Soediarto's Blog

Can't eject DVD

2010-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

I have a Dell laptop running Windows XP. Sometimes I can't eject the DVD.
The easiest way to solve this problem is by disabling and enabling the DVD-ROM drive from the device manager.

Just right click on My Computer, select Hardware, find the DVD-ROM drive, select disable, then enable. That's all.

No video on TPG's IPTV

2010-12-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

I could hear the audio, but no video on TPG's IPTV. It was working properly a few weeks ago.

How did I fix it?
I uninstalled the existing VLC media player(0.8.6), then installed the newer version (1.1.5). Don't forget to check the 'Firefox' option during the installation.

Windows XP VPN were missing

2010-10-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

All of the XP's VPN connections were missing. Options 'Dial Up' and 'VPN' in the connection wizard were disabled. So, I couldn't make a new VPN connection.

It turn out that I accidentally disable some of the services.
These are the necessary services:

Telephony
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager

After enabling those services, the previous connections are appeared.

http://www.computing.net/answers/networking/new-network-connection-disabled/36178.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330163

Double thumbnail in Virtuemart

2010-05-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

The components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product folder is taking up so much space. Then I realised that virtuemart always creates 2 thumbnails: one in product folder, and one in resized folder.

Here's a link on how to fix this problem:
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=51644.0

Mount partition in Ubuntu

2010-03-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

My harddisk has 2 partitions (C and D). Ubuntu only recognised C drive.

I opened the terminal and run:
sudo fdisk -l

I can see the D drive in the output. So, I have to mount it to Ubuntu.

sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt

Now I can access the D Drive from mnt folder.

To unmount, run:
sudo unmount /mnt

Drupal 6 installation error (/includes/menu.inc on line 315)

2010-03-04T17:57:00.001-08:00

When I installed Drupal 6, I got an error message about '/includes/menu.inc on line 315'. I can't find solution on the internet. So, what I did was deleting the database, create the new database, and start the installation again. This time, the installation was completed successfully. I didn't have any idea what caused the error previously.

Linksys VPN: remote gateway is not responding

2010-03-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

I use QuickVPN to connect to the RV042 router in remote location. It worked perfectly for around a year. A few weeks ago, suddenly I can't connect anymore. The error message was 'Remote gateway is not responding'.

I didn't make any changes in both my laptop(Windows XP) and RV042. By the way, PPTP connection was allright. So, what's the problem?

I tried all these things..but it won't solve the problem:
- Turn off the firewall in XP.
- Turn off the firewall in RV042.
- Change MTU size in RV042.
- Add new VPN user.

I tried to install QuickVPN on another computer(same network)..and it didn't work..
I tried to install on a remote computer(XP)..and it works!

So, the problem was definitely on the client side. But I tried to turn off the firewall, anti virus..and still didn't work.

Then suddenly I was thinking about my router..Can it be my router that cause the problem? I opened the router's log and saw this line:
kernel: net/ipv4/netfilter/./broadcom/ip_nat_ipsec.c:ipsec_nat_help Out of table entries
I've no idea what's the meaning of it. But I had a feeling that something's wrong with the router. So, I restarted the router, then tried the QuickVPN..and problem SOLVED..Now QuickVPN is working..

Unable to set the orientation property

2010-01-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

"Unable to set the orientation property of the PageSetup class". This error message is appeared in my VB6 code, which is used to set the orientation of an excel file to landscape.

This error message only appeared in 1 computer. Why did it happen only in 1 computer? Well...the computer didn't have a default printer. I just need to add a default printer, then the problem disappeared.

Source:
http://www.ureader.com/msg/103711516.aspx

Dot in directory name (IIS)

2010-01-05T18:39:00.000-08:00

I have a directory name that contains dot (ex: http://localhost/test3.5). Just recently, I was not able to open that page from the browser.

How to fix it?
Firstly, I have to open UrlScan.ini file. In my computer, it's located in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\urlscan folder.

Then, I have to change this value from 0 to 1:
AllowDotInPath=1

I don't need to restart the IIS. Just refresh the browser..and it works!

Source: http://forums.iis.net/t/1150130.aspx

C and C++ Hello World on Ubuntu

2009-11-22T17:11:00.001-08:00

This is a nice tutorial on how to run your first c and c++ codes on Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-c-and-c-compilers-in-ubuntu-and-testing-your-first-c-and-c-program.html

Perl Hello World on Ubuntu

2009-11-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Hello World\n";

Those are 2 lines for the Hello World application.
My question is: How can I know the first line should be #!/usr/bin/perl ?

Well, open the terminal, then run which perl
It will show you the location of the Perl interpreter.

To run the code, just type perl hello.pl in terminal.

Now, I want to make the file 'executable'. Go to the directory where I saved the file, then run:
chmod +x hello.pl
./hello.pl

+x is used to put executable attribute to the file.
What about ./hello.pl? Why do we need ./ ? Why don't just type hello.pl?

For the complete explanation, see this website http://www.linfo.org/dot_slash.html
When we execute the file, we need to put the absolute path. The easiest way to put the absolute path is by using ./
./ refers to the current directory.

Unmount cdrom in Ubuntu

2009-11-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to remove a CD from my computer. I pressed the eject button, it didn't work. I right-clicked the CD icon and select 'Unmount' or 'Eject', it didn't work.

So, I tried to open the terminal and run this command 'umount -l /media/cdrom'..and it worked!

What is -l option? According to man page:
Lazy unmount. Detach the filesystem from the filesystem hierarchy
now, and cleanup all references to the filesystem as soon as
it is not busy anymore. (Requires kernel 2.4.11 or later.)

Remove red dot and vertical blue line in jEdit

2009-11-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

In jEdit, there's a red dot at the end of each line, and there's a vertical blue line. How to remove them?

Go to Utilities > Global Options > Text Area
Uncheck both 'End of line markers' and 'Wrap guide'.
Done.

Mount SMB shares

2009-11-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

I have 2 ubuntu machines. One of the machine acts as the file server. I want to mount the shared folder to the other machine.

Firstly, install Samba File System and Samba client:
sudo apt-get install smbfs smbclient

Secondly,use smbmount command to mount the share.
Ex: The shared folder is located in 192.168.1.2 machine, and the folder name is java.
I wanted to mount it to /home/adi/java
smbmount //192.168.1.2/java /home/adi/java -o username=adi,pass=mysecretpassword

Done.

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=280473

Get MDB2's mysql package

2009-11-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

I installed Pear a few years ago but I only used it a few times.
This morning I decided to try the MDB2 package.

I tried the sample code from the Pear website. When I ran the code, I got this error unable to find package 'MDB2_Driver_mysql' file 'MDB2\Driver\mysql.php'

So, I had to update the package. 2 things that I had to do:
1. 'pear upgrade MDB2' to upgrade MDB2 package to the latest version
2. 'pear install MDB2_Driver_mysql' to get the mysql package

MySQL timestamp

2009-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

When you insert a new row into a table, sometimes we need to record the time of insertion. For example, you have a table called User, which contains columns such as userName and userCreationDate.

To insert the creation date, I often used statement like this:
INSERT INTO USERS (userName,userCreationDate) VALUES ('yourusername',now())

Well, there's an easier way. You can just change the type of userCreationDate column from Date to Timestamp. MySQL will automatically update the column everytime you insert a new row. By the way, I used MySQL Administrator to modify the column type.

Now I've got a new problem. When the row is updated (ex: changing the userName), the userCreationDate is also updated to the current time. I don't want the creation date to be changed, but I can't find the reason by looking the table information in MySQL Administrator. So, let's use open the MySQL using the command prompt.

Type this command 'SHOW CREATE TABLE USERS'. You'll see something like this:
`userCreationDate` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

The problem is in the 'on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' statement. It means the column is automatically updated when the row is modified. To turn off this functionality, just alter the table:
ALTER TABLE USERS MODIFY COLUMN userCreationDate TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

That's all.

Regular expression to check email address (PHP)

2009-10-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the regex to check email address according to totallyphp.co.uk
^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$

The valid characters for the username part are: underscore,hyphen,letter from a to z, number from 0 to 9.
The valid characters for the domain part are: same as username, but it doesn't include the underscore. In addition, the last part of the domain can only contain 2 or 3 letters (ex: com,au).

What's wrong with this regular expression?
The obvious one is the last part. I own a domain name that end with 'info'. 'info' has 4 characters, so it won't match the last rule, which can only accept 2 or 3 character.

Now, let's take a look at the first part: ^[_a-z0-9-]+
Based on this part, the email address can start with an underscore, letter, number, or hyphen. However, email address can only start with a letter or number. These email address are not valid: _jim@example.com, -jim@example.com

Let's improve the regular expression.
To fix the first mistake, just change the last part from {2,3} to {2,4}.

For the second one, we have to make sure that email address must not start with an underscore or hyphen.
We have to change ^[_a-z0-9-]+ to ^[a-z0-9]+
Then, we have to include the underscore and hyphen in the next part: [_a-z0-9-]*

The complete one is: ^[a-z0-9]+[_a-z0-9-]*(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,4})$

Update:
When I did the practice, I misplaced the hyphen position, and the regex didn't work properly. Instead of [_a-z0-9-], I wrote [_-a-z0-9]
Hyphen has a special meaning in regular expression. So it's better to 'escape' the hyphen. This one will work [_\-a-z0-9]

Sources:
http://www.totallyphp.co.uk/code/validate_an_email_address_using_regular_expressions.htm
http://www.melbourneit.com.au/help/index.php?questionid=1118
http://www.alertsite.com/help/RegexMatching.html

A quick way to create rounded corners

2009-10-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

When you need to create a box with rounded corner, you normally need to create the rounded images using software such as photoshop. I've just found a website that can create the images quickly. Here's the link: RoundedCornr

Amazon Product Advertising API signature

2009-09-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I got this email from amazon:
Dear Developer,

We want to remind you that all calls to the Product Advertising API must be authenticated using request signatures by August 15, 2009. Please remember that calls to the Product Advertising API that are not signed will not be processed after August 15, 2009. For help on request signatures, please see the Resources section below.

The Product Advertising API Team.

Well, I tried to find an example about this signature on amazon's website, but none of the examples is using PHP. Fortunately, there's a guy who wrote the example using php.
Here is the link:
http://www.codediesel.com/php/accessing-amazon-product-advertising-api-in-php/

Printing multiple pages in 1 sheet of paper (OpenOffice Writer 3)

2009-09-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

I want to print 2 pages in 1 sheet of paper.

Firstly, go to Page Preview. Then click 'Print options page view' button and change the format to Landscape.

Next, click 'Page Preview: Multiple Pages' button, choose '2 x 1 pages'.

Finally, click 'Print page view' button.

Done.

Sharing printer connected to Windows 7

2009-09-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

My printer is connected to the Windows 7 PC. I would like to add the printer to my XP PC. However, my XP PC couldn't see the Windows 7 PC. Well, Windows 7 has a concept called Homegroup. It seems that Homegroup is only used for Windows 7. So, what I have to do is to leave the Homegroup, then join the Workgroup.

If you go to Network section in control panel, there's an option to leave the Homegroup.

To change the Workgroup, click the start button, right click on Computer and choose Properties. Change the workgroup, then restart the computer.

Next, what I have to do is to activate the printer sharing (right click on printer name).

That's all the steps needed in Windows 7. Now my XP PC can see the printer attached to Windows 7.

Done.

Can't access Netcomm NB9W's settings page

2009-09-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

After I changed some settings in NB9W, I couldn't access the settings page in web browser anymore. However, I still could ping it successfully.

Somebody suggested to run 'netsh winsock reset' in the command prompt, then reset the computer. I did it and I still couldn't access the router.

The next thing that I did was to reset the router. Well..that's all..I can access the router now.

Viewing NEF file in Linux Mint

2009-09-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

NEF file is Nikon's raw image format. When I tried to open it in Eye of GNOME, I could only see the image in 160x120 pixels.

I remember that I never have this problem with Ubuntu. So, I downloaded the Ubuntu's image viewer called gThumb.

Well, gThumb can open the file perfectly. But I've got one more problem. Everytime I opened the image, it was displayed in the full size. Most of my photos are 3900 pixels wide, so I don't want to open it in its original size.

To change this behaviour, go to Edit > Preferences, go to Viewer tab. In the 'After loading an image' options, choose 'Fit to window if larger'.

Done.

Modifying google in Opera's search bar

2009-09-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

I want to change the default Opera's search from google.com to google.com.au.
To change it, go to Tools > Preferences, go to Search tab, select google, and click edit.
Click the Details button, then enter http://www.google.com.au/search?q=%s in the address text box.

Done.

Second argument in javascript's link method (CakePHP)

2009-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:00

To create a link to javascript files, we can use 'link' method.
For example, if I type echo $javascript->link('tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js',false);

The second argument is 'false'. It means the script link will be displayed in the html's head section.
If it is 'true', the link will be displayed in html's body section.

Well, there's actually more story to how CakePHP choose where to put the link.
Actually, if second argument is 'false', the link will be displayed in $scripts_for_layout section, and if it's 'true', it will be displayed in $content_for_layout.

Both $scripts_for_layout and $content_for_layout is written inside the layout file.
If you create your own layout, you should find the file inside app/views/layouts folder.
If you use the default layout, the file is cake/libs/view/layouts/default.ctp

You will see that the $scripts_for_layout is written inside the head section, and $content_for_layout is written inside the body section.

Remove sql statement at the bottom of the page (CakePHP)

2009-08-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

By default, CakePHP display a list of sql statements at the bottom of the page.
This is the result of CakePHP debug level.

To remove the sql statements, we need to change the debug level to 0.

Open the app/config/core.php, search for this line
Configure::write('debug', 2);

Then change it to 0
Configure::write('debug', 0);

Done.

Activate Backspace to go to previous page in Firefox

2009-08-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

I often use Backspace to go to the previous page. However, it didn't work in my newly installed Ubuntu machine (Ubuntu 9.04, Firefox 3.0.8).

To fix this, type 'about:config' in the address bar, then type 'browser.backspace_action' in the filter box. The value was 2, so I need to change it to 0. Done!

Watching TPG IPTV on Firefox (Ubuntu 9.04)

2009-08-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

By default, we can't watch TPG IPTV on firefox. We'll get error saying that your VLC player is too old.

To fix this problem, we have to install vlc,vlc-plugin-esd, mozilla-plugin-vlc. Use Synaptic to install those packages.

Source: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ubuntu.html

Playing DVD on Ubuntu 9.04

2009-08-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

By default, DVD can't be played on Ubuntu.
We have to add some libraries.

The installation details can be found here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

These are the steps that I did based on information from that forum.
Run below command to add medibuntu to the repository.
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update

Then run:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdread4 libdvdnav4 vlc

Until this point, I still can't play DVD.
Well, it seems I have to run this command:
sudo apt-get remove gnash gnash-common libflashsupport mozilla-plugin-gnash swfdec-mozilla && sudo apt-get install alsa-oss faac faad flashplugin-nonfree gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-pitfdll libmp3lame0 non-free-codecs sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin unrar

Perfect..I can play DVD now.

Install Flash Player

2009-08-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

By default, Flash Player is not installed on Ubuntu 9.04. An easy way to install it is to use Firefox to open a website with flash content, then click the 'Install Missing Plugins' button, choose the Adobe's one, and just follow the instructions.

Menampilkan EasyBook di Front-End Joomla

2009-07-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

1. Klik Menus, dan pilih salah satu menu (misalkan: main menu).

2. Klik tombol New di kanan atas.

3. Klik EasyBook, kemudian klik Guestbook Entryform

4. Isi Title (misalkan: 'Buku Tamu').

5. Di sebelah kanan, klik Parameters (Component). Kemudian, cari bagian 'Group for adding an entry' (agak bawah), dan ganti isinya ke 'Everybody'.

6. Klik tombol Save. Setelah ini, EasyBook bisa terlihat di Front-End.

Instalasi EasyBook di Joomla

2009-07-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

1. Download file EasyBook dari http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/easyjoomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=225. Pilih file yang terbaru, dan berawal dengan kata 'com', contoh: com_easybook_2.0_rc4_valid.zip

2. Di bagian Administrasi Joomla, pilih menu Extensions > Install/Uninstall.

3. Klik tombol Browse, pilih file EasyBook, kemudian klik Upload File & Install.

4. Jika instalasi berhasil, akan ada tulisan 'Install Component Success', dan EasyBook akan keluar dibawah menu Components.

An Jing Le - Chords

2009-06-26T00:39:00.000-07:00


C                            Am
Zhi shen xia gan qing pei wo zhan zai zhe li
                 F
Meng xiang zhong shu yu wo men de hun li
             Fm                        G  
Que cheng le dan ren jie hun jing xing qu
C                             Bb       A7
Zai zhe chang ai qing jiao li de ba he li
      Dm
Ai wo hai shi ai ni
        F        Em
Ni xuan ze le zi ji


Am
Sha jiao de ke ai de
G
Mi ren de ai ku de
F                      Em
Zao pian li cheng jing dou shi ni xi huan de
Dm
Ru jin wo hai zai yuan di
F              G
Ni que zou hui ni de ji yi


C                    
Ni shuo wo ai ni tai duo
C/B                      
Jiu kuai yao ba ai yan mo
Am
Ni hai pa xing fu
          Em
Duan zhan yi miao jiu beng luo
F           G
Fen kai shi yi zhong jie tuo
Em          Am
Rang ni hao hao de xiang wo
Dm
Wo xiang yao de na pian tian kong
F             G
Ni shi bu shi neng gou gei wo


C                     
Ni shuo wo gei ni tai duo
C/B
Que bu neng gei wo shen me
Am                            Em
Fen bu qing ji qing cheng nuo yong heng huo mi huo
F           G
Ai qing shi yi dao shang kou
Em           Am
Wo men ge zi ku tong
Dm
Shen me shi wo zui hou wen rou
G                     C
Shi yin wei wo tai ai ni

New Mic + Rain and Tears video

2009-05-13T21:01:00.001-07:00

I've just purchased the Logitech USB Desktop Microphone. I decided to purchase it after viewing some reviews from youtube. The sound quality of my old guitar videos was really poor. So, I hope the audio can be improved by using a microphone.

At first, I was really disappointed with the mic. The audio quality was only improved a little. I can still hear the background noise in my video. However, when I use the windows sound recorder, the audio was really good. So, there must be something wrong with my quickcam software.

I didn't realise that Windows Movie Maker can also capture video from webcam. So, I tried to record a new video using the Movie Maker. I'm very happy with the result. It is much better than my previous videos.

This is my first video which was recorded using the new mic. Enjoy!

Guitar - Spirited Away

2009-05-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

This is the guitar version of Spirited Away's ending theme.

I started to play guitar when I was in High School. However, I never learn it seriously. In recent years, I've seen so many good guitarists in Youtube. I've got so much inspirations from them. Recently, I play guitar more often than before.

The first video that I uploaded to Youtube is Sprited Away's ending theme. If you've seen the movie, you will agree that the ending theme is very beautiful piece of music.

I recorded my playing with my old webcam. The sound quality is not good. I hope I can get a better camera soon. I hope you will enjoy my playing.