The easy for-sure soekris net5501-70 pfsense install instructions – let me help you not to have to rip out your hair

[UPDATE: Version 2.1.5. vs 2.2.2 sent me for another tailspin – be warned. This is why swear words were invented I think – but I was victorious. Read below for the differences.]

This was a bit of a nightmare but I finally figured it out. This version of this article is after I have ordered 2 of these. I know the benefits were huge of getting this as I have a very trusted friend install these at many places that I also do work for (he is the IT desktop guru, I am the IT bus. automation/database application guy. I have installed vpn software on them etc. I have a client who I said – “no problem – I will get you the best most configurable router possible” … but to my chagrin – lots of re-learning from ages past. Serial communication instead of a VGA … oh my. Lots of plugging in the usb, unplugging the soekris board and plugging things back in in the right order. If this helps you – please leave a comment.

Let me help you not to have to rip all your hair out. Many little hints from online, my friend who lives quite far from me who wasn’t available at the same times I was etc. and trial and error. Here we go …. Continue reading

Once again – reverse eng. & following Bentley AutoPLANT menu items all the way through to SPECKEY.ini

I wrote this article, as I again had to figure this out from scratch and it is my 10th time doing so. I did pretty good this time – it usually takes longer. Anyways, if it helps anyone out there or me in the future – it was worth it.

In AutoPLANT / AutoCAD,

  • Place a component.
  • Press the up arrow to see what command that was (A) AT_INSTRIND
  • Click on Tools->Customize User Interface. Look under partial Customization files and note locations. I think we need the at_elect.cuix file (this is a binary file). It, in our case is here c:\programdata\bentley\plant v8i\elect\. Here you will see a .mnl file with the same name. Open it and search to see what (A) really does. Record this as Continue reading

Memory usage exceeded on php / mysql_fetch_assoc and how to understand and fix it

Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted error occurred and the line that is the killer is mysql_fetch_assoc and the files are very very large (many thousands of rows).

I am moving servers and the new one is a standard server while the older one on another host (who lost a backup on me) used as much resources as I needed as long as certain metrics were not breeched. Well, there is a lot less memory available, so I have to think outside the box. I’m getting the ‘out of memory’ error in php. I know it can be fixed with the likes of ini_set(“memory_limit”,”64M”), but lets see if we can be more efficient – I am thinking that the above code – wasn’t. Continue reading

Large Corps love using ASP.NET – if you are using for yourself – don’t as it will cost you $$ in wasted time. Web.Config gets cached and ASP.NET does NOT necessarily pick up on the change

So, I was debugging things for over an hour and … like often in Microsoft things, nothing was wrong or amiss. I changed the web.config file to point to another appConfig file. It didn’t care! It just used the old web.config file from over an hour ago. Ideally ASP.NET picks up on the change, but every so oftern (I have noticed over 2+ years, one gets caught in believing that things are working OK. Yes the config settings ARE CACHED.

Continue reading

.htaccess – all you ever wanted to know

For me, this has always been frustrating because I use it only once every 8-12 months. Here are some great links to get refreshed.

Basically, what I was trying to do was get all traffic https going to my customers’ mywebsite.com/payments page and all other traffic without “/payments” in the name to mymainwebsite.com. It is important to note, that the myshorturl.ca site is the one with the https or SSL on it. Here are the links I used

The eventual code form my .htaccess file was

[php]

#RewriteCond {HTTPS} on
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.myshorturl.ca/payments/$1

#RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
#RewriteRule .* https://www.myshorturl.ca/payments [R,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /tithe [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.myshorturl.ca/payments/ [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /payments [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.mycumbersomeurl.ca/payments/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mycumbersomeurl.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mycumbersomeurl.com/$1 [L,R=301]

[/php]

Curve Fitting, c# and Math.Net

http://numerics.mathdotnet.com/docs/Regression.html

Some explanation about their regression formulas … and bingo – instant genius created (me). Thanks guys – it was really you all. Oh, and my first MVC project – that is a step forward even if it is only MVC 4.

jQuery Bar and Line Charts alongside Twitter Bootstrap for MVC 4 . Another friend recommended D3js to me for charting

I am currently trying these steps (free-er)

  1. Update VS 2012
  2. Install Nuget Package Manager (was already done)
  3. Git Tools
  4. Web Essentials (but first install this) – cannot be installed on VS 2012 express

Ok – so try this website where he installs Bootstrap on MVC 4 on VS 2012 Express