Keep the command prompt open after using Run

by
Inf

If you are a Windows user, you know that sometimes you really need to make use of the Command Prompt, for things like “ping” or “tracert”. Unless you are a GUI fanatic.

But have you noticed that sometimes when you type a command in the Run box, the prompt closes immediately after execution? There must be a way to keep it open, right?

Today, I will share that trick with you, and it’s really simple to do.

First, you need to see what I mean. Type “ping google.com” in the Run box and type enter or press Ok. The prompt should close after execution of the ping, not giving you time to see the results.

If this has ever happened to you (it does for me, on Windows Vista), then try this:

Before you type your command, put in “cmd /k” before.

For example, if “ping” closes for the prompt after execution, try “cmd /k ping google.com” or any other address.

I have tested on WinXP and Vista. Both work. Hope this is useful to you someday. 🙂

PHP – The Basics of the Language

by
Guru

Today I will be talking  a bit on PHP’s syntax and constructs. Previously I had given a small introduction on PHP. Now is the time to get your feet wet. Before going even further you should have PHP and MYSQL minimally running on your machine a.k.a localhost (You can go for an elaborate discussion on localhost at wikipedia or stick to my simple description. Refers to your own machine also addressed by 127.0.0.1).  I know you are a Geek, you may want to do your own setup but yet, I would recommend you to take a look at integrated packages such as:

  1. Xampp (my preference)
  2. Wamp
  3. EasyPHP

As far as I know personally I have heard of these three packages. There are more out there in the wild. Xampp would be enough for all your development tasks. Please bear in mind these packages are meant only for development purposes. They are not to be used on a live website.

Continuing where I left. Lets talk syntax. uhh, let me remind you coding scripting in PHP is very different from conventional programming. As I say often, PHP has a philosophy, a way of getting things done. 🙂 Don’t be afraid.

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Internet Connection Price Decrease: Not everyone is happy

by
Inf

As strange as this seems, not everybody is happy with Orange’s price cuts and speed boosts. However, there is one major difference here: it’s not the users that are unhappy. It’s the other ISPs.

(Btw, as from now, when I say Orange, I am including MyT in it too)

This news piece was reported by L’Express some days back. I can’t tell you the exact date since I no longer have the paper, but it must be from the previous week, in the Techno section. We can easily guess who is unhappy and why. I bet it’s MTML and Nomad leading the pack, and it’s quite understandable.

With the price cuts and speed boosts, Orange has now become the ISP with the best offers around, in terms of price and speed. Orange is offering prices that smaller ISPs will never be able to match without sacrifices or losses. And if you ask me, I find that to be quite unfair towards them.

We know that Nomad’s service is not what you can call the most reliable service around, and that MTML’s dial-up replacement offer is not very satisfactory because of the capping. (I think the capping must still be on, but I’m not sure). Also, their speeds are not the fastest on the market now. MTML’s main offer is the 144Kbps and Nomad’s maximum is 512Kbps as far as I know. On the other side, you have Orange that has migrated its users to twice the speed for the same price. I don’t know how you call that, but I term it “unfair competition”.

I’m neutral in that I am not pro-Nomad or pro-MTML or anything. I’m just a normal Internet user, but I kind of feel pity for the other ISPs. But, and it’s a big but, I’m really happy with the boost in speed as a customer. What would have been better is some kind of compromise. It’s as if the State (or ICTA?) has accepted the recommendations about prices and speeds too easily, without considering everybody’s case.

Personally, I can’t find workable solutions. There is one that would work, but I’m pretty sure will not be implemented in Mauritius. This solution is the breaking of Orange’s monopoly over the SAFE cable, so that other ISPs no longer need to actually buy bandwidth from Orange. I doubt this will work since I guess that the other ISPs can’t afford bandwidth directly from SAFE. Something like “degroupage” in France, if you want.

Next would be a drastic reduction in the price that Orange sells bandwidth to the other ISPs. That price keeps falling, but if smaller ISPs need to have a fighting chance, it’s still too high according to the losing parties.

What can I say? ISP business in Mauritius is a cut-throat activity, and if you can’t fight, you go down, no matter how much you invested in the first place. That must be quite a large sum for Nomad and MTML, considering that they installed antennas and all the other equipments to provide wireless access so that they don’t have to use MT’s wires and cables.

Funnily enough, Emtel remains silent till now about the boost. It’s 1.8Mbps offer is directly threatened by Orange’s 1Mbps. I’d like to know what they are planning.

Sadly enough, this boost which is a great thing for us users might bring back what we fear most: Monopoly. This could happen if other ISPs decide to pack up and go.

What are your views on this? What do you think can be done to help smaller ISPs?

Firefox Tip: Keep bookmarks menu open after click

by
Inf

If you have been using Firefox, and like me, make full use of your bookmarks and the Bookmarks Toolbar, then you must have noticed that as soon as you click a link, the menu closes, making multiple-selection of bookmarks to open impossible. That’s a huge annoyance for me.

Luckily, there is a solution that works for the Bookmarks menu, the Bookmarks Toolbar folders (if you have created folders in there. If not, create them! It maintains order) and the History Menu, in case you want to restore multiple closed sites.

The solution is really simple: Just get the Stay-Open Addon from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6459

Install it just as you would for any other addon and restart Firefox. No configurations are needed. It worked out-of-the-box for me. However, it works only for Firefox 3 and up I think.

Now, how to use it?

Simple. Open the Bookmarks menu, or other menus I mentioned above, and middle-click an item. You will notice that the menu remains open. You can now continue to middle-click other items if you want to open more.

There is not much to configure, except a single option available in “about:config”. I didn’t require it till now. It’s CTRL-Click functionality which I didn’t need.

Voila! This should help you keep those menus open while you open multiple sites without the menus closing after each click. Specially useful if you use Live Bookmarks from within Firefox to read RSS feeds. You can now open multiple feed items without that menu closing. This is so useful! Makes me wonder why this option is not already a default in Firefox…

AVG: Update needs restart solution

by
Inf

I was recently having a small problem with AVG Antivirus 8 Free. The problem was that the Update Manager said that the update was successful, but then “The update needs restart”.

However, the problem was that even if I did restart, the thing would just stay there, saying “The update needs restart”. The biggest issue was that the Virus Definitions were not being updated.

I tried adjusting the settings for Update and other stuff, none worked. However, the solution to this problem is quite easy. So follow these lines if you are having the same problem. Tested with AVG8, since it’s only with it that I got the problem.

First, go to AVG and do “Update Now”. The update will seem to complete, but will say “The Update needs restart” as usual.

Now, head to your install directory, which for most of you will be: “C:/Program Files/AVG/AVG8”.

In this directory, you will find a file named “updatecomps.cfg”. What you need to do is to either delete this file (kind of unsafe, untested) or just rename it to something like “updatecomps.cfg_old” or “updatecomps.old” like I did.

Update: Sidjsns says that the “updatecomps.cfg” file is not found under a “server” subdirectory. Thanks!

After that, go back to AVG and do another Update Now. The Update should proceed normally, and it will ask you for another restart. After that restart, things should be ok. Your Virus Definitions and other stuff will be up to date.

I tested the above and it worked for me. I forgot exactly where I got the solution, but I think it must be some forum. Credits to the person who found how to solve this. Hope this helps. 🙂

Orange Mauritius being generous: ADSL prices fall, MyT speed doubles! (updated)

by
Inf

I did say I was going to blog about Orange some time again. There was a news item that told how Orange suggested that prices remain constant and that speed increases, and ICTA wanted that prices fall while speed remains constant, which is plain stupid. However, something nicer appeared on the front of Le Mauricien today (Edit: Today = 26th Feb 2009, I am blogging this article after midnight).

If the news is correct and if what it says really happens, we are going to have a 35-45% price fall in ADSL prices. Do you believe that? A friggin 45% decrease in ADSL prices! MyT is going to follow soon according to that same article! New prices applicable as from 1st March 2009!

Seriously, this is wicked cool. Is it really? Wait a bit, you will see.

There is something I didn’t catch. There is X allowance (X is an integer) and Fair Usage Policy (FUP). I think allowance is a quota where you pay more after exceeding it, while fair usage, you don’t pay but speed falls. That’s me, so don’t consider these words to be a fact.

First lemme give you the prices and other stuff. Everything below refers to ASDL, so no MyT’s for now. 128K refers to 128K ADSL. All prices exclude VAT. Got it?

128K home (1 GB allowance) goes to 256K with 3 GB allowance. Price goes to 434 from 650. 33% fall.

Nothing yet for 128K home (with FUP). It was not mentioned in the article, saying the info was not obtained from MT.

512K home (with FUP) falls to Rs. 750 from the current Rs. 1360.,

The very best news now: There is a new package! 1 Mbps (with FUP) priced at Rs. 1360! That’s the price of the old 512K connection! Theoretically, you can now get twice the speed for the same price!

Then for ASDL Pro, for those who interested. Vat Included I think.

256K goes to Rs. 800 from Rs. 950 (3GB cap).

512K goes to Rs. 1300 from Rs. 1540.

For Rodrigues, same thing for ADSL home. For ADSL home 256 goes to Rs. 1600 from Rs. 1860.

Personally, I think this is good news. If not for the ridiculously low capping. (3GB on 256? Seriously? That’s less than a Linux distro DVD!) I also appreciate the introduction of the fair-priced 1 Mbps and I might even consider moving to that one when the new price policies start. That’s how 1 Mbps should have been priced from the very start! Now I can call it accessible. And I can finally thank Orange for listening to me: More speed for the same price. They did just that. I don’t know why ICTA was initially rejecting that, but they were not being rational.

Also, as you noticed, the FUP does not tell what exactly is the limit. I’d greatly appreciate some more information on that. Not this time I guess.

I am done now. Let’s hear your views. Happy? Not happy? What about the capping? Fair? Fair Usage Policy? Love it? Hate it? Suggestions?

EDIT:

Today (Today = 27th Feb 2009), news about MyT offers came out, and it’s very good news for them: Their speed doubles for the same price! 256K users will now have 512K. 512K will have 1Mbps and 1 Mbps will have 2 Mbps! Amazing!

Some new offers were also added, such as a MyT 512K with added TV channels (15 of them) for Rs. 999 / month. There will also be a 2Mbps offer will be available at Rs. 2999/month!

However, as Morinn has pointed out, there must be a catch!

I believe personally have two theories. Either Orange had the possibility to offer those speed and prices from the very start, but for some weird reason, they did not.

Or the more sombre reason: Capping and FUP will now be strictly enforced. As you probably noticed, for some users, even if they exceeded the unknown FUP limits, their speeds were not affected. I don’t know the limits, but I guess they must be around or less than 10GB. The question is: how can Orange offer twice the speed to all users, without making any upgrades to their networks or buying more bandwidth on the SAFE. Maybe I have missed something that was announced, or that it was done internally, but without upgrades, there is no logical way this can be done! Unless capping is strictly enforced.

This will keep heavy downloaders from leeching all the bandwidth, and redistribute the saved bandwidth to other users.

This is just a supposition, but a terrifying one none the least. We don’t know the limits, and therefore, don’t know when or how we are going to be capped.

Also, a commenter mentioned that 3GB capping. There seems to be a difference between capping, properly said, and Fair Usage Policy. As I said above, the “capping” policy is that if you go over the limits, you pay for additional MB’s downloaded. Whereas for FUP, it’s just that your speed decreases. Probably some kind of limit imposed, or that your connection is given less priority.

Another scarier issue: if capping (as in speed reduction) is enforced, it means that connections of users will be monitored to know what they are doing, how much and what they are downloading and from where. All this is just suppositions, but isn’t this called invasion of privacy?

Btw, remember how I was ranting about how my speed on Rapidshare was breaking and resuming every 4-5 seconds? It’s back! My download manager reports a download speed, but my router lights don’t flash. Ewww!

Note: My connection was automatically upgraded to 1Mbps today. I am having around 90-95KBps even 100+ KBps download speeds! AMAZING!! I noticed my upload went to 256 from 128! (Here I come, online gaming!!)

Ok, I stop here now to let you folks talk. I’m out of ideas. Let’s hear yours! 😛

Some Updates (and one rant)

by
Inf

Hello readers! No, I am not dead nor kidnapped by aliens nor anything else. I am just extremely busy with my life. Hell, CSE eats time. It just ATE my holidays! Who in their sane minds give 3 major assignments in a 2-months holidays?? Blame my lecturers!

I am just here to say sorry that I am unable to blog often now, but hey, it’s life. From now on, I’ll TRY (I say TRY) to blog about short tidbits here and there, instead of long articles. That’s until I end my Year 2, and all the assignments and whatever else associated with it.

For me to get some more sympathy, consider this: I got a test week (6 modules’ tests in one week!) in 3 weeks time. I got to submit 3 assignments (that’s till now, possibly more to come) by the end of the semester. And to conclude it all, I got exams (6 modules again!) that will cover the whole 2nd academic year’s content!! What the HELL! (Same for Guru btw) :/

Therefore, I ask for comprehension from your part. Don’t expect updates too often.

And now, time for the rant. You can guess towards what. ORANGE! :/

Damn them! I just noticed something funny today. I got a router, and I can see lights flash on it when I download. Well, guess what. Every 5 secs, the lights stop flashing, as if the download momentarily pauses. Then it resumes. I just timed it using a stopwatch. Every 5 seconds, there is a break!

Do you think this is normal? I bet this is some new form of capping or download regulation for “heavy” downloaders. I still haven’t exceeded 10GB download this month, so I really want to know what they consider to be “heavy downloading” for a 512K user.

Also, I got something to blog about Orange/Mauritius Telecom. They don’t do everything badly, as one would expect. This article will come soon, probably tomorrow hopefully, so wait for it. It’ll be a short one, I guess.

Pious Maha Shivratree to all. And bye, dear readers. 🙂