Programming in C/C++ Within the Atom Text Editor [Mac OS]

This will be a quick walkthrough of setting up the Atom text editor to code in C/C++. Once setup, you will be able to write, compile, and run programs from within the Atom text editor. This guide assumes you have installed software before in a Mac environment and now how to move around the file system as needed.

First download and install Xcode on your system:

https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

After installing, open up Xcode for the first time. This will verify the program and finish the setup. You will also have to agree to the program terms which may involve running as root.

Next download and install the Atom text editor on your system:

https://atom.io/

After installing, open the program.

Click on Atom in the menu > Preferences.

Once the preferences page opens, click on Install on the left-hand

At the top there will be a search bar. Search for gpp-compiler.

Note: More info about gpp-compiler can be found here:

https://atom.io/packages/gpp-compiler

The results will up and it should be the first one in the list. Click install. After it installs. restart Atom.

Now code your first C/C++ program. When completed, right-click on the file in the tree view (left-hand side) and chose Compile and Run.

Your program will then compile using the tools already installed with Xcode and the terminal window should pop up to run your program. Figure 1 below shows a test Hello World! program written in C++ within Atom.

                                               Fig. 1: programming in c/c++ within Atom

JavaScript 30

Looking into brushing up on some JavaScript?

Check out JavaScript 30 - Code 30 projects in 30 days using tutorials and no frameworks.

So head over and sign up for free for the 30 day vanilla JS challenge!

Firefox Focus for iOS Released

Check out this new release from Mozilla:

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2016/11/17/introducing-firefox-focus-a-free-fast-and-easy-to-use-private-browser-for-ios/

Firefox Focus is a secure browser for iOS blocks trackers and you can erase your session in a single tap.

Check it out!

Unlocked Android Phone Security

Here's a nice little article to aware on you on what some unlocked Chinese Android phones were doing:

https://hackernoon.com/no-one-cares-about-the-security-of-your-unlocked-android-phone-cd8ad4aae4c5#.konleqys9

DevFreeBooks

Here's a good resource for developers, a site that has posted a collection of free development books separated by platform:

Check out DevFreeBooks

NVIDIA GPU Users Beware: Telemetry Added to Latest Drivers

NVIDIA GPU users should be aware that with the latest driver updates, telemetry has been included. Telemetry is a way to send data/diagnostics back and forth between systems. The problem with this is that no one really knows what data they are pulling from host systems and they haven't said anything about it. This is bad because there was no opt-in for it and it can go against your privacy.

Read more at:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/nvidia_adds_telemetry_to_latest_drivers_heres_how_to_disable_it.html

If you value your privacy, please look into the above link on how to check if it is running on your systems. They use Autoruns in the article which is one of my absolute favorite system tools to see what starts when your computer turns on. It's a very useful program for optimization and was even featured in my book, Practical Malware Prevention.

Windows 10 Bandwidth Issues / How to Reduce

Having bandwidth issues on your Windows 10 systems?

Probably stems from the way updates can be handled. Windows 10 included the option to use P2P (peer-to-peer) to seed/receive updates.

Check this on your systems to make sure it is turned off if you're having issues or notice a lot of bandwidth being used:

System > Update & Security > Windows Update panel > Advanced Options > Choose How Updates are Delivered > Turn off the option with the On/Off toggle switch.

This will disable P2P updating that tends to use a lot of bandwidth. 

Free Professional Programming Tools From JetBrains

JetBrains is allowing students with validated university email accounts to sign up for their software packages free of charge:

https://www.jetbrains.com/student/

This license is valid for a year of use at a time.

Check it out. There's some really great programming environments included. I'm a big fan of free/open source tools, but giving students a chance to work with something that a potential future company uses is very worthwhile. I've personally used PyCharm before and can vouch that it is a good piece of software.

Kids Can't Use Computers[Article Link]

Came across this article this morning:

http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/

The author touches on some good points.

I know many children/teens/adults that use a phone or tablet as their primary device. Sit them down at an actual workstation and they may have some troubles.

You can do a lot on these devices, but there is so much more that you can do on an actual desktop or laptop.

A lot of schools don't even teach keyboarding class anymore.

I like the point of making them fix things themselves. Teach them how to research their problem and then carry out the necessary steps until it is fixed. Walk them through it, don't fix it for them.

An interesting read and it makes me think about the direction computing is going in.

Carroll Screen Resolution Software / Automatically Adjusting Screen Resolution

Recently, I was looking into changing the desktop screen resolution for a student with some vision concerns when I came across Carroll. Carroll is software that runs in the background and controls screen resolutions. What they had been doing was logging into the account and then the teacher would have to change the resolution. After class, she would then have to change it back for the next class coming in. This works fine aside from taking up time each day, but Carroll was the solution that proved to be helpful as it can handle the task automatically.

Carroll will pop up a box whenever a user logs into the computer for the first time. From there, the user can select which screen resolution they would like to work with. Then there is an option to reload this setting every time that user logs back in. The student is now able to log in and the software will handle changing the resolution seamlessly. After logging out and the next student logs in, they will get their screen resolution settings to load. These settings can be changed at any time.

If you are interested in checking out Carroll to see if it fits your needs, here is the link.

It is great for computers used by multiple users that need to work with an array of screen resolutions.

Doudou Linux / Linux for Children

Just saw this on HN and it looks cool.

Doudou Linx is a Linux environment aimed at children ages 2-12 and provides software aimed at learning and development.

I may have to throw this onto an old laptop for Harper and see what happens.

Interested in learning more? Check out Doudou Linux here. 

Should You Pay For a Warranty?

When you buy an item and the store offers an extended warranty should you get it?

No and yes.

Here's what to do instead.

Take the price of the warranty they are offering and divide it out. Then you can set that much aside each month in your savings. If something goes wrong, you'll have the extra money and if nothing ever goes wrong, you'll get to keep all of that money.

Companies won't give you more money out of a warranty than they take in. They use them mostly as a means to make extra money.

This is also good because:

You may find you don't like the item after a month or 2 and don't use it often.

You may decide if it breaks that you want to get something different.

Having the money in your own account will give you these choices.

So if you're worried that your item may break, pay the money to yourself each month and you'll always be the one in control of where it goes.

HS Library Computer Refresh (Solving Low Disk Space Issues)

The past few days Salvatore and I have been working on a refresh of the high school library computers. There was an issue with low disk space. These computers are running Windows 7 and had 40GB hard drives. On most days, students are in and out of the library just about every period. Some teachers have their classes in there and some students just drop by throughout the day to do research. The problem we were running into was every couple of days a new ticket would come in for one of these computers having low disk space. Students wouldn't be able to login in at all, or if it did log in, they would have limited functionality like no printer access because group policies could not properly load.

The problem was occurring because of a few reasons. 1. 40 GB hard drive running Windows 7. It can be done, but it doesn't leave much extra space. 2. Students don't always use the same computer when logging in. In Windows 7, each time a user logs in over the domain, a user profile is created for that particular user if none exists yet. These folders are large in nature, but if a student has a lot of work saved, that will start to eat into the hard drive space.

So after students would log in so many times, Windows would run out of space and users would have trouble logging in. If they were able to log in at all, they would be greeted with this:

The number one solution for this problem would be getting larger hard drives. Luckily, we happened to recycle some old hardware this year and were able to pull some 80GB drives to help. We already have a FOG server setup, so pulling the images wouldn't be bad. We were able to use an existing image we already had from one of the business courses. That teacher teaches accounting and uses less resources with software like Microsoft Office and internet browsers. This is exactly what they needed in the library, as most students pull up their work through Google Docs anyway. Perfect.

The imaging process went smoothly. During this time, we changed how the computers were positioned. Previously, they were laying down. We stood them up to make some more room and managed the cables a little better. One computer needed a new mouse during this time, but everything else went fine. The end result:

Success!

Now that the computers were done imaging, I just had to go through and rename each one and add it back to the domain. A pretty quick process just be sure to follow the exact order listed.

Now that they have bigger hard drives, it will take a longer time to fill up than before. Have you had this issue? Here are some solutions:

1. Get a bigger sized hard drive. This is the fastest way, but costs the most money.

2. See what is taking up all the space on your drive with a program like SpaceSniffer. Don't see anything out of oridnary?

 Find the program here

3. Remove old programs/files that aren't needed. This will free up some space. Just go through the usual Add/Remove programs and get rid of stuff not being used. If you remove stuff or don't have a lot of things installed on your computer in the first place, it could be malware on your system. Run a scan in safe mode with Malwarebytes or your favorite malware program.

4. Disable hibernate if not used. Disabling this can free up some space as hibernate will use the same amount of hard drive space as your RAM size. Ex: 4GB of RAM = 4GB of hard drive space being used. At a admin command prompt, type powercfg -h off to disable hibernation.

5. Run disk cleanup. Disk cleanup can give back a bunch of space that was previously being used by Windows and other programs.

6. Run CCleaner. This will delete things like disk cleanup, but can also delete temp files used by internet browsers, etc. Note: CCleaner only cleans files of the current user logged in and running the program. Periodically run this program, around 1-2 per month or as needed.

Find the program here 

Check out the Tweak Guides site to see about changing other settings that computers with limited space my benefit from.

Guides can be found here

There is also a program I found for deleting user profiles that I intend to test on these computers as they start to fill up. It is called delprof2.

Find the program here

There you have it. A quick solution to the Windows is out of disk space errors and messages.

Chromebook Repairs and Parts YouTube Channel

Found a good YouTube channel for tear down videos on lot of different model Chromebooks. Was looking into how the keyboard gets taken out on a Lenovo N21 Chromebook.

Check out the Chromebook Repairs and Parts channel

Should be helpful to some especially those working in educational environments servicing Chromebooks.

The Surfing Pizza Blog

Found a neat blog today about toy collecting, pop-culture, and even pizza?!?!

One of the first articles I came across was about crazy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures.

Count me in on the nostalgia and feels.

Check out The Surfing Pizza. 

Edit PDF Files on a Chromebook

For teachers and students working with Chromebooks, the ability to edit and save .pdf files can be extremely useful. Looked into a solution for this today and found DocHub.

Check out DocHub here.

Chromebook users should download it from the web store here. 

DocHub will let you import a .pdf file from your Google Drive or Dropbox and let you edit it and then download the newly created file or save a copy back to your files.

PowerShell Pickups #1

Hey all,

Recently was messing around with Windows Powershell and making a few little scripts. I'm going to be learning more as I go, but figured this would be a nice little blog segment entitled PowerShell Pickups. PowerShell Pickups will be little snippets of code, scripts, and information while I learn more things in PowerShell.

For these I just used Windows PowerShell ISE which is a little IDE type environment for PowerShell. You can also use notepad as well and save the file as .ps1

Note: To get these scripts to run you may have to change a policy on your computer. For me, I did Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
and then I was able to run my PowerShell commands. If you want to undo this you would use
Set-ExecutionPolicy Restricted

My first little script does the job of killing all browser processes for every browser on a system. I often have a bunch of windows open with multiple tabs. Overnight, things tend to break or Flash will crash leading to a massive hangup. It can be hard to get the windows to close manually, so I'll be keeping this little script handy on my desktop. The script is below:

Stop Browsers.ps1

Stop-Process -processname chrome
Stop-Process -processname firefox
Stop-Process -processname iexplore
Stop-Process -processname opera
Stop-Process -processname safari


Running this script will cause all of the above programs to close if they're open. If they are not open, an exception will be thrown saying that it could not be found.

Note: You could close out other programs this way too. Open task manger and look at the process list to get the process name and switch programs in and out as necessary.

If you play with PowerShell or want to start learning it, give the above a try. A quick little way to see some commands and results.

HacBook Elite

There HacBook elite is here! See more at:

http://hacbook.com/

Ever wanted to use OS X, but couldn't bring yourself to shell out that much cash?

This might be for you.

"Looks like a Mac. Feels like a Mac."

But it's an HP.

Check it out. I'm never going to get one by any means (unless someone sends me one), as I already have Mac hardware to run OS X, but the idea is kind of neat. Need to find someone to review it now to see how well it actually holds up performance wise.

Academic Torrents

Just found a new site today through HN that might be worth checking out:

http://academictorrents.com/

A ton of data is being shared by numerous colleges and researchers. This makes finding that information a little easier.

If you're working on a research project, I'd suggest checking it out!

Finding Academic Resources using Google

Just a quick tip on finding academic resources using Google search.

Say you want to search for something like resources on a piece of software and only want searches from academic institutions returned. The benefit to this is that most of this material will be reliable and has been vetted by these institutions.

In a Google search, use the format of:

.edu::search topic 

Where search topic is the item that you are looking for. For example,

.edu::wireshark

Will return all instances of .edu websites containing information about the packet analyzing software wireshark.

Another example would be searching for courses on networking.

.edu::networking course

The above will return a list of networking courses offered by various institutions. You can then go on and find all the related course notes, examples, and homework to follow along.

Give it a try for any type of research topics or to help you find a course you would like to study.

Summer Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've written to here.

Things at work are busy busy busy. New hardware has been arriving and still needs to get out into the rooms. That will ensure the remainder of summer stays busy as well.

I've been collecting a lot of movies. I'm up to around the 700's currently. Lots of classics, horror movies, and old favorites from childhood

Pokemon Go seems to be the hit app of the summer. I've been enjoying getting outside and playing that in my spare time. Even made it to the front of the newspaper when I got interviewed about it. I've seen a lot of good coming out of it too for many communities.

Hopefully, I can start writing here more and get into some more projects to share with everyone. Possibly in the next few days I can get some fun content up on here.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer!


~Michael

Awesome Template Site

Hey all,

I found a neat site that has a bunch of useful templates for budgets, calculators, resumes, and more.

Check it out at:

http://www.vertex42.com/

I hope to be writing more here soon. I've been pretty busy lately.

Hope all is well with everyone!

~Michael

Podnutz Computer Repair Podcast Episode #178

I was lucky to have one of my tips/questions get read on air during the latest episode of the computer repair podcast #178.

To hear my tip, listen in at:

http://podnutz.com/podnutz178/

To cut right to my tip, jump to 13:35 in.



~ Michael

Making Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Check out the latest post from Paul Graham:

http://paulgraham.com/pgh.html

"When I was a kid, this was a place young people left. Now it's a place that attracts them." 

New Personal Site / PGH Computer Tech

Check out my new personal site at:

http://bit.ly/1Ximybe

It has links to some of the things I've worked on and a list of great resources for learning how to code.

Also, for anyone in this area looking for tech work, you can find my contact information for the side work that I do.


Thanks!



~Michael

The Review It Alls Podcast Has Arrived!

There is a new podcast out for all of you film buffs and film critics. It is hosted by a married couple (@almostfilmcritic and @notjustanytina) that I've been friends with for quite some time. Introducing:

The Review It Alls Podcast

Steve has been reviewing and critiquing movies for a long time and has been a lover of cinema for an even longer time. He regularly blogs at: http://almostfilmcritic.blogspot.com/

Steve and I don't always see eye to eye on his reviews (among other things), but I have to say he is dedicated. His posts are always well written and he doesn't stop until he gets his point across. It always seems like they're going to see the latest movies that come out or catching up with stuff on Netflix or through Redbox.

I got to catch up with the pilot episode today and see how things transitioned from the written world of Blogger over to the audio of their show on PodBean.

Listening in, they say the purpose of this podcast is to review ANYTHING, mostly movies. Justina said that she will be focusing on music for the podcast along with TV shows. Also in the lineup, are video games, board games, and other pop culture items.

Critique: At the very beginning there was some slight feedback during the intro. Steve is very relaxed on the mic as he has done a radio show in the past. Justina said she was nervous, but I thought she did well and the interaction between them was smooth and they bounced things off one another quite well. The vibe is good and I like this format, because I can listen in while I'm working on stuff.

My favorite lines from the show:

Steve: Can I express my opinion?
Justina: Go ahead, just know that it's wrong.

All in all, I thought it was entertaining and I'll check out the others to follow and see what turns up next.

Shout out to watching Love on Netflix. I really liked season 1.

My questions to them though, are what is your tech setup like for the show? What mics do you use? What software do you record with? What software do you edit with, if you do edit at all?

Possibly, I'll get to see this information in a blog post or hear about it in a future episode.

Congrats on the new show guys!

Readers to this blog, please check out The Review It Alls podcast and see what you think.

Sir Bananas Chocolate Banana Milk Review

First, I must give credit to my Uncle Ed for inspiring this post. I've said before that content on this blog can shy away to any topic and he mentioned that I should do drink reviews.

Today in Michigan, I got the chance to try Sir Bananas. It is a reduced fat banana milk and is said to be made with real bananas and real cocoa.

The side of the carton says it has 8 essential nutrients:

It also features the silly Sir Bananas:

I poured some in a cup and was greeted with this:

My first thoughts were that this milk isn't so great. I'm not a fan of low fat or reduced fat milk, but this tasted strongly of bananas and lacked on the chocolate side of things.  I wish that it would have a strong chocolate taste up front and leave a hint of banana on the back end of things. I could see this being used as a base to make smoothies though, as I feel like it would have more potential blended with other items. I think it would be useful for that, but I could not see myself buying this again.

I didn't even pour half of a cup, but I didn't have the desire to finish it.

Sir Bananas needs to stop being so silly and perfect his product first.

For these reasons, I'm giving Sir Bananas chocolate banana milk a 3 1/2 out of 10.

How a Hacker Protects His Kids

Check out this cool article:

https://www.fatherly.com/how-to-protect-your-family-against-hackers-1652166316.html

Cool tips to think about and implement from a dad's point of view.

Upgrade Your Raspberry Pi Hard Drive - 314GB for $30

This is a great deal for any Pi enthusiasts. Western Digital makes a special hard drive for Raspberry Pi's and it is currently on sale:

http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayAccesoryProductDetailsPage/ThemeID.21986300/Accessories/WD_314GB_PiDrive/productID.335173200/categoryId.70262300

A great idea for people that use the Pi as their main computing system.

March is for Makers

Scott Hanselman and CodeNewbie are doing a series of March is for Makers podcasts this month.

http://www.marchisformakers.com/

Each show, they have been talking to someone from the maker community doing interesting hardware projects.

Worth checking out for sure.

Fixing Chromebook Enrollment Issues

If you are trying to enroll a Chromebook to your organization and having trouble, try these steps to get it enrolled again. Maybe you forget to sign in under the enrollment account and now you don't have the option to enroll, or maybe something else happened. The trick is deleting the local data from the particular device that is having trouble.

The steps are:

Hopefully, the above steps will help and get the device enrolled back to your org. I know they worked for me.

System Recovery Options is Not Compatible with the Version of Windows [Fix]

I was recently trying to get to the command prompt to convert gpt > mbr. I couldn't with the install disc I had because it kept giving me this error: system recovery options is not compatible with this version of Windows.

It wanted me to use a different CD, which I didn't really have.

To fix and work around this, act like you're installing Windows through the GUI setup and at any time hit: Shift + F10.

That will bring up the command prompt and let you use diskpart to convert.

Unknown Devices Under Windows Device Manager

Ever have an item hooked up to a computer that wouldn't install a driver? I bet you have.

Ever go into device manager and see an unknown device and not know what it was?

I found some software that aims to fix that.

http://www.halfdone.org/ukd/

This software helps you find out what those unknown devices are so you can find correct drivers for them. Definitely adding this into my toolkit.

Inside an Amazon Books Store

Check this out:

http://programmingzen.com/2016/02/10/a-review-of-the-amazon-books-store/


That looks pretty neat. Not having to change physical price tags is great for the employees.

I wonder how many actual employees work in the store at a given time? I also didn't see a coffee shop in sight...

Still would love to check one out though. I'll take an actual book store over internet ordering any day.

Optimize .png Files With PNG Out

Anyone that is doing web development should take a look into PNG Out. It's a little utility to optimize .png images. This is good for resources and page load.

The best part is: PNG Out is LOSSLESS. No quality is lost in conversion and the output sizes are considerably less.

Check out this utility here. 

Facebook App Draining iPhone Batteries

Check this link out about the Facebook app:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/08/uninstalling-facebook-app-saves-iphone-battery-life?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Apparently, deleting the Facebook app from iPhones can save up to 15% of an iPhones battery life.

I haven't gotten to text this yet, but if you have trouble with your battery or keeping your phone charged throughout the day, it's worth a try.

Using Disk Part to Convert GPT to MBR

Throwing this here for reference. Needed to use it a fair amount lately.

Remote Desktop Windows to Ubuntu Easy Mode

Here are all the resources to turn on remote access to a Ubuntu system to make it possible to remote into it from a Windows computer.

You'll need a copy of TightVNC from here:

http://www.tightvnc.com/

Next on the Ubuntu machine follow the directions from here:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-establish-simple-remote-desktop-access-between-ubuntu-and-windows/

Make note of your IP address on the Ubuntu machine. Terminal > ifconfig 

You might get an error about 'No matching security types'. If you do head here and do this:

http://www.thinkingmedia.ca/2015/03/getting-tightvnc-viewer-for-windows-7-to-connect-with-ubuntu-14-04-using-the-vino-remote-desktop-server/

From those, you should easily have remote desktop setup on Ubuntu and be able to remote in using TightVNC from the Windows side of things. 

Welcome Hacker News Readers!

Welcome!

Just want to say I'm overwhelmed with the love the blog has received today from the HN community.

Take a look around, if there's any content you would like to see more of please let me know!


~Michael

25 Most Common Passwords of 2015

Gizmodo has published the 25 most common passwords of 2015. Link to original article here.

Edit: The 25 that appear in the list are:

123456
password
12345678
qwerty
12345
123456789
football
1234
1234567
baseball
welcome
1234567890
abc123
111111
1qaz2wsx
dragon
master
monkey
letmein
login
princess
qwertyuiop
solo
passw0rd
starwars

A lot of these are the same from previous years like 12345.

One that did catch my eye was 1qaz2wsx

Take a look at your keyboard to see that one. While it has potential, it could be a little longer. It is still the strongest one from the list though.

For research purposes, I have went ahead and pulled these 25 most common passwords of 2015 into a convenient text file. Located at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qOIaafmEh3NWhXTnBXR1kzZzg/view?usp=sharing

Hopefully, 2016 will bring much stronger passwords to the general public, but going off of previous years, I have my doubts.

Windows 8: Best Command

I've never been a fan of Windows 8 or 8.1. I will say that 8.1 is better than 8 though.

For anyone using 8, there is a MUST KNOW keyboard command.

Windows key + X

This opens the quick access menu.

This contains a list of links to things like: Control Panel, System, Device Manager, File Explorer, Task Manager, Programs, and much more.

Don't worry about having to navigate through Windows 8. Just using Windows key + X and be on your way!

Enrolling at Free Code Camp

Well, I've done it.

I've enrolled in Free Code Camp.

Free Code Camp is a place to learn how to code. You go through a series of tutorials and at the end you can help nonprofits by coding on their site or app.

You might be asking why I signed up, as I already have a computer science degree.

I think this course will not only be a good refresher, but it will help me with areas of web development that I haven't even touched yet.

Each module is compact and gives you a point for completion. I already have around 40 points completed. The modules feel informative as you follow along. There is also other campers willing to help.

There is a chance at earning certificates through the site and I've heard of people getting hired at companies before even making it all the way through the camp courses.

It should be fun and interesting. If anybody else has wanted to learn how to code, this is a great time. Jump on in and I am willing to lend a helping hand.

For now, I've set my sights on the front-end development certificate. We will see how it goes!

How Much Do You Charge?

How much do you charge for side work?

I ponder this question a lot as I usually charge less than people say I should for working on side jobs.

I was listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast and heard this during his interview with Derek Sivers:

How to be useful to others:

Be expensive.

People who spend more for a product or service value it more and get more use out of it so be expensive.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this is really good. Think about all of the cheaper items and services in your life? Do you find yourself taking them for granted a lot?

If something is cheap, there isn't a strong incentive to take care of it. If an item is that cheap, they'll just be able to run out and buy other one without worrying too much.

Things that are expensive tend to hold value because they get taken care of better. This isn't always the case because there will be outliers,  but you get the idea.

If someone has to pay for an expensive repair, they more than likely will take better care of the item, so they won't have to pay again. They will value it more and get more out of it.


So how much do you charge for side work? Think that will change after reading this?