21 years ago today, the World Wide Web source code was released to public domain.
Yay!
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Video Card Swap Out
Well my work computer kept shutting down at times due to video issues, so I had to do a little video card operating today. Left the larger NVIDIA and I'm now back on the ATI wagon. Don't really need anything that intensive, but it was annoying having the random shut downs when the NVIDIA card was being taxed.
Nothing groundbreaking here, but a photo of the old friend and the replacement:
Cheers!
Nothing groundbreaking here, but a photo of the old friend and the replacement:
.JPG) |
Cheers!
Monday, April 28, 2014
Save $ iPhone 5 Charger: VIBE E-SSENTIAL USB Charger Pro Kit Review
This weekend, I was in the local Half Price Books and spotted this crazy good deal. For a mere $9.99 + tax, I was able to pick up this charging pack that includes a cable for new iPhones!
The pack is USB 2.0 and includes:
iPhone 5/iPad Mini cable
iPhone/iPad cable
Mini USB to USB cable
Micro USB to USB cable
USB extension cable
USB wall charger
USB car charger
Overall, the build quality on the pack is nice and even if a cable or two would fail over time, it is still a solid purchase for that price. The items are manufactured by DGL Group, Ltd. Worth having just to throw in your bag or car and you'll always be ready if someone needs a device charged.
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| USB Charger Pro Kit by VIBE-E-SSENTIAL |
iPhone 5/iPad Mini cable
iPhone/iPad cable
Mini USB to USB cable
Micro USB to USB cable
USB extension cable
USB wall charger
USB car charger
Overall, the build quality on the pack is nice and even if a cable or two would fail over time, it is still a solid purchase for that price. The items are manufactured by DGL Group, Ltd. Worth having just to throw in your bag or car and you'll always be ready if someone needs a device charged.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Craftsman Garage Door Opener Model 315 Circuit Board
Had to tear this apart and check it out today.
Craftsman garage door opener, model 315:
Craftsman garage door opener, model 315:
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| Top View After Removal |
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| Bottom View After Removal |
Eclipse IDE: Turning Off Compiler Warnings
I found that when writing Android code, Eclipse tends to pop up a lot of warnings that aren't necessary. One of the biggest is variables that aren't being used. Sometimes I like to add in the variables before I ever use them, thus a warning is thrown by Eclipse. This short guide will show you how to remove these warnings.
To begin, in Eclipse go to Project > Properties > Java Compiler > Errors/Warnings.
You will see this:
There is a box at the top that says "Enable project specific settings." You will want to check that box.
From there, you can go through each setting and enable or disable the warnings as you see fit.
The one I was looking for was under unnecessary code:
To begin, in Eclipse go to Project > Properties > Java Compiler > Errors/Warnings.
You will see this:
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| The Errors/Warnings menu in Eclipse IDE |
There is a box at the top that says "Enable project specific settings." You will want to check that box.
From there, you can go through each setting and enable or disable the warnings as you see fit.
The one I was looking for was under unnecessary code:
 |
| Variables not used set to warning. Can be changed to ignore
Setting: Value of local variable is not used to ignore will stop those pesky warnings from appearing.
After changing settings, hit apply and it will prompt you to recompile your project.
These settings can be reversed at any time but a recompile will be necessary.
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Saturday, April 26, 2014
XBOX 360 Error Code: 416B-0000-3080-0504-8007-0070 Fix
Recently, I had this code show up and had to implement a fix for it. The code is vague and gives a hint at checking network connection. The code was thrown when trying to apply an update to be able to download a profile again. The update appeared to be working, but would fail out every time. Even clearing the cache from the hard drive didn't work. Looked around for a while before finally stumbling onto a solution.
To fix error code: 416B-0000-3080-0504-8007-0070 implement the following:
1. Open the disc tray.
2. Take out any game that is in it.
3. Pull out the power plug from the console.
4. Gently push the disc tray HALF-WAY back in, stopping before it fully closes.
5. Plug the Xbox 360 power cable back in.
6. Turn on the Xbox 360 allowing the disc tray to automatically close the rest of the way on its own.
After following the above steps, the console should be able to update normally.
To fix error code: 416B-0000-3080-0504-8007-0070 implement the following:
1. Open the disc tray.
2. Take out any game that is in it.
3. Pull out the power plug from the console.
4. Gently push the disc tray HALF-WAY back in, stopping before it fully closes.
5. Plug the Xbox 360 power cable back in.
6. Turn on the Xbox 360 allowing the disc tray to automatically close the rest of the way on its own.
After following the above steps, the console should be able to update normally.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Chromebook: Acer C720P The a Bit of a Byte Review
The Acer C720P is a touchscreen Chromebook running the Chrome OS. I recently had the chance to setup a few of them and get my impressions on the system. The price starts around $298 depending on the specs of the system (Amount of RAM). The Chromebook is targeted to students and non power users who need a system to handle basic tasks like email and web browsing. Boot times on this machine are almost instant. Open the lid and the C720P is ready for action within seconds. Setup is quick and it is possible to have your system up and running within about 5 minutes.
The C720P packaging looks like this:
The system specifications are as follows (Can vary):
The SSD in this model I tested makes the C720P very snappy and responsive. 16GB doesn't seem like much, but buyers of the C720P can take advantage of the free 100GB Google Drive upgrade for two years. Once the year is over the storage will remain, but you would need to purchase additional storage if needed. The battery is said to give around 7 hours battery life and quickly charges. You will find it easy to make it through long lectures and still have time to go and finish up any assignments afterwards.
The C720P packaging looks like this:
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| Acer C720P packaging |
The system specifications are as follows (Can vary):
 |
| Acer C720P specs |
The SSD in this model I tested makes the C720P very snappy and responsive. 16GB doesn't seem like much, but buyers of the C720P can take advantage of the free 100GB Google Drive upgrade for two years. Once the year is over the storage will remain, but you would need to purchase additional storage if needed. The battery is said to give around 7 hours battery life and quickly charges. You will find it easy to make it through long lectures and still have time to go and finish up any assignments afterwards.
Acer C720P package contents:
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| Acer C720P, charger, and manuals right out of the package |
The C720P is a sleek system. It is light, thin, and looks good sitting out in the open.
Typing on the keyboard can take a little bit to get used to depending on your current system. I'm used to using a full size keyboard, but if it bothers you that much a USB keyboard could easily be plugged into the Chromebook. This model also has an HDMI port.
The touchscreen feature is nice to have. It is very responsive to gestures and the out of the box calibration is great. An example of using the touch screen to minimize apps to the tray is shown with my hand placement on the Chromebook below.
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| Hand placement to quickly minimize an app |
To give an idea on how much time I have spent with these, here is a photo of the ones I setup in that single day. I have a down a few others in the past as well.
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| A stack of Chrome |
Overall, I would say the Acer Chromebook C720P is a good investment for students or anyone that needs a light laptop on the go. You won't be able to run every program on this, but for basic tasks it shines brightly. Of all the Chromebook systems I have dealt with, I would say this one is easily my favorite just due to the speeds, designing, and reliability of this model.
A Bit of a Byte review total for Acer Chromebook C720P: 9/10
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Sublime Text Quick Tip: GOTO Line
In Sublime Text, there is a nifty keyboard shortcut that will take your cursor to whatever line you want in your source file.
To try/check this out type: ctrl + G
A little box will appear and you will be able to input which line number in your source file you would like to navigate to.
To try/check this out type: ctrl + G
A little box will appear and you will be able to input which line number in your source file you would like to navigate to.
Teach Them Like They Know Nothing
Teach them like they know nothing is an excellent method of teaching a concept or idea to someone. In this method, you assume that the person you're teaching knows absolutely nothing about any of the concepts you are about to present to them. Even if they are familiar with some portions or steps, you must assume that they know nothing on the topic, equipment, etc that is being dealt with. This method can prove very effective.
Teach them like they know nothing removes all prerequisite items/information.
Teach them like they know nothing breaks the barrier of people who are afraid to ask questions when they get stuck or are unsure of something.
Teach them like they know nothing will give them the building blocks to reach the final product or outcome.
Teach them like they know nothing reinforces basic concepts by covering every single process.
Teach them like they know nothing makes large tasks seem smaller by breaking the overall function down into easier to handle chunks.
Next time you have to teach someone something, defiantly give the teach them like they know nothing method a try.
Teach them like they know nothing removes all prerequisite items/information.
Teach them like they know nothing breaks the barrier of people who are afraid to ask questions when they get stuck or are unsure of something.
Teach them like they know nothing will give them the building blocks to reach the final product or outcome.
Teach them like they know nothing reinforces basic concepts by covering every single process.
Teach them like they know nothing makes large tasks seem smaller by breaking the overall function down into easier to handle chunks.
Next time you have to teach someone something, defiantly give the teach them like they know nothing method a try.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
CMSD TechBits
Hello. Just wanted to put a quick link to my school's IT department site TechBits:
http://cmsd.k12.pa.us/blogs/technology/
Some of my pictures working with technology around the district are featured on it. Check it out!
http://cmsd.k12.pa.us/blogs/technology/
Some of my pictures working with technology around the district are featured on it. Check it out!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Installing Sublime Text 3 Color Picker
Color Picker is a great tool to add into Sublime Text 3.
How many times do you want to see how a color change would look, but before you can you have to leave your editor?
Well no more. Head on over and install this color picker for Sublime Text 3:
A great plugin to have that saves lots of time.
Once installed, the Color Picker can be invoked within Sublime Text 3 via:
Microsoft Windows: ctrl + shift + c
Mac OS X: cmd + shift + c
Linux: ctrl + shift + c
From there, you'll be able to make your choices.
Happy pickings!
Microsoft Office on iPad No App Required
Here's a quick tip for using Microsoft Office on your iPad without having any of the Office apps installed.
To do so head over to: https://office.live.com/start/default.aspx
The only thing you'll need to have is a free Microsoft account to get ready. Then you'll be able to chose which portion of Office you want to use.
Here's a picture of Word in action on iPad via the Office Live site:
To do so head over to: https://office.live.com/start/default.aspx
The only thing you'll need to have is a free Microsoft account to get ready. Then you'll be able to chose which portion of Office you want to use.
Here's a picture of Word in action on iPad via the Office Live site:
Word running on iPad
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Guide to Installing Sublime Text Themes in Windows
One of the quickest ways it install a theme is to place it directly into the necessary folder within your Sublime Text installation. This guide assumes you 1. Already have a theme file (.thTheme) and you know where it's saved to. 2. That you're running a version of Windows.
To install a theme:
1. Right-click and copy or paste the .thTheme file.
2. Go to this folder: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\ User
Note: The folder name for Sublime Text may vary by version, but will still be under C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming
3. Paste in the .thTheme file.
4. Restart Sublime Text if it was already opened.
5. Open Sublime Text. Go to: Preferences -> Color Scheme and chose your recently installed theme.
There you have it. A quick way to install themes without using a package manager.
To install a theme:
1. Right-click and copy or paste the .thTheme file.
2. Go to this folder: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\ User
Note: The folder name for Sublime Text may vary by version, but will still be under C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming
3. Paste in the .thTheme file.
4. Restart Sublime Text if it was already opened.
5. Open Sublime Text. Go to: Preferences -> Color Scheme and chose your recently installed theme.
There you have it. A quick way to install themes without using a package manager.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Chromebook Unboxing: Acer C720 x30
Anybody that has rolled out Chromebooks knows this feeling...
Don't worry...they were already out of the boxes. Setup 30 more Chromebooks + cart today.
Digging the touchscreen capability and the responsiveness from the SSD.
Full review to follow sometime in near future.
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| 30 Acer C720 Chromebooks |
Don't worry...they were already out of the boxes. Setup 30 more Chromebooks + cart today.
Digging the touchscreen capability and the responsiveness from the SSD.
Full review to follow sometime in near future.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Camouflage Theme for Sublime Text
Hello,
I recently made my first theme for Sublime Text editor. It is called camouflage.
A screenshot of this theme in action:
I recently made my first theme for Sublime Text editor. It is called camouflage.
A screenshot of this theme in action:
The theme file (Camouflage.tmTheme) can be found on my GitHub at:
To install this theme:
Pull down the file from my GitHub or copy it and paste into a text editor and then save it as Camouflage.tmTheme
Next you will copy the file into this directory assuming you're running a Window's OS:
C:\Users\(YOURUSERNAMEHERE)\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\Color Scheme - Default
Note: Your version of Sublime Text could vary from mine. I'm currently running version 2 it appears...(need to update!) so the folder name may slightly vary.
Once the file has been copied, you'll need to restart Sublime Text and then you can go to Preferences -> Color Scheme -> Camouflage to set it as your new color scheme.
I've found this theme useful when working with strings and numbers.
Note: This theme can also be used with Textmate editor on the Mac platform.
For more information on installing and customizing Sublime Text, check out:
Mac users:
Linux users: (Ubuntu)
Enjoy!
Monday, April 14, 2014
Using FTP Sites to Download Drivers & Software Faster!
The focus of this article is to provide information on
other ways of easily downloading software and driver packages. Many sites are ridden with information that isn't necessary. With this method, we will be look at ftp sites to obtain the same software and drivers at less hassle. For all examples, I will be using Google as my primary search engine to perform the example searches.
An example search for finding these types of sites would be:
ftp:dell drivers
(Note: no spaces between ftp:dell)
This yields results such as:
http://ftp.dell.com/Pages/
A fast and efficient way to snag computer hardware drivers.
You could try for software too as in:
ftp.(vendor/brand).com
An example search would be:
ftp.adobe.com
That would yield results like:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/
Lots of good Adobe software for the grabbing there. A lot of times even paid software can be found using these methods. That way if you happen to lose a CD you can easily find it, install it, put your product key in, and be good to go.
While these sites can be faster, looking through a long list can so things down, so make sure to ctrl+f and search directly on the
page for the computer model or software package you're looking for.
Be sure to play around with the search terms. Another good one is:
(vendor/brand) index of/
An example search would be:
dell index of/
You might find some interesting/useful things following these methods.
Cheers and happy searching!
other ways of easily downloading software and driver packages. Many sites are ridden with information that isn't necessary. With this method, we will be look at ftp sites to obtain the same software and drivers at less hassle. For all examples, I will be using Google as my primary search engine to perform the example searches.
An example search for finding these types of sites would be:
ftp:dell drivers
(Note: no spaces between ftp:dell)
This yields results such as:
http://ftp.dell.com/Pages/
A fast and efficient way to snag computer hardware drivers.
You could try for software too as in:
ftp.(vendor/brand).com
An example search would be:
ftp.adobe.com
That would yield results like:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/
Lots of good Adobe software for the grabbing there. A lot of times even paid software can be found using these methods. That way if you happen to lose a CD you can easily find it, install it, put your product key in, and be good to go.
While these sites can be faster, looking through a long list can so things down, so make sure to ctrl+f and search directly on the
page for the computer model or software package you're looking for.
Be sure to play around with the search terms. Another good one is:
(vendor/brand) index of/
An example search would be:
dell index of/
You might find some interesting/useful things following these methods.
Cheers and happy searching!
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Installing Latest Version of Sublime Text 3 on Debian Systems
Hello,
A quick little guide of installing Sublime Text 3 on Debian Linux systems.
For x86 systems:
1. Open up a terminal.
2. Type: wget http://c758482.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/sublime-text_build-3059_i386.deb
3. Type: sudo dpkg -i sublime-text_build-3059_i386.deb
For x64 systems:
1. Open up a terminal.
2. Type: wget http://c758482.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/sublime-text_build-3059_amd64.deb
3. Type: sudo dpkg -i sublime-text_build-3059_amd64.deb
Congratulations! You now have Sublime Text 3 installed.
Note: In the above examples, 3059 is the current build number at the time of this writing. To check the build numbers and make sure you have the latest, check out: http://www.sublimetext.com/3 for a list of all the builds.
Happy text editing!
A quick little guide of installing Sublime Text 3 on Debian Linux systems.
For x86 systems:
1. Open up a terminal.
2. Type: wget http://c758482.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/sublime-text_build-3059_i386.deb
3. Type: sudo dpkg -i sublime-text_build-3059_i386.deb
For x64 systems:
1. Open up a terminal.
2. Type: wget http://c758482.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/sublime-text_build-3059_amd64.deb
3. Type: sudo dpkg -i sublime-text_build-3059_amd64.deb
Congratulations! You now have Sublime Text 3 installed.
Note: In the above examples, 3059 is the current build number at the time of this writing. To check the build numbers and make sure you have the latest, check out: http://www.sublimetext.com/3 for a list of all the builds.
Happy text editing!
Sunday, April 6, 2014
A Detailed Account of a Father Teaching His Daughter How to Code
Link here:
http://dancali.io/blog/a-74-step-account-of-my-7-year-old-daughters-first-programming-experience
This is really awesome. Having a daughter now, I can see myself totally doing this one day.
http://dancali.io/blog/a-74-step-account-of-my-7-year-old-daughters-first-programming-experience
This is really awesome. Having a daughter now, I can see myself totally doing this one day.
Friday, April 4, 2014
5 Year Old Finds X-Box Vulnerability
This is pretty sweet. Goes to show you that when testing software, YOU MUST TRY TO BREAK IT YOURSELF!!!
http://www.10news.com/news/5-year-old-ocean-beach-exposes-microsoft-xbox-vulnerability
http://www.10news.com/news/5-year-old-ocean-beach-exposes-microsoft-xbox-vulnerability
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