Category: Windows

The ASUS VivoPC: Could this be a good Home Theater PC?

We don’t know (though we’d happily accept a device for review if anyone at Asus happens to read this), but it is quite possibly the most easily upgradeable PC we have ever come across, as this video shows:

 

YouTube link: ASUS VivoPC Overview

This is the only full review we could find.  The audio track is in Italian, but you can turn on English subtitles from the CC button in the player (that should appear once you start the video):

 

YouTube link: Recensione ASUS VivoPC – Review

From what we’re seeing here, it looks like this is a unit to keep an eye on, since it seems to play video pretty smoothly under both Windows and Linux. Just keep in mind that you may want to add or upgrade the memory if you plan to use this for serious computing, but I don’t think you’ll see too many systems that make that an easier process.

Note that this is the lowest-end unit of the VivoPC series, but there are two higher-end models that come in black cases and have upgraded hardware, naturally at a higher price.

Here’s a link to the article that tipped us off to this device:
Asus VivoPC mini-desktop now available for $320 and up

Links: Use Redo Rescue: Backup and Recovery and GPartEd Live to backup a working system and restore it to a new (possibly larger) drive

NOTE: Redo Rescue: Backup and Recovery was formerly known as Redo Backup. This article has been updated to show the new name.

If you are replacing an older hard drive with a newer one, possibly with more capacity, you may wonder if there is a way to do it without having to reinstall everything. The answer is often “yes”. There are many ways to do it — some are free and some cost money — but one great solution that happen to be free is to use Redo Rescue: Backup and Recovery, possibly followed by GPartEd Live. In fact, even if you aren’t planning on replacing a drive, it’s probably a good idea to back up your drives using Redo Rescue periodically, just in case a drive unexpectedly fails. If that happens you can restore from your last backup and you are back in business.

The nice thing about both Redo Rescue and GPartEd Live is that they have nice graphical users interfaces. Redo Rescue is very easy and intuitive, while GPartEd live is a only bit less so. For example, to move a partition within a drive you may need to use a click and drag operation, but that’s not explained on the screen. So, your favorite search engine may be your friend.

Here are some articles that explain how to use Redo Rescue:

Redo Backup and Recovery Tool to Backup and Restore Linux Systems (TecMint)
How To Use Redo Backup And Recovery In Windows 10 (Into Windows)
Redo Rescue Backup and Recovery Live System Gets NFS Share Support, SSH Server (9to5Linux)

Also you can search on YouTube for videos about Redo Rescue: Backup and Recovery.

If you are moving your system to a larger hard drive, a simple restore will only utilize as much of the drive as was used on the original drive size. What you can do is use GPartEd Live, another free tool, to grow your primary partition to occupy the remaining unused space. Before you can do that, you may need to move the existing swap partition to the end of the allocated space. What you need to do depends to some degree on the operating system in use on the drive you are moving, so you may need to do some searching to get instructions that apply to your particular situation.

Here are a couple of links about GPartEd that may help Linux users:

Expanding a Linux disk with gparted (and getting swap out of the way) (mwpreston.net)
How to move a partition to the end in gparted? (Super User)

And one for Windows users:

Resizing and Adding Partitions using GParted Live (bleepingcomputer.com)

Also there are many videos on YouTube about GPartEd.

Link: What is Cryptolocker and How Do You Prevent It?

Recently, a new piece of malware has been wreaking havoc online, locking innocent users out of their files and demanding money. Cryptolocker is a form of virus known as “ransomware” – a variety that attempts to extort money in exchange for providing users with what they already own, but can no longer access.

So what is it about Cryptolocker that changes the game, and how do you prevent yourself from falling victim to this vile threat. That is precisely what we want to look at today.

Full article here:
What is Cryptolocker and How Do You Prevent It? (Make Tech Easier)

We would also add that frequent backups to media that is not connected 24/7 is probably a good idea. If you backup to something that requires a user name and password to access, and it’s not already connected at the time the attack occurs, then that data is probably safe. If you happen to have a recent backup made using something like Redo Backup and Recovery, then should an attack like this occur, you can simply wipe the drive clean and reformat it, then restore from your backup and get most of your files back. But that only works if you make the backup before your system is infected, and only if the attacker can’t access your backup file and corrupt that. So if you choose to backup to a network share, make sure it’s a share that you must log into using a strong password before you can access it, and that it’s NOT a share that you normally stay connected to during day-to-day use!

Link: How to synchronize files between two servers

Suppose you have a collection of files which are replicated on two different servers. The two replicas are then modified independently, and you want whatever changes made in one replica to be propagated to the other, so that both replicas remain in sync.

There are several file mirroring tools on Linux, such as rsync or duplicati. However, these tools are meant for “uni-directional” file sync (i.e., pushing or pulling incremental updates in one direction), and so two-way sync would require running such tools twice, one for each direction.

Unison is an open-source file synchronization tool that natively supports bi-directional file synchronization. Unison is available on multiple platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and MacOS X. In Linux, Unison is available as a command-line tool as well as a GUI program with GTK+ interface.

In this tutorial, I will describe how to synchronize files between two servers with Unison command-line utility.

Full article here:
How to synchronize files between two servers (Xmodulo)

Link: End the Tyranny of hosts files!

When developing websites and web applications, you will often have a local environment set up for testing in your browser. But what if you want to test it on another machine or device on your local network?

Chances are, the hostname of your computer won’t work as a valid virtual host on a mobile device (and some computers). Additionally, you might have multiple projects on the go that all need unique virtual host names to operate properly.

This problem used to be solved by the “hosts” file (in /etc/hosts on Linux/Mac and C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts on Windows), but there’s a better way! You can use IP reflection services or wildcard DNS records to let you use nearly any virtual host name you want.

Full article here:
End the Tyranny of hosts files! (whateverthing.com)

Link: How to Flash an SD Card for Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is an incredible little computer made up of a components and connectors on an unfeasibly small printed circuit board that is approximately the dimensions of a credit card. Depending upon your intended use, your Rasberry Pi may have a keyboard, monitor and mouse added. Regardless of your intended use, you are going to need an SD (Secure Digital) card on which to install an operating system.

This tutorial describes how to install an operating system onto an SD card for use in your Raspberry Pi.

Full article here:
How to Flash an SD Card for Raspberry Pi (Mactuts+)

Avoid Bluestacks until they fix their nasty bug!

This started out as a simple link to an installation tutorial that we found:

Now days Android is leading mobile operating system , there are wide range of app and games in android , If you are really fond of using android applications but unfortunately you don’t have any android supported Phone. Then don’t worry you can still enjoy all the Android application and Games on your PC and Laptop, One software will helps you to make your dream come true. Now days Bluestacks is one of the famous and working Software Which convert any android apps in Windows or Mac version. By using Bluestacks software you can run easily any android app on your pc or laptop.

Full article here (but DON’T DO THIS until they fix the bug!):
How to run android apps on pc using bluestacks? (Techypassion)

In addition to the Windows versions, there is also a Mac version of the Bluestacks software, and that’s what we tried. But as soon as you install it and attempt to run it, to comes up with an error message that reads:

“Network Issue. The network is experiencing some problem. Please retry or cancel.”

If you put this error into Google, you find that many other potential users, using both the Windows and Mac versions of this software, have run into this issue. And when one user attempted to get help, what did the company do? They addressed a completely different issue and then marked the thread as “answered”, basically washing their hands of the issue.

Well, this bug still exists, and it stops you cold after you have installed the software. So for now, Bluestacks earns our “avoid this software package” designation. Don’t waste a minute of your life trying to install and run this thing, because several users with more experience than us have apparently tried and failed. But if you ignore our advice and somehow manage to get it working, please leave a comment telling us how you did it!

EDIT: In the meantime, here’s another way to run Android on your PC or Mac, though we haven’t actually tried this one yet:

The Complete Guide to Run Android 4.3 in VirtualBox (Make Tech Easier)

Link: How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop

Google’s latest hardware offering, Chromecast was an instant hit as it promised a better way of beaming/ controlling  multimedia content from your mobile phone on to a TV than the current choices we have right now. Now when a popular company like Google is trying to solve an age old problem that haunted Android, with a less expensive ($35) hardware, we should expect it to run out of stock. That is what exactly happened to Chromecast as it ran out of stock on all popular online stores including Google’s own Play store. Now if you have already pre-ordered a Chromecast or is in queue, here is something for you impatient folks, ready to play with few command lines.

Github user (dz0ny) has developed a Python package called Leapcast that can emulate the Chromecast hardware in Chromium environment running on your Mac, Windows and Linux. In order to achieve this hack on your computer all you have to do is carefully follow the steps below.

Full article here:
How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop (Compixels)

Link: Sikuli (Automation Tool Using Images) 1.0.0 Released

Sikuli is a tool available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X which automates tasks using images: you take a screenshot of what you want to click, right click, hover, drag and drop and so on and Sikuli performs those actions automatically, when you need it, either by using the GUI or running it via command line.

It can be useful for running repetitive tasks automatically, running some actions remotely via the command line and so on.

Article continues here:
Sikuli (Automation Tool Using Images) 1.0.0 Released (WebUpd8)

If you ever play video using VLC and it is jerky or drops frames, try this

In VLC’s preferences, note the setting for “Use GPU accelerated decoding” — on most systems with modern graphics hardware this should be checked, but is not by default. So, check the box and then click Save. You can always change it back if it makes things worse, or causes videos to not play at all.

VLC Preferences — Input and Codecs settings — use GPU accelerated decoding
VLC Preferences — Input and Codecs settings — use GPU accelerated decoding

This setting does not seem to be available in OS X versions of VLC.