Willing wheels

Although querying webpages using python can be performed using urllib, it seems a simpler way is to use library called “requests“. Installation go to http://www.python-requests.org and download zip file (other installation instructions are available, check requests documentation) save zip file into your python installation folder or any where else in your computer unzip content open cmd shell and go to new folder from there, run “python setup.py install” Done! You should know be able to run “import requests” from python cmd Query for an url import requests link = “http://www.somesite.com/” f = requests.get(link) print f.text sources http://www.python-requests.org http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15138614/read-url-in-python

I am new to git and therefore facing some newbie errors. When trying to add a shortname for my repository via command git remote add <myshortname> ssh://user@server:port/path_to_my_bare_git_repo , I was greeted with following error message: fatal: Not a git repository (or any parent up to mount point /home) Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set). In my case, reason for this error message is pretty simple. When running above mentioned call, it must be done from a git repository locally. Therefore first create locally your folder, then from this folder run “git init“. From there you can run the git […]

Here is how to configure ftp server and force all connections to use encryption. FTP software to be used here is vfstpd. Steps install vsftpd sudo apt-get install vsftpd generate an ssl certifcated sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem -out /etc/ssl/private/vsftpd/vsftpd.pem configure vsftpd to use ssl certificate. Here we have serveral choices, use ftp over ssh (SFTP), use explicit FTP over SSL (FTPES) or use implicit FTP over SSL (FTPS). Preferred configuration is in our case FTPES because is uses normal FTP port. We will make sure to ask for both login and password to […]

To create a gziped/bziped file using shell, simply run: tar cjf myfile.tar.bz2 <content> <content> <content> … Options: j = bzip2, z = gzip c = create f = next argument is name of zipped file to create IMPORTANT: with tar, do NOT prepend ‘-’ to argument list sources http://www.cs.duke.edu/~ola/courses/programming/tar.html

Quick way to count number of files in a directory using shell: ls |  wc -l Use option -a to include all files and -A to include almost all files (same as -a but ignores . and ..). To perform recursive count, use the following: ls -AfR | wc -l Where: -A => list all files except . and .. -f => do not order file names when printing them (goes slightly faster in case of huge number of files) -R => recursively go through directories   sources http://www.dzone.com/snippets/count-number-files-directory http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1427032/fast-linux-file-count-for-a-large-number-of-files

I tried to set up a samba server in order to share content on network between unix and windows clients. Every time I tried to access a restricted folder, I ended up with following error message: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED I provided details of existing unix user on samba machine, with correct credentials, and still I faced this issue. In /etc/samba/smb.conf, security setting is set to: security = user Reason why it was failing is because although my user existed at server level (i.e. at unix level), they were still not created at samba level! => simply add them running: sudo smbpasswd -a […]

I just received my brand new raspberry pi (model B), it’s time to make it work. First, I download latest raspbian “wheezy” release from http://www.raspberry.org and follow instructions to format my sd card with it. Next I plug my computer (vga though, into dvi connector using a div to vga converter). Finally I plug in power cord and wait for something to be displayed. Well nothing got displayed! Luckily, I managed to solve this! Reinsert sd card into another laptop and go to /boot partition, then edit file config.txt. In my case, I uncommented line with #hdmi_force_hotplug=1 by removing ‘#’ […]

In below tutorial, we will see how to change wordpress db table prefix from ‘wp_’ into ‘wp2_’ without breaking wordpress. Adapt below content to match both your source and target table prefixes. Here are the steps to change wordpress db table prefixes without breaking the websites: backup your current db (=> export it into a file stored somewhere safe and accessible) update all option names starting with old prefix in table named ‘wp_options’. Entries can be identified by running query: select * from wp_options where option_name like ‘wp_%’ Update field ‘option_name’ for all the entries, one by one. update all […]

Unfortunately there is no menu allowing to turn off sound when takin gpictures with my samsung s3 4g. Even when all sound volumes are set to no-sound levels, camera is still generating noise! Here is how I did to turn it off forever: It is necessary to gain root access: SRSRoot Once Click Root free software worked fine for me (second rooting method) Once rooting is successful, install adb and connect via console to your phone by running adb shell From within the shell, activate root user by running su At this stage, connection is still read-only, it is now […]

Here is a fantastic way to shuffle an array in javascript: myArray.sort(function() {return 0.5 – Math.random()}); So simple yet so efficient, I love it sources http://css-tricks.com/snippets/javascript/shuffle-array/