Wednesday, November 28, 2012

How to install wkhtmltopdf on CentOS 6.3

I was recently upgrading a server and I came across a problem that does not seem well documented on the internet. I have a CentOS 64bit Server running the latest version of WHM/cpanel. A client needed wkhtmltopdf installed for one of his websites so I thought I would show you how to install it on CentOS.

You can download wkhtmltopdf from this website: http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/downloads/list

The first time I tried to install this I went with the latest version. At the time of writing this it was wkhtmltoimage-0.11.0_rc1 Linux Static Binary (amd64). However all I got when I tried to write a pdf was:

QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
Segmentation fault

This turned out to be because it was not a stable release so do not make the same mistake I made and download the latest release candidate. Rather download the stable version. At the time of writing this, the latest version is 0.99.

http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.9.9-static-amd64.tar.bz2

The following commands should get wkhtmltopdf working on cPanel server:

# wget http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.9.9-static-amd64.tar.bz2
# tar xvjf wkhtmltopdf-0.9.9-static-amd64.tar.bz2
# mv wkhtmltopdf-amd64 /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf
#chmod 777 /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf

To test wkhtmltopdf run the following command:

# whktmltopdf http://www.google.com google.pdf

You should see a file in your directory called google.pdf. 

Hope this helped you save time. 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Thats Racist - A discussion about Trevor Noah's show

I guess this story starts with me apologizing to Trevor Noah for taking some of his posts out of context as he says I have. Apparently I took his tweets the wrong way. For those of you who are not familiar with the story let me give you some context.

I went to Trevor Noah's show Thats Racist!. I actually enjoyed most of the show. I laughed at the Woolworths jokes, I laughed at his depiction of white racists. It was all pretty funny. The bit that annoyed me was in the last 20 min of the show.

Trevor spent a lot of time focusing on white racists, and I understand that. There are some white racists in some communities. One just has to spend 30 minutes reading News24.com comments to realize how far some white people have to progress.

What I did not enjoy was the focus on mostly white racism. It actually annoyed me a little (and at the time perhaps I was overly sensitive). I was wondering, why is this last part focused on just white racists? Where is the lecture for racists of all colours?

To me personally this made me feel like Trevor missed an opportunity to highlight racism in all culture groups. For instance, while some whites are racist you can not ignore the clear racism of some blacks. For instance, no whites were involved in the racist xenophobic attacks that swept our country back a couple of years.

Whites are on the receiving end of racism constantly as well. A couple of weeks ago I took a friend to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital next to Mdantsane near East London. Our black friend was allowed through the front door of the hospital, but the security guard cut us two whities off and made us walk the long way around and take the side entrance.

We constantly have it being reinforced into us that we are white and unwelcome. By reading our media sources there is almost every week someone having a go at white people simply because of the colour of our skin.

I woke up this morning and what do I see on my news feeds? Hate speech and racism directed at whites again from a student body of the African National Congress.




These constant attacks in the media keep building up on the psyche of white South Africans and has a negative polarizing affect.

Trevor, I guess the reason why you don't speak about it that much is because you are not on the receiving end of this type of racism. Its there, its real and its constant.

Remember, in all populations you get a small minority that are racist. Whites and black. There are a lot more black people than white people, so the minority of racist black people.... actually feels like pretty sustained and constant racism due to the large black population in South Africa.

Your lack of balance in your show is what upset me, which is why I tweeted you (in now regrettable anger).

This is the tweet I sent:


Went to watch  last night. Enjoyed the jokes, not the patronizing lecture. Wont be buying tickets again.


You then replied to me with a comment about where you and I stand:


 it wasn't patronizing it's my opinion. But now we both know where we stand.


However what you also did right after you retweeted me was post the following comment:


Some people like comedy until you make them think. You laugh at Zuma jokes but can't laugh at apartheid jokes? 


You have 500 000 followers. This instantly started two things. An instant hate group and an instant support group. It was the strangest thing ever, but because of the way you retweeted me and then commented, I literally had hundreds of people telling me what a scumbag I was for being racist.

I know later you said that you were not calling me racist as per:


 ps. I don't blame you or "white people" for anything. I blame racists. Our racists happened to be white. It's sad but true.
. Yo I wasn't referring to you and I never called you racist. I love constructive criticism & that's why I replied to you.


I just want to go on record here that it did not seem to me or your supporters that you were not calling me racist. If the several hundred people instantly hating on me are anything to go on.

Now I know I am not a racist. I grew up in a multicultural society and I am in a very happy multicultural marriage. I have very close friendships with mates of all cultures and from several different continents.

I don't complain about BEE and I don't complain about AA. I understand the importance of them for our social development.  I'm pretty pissed off at the shoddy implementation and management of it that has lead to the creation of a cartel that monopolized most of the benefits of it.

I spend my free time getting involved in local politics to uplift my community. I am involved with charity work that supports several of the orphanages and townships in town. I know while doing all of this my skin colour counts against me. I know the impact that I can have to try uplift our society will be limited by the colour of my skin.

So what's the point of my post to you? I want you to know that there is a racism problem in South Africa, and its not just the whites. All groups and all cultures are doing it. Do not just focus on one cultural group. When you give your lecture/opinion at the end of the show perhaps you could direct it at everyone.

There are plenty of us whities in this country (the majority of us), that mean well and were brought up in the new South Africa. We are willing to live and die to grow this country and all its people. We are not racists. We have come very far in the last 20 years as a cultural group and are still improving.

At the end of the day South Africa is the cradle of ALL humanity. Every single human on the face of this planet has a great ancestor that originally came from South Africa. There is no one that should not be welcome or included in South Africa.

As the South African motto goes, "ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke" - diverse people unite

UPDATE:

Both Trevor and I have deleted our tweets but at least constructive dialog came out of this in the end.


 I've deleted that retweet because it was never meant to get people to attack you.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Tips and tricks for getting Windows 8 Pro for up to 70% cheaper

Well Windows 8 is here to both popular and negative reviews. I know many people will have difficulty adapting to the changes in the Windows 8, but since I use multiple operating systems I am pretty comfortable  with learning new systems. Windows 8 was way easier to adapt to from Windows 7 than Unity was to from Gnome.

This post is going to be about how to currently (and most of these offers will be for a limited time only) purchase Windows 8 for as cheap as possible.

The first cost saving advice I can offer you is to get the Windows 8 Pro upgrade. Do not be concerned if you want to do a full format and reload of the operating system. The upgrade version allows you to create a bootable USB flash disk or a bootable DVD that allows you to format and load from scratch.

The one requirement the Windows 8 Pro upgrade has is that you have to have a legal copy of a previous version of Windows from Windows XP (SP3) upwards. For most of us this will not be a problem.

However, it is only recently become affordable for more than just the top 10% of income earners. So I know more than just a few of you have illegal copies of previous versions of Microsoft Windows. Well download a legal copy of the trial version of Microsoft Windows 7 here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495

Install it for free and then you will be able to buy your copy of Windows 8 Pro cheaper without having to have previously purchased a license. In my case I had been testing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview for several months and was able to purchase the upgrade with that free key I got from Microsoft.

Once you are ready to purchase the Windows 8 Pro upgrade you can click on this link and purchased this limited time offer from Microsoft to purchase Windows 8 Pro for R299:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ZA/windows/buy

Groupon will be selling it on a special price for R600 and Incredible Connection will be selling it for around R700.

For those of you that have bought a new PC with Windows 7 between 2 June 2012 and 31 January 2013 can also register for Microsoft’s special upgrade offer for $14.99. To get this amazing cheap offer go to this Microsoft website:

http://windowsupgradeoffer.com/

Currently there is a trick that more tech savvy users can do to cash in on this offer $15 without owning a legal copy of Windows 7 Pro from that time period. Please see this forum post on MyBroadBand on how to purchase Windows 8 Pro for the lowest price:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/477194-Windows-8-Pro-upgrade-for-R299-now-available-online!?p=9198752&viewfull=1#post9198752

One more special I think you should know about is the limited time offer for the Windows Media Center application. Currently it is offered for free here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

Microsoft will soon be charging for this application so get it while its free.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

The ANC and the abuse of state money. East London Museum

So today I decided to go to our local museum to collect some information on a site a couple of us intend investigating out of historical interest.

When you walk into the East London Museum you walk straight into a wall of ANC propaganda. I was rather shocked at this. Imagine if you were American and you walked into the museum there to see that the ruling party had dedicated the entire entrance of the museum to promoting their ideology.



I spoke to a member of staff at the East London museum and I asked her, "Who is paying for all of this?"

I know the EL Museum is short on money and struggling to survive so surely it was not Museum money that was been used to promote the African National Congress?

The kind I spoke to responded, "Do not worry, the museum is not paying for this. The Department of Sports is paying for the ANC display".




I could not believe my ears. In South Africa our atheletes are always complaining about a lack of funding and here is the ruling party wasting precious sport resources to promote the African National Congress!

This is a disgusting abuse of state resources and yet another reason why voters need to wake up. This blatant abuse of state funds to promote the ANC`s ideology is typical of the ANC.






Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Best parody music video's for the 2012 American elections

A couple of you might know I follow the American elections pretty closely. I find them entertaining  educational and important.

So here are a couple of the parody videos that have come up in my feeds that I thought were worth sharing.

Mitt Romney Style (Gangnam Style Parody)




Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up Romney Please Stand Up





Wrong Direction's "Disclosure"





Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney





U Didn't Build That by MC 'Bama




Let me know if you see any other good suggestions to be added to this page.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Clarification of yesterday with regards to Wikileaks

I thought I needed a follow up post considering the drama that was unleashed on the Twittersphere last night. As you know in my previous post I mentioned I did not like the way the Assange's were running Wikileaks and in protest of some actions against Wikileaks supporters I pulled down the South African mirror for Wikileaks.

Firstly, I really did not know the world was going to go crazy when I did that. Heck, I hardly thought anyone knew or cared about the SA Wikileaks mirror. Seems I was wrong. Out of nowhere hundreds of people started messaging me. Some for Wikileaks... thought most against it.

Despite conspiracies Wikileaks supporters are saying. My account was not hacked and I really did run the South African mirror. I have posted links and information to substantiate this. I am not a CIA agent. I am not a smearbot and nothing of mine has been hacked.

So... do I hate Wikileaks? No. Like many of you the ideal behind it... that of making those in power be more accountable and transparent is still one of the single biggest focuses I have in my life. I might no longer wish to offer my resources to support Wikileaks but that does not mean I want them destroyed or gone. I am sure they are going to be useful in the future. What I do have a problem with is the way its run.

As I said in my last post, I believe the ideal that everyone is working for is bigger than one man (and his mom). This is where Wikileaks fails me. Not only do they not take their support base (beyond begging for money) seriously.... for me as a South African. They are pretty useless.

If someone in my country wants to show information about corrupt officials they wont go to Wikileaks. Most of the time the site says its not accepting new leaks or whatever new whim or direction Julian Assange is following. I would not be surprised if one day he charges whistle-blowers to upload classified data.

So I have decided to focus on projects that are more inclusive. I am currently working with a great group of people for something very exciting. It is totally in line with my beliefs of government and corporate accountability and transparency and will include all whistle blowing websites. It will not just focus on one. It will hopefully give exposure to other similar platforms and offer advice on which whistle blowing platform is best for you. It will even include Wikileaks to a degree.

So if you have a whistleblower website or a website dedicated to government and corporate accountability and transparency please let me know. I would love to include it in my future project. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

The day Wikileaks died for me (and most other liberals)

I woke up this morning and could not believe what I was reading over my morning cup of tea. Firstly was the news that the Wikileaks-Forum was closing down and secondly was at how unhinged Julian Assange's mother (Christine Assange) behaved.

It turns out there was a massive Internet fight between Wikileaks supporters (Mostly spear headed by the owner of the website Cabledrum.net). To give you an idea of how this chap behaved, he basically stalked all the moderators and admins of Wikileaks-Forum because they would not do things his way.

If you are a liberal like me, and believed in the concept of Wikileaks... you can safely move on. According to Julians OWN mother; Wikileaks is not about some type of progressive liberal movement for truth and accountability. Its all about her and her son. She actually showed disdain in a communication I saw for liberals! (Or a "leftie game" as she called it).

For a long time now I was a strong supporter of Julian. I used to donate regularly to him. I defended and supported his actions because I believed in the cause that he was fighting for. Since the days of the original attack I ran the primary South African Wikileaks mirror (www.wikileaks.za.org). Back in those days thousands of us rallied to support Wikileaks when it was under constant DDOS attack.

 Now that  I have seen the absolute disdain the Assange`s treat this cause with, I can no longer put my support behind the organization. To the Assange's it has become the Assange Road Show. Wikileaks is all about them and their own personal agenda.

Long time supporters of Wikileaks the world over are getting upset with how Assange is managing this. You just need to look back at the history of Wikileaks to see the long line of good people who have been pushed to the side. From guys in the first official group right up until now. A trail of disenfranchised, highly competent individuals all coming to the same conclusion. This is not about freedom of information, its simply the Julian Assange fan club. A fan club dedicated to the Cult of Personality.

Even one of the biggest supporters of Wikileaks. The hacker collective known as Anonymous have come out with almost identical complaints to just about everyone else involved with Wikileaks. The hacker collective says whistleblowers website has become the 'Julian Assange show'. I could not agree more.

I think the straw that broke the camels back for me what Christine Assange. No offence Christine, but you have absolutely no idea how much damage you are doing. Your son is playing a high end game of politics and one of the most important assets in politics for ANY politician is his or hers support base. Calling them names and behaving like you did is not the way to gain supporters. Its a sure fire way to lose them.

Instead of being a wise, sage political voice, you decided to attack Wikileaks supporters and throw kerosene on the fire.

So ladies and gentlemen, friends and family. I am writing this in the hope to inform you that if you are a Wikileaks supporter. Now is the time to move on. The idea behind Wikileaks is still a great and noble idea. Transparency and accountability are more important than one man (and his moms) ego.  Now is the time to stop supporting Wikileaks and start supporting the alternatives.

To show that I am serious I am taking down the Wikileaks.za.org South African mirror in protest of how some Wikileaks supporters and the Assange's are behaving. Please note, by taking down I mean I am no longer volunteering my resources as a South African mirror of Wikileaks. I doubt Julian will care.

 To anyone else wanting to take the idea behind Wikileaks and want to promote transparency and accountability. I offer to you my time, hosting and server infrastructure. I will fully support any Wikileaks type project that is NOT run like a totalitarian dictatorship.

Right now I bet Christine and Co are thinking I am part of the "ruthless powers" dedicated to "killing her son". I am not. I am just a liberal South African that used to be one of their biggest supporters.

For further reading on how rabid the faithful in Julian's Cult of Personality were and how the attacked Wikileaks-Forum please check out this link:

http://www.wikiwatch.org.uk/attacks-on-wikileaks-forum/

For further reading on how Anonymous is reacting to Wikileaks please read this link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/12/anonymous-distances-itself-wikileaks

Please note, I am working closely with some exciting people on an important project that will help promote transparency and accountability and will not be limited by one man or one site.



Friday, October 12, 2012

Jon Stewart supporting Rupert Murdoch

So yeah, I know the title of this blog post is a little inflammatory and you are probably wondering how the heck I came to the conclusion that Jon Stewart would in any way support Fox News owner, Rupert Murdoch.

Well, its actually a pretty direct link. For years international liberals from around the world used to browse The Daily Show Website and watch the latest episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Well all off a sudden that changed. In one move, Jon Stewart closed out his entire international audience and started helping Rupert Murdoch make money.

This all happened when Comedy Central moved their online video's to Hulu.com. In 2007, Hulu.com was founded by NBC and News Corp. News Corp is owned and run by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp is also the owner of Fox News.

So now when anyone who does not live in the United States of America visits The Daily Show website, they are completely cut off from Jon's show and are instead greeted with the following message:


I have to take my hat off to Rupert Murdoch. In one move he increased the viewers on Hulu.com and was able to cut out Jon Stewart's messages from reaching an international audience. The biggest loser in all of this is The Daily Show. 

When I used to watch in on http://www.thedailyshow.com I used to sit through the adverts and then enjoy the show. Since I am no longer able to legally watch The Daily Show, I now have to download it from alternative ad free streams. 

Jon... if you ever read this. Change the system. You have a massive international audience. We are often involved in liberal debates that cover issues that already have covered. In the past if we were having an online debate on something you had covered we would navigate to your site. Find the clip we wanted, and post it on our forums. 

This was good for you and us. For us it allowed us to drive home an important point. For you it brought more traffic and eyes to your website. 

Comedy Central and The Daily Show have really shafted their international audience. I really hope they wake up. I just find it really strange that The Daily Show would allow Murdoch to cut of their massive audience so easily. 

Well Jon... I guess its the bottom line that counts huh?



Sunday, August 26, 2012

Twitter assault on Lindiwe Mazibuko



This is a pretty interesting development.

Lindiwe Mazibuko is a member of the Democratic Alliance (a modern social liberal political party in South Africa). She recently made the following tweet about how they always have to meet heads of states in Churches or Universities:


Visiting Heads of State & Foreign Ministers shld address Joint Sittings of .Why must they only speak on campuses & churches?

Tweets

 let me pray for you girl, god please forgive her she was brainwashed from birth. amen
 since u serve under white monopoly, you undermine Africans
 disrespected south africa, you should apologise. You elevate americanisms above our national interests.
  what's African about Lindiwe?do u think she even understands what u trying to say
 Thinks she's the best thing to have happened in South African politics, well she’s nothing but  black project.SMH
White is better RT Africa and South Africa has enough great woman, why do you want ?
 cos u behave like a slut when everyone wanna treat u like a lady!Thought u know its woman's month. Are u ashamed to be black?
Wow. The vicious tweets continue. Many of them laced with revolting misogyny. The things people say from safe anomymity of the internet...
LOL. “: I love it when  RTs the nutjob tweets she receives. That totally should be more of a thing.”
Anyhoo. Bored now. My colleague, Winston Rabotapi MP is about to speak in Women's Day Debate. Back to work! 
 1st of,as an African child,you ought to respect ur elders. Regardless of how u feel about their view point........
 If you can stop undermining her,and show some respect as u do withHilary,she will make sense!She's black like u,incase u4got.
 why should SA parliament be addressed by Hillary you are so obsessed with whiteness, why don't you do plastic surgery
blah blah where did you even learn that from? You want to be taken serious and you behave like this ---> 
  I think they manage to deliver textbooks and don't blame the Indians for their problems. See the difference?
 Ppl see u as a token n everything u do n say will alwys be scrutinized mara that LuLu women must go teach Grade O in Limpopo
 is that how you show respect in DA. by saying blah blah? oh only white that make sence to you.
 SMH are you being for real? So you identify more with Hilary than you do with Lulu. You definately need Jesus in your life.
Go make tea RT : Listening to Lulu Xingwana's blah blah in National Assembly makes me (cont) 
How important is that Hillary Clinton as compared to Minister Xingwana? RT
U prefer American blah blah? Your bluuury Agent! *Juju's voice!*“
So u regard Americans as supreme to your fellow Africans?☹ RT: Listening to Lulu Xingwana's ... 
 Lindy, dis ppl ddnt go to multi racial schools like u youngs, jst bear with them n hear exactly wat dey r tryng to convey.
 yo obsession with Whiteness will make U even 2wish yo fellow MP's away so that yo Masters can be seen around.Take her 2DA WC
Can  be granted a Visa to go stay in America clearly she thinks she belongs there with Hilary Clinton and them. SMH!!!
Some interesting anti-Americana in response to my tweets, as if I was only talking about US Heads of State. Why the knee-jerk rage, Twitter?