Digitech UPS - MP5222

If you have one of these and you lost/forgot your serial number that was on that CD sleeve (it's stupid they don't print it on the UPS), then you can't re-install the software to manage it.

If you find yourself in this situation, try this as your username when doing the setup.

Gavin Peng

It will auto fill in the serial field with a serial number that will bypass the setup.

TechView 4 Channel Stand-alone DVR MASTER password

We bought one of these and it actually works pretty well.



However, be warned that it has a HARD CODED administrator password that cannot be changed (you can even see it directly in the login page Javascript.)

DO NOT under any circumstances expose this device to the outside internet.

Java3D 1.5 64bit D3D DLL

Java3D DLL

I managed to compile a 64bit version of the D3D library required for Java3D to work in Direct3D mode on a 64bit JVM.

Its built from the 1.5.2 sources and I haven't had any issues with it yet.

Get it here: j3dcore-d3d.zip


Disclaimer
==========
Use it at your own risk.
This IS NOT endorsed or supported by Sun, Oracle or any other company.

Source - Build it yourself!

If you want to build it yourself, here is a zip of the sources required.

j3d-src.zip

There were retrieved using SVN from the Java3D site:

• https://java.net/projects/vecmath/sources/svn/show/tags?rev=144
• https://java.net/projects/j3d-core-utils/sources/svn/show/tags/rel-1_5_2-fcs?rev=208
• https://java.net/projects/j3d-core/sources/svn/show/tags/rel-1_5_2-fcs?rev=954

I have included a "diff.txt" file within the zip that shows the changes I made (there are not many) to get it to build with the latest Microsoft Visual Studio releases
You also need:

• JDK 1.6 64bit - it won't build on later versions due to missing classes in 1.7 and 1.8
• Apache Ant 1.9.3
• DirectX9 SDK (August 2009)
• Microsoft Visual Studio C++
• I used Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express and it worked fine

To compile:

Edit the variables in the batch.bat to point where your put your things:

• JAVA_HOME - Point it at a 64bit version of JDK 1.6
• INCLUDE - Point it at the includes for the DirectX9 SDK where dxerr.h is
• LIB - Point it to  the path where d3dx9.lib is
• ANT_PATH - Point it at the bin directory in an Ant installation

Then just run it using the "VS2012 x64 Cross Tools Command Prompt" in your start menu.
The compiled DLLs will be in:

• debug: j3d-core\build\default\debug\native
• opt: j3d-core\build\default\opt\native

Let me know if you can't get it to work, I might have forgotten something.

Logstash config file for Ubuntu SSH auth.log with GeoIP

Since I spent half a day working it out and I wish someone had already done it, here is a logstash config file that handles your ssh auth.log, tags it, and then uses geoip lookup to add country information based on the source IP address. Should work using the default layout of the auth.log in Ubuntu releases. Don't forget to change/remove the "type" tag depending on your circumstances.

https://github.com/glenritchie/logstash-conf/blob/master/10-authlog.conf

Enjoy.

Slow peformance with MariaDB Java Client Connector?

Noticing a small delay in executing queries using the MariaDB Java Client Connector? Especially when the amount of data returned is small (say, a count() or something)?

Try setting this property for your JDBC connection:

tcpNoDelay=true

It's because of Nagle's Algorithm
 

Making reusable Java 8 Lambda Functions/Filters

You can create a function with parameters using Lambda in Java 8 to reduce duplicate code.
Then you can create a predicate using that function allowing you to use it as a filter for stream() allowing you to re-use your new function any number of times.This way you don't need to make a different predicate for age == 12 or age == 21.


Function< Integer, Predicate< Person >> agefunction = (age) -> person -> person.age == age;
 
private List< Person > getPeopleOfAge(final List< Person > people, final int testAge)
    {
       
        Predicate< Person > ageFilter = agefunction.apply(testAge);
        return people.stream().filter(ageFilter).collect(Collectors.toList());
    }

Acronis Backup and Recovery

We got Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 for a small business of about 10 machines. When it worked, it was really great, simple to use. When it didn't work, pounding your head against a break wall was more fun.


Pros

• De-duplication
• Central management
• Any kind of backup type and schedule you can think of
• Built in Wake on Lan
• Restore to dissimilar hardware
• Backup conversion to VM image
• Can automatically handle if a non-managed backup location is swapped out
• Built in PXE server to boot to recovery mode.

Cons

• User interface is laggy, slow, buggy and often wrong. (This is a really big issue)
• Its database(SQLITE) needs constant cleaning out to keep performance up
• Incomprehensible error messages.
• Management Server constantly crashes, freezes and wont restart.
• Wake on Lan doesn't work