I’ve had this question a couple of times in the past few months (since I posted the command line version of this method here ). To make it short and sweet, yes you can use Putty in a windows environment to setup ssh tunnels. Here is the specific scenario with pics for setting up a tunnel to your mysql server (assuming mysql server is running on a machine that you have ssh access to) using putty. This allows you to run mysql-gui-tools under windows and connect thru ssh to your server, without having to open the server to accept connections from the network.

1. Download Putty full install package 
2. Run putty and your’ll see the following screen. Fill in the hostname of the DB server and choose SSH as protocol.

3. Go down to SSH and Tunnels options. Fill in 3306 for Source port, 127.0.0.1:3306 for local Destination port and click Add. This will forward (through SSH) all traffic sent to 127.0.0.1:3306 (aka. localhost:3306) to the remote host’s (DB Server) port 3306. You’ll see how this works in a second.

4. Now go back to Sessions, Give the session a meaningful name (eg: MYSQLTunnel) and click Save so that it’s saved.

So now you’re done. If you need to access your mysql server, first run putty, load the session we just saved, connect and you’re good to go. You can use any network based mysql frontend and even the ODBC connector under windows and point them at host: 127.0.0.1 and port: 3306, the SSH tunnel will then take the traffic and safely transfer it to your mysql server box. This way you can run your mysql server in local mode — where it will not accept connections from outside network — for safety reasons and have network access to it when you need.

So I found out the hard way that the new ipod’s (with video out) can actually play 640×480 video and also figured out how to get iTunes to accept the encoded files (so that I could sync them with the device)…….here is the run down:

Here are a bunch of ffmpeg command lines that will do just about everything you need.

1. Getting info from a video file

ffmpeg -i video.avi

2. Turn a sequence of images into video

ffmpeg -f image2 -i image%d.jpg video.mpg

3. Turn a video into a sequence of images

ffmpeg -i video.mpg image%d.jpg

4. Encode video for Ipod/IPhone

ffmpeg -i source_video_file.avi -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv -trell 1 -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320x180 -title X output_file.mp4

5. Encode video for PSP

ffmpeg -i source_video_file.avi -b 300 -s 320x240 -vcodec xvid -ab 32 -ar 24000 -acodec aac output_file.mp4ORffmpeg -i "OriginalFile.avi" -f psp -r 29.97 -b 768k -ar 24000 -ab 64k -s 320x240 "OutputFile.mp4"

6. Extract audio from a video file and save it as mp3 format

ffmpeg -i source_video_file.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 output_file.mp3

7. Convert a wave file to mp3

ffmpeg -i original_audio_file.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 output_file.mp3

8. Convert a avi video to mpeg

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi output_file.mpg

9. Convert a mpeg video to avi

ffmpeg -i original_movie.mpg output_file.avi

10. Convert a avi video to uncompressed animated gif

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi output_file.gif

11. Add audio to an existing video-only file (mix audio and video)

ffmpeg -i son.wav -i original_movie.avi output_file.mpg

12. Convert a avi video to flv (flash video)

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -ab 56 -ar 44100 -b 200 -r 15 -s 320x240 -f flv output_file.flv

13. Convert a flv video to mpeg

ffmpeg -i myFile.flv -ab 56 -ar 22050 -b 500 -s 320x240 myFile.mpg

14. Convert a avi video to dv

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -s ntsc -r ntsc -aspect 4:3 -ar 48000 -ac 2 output_file.dvORffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -target ntsc-dv output_file.dv

15. Convert a avi video to mpeg specifically for DVD creation

ffmpeg -i source_video.avi -target ntsc-dvd -ps 2000000000 -aspect 16:9 finale_video.mpeg

16. Compress a avi video to Divx

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -s 320x240 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 output_file.avi

17. Convert a Ogg Theora video to mpeg specifically for DVD creation

ffmpeg -i original_movie.ogm -s 720x576 -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec mp3 output_file.mpg

18. Convert a avi video to mpeg2 for SVCD creation

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -target ntsc-svcd output_file.mpg

19. Convert a avi video to mpeg2 for VCD creation

ffmpeg -i original_movie.avi -target ntsc-vcd output_file.mpg

Does your OSX Mail app crawl when you start it. Well here is a quick tip to speed things up again. Just issue this command from a terminal window (make sure you’re not running Mail app first).

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
You should notice a bit of a performance improvement the next time you start the Mail application. This only works for the OSX mail.app, not other mail applications.

Here is a quick command line for all you OSX ppl. If you’re ever in need of turning/converting a .dmg file into a .iso use the following command line:

hdiutil makehybrid -iso -o newfile.iso yourfilename.dmg

Here are some quick CLI commands to get those CD/DVD images mounted under Linux (without having to burn them first).

# ISO
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,user file.iso /path/mount_directory

# NRG
mount -o loop,offset=307200 imagen.nrg /path/mount_directory

Okay, now for a bit of CLI goodness. Here is a quick list of basic apt commands.  Debian and most derivatives (Ubuntu) use these for package maintenance.
#search
apt-cache search packagename

#update/install/remove/upgrade
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install packagename
sudo apt-get remove packagename
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Yeah I know what you’re thinking…..who the heck would need that. Well since mac’s don’t have a physical CD eject button on the front plate (ie: eject is done by eject key), if you ever need to put a CD/DVD into a machine without keyboard (server machine and/or if you’re using teleport to share a keyboard/mouse) you’re in trouble. It turns out those Apple geniuses knew about this and gave you a way out…..just open up a terminal (or ssh to your server) and type the following command:
drutil eject

When I bought my Macbook Pro the first thing I noticed was that the function keys didn’t “function” like those on my Powerbook. With all the new expose and spaces functions, you had to decide if you wanted the old style keys (ie: press F5 to increase volume and press Fn-F5 to get whatever was assigned to F5) or the new style (ie: pressing F5 by itself gets you whatever action is assigned to F5 — which btw is nothing — but pressing Fn-F5 will increase the volume). Well FunctionFlip lets you have your cake and eat it too. It turns the Function keys into Hybrid keys. You dicide what the primary function is and what the Fn-Fx function (if any) is. Free and OSX only. Here is a quick run through once you get the control panel installed (just double click it).

1) You choose the layout of keys on your Mac by choosing the function that’s printed on F6 and F8 key on your keyboard.
2) Then on the right hand pane you decide which keys you want to Flip. When you flip a key you make it perform the function printed on the key itself. In my case I like to have F1 and F2 control brightness settings without having to use Fn key with them, but I like to keep my F8-F10 for expose features.

When Canon announced their new 5D MKII DSLR Camera everyone was wowed by the 21MP sensor and all the other new goodies. What everyone has missed/neglected is the fact that this little beauty has the potential to become the new RED Camera. You see, with it’s 2K video output (1080P) in quicktime RAW format at 30 fps and superb low-light performance, Canon has created a dynamite hybrid camera for the photo jounalists (or anyone who doesn’t want to spend 20-30K on a RED camera). Vincent Laforet has done a very in depth review of this camera’s video capabilities on his blog (video is upcoming). To quote Vincent:

It produces the best video in low light that I’ve ever seen – at 1080p. A top commercial film editor who who regularly edits RED camera footage – and has seen the raw footage from the 5D MKII – says the 5D MKII is “far superior to the RED camera” in terms of low light performance…

We’re talking about a $2700 camera that can take the entire range of 35mm lenses offered by Canon (and now Zeiss as well), will shoot 2K RAW video in CF card (which is quicktime and hence drop-ready for Final Cut Pro). I think it’s time to get excited….start saving now

Have you ever had to reinstall Windows and all the software you own, just to find out that you’ve lost the serial number of some of those packages. Well go grab Serial Number Revealer right now and run it on your machine. It’s Free and can reveal the installed keys for more than 700 pieces of software, if any of them are installed on your machine. You can then save these in a text file and/or print them for safe keeping. While you’re there you might also want to grab Game Key Revealer, it does the same thing for your purchased games.

I know these are a little old (the event happened back in June), but I’ve been so busy and today being the last day of my vacation, I thought I’d finally finish them and post them. The full set is on flickr for those of you interested.

I actually went down to Buskerfest ahead of time to scout around and got a lot of good shots before the official TPMG meetup started. It was a lot of fun and there were a ton of people there. I missed the “Fire in the Sky” part of the show as there were just too many people gathered around to see. Once I figured out that I was atleast 15-20 people deep in the back I decided to cut my loses and go for a pint over at Cest What brew pub….Oatmeal Stoat…..just what the doctor ordered after a long hard day of shutterbuging . Below you’ll find a sample of the set…..complete set on Flickr.