EternJ's Tech Space

我最近新组装了一台电脑用来做工程计算，配置如下：

• CPU: Intel i7-2600
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
• Memory: G-Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 4GB x 4
• Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 6870 1GB GDDR5
• HDD: Intel 320 Solid State Drive 120GB x 1
• HDD: Samsung F3 HDD 1TB x 2

我在电脑上安装了Windows 7旗舰版。本来我自己有正版的Windows 7旗舰版序列号（以前买的打折的教育版），但是本着生命在于折腾的精神我决定试试用刷主板BIOS来激活OEM Windows 7的方法。

用刷主板BIOS的方法激活OEM Windows 7需要以下三个条件：

1. 主板BIOS里面包含有效的SLIC2.1表。
2. Windows 7里面导入了OEM厂商的认证证书。
3. Windows 7里面导入了对应其版本的正确的序列号。

以上三个条件中，第一个条件是最基本但是也是最麻烦的一步。第二个和第三个条件反而比较好满足。网上搜索一下能够找到很多有效的OEM证书和序列号（有兴趣的朋友可以去BIOS之家论坛看看）。

我在BIOS之家论坛里学习了一段时间，然后找到网友放出的Asus P8Z68-V Pro的带SLIC2.1的BIOS（没办法，自己不会做只好用别人的了），一咬牙就刷进自己的主板。怀着忐忑的心情重启计算机，哈哈，能够启动，没有发生论坛里很多网友提到的黑屏。于是进BIOS重新设置一番，然后再重启。进入Windows后运行SLIC_ToolKit进行检测，发现读出的BIOS里面包含了有效的SLIC2.1表信息。

下一步是导入OEM证书。以管理员身份运行Command Prompt，然后输入以下命令：

slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\xxxx.XRM-MS

上述命令中的C:\xxxx.XRM-MS就是从网上下载的证书文件。这个命令执行需要一些时间，完成之后会弹出窗口告诉你OEM证书已成功导入Windows。

最后需要导入对应的Windows版本的OEM序列号。跟上一步一样，以管理员身份运行Command Prompt，然后输入以下命令：

slmgr.vbs -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

将上述命令中的XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX以正确的序列号代替。这个命令执行需要一些时间，完成之后会弹出窗口告诉你序列号已成功导入Windows。

以上三步做完之后重启计算机。进入Windows后打开Windows Explorer，然后在Computer上右击选择Properties。如果一切顺利的话Windows 7就应该已经自动激活了。

需要说明一下的是，计算机OEM厂商很多，大家比较熟悉的就有Dell、HP、Asus、Acer、联想等等。在上面所说的三个条件中，SLIC2.1表、OEM证书和Windows 7序列号必须对应同一个OEM。比如如果主板BIOS里面的SLIC2.1是对应Dell的，那么你必须使用Dell的证书和用于安装Dell电脑的Windows 7序列号，不然的话Windows 7无法成功激活。

I recently purchased a new Dell XPS laptop. When I was trying installing and uninstalling some software I messed up the system. So I wanted to restore the laptop to the factory settings. The Dell XPS laptop came with a hidden partition used for recover. However, for some reason, I couldn’t find “Restore PC to Factory Settings” option in “Advanced Boot Options” during the bootup. I know the factory recovery image is still there because I didn’t mess with the hidden recovery partition. I thought there must be a way to access and use that factory recovery image to restore the laptop to the factory settings. I was right but it took me a long time doing research. And I finally figured out how to do it.

Here are the things needed for my method to work:

• Dell factory restore partition untouched. This means the factory recovery image is still there and in a good shape. If you have deleted the restore partition then you need find other methods to restore your system.
• A tool called ImageX. We will use this tool to deploy the Dell factory recovery image to restore the laptop. ImageX can be found in Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) which can be downloaded from Microsoft website. See this O’Reilly article for more information on ImageX.
• A bootable CD/DVD that can boot into a Win32 pre-installation environment. Note that a pure DOS bootdisk won’t work here since pure DOS cannot access NTFS partitions. I built a BartPE bootable CD for this. I also put the ImageX tool that I obtained from WAIK on this bootable CD.

Once you have the above-mentioned items, start your laptop and boot it from the BartPE CD. When you are in the BartPE environment, run Command Prompt. Locate the file name factory.wim on the recovery partition. Make a note of the drive letter and path to that file. On my XPS laptop it is located in D:\Dell\Image\Factory.wim. Now change to the directory where ImageX is and type this command:

ImageX /apply d:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\

Wait for the command to finish (it takes about 25 ~ 30 minutes). Once done, reboot your laptop from its hard drive. The laptop should have been restored to its factory settings and you are good to go.

References

1. Post by JackShack in this Dell forum thread: Want to do a recovery.
2. Restoring from restore partition without Ctrl+F11 nor restore disks.
3. Free, Bootable Disaster Recovery in Vista.
4. Bart’s Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD.

There is an internal SATA port on Pogoplug Pro. You can connect an eSATA external hard drive to this SATA port. But before doing so, you need an SATA to eSATA cable and make some modifications to the Pogoplug Pro’s covers. Here is how:

1. Take the Pogoplug Pro apart. Grab the transparent housing using one hand and the front cover (the stand) using the other hand and use some force to jig them apart. Then cut a small slot on the front cover (the stand) between the front USB port and the LED light cover.
   
2. You can see the red SATA port on the PCB board.
   
3. On the top cover you need to cut two slots into the ribs to make room for the SATA to eSATA cable.
   
4. Connect the SATA to eSATA cable to the on-board SATA port. Remember to pass the cable through the front cover slot (the one that we cut in the previous step) first.
   
5. Replace the top cover, the transparent housing, and the front cover (the stand). Make sure they close tight and slug. Now you can connect your eSATA external hard drive to the Pogoplug Pro.
   

If you encountered login problems with Gmail Manager 0.6.4.1 recently, here is the fix that I found on the Internet.

Problems logging in? Here’s the fix!
by divrsit on September 8, 2011 #

EDIT: With regards to the Portable Apps version, if you access the troubleshooting page in FF via Help > Troubleshooting Information or by typing in about:support in the address bar it will allow you to see the location of your profile directory and also the name/location of the Gmail Manager extension. (This works for any version of FF, portable or not). I’m running the latest version of FF via the Portable Apps site and can verify this fix works.

First of all, this is a truly great app! I know it’s frustrating when it suddenly stops working (with no dev support), but thanks to the scripting gods I was able to find a fix over at the Webmail Notifier add-on review page. Credit for the new url’s goes to Sirhc; I just made the modifications to meet Gmail Manager script.

1. Browse yourself to C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\A RANDOM CODE IS HERE.default\extensions\

2. Locate the file {582195F5-92E7-40a0-A127-DB71295901D7}.xpi and use WinRaR/WinZip ect. to extract the files

3. Open the components folder, look for the file gmServiceGmail.js and use a text editor to modify the file

4. Look for these 2 lines:

this._loginURL = “https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth”;
should be changed to this
this._loginURL = “https://accounts.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth?service=mail”;

this._loginURL = “https://www.google.com/a/” + this.domain + “/LoginAction2”;
should be changed to this
this._loginURL = “https://accounts.google.com/a/”+ar[1]+”/LoginAction2?service=mail”;

5. Save the file, overwrite the existing gmServiceGmail.js with this one and VIOLA! After restarting Firefox you should be all set.

Additional Fix
by Xander on September 9, 2011 #

The fix Divrsit posted earlier was not enough to get it to work again for me. I had to make 1 more adjustment. Thanks for Divrsit for posting the solution.
This works for Windows 7. If you use a different version of Windows, the files mentioned below are most likely on different locations.
1. Browse to C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\A RANDOM CODE IS HERE.default\extensions\
2. Locate the file {582195F5-92E7-40a0-A127-DB71295901D7}.xpi, rename it to {582195F5-92E7-40a0-A127-DB71295901D7}.zip and extract the files to a temporary location.
3. Open the components folder, look for the file gmServiceGmail.js and use a text editor to modify these 2 lines:
this._loginURL = “https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth”;
should be changed to this
this._loginURL = “https://accounts.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth?service=mail”;

this._loginURL = “https://www.google.com/a/” + this.domain + “/LoginAction2”;
should be changed to this
this._loginURL = “https://accounts.google.com/a/”+ar[1]+”/LoginAction2?service=mail”;
4. Save the file, overwrite the existing gmServiceGmail.js
5. Open the file install.rdf with a text editor and change the line:
4.0.*
to
6.0.*
6. Save the file, overwrite the existing install.rdf.
7. Rezip all files you extracted in step 2 and name it {582195F5-92E7-40a0-A127-DB71295901D7}.xpi
8. Replace the old {582195F5-92E7-40a0-A127-DB71295901D7}.xpi for the 1 you just adjusted and restart FireFox

Quote from a Your Gamers Forum post:

I found a solution and it works.

What this actually means is that you first need to find out on which channel your drive is connected, and then set a certain registry value accordingly. Do this by going to Device Manager -> Disk Drives; Right click your drive and click Properties. On the General tab look at Location. There are several numbers here, but i think that only “channel” matters to us. My channel was 0.

Now open your registry (with admin privileges) and go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci\Cont roller0\Channel0 (change the last digit according to you drive’s channel). If this key doesn’t exist you’re gonna have to create it (I had to create Controller0\Channel0).

Here create a new DWORD value with the following properties:
Value name: TreatAsInternalPort
Value data: 1
Base: Hexadecimal

You can shorten this process by entering the following in the command line: reg.exe add “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci\Con troller0\Channel0” /f /v TreatAsInternalPort /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001

Now just reboot! This worked for me. Hope it helps.

I have an old PCMCIA wireless network card: Belkin F5D7010 v1. The driver that I found on Belkin’s website did not support WPA2-secured wireless networks.

After doing some research, I found a Dell driver that worked with this card. I went to Dell’s website and searched R94827.exe. Then I downloaded this file and installed it. Now my Belkin wireless network card is recognized as a Dell Truemobile 1300 WLAN Mini-PCI Card and it works fine with my WPA2-secured wireless network.

从网上下载的音乐有很多是以 flac 格式传播的。flac 是一种免费的无损压缩格式，也就是说用 flac 压缩的音乐在音质上没有丝毫的损失。但是很多 media player 无法播放 flac 文件，解决方法就是将 flac 文件转换成基本上所有 media player 都支持的 mp3 文件。

下面介绍以下我将 flac 文件转换成 mp3 的方法。

需要用到的工具软件

• Cue Splitter
• flac and flac frontend
• Razorlame

转换步骤

1. 如果下载的是一个很大的 .flac 文件和一个很小的 .cue 文件，就需要用 Cue Splitter 这个软件把那个大的 .flac 文件分割成多个 .flac 文件，一般是一首曲子对应一个小的 .flac 文件。
2. 运行 flac frontend。将上一步生成的多个 flac 文件载入到 .flac frontend 中，然后点击 “Decode”，flac frontend 就会将这些 .flac 文件解压缩成对应的 .wav 文件。需要注意的是，flac frontend 暂时还不支持中文文件名和中文目录，所以如果下载的文件名中有中文需要修改成全英文的。
3. 运行 Razorlame，将上一步生成的 .wav 文件载入进来。然后点击 “LAME” 按钮打开 “LAME Options” 对话框。我一般使用这些 Options：“-b 192 -m s -h -V 2 -B 256” (使用这些选项生成的 mp3 音质很好)。点击 “OK” 关闭 “LAME Options” 对话框。最后点击 “Encode” 开始转换过程。转换成 mp3 所需要的时间取决于歌曲的长短、数量、码率的高低、以及计算机的性能等等。

通过以上过程，我们就可以成功把 flac 文件转换成 mp3 文件，然后用任意媒体播放器都可以播放了。

Quote from a Tek-Tips Forums post:

All,

After reading http://www4.tomshardware.com/network/20030716/ the solution to my problems was simple.

I disabled DHCP in the Belkin router (I had previously disabled the firewall), moved the cable connecting the two routers from the Belkin’s WAN port to a LAN port and refreshed all the network connections. Now all the pcs are networked and can see each other regardless of which router they are connected to and I can still signon to the Belkin router to change WiFi settings. The DHCP function is performed by the outer/non-Belkin router and the Belkin F5D6231-4 router at this point is basically a WiFi switch.

I am now a relieved happy camper.

Hopefully the above link or this posting helps all of you also. 🙂

如果你是 t-mobile prepaid 的用户，那么你可以用下面的两个代理翻墙。翻墙之后就能浏览Internet了，相当于 unlimited data plan。使用方法很简单：在手机上的浏览器里输入任一代理网址。然后在代理的网址里面输入你想要访问的网址就可以了。赶快试试吧。

http://tmobile-cs6.captsmokey.com/
http://tmobilex.jaghax.org/

来美多年，我经常需要向移民局申请一些证件。每次申请的时候都需要提供自己的照片。如果到 CVS、Costco、Walwart 或者其它地方去照这些照片的话不但贵而且质量也不能尽如人意。最好的方法当然就是自己DIY啦。

护照照片的规格可以在 USCIS 的网站上找到：Guidelines for Producing High Quality Photographs for U.S. Travel Documents.

这里提一下最重要一点的是人的头部长度要在 1” 到 1-3/8” 之间，眼睛到照片底部的距离要在 1-1/8” 到 1-3/8” 之间。下面两张照片是 USCIS 网站上给出的好的照片的例子。

最后推荐一个DIY护照照片的教程：Making Your Own Passport Photos by Trinch.