Archive for June 2013
Free Online Wordsearch Puzzle Generator
A Wordsearch puzzle is a puzzle that contains words hidden in a grid of text. It is a fun activity used to teach children spelling and to help memorize information like country capitals.
Interested in creating your own Wordsearch puzzle? Then try out the Free Online Wordsearch Puzzle Generator at http://xyzio.com/Projects/WordSearch/Default.aspx.
This Word Search generator was written in C#/ASP.NET and generates PDFs using the iTextSharp library.
Sample Page:
Wordsearch Example
Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse Review
I bought the Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse after finding the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX to be too small for my long fingers. Excessive use was causing my fingers to cramp up which is not fun after a long day at work. It is too bad because I loved the Anywhere Mouse and found it to one of the best mice I’ve ever used. A co-worker suggested the Trackman because it was ambi-dexterous and it accommodates long fingers. I bought the mouse from Amazon.com for $23.
Looks
The trackball is very unassuming, there is a red ball at the top you manipulate with your fingers and two buttons on each side. One side is meant to be clicked with your thumb and the other side by your ring or pinkie finger. The top is made of a slightly textured plastic that doesn’t get
Logitech TrackMan Marble Mouse
uncomfortably hot with use. The bottom is the standard mouse black plastic with three anti-slip pads spread around it. The entire unit is sheathed in shades of an unassuming gray that exudes a sense of boredom.
Feel
The trackball feels like what you’d expect from a device made from cheap plastic. If feels decently comfortable in my hands, I can rest the palm of my hand on the base and stretch my fingers around it to reach the ball and buttons. The buttons are typical Logitech, the have a linear feel and click with very little drama. Each click is accompanied by a precise ‘snick’ that provides auditory feedback of the action’s execution. I can tell that these buttons are well made and that I can count on them to perform reliably for years.
The ball is smooth but is a little heavy and has quite a bit of friction. I have to put in more effort necessary to move it around, I can’t just flip the ball and move the mouse all the way across the screen. The ball is removable and this is a good thing because gunk tends to build up on the supporting pegs.
Usage
Becoming proficient in using the mouse takes a day or so, precise pointing takes some practice but you can go from opening the box to clicking links in Google in a couple minutes. The main left and right click buttons are easy to find and click. The 2nd set of buttons, meant to be used for back/forward while browsing the web, are useless. Clicking the buttons requires me to contort my hand beyond a comfortable level that is intolerable for any amount of time.
Logitech TrackMan Marble Mouse Separated
The ball is heavy and has a lot if friction. This makes it hard to scroll rapidly across the screen during regular use and I can feel fatigue in my fingers towards the end of the day. A big issue is that gunk from your fingers builds up in the ball supports which further impede progress. I find myself cleaning the ball supports at least once a day. The heavy ball becomes aggravating after a while and I feel like Logitech should have put more work in this part of the design.
Thoughts
Overall the Trackman Marble Mouse is a decent trackball considering the price. It has no fancy features and it does the work of the equivalent two button mouse. Having a sealed sensor means that the buttons or the ball will wear out before the sensor breaks. it also means that we’ll have precise sensing for the life of the product.
Annoyances include the extra buttons are useless and I think they were put there just for marketing reasons. Gunk tends to build up in the ball supports which requires frequent cleaning. The base doesn’t fit well in my hand – It would have been nicer if the base had been wider or had a slight dip for the base of my hand.
Pros:
Cheap
Ergonomic
Cons:
Useless forward and back buttons
Heavy track ball
Tendency to build up gunk in the ball supports
No scroll-wheel
Private Internet Access OpenVPN on Ubuntu at Linode or Digital Ocean
Update 9/14: These instructions no longer seem to work at Linode. Please leave a message in the comments if you see a mistake in my directions.
I’ve written about using Apache to proxy connections over SSH in order to hide sensitive information in public places. For an extra fee you can gain additional anonymity on the internet via companies like Private Internet Access which provides multiple VPN gateways for around $40/year without the risk of hacking or mis-configuration that comes with doing your own setup. You also get the ability to use VPNs in multiple countries and US locations thus further obfuscating information.
Private Internet Access has instructions on how to set up a VPN on Ubuntu using Network Manager. However I’m using a server install at Digital Ocean and I don’t feel like installing the desktop just to use Network Manager. In addition there is setup required to allow you to access the VPS while still routing outgoing data through the VPN. This should also work at Linode. Here is how to do it:
1) Install open-vpn : apt-get install network-manager-openvpn
2) Download a copy of Private Internet Access’ config files or if their site is down, here. Unzip the files in a new directory. The zip file contains everything you need to access their VPN servers without dealing with Ubuntu’s Network Manager.
3) Now you configure your VPS so that any traffic that comes to the VPS is responded to by the VPS. Otherwise once you start your VPN any attempt to connect to the VPS will be answered through the VPN which is not what the connecting software expects.
Type this at the prompt:
ip rule add from x.x.x.x table 128
ip route add table 128 to y.y.y.y/y dev ethX
ip route add table 128 default via z.z.z.z
Where x.x.x.x is your public IP y.y.y.y/y is the subnet of your public IP address ethX is your public Ethernet interface z.z.z.z is the default gateway To get the x, y, and z use ip route: ip route show. The last three lines of the output will look something like this:
93.115.84.202 via 127.0.0.1 dev eth0
128.0.0.0/1 via 10.155.1.5 dev tun0
127.0.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1
Match the color coded output to the ip commands above. You need to type these in every time you restart your VPN so it helps to save them in a shell script.
4) Optional: Create a password file. You can create a password file to supply OpenVPN with your login info If you are lazy and don’t feel like entering a password every time you connect to Private Internet Access. To do this, make a file that contains your username on the first line, password on the 2nd line, and nothing else.
5) Start OpenVPN using one of the config files from step 2. Each config file is set up to connect to one of the VPN servers run by Private Internet Access. You can specify your password file from step 4 using the auth-user-pass argument. Here is what I use to connect to their Romania server:
openvpn –config Romania.ovpn –auth-user-pass password_file
Finally, check your IP using their ‘Where’s My IP‘ page.
Questions or comments? Feel free to leave a message using the comments box below.
Sources:
http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto.html#client
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-find-out-default-gateway-in-ubuntu/
https://forum.linode.com/viewtopic.php?t=8737
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/#ubuntu_openvpn
Fixing Windows White Screen of Death Caused by Malware
I recently had an issue on my Windows 7 Lenovo x230 laptop where it would boot up normally, let me log in normally, and then briefly show me the desktop before going to a solid white screen. When shutting down or logging off, I would again briefly see the desktop before my session ended. After some searching I found that this is a common type of malware and that it can be removed by booting up in safe mode with command prompt and then going back to a system restore point. Here is what I did:
1) Right before the Windows Boot screen comes up, press the F8 key to bring up the Boot in Safe Mode Menu
2) In the Safe Mode Menu, select the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option
3) The system will then boot into Safe Mode and you will see a Command Prompt window. In the Command Prompt window type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe to bring up the system restore menu.
4) Follow the prompts and restore to the earliest system restore point on your system. This will take a few minutes.
5) Reboot your computer. If you had the same issue I had then you should now be able to use it normally.
One last thing to consider is to go into the Programs and Features menu in the Control Panel and uninstall any programs you installed recently. A new program is often the source of malware since the install often requires you to give Administrator access.
Fenix HL21 LED Yellow Headlamp Review
I bought the Fenix-HL21 to light my way during my early morning runs. My reason for choosing it is that the headlamp uses just one battery and the output is regulated so it wouldn’t slowly go dim and fade out. The one battery means that the headlamp is light which means it won’t bounce around when running. I bought the headlamp in December of 2011 and I’ve now had it for about a year and a half. I use it semi-regularly at night and for general work when I need extra light for a dark space.
Fit and Finish
Overall the lamp is decently but not well built. Unlike other Fenix products which have an aluminum body, the lamp body and battery compartment is made of plastic. The plastic is thick and feels decently rigid in my hand. The casing around the LED is made of aluminum and this is done to facilitate heat dissipation. The cap on the battery compartment has good sized threads which makes it easy to open and close. The plastic construction probably allows the big threads, most aluminum lights have tiny threads that are easy to mis-thread when screwing on the cap. The big annoyance is that the lamp attachment to the headband is not secure and the lamp can come off if you are not careful when handling it. I’ve had issues with my past Fenix lights where the negative terminal spring wears out and no longer makes contact with the battery. It hasn’t happened yet but I fear that it will happen one day.
Light
This is my second headlamp, my other lamp is a Zebralight which is floody and perfect for indoor work. Compared to the Zebralight, the light on the HL21 is highly focused and projects a decent distance. It is very diffuse and dim at the lowest 3-lumen dim setting but brightens up at the 43-lumen mid setting with the 90-lumens high setting being the brightest. It is hard to tell the
Fenix HL-21
difference between the 43-lumen and 90-lumen settings except that the 90-lumen is slightly brighter. This may be due to the logarithmic nature of our brightness perception. There is very little flood which means there is little light for your peripheral vision which means you’ll be swivelling your head back and forth when you are outside. In addition there is a small gap around the cap of the LED which means there is a ring of light that leaks out around the gap. If you don’t adjust the light high enough on your forehead this leakage shines into your eyes which is annoying.
Battery Life
Battery life in the HL-21 is decent. It is not great and definitely does not match the product listing, I can expect an Eneloop battery to last about 1 1/2 hours on medium and an hour on high. The light has a tendency to turn off abruptly instead of dimming gradually. This is probably due to the active circuitry used to maintain constant brightness and the non-linear discharge of rechargeable batteries. Low mode is incredible though, I’ve had the lamp stay on for two whole days with juice left over in low mode.
Comfort
The primary reason I bought the HL21 was because I expected it to be light due to the single battery design. The headlamp is indeed light and is ideal for running and night expeditions. The headband however only loops around the head without a piece that goes over the top of the head. This means that the lamp has a tendency to slip down my forehead unless I tighten it to the point
Fenix HL-21 Back
that it cuts of circulation to my head. In addition, the area where the lamp attaches to the cord is not padded and it leaves a mark on the forehead. The mark is especially deep when you wear the lamp for long periods and the mark persists for a while afterwards. Imagine going for a run in the morning and then heading to work with a strange red mark on your forehead.
Overall
Overall the HL21 is a decent headlamp for its price. it has a couple annoyances that shouldn’t be present at this price point but its worked out well so far.
Pros:
Multiple light modes
Light single battery design
Solid construction
Good focused light
Solid, decent construction
Cons:
Annoying headband
Possible weak internal spring
No peripheral light
Gap around lens cover shines light into eyes
Doesn’t work well with rechargeable batteries
Fenix HL-21 Night Shot
Fenix HL-21
Fenix HL-21
Aliasing a sub-domain to Amazon s3 at WinHost
One of the major problems with WinHost is that you don’t get much disk space, their base plan comes with not even 2GB but 2000MB. One way to stretch this disk space is to host images and other big files using Amazon’s S3 service and just keeping your ASP.NET/PHP e.t.c code files at WinHost. To make this hosting appear seamless to your visitors, Amazon allows users to alias a sub-domain or domain to their hosting service. This way users see your domain i.e s3.xyzio.com but the files are pulled from AWS.
The setup is not very complicated and takes about 2 hours, most of which is spent waiting for your sub-domain name to propagate. First, log into the AWS S3 console and create a bucket named after your sub-domain – s3.xyzio.com here:
Create Bucket in Amazon S3 AWS
Then log into your WinHost control panel and click on DNS Manager. There under Manage CNAME Records enter your sub-domain for Domain Name, s3.amazonaws.com for the Destination and 3600 for TTL. TTL stands for Time-To-Live and denotes how long in seconds the alias is maintained before it is refreshed. Here setting it to 3600 means that it will be refreshed every hour:
WinHost CNAME Record Setup
Now wait for about two hours. Then you can access any file you’ve uploaded on AWS using the following format: http://<domain>/<directories>/<file-name>. For example, the image above is hosted on AWS at the following address: http://s3.xyzio.com/s3_cname/winhost_cname.jpg.
You can use https to securely link to your image. This will throw a warning message in your browser because the domain and hosted domain names are different i.e. https://s3.xyzio.com/s3_cname/winhost_cname.jpg.
Of course you can also link directly to your file using the AWS linking convention: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.xyzio.com/s3_cname/winhost_cname.jpg or http://s3.xyzio.com.s3.amazonaws.com/s3_cname/winhost_cname.jpg
And that is it. Now you can easily extend your disk space at WinHost without having to upgrade!
WinHost ASP.NET hosting review – Boring is Good
It has been a year since I moved my website off Mono at Linode to WinHost and I’m being honest here – the hosting has been absolutely boring and that is a great thing!
After spending some time looking at ASP.NET hosts it came down to DiscountASP.NET, GoDaddy, and WinHost. I ended up choosing WinHost because they offered database hosting in their base package, promise not to oversell, and I couldn’t find any bad reviews about them. Looking at my other options – The web is littered with bad GoDaddy reviews and DiscountASP.NET doesn’t offer a MS SQL database (or any database) at the same WinHost price point.
Unlike hosting with Mono – I do not have dink around with arcane text files, there is a nice GUI interface to manage my site. I can select my ASP.NET version, manage my databases, and do everything I need to manage my site through their interface. My website and iTextSharp based BingoCard maker just work! In addition, I’ve had no downtime or hosting issues since I’ve started hosting with them. Perfectly boring!
Of course nothing is perfect – I’ve had a few a couple issues with them:
Their auto installer would only install WordPress in domain.com/wordpress. I couldn’t choose another sub-directory like /blog or /diary. However, I was able to manually install WordPress in a different directory on my own.
Another problem I’ve had is that I had trouble connecting to WordPress Jetpack through my install. However it seems that they’ve now fixed the issue.
One last annoyance is that they don’t include Scheduled Tasks in their basic $5 package. This means that I can’t set up tasks a-la-Cron like a Mono-on-Linux install would allow.
—
Overall I’m happy with my experience, perfectly boring ASP.NET hosting with database for just $5/month where everything Just Works!
Have other questions? Check out the WinHost forums!
Update 12/29/2014:
I’ve switched to using Mono at DigitalOcean on their base droplet. I get 20GB of disk space and greater ability to run scripts or set up a database for just $5/month. Also, WinHost changed their monthly price to $5.95/month with a 3-month pre-pay so DigitalOcean with Mono is cheaper, faster, and comes with more features.
I still highly recommend WinHost for beginners and for those that want no-hassle hosting. Maintaining your own server does take time and sometimes requires technical troubleshooting.
Komodo IDE 8 Review – A Blatant Money Grab
I am a big fan of Komodo IDE. I’ve been using it since version 3 way back in 2006 and I still use it now 7 years later. Besides using it for Perl debug, I also use it as a general text editor because the VI keybindings make document navigation easy, the places feature simplifies file navigation, and syntax highlighting can be applied to arbitrary files.
I am not a Komodo fanboi, I think Visual Studio is the gold standard among IDEs. Unlike the free version of Komodo IDE – Komodo Edit, the free Visual Studio Express editions come with a debugger. The IntelliSense feature allows for quick parameter selection and easy navigation of large projects, and the syntax highlighting is equivalent to or better than Komodo. Visual Studio is the best editor for those that can develop in their language of choice.
In the Perl IDE space, there is also EPIC – the Eclipse Perl Integration. I played around with it and with the Vrapper plugin it seems to satisfy basic Perl debug. It is a little slow due to the need to run the Eclipse engine and getting Eclipse to recognize arbitrary file extensions is a pain.
So with all that said and despite ActiveState’s proclamation that Komodo ‘Revolutionizes Developer User Experience with Komodo IDE 8.0‘, I have to call Komodo IDE 8 the ‘So What?‘ release.
Lets look at their big revolutionary features:
New User Interface – Every new software release has a New User Interface and the general trend of software has been towards minimalism. Look at Visual Studio 2012, that interface is new. Nothing new here.
Floating Side Panes – Yup, very revolutionary. Been there in every other IDE like Visual Studio and Eclipse since way back.
Minimap – Cool, a top level view of the code on the right. Except that the font is unreadable, function headers and variables don’t pop-out to make navigation easy, and zooming in and out is inconvenient. Oh and in Komodo IDE 7 you can easily get the same view with Ctrl+Scroll Down and then go to any part of the code by hovering your mouse over it and doing Ctrl+Scroll Up.
Open Files Side Pane – Great I can sort files by file type. I have this option in Windows Explorer. Since Windows 95. Please. Don’t want to alt-tab into another window? Seriously – do you even develop?
Retina Display Support – Doesn’t help me. Most of my time is spent in a Windows or UNIX machine debugging Perl and not admiring the resolution of the icons on the task bar.
What irks me is that they haven’t fixed anything else or in parts I use: opening and editing over a network is still slow and often locks the entire editor; switching to Komodo with a network file open freezes the editor; there is no variable drop-down a-la Visual Studio or even EPIC; I can’t search in the recent files box; Can’t save a file over another open file; random “this script is taking too long” messages keep popping up. There is even a file that crashes IDE 8 when I apply Ruby syntax highlighting but works fine in IDE 7. These are features that should just work in a IDE that costs money. I do not believe that I’m the only one that is annoyed by these shortcomings.
Ultimately there is no new compelling features for me in Komodo IDE 8 that make it a compelling upgrade. EPIC is free, highly capable and and has many of the features in Komodo. Komodo IDE 7 was just released last year and asking for $136 another year later is a purely blatant money grab.
Why!!!?
EPIC does Perl variable selection dropdowns … Komodo does not. Komodo costs money … EPIC does not.
Kuru Toga Pencil Review
My Kuru Toga pencil purchase was an impulse buy – I was browsing Amazon.com looking for a gift for a friend when I noticed the Kuru Toga pencil set. I figured that my desk could use a touch of class and so decided to order it. At $3.88 it is a decent investment in a pencil considering that I can get 10 BiC mechanical pencils for $4.67. However I justified this extravagant purchase by noting the box of lead and two erasers (+1 in the pencil) that came in the package. Additional justification was provided by the fact that the lead was infused with diamond (!) and according to its description it is ‘the most advanced mechanical pencil ever‘.
Kuru Toga Engine
The Kuru Toga pencil’s highlight is the Kuru Toga engine – based on my non-knowledge of Japanese I’d say that the name comes from Kuru which means to turn and Toga which means to sharpen. I also found this out by searching Google for five minutes. True to its name, the Kuru Toga engine rotates the pencil lead a tiny bit every time you lift up while writing. This means that you’ll always have a sharp edge to write with as long as you remember to push down hard enough to prime the engine and lift up sometime during your writing. The rotation of the lead can be observed by viewing the logo through the translucent window or by squinting your eyes and looking at the lead while pushing the tip in and letting it pop out. In practice the Kuru Toga engine doesn’t always give you the sharp tip – it generally rotates to give you a enough of an edge to keep your writing sharp. The mechanism makes no noise and is generally invisible in its operation, just lean back and enjoy the sharpness of lead.
Details
The pencil comes in a package that looks exactly like the package shown on the Amazon website. There are two pieces of lead in the pencil and an eraser so the pencil is ready to go out of the box. The eraser is small and won’t last long, but when working at this level you really should have a separate eraser in your writing arsenal. The diamond infused lead is tough yet soft, it writes well like a HB grade should but doesn’t break and leave that annoying little piece in the tip like most other soft leads. Despite being almost all plastic, the pencil has slight-to-decent heft to it and is balanced towards the writing end.
The eraser is visible through the translucent top which gives you a real time view of its status. Pulling the eraser off reveals a hole through which additional lead is inserted. The traditional backdoor of inserting the lead through the writing side is also supported, giving you two methods to support lead insertion.
Overall
I’m pleased with the Kuru Toga pencil. The dark cylinder with the blue and chrome highlights adds style and a touch of class to my desk. The writing is smooth with a well balanced pencil. The build quality is excellent, much better than those 10 for $4.67 pencils. I carry it around with me and it just screams out ‘class!’ and ‘high technology’ in every meeting I attend. This is my first foray into the world of designer pencils so I don’t know if it is a good value but at $3.88 it doesn’t break the bank.
Pros
Class!
High Technology!
the most advanced pencil ever
Value pack comes with lead and extra erasers
Cons
Expensive?
Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX Review
I’ve had the Logitech Anywhere mouse for several months now and I am a heavy user. I use it for 8+ hours a day and carry it from my desk to meetings several times a day. I also take the mouse home with me several times a week when I have work at home.
Features
The features of this mouse reflect well on its premium pricing. In addition to the right and left click buttons, the mouse also has two button on the left side that can be mapped to different functions but usually default to forward/back in most applications.
There is a separate button for middle clicking because middle clicking with the scroll-wheel switches between its clicked-scroll and hyper-fast scroll feature. The hyper-fast scroll feature allows scroll wheel to scroll freely which allows for quick scrolling through long documents without tiring your
Bottom View
scoll wheel finger. Having a separate middle click button is great because you don’t have to worry about keeping the scroll-wheel steady while you middle click. In addition, the mouse uses a DarkField™ laser for tracking. The DarkField laser is designed to track on any surface and I can confirm that the DarkField™ laser is fantastic. I’ve personally verified that it tracks on any surface – tile, mirror, wood, couch cushions, and even a $2 mousepad from Office Max. The mouse has a great on-off switch that covers the laser on the off position which protects the lens and cavity.
The mouse’s awesomeness continues, opening the battery cover reveals a small cavity in which you can store the USB receiver. However, I doubt you’ll need to store the reciever, it is very tiny
Top View
and sticks about 1/4 inch out of the USB socket. I leave it plugged in all the time, even when I’m traveling with the laptop in my backpack. There is even a small status light on the top of the mouse that lights briefly when you first turn on the mouse – it shows green when the battery is good and red when it is time for replacement. The mouse takes two batteries, but can run on just one – even at low voltages on a single 1.2v rechargeable battery. And one last thing – side scroll. The scroll-wheel toggles from side to side to allow users to scroll horizontally through long documents like spreadsheets and webpages.
Fit, Feel, & Finish
The Everyday mouse is incredibly well built. The buttons click with a snick and have excellent tactile feedback. The scroll-wheel has a ridged center with metal accents on the side. The sides of the mouse have a soft rubber with ribbed finish that makes it easy to hold. The on/off switch opens and closes with a satisfying click. It feels solid and well balanced in your hand.
Summary
I highly recommend the Logitech Everyday mouse. I use it for several hours every day at my desk dnd carry it around with me. It has yet to let me down!
Pros:
Well built and good looking
Solid design
Excellent ergonomics
Tracks on any surface
Runs on one or two batteries
Small receiver that can run up to 6 Logitech devices
Carrying case
Includes batteries
Good value for money
Cons:
Expensive
View and Buy from Amazon.com
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