Super Snappy Tools

Assalamu Alaikum all,

Here I will try to list and update the tools those seems like a magic on their field.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
So here goes…

poppler-utils

It is a collection of command-line utilities built on Poppler’s library API, to manage PDF and extract contents:

• pdfattach – add a new embedded file (attachment) to an existing PDF
• pdfdetach – extract embedded documents from a PDF
• pdffonts – lists the fonts used in a PDF
• pdfimages – extract all embedded images at native resolution from a PDF
• pdfinfo – list all information of a PDF
• pdfseparate – extract single pages from a PDF
• pdftocairo – convert single pages from a PDF to vector or bitmap formats using cairo
• pdftohtml – convert PDF to HTML format retaining formatting
• pdftoppm – convert a PDF page to a bitmap
• pdftops – convert PDF to printable PS format
• pdftotext – extract all text from PDF
• pdfunite – merges several PDFs

Source: here.
Other resources:
https://poppler.freedesktop.org/
Windows installation
installation through Docker

SoX – Sound eXchange

SoX is the Swiss Army Knife of sound processing utilities. It can convert audio files to other popular audio file types and also apply sound effects and filters during the conversion.

http://sox.sourceforge.net/
Installation idea: https://arielvb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/docs/commandline/sox.html

csvkit

csvkit is a suite of command-line tools for converting to and working with CSV, the king of tabular file formats.

https://csvkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
Basic tutorial: here.

BlackBerry Link and macOSX Sierra issue

You might find it difficult to sync with any BB devices after updating your os to latest version, which is in current time Sierra.

After some digging finally found a good solution which works.

[Solution for BB10 and Mac OS Sierra]

Disconnect all USB cables.
Uninstall all BB software using the “Uninstall program from BB Link – you can download it and use the uninstall feature.

Go to System Preferences/Network on you mac.
Check the USB connections on the left for duplicate names for Blackberry and delete duplicate.
For the Blackberry Connection remaining, Under the Advanced Tab ensure that Hardware configuration is set to Auto.
Hit apply.
Reboot without any USB cables attached.
Do a hard reboot of BB10.

Reinstall BB Link by using the following method:
1) Double click on Blackberry Link dmg
2) On the open Icon “Install Blackberry 10 Desktop Software” right click – show package contents
3) Double Click on Contents, double click on Resources, double click Blackberry Blend.pkg
4) Installation program should open, click install Blackberry Link
5) Run the install program and then reboot.

On your BB, under USB enable USB Mass Storage Mode. This seems to get the Passport recognized in Sierra once you enter the device password on your computer

Open BB Link. It will recognize your BB device as a new one. Follow the instructions and BB Link should work after you enter the BB device password. Can’t get Blend to work yet.

Content source: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-passport-f434/end-line-1088365/

php date time formatting

// THIS IS INVALID, WOULD IMPLY MONTH == 19
$external = “19/10/2016 14:48:21”;

// HOWEVER WE CAN INJECT THE FORMATTING WHEN WE DECODE THE DATE
$format = “d/m/Y H:i:s”;
$dateobj = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $external);

 

echo $dateobj->format(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);

 

 

Or

$date = new DateTime(‘2000-01-01’);
echo $date->format(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);

 

to get current datetime simply:

$date = new DateTime();

Sources:

http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.php

http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php

Damn, I forgot my windows 7 admin password and Ubuntu 12.04 root password

So? Whats the solution?

Win7: A little search gave me this link: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/passrecovery.htm

Which has quite few tools with tested feedback. After going through few of them, I have used number 2: Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor, Bootdisk / CD. Because it is damn small and easy. It comes with small app to make your pendrive /flash drive bootable. No need for extra hassle. Just extract the usb version to your pendrive and run the command:

X:syslinux.exe -ma X:

Where X is your pendrive letter. Reboot and follow the simple steps: Here.

Ubuntu 12.04: It is far easier if you have no grub password. If don’t know what is grub, it is more likely you do not have password protection. Again simple google search gave me few links, but some were missing one vital info. This one worked for me: http://askubuntu.com/questions/24006/how-do-i-reset-a-lost-administrative-root-password. Actual missing instruction was:

mount -rw -o remount /

You need to use this command just before changing the password, as the shell we get doesn’t have write permission to those required files yet. Before running this command I was getting: authentication token manipulation error

Hope this helps someone out there.

ShareKit and RestKit Error with Duplicate jsonkit.o

Ok here is what i have done to solve this issue.

I have deleted none of the files.
Just removed the reference of JSONKit.m from the sharekit section. which was in
sharekit_subProject > classes > sharekit > core > helpers > jsonkit > JSONKit.m (just reference)

after that added restkit JSONKit.h and JSONKit.m to base project.
which was located in
restkit_folder > vendor > jsonkit

So, it started working.

If you have any updates or suggestions, please comment.

Thanks

P.S. I have also faced some other problem with single sign on and some other library issues. So i have removed the reference of FoursquareV2 and Evernote as it wasn’t required for my project. I am sure following same process as above would have solved too. The sharer ref were removed from
sharekit_subProject > classes > sharekit > sharers > services > conflict_groups

https://github.com/ShareKit/ShareKit/issues/391

https://github.com/ShareKit/ShareKit/issues/318

currently fixing bugs. If you find any bug, please report. Soon the android 2.3 support will be given.

ANDROID BANGLADESH

This is a project of CRBLPBRAC University Dhaka Bangladesh.

The purpose of this project is to make Android 2.2 (Froyo) render Bangla properly.

Please do not try to apply this patch for any version of Android other than 2.2 (FROYO). We will try to give support to 2.3 (GINGERBREAD) as soon as possible.

 Installing Libraries and Fonts:

NOTE: For this process to work you will need to ROOT your Android Device. If you do not know what ROOT means do not download. Rooting purchased device could potentially void the warranty do at your own risk. The following process described must be exercised with extreme caution and should be tried out by experienced users only

Pre-requisites:

• A rooted android device (phone / tab) with android 2.2 (Froyo)
  

• Files: Compiled files libskia.so, libskiagl.so and SolaimanLipiNormal.ttf (custom font) download here

•  File manager with root access for Android

  -Root Explorer…

View original post 207 more words

A Blackberry Curve 8320 and Macbook Pro (10.6.4). The Tether story

Tether really gave me a hard time to configure these two wild animals. Tried for 4 or 5 days, months back. After that used my old friend Nokia 3500c. Which was a charm to setup. No extra settings needed. Just pair with system and mention the APN and boom. You are connected.

But today I have managed some free time and decided to give another try for it. I was getting tired of chancing sim from one set to another. Some search and reading. After which came across these links one after another and finally got a working solution.

Main trick which I missed earlier was,
Use number: *99#
Username: (space)
Password: (space)
* (space) [seriously just 1 space no other character]

And boom, I am connected.

Links: (in order of appearance)
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-for-Mac/bd-p/blackberryformac
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-for-Mac/Use-your-BlackBerry-smartphone-as-a-tethered-modem-with-a-Mac/td-p/452371

Bluetooth: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB18127
USB: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB19641

Prologue: Ohh, did I mention I have also tried the tetherberry, till evaluation period? It was really nice with some minor glitch. I did planned to buy it after this final try. But lucky me :D.

Electrons, Here I Arrive…

Its a long long long……. story.. short: One of my school friend became school teacher. As he was new, silently forced to take responsibility of arranging a science fair. He have to arrange few projects, make them successful and show to the students… you know, our the usual other way round thingy.

So, me to the rescue.. arranged a small project with an electronics person. I talked with him and finalized the delivery date and price. But at the day before deadline I called him to know the status, he replied: “Apne to amake ovabe bolen nai. Ei kaj korte gale keu nijer poisay kore. Amake jinish kine dite hobe. bla bla bla “. In short, as I took the responsibility, I am F… up (too usual in here).

I said, “Grrrr” and “Ok lets see whats so special about it”. I have strong interest in electronics, specially the fusion of hardware and software part (low level programming, it’s low man :)) ). But never ventured the electronics part before (though did some digital logic way back in undergrad).

Started searching and learning. Gathered design and basic behind the “Light Sensitive Switch” used for nightlights.

Why am I writing this post again? Yah, right… I want share with newbies or the beginners our there with same interest to get out and get started.
Like Phil Collins say,
Don’t be scared, don’t be shy
Lift your head it’s gonna be alright

Stuffs bought, we started with diagram and nothing worked :P. We were in tense situation, whats wrong? Later we got the idea, there were some damaged components. In the process we forgot which Resistor in what ohm. Searched and found this site for easy calculation. Just remember the first band is other side of golder band.

Also checkout these fine sites to support you with some weird ideas on tech thingy.

One is instructables. Excellent design and detailed step by step instructions. You can find what i have worked on in here. Also more detailed diagram in here.

Another, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. I like it for simple and weird ideas. I have done this project.

In final word, price of components are not that high. Above two project components in two sets each was around 200TK. Try it out if you have interest. Be careful with hot rods 😀 (The Soldering Iron). Tryout the project in a breadboard before fixing/finalizing it on board. Bread board is a bit costly but its worth it if you are planning to venture these sort of stuff often. Some of our work picture is posted at the end.
Enjoy…. ppl.

Back to the game board (The point click Adventure games revisited :-)

Who were you? Are you the person who used to dream about games? Always thinking what might be the reason for game state isn’t moving forward? Wondering all the time, “what am I missing? what mystery I have to unveil to move forward?”. Then you are that point click adventure game freak.

My experience with this sorts of game were started with The Full Throttle when i was in school. It was 1997 or 1998 maybe. It was just initial PC time when most people i know were happy with Doom or Duke Nukem 3D. At that time Computer was not so common in Bangladesh. All the games were original copy and worst of all, almost no cd burner available. You had to literally borrow these games like a paperback book. Another game I can recall of that time was Crusader: No Regret. I still remember its title: No pity. No mercy. No regret. You can checkout the Crusader video from youtube. but that’s another story.

The fun part of these sorts of game is you have to think like the character. You will get into the environment and solve the problem. By solving a puzzle or tackling a situation with pieces of information you gathered will move the main character to final goal.

With The Full Throttle, it just opened a new genre of games to me. These games gave me some taste to the RPG (Role Playing Game). So i played some great RPGs like Final Fantasy series, The Blade Runner, Monkey Island series and many more.

I think the early age of adventure genre was ruled mainly by Lucas Arts and Sierra. But where were others in focus as well. Some of the popular titles of early time were:

• Full Throttle
• The Dig
• Monkey Island series
• Indiana Jones series
• Day of the Tentacle
• Sam & Max
• The Gobliiins series
• King’s Quest series
• Leisure Suit Larry series
• Broken Sword series

OK, I have bored you enough. Now lets get to the point of posting this article. Recently I came across playing The Dig. Long story short, some villain showed me that game but never let me borrow :(. Suddenly i got it over torrent and tried to play. But most of you tried to play old dos based games already know, starting from windows xp you do not have the actual dos present in you OS anymore. Its a virtual environment for dos you see, not the real one which is required for these games to play. You will face many problems like, screen screwed up or sound card problem or controlling problem or game runs in super man speed ;-).

There there.. don’t be sad. There are much freakier people out there. Who actually think for freak like us and gave us a gift to overcome these problem. They are the knight in shining armor to save these games from the cruel hands of latest OS. Its the ScummVM. You can check their Compatibility list for your favorite game or check out the FAQ page for general info.

There is another link for your pleasure, where you will get all the latest news about your oldest games :P. The MOJO site. No, its not the cold drinks mojo or ppg (power puff girls) mojo jo jo :-). Don’t forget to visit bottom right links some game dedicated sites hosted by mixmojo. Also if you love to extract you fav game music or dialogs or BG, you will get those and some other tools from Quick n Easy Software link of mixmojo.

PS: i can’t recall now, will try to add later. But i have used another emulation tool for old dos programs. Can’t remember.. damn i m getting old, loosing memories… Wait, I do that all the time. Ooops, sorry. I m getting old …… NOT.

CodeIgniter vs Godaddy Problems

Hello every one. I’ve been planning for this post long. But couldn’t manage time. This is about a problem i have faced during my freelance work on mid August for a client in Bosnia. My web application was built with CI and was working fine in local as well as remote server. But was causing problem on clients Godaddy server.
Problems were:

1. It was giving problem ‘404 Page Not Found’ when requesting default route.
2. Request with full url with controller was giving ‘No input file specified’. Which was solved by putting ‘index.php?’ in the config file. But i want to remove the index.php from the url. Have tried all the .htaccess settings suggested in the forum.
3. All the database transaction gives a error like below:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: mysql_real_escape_string() expects parameter 2 to be resource, boolean given

Filename: mysql/mysql_driver.php

Line Number: 227

After that i tried some suggestions from this user guide page. Which actually solved my problem No. 1 with changes in config.php like below:

$config['uri_protocol'] = "QUERY_STRING";
and
$config['uri_protocol'] = "ORIG_PATH_INFO";

Other settings were either failing or was giving me the default controller for all the url i request for. But my problem No 2 and 3 was still on loose.
Then again i’ve started to investigate and found a problem of database connection. Actually i was so sure that DB connection settings problem will show me an error on initial stage that i’ve never double checked the DB settings. But for some weired reason, CI doesn’t show any error on DB connection problem over Godaddy. So beware of it.

So after rechecking the DB settings my problem No 3 was gone. Now lets see the .htaccess settings for problem No 3 which works under Godaddy server:

Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes
DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|img|css|js|robots\.txt|favicon\.ico)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L,QSA]

Additional to the solutions above, also try to re ftping your scripts. Just in case. Also some others suggested me to avoid this host to save time :-).
Whole thing was done with suggestions and help of great CodeIgniter forum. You can get further help and old discussions over there.
You can also visit my clients site here. Which (thanks God) is running smoothly ever since.
Thank you all.