Port Tunneling with Putty

Scott S NelsonLeave a comment

Recently I had a situation where a combination of firewalls and load balancers prevented me from testing an application. Fortunately, an experienced server admin had a solution that I am sharing here: Use putty for port tunneling.

Create and save an SSH session for the host

Create Putty Session
Create Putty Session

Load the session, then go to Connection > SSH > Tunnels

Enter Putty Tunnel Details
Enter Putty Tunnel Details

Enter port and server info then click Add

Save Tunnel Connection
Save Tunnel Connection

Click Open
Return to the Sessions and Save to store for future use
Now you can access the remote machine:port by using localhost:port, i.e., http://localhost:8080 will take you to http://anyhostname:8080 in the above examples.

This can also be done with BitVise Tunnelier (shown below for accessing MySQL):

BitVise SSH Tunneling
BitVise SSH Tunneling
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© Scott S. Nelson

All Work and No Play…Mass Update Your MP3s with Cover Art

Scott S NelsonLeave a comment

Rather than buy a new car to get a dashboard computer, I just bought a tablet and mounted it on my ashtray. For the music, it is easier to see what is playing from cover art, but not all of my MP3s have it. So I went on a search..

I will save you the trials and errors of a half-dozen programs that will run on the latest patch of Windows but require adding the images one-by-one (I have 11,000 songs on the tablet). The only program I found that adds the images automagiclly is MP3 CoverTag. Well, it is supposed to because I read a dozen articles that said it did. Problem is, Microsoft has patched it to death and I could not run it.

I got around the patch issue by doing the following (extra steps added for those that didn’t already have the VMs handy):

  1. Download VirtualBox
  2. Download an old Microsoft-provided VM.
  3. Import the VM into VirtualBox. During the import or before starting it:
    1. Bump the RAM up to at least 2GB
    2. Add a shared folder that auto mounts where you will put your MP3s to update
  4. Start the VM and make sure Windows Update is set to Never Update
  5. Download MP3 CoverTag
  6. Log out and create a snapshot so you can always go back to it the state of an unpatched machine with MP3 CoverTag installed

Now you can run the unpatched VM and MP3 CoverTag will work.

Enjoy!

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© Scott S. Nelson

Remedial Robocopy Recursion Remedy

Scott S NelsonLeave a comment

If you ever made your own back up script with Robocopy that included the user folders without the /XJ switch and then want to clean up your back up drive, you found this ugly nested structure that you could not delete.

To the rescue is Deep Remove Folders Directories in Windows at http://deepremove.codeplex.com/. Works like a charm. Thank you, JuanPablo!

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© Scott S. Nelson

Setting up an Eclipse Development Environment for WebCenter Sites

Scott S NelsonLeave a comment

Most Java developers are familiar with Eclipse. While the Content Server Developer Tools (CSDT) does not work the same as other application-specific Eclipse plug-ins, it does provide the ability to perform custom development more easily with WebCenter Sites (a.k.a. Fatwire prior to the Oracle acquisition) than other options if you are comfortable in Eclipse.

Install the Jump Start Kit (JSK)

The first trick is finding the JSK. You must have an Oracle Support account to access it through normal channels. On the Oracle Support site, search for “webcenter sites JUMPSTARTKIT” in the Patch category.
Continue reading →

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© Scott S. Nelson