My Fix for the browser hijack that displays this error "Your system is heavily damaged by Four virus!"

On my Android S6 phone, there was a simple fix to this error

Your system is heavily damaged by Four virus!

If you see an error that resembles this.

Don't click the "repair fast now" button or the "ok" prompt.

If you are in the fist prompt. Just scroll to the top of the page. Note the URL, In my case, it was "http://us.ahateu.top/...". Then go into your browser history.


1. Click the three dots
2. Go to "History"
3. Delete all references to http://us.ahateu.top/..."
4. Then click on one of the browser history items from a few days ago to load a new page.
5. Then close your browser and restart it.

If it worked it should load the last page you opened from your browser history not the offending page with the silly prompt that you are infected with four viruses.  

or this:

  

As a background to this issue. It is caused most likely because Google Chrome is your default browser. On Android the Google Chrome browser likes to be helpful and it remembers the last page you visited so the folks that made this hijack page leverage that helpfulness they know that Chrome will try to reload the page and if they prompt you with a nasty message that tempts you to click on the OK button then they got you! Don't click it!!!

If you restart your phoned or kill the browser it when you open the browser next time it will just reopen the offending page again. 

So to reiterate. To get rid of it go to the Google Chrome browser history and delete all instances of the URL you see in the browser address bar. On my phone that was a URL called "http://us.ahateu.top/..."

IofT Idea - Can someone please create some smart duct fans

I have a Google NEST and I want to create a smarter heating system without paying THE WORLD to do it.

What I need is a few things:

1. The ability to detect temperature AND humidity.
2. The ability to move air around the house in a smart way based on the humidity and temperature in each room.

Do do this I found that the new RUMY thermostat has both temperature and humidity detection.

To do this today I can sort of do it if I use  my NEST thermostat, a www.ifttt.com account and some WEMO switches connected to some dehumidifiers.

But what I really want to do is only dehumidify rooms I want to dehumidify or give priority to. e.g. the rooms in the basement.

To do this I'd like to create some IoT devices that create flow within a home's duct work to push air around in particular ways.

Do do this I'd need two devices:

1. A IoT device blocks or restricts a return air vent
2. A IoT device that increases airflow on poorly performing ducts.

What I'm thinking is that both of these devices should slip into a duct simply by opening the duct vent cover and inserting them into the vent and putting the vent back in place. 

Then companies like GOOGLE NEST or ECOBEE Smart Thermostat could create a single IoT device that has a blocker and a fan in them and update their devices to control them. This way a home could smartly heat/cool and control the humidity in each room of a house and give priority to the rooms that need it most.

How-To: Create a Mailto: link with a subject and body text

Have you ever wondered how to make a really awesome MailTo: link that populates the subject line AND the body text with JUST ONE CLICK?

The trick is to use the "Subject" and "Body"+ Percent Encoding Reserved Characters

Specifically a newline character %0D also know as a Carriage Line or CR but you can get creative and use any of the others. The trick is to leave no white space.

Percent Encoding Reserved  Characters - Taken from Wikipedia

Here's and example:

Paste this code below into the W3 Schools Tryit Editor

FYI: I generated code text with http://hilite.me/

<a href="mailto:toexample@example.com?cc=ccexample@example.com&bcc=bccexample@example.com&subject=Subject%20Goes%20-%20Here&body=Body%20Greeting,%0D%0DPut%20second%20line%20here%0D%0D%0D%0D"%20target="_top">Send mail!</a>

If you removed all the white spaces correctly. It will generate an email like this. 

Note: I have added two "%0D%0D%0D%0D" at the end so when the person replying to the email clicks on the body text they will start two lines down. :)

Have fun playing!

Luke

Screen saver selector is grayed out Windows 7

If your company has locked out your screen saver using the Window Policy Settings you can restore your ability to change the screen by doing this.

To resolve this problem:

1. Start>Run>type Regedit >Click Ok or, press the Enter Key.
2. Now navigate to the following locations: (see first graphic)
3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop  now find out SCRNSAVE.EXE entry in the right pane and delete it.
4. HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop now find out SCRNSAVE.EXE entry in the right pane  and delete it.
5. Close the registry editor and restart the machine (Usually you only have to restart the screen saver setup screen)

If you can't access Starbucks WiFi or Greyhound Bus WiFi after upgrading to OSX 10.9.5 (Maverick's). Here's the fix.

After reinstalling OSX 10.9.5 Maverick's on my new SSD drive. Doing a fresh install (not upgrading) I then couldn't access WiFi at starbucks or on a Greyhound Bus.

On my Macbook the solution seemed to solved for Starbucks WiFi by removing any info in the Proxies section of my Network Preferences (I have yet to verify the Greyhound bus config but I suspect it was the exact same problem). I spoke to the Starbuck Support at "Allstream Customer Service at 1-866-385-2555." They said they'd pass this on to their other support tech's to verify this solution with other users. But in the meantime I'll post the solution I came up with here.

To fix the problem do this:

1. Open Network Preferences: 
   
2. Click on active connections "Advanced" settings:
   
3. Go to the "Proxies" section and uncheck all checkboxes under the "Select a protocol to configure" and remove any "Bypass Proxy Settings from these hosts & domains" on my Macbook there was two entries for "*.local, 169.254/16" as soon as I removed these I was able to connect to the "Starbucks WiFi" hotspot and the Starbuck Registration screen came up as normal and I was able to connect to the network successfully!
   

Want to know how to setup your Chromecast HDMI dongle?

Couldn't find a graphic anywhere on the google site telling me how to setup a Chromecast dongle? I was wondering if it was a USB or a HDMI device. I had to set up the Chromecast app to get this image. Now I know. It's an HDMI device just like I suspected. :)

Which world cup team are you?

Not all reviews are created equal! Damn-it!

Hey review sites like geek.com and pcmag.com. I'd like to propose that someone make cell phone reviews better and not just a little bit better, a LOT better! I think the gold standard for review sites is imaging-resource.com but alas they do not review cell phones/smart phones, just cameras. They have created a very detailed set of comparisons that is in my opinion one of the best in the industry.

What is lacking today from pretty much all phone reviews is a standardized comparison list. Most users don't consider all the features of most phones because nobody pays any attention to the details.

Most of these features are routinely ignored by manufacturers and users alike. Reviewers pay most of their attention to a few glamorous details and don't compare apples to apples even in the same reveiw one phone review might talk about the display and the other phone this topic is missed totally making the review totally useless.

And how about all the real world things that make the phone a joy to use or make it just a peice of junk with a nice name. Things like the Microphone sensitivity are key. But nobody reviews the mic. Also things like camera shutter speed and ability to take a picture in direct sunlight. Also for those of us who have compromised senses like less than 20/20 vision or subpar hearing. These details are key and mostly missed out on by the young youthful generation of testers.

There should be a the "Grandma Test" which is a test done on a selection of computer illiterate folks who give you subjective feedback on usability of these sensory tests. As Albert Einstein said. If you can't explain it to your Grandma you don't understand the subject. So I say in this context that same thing applies. Is the phone well thought out and usable in all these little details for the non techie?

Most cell phone reviews are "JUNK"!

Here's a short list of details to show you what I'm talking about.

Missed out comparisons:

1. Water Resistance (Before or after market options)
1. Waterproof vs Water resistant.
2. Realworld depth tests.
2. Rebooting (When actively running a standard set of softwares)
1. Hard Boot restart time
2. Soft Boot restart time
3. Audio Speaker Comparison (using pro audio measurement tools http://www.audiocheck.net/):
   
1. Stereo vs Mono.
2. Front facing vs Rear Facing.
3. Base reproduction.
4. Treble reproduction.
5. Max volume without distortion. 
6. Min volume without distortion. 
7. Audio reproduction ranges (0 hertz to 20,00 hertz using standard test audio sound files)
4. Microphone Sensitivity Comparison (NTi Audio)
1. Microphone recording app ease of use
1. Load speed
2. Save speed
3. Ease of use tests
2. Max recording sensitivity without distortion. 



Microphone Test Reference Chart

1. Realworld sensitivity tests: source in front of mic 1", 5", 10" and 50", source beside mike 1", 5", 10" and 50.
3. Min recording sensitivity without distortion.
1. Realworld sensitivity tests: source in front of mic 1", 5", 10" and 50", source beside mike 1", 5", 10" and 50.
4. Audio recording re-reproduction range (0 hertz to 20,00 hertz)
1. e.g. if you record a sound at 5000 hertz does it play back at 5000 hertz?
5. Wifi Connection Speed (how fast can you connect to a never before connected to hotspot)
6. Bluetooth Connection Speed (same as above but for bluetooth)?
7. Bundled Software Comparison.
1. Create standard list of "must have software"
2. Create standard list of "commonly free software"
8. Charge time from a completely flat battery
9. Actual talk time battery life (standardized talk test e.g. someone talks on phone for 4 hours and two of those hours is on the speaker phone).
10. Actual battery life
1. Under load of standard set of real world apps.
11. Camera Comparison
1. Resolution  and Distortion Tests



Resolution and Distortion Test Comparison Chart

2. Shooting into backlight.
1. Ability to focus
2. Washout stats
3. Macro Tests
1. How close can it focus
4. Normal Focus Test
1. In daylight
2. In fluorescent light
3. In tungsten light
4. At dusk light levels
5. Stary night tests. 
5. Zoom
1. Optical vs Digital
2. 1x, 2x, 3x, 10x etc
6. Wide Angle Test
1. Range of view
2. 10mm vs 70mm etc
7. Load speed from start to focus lock/taking photo (first time after reboot)
8. Reload speed from start to focus lock/taking photo (after camera has been run once)
9. Colour comparison
1. Standard photo colour reproduction tests (see http://www.imaging-resource.com/ for list of standarized tests.
12. Storage Comparison
1. Built in memory speeds (small data and big data)
1. Read 
2. Write
2. External memory speed (small data and big data)
1. Read 
2. Write

In the end it would be nice to see an agreed on list of standardized tests that all review sites could use to do their testing.

I really like how imaging-resource does a summary and a detail review. It is very well done and consistent across time. So you can compare this years reviews to last years reviews etc. They also update all their tests over time if there are mistakes. I like that.

How about it guys? Any takers?

How-To: Setup your trackpad's Secondary Click on Mac OSX Lion

How to setup access to your context menus on Mac OSX 10.9.2. In the Windows world this is known as Right Clicking but in Mac it is called "Secondary Click"

Windows 7 Weather Center Gadget

Not sure why it is so hard to  find the Windows 7 Weather Center Gadget. But after a bit of sleuthing I found it on this Russian site:

http://weathercenter.narod2.ru/

I'll have to get my russian friend Igor to validate that the site is legit. I suspect it is but I really can't tell. I've only been using it for a little while. But I like it.

You can read the back story here if you are curious about the site. Click Here

Also if you use Google Chrome you can translate the Russian site on the fly so you can  read it easily.


It seems that development on the gadget is at WeatherCenter version 2.6.2


I saved a copy of of WeatherCenter.v2.6.2 here on my google drive -->
https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B3Bk2h0O9PPNUnAtRWZBWnBmLVE/edit

If you open the options and click this link it takes you to the Russian site this makes me feel like it might be the legit site. But who  know.

Feel free to comment. I'll let you know if I find anything out that indicates that this Windows 7 Gadget is not good.

Cheers,
Luke

Outlook 2011 Mac - Can't save template emails :(

I just got a copy of Outlook 2011 for Mac. The one complaint I have with it so far is that you can't create an email template.

The "save as" option is greyed out!!! What gives!!

Come on Microsoft!!! You can afford to add this feature!!!

Luke

What I like and don't like about my Kindle DX

The Kindle DX I just bought is a cool tool!

The main things I really like about it are:

1. It's big enough to read a pdf document without resizing it. On the smaller Kindle a PDF document was just to hard to read.
2. The on demand dictionary! This feature is indispensable!
3. The keyboard. Most other ereaders don't have one and you just can't do things like post to Facebook or search for a keyword without one.

The things I don't like are:

1. No WiFi. I really didn't pay attention to the full feature set when I bought the Kindle DX. I made the assumption that the DX had WiFi and only realized it didn't once I purchased it. This omission really sucks! I really hate the fact that I have to manually load audible audio books and non Amazon content using USB. I definitely wouldn't have bought the Kindle DX if I had of realized this omission before I bought it.
2. The cost of emailing content to Kindle users living in the United States and Canada. If you transfer personal documents to your Kindle via 3G while inside the United States, the fee is $ .15 per megabyte. When traveling outside the United States, a fee of $.99 per megabyte will apply!!!! That truly sucks as a Canadian! Kindle document fees are rounded up to the next whole MB and apply to each personal document delivered via 3G to each Kindle s it basically costs you at a min of .99 cents to upload even the smallest document.
3. The third and most annoying thing is that when the kindle is turned off it still drains the battery! What the heck!??? So basically if you leave it in a bag or put in on a desk and make sure it is all turned off it still drains the battery. That's just not cool! Why can't it turn itself completely off? Amazon should really really fix that!

Luke

Interesting Phrase: I'm your huckelberry

What is the origin of the expression "I’m your Huckleberry"? What exactly does it mean?”

[A] What it means is easy enough. To be one’s huckleberry — usually as the phrase I’m your huckleberry — is to be just the right person for a given job, or a willing executor of some commission. Where it comes from needs a bit more explaining....



Huckleberry Definition:


Question From Cristlyn Randazzo: What is the origin of the expression ‘I’ll be your Huckleberry’? What exactly does it mean?


Answer from "World Wild Word": What it means is easy enough. To be one’s huckleberry — usually as the phrase I’m your huckleberry — is to be just the right person for a given job, or a willing executor of some commission. Where it comes from needs a bit more explaining.


First a bit of botanical history. When European settlers arrived in the New World, they found several plants that provided small, dark-coloured sweet berries. They reminded them of the English bilberry and similar fruits and they gave them one of the dialect terms they knew for them, hurtleberry, whose origin is unknown (though some say it has something to do with hurt, from the bruised colour of the berries; a related British dialect form iswhortleberry). Very early on — at the latest 1670 — this was corrupted tohuckleberry.


As huckleberries are small, dark and rather insignificant, in the early part of the nineteenth century the word became a synonym for something humble or minor, or a tiny amount. An example from 1832: “He was within a huckleberry of being smothered to death”. Later on it came to mean somebody inconsequential. Mark Twain borrowed some aspects of these ideas to name his famous character, Huckleberry Finn. His idea, as he told an interviewer in 1895, was to establish that he was a boy “of lower extraction or degree” than Tom Sawyer.


Also around the 1830s, we see the same idea of something small being elaborated and bombasted in the way so typical of the period to make the comparison a huckleberry to a persimmon, the persimmon being so much larger that it immediately establishes the image of something tiny against something substantial. There’s also a huckleberry over one’s persimmon, something just a little bit beyond one’s reach or abilities; an example is inDavid Crockett: His Life and Adventures by John S C Abbott, of 1874: “This was a hard business on me, for I could just barely write my own name. But to do this, and write the warrants too, was at least a huckleberry over my persimmon”.


Quite how I’m your huckleberry came out of all that with the sense of the man for the job isn’t obvious. It seems that the word came to be given as a mark of affection or comradeship to one’s partner or sidekick. There is often an identification of oneself as a willing helper or assistant about it, as here inTrue to Himself, by Edward Stratemeyer, dated 1900: “ ‘I will pay you for whatever you do for me.’ ‘Then I’m your huckleberry. Who are you and what do you want to know?’ ”. Despite the obvious associations, it doesn’t seem to derive directly from Mark Twain’s books.


Short question, long answer!
Info for the definition is found here: www.worldwildword.org

47 % Nerd, 30% Geek, 21% Dork

Take the test! Find out what you are:

Click Here to take the test:

I'm just a lowly "Joe Normal"

47 % Nerd, 30% Geek, 21% Dork

Mind Over Genes: The New Biology

Mind Over Genes: The New Biology

A clip from Bruce Liptons website: BruceLipton.com

Buy The Book "Biology of Belief"

"...This new perspective of human biology does not view the body as just a mechanical device, but rather incorporates the role of a mind and spirit. This breakthrough in biology is fundamental in all healing for it recognizes that when we change our perception or beliefs we send totally different messages to our cells and reprogram their expression. The new-biology reveals why people can have spontaneous remissions or recover from injuries deemed to be permanent disabilities.

The functional units of life are the individual cells that comprise our bodies. Though every cell is innately intelligent and can survive on its own when removed from the body, in the body, each cell foregoes its individuality and becomes a member of a multicellular community. The body really represents the cooperative effort of a community of perhaps fifty trillion single cells. By definition, a community is an organization of individuals committed to supporting a shared vision. Consequently, while every cell is a free-living entity, the body’s community accommodates the wishes and intents of its ‘central voice,’ a character we perceive as the mind and spirit.

When the mind perceives that the environment is safe and supportive, the cells are preoccupied with the growth and maintenance of the body. In stressful situations, cells forego their normal growth functions and adopt a defensive ‘protection’ posture. The body’s energy resources normally used to sustain growth are diverted to systems that provide protection during periods of stress. Simply, growth processes are restricted or suspended in a stressed system. While our systems can accommodate periods of acute (brief) stress, prolonged or chronic stress is debilitating for its energy demands interfere with the required maintenance of the body, and as a consequence, leads to dysfunction and disease."

Extreme Sky Flyer Mainia! Oh Ya! they were going fast

IMG_5382
Originally uploaded by Luke Morrison.

My sister Betony, Rob and my cousin Adriel feelin the G's.

go to my flicker picture arcive to see the rest -->

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukemorrison

Paul N. Edwards

Paul N. Edwards: "How to Give a Talk: Changing the Culture of Academic Public Speaking "

Hitch Hikers Guide Entry - Galactic Government - The Galaxy²

The Galaxy²

The major problem - one of the major problems, for there are several - one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they very rarely notice that they're not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them - who?

Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?

The Guide

Hey Dan I think this shot is just around the corner from your parents house!

20060204_IMG_014
Originally uploaded by psmithson.

Just past the A34 exit by the looks of it.

The World Clock - Time Zones - selected cities

Gota love "The World Clock" It even helps you setup meetings in different time zones.

The World Clock - Time Zones - selected cities