Some useful posts i came across while troubleshooting some common problems

Create a symbolic link in Windows Visa/7 using the tool Junction - I used this one to create a symbolic link on C drive to another drive for iTunes backup location.

iPad: About backups

Make free phone calls to any US number from anywhere in the world

Requirements:

1.     Google Voice Number

2.     Sipgate account and number

COMING SOON: Hot I’ve fused these technologies to make this happen.

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Watch any video on Apple TV 1

Out of the box Apple TV 1 supports only a few video formats. It could be a pain to convert videos and sync it. Also this would mean you are limited by the amount of storage available on the Apple TV. Now there is a solution for this – XBMC. This would allow you to play practically any video from your local storage, NAS, external drive or PC.

Apple TV gen 1 runs so called Apple OS which is a specialized version of Mac OS X that XBMC for Mac can run on. However in order to install XBMC on Apple TV it has to be "patched" to turn on certain software options required for XBMC to run. The "patching" is done by using ATV USB Creator that let you make a so called "patchstick", a bootable USB flash drive which you boot your Apple TV with to install XBMC for Mac to run natively on Apple TV OS. After you "patch" your Apple TV a new Launcher menu will appear that allows you to download and install XBMC on your Apple TV.

There is also a similar post for Apple TV 2 on XBMC website.

1. Download the ATV USB Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
2. Insert a USB flash memory drive into your Mac or Windows machine. Make sure the flash drive is formatted for FAT32 and remember that all the data on it will be erased so do the backup first.
3. Run the ATV USB Creator.
4. Follow the "ATV USB Creator" instruction to prepare a "patchstick".
• It is recommended to update Apple TV to the latest software version which is 3.0.2 at this point before "patching" the Apple TV.
• Remember to build a "patch stick" image exactly with the same Apple TV software version that is installed on your Apple TV.
• Even though it does not say it ATV USB Creator does support the latest Apple TV OS 3.0.2

The Intel/PPC OSX version of atvusb-creator.

The Windows XP/Vista interim solution atv-win

Note that the current version is atvusb-creator-1.0.b13 and atv-win-3.0.zip

Firmware URL: http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7495.20100210.TAVfr/2Z694-6013-013.dmg

Note: The DMG can be downloaded from here

This version is comes with ssh, bin tools, and two plugins (XBMC/Boxee Installer/Launcher and SoftwareMenu). That's right, two full blown OSX applications with their own AppleTV plugin to launch AND get updates. And not only that but previous problems with launching an application into the front under all display resolutions has been resolved.

Remember that some USB flash drives just will not format correctly and if you have problems try another brand. Minimum flash size is 512MB. Follow the GUI and select "ATV Patchstick", make sure to select the correct disk and hit the circling arrows to the left of the drive menu if you insert the USB flash drive after launching atvusb-creator.

The contents of the patchstick will look like the following, if yours does not look similar or is empty, then the creation failed and you need to create again either by pre-formating two hfsplus partitions using disk utility or trying a different brand flash drive. All USB flash drive are different, some work, some do not work.

5. Remove the USB flash memory drive and plug it into your Apple TV.
6. Power on your Apple TV and the USB flash memory drive (now also called "patchstick") will automatically boot and run ATV boot loader.
7. After the ATV boot loader finishes, remove it and restart your Apple TV.
8. You Apple TV GUI will now have a new "Launcher" menu option on the main menu.
9. First update Launcher to the newest version from the "Launcher/Downloads" menu. Both XBMC and Boxee are net installed from XBMC/Boxee launcher so remember to first select "Update" and install the individual applications.
10. Now install XBMC by selecting "Launcher/Downloads" and clicking on XBMC. This will download and install the latest official stable XBMC from the Internet.
• If you want to install the latest version from SVN follow this guide.
11. Once XBMC is done installing, restart your Apple TV (this is not necessary but will make you feel better as in "task complete"). Remember that Boxee requires an account so if you don't have one, head on over to http://www.boxee.tv/atvusb and register for an account.

12. If you installed the CrystalHD card you now need to install a driver for it. Follow this guide and restart Apple TV after finishing installing CrystalHD driver.
13. Select "Launcher" then select "XBMC" in the sub-menu to start XBMC.

You can now watch practically any movie that is saved on your NAS drive, any external drive and your computer through XBMC or Boxee.

NOTE: You will need to enable USB on Apple TV if you want to use an external USB drive. To enable USB please follow the post “Enable USB on the Apple TV”

NOTE: Turn off Apple’s automatic software updates as an update will overwrite XBMC/BOXEE and all related settings.

SOURCE: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Mac_on_Apple_TV

Enabling Airplay on Apple TV 1

The one feature I missed on Apple TV 1 is the airplay video/photo stream from iPhone/iPad. I found this great software that makes that happen – Remote HD

Now that you have already enabled SSH on your Apple TV as per the post "Watch any video on Apple TV 1" , installing Remote HD is just a breeze.

(Note:  If you don’t want to install XBMC/Boxee, you will need to unlock the Apple TV using Seas0nPass.
Step by step instructions can be found here and here.)

1.       Connect to your AppleTV using your preferred SSH client:
Host: apple-tv.local
Username: root
Password: alpine

Recommended SSH clients are:
OS X: Use the buit-in SSH command line client using Terminal.app
Windows: Putty Download putty.exe from here

Enter the hostname and click Open. When prompted for the username and password enter as mentioned above. They are the default credentials.

Here's an example of how to connect to the Apple TV using Terminal.app on OS X:

ssh root@apple-tv.local
Password: alpine

2.       Once connected, run these 2 commands one by one.
These 2 commands will download, install/upgrade Remote HD plugin and restart the Apple TV interface.

wget http://remotehdcdn.appspot.com/Downloads/ATV2/remotehd-atv2_4.3.2_iphoneos-arm.deb;

dpkg -i remotehd-atv2_4.3.2_iphoneos-arm.deb

3.       To activate this software, you will need to download Remote HD iPhone/iPad app from App store and connect to Apple TV once. 

SOURCE: http://www.remotehd.com/AppleTV/Download

Enable USB on the Apple TV

Note: This Tutorial assumes you’re using AppleTV TakeTwo or the latest update (3.0).

Step 1: Unlock your ATV

This is a pretty easy process, you can find instructions here. You don’t actually have to install Boxee but follow the instructions except instead of creating a boxee USB you can just select “SSH”.
Alternatively you could to unlock the Apple TV using Seas0nPass.
Step by step instructions can be found here and here.
If you wish you install XBMC/Boxee, follow my other post “Watch any video on Apple TV 1”
(Note: Remember that if you do unlock your Apple products, your guarantee with Apple will no longer be valid. But updating the product or restoring it to factory settings will revert it to its default unlocked settings)

Step 2: Install NitoTV

There are lots of ways to enable USB, but this is the easiest. SSH onto your AppleTV, download NitoTV and install it. Here’s the code:
$ ssh frontrow@appletv.local
Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator)
frontrow@appletv.local's password: (default password is frontrow)
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://nitosoft.com/nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ unzip nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ cd "nitoTV Take Three"/
-bash-2.05b$ sudo ./installme
Note: For instructions on SSH, refer to my post “Enabling Airplay on Apple TV 1”

This will install NitoTV and then restart your AppleTV’s finder, in other words you will have new options on your ATV menu.

Step 3: Prep for USB

Because the apple tv is purposely neutered you’ll need to snag the USB drivers from the 10.4.9 combo update. Here’s the code
-bash-2.05b$ cd ~/Documents/
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/061-3165.20070313.iU8y4/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg

Step 4: Install USB support

Great, now the combo update has been downloaded to the Documents folder. Go to your Apple TV menu and go NitoTV -> Settings -> Install Software -> Smart Installer
This will take a minute but when it’s done you can plugin USB drives and your Apple TV will recognize it. Volia!
If your Apple TV doesn’t recognize your drive try restarting your appletv either by typing “sudo reboot” or unplugging and plugging in your ATV.

SOURCE: http://www.todaywasawesome.com/enable-usb-on-the-apple-tv/

HOW TO MOUNT APPLE TIME CAPSULE ON LINUX, WINDOWS AND MAC

Time Capsule is a wireless router and Network Array Storage (NAS) device in one. It can be used to automate wireless backups for your MAC. It can also be used as file server which means you can access your files from anywhere in the world. You could also use this to share a printer through wireless network. More details can be found on Apple website at http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/

Windows:

To mount Time Capsule on Windows please follow the post “How to Share FOLDERS, Drives across computers and to mount Network Storage Array (NAS) Drives on Windows”

Mac:

Mac should be able to recognize this drive the moment it is plugged in.

Linux:

To mount it on Linux (any version)

1.       Create a directory at any location on your linux to mount the Time Capsule. I am creating it in my home directory:

mkdir -p /home/vrishab/TimeCapsule

2.       Mount the Time Capsule as ROOT user onto the directory crated in the above step

mount.cifs //192.168.1.64/"Time Capsule" /home/vrishab/TimeCapsule  -o pass=password

On Ubuntu you might need to perform below

sudo mount.cifs //192.168.1.64/"Time Capsule" /home/vrishab/TimeCapsule  -o pass=password

Where

i. the IP Address is the one that you assign to the Time Capsule using your Apple AirPort Utility on a Mac or Windows

ii. The 'directory' name enclosed in double quotes is the name assigned to your Time Capsule when it is set up on the Mac - see how the volume appears listed on a Mac machine to derive this,

iii. /home vrishab/TimeCapsule  is the name of the mount point that you selected,

iv. password is replaced with whatever password you elected to use during the Airport configuration. Apple gives you two options here. You can either use the same password as your Wireless Network password [generally a bad idea] or you can select a different one [obviously much more sensible].

3.       You could also mount individual directories and assign different permission levels for users. Example

mount.cifs //192.168.1.64/"Time Capsule"/direcotry1 /home/user1/TimeCapsule/directory1  -o pass=password

mount.cifs //192.168.1.64/"Time Capsule"/direcotry2 /home/user2/TimeCapsule/directory2  -o pass=password

This way you can make sure certain users have access to specific directories only.

4.       If you want this to auto mount on system startup, enter the commands as root in /etc/rc.local

With this setup you could place your system in DMZ and get a public IP (preferably static) assigned to it. You can then access these files through FTP, SFT or SSH from anywhere in the world (remember to open up the appropriate ports for the service you’ll be using). You have now made this system a file server  

REFERENCE: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=670535

How to enable or disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence for logging on to Windows XP, to Windows Vista, & to Windows 7

You can require users to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE before logging on to a Windows XP-based computer, a Windows Vista-based computer or a Windows 7-based computer, or you can eliminate this requirement for a faster logon process. Note that you must be logged on with Administrator rights to perform this task.

There are 2 ways you can perform this

Method 1:

You can download a tool from Microsoft to automatically fix it.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308226

Method 2:

For Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the computer as an administrator.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click User Accounts.
3. Click Change the way users log on or off.
4. Click to select the Use the Welcome screen check box if you want to disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence.
5. Click Start, click Run, type Control Userpasswords2, and then press ENTER.
   Note You may receive the following dialog box:
   You must be a member of the Administrators group on this computer to open User Accounts. You are logged on as user name, and this account is not a member of the Administrators group.
   In this condition, you are required to type the user name and password when the system prompts the dialog box to type the user name and password of the administrator of the computer.
6. Click the Advanced tab.
7. In the Secure logon section, click to clear the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete check box if you want to disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type Control Userpasswords2, in the Search box and then press ENTER.
   Note You are required to type the user name and password when the system prompts the dialog box to type the user name and password of the administrator of the computer.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Secure logon section, click to clear the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete check box if you want to disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence.

Note If the Advanced tab is not available, click Start, click Run, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.

The Advanced tab is not available under certain conditions. For example, if you are a restricted user, the Advanced tab is not available. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306992  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306992/ ) How to manage stored user names and passwords on a computer in a domain in Windows XP

Notes

·       If your computer is part of a domain, domain-wide policies may have been set that override the settings you make on the local computer.

·       Disabling the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence creates a "security hole." The CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence can be read only by Windows, ensuring that the information in the ensuing logon dialog box can be read only by Windows. This can prevent rogue programs from gaining access to the computer.

·       On MS-DOS-based computers (and some older UNIX-based systems), pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE gains the attention of the BIOS, causing a "warm" reboot. You can use the keyboard to shut down the operating system. On Windows-based computers (starting with Microsoft Windows NT), the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence is intercepted by Windows. The advantage of the keystroke-intercept technique is to help prevent Windows from being shut down by someone who does not have access to do so.

SOURCE: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308226