Tech Tips

Debian, Linux, Tech Tips

Installing Debian 6 on an Asus Eee PC 1015PE from a USB Flash Drive

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I used Universal USB Installer to put a copy of Debian 6 on an old 2GB flash drive so I could install it on my Asus Eee PC 1015PE netbook. I stuck the flash drive in the USB port and fired up the Eee PC. It proceeded to boot to Windows, even though the flash drive had been detected by the BIOS. I had already went to the BIOS (via F2) to make sure my first boot device was set to Removable Device. I rebooted, went back into the BIOS, and disabled the hard drive as a boot device. This time, instead of booting from the flash drive, I now see a message telling me to insert a valid boot device. I took the flash drive out, stuck it in another machine, and turned it on. The other machine boots into the Debian installer just fine. What’s a geek to do?

Since the netbook has an AMI BIOS, I tried an old-school trick that AMI has favored for years. It turns out that the 1015PE has an undocumented feature (not listed on the BIOS screen): If you hit escape at the BIOS screen (repeatedly works best), it’ll bring up a one-time boot menu that lets you select from valid boot devices. My flash drive was listed there! I selected it, pressed enter, and after about a 20 minute install, my 1015PE is happily running Debian 6.

Microsoft Windows, Tech Tips

Free Utility to Generate MD5 and SHA1 Checksums in Windows XP/Vista/7/8

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It turns out that some time ago, Microsoft released a free command line utility called the File Checksum Integrity Verifier for generating MD5 and SHA1 checksums. Best of all, it’s really small (at less than 84 kilobytes) and doesn’t require installation (i.e. can be run from a flash drive).

Microsoft is clear that this is an unsupported utility, but there’s no need for support as it is really easy to use. It will in no way modify your files! To generate MD5 or SHA1 checksums for a file, do the following:

  1. Download the fciv.exe file.
  2. Open a command line by pressing Windows Key and R at the same time, typing cmd, and pressing Enter.
  3. cd into the folder where you downloaded fciv.exe to.
  4. To get an MD5 Checksum for a file, type fciv pathToFileYouWantToCheck (refer to this post for an easy way to copy a file path that can then be pasted here)
  5. To get an SHA1 Checksum for a file, type fciv pathToFileYouWantToCheck -sha1

Happy Checksuming!

Android, Microsoft Windows, Tech Tips

What to do if you can’t update your Android SDK Tools because “folder failed to be renamed or moved”

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I got up bright and early this morning to update my Android SDKs (during HughesNet’s all-you-can-eat bandwidth time between 2am-7am). Much to my dismay, the Android Tools wouldn’t update from revision 15 to revision 17 because “a folder failed to be renamed or moved.” I have not had this problem updating in the past, so I was stumped.

The folder that failed to be moved ended up being the tools folder in the Android SDK directory. The problem was that SDK Manager.exe had launched tools\android.bat which uses a whole bunch of files in the tools folder. Of course Android can’t move that folder if the program (and it’s dependencies) doing the updating are in the folder to be moved!

Luckily the solution to this turned out to be really simple:

  1. Go the the android-sdk folder (wherever that may be on your system).
  2. Make a copy of the tools folder (my copy was called tools – Copy).
  3. Open the folder that is a copy (i.e. tools – Copy).
  4. Launch android.bat from that folder.
  5. The updater will launch and update whatever you tell it to.
  6. After the updates are finished, close the updater.
  7. You can then delete the tools – Copy folder and launch the SDK Manager like normal.
  8. Observe that everything updated.

Such a simple solution to a goofy predicament!

Android, Kindle Fire, Tech Tips

Use Opera Mobile to Add Proxy Supported Web Browsing to a Kindle Fire without Having to Jailbreak

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I love my Kindle Fire, with one big exception: It does not support proxy servers. I use my fire in environments all the time (i.e. public schools) that require proxy support. While I haven’t solved the proxy problem system-wide, I have figured out a way to use Opera Mobile to add a proxy-supporting browser!

Even though the steps below WILL NOT add proxy support to apps for the Kindle Fire, it IS possible to have a full-featured browser (Opera Mobile) on your Kindle Fire that supports proxies. Since Amazon won’t let you install Opera through it’s app store, here’s what you can do to install it and get it ready for proxies:

  1. Go to Kindle settings by tapping the cog in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then tapped More > Device > and turned “on” the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources
  2. Install the ES File Explorer from the Amazon App Store. (We’ll use this to install the Opera APK. It’s free and a good app to have around anyway.)
  3. Go to the Opera Mobile download page on a computer (not the Fire).
  4. In the Choose an application dropdown box, choose Opera Mobile 11.5 (Android 1.6+) then click the View Download Link button.
  5. Click the International link and save the APK file to your hard disk.
  6. Connect your Fire to your computer via USB.
  7. Copy the Opera APK file to your Fire
  8. Disconnect the Fire from USB
  9. Open ES Explorer on the Fire
  10. Navigate to where you copied the APK file to and open it (which will initiate an install, where you click “OK” to everything)
  11. Go back to the home screen and go to Apps. Launch Opera.
  12. In the Opera address bar, type opera:config
  13. In the HTTP server box, type the address of your proxy, a colon, and the proxy port (i.e. youProxyAddress:8080 ) [Note: You can type in proxies for HTTPS and FTP if you need proxy support for those as well ]
  14. Check the Use HTTP box (and HTTPS and FTP boxes if you need those)
  15. Click Save

Now when you go to a page in Opera, you will be prompted to enter your Username and Password (for authenticated proxies). As I said earlier, this does not solve the problem with apps that need proxy support, but at least you can use a browser with proxies using this method.

Microsoft Windows, Tech Tips

Easy Way to Copy a File Path in Windows Vista and Windows 7

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I work with file paths a lot, since I email co-workers locations to stuff on our file servers. And even though I try to avoid it, sometimes it’s absolutely necessary to hard-code a file path into a program or script. In either of these cases, the quicker I can get the path to a file, the better. In the past, I had always used a registry hack or script to add the ability to copy a path from a context menu. Hacking the registry is not a big deal, but wouldn’t it be nice if any Windows computer could have this functionality out of the box?

Little did I know that Windows 7 and Windows Vista have the built-in capability to copy a file path by simply holding shift and right-clicking on the file for which you want the path! In the resulting context menu, the magical phrase Copy Path becomes visible! Clicking it puts the absolute path to the file on the clipboard. It works on both local and remote files.

Tech Tips, Web Development/Programming

WordPress Plugin to Generate Post Slugs

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If you have migrated your WordPress blog from another blogging platform but the post slugs weren’t generated, you can my Generate Post Slugs Plugin to have the slugs generated from the post title.

Why I Wrote This Plugin

I wrote this plugin for use on this very blog because when I ported my custom blog software entries to WordPress, I didn’t bother to generate slugs with the import script I cobbled together. A few weeks ago I made my URLs SEO-friendly and realized that all those posts I imported years ago were missing slugs.

License

By downloading, you acknowledge that this plugin is released under the GPLv2 License AS IS with no implicit or explicit warranty of fitness for any purpose. While I have tested the plugin with WordPress 3.2.1 and have used it to fix the slugs for posts on this very site, it is STRONGLY SUGGESTED that you make a backup of your WordPress installation prior to using it.

Getting the Plugin

If you accept the license terms outlined above, click here to download the Generate Slugs Plugin.

Installing the Plugin

Installation is just like any other WordPress plugin. On the plugin install page in your WordPress Dashboard, upload the zip file. Then activate the plugin under the Installed Plugins menu and follow the instructions provided there to use the plugin to generate your slugs.

I hope this helps someone.

Android, Kindle Fire, Recommended Products and Vendors, Tech Tips

For $200, the Kindle Fire should scare Apple (and delight most everyone else who doesn’t have an iPad)

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The Fire has one thing that an iPad has never had: A comfortable price. I’m not the first person to posit this, but I think Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is going to be the first non-fruit tablet to succeed in the marketplace due the the “bang for the buck” factor. After playing with my Fire for a few hours now, I must say that I find the experience very enjoyable. Here’s a rundown of what I think up to this point:

The Good

  1. Amazon’s custom Android interface makes perfect sense – Unlike some reviews I read earlier today, I like Fire’s interface. It makes sense to me. It doesn’t look like any other Android interfaces I’ve seen, but I find the stripped down version the Fire employees to be more agreeable.  Furthermore, I think it will appeal to non-technical people like my Mom who will like the fact that everything she wants to do will fit neatly into a few categories that she can easily find every time she visits the home screen. I think the lack of sub-categories inside each of the built-in categories (Books, Apps, etc) may be a problem once I load the Fire up with more content, but with the universal search, I don’t think that will be much of a problem.
  2. Fire is fast enough, especially for the price – I think the Fire is fast enough. So far, I’ve looked at books, magazines, and webpages, and each task was perfectly acceptable. The book reader app works just like the Cloud Reader and I think it will do nicely for reading in the dark. (Although, I think my Kindle Keyboard is still a better reader, provided you have enough light.) Magazines look better on the iPad’s larger screen, but the pages turned and rendered smoothly. When I did a flick-to-scroll anywhere on the device, content zooms by smoothly and give you a smooth inertia-driven feel.
  3. The Amazon App Store interface is FANTASTIC – I LOVE the way the Amazon App Store for Android  is setup. In one screen, it gives you the top 100 Paid, Free, and Rated apps in a very digestible 3-column layout. The layout has the iTunes Store beat hands down. (For the record, I have always despised the iTunes store. It’s too cluttered and requires too many clicks to see more than 3 of anything.)
  4. The built it speakers are loud and clear – While pursuing the selection of freely streamable Prime content, I realized how clear the Fire’s speakers are. Whereas most portable devices I’ve ever played with have sounded either muffled or weak, the Fire sounds fairly rich. The bass isn’t exactly thumping, but the overall sound quality from the speakers is great.
  5. The mail app is solid – Amazon did a good job crafting the mail app. I’m not at all worried about the lack of a native Gmail client now. The app has a clean interface and is really smooth (judging from my experience with it so far).
The Bad
  1. I want physical buttons for volume control and Home – The lack of a couple buttons is a disappointment for me. I don’t want to have to click 4 times to turn down the volume. And, what’s the one thing you do on a tablet more than anything else? Go to the home screen to launch stuff. The Kindle Fire 2 needs to have hardware buttons for these functions.
  2. The built in apps are lackluster – I did say that the mail app was solid, but what I mean here is that the included apps don’t really do anything that makes me go “Wow!” The Facebook app isn’t even an app: It’s a shortcut that opens the mobile version of Facebook in the Silk Browser. Ugh!
  3. The Silk Browser is way overhyped – I can’t really tell that Amazon’s much-touted hybrid browser has done anything to speed up my mobile browsing experience. The Fire supports Mobile Flash, but all the Flash videos I looked at were a mess. (Downloaded mp4s look great, though!) All the pages I visited loaded just like they do on any other mobile device, which means that either Silk doesn’t do squat or that the Fire’s hardware can’t handle browsing on its own. Either way, as of right now, Silk has left me unimpressed.
The Fire Compared to the iPad

The Fire and the iPad are kind of a like a boat and a car: A car and a boat are both get you from one place to another, but they are for totally different uses. The Fire isn’t a content creation device but its cloud-accessible content is second to none. The iPad is undoubtedly more powerful overall, but to some users (like myself) it’s debatable if the iPad is $300 more powerful. The Fire is much more portable and easier to deal with one-handed, while the iPad’s big screen wins for reading full-color material. In short: Which device is better depends on what you want out of your tablet.

My Bottom Line

I really like what I’ve seen out my Fire so far. For $200, you get a very smart, well-connected media player, with media meaning text, audio, video, and apps. If you like Amazon (which I do), you’ll love owning a Fire. Is it perfect? No. Is it mass-market friendly? You bet. If you’ve been putting off getting a tablet because of price, go ahead and get a Fire. There’s more than $200 worth of goodness in this simple, unassuming package.

Android, Kindle Fire, Tech Tips

How to Install Your Own Custom Apps on a Kindle Fire

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Well, folks, I have my Kindle Fire in hand. So far, I think it is more than worth its $200 price tag. I’ll be posting more about it later tonight after I’ve had more time to take it for a spin.

One of the first things I wanted to know was could I load my upcoming web app on it to test (which I have discovered is called “side loading”). I tried connecting the Fire via USB to my computer and copying the APK that way, but that doesn’t work.

Not to be deterred, I did the following:

  1. I went into the Kindle settings by tapping the cog in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then tapped More > Device > and turned “on” the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources”
  2. I uploaded the APK to an accessible folder on my website.
  3. Then, I went to that folder in the Silk Browser.
  4. Once the download was complete, I went to the download manager by clicking on the orange Kindle label in the top left hand corner of the screen.
  5. I then tapped on the name of the APK and it asked me if I wanted to install the app.
  6. I told it yes, at which point the app was installed (and is working quite nicely).

That was easy and now I can test my own app on my own device. I’m a happy early adopter!

Apple, Microsoft Windows, Tech Tips

An easy fix for iTunes 10.5 (x64) that won’t install on Windows 7 64 bit

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I just downloaded iTunes 10.5 and tried to install it on my Windows 7 64 bit machine. What I got was an error message that said:

There is a problem with this WIndows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.

The fix that allowed 10.5 to install correctly was very simple. Simply go to Control Panel > Uninstall a Program. Right-click on “Apple Software Update” and choose “Repair.” After that, iTunes 10.5 (x64) should install with no problems at all. Apparently the Apple Updater can get messed up and cause the new version not to install. Imagine that.

If only all Windows errors were so easy to fix!

Tech Tips, Web Development/Programming

A PHP Script to automatically clean files affected by the the eval(gzinflate(base64_decode…) hack

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In late April, my server got hacked. Most of my php files had code that looked like this placed at the top:

eval(gzinflate(base64_decode('DZZFssRYokOX... long string of gzipped-base64-encoded php code);

I’m not sure how the bad guys got in, but I changed all my passwords and updated all the software on the server. Then, like any obsessive programmer, I set forth making a script to clean up the mess programatically. My solution was a two-step process. I used GNU find command to find all my php scripts with the code “eval(gzinflate” in them. I chose to search by this code because I can’t think of too many legitimate reasons to do this, and it matched all the infections I found manually. The full command I used for this was:

find /full/path/to/public_html -name "*.php" -exec grep -li "eval(gzinflate" {} \;

This command finds all php files then uses grep to look inside each file for “eval(gzinflate”.

I copied the results of this command to a text file called fullInfected.txt .

After I had a list of infected files, I wrote a php script that’ll go through each file on the list, do a search, and remove all lines with the infected code in it. I saved the script in the same directory as my fullInfected.txt file. You can get that file (with a few sample supporting files) here: CleanEvalBase64_decodeHack script.

There are two variables that can be set at the top of the file: One for the name of the file with the list of infected files in it ($listOfFiles) and another for the text to search for ($findWhat). I uploaded the script to the server and ran it via SSH:

php clean.php

When the script runs, it will log a list of which files were cleaned.

This script is released as-is, with no implied warranty whatsoever under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Make a backup of your server before using this and test this very thoroughly on a small sample of infected files.

I’m sure there’s more efficient ways to do with with shell commands and/or regex, but I didn’t know how to do it that way. Good luck getting cleaned up!

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