HM2K.com

I spent a long time today searching for a PHP based portal script either for a small community website or an ISP.

What I am looking for as a small community is a basic version of what thisisstaffordshire.co.uk offers or similar.

What I am looking for in an ISP community website is a basic version to what orange.co.uk (formerly wanadoo/freeserve) offers or similar.

My theory was that something like this would exist already, after all there’s no point re-inventing the wheel, or at the very least I would be getting a feel for what was already out there.

So I began looking in all the normal places, starting with sourceforge.net, where I found nothing decent. I then began looking on hotscripts.com where there is an entire directory just for PHP portals.

I soon discovered that the majority were either PHP-Nuke based or PHP-Nuke like, which is NOT what I am looking for, others were basically a CMS package, not a portal.

Eventually I came across a portal called Creative Community Portal, which looks like it would be perfect for the small community website so I take a look. I’m taking to a website called Creative Software. They are offering this script at $79.99, however I soon realised that these guys aren’t the best at web design, yet it strikes me as odd that they have quite a tidy portal script on offer, my assumption was that they had taken it from somewhere else, and so my research begins.

I began by trying to find other sites that use the same engine by searching for the names of the images, and common strings.

I find the following websites:

• http://www.spioneers.org/Default.php
• http://www.omeopatiadirisonanza.it/Default.asp
• http://www.4so9.com/cauca/default.php
• http://www.seniorschoice.com/kelowna/Default.php
• http://www.mcintyreskiarea.com/Default.asp
• http://www.clubgs.org/Default.asp
• http://www.prodavisro.com/icoane_site/Default.asp
• http://www.yuccavalley.com/genealogy/Default.asp
• http://www.rincenatiarna.com/members/AccessDenied.cfm
• http://www.mntalent.com/Default.asp
• http://sleeping.mine.nu/parisian.org/Default.php
• http://www.pataleo.com/Default.php
• http://www.watersport.net/portal/Default.asp

The first thing you should notice is that they all appear to be in different programming languages, and none of them use the same design as the one I found originally, yet they are all closely matched. I figure there must be some kind of third party code generating software being used.

So I take a look at the HTML code of some of the sites.

Its not long before I find this:

So I decide to take a look at YesSoftware CodeCharge v3.0.1.6, and I believe I am onto a winner as I find that an example script bundled with the software is infact a portal! And as if that wasn’t enough I found mention on their forums of an online portal which can be downloaded from gotocode.com for free.

The problem I found is that none of these look anything like the sites above, let alone the site I found originally. The search continues.

I go back to looking for similar sites.

Its not long before I find this: http://www.uksamba.org/portal/Default.php

On this site I find more details, including a user guide, license agreement, and more importantly the name of the company that made it, UltraApps. However, when I visit their website, there’s no mention of this application. Never fear though, there’s always the web archive.

The rabbit hole deepens.

I soon find myself on their old website, via the web archive looking at downloading their portal script, there it is, you can download it for free. I download the PHP version and have a play around with this for quite some time. I find two problems, firstly this does not offer all the features that the Creative Software version does, and secondly it doesn’t appear to login for some strange reason.

I go back to the UltraApps web archive, and discover there is another version, which is the Portal Enhanced Edition, which is NOT free, you must purchase this at a price of $50. I figure I have come to the end of the road with this as without paying somebody some money I’m not getting it for free, and as such UltraApps don’t appear to offer it any longer, and Creative Software doesn’t actually have the right to be selling it in the first place.

So as I begin to close down my windows, I notice something strange on the Creative Software “demo” site, the title says: “My USA City Guide”, this strikes me as odd, as their demo is a UK version.

After a quick search I find this demo, which appears to owned by the creators of the style/theme, yet appear to be using the UltraApps code.

I gave this some thought, and I soon realise that this begs some questions:

• Why does UltraApps no longer offer their portal?
• Is there an issue with selling applications produced by YesSoftware Code Charge?
• Does the USA City Guide have the rights to resell the UltraApps product?
• Does Creative Software have the right to resell the USA City Guide product?

Further more I found that the Creative Community script had some major vulnerabilities.

And after all that I have no decent portal script for a basic small community website.

The only half decent thing I found was called phpFoX, and by a look at the demo, its simply a clone of MySpace, which is NOT what i’m looking for. Despite the fact that it’s expensive.

For the past few weeks I have been mostly working on eTicket.

eTicket is an open source Support Ticket System based on osTicket.

The reason eTicket exists is because no further development has occurred on osTicket since 2005, and unfortunately there were some major flaws found in osTicket.

Over time, many users of osTicket reported many of the known bugs onto the osTicket Forums, this made it very easy to figure out what the problems were and how to overcome them.

I myself had discovered some issues with osTicket and already coded some solutions. With this in mind I decided to take on osTicket as my own, and add the appropriate fixes and modifications.

There were some restrictions with working on eTicket from osTicket, this was the database structure. This is due to the fact that I understood that one of the most important things to users was that they would want to upgrade from osTicket to eTicket, the easiest way of achieving this was to keep the database structure the same and simply changing the files.

eTicket is now at the point where there are no known problems or bugs, the only issues that remain are features that require changes to the database structure (such as additional tables).

I hope to continue working on eTicket indefinitely.

I get asked quite often if I know how to get a mobile phone unlocked, so this is my experience…

I was given a Motorola V525 as the original owner had an upgrade. They are on the vodafone network, and I am on O2.

When I put an O2 simcard in the phone it asked me to “Enter Subsidy Password” (other phones may say “Enter Special Code”), I tried a few random numbers (probably about 15 by the time I had finished), and the phone locked up. Displaying the following: “Contact Service Provider”, and it will not go away.

However, there is a solution I found at: http://www.gsm-unlock.com/unlock/unlock-motorola.html

Q: I keep getting the following prompt on my Motorola after I insert another sim card “Contact Service Provider” ?
A: That means wrong unlock code has been entered already!
(This message appears after many wrong subsidy or special code entry)
Power on phone and wait between 30 min to 8 hours till Enter Subsidy or Special Code
message appear again! (Please note that phone should be powered on during this time).

I left it turned on, and charging over night, and came to it the following day, it asked me for the unlock code.

After reading this forum I discovered that you CANNOT unlock the Razr V3, or V525 or any other Motorola simply by providing someone with your IMEI code.

As far as I can see there are only THREE ways around this:
1. You need a datacable (~$10) and MotoPhoenix ($25) — It seems this guy here has achieved it using a datacable and some choice software…
2. Contact your phone carrier/operator or service provide (O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, etc) and ask them for the unlock code, like this guy did.

They will ask you for the following details:

Mobile Telephone Number:
Customer Account Number:
Full Name:
Full Address:
Date of Birth:

Make:
Model:
IMEI:

3. The third way involves using buy methods, such as buying from ebay, gsm-unlock.com or fonefunshop.co.uk, but as these methods are completly untested (by me), and they don’t tell you how it works, I wouldn’t advise them.

I used method 2, and after a few emails back and forth, and a phone call from the previous owner, I was provided with 2 unlock codes and told that one of them would work.

I have since then used the same method again with Vodafone ([email protected]) for a Motorola V3X, this time I simply put a request for the unlock code, and provided them with the details (as above), within 3 hours I had a reply from them, as follows:

NETWORK UNLOCK CODE

Good Afternoon Mr. XXX,

Thank you for your email to Vodafone about the network unlock code (NUC) you requested. I’ll be happy to assist. Your NUC is as follows:

XXXXXXXX

 

I hope this information is of use. Please contact me if you require any further assistance.

 

Best wishes,

Neil Breeze
Vodafone Customer Services

This worked no problems, so I sent an email back to them congratulating them on their quick response, which makes a change.

http://www.hm2k.org/news/1139531105.html

I’ve done my research and i’ve discovered there’s only 6 Operating Systems that I would ever need to use.

For your workstations

• At the office: Windows
  • I would choose this in almost all businesses as often they require the ability to run windows based applications.
  • In many business environments windows is required to be a client on their network, meaning you are unable to use their network if you are using Linux or a Mac based system.
• The developer: Ubuntu Linux (free)
  • I would choose this for developers as it’s quick, stable and allows you easy interfacing with developer tools and services running on Linux based systems.
  • This platform can also be ideal for the future of technology due to the fact it is free and that due to the way technology is heading before long all you will need to use your applications is a web browser.
• The designer: Mac OS X
  • This is a good stable and compatible platform for graphic design applications, ideal for graphics designers.
  • Generally the graphics applications you see on Windows appear on Mac first. This was often the case with Adobe/Macromedia products.

For your servers

• Web/Mail/Database Server: CentOS
  • Based on Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) this product is designed to deal with the enterprise market offering you real performance, the real difference between CentOS and RHEL is that CentOS is free.
  • The reason why I would choose CentOS is that because it is based on a Redhat product its very compatible with available applications meaning you get them first. It is also very easy to use.
  • Another great aspect of this is that unlike Fedora there’s no product life cycle.
  • The final attribute of CentOS is it’s great community.
• Game Server: debian
  • I find that the game server applications run best on debian. This is probably the only reason I would use it.
• IRC/Shell Server: FreeBSD
  • The main reason for this is because its so well received by the IRC community, and offers great compatibility for IRC applications.
  • This OS also offers the ability to use “Jailing”, which was an important aspect before the ability of creating “virtual servers” on Linux existed.

For more information check out the Comparison of operating systems on the Wikipedia

I have been looking for a good open source or free cross platform (windows/linux) editor that has php and html syntax highlighting.

A simple request I thought, I guess not…

Read the rest of this entry »

I get asked this question time and time again. People seem to believe that the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) will help with their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Well, does it?

The short answer is no. The long answer is as follows…

Read the rest of this entry »

I have been on the lookout for a decent FTP Deamon/Server that runs on windows. Its not very often that I do require one, but every so often having one does come in handy.

Read the rest of this entry »

The thing that has been bothering me recently most of all, even more than online spam and junk mail, are telemarketing calls. I recently had an increase of unwanted telemarketing/telesales calls.

So I went stright onto the BT website, and went to their contact phone numbers list, I then called the “Malicious Calls” number on 0800 661 441.

They advised me to call two numbers, the first was BT Privacy at Home Service on 0800 121 8000. They told me to first signup to the Caller Display service (which is completly free, and takes about 24 hours to become active), and to register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), you can also choose if you want BT to call or not (I chose no).

You can also register with the Silent Call Guard on 0870 4443969 registration is free, lasts for one year and takes no more than 28 days to become effective.

Although I HAVE signed up to all these services, I have to wait 28 days for anything to happen so I am STILL getting calls.

Did you know?

• Most telemarketing companies use a tactic called “predictive-dialing”. Basically what this means is that their computer auto-dials your number, assuming it will take you about 2 rings to pick up, before switching you over to the next available telemarketer when you do pickup, so as not to waste the telemarketers’ time while waiting for you to pick up, after all, time is money to them.
• Due to “predictive-dialing” if there are no availible telemarketers, the computer will hang up.
• Also due to predictive-dialing, you get a delay before someone says anything, apparently often they wait until you say “hello” twice before they pickup, therefore DO NOT say “hello” twice, as dialers register a single hello as an invalid number.
• Finally, when you suspect you are getting one of these calls (usually calling from an unknown or withheld number) simply pickup, and do not say anything, if you hold on the line, you may eventually hear a message that is designed for answering machines explaining that you have received a call from whoever is calling.

So I have decided to take matters into my own hands, the following list is simply a collection of things you can do while you wait for these services to come into action.

• Ask the caller to remove you from their database and put you on their “DO NOT CALL” list.
• You can report the caller to UK Data IT who will research it for you.
• Read the Ofcom Silent Calls FAQ – useful if your not sure what to do.
• Enigma Anti-Telemarketing Software v1.2 – An american based peice of software to make logs of callers.
• How to stop telemarketing calls – A useful website with information about telemarketing calls.
• Anti-Telemarketing EGBG counter-script – A counter script to use on telemarketers.
• Dealing with Telemarketing Slime – Counter-Telemarketing Tactics – Telemarketing Scum Page.
• Telemarketing Blocker – A free Caller ID screen software that retrieves caller’s telephone number using your voice modem.
• JUNKBUSTERS Anti-Telemarketing Script – Another counter script, american based.
• Telemarketing – A wikipedia definition.

Note: This document is aimed at UK anti-telemarketing only, I have no idea about outside of the UK apart from what I have read.

telemarketing.html

I have been looking for a decent FTP client for years, and now I think I have finally found it!

Read the rest of this entry »

These days I find myself buying all sorts of things off of ebay.

The problem I have found in the past is that I cannot keep track of the items I am bidding on, and then forget about them, consequently ending up with nothing.
I set out to find a FREE method of tracking eBay auctions. An application that allows you to snipe would be good too.

My first port of call was freshmeat.net, where I found:

• BidNobble – This piece of software looked great, however I soon find out that it doesn’t actually work correctly.
• eBay Agent – This was a nice application written in Perl, which could be run from a server however with no decent frontend.
• bidwatcher – This application was okay, the problem was it was slow, and this didn’t work properly either.
• Bid Monkey – Written in python, I tried this, I didn’t like it at all.
• JBidwatcher – Another java based Bit watcher, that is very poorly designed, and difficult to work with.

I crawled the internet for other applications out there, only to find they don’t REALLY exist.

In the end the best thing I found was a Google Gadget for Google Desktop called eBay Auction Watch. This plug-in is fantastic, its just a shame you’re forced to use it with Google Desktop considering it uses so much system resources.