The delightfully named Angel from Barcelona wanted to know how the following worked

ps |sed -n "/bash/s/[^0-9]*\([0-9]*\) *.*/Shell con pid=\1/p"

It's a useful example of the slightly neglected sed.

First of all it's filtering only lines containing the string "bash"
[^0-9]* match the leading non-numeric string
\([0-9]*\) match and remember the first numeric string (the pid)
*.* match the unwanted trailing string
\1 the regexp memory containing the pid

It then filters out the pid.

What I think confused Angel was the trailing *.* this is because the sed is replacing the entire line the regexp therefore swallows the entire line just retains the pid as memory

How a website Trojan disguises itself

What a Website Trojan Script may look like
<SCRIPT>
<!--
// NOTE I have replaced the jumbled string below with a harmless one
var a='';var b='wweeew323 oeDISABLED5b54o4o3boo3o3o3oi34oji34oji34o3jio3o3';for(var i=0;i <15;i++) for(var j=0;j<10;j++) a+=b.charAt((parseInt(c.charAt(j))*15)+i);document.writeln(unescape(a)); -->
</SCRIPT>

You will most likely find it at the bottom of your page eg index.html,index.php


It uses JavaScript to decode the encrypted string which contains the URL of the trojan. What is doubly clever is that when you try and search for the Trojan by looking for the url of the Trojan which has been revealed by your virus detector either by viewing the source or downloading by FTP you will not find it.

What's more when you try and virus check the downloaded site your virus checker will be unable to spot the Trojan!

Wordpress Image Upload Error "Missing a Temporary Folder"

This is a PHP initialization error on your web-server not a WordPress error so changing WP version won't help.

You need to set up PHP's temporary directory
Edit php.ini with text editor and set the temporary folder:

upload_tmp_dir = /whateverpath/on your server/tmp/

save the file and restart apache.

Normally you can use FTP to create the directory you need to set the directory and file attributes to 777

or at server level
mkdir tmp
chmod 777 tmp

On my supanames website I could do all this via FTP and the supanames control panel, you may have to ask your hosting company to set it up

Disable "Windows is checking for a solution"
Did this ever find a solution for anyone ever, I mean even once? This was invented by Microsoft's largest development team "The Department for Creating Really Annoying Features". Their previous masterpiece was thinking of the irritating and useless "light bulb" office assistant.

Fortunately you can disable the feature in Windows 7
Click on start, type: Choose how to report problems, change it to Never check for solutions

And in Vista
Open Start -> All Programs -> Maintenance -> Problem Reports and Solutions.
Click Change settings -> Advanced settings and Turn off problem settings

Connecting My PC or Laptop to the Internet via my Nokia Cell Phone

I always assumed that trying to connect my PC to the Internet via my Cellphone would be painfully slow. Anyway because they are upgrading the Internet in my area we've been without Internet for 48 hours, so I thought why try using mycell phone.

It needs the supplied Nokia PC Suite application on your PC, you plug in your Nokia E71 with the supplied USB cable (The first time it may install some S/W on your cell phone) select "Connect to Internet on your Cellphone" and you are connected to the Internet.

Everything worked first time email, browser etc I didn't have to reconfigure my PC.

I am astonished to find that the speed is perfectly acceptable I mean apparently no different to my normal broadband!

Very impressed!

My review on the E71 Smartphone

Windows 7 Taskbar is a Disaster!

Look it's early days (day 3) so there's a good chance I'll soon learn the knack of organizing the W7 taskbar, but at present it's hitting my efficiency I can't one-click to my favorite applications. My taskbar is chaotic my applications seem to be able to hide on it, I have to click icons from the desktop (fortunately there's a "List Desktop" gadget) or horrors go wandering in Start-Programs!

The applications I pin to the task bar seem to wander about or disappear, yuk !!

DropBox : Share Files without FTP

You have probably known the frustration of trying to email a large file to a group of people and then getting replies from some of them saying they didn't get or couldn't access the attachment.

Well DropBox solves this without the fuss of FTP.

The photo below is logically on my PC, You can access it via the following URL

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2154649/frugal-foods-shop-doorway-with-mudscraper.jpg

Now what's great is that you can this to a group of people and they can access your file without needing to know anything about

However if you want to use DropBox yourself obviously you need to install it which you can by clicking here getdropbox.com (free up to 2GB)

Hence forth you can share a file or folder simply by dragging it it the dropbox folder on your PC/MAC/Linux.

Now this is where DropBox is really neat is that you don't have to do anything complicated if you are using DropBox to send/share files with different user groups because each group can ONLY see the files you send a link to!!!

The Only Way to Tell You've Got Windows 7 and Not Vista

You can instantly tell that a PC has Windows 7 (W7) by noticing the "Show Desktop" icon which is now to the Right of the System Tray Clock!

At present I am seriously bothered by with W7 Taskbar which will not remember which applications I want to keep immediately accessible, or does so in an odd random way

Deleting a Bad URL from FireFox's URL cache

You know how your browser e.g. Firefox helpfully predicts the URL you are typing which is great. Except when it brings up a BAD url you once entered months ago. Well I've found you can delete these.Hover over the URL in the drop-down and simply hit delete

Now Running Windows 7
Hi quick post; am now running W7 upgrade from Vista Home. No apparent problems so far (touch Wood).

Had 2 problems installing:-
1)The Windows Upgrade Advisor simply didn't work even after following MS recommended advice. (you click the start button and nothing happens)

2)It wouldn't accept my genuine accurately typed Product Key. Fortunately has the Microsoft Dinosaur finally learned something about customer relations, it allows you to proceed without a key and I have 30 days to sort the problem out. (By the Wat : The Product Key Issue is a KNOWN bug in Windows 7)

So I have apparently successfully done an upgrade and have all my applications and files intact : TOUCH WOOD as Phil Michelson never says!

Day 2
W7 has done something odd to the Task Bar (show desktop has zoomed off to the bottom right corner) it has done away with my beloved Quick Launch, but I'm beginning to suss it out; you have to "pin" applications to the task bar and you still drag icons onto the task bar.

So far I have one application Pegasus Email which has a disappearing tool-bar (but that's no great problem) and I had to re-add my Canon MP500 printer which I think effectively changed the driver. Anyway so far all is painless.

Day 3
The scanner won't work remotely (Cannon MP Navigator) apparently Cannon aren't ready for W7.
My first serious worry about W7 is the Taskbar which seems to be all over the place and to be a bit weird. My pinned applications "move about". Before on Vista all my important apps were 1 click away in the the Quick Launch Window.