How to unlock the Vodafone ZTE K3571-Z Dongle to use any SIM

This is a very basic guide on how to unlock your modem.  You will need:
K3571-Z Modem
Non Vofafone sim
Windows PC
DC Unlock
Generic ZTE dashboard (see optional step)

Install the VF (Vodafone) dongle software as per usual.  The drivers need to be installed for the dongle to be read be the computer.

Make sure the VF Dashboard works properly and you can get internet access from the dongle.

Now exit the VF dashboard software and ensure that any other VF Software is killed from task manager and Control Panel > Computer Mangement > Services (Look service starting with Vodafone...), stop and disable.
Make sure that all autoruns on the XP system are turned off as well (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutorun  Value = FF in Hex

Reboot

Open up Device Manager and have a look at the Ports (Com and LPT).  Insert Modem and see what port comes up as the Diagnostics Port when the modem is plugged in.
Take a note of the port and open up hyperterminal, selecting that com port and choose 9600, N, 8, 1 for setup.

Type ATZ and look for an OK
Now type the following commands and lok to see that you get success prompts.
AT+ZCDRUN=E
AT+ZCDRUN=8

Exit Hyperterminal and unplug the modem / replug the modem.  Open up Device Manager and have a look at the Ports (Com and LPT), you should notice that the description wording for the comports is different.  In my case before it was Vodafone and now it is ZTE.

Now you should be able to open up DC and unlock that sucker, just make sure that you have a non VF sim card in the modem or your DC program will say it is unlocked already.

Optional and really worth it

Uninstall all the VF crap, Go to http://www.dc-unlocker.com/downloads/ZTE/Dashboards and Download the ZTE Dashboard.
Open up the ISO using winrar or simmilar.  Install it on your system and use it with the modem.  The Join Air ZTE dashboard has all the drivers.


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Motion webcam two webcams change order on boot /dev/video0 persistent linux ubuntu

Copied from various resources on the web, Original Reference Here

When using Motion http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion with multiple usb webcams, sometimes the dev order of the webcams changes on reboot of a machine. 

i.e.  /dev/video0 becomes dev/video1

This can seriously stuff things up.  To overcome this, create a udev rule to lock/assign a device dev location.

First do a lsusb, notice that I have two webcams, one is built into the screen and the other is USB connected.

Take note of the ID of the webcam you want
i.e 045e:00f7


Now do a:
sudo touch /etc/udev/rules.d/25-name-video-devices.rules


Edit this file and enter the following:
SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux", BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="045e", SYSFS{idProduct}=="00f7", NAME="video5"


I assigned the webcam to give a default location of /dev/video5 so it would never conflict with other webcams fitted in the future (hopefully)

Don't forget to modify your ~/.motion/motion.conf file and change the video device to /dev/video5


What happens if you have two webcams and they are both the same?  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Shortcut to directly link Australia Post Tracking Number in the URL

The Australia Post tracking page is a place to monitor items that are being tracking using their tracking numbers.

The page consists of a form with fields and buttons, click, type, click, wait....

Some times it is important to send this tracking number to a customer, but to have them reenter a number into a form is not efficient.

Here is a way of integrating the tracking number directly to the URL via a query.

auspost.com.au/track/track.html?id=XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Where XXXXXXXXXXXXX is the tracking number.

Be sure to try it before sending it off to people via email.


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How to get writing text back on gmail icons button labels

Ever since google changed the gmail interface, the labels on the buttons have changed from English text to some crappy symbols which have no apparent meaning.  We are talking about the "Archive" "Refresh" "Delete" buttons..

They have made excuses to people like, the position has not changed or the labels have the meaning when you hover over them with the mouse, but should we have to swallow this BS just so illiterates can use their email without feeling violated?

Anyway, google has succumbed to public pressure and made a option for uses to go back the having text on buttons in the gmail online interface.  The switch is easy:

In the gmail interface, click the gears icon.  Then click settings.
In the General tab, you will see "Button Labels", change this to text.
Relax, and enjoy  your new freedom.




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Workaround for drive.google.com being blocked at work docs.google.com docs drive

Anyone that has changed over from google docs to google drive, will learn that it is a one way process with no looking back.  They will also learn that some companies have blocked access to cloud sites, such as google drive.  Hence a complete denial access to any documents.

The problem is usually caused by a denial to the URL drive.google.com  This will block access to the list of documents and any further access to documents in a corporate environment.  The documents have a URL of docs.google.com/... which is usually whitelisted.

There are a few workarounds to this issue, one is to gain access the URL of your document on a non blocked computer and emailing it to the blocked computer.  The URL of the document will begin with docs.google.com, which is not blocked in my case.

If you need access to the documents list and documents then do this:
1.  Login to the gmail account where your blocked documents are kept within
2.  Go to Jolicloud and sign up
3.  Go to my.jolicloud.com/#!/dashboard and click the green + icon in the top left hand corner
4.  Do a search on Jolicloud  for the app "Google Docs", its the one with the subtitle "Google Docs that isn't blocked by some businesses or secure networks."
5.  Install the app and authorise it to access your documents from your goggle account.
6.  Go to my.jolicloud.com/#!/files and click the Google Docs  icon and your google documents will "magically appear"

I have no picture, but can confirm that this works.  If your organsiation has blocked access to jolicloud, then try the first method.

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