How to setup NUS SoC VPN on MAC OS

This is supported on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), on Intel platforms, only.

Installation and setup:

1. Download and install the most current non-beta version of Tunnelblick from http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/wiki/DownloadsEntry?tm=2.
2. Run Tunnelblick once, select "OPENVPN configuration file". Exit the text editor that is automatically opened. Exit tunnelblick. The Tunnelblick application support folder will be created in your home directory.
3. Configure OpenVPN with SoC-VPN connection profiles:
3.1. Download the SoC-VPN configuration file: http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/socvpn.conf or http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/socvpn-staff.conf (for SoC staff only)
3.2. Download the certificate file: http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/ca.txt
3.3. Save the downloaded files socvpn.conf and/or socvpn-staff.conf, and ca.txt, into ~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations.

Connect to SoC-VPN:

1. Launch Tunnelblick. Tunnelblick icon appears in the menu bar (top right of your screen).
2. Click on "Connect 'socvpn'" or "Connect 'socvpn-staff'" to connect to the VPN.
3. Enter your NUSNET userid (e.g. nusstu\g0123456) and password when prompted.
4. When the VPN connection has been established, your browser will launch and load a webpage with the message "Welcome to SoC-VPN". You are now securely connected to SoC-VPN.

To disconnect from SoC-VPN:

1. Right-click on the OpenVPN icon in the menu bar.
2. Click on Disconnect.
3. You're now disconnected from SoC-VPN.


Note that this page is following https://docs.comp.nus.edu.sg/node/2454

How to connect to Windows Remote Desktop on the MAC OS

1. there is an official Windows Remote Desktop client for MAC OS:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/remotedesktopconnectionclient.html



Some notes:
1. Microsoft also provides many good applications for MAC, some of which are free:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads
2. if you are a NUS SoC student and you may also want to use the SoC VPN to connect to the PC in your office: please refer to http://wangpidong.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-setup-nus-soc-vpn-on-mac-os.html

How to run a command in the background on Windows

There is a command, whose name is START, on Windows, and you can use it to start another command in a new command window. The option /B allows you to run a command without extra command window.

How to disable Windows auto restart after update

1. click the Start button.
2. Once the menu pulls up we can click on "Run", and if you do not have "Run" in your start menu, you can use the keyboard shortcut "Win + r" to open the "Run" window.
3. Now you should have a field to type in, let's type "gpedit.msc" and hit enter.
4. Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates Installations
5. Double click it and set it as enabled.
6. Now close the window, and a reboot is necessary for the policy to take effect.

Intel laptop CPU comparison i5 VS. i7

The link of Intel official webpage:
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43125,43122,49666,43560,49652,

How to enable MMS on Iphone

I am using an Iphone from Singtel, and by default the MMS (multimedia message service) is disabled. Thus, if you want to send/receive MMS, you must enable it in the menu:
Setting ->> Messages ->> MMS Messaging

How to use Windows batch script to rename multiple files

@echo off

FOR %%F IN (*.wav) DO (
FOR /F "tokens=1-5 delims=/: " %%J IN ("%%~tF") DO (
rename %%F %%L%%K%%J%%M%%N_%%~nF%%~xF
)
)

which renames all the files matching *.wav, and the new files are began with the year (%%L), the month (%%K), the day (%%J), the hour (%%M), and the minute (%%N) according to the file's creation time.

Here I also point out how to extract the file name without file extension (%%~nF), file extension (%%~xF) and file creation time (%%~tF).

For example, this batch file can rename 1.wav and aaa.wav as 201011240600_1.wav and 201011230630_aaa.wav, respectively.