I will include the PHP based MySQL backup script in another post shortly, but this is the method of using Lynx and Cron to run this script on a set basis.

• Firstly you will need root access to the server, either directly or through sudo (ubuntu).
• Next, you will need Lynx installed to act as the conduit for the PHP script.
  • To install lynx, type the following:

#> sudo apt-get install lynx

• Be sure to add any additional resources that are needed to install lynx.

• Now you need to decide how often you want the Cron job to run.  See the diagram below to help you determine the best way to configure it.

*    *     *   *   *        command to be executed
-     -     -   -    -
|     |     |   |    |
|     |     |   |    +----- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0)
|     |     |   +------- month (1 - 12)
|     |     +--------- day of        month (1 - 31)
|     +----------- hour (0 - 23)
+------------- min (0 - 59)

• So here is an example to run a php command daily at 3:00pm based on server time.  Pay close attention to the format in which Lynx is invoked as a catalyst for the PHP script to be called.

00 15 * * * /usr/bin/lynx -dump http://www.yoursite.com/script_to_be_run_daily.php

To add this line to an existing CRON group, or to start a new one from scratch, use the following steps.

**NOTE: You will need to determine which user account the CRON job needs to be ran for.  I suggest that you attempt to run the command as your local user (as opposed to root or superadmin) before creating the actual CRON job.  If you are successful in running the command as your normal use, create the CRON job under that user as it is more secure.  As a last ditch solution however, you can run the command as root or superadmin if you run into issues with the command.

Adding to your CRON Jobs

1. Dump the contents of your existing CRON jobs to a temporary file;

#> crontab -l > /home/*your_username*/cron_dump

2. Edit the CRON dump file: Use the example above to determine the format in which your command needs to be formatted/structured.

#> emacs /home/*your_username*/cron_dump

3. Import the modified CRON dump file into your CRONTAB configuration;

#> crontab /home/*your_username*/cron_dump

4. Verify that the CRONTAB contains the modified/newest correct data; *following command will display the contents of the CRONTAB on the screen*

#> crontab -l

That should cover it. Stay tuned for a PHP MySQL backup/email script that was the inspiration for these posts.

One of the hurdles that I faced was the need for the PHP Pear mail functions that do not normally come packaged during a standard PHP install.  The simple steps below will illustrate how to prepare your system for the use of Pear MAIL and Mime-Types, as well as get you prepared to use my MySQL bavkup script should you be so inclined.

What you will need:

• Linux Server with ROOT access (sudo works just as well)
  • We will be using sudo in this demonstration as all of my servers are Ubuntu,
• The server must be connected to the internet access, and you will need to gain access via telnet of SSH (preferrably).
• The server must be running a current version of PHP (preferrably 5+)

Once logged in, type the following commands in the following order:

1. sudo apt-get install php-pear
2. sudo pear install mail
3. sudo pear install Net_SMTP
4. sudo pear Auth_SASL
5. sudo pear install mail_mime

And that’s about it. Fairly straight forward ans shouldn’t take more than a minute or 2, and now you can experiment with the Pear Libraries for Mail which are extremely useful and powerful.  I will be studying the security implications of these tools on a production server shortly, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: Now I have the bluetooth keyboard connected and am typing here. This is a very cool addition. The arrows work for cursor navigation and this is much easier for typing full posts or information. This has seriously become a powerful tool. I must say that I am very impressed.

To install mCrypt for PHP5 on your Ubuntu Linux system:

#> sudo apt-get install php5-mcrypt

Then restart Apache with:

#> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Windows 7 “GodMode”

Apparently there are a bunch of ways to access the options of “GodMode” in Windows 7. I’ve only had a little time to explore the options, but they seems to be basically the same options that you have throughout the system in various options/settings panels, but it’s all organized in one neat package. Here’s the steps for creating and accessing these folders and you can check them out for yourselves.

Usage Instructions:

To use these, create a new folder and name it the following: You can rename the “PutTextHere” piece with whatever descriptor you want for the folder. There are a few that will override your folder name regardless of what you name it.

PutTextHere.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Main GodMode:
{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Advanced Location Settings: (For GPS Devices)
{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}

Biometric Device Settings:
{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}

Advanced Power Settings:
{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}

Taskbar Icons:
{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

Windows Credential Manager:
{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}

Install Program from over Network:
{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}

Default Program Selection:
{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}

Developers Kit 1:
{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}

Wifi Network Selection:
{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}

Local Network Folder:
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

My Computer Folder:
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Printers Folder:
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Remote App & Desktop Connections Config:
{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}

Windows Firewall Settings:
{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}

Computer Performance:
{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}

Most of us work with a shell prompt. By default most Linux distro displays hostname and current working directory. You can easily customize your prompt to display information important to you.  In this small how to I will explain how to customize a bash shell to get a good looking prompt.

Prompt is control via a special shell variable. You need to set PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 variable. If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each primary prompt.

• PS1 – The value of this parameter is expanded (see PROMPTING below) and used as the primary prompt string. The default value is \s-\v\$ .
• PS2 - The value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and used as the secondary prompt string. The default is >
• PS3 – The value of this parameter is used as the prompt for the select command
• PS4 – The value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and the value is printed before each command bash displays during an execution trace. The first character of PS4 is replicated multiple times, as necessary, to indicate multiple levels of indirection. The default is +

How do I display current prompt setting?

Simply use echo command, enter:

$ echo $PS1

Output:

<pre>\\u@\h \\W]\\$</pre>

How do I modify or change the prompt?
Modifying the prompt is easy task. Just assign a new value to PS1 and hit enter key:
My old prompt –> cmiller@webagencies01:~$

PS1="touch me : "

Output: My new prompt

touch me :

So when executing interactively, bash displays the primary prompt PS1 when it is ready to read a command, and the secondary prompt PS2 when it needs more input to complete a command. Bash allows these prompt strings to be customized by inserting a number of backslash-escaped special characters that are decoded as follows:

• \a : an ASCII bell character (07)
• \d : the date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26″)
• \D{format} : the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required
• \e : an ASCII escape character (033)
• \h : the hostname up to the first ‘.’
• \H : the hostname
• \j : the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
• \l : the basename of the shell’s terminal device name
• \n : newline
• \r : carriage return
• \s : the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
• \t : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
• \T : the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
• \@ : the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
• \A : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
• \u : the username of the current user
• \v : the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
• \V : the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
• \w : the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
• \W : the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
• \! : the history number of this command
• \# : the command number of this command
• \$ : if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
• \nnn : the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
• \\ : a backslash
• \[ : begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt
• \] : end a sequence of non-printing characters

Let us try to set the prompt so that it can display today’d date and hostname:

PS1="\d \h $ "

Output:

Sat Jun 02 server

Now setup prompt to display date/time, hostname and current directory:

$ PS1="[\d \t \u@\h:\w ] $ "

Output:

[Sat Jun 02 14:24:12 cmiller@server:~ ] $

This tutorial assumes that you have gone through the basic install of Ubuntu server and have configured it to be connected to the internet.

Initially simply log into the server to gain access.  You should be presented with all of the basic Linux jargon about licenses, etc.  First step is to update and upgrade APT (The Package Manager).

:~#  sudo apt-get update
:~#  sudo apt-get upgrade

:~#  sudo apt-get install emacs23

The last item in that list is to install EMACS, a command line editor to edit various files.  Very Handy.

That’s the basics, now on to the fun stuff;

1:  Installing Apache + PHP

:~#  apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5

Now to test apache.  The basic configuration file is now located at /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and your default web folder is /var/www, though we will change that later.

To check whether PHP5 and Apache are running correctly.  In order to do so, we are going to create a test PHP file within the current web folder.

:~#  sudo emacs /var/www/test.php

Type the following into the new file that comes up.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Point your browser at the server: http://*server.ip*/test.php.  You should see all of the current settings and php configuration information.

2: Installing MySQL Database Server

:~#  apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

The configuration file of MySQL is located at: /etc/mysql/my.cnf

3: Creating users to use MySQL and Changing Root Password

:~# mysql -u root
mysql>  USE mysql;
mysql>  UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘new-password’) WHERE user = ‘root’;
mysql>  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

It is never a good idea to use your root user in any applications.  You really need to create individual users and individual databases for those users in order to keep you server secure.

Congratulations you have now just created a webserver in only 3 steps!

4: Configuring an Apache2 site

:~# sudo mkdir /www

Now we want to create some site folders.  Let’s assume that you have a domain and can DNS a few domain’s or domain aliases.  In this case we are using http://web03.mydomain.com and http://tools.web03.mydomain.com.  We want each domain to have their own web site folders and log folders. Type the following to accomplish this:

:~#  sudo mkdir /www/web03.mydomain.com
:~# sudo mkdir /www/web03.mydomain.com/wwwroot
:~#  sudo mkdir /www/web03.mydomain.com/logs

:~#  sudo mkdir /www/tools.web03.mydomain.com
:~# sudo mkdir /www/tools.web03.mydomain.com/wwwroot
:~#  sudo mkdir /www/tools.web03.mydomain.com/logs

Ok, so now we have the folders, let’s go point some Apache2 config files to them. Type the following to get to the Apache2 configuration folder:

:~#  cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

Now there are 2 files currently in this folder, “default” and “default-ssl”.  What we really want to do is work with “default” as it is the basic incarnation.  So we need to make unique copies of these for our 2 new domains, to do that type the following:

:~#  sudo cp default web03.mydomain.com.conf
:~#  sudo cp default tools.web03.mydomain.com.conf

Notice the inclusion of the “.conf” at the end of the document.  This helps Apache realize that it is in face a config file.  Now we need to edit them, so bring on EMACS:

:~#  sudo web03.mydomain.com.conf

Now you will see a bunch of information that is the configuration file for that site.  I will highlight and give instructions on what you need to change.VirtualHost *:80>

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@mydomain.com

ServerName web03.mydomain.com

DocumentRoot /www/web03.mydomain.com/wwwroot/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /www/web03.mydomain.com/wwwroot/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory “/usr/lib/cgi-bin”>
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

ErrorLog /www/web03.mydomain.com/logs/error.log

# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn

CustomLog /www/web03.mydomain.com/logs/access.log combined

Alias /doc/ “/usr/share/doc/”
<Directory “/usr/share/doc/”>
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

• RED = simply change to your domain.
• BLUE = change these to the new folders you made under /www.  See the examples above
• GREEN = you can remove this entirely if you wish.  It simply maps the Apache Documentation to http://www.yourdomain.com/doc/ if you wish you read it.

When you are done with the editing of the file, go ahead and save it and let’s move on.

There are 2 folders in the /etc/apache2/ folder that we need to be concerned with.  Those are “sites-available” and “sites-enabled”.  The reason there are 2 is that you put all of the configs into the “sites-available”, but you only “symbolically link” the configs you want running inside the “sites-enabled”.

That being said, we now have to make a “symbolic link” for the new config we just made.  I have found it easiest to make the links from inside the folder that you want the link to be, so change directories to the “sites-enabled” folder.  Then create the link;

:~#  sudo ln -s ../sites-available/web03.mydomain.com.conf web03.mydomain.com.conf
:~#  sudo rm 000-default

That last line removes the original default entry from the Apache install so it doesn’t cause any problems.

Now, simply restart Apache and you should be all good.

:~#  cd /etc/init.d
:~#  sudo ./apache2 restart

TADA! All done, check your new domain and if you have done this right, you should be all good.  These instructions may not work for everyone, but it’s a pretty good example for ubuntu which I have been using religiously as of late.

5: Further Study/Install

• Install PHP MCrypt extension
• Install Apache’s mod_rewrite

More to come!

The solution my friends lies not in iPhoto, or iTunes however, but in a bugger little app that I had never used before, (scanner connected to windows box) “Image Capture” in your “Applications” folder.

With your iPhone connected, fire this program up. Once opened you should see your phone in the list on the left, go ahead and click on it. Once clicked on, the menu at the bottom of the screen should be active. From that drop down menu is the culprit. Select “No Application” and no longer will you be bothered by the annoying iPhoto popup. Hopefully that will keep a few more Apple users sane!

Design Blogs:

[dzineblog.com] This is a fairly new blog to my list but they seem to have some very good inspirational pieces and the editorials are meaningful. Definitely worth a look!
[Photoshop Star] Yet another new one, but very professional none the less. Specializing mainly in Photoshop, but they have a very good resources section.
[Web Designer Wall] Very good editorials on web development and design trends. If you want to stay on top of what’s new in the biz, this is where to find it. Oh and they have good tutorials too.
[Andy Law Design Blog] A friend of mine beginning his blogging path to enlightenment. Show some support with a click!

Web Development Resources

[deviantART] This website has many different incarnations of design, art and community. Free to sign up and get inspiration and post your own.
[iStockPhoto] Need cheap, quality stock photography? This is the place. I found them when they first started out and now they have stuff to cover every possible subject.
[Icon Finder] A great place to find icons for your project. They have tons to search for and all of them are quality!

So in the end, I hope that someone else can get a little extra edge when they go for the gold!

Solution: 

I installed a copy of cygwin on the 2000 server to give me remote access to the box as though it were a linux server, however this is not necessary if you are on the same local network or domain.

• To check the status of the server and the remote sessions, you would type the following:

c:\>  qwinsta

• Assume that 12.12.12.12 is the IP of the local box that is locked out. You can eliminate the IP address if you are on the box locally or replace it with 127.0.0.1
• You will then be greeted with the following information:

 SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE        DEVICE
 console                                     0  Conn    wdcon
 rdp-tcp                                 65536  Listen  rdpwd
 rdp-tcp#470       Bob                       1  Active  rdpwd
 rdp-tcp#471       Jane                      3  Active  rdpwd

• Any of those that state “Active” under the “State” column are sessions that did not disconnect correctly. 
• In order to disconnect any of those sessions, type the following:

c:\>  rwinsta /server:12.12.12.12 3

• If you are on the local machine the command would look like this:

c:\>  rwinsta 3

If you’re like me, you probably noticed that rwinsta and qwinsta seems like strange names.  This came from the Citrix Metaframe days which Terminal Services has descended from.  It stands for:

qwinsta = Query WINdows STAtion
rwinsta = Reset WINdows STAtion

One final comment.  Microsoft has replaced these two tools with Query but since qwinsta and rwinsta is fully compatible with W2K WinXP and W2K3 I choose to use it instead.

Note: In Windows Server 2003, you can right-click on the root in Terminal Services Manager and Connect to another server.  Also, if you are in an Active Directory domain and using Windows 2000 Server, you can Connect to All Servers and access remote servers from the GUI.  But, in a Windows 2000 Server not connected to a domain, you run into the limitations that prompted this blog.