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Gmail Now Featuring E-mail Fetcher for Pop3 Mails

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:11:25 +0000

Gmail Recently introduced POP e-mail fetching service right from your g-mail account. You'll be able to read email from up to 5 additional accounts, all in one place, and take advantage of all of Gmail's great features. Note that the email accounts you would like to fetch will need to support POP access.

Note: Some free email services don't support POP access at this time and This feature is currently only enabled for a limited number of users.

How to know whether you have this service available for you?

Click Settings from the top of any Gmail page.
Click Accounts.

Look for Get mail from other accounts.

Now Select "Add Another Mail Account"

Now move to Next Step

Add your POP3 Mail Account details, and other options like Labeling your messages and whether you want to leave your mail on the other server.

After Click "Add Account" You'll reach here

You can configure Gmail to use your own address to send mails like yourname@yourdomain.com

Which E-mail you want to use for sending you can add it here

Sending verification mail, this is to prevent some people to use gmail as a spam engine

Once you have the verification mail, get the code from the mail and put it here and verify. Done

This is your external e-mail account at your accounts page of gmail.

Lets see how it looks like when you get a mail from another mail account

Whoa, ok now you need to see how you can send an e-mail using your own mail address

It's a very good practice to labeling your 3rd party E-mails so that you can find them with a single click.

I hope you find this article useful.

Gmail Remote Command

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:07:33 +0000

Windows Freeware GMail remote command lets you Perform Simple File open and shutdown operations just by sending mail to your GMail MailBox using special tags. What You can do with it?

1 - To execute applications;
2 - To open web pages;
3 - To shutdown the system.

After Downloading the Program GRC, you'll need to make sure MSINET.OCX file is available in your Windows System32 folder. Once you have the MSINET.OCX file inside your System32 folder you can start use the Program. Run the Program from where you've unzipped it. Click on the Settings to see the Tags and Commands.

Now Click on the LOGIN menu item to continue to login. Enter your Gmail username and password and click on Sign On Button.

Once you've signed in you just need to send an e-mail to that gmail account using specific tags on the e-mail subject. As for Example you can send an e-mail which has a subject - [open]http://www.tech2all.com[/open]. Once the mail delivered to the specific gmail mailbox the GRC program will open the website http://www.tech2all.com using the default web browser. Another Example would be - [open]c:\windows\system32\calc.exe[/open] which will execute the Calculator. See the Example of a mail below.

Here is the Links you need

GMail Remote Command AKA GRC HomePage

MSINET.OCX

How-To: Build your own network firewall

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 31 May 2006 18:26:25 +0000

Todays internet ERA you'll need a protection of firewall rathar than depending on your hardwares firewall. Some times you gotta tweak and customize the firewall to your optimum needs. Today i've found on Engadget, they have a nice and hand to hand tutorial on setting up your personal linux firewall system by yourself. Go ahead and read the tutorial here.

How to : Hold a Digital Camera

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 31 May 2006 17:58:53 +0000

Now a days we have digital gadgets and cameras everywhere. Everyday new technologies come out. Digital cameras becoming more complex, featureful and smaller. Most of the new and old photographers has real trouble with these complex digital cameras. When i bought my own digital camera i had real trouble balancing it while taking a shot. I found this article at Digital PhotoGraphy school which has some interesting tips on digital camera holding techniques.

Read at Digital Photography School

Enable Encrypted E-mails for Gmail

Ruhani Rabin — Tue, 30 May 2006 19:02:34 +0000

Greasemonkey script Gmail Encrypt adds encryption to the emails you write in Gmail.

Not all people uses encryption. But when your e-mail does all the Business stuff you should encrypt your conversations. This script can only be used from FireFox and you will need the Greasemonkey extention to make it work.

Greasemonkey script Gmail Encrypt (Installation guide and instructions here, get the Greasemonkey extention first then follow the instructions)

How to : Make Your Own SkyPE Phone

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 17 May 2006 16:33:18 +0000

Instructables has a step-by-step for turning a regular old landline phone into a VoIP phone.

This hack requires a little bit of electronic hobbist kinda soldering and might not be for the novice hardware tweaker, but the results look quite good. If you've been wanting to try out Skype but haven't wanted to buy a new headset and you've got an phone laying around, this seems like a cool stuff to do.

Portable SkyPE Phone [at Instructables]

How to : Backup a DVD

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 10 May 2006 15:02:58 +0000

You’ll need a DVD burner and DVD burning software (like Nero). Using free software DVD Shrink, you encode the disc to your hard drive and then burn a new DVD with the contents in what looks like a reasonable number of steps. Using DVD Shrink you can even omit DVD extras to save hard drive space. Useful.

How to back up a DVD [Via PainintheTech]

TeamSlide - Fast, Lowcost Web Presentation Solution

Ruhani Rabin — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:01:56 +0000

TeamSlide has just been launched has many of the features of the other services (WebEx, Placeware, GoToMeeting), is much easier to use (no plugins or other software for host or attendees) and is a fraction of the price. It does require a server side easy installation.

A normal use of WebEx, Placeware, GoToMeeting, etc. is a sales and marketing call. The host, or presenter, sets up the call using WebEx software. The attendees click a link in an email at the scheduled time, and everyone is joined in a virtual meeting. The host is able to share applications (powerpoint, browser, pdf etc.) and make the show running.

A drawback of all of the existing services is price and the need for browser plugins for both hosts and attendees. WebEx and Placeware both have a pricing range of $300 - $375/month, and GoToMeeting is a minimum of $50/month. Killing part of these services are the usage costing. On the other hand Teamslide doesn't require a software or plugin on the both parties (host or attendees). It is powered by Web 2.0 or Ajax technology which is blazing fast that means the host or attendees require just a browser with javascript support.

Teamslide is targeted for web presentations. And they have developed their own plugin for Microsoft Powerpoint. . Which actually converts your slides within a click. It generates a zip containing the slides so that you can upload it right away. This service is similer to Thumbstacks which i've previously mentioned. You can say it's a limitation or a feature of Teamslide that it is meant for Slideshows

Want to Take a Peek inside of TeamSlide .. See more details of the service in their demo

Below here i'm going to post a small guide on setting it up and running in no time.

Once you've purchased the package from Teamslide, you'll receive a zip package contain the server script and the powerpoint plugin. Here is what you need to do.

1. Unpack the files into a folder (eg. C:\Teamslide )

2. Install the Powerpoint Plugin using the installer (.msi).

3. Upload all the content of the TS folder into your webhost (use any free FTP client). so your url will be something like www.yourserver.com/TS/

Note : In some cases you'll need to set permissions for few folder in your web hosting directories. (Follow the instructions inside the zip they provide for you)

4. Check Your server requirements using www.yourserver.com/TS/test_server.php . If everything went well on checkup then move to next step.

5. Goto www.yourserver.com/TS/index.php to start setup.

Fill up the Forms according to your needs.

6. After that you'll be inside the admin control panel of Teamslide where you can upload your presentation sets and invite your attendees.

7. Go to your Powerpoint Presentation you want to present online, on the view mode click on the TeamSlide Button to generate a zip file.

8. Now Back to your online control panel click the link "Upload Slideset" and select the file you've just created. Then Click upload to begin upload the file. Once done.. You'll see the uploaded slideset on your left bar

9. Now you're ready to Rock N Roll so lets invite someone to see .. Enter an e-mail address at the "Enter invitation email address(es):" field then press the invite button..

10. Here how the e-mail looks like to the attendee(s).

11. The Attendee click on the E-mail link to perticipate at the show

Then the attendee logged in with the invitation code and he joined the show

Well that's it for today. Enjoy.

Update: Huge Thanks to Patrick and the Entire Teamslide Team to feature this post on their pages here and here . I enjoyed writing it. But you guys are great cause you've made the application.

Reduce Firefox and Thunderbird Ram Usage

Ruhani Rabin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 01:03:22 +0000

Usually if you notice then you can find out that while FireFox or Thunderbird running on foreground application.. It uses a handful amount of memory.. So is there any way to reduce it? Well, Ryan from CyberNet Technology News is offering a simple tweak for reducing your memory usage in Firefox and thunderbird.

This little fix will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, and as a result it will take up less than 10MB of memory while minimized. So far, from my experiences with using this today, when you maximize Firefox it will obviously increase the memory usage. However, it does not seem to go back up to the insane amount that it was at before minimizing it. For example, Firefox was at 180MB of memory usage and then I minimized it and after a few seconds I maximized it. After maximizing it and continuing on my routine business it appeared to only have gone up to 60MB.

Note: I've tested his method.. it works but depends on which kind of system you have. This tip work on Windows only.

Read the entire article here [ via cybernet tech news ]

Zookoda Tutorial - Setup Your Newsletter in Minutes

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:48:33 +0000

If you are a blogger and you have a lot of users visiting your site then sometimes it makes you think about setting up a Newsletter service for the users will be a great idea. Well there are not many quality service that could offer you such a facility. Previously i've introduced a service name zookoda which offers a handsome number of flexibilty to manage automated newsletter service using RSS feeds of your site.

I've practically used it and implemented on this site. So i've decided and released a Small and Fast Interactive Tutorial to Let you start with this excellent service they offered.

This is a Flash Demonstration Tutorial so You must have flash player installed to able to view it. Be patience while loading cause the Demo almost 2 mb at size. The Demo has been linked to an independent page cause it's designed in higher resolution.

Click here to Open the Tutorial.

Please Don't Forget to Post Comment. You can help me improve by commenting on this Topic. Thanks

How to get an Windows Live Mail Account

Ruhani Rabin — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:17:35 +0000

Wikihow posted an Excellent step by step tutorial to grab a Windows Live mail account .. so Dont wait

Do you want to be one of the Hotmail VIP’s users, but can’t figure out a way to do it? It requires using a trick to upgrade your old 2 MB hotmail account and then enrolling in Windows Live. Follow these instructions to get a Windows Live Mail account and a 2000 MB Hotmail account.

Read the Entire Article… and Post your comments here

E-Book - Ajax in Action - prescriptions for ajax effective use

Ruhani Rabin — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:09:03 +0000

Ajax is a Web programming technique that lets you develop rich, dynamic, interactive interfaces using nothing but JavaScript, HTML and CSS on the desktop. It’s changing the landscape of the Web, and this book will help you gear up to be part of the revolution. Renaissance men David Crane and Eric Pascarello show you how to weave together the many pieces that make up an Ajax application: JavaScript, server-side components, HTML, CSS, and XML. More importantly, they teach you the tools and techniques you’ll need to develop industrial-strength applications using JavaScript, a language that doesn’t always get as much respect as it deserves.

This is really two books in one: first, it’s a look at the Ajax technologies and prescriptions for their effective use. There are detailed discussions of relevant design patterns and of strategies for designing usable and secure applications. There are substantial discussions of a number of Ajax frameworks, libraries, and development tools, as well as developer features of Web browsers that you’ve probably never learned about but can’t live without.

The second half of the book is a cookbook, a compendium of detailed blueprints for concocting your own versions of a trifecta of Ajax showcases: dynamic double combo boxes, typeahead select boxes, and Web portals with selectable, draggable portlets. There are even recipes for assembling standalone Ajax applications that use existing third-party Web services as a back-end. I liked that the cookbook built on the earlier parts of the book by deliberately applying the design patterns and refactoring techniques therein described.

If you’re serious about helping to revolutionize the Web, you need this book.
This is a Printable PDF Complete Book

http://www.manning.com/books/crane

How to Create Your Own Audio Streaming Server (WebRadio) [Windows]

Ruhani Rabin — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 19:01:51 +0000

Audio Streaming Server (Radio) [Windows]

What is a Streaming Audio Server
Its an application that will allow you to “stream” or send a continuous block of data to a client. In a few words, it will allow you to put your own radio station online, where it will be feed by sound files lying around your hardrive, and then clients will connect to the server, and will have the chance to listen whats being playing, just like a plain old school radio station, only that this one is digital, thus allowing better quality, and management is really simple after you follow some simple steps in the initial configuration.

For this tutorial, we’ll use two available solutions, both are very good in the sense they do their job well, so its up to you to decide which one to pick up in the end

1.1 Winamp
Required by the broadcasting client to send the music files straight to the server.

Download

1.2 SHOUTcast Server 1.9.5
This one directly from Nullsoft, the creators of winamp.

Download

Installation
This is very simple. All you have to do is follow the “advanced” windows approach, aka “next->next->next“
Once you’re done, you’ll have a folder C:\Program Files\SHOUTcast which is the default, and the one Ill be refering to in the rest of this tutorial.

Configuration
Now we’re off to configure the server to make it run smoothly. Follow the newly created shortcuts in the start menu (folder SHOUTcast DNAS), and run the server configuration utility SHOUTcast DNAS (GUI)
You should get an image like this one

Ok, now you we’re off to explain the menues

Kill Server: Self-explanatory :D. It kills the server, and all active client connections. So use it when you just want to shut it down for a while. Notice also that when you run the application, a little icon is displayed in the system tray.

Hide Monitor: Will basically minimize the window. The only way to get it back is via the aforementioned icon in the system tray. You can also access this function from the “X” button of the window.
Edit Log: Will simply give you access to the log file of the server, where useful information such as startup time, clients connection and so on are displayed. You can save the file to your hardrive, for historical purposes or whatever suits your needs.
Edit Config: This is the most important part, and the one Ill focus here, since it gives you access to all the configuration parameters of the server.

As you can see, you need to restart the server if any changes were made in order to the server to reload the new values. Notice if it opens notepad by default, probably the end-line characters wont be parsed correctly, which in plain english means you’ll see sort of gibberish. So, close the server, and go straight to C:\Program Files\SHOUTcast and open the file sc_serv.ini with another text editor, such as wordpad, which recognizes unix end-line characters correctly.

Now I’ll explain the most important options, change them accordingly to suit your needs, or leave the default if you’re still confused about any. Notice the developers of this great application made a good job, and they explained the options very well in the ini file, however, if you still are a little lost, follow my prior advice.

MaxUser : This is the maximum allowed number of simultaneous listeners. This is, the max number of users that can be connected at the same time to your server. This one is a little tricky as it depends on your connection speed, so you might want to customize this to suit your needs.
In the docs, there is a function to calculate this:

MaxUser = [Upstream speed of your connection] * 0.9 / [Desired bitrate]

So lets suppose your upstream connection (the speed you can upload at) is 350, and the bitrate you want to serve your mp3’s at is 32 kbps:

350 * 0.9 / 32 ~= 10 users

But be aware you can play around with this number, and you can even try to set it higher, but then you’ll need a bunch of beta testers that might want to connect to your server and then report you how well it did, if they had connection problems, if the sound had glitches, etc…
So if you’re not sure, set it to the number of users given by the above function (or even less).
Password : This is the admin/broadcast password, that you will use to administer the server via a web-interface (more of this later) and to send the broadcast via the DSP plugin (next section..).As usual, enter a hard to break password, likely containing letters, numbers, punctuation characters and caps.
Notice there is an option to use this password as the one for broadcasters, and use another one for administration (separately that is), but for the sake of ease, lets just use this one for both functions.

Default:

Password=changeme

Example:

Password=YoU.W0nt.Bre4k.ME.587

Portbase : Simply the port where your server will listen for client requests, aka the little door in your PC that clients will try to connect to (or open). Default value is recomended.
AutoDumpUsers : Simply put, if you shut down the server, why dont you disconnect the clients too?

Default:
AutoDumpUsers=0
Recomended
AutoDumpUsers=1

We’re done with the configuration. Piece of cake, eh . Save the changes and close the file.

1.3 SHOUTcast DSP 1.8.2
This one directly also from Nullsoft. This is a Winamp Plugin that will allow you to send the real broadcast to the server you just configured, aka it will stream the mp3 so that it can be listened to.

Download

Installation
Close Winamp if its opened. Then, again, follow the “next->next->next” approach…

Once you’re done, you’ll want to check out if the plugin was installed correctly, and get ready for the next step.
Simply open Winamp, then hit Ctrl+P to open the preferences window:

Now close the preferences window, and the DSP dialog should be shown by now (and everytime you start Winamp).
At this point we have to configure the DSP plugin to start the broadcast.

Configuration
Now we’ll take a look at the different tabs, and what we should fill in the different fields of these

Main Tab: Its the worthless of them all. Basically it will show you the status of the different Outputs and the DeciBels.

Output Tab: This is the most important of them all. Screw something here and you wont have your server streaming any sound

Lets go easy on this one.
The output part will show you which one of the 5 outputs are you configuring. What this means is that you can have your DSP plugin stream sounds to 5 different servers, thats all. For ease purposes, lets just leave it selected in the output #1 and forget about the others.
The status part will show more or less the same stuff that in the Main Tab. But whats important is the button connect. You are supossed to push it once all this configuration is done, to start broadcasting the sound right to your server. (Final step).

Now lets head over the Output Configuration part.
In the address field just write the IP or domain name for your server (the server you will be broadcasting to, that is). Notice that if your server is at the same computer where you will be using the winamp+DSP plugin, then you can just put localhost and thats it.
In the port field, put the Portbase value you configured for your server above, in the former section…
In the password field, put the Password value you configured for your server above, in the former section…
From the encoder list, just pick up 1, since basically you will be able to make 5 different configurations for 5 different outputs (remember?), so, since we’ll be using just output, then we just configure 1 encoder, and this is the one we select here (more on encoders later)
Push the checkbox Enable Reconnection on Reconnection Failure, that means if there is a problem with your server, then the DSP plugin will try infinitely to reconnect until its up again

Now lets head over the Yellow Pages Configuration part.
The checkbox Make this server public (Recommended) basically will allow your server to be listed in www.shoutcast.com listings. Wheter you want to do this or not (you want to keep this private) its your call. Two things you need to have in account. First, your shoucast server needs to have a domain; if it has an IP, then you wont be listed there. And second, from the instant you begin the broadcast by pressing the button mentioned above, it will take from 10 to 15 minutes for your server to be listed there. Once its listed, it will look like this (I made a search for Billy Boy and thus I got my server among the results)

So as you can see, anyone going to www.shoutcast.com could find out about my server, and tune it. If you want to keep it private, then just dont click the checkbox, thats all.
In the Description field… well, just put your server description, to be shown in shoutcast listing as shown above, and this is also what your listeners will see in the music player playlist.
The URL field is usually an address where people who got to your server through the shoutcast listings, can find more information. This should be sort of your website or the radio’s website. You get the picture. But please notice this URL has nothing to do with the Address field we went through before, they can be the same, but dont have to…
Now the Genre field is self-explanatory…
And finally the fields AIM, ICQ and IRC are just contact addresses, pretty much like URL so you know what to (or what not to) put in here…

Encoder Tab: This one is simple. As explained before, choose the Encoder 1 item in the list, and select the appropiate Encoder Settings, aka the bitrate we even made a math formula above, remember?
In the Encoder Type field just leave the default value…

Input Tab: This part will tell your Winamp what to broadcast, your MP3s (Winamp (Recommended)) that winamp is playing right now or…

Mom, I wanna be a real DJ

Ok, sometimes, you’ll want to broadcast your ugly voice to your listeners (poor them)… How do you do that? Simple. You select Soundcard Input as your Input Device, change the Input Settings to what you consider and then pull out that dusty microphone and start speaking…
One tip here, you can dynamically change between Winamp (Recommended) and Soundcard Input as much as you want, and play to be like a real DJ in a radio station. Notice that when you change from Soundcard Input to Winamp (Recommended), if you take, lets say 10 seconds to hit the play button in winamp (to start playing a song), these 10 secs wont be streamed to your listeners, so you have time to speak, something among the lines “Now enjoy SongX”, change the Input Device to Winamp (Recommended), search for the song in the playlist (or load it), then hit the play button. Your listeners will only listen to the “Now enjoy SongX” and right away the song, no interruptions in the middle. Rather cool, eh?

Now you’re done. Hit the connect button in the Output Tab and you’ll be broadcasting to your shoutcast server right away.

Administration
You can now administer your shoutcast server from a web-based interface.
To access it, just go with your browser to

http://yourserver:port

Where yourserver is the value configured in the field address of the Output Tab in the DSP plugin, and port is the Portbase value you configured for your server
In the example we have been following along, its would be

http://www.billyboy.com:8000/

You’ll be looking at something like this

Status: The “welcome” screen you see in the image…
Song History: Well… the list of streamed songs since the server was started
Listen: Basically, the link you have to give your listeners so they will be able to connect to the server and start listening (doh!). If you are not very good with the html, copy paste this code inside a HTML page (maybe the one pointed by URL in Yellow Pages? :roll:)

SEE THE CODE HERE

And replace the href tag to what the link in Listen points to.
Here is the classic “tune in” image

Stream URL: Basically, the URL in Yellow Pages (DSP configuration dialog if I lost you here)
Admin Login: This is where you play to be an admin. I will only tell you, to login you need a login/password combo. The login is just admin, and the password is the Password variable in the shoutcast configuration file (sc_serv.ini).
As I explained above, you could have a unique password for admin functions, if you fill in the field AdminPassword in the aforementioned ini file. (Just take away the ; (semicolon) and put the password you want.
If you enter a password there (in AdminPassword), then this is the one you will use here, otherwise just use the mentioned one (Password). If you’re lost here, then nevermind and just forget what I said in the last 2 paragraphs (including this one)
Since I hate to be a party boomer, Ill let you enjoy the fun and test all of the options in the admin page by yourself.
Consider this a teaser

Testing
Ok, so you have your server up and running, but now you need to somehow test it, to check out if everything is working as expected, right? If you dont have two computers to test it, and knowing the fact that winamp wont allow two instances of itself to be running at the same time, what would you do?
So dont fear. There are a number of media players that support shoutcast streams, and we will look at one of them.
The name’s XMPlay, and its a very lightweight media player, that can be freely downloaded from here

http://www.un4seen.com/files/xmplay32.zip

Now lets see what might be the URL your users will need in order to connect to your server. I explained in the subsection above how to get this URL by means of the admin panel, but if you want to know how do you get int manually, here it is

http://yourserver:port/listen.pls

Where yourserver is the value configured in the field address of the Output Tab in the DSP plugin, and port is the Portbase value you configured for your server.
In our now old and rusty example, it is

http://www.billyboy.com:8000/listen.pls

Then fire up XMPlay, press the key O (keyboard shortcut to open files/URL) and fill the appropiate value

Now you shoould be listening to your radio server!

Just FYI, in Winamp you open an URL with Ctrl+L.

2.1 Winamp
Refer to Section 1.1

2.2 Icecast 2.2.0
This one directly from the creators of the ogg sound format, among other open source niceties.

Download

Installation
This is far easy. Just follow the “next, next, next” approach and you’re done with it.

Configuration
So, we’re all set to start configuring the server. Run it by using the shortcut in the desktop (Icecast2 Win32), and then you’ll be introduced to the following screen

There is no much to explain about the GUI, so Ill just tell you the help is located in the About menu
Before I start spitting my gibberish here, lemme explain, that the configuration is done by changing/adding values to an XML file, namely icecast.xml in C:\Program Files\Icecast2 Win32 (if you installed icecast in the standard path). So, if you’re familiar with XML, then you have a slight advantage on your side. However, if you dont know XML or dont even know what it is, no problem, the configuration procedure is still piece of cake (seems like everything in this tutorial is :lol:)
But I know there are some folks out there who like to learn something new, so the beginner point by excellence to learn XML is this one

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

Ok, now lets continue. Head over to the Configuration menu, and select the only available item in there (Edit Configuration). You should see the configuration file right now, opened in notepad.
BTW, while you’re editing the file, you cant start the server, since the main window freezes. This is normal, and its made for security purposes (although you can simply go to the installation folder, and open the .xml file… :D)
Now you can safely select all the text (ctrl+a) and then delete it. Then just copy paste all of the code below

SEE THE CODE HERE

The lines in bold are purely so for formatting purposes. They are XML comments that I made, in order to help you change whats required. This is pretty much straightforward, not a lot to explain here. If you need further help, go to About->Help menu in the icecast main window, for a more detailed explanation on every single variable available.

Now spank that Start Server button to run the server.

2.3 SHOUTcast DSP 1.8.2
Refer to Section 1.3 of this tutorial, for installation and configuration options, they are pretty much the same. Just a few things change.

Configuration
To make things short, here is a screenie showing what the Configuration tab should look, if we take in mind the example icecast.xml configuration above.

Notice the password in red is the value of the element .
The Yellow pages configuration is pretty much the same. Nothing changes.
So, if everything went ok, you can search for your server once its up and running and Shoutcast DSP broadcasting here

http://dir.xiph.org/index.php

In our example, this is how it looks

Administration
You can now administer your icecast server from a web-based interface.
To access it, just go with your browser to

http://yourserver:port/admin_path/

Where yourserver is the value configured in the element in the icecast.xml file; port is the element in the first of the sample configuration file above, and admin_path is the value of the element .
Following the example, it would be

http://www.billyboy.com:8000/admin/

Now, when you try to access the admin interface, it will ask for a login and password, those are the elements and I talked about in the configuration file (icecast.xml if you’re still lost).

The interface is too simplistic and rather ugly, but everything IMHO is really easy to understand, so you’re on your own now

Testing
Refer to Testing in Section 1.3.

The URL for your listeners is this one

http://yourserver:port/stream

Where yourserver and port values are the same used to access the admin interface (subsection above). So in the example it would be

http://www.billyboy.com:8000/stream

Forewords
So, now I have introduced you to 2 of powerfull tools for your internet radio needs. Which one to choose in the end is your call.
If you ask me, Id preffer Icecast, since the docs are way better, and its easier to set up. Have in mind, I explored here the simple way of broadcasting (i.e by means of the Shoutcast DSP plugin), but in both servers you can also broadcast files without the need of an aditional plugin (aka, no winamp at all), but its more complicated, clumsy (as you dont have the ease of just firing up a playlist and start playing right away, plus the I wanna be DJ -your voice- thingy is also really neat), but you can always check the documentation of both applications more deeply.

How to - Setup Your Own E-mail Server

Ruhani Rabin — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 21:09:01 +0000

What is a Mail Server
You know this. A mail server allows you to receive mails from other mail servers around the internet, provided you create user accounts. It also allows your users to send emails to other mail servers.

For this tutorial, we’ll use a solution that is freeware, and does its job perfect. I’ve been using it for about one year, for my local development in php.

1 Mercury/32 Mail Transport System 4.01a
This one directly from Pegasus Mail, by David Harris

Download

Installation
This one is a little overwhelming, but once you’re done with it, the procedure for configure and get your server running becomes an easy, quick task.
Ill explain the steps carefully. Run the installer and press setup (this is a very simple self-extracting program, that leaves no trace in the registry, so to unistall, you simply remove the created folder in the installation)

Press the button New Installation
Since we wont be using support for Netware Networks, just press the button No Netware Support
Now select the directory where you want to install Mercury (or simply extract the contents, as explained before). Recomended is the standard windows installation path C:\Program Files\Mercury. Press the button Ok, accept this directory
Since the Mercury server can be used along with another mail client by the same company, Pegasus Mail (yes, the name of the company and the email client are the same), it asks you if you want to enable the support for such mail client. For reasons beyond the scope of this tutorial, we will not be using Pegasus Mail, so go ahead and press the button No Pegasus Mail integration
Now it asks you for the directory where it should put the user mailboxes. Just leave it as-is (If you followed the recomended installation path, the it should show C:\Program Files\Mercury\MAIL). Press the button Ok, accept this directory
Now it will ask you what protocol modules do you want to use. Basically, each one is a component in the form of a plugin, that will give you a given functionality. This is basically the core of the application. You can come back later and pick up the modules you want/require when you are more versed in these matters. For the moment just follow my advice to get this up quickly
Select only the modules Mercury S and MercuryP (the first and second ones in the list).
The first one will sit and listen from outside connections (aka when someone sends you an email to your own server), and everytime he receives one, this is put in the spool directory.
The second simply will allow your POP3 client (outlook, thunderbird) to read email in an account in your server.
Now press the button OK, continue installation
Press the button Install MercuryE. This is the module that will handle delivery of mail to outside servers (aka when you send email from your own mail server to someone in yahoo, google, etc…)
Now it should ask you for a domain name. This is your domain name in case you have one (or get one free at some of those free dns services around the net), or your own IP. This one can be either 127.0.0.1 -localhost, for testing purposes only- or your actual IP adress assigned by your ISP (e.g 200.197.167.92).
The other field, postmaster, is simply what could be considered as the username in your machine that will act as the postmaster for the server, or what it is the same; the user who will get problem reports. Just use anything for the time being
This is an example figure. We will use your ISP assigned IP, so that you can test this with an online connection, and in case you dont have a domain name. In the postmaster field, you can leave &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;Admin&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; which is the default, if you want to.

Now press the button OK, continue installation, and we are ready to move on
In this step, you will be asked about the relay controls. When you become familiar with relaying, you can chose the one that fits your needs. But for the moment, just press the button None
Now its time to choose the Queue directory. Again, it should by default C:\Program Files\Mercury\QUEUE, then leave it as-is, and press the button OK, continue installation
We are set. This is -at last - the final step. So go ahead and press that button Install Mercury/32 to stop the suffering
Now, as a the worthless note ever, press the Exit button to close the installer

Configuration
This is an easy step, compared with the installation process, believe me. So you can just relax, follow my instructions confortably, and you should have your server up and running in no time from this point.

So, run the server, which should have a submenu in the start menu, called Mercury for Win32; then pick up the item Mercury Loader
Now you should be presented with a window like this one, which is basically the control center of the application through the menus. You can see also 3 windows if you follow the instructions to the letter, each one represents respectively the Core Process that is the main module, and the POP3 and SMTP servers.

So, the next part if to create user accounts. Lets create one for this example. Go to Configuration-&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Manage local users…, then press the button Add, and enter the details as required, like in the picture

Now press the button Ok and close the other window if you want to. And as you can see, now we have created the mail account billgates@200.197.167.92

There are two last things to do.
Go to Configuration-&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;MercuryP POP3 Server, and simply fill in the field IP interface to use, in the case you’re using an IP and not a DNS.
So in the sample case we’ve been following around, this field needs to be filled up

Now do the same for Configuration-&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Mercury SMTP Server; i.e fill the field IP interface to use

Now all its left to do is to configure your mail client to be able to read/send mails using your newly created server and a user account.

Extra Configuration
What? There’s more?. Yep. In this section we will deal with two possible scenarios.

Scenario 1: Dynamic IP Address
Ok. What is a dynamic IP Address? Well, all dial-up users like myself, and some broadband ones, have what is known as a dynamic IP address asignation schema, which in plain english means you will have a different IP address every single time you connect to internet. This sucks. I know.
So, as you can see, we went through each of the installation/configuration steps pretending to have an example IP address, but everytime you connect to the internet, changes must be issued in order to update your mail server configuration.
Is there any solution for this? Yes. Check out the Help section at the end of this tutorial. For the time being, lets go over the wonders of Dynamic IP Addresses…
The first thing that needs to be done, is to update the corresponding values in the fields IP interface to use, revised in the last two images above.
So lets pretend your IP address is 200.197.167.92, but next time you connect to the internet your ISP assigns you a new one: 200.197.167.73

The next changes are located at Configuration-&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Mercury core module….
First one is on the tab General. Just change the field Internet name for this system accordingly

Now go to the tab Local Domains, select the second item, press the button Change entry, and enter the new value

Thats it. This needs to be done every single time you connect to the internet. Painfull I know

Scenario 2: Domain Name
So, you are a lucky one, and own a domain name. Domain names are basically ways for us human beings to remember internet directions easily. If I told you go to 64.233.187.99 that wouldnt make much sense isnt it? So, go ahead and type that in your browser URL bar. What show up in the screen? Thats right, our beloved google. Which means that IP address is google address, and www.google.com is simply google’s domain name.
Again, if you dont own a domain name and would like to have one, read the help section at the end.

Ok, so you have your own domain name, do you have to make all the &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;difficult&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; configuration stuff in the last subsection? Of course not. You wont have to change anything at all once you have configured the basics of your mail server.
Since it easier to explain how to install the mail server when you have a domain name, instead of showing you the changes required to use a domain name rather than an IP, go ahead and delete the folder C:\Program Files\Mercury, in case you already installed mercury and followed the instructions for using an IP
No worries here, all aforementioned installation steps apply, with some minor differences. We will be using the example domain name www.billyboy.com

Step 8: Put your own domain name in the adecuate field
So the first two changes look like this

There is though one little thing to change when using a domain name. In order for the outside delivery to work, we need to add a valid dns lookup server (i.e so that you wont get an unresolved error for gmail.com, hotmail.com, etc…). So, we fill in the field Identify Myself As: in Configuration-&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;MercuryE SMTP Client

2.1 Outlook (Mail Client)
Since Outlook is very popular, and is bundled in M$ products, such as Office, Ill explain the configuration. Its really simple, so hopefully there’s no much to explain.

Thats it. Basically, your account properties should look like that, in the case you’re using a domain name, otherwise just fill in the IP

We’re done here. Now you should be able to send/receive emails (thanks to the POP3 module) through your own server in outlook.

2.2 PHP Mail (For programmers)
Now, if you are programmer looking forward to learn php, it always comes in handy to have your very own mail server for testing. So Ill just show you a sample php script to send mail through your server. Im going to use the Apache HTTP Server with PHP. Both need to be installed and working for this script to work properly
Just FYI, Im running Apache 1.3.20 and PHP 4.3.10.

PHP Configuration

Open the file php.ini, likely located at c:\windows\php.ini. Now search for the line [mail function], and change the parameters in there accordingly (or fill them)

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = www.billyboy.com
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = admin@billyboy.com

Notice you can also use an IP instead of a domain name, or just localhost in case you are running the script locally, in the same PC where the mail server is.

Thats it. Basically, your account properties should look like that, in the case you’re using a domain name, otherwise just fill in the IP.
As you can guess by now, PHP uses the SMTP Server module to communicate with the mail server, and try to send mails through it.

The PHP Script
Made by myself, so do whatever you want with it, i.e public domain licensed. Not that its awesome in any sense…

File: mail.php

Sample Usage Script (Single destination email and plain text body)

File: use_mail1.php

Sample Usage Script (Several Destination emails plus html body)

File: use_mail2.php

Forewords
We’re done at last. Hope you learn something useful with this tutorial, since IMO, its always tricky for a beginner to get a mail server up and running easily.
Theres obviously more to learn (a lot!) but thats outta the scope of this short tutorial, so you’ll have to go ahead and figure it out for yourself or search in internet. Only this way you might become a succesful mail server admin someday.

How to: Travel with One Bag

Ruhani Rabin — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:36:49 +0000

In this age of airline fare wars, globalization, and the euro, traveling across multiple borders is increasingly common. Combined with the horror stories of lost luggage that never made it to the baggage claim, the option of traveling with just one bag is becoming more and more attractive. Unless your trip is highly specialized or requires carrying certain items, it is possible to travel and even live indefinitely out of one bag. Here’s how. (Via WikiHow)

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