James - Neurotechnics

Configure GPG to sign Git commits (in Windows)

Configuring GPG to sign Git commits isn't trivial, especially if you need integration with an IDE such as VSCode or SourceTree. Fortunately there's a straight forward set of steps you can take. Install required softwareYou can skip any steps you've already completed, but in general you'll need to install the

console

Gracefully terminate a threaded C# console application on CRTL+C

So, most console applications seemingly terminate instantly when they receive a CTRL+C, but occasionally you may notice that some have a termination message, or take an unusually long time to terminate. This is probably due to the application winding itself up cleanly without corrupting anything that was in-progress. This

powershell

How to restore NuGet packages from the console when Visual Studio refuses

On occasion, and especially if I switch branches in git, my Visual Studio projects will load without any of the dependencies they rely on (generally in the packages folder*). Telling Visual Studio to restore all packages in various ways (including a full re-build) always seems to fail... Visual Studio's package

firefox

Ad-Reveal for Chrome and Firefox

The new Ad Reveal browser extension for Chrome and Firefox has been officially released. You can find it now on the add-on stores for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ad-reveal/ and chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ad-reveal/jlbfnlnkmapanbohikbcnlpgpjdpnndc The first few versions will remain quite

smb

Solved: Cannot connect to an SMB2 network share form Windows Server 2019

Guest access in SMB2 will be disabled by default in Windows Server 2019. According to microsoft (see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046019/guest-access-in-smb2-disabled-by-default-in-windows-10-and-windows-ser) In Windows 10, version 1709, Windows 10, version 1903, Windows Server, version 1709, Windows Server, version 1903, and Windows Server 2019, the SMB2 client no

symlink

How to fix: The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled

Occasionally, when copying folders from remote servers, or when accessing a symbolic link directly on a file server, you may see the following error: The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled This is because by default remote to remote symbolic links are disabled. You can enable

linux

Linux: Failed to start Raise network interfaces

We use a lot of virtualization technology in our stack, particularly during development. It just makes life easier. However, there are times when problems arise purely from the fact we're testing the latest tech. Most recently, we upgraded all of our VM's to the latest Linux (Some are Debian, some

git

git commit accidents - how to undo one

So you've just pushed your local branch to a remote branch, but then realized that one of the commits should not be there, or that there was some unacceptable typo in it. No problem, you can fix it. But you should do it rather fast before anyone fetches the bad

authentication

Automatic NTLM Authentication in your browser

If you're in an authenticated network environment, an intranet or other workplace environment where you need to authenticate using NTLM, you've probably been frustrated by the situation where you need to enter your windows credentials a dozen or more times a day, even though you're already logged into the network

iis

Windows Fall Creators Update (1709) and the IIS Error 503

We finally began the process of updating our Windows 10 desktops to version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) today, and what happened... all of our in-developement websites stopped working. Pretty much every application pool crashed as soon as we accessed each site for the first time, showing a 503: Service Unavailable

windows

Quickly generate large test files in Windows

Often as a developer, for testing disk performance, or perhaps your internet or network connection speed, you need to generate a large file of a specific size. Windows includes a utility that allows you to quickly generate a file of any size instantly.

qnap

Rescue a QNAP NAS "Unmounted" RAID Volume

We recently suffered a strange issue with one of our NAS devices - a QNAP 8-bay NAS. The device itself has two RAID-5 volumes of four disks each. After a power outage that went beyond the time of UPS' ability to keep things running, the unit shut down. To our

security

Enable remote SSH access to Ubuntu Server

So, you've just installed your new Ubuntu Server and you're thinking, so now I can go back to my desk, and access my new server remotely.... how exactly... Ubuntu Server is generally installed as a headless operating system. In other words you get command line access only. That's fine, but

ssl

Configure MongoDB (and a client) for SSL/TLS

MongoDB supports encrypted data transport (communication between your application and the database engine) but requires some configuration on both the client and the server in order to set things up correctly. Below, I'll be discussing generating your own SSL certificate and configuring the server to load this certificate on startup,

vpn

VPN Review - NordVPN vs Hide.me

I've been trialling several public VPN services these last few months to see which one can handle the kind of speeds and traffic required from Australia. The two favourites I've settled on (so far) are NordVPN and Hide.me. A couple of important features I've been looking for: Zero Logging:

rdp

Terminal Services in Windows 8.1 and 10

This has been written about a dozen or more times in various places, but I'm re-hashing it all here mostly for my own record, and to keep it all together. In addition to simply updating the Terminal Services libraries, I've also included information relating to doing so remotely... the commands

software

Responsible Software Design: Clean up after yourself

Today, for what ever reason caused it to pop into my head, I decided I should delete some temp files from my system as I try to do on a regular basis. It turned out it has been quite a while since I had done this - more than 4

windows

Windows up-time

Ok, so you want to know how long it's been since your windows workstation or server was last (re)booted. There are two options. The first is built right into windows, the second is an external command-line program provided by Microsoft to help with the problem. Option 1 From the

ssl

SSL CA Bundles for cURL and PHP

If you've ever tried connecting to a remove service or server using SSL from your server side cURL or PHP script running on a Windows Server, you may very well have encountered the condition that SSL certificate of the remote server cannot be verified. The problem occurs when you are

security

Data security - how hard can it be?

There have been quite a few high-profile web, corporate and government security breaches in recent months and years, and no one seems to have learned a thing from them. Despite the intense media coverage over the years, magazines, blogs, YouTube channels and podcasts dedicated to Internet security, the people responsible

Reset the Net

Reset the net is really just about spreading knowledge and tools to help the general public protect themselves a little better on-line. See more at https://www.resetthenet.org/ Why June 5? June 5 is the one-year anniversary of the first documents leaked by Edward Snowden. While the EFF has

OpenSSL Heartbleed Security Vulnerability

Recently the OpenSSL project released an update to address a security vulnerability nicknamed Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160) in their OpenSSL version 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f. What versions of the OpenSSL are affected? The status of different versions are listed blow: OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive)

Unmark firefox extension

Unmark for Firefox NOTE: This extension is no longer under active development and DOES NOT work with Firefox 48+ due to Electrolysis (e10s) muti-threaded execution engine. The Unmark extension for firefox, adds a button to your firefox toolbar allowing you to quickly add a bookmark for the page you're viewing