This guide is instended for Galaxy S2 (which is the one I have, therefore the one I can speak about). Still, googling and searching in XDA forums might give you the answer for some other Android phones and the process shouldn’t be too far from this one for each other phone.

Now, of course this will void your guarantee but if you like me buy an International Unlocked version with no warranty, then it really worth to have a little risk in your life (because of course, if you do something wrong you might end bricking it!) and install a new ROM into it.

This will guide you on how to:

1)      Root your phone.

2)      Install CWM.

3)      Backup your current (stock) ROM.

4)      Install a new ROM in it.

I would say that each part of the process is really independent from the next one, and depending on what you need you might stop at each one. People might just need to root your phone, and that’s why this guide should be helpful for many people even though they might not be seeking to install a new ROM but only to root their phones or to do a backup.

Before we get our hands dirty, I would like to say: there is some risk in this operation, so unless you want to take the risk by yourself and not make me responsible for anything that happens to you phone, then stop right now. Again, many things can go wrong on this process and even though majority of people following these steps shouldn’t have any problems, you might end with a nice ‘brick’ valued in $550.00.

Now, if you are reading this new paragraph you want to continue, so let’s do it:

Previous steps before doing anything at all:

Before do anything in this process, you need to have the correct drivers for your Windows machine (sorry folks, this post is only for Windows machines). In order to safely do this, just download Samsung KIES software and install it. Connect your phone and the system will automatically install all drivers needed for your machine to ‘understand’ your phone. After that, I recommend using the same KIES to backup your phone contacts, tasks, calendar, etc, because at some point of the process you might need to wipe the entire phone, so you need to be able to get things back in your phone again.

Rooting your phone:

Ok, first thing you need to do is root your phone, which means that you will ‘unlock’ your phone to be able to take new ROMs and/or do more things than the regular stock firmware (or the manufacturer, in this case Samsung) would allow you to do. No, this is NOT related to unlocking you phone to work with different carriers, so don’t get me wrong.

You need to download the following file, which is called “GalaxyS2Root.zip”. This contains a .BAT file and it will connect to your phone (using the drivers you previously installed). Now, go ahead and connect your phone to your computer and wait a couple of minutes while your computer recognizes it and detects it as a known device. Once you have this, go ahead and run the .BAT file and it will do everything automatically, it will connect to your phone, do its thing and you will end with a rooted phone. Make sure you read the instructions on the .BAT process, like for example “Activating the setting for ‘Unknown Sources’ on your S2”.

Once completed, you can disconnect your phone and look for a new app called “Super User” which is like having a ‘root’ password in a Unix/Linux machine. Any time an app requests for ‘root’ or ‘administrator’ permissions on your phone to do something, you will be able to allow it.

Ok, so far you haven’t voided your warranty (if you have one), and you might stop here as this rooting process may be enough for you, as you only wanted to be able to use root apps. If not, you can continue to the next section: Installing CWM or “Clock Work Recovery Mode”. Attention: this WILL void your warranty.

Installing CWM:

First of all, CWM is just a recovery mode on steroids, which will give you the ability to do backups/restores, install new ROMs among many other things. So, having this at least to back up your entire phone isn’t a crazy idea after all.

To install CWM, you will need to download Odin, which is a software that “pushes” software into your cellphone’s guts. You can find both on this file here.

Once downloaded, again, you need to previously have installed your phone’s drivers. Once you connect your phone and give your PC sometime to recognize it, go ahead and execute Odin. It will take a couple of minutes to recognize your phone, but you will know it did because you will see something like this.

Once you get that, you are ready to “push” the CWM software into your phone. So, go ahead and select the option “PDA” and look for the CWM files (which you can download from here). Try using the latest version available, Google is your friend.

When you finish this process, you now are ready to work with ROMs and backup your current one, however, your phone now is TOTALLY your responsibility, warranty has been affected and any Samsung people will know it because you now have something like this when you boot your phone:

NOTE: there’s a way to get rid of that yellow triangle, you can obtain a USB jig for 10 bucks in Amazon, which will just shut off that yellow triangle for you, and will keep your phone ‘under the radar’. However, I consider this silly, as still if a Samsung technician needs to review the phone they will find it has been hacked and you still are not covered so, this is only if you really hate the yellow triangle to be there. Period.

Backing up your current (stock) ROM:

Ok, this part is HIGHLY recommended before doing anything else: back up your current ROM. This will store EVERYTHING in the same phone, but it will be a way to have a way out if something goes wrong at any point or to just have a backup in case you screw your phone in the future. This backup will reside in your phone’s memory.

First, you need to enter into CWM, to do so: with your phone turned on and the system running press and hold: Volume Up, Center button and Power button at the same time. Wait there for about 5 seconds and your phone will power off and power on again, don’t release any button yet, just hold into it until you see a screen with some wording in orange, blue or green color (depending on the CWM version you find). It will look similar to this:

Once there, go to the section “Backup/Restore” and make sure you use “Backup” option. It will take around 5-7 minutes to do an entire backup of your phone in your phone. Once completed, you can stop if you don’t want to go into anything else and just reboot your phone using the “Reboot phone” option. To go back, you might use a click on the Power button of the phone, although I didn’t test it I heard there is a CWM version that already supports touch feature.

If you ever need to restore your backup, you just need to go to the menu and you will find it if you go to the “Restore” option (duh!).

Installing a new ROM (going for the real thing!):

Ok, this part might work differently on different persons and I really don’t know why. Anyway, you just need to download the ROM and place it on your “downloads” folder inside your phone (a lot of people recommends doing it on the sdcard, but when I tried my CWM didn’t recognize the folder that was on the sdcard, maybe it’s the version but honestly this was the only way I found to do it).

Now, you just have to boot into CWM after placing it in the correct folder and select the option “Wipe data / factory reset”, then you go to “advanced” and select “Wipe Dalvik’s cache” and finally go back to the main menu and select “Install zip from Internal Card” and go to the folder and select the ROM’s zip. This will start the installation process which should take around full 10 minutes. You should do this while you are full of battery to avoid inconveniences. Depending on the ROM you might need to install some other things/packages along with the ROM.

Once completed, boot your phone up and it should take a while so don’t panic, it needs to re-install everything back again but you should be booting up on a new ROM already.

Enjoy!

NOTE: I would like to give special thanks to Max from GalaxyS2Root.com, his work is awesome and everything that is described here + many more things and even ROM reviews can be found at his site. Also, the files I provide in this guide were downloaded from his site, so all the credits (and donations) should go for him. Click here to visit it. 

Adding a new language to Magento can’t be easier than this. One thing I have noticed is that it’s really easier in this case to not use Magento Connect Manager. Sometimes it doesn’t work and for this specific case, it might easy to do it by hand so, let’s get started:

1. Go to the site: http://www.magentocommerce.com/translations and download the proper language that you are looking for.
2. Extract and upload the files you downloaded to your Magento’s root directory. Keep in mind it will upload files to your app folder in Magento, but unless you try with a language that you already have there, it won’t overwrite anything as it’s a new language.
3. Once you finish uploading, go to your Magento’s Admin.
4. Go to: System>Manage Stores.
5. Click on “Create A Store View”.
6. Once there comes the really important thing: Put the name you want for the “Name” field, but in your “Code” field, make sure you enter your main theme followed by a “_” (underscore) and then the name of the language you want to use. Even if you used a new template that you did or purchase it would be under a main template type (default or base). Let’s say you have a new template you purchased called “MAG0873″ and its folder resides under “default”. Also, let’s say you installed Spanish language, then you would put “default_spanish” in this field.
7. Save it and now go to:  System>Configuration.
8. There, select your new Store View name from the “Current Configuration Scope” item in the top left column.
9. Now, go to the option: General>Locale.
10. After that, uncheck the option “Use Website” and make sure you change “Locale” field to the language you downloaded (be specific according to the dropdown list!).
11. Save it after changing it and now clean your cache and refresh your FrontEnd.

It consists in a Windows Trojan virus (which means that it comes hidden somewhere, in an email, a file or something

MS Removal Tool Screenshot

else) and when opened it just installs a program in your computer which actually disconnects your computer from the Internet (it messes with the network connection so your machine will get totally disconnected from the Internet, so basically you will not be able to google about it or download any antivirus or fix tool). After that, every time you start your machine a fake “virus and malware protection program” gets started as well, it’s a screen that tells you that your computer is infected with X amount of viruses and that you need to get a program to actually kill these. Then it offers you to buy this protection online (that’s the only way your connection will work, to send out your credit card information to the attacker)

It appears with many names, different screens, but all of them operate just the same. Removing them is a pain, because you can’t relay on a simply fix tool or removal tool as they’re smart enough to even detect these tools as viruses (paradox, huh?) and they even get hidden so the tool can’t really fix them while they’re running, so this makes us think what we need to do: first we need to deactivate it for a moment, and once it’s not running we kill it.

Windows Tool

Sounds like the plot of an action movie, but that’s the way it is, first you need to find its files and make the virus not be able to recognize them and then you will remove these files (and any trace of them, using a fixing tool) to make sure you eradicate the virus from your computer. I had to do this recently, so I’m going to describe my process which can result in very helpful for you if you need it as it should be quite the same on your computer:

First step: Locate and disable

Well, these viruses have something in common, they put their startup files in the same location, so basically you need to find them and “confuse it”. You won’t be able to delete them initially, because that won’t fix the problem yet. So, basically start up your machine, wait until it actually suggests you to “scan” the machine for viruses, let it do it its thing and once you can have control again, open your Start menu (click on Start button) and then go to “My Computer” or just “Computer” (this depends if you use Windows XP or Windows Vista/7).

After you are in control and looking at your hard disks, let’s go find the bastard! But first, you need to make sure you are able to see hidden files, you will need this. If you are not so proficient in Windows, I suggest you do a google search for ‘show hidden files Windows X’ where ‘X’ is the actual version you use (XP, Vista, 7). Now, assuming you already are showing hidden files, go to the following locations, depending on your system:

For Windows XP:

For Windows Vista & Windows 7:

Basically, once you are in these locations, you will see a bunch of folders, but you should also see 1 or more executables (they don’t have folder’s icons, but another thing and usually they have weird names without any real meaning or that aren’t even a word). These executables are the core of this virus, so go ahead and rename these files (just in case, write down their name, it might happen that if you are not so good with Windows or computers, you can be screwing up something, but any way you are already screwed up by this virus, so why not?). Change their names to something else, whatever it is, something like a number for each file: 1, 2, 3…

Once you have completed this step, then reboot your computer. If everything was fine, next time you reboot you will not see the “Windows Protection” software loading at the startup, that means we are half the way there.

Second step: Kill the bastard

OK, we have taken control of our machine again, but we want to clean it up, so go get a nice freeware tool or at least shareware to clean your computer. In my case, I used Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org) which is free for few days, so you can use to clean this mess and then thank it. Run it and it will find and clean your computer in few mins and you will be ready to go again.

About the prevention:

You don’t need anything paid, people keeps asking me if they should buy an antivirus like Norton, McAfee, etc, nothing of that is really needed and honestly (for personal use I mean), I think this companies keep existing just because of the people’s ignorance. There are a lot of antivirus out there which are free for personal use and that work just as efficient (and probably better, because they are a lot lighter than Norton for example) that you can use. To name a few:

-          Antivir (http://www.free-av.com)

-          Avast (http://www.avast.com)

-          AVG (http://free.avg.com)

What they would do is exact the same thing as any paid antivirus: just detect and (try to) prevent you getting infected, once infected they will not necessarily clean or fix it, you will need to do it yourself like in this case or get a removal tool (which mostly are free too by the way). Also, these and other viruses might get under any antivirus’ radar, and at the end the bets antivirus is just: don’t open what you don’t know what it is.

Actually, there are plenty of them, but honestly I prefer Dropbox among any other, and there are 3 simple reasons for it: a) Simplicity, you don’t have to deal with interfaces, usernames and passwords, big heavy memory sucking softwares, simply one client who runs in your environment and integrates in your file explorer or however you want to call it, depending on your OS

Get Started with DropBox

flavor; b) Multi-platform: I have all major OS flavors at home: Windows, Linux and Mac, so I need something that work on all of them and better yet: at the same time! No extra fees, no devices limits; c) It works with mobile devices such as iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Android.

Now, nothing has been said here that you can’t find by just going into Dropbox page and check its features, but what can really make your day by using Dropbox? Well, I can help you giving few ideas on how I work. All these examples should work for any system: Windows, Linux and Mac (and that’s the actual beauty of it!).

FileZilla FTP site synced everywhere:

FileZilla Project

if you are a programmer or developer (at least a respectable one!) you surely have heard and even use FileZilla FTP client. It happens that FileZilla uses a simple file to keep all your FTP sites information, so what do you need to keep all your computers synced at the same time, meaning that if you add a new FTP site on your Windows FileZilla your Design team can actually use it too from their Mac computers? Simple:

1. Locate your ‘sitemanager.xml’ file or at least, the more complete one and move it to your Dropbox folder where you want to keep it. A hint for all systems, this is the regular path where you can find it:

 

Windows 7 & Vista – C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla\sitemanager.xml Mac OS X – /users/<username>/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml Linux – /home/<username>/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml

 

2. Once you moved the sitemanager you wanted, now create a soft link for that file that points to your Dropbox’s, that will “cheat” FileZilla making it use the ‘sitemanager.xml’ in your Dropbox while he thinks it is really on your disk. Here’s a hint how to do it on each system:

Well, that’s basically it, launch FileZilla in one system at a time and that should do it. Of course, it is not recommendable to use FileZilla on all the systems at the same time and moment, as the file might be locked by the first one who uses it, but still, if the goal is to keep it synced, that will work.

Passwords everywhere:

Keepass

Well, I am very disorganized with my passwords, and I hate to use paper because paper gets lost (and that’s actually a potential way of getting robbed, as passwords and delicate information shouldn’t be kept on paper, unless you have a big safe box). In any case, I use a nice software called ‘KeePass‘. What it does is that it stores all your passwords in a very nice interface, encrypts your passwords files for security and offers you all flavors: Windows, Linux and Mac versions! You can check it out here: www.keepass.info.

The way to configure this one is simpler: you just create a configuration file the first time you use and you make sure to save it on your Dropbox. And on the other system, the first you open it, just make sure you open the file from your Dropbox and that’s it! If you think that wasn’t enough joy, it also comes for mobile devices such as iPhone and BlackBerry!

Well, that’s basically in terms of apps that share a common configuration, you could also set up your Outlook’s .PST file and keep different computers all synced on emails, but as there is no Outlook for Windows (at least not without virtualizing a Windows machine or piece of it using WINE, if you want to read about virtualization, you can click here).

Now, the regular features that you probably already knew about Dropbox or you just can see in their features presentation: you can store there your documents, pictures and music (legal music of course!) with any of your partners among different computers. It could be by just installing Dropbox on different computers and using the same account or by just sharing a specific folder with someone and giving him access to it. They will be able to actually see the folder in their own Dropbox and use it with you (so you both have a folder in common on each computer, making things very nice for a working environment for example).

Dropbox has a free version which offers you initially 2GB, but you can get more, up to 13GB if you share Dropbox among your friends and they open an account using your referral. If you really want to get more space, then you probably want to pay their plans, which I consider not so expensive counting that I can have a virtual drive which I know is not going to fail or just get broken.

Dropbox encrypts communication and encrypts your files at their servers, meaning that they’re protected from a breach on their servers, however, if someone has access to your password at some point, they will actually have access to your files. What you can do is then encrypt your files BEFORE actually uploading to Dropbox (this is called “client side encryption) and then you can decrypt them on each computer when you receive them. That’s of course if you want to be double sure no one can access your files ever! Still, we have seen there are a couple of apps for encrypting client side on the way: SecretSync and BoxCryptor, but I will not cover them here because they’re still in Beta phase and they aren’t working yet on any system but Windows.

If you want to give Dropbox a try, I recommend you visiting it here. By using this specific link and not going to their website directly you will be giving me some MBs to my account, if you don’t mind of course.

Still, the future points to a serious competition for Dropbox called SparkleShare. It sounds very promising as it is OpenSource, which means it has a lot of people behind working on it, but what seems very promising behind it (not only that it will probably be totally free) is that if you already have an FTP server you might be able to have unlimited cloud space by using your own server or you can even use GitHub as your server. This tool is thought to be a collaborative OpenSource tool, so we will have to see what comes in it once it’s released.

I already had my laptop on Ubuntu since 1 year ago (using version 10.04, as I prefer LTS versions) and I have been using Linux systems for a while now and I have to say that this new version which ships with Unity as an interface for the first time, wasn’t an easy thing to swallow.

At the beginning, it wasn’t simple to digest the new way of managing the system, which I consider a hybrid that took the best ideas already known from interfaces such as Windows Aero, Mac and older Ubuntus and mixed all in a blender to become this new interface called “Unity”, which is in my opinion a funny and challenging name if you think that it is a “union” between some things that have worked on other GUIs but at the same time it is the “separation” point for more orthodox users from Ubuntu, as it is a total change that not everyone is prepared or even willing to accept.

The new GUI was hard to understand at the beginning, because I was used to a “Start” button that would open my main menu and start from there. This one now, uses a lateral bar, which shows the more important icons for the software you want to place there and the software that you have currently open. It’s a mix between Windows’ task bar and Mac’s floating bar but in its own style.

What is kind of unbelievable is that the bar is not that customizable, for example, it goes on the left side and you can’t actually change it to be anywhere else. This is kind of contradictory to what Ubuntu (or even better: Linux) is: an open system which gives users liberty to configure and manage their systems the way they want.

One nice feature now is that you can actually type a keyword for the program or feature that you are actually looking for in your computer, and the Unity GUI will suggest you the different options related to what you typed. Let’s say you want to type a document in LibreOffice’s Writer, and you probably don’t know or don’t remember it is called “Writer” and the first thing that comes to your (Microsoft’s seduced and suggested) mind is “Word”, you will see what you are looking for though.

Also, if you typed for something that currently don’t have installed, the system will even suggest from a list of the current application that you can actually obtain and install from the repositories, meaning that if it’s not there, Ubuntu will still get it for you.

Something that was added from Mac and that I haven’t ever liked and I don’t like here either is adding the menus at the top detached from the actual applications. This means that no matter application you open, it might not show up the menu on top of the application’s window but on top of the screen. This is something natural for Mac users but not for Windows users and honestly, I don’t find too much sense on it.

I consider this new version as a new paradigm for all users, if we all remember when Windows 95 was launched, many people criticized the way they changed things from how they were done in Windows 3.1, but by the end of the day everybody got used and accepted it, and if you put Today an interface similar to what Windows 3.1 to someone who used it, that person won’t like it at all.

We will see how this evolutes for the new version of Ubuntu 11.10 which has already been announced to be launched for October 13^th, 2011 tentatively.

Even a simple thing like making one of the CMS pages to use a different (custom) layout can be a real pain, specially if you are a newbie. That’s why I decided to share how I was able to do a custom layout for a Magento site after a lot of errors and tries.

I found some information about it googling, however, I also found that the information was not always complete. It even took me several tries in the Magento environment (that’s why it’s important to have a development environment separated from your regular LIVE environment, maybe a Virtual Machine is what you need for this). Basically, all you have to do is modify 3 files and you are good to go.

Magento has a WIKI about this, but honestly, I find it confusing and not really well explained. I really simplified the process with my explanation here:

Step 1:
We need to create an extension with its own configuration. This will avoid any issues when updating Magento in the future. What you have to do is create a new “config.xml” in your local extension folders, like this:

I did this path in order to be organized, assuming that I could have Special Layouts with different columns approach. The code for this file should be similar to this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
 <global>
  <cms>
   <layouts>
    <custom_static_page_name_here>
     <label>Custom static page name</label>
     <template>page/custom-static-page-name.phtml</template>
     <layout_handle>page_custom-static-page-name</layout_handle>
    </custom_static_page_name_here>
   </layouts>
  </cms>
 </global>
</config>

Step 2:
We now need to “activate” this new layout in our environment. To do so, you need to add the module like this:

What is really critical and important on the previous lines is to notice the name of the XML file you need to create. It contains the name of the folder or extension, the underscore and then the name of the specific extension ramification. If you do this differently, Magento will not understand it at all therefore, it will not work.

Now, about the content for this XML file, it should be:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
 <modules>
  <SpecialLayouts_RightColumnLayouts>
   <codePool>local</codePool>
   <active>true</active>
  </SpecialLayouts_RightColumnLayouts>
 </modules>
</config>

Step 3:
Finally, you need to create the actual template page that you have configured in your extension file. You need to use the exact same name for it and it should be located at:

In order to do this template, I recommend using one of the actual templates that are already there for the left or right column, depending on what is needed. It is the easier way to go from an already created phtml structure than trying to do it from the scratch.

Step 4:
This is the easier step in the process, once you have everything on your server, then you should go to your Magento admin, clear your cache and configure your layout on the CMS page needed. To do this, you should go to your CMS record and then click on the “Design” (or “Custom Design” in Magento 1.4.X) tab. In the “Layout” Dropdown, the name you assigned to your should appear now, you select it and save the page. Once again, refresh your cache, and if you go to your new page’s URL, it should show the new layout, so you are done!

Magento Admin - CMS record editing

Optional/Additional Step:
I have read of people having issues with a message which reads:

People have reported that the solution they have found was to just delete the file: app\etc\use_cache.ser, I prefer to just rename it to something like: app\etc\use_cache.ser_bkp, that way I don’t lose it in case I need it, however, I don’t think this should be an issue if you follow the steps correctly.

A couple of years ago I acquired this little Vosky, which by that time I didn’t think it was going to be so useful and represent that much saveing in money for me. When I bought it, I really did because I wanted to be able to do Skype calls (using Skype regular calls or even SkypeOut calls) regularly, without the hassle of being in front of my computer or having to carry my laptop around the house.

I connected it, and saw how easy it was to use, I just connected a regular touch tone phone to it, connected the landline and connected it to my desktop computer at home and started doing calls in Skype from a simple and regular wireless phone which also received regular landline’s calls. Later, Skype upgraded and guess what? They removed the Speed-Dial option from Skype (I’m still wondering why they would such thing), and this is what is basically used in order to be able to call a Skype contact in your list through the wireless phone (meaning that you don’t need to be in front of the computer running Skype) but I found a solution here, where someone did a ‘plugin’ which can let you set up Skype’s Speed-dial contacts even with the latest Skype’s version.

But soon, I discovered I could get more from this simple $30 investment, I could just set it up as my personal ‘follow me’ system, which would allow me to receive any Skype call received at my computer but at my cellphone. That way, if a friend called me from anywhere in the world to my Skype, I won’t miss the call when I was at the office or just outside my house, because the box would use my home’s landline and would route the Skype call to my cellphone at the cost of a regular home to cellphone call.

Well, so far, I felt that those 50 bucks were greatly spent, but… I lived in a big house (my parent’s house by that time), so I basically had to have the wireless phone with me and sometimes its reception wasn’t the best (when you live in a 2 floor house with concrete walls, signal is a big issue for wireless phones and just one is not enough), so I started playing and found out that I could connect the box to the phone system! This diagram shows how I did it.

Well, this made what I thought impossible: the entire house could make a Skype or SkypeOut call, from any of the phone extensions in it and of course receive them. It even could identify using the called ID which Skype user was calling me, I felt in the top of the (geek) world.

This box comes with a very useful and money saving functionality, we all know that Skype’s rates are very competitive, as for a lot of countries calls can be made as cheap as 1 cent per minute. But, what if you are in the office or just driving home and you need to do an important call overseas? Well, the box could work just as a gateway, very similar to how prepaid international calling cards work, and when you dial home from your cellphone or any other phone, you just needed to enter a 3 digit code that you could set up in the box and you would have access to the Skype’s account at home. This means that from this point you could even call any of the Skype users in your list (using their speed-dial that you previously set up for each one of them of course) or any phone number in the world. What you would be spending is the cost from your cellphone to your home call (which in some cases can be null, as you have free minutes in your cellphone’s plan) and the SkypeOut cost for the amount of time of the call which can be just few cents.

This was so great, I basically had my own calling card system at home, and I didn’t have to dial annoying 800 numbers which I won’t remember or inifinite 10 digits code for the calling card, just simple and easy: calling home, 3 digits code and then just the speed-dial code (which is 1 or 2 digits and then asterisk) or the number I wanted to call outside the country.

But later, during a vacation trip outside the country, I realized that having the system calling me to my cellular phone would result in a tragedy for my budget due to the high roaming rates, so I started using my geeky imagination and came with a plan: I needed to find out a way to make this box route a regular phone call but to a Skype account. Well, I figured out a way to use the ‘gateway’ functionality, and set up a second Skype account which I would use in my netbook which I bring with me in any trip outside the country and set up a speed-dial for it on my home’s Skype account to that mobile Skype’s account and that was it!

Basically, anyone who I would like to be able to find me during my international trip, just had to call my house and dial in the 3 digit code (which I would provide as they were relatives a friends and I could just change it once I get back) and then dial the speed-dial for my account and that was it, I could keep in touch with anyone in another country, and it won’t cost me a penny, because the call would be made Skype to Skype, which is free and for that person, they would be calling locally to my home. Instructions were not that complicated, because if you think about it, as I said before, the concept is just the same as if your friend or relative buys a prepaid calling card to call you, with the only difference that he doesn’t have to know any new phone number, he just dials your home which probably he already knows, and he also doesn’t have to look for a long and tedious code to be entered every time he has to call you, he only has to dial a 3 digit password and then your speed-dial which consists of a number and then asterisk.

As if this was not enough, the Vosky comes with a voicemail software too, just in case someone calls you when you’re out, so it also works as your voicemail system, which you can check once you get home and it stores everything on your computer, meaning that you have it safe.

Of course, this could be better yet for those users who can use Skype at the mobile phones (such as Windows Mobile, iPhone or Android users) because they won’t even have to bring the netbook with them, they just need their cellphone and that’s it.

So, when you try to run your website, you get something like this:

Well, basically what’s happening is that some functions go deprecated from PHP 5.2.X to 5.3.X and these are present in Magento 1.3.X (but not in Magento 1.4.X).

The solution is a quick fix that involves just 3 files:

Open the file lib/Varien/Object.php, and do the following change:

Look for the line:

Change it to:

Now, go to the file: app\code\core\Mage\Core\Controller\Request\Http.php and change:

Look for the line:

Change it to:

Also, go to app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Model\Category\Attribute\Backend\Sortby.php and change:

Look for the line:

Replace With:

Finally, open the file: app\code\core\Mage\Admin\Model\User.php and change:

Look for the line:

Replace With:

That’s it, you Magento environment should run again.

I hope this was helpful for you, and if it was, why don’t you share it among all others?

Windows host machine virtualizing Ubuntu.

Sometimes I am amazed of how little are Virtual Machines used by regular developers or testers. In Today’s era, where economy is not at its best, many developers don’t know they can have a complete test environment in their own computers without having to actually harm anything in their systems.

Virtual machines can be used for anything: from the simple user who receives emails and some times doesn’t want to open certain “compromising” attachments in their own machines (yes, you, the guy in suit with the corporate laptop), the normal home user who doesn’t have too much knowledge on viruses or malwares and wants to try a new application that he just downloaded or received by email, the developer or freelancer who doesn’t have the money to invest in a test or staging server and doesn’t want to put his machine as a web server or already has IIS or Apache and doesn’t want to go through the painful process of trying to make those bad boys to live together (which is something possible, but really painful!).

What about the person who has to test things in different environments? The Mac web developer who has to make sure all his developments are properly seen in Internet Explorer or even Firefox for PC (which sometimes can show things differently) or simply to give support for non web things to users who doesn’t have Mac or use Linux or viceversa.

Honestly, Virtual Machines are very useful, if you haven’t use it before take my word and try it, you will not regret it.

Now, if you are a newbie on this, and you say “Ok, where to begin on this?”, I will tell you that it depends. There are many options for Virtual Machines softwares, some free, some expensive, some others… not so friendly. I have used VMWare (before it was acquired by EMC²) and it was really powerful and easy enough. Microsoft has its own flavor of it: Virtual PC, I tried it once, long time ago and I didn’t like it, besides it only let you work with Windows environments, but if you need to install a Linux machine to be able to test Linux then they will not allow it. As I am an Open Source and Freeware lover, I prefer Oracle’s Virtual Box, it wasn’t originally started by Oracle, they just acquired it and it already was great before Oracle.

Ubuntu Linux with Windows being virtualized.

It is very similar to previous versions of VMWare, but they work great and the most important thing is that they work on any environment: Windows, Linux or Mac, you name it.

You have the Virtual Machine software, so what now? Well, you have to get the OS you want (Windows, Linux, OSX, etc), if you migrated to Windows Vista or 7 and you still want to have the capability of using your old Windows XP license then, there you go, get that CD that you have stored in the back of your desktop drawer. On the other hand if you are a Windows or Mac user but you have curiosity and you want to taste Linux, well, download the free distribution version of your preference and go ahead.

Whatever your reason is, Virtual Machines are really useful, so I would recommend you go ahead and start with Oracle’s Virtual Box, and install any OS of your preference, if you are a web developer, specially a PHP or any other *nix flavor, go ahead and install a server in that machine, you will thank me for that.