Technology
Background Using the AdMob mediation network has been very convenient. There is a newer mobile ad banner type called “Smart Banners“, which AdMob created, that allows the SDK to automatically display the best banner size based on the device’s screen …
Android – AdMob Smart Banner Mediation Workaround Read more »
Background CrashPlan has been an affordable and secure solution for backing up local content into their centralized cloud server. The GUI is based on Java, allowing it to run on multiple platforms, including Linux and specifically Ubuntu. Issue On Ubuntu …
CrashPlan – Ubuntu 14.04 GUI Crash after Installation Read more »
Background PHP and MySQL are very powerful. I had a web site with roughly 100,000 rows coming from the joining of three tables that would take at least a few seconds to be output to the web browser and displayed …
Background Concern that having SSH/OpenSSH running with the default configuration (/etc/ssh/sshd_config) exposes an attack vector increasing the risk of Ubuntu being compromised. Issue The more externally available services running on a system, the greater the risk of attracting unwanted visitors. …
Background: Have a faster internet connection over wlan0 than eth0. Prefer to route Crashplan backup traffic over wlan0 rather than the default eth0. Challenge: The Java GUI for Linux, doesn’t provide controls for selecting the network interface, although the Mac …
Background: In the Spring 2014 semester, I researched cryptocurrencies and created a beginners guide, under the direction of Professor Simon Johnson. Outcome: Attached (PDF): Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrencies
Background: Purchased a great Sony Vaio Pro 13 ultrabook with excellent hardware running Windows 8 and now updated to 8.1. The Intel® HD Graphics 4400 hardware controls the HDMI output and the audio over the HDMI output. Issue: Using the …
Background VirtualBox is a great product and has routine updates. Setting up the repositories for automatic updates and installs seemed to be more challenging than most other software packages. Issue Originally, after following the simple directions on VirtualBox’s web site, …
Background: Google Chrome is very good at maintaining a history of open tabs, which allows for a great multitasking web browsing experience. Issue: Since Chrome frequently and correctly restores tabs, many users might not realize a strong dependence on this …
Background: WordPress is a great blogging platform that has many powerful features. The hosting environment WordPress operates under can provide constraints and limitations. Issue: After upgrading a plugin for WordPress, I immediately encountered the error, “Fatal error: Allowed memory size …
Background Google Wallet used three methods to determine whether an Android device had root access configured. Google Wallet used to mark a device as “Unsupported” if root access was detected on the Android device. The code used to implement the …
Saw a great GitHub Gist shared on twitter by @pof for using crontab and curl to check for the Google Play page of the Nexus 5. I added a few tips on getting everything setup for those who might not …
DataTables is a jQuery Javascript library plug-in to convert static html tables (including dynamically generated) into dynamically viewable and sortable tables. The advantage to using this plug-in is that the end user is given control over viewing and sorting the …
DataTables – Default sorting by the table column header class name Read more »
At some point in the last few months changes were made to either or both the ADT plugin for Eclipse and Google Play that rendered my most recent Android application updates “incompatible” with tablets. After doing a bit of research, …
Android – Google Play issue: “your device isn’t compatible with this version” Read more »
After previously posting a summary of my research around the best options for a well priced high performance and secure 256GB SSD drive, I attempted to gather as much detail as possible around the encryption provided on the OCZ Vector …
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD AES 256-bit Encryption Technical Details Read more »
This is a high-level summary of the research I’ve done with the time I was able to dedicate. There is potential for much more in-depth research requiring a larger time commitment. Feel free to leave helpful comments! There are three …
After every kernel upgrade on Ubuntu, the prior kernel image and header files remain. Personally, the most common usage for these prior kernel files is to revert to a prior kernel version when I’ve experienced issues with the current one. …
Ubuntu – How to clean up kernel images and header files Read more »
I accidentally wiped the data on my Android device losing all my Google 2-factor authentication tokens. Using the Google Authenticator plugin for WordPress by Henrik Schack meant I was now unable to login to my blog. In order to login …
WordPress – Locating the Google Authenticator Login Token Read more »
Background On Friday, November 29th, Dell made the Ultrabook XPS 13 Developer Edition available for order initially at $1549 and then later correct the price to $1449, bringing the price below the comparable Windows 8 version. At first impression, this …
Dell Ultrabook XPS 13 Developer Edition – Ubuntu 12.04 – Project Sputnik Read more »
Background Having spent a substantial amount of time (~6 years+) running outdoors, there were always three main metrics that I wanted to know during and after a work out. 1) Overall time 2) Overall distance 3) Pace (Example, 1 mile …