I have finally moved my blog after a certain disappointment with my previous hosting provider. Let’s see how things go now.
Moving my blog
Hi,
I’m moving my blog in a few days. I am disappointed with my web host with the security issues. Hope things are better at where I move. This means the site might be down for a few days. But it will be back.
cheers,
Dhruwat
Triple boot Haiku, Windows 7, Mac OS X on iMac
I set up the triple boot with these operating systems on my iMac last Sunday after trying this a few billion times over the previous week.
It took some research and alot of trial and error to figure it out, so I am sharing my experience so that maybe it can save you the troubles of figuring it out. The thing is that Windows and Haiku don’t understand GPT (at least not all that very well) and all the three operating systems don’t see eye to eye with each other regarding the partition usage and definitions.
The next four paragraphs are general theory about the issues you can run into. You can skip them if you want to go straight to the installation part.
Mac OS X is like an old by-the-book government employee. It would only recognise the partitions that declare themselves to contain the file systems that it understands, so a partition containing BFS is considered to be free space. You can get into trouble if you try to delete a BFS partition through Mac Disk Utility.
Windows 7 is the monster screaming All-your-partitions-are-belong-to-us on you and your other partitions. Its installer would overwrite the partition containing the Haiku installation with its boot files because it will be marked as NTFS if you create it from the Disk Utility or GParted.
Haiku is the new-kid-on-the-block who is bright but is too inexperienced to get things right. It cannot handle the GPT and its partitions are recognised as NTFS with Windows Installer, free space by Mac Disk Utility and will usually be deleted if you use the Refit’s disk utility to sync your GPT and MBR.
So the partition job should be done entirely by GParted the only sane voice that handles the GPT partitions better. And Window 7 needs to be installed before Haiku so that it doesn’t overwrite Haiku’s partition.
I have explained these steps below:
1. Install Refit and restart your computer two times for the Refit Boot menu to come up. We do NOT use boot camp for triple boot set up.
2. Boot from an Ubuntu livecd or the Gparted boot cd. I used Ubuntu livecd because Gparted could not figure out its boot configuration on the iMac.
3. Run Parted/Gparted to create an NTFS partition for your Windows Installer.
4. Use the rEFIt Partitioning Tool to sync the GPT and MBR tables otherwise your new partition may not show in your Windows Installer.
5. Use Windows installer to format this partition and install Windows into it.
6. Restart the computer after the installation and run Parted again.
7. Create another partition for Haiku.
8. Use the rEFIt Partitioning Tool to sync the GPT and MBR tables
9. Install Haiku into this new partition.
Your triple boot should now work fine.
cheers,
Dhruwat aka Unitedroad
Noida Linux User Group Second Meeting
The Noida Linux User Group will host it’s second meeting between 12 noon and 3 pm on 29th January at the third floor Barista at the Great India Place.
Hope to see you all there during the event.
For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188477917835011
cheers,
Dhruwat aka unitedroad
Automatic Profile Switcher – Version 0.2 alpha
This is my application that I have developed for Android. It’s nothing fancy, and doesn’t have a very cool or geeky functionality. It just serves my purpose – switching my phone to silent mode (and manage other audio settings) when I am in office. I know this has been done many times already, but I wanted to do this on the basis of the Wi FI Access Point available nearby.
My office has an access point I use to connect my official laptop to the office network when I need to carry a machine to the in house meetings. So I reasoned that being in vicinity of this access point means that my phone has to be in the silent mode. And so I developed this app.
Currently, its available here [[LINK OBSOLETE]] as an alpha version. I will put it up on Android Marketplace at the price of 1 dollar, but I am making the alpha available for free, because I know it currently is not in a state that I charge anything for it
cheers,
unitedroad aka Dhruwat
Got Owned by UAH-Crew
These people sure know how to leave their mark. I should have been careful with my password in the first place, it was too easy. Looking through what they did and then working my way to get my site back, I could figure out the steps they followed:
1. They guessed my password using brute force, or something more clever, like sql injection.
2. Then they proceeded to lock me out of my own site by changing my wordpress login, this step makes me feel they used sql injection.
3.They modified my existing wordpress theme to tell me and the visitors that they were here.
Till now, it seems they didn’t mean any serious harm to my site, but I will have to do some research to really be sure.
cheers,
unitedroad aka Dhruwat Bhagat
Noida Linux User Group
I have been lazy about it, no I have been like an old-trunk-not moved-since-ages about it, but now I am definitely going to get it rolling. Now I finally have atleast one person who thinks it’s a good thing. He’s someone I know from work, who has a real penchant technology and activism, unlike me who is super lazy.
I am also trying to get in touch with a few people on the the social networking sites, primarily outlook, and possibly the technology forums which people from this area would often visit.
Cheers,
unitedroad aka Dhruwat Bhagat
Edit: Noida Linux User Group now has a landing page at http://www.freeyoursource.org/noidalinuxusergroup and its community page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151278131564633.
New Android Application
I am currently working on a new android application. It’s about easing one process that we often have to deal with. I will add more info when I have taken this app further.
Cheers,
unitedroad aka Dhruwat Bhagat
Finally reached Chandigarh – Update – Reload All! and WordPress to MySpace
I posted this to test the WordPress to MySpace plugin.
And then I gave a start to my next modifications to firefox addon called ReloadAll!. So I kept this post as a reminder for me to finish them and planned to delete it after that is done.
But I changed my mind and I am keeping this post to update you that I have submitted the version 0.9.5 of ReloadAll! to Addons.Mozilla.org and it should hopefully be available for general availability after AMO review process.
Also, I have released version 0.2 of WordPress To Myspace, which now has an options page to enter the MySpace access token and secret. If you are upgrading from the previous version, copy the previous token and secret strings from the wpmyspaceupdatestatus.php file and save them somewhere, before you do the upgrade. Otherwise you will lose them and you will need to fetch them again.
For any suggestions, queries or issues with Reload All!, please leave a comment at this permalink , or mail me at unitedronaldo@yahoo.com.
For WordPress to MySpace, use this permalink , or mail me at the above email address.
WordPress to MySpace
I am currently working on another tiny plugin. This one is called WordPress to MySpace and it is meant for WordPress.
It allows you to update your Myspace status with the title of your latest WordPress blog post.
I would say its in an early alpha stage. Please try it out and give me your suggestions on how I can improve it.