• Keeping track of when contacts are online/offline and when they were last seen.
• Broadcasting a message to all contacts.
• Automatically answering common questions.
• Notifying contacts about new events. A newer site http://notify.me has a nice IM Robot that notifies you when a RSS feed is updated. This works well in conjuction with sites like craigslist.
• Keeping track of code snippets
• Checking the weather
• Checking server status

An IM robot can be setup to automate just about any task.

What IM Library to Use

Setting up a IM robot can be a bit of work especially if starting from scratch. There are a lot of libraries out there that can be used to help simplify the process. The trouble is a lot of libraries are not kept up to date and fail to work as IM protocols change.

I did some digging and found a library that would provide a good foundation to build a IM Robot that can do just about anything. I saw implementations in PHP, C, Java, Perl and Python. After some testing I concluded the Java MSN Library would be a very good fit.

How To Use It

Using this library with java is pretty straight forward. First, the library must be added to the classpath. The step to take to complete this will depend on how your developing your java code. The most basic method to add a library to your classpath is to do this at run time with a command such as:

java -classpath MyLibrary.jar MyPackage.MyClass

A better approach would be to setup the classpath in a manifest file. The manifest file is then placed inside the jar file and tells the executable jar where to look for the libraries. This manifest file should look something like the following (note the class-path on line 5):

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.7.1
Created-By: 14.3-b01 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
Main-Class: imstatus.Main
Class-Path: lib/jml-1.0b4-full.jar lib/httpcore-4.0.1.jar lib/mysql-co
 nnector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar
X-COMMENT: Main-Class will be added automatically by build

This is setup so that the 3 required libraries are in the lib folder. These 3 libraries are needed for setting up an IM robot and can be downloaded from the following locations:

• jml-1.0b4-full.jar
• httpcore-4.0.1.jar
• mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar

Now that the libraries are setup we can begin to use them.

Developing the IM Robot Code

There are a few examples of using the Java MSN Library on the main page. However, they are a tad confusing as it creates a new BasicMessenger class. This is confusing as the library already has a BasicMessenger class which is abstract. The library also has a SimpleMessenger class which is a subclass of BasicMessenger. This class appears to be the correct implementation that we would want to use to create a new IM Robot. However, the original authors made the constructor protected so that we cannot instantiate the class outside of the original package. Since we want a simple way to create an IM Robot I have modified the original source code to have a public constructor for the SimpleMessenger class. This new package can be downloaded from our server.

With this new package we can very easily create a new IM Robot with the following two lines of code (make sure to replace yourLogin and yourPassword):

SimpleMessenger messenger = new SimpleMessenger(Email.parseStr("yourLogin@msn.com"), "yourPassword");
messenger.login();

With that code in our main funtion we can run it and test that the Robot automatically logs into Windows Live Messenger.

Of course, that code just logs the Robot into Windows Live Messenger. The next step is to setup the robot to do something interesting. This is one feature that is very nice about the Java MSN Library as it has listeners for many different events. For example we can detect when the robot has finished logging in with the following:

messenger.addListener(new MsnAdapter() {
	// Setup the login completed event

	@Override
	public void loginCompleted(MsnMessenger messenger) {
		MsnOwner owner = messenger.getOwner();
		owner.setInitStatus(MsnUserStatus.ONLINE);
		owner.setStatus(MsnUserStatus.ONLINE);

		// Setup the contact list event
		messenger.addContactListListener(new ContactListAdapter());
	}
});

Then we can take this a step further and detect when a status changes for one of the robots contacts with something like the following:

messenger.addListener(new MsnAdapter() {
	// Setup the login completed event

	@Override
	public void loginCompleted(MsnMessenger messenger) {
		MsnOwner owner = messenger.getOwner();
		owner.setInitStatus(MsnUserStatus.ONLINE);
		owner.setStatus(MsnUserStatus.ONLINE);

		// Setup the contact list event
		messenger.addContactListListener(new ContactListAdapter());
	}
});

The above code will detect when the robot has finished logging in and then setup a new listener to detect when a contacts status has changed. The new listener invokes the ContactListAdapter class when a status has changed. This contactListAdapter class is setup as followes:

class ContactListAdapter extends MsnContactListAdapter {
	@Override
	public void contactStatusChanged(MsnMessenger messenger, MsnContact contact) {
		System.out.println(contact.getEmail()+" is currently "+contact.getStatus());
		// Can add code here to store the status in a database
	}
}

We can still take this a step further and setup the robot to handle automatically adding contacts when a contact requests it. This logic can be added to the ContactListAdapter class with something like the following:

class ContactListAdapter extends MsnContactListAdapter {
	@Override
	public void contactListSyncCompleted(MsnMessenger messenger) {
			MsnContact[] contacts = messenger.getContactList().getContactsInList(MsnList.AL);
			for (int i = 0; i < contacts.length; i++) {
				contactStatusChanged(messenger,contacts[i]);
			}
	}

	@Override
	public void contactAddedMe(MsnMessenger messenger, MsnContact contact) {
		messenger.addFriend(contact.getEmail(), contact.getDisplayName());
	}

	@Override
	public void contactAddedMe(MsnMessenger messenger, MsnContactPending[] pending){
		for(int i=0; i<pending.length; i++){
			messenger.addFriend(pending[i].getEmail(), pending[i].getDisplayName());
		}
	}

	@Override
	public void contactStatusChanged(MsnMessenger messenger, MsnContact contact) {
		System.out.println(contact.getEmail()+" is currently "+contact.getStatus());
		// Can add code here to store the status in a database
	}
}

There you have it! Put all of the above code together and you will have a robot that knows how to automatically add contacts and keep track of when a contact’s status changes.

This article was cross-posted from Software Projects

However, I have had this issue for a while where UltraMon will not move applications between monitors after a Remote Desktop Connection has been established, instead UltraMon acts as if there is only one monitor.

In the past the only solution I had for this issue was to restart my computer. This is not an ideal solution for me as I’m often multi-tasking and running many applications at the same time.

In order to reboot I have to close down each application, save my work, reboot, and then start up every application again after the reboot. This is not a major amount of time but it does add up if I have to do it on a regular basis. Plus, I am one who likes to optimize everything to achieve as much efficiency as humanly possible in a given day.

So, I spent a few minutes and fiddled with UltraMon and found a way to fix this RDP flaw without requiring a reboot. The steps are as follows:

1. Close UltraMon
2. Right click on your desktop and select Screen Resolution
3. Disable the monitor that the application cannot be moved to and click apply (screenshot on right). Repeat for all monitors that are suffering from this issue.
4. Start UltraMon
5. Enable all monitors that were disabled in step 3.

After completing the above steps UltraMon will be as good as new.

I have only tested this on Windows 7 so let me know if this works on other Windows versions as well.

Anyone up for automating the above steps? If I get a break I might try and tackle it.

Application Level Notifications

In order to setup the sounds that an application uses to notify of new events just go to Profiles on your BlackBerry. Scroll down to the bottom of this list and click Advanced. Now you will see a list of your profiles (screenshot on right). Scroll to the profile you would like to edit and click the BlackBerry button, located on the left of the trackball. A list of all of the installed applications is shown including the different email accounts. Select a specific application or email account, click the BlackBerry button and select edit. This will pull up a page that gives different options for how the application is allowed to notify when new events occur, this can be seen in the screenshot below. Modify these settings to have your preferred ringtones, vibrations, LED flashing, etc. Then repeat these steps for other applications and other profiles.

Contact / Email Level Notifications

There are a few different ways to setup notifications for contacts and emails. I have found the easiest option is to use exceptions.

Exceptions allow a custom ring tone to be used for a specific contact or a group of contacts. The exception will work with all profiles except the Off profile. The exception can also be muted by the currently selected profile if that is desired.

Using exceptions works perfect for the scenario where someone should always be able to reach you like the wife/husband or boss (which could be the same person). This also works well for specific people (or email addresses) that should be able to reach you while using a specific profile. This might be something like work related emails that are important during business hours but not in the middle of the night.

The following steps can be used to setup an exception:

1. Go to Profiles and select Advanced
2. Click the BlackBerry button (left of the scroll wheel) and select New Exception.
3. Type in a name for the exception (maybe something like "Urgent")
4. In the From: field click the scroll wheel and select a contact. Repeat this step to add more than one contact to the exception.
5. In the Use Profile: field select the desired profile that this contact or group of contacts will always use. For the contacts that should always be able to reach you the Loud profile is a good option. For contacts that should only be able to reach you while using a specific profile select Active Profile. With this option if the active profile is one where the application is muted the ringtone will not play. If the profile is one where the application is not muted the ringtone will play.
6. Select the custom phone tune.
7. Click the BlackBerry button and select save

There is also another option that will give control over emails by setting up specific email addresses as level 1 emails. Each profile has a specific ringtone,vibration and LED flashing for Level 1 emails.

Emails can be set as level one by applying filters at the following site:

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html

It is unfortunate that this is not a little more integrated into the blackberry but as long as you know your login/password you can do the following:

1. Login and select the Filter Option on the right hand side of the screen for a specific email address.
2. Click Add a Filter
3. Give the filter a name
4. Select when to apply the filter. This can be based on the From email address, subject, to email address, CC email address, new mail or high priority mail.
5. Fill in Contains value that applies to the filter option selected in step 4.
6. Select filter messages to device check Level 1 notification and click Add Filter

Now when an email message comes that meets the requirement of the newly added filter the Level 1 notification settings will be used.

Automatic Profile Switching

By default there is not currently a way to automatically switch profiles at a specific time of the day. Having a feature like this is very beneficial if there is any regularity to your schedule (like meetings, classes, sleeping, etc). 

Even though a scheduled profile option is not built into the BlackBerry by default there is a third party app that does give us this feature. The app is called ProfilerPro (cost $3.99). I just installed this on my blackberry for the first time but it appears to work perfectly for profile switching.

Hopefully all of the steps above will help gain control over the mass amount of media that is thrown at us every day. Are there any other tips or tricks that you use to keep your blackberry optimized?

This inspired me to make a few updates to my default configuration for putty. I used the powershell script to update my color theme and then updated the configuration so that my home and end keys would work correctly (I’ve been putting up with that one for too long).

If anyone would like to use the same settings as me they can just download the following registry file and double click.

DOWNLOAD: Registry Script to Update Putty Configuration

The source code for the above file is the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\Default%20Settings]
"Present"=dword:00000001
"HostName"=""
"LogFileName"="putty.log"
"LogType"=dword:00000000
"LogFileClash"=dword:ffffffff
"LogFlush"=dword:00000001
"SSHLogOmitPasswords"=dword:00000001
"SSHLogOmitData"=dword:00000000
"Protocol"="ssh"
"PortNumber"=dword:00000016
"CloseOnExit"=dword:00000001
"WarnOnClose"=dword:00000001
"PingInterval"=dword:00000000
"PingIntervalSecs"=dword:0000000f
"TCPNoDelay"=dword:00000001
"TCPKeepalives"=dword:00000000
"TerminalType"="linux"
"TerminalSpeed"="38400,38400"
"TerminalModes"="INTR=A,QUIT=A,ERASE=A,KILL=A,EOF=A,EOL=A,EOL2=A,START=A,STOP=A,SUSP=A,DSUSP=A,REPRINT=A,WERASE=A,LNEXT=A,FLUSH=A,SWTCH=A,STATUS=A,DISCARD=A,IGNPAR=A,PARMRK=A,INPCK=A,ISTRIP=A,INLCR=A,IGNCR=A,ICRNL=A,IUCLC=A,IXON=A,IXANY=A,IXOFF=A,IMAXBEL=A,ISIG=A,ICANON=A,XCASE=A,ECHO=A,ECHOE=A,ECHOK=A,ECHONL=A,NOFLSH=A,TOSTOP=A,IEXTEN=A,ECHOCTL=A,ECHOKE=A,PENDIN=A,OPOST=A,OLCUC=A,ONLCR=A,OCRNL=A,ONOCR=A,ONLRET=A,CS7=A,CS8=A,PARENB=A,PARODD=A,"
"AddressFamily"=dword:00000000
"ProxyExcludeList"=""
"ProxyDNS"=dword:00000001
"ProxyLocalhost"=dword:00000000
"ProxyMethod"=dword:00000000
"ProxyHost"="proxy"
"ProxyPort"=dword:00000050
"ProxyUsername"=""
"ProxyPassword"=""
"ProxyTelnetCommand"="connect %host %port\\n"
"Environment"=""
"UserName"=""
"LocalUserName"=""
"NoPTY"=dword:00000000
"Compression"=dword:00000000
"TryAgent"=dword:00000001
"AgentFwd"=dword:00000000
"ChangeUsername"=dword:00000000
"Cipher"="aes,blowfish,3des,WARN,arcfour,des"
"KEX"="dh-gex-sha1,dh-group14-sha1,dh-group1-sha1,WARN"
"RekeyTime"=dword:0000003c
"RekeyBytes"="1G"
"SshNoAuth"=dword:00000000
"AuthTIS"=dword:00000000
"AuthKI"=dword:00000001
"SshNoShell"=dword:00000000
"SshProt"=dword:00000002
"SSH2DES"=dword:00000000
"PublicKeyFile"=""
"RemoteCommand"=""
"RFCEnviron"=dword:00000000
"PassiveTelnet"=dword:00000000
"BackspaceIsDelete"=dword:00000001
"RXVTHomeEnd"=dword:00000000
"LinuxFunctionKeys"=dword:00000000
"NoApplicationKeys"=dword:00000000
"NoApplicationCursors"=dword:00000000
"NoMouseReporting"=dword:00000000
"NoRemoteResize"=dword:00000000
"NoAltScreen"=dword:00000000
"NoRemoteWinTitle"=dword:00000000
"RemoteQTitleAction"=dword:00000001
"NoDBackspace"=dword:00000000
"NoRemoteCharset"=dword:00000000
"ApplicationCursorKeys"=dword:00000000
"ApplicationKeypad"=dword:00000000
"NetHackKeypad"=dword:00000000
"AltF4"=dword:00000001
"AltSpace"=dword:00000000
"AltOnly"=dword:00000000
"ComposeKey"=dword:00000000
"CtrlAltKeys"=dword:00000001
"TelnetKey"=dword:00000000
"TelnetRet"=dword:00000001
"LocalEcho"=dword:00000002
"LocalEdit"=dword:00000002
"Answerback"="PuTTY"
"AlwaysOnTop"=dword:00000000
"FullScreenOnAltEnter"=dword:00000000
"HideMousePtr"=dword:00000000
"SunkenEdge"=dword:00000000
"WindowBorder"=dword:00000001
"CurType"=dword:00000000
"BlinkCur"=dword:00000000
"Beep"=dword:00000001
"BeepInd"=dword:00000000
"BellWaveFile"=""
"BellOverload"=dword:00000001
"BellOverloadN"=dword:00000005
"BellOverloadT"=dword:000007d0
"BellOverloadS"=dword:00001388
"ScrollbackLines"=dword:00002328
"DECOriginMode"=dword:00000000
"AutoWrapMode"=dword:00000001
"LFImpliesCR"=dword:00000000
"DisableArabicShaping"=dword:00000000
"DisableBidi"=dword:00000000
"WinNameAlways"=dword:00000001
"WinTitle"=""
"TermWidth"=dword:00000050
"TermHeight"=dword:00000018
"Font"="Courier New"
"FontIsBold"=dword:00000000
"FontCharSet"=dword:00000000
"FontHeight"=dword:0000000a
"FontQuality"=dword:00000000
"FontVTMode"=dword:00000004
"UseSystemColours"=dword:00000000
"TryPalette"=dword:00000000
"ANSIColour"=dword:00000001
"Xterm256Colour"=dword:00000001
"BoldAsColour"=dword:00000001
"Colour0"="187,187,187"
"Colour1"="255,255,255"
"Colour2"="8,8,8"
"Colour3"="85,85,85"
"Colour4"="0,0,0"
"Colour5"="0,255,0"
"Colour6"="46,52,54"
"Colour7"="85,87,83"
"Colour8"="204,0,0"
"Colour9"="239,41,41"
"Colour10"="78,154,6"
"Colour11"="138,226,52"
"Colour12"="196,160,0"
"Colour13"="252,233,79"
"Colour14"="52,101,164"
"Colour15"="114,159,207"
"Colour16"="117,80,123"
"Colour17"="173,127,168"
"Colour18"="6,152,154"
"Colour19"="52,226,226"
"Colour20"="211,215,207"
"Colour21"="238,238,236"
"RawCNP"=dword:00000000
"PasteRTF"=dword:00000000
"MouseIsXterm"=dword:00000000
"RectSelect"=dword:00000000
"MouseOverride"=dword:00000001
"Wordness0"="0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
"Wordness32"="0,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,1"
"Wordness64"="1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,2"
"Wordness96"="1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1"
"Wordness128"="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1"
"Wordness160"="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1"
"Wordness192"="2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2"
"Wordness224"="2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2"
"LineCodePage"=""
"CJKAmbigWide"=dword:00000000
"UTF8Override"=dword:00000001
"Printer"=""
"CapsLockCyr"=dword:00000000
"ScrollBar"=dword:00000001
"ScrollBarFullScreen"=dword:00000000
"ScrollOnKey"=dword:00000000
"ScrollOnDisp"=dword:00000001
"EraseToScrollback"=dword:00000001
"LockSize"=dword:00000000
"BCE"=dword:00000001
"BlinkText"=dword:00000000
"X11Forward"=dword:00000000
"X11Display"=""
"X11AuthType"=dword:00000001
"LocalPortAcceptAll"=dword:00000000
"RemotePortAcceptAll"=dword:00000000
"PortForwardings"=""
"BugIgnore1"=dword:00000000
"BugPlainPW1"=dword:00000000
"BugRSA1"=dword:00000000
"BugHMAC2"=dword:00000000
"BugDeriveKey2"=dword:00000000
"BugRSAPad2"=dword:00000000
"BugPKSessID2"=dword:00000000
"BugRekey2"=dword:00000000
"StampUtmp"=dword:00000001
"LoginShell"=dword:00000001
"ScrollbarOnLeft"=dword:00000000
"BoldFont"=""
"BoldFontIsBold"=dword:0018f8e4
"BoldFontCharSet"=dword:016ef0a9
"BoldFontHeight"=dword:7719041d
"WideFont"=""
"WideFontIsBold"=dword:0018cc20
"WideFontCharSet"=dword:0018f8e4
"WideFontHeight"=dword:0018cb1c
"WideBoldFont"=""
"WideBoldFontIsBold"=dword:000003f8
"WideBoldFontCharSet"=dword:0018cc20
"WideBoldFontHeight"=dword:01000032
"ShadowBold"=dword:00000000
"ShadowBoldOffset"=dword:00000001
"SerialLine"="COM1"
"SerialSpeed"=dword:00002580
"SerialDataBits"=dword:00000008
"SerialStopHalfbits"=dword:00000002
"SerialParity"=dword:00000000
"SerialFlowControl"=dword:00000001

1. Replace all but the last four digits of a credit card with X’s
2. Format the credit card with dashes in the appropriate places

There are many different approaches that can be taken to accomplish the above two tasks. The simplest approach would be to do something like the following:

<?php
echo 'XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-'.substr($cc,-4);
?>

I have often seen credit cards masked with the above approach. For the most case this solution will work fairly well. However, I am not a huge fan of this approach as it displays the credit card at a fixed length of 16 digits. This can be a bit confusing since credit cards can very in length from 13 to 16 digits.

To better address this issue I put together two functions. One function is to apply a mask to a credit card and the other is to format the credit card with dashes. These functions will keep the original length of each credit card.

<?php

/**
 * Replaces all but the last for digits with x's in the given credit card number
 * @param int|string $cc The credit card number to mask
 * @return string The masked credit card number
 */
function MaskCreditCard($cc){
	// Get the cc Length
	$cc_length = strlen($cc);

	// Replace all characters of credit card except the last four and dashes
	for($i=0; $i<$cc_length-4; $i++){
		if($cc[$i] == '-'){continue;}
		$cc[$i] = 'X';
	}

	// Return the masked Credit Card #
	return $cc;
}

/**
 * Add dashes to a credit card number.
 * @param int|string $cc The credit card number to format with dashes.
 * @return string The credit card with dashes.
 */
function FormatCreditCard($cc)
{
	// Clean out extra data that might be in the cc
	$cc = str_replace(array('-',' '),'',$cc);

	// Get the CC Length
	$cc_length = strlen($cc);

	// Initialize the new credit card to contian the last four digits
	$newCreditCard = substr($cc,-4);

	// Walk backwards through the credit card number and add a dash after every fourth digit
	for($i=$cc_length-5;$i>=0;$i--){
		// If on the fourth character add a dash
		if((($i+1)-$cc_length)%4 == 0){
			$newCreditCard = '-'.$newCreditCard;
		}
		// Add the current character to the new credit card
		$newCreditCard = $cc[$i].$newCreditCard;
	}

	// Return the formatted credit card number
	return $newCreditCard;
}

?>

Below are a couple examples of how to use these functions and the results they create.

<?php
echo maskCreditCard('5362267121053405').'<br>'; // Prints XXXXXXXXXXXX3405
echo formatCreditCard('5362267121053405').'<br>'; // Prints 5362-2671-2105-3405
echo formatCreditCard(maskCreditCard('5362267121053405')).'<br>'; // Prints XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-3405
?>

<?php
$creditCard[] = '5362267121053405'; // Mastercard
$creditCard[] = '4556189015881361'; // Visa 16
$creditCard[] = '4716904617062'; // Visa 13
$creditCard[] = '372348371455844'; // American Express
$creditCard[] = '6011757892594291'; // Discover
$creditCard[] = '30329445722959'; // Diners Club
$creditCard[] = '214927124363421'; // enRoute
$creditCard[] = '180012855304868'; // JCB 15
$creditCard[] = '3528066275370961'; // JCB 16
$creditCard[] = '8699775919'; // Voyager

for($i=0;$i<count($creditCard);$i++)
{
	echo FormatCreditCard(MaskCreditCard(($creditCard[$i])))."\n";
}
?>

Output:

XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-3405
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-1361
X-XXXX-XXXX-7062
XXX-XXXX-XXXX-5844
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-4291
XX-XXXX-XXXX-2959
XXX-XXXX-XXXX-3421
XXX-XXXX-XXXX-4868
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-0961
XX-XXXX-5919

Let me know if you find these functions useful or have any suggestions on how to tweak them.

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "A Blog"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/admin/domains/domain.com/.htpasswd/public_html/.htpasswd
require valid-user
Allow from person.getmyip.com
Satisfy Any

The main addition that I added to the password protection is line 8 “Allow from”. This line allows a specific IP address or host to have access without requiring password protection.

However, the host that needed to be used was a Dynamic DNS hostname. This creates a problem as Apache takes the following steps when the user requests access.

1. Grab IP from user requesting access
2. Do a reverse DNS lookup
3. Compare the results to the host in the Allow from line (person.getmyip.com)

In this case when a reverse DNS lookup is completed on the users IP address it will not find the Dynamic DNS hostname. Instead, it will find the hostname that is associated with your ISP which might look something like this 8.sub-79-231-223.myvzw.com.

There are a number of ways to get around this issue. In my case I wanted to use a small script to dynamically populate the .htaccess file with the correct IP address.

Below is the following PHP script that handles updating .htaccess with the latest IP address. The main requirement is that there is a comment “# Allow from person.getmyip.com” somewhere in the .htaccess file. This line tells the script where to insert the IP address on the very next line.

<?php
// Rewrites the entire htaccess file. When a line starts with '# Allow from brett.getmyip.com' the
// very next line will be replaced with the actual ip associated with brett.getmyip.com
$htaccessFile = "/home/admin/domains/batie.com/public_html/.htaccess";
$handle = fopen($htaccessFile, "r");
if ($handle) {
	$previous_line = $content = '';
	while (!feof($handle)) {
		$current_line = fgets($handle);

		if(stripos($previous_line,'# Allow from person.getmyip.com') !== FALSE)
		{
			$output = shell_exec('host person.getmyip.com');
			if(preg_match('#([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}#',$output,$matches))
			{
				$content .= 'Allow from '.$matches[0]."\n";
			}
		}else{
			$content .= $current_line;
		}
		$previous_line = $current_line;
	}
	fclose($handle);

	$tempFile = tempnam('/tmp','allow_');
	$fp = fopen($tempFile, 'w');
	fwrite($fp, $content);
	fclose($fp);
	rename($tempFile,$htaccessFile);
	chown($htaccessFile,'admin');
	chmod($htaccessFile,'0644');
}
?>

I quickly wrote this script and realize that there is room for improvement. However, this meet the need and solved the problem.

After the script was completed adding a simple line to the crontab (crontab -e) file got it running on a regular basis to automatically update the file with the current IP.

# Script to update ip access for dynamic dns host - it allows person.getmyip.com
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /home/admin/scripts/allow_person.php >/dev/null 2>&1

If your in a hurry here is the download link:

DOWNLOAD: Paste Code For Windows Live Writer

The Issue

Below is an example of some code I would like to paste into Live Writer.

<html>
<head>
	<title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
	Hello World
</body>
</html>

When I try to paste the above code in the "Edit" window. It appears correctly on the screen but in reality Live Writer added content to my code. When I view the source I receive the following:

<html>
  <br />&lt;head&gt;

  <br />&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;title&gt;Hello World&lt;/title&gt;

  <br />&lt;/head&gt;

  <br />&lt;body&gt;

  <br />&#160;&#160;&#160; Hello World

  <br />&lt;/body&gt;

  <br />&lt;/html&gt;

This is very close to how I desire to have the code formatted. However, the major problem is it inserted a bunch of <br /> characters. It does make sense that it inserted these <br />’s since in most cases we want line returns to have breaks but this is not the case when pasting source code.

Next, if I paste the code in the "Source" window the problem is the code is taken as actual source. This means that the code will not be seen on the screen but instead will be interpreted by the browser. If I then swap back and forth between the "Edit" and "Source" windows my code gets reformatted to be the following:

Hello World

Which is obviously not what I wanted.

Solution: A Plugin

To address the issues stated above I put together a plugin that will allow pasting code in either the "Edit" or "Source" windows. It will replace special characters so that the code will be viewable and will not insert extra HTML (like <br />’s).

Below is a screenshot of the plugin in action:

This plugin will automatically take the code that exists on the clipboard and display it in the "Code Snippet" section and give the ability to edit the code before pasting it.

It also has the "Before Code Snippet" and "After Code Snippet" text areas. These two text areas allow defining code to wrap around your code snippet. By default the two box’s will have <pre> and </pre>. Using either a <pre> or a <textarea> is required in order to have the formatting display correctly. If the content of "Before Code Snippet" and "After Code Snippet" is changed it will be remembered the next time the plugin is used.

Once insert is clicked in the plugin the code will be added to your post in Windows Live Writer and will be formatted correctly.

DOWNLOAD: Paste Code For Windows Live Writer

Icing On Top

With this plugin in place we can easily paste code and not worry about the formatting. However, it is very beneficial to have the source code displayed on your blog with syntax highlighting. I do know that there are a few plugins for Windows Live Writer that will apply syntax highlighting to code. However, I do not love this for the following reasons:

1. Will not work when writing an article from blog’s admin page.
2. Will not easily allow changing the Syntax Highlighting to a different algorithm. There are a ton of different Syntax Highlighting plugins for blogs and every once in a while I like to upgrade to the the latest and greatest.
3. Will not work if I decide I want to move away from Windows Live Writer (that will never happen, right?).

For my blog I am using the syntax highlighter developed by Alex Gorbachev. There is also a nice plugin that quickly installs this syntax highlighting in a wordpress blog. With the paste code plugin for Windows Live Writer in combination with syntax highlighting I can quickly paste code and achieve the following results:

Screenshot of Netflix loading in Chrome

When Netflix loads a video it is using Microsoft Silverlight which is something that Chrome supports and gave me my first clue that there is no reason why Chrome shouldn’t be able to view a Netflix video. The solution was actually rather simple, tell Netflix that I’m not actually using Chrome but using Safari on the Mac. In order to do this you just have to add the following parameter when starting Chrome.

 --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.2.1 Safari/525.19"

Add Parameter to Google Chrome Startup

I also tried changing the user agent to make Chrome appear like it is Internet Explorer. After applying that change Netflix gave me a activeX not supported error (image below). Since the problem was solved with the Safari user-agent text above I wasn’t too worried about it.

ActiveX is disabled

• Two programs have icons that look too similar
• The program comes with an icon that does not give a good representation of what the program does
• To have the coolest icons on the block

Resource Hacker
Replace Icon

The steps to replace an icon for a program are fairly simple. Just follow the below steps to modify the icons for any of your applications.  

1. Download Resource Hacker
2. Unzip the file and run ResHacker.exe
3. Open the program that contains an icon you would like to change (like C:\Program Files\Brett Batie\Excel on Multiple Monitors\runExcel.exe)
4. Click Actions→Replace Icon in the Menu Bar
5. Click the “Open file with new icon…” button
6. Select the new icon (like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.exe)
7. Click the “Replace” button
8. Click File→Save in the Menu Bar
9. Close Resource Hacker All Done

Chrome Textarea

There is a new feature in both Safari and Chrome that allows a textarea to be resized by the user. In both browsers the feature is seen by a little icon that is in the bottom right corner of the textarea. This feature gives the user the ability to choose how much space they need for whatever it is they are writing.

For some websites this new feature may not be desired as resizing the textarea could break the layout of the website. I can think of a few ways to prevent the layout from breaking.

1. Design the page with a liquid layout
2. Turn off the users ability to resize the textarea
3. Give the textarea a max size

Redesigning the site with a liquid layout can be a lot of work and may not be optimal for the look & feel for the site. Many designers prefer to lock the site at a certain width to guarantee that everyone will see a website that looks exactly the same.

It is very easy to turn off the users ability to resize the textarea. Turning this feature off may be necessary due to the design of certain sites or to make it harder for the user to write a 100 page document in a small comment box. The following CSS can be used to remove the users ability to resize the textarea:

textarea{resize: none}

Place that code in your css file to remove the users ability to resize any textarea on the site. You could also remove it from 1 textarea on a page with inline css.

<textarea name="myTextarea" rows="3" cols="30" style="resize: none;"></textarea>

The third option of giving the textarea a max size has a similar solution of using css. The two properties that can be used are max-width and max-height. This will give the user the ability to resize the textarea but limit them to a certain max size. The css would look something like the following.

textarea{max-width: 100px; max-height: 100px;}

Of course you may only want to use one of the above properties to allow the user to grow the height to any size but not resize the width or vice versa.

An example of a site that could use one of the above steps is whitehouse.gov. There are two screen shots below that show the before and after of the user resizing the textarea.

Browsers giving the user the ability to resize a textarea is a great feature but it creates one more item that designers and developers need to be aware of when adding a textarea to a page.

Before