Technology How To’s

Article that I’ve written over the years to resolve specific technology issues that I’ve run across in my day to day life.

How To: Thunderbird – STMP Error

Posted by Rick on in Technology How To's 0 Comment
Thunderbird server settings

How To: Thunderbird – STMP Error

Scenario:

When sending emails from a GMAIL account in Thunderbird, there is an STMP error and the message can not be sent. This has been working for some time, then suddenly stopped working. It can be intermittent and logging into the GMAIL account directly works perfectly find.

This seems to have popped up in build 91.5.1 and may be related to the relatively new feature that automatically adds the GMAIL settings.

How to fix:

In Thunderbird go to Tools -> Account Settings. Choose the impacted account then click on Server Settings.

In my case it looked like this:

Thunderbird server settings

Note the problem is the “Authentication Method”. OAuth2 was a legacy setting from a previous automatic setting, although it is the more secure setting and really should be the default. Change that to the preferred (by Thunderbird) ‘Normal Password’ setting, then close the window and test it out.

Thunderbird fixed authentication settings

This should work without even restarting Thunderbird! Although it is possible the password might need to be re-entered and saved. Thunderbird will have a pop-up asking for this information.

How to Find your Adsense ID Number

Posted by Rick on in Advertising, google, Technology How To's 0 Comment

How to Find your Adsense ID Number

This topic is written specifically for potential writers on Girl Gamer and Anime Girl, but can be applicable to anyone who is guest authoring on other blogs, or is a contributing author and needs their Adsense Publisher ID. This is used specifically in the Sexy Author Plugin for WordPress that allows authors to get paid via Adsense based on the number of view their articles get.

Step 1.) Create an Adsense Account at http://AdSense.Google.com. If you do not have an Google or Gmail account, create a new one.

Step 2.) Under Step 2, Google asks “I will show ads on:” This field is either http://GirlGamer.org or http://AnimeGirl.org. Content Language is “English”

How to Find your Adsense ID Number

Step 3.) Fill in your Contact Information

Google Adsense Page 2

Step 4.) Wait for Google to approve your request

Step 5.) Once they have done so, log in to your Adsense Account and click on the sprocket icon in the upper right hand corner.

Google Adsense Page 3

Step 6.) Click on “Account Information” on right side of the screen.

Google Adsense Page 4

The Adsense Publisher ID is at the top and starts with “pub-“. So that is How to Find your Adsense ID Number! Pretty simple!

How to: Fix Kenwood Stereo MP3 file errors

Posted by Rick on in OSX, Technology How To's 24 Comments

I recently got a new (well, apparently from 2012,) Kenwood Stereo. The exact model number is the KDC-X498, but from my research most of the Kenwood stereos are pretty similar. It’s a pretty cool stereo as it has a USB port on it. I can plug in any phone with a USB cable and it’ll play music from it. It will also play MP3 files from a USB Drive.

Unfortunately there are a number of caveats to make this possible;
– The USB Drive is limited to 32GB in size
– The USB Drive must be formatted in Fat 32. Most are this way from the factory, so usually not a huge deal.
– Audio files must be in .mp3 format or .wav format. Some models will accept the .acc format also.
– Some stereos can only see a certain number of MP3s per a directory on the drive. Its roughly a thousand files, but on a 32GB drive that is easy to reach. If this happens, separate the files out into subdirectories. Or as I do, by Artist then Album.
– MP3s must be in 192k format. Not 320k VBR or some other format.

Despite all of this, my stereo (and several other models,) will suddenly display “NA File” while reading a USB drive full of MP3 files. After a lot of searching on the internet, most said to make sure that it’s in the right format. Well, I run a Mac, and spent several hours downgrading all my files to 192k yet still had the problem. After several more hours of searching and no answers at all, I finally figured out the problem.

The Kenwood Stereo’s firmware does not “skip” over the Macintosh’s .DS_Store files like every other operating system has been doing for years. Modern OSes see any file starting with a . (or period,) as a system file and ignores it, or processes it as appropriately. Not the Kenwood!

So to fix this, these can be disabled in the command line using these directions I wrote years ago.

Or, it’s easy to open up Terminal in OS X, and type ‘rm -rf ._*’ (without quotes.) This will delete all the .DS Store files and everything will magically work! Make sure you cd to the correct directory first , usually /Volumes/Crucial or something similar.

How to: Stop Semalt Referral Spam

Posted by Rick on in Internet, Technology How To's 4 Comments

Recently, a company called “Semlat” has software bots crawling websites all over the world. They state that you can remove yourself from their list, but so far I’ve not heard of anyone actually getting off the list. They claim to be an SEO company, but their practices of getting to the top are somewhat black hat.

6976481_orig

Even worse, they are no longer the only ones. The list of “companies” that do this has grown huge in just the past month! A partial list of these companies is:

  • buttons-for-website.com
  • 7makemoneyonline.com
  • darodar.com
  • semalt.com
  • ilovevitaly.co
  • myftpupload.com
  • econom.co
  • iskalko.ru
  • ilovevitaly.ru
  • ilovevitaly.com
  • o-o-8-o-o.ru
  • o-o-6-o-o.ru
  • cenoval.ru
  • priceg.com
  • cenokos.ru
  • seoexperimenty.ru
  • gobongo.info
  • vodkoved.ru
  • adcash.com
  • websocial.me
  • cityadspix.com
  • luxup.ru
  • ykecwqlixx.ru
  • superiends.org
  • slftsdybbg.ru
  • edakgfvwql.ru
  • socialseet.ru
  • screentoolkit.com
  • savetubevideo.com

    • There is some speculation that these bots are also looking for weaknesses on sites to exploit. Even if it’s not true, it’s still a good idea to block them because it messes up Google Analytics reports and puts an unnecessary load on your server.

    There are a number of ways to block these, or filter out their traffic. But the best two methods both involve adding fields to the .httaccess file on your server. Do this by:

    1.) Log into your host’s cPanel.
    2.) In the Files section, click on the File Manager icon. (you may have multiples)
    3.) Check the box for Document Root for and select the domain name you wish to access from the drop-down menu if there is more then one.
    4.) Click the box that says “Show Hidden Files (dot files)” – this is the critical step
    5.) Click Go.
    6.) Scroll down to .htaccess in the list of files.
    7.) Highlight and click copy at the top of the screen
    8.) Type in .httaccess.back and hit enter (this creates a backup, just in case)
    9.) Highlight .httaccess and click “edit” at the top of the screen
    10.) Paste one of the two following sections of code into the file, typically at the bottom.
    11.) Click Save
    12.) Access your site in a separate browser or browser window to make sure you can still access the website. If you can, all is good. If not, edit .httaccess again and remove that parts you just added.

    Code #1

    – this is a bit less elegant but is very direct:


    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer semalt.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer buttons-for-website.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer darodar.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer 7makemoneyonline.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ilovevitaly.co spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer myftpupload.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer econom.co spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer iskalko.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ilovevitaly.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ilovevitaly.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer o-o-8-o-o.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer o-o-6-o-o.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer cenoval.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer priceg.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer cenokos.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer seoexperimenty.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer gobongo.info spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer vodkoved.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer adcash.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer websocial.me spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer cityadspix.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer luxup.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ykecwqlixx.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer superiends.org spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer slftsdybbg.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer edakgfvwql.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer socialseet.ru spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer screentoolkit.com spambot=yes
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer savetubevideo.com spambot=yes
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Deny from env=spambot

    New SPAM bots can be added easily to this list by just cutting and pasting the domain name.

    Code #2

    – Little more elegant. This is the one I went with. It is provided by Perishable Press.


    # 5G:[WordPress]

    RedirectMatch 403 /\$\&
    RedirectMatch 403 (?i)/\&(t|title)=
    RedirectMatch 403 (?i)/\.(bash|git|hg|log|svn|swp|tar)
    RedirectMatch 403 (?i)/(1|contact|i|index1|iprober|phpinfo|phpspy|product|signup|t|test|timthumb|tz|visit|webshell|wp-signup).php
    RedirectMatch 403 (?i)/(author-panel|class|database|manage|phpMyAdmin|register|submit-articles|system|usage|webmaster)/?$
    RedirectMatch 403 (?i)/(=|_mm|cgi|cvs|dbscripts|jsp|rnd|shadow|userfiles)

    This second version should work a little better since instead of blocking the bots, it gives them an official 403 not found. That should keep the bots from hitting your site at all in the future and reduce load even more.

    Since I’ve implemented this method, I have seen Semalt (and all the others,) go away completely. I still get an occasional iffy one but it’s not as bad as the 10-15 (per a site) I was getting before.

    Do you have another solution that works better? Please comment below!

    How To: Check Shutter Actuations on Olympus Evolt Cameras

    Posted by Rick on in Technology How To's 0 Comment

    How To: Check Shutter Actuations on Olympus Evolt Cameras

    These directions look a little weird, but trust me, they do work.

    1.) Power camera on

    2.) Open the CF door (trust me!)

    3.) Press “play”+”OK” at same time. If that doesn’t work, try “menu” + “OK”

    4.) Press the following buttons in order: “Up” “Down” “Left” “Right” on the dial

    5.) Fully press the shutter release button

    6.) Press “Up” on the dial

    7.) Press “Right” to page 2

    Page2 displays the following information (mine shows two more lines then this.)
    R: 00XXXXXX mean shutter release count – this is the shutter actuation count
    S: 00XXXXXX unknown
    M: 00XXXXXX pixel map count
    U: 00XXXXXX ultrasonic wave count

    It’s crazy, but it works!