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Clearing DNS cache on Mac
edited by on December 13th 2011, at 12:54

You can clear the DNS cache on a Mac by using these commands (depending on the version of OSX you're running):

  • Tiger (10.4): lookupd -flushcache
  • Leopard and later (10.5+): dscacheutil -flushcache
 
Generate your own QR codes
edited by on November 17th 2011, at 13:11
 
Getting WWAN to work on a VAIO after upgrading to Windows 7
edited by on November 15th 2011, at 16:38
Had some trouble on a Sony VAIO VGN-Z41WD which has been upgraded to Windows 7 by performing a complete installation. After installing just about every driver and after installing the necessary components for WWAN for 3G access to the internet, the software just bails out with an error stating it can't find the device.

A closer look in device manager reveals no sighting of said adapter. At first, I thought the device to be broken until I started thinking a little further. The manual states that devices can be turned on and off via the VAIO Control Center, meaning that the device could be presented but not powered on (thus, not appearing in device manager).

Only after installing the   ...
 
vmwaretray DMP files in user profiles
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 15:29
If you're running RDS on a vSphere server with VMware Tools installed, you may have noticed the evergrowing presence of vmwaretray DMP files in the user profiles. These are crash dumps from the VMware Tray icon, which is ran during every session.

The reason for this crash dump is an error which is caused by lack of read access to a certain key in the Windows registry by your regular (domain) users.

This key is called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VMWare. Inc.\VMWare Tools.

Set the permissions on that key to read access for the users logging on to the server, and your problem should go away.

Hint: you may also wish to remove the icon altogether. This is done by setting a certain registry va  ...
 
Remove VMware Tools icon from system tray
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 15:28

If you're running RDS on a vSphere server with VMware Tools installed, you may wish to remove/hide the system tray icon. This can be done by setting a certain registry value.

The registry value is:

  • Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools
  • Value: ShowTray

Change the value to 0 will effectively disable the icon the next time a user logs on.

 
Configure iCloud in your e-mail client
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 14:52
While unsupported, iCloud still allows access to your e-mail via IMAP, and sending via SMTP. Apple has published the necessary parameters for manually configuring your e-mail client to use the iCloud service.

Server name: imap.mail.me.com

SSL required: yes

Port: 993 (is set by default)

Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

Password: Your iCloud password

Server name: smtp.mail.me.com

SSL required: yes

Port: 587

SMTP authentication required: Yes

Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

Password: Your iCloud password

SSL is required for both IMAP and SMTP. POP3 is not supported.

Source: http://support.apple.  ...
 
Transmitting sensitive info with One Time Secret
edited by on November 8th 2011, at 15:23

Never unsecurely transmit passwords and other sensitive info via e-mail again. Just use One Time Secret will ensure that the sensitive information can be viewed only once. This allows for easy and secure transmission of passwords, VPN keys and the likes.

https://onetimesecret.com/

 
Remote-reboot Polycom phones using SIP NOTIFY
edited by on November 4th 2011, at 14:51
You can remote-reboot your Polycom phones from the Asterisk CLI by sending a SIP NOTIFY command. This command instructs the phone to recheck its configuration, and therefore, will reboot when certain parameters have been set in your phone configuration provisioning.

Make sure the following directive is set in your provisioning config:

<specialEvent voIpProt.SIP.specialEvent.checkSync.alwaysReboot="1" />

You find this in sip.cfg, or you can set it in your own configuration (mine's called aaps-settings.cfg, but that's just an arbitrary name).

Notice
When setting this variable in your own configuration, be sure that it's set in the right context, like so:<localcfg> &l  ...
 
Online image editing with iPiccy
edited by on November 4th 2011, at 14:50

Online image editing was never this easy, and it's entirely free and requires no registration:

http://ipiccy.com/

Pretty handy indeed!

 
Moving the WSUS database (in SBS2008/2011)
edited by on November 4th 2011, at 14:06
In SBS2008 and 2011, there's a wizard allowing you to move the WSUS repository to another partition/disk. However, it does not move the state database, which, over time, can grow a bit large. Luckily, one could manually move the database by stopping WSUS, detaching the database, move the files, reattaching it, and finally, starting WSUS again.

First of, stop the required services (WSUS and IIS Admin Service)

net stop "update services"net stop w3svc

Next, detach the database:

sqlcmd -E -S np:\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query -Q "sp_detach_db 'SUSDB'"

Move the SUSDB.mdf and SUSDB_log.ldf to their new location. Then, reattach the database:

sqlcmd -E -S np:\\.\pi  ...
 
Deleting old versions of Google Chrome
edited by on November 3rd 2011, at 14:20

Each time Google Chrome gets updated, it leaves behind the old version of Chrome. While this comes in handy when you have to downgrade, it also builds up (precious) hard disk space. You can, however, manually remove the old installation files.

Google Chrome is installed by default in your local profile folder, at:

Location
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application

In that folder you will find the main executable (don't remove that) and the different versions of Chrome.

You can simply delete the lower version numbers so that only the highest version remains. This clears out on average 80-100 MB per folder (although it could very well be much more).

 
Lock-n-Roll for Pidgin
edited by on November 3rd 2011, at 14:07

A neat plugin for Pidgin is Lock-n-Roll.

Download here: http://csammisrun.net/blog/2009/06/lock-n-roll-11/

It automatically sets your status to Away, and sets a predefined status message, upon locking your computer (or when it gets locked via screensaver).

 
Location of all user's desktop and start menu in Windows 7 / 2008R2
edited by on October 18th 2011, at 17:38

Just so you (and especially I) don't forget:

  • All user's desktop: C:\Users\Public\Desktop\
  • All user's start menu: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\
 
Office 2007 documents download as ZIP in IE7/8
edited by on October 13th 2011, at 14:34
The problem is related to incorrect hinting of the webserver, tricking IE7/8 into believing you are in fact downloading a ZIP-file, rather than an Office 2007/2010 file. The reason for this is because these files are in fact XML-files, compressed to a ZIP, but have a different extension, indicating it's not a regular ZIP-file.

There are two ways to fix this. The best way would be to change the webserver (if possible, ask the administrator of the webserver you are downloading from) to add the correct MIME-types, so the webserver provides correct hinting. How this is done, depends largely on which webserver is being used.

When using Apache2, there are two ways to resolve the issue. Either ad  ...
 
Access 2003 open MDB via Explorer does nothing
edited by on October 13th 2011, at 11:15
There's an obscure issue with Access 2003, not being able to open an MDB from a network location via Explorer. It outright refuses to open the file, so when attempting, nothing seems to happen.

This is caused by security measures in Access 2003, where you normally have to confirm to open the file, which fails. However, I'm guessing this is not by design that it does not open at all.

A workaround is to create a shortcut to said file, then edit the shortcut so it reads:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.EXE" /NOSTARTUP "MyFile.MDB"

Adjust the installation path and file location to your needs.

This way, Access gets started first, with the file as parameter, so it gets op  ...
 
World Community Grid
edited by on October 12th 2011, at 17:44

If you have some CPU time to spare and wish to donate it for a good cause, check out:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

 
Hotfixes for Windows 2003 VSS issues
edited by on October 10th 2011, at 16:37

In case you have issues on your Windows 2003 concerning VSS, Microsoft has an update rollup available for download to fix certain issues with VSS:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349

 
iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, what's in a name...?
edited by on October 10th 2011, at 15:54

Ever since the official announcement of the iPhone 4S, I'm reading basically everywhere on how disappointed the fans were about the iPhone 5 not being announced, but instead the iPhone 4S was...

To all those sites and fans (which in my opinion aren't really fans): why are you nagging about the iPhone 5? There never ever was an official announcement or rumour about the iPhone 5 ever being announced or released. The iPhone 4S is the next generation of the iPhone. So what's it's not called the iPhone 5? It's only a name, invented by those spreading rumours in the first place. It never was announced by Apple at all. So cut the cr*p and move on...

 
Windows SBS 2011 Server Backup cannot add additional disks to backup
edited by on October 3rd 2011, at 12:01
When adding additional backup disks to your Windows SBS 2011 server backup, you may get an error stating:

Quote
The filename, directory name, or volume label is incorrect.

The problem occurs with the SBS console and when running the Server Backup snap-in.

You can work around this issue by manually adding the backup disks via the wbadmin command line tool.

Connect the disk you wish to add to the system. Open up a command prompt.

Fetch a list of available backup targets by running:wbadmin get disks

You need the DiskID displayed of your backup disk.

Add the disk to the backup pool by running:WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget:"{DiskID}"

Replace the DiskID with the one you have,   ...
 
Time sync with an NTP server using w32time
edited by on October 3rd 2011, at 11:37
The following was tested on a Windows 2003 R2 with SP2, but it should work on every system with w32time installed.

Open up a command prompt (start, run, cmd.exe, you know).

Then punch in these lines:

net time \\your-server-name /setsntp:some-ip-or-pool.ntp.orgnet stop w32timenet start w32time

The way NTP works, the sync does not occur immediately, but it should be visible within a few minutes after w32time has started again.

Notice
If it doesn't work for you, check whether your time zone is correct, and whether the time of your server and the real time differs with over 3600 seconds. Ntpd would not sync if the difference was over an hour.

To query the current NTP servers  ...
 
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