If you have an online Mtgox wallet that you access by means of a home computer download and install the the the Google Authentication App. I’m not a big fan of becoming even more dependent on  Google but this is what is  supported by MtGox and will have to do for now unless you decide to buy a YubiKey which is a hardware implementation (via a USB key).

1. Download the  html5 google authenticator app here and  extract the files in into a folder of your choice. Then open the index.html in your browser.

You should have a screen looking something like this, with only the default google alice account.  Click the ‘+’ to create an Mtgox account and enter the PRIVATE Key here that you create at the MtGox site. Login to MtGox now to create this PRIVATE KEY.

2. Creating your Private Key. Log into your MtGox account and go to the Security Centre.

Click on the ‘Add New’ New Software Authentication System. This will bring up the screen shown below.

Print and Save this in a safe place! Take a screen shot of it as you will need to know and keep hold of your Secure Private Key for future reference. Do not Lose it!

3. Now enter this PRIVATE Key into the  place requesting it in the Google Authenticator. You should then have your OTP (one time password aka passcode) appear fro the MtGox account in Google Authenticator and the changes ever 30s.

4.Copy the OTP (also called the Code on the mtGox site)  from the Google Authenticator and  enter it into the 4th field at the bottom called ‘Code’. Then click on the ‘Save’ button.

5. Applying the Security.

Go back to the mtGox security centre. When you created the Private Key using the New Software Authentication System, the first entry created was the Auth Name. This was done automatically. In the screen above it it OTP#5059.

You can apply your OTP to the LOgin, Withdrawal and Security Centre.

Apply it to both the Withdrawals and Security Centre as shown in the screen shot below.  Why link this Google Authentication to the Security Centre. This is so that if someone does gain access to you email account the won’t be able to reset/remove  the security on your Withdrawals and thus steal your BitCoins and other Funds.

  You should now be able to sleep more securely knowing that your valuable BitCoins cannot be stolen should your email account used to autheticate you at MTGox ever get compromised.

Special thanks to BitCoinBull at BitCoinTalk.org for the original posting in the form and to G.Braad (me@gbraad.nl.) for compiling the Google authenticator for HTML5.

Well, perhaps Love/ Hate are  too strong a word. Especially since I am no techno geek or techno whizz and slow to make the  change from a proven and working system. Indeed my N95 came out in 1997 and we have only been together for 3 months. So I am not really up there with the latest technology. In fact the only reason I got it is that I felt it would be handy to be able to access the web via wifi.

So let’s start with the short comings of my Nokia N95.

• For one you can use it like a normal phone because the ear piece does not work 95% of the time. It’s a bug in the software that never seems to have been ironed out. You have to speak to your call either via loudspeaker or headphones. Shocking! A lot of people must have returned these phones for this reason.
• Volume control does not work – a design fault where the button breaks of it’s mountings. You can hover adjust the volume and leave it at a preset level using the external volume control cable. No ideal but a work around.
• Nokia has provided sync support only for MS Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes. This means that you cannot sync your calendar with open source email applications like Mozilla’s Thunderbird which is a pain. And please no one mention Google Calendar. We have already given Google too much power with near search engine monopoly, our addiction to Youtube videos that I don’t really want to hand them my Calendar.
• Not many applications out there, but I don’t find this to be a limitation as it does web, email, calendar and a couple of instant messenger programs.
• Some say it’s a bit bulky but I don’t find this a problem.

The things I like about the N95

• Pretty stable Symbian S60 operating system
• Decent SatNav and Nokia Maps
• Great sound system! Puts Apple iPhones to shame. You don’t need external speakers with this on to get the party going )
• 4 Gb memory for storageis sufficent and the apps cope okay with the 48 Mb internal RAM.
• Takes great pics with the 5 Mega pixel camera
• Plays Youtube videos well – Real Player
• Crystal clear and bright display
• Supports OggPlayer (free app. but they accept donations) which is great for Audio books – has independent volume control and fast forward/rewind which default Nokia Music Player lacked.
• Buttons – I like buttons. Nokia’s 3 lettered buttons suit me down to a tee.

Well, that’s be and my N95 in a nutshell. I am not looking to get another phone anytime soon )

I had to re-install WSUS 3.) Sp2 and Monitoring on my SBS 2003 server after it broke when I tried to upgrade WSUS fro version 3.0 Sp1 to 2.0 Sp2.

These are the steps I followed:

Steps to Re-install SBS Monitoring

1. Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs -> Windows Small Business Server 2003 -> Change Remove ->
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Remove and continue the setup process.

2. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SBSMonitoring) -> Remove.

3. Delete IIS Virtual Directory

Open IIS, expand servername, Web Sites, Default Web Site
Deleted Monitoring. Backed up files in the virtual directory first.

4. Renamed the C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SBSMONITORING Folder.

5. Deleted the registry keys relating to Monitoring

A. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Monitoring
B. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL
Server\SBSMONITORING

6. Reboot the server.

7. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Windows Small Business Server 2003.
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Install and continue the setup process. I had an error message that

the system was unable to install MS SQL SP4. An error showed up on the install option.

8. 6. Rebooted the server.

9. 7. MSSQL$SBSMONITORING and SQLAgent$SBSMONITORING services started up on reboot.

10. 8. In Server Management Console -> Monitoring and Reporting: run the “Set Up Monitoring Reports and Alerts wizard”

Monitoring is now running but I have two errors relating to it in my system log file.

These are:

Event ID 120

The report server cannot decrypt the symmetric key. Most likely, the service account or password has changed. To continue, run rsconfig.exe to update the report server account information.\r\n
Event ID 140

The application domain WindowsService_5 failed to initialize. Error: Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.KeyStateNotValidException: The report server cannot access the private key for the service account. This key is used to decrypt the symmetric key that protects content in the report server database. This condition might occur after the password is reset for the report server service account. You must either restore a backup key or delete all encrypted content. —> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8009000B): Key not valid for use in specified state. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009000B) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo) at RSManagedCrypto.RSCrypto.ExportPublicKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.DataProtection.PreparePublicKey(Boolean repair) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() — End of inner exception stack trace — at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.<>c__DisplayClass1.<Run>b__0(Object state) at System.Security.SecurityContext.Run(SecurityContext securityContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.Run(ContextBody callback) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.GetEncryptionKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.ConnectStorage() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ServiceController.ServiceStartThread(Object firstStart).

I tried using the RSKeyMgmt tool but it just could not find the instance of MS SQL server on my machine. i.e <severname>\SBSMonitoring If any one has some bright ideas, I’d be happy to hear from them.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 installed without any problems after this.

The solution is really quite simple. Go to Start –> Programs –> Accessories. Launch Remote Desktop by clicking on the icon.  Then click on the Options button. You should then get the following screen come up.

Remote Desktop Settings

Select the Display tab and set the Remote Desktop Size to Full Screen (by moving the slider fully to the right).

If you want to have several remote desktop connections of varying sizes you can create shortcuts to the as follows:

Shortcut name:%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe /w:1600 /h:1200

Happy RDP-ing!

This year’s e-commerce exhibition was run at the London Olympia on the 19^th and 20^th October. By all accounts of those who had attended the previous years it was busier and better than the previous year.

Stands

Girls from the UKFast Host Stand

UKFast had one of the biggest stands there.

Besides the lovely girls on their stand and promoting their carbon neutral ethos, UKFast had these tips to share:

• Since August 2010 Google has changed it search engine model and organic searches now can return upto 7 results per page for the same website rather than the one as previously. A point worthy of some thought.
• Google’s addition of Twitter updates (which was implemented by Google autumn 2009) now means search results include relevant Twitter updates.

There were a lot of Online Payment Centre Solutions:

These were offering alternative solutions to the likes of WorldPay and RBS WorldPay.

• RBS WorldPay

Big UK players but didn’t have anything special for existing customers.

• In this picture above, the lovely Anapolia at the clickandbuy stand. They are a German company and say that they are the 2 largest online transaction processing company after WorldPay. Anapolia said they are different in that they can accept debit cards which are prevalent in German and through the rest of Europe.

• EVP International – a smaller Lithuanian company offering transaction processing with a special focus on central and eastern Europe.

• Packnet Services. Another online transaction processing company with a focus on

the US/UK market. They use a bank account to clear payments on behalf of customers.

• CreditCall Another world wide credit card clearance company.

Google

Attended a 30 minute Google – Intoduction to Google Products Seminar.

A well presented session. Gained some SEO tips regarding what Google look for when ranking your website, namely Page Relevance and Links to your site.

However Google admitted without confessing that they tweek the system as they think it right that billion dollar companies like Amazon for example should appear at the top of the organic search list for the search term – amazon.

Adwords –

Google said to be very aware of seasonal trends when running your Adword campaign as this will determine what users are searching for at the time. A good example given was Stena Ferries capitalisation of the air travel disruption by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud this year by running a tailored Adword campaign.

• Adwords should be compelling

• Ranking of Adwords is awarded for Relavance, Click Through Rate and the the Landing Page Quality.

My personal take – Adwords simply burns a hole in one’s pocket but there you go. Google says it’s all about market forces and how much it’s worth to you.

Display Ads – if you didn’t know, Google own Youtube

Youtube has a seriously huge audience (Google claims it’s the second largest search engine – a reflection of the society we live in today, I guess) and a company would do well to invest in producing and hosting entertaining videos. Google encourages E-commerce entrepreneurs to develop a Brand Channel.

According to Google internet use via mobile will overtake pcs by 2013.

SEO Guys – DotAgency

dotCompany http://www.bright-work.co.uk

I spoke with these guys extensively. The cool dude on the right is my friend Anthony. He uses DotAgency the for his emailing campaigns (Investment Banking Sector) and finds them cost effective at about 100 pounds a month for 25,000 managed emails. They are also doing SEO work. Speaking with them on Monday.

Rest of the Conference.

There were some interesting people doing very interesting stuff.

French companies had a strong presence.  These two lovely girls offered said they could get us bulk purchase of digital signatures at a very competitive price.

GlobalSign:

I spoke with Steve Bolton who said they can offer use competitively priced digital signatures for two web hosting servers.

i-kos

Richard Jones on the left from i-kos . He is very passionate about developing e-commerce systems for companies on the Drupal platform.

There was only one company that I saw selling middle ware solutions. This was Martin Gordon-Kerr at Orion Consulting. The said they can implement a full document management solution for companies. Have Hitachi and Oki Printers on their books.

Ran into an old colleague, James McCormick – with whom I used to work with at Pitney Bowes MapInfo. He is now at Gomez. These guys do web performance stuff and more which I will look into when I get a chance.

Lunch was a garlic bread, Hot American Pizza and coke. Take away style. I also managed to squeeze in a back massage which was nice A very worthwhile expo all in all.

]]> http://www.bright-work.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=332&babel_born=en 0 http://www.bright-work.co.uk/?p=303 http://www.bright-work.co.uk/?p=303#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:40:23 +0000 Beardie http://www.bright-work.co.uk/?p=303 First install XAMPP which will install Apache, MySQL , PHP on Windows XP

Download the installer from Source Forge http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/

Version I have installed: xampp-win32-1.7.3

Vista pointers.

To get it up and running in Vista,  do  the following:

Disable WWW service as this runs on Port 80 by default which Apache needs. Check that no other service/application is listening on Port 80. From the command prompt use nestat –ao to do this.

What didn’t work in Vista..

Editing the httpd.conf file in the Apache ..\conf directory and set ‘Listen’ to 8080 and ‘Server Hostname’ to localhost:8080. i.e change the port settings for these two entries. In XP you just need to change the Listen entry’s port settings to 8080 if you already have IIS running on port 80

Use XAMPP Control Panel (apache friends version) to restart Apache and ensure that the services you want are running.

(to be continued)

My problem turned out to be my McAfee Antivirus. Turning off ‘ ON Access Scan At Start-up’  allowed me to install the flash player. Remember to turn it back on post installation.

Another thing work checking are the permissions in the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Good luck!

To run the Defrag utility go Start-> All Programs ->Acessories -> Systems Tools -> Disk Defragmenter.

Note: To speed up a defrag operation  restart the system before you launch the Defragmenter application. This allows the operating system to clear out the swap/paging file and  focus strictly on defragmenting  the necessary data on the hard disk without having to stop and manage a huge swap file.

More advanced users can configure the defrag operation to occur immediately at startup. You can do so easily with a simple registry edit.

Note: Editing the Windows Registry is not without risk. Please  back up your Windows Registry before you do any editing.

Follow these steps to start a defrag operation immediately upon startup:
* Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
* Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

* Right-click the RunOnce subkey and select New | String Value.
* Name the value Defrag and press [Enter] twice.
* Type Defrag.exe c: /f in the Value Data text box and click OK.
* Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.

The defrag operation will begin when you type your password and press [Enter]. (Values added to the RunOnce key are removed immediately after the command has been run.)

These days there are many free software programs available  which can save you money. These free applications often match and sometimes  surpass paid-for software in functionality and performance. If you have a little time and patience you will be pleasantly surprised.

Examples of  free software include:

anti-virus (avg.com),

collaboration tools (mindmeister.com),

project management (nozbe),

file-transfer (Filezilla),

blogging (wordpress) ,

content management (joomla),

media players (videolan),

Shareaza (a peer-to-peer file sharing client),

PdfPrinter (converts MS Word to .pdf files),

Open Office Suite ( a full Office suite equivalent to MS Office but free.)

Apache web server and MySQL database server.

The list goes on! This website is an example of  WordPress in action. A good place to obtain free software is from Source Forge.

Free software is often cover by the GNU General Public License.  What you, as a user should be aware is that free software  does not come with any warranties. It is upto to you to test it. Let this not put you off from giving free software a go. Most of the popular products have huge forums and support groups and the developers take pride in making their products work well.  Just remember even Microsoft who charges you a lot of money  also have a get out clause.  They are not liable  if their products damage your system or do not work as expected. You agree to this whenever yo install/use their software.

Have fun trying some free apps out and may the force of the forge be with you.