Ugh! Active Directory crap!
1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Right Click on your domain and choose "Find…"
3. On the advanced tab choose the field User > Proxy Addresses
4. Condition is "Starts with"
5. Value is "SMTP:the_beginning_of_the_email_address"
6. Click Add
7. Click Find Now
Too hard. Too abstract. Why do you hate us, Microsoft? Why can't we just search for it and find it by right clicking?
Thanks to Exchangepedia for inspiring this solution.
Right…I must have forgotten to install sendmail, because mail wasn't working for WordPress. First, to verify that sendmail wasn't working I ran this PHP script (thanks to phpeasystep.com)
<?
// send e-mail to ...
$to="me@localhost";
// Your subject
$subject="Test";
// From
$header="from: your name <your email>";
// Your message
$message="Hello rn";
$message.="This is testrn";
$message.="Test again ";
// send email
$sentmail = mail($to,$subject,$message,$header);
// if your email succesfully sent
if($sentmail){
echo "Email Has Been Sent .";
}
else {
echo "Cannot Send Email ";
}
?>
That confirmed it. And the fix was easy:
apt-get install sendmail
Doing this exposed a flaw in my hosts file and ZYXware.com had the answer
sudo gedit /etc/hosts
…
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 zyxware01.localdomain zyxware01
…
If you have a static IP you can replace 127.0.1.1 with your static IP.
…
So, now mail works from php and, more importantly, WordPress.
[EDIT]
Sheesh…Ubuntu is picky. Here's (almost) exactly what I have for the top half of my hosts file
127.0.0.1 myhostname localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 myhostname localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
127.0.1.1 myhostname
192.168.1.100 myhostname.mydomain.com
The spaces are actually tabs, I don't know if it matters.
I also don't know what is needed and what is not, but I mimicked this layout on a new server and it worked; the MTA blah-blah service no longer takes forever and sendmail works nice and quickly.
[/EDIT]
Ok, we have a Cisco Call Manager system for our IP phones and when we used them to make a conference call a weird thing would happen – someone at random would get dropped from the conference after about a minute.
Rebooting the server did not help but reseting the conference bridge did the trick.
Service -> Media Resource -> Conference Bridge -> Reset Selected
So, I needed to make a cron job that runs every hour. This is crazy simple; at least in Ubuntu! Ubuntu has folders in the /etc/ folder…
cron.daily
cron.hourly
cron.monthly
cron.weekly
It's pretty easy. As long as you don't need to control exactly when a process executes, just throw a script file in one of those folders and you're done (just don't forget to make your script executable). There is one more folder, cron.d, that acts as an extension to the system crontab and uses the crazy crontab job scheduling syntax, but I'm not using that. These periodic folders are way easier.
I should mention that I learned about the periodic cron folders from cogNiTioN, and about the cron.d from pantz.com. Thanks guys.
While messing around with a new membership database I ran into a wall. The script that gives me a web interface simply would not continue until I secured my connection properly. So, I found myself in need of a do-it-yourself certificate (since I wasn't willing to pay $500+ for a real certificate yet).
I found a great set of instructions on Paul Bramscher's Site:
Creating Certificate Authorities and self-signed SSL certificates
Setting up SSL Ubuntu and Apache 2
I read through them and, although I didn't understand all the steps fully, I was able to make it work.
Thanks Paul Bramscher!
In WordPress I have a free, third-party theme that is displaying my image captions in article excerpts for some reason. The captions show up as a sort of bracketed markup. I tracked down the part of code that prepares the article excerpts and ran this regular expression to strip out any square-bracketed text:
preg_replace("([.*])Us", "", $excerpt)
The 'Us' at the end makes the search Ungreedy (U) and ignores newlines (s).
By the way, I think preg_replace() is one of the worst function names I've come across in a public language/API; but maybe that's just me.
When trying to use a web access log analysis tool I found that it was incorrectly parsing logs for data from my site. (How do I know it was incorrectly parsing the data? Because it returned results saying that I'd received traffic at the site months before the site owner had even approached me about creating the site!) So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own log file containing just the log information about my site. Here's the command I used in Ubuntu:
grep -i 'mydomainbasename' /unzippedlogfiles/other_vhosts_access.* > mylog.log
Attacking mylog.log produced results that were much more in line with what I was expecting.
I realized there's not much about our pfSense on this blog and I guess the main reason is because they have been working very well for us. I have run across one issue twice now so I'd like to document it so I remember it in the future.
When changing the local network and reconfiguring the VPN to start working again, it is not enough to just change the settings under VPN -> IPSec ->Tunnels. I'm not sure what this is about but you must also go under Status -> IPSec -> SPD and remove the old network < and > otherwise the tunnel will not startup. You have to do this on both ends (the local and remote pfSense).
When you need to change the network that a talkswitch system is running on, first change the talkswitch unit. Then, you will need to go to each phone and change the TFTP Server setting (under Network Settings) to the new IP of the main talkswitch unit. Then reboot the phones to have them grab a new IP from the new network.
Sep
Ok, first of all, this is not meant to be a full blown iPad review. This is just a list of notes I made when I first got my iPad and tried it out. FYI – I have never had an iPod or iPhone although I have played with them a bit. I DO have an Android phone (HTC Hero w/ 2.1) which I use daily. So, as you might guess, my look at the iPad is skewed from the view of a person that knows and loves the Android OS. I do work with Mac’s at work so I am very familiar with Apple and OSX.- Plain, ugly, boring white box. Doesn’t grab my attention. Terrible white usb cord and power adapter. Similar to what they use on macs which get dirty fast and then look bad.
- Can’t do ANYTHING till you sync to iTunes. Not cool.
- Had to install iTunes (and Quicktime). Not clear which download to pick. One says "iTunes 9.2.1 for Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Other says "iTunes 9.2.1 for Windows (64-bit)". I have Win7 64 bit so both of these apply. Unclear which one. Should say "iTunes 9.2.1 for all 64bit versions of Windows". (does explain it below but should be no question).
- Had someone else’s files on my desktop when I first started up iTunes so iTunes pulled in those files as music. Deleted them on desktop and they didn't get removed from iTunes. Couldn't find anyway to re-sync library. Found out it made copies of those files into "Music" under my user. Deleted them there and still would not disappear from iTunes library. Finally deleted them from iTunes library inside iTunes but obviously didn't find them all because when I went to sync it had 20+ items that it said were in my library but not found on disk. No way to say "remove them from library". Not even sure where they are in library. iTunes asked if it should sync my pics. Looking at "library" and don't even see pics. Not sure what it is going to sync – unclear. I know none of this is really about the iPad but the fact that you have to use the terrible iTunes software to get things on the iPad is the point.
- Picked up the iPad – in my hand – this thing has a slippery back!? Keeps sliding out of my hand. Why is it not rubberized? Have to have a too tight grip on it. Hard to hold (especially one handed) because of this. Looks nice but not very comfortable.
- Turning it on – Apple logo at boot-up looks cracked. Like it’s broken. Strange.
- The default background has weird lines in sky – looks like scratches. Odd choice for a shiny new device. Many of the other backgrounds are grainy (not nice sharp pictures).
- I do like how snappy it is (wish my HTC Hero had a faster processor)
- It is called a 16 gig model but in the iPad it says the capacity is 14GB. Now I know why this is and that this is an industry problem with storage devices. BUT – this is not a storage device and should represent the capacity the same on the box as in the OS.
- iTunes requires a number in your password but the ipad keyboard shows no numbers without going to second page. (and you have to put your password in a lot)
- Calendar, contacts, notes, etc all are graphical and look like real life items. But you go into iPod and default view is “Songs” which is boring list of songs like a spreadsheet. “Albums” view is “ok” but it still wastes a lot of screen on word lists on the left.
- Opened Safari for first time and is blank page – no homepage? How boring/weird. Can’t fine options to set homepage and then remembered all settings are in “Settings” app (very weird) but look in there and can’t find option for homepage. Also noticed that not ALL apps have settings in Settings. Google Maps has options on weird turned-up page corner at lower right. Inconsistent way to find options for apps = very annoying.
- Clicked on “Legal Notices…” in Maps and opened a webpage in Safari which is fine – but NO BACK BUTTON to take me back to where I was when I clicked that link! Many times I’ve wanted to click the back button but there is none.
- In App store, “New and Noteworthy” section has 4 little dots just like on home screens of iPad. On iPad you “flip” between each screen (slide left and right) to change screens. On app store the same little indicators are there but you can’t slide it left and right – you have to use the arrows. Design from the same company should be consistent and have the same functionality.
- I like the Marketplace better than the Android’s. Easier to find what’s “good” right up front. Also, better selection at this time (however this is changing fast!)
- What!? – click on an app to install works fine BUT brings you out of app store to where it is putting it on home screen. Of course NO BACK BUTTON so now you have to find the home screen that has the app icon to go back to where you where. Should just start installing and leave you in app store to download more apps. Don’t they want you to download more apps?
- ”TOP GROSSING iPad APPS” – what kind of category name is that??? Lets just stick to top selling…
- Looking at an app for $5 and can’t seem to figure out if it is made for iPad or iPhone – all I can fine is “Compatible with iPad”. Yeah, ALL apps are compatible with ipad – doesn’t mean that it will fill the screen properly. Should be more clear.
- Keyboard always shows uppercase letters? Very strange. Why not show the correct case so you know what you’re going to type?
- iPad screen shape is weird so regular widescreen movies are very small (lots of wasted screen)
- Keyboard changes based on what it thinks you might need but it is often wrong. Example, in a login (username) box it gets rid of “.com” even though many of my login username is my email address.
- It is hard to highlight text. Also, you can't place cursor where you want it.
That’s it for now – I’m not sure I can take much more. It amazes me that the reality distortion field (Paul Thrrott talks about it a lot) is so strong that people are willing to overlook the little things that make a device great. The iPhone was an important device to make – it turned phone design up a notch and we have great choices now. I’m hoping the iPad does the same thing. I believe the tablet form factor will be important (as proved by Star Trek) but this is not selling me on it yet. I’ll be interested to play with a Windows version and an Android (or Chrome OS) version when they’re out. Currently, the Android OS is far superior in every way in my opinion. iOS has got a long way to go to catch up. But knowing Apple I’m pretty sure they’re not interested in that.