Carbonized Blog

Ok for some installing Linux along side Windows and dual booting between them is easy to do. For most of us it's something we have never done before and so is beyond us. Anyway along comes Wubi that does all the hard work for you. Wubi is a downloader and installer for Ubuntu.

Basically you download Wubi and run it. Wui creates a virtual partition on the drive of your choice and you can even specify the size for the virtual partition. On running Wubi it will ask you what drive to put the virtual partition on, how much space to use for it, what language to use, which type of Ubuntu to install (Gnome, KDE, KDE 4 remix, or Xfce but I suggest Gnome for people new to Linux), and for a username and password. It then downloads the Ubuntu you have selected and installs it. Once installed you can reboot your computer and at start up you will get a screen asking if you want to boot into Windows or Ubuntu (if you do nothing it will automatically start Windows after 30 seconds). And that's it. No damage to your Windows installation, no loss of file and if you want to un-install it just boot inWindows and run Wubi again.

I've been using this for a coupe of weeks now and mostly find myself using Ubuntu. The Gnome version (which is Ubuntu, KDE version being Kubuntu and Xfce version being Xubuntu) comes with Firefox 3 (web browser), Open Office 2.4 (office suite like MS office), Evolution (Outlook like program with mail and calendar), GIMP (graphics editor), an audio/video player, loads of games, cd/dvd burner etc. It does not come with avi playback nor mp3 playback but when you go to play one of these files it will tell you it needs the codec then offer to install it.

I personally don't use the default programs and instead I have instaled Amarok for listening to music, VLC for watching films and Thunderbird for reading email. Software is easily installed by using the Synaptics package manager which lists all available software and you just tick what you want to install (or untick if you have it installed and want to remove it) and click apply. it's that easy.

Went to see Iron Man this weekend and was very impressed. Film was far better than I expected it to be. It is over two hours long but at no point does it feel like it. If you do go to see it you have to stay to see the bit after the credits. It's a doozy.

Ok not really but close. Someone saw a picture of the variable star V838 Monocerotis and noticed how much it looked like the Firefox logo. Have a look for yourself.

Just seen Cloverfield and wasn't that impressed. The hype promised a lot but the film delivered little. And even worse was the in your face product placement for a certain mobile phone manufacturer. During the party someone starts filming the speech on one of the manufacturers phones and holds it up in front of the camera. The camera then 'accidentally' zooms in on the phone when trying to zoom in on the speaker. Later on the main characters phone battery dies so he goes into a electronics store that's being looted and goes and grabs a battery off a display full of this manufacturer's accessories (do new batteries even come charged?). And then in the subway station there is a huge poster for this manufacturer on the wall and is nearly every shot. At one point a character is stood in front of it whilst giving a speech but enough to the side as to not obstruct the companies name. There is also another blatant product placement for an American drink (Mountain Dew) where there is a vending machine in the room they are in and it is in most shots.

It's a shame because this film promised a lot but then again most of it was via viral marketing.

I have just been helping a guy out with a problem he had with my Lazarus guestbook script. Anyway once solved he showed me his work which I found very impressive. I'll let his own words explain



You can see some of his photos and read some of his stories on the Ozzu Forums under the title Home Sweet Home @ 50 below zero and you can also read his Blog of ICE.

I just read on Engadget that MS has offered to buy Yahoo! for $31 a share which works out around $44.6 Billion. Wonder what that willmean for those of us who use Yahoo! on a regular basis. I mean Yahoo! messenger and MSN (Windows Live) messenger can already talk to each other. You can read the Microsoft press release here and the Engadget article here.

Ok been a while since I posted anything so thought I would post my tutorial on using the PHP mail() function. I have basically copied my tutorial word for word from the Lazarus forum.

This is a brief (or not) tutorial on using the PHP mail() function to send emails from your scripts.

bool mail ( string $to , string $subject , string $message [, string $additional_headers [, string $additional_parameters ]] )

Let's break that down. The bool means that the PHP mail function returns either true or false depending on if it was successful or not. The rest is pretty self explanatory. string $to is where we put the email address we want to send to. string $subject is where we put the emails subject and string $message is where we put our message. The string part just means that this variable will be treated as a string when used. We will cover $additional_headers a bit later and won't even touch on $additional_parameters.

Ok so we want to send an email to Bill Gates with the subject Windows Linux and our message is When is it coming out?. The function we would use looks like this

I went to my local supermarket today (no names, no advertising) and they have already got the bloody Easter stuff on the shelves. I mean damn it's only January 6th and they already have chocolate eggs for sale. And they wonder why people get fed up of the holidays.

A few of you may be aware of the Online Status checker I wrote a few years ago. It basically tells you the status of a persons Yahoo ID. Well now I have improved it. It is now clearer what their status is and I have no added the ability to show their display picture. try it out at http://carbonize.co.uk/Old/status.php.

I have been going through the logs for my site and noticed a lot of attempts from script kiddies to try and run exploits against me. They all fail and, because of these script kiddies idiocy, I have even managed to block most of their pathetic attempts from even reaching my site. Now all I can think of is that this is the work of some Turkish group who refer to themselves as hackers but are in fact script kiddies. I recently received an email from a forum I was a member of years ago saying it had been "hacked". The forum had not been hacked it had been exploited and defaced but these script kiddies are to stupid to know the difference. Anyway the email was from the person who had defaced the forum so I emailed him back pointing out that they are not a hacker but a script kiddy who can do nothing more than use exploits they find posted on web sites in easy step by step instructions.

This is all these so called "hackers" can do. They look at security sites for exploits and then use Google to try and find sites using vulnerable versions of scripts. This is why you should always make sure your scripts are up to date.

Real hackers look for ways to break things, ways to gain access, ways to circumvent security. Most are either paid to do this or report any holes they find to the relevant companies who usually reward them. Some do it for dirty money such as those who create bot nets.

But anyway let the kiddies play. I just keep reporting the scripts they keep trying to use against me and get them taken down. Takes me all of 2 minutes to do so.