Aug 03, 2009 06:51 PM
Outlook Express is installed for free by default with Windows and thus, it’s a common default choice among people new to the Internet and Email. Outlook Express does the basics of what an email client must do, but that’s the extent of its scope. You can have multiple email accounts, but all of your email drops into the same folder. To get around this, you can use rules to forward your email to other folders based on the “To” address. It does nothing for spam or phishing scams, and the extent of its security measures is the fact that it doesn’t auto-download embedded images.
Mozilla Thunderbird is another free email client, but it does a lot more than Outlook Express. It has a built-in spam filter, which learns over time what a person considers spam based on what they flag as spam. It is aware of spam assassin headers and can be configured to trust spam assassin’s headers. Between the two, it catches nearly all spam and gets better over time as it continues to analyze new spam email.
Thunderbird also has a phishing detection feature, where it will notify you if it thinks the email is a phishing scam. Phishing essentially is the attempt to mislead somebody into thinking they are going to a particular site, when in fact, they are going to a scammer’s site. Typically, phishing scams revolve around getting people to mistakenly put in their username and password, which is saved so that the scam artist can then log into their real account and gather personal information. This is a crucial feature for those new to the Internet as that warning can save a person from having their identity or credit card information stolen. Most people that have been on the Internet for a while can spot a scam. One such trick is to move your mouse over the link and look at where it’s really going in the status bar. If the address doesn’t match up to the real website, then it’s probably a scam. For example, if somebody wants you to log into “Paypal”, and the address is really going to www.paypal.com.someothersite.com, then it’s a scam.
Thunderbird can use multiple inboxes for each email address that you use, and it has a rules system that is at least as good as Outlook Express. It also allows you to set up RSS folders to take advantage of syndicated content on the Internet from your chosen sites.
As far as email is concerned, Mozilla has it covered.
The only drawback to using Thunderbird exclusively is that it doesn’t have a built in calendar & meeting system like you can get with Microsoft Outlook (the full version, not Express) and Exchange. There are calendar plugins, but to my knowledge, there isn’t a server available that will manage a shared calendar between many people like you can get with Exchange. If you know of such a system, please write a comment as I’d love to use it.
Bottom line, the best free email client available is Mozilla Thunderbird. If you need the ability to schedule meetings, then Microsoft Outlook with an Exchange server is probably the best option; however, Outlook and Exchange are not free. The prices vary depending on how many people you need and how you purchase Outlook such as by itself or inside Microsoft Office, but a small office will typically spend a few thousand dollars in licensing and setup fees.
outlook express | mozilla thunderbird
Aug 03, 2009 06:48 PM
Ruby on Rails has a bunch of built in tools to make it easy to create HTML form elements. In fact, there are so many different ones that it’s sometimes confusing to know which one to use.
Here is an example of how to build a static drop down box with the display text and the value:
Select helper:<%= select( "controller-name", "column", { "Tools" => "T", "Reference Resources" => "Resources"}) %>
Replace controller-name with the Rails controller that you’re going to use, “column” would be the database column where you plan to store the data, and the info between the {} is the options list. For example, { “Tools” => “T” } creates: <option value=”T”>Tools</option>
Of course, you can pass in a collection or array that was generated from a database query so that the option list is dynamic.
Aug 03, 2009 06:46 PM
Invision Powerboard 1.2 and 1.3 are still used by many people because they’re free, where the newest versions are not. However, the coding for them isn’t 100% compatible with the latest versions of PHP and MySQL. Many web hosting companies are moving to PHP5 and MySQL5, and this will break the default installation of IPB. Here is a collection of the changes you’ll need to make to your files so that IPB 1.2 or 1.3 will work with PHP5 & MySQL 4.1 or greater.
If your forum is experiencing any of these issues, the rest of this article may fix your problem. Make sure you back up your files and database before making any changes, just in case.
Symptoms:
Blank ‘Profile’ page
Blank ‘My Controls’ page
MySQL errors when reporting post
MySQL errors on ‘The Moderating Team’ page
Files affected:
sources/misc/contact_member.php
sources/Profile.php
sources/Usercp.php
sources/misc/stats.php
Step 1:
Open sources/Usercp.php
Find:
var $parser;
Change To:
//var $parser;
Save and upload sources/Usercp.php
Step 2:
Open sources/Profile.php
Find:
var $parser;
Change To:
//var $parser;
Save and upload sources/Profile.php
Step 3:
Open sources/misc/contact_member.php
Find:
var $email = “”;
var $forum = “”;
var $email = “”;
Change To:
//var $email = “”;
var $forum = “”;
var $email = “”;
Find:
$DB->query(”SELECT m.name, m.email, mod.member_id FROM gallerymoderators mod, gallerymembers m WHERE mod.forum_id=’$fid’ and mod.member_id=m.id”);
Change To:
$DB->query(”SELECT m.name, m.email, moder.member_id FROM gallerymoderators moder, gallerymembers m WHERE moder.forum_id=’$fid’ and moder.member_id=m.id”);
Save and upload sources/misc/contact_member.php
Step 4:
Open sources/misc/stats.php
Find:
//——————————————–
// Do we have any moderators? NORMAL MODS 1st
//——————————————–
$DB->query(”SELECT m2.id, m2.name, m2.email, m2.hide_email, m2.location, m2.aim_name, m2.icq_number,
f.id as forum_id, f.read_perms, f.name as forum_name, c.state
FROM gallerymoderators mod
LEFT JOIN galleryforums f ON(f.id=mod.forum_id)
LEFT JOIN gallerycategories c ON(c.id=f.category AND c.state != 0)
LEFT JOIN gallerymembers m2 ON (mod.member_id=m2.id)
“);
Change To:
//——————————————–
// Do we have any moderators? NORMAL MODS 1st
//——————————————–
$DB->query(”SELECT m2.id, m2.name, m2.email, m2.hide_email, m2.location, m2.aim_name, m2.icq_number,
f.id as forum_id, f.read_perms, f.name as forum_name, c.state
FROM gallerymoderators moder
LEFT JOIN galleryforums f ON(f.id=moder.forum_id)
LEFT JOIN gallerycategories c ON(c.id=f.category AND c.state != 0)
LEFT JOIN gallerymembers m2 ON (moder.member_id=m2.id)
“);
Find: (this edit isn’t in 1.2, so you should be able to skip this step if that’s your version)
//——————————————–
// Do we have any moderators? GROUP MODS 1st
//——————————————–
$DB->query(”SELECT m.id, m.name, m.email, m.hide_email, m.location, m.aim_name, m.icq_number,
f.id as forum_id, f.read_perms, f.name as forum_name, c.state
FROM gallerymoderators mod
LEFT JOIN galleryforums f ON(f.id=mod.forum_id)
LEFT JOIN gallerycategories c ON(c.id=f.category AND c.state != 0)
LEFT JOIN gallerymembers m ON ((mod.is_group=1 and mod.group_id=m.mgroup))
“);
Change To:
//——————————————–
// Do we have any moderators? GROUP MODS 1st
//——————————————–
$DB->query(”SELECT m.id, m.name, m.email, m.hide_email, m.location, m.aim_name, m.icq_number,
f.id as forum_id, f.read_perms, f.name as forum_name, c.state
FROM gallerymoderators moder
LEFT JOIN galleryforums f ON(f.id=moder.forum_id)
LEFT JOIN gallerycategories c ON(c.id=f.category AND c.state != 0)
LEFT JOIN gallerymembers m ON ((moder.is_group=1 and moder.group_id=m.mgroup))
“);
Save and upload sources/misc/stats.php
Step 5:
Add the following code to the top of index.php and admin.php:
//– mod_php5 begin
$HTTP_SERVER_VARS = isset($_SERVER)?$_SERVER:array();
$HTTP_GET_VARS = isset($_GET)?$_GET:array();
$HTTP_POST_VARS = isset($_POST)?$_POST:array();
$HTTP_POST_FILES = isset($_FILES)?$_FILES:array();
$HTTP_COOKIE_VARS = isset($_COOKIE)?$_COOKIE:array();
$HTTP_ENV_VARS = isset($_ENV)?$_ENV:array();
$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = isset($_SESSION)?$_SESSION:array();
//– mod_php5 end
———
Portions of this article was paraphrased from a post by FuSoYa at http://forums.invisionize.com/index.php?showtopic=73882
invision powerboard | php | mysql | database | compatibility
Aug 03, 2009 06:41 PM
If you’re getting started with Ruby on Rails, one of the better platforms to program in is Eclipse largely due to RadRails and the SVN plugin called Subclipse. Eclipse and the community versions of the plugins are free, so it’s definitely worth taking a look at.
This article is assuming that you have a working (but possibly outdated) version of Rails installed.
If not, and you’re running on Windows, I recommend searching for the InstantRails package and installing that first.
If you’re running Mac or Linux, you’ll need to install/upgrade Ruby to the latest version and then you can proceed with the following gem commands.
To Upgrade Rails:
gem update –system
gem update
gem update rails
gem cleanup
If you run into errors (possibly when you try and add your first rails project) try:
gem uninstall rails
gem install rails
gem cleanup
Eclipse:
Go to www.eclipse.org and find the latest version to download. The page is currently at:
http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.3.1.1-200710231652/index.php
Download the “Platform Runtime Binary (About 40mb)” for your Operating System.
Unzip this folder to whereever you want the install files of Eclipse to be.
Open the folder and find the Eclipse executable, and make a shortcut of it.
Move this shortcut into your start menu, desktop, or whatever you use to get to your programs.
Aptana Plugin:
Go to: www.aptana.com
Click on “get it now” for the community edition.
scroll to the bottom of the page and click “download” for the community edition.
click on the eclipse plugin tab
Click on download
In Eclipse: click on help, software updates, find and install.
Search for new features to install.
Click next
Click “new remote site”
Name it “Aptana”
Enter in the URL (which at the time of this writing is:
http://update.aptana.com/update/3.2/)
Follow the prompts, and select to download “Aptana” when it asks for it.
Subversion Plugin (called Subclipse):
http://subclipse.tigris.org/
Click on help, software updates, find and install.
Search for new features to install
Click next, then “new remote site”
Name it “Subclipse”
Enter in the URL found on the Subclipse website. Currently it is:
http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.2.x
Follow the prompts, but uncheck the integration box because you don’t have those plugins installed.
Click Install All and Restart Eclipse when it asks you.
Aptana Rad Rails:
Open Eclipse
On the Aptana Home Page (must have Aptana installed first), at the bottom of the Languages section, there’s a link to install Aptana RadRails.
Uncheck the Ruby Mylyn Connector Feature.
Follow the prompts, install all, reboot Eclipse when it asks you.
Show SVN Repository:
In Eclipse, click on Window, Show View, Other.
Open up, SVN folder, click on SVN Repository, Click OK.
Add Rails and Rake Paths to Eclipse:
Click window, preferences, click on plus sign next to Rails, click on Configuration. Browse to your rails files.
On my Windows computer, (using the Instant Rails package), the paths were at:
C:\InstantRails\InstantRails\ruby\bin\rails
C:\InstantRails\InstantRails\ruby\bin\rake
C:\InstantRails\InstantRails\ruby\bin\mongrel_rails
Of course, this totally depends on where you installed Ruby.
Click Apply to save them.
Other Eclipse Configuration Options:
Click window, preferences.
Click on Team, SVN
Check “Select unversioned resources on commit”
Click on Apply.
In the preferences window, click on “Team”, “Ignored Resources”, Add Pattern.
Add “.project” and “.log”. If your computer saves that annoying Thumbs.db file, you might want to ignore that one too.
Good luck, and I hope this was useful to you.
ruby on rails | install | eclipse | aptana radrails | subclipse
Aug 03, 2009 06:36 PM
If you want to copy files to another computer, it’s more secure to use scp (secure copy) than ftp.
Using SCP:
scp -pr * username@example.net:destination_path
In the command, -p stands for “preserve”, in other words, it keeps the last modified time, access time, etc the same, and -r recursively copies subdirectories.
Using Rsync:
If you want to just copy files that have changed, a better solution is to use Rsync:
rsync -ra –progress –verbose –delete –rsh=/usr/bin/ssh –size-only * username@example.net:destination_path
-r in this command is for recursive copies, and -a stands for archive, which keeps the modified times the same. –progress and –verbose outputs everything it’s doing and lets you know how much more it needs to check, –delete deletes anything that doesn’t exist at the source location any longer, –rsh makes sure you’re using ssh for security reasons, –size-only updates anything where the filesize has changed. Normally, it compares hashes of the files but that takes more time to process. The * is the source location, which would normally be a path somewhere if it’s in a cronjob, and the last part is the destination location, which doesn’t need a trailing slash; for example, public_html/images
To automate Rsync, you’ll need to have ssh keys installed so that you can bypass the need to enter in a password.
Installing an ssh key:
Run this command on the source computer:
ssh-keygen -t dsa
This will create a pair of keys at $home_dir/.ssh/ and by default, the public key will be called id_dsa.pub
Security Note: When you create your key, it will ask for a password. If you leave it blank, you’ll be able to ssh to the destination box without needing a password, which is useful when you need ssh in an automated script; however, this makes it less secure in the case where somebody compromises your user account - they would then have access to all of the machines with your public key installed. However, if you use a password, you’ll need to enter that password each time you want to ssh, which will be problematic in automated scripts.
Copy the contents of the public key to the destination computer at:
$home_dir/.ssh/authorized_keys
Troubleshooting:
Occasionally, I’ve gotten this error, which prevented me from copying files inside a particular directory, and it confused me at first because my user had read permissions, but it wouldn’t copy until I gave the directory execute permissions too:
rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat “/path/to/file”: Permission denied (13)
The way I got around this was to run: ‘chmod 777 thefile’, but ‘chmod 700 thefile’ should work too assuming that you don’t want anybody seeing the file but you. A 7 in that command sets it to rwx or read, write, and execute.
SCP is great for copying the contents of a folder, while Rsync is great to mirror or back up files, and with a combination of the two, you’ll rarely need to use FTP again.
Visit www.Vauntium.com for more information.
