Well, I’m sorry things have been quiet around here lately, after my Christmas vacation I got swamped with work and other things and I suddenly had no time for Computer Haters. Fortunately, I realized it was a bad decision to neglect the Computer Hater community so I will start posting regularly again and not leave you all wondering how to boot Windows Vista.

On another note, my wife and I got back from the baby doctor today and we found out we are having a boy and a girl, Yahoooooo! In the picture, the boy is on the left (Zander Patrick Otten) and the girl is on the right (Addison May Otten).

Look forward to some new content and more updates on the twins as they continue to cook in the oven I like to call my wife.

Remember to read the whole post before you do anything, and Always! backup your data first, just in case.

Well if you read my last post on dual booting linux, I left out one key detail; REMOVE YOUR WINDOWS HARDRIVE FIRST! Yea, I left my windows hardrive plugged in while I was installing my ubuntu hardrive and guess what, it installed GRUB to my Windows hardrive. So for the last few weeks I’ve had to go through GRUB to get to my Windows Bootloader to be able to boot Vista or XP lol. I finally decided it was time to fix the problem, so I googled it. Heres what I came up with.

1. Put you Windows Vista dvd in your computer and boot from it.

2. Let it load the files and boot up, then press the next button on the first screen. On the second screen click the “Repair you Computer” link towards the bottom.

3. Click the bottom option, about opening a command prompt.

now type:
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

That’ll remove GRUB and put the Vista loader back. Unfortunately, that also corrupted the GRUB on my ubuntu partition, but I planned on reinstalling anyways so although it isn’t a problem for me, I recommend you backup all your data first!

Since I’ve started using Ubuntu again, I got my 32 bit installation running great and everything configured how I wanted it. Then I realized I could use 64 bit, never occurred to me before. Well I happened to have left half my hard drive unpartitioned incase I wanted another OS to dual boot with, so I went ahead and downloaded 64 bit Ubuntu and installed it on my free space. The problem was that the bootmanager (GRUB) was installed on my first partition, and it wasnt getting updated with the new ubuntu installation. Heres how I fixed the problem.

First, open a terminal on your first installation of Ubuntu, and type
$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
scroll down to the bottom and you should see a section that looks somewhat like this

Its simple enough, just add another entry to the bootloader. So first get your second install finished then come back here to do add it in.

Take the first entry in there, where it says “title ubuntu 7.10, Kernel 2.6.22-14-generic” and copy that whole section, and paste it in there again. (Im gonna pretend you pasted it at the bottom). First you should change the name to something you’ll recognize so you dont get confused over which partition is which. Change the part after the word “title”, I called mine “Ubuntu 64 bit”

Next you have to tell it where the “root” is on the hardrive. You’ll see it probably says “(hd0,0)” (like mine does, for this the numbering starts at 0, so 0=1 and 1=2 and 2=3 and so on..). That tells the bootloader that its on hardrive 1, partition 1. My swap partition is next, so thats (hd0,1), now my third partition is where i installed my 64 bit ubuntu. so I would tell it “(hd0,2)”, name yours accordingly to how you installed it.

Now tell it what your kernel is, if you installed a different distro of linux (like dreamlinux, or a different version of ubuntu) then you will want to make sure you get the right file. Open your (new partition)/boot/ folder and find the kernel file, type its name in exactly as you see it. to get your UUID just right click your hardrive (You can find it by opening your My Computer Folder), select Properties and go the the Volumes
tab at the top. write in your UUID exactly as you see it on that window. After UUID write in “ro quiet splash” (on the same line as the end of your UUID).

Now find your initrd file in the (new partition)/boot/ folder and type its name in exactly as it shows there, except for the .bak at the end of it. Thats not supposed to be included. Now hit the enter key and on the last line all by itself type “quiet” (without the quotes of course).

That should do it, just save and close the file and then you can reboot and find your new install using hte Grub menu. Its worth saying, whichever boot entry is on top (right below the line that says “## ## End Default Options ##”) is going to be booted by default.

So lately I’ve been using Windows alot, just cant get enough Call of Duty 4 but ive been missing having gnome-do on Ubuntu, and I’ve always been jealous of quicksilver for Mac, so I finally googled it and found a program called Launchy, looks alot like quicksilver and its really customizable. It is obviously not nearly as awesome as Quicksilver, but it works. Go check it out

Launchy Homepage

Well, this is definitely something I have never done before. I’m doing this post from my new iPhone. For one I never thought I’d get an iPhone and 2, I didn’t know if posting from the browser was going to work, but it looks as though it is working.

In my opinion the browser is the best part of this phone. It has full support for javascript which is awesome and everything gets laid out as it is suppose to, or at least for the most part it does. If you have ever tried to use another mobile browser, they are painful to try and use and almost a waste of time to even try. Not safari for the iPhone, this thing is a beast.

I’ve wanted this phone since the day it came out but i was dissapointed in a few things which are what kept me from getting the phone (well, my wife also said NO, hehe). Since the iPhones release, apple has impressed me by adding new features to the iPhone and also with the release of the SDK coming the end of next month, I figured it was time to five in. I also wasn’t sure if I was gonna be a fan of this keyboard but I’d is flippin awesome.

If you are thinking about picking up an iPhone, I would really recommend it, I think it is well worth the money.

So I haven’t done a TGIF in 3 weeks now and I’m sorry, just been a little busy with getting back into the swing of things after my vacation.  Here are some great posts from the last 3 weeks.

phpBB3 Custom Registration

I’m going to show you how to create a custom registration form for phpBB3. I Didn’t find much information anywhere on how to do this, so I figured out how to do it myself, and now, the knowledge is for you. This may not be the best way to go about creating a custom registration system for phpBB3, but it works nonetheless.

phpBB3 Custom Login

Yesterday I posted on how to create a custom registration for phpBB3. Today I’m gonna show you how to use that registration information and log the user in.

Mac Like Launcher for Vista/XP

Got Vista, or XP? yeah? so your probably jealous of your friends mac then right? of course you are, its way cooler and smarter than your PC will ever be. There are a few programs out there that help Vista and XP to be a little smarter, one of my favorites (a feature I have become attached to, and cannot compute without) is Punk Labs “RocketDock”

Couple Of Tweaks for Vista

little things to give vista a little boost.

Javascript Dialogue Boxes

Dialogue boxes are great for error checking and letting a user confirm the choices they have made. In the Computer Haters Copier there is one that asks if everything is correct. If you click No or Cancel than it won’t submit anything, but if you click OK or Yes then it will continue processing the script. There are numerous ways you can use these boxes and most of the work is done on the browsers side.

Clearing DNS Cache in Vista

Okay, I dont get credit for figuring this one out, but I was having this problem where I couldnt browse sites on my computer but I could on the other computer’s in my house

Email Forwarding Etiquette

I just received an email from someone regarding how to go about forwarding emails and some general rules you should follow.  I thought it was some good information to share with you all, so here it is.

There you have it.  Some great posts so be sure to check them out.  Also, if you have a second, feel free to stop by the forum and give us a holler or if you have any problems with your computer, ask us a question, we’d love to help you out.

Yesterday I posted on how to create a custom registration for phpBB3. Today I’m gonna show you how to use that registration information and log the user in. Again this is a simple example and error checking handling should be implemented as well as your own customizations. When I’m done showing you all of these steps to creating a custom registration and login system for phpBB3, I will post a complete tutorial on creating the system from scratch. But, until then, here is your login example.

HTML

First off wee need to create our form. I’m creating this in a login.php page that I created.

<form action="login.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
	Username: <input type="text" name="username" />
	Password: <input type="password" name="password" />
	<input type="submit" value="Login">
</form>

Alright, simple enough, just a username and password field… Pretty much your standard login form. Now onto the authentication part and the part where you put in your error handling

Authentication

<?php

define("IN_LOGIN", true);
define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root_path = './forum/';
$phpEx="php";
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.php');

// Start session management
$user->session_begin();
$auth->acl($user->data);
$user->setup('viewforum');

if($_POST){
	$username = $_POST['username'];
	$password = $_POST['password'];

	$validation = login_db($username, $password);
	$valid = $validation['status'];
	if(($valid != 3)){
		die ($validation['error_msg']);
	}

	$authenticate = $auth->login($username, $password);
	if($authenticate){
		// Success! Do Something Here
	}else{
		// Problem! Do Something Here
	}
}

?>

Well, this part wasn’t too bad either. Also, you may have noticed I threw a little error checking in there for you as well… You can do much better though This part checks the username and password to see if they match the database and if so will authenticate and setup the session. If the username and password are not in the database an error will be sent to the browser and also if setting the session up fails, you can choose to do something at that point as well.

Not much to that now was there. I’ve included a file below for you to download so you can see a full working example.

Download (4KB)

I just received an email from someone regarding how to go about forwarding emails and some general rules you should follow.  I thought it was some good information to share with you all, so here it is.

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names.  As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That’s right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:

1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That’s right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the ‘Forward’ button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don’t click on ‘Forward’ first , you won’t be able to edit the message at all.
2. Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC : (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don’t see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s it, it’s that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say ‘Undisclosed Recipients’ in the ‘TO:’ field of the people who receive it.
3. Remove any ‘FW :’ in the subject line . You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
4. ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.
5. Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who’s supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don’t believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just ain’t so!)
6. One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like, ‘Send this email to 10 people and you’ll see something great run across your screen.’ Or, sometimes they’ll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I’m still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don’t let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven’t won the lottery??)
7. Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that’s been circling the net for Years! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to   http://www.snopes.com/

I’m going to show you how to create a custom registration form for phpBB3. I Didn’t find much information anywhere on how to do this, so I figured out how to do it myself, and now, the knowledge is for you. This may not be the best way to go about creating a custom registration system for phpBB3, but it works nonetheless. This is also just a basic example. If you want more fields or functionality, your on your own. If you ask nicely in the comments, I may give some insite on how to expand this example depending on what you are trying to do.

Create a file

First off we need to create our registration file. Lets call it register.php an then insert this code into the top of the page:

define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root_path = './forum/';
$phpEx="php";
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.php');

// Start session management
$user->session_begin();
$auth->acl($user->data);
$user->setup('viewforum');

What this does is starts the session management and gives us access to all of phpbb’s functions, classes, etc…

Form

next we need to create the form that will submit our registration info to the tricky part.

<form action="register.php" method="POST">
	Username: <input type="text" name="username" /><br />
	Password: <input type="password" name="password" /><br />
	Email: <input type="text" name="email" />
</form>

Pretty simple right. Just the basic fields that phpbb needs to register a user and posting back to our register.php page. There are other fields, but we will fill those in manually in the next step. Also, you should do some user error checking with 2 other fields, Confirm Password and Confirm Email, but for simplicities sake I left those out.

Register User (the tricky part)

Alright, now onto the fun stuff. This information was pretty much ripped out of the ucp_register.php page an then modified to fit my needs and hopefully yours.