I needed to add to a wordpress based website Google maps location pictures with Google Maps Zoom In / Out controls.
I've seen plenty of plugins available that said to to this but none of them really worked fine for me. Either the plugins I checked in wordperss.org was too complex to set up and required a Google API registration or was marked as Broken (not working).
Finally to add the geographic locations taken from maps.google.com I used the embed code generated directly from maps.google.com.
But that was not the end of my WordPress Google Maps struggles. What followed was rather ridiculous, it seems since some time Google removed the pinning of a location searched for. Moreover the easy old way to simply pin a location on the map is also, gone.
Hence here is what I had to do to pinpoint location on the Google map of my searched country destination:
1. To be able to pinpoint the location, I had to login to my gmail 2. Go to http://maps.google.com in browser 3. Press on My Places button 4. Click on Create map and fill in the Title and Description dialogs 5. The Privacy and Sharing radio button should be selected 6. Click on Done and Save buttons 7. From the left top corner inside the Google map image to select the baloon picture (Add a Placemark) 8. Choose the exact desired placemark type and color from the next appearing dialog 9. Choose the location I want to pin on the map
I've created also a small Video tutorial just for fun for all those who want to see the pin a location with a baloon 😉 on the google map tutorial, here is the video as well:
For all people who can't properly see the .mov video here is link to the video created with recordmydesktop on my Linux showing how the baloon pinning inside a map can be done.
If you happen to have installed Joomla based website and setup a contact form and everything worked fine until recently but suddenly your server starts mysteriously acting as a spam relay – even though email server is perfectly secured against spam. You probably have some issue with a website email contact form hacked or some vulnerability which allowed hackers to upload spammer php script.
I have a website based on Joomla and just until recently everything was okay until I noticed there are tons of spam flying out from my Qmail mail server (which is configured to check spam with Spamassassin has Bayesian Filtering, Distributed Checksum Claring House, Python Razor and plenty of custom anti-spam rules.
It was just yesterday I ended into that situation, then after evaluating all the hosted website, I've realized Spam issues are caused by an Old Joomla Website Contact form!
There were two issues in the form
in the contact form you have the field with a tick:
1. Well Known Joomla Form Vulnerability Currently all Joomla (including 1.5.22 and 1.6 versions) are vulnerable to a serious spam relay problem as described in theofficial Joomla site.
There is a quick dirty workaround fix to contact form vulnerability – disable a Joomla Comonent in ../joomla/components/com_mailto/
To disable it I had to:
cd /var/www/joomla/components mvcom_mailto com_mailtoNOT_USED
Above solution was described under a post resolve joomla spam relay earlier by Anatoliy Dimitrov (after checking closely the website it happened he is a colleague at HP 🙂 )
2. Second issue causing high amount of spam sent over the emailserver was: "E-mail a copy of this message to your own address." contact form tick, which was practically enabling any Spammer with a list to inect emails and spam via the form sending copies to any email out on the internet!
You would definitely want to disable "E-mail a copy of this message to your own address." I wonder why ever any Joomla developer came up with this "spam form"??
Here is the solution to this:
1.Login to Joomla Admin with admin account 2. GotoComponents -> Contacts -> Contacts 3. Click on the relevant Contact form 4. Under Contact Parameters go to Email Parameters 5. Change field E-mail Copy from Show to Hide and click Apply button
And Hooray the E-mail a copy of this message to your own address will be gone from contact form! 🙂
I've seen already plenty of problematic hacked servers and scripts before with Joomla in my last job in International University College – where joomla was heavy used, but I never experienced Joomla Security issues myself 'till know, in future I'm planning to never ever use joomla. Though it is an easy CMS system to setup a website its quite complicated to learn the menus – I remember when creating the problematic website it took me days until I properly setup all the menus and find all joomla components … besides these there is no easy way to migrate between different versions major releases in Joomla like in Wordperss, I guess this Mail Security Issue absolutely convinced me to quit using that piece of crap in future.
In mean Time another very serious Apache security flaw leaked on the Internet just few days ago – The OpenSSL Hearbleed Bug. Thanksfully I'm not running SSL anywhere on my website but many systems are affecting making most of your SSL communication with your Internet banking, E-mail etc. in danger. If you're running Apache with SSL make sure you test it for this vulnerability. Here is description of Heartbleed SSL Critical Vulnerability.
"The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).
The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users."
So far so good this Joomla solved security but just recently I was asked to add a new article the Joomla News section – (the news section is configure to serve as a mini site blog as there are only few articles added every few months). For my surprise all of a sudden the new joomla article text started displaying text and pictures partially. The weirdly looking newly added news looked very much like some kind of template or css problem. I tried debugging the html code but unfortunately my knowledge in CSS is not so much, so as a next step I tried to temper some settings from Joomla Administrator in hope that this would resolve the text which was appearing from article used to be cut even though the text I’ve placed in artcle seemed correctly formatted. I finally pissed off trying to solve the news section layout problem so looked online too see if anyone else didn’t stick out to same error and I stumbled on Joomla’s forum explaining the Category Blog Layout Problem
The solution to the Joomla incomplete text showing in article is – To go to Joomla administrator menus:
1.Menus -> Main Menu -> (Click on Menu Item(s) – Edit Menu Item(s)) button 2.Click on News (section) In Parameters section(on the botton right) of screen you will see #Leading set to some low number for example it will be something like 8 or 9. The whole issue in my case was that I was trying to add more than 8 articles and I had a Leading set to 8 and in order to add more articles and keep proper leading I had to raise it to more. To prevent recent leading errors, I’ve raised the Leading to 100 like shown in below screenshot
After raising to some high number click Apply and you’re done your problem is solved 🙂 For those curious what the above settings from screenshot mean:
# Leading Articles -> This refers to the number of articles that are to be shown to the full width # Intro Articles -> This refers to the number of articles that are not to be shown to full width # Columns -> This refers to the number of columns in which the articles will be shown that are identified as #Intro. If #Intro is zero this setting has no effect # Links -> Number of articles that are to be shown as links. The number of articles should exceed #leading + #Intro
N.B. Solving this issue took me quite a long time and it caused me a lot of attempts to resolve it. I tried creating the article from scratch, making copy from an old article etc. I even messed few of the news articles one time so badly that I had to recreate them from scratch, before doing any changes to obsolete joomlas always make database and file content backup otherwise you will end up like me in situation loosing 10 hours of your time ..
The bitter experiences once again with Joomla convinced me when I have time I have to migrate this Joomla CMS to WordPress. My so far experience with Joomla prooved to me just for one time the time and nerves spend to learn joomla and built a multi-lingual website with it as well as to administer it with joomla obscure and hard to cryptic interfaces and multiple security issues., makes this CMS completely unworthy to study or use, its hardness to upgrade from release to release, besides its much slow and its less plugins if compared to WordPress makes wordpress much better (and easier to build use platform than Joomla). So if you happen to be in doubt where to use Joomla or a WordPress to build a new company / community website or a blog my humbe advise is – choose WordPress!
Locking the PC while going for a coffee break, Lunch or toilet is longly used to secure physically your PC display from spying eyes or prevent you from someone to install a spying software or leak private data from PC HDD to an USB drive. People who are coming from the wonderful MS Windows OS are certainly used to quick shortcut key combination to lock PC screen with:
Windows key + L
So how to do Lock Screen on Linux?
On Linux locking your Screen the Quick Shortcut is:
CTRL + ALT + L.
Locking the screen is done (depending on the Linux distribution) by using by either using historically famous XScreenSaver if non-gnome / KDE graphical environemnt is used or if in Linux Gnome GUI with gnome-screensaver and on KDE desktop manager with kscreenlocker.
Exact command executed on CTRL + ALT + L keypress on GNOME is:
gnome-screensaver-command -l
On KDE to manually lock screen command is:
kscreenlocker
Nomatter whether with GNOME or KDE its worthy mention that xscreensaver is more Screensaver rich than kscreenlocker and gnome-screensaver as it includes about 200 different Screensavers making screen nice to watch when you come back from a lunch.
For people with Windows key keyboard who are too used to using Windows XP / 7 lockreen WIN + L key shortcut to make Windows (key) + L keys combination work on Linux with GNOME desktop:
System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts
Make Win + L keys combination work on Linux with KDE desktop
"System Settings" (KDE menu).
Choose "Keyboard & mouse" (on "General" tab).
Choose "Global Keyboard Shortcuts" on the left.
Choose "Run Command Interface" from "KDE component" dropdown list.
Choose "Lock session".
Select "Custom".
Click on "None" (button changes to "Input…").
Compose your desired sequence by pressing appropriate buttons on your keyboard.
Click "Apply".
For other desktop environments like Window Maker you can use xmodmap command to bind Win + L keys
I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird over the last 5 years in my life. Just now in my new job place in Hewlett Packard, in order to have well functional mail (with exchange server) – I started using Microsoft Outlook. Logically a little while after I started my work I have to update my Outlook E-mail signature to reflect my contact details (job position title, email, stand-alone / mobile phone, office address etc.). As of moment of writting I'm using Microsoft Outlook 14.0.6123.5001 (32 bit) part of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
Its a kind of irony that I had to use Microsoft products after all these years trying my best to avoid using Microsoft technologies but heh, this is life … Though this article will be a bit trivial I decided to blog it because already I had to change email signature for a 3rd time over the last 3 months and every now and then after a month time I tend to forget how I did it last time.
Here is how I changed Email Signature in Outlook:
1. Click on "New-Email" (located below File menu)
2. Click on "Insert" (menu tab)
3. Click on "Signature"
4. Click on "New" button
As you see Outlook is written in very intelligent manner 🙂 It is possible to have more than one signature and change them every now and then (I guess that's made for Schizophrenic people who like changing their signature a couple of times a day accepting different personalities 🙂 🙂 🙂 For already existing signatures just edit the old one – click on Edit Signature
http://www.clarion.edu/273437/
Rename Signatures:
Perform steps 1-4 in ('Create Signatures') except click "Rename button instead of 'New' and begin typing new name.
Delete Signatures:
Perform steps 1-4 in ('Create Signatures') except click 'Delete" button instead of 'New'.
Modify Signatures:
Highlight signature name you wish to modify under
"Select Signature to Edit" then modify signature.
Click "Save" button to save any signature changes made.
I had to convert Adobe PDF file to Microsoft Word ( .doc) file on Microsoft Windows OS for a friend. There is plenty of software available to convert PDF to DOC on Windows, as well as few web-site services claiming to convert correcly PDF to DOC. Converting PDF to DOC is easy and can be done with Open Office, however the reverse process is a real pain in the ass. I tried a dozen of free web serviecs to convert an ancient Latin writting PDF to DOC but none of them couldn’t properly convert it. Failing with the web services as a tool to convert, I’ve turned to seeking a tool that will do the trick. After trying few PDF to DOC converters which failed to produce a properly structed edittable DOC from the PDF file, I’ve come across ABBYY PDF Transformer 2.0. Abbyy PDF Transformer finally did it …
I’ve tried hard to look for a free software good PDF to DOC converter alternative for Windows but it seems as of time of writing this post there is no GPLed free software that does properly convert PDFs to MS WORD DOC ….
Using Abbyy PDF Transformer 2.0 is a piece of cake all I had to do is select the PDF file (pressing Open PDF) and then click on Convert (in right bottom corner). Below is a shot of Abby PDF transformer in action.
Accidently I've removed the Gnome Volume Control while trying to remove an applet nearby from the GNOME main menu panel. Unfortunately in GNOME 2, I couldn't find a way to to return back (restore) Gnome Volume Control to the main panel. After a bit of pondering, I've managed to find a way.
Here is how I managed to restore it back:
1. Navigate to:
System > Preference > Startup Applications
2. Click on Add, then add and type the following:
Name: Volume control
Command: gnome-volume-control-applet
Comment: Launch volume control applet
Adding the gnome-volume-control-applet will launch it every time a new gnome session (with the same user) is initiated. On next gnome login you will see the icon to appear again in the notification area. Cheers 😉
Point in your browser to http://yoursite.com/joomla/administrator/ or to url wherever your admin panel is located
2. Go to Menu Manager
Menus -> Menu Manager 3. Click the new button located on the right top side of the joomla admin panel
Next the Select Menu Item Type dialog will appear:
There you will need to select the External Link option
Now fill in your desired url that you desire your Menu link to point to and choose among the few possible options on how do you want the new external website to appear after clicked on the menus link. And that's it now you will have it. Easy 🙂
To change the Main Menu link menu entry in Joomla, from Joomla administ rator I tried to:
Menus -> Main Menu -> Menus
I’ve changed the title but the change didn’t appeared in my Joomla based website .
I tried to change it directly in the source code of the website by looking for ‘Main Menu’ string with:
debian:/home/mysite/www# grep -rli 'Main Menu' *
but it appeared too complicated and after trying few string changes in few files I decided to drop this kind of approach.
A bit of investigation online led me to how to achieve what I was trying to dire ctly from Joomla.
Here is how. In Joomla administrator move to:
Extensions -> Module Manager
In the list you will the Module Manager appear under the list Module Name , therein you have to click over Main Menu text and change it to whatever you like to.
The new text you entered will appear on the joomla website immediately, enjoy.
2. Install the Google Analytics Tracking Module; Login as joomla admin and navigate to;
Extensions -> Install
Place the analytics_tracking15.zip url to the Install URL: field. Again as of time of writting you need to place https://www.pc-freak.net/files/analytics_tracking15.zip;
3. Open the Module Manager
Extensions -> Module Manager
4. Click over Google Analytics Tracking Module On the right pane you will notice in the Module Parameters the Analytics_uacct_code field. In the uacct_code field you need to paste your UA obtained from your created google-analytics account. This code is usually something like UA-2101595-10 Now place your code their and press the save green button located near the right top of the screen. You should see the text in blue Item Saved which would indicate your UA code is stored already in the Google Analytics Tracking Module, now press the Cancel button located again on the right top. As a last step before the Google analytics is set-up on the Joomla you need to enable the plugin to do you need to press over the tick left sided from the text reading Google Analytics Tracking Module in theModule Manager 5. Click over the Enabled button in Module Manager; Google Analytics Tracking Module -> Enabled
Cheers! Now, your Joomla website visitors count will start logging to Google Analytics.
How to restore accidently removed Gnome volume control in GNOME in GNU / Linux
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012Accidently I've removed the Gnome Volume Control while trying to remove an applet nearby from the GNOME main menu panel. Unfortunately in GNOME 2, I couldn't find a way to to return back (restore) Gnome Volume Control to the main panel. After a bit of pondering, I've managed to find a way.
Here is how I managed to restore it back:
1. Navigate to:
System > Preference > Startup Applications
2. Click on Add, then add and type the following:Name: Volume control
Command: gnome-volume-control-applet
Comment: Launch volume control applet
Adding the gnome-volume-control-applet will launch it every time a new gnome session (with the same user) is initiated. On next gnome login you will see the icon to appear again in the notification area. Cheers 😉
Tags: applet, area, Auto, Cheers, Click, command, Comment, control, Draft, Gnome, gnu linux, icon, launch, Linux, login, menu, menu panel, Navigate, notification, notification area, panel, preference, startup, startup applications, system, time, type, volume control, way
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