Adventures in IT

I've recently been playing with Docker on Windows in conjunction with Linux on Windows .  I'm really amazed at how cool the stuff coming out of Microsoft is under Satya Nadella.   When I was using Docker Toolbox on Windows my Dockerfiles would build correctly but as soon as I tried to run them in a Virtualbox host they would fail with the error " Something wicked happened resolving 'archive.ubuntu.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname) " Of course this error wasn't distribution specific and none of the distros I tried were working. The stack that I am using is Windows Home hosting Ubuntu on VirtualBox which is running Docker.  I'm using bash on Linux for Windows because it's easier to do stuff like ssh but it's not relevant to this setup. I tried setting the DNS in the Docker setup by using RUN steps to update /etc/resolv.  This felt a bit hacky and didn't work anyway. In the end the fix was to go to my Window...

I searched for "dead clown" but all the pictures were too disturbing.  I suppose that's kind of like the experience of trying to get classic ASP up and running with todays libraries I'm having to work on a legacy site that runs on classic ASP.  The real challenge is trying to get the old code to run on my Ubuntu virtual machine. There is a lot of old advice on the web and most of it was based on much older software versions, but I persevered and have finally managed to get classic ASP running on Apache 2.4 in Ubuntu. The process will allow you to have a shot at getting your code running, but my best advice is to use a small Windows VM.  There's no guarantee that your code will actually compile and run using this solution, and the effort required is hardly worthwhile. The Apache module you're looking for is Apache::ASP.  You will need to build it manually and be prepared to copy pieces of it to your perl include directories.  You will also need to m...

Microsoft Happiness I need to use a Windows server to deploy a program I'm busy writing. I kept on getting a problem with Apache starting up that prevented it from including the MS sql server pdo drivers. The message was: the program can't start because msvcp110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix the problem and this usually relates to the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 package not being installed. I had previously installed this (it's available on the Microsoft site ) but was still getting the error. Eventually I stumbled on this topic on the Apache friends forum which advised to copy the msvcp110.dll file to both the \xampp\apache\bin and the \xampp\php directories. Apparently Apache wasn't able to follow the OS path to find the file.  In my case it was already in the php directory but not with the other binaries for Apache. After copying it there Apache restarted without errors and the PDO dr...

This post is more of a "note to self" than an attempt to be useful to somebody else. I am even typing this post in Internet Explorer. It feels like a Pterodactyl is about to swoop into the room and try to shit on HTML standards. In any case I gave my backup laptop to my kid and so had to install Windows on it. Why? Well I want her to be able to play games so Windows seems the best choice. Plus she can still learn open source programming languages, albeit in a funny way. Luckily I remembered this blog that I read and they posted this really nifty tool called Ninite. Click the link here ( http://ninite.com/ ). This helpful tool lets you download a single install file that installs free (either OSS or free to use) software like Libre Office, Flash, Notepad++, antivirus, etc. Lets just say that it feels almost like an Ubuntu meta-package that helpfully installs everything you need, but you get to choose. Plus it's all free and the only software I don't tr...

A quick way to prefix all files in the directory is to run this command from your shell in the directory where your files are: for %a in (*) do ren "%~a" "prefix_%~a" The part of the command "prefix_" can be replaced with whatever prefix you want to swap with.

Scary Microsoft employee makes your life hard This post just builds on the post found here and gives you some shortcuts to solving the issue. Before visting that link run phpinfo() to check the compiler that was used for your version of PHP. Next thing to remember is that nts is short for "not thread safe" and ts is short for "thread safe". The 53 or 54 in the file names of the dll's you download from ( Microsoft correspond to the version of PHP you're using (5.3 or 5.4). Finally if you get the error about "This extension requires the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client ODBC Driver to communicate with SQL Server" you can download the native client from Microsoft . There is an .msi installer for just the client down the page if you don't want to download the whole package.

Just another working day in Redmond Being placed in the dire situation where my project has to go live and is being served by a Windows server that has no administrator I was forced to open up my RDP client and venture back in time to the days of dinosaurs and IIS. Unified Communications SSL Certificates are pretty much the only solution I could find to allow a single installation of IIS to share a single certificate that is valid for multiple domains that don't conform to a wildcard.  Whew, what a mouthful.  In other words if you have the domains http://www.ihatemicrosoft.com , http://www.apacheisfree.com , and http://www.graphicalinterfacesareforpansies.com you can use a SSL single certificate to secure them by setting up Subject Alternate Names . Getting them up and running was a cinch for me made only slightly more complicated by previous failed installation issues which I had to identify and undo. Firstly if somebody else has tried to install the certificate and f...

Microsoft Just Clowning Around Again If you're impatient here is the link that this article leads to SOAP is generally understood to be a simple method for systems to exchange data in a standard manner. This allows for remote systems to make calls on a server application. This sounds like a Good Idea. Microsoft, however, does not appear to fully understand the concept of SOAP when it comes to providing a SOAP server based on "datasets". Apparently the use of these datasets make it much easier for programmers using Microsoft languages to consume web services.  Unfortunately it makes it inconvenient for everybody else. So we have a standard way of doing things, but Microsoft decides to "improve" it and thereby forces everybody else to manually parse their XML responses. What is the point of having a standard method of accessing server methods if Microsoft then makes their implementation inoperable to Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, developers?  Isn...

The splash screen for Squirrel SQL I'm working on a project that draws from a Microsoft Sql Database.  Unfortunately there is no project documentation which means that it takes longer to become familiar with the design.  I particularly wanted an ERD of the database but this wasn't available.  So I looked for open source reverse engineering tools and found Squirrel SQL .  This is a very handy tool as it supports a variety of databases and client operating systems. Installing the Microsoft JDBC ( available from the Microsoft site ) was a snap: Just download the archive, extract it somewhere meaningful (I put mine as a directory in Squirrel). Edit the Microsoft SQL driver in your driver list Add an extra class and point it to the JDBC4 jar file (version 4 is required for newer versions of the JDK) The driver should load now Then proceed to add your connection alias per normal and you're connected to your MS-SQL database. The plugin to reverse engineer your dat...

When developing a website I usually consider how long it will take to code the site, template it, and test it.  Then I add a whole lot of extra time to make it work in Internet Explorer. A Microsoft User - ready to use the interweb In a way Microsoft's refusal to believe that there is a world of computing outside of Redmond is a good thing - it means that I get more billable hours per project.  Of course those billable hours are spent in frustrating searches through Google to try and work out all of the various quirks and bugs in Internet Explorer. I tend to think of Microsoft Internet Explorer users as "special needs" kids who are being set loose in the playground that is the Internet.  Barely able to prevent themselves from drooling on their keyboards and eating their mouses they demand that websites conform to their special needs.  Standards such as Javascript DOM level 2, HTML5, CSS, CSS3 are pretty much ignored because their parent doesn't believe in mode...

I'm troubleshooting a Microsoft mail server. I go through the logical process of realizing that unless Crazy Monkey Man has put some sort of voodoo magic on my server box there must be a good reason why a Microsoft product isn't working. *cough*. Right, I telnet onto the server, authenticate myself and try sending a "mail from:" command. I get the error message "452 4.3.1 Out of memory" which I assume means I'm out of memory. So I check my server memory to see that it still has 2 gig free and is under no heavy load right now. Hmm, how could an SMTP service demand 2gig of RAM I wonder? Not even Microsoft would be so daring to put a hardware requirement like that. The truth is that when Microsoft says that you're "Out of memory" what they actually mean is that you don't have write privileges to a particular folder ( click here if you don't believe me ). They just say you're out of memory to trick you. Sort of like Microsof...

My job title is "PHP developer" but because I'm the only person in the office familiar with Linux I get roped into administering the LAMP stack and other systems roles. Yesterday I was asked to investigate methods of monitoring individual bandwidth use. I've installed Squid proxy server so that all traffic is getting routed through my pet Linux box that I keep spare just for such occasions. Right, now I'm asked to install software to filter out sites not related to work (like OkCupid... uhoh). So I find a program that slots into Squid and install it. Bang! Facebook and all other sites mysteriously get replaced with a kitten (from icanhazcheeseburger.com) chewing network cables captioned as "Ohnoes!!!1 kitty is eating my megahurtz!". Putting me in charge results in silliness. I hope they do it less often. Anyway, despite my best efforts to make the access denied picture cute and adorable my users still hate me. It's tough being a webslave. A li...