Larkins

It hurts to be creative

Larkins Dsouza — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:11:19 +0000

If you are a creative person, then I believe you will have one of the most hardest and the most rewarding life. Many are creative but only few make it because the world doesn’t appreciate create people and if you cave in those amazing ideas are lost forever. I believe the best way to do something different and stay creative is to show the world the finger and just do what you love.

The struggle of getting your creative idea to be real is also a major challenge and in where many creative people don’t succeed. I believe the best way to solve is to get moral support from like minded people.

Need to increase the amount of work done at PleaseGuide.ME

Larkins Dsouza — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:16:04 +0000

It’s 5:40 Am and I can’t yet still open my eyes to the fullest. Damn sleep, I kept an alarm at 4AM but got up at 5Am. Lot of work remain to be done at PleaseGuide.ME. We still haven’t come with the adequate design for the system. But the system is getting popular, people are getting the hang of it. Now my usual days work is eat, sleep and PleaseGuide.ME. Here is the picture of my new work station specially designed so that I can work better on PGME.

Crazy traffic at PleaseGuide.ME

Larkins Dsouza — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:23:56 +0000

Today I had amazing useful traffic at www.PleaseGuide.ME well most of it was useful. Getting them answered is a challenge. I had a little help from friends to whom I am grateful to. I need to really work on this project. I got to catch with my technical team to work together on new features and design.

Getting Started with PHP – Installation, test program and history

Larkins Dsouza — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:13:36 +0000

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document.

PHP can be deployed on most web servers and as a standalone interpreter, on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. A competitor to Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) server-side script engine and similar languages, PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers, including Facebook.

I hope to accomplish straight forward no bullshit tutorials here if you have any questions or doubts please COMMENT HERE.

There are many AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) installer out there such as Foxserv, PHPTraid, XAMPP etc. AMP are solution stacks for computer platforms, these software bundles are used to run dynamic Web sites or servers on your PC without the need of a actual server. We are going to use the easiest one XAMPP:

Step 1: For windows user download the XAMPP from here http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html and for Linux users please refer here http://www.larkins.org/linux/install-apache-mysql-php-and-phpmyadmin-on-ubuntu.html

Step 2: Run the downloaded installation file

Remember this path, this is where you are going to work.

Step 3: After the installation is complete, you will find XAMPP under Start | Programs | XAMPP. You can use the XAMPP Control Panel to start/stop all server and also install/uninstall services.

Press Start where it’s mentioned Apache and MySql and do not touch the rest

Remember by clicking “Close” the software doesn’t close if you want to stop XAMPP and close click stop for both and click exit. Clicking “Close” just minimizes it to the tray.

Step 4: After running XAMPP, Open a browser like Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome etc type the address http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/ in your browser and check if the following screen comes.

If something like this comes your installation is complete.

Your first PHP program and the steps to run it:

Open a Notepad (or any of your favorite editor maybe Notepad++ or Dreamweaver etc) and type in the following:

PHP Testing

echo “If this works, Larkins is really Great!”;
?>

And save it to C:\xampp\htdocs or wherever you installed but with this file structure i.e in xampp>>htdocs save it as test.php

Now got to browser and type http://localhost/test.php that’s it. It should work fine.

History and Resources:

Here are some links you need to know about php:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Php
http://www.php.net/
HISTORY of PHP

If you have any questions please comment here. I will answer as soon as possible than in any other medium.. And may the FORCE be with you.

How to Verify PayPal and buy online without a credit card?

Larkins Dsouza — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:30:22 +0000

You can verify your PayPal account or buy anything online without a credit by using something called virtual credit card (VCC). In India HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank provide this facility.

Imagine you find a awesome song online and you were dying to download. Or you just found a good web hosting site whose prices and features are too good to be true or you just bagged a awesome project in freelancing whose pay would make you a lot richer. You are excited… You are heart is racing… You can’t believe it and click buy now. Then you realize that you need a credit card or a paypal account. Your heart settles but you say to yourself “that’s ok, I will just contact them and see if they can take a check or cash drop”, only to get a polite reply that they don’t have such a facility yet, but will be happy to take the suggestion.

For years it has been difficult for Indian webmasters to buy anything online in international market and it’s still is if you can not afford a credit card…. Well not anymore.

Get yourself a Virtual credit card from any of the banks mentioned earlier. In this tutorial I am using Netsafe from HDFC bank. Learn the account charges in their website.

Procedure to get Netsafe activated:

Get a account from HDFC bank even a savings account will do.
Wait for the debit card and online details usually take a week or two.(Note: Debit card and PIN and mailed separately)
Register for Netsafe from their website
You need Debit card and it’s PIN
You create a username and password different from you internet banking account.

The main page of net safe look like this:

The procedure of creating a card is pretty straight forward you enter the amount and click GO. Just remember to create the current foreign exchange rate you can use services like Yahoo! Currency Converter and also remember to keep some extra amount for example if you want to create Rs500 card enter limit at least of Rs600, don’t worry the remaining amount will be credited back to you account though it may take some time to reflect in you account statement.

A card will be created after a nice animation. Which will display Card Limit, Card holder’s name, Card number, CVV2 (a 3 digit code) and Expiry date along with a visa logo. Your NetSafe Card is ready for use online in any Visa supported payment systems this includes PayPal. Use the number and expiry of the card instead of credit / debit card number while shopping online. For your security and protection, your NetSafe Card expires within 23-46 hours if not used. The NetSafe Card is a one time use card and can be used for only one transaction on ANY online shopping site. The NetSafe Card number is a single use number. This card can only be used for internet purchases. This card cannot be used for mail order or telephone order purchases.

Avoid using your NetSafe Card when:

You will be required to present your actual plastic HDFC Bank Card to receive your purchase, including some airline and movie tickets – check each merchant’s policy carefully before you purchase!
Recurring charges will be automatically charged to your card.

Verify you PayPal account

Create a Netsafe card and copy the details in a notepad.
Click verify you account in PayPal
Enter the details
Check you transaction in Netsafe account and not in you internet account.
You will get the four digit code in 4-5days according to paypal but I got it in seconds.
Your are good to go

Remember never to send cash using paypal because the card is used only once. You can directly use the cards it’s perfectly safe.

Install Apache, MySQL, PHP and phpMyAdmin On Ubuntu

Larkins Dsouza — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:21:18 +0000

In this guide I will show you how to install a LAMP system. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. Open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal). Copy/Paste the following line of code into Terminal and then press enter:

1) Install Apache
sudo apt-get install apache2
Test if Apache works Open up any web browser and then enter the following into the web address: http://localhost/

2) Install PHP
sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
In order for PHP to work and be compatible with Apache we must restart it. Type the following code in Terminal to do this: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

4) Install MySQL
sudo apt-get install mysql-server

5) Install phpMyAdmin
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin

Now just restart Apache and you are all set!
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

TROUBLESHOOTING:
Sometimes phpMyAdmin simply doesn’t work. Don’t need to panic simply type:
sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/

Copying files to /var/www use code: gksudo nautilus

gksudo nautilus