The Technology blog and podcast

disabling registration

I’ve decided to disable registration. If you have issues responding to
stuff and you don’t have an account, contact me. We’ve got too many
accounts that seem to be dormant, and we’re not sure how to deal with
this. Any ideas, let me know.
—
Jared Rimer
The Technology blog and podcast
https://technology.jaredrimer.net

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| Disabled People Should Be Killed Says Google | Accessibility NZ

| Disabled People Should Be Killed Says Google | Accessibility NZ.

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Kildle Application for PC, how accessible is it?

Hi guys,
In late 2012, I recently started a new podcast. You may go over to the Books Podcast web site to learn more. It leads me to a question which people may comment on here if you wish, or send me an E-mail directly at tech at menvi.org putting the at symbol where it belongs. The question deals with the Kindle application for PC which I saw while looking around amazon. How accessible is this application for Windows? Would I be able to use Window-Eyes on it, or possibly NVDA? I’m sort of curious on peoples results.

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Technology podcast 180 is a rerun of SN 408 on Surveilance

Podcast 180 is a permission based running of Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. On this program, we learn what the NSA has been up to for the past several years. Get the program through the RSS feed and enjoy!

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setting up an update script to run files

Hi.
this shows you how to set an update script for files.
I have a lot of files I share in dropbox to update.
A lot of the files have command line switches you can do.
msi files are windows installers
msiexec /? will give you a list.
searching for innosetup command line switches gives me a list of
switches I can use.
Know your installer, each installer has its characteristics.
running the installer with /? may give you help or not.
for adobe it told me commands I could use and also that it supported
windows installer commands.

Making the file
1. in the editer of choice I use notepad.
type @echo off at the top of a file.
this stops everyone hearing your code being output to the general public.
1. flash installs.
I have always found it a good idea to install the flash plugin first
then the activex especially when updating.
The following will install the programs for flash in a quite mode but
with progress bar updates.
passive will do this -i installs -r repairs -u uninstalls.
quiet is quiet
norestart, forcerestart and promptrestart will do exactly as the
commands say they will.
If in doubt and you have a command you are not sure about put it at
the end of the file.
If you are not sure if one command finnishes or you want to make sure
something does not belly up on you put pause between commands so you
need to hit enter to process the next step in the file.

msiexec /i install_flash_player_11_plugin.msi /passive
msiexec /i install_flash_player_11_active_x.msi /passive

the next files are inosetups

/silent displays progress bar updates
/varysilent doesn’t.
there are other switches you can search for them online on innosetup.com
vlc-2.0.7-win32.exe /silent
K-Lite_Codec_Pack_995_x64.exe /silent
K-Lite_Codec_Pack_995_Mega.exe /silent
ccsetup402.exe /silent
Dropbox 2.0.26.exe /silent

In some situations where you need to install a program that needs
user interaction put it below your list of automated things or if
you have many like this make a file with that sort of stuff.
for example
SkypeSetup.exe

now adobe.
AdbeRdr11003_en_US.exe /spb /norestart
spb puts it in silent mode with progress bars and s puts it in silent.
norestart makes sure you don’t restart.
At this point we are done so you could just tell it to restart but
remember we have that script file.
it will need to wait for the program to finnish before its safe to kill itself.
if in doubt
put pause
exit
in that order in the file to make sure it exits then restarts.
This is a simple batch program you can find more commands by
searching ms dos batch programming or windows7 batch programming for
special commands.

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writing your own scripts and doodling round

Hi all.
I have been spending time fiddling with linux distros last week
I finally got on vinux.
This entry displays a small guide for linux setup with vinux latest
v4, dosemu, and then goes into scripting for a small update program.
1. google vinux
site is vinuxproject.org but use google if you are unsure.
go to downloads.
get the live cd or live dvd I got the live dvd.
There are 2 installation stages.
1. pree installation and 2. installation.
If you want to install your distro to a computer dedicated to linux
or besides windows on duleboot, then you will have to follow the
screens and only use this guide as a guide.
This guide is mainly for virtual machine software which is the most
simplest to use.
the preinstall section is not needed for you.
If you use something other than vmware some procedures will be different.
If you are a mac user then there is a chance you probably run windows
on duel or as a vm and then for you also this guide is probably not
needed at least the first few sections.

1. preinstalling.
Well if you are here you probably don’t know what the feck linux is
or what to do.
Don’t bother you’ll just get confused.
This guide will show you how to get going quickly.

Steps needed.
1. getting vmware.
2. installing vmware.
3. creating the vm.
4. setting the vm
5. running the vm

1. getting vmware.
this is tricky.
you need to search for vmware player.
The version you want is 5.1
If you can navigate my vmware and get an account on there or search
vmware downloads for the thing its a free product you need to find
5.1 I had trouble to find it and had to troll through several google
pages at least 3 or 4 before I found what I wanted.
its easy once you find the right page to get the right files.

2. installing
For the blind user vmware is a pile of junk when it comes to installing.
if you are sighted well its not.
just click next all the way and then continue then finnish.
for the blind user.
Run the vmware installer file.
hit alt n about 4 times
hit alt c once or twice and you will get an info about package installation.
wait ages alt tab in and out a bit and eventually you will get finnish.
hit alt f.
hit your vmware icon.
hit alt p for menu
go to file
go to prefs
if you want set things how you want.
if you get an update about workstation skip it.
there should be a button to download and install all component tools.
If you have broadband and I assume you do because the files you are
getting are really big.
You want to click the button to install all vertual tools.
This saves time.
these will take a few minutes to install the packages for every bit
of vm related stuff the player will mannage.

3 setting up your vm.
make sure your iso file is where you will remember it because you
need to brouse to it.
from the main vmware screen hit control n
a wizzard comes up
select the option to install from iso or disk if you have a disk.
I had an image so select that.
you will next be asked the location of your image and you will need
to brouse to it.
I used win7 and placed my image in a folder of the root called
vms\linux image installations.
once you load the image, you will need to name your vm.
note for the blind, the field for this does not speak what you type
as you type in char even with nvda set to read chars.
After that set your disk size.
your initial size you will get 20gb, I suggest you double it to 40gb
or even 50gb so you have loads of space to work with, don’t worry
about physical disk space usage, the machines are really compressed
in physical space you could probably boost it to a major ammount
before you filled your disk, my machine with everything averaged at
4gb for 50gb, so 8gb for 100gb.
so for about about the same space 40gb physical you could end up with
a lot of space.
16gb would give you 250gb and thats about all you really do need to be honest.
Next you will be given an option to customise hardware.
you can do this now or do it later on.
for now just leave it.
if you are unsure you can always hit control d even when booted to
your vm in full screen mode to get your settings.

4. vm settings and final steps.
well finally hit finnish and your vm appears on your library list.
Yay!
Now you could just run it but you will regret it.
hit control d instead.
don’t worry about add and or remove buttons on any of the pages.
You will get some standard pages with processer memmory etc.
these are easy to handle.
any values can be typed in or you can scroll with arrows to them.
memmory
I found that running at 1500 or 1520 will produce the best result on your vm.
Don’t go below this or above this because at 2.0 you will just start
making things stutter and go nutty on you.
processer.
You really need to use 2 cpus, if you have a win7 unit its probably
got 4 cores most of them do even if it does say duel these days.
cd rom
for the installation leave this alone.
later on you may want to change this to physical image so you can use
the physical drive.
it also unloads the extra 2gb of iso image from memmory.
soundcard.
select your internal soundcard it may be crap but you want the thing to work.
floppy.
don’t bother, same with printer.
network.
Despite the spool about nat access you want to set your system to a
bridged connection.
This will simply let the vm think its directly on the net all the
time and not try to share incoming connections with your host address
this can mangle some routers as I descovered.
and thats it.
5. running your vm.
right click your vm and hit play.
at this point I should mention a couple keys.
control g will get your focus to your vm.
control alt enter will open fullscreen and close it.
control alt will move you away from your vm.
if your vm is busy or dies you may want to power it off or reset it.
sometimes the vm will take a while so getting away from your vm is
good idea to do.
wait for ages maybe a minute or 2.
orca will load.
If you have a laptop or something you may get no speech.
if you hear nothing hit the volume keys or knobs till your volumes
are at the right level, orca will beep when it reaches that volume
you want and click at you.
hit the preffs button check its all ok you should be able to navigate that ok.
hit alt tab to install.
I assume you hit the install button but you can always run in live
mode first, restart then run install later.
Install.
Its a standard install.
select your language.
and various other things.
When it gets to disks and partitions you will see only 1 if you are on a vm.
if you are not then select what you want.
I assume here that if you were not on a vm and would be dule booting
that you would get extra screens which I didn’t get.
Anyway install vinux and wait ages.
you can set it to download updates if you want I did that but you
don’t need to.
now comes the wait.
once install is done you will be asked to set time date, timezone and
keyboard type and countries.
Always select english us if you are english and set your country as
you would usually set it normally.
eventually you will get a nice restart button and after hitting it
your desktop will start.
next hit the windows key to the dash and type update manager
once in there hit check, then update and then it will all update then
hit restart.
Note somewhere in the installation you will be asked your user account.
and a password and several other names for your network.
that password is needed for such things as admin updates adding software etc.
If you forget your password or your system goes nutty on you hit
control alt, power off and delete your machine from disk and library
and start again.

Installation for dedicated systems.
The installation is the same as above with a few acceptions.
1. you don’t need a vm.
2. you will have to use your cd recording software of choice to open
the image, and then write it to the dvd or cd.
I won’t go to how you do this but do that.
boot holding down the c key or other special key to boot cds you may
have to change your bios to do that maybe.
Then follow all screens as normal.
I won’t go to dule booting either because I have never done it and
the menus are not accessable.
If you do need to uninstall your machine, for any reason you can’t
just delete it like in vmware.
I don’t know how to uninstall as such but if its dedicated you may
just reformat the drive the thing is on and it will be ready for the next os.
You will already have a partition set for this os anyway.
you can also install another os on top of your os making sure you
back up first.
If dule booting.
1. you can probably delete the partition in windows.
first
in dash type terminal
open it.
type sudo grub /u
this should in theory uninstall grub.
next boot from your live disk to kill your partition for the linux
and exit install.
At this point windows will probably not boot and will need to be repaired.
there are procedures to do this but if you have xp there is a
recovery on the disk somewhere.
if 7 well you need to repair windows if you had a backup image and
its receant restore that.
If you don’t and have a laptop or something.
use your recovery console.
sadly you will have your entire hard drive reformatted and loose all your data.
If you don’t have a dedicated box use a vm they are much safer.
They are also portable.
if you do want to kill your entire vm installation
for vmware uninstall vmware from add remove hit alt n 5 times hit alt
r then alt c twice and hit alt f when prompted and you will be all ok.

section 2.
setting up dosemu.
next you need to enter the terminal by typing terminal to the search
box of the dash.
you can access recent apps with alt f1.
in terminal.
type the following
cd /home
sshd
you will get an error.
apt-get install ssh-server
apt-get install ssh-client.
apt-get install unzip
if this is loaded you will get an error.
apt-get install dosemu
note the first apt-get command will prompt you for your password to
enter admin mode.
next you need to stop dosemu going to x windows.
ssh localhost if on your own box
or ssh to your remote box as usual.
type yes to have security add your incription key to the security
database and hit enter.
type dosemu and you are in though I don’t know how to exit again.
you can exit terminal with exit.
powering off
hit control alt
hit alt p
hit the power menu
select power off and wait.
the vm goes dark and you are left at the library.
exit vmware as usual with alt f4.
you are done.
Note there is loads more than what I have told you.
this is a basic startup guide.
Note this is only for vinux4.
Most distributions will have different ways to startup different
procedures to do things etc.
read the docs and install guides and keyboard shortcut guides before
running things.

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‘Happy Birthday’ lawsuit demands Warner Music pay back millions in royalties | The Verge

Now this is just out of control. What you should’ve done was not pay any license. Evvery time we have a birthday around here, we don’t pay any license to sing the song to anyone I know. Geese. Now what is this world coming to? Check out the article below.

‘Happy Birthday’ lawsuit demands Warner Music pay back millions in royalties | The Verge.

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NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants – Computerworld

NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants – Computerworld.

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