Etherpad - awesome free collaborative online tool

There are a few handy tools out there that I consider to be game-changers.

Etherpad is one of them.

According to http://etherpad.org/ it's an open source project that is designed to allow you to edit documents collaboratively in real-time. You can also add in tons of plugins that allow your instance to suit your needs.

You also can run it online from one of the public repositories.

This little tool has a lot going for it and it's just simply fantastic. It is so simple to set up, so simple to use, and has great functions. It's ideal for a group collaboration and doesn't require the added fluff of Google Accounts etc. (although Google accounts do have their own merit, this is a sure-fire way to get a simple solution up and running quickly and is more like a use-once-and-then-burn option).

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/

or check out my live demo here, and say hi :)

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/brattexblogspotexamplepost

or, check out a very good and populated demo here with some extra features:

https://board.net/p/testboard2

R.I.P. Grooveshark. Long live Streamsquid!

All of a sudden on the last day of April, 2015, Grooveshark shut down. Apparently it had to do with a very expensive fine.

Although I don't approve of piracy, I thought Grooveshark had survived this long because it was legit. and it hurt me a lot to see my favourite music streaming service go offline, especially without prior warning. What about all of my playlists! The love and effort I'd put into them for years!

Oh well, there was nothing to be done, so I just accepted I'd have to listen to my local MP3 collection for a change instead...

That is, until Streamsquid came along!

VMware ESXi not supporting onboard NIC - how to customise VMware ESXi

Trying to deploy VMware ESXi 5.5 on a Dell Optiplex 7010 threw out this error:



To get around this, I found this post http://bohemiangrove.co.uk/tag/esxi/ which I've repeated here for your benefit:

So here how I did it:

1. Download ESXi-Customizer (by Andreas Peetz) from here: http://v-front.blogspot.co.uk/p/esxi-customizer.html
2. Download the drivers that have been adjusted for ESXi from here:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27246203/E1001E.tgz
3. Start ESXi-Customizer, browse to the ESXi ISO, browse to the above drivers, browse to where you want the new ISO going! Click RUN!
4. Bun the ISO and jam it in your 790!!

Search Twitter history easily, quickly, and online

If you have a need to search Twitter history, then Snapbird is the ideal website for you - simple, smooth, and highly helpful - just open the link below and get searching!

http://snapbird.org/

DNS issues affecting SAOL.COM - may affect other users too

SAOL.COM has DNS issues. They have had these issues for a few days and to my utter amazement (read: disgust) they haven't emailed out an advisory to this effect so people won't know how to fix it even if they wanted to ... here's the fix (may apply to other ISP's too):

Use these DNS server settings - 196.41.122.10 and 196.41.124.11.

Using multiple DSL accounts on D-Link DSL-2750U (or simply, running half-bridge mode)

A fairly straightforward post but I found myself stuck for a while so hopefully this will save someone else the same level of frustration (and a few hours) -

The D-Link DSL-2750U doesn't seem to have an option for "half-bridge" mode; it's either PPPoE or Bridging. To allow you to have a default account set up in the router, keep it set to PPPoE and to allow users to dial-in to whatever DSL account they want on a PC, make sure the option PPPoE pass-through is enabled.

It's that simple, and now you can have a main account for home and separate accounts for your work machine etc.

Enjoy!

Digital Photographs - how, what, where, why

The year is 2013 and it's well into the 21st Century now so it's safe to say we are in the digital age.

In the digital age almost everyone has a digital camera (either a dedicated one, or a cellphone, or a tablet, or a friend with one, etc.). It goes without saying, then, that with these digital cameras we are making digital photographs. As time goes by, and as storage expands, and as life goes on, we are taking more and more pictures and before we realise it, we are heaped with thousands of pictures that take up a whole lot of space. Finding a way to store these pictures securely is one thing, finding a way to organise them is another. Both are challenges that some of my friends and I have been facing for years, and since we live in South Africa and seem prone to house invasions, the need to store our pictures securely is a most pressing one.

Of course, it doesn't just end with "where" to store the pictures - being able to store our pictures securely AND preserving the metadata that we've spent hours of our lives adding to each picture is first prize because no-one wants to have to redo the metadata each and every time we recover our pictures.

Over the course of the next few posts, I will endeavour to unwrap the solution/s that my friends and I have considered over the years and which solutions we've settled down with. Hopefully someone out there will find this information useful, and if there's something even better than what we've settled on, you'll tell us about it!

Most of this conversation is derived from my buddy Hoky and I deciphering the best way forward to preserve our pictures (or in Hoky's case, what ones he has left after several unwarranted home invasions).

Our primary objectives are:

• Find a site that 
• allows unlimited photo storage, 
• provides unlimited lifetime, 
• stores original photo sizes, 
• permits bulk downloads.
• Find software that allows us to 
• embed metadata into the images rather than rely on a 3rd-party installed application that manages the metadata (if it crashes, we don't want to lose the metadata)

Below are some of the areas we'll explore in these posts (TBC):

• FREE storage - Facebook, Google+, Flickr
• Photo printing sites - Snapfish, Shutterfly
• Organiser software - Picasa vs. Windows Live Photo Gallery

Telkom ADSL speed upgrades - manual prodding

Telkom has been long overdue in upgrading the entry-level DSL speeds in South Africa but thankfully, finally, the upgrades are here. Entry-level is now 1Mbps, up from a ghastly 384kbps (in 2012? You've got to be kidding me... even 1Mbps is ... well, let's just be grateful for the upgrade at all, shall we?).

 In my experience, I've had to manually request my lines to be upgraded once the exchange was upgraded, and here are the steps to follow. Note that this applies to 384kbps (up to 1Mbps) and 1Mbps (up to 2Mbps). A head-nod goes to HandyTechTipper (and in turn, Michal Mierzwa, for pointing out this strategy in the MyBroadBand forums).

Besides the obvious reason of wanting to get the higher speeds as soon as possible, you probably want to jump the queue just in case they end up oversubscribing the service and you end up without any available ports on the new exchange!

How to make sure you get your line speed upgrade

1. Run a speed test on your line:http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za/ or http://speedtest-rba.isdsl.net/
   
2. Check that your line speed has increased at your exchange http://www.telkom.co.za/checkadsl by entering your telephone number
   
3. Depending on the results, call 10210 (toll free from a Telkom land line)
   
4. Go to the DSL technical guys
   (the prompts are as follows, in case you want to bulldoze the buttons and skip the voices and waiting)...
1. 1 for existing customer
2. Enter your 10 digit phone number
3. 2 for more options
4. 1 for DSL Technical support
5. 3 for DSL Technical support
   
5. Ask them to increase your line speed (you may have to explain to them that your exchange supports the high speed but your line is sync’ing at a lower speed)
1. I've done this remotely, without being at home, and the first technician (or should I say, call centre agent) configured my line upgrade without me being at home to reset the router. That's all you need to do anyway; they 'flip a switch' and then you reset your router. This was done while I was at the shops and when I came home it was up at 1Mbps.
2. Another incident occurred where the technician (ahem, call centre agent) insisted I need to be by the router when they do the upgrade because it can't be connected. I told them this wasn't necessary but they argued with me and eventually I had no choice but to relent (what do I know anyway, right? :)) and make sure the router was disconnected before they did the line speed upgrade. In this case they even had the audacity to check the connection was off before they ticked a checkbox. 
3. The moral of the story is: rather do it from home if you can, and prepare yourself for some uncooperative agents!
   
6. Check your speed again:http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za/ or http://speedtest-rba.isdsl.net/
   (or go to the router console and check at what speed it is synchronising) 

I’ve gone up from 384kbps to 1Mbps ‘for free’ so I’m a happy camper.

Transfer big files with Wetransfer.com

Simple solution for all those users that struggle to get big files shared with multiple recipients via email: www.wetransfer.com.

No need for 3rd-party software to be installed on any client machines, and you can send a file (up to 2GB in size) to up to twenty recipients. The nice part is, each recipient receives an individual email so they can't see whom else is included and it's pretty simple to use.

Nice for transferring big files without cluttering up e-mail queues.

Exchange 2010 Access is Denied EMC and EMS

There are plenty of reasons why an administrator could be denied access to the EMS or EMC.

One fairly unique problem that besieged me prevented me from accessing the EMC or EMS. Rebooting didn't fix it either.

After plenty of regular troubleshooting strategies I discovered that the WINHTTPS proxy had been set to something else besides the default and it was preventing me from accessing anything.

netsh winhttp show proxy revealed a proxy was configured, so I ran netsh winhttp reset proxy and then it was fixed! EMC and EMS back online!


Current WinHTTP proxy settings:

    Direct access (no proxy server).


Hope this helps someone out there...

Installing certificates on MS Forefront 2010 with Threat Management Gateway

This post is pretty much a no-brainer but in the context of the hassles I had with this site I've decided to include it here to close the chapter (and seeing that it had two other senior engineers stumped; one a network guru and the other an Exchange guru, it seems worthwhile to note).

After running all the certificates for MS Exchange 2010 and getting the Certificate Revocation status verified, all internal access to Exchange 2010 was secured via SSL. The challenge was now getting the remote users secured.

Note this is a solution pertaining specifically to a Threat Management Gateway and you don't need to do this if you aren't using Forefront.

I had dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's but the darned thing still gave a certificate error when accessing remotely. Checking the TMG's firewall properties I verified that Outlook Anywhere, ActiveSync and Exchange Web App's Listeners for HTTPS were using the correct certificates but it still wasn't working.

Then I noticed that the certificates inside MMC snap-in were showing plain old certificates without the embedded private key; so I tried this:

• On MS Exchange 2010 server, export the Exchange certificate WITH the private key
• In the TMG MMC Snap-in, import the Exchange certificate WITH the private key
• Go to the Forefront TMG dashboard, Firewall Policy...
• Select each service (Allow Outlook Anywhere; Allow Exchange Active Sync; Allow Exchange Web App) and ...
• Properties à Listener à Properties à Certificates à Select Certificate à Choose the new one à OK
•   Apply changes to TMG
• SOLVED!
  

Renew Exchange 2010 Certificate generates a binary file - conversion to base64 tips

When renewing an SSL certificate for Exchange 2010, the process is fairly straightforward and there are plenty of sites to give advice on how to do this. Two sites to consider would be Technet and Go Daddy and the steps are summarised as follow -

1. In the console tree, click Server Configuration. 
2. Select the server that contains the certificate, and then select the certificate you want to renew. 
3. In the action pane, click Renew Exchange Certificate. 
4.  On the Renew Exchange Certificate page, select the services you want to assign to the renewed certificate. The services that are checked are currently assigned to the certificate. 
5.  When you click Assign, the Progress page will confirm your selections and try to renew the certificate. 
6.  Click Yes to overwrite the existing certificate with the renewed certificate. 
7.  The Completion page will display the status of the request in addition to the syntax of the cmdlet needed to renew the certificate. 

Of course, it's never this easy and in my experience running a certificate renewal in Exchange 2010 generates a binary file (.req) that can't be easily copied and pasted into a web interface on the CA's side. In the past one would simply use Open With --> Notepad to get the certificate information but now Exchange 2010 generates the REQ file as binary and typically the file contents look like this:

Binary format:

0é♦k0é♥S☻☺ 0[1

When they should look something like this:

Base64 format:

-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

MIIEazCCA1MCAQAwWzEaMBgGA1UECgwRd2VibWFpbC5wZmsuY28uemExITAfBgNV

BAsMGERvbWFpbiBDb250cm9sIFZhbGlkYXRlZDEaMBgGA1UEAwwRd2VibWFpbC5w

ZmsuY28uemEwggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQDLjyTxu5Z/

<snip>

LndlYm1haWwucGZrLmNvLnphghhwZmtkYm5leGNoMDEucGZrc2EuY28uemGCGGF1

dG9kaXNjb3Zlci5wZmtzYS5jby56YYIWYXV0b2Rpc2NvdmVyLnBmay5jby56YTAM

BgNVHRMBAf8EAjAAMB0GA1UdDgQWBBSdCGqQh1ui1NbZZ2bMEZNz5Q7MujANBgkq

hkiG9w0BAQUFAAOCAQEAjyY0tEQvX3JLI0cVULQdX7lX1I9rR7R5qivVMtRoiwYS

+HVdK7odmzTuDAlCisX1qCmdUpmtIK1/ldMEF3yTgNqrvtttxofxpkqg3NGec3cr

<snip>

jhwHn51Sv3hbkUIU30swTP3T7dkhgMxj2JX2AhilqA==

-----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

In order to get the binary to base64 you need to convert it. There are various methods to do this and I have used both online tools and websites and the Command Prompt to achieve this, with the Command Prompt certainly being the far easier method to accomplish this (especially since it inserts the "BEGIN CERTIFICATE" and "END CERTIFICATE" header and footer automatically... making it a much more 'pure' conversion).

---

Using Base64 Online decoder and encoder (online method).

1. Just upload the file, upload the .REQ file, click convert to source data button and grab the output. 
2. Paste contents to your favourite text editor
3. Add the header and footer (both must be on separate lines) and then you're good to go!

The header must be a line on its own at the top as so:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

And the footer must be a line on its own at the bottom as so:

-----END CERTIFICATE-----

---

Using the Command Prompt (preferred method):

certutil -encode (req filename) (target filename)

e.g. 

You can then copy this file's contents and paste it to the appropriate CA's webform to complete the certificate request!

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA

Many people I know use remote support tools like Teamviewer to get their remote support tasks done quickly and with very little hassle. I have used Teamviewer before and I am very impressed with what it can do - the only problem is, if you have a conscience worth its salt, you won't use Teamviewer FREE for commercial use (as the usage terms forbid it). It's great to help grandma in Alaska get her printer working again but if you want to charge someone for support, you can't do it with Teamviewer FREE.

The "fairly recent" addition of Google Chrome to my PC arsenal has grown into a blossoming relationship as I find myself taking advantage of the Google Sync functionality (largely because Google decided 'not to be evil' and remove support for Firefox and not even release the Google Sync code as open source either). One of the latest add-on's that I've included in my Google Chrome toolbox is a little BETA application called "Chrome Remote Desktop BETA". This app functions almost identically to Teamviewer and best of all, it's absolutely FREE.

Since more users are slowly migrating to Chrome (and in my case, I recommend all my clients to use Chrome because of its wonderful integration with Google), Chrome Remote Desktop BETA is a must-have support tool.

Telkom upgrade due 4th of June

UPDATE: According to a MyBroadband post, the upgrades will now only start in August...

I've just phoned Telkom and confirmed that 4 June 2012 marks the day Telkom upgrades their 384kbps lines to 1Mbps. Can you dig it? Finally, after HOW MANY YEARS do we get entry-level ADSL being 1Mbps?

At least the overall cost of ADSL is dropping but still, 2012 and we finally hit 1Mbps? This is a bit ridiculous. Thankfully things seem to be improving at a more rapid pace nowadays!

Register here to express an interest in Raspberry Pi

Heard of the Raspberry Pi?

If not, here's the low-down from Raspberry Pi SBC:

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer board that plugs into a TV and a keyboard. It’s a miniature ARM-based PC which can be used for many of the things that a desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays High-Definition video.

Features

Picture used without permission from MyBroadBand.co.za

• Broadcom BCM2835 700MHz ARM1176JZFS processor with FPU and Videocore 4 GPU
• GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
• 256MB RAM
• Boots from SD card, running the Fedora version of Linux
• 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket
• HDMI socket
• USB 2.0 socket
• RCA video socket
• SD card socket
• Powered from microUSB socket
• 3.5mm audio out jack
• Header footprint for camera connection
• Size: 85.6 x 53.98 x 17mm

How much will this little beauty cost you?


R260.00.


Two hundred and sixty Rand.

If you want to get your paws on one of these beautiful gadgets, you need to pre-register now and be on the waiting list - on a first-in, first-out basis.

Go here to register: http://za.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi

Sending an e-mail to Twitter, receiving Twitter to e-mail

I can get lazy sometimes, and if there's one thing I can guarantee it's that my email account will always be open and readily available. I can't always say the same for my Twitter account. That's because I'm lazy.

I've found a way to overcome my laziness with an e-mail to Twitter solution that allows me to tweet from the comfort of my mailbox.

TwitterMail (@TwitterMail or https://twitter.com/#!/TwitterMail)

TwitterMail allows you to send an email to a specific Twittermail email (for example, abc123@twittermail.com) which then tweets it to your associated Twitter account. Better yet, you can also receive tweets sent to your username (@twittername) via email.

The problem is privacy. For TwitterMail to work you need to share your twitter account with them. For some people, this may be a problem. For others (like me), it's not such a big deal because it's not like a rogue Twitter thief would be able to do much with my Twitter account anyway!

For a bit of piece of mind, it uses The Visitor Widget to authenticate on http://twittercounter.com/pages/twittermail without sharing your Twitter password (which allows the application to read tweets from your timeline, see who you follow, follow new people, update your profile, and post tweets for you; it will not be able to access your direct messages or see your Twitter password). You can also revoke access at any time by going to your Applications tab of your Settings page - good enough?

Additional features of TwitterMail include:

20GB prepaid Vodacom data for R499

Thanks to my subscription to the mybroadband twitter feed I can now confidently declare that Vodacom's latest Mofaya prepaid data promotion is here.

You can now get 20GB prepaid data for R499 instead of the original R3,620.00 - that's quite a decent drop in cost if you ask me (which you didn't, but it's my blog so I'm telling you anyway).

This promotion starts today and ends 9 January 2012. There is no modem and the data summer bundle carries over until the last day of the next month.

Very competitive Dion Wired laptop deal

It's almost time for Christmas and the Christmas giving spirit hasn't been lost on Dion Wired. If you're in the market for a new laptop (or know of someone who is) and spending as little as possible on a reasonable entry-level product is your game, then look no further than Dion Wired and Cell C.

You see, there's a little special running until the end of this month for a Nokia 1800 cellphone, Samsung Celeron notebook (with Windows 7 Basic), Cell C 3GB UMTS USB speed stick, and a Casual Chat 100 contract all for the combined price of R145 per month for only 24 months.

The total after 24 months is R3480 (or thereabouts, if my mental maths is a bit off) and that's around the cash price you'd expect to pay for most non-Atom entry-level laptops anyway. The rest of the trinkets are purely peripheral to the deal because in my mind to have to only spend R145 per month on a notebook for only two years is a really good thing. In only the first year you've spent R1740 on a laptop - that's pretty decent as far as I'm concerned. To still get a cellphone, 3G USB stick, and a casual phone contract on top of the laptop makes this hard to ignore.

So, from one techie-enthusiast to another (if you are one), go and check out this deal while it's still around! If you're not a techie-enthusiast, then take my word for it - this is a good deal!

Increase your Wi-Fi coverage for under $1

If you want to increase your Wi-Fi coverage of your Wi-Fi Access Point without much expense, then this video may just spark an idea or two for you. The entire solution is going to cost less than R10, or in more readily understandably global terms, $1.

Check it out... BEER CANS (or soda cans...) as Wi-Fi antenna boosters!

Telkom ADSL Special: 1Mbps UNCAPPED for FREE

Your eyes do not deceive you! Telkom has recently shut the door on their 1Mbps ADSL special entitled "I do" and have opened up another one for a trial uncapped ADSL account.

How does this deal differ from the previous deal? Hardly. You get uncapped ADSL instead of 5GB+20GB.

What precisely do you get?

• Fast Internet ADSL (up to 1Mbps)
• Uncapped Telkom Internet 1Mbps
• Free line installation
• Free ADSL router without contractual obligations

What do you pay? Just the landline rental of +/-R139pm.

For more information go to the source or phone 10212 to place an order!

If you've already got a Telkom line you will need someone else who hasn't had one for at least three months to place an order, so get your spouse or tenant to order it for you if you need to - the +/-R500 for three months of ADSL is still cheaper than the cost of an ADSL Wireless Router on its own and you still get yourself a wonderfully 'fast' ADSL account without any data cap! 

Wait ... you're still here? 

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?