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Playing With Cron0
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff on April 23rd, 2010

For kicks, lately… I have been trying to get a handle on cron.

If you need more information, check out this explanation.

In simplistic terms… if you want to automate a computer task… cron is a good way to do it.

And, there is loads of documentation on it, out there.

I came across this… the cron sandbox.

If you want to play with your schedule options in cron…

You type in the parameters for your schedule, for the job.

Click the Run button, and the sandbox creates a list, telling you when your job will execute.

Cron comes with most versions of Linux, BSD and Mac OS X.

If you want a version for Windows, check out cronw here.

Updating Your Resumé0
Joe M posted in Howto on March 29th, 2010

Recently, I helped a couple of friends with their resumé.

It’s a good idea for all of us to keep ours updated.

When you look over your resumé, look for talents that you may have left off.

Many times, I have seen a resumé  get overlooked, simply because of things left out.

The goal is to describe your qualifications and experience, and initiate interest.

All too often, a poorly written resumé can cause a candidate to become overlooked.

A resume that ‘overdoes it,’ can also create bias.

“Strong management skills,” is a better phrase to use, than, “a good manager.”

Describing competence is a good quality, but be careful about going too far.

If you are looking for a particular IT job, you can list that particular position in your objective.

I have found it is much better to use a description of your experience and give yourself a more flexible title.

“Self-motivated, problem solver seeking challenges,” could give you more notice than “System Administrator with five years of experience.”

When it comes to listing your experiences, don’t short yourself.

Try to look at the big picture, and make observances about your job history, accordingly.

I have seen people use phrases, like “running reports” and, “reading reports.”

When I spoke with them in greater detail, I found that they had more experience in trending and analysis than those simple phrases implied.

There are a few myths, too.

No one wants to read a bloated novel, but it is a myth that a resumé has to be limited to one page.

You should include enough detail to cover your job history and experience, and whet the appetite of the viewer.

I have seen people attempt to squeeze all of their information and experience into one page, and the result was too hard to read.

One page is probably too short… but two pages as a limit is a good rule of thumb.

Describing awards and honors can be a toss-up.

In my opinion, a person is better off describing the circumstances that led to the award or honor.

If you received an award for leadership, describe your leadership abilities, or project management skills.

I usually try to avoid egocentric references.  Be careful of sounding like a brag.

I find that many times, those can be dismissed by a subjective judge.

“I am the best leader,” is probably not quite as effective as, “Managing multiple projects, simultaneously.”

As with anything we do, we have to bring balance into the picture.

The best balance on a resumé, is to recognize and highlight talents, while maintaining a humble quality.

Nerves & Presentations0
Joe M posted in Howto on March 11th, 2010

I came across an article on Psychology Today, How to give a presentation Part I.

Some good stuff in the post.

At one point in my life…

I had to give presentations… and teach others.

While preparation is the biggest part of teaching or presenting…

The truth is… the best presentations you will ever give, are on topics that are within your grasp, or your expertise.

I have been thrown into the position of having to give a presentation on subject matter with which I had no idea.

I always tried to avoid those scenarios.

That often involved scenarios in which I had no access to anyone with any expertise on the subject.

So… I had to develop my research skills.

Now, I understand enough about my own preparation needs, that I have a better procedure in place, should I present anything.

After clearing the hurdle of knowledge and understanding…

There is still the one last piece.

All of us experience butterflies or nerves.

For many of us… it becomes a matter of a few seconds in which we find our groove and the session begins to flow.

For some of us… the process takes a little longer.

There is a trick to it.

After spending a great deal of time, doing presentations…

I walked away with the best understanding of ‘the trick.’

When you speak to a group, large or small, you are trying to process all of the images of the people looking back at you.

Trying to ’speak to the whole group,’ you may overload your senses.

(By unknown practice, we let our eyes dart, all over the place.)

Many times, this overload will stumble your expressions and your vocal output.

‘The trick’ is to meet the eyes of the individuals in your audience… SLOWLY.

Pick individuals throughout the audience, and look at them, for a few seconds.

Don’t let your eyes jump around, randomly.

The best way to do this, is, as you speak; pick a person on the front row and complete a sentence to them.

Gradually let your eyes drift over and back a few feet, to another person in the audience.

Meet their eyes, and complete the next sentence directly to them.

Continue the process, but avoid the tendency to let your eyes just jump around.

Make and maintain eye contact, complete a sentence, then move to the next listener.

Many times, this will take practice… which you can do in meetings, or face to face with others.

I also may raise my voice, at times, to overcome nerves.

What I found is… through preparation, controlled eye contact and voice control…

My preparations improved quite a bit… and I was finally able to ward off and minimize the effect of nerves.

(And that is according to feedback from others.)

DVRs And Overheating0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on January 21st, 2010

Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed some strange behavior with my DVR.

It’s a Scientfic Atlanta 8300HD.

The problem I have had is… It began skipping segments in the recorded programs, showing pixelated artifacts and downright freezing.

I also noticed blank grey spots during the grecorded shows… even shows that did not record at all, just a grey screen, but the show still displayed as a recording in the menu.

I tried rebooting it, and shutting it off completely.

I even tried leavign it off, for several hours.

Nothing seemed to help.

After Googling the unit and model… I found that these units have some history of overheating.

They are not designed to have anything sitting on top of them, obstructing the airflow.

I rearranged my TV stand, and set the unit in a clear space, by itself.

I still noticed some heat from the unit.

Another Google search rendered a post from a guy who put a fan on his unit, to alleviate the problem.

I searched for a fan.  Surely, I had something around?

Scratching my head… I had a brainstorm.

A couple months ago, I bought an extra laptop cooler, the USB kind, at Big Lots… $13.

I thought it was a bargain, at the time, and figured I would come up with some use for it.

The 8300HD has a USB port, right on the front.

I flipped the laptop cooler upside down… with the cooler aimed at the top of the 8300HD.

I plugged the USB power cable into the front USB port.

I flipped it on, and left it.

Over the past couple of days… I have noticed that my freezing, blanking and artifact issues have disappeared.

If Cosmo Kramer Invited You For Dinner…1
Joe M posted in Howto, Musing on September 27th, 2009

I saw a post on Lifehacker, a year or so ago.

It was a little unbelievable.

In this age of tree-hugging and painting everything ‘green,’ it talked about using your dishwasher to cook salmon.

It was fascinating and intriguing… but had ‘Cosmo Kramer’ written all over it.

I came across a similar recipe at eHow.

I have also seen posts that discuss leaving the salmon in its original packaging.

Now… for an even stranger one…

Here is a recipe for cooking Lasagna Florentine in the dishwasher.

The scary part for me, would be making sure that I have the packaging sealed well enough.

If you don’t have it sealed correctly, or cooked all the way through, might not be fun, afterwards.

Take The Shake Out Of Home Video1
Joe M posted in Howto on June 17th, 2009

In talking with a friend of mine, today, he told me about his frustrations at the ball field.

He had a video camera, and has anything but a steady hand.

So, when he attempts to watch the video, it’s like trying to watch an earthquake.

A few months back, I came across a basic design to build a stabilizer on which to mount the camera.

The original hack I saw, looked something like this:

When you carry the camera by the stabilizer… it allows you to take advantage of Newton’s Laws.

No lengthy explanation, but it just works.

This is not a detailed how-to, but it does give you some idea how to combat shaky video.

A much more eloquent description, design and plan for a video stabilizer is available here, from Make Magazine.

I originally found it on Lifehacker a few months back, but it’s a keeper.

Playing With Speech In Knoppix 60
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff on June 15th, 2009

I came across a couple of items today, for which I wanted an audio version.

To simplify matters, I decided to reboot into Knoppix version 6.0.

Remembering the Text-To-Speech (TTS) capabilities built-in to Knoppix 6… I decided it was time to play with espeak.

From a console:

$ espeak -v en-us “Hello this is a test, and this is the U S English Male Voice for E Speak.”

This command feeds the speech engine, the sentence in quotation marks. The -v en-us switch and parameter selects the voice, language and country (dialect).

Simple enough.

With most modern Operating Systems, you have the ability to redirect output.  That means, in this case, instead of playing it through the speakers… put it in a file for me.

$ espeak -v en-us “Hello this is a test, and this is the U S English Male Voice for E Speak.” -w test.wav

By adding -w test.wav to the end, I tell espeak to redirect the output to an audio file.

There is also the option to have espeak read an input text file.

It’s a plain text file, with no formatting.

From a console:

$ espeak -v en-us -f test.txt

Now, espeak reads the text file.

If I want an audio file, I add the -w switch and the file name.

$ espeak -v en-us -f test.txt -w test.wav

It’s a great little tool, with loads of potential.  You can check out the output, here.

I have listened to a couple of short stories, using this technique… but I am not sure that I could survive a whole book, yet.

I still have some items related to it on my to do list.

I want to tweak the voices and settings, make them a little more warm and personal.

Epilogue: Ubuntu VM, The Shortcut0
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff, products on May 29th, 2009

After dragging readers through a grueling four part series dealing with VirtualBox and Ubuntu setup, I offer a shortcut.

The last four posts were a good experience, for anyone interested in getting their feet wet with virtualization, and what it means.

For the patient… Here is a quick and dirty.

Potentially, you can cut out several steps from Part II and Part III.

There are several pre-installed images for virtualization and VirtualBox located here at SourceForge.net, ready to download.

You’ll need a zip utility that will handle 7-zip files.  7-zip will do nicely.

If you are running Linux, use Synaptic Package Manager and the quick search for ‘7-zip’.  You’ll find several options to install for handling *.7z files.

Once you install 7-zip or your choice of file compression utility, extract the image… and keep track of where you extract it.

I won’t go into all of the details this time, but during the setup, simply choose “Use existing hard disk”… and use the folder icon to navigate to the image and select it for the virtual machine.  (That’s one of the folders that you extracted a few moments earlier.)

Finish the setup, and you are ready to go.

You have to use the corresponding link here to find the username and password used to create the image.

Just click the link and a list of images and usernames and passwords will display.  Reference your download image version… and it should be pretty easy to find.

Once you do that, you can fire up your VM and have at it!

This is the VM for UbuntuStudio that I downloaded.

The longest part was waiting for the download, which took about 15 minutes.

All of the images offered at the site on Sourceforge are free.

You can still refer back to the previous four postings, if you happen to get stuck.

This will require you to install VirtualBox, do the VM setup… and you’ll probably want to install Guest Additions.

Using the downloaded image, will provide you with the opportunity to bypass the Ubuntu install.

You can also find more ready-made installs (called appliances, in some cases) with which to play around.

Enjoy!

CD Wallets, Simple & Sweet0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on May 4th, 2009

CDs are pretty inexpensive, these days.

Actually, the way things have unfolded, the plastic CD cases are more expensive than the actual CDs.

I came across a video on YouTube, showing how to take a sheet of paper and make a CD wallet that would hold two CDs.

I found that folding the paper in a variation and adding a piece of extra Scotch tape, actually allowed you to put three CDs in the wallet.

Here is my spin:

Fold the paper, longways, and off-center.

Next, fold the paper, almost in half.  The shorter previous fold should be to the outside.  Leave about a quarter of an inch overlap on one side.

Take the overlap portion, and fold it in, and insert it into the other side of the envelope.

Now, place a piece of Scotch tape along the seam on the bottom, and one along the side.  Fold the tape and secure it along the two seams.

You can now put three CDs in the newly created wallet.

Having to take an install CD or CDs to another location, I constantly drop them.  The result is either a broken and or scratched CD and / or case.

One of the advantages is that now, you can place the CDs in the wallet into a planner or a portfolio.  No need for bulky or expensive plastic cases.

If you want to share a photo CD, recovered documents or a Linux distribution… this is a great way to do it, and keep your cost down.

Who hasn’t got spare paper printed with ads or nonsense from the web?

Simplifying Your Desktop With Ubuntu Tweak0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on April 13th, 2009

Since the machines that I have to work on are primarily Windows machines, MSCONFIG and TWEAKUI are two apps that I use on a regular basis.

When I am at home and can make my own choice,  it’s working primarlily on Ubuntu (8.10) Intrepid.   I wondered if there were any comparable applications for tweaking Ubuntu.

I wanted something that would function identically to the two MS apps, but for Ubuntu.

I found it.

Ubuntu Tweak.

It’s an app that allows you similar control to the MS counterparts.

Actually, if you consider the fact that it allows you to add and remove applications from the same UI, it’s better than the two MS counterparts.

You can also view basic info about your machine, the hostname and kernel version, as well as the window manager, etc.

You can set the startup applications for your session, as well.

One of my favorie features is the UI for Compiz-Fusion within Ubuntu Tweak.

Compiz is a fantastic app, but the UI is pretty extensive.  Usually, I work with the UI until I finally come to somewhat of an understanding with the UI.

I get it tweaked, but it could be a little easier.

Ubuntu Tweak reaches closer to eye-candy config nirvana.

The edge settings are pretty easy to find at the top.

Most notably, the Expo and Show Desktop settings are much easier found.

With the settings set to Expo at the upper left corner of the screen, if I move my mouse quickly to that corner… here’s what I get:

It displays my open windows, allowing me to choose which one I want.

The Show Desktop setting to the upper right corner, minimizes everything and shows me my desktop.

Those are two ways in which Compiz makes your desktop easier to use, but Ubuntu Tweak makes them easier to find and set.

Ubuntu Tweak is free.

Stimulating Your IT Knowledge To Grow1
Joe M posted in Howto on April 9th, 2009

I had a guy stop me the other day.

He has always been interested in learning more about IT, but just never could muster enough drive and motivation to dig in and learn.

He asked me, “What’s the best way to learn more about {IT / Operating Systems /Protocols}?”

At that point, I had never really thought about it.  I know what I do, but never really tried to communicate that to someone else.

After having thought about it for several days, I have come up with a basic list to pass on to him.

1. Learn Concepts, not buttons or menus.

So many times, I have seen people swear by the Start menu in Windows or the menu in MS Word.  If they happen to use something different, such as another Office Suite or another Operating System, they scratch their heads in disbelief.

Concentrate on the task at hand and the underlying idea of the action you are taking.

2.  Avoid vendor specifics.

There are vendors that make excellent and innovative products.  There are also vendors that try to control standards.

I remember studying the OSI Model in school.    There’s seven layers to it.  It’s a basis for troubleshooting and design within OSes and networks.

I took one vendor-specific test, in which the vendor tried to re-design the seven layer model into a four layer model.

It didn’t fly, but it makes the point.

Vendors are usually relationship-oriented and usually practice benevolence in securing a long term customer relationship.  There are exceptions, in that some vendors feel they can be more profitable if they control the standard.  That means filling the genre with a lexicon of their own terms and dictating how a model will work.

Models that are open usually offer more for the customer in terms of having more vendors’ support.

In an open model, Brand A will interact with Brand B, C and D without having to spend additional time or resources.  If you have to spend additional money, then it’s probably not an open model.

3.  Attend to your peers.

Talking with people that have similar experiences often will open doors and resources in which you might never find, otherwise.

Ask your friends and coworkers for help.  Share experiences.  Trade knowledge.  Find out where and how they learn.

If someone tells you, “It can’t be done,” write the task down.  Research it, and don’t settle for that answer without a long, hard fight.  It’s a challenge or a puzzle for you to solve.

4.  Broaden your spectrum.

It’s easy to fall into an informational rut.  If you only work in Windows or OS X, you can miss a great deal of opportunity for knowledge growth.

Keep your eyes and ears open.  Keep up on emerging technology (there are enough tech news websites to keep you busy).

If you work in Windows, mostly, make it a point to learn more about Unix, OS X or Linux (which can be considered similar skillsets).  Try performing some of the same functions in another OS (different from the one you normally use).  If you get stuck, once again, Google is your friend.

Make it a point to learn about how to connect dissimilar network components.  Try getting a Windows machine to talk to a Mac or a Linux machine.

If you hear about something new and interesting, write it down and Google it.

5.  Share!

During the quest on your learning path, inevitably, you will learn a tip, technique or concept that will prove valuable.  Practice it.  Write it down.

At the next opportunity, tell someone about it.  The experience will positively reinforce your own motivation, even if the person you tell is not as excited as you are.

If you follow the above suggestions, you will find that your motivation and your expertise will continue to grow.

It’s a process, and not one that will take place over night, but before too long, you will start to see your knowledge grow.

Exercising Recovery Mode In Ubuntu0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on March 24th, 2009

I got home late, yesterday, after dealing with a client that had some issues.

Preparing to do my post, last night, I decided to install a couple of Ubuntu updates that included a “Ghostscript” update.

Quick and easy, right? (And you’ll understand why there was no post last night. On a regular basis, my goal is to make at least 5 posts a week. Usually I manage that, but every so often I hit a bump.)

A restart was required. I restarted… to my disappointment, this is the screen that I got:

I hit CTRL-ALT-F2 and tried to get to a console. No dice.

So, for my post today, I am going to touch on the steps that I went through to get my machine operational again.

The first step, was to go to into recovery mode, just after reboot.

Since the screen was frozen, and would do nothing, I used CTRL-ALT-SysRq-R-E-I-S-U-B to reboot the machine.

When the GRUB boot loader screen appears, press ESC.

Choose the second option down, the newest recovery mode for the most recent kernel.

After a minute or so, it will give you the recovery mode menu.

At this point, you have several options.

A quick rundown…

resume – continue booting, normally. Pretty self explanatory.
clean – try to free up some drive space. Allow the system to delete temp or unused files or directories.
dpkg – repair broken packages. If a package install did not work correctly, attempt to finish the install or satisfy some dependencies.
root – the root console for specialized commands. If you have something specific to do, not offered here in the menu.
xfix – attempt to repair the X server. If the X server is hosed, this may not do any good.

For my own circumstances, I had to attempt to repair the X server. I tried it, to no avail.

I attempted all of the options.

Two hours later (over a period of almost a day) I finally was successful, and got the X server functional again.

The option I chose was root.

The steps I took:

Remove Ubuntu-desktop

Remove gdm (Gnome Display Manager)

Remove Xserver-xorg

autoremove

Install Xserver-xorg

Install gdm (Gnome Display manager)

Install Ubuntu-desktop

I had played around with some Mac4Lin icons and themes, a few months back. I am suspicious that there was a component I installed along with M4L that caused my issue.

When I removed X, GDM and UD it removed the troublesome item during autoremove.

It was a learning experience, and probably the most severe issue I have experienced during my relationship with Ubuntu Linux.

In three years, I have yet to have to re-install Ubuntu to fix my laptop (or the other one I had before it).

I still consider it to be a great experience.

Making Use Of System Restore In Windows (Part II)0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on March 23rd, 2009

In Part I, I talked about creating a restore point. It’s pretty simple and straight forward.

On occasion, I have had to use the restore points I have created.

(Windows, by default and if functioning correctly, creates restore points with each change to the OS and on a daily basis for the most part.)

To utilize a restore point:

Go to Start… Accessories… System Tools… System Restore.

Choose Restore my computer to an earlier time. Click Next.

Using the calendar, choose a date in the left pane… and a restore point listed in the right pane.

Now, confirm the information on your restore point and click Next.

The computer will start the restore, then reboot. This may take a few minutes.

Once the restore completes, you will receive a message confirming the success of the restore. Once you click OK, you will be back to your desktop.

Things to remember:

Windows should create restore points on its own, but it does not hurt to create your own when you modify your computer.

More restore points will take up hard drive space, and may slow your machine down.

If System Restore is not functioning properly, it may be a sign of a malignant infection of some type.

Using System Restore exclusively as a backup strategy is not a good idea.

Making Use Of System Restore Points In Windows (Part I)0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on March 22nd, 2009

Based off of a conversation I had today, I talked a friend of mine through creating a restore point.

I think I have touched on the issue before, but only lightly.

It’s pretty simple.

(The following example is using Windows XP.  If you follow the concepts, it should be relatively the same in Windows Vista.)

Go to Start… Accessories… System Tools… System Restore.

On the Welcome screen, choose the second option, Create a restore point.

The creation should only take a couple of minutes, at the most.

That should be all there is to it.  Click Close.

Restore points are a great tool and pretty easy to manage.

A word of caution:  Restore points should complement your backup strategy.  That means that you should use other technologies and tasks in your plan, in addition to using restore points.  Remember to rely on another strategy for your actual backup.

When a virus, worm, trojan or some sort of malware attacks Windows… one of the first components that the malignancy attacks is the restore point functions.

If Windows System Restore is not functioning properly, that could be a sign of a more serious problem, namely, some sort of malignant infection.  (At that point, you have a choice to try and clean it, or wipe the disk and re-install Windows.  It’s gotten easier to do the latter, with the scale of damage done by malware these days.)

In the next post, I’ll talk about a restore, using a restore point.

Getting Over The Home Router Hurdle0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto, free stuff on March 20th, 2009

A few years ago, DSL and Cable Broadband internet were just starting to become popular.

At that time, usually only the technological elite or the true geek had a router, and understood what the router was, what it did and how to configure it.

These days, just about everyone has a router at home for their broadband connection.

With terms like host, IP address, MAC address, DHCP, NAT, static, dynamic and DNS… just to name a few… it can be a little overwhelming trying to comprehend the whole lexicon of terms, if you have never been exposed.

Though the overall knowledge level of the home user is elevating, there are still times in which we all encounter challenges.

For general information about your ISP and your router… and for a wide spectrum of general info regarding services and products, BroadbandReports offers a great place to start.

I have used it several times over the years.

I used Bellsouth DSL for a few years.  It seems as if every 4 or 5 weeks, my router or my DSL modem would do “something weird” and mysteriously quit working.

BroadbandReports was my crutch during those strange times.

(I always suspected that Bellsouth was doing something strange with the packets and the traffic, but never could nail down any proof, at the time.)

What I did find was, some great articles on stepping through the different router interfaces that I have had, along with some great howto’s on resetting and configuring the DSL modem.

Since that time, I moved across town.

I now have cable modem.

My parents now have Bellsouth DSL and they have fewer problems than I ever did with it.

I have to say that as an outside observer, it seems that Bellsouth seems to have positioned themselves well as a good internet provider, for the needs of my parents, anyway.

Recently, I had someone ask me about setting up port forwarding, in order to get some of their applications exposed to the internet and functioning correctly.

I thought about posting step-by-step instructions for such a scenario.

Upon examining the issue further, I realized that would require much more space than the format that I try to keep would allow.

It’s been in the back of my mind, and I have felt a little disappointed in myself for the lack of an attempt to provide any help in this area, on my blog, anyway.

Today, I found PortForward.

After having had to talk several clients and several friends through setting it up, I would loved to have had this website a long time ago.

You’ll find a large listing of router brands and models there.

The sweet part?

There is also a long list of applications that require port-forwarding with a detailed explanation of how to change the settings in your particular router for each application.

Putting Folder Synchronization To Use0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on March 15th, 2009

Working with a friend of mine today, she posed an issue to me.  She has a laptop, and a desktop computer.

She uses both machines, throughout the day, and every day.

If one or the other were to crash, or die, what would she do?

She has a Maxtor One Touch, but that only does backup.

What if she edits a file, on the laptop, then tomorrow, the laptop crashes?

She can wade through the backups on the One Touch and find the file.  Not the easiest to do.

It is one solution, though.

A better way is to pick specific folders and synchronize them between the laptop and the desktop.

First we shared the folder on the desktop.  C:\shared data, we shared as U.

We mapped a drive, U: on the laptop to the desktop.  (\\DESKTOP\U)

To use built-in folder synchronization in Windows, here are the steps:

To set up offline folder synchronization, go to Tools… Folder Options.

When Folder Options dialog box appears, click the following checkboxes.. Set the Amount

of disk space to use for temporary offline files to 10 GB.

Next click View Files.

The Offline Files Folder will appear.

Drag the drive orfolder from My Computer to the Offline Files Folder window, and drop it.

The Offline FilesWizard dialog appears. Click Next.

Turn OFF the Enable Reminders and Create a shortcut to the Offline Files folder on my desktop checkboxes. Click Finish.

Make sure the Automatically synchronize the Offline Files when I log on and logoff my computer checkbox is checked. Click Next.

Click OK.

The Synchronization window will pop up, let it continue until it completes.

After the synchronization finishes, open My Computer. You should see

the synchronization symbol on the icon for the drive you set up for

offline use.

What she has to remember, is to save the files to the U: drive, when working on the laptop.  When she works on the desktop, save the files to the C:\shared data folder.

Along with her backup strategy, she should be safe in case of a minor catastrophe.

She could also use Microsoft Sync Toy, which I will cover in another post.

The piece that is missing in this whole strategy?

She still needs an offsite backup.

This is a good start for her, though.  It should help simplify some of her file management.

Using The MAC Address To Dig Deeper0
Joe M posted in Howto, products, security on March 5th, 2009

Sometimes, when you are working on a large network, you come across IP addresses, of which you have no clue.

It may be that it’s something you plugged in, and just can’t remember it.

With the number of appliances that have a network interface, these days, chances are you plugged it in, and forgot about it.

If it’s your home network, it’s usually pretty easy to manage and trace everything down.

For larger networks, it can be perplexing.

Sometimes, if the ports are opened, you can telnet to the address and get an idea of what the device is, from a login.

If you don’t have that option available, and telnet doesn’t work, what do you do?

One option, which many administrators overlook, is the MAC address.

The MAC address is a unique, 12 character address that is ‘burned’ into that particular network interface.

You can usually find it in your router logs, along with the corresponding IP address.

I have watched WAN guys scratch their head and give up, at this point.

There is an easier solution to give you more information.

You can perform a manufacturer’s lookup on the MAC address.

The first six characters of a MAC address are assigned by manufacturer.  The last six characters are the truly unique part, but that can work to your advantage.

If you go to the IEEE Registration Authority website, you can enter the first six characters and find the manufacturer for that network interface.

An example:

Just for kicks, I look up the MAC address for my Lenovo laptop (the first six characters).

The manufacturer for the network interface on my laptop is Intel.

(Remember, Lenovo probably subcontracted with Intel for the network interface chipset, which is pretty common.)

It may not give you all the answers in your forensic network research, but it will give you more information and help you make a step in the right direction.

The MAC address can be spoofed, or changed, using software or the command line in some cases.  If you use the ‘Clone MAC Address’ feature on your home router, you are spoofing the MAC address.

On a larger network, that’s secure, it’s hopeful you won’t have any spoofed MAC addresses.

The Tedious Task Of Identifying Windows Processes0
Joe M posted in Howto on February 27th, 2009

“Do I really need this?”

It’s a question that you will ask yourself, from time to time.

If you run Windows, and you work on your own machine,  eventually you will have to examine the processes running, and that question will pop up.

It can be a hard question to answer.

When you install a printer, camera, mp3 player or webcam, something usually gets thrown into the system tray or put into the startup.

Eventually, all of those items are going to slow your machine down to a crawl.

Most processes are named with the old 8.3 naming convention.  That means that the filename will be 8 characters or less, and the extension will be three letters long.

That makes makes it more hairy in determining what each process is.

I used to love the SysInternals website.  They had a listing of all the Windows processes, and a breakdown of what each one was.

I am not sure how dynamic the listing was, but it always seemed to be prety helpful and I was always able to find what I needed to know using the site.

Since Microsoft acquired SysInternals in 2006, the SysInternals site has been migrated into the Technet website.

You can still find some useful utilities and information there, but I have not been able to find the former listing of Windows processes there.

Googling and wandering the web, I came across Uniblue’s Process Library.

It has a search feature that provides details that you need when making the distinction between the necessary and unnecessary.

It’s a detailed listing of each Windows process, along with references to Microsoft bulletins, and security threat, virus, trojan and spyware information for each.

Whether you are tweaking your performance, by eliminating items from the system tray; or you are trying to determine malignancy of a certain process, the Process Library website is a good place to start.

It’s a good idea to be familiar with some of the items that run, anyway.

Once you familiarize yourself with the processes that start and run, automatically; it makes the process of tweaking your performance much easier.

You’ll also find that troubleshooting your machine becomes easier, once it starts slowing down, or acting odd.

No Waterspots0
Joe M posted in Howto, Musing on February 21st, 2009

My car was dirty.

I took some time out in the sunshine, this afternoon to give it a good wash.

I went over it, several times with soap and water, then rinsing it with the hose.

As soon as I finished washing one side, I would walk around to the other side.

By the time, I got done washing one side, the other side was dry.

With waterspots.

UGH.

After a good washing, I took to wetting the whole car down, keeping it wet.

Once I finished, and the car was soaking wet, I backed it into the garage.

I did not have a sham, and I was in an old T-shirt and jeans.  Not in shape to go buy one.

(Surely, as soon as I walk into a store in my neighborhood, in my ‘play-clothes’,  I undoubtedly will run into several people I know.)

I needed a blow-dryer.  My hand-held from the bathroom was obviously not the right one.

It gets really hot, and there’s no assurance as to what it will do to the paint.

I grabbed the electric leaf blower, plugged it in, and blew the car dry, top-down.

The results were pretty good!

Testing Your Internet Connection Speed0
Joe M posted in Howto on February 16th, 2009

Sometimes you are surfing the web, and something just does not seem right.

Is it your connection?

It may look as if there is absolutely nothing wrong with your machine. Programs load quickly, but when you click on a link, it just clocks.

If you are looking for a way to test the speed of your internet connection, there are plenty of sites around to allow you to do that.

One of my favorites is speedtest.net.

In the lower left hand corner, there is an icon of a person.  Just to the right of it, it will display your IP Address.  (I have covered mine with a mosiac, for security reasons.)

Once you click a pyrmid close to your location, the test will start.  The test will take a couple of minutes, depending on your internet connection.

With the results displayed, you can get a pretty good idea of how your connection performs.

There are plenty of options for comparing your connection with other users.

Setting Up Your Windows Network0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on February 15th, 2009

This is the first step in getting your Windows computers to talk to one another.

Searching For Windows Drivers0
Joe M posted in Howto on February 10th, 2009

I was visiting with a friend of mine last night.

He brought his laptop, and was wanting to install another OS, or so he thought.

It was an HP, and it had Windows XP Pro installed.

He was wanting the wireless card to work.  He thought that it was useless.

In taking a look at his issue, it turns out that he simply Googled the model displayed on the top of the laptop.

It was a ZE4500.  Using that number, he told me that he got a bunch of different results in his search.
He could never seem to figure out exactly what kind of wireless card it had in it.

I had him flip the laptop over.  On the bottom, there was another number, labeled P/N.  That was the product number. (ZE4560, I think it was.)

Using that number on the HP site, within five minutes, we had the wireless card operational.

During production of a product series, sometimes there are phases and slight changes in chips and product offerings.

So, it is entirely possible and even likely, that you can have two HP laptops, side by side, and have different product numbers and different components in each one. One might have a Broadcom wireless card, the other, an Intel.

That’s even though they look exactly the same, with no visible difference between the two, in simple observation.

When you research drivers for your desktop or laptop, look for specific product and model numbers.  Flip it over, look on the back, look on the bottom.

Write down any numbers you see.  Use them all to exhaustion, until you find the driver you need.  The more specifics you use, the better results you will have in your search.

If you need help identifying the component, there is always Belarc Advisor.

If you are using older or obscure hardware, there is also DriverGuide.

If you have a brand name machine, try the OEM website, first.

If you have a machine that you or someone close to you built, you may have to use Belarc and Driverguide.

Most of the time, your efforts will result in success.

Every so often, you will encounter a piece of hardware for which you cannot find drivers.

It might be that the OS is new and / or the piece of hardware is old.

Dealing With iPods and DRM0
Joe M posted in Howto, music on January 5th, 2009

I have had an iPod shuffle for a few years now.

It does the job for me, and I like the fact that it’s solid state. It has no moving parts and is a little more shock resistant than most of the other hard drive MP3 players, including some of the hard-drive -based iPods.

I was asked to help a friend transfer their songs from one iPod to another.

Remembering some of the hurdles I have had with iTunes in the past, I immediately went into panic mode.  I remember some vague issues when I got mine: Windows crashing, losing my library, and subsequently having to try and recover everything.

My memories had me trembling in terror.  DRM monsters were lurking under my bed while I slept.  They were infiltrating my dreams, while I was contemplating this arduous task.

My friend had two iPods. A 60GB 5th gen video, and he had just gotten a 32 GB Touch for Christmas.

He wants to keep both operational, and keep both sync’d with his current library.

After Googling and reading extensively, I found out the following:

1. You can sync up to five iPods to one iTunes library.

2. The sync works like this: iTunes >> iPod. You can’t copy songs back to the PC.

3. There is a singular iTunes library to iPod relationship. You can’t sync your iPod with multiple libraries.

There are probably some idiosyncratic loopholes in the process that will allow you to perform different functions, but keeping it simple seemed like a good move on my part.

There are ways in which you can connect multiple user accounts to one library. Being that my friend is not an IT guy; I decided to withhold the information and avoid having that discussion with him.

Things I did notice; I had to shut down several programs running in the system tray.  I had to pause some transfers that were problematic.

Without being able to pinpoint the actual issue, the software relationship between iTunes v.8 and Windows XP seem to have a couple of bugs. Several times, I received

“iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.”

This was accompanied by the regular “send info to” and “don’t send” info buttons to Microsoft.

I am not sure how that information actually gets collected at Microsoft.  My cynical imagination always make me think of an electronic garbage can to which the electronic message gets routed at the Redmond facility.

About the third time I got the message, I let the message just sit on the screen.  I watched the iTunes status keep copying files to the iPod in the background.

Subsequently, with the error message still on the screen, iTunes reached a ‘completed’ status and “OK to disconnect.”

Once it was complete, I clicked “don’t send.”

iTunes closed.

I checked the iPod. The transfer worked, in spite of the error.

My recommendation is going to be for him to wait for an iTunes update, rather than un-installing and re-installing iTunes and the other Apple software.

I had to jump through a couple of hoops on this little assistive task, but I did learn a couple of things.

This time, I may declare the battle with the DRM monsters a draw, and I may sleep once again.

Even though it can be ‘a pain,’ I think the exercise is a good one to help keep you on your IT toes.

I was lucky in this instance, because the Touch was new, and blank.  Should my friend have wanted to preserve the songs on it in addition to the library sync, that would have been another issue and hurdle, altogether.

The regular iPod interface is cool. There is no other interface quite like it… except for another iPod.

The Touch… is really cool, too. That is only the second time that I have gotten a chance to play around with one.

I would love to have one, but I don’t know if I could ever give myself permission to spend that much money on something, just for the cool factor.

Advice On Buying A Car0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on December 28th, 2008

I talked to a friend of mine today.

She is taking a teenager to buy a car.

This video popped into my mind.

Note:  Some of the language used in this video may be mildly offensive to some people.

How I Got The iAxe Working On Ubuntu Linux5
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff, products on December 26th, 2008

After I bought the iAxe, I spent a couple of days playing around with it.  I plugged it in on my Ubuntu (8.10) box.

I  spent a little time reading up on Jack and ALSA.

The sound architecture and client/server documentation for Linux leaves a little to be desired.  I never did find a definitive and plain-English explanation for how it all fits together.

I did manage to get the guitar working, using Jack, Jack Control and Creox-C.

The plugs, physically, went as follows:

1.  Plug the USB jack from the guitar into the USB plug on my PC/laptop.

2.  Plug headphones into the guitar, in the jack next to the USB plug.  I used a small set of headphones, so I used an adapter to make it fit.

As for the software, I took it step by step, as follows:

1.  System… Preferences… Sounds.  Made sure sound capture is set up to point to ALSA.

2.  Opened the console or Linux command prompt.

The second item is my USB guitar.

3.  Install and run Jack and Jack Control.

I used the console to install jack with this command:

sudo apt-get install jackd qjackctl

You could also use Synaptic Package Manager, it’s pretty easy, either way.

4.  Once jackd and qjackctl are installed… run Jack Control.

Applications… Sound and Video… Jack Control

5.  Click setup.

Change bitrate, Input and Output devices.   I changed the bitrate to 48000.  I used the arrow to the right of Input and Output devices to select the guitar.  I also selected Soft Mode, Monitor and H/W Monitor.

Click OK.

Click Messages.  This will give you a log of any errors or problems you encounter.

Click the Start button.

Leave Jack Control running.

6. Start Creox-C

Click Effector… Play, or click the gear icon on the button bar.

At that point, I had all the effects working.

I did play around with a couple of the settings in Creox.

There is a setting under Effector… Options, for the input and output.  You will have to stop the effects in Creox to make the change.

Other than that, Jack and Creox-C are working like a champ.

I wish that I knew more about the inner details of Jack and Creox-C to be able to explain every detail of why this worked for me.

Using a USB guitar, Jack and Creox-C are all new and mystical territory for me; but I wanted to post my steps online in hopes that it would help someone else.  On my GTD list, I want to understand exactly how the changes I made affect the overall technical picture.

I really hacked my way through it, with a little help from this.

The USB functions for playing around, recording and experimenting with the guitar look great.

As for grabbing your laptop, guitar and heading over to a friend’s house to play… I am not real sure about.

I would venture to guess that it might be just as easy (if not easier) to grab your amp, cord and guitar.

Either way, it’s still intriguing to know you have the option.

Finding More Content For Your iPod0
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff on December 24th, 2008

I like to find different things to populate my iPod.

Music is great, and podcasts are fantastic.

On occasion, you find a great seminar or an extended explanation that is posted on one of the video sharing sites.

There are loads of audio-centric videos across the internet.

Using Firefox and Download Helper, you can save the file to your hard drive.

Download Helper is a Firefox extension that saves the file in flash format.

Once the file is on your hard drive in flash format, you have to convert it.

ffmpeg is an open source converter, suitable to the task.

On linux, you open the console and navigate to the directory to which you downloaded the file.

(Download Helper usually puts it in the dwhelper directory inside your home directory.)

From the command line:

ffmpeg -i videoname.flv -f mp3 -vn -acodec copy videoname.mp3

The response:

FFmpeg version r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: –enable-gpl –enable-pp –enable-swscaler –enable-x11grab –prefix=/usr –enable-libgsm –enable-libtheora –enable-libvorbis –enable-pthreads –disable-strip –enable-libfaad –enable-libfaadbin –enable-liba52 –enable-liba52bin –enable-libdc1394 –disable-armv5te –disable-armv6 –disable-altivec –disable-vis –enable-shared –disable-static
libavutil version: 49.6.0
libavcodec version: 51.50.0
libavformat version: 52.7.0
libavdevice version: 52.0.0
built on Oct  3 2008 22:40:31, gcc: 4.3.2

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 1000.00 (1000/1) -> 29.92 (359/12)
Input #0, flv, from ‘videoname.flv’:
Duration: 00:05:58.9, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 64 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: flv, yuv420p, 320×240 [PAR 0:1 DAR 0:1], 29.92 tb(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, mono, 64 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to ‘videoname.mp3′:
Stream #0.0: Audio: 0×0000, 22050 Hz, mono, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
size=    2804kB time=358.9 bitrate=  64.0kbits/s
video:0kB audio:2804kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.001080%

If you get any error messages, you may have to install ffmpeg.  The easiest way is to use Synaptic Package Manager, which is pretty straight-forward.

Once the file is converted to MP3, I can now use GTKpod or one of the other iPod friendly apps on Linux to copy it over to my iPod.

ffmpeg is also available for Windows.  The install and the software may be a little hard to find.

For a Windows GUI alternative for ffmpeg, you can also use Media Coder, install it directly that will include the ffmpeg suite of utilities and codecs.

You can also use Floola to transfer your new MP3 files, should you have any problems with your existing iPod software.

Once you break beyond the barrier between flash and audio conversion, you’ll find yourself adding several other audio items to your iPod.

Shopping This Holiday Season – More Macho Hints0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on December 12th, 2008

Today I turned 44 years old.

It was a good day.

I spent the day with my parents. We went to a nearby town, shopping.

The crowd at the shopping center was not overwhelming. That’s good for a consumer, but not necessarily for the merchants and businesses.

I managed to tune into and make note of a few more ’strategies’ that the merchants and marketers use.

Do they try to ’slip one past you?’

It sure seems that way.

One tactic that I came across… I have seen it before. You see a rack or display of clothing. You see a sign that says, “$30.”

You see an assortment of coats. Some are plain, some are corduroy.  You pick one of each.

While checking out, something just does not seem right.  You have $60 worth of merchandise, but the total comes up to $80.

Still does not seem like a bad deal for two coats, but something from elementary math class screams, “red flag!”

Upon further investigation, you find out, that for one of the coats, the price is actually $45. It’s the corduroy coat.

Next, you ask the question, “I thought these were on sale?”

The clerk replies, “Only the plain coats are on sale.”

What do you do?

It’s not that much more in money, but it’s not what the sign led you to believe.

My best guess is, most people will squeeze the extra few dollars and forget the hassle of arguing.

It seems a little dishonest.  There is a sign.  The merchandise that is on the sign (in small print, of course) is on the rack and available.  So, it’s not false advertising.

The deception comes in when you are misled into believing that all the coats on the rack are on sale. Chances are, you are going to smile, bear it… and buy the coat anyway.

The other tactic that I spotted, is one that I have also seen before.

It involves buying more merchandise to get a mediocre deal on all of it.  Buy the first item full price, and get the second at a discount… or buy 2, full price, and get the third one free.

It’s not seemingly quite as deceptive as the first strategy; but what you’ll find is that you end up spending much more than you had originally planned.

Overall, there were some pretty good deals out there.  Of course, the merchants are trying to draw shoppers.  The best way to do it is to offer some good deals, or at least seemingly good deals.

These are still fresh on my mind.  If I go back tomorrow (and I probably will), here’s what I do:

1.  Window shop or browse first.  Take a pad and pen.  Take notes of potential purchases and places.  Do the comparisons.  (Remember taking tests in school?  The teacher always said, “Read all of the questions through carefully, before you begin to answer them.”  Still good advice.)

2.  Clearly understand the deal.  Brush up on your ‘head math.’  Most of the deals that we saw, involved a ticketed price and a percentage discount.  Be ready to walk away, if you don’t understand the discount.

3.  Don’t buy items or quantities that you would not normally buy in order to get a ‘good deal.’

4.  Evaluate each item as a single purchase.  If you only buy one, is it still a good deal?

5.  Coupons can offer some good savings, but steer away from qualifying amounts.  If you have to spend over a certain amount at the store in order to get the discount, you will find a huge bill for yourself at the end of the day.

Of course, there is an exception to every rule.  If you evaluate and carefully choose your options, you can get some great deals.

We went to the same shopping center last year, about the same time.

In our assessment, comparing this year to last year, at this time… we discovered some deals that were actually better than the deals we got last year.

Cutting Down The Noise0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on December 8th, 2008

Over the weekend, the noise from my Targus laptop cooler was driving me nuts.

I tried blowing out the dust, using canned air.

No luck.

I tried tapping and bumping the cooler.  It would help for a few seconds, then start back.

The racket was intermittent.

What I finally resorted to?

Household oil.

I took the cooler apart, taking out the rubber stops.  I removed the four screws holding it together.

I peeled back the sticker half-way on each fan.

I put a drop of household oil on a q-tip and blotted it on the center of the fan assembly.

The trick is to apply the oil without applying too much.  Too much could ruin the fan and the electric motor.

I put the cooler back together and the results were quite pleasing.

It’s so quiet, now, I have to check it to make sure both fans are working.

I also took another cooler and did the same thing, this time with pencil lead.

Why pencil lead?

It contains graphite, and graphite is a good lubricant that won’t collect dirt.

I remember my dad sharing the tip with me, years ago, when I was a skateboarder.   We would take a tube of graphite and use it on the wheel bearings.

The problem with the oil?

I am afraid that over time it will collect dirt and dust and eventually wear out the fan assembly.

For both the oil and the pencil lead, if you can turn the fan while you are making the application, all the better.  If you can manage to apply power to the fan, while holding the q-tip or the pencil on the assembly, that’s the best.

If not, work the fan with your free hand and work it in manually.

In comparison, I think the fans with the oil are much quieter than the fans I used pencil lead on.

It may have been a matter of my ’shot-in-the-dark’ application process.

If the oil turns out to be a problem, it’s not really a big deal, considering a new laptop cooler is in the $15 to $30 range in price.

Hack The ‘Disposable’ Video Camera0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on November 22nd, 2008

The Secret To Triggering Traffic Lights0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on November 7th, 2008

This video appealed to me.  If you have ever gotten stuck at a triggered light, waiting for it to change, you know that it usually only happens when you are in a hurry.

It’s a hack, but not one I would consider an illegal hack.

I am on a quest this weekend to find the materials.