Bishoy Harby's Technical blog

Ϯⲥⲁϫⲓ : The Coptic Language Text-To-Speech Seed

2021-04-19T03:45:00.008+02:00

Been a long while since I’ve written anything here. In my defense, I've been changing jobs, getting married and relocating. All of these definitely took some toll on my spare time 😬.

Enough excuses, the latest project that I'm undertaking for fun is to make some sort of a TTS for the coptic language. I will definitely keep updating this article about its progress.

For those who don't know, Coptic Language was the old language of Egypt before the Arab Settlement in the 7th century. Coptic’s bohairic dialect is still being used in our beloved Egyptian orthodox ( Coptic ) churches as the main liturgical language. The word Coptic is sometimes even used to name its members, so sometimes we're referred to as "Copts", though we just prefer to be called Christians.

At the very start of 2021, I got contacted by Fr. Arsany —who's an expert on the subject matter — to add a TTS functionality to his team's digital Coptic-Arabic dictionary : Naqlun which is named after the Naqlun monastery in fayium. With all that history , I really thought this would've been implemented fully by now. To my shock and surprise, it wasn't !! .

If we’re to create synthesis for a language, we’ll need to understand its phonology and have some high quality recordings for it. We don’t have the later unfortunately for the time being but we have most rules for the bohairic dialect that were passed generation to generation in our church.

As we had to start somewhere, we thought to use the phonology we know to create a coptic-IPA map that will enable us to then pass the resulting IPA to an online provider to read. The idea was also confirmed when we contacted Prof. Amir Zeldes — who heavily studied Coptic and created the online Coptic dictionary. Prof. Zeldes also believed the idea can work.

As of the 19th of April 2021 , we’ve prototyped this Coptic-IPA mapping and published it on https://coptic-tts.web.app/ . It’s currently in review by linguists, and we’re on the way to open-source the project and publish as an npm package. We can also port this part to different platforms as needed.

All of our team is really excited and we really hope we’ll reach bigger and more elaborate milestones.

Thanks.

B.L

New App : Pope117 - In commemoration of Pope Shenouda III

2018-03-21T21:22:00.001+02:00

Today, with the help of my dear friend Ehab Magdy , I'm proud to announce the release of Pope 117 mobile application for Android and IPhone. The application serves an enormous library of Pope Shenouda III's publications,writings, sermons as well as audio and video content picturing him and his life since 1970. Pope Shenouda was one of the most distinguished and unique teachers and leaders of his time. His words of wisdom, guided by Lord Jesus, stay to give us patience and understanding of how to live to the fullest and still seek eternity and forgiveness for ones sins. His quotes, poems and articles bring all people together instead of dividing them over political whirls, extreme religious views or mundane concerns of day-to-day life. We're extremely happy and proud to have participated in such a project. We also thank our brothers at Prince Theodore Family (PTF) for their continuous support and sponsorship. The link to the android application is below

cURL on Windows in only two steps

2017-03-30T23:32:00.004+02:00

Hello and welcome. This is really a short post here,

cURL is a very useful tool for interacting with web APIs and services. I just found that lots of students and friends refrain from following lots of steps to install such a simple CLI tool.

I depend in my proposition on chocolatey and a package created by their wonderful community, so the first step is to actually install chocolatey by the command below. If you already have it installed, skip to step two.

Step One
Run on cmd.exe as an administrator :

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

At this time , you might want to close your cmd and reopen it , again as an administrator

Step Two

cinst curl -y
That's it, now from the cmd try 


curl wttr.in/cairo




TaDaa !! and that would be the weather in Cairo.. It's getting hot in here 😆 .. see ya..

PDF24: The Easiest free tool to combine images into a PDF file on Windows

2016-12-24T13:52:00.001+02:00

I wanted to join some scans into a single pdf , and they're all in png. My requirement is simple, I've got some images and i want to combine them into a single PDF. I googled out everywhere and the closest I've found was this article from this gentleman here for the excellent tool graphicsmagick . However, if you're not a CMD lover, you probably won't be fancying the idea of writing down all the images in the order you want them in the PDF. PDF24 gives you the image combining feature out-of-the-box and it takes you three simple steps.

1- Download PDF24 ,install and run (duh!), the interface looks like the following.

2- From the PDF , click the PDF printer assistant , and drag the images to the left pane like below.
Note that you can use the up and down arrows to sort the images as you'll like them in the final PDF.

3- Now , use the join button (the one with the infinity symbol ) . The program will join them into one item.

4- Finally , use the Save as PDF and choose the file location .

That's it , have a blast.

Raspberry Pi Home Server

2016-12-21T04:12:00.002+02:00

Introduction

So , I’m upgrading my home server from MK802 to a Raspberry Pi . The specs are similar , I just wanted to try something new and at the same time give room for implementing IoT in the future.
Anyway , If it’s going to replace my old one, It should act as a

Torrent server
Printing Server
Scanning server
File server.

I'm going to cover these points in this article and update it as time allows. I’ve chosen to start with a headless setup, here I use Jessie Lite , which has no X-Server (no window manager)

Installation

1- Server Image: This step is essential to install operating system on the raspberry-pi. The operating system image can be downloaded from here , and the img file has to be cloned on a micro-SD card (class 10) . I followed the link here , All straightforward.
2- Initial Admin configuration
I connected the pi via putty after connecting it to the network . The default username is pi and password: raspberry
I directly added a new user using adduser command , since this new user is not an admin i used the command adduser myusername sudo to add my new user to the sudoers file.
Now I need to change password for the pi default user , or just delete it completely. I also wanted to change the device name from raspberrypi to something else. So I edited the /etc/hosts and the /etc/hostname files (see the second link below) using nano then reboot.

Admin Tools

I’d go with webmin anytime i wanted to quickly manage stuff on linux.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following line

deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

close and save , then run this list of commands:

wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
apt-key add jcameron-key.asc

apt-get update
apt-get install webmin

File Server

Before making the raspberry pi work as a server , I must have a permanent disk space to share. I usually attach a flash drive to the system and make that my transfer space. I use it also as a scratch disk for my torrents clients later on. Doing this , in my opinion , extends the life of the MicroSD on which the system is installed.
so , to display disks I use sudo blkid to get the flash drive UUID value, please look here for guidance.
I go and mkdir /mnt/DownloadDisk for example on a folder in which the flash will mount
Here I use exfat as a filesystem for my flashdrive so the important step here is to install exfat-fuse before doing any fstab changes.

apt-get install exfat-fuse

then I edit the fstab and add the line

UUID=theUUIDyouGot /mnt/DownloadDisk exfat rw,user,uid=65534,gid=65534,permissions,umask=0111,nofail  0 0

Note that uid and gid here are pointing to nouser and nogroup ids respectively. If you don’t know the uid on your system , just use “id nouser” command
Once this step is done, we can work on enabling the file server from webmin. To do this go to webmin , go to the unused modules then to the samba file server node. After enabling it you’ll have.
The final step will be enabling a file share , the samba interface is very clear .. Click on the “create a new file share” and then you’re guided to the next page

The share in my case will point to the /mnt/DownloadDisk , and i will put the ownership to nobody / nogroup with permissions 666 (all read , all write ,nobody executes ) .. also from the share settings , allow the folder to be writable , allow guest and force user to nobody. make sure that the file permission is also set to allow “nobody” user to write.

Torrent Server

sudo apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

Easy .. now I need to setup the daemon and the web user interface so that I have it running on a port I need. To do this , the configuration of the daemon is to be found at /etc/transmission-daemon.
The file which has all the settings you’ll probably need is the settings.json , just copy it , and then edit the original with nano.

IMPORTANT To reflect settings changes on the daemon , it has to be restarted.

To reflect the settings , only use this command

sudo invoke-rc.d transmission-daemon reload

If you don’t do so , the settings will be replaced by the defaults.

The explanation of almost every setting key is present at this site

Print Server

One of the main reasons I went to the idea of configuring a home server was to re-use my USB printers wirelessly and from any other computer at home. It gives you so much power not having to stand-up and connect your laptop .
The steps are not really that hard , here we go:
1- We need to install the printer driver, mine is HP , so i use
sudo apt-get install hplip
and then ran hp-doctor to fix any missing packages.
~~( for my case i had to add the foo2xqx driver , followed the instructions~~ ~~here~~ )
for my printer (P1005) i installed printer-driver-foo2zjs through apt-get
2- The server software

sudo apt-get install cups

then to enable the remote web administration , use the command

sudo cupsctl --remote-admin

finally , restart the service , use : sudo service cups restart
finally , the admin interface is located at : https://localserveraddres:631
Note: You might want to add your user to the lpadmin group for admin access to the CUPS web interface , specially if you’re not using the root user for administering your linux box . the commmand is
sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin username

Scan Server

I’ve done this before . However, there is always room for making the process easier by doing a bit of research before going all the way. I found this ubuntu guide and this guide from debian wiki as well.
Following the debian’s guide, I’ve installed the three packages sane-utils ,libsane and inetutils-inetd,then used the command:

sudo nano /etc/default/saned

and replaced the "no" by a "yes" here

# Set to yes to start saned        
RUN=yes

Also added this line

to /etc/inetd.conf , also by nano

sane-port stream tcp nowait saned.saned /usr/sbin/saned saned

added the saned to the lp group

sudo usermod -a -G lp saned

and finally append the access list to /etc/sane.d/saned.conf

192.168.0.0/24

Of course, this is the network Id of your internal network.
Some more info from Ubuntu’s guide :

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/saned.socket

and add the following text

# Defaults for the saned initscript, from sane-utils

# To enable under systemd please read README.Debian
# Set to yes to start saned under SysV
RUN=no

# Set to the user saned should run as
RUN_AS_USER=saned
cat /etc/systemd/system/saned.socket
[Unit]
Description=saned incoming socket

[Socket]
ListenStream=6566
Accept=yes
MaxConnections=1

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

One more file to create

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/saned@.service

and fill with

[Unit]
Description=Scanner Service
Requires=saned.socket

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/saned
User=saned
Group=saned
StandardInput=null
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
# Environment=SANE_CONFIG_DIR=/etc/sane.d SANE_DEBUG_DLL=255

the last command to put it in the startup is

sudo systemctl enable saned.socket

A reboot will also do the same effect. after that you can use the tool from my earlier post or http://sanetwain.ozuzo.net/ or whatever tool you find interesting from windows to test your scanner remotely. Please share yours here if you like.

References
http://dimabobkov.blogspot.com.eg/2015/11/install-and-configure-raspbian-jessie.html
http://www.howtogeek.com/167195/how-to-change-your-raspberry-pi-or-other-linux-devices-hostname/
http://askubuntu.com/questions/45607/how-to-mount-partition-permanently
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-finding-using-uuids-to-update-fstab/
https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/transmission

Getting Visual Studio 2015/2013 Nuget Extensions and Packages behind a proxy

2016-02-08T09:22:00.002+02:00

When working with Visual Studio behind a proxy you may be blocked from getting extensions for visual studio

To have this fixed, provided your proxy , head over to the visual studio shortcut (the one in the start menu), right click to bring the context menu , choose properties and from the general tab , click on Open file location.

Next to the devenv.exe , you'll find a devenv.exe.config , open it with any regular text editor

At the xml element systems.net , add the below item under settings

Remember to replace the proxyip with your organization proxy IP address and port with your proxy port.
The whole systems.net block should like something like

Restart the visual studio and you're good to go. Now extensions will bring results as it should.

Enjoy.

Sudo for Windows, and optionally through launchy

2015-12-27T14:39:00.001+02:00

Sometimes you need a fast shell with elevated privileges to perform certain administrative tasks. An easy way to do this is to right click on the command prompt link and choose the run-as-administrator option. I personally prefer having a shortname from my favorite launcher Launchy or from the working Shell, but we'll come to that later.

To follow along, we have to have chocolatey installed for this matter. The installation is a single-step. We'll install the sudo package from Chocolatey using the below command

cinst sudo -y

Whenever an elevated shell is needed you can sudo cmd ,or if it's a single command you can use sudo followed by the command.

(optional)
My favorite option is having an elevated shell right inside launchy for quick access. To do this, open launchy options --> plugins tab and select the runner item
Below cmd, add another short name (ex: cdma ) with the below attributes

Now press OK , close and reopen launchy and try cmda (or whatever shortname you chose )

And this will start the command prompt as an administrator.

Enjoy

Set Canary as the live preview browser for brackets

2015-12-26T03:26:00.001+02:00

So i use the cool adobe IDE Brackets for JavaScript development. I also use a specific version of chrome (Canary) for my testing and development purposes. I noticed that canary was not detected by Brackets for the live preview feature.

Digging on the groups i found that brackets reads a specific registry key :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\chrome.exe

For Canary to work with brackets , we have to set this registry key. I will point regedit to the app paths ( you can do this faster with RegJump ) :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\

Add a key with the name chrome.exe and copy the path of the canary to it's value , it will be something like (replace userfolder with your profile folder name):
C:\Users\UserFolder\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\chrome.exe

The end result should look like

Now close the registry editor and try the live preview, and it will open canary like a boss

Syncing your files from a remote server at Logon using FreeFileSync

2015-12-18T22:13:00.000+02:00

Hello and welcome,
There is a reason laziness is one of most sought-after virtues of really good Programmers and IT guys. That is because if something takes more than a minute to do and can be automated, we'd rather script it , have a look yourself .

Here's a scenario, I have a home server that downloads stuff using Transmission Bittorrent client , it pushes the completed downloads to a folder on the server called Downloads (duh). I happen to share that folder on the network for windows machines so I have a mapped drive pointing to the downloads folder. Of course going there , check what's new and take a copy on my machine is the task i need to automate.

For this task I choose freefilesync because it's a free software , anyway , after installing I will first create a new configuration and choose the source and the destination.

leaving everything will do a two way sync, in my case I only want a one way or a custom sync , I will leave that to your judgement. Press compare to make sure everything works ( it seems like i have how i met your mother season 8 on the queue , yaay ! )

Next, I will save that configuration as a batch job

Since , this is planned to start at the login , I will probably want to set up few settings to stop the nagging as much as possible

I will save that then head to windows task scheduler , a simple search in the start menu for "schedule tasks" will get it.

Will choose the task to run at the login

then at what to run , I will put the paths to the application and the saved scripts as follows.

Press next and finish. I will restart now to see if i get my new series synced.

Here it is after the restart

looks like I'm having a movie night.

Enjoyyyyy

Map a network drive permanently with non-guest Credentials

2015-12-18T18:51:00.000+02:00

Hi there,
So, a quick command to create a permanent mapped network drive on windows using credentials that are different from the ones you use for login on windows.

The command to create a mapped drive with the letter X (or any letter you choose other than the ones already used) is :

net use x: /persistent:yes \\Server\ShareName /user:UserName password

You'll replace:
Server : Server name
ShareName : shared directory name
UserName : username that has the access
Password : password for the above username

Reference
TechNet
HowtoGeek

From Windows to Ubuntu : Essential software to feel at home

2015-04-05T23:30:00.000+02:00

Having a good experience with Ubuntu for more than five years now, I continue on installing it on all my PCs and laptops. After my latest installation , I opened Firefox to listen to one my recordings on soundcloud and got surprised my tracks don't play because of a media decoding error. As i resolution , i got my extras package installed and the day was set. Still , I went in circles for moments before I remembered this package. I decided to write this article to keep a list of the bare essentials you need to feel at home when you install fresh ubuntu on you computer. I'm keeping it here to the minimum. If you'd like a more comprehensive list (software recommendations ), please have a look at the references down below.

1- Ubuntu Restricted Extras package :

Click here to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package

2- Flash player for firefox and chrome

Flash Plugin for Firefox and Chrome

3- Java libraries : from the excellent WebUpd8Team PPA

WebUpd8 Article on installing Oracle Java

4- Alternatives to all the popular commercial software :

AlternativeTo.net

References:

Enjoy :)

Filebot, A Quick Subtitles Downloader

2015-01-21T20:46:00.000+02:00

FileBot

I am writing this time to cast some light on a great tool that I've been using happily for the last six months now. Filebot is a tool that does many file-related tasks, among which is finding subtitles and downloading them. While having a not-so-great graphical interface , The CLI is just awesome.
The key to this program is a single command line

filebot -get-subtitles path/to/movie

To boost the process of finding the subtitle to a movie i use the Shift+right click tip to show "Open Command Window Here" option.

Then in the command line just use the command

The subtitle is downloaded right next to the file :) and now you can play it with your favorite media player (mine is VLC)

Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Update: Apparently, -get-subtitles command was disabled due to reported abuse, so you have to use a different command -get-missing-subtitles.Unfortunately, It doesn't work out-of-the box, it has to be configured. Make sure you're registered on opensubtitles.org and use the below command

filebot -script fn:configure

Then enter your opensubtitles.org user name and password. The -get-missing-subtitles can then be used exactly as it's predecessor.

MK802+ as a home server (Part 8) : Scan Server for windows (32bit /64bit) based computers

2014-07-18T03:23:00.000+02:00

Whoa , part 8 . Yes i've not published some of other parts yet but since this is done i will publish it first :D.

For this post , i need to set my all in one old scanner for use over the network . I actually found a lot of people doing this , so i thought why not do it with my MK802 as well , specially that I've been using it for almost a year now. I have an HP All-in-one F2280 and this is the model that i will test with through this post.

Installing the Scanner
At first , I couldn't get the scanner to be detected by debian , so i ran
hp-setup -i and still , it couldn't detect the scanner by itself.
Anyway , I installed the HPLip , with apt-get install Hplip
I did a test to check that the scanner is detected, i used the command

scanimage -L

The result came out as follows

which basically means the scanner is now detected.

Next , i go setup the printer using the command

hp-setup -i

and then follow the wizard.

Configuring Sane-Utils
Because we need to enable the scanner remotely the Sane-utils should be run as a daemon (background server) . To do this we need to run saned. I got the how to from this guide . Please note that i'm using nano (a text editor) instead of gedit to configure the saned daemon.
So i will use the command

nano /etc/default/saned

and edit the line RUN=no to become RUN=yes next is configuring the access list by

nano /etc/sane.d/saned.conf

we'll continue with this guide here . There are no special remarks here except that , just like the last paragraph in the guide , we may have to a modify permissions of saned user and set reading permission on the /dev path of the scanner. You'll also notice that i commented a modification to the guide, please read and apply it or it won't work.

sudo adduser saned lp

sudo adduser saned saned

Note: To find the /dev path we'll go to the /dev using the cd command. Now unplug and replug the scanner's usb and run command dmesg. Mine turned to be usblp0 under usb/lp0 This is done by running the command (i got it from here)

chown root:saned /dev/usb/lp0 && chmod g+rw /dev/usb/lp0

The Windows Front End I'm using windows 8.1 64 bit , the only solution that worked was software published on sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/sanewinds/?source=directory Please download , install and run. Press acquire then you'll get the host configuration Provided that everything was setup correctly the next dialog will bring you the available devices ,and your scanner should be listed. The program finally provides an interface for doing the actual scanning. Happy Scanning over the network !!!

Update:
The Linux (Ubuntu) Front End was a bit tricky to say the least. The general process entitles installing xsane, sane-utils and libsane (and hplip if you have an HP). we should also be adding the IP of the saned server to the end of a file gedit /etc/sane.d/net.conf .
For my HP all in one, things were a bit different
1- I copied the printer URL from CUPS server on the saned server , the URL will look something like that hp:/usb/MODEL_NAME?serial=sn . MODEL_NAME is to be copied for the next step
2- I added the printer in CUPS to the client (add printer --> HPLIP) in following format
hp:/net/MODEL_NAME?ip=SANED_SERVER_IP
replacing MODEL_NAME and SANED_SERVER_IP with their respective values
3- It may also be worth to mention to re-download hplip from http://hplipopensource.com
4- starting Xsane found the scanner

Reference
SaneOverNetwork : Debian Wiki

MK802+ as a home server (Part 4) : a permanent mount and SMB server for the home network

2014-01-03T21:09:00.002+02:00

So , If you've been following the other posts of the series , you'll know that now we've so far installed a debian server with a webmin web ui on it.

In this post, i intend to setup a permanent mount of a Flash Drive and a shared folder from inside this flash drive to be accessed by a windows client. The fixed drive is going to be also used as a scratch disk for the transmission-daemon later, in order not to use the SD that has the system for the same purpose.

I assume that you're connected to the device using SSH with the root account. I use putty for that purpose as i am working from a windows machine

Flash drive at a fixed Mount:

I. [Optional ] Formatting the flash drive as XFS

Since i intend to use the flash drive for samba , after some research , i found that XFS filesystem is the most recommended for file server. To format the flash drive with XFS , you can use webmin or install the xfsprogs package and continue using ssh.

to list the connected devices use the command

fdisk -l

your flash disk should be shown as /dev/sda (can be also shown as /dev/sdb or sdc according to the number of usb connected drives)

of course to use xfs file format i will install xfsprogs package, if it wasn't already installed

apt-get install xfsProgs

and to create the xfs partition i used the command

mkfs.xfs -f /dev/sda

anyway , now I want to mount it. So, I create a mount point (an empty folder which will be replaced by the disk content when the disk is mounted) :

mkdir /mnt/DownloadDisk

to test the mounting

mount /dev/sda /mnt/DownloadDisk

II. Choosing the fixed mount point

Now the most important part is making it a fixed mount

First of all , we ought to know that linux mounts are stored in the /etc/fstab file , we need to edit that file in order to have our mount work on each boot of the system. Before we do any editing we should have a backup. You can use the cp (copy) command to make a backup

cd /etc
cp fstab fstab.BAK

The next step is editing the fstab file. we do so by the following command:

vi /etc/fstab

Add this line at the end of the file (press "a" to enter the editing mode) . You should replace sda with identifier of your drive

/dev/sda /mnt/DownloadDisk auto defaults 0 0

When you're done, press , then ":" , then write "wq" (for write and quit) and finally . This will save the file.

Now that you've finished editing the fstab file , reboot the device , and make sure that you can access the drive by

cd /mnt/DownloadDisk

If you want to understand the fstab file structure , go here

SMB server setup:

In this part i intend to use samba server to enable a folder on the fixed mount to be available for reading by the windows machine. All i need is to setup a directory in which all the completed downloads will be moved and hence be shared to the other machines in my network.

considering you're the root , enter the following command from your ssh client

apt-get install samba

Next step will be setting up a windows share. For this part , I will use webmin's module for samba management
Installation:
1- Open the webmin interface
2- Go next to webmin-> webmin configuration -> webmin modules
3- Choose "Standard module" , press the button and choose "samba"
4- Click on the "Install Module" button

If you did everything correctly you should have a similar interface (webmin => Unused modules => Samba Windows FileSharing):

before proceeding , i created a directory inside the mounted volume to work as the share

mkdir /mnt/DownloadDisk/Downloads

We need to create a user name to be used from the other windows machines , instead of using the root password.. All the following steps can be performed easily with webmin (users and groups module) , i just want to do it using the terminal as a personal preference.

To create a group

groupadd DownloadsAccess

so in the terminal , create a user , replace username by the name you user name you want to add:

adduser username

add the user to the group

usermod -a -G GROUPNAME USERNAME

so my command will look like

usermod -a -G DownloadsAccess username

We need to give access to the group on the created Donwloads directory
So i modify group ownership of the folder

chgrp DownloadsAccess Downloads

Then i assign the folder's group write and read access permission

chmod -R g+rw /mnt/DownloadDisk/Downloads/

now we have to make samba aware of our user:

smbpasswd -a username

It will prompt for a password , you can enter the password that you're going to use for this user name when connecting from other machines.

1- Next will be to add a share with the "Create a new file share" link

2- In the create file share window, add the user group to the valid user.

3- Up to now i have a read file access on whatever files put in \\MyServer\Downloads , which is the goal of this section.

Here is a test from my windows machine where i could connect to the drive:

This step actually concludes the post

Read more:
http://lwn.net/Articles/476263/

Printatestpage.com , a simple printer test page

2013-12-30T18:25:00.002+02:00

Network is working, can't find that button that says print a test page.
I mean, i work in the IT business, i can, but what about other people ?. Moreover , does windows printer test page or the one in Mac or CUPS (the mac and linux printing system) really test your printer ? With all due respect, NO.

Fed up as you're, I created a very simple and quick site printatestpage.com which actually prints meaningful test pages.

Visit the page here :
www.PrintaTestPage.com

Getting a list of .Lib files of a library to add to Visual studio C++ project configuration

2013-12-10T00:41:00.003+02:00

If you want to add a library to your C++ project in Visual Studio , you have to do all of the three :
1- Add the library's include directories under
Project Properties => C/C++ => General => Additional Include Directories
2- Add the library's Lib directories under
Linker => General => Additional Library Directories
3- The last step (the whole purpose of this post) is to list all the .Lib files that you're going to use specifically to Linker=>Input=>Additional Dependencies , and for this i suggest that you

Go inside the directory containing the .lib files
Right click in any empty area inside the folder while holding shift, this will bring the "Open command window here" option
Run the command
```
dir *.lib /B|clip 
```

Since you have a list of the .lib files at the clipboard, go to your project's property dialog , to input and "additional dependencies" drop down and paste your .lib list there . Enjoy

MK802+ as a home server (Part 3) : Installing a debian distro , a different apporach

2013-08-09T05:05:00.002+02:00

Well , my last setup crashed , apparently the SD card from which i did the booting was poorly manufactured. I had error blocks everywhere at the start of the SD from which i booted my MK802+ . In this post i'll attempt to re-install a debian distro with no gnome (the graphical window manager) just to try a different method with a new SD card.

So , I downloaded the respective distro from here : http://romanrm.ru/dl/a10/debian/ and i followed the instructions for this tutorial, and these are the steps that worked for me:

Since i had to use a live linux (ubuntu) to prepare the SD card, I wanted to gain root access to be able to run the commands in the tutorial (bzip2, dd , etc.. ).

To gain root access on live linux, use the following command

sudo su

The rest of the steps are straight forward:

bzip2 -dc a10-debian-server-2gb*.bz2 /dev/devicefile

Replace /dev/devicefile by your device's file name , usually it's sda. Or it can be listed with mmc prefix.It is important that you select the correct drive otherwise you can format your main drive and loose your files

For the MK802+ , i used the file a10_mid_1gb_hwpack.tar.xz I got from http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/users/amery/sunxi-3.0/latest/

dd if=bootloader/sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/devicefile bs=1024 seek=8
dd if=bootloader/u-boot.bin of=/dev/devicefile bs=1024 seek=32

I rebooted the device and then i could successfully log in to it using SSH via Putty
username: root , password : passsword

Additional steps for installing the script.bin are further described from step 7 here (the source for this part of the post)

Installing an administrative interface:
Since i have a little bit of experience with Webmin . I think a web UI will make my life easier (especially with SMB and Apache later-on). Its installation is well described here : http://www.webmin.com/deb.html
If you're using Wget to download the package.. If the installation of the dependencies complain about other dependencies , run the following command at the end.

apt-get -f install

It should give you something like
Webmin install complete. You can now login to https://debian:10000/

Of course you'll change debian with your server IP Address

Now , Webmin will work and here is a screenshot from my current system's webmin:

Backup , Backup , Backup:

Learning from my mistake , and before i go anywhere further , i will seek a backup solution. For now , an SD clone will do. However , later on , i will seek better ways of backup especially that i don't want to turn the server off.

First , Shut the device off , use the shutdown now command .

Second , power off the device and take the SD out and insert it in another PC to be backed up.

For the imaging I use the amazing RoadKil.net tool DiskImage ( get it here)

References:
http://romanrm.ru/en/a10/debian
http://www.webmin.com/deb.html

Have you mooed today ?!!!

Creating a true dynamic search in Microsoft Access

2013-07-05T12:27:00.004+02:00

Hi there ,
So I was working on an access database and I wanted to implement a search box that updates a subform dynamically as the user enters text. I searched online a lot and all i found was made using really ugly VBA code to set a search filter manually. I will show you how to do this using two VBA lines , a temp variable and a query. ENJOOYYY!!

Here is my form layout :

Now , the steps

1st : Make a query that displays the search results

Nothing fancy here, i just make a query showing all results unfiltered , typically what you would have if the search box has nothing in it.

2nd : Handle the OnChange event of the search box

So i create an [event procedure] and in the OnChange event I do the following

Private Sub txtSearch_Change() 

TempVars!SearchText = txtSearch.Text 

DoCmd.Requery "sf_SearchResults" 

End Sub

The Trick here : I depend on the tempvars which is an access structure that holds temporary variables.
The next thing is to requery the subform and this is what I do by calling the DoCmd.Requery function

3rd : Create a search criteria which depends on the temporary variable just set

Add a new column.

Open The Expression Editor : Right click and choose build

Finally you just enter an expression that will do the filtering for you , for example:

InStr([Eng Stud Name],[TempVars]![SearchText])

and in the criteria

<>0

Ta daaa !! here is an animated gif of the search in action :

MK802+ as a home server (Part 2)

2013-06-01T04:32:00.000+02:00

Ok , If you were following from the earlier post , I wanted to install a linux distro on my MK802+ . This is the starting point for this post

I ---> Installing a Linux distro on a MicroSD card

Having been acquainted to Ubuntu and Debian , I was inclined to a Wheezy Debian distro compiled for MK802 and published here . This is the distro that I'll be using for this setup.

Download the zip for 1080p version packaged for MK802ii , it worked for me without modifying the bootloader
Extract the zip file , you should have an IMG file which contains an image of the pre-installed debian distro.
Download Win 32 Disk Imager to restore (install the image) the IMG file on the microSD from a windows machine. All you need is to browse to the image file and select the drive. If you're working on a mac machine you can use SuperDuper! , and if you're working from a linux machine , you can use partimage.
Install the microSD in your device and connect it to your machine.

By following the steps above, you should be able to view the Debian desktop once you connect it to your HDMI screen ( or VGA using an adapter ,see the earlier post ).

II ----> Connecting peripherals to the MK802+

Although the system is ready for running now, I found earlier that my MK802+ gets very hot after one hour of operation. Knowing how hot it is in Egypt , I had to consider a cooling mechanism . I put together a USB fan (see here) for use with this system . Because MK802+ has only one USB host port and i would like to later connect multiple devices to it, I bought a powered USB hub.

The reason I suggest that you buy a powered hub , is that you don't want to rely on the power coming from the MK802 device itself and also to be able to later connect peripherals (flash disks , external hard disks , USB Ethernet cards or printers).. A powered hub usually comes with an external adapter that provides power, I've seen a lot of people who couldn't move their mouses because they used bus-powered hubs with their devices.

III ---> Network and Internet

In order to put the server on the internet , we have to connect it to the internet. I chose to connect the device to Ethernet using a USB to Ethernet adapter (like the one in the pic). The next logical step, once the device gets an IP, is to add the mac address tp the IP Address reservation table of my router . This will give the same ip address each time the device is started, and will allow me to add rules for port forwarding , etc..

The current system now looks like the following :

At last , once you're done with the setup , you can use TightVNC to connect to the device and disconnect the physical screen once and for all.. I don't mind sharing a snapshot of my MK802+ server here. The default user and password are both set to : debian.

ENJOYYY ...

Making of a USB fan

2013-05-02T00:30:00.001+02:00

So, I wanted a fan to cool my mk802+ , because it gets so hot after one hour of operation. Instead of buying a readymade fan, dad suggested that we make one ourselves. So,I went on YouTube and found that this was possible. So first step is to get:

A cpu or a case fan
An old USB cable
A tool to cut and peel wires with
Black insulating tape for

First, cut the USB cable, and peel it, you should have 4 wires; 2 for power and 2 for data.

We'll be focusing on the power ones (usually the red and the black ones), same thing for the cpu fan.

We depend on the fact that both the USBs and the Fans run on 5.5 V

Same thing for the fan , we peel the wires and make them ready for welding with the USB ones.

Finally, after some trials and errors to which wires will work, we weld everything together and here is a working USB fan.

This is another one i made at work

All the files in a USB drive turned into EXE files

2013-04-09T10:55:00.000+02:00

That's a panic , right ? . So , i got this flash drive with all the files inside of it shown as windows executables, when i showed all the system and the hidden files, I found that all the original files were hidden, and the shortcuts on the flash were only targeted to run the virus.

As I expected , the USB drive was virused . To cure it , i did the following :
1- Scanned it with AVG , to remove the virus.
2- Opened the CMD as an administrator.
3- Entered the following command :

attrib -S -H /S /D

-S : Removes the system attributes.
-H : Removes the Hidden attributes
/S : Works on sub-folders and files.
/D : Works on the directories' attributes as well.

That's it .. Good Luck

MK802+ as a home server (Part 1)

2013-03-31T03:00:00.000+02:00

So , I live in Egypt , no plans to upgrade my internet speed , and i have a huge list of downloads that i need done overnight. I don't want to leave my main desktop computer running all day with its loud fans and all. So ,the only solution I propose is having a home server. Ok , long story short, i bought an MK802+ (1GB model) MicroPC and i am planning to run it as a server for managing my downloads for now , and may be later help me with more techie issues like e.g. GIT server , DNS tunneling , etc.. I don't know how it will behave if it works 24/7 but i will try it anyway.

1st challenge : Get it to work with my old VGA monitor :
I knew that Mk802 has only an HDMI C (mini) output , so i bought this converter from amazon. At the time of writing, i didn't find any similar converters inEgypt, I asked most computer malls and most computer shops , including Radio Shack, they just don't have it. Anyway , you can always get stuff shipped to Egypt from amazon using edfa3ly , or may be by getting to know Americans :P .Anyway , it worked perfectly with my VGA monito.

Ok , so by also buying an HDMI C to A converter from RadioShack , i had this setup here ---------------------------------------------------->>>>
1- The Micro PC
2- A USB mouse connected to the USB host port
3- To the top : an HDMI C to A , and then the HDMI to VGA adapter
4- A USB cable connecting it to a USB port of a computer just to get power to boot the device

Note : The MK802 comes with a power adapter , so you either power it using the USB 2.0 mini cable or the adapter to power the MicroPc.

2nd Challenge : Choose a suitable linux distro and install in on a new MicroSD
Since I am already waiting for my SD card to Ship (I could have bought it from any mall , but i am just too lazy) . I am now looking up different websites to get a linux distro that will fit my future needs without a lot of headache .. Once I get that i will flash it to the SD and boot from it, hopefully.

Good luck to me , i guess.

Where to download the full version of Skype

2012-11-19T04:45:00.002+02:00

Hello hello .. So , I am always looking for full downloads , when i find them i share them here .. now It's Skype..

Link to the full download .. http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full

Where to download AVG 2016 standalone offline installer

2012-10-21T03:10:00.003+02:00

Hi again , don't spend time looking for the offline installer, The link to the AVG 2016 offline download files is here . The link is direct download for the windows 64-bit version of the AVG. Thanks to AVG company for providing one of the best virus protection around the globe for free....

Windows Arabic Keyboard Layout for Mac Keyboards

2012-06-23T01:26:00.002+02:00

I recently found that the Mac arabic keyboard layouts available online didn't work on my computer. I happen to work with a macbook pro with windows installed as a second OS option.. I wanted to use the Arabic language for writing my files , and then i discovered that the arabic mapping was different. I went online and i tried the popular Aktub and moeys arabic layouts , both didn't work for me :( .. I couldn't really identify the problem ,both will install just fine , but will not enable the layout on my 64 bit windows 7 machine.. Anyway , i searched online and i found this amazing tool from Microsoft , it's called The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator , and this is actually the tool that the mentioned website used to create their keyboard layouts. So , i created my own layout , and I also published it on GitHub , an open repository for code and downloads, so that people can re-create their own keyboards from the current layout if they want to...

Download Link @ github : here

Source Link @ github : here

Additional instructions to use the download :

Download the zip files from the link above
extract to a location you'll remember
Run the Setup ,then you'll have the language automatically added on
Use Alt+Shift to switch the language

It has been tested for compatibility with All windows versions : 7, 8, 9 and 10