Diamondfire Blog

Here's a video from Bob Parsons

CEO and founder of GoDaddy.com

September 2, 2010 - Episode #37Never dance with frisky women or visit an ATM after midnight. Here's why.

A few weeks ago I lost access to my phpmyadmin console on my XAMPP development server. I believe this happened after adjusting some security settings in the xampp admin page. (that should have been my first hit) The error i was getting (posted below) wasn't that descriptive. From what i learned is at least in my instance it was caused by a two user names and passwords being out of sync. There appears to be a set for MySql and another set for phpmyadmin.

ERROR:

0 PMA_sendHeaderLocation(https://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php?token=############) called at [C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries\auth\cookie.auth.lib.php:628]
1 PMAauthset_user() called at [C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries\common.inc.php:829]
2 require_once(C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries\common.inc.php) called at [C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\index.php:35]

Many of my customers have recently expressed and interest in alternative methods for PDF creation. This is mainly due to the high price of that Adobe is charging for it's Acrobat product which allows a user to print to PDF from any windows program. Allowing them to edit the file once it is created. Also many of my customer complain about Adobe constant release of a new versions of both Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat. Adobe has for at lease the last few years release a new version of both products each year.

http://backupp2p.pbworks.com/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/p2pbackupsmile/

 

Recently I have seen a number of pc's infected with a trojan antivirus software usually going by one of the these names:

Antivirus Vista 2010
Vista Antispyware 2010
Vista Guardian
Vista Antivirus Pro
Vista Internet Security
Vista Internet Security 2010
XP Guardian
XP Antivirus Pro
XP AntiSpyware 2010
XP Internet Security
XP Internet Security 2010
Antivirus XP 2010
Antivirus Win 7 2010
Win7 Guardian
Win 7 Antivirus Pro
Win 7 Antispyware 2010
Win 7 Internet Security
Win 7 Internet Security 2010

The software has a very convincing look to it, even trained professionals don't catch the fake immediately. In addition to looking like an authentic piece of software it replaces several windows functions and screens with it's own and again unless you look carefully you will not catch the fake. I was able to successfully remove the virus by using Malwarebytes and the fixexe.reg file below.  Please read on for the fix.

I have just finished setting up a new piece of open source software called OpenWebSpider. This software makes it possible to create your own mini search engine. Witch you are in complete control over the sites that it indexes. You can check out Diamondfire's installation of Open Web Spider here. Feel free to run a few searches on it and see what comes up. I have indexed a few local Huntington NY business websites with it to test it out.

Open Web Spider is still a relatively new project but it defiantly looks very promising and I'm looking forward to seeing how the project develops in the coming years.

You can downloaded Open Web Spider from sourceforge.net at this link. Give it a try. The setup is much easier than it looks. you will need a PHP server and a Windows machine for the spider client.

I'd love to hear your comments on the software so when you get done testing it come back here and post a comment or a question if you need help with it.

 

Here's a quick list of some of the software we are currently evaluating.

Open Web Analytics 

OpenX (OpenAds)

PHPList

Joomla

MovableType

Cerberus

Mantis Bug Tracker

SugarCRM

We are running OpenX formally OpenAds on our blog along with Open Web Analytics and Movable Type. The three seem to be performing quite well together. 

In addition to them we are also working extensively with Cerberus Help Desk to organize our support services.Cerberus Help Desk is providing us with a ticket system that customers can submit a trouble ticket for an issue and track this issue to it's resolution.

 

I'm going to take a moment to recommend an online defensive driving course from the state of NY. The course is done entirely online at your own pace. It beats taking the course at your local public library sitting in one of those horrible uncomfortable folding chairs.
The course is done completely online from the comfort of your own home. You can start the course immediately by clicking the image below and going to the quick start section to begin registering. From there all you have to do is follow the instructions. When you complete the course your certificate is immediately E-Filed with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. (NYS DMV)

Readers you will notice with the posting of this entry that there is a new category in the list for social media. As many of my customers already know I have been doing more and more work in this field. I will be posting information directly applying social sites such as Twitter, FaceBook, Digg, and many others sites.

Look back soon for more content.