got a low end Canon with a couple of "L" lenses and is really great. Specially since I bought the L-series lenses, at last I understood that what everyone tells you that it is the photographer that makes the great pictures and not the equipment, is only half true. It will make a difference!

But you get tired of taking around that equipment, and besides that it is expensive to be caring around all that equipment in case you have the opportunity to take a picture, so, for my 43rd birthday I got a point and shoot camera. Looking for it was the worst part. One part of you wants to keep taking pictures with all the control you have with a DSLR, but on the other hand, you want a camera that at least can be hold in a big shorts bag. So after looking around and decided I wanted a Canon G10, but that it would not solve my problem, it is a big camera anyway, it got a Canon SX200 IS.

The camera is little smaller than the G10, which is good. It cannot really be used as a last resort emergency backup camera in an assignment but it a great camera. I always have disable digital zoom for my camera, but tried it anyway, and it is amazing::

Wide side of the lens (look at the mini-Eiffel tower at the right)

Full optical zoom, hand held

Full digital zoom hand held (I never realized there was a bell at the top)

So after using it for almost a month, I can surely say, it is great having a point at shoot with you almost all the time, that is not your partner camera. And this camera is very good. Video is also great.

The only problem I have found is that I took almost all of my pictures from the point and shoot, I hope to go back to my DSLR on september.

Installed programs disappear in Windows 7 RC1 64 bit

2009-08-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

I have been trying Windows 7 since it came out in beta, I installed it in a 32bit Dell GX270 desktop and a 64 bit Toshiba Tecra A6, and it worked OK, specially in the 64 bit machine, BUT, in this machine after I installed some programs and booted the machine some programs disappeared, at first, not having a very structured mind I thought that I have not done so, but after doing it for the second or third time, it was obvious that the programs disappeared. Directories where there, and a lot of files, except for the exe files. I look for a lot of solutions in the Internet but, as always none made sense, or did not worked. I changed Avast and Kaspersky for Norton Anti-virus but nothing seemed to worked.

The solution:

I removed System Restore from my system. I do like the idea of system restore, I have seen it work with a friend of mine, after he installed some software, but for some reason, unknown to me, system restore was deleting the software I have installed. Very weird solution, but at the end it made sense.