Making a file with no extension acccessible on IIS

We were doing some tests and as part of one of the tests, we had to access a file which was hosted on a server running IIS 6.0. The program was making a http Get request and was getting 404. Yeah, the fabulous 404 error. What was really happening was that server was returning 404 for all files which has no extension.

We searched around and asked local experts and almost everyone could tell us on how to add a file extension but almost every one had no clue on how to add a Mime type with no extension. We tried many crazy things.

So we searched and searched and finally were able to get past. Since it took some time for us to find a relevant info on web, I thought that I would write a small post on this. So here's what you need to do.

Go to IIS, then Server name and then the domain name where you need to make a file accessible with no extension. Click 'Properties' and go to 'HTTP Headers' and then click [Mime Types]. I am not giving step by step as I am assuming that you would be able to figure this out.

Now comes the real part. In the 'Mime Types' dialog, click [New]. You would get following.



Enter the following information:

* Extension - *
* MIME type - application/octet-stream

Remember the screen-shot has some other extension. Just ignore that and enter '*' for file type and application/octet-stream for MIME type and you are good. Hope this information is useful for you.

Setting a meaningful WP sender e-mail

I have a blog which is hosted on Wordpress. Its a travel blog and I wanted that Authors be notified when a new comment is made on any of their posts. So I did the relevant settings but funnily the sender e-mail id is host#.hostmonster.com. I have taken the hosting from Hostmonster.com.

This was my first experience with a website so I sort of let it go. Once the site was old and I had more information and time, I started looking for a solution. I found the solution here

http://riteshsapra.net/wp/2008/06/05/wordpress-sender-email-incorrect-hostmonster/

and it worked. In a nutshell the solution is
1. Look for a file called php.ini. Its usually on the root
2. Look for a following command and add -f option followed by e-mail id.

sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -fusername@domain.com

3. Copy this file to WP blog root.

You need to ensure that the e-mail id which you are using is correctly configured in cpanel.

This did solve the initial problem. Now users were getting e-mail from a relevant id. But still it was not looking very elegant as there was no sender name. I wanted to see if there could be a way where I can set a 'Sender' name instead of an e-mail ID.

I asked Ritesh and he was not aware so I did some research and buoyed by the initial success after Reading Ritesh's article, I found a solution.

I did following

sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -fusername@domain.com -FfromGhumakkar

I was expecting that it would set the Sender name as 'From Ghumakkar' but WP actually now setting the real commenter as the sender, which is all the good.

If its useful to you then do write a small comment.

India in slow motion - By Mark Tully - Review

I recently read a book by Mark Tully, its called 'India in Slow Motion'. This is the first time I have read anything by Mark Tully, the famous BBC man and I am very impressed by the narration.

The book is about 'Poor Governance' and talks about social/political/cultural issues around governance. To me the book also sounded like a travel book and I picked a lesson or two in detailing things from Mark and am gradually applying them in my recent travel stories at Ghumakkar . There are about 14-16 chapters with chapter talking about a issue ranging from Carpet makers in Mirzapur to Gujrat rain harvesting solutions to Cyberabad and so on.

Mark and his partner Gilly have traveled extensively to capture the story at grass roots, the real reason behind the poor governance and even though it may appear that it would be a tough and a boring read, its not. Probably because the narration is super, the detailing amazing and most importantly its a real experience book and not a gyan by someone.

What greatly impressed me was this non-judgmental style of writing. Mark comes out as a great man of tact as writing against a particular government or person could get one into a problem but he handles it with so much of tact that its sounds convincing, true but yet very much un-biased.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about India. Its also a great read from travel point of view.

I have just picked up 'City of Djins' by William Dalyrymple and I hope to finish that in next 2 odd months. Yeah I am a very slow reader :)

The Asia Kitchen - Noida - Review

There was a time when everything would happen at Sector - 18, whether thats shopping, eating out or movies. Then over time, we had more malls and more development. I still remember that 10 years back, sector 62 used to appear so far. Over time the other side of NTPC has seen lot of growth with the mushrooming call centers and software development centers but one thing which was greatly lacking was good dining options. Shoprix Mall in Sector 61 has a food-court and there is this quickie joint called 'Pulse' but nothing impressive so when we heard about 'The Asia Kitchen' in Sector 63, we were pretty sure to check it out.

We went in a large office group. Its located on the road which connects Model Town Chowki (on NH24) to NTPC, sector 62 is on one side and 63 on the other. Close by milestone is Hospital Fortis.

The place is spread over two floors, basement and ground floor. I may have failed to notice it but may be there is first floor too. We went to basement. There is a private room which can host 16 people and then there is this rest of area which can host 40-45 people.

Ambiance is pleasing, well lit without being too bold and nice and clean setup. There are sofas and chairs as seating and the table is a little high so a more formal, fine-dining kind of place.

Food is nice, good preparation. I had Thai Chicken with green curry and that was nice. We had lots of starters and overall food was well praised.

Service is prompt and good. May be there weren't enough people on that day but we found that they have put at least 3 people to serve us, a group of 8.

Variety - This is one area where they greatly lack, there are hardly many choices, esp for vegetarians. I think they would need to work on this since no one goes to a restaurant to have Dal Makhani and Aaloo Jeera. For Non-Veg as well there are not too many choices. They claim to server Indian, Thai and Chinese but frankly I could not find more then a couple of Thai dishes.

Price - Its a bit pricey. Not too expensive but can hurt so watch out while you order.

Alcohol - They do not have permit so no alochol. Mock-tails were pretty ordinary.

So Overall here's my report card
Ambiance - 5/5 (not extraordinary but clean, appropriately lit, fresh, spacious setup)
Food - 4/5
Variety - 2.5/5
Service - 4.5/5

Since there are not too many great new options in Noida so if you have exhausted the usual list then you must try this place.

Aaj Pehlee tarikh hai

The charm of Pehlee Tarikh is gradually disappearing for me since I get my pay check on last day of a month. Also the money goes to bank and even though the e-mail alert from my bank is a pleasant mail to look at, the old world charm is sort of gone.

One of an old friend reminded me of this im-mortal song by Kishore, the number is called 'Din Hai Suhaana, Aaj Pehli Tarikh Hai'. And here a link of a site where you can listen this.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/f2358e14-e8a2-4456-a173-f65046065e82/Din-Hai-Suhana-Aaj-Pahli---Kishore-Kumar

I used to get cheque in my first company, that was in 1996. It was a small company being run out of a garage of a large bunglow in 'New Friends Colony'. Even though from my second job (which was at Newgen Software) the money used to go to Bank but it was always in first week so there used to be a little buzz around this. I think some part of it is also to do with the fact that back then the monthly salary was much more critical for minor day-to-day grocery expenses, now that sort of affects less.

Anyway, enjoy the song and let me know what you feel.