Recent Articles
Drupal 6 Installation issues
Oct 1, 2009 Drupal, techno-babble Leave a comment
Drupal 6 requires php directive “register_globals” to be off. This is not always the case depending on your hosting environment or even your own requirements as Drupal may not be the only thing residing on your virtual server.
There are several work arounds for the issue if you come across an error during installation asking you to turn “register_globals” off. It may work for you or it may not work for you, but the final one will definitely do the job. Just to be safe, try the fixes in the order below:
1. You can always add or edit the .htaccess file in your root directory with the following line:
php_flag register_globals off
This may or may not work depending on whether the apache configuration on your host allows directives to be fed through the .htaccess file. Find out more about .htaccess files by going to http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/
2. So that didn’t work huh? Fret not, here’s another solution. Place a “php.ini” file in your root directory with the following line:
register_globals = 0
did that work? Basically you are telling php to initialize with the setting for your directory.
3. Wait, we didn’t cover the fact that you may be running your own server! Well if you are lucky enough to have your own server and control over your php.ini file, simply change the register_globals variable to ‘off’ in your php.ini file. More information can be found at the php website about how to configure your php.ini file.
4. You could also try adding the following line to your .htaccess file (it has been proven to work on 1&1 webservers):
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
This directive simply tells the server to use php5 for .php files instead of php4 (which might be the default for several webhosts out there)
5. Ok genius, nothing worked, now what? Yup, that was my case as well, nothing worked, seemed the host didn’t allow default settings to be changed. Well there’s always the “ask your hosting provider” answer. If you are so inclined to do so, send them an email and ask them how to turn the “register_globals” variable off for your particular site. They might not be of much help, but you never know. Or, (Yes!) there’s another method. You can simply tell Drupal to ignore it when installing. It requires you to change the install file located in modules/system directory called “system.install“. Go ahead and find the line:
if (!empty($register_globals) && strtolower($register_globals) != ‘off’)
and change the “!=” to “==” . The line should now read:
if (!empty($register_globals) && strtolower($register_globals) == ‘off’)
Curious to know what you are doing here? Well you are simply telling the system.install file change the “not equal to” to “equal to”. Basically, you fooled the system into treating a response which would mean that “register_globals” is “on” into treating it as “register_globals” is “off”. You will not get any more errors when doing the install now.
Now, remember, it is unsafe to have register_globals on. Your system is not fully secure if that directive is on. So if you are willing to take the risk, you can implement the solutions provided in this post.
Heer-Ranjha — The BILZ & Kashif
Sep 30, 2009 Bollywood, Poetry, Thoughts and ramblings Leave a comment
The BILZ & Kashif have come out with two new tracks recently, one of which was written by me (the Punjabi Lyrics that is), so ideal to post the song here and .. voila:
You can go ahead and buy the tune on iTunes, in fact get on it right now and buy it! Oh and look out for more songs written by yours truly for The BILZ & Kashif… their next album “Breaking Barriers” is rocking!
Here are the punjabi lyrics for the song (I’ll have to ask Kashif to give me a copy of the English lyrics so that I can post them here as well):
tu hai meri heer tera ranjha maiN deewaana
roke saanu koi vi roke, tenu chak lai jaanaa
roke saanu koi vi roke, tenu chak lai jaanaa
mitro o mitro vekho vekho kuRi diwaani
kinna mainu taRpaaNdi kinna mainu satauNdi
soni hai phabbat oNdi akhaaN vi maTkaundi
turdi o geet hai lagdi nachdi oNdi jawaani
[Kashif's part here]
tu hai meri heer tera ranjha maiN deewana
roke saanu koi vi roke tenu chak lai jaanaa
roke saanu koi vi roke tenu chak lai jaanaa
sajno o sajno vekho vekho kuRi diwani
haNsdi jad khil khil rabba dil nu mere sataundi
nachdi jad naal mere ishq di chaldi aaNdhi
mitro o mitro vekho mere dil di raani!
[Kashif's part]
tu hai meri heer tera ranjha maiN diwaana
roke saanu koi vi roke tenu chak lai jaanaa
roke saanu koi vi roke tenu chak lai jaanaa
Open Source CMS Comparitive Analysis
Sep 15, 2009 techno-babble Leave a comment
Are you looking for an open source CMS? There are way too many systems out there and everybody has its own choice, providing their own pros and cons about the various systems out there. I came across a nice report which I felt like sharing with others who may be visiting these open source demo sites with the same dilemma as myself, which one is best?
Link to the report:
http://www.waterandstone.com/downloads/2008OpenSourceCMSMarketSurvey.pdf
While you are at it, couple of other sites that may be of interest to you are:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/
http://www.oscom.org/matrix/index.html
If anybody reading this has any thoughts on the open source CMS systems, please share. I personally have liked playing with Drupal a lot.
Fearless
Aug 19, 2008 Thoughts and ramblings 1 Comment
Some movies teach you a lot about life, although they are meant for entertainment, movies are a great way, in my humble opinion, to escape reality for a few hours, just like video games, and I believe everybody needs that escape, people have different ways to make that escape, some like to listen to music, read poetry, write poetry, read books, watch movies, play video games, etc. And some of these things have big lessons for life. Fearless with Jet Li happens to be one of them (a movie I highly recommend). The biggest lesson this movie teaches is that life humbles you. Indeed, arrogance, pride, get you no where, life has a way of getting back at you. Unnecessary tragedies and undesired events can make you so humble. There are better things then personal arrogance and personal pride.
The movie was binding. The lesson in the movie is, again, in my opinion, needed to be taught to newer generations and perhaps older generation as well, heck people in general need to know that humility is important. Arrogance doesn’t only harm you, as a person, but has effects on your loved ones, your surroundings. And then, out of nowhere, life bites you back, a tragedy strikes, and you learn that your arrogance has simply made you unhappy, taken the most precious things away from you. It is true what they say, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone and when that precious person is gone, the errors of your ways become clear to you.
We all need a lesson in humility I believe. The “I” is not all that there is. There is a bigger “I” out there, one needs to realize it. To realize it is to know it and to know is to know God perhaps? I say that with a question mark because, believing in a higher power really is a question of faith and faith is not an easy thing to acquire. It is really hard to have that faith but I digress.
St. Augustine said – The sufficient of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Don’t let life teach you a lesson and show you how vain it is to be egotistic or arrogant. Keep some humility. Be fearless, but be humble at the same time, find the balance.
Future of Mankind
Jan 30, 2008 Thoughts and ramblings Leave a comment
An excellent movie to watch:
A line that caught me was a question from a reporter directed towards President Bush Jr.
“Is US credibility on line with respect to the WMDs in Iraq?”
Reply: “I’m not exactly sure what that means”
LOL
Merry Christmas
Dec 24, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings Leave a comment
Merry Christmas to all my friends out there who do celebrate it 
(lets not be politically correct and say “Happy Holidays”, what a bunch of bull-crap that is, it’s Christmas and even though we are not Christians, I don’t get offended if someone says “Merry Christmas” to me).
Here have a laugh:
bikhre ash’aar (3)
Nov 1, 2007 Poetry, bikhre ash'aar Leave a comment
Here are some couplets I read today by Riaz Khairabadi
zaahid sharaab peene de, masjid meiN baiTh kar
yaa vo jagah bataa de jahaaN par Khudaa na ho
Khuda ke haath hai bikna na bikna ma_e kaa ab saaqi
baraabar masjid-e-jaame’ ke ab rakh di dukaaN maiN ne
—————————–
Hasrat Mohani:
nahiiN aati to yaad unki maheenoN bhar nahiiN aati
magar jab yaad aate haiN to aksar yaad aate haiN
gumaaN
Oct 30, 2007 My Urdu Poems, Poetry 8 Comments
There’s this feeling, that one can get, every now and then, of something nagging. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with anything.. anything in particular, but something.. perhaps, someone, perhaps not. I think in this new nazm, I tried to capture it, though I might have failed miserably, but heck, it ended up being a nazm anyway… so here it is:
gumaaN
———
maiN saRak ke isi kone pe khaRaa rahtaa houN
ek besood tamanna meiN ghiraa rahtaa houN
maiN ne har aas ka har deep bujhaa rakkhaa hai
dil kii aavaaz ko dil hi meiN dabaa rakkhaa hai
mere atraaf ajab bheeR hai logoN ki magar
koii bhi aaNkh uThaataa nahiiN meri jaanib
aur idhar maiN bhi kisii fikr meiN khoyaa, gumsum
Khud ko is gardish-e-duniyaa se alag rakhtaa houN
ek besood tamannaa meiN ghiraa rahtaa houN
aaKhir is dard ka koii to sabab hogaa hi
meraa maazi?
mire afkaar?
miri bazm-e-hayaat?
sochtaa to houN magar soch nahiiN paataa houN
maiN saRak ke isii kone pe khaRaa rahtaa houN
maiN ne Khud se bhi koii baat chhupaa rakkhii hai
aur ummeed ki har shammaa bujhaa rakkhii hai
dil ko phir bhi ye gumaaN hai k koii aayegaa….
15/Oct/2007
Permanent Marker Ad – India
Oct 11, 2007 Indian Ads (Video) Leave a comment
Indian advertisements are hillarious! Everytime I go there, I love watching their ads so here’s one ad by a Permanent Marker company!
