Reading RFID With Raspberry Pi (or any linux device) + Reader

14 Jan 2013 I'm using the following Parallax USB RFID reader: http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/prod/audiovis/28140-28340-RFIDreader-v2.2.pdf

First you will need to ensure you have PySerial installed by trying to "import PySerial" while running Python's IDLE. If you receive an error:

Install PySerial:

Install python's setuptools: apt-get install python-setuptools
Install PySerial: pip install pyserial

Once you have PySerial installed, open IDLE again and use the following code to see output from the reader:

	#! /usr/bin/python
	import serial
	import time

	ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 2400, timeout=1) # replace '/dev/ttyUSB0' with your port

	while True:
	response = ser.read(12)
	if response <> "":
	print "raw: " + str(response)
	print "hex: " + str(response[-8:])
	print "dec: " + str(int(response[-8:], 16))
	time.sleep(1)

	ser.close()

view raw rfid.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Why didn't ser.read(12) return the same unique identifier as what is written on the fob?:

If the key on the card says 30788590 and the reader returns 3501D5CBEE. The "1D5CBEE" part is the card number. Try going from the card number in DEC to HEX it in the windows calculator while it's in scientific mode if you don't believe me.

"margin-left: auto;" and "margin-right: auto;" Not Working In IE8

07 Jan 2013

To get something centered within a div in IE8, it requires doing something unusual. I wasn't able to get the "display: block;" trick working. But this worked:

#super-wrap { position: absolute; width: 100%; text-align: center; }

#page-wrap { position: relative; width: 970px; margin: auto auto; }

I had to do this to get the InfoGrid (http://css-tricks.com/examples/InfoGrid/) to center in IE8. The div with the ID of #page-wrap already exists, but the super-wrap div needs to be created outside of the page-wrap div.

Using "nth-of-type" with IE8

07 Jan 2013 IE8 apparently doesn't support the CSS selector "nth-of-type".

You can fix it by adding this script to your page: https://github.com/keithclark/JQuery-Extended-Selectors/blob/master/jquery-extra-selectors.js

You will also need to add the following script to the bottom of your page (of course you will need to swap the numbers with your own):

$("div:nth-of-type(1)").css("background", "#b44835");

I used this to fix an IE8 compatibility issue with something called InfoGrid: http://css-tricks.com/examples/InfoGrid/

PHP - Generate SSHA (sha1) Password For LDAP User

07 Jan 2013 $info['userpassword'][0] = "{SHA}" . base64_encode(sha1("pass", TRUE));

Function To Find Largest UID Number In LDAP

07 Jan 2013
I got most of this function from http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/UncleBill/2006/10/15/using-ldap-as-a-database. It will find all the uidNumbers, sorting them largest to smallest, then return the largest number.

$ds = ldap_connect("localhost"); // assuming the LDAP server is on this host

function findLargestUidNumber($ds)
{
$s = ldap_search($ds, "ou=people,dc=yourdomain,dc=com", 'uidnumber=*');
if ($s)
{
// there must be a better way to get the largest uidnumber, but I can't find a way to reverse sort.
ldap_sort($ds, $s, "uidnumber");

$result = ldap_get_entries($ds, $s);
$count = $result['count'];
$biguid = $result[$count-1]['uidnumber'][0];
return $biguid;
}
return null;
}

$largestUID = findLargestUidNumber($ds);

LDAP shadowlastchange - Weird Date Format

07 Jan 2013
I'm working on a PHP script that adds an user to a directory using LDAP.

Here's the formula required to get the date format that shadowlastchange uses:
$unixTimeDays = floor(time()/86400);

It's the days since the last epoch.

First Android App

31 Dec 2012

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DallasTollCalculator

Py2exe Issues

28 Dec 2012 When getting the directory of the file you're executing in python use the correct example:

CORRECT: os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))
INCORRECT: os.path.dirname(inspect.getsourcefile( lambda:None ))

If you're using py2exe, the incorrect example will just give error messages.

Outlook 2010 - Run a Script (Blank)

27 Dec 2012
Apparently a script does not equal a macro in outlook. When you're setting up a rule, you have the option to run a script. However, your macro will not show up in the script menu unless it has (MyMail As MailItem) as an argument. Example:

Sub Save(MyMail As MailItem)

SaveEmailAttachmentsToFolder "AgentReports", "html", "C:\Users\EBRNPAL\Documents\Agent Reports\Saved"

End Sub

Save Outlook Attachments Automatically With A Macro

21 Dec 2012 Source: http://www.rondebruin.nl/mail/folder2/saveatt.htm

Sub Test()
'Arg 1 = Folder name in your Inbox
'Arg 2 = File extension, "" is every file
'Arg 3 = Save folder, "C:\Users\Ron\test" or ""
'If you use "" it will create a date/time stamped
'folder for you in the "My Documents" folder.
'Note: If you use this "C:\Users\Ron\test" the folder must exist

SaveEmailAttachmentsToFolder "AgentReports", "html", "C:\Users\Paul\Documents\Agent Reports\Saved"

End Sub

Sub SaveEmailAttachmentsToFolder(OutlookFolderInInbox As String, _
ExtString As String, DestFolder As String)
Dim ns As NameSpace
Dim Inbox As MAPIFolder
Dim SubFolder As MAPIFolder
Dim Item As Object
Dim Atmt As Attachment
Dim FileName As String
Dim MyDocPath As String
Dim I As Integer
Dim wsh As Object
Dim fs As Object

On Error GoTo ThisMacro_err

Set ns = GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set Inbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
Set SubFolder = Inbox.Folders(OutlookFolderInInbox)

I = 0
' Check subfolder for messages and exit of none found
If SubFolder.Items.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "There are no messages in this folder : " & OutlookFolderInInbox, _
vbInformation, "Nothing Found"
Set SubFolder = Nothing
Set Inbox = Nothing
Set ns = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If

'Create DestFolder if DestFolder = ""
If DestFolder = "" Then
Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
MyDocPath = wsh.SpecialFolders.Item("mydocuments")
DestFolder = MyDocPath & "\" & Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yyyy hh-mm-ss")
If Not fs.FolderExists(DestFolder) Then
fs.CreateFolder DestFolder
End If
End If

If Right(DestFolder, 1) <> "\" Then
DestFolder = DestFolder & "\"
End If

' Check each message for attachments and extensions
For Each Item In SubFolder.Items
For Each Atmt In Item.Attachments
If LCase(Right(Atmt.FileName, Len(ExtString))) = LCase(ExtString) Then
FileName = DestFolder & Item.SenderName & " " & Atmt.FileName
Atmt.SaveAsFile FileName
I = I + 1
End If
Next Atmt
Next Item

' Show this message when Finished
If I > 0 Then
MsgBox "You can find the files here : " _
& DestFolder, vbInformation, "Finished!"
Else
MsgBox "No attached files in your mail.", vbInformation, "Finished!"
End If

' Clear memory
ThisMacro_exit:
Set SubFolder = Nothing
Set Inbox = Nothing
Set ns = Nothing
Set fs = Nothing
Set wsh = Nothing
Exit Sub

' Error information
ThisMacro_err:
MsgBox "An unexpected error has occurred." _
& vbCrLf & "Please note and report the following information." _
& vbCrLf & "Macro Name: SaveEmailAttachmentsToFolder" _
& vbCrLf & "Error Number: " & Err.Number _
& vbCrLf & "Error Description: " & Err.Description _
, vbCritical, "Error!"
Resume ThisMacro_exit

End Sub