- Published:
- January 31, 2010 – 9:53 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
It is very easy to create a random file using the linux command line. Much like the command to fill a file with all zeros, for example a 1 Meg file: dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.filename bs=1024 count=1000 You do the same using /dev/urandom: dd if=/dev/urandom of=random.filename bs=1024 count=1000 Resulting in a 1MB file: 1000+0 records in 1000+0 records out 1024000 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0294247 s, 34.8 MB/s This is transferring random data from the virtual device urandom to the output file. We use /dev/urandom instead of /dev/random because the /dev/random source generates random data very slowly. urandom is much faster at this but remains very random, if not quite a random as /dev/random. This should work with any system with dd and /dev/urandom.
Categories: Code Samples,Linux,Security,Shell
Tagged: command line, Linux, tips
- Published:
- January 26, 2010 – 2:03 am
- Author:
- By Dave
Came across this admittedly weird issue. Randomly over the past few months, I try to go to Facebook or Twitter and end up being redirected to another website, usually MySpace. See screenshot for an example of what I saw a few moments ago. This time, it just forwarded me to a Samuel Garcia (SR388) so I punched it into Google, and low and behold others are having this same exact issue! Facebook redirects to MySpace. They also posted a fix — flush the DNS cache on your local system via the command: ipconfig /flushdns So what could be causing this issue? I thought it might be some sort of DNS hijacking but everything I could check seemed OK. It happens to multiple computers on my network. Finally a comment on that threat points over to the Linksys forum about DNS issues with many others having the same problem. It appears that….
Categories: Site Updates
Tagged: DNS, facebook, hijack, myspace, redirect
- Published:
- January 24, 2010 – 3:32 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
Canon’s site for the LiDE 50 does not list any Windows 7 drivers for download, nor Vista 64-bit drivers. However, I did find that you can use the CanoScan LiDE 60 drivers in place of the LiDE 50 drivers, and they do have options listed for Windows 7/Vista in both 64-bit and 32-bit varieties. Do do this, you download the appropriate driver (either the Windows 7 64 or 32 drivers) which is contained in an executable file. Use a program such as 7zip to uncompress this file into another folder. Within this folder, there are no drivers but further cabinet files. Use 7zip to decompress the _winzip_ file, which actually contains the driver you need to install. In your device manager, locate the scanner and select the option to update the driver. You will need to select the driver manually, then specify the device type and driver, then click the “Have….
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Windows
Tagged: canon, drivers, lide, scanners
- Published:
- January 22, 2010 – 2:39 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
EDID stands for Extended display identification data and is what many computer monitors and televisions with a VGA/HDMI use to tell the PC what resolution they support. Which, in theory at least, is great. However what I recently found out is that many LCD and Plasma televisions do not broadcast the correct 16:9 resolution via EDID, and therefore the computer doesn’t know what resolution to display and you have a stretched image.
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Windows
Tagged: drivers, edid, nvidia, windows-7
- Published:
- January 21, 2010 – 1:17 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
Gone is my 500+ channel television subscription along with the required boxes necessary to decode all of that content. The DVR, which has been a mainstay of my family’s television viewing habits, has been ousted. In it’s place is a kick-ass system that keeps the DVR functionality for many of the TV shows that we usually watch, brings in much new content, and also saves me a few bucks each month.
Let’s face it, you don’t want all of the content that your cable provider offers. Cable providers have fought a-la-carte programming tooth and nail for this very reason. Much of it is specialty programming, and though I admit it is nice to know it was there, my family and I rarely watched any of it. My new setup brings many new sources as well as a CHOICE to what you want to view. I am very happy with the results so far.
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Reviews,Software,Television
Tagged: acer-revo, boxee, cable, home-theater, htpc
- Published:
- January 6, 2010 – 11:05 am
- Author:
- By Dave
The beginning of a decade is always a time for prognostication, and this year is no exception. This is an interesting collaborative look on mobile device trends for 2020. A lot of these trends are already well on the way to widespread adoption, and I would argue that many will be seen by 2015.
View the complete article to view my own predications for the Mobile Trends of the 2010s.
Categories: Cell Phones,Other Technology
Tagged: mobile, predictions, trends
