Office 2010 sp1, IE9, Windows 8
Nov 17, 2010 Tech
Yes its been a while since ive posted, thats because ive been really busy working/studying 
office 2010 sp1 has been sent out to some beta testers, rumours say that there isnt much change in the interface so this will most likely be a bug/performance patch. it seems pretty fast to me right now though, great if theyre making it faster though. Microsoft have also recently released preview 7 of their latest browser, Internet Explorer 9, this release comes with permformance improvements to their javascript engine, which makes it pretty good for rendering html5. I keep maning to download IE9 and give it a test run, but i never get round to it. lol.
In More Microsoft news, word of Windows 8 has leaked, suggesting it may be a cloud computing service, aka “desktop-as a service”, which would be interesting, im not entirely sure it would work well in terms of bandwidth usage and privacy, but i guess it makes sense for microsoft to invest in this area as it is a rather large growth area.
Thats all for today, I will post more soon, and hopefully more regularly!
Rsync tips
Feb 22, 2010 Tech
So ive recently been stufying rsync mauals and guides etc because im using it to backup up a webserver, so i thought i’d post a few tips that have helped me be less confused about the whole thing, when it comes to error messages etc :p
The destination folder on the remote server must be owned by remote user account that is being used to login via rsync, chmod permissions must also be at least write, 775 (for folders) & 644 (for files) is probly the best idea.
It doesnt matter what user is running rsync on the local system (rsync doesnt have to run as root on the local system, it only has to have read permissions to the files it wants to send via rsync), usernames do not have to be the same.
The only thing that matters is that the remote user account that is being used to login via rsync has read/write permissions to the appropriate directories.
its not required but if your doing a full system backup of / it might be a good idea to run rsync as root as it might not have read access to all the files if it doesnt run as root. (yes i know this probably sounds like a bad idea, but its just a thought :p i havent tested doing a full system backup yet).
When the files have been copied the owner and group will be changed to that of the remote user account that has been used to login via rsync, time stamps will remain as they were on the system they were sent from.
Source folders may be be owned by root or any user and they will still copy as long as read access is available to rsync.
AFAICT Best practice is (if possible):
chmod folders to 0755
chmod files to 0644
this also applies to destination directories, this means that rsync will actually copy the files instead of giving permission errors.
Syntax tip: When copying via rsync the trailing slash on the source directory indicates that it will only copy the contents of the folder. without the trailing slash rsync will also copy the directory name as well as the contents.
I also found these links to be handy:
http://amountaintop.com/rsync-non-standard-ssh-port
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/113847
ok, thats all I have have fun :p
my sexy new multifunctional bootable autorunning switchblade, drive.
Dec 18, 2007 Tech
So ive had my 4gb u3 enabled cruzer micro (I may actually buy a cruzer titanium because the plastic case feels a bit thin on this one) usb flash drive for a while now, and id been planning to setup a number of things on it.
- an implementation of switchblade.
- a portable applications menu.
- a bootable version of winPE.
Ive just finished setting up all of these on my drive, and now it rocks
The implementation of switchblade is pretty good as its sets to run completly from the u3 partition so that any anti virus software that thinks its a virus cant delete any of the files as the u3 partition is basically an emulated cd rom drive and as such is read only. log files are saved the the flash partition of the drive but theyre hardly likely to be detected as viruses this autoruns in the background on the drive when i plug it in. no popup windows or anything, thanks to CHP.exe 
the options of this ‘payload’ are configurable from a configuration program that is kept on the root of the flash drive, which is handy. One improvement to this that i might consider looking into is packing some of the ‘detected’ files with a uPX packer or something similar this should make them less detectable by anti virus softwares.
Btw, for the uniformed, Switchblade is a set of applications and scripts setup in such a way that they run silently when the drive is plugged in, these scripts applications, rip & decrypt usernames and passwords for windows, IE, firefox, email accounts, IM accounts such as MSN/WML/IRC etc, /network usernames and passwords, wireless keys, internal and external ip addresses and probably a lot more. it also sets vnc up as well as a mail server that sends email thorugh a secure tunnel to a specified email address, the emails contain attachments of the files that are ripped from pendrive and usb drives that are plugged in after mine. yeah im nosey. there is an option rip the contents of the my documents folder to the pendrive too, but ive left that option disabled just incase the mydocuments folder turns out to be like 8gb and then a copy error shows up, that’d be hard to explain lol.
the portable apps menu doesnt run automatically, but thats because its contained in a portable truecrypt partition. when plugging the drive in, truecrypt will auto start up and ask me for a password to the partition, upon entering this password i have full access to a whole load of applications tyhat i use normally on my home pc (the whole encrypted truecrypt partition only takes up 512mb so theres penty of space) if i dont enter the password i can just use the drive as a normal storage drive if i dont need to access my applications. Im also using a forked version of the portable apps menu which gives a lot more functionality and flexibility in terms of menu organisation.
The drive is also formatted as FAT (yes just FAT) so that it can be set bootable, there is an installation of BartPE on the drive which boots when you plug the drive in. Unfortunatly my motherboard doesnt support USB Booting 
So i havent been able to test it, VMware doesnt give me much luck either, but it should work depending on if the motherboard supports it, hopefully more motherboards will start to support it soon. This brings me onto my next project which i will talk about in a bit.
Also on both the u3 volume and the flash partition there are custom autorun.inf files that define custom context menu items ahd control what the default action is on a double click of that drive. I always hated that “autorun” or “autoplay” because the default action when there was a CD or autorun USB stick in the drive. So ive changed those back to “open” which just opens the “Files” folder on the flash drive when you double click it. same for both partitions, except for the u3 partition where its the root of the drive. but you wont find much there as all the files have been hidden. (as in hidden from windows too, you cant access them from explorer or DOS.) the context menu entries include an option to run truecrypt and an option to dismount all truecrypt partitions, as well as the autorun option which i cant seem to get rid of but that doesnt bother me really, and then theres the other uselless options that windows adss like explore and search. the autorun files also define the icon and the label for each drive, the icons are kept on the flash part so they dont default to windows icons, bu you know what windows is like, it still refuses to set my virtual drives to the same icon as my actual optical drive but never mind. the icons arnt a big deal tbh, just a nice feature.
Some more techincal details of how the drive is setup:
I used UltraISO to create a custom ISO to be ‘flashed’ to my u3 partition using universal customiser, my custom ISO is about 9.30MB so the original sandisk installer wont work, i think it can only handle an ISO thats around 3-4MB.
The custom ISO contains:
- Smithtech applauncher.
- Custom autorun.inf
- Switchblade implentation.
the autorun file is set to automatically run applauncher on start. this application will then run the 3 programs defined in its configuration. the configuration file is kept on the flash partition. in addition to running the defined applications it will also set a system variable of my choosing (I chose “U3CD”) this means i can use %U3CD% in paths to certain files and applications and it will point to the letter currently assigned to the u3 partition of the pendrive. this is because the drive letter may change from pc to pc due to the different drive letter configurations.
the first application the applauncher runs is drivevar. this program is solely for setting a system variable (%PA_DRV%) from the flash partition of the usb drive, I dont mind that you cant customise this one though, its still usable . this runs with the paramenter -a which will add the system variable without prompting the user.
The next application it runs is “chp.exe” this small .exe file is used for creating and starting hidden processes, hence the name CHP (Create hidden process) this is run with the parameter of go.exe (this is a small .exe file i made myself that simly runs a .vbs file from the u3 flash partition. this is what starts the payload running. Yes that is a long winded way of getting it to run but thats because applauncher has a few limitations when it comes to running programs/files. the applauncher cant run an application from the drive its running for (e.g. the u3 partition) and it also seems it can run anything but .exe files. (hence not being able to just put the vbs file on the flash partition – plus this saves it from deletion by an anti virus as mentioned earlier).
the 3rd program that is set to run truecrypt, this runns with a few paramenters which means it just pops up a password box asking for my password, which is handy.
the way the switchblade is implemented also has some error ‘managment’ too, if for some reason the system variable for the u3 partition doesnt get set, instead of not doing anything or producing error messages on screen, it runs a substitue vbs file that simply pops up a dialog welcoming me. this is so that i know the payload hasnt run but anyone watching would just think it was a cool ‘toy’ that i’d set up. this works because there is an identically named vbs file on the root of the flash drive, if the system variable isnt set then the .exe file assumes it should run the vbs file from “\” (current directory) which turns out to be the vbs file that pops up the “cool” welcome message.
as well as error managment the switchblade is setup to check for a certain file on the root of the c drive before running, if it finds this file it will not run (it wont do anything at all) this is so that i can plug the drive into my own machine safely without owning myself with my own payload :p
as i said earlier, the drive is formatted in FAT and has been set bootable, also the volume boot sector id has been set to 0×80, this is what makes the usb drive bootable. (again, this depends on the motherboard/BIOS and if it supports booting from usb devices).
To do all this I used PetoUSB. You’ll need a bartpe build source directory. this will copy bartpe to the disk too so all you need to do is setup your bios to bott from usb, restart and test if it works.
As I said earlier, this beings me onto my next project:
A Bootable DOS CD.
Yes, I know it doesnt sound as exciting but this will enable me to use my bartPE stick on a lot more computers, for example if the computer doesnt support booting to usb devices, like mine, then i can boot from a CD and launch bartpe from that.
for this to work i’ll have to look into loading usb drivers in DOS and accessing devices from DOS.
maybe setup an autorun so that when the CD boots up it automatically looks for the USB drive and boots bartpe from there automatically.
I’ll probably attempt this sometime in the new year, get christmas over with first.
after that my next project will be something similar but with the ability to emulate drives or mount .iso files in DOS.
this is so I can create a customised version of a windows install, maybe an unattended install, and install it from the usb drive, without having to carry around CDs all the time.
When i finally get one of these other projects finished, i may post here to say how i did it
I might post a tutorial sometime on how to do this, although this post pretty much explains the majority of it.
Thats all for now, folks.
Yes, that was a very long post.
In other news: I’ve recently discovered the awesomeness that is ill nino, it really is a mystery why I havent heard of this band before.
Tags: autorun, bartpe, computer, portable, portableapps, software, switchblade, Tech, usb, windows
Support Autopatcher
Sep 3, 2007 Tech
Recently a app called autopatcher which contains current windows patches for patching offline windows installations was ‘terminated’ by Microsoft.
This is after 4 years of the app being in existence which is a bit odd tbh. Microsoft have said its not to do with WGA concerns, which is probably true because WGA is installed with autopatcher patches anyway.
my personal opinion is Microsoft is closing the project down now as they are creating thier own similar services (the windows update catalog) also with the first vista service pack on the horizon, they will want to restrict the ways users get the patches ensuring they go through a correct Microsoft channel to authenticate their windows installation.
the official reason from Microsoft is that they dont want the possibility of malicious code being installed alongside thier patches.
while microsoft have every right and concern to do this, it still pisses off a lot of people who used it.
more info on the subject can be found at these links:
the official “its closed down thread” at neowin. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=584427
the official “its closed down story” at autopatcher.com
http://www.autopatcher.com/134#comment-3702
one user took it upon himself to form a one man protest outside a Microsoft campus:
http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42304
Microsoft remains silent over autopatcher:
http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42295
for those interested, the C&D email received from Microsoft:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=584427&view=findpost&p=588813856
register your protest by contacting Microsoft here:
https://support.microsoft.com/common/survey.aspx?scid=sw;en-gb;1348&showpage=1&WS=mscomukform1
letters others have written to Microsoft on the issue:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=584427&view=findpost&p=588814393
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=584427&view=findpost&p=588814439
more ways to contact Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/PR_Contacts.mspx
the story on digg:
http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_Ceases_AutoPatcher_Project
cnet’s opinion:
http://news.com.com/Patch+service+shuts+after+Microsoft+request/2100-7350_3-6205191.html
the inquirer’s opinion:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=42008
the online petition to save autopatcher:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SaveAutoPatcher/signatures.html
lunarsofts opinion:
http://lunarsoft.net/news-324.html
the register’s opinion:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/30/autopatcher/
the story at PC pro:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=123635
the story at slashdot:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/29/1917221
the story at tech spot:
http://www.techspot.com/news/26809-microsoft-shuts-autopatcher-down.html
the story at search security – aus.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=1270060
Atomic – Aus.
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=21&t=1796
As you can see the news has reached the far corners of the web, from australia to the UK and the US.
If you still want to download autopatcher or its updates you can still use this mirror:
http://windowsedge.com/Mirror/AutoPatcher/Autopatcher-XP.html
Also here are some alternatives to autopatcher:
DIY Service packs:
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682
Get all the security updates in one .ISO file from Microsoft for august:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E4DCC3E7-36BD-4C6F-A8B6-421CB8902EAA&displaylang=en
(unfortunately this contains updates for every version of windows so the file size is huge.)
windows updates downloader:
http://wud.jcarle.com
at the moment there is no news on weather autopatcher will survive.
Support auto patcher by displaying this image on your web site. (or create your own)
Thanks goes out to all those on the autopatcher team and everyone that made it possible
Tags: autopatcher, beta, neowin, site, support, Tech, updates, windows
Allofmp3 shutdown by russian government, iphone firmware released to web
Jul 3, 2007 Tech
Well it seems that the RIAA have finally got thier way, they threatened not to let the russian government into the WTO unless the site was shutdown. arses, lol.
More info: http://torrentfreak.com/allofmp3-shut-down-by-russian-government
The good news though is that, the company behind allofmp3.com have launched another mp3 website called MP3sparks.com, which uses the same interface, and user database, users of allofmp3.com can login to the site with thier details and access thier balance and download tracks. So really all I can see thats changed is that they’ve changed thier name and created a new skin for thier interface. I’ve always thought the name “all of mp3″ was a bit naff anyways, mp3sparks sounds much better 
Also another similar site that got my attention was mp3sugar.com, I dont think they’re run by the same people, but it looks like a similar service, ive yet to try it out though. plus theres always torrents, newgroups etc.
In other news, the recently released iPhone has had its root passwords cracked and had its firmware released onto the web.
more info: http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_Firmware_for_download
I think it’ll be cool to see all the new things people can come up with..
Thats all for now folks
SEO Research thing
Dec 3, 2006 Tech
So ive recently become interested in SEO stuff, and decided to do a little test of sorts
Im interested to see wheather certain keywords on a page attract more hits / clicks or not, so below are a list of random words that will most likely be picked up by search engines and indexed, then i can check stats and compare it with last months. (thats why this is first post of the month ) So without further hesitation here we go >.>
domains yahoo domain name yahoo dc hair laser removal washington lemon wisconsin hair removal washington dc domain registration yahoo benchmark lending domain yahoo yahoo web hosting hair laser removal here virginia peritoneal mesothelioma ca lemon law best buy gift card adverse credit remortgage mesothelioma shape! information law lemon ohio att call conference insurance medical temporary illinois law lemon mesothelioma symptoms angeles drug los rehab personal injury solicitor att go accident car florida lawyer google affiliate at t wireless home equity loan mcsa boot camp anti spam appliance adverse remortgage chicago hair laser removal att conference at and t laser hair removal maryland mesothelioma buy gift card mesotheloma student loan consolidation program so anyways california law lemon event google management security canada personals yahoo orlando criminal attorney goes uk homeowner loans vioxx lawsuit compare life assurance criminal defense lawyer american singles federal criminal defense attorney laser hair removal manhattan att prepaid wireless in fortis health insurance temporary miami personal injury lawyer hair removal chicago at and t old cell phones refinance with bad credit malignant mesothelioma lease management software primary pulmonary hypertension miami personal injury attorney anti spam lol lotus notes life insurance quotes egg credit anti spam exchange server lemon law adsense best consolidation loan student refinance with poor credit employee leasing student loan consolidation center buyer mortgage note federal student loan consolidation symptoms of mesothelioma city hair laser new removal york att wireless com san diego dui lawyer indiana law lemon law ads lemon michigan angeles criminal defense los refinancing with poor credit home equity loan action class lawsuit vioxx term life assurance e loan celebrex lawyer vasectomy reversal mortgage rates refinancing attorney law lemon consolidate student loans home equity loans mesothilioma new york personal injury lawyer home equity loan rates auto insurance quotes georgia law lemon homeowner loans equity loan rates administration lease software egg credit card student new consolidation loans microsoft anti spam Max CPC ($) Avg CPC ($) Keyword mesothelioma prognosis second mortgages my auto century insurance employee florida leasing federal consolidation adsense loan equity loan personal injury attorney colorado accident lawyer michigan refinancing with bad credit home equity line of credit rates federal consolidation non profit debt consolidation pay per click affiliate city hair new removal york acid reflux disease diet refinance poor credit equity loans student loan consolidate consolidate loans secured loans criminal lawyer new york affiliate per click chicago personal injury lawyer los angeles dui lawyer att prepaid angeles criminal defense lawyer los critical illness insurance life irs lawyer tax laser hair removal new york comcast high speed personal yahoo san diego dui attorney michigan personal injury automobile law lemon cheap insurance life term home loans refinancing consolidate college loans cheap ya life insurance vioxx law suit student loan refinance car hire alicante spain tax attorney refinancing my home criminal dallas lawyer line of credit home equity litigation vioxx at and t phones criminal high defense attorney los angeles commodity online trading home equity rates adsense law lemon keywords mass equity home arizona law edit lemon child molestation attorney noob home line of credit alicante keeping car coding rental spain attorney defense php federal san diego criminal attorney really injury lawyer new york attorney injury new personal york at and t mobile pleural mesothelioma augmentation breast diego san home equity poor credit health insurance temporary compensation mesothelioma st century insurance cheap insurance medical angeles criminal lawyer los low cost etc term life insurance home refinance loans eloan life insurance quote cheap life assurance equity loan anti spam exchange tech credit equity home line att go phone dui florida lawyer spider hair removal value new york vioxx class action suit merchant account international vioxx site class action home equity loan life insurance quote online consolidation loan equity line of credit carolina law lemon just north equity rates irc direct home insurance line angeles text attorney los tax credit home line term insurance auto insurances debtfreedirect refinance comparison acid reflux treatment bad credit mortgage refinance college loan refinance :p
That was long wasnt it
Anyways, i’ll probably post my findings next month with stats etc, so you can see the the results too
Get free reseller access from any cpanel/whm based host
Nov 9, 2006 Tech
Before we start, i should say this isnt really a “legitimate” way of getting reseller access, more of a cpanel hack/exploitation, so as such i cant condone it
So, i discovered this by accident, when i was checking out the reseller access option that my current host provides, it turns out that when using cpanel/whm to offer reseller access to your customers, cpanel keep the config in your “user settings dir” (lets call it that for now).
You dont have access to this directory yourself, only your host does, for example your homedir will be something like /home/username/ (where username is the username you use to login to cpanel) and you will have folders such as “.trash”, “ssl”, “tmp” & “public_html” (you may have more/less different folders than are listed here). your web accessibly files and folders will be in “public_html”. you dont have access to anything below /username/, but cpanel does.
Now there are two ways to do this, the manual way, which may not work depending on how big your site is or how your host is setup. or theres the “easy” way, which is a little more risky and involves using some “social engineering” (best way i could describe it) but theres a higher chance of it working. another thing i should say is theres more chance of this working on larger hosts that have lots of customers, that way they may not notice as quickly.
The first (manual) method:
Go into cpanel and generate a full backup, when the backup is generated, download it and extract it, keeping its folder structure.
Once you’ve extracted and opened the directory, you may see folders that you havent seen before, these are the settings that are kept in your “user settings dir” mentioned earlier. Now we are going to add “reseller access” to the backup. in your user settings dir create a directory called “resellerconfig”. in this directory you will create 9 files, that make up the settings for your reseller account. these files have no extensions (apart from one) First file to create is “reseller-limits”. you can use pretty much any text editor to make these files.
in this file type the following:
[source:c]username 0[/source]
replace “username” with your cpanel username.
the 0 means no limits.
The next file to create is “reseller-limits-bynumber”.
Leave this file blank for now.
Next, create the file “reseller-number-accounts”.
in this file type the following:
[source:c]username:0:[/source]
replace “username” with your cpanel username. The 0 specifies the number of accounts your allowed under your reseller account, 0 means no limit. The next file to create is called “reseller-resource-accounts”
type this into the file:
[source:c]username:,username_Single,username_new[/source]
this specifies the packages available on your reseller account, this is the default one, you can add more in cpanel later when you have access to the reseller part. replace instances of “username” with your cpanel login name. next create a file called “reseller-resource-limits”. In this file put this:
[source:c]username 1 bw=10000:disk=500:[/source]
replace “username” with your cpanel username. you can change the numbers to edit the amount of bandwidth and diskspace that is available to you. or it may be possible to change the 1 to a 0 to remove limits. next file to create is ”resellers”. in this file put the following:
[source:c]username:add-pkg,allow-addoncreate,allow-parkedcreate,allow-unlimited-pkgs,create-acct,create-dns,disallow-shell,edit-account,edit-dns,edit-mx,edit-pkg,frontpage,kill-acct,kill-dns,limit-bandwidth,list-accts,mailcheck,mod-subdomains,news,onlyselfandglobalpkgs,park-dns,passwd,quota,resftp,show-bandwidth,stats,status,suspend-acct,upgrade-account,[/source]
This should all be on one line!
this file specifies what a reseller can offer to its customers, if you want to specifically allow something add ‘allow-’ infront of the name, if you want to specifically disallow something put ‘disallow-’ in front of the name. if the item is listed without an allow- or disallow- tag, it is allowed by default. replace “username” with your cpanel login name.
next up is a file called “resellers.chris”. im not entirely sure what this file does or wheather its needed, its probably best to create it anyway, but leave it blank. The Final file to create is “resellers-nameservers”.
In this file you specify the nameservers that you will use, these must be valid nameservers! you can usually just use your hosts nameservers (the ones you are using already) put them in this format in the file:
[source:c]username:ns1.mywebhost.com,ns2.mywebhost.com,,,[/source]
replace “username” with your cpanel login name, and change the name servers to your own.
Were nearly there now, not long to go!
ok, going back to the “homedir” now, create a file called “.whmtheme”.
in this file put and x and save it. (yes, just an x)
also in your homedir create a directory called “cpanelbranding”, and in that directory create a folder called “x”.
next, in your homedir create a folder called “cpanel3-skel”. this will be the “skeleton” of the accounts you will give to your customers, whatever you put in here, will be put in all new customers “homedir”, its wise to put folders such as “public_html” & “public_ftp”, just to make sure that nothing breaks and so your users know where to put things.
Once all thats in place, create a compressed backup of the directory, this should include the directory that holds the homedir. so for example you should add this directory to the archive:
(your backup name will generally be generated from the date/time it was created and your username)
for example if the directory holding the homedir is called backup-5.16.2005_13-16-53_username (where “username” is your cpanel username) then add that to the archive. (yes i know that sounds confusing).
e.g. backup-5.16.2005_13-16-53_username/homedir
If your doing this on windows, you’ll have to find someway of converting this to a .tar.bz archive, to make it a little more believable
Next, go into the backup section of cpanel and find the “upload a backup” section, browse for the archive file that was just created and click the upload button. depending on the size of your site, it may take a while and may even time out, this is because the archive is being uploade over http, and your host will mostl likely have a “script execution time” limit set which means if it takes too long to upload then it will fail. if this doesnt work you could always try the second method below.
And thats all there is to it Note that these instructions were based off settings on my own host, your host may differ in things such as directory / file names and paths. so if it doesnt work, that’ll most likely be why, you could always pay for the reseller access i guess, but then, you wouldnt be reading this if you were willing to pay
Ok onto the Second Method:
This method is a lot quicker, easier and has more chance of working, since you will use files generated by your own hosts system. Although it is risky in the sense that its possible you’ll get found out easier. but if you think you can do it, lets go
Firstly you will have to find out if your host offers reseller access and how much they charge and if they’re willing to give you a ‘free taster’.If they do, thats good, contact them and ask them to setup it up for you, once thats done, you should see the reseller access icons in cpanel, have a play around if you want .
Now that your account has reseller access, go into cpanel and generate a backup of your whole account, this will generate a backup of all your files and databases including your reseller access config. once thats done download it and extract it, check to make sure the backup has the reseller config files in it by looking for a folder called “resllerconfig”, your host may use a different name, so look for anything thats reseller related
(if you can find anything, its possible that the generated backup did not include your recent account changes including the reseller config, the only thing i could suggest you do in this situation, is wait a day or so for cpanel to “catch-up”).
Once you’ve found its there you can delete the extracted files, but make sure you keep the compressed backup.
Next, contact your host and say you no longer want reseller access, if you do this straight away it may seem suspicious, wait a few days and then contact them. in the mean time you can play with your reseller access, test creating packages and limits etc.
So once you’ve contacted your host and had your reseller access removed, you’ll no longer be on thier billing system for added reseller access.
Now is where it starts to get tricky and a little risky, contact your host and ask them if its possible to upload a cpanel created backup into your home directory and have it restored to your account, if they allow it thats good, if that then there nothng you can really do about it, at least you have a backup of your site (if you switch hosts in the future and they use cpanel, you may be able to use if there if its accepted ) if the host says they will accept your backup, upload the one you downloaded a few days earlier, the one with the reseller access config files in.
Once this is restored to your account by your host, you reseller access will have returned, but because the billing system wasnt changed, you wont be billed for it, nothing bad will show up on a virus scan since your backup will be clean
It all depends on wheather the host accepts your backup and doesnt get suspicious like i said at the beggining of this little writeup, i discovered this by accident, i guess its a bug in cpanel/whm.
Disclaimer: you try these things at your own risk, i cant be held responsible if you loose your hosting account over this. im simply telling you how to do it, not forcing you too
When it “happened” to me, and i realised what had happened i cntacted my host a few days later to remove the reseller access from my account once again, just incase they found out a few months down the line and decided to charge me for the months that i had used it for
Enjoy :grinnod:
A Solution to removing the OS boot menu after vista removal
Jun 30, 2006 Tech
So, you’ve installed vista, played around with it and its all great, new and good, but now your bored of it and want to reclaim your disk space back, so you boot into windows XP (by selecting it from the boot menu) and proceed to format the drive Vista is on. On rebooting you discover your boot menu still exists! what is one to do?! Well here for your please is a possible solution :p
- Turn on your PC
- Insert your XP CD, yes the one you install from
- Choose the option to go into the recovery console
- choose which installation you would like to “login” to, in most cases this will be “1″
- after typing that in, along with the administrator password, your at prompt similar to this:
C:\WINDOWS>
- your next step is to type either of the following commands: fixboot OR fixmbr
- once thats finished and you have a success message you can restart
Note: Choose to boot from CD if asked
The menu should now be gone and you should be booted into XP automatically
There may be other ways of fixing it, but this is the one ive, used.
Post any questions etc in the comments
Vista beta 2 resources, how NOT to steal a sidekick, other random stuff
Well Vista Beta 2 (aka build 5384.4) has been released to the public, so i thought id post a list of resources
download from here: (official ms link)
(a download manager is recommended when downloading)
http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/beta2/en/x86/download.htm
mirrors:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/browse/DesktopManagement/OperatingSystems
http://rapidshare.de/users/933H49
http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=vista+5384.4&ext=&op=and
(make sure you check the size before downloading)
or here for the direct x86 link (“official” ms link) http://download.windowsvista.com/dl/preview/beta2/en/x86/iso/vista_5384.4.060518-1455_winmain_beta2_x86fre_client-LB2CFRE_EN_DVD.iso (3.12GB)
how to get a vista key “early”: http://bartysblog.be/content/get-your-windows-vista-beta-2-keys-early
MSBlog: (source) http://www.msblog.org/?p=746
plenty of links there to get you started 
although the MS servers are getting hammered i would say to try a mirror, but there is no guarantee that the mirrors are “ok”.. (virus free etc)
And now for the sidekick story…
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
its pretty long, but if your bored :p
click here too to digg the link http://digg.com/technology/How_NOT_to_steal_a_Sidekick
=)
also had a few things going on this week, i started coding my own CMS on monday and its going pretty well, up to now i would consider it to be in “beta 1″ stage.. its fairly stable, but has quite a lot of features missing, I have most of the intended features coded, they just need either finishing, testing or implementing, I probably wont use it when its done because, im only doing this for fun really and to learn, and ive learnt quite a bit about SQL over the past few days, I never thought id do that, it always seemed to complicated so i just stuck to flat text files, which kind of suck compared..lol, anyways, theres also my revamped guestbook script that im still in the middle of working on, and then theres the jobscript which I still need to do a few formatting tweaks to and a few backend bits… oh and create a gui for the letter creator and add some more features / options, although thats a while away yet
anyway (grr i keep saying that, maybe its the new ‘lol’) bye for now
Site updates, Office 2007 Screenshots, Microsoft origami, NASA finds life in space….possibly
Ooooh site updates….ive added pics of the latest vista build (5308) to the galleries, also shots of 5270 because i was supposed to upload those a while ago, but i must have forgot..also added a few new pics to the babe galleries, a few new ones to the funny pics galleries, not many, but i found them on my hdd while i was clearing up, thats about it really, one thing i do need to do is get a posts permission plugin for wordpress.
Next up, Microsoft office 2007 screenshots!, this is only a beta refresh mind, so there arnt many.
The update will ship to 10,000 beta participants in the private Beta Place testing zone next week. It’s expected that the refresh will sport more UI enhancements and much more stability than the previous Beta 1 release last year. Microsoft is expected to release Office 2007 Beta 2 in Spring with a full retail release expected before year end.
Source: neowin.net
Also having being hyped all week, microsofts new project, “origami” was revealed this week..
Microsoft Corp. finally took the wraps off its mysterious Project Origami on Thursday, unveiling a computer that’s about the size of a large paperback book but runs a full version of the Windows XP operating system.
The ultracompact, wireless-enabled PC is everything a full computer or laptop is, minus the keyboard. Weighing about 2 1/2 pounds, the 1-inch thick device sports a 7-inch touch-sensitive screen that responds to a stylus or the tap of a finger.
Also this week NASA has a “big annoucement”, supposedly relating to finding life in space..
NASA is planning to make a huge announcement today, about possible life in our own solar system.
Exact details of what we can expect to hear have not been released. We do know that evidence has been found that could point to life relatively close to the earth.
Official word is expected this afternoon at 2 p.m. We’ll have complete coverage of today’s big news when it is released. Tune to News 13 for the complete story.
Source (Currently down due to heavy server load / maintenance.. )
Tags: beta, computer, funny, life, site, Tech, updates, windows, wordpress