Dropbox : some files and folders not syncing

This one drove me slightly mad for a few hours.  For me the fix was simple, open the Dropbox preferences, go to Account then click Selective Sync.  Check the boxes of the folders not showing up.  I have no idea how this happened as I highly doubt I set these items to not sync in the first place.

Chrome : slow "resolving host" and err_name_not resolved

Noting this problem happening a lot more recently, even on my very fast internet + using Google DNS.  Tested the same slow/problem pages in Firefox and all is well.

This seems to have fixed it for me.

Copy/paste this into a new tab

chrome://net-internals/#dns

click "Clear Host Cache"

restart Chrome

At first it may throw another err_name_not resolved but after that it should be ok.

Linux Mint + Toshiba laptop : can't adjust brightness with Fn keys / keyboard

This is not an uncommon problem.  For me if I try to use the Fn + brightness up/down keys a popup appears showing the battery status.  After some Googling I found several results, which worked for many people but did nothing for me.  My fallback trick of adjusting the brightness before the OS boots didn't work either.  Fortunately I found this command in buried in the comments somewhere and it works fine.

SUDO'd

echo 160 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > /dev/null

That's pretty dim.  For slightly brighter pick a higher number

echo 260 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > /dev/null

While you're at it might as well install GTK Redshit to save your eyes some at night.

ROOT

dim 

echo 160 | tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > /dev/null

brighter

echo 260 | tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > /dev/null

This also seems to work on Debian and CentOS.

Solved : Keyboard media keys (next, pause) stop working with Spotify

For the past week or so I've had this really annoying problem.  Randomly the media keys on my Toshiba laptop would stop working, so I could only switch songs if I stopped what I was doing, went back to spotify, then moved the mouse and clicked the next button like some kind of cave man.

I Google'd it several times and the fixes would work, but not for very long before they problem started again.  I tried drivers and all kinds of stuff.  Made sure my Chrome didn't have a Google Music extension (common cause of this bug).

I solved this problem by closing iTunes.  After that my media keys work perfectly again.  While iTunes was open it was trying to retake control of the media keys like some kind of nazi every few seconds.  Which is why the fixes worked, but not for long.

So if your media keys don't work in spotify close whatever over music player shit you have open, yo.

Samsung SGH-T399 KitKat ROM

Floating around the XDA forum is a Kitkat rom / guide.  I was able to get the phone up and running but kept getting the error "no sim" or something like that.  After I installed the modem from this post it worked fine.

directions and downloads for update sgh-t399 to kitkat

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/rom-lightwave-v1-t2825253/post56059019#post56059019

zip for modem

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/qa-lightwave-v3-t2904537/page3

in short, follow all the steps at the first url - then before rebooting install the zip from inside twrp (etc).

Netflix screen tearing Win7 solution

Recently I started getting a lot of screen tearing in Netflix, especially when full screen.  This only started happening recently and Google wasn't much help. 

The fix for me was to go to

System properties > performance settings > adjust for best performance

Something about Windows Aero being enabled let's Windows process video better.

Win8 error "itunes has stopped working"

Recently itunes started crashing in Windows 8 64 bit with the generic error "itunes has stopped working" and then something about Windows trying to find a solution.  Of all the fixes I found online only one worked, installing an older version of itunes.  But first I made sure to uninstall the present itunes and then made sure the actual program files\itunes folder was fully removed.  Good luck!

iTunes won't open : solved ?

Started after upgrading to 11.4.  Downgrading to 11.3 didn't help, nor did making a new Windows user.  Symptom is click icon and nothing happens, usually can't kill process.  Re-installing quicktime seemed to work for 1 day.  Strangely, this works for me.

Open itunes, let it hang like normal.

Open a chat program called Digsby, must trigger some kind of library.  Now a blank white itunes window opens and I can't get to my desktop.

Open taskmanager and kill itunes related process (ituneshelper, ipod stuff, distnote, etc).

After that itunes opened almost right away and seems to be "ok"

I really don't get some web design people

"yes, lets use a white background, and for the font color...hmm...perhaps a light gray? 12 pt font? perfect."

Sideload Wonder Machine - Device not found (Samsung Galaxy S i897)

In short, get the android sdk then add it to your PC's paths.  Got it from here.

http://www.android.net/forum/sony-xperia-x10/83069-victory-got-sideload-wonder-machine-working.html#post160798

I found a solution to the problem of Windows using its own drivers for my phone, now I never have any problem getting ADB apps to find my device - props to Nephron over at XDA -. Assuming you have already installed Android SDK :Take the "android-sdk-windows" folder and move it to the root of your hard drive (C:\)
Right click on My Computer and click propertiesSelect the Advanced Tab or Advanced System Setting (Vista/Windows 7)Select Environment Variables...Press New
For Variable Name type: adbFor Variable Value type: C:\android-sdk-windows\tools
Worked perfectly for me.
There's nothing wrong with Extro's suggestion above.. just saying this is what worked for me