Based on their official website memcached is defined as:

Free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

Memcached is simple yet powerful. Its simple design promotes quick deployment, ease of development, and solves many problems facing large data caches. Its API is available for most popular languages.

— memcached.org

MemCached Server

This is how I installed(a simple installation) my memcached server that can be accessed by a webserver on our local area network. The server is running Ubuntu as its operating system. Caution: The version on ubuntu’s repository could not be the latest version. Refer to memcached’s website for the latest version. If you want to install the latest version from the source you can refer to memcached’s wiki page

Open synaptic package manager and install memcached and php5-memcached. After the installation restart the webserver using the command:

Start memcached by using the command:

By default memcached is running on port 11211 and is accessible by the machine with IP 127.0.0.1 which is the machine’s local IP address with 64MB memory allocation

To try if memcached is working use this simple PHP code

< ?php
$m = new Memcached();
$m->addServer('localhost', 11211);

$m->set('int', 99);
$m->set('string', 'a simple string');
$m->set('array', array(11, 12));
$m->set('object', new stdclass, time() + 300);

var_dump($m->get('int'));
var_dump($m->get('string'));
var_dump($m->get('array'));
var_dump($m->get('object'));
?>

Open the script on the browser. Try opening the cli and telnet to memcached using the command:

The image below shows how the cli would look like after the command

Check memcached’s status by using the command

We can get a cached value using the command:

It should return “a simple string” as assigned on the script.

To explore more, commands can be seen on this page http://lzone.de/articles/memcached.htm

To allow another machine (local web server) to store data on the memcached server we need to edit the configuration file using the command:

In my case I changed the allotted memory to 256MB and allowed IP of 191.168.1.254 which is our windows webserver as seen on the image below:

After the configuration I restarted memcached using the command:

The Webserver (XAMPP)

To quickly test the memcached server I used xampp portable version which can be downloaded on their official website www.apachefriends.org.

As stated earlier the webserver is already allowed to use the memcached server. As an information memcached is a daemon which runs like the mysql server, so we need PHP to connect to the memcached server.

1. To start, download memcached on code.jellycan.com/memcached which is win32 binary.
2. After downloading extract the file (recommended: C:\memcached). You should have the file memcached.exe
3. We can install memcached as a service on the command line using the command:
   C:\memcached\memcached.exe -d install
4. Start memcached using the command:
   C:\memcached\memcached.exe -d start
5. After running memcached we need to tie it with PHP using the php_memcached.dll. You should have this file on your PHP’s ext folder, if not download the file at these links http://downloads.php.net/pierre/, http://www.pureformsolutions.com/pureform.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/php_memcache.dll or on our server: php_memcached.dll.rar
6. enable the use of php_memcached.dll by editing your php.ini and uncomment the line extension=php_memcache.dll if it does not exist add this line. After editing the file restart the webserver.

You can access the data on the memcached server by using the code below:

< ?php
        $memcache = new Memcache();
        if(!$memcache->connect('191.168.1.7', 11211))
                die("Couldn't connect to memcached!");

        $key="string";

        $result = $memcache->get($key);

        if($result)
        {
                echo "$key is $result";
        }
        else
        {
            echo 'There is no data saved named '. $key;
        }
?>

You should have an output of “a simple string”. I hope this helped you set up the server. Happy coding!

Sources:

http://pureform.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/installing-memcache-on-windows-for-php/

http://memcached.org

http://blogs.oracle.com/oswald/entry/cache_cache_cache_part_1

In the previous days I have noticed that my charger only charges when I keep on moving the charger until today that it no longer works. It no longer charges the battery of my laptop though the LED light is emitting. This is also a common problem for laptop users, I have helped 4 of my friends and solved them all. If you have a problem with your laptop charger and have no budget in buying a new one I believe this post will help you.

As seen on the image above, the encircled part  is the point where most problems occur in a laptop charger.  This is caused when the wire is gradually pulled away from the laptop adapter box.  To start follow the steps below:

WARNING: This can cause electric shock if you don’t follow electronic safety tips.  Before you start I recommend reading some safety tips

1.  Gather the materials needed (ground strap, cutter knife, wire peeler, multi tester, scissor, loctite or similar and electrical tape)

2.  Wear the ground strap before starting to avoid any devices inside the laptop adapter box.

3.  Use the cutter knife and carefully trace open path found on the side of the charger until the cover separates.  (Most chargers are not screwed but rather permanently glued)

4.   When the cover is opened carefully cut the wires as seen on the image below and put aside the circuit.

5.  After cutting the wires use the multi-tester to check continuity on the inside and outside wires.  Cut the wire until there is continuity.

6.  After testing for continuity get the tip of the wire.  Remove the trailing wire and clean the hole where the wires are inserted as seen on the image below.

7.  Insert the newly cut wires both the shielded and unshielded stranded wires(must have continuity) and connect both wires

a is the unshielded wire and b is the shielded wire colored white.  Wires must not be interchanged because this can cause a damage on you laptop.

8.  Carefully connect the wire by twisting both ends.  Cover the connection with an electrical tape, using other tapes might melt because of the heat.  Below is how I taped the connection:

9.  Cover the “metal cover” of the the circuit with an electric tape to avoid any short circuits.  The unshielded wire might touch the conductor and can cause short circuit.

10.  Carefully insert the connected wires inside the metal cover and make sure the LED indicator is not covered.   Cover the circuit with the plastic adapter box as seen below:

My repaired laptop charger is now fully functional and I hope this will be working for 4 more years or more.  Hope this DIY helped you with your laptop charger problem

Gpick is an advanced color picker written in C++ using GTK+ toolkit. This application is an alternative for window’s colorpic. One feature I like about this application is the same feature I found on window’s colorpic which shows a magnifier of the area where you want to capture the color.

These are some of the tools and commands I use to clean up my ubuntu powered laptop.

Cleaning Downloaded and Uninstalled Packages and Dependencies

As what I have observed in using ubuntu, most packages are not ready after installation though most of the applications can be downloaded freely from the internet. Just like windows os we need to download packages from trusted sources, and for ubuntu we have the synaptic package manager which helps us which applications are available for our use.

debfoster. After installing a lot of packages it would be difficult for us to track which packages we installed. This application will help us track on the applications we installed on our machine. Before installing any applications you need to install this application first. debfoster can be downloaded on the synaptic package manager for free or we can use the following commands to install it via cli:

debfoster

After the installation, we need to create the initial keeper file:

After creating the keeper file we need to force the system to conform to the keeper file

After that debfoster will keep track of your installed applications. If you want an application to be not included on any uninstallation you can edit the keeper file:

If you needed to check which packages and dependencies that needs to be removed you can use:

gtkorphan. This application is used to remove orphaned packages. Orphan packages are packages that is no longer being maintained by a developer. Keeping orphaned packages can be a pain in the head especially when there are less support. To remove the packages we can install this application using:

The application is very easy to use because it has a GUI as seen on the image below:

After installing you can navigate to System-> Administration-> Removed Orphaned package. It will show you the orphaned packages, you can check the box for the packages you want to remove.

After installing and uninstalling packages there could be a lot of dependencies and packages that is no longer in use. You can use the following commands to remove unused files.

To remove any partial packages use the command:

To clean apt cache use the command:

To remove unused dependencies:

If you are not using the application, it’s better to uninstall it. To uninstall you can always use the synaptic package manager to completely remove unwanted packages. If not you can use the following commands:

where application-name is the application you want to remove. If not you can use this command:

but it is not always recommended to use this command in uninstalling any packages.

I dual booted both Windows 7 and Backtrack 5 on my Laptop and a problem starts when I used thunderbird on Backtrack Linux because all my mails are on my windows OS. Based on what I know, Thunderbird creates a profile during my first run of thunderbird on windows. Everything is stored in that folder (accounts, mails, extensions, etc.). In linux, I know that thunderbird does the same thing. What I wanted to do was to use only one profile for both OS so that I won’t consume more disk space just by copying all mails on windows to linux.

If you are caught in the same situation, here is what I did to solve the problem.

1. After installing thunderbird on Backtrack open it but don’t add your email accounts, this is done to create the needed files and folders where thunderbird store the data. Close thunderbird after opening it.
2. Locate your thunderbird profile folder on windows( /media/disk/Documents and Settings/icpep/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/1yfn577a.default ).
3. Locate your profile folder on linux ( /root/.mozilla-thunderbird/ )
4. Create a symbolic link of your windows profile page to your linux profile page, the command is:
   ln -s “/media/disk/Documents and Settings/icpep/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/1yfn577a.default”   ”/root/.mozilla-thunderbird/”

   Do not forget the double quotes

5. After creating the symbolic link, open the   profiles.ini  file
   and edit the line path to the created symbolic link.

Example of the line is shown below:

Path=1yfn577a.default

After changing the path you can now open thunderbird and should see everything like that of windows thunderbird.

I installed Apache, MySQL and PHP on windows 7.  I tried to install drupal version 7.9 and went through an error as shown in the image below:

The error “Your web server does not appear to support any common PDO database extensions.” can be fixed by following these steps:

1. Open your php.ini file
2. Around line 966 uncomment the line “extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll”
3. Make sure you have php_pdo_mysql.dll on your ext folder or download it here php_pdo_mysql
4. Restart Apache and you can continue with the installation of drupal

I have been using netbeans PHP as my IDE in developing websites and web applications for my clients. Netbeans is now in version 7.01 and one of the latest feature added is the line wrap feature. If you have problems on how to enable line wrapping, this post is for you. This post is another howto in enabling line wrap in your Netbeans IDE.

To start, you need to open your netbeans IDE version 7.01, go to editor tab >> tools >> options >> formatting tab and you can see the line wrap option. Just change it to anywhere if you want to enable it anywhere. You can check the image above for reference. Hope this helps! Happy coding!

I am a great fan and a user of mozilla thunderbird. I have used different mail clients like microsoft outlook, opera mail, zimbra mail client, etc. I tested them all for 2 weeks or more and ended up with thunderbird. One think I like about thunderbird is that you can add new features to it for free through their add-ons. Aside from the add-ons mozilla is active and updates are always there for free.

Part of my work is to provide support to our clients world wide through email or chat. Currently I have 5 emails, 3 gmail accounts are used for work and 2 gmail accounts are for my personal use. I consolidate them all in a mail client which is thunderbird. It’s not an easy thing to do when you are using the browser because its quite confusing when you want to switch from one browser to the other or switch to different accounts when you use Gmail. But with thunderbird, it gives me a lot of help and I can save a lot of time with it. The top 4 add-ons I use to speed up things are:

• AdBlock Plus – Helps me block those ads I don’t want to see and I never want to see.
• Lightning – Helps me organize stuff through a calendar.
• MinimizeToTray Revive – It stays on the tray and prompts an alert when a new email arrives.
• Quicktext – Allows me to create email templates and allows me to add shortcut to it like alt+1, alt+2, alt+3, …

Those are some of the add-ons I use for my thunderbird mail client. I hope it will help you speed up things.

Facebook has the largest population on the world wide web and it has a viral effect on distributing data. They have a lot of ways to pass data from one user to the other and one is by tagging pictures. When facebook started this feature it was so hard to tag friends because you need to tag them one by one and its a time consuming way of letting your friends know that they exist in a picture and now they have this face recognition feature that automatically detects a face when you upload an image. Though its not that accurate but it helps. Another way of doing this is by using an application that face.com developed. The application is called PhotoTagger, the application collects photos from an album and automatically detects faces and you can automatically tag all faces based on what their application has detected. It’s an amazing tool which I find it useful especially when you are trying to tag your friends on a large pile of photos. A screenshot of the application is found below and you can find the application by going to www.face.com and hit BIG go button and give it permission to start tagging your friends on an album.

When updating to the latest version of virtualbox which is version 4.0.10 errors will appear when try to startup your virtual machine. This happens when you want USB2.0 support for your virtual machine. To fix the error you need to download the VirtualBox 4.0.10 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack, the file has an extension of .vbox-extpack which is a VirtualBox extension package. The extension pack is usable to all platform, I used the extension on windows 7 ultimate version. The installation process is quite simple, just download the pack and double click it after the download, virtualbox manager will then guide you in the installation.