DaVe’s Musings

Here’s the code to add a timestamp to your vBulletin message board for ad code such as DoubleClick:

 

  

Dell installs all their servers with an annoying Dell background image (1.8MB!!!) on the main logon screen. This image slows down terminal service connections because you have to wait for this high color image to load. The first thing I do is remove this background from any new Dell server.  To do this, edit the registry key:

My Computer\HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper

Just erase what is there.  You’ll be much happier.

Need to make complete copy of a web site but don’t have direct access to the files? I’ve had this happen for several clients whose web developer would no longer give them access, or who wanted a copy before they terminated their relationship with the web designer. Well, HTTrack is a free utility that does the following:

It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.

Of course, it will not copy scripts, but for static web sites, it works pretty well.

The FLVPlayer WordPress plugin is a nice utility to add Flash videos to your WordPress site, but it has not been updated by the author in numerous months and does not completely work as described in the installation instructions.  Here are the steps I had to take to get it to work:

1. Download the latest version of the plugin (v0.4.2)
2. Extract the files to a folder on your computer
3. Upload the folder “flvplayer” and its contents to your “wp-content/plugins/” folder
4. Edit the repository/index.php file to have links back to your web site and not the author’s.
5. Upload the contents of the “repository” folder to the directory where you store audio/video files. Since I did not have this folder already, I created a folder called “media” under the root of my web site folder and moved the contents (not the whole folder) there. You do not need to upload the “.svn” folder.
6. Upload the contents of the “themes” folder to your “wp-content/themes//” folder. Just the contents, not the whole folder. You do not need to upload the “.svn” folder.
7. Activate the plug-in in your WordPress admin console by going to Plugins, and clicking on Activate for the “FlvPlayer” plugin.
8. In the WordPress admin console, go to Options -> FlvPlayer and set the following:
   WordPress Page Address: /videos/ (Set this to what you are going to name the WordPress page that we set up in the next step. DO NOT name this the same as your “media” folder where you store audio/video files.)
   Video Repository (URI): http://www.davemccomb.com/media/ (Set this to the folder where your media is stored. See Step 4 above.)
   Video Repository (on server): /home/www/davemccomb/public_html/media (Set this to the physical path where your video files are stored.)
   Use Friendly URI: True / False (Set this if you want friendly URIs.  You must also add those lines to your .htaccess file.)
   Files to exclude: (This is a list of all the files in the “media” folder that you do not want to appear in the dropdown list. You need to immediately add on the following to this list: ,index.php,__player_jwflv.swf,__player_asysound.swf )
   Display list type: List / Dropdown / None (Select how you want the video files to appear on the page. I like dropdown best.)
   Video Player: Proxus / FlowPlayer / Jeroen Wijering FlvPlayer (Select which Flash video player to use. I like the last one, but feel free to try them all. The Proxus player must be purchased or else it shows the word “Demo” in the window.)
   Mp3 Player: AsynSound (Only one choice here.)
   CSS: 1 (I just left this alone.)
9. Click Update Options. If you see: flvplayer__video_redirect failed to update!
   flvplayer__video_repository failed to update!
   flvplayer__video_repository_file failed to update!
   flvplayer__friendly_uri failed to update!
   flvplayer__exclude failed to update!
   flvplayer__display_type failed to update!
   flvplayer__videoplayer_type failed to update!
   flvplayer__mp3player_type failed to update!
   flvplayer__css failed to update!
   info_update failed to update! 

   Ignore these errors as there is a bug somewhere in the script. While there are errors reported, you should also see “Options Saved” and be good to go.

10. Upload your audio/video to the folder you specified in Step 4. (”media” in my case) If you do not upload anything now, you will not be able to see any results on your page.
11. In your WordPress admin, go to Write -> Write Page, and create a new page. I set my page title to “Videos” and left the content blank. Under “Page Template” you must also select the “FlvPlayer” template. DO NOT set the Page Title here to the name of the folder you store videos in. Click “Create New Page.”

That’s it.  You should now be able to see your videos at the page name you set up. Mine are at http://www.davemccomb.com/videos/