If, like me, you are a stickler for valid strict markup, here’s the easiest solution to maintain markup validity when you must have your links open in a new window/tab.

Old markup -

<a
href="http://www.cybermilitia.net"
title="Cyber Militia"
target="_blank">
The most awesome site !
</a>

new XHTML 1.0 strict valid markup -

<a
href="http://www.cybermilitia.net"
title="Cyber Militia"
onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank');return false;">
The most awesome site !
</a>

All done with a wee-bit of javascript.

I thought of sharing it as it might be useful to others as well.

It will look for FLAC files in the given folder (and sub-folders) and encode them to AAC (m4a) using Nero AAC encoder, whilst retaining all tags.

You basically just have to -

1. Unzip the file and create a shortcut to AACEnc.bat on your desktop (or wherever you wish).
2. Drag-and-drop any folder that contains FLAC files on this shortcut.

Notes -

• It uses the free Nero AAC encoder (included in the Zip file).
• By default, any FLAC files will be deleted after they are encoded. Edit the script to change this behaviour (more specifically, delete line 11). Based on feedback, I’ve updated the script – It will no longer delete the original FLAC files.
• The quality setting (decimal value between 0-1, 1 being the best quality) is configurable (more specifically line 2 in the script).

Download it here.

p.s. – I’ve included the required freeware tools “flac.exe”, “NeroAACEnc.exe” etc. in the Zip file.

Please feel free to leave comments if you have any.

Now, I’m not sure about you, but I would much rather it opened up “My Computer” instead.

Fortunately, it’s a very simple change.

Right click on the “Windows Explorer” icon in the taskbar, now right click “Windows Explorer” in the menu, and click “Properties”.

In the properties dialog-box that opens up, the “Target” field would read -
%windir%\explorer.exe

Change it to -
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Click “OK” and you’re done !

Now the first thing I wanted to do was upgrade the firmware to the “latest” (read, “patched”) version.
I go to Sony website, and sure enough, the device isn’t even listed there.

About 10 searches and a couple of online translations later I learned, on a Korean website no less, that the DRU-880S is just the retail packaged clone of Sony Optiarc AD-7260S.

The AD-7260S is a OEM drive that’s been around longer, consequently finding a firmware for it is a whole lot easier.

Use NECWinFlash to flash one of the ROMs onto your drive.

You can find the Official 1.01 firmware here.
Go here for the patched firmwares (RPC-1, bitsetting etc.).

I’m running the RPC-1 patched version myself – works like a charm.

EDIT – Applying the ROMs listed above will rename your drive to “AD-7260S”
If you’d rather keep the original name, use one of the ROMs listed below -

Original DUS-880S v1.60 ROM
RPC-1 patched version of the DRU-880S v1.60 ROM (I’ve personally tested this one, works great)

(don’t remember where I found these, sorry if I didn’t give credit where due)

p.s. – As is customary, I must disclaim any and all responsibility for whatever damage you may cause/suffer by following the advice posted here. You know how it is.

Megaupload’s FAQ states – “While you can use any of the major download managers, we recommend that you use Mega Manager instead.” Partly true.

With most other file hosting services, you just put in your login/password into your download manager, paste your list of links and that’s that.
This approach with Megaupload, on the other hand, will download html codes instead of actual files – even with the “Direct downloads” option selected in your account settings.

This leaves us with two options -

1. Either use “Mega manager”. Ugh ! Or …
2. Use the method described below (even though it involves a little more work than usual)

I found several articles discussing this on the internet, but all of them involve generating the actual download link in a browser and putting this link in the download manager – one file at a time (e.g., using Flashgot).
With the method described below, you’ll be able to queue your link list with minimal effort – no browser required!

For our preferred download manager, we use the same technique that Mega manager uses -

1. Login to Megaupload premium account using Internet explorer.
2. Go to your cookies storage folder (Run -> cookies for XP, C:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies for Vista/Win7)
3. Locate and open the megaupload cookie file <username>@megaupload[x].txt (x would be some number)
4. This file contains your username/password hash. Within its contents, look for the part that looks something like this -
   …<lot-of-crap-here>user<32-character-user-password-hash>megaupload.com<some-more-crap-here>…
   Make a note of this <32-character-user-password-hash>
5. To download megaupload links with any download manager, we need to modify the link like so -
   original link -
   http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UXP1JGLK
   modified link for download manager -
   http://www.megaupload.com/mgr_dl.php?d=UXP1JGLK&u=<32-character-user-password-hash>

You need to do steps 1-4 only once.

For step 5, you can use the attached excel to covert normal megaupload links into links usable in your download manager.

Please note that the <32-character-user-password-hash> is the hash of your unique username/password combination – sharing it is equivalent of sharing your username/password. (which, in case you didn’t already know, is in violation of Megaupload’s terms of service, and can lead to your premium account getting blocked).
p.s. – Please leave a comment if it worked for you !

IT columnists still haven’t grown tired of singing its praises, and the public’s collective brain is like an empty cave that echoes the general noise.

The main reason for this, many of us feel uncomfortably in the back of our heads, is the low bar set by its predecessor – Windows Vista.
When Vista was released, everybody got their undies in a bunch. They wrote the OS off faster than the metaphorical one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

Microsoft pleaded hard, but were shouted back at like the evil little meanies we all know them to be.
Their theory?
The OS is not as bad as the popular opinion makes it out to be.
Since there’s no point fighting popular opinion, they needed, instead, to come up with a replacement, and soon. There was too much at stake – it was all or nothing.

So they did a small experiment they called the “Mojave experiment”.
The premise – give everyday users computers loaded with a new version of Windows – codename “Mojave”, and get their opinion of this OS as compared to Windows Vista.

The average pre-demo score for Windows Vista was 4.4.
The average post-demo score for the new operating system codenamed Windows “Mojave” was 8.5.
Infact, 94% of respondents rated the “new operating system” codenamed Windows “Mojave” higher than they initially rated Windows Vista before the demo – not a single one of them rated “Mojave” lower.
Now comes the fun part – Windows Mojave was actually Windows Vista – the only difference, for the users that took part in the experiment, was the name.

With the success of this small scale experiment under their belt, Microsoft decided to go big – by releasing Windows 7.

Apart from a revamped taskbar, there really isn’t much difference between Windows 7 and Vista. Windows 7 is fully compatible with drivers written for Windows Vista and heck, they even have the same major version number for the underlying kernel! (Windows Vista was build 6.0, Windows 7 is build 6.1 … not 7.0)
What was released as Windows 7 might as well have been a major(?) service pack for Windows Vista. Windows XP Service Pack 2, anyone? But, honestly, would that be good enough for a public that have already had an opinion formed for them?

Let’s admit it, Microsoft have proved their point – they were right about Windows Vista all along – the only real problem with Windows Vista was that of public perception.
They didn’t waste anymore of their time and effort trying to reason with the mob mentality.

They yielded – they buried Vista before everyone’s eyes, then secretly exhumed it and gave it an alias – with great success.

“We know Windows Vista was a bad product and all, but here’s one that’s much better – it’s called Windows Mojave Windows 7”

I’m going to talk about the one that worked the best for me – the one using symbolic links.

I had on my hands multiple blogs each with different owner/author and different databases.

All I had to do was -

1. put all standard wordpress files into a directory above the level that the individual blogs were located – these files will now be shared by all blogs (make sure the path’s accessible to php for includes)
2. remove all standard files/folders (except wp-config.php) from each of the individual blog’s docroot
3. in each individual blog’s doc root, create symlinks pointing to all standard files & folders within the shared wordpress directory.
4. add to the each individual wp-config.php the following line -

   define('ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__) . '/');

5. in the shared wp-load.php, change -

   define( 'ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__) . '/' );

   to read -

   define( 'ABSPATH', $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . '/');

the directory structure of each individual blog’s docroot looks like so -

If you wish to share a few plugins and themes, but keep a few different plugins/themes on different blogs, this can be done in the same way.
In each blog’s doc root, don’t create a symlink to the whole shared wp-content. Rather symlink the individual plugin or themes folders instead.
like so -

It may be a good idea to have all plugins/themes inside the shared wp-content instead of in individual blog’s wp-content, and symlink them back into individual blogs as required. This makes updating the plugins etc. easier. (I share all-in-one-seo-pack and google-sitemap-generator across multiple blogs)

Now to update wordpress (for all the blogs), just extract the new wordpress files overwriting the shared wordpress directory!
The shared plugins can be updated across the board in the same way !

This blog is now running with this hack, leave a comment if you notice something not working correctly. (I tested and found comments to be working fine )

p.s. – The shared wordpress files are owned by root and are not writable by individual blog, and security is maintained by suexec’d php.
This might mean that plugin installation/update might now work from within the wp-admin area’s UI. You’ll have to do it from command line.

Dropbear is a lightweight SSH server and client . It implements SSH2 protocol, just like OpenSSH, but without all the bells and whistles. So much so that it doesn’t even come bundled with SFTP capability.
But we can use the SFTP server that comes bundled with OpenSSH to work with Dropbear.
Let’s begin -

It’s always a good idea to update & upgrade your installation first -

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

First we need to install OpenSSH, if you don’t already have it (only to use its SFTP server with dropbear) -

:~# apt-get install openssh-server

Now let’s install Dropbear -

:~# apt-get install dropbear

Dropbear gets installed, but it is disabled by default. To enable it, edit /etc/default/dropbear and -

modify the line -

NO_START=1

to read -

NO_START=0

You can optionally change the listening port (22 by default) by editing the DROPBEAR_PORT variable in the same file. It’s recommended that you do this, for enhanced security. Remember to also change the port number that you connect to in your SSH/SFTP client.

Now that we’ve enabled Dropbear, we need to disable OpenSSH.

:~# mv /etc/rc2.d/S16ssh /etc/rc2.d/K16ssh

finally -

:~# /etc/init.d/ssh stop
:~# /etc/init.d/dropbear start

Now, without closing your existing SSH connection, open a new SSH session and make sure your SSH client can connect and show you the username/password prompt. If it doesn’t work and you logout your current connection – you’ll be left without access to your server.
Once you’re sure it all works, you can logout and login again to end all OpenSSH processes, and let Dropbear takeover SSH responsibilities.
If you check your resource usage, before and after, you should be able to notice the difference now
Also, since we haven’t uninstalled OpenSSH, Dropbear will be able to serve SFTP with the OpenSSH’s SFTP server. This is located at /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server , and symlinked as /usr/lib/sftp-server.
If you want, you can also backup the sftp-server binary, remove openssh-server package and put the binary back at /usr/lib/sftp-server – and dropbear will still be able to serve SFTP with it.

Now that Dropbear is up and running, let’s setup private/public key pair based passwordless authentication for the root user – it’s convenient and just as secure (if not more so).

Let’s generate a key pair for SSH use -

:~# ssh-keygen

the default paths are good for use with Dropbear.
Don’t enter a passphrase if you don’t want to have to enter it everytime you login to SSH or do SFTP.

Now we must authorise the generated public key for SSH use -

:~# cat /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys

and copy the private key to your local machine.

*hint* At this point, you can use SFTP to copy this file

It is now safe to delete the generated key pair -

:~# rm /root/.ssh/id_rsa
:~# rm /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Now you can point your SSH/SFTP client to use the private key to allow password-less login.

If, like me, you’re using PuTTY (or WinSCP) – you’ll need to convert the private key to PuTTY compatible .ppk format.
To do this, download PuTTYGen.
Once you run PuTTYGen, select “Conversions” -> “Import key” and import the private key file.
Next, click “Save private key” and save the converted private key in PuTTY’s own format.
This converted private key can now be used with PuTTY client (Connection -> SSH -> Auth -> “Private key file for authentication”), and with WinSCP for passwordless login to SFTP.

Lastly, we need to disable password login for root in Dropbear. To do this, edit the file /etc/default/dropbear and -
edit the line -

DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS=""

to read -

DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-g"

and then

:~# /etc/init.d/dropbear restart

And we’re all done !

A lightweight replacement SSH server with SFTP and passwordless logins for root !
All with the usual ease of Debian and apt.

p.s. – You can use these switches in dropbear configuration -

• Disallow root logins -

  DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-w"
  
  

• Disable password logins -

  DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-s"
  
  

• Disable password logins for root -

  DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-g"
  
  

• or any combination thereof, like -

  DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-w -s"

Deeply concerned by the way natural food was killing their kids, hundreds of good looking mothers march upto the said “Department of Nutrition” … they want blood … er, answers !
Scared out of his wits, the guy with a stethoscope around his neck (evidently, a doctor) reveals the sensational findings of a research “carried out over a period of three years on hundreds of kids” – kids who drank Complan grew twice as fast as those who didn’t.

You heard it here first folks ! Why, you ask ?
I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of government conspiracy. “They” don’t want us to know about the findings of a “research” that conclusively proves that regular food is just not good enough for modern kids. The outing of this “research” would mean the end of all naturally grown food, and by extension, the end of all involved in the sham of a business called farming.

What the advertisement doesn’t tell us is about the protocols used in the alleged “research”.
Were the children from the two groups (A – those who consumed Complan, and B – those who didn’t) equal in all other respects ?
I’ll bet the groups were divided based on the children’s existing diets. Here is the pitfall -

Group A – kid drinks Complan regularly -> kid is probably from a well-to-do family -> kid probably has a better overall diet, notwithstanding his Complan intake.
Group B – kid doesn’t drink Complan -> kid is probably from a poor family -> kid is probably malnourished anyway.

Honestly, which well-to-do family doesn’t get their kids some health drink or the other ?

Anyway, just like the helicopter moms in the TV ad, I’m utterly outraged at the way mother nature has failed to provide us with sustenance.
Thanks to health drinks, today’s kids can have proper nutrition – provided it’s the right brand …

From what I know of these two applications, I can think of the following (not thoroughly tested) ways of synchronizing your mailboxes in Thunderbird and Outlook Express :

Outlook Express to Thunderbird
If you have Outlook express and Thunderbird on different machines – Copy the Outlook Express mailbox files to the machine with Thunderbird at the corresponding path.

These files are located at – C:\Documents and Settings\<yourprofilename>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{some-random-16-char-guid-here}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\

Now from within Thunderbird » Import » Mail » Outlook Express.

You may have to create an identical folder structure in the Outlook express of the machine that runs Thudnerbird.

Thunderbird to Outlook Express

Download and install SmartSave Thunderbird Extension – an extension that lets you export multiple mails in one go.

Right Click » Export (the folders/messages that you want to sync into Outlook express).

A bunch of .eml files will be created.
If you have Outlook express and Thunderbird on different machines, copy these files to the machine with Outlook Express.

Select all and drag these files into the corresponding folder inside Outlook express.

That is, the files from Thunderbird’s inbox into Outlook Express’ inbox; those from Thunderbird’s sentbox into Outlook Express’ sentbox and so on. (There’s no compulsion, but it doesn’t make much sense otherwise …)

If you find that the above doesn’t work for you or know of a better way of doing the same – let me know (you know where to leave a message)