Netgear AC750 Wifi Range Extender (EX3700)
Posted by: z24 | Sun, Jul 24 2016 |
Category: /hardware |
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Tagged as: hardware, network, wireless
Here is how I satisfied my need to have a LAN messaging program, not really to chat with other users on the same LAN, which I could do, but to copy and paste links or texts between a rdp client and a rdp server when copy and paste from/to clipboard does not work in rdp sessions, for instance with some Android rdp clients.
These are the programs I used:
- Openfire 3.9.3 on the "server" (which can be a simple Windows pc): a realtime collaboration server using XMPP/Jabber
- Miranda IM 0.10.23.0: a multi-protocol instant messaging client
- Xabber 0.9.30b: an Android Jabber client
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, Aug 27 2014 |
Category: /software |
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Tagged as: android, chat, client-server, configuration, howto, jabber, messaging, network, phone, rdp, software, xmpp
If you get this error on YouTube trying to:
- remove some or all videos from YouTube "Watch History"
- "Clear all watch history"
- "Pause watch history"
... this is the solution that works for me:
- disable Video DownloadHelper from Firefox add-ons:
- restart the browser
- try again clearing or pausing YouTube watch history
Your watch history was cleared.
Your watch history is now paused.
Posted by: Z24 | Fri, Jul 11 2014 |
Category: /internet |
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Tagged as: internet
.htaccess: an example of the Apache per-directory configuration file
Using bloxsom as my weblog designing application, I had to provide some settings to the Apache .htaccess configuration file to fine-tune the usage of my site:
- tell Apache to load
index.cgiin addition to the defaultindex.htm - rewrite the requested address adding
www.if it's omitted - rewrite the requested address adding
index.cgiif it's omitted - and for bandwidth reduction, forbid robots from crawling some pages
Posted by: Z24 | Sat, May 17 2014 |
Category: /configurations/both |
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Tagged as: .htaccess, apache, bloxsom, configuration, web
"If you had a PC and you listened to MP3s in the late 90s, chances are you managed your playlists with Winamp." This is how TechCrunch begins the news of AOL going to shut down Winamp website, community, services and upgrades on December 20th, 2013. Now, a few hours into the 21st, it appears Winamp can still be downloaded on the official website, but we don't know for how long.
So what happens now? On the still alive forum there's a good summary made by user Victhor; I copy and paste it here before the forum gets shut down.
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Dec 22 2013 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: mp3, software, windows
Cleaning Windows XP
A very few not obvious hints to clean Windows XP and get some free space:
- %windir%\Installer
If you manually delete some files or the entire folder you couldn't be able to uninstall the related software via Control Panel.
Since some of them could be orphaned installers, you can find and remove them using MsiZap, a Microsoft utility released with the Windows SDK, but if you want to just download MsiZap go on nerdoftherings.net, then runmsizap.exe !G
This utility will find and remove orphaned uninstallers, thus free some space (according to somebody it could free tenths of GB, in my case just a bunch of MB). - %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\DataColl
This is the history of your system: see here; thus it can be deleted
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, Nov 20 2013 |
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Tagged as: windows, xp
Setting ClearType when fonts are too much thin
With my LCD monitor, a LG 1718S, the characters appear too much narrow on the screen, especially using Excel sheets: I tried all OSD settings but the characters are so much thin that they're almost invisible. I got the best results setting the ClearType effect:
Control Panel, Display, Appearance, Effects, Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts: Clear Type
This way the characters appear a little fatter and they're better looking too.
| Normal | ClearType |
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Yes, I use light grey background color :)
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Sep 22 2013 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: configuration, windows, xp
3Com OfficeConnect ADSL Wireless 54 Mbps 11g Firewall Router
This 3Com product has many functions: router, firewall, adsl modem, wireless access point, 4 port switch. 3Com chose to give two names to its products: a name for the market (as the long name in the title), which identifies the purpose of the product and is not changed when a new model replaces the older one, and a model name, a number which identifies the specific model.
The "ADSL" term in the name is particularly useful to specify that it's a adsl modem too, with a RJ-11 port that would connect the router directly to the phone line, through a RJ-11 cable, just like any adsl modem; in fact I found several routers that were capable of routing the adsl signal but were equipped with a RJ-45 port instead of a RJ-11 port: they were not DSL modems and needed to be connected to an external DSL modem. Checking the rear of the product, maybe on the user guide, can help making sure the router is a DSL modem too.
I will review two 3Com OfficeConnect ADSL Wireless 54 Mbps 11g Firewall Router models, the older 3CRWDR100A-72 and the newer 3CRWDR101A-75.
- Introduction
- Pictures
- Installation
- Features
- Reliability and 3Com assistance
- Wireless trouble with 3CRWDR101A-75
- Wireless coverage
- Firewall/router
- Other features
- Missing features
- Troubleshooting
- Conclusion
Posted by: z24 | Sun, Sep 22 2013 |
Category: /hardware |
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Tagged as: dsl, firewall, hardware, password, router, wireless
Create a VPN to connect from an Android client to a home Windows XP server
If you want to connect to your home computer using rdp when you are not home and are connected to the internet, you have to open a port on your firewall; changing the standard rdp port on both your server and your firewall increases your security (or decreases your unsecurity); configuring a Virtual Private Network (VPN) increases your security even more, and you can close the rdp port on your firewall: in fact, when you connect your remote client to your vpn, your remote client comes inside your LAN so that you can remote access your server from inside the LAN.
- Configure server to create a VPN
- Configure router firewall for VPN passthrough
- Configure VPN on Windows clients
- Configure VPN on Android devices
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Sep 22 2013 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: android, client-server, configuration, rdp, router, software, vpn, windows, xp
Opening notebook Toshiba Satellite Pro SP4270
(Updated Aug 29 2013)
Posted by: z24 | Sat, Sep 07 2013 |
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Tagged as: hardware
CodeLobster
License: Freeware (registration required); Professional version is shareware and it's included with the freeware version for a trial period, after that the professional version's features are disabled.
Author: CodeLobster Software
Install: yes, but in the setup process there's a check to choose between portable and classic setup.
Size: about 50 MBytes (about 17 MBytes setup)
Requirement: Windows ME or later
CodeLobster is an application to develop in PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript languages (it's a free IDE -integrated development environment- supporting autocomplete, highlighting, and PHP debugging), but it has some features which need to be noted because they are so good, and rare to find all in just one program, that you don't need to be a developer to use CodeLobster.
Posted by: Z24 | Mon, Aug 13 2012 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: freeware, programming
, software, windows
Hard disk suspension in an Antec SLK3000B
The main problem of the Antec SLK3000B case is it converts hard disk vibrations to noise, and this is the most annoying noise coming from my pc when the fans are set at the lowest speed. In the SLK3000B the hard disks lay in a cage with grommets that are supposed to dampen the vibrations of the 7200 and more rpm hard disks.
The trend spreading amongst silencing modders is to suspend the hard disks in the air to avoid contact between the case and the hard disks.
Posted by: z24 | Sun, Aug 12 2012 |
Category: /hardware |
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Tagged as: case, cooling, disk suspension, hardware, silencing
- Introduction
- Package
- Pictures
- GPS accuracy
- Connecting to internet via bluetooth phone
- Troubleshooting
- Conclusion
Posted by: z24 | Sun, Jul 24 2011 |
Category: /hardware |
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Tagged as: bluetooth, google earth, gps, hardware, pda, phone
Windows Remote Desktop (RDP)
Windows Remote Desktop allows to remotely get a Windows session on a Windows XP/2000/2003 machine on which it is enabled from any machine running the RDP client: the RDP client asks the name of the machine and the user and password and then the client opens a window showing the desktop of the server machine.
I'll show:
- Comparison between UltraVNC, Windows Remote Desktop and Citrix ICA connection
- How to enable Windows Remote Desktop in Windows XP SP2
- How to connect to a Windows Remote Desktop from Windows 98
- How to secure RDP
- Troubleshooting
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: client-server, rdp, security, software, vnc, windows, xp
About
This blog is born in August 2006 and it's about computing science: software reviews, configurations, tutorials, howtoes, for both Windows and Linux, hardware reviews, problems and relative solutions, tips and tricks, and everything else I get through in my computing related life.
The name ComputingArt was born as a "Computing Articles" contraction, but as pointed out by my friend csdk, it reminds to "Computing Art".
Posted by: | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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How to get rid of the message asking to restart the computer after installing Windows updates
If you use automatic updates, sometimes you get the tray icon which notifies you that some Windows updates are available, so you accept to download them first, and install them later; then, sometimes the installed updates require you to restart the computer, but you want to postpone the reboot, and every few minutes you get the same annoying popup message requesting you to reboot. How to get rid of this message?
Just run services.msc and stop Automatic Updates service. It's as simple as that.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: howto, windows, xp
How to associate username and SID
To know which is the username associated with a known SID (Security Identifier), open the registry (regedit.exe) at this location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.
Each SID key has a ProfileImagePath string whose value is the user path which contains the username.
To know which is the SID associated with a known username, select the ProfileList key and search the username.
There is also a SysInternals command-line utility which shows the SID associated with a known username:
C:\>psgetsid Z24 PsGetSid v1.43 - Translates SIDs to names and vice versa Copyright (C) 1999-2006 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com SID for WAM2\Z24: S-1-5-21-1993962763-2139871995-725345543-1003or the username associated with a known SID:
C:\>psgetsid S-1-5-21-1993962763-2139871995-725345543-1003 PsGetSid v1.43 - Translates SIDs to names and vice versa Copyright (C) 1999-2006 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Account for WAM2\S-1-5-21-1993962763-2139871995-725345543-1003: User: WAM2\Z24
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: command-line, howto, windows, xp
Install and boot Windows on a second hard disk
I have a SATA disk and a EIDE disk, I installed Linux on the SATA disk and now I want to install Windows on the EIDE disk.
Because Windows must be installed on the disk that boot first, I entered BIOS and changed the boot order as this:
cdrom
EIDE disk
SATA disk
Then I installed Windows on the EIDE disk.
I want to configure dual boot this way:
- default choice: Linux (booting from SATA disk)
- second choice: Windows (booting from EIDE disk)
/boot/grub/menu.list (on Ubuntu or Debian; if grub is not installed try apt-get install grub):
title WinXP map (hd0,0) (hd1,0) map (hd1,0) (hd0,0) rootnoverify (hd1,0) chainloader +1That means Windows believes the EIDE disk is the first and SATA is the second, so it's happy and if I reboot and choose WinXP from grub menu it starts.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: grub, linux, windows
Debian on Windows with VMWare, Linux applications in Windows using X server
With this little and very simple tutorial I will explain what I did to:
- install VMWare for Windows
- run Debian virtual appliance
- connect from Windows host to Linux guest and connect from Linux guest to Windows host
- run seamless Linux applications in the Windows graphical environment using an X server
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: client-server, linux, security, virtualization, VMWare, windows
While I was logging on from a remote console through RDP I've got a message telling me that the user profile is damaged. I was able to log on and I lost all the settings: desktop, menu and all the settings of the various applications, as if my user had just been created; that means, the user registry was corrupted and it has been replaced with the default user registry.
Event Viewer reported these error messages:
I don't know what would have happened logging off and on again (the original profile would have been restored automatically?), by the way I recovered it this way:- I created a new user, just to be sure to be able to logon if something went bad
- I rebooted into linux
- I copied the user registry file
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}\RPyy\snapshot\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-z-z-zz-zzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzz-zzzztoC:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\ntuser.dat:
the x's in the restore path are hex digits and yy is a number: the exact restore path where to look in should be the one with the most recent date and time before the date and time of the unsuccessful logon, i.e. yesterday's date if the error happened at today's first logon;
S-z-z-zz...is the user's SID (see how to associate username and SID);
andUSERNAMEis the username - I also copied the file
_REGISTRY_USER_USRCLASS_S-z-z-zz-zzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzz-zzzzfrom the same path toC:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: howto, windows, xp
Launching control panel dialogs from command line
It is possible to directly open the control panel configuration dialogs writing commands in the Run dialog or in a dos prompt window:
control admintools: open Administrative Tools
control date/time: open the Date and Time properties
control desktop: open the Display properties
control color: open the Display properties and go to Appearance tab
control folders: open Folder Options
control fonts: open the Fonts properties
control infrared: open the Infrared properties
control keyboard: open the Keyboard properties
control mouse: open the Mouse properties
control netconnections: open Network Connections
control telephony: open Phone and Modem Options
control printers: open the Printers properties
control international: open the Regional Settings
control schedtasks: open the Scheduled tasks
control userpasswords: open the User Accounts properties
control userpasswords2: open the Advanced User Accounts properties
control: open the control panel
If the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon disappears, the control command can help:
control hotplug.dll: open the "Safely Remove Hardware" window
Every *.cpl file in the Windows directory can be opened with the control cplfile command:
control vp7dec_settings.cpl: open the On2 VP7 Decompressor Settings, if VP7 codec is installed.
Moreover, some cpl files accept two arguments:
control cplfile[,[@first][,second]]: the first argument indicates the function (if a cpl file controls multiple functions), the second argument indicates the tab of the window to display.
control main.cpl,@0,2: show the 3rd tab of the mouse properties (main.cpl controls mouse and keyboard, @0 is for mouse properties, 2 is the 3rd tab)
control main.cpl,@1,0: show the 1st tab of the keyboard properties (@1 is for kbd properties, 0 is the 1st tab)
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: command-line, windows, xp
Accessing and changing the registry from outside Windows
Problem: I got myself locked out of my pc
Solution: access the registry from outside Windows and change the account lockout settings
After enabling Remote Desktop access to access from my notebook to my pc through my wireless LAN, I was playing around with account locking settings to defend from possible brute force attacks coming through the WLAN (supposing the attacker cracked the WPA-PSK password): I set the lock so that after two failed attempts to login the account would be locked until the administrator (me) unlocks it manually.
I wanted to adopt such a security measure for RDP access only, but unfortunately the account lockout policy is valid for any login attempt, being it local or remote.
Then, as a slight security measure, I also disabled the administrator user (my user is already an administrator and an attacker should also find a valid username).
I mistyped the password twice and I got myself stuck: administrator and guest were disabled and my account was locked.
After rebooting, at the logon screen there were no more users, so that the "To begin, click your username" sentence on the left sounded like a joke, having absolutely nothing on the right.
The solution was obvious:
- try to access and change the registry from linux (I have dual boot)
- manually restore a previous version of the registry
I solved using Offline NTPassword & Registry Editor, an offline regitry editor on a boot disk; I made the floppy, rebooted and then I started looking in the registry the affecting keys, but it was not necessary: there's a feature to edit the accounts, and that allowed me to enable the administrator.
I also found dumphive, a useful program to dump the registry hives to text files.
Instead on www.beginningtoseethelight.org there's plenty of Windows NT, 2000 and XP low level settings and hacks, I would say "all about the registry": for instance, where and how users and passwords, including account statistics and policies, are stored and encoded in the SAM hive of the registry, and a schematic explanation of the registry structure; and don't miss the other sections of the site, they're enlightening too.
About the second option, there's a Microsoft article that explains how to manually restore the registry to a previous state.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: system recover, windows, xp
Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake 32 bit on Windows XP with Qemu, Qemu networking, Linux applications in Windows using X server
With this little tutorial I will explain what I did to:
- install Qemu and its accelerator kqemu
- create an image file where the guest operating system will be installed
- install and then run Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake 32 bit as a guest operating system
- connect from Windows host to Linux guest with qemu
rediroption - connect from Windows host to Linux guest and connect from Linux guest to Windows host using tap driver
- run seamless Linux applications in the Windows graphical environment using an X server
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /windows |
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Tagged as: client-server, linux, qemu, virtualization, windows, xp
How to get rid of googleupdate.exe
Google Update is a tool that Google installs on a pc when some other Google software is installed, and runs each time Windows starts; it's supposed to update Google software, but a comprehensive description can be found on this blog.
I tagged this article as spyware, because Wikipedia defines it as
Point 4 of Google Earth License Agreement recites:
So, Google Update is certainly installed surreptitiously because while regular software setups show the components that will be installed, the Google Update application is never mentioned during Google Earth setup, and the only mention of something vaguely resemblant to Google Update behaviour is in the License Agreement, that's a good place where to put information which you want that nobody reads: I firmly believe there is no informed consent about Google Update installation. Moreover, it appears that Google collects information about Google software usage through Google Update, still without informed consent (usage information collection is not mentioned in License Agreement either).
So, Google Update is a spyware.
How to get rid of Google Update
- First, kill it by the Task Manager
- Google says it's listed amongst windows applications and in the start menu, where it should be possible to uninstall it, but that was not true on my system
- remove or disable the
GoogleUpdateTaskMachinescheduled task from Control panel, Scheduled Tasks - run
services.mscand disable theGoogle Update Service - if you use Firefox, go to Tools, Add-ons, Plugins and disable
Google Update(or remove it; maybe if you want to play with the registry, this is its placement:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@tools.google.com/Google Update;version=7 - finally, if you want to remove it "physically" (metaphorically speaking), you can find the exe in
C:\Program Files\Google\Update\and its subfolders
Once I disabled the scheduled task, the service and Firefox plugin, googleupdate.exe was never launched anymore, neither after launching Google Earth. I'll see if the Google spyware will reappear when I will update Google Earth manually (when a new version will be available).
I hope this helps, and if you still can't get rid of it using these methods, or if you find other places Google Update is hidden, please let me know. I'm curious how deep Google decided to fall.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: google, software, spyware, windows
FileDate Changer
License: freeware
Author: NirSoft
Install: no
Size: 50 KBytes
Requirement: Windows 95 or later, comctl32.dll
With this very little tool you can change the Created/Modified/Accessed dates of one or more files at the same time.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: file management, freeware, software, tools, windows
CamStudio
License: freeware
Author: RenderSoft
Install: yes
Size: 8 MB (1.3 MB install), 33 KB codec
Requirement: Windows 95 or later, comctl32.dll
CamStudio is a free screen and audio recording tool and comes with a swf flash converter and a lossless codec.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: freeware, screen recording, software, tools, windows
Panorado Flyer
License: freeware for private use
Author: Karl Maloszek
Install: yes
Size: 250 KBytes (114 KBytes installer)
Requirement: Windows with COM support
Panorado Flyer is a compact program that gathers GPS coordinates from Google Earth and writes them into images EXIF information.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: freeware, google earth, gps, images, software, tools, windows
Convert
License: freeware
Author: Josh Madison
Install: no (optional installer available)
Size: 560 KBytes (153 KBytes compressed)
Requirement: Windows 95 or later
Convert is a compact and simple unit conversion program: it converts distance, speed, pressure, temperature, time, volume, angle, area, mass, power, and many more measure units, and it allows to create custom conversions.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /software/windows |
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Tagged as: freeware, measurement, software, tools, windows
Spreadsheet calendar
A classic calendar made with OpenOffice Calc:
The cells with orange background are Italian holidays, and the background has been added manually (no formula); Easter is missing because its calculation would require a custom formula.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /programming |
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Tagged as: programming, spreadsheet
GPG key error updating aptitude, Debian upgrade
I had an old Debian Etch machine which I did not upgrade for some time, and when I attempted to install ghostscript by using Synaptic, I've got some unmet dependencies errors with libc6 and libc6-dev. Any attempt to reinstall or upgrade these packages failed, so I decided to try to upgrade the whole system to Lenny:
- I replaced
etchwithlennyin/etc/apt/sources.list #sudo aptitude update
But I've got this error: The error can be solved downloading the GPG signatures with these commands:
#gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
#gpg --export --armor xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | apt-key add -
I've tried a few servers (subkeys.pgp.net, keyserver.pgp.com, wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net) but they could not find the "right" keys...
Then I did the#sudo aptitude updateagain.#sudo aptitude install apt dpkg aptitude#sudo aptitude full-upgrade
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /linux |
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Tagged as: gpg, linux
Running Windows XP in Xen from its own partition
Some months ago I made some experiments with Xen and I succeeded to install and run Windows XP as a guest using Xen 3.0. In that case Windows was located in a single file and was installed through Xen.
My purpose now is to make Xen running an already installed Windows from its own partition. Just to be more specific, this is my machine configuration:
- Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 is located on a SATA disk, set as first boot disk
- Windows XP is located on a EIDE disk, set as second boot disk
- Dual boot is made by grub
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /linux |
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Tagged as: grub, linux, ubuntu, virtualization, windows, xen, xp
Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 amd64 and Windows XP in Xen 3.0
I am coming from a bloody week of wrestling against packages, bugs and "make world"s trying to run Xen in Ubuntu 6.06 amd64 on an AM2 3800+ and to make a Windows XP Pro domU.
I searched on the web some resources that would explain how to run Windows on Xen and I found some very good tutorial that unfortunately don't fit exactly my configuration and my purpose. These are the sites I took as a basis for my setup:
- dom0 = Debian Sarge 3.1, domU = Debian Sarge, Xen 2.0.7 32 bit installed from binaries or source, paravirtualization
- dom0 = SUSE 10.1, domU = Win XP Pro, Xen 3.0.2, Intel VT hardware virtualization
- dom0 = Ubuntu 6.06, domU = Ubuntu, Xen 3.0.1 32 bit
- dom0 = Kubuntu Dapper Drake, domU = Win XP, Xen 3.0.2-2 32 bit, AMD SVM hardware virtualization
These are all the steps I did and the problems I encountered during this Calvary :-) (I come from Windows with a little linux/unix background):
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: linux, ubuntu, virtualization, windows, xen, xp
How to mount an image file and access image content
To get access to the content of a virtual machine image or a ISO file, follow these steps:
- associate the file with a loop device node:
# losetup /dev/loop0 /var/otheros.img - list the partition table of the device:
# fdisk -l /dev/loop0 Disk /dev/loop0: 21.4 GB, 21474837504 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/loop0p1 * 1 2609 20956761 7 HPFS/NTFS - create device map (
kpartxis part ofmultipath-toolspackage on Ubuntu):
# kpartx -a /dev/loop0 # ls -l /dev/mapper/ total 0 crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 62 Jul 6 2008 control brw-rw---- 1 root disk 253, 0 Jul 5 23:18 loop0p1
- mount the device partition:
# mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /linux |
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Tagged as: command-line, linux, shell
Pausing a command
How to pause / suspend / sleep a running command in a terminal?
Press Ctrl+S
How to resume the paused command?
Press Ctrl+Q
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /linux |
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Tagged as: command-line, linux, shell
How to rename multiple files from bash
Rename all *html files to *test:
for x in `ls *html`; do mv $x `echo $x | sed -e "s/html/test/"`; done
Bash for:
for var in some-list ; do command ; done
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: command-line, linux, programming, script, shell
Execute a command at shutdown
To dismount TrueCrypt volumes at shutdown and reboot time, I created a script, put it in/etc/init.d/ and symlinked it into the needed /etc/rc?.d/ directories using update-rc.d.
Here is the detail:
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /linux |
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Tagged as: command-line, linux, programming, script, shell
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5
Posted by: z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
Category: /hardware |
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Tagged as: hardware, motherboard
Recover "Logical sector size is 0" with dd
A few hours ago while I was using my pc suddenly Windows froze completely (mouse was stuck and Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing). It's not astonishing but I was quite surprised because such a freeze never happened since I began using Windows XP on my new pc.
The problem appeared at the reboot: grub, the bootloader on /dev/sda, showed this error message:
At reboot I started Windows XP Recovery Console from the Windows CD and tried
CHKDSK.EXE, and this was the outcome:I booted again linux to launch
fsck and see it fail:Then I found the solution in ubuntu forum:
root@am2:/home/z24# dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/defmedia/bkup_fat32_hda1.img bs=512 count=2048000 conv=noerror,sync 2048000+0 records in 2048000+0 records out 1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 43.61 seconds, 24.0 MB/s root@am2:/home/z24# dd if=/defmedia/bkup_fat32_hda1.img of=/home/z24/sector6.bin bs=512 count=1 skip=6 conv=noerror,sync 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.011544 seconds, 44.4 kB/s root@am2:/home/z24# dd if=/home/z24/sector6.bin of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1 conv=noerror,sync,notrunc 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.030644 seconds, 16.7 kB/sExplanation:
- the first dd makes a backup of the first gigabyte of the Windows partition: I copied 1 GB only because I didn't have enough space on a ext2fs to backup all the 28 GB of /dev/hda1.
- the second dd extracts the sixth sector to a temporary file: as reported by Microsoft KB247575, "The backup FAT32 boot sector is located at sector 6 of the logical drive".
- the third
ddcopies the extracted sector 6 to sector 0 of /dev/hda1.
dd was also checked with losetup and mount. Thanks a lot to the ubuntuforums user Onlymee for his post!
Update 13.09.2008
The same problem happened again today and gave me the opportunity to complete the series of error messages :)The first, at boot time, was the same: Mounting the partition (
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt):
dmesg | grep sda1
But fdisk -l /dev/sda shows the partition table.fsck.vfat /dev/sda1 (executed from Ubuntu 8.04 alternate cd)
The solution was exactly the same: copy the sixth sector back to the first. And voilà, it booted.
Posted by: z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: error, grub, hardware, linux, system recover
Mounting a second fan on the back of the case (Antec SLK3000B)
With the summer approaching, I am making some experiments trying to cool my pc as much as possible while keeping it quiet. Now, airflow in the case is made by 2 fans: the intake fan, a Papst 4412 F/2GLL, pulls air inside the case from the front, the exhaust fan, a Antec Tricool coming with the SLK3000B, pushes air out to the back; in addition, the psu fan pulls air from the top of the motherboard through the psu to the back.
Since I bought a second Papst 4412 F/2GLL, I tried positioning this fan in different locations to see which one conributes the best to the cooling. One of these is the back of the case, in the bottom, where there would be additional cards: it pushes air out of the case through the back slots.
Posted by: z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: case, cooling, fan, hardware, silencing
WAMP & Perl - Windows Apache, MySQL, PHP with CGI scripts written in Perl
I need Perl to run Blosxom, an open source and free CGI script to create blogs.
So I installed WAMP5 1.6.4a and ActivePerl 5.8.8.817 with MSI installer.
I already have my site on my disk, so I told my site directory to WAMP during the setup procedure and then I pointed my browser to http://localhost/index.cgi but it displayed the cgi instead of executing it.
This is what I did to make it work:
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: apache, bloxsom, configuration
Running PHP scripts from command-line with WAMP (Windows Apache, MySQL, PHP)
On my old pc I installed Apache, MySQL and PHP singularly, and I made some PHP scripts to be runned from command-line, like this:
c:\php\php -f myscript.phpOn my new pc I installed WAMP5 1.6.4, all was running fine (phpMyAdmin, my local website, php scripts pointed to by the browser) but php scripts launched by command-line reported
Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in myscript.phpObviously I changed the php path to
c:\wamp\php\php but with no results.Solution: change the command to
c:\wamp\php\php -c c:\wamp\apache2\bin -f myscript.phpThe -c option tells php to search php.ini in the directory specified, and that's needed because WAMP puts php.ini in Apache bin directory, while with a PHP regular installation php.ini is located in the php.exe directory.
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: apache, configuration
How to force Firefox to open in a new tab a link that tries to open a new window
Type about:config in the address bar, read the warning and confirm.
Then change the value of browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction to 0.
Done.
See mozillazine about:config FAQ for a detailed description of the variables and values.
Posted by: Z24.firefox | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: configuration, firefox, web
Blosxom: How to insert a fixed path for images in Blosxom
I wrote some post on my new site created with Blosxom and I wanted to insert some images that I put in a directory called images under my website address root.
I found different solutions:
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: bloxsom, configuration
AMD Cool'n'Quiet
I'll try to answer these questions:
- What is AMD Cool'n'Quiet?
- Requirements
- Does it really work?
Posted by: Z24 | Wed, May 04 2011 |
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Tagged as: configuration, cool'n'quiet, cooling, cpu, hardware, silencing, software, windows
How to catalog audio files (MP3, OGG, etc.)
This is one of the many ways to keep order amongst audio files and to catalog them. The purpose of cataloging is to have an instrument to always know where a MP3 or OGG file is, if it has been backed up on cd or dvd, how many audio files or hours of music there are on disk, nonetheless to generate playlists by genre or author or by other criteria.
- I name the audio files using this schema:
Author - Title.mp3. When they are many, a big help come from tools to rename multiple files at once, such as Total Commander Multiple rename function (Ctrl + M) (Total Commander is shareware) - sometimes a MP3 editor to cut and paste pieces of MP3s can be useful, for instance when you bought a remix cd and you want to keep on the disk the single songs, or you want to cut a boring piece at the begin or end of a song (some techno remixes are long and boring at the begin, but great after the first 1 or 2 minutes). A fast and very small editor is mp3DirectCut.
- correct the ID3 tags of title and author to make them identical to those in the file name: this way all MP3s will be displayed in the same way in MP3 players such as Winamp (for Windows) or XMMS (for Linux) and in the car audio system display (if some MP3s miss the ID3 tags or have them all uppercase or all lowercase). To do that, a useful program is ID3-TagIT: select the files, then select the menu item ID3-Functions, Filename -> Tag ver. 2 and type
<A> - <T>(artist, hyphen, title) or whatever you like, then ID3-Functions, Filename -> Tag ver. 1 and still<A> - <T>; finally File, Save to apply the changes - I lower the bitrate to 128 kbps when it's too high, for instance 320 kps. Why? It would occupy too much space while having no hearable advantages (for my ears). The program I use is CDex: Convert, Re-encode Compressed Audio Files; the encoding options can be customized in Options, Settings (the encoder, the bitrate, etc.).
To see the bitrate of many mp3s at the same time, Windows XP Explorer is very useful: View, Choose Details, Bitrate; the files can be ordered by bitrate, selected and moved in another folder, so that when you have to reencode them with CDex you can select all the files in the "wrong bitrate" folder instead of selecting the "wrong bitrate" files one by one. - when some mp3s have a volume that's too high or too low compared with the average, with MP3 Gain the volume can be normalized to the dB specified (I use 96.0 dB): Track Analysis to see the current dB, then Track Gain.
- if I'm going to add a bunch of mp3s to my collection and I want them to have the same date and time (to know they came together), I touch * them in the temporary folder they stay before moving them to my collection folder: touch.exe is a command coming from unix which sets the current (or the specified) timestamp to the specified files.
- organize the audio files in folders as you wish, for instance by genre or author.
- first I generate a list of mp3s with MP3 Lister, a tool which can be configured to export all the ID3 tags you want in the order you want, and it can create a txt, csv or html list
- then I import the text file in a spreadsheet (I wrote a macro to make the import automatic).
- I wrote other macros to automatically order the MP3 files, check for duplicates and generate playlists by genre.
m3u files (Winamp playlists) are simply text files containing a mp3 path and file name on every row.
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Jan 31 2010 |
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Tagged as: howto, mp3, software, windows
Posted by: z24 | Mon, Feb 09 2009 |
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Tagged as: cooling, fan, fan controller, hardware, silencing
- Introduction
- Pictures
- Making a flat surface
- Installing - ouch, it's not compatible with some MSI K9N Platinum
Posted by: z24 | Mon, Feb 09 2009 |
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Tagged as: cooling, cpu, hardware, heatsink, lapping, motherboard, silencing
Posted by: z24 | Mon, Feb 09 2009 |
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Tagged as: cooling, cpu, hardware, heatsink, lapping, motherboard, silencing
How to broadcast audio with Icecast
You need to install Icecast and Winamp with the Shoutcast plugin for Winamp.
In this howto I explain:
- how to set up Icecast and Shoutcast plugin to broadcast audio over a LAN or the internet
- how to reduce the audio delay between the server source and the client playback
- how to use Icecast to replace Skype or MSN voice chat when using RDP
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Jun 22 2008 |
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Tagged as: broadcast, howto, mp3, software, windows
Regular expressions pattern options
In regular expressions there are some constructs that influence the way a pattern is matched:
- Non-greedy
? - Non-capturing
(?:pattern) - Positive lookahead
(?=pattern) - Negative lookahead
(?!pattern) - Positive lookbehind
(?<=pattern) - Negative lookbehind
(?<!pattern) - Testing regular expressions
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Dec 23 2007 |
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Tagged as: perl, programming, regex, visual basic
Remove XP Pro or Win Server 2003 bandwidth limit
Run Group Policy (gpedit.msc) and go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QoS Packet Scheduler and change "Limit reservable bandwidth" to "Enabled" with a value of 0%. By default it appears disabled but read the description and you'll discovered it's enabled with a value of 20%.
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Dec 16 2007 |
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Tagged as: configuration, windows, xp
Seeing MySQL queries, just like MS SQL Profiler
Just execute mysqld with the --log[=filename] or -l[=filename] command-line option.
If filename is omitted, hostname.log will be created in the mysql data directory.
Or edit my.ini adding log=filename line (i.e. if you use WAMP).
Then restart mysqld.
Posted by: Z24 | Sun, Dec 16 2007 |
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Tagged as: configuration, mysql
