ivc blog

PHP Objects

ivc — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:03:30 +0000

For a long time I’ve been aware of classes (and their objects) in PHP but I’ve never really gotten the time to figure out how they work and how they’re structured, before now.

A class can have a collection of functions that belong to a specific part, or say, module of a site. Instead of having functions (function name () {}) listed alone in a file and available in the global scope, i.e include once and the function will be available till the end of the execution. A function inside a class can only be called upon by the name of the object or inherit of itself(this.).

Which brings me to objects, a class is the code that lists the available functions, but a object is a run-time instance of the class and its functions can be addressed via the name of the new instance ($db = new Mysql();). Think of object like e.g. creating a new tab in web-browser.
// Mysql class class Mysql { function connect($host, $name, $pass, $db) { $connection = mysql_connect("$host","$name","$pass"); mysql_select_db("$db", $connection) or die("Couldn't select database.");; }


   function close() {

      mysql_close($connection);

   }
   function query($query) {

      mysql_query(...);

   }

}
// Create a new instance

$db = new Mysql();
// Mysql connect

$connection = $db->connect('localhost','ivc','passwd','twitterurl');

// Send query $db->query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'");

Pretty cool and handy!

iPhone 3G

ivc — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:11:12 +0000

iPhone, yes, I’m pretty sure you have heard the name a couple of times before.

I decided to get the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G, on the launch date to get the excitement. Contrary to the first iPhone I got in October 2007 when the jailbreaking and unlocking was properly set up.

Ok, to the main story. In Norway the iPhone 3G is only sold by the Netcom operator via its Telebutikken stores. My goal was to get an iPhone 3G, with a new contract, break the contract, and activate it with my previous SIM-card from Telenor.

At 13.15 I arrived at the store, around 5-8 waiting in queue before me. The buying process was interesting, there was no properly set up queuing system in the store. I had to find my own piece of paper and write the next incremental in the queue. I got 82 and number 73-75 was processing then I got there. A little over an hour later, I’m ready to go.

The buying process is a two parter:

Pick your iPhone, in my case 16GB black for 2290 NOK, credit check and pick existing or new contract, I choose new of course.
Go over to the activation desk, asked if I could activate with my other SIM-card, but he had strict guidelines to only activate new devices with Netcom SIM-cards, gave me the 05050 customer service number for more details, very nice guy, shaked the hand of every iPhone customer.

At this point, I have an activated iPhone 3G with a new Netcom iTalk small contract. This is where most people would end up and start using the iPhone, but I want to use my current SIM-card.

I called the customer service and they actually had three menu choices, the third being “Press 3 for iPhone”. A friendly women quickly picked up (I guess they have extra staff) and I explained I wanted to go out of the new contract and use my current operator. To cancel the iTalk small contract would cost 2400 NOK plus the first month of the contract, 399 NOK. An invoice will be sent to my address.

This cancel process is also a two parter:

She asked for the phone number to find the contract, asked if I was sure I wanted to terminate the contract, yes please.
Next, asked for the unique IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, printed on the same piece of paper with the contract phone number, used it to deactivate the phone in the Netcom network, sent a request to Apple to indicate the device should be unlocked, this happens next time I connected it to iTunes (at home) she told.

I played with the iPhone during the trip home and I noticed the Maps locate-me functions didn’t find my position. I hope this was because I didn’t have a cell signal, although it wouldn’t make sense. Even with a Wifi connection to allow any A-GPS data cache to be downloaded didn’t work.

The screen has a noticable yellow hue compared to the same brightness level. Not as crystal crisp white as the original (quality control?). It seems the white balance is a tad warmer. Apple confirmed that the white balance is warmer on the iPhone 3G, around 7000K compared to 8000K in the 1. gen.

To make it pick up the new SIM-card I had to do a full restore, and to complete the set up it was to connect to the iTunes (activation) servers. This was 17.00 CET/Norwegian time while the rest of the US was about or in the middle of waking up to iPhone launch day, making the iTunes servers crawl to a total halt. Finally at 21.15, the activation was successful, iTunes only needed a quick query to Apple to determine the lock state, fortunately it unlocked without needing any interaction. The next screen was the select previous backup or create new device profile set up.

There is also a store activation mode in iTunes, it looks like just a more automated hook-up-activate-disconnect procedure.

Mac: /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes -StoreActivationMode 1
Windows: “C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /StoreActivationMode 1

The total cost: 2290 + 2400 + 399 = 5089 NOK

That places it in the higher end of the smartphones sold in Norway, e.g. the Nokie N95 8GB is sold without contract for 4850 NOK.

My plan is to buy another iPhone 3G 16GB unlocked in US (via a friend, Ebay, some other place) for cost (around 700 USD) once the launch day excitement plays out, import it to Norway, jailbreak it to add Installer.app (Dev Team is ready), and sell it to little under the unlocked cost in Norway to cover some of my expenses (around 1500 NOK).

With a new design also comes less compatibility, the old iPhone dock no long fits the new iPhone 3G. Not a big issue. The corner shape is pointier and not as round as before. My iPod 3G 2003 dock still fits and works perfectly though.

Edit: Only major advantages with an iPhone 3G over the 1. generation for me is: 1. GPS, 2. 16GB, the rest is irrelevant, and the 2.0 software is the same on both. Sold for 9000 NOK. Apparently, VG mentioned to watch out for iPhone price “coups” (the one mentioned is not mine, but there were only two auctions, the other being mine).

Create bootable disc

ivc — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:29:19 +0000

I can’t remember how many times I’ve had the need for a bootable CD-R/DVD-R to boot into DOS to do some trivial task, like flashing a BIOS or duplicating a hard drive.

As a reference for myself I’ve created a quick entry to show how to use a regular downloadable floppy image and an image utility to create a bootable disc including all the files you want to execute once DOS has been loaded.

Create bootable disc

Recaptcha

ivc — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:57:14 +0000

Recently I’ve received some blog comments spam. I received an e-mail for each new comment but I didn’t bother much about it.

Now, today after updating my e-mail server to better fight spam and bounce spam, I decided to do a clean-up of the blog comments. A quick search for ‘wordpress captcha plugin’ reveal a type of captcha I remeber liking because it wasn’t that unfriendly and time consuming to figure out. It’s called Recaptcha. It requires a API key since it’s essentially streaming the code in the background to the Recaptcha servers.

Preview:

Hopefully this isn’t to intrusive and bothersome. It cuts out all the un-necessary spam I was receiving and I’m happy about that.

Update: Recently I discovered that Recaptcha actually helps the Internet Archive project and digitize books, thus helps the optical character recogonition (OCR) system.

Workaround - Fix Flash 2 Second Stop

ivc — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:09:51 +0000

I had a problem with flash video stopping after 2 seconds and sound missing in Opera and Firefox. Flash video worked fine after relaunching the browser but after a few minutes the issue popped up again. Although I normally have 10-20 tabs in both browsers. But the weird thing is that I’ve always had this setup and the issue crawled up recently.

After uninstalling the current 9r115 version and installing the the previous 9.0r47 version Flash video worked again.

Go to \Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash, run the two uninstallers, uninstall_plugin.exe and uninstall_activex.exe
Download fp9_archive.zip from this Adobe flash page
Extract the 9r47 folder to the desktop and run the flashplayer9r47_win.exe installer
Voila! Fixed for Opera and Firefox

Update: Note that there are several security fixes in the newer versions, determine what you want to weight the most.

Reference:

mozillazine.org

Newcastle

ivc — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:07:48 +0000

A week ago, Dan Thomas, Marianne, and myself, traveled to Newcastle, UK, for the weekend 18-20th January. The main attraction was the Ultimate Fighting Championship 80: “Rapid Fire” show in the Metro Radio Arena.

The transit flight to Schiphol was delayed 3 hours and we spent the night at the airport. Arriving in Newcastle the next morning, around 10 am, we unloaded at the hotel and figured we’ll make the most of the day. We started by visiting Forbidden Planet (awesome!) and Games Workshop before heading to the shopping area. Later Dan Thomas went off to attended a fighting gym east of the city center. Marianne was in shopping nirvana while I captured some pictures of Newcastle’s more interesting bits, like Chinatown, the city wall, Central Station, St. Nicholas Church, Castle Keep, Side Street, and the Tyne Bridge.

Later in the evening Dan Thomas and I headed for the UFC show at 6 pm and it was a blast! Gradually the fights got fiercer and the crowd wilder. The main event was the BJ Penn vs Joe Stevenson, both from USA. I’ve never been to Las Vegas but I can imagine the excitement is similar.

The last day we packed and put the baggage in the hotels luggage room before heading out to see the attractions on Quayside. The view from Castle Keep was astonishing, as was the close-up view of the Tyne- and Millennium Bridge. The musical arena, Sage Gateshead, was a cool architectural feat. Oh, and we managed to squeeze in a short visit to one of Europe’s biggest shopping venues outside the city center, the MetroCentre (360 different stores).

At the airport, after boarding the plane the captain announced that something was not working correctly and we waited almost an hour before departing. That meant we could miss our transfer at Schiphol. Fortunately, KLM is flexible and delayed the connecting flight. We got through the security check quick and ran to the gate, although it turned out the flight was not departing in another 45 minutes. The flight was pleasant and seemingly quick as I was reading a book about NLP that Dan Thomas bought at Newcastle airport. Arriving at Torp airport a little delayed, we drove off to Arendal, finally at home at around 1.40 am.

To summarize; a great trip with some minor hurdles.

Newcastle picture gallery

Eee PC

ivc — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:07:57 +0000

The Asus Eee PC is a lot of fun. Mostly because of the size and the room for modifications.

It’s in the same realm as the OLPC/XO machine, sub-$400 market. By default the Eee PC sports a Celeron M 900 MHz processor, 512 MB memory, 7-inch 133 dpi 16:9 display, 4 GB Solid State Disk-drive, wireless networking, ethernet, webcam, SDHC card reader, 3 USB ports, and a 5200 mAh 4-cell Li-Ion battery.

Opening the machine reveals a exhaust fan, only mechanically rotating part in the machine, and an empty Mini PCI-Express expansion bay (header only installed on initial machines). The expansion bay can be used for internal upgrades like Bluetooth and flash drives.

I wanted to see how much and how far I could take the Eee PC. After a few weeks of planning and researching devices, I can up with a this list of internal upgrades:

USB hub (2x)
GPS module with gain antenna
Bluetooth
Internal card reader
Fast flash drive
FM transmitter
Draft-N wireless adapter
Switch for power management

Everything fitted and works perfectly after some initial tweaking. Although the battery time is cut with an hour when all the devices are powered on, I can easily disable the ones I don’t use through a DIP-switch in the expansion bay.

Eee PC Wiki page

Update: During my trip to Newcastle I was checking Digg.com and noticed that my wiki page about the Eee modifications was promoted to the front page. That was a nefarious and cool moment. A week and a half later, Slashdot picked it up too. Found one of my favorite sites, Ars Technica, found time to post an article about the Eee modifications.

iPhone

ivc — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:20:29 +0000

Two months ago we got around getting a couple of iPhones. Thanks to a nice fellow in the United States and the Apple Store for accepting international credit cards, I received the package after just a week after placing the order (that’s a pretty nice round-trip considering it left the factory in Shanghai, China, flew over to Texas, US, and last to Europe and Norway).

The phones came with the v1.1.1 software from factory and was at that point not ‘jailbreaked’. Downgrading to v1.0.2 was the only way to hack it, thus the GSM SIM unlock was not yet cracked. Luckly the next day after jailbreaking, activating, fixing Youtube and setting up the phone, the unlock for v1.1.1 was released.

Thereafter the firmware versions kept coming as they tend to do for popular products. And one after another they all were all cracked in less time than you want to through a fist at. Currently v1.1.2 is the latest and it’s working well, with incremental improvements for every release since v1.0.2. Can’t complain.

iPhone Wiki page

Sony Ericsson P1i

ivc — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:34:22 +0000

Yesterday I received the new Sony Ericsson P1i, released to the market last week. I tried not to be to excited this time around, seeing what Sony Ericsson did to the P990i. Suprisingly it’s been a blast since I unpacked it, everything is prefect.

It’s small and tidy, not bloated at all. Build quality is suburb, no cracking. The system is fast, enough memory to multitask ftw. For those who know what the older M600 looks like, this is the unit filling the gap between that and the P990.

I don’t want to full up this post with superlatives, take a look at the Sony Ericsson P1i wiki entry for details.

Update: A small note that I sold this phone after getting a new iPhone from a fellow of mine.

DuggBack and Digg Button

ivc — Sun, 06 May 2007 00:58:47 +0000

Late last week I finished a project that I’ve been working on for 3 months. It’s called DuggBack and it complements the Digg.com website and makes it easy to find available mirrors and caches of webpages that’s been made popular and hit by the ‘Digg Effect’. The official launch was on Monday and the website has got a fairly good reviews on a couple of news sites. And of course some of the massive Digg traffic.

DuggBack

Another cool thing I built this week is a Digg Button with 3-digit display and Atmel microcontroller, and functions just like the HTML sibling. The complete kit costs $15 and $1 out of that goes to EFF.

Digg Button