Daily Cup of Tech

This just goes to show that there are some very impressive people at MIT.

Unfortunately, this type of technology will not get to the majority of students. Most teachers need to fight with administration to just get chalk for their chalkboards. I could just imagine the reaction that a teacher would get if they requested this type of technology for their classroom.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/07/mit-whiteboard-replacement/trackback/

I remember back in my early days of computing when I was still a noobie. I had a massive folder of files that I wanted to rename to something like file0001.jpg, file0002.jpg, file0003.jpg, etc. I thought, “Man, it sure would be great to be able to just point a program at the folder and have it do it all for me.” Instead, I took a few hours and did it all manually.

If only I had AutoIt back then. I could have then taken the script from Folder Recursion in AutoIt, tweaked it a bit, and I would have been done in a few minutes.

Well, if you find that you need to perform an action on every file in every subfolder of a specific directory, then Folder Recursion in AutoIt will be a big help for you.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/06/autoit-file-recursion/trackback/

Just a quick entry today. My past couple of days have been insane but I promise I will make it up to you tomorrow.

One very cool thing that I noticed that might interest all you webmasters out there is that Google Gadgets are now available for your website. Previously, these little web applications were only available for your customized Google web portal but Google has made them open to everyone to put on their website.

Here is a small sampler of some of the gadgets you can get (feed readers may have to come to the actual page). There are well over 1200 of them so there should be something that everyone will like.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/05/go-go-google-gadgets/trackback/

There has been quite a debacle over the whole Windows Genuaine Advantage (is that an oxymoron?) issue with Microsoft. Essentially, Microsoft is putting spyware on people’s computers and telling them that it is an urgent update. I don’t know about you but I never feel much urgency to put spyware on my computer.

So began the quest for Windows Update alternatives. I have found a number of ways for an individual to install security patches to his/her computer without loading MS Spyware. Check out your alternatives in Windows Update Without Windows Update.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/04/do-you-trust-microsoft-with-your-security/trackback/

Believe it or not, there used to be a time when you rarely needed a password unless you were a spy or were on a game show.

Today, passwords are a reality harsh reality. We need to remember passwords for computers, bank accounts, ATMs, etc. I thought that it would be worth writing 11 Password Tips to help you with your password burdens.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/03/psst-whats-the-password/trackback/

This week’s poll is about backing up data. How often do you do it?

We all know that we should do it. But it almost seems that people don’t really care (judging by the popularity of my one article about backups). Why is that? I would be interested in hearing your theories and/or reasons why you do or do not back up. Enter them into the comments below.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/02/how-often-do-you-backup-your-data/trackback/

I really feel for parents these days. They actually find themselves in a very difficult position. For the first time in history, we now have parents that cannot go to their parents for advice on something that is extremely pervasive in our present culture. Something that their children may even know and understand better than they do!

That something is the Internet. I sometimes shudder when I hear parents talk about their kids and the Internet. And they often do the wrong thing with the best of intentions because they simply do not know the dangers that they are putting in front of their children.

It was situations like this that prompted me to write 15 Ways To Help Protect Your Children On The Internet. I have put some very practical and actionable items into this article. This article is something that every parent should read. Send a link to any parent you feel could use this.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/02/kids-internet-safety-tips/trackback/

If you do not know what the above title means, then you can probably ignore this post. If you do know what it means, then this post may excite you!

I have had issues in the past with creating GPOs and having them work well at the office with the DC that was created first but other offices were acting very slow, even if the GPO was created on the other server.

I have discovered that the GPO management software will default to the first domain controller and all GPOs created will be created on that first domain controller. In order to change this behaviour, you need to right click on the domain in the GPO management console and select Change domain controller…. You can then select the domain controller that you want to use.

Microsoft Technet has a good article about this called Group Policy Replication and Domain Controller Selection that sheds more light on this issue.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/10/01/create-gpo-on-specific-dc/trackback/

I did some more work on the customized linux distribution. Today, I started to check what my base host system needed in order to perform some of the distribution build tasks so I created a bash script to do just this. It is available at Linux from Scratch, The Saga.

I created a Daily Cup of Tech search engine that integrates into your Firefox search. Simply download the search file, extract the files to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins (assuming you installed it in the default location), and restart Firefox. You will now have a DCoT search!

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/09/30/linux-from-scratch-continues/trackback/

I have decided that I would like a little more adventure and excitement in my life. But, staying true to my geeky nature. Thus, I have decided that I want to learn how to build a linux distribution from scratch. I haven’t got a clue as to what will all be involved, how hard it will be, how long it will take, nothing! I’m a blank slate! I am open to anything as far as this project is concerned.

I have also decided to take you, the loyal DCoT reader, along on my adventure. Read breathlessly as I reformat hard drives. Stare in wonder as I configure a cron job…

OK. It’s probably not going to be Indiana Jones IV: The Distro of Doom but I do think that I will learn some very interesting things along the way. I’ll log anything that I do on any given day for the project on the website. You can follow along on Linux from Scratch, The Saga.

Because this is going to be an irregularly updated article, it would be a good idea to sign up for updates at the bottom of the page.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2006/09/29/a-linux-adventure/trackback/