tom's blog » Webapps

Online Whiteboard

tom — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:50:35 +0000

Nice!
At ScRiBLink you’ll find a free, powerful whiteboard where you and your colleagues can work on your ideas together.
No registration is required : )

Additional features like
- picture upload
- chat
- math functions
- multiple users
- ….
give you a good base to start sharing concepts online, etc..

Note: Maybe it’s not working behind corporate firewalls because it uses additional tcp ports.

If you know about alternatives, please comment.

Critical Bug in Joomla 1.5.5 (and older 1.5.x versions)

tom — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:35:52 +0000

The password of the user with the lowest ID (typically an administrator) can be reset by an unauthorized user in Joomla 1.5.x installations prior version 1.5.6 because of a bug in the password remind functionality.

All 1.5.x installations prior to and including 1.5.5 are affected

The Joomla developer team advises to upgrade to 1.5.6 (or patch the /components/com_user/models/reset.php file with the code below).

After global $mainframe; on line 113 of reset.php, add:
if(strlen($token) != 32) { $this->setError(JText::_('INVALID_TOKEN')); return false; }

See: Joomla! Developer – Password Remind Functionality

New Theme @ tom’s blog

tom — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:42:58 +0000

.. the Dark Side of the Force are they ..
more to say?

WordPress / enabling (built in) cache

tom — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:33:22 +0000

Edit wp-config.php and add
define('ENABLE_CACHE', true);

Create the directory cache in the folder wp-content/ (take care it’s writeable!)

If you want to take control about expiration time, you can do this including these lines in wp-config.php:
define('CACHE_EXPIRATION_TIME', 900);

That’s all : )
The next time, your blog is being visted, the pages will be cached..
B.t.w.: You can empty the cache directory every time you want (in case of trouble, etc..).

More infos:
http://www.mitternachtshacking.de/blog/356-wordpress-cache-aktiviert (de)
http://sw-guide.de/2007-07/bessere-blog-performance-dank-wordpress-internen-cache/ (de)

Update (!):
The file-based caching mechanism has been removed from the WordPress 2.5 code. Detailed infos at neosmart.net.

Joomla – howto active SEF (search engine friendly URLs)

tom — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:53:07 +0000

If not already done, enable “Override” for Options and FileInfo in your apache configuration (needed for mod_rewrite and symlinks):

AllowOverride Options FileInfo

Move the default htaccess.txt to .htaccess and activate SEF in your Joomla config. That’s all : )

WordPress-Release 2.1.1 vulnerable

tom — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:31:17 +0000

If you’ve downloaded release 2.1.1 within the last 4 days, your version may include dangerous code. You should upgrade all your files to v.2.1.2 immediately!

According to the developers of wordpress, a server has been hacked and the download-package was replaced with a version that included some backdoors to implement php code.

Official statement / German news (at heise) / Upgrade instructions

Save and convert flash streams

tom — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:01:47 +0000

If you want to convert a flash stream into a more comfortable format, that can be saved on your local disc and be played by most software/hardware, here’s a short guide:

Save your prefered video (from i.e. YouTube, MyVideo, etc.) with KeepVid.

When FFmpeg is installed, the conversion in Linux is quite simple:
ffmpeg -i input.flv -ab 128 -ar 44100 -b 900 \ -s 640x480 output.mpg

-b = videobitrate
-ab = audiobitrate
-ar = audiosamplerate (Hz)
-s = framesize width * height

Joomla vs. WordPress

tom — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:14:07 +0000

I get more and more requests for several special Apache settings, like: “please turn off Safe-Mode” regarding Joomla. I keep questioning myself what is the big advantage comparing Joomla to WordPress or any other CMS. Any suggestion is appreciated!