All Posts

All Posts (543)

• Published on

  2023-06-20 4:18 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershell

  How to iterate through a collection of items in a Parallel Foreach loop in PowerShell?

  That's a mouthful, right? But yeah - this article shows and tells how to do a parallel foreach loop in PowerShell, and how to do it properly! Well, at least probably. This is how I did it anyway. But that's enough chitchat, let's get to it! Background In PowerShell, you can iterate through objects with a ForEach-Object loop like this: # Create an array of integers $items = 1..

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• 

  Published on

  2023-06-13 3:13 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershell

  How to fix "yo : The term 'yo' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program." error?

  This article explains what to do to get rid of an error that SEEMS simple to fix but might turn out to be elusive, namely, "The term 'yo' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again." Sounds simple, right? It might be. Read on to find out how I banged my head on the wall with this one!

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• 

  Published on

  2023-06-06 3:53 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  bluetoothwindows

  How to re-enable Bluetooth on your Windows device

  This article explains (one way) how to re-enable Bluetooth on your Windows laptop, in case Windows has just forgotten you have a Bluetooth adapter in your pc. Which would be weird because I don't think any pcs ship without, anymore. Even Raspberry Pis have come with Bluetooth for years now. Anyway... What was the problem again?

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• 

  Published on

  2023-05-30 3:01 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  microsoftstorewindowswindowsupdate

  "Something happened on our end" on Microsoft Store

  This article explains how to make your Microsoft Store (the app distribution channel on Windows - the one that's supposed to distribute apps reliably and keep them up-to-date) work after it has suddenly stopped updating or installing any apps with a very non-descriptive error - "Something happened on our end". Background The error message - "Something happened on our end" - is a typical error message. It doesn't tell you much, and the little it does, it lies.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-05-23 4:33 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  androidoneplus

  How to fix OnePlus 10 Pro Bluetooth issues

  In a bit different news, this time I'm sharing my preferred Bluetooth configuration that makes using headphones (or are they called "earpods" now?) bearable. It's required some experimentation, but I did finally find a combination that doesn't cause the audio to be laggy or janky. Problem For over a year, I had OnePlus 9 Pro. It always felt a bit sluggish, but the user experience was still something I could live with.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-05-16 3:00 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  How to actually uninstall conflicting PowerShell modules?

  This article explains how to resolve "Import-Module: Assembly with same name is already loaded" error in PowerShell (and a couple of related issues - old versions of the module being used, updating modules silently failing, uninstalling modules simply not doing anything...) Problem Different error messages you might get (obviously the same issue affects other modules and not just PnP PowerShell, but it's the one I use often and the one that I ran into issues with.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-05-09 8:03 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  androidoneplus

  How to enable Developer Mode on Android?

  This article dives into Developer Mode on Android and explains how to actually enable it on your device. You might need to do this if your device's factory defaults are stupid (like on my 2 last OnePlus phones), you need to debug an app on your phone or achieve some other somewhat advanced scenario. Background Enabling developer mode on Android is a straightforward process, but it's essential to understand what you're getting into.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-05-02 3:58 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  akscertificatesopenssl

  How to include the whole certificate chain in your .cer, .crt or .pem certificate file?

  Haha, another one of those "should've known it was this easy" in the books! This article explains how to include the whole certificate chain (so your "user certificate" with all the "intermediary certificates" and optionally, but not as recommended, the root certificate) in your PEM-formatted certificate. Because sometimes you just need to combine 5 certificates you've just successfully stolen from your own website using a script !

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• 

  Published on

  2023-04-25 3:29 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  githubactionsmaui

  How to avoid sed in GitHub Actions removing spaces from your script steps?

  This article explains how to replace double quotes in string literal when replacing stuff in GitHub Actions using sed. Or rather, how to replace stuff with double quotes in it in GitHub Actions overall. Because it's not as straightforward as one would think. Or maybe I'm missing something obvious here? Either way, here's another thoughtful workaround!

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• 

  Published on

  2023-04-18 2:14 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azurepipelinesgithubactionsmsbuild

  How to fix "MSB4044: The AndroidSignPackage task was not given a value for the required parameter KeyPass

  This article explains a quick fix to an error along the lines of "AndroidSignPackage" task was not given a value for the required parameter "KeyPass". In my case the issue occurred in a GitHub Actions pipeline, but you could get it in Azure DevOps or even when running the build command locally.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-04-11 2:50 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  mauiwindows

  How to set Window size for your MAUI app in Windows?

  This article shows you how to set a window size for a MAUI app on Windows. This is super useful for debugging - in my case, I wanted to retain a fast development cycle with lightweight debugging to work on my code quickly, but still see everything in roughly the right aspect ratio for my typical end-user device - an Android smartphone. But using the emulator for this was not usable, as it's comparably slow. And of course the same solution will work for production use cases.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-04-04 2:39 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  entityframeworkcoresql

  How to fix "System.InvalidOperationException: The property 'ItemBody.AdditionalData' could not be mapped because it is of type 'IDictionary', which is not a supported primitive type or a valid entity type. Either explicitly map this property, or ignore it using the '[NotMapped]' attribute or by using 'EntityTypeBuilder.Ignore' in 'OnModelCreating'." in .NET 7 and Entity Framework?

  Oof. What even is this title? Descriptive - sure, maybe - but also kinda long. Ah, okay. This article explains how to map complex data types to a SQL database when using Entity Framework. This time, I'm using Fluent API to do this. In my case, I just needed to store entities that I got from external source, based on entities coming from a dependency, into my service's database.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-03-28 3:27 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azuredevopspowershell

  Automatically get version number from project dependencies in Azure DevOps

  This article expands on my earlier article on automatically figuring out versioning in an Azure DevOps Pipeline. In the other article, you'd add Major and Minor versions as variables, and Patch (the last part of an x.y.z version scheme) would be incremented automatically.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-03-21 4:49 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  aadazure-ad

  Solving "AADSTS90097: An error has occurred during admin consent processing." issues in your app

  This article explains how to fix " AADSTS90097: An error has occurred during admin consent processing. " (or like the error message is actually worded - "occurred", which to me looks like a typo, but at least makes this easier to google. I mean - bing. Those are both verbs now until we all just start asking Tay our techy questions and get back definitely-not-hallucinated answers. Ah. Anyway. We should also be able to fix " AADSTS900971 - No reply address provided.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-03-14 2:27 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  blazormaui

  How to fix your MAUI Blazor app crashing on startup with "Failed to compare two elements in the array." ?

  This article explains how to fix your Blazor Hybrid MAUI application (built with Blazor Webassembly, using MAUI to build & publish for multiple different platforms like Windows, Android and iOS at once) not starting up, but throwing an unexpected error instead, an error message being somewhat along the lines of "Failed to compare two elements in the array." What fun, right?

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• 

  Published on

  2023-03-07 4:57 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  githubgithubactionsmaui

  How to build a functional CI/CD pipeline for a MAUI app on GitHub in less than 1 hour?

  Unlike most of my articles, this one isn't a description of an issue I had and the workaround or fix that I found. This time, I'm writing about something I found fun and pretty impressive - a fully functional continuous integration and deployment pipeline from a git repository all the way to your Android handsets, set up in less than an hour, using GitHub Actions and App Visual Studio App Center.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-02-28 4:57 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  mauiwindev

  How to solve "System.TypeInitializationException: 'The type initializer for 'WinRT.ActivationFactory`1' threw an exception.'" in the MAUI application?

  ... or "How to bang your head on a wall for hours on end when developing a MAUI application?" 😂 This article explains how to fix a surprising error you might get when trying to run a MAUI app in Windows. For me, it was thrown when I was simply reading a file from the disk, but I suspect the same or similar error ( "System.TypeInitializationException: 'The type initializer for 'WinRT.ActivationFactory`1' threw an exception.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-02-21 3:54 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  airqualityairthingshomeassistant

  How do Airthings sensors work with Home Assistant?

  This article describes some of my experiences with Airthings air quality sensors, especially when used with Home Assistant. I'm using a couple of sensors to keep an especially close eye on CO2, Radon and air pressure, in addition to temperature and humidity (which I already have plenty of Sonoff sensors for). As a nice bonus, both sensors I got also monitor VOCs. Background I have an older house, so I was fairly certain it has some air quality issues. An older device I have already measures PM2.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-02-14 3:22 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  maui

  How to read and write files in a MAUI application?

  This article explains how to read and write files in a MAUI application. No, not AppPackageFiles, nobody likes those, but actual NORMAL files. Real files. Dynamic files. Files that can change. Runtime files. I don't know what to call them. But I hope you get the idea. Someone needs to document this stuff for other people only now starting with MAUI, right? 😀 AI-powered summary: Mastering File Management in MAUI Apps Learn to manage files in MAUI applications effectively.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-02-07 4:54 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  mauimsbuildvisual-studio

  How to fix "There was no runtime pack for Microsoft.AspNetCore.App available for the specified RuntimeIdentifier..." after a Visual Studio update?

  This article offers a stupid workaround for a cryptic and seemingly unrecoverable problem that manifests itself after a Visual Studio / .NET update and causes the following error to be thrown: "There was no runtime pack for Microsoft.AspNetCore.App available for the specified RuntimeIdentifier 'browser-wasm'." Sorry, no real solution here - but at least I've got a way to recover from the issue. So read on if you stumbled into it as well!

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• 

  Published on

  2023-01-31 3:33 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azurefunctionsazureiothubnuget

  Fixing "Encountered error while fetching the list of EventHub PartitionIds." with an IoTHub trigger in Azure Functions

  This article explains how to (possibly) fix an error along the lines of "Encountered error while fetching the list of EventHub PartitionIds" which is thrown by your Azure Function (or other code) trying to trigger based on IoT Hub or Event Hub messages. Problem When trying to debug or run your Azure Function (or, theoretically, some other code attaching itself to an EventHub or IoTHub to listen to messages), you get an error somewhat like this: Microsoft.Azure.EventHubs.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-01-24 4:06 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  homeassistantsonoff

  How to fix disconnected Sonoff Zigbee sensors in Home Assistant?

  This article explains how to fix and reconnect Sonoff Zigbee sensors in Home Assistant, after they have mystically disconnected themselves. The neatness of this solution is that while the eWelink app will assign your sensors a new device id any time you have to re-register them, this approach lets you use the same entity id you had for them before you had to reconfigure them.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-01-17 3:54 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windowswindowsterminal

  How to fix all UWP/WinUI apps being laggy in Windows 10/11?

  This article explains one way to fix a horribly laggy desktop user experience in Windows 10 (and probably 11) when your laptop is beefy enough it should not lag and even has a dedicated NVIDIA Graphics card. At least applying this fix is going to be quite straightforward - but let me first explain the issue I experienced and what it was actually like. Background

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• 

  Published on

  2023-01-10 4:11 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  certificatesopensslpowershell

  How to export the SSL (or TLS) certificate from a website using PowerShell?

  Every now and then, you run into a situation where you might need an SSL (or TLS, as they nowadays usually actually are) certificate. You could always generate a self-signed one - but that won't be trusted by anyone, so that's no bueno. You could also order one online, even for free - but that's kind of cumbersome, and might come with some weird verification steps. Sounds quite bothersome. Most of the time, it's easiest to just borrow a certificate from someone else, right?

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• 

  Published on

  2023-01-03 9:17 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  russiaukrainewaryearreview

  2022 Year Review - Stop Caring & Just Enjoy The Ride!

  2022 is over, and it's high time to write the annual Year Review again. The ongoing pandemic and the 3rd World War on my doorstep have made me a little bit cynical, but in all fairness, the year was not all bad. Last year , I promised a new article every Tuesday in 2022. I think I've just managed that, as long as this one actually goes out in time... But that's enough of that, what was up in 2022? Koskila.net in 2022

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