Windows 7 missing shortcuts
I recently had to help a client who got infected with Malware on their PC, of course it was connected to a domain and that means they are other variables to take into effect. I removed the infection off the computer and used the unhide tool to unhide hidden files and folders but for some reason some thing where missing for the Start Menu so in order to get those back you need to navigate to:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\smtmp
Inside this folder you will find the missing shortcuts.
curl ifconfig.me
One little trick I like to use in Linux and Mac OS X is when I want to know the external IP address of the machine I am working on is to use curl along with a website called ifconfig.me.
We can begin with something very easy to get the external IP address we need to open your favorite terminal and issue this command:
curl ifconfig.me
Pretty simple right? Well you can take if even farther and create scripts to call for more options such as: Remote Hosts, Port, and User Agent, all of these options depend on ifconfig.me's website, so for example that I wanted to get the Remote Host I would issue:
curl ifconfig.me/host
New Job
I finally got a new job in the IT world, I will be doing Desktop Support within a company so expect my new post will be containing more Windows based articles!
I am also trying to finishing up my dnsmasq and tftp article because I have feeling I am going to need it soon.
Postfix
It seems that our mail server was down so I stopped whatever I was doing to try and fix the issue, I had no idea what I was getting into, I had no experience with email servers so I decided to try and see what I could find online and one thing lead to another (I started with Postfix first then Exim4, then back to Postfix.) and I found some good guides on how to install Postfix with MySQL and Dovecot. Now all of our email is working correctly and I gained alot of experience with Postfix, MySQL, Dovecot and even alittle bit of Shorewall.
Acer Aspire D250 flickering screen
Today I was looking at an Acer Aspire D250 netbook for a client, they told me the screen would flicker and randomly shut off on them and on top of it, it would sometimes not turn on. This left me thinking it could be a huge problem such as a motherboard issue, or even replacing the LCD itself, I had no idea what I was going to get myself into but after replacing, removing devices, and taking the netboot apart I figured it out.
The Acer Aspire D250 flickering screen is caused when the hard drive caddie touches the wireless antenna. I noticed when the hard drive was inside the caddie in the netbook if I moved the screen just slightly the display would go into sleep mode. It wasn't til I tried booting TRK PXE image without the hard drive in was when I noticed the problem.
As you can see in first image there is the white antenna that was causing the issue for me. I had to take apart the whole netbook in order to get to the antenna wire, I had to push it back just a little bit and set it in place so it would not move from place.
Debian Linux
I don't really go off on rants but right now I am on a Debian Linux kick. It started off with trying to understand how PXE(Pre Execution Environment) works under Linux which once you get yourself familiar with Debian or even Ubuntu you can navigate your way around to installing packages, checking logs, start/restarting/check statuses of daemon's the list goes on but I decided to install tftp and dnsmasq and give PXE a shot.
In short I have successfully managed to boot Clonezilla off the network. This idea came to me when working on a friend's netbook which doesn't have a CD-ROM drive meant that I wanted to reduce the amount of time incase the Operating System stops working; no one wants to reinstall the Operating System let alone install ALL the drivers again, it takes alot of time but I managed to create an image of the netbook with working drivers.
A Howto for PXE should be coming up soon but for now I am in awe with Debian Linux.
Clementine
One thing that I am afraid to admit to now a days is upgrading my Linux Distrobution, not because of fear of new packages or how the system might break if I don't update configuration files correctly, it's because of the fact that I might lose Amarok 1.4. Amarok 1.4 has been the best Music Player I have come across on any platform. I have been spoiled with a stable Music Player that doesn't crash when playing MP3, FLAC, and other files. I love how it displays music, cover albums, last time you've played a song, first time you played a song, the list goes on, but I know at some point I cannot always have my Amarok 1.4 and I hoped at this point Amarok 2.x series would finally be at the level of Amarok 1.4 but thankfully I have found something that will eventually have me switching to another Music Player.
Clementine is based off of Amarok 1.4 which means the UI shares a very good resemblance to Amarok 1.4 but don't be fooled by looks alone, Clementine has updated the Search Bar that seems to ask me what I would to Search for and gives examples based on the artists that are on my playlist. The Cover Manager works pretty well and I haven't been this excited about finding Album Art since Amarok used Amazon to fetch Album Art. The buttons almost seem the same between the two Music Player's and it gives me a Welcome feeling to it like I have used it for years.
Simple mysqldump backup script revisited
I have updated my Simple mysqldump backup script. This time it will actually delete files older than 10 days.
Source: Simple Mysqldump backup script
Rooting Android 4.0.4
The folks over at XDA-Developers have posted an unofficial Changelog for Android 4.0.4 along with the ROM. One update that stands out to me is the new radio update which handles the CDMA/LTE handshake better than the previous radio did. I am noticing the switching to 4g in place I don't really get 4g and hold the signal for a short time til it goes back to 3g which to me tells me the handshake is working smoohtly. The good news is Rooting Android 4.0.4 isn't really that hard and took about 2 minutes so head over to Droid-Life will explain the Rooting Android 4.0.4.
Don't forget you will need the Android SDK(adb), flash-boot(Windows, Mac, or Linux) and ClockWork Recovery.
Sources: XDA-Developers and Droid-Life.
Installing World of Warcraft on Linux
Installing World of Warcraft on Linux is a pretty simple task, there are something I would recommend doing to help.
- World of Warcraft. (Wrath of the Lich King DvD works best here)
- Installing Wine.
The tricky part is that most people will tell you, you cannot install a full blown version of World of Warcraft with the Wrath of the Lich King DVD simply because on the box itself Lich King does require Burning Crusade and World of Warcraft to be installed but do not be fooled by this, I will show you how to over come this obstacle.
sudo mount -t udf -o ro,unhide,userid=nameofyouruser,gid=nameofyourgroup /dev/deviceofcdrom /pathtoablankfolder