Codecademy Labs, a place for you to program and learn

Interested in dabbling with python, I found this very helpful website.

What I like about Codeacademy Labs is being able to dabble in python, ruby and java script without installing anything new on your machine. (Assuming you have adobe's flash player already installed.)

Here's what "CAL" has to say about themselves:

"Codecademy Labs is a place for you to program in Ruby, Python, and JavaScript online without downloading a code editor or IDE. Share your programs with friends and use your knowledge from Codecademy lessons!" -http://labs.codecademy.com/

Here's what you will see when you first go to the website:

Three great places to start, but there is a lot more that can be learned from CAL.

HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP, and more are available. To see a more comprehensive list, go here: http://www.codecademy.com/learn

One of the other reasons I like CAL is in their mission statement:

"We do not want to open up universities. We want to open up knowledge. Everyone knows something they can teach someone else and we want to help them do it. Our community has created tens of thousands of courses and taken millions of courses. At this point, more than a billion lines of code have been submitted to Codecademy.

Education is broken. Come help us build the education the world deserves." -http://www.codecademy.com/about

Lofty goals, but I like the idea. There is much more to their mission statement, so if you are curious, follow the link directly above this sentence.

If you are interested in learning a new computer language, give Codeacademy Labs a try.

TeamViewer, the easiest remote desktop client?

While I was looking for a remote desktop client solution for Linux, I was directed to Teamviewer 9 by a friendly person on the #ubuntu channel at irc.freenode.org.

While I couldn't get the 64 bit version to work for my Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit install, the 32 bit "multiarch" version worked just fine for me.

I love this client. Their are other remote desktop clients available, with many available functions.

But when it comes down to ease of use and simplicity, Teamviewer shines like a halogen flashlight in a railway tunnel.

You are seeing the main control of Teamviewer. If you want someone to connect to you, then you give them the information on the left side of the window.

If you want to connect to someone, you feed the information they gave you from their Teamviewer's left side into your right side.

Once you punch in the password (if you are the one connecting), You will see a window showing their desktop.

It looks like this:

Clients like Remmina have more options, but the simplicity and ease of use of Teamviewer has won me over.

Is Teamviewer the easiest remote desktop client? I believe so.

Make up your own mind!

Here's where you can get it for Linux:
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/linux.aspx 

For other operating system options, check this site out:
http://www.teamviewer.com/

Beware of Fake Flash Drives

What exactly are "fake flash drives"?

"Fake flash" refers to low capacity flash drives and memory cards that have been modified so that they appear to have more capacity than the drive really has.

They report more capacity to Windows, Macs, Linux and Android OS's than they have. Usually a lot more.

Besides being ripped off financially, your data is at danger because once the drive is at it's true maximum, any data put on afterwards gets damaged because the computer just writes over the data already on the flash drive.

To insure that the next drive you buy is legit, keep the price in mind. Check other stores/websites, and see if the price is close. Any more than 30% off, and it's time to reconsider.

If you think you have already purchased a "fake flash" drive, a great tool for testing your flash drive is h2testw.

You can get h2testw here: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/H2testw-Download-149366.html

You can also get a Linux alternative to h2testw, called F3, here: http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/