Parallels Plesk 对我来说是鸡肋。1＆1 送了这玩意一年的许用证，一年以后我还用 1＆1 吗？我如果用了 Parallels Plesk 就怕象吃鸦片上瘾，以后如果离开 1＆1，别人家如果不送 Parallels Plesk 就要花钱买，那时我会觉得很懊恼。
1&1 既然送了 Parallels Plesk，我也在 Parallels Plesk Panel 里转了一圈，觉得它算是一款好的商业软件，只不过不对我的胃口罢了。正因为如此，我没删 Parallels Plesk，只是将 psa service 停止了。
如此相安无事过了几个星期，今天突然发现 opentaps 不能启动了。一查，8443 端口被占用了，我马上想到是 Parallels Plesk 又复活了，难道 psa 还有一个守护进程？Parallels Plesk 这么设计大概为了保证 Panel 的 up time，但有点病毒作风，再加我也搞不清它的机理，看来要把它删了一了百了。
我的 Compaq V6133eu 集成的是 Broadcom bcm4322 无线网卡。Compaq V6133eu 安装了 Fedora 11 以后，就是这个无线网卡不能工作。HP 和 Broadcom 对 linux 用户支持都不到位，HP 那儿找不到 Broadcom wlan driver for linux，Broadcom 把 Broadcom wlan driver for linux 隐藏得很深，我搜了 N 次以后才找到。我嫌安装步骤过于繁琐，踌躇着还没动手，这时 Fodera 提示我 Firmware update。难道是 Fedora 刚刚增加了 Broadcom wlan driver for linux？Firmware update 后重启，无线网卡已经开始工作了，省却我手动安装的繁琐。
用过 Webmin 和 Virtualmin 以后，我觉得这个组合最适合我管理主机了，有了 Webmin 和 Virtualmin，根本就用不着 cPanel 或 Plesk。
Virtualmin GPL 的官方说不支持 Fedora，可它已经跑在我的 Fedora 11 上了。我的经验是在 Fedora 上 用 install.sh 来安装 Virtualmin GPL 确实会出现错误无法进行下去。错误提示是：
error: open of
error: open of HTML failed: No such file or directory
error: open of PUBLIC failed: No such file or directory
但换个方式安装 Virtualmin GPL 就成功了—— 登录 Webmin，在 Webmin Configuration -> Webmin Modules 里以安装 Module 的方式上传 virtual-server-3.703.gpl.wbm.gz。非常的简单！
Webmin 还解决我在 CentOS 的一个老大难问题——之前我一直未能成功地在 CentOS 上安装 CPAN FCGI。在 Webmin 里找到安装 perl CPAN module 的界面，输入模块名称 FCGI，一下子就装好了。感觉非常的幸福！
有了 SFTP 以后，FTP 几乎没有用武之地了，研究 FTP 大多是因为某些软件或服务器只支持 FTP。
1&1 独立主机附赠一个跟硬盘容量相等的 FTP 备份空间，此 FTP 只能由 root server 访问，但 1&1 并没有提供现成的备份软件（1＆1 营销上的失误）。FTP 备份空间对我来说用处不大，但 250 G 的空间空着也是浪费，于是我自创了我的备份方案，此中关键点是如何在 CentOS 上加载 FTP 文件系统。
经一番搜索，找到 curlftpfs，用它可以加载 FTP 文件系统，但 Fedora 可以直接 yum install curlftpfs，CentOS 里没有，得用 DAG repository，所以第一步：安装 DAG repository。
rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/x86_64/rpmforge/RPMS//rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
第二步：安装 curlftpfs
yum install curlftpfs
第三步：没有第三步，已经可以使用 curlftps 了。如果要加载 FTP 文件系统
curlftpfs ftp://ftp_host/sub_dir mount_point -o user="ftp_username:ftp_password", uid=user_id, gid=group_id, allow_other
如果在启动时自动加载 FTP 文件系统，在 /etc/fstab 中添加一行
curlftpfs#ftp_uername:ftp_password@ftp_host/sub_dir mount_point fuse rw,uid=user_id, gid=group_id,user,allow_other 0 0
(很多关于 curlftpfs in fstab 的介绍使用了 noauto，这样的话，还需执行 mount mount_point 才能真正加载)
卸载 FTP 文件系统
fusermount -u mount_point
I went through Magento Community Extensions, and short listed the following extensions worth my trying.
This module will provide a LiveChat support in Magento.
It don’t depends third party platform
It don’t require to fill a form before start a conversation
It identify automatically registered user
It provide information about the current page of the customer
It can provide useful information about transformation rate
Conversation are archived and available forever
It support multiple site
It support multiple operator
LiveChat behaviour can be customised with advanced configuration options
Apppearence can be easily customised with css
This module was designed as an alternative to Magento Live Chat module. This module will help you integrate your Magento store with Google Talk. YALC – will allow you to use Google Talk service to support your customers. The main advantages of the module Luxe YALC module is:
1. Reliability. Server, even at the most reliable hosting services less reliable than Google.
2. Speed. Since the entire load on the transmission of messages rests with the Google Talk service is the work of IM does not affect the speed and load on your server.
3. Privacy. Communication takes place completely anonymously, ie, your client can not even your Google Account.
4. You can chat simultaneously with an unlimited number of users.
5. Increased number of users does not affect the speed of chat.
6. Free of charge. All you need – register Google Account for your support service.
7. You do not have to constantly keep running a third-party chat client. You can use for chat your favorite IM
8. All chat history is stored in Google Account, so you can always revert to it if you have forgotten. Google search helps you quickly find the needle message.
I do not agree with “Server, even at the most reliable hosting services less reliable than Google”. In April I noticed Google Chatback had been down for several days. My server can be more reliable than that record. Anyway, it does not devalue this extension.
Magento Community Modules – Chinese Simplified (China) Language Pack
Chinese Simplified (China) Language Pack
Customer Groups Configurable Catalog
This extension enables you to hide categories and products from customers depending on the customer group.
Points and rewards module
Magento Easy Lightbox Community Module
This small extension will help to convert default magento store view switcher into nice flag buttons. Installation and configuration will take approximately 5 minutes. No files are replaced and no codding experience needed to install!
Magento Easy Catalog Images Community Module
A Blog build from scratch to work seamlessly in magento.
Log in on front as any customer using universal password for administration purposes
Drupal extension is a set of Core API extensions that offers a full access for Drupal modules to Orders, Catalog and so on.
This extension, will offer you to TOTALLY bypass Magento front office, using Drupal instead.
When a new user is created a Magento user is automatically created also.
Orders can be created from Drupal, cart is managed from Drupal.
Catalog is syncrhonized, so each Magento Product is a Drupal node that you can push into Views, etc….
Replaces the standard single column drop down with a multi-column dropdown as used on sites like www.asos.com This style of menu is ideally suited to sites with a large number of categories/sub-categories. Templates and skins are provided for the default and modern themes
Allow your customers to purchase and use Gift Certificates.
Adds reCAPTCHA to “Send Email to a Friend”, “Contact Us” and “Account Creation” pages.
Google Maps Store Locator
Magento Community Modules – English (United Kingdom) Language Pack
Magento Community Modules – English (United Kingdom) Language Pack
In Magento every product has a fixed attibute set. This module enables you to switch it.
Godaddy CentOS:
Installed Groups:
MySQL Database
Editors
System Tools
Text-based Internet
Legacy Network Server
DNS Name Server
FTP Server
Network Servers
Web Server
Windows File Server
Mail Server
PostgreSQL Database
Yum Utilities
1&1 CentOS:
Installed Groups:
DNS Name Server
Editors
Legacy Network Server
Legacy Software Development
Legacy Software Support
Mail Server
MySQL Database
PostgreSQL Database
System Tools
Text-based Internet
Web Server
Yum Utilities
Do not be over excited – my solution is not about how to open an mdb which is truly exclusively opened by others, but to cope with the situation when you can not open the mdb over the network.
For example, from time to time, Actinic crashes. And sometimes after crash, you see this message:
There was a problem with the database
Operation: Opening the table
The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file ‘\\(netbios name)\Actinic v8\Sites\Site1\ActinicCatalog.mdb’. It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view its data.
Action: Contact your Actinic reseller or Actinic Support as appropriate
The problem is caused by mdb, not Actinic specific. You may have seen something similar.
If you are sure no one else has opened the mdb file, you know Access is talking nonsense. To solve the problem, copy this file, delete the source file (you may have to operate on the local computer), move the copied file to the original place, and that’s it.
Do not ask me why this kind of problem happens, or why an duplicated file can solve the problem. I don’t know. That is one of the reason I do not like microsoft – too many times I do not know where problems come, and where they go.
I was asked by someone why on his PC images in html emails were not displayed.
He was using google mail web interface (SSL enabled – Automatically enforce Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections when your users access Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Sites) and IE8. I was using the same google mail but Firefox. On my PC the images in html emails could show up. So I thought the problem was with some settings in IE8.
Following this thought I found it was a setting in IE8: Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level -> Miscellaneous -> Display mixed content. If it was disabled, IE8 would not http content in a page accessed via https. There should be a prompt before IE8 permanently disable it, but I guess few people can understand this security warning.
This security setting is not only affecting email pages, but email pages are most likely being affected, specially marketing emails. Will we see more eshot programmes embedding img src with https?
Actinic gave me some trouble this morning. I was reported that Actinic crashed when uploading. My close investigation found that Actinic crashed at the point of checking catalog. No error message was shown on screen. A Catalog_version_number_date_time.dmp was generated but that meant nothing to me.
Fortunately, there were not many catalogue changes since last successful upload. The cause of problem was quickly isolated to a change of product sequence in a section. As a quick solution, I created a new section, and all products underneath by copying and pasting contents. It was not a desirable way, but what else could I do other than keeping away from Actinic?
A late investigation when I had some more relax time found that shipping supplement, handling supplement and shipping quantity of the original products causing the crash were changed to some ridiculous figures. I am used to this kind of ridiculous behaviour of Actinic, so I am not keen on finding out the further reasons.
原来在 Godaddy 的独立服务器到期没有续费，昨天我重新订了一台 VPS。其实，这台 VPS 也是并没有大用，只不过预算只能花给 Godaddy，权当是测试 Godaddy VPS 的性能吧。
使用 Godaddy 的服务两年多，总体感觉满意，尤其满意 Godaddy support 响应比较及时。然而，如今我的资源不一样了，看问题的角度也不一样了，如果重新选择 server 或 VPS service provider 的话，Godaddy 这类名气大的不会是我的首选。一些规模相对较小，或者只是 reseller 级别的 ISP 成了我的首选。只是 reseller 良莠不齐，需要仔细甄别（以前不会甄别，所以只好找 Godaddy 求个省心）。
Godaddy VPS 可以定制，但挑选余地不大，而且没有 64 位 OS（如果我可以把钱花在别的地方的话，这可以是淘汰 Godaddy 的一个因素）。
VPS 到手以后，我先装了 vnc server（纯属研究，恐怕没人会拿 VPS 当 remote desktop用吧）。从 VPS 到 vnc server，除了正常的 vnc server 安装步骤，还需要 yum groupinstall "X Window System"，否则登录后是灰屏。GNOME 可以不装，使用 Twm，较 light weight。如果不喜欢，那就 yum groupinstall “GNOME Desktop Environment”。