Vincent Seow

Windows

How to Delete Partitions from Storage Media

When it comes to trying new Linux distros, I find myself deleting hidden partitions from time to time. This is also useful when software tools set up your USB flash drive or SD card and you end up seeing only a portion of total available space. Be sure to backup

DNS

Resolve DNS Errors on Google Chrome

Ever try loading a webpage and get greeted with a DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN or ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED? This is actually a DNS [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System] issue that could be resolved on the OS side. On Windows, find and run services.msc then look

web

Change the Navigation/Status Bar Color on your Website

Notice the color change of Chrome and the status bar when you visit certain sites on your mobile device? For example, on Android when you head over to say the forums of XDA-Developers [http://forum.xda-developers.com] or Victoria's Secret [https://www.victoriassecret.com]. Turns out this is

code

Some Assorted Code & Script Snippets

I've been posting assorted code and script bits to Gists on GitHub from time to time. Figured I'd share as some helped me solve certain problems, and you may find a few of them handy. They range from shell scripting to back-end and app development, take

gitlab

Update to GitLab 8+

We're seeing major updates that include UI redesigns for many software platforms these days and another one my personal favourites is GitLab. Straight down to business, if you're using their package server it's as simple as sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install gitlab-ce

ghost

Upgrade Ghost to 0.7.0

With the brand new release of 0.7.0, I figured it'd be worth checking it out as this version comes with changes like the refresh of the admin interface. Be sure to make a backup of your blog by exporting posts and settings via .json file under

Android

Enable Smart Lock on your Android device

I was playing around with the Mi Fit app and noticed an option to "Unlock device using band". Not needing an unlock pattern or PIN while you have a particular Bluetooth device nearby is pretty convenient. This however required allowing "Trusted devices" (Smart Lock) under the

mongodb

Restore a Collection from a MMS Backup

So something happened and you want to restore just a single collection in your Mongo database. MMS by MongoDB (formerly 10gen) themselves can create full backups of your databases and replica sets, however when it comes time to actually restoring it can get a bit tricky. You probably want to

AMD

How to Properly Update your AMD Graphics Drivers [Updated]

So I got a couple people ask me about this and these are the steps I would recommend, as I learned not to install new drivers on top of old ones the hard way in the past. First go to “Control Panel” > “Uninstall a program” then select “AMD Catalyst

wordpress

WordPress Update Failed due to Permissions

Seeing a recent update that was released for WordPress (4.2.2), I decided it was a good idea to get caught up with the version as it patched the XSS vulnerability [https://blog.sucuri.net/2015/04/security-advisory-xss-vulnerability-affecting-multiple-wordpress-plugins.html] that was discovered a few weeks prior. At a first

BitTorrent

Set up BitTorrent Sync on your Linux Server

With the general availability of BitTorrent Sync 2.0 [http://blog.getsync.com/2015/03/03/sync-2-0-skip-the-cloud-share-direct/] recently announced, we see introduction of many Pro features for their service. I played around with the platform when it was still in the early stages and has it come a long way.

kontakt

Kontakt PHP API (Pt. 2)

kontakt

Kontakt PHP API (Pt. 1)

Express

Run a Simple Web Server with Express.js

Recently I've had the opportunity to take on some side projects and I thought it would be pretty cool to leverage more modern programming stacks. For one there was Node.js and it was something that always intrigued me, however that was just one part of the equation.

Linux

High CPU/RAM Usage by "update-apt-xapi"

So I've been getting warnings from my host lately regarding high CPU and memory use on my VPSs. From what I could tell, the offending process was update-apt-xapi - it would be consuming all the CPU time for hours and use quite a bit of RAM. Some research

Windows

Cancel the Windows Technical Preview Install

Being curious of how the install process would work, I downloaded the executable to get a look of the up and coming release of Microsoft's next major OS release but was surprised with how the setup process varied this time around. With this particular beta, the install restarts

shellshock

Securing Your Machines from the "Shellshock" Bug

Dubbed "Shellshock", this exploit can allow attackers to inject code through the Bash utility. The affected software being common in Unix based systems can potentially put both Mac and Linux users at risk - not to mention the vast number of servers which run some sort of Linux

app

Reduce Data Usage from Common Apps [Updated]

Ever since Facebook introduced auto playing videos in the news feed, I've read about how data usage increased along with cell phone bills. This is most evident especially if you're on a plan that allows for less bandwidth on a month to month basis (e.g.

mongodb

Getting RockMongo to Load Properly

I've started using MongoDB lately and wanted a phpMyAdmin alternative to manage my databases/collections intuitively. Although RockMongo isn't as feature rich as its MySQL counterpart, it sure beats running queries and such in the command line. To begin, I followed the steps listed on their

dropbox

Setup Multiple Dropbox Accounts on Windows

Dropbox is no doubt a great service to share files across different devices and between people, but what if you have separate accounts for work and personal use? There's a way to run multiple instances on the same Windows user. > Before I get started, personally I would

mandrill

Using Mandrill with Ghost

Getting Mandrill set up for Ghost is quite straight forward. In your config.js, just make sure to have the following snippet under the Production section: mail: { transport: 'SMTP', host: 'smtp.mandrillapp.com', options: { service: 'Mandrill', auth: { user: 'USERNAME', pass: 'API

announcement

Year in Review for 2013

There's no doubt time flies, and with a blink of an eye 2013 is approaching its last few days. It felt like yesterday I was still attending classes, but now I'm currently working as an associate developer for a relatively new company specializing in mobile applications.

Windows

Quick Tip: Restore Libraries and Remove SkyDrive from Windows 8.1

The much anticipated update for Windows 8 is not without its quirks, as it reorganizes the File Explorer and brings a more integrated SkyDrive experience. Libraries provided quick access to handy locations. such as your Downloads folder - it's still there just hidden after the 8.1 update.

Apple

Quick Tip: Disable Background App Refresh, Parallax & Automatic App Updates (iOS)

Battery life appears to still be an issue for iOS 7 and some of the default settings for the features of this OS could be the reason for this. Some things you can do to alleviate the power drain is to disable Background App Refresh, Parallax (pretty cool motion effect)

Android

Quick Tip: Empty all Cached Data of your Apps (Android)

> With all the buzz (and criticism) surrounding latest operating system offerings coming from major tech companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft, they're all deep and feature rich platforms that have come a long way since their inception. Each OS has their respective tweaks that can make its