Category Archives: Technology
Cygwin: No Output from Rsync
I experienced a very strange situation where rsync simply stopped working. It wouldn’t even output anything for rsync –help or even plain rsync. which showed it to be in /usr/bin/rsync as expected. A closer look revealed something odd: $ ls … Continue reading
Posted in Cygwin, Technology
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Steam Connection Error (“you must first connect to the Internet”)
I was able to download and install Valve’s Steam client on my Windows 7 64-bit machine, but when I tried to run the client I would instantly receive this error: Steam.exe (main exception): To run Steam, you must first connect … Continue reading
Posted in Network, Technology
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Fixing Camcorder IEEE 1394/Firewire Connection Problems on Windows 7
I’m running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my Toshiba A505 Satellite, which has a Firewire port. If I connected my Sony camcorder (DCR-HC40) I would just get either an endless connect/disconnect cycle, or simply nothing at all. Firewire just … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Windows
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MicroSD Card Sleuthing
I just read a fascinating story about investigating a bad batch of Kingston MicroSD cards. Some of the things I learned: Toshiba and Sandisk co-own the same fabrication facility. Samsung does not sell their own cards retail, only through resellers … Continue reading
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IME Functions Fail From Separate Process
I wanted to change the behavior of the Microsoft IME bar using AutoHotkeys, a utility which can be used to create macros, remap keys, or do any of a variety of other related tasks. This led me to ime_func.ahk, which … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Windows
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Publishing GPG Public Key in DNS Records
Publishing GPG/PGP keys to public keyservers has one glaring fault: once you commit something, you can never remove it. I made the mistake of adding my email address at an employer’s domain. Now it is permanently tied to my public … Continue reading
Posted in Network, Security, Technology
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GnuPG Not Working Under Cygwin
I was having trouble using the GnuPG plugin for vim under Cygwin. The GnuPG plugin allows seamlessly integrated decryption, editing, and re-encryption of GPG-encrypted content within vim. However, on my Windows 7 box, it just showed gibberish. Attempting to edit … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Windows
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Converting MP3 to AAC
Here is a Windows command shell script I wrote to convert MP3 files to AAC for my Softbank 821SC phone. The script uses FFmpeg, which I downloaded from here. @echo off REM ————————————————————————— REM Set the following variable to the … Continue reading
Posted in Scripting, Technology, Windows
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Are Transcend And A-DATA The Same Company?
I have an A-DATA 8GB MicroSDHC card from NewEgg.com. On the back appears: 9A0275 MMAGR08GUDCA-DB S FLH3E6X3 941 If you search for MMAGR08GUDCA-DB, you’ll find posts listing this same product identification number for Transcend cards. Corporate profiles list different CEOs … Continue reading
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Horrible Stack Overflow at Coding Horror
At sometime around 10:40am on December 11th, 2009, both Coding Horror and the Stack Overflow Blog disappeared when their host, CrystalTech, lost the VM on which they run. Coding Horror was immediately replaced with this: Coding Horror experienced 100% data … Continue reading
Posted in Internet
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