.NET ADO SQLLite components: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlite-dotnet2/
Great tutorial: http://adodotnetsqlite.sourceforge.net/
SQLLite Browser: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/

Finished five papers in as many days. I was a bit sick, but used my time effectively.

Anyway. Good book!

It not only allows me to share my screen and give control but also let students share their screens and I take control. Just great. It was fast and clear.

I recorded using camtasia since the mikogo recording was in a proprietary format, but I did that anyway.

The only drawback and it is MINOR is a lack of built in audio. I had skype, so we used that. No problem. Thanks Mikogo!

Jane wrote about this today and her list fails to mention join.me which I find to be an easy and outstanding service.

I use this for face-to-face class meetings! I have students in the classroom that I give the link to so that they can better see the screen. The projectors at my school are top of the line, but cannot adequately display a 1440X900 resolution so that a students 20 feet away can see my code. Their physical machine can easily. Also they can screenshot or record from their local machine if they want (and they do!).

I say get join.me. I might even pay for an account I use it so much.

Jane – add join.me to the TOP of your list. Most of the other services you have alphabetically listed are worthless.

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/#/browser-protection/1

No big deal?

Normally this would be a bummer because you would need a new laptop or at least an expensive repair, but in his case it is 3 days before senior project. I know these students had placed most of their code into github.com and that this student has already delivered much of the code to the client (he logs into the client server regularly while I am assisting him). So yeah pretty big deal just before senior project.

How does Dropbox help?

Any computer with Office 2007, Visual Studio and Remote Desktop Connection would allow this student to keep working and finish anything he needed for his project. He can just log into dropbox.com and manually upload and download the files he needs. Piece of cake.

I sent him the signup code: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTgxNTA3OQ. I was notified within minutes that my storage was increased because he has signed up.

Good job Jake. Move everything you want saved into your dropbox folder inside of my documents and just let it do the uploading. 2 gigs for free and when you refer friends you get a bit more:

Just a PPT replacement, but think about the uses. Record yourself presenting in front of class then share the prezi and the video. Two for one. You can drill as deep as you want, so share concepts and as you go deeper perhaps you share actual code. You can learn the concept at one level and the code at another.

It isn’t that I am doing anything wrong, it is just that I do not need the next guy who gets my machine to look up my photos or something like that. I might have some unencrypted files that I do not want them to access. You know stuff like that.

So what do I do before I sell a laptop or otherwise release a HDD into the wild?

I use DBAN. I simply install it to a bootable USB (or DVD) and let it run. I choose all the defaults and just let it go. The last drive I ran it on it took 36 hours to run. I feel reasonable secure that my data is no longer on the drive and it is left in a state that I can either install the OS or place the restore disks from the manufacturer in the machine and let it go.

Seriously a good option. I remember Shawn asking me a few years ago if I did this and I kinda laughed it off. I took him very serious after some reports of data on HDDs coming off of Ebay etc.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178239/Computer-hard-drive-sold-eBay-details-secret-U-S-missile-defence-system.html

http://blog.alertsec.com/2009/09/ebay-allowing-unencrypted-drives-to-live-on/

Anyway. Not my data.

I wanted to open up FTP for a project some of my former students and I are working on. So I did the usual. Started up the service and added the exception to the firewall.

Easy as that?

From my laptop I could connect, but I could not get a directory listing (LIST). I assumed this was because I was using windows list instead of *nix, but I was wrong. I could connection using the command line FTP, so I knew something could work. I can also FTP to various other sites just fine. So what gives?

Passive FTP versus active ftp

FTP is a funny thing. Funny like Lucifer.

So you ftp into a server in passive mode. The server responds telling you what port to reconnect to. Your client obliges. This is passive FTP.

Active FTP your client (your laptop) tells the server which port to open. In both cases the ports need to be open on the firewall. Or so it seemed.

The command line ftp client built in with windows uses active FTP. It works.

Passive does not. The client needs to be able to connect back out on the port request (outbound is usually allowed on all ports right?) but the server needs to accept inbound on those ports.

FTP on IIS 6.0 is setup to use a port range that is something like 54 – 10000000000. Windows firewall makes you enter the ports ONE AT A TIME. I did some calculations and the calculations took me longer than this process should. So I stopped.

So you need to tell FTP server to only listen on a few ports when in active mode. It will then tell your laptop to use one of those ports and you can easily open 5 ports on the firewall right?

So what is the fix?

This one I actually searched google a lot for. I ended up finding an incorrect copy of the following page from, who else? M$:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555022

And so you do not even need to go there you do this:

For Windows 2003 Server

a) To Enable Direct Metabase Edit
1. Open the IIS Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
2. Right-click on the Local Computer node.
3. Select Properties.
4. Make sure the Enable Direct Metabase Edit checkbox is checked.

b) Configure PassivePortRange via ADSUTIL script
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. Type cd Inetpub\AdminScripts and then press ENTER.
3. Type the following command from a command prompt.
adsutil.vbs set /MSFTPSVC/PassivePortRange “5500-5700″
4. Restart the FTP service.

You’ll see the following output, when you configure via ADSUTIL script:

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

PassivePortRange : (STRING) “5500-5700″

But check that site in case I copied and pasted something wrong

So if you type in Jason you will get information on the name Jason. If you type in a date you get information on that date.
The site was released 6 months ago. I learned about it from twit.tv (this week in tech). This month it was published in Popular Science or mechanics — I cannot remember which.

How do I use it?

I have one app that requires me to figure out a mathmatics problem to us it each time. Weird I know. minidvdsoft’s free iso creator. So I go to use the app, it makes me go get a code. In order to get the code I need to figure out a problem:
519 – (19 – 6 x (116 – 764)) = ?

So I go to Wolfram Alpha, paste in the probblem, change the x to an * and calculate. It gives me the answer and I copy it into the program. Easy! Thanks Wolfram.

Video:

So I am back on track. I have an obligation to myself to post twice per week to the following places:

http://www.rvgadgets.net – anything rv, anything that is a gadget.
http://www.kidsiphoneappreview.com – apps for kids we review them
http://huberblog.com – personal stuff including stuff about the websites.
http://slxtraining.net – for work
http://www.modifiedpowerwheels.com — mpw needs a new homepage for sure.
http://www.modifiedelectricscooters.com — needs a new homepage too.

So how long does a post take? About an hour each. This means about 8 hours of work per month. How much can a site like that make? a few hundred a month. I guess it CAN make more, but really it will probably pull in a few hundred a month. Is it worth it? Sure. Add it up. How much are you paid per hour? Look it is something that we like to do and it comes easy to us. It just takes time away from the family in front of a computer. If you think I do not have enough time in front of a computer you are mistaken

As you all sit and take the final a few thoughts occurred to me that I thought I would share. I realize you will not get this email until after the final and I do wish I had shared it before. The comments have nothing to do with our final in particular.

When I would take a final at Keller I had several techniques:

1. Never finish first. I always finished first or very regularly finished near the front and this was NEVER intentional. In fact some of the following ideas and tactics came from the desire to not hand in my exam first. Someone has to be first – don’t let it be you. Why? The first exam is either going to be immediately looked at. The Instructor will be checking your work closely to see how his exam panned out. You will become the test case. If not that then at least there is a chance that you will be remembered as the first submitter and perhaps it should have taken you longer or you thought you were something to get it done so fast and all of that. I assure you I do not consciously apply any of those assumptions, but others may.

The following tactics take time and thus help with #1 as well as help you prepare for the first question.

2. Before you answer any question read the first question. On our exam tonight you had a piece of paper with the questions and a bit of room. There wasn’t enough room for an answer, but there was some room. Read the question and write anything that comes to mind in that margin. I wont check this sheet of paper, well I will, but most wont. Write keywords, comments, anything that comes to mind about question 1 before you do anything else. Exhaust the mind of anything that pertains to that question. Then do the same for #2 and so on. Do not answer anything in the answer book at this point. Do this process for each question before you move onto the answers.

#3 Tie your questions together. Some Instructors will grade all of question #1. Then all of #2 and so on. Many do not. In either case tying your questions together helps you with your train of thought and helps the instructor reference your way of thinking and writing. It makes for a much more readable exam in either case and will increase your points. Questions will lead into each other in this way and may give you ideas on other questions. It is a magical thing. Referring to common discussions or a common scenario helps this process as well.

#4 Make sure as you answer each question you refer back to step #2 and check off any keywords or thoughts you had on each question. As you are writing if another thought comes to mind – get it on paper, either on the page now or back on the list in #2. Many times this helps with #3 since you will be thinking of the whole exam rather than each question by itself as a stand alone question.

Take it or leave it. I know these helped me and might help some of you.

http://vyew.com/site/

It offers desktop sharing, whiteboarding, teleconferencing – who needs that when you have Skype?

Anyway – I added this post more for me that anything.