Drupal 7 Password Reset without Email or UI

I have been building out the new Development VMs that I use for developing PHP websites including Drupal 7 websites. I ran into an issue where the password for the admin account no longer worked. The database was migrated from an older environment.

I found this link that helped me out on resetting the admin password:

http://drupal.org/node/1023428

You basically can use drush to reset the password easily.

Navigate to your drupal folder and run the following:

drush user-password username --password="new_password"

Who cares about how many kills you have!

I ended up buying Black Ops 2 for the XBOX 360 not too long ago. The zombies mode has consumed a little bit of my time lately. I came to the conclusion that its a large disappointment. The multi-player modes in the Call of Duty games have become so shallow. The best that I have seen were the Spec Ops for Modern Warfare 3.  You want more of those great missions? -- "Pay up son! It will be another $20 for 2 more missions". Mmmmm... good old slice of that corporate greed.

I have been playing video games for over 27 years. It is amazing the contrast of the games back then and the games now. Sure, technology gets better and the action is now more intense than ever.

Unfortunately, there is one thing missing in today's games. Substance.

There was a time that playing video games was fun because the game play and story were fun. There was much more coop play as most of the games were split screen and encouraged coop play. Today, great games with coop play are hard to find.

Most of the games are about the flash and look at all this crazy shit blowing up. I have 530 kills and only 25 deaths. Who gives a shit! What happened to working toward a common goal or making the game ultra fun to play with friends? Its that sense of accomplishment that really gives players that extra push to replay the same game.

My maturity in gaming has taken me past the point of being the best shooter. Now it is about using my time wisely while having the most fun I can have playing. Find it ridiculous that these companies charge so much money over a game that can only be played for a few hours.

That is why I am glad games like Minecraft have been created. I am becoming an advocate for the little guys. The companies that are about building games based on user interaction and game play. Rather than all the fluff.  An advocate for affordable prices. Paying for what you should get and not getting ripped off. There is something wrong when a company charges $60 for a game that gets played 20 hrs at the most in comparison to someone who charges $20 for a game that gets played for over 6 months. Hmmmm.... 

I am hoping that these companies will wake up and listen one day. Unfortunately, the only thing that will make them listen is the boycott of their games. When the bottom line gets hurt. You hear me? Talking to you Activision. Wake up!

Cloud Document Storage - A reliable backup

We all know that our documents are stored on that precious device called a hard drive in our computer. (yes, the computer is not called a hard drive :)) The major problem with hard drives is that they can fail. Your computer can fall victim to a virus and have all files destroyed. The hard drive could crash due to mechanical problems. What happens to your files??? Well, they are gone. Yes, gone forever. All of those pictures, music, and important documents. Years and years of important information and most important -- your time. All down the toilet with a big flush.

Cloud based document storage helps in preventing lost files due to harddrive disasters.

It works like this:

1) A file gets saved to your computer's hard drive

2) That file is then synchronizes up to your online storage account

Easy and simple. There is a program that runs on your computer's operating system that handles all of the syncing. Most online document storage providers will provide a web interface so you can also access your files easily from anywhere in the world by using the web browser. All of your important files can easily be restored if there is a catastrophe by syncing to your online account after the computer is back in working order.

There are many good providers. The most common are GDrive from Google, Dropbox, Skydrive from Microsoft, Box.net, and Ubuntu One. Each one offers a free account up to a specific storage space.

Free account storage

GDrive - 5 GB

Dropbox - 2 GB up to 16 GB free if you go through the hoopla of referrals

Skydrive - 25 GB BUT maximum file size is 50 MB which sucks

Box.net - 5 GB

Ubuntu One - 5 GB

The most popular services of the 5 are GDrive (because it hooks into your Google account) and Dropbox. There are paid monthly subscriptions to each of these services for higher storage amounts. GDrive is one of the best for the money. Some of these services also offer file versioning. (This is basically a snapshot of your files at any given time) File snapshots help when it comes to files being corrupt or infected by a virus.

The transitions to these services offer a lower dependency on your computer. You must also remember that these services are not appropriate for every type of file. Examples: scan of your social security card and bank paperwork. Those types of files should be stored on a portable USB hard drive and kept in a fire safe box.  

So, why shouldn't I buy a separate drive??? Couldn't i just store everything on the USB drive? Yes, you could definitely store everything on the USB drive ,but there are two problems to that approach:

1) It is less portable for files you regularly access (photos, music, etc...)

2) USB drives require us to remember to back up the files. This is a manual process that most people forget. The online storage allows for automatic synchronization and you can make sure your files are always backed up.

Take a look at cloud based document storage if you don't already have an account. It could really help you in the future. I know it has helped me.

Samsung Galaxy 3 is awesomeness in a phone

I recently upgraded my phone from the Droid X to the Samsung III and it is absolutely the most amazing phone that i have owned. It is ridiculously fast and has a beautiful screen. I find myself doing more things than I ever did with the Droid X. You can actually use the web browser on the phone without waiting 500 years for the response to render.

I highly suggest picking one up if you are looking for a new phone. I am NOT going to post a review because there are 5 billion reviews available on the internet. YouTube or Google Samsung Galaxy S3.

Development Virtualbox VMs

I added a bunch of new images to the Virtual Machine folder that I am sharing. I added several PHP development images, centos 6.2, and an Oracle 11g XE image.

You can find the images here: (please consult the readme.txt on the desktop)

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B37iWxTxZVl8cFhSVURpdUsyQzA

Render Issue with IE 9 and HTML Layouts w/ Empty Elements

I ran across an interesting problem with IE 9 and empty HTML elements. I am maintaining a project that was originally maintained by a different consulting firm.

There was a requirement to update the footer of one of the websites. The footer layout ended up exploding on me and was stretched down the page. I only noticed this issue with IE 9.

I dug around through the source code a bit and noticed that there was an empty table element. It was like this <table />. Apparently, IE 9 did not handle the rendering of the page correctly with the trailing DIV element. The layout was perfect for all other browsers.

I removed the empty element and viola! The layout renders out appropriately. Take a look for empty elements if you encounter any strange rendering issues with IE 9.

Google Drive has been released

Google docs and Google storage has been around for a long time. One of the biggest drawbacks to Google storage in comparison to Dropbox or any other online file storage system was a file synchronization client.

It looks like Google has released the Google Drive with options for a file sync client for your computer. You can go to http://drive.google.com to see if your Google Drive is available for your account. You can choose to be notified when the Drive is ready if it is not ready.

One warning: DO NOT UPGRADE OR CHANGE YOUR STORAGE if you have already purchased a large storage plan. You can retain your current storage plan as long as the following remains true:

• The account stays active.
• The credit card in your Google Wallet does not get declined. (not sure if this includes transactions not related to renewal of your plan. Ex: google music transactions)
• The plan does not get upgraded.

It is too late to go back if you upgrade your storage plan. I wonder if this will become the Dropbox killer.

Dev Virtual Machines

Star log 9000654998.0025.... I have arrived at a strange planet. There are creatures moving and speaking in strange tongues. They use strange keys on devices that have some kind of visual peripheral. They communicate through this place called "The Internet".

Finally, I have joined the current decade and I have created my own blog. This is the first post.

I figured I would post a link to the folder that contains development virtual machines that I maintain. There is only one PHP dev machine available right now. The PHP dev machine has two IDEs installed and also contains Drupal 7, Wordpress, and Joomla. You will need Virtualbox to run the vm. I will be adding more as I continue to work.

You can access the virtual machines here:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B37iWxTxZVl8cFhSVURpdUsyQzA