Troubleshooting12 min
Why Doesn't My Claude Code Plugin Load in a Cloud Session?
The install worked in my test cloud session only because it had the plugin's private repository attached. Sessions without it failed silently.
Automation
Unattended installs, scheduled work and the scripts that run with nobody watching, including what to do when one fails quietly.
Making a repeatable thing repeatable. Everything here is a step that was clicked through once and then scripted so the next machine gets the same result without anyone at the keyboard.
Start with installing VS Code silently, the shape every unattended install takes: fetch the installer, pass the flags that keep it quiet, verify. Showing file extensions is the same idea at registry scale, set for accounts that do not exist yet. The OpenSSH series is remote access as a script, from a stopped service to key-only login.
28 articles
Guide12 min
Move a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server to a New Windows Server by Restoring Its Last Backup
A 7 Days to Die dedicated server running the old world on a new Windows Server, its build and save files checked against the old one before players move.
Guide12 min
Start a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server at Boot on Windows and Stop It Cleanly
Run a 7 Days to Die server from a Windows scheduled task with no time limit, and stop it over telnet so the shutdown finishes and the world is saved.
Exploration6 min
Finding a Bridge in 2 TB of Dashcam Video by the Color of Tunnel Lights
A red/blue ratio found the sodium-lit tunnel on 71 of 79 bridge drives after auto-exposure hid it from every brightness check.
Guide10 min
Make a Hyperlapse from Keyframes with ffmpeg Without Decoding Every Frame
With one keyframe per second, -skip_frame nokey decodes 1 frame in 30 and setpts makes each one a frame at 30 fps: a 36-minute drive becomes 72 seconds.
Guide12 min
Cut Multi-Camera Dashcam Clips with ffmpeg Without Re-Encoding, and Keep Them in Sync
Stream-copy each dashcam camera and line the files up to the frame, even though each camera's keyframes fall at their own drifting fraction of a second.
Troubleshooting10 min
Rivian Dashcam Camera Missing from a Drive: It Restarted in Another Folder
A Rivian R1T camera that stops partway through a drive often restarted into a sibling folder; motion correlation, not folder names, gives its offset.
Answer5 min
Read the GPS Location from Rivian Dashcam Video with ffprobe
A Rivian R1T dashcam clip carries one GPS fix, taken where its segment began, in the MP4 location tag, and ffprobe reads it in one command.
Guide18 min
How to Sort Months of Dashcam Footage with Claude Code
Five copy-paste Claude Code prompts sort months of Rivian R1T dashcam footage by GPS and keyframes, each with the check that caught a real failure.
Guide11 min
Update a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server Only When There Is a New Build
Compare the buildid in the appmanifest with SteamCMD's app_info_print and run app_update only when they differ. Success! and exit code 0 prove nothing.
Guide11 min
Restore a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server Backup Without Merging the Old World
A copied restore such as xcopy /E keeps files the backup lacks. Rename the live Saves folder aside and move the archive's in; the old world stays beside it.
Guide9 min
Install SteamCMD and a Steam Dedicated Server on Windows Server
SteamCMD and a dedicated server installed on Windows Server, checked by the success line, the executable and the build ID rather than the exit code.
Guide7 min
Find a Dedicated Server's Steam App ID for SteamCMD
Look up a dedicated server's Steam app ID, confirm it with SteamCMD, and see whether anonymous login can install it, checked here for 25 common servers.
Guide13 min
Configure a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server and Open Its Ports
A 7 Days to Die server that starts on a clean Windows Server, with its saves where you choose and TCP 26900 and UDP 26900 to 26902 open in Windows Firewall.
Troubleshooting5 min
Why $LASTEXITCODE Doesn't Work the Way You Expect in PowerShell
Cmdlets never set LASTEXITCODE, so after a failed cmdlet it still holds whatever the last native program returned, often zero.
Troubleshooting4 min
Why Does My Batch File Exit When I Call a Function?
The subroutine runs before anything calls it, and its goto :eof ends the whole script, because cmd.exe reads straight down through a label.
Guide7 min
How to Install AWS Tools for PowerShell for All Users on Windows
You end up with AWS.Tools in Program Files, where a task running as SYSTEM finds it; SYSTEM's module path never includes your Documents folder.
Comparison6 min
AWS CLI sync vs. Write-S3Object: What Changes on the Second Run
Write-S3Object is wrong for repeat runs into a versioned bucket, which keeps every copy; sync is wrong when a restored file keeps its size and old timestamp.
Guideupdated Oct 202622 min
Back Up a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server to Amazon S3 with PowerShell
The world lands in S3 every morning as an archive that restores onto a fresh server, and the task's result says whether that morning's copy arrived.
Guide6 min
What Does This PowerShell Script Do?
Read a script you copied with the tools built into PowerShell, without running anything that changes your files.
Guide7 min
Export Every Published Post From a Blogger Blog as JSON With the API in Python
You end up with a folder of JSON files, one per published post and named by its date and title, with the HTML body beside each when you want it separate.
Guide6 min
PowerShell Parameter Validation for Safer Scripts
Validation attributes stop a PowerShell script before it runs on bad input, but ValidateSet and ValidatePattern ignore case unless told not to.
Guideupdated Sep 20266 min
How to Enable SSH on Windows Server 2025
Enabling SSH on Windows Server 2025 lets only Administrators and the OpenSSH Users group sign in. You turn it on with PowerShell, then choose who's in it.
Guideupdated Sep 20264 min
Configure SSH Key Authentication for an Administrator on Windows Server with PowerShell
Windows OpenSSH ignores an administrator's authorized_keys. Put the key in administrators_authorized_keys with the right ACL, scripted for a fresh server.
Guideupdated Sep 20265 min
How to Enable SSH on Windows Server 2022
Install the OpenSSH server with PowerShell, start sshd at boot, confirm the port 22 rule, and connect, plus where an administrator's key really goes.
Guide7 min
How to Publish a Custom CloudWatch Metric from PowerShell
Send data from your PowerShell scripts to CloudWatch to graph and alarm on, with one cmdlet that runs on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Guide4 min
How to Install Visual Studio Code Silently for All Users with PowerShell
Windows Server 2022 has no winget, but VS Code's own installer takes switches that install it for every account without showing a window.
Answer4 min
How to Show File Extensions in File Explorer with PowerShell
HideFileExt set to 0 shows file extensions for your account, and one Active Setup entry sets it for every account on the machine at its next sign-in.