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random techno-gab

Category Archives: How To

How I rip an online video and burn to audio cd for my car

I watch online videos that cover business and technical subjects. I don’t really need to watch the guy talk, so why not listen in the car instead?

I use Realplayer Free.

1.  Open the video in Google Chrome and start the video.

2. Click on the Realplayer “download this video” link.

3. Download several.

4. Open Realplayer library  

5. In this interface, you can choose “audio CD burner” and you can drag enough files to fill a CD or DVD. Realplayer will tell you how much room you have left.

6. Click “burn CD.” It will burn .cda files to the disk. They play on the computer and on the CD player in my Honda.

I rescued my WordPress site with a WAMP test server

What led to this:

In February of 2012, I had two wordpress sites, built with the techozoic theme, which were broken for a variety of reasons, including a backlevel of techozoic and an importbuddy done without first deleting the files.

What I decided to do about it:

I thought that a good remedy would be to set up a WAMP environment for the purposes of debugging, and so that in the future, I would have a test server (also known as a staging server.)

Because I want to ultimately have two websites in WAMP, I will run a single install of Apache, MYSQL and PHP and then I will set up two different instances of my wordpress install. This set of instructions covers mikemoran, and assumes that you will follow the same steps for biznology.

For more information:

See this website: http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/install-wordpress-on-your-computer-using-wampserver/

The specs:

(It’s important that the PHP versions be as close as possible to that of the live server, but especially the PHP version in WAMP should not be far behind that of the production server. The WordPress versions must match exactly. The Apache and Mysql should be as close as possible.)

  • WordPress 3.3.1 in both
  • PHP 5.2.17 in Production, PHP 5.3.9 in WAMP
  • Apache 2.2.21 in both
  • Mysql 5.1.56 in production, 5.5.20 in WAMP

Starting on Valentine’s Day, 2012, I set out on these steps to rebuild my mikemoran.com site in WAMP. These instructions developed and morphed over time. This post serves as documentation for myself of what I did. If it helps someone else, that’s great.

  1. Set up WAMP
    1. Note in advance that Secunia will probably flag elements of WAMPSERVER. It is not necessary to put the patches on unless you plan to use WAMP to support a live site.
    2. Download and install WAMPSERVER 2.2 in the default directory C:\wamp
    3. Point your browser at localhost http://localhost to see the default server configuration page. 
    4. Create a directory for the mikemoran website files c:\wamp\www\mikemoran
    5. Go to localhost to see that mikemoran is listed under “projects.” Then go to http://localhost/mikemoran
    6. Repeat the two steps above for biznolgy
  2. Install WordPress in each folder (repeat steps below for each website)
    1. Download the latest WordPress zip file, and extract it contents into the mikemoran subdirectory of www.  so that the wordpress files land in the mikemoran root.
    2. Visit http://localhost, then under Aliases,click on phpmyadmin to create a database. Use the same name as that on the production server.
    3. Visit http://localhost/mikemoran/wordpress to start the WordPress install. 
    4. When it says you have no config file, then click on the button that says “Create a configuration file.” You will be able to match it to the server later.
    5. When you get to the database screen, set the database name, set the MySQL username to root, and don’t set a password. Leave the other defaults. Click “submit.” Be careful about your database prefixes.
    6. Click “Run the install.” Put in the site title and the same wordpress usernames and password as that on the production server.
    7. Click “install wordpress”
    8. Go back to phpMyAdmin to check for the presence of your database tables
    9. Set PHP Config settings to be exactly what you have on the live production site (in php.ini). If you can’t see the contents of the php.ini file directly on the server, then you can run this php file:
      <?php&nbsp;phpinfo();&nbsp;?>

      Then navigate to that file in your web browser, and you will see the needed information. The instructions I found said that the most important thing is to make sure that safe_mode is set, and magic_quotes_gpc is set. I found them to be set to off on my live server, so I left them off in my WAMP installation. To compare it to the WAMP php, click on the WAMP icon, click on “localhost” and then click “phpinfo” which is under the Tools category.
    10. If you see from the php.ini file that you have a different PHP version on the live server than you do on WAMP, then change your wampserver PHP to match the one on the server, but at worst, it really ought to be at least PHP 5 on the server!  I left wampserver at 5.3.1.0, while my live site is 5.2.1.7 (for both site).
    11. To get pretty URL’s, enable mod_rewrite: click on the WampServer icon in the taskbar, mouse over Apache and then Apache modules. Find rewrite_module in the list and click it. You will need to then click Restart all services to start using mod_rewrite.
    12. Create a MySQL user with the same details as our live server’s WordPress MySQL user. To do this, browse to http://localhost/phpmyadmin again and click on your WordPress database to select it (you only have one database so this should be easy).Next, click on the Privileges tab at the top of the screen, and then click Add a new User. Give the new user the same name and password as your live MySQL user. Use localhost.   Click the Check All option at the bottom, which grants my new MySQL user all privileges. Click “go.”
    13. Configure the wordpress install: We will edit the WordPress config file (wp-config.php) to match the new database details.Configuring the WordPress Install to Match the Live ServerNow we have a local website that has the same configuration as your live server.
  3. Configure the wordpress admin pages. Open http://localhost/mikemoran/wordpress/wp-login.php. In settings–>general, change the URL’s to http://localhost/mikemoran.com. Scroll down all the settings in your wamp wordpress installation, and match them to the live server.
  4. Edit the apache config in WAMP to change the root pointer. There are two lines, one for root and one for directory.
  5. Install the latest version of techozoic
  6. Install all the plugins
  7. Copy the style file from the “custom css” plugin into the techozoic custom css.
  8. Create a zip file database backup from our current production site
  9. Backup the existing WAMP database
  10. Use importbuddy to import the backed up mikemoran database
  11. If there are errors, then remove the database and restore the backed up WAMP database. Then research how to pull in only the pages and posts.

NOW SANITY CHECK THAT YOU DID ALL OF THIS:

 Password Setup
1. Set a password for root/localhost in PHPMyAdmin
2. Added the following code (after the colon) right above the Servers configuration section in the config.inc.php file: $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ”;
3. I entered a passphrase between the ” in the above added code.
4. Changed the auth_type = cookie (Actual code: $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = ‘cookie’
5. Entered my new root password in the Password line between ”
6. Exiting and Restarting WAMP
7. Successfully logged into phpMyAdmin using new root password

Setup new Database
1. Added new User
2. Set database name = new user name
2. Able to login w/ new user and can only access/use the one database.

WordPress Install
1. Downloaded and unzipped WordPress
2. Moved the contents of the wordpress folder over to c:\wamp\www\mikemoran (since I plan on seting up multiple WP sites, I assume this is where I’ll need a separate unique folder for each WP site)
3. I type in [localhost] and I receive the Create config file message.
4. Edited wp-config-sample.php w/ notepad++
5. Rename to wp-config.php
6. Set the Database, Username, and Password all equal to the names setup above which are all the same name. NOTE: This means I am entering the new user here, not the ROOT User correct?
7. Saved file
8. Refreshed browser — WordPress installation page opened
9. Set Site Title = Domain Name
10. Set Username and Password
11. Set email
12. Set to allow in search engines
13. SUCCESS
14. Successfully logged in as admin

AND FINALLY, do this:

The Virtual Hosts setup:

1. Created the folder “logs” under c:\wamp\www\mikemoran
2. Created the folder “logs” under c:\wamp\www\biznology
3. Created the Log file folders for both of the above
4. Removed # from Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf (line 466) in httpd.conf file
5. Added code to httpd-vhosts.conf file

NameVirtualHost *:80


ServerName mikemoran.com
DocumentRoot C:/wamp/www/mikemoran
ErrorLog “C:/wamp/www/mikemoran/logs/error.log”
CustomLog “C:/wamp/www/mikemoran/logs/access.log” common


ServerName biznology.com
DocumentRoot C:/wamp/www/biznology
ErrorLog “C:/wamp/www/biznology/logs/error.log”
CustomLog “C:/wamp/www/biznology/logs/access.log” common


ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot C:/wamp/www
ErrorLog “C:/wamp/www/logs/error.log”
CustomLog “C:/wamp/www/logs/access.log” common

6. Update hosts file

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 mikemoran (.com?)
127.0.0.1 biznology (.com?)

How to extract a zip file on a linux server

I did a google search but didn’t find any way to unzip a zip file on my website’s server. I do not have shell access, but I wanted to be able to see what’s inside a given zip file, and you can’t do that with FTP.

But then I found it on my own. As long as you have CPanel or some equivalent from your hosting company, such as Lunarpage’s LPCP, you’ve got a way.

It’s done with file manager.

Cpanel–>file manager–>navigate to the zip folder–>click on the zip folder–>click on extract. So simple.

File manager has some other great features too, including a drag and drop “move file.” That’s nice if your filezilla program is busy with something else. And I’ve never found a way to get coffeecup ftp to move anything.

Make Christmas Card labels with Gmail and Word

How I set up my Gmail Contacts
I manage my xmas card contacts by making use of the “other” field in the contact record. I put “xmas” in each one. I use the “title” field for the title that will be printed on the label.
Get the file ready in Excel
1. Click on “contacts” in Gmail
2. Click on “export”
3. Select “only Christmas cards”
4. Select “Outlook CSV format”
5. Click on “export”
6. Open with Microsoft Excel
7. Delete every column except for the first, middle, last name, and address column
8. Change the “Home Address” title to “Address”
9. Save this as an Excel 97 file in the Christmas folder and get out of Excel.
Use Mail Merge in Word
1. Open Microsoft Word
2. On the tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and then click Mail Merge Wizard.
3. Click Labels, click “starting document”
4. Click Label options. Use Avery 5160. Click “ok.” Click “select recipients”
5. Select “use an existing list,” then click browse
6. Choose the excel file you just saved, choose the first selection (if there’s more than one), click OK, rearrange the fields with first name, then middle, then last, then address. Click OK.
7. Click “arrange your labels.” Choose “address block.” Use “Joshua Q. Randall Jr.” and “only include the country/region if” (leave the “if” blank)
8. Click “update all labels”
9. Click “preview your labels”
10. Click “complete the merge”
11. Click “edit individual labels” and merge all records
12. Select all the labels, change the font size to “10” and change font if desired. In 2009 I found that the addresses were too far left-aligned for my Avery labels. So I centered all the addresses, which was an easy fix. I didn’t feel like figuring out what was wrong.
13. Save the file
14. Test two pages on plain paper
15. Put the label sheets in the printer and print the labels

Adobe Premiere Elements editing for beginners

I had a webinar in wmv format I wanted to publish that contained two minutes of silence in the middle. Not good.

I couldn’t find any straightforward instructions for dummies on how to fix it. So I figured it out the hard way, and now I’m writing the steps here.

  1. Open Adobe Premiere Elements 9
  2. Open new project
  3. Name your new project
  4. Click OK
  5. File–>Get Media From–>Files or Folders
  6. Browse to the file and click open
  7. Click sceneline if it’s not selected
  8. Drag the file’s screen shot to the first box in sceneline
  9. Move the timer to where you want to cut
  10. Click on the scissors (“split clip”)
  11. Move the timer to the next place you want to cut
  12. Click on the scissors (“split clip”)
  13. Looking at the scenes, there should be three. The one in the middle is the one you want to delete. Right click it and choose “delete scene and its objects.”
  14. Now you want to “share.” Look on the right of the screen for the share tab and click on it
  15. Choose “computer export files for viewing on computers”
  16. I scrolled down to “windows media files” so I would get wmv
  17. Click “save.”
  18. Now wait. It can take a long time