computoman

One of the things most people hate to do is to type in passwords. Not only could someone be looking over your shoulder, but also the password gets sent where it can be easily monitored. There has to be a better way. A method very much used on 'nix systems (including OS/X) is called the 'secure shell' (ssh for short). You can actually use it on Microsoft systems also, but it requires more than usual extra setup. More about setting up here: ( http://www.instructables.com/id/Linux-setup-for-SSH-password-less-login/ ). $ ssh typo1 password: _ Anyway, if you are setting up a new system and or recovering from a hard disk crash, setting up the ssh keys to all the servers or systems you log into can be a lot of fun. There had to be a way of automating this process.  The process is usually just three steps. Copy your key to the new server, adding the key to the authorized_key files, and then lastly removing the copied key if need be. So let's make a batch file to take care ...

Most everyone knows about the amazing Arduino. This integrated circuit much acts like a minimal cpu chip. There are hundreds of uses for it. everything from Sous vide machines, mini-weather stations, game machines, water sprinkler control, and a host of other uses. It is even the perfect platform for making your own robot. The list is never ending. The project originally started in Italy as an open source project and has done nothing but grow exponentially in popularity. This simple 20 pin chip is amazing. It has become so popular, that several companies have made development boards for the chip (now there are even more advanced versions of the Arduino i.e. Mega.) Fry's carries the Osepp Arduino and Radio Shack carries the original dip version Arduino Uno, but now I think they have gone to a surface mount version. You can also get the chips and the boards from many electronics retailers such as Jameco. Early Arduino unos development boards came socketed, you could easily pro...

Ever wished you could get data from a web page without reading the whole web page, or for even just getting data from a server.   One thing I like to do is get the football scores. Find that SI.com and some other sites have so much going on it takes forever to navigate the pages. Not only that, you are subjected to all the ads. Just give me the scores so I can move on. Data mining allows me to do that.  In other words, the computer can be your personal secretary to get all the data you need for your special reports. without you having to do all that hard work and the extra time to be spent. Written a series of beginner guides for data mining. You can find them at. http://www.instructables.com/id/Data-mining/ Note:  The football score capturing script works best for the preceding week or earlier in the same season. Update: Let's take what we have learned already and apply it. Showed you how to extract data to make your own web page and also showed y...

Some stories I will never tell. But, I think this one is ok: IT (Information Technology) departments have an awesome responsibility to make sure the commercial software they are in charge of does not get abused at least in terms of software piracy (illegally copied). Sometimes it can go too far. Let me say that I did work in IT for more than ten years and it is really hard for me to tell this story. Since I have been on both sides of the fence so to speak. One semester, I had to teach a class where I was unfamiliar with the software applications to be used in the class I was supposed to teach. I asked the head of the department whether I could get a copy to use at home. She said it would be alright, but just get the IT lab people to do it for me. So far so good. I went to the IT people and asked them for the software. For what ever reason, they would or could not get it for me. I asked if I could get it myself and they said no and that it was so secured that I could not get...

Or should I say is your computer's ipaddress static or dynamic. Static means it is hard coded in the system files on a system. Dynamic means you get the ipaddress for a dhcp (dynamic host configuration protocol)  server or the like and it could change at any time. We said in the last article that all computing devices (assuming they are connected to a network) have an internet telephone number or ipaddress. What I did not discuss was how you get that address. To make things more interesting your router actually has two or more ipaddresses. One is for the internet which is usually dynamic unless you have paid for a static ipaddress through your internet provider and one is for being the gateway (where to point to for accessing the internet) for your local area network is static.  To make things easier, I will only talk about ipaddressing withing a local area network for now. Your local router usually comes with a standard ipaddress for the local network. You can change it, but ...

We need a way to know what device (i.e. computer) is what and or who. That is why we need an internet telephone book. The internet is in some ways still is like a telephone network. You can key in the phone number of someone to call or you can use the phone book to look up their phone number. The internet is sort of the same, but now the directory assistance is built in so to speak. The internet uses an internet protocol address instead of a phone number, to identify which computer is which, The Google internet protocol address is: 173.194.64.106 in this case. Computer directory assistance: $ nslookup www.google.com Server:        x.x.x.1 Address:    x.x.x.1#xx Non-authoritative answer: www.google.com    canonical name = www.l.google.com. Name:    www.l.google.com Address: 173.194.64.147 Name:    www.l.google.com Address: 173.194.64.105 Name:    www.l.google.com...

Several computers for the price of one. You can not beat a deal like that. Actually you will still have only one computer but we will use the power of the system to allow it to run what is known as virtual machines or computers within a computer. Actually this has been done for a long time, but only now is the general community starting to take advantage of it. A little history first. It used to be if you wanted to use more than one operating system on your computer, you had to do what is known as dual or multi-boot. You had more than one operating system you could use, but only one at a time. Remembering when I was a tech, the college I was working for wanted to get rid of their unix server. They wanted each student to have their own  'nix system to work with. So we took a machine with already installed Microsoft product and squeezed in Linux operating system install. Linux was going to be taught to get to know Unix. When the students started up the computer for their access...

Traditionally if you wanted to use multimedia content, you would download the media and then play it with a local program. That is all fine and well, but what if you have several systems such as the ps3, xbox360, Roku, and a host of other devices. Instead of copying the files all over the place, we can use a server and keep the media all in one place. One way to serve the media is to use what is known as upnp. This protocol now comes pretty standard on most servers. Think that Roku uses something called Plex, Plex can also be installed on traditional servers last I looked. What usually happens you point your device to the upnp server and the server will list the media files for access. Pretty nifty! Don't usually have much video to store, but lately I have been downloading quite a few files. Wanted a way to take advantage of upnp. We use XBMC to view or listen to media. Xmbc will even go to the internet to allow you to view video. We also make our own videos that we wo...

Raspberry Pi to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (popular touchpad operating system) .  Talked about the Raspberry Pi (SOC or system on a chip computer) before in an earlier article. According to several news sources such as  http://www.zdnet.com/raspberry-pi-to-get-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-7000001980/ .  Although Icecream is not the latest version of Android, it is still new enough to be very viable. Hopefully Android version 4.1 will be available soon. What is really interesting is that you can already run an optimized version of Debian linux ( http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads ) on the unit. With a composite video out port, you can connect it to most portable DVD players (with composite input) or older composite monitors. That means you can have a computer for under fifty dollars.  Since you can easily strap the Raspberry Pi behind a portable dvd player or a low cost portable touch screen, it as a home made touchpad will be surely competition for all t...

  Years ago, back in the late 1980′s I taught two short stints in the state prison system for a nearby college. One summer I was to teach basic computer programming on the Commodore 64 computer for a summer semester. By today’s standards, the C=64 as it is commonly known as is an obsolete relic. Actually back then, they were on the way out also. The semester went along fairly smoothly and I was beginning to enjoy the semester. The inmates were fairly sociable and behaved well. That probably would not be so true now. As you could not get me back in there for any amount of money. Anyway, one day a student accidentally locked up the computer because the program he wrote when he ran it failed in some way. The student/inmate became very agitated and upset because he declared he had lost all his work. Of course fear tends to multiply and the whole class started in the same mode of hysteria. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and nervous. I went over to the students...