A digital business card with a vCard QR code is a great way to connect with people at conferences, meetings, social events or on the subway. You display the QR code on your phone for your new contact to scan directly into their contacts (remember to add and save the new contact!). You can create and host one using easy-to-use free websites in about 15 minutes. Here's how to create a powerful digital business card with contact info, links to social media websites liked LinkedIn, a vCard QR code with your image or logo, and a vCard file that can be downloaded if there are issues scanning or if the digital card is viewed from a desktop.
The great, simple, single-file PHP file manager, File Thingie, made it really easy to manage files to download from a web server by simply loading the File Thingie index.php into a folder. Sadly, File Thingie disappeared between August 12, 2015 and September 7, 2015. As PHP changed, File Thingie stopped working (I think with PHP 8.x, but test for yourself if you need to know). Since I still have a need for simple file management, I looked for alternatives and find Tiny File Manager.
Like its predecessor File Thingie, Tiny File Manager enables users to securely manage files using a single PHP file. However, unlike File Thingie, Tiny File Manager enables editing of all files in the root folder, rather than all files in and below the current folder. Let's say you want to use a /documents subfolder to allow users to upload documents (e.g. PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and Powerpoint presentations). By default, even if you load tinyfilemanager.php into the documents folder, users will have access to the folders above /documents.
Changing 2 configuration parameters ($root_path and $root_url) limits tinyfilemanager to the current folder and below and correctly displays direct links:
// Root path for file manager
// use absolute path of directory i.e: '/var/www/folder' or $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/folder'
#$root_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$root_path = __DIR__;
// Root url for links in file manager.Relative to $http_host. Variants: '', 'path/to/subfolder'
// Will not working if $root_path will be outside of server document root
#$root_url = '';
$root_url = preg_replace("!^${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}!", '', __DIR__);
Now, if there was only a simple way to replace the view link with a direct link instead of having to select the tiny direct link icon to the right...
Posted by: kguske on Thursday, April 18, 2024 @ 15:56:43 CDT
Your friend left you alone to remotely fix her PC, and didn't share her password. You took a break while a long-running utility completed, and when you returned, the screen is locked or the system went to sleep, and your friend is unavailable. What to do? Not much, unfortunately. But keep these links handy to install a way to prevent lock outs next time.
The utilities enable you to override the power settings and / or screen saver settings by simulating activity on a Windows computer. They run in the task tray and can be configured there. Since most don't require installation, require little space and memory and have no license costs, these utilities make great additions to your portable tool kit.
Power Settings
Windows Power Settings optimize the use of electricity by automatically shutting down, moving to standy, or hibernating the system. This isn't always optimal for remote support. Fortunately there are some free, no-install utilities to address this.
Preventing Screen Saver Locks
Microsoft Windows can also lock the screen due to inactivity based on the screen saver settings. Some utilities prevent this by periodically simulating keyboard or mouse movements.
Awake
Microsoft PowerToys Awake is "designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power & sleep settings." Unfortunately, Awake must be installed with all the Microsoft Powertools (i.e. it is not portable), and the download is large.
Caffeine
Caffeine from Zhorn Software simulates a keypress once every 59 seconds, so your machine thinks you're still working at the keyboard, so won't lock the screen or activate the screensaver.
Don't Sleep
Don't Sleep from Software OK is "a small Freeware Windows program to prevent system shutdown, Standby, Hibernate, Turn Off and Restart." It can also be used to schedule shutdown and restart actions based on time, battery level, CPU load and / or network activity. You can also use the app to "Please sleep" (turn off the display, etc.) under similar conditions.
Mouse Jiggler
Unlike the other utilities, Mouse Jiggler works by simulating the slight movement of a mouse. For reference, there are hardware devices that serve the same purpose. But also unlike other utilities, Mouse Jiggler requires an updated .NET framework, which is unlikely to be installed on your friend's computer. Although there is a portable version, it contains multiple files and requires much more space.
SwampGeek Recommends...
With the most functionality in the smallest, portable executable, Don't Sleep earns the SwampGeek Recommended seal of approval.
Posted by: kguske on Thursday, February 09, 2023 @ 14:17:36 CST
As of June 1, 2021, Google users will be paying to be the product when Google ends free unlimited Google Photos storage. After that date, Google combines storage of new photos with Gmail and Google Drive, currently limited to 15GB for free. To ease the (pain) transition, the company estimates when your current storage will run out, based on historical usage. Gee, thanks! Even worse, the company will purge inactive accounts. Free Google Workspace, formerly Google Apps, accounts suffered a similar fate.
This update breaks the terms of the original contract with users: give us access to sell the private info we collect from your photos, and we'll let you store and search them for free. But Google expects you to keep your part of the original bargain: it will continue to collect and market your personal information from those photos, even if you pay for storage. To make matters worse, Google makes deleting photos difficult for those who want to continue using Google's storage within free limits. For now, you can still add photos while they're free. But those who don't agree to the new terms have alternatives to the impacted services: Gmail, Google Photos and Google Drive.
How can you reduce the spoofing of Facebook accounts? Asking for a friend...(actually, for all of them!)
"If you get a friend request or Facebook message from me, ignore it - I've been hacked." Technically, you've been "spoofed," not hacked. The spoofer merely created an account pretending to be yours for any number of nefarious reasons. And it turns out that a simple privacy setting may have prevented that, or at least limited the scope of the spoof.
Here's how to reduce spoofing by limiting access to your Facebook friends list.
A Wall Street Journal article "Why You Need a VPN - and How to Choose the Right One" prompted a discussion on the benefits of using virtual private networks, or VPNs. VPNs can be an important part of online security and also of online privacy. VPNs are absolutely necessary when connecting to a public network (hotel, coffee shops, airports, etc.). However, using a VPN can also cause problems, and there are other tools that can complete your toolbox for online security and privacy.
With the pending release of Wordpress 5.0 - including the Gutenberg editor / page builder, an evaluation of leading themes and page builders is in order. This detailed comparison will consider features, usability, performance and price.
And there are several other articles that discuss even more open source initiatives. Important questions remain. Are Open Source initiatives forcing commercial vendors to consolidate or disappear? Does the future belong to Open Source? (article in progress)
It's free, or not to be...
IBM released database (Cloudscape) technology as open source. Computer Associates released its Ingress database to the open source community. SAP gave it's MaxDB to MySQL as open source. These major software vendors hope to gain market share to increase services revenue, making these open source offerings loss-leaders, in a sense. But, without the mass development made possible through an open source model, these databases likely would not have been able to compete with more successful commercial competitors DB2, Oracle and SQLServer and their deep-pocketed vendors. Sun's release of Solaris as open source seems like an admission that it can't compete with Windows, but possibly with Linux...
Of course, most open source software is hardly recycled shelfware. Linux, Apache's HTTP server, MySQL's database and the PHP web scripting language have proven their superiority over commercial rivals for many applications - and it will be even more difficult for the commercial vendors to catch up.
High-quality open source applications have started to prove worthy in higher-end applications as well.SugarCRM (and others) offer full-function CRM applications via open source. Open source content management applications (too numerous to mention), customer service / help desk, compete more than favorably with their commercial counterparts.
Why is it free?
Is it secure?
Posted by: kguske on Monday, October 22, 2018 @ 21:37:30 CDT
The former CIO of Cardinal Health is developing an alternative to offshore IT outsourcing. Her company, Rural Sourcing, Inc. (RSI), operates in low-cost rural areas in the US to compete with offsource outsourcers, and the idea is catching on.Kathy Brittain White started RSI after working with several large companies like Mattel and Cardinal Health, where she worked with offshore outsourcers. Her approach is to create development centers near rural universities, combining rigorous high-quality development methodologies with local resources in a low-cost environment. RSI's first two development centers are in Arkansas. Other companies, like Aurora Consulting Group, Inc. near Buffalo, NY, have a similar approach. RSI is taking advantage of incentives from New Mexico and North Carolina to open development centers there in 2005.
Large companies and government providers are increasingly working with rural outsourcers because rural outsourcing addresses the problems of offshore outsourcing:
face-to-face communication, time-zone, language and cultural differences, and citizenship requirements for government work. But, possibly even more important, it can also provide evidence in an ongoing debate on whether the real benefits of offshore outsourcing outweigh the real costs. Many IT workers believe this issue is swept under the rug by company leaders seeking to protect their public company's stock price.
If so, rural outsourcing's competition may be a sleeping giant. In addition to lower costs, offshore outsourcers tout higher productivity and processes compliant with international quality standards. But they haven't provided much proof - not that US companies are asking. Instead, the ITAA defends offshoring with conflicting arguments, claiming there is a shortage of IT labor in the US and that the loss of 35,000 IT jobs per year is related to economic conditions and the burst of the Internet and telecom bubbles. The ITAA, referred to by some US IT professionals as a lobbyist for offshore outsourcers, doesn't include outsourcing in the list of IT issues on its website, even though 11 of the 25 headlines listed there are related to outsourcing issues, and disputes of its studies supporting offshoring have been presented as testimony to Congress.
But some big service providers with significant investments in offshore locations like CapGemini have noticed rural outsourcing and are developing rural centers themselves. However, they question whether smaller rural outsourcers can handle bigger projects. Ramping up for new projects hasn't been an issue for RSI, notes White.
Others question the positive impact of rural outsourcing on IT employment. In a Computerworld editorial, Frank Hayes described the "Farmshore Future." He argues that this won't be good for the corporate IT worker because it provides more incentives for companies to replace employees with outsourced workers, even if they are still in the US.
Rural outsourcing employees may earn less than their urban counterparts. They may live in less popular and less expensive areas, but they have jobs and pay taxes, and for many, that is the point.
Posted by: kguske on Monday, October 22, 2018 @ 21:32:56 CDT
Stolen from the ever-hilarious Fool.com, this list is guaranteed to make you "search" for a laugh...
10. Free worm with every search.
9. Google renamed "Microoosoooft."
8. Google becomes default search engine on all computers; attempts to use Yahoo! causes PCs to emit a pungent odor.
7. The search choices on Google will change from "Web," "Images," "Groups," "Directory," and "News" to "Web," "Shop Microsoft," "Buy From Microsoft Because You Have No Choice," and "Steve Ballmer Dancing."
6. Google Image Search will not show Microsoft's dark side.
5. All searches on the term "Steve Jobs" will return bios on Art Garfunkel, Ike Turner, Burt Ward (a.k.a. Robin), and other second fiddles.
4. Long speeches from Bill Gates about how "Smart Appliances" will allow owners to use Google to search for what's in their fridge. When pressed, Gates admits such appliances are only available in his mansion, and that he's never actually seen his refrigerator.
3. Microsoft uses Google technology to search for weapons of monopolistic destruction.
2. All searches on the term "Larry Ellison" will produce lists of garbage-collection websites.
1. "Bill Gates is richer than Warren Buffett" subliminally inserted into all search results.
Anil Sabharwal, Head of Google Photos, May 28, 2015 introducing Google Photos: "
