December 2015 - List of Stuff

Back again with this month's List of Stuff. The list for this month is pretty short, so enjoy!


Japanese book store stocks only 1 book at a time for consumer experience:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/23/japanese-bookshop-stocks-only-one-book-at-a-time


NES graphics:
http://www.dustmop.io/blog/2015/04/28/nes-graphics-part-1/


You Should Make a Doom Level - Old school modding guide for Doom. Really concise:
http://eev.ee/blog/2015/12/19/you-should-make-a-doom-level-part-1/


Year-End Checklist for Financially Wise People:
http://www.financialsamurai.com/year-end-checklist-for-financially-wise-people/


Season 7 of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is out. President Barack Obama is the first guest driving a 1963 Corvette:
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/


There you have it. December 2015 List of Stuff. Please enjoy and have a safe and wonderful New Year. I wish you all the best of luck going into 2016!




~Michael

Breaking Into Linux: 28 Backspace Key Presses

It was just announced that there is a vulnerability with a lot of Linux systems. If you press the backspace key 28 times when the user login screen is up, the machine will launch a Grub rescue mode that gives full access to files/data. See more here.

There is a patch available for most systems, please see this for more:

http://hmarco.org/bugs/CVE-2015-8370-Grub2-authentication-bypass.html#fix


Try it on your own system to see if you're apart of this and then patch/prepare accordingly.

Adding a Donation Button

Currently to the right of this post >>>>>> you will see a new donation button $$$!!!111. I debated on putting this on the blog, but in the end I chose to. I used to run ads on this blog, but I feel like that went against a lot of what I stand for when browsing the web. These ads can trick people and I don't feel like that is the best approach.

In the future, if anyone would like to make a donation because of my content they will now be able to do so easily. This money will be used to fund projects and buy equipment that will be featured in this very blog.

As always, I'm open to project ideas. If you would like to see certain content featured here (A guide, a review, or even a cat video) please let me know and I will try to come up with something.



~Michael

Is Your Printer Tracking You?

Check this out!

Bootable USB Software

Lots of computers don't come with DVD/CD drives these days. This can be frustrating when trying to run a program that you have on a disc.

I've used these 3 programs lately and they are great for making bootable USB drives with programs on them. Example: Copying Windows install disc onto a USB and making it bootable to reinstall Windows.

The programs are:

Rufus - https://rufus.akeo.ie/

xBoot - https://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/

Easy USB Creator Lite - https://neosmart.net/blog/2014/turn-iso-files-into-bootable-usbs/

Using these programs, you'll get by now having a physical drive just fine.

Linux: Mounting an NTFS Drive for Read/Write Access

Recently, trying to work on a client's computer using the Ultimate Boot CD. I came to the situation where I could mount the Window's drive that I was trying to work on  and I was able to see the files, but it was read-only. This meant that I could not really manipulate that data.

The trick was mounting it as read/write. We will use NTFS-3G to do so which was installed already with the Ultimate Boot CD.

Open a terminal as root and type in the following two lines:

mkdir /mnt/ntfs      

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda5/mnt/ntfs/       (Where sda5 is the name of the drive you want to use)


The first line above creates the mount point and the second line carries out the work of mounting the drive with read/write access.

And just like that, read/write access is now available on the drive.

Children's Computer Usage Posters

Saw these posters today at one of the intermediate schools. Posters aimed at children on good computer usage. They are pretty neat and look cool where the computers are placed:

Some good key points that hopefully the kids will pick up on as they see them while using the technology.

November 2015 - List of Stuff

Back with a new list for the month of November. Some good stuff in here, so check it out!


GTA V - Graphics Study:
http://www.adriancourreges.com/blog/2015/11/02/gta-v-graphics-study/


Code Girl movie:
https://www.madewithcode.com/codegirl/


Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons:
http://www.gregkroleski.com/2015/11/03/life-in-a-studio-apartment-with-my-wife-and-two-sons/


Starcraft - The Past, Present, and Future:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/6/9670176/starcraft-2-future-history-dlc-blizzard


Windows Pinball:
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/headline-story/14948/space-cadet-pinball-windows-history/


How Insects Breathe:
http://noticing.co/how-insects-breathe/


Warning: Don't copy/paste from a website into a terminal:
http://thejh.net/misc/website-terminal-copy-paste


Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly:
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_29110712/mountain-view-google-self-driving-car-pulled-over


.NET Online Source Code:
http://referencesource.microsoft.com/


Uranium missing in Pennsylvania:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/23/what-lies-beneath-numec-apollo-zalman-shapiro/


Got some extra time and want to learn something new? Check these out!
https://medium.com/life-learning/the-37-best-websites-to-learn-something-new-895e2cb0cad4


There you have it. A decent amount of things to look over for the month of November.


Enjoy!

Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook Review

I recently got to sit down and have a little one on one time with a Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook laptop. The specs on this model include:

Intel Celeron N2940 processor
11.6" HD anti-glare display
4 GB DDR3L-SDRAM
16GB storage
720p HD webcam
Powered USB port
Chrome OS


My first impressions are that this is a solid Chromebook. It weights a little more than other Chromebooks I've used, but I like that it is so durable especially since it is targeted towards educational uses.

I also enjoy the keyboard. It doesn't feel too big or too small for a laptop of this type and features a sleek design:

The form factor is nice and something that I would not mind carrying around a campus all day:

This Chromebook also features an HDMI out allowing it to connect to devices for presentations. It also has a neat little power light gimmick that I like:

The charger for this Chromebook is compact, but unlike others, it charges via USB-C which is nice because there is no power prong to expose. On other models, I've seen kids snap or bend the power pong leaving the charger useless. This would be pretty hard to do on this charger:

Overall, I would say that is is a very capable device to use in an educational setting. I could see myself using one of these 24/7, but people using them for home use may enjoy something a little lighter. I would say that the biggest points for this model are: durability, HDMI out, solid keyboard, and a sleek form factor that looks great when sitting out on a table in a library.

CODEGIRL

If you have some time to spare, check out this awesome movie called CODEGIRL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enZ82xleZfs


It's available to stream for free on YouTube until November 5th, but I'm sure it will still be on there somewhere after that.

Educational Blogging

Today I got the chance to take part in a workshop presenting to the high school science department on the topic of educational blogging.

I covered setting up and publishing content to a basic blog using Blogger. Also, I learned some new things about Wikispaces and other blog creation software aimed at educators.

My slides from today can be found here:

http://bit.ly/1k6zxQ5

Feel free to reference them or pass them along to other educators.


~Michael

October 2015 - List of Stuff

My October 2015 List of Stuff includes:


Doing an HD Remake the Right way:
http://www.fortressofdoors.com/doing-an-hd-remake-the-right-way/


Word Search Creator - Make your own word searches:
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp


CTRL Paint - Learn painting/art techniques through awesome videos:
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/overview

How to Cook on $3 a Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSg6lwIItU&feature=youtu.be

Ops School:

http://www.opsschool.org/en/latest/introduction.html

Beyond Compare Software - The BEST way to compare differences between a set of files:

http://www.scootersoftware.com/

Screenshots from Developers and Unix People: 

https://anders.unix.se/2015/10/28/screenshots-from-developers--unix-people-2002/

These were a few of the links, videos, software, and articles that I thought were interesting during the month of October. Check them out and be sure to check back next month for the next list!

~Michael 

Disable Windows 10 Tracking [Software Download]

Hello all,

Here is a link to a great app, called DisableWinTracking:

https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking

This app gives you quick access to stop/block the tracking features built into Windows 10. It also allows you to delete some of the built-in apps that come installed.

More instructions can be found on the page.

~Enjoy!

Using WolframAlpha to Generate Passwords

Need a strong password in a pinch but can't think of any?

Head over to WolframAlpha and have it generate one  for you!

You could have WolframAlpha generate a password by typing in the search box:

Generate a 8 character password.

- This will generate a 8 character password of random characters.

Generate alphanumeric password

- Will generate a alphanumeric password

You can even have WolframAlpha analyze your passwords:

Analyze password dog  

- Will analyze the password dog and return the results

Generate password all special characters

- Will generate a password using only special characters

Generate password only numbers

- Will generate a password using only numerical digits


There are a few more that you could come up with. Play around and see what combinations you can come up with.

September 2015 - List of Stuff

I decided to start a new little piece called List of Stuff. Each month, I will feature a few things that I came across during the month and put them up for others to check out. These could be things I'm currently into, articles that I read, software or apps that I used, books, music, or just plain anything that I found cool for that particular month.


September 2015 - List of Stuff


This is Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify - all without the internet. Really cool piece on how another part of the world gets their information.

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/21/9352095/netflix-cuba-paquete-internet


Google CS First. Came across this and thought it was a neat source for educators.

http://www.cs-first.com/create


Nuclide IDE - Developed and used by Facebook employees.

http://nuclide.io/

iOS at Facebook. Tons of information on the app that so many people use. 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5463eca4e4b09c644a61f99a/t/55fa801ae4b008853e3de038/1442480154751/SimonWhitaker.pdf

Microsoft Mathematics. Calculator on steroids. For more advanced uses. Would recommend for any students taking math courses.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15702


How we Built an Infinitely Scalable Malware Detector

http://www.scalescale.com/how-we-built-an-infinitely-scalable-malware-detector/


iPhone App - Filters by Tap Tap Tap. TONS of photography filters. From the makers of Camera+

http://taptaptap.com/filters/


That concludes September's List of Stuff. Let me know if you liked the idea behind this. If so, I'll continue on in the coming months and possibly turn it into an email newsletter if it gains enough traction.


As always, enjoy!



~Michael

Scratch Programming - Turbo Mode

Here is a little trick that I picked up through the CS50 course already. It was not featured in the lectures directly, but through a neat video that was shared on the problem set page from week 0.

To run a Scratch program in Turbo Mode, simply Shift + click on the green start flag to run your program in Turbo Mode.

When a Scratch program runs, it will step through each step/direction the exact amount of times stated. With Turbo Mode, the process is allowed to run faster opening up a few extra possibilities to play with.

Harvard CS50 Course

I've been trying to follow along with Harvard's CS50 course this semester as it happens live. The course lives at: https://cs50.harvard.edu/  CS50 is Harvard's introductory computer science course and features an array of programming languages and concepts.

All of the materials, lectures, and notes are made available on this site. There is a huge amount of information to go through.

I'm enjoying the class so far, but I'm only through week 0. I liked the intro to Scratch programming. I've heard of it before and set it up on computers for the school district, but never had a chance to use it until now. I think it's a great resource to have when teaching young children how to program.

I look forward to what this class brings. I've heard great things about it. Anyone that would like to follow along with it is welcome to join me. Just let me know and we can work through notes/problem sets together.

100th Post: The Defining Technologies, Hardware, and Software That Led Me Here

Post 100 of this blog will be retrospective of the top 10 things that have influenced or gotten me to where I am in my technological journey. These are in no certain order. Enjoy!


1. Java programming language - In high school, I took the Oracle Internet Academy courses. It was the first time offered at my school. The 2nd course had us programming in Java and it quickly become one of my favorite languages.

2. Microsoft Windows XP - This was the operating system that helped get me into computers. XP was my playground for all things computer related. I got my first taste of dealing with malware and programming under XP.

3. Android - My first smartphone was a Droid 2. Android programming got me into app development and thinking about programming for apps. Seeing an app you made on someone's device is a powerful feeling.

4. Nintendo - My first gaming system and also one of my favorite (Super SNES). I remember playing the classics and I'm still drawn to them today. 8-bit and 16-bit games define some of my past.

5. Compaq laptop - My first personal laptop was a Compaq. So much gaming and coding was done on this machine. I still have it today!

6. iPhone/iPad - A full blown computer system that fits in the pocket.

7. C++ - The programming language when you want to get serious about game development.

8. Gamedev.net - Learning the concepts of game programming before I could even begin to carry them out. The site and the people behind it were very influential to me.

9. Apple Macbook - The laptop that was so redefined and sleek. Unix underpinnings which lead me into a new world of development.

10. Comcast Cable internet - Going from dial-up to cable internet was eye opening. So many more possibilities were opened. The amount of information from sites, videos, and books geared towards tech/programming is near endless.

BONUS 11. Hacker News - One of my starting points for information. Some of the best programming resources have been found here.

BONUS 12. Linux - Linux, a whole new operating system to me and a look into a different lifestyle. Open source software is a GREAT thing and I feel like it should be in the spotlight more.

TI-83 Plus Calculator Emulation

Now that school is getting back in and classes are underway, I thought it would be a good time to share some useful information on TI calculators.

TI graphing calculators are required for a lot of the higher level math courses taught in high schools and universities. They are very nice, but they can be expensive if they're only going to be used for 1 class. This would be great to use at home, as most schools will have a few to loan out if needed.

Did you know that you can emulate these calculators and run them on your computer like any other software program?

Wabbitemu is a package designed to emulate these calculators and runs on Windows, Mac, and Android.

Once the program is installed, you'll need a ROM image of the calculator you want to emulate. I'm choosing my favorite for this example, the TI-83 Plus.

Here is a link to the ROM that I am using in this example. You can find other models with Google or even on the TI website.

http://nitroroms.com/show/file-info/L164856/Texas_Instruments/TI-83+%20v1.03%20(19xx)(Texas%20Instruments).rom.html

Download and copy this file somewhere onto your computer. When you open Wabbitemu, you'll be asked to locate the file you'll be using. Pick the file you downloaded and the calculator will start up!

                                 Wabbit running a TI-83 Plus ROM in Windows 10


 One of my favorite features of this program is under the File menu. There is an option to record an .avi video file. This is a great resource for instructors. Think about how someone can record going through the steps of a sample equation and then upload it to their site. Students can later watch the video and follow along. I think this is one of the best features that makes this program a top notch calculator emulator.

For more resources, please see:

https://education.ti.com/en/us/home

Android Emulation on Windows 10 - Troubles/Fixes

Recently I ran into some troubles getting my old Android emulators running under Windows 10 after my upgrade from Win7. I believe the trouble came from upgrading from Windows 7 Professional into Windows 10 Home edition. In doing so, I lost access to Hyper-V.

I was trying to get the Microsoft Android emulator running as VirtualBox isn't fully compatible with Windows 10 yet. Also, Genymotion seems to be having trouble with the new version of VirtualBox.

The only way I was able to get an emulator up and running was to fire up a virtual machine running Windows 8.1 Pro. From there, I was able to get the Microsoft Android tools installed and running:

So if you run into this issue on Windows 10 that is the cause and that is a possible fix. Another way would be connecting a device to your computer and testing it through there. I do this sometimes on my Galaxy Tab, but I always like having the emulators around too.


Here are a few resources on mobile emulation and mobile device lab setups:

Android Testing on Devices and Emulators

Testing Mobile - Emulators-Simulators-Remote-Debugging/

How to Build a Device Lab

Setting up a Mobile Device Lab

Etsy's Device Lab

CS Unplugged - CS without a Computer

When I was first learning about programming, the best teachers told me to start with a pen and paper before ever reaching for the keyboard.

Check out CS Unplugged - Computer Science without a computer. 

Tons of free activities to use in the classroom or anywhere to help learn some computer science concepts.

A big benefit to program design and logical thinking will be the amount of time saved. Rushing to a keyboard and coding right away often leads to wasted time. Image getting halfway into a program and realizing there is a much better approach to the problem and the existing code has to be tossed.

This is why it's nice to have a good start in your mind, on paper, or whiteboard before even sitting down at a keyboard.

RJ45 Android App

Announcing today the release of a new Android app, RJ45. RJ45 is a handy chart for remembering the color order of network cables. Quickly open the app and you'll never have to worry about forgetting again.

It is available at:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.project.rj45&hl=en

This is a nice little utility to have for help desk and system administrators. I got some good practice with working with ImageView when making this. I also found a new utility for making Android icons and it is awesome!

As always, any feedback can be sent directly to me. Check it out!

MagPi Magazine

Most readers will know I've been tinkering with a Raspberry Pi 2 lately. I came across a great resource that I wanted to share:

MagPi magazine is a free online magazine with Raspberry Pi articles, tutorials, and interviews. It started as a web magazine, but was recently picked up by a publisher. It looks very polished. I like it because it features a lot of hands-on programming articles and project ideas.

All issues are available online for free as .PDF files. If you like it, I would even encourage you to subscribe.

Summertime Pi - Part 2

Actually got to fire up the Pi for the first time last night. For the Raspberry Pi 2 hookup, you will need:

Everything that came in the CanaKit as shown in Part 1.

A USB keyboard and mouse


To begin, you will want to connect everything to the Pi. I recommend this order:

1. Put SD card into SD card slot.

2. Connect HDMI cable from Pi to monitor.

3. Connect USB keyboard and mouse.

4. Connect network cable or wireless if you chose to (Not necessary to function).

5. Connect power cable. (Note: When the power is connected, the Pi will automatically boot).


It will look like this when connected without a case:

On first boot, you will be asked to install Raspbian onto the SD card:

From there, the  operating system will attempt to boot for the first time:

Finally, the Raspbian system will load into the desktop:

My next post will detail the default software that comes loaded in Raspbian. For now, the students could connect the PI for the first time and see if they can get to this point. The included instructions are great and many more resources can be found online.

For  younger children, once the Pi is connected you could remove one component such as the USB keyboard and then ask the children what happens when it is removed (can't type). You could do this for the remaining components having them guess what they think will happen each time a component is removed/added back.

Join back next time as I take a look at the included software and see what it could be used for in a classroom environment.

Running Number Munchers on Windows

This quick write-up is a short guide on getting the classic game Number Munchers working on current Windows systems (Windows 7, 8, 10, etc.).

I mean who wouldn't want to have this number-munching goodness running on their system?!?!?

First you will want to download a program called D-Fend Reloaded. This program comes with DOSBox and provides a nice graphical menu system to show and run games, so the user won't have to do any work on the command line. I chose this because it is the most user-friendly choice.

You can down D-Fend Reloaded from:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/d_fend_reloaded.html

Next you need to download Number Munchers. You can find that download here:

http://www.myabandonware.com/game/number-munchers-z0

Make note of where your copy of Number Munchers gets saved to. Install D-Fend Reloaded onto your computer and then open it. The prompts during the install are straight-forward and nothing will need to be changed.

When you open D-Fend Reloaded, you will want to find where your game downloaded and drag it into the D-Fend Reloaded window. This is the white space in the middle/right portion of the screen. Once dragged over release the file into the window so that it will make a copy of the game files. It will look like:

Now you should see Number Munchers listed under your games. To open it up, double click on the name or highlight the game name and click the Run button in the upper left-hand side.

The game should then launch under Windows:

Note: When re-sizing windows or going from full screen to windowed, Windows may change the theme to basic as the program isn't meant to be running for under these versions of Windows. If you see that message, it's normal and can be changed back after you're done playing.


Happy gaming!

Summertime Pi - Part 1

At last I got to open the CanaKit up and check out what I'll be tinkering with. The kit that I received is the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 2 complete starter kit with Wifi adapter and black case. It also comes with a 8GB micro SD card that has the NOOBS operating system installed. Learn more about the included software at - https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/introducing-noobs/

The complete kit can be found here - http://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-starter-kit.html


The box it comes in looks like this:

Let's open that thing up:

The black case seems sturdy:

This kit comes with a wifi adapter which is nice if you want to have less cable clutter:

An HDMI cable is included for plugging into a display:

And now onto the main event....

Ir'a incredible to realize how small these boards are getting. This thing is amazing:

The kit also comes with some decent instructions to get started. There are a few more things you'll want to get to use this kit. You'll need a monitor to hook into and you'll want to get a USB keyboard and mouse.

For educational purposes, I would let the students take each piece out of the box separately and see if they can explain how they will all interact together. The board might be a little shocking to some as they may have never seen the inside of a desktop or laptop computer.

I would also have them look up some images of older computers compared to the Raspberry Pi 2 board to see the major size differences. While RAM and hard drives are getting larger in space, the boards and components are getting smaller and smaller.

Depending on their ages, they could also be told about Moore's law and look into it further if they are a little bit older. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

They could also identify all the components on the board and talk through what each piece is used for:

From there, they could place the Pi into the case to get it ready to use. This is a good stopping point for our first look at the Raspberry Pi 2 CanaKit complete starter kit.

Join back next time for part 2 as I'll be hooking the device up to a monitor and booting into the included micro SD card for the first time.

Old and New Together

"Technology is only going to become faster and more all-encompassing. We need to be careful not to take it all for granted and become overly dependent. If something were to happen to your phone, could you still communicate? Can you write a sentence without relying on spell checker? Are you able to multiply without a calculator? Can you find the stars in the sky without an app? The list goes on and on, but the basic idea is that simply making the knowledge available on a device is very different from learning how to get the knowledge or understanding what it actually means. We risk having an abundance of facts without having enough wisdom."


~ Old and New Together
   2600
   Volume Thirty-Two, Number Two
   Summer 2015

CS Paper: The Ghost in the Browser

Recently I got to read an interesting paper titled: The Ghost in the Browser. Analysis of Web-based Malware.


It's a pretty neat paper detailing how Google crawls web links to look at malware and how they go about checking webpages for dangerous content. An example would be going to a page and having rogue JavaScript run in the background that installs malware onto your machine without permission or prompting. That could open the gates to other infections or total loss of control.


It's a short read and I would recommend it if you have the time. It can be found at:

https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/hotbots07/tech/full_papers/provos/provos.pdf

Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Available Now

Head on over to:

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/free-developer-offers-vs.aspx

Check out the latest releases for the Visual Studio family of tools.

Visual Studio Code looks neat. It's a free text editor that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux making it the first cross-platform dev tool in the Visual Studio suite.

Check them out and see what you think.

Easily Transfer Contacts from Android to iPhone

This is a quick little post on some issues I ran into today doing this task at work for someone. They had just gotten a new iPhone and needed their contacts pulled in from their old Android.


Problem: Contacts synced from Google but Google only had their email addresses and not the actual phone numbers as they weren't being saved that way. The phone numbers were saved only on the phone itself.


To transfer contacts from an Android device over to an iPhone:

1. Go on the Android device and open the contacts page. Go to the settings menu and chose to see settings for contacts.

2. Chose to export a backup of contacts onto the device. This will be a .vcf file that will get saved onto the device. For more on the .vcf file type, see: http://fileinfo.com/extension/vcf

3. Find the location that the .vfc file was saved to on the Android device and chose options > share via and chose email. Send the file as an attachment.

4. Email the file to the person so they can access it on the iPhone.

5. On the iPhone, open the .vfc file attachment and it will ask you if you want to import the contacts into the iPhone.

That's it! Contacts are now moved from the old Android device over to the iPhone.


Bonus Problem:  A problem I ran into after getting the contacts transferred was mass deleting contacts in iOS. Android allows you to easily select multiple contacts at a time, while the iPhone does not have this functionality. How can you mass delete contacts on the iPhone?

To get around this, I installed an application on the computer that I have used in the past. It is called AnyTrans. AnyTrans is a tool used to transfer content from iPhones, but it always gives access to a few neat features. AnyTrans can be found here:

http://www.imobie.com/anytrans/

I connected the phone to the computer after installing AnyTrans and opened the program. I went into the program and chose the Contacts section. You'll see on the left-side check boxes next to the names. You can now go through and mass select contacts to delete from your iPhone!

Using Chrome Dev Editor to Deploy to Android Devices

The Chrome Dev Editor can be used to edit programs and deploy them for testing onto your Android devices.

Install the Chrome Dev Editor here:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-dev-editor-develop/pnoffddplpippgcfjdhbmhkofpnaalpg?hl=en


You'll need to make sure your device is ready before you can deploy to it. You'll need to install an app on your phone or tablet called the Chrome App Developer Tool. Follow this article to get your Android devices up and running with the editor:

https://github.com/GoogleChrome/chromedeveditor/blob/master/doc/GettingStarted.md


Once your device settings have been set to interact with your computer, you can begin to work on your first example app. A good tutorial to follow can be found here:

https://developer.chrome.com/apps/first_app


Now that you have some code, you can deploy it onto your Android device for testing. I had a few troubles getting mine to deploy at first and ended up having to specify the IP of my device.

For troubleshooting deployment issues, these two StackOverflow pages helped:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21925992/chrome-devtools-devices-does-not-detect-device-when-plugged-in

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8162581/why-does-adb-return-offline-after-the-device-string/9966660#9966660

I think the Chrome Dev Editor is a great step in the right direction for not only Chrome development (extensions) but for mobile apps as well.

GradCalc 2.0 Released

Good morning everyone.

GradCalc version 2.0 is now released on Google Play.

I have updated this app to included the correct years for the 2015-2016 school year.

Quickly find the year that a student will graduate. Works for grades K-12.

You can find it on Google Play at:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mkelleyjr.k12gradecalc&hl=en

As always, any feedback can be sent directly to me. Please check it out if you have some time.


~Michael

Windows 10 is Coming - Are You Ready?

Friends the release of Windows 10 is just around the corner. Microsoft is getting ready for this and now you can too.

Check out this post by Scott Hanselman giving an overview on how update to Windows 10 quickly when the free upgrade for qualified machines becomes available later this summer. His post is titled, "What's the deal with Windows 10 for the Non-Technical Friend" and you can find it here:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WhatsTheDealWithWindows10ForTheNonTechnicalFriend.aspx

I've been playing with the technical preview of Windows 10 at work and I must say I like it as an improvement to 7. I never put Windows 8 on any of my machines, but I'll definitely be transitioning to Windows 10 when it becomes available.

Clear System Cache on Xbox 360

I see this posted a lot and I've used it on my brother's Xbox 360 system. Often you will hear about clearing the cache. Often, it will need cleared if an update doesn't install properly or if you cannot install an update to play a game. The cache includes: game updates, system updates, and gamer pictures.

Ready to clear the cache?  Let's teach you how to do that right now:


Press the Guide button on the Xbox 360 controller.

Go to Settings > System Settings > Storage

Highlight the storage you would like to clear the cache on and press the Y button. Device Options will pop up. Chose > Clear System Cache. Confirm your choice by selecting Yes.


That's it! You have cleared the cache and will probably be able to update your system./game now.

On Blogging

"99.9% of great bloggers are not awesome on day 1. Their awesomeness is the accumulation of the value they create over time."

~Darren Rowse


Don't set sight on great valuation on day 1. Stick with it for the long haul.

Used ThinkPad Buyer's Guide

I just saw this and figured it was worthy of a post as there is a ton of detail in this writeup on purchasing a used ThinkPad laptop. View the guide here:

http://ktgee.net/post/49423737148/thinkpad-guide#intel

Are Security Questions Really Secure?

This question has crossed my mind at times and for the most part, I'd say no.

Many of the questions are too short and direct that they can be a joke.

Security questions add another level of protection onto a system. If you try to log in too many times, you'll be prompted to answer a question. Some sites make you answer the security question first before getting to the password prompt screen.

The main problem with security questions are that they're easy to guess and sometimes easier to find. Let me give a few small examples:

Security Question: What high school did you attend?

Security Question: What is the name of your pet?

Now, these questions are simple, but the answers will vary from person to person. The trouble arises in the fact that many of these answers are easy picking off of social media sites. One could go on Facebook and usually see pet photos or find the past schools listed in the person's About section.

Pro tip: If you wouldn't want a stranger off of the street to know what you're posting, make sure your settings are set to private and know that even then, that information can still be seen by strangers.

Some will see the problems with this. Others won't and will say, "They still don't know my password."

What if the person got that information and then used social engineering to gain access to your password? Social engineering involves people acting like they have certain criteria that they don't actually possess in order to gain information/access to things they shouldn't have.

Example: Someone finds all of the information that is publicly available and then calls a company acting like they're you and says that they forgot their password. The person on the phone can't really tell for sure if it's you, so they will use your security question as a means of verification. If the person gathered enough information, they may have a pretty good shot of getting a question that they can answer correctly. If that happens, it's game over and your account is compromised.

A way to protect yourself from this would be to obscure your security question answers so that the answers only make sense to you. An example:

Security question: What is your favorite animal?

Answer: airplane

By making your answer make little sense, you'll have a better chance that nobody will guess your security question answers and gain access to your information.

New Affordable Chromebooks

Looks like Google wants Chromebooks to reach the masses even more.


http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-chromebooks-for-everyone.html


I think it's great that more people will be able to have access to technology without a high entry price.

Some New Tech

Just some new tech that has rolled past my desk around the office. Pretty nice:

I like the looks on the Acer 13' Chromebook. Also, the Aspire Switch 10 - hybrid tablet/notebook is pretty neat too.


Wonder what will come through next?!?!?

Pylink On Github

Releasing Pylink to my Github page. Pylink is made up of 2 small Python scripts:

Links.py will print the links from a given webpage to the console.

WriteLinks.py will write the links from a given webpage into a text file called Links.txt.

Available at:

https://github.com/mkelleyjr/Pylink/tree/master


Check it out!

A Dream Coming True. I Wrote and Published a Book. My Self-Publishing Journey

     Today I am proud to announce the release of my first book - Practical Malware Prevention. The notion of writing a book has always crossed my mind. I've always loved books growing up and I love technology. I have a lot of computer books. This project started back in October I believe as I sat down at my desk and stared at a blank document in Microsoft Word. I knew I wanted to write something that would help people solve computer issues like malware, viruses, ads, and combating slowness. I would be targeting the Microsoft Windows environment, although most tips and resources work across various operating systems. I also feel the most comfortable in a Windows environment as I'm able to put a lot of this software into use at work on the many computer systems within the school district I am at.


     I chose Microsoft Word 2013 because I already had a copy and I'm pretty familiar with Word. Along the way, I've heard stories about other programs such as Scrivener being a better bet. In the future, I might try to use it more but I was focused on using Word. I had two main goals during writing: 1. Keep the costs low. Not only for myself, but for readers too. I wanted to showcase the best tools available that are free to use. 2. Self-publish the book on my own.  The "stack" of apps and services that I used for my book consisted of:

Word 2013
Calibre
Sigil
Paint.net
Irfanview
Adobe Acrobat 9
Dropbox
Google Drive
Handy Image Mapper
Paletton.com
Kindlegen
Mailchimp
Createspace
Smashwords
Testing numerous software packages to give readers the best software available for each task
Reading though numerous sites to point readers to the best resources/guides on the web
LOTS of Staples yellow legal pads



     I had a general idea of what I wanted to include in my book. I began taking notes and doing research. I would think of something during the day and jot it down and come home and write about it later. I ended up having a lot of notes:

Notes added up quickly

     I knew I would be using Createspace to publish my work. I looked up formatting guides for Createspace and went from there. When I had the slight resemblance of a book, I printed out all of the pages and sat down with a red pen. Once I thought it was passable enough, I submitted my first proof to Createspace. They will give you tips, but I found that having the correct margins set in my document went a long way. There are all kinds of good resources around on this top like this one.

     Once my proof had passed the Createspace review, I was able to order my first proof. Note: The review process for Createspace takes around 12 hours to complete each time. My first proof showed up in the mail and I was pumped:

First proof

     I marked more fixes and added more things in. I could feel the book becoming more solid. Having an actual printed proof copy of your work is great motivation. I edited and uploaded a new version of the book. Waited again and ordered a new proof. I began making my final edits.


     When deciding on the cover, I thought of using Fiverr. I looked into some of the cover design services and they seemed good for the prices, but I wanted to try and keep the costs low, so I opened up Paint.net and got to work. Many technology books have a focus on their content rather than their covers, so I figured I could get by with something modest. I began playing with colors and finally came upon something that I felt was catchy enough yet subtle at the same time:

My book cover

   
One thing that made me very happy to see was this:

     Wow. Things were starting to shape up. With the cover in place, I was ready to submit my final copy to Createspace. Now, I needed to worry about a pricing model and a site.


     For the site, I decided to go with simple free hosting though my Google Drive account. I wrote up a post about this a while ago.  This also helped keep costs low. For the pricing model, I did some research and finally settled on something similar to this. I ended up going with Smashwords for my eBook version, Createspace/Amazon for my paperback version, and Paypal for the value package version. I chose Paypal because readers can use Paypal, debit, or credit card payments and I can handle the shipping of the items from there.

    The breakdown would be: eBook - $2.99 Paperback book - $8.99 Value package - $29.99

    I love this type of pricing model. It gives everybody a fair chance at the content and also my prices compared to other technology books would stay very low.

    For the value package, I decided to get 8GB flash drives and pre-load all of the software that I used in my book. Value packages will also come with the digital eBook versions on the flash drive as well. That would leave around 7GB free for the user to have use of. I loved this idea because anybody getting the value package has access right away to the great tools that I use within the book. They can quickly begin following along without having to look up links or download anything first.

A package deal is born

     Looking at the project folder for my book, I could see that I had come a long way:

Book files

It was getting pretty serious. Then this happened:

My book on Amazon!

     Seeing something I created on the Amazon bookstore is an awesome feeling. Being able to search for my name and see my book come up is amazing. I also decided to upload my book to Smashwords. I like Smashwords because the user can pick which type of file they want to receive. I ended up offering .epub, mobi, and pdf through their site.


With these steps completed, I was ready to order some final copies of my book:

They're ready to go

     Overall, I had a good experience making one of my dreams come true. I urge any writers that ever had the any inkling of getting a book published to get there and publish it yourself! Be your own motivation and get things done. Nobody is going to do it for you and if you wait for a publishing deal, you may be waiting a long time.

The Good: The paperback and .pdf versions of my book are awesome. The paperback came out very crisp and easy on the eyes. I'm very happy that I can point people in the right directions for software/resources that may not only help them, but empower them to be able to help others.

Having an ISBN for my book is also really cool. To go to a ISBN look-up page and type it in and see my book come up is really cool.

The Bad: Kindle formatting is rough. So many things were breaking in the Kindle version. Also, Word formatting can be tricky at times. Changing something at the bottom of the document would result in me having to go back through the top and fix things that got moved. I could definitely see myself getting to learn Scrivner better for any future projects.

Also, my site formatting is a little off. I tested everything with my huge monitor and didn't really factor in that people are using screens smaller than mine. This will be looked into/changed hopefully soon.

As of now, the best way to view the book site on a mobile device is by flipping your phone so that it is in landscape mode.


     THE GOOD STUFF/GIVEAWAY:

    For those interested, you can check out and order any of the book packages from the site here:

https://4749cda6551a5850645b1d5859d317b961050ceb.googledrive.com/host/0B5qOIaafmEh3MEFuMEdURXdQcUk/Book%20Site/index.html


GIVEAWAY TIME! I'll be giving away 3 eBook copies of my book through the above site. To enter, go to the site on the giveaway page and enter your email, first name, and last name. You will then get a confirmation email that you must confirm to be eligible. Winners will be announced the week of March 22nd and will receive further direction.

My book on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/528183

My book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Malware-Prevention-Michael-Kelley/dp/1507729111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426732616&sr=1-1


Thank you and happy reading!


~Michael

Book Update

Publishing for Kindle is a pain because of formatting, but in good news - print copies have been ordered and hopefully it will be released soon!


~Michael

Installing Zenoss 4.2.4 in CentOS 6.5

I recently had the fun of installing Zenoss 4.2.4 onto CentOS 6.5. I decided to make a helpful auto-deploy.sh script because the one I found had errors in it.

I've uploaded the fixed script to my Github at:

https://github.com/mkelleyjr/Zenoss4.2.4


All of the other auto-deploy scripts I saw in repos were not working due to broken links and would fail silently without an error as to why.

My script fixes all of that and will give you a fresh install of Zenoss 4.2.4 in about 10-15 minutes of running.

Instructions on using the script can be found in the README of my Zenoss4.2.4 repo.

Have fun!

Publishing a Website for Free with Google Drive

This will be a short intro on publishing a website using Google Drive. The cost for everything will be free which is always nice. I think this is a great way for students to show off their projects while they're looking for a job and might not have access to free hosting.


Prerequisites:

A free Google Drive account.

A text editor. Notepad is fine, but I prefer Sublime Text 3.

HTML knowledge. Learning this is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but I have found a great list of resources for those wishing to start out. 

Internet browser for testing. I'm using Chrome in my example.


Now, let's begin getting our page/site online:


Make a new folder in Google Drive and named it: Site

Within this folder, make a new text document and save it as: index.html

For the purposes of this, I used the following code within my index.html file:


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<title>TEST PAGE</title>
<body>
<body bgcolor="66C7D4">
<h1>This is a TEST</h1>
<p1>This is a test of building a webpage and deploying it from Google Drive. This is a great alternative to paid options if you're looking to set up a basic site to show people something.</p1>
</body>
</html>



Use this code to test or place in your own .html and JavaScript files.

Go into Google Drive now and check the box next to your Site folder.

At the top of the page, click Share.

Click Advanced in the bottom right corner of the sharing box.

Click Change.

Chose On - Public on the web and click Save.

Note: Before closing the box, make sure you go to index.html or the homepage of your site and copy the document ID from the sharing URL that Google gives you. 

My document ID for this tested looked like this: 0B5qOIaafmEh3bXk5aVMyZ0xQdlU

The link to my example test page is: 

www.googledrive.com/host/0B5qOIaafmEh3bXk5aVMyZ0xQdlU  

You can see my basic page is online and working hosted through Google Drive.

There are a few downsides like the page link. It's not the easiest to tell people the link without writing it down or linking to it from somewhere. j3hr3i4j3i4jksic3 - strings like that could be hard to remember lol.


Play around with it and see what you can come up with!
       

Crunch Time

With February ending fast, crunch time is on the horizon to get my book finished. This is a project I've been working on for the past few months. It is computer related, so definitely expect a post when I'm ready to launch everything.

My New T-Shirt

The lovely woman in my life hooked it up today:

She gets me. I love it!

USB Fridge From ThinkGeek

Finally got around to getting one of my Christmas gifts open. A USB powered fridge from ThinkGeek!

Holds 1 can and keeps it hot or cold. Great for coding sessions.

With this you can be drinking a cold one and have a backup on hand without having to leave your battle station!

Metroid II

Check this out:


http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?p=1384825#1384825

Lenovo Yoga Hard Drive

This is the hard drive that was in a Lenovo Yoga laptop in our district:

It's a WD Black ultra slim tablet solid state hybrid drive. 500GB traditional and 16GB SSD.


It was in the device for around 2 months and has malfunctioned. I would recommend going all in on a solid state drive if you can afford it and skip these hybrid type drives completely.