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Yearly Archives: 2012

WHM / cPanel – Compile PHP 5.3 to work with PHP 5.2

This is one of major issue lot of web masters face now. As PHP 5.2 has reached end of life we are forced to seek options to migrate and test PHP applications in PHP 5.2 and 5.3. Raj COO from WebHostRepo.com has posted a nice blog post on how to achieve this.

Running PHP 5.3 along with PHP 5.2.x in cPanel servers.webhostrepo

I did all the steps as mentioned on the blog post except for one, I had a lengthier configure statement 😉

Install ZendGuardLoader

Edit /usr/local/php53/lib/php.ini and add these lines to end

Happy migration 😉

Compile PHP 5.3.19 on CentOS 6.3 with Curl 7.28

new-php-logo

For this installation I choose CentOS 6.3 minimal version. You can download the ISO from the mirrors or direct download it from SYNc yourself. Once the CentOS installation is completed make sure you are connected to Internet to update the latest libraries.

 

Note: These steps are done assuming you are logged in as root user

1. Please update the available updates for the OS and restart

2. Install EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) so that you can get all the needed libraries for compiling PHP

3. Install Development Tools – Detailed User Guide

4. Install MySQL Database client

5. Install the following libraries which are required for different modules in PHP. Please make sure all the dependencies are met before installation

6. For this installation I planned to use the latest version of curl so I had to my custom curl compilation

7. Download and compile PHP 5.3.19

8. Copy php.ini

9. Edit Apache conf check if “LoadModule” is present else add it.

LoadModule php5_module /usr/lib64/httpd/modules/libphp5.so

10. Set handler for Apache to handle PHP files

11. If you are not planning to install ZendGuardLoader skip to step 13 else make sure you have disabled SElinux. Detailed instructions

12. Install ZendGuardLoader

Edit /usr/local/php-5.3.19/lib/php.ini and add these lines to end

13. Restart you apache and you are set

It took a great deal of time to make this work and with lot of trial and errors. If anyone finds a better way to compile please do share it with me. All the best 😉

Raspberry Pi a credit-card sized computer

Today I got the Raspberry Pi which I ordered last week. I was really exciting to start exploring the possibilities of this new toy.

What is Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.

Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM

  • SoC Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, and SDRAM)
  • CPU: 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family)
  • GPU: Broadcom VideoCore IV, OpenGL ES 2.0, 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder
  • Memory (SDRAM): 512 Megabytes (MiB)
  • Video outputs: Composite RCA, HDMI
  • Audio outputs: 3.5 mm jack, HDMI
  • Onboard storage: SD, MMC, SDIO card slot
  • 10/100 Ethernet RJ45 onboard network
  • Storage via SD/ MMC/ SDIO card slot

Raspberry Pi Enclosed in a Box

I  took around 2 hours to figure out how to get started, once I had finished the basic setup I created a simple video and I hope you can understand what this small monster is capable of.

Hope you enjoyed it 😉

Unboxing Google Nexus 7 Tablet

Thanks to Dinesh, Today I received my new Google Nexus – 7  Tablet. Unpacking was fun but I don’t want to discuss more about. This is my first personal Android device please wish me luck 😉

Based on the inital experience I really love the form factor and it is very handy to use. Will post more in details after using it for couple of days 😉

Dropbox Vs Google Drive – Why Dropbox is better !!

If you are planning for a online storage which simply works and if you really wish to have peace of mind, Go for Dropbox.

For a very long time I have been a loyal free user for Dropbox. I used it very extensively between work and home to sync my currently working project related files. I currently have around 4 GB space in Dropbox and It was not enough to backup my large photo collection around 30 GB.

Yesterday I started the hunt for online drive with 100 GB space

  1. Google Drive – $4.99 / month
  2. Dropbox – $9.99 / month
  3. Amazon S3 direct upload – $12.50 / month
  4. SugarSync – $14.99 / month

Out of these options I strongly believed option 3 & 4 as not an option, since it is way too expensive. The sync tool provided by these are way too slow and not fast enough.

I took for granted that Google Drive as an ideal choice for the following reason,

  • It is the cheapest of all the available storage options
  • Done by super cool team so it must be really optimized (This is where I took Google for granted :-()

I bought the package, and I installed the Google Drive on my home mac, my frustration started.

  • It crashes often, it is not able to handle large collection of files, in my case I had around 28,000 images to be uploaded.
  • Everytime it crashes, the sync goes nuts, It totally screws up and cannot sync a damm file and says completed sync locally but only 100 files were uploaded
  • It does not allow you to select the folder which has files, it cannot cross compare and sync files

Verdict: Google these days are very much passionate about copying technologies which are very successful. They clearly prooving that they cannot handle any other product better other than their search. Even their current search is getting screwed up in the name of Social Media and personalization. It was a big mistake choosing Google drive over Dropbox.

If you are planning for a online storage which simply works and if you really wish to have peace of mind, Go for Dropbox.

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