function randomString($strLen = 32)
{
  // Create our character arrays
  $chrs = array_merge(range('a', 'z'), range('A', 'Z'), range(0, 9));
 
  // Just to make the output even more random
  shuffle($chrs);
 
  // Create a holder for our string
  $randStr = '';
 
  // Now loop through the desired number of characters for our string
  for($i=0; $i<$strLen; $i++)
  {
    $randStr .= $chrs[mt_rand(0, (count($chrs) - 1))];
  }
  return $randStr;
}

Using it is simply a case of calling it and specifying how long to make the string otherwise it uses the default length of 32 characters.

echo randomString(12);

To also make it use symbols you just change the array_merge to


// If we want letters, numbers and symbols
$chrs = array_merge(range('a', 'z'), range('A', 'Z'), range(0, 9), array('!','£','$','%','^','&','*','(',')','-','=','+','@','#','~','?'));


Now for the JavaScript version. JavaScript has neither a range() function nor an easy way to shuffle an array so the code here is a little longer.

function randomString(len) {
  // Just an array of the characters we want in our random string
  var chrs = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z',
              'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z',
              '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'];
 
  // Check that a length has been supplied and if not default to 32
  len = (isNaN(len)) ? 32 : len;
 
  // The following section shuffles the array just to further randomise the output
  var tmp, current, top = chrs.length; 
  if(top)
  {
    while(--top) 
    { 
      current = Math.floor(Math.random() * (top + 1)); 
      tmp = chrs[current]; 
      chrs[current] = chrs[top]; 
      chrs[top] = tmp; 
    }
  }
 
  // Just a holder for our random string
  var randomStr = '';
 
  // Loop through the required number of characters grabbing one at random from the array each time
  for(i=0;i<len;i++) 
  {
    randomStr = randomStr + chrs[Math.floor(Math.random()*chrs.length)];
  }
 
  // Return our random string
  return randomStr;
}

1. Open a new tab
2. Type about:config in the url bar and press enter
3. Click the I’ll be careful, I promise! button
4. Right click anywhere on the list that appears and select New then Boolean.
5. For the preference name put extensions.checkCompatibility.10.0a and click OK
6. Now select false and click OK
7. Now do the same again but this time name it extensions.checkCompatibility.10.0
8. Again set it to false.

Now close Firefox and when you restart all your extensions should be working again.

Just remember the code is far from perfect and was created to do a simple job.

It also has one nice extra function you might find useful…

The directMail function will look up the recipients SMTP server and try to deliver the email directly to it thereby bypassing the need for you to have access to an SMTP server to send through. Just remember your host may frown upon the use of this function.

[sourcecode language='php'] /*
* SMTP Email Sending
* By Stewart Souter
* Date Created: Thurs, 11 August 2011 17:15:37 GMT
* Last Updated: Fri, 19 August 2011 10:54:35 GMT
* email: webmaster@carbonize.co.uk
*
* By using this script you are agreeing to leave this
* comment and agreement in place and untouched. If you
* use any part of this code you must make it clear where
* it came from and give credit where it is due.
*/

$mailCfg['Server'] = ''; // Servername
$mailCfg['User'] = ''; // SMTP username if needed
$mailCfg['Pass'] = ''; // SMTP Password if needed
$mailCfg['Port'] = 25; // SMTP server port. 25 is the usual and 465 if using SSL
$mailCfg['popServer'] = ''; // Name of the pop server. Leave empty if POP Auth not required
$mailCfg['popPort'] = 110; // Port for the pop server. 110 is the usual and 995 if using SSL
$mailCfg['SSL'] = 0; // Does your SMTP server need you to use SSL or TLS? 0 = no, 1 = SSL, 2 = TLS

// This function delivers the email directly to the recipients mail server so bypassing the need for your own
function directMail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailMsg, $mailHeaders = '', $mailFrom = '', $mailCfg)
{
if(empty($mailFrom))
{
return false; // No from address == no sending
}
$mailParts = explode('@', $mailTo); // Seperate the parts of the email address
@getmxrr($mailParts[1], $mxHosts, $mxWeight); // Get the MX records for the emails domain
for($i=0;$i {
$mxServers[$mxHosts[$i]] = $mxWeight[$i];
}
asort($mxServers); // Sort the array so they are in weighted order
foreach($mxServers as $key => $value)
{
$mailCfg['Server'] = $key; // Set the SMTP server to the current MX record
if(smtpMail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailMsg, $mailHeaders, $mailFrom, $mailCfg)) // Send the email using the MX server
{
return true; // The email was successfully sent
}
}
return false; // Houston we have a problem
}

// This function connects to the SMTP server and does the AUTH if needed. Can also do a POP login if server requires that.
function smtpMail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailMsg, $mailHeaders = ”, $mailFrom = ”, $mailCfg )
{
if(empty($mailFrom))
{
return false; // No from address == no sending
}
$timeout = ’30′; // How long to keep trying to connect
$localhost = ‘localhost’; // How to identify ourselves
$logArray = array(); // For storing the replies

/* * * * POP Login if required * * */

if(!empty($mailCfg['popServer'])) // Can’t really do POP Auth without a server
{
$ssl = ($mailCfg['SSL'] != 0) ? (($mailCfg['SSL'] == 1) ? ‘ssl://’ : ‘tls://’) : ”; // If SSL or TLS add it
$popConnect = @fsockopen($ssl.$mailCfg['popServer'], $mailCfg['popPort'], $errno, $errstr, $timeout); // Connect
if(!$popConnect) // If we fail to connect…
{
$logArray['POPconnect'] = $errstr . ‘(‘ . $errno . ‘)’; // Log the given reason…
logMailError($logArray); // And output to the log file.
return false;
}
else
{
$logArray['POPconnect'] = @fgets($popConnect, 515)); // POP servers only return single line replies. Or should.
if(!mailPackets(‘AUTH LOGIN’, $popConnect, ‘SMTPauth’)) //Request Auth Login
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(‘USER ‘ . $smtpUser, $popConnect, ‘POPuser’)) // Send username. POP is plaintext
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(‘PASS ‘ . $smtpPass, $popConnect, ‘POPpass’)) // Send password, again in plaintext
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(‘QUIT’, $popConnect, ‘POPquit’)) // Say bye to the server
{
return false;
}
fclose($popConnect); // Close connection
}
}

/* * * * End of POP Login * * * * */

/* * * * Start of SMTP stuff * * * */

$ssl = ($mailCfg['SSL'] != 0) ? (($mailCfg['SSL'] == 1) ? ‘ssl://’ : ‘tls://’) : ”; // Set the encryption if needed
$smtpConnect = @fsockopen($ssl.$mailCfg['Server'], $mailCfg['Port'], $errno, $errstr, $timeout); // Connect
if(!$smtpConnect) // If we fail to connect…
{
$logArray['SMTPconnect'] = $errstr . ‘(‘ . $errno . ‘)’; // Add the reason to the log…
logMailError($logArray); // Then output the log
return false;
}
else
{
$cnectKey = 0; // A counter for when we receive multiple lines in reply
do
{
$smtpResponse = @fgets($smtpConnect, 515); // Get the reply
$cnectKey++; // Increment the counter
$logArray['SMTPconnect' . $cnectKey] = $smtpResponse; // Log the response
$responseCode = substr($smtpResponse, 0, 3); // Grab the response code from start of the response
// If we get an error terminate the connection and log the results so far
if($responseCode >= 400)
{
logMailError($logArray, $smtpConnect);
return false;
}
}
while((strlen($smtpResponse) > 3) && (strpos($smtpResponse, ‘ ‘) != 3)); // Loop until we get told it’s the last line
$ehlo = mailPackets(‘EHLO ‘ . $localhost, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPehlo’); // Let’s try using EHLO first
if($ehlo != 250) // Server said it didn’t like EHLO so drop back to HELO
{
if(!mailPackets(‘HELO ‘ . $localhost, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPhelo’)) // Send HELO. No EHLO means server doesn’t support AUTH
{
return false;
}
}
if(!empty($mailCfg['User']) && ($ehlo == 250)) // We have a username and server supports EHLO so send login credentials
{
if(!mailPackets(‘AUTH LOGIN’, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPauth’)) // Request Auth Login
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(base64_encode($mailCfg['User']), $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPuser’)) // Send username
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(base64_encode($mailCfg['Pass']), $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPpass’)) // Send password
{
return false;
}
}
if(!mailPackets(‘MAIL FROM:<' . $mailFrom . '>‘, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPfrom’)) // Email From
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(‘RCPT TO:<' . $mailTo . '>‘, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPrcpt’)) // Email To
{
return false;
}
if(!mailPackets(‘DATA’, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPmsg’)) // We are about to send the message
{
return false;
}
// First lets make sure both the message and additional headers do not contain anythign that might be seen as end of message marker
$mailMsg = preg_replace(array(“/(? $mailHeaders = (!empty($mailHeaders)) ? "\r\n" . preg_replace(array("/(? // Create the default headers, attach any additonal headers
$mailHeaders = "To: <".$mailCfg['To'].">\r\nFrom: <".$mailCfg['From'].">\r\nSubject: “.$mailCfg['Subject'].”\r\nDate: ” . gmdate(‘D, d M Y H:i:s’) . ” -0000″.$mailHeaders;
if(!mailPackets($mailHeaders.”\r\n\r\n”.$mailMsg.”\r\n.”, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPbody’)) // The message
{
return false;
}
mailPackets(‘QUIT’, $smtpConnect, $logArray, ‘SMTPquit’); // Say Bye to SMTP server
fclose($smtpConnect); // Be nice and close the connection
return true; // Return the fact we sent the message
}
}

// This function sends the actual packets then logs the reponses and parses the reponse code
function mailPackets($sendStr,$mailConnect,&$logArray,$logName = ”)
{
$newLine = “\r\n”; // LEAVE THIS ALONE
$keyCount = 0; // Just an incremental counter for when we get more than a single line response
@fputs($mailConnect,$sendStr . $newLine); // Send the packet
do // Start grabbing the responses until we either get a terminal error or told we are at the end
{
$mailResponse = @fgets($mailConnect, 515); // Receive the response
$keyCount++; // Incrememnt the key count
$logArray[$logName . $keyCount] = $mailResponse; // Put the response in to the log array
$responseCode = substr($smtpResponse, 0, 3); // Grab the response code from start of the response
// Check for error codes except on ehlo, auth, and user details as they are not always fatal
if((($logName != ‘SMTPauth’) && ($logName != ‘SMTPuser’) && ($logName != ‘SMTPehlo’) && ($logName != ‘SMTPpass’)) && ($responseCode >= 400))
{
logMailError($logArray,$mailConnect);
return false;
}
elseif((substr($responseCode, 0, 1) == 4) || ($responseCode >= 521) && ($logName != ‘SMTPehlo’))
{
logMailError($logArray,$mailConnect);
return false;
}
}
while((strlen($mailResponse) > 3) && (strpos($mailResponse, ‘ ‘) != 3)); // Loop until we get the end response
return $responseCode; // Return the response code
}

function logMailError(&$logArray, $mailServer = false)
{
if($mailServer)
{
fclose($mailServer); // Be nice and close the connection
}
$fd = @fopen (‘smtplog.txt’, ‘a’); // open the log file
$mailResults = print_r($logArray, true); // Create a nice printable version of logArray
@fwrite($fd,$mailResults); // Write the log
@fclose ($fd); // Close the file
}

?>[/sourcecode]

To disable it in the browser go to Internet options by either clicking the gear cog on the right hand side of IE9s toolbar or go to your control panel. Once open click on the Advanced tab. The very first option is Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering* so tick that. You will then have to restart IE9. Hopefully Zuma Blitz will be a bit more tolerable now.

To disable it in Flash simply go to a web page that has Flash in it and right click on the flash. From the menu that appears select Settings… and then deselect the Enable hardware acceleration option.

So first try disabling one. If that doesn’t work re-enable the one you disabled and disable the other one. If it’s still jerky try disabling them both.

If all else fails you can always just uninstall IE9 and go back to IE8 or try one of the other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera.

XMedia Recode

1. Drag the video file you want to convert over on to the XMedia Recode window and wait for it to finish checking it
2. Click on the video in the list near the top of the XMedia Recode window
3. Click the Format tab and change Profile to Custom, Format to MP4 and File Extension to mp4
4. Click the Video tab and tick the Video Copy box at the bottom of the options
5. Click the Audio tab and under Modus select Copy. If your file has multiple audio streams you can choose to remove some at this point.
6. At the bottom, under Output, change it to Source Path so the mp4 version appears in same folder as the original (optional)
7. Click Add Job at the top
8. Click Encode

If you want to do more than one file simply repeat steps 1 – 7 before clicking Encode. So now you now how simple it is to get MKV to play on Xbox 360.

Just a minor update. I forgot that the Xbox does not like 5.1 audio so if your original file is using 5.1 audio you will have to convert to stereo. If you do you need to do this then simply setting the Modus under Audio to convert instead of copy should work just fine as the default is stereo.

Warning! – The latest version of Xmedia recode, 3.0.3.0, has a bug where selecting Video copy will result in an empty file being created. I have informed them of this bug. Appears to have been fixed in version 3.0.3.4.

Now on to the downsides.

Their video tag will only play .h264 files. Originally the specifications stated that the video tag would use the open source OGG codec but then Apple complained and so any codec could be used. Not that the fact both Apple and Microsoft own parts of the .h264 licences or anything. Now Google has purchased a company that was working on a new codec called WebM and has made it freely available with Firefox already supporting it as well as Chrome. Microsoft say they refuse to support WebM until Google can guarantee there will be no patent claims against WebM in the future. This is typical MS hypocrisy since their own licence for letting you use .h264 clearly states they offer no such guarantee themselves.

No support for the text-shadow CSS despite the fact Internet Explorer has offered text shadow as one of it’s filters since IE5.5.

Flash can be very laggy. My current favourite game, Zuma Blitz, is damn near impossible to play due to it being so jerky. This is possibly down to the hardware acceleration as Firefox 4 also suffers from this.

Still I think for most people who only use IE this will be a major breath of fresh air.

They also have Two Hundred Sit Ups, Two Hundred Squats and Fifty Pull Ups if push ups aren’t your thing.

They have seriously improved how they handle newfeeds such as Facebook and Twitter now giving them their own tray icons if you wish as well as their own windows. It also has a very small memory footprint and usually uses around 10MB. It’s email handling has also been improved but it still lacks Digsby’s ability to delete emails from Yahoo, Hotmail etc as I only seem able to delete emails sent to my Gmail account.

You can get more information as well as see screenshots and download the beta it’s self from http://www.trillian.im/learn/tour-trillian5.html

Firefox has been around about eight years and is only at version 3.5. Opera has been around over ten years and is only at version 10.50. With both of these browser they have only changed the major build number when they have made major changes to their browser.

So why is Google increasing Chrome’s build number more often that it has birthdays? Well others believe this is Google’s attempt at making the gullible believe that Chrome is a more mature program than it actually is. The less computer savvy are going to look at it and think, “Oh it’s on version 5 so must have been around a long time”. I tend to agree with their opinion as there is no other reason for Google to be doing this.

If you want free ebooks then check out my previous post which contains links to sites offering both classic and new works for you to download for free.