Nearly everyone likes skylights. They let in light and warmth, provide a convenient place to hang indoor plants, and simply brighten up an entire room. Properly installed, roof skylights can add a touch of class to even a rather drab kitchen, bathroom or other room in your house. However, old and leaking, or incorrectly installed roof skylights are a never-ending nightmare that will have you swearing never to have another skylight in your house.

Skylights come in many shapes and sizes, and may be traditional glass or the lighter weight vinyl skylight with plastic glazing. They can be flat or domed, and you can combine multiple skylights for a lighting effect that will reduce your utility bill. Even if you have an attic, you can still have skylights in the form of tubular skylights, which use long metal tubes-also called "sun tunnels" to reflect the light down into your room.

When you purchase a skylight, it will usually come with everything needed to install it except the tools and the carpenter. The smaller skylights, especially the tubular skylights, look deceptively easy to install, but we do not recommend installing them yourself. You might pay a professional a few hundred dollars to do it right, but cutting a hole in your roof is not something for an amateur to do. If you accidentally cut in just slightly the wrong place, cut the hole the wrong size, seal the flashing incorrectly, or damage any of your roof tiles in the process, you will wish you had never thought about skylights. In addition, if a skylight leaks, you cannot only end up replacing your roof, but also the ceiling beneath it along with the insulation or anything else that the water was able to reach. Correctly installed, however, a skylight will be as stable and dependable as the rest of your roof, and you will enjoy the ambiance for many years.

The following tips will help you find the right skylight and the right contractor to put them in your home.

Consider the design and location of your home. If you are in a southern climate, you probably will not want skylights on the south side of the house unless you also install some sort of reflective blinds. Otherwise, you will have both light and heat, driving your air conditioning bill up during the summer. In colder climates with more moderate summers, the blinds are and option.

Ask the contractor for references. How many other skylights has he installed? Try to contact people who have used his services and look at their skylights. If you cannot arrange an opportunity to inspect installed skylights in other homes, at least get some reactions from other customers. Would they use that contractor again?

What warranty is offered? If there is any problem with the skylight once it has been installed, will the contractor return to fix it? For how long? What is the warranty on the skylight itself if it happens to be defective? (Although it can happen, a leaking skylight is seldom the result of defective material. Ninety percent of the time, a leaking skylight is the result of improper installation or of taking shortcuts in an attempt to save time and money.)

If you already have a skylight and just need to replace it-and there is no need to replace the roof itself-the task will be simpler and less expensive. If you are installing a new skylight, it will obviously cost more. However, save up the money and have it done correctly the first time. You will never regret erring on the side of caution.

By letting natural light stream in, skylights fill rooms with warmth and a feeling of spaciousness. By reducing the need for electric lighting and adding winter warmth, they help trim energy bills. Moreover, clear ones give you a window to the starry night sky.

A skylight is like a window in the roof, but its frame is designed and flashed to withstand the rigors of rainfall that a roof receives. As shown here, a skylight's flashing works in concert with the roofing material to usher away rain and snow.

Newer skylights are virtually leak-free, thanks to rugged construction and easy-to-install, integral flashings. They are also equipped with channels that carry away condensation.

Though some frames are solid wood or aluminum, most new skylights are made of a combination of metal, vinyl and wood. The exterior frames tend to be aluminum cladding with a durable finish--the part you see inside is often made of solid wood, plywood or white vinyl.

Some skylights are glazed with acrylic or polycarbonate, others with glass. Plastic ones are lightweight, economical choices often put where a skylight could be easily broken. Because they are molded, they come only in standard sizes and shapes: flat rectangles, bubbles, domes, pyramids, ridge-shaped, dormer models, and so forth.

Many people prefer Glass because it does not scratch as readily as plastic does and because it is available in nearly limitless sizes and types. You can get single, double or triple glazing with energy-saving low-E glass or argon-gas-filled panes. For use where the sun may damage carpets and furniture with ultra-violet (UV) rays, you can get bronze-tinted or other UV-blocking glass.

Other options for eliminating or reducing the sun when it is not wanted include built-in blinds, horizontal curtains or shades and UV-blocking insect screens. Cross-section view of a glass skylight shows key parts and how the flashing provides continuous drainage down the roof. A skylight's shaft governs how light is delivered to the room below. If all four sides are flared, light spreads over a wide area. A shaft with perpendicular sides focuses the light straight below. If the shaft is flared on only one or two sides, it sprays more light in the flared direction.

If you are interested in getting skylights in your home, the best place to look is on Repairfinders.com. On this site, many contractors in your area are willing to assist you with this. Remember not only does having a skylight help the environment, but it also save you money, gives you beautiful natural light, makes rooms look larger, and adds to the quality of your property.

1 - Mount the dish and point the dish
2 - Run the cables and grounding wire
3 - Seal any holes and tidy up the cable runs
4 - Connect the set top box to your tv and home theater system

First, a satellite dish must be mounted on a south-facing wall, (for Dish Network) or on your roof, within 100 feet (not only distance, but within 100 feet of actual cable) of your Satellite TV receiver. Make sure to select a location that has no obstructions such as large trees or tall buildings. It is best to use heavy duty bolts, or tapcon’s for concrete mounting. A hammer drill may be required to penetrate masonry, brick or building blocks. The dish must not move and must be able to withstand the wind and rain from changing the dish angles.

If you live in an apartment or condo that prohibits satellite dish installations, you can mount it inside, or on your balcony using a stand which can be ordered from your satellite TV dealer. You should also order RG5 Coaxial cable as well. Standard cable TV RG59 coaxial cable will not do the job. Satellite TV coaxial cable is thicker and carries less resistance over long distances. Resistance degrades signal quality which in turn reduces picture clarity and sound quality.

Once you have run the cables through your house and along the walls to the rooms where you have your TV’s, you need to caulk all the holes you made in your walls. The holes leading outside should be sealed with extra care, as this can cause leaks and ultimately cost more for heating and cooling. One important step is to make sure that the dish itself is properly grounded, especially if the dish is mounted on a rooftop. Use your external electrical panel, or purchase a grounding post if necessary.

After installing your satellite TV dish, Locate the angles (there are 2, basically, Elevation - up\down; and Azimuth - left\right) using a satellite angles calculator, or dishpointer.com. Once you have calculated the angles, adjust the elevation on the dish and then slightly tighten the nut. Make sure not to over tighten the nut as we will need to fine tune it shortly. Next, you will need a compass to assist you in the Azimuth angle.

Hold the compass in front of your body at chest level - make sure the compass needle can move freely. Locate north on the compass and try to avoid any external interference in doing so (metals, magnets, electrical wires etc.) Once you have north, zero or rotate the outer compass dial until it is set at north or zero. While still pointing north, find a landmark to use as your north reference point. Be as specific and exact as you can. Whatever you use as your north “marker” will need to be easily identified. You will need your Azimuth value now, which was something like 210 degrees etc.

With your north “marker” comitted to memory and easily recognized, spin your body to the value of the Azimuth value. That is where the dish will be pointed. Again, find a landmark at the Azimuth angle and memorize it. If you are unsure you have done this correctly, remain fixed on the azimuth angle, and look back at the north marker. Your compass needle should be north, or at zero.

You can fine tune your settings later. As long as the dish bracket is mounted vertically at 90 degrees (straight up, and level) and your elevation is right, and your azimuth angle is good, you should get a signal on the satellite receiver.

Now go to your satellite TV provider’s signal strength menu on your satellite TV receiver. Using the signal strength menu, gently point your dish in the right direction and move it slowly up and down until you obtain maximum signal strength. Be patient as this may take awhile. Have a friend help you with the signal strength, as you want this to be as close to 100% as possible.

Once you have obtained a high signal quality, lock the nuts down. You may also consider marking the angles on the dish, or on the actual nut itself in case you ever need to readjust them.

Finally, if you plan on purchasing pay per view or movies on demand, you will need to plug in the satellite receiver to a phone line. Purchases are sent via phone line and cannot be sent via satellite, as your satellite dish can only receive signals. Contact your satellite service provider and have the satellite receiver activated.

Connecting your satellite receiver to your existing home theater or tv system requires a simple rule - imagine the television signal as water through a river.

The television signal must pass into the satellite receiver, out of the receiver into the home theater receiver, out of the home theater receiver and into the television. The satellite receiver itself will have the ability to split audio and video simultaneously so that you may watch tv without the need to power on the home theatre and to listen to satellite audio and music without the tv being on.

HD satellite tv is essentially the same concept as regular satellite tv, however it requires additional lines. In most cases, you will need to run dual RG6 lines to your dish and to your satellite receiver. If you have more than one head on your satellite dish, you will also need two additional RG6 lines for each. High Definition Satellite TV requires a High Definition Satellite receiver, and a High Definition television.

Source: free FTA keys

Cats are also considered as great companions and friends and can provide us with lots of love and entertainment. But even though most pet owners know the importance of their cats; only few people know how to properly train and care for them. And this is where the importance of responsible pet ownership enters.

If you want to own a cat, you must be responsible in adopting them. You must realize that developing your pet’s bad habit may not bring happiness to you and the people around you.

In order to be a responsible pet owner, you have to properly nurture your pet. Let’s say you own a cat, make sure that you know how to feed him with quality cat food, provide him a good shelter and give him the best protection just like the state-of-the-art patio cat doors that we offer. This will give them freedom to go in and out of the house without having to scratch your doors.

Similarly, when you have cats at home, you can just give them a clean litter box, a comfortable home, a bit of your affection and they will be very satisfied. Pets are like small children who also need to be treated fairly. So just treat them right while providing their designated boundaries.

Installing window cat doors would help you train and discipline them on how to properly go in and out of your house appropriately. With these wall mount cat doors, you can just leave them at home and just go back from work without worrying if they have ruined all your home accessories.

A cat’s proper behavior will also depend on his or her owner. When they think their owner takes good care of them and knows how to properly discipline them, they will execute a proper behavior. They don’t want to be abused nor beaten and they always wanted to be rewarded and praised. Executing the proper disciplinary action will make them realize the difference between right and wrong behavior.

Hitting or kicking them while training is ineffective and not a good way to treat them and may even cause them to attack somebody. So in order for your pet to respect and obey you or listen to your commands, you must perform the most proper training. Try it and you will be amazed how your pet reacts to your proper disciplinary actions.

ZDNet has video advice on adding software to your Linux system, or you can go to Jack Wallen's article here.

Find The Culprit
Always calm down. Try to solve the problem yourself before resolving to formatting or sending to your computer dealer. First, know what's happening and the cause of it. In my case, the installation must have overwrite my old setting and replaced the wrong file. There must be a reason why Windows is acting improperly.

Logging Back On
First, try to log back on. If you can't log into Windows, don't panic. Restart the computer. When the text "Starting Windows 98..." appears, press F8. A menu will appear. Choose "Safe Mode" to continue. Safe mode will take some time to load. When you are in Windows, go to Control Panel, System. Click on the Device Manager tab. Find the faulty hardware driver and delete it. Open autoexec.bat and config.sys (both are hidden files in your root directory) with notepad. If the hardware is a CD-ROM or sound card, it will probably write add some lines. Check whether there are backup file (autoexec.bak, autoexec.b~k e.g.) since most installation will back up the 2 important files. If there is, simply replace them with the backup files. If there isn't, put "REM " in front of every line that loads the hardware.

Repairing
When you restart, your computer is probably ok, since you have deleted all instances of the hardware drivers. But the hardware isn't functioning. re-install the hardware drivers, restart and you're done! If the problem persists, your probably have a system conflict go to the next page for more.

A computer repair technician is a person who repairs and maintains computers and servers. The technician's responsibilities may extend to include building or configuring new hardware, installing and updating software packages, and creating and maintaining computer networks. Computer repair technicians work in a variety of settings, encompassing both the public and private sectors. Because of the relative newness of the profession, institutions offer certificate and degree programs designed to prepare new technicians, but computer repairs are frequently performed by experienced and certified technicians who have little formal training in the field.

A repair technician might work in a corporate information technology department, a central service center, or a retail computer sales environment. A public sector technician might work in the military, national security or law enforcement communities, health or public safety field, or an educational institution. Despite the vast variety of work environments, all computer technicians perform similar physical and investigative processes, including technical support. Experienced technicians might specialize in fields such as data recovery, system administration, or information systems. Some technicians are self-employed or own a firm that provides services in a regional area. Some are subcontracted as freelancers or consultants. This type of technician ranges from hobbyists and enthusiasts that volunteer or make a little side money, to those who work professionally in the field.

The repair of problems can range from a minor setting that is incorrect, to spyware, viruses, and as far as replacing hardware or an entire operating system. Some technicians provide on-site services usually at an hourly rate. Others can provide services off-site, where the client can drop off at the repair shop. Some have pickup and drop off services for convenience. Some may also take back old equipment for recycling. While computer hardware configuration varies widely, a technician works with two basic types of hardware; units limited to a location (desktops, mainframes and supercomputers) and more portable (laptop and handheld) devices. Technicians also work with and occasionally repair a range of peripherals, including input devices like keyboards, mice, and scanners, output devices like displays, printers, and speakers, and data storage devices ranging from external hard drives to specialized high-storage desktop computers called servers. Technicians involved in system administration might also work with networking hardware, including routers, switches, fiber optics, and wireless networks.

When possible, repair technicians protect the computer user's data and settings, so that after repair, the user will not have lost any data and the technician can fully use the device with little interruption, and then diagnose the problem. So if you are having issues with your computer like I am having with mine, you should go to repairfinders.com and find a repair technician to solve the problem. Addressing the issue, the technician could take action as minor as adjusting one or several settings or preferences, but could also apply more involved techniques like installing, uninstalling, or reinstalling various software packages. A reliable, but somewhat more complicated, procedure for addressing software issues is known as a restore, in which the computer's original installation image (including operating system and original applications) is reapplied to a formatted hard drive. Well folks, Im about to hope on to repairfinders.com to fix the computer of mine. If yours is giving you problems, I suggest you do the same!

Installing Windows programs in Ubuntu (i.e. Office, Windows Media Player, Windows based games, etc)

Ubuntu does not offer native support for Windows based applications out of the box, however, it takes only a few, minor, modifications for your new Ubuntu install to play your favorite Windows based games or applications. Please note...not ALL programs OR games will work on Ubuntu, and some may work but only partially.

***Games that require Gameguard (some MMORPG's use this) will NOT run on Ubuntu. As of the date of this post there is no bypass or modification that will work for Gameguard games, and you would be foolish to try***

Now, let's get down to business! There are two applications you can use to run windows programs. The most widely used Windows "emulator" is WINE, however, Crossover Linux is very popular as well, and both programs will satisfy most of your Windows application needs on Ubuntu.

Wine Homepage:

www.winehq.org/

Database of Applications Supported by Wine:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

Crossover Linux HomePage

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

Crossover Linux Applications Database:

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/toplists

My favorite out of these two is Crossover as I find it MUCH easier to use. It's much quicker, has content available at the click of a button, and requires relatively no effort to use. The drawback to Crossover is that it is not free.

Wine is free, supported by the Ubuntu community, and easy to use as well. You can download wine by simply clicking

applications > Add/Remove

then search for "Wine".

Ok, so whether you decided to purchase Crossover Linux or download WINE for free, you are set to run your favorite Windows applications.

I simply love the Foobar music player, so let's try to download and install that program on Ubuntu and I'll take some screenshots to show you the progress.

1. Ok, lets try to install foobar using Crossover Linux...

Crossovernotinstallfoobar

***This is one of those moments where you will get really mad! Crossover doesn't want to install this program, odd, right? Well let's try it in Wine***

2. Installing it using wine (just right click the .exe file and click "open with Wine"

Icona

3. Ok cool, looks like it's working!!

Foobarwine

4. Notice how wine has created a "C" drive on your Ubuntu disk...all your "Wine Installed" programs will be installed into this section!

Wineinstallfolder

5. Here we have the fully installed application ready for use!

Winedonefoobar

]]> http://aaarticles.wordpress.com/?p=80 Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:29:41 +0000 kashaan143 http://aaarticles.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/network-access-after-norton-anti-virus-install/ Sometimes you can't access a WinXP computer after installing Norton Anti-Virus.
There might be a variety of errors at the other computer depending on the operating system.
On the XP computer, in the Event Viewer / System log, there will be the following error:
The server's configuration parameter "irpstacksize" is too small for the server to use a local device.
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Services\lanmanserver\parameters
Edit the IRPStackSize
Give it a value of 15
Reboot the computer

As I work in the web-based content management system area of the software world, it is sometimes wise to investigate the other solutions available on the market. The first option is to see what popular open-source projects have to offer.  So I will be investigating two options as this stage, Drupal and Joomla.

I am currently installing and setting up Drupal with Apache. I've setup SVN and Trac on Apache before and it is really simple to configure. The point of this post is to highlight the steps needed to install Drupal and Apache for a localhost environment. However after a few searches I have finally found a useful link that runs through every step, starting from scratch!

So, following this link if you want to know how to get Drupal running in Apache

Cheers,
A Coders Life

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Acer Aspire One notebook, the variant which came with an Acer-modified version of Linpus Linux. This version was locked-down and difficult to modify, so not too long after I installed Ubuntu, and was reasonably pleased - despite the amount of tweaking it took to get it working. A few days ago, however, I realised Linux wouldn't be ideal for me on my netbook. Due to pragmatic reasons, I'm now running Windows XP.

Ubuntu was running fairly fine on the Aspire One, except for the fact that Firefox - as it turns out - is not really good when it comes to solid state drives. The SSD in the Acer is the bottleneck of the device, so any application that frequently does small write operations to the hard disk can seriously bog down the entire operating system. As it turns out, Firefox does a lot of writes, so it frequently hangs and hick-ups.

The reasons I had to switch to Windows XP are twofold. First, the wireless network on my university uses a lot of weird security fluff and certificates and other crazy stuff that doesn't work on Linux - even on Windows it's a major pain to set up, but at least Windows is supported and there's a comprehensive guide. Mac OS X also works, but it also involves a lot of guess work. I need to be able to walk up to the university's IT department, and show them my laptop whenever the wireless network doesn't work. I can't do that if it's running Linux. A sad state of affairs at the university where MINIX was born (and which is still home to Andy Tanenbaum), but that's the way it is.

The second reason has to do with 3G networking. One of the uses of the netbook is to order a 3G USB modem with a monthly subscription (very cheap in The Netherlands, no data limit) so I can visit teh internets whenever and wherever I am. The problem is that these 3G modems are generally quite hard to get to work properly on Linux. Windows and Mac OS X are supported, of course, so the choice to go with Windows XP made sense.

Getting Windows XP installed, however, does not. I do not have an external CD/DVD reader (I'm the world's worst geek, I collect old, outdated computer peripherals, not new ones that would actually be useful), so I needed to install Windows XP using an USB stick. You'd think that in 2008 this would be trivial, but apparently, it's not, for some mysterious reason. I like to think it's that same reason that supposedly explains why Vista's Mobile Device Center doesn't sync Windows Mobile devices with Vista's Contacts, Mail, and Calendar applications.

Creating a bootable Windows XP USB stick is tricky, but not impossible. The surge in popularity of netbooks has created a lot of attention on this subject, meaning there are a lot of guides out there. This one worked for me, but your mileage may vary. Once you've booted off the USB stick, be wary when you come to the step where you create and format the system partition, because you have to make sure the system partition is the c: one, or else the system will not boot. This may mean that you need to reboot into the text installation after creating the system partition just to be sure it's mounted as the c: drive. And yes, it's not you, it's still 2008. Be sure to format the partition with fat32, as that greatly improves the speed of the system.

Installation takes a while, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. First boot is quick, and installing all the drivers isn't a problem either seeing Acer has them all together on their ftp site. The problems begin as soon as you start updating Windows XP. A piece of advice? Slipstream everything onto the USB stick. You really don't want to find out how long it takes to move from Windows XP SP1 to Windows XP SP3, including all the updates in between and after.

The next step is tweaking XP to perform well. The problem isn't the processor, the RAM or the video card: it's the SSD. Tweaking is simple: try and make sure that XP does as little hard disk writing as possible. This means disabling paging, prefetch, and write-caching. On top of that, it really pays off to sift through services.msc and disable any service you don't need. Big gains can be made by disabling things like the indexing service.

The final step for me, apart from installing some of my favourite programs like Miranda, VLC, WinPatrol, and Chrome, is installing an office suite. The best option is to download something called Tiny Office 2003. It's a version of Office 2003 that's completely stripped of stuff you don't need, and comes in a 70MB installation package. The applications it installs literally load instantly (as in, less than a second!), but of course, this is not exactly legal in a lot of jurisdictions. It is legal in mine, and to make everyone happy, I have a legitimate Office 2003 license, so I'm in the clear.

After all this hard work, you are rewarded with a very fast installation of Windows XP, that actually outperforms Ubuntu in day-to-day tasks. Sleep and wake cycle is faster, it boots faster, applications load faster, and it leaves more memory for applications (with no applications running, over 300MB of the 512MB are free). I never could have imagined Windows XP running better than Linux on this netbook. I have really proven myself wrong.

It was a lot more work than installing and tweaking Ubuntu, but now that I'm done, I'm extremely happy that I did. My netbook is more functional, faster, more responsive, and has less hickups and stutters than while running Linux. I know this is something some of you might not like to hear, but it is a fact for me. Of course, as always, your mileage may very, especially on other types of netbooks with different specifications.

Follow this really easy tutorial for getting it work.

http://quickstarts.asp.net/3-5-extensions/mvc/MVCCustomTestFramework.aspx

A template will be available soon from NUnit I believe but as at the time of this article it is not ready to download.

If you have any questions or requests for tutorials, post a comment or pm me.

Additional Information:

Don't mess around in your BIOS unless you know what you're doing!!

Change your boot order back to your hard drive as the first device when you're done booting from a disk.

You can also boot from floppys or thumb drives, just put what ever device you want ahead of your hard drive.

This is most commonly done for installing a OS.

--------------------------------------

What is PHP? **source PHP.net

- PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Aside from this, it's also open source which means, aside from the fact that it's free for use, is that the features are always improving thanks to thousands of other programmers out there who supports the open source community.

--------------------------------------

Why am I doing this now?

Simply because.. I want to. :) Nah! Kidding! I'm not saying that I'm good at this particular scripting language. I believe I don't know half of what it can really do, actually. But right now, due to demands for a less expensive solution to deliver automated and web based needs for companies, I'm trying to tap into the stored knowledge again.

I learned PHP only last year, thanks to my very first corporate job after college. I told them specifically that I don't know PHP (or, did I?) and yet, very generous they are, they said that I can learn it there straight. I'm very very extremely thankful to that company, or rather, to my bosses there. Thanks to them, I learned PHP without going to college all over again and pay some professor to teach me.

So.. now in this company where I am, I might try writing some of the applications using PHP instead of the proprietary and licensed .NET. YOu have to be wise these days, and going for licensed isn't always a good idea.

--------------------------------------

What will I gain from writing this?

First of all, I hope to provide a more, errr.. easier to understand guide on how to install a copy of it so you can try programming PHP for yourselves. What's the point of it being open source and free and all if not everyone can get it and install it and configure it easily without a single fuss? Right?

Second.. I already did this before, at home. Problem is, I didn't document it, so  I'm basically starting again from scratch. I hope that this time around, when I decide to format my system and install everything all over again, I won't have to look very hard ( like now) to reinstall PHP. It's like my own version of the installation manual, made easier for you and me.

--------------------------------------

So, now let's proceed! :)

For this, you'll be needing:

- PHP itself. You can either download the source code or, if you want a no-frill installation, there's also a self extracting Windows installer available. But! I suggest that you get the zip package instead because.. it adds more knowledge for you (you don't always have to rely on installer packages if you can really do it yourself). You can get both of them from here.

- Web Server. Examples are Apache, PWS (for Windows 98) and IIS (for Windows 2000 above). I don't know anything about Mac and Linux systems so, forgive me for that. PWS and IIS are included in your standard Windows package, but they're not preinstalled. You have to install them yourself (you'll need the Windows CD installer for this). Apache, on the other hand, is also open source, so if you want to go full blast on the open source solutions, I suggest you try this too. I, unfortunately, won't be covering the installation and configuration in this post, but I will in another one so... wait for that. :)

--------------------------------------

PHP Installation

Once you've downloaded the PHP zip package, do this:

- create a directory in C:\ called 'PHP' so that after it, you now have this directory : C:\PHP. It is suggested that you just create that folder under the root folder (C:\).

- extract all the contents of the zip package into  that newly created directory.

- look for a file called php.ini-recommended, rename it to 'php.ini' and open it using Notepad.

- inside that file, look for the text 'doc_root=' and beside it, enter C:\Inetpub\wwwroot. WWWroot is the root directory of the default web site in IIS.

- look for cgi.force_redirect, uncomment it (by removing the ';') and replacing the 1 with 0.

- setup a session folder. Create a folder called Sessions under C:\PHP\. IN the php.ini file, look for session.save_path and make it session.save_path = C:\PHP\Sessions

- point PHP to the right location of extensions. Look for extension_dir and change it to extension_dir = C:\PHP\ext.

- for this next procedure, you can do either of these two steps:

(1) add your PHP directory to the PATH by going to Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Environment Variables. Under the System variables pane, look for the Path variable, click on Edit to edit it. In the variable value textbox, append your PHP directory location and add a ';' at the end. Note: Don't delete the others, you should just append it. Restart your computer.

(2) copy the file php5dts.dll to the Windows system directory.

- open Notepad, copy or paste this

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP]
"IniFilePath"="C:\\PHP"

and save it as inifilereg.reg. After you've done that, double click on it to run it.

--------------------------------------

Configuring IIS

Ok.. this part requires that you have already installed the IIS component. If you haven't yet, now's the best time to start.

When you're done with that, do the following: **I'm using Windows XP SP2

- go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services. The Internet Information Services window will pop up.

- Collapse the Internet Information Services > [computer name] > Web Sites . Right click on Default Web Sites and click Properties.

- under ISAPI Filters tab, click Add. Put 'PHP' as filter name, and browse to the location of the php5isapi.dll file. It should look like this:

- GO to the Home Directory tab and choose Scripts only for the Execute Permissions option (bottom).

- click the Configuration... button and choose the Application Mappings tab

- click Add and set the Executable path to the php5isapi.dll file.

- input .php as the extension

- click OK a few times till you get back to the main Information Services Window

-restart IIS by right clicking on Local computer > All tasks > Restart IIS. See picture

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Testing if it does actually work

Of course, the whole thing would be rather senseless if it doesn't work right? To be able to do that

- run Notepad and paste the following code:

<?php
echo 'PHP is working.<br>';
echo phpinfo();
?>

- Save it as phptest.php and place it inside C:\Inetpub\wwwroot.

- Then, go to your browser, and type http://localhost/phptest.php.

- The output should look something like this:

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And that.. is how it works! :) Hehehe I hope I'm able to help you out in this. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Like the manual you have to identify your Neutral, Hot or Line, and your Load.

The cables on the switchlinc are clearly identified. with labels and by color,

White = Neutral

Black = Line or HOT

Red = Load

Bare = Ground.

I ALWAYS turn off the breaker and make sure non of the switches im working on work. I've gotten many zaps as a kid and there not fun.

Before I start I make sure I write down the address, this way Im not looking for it and removing work already done.,

Also make sure the switch is setup the upwards, the address should be on the bottom left side (At least for the switchlincs and Icons). Icon switches will have their LED on the left side of the switch.

Below is a picture of the device connected

To Identify the cables I usually look for the big bundle of for Neutral and the Load.  If its the first Insteon device you plug in you will see that neutrals not connected to any switch.
For example you can see the Neutrals are all together in the white bundle with the Red Cap,  The load or Hot is usually another bundle of black cables (This is what provides power to all switches so usually all the blacks to/from the switches die here

And the load (Which is off to the light is usually alone or going out. is the one towards the light fixture. In this case its a black wire.

The ground is the bare cable ground, that's a easy one.

Here is a image of the finished product, this is

2 ICON Dimmers, one regular Decora on/off switch and a Switchlinc, and a unfinished painted wall.

Here is another 4 gang which is 1 Icon, a Switchlinc Dimmer, regular switch and another SwitchLinc

Cheers!

So, what you need is to setup a folder (location and name of your choice - i'll name it %INSTANT_CLIENT in my explainations) with the following content

./lib
./rdbms
./rdbms/public

• Copy the public headers from the instant sdk packages to the %INSTANT_CLIENT/rdbms/public folder
• Copy the shared lib from the instant basic package to the %INSTANT_CLIENT/lib (personnaly, i just copied the libclntsh.so.XX.Y and libnnzXX.so files)
• Create a link : ./ln %INSTANT_CLIENT/lib/libclntsh.so.XX.Y %INSTANT_CLIENT/lib/libclntsh.so or just rename the libclnst shared lib to remove the XX.Y extension)

That's all for Oracle side

then configure ocilib for this client :

./configure --with-oracle-home=%INSTANT_CLIENT
./make
./make install

Done !! (just replace %INSTANT_CLIENT with your folder and the XX and Y with the version number of your instant client package)

Finally where’re able to install the esx host on the workstation. This is, what I belief, pretty important. We want to have the possibility to test some environments, show the customer(s) how it’s work or how it’s done.

The only problem with this version is that it still is a BETA and the debug mode is standard on. It will claim a huge amount of memory per started VM. Just look at the process “vmware-vmx-debug.exe” and you will see. I’ve found a solution on the web to work around this issue. Just close your VMware Workstation and browse to the installation folder. Look for the file vmware-vmx-debug.exe and rename as *.old. After this copy the file vmware-vmx.exe to vmware-vmx-debug.exe. That’s all.

I’ve tested it if it works, because some people asked if you can see if the debug mode is off. You can’t see it directly, but when you start a VM it will run the vmware-vmx-debug.exe process. This file you have replaced the vmware-vmx.exe for. So the VM will start a normal process and this use 20 to 30 Mb of memory than instead of 50 to 100 Mb per VM.

When you want to install ESX on Workstation I will refer you the www.xtravirt.com site. They have a few good installation documents about installing esx host on VMware workstation and how to use some appliance for iSCSI and NFS systems. This will give you the opportunity to make a nice testing environment.

But before people will ask me what kind of vmx settings I have used, I will show you the important settings I used here:

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" ethernet0.connectionType = "custom" ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "TRUE" monitor_control.vt32 = "TRUE" monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

I hope this will give you a good start to play with.

Have fun.

• Install libaio1 from your linux distribution repositories
• Donwload and install Oracle-instantclient-basic and Oracle-instantclient-devel from Oracle website (you must register -for free-), wich allows you to run your applications without installing the standard Oracle client.
• Download OCCI and extranct it to /usr/lib
• Now we have to add the following line to /etc/ld.so.conf :
  /usr/lib/oracle/XXXXX/client/lib
  (where XXXXX is the version number, check it by ls /usr/lib/oracle)
• And then type on a terminal (as root) /sbin/ldconfig
• Now we are ready to compile our 'HelloWorld' wich just connect to the database*, you can download it here

*If you are not behind a proxy that doesn't allow 1521 port connections

This one may or may not be the last post I'll write (not for the blog, no) under cellphone modding. I might put all these under one sub category under Tips and Tricks for easy navigation too, so that you don't have to look so hard under that parent category once it becomes populated with things other than those related to modding.

Right then.. I'll be sharing how to install elfs this time. I don't know what elfs are technically, but you can take a look here if you want to know more about it. In the current context though, which is modding, it adds a feature to your phone that is unavailable otherwise (unmodded). Let me cite an example:

*sigh* I am obviously a fan of Edward Norton.

Anyway, clear shots huh? :) these are taken, not by a third camera (although that's another way of achieving the same result), but by the phone itself - or, to be more specific, by an elf called Screenshooter. Screenshooter,as what the name implies, is an elf that takes a screenshot of the phone screen by pressing a predefined key (in this case, the Play button). It comes in very useful, especially if you're troubleshooting an error and needs proof or, simply showing off clearly to your friends what modifications you've done to your mobile. It's like a desktop's Print Screen function, only, it's a mobile edition (like Windows Mobile is to Windows XP).

To get started, you'll be needing:

- your phone, full charged
- USB data cable
- SETool
- the screenshooter elf
- Elfpatch

Note: elfpatch and screenshooter can be downloaded from Se-NSE forum.

Steps: Again, assuming that you've read all the posts on how to connect using SETool and that you know how to patch. If not.. geez.. where've you been?? Kidding! :) See here.

---
This should be done in the phone memory. Again, PHONE MEMORY.
---

- create a folder named ZBin inside Other
- inside ZBin, create two folders named Config and Daemon
- inside Config, copy the file called DYN_CONST.bin inside it
- inside Daemon, put all the elfs you want to use (Screenshooter, bookmanager, etc)

---
SETool
---

- turn off your phone
- apply the patch using SETool. There are two patches in total, one named Elfpack_v10 and w810_ea031.lib. You must apply them both.

Note: if you applied the sysgfx patch, you must comment the four lines in the Elfpack patch. To do that, open the file using Notepad and look for this line: comment these lines when "total graphics replacement" is installed. Comment the four lines after it by placing a semicolon ( ; ) at the start of the line and then save it.

after restarting and everything, browse to (in your phone) others > ZBin > Daemon. You can start using an elf by selecting that elf and pressing Start (left softkey).

Note: There's another patch that puts a fifth tab in your File Manager. The fifth tab lists down available elfs. But again, that's another patch.

---
Please feel free to leave a comment for questions/suggestions/violent reactions. thanks!

credits: To the creators of the elfs and the tutorials I followed on SE-NSE.

Inno setup does have the concept of install types and related components. But, normally this relates choosing components or not to install. In my case the selection of portable or standard install mostly relates to the setup directories created and a couple of minor ini files, not something I needed the user to include or not. So I needed a custom page. Fortunately that was easy to create. You simply need to add a [code] section to the install script, then override the initialisation procedure. The little code is shown below:

[Code]
var
UsagePage: TInputOptionWizardPage;

procedure InitializeWizard;
begin

{ Create the pages }
UsagePage := CreateInputOptionPage(wpWelcome,
'Installation Type', 'Select Installation Option',
'Where would you like to install this program',
True, False);
UsagePage.Add('Normal - PC Hard Disk Installation ');
UsagePage.Add('Portable - USB Drive Installation');

{Set Default - Normal Install}
UsagePage.SelectedValueIndex := 0;

end;

Running this gives a new page which allows the user to select the type of installation. I then added a variable to know the type of install in subsequent procedures..

[code]

var

bIsPortable : Boolean;

To set this with the appropriate value I overrode the NextButtonClick procedure.

function NextButtonClick(CurPageID: Integer): Boolean;
begin

// If we have clicked the next button on our custom page.
if (CurPageID = UsagePage.ID) then
begin
bIsPortable := not (UsagePage.SelectedValueIndex = 0);

end;

result := true; // need to return a value so next key has an impact

end;

Since my application needs to be in different places depending on the install I then created a procedure to return the appropriate location depending on this parameter:

function GetExeLocation (Param: String) : String;
begin
if bIsPortable then
result := Param + '\App\'
else
result := Param + '\bin';
end;

end;

This means you can check as part of the install in any Delimited section where this location should be eg

[Files]
Source: "MyProg.exe"; DestDir: "{code:GetExeLocation|{app}}"; Flags: ignoreversion

I could also check which files to install or not using the Check option. In this case I created a procedure to return true if the install type was the one specified ..

// Set the return value to be true if the required install type is as specified
function InstallType(sRequiredType:String):Boolean;
begin
if sRequiredType = 'Portable' then
result := bIsPortable
else
result := not bIsPortable;

end;

So using the Check functionality I could install or not install particular items / files / Icons etc.. eg

Source: "D:\HelpPages\help.html";DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion; Check: InstallType('Portable')

This gave me a script which could install on a portable or standard pc. However, there was a problem with the registry keys created. How was that solved more in my next blog..