A Good Monitor

Here's a good 19" monitor with VGA and DVI inputs, and even a USB hub, for ~$80:

A Curious Bug

To the best of my recollection, I have never seen this bug before:

And yet this morning, the Publix / Cheek & Scott parking lot was littered with them:

Basking in the predawn glow of the parking lot's artificial lighting, which you can see reflected on their hard-back shells.

They are nearly motionless, and as hard as a glass marble. About the size of two marbles side-by-side.

You can see here, I gently nudge one with my shoe (flipping it up-side-down) and it immediately (and quite frantically) rights itself, then becomes motionless again:

Does anyone know what kind of bug this is?

How to tell what carrier your cell phone is on:

Dial 611 to find out what carrier a cell phone is on.

Or, you can sometimes tell by the home screen, as seen here on this StraighTalk iPhone5:

(TFW = TrackFone Wireless, a.k.a. StraightTalk)

How to Tell if You are Connected to a Verizon Femtocell (Network Extender)

You probably have seen stories like this:

Hack Turns Verizon Femtocell Into Spy Tool

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421782,00.asp

But there is a simple way to know if you are connected to a real Verizon cell tower, or someone's Verizon femtocell (what Verizon calls a "Verizon Wireless Network Extender", link).

Simply dial #48.

From Verizon's own documentation:
"How do I know my phone is connecting through the Network Extender? When dialing #48 on your wireless phone, an an­nouncement will tell you if you are within range of the Network Extender. In addition, you will hear a short double tone on your wireless phone whenever making or receiving a call. The tone is played at the beginning of the call."

So also watch-out for (well, "listen"-out for) those short double tones too. That's a dead giveaway that you're on a femtocell. If you were not expecting to be on one, and don't trust the new unknown one; then it's time to "go sheilds up!" - set your phone to airplane mode, until you're clear of the area.

Be careful who you connect with!

Happy Tech'n,
-J

How to default HTML render of a Google Calendar on a web page to Week view:

I personally find that the Week view of Google Calendar is more helpful. This is also the case because I have so many calendars and events shared with my account that it just runs out of space trying to fit events into the small squares of a monthly calendar. Furthermore, you don't get the time-block perspective in Month-view that you do in Week-view, where you can easily see where events are double-book or overlapping.

Recently I wanted render a Google Calendar on a web page, and it (of course) defaults to Month-view:

...with options to change it to Week-view, or Agenda-view. I wanted it to default Week-view:

...and optionally display Month-view or Agenda-view.

To do this, you need to add a tiny snip of code to the iframe embed code URL.


For example, your URL probably looks something like this:

src="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=[your_domain].com_[GoogleAuthKey]%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York&amp"


You just need to add to it:

src="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=[your_domain].com_[GoogleAuthKey]%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York&mode=week"

That's it! Now the default view mode = week.


Happy Tech'n,
-J

Will people one day answer their phones with CAPTCHA phrases?

"What's three plus four?"

Robo-calls are getting "smarter". Recently I've noticed a trend in robo-spam-calls to awkwardly answer the phone, then "introduce" themselves ("oh, hi, this is George...") and even go on to ask you how you are, and "politely" wait for a reply, before launching into their sales spiel.

It makes me want to answer any call from an unknown number with a CAPTCHA like the above. In fact I need my smart phone to go ahead and field my calls from any unrecognized number, and filter out the spambots from the humanoids, then let only real people ring through.


UPDATE (20150811):
Coming full circle on this, it's now rumored that Apple will make Siri available to answer incoming calls in a future update of iOS. So robo-calls may one day be answered (and filtered) by your robo-assistant. I love the irony of that. ☺

Questions on Old and New Laptops

I recently received an email from a daughter of a friend of mine, and it's a common question and topic that I often field for people. I wrote her back, and thought I'd share the content of the dialog, and additional questions, with others, as it might help. In fact since then, two other people have asked similar questions; so I hope this helps!

This is for informational purposes only. Name(s) have been changed to protect their identity. This information is current as of June 2013, but as you know, technical specifications can and do change rapidly in our field.

Hi Anna,

...

 

I am saving up money right now to buy a new laptop. Mine is ready to retire. I can't really do my school work on it, it gets me aggravated.

 

I just wanted to ask you for advice. What kind of laptop should i get, I have been looking online but it all sound the same to me, and most of it i don't understand. I just need something where i can use the full Microsoft Office package.I work with Excel and Word a lot, and at times use the other programs. For some of my online classes i have to watch videos.

Have you considered a Mac? I would get a Mac Book Pro, if you can afford it.

What's your budget?

 

A lot of my business courses require me to download trial versions of certain programs such as SPSS and PHStat.

Some of those might not have Mac versions... do you (or your course work) require it to be a Windows PC?

Are you looking for a laptop only? Or are you also considering desktops too?

 

So i am guessing i need a computer with a lot of space.

You want a minimum of ¼TB of space (250GB).

Solid State Drive (SSD), if you can afford it.

 

Right now i have an Acer, but it has become very slow and gets hot very very fast even with a fan under it.

Open it up &/or blow it out with compressed air. Not the canned air- it loses pressure too fast as the liquid boils off (cooling the can) to fill the void. Get to a real air compressor with 70-100 psi and get all the dust out of your PC - or as much as you can. Although it doesn't seem like it, dust - especially the soft light fluffy dust that accumulates over a long time, is a very good insulator of heat - this means that it acts like a blanket over all your PC's components and heat sinks - unfortunately helping to hold IN the heat that the PC is trying to expel into the ambient air.

This can cause your PC to run hotter than it should, use more energy trying to compensate, and even scale back the processor speed as heat levels exceed tolerances. If it gets too hot, it can permanently damage some parts of your PC, &/or cause it to spontaneously reboot for no apparent reason (among other things).

 

It is on its fifth year of serving me :)

That's a LOOOONG time - even for a home PC.

My recommendation for the average machine is 3 years in business, 5 years tops for home.

You're at the end of that useful life-cycle on this PC. I would not spend any $$ to fix or upgrade it. (Time, on the other hand, like to [software] clean it up, or [hardware] blow it out, is probably worth it in the meantime while you're looking for a replacement.)

 

I would like to have something that has an easy way to organize all my school work as well as other documents + pictures.

Use Dropbox. It's safe (not malware), secure (encrypted), easy, and works/runs all the time; backing up and updating your files to the cloud. For example, I had my daughter organize all her school work in a folder (with sub-folders) in her own Dropbox account. And I had her share that folder with me (my Dropbox acct), so that I had a real-time instant back up of her work, should something happen to her PC.

This is something that you CAN and SHOULD do now- on your slow machine- so that when you DO get a new PC, install Dropbox, and enter your account info - all your files will automatically start downloading and populating your new PC.

It will also get you a ready-made easy way to shuttle files from one PC to the other. Though, if you're going to need to move a lot (1GB+), a thumb drive or the like would be faster.

 

If you have anything in mind could you please help me with this decision.

If you're on a super tight budget, and want PC over Mac, then here's the laptop I recommend to folks:
http://jayharrison.blogspot.com/2012/08/best-current-deal-on-laptop-pc.html

For (right now) less than $300, you get a business class notebook "Lenovo ThinkPad R400 14" Notebook - Refurbished - Intel - Core Duo 2.2GHz - Black - 4 GB RAM - 160 GB HDD - DVD-Reader - Genuine Windows 7 Professional 32-bit."

Cons: Slim on HDD space; regular HDD - not SSD; Optical drive is READ only (no burning).

 

 

Thank you,

My pleasure. Let me know if I can ever be of assistance!

Thank you,
Jay Harrison

The Cost of a Watt

Thought:

As a[n easy] rule of thumb;
Every watt a device consumes, costs me ≈10¢ per month.

So, if I have a 2watt LED porch light, that I leave running 24/7, it will cost me ≈20¢/mo to operate.

Actual Math: (0.002kw * 0.1125/kw * 24hrs * 31days) = 16.74¢
Granted, this is a rule of thumb, as a general guideline, for easy on-the-fly estimates, with room for the cost of electricity to go up a bit too.

Git Rid of Java!

A friend of mine, David, recently sent me a link with this question:

Is this something to do or worry about?

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/01/12/us-government-advises-computer-users-to-disable-java-software/?test=latestnews

The answer is yes. Java is problematic, especially in the browser, and is the number one vector of disease for computers. If you don't actively use Java, you should get rid of it from your browser.

My recommendation is to use Firefox as your main browser for all general web-surfing, and disable Java from Firefox. Then IF you have a site that requires Java, and you trust that site, run that site only in MSIE and all your other browsing (Facebook, Google searches, etc) in your security hardened Firefox.

To disable Java in Firefox (for Windows PCs): open Firefox and click Tools menu --> Addons. Click the Plugins tab, locate each of the Java plugins, and click the Disable button for each. Restart Firefox and you're all good!


Mon 20130114 Updates:

• http://www.scmagazine.com/java-zero-day-infections-pick-up-steam/article/275818/?DCMP=EMC-SCUS_Newswire
• https://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208194070/Java_0day_Mass_Exploit_Distribution

NON-sugarless Gum

A while back a friend asked me about finding a non-sugar-free gum.
I finally had time to do the research on this.
Apparently the only good way to find a real sugared gum is to go with vintage gums.
Three options are:


Clove Gum

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002268MA/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=intellections-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002268MA



Clark's Teaberry Gum

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007IR288/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=intellections-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0007IR288



Black Jack Chewing Gum

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EEK4OO/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=intellections-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000EEK4OO


Happy chewing!
=J

Karma

"Karma is simply Justice, misattributed."
-Jay Harrison, 20130107

Fracuum (flash game)

Fracuum is an 'old school' style flash based maze game, with an interesting infinite zoom playing field. Worth a look!

http://cache.armorgames.com/files/games/fracuum-13222.swf

Christmas 2012

It's all about the Cross.

Adobe Releases New OpenSource Font for Coders:

Read the article here:
http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2012/09/source-code-pro.html
=J

Floppy Music

Now this is just cool...

Gmail needs better keyboard shortcuts support.

Google needs to work on their Gmail keyboard shortcuts. Yes, they've created the 'Custom Shortcuts' Lab, but it's still too simplified. I'll give two examples:

[1] How do I set the "Trash a message" key to the [DELETE] key? The default keyboard shortcut, [#] (i.e. [Shift]+[3]) is retarded. At least I can change this with a Lab to the [T] key to Trash an item. But why can't I have the option to use the [DELETE] key? Seems so intuitive...

[2] Why is there no keyboard shortcut for "Indent more" and "Indent less"? These don't exist, as far as I can tell, and are not customizable, even in the extended Lab.
(UPDATE 20170620: Use [Ctrl]+[[] and [Ctrl]+[]] -- nice!)

Google - please work on this!

The Belkin Conserve Socket

The Belkin Conserve Socket F7C009q Energy-Saving Outlet is a neat little switch that allows a device (or group of devices) to be manually activated, and then auto-time-out after an interval of 30min, 3hrs, or 6hrs (as set by the switch on the side). This is handy for desk lights, work spaces, etc. Being able to handle 1800 watts, it's also good for space heaters or other high-demand equipment. Or, if for example, you worry about forgetting to turn off the coffee pot (or any other appliance), this is the solution. For under ten bucks, it's a convenient upgrade to any device that you don't want or need to be left on. And upgrade that is movable and not tied to that single device. So it very well may outlive your original appliance.

Also great for reducing phantom loads of transformers or other leaching power sources. The switch consumes only a tiny 0.18watts while activated, and ZERO (no phantom load) when not activated (including ZERO power consumption for all down-stream devices).

Check it out, here:

P.S. this can plug into the top outlet, and not block the bottom one!

The Best BioLock I've Used

Another recommendation - this time for a bio-lock: The Keyless Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock Trinity 788. I own three of these, and have had several people ask me about them recently. Actually, the first one I owned was branded by Barska, but they're all exactly the same unit/model. I was delighted when I found this one by Adel. These work great, and can store up to 98 fingerprints - 3 of which are Admin fingerprints. These are for indoor installations only (or at least under cover / well out of outside weather). Some of the "key" features I liked about this unit are all the levels of back-up/redundancy it has:
#1 It has a non-volatile memory, that does not need to stay powered to remember settings and fingerprints (it doesn't store your actual fingerprint, rather a cryptographic hash of it).
#2 Should you not have your fingerprint handy (say, you're talking to someone over the phone, that you want to have access, and you're not on-site) there is a 6-digit passcode function too (stored as fingerprint #99).
#3 Should the batteries go dead, you can hold a 9-volt battery up to the bottom of the unit, to power it via built-in 'hidden' contacts.
#4 Should the electronics go bad - EMP? ;-) - you can remove the handle (with included allen-wrench) to expose a 100% mechanical keyed lock (2 keys also included).

Click on the image below see them on Amazon.com:

UPDATE:

Or this one:

Chrome Soon to be #1

Google Chrome is about to take FIRST PLACE in the browser wars later this year (see chart). A feat that has not been accomplished by anyone browser the Netscape vs Microsoft war of the mid 1990's. Chrome already surpassed Firefox in market share late last year (2011), to become the second-most popular browser after MSIE.

( Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers , 20120417 )

Cobra 900 Jumper Pack

I highly recommend that everyone have one of these in every vehicle they own.

Get it at the link above for less that $100 !

This has:

• 12v 900amp Start/Jump cables/clamps
• 400watt AC inverter
• LED lights
• USB 5v DC power port.
• 12v DC power port
• Built-in 260 PSI tire Air Compressor

And has saved my bacon on many occasions!

One call to Triple-A (AAA) could cost more than this. And it's super handy to have mobile power (12v DC and 110v AC) available.

Quote

"If more than one person is responsible, then no one is accountable." - Jay Harrison (Thu 20120202 10:24A)


Update (Tue 20150317 10:58p) - I discovered a use of this "quote" that predates my (independent) own formulation of it. That is in the book Let Go to Grow: Why Some Businesses Thrive and Others Fail by Doug and Polly White (source) ©2011.

Open Letter to Adobe

Dear Adobe,

     Every time you update, is it really necessary to add yet another shortcut to the user's desktop? Even though we DELETE this every time it comes up? Most programs politely ask if they can create a desktop shortcut, but not you. Please change your ways...

Thank you,
Jay Harrison

What is an HP Q3093-80004 Adapter, and What Does It Do?

The HP Q3093-80004 Adapter is a very simple, non-proprietary part. It has no internal resistors, nor does it swap polarity, as some have suggested. The Q3093-80004 is often erroneously referred to as a "Two to four wire phone cord adaptor" (do a Google search on it). It is not a two-to-four adapter, rather a 4-to-2 wire adapter (or in other words, a 2-line to 1-line adapter). It simply strips out the the second line (and third, if present) outside pair(s) on an RJ11 phone wire. This can be easily done yourself with a few common parts. I've seen these adapters selling online for around $15-$25, and have even seen some places priced at $50-$100+ for this adapter.

Here's how to assemble one yourself, for about a buck:
Get 1 RJ11 coupler (~50¢), and one 2-wire (single line) phone cord (~50¢). Plug your multi-line cord into the RJ11 coupler, then your 1-line (2-wire only) cord into the other side. Plug the end of your single-line cord into the device that requires the additional lines stripped out - HP fax machine, or whatever - and you will have stripped out the other line(s). Now you have your very own HP Q3093-80004 Adapter.

Final notes: I don't believe that the Q3093-80004 was created by HP just to sell adapters (as a few individuals have accused). I believe it was an afterthought work-around to poor initial engineering. This could have been easily fixed in the hardware in the first place, to ignore any second (or third) lines on the other pins.

Have a fanTECHtic day!
-J

The real way to get rid of "Windows Protection Servant":

The real way to get rid of "Windows Protection Servant" is to use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 (link).
This is put out by a real AV company, who's on the ball.

Be sure to run an update after you're safely booted into it.

Also, you'll need an Image burner to burn the ISO file (link).

Be wary of many sites that honestly admit that Windows Protection Servant is a FakeAV, then deceitfully point you to download a "patch" that itself is more bogus malware.

Gmail keyboard shortcuts...

Does anyone know of a way to make the [Delete] key the default keyboard shortcut to Trash an email in the Gmail interface? I've installed the lab feature that allows you to customize the shortcuts, so I've made [T] the short-cut for now (which is far better than [Shift]+[3] - the default). But I'd love the [Delete] key to work, like it does for Outlook and Thunderbird. Let me know if you know! ;)

You can never have too many monitors...

How to Extract a Google Doc file as a PDF

I know this is a simple process for many, but several people have asked me how to easily (and freely) make a PDF of a file. One of the simplest ways is to load the document into Google Docs, and then download a PDF of it, like this:

Rambling around the Galaxy

Is it just me, or does the new Boost Mobile Rambler look a lot like a throw back to the old Star Trek communicator? ;)

-J

Feds caught storing checkpoint body scan images:
http://ping.fm/zs1lY

Enjoying the rain...