Some useful stuff...

BrandMyMail setp by step

2012-01-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

BrandMyMail

step by step

Go to www.brandmymail.com


Step 2 - drag plugins from right Step 3 - Click to configure plugin

Step 4 - Configure your Signature plugin

Add and configure more plugins (optional)

Step 5 - Select a theme (optional)
Step 6 - Preview template (optional)

See your template result

Step 7 - Sign in with Google

Step 9 - Install browser extension

Step 9 - Go to Gmail or BrandMyMail Dashboard

Step 10 - Write your email
Step 11 - Click Send or Preview

Step 10 - Email preview before sending

Sent email

Some notes:

How to remove plugins?


You can remove plugins by clicking on Trash icon You can align the plugin, using the justification buttons

Advanced notes:

Email fixed/expandable width:

When you add a banner bigger than 590px in top container, the email template gets fixed width.

If you use a smaller banner the email stays with 100% width.

Playing with BrandMyMail - new design

2011-12-21T03:26:00.000-08:00

Green Company Template

Lana Del Rey template

BrandMyMail templates

2011-12-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

My BrandMyMail templates

Lana Del Rey template

Anonymous Template

Testing BrandMyMail with Gmail

2011-09-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Testing BrandMyMail with Gmail

Ubuntu CheckGmail always prompt for password fix

2011-09-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Download patch from here

sudo /usr/bin/checkgmail -update

sudo patch /usr/bin/checkgmail checkgmail.patch

checkgmail

Remote outlets, AVIDSEN and CHACON

2011-08-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

Remote Control AVIDSEN (103107)

ON OFF
A 265353 265349
B 266325 266321
C 266649 266645
D 266757 266753
E 266793 266789

period 150

Remote Control CHACON (EMW200RC)

ON OFF

1 164023 164022
2 172771 172770
3 175687 175686
4 176659 176658

period 360

(Note: you may have to try different period intervals, only this worked for me, and it is different from what i get in show_received_code program from RemoteSwitch Library)

How control remote outlets with Arduino ?

1 - Get an RF 433Mhz transmitter module

2 - Install RemoteSwitch library

3 - Connect module to PIN 4

4 - Upload program with the right codes

#include <RemoteSwitch.h>



#define OUTLET_A_ON 265353

#define OUTLET_A_OFF 265349

#define PERIOD 150;



#define RF_TX_PIN 4



void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);

}



void loop() {

Serial.println("Sending off");

transmit(OUTLET_A_OFF);

delay(5000);



Serial.println("Sending on");

transmit(OUTLET_A_ON);

delay(5000);

}



void transmit(unsigned long rcode){

unsigned long code = rcode;

unsigned long period = PERIOD;

code |= (unsigned long)period << 23;

code |= 3L << 20;

RemoteSwitch::sendTelegram(code, RF_TX_PIN); // RF transmitter pin

}

redmine installation problem

2011-08-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

i was trying to install redmine from the link:

Got this problem:

genbox:~# gem install -v=2.3.5 rails

ERROR: could not find gem rails locally or in a repository

This fixed:

wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/74343/rubygems-1.5.3.tgz

tar -xf rubygems*tgz

cd rubygems*

ruby setup.rb

ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem

Arduino Remote Control Outlet

2011-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today i bought an remote control outlet kit from avidsen (2 adapters + remote control)

Using the library and info from here and here, was possible to decode the on/off codes.

After finding these codes, i added and actuator to the platform with two functions on() and off()

Electric water heater

Outlet adapter

Outlet adapter and remote control

Actuator in system

Mobile version

New update: i was forgetting one important thing, set a policy to turn on water heater between 7 am and 8 am and turn off after 8 am.

My policies in system

turn_heater_on policy info

Preparing Arduino Bug Zapper

2010-12-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Objectives:

Detect when a bug is killed

Send data to server

Testing ATmega 328 with Arduino bootloader

No PCB :(

Bug Zapper racket

Next steps:

Attach Electret Microphone [link]

Attach 315MHz Transmitter module [link]

Calibration

Add everything to racket inside

TMN A1 or Huawei U8230, switch applications, task list, recent applications

2010-11-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

Use combination

off+menu

then choose "recent applications"

Visualizing Facebook friends presence

2010-10-29T02:40:00.000-07:00

I have set up a XMPP bot that connects to Facebook XMPP server, and monitors my friends login and logout operations.

For now i am only monitoring presence, but another's aspects could be easily derived and/or monitored :)

Chart values:

"1" means that the user has entered Facebook

"0" means that the user has logout

Chart lines:

"\" lines means a user session, user logins and a time after the user logs out

"/" lines like this, means the user is entering Facebook after being logged out

"V" the formed V's represent the user login and logout history

Note: this post only contains data from 15:30pm to 3:08 am, from first monitoring attempt.

Data from 15:30pm to 3:08 am

Drilling-down (zooming)

Platform raw chart page

The platform im using to upload sensor data is sawa (related to sensors), no need to create databases, just upload data and then render chart :)

SleekXMPP problems with DIGEST-MD5

2010-10-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

I was trying to connect to facebook XMPP server using the sleekxmpp port that suports the SASL.

But was unable to connect....

1 2     if not challenge['realm'] or not challenge['qop'] or not challenge['nonce']: KeyError: u'realm'

Looking at protocol http://xmpp.org/rfcs/rfc3920.html#sasl the function handler_sasl_digest_md5_auth was not handling 2 essential steps:

"Step 7: Server sends another [BASE64] encoded challenge to client:"

and

"Step 8: Client responds to the challenge:"

Solution:

   self.sendPriorityRaw("""<response xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'>%s</response>""" %base64.encodestring(response)[:-1])
   self.digest_auth_started = True
  else:
   logging.warn("handler_sasl_digest_md5_auth called while digest_auth_started is True (has already begun)")
   self.sendPriorityRaw("<response xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' />")

DHT11 Arduino with VirtualWire

2010-10-19T02:55:00.000-07:00

By some reason when using VirtualWire library and using vw_setup(2000) caused the readings from humidity sensor to fail (dht11 start condition 1 not met). I looked at datasheet and changed a the times how the MCU starts to talk with the sensor.

The code is based from this post

Here is the the fixed code:

void InitDHT() {
 pinMode(TEMP_RH_PIN, OUTPUT);
 delay(1000);
 digitalWrite(TEMP_RH_PIN,HIGH);
}

void ReadDHT() {

 bGlobalErr=0;
 byte dht_in;
 byte i;
        
        // see datasheet to understand this
        pinMode(TEMP_RH_PIN, OUTPUT);
        digitalWrite(TEMP_RH_PIN,HIGH);
        
 digitalWrite(TEMP_RH_PIN,LOW);
 delay(18);

 digitalWrite(TEMP_RH_PIN,HIGH);
 delayMicroseconds(22);

 pinMode(TEMP_RH_PIN,INPUT);
 delayMicroseconds(5);

 dht_in=digitalRead(TEMP_RH_PIN);

 if(dht_in) {
  bGlobalErr=1;
  Serial.println("<dht11 start condition 1 not met");
  return;
 }
 
 delayMicroseconds(80);
 dht_in=digitalRead(TEMP_RH_PIN);

 if(!dht_in) {
  bGlobalErr=2;
  Serial.println("<dht11 start condition 2 not met");
  return;
 }
 delayMicroseconds(80);
 
        //now ready for data reception... pick up the 5 bytes coming from the sensor
 for (i=0; i<5; i++)
    dht_dat[i] = read_dht_dat();

 //Next: restore pin to output duties
 pinMode(TEMP_RH_PIN,OUTPUT);
 digitalWrite(TEMP_RH_PIN,HIGH);

 byte dht_check_sum = dht_dat[0]+dht_dat[1]+dht_dat[2]+dht_dat[3];

 /*Condition in following "if" says "if fifth byte from sensor
       not the same as the sum of the first four..."*/
 if(dht_dat[4]!= dht_check_sum) {
   bGlobalErr=3;
          Serial.println("DHT11 checksum error");   
 }

}


byte read_dht_dat() {
 //Collect 8 bits from datastream, return them interpreted
 //as a byte. I.e. if 0000.0101 is sent, return decimal 5.
 //Code expects the system to have recently entered the
 //dataline low condition at the start of every data bit's
 //transmission BEFORE this function is called.
 byte i = 0;
 byte result=0;
 for (i=0; i< 8; i++) {
  //We enter this during the first start bit (low for 50uS) of the byte
  //Next: wait until pin goes high
  while(digitalRead(TEMP_RH_PIN)==LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(30);
  if (digitalRead(TEMP_RH_PIN)==HIGH)//Was: if(PINC & _BV(dht_PIN))
  result |=(1<<(7-i));
  while (digitalRead(TEMP_RH_PIN)==HIGH);
  //Was: while((PINC & _BV(dht_PIN)));
 }
 //end of "for.."
 return result;
}

Arduino code to read lines from serial input

2010-10-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is short and useful example to read lines from serial port in Arduino.

void setup (){
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.flush();
  digitalWrite (13, HIGH);      //turn on debugging LED
}

void loop (){

  int i=0;
  char commandbuffer[100];

  if(Serial.available()){
     delay(100);
     while( Serial.available() && i< 99) {
        commandbuffer[i++] = Serial.read();
     }
     commandbuffer[i++]='\0';
  }

  if(i>0)
     Serial.println((char*)commandbuffer);

}

python euromillion key generator with filters

2010-10-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

From python, perl and ruby i selected python to start playing around (learn the language). I started with this nice tutorial "Learn Python in 10 minutes", and decided to port and old C program that generates all combinations of euromillions and then apply some filters.

The generator is for numbers only, it does not take into account the stars!!!

The solution is composed by two parts, the generator and the evaluator. The generator generates the combinations with the given filter list (e.g, python gnerator.py columns d_tens).

The evaluator, evaluates the success of the specified filters individually, and can evaluate all filters at same time.

As example the filter "first_number" rejects combinations with the first number more than 30

sh avaliator.sh first_number

################# first_numbers #####################

Running...

2044588 results 74172 rejected

~96.56160458452722063037%

###############################################

the report says that 15504 combinations was rejected and 97% of euromilions results are in the generated combinations file

However combining all filters (16 for now, and individually with 90% success), the success rate drops to 70% !!.

################# ALL #####################

Running...

1516959 results 601801 rejected

~70.77363896848137535817%

##########################################

Download here

How to change openfire password or how to login in openfire

2010-02-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

Im having some problems with SSL certificates, i reinstalled openfire to see if that would fix.

At login, it seems not be working the password i set in setup installation. Theres a way to change the password and resolve the issue of not be able to login.

1- Access openfire database

2- Select table ofUser

3- Edit admin row

4- Set encryptedPassword to NULL

5- Enter a temporary pass on plainPassword

6- Save and restart openfire server

7- Use temporary password to login (username is always "admin")

8- Go to Users and edit admin

9- Enter a new password

10- Have fun :)

xfce4 verve plugin as standalone application

2009-12-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

I liked very much this plugin, when i tried xfce4 last time, also i liked xfce4, but i didnt like the root menu, so i switched back to fluxbox.

This plugin is nice because:

- application launcher

- url, ftp and file launcher

- auto complete

- saves history commands

I did some changes on verve-plugin.c (mostly was deleting code, and fixing)

i didn't bore in putting the code 100% ok, may concern at the time was just to put it working...

For now i didn't notice any bug or crash :D

Download here

qtfarm farmville autocliker

2009-12-08T04:39:00.001-08:00

Download here (built with QT and needs xdotool package(nix system))

New version here (uses xlib calls instead xdotool, but sometimes fails on click)

Bash script, check this post

Farmville auto-clicker

2009-11-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

New GUI here

Simple autoclicker script, needs xdotool installed

Download here
For default settings (12x12) use: sh farmville_click.sh
Or custom mode: sh farmville_click.sh num_rows num_columns click_interval_time wait_interval_before_pointing

If give this error(Syntax error: Bad for loop variable), use bash (bash farmville_click.sh)

Download old script here (bash script for *nix based)

Bash Prompts

2009-09-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

Nice article about Bash Prompts here.
Have fun :)

Latest google chrome build for linux

2009-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-linux/

Browse to the end of list and download last one.

Using any file manager or command line, extract chrome folder and make an link to /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin.

# unzip chrome-linux.zip
# su
# mkdir -p /opt/google
# mv chrome-linux /opt/google/
# ln -s /opt/google/chrome-linux/chrome /usr/bin/
# exit
# chrome

Starts very fast and has a nice aspect, but they still working on it to release an stable version. keep in touch.

My conky configuration

2009-07-23T11:11:00.001-07:00

Download here

More simple bash scripts

2009-07-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

Script for start X session automatically, after making login ( without using any login manager)

#!/bin/bash
if (($(ps -A | grep -c X) > 0));
then
        echo starting X....;startx;
fi

Script for unzip multiple files. Replacing "zip" extension name and "unzip" command on script, we can change to open other files as well.

#!/bin/bash
for file in *zip
 do
        unzip "$file"
done

Script to get links from an list every X time, for example, usefull to automatically open download links like rapidshare, netload, megaupload,...
Changing time and application, it can be useful to do lots of things =)

#!/bin/bash
waitTime=3600
app="/usr/bin/firefox"

cat $1 | while myLine=`line`
do
 echo "Requesting" $myLine
 $app $myLine;
 sleep $waitTime && echo ""
done

Some usefull commands

Play random mp3
slocate  *.mp3 | mpg321 -@ - -z

Play random mp3 from specific folder
slocate *.mp3 | grep /home/user/files/mp3/new/ | mpg321 -@ - -z

Download links from an text file list
wget -i file.txt

Download recursively all page files
wget -r http://url/folder/

Download sequentially files
curl -O http://url/img[01-99].png

Mount FTP as filesystem

2009-07-11T16:32:00.001-07:00

CurlFtpFS is a filesystem for accessing FTP hosts based on FUSE and libcurl.

[Install]

localhost ~ # emerge net-fs/curlftpfs in gentoo
localhost ~ # apt-get install curlftpfs in ubuntu/debian
localhost ~ # ./configure && make && make install by the manual way

[Mount]

localhost ~ # modprobe fuse if you dont have fuse module loaded
localhost ~ # curlftpfs ftp://user:pass@site.com /mnt/mountpoint

[Umount]]

localhost ~ # fusermount -u /mnt/mountpoint

Thats it, now you can access with any file explorer like konqueror, nautilus…..we can do almost everything like edit source code

Adding on fstab
curlftpfs#ftp.host.com /mnt/mountpoint fuse rw,uid=500,user,noauto 0 0

or Making alias
alias mHost=’curlftpfs ftp://user:pass@site.com /mnt/mountpoint’

More int at http://curlftpfs.sourceforge.net/

Mount SSH as filesystem

2009-07-11T16:31:00.001-07:00

SSHFS is a filesystem client based on the SSH File Transfer Protocol.

[Install]

localhost ~ # emerge sys-fs/sshfs-fuse in gentoo
localhost ~ # apt-get install sshfs in ubuntu/debian
localhost ~ # ./configure && make && make install manual way

[Mount]

localhost ~ # modprobe fuse if you dont have fuse module loaded
localhost ~ # sshfs user@site.com: /mnt/mountpoint use “-o allow_other” for share between multiple users

[Umount]

localhost ~ # fusermount -u /mnt/mountpoint

Thats it, now you can access with any file explorer like konqueror, nautilus…..we can do almost everything like edit source code, create, delete….

Adding on fstab
sshfs#USERNAME@REMOTE_HOST: REMOTE_PATH MOUNT_POINT fuse SSHFS_OPTIONS 0 0

or Making alias
alias mHost=’modprobe fuse;sshfs user@site.com: /mnt/mountpoint -o allow_other’

More info at http://fuse.sourceforge.net/