Like so:

$im = new iMagickFx('example.jpg');
$im->fxCropResize(100, 100)->fxReflection('white', 0.9);

$im = new iMagickFx('example.jpg');
$im->fxCropResize(100, 100)->fxRoundCorners()->fxDropShadow();

Currently it contains only four effects. Reflection, drop shadow, greyscaling and resizing but more is coming!

pysvnlog2ics parses SVN XML commit log and creates iCalendar .ics file from it. This resulted in many .ics files as in work I use one repository per project and over the years this count is in hundreds today. So I wrote another script – pyicalmerge which combines those .ics files to one big .ics file. Then I just uploaded that giant .ics file to Google Calendar and now I have all my commits in my calendar and can easily see the vacation gaps.

$ pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner -U <username> -h <host> -Fc <database> > <dump filename>
$ pg_restore -1 -c -U <username> -d <database> -h <host> --no-owner <dump filename>

$ pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner -U old -h 127.0.0.1 -Fc olddb > old.dump
$ pg_restore -1 -c -U newuser -d newdb -h postgresql.lan --no-owner old.dump

I’m using Windows XP Professional for this.

Make ISO image from your Windows 7 DVD with your favorite software. I used CDBurnerXP.

Save install.wim somewhere on your hard drive from that ISO image or straight from DVD.

Download Windows Automated Installation Kit for your OS.

Start AIK Deployment Tools Command Prompt

cd <path where you saved that wim file>

Mount the WIM image with write permissions:
imagex will tell which number is which Windows edition if it’s not found. I tried it first with just number 0.
Number 4 is in this case Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64 bit.

imagex /mountrw install.wim 4 c:\wim

add as many drivers as you like by using DISM
if dism says that files are essential for booting but drivers are unsigned, then add /forceunsigned parameter.

Here’s example for nvidia nforce drivers (Installer EXE extracted with 7-zip):
SATA/SATARAID/IDE/Ethernet/etc drivers:

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\ide\win764\
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\smbus
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse /forceunsigned

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\smu
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\ethernet
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

..and so on for all needed drivers..

You will need to expand unexpanded driver files in some cases. Drivers are not expanded if filenames in driver directory are foo.dl_ and not foo.dll etc.

Here’s NVidia GeForce driver sample for you (Installer EXE extracted with 7-zip)

cd c:\dl\191.07_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_international_whql
mkdir c:\displaydriver
expand *.* c:\displaydriver

and then

cd c:\displaydriver
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

Save the WIM image with new drivers:

unmount and commit (commit = save)

imagex /unmount /commit c:\wim

Add the install.wim back to the ISO image with your favorite ISO handling software. I used UltraISO.
Make sure that the DVD is bootable. Burn ISO as new DVD yet again with favorite burning software (CDBurnerXP).
Boot and enjoy your new Windows 7 with correct and working drivers.

Install OpenVPN

aptitude install openvpn

Setting up OpenVPN server

/etc/openvpn/server.conf:

mode server
tls-server
port 1194
proto udp
dev tap
client-to-client
ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/servername.crt
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/servername.key
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh384.pem
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
server-bridge 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.128 10.10.10.250
push .route 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
keepalive 5 60
comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun
status /var/log/openvpn-status.log
log-append /var/log/openvpn.log
verb 3
user nobody
group nogroup
#this allows more than one connection at a time from same key
#good if you just want to give one "gaming" certificate to everybody
#duplicate-cn

mkdir /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0/* /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa

Modify “vars” file with your favorite editor

Change export KEY_SIZE=1024 to export KEY_SIZE=384. We don’t need much encryption for gaming.

Modify export KEY_COUNTRY, KEY_PROVINCE, KEY_CITY, KEY_ORG and KEY_EMAIL to your liking.

Save the file.

source ./vars
./clean-all
./build-ca
./build-key-server servername
./build-dh

Use

/etc/init.d/openvpn restart
/etc/init.d/openvpn start
/etc/init.d/openvpn stop

To start/stop/restart the OpenVPN server.

Adding clients

Replace clientX with actual username wanted.

cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
source ./vars
./build-key-pkcs12 clientX

copy clientX.p12 file from “keys” directory to some directory

create following clientX.ovpn file:

client
dev tap
proto udp
#replace this with your OpenVPN server hostname/IP
remote 192.168.0.123 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
ns-cert-type server
comp-lzo
verb 3
pull
# Replace this with your own .p12 certificate file
pkcs12 clientX.p12

Send the certificate (.p12) and .ovpn file to your buddy.

Windows client configurations / troubleshooting

We used OpenVPN GUI as Windows client. Download the .ovpn and .p12 file to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config directory. Click connect on OpenVPN GUI’s taskbar icon and you should be connected.

To minimize problems set the OpenVPN TAP Adapter as first interface from network configuration. This required reboot for me so that Windows XP acknowledged it. Remove unnecessary stuff from TAP interface (like QoS).

WireShark is your friend. Use it to find out if games are shouting their packets to wrong network and not to VPN IP network. 99.9% of LAN games use UDP broadcast to tell about themselves so use “udp” as filter.

Ping and arp -a is also good for basic connectivity testing. Some firewalls block ping (ICMP) so be aware of that too. Other good tool is netstat and TCPView for looking in which port the game is running.

If you’re running some old games through virtual machine then set the virtual machine’s network adapter to OpenVPN’s TAP Adapter. IPX packets should go through too because TAP is layer 2 (but I didn’t test).

I also found this ForceBindIP application which will force specified application to certain network card or network card IP. Might come in handy if game is constantly picking up wrong NIC or IP network.

Sources

• OpenVPN bridging page
• Setting up OpenVPN in debian/ubuntu
• How to Install Openvpn
• Setting Up A Gaming LAN with OpenVPN

<?php
ignore_user_abort(true);
header("Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8")

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

ini_set('magic_quotes_gpc', false);
ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime', false);

ini_set('default_charset', 'UTF-8');

ini_set('iconv.input_encoding', 'UTF-8');
ini_set('iconv.output_encoding', 'UTF-8');
ini_set('iconv.internal_encoding', 'UTF-8');

function stripinputslashes(&$input)
{
  if (is_array($input))
  {
    foreach ($input as $key => $value)
    {
      switch (gettype($value))
      {
        default: break;
        case 'string':
          $input[$key] = stripinputslashes($value);
        break;
      } // /switch
    } // /foreach
  } // /if
  else
  {
    switch (gettype($input))
    {
      default: break;
      case 'string':
        $input = stripslashes($input);
      break;
    } // /switch
  } // /else

  return true;
} // /function

if (version_compare(phpversion(), 6) === -1)
{
  if (function_exists("get_magic_quotes_gpc") && get_magic_quotes_gpc() === 1)
  {
    array_walk_recursive($_GET, 'stripinputslashes');
    array_walk_recursive($_REQUEST, 'stripinputslashes');

    if (isset($_POST))
    {
      array_walk_recursive($_POST, 'stripinputslashes');
    } // /if

  } // /if
} // /if

// Add library path
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array(
  realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../library'),
  get_include_path(),
)));

// Enable autoloader
require_once 'Zend/Loader/Autoloader.php';
Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance();

$view = new Zend_View();

$form = new Zend_Form();
$form->setView($view);
$form->setMethod(Zend_Form::METHOD_POST);
$form->setAction('/');

$submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit');
$submit->setLabel('OK');

$email = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('email');
$email->setRequired(true);
$email->setLabel('E-mail');
$email->addFilter('StringTrim');
$email->addFilter('StringToLower');
$email->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(7));
$email->addValidator(new Zend_Validate_EmailAddress(Zend_Validate_Hostname::ALLOW_DNS, true));

$txt = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea('text');
$txt->setRequired(true);
$txt->addFilter('StringTrim');
$txt->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(3));

// Add fields to form
$form->addElement($email);
$form->addElement($txt);
$form->addElement($submit);

if (isset($_POST) && !empty($_POST))
{
  if ($form->isValid($_POST))
  {
    $values = $form->getValues();

    $m = new Zend_Mail('UTF-8');
    $m->setBodyText($values['text']);
    $m->setFrom($values['email']);
    $m->addTo('feedback@example.com');
    $m->setSubject('Feedback');
    $m->send();

    header("Location: /ok.php");
  }

}

// Output form to page
echo $form;

Page contains e-mail and free text field. E-mail address is checked against DNS. Form contents are send to feedback@example.com and given e-mail address is the sender. stripinputslashes kills all stupid slashes from _POST data.

Directory structure:

/home/foo/public_html/index.php (feedback form)
/home/foo/public_html/ok.php
/home/foo/library/Zend/ (ZF files)

ok.php contains something like “Thank you for giving feedback.”