The Setup

First off, I’m running Ubuntu-Hardy, and both my PHP 5.3 and 5.2 distributions came from dotdeb.org. I have a Production server and a Test server that I try to keep as similar as possible. The first thing I did was make a backup of my Test server with PHP 5.3 installed and my app functional. Then I began hacking away on my Test server trying to successfully downgrade to PHP 5.2. When I screwed the Test server up beyond repair, I restored from backup. Likewise, when I made progress I documented my steps, restored from backup, and tried to repeat my success. I did this several times and eventually made a script that successfully downgraded PHP. I rehearsed this script 3 times on my Test server, backed-up my Production server, then repeated the script on my Production server. IT WORKED!

NOTICE: I probably have a couple of unnecessary steps in here that I didn’t bother to investigate their necessity. You may also need to uninstall and reinstall different PHP modules than I did, depending on the requirements of your applications.

My Final Steps

1. Remove PHP
   1. sudo apt-get remove php5-common
   2. sudo apt-get remove php5-cli
   3. sudo apt-get remove php5
   4. sudo apt-get autoremove memcached
2. Update your sources list to point to PHP 5.2
   1. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   2. Remove the references to PHP 5.3 packages. For me that was:

      deb http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all
      deb-src http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all

   3. Add the following 5.2 packages:

      deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable all
      deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
      deb http://packages.dotdeb.org/ stable all

3. Install PHP 5.2
   1. sudo apt-get update
   2. sudo apt-get install php5-cli
   3. sudo apt-get install php5
4. Reinstall any PHP modules your application requires. For me that was:
   1. sudo apt-get install memcached
   2. sudo apt-get install php5-memcache
   3. sudo apt-get install php5-curl
   4. sudo apt-get install php5-mysql
5. sudo reboot

After my production server rebooted, I had to fidget with Apache to get it started again. You may have to:

• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
• sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

Hope this helps!

1. First upgrade your software as is with the following two commands (just for good measure):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Now, open up your Debian package sources list with Nano for editing using the following command:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Next, add the following sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

deb http://www.apache.org/dist/incubator/cassandra/debian unstable main
deb-src http://www.apache.org/dist/incubator/cassandra/debian unstable main

After you add these two lines, press cntrl+X to close Nano. It’ll ask “Save modified buffer?” Press Y. Press Enter when Nano asks “File Name to Write.”

4. Run the update to install Casandra with this command:

sudo apt-get update

5. ERROR! At this point you receive an error similar to this:

W: GPG error: http://www.apache.org unstable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY F758CE318D77295D

6. Use the following three commands to ignore the signature error, and continue installing:

NOTE: You must replace the key value ‘F758CE318D77295D’ with the key value you received in your error message.

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys F758CE318D77295D
sudo apt-key add ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
sudo apt-get update

7. Install Cassandra:

sudo apt-get install cassandra

8. Next you need to change Cassandra’s default port number from 8080 to something else, because the 8080 port typically conflicts with SSH terminal connections. Use Nano to open up the Cassandra configuration file using the following command:

sudo nano /usr/share/cassandra/cassandra.in.sh

9. Then change the port number 8080 on the following line to 10036, and save the file:

-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=10036 \

10. Start Cassandra with the command:

/etc/init.d/cassandra start

Once you have Cassandra running, test it with Cassandra’s command line tool CLI. Use the example found on the Cassandra Wiki.

>> sudo apt-get update

>> sudo apt-get upgrade

Then add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

>> sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable all
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org/ stable all

Finally run the update to install PHP 5.2.9.

>> sudo apt-get update

>> sudo apt-get install php5-cli

>> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

To accomplish this task without losing all your Windows data you need 3 things.

1. Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
2. An HFS+ Mac-formatted external drive
3. Winclone
   

To decrease the size of your Windows partition use the following steps.

1. Make a backup of your Boot Camp partition from Windows. (optional)
2. Run Winclone.
3. In the “Tools” drop down click “Shrink Windows (NTFS) file system.”
4. Follow the onscreen instructions.
5. Wait… it takes awhile.
   
6. In Winclone create an “Image” to your Mac-formatted external hard drive.
7. Use Boot Camp Assistant to return your drive to a 100% Mac-formatted partition.
8. Use Boot Camp Assistant to make a new Boot Camp partition larger than the file size of your “shrunk” Windows partition image, but smaller than your original Boot Camp partition size.
   
9. When it asks for Windows disk, quit Boot Camp Assistant.
10. Run Winclone again and “Restore” your Windows image to the new partition.

To increase the size of your Windows partition use the following steps.

1. Make a backup of your Boot Camp partition from Windows. (optional)
2. Run Winclone.
3. In Winclone create an “Image” to your Mac-formatted external hard drive.
4. Use Boot Camp Assistant to return your drive to a 100% Mac-formatted partition.
5. Use Boot Camp Assistant to make new Boot Camp partition larger than your original partition size.
   
6. When it asks for Windows disk, quit Boot Camp Assistant.
7. Run Winclone again and “Restore” your Windows image to the new partition.

Kind of a pain, but it’s doable. I’ve altered my Boot Camp partition numerous times using the methods above.

After quite a bit of research I found this excellent Perl for Win32 FAQ and learned that when you setup Perl for IIS you have two options, you can use “Perl for Win32″ or you can use “PerlIS.” In my client’s case, they were running Perl for Win32 on the server with the working script and PerlIS on the server with the broken script.

Perl for Win32 = perl.exe
PerlIS = perlis.dll

They are both the same version of Perl, and both come included when you download Perl for Windows. However, even though they are the same version of Perl, they are different “interpreters.”

Perl for Win32 and PerlIS are mostly alike, but PerlIS requires that your scripts include the HTTP response status line as well as all headers for the response. Using Perl for Win32 you only need to specify the headers.

PerlIS is about two times faster than Perl for Win32. However, most CGI script that you purchase, or download for free, do not specify the HTTP response status line. This is because most scripts are not written for PerlIS. (Ok, I can’t backup that claim, but that seems to be the case in my experience.)

If your Perl scripts are displaying the content-type at the top of the page, try configuring your IIS server to run Perl using perl.exe instead of perlis.dll.

rm -r -f YourDirectory

rm = remove / delete
-r = recursively deletes the directory and all files in it, including subdirectories
-f = will not ask for confirmation before deleting

But hey, surely Microsoft has some mechanism to get me back in the game right? Not after 6:00pm! Nope. I have to write them a pleasant email and kick back and wait for a response in the next 24 hours. Of course this should be fine. It’s not like I shelled out $300 big ones for the privilege of running Windows Vista Business. And hey, who uses Vista Business for business right? And even if it was for business purposes, who works after 6pm? Yes, a 24 hour turnaround email is the PERFECT solution. *That’s sarcasm Microsoft!*

I must admit, I was able to “chat” with a Microsoft rep. He was a tremendous help providing me with a link to the webpage I initiated the “chat” from, that also contained the support email address. He also ensured me Microsoft would respond to my email within the next 24 hours and he informed me that the email support is absolutely FREE! Can you believe it!? Bless my lucky stars, it’s FREE! *That’s sarcasm again Microsoft!* Free… humph. Give me a break. I should be billing Microsoft my time spent dealing with WGA.

If it wasn’t for Visual Studio Microsoft would have one less developer. Hell, maybe I’ll migrate over to Mono and run Linux and OSX.

So I’m dropping the “build my own RAID 5 network server” idea. Now I want to get a Drobo and new wireless Linksys router with USB storage support. Although, I’ve heard a rumor that Data Robotics, Inc. is planning on coming out with a new Drobo with built in network support later this fall or early next year. I’m not sure I can wait that long. This thing is just too cool.Oh, I heard about the Drobo and this YouTube video on TWiT. Great Podcast.

Anyways. I’m working on setting up Windows XP using Boot Camp. Then I plan to use Parallels to quickly switch between OSX and my Boot Camp partition of Windows XP. By using a Boot Camp partition instead of a pure Parallels virtual machine, I can boot directly into Windows if I need more resources for playing games or whatnot.

To do all of this I had to slipstream my old copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 2. This requires creating a bootable CD. I thought I did everything correctly, but when Boot Camp Assistant restarted my Mac to install Windows, my Mac hung on boot-up. Turns out my CD burning software didn’t have all the features I needed. So now my Mac is stuck trying to load a boot CD that is incapable of booting. How the hell do I get the CD out to get back into OSX!? There is no manual mechanism to eject a CD on the MacBook Pro.

The Payoff
Do a hard restart. Then click and hold down the mouse button while the system boots up. Continue to hold down the mouse button until the CD ejects.

Totally intuitive. Not sure why I didn’t immediately think of that.

In an attempt to fix this problem I set out to make a domain research tool that people can trust. My solution? Use an open source whois script and give the web users directory browsing rights to the site. This way the users can verify that their searches are not being monitored by looking through the source code.

Check it out here at http://www.overtwhois.com/