Got woken up this morning by the TV blaring. I don’t watch TV. Turned it off and got into the shower. Came out and it was back on.. blaring again. The volume controls itself and apparently likes to waver around 80-90dB. Weird thing is it keeps going to a certain Latino channel. I had to unplug the damn thing to make it stop. Hope it doesn’t come on tonight or the hotel will have to collect their possessed TV from the flower bed down below. I’m just gonna chuck it from the balcony too.

I’ve been in this hotel for 4 months and never touched the TV. So it is odd that it just came on today. I’m wondering if it shorted out somewhere. That doesn’t explain why it would go back to the Latino channel every time. I switched the channels and turned it off at the power instead of the remote (full off) and it still came back on and surfed to the Latino channel as I watched.

I want to get to the bottom of this and figure out why it’s happening. I’m guessing this just a shorted circuit. I ruled out the remote playing up because I took out the battery and that didn’t stop the TV. I just can’t figure out why it would surf to a channel, then turn up the volume on that channel.

My other guess is someone is playing a prank on me. It has turned on while I’m on the balcony so I think it is unlikely someone is using a remote, since it wouldn’t penetrate a wall, would it? They could also be doing it without knowing it. Maybe the hotel walls are thin enough.

Some colored pencil drawings Joana did today.

View more drawings in the Joana category.

Technodyne LLC., went bust on May 31st. I had been working for them from late November last year.

I had been working remotely from Fiji since January, and suddenly everyone was offline on the same day. At first I thought it was a US public holiday or company holiday, whatever, and just shrugged it off. I was working on my own time and had deadlines measured in weeks, so I wasn’t too concerned.

The next day however, our previous Development Lead popped up on the otherwise desolate internal company IM network. His first message was, have you heard the news? A sick feeling came to my stomach. I’m on a dead network, no one in office had replied to my emails, NY must be under alien attack.

With my experience in programming, when you encounter an anomaly (bug) you must assume you are the one in error, and not the underlying system. So the sick feeling really was, I have been cut off from the company communications network - my project has been terminated. But his exact words was “heard the news” which implied something broader. Yes it was, the news at large. Technodyne had been involved in a scandal which resulted in the death of the company.

Technodyne had seemed like a very stable company at first, but the inconsistency of payments for my projects and lack of feedback on project achievements was slowly eating away at my trust (as an employee) in the company. Never in a zillion years did I suspect the scandal it was involved in. Then again, I had been working remotely from half way around the world as most other contractors were doing.

As a place of work, I had been at the office for about 2 months and the other employees were probably the friendliest I’ve ever worked with. The sudden and unexpected close of the company has been quite upsetting to my plans. I can only imagine how bad it is for those full time employees employed on site, especially those on work visas. I just hope they are all doing well.

I thought I’d post up Joana’s drawing at 4 years old. She keeps amazing us everyday with her talent in drawing. To see more of her drawings go to the joana category.

Kid heros

Joana and Lewa Heros

Sick Girl

I’ve always known that Facebook is bad for you. Now I have proof, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110523091541.htm

;-P

Over at SearchEngineLand there is a discussion concerning Bing copying Google’s search results fueled by an experiment performed by Google to prove this point.

The experiment in a nutshell was set up by Google employees to provide fake search results for meaningless phrases such as hiybbprqag and see if Bing would show the same results. The Google employees then used IE to click on the results in Google and monitored the results in Bing. After some time the results showed up in Bing.

The Director at Bing, Stefan Weitz, already explains some of the tools used to “rank” pages which explains why the Google experiment shows the results it does.

As you might imagine, we use multiple signals and approaches when we think about ranking, but like the rest of the players in this industry, we’re not going to go deep and detailed in how we do it. Clearly, the overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search, so we can guess at the best and most relevant answer to a given query.
Opt-in programs like the [Bing] toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites. This “Google experiment” seems like a hack to confuse and manipulate some of these signals.

For one the experiment was performed by Google employees in pursuit of the result they wanted and expected. The conclusion is thus invalid regardless of the outcome. If the outcome had been different they would likely have tried another approach in order to get the desired outcome - if not already the case.

The experiment only validates that Bing uses the user’s “clickstream” to determine which sites are important to that user. Google does the same with their results. No one complains there.

The Google engineers should already know this. They should know that what they are seeing is their own clickstream, not Google’s results. They are seeing themselves visiting that site often enough to make it important to them in the eyes of Bing. That is why Bing is showing those results, not because it copied Google. It is because the user clicked on it over and over.

There may be a factor that the result is listed on Google search results, which is a site the user would consider relevant to their objectives, but this was not tested in the experiment. In any case, this is the same as any website linking to another site, giving it a measure of relevancy to a certain query.

The only reason it coincides with Google’s results is that they made it so. They mislead Bing to think they found those sites important to them. What did they expect? They have the same algorithm built into Google.

The only issue here is whether Bing should be using the users clickstream? If Google can, why shouldn’t Bing? Is there more for Bing to gain? Maybe? Is there more for end users to gain? Definitely. I wouldn’t want Google to not remember which sites I find relevant personally, same with Bing.

The PHP Pages Component is a Joomla component that allows you to create PHP pages inside Joomla. It is quite a simple component but very powerful. I use it whenever I need to put together a quick PHP page in Joomla, and do not want to have to package a full blown component with MVC skeleton and all. The PHP pages created in the component has full access to the Joomla API and thus can do anything a Joomla component can.

A few days ago a Joomla developer posted on our forum and mentioned some issues and suggestions with the PHP Pages Component. I use the component a lot and have come to ignore those issues altogether. However, being the lazy developer I am, always calculating the best way to do less work, I had to spend some time on the component’s development in order to gain some time later one when using it.

The new Joomla PHP Pages Component now comes with HTML/PHP/JavaScript code syntax highlighting (provided by the awesome CodeMirror project). Other User Interface fixes were made to make developing  PHP Pages faster and simpler.

The code is currently very alpha, but works pretty well as far as I can see. Go download it if you haven’t already. Trust me, if you use Joomla as much as I do, it will make your life a lot easier.

You can send SMS (TXT Messages) for free to most Phone carriers by sending an email to their Email to SMS gateway.

A list of carriers email to SMS gateways is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMS_gateways

I wrote a class based on this a while ago but never got around to finishing it:

< ?php
/**
 * Send SMS via Email to SMS gateways
 *
 * Please note that the list of carreirs is UTF-8 encoded. ie: Mexico != México
 *
 * @author gabe@fijiwebdesign.com
 * @link http://www.fijiwebdesign.com/
 */
class email2sms {
	/**
	 * A list of the major Phone carriers and their Email 2 SMS gateway syntax
	 * Compiled from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carriers_providing_SMS_transit
	 */
	protected static $carriers = array(
		array("Airtel", "Andhra Pradesh, India", "#@airtelap.com"),
		array("Airtel", "Karnataka, India", "#@airtelkkk.com"),
		array("Alaska Communications Systems", "USA", "#@msg.acsalaska.net"),
		array("Alltel Wireless Verizon Wireless", "USA", "#@text.wireless.alltel.com,#@mms.alltel.net"),
		array("aql", "UK", "#@text.aql.com"),
		array("AT&T Wireless", "USA", "#@txt.att.net,#@mms.att.net"),
		array("AT&T", "USA", "#@mmode.com"),
		array("AT&T Mobility", "USA", "#@mms.att.net,#@txt.att.net,#@cingularme.com"),
		array("AT&T", "USA", "#@page.att.net"),
		array("Bell", "Canada", "#@txt.bell.ca,#@txt.bellmobility.ca"),
		array("Boost Mobile", "USA", "#@boostmobile.com"),
		array("Bouygues Télécom (company)", "France", "#@mms.bouyguestelecom.fr"),
		array("[[Loop_Mobile_India|Loop] (BPL Mobile)", "Mumbai, India", "#@bplmobile.com"),
		array("Cellular One", "USA", "#@mobile.celloneusa.com"),
		array("Cingular", "USA", "#@cingular.com"),
		array("Centennial Wireless", "United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands", "#@cwemail.com"),
		array("Cincinnati Bell", "Cincinnati, Ohio, USA", "#@gocbw.com,#@mms.gocbw.com"),
		array("Claro", "Brasil", "#@clarotorpedo.com.br"),
		array("Claro", "Nicaragua", "#@ideasclaro-ca.com"),
		array("Comcel", "Colombia", "#@comcel.com.co"),
		array("Cricket", "", "#@mms.mycricket.com,#@sms.mycricket.com"),
		array("CTI Móvil Claro", "Argentina", "#@sms.ctimovil.com.ar"),
		array("Emtel", "Mauritius", "#@emtelworld.net"),
		array("Fido", "Canada", "#@fido.ca"),
		array("General Communications Inc.", "Alaska", "#@msg.gci.net"),
		array("Globalstar satellite", "", "#@msg.globalstarusa.com"),
		array("Helio", "", "#@myhelio.com"),
		array("Iridium", "", "#@msg.iridium.com"),
		array("i-wireless (Sprint PCS)", "", "#@iwirelesshometext.com"),
		array("Mero Mobile", "Nepal", "#@sms.spicenepal.com"),
		array("MetroPCS", "", "#@mymetropcs.com"),
		array("Movicom", "", "#@movimensaje.com.ar"),
		array("Mobitel", "Sri Lanka", "#@sms.mobitel.lk"),
		array("Movistar", "Colombia", "#@movistar.com.co"),
		array("MTN", "South Africa", "#@sms.co.za"),
		array("MTS Mobility", "Canada", "#@text.mtsmobility.com"),
		array("Nextel", "United States", "#@messaging.nextel.com"),
		array("Nextel", "México", "#@msgnextel.com.mx"),
		array("Nextel", "Argentina", "#@nextel.net.ar"),
		array("Orange Polska", "Poland", "#@orange.pl"),
		array("Personal", "Argentina", "#@alertas.personal.com.ar"),
		array("Plus", "Poland", "#@text.plusgsm.pl"),
		array("PC Telecom", "Canada", "#@mobiletxt.ca"),
		array("Qwest Wireless", "USA", "#@qwestmp.com"),
		array("Rogers Wireless", "Canada", "#@pcs.rogers.com"),
		array("SaskTel", "Canada", "#@sms.sasktel.com"),
		array("Setar", "Aruba", "#@mas.aw"),
		array("Sprint (PCS)", "USA", "#@messaging.sprintpcs.com,#@pm.sprint.com"),
		array("Sprint (Nextel)", "USA", "#@page.nextel.com,#@messaging.nextel.com"),
		array("Suncom", "", "#@tms.suncom.com"),
		array("Sunrise Communications", "Switzerland", "#@gsm.sunrise.ch"),
		array("Syringa Wireless", "USA", "#@rinasms.com"),
		array("T-Mobile", "USA", "#@tmomail.net"),
		array("T-Mobile", "Austria", "#@sms.t-mobile.at"),
		array("T-Mobile", "Croatia", "#@sms.t-mobile.hr"),
		array("Telus Mobility", "Canada", "#@msg.telus.com"),
		array("Tigo", "Colombia", "#@sms.tigo.com.co"),
		array("Tracfone", "", "#@mmst5.tracfone.com,#@txt.att.net,#@tmomail.net,#@vtext.com,#@email.uscc.net,#@message.alltel.com"),
		array("Unicel", "USA", "#@utext.com"),
		array("US Cellular", "USA", "#@email.uscc.net,#@mms.uscc.net"),
		array("Verizon", "USA", "#@vtext.com,#@vzwpix.com"),
		array("Viaero", "USA", "#@viaerosms.com,#@mmsviaero.com"),
		array("Vivo", "Brasil", "#@torpedoemail.com.br"),
		array("Virgin Mobile", "Canada", "#@vmobile.ca"),
		array("Virgin Mobile", "USA", "#@bills.com,#@vmobl.com,#@vmpix.com"),
		array("Vodacom", "South Africa", "#@voda.co.za")
	);

	/**
	 * Send an SMS to a Phone Number
	 * @return Bool
	 * @param $msg String SMS/TXT message
	 * @param $to Int Receivers Phone number
	 * @param $from String From Email address or phone number
	 * @param $carrier String Carrier Name (index of self::$carriers)
	 *
	 * @todo 	at the moment we only send to the first listed email
	 * 			In the future it would be good to check the existence of mailbox at each domain
	 *
	 *
	 */
	public function send($msg, $to, $carrier, $from) {
		$carriers = self::$carriers;
		if (!isset($carriers[$carrier])) {
			throw new Exception('The requested carrier was not found');
			return false;
		}
		$addresses = explode(',', $carriers[$carrier][2]);
		$address = str_replace('#', $to, $addresses[0]);
		if (!mail($address, $msg, $msg, "from:$from\n")) {
			throw new Exception('The Email could not be sent to SMS gateway');
			return false;
		}
		return true;
	}

	/**
	 * Return a Carrier by phone number
	 * @return Array
	 * @param $name String
	 */
	public function getCarrierByNumber($number) {
		// todo
		// here we would query MTA at each domain for mailbox existence
	}

	/**
	 * Return a Carrier by name
	 * @return Array
	 * @param $name String
	 */
	public function getCarrierByName($name) {
		return isset(self::$carriers[$name]) ? self::$carriers[$name] : null;
	}

	/**
	 * Retrieve a list of Carriers by region
	 * @return Array
	 * @param $region String[optional] Return only gateways in this region. eg: "USA" or "India"
	 */
	public function getCarriersByRegion($region = false) {
		$carriers = self::$carriers;
		if ($region) {
			$_carriers = array();
			$region = strtolower($region);
			foreach($carriers as $carrier) {
				if (in_array($region, explode(', ', strtolower($carrier[1])))) {
					$_carriers[] = $carrier;
				}
			}
			return $_carriers;
		}
		return $carriers;
	}

	/**
	 * Retrieve the regions in carrier list
	 * @return Array
	 */
	public function getRegions() {
		$regions = array();
		foreach(self::$carriers as $carrier) {
			$regions[$carrier->region] = 1;
		}
		return array_keys($regions);
	}

}

?>

Here is a PHP class that provides an interface for reading the PHP session data.

PHP alone only gives you access to the current users session. This class allows you to read all session files, and thus allow you to read session data across different users.

This may be useful if you want to copy, backups session data, or transfer to a different format/handler etc..

At the moment it only reads file based session handling, with PHP doing the serializing and handling (the default setting). It does not support other session handlers or serializers.

You can extend the base abstract class for different handlers and serializations.

/**
 * Class for retrieving session data when save handler is files
 *
 * Features:
 * Retrieving of all session data saved by PHP, not just the current user
 * Encoding and decoding in PHP session format (not serialize|unserialize)
 *
 * @author gabe@fijiwebdesign.com
 * @link http://www.fijiwebdesign.com/
 *
 */
class FileSessionData extends AbstractSessionData
{

  /**
   * @var array Sesssion Files
   */
  static $sess_files;
  /**
   * @var array Session Ids
   */
  static $sess_ids;

  /**
   * Do not call constructor, use FileSessionData::singleton();
   */
  protected function __construct()
  {
    // configs
    $this->handler = ini_get('session.save_handler');
    $this->save_path = ini_get('session.save_path');

    // make sure session is using files
    if ( $this->handler !== 'files')
    {
      throw new Exception('This class (' . __CLASS__ .') only works for file based session handling.');
    }

    // start session (it may already be started so suppress errors)
    @session_start();
  }

  /**
   * Retrieve a single instance of this class
   *
   * @usage
   *
   * $SessionData = FileSessionData::singleton();
   *
   */
  public static function singleton(array $args = array())
  {
    return parent::singleton(__CLASS__, $args);
  }

  /**
   * Get the session Object for a session id
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return array|bool
   */
  public function get($sess_id)
  {
    $data = $this->read($sess_id);
    if ($data)
    {
      return self::decode($data);
    }
    return false;
  }

  /**
   * Save the session Object for a session id
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   * @param array Session Object
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  public function set($sess_id, array $sess)
  {
    $data = self::encode($sess);
    return $this->write($sess_id, $data);
  }

  /**
   * Unset a session
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  public function un_set($sess_id)
  {
    return unlink($this->getPath($sess_id));
  }

  /**
   * Returns if a session exists given it's ID
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  public function is_set($sess_id)
  {
    return file_exists($this->getPath($sess_id));
  }

  /**
   * Write raw session data to a session
   *
   * @param string Session Id
   * @param string Session encoded data
   *
   * @return Bool Write result
   */
  public function write($sess_id, $data)
  {
    return file_put_contents($this->getPath($sess_id), $data);
  }

  /**
   * Read raw session data from a session
   *
   * @param string Session Id
   *
   * @return string Session Data
   */
  public function read($sess_id)
  {
    return file_get_contents($this->getPath($sess_id));
  }

  /**
   * Retrieve all session Ids
   *
   * @return array
   */
  public function getIds()
  {

    if (!self::$sess_ids)
    {

      $files = $this->getFiles();

      self::$sess_ids = array();
      foreach($files as $file) {
        // @todo use substr ?
        $parts = explode('_', $file);
        self::$sess_ids[] = array_pop($parts);
      }
    }

    return self::$sess_ids;

  }

  /**
   * Retrieve the file to the session given its id
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return string Session Path (Path may not exist)
   */
  private function getPath($sess_id)
  {
    return $this->save_path . '/sess_' . $sess_id;
  }

  /**
   * Retrieve the list of session files
   *
   * @return array
   */
  private function getFiles()
  {
    if (!self::$sess_files)
    {
      self::$sess_files = glob($this->save_path . '/sess_*');
    }

    return self::$sess_files;
  }

   /**
   * Decode/Unserialize encoded session data string
   *
   * @param string Session encoded data
   *
   * @return string Session Object
   */
  public static function decode($data)
  {
    return parent::decode($data);

  }

  /**
   * Encode/Serialize Object in session format
   *
   * @param array Session Object
   *
   * @return string Session encoded data
   */
  public static function encode(array $sess)
  {
    return parent::encode($sess);
  }

  /**
   * Maps isset() and unset()
   */
  public function __call($method, $args)
  {
    if ($method == 'isset')
    {
      return call_user_func_array(array($this, 'is_set'), $args);
    }
    else if ($method == 'unset')
    {
      return call_user_func_array(array($this, 'un_set'), $args);
    }
    else
      {
        throw new Exception('Call to non-existant method ' . htmlentities($method) . ' of class ' . htmlentities(__CLASS__));
      }
  }

}

/**
 * Class for retrieving session data
 *
 * Features:
 * Retrieving of all session data saved by PHP, not just the current user
 * Encoding and decoding in PHP session format (not serialize|unserialize)
 *
 * @author gabe@fijiwebdesign.com
 * @link http://www.fijiwebdesign.com/
 *
 * This class must be implemented for each Session Handler as retrieving session data will be different for each
 *
 */
abstract class AbstractSessionData
{

  /**
   * Retrieve a single instance of this class
   *
   * @usage
   *
   * $SessionData = AbstractSessionData::singleton('FileSessionData');
   *
   */
  public static function singleton($classname, array $args)
  {
    static $instance = array();
    if (!isset($instance[$classname]))
    {
      $instance[$classname] = new $classname;
    }

    return $instance[$classname];
  }

  /**
   * Get the session Object for a session id
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return array|Bool
   */
  abstract public function get($sess_id);

  /**
   * Save the session Object for a session id
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   * @param array Session Object
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  abstract public function set($sess_id, array $sess);

  /**
   * Unset a session
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  abstract public function un_set($sess_id);

  /**
   * Returns if a session exists given it's ID
   *
   * @param string Session ID
   *
   * @return Bool
   */
  abstract public function is_set($sess_id);
  /**
   * Write raw session data to a session
   *
   * @param string Session Id
   * @param string Session encoded data
   *
   * @return Bool Write result
   */
  abstract public function write($sess_id, $data);

  /**
   * Read raw session data from a session
   *
   * @param string Session Id
   *
   * @return string Session Data
   */
  abstract public function read($sess_id);

  /**
   * Retrieve all session Ids
   *
   * @return array
   */
  abstract public function getIds();

  /**
   * Decode/Unserialize encoded session data string
   *
   * @param string Session encoded data
   *
   * @return string Session Object
   */
  public static function decode($data)
  {
    // save current session var and empty it
    $sess_orig = $_SESSION;
    $_SESSION = array();

    // decode session data to $_SESSION
    session_decode($data);

    // restore original session
    $sess = $_SESSION;
    $_SESSION = $sess_orig; 

    return $sess;

  }

  /**
   * Encode/Serialize Object in session format
   *
   * @param array Session Object
   *
   * @return string Session encoded data
   */
  public static function encode(array $sess)
  {
    // save current session var
    $sess_orig = $_SESSION;
    $_SESSION = $sess;

    // decode session data in $_SESSION
    $data = session_encode();

    // restore original session
    $_SESSION = $sess_orig; 

    return $data;

  }

}

Example Usage of the PHP File Session Reader Class

// include the classes
require 'FileSessionData.php';

// instantiate the file session reader
$FileSession = FileSessionData::singleton();

// get all saved session ids
$sess_ids = $FileSession->getIds();

// loop through each session id on the server and show session data
foreach($sess_ids as $id)
{
  // get the session data
  if ($data = $FileSession->get($id))
  {
    // dump session array
    dumper($data);
    // dump serialized session
    dumper(FileSessionData::encode($data));

    exit; // lets limit to just one for testing
  }
}

/**
 * Dump utility
 * @param Object
 */
function dumper($data)
{
  echo '' . print_r($data, true) . '';
}

Looks like I haven’t updated on my blog for over 3 months!

Now that Vara and Joana are here, it seems there just isn’t enough time to do everything, or at least the things we planned to do. There is still that trip to Disneyland, Joana’s Ballet lessons and other things on the list that never got done - while their trip back to Fiji is just around the corner. Yet, like the cup that is half empty, it is also half full. When you add up all the things we’ve been up to while here I must say our cup is half full. We’ve got to see most the friends here in the US, Roberta and Mele actually make it over here and we had an awesome time together, not to mention each one of us is a bit darker now from spending so much time at the beach - cup definitely half full.

I also found a job I really like. It just only been my first week but it is looking very good. I’ve had to learn Perl in one week and rather enjoyed it. I’ve got to using PHP way too much, to the point I don’t feel there is much more to learn with that language except for an infinite list of frameworks and design patterns that spring up and mutate daily.

Anyway, I’ve been sick these last two days, and it is good it was on the weekend. I’ve tried to keep my screen time to a minimum so this is where I stop for tonight.

Joana is really improving her drawing skills. Here is two drawings she did this week.

This one is of her and her mommy with Grandmother Willow. (from Pocahontas)

This one is of our family.

JavaScript regular expressions (browser) do not have a modifier allowing the dot (.) to match all characters including the newline like the ’s’ modifier does for PERL and PCRE in PHP.

However a cool tip I learnt just recently is that using a character class and it’s negated version will allow you to match all characters. Eg: /[\s\S]/g will match all characters in a JavaScript Regular Expression.

I used this trick in the ASCII to Hex conversion JavaScript code I posted a few days ago and thought to mention it.

Joana did this drawing of our family a few days ago.

Vara sent me a scan of Joana’s latest masterpiece :). A drawing of her Aunty T.