Notes

- July 31, 2019

I know that it's probably (no longer) possible because of abuse, but I want to check nonetheless. Is there a way for me to obtain the company zone file for a domain myself, without having to contact the people who host the DNS for that domain?

Is there a way to get the complete zone file for a domain, without getting it from the company that hosts the DNS for that specific domain?

Answer

You can try to initiate a zone transfer.

You are right though, no sanely configured DNS server should still allow this nowadays. Not just because as a zone admin you don't want to expose your internals but also because AXFR responses are way bigger than the queries, so they prove to be an excellent way for DoS reflection attacks as a <100 bytes spoofable UDP package can make a server send multiple KB of response to any machine on the internet.

If you still want to try:

In the nslookup utility, you can use ls [name of domain] to get the zone information.

And if you prefer dig, then you can use

dig @dns.example.com example.com -t AXFR

Though as I said, it probably won't work for you.

- July 31, 2019

Copy first ten jpg files in folder in alphanumerical order to new folder with out prior knowledge of jpg file names.

Give each ten files in new location specific names like 'e100.jpg' - 'e110.jpg'.

Powershell or batch script solution to run in windows enviroment.

Current research across related stack exchange posts:

SO - Copy first N files from source directory to “serialized” destination directory using powershell

SF - Copy first 10 files from a folder and subfolders

SO - Powershell to pick random files from a folder and move them to another folder

SU - How to batch copy rename files

SU - How to optionally copy and rename a file in Windows?

SU - PowerShell Script to Rename - Copy - Move

Bulk renaming of files in PowerShell with sequential numeric suffixes

If I were to guess at a solution, based on the research as my coding skill are not very good, I think one of the solutions would look something like this:

Powershell

$excludealreadycopieditems = @()
$sourcefolder = "C:\SYS1"
$destinationFolder = "C:\SYS2"
$maxitems = 10
#Calculate how many folders should be created:
$folderstocreate = [math]::Ceiling((get-childitem $sourcefolder\*.jpg).count / $maxitems)
#Copy the items (if moving in stead of copy use Move-Item)
get-childitem $sourcefolder\*.jpg -Exclude $excludealreadycopieditems | sort-object name | select -First $maxitems | Copy-Item -Destination $destinationFolder$i ;
#Exclude the already copied items:
$excludealreadycopieditems = $excludealreadycopieditems + (get-childitem $destinationFolder$i\*.jpg | select -ExpandProperty name)
     }
ls *jpg | Foreach {$i=1} {Rename-Item _ -NewName ("$($.100){$:110#} .jpg" -f $i++) -whatif}

CMD

@ECHO OFF
SET SrcCount=0
SET SrcMax=10
FOR %F IN (C:\SYS1\*.jpg) DO IF !SrcCount! LSS %SrcMax% (
      SET /A SrcCount += 1
      ECHO !SrcCount! COPY %F C:\SYS2
      COPY %F C:\temp\output
      )
ren *.jpg e100.* e103.* e104.* e105.* e106.* e107.* e108.* e109.* e110.*

Answer

How can I copy 10 files to a new directory and rename them with a pattern?

Use the following batch file (test.cmd):

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "source_dir=f:\test\jpg"
set "target_dir=f:\test\target"
for /f "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /b %source_dir%\*.jpg') do (
  set /a "count+=1"
  set /a "target_count=!count!+100"
  copy "%source_dir%\%%f" "!target_dir!\e!target_count!.jpg" > nul
  if !count! EQU 10 goto :done
  )
rem finished
:done
endlocal

Notes:

Change source_dir and target_dir as appropriate

Example:

> dir jpg
 Volume in drive F is Expansion
 Volume Serial Number is 3656-BB63

 Directory of F:\test\jpg

12/03/2019  11:39              .
12/03/2019  11:39              ..
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (01).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (02).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (03).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (04).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (05).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (06).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (07).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (08).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (09).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (10).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (11).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (12).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (13).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (14).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (15).jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 Test_image (16).jpg
              16 File(s)         70,864 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  1,005,493,501,952 bytes free

> test
> dir target
 Volume in drive F is Expansion
 Volume Serial Number is 3656-BB63

 Directory of F:\test\target

12/03/2019  12:07              .
12/03/2019  12:07              ..
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e101.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e102.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e103.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e104.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e105.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e106.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e107.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e108.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e109.jpg
12/03/2019  11:34             4,429 e110.jpg
              10 File(s)         44,290 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  1,005,493,379,072 bytes free

The description for Event ID 5010 from source netwlvXX cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\NDMPx

I've personally been bugged with this event on Windows 8 and 8.1 only with default Microsoft drivers, and with newer Intel drivers. My system is a Lenovo R61i with updated Core2 Duo CPU, 3GB RAM and i945 system chipset. An old and standard configuration.

- July 31, 2019

I am going to put a new ROM file on a network attached instrument and I need to use tftp. Does anyone know how to do this?

I am going to upload two different files and they will go into separate folders.

Answer

It is probably best to use the TFTP server (or "service" in MS parlance) that is "native" to the operating system distribution on which you wish to run the TFTP server.

If you are using Ubuntu, try this article by David Sudjiman.

If you are using Debian, try this Nixcraft article.

If you are using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora try this blog post.

If you are using MS Windows, try TFTPD32. This isn't a "native" server in the sense of being in the Windows distribution, but it is a commonly used TFTP server.

If the device that you are attaching to the network is itself a TFTP server and you need to upload a file to that server using a TFTP client, then you need to find out

The IP address of the device

The file name that the device is expecting to receive

You might also need the port number on which the devices TFPT server is listening if it is not the TFTP well-known (standard) port, port 69.

If the device configures itself using DHCP from a server on your network then you can look at the DHCP service log files to see what its IP address is. Another possibility is that the device configures an ad-hoc IP network. So you need to have some documentation about the device to know how it configures itself.

Most of the above mentioned TFTP server packages also install TFTP clients. If you don't want to install the servers then some distribution have stand-alone TFPT clients, but they are usually not installed as part of the standard installation so you will have to install them manually.

Once you know the IP address of the device and the name of the file that it is expecting to receive, you should be able to upload the file to the device by using a command like

tftp 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile theirfile

Since the tftp default transfer mode is ASCII and you are uploading a ROM, the command should probably be

tftp 192.168.1.1 -m binary -c put myfile theirfile

Where "myfile" is the name of the file you wish to upload and "theirfile" is the name that the file should have on the device. You might also want to use the "-v" command parameter so that if something goes wrong you can see what it was:

tftp -v 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile theirfile

If the server is running on another port, say 8069, then the command syntax would be

tftp -v 192.168.1.1 8069 -c put myfile theirfile

If the local file already has the correct name, then the command is simply

tftp -v 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile

- July 31, 2019

I have two dir-615 routers with dd-wrt, however I want to remove dd-wrt from one of them and reflash original firmware to this router. are there anything I need to do prior to this, or can I just upload the original firmware without anything special needs?

Answer

Based on the dd-wrt website, be sure to perform a 30/30/30 hard reset before you do anything with the firmware.

To restore your original firmware, download it from the manufacturer's website. You should be able to just upload the original firmware after the 30/30/30 reset, but I would search/ask the dd-wrt forums to see if there are caveats for your particular router. Be careful, and good luck!

- July 31, 2019

Well The scenario is that I have a Windows machine(at home) and a Linux box running headless Ubuntu server(without GUI) on a remote location. I got Wireshark installed on my windows machine, and tcpdump installed on the remote linux box. Here is my question, Is there an easy way of capturing packets off of my linux box? I've been reading through some blog posts, didn't really find an easy way of configuring either tcpdump of Tshark so I could remotely monitor the network traffic. I also realized that it is easy to capture packets remotely off a remote windows machine with simple remoter interface configuration. I was wondering if there's a similar way so I could configure my remote located linux box to listen on port 2002 and start capturing remotely here in my windows mahcine? Any advice?

- July 31, 2019

First, I've been told that if an email is undeliverable, you always get a bounce back. In other words, the server tells you that it was unable to deliver the email and you are effectively notified that the person you were trying to reach has not heard from you.

I've also been told that spam catchers often just junk the email without notifying the sender. This, in my mind, qualifies as a delivered email, but the spam catcher just moves it to a junk folder.

Sometimes, however, you send an email and never get a reply. A week later you call them up and they say they never got it. You know this person. You've sent them emails before without an issue. Sometimes your "unseen" email was even a reply to their original email. So while you've got them on the phone, you send another, and they don't get it! What are you supposed to do?

To investigate, you might try sending emails to an from all address involved and then check if they are delivered:

from your primary to your friend's primary.

from your secondary to your friend's primary.

from your primary to your friend's secondary.

from your secondary email to your friend's secondary.

all the reverse orders on the above points, making eight total emails sent.

What can you do under circumstances where one or all of these eight test emails are unreceived and what does it indicate if no "undeliverable" message was returned? Where along the delivery path might the email be halted and how do you fix that?

In my specific circumstance, this has happened recently with two clients (business, so this is vitally important).

With the first client emails were tested:

me@my_primary.com to client1@their_primary.com - unreceived, no bounce back, not found in junk.

me@my_primary.com to client2@their_primary.com - unreceived, no bounce back, not found in junk.

me@my_secondary.com to clientany@their_primary.com - received

clientany@their_primary.com to me@my_primary.com - received

With the second client emails were tested:

me@my_primary.com to client1@their_primary.com - unreceived, no bounce back, not found in junk.

me@my_secondary.com to client1@their_primary.com - received

clientany@their_primary.com to me@my_primary.com - received

With both clients they have received emails before from my primary email address, numerous times, but now there was this problem. I suspect other clients have not received some emails because of their lack of response.

My primary emails are through a domain hosted on bluehost with a dedicated IP. According to Bluehost tech support, incoming emails are routed through this IP, but all of Bluehost's outgoing emails are routed through a rotating, proxy IP something or other. Basically, my dedicated IP is never even touched by outgoing emails. This means that outgoing emails are still susceptible to blacklisted IP's caused by other users not behaving themselves. According to Bluehost tech support, there was a slight issue around the time my failed emails were sent and not every domain with failed sends was receiving bounce backs. This could have been my issue.

- July 31, 2019

I have i5 6th gen processor with 8gb ram 4tb secondary hard disk and 500gb primary hard disk. The 4tb hard disk is formated with ntfs. My target is to write huge amount of files on the disk. The disk is SATA 7200RPM have to test compresssion algorithm on the same written files. The files which will be written on the disk are if smaller size compressed witj zlib the range will be around 12-20KB. I wrote a bash script to make 500000 copies of the same for test purpose but found that 7-8 files per se ond were being written in that directory which is 100kB/s while the speed mentiones is much higher. I want to achieve like 100 files per second. I don't know what to do. Please suggest me to achieve the highest write speed.

- July 31, 2019

I'm attempting to record (to a file) three or more 1080p webcams on a single computer simultaneously.

I successfully used two instances of OBS studio to record two webcams. The third instance throws this error:

"Starting the output failed. Please check the log for details. Note: If you are using the NVENC or AMD encoders, make sure your video drivers are up to date."

Digging deeper I found on the Nvidia NVENC wiki:

Consumer targeted GeForce graphics cards support no more than 2 simultaneously encoding video streams, regardless on the count of the cards installed. Professional cards support between 2 and 21 simultaneous streams per card, depending on card model and compression quality.

Both of these sites were helpful, but didn't provide the information I needed:
NVIDIA VIDEO CODEC SDK
Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix

What video card or what configuration of video cards do I need to be able to get more NVENC video streams?

This Nvidia forum post indicated that video cards not in sli would each contribute to the encoding. However, the wiki link quoted above indicated that this would not give more NVENC streams.

Answer

The professional series cards that they are referring to are the "Quadro" branded cards.

These cards tend to be significantly more expensive than their GeForce cousins, but are aimed at CAD, scientific and heavy duty transcoding operations. They are loosely based on the same hardware, but have less limitations and drawbacks.

With a basic one of these cards you should be able to transcode two or more streams, but newer or higher end cards may be able to transcode more streams at once.

The reason you only get a "between 2 and 21 streams" limitation is because it depends a lot on the compression level and the video size of your incoming and outgoing data, whether you are using hardware decoding as well as encoding and other factors.

You might be able to encode only two 4k h.265 streams at once or twenty one 720p h.264 streams. It depends is about the best you can get.

You might be able to rent some time on one of the cloud GPU providers to find out how many you can get out of a professional card at your settings, buying a top end Quadro only to find that the basic one could have done the job is an expensive mistake and it is doubtful any suppliers would have sympathy.

- July 31, 2019

Does Word 2007's equation editor have any equivalent to the \stackrel or \overset commands in LaTeX?

I'd like to be able to stack custom text on top of = signs, etc.

Answer

You can use \above and \below:

a=\above("foo") b

becomes

a=┴"foo"  b

which becomes

alt text

A more or less complete description of the formula language in Word is given in Unicode Technical Note #28, although the final implementation differs somewhat in some areas. Unfortunately this is the only real documentation that's there (I asked the author of the math typesetting stuff at MS :-)).

- July 31, 2019

I want to backup the partition table of a disk in a script like this:

sfdisk --dump /dev/sda > partition_table.dump

But

I do not want to use /dev/sda, because it may not be reliable.

/dev/disk/by-id seems also not to be reliable.

/dev/disk/by-uuid and df include partitions only (not disks).

However fdisk -l shows a "Disk Identifier" UUID. Can I somehow get the disk name (sda) from the disk identifier? Or is there another way to reliably identify a disk?

Answer

Use /dev/disk/by-id/ anyway. The issue you link to looks to me like a rare hardware malfunction or something similarly bad.

Compare

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/

to

# 'lsblk' is from 'util-linux' package
lsblk -pdo NAME,VENDOR,MODEL,SERIAL,WWN

However on some of my systems the above command displays blank values; still you can try:

# the below 'smartctl' command (from 'smartmontools' package) probably needs 'sudo'
for sd in $(lsblk -pdo NAME | tail -n +2); do
  printf "%s\n" "$sd"; smartctl -i "$sd" |
  grep -E "Model:|Number:|WWN"
done

I don't know much about WWN but serial numbers should be hardcoded in hardware. My point is, if any serial number changes for whatever reason then you may have bigger problems than a backup script that suddenly doesn't work.

Note a serial number identifies a physical device no matter what its partition table is (or if there is one at all, study the term "superfloppy" and this question). If you want to identify partition tables themselves then these "Disk Identifier" UUIDs you discovered will be the right approach (note they are 128-bit UUIDs in GPT scheme but 32-bit optional signatures in MBR, example here). They are just few bytes on disk that can be changed, cloned, backed up. I haven't found any quick way to identify a device node by this type of identifier, other than browsing through available devices:

id=8080fdb4-6905-4f34-91fa-61389615d7d3
# the below 'fdisk' command (from 'util-linux' package) probably needs 'sudo'
for sd in $(lsblk -pdo NAME | tail -n +2); do
  fdisk -l "$sd" | grep -qi " ${id}$" && printf "%s\n" "$sd"
done

/dev/disk/by-uuid [...] include partitions only (not disks).

Well, it may include not even all of them because these UUIDs refer to structures inside partitions (like filesystems or swap), not to partitions themselves (and if you deal with superfloppy, it will be here as a whole disk). Each of these UUIDs is written somewhere inside its corresponding partition (or device, if superfloppy). These are identifiers you see when you invoke e.g.

# 'file' is from 'file' package
file -s /dev/sda2

If you need partitions identifiers, they are in /dev/disk/by-partuuid/. These are the same as in

# 'partx' is from 'util-linux' package
partx --show /dev/sda

and they are stored in a corresponding partition table, not inside any partition. You can get a broader picture by running

# 'blkid' (from 'util-linux' package) probably needs 'sudo'
blkid

To identify a device that holds a partition with a given UUID, try:

id=68e3b991-5c7a-4d18-a120-834ef4effe00
readlink -e "/dev/disk/by-partuuid/$id" | sed 's/[0-9]*$//'

(sed just strips trailing digits here). This solution can be easily adapted to retrieve information from /dev/disk/by-uuid/ if you need.

- July 31, 2019

I've imported a CSv file into excel - but the numbers are in a TEXT which I cannot use in calculations

How can I convert the numerals into a usable format to complete calculations ?

- July 30, 2019

How can I tell if OS X is connected to a VPN network from the command line?

By running ifconfig without any arguments when I am connected, I see that there is a utun0 interface which appears to be the VPN connection. When I disconnect it goes away.

I believe I could use something like this to check for the string utun0 and count the occurrences:

ifconfig | grep -c utun0

But is there an easier or more effective way to check for this? If utun0 is a device, or even a pseudo device, shouldn't I be able to check if it exists with something like:

if [ -a '/dev/utun0' ]

Unfortunately I don't see any changes in that directory when connecting and disconnecting, I just see /dev/tun0 through /dev/tun15 and I can't cat them even with sudo...

Is there a simpler way to tell if I have a VPN connection?

Answer

You can also, as of Mountain Lion¹, use the scutil command.

For example:

$ scutil --nc list | grep Connected

For more detailed help, you can see the man page, or run:

$ scutil --nc help

Footnotes:

I'm not aware of this command existing in versions of OSX previous to Mountain Lion, but I could be wrong.

- July 30, 2019

Symptoms:

Whenever my Windows XP machine starts up, subfolders disappear from the first top-level folder, listed alphabetically (eg. from "C:\AA Backups"). The first time it happened I suspected user error (such as an unintentional delete or copy). But I then found it happens on every start-up, sometimes affecting huge numbers of files.

What I've tried:

Renaming the affected folder (e.g. to "ZZ Backups") just means that a different folder is affected the next time.

Avast found no virus or malware that would seem to be responsible.

The missing files are not visible to an undelete utility such as NTFSUndelete.

Running chkdsk/f found no problems and did not fix the problem.

File permissions also appear corrupted – a few files which should be accessible are missing "read" permission.

What's happened to this machine?

- July 30, 2019

I have a unique situation where I'd like to stream audio (ALL audio, not just mp3s, etc) from my laptop to another computer over the network. I live in a studio apartment and my laptop is my main computer but I'd like it's audio to play on my htpc with a nice stereo system. Since it's a studio, both computers are in the same room so I don't want 2 sets of speakers. I want my computer to directly play back through the stereo.

I used to do this with pulseaudio but my job now requires that I run Windows full time. I'm aware of Shoutcast and other similar streaming solutions but I don't want any transcoding done. It's a waste of CPU and not to mention my laptop fans, and I don't mind the network bandwidth that uncompressed audio requires. Is there a way to run Shoutcast without encoding?

Also, I know that Windows Remote Desktop can play audio over the network pretty easily. Is this part of .Net that I could just code a simple app that streams the audio without RD'ing in?

I also don't want to run it over a physical wire. :)

- July 30, 2019

I'm building a Core i7-860 system which supports dual-channel memory (up to 16 GB in four DIMMs), my target is 8 GB. From the performance perspective, is it better to have two times 4 GB or four times 2 GB?

Answer

Four sticks would cause more strain on the memory controller and motherboard chipset. It would take slightly longer for the CPU to add and retrieve data from four sticks as opposed to two.

For this reason, 2 x 4 GB would be faster then 4 x 2 GB.

EDIT - there is a much better technical explanation on The Hyphenated Site to enforce my answer, although it does mention lower sized sticks:

It's better to use two 2 GB modules -- not for any appreciable speed difference (although there may be a small advantage -- more in a bit) -- but for a more reliable memory subsystem.

Most desktop systems use unbuffered RAM modules -- this results in very large loads on the address and data buses when you have more than two modules installed, and can significantly degrade the signalling on these buses. The memory subsystem "sees' one load per memory chip -- so with two modules installed, that's up to 32 loads (with double-sided modules) ... and with four modules installed that's as many as 64 electrical loads on the bus. Some systems automatically adjust for this higher load by either increasing the voltage a small amount; reducing the clock frequency of the memory (thus slightly slowing it down); or by adding a cycle to the SPD's latency setting (again, slightly slowing it down). These adjustments help keep the memory subsystem reliable -- but mean that 4 x 1 GB modules would be slightly slower than 2 x 2 GB modules on these systems. But regardless of whether there's any timing differences, the memory will definitely be more reliable with only two modules.

Credit to garycase at The Hyphenated Site for this answer.

- July 30, 2019

How many 2560x1600 resolution monitor can Eyefinity support? AMD states it can support up to 6 monitors but they don't state the resolution.

Answer

7680 x 3200 resolution grouping three displays wide x two displays high with landscape orientation using 2560x1600 display resolution for each monitor (24.6 megapixel resolution)

The ATI Eyefinity tech brief explicitly mentions this setup, so you should be good :) Just make sure you have enough displayport outputs.
Edit: And here's that resolution running on a single card back in 2009, if you wanna see that.

And I can see your other SU questions have related to this, so here: the easiest way to get an absurdly high resolution running off 1 card is probably a 7870 with 6 dp outputs, like this one. Not that cheap for a gaming card, but very cheap compared to the pro stuff... and, actually, really cheap compared to the cost of 6 WQXGA monitors anyway. Or, for that matter, one WQXGA monitor.

And here are the possible layouts, screenshot of the Eyefinity setup page. (Oh, there's also a 5x1 vertical resolution that was just added, for 8000*2560 with these monitors, but it's not in the setup page yet.)
Eyefinity layout

Edit: For a non-gamer (programmer, perhaps?), there isn't really an advantage to Eyefinity, and you don't have to worry about layout really, so you could actually put 6 monitors side-by-side if you wanted, or any other layout, just as separate monitors instead of a single hires display. But this is a bit out of the question scope.

Up to 6 displays supported
Independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays

source

- July 30, 2019

I had to rub my eyes. But Word will not accept copy pasted images from the web. I've scoured the internet and done everything here: http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/InvisibleGraphics.htm

Naturally nothing worked.

What am I missing?

Sure, you can individually copy images into Paint and then copy them to Word but what if you want text and images? Madness.

My Cut, copy and paste settings:

Answer

This happens with images that are produced from binary data, in the "data:image/ext;encode,binary" format.

There's nothing that can be done for Microsoft Word but you can use LibreOffice and then past from LibreOffice into Word.

- July 30, 2019

Environment: Windows 7, but applies to other EFS-compatible Windows versions

I have a file that is encrypted using standard Windows EFS encryption. When I copy that file to a USB drive using Total Commander or Explorer, the file stays encrypted at the destination.

Such encrypted file is inaccessible on any other Windows PC where my USB drive gets plugged in. I could import my personal certificates on that PC, but that's about the last thing I would like to do.

I would like the copying process automatically decrypt my file when the file is copied to a removable drive. Is there a way to tell Windows to do that?

A brute-force way to decrypt the file on-the-fly would be to switch to FAT as a file system on my USB drive, but I don't want to do that either.

Thanks in advance for any hints!

- July 30, 2019

So it is shown that volume license packages of Windows 8, like Pro and Enterprise, are unavailable for upgrading.

I received a link last night to download the Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation, but it will replace my current Windows 8 Enterprise version.

Is it known when these versions will become available for upgrade? I've been waiting patiently for weeks to get this upgrade.

Thanks.

- July 29, 2019

This is the follow-up for this thread. Since I wrote it I've done several testing but so far cannot get my computer to run 3D apps correctly.

First let me quickly remind you the problem: my machine works fine in normal desktop apps. However when I start any 3D app (like games) it works for 20-30 minutes and freezes the computer. It happens all the times with every game I tried (and that was quite a few).

Computer specs are as follows: Core 2 Duo E8400, ASUS P5QL-E, 6GB RAM (2x1GB, 2x2GB), GeForce 9800 GT, Yesico SilentCool SC560-AS12CF (560W) power supply, 2x500GB HDDs in RAID0, Win7-64bit

What I've tested so far:

memory - memtest was running for the whole night, not a single problem found, I also tried removing some of the modules, didn't make any difference

graphics - I've borrowed two graphics card, GeForce 8800 GT (which is pretty much the same as my 9800 except it has bigger cooling unit) and Radeon HD 4870, Radeon didn't freeze my computer but after playing for half an hour or so it started turning the display on and off every few seconds, GeForce 8800 first froze my computer like my old card and then after I set up the fan to run at 100% all the time it was behaving more less like Radeon, I also tested the temperature of the GeForce and it was 55 degrees Celsius when computer booted and aroud 5 degrees hotter when computer started causing problmes so it's not much of a difference there, I've also tried my card on my friends PC and we couldn't make it to freeze even after 2-3 hours of intensive gaming

power supply, I've change it to some old one I had in the closet, nothing changed, plus this one is much better class then old one so I don't suspect it is the problem

Does anyone has any other suggestion what I could check to find the problem? Unfortunatelly I don't have a possibility to try another mainboard or processor at the moment but I suspect that if these parts were problematic it would crash normal desktop apps as well.

Answer

Don't forget that 3D gaming is one of the most intensive things you can do on a PC - both for the CPU and the graphics card, so it's not surprising that it works for "normal" desktop apps.

Have you tried and 3D apps like AutoCAD or 3D Studio MAX? You can download trial versions of these so you should be able to find one. Open a large scene, render it and see if your PC crashes.

Given what you've said you've tried it looks like it's pointing to a problem with the CPU - is it overheating? How's it cooled? If it's a fan, check that it's connected and spinning freely. Also check that there is good thermal contact between the CPU and heat sink.

Another thing to try is to turn the game graphics down to minimum - screen resolution, texture size etc. and then run the game. If this works OK, turn one setting at a time back up to maximum (or the recommended value) and see where it starts failing. If it's the texture size then that would point to a memory fault (for example).

- July 29, 2019

I'm using a PC keyboard on Mac OS. I can use the menubar to control the volume, but are there any keyboard shortcuts I can use to change the system volume?

Or perhaps a simple script or solution I can install to be able to set the volume using the keyboard.

- July 29, 2019

The steps below do sometimes result in a partial file which can't be played or some file without sound.

Click Media -> Stream -> Capture Device -> Capture Mode = Desktop -> Stream

Then select destination File = test.mp4, leaving Profile = Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4) intact, and setting FPS=24.

Then press Stream button again. FLV player starts to count time, although Record button looks not pressed.

Then I do some playback of web videos and window manipulations.

Then press Stop button on VLC player.

How to perform complete task? Where is the audio capture setup (what device to capture)?

- July 29, 2019

I got a bad ide harddisk from my friend, and he wants to save the data in the bad harddisk.

I can see the drives of the harddisk when I first connected it. Then I tried to copy the files from the harddisk to my intact harddisk, it end up with some kind of error - files cannot be copied because of bad sector.

I am hopeless, so I searched the internet and got a software called SeaTools for windows. Executed it. It said "Scanning hard drives, please wait..." for a minute and pop up an error. I confirmed the error then the software went off.

Then I reboot my pc and I cannot find the harddisk anymore. Bios cannot find it, windows cannot find it.

My Motherboard is okay, ide cable and ide slot on motherboard is okay.

And I think the power is okay too. There is no sound/vibration from the spinning of the harddisk, but when I touch on of the chips on the harddisk( yes, the chips is exposed) and it is hot, indicating some kind of activity.

Any idea? Is the harddisk dead?

Answer

Actually, if the chip is hot enough for you to say it’s “hot”, and not just “warm” when you touch it, and if the platter is not even spinning, then (for all intents and purposes) it is indeed most likely dead. Maybe the circuit board has short-circuited or burned out or something, and now the platters won’t spin; that would also explain why the system cannot detect the drive.

At this point, the drive is likely dead enough that you don’t really have much more to lose, so you may want to try freezing it. I’ve read quite a few stories of people (with mixed results) who have been able to get a dead drive working for long enough to extract their files. Other methods include heating it with a blow dryer or jarring it somehow, usually in an attempt to get a stuck platter to start spinning again.

Of course it depends on exactly what the problem is (often a stuck platter), and in your case, if a chip or other component on the board has burned out, then freezing it may (probably?) won’t help.

- July 29, 2019

It appears that Word's password protection is not really good, at least until Office 2003, if I read this SU entry correctly. I'm under the impression that Acrobat's PDF password protection should be better (it says 128-bit AES for Acrobat 7 and higher). Is that true?

Of course, it depends on the strength of the password used, but assuming I protect my PDF with a password like sd8Jf+*e8fh§$fd8sHä, am I on the safe side?

Like, say, for sending confidential patient information - not really valuable, but potentially highly sensitive.

Answer

From the Adobe site - Securing documents with passwords:

The Acrobat 3 And Later option uses a low encryption level (40‑bit RC4), while the other options use a high encryption level (128‑bit RC4 or AES). Acrobat 6.0 And Later lets you enable metadata for searching. Acrobat 9.0 And Later encrypts the document using the AES encryption algorithm with a 256-bit key size.

So apparently 7 will use 128-bit AES. I'd say you're very safe, especially with a password like that. The National Institute of Standards and Technology agrees:

Assuming that one could build a machine that could recover a DES key in a second (i.e., try 255 keys per second), then it would take that machine approximately 149 thousand-billion (149 trillion) years to crack a 128-bit AES key.

- July 29, 2019

My todo-list includes answering some emails. I want to include a reference to the email that allows me to quickly find the email to answer in my Thunderbird inbox.

The name of the sender or the subject of the email is a solution when these are unique: I include the subject in the todo-list and when I effectively want to answer the email I copy the subject from the todo-list and paste it into the quick search field of Thunderbird. Among the few hits it's quick to find the one. This is not feasible for senders with lots of "no subject" emails.

A workaround: I can include a characteristic part of the email text. And when looking up the email do a search enabling email "body" search. This is, however, terribly slow.

Is there a quick and easy solution to look up a given email in Thunderbird?

- July 29, 2019

I want to be able to do this:

Create a virtual desktop with http://www.dexpot.de/index.php?lang=en and film this desktop then switch back to my normal desktop working while filming goes on.

I can't find a software that can do so until now. Do you know any ?

- July 29, 2019

I would like to get the resolution of the current monitor (the screen from where I run the script) or the name of the screen (LVDS, VGA1, etc).

If I can't get the resolution but only the monitor name, I could grep 'xrandr -q' output to get current resolution.

Thanks in advance.

Answer

You should be able to do this by a combination of xrandr and xwininfo.

Get the screens, their resolutions and offsets:

$ xrandr | grep -w connected  | awk -F'[ \+]' '{print $1,$3,$4}'
VGA-0 1440x900 1600
DP-3 1600x900 0

Get the position of the current window

$ xwininfo -id $(xdotool getactivewindow) | grep Absolute
 Absolute upper-left X:  1927
 Absolute upper-left Y:  70

So, by combining the two you should be able to get the resolution of the current screen:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

## Get screen info
screen1=($(xrandr | grep -w connected  | awk -F'[ +]' '{print $1,$3,$4}' | 
    head -n 1))
screen2=($(xrandr | grep -w connected  | awk -F'[ +]' '{print $1,$3,$4}' | 
    tail -n 1))

## Figure out which screen is to the right of which
if [ ${screen1[2]} -eq 0  ]
then
    right=(${screen2[@]});
    left=(${screen1[@]});
else
    right=(${screen1[@]});
    left=(${screen2[@]});

fi

## Get window position
pos=$(xwininfo -id $(xdotool getactivewindow) | grep "Absolute upper-left X" | 
      awk '{print $NF}')

## Which screen is this window displayed in? If $pos
## is greater than the offset of the rightmost screen,
## then the window is on the right hand one
if [ "$pos" -gt "${right[2]}" ]
then
    echo "${right[0]} : ${right[1]}"    
else
    echo "${left[0]} : ${left[1]}"    
fi

The script will print the name and resolution of the current screen.

- July 29, 2019

As noted here

Windows 8.1 fresh install with Windows 8 licence

Windows 8.1 has available "generic keys" that will let you install Windows 8.1, but not activate. Does Windows 8 have similar keys, that let you install but not activate?

Answer

Windows 8

FB4WR-32NVD-4RW79-XQFWH-CYQG3

Retail Windows 8 Professional

XKY4K-2NRWR-8F6P2-448RF-CRYQH

Source

Windows 8

46V6N-VCBYR-KT9KT-6Y4YF-QGJYH

OEM Windows 8 Professional

V7C3N-3W6CM-PDKR2-KW8DQ-RJMRD

Source

- July 29, 2019

According to the specs of my Fujitsu Esprimo P2560 desktop the maximum RAM is 8 GB. There are 2 slots and currently there are 2+2 GB installed. I tried to upgrade the memory bank by removing one of the 2GB and replace it with a 4 GB module but this did not work. The module in question is a 4 GB 240-pin DDR3 8500 1066 MHz. Exactly the same as the 2 GB. Furthermore, I have the latest BIOS installed. Anyone out there have a clue?

- July 29, 2019

When I visit https://1.1.1.1, any web browser I use considers the URL to be secure.

This is what Google Chrome shows:

Normally, when I try to visit an HTTPS site via its IP address, I get a security warning like this:

From my understanding, the site certificate needs to match the domain, but the Google Chrome Certificate Viewer does not show 1.1.1.1:

GoDaddy's knowledgebase article "Can I request a certificate for an intranet name or IP address?" says:

No - we no longer accept certificate requests for either intranet names or IP addresses. This is an industry-wide standard, not one specific to GoDaddy.

^{_{(emphasis mine)}}

And also:

As a result, effective October 1, 2016, Certification Authorities (CAs) must revoke SSL certificates that use intranet names or IP addresses.

^{_{(emphasis mine)}}

And:

Instead of securing IP addresses and intranet names, you should reconfigure servers to use Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), such as www.coolexample.com.

^{_{(emphasis mine)}}

It's well after the mandatory revocation date 01 October 2016, yet the certificate for 1.1.1.1 was issued on 29 March 2018 (shown in the screenshot above).

How is it possible that all the major browsers think that https://1.1.1.1 is a trusted HTTPS website?

Answer

English is ambiguous. You were parsing it like this:

(intranet names) or (IP addresses)

i.e. ban the use of numeric IP addresses entirely. The meaning that matches what you're seeing is:

intranet (names or IP addresses)

i.e. ban certificates for the private IP ranges like 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16, as well as for private names that aren't visible on the public DNS.

Certificates for publicly routable IP addresses are still allowed, just not generally recommended for most people, especially those who don't also own a static IP.

This statement is advice, not a claim that you can't secure a (public) IP address.

Instead of securing IP addresses and intranet names, you should reconfigure servers to use Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), such as www.coolexample.com

Maybe someone at GoDaddy was misinterpreting the wording, but more likely they wanted to keep their advice simple, and wanted to recommend using public DNS names in certificates.

Most people don't use a stable static IP for their service. Providing DNS services is the one case where it's truly necessary to have a stable well-known IP instead of just a name. For anyone else, putting your current IP in your SSL cert would constrain your future options, because you couldn't let someone else start using that IP. They could impersonate your site.

Cloudflare.com has control of the 1.1.1.1 IP address themselves, and isn't planning to do anything different with it in the foreseeable future, so it makes sense for them to put their IP in their cert. Especially as a DNS provider, it's more likely that HTTPS clients would visit their URL by number than for any other site.

- July 29, 2019

As the question says how would I start a application as admin when using Windows 7's search box. This must be done using the keyboard only , I tried Shift + Enter and ctrl + Enter , both don't seem to have any effect.

Answer

Hit Windows-key, type some program name, Ctrl-Shift-Enter, confirm UAC - Voilà! This is my favorite feature of Windows Vista/7! I never go looking in the All Programs menu anymore! :)

- July 29, 2019

I have L-Ubuntu 11.04. I've installed Apache2 and I'm trying to simulate a server on my local file system by navigating to localhost in the browser.

The problem is that I can't seem to get php to execute when on localhost. The PHP code is simply printed in the browser (instead of being executed and the result being printed).

libapache2-mod-php5 is installed and the latest version.

The Apache module php5 is enabled.

How can I get PHP to run on localhost?

Answer

The configuration file /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf controls which files Apache recognizes as php scripts (based on their extensions).

Be default (in PHP 5.3.2), the file contains the following code:


    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php

This affects files with the following extensions:

.php

.php3

.phtml

From our discussion in chat, I know that your files have a html extension. The server was configured to treat .html files as php files, but your home computer is not. That leaves you with two options:

Rename your .html files that contain php code to one of the above extensions.

Replace the line
in your php5.conf by
and reload apache by executing the following command:
```
sudo service apache2 reload
```
In addition to the previously mentioned extensions, the new configuration also affects:
- .htm
- .html

- July 29, 2019

Well. I have a lot of videos in my server and I'm trying to upload to Youtube. All videos were recorded using openeya, which uses ffmpeg to record.

My problem is, some videos are uploaded and other not.

So, to illustrate the problem I have video A and video B. Both videos were recorded in sequence, ends A and start B (pause of 20 minutes between them).

video A was upload successfully, video B not.

Using the mediainfo I get this info about video A Look:

General
Complete name                            : openeya.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 78.2 MiB
Duration                                 : 41mn 57s
Overall bit rate                         : 261 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Writing application                      : Lavf56.25.101
Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L1.2
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 41mn 57s
Bit rate                                 : 200 Kbps
Width                                    : 320 pixels
Height                                   : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 10.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.260
Stream size                              : 60.3 MiB (77%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 142 r2389 956c8d8
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=10 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=200 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 41mn 51s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 56.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 22.05 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 16.8 MiB (21%)
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00

It looks like the same info about video B that fail:

General
Complete name                            : openeya.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 118 MiB
Duration                                 : 1h 16mn
Overall bit rate                         : 214 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Writing application                      : Lavf56.25.101
Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L1.2
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 59mn 35s
Bit rate                                 : 200 Kbps
Width                                    : 320 pixels
Height                                   : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 10.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.260
Stream size                              : 85.2 MiB (72%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 142 r2389 956c8d8
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=10 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=200 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 1h 16mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 56.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 22.05 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 30.8 MiB (26%)
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00

Image with differencws Thanks @mt025

So, why Youtube doesn't like video B?

After the upload is finished YT keep processing and stop at 95% for ~5 minutes and after that

The video has failed to process. Please make sure you are uploading a supported file type.

- July 28, 2019

I installed Bitdefender 2010, but I am unable to update it. It keeps on giving me the error:

An error occured during the update (Unknown error).

Any ideas?

Answer

Well, I dont know the best answer yet. I switched to Bitdefender 2011 and it worked. It seems that Bitdefender 2010 has some issues with 64-bit windows.

- July 28, 2019

I have recently bought a Samsung LT24D390 TV monitor, which I connected to my computer using a HDMI cable; the video card is a GeForce GTX 560 Ti, the O.S. is Windows 7 x64.

The monitor works as expected, but doesn't go into power saving mode when the computer tells it to do so; the computer is configured to put the monitor to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity, and it does, but the monitor stays on and just displays a warning about no signal coming from the HDMI source. The same happens when the computer is shut down: the monitor keeps staying on.

I've fiddled a bit with the monitor config, and I found a setting to automatically turn it off when no signal is received from the current source; unfortunately, this can only be set as low as 15 minutes, so this means another 15 minutes of "no signal" warnings before the monitor finally shuts down; even more unfortunately, it looks like it actually shuts down: when the computer resumes activity (or is powered on if it had been powered off), the monitor doesn't turn on on its own, and I have to manully turn it on using the power button or the remote.

I've looked around for a while, and I found several people having similar problems with HDMI connections, which are usually fixed by using a DVI connection; however, this monitor doesn't have any DVI port, it only has HDMI and VGA; and I most definitely don't want to connect it to a VGA port (which anyway isn't even present on my video card).

How can I make this monitor behave as it should, i.e. automatically going to sleep and coming back to life when it's supposed to do so?

Answer

I asked Samsung's customer support, and they replied this is by design: the monitor is supposed to be turned on or off manually and has no power saving mode when connected via HDMI.

- July 28, 2019

Is it possible to copy and paste inside a Remote Desktop Connection session?

Answer

Assuming you're talking about Windows Remote Desktop Connection — before you hit Connect, click Options to expand the RDP connection window.

Click the Local Resources tab. Under Local devices and resources, click More.

In the new window, click Drives. Click OK to close.

Go back to General tab and click Save to save the settings for next time.

Barring any weird settings on the server side, you should be good to go.

Screenshot of invoking the options in the connection dialog for Remote Desktop Connection

- July 28, 2019

Note that this question is different than, but related to, "How do I suspend my computer?" It is also different than, but related to, questions about the "session management" capability in popular Linux desktop platforms.

Here's the scenario: It takes me 10 minutes to get my programming environment all set up the way I want it. I write a bunch of code. I go to sleep. The next morning I have to do something other than write code. Maybe it's compose a presentation. My coding tools are hogging a bunch of system resources, but I don't want to terminate them because they're a pain to set up again. Is there a way to take an application or group of applications and suspend them to disk in a kind of "live session" that I can then "unfreeze" later?

Note that this is a general problem; replace "programming environment" with "running a giant simulation" (or whatever) in the previous paragraph. It seems like this sort of thing should exist but maybe I just don't know what it's called. That, or there are some very good technical reasons for why it doesn't exist. I'm interested to hear about either.

Respondents should focus primarily on Linux desktop platforms. Though if, for example, this capability exists on Windows and not on Linux as a result of fundamental differences between them, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thanks!

PS - Sorry for the namespace collisions in the problem description. Are there better terms than "suspend" and "session?"

Answer

Take a look at http://cryopid.berlios.de/ It can save running programs to disk, and restore them later. I haven't tried it myself, though.

- July 28, 2019

I'm an ex Opera user so, simply because of how I am used to certain behaviors, I wanna create them in chrome. For instance: All new tabs should open at the end of all tabs, not next to the current. There is an extension for that, so its all working fine. Now, in Opera it was like, when you close any tab the focus goes to the tab that you last used/looked at before this one. In Chrome it just shows you the one in front of that tab, order wise. Is there any way to change that ?

Example situation: Browsing News page, opening 4 new news items in new tabs, looking at one, closing it, it should bring me back to the news list that I looked at before that. But currently it would just bring me to any of those other items, which ever is in row.

- July 28, 2019

OS X has this really nice feature when you have 3+ keyboard input sources (languages) and press Cmd + Space you switch between only two of them.

If you want to switch to another (third) language you just hold Cmd and press Space to choose from the list of input sources available.

How can I have similar functionality on Windows 10? I have 3 input sources and looping through them to get to the one I need is really annoying.

Answer

One can assign in Windows 10 a keyboard shortcut to a language :

Go to Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region -> Language -> Advanced settings.

Under Switching input methods, click Change language bar hot keys, then click on your language, and finally on Change Key Sequence.

This will display a dialog where you can assign a shortcut key to that language:

Since the above shortcut keys are quite limited, it is possible by using for example AutoHotkey to change this to any other keyboard combination. Once you learn AutoHotkey, it will be easy to reproduce the exact behavior of OSX (one can also ask for help on their forum).

Many AutoHotkey scripts can be found on the Internet and one can tailor them to fit any need.

The following example script aims at improving the functioning of Alt+Shift as a toggle between the English and Russian keyboards for the current window :

; This should be replaced by whatever your native language is. See 
; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318693%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
; for the language identifiers list.
ru := DllCall("LoadKeyboardLayout", "Str", "00000419", "Int", 1)
en := DllCall("LoadKeyboardLayout", "Str", "00000409", "Int", 1)

!Shift::
w := DllCall("GetForegroundWindow")
pid := DllCall("GetWindowThreadProcessId", "UInt", w, "Ptr", 0)
l := DllCall("GetKeyboardLayout", "UInt", pid)
if (l = en)
{
    PostMessage 0x50, 0, %ru%,, A
}
else
{
    PostMessage 0x50, 0, %en%,, A
}

Here are some threads offering scripts for changing the keyboard layout with various functionality :

Here are some free products that do that as well :

keyla - Can define keyboard shortcuts or use a taskbar icon

Recaps - Uses CapsLock to switch the keyboard language

- July 28, 2019

How can Fedora 17 (LXDE spin, if it matters) be configured to sleep or suspend when the lid of a laptop (Lenovo S10 netbook) is closed? With a 'stock' installation (from the LXDE spin live CD), closing the lid doesn't seem to change the machine's state at all (fan still cycles, front LEDs don't change state, uptime unaffected), and when the lid is reopened the keyboard is hot... Thanks!

- July 28, 2019

On Windows 7 (Home Premium), using Windows Virtual PC, how can you create an image of a physical machine running Windows XP?

I've found the "Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit", but this is of course for Virtual Server 2005, not Windows Virtual PC. I've also found this link, but it is targeted to "Microsoft Virtual PC" (i.e. the previous version of Virtual PC).

Note: I am not interesting in using an alternative virtualization software (such as VirtualBox, VMWare, etc).

Answer

Have a look at the Sysinternals utility Disk2vhd. Should do what you're after if I understand the question.

- July 28, 2019

I need fixed IP in three wireless networks I log in frequently.

It is a pain to set those IP and gateway everytime I change networks.

I am willing to write a script to change my IP and gateway between those 3 fixed IPs and a choice to make it get IP automatically (when I´m in another network).

A plus feature to my script would be if it could discover the wireless network I am logged in and decide the IP automatically.

Is it even possible?

Thanks.

- July 28, 2019

Is there any way to disable Error Reporting in Windows 10 Home? From Windows 7 to 8.1, this was possible under "Action Center"; however, the Action Center is no longer in Windows 10 in the same form as it was in previous versions. It's now just a flyout with quick access buttons and notifications, with no Control Panel entry under the same name where it can be configured. I've searched both manually and using various keywords searching through the settings, but cannot find anything.

In case it's of interest, I absolutely need to disable this, because this action overrides every single debugger on my machine. Before errors are caught up by debuggers, they are caught up by this, essentially making it impossible to code under Windows 10. As such, I was a little surprised to find that no one has raised this question yet.

Answer

Update
As moab has pointed out, you can also disable the Error Reporting Service through services.msc. I was not able to confirm if this worked correctly myself.

Original Answer
It appears that the only option available to Home users is to disable Error Reporting via modifying the Disabled key in the registry.

Open Regedit. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting

Find the value named "Disabled" or add a new DWORD value with this name if it doesn't exist. The default value of this key is 0. Double click it to edit, change the value to 1 and save.

This disables the automatic appearance of the dialogue where Windows is searching online to try to find a solution. You are instead shown a dialogue stating that the application has crashed, giving you the option to Debug. However, unlike previous versions of Windows, no error code is provided in this dialogue. The specifics of the error must be accessed through:

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Security and Maintenance

Under the tab "Maintenance", you can click "View reliability history", which will show a list of all app crashes. You can then click "View technical details" beside each crash to get more detailed information, such as a the error code(s) thrown from the application on crash.

Screenshots:

Debugging is still very flaky even after disabling Error Reporting. I'm not sure if this is an OS issue or an issue with the debugger(s) compatibility with the OS mechanics.

- July 28, 2019

I've tried installing Ubuntu 11.10, uninstalling and reinstalling 11.04 etc. After day 1, though, some bug or the other shows up and then I spend the rest of my time looking up fixes on the Internet. I don't like criticizing Ubuntu a lot because I don't pay a penny for the awesome OS. What is the most stable version of Ubuntu for Notebook PCs?

Answer

The latest versions marked as "stable" are always available from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

But, personally I prefer Debian over Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Debian-based OS, but for me as a power user doesn't add that much useful features that I'm missing in Debian itself.

- July 28, 2019

I have a laptop and a desktop computer. I am tired of having two different machines. When I am away from home I would like to use my laptop as if it were my home computer.

I do a lot of game development (C#/C++) so the solution would need to be capable of showing direct3d. It does not need to be real-time just fast enough to be interactive (hopefully > 5fps).

Also, my laptop is a MacBook pro however I do run Windows on it as well as OS X and VMware fusion.

- July 28, 2019

Every time I log in to Windows 10, the following ad pops up:

I've done nothing I'm aware of to sign up for teams, and I frankly don't even know what it purports to do. Yet, its not so easy to get rid of. How can I?

What the heck installed it?

Answer

Disable it from the Task Manager's Startup tab.

Or better yet uninstall both "Microsoft Teams" and "Teams Machine-Wide Installer".

- July 27, 2019

I have an ASUSTek P8P67-M (LGA1155) motherboard on my desktop / home computer, which actually has only 8GB RAM, based on two DDR3 1333MHz (PC3-10700H) Corsair 4GB Modules (Part Number CMV4GX3M1A1333C9).

The closest module I've found to add for a total 16GB (two empty slots) are Kingston ones (Datasheet), but I'm only troubled about a spec that I don't know what it means. The Corsair ones are 10700, but the Kingston are 10600. What's that? Would they work together?

Answer

As long as memory modules have the same number of pins, they are theoretically compatible. Memory modules are smart: they have controller chips that the memory controller on the motherboard communicates with to determine the speed, latency, and other settings. The speed is really the maximum speed: if you mix speeds, the motherboard will use the slowest speed to avoid harming chips that cannot go faster.

However, in your specific scenario, the two speeds (10600 and 10700) are equivalent. The number comes from the peak transfer rate of 10,666.67 MB/sec. The standard rating is 10600, or 10666.67 rounded down to the nearest 100. However, some manufacturers round up to 10700 to make it sound faster.

Your memory modules are rated at the same speed: even if they were not, they should still work regardless because the motherboard will use the slowest speed of all modules.

However not all modules work together on all motherboards. Some modules and some motherboards are sensitive to minor differences between memory modules, and there is no guarantee that they will work together correctly. Most people will recommend using a matched set of modules that are listed by the motherboard manufacturer as being compatible. Given the insane speeds of modern RAM, it can be very fickle at times.

- July 27, 2019

I've got a Linksys something or other router. I've never had any issues with the default firmware but have always wondered what I'm missing out on by not changing to a 3rd party more configurable firmware.

What should I consider changing to? What does I gain by switching to it?

Answer

Another alternative: DD-WRT:

DD-WRT is a Linux based alternative OpenSource firmware suitable for a great variety of WLAN routers and embedded systems. The main emphasis lies on providing the easiest possible handling while at the same time supporting a great number of functionalities within the framework of the respective hardware platform used.

- July 27, 2019

Is there any way to get the total page count after selecting multiple word documents in a folder?

- July 27, 2019

I hope that I have asked this question in the right topic.

Basically I use BT (In the U.K.) and I have problems with my router receiving a weak signal in certain rooms of the house, which, therefore makes the internet really slow in some cases it won't work at all.

I have had experience working with Virgin Media (UK) before and just changed the channel number and this worked fine, but, do not know if I would receive the same outcome on BT.

Could anyone suggest any other things that I could try alongside of the channel change in order to /hopefully/ get a stronger signal, without having to install Ethernet cable?

Answer

move the router

buy a repeater

buy homeplug

drape tinfoil over your home to block neighbours wifi

demolish interior walls and floors

read a magazine

Obviously, some of these are easier to run past the wife than others.

- July 27, 2019

I have installed Windows 7 on my laptop. When I put a movie in the DVD drive, the video player starts up and tells me 'THIS DISC IS NOT FORMATTED TO PLAY IN THIS REGION'. I have changed the DVD region a few times in the past but while I was in Windows XP I changed the region to Region 1.

I cannot find how to check the DVD region setting in Windows 7 (it's not located on the properties page of the DVD anymore. Does anybody know how to check the DVD region in Windows 7?

enter image description here

Update: If I connect an external USB DVD drive I can see the DVD region tab on the hardware properties dialog. I guess there is some compatibility problem with my internal DVD drive and Windows 7 (as I said I was able to inspect/change the DVD region in Windows XP).

Solution: I think I had used LtnRPC in the past to remove the region from my DVD drive. It looks like Windows 7 does not like region free DVD drives (at least mine anyway). I was able to use LtnRPC to reset the region back to 1. I can now see the region tab on the DVD drive's hardware properties.

Answer

Check to see whether or not the DVD drive is locked by a region code.

Drive Region Info is a simple freeware and portable tool that lets you know if your DVD drive is locked to any particular 'region'.

enter image description here

If your drive is locked after five changes you can use LtnRPC, a Region Free Utility for Lite-ON manufactured drives (your Sony DW-Q58A drive was manufactured by LiteOn) to reset the count or make the drive 'region free' altogether.

- July 27, 2019

On the freenode network I want to ignore ALL joins, parts EXCEPT in channels #foo and #bar.

What would be the syntax for this?

I tried:

/ignore -except #foo, #bar JOINS PARTS QUITS

I also tried to read the /help ignore but it's quite confusing. Also, would i just /save to keep it permanent?

Answer

Try this one:

/ignore -except #foo,#bar * JOINS PARTS QUITS

I don't know if it mathers but don't place a space after the , and the internet shows me a * is needed.

- July 27, 2019

I have 4 GB of RAM, but Windows still thrashes disk sometimes (especially often when an application is minimized for some time and then I activate it again). Completely stupid, because Task Manager shows 2 GB of RAM are free. Is there any way to prevent Windows swapping out program memory?

I tried setting Superfetch to cache startup files only (it helped a bit) and turning off paging file (it helped much, and worked well for me in Windows XP; but Windows Vista/Windows 7 don't allow that - it shows "low on memory" message frequently, even when I have 1 GB of RAM free.)

What can you advise me to do?

Answer

The only way I've found was to increase RAM size to 8 GBs and turn off paging by setting

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive=1

(reboot required).

That reduced disk activity to nearly zero.

- July 27, 2019

I'm looking for some way to know when a webpage is updated. This site it's really not very "web 2.0", doesn't have ajax, it seems like plain HTML.

I need a way to get an instant notification when the page is changed/updated.

Is there any app. to do that?

Thanks

Answer

I ended up using NotiPage

NotiPage is a FREE webpages monitoring software. Once you've configured a monitoring alert related to a specific webpage, NotiPage will automatically check this webpage on a periodic basis until all the set criteria are met. At that time, NotiPage will warn you by a visual and audible alert.

Freeware, lightweight, recently updated. Can check every 1 minute.

- July 27, 2019

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 64 doing a clean install from Vista 64 and ever since I keep getting random blue screen crashes. I have the feeling it's caused by my video card but everything has the most up-to-date drivers for Windows 7 64 bit.

Here is the memory dump from my most recent crash:

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (1a)
    # Any other values for parameter 1 must be individually examined.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000041790, The subtype of the bugcheck.
Arg2: fffffa8001990b90
Arg3: 000000000000ffff
Arg4: 0000000000000000

Debugging Details:
------------------

PEB is paged out (Peb.Ldr = 000007ff`fffd9018).  Type ".hh dbgerr001" for details
PEB is paged out (Peb.Ldr = 000007ff`fffd9018).  Type ".hh dbgerr001" for details

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x1a_41790

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  csrss.exe

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff80002cff26e to fffff80002c8cf00

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`0299ae38 fffff800`02cff26e : 00000000`0000001a 00000000`00041790 fffffa80`01990b90 00000000`0000ffff : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`0299ae40 fffff800`02cc05d9 : fffffa80`00000000 00000000`01e73fff 00000000`00000000 fffff960`0023653f : nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x339d6
fffff880`0299b000 fffff800`02fa2e50 : fffffa80`09140c90 0007ffff`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!MiRemoveMappedView+0xd9
fffff880`0299b120 fffff960`002e381b : fffff900`00000000 fffffa80`07c85d10 00000000`00000001 fffff900`c1e56cd0 : nt!MiUnmapViewOfSection+0x1b0
fffff880`0299b1e0 fffff960`002b4fc1 : 00000000`00000000 fffff900`00000000 fffff900`c1e56cd0 00000000`00000000 : win32k!SURFACE::bUnMapImmediate+0x5b
fffff880`0299b210 fffff960`002b527b : fffff900`c07fdd10 fffff8a0`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : win32k!bMigrateSurfaceForConversion+0x5ad
fffff880`0299b340 fffff960`002dc3e3 : fffff900`00000000 fffff900`c1e5c010 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : win32k!pConvertDfbSurfaceToDibInternal+0x1cb
fffff880`0299b420 fffff960`002b5319 : fffffa80`07c7f470 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000282 : win32k!MulConvertChildRedirectionDfbSurfaceToDib+0x53
fffff880`0299b460 fffff960`002b1267 : fffff900`c0132010 fffff900`c0132010 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : win32k!pConvertDfbSurfaceToDib+0x41
fffff880`0299b490 fffff960`002b1b1f : fffff900`c0132010 00000000`00000001 fffff900`c24cc280 fffff900`c0132010 : win32k!bDynamicRemoveAllDriverRealizations+0x4f
fffff880`0299b4c0 fffff960`00273bb9 : 00000000`00000000 fffff900`00000000 fffff900`00000000 00000000`00000000 : win32k!bDynamicModeChange+0x1d7
fffff880`0299b5a0 fffff960`000baa2d : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 07cd8220`00000003 : win32k!DrvInternalChangeDisplaySettings+0xc7d
fffff880`0299b7e0 fffff960`001a2c41 : 00000000`00000040 fffff900`c00bf010 00000000`00000000 07cd8220`00000003 : win32k!DrvChangeDisplaySettings+0x62d
fffff880`0299b9c0 fffff960`001a2e9e : fffffa80`07cd8220 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff800`02f6fec3 : win32k!xxxInternalUserChangeDisplaySettings+0x329
fffff880`0299ba80 fffff960`001a033a : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00998b21`81a100b6 00000000`00000040 : win32k!xxxUserChangeDisplaySettings+0x92
fffff880`0299bb70 fffff960`001a053a : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : win32k!xxxRemoteSetDisconnectDisplayMode+0x42
fffff880`0299bbb0 fffff960`00183ea6 : 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`06efeb60 fffff880`0299bca0 00000000`00000005 : win32k!xxxRemoteDisconnect+0x1c2
fffff880`0299bbf0 fffff800`02c8c153 : fffffa80`06efeb60 00000000`00000005 00000000`00000020 00000000`00000000 : win32k!NtUserCallNoParam+0x36
fffff880`0299bc20 000007fe`fd6b3d3a : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd+0x13
00000000`027cf798 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : 0x7fe`fd6b3d3a


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_IP: 
win32k!SURFACE::bUnMapImmediate+5b
fffff960`002e381b f6477401        test    byte ptr [rdi+74h],1

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  4

SYMBOL_NAME:  win32k!SURFACE::bUnMapImmediate+5b

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: win32k

IMAGE_NAME:  win32k.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4a5bc5e0

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x1a_41790_win32k!SURFACE::bUnMapImmediate+5b

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x1a_41790_win32k!SURFACE::bUnMapImmediate+5b

Followup: MachineOwner

Wednesday 31 July 2019

How can I copy 10 files to a new directory and rename them with a pattern?

Further Reading

Tuesday 30 July 2019

Monday 29 July 2019

Sunday 28 July 2019

Saturday 27 July 2019