Tech Snacks

Backup your MySQL Databases through FTP : AutoMySQLBackup

Fili — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:26:53 +0000

To make sure you don't lose your valuable data, it's important that you keep current backups of all your data and keep those stored on a different account somewhere else. CPanel/WHM offers an automated backup with most hosting packages, but those backups bundle files with databases and doesn't give you much control as to which specific databases are backed up.

My setup works like this :

I run a dedicated server with Hostforweb.
I got an unlimited storage/hosting account with Anhosting. This is my backup account.
I run weekly backups through CPanel/WHM from my dedicated server to the backup account. This is easy to setup in Cpanel/WHM.
I run daily database backups to the backup account by running AutoMySQLBackup on a daily cron, set to keep the latest 7 days of backups.

That saved my ass a few times in the past.

Make sure you verify the backups once you set things up. Don't assume things work, check'em.

Be prepared.

T-Mobile Tethering for Desktops (Chrome / Firefox workaround)

Fili — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:52:07 +0000

Trying to tether your mobile but getting filtered by T-Mobile? T-mobile actually offers you to upgrade your plan to include tethering for 15US$/month. But that only starts from your next billing cycle. For a quicker solution that's kind of a workaround - Ben provides a helpful tip :

Their filtering is based on HTTP user-agents. If your user-agent matches a known user-agent that is not android it
will reject the traffic.

Solutions:

Tunnel your traffic using SSH, VPN or SOCKS

Spoof your user-agent for all HTTP traffic

Remove a user-agent from any script or program you have that you need to use.

One option is to use a VPN. Another is to remove the useragent from your browser.

How? On your desktop, install the following browser extensions :

Chrome - User-Agent Switcher for Chrome
Firefox - User-Agent Switcher for Firefox

Outlook 2010 : Moving Between Time Zones

Fili — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:26:54 +0000

The way that Outlook 2010 handles time-zones makes very little sense. For those moving around a lot, like myself, it's a disaster. Changing the time-zone in Windows automatically updates the settings for Outlook 2010 and the appointments shift with the difference between the original time-zone and the newly selected one.

After looking around for quite a while, it seems there are a couple of awkward solutions.

Here's from Slipstick's "Outlook's Appointments and Time Zones":

Microsoft released a tool that will update appointments when you permanently change time zones. It works with all versions of Outlook. Outlook 2007 includes an earlier version of this tool but Microsoft recommends using downloading the new tool for best results.
Microsoft Office Outlook Tool: Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

If you prefer to control the time changes yourself, use the following method:

If you create appointments when the computer clock is set for the wrong time zone, or if you move to a new time zone, you can't change the time zone without messing up the appointment times and all day appointments will span two days. You can export the calendar to a non-Outlook format (Excel or CSV works well), then change the time zone settings and import the items back into Outlook.

Set the computer's time zone and daylight time settings so the appointment times are correct.

Go to File, Import and Export and follow the wizard to export the calendar to an Excel or CSV format file. Do not export to a PST.

Correct the computer's time zone and daylight time settings so the time zone is correct for your location.

Create a new calendar folder in your mailbox, if desired, and move the calendar items to it. Otherwise, delete them.

Import the calendar items you exported earlier.

When you are satisfied that the appointments are correct, delete the new calendar folder and all of the old appointments in it.

I personally recommend the first approach as the one that works best for me. When I move between timezones I update all the appointments to the timezone I move to and then change the Windows timezone setting.

Fixing Speaker Problems on Android Liquid E

Fili — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:05:08 +0000

The speaker in my Acer Liquid E stopped working 2 weeks after warranty ended. At first, I thought it was a software glitch because of some app, so I reinstalled the entire Android 2.3 OS on the mobile with LiquidNext (official website). I got amazing new capabilities with that OS ROM, but no speaker.

Hardware problem then. The Wan Chai people in HK wanted a hefty sum just to look at it, Acer wanted even more. Seriously? for a lousy mobile speaker...

So, I took my Acer apart. First time I ever opened up a mobile, and I didn't realize just how challenging that is. After playing around a bit, I was somehow able to reach the speaker. I then looked up the part, and saw that HP iPaq Voice Messenger looks similar (4.9US$ + 6US$ delivery). I also saw that this was discussed on XDA developers.

I ordered it in, waited a few days, got the package, dismantled the Acer again, patched the new speaker inside, prayed a bit to the mobile Gods, and .... what do you know - speaker works.

I'm awarding myself a geek medal.

Free SSL Certificate Solutions : Facebook Page SSL Requirements

Fili — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:39:06 +0000

Facebook has made a recent change requiring SSL connections for Facebook pages, and you're probably in need of a solution. This post will explain a few of the available solutions.

First, the problem. iLocalsearch explains:

The nitty gritty is …

From October 1st 2011 your Facebook Page will have to be served through HTTPS as opposed to just HTTP and for security that’s a good thing!

You will have a valid SSL certificate on your hosting.

You will need to complete the “Secure Canvas URL” and “Secure Tab URL” fields in the Developer App with the corresponding information.

If you are using a 3rd party app for your Facebook Page customization the platform used to host your Page must have a valid SSL certificate.

So, to run a Facebook app/page you'll be needing an SSL certificates and those things cost money.

What are the options?

Free certificates

Makeuseof suggests StartSSL with clear instructions on how to install it :

For those us who don’t run mission critical portals, that is not an option. Let us see how to get free SSL certificates from StartSSL.

CAcert is another option (take a look at their Wiki and join their community).

Shared SSL

If you have some sort of a shared hosting account that offers Shared SSL, you could just use that. PennyButler offers an example guide for HostGator, but I've successfully implemented this in other services (e.g. Anhosting & Hostforweb)

Facebook dedicated solutions

Social Server (FB page) is one such service :

Don't stress if you can't afford an SSL certificate for Facebook's SSL migration...
...Use this FREE service to adapt your Facebook pages so that it's viewable over an HTTPS connection.

There are some complications to this, as they'll explain on the page, but most of the issues are easy to solve and their version 2 is quite slick.

Know of any other solutions? let me know.

Free Group Chat Room Widget Services

Fili — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:14:06 +0000

Looking for some free group chat room widgets for your website/blog?

After researching this for a while, here are the options I came across:

Xat
Gabbly
TinyChat
chatango
CBox
Parachat
Chatroll (limited version)

They all have their advantages and disadvantages. I started with using Chatroll but then moved to Chatango on one of my social websites (Chinese Garden). It’s installed on the sidebar on all pages and users using the forums can either converse there or maximize it and use the more advanced features.

If you know of any others, please let me know.

Windows 7 Mapping & Trillian : Your resource is now offline

Fili — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:03:47 +0000

It's one of those Windows 7 annoyances, and there's almost no documentation as to what that message really means. As it turns out, it's related to either using Trillian or Windows 7 Mapping (as in mapping a network drive on your computer so that for example drive X would point to some address on the server or the web). You probably noticed that if you click on the message, nothing happens and the message may reappear, especially after reboot.

Windows 7 mapping

Generally, to remove a mapped drive open your command prompt (start -> run -> cmd) and run the following for drive H :

net use h: /d

change h to whatever drive you mapped.

If you're not sure which drive you mapped, just run the following

net use /persistent:no

Restart your computer and you're done.

Trillian Astra

Another documented reason for this problem could be using Trillian which for some strange reason decided this is how it wants to report a lost connection.

For example:

Some people note :

It didn't used to exist in Trillian 3 and earlier, but Trillian 4 and 5 it's been there as long as I can remember (though I never took part of early testing for Trillian 4).
Only thing I can suggest is pay more attention to the device listing and verify it's all your pc, same name and ip. If it's different, change your password. IF it's the same, you're losing your connection to the Trillian servers for some reason.

No documented fix for this, as far as I know. You might wanna disconnect from Trillian Astra, or move to a different client like Digsby.

Outlook 2010 Search Not Working or Indexing Fix

Fili — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:29:34 +0000

Your Outlook 2010 not indexing your emails anymore? Oulook Search stopped working? There’s something about Outlook 2010 search that gives you the feeling it’s not quite there, yet. Some Outlook versions relied on Windows Search, some depended on internal search, and so it leaves you wondering why is it that Microsoft can’t produce a solid search for something as important as email in one of the Office flag products.

If you search around the web, you’re likely to find thousands of threads on Microsoft related forums. Of all those threads, this is the solution that worked for me :

If you do this: Open Outlook click on File > Options > Search > Indexing options > Modify > Uncheck Outlook
Click on OK then close and restart Outlook to check if search results fetch correctly.
What you are using is the Outlook search that is not the Windows Search of Win7. In my case I already tried that.

the registry key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search" does not exist on Win7 so this did not work.

And for the rest of the recommendations, believe I made a good research before post this, they did not work. And something to remark I do not believe that we need to rebuilt a system in order to fix an issue, since this is happening in several machines. I truly believe that someone of Microsoft should step in and take ownership of this issue, since as you could read there are several threads with the same situation without a real solution to this bug.

The problem is that the Outlook Search is the combination of Windows Search and Outlook 2010 and something is not working properly. (In some cases)

Yeah, sucks.

ASUS UL30A Windows 7 random video freezes fix

Fili — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:01:50 +0000

For a few months I had a very annoying issue with my ASUS UL30A. Once playing videos, the computer would start freezing for a long while and then get back to normal as if nothing happened. I was recently able to track down the problem and posting it here in hope that it would help others experiencing similar issues.

The exact specs are – an ASUS computer model UL30A, with Windows 7 64-bit, bought around April 2010. To see what this would look like, others have actually posted videos of the problem on Youtube :

Who else has this problem? a quick online search would show you there are many others experiencing the same frustrating thing. Examples:

So how was this solved? this is what I recently posted on a number of related forums:

I had the exact same problem for months till I noticed that the problem doesn't occur when I'm not connected through Wifi. Turns out it had something to do with the newer UL30A wifi drivers. I rolled back to an older version (http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=UL30A&p=3&s=208) - Version V13.0.0.107 - and everything went back to normal.

I'd say your best bet is to uninstall all the non-Windows drivers, make sure they're scrapped out completely (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/83814-drivers-clean-left-over-files-after-uninstalling.html?filter[2]=Hardware%20and%20Drivers) and test this again, if it works reinstall the drivers one by one and see which one is causing the pain.

Hope that helps.

Update Sep 14th : a visitor with a similar problem reports that the problem was back. My reply was that Windows Update updated the drivers automatically :

Wait... if the problem disappeared for a short while and came back again this means it was working for a while. When you connect through LAN but not through Wifi, do you still have this problem?

My hunch is that although you rolled back the driver you have Windows Update installing updates automatically and that it reinstalled the new driver which brought back the trouble.

First - test to see what happens if you're not using Wifi but only using LAN. I think you'd be surprised this doesn't happen anymore.

If that's true ... I suggest disabling auto updates on Windows Updates, rolling back the Wifi driver to the previous one, and when needed - manually updating the drivers that are not related to ASUS drivers.

Update Sep 24th - Pikapp followed this advice and posted a detailed explanation :

Trying this based on other comments:

1. Right click on your wireless network connection and click Open Network and Sharing Center.

2. Click Change Adapter Settings on left side.

3. Right click on wireless network connection and click properties.

4. Click Configure

5. Click driver tab

6. Click Uninstall

7. Make sure you check the box that says "remove driver files"

8. Reboot.

9. Upon reboot, your wireless card will reinstall. You may need to turn your wireless back on (FN + F2) and reconnect back to your network.

10. Go to start menu, type Update into the search bar and select Windows Update.

11. Click Change Settings.

12. If your computer is set to Automatically Install Updates, change it to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". *** if not,your computer will automatically update your driver from the 2009 driver that works to a newer driver that doesn't. The driver that works is dated 6/9/2009 and is version 2.0.0.74.

If you see an update to the wireless card driver (which I did right away), you can hide it by right clicking on it and selecting hide.

It's only been one day but it seems to work so far.

You could easily just update the driver from the Device Manager but this suggests that the approach works.

Let me know if this worked for you.

Problems with Adobe Air upgrade / uninstall / install

Fili — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:16:32 +0000

Having problems installing, uninstalling or upgrading Adobe AIR? you're not alone. You may be getting all sorts of strange error codes, the most common of which is very vague "error has occurred".

To get a functioning Adobe AIR you'll need to get rid of the old one and install the new one. Follow these simple steps:

Make sure MSI logging is enabled (see Microsoft support forums for how).
Run Air Zapper (from the Adobe Forums)
Download and reinstall Adobe AIR.

Walla! all done.

Helped? have a different way? let me know.