If you are a thinker, a mad scientist in the making or just a curious ADD person like me, the Arduino boards are just what you are missing in life.

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple micro controller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board.

Arduino can be used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other physical outputs. Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer .

Arduino hardware can be used in Windows, Mac or Linux. The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased pre-assembled and the open-source IDE (programming environment) can be downloaded for free.

There’s a great starting guide at http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage, but I have also been recommended this book:

30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius

This guide shows you how to program and build a variety of projects with the Arduino microcontroller development system. Covering Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, it gets you up to speed with the simplified C programming you need to know–no prior programming experience necessary.

You can find more books and arduino boards and components on here.

Examples of what one can accomplish with Arduino:

Technorati Tags: Arduino, arduino projects, C Programming, DIY geek, geek gifts, IDE, Linux, Mac, muti platform, Open Source, Programming, robbots, Windows

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TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. With TrueCrypt you can create virtual encrypted drives,  encrypt entire partitions and removable devices or entire hard drives. Watch this tutorial by Thirdfoundation for Windows or the MAC Version by Obrien1979

This is based on an older version of TrueCrypt, but after installation you will see that it looks all the same. For the most up-to-date version go to http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Windows Version

MAC Version

Technorati Tags: data encryption, data protection, Security, truecrypt, virtual drives

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• December 16, 2008 -- Internet Explorer new vulnerability

If you are using CardSave (UK Version) and you come across the following error:

“This transaction cannot be processed. It was rejected because the passed transaction date/time has expired. Please press “Back” in your browser and resubmit the transaction.”

It’s caused by your server providing a different timezone to your CardSave Gateway. You need to setup your server/script time zone to UTC.  In PHP you can do this by simply adding this line to your script:  date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’);

For example, I was having a problem with the Cardsave(hosted) payment extension for OpenCart.  If you are having the same problem do this:

1. Open the file /catalog/controler/payment/cardsave_hosted.php
2. Find this line  $this->data['fields']['TransactionDateTime'] = (date(“Y-m-d H:i:s”).  ‘ +00:00′);  (line 305 I think)
3. Just before that line add this :  date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’); 
4. Upload file to server and you are sorted.

Technorati Tags: cardsave, date_default_timezone_set(), e-commerce, opencart, OpenSource, payment gateway, PHP

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• April 14, 2009 -- PDF to Email with registration

The OpenSource movement has changed and improved the way software is developed, distributed and viewed.  This documentary is a great example of how the same principle is being applied to hardware. Forgive me for being cheesy but I have to say it -  “the possiblities are endless” .

Enjoy!

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

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For a long time I have been very frustrated with e-commerce systems, from my self built one all the way to Magento. That was until I came across OpenCart. It’s a great system, easy to use and to develop for. Installation takes 5 minutes, it has all the modules you need to run a successful e-commerce site straight out of the .zip.  I nicknamed it the “WordPress of e-commerce”!  Have a look for yourself at the Opencart demonstration page.

OpenCart features:

• Open Source
• Documentation
• Unlimited Categories
• Unlimited Products
• Unlimited Manufacturers
• Templatable
• Multi-Language
• Multi-Currency
• Product Reviews
• Product Ratings
• Downloadable Products

• Automatic Image Resizing
• Multiple Tax Rates
• Related Products
• Unlimited Information Pages
• Shipping Weight Calculation
• Discount Coupon System
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Module System
• Backup & Restore Tools
• Printable Invoices
• Sales Reports

Technorati Tags: e-commerce, online sales, online shop, Open Source, opencart

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• September 30, 2009 -- Google Wave

With Suse Studio you can build a custom Linux distro, with your own software and branding and package it to run as a live CD\DVD, Bootable USB,  VMWare, VirtualBox, Zen or a bootable intall CD\DVD.

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The issue of Software Patent has been around for a while, but unless you really  have the time and drive to try to understand all that is involved you will be left like most of us, just wondering. The guys at Patent Absurdity have made a great documentary about this issue.

Patent Absurdity explores the case of software patents and the history of judicial activism that led to their rise, and the harm being done to software developers and the wider economy. The film is based on a series of interviews conducted during the Supreme Court’s review of in re Bilski — a case that could have profound implications for the patenting of software. (extracted)

The whole documentary was made with free software.

• Cinelerra for video editing
• Audacity for audio editing
• Inkscape, Python and Blender for animation
• Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis codecs
• Edited on GNU/Linux machines

Watch the Patent Absurdity documentary here.

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As a Linux user and Open Source enthusiast I always want to see people moving away from the proprietary stuff and into the Open Source world, but sometimes it’s easier to keep them where they are (stuck to Windows), specially when it comes to gaming. I am not a gamer, and would rather spend my time on other more fulfilling tasks like testing a ClearOS installation, but when it comes to helping people migrate from Windows to Linux, there’s always that dreaded question  “Will my games work?”  The answer could easily be “yes very well, better than before!”  but in reality a majority of the games won’t. Why? The proprietary monster that is Microsoft has allured programmers, graphic card manufacturers and the common citizen into the idea that DirectX is the best, and it could not e further from the truth. While DirectX only runs on Windows, OpenGL offers equal or better results and runs on every platform. 

But don’t let me talk to you about this, as I said I am not a gamer, let those who know what they are talking about tell you. This great article will help you understand Why should you use OpenGL and not DirectX (Wolfire Blog), and you may also enjoy reading this article Commercial Gaming coming to Linux?  from the Linux Magazine.

Technorati Tags: DirectX, Gaming, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, OpenGL, Windows, Xbox

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As usual this post is a self help note, but as it’s public I hope it helps someone else. If you want to open .eps or .ps files with GIMP on Windows you will need to install Ghostscript (download it from http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/). After successful installation you will need to create an environment variable called GS_PROG on Windows. To do this just follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the ‘My Computer‘ Icon and select properties
2. Click on the advanced tab
3. Click on Environment Variable button
4. Under either User variables or System variables click on “New”
5. Set Variable name : GS_PROG
6. Set Variable path: C:\Progam Files\gs\gs864w32\bin\gswin32.exe   – this is where yous gswin32.exe resides, make sure you type the correct path.

Click “OK” for everything and then open GIMP, you should now be able to open .eps and .ps files

Extra information: .EPS/PostScript (.PS) is a  file that may contain 2D vector graphics, bitmap images, and text; includes an embedded preview image in bitmap format; often used for transferring image data between different operating systems. Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, Photoshop or CorelDraw are the kind of programs that normally use/open these files.

Technorati Tags: .eps, Environment variable, Ghostscript, GIMP, GS_PROG, Microsoft, postscript, Windows

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I am currently working on a project to offer an Open Source Linux based Network Tool pre-installed in a very small custom built computer (like the fit-pc or linutop), I want to avoid having a CD drive and want to keep it simple for the client to reinstall the system if needed.  I decided to create a bootable USB Flash Drive to accompany the system, while looking around I found this great application called UNetbootin that will create a bootable USB Drive from any Linux OS ISO image. You can create the bootable USB drive from either a Linux or Windows desktop.

UNetbootin has presets for most major Linux distros and can be also used to load various other systems:

• Parted Magic, a partition manager that can resize, repair, backup, and restore partitions.
• SystemRescueCD, a system repair, backup and recovery tool.
• Super Grub Disk, a boot utility that can restore and repair overwritten and misconfigured GRUB installs or directly boot various operating systems
• Dr.Web Antivirus, F-Secure Rescue CD, and Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which remove malware from Windows installs.
• Backtrack, a utility used for network analysis and penetration testing.
• Ophcrack, a utility which can recover Windows passwords.
• NTPasswd, a utility which can reset Windows passwords and edit the registry.
• Gujin, a graphical bootloader that can also be used to boot various operating systems and media.
• Smart Boot Manager (SBM), which can boot off CD-ROM and floppy drives on computers with a faulty BIOS.
• FreeDOS, which can run BIOS flash and other legacy DOS utilities.

Technorati Tags: Bootable USB drive, Linux, Opne Source, Rescue disk, System restore, UNebootin

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PHP-GTK is an extension for the PHP programming language that implements language bindings for GTK+. It provides an object-oriented interface to GTK+ classes and functions and greatly simplifies writing client-side cross-platform GUI applications.

PHP-GTK is one of those great resources that for some unclear reason hasn’t become mainstream. One would think that  standalone applications created with the power of PHP would be a big hit, and I do hope it still happens.  Earlier this year there were some rumours about the death of PHP-GTK, the developers were quick in responding with this:

“Rumours of PHP-GTK’s death have been greatly exaggerated! The project is very much still alive, but we’re waiting for PHP 5.3 to come out, and also some work needs to be done on the Cairo extension before a new release can be made. This should be completed soon. This release will come with support for GTK+ 2.14 and 2.16, Cairo, and PHP 5.3. 

The next release will also include official installers for Windows and Mac OSX, and an installer script (thank you bob) for Linux.” – extracted

Have a look at PGP-GTK Community for some examples of applications created with PHP-GTK.

Technorati Tags: Application, Development, Open Source, PHP-GTK

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Now you can have a list of your favourite Firefox Add-ons to share. I have always tried to keep a list in my bookmarks of the Add-ons I find most useful and normally recommend to people, now life has become much easier.

Discover more of the best add-ons and organize your favourites in easy-to-manage collections. Subscribe to see how the collections you admire grow, and fans follow when you manage and update your own collections with Mozilla Firefox Add-on Collector.

You can have a look at my small collection at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/itechlog

Technorati Tags: add-on, browser, Firefox colletctor, fireftp, Mozilla, twitterfox, web developer

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Dimdim.com allows anyone to experience live web meetings using just a browser. It has a very intuitive web conference – lets anyone deliver synchronized live presentations, whiteboards and webpages while sharing their voice and video over the Internet – with no download required. Based on an open source platform it is used in over 185 countries around the world by more than 1 million people.

Dimdim offers various levels of service: Enterprise, Professional and free hosted services. It also has an Open-source Community Edition, which can be downloaded and hosted by the user.

Dimdim’s services can also be integrated with some other open source services like the market leader in open source CRM SugarCRM and e-learning systems like Claroline, Moodle and Docebo. If you don’t use any of these systems you can tap into Dimdim’s API and develop your own integration.

Technorati Tags: Claroline, conference, Dimdim, Docebo, Moodle, remote access, sugarCRM, web conference, webex

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CRE Loaded was giving me the error  1062 – Duplicate entry ’2147483647′ for key 1 – when trying to add a new product.

Cause: for some unexplained reason the auto_increment ID field on Table “products” has gone up to 2147483647 which is apparently the maximum number of rows permitted in an INT column.

Fix:

1. Go to your phpMyadmin interface
2. Backup your database (make sure you know how to restore it if needed)
3. Browse the products table (select to sort the fields by Descending order)
4. The top item should now have the ID = 2147483647
5. Change the ID to a number up from the previous item (e.g.: Previous was ID = 301, than change the ID = 2147483647 to 302)
6. Repeat same process with table “product_to_categories”
7. Return to table “products”
8. Select the SQL tab
9. run the following SQL Query :  ALTER TABLE products AUTO_INCREMENT=303   (note that 303 is the next number up from the example on step 5, you should use the next number up in your situation)

It worked perfectly for me, hope this helps.

Technorati Tags: 1062 - Duplicate entry '2147483647' for key 1, CRE Loaded, Database, MySQL, PHPMySQL

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Google has announced it will launch an Operating System in 2010, the Google Chrome OS.  On its official blog Google said that it will target primarily Netbooks and that the OS will be Open Source. They also stated…

” Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. “

Read it in full at Google’s official blog…

Technorati Tags: Google Chrome OS, Netbooks, Open Source, Operating System

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Switchvox is Digium’s family of Voice Over IP Phone systems for small and medium businesses. Switchvox systems are designed to be easy to use, full of helpful features and cost less than a traditional PBX. It’s based on the world’s leading open source PBX, telephony engine, and telephony applications toolkit Asterisk.

Technorati Tags: Asterisk, Difium, IP PBX, Open Source, SwitchVox, VoIP

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Bringing Firefox‘s features, security, performance and ease-of-use to mobile phones.  Fennec is yet in it’s Beta 1 version, it has been built on the same technology as the world famous Mozilla Firefox and has many of the same features.

• Tabbed browsing
• One-click bookmarking
• Super easy navigation
• Add-on ons (Firefox style)
• touch-enabled interfaced optimized for the small screen

The interface is very intuitive, download the emulated version to run on your PC and check out this great browser.

Watch the video overview:

Fennec Beta 1 walkthrough from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: browser, Fennec, Firefox, Mobile, Mozilla, Open Source

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GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package and it works on Linux, Windows, Mac, OpenSolaris and FreeBSD. It is also available in many languages. The official GIMP Project website has a very good set of tutorials divided into the following levels:  Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, Photo Editing, Web and Script Authoring.

If you prefer to take your reading away from the screen here are some book that can teach you a lot about this great image manipulation program.

Technorati Tags: Books, GIMP, GNU, OpenSource, Tutorials

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Sun and Oracle today announced a definitive agreement for Oracle to acquire Sun for $9.50 per share in cash. The Sun Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close this summer. This news comes as a shock after IBM recently failed to reach an agreement with Sun Microsystems.

What’s the future of MySQL now that the world’s largest commercial proprietary database vendor will soon be owning the world’s largest open source database project?

With the acquisition due to take place this summer, Oracle will own not just MySQL but also the Java Platform, Open Office, VirtualBox, Open Solaris … what will happen with these applications, specially OpenOffice?

Related blogs: ZDNet and Linux Magazine

Technorati Tags: IBM, Java, MySQL, OpenOffice, Oracle, Sun

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The Lilac Platform is a collection of tools to enhance existing open
source monitoring applications. Currently the focus is on the Lilac
Configurator, a configuration tool written to configure Nagios, a
popular Network monitoring application.

After installing it on an OpenSuse 11.0 I got the following error.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function print_window_header() in /srv/www/htdocs/html/lilac/index.php on line 32

The answer can be found on this forum http://www.lilacplatform.com/discussion/2/5/37#37

Apparently the subversion has been fixed, but if you download it directly from the site it still has the same problem as above. To get it to work you can change the  the following line in your php.ini

“short_open_tag = On“   (the default is off)

“short_open_tags… Tells whether the short form (<? ?>
)
of PHP’s open tag should be allowed. If you want to use PHP in
combination with XML, you can disable this option in order to
use <?xml ?>
inline. Otherwise, you
can print it with PHP, for example: <?php echo '<?xml
version="1.0"'; ?>
. Also if disabled, you must use the
long form of the PHP open tag (<?php ?>
).

This directive also affects the shorthand <?=
,
which is identical to <? echo
. Use of this
shortcut requires short_open_tag

to be on.
” – extracted from php.net

Technorati Tags: error print_window_header(), Lilac Platform, Nagios, PHP short_open_tag

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