TomTom Map 2021 Update

Can't believe it's been over two years since I last updated my TomTom maps. To be honest, since the last update back in 2019, I've never used my TomTom PND even once.

Most of the time, I just use Google Maps on my Android phone. Cellular connectivity used to be an issue on long drives (depending on where you're going), but not anymore. And even then, you can download Google Maps for offline use.

In any case, let's see where things stand. Seems to be GPS Underground is no more. Good thing Navitotal is still around.

Got the latest 1075 maps here: https://www.navitotal.com/topic22415.html

And the meta codes here: https://www.navitotal.com/topic22420.html

Downloaded the newest 1075 map that is compatible with my v9.530 navcore.

Basically same upgrade procedure as before:

1. Make a backup of the TomTom drive.
2. Remove the old Australia maps folder and copy over the new one.
3. Copy over the street cam files (from the backup folder) or new ones if you have.
4. Run FastActivate (with the latest meta codes) to activate the maps.

In my case, activation was successful, but device was not able to detect the new map. Had to downgrade to an older map (one that is actually shown on the compatibility chart) for it to work.

Xiaomi Mijia Temperature and Humidity Monitor 2

Bought a few of these to place around the house to check the temperature once in a while.

Xiaomi has released different temperature and humidity sensors, but the ones I got are the LYWSD03MMC model. Instead of a AAA battery, these uses a CR2032 battery, which is included. Just pull out the clear plastic tab to turn them on.

First impression is that these things are deceptively small (43 x 43 x 12.5mm). The marketing pictures always make them look like they're as big as your hand, while in fact, you can probably fit 3 or 4 of these on your palm.

The square LCD display shows the temperature and the humidity and a smiley face and not much else. You can use the Mi Home app to view historical data and supposedly integrates with home automation hubs / IFTT to switch on humidifier when indoor humidity is too low or air-conditioner when indoors temperature is too high. Me, I just want to know the temperature.

Looks like these Xiaomi Mijia sensors are popular enough that someone took the trouble to hack them. Can use this to flash custom firmware on the device to unlock additional customization options.

The neat thing about the project is that everything is done over-the-air on a browser. No need to open up the device or make any hardware changes.

Everything is explained in detail on the Github page, but in summary:

1. Use a browser to access the webupdater page
2. Press "Connect" and pair with the target device once detected.
3. Activate, then flash custom firmware, which takes a couple of minutes.
4. Once flashed, reconnect to view or change configuration.

In my case, I do the following:

• Change device name, as I have a few of these sensors, so I name them differently - "Set New Name"
• Tick "Comfort," "Show batt," and "Clock" to make the LCD display cycle through the different LCD screens.
• "Set Time" to set the device to the local machine time

I thought of monitoring these babies by running Home Assistant on my Raspberry Pi Zero W, but I seriously doubt the Pi has the grunt to make it work. Oh, well.

Xbox - Alive and Kicking

 

Twenty years after it was introduced, my soft-modded Xbox is still alive and kicking.

Mine has been connected to the spare TV in the second living, and I haven't used it for years. Kids were playing the Switch on the main TV, so I thought I'd take the Xbox for a spin.

Booted up just fine. EvolutionX dashboard came up. Was able to connect to the network via DHCP. Tried out a few games. Switched to XBMC4Xbox. That also worked fine. Connected to my NAS via SMB. Songs like mp3, flac, and ogg - no issues. A bit of a hit and miss with videos. RM and RMVB files played audio, but no video. Same goes for some of my newer MP4 movies. Photo-viewing and slideshow work flawlessly.

Haven't updated XBMC for a while. Checked xmbc4xbox and the latest release is v3.5.3 (released on February 27th, 2016). Mine is just one release behind - v3.5.1. I used to download T3CH's binary builds from somewhere, but no amount of Googling is giving me any good hits this time. If you're interested in xbmc4xbox v3.5.3, go here:

• https://digiex.net/threads/xbmc4xbox-v3-5-3-download.14655/
• http://xbmcxbox.blogspot.com/2013/03/xbmc4xbox-build-download.html

The DVD tray doesn't work anymore though. Well, it has been 20 years. Looks like I'll have to start giving away all my Xbox game DVDs.

Asus VivoBook E200H Boot

Boot options for the Asus VivoBook E200H:

• On startup, as soon as you see the Asus logo, press F2 to access the BIOS menu.
• If you just want to select which device to boot, press ESC to launch the boot menu.

Shrinking Windows 10

After a clean install of Windows 10 LTSC, I get about 11 GB of free space on a 32GB eMMC. Given that there are no crapware that comes with LTSC, there is not too many options on reducing the footprint of the operating system.

I started off by turning on NTFS disk compression a.k.a. "Compress this drive to save disk space". Windows started compressing each and every file on the drive. After an hour of processing, it's still at it. Strangely enough, I didn't see the progress bar updating, so I clicked on the Cancel button. The compress option is still checked/enabled, so I'm guessing the system will continue compressing files in the background. (I hope.) I did recover about 1 GB of space, so not too shabby.

Next option is Compact OS. This basically compresses the system files of a running Windows installation.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.1158]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>compact.exe /compactos:query
The system is not in the Compact state but may become compact as needed.

C:\Windows\system32>compact.exe /compactos:always
Completed Compressing OS binaries.

45819 files within 23290 directories were compressed.
10,110,547,923 total bytes of data are stored in 5,648,116,616 bytes.
The compression ratio is 1.8 to 1.

C:\Windows\system32>

From 11 GB of free space to 16 GB - pretty good.

Turned off the hibernation feature, which effectively deletes the hiberfil.sys file, for another GB of free space.
C:\Windows\system32>powercfg /h off

Another option to try is turning off System Protection under System Properties, which disables the creation of regular restore points. Looks like this is the default option in LTSC.

Windows 10 LTSC

Tired of Windows Updates popping up evey week and reducing your productivity? Switch from the normal Windows 10 Home or Pro to Enterprise LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel)?

What's so good about the LTSC edition? Well, no feature updates, no Windows Store, no Cortana, no Edge. Updated every two to three years with guaranteed critical updates for 10 years. Turns your laptop into a lean, mean Windows machine.

Tried it on my Asus VivoBook E200H notebook PC. Setup didn't even deteck my trackpad, so I have to do the clean install using only the keyboard. After first boot, make sure you run Windows Update, so the required drivers for network, audio, trackpad, display, etc. can be detected and installed, plus some security and cumulative updates.

After all that, trackpad is working again, but no audio. From Device Manager, I can definitely see the Conexant audio driver under "Sound, video, and sound controllers", so no idea why I'm getting a "No Audio Output Device is installed" error. I did notice an Intel SST Audio Device (WDM) under "Other Devices". Must be conflicting with the Conexant driver. Uninstalled the Conexant audio driver. Restarted a couple of times, and audio is back using the Intel SST (Smart Sound Technology) audio driver.

Next issue I noticed is that Windows 10 LTSC is not able to access shared network drives. I entered \\server\share into File Explorer, and got "Windows cannot access \\server". Apparently, this is because:

• Windows now has 'guest' turned off by default and/or
• Network Discovery (SMBv1) is not installed by default

To fix, I had to set the following registry key to 1:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters\AllowInsecureGuestAuth


I understand some people have to go further and enable two system services:

1. Function Discovery Provider Host
2. Function Discovery Resource Publication

Which are required for network sharing/browsing.

Extracting PPP Password from Router Config Backup

When Exetel posted me the ZTE ZXHN H268A home gateway router, they were also supposed to supply me the PPP username and password, but they never did. And I was not about to give them a call because their support number queue is almost always 90+-person long. I thought, how hard can it be to get the piece of information straight from the router itself?

For one, there are utilities out there that can supposedly reveal or unmask the password hidden under those asterisks. Don't want to risk downloading malware, so ditched that option. Then again, what worked 10 years ago doesn't mean it'll still work now. I'm sure the web designers have gotten wise to this. I tried looking at the page source. For some reason, the info is not there. Pretty sure the info was sent, but just not being displayed in the source. Took some packet captures using Wireshark. This time I managed to get the username, but not the password. Very strange. Maybe that particular parameter was not being sent at all, since it's not required to be displayed on the webpage anyway Was about to dig deeper when I thought of something. Instead of searching for the password parameter, why not generate a configuration dump/backup and focus on that instead. The password should definitely be present in the backup file.

I was hoping for a plaintext XML file. Unfortunately, it was a binary config.bin. Loading it in an ASCII/hex editor revealed nothing. Now, some guys have tried to crack ZTE's config.bin. The theory is that the config backup file is encrypted using AES ECB using the device serial number as the key.

Did some more digging and found a utility called RouterPassView that managed to decrypt config.bin. It's able to decrypt a whole lot of other formats, too! Ah, what would I do without the internet.

Lemon Bars from /r/Old_Recipes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cream and press into ungreased 9 x 12 pan.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Beat 4 eggs, then add:

• 5 - 7 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour on baked crust.
Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still warm.

Four-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies from /r/Old_Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix thoroughly. Roll into small 2-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press two ways with fork to flatten slightly.

Bake 350 degrees. 12-15 minutes. Makes 30.

A few tips:

• Reduce baking time to 8-9 minutes for a softer cookie.
• Do not remove from sheet for a couple minutes to prevent crumbling.
• Roll into small 2 inch balls.