Caffeinated Tech Blog

My space on the indieweb

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recovering RAID array from a Thecus NAS

2012-05-14

I had to recover a RAID-5 array from a client’s Thecus NAS which had stopping reading the disks or even starting up properly.

Fortunately this NAS, a Thecus N4100PRO, is basically a Linux server and uses the standard software RAID and LVM formats.

Continue reading

MediaWiki and CryptRand.php

2012-04-26
I had to install a local instance of MediaWiki this afternoon. After setting up a web server, downloading the latest version and completing the installation process all worked well except for the following two lines at the top of the browser: Notice: A non well formed numeric value encountered in …includesCryptRand.php on line 382 Notice: A non well formed numeric value encountered in …includesCryptRand.php on line 383 Change line 285 from: Continue reading

The Only List of Network Monitoring and Management Tools You’ll Ever Need

2012-04-19

Apparently, this list has been around for awhile but it’s the first time that I have heard of it. It’s a huge list of Network Monitoring Tools maintained by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

This list is exhaustive to say the least, as well as exhausting if you were to go through and investigate every item on the list…

So, here it is: SLAC’s behemoth list of network monitoring tools

found via The Nubby Admin

Screen capturing the Windows UAC prompt…

2012-04-19

Today I needed to capture a screen shot of the Windows 7 UAC prompt for a How-To document I was writing and discovered that you can’t… by default.

Fortunately, there is a registry change that can allow the PrtScn key to work while these prompts are on the screen.

To prevent Windows from switching to Secure Desktop mode when the UAC prompt appears:

  1. Click Start
  2. Enter regedit in the Search box
  3. Navigate to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  1. In the right-hand pane, right-click, select New, and then DWORD (32-bit) Value
  2. Enter PromptOnSecureDesktop for the new entry’s name
  3. Right-click your new entry and click Modify
  4. Enter 0 in the Value data box and click OK
  5. Close the Registry Editor

You may have to reboot your system for this change to take effect, although I didn’t today.

Why we need to be careful 'checking in'

2012-04-02
Take a look at the screens from a recent iPhone App release: Girls Around Me iPhone App screen shots Source: Venturebeat Yes, it really is as creepy as it looks. Basically it looks up all Foursquare check-ins published by females in the immediate vicinity of this App’s user aka Mr Desperate Stalker. Now while Foursquare has shut off this apps access to its site and data, this should be taken as a wake-up call of the potential dangers, especially to women, of making your location and movements publicly available via services such as Foursquare. Continue reading
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