Category: Geekery

  • Kickass.to is dead, but there are mirror sites like dxtorrent.com, etc

    Kickass.to is dead, but there are mirror sites like dxtorrent.com, etc

    As we all know, Kickass just died 24 hours ago. The owner of the site was arrested by the he U.S. Government 24 hours ago. It’s all over the news. If you still don’t know about the news, just click the “all over” and “the news” hyperlinks that I just typed before this sentence.

    kickassalternative

    Right now, I’m using dxtorrent.com and thepiratebay.org as Kickass alternative. Just last year, I switched to Kickass because PirateBay was down. Now, it’s back up, and Kickass became the #1 torrent site in the world. All leading Torrent sites easily get noticed, that’s why it’s now down. Haha!

    Anyway, if you have any other suggestions on Kickass torrents alternatives, please feel free to leave a comment below.

    PS: Here’s a reddit I found online about Kickass alternative. It’s worth checking out!

  • Magento Fix on simplexml_load_string error at lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php

    If you’ve noticed that your system.log’s size is increasing every minute because of the error logs like this:

    Warning: simplexml_load_string(): ^ in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383
    2016-06-27T14:01:04+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 292: parser error : expected '>' in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383
    2016-06-27T14:01:04+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: simplexml_load_string(): nkey.png</233><234>manufacturers/image.jpg</234><235>manufacturers/image.jpg</ in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383
    2016-06-27T14:01:04+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: simplexml_load_string(): ^ in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383
    2016-06-27T14:01:04+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 292: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: config line 1 and unparseable in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383
    2016-06-27T14:01:04+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: simplexml_load_string(): nkey.png</233><234>manufacturers/image.jpg</234><235>manufacturers/image.jpg</ in /lib/Varien/Simplexml/Config.php on line 383

    Then consider your problem solved. After hours and hours of googling and searching at stackoverflow, I found nothing. Most of the solutions to the problem that is related to the simplexml_load_string error is something that is related to an XML file. But my problem wasn’t.
    (more…)

  • git: User was holding a relation lock for too long

    git: User was holding a relation lock for too long

    Screen Shot 2016-06-16 at 10.06.11 AM
    If you encountered this error while pushing your recent change to your git repo, worry not. You’re not alone. Just recently, like a few minutes ago, I’m having trouble pushing my latest commit to my Bitbucket repo. Good thing I found out that it’s just a bitbucket issue, not really an issue with my repo or with my server or with my localhost.

    Below is the exact error I’m getting while trying to push my latest commits:
    remote: canceling statement due to conflict with recovery
    remote: LINE 1: …er”.”date_joined” FROM “bb_repository” INNER JOIN “auth_user…
    remote: DETAIL:  User was holding a relation lock for too long.
    ! [remote rejected] master -> master (pre-receive hook declined)

    I actually tried pushing it again and again, switch branches, cloned a new repo, but no can do. Nothing I tried worked, it’s because Bitbucket is having issues, not me. Haha!

    Let’s just wait for Bitbucket to fix the issue and not panic.

  • Google Adsense cannot login using Chrome, but in Safari, you can!

    Google Adsense cannot login using Chrome, but in Safari, you can!

    adsense-cannot-login
    If you’ve encountered this issue last year, it seems it’s still not fixed. When attempting to sign in via adsense.google.com using Google Chrome, you’ll be prompted with this error message: “Looks like this Google account isn’t associated with an AdSense account. That’s okay. You can either sign in with the Google account associated with AdSense, or sign up for an AdSense account today.”. I thought this is just temporary. All I know is that Google is signing in your Adsense account using an individual account data, not your actual account data. This happened to accounts who signed up with Adsense prior to the implementation of Google Single Sign-on. So it’s prompting that your email is not associated to Adsense at all.
    (more…)

  • 3 Important traits of a brilliant app design company

    3 Important traits of a brilliant app design company

    apps
    You have your heart set on creating an app for a mobile device. The only problem is that you have no idea how to go about doing it. You have an idea that you think is very good. However, you don’t have any idea what to do with your great idea. You do not possess anywhere near the amount of technical skills that it will take to get your app idea off the ground. Does this sound like a situation that you currently find yourself in? If so, you will need some help if your app is ever going to be a success. Here are some of the traits of a brilliant app design company.
    (more…)

  • March 2016 Update: Chrome Dev Tools + Mobile Browser Emulator

    March 2016 Update: Chrome Dev Tools + Mobile Browser Emulator

    All of a sudden, Google Chrome’s mobile browser emulator and developer tools turned to white! Yeah! It’s suddenly updated without prior notice, or even any prompt about it if I want to switch to the new emulator or stick to the old one. The old one looks like this, with grids and a layout that I’m suited to use.

    device-mode-initial-view

    Screenshot courtesy of developer.chrome.com. Right now, everything turned into one, the devices are reduced, there are no network throttling options, and it’s just annoyingly neat and simple.

    chrome-dev-tools-new

    The rulers are also gone, I don’t know how to make it appear again. I wish I could just roll back and use the old interface. This new one sucks, big time. There are so many changes in the developer tools that I’m so lazy to explore. I love change, but a sudden change like this without prior notice or even a prompt is undeniably annoying.

    My current Chrome version is 49.0.2623.87 (64-bit). Geez, I really wish I could downgrade from this version to the old one and use the old developer tools instead.
    Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 9.40.11 PM

  • Sony PHA-3 vs Sound Blaster E5: Comparison and Blind Test

    Sony PHA-3 vs Sound Blaster E5: Comparison and Blind Test

    sony-pha3-soundblaster-e5
    For the past few weeks, I’ve been looking for the best portable DAC with sound amplifier that I can use with my Audeze EL-8. I’ve been searching in Youtube for a video review + blind tests, but I found none. After searching and searching and searching, I found two DAC choices that I want to buy. The $1000 Sony PHA-3 Headphone amp and the $200 Creative Sound Blaster E5 High-Resolution USB DAC 600 ohm Headphone Amplifier with Bluetooth. The price differences are way off. Sony supports up to 384 kHz/32-bit PCM and DSD (2.8/5.6) source, while the E5 only supports up to 24-bit/192kHz.

    Now is there a huge difference between the 32-bit and 24-bit amplifiers? Will you notice it? That I don’t know, that’s why I’m looking for a blind test review for those two portable amps. Once I found one, I’ll be posting it here. Right now, I found nothing in the world wide web.

    And oh, the FiiO E12 Mont Blanc Portable Headphone Amplifier is also a good choice if you want to listen to better music, and it’s cheaper. There’s also a $50 dollar FiiO A3 amp. Anyway, you can still listen to music even if you don’t have these audiophile thingamajigs.

    Anyway, I’ll be updating this post soon once I found a comparison for both. I will also post my own blind test with my friends soon (once I already bought both, haha)

    Two reviews I found in YouTube, but it’s not a comparison between the Sony PHA-3 and Creative Soundblaster E5, just two separate video reviews that might help you decide which to buy.

    First video is the Sony Hi-Res Audio PHA-3 and MDR-Z7 by Woopnik:

    And below is the Creative SoundBlaster E5 FULL Review by Tech YES City:

  • Magento blank sales order view page after SUPEE 7405 patch

    If you applied the SUPEE 7405 patch or upgraded to Magento 1.9.2.3 and suddenly you found out that your sales order pages are blank, then here’s a quick fix. Just copy app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Helper/Sales.php to app/code/local/Mage/Adminhtml/Helper/Sales.php, then open it. Find $links = []; then replace it with $links = array(); then save it.

    Clear your cache and check your sales order view page. It’s now fixed. This is currently a bug for PHP 5.4 and below, so another fix is just upgrade your PHP version to 5.4 and above to resolve this issue fast.