Kent J. Chen's WebLog

It happened lately in my office that emails sent to certain domains first got delayed and then failed with a SMTP error code 4.4.7 in the final NDR. Error code 4.4.7 usually indicates that the message in the queue has expired and usually the problem is on the receiving server. However, that is obviously not the case this time. Also on the server side, all queued messages all have one same warning message, “an SMTP protocol error occured”.

Dig it a little deeper by performing a MX lookup to all these domains that we had problem sending emails to and…

Permalink is very important. It’s one of the first things that you need to configure when you build up a website. Not only does it provide you a more comprehensive url but it also helps you in the search engine optimization (SEO).

WordPress has this feature with 4 options built in out of the box. What you want to choose is either “Day and name” and “Month and name” because they provide a better results.

But things will be getting complicated when you want a pretty permalink structure that does not have the annoying “index.php” in it,…

Scenario 1, one record is completely identical to another

Meaning that there is no way of identifying them who is who. Usually, it happens when the table doesn’t have a unique id field due to the poor database design. Because of that, there is no way in SQL to delete one of these duplications without deleting them all first.

You can copy the whole table into a new table first,

SELECT DISTINCT * INTO newTable FROM oldTable

And then, delete the old table and move all the records back but this time make sure you have the unique identifier…

Google released the source code of their upcoming Chrome OS, and claimed that the official release of this Operation System won’t happen until next year 2010. So now, if we want to taste the goodies that Chrome OS brings to us, we would have to build Chromium OS from the source first. Luckily, several developers out there have released installable builds that saves us the trouble, one of which is from gdgt.com that offers Chrome OS in VMware format. And here is how I got mine copy and run it on my VMware Player…

My colleague came to me the other day asking why his laptop was telling him that his copy of Microsoft Office is not genuine. This was new to me, so I asked him to bring his laptop over so I can take close look. Sure enough, the following window pops up every time he opened Word.

Clicking Learn More opens a web page that explains a little bit more why it happens but offers no good. You basically only have two choices, either buy one from their online store or uninstall it from your computer. If you are…

This had confused me before so I am sure if you are just into Virtualization world you might be confused on what’s the difference between these two types of virtualization. Rodney Buike had a great post up on IT Pro Connection that explains pretty well what they are.

Basically, Desktop Virtualization is the act of running a virtual machine on a desktop PC while the Desktop Virtualization is having the virtual machines running on a server in the datacenter.

So if you have a running virtual machine on your desktop using Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, Sun…

It’s not a rumor. It’s from Matt Cutts on his interview with WebPreNews at PubCon.

there is strong lobbying in Google to introduce a new ranking factor into the algorithm. The new ranking factor has to do with how fast a site or page loads. Matt described this as one of his ‘what to expect in 2010′ bullet points in his presentation yesterday evening in Las Vegas.

Would that be a big thing? I believe so. Not only does it make those webmasters try hard to crack their code to make their site faster,…

• Google announces big price cuts on paid extra storage [via download squad]
  here is the point: At any rate, Chrome OS in on the way and that likely means we’ll finally get our hands on the elusive GDrive as well. Here’s hoping it does, anyway.
• HP to acquire 3Com in $2.7 billion deal [via engadget]
  just another big merge. bye-bye 3Com.
• Microsoft investigating zero-day Windows 7 hole [via neowin]
  Microsoft confirmed that it’s looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and 2008 R2 that could be used to remotely crash PCs.
• Google Chrome

…

The awesome How-To Geek had a very good post on lifehacker the other day, which I think worths a post space here spreading the word, loudly.

What he basically claimed in the post was

When it comes to keeping your Windows PC secure, all of the scare tactics and overblown virus stories out there make it hard to feel safe online. The fact of the matter is that you don’t need to pay for Windows security.

And he backs up with 6 reasons.

1. Microsoft Security Essentials is a GREAT anti-virus application

MSE is a…

• CIO: I would never talk to my CEO about the cloud [via itworldcanada]
  ”There’s no way I would talk to our CEO about the cloud. For one thing, it’s a bad metaphor. It’s hard to get your hands around, it’s unstable as a weather element…I think it’s a term that should just go away.”
• Bell, Telus launch HSPA wireless service [via itworldcanada]
  that means, pretty obviously, iPhone is coming to Telus and Bell. Rogers is no longer an exclusive iPhone provider in Canada. Good news to the consumers.
• Microsoft COFEE available to individuals too

…