Install Build Requirements

Run the following command as root (or with sudo) to install gcc and the development libraries used by python:

yum install gcc gdbm-devel readline-devel ncurses-devel zlib-devel bzip2-devel sqlite-devel db4-devel openssl-devel tk-devel bluez-libs-devel

Install Python

Download Python 2.6 source package, unzip, and enter working directory:

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cd
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.4/Python-2.6.4.tgz
tar xvfz Python-2.6.4.tgz
cd Python-2.6.4

Configure Python 2.6 so that we’re not overwriting the system’s python installation:

 ./configure --prefix=/opt/python2.6 --with-threads --enable-shared

Make and install:

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make
   make install

After running the make command you will see a list of modules that were not built. If you installed all of the devel libraries listed above, the only missing modules should be bsddb185 and sunaudiodev. You probably don’t need these – bsddb185 is the old version of the berkely db module, and sunaduiodev is for solaris. On x86_64 db and imageop may also be in the list, but looking at the setup.py, it looks like this is normal.

Add an alias to root’s .bash_profile:

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 vi ~/.bash_profile
alias python='/opt/python2.6/bin/python'
source ~/.bash_profile

Make a symbolic link:

ln -s /opt/python2.6/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.6

Configure ld to find your shared libs:

cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python2.6.conf

Now Enter the following:

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 /opt/python2.6/lib (hit enter)
    (hit ctrl-d to return to shell)
    ldconfig

Test python 2.6 installation:

python

You should get an interactive Python 2.6 session like:

  Python 2.6 (r25:XXXX, Dec 11 2009, 23:18:24)
    [GCC X.XXXXX.X 
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 
    >>>
 
    Hit ctrl-d to exit

Install setuptools

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cd..
    wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.6/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg#md5=bfa92100bd772d5a213eedd356d64086
    sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg --prefix=/opt/python2.6

Install MySQL

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wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-3.noarch.rpm
  wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-5.rpm
  rpm -Uvh remi-release-5*.rpm epel-release-5*.rpm
yum --enablerepo=remi install mysql-server mysql-devel python-devel

Install MySQLdb package

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wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mysql-python/MySQL-python-1.2.2.tar.gz
tar xvfz MySQL-python-1.2.2.tar.gz
cd MySQL-python-1.2.2
python setup.py build
python setup.py install

Verify MySQL-Phyton DB adapter:

python

In the prompt below:

    Python 2.5 (r25:51908, Nov 9 2008, 23:18:24)
    [GCC 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)] on linux2
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import MySQLdb
    >>>

There should be no errors on the screen. So far so good!

Install Apache2 and Apache2 Devel

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yum install httpd
yum install httpd-devel

Installing mod_wsgi

What is mod_wsgi?

The aim of mod_wsgi is to implement a simple to use Apache module which can host any Python application which supports the Python WSGI interface. The module would be suitable for use in hosting high performance production web sites, as well as your average self managed personal sites running on web hosting services.
Why mod_wsgi?

The consensus seems to be that mod_wsgi is the prefered Apache module (as opposed to mod_python). It’s stable, less memory intensive, and faster.

Configure mod_wsgi to link with Python 2.6 shared libs:

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cd /opt/python2.6/lib/python2.6/config
ln -s ../../libpython2.6.so .
cd
wget http://modwsgi.googlecode.com/files/mod_wsgi-3.1.tar.gz
tar xvfz mod_wsgi-3.1.tar.gz
cd mod_wsgi-3.1
./configure --with-python=/opt/python2.6/bin/python

Make and install:

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make
make install

It’s important to read the mod_wsgi docs on building with shared libs – mod_wsgi should compile to around 250kbytes.
Confirm that the size of mod_wsgi.so is around 250 Kilobytes:

 ls -Al /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_wsgi.so

Mine turned out to be around 295 kilo bytes.

Add mod_wsgi to Apache 2.x:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
LoadModule wsgi_module /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_wsgi.so

Restart Apache

service httpd restart

Check if mod_wsgi is loaded in the loaded module list by typing

httpd -M

Next Download Django

Assuming your django download is extracted in /usr/src/django

 ln -s /usr/src/django/django /opt/python2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/

You should now be up and running django on CentOS.

Important Notes:
1. SElinux does not go very well with wsgi environment. For testing, please turn off SElinux and then try these steps.
2. Apache might use wrong python version while calling wsgi handlers. Use wsgihome and wgipythonpath directives inside the httpd.conf to point it correctly.
3. In case of any errors, check the Apache error log for more details.

You can always post a comment here, in case of any help.

      

Below are some of the features of FusionPBX:

Unlimited extensions, voicemail-to-email, music on hold, call parking, Direct Inward System Access, Auto Attendant, Call Detail Records, Call Monitoring, Call Routing etc..

For a complete list visit their website

Note: If you already have Apache, PHP and MySQL & Phpmyadmin setup, then jump directly to step 4

Step 1: Install Install Apache2

yum install httpd httpd-devel

Step 2: Install PHP 5.3(with PDO) & MySQL

Since CentOS does not yet ship a recent enough version of PHP, so we you use the RPMs provided in the REMI repository. To do so:

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wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-3.noarch.rpm
wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-5.rpm
rpm -Uvh remi-release-5*.rpm epel-release-5*.rpm

Now use remi to install php and MySQL

yum --enablerepo=remi install php php-common php-mysql php-gd php-mbstring php-mcrypt php-devel php-pdo php-soap php-xml php-xmlrpc mysql mysql-server mysql-devel

Step 3: Install Phpmyadmin (This step is optional)

yum --enablerepo=remi install phpmyadmin

You might encounter the following errors while configuring phpmyadmin.

1. Forbidden : You don’t have permission to access /phpmyadmin/ on this server.

Fix:

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/phpmyadmin.conf 
 
Remove or comment the first two lines in bold.
 
<strong>#Order Allow,Deny
#Deny from all</strong>
Allow from 127.0.0.1

2. Error: The configuration file now needs a secret passphrase (blowfish_secret)

Fix

vi /usr/share/phpmyadmin/conf.inc.php
 
Look for a line and enter any password. Just dont leave it empty!
 
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'mydemopass'; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */
 
Now, Restart the Apache Server
 
service httpd restart

To Test

1. Open http://localhost/phpmyadmin in your local web browser. You should be prompted for authentication
2. Enter the system root username and password and click OK
3. You should now be presented with the phpMyAdmin home page

Step 4 : Download and install FusionPBX

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cd /var/www/html
wget http://www.fusionpbx.com/downloads/fusionpbx-1.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf fusionpbx-1.0.tar.gz

Now Restart apache

service httpd restart

Next create a database name fusionpbx using Phpmyadmin. If needed you can also create a separate db user or by default we can use root.

Now Open the fusionpbx Auto-Install Wizard

http://(yourserver hostname or localhost)/fusionpbx/install.php

On the Install screen enter the mysql db name, user, password you created. For the database host you can use localhost and the port can be empty.

On Submission, if you see any of the below errors, then please fix these before trying again:

* Write access to /var/www/html/fusionpbx/includes/ is required during the install.
* Write access to the ‘FreeSWITCH Directory’ and most of its sub directories is required.
* Write access to the ‘Secure Directory’ is required. If the /var/www/html/fusionpbx/secure is incorrect please change it below.
* Write access to /var/www/html/fusionpbx and its sub-directories are required during the install.

This is basically a permission issue, so change the permissions for write access

Correct all the errors before you proceed further. Then click “Install” button to proceed further.

If all goes well, you should see a “Congratulations Page”. Cool… We are done.. Now play around with freeswitch and this powerful GUI.

Special thanks to Mark J Crane, the lead developer of Fusion, for supporting me through the install. It was a breeze.

      

Lets see how:

Step 1: Install Python

The first step is to get the latest version of Python installed. Head over to Python.org and download the stable installer version (2.6.X) for Windows. Double click and run it. The install is fairly simple, and involves clicking through the installer steps.

For the rest of this post, the assumption is that installed Python in “C:\Python26\”

Step 2: Download and setup Django

Download and extract the Django files. Copy the complete directory named “django”, inside the extracted directory and paste it under “C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\”

Quick check: File “django-admin.py” should exist under the path “C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django\bin”

Now to be able to run python and Django from windows command line lets add it into the path variable.

Right click on “My Computer” and select Properties. Go to Advanced, then Environment Variables at the bottom. Edit “Path” and at the end add the following:

 ";C:\Python26;C\Python26\scripts;C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django\bin\”

On the Windows command line type

python

If you see an interactive python shell, Python is installed and running properly. To check Django installation, type

import django

You should see no errors. Congratulations Django is successfully installed on your system.

At this point, it would probably be a good idea to make sure that your Django install works before you attempt to get it working with Apache and mod_wsgi. So move forward to create a basic Django project and test the setup:

From the command prompt, enter into directory name where you wish to create your project:

C:\  cd djangoTest

Type the following to create the dummy project:

C:\djangoTest  django-admin.py startproject testproject

Now lets go inside the created project and run the project:

C:\djangoTest  cd testproject
C:\djangoTest\testproject  python manage.py runserver

You should get something like this on your screen:

Validating models...
0 errors found.
 
Django version 1.1.1, using settings 'testproject.settings'
Development server is running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.
[10/Dec/2009 20:45:50] “GET / HTTP/1.1? 404 2063

Now, open your browser and type: 127.0.0.1:8000 and press enter.

If all was good, you should have your Django test page up.

Step 3. Install WAMP

Download the WAMP stack. Double click and run the installer. Once again, the actual installation is simple and consists of clicking through the default installer steps.

After it is installed, you will the WAMP icon in your system tray. Left click on it and select “Start all Services”. After 10 seconds, left click again and click put online. Apache and MySQL should be running now.

To ensure Apache is running on port: 80, open the browser and type localhost. You should see the WAMP page now. Congrats.

Step 4: Install mysql_python 2.6 for Mysql

Download MySQL_Python2.6 module here

Run and install the file you just downloaded. Its a simple install.

Now, let’s test if the MySQL works currently with Django. Edit the database setting in ‘testproject/settings.py’.

Here’s what I fill in. ‘root’ is the default user.

    DATABASE_ENGINE = ‘mysql’
    DATABASE_NAME = ”
    DATABASE_USER = ‘root’
    DATABASE_PASSWORD = ”
    DATABASE_HOST = ”
    DATABASE_PORT = ”

Run the server if it isn’t started:

C:\djangoTest\testproject  python manage.py runserver

If you see no error messages(in the browser and the console), the database works correctly with python. To do a bit of testing, we can set our user name wrongly on purpose and watch Python throw out the errors then correct it.

So far so good. Phew now the final step…

Step 5:Install and enable mod_wsgi with Apache to run Django

Download the correct mod_wsgi file based on your apache and python. If you have followed this tutorial step by step you have Apache 2.2 and Python 2.6.

Rename the downloaded file as “mod_wsgi.so”

Copy the renamed file mod_wsgi.so to “C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2\modules” folder.

Now, open the Apache configuration file, located at “C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf” with notepad.

Scroll down and look for a section that includes a bunch of lines that start with LoadModule. Add the following line towards the end of that section:

LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so

Before we move further, copy your Django testProject folder into “C:/wamp/www”. This is not mandatory, but I did this, and the remaining instructions below are based on that.

Once you’ve got mod_wsgi installed and activated, edit your httpd.conf file and add:

WSGIScriptAlias / "c:/wamp/www/testProject/django.wsgi"

Next we’ll need to actually create the django.wsgi WSGI application, so create a file “django.wsgi” and add:

import os, sys
sys.path.append('c:/wamp/www/')
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'testProject.settings'
 
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

Now restart Apache, and boom you should see your “It Worked” Page.

Congratulations!! Wasn’t this easy, and just in time – 15 mins …

If this helps you, leave a comment, tweet or share this post.

PS: Updated this post with typos and other errors based on input from justin. Many thanks to him for pointing it out.

      

Rotimatic

As you see above, the appliance, is about the size of a mini-microwave oven, does the measuring, mixing, kneading, making, and baking of rotis, with users only required to refill the wheat and water compartments after a few days. Just the flick of the button and the chapati is ready. What you gotta do is add water and flour to the machine and leave this innovative roti maker to do its job. Compact, elegant and user-friendly, the roti maker sits on your kitchen top and prepares chapati for your family in just a flash of a second. The smart ingenious attributes of this cute little buddy won it the top position in the Singapore 2009 Business Plan Competition.

Rotimatic is a product of Zimplistic Pte Ltd., based out of singapore. Zimplistic recently won the prestigious StartUp@Singapore 2009 grand champion trophy, which comes with $28,000 in prize money and one free year of office space. Prior to this, Zimplistic was awarded the YES! Spring Singapore grant for young entrepreneurs valued at $35,000. Pranoti Israni, the founder of Zimplistic aims to partner or license with a consumer appliance brand to bring Rotimatic to market in 2010.

Pranoti Nagarkar Israni is no stranger to product design. Only in her 20s, she left her job at a leading electronic manufacturer to start-up on her own. She graduated from NUS and majored in mechanical engineering from Singapore who launched her own startup in June 2008 when she came up with her first invention, the “Rotimatic”.

Hats off to you, for coming out with this one !!

      

Face Detection in a PHP app

Face Detection
Face detection is the ability to detect a presence of faces within an image. It is very different from face recognition where the focus is matching faces to a known database of faces. Face detection works best when the face is a frontal shot. However there are advanced algorithms which make detection in side shots also possible.

The Solution: We will write a php script, which will detect faces automatically, using OpenCV (a computer vision library) and PHP Facedetect(a php wrapper to opencv). Both are free to download and opensource.

Requirements
- Basic PHP scripting skills
- Linux server running Centos with SSH access
- PHP/Apache
- GD Library

Lets, Get Started..

Step 1: Install OpenCV and its dependencies

 yum install opencv

OpenCV needs the following dependencies to work properly:

yum install ibpng libpng-dev zlib libjpeg libjpeg-dev libtiff libjasper swig python pkgconfig gtk gtk-dev

See here for troubleshooting and advanced installation instructions.

Step 2: Compile & Test Run OpenCV

OpenCV is installed in /usr/local/share/opencv

In the /usr/local/share/opencv/samples/c/ folder, Run the following commands:

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 export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
 ./build_all.sh

Test run OpenCV

  ./facedetect --cascade="../haarcascades/haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml" test.jpg

If all is fine, you should see the processing time. If you see errors, then see here

Step 3: Download and Install PHPFacedetect

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wget http://www.xarg.org/download/facedetect-1.0.0.tar.gz
tar zxf facedetect-1.0.0
yum install php5-devel
phpize && configure && make && make install

open php.ini and make sure you add this line.

 extension=facedetect.so

If facedetect has been successful, you will see this enabled in test.php.

Step 4: Writing a PHP Script

Copy all xml files in /usr/local/share/opencv/haarcascades folder to the web folder.

Call the php code as shown below, and make sure the path of xml files are correct else you would see a blank face or bool(false) output. Once you get this co-ordinates, you can draw a square or a circle using php gd library.

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<?php
//face_count() outputs total faces detected
// face_detect() outputs assoc array of x,y,width,height of each face recognized
 
$total= face_count('test.jpg','haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml');
$coord= face_detect('test.jpg','haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml');
print_r($coord);
?>

      

Why am I specifically looking at GTalk here? Coz its on open standards – XMPP !!

Look at some existing Gtalk bots for ideas:

Twitter Bots, Cleartrip Chatbot, Naukri Chatbot, Other Useful Chatbots

How to Write your GTalk custom bot in 10 minutes!

The Solution: We will write a basic chat bot which will change its status message on our command, using an Opensource Framework PYGtalkRobot. Later, you can expand the idea to more complex tasks like posting to twitter or checking emails etc..

Requirements:
– Geeky mindset, with basic language skills of python.
– Linux server running Centos with SSH access
– 2 Gtalk user accounts.

Lets, Get Started..

Step 1: Install Python – 2.4 and above

yum install python

Step 2: Download and unpack xmpppy. To install it go into the unpacked directory and run:

python setup.py install

Step 3: Download and unpack pydns. To install it go into the unpacked directory and run:

python setup.py install

Step 4: Next, Checkout the source code for pygtalkrobot from SVN server:

svn checkout http://pygtalkrobot.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/pygtalkrobot/src pygtalkrobot-read-only

Step 5: The pygtalktrobot directory contains the file:’sampleRobotcode.py”. In this file, edit the following lines:

• In the line, if jid == ‘ldmiao@gmail.com’: – Change ‘ldmiao@gmail.com’ to your gtalk id, so that this bot recognizes you as the admin.
• In the line, bot.start(“account_name@gmail.com”, “password”) – Change “account_name@gmail.com” & “password” to your second gtalk account details through which the bot will login.

Step 6: Run the sampleRobot

python sampleRobotcode.py

Your sample bot should start running now, and the status should show connected.

Step 7: Add the gtalk bot user as a friend in your Gtalk Messenger. Gtalk bot will automatically accept you as a friend.

Step 8: Once added, send the command “online GTalk Bot“. This will change the status message of the bot to “GTalk Bot”.

Hurray!! Your own bot is ready and it responds to the commands..