After a long time, I felt the need to write something in my blog. I got a noname laptop which is based on a Comapl IFL90 running Ubuntu. Unfortunately I was unable to get the UPEK sensor fingerprint reader working. Until now! You may know the fprint project. Those guys, Daniel Drake in particular, are developing the libfprint, a library for dozens of different fingerprint readers. And they are

fprint_demo Screenshot

doing a hell of a job! Thanks to their effort and for Ubuntu Jaunty finally shipping with libusb-1.0 (which is needed to build libfprint from scratch) I was able to modify the old debian package and add some new drivers including upeksonly which will get your UPEK sensor fingerprint reader to finally working. I simply grabbed the pre1.0 version from libfprint’s GIT repo and modified some of the config files.

To make my little contribution available to the public I decided to set up a PPA to make installing as easy as possible:

https://launchpad.net/~coolingfire/+archive/ppa

Simply edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following lines:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/coolingfire/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/coolingfire/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Then simply execute this in your bash and you should be set:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libfprint0 libpam-fprint fprint-demo

To check if it all works try

fprint_demo

. You should now be able to enroll and verify your prints. If you have any problems or suggestions, just comment.

Oliver Tech

Everyone knows how annoying it is to have PDF-Files with restrictions or encrypted with a password. At my university some professors think that it’s a good idea to distribute PDFs with a password. Recently a friend of mine asked me how he could circumvent the annoying PDF “Please enter the password” notification. So I decided to make a little howto, as others might also profit from my cognitions. First lets start off with Linux.

Linux

You have quite a few options to get rid of a password in Linux. To install these Linux applications just google for them or search in your package manager (e.g. Synaptic). My favourite three command line apps are (there’s really no need for a GUI for such a basic task):

pdftops & ps2pdf

If you know the user password and want to create a password-free version of you PDF that are the two tools you need. The syntax of pdftops is as follows:

pdftops -upw <password> <PDF-file>

<password> is the PDF’s password (without quotation marks) and <PDF-file> is the file.

After that your PDF has been converted into a PostScript file without password. Now you just have to convert it back to a PDF by typing the following in your terminal:

ps2pdf <PostScript-file>

After that you are done and can enjoy your password free PDF.

pdftk

If you know the owner password and you want to remove the password there’s no easier way to do it than with pdftk. And here is how it needs to be done:

pdftk <input-file> input_pw <password> output <output-file>

<input-file> is the password protected PDF, <password> is the PDF’s owner password and <output-file> specifies the name of the unprotected PDF.

pdftk (PDF toolkit) can do so much more amazing things with your PDFs. Just google it or RTFM .

pdfcrack

If you don’t know the password at all of a protected PDF there’s one last chance you got. You could use pdfcrack which tries to crack the password with brute force. If you know the user password you can even speed up the process of finding the owner password. There is also support for dictionaries (very handy as many passwords are really weak) and saving your state and continuing somewhen later. If the password is alphanumeric and has few characters (up to 6 i would guess) there’s a real chance of cracking it really quick.

Windows

PDF Unlocker Icon

Let’s not forget about the many Windows users which also need their PDFs cracked.

Freeware PDF Unlocker

The best (and also the first one) freeware tool you will find is PDF Unlocker. It is a simple script which unlocks your PDFs. First dowload PDF Unlocker, install it and you will find a nice new icon on your desktop. If you want to remove restrictions such as no printing or no copying you just have to drag your PDF onto the icon and drop them. A cmd-window will open and hopefully close and you are set. If you want to remove the user-password you need to right-click the desktop icon and the Edit. Directly after

-sPDFPassword=

you need to write the user-password without quotes. If you now drag and drop files over the icon it will remove the password. If you want to remove restrictions from a PDF again, simply undo these changes.

Mac

I’ver never personally used a Mac so I don’t know any program. I guess you will find something if you look good enough.

Online

There’s also an online service which promises to remove a PDF password but I was never successful in doing so. Try the Free PDF Unlock Online Utility for yourself if you want and tell me if it worked for you.

Oliver HowTo crack, pdf, remove password, remove restrictions

Everyone who runs Wordpress on a hoster (see HowTo: Set up a Wordpress Blog in 15 minutes) knows that it’s a great and mighty tool for a blogger. But what would it be without plugins? Seriosly, that would be the same as running Firefox without plugins (who on earth does that?). Fortunately there are lots of useful plugins out there which are waiting to be installed. The problem however is, that not everyone has the time to go through the enormous long list at Wordpress.org’s Plugin Directory. So here I’m going to present to you some of my favourite plugins, which no blogger should miss out.

Plugin Central

Let’s start with a nice plugin, which helps you to manage your plugins. Call it “meta plugin” if you want . You can automatically install new plugins from your Admin Panel with it. There’s no need for FTPing any more. Another useful feature: Plugin Central checks if there is a new version available for any of your plugins and will then perform the update. And all that happens right from the dashboard. This plugin is so great that I even guess its functionality will be integrated  into Wordpress in 2.8 or 2.9. But as long as this plugin exists i see no need for that.
Plugin Homepage: www.prelovac.com

Akismet

Here comes probably the most useful one. Not that the other’s are not but anyone who has a blog or even an email account knows how annoying spam can be. That’s where Akismet comes into play. It tests every submitted comment for spam. Some years ago on my first blog i had a lot of trouble because of spam. Akismet helped me a lot to get rid of it. Akismet is preinstalled with Wordpress, you just have to activate it. For it to start working you need to enter your Wordpress.com API Key. If you don’t have one yet, see Wordpress API key site for details. Basically you just have to create an account at Wordpress.com. What akismet does is basically “rating” each comment with Karma. If it has bad karma (e.g. many hyperlinks or certain words) it gets labeled as spam.
Plugin Homepage: akismet.com

NextGEN Gallery

Sample slideshow

Nextgen Gallery is the most beatiful gallery plugin i’ve ever seen. Honestly, what could beat it?! With Nextgen Gallery. There are so many options which enable you to totally personalize and tweak it. You can use effects for your image such as Thickbox, Greybox or Lightbox. It is even possible to start a slideshow. If you own a phlog aka Photoblog you definatley have to use this one. But even if you just upload some pictures for your friends you should give it a try!
Plugin Homepage: alexrabe.boelinger.com

Sociable

You’ve seen them for sure. These little icons that appear underneath every post. Blogs but also Newssites are making use of them. They let readers who stumble upon an interesting post digg it, quickly bookmark at Del.icio.us, facebook, myspace, google or msn. If you still don’t know what I’m taking about go to the end of this post and you will see lots of small icons. Comprende?
Plugin Homepage: yoast.com

All in One SEO Pack vs. wpSEO

I recently installed the All in One SEO Pack which seemed to be a great SEO plugin. For everyone who doesn’t know what SEO is: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and therefore is a technique to tune your website so that it is more likely to be listed on top of Google. However two days ago i discovered a new plugin (which is not in the Wordpress.com Plugin Directory) called wpSEO. One of the developers explained to me that it would be far superior to AIO SEO Pack. Some of the advantages that he listed are: XML file for options (im- and exportable), import of AIO SEO Pack settings, clean and user friendly UI, more than 70 preferences.
If you want to read the whole list and the annnouncement: wpSEO - Professional Plugin for Search Engine Optimization in Wordpress
Another thing i should mention: wpSEO is not free for commercial projects or blogs with ads. There’s however a trial version available and there is no fee for personal usage. I am gonna try it out tonight or tomorrow.
All in One SEO Pack Homepage: semperfiwebdesign.com
wpSEO Homepage: www.wpseo.org

Google XML Sitemap

Now that you know everything about SEO I have to tell you something else: Search engines are lazy. They want you to serve them every bit of information they shall index. That’s what a sitemap is for. Basically it’s just an overview of your website, which tells Google, Yahoo & Co. where they find interesting things. Google XML Sitemap is a really easy way to create a sitemap (you can configure various options if you want, but the default one’s are fine for the average user). After the sitemap is created the search engines are notified and they release their spiders on your site.
Plugin Homepage: www.arnebrachhold.de

WordPress.com Stats

A blogger blogs for blog readers to read his blog (what a strange sentence…). Now, but really: Why should someone blog, if he doesn’t know who and how many people read his blog. Not every visitor leaves a comment.

Stats screenshot

And probably the most annoying thing for a blogger is, when he really works his ass off and no one is giving a shit. I definately have to reduce my swearing quota . This plugin does also require a Wordpress.com API key (see Akismet description). This blog of mine was hosted elsewhere in the beginning and i had a problem activating this plugin with my API key. This only occurs if your XHTML is not valid. So before yelling around just try to validate your XHTML. The plugin shows you useful statistics about views, referrers (where the people came from before browsing to your blog), search engine terms and much more.
Plugin Homepage: wordpress.org

WordPress Database Backup

Blogger are curious and like to try new things out. At least I am. But there’s some risk that your blog does not look like you wanted it to look like. Or maybe your hoster kicked you or went bankrupt (would not surprise me in this difficult times). If you then don’t want to start anew, you will be glad that you had this plugin installed (and used it obviously). With it you can backup right away or schedule a backup (which i would suggest anyone). Your backups can be downloaded, sent by email or uploaded to your FTP folder.
Plugin Homepage: www.ilfilosofo.com

That was the list of my favourite wordpress plugins. Let me know if your favourite one was not listed or if you have an alternative you’d like to present.

Oliver

Oliver Wordpress akismet, all in one seo pack, google xml sitemap, nextgen gallery, plugin, plugin central, sociable, Wordpress, wordpress database backup, wordpress stats, wpseo

Hello folks! I thought I would give everyone a quick guide on how to set up a Wordpress blog. Wordpress is probably the most powerful yet simple blogging software, due to it’s modularity and all of it’s great plugins. I know many people who want to start blogging but either don’t know how to set up a blog or have not the time to figure it out. So here is a nice and short guide on how to that in less than 20 minutes. Another possibility would be starting a blogger at a blog hoster such as blogger or even MSN Spaces, which I personally never liked and never will . But that’s not the point of this howto. I am going to show you how to do it like a pro . So let’s start right away!

Step 1

Get a hoster

To set up a Wordpress blog you first have to get a hoster which at least offers FTP access and a MySQL database. For your understanding: Basically an FTP access allows you to upload files on a server which are needed to get Wordpress working. On the other hand MySQL is a database system where all your Blog settings, your postings, your comments and so on are stored (it would not be a good idea to store them in simple text files). If you want to know more about those two technologies wikipedia them or GFGI .

There are a lot of hosters in the “internets” as you will see if you use “the Google”. So which one is the best? I don’t know that. But I know a few good one’s. I e.g. hate ads, so I chose a hoster without ads, which is not common at all if you are looking for free (as in free beer) hosting. Here are two hosters which do not pollute your site with ads and offer a good service including FTP, MySQL and other fancy stuff for free:

• Byethost.com
• AgilityHosting.com

Just register at one of them and you completed the first step. Use a valid email address as your control panel login, FTP login, MySQL login are mailed to it. For this blog I chose byethost, so in further steps I will mention their stuff as sample.

Step 2

Get and upload Wordpress

The next thing you have to do is grabbing Wordpress from their site. Download and unzip it. Upload the content of the wordpress folder with an FTP program (e.g. FileZilla or SmartFTP) using your FTP details you received via email. Alternatively

Screenshot Zip Upload

you can also use the zip-Uploader from within the Byethost Control Panel to simply upload the whole zip file which will work much faster (see screenshot on right side).

If you have done that we come to the last step. I said it would not be less than 20 minutes .

Step 3

Finalize Wordpress installation

This is the final step in this short guide. First of all you have to make sure that there is already a database created. If not look for database administration or even better phpMyAdmin in your byethost control panel. Create a database and remember the name. Now the final step: Go to your website and you will be guided through the Wordpress. Now is the time to enter your database name, your

Wordpress Installation

database user name, your database password and your database host (see screenshot on left). You can leave the database prefix as “wp_”. This is important if you have more than one application accessing your database and therefore not interesting at this point. In the next step you are asked about the title of your blog and your email. If you are not yet sure what your blog’s name shall be, don’t worry! You can easily change that later. The most important thing is to note the password you are given during the installation process as you will only be able to login with this password and the username “admin”. You can also alter this password in the Wordpress control panel later on. Alternatively you could also edit the “wp-config-sample.php” file and rename it to “wp-config.php”. That’s it! You did it! You successfully set up a Wordpress blog!

Don’t hesitate to show me your new blog !

Oliver HowTo, Wordpress blog, how to, HowTo, Wordpress, wordpress blog

Jesus in the snow (CC-by-nc pepe50)

I know the heading sounds quite hyped but read on before bitching right away. Yesterday I watched the film Religulous as it seemed pretty funny and had good ratings on IMDb. So I cooled my coke and prepared dip and chips. The film’s name “Religulous” is a word portmonteau (honestly I had to wiki that one ) of “religion” and “ridiculous”. It is documentary about the influence of religion in modern society which is narrated by the US talkshow host Bill Maher. I did not know this guy before but he is likable from the beginning of the picture. I am not going to tell you the whole story of the film as there was no real “story”. I mean it’s a documentary, what do you expect? The main statement however of the film is Mahern’s concern that humankind relies on 2000 year old statements and gospels. Some of the most powerful people act on the basis of a book full of hate and revenge (Old Testament) or mysteries (New Testament). I mean the incumbent President (yeah I know we don’t like him, less than a month to go ) e.g. has said and this is an actual quote:

“I believe that God wants everybody to be free. That’s what I believe. And that’s — part of my foreign policy.”

OMG! I bet if God existed, he would have been rolling on the floor of Heaven laughing his holy ass off. I mean… The most powerful person on earth acting on behalf of religion. Come on! We’re not in medieval times any more. If Bush really acted as God told him, then this God is not a very peaceful God either. But fortunately on 20th January 2009 the Bush years are over. And who knows: Maybe Barack Obama is a secret Muslim Atheist .

So if you are not a fanatic believer I totally recommend this film to you, but even if you are: It will enlighten you! Bill Mahern defines himself as an agnostic, meaning he does believe that some things such as the existence of God are impossible to prove. His most used sentence therefore is “I mean, I don’t know” which sounds really silly as he’s saying it. The 10 concluding minutes in the film are dramatic and a God-like voice tells the viewer that Religion is in fact the greatest threat to humans. “That is just silly and totally overexaggerated!” I said to myself. But if you think about it for some moments it makes sense: If a religious extremist gets his hands on a WMD and he then does not think rationally but wants to exterminate the infidels, say goodbye to Mother Earth. But what if God really exists? Then I’m quite sure I will go to hell as i wrote such a blasphemic post on the 26th December. No but really: Go watch this film!

Changing topic: If you have some spare cents lying around in your bank account despite the financial crisis and christmas expenses, donate it to wikipedia. I bet most of us would be in a fix without it, at least i would .

Last but not least: If you are bored in the holidays you can try to break my highscore (16,753) (19,216) (22,086) (27,772) at Facebook GEO Challenge. I’m a total addict .

This is it. Good night,

Oliver

Oliver Movies, Politics bush quote, facebook, geo challenge, movie review, religion, religulous, threat

So this is it. Here we are. My first weblog post. Well actually that’s not completely true. I already had a blog some years ago, but you know… Things get in the way… Nevertheless I will try to get this one going a bit longer. First of all you may think “just another WP-blog”. That’s not so far fetched. And there’s one god-damn (I guess I shouldn’t swear on Boxing Day, but you will hear more about my religious beliefs in my next posting) thing true about it: It’s a wordpress blog. I chose it because I really like the way WP blogs look. And there are so many things you can include or customize. Otherwise I could have just picked yet another 08/15 blog hoster as Flex over at blogspot. So when I got more time (maybe in March or April) I am going to make this blog the best looking one in the whole blogosphere. In this blog then I will write about various things such as tech, politics and personal stuff. There might also appear some reviews about films or books. Await my first real post later today or tomorrow.

Oliver

Ps: For the religious ones: Merry christmay belatedly.

Pps: English is not my mother tongue, so don’t expect everything to be grammatically correct.

Ppps: Comments, thoughts, opinions are always appreciated.

Oliver Personal first post, hello world, introduction