The Joys of Computing
As you probably know if using CodePlex, it will shutdown by the end of 2017. The option suggested by CodePlex is to move to GitHub.
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The move is facilitated by an automated “import” procedure. But HTML pages created on CodePlex are not automatically converted into Markdow.
This can fortunately be done using Pandoc.
For demo purpose, pick From = “HTML” and To = “Markdown (GitHub)”.
I just bought an Rii min i25 (< 35€) as an alternative for the NVidia Remote Controle (~50€). I am not disappointed !
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Although mine is not a model with audio (microphone and headphone), it’s clearly a great accessory to replace the native remote of the NVidia Shield TV. Notice that if it looks really nice, it’s not heavy. As a consequence, it does not feel robust in hand.
I did test it with Plex, both on Windows 10 and on NVidia Shield TV. Everything is working out of the box, except the fast forward and fast rewind. Those two keys will probably need some remapping.
Both on Windows and NVidia, I did use the wireless keyboard successfully (including the FN keys: mute, Home, PgDn, PgUp, End, Del, Ctrl-Alt-Del), as well as the Air Mouse.
Regarding the Remote Control:
From installation perspective, there is nothing to do: just plug the receiver in a USB port and switch on the remote (Button On/Off, on the side, next to the micro USB Charging Port).
Using the air mouse is very convenient. The experience is very similar to using the remote pointer of Smart Samsung TVs (a smart remote with a large trackpad). NB.: if the mouse pointer is out of alignment with your wrist, simply lock it using the ‘Lock’ button, the one with an arrow icon:
As mentioned above, the keys can be reprogrammed by sending an IR signal from another remote whose the behavior must be copied.
If you want to use an AZERTY model you will need the “External keyboard Helper Pro“.
How to ‘Add Mirror’ on a disk containing data when the option is grayed-out although you have another very similar disk available and empty? Check that your two disks are “Dynamic” and shrink the volume on the disk with data!
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I had a 2 TB disk with a unique volume (on one single partition), containing data.
I did add a new 2 TB disk to be used as a mirror of the existing one. I went into the Disk Management tool to “add Mirror” but found that this option was not available. The menu was disabled:
First thing to check: the two disks to be used must be “Dynamic”. Right-click on “Disk x” to “Convert to Dynamic Disk …”.
Next, to be able to create a mirror, the system needs some free space to create its own reserved partition on the disk. So, right-click on the Volume of the disk with data to “Shrink Volume…” (Try first with 1 Mb). Once the disk has been shrunk, the menu “Add Mirror…” becomes accessible.
Et voilà.
NB.:
Mirror using DiskPart
Samsung Smart TVs have two http ports that can be queried from Php Server Monitor: 8000 and 8001.
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If the TV is on, querying on http://IP:8000, you get the response:
Server is running...
If the TV is on, querying on http://IP:8001/ms/1.0/, you get a response like:
{
"DUID": "08f0d181-0096-1000-82d5-c4576e33a21d",
"Model": "14_X14_BT",
"ModelName": "UE48H6500",
"ModelDescription": "Samsung TV RCR",
"NetworkType": "wired",
"SSID": "",
"IP": "192.168.0.180",
"FirmwareVersion": "Unknown",
"DeviceName": "[TV]Samsung LED48",
"DeviceID": "08f0d181-0096-1000-82d5-c4576e33a21d",
"UDN": "08f0d181-0096-1000-82d5-c4576e33a21d",
"Resolution": "1920x1080",
"CountryCode": "BE",
"SmartHubAgreement": "true",
"ServiceURI": "http://192.168.0.180:8001/ms/1.0/",
"DialURI": "http://192.168.0.180:8001/ws/apps/",
"Capabilities": [
{
"name": "samsung:multiscreen:1",
"port": "8001",
"location": "/ms/1.0/"
}
]
}
When the TV is Off (powered off or in standby mode), you won’t get any response from those ports but:
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
I did upgrade “Mods“, my Windows Tool used to create dummy packages adding shortcuts on DSM’s desktop to open web pages.
Now, “Mods” is able to package shell scripts and php webpages…
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It is available here on GitHub.
For example, you could package apps like Chris Hager’s Most Simple Ajax Chat Ever
Or package a more advanced tool like php Server Monitor
This Tool is available here on GitHub.
The best free tool available to create Panorama is IMO ICE, Image Composite Editor, from the Microsoft Research Lab. Not only it’s able to join pictures, but it’s also auto-completing the gaps !!! It can even create a panorama from a panning video.
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Basic usage is very simple to create a panorama, with a set of pictures taken in a raw:
Et voilà 😉
Download: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/ice/
In order to hide my NAS, I wanted it to use its own VPN, while my public IP was still visible when surfing with any other devices in my LAN.
To do so, I subscribed to HMA! (HideMyAss!) and applied their configuration procedure on my Synology. Et voilà.
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I did try both a L2TP and a OpenVPN VPN with success. Tricks:
<?php
$ip = file_get_contents('https://api.ipify.org');
echo "My public IP address is: " . $ip;
?>
<?php
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
?>
Recently, I noticed that my PC was waking up from sleep mode without me explicitly clicking the mouse, pressing a key on the keyboard or sending a magic packet…
I found this problem was due to an update of the Ethernet drivers which allowed any packet to wake up the computer…
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This is a problem which comes back regularly when updating drivers. Each time, I wonder what’s wrong again. So, here are some tricks to find the cause.
First:
Next, look for the last device which turned on the PC:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -lastwake Wake History Count - 1 Wake History [0] Wake Source Count - 1 Wake Source [0] Type: Device Instance Path: USB\VID_046D&PID_C52B&2b3c7d9c&0&3 Friendly Name: Description: USB Composite Device Manufacturer: (Standard USB Host Controller)
Device 0xC52B is a USB Receiver for Wireless Mouse Vendor 0x046D is Logitech Inc.
If this does not help:
The system has returned from a low power state. Sleep Time: 2016-12-24T09:40:11.549148000Z Wake Time: 2016-12-24T09:41:07.347715900Z Wake Source: Device -Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
You can also look for the list of devices able to wake up the PC:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -devicequery wake_armed Logitech HID-compliant Unifying keyboard HID-compliant mouse HID Keyboard Device HID Keyboard Device (001) Logitech HID-compliant Unifying Mouse Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V Logitech HID-compliant Unifying Mouse (001)
The PC can also be waked up by Timers (Scheduled Tasks):
You call also disable all tasks that could wake up the PC at once:
Finally, you could also have to disable the Automatic Maintenance:
I just discovered that I was not able to access my NAS anymore from internet. The problem was that I did re-enabled the Wifi by accident on my Vdsl modem.
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Tthe DHCP server gave unfortunately the first free IP of the IPv4 pool to “an unknown Wifi device” instead of assigning this IP to my router as it used to be the case in the past. Port Forwarding from internet to my router, defined using that first IP, couldn’t work anymore.
I just did assign a static IP to my router in the Vdsl modem’s DHCP server settings (and re-disabled the WiFi). I did reboot next the router.
A real pain in: out of the box, it is impossible to use an Azerty physical keyboard with a NVidia Shield TV console… You need an app for that! I am personally using the “External Keyboard Helper Pro”.
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You can get it on Google Play
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