I just wanted to quickly automate a task using my favourite tool SikuliX. Therefore I had to make it press a key combination. Trial and error with the first web-results did not work.

First, because the syntax seems to have changed and second, because I ignored upper and lower case in my test scripts - which SikuliX does not.

Here are some examples of key combinations you can use in SikuliX:

# CTRL+HOME
type(Key.HOME, KeyModifier.CTRL)

# ALT+F4
type(Key.F4, KeyModifier.ALT)

# CTRL+v
type('v', KeyModifier.CTRL)

# CTRL+ALT+ESC
type(Key.ESC, KeyModifier.CTRL+KeyModifier.ALT)

the problem

When I was trying to set up a FileZilla Server using FTPS and the default settings I got the error “ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server”.

the cause

This was due to the default parameter for the IP address retrieval.

The erroneous script always returns 127.0.0.1.

the solution

I’ve set up a script which returns the current public IP.

https://gpunktschmitz.com/ip/

When I first heard of http://speedof.me I instantly fell in love with it. In the beginning it was ad-free, fast, reliable and mobile-friendly. Eventually they added ads and I didn’t like the delay in page load time.

Furthermore, all i wanted to know when running those speed tests was the download speed. SpeedOf.Me offers more, you can run the test multiple times and you with see a history with the times and figures. A feature I rarely used/needed.

Having problems with my internet connection my provider pointed me to https://fast.com. There I was again falling in love with a webpage. It loads instantly (as there is not much to load) and immediately starts what I want to know - testing the download speed. It’s just perfect as it is for my use cases - Thanks Netflix!

the problem

Using a current PowerShell with tab completion (the shell adds all quotes and spaces) you get the command:

Robocopy.exe 'C:\tmp\source with spaces\' 'C:\tmp\target with spaces\' /e

And executing it you get the error message:

Note that the source and target are “strangly” interpreted. The \' at the end of the source and target escapes the slash and thus the whole command gets erroneous.

The solution

The solution is super easy, you simply remove the last backslash from source and target.

Robocopy.exe 'C:\tmp\source with spaces' 'C:\tmp\target with spaces' /e

The Problem

Quite some time ago I wasn’t able to delete a device (storage target) named “internal RAID” in Backup Exec 15. The GUI came up with this error message:

“The device (or media server) cannot be deleted because existing jobs or selection lists remain.”

Going through all jobs in the GUI i could not find any with the storage as target of a backup job. Very strange …

The Google-Search

Firing up Google I found the technical article from Symantec Veritas TECH126877 suggesting to call the Symantec Support?!?!1

The solution

I could not believe this was the suggested way to remove a device from Backup Exec and by chance stumbled upon the “Backup Exec Management Command Line”-Tool.

Firing it up welcomes you with the basic commands. Typing “Get-BECommand” gives you an overview of all available BackupExec commands.

In this list I found the commands “Get-BEJob” and “Remove-BEJob”. So let’s check what we get if we run “Get-BEJob”.

Great, we get an object which we can filter by “Storage”. So let’s see what “Remove-BEJob” takes as an input.

I see, so I can pipe those objects from “Get-BEJob” to “Remove-BEJob”.

All it takes is to get all BackupExec jobs using “Get-BEJob”, filter those where the storage is “internal RAID” and pipe those objects to “Remove-BEJob”.

One can also add “-WhatIf” to see what it removes .. just to be sure ;)

Get-BEJob | where storage -eq "internal RAID" | Remove-BEJob

All it takes is a bit of PowerShell .. or one could of course call the Symantec/Veritas Support …

suddenly my laptop did not suspend when i closed the lid. i checked all settings of my linux mint 17 installation and all settings where correct. a quick search pointed me to http://askubuntu.com/questions/395428/laptop-does-not-suspend-when-lid-is-closed.

the solution for me was to edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf, changing the option HandleLidSwitch to suspend (valid options are suspend, hibernate and poweroff) and reboot the machine.

why this?

when egofm (my favourite german radio stations) stopped supporting my mobile operating system (ios 5) with their app i looked for the direct link to their stream. i was using direct links for my other favourite radio station somafm for several years and thus created a site with direct links to the streams of both radio stations for easy access on the go using my mobile (iphone). after testing the links with other operating systems i noticed that you need an app to playback the streams on android or windows phone .. so no guarantee that it works on any other operating system out of the box …

for whom?

i originally created it for my private use only. but as some friends asked for the link i thought i could as well make it public.

the link

http://radio.gpunktschmitz.de

howto playback

iphone

using the iphone the streams are played with no additional software needed.

windows phone (8 or later)

when you tap on one of the links you will be presented with a selection of apps that are supposed to be able to play those streams. install one of them and give it a try (i had issues with egofm lately .. dunno what’s wrong there).

android

as i don’t own an android device this is only a suggestion/wild guess as result of some google searches. there is an app named servestream which is said to support the streams.

enjoy the music!

to globally toggle smart filters there is the key binding

"ALT" + "="

with version 1.0 there is also a per buffer key binding (according to this discussion) but it does not work with my current setup (using version 1.0.1)

"ALT" + "-"

as i couldn’t find a hint on howto uninstall Backup Exec 2014 Agent from my GUI-free Windows Core Servers here a short summary of how you can do it:

i found the “_Setup.exe” I was looking for in the following folder

C:\Windows\Installer\{856D9205-4AA3-48FB-ADD2-CE6EFF23ED9E}\

to find out how to uninstall the agent i ran “_Setup.exe /?” on one of my other servers (which has a GUI):

to uninstall the 64 bit version one has to run the the following command

C:\Windows\Installer\{856D9205-4AA3-48FB-ADD2-CE6EFF23ED9E}\_Setup.exe /RAWSX64: /S: /U:

and wait until the “_Setup”-process disappears in the taskmanager

stephanie from devolutions asked me to be in the devolutions expert team. as announced some days ago the expert team consists of currently 10 members (worldwide!).

i’m proud and thankful to be in the team and also want to thank devolutions for their great products and listening so well to their community!