TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Spoon.net allows you to run many desktop applications from the cloud.  So if you are on the go  you can go to Spoon and use your business apps or even some games.  Spoon requires a 3.7 mb plugin to use and of course an account to use.  (Thanks Richie C.)

Make Use Of has a good download for Facebook Privacy.  (Thanks for the tip Mickey)

When installing any device such as home routers and printers, you should always password protect these devices.  During our studies in Network Security in the past, we studied perimeter security and how it was at the firewall.  Today because of wireless, perimeters are extended well beyond most property lines.   What does that mean?  Someone can drive by and gain access or go across the internet if a public ip address is given to the printer.  With simple Google searches anyone can find these printers.  No, we aren’t going to give you the answer on how to Google these unsecure printers but you do need to secure your printer(s) if they are unsecure.  (During the setup, set a login other than the default for any device you put on your network).   There is code on the web to gain access to your network and computers through some of the printers.   Script Kiddies and hackers that can get access can connect to the printer and print hundreds of test pages or change settings just to be malicious.

Note: Mobile computing also extends your perimeters globally…security is one of the most important areas that all IT personnel and employees need to be trained in.

Want to control your computer with your Droid?  Here’s an app that allows you to do just that… Gmote.

Many times I have met people who have almost filled their C drive with a ton of programs.  I personally prefer purchasing a new hard drive and cloning it to gain space.  However, it often gets risky or you don’t have time to do this.  Have you ever cleaned your hard drive and wanted more space?   One of the things that takes so much space is your programs.   By default programs go to the program files folder and often take a lot of room after you install several programs.

One thing you can do is simply put in a second drive and copy the programs over.  Well, it doesn’t work exactly like that.  Steam Mover allows you to move programs off of your main drive and load them on a secondary drive.  Putting in a second drive for storage is easy.  Pretty much you open your computer (when off of course).  Insert the drive.  Plug in the SATA cable (making sure the controller is on in the BIOS).  Boot into Windows.  Right Click my computer, go to Manage.  Click on Disk Management and activate and format the new drive.  Now Steam Mover seems to work with all programs I tried it on.    The <2 mb file can be downloaded here. After downloading, select the programs you want to move and they will move to the D: drive (or whatever drive you have).   This now frees up space on your drive and your computer will speed up.  Be sure to defrag afterward.

This is a great alternate solution for freeing space.  While there is no guarantee by the author of the program, it is a solution that is long overdue. (Windows 7 and Vista Only)

With all of the tablet computers that are coming out, we are managing to fit a lot of these in our budget. We have received the iPad and have found it to be very useful, smooth and a nice piece of equipment for business.   With iPads being version 1.0, we will see a huge change (cameras and ports) in version 2.

A  little tablet that has come on the market is the Augen 78 tablet.  This little 7″ tablet comes either in 400 or 800 mhz.  We got our hands on the 800 mhz model.  Although we have read some reviews on this tiny tablet, we have tested it for over a week now (Retail $160) and have had no problems.  With Android 2.1 on this internet tablet, it is a good tablet for the money.  Although it has only 2 GB on board, it has a microSD card that allows for expanded storage.  With WiFi that is super easy to configure, the tablet is not blazing fast by any means.  The little 800mhz processor was able to show picture slideshows with no problem and yes, we could even watch a movie.  Also, surprisingly the internet is good and fairly responsive when connected to broadband with the onboard browser.  I was also able to connect to the wife’s laptop (a shared folder) to view files.   The touch screen is ok but needs a little extra pressure. There is a slight delay between screens and with animations.   With only Android 2.1, a small processor and 256 mb of memory, there are some limits but some people are rooting these little tablets to increase performance.

So how do we rate it?  There is several ways to rate a product.  Compared to high end tablets, the tablet of course doesn’t compare.   If you need to surf the web and are on a budget, perfect.  If you love gadgets, it is a great experimental tablet.

Specs~

Product Features

•800×480 color TFT touch panel screen
• CPU: 800 Mhz
• Ram: DDR2 256mb
• Internal Memory: 2GB
• Expansion Slots: SD/MMC card slot up to 16GB
• Wi-Fi Connectivity with Full Web Browsing Capability
• Supports Ebook Formats: Text, PDF, E-PUB, HTML
• Supports Media Formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC
• Supports most popular other E-Book formats
• Picture Viewer in JPEG, BMP
• Video Player
• Rechargeable Lithium Battery
• Carrying case included

Accessories Included
• Leather Carrying Case
• USB Cable (for data transfers only)
• UL Certified AC Adapter

Archos Link 10 inch tablets Demo

Specs

Many people on the internet (the Linux crew) believe that Linux doesn’t need defragging.  While this is somewhat true if you compare it to Windows, it still needs to be defragged.  As I searched the web, I tried to stay out of forums and look for the developers.  What I found was they agreed that it does need to be defragged for performance.

It appears this is a common myth (not having to defrag).   As a whole Linux files systems try to avoid fragmentation of the inode tables.  But data itself becomes and is fragmented.  This means that the data gets spread across the disk causing the hard drive to work harder as data is copied and deleted. (1)

So how do you check if you need to be defragmented?

The partition you check must be unmounted.
These commands and methods are different in many versions of Linux (Gnome, Ubuntu, etc.)

In terminal, type :
fsck -nvf /dev/hda1        (substitute the /dev/withyourdrive)

Before
128577 inodes used (25.78%)
89361 non-contiguous files (69.3%)
0 non-contiguous directories (0.0%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
602404 blocks used (30.21%)
0 bad blocks
1 large file

87066 regular files
14675 directories
68 character device files
26 block device files
0 fifos
4 links
26758 symbolic links (20948 fast symbolic links)
34 sockets
——–
128631 files
After defragging with Shake
In Ubuntu, you can add Shake
You can download Shake .deb files:

• shake-fs_0.99_amd64.deb
• shake-fs_0.99_i386.deb
  After – Was it faster?  Yes….
  
  

This tiny freeware program can be used to see what data is traveling across your network.   With NADetector, you can see which interface or computer is sending data.  Link

Many people get megabits and megabytes confused.  Typically internet service provides provide download speeds that are listed as Mbps (Megabits).  So how fast are the speeds?

ISP Speeds

• 1 megabit is about .125 megabytes per second
• 3 megabits is roughly .375 megabytes per second
• 6 megabits is .75 megabytes per second
• 10 is 1.250 megabytes per second
• 20 is 2.5 megabytes per second

Time to download 1 Gigabyte of data theoretically = 6.82 minutes  (realistically >15+ minutes)

LAN

• 100 megabit network is 12.5 megabytes per second
• 1000 megabit network (1Gbps) is roughly 125 megabytes per second

Wireless

• 802.11b  11 megabit connection is 1.375 megabytes per second connection
• 802.11g  54 megabit connection is 6.75 megabytes per second connection
• 802.11n  540 megabit rated (100-300+ is typical)  theoretically - 67.5 megabytes

3G Networks

• 3G = 3.1 megabits or .3875 megabytes per second

So my speed is above?  Well, nope.  Throughput is roughly 66% of the speed. (Average rate of successful packet delivery.)

Many software programs today have installers that you download.   AVG, an excellent antivirus program can be downloaded here (full install)-

Download AVG 2011 (32-bit)

Download AVG 2011 (64-bit)

Want to calculate Fresnal zones and Wireless performance?  Use the calculators found over at Zytrax.

You can tell everyone that an iPad is an overgrown iPod (without a camera) and to wait for Android based tablets or version 2 of the iPad.   One of the number one questions I am asked today is how to run Windows on their iPad.  There is a quick and easy way to do this.  Actually their are multiple ways.  Here’s a start on getting connected and running your Windows apps remotely.

Use VNC.  Yes, the Apple store (apps) has VNC for free.  Download it to your device.  Next, download VNC (Ultra) to your computer.  When walking through the setup, put in a complex password.   Note the IP address of your computer.

On your Apple device run the VNC application and put in the IP address along with the password.  Connect and enter your password. (Assuming you are on the same network)  ~ now squint.

Note:  If you want to be on the road and access your computer, you can use Logmein or you can use port forwarding on your home router.

We just featured NitroReader and many of the staff members asked if we had a solution for merging pdf documents or if there was a way to extract part of a pdf into a new document.  With PDF Rider, you can merge, extract and more.

We recently featured Seagate’s Momentus XT drive which is a hybrid technology made with solid state and traditional parts.   Several students in class asked about the life of Solid State Drives (SSD) and one of the them stumbled across SSD Life.  SSD Life tests your solid state drives and reports the health of the drive.

Reading Rick and Tech Paul’s stories of how they got started with computers is a little slice of history that I have lived through.  I really do enjoy hearing how computers evolved and how other IT people started in their field.   These two bloggers along with other bloggers and their talents have became an asset to the training of future IT professionals.  Being a teacher for higher ed, working with law enforcement, government agencies, private industries, non-profits and the general public; I can’t take in enough information and often these excellent bloggers summarize news stories, review software, hardware and have the keen foresight to predict the ever changing technology that comes about on a daily basis in this field.

It truly is absolutely amazing at how we use computers today.   Reading their stories, I truly respect the years (decades) of experience they have.  When I look back at my own career, it started out in the military which later evolved into truly growing up with computers from the old 8088 and 8086 computers, Unix, Linux, DOS and the entire evolution of Windows.  (Not to mention OS2/Warp and others).  Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything.   Often students may bore of how we (the old guys) started and the stories we tell.   But you know, I not only look at my own career – I look at Rick, Tech Paul, my mentor Jerry along with the hundreds of other old guys who ‘grew’ up in this industry and think of how we have talents from the beginning of computers that we have to pass along. The toughest job in IT is to pass along the stories and to grasp the concept of new technology.  The ‘new’ guys in IT will have to learn old technology and new technology.  These ‘new’ guys will have to continue to learn or they will ‘wash’ out of IT.  More and more will be expected from employers as technology continues to evolve.

The new stories that are coming forth in my world of IT are from the ‘new’ guys in IT.  I am truly blessed by looking at the hundreds of IT professionals(former students) who come back to me and tell their stories from some of the world’s largest logistic companies, medical, government, government contractors, industrial and other entities.   Amazingly as these former students (alumni) tell their stories, the current students look at them as though they are the old guys.  

In reality, when you select IT as a career, you don’t just learn the new technology, you have to learn the ‘old’ technology.   Technology continues to grow and there is no stopping it.  Listen to the ‘old’ guys and ask as many questions as you can.

For a comprehensive list of Technology Bloggers, visit Rick’s Bookmark4techs

*Every year the curriculum in Information Technology will become more complex.  Students today should be evaluated with hands-on, exams, certifications, internships and externships in order to be proficient in IT.  Individual institutions will have to purchase new equipment annually in order to keep up with current technology.  To feed employers, these students will have to be available for employment in less than two years with a minimum contact hours of around 2000 hours of labs and lecture.  In today’s world, the new guys will be old guys quick…

Sophos Free Anti-Virus for Mac.

We are repairing more and more Macs that have viruses.  Here’s some protection for your computer.

Interesting ….  Link

ViewSonic Unveils Android Tablets — Android Tablet PCs — InformationWeek

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Recruiters provide an invaluable service for clients needing IT personnel.   We work with several recruiters that offer very competitive wages and benefits along with options to go full-time within a probationary period of 60-90 days.  Working with recruiters we recently blogged for, you can see their salaries on their site which are very fair and other recruiters in Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama have also been very fair.

Interestingly enough, some recruiters call and offer help desk personnel jobs at just above minimum wage by a dollar or two.   For cost of living, we like using bankrate’s Cost of Living Comparison calculator that offers city to city comparison and use the PayScale Salary Calculator to see what the average hourly wage is for the individual area of expertise.

If you are new to IT, expect the low end of PayScale’s Salary Calculator with the minimum amount of education, experience and certifications if not slightly below the minimum amount shown.

Here’s a link to the calculator embedded on our site. (Payscale’s official site is here)

So what is the average for Nashville and helpdesk?