Category: How-To Sketch

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2020
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CentOS8 on AWS EC2 for SVN, NNTP

Moving from CentOS7 on bare metal to CentOS8 on AWS EC2: Setup NotesAMI:CentOS 8 Minimal(CentOS 8.2.2004) fromhttps://aws.amazon.comEC2 Instance size: * t3a.nano with 8gb turned out extremely slow, unusable; note 'a' means 'amd' *t3.nanowith 20gb turned out responsive, usable; Intel SkyLake chip.  C

Ann Lynnworth May 2020
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How to Install Delphi somewhere other than C Program Files

Wondering how to install Delphi to a non-default path on your system?  This tip is for you. Use the [Options] button in the first screenshot below. The [Options] button leads to the screen for putting in a different path.

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2020
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PowerShell to Remove IIS Certificates

We were using this PowerShell syntax on a Windows Server Core where IIS Manager (inetmgr.exe) is not available.  Nonetheless this is handy syntax for any Window server where you might be upgrading from an older version of the LetsEncrypt client to WACS.Objective:Delete all existing IIS Certificates

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2020
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How to migrate varbinary UTF-8 data to varchar, going from MySQL to MSSQL

This post talks about converting theBitnami MediaWiki v1.34 on Ubuntufrom MySQL v8 database to Microsoft SQL Server 2017.  The solution probably applies to any conversion ofvarbinary to varchar data from MySQL v8 to MSSQL2014, 2016 and 2017.The challenge is that these fields, TEXT.old_text and TEXT.

Ann Lynnworth Oct 2019
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How to backup a remote Firebird SQL database using GBAK

The following BAT file may be of interest if your local machine is not too far away from the database server.  It shows how to use the freeGBAKutility to backup a remote Firebird SQL database, with the destination file landing locally.This BAT syntax is for use on Windows.:: backup-sample.bat setlo

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2019
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IIS for mobile dev: use WACS client to make LetsEncrypt https cert

Question: how to make a free trusted HTTPS certificate for use when developing mobile apps with IIS on a development system which is intentionally private?https://flic.kr/p/qJccKyShort answer: use the win-acme client with dns validationUPDATE January 2020"WACS" now supports some plug-ins to do DNS e

Ann Lynnworth Jan 2019
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Install FirebirdSQL 2.5.8 on AWS EC2 CentOS 7

☑  Launch an EC2 instance from the AWS Marketplace -- look for "CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM" which issupported by CentOS, here.  I used a t2.micro instance.☑  Make sure the AWS EC2 firewall ("security group") allows you to SSH in but no one else.☑Display CPU information to confirm what you

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2018
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Notes about IISNode, NodeJS, Stripe, WebHub integration

StripeCreate your ecommerce payment gateway account atstripe.com.IISNodeIISNodelets you use NodeJS together with IIS in a way that makes it reasonably convenient to serve the static files over IIS yet have NodeJS respond for selected URLs.Download fromIISNode Releases.  Install. You will end up with

Ann Lynnworth Dec 2017
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AWS EC2: Mounting a separate set of S3 disks for each Windows user

CloudBerry Labs CloudDrivelicensed on a Windows server might seem expensive, but it depends on how large the disks are that you need, how frequently you need to access the files, how large the files are, and how complex the privacy/security issues are between users.This idea might help someone who i

Ann Lynnworth Nov 2017
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CentOS Scrub Example: wipe files off usb disks, clearing free space

Alert: the syntax on this page is for a particular usb disk plugged into a CentOS server.  You will need to edit the paths very carefully to avoid erasing the wrong data on your system !Scrub Manual PageNote: if you tried option -p and got the "wrong type of file" error, like this,# scrub -p dod /me

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2016
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Delphi Win64: Visual Elements including Start Menu Tiles

This is a summary of what is needed to make a native Windows desktop EXE (compiled with Delphi or any compiler other than Visual Studio) appear withscaled logos and iconsthroughout Windows, especially in theStart Menuand inFile Explorer.1. The ICO file.This factoid is based on the Main Icon Group in

Ann Lynnworth Jun 2016
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Using OpenSSL on Windows to Sign a File Upload Policy for AWS S3

DocsThe authoritative reference for uploading files directly from a web browser to an Amazon S3 bucket ishere on Amazonand a nice example with further tips ishere, since 2008.This post concerns the steps 1-2-3-4 for signing the policy, and doing it with OpenSSL.exe at a Windows cmd prompt.1.Encode t

Ann Lynnworth May 2016
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How to Set Up and Serve Private Content using Amazon S3 and CloudFront

Here are my notes regarding anexcellent post by Mark S. Rasmussenabout Serving Private Content using Amazon S3 and CloudFront.  He uses Dot Net and C# for the steps.  By now, the browser-based AWS console has sufficient features to let us do this without compiling anything in C#.  These notes follow

Ann Lynnworth May 2015
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CentOS 7 Firewalld Cheat Sheet

CentOS7 Firewalld Cheat Sheet # systemctl status firewalld # cd /etc/firewalld/zones #firewall-cmd --reload Links: http://www.certdepot.net/rhel7-get-started-firewalld/ http://www.tecmint.com/configure-firewalld-in-centos-7/

Ann Lynnworth May 2015
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CentOS7 VNC server notes

CentOS 7: VNC Server Cheat Sheet This is for tigervnc-server. Your port number might not be 1.  1 is used as an example only. # systemctl enable vncserver@:1.service # systemctl start vncserver@:1.service Docs: https://www.howtoforge.com/vnc-server-installation-on-centos-7

Ann Lynnworth Apr 2015
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VboxManage: steps to create a headless Win2012 guest on CentOS7 host

VirtualBox syntax for creating a headless Win2012 guest on a CentOS7 hostThe virtual machine name is "Cindarella".  The user owning the files isvboxadmin.To check your possible operating system types:vboxmanage list ostypesMake a VDI drive, 120gbVBoxManage createhd --filename /home/vboxadmin/vboxes/

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2015
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Install requirements for building WendzelNNTPd v2.0.3 from source on CentOS7

This is about theNNTP server from Steffen Wendzel.I used this path:/usr/lib64/WendzelNNTPd-OSE  and the documentation says to use this path:/var/lib64/WendzelNNTPd-OSE.Download the archive from github and decompress it to a path of your choice -- or -- even easier -- use a subversion client to get t

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2015
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Allow NNTP through CentOS7 firewalld

How to Allow Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) on CentOS7 (firewalld)If you want to run anNNTP serveron CentOS7, you will need to add a service definition for the firewall, and then allow the traffic.# cd /etc/firewalld/services# vi nntp.xmlN

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2015
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PowerShell on Win2012 Essentials

Use the existing shortcut in TileLand or create your own shortcut to PowerShell on the desktop. Then Run (PowerShell) As Administrator and paste in this command in order to be able to run other scripts... Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Increase Font Size Menu:Properties

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2015
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CentOS 7 host for VirtualBox virtual machines

Just some helpful links for a new CentOS 7 installationpasswd root/generate great random passwordCentOS 7 Firewalld "d for daemon":get-started basicsInstall wget if you just did a CentOS 7 minimal install:yum Install wgetYou will need at least one user who will be a member of the vboxusers group whi

Ann Lynnworth Oct 2014
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Virtualizing Windows on Physical Hardware into VirtualBox

The Path to Success: Physical Server converted to VirtualBoxSysInternalsDisk2VHDis great as long as you use VHD format NOT VHDX ! ! !  Avoid VHDX if you want to use the resulting image in VirtualBox!!!  This holds true until you see that VirtualBox fully supports VHDX format.  Right now - October 20

Ann Lynnworth Sep 2014
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Inexpensive upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8.1 Pro

These links may be helpful to you if you have access to a Windows 8 product key, from MSDN or purchased via postcard.NB: you should start from system running a legal,activatedcopy of Windows 7.  If it has not been activated, you will go through may steps and then get an error message that the downlo

Ann Lynnworth Sep 2014
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How to get CompareExchange128 support in VirtualBox

The goal was to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro then Windows 8.1. This overview in gizmag is good - the link to get the upgrade assistant still works - but - if you are using VirtualBox with a Windows guest that has been in use for a long time, there is a good change that

Ann Lynnworth Sep 2014
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How to install latest s3cmd release candidate on CentOS

The s3cmd utility is a great way to transfer files to/from Amazon S3 buckets from CentOS Linux.  Unfortunately, yum install s3cmd gives a very old version 1.0 and you may well need the newer version.Note!  CentOS7 (RHEL7) installs a much newer version so there is no need for all this trouble.  Just

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2014
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Easy way to setup custom CentOS 6.5 firewall

Note! ForCentOS7, look for documentation on the new firewalld method of setting up your firewall!The rest of this applies toCentOS 5.x and 6.x.Many sites give information either about advanced use of iptables or beginner use of CentOS Setup to configure a firewall.This article is for intermediate le

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2014
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Firebird SQL Client Library install on CentOS 5 in 2014

August 2014 This is how I was able to install version 2.1 of the 32bit Firebird client library (libfbclient.so) on a 32bit CentOS 5 server.NB: if you are not running as root, you will need to add 'sudo' before most of these commands.First, this is where you can check for the latest available Firebir

Ann Lynnworth May 2014
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VirtualBox: CentOS Host, Windows Guests: VNC, FTP, no-RAID

CentOS 6.5 install from USBInstalling from USB worked for me. It seemed much more complicated than installing from DVD so if you have a choice, go with an ISO burned to a DVD.I was making my USB image on Windows not Linux. So these comments are for Windows users in terms of preparing the USB image

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2013
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usb file transfer to Bauhn HDC-08 Android tablet

This information is for people who want to transfer files between their Windows computer and theirBauhn HDC-08 Android tablet(e.g. purchased at Aldi) and/or develop Android apps using this tablet.1. In settings, you toggle ONDeveloper Optionsby dragging the blue switch (top right of screen) to ON (e

Ann Lynnworth Jul 2013
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Boot-It Bare Metal: resize drive c for Win7

Some notes about decisions when usingBoot-It Bare Metalfrom Terabyte Unlimited.Objective: backup everything then resize drive C to make more space for Windows 7 64-bit.  Window7 used up all of 40gb but there was enough space on the internal hard disk to make "D" smaller and "C" larger.The core steps

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2013
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Configure custom Morfik app with IIS6 and Firebird

Here are some notes for configuring a Morfik application (DLL) which was in this case compiled with Embarcadero Delphi and using a Firebird SQL database.IIS6 ConfigurationIIS6 needs a web site for each projectI will assume you know how to make a webiste. Point the home directory to the folder contai

Ann Lynnworth Mar 2013
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Convert Win2003 Physical Server to VirtualBox

How to Convert a Physical Win2003 Server to a VirtualBox EquivalentWARNING: do not bother doing this if you have an OEM license on the physical server because you will not be able to get in to the virtual machine because you will not be able to activate the license unless you are running with the or

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2013
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How to Block 360Spider (the web robot)

360Spider was once again TOO demanding I draw the line at webrobots that frequently morph their user agent names. Spider360 really got out of control today. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; zh-CN; rv:1.8.0.11) Gecko/2007 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows

Ann Lynnworth Jan 2013
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20+ years later: Eudora to Thunderbird

I was a die-hard Eudora user (on Windows).I used every version from Eudora 1.0 through 7, then Eudora OSE on Windows 7 64-bit (great to have Unicode support).... all good.But eventually I had to admit that Eudora OSE was TOO SLOW.  Way too slow.  Many seconds to open a message, many seconds to selec

Ann Lynnworth Dec 2012
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Eudora : digital signing, encryption, old/new issues

RequirementsNo matter which email solution you use, you will need a certificate.Comodogives a free one. Alert! Chrome fails! Must use IE or Firefox with Comodo's system.cacert.orgalso offers free email (and also free ssl certificates) BUT as of right now (December 2012) I have been unable to use the

Ann Lynnworth Oct 2012
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Amazon EC2 with Windows

Notes and RemindersUnlike Win2003 instances on EC2, Win2008 boots with only a drive c - 30gb minimum size.On Win2008 RC2, attached volumes are not online by default. Manually tell each one to come online and thereafter they keep working.Win2008 diskpart sansTo flush files prior to detach of a volume

Ann Lynnworth Jun 2012
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How to configure AVG 2012, Outlook 2010 and google business mail (gmail)

AVG offers an email scanning feature. There is anFAQ pagethat supposedly documents how to use this with Outlook, but as far as I can tell, POP3 works and SMTP does not work.  This post explains how to configure things so that AVG scans incoming emails and is not involved in sending outgoing emails.E

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2012
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SendMail under CentOS 6.2

I wanted a dedicated mail server that would handle outgoing messages from web applications on the same subnet.1. yum remove postfixpostfix is the mail server installed by default with CentOS 6.2If in doubt that you have postfix using up port 25, use these instructions to see what is running on port

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2012
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Installing Firebird 2.5 64-bit on CentOS 6.2

Media: burn DVD with disk #1 of CentOS 6.2 installerBootto the DVDDuring installation, from the radio button list, selectDatabase Server(and later turn off the 4 default database choices)Unselect a few things that seem unnecessary, like debugging features and phpSelect all the Desktop options, plus

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2012
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Paradox export to Firebird SQL Import (without DataPump utility)

Requires:1. Dezign Pro for Databases v4 or later2. Paradox 7 for WindowsSteps:1. Use Dezign to IMPORT the table structure from the Paradox database (which is a folder). You can select all or some tables. Do not have Paradox open against the same folder while you do this, otherwise Dezign will load

Ann Lynnworth Feb 2012
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Toshiba 5205 S705 key during startup

The key to press to toggle the choices of startup media is [F12] on the Toshiba laptop, series 5205-S705. For example, if you want to boot by CD, you press [F12] and then use the arrow keys to go [right] by a couple of icons, and then [Enter] to select the icon that looks like a single CD disk.The

Ann Lynnworth Jan 2011
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Install 7Zip on CentOS 5.5

We will useYum.Because 7Zip is not automatically included in CentOS 5.5, we have to add the repository and then install it.ReferenceDownload the i386 rpm file onto the 64-bit Opteron server becauseuname -ireported i386. That was a surprise.* Install DAG's GPG key* Install the packageThen yum can be

Ann Lynnworth Jan 2011
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CentOS: vsftpf with virtual users setup

CentOS 5.5, CentOS 6 and CentOS7 include vsftpd, theVery Secure FTP Daemon. Here we talk about how to set it up with virtual users, i.e. WITHOUT making a local login for each person. One of many use cases is to enable a set of users who will end up working on web site content, so 1-to-1 ftp to web d

Ann Lynnworth Aug 2010
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Sony notebook: BIOS to enable virtual computer

[F2] to get into the bios. Reference http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=C93629&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KNOWLEDGEARTICLES_1_1&dialogID=149478535&stateId=1%200%20149486959Advanced screen lets you toggle virtual technology support within the Intel

Ann Lynnworth Jul 2010
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How to open port 5938 for TeamViewer on Windows XP

Go intoStart > Control Panel > Windows Firewall.You should see an interface like this, with the firewall being either ON or OFF. For security, it should be ON.The next step is to add an exception to enable the use of port 5938.On theExceptionstab, use [Add Port]. Enter the following information:Na

Ann Lynnworth Apr 2010
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How to get into your own router

These instructions are for Windows users.0. Make sure your computer is physically connected to your router.1. Go to a command prompt2. Run IPCONFIG /All [Enter]3. Look for the ip number listed as your gateway. The most common number is 192.168.0.1If you have more than one adapter (e.g. CAT-5 cable p

Ann Lynnworth Oct 2008
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Recycle IIS AppPool from command line

Here is a BAT file for recycling the IIS AppPool from the command line, i.e. without needing to run IIS Manager. You may need to adjust the path to Windows and the name of the AppPool. The program this uses, cscript.exe, is included with Windows.cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\iisapp.vbs /a Default

Ann Lynnworth Oct 2008
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Content-length refers to the payload

Of possible interest to new ISAPI programmers: In the HTTP spec, the content-length refers to the length of the data AFTER the prologue and NOT INCLUDING the prologue, the prologue being the part with 200 OK, Content-Type and Content-Length and being separated from the payload by two CRLF pairs.

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