Technology Articles

Shut That Phone Up and Put it down

ryelpango — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:02:35 +0000

It is illegal in Australia (and most countries in the world) to drive and ride a vehicle while using a hand-held mobile phone. Mobile phone use can distract the drivers and riders from the driving task. Studies have found that using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous as it slows reaction times and interferes with a driver’s perception skills and increases the chance of having a crash.

Driving is an activity that requires your full attention. It requires you to pay attention to every detail, analyse the visual/audible information received, respond effectively and react in a timely manner. These statements are also the fundamental requirements in order to communicate effectively. So why isn’t the use of mobile phone everywhere else not outlawed or at least controlled? How many other accidents or deaths have been caused by smart/mobile phone distractions?

It makes it very difficult to communicate to someone whose attention is constantly divided because they’re emotionally involved with their “Android” (“iOS” for AppleHeads and WP7 for Windows Users). In case you’ve been stuck under a rock for the past 10 years and just got out, Android, iOS and WP7 are the operating systems that drive those little devices called smart phones that are single-handedly killing old fashioned, intimate communication. You remember right, eye contact, body language, tone of voice, effective use of hands, posture etc. has been replaced by a handful of symbols like LOL ROFL etc.

We’ve become too accustomed to technology. Is it really making our life easier, or is it making us do more futile tasks? Think about it, about 50% of notifications are garbage like joke emails, useless information email/SMS, FB (Facebook) alerts, twitter alerts etc. 45% are requests/reminders from your family or friends so they’re semi-important. The other 5% (almost always phone calls) are very important like doctor’s surgery calling to advise that you’re late for your appointment, semi-important stuff that’s been escalated from an SMS to a phone call, a friend or family member in distress calling for advice, etc.

The primary method of notification of a phone is through an audible alert (whether it be a call, SMS, email, FB notification, FB message, the list goes on and on) usually set to the highest volume with vibration so that it is not missed. This way, every notification becomes a priority and demands attention. There’s no way to distinguish between what’s important and what’s not. As a result, we attend to each notification with the same reckless abandon, not realizing that we’ve become “zombies” under our devices “spell”.

We’re constantly bombarded with so much useless information that we are left confused. News on the internet are so sensationalised that the title is not related to the body of the article. It makes you wonder we bother reading news on the internet at all. That’s just the thing, as advanced as technology has become right now, it is still so one dimensional that everything it disseminates has to be “Sensational”. Text articles have to have sensational titles to get people to read it. Pictures have to be amazing to get people to look at it. Facebook posts have to be shocking to get people to like it. Photos have to be revealing to get people to enjoy it. There’s no point being subtle these days, no one will even notice you.

A good rule of thumb that I follow is that the phone doesn’t get any immediate attention until it rings, I mean traditional “someone is calling” ring. Everything else can wait (put everything else on silent, and check them during allocated periods of the day). That way, I can focus on what’s important right here, right now. Better still, turn your phone off for a day or two and see if anyone visits you. Remember back in the day not too long ago when you say to your loved one that you’ll call them around 7ish just before you say goodbye. Remember the excitement and anticipation as you both go through the day apart waiting for that moment when the clock ticks past 7 o’clock. You eagerly wait by the phone to call or receive the call. We had no choice but to wait then, had to let the excitement build up, exercise restraint, had to force ourselves to get through the day with only our peaceful thoughts and memories to distract us… not the annoying, loud buzzing and ringing of an electronic device.

I miss those days.

FREE PDF Creator

ryelpango — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:47:50 +0000

Here’s a 100% free for personal and/or business use, 100% useful tool to create, and to some extent edit PDF files. I had to download the software and see for myself but this software is the real deal. Creating professional looking PDF files can’t be easier than this. Basically, as with most users, you create your document in Microsoft Word, and with the PDF24 FREE PDF creator, you transform your word document into PDF. It doesn’t stop there.

You are also able to do a virtual print of any document to PDF24 and voila, you got another method of generating any document to PDF format. This tool also allows you to edit your existing PDF files. You can split, merge and rearrange pages, secure a PDF with a password, change PDF properties and much more. Now if you think that it stops there, then I’m sorry to disappoint because there’s more.

You can also download the PDF24 Article to PDF plug-in for your WordPress website that will enable your readers to convert one or more of your posts to PDF files.

Now that’s what I call a complete PDF solution. Thanks PDF24.org!

Format Factory Review

ryelpango — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:43:19 +0000

I was looking for a free tool that will convert a bulky MOV file to something much smaller so I can post it to a website. I got a tip from a friend that Format Factory will do the job and much more. I was a bit sceptical at first but I thought why not.

I downloaded the 40MB package after quickly Googling the term “format media converter” because I couldn’t remember the name of the software at the time. I installed the application and used it to convert the MOV file to AVI, and I was blown away! It converted very quickly without any problems. Wow, I am now a fan!

Here’s the full spec of the software:

Format Factory is a multifunctional media converter.
Provides functions below:

All to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.
All to MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV.
All to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA.
Rip DVD to video file , Rip Music CD to audio file.
MP4 files support iPod/iPhone/PSP/BlackBerry format.
Supports RMVB,Watermark, AV Mux.

Format Factory’s Feature:

support converting all popular video,audio,picture formats to others.
Repair damaged video and audio file.
Reducing Multimedia file size.
Support iphone,ipod multimedia file formats.
Picture converting supports Zoom,Rotate/Flip,tags.
DVD Ripper.
Supports 56 languages

Posting Binary File Via a Proxy Using PHP Curl

ryelpango — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:53:12 +0000

Don’t ask me why I had to do this, but at work today, I had the need to post files up to a remote server while running the php script behind our firewall. Basically, we needed to make files inside our firewall available on the internet. I found out that the native fopen command cannot easily be configured to post via a proxy server so I had to implement the curl solution with the help of a work mate (Thanks Dean!).

I’ve attached the code below for those who has the need to do the same thing as I. When looking at the code, take note of line 2. Most work accounts belong to a domain, but some don’t so for those not on a domain, make sure you remove DOMAIN\\. For those on a domain take note of the double slash \\ (single slash won’t work).

Happy coding!


 
define("C_PROXY_SERVER_URL","proxy.server.com:8080");
 
define("C_PROXY_PASS","DOMAIN\\username:password");
 
$upload_url = "http://someremotesite.com/uploader.php";
 
 
$sample_file = "c:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/phpfileuploader/localuploads/FileZilla.zip";

curl_add_file($post_array,"uploadedfile",$sample_file);
curl_post_data($post_array, "p", "lkjdw9087787asdhkldhasdjaksh987987jklasdf");
curl_post_data($post_array, "file_id", 201);
curl_post_data($post_array, "phase_id", 201);
echo "";
echo "Data to post:\n";
print_r($post_array);
echo "\n";
echo "upload response: \n";
echo curl_post_request($upload_url, $post_array);
function curl_add_file(&$p_post_array, $p_name, $p_file)
{
if(!is_array($p_post_array))
$p_post_array = array();
if(!is_file($p_file) || empty($p_name) )
{
return FALSE;
}
if(!empty($mimetype))
{
$filename = "@" .  $p_file  . ";type=" . $mimetype;
}
else
{
$filename = "@" .  $p_file;
}
$p_post_array[strtolower($p_name)] = $filename;
return TRUE;
}
function curl_post_data(&$p_post_array, $p_name, $p_data)
{
if(!is_array($p_post_array))
$p_post_array = array();
if(empty($p_name))
return FALSE;
$p_post_array[strtolower($p_name)] = $p_data;
return TRUE;
}
function curl_post_request($p_url, $p_postdata)
{
$curl_res = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_URL, $p_url);
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL, true);
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_PROXY, C_PROXY_SERVER_URL);
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, C_PROXY_PASS);
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $p_postdata );
curl_setopt($curl_res, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($curl_res);
if($response === FALSE)
$output = curl_error($curl_res);
else
$output = $response;
curl_close ($curl_res);
return $output;
}
?>



Getting Session Environment Parameters in Oracle
ryelpango — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:49:01 +0000
To display all environment variable values for a given oracle session, run the following code:
begin

  FOR i IN 1..owa.num_cgi_vars LOOP

    htp.p(owa.cgi_var_name(i)||' : '||owa.cgi_var_val(i));

  END LOOP;

end;
The name of the environment variable and value will be displayed. To reference each variable individually use the following syntax:
OWA_UTIL.get_cgi_env(VARIABLE_NAME) 

eg. OWA_UTIL.get_cgi_env('REQUEST_PROTOCOL')
Here’s the list of all available variables:
PLSQL_GATEWAY

GATEWAY_IVERSION

SERVER_SOFTWARE

GATEWAY_INTERFACE

SERVER_PORT

SERVER_NAME

REQUEST_METHOD

PATH_INFO

SCRIPT_NAME

REMOTE_ADDR

SERVER_PROTOCOL

REQUEST_PROTOCOL

REMOTE_USER

HTTP_CONTENT_LENGTH

HTTP_CONTENT_TYPE

HTTP_USER_AGENT

HTTP_HOST

HTTP_ACCEPT

HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING

HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE

HTTP_REFERER

HTTP_ORACLE_ECID

WEB_AUTHENT_PREFIX

DAD_NAME

DOC_ACCESS_PATH

DOCUMENT_TABLE

PATH_ALIAS

REQUEST_CHARSET

REQUEST_IANA_CHARSET

SCRIPT_PREFIX

HTTP_COOKIE
Sample Output:
PLSQL_GATEWAY : WebDb

GATEWAY_IVERSION : 3

SERVER_SOFTWARE : Oracle-Application-Server-10g/10.1.2.0.0 Oracle-HTTP-Server

GATEWAY_INTERFACE : CGI/1.1

SERVER_PORT : 7780

SERVER_NAME : lxapp0533v

REQUEST_METHOD : POST

PATH_INFO : /wwv_flow.show

SCRIPT_NAME : /pls/dmt

REMOTE_ADDR : 148.132.152.59

SERVER_PROTOCOL : HTTP/1.1

REQUEST_PROTOCOL : HTTP

REMOTE_USER : APEX_PUBLIC_USER

HTTP_CONTENT_LENGTH : 416

HTTP_CONTENT_TYPE : application/x-www-form-urlencoded

HTTP_USER_AGENT : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)

HTTP_HOST : lxapp0533v.in.telstra.com.au:7780

HTTP_ACCEPT : */*

HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING : gzip, deflate

HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE : en-au

HTTP_REFERER : http://lxapp0533v.in.telstra.com.au:7780/pls/dmt/f?p=4500:1003:4479870342920497::NO:::

HTTP_ORACLE_ECID : 1297402712:144.135.172.44:22243:0:21186,0

WEB_AUTHENT_PREFIX :

DAD_NAME : dmt

DOC_ACCESS_PATH : docs

DOCUMENT_TABLE : wwv_flow_file_objects$

PATH_ALIAS :

REQUEST_CHARSET : UTF8

REQUEST_IANA_CHARSET : UTF-8

SCRIPT_PREFIX : /pls

HTTP_COOKIE : ISCOOKIE=true; LOGIN_USERNAME_COOKIE=d205414; LOGIN_PASSWORD_COOKIE=; LOGIN_REMEMBER_ME_COOKIE=; r1=%23ALL; r2=%23ALL; r3=%23ALL; propHide=4301%2C%23ALL; WWV_FLOW_USER2=47770A7FD83D3E0A; ORACLE_PLATFORM_REMEMBER_UN=D205414:dmt; __ppFullPath=di-di; s_nr=1296902947468; s_evar18=%5B%5B%27referral%27%2C%271296902515781%27%5D%5D; SearchSettings=50,0,0,1,1,1,1,1; HTMLDB_IDLE_SESSION=11-FEB-2011 10:22:00; WWV_CUSTOM-F_955908081711180_100=739B959ED77BAFE2



Oracle ApEx Request That Will Submit Requested Page Though Link
ryelpango — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:17:01 +0000
There is a very useful Oracle ApEx REQUEST constant called BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT. If included in a URL, the request will process the page as if it was submitted. Now think about this for a minute because this is a useful tool that can enhance your application dramatically. I will provide an example to make my point. Traditionally clicking on a URL in ApEx will simply load the page requested. Loading a page means that the “After Submit Processes” region in ApEx will never be triggered. As a consequence most programmers will plug their process in in “Before Header” or “After Header” point in their page process restricted via some execution condition. This is highly inefficient because it means that the process will be evaluated every time the page is accessed.
To improve this process, add a BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT Request in your Column Link. This modification will submit the page requested which will then allow you to place the process in the “After Submit” region. Execution of the block will be more targetted making you application more efficient.



The request looks something like this:
f?p=&APP_ID.:23:&SESSION.:BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT:&DEBUG.::P0_REQ_ID:#ID#
Happy Coding!



If You’re Turning, Then Please Indicate
ryelpango — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:30:32 +0000
We don’t all possess superpowers. In fact, like me, a lot of us cannot read minds. There’s this great gadget invented which is installed on all vehicles called the signal light. The idea is if you intend to make a left or right turn, you flick this little lever near your steering wheel to the direction where you expect to turn into. This action will activate the signal light on the outside of your vehicle, on the left or right side, depending on which direction you flicked the lever.
These set of actions effectively communicates where the driver intends to go, well before he/she gets there. This is necessary so that everyone else around him/her can negotiate their manoeuvres effectively, all in the effort of preventing an accident.
I want to focus the attention to a specific scenario – The dreaded roundabout. I don’t know about you but I think that there’s an unwritten rule that you have to go through a roundabout as fast as possible and signalling is optional. Throw in pedestrians and bicycle riders in the mix and the result could be catastrophic.
Every driver on the road has a responsibility. A responsibility to be up to date with their knowledge of the road rules, to obey these rules, be considerate when driving and to drive safely at all times. I think a lot of us forget how dangerous it is to be on or near the roads.
Please always remember.



Removing Folder With Reserved Names in Windows
ryelpango — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:06:40 +0000
I’ve written a file archiving process in ASP that auto creates the directory structure on the main archive folder. The process uses the first four characters of the file to create the directory. It then proceeds to place the file in that directory. As a result all files with common first four characters are placed in a single directory.
Anyway, one of the files archived had the name LPT199999.csv. The ASP process created the archive directory with the name LPT1 and placed the file in it with no issues at all. The only problem is LPT1 is a reserve-word, and when you try to copy this directory to another, it fails with the following error:
 
When you try to delete the folder named LPT1, you get the following error:

Fortunately, there is a way to delete the directory and prevent further problems. You need to use a syntax that bypasses the typical reserve-word checks completely. For example, you can possibly remove any directory with a command such as:
RMDIR \\.\driveletter:\path\filename
eg. In my case, I deleted all files in the LPT1 directory and ran the following command to remove the directory:
RMDIR \\.\C:\backupdir\LPT1
That’s it… Too easy!



Facebook is a Time Waster
ryelpango — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:40:02 +0000
At some point in time, you start to wonder, how useful is Facebook.com? After you muddle through the crap that people write in their profile comment, you start to realize, what a waste of space. 99% of the stuff written on the notification is not even mildly amusing.
It’s become just another platform to promote the “look at me” generation, an era where too much attention is never enough. What do I need to write now in order to get people to comment on my post? Hmmmm… hang on… that’s not shocking or offensive enough… let me just tweak it a little… There… that’s better. You just wasted three hours of you life looking at photos of your friend’s friend’s friend who you don’t even know.
On the surface it appears to not be a problem at all. But if you think about it, it actually exposes a much bigger problem. You see, Facebook is a social “environment”, a place where children and adults alike congregate into one “event”. Once you log in, you get immersed into a world far beyond your knowledge, which can be dangerous especially if you’re a child. You get thrown into a world of unsolicited, uncensored point of views, and visual images from people who you don’t even know existed. It is a perfect example of technology trying to mimic complicated social frameworks and failed miserably.
Get a life. Go out and talk to some real people. Ban your kids from accessing Facebook or MySpace (or at least limit their time on it). I’ve deactivated my facebook profile. I was just hoping that there was a delete button so there was no turning back. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a waste of my time.
Peace.



Sony Ericsson W705a and PC Suite Synchronization Problem
ryelpango — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:58:26 +0000
I’ve just recently acquired a Sony Ericsson W705a. Very nice phone, looks and feels good, with a premium feel. Nice navigation icons, and loaded with features. The phone came with a PC suite/PC Media Manager CD. Well, I installed the Sony Ericsson PC Suite software and found the whole process easy and the software itself was very easy to use. Youre able synch your phone’s contact list with your PC’s, backup and restore phone contents, view/edit contacts, etc.
Within the suite, under applications, you’re also able to update your phones firmware using the Sony Ericsson Update Service.
So I did.
This was when I started getting synchronisation problems. I couldn’t access the contacts on my phone anymore through the suite. I couldn’t synch my phone and computer, which kept failing with some error code I couldn’t remember.
I tried to fix the problem by updating the PC Suite, through the Help -> Search for updates option. The software advised that my version was the latest (Version 5.007.01). I tried unintalling/re-installing the suite, installing the suite to another machine (this method actually failed to recognize my phone altogether), to no avail.

Fortunately for you, the fix is quite simple:

 Uninstall Sony Ericsson PC Suite on your computer.
Go to http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/support/softwaredownloads/detailed/pcsuite/w705a?cc=ca&lc=en and download the latest version of the PC Suite manually (at the time of writing this article, Version 6.009.00).
Install the downloaded software.

That’s it. Too easy!