if($this->error->code = '404'){
	header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
} ?>

The reason is that when a request is made for a page on your site, Joomla! returns the HTTP status code “200 – the server successfully returned the page” also for error pages. This is problematic for those working with Google Webmaster Tools and trying to get a sitemap resolved.

Information found (after weeks of search) here. That is: “When all else fails, read the instructions”.

UPDATE 12.8.2008: Forget what I have written above, at least in case you use SEF, it doesn’t work. That is, the if loop is inexplicably matched all the time, so it returns a 404 Page Not Found also for existing pages

UPDATE 27.8.2008: Following this suggestion on a Joomla! Forum thread, I managed to do the trick. The best way is to create the error.php page not in the way it is suggested on the Joomla! web site, but in the following way:

// no direct access
defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );

if (($this->error->code) == '404') {
  echo file_get_contents('http://www.yoursite.com/
                            error-404-page-not-found');
} 

where error-404-page-not-found is your customised “404 Page Not Found” error page. This will return a 404 page for any error it occurs. To prevent to show the 404 page for other errors, paste the full code showed in the post.

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one — and preferably only one — obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea — let’s do more of those!

Tim Peters, “The Zen of Python”

Informazioni per gli smanettoni: ho integrato Gallery2 in WordPress tramite il WPG2 plugin, impazzendo e impazzando non poco per farlo funzionare come volevo (Gallery è un applicazione veramente completa per la visualizzazione di gallerie fotografiche, e pertanto estremamente complicata da configurare).

So I decided to write a separate page about the free software I use in my laptop, because I know I’ll need that list to reinstall all of them the next time I break my hard disk.

Windows cannot be started: missing file
in C:\windows\system32

I got it straight away: the hard disc was gone.

No problem for my work stuff, safely backed up. But my pictures, the SMartaBoys videos, the recent work files: bloody hell! The funny thing is that the last week I convinced my boss to buy a USB external hard disc for big back ups. The hard disc is coming, but a few days too late. I just felt that something would go wrong.

However, thanks to Mau's suggestions, I tried to run Linux from the CD-ROM: first I downloaded Ubuntu, but it was too unstable, then MEPIS solved most of my problems: I was able to mount the hard disc and recover most of my stuff. The only problem: when I tried to access a file placed on a broken part of the hard disc, everything froze and I had to restart. I think I've rebooted dozens of times.

One old geek’s suggestion: do back up regularly!!!

Please refer to openwrt.org for up-to-date information.

Need to run a WRT54GL wireless router in client mode? I’m so happy I made it myself work, that I decided to write down the steps, since it isn’t that easy after all.

Note: Here below you will find the exact steps I have done to make the WRT54GL work in client mode, that is, making it capable to connect a wireless network and give access to internet to the computers cabled to it.

This means that you will make the router working in a reverse way; that is, you will be able to connect to an internet provider wirelessly through the antennas (instead of the the internet slot on the back of the router, that will become inactive), and you will connect your computer to it through one of the four connection on the back of the router.

For a more detailed description of the process (in case the procedure below doesn’t work for you), please refer to the OpenWRT manual (especially installing OpenWRT on WRT54GL and how to run in client mode) and to the OpenWRT forum.

The firmware version I’m using is White Russian (RC6), Kernel Version Linux version 2.4.30. It should, however, work also with newer versions.

To run a Linksys WRT54GL in client mode you can try the following procedure:

1. Power on your WRT54GL and connect it to your computer by a network cable connected in one of the four slots on the back of the wireless router (NOT into the internet slot!)
2. First of all you have to install the OpenWrt (White Russian) firmware on your WRT54GL. This means that you will overwrite the firmware that comes with the device. Do this at your own risk, you can of course reinstall later the original Linksys firmware by downloading it from its website, but if you make some mistakes during the process and lose access to the firmware of your device, you have to solve the problem on your own, since this process will void your guarantee.
   To install OpenWrt, read and follow carefully these steps. Since you have to do some choices during the process, let me remark the following:

   
   

   
   

   
   

   • Choose the OpenWrt firmware called openwrt-wrt54g-squashfs.bin found in the default directory
   • Save it on your hard disk (for example on the desktop)
   • Access the router web interface page at 192.168.1.1
   • Update the firmware going to system – > administration – > firmware upgrade
   • Wait (don’t do anything) until you get the message that the firmware has been updated
   • Reload on your web browser the address 192.168.1.1 and you will enter the OpenWRT web interface.
   • By clicking, for example, on Info, you will be asked to choose a password. Do it. Your username will be automatically root
   • Go now to the System page and switch boot_state to enabled
3. Log into WRT54GL using telnet, ssh or similar. For example I used the ssh client Putty, configuring it to access to the address 192.168.1.1. Logging in, you will be asked for the username. Put root, and as the password, the one you have chosen in the previous step.
4. Ok, now you have to enter the commands that will make your WRT54GL work as a client (as described in this page). I made my router work in routed client mode by running the following commands:

   nvram set wl0_mode=sta
   
   nvram set lan_ifname=br0
   
   nvram set lan_ifnames=vlan0
   
   nvram set wan_ifname=eth1
   
   nvram set lan_ipaddr=192.168.2.1
   
   nvram set lan_proto=static
   
   nvram set wan_proto=dhcp

5. Now you have to commit the changes and reboot the device. To do this run the following:

   nvram commit
   
   reboot

   After doing the reboot, Putty will tell you that you’ve lost the connection to 192.168.1.1. Don’t worry! That’s ok.

6. Wait a minute and then disconnet the network cable that connects your computer with the router and connect it again. Now your device is not accessible anymore at the ip address 192.168.1.1, but it’ll be at 192.168.2.1. You can check it by accessing the OpenWRT web interface. Do it, you might be asked to set your password again.
   N.B.: if you can’t connect to the router anymore, don’t panic! You can reset the configuration entering in Failsafe mode (more information below)
7. Open again a connection to the router via ssh using Putty (remember to change the address to 192.168.2.1)
8. Check out the available wireless networks running the command

   iwlist eth1 scanning

   If nothing shows up, run it again. I’ve noticed that it needs to be run several times, before it shows all the available wireless networks in range.
   The networks are listed as Cell 01, Cell 02, and so on. For each of them you will find its name (ESSID) and its channel (CHANNEL_NUMBER). To connect to a no-encrypted network, run the following commands from the ssh shell (replace ESSID and CHANNEL_NUMBER with real name and channel number of the chosen network, respectively):

   ifdown wan
   
   nvram set wl0_ssid=ESSID
   
   nvram set wl0_channel=CHANNEL_NUMBER
   
   ifup wan; /sbin/wifi

   For an encrypted network, run the following (replace WEP key in hex format with the real WEP key)

   ifdown wan
   
   vram set wl0_ssid=ESSID
   
   nvram set wl0_channel=CHANNEL_NUMBER
   
   nvram set wl0_wep=enabled
   
   nvram set wl0_key=1
   
   nvram set wl0_key1=WEP key in hex format
   
   ifup wan; /sbin/wifi

   Don’t forget to commit if you want your settings to survive a reboot:

   nvram commit

9. You’re done! Now you should be able to access the internet. If so, you can close the ssh connection. The settings are already saved and they will be kept even if you turn off the device.

Troubleshooting: I can’t access the router anymore!!!

If at a certain step you can’t connect to the router anymore, you can reset its configuration entering in Failsafe mode (read carefully the linked page). Here are the steps if you use Windows:

1. Download the recvudp utility and save it somewhere (e.g. on your desktop).
2. Open a DOS shell (a command prompt) and run the recvudp.exe that you have just saved
3. Running it nothing will happen, the cursor will just blink on the following line. That’s ok.
4. Go to the properties of the network from your control panel and set a fixed IP in the TCP/IP preferences (192.168.1.10 will do the job)
5. Switch off the WRT54GL and switch it on again. You will notice that the DMZ light (on the front of the device) is off. As soon as it gets on, press the reset button on the back. You will notice that now the DMZ light will quickly flash 3 times every second.
6. In the DOS window you have open in step 2, you will notice that the following messages have appeared:

   Msg from 192.168.1.1: Press reset now, to enter Failsafe!
   
   Msg from 192.168.1.1: Entering Failsafe!

7. Good. Now open a new ssh session with Putty on the address 192.168.1.10.
8. To reset the router, run the following command:

   firstboot
   

9. You can now exit Putty and, going back on the network configuration, reset in the TCP/IP properties to obtain an IP address automatically.
10. You are now back at the step 3 of the procedure explained above, that is at the point when you just installed the OpenWRT. You should be now able to access the OpenWRT configuration at the web address 192.168.1.1. You can try again to set the router in client mode in case you are not sure that you have carefully followed the steps depicted above.

Question: I use an e-mail program to read my e-mail and I'm pissed off of getting every half an hour the announcement "you've got mail!" just to see that it is a spam message. Is there a way not to see these spam messages at all?

Answer: Yes, there is. At least for two e-mail readers, SeaMonkey and Thinderbird.

Solution for SeaMonkey

In SeaMonkey Mail, go to Edit –> Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings, and select Junk Settings, you will see this window (click on it for a bigger-size version):

In the picture you can see the suggested settings. Ok, now go to Edit –> Preferences –> Junk Mail, you'll see this window (click on it for a bigger-size version):

Select the preferences as above. Most important thing: choose "Mark messages to be determined to be junk as read". In this way, every time you get a junk mail, not only it'll be automatically moved to the Junk folder, but you won't receive any announcement that you've received spam!

One thing I recommend you to do is to check every now and then the Junk folder to see if some non-spam message has been put erroneously there, but I can assure it happens really seldom.

Another suggestion: when you activate the junk filter for the first time, select say 50 messages in your inbox and with right-click choose "Mark as… not junk". In this way you will "educate" the junk analyser to recognise the good messages and not to mark them as junk.

Solution for Thunderbird 

For Thunderbird go to Tools –> Junk Mail Controls and you'll get this window (click on it for a bigger-size version):

And here you go. It seems that at present Thunderbird doesn't have the possibility to mark all the junk mail as read, but it'll be possible in version 2.0. Also here the same suggestion as for SeaMonkey: when you activate the junk filter for the first time, select say 50 messages from your inbox and with right-click choose "Mark as… not junk". In this way you will "educate" the junk analyser to recognise the good messages and not to mark them as junk.

Here below follows a list of useful programs that I have installed and actively use on my computer. Most of them are open source, so this could be useful for those who don't want to buy software, you'll realise that nowadays it is possible to do almost everything with open source or freeware programs.

All these programs are available for MS Windows. About the availability for other operating systems, please check their own websites.

OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) 

It's almost a year that OpenOffice has replaced Microsoft Office on my computer. It does everything I need, that is it replaces Word, PowerPoint and Excel without any problem of compatibility, since it can save in its own format or in MS Office formats (.doc, .xls, etc.). Open source.

TextPad (www.textpad.com)

Text editor. If you are also a nerd, you will find out that this is one of the best text file editor, having a lot of useful features. Shareware.

Winamp (www.winamp.com)

The good old Winamp music player. I think it's the oldest program I have in my computer. Born as an mp3 player, nowadays it can play almost any type of music/video file. No need of Windows Media Player. It can also play Real Audio and Video (.rm, .ram) files, as well as Quick Time (.mov). For these formats you need to install the following plugins: for Real Audio install Real Alternative (you don't need to install Real One) and then Tara's Real Audio Input Plugin, for Quick Time install first Quick Time Alternative (you don't need to install Quick Time at all) and then add ;MOV to Winamp's DirectShow Decoder extension list @ prefs > plugins > input > in_dshow > config. For more information see the Winamp forum page about the most requested features/plugins. Freeware.

Skype (www.skype.com)

Well, the internet phone. Everybody knows it. Although I use it mostly for chatting with friends. It replaced the old ICQ. Freeware.

SeaMonkey (www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey)

This is my browser. Remeber the old Netscape? Remember the less old Mozilla? Well, this is the same but up-to-date software. It has just a new name. Why don't I use Firefox? Because I've always been used to all-in-one internet suites (that is, browser, e-mail reader and HTML editor in the same program). And, believe me, if you need to clean up messy pages of HTML code, you'll realise that SeaMonkey (same than Mozilla and Netscape) is faraway the best HTML cleaner.

The Gimp (www.gimp.org)

Image editor. The open-source answer to PhotoShop and similar. I don't do too much image manipulation, so I can't say what kind of features it is missing, but if you just use these kinds of programs for resizing images, change brightness/contrast, creating basic drawings with different layers and so on, this is best for you (most of all, it is free). 

Irfanview (www.irfanview.com)

This small piece of software is useful for image manipulation if for example you need to resize a lot of pictures, having a good batch processing feature. Perfect if you are used to take a huge amount of pictures with your web camera and then you realise they are too big to put them on the internet. Freeware.

Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net)

Digital audio editor. If you need to record your voice, music, radio, whatever you want. Open source.

7zip (www.7-zip.org)

The free alternative to WinZip. And also open source.

AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com)

A good antivirus. Free for personal use.

Ultimamente sto diventando un po' Wikipedia-dipendente. Cerco di controllarmi, ma è troppo affascinante.

Wikipedia è un'enciclopedia libera. Ciò significa due cose:

• non costa niente (è su internet e più essere liberamente letta)
• chiunque può modificarne il contenuto, o aggiungere nuove voci.

Se il primo punto può risultare abbastanza chiaro, forse il secondo lo è un po' meno. Sì, ognuno può modificare ogni singola virgola di ogni voce dell'enciclopedia. Come? In cima a ogni pagina (anche sulla pagina iniziale) c'è una linguetta con sopra scritto "modifica". Basta cliccarci sopra e modificare/aggiungere ciò che si vuole.

Ma. Ma allora cosa succede se cancellassi una parte del testo, o anche tutta una pagina? E se aggiungo delle stronzate?

Ebbene, tutto ciò è possibile. Bisogna tenere di conto però che non siamo soli su Wikipedia. Ci sono un sacco di altre persone che aggiungono, modificano, controllano continuamente. E ogni cambiamento è memorizzato. Non ci vorrà molto prima che un'altra persona (chiamata in gergo wikipediano) noterà dei cambiamenti che hai fatto, e li processerà. Ci sono anche dei programmi automatici, chiamati bot, che analizzano continuamente il testo, e nel caso siano stati introdotti cambiamenti non consentiti, riporteranno la pagina alla versione precedente alle tue modifiche.

In ogni caso, essendo Wikipedia un'enciclopedia, magari non sei interessato a introdurre modifiche, ma solo a leggerla. Bene, allora buon divertimento! Ma non diventarne troppo dipendente come me

Io lavoro principalmente sulla Wikipedia italiana traducendo pagine sulla Finlandia. Se ti interessa, puoi partire a leggere dal Portale finlandese, che ovviamente esiste anche in lingua inglese. Sì, perché Wikipedia è disponibile in quasi tutte le lingue!

Update: Just found a presentation directly from the Mozilla Developer Day 2004 called Mozilla 2.0: Roadmap and Directions. Well, the presentation doesn’t work… and it’s also with frames…