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Kottu Piped (2)

The pipe now works (mostly). Turns out the problem was with Kottu occationally not giving an RSS out. Have created a new feedburner for Kottu (could not use existing as it rewrites URL’s so can’t filter for duplicate URLs)

Pls try out the pipe here:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/
RSS version here:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/run?_render=rss

Note: Pipe is (supposed to) fetch kottu and zsri, remove duplicates, and sort newest to first.
Todo: Does achcharu have an rss out? Are there other aggregators I haven’t added?

3 comments February 14th, 2007

Car ads explained

Actually this post is in reply to a question on Autolanka… All photos via flickr

help! I’ve lost the original flickr links to most photos here so if you find one of your photos here let me know and I will link photo properly or remove it if you want! thanks

Used By Lady

Used By Engineer

Used By Doctor

TOPping condition

Owner Leaving

Immaculate Condition

[b]Company Used[/b]

Quick Sale!!

Used by Enthusiast!

Original Condition (Looks a bit like it used to, BEFORE the crash and rollover)
Engine is in excellent Condition (it can start)
Anniversary Edition (Has a special imported sticker)
BRAND NEW (It was, in 1983)
Many Extras (more than one cupholder)
Very Efficient (When going downhill, neutral)
Excellent interior (We washed all the dog poop off the seats)
Excellent exterior (rust has been painted over)
Fully Overhauled (I replaced air filter)
Recently Overhauled (I replaced air filter last year)
Used By Enthusiast (I always drive it at 7,500 rpm with tha beet [sic] silencer)
Luxury Seats (new seat covers)
Carefully Restored (After being rear ended by a semi, we used lots of filler and strips of metal to glue it together)
Used Carefully (Driven by senior citizen with Alzhimers, so clutch was never released fully, always kept at 50%)
Agent Maintained (Once, in 1987, it was taken to the agent for a quote)
Latest Security System (Guard dog in boot, remember to feed it)
Only 15,000 KM (After 4th odometer rollback)

Add comment February 11th, 2007

HOWTO: find out who/what subscribes to your RSS Feed.

Today, while browsing my stats (provided via statcounter), I realized something interesting - I have no idea know who/what access my RSS feed.

Actually, if you think about it, most statistics software have no way of seeing who calls the RSS output (as they are javascript based).

So, I decided to see if I can write a simple script to write to a log file every time RSS is accessed.

Step 1: Script to write to a log file

[?php

$log_data_line = “#$my_ref|$my_date|$my_browser|$my_addy|$my_time|\n\n”;
$fp = fopen($my_filename, “a”);
fwrite($fp, $log_data_line);
fclose($fp);
?]


For the code to work:

1. Paste it in a file with extension php, and upload that file to the base folder of your web site.
2. You will need to change the first [ to an < and the last ] to an >
3. Create a log file and replace /your server/stats/rss.log. Chmod that log file 666 (writeable)

Now, if you call this new script from the browser, it will dutyfully write a line to your new log file.

Step 2: Calling this process everytime someone requests your RSS/ATOM/whatever feed

(This process is for wordpress but you should be able apply the same concept to your blog/site software)

Edit the following files (wordpress): wp-rss2.php, wp-rss.php, wp-atom.php, wp-rdf.php and wp-commentsrss2.php, and write the following line at the top (after < ? php)

include 'yourscript.php';

where yourscript.php is the script that you made.

So, who/what accessed my RSS feed lately?

1. Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)
2. Akregator/1.2.5; librss/remnants
3. Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061201 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-feisty)
4. msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)
5. Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)
6. Technoratibot/0.7
7. Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
8. Bloglines/3.1
9. Blogslive (info@blogslive.com)
10. Feedster Crawler/3.0; Feedster, Inc
11. NewsGatorOnline/2.0
12. http://www.relevantnoise.com; info@relevantnoise.com
13. Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google Desktop)

NOTES

• You can edit only wp-feeds.php and add the include to that script, but if someone/something directly subscribes to a specific output (e.g. atom) then they may not register, this is why I added the include to all the feed outputs
• Yes there are some services which allow you to get stats for your scripts but you would have to generate the script via that service/web site which seems cumbersome - this method allows you to get the stats directly
• The code can be improved, I know.
• Another idea would be to output the log in a proper format that a statistics software would recognise so you can get nice graphs/stats/proper analysis

2 comments January 24th, 2007

How to fix a dead flash drive (or USB key)

One of my flash drives suddenly died today. It all happened when XP suddenly froze for some reason. after rebooting, the device was dead - XPdetected it as a 0mb device (and attempted to format it as such - which didn’t work)

After a little research I was able to revive the drive, and heres the procedure (pretty easy):

1. Download and install the HP Drive Key Boot Utility
2. Open the desktop icon and select the correct flash drive under device
3. Select the file system you want to format to (FAT, FAT32, NTFS)
4. Tick Quick Format
5. Click start

Officially this software (HP Drive Key Boot Utility) is meant for HP disks, but unofficially it seems to work fine at formatting most flash media, even digital camera cards.

63 comments January 15th, 2007

Delicious!

As of now I’m on the front page of delicious. Not sure how long it will last, but it’s pretty cool. Thanks everyone who submitted/voted (or rather, bookmarked)!!

PS: Stay tuned for my review of Vista!!

1 comment January 7th, 2007

Digg effect

Some of my posts have been picked up on a number of social sites (Stumble, Digg, etc) so I’ve got more than 5,000 visitors in the last few hours. Thankfully the site is still working mostly OK.

Thank you! to everyone who was kind enough to visit, submit my site, etc. I’m happy that people are finding my site useful.

If anyone is wondering what happened to my Windows Vista review, can someone tell Microsoft Sri Lanka that I’m still waiting for the Vista evaluation DVD they promised me a week ago.

Add comment January 6th, 2007

Have you tried Ubuntu yet?

Note: please see the excellent comments at the end of this article, which contain many corrections, clarifications and useful suggestions.

DivX playback, Totem player, Windowed. 

One of my new years resolutions for 2007 was to use an open source operating system. I don’t mean try it out and forget about it - rather, I want to learn how to use it for day to day work (which I would normally do on an XP powered PC).

And each day I use this new OS, I’m amazed by how easy it is to use. The purpose of this little article is to give Windows XP users a rough idea on how easy it is to use Ubuntu, and see how Ubuntu compares with Windows XP

Pre installation FAQ

1. What is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is an open source operating system. What that generally means is, Ubuntu can be downloaded for free, and you can use it on your system without paying for a licence.
2. Yes, but isn’t that OS for Linux experts? Don’t you need to know Linux? Not necessarily. Ubuntu works mostly via a graphical user interface (similar to Windows XP, you use a mouse, click buttons, etc). Most operations are completed with a mouse. Very rarely you may have to perform some advanced operations using a terminal/console (like MS Dos window).
3. How easy is it to install? Basically, you boot off the CD and follow the prompts. Installation is via a GUI.
4. How do I get the CD? You can download an ISO image of the CD from http://www.ubuntu.com/ - burn this image onto a CD and boot off that CD.
5. Will it recognise my hardware? Ubuntu recognised all hardware on my test PC without any problems. Contrast this with XP which required me to download additional drivers for VGA and Sound! Does this guarantee all your hardware will be recognised? No, but most of the time, it just works.
6. Does it require a lot of space? Actually I was told (during the installation process) that you will need around 2.5GB of space, which is not bad considering that Ubuntu comes with many applications (e.g. Open Office), unlike Windows XP.
7. But I only know how to use XP? How can I retrain myself to use Ubuntu?? The most surprising thing is, you don’t have to retrain yourself - most of the functionality of the desktop/etc is very similar to Windows XP. I don’t mean to say Ubuntu mimics Windows (they don’t), rather, if you are familiar with XP you should be able to find your way around Ubuntu easily. Actually, it’s more accurate to say both XP and Ubuntu are intuitive and follow common concepts and logical processes in their graphical user interfaces (translation: if you can use XP, you will probably be fine with Ubuntu).

The Ubuntu Experience

To give you an idea of what it’s like to use Ubuntu, I’ve got some screenshots here - click a thumbnail to open it on Flickr.

I was amazed at how many applications are included with Ubuntu - right out of the box, this OS seems to include everything I could think of - office software, DVD/CD Writing software, Email and Internet browser, graphics, etc, all included, fully functional, and ready to use.

The Desktop

I’ve tweaked the menu to start from below (like XP) because I’m used to that Old habits.. You can see a screen shot of Ubuntu’s ’start’ menu here

As you can see, it’s a lot like XP - you have your “Computer”, and a taskbar which shows Tabs for windows, a clock, and a menu to launch programs, accessories, etc. Yup, just like XP - so nothing to relearn here as such!

Included Software:

Unlike Windows, Ubuntu includes a range of popular Linux applications for various tasks such as Graphics, Wordprocessing, etc. Most of these software packages are equivalent to (or better than) similar commercial Windows applications

Graphics Software:

GIMP is a professional graphics software, similar to Photoshop.

Office software:

Ubuntu includes Open Office which is similar to Microsoft Office - it includes applications for Spreadsheet, Word processing, database, and presentation.

Games:

Ubuntu includes a large collection of preinstalled games

Security:

One big plus point of Ubuntu is, as with most Linux distros, it is very secure. Virus and spyware generally are not much of a threat (compared to Windows environment) as most attacks are directed against Windows.

Also, users aren’t automatically set up as administrators - and most admin operations require a password, so it’s harder for a malicious application to attack the system. 

Also, as Ubuntu is open source, the code is regularly checked by thousands of people worldwide, and bugs are quickly fixed.

Summary

Ubuntu is professional operating system, it’s simple to use, includes freeware versions of most Windows software, and, did I forget to mention, happnens to be FREE?

Over the next few days I will write more articles on my Ubuntu experience.

PS: Hi to everyone at http://www.groklaw.net/

21 comments January 2nd, 2007

Spam Lanka

The latest trend here is local spam companies. For 500 - 1000 bucks, they promise to spam your message to anyone Sri Lankan.

So here’s an idea: how about someone sets up a database of local spammers/companies, as well as those who advertise with them, so we can make a note to avoid them/anything they sell.

5 comments December 23rd, 2006

open lkHOT

Both indi and lanetop have pointed out that nobody likes to register/login, which is true. So, I’ve opened lkHOT up. Now you can submit a story via email or a simple online form, (no registration required)

Also, anyone can vote for stories. So please head over there and try it out

ps: The code still has bugs, particularly it may not render correctly in firefox (due to my edits to templates). If you spot a bug let me know. I’m working on it and hopefully things should validate soon

2 comments October 22nd, 2006

DIY Social Bookmarking site

Less than 24 hours after lkHOT was launched, my friends at latapata decided to clone it. That’s nice of them, but I wish they had used a different theme at least.

Moving along, this post is all about social bookmarking, and how to make your own social bookmarking site (like, digg, lkHOT, and latapata).

What is social bookmarking?

Wikipedia defines social bookmarking as a “web based service, where shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks are displayed.” Think of it as you sharing your favorite links with other people (and voting on the best links so you get a link of what are that day’s best links).

What is digg?

Again, Wikipedia defines digg as a site that “combines social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication with a form of non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control. News stories and websites are submitted by users, and then promoted to the front page through a user-based ranking system.”

In english please..

You submit links to stuff you find online, and people vote on those links. If the links get a lot of votes, that link goes to the frontpage of digg.

So, how do you make your own social bookmarking site?

You will need a web host with php/mysql, and you have to download and install pligg. The software is still beta, so it has a few bugs, but it’s mostly stable and functional.

What’s Pligg?

Pligg is an Open source Social Networking Content Management System (CMS) Combining social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication and a democratic editorial system enables users to collaboratively submit and vote articles. (thanks wikipedia!)

…translation?

Pligg lets you homebrew your own mini digg. In short, pligg is a sort of clone of digg, which enables anyone to set up their own voting site.

What could you do with this concept?

How about a social porn site..? Lot’s of sites use pligg. To see a list, visit pliggs forum. 

That’s all for now folks. If anyone wants help on setting their own pligg based site, post a question here.

What next for lkHOT?

Any other features/ideas you can think of? let me know.

I need your help

If you read this site, please consider signing up at lkHOT. It takes just a few seconds. After you sign up, you can easily add your favorite links to lkHOT.

Also, if you have a blog or website, consider integrating lkHOT into that site so you/visitors can submit the current page/post of your site to lkHOT.

BTW…

I’m looking for new ideas for IT related articles to write. If you have suggestions (on new article topics, lkhot, or anything else), please let me know by posting a comment here.

Add comment October 21st, 2006