CryptSync allows you to sync a local folder with your cloud sync’d folder; allowing for on the fly encryption of your files using 7-Zip (which also compresses the files at the same time). it allows for syncing both ways or you can just mirror one folder.

to setup CryptSync, download the installer from the google projects page here. Run the installer and launch CryptSync.

create a folder that you’ll use for you none-encrypted files (we’re using c:\Non Encrypted Files) and then create a folder inside your cloud storage folder to sync too (or use the default folder).

click on New Pair and select those folders in CryptSync. enter what ever password you’d like to use to encrypt your files with. it should be different from normal login password for better security.

optional: selecting Encrypt Filenames will change the name of the files and might make it hard to find the file you are looking for if you download the file directly from the web interface.

optional: selecting Mirror original folder to encrypted folder will disable two-way syncing .

check the box “Start with Windows” to ensure the program runs in the background and auto syncs the files. click “Run in Background” to start the sync. CryptSync will minimize.

if you want to access your files outside of your computer/CryptSync, you can download the file you need from your providers web interface. next, download and install 7-Zip (or use a portable version) and extract the file. enter your password and you’re done!

in a command prompt, run

REG QUERY HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\ /v EnableLUA

if you receive

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

EnableLUA     REG_DWORD     0×1

then UAC is enabled. if you receive

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

EnableLUA     REG_DWORD     0×0

then it is disabled.

i’ve had my raspberry pi for awhile now and mainly bought it to use with xbmc, but since i have a few other devices doing the same thing, i thought i’d re-purpose my pi for something more… fun.

welcome RetroPie.

RetroPie is a script that allows the easy installation of RetroArch and EmulationStation along with emulator cores on the default raspbian image.

it was a breeze to setup and get working. the script has a few cool features which make it easy to download box art for the games and it has a few new themes with it which i’m thinking of making a few themes as well.

if you want to create your own, head over to PetRockBlock and check it out.

i found that it was easier than i thought since jockey comes with a text based version.

to get a list of available drives and the status of the drives

jockey-test –list

to enable a driver (replace DRIVER with the one you need from the previous command)

jockey-text –enable=DRIVER

thats pretty much it. after you install the driver, you may need to reboot.

greylisting will temporary block an unknown mail server from delivering a message to your server by sending a “try later” response. since most spam servers are presummed to not be setup correctly, it is thought that they will not try again. when a properly setup mailserver resends the message, it will then be delivered.

to start using greylisting in ubuntu, start by installing using apt (append sudo to any command if you need too)

apt-get install postgrey

now check to see if the postgrey daemon is running

ps aux | grep postgrey

you should see a line similar to the one below

postgrey 24441  Ss   Mar27   0:00 /usr/sbin/postgrey –pidfile=/var/run/postgrey.pid –daemonize –inet=10023

make sure to note the –inet=10023 part since that is the port that postgrey uses to accept connections. this can be modified in /etc/default/postgrey if you like, but for most, the default is fine.

if you want to change the default delay that postgrey will accept a second connection from a server, change –delay=300 to something that suites you and your environment.

once you have all of your settings saved, reload postfix

postfix reload

now verify that postgrey is working by sending a test email to your server (from a different server of course). then tail the log files

tail -f /var/log/mail.log

and you should see a rejection message similar to this

Mar 10 12:37:43 xxx postfix/smtpd[26327]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from unknown[***]: 450 4.2.0 <***>: Recipient address rejected: Greylisted, see …

once the mail server tries again, the message will be delivered and the senders information will be stored in the database as a known sender and any new emails sent should be delivered without any delay.

i’ve been using this recipe for awhile and i have to say it is probably one of my favorites; along with everyone who has tried it. the recipe is super easy to follow and is great for parties or family get togethers.

bbq pulled pork ingredients and cost

above you see everything that you will need to make this recipe.

total cost for me: $20.30. if you already have some of the ingredients or a favorite bbq sauce then it’ll be way cheaper for you!

preparation

this has got to be one of the easiest preps that i know of. it will take you roughly 15 to 20 minutes to put everything to gether, then you get to sit back and relax!

first, take the onion and quarter it, then smash a few cloves of garlic. take the onions and garlic and drop it into the bottom of the crockpot. season with salt and pepper.

next take your pork butt and season it with Pappy’s Choice Seasoning (or your not-as-good seasoning of choice). be generous with it, get all sides, and don’t be afraid… you cannot over season with this recipe. if you plan accordingly, the best thing to do is season it, wrap it up in some plastic wrap and refrigerate it over night to help lock in the flavors, but it is not necessary.

once thoroughly seasoned, drop the pork butt on top of the onions and garlic. now we add the liquid smoke. I usually add between 10 to 15 drops right on top of the pork butt. be careful with the liquid smoke though, a few drops can go along way.

next, fill the crock pot up with about 2/3 of the way with water. if you go any higher than this, theres the possibility that the water will boil over while cooking.

cover the crock pot and turn on the heat. how long you cook it, is all up to you. if you cook on high, you can finish in about 3 to 4 hours. on low, it would be ready in about 8 to 10 hours. i usually put it on high for about an hour and then on low for about 6 to 8 hours.

some experts say low and slow is the way to go…

is the bbq pulled pork done yet?

after its done cooking for however long you decided, drain the liquid from the crock pot and what you should be left with is something similar to this (liquid already drained). now we need to seperate the bone, fat, and onions/garlic from the good stuff. the meat should be so tender, that by just grabbing the bone, it should just slide right out.

carefully pull the meat out and place it in a bowl for shredding, you can then just throw away the onions and garlic since we wont be needed those anymore. start “pulling” the pork by taking 2 forks and going to town, move the forks in opposite directions. it should be pretty easy since the pork is so tender.

once completed, it should look like this!

take your Pappy’s Choice Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce and pour a good amount on top of you pulled pork; about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottle depending on your tastes.

start mixing it in, adding more if needed and the end result should look something like this.

the results!

now just put some on a bun, add more bbq sauce if desired, sit back, and enjoy your delicious bbq pulled pork sandwich!

last week i had a client call and saw that his computer was in a boot loop. it would boot to Windows 7 and then reboot, over and over again. i brought the computer back to the shop and disabled automatic restart and found the dreaded “The program can’t start because %hs is missing.”

in all of my years as a network administrator, support technician, and network consultant, i have never seen this error. what program cant start? where is the program located? is it easy to fix? the blue screen was absolutely useless to me. luckily, i did some searching online and found that a simple registry modification would fix this and allow me to boot into Windows. i grabbed my trusty PC Regedit cd (live linux registry editor) and booted it up. i navigated to the following registry locations:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\

and modified the value of the Windows key from this

%SystemRoot%\system32\csrss.exe ObjectDirectory=\Windows SharedSection=1024,20480,768 Windows=On SubSystemType=Windows ServerDll=basesrv,1 ServerDll=winsrv:UserServerDllInitialization,3 ServerDll=consrv:ConServerDllInitialization,2 ServerDll=sxssrv,4 ProfileControl=Off MaxRequestThreads=16

to this

%SystemRoot%\system32\csrss.exe ObjectDirectory=\Windows SharedSection=1024,20480,768 Windows=On SubSystemType=Windows ServerDll=basesrv,1 ServerDll=winsrv:UserServerDllInitialization,3 ServerDll=winsrv:ConServerDllInitialization,2 ServerDll=sxssrv,4 ProfileControl=Off MaxRequestThreads=16

making sure to change consrv to winsrv. the next step was to find out what caused this issue in first place. in my case, it was caused by an unknown mbr infection. each time we rebooted, the registry values would change back and we would need to boot into PC Regedit again.

we attempted every method we know to get rid of the mbr infection, but nothing we tried would destroy it. in the end, we had to reformat and reinstall… not the best solution, but we spent way too much time attempting to fix the issue, that a reformat seemed the best and easiest solution.

has anyone else come across this issue? how did you fix it?

if you noticed that there are no comments on the site, that is because i manually moved everything instead of using a word press plugin that backups up the entire database. my reasoning for this is that i wanted to pick and choose which posts were moved. some posts i just didnt want any more and some i split into multiple posts, etc..\

anyways, with all that said and done, welcome to re.trogress.me!

the accepted way of changing the designer resolution is to go to Management > Resolutions from within the xibo web interface and edit the resolution that you want. when i tried this, for some reason, it did not work for me. an alternate way of changing the resolution is to edit the database which i will show you how to do below. i assume in this howto that you already have phpmyadmin installed and working.

one thing to note is that this method will only work for new layouts that you create, all pre-existing layouts will use the old 800×450 editor size. you can manually change the size on each of the old layouts, but if you do, then you’ll have to redo the position and size of your content again. i will not go over that part at this time, but can later if people show enough interest.

log into phpmyadmin with you mysql username/password

click on your xibo database

click on the template table

edit your template (i’ll be using the Full Screen 16:9 template) and change the width/height tags using a proper resolution. the default resolution for this template is 800×450. i changed mine to 1280×720 which provided more than enough room to fully edit my layouts with ease on my 1920×1200 computer monitor.

once saved, all new layouts using this aspect ratio will have a larger layout designer. again, this will not change the size of your existing layouts; only layouts created from this point forward.

if you are unsure of what resolution you need, this handy calculator will help you. 16:9 Aspect Ratio Calc: http://size43.com/jqueryVideoTool.html

results! remember, xibo automatically scales your layout and content to your display as long as the aspect ratio is correct.

caveat: before i go into details, i should mention that you’ll need to test the default programs that xibo uses to show the files types that you are adding. for instance; if you are adding the ability to upload mp4 files using the windows client, you should first attempt to play the file with windows media player to ensure that you have the proper codecs installed and everything is working correctly. the same goes for ubuntu and the python client.

there are basically 2 ways to do this; through mysql’s command line interface or by using a tool like phpmyadmin. for simplicity, i’ll be showing you how to do this in phpmyadmin. (learn how to install it here)

open your browser, go to your phpmyadmin page (typically http://serveraddress/phpmyadmin), and log in using your mysql username/password.

choose your xibo database

from the available tables, choose the module table and select either image or video

now add your new file extension(s) and save the table. go back into your xibo server and you should now be able to upload files with those extensions.

you’re done… enjoy!