Category Archives: How To

NetFlix DRM Error: N8156-6013

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Recently I have been having trouble with my NetFlix instant watch service.  On several occasions I get odd DRM errors telling me that the date on my PC is set to (insert current date here) and to check and make sure it’s correct, which it is.  I don’t think I am the only person having this problem because when I fired up trusty ol’ Google, I found lots of other folks complaining about and seeking solutions for NetFlix DRM errors as well.  Not all of them shared my exact error number, but they all sounded faily similar in what was happening.

As I searched, I found a few things to try and although none helped me, some helped other folk so I will list them here anyway.  Finally, the explanation and solution that worked for me actually made a lot of sense once I digested it, and I bet it will help some of you out there as well.  🙂

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Your Shader Model And You

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As technology moves ever onward, getting more and more complex, it becomes more and more important to know what you have and what it can do.  In this case I am talking about graphics cards and figuring out what Shader Model it supports.  I am seeing more and more games that have not only memory and processor requirements listed, but also things like what Shader Model and DirectX version your hardware supports.

I ran into this recently and although the DirectX version is easy enough to find out, the Shader Model was a bit tougher.  So, after working through the problem and gathering some information from around the ‘net, I have put together some instructions and a handy reference chart for you that should make figuring this out a bit easier. Continue reading →

Quick fix for Notepad++ and the dreaded “Error in CreateProcess (740)” problem!

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At least this worked really well for me, and a few other folk that tried it.  I don’t know if this is a Windows 7 thing since it seems that most folks experiencing this problem were running Win7, but not everyone.  Either way, I culled this from bits and pieces of other suggested solutions I found and thought I would share it.  You never know, it might help someone else like it helped me, and that’s what this site is all about, eh?

OK, on with the goodness!  Quick summary, I had Notepad++ (one badass text editor for Windows if you don’t already know about it) installed on my main machine, the Mothership running Windows 7.  I had a context menu entry so that I could write click on darn near anything and have the option to “Edit with Notepadd++”.  This has been a real handy option living in my context menu for years, and when it started flaking out I wasn’t happy about it.  At first I figured it was just Windoze being Windoh’s and it would be OK after the next time I rebooted.  However, as time went on, after the next reboot or two, it was still messed up.

Messed up how you ask?  Well, I could open the program with the standard shortcut, no problem.  Once open I could open files, no problem.  I could drag and drop files and Notepad++ would open them fine.  It was only when I tried to fire up Notepad++ with a file argument after the executable’s path (like the context menu) that I would get the following error message:

Error in CreateProcess (740): Is this command correct?
“C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe”
“D:\path\to\the\file_I_was\opening.txt”

That was it, no joy after that.  Nothing.  Nada. Irritating.  Well, to make a longer story shorter, I did some research and found that it came down to two problems.  Maybe only one, but I think it really had to do with both.  These were/are:

  • Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) doesn’t like the “++” in the path.  The theory goes that Windows doesn’t have a publicly reported problem, like by Microsoft, but nonetheless it sometimes just lets special characters get on its bad side, and starts throwing some errors.
  • Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) does not like the Notepad++ option during setup that says don’t use %AppData% for storing config settings.  This allows you to override Windows default behavior and store your config data in the program directory like in the old days.  Well, Windows 7 especially (maybe others) really hates this, and will fight with you over it.

So, what was the fix?  The fix should be pretty obvious after reading the two items above, but I’ll lay it out for you anyway, cause that’s what I do!

  • First, uninstall Notepad++, make sure to completely remove it.
  • Next, re-install Notepad++, you might as well snag the latest version from their site (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) while you are at it.
  • During the re-install, make sure you change the installation path so as to remove the “++” from the install directory.  As a suggestion, I used “C:\Program Files\NotepadPP\”, substituting a capital P for each +.
  • Also, as you are installing, make sure you do not check the option that says to not use %AppData%, go ahead and let the installer put the config files where it wants.
  • Now, once the install is done, test it out.  For me, this fixed my problems, Notepad++ runs faster and smoother than ever before, which is a great thing.

I sure hope this helps you fix the problems you are having with Notepad++ and opening files from a context menu.  If not, drop a comment and share some details, maybe we can get folk to chime in and help you out!  Enjoy 🙂

Visual Basic dot NET – Making a button the form default

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Here is a quick tip for any and all of you VB slimming pills that work.NET heads out there.  Need to make a button on your form the default one to fire off when you hit the enter key (while that form has focus naturally)?  In the old days, it was a button property, and now it has become a form property.  It actually kind of makes sense when you think about it.  I mean, you can only have one default button on a form, right?  Anyway, go to the properties of the form in question and look for an option called “AcceptButton”.  This will be a drop down list comprised of all the buttons that have been placed on the form.  Pick the one you want as the default and there you have it, your button is ready to go!  Hope that helps …

Watch out for SPAM and PHISH(ing)

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I have written before about spam and phishing attacks, but I thought it would be a good idea to re-visit this topic since there seems to be a concerted effort by senders out there to blast our collective Inboxes with not only hideous amounts of spam (which is bad enough), but also with a whole new class of phishing emails.  I get tons of them “from” Amazon (that’s where the phrase Spamazon came from!), Newegg, Bank Of America, PayPal, and eBay just to name a few.  Basically, they are likely to send one of these phishing emails from pretty much any online e-commerce type of store that they think the can trick someone with.  That’s why you have to be careful and check these messages out thoroughly!  Because the ones I have been getting lately have been really, really well done.  They have been pretty hard to tell from the real thing.

The idea here is that the phisher will send you something from … let’s use Amazon, saying that your order went through successfully and your credit card was charged X amount of dollars.  Well, you look at that and right away know you didn’t order anything recently (or maybe you did, but the amount charged shows different from what you just ordered) and it makes you think that someone maybe got into your credit card account or your Amazon account maybe.  You feel that rush of excitement and fear as your mind starts doing the mental tally of how much money you are losing for every second that ticks off.  So you immediately click the link in the email so you can log into your account at Amazon and see just what the heck is going on.  Only, that link you just clicked isn’t taking you to Amazon, the phisher sends you to his own web page that looks like Amazon and is counting on that excited fear feeling to get you to rush into action without thinking.  Once you are on the version of Amazon that the phisher sends you to, you try to log in.  You might get an error or the phisher might go ahead and re-direct you to the real Amazon now, it doesn’t really matter because he has what he wants.  He now actually does have your username and password that he just snagged from you attempting to log in at the fake site.  Plus, if you use the same password for a bunch of different sites, he now has your password and probably username for those as well!!!

In a case like I described above, be sure to take a deep breath and act calmly.  Even if you are sure that the email really is from Amazon, open up your web browser and go to Amazon directly and then log in there to check your account, where you can be sure that it really is the correct site.  When you get these suspect emails, check them out closely because as good as I have seen them, there is always something that isn’t exactly right.  For example, when I get a legitimate email from Amazon it will start with a greeting that includes my name.  In the fake but really good one, one thing that stood out was the greeting was to my email address and not my name.  Another was that there was a total dollar amount for the order, but no itemized list.  The real ones from Amazon always have an itemized list.  So, keep an eye out and use your head and you’ll be just fine.  Be safe!!

VMware and avast! Internet Security Network Problem

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Just in case I am not the only one to run into this, I thought I would post the answer to a problem that vexed me for a while.  I run avast! Internet Security for my software host based firewall and anti-virus on my Windows boxes.  On some of those I also have VMware Workstation installed.  I noticed that when all of the protection settings or “shields” as they are called were turned on, my virtual machines couldn’t talk to anything else on the network when in bridged mode.  If I went to NAT mode or turned the avast! shields off, it would work, but neither of these solutions was satisfactory to me.  So, I kept on digging, even checked in with tech support to no avail.  Finally I found it, something so simple and trivial I wanted to scream, but my family is asleep right now so I didn’t.  In avast! Internet Security, there is an option to tell the firewall to allow Internet Sharing.  I guess multiple computers communicating in a shared manner like that looks bad if you didn’t plan it that way.  Well, when your virtual machines are running, it looks just like Internet Sharing, at least it does to avast! anyway.  Simply open up the main window, go to the firewall section and hit the “Expert Settings” button.  On the dialog that pops up there is a check box about in the middle (maybe a little lower) of the page to enable Internet Sharing.  Turn that on and your virtual machines will be talking like teenage girls with unlimited text plans.  Hope that helps someone out there, enjoy!