Tools Required

• Subversion: repository server installer.
• TortoiseSVN: windows shell client for Subversion
• Netbeans IDE with JDK
• ZendFramework (minimal package, full package, zend server community edition)
• Xdebug

Add to Environment Variables

Check if you’re able to run the following commands from the command line or add to your PATH if required:

• svn
• php

Config

• Update C:\xampp\php\php.ini
  • include_path = “.;C:\xampp\php\PEAR;<...your_path_to...>\ZendFramework-1.11.11\library”
  • zend_extension = "C:\xampp\php\ext\php_xdebug-2.1.3-5.3-vc9.dll"
• Netbeans IDE (Tools -> Options)
  • PHP -> General
    • php.exe
    • Global Include Path (<...your_path_to...>\ZendFramework-1.11.11\library ??? -> takes long time to scan!!!!)
  • PHP -> Zend
    • Zend script (zf.bat)
    • NOTE: the path cannot have empty spaces!!!
  • Miscellaneous -> Versioning -> Subversion:
    • Path to "svn.exe" => C:\Program Files\CollabNet\Subversion Client
• Xdebug
  • Copy " php_xdebug-2.1.3-5.3-vc9.dll" to "C:\xampp\php\ext"

Creating Local Repository

• TortoiseSVN:
  • Create new folder
    • e.g. D:/repositories
  • Right click -> TortoiseSVN -> "Create repository here…"
  • "Native filesystem (FSFS)" if required
• Netbeans IDE:
  • Project -> Right-click -> Versioning
    • Import into Subversion repository:
      • Repository URL: file:///D:/repositories
      • Mandatory "Initial Import of the project" message
    • Commit ALL files from the project for the 1st time

Using Zend inside Netbeans

• Right click on the project
  • Zend
  • Run
• Tools -> Options -> Keymap:
  • Actions – "Zend: Run Command…"
    • Zend = ALT+Z

A post to remind me about different useful commands I’ve used in the past and certainly others that I’ll learn in the future:

Windows (DOS)

• List of used ports

  netstat -b -p TCP

  Or we could use CurrPorts to see the currently opened ports. More clear if we don’t mind installing new software.

• Microsoft AutoPlay Repair Wizard: scans your computer devices to find defective AutoPlay settings, and attempts to fix those it finds.

Birthday 2012, 3D 3DS hint

Sayaka’s preparation…
• Two massive foil balloons with a hi-float liquid (kind of glue to put inside an hellium balloon to make them stay up longer) => not successful as they sold her that liquid in the shop rather than the hellium itself
• Book from my Amazon’s wishlist => not successful as it was one of the few that I deleted the day before she checked, still wondering how is that it was still there, cache?!!? oh well…

Chinese New Year

Download and install XAMMP so you’ve got your local Apache webserver + MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin,…

Before you log in to your phpMyAdmin tool it’s worth changing the empty root password for something else. I had loads of problems after following the official instructions to change the initial root passowrd, so I’d recommend to not follow that process and follow the one below instead:

Go to the Security area in Xampp (http://localhost/security/index.php), change your password and restart the MySQL service.

I think this modifies the following file(s):
• C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php
• C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php.safe

After that, you can go to the phpMyAdmin page (http://localhost/phpmyadmin/) and log in with the new details.

Or you could configure a DB client with:

• server: localhost
• port: 3306 (or as detailed in your ‘C:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.ini’)
• password: new password

MySQL settings seem to be located here (C:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.ini), it’s got details about port and password, but I’m not quite sure about what the meaning of this password is as it won’t be affected when we edit such a password via the Xampp security screen mentioned above.

There are some poor reviews out there due to the difficulty of Shinobi 3DS but if you like challenges, this games is so good and addictive!!!!

If there’s one game you need to buy to take you back to the old arcades is this one, totally recommended…

Challenge 1

Points: 12,005,500
Time: 01:04:00 mins

It can be done a lot quicker, but without so much parrying and combos…

Challenge 2

Points: 11,529,200
Time: 01:05:40 mins

There are three different ways you can take when approaching a challenge, go for points, for time or for combos . This is a mix of points and combos, but definitely not time, it could be done a lot quicker… at least 10 secs?

Challenge 5

My first “rank S”
Points: 12,110,500
Time: 00:44:46 seconds

Challenge 6

Points: 13,730,000
Time: 01:23:10 mins

Challenge 7

Points: 10,900,400
Time: 00:33:66 secs

We didn’t take many pictures in Spain this time, mainly a typical Spanish Belen (representing the birth of Jesus Christ)

More info and images about Zamora in previous posts, as a reminder:

Zamora – Belen

The pictures below were taken by Sayaka this Chirstmas 2011, if you want to check a different “Belen”, with more pictures and videos. You can do so on the post I created last year about ‘Nazaret to Belen’

Other Spanish traditions

My hometown is well known by its Easter, these pictures I took a couple of years ago there will give you an idea about what to expect in Zamora in easter

Zamora – Japanese omelette (Okonomiyaki)

Zamora – Spanish ‘tapas’

Zamora – A donkey on the road??!

Hahahahaha… people always joke about Zamora and its donkeys on the streets. I suppose they’ve got a point after I saw this fella behind Sayaka

Alicante

We went down from Zamora to Alicante with my brother and the temperature changed so much that we saw 17 degrees early morning on the day we were coming back to the UK and even 22 degrees when we arrived to the airport, that’s a good Chirstmas!!!

The pictures below are something traditional that happens in Alicante on the 30th every year (apparently), but we arrived late and just saw the ending…

London – New Year’s fireworks (or almost!)

Back in London and back to the rainy days!!

Our idea was to see the New Year’s fireworks near Big ben and London eye, but when we arrived there everything was so packed that the police cut all possible entries from big ben until near St. Paul’s cathedral!!!! Fences everywhere… and apparently, over 250.000 people trying to see the event!!

At the end we saw practically nothing behind that tree!!!! , oh well, we had a good time together anyway…hehehe

After that, imagine all those 250.000 people trying to get into the underground to go back home. We ended up walking from in front of the OXO tower to Oxford street!!! Sooooo many people!!!!

London – forbidden to send cold meat to Japan!!!

We bought a couple of spanish cold meat to send to Sayaka’s family when we were in Spain but then we research about sending them over and found out that it was illegal at the moment to send any meat and they would burn it on the customs hence, sadly, we couldn’t send anything. Sorry about that!!!

A list of the mashup tools detailed in the following book. If you’re remotely interested about Web Services, APIs, etc, quite recommended…

Different prices and availability depending on the country you’re checking from:

Pues lo hemos estado dejando y dejando a ver si se podian pillar las dos fiestas, noche buena y noche vieja, pero este año no va a poder ser.

Estaremos por ahí desde el sábado 24 hasta el sábado 31, volviendo desde Alicante, asíque saldremos de Zamora un par de días antes. Aunque bueno, mejor esto que nada, a ver que tal de fresquito hace, no lo quiero ni pensar!!!

FELIZZZ NAVIDAD a los que no vea antes de navidad, que va a ser prácticamente a todos…hehehe

Nos vemos!

Root your Xperia Play (Android)

I had not gone through the trouble to root my new Xperia Play just yet. There were a few things that I could not do with the phone without superuser rights but they were not so bad that made me think about spending the time to sort it out, well, not so bad up until today!!!

In my previous Android I noticed that a few times the 3G internet connection was not working properly, so even though everything appeared correct, webpages were not loading and the only option was to either reboot the phone or find an application that needs root access to be able to just restart the network connections.

Today I noticed the same problem with the Xperia Play and that caused me to lose my bus just for 10 seconds!!!! so annoying!!!!, so I ended up waiting for almost half an hour for the next one. Hopefully this won’t happen again after rooting the phone by following the steps below. Note that this will allow you to run apps as a superuser but won’t change the bootloader; ie, you won’t be able to run a custom ROM in your phone before it boots up, so you will be able to keep on receiving Sony updates as required with the benefit of being able to grant permissions to the applications that need it:

1. Download the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) required by the Android SDK (Windows ~85MB). You don’t need to install Java FX SDK if prompted.
2. Download and install the ADB drivers for your phone, included in the (Android SDK) (Windows ~30MB)
3. Once the Android SDK is installed, launch the SDK Manager (right-click and run as Administrator!!!), tick ‘Android SDK Platforms-tools’ and try to Install
4. If it doesn’t install, download the following file http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r09-windows.zip and copy it to “C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\temp” (but if you’ve run it as Administrator you should be fine)
5. Check that the ADB drivers are installed by plugging your mobile and typing the following in your command prompt (which should give you the serial number of your mobile):

   cd C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\
   adb devices
   

6. If it fails, you can manually update the driver by launching the SDK Manager, and ticking & installing the ‘Google USB Driver package’
7. Connect the mobile in ‘USB debugging mode’ and ‘Media Transfer mode’ (not MSC mode), skip the PC Companion alert.
8. Find your Mobile in Windows Device manager, click update driver and find the folder where the USB drivers have been downloaded (C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver)
9. Download the new (16/Nov/2011) DooMLoRD_v3_ROOT-zergRush-busybox-su.zip from forum.xda-developers.com – thanks to Mr.DooMLoRD for his “[16/Nov][ROOTING/UNROOTING] Xperia 2011 Easy Rooting Toolkit [v3.0](zergRush Exploit)”
10. Unzip and run from the command prompt, make sure you’ve gone to the path where the .bat file is kept in your DOS console (cd full/path), you cannot try to run ‘full/path/runme.bat’ or it’ll fail with “The system cannot find the path specified”:

    runme.bat

Once you’ve installed the above, change a few settings in your phone as follow:

---------------------------------------------------------------
              Easy rooting toolkit (v3.0)
                   created by DooMLoRD
        using exploit zergRush (Revolutionary Team)
   Credits go to all those involved in making this possible!
---------------------------------------------------------------
 [*] This script will:
     (1) root ur device using latest zergRush exploit (16 Nov)
     (2) install Busybox (1.18.4)
     (3) install SU files (binary: 3.0.3 and apk: 3.0.6)
 [*] Before u begin:
     (1) make sure u have installed adb drivers for ur device
     (2) enable "USB DEBUGGING"
           from (Menu\Settings\Applications\Development)
     (3) enable "UNKNOWN SOURCES"
           from (Menu\Settings\Applications)
     (4) [OPTIONAL] increase screen timeout to 10 minutes
     (5) connect USB cable to PHONE and then connect to PC
     (6) skip "PC Companion Software" prompt on device
---------------------------------------------------------------
 CONFIRM ALL THE ABOVE THEN

If you’ve arrived so far, ALL DONE!!!!

--- STARTING ----
--- WAITING FOR DEVICE
adb server is out of date.  killing...
* daemon started successfully *
--- cleaning
rm failed for *, No such file or directory
--- pushing zergRush"
173 KB/s (23056 bytes in 0.130s)
--- correcting permissions
--- executing zergRush

[**] Zerg rush - Android 2.2/2.3 local root
[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.

[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.

[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00015118
[*] Scooting ...
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings found a way to enter ! 0x10
[+] Overseer found a path ! 0x000151e0
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings caused crash (good news): 0x2abcccc4 0x0054
[*] Researching Metabolic Boost ...
[+] Speedlings on the go ! 0x6fd193d3 0x6fd39667
[*] Popping 24 more zerglings
[*] Sending 173 zerglings ...

[+] Rush did it ! It's a GG, man !
[+] Killing ADB and restarting as root... enjoy!
--- WAITING FOR DEVICE TO RECONNECT
if it gets stuck over here for a long time then try:
   disconnect usb cable and reconnect it
   toggle "USB DEBUGGING" (first disable it then enable it)
--- DEVICE FOUND
--- pushing busybox
1344 KB/s (1075144 bytes in 0.781s)
--- correcting permissions
--- remounting /system
--- copying busybox to /system/xbin/
2099+1 records in
2099+1 records out
1075144 bytes transferred in 0.379 secs (2836791 bytes/sec)
--- correcting ownership
--- correcting permissions
--- installing busybox
--- pushing SU binary
904 KB/s (22228 bytes in 0.024s)
--- correcting ownership
--- correcting permissions
--- correcting symlinks
--- pushing Superuser app
2073 KB/s (785801 bytes in 0.370s)
--- cleaning
--- rebooting
ALL DONE!!!

And all done to allow you to run applications in your Android as a Superuser!!!

If you’ve ever tried to register an internet domain name online you’ll have soon discovered that almost all of them are taken!!!!

That doesn’t mean that all of them are providing a good service, well, or even a service, most of them are just registered and parked waiting to be purchased by a much bigger amount than they were bought for.

I’m going to list a few of the websites and tools that can make the process of searching and registering a web domain a little bit easier now:

Rule of thumb,
 .com  -> 10 x .co.uk
 Go for .com, style="font-style: italic;">.net or style="font-style: italic;">.co.uk (maybe even style="font-style: italic;">.org)

Good Domain name:

• will allow you to spend next to nothing on marketing
• you’ll need to be willing to pay thousands of pounds for the right domain (at least 2 or 3 times/year)

UK search resuls:

•  .co.uk
• server hosted in the UK
• domain registrar hosted in the UK
• Google Analytics allows webmasters to specify the location of their website

Domain name deletion date prediction tool for Nominet UK domains:

• Renewal/Expire date: Nominet contact registrant to confirm
• 30 days after -> domain suspended
• ~60 days after -> domain available again (drop date)
• registrant can renew until the drop date
• In reality, in the UK, drop date is ~92 or 99 days after renewal date

Services like www.dropdates.co.uk allow you to enter the renewal date to provide you with the most likely drop date.

Click for High Res

Dropcatchers

New industry dedicated to re-register domains in fractions of seconds after their drop date (~92 days after their renewal date as explained above)