Encrypted Timecapsule backups

Timecapsule backups aren't encrypted which seems a little dumb - as if someone nicks your TC then they've also got all your data in the clear too. There's a simple procedure that this smart post lays out - but I've copied it here in case that page goes away as it is so handy:

• Set up Time Machine to back up to an AFP drive. I don’t think this will work with a local hard drive.
• Let Time Machine start backing up, then stop the back up. This will have created _.sparsebundle on the AFP drive.
• Disable Time Machine.
• Open a Terminal and run these commands (replace name_mac with your mac's name, and TC_drive_name with your TimeCapsule's network drive name - ls /Volumes to check):
$ cd /Volumes/TC_drive_name/
  $ mv name_mac.sparsebundle name_mac-old.sparsebundle
  $ hdiutil convert -format UDSB -o name_mac.sparsebundle -encryption AES-256 name_mac-old.sparsebundle
  It will ask you for a password. Type in a password you won’t forget.
• Double click the sparsebundle in the Finder (You should find it in your TimeCapsule network drive). You will be prompted for your password. Type that in and tick the “Remember password” check box.
• Open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access and find name_mac.sparsebundle. Right click it and select Copy name_mac.sparsebundle.
• Select System Keychain on the left hand side of Keychain Access and paste it in the main area. Allow this action if you are asked. Remember to lock the System Keychain when you are done.
• If using Snow Leopard then (as suggested here) you'll need to copy "com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist" from the old to the new sparsebundle. You can do this by going to the volume using Terminal as above and then doing:
  $ cd /Volumes/TC_drive_name/
  $ cp name_mac-old.sparsebundle/com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist name_mac.sparsebundle
• Unmount the volume and then tell Time Machine to get busy.
• Time Machine should not have no problem backing up to the encrypted volume. If everything works as planned, feel free to delete the name_mac-old.sparsebundle

[updated: 21sept09, 21aug10]

Mounting a Xen .xm (xmfile) disk image file

You've probably wondered how to mount one of these pesky things. It turns out they're actually just entire disk images with a boot sector and often with multiple partitions. On Linux you can use the losetup tool - It allows one to mount a disk image on a /dev/loopX device. If it has multiple partitions then you need to find out where in the image the particular partitions are that you want to mount. Firstly you mount the entire image on a [spare] loop device e.g.:
sudo losetup /dev/loop0 diskimage.xm
Then run fdisk to check out the partition table (in sectors):
sudo fdisk -ul /dev/loop0
It will list the partitions - note down the start of the partition you're interested it and multiply it by 512 (the number of bytes per sector): e.g. If the first partition starts at 63 you multiply it by 512 and get 32256 then you use that as the 'offset' argument (i.e. how far into the disk image your chosen partition resides) to the losetup command:
sudo losetup -o32256 /dev/loop0 diskimage.xm
Next you need to determine the filesystem type - you maybe able to check this what fdisk reports, but you can also use the file command:
file -s /dev/loop0
Then mount that partition onto a spare directory on your system (e.g. ext3 filesystem on /mnt):
sudo mount -text3 /dev/loop0 /mnt
And it should then be mounted at /mnt and away you go. Thanks to this page for getting me going - plus a comment there mentions that there's simpler way to mount the image - if you're running a kernel version > 2.6.26 (You can specify modprobe loop max_part=63 and it will create the partitions automatically on calling losetup - but that only works if loop is a module - which it isn't in Ubuntu 9.04).

[corrected 2oct09]

Adding proxying to an Ubuntu Apache server

You can enable forward proxying server behaviour in Ubuntu 8.* by doing the following:
- Enable the proxy modules:
sudo a2enmod proxy
- Edit the proxy config file:
sudo vi /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/proxy.conf
- Add your allowed hosts to the section, setting ProxyRequests On and the add a new section:
<directory proxy:*>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from my_hosts
</directory>

Restart Apache and you're done:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

This driver is blocked due to incompatibility issues

Yeah this kept popping up and although it told me that the Driver: Virtual PC/Windows CE Emulator was the problem it firstly didn't tell me where it was (i.e. filename) nor how uninstall the damn thing?! (just some useless 'check for solutions online' button).

Finally I tracked it down using Microsoft's (was the excellent Sysinternals) LoadOrder tool and the very handy Autoruns. I tracked it down to: "VPCAppSv Provides application services for Virtual PC. Connectix Corporation c:\windows\system32\drivers\vpcappsv.sys" which turns out to be a black listed driver for WinXP. Nice.

So I just deleted from driver list (under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services) in Autoruns, then rebooted - and no more warnings ;) Then it can just be deleted.

Varilight dimmer remote control

Got one of these things a while back - they're neat dimmer switches with a touch control - no moving parts - get 'em from Homebase etc. They're remotely controllable (over IR-InfraRed) - and you can buy a specific remote for from about £5 upwards.

However these Varilight dimmers are smart - you can program them to do a bunch of things - depending on which model you have. It's not clear how to work that out (apart from testing it using its programming mode - see below), but all of them can be programmed to work with any remote control you have - e.g your TV remote. Just choose a spare button that you don't use and you can get the varilight to use it to turn the thing on and off! As mentioned here:

1. Tap switch 6 times - takes it in to 'learning mode' (After the 6 taps the light will go and off once more to indicate it's in learning mode).
2. Point your choose remote at it whilst pressing (for 2 secs or more) that your chosen button at it - the lights will go on and off.
3. Point the remote at the it again whist pressing the button and the lights should go on and off
4. You're done - it should work as your new remote control!

Windows Mobile device sync problem finally fixed!

Finally - after trying a bunch of stuff since November last year I have managed to locate a cure for my 'Error' in WMDC. Amazingly enough this(also ripped off here) was the cure - it cures a related problem I also saw in IE when I attempted to download a cab: "this device is restricted from downloading this file type" - I was led here from the excellent xda forums

• The problem and fix are incredibly created using Mobile Word ??!!** - when saving docs as plain text files - so beware. Here's the proceedure cribbed from the the link above (in case it disappears):
  
• 1) soft reset device
  2) Start / Office Mobile / Word
  3) Create a new document (click on New)
  4) type some text (just plain text - no formatting - it was 'plain text document') just a few characters
  5) File / Save As...
  6) I have selected type 'Plain Text'
  7) It asked me whether I want to save it at 'Word document instead' - I clicked No.
  8) I have powered off the device and did soft reset
  9) Start file explorer, find the file (it was in My Device / My Documents), click on it - it opens Word again.
  10) Add some formatting (I have selected part of text and changed font to bold)
  11) Close Word - it asked whether to save it in Word format - this time I said Yes
  12) Power-off the device and press soft reset again

As to why this works is anyone's guess... I did take the trouble to dump my security registry keys (HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies) before I performed the magical fix but I found no difference in those key values before and afterwards.... But there seems to be a mountain of security related controls in Windows Mobile - see MSDN's Security Policy settings, Provisioning Security Settings - I'm sure somewhere in there is the answer....

Dirty Sexy Money S02E10 - doesn't exist!

Are looking for the "final" episode of Dirty Sexy Money .... or, even worse, have you already downloaded Dirty.Sexy.Money.S02E10.HDTV.XviD-NoTV.avi or Dirty.Sexy.Money.S02E10.HDTV.XviD-NoTV.avi.rar?

And then it asked you for that pesky password from some spam website:www.askmu.com?

Look no further ... You've probably seen the last episode of this series already (S02E09) - this E10 is just a bullshit lure. Check the ABC website to check what you have seen.... And save yourself the wasted time...

[update 27may09]: It seems that this episode and newer ones are now/soon becoming available as the series reaches its finale (see comments below for more details).

Windows on VMware fusion crashes: STOP 0x0000007B

I installed VMware fusion on my Mac and got it to boot my native installation of Windows but on boot up in the VM it crashed with a blue screen message STOP 00007B. Took me a while to find it but I actually followed some advice from Microsoft themselves which mostly fixed it. The missing piece to the puzzle was one of the sys files you need to copy over was in %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\I386\sp2.cab (in addition to Driver.cab).

It works great but then I got asked to reactive windows - there seems to be a fix here.