How To: Download All Google Docs Documents

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra
How can I backup, download, or export all of my Google Docs Documents?
(For the sake of simplicity, I am going to refer to backups and downloads as exports.)Google has made it surprisingly easy to export your entire Google Documents collection. There are two ways in which you can export your documents: All at once, or by selecting individual files. If you want to select the individual files, go ahead and select them now. Otherwise:

Click “More Actions”, and “Export”.
For selected items, remain in the “Selected Items” tab, or click the “All Items” tab to do a full export. Google Docs in itself stores data in a proprietary format, so you must select a format that documents can be saved in. Carefully review these.
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Tip: If you do not have Microsoft Word, I highly recommend downloading documents in the OpenOffice format so that you can easily recover these documents.
Remember: PDF Documents are not writable by many word processors

Google Docs can send you an email once all documents are done being zipped, just click the “Email When Ready” button.

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Why would someone want to do this?
Besides paranoia, if you did loose your Google password you would still have your documents. Also, if you had a loss of Internet connection and you either did not have Google Docs Offline enabled or Offline mode was not syncing properly, you would still have a local [possibly outdated] copy of your documents. (This happened to me once. I did not have a copy of my documents, Offline Mode was not syncing properly. I panicked for the five days that I did not have Internet in my home.)

Limitations:

  • Google can not export to OpenOffice Presenter format.
  • Maximum of 2GB can be exported (it takes effort to go over this limit)
  • Even Google’s document conversion program can loose semi-important formatting, so if the document looks funny you may want to change the export format.
    • If you just need documents readable, but not writable, PDF format is the most accurate choice for exporting.
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Free Encryption Software: TrueCrypt

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

What is the best, free encryption software?

TrueCrypt is an open-source encryption program for encrypting your entire hard drive, flash drive, partition, or file containers. TrueCrypt is expiable of running on Windows 7, Vista, and XP, Mac OSX, and Linux. System Encryption (full drive) is only available on Windows computers at this time, still, Containers can be made and encrypted under MacOSX and Linux, which is a very useful tool for documents that need to be secured.

Main Features as listed on TrueCrypt.org:

General Requirements:
Requirements have not been specified for TrueCrypt, except to say which service packs (or subversions, in Mac, kernel versions in Linux) are necessary to effectively run TrueCrypt.

A special security advisory
If you choose to encrypt your password, for extra security it is not bad to set up a BIOS password or a hard drive firmware password, but the BIOS and Hard Drive Firmware passwords MUST be different from your encrypted drive’s password, otherwise anyone with the right software can easily “pick up” yourpassword.

Why TrueCrypt?
TrueCrypt has no back-doors, and allows multiple encryption methods for especially secured systems (though, multiple encryptions would not be a necessity for a home user, most likely). The interface is easy to use, and everything is very straight-forward.

How does work? (From the user’s perspective of system encryption)
After encryption, whenever you start your computer a screen will appear directly after the BIOS have finished doing their thing asking you for a password. Enter the password, and you are done.

Worried that it will be too hard to install?
Just follow the instructions, don’t click “next, next, next, next”.)

Reasons to encrypt:
Professionals with client/patient records  much keep their information secure. Even for home users, you keep your tax records, emails, banking information, even instant messenger conversations on your computer.

If a thief walks away with your computer, you need to do all you can to first and foremost: Keep them from accessing your data. Second, make sure your computer becomes just a plastic rectangle without a password.

But, I have a password on my computer!
With a special program, anyone can change a simple Windows computer password. Even a laptop security chip can be bypassed by someone who knows what they are doing, and even more a Desktop is very easy to “get in” to.

Linux uses a very good encrypted password system, but most home folder files are not encrypted, and even if they are other system files are still accessible.

Mac passwords can be reset without a disc of any kind by booting into the Unix shell, and typing in a certain command.

BIOS passwords can be reset by removing the battery.

Hard drive firmware passwords can be read by almost any computer using certain software.

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Is it okay to leave your computer on?

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

Is it safe to leave your computer on all day, every day?

The quick answer to this is: “Yes, it is safe to leave your desktop computer on all day,”
Notice the comma? Thinking about saying “Oh, got it.” and moving on to another page in the Internet? Wait just one minute! (An answer for laptops is further down as well)

Side Note: Some experts even argue that leaving your computer on is better for the computer, as you do not have to have a surge of power for the initial startup… spinning up the drives, fans, going through the technical boot sequences…

Desktops

If you plan to start leaving your computer on, consider these very important things:

First, a computer has fans inside of it. These fans constantly run, and speed up as the computer warms up. The biggest problem with leaving your computer running is the additional dust that you will collect, after all it is just going to keep sucking in the air, collecting much on the way.

Click here for more information about cleaning your computer and it’s components.

Second, be sure your monitor still shuts off after a reasonable period of time of inactivity. Older CRT (big TV-like) and plasma monitors will get “burn in” where an image is left on the screen after you clear the screen. For this reason, not only should you have a screensaver, but turning your monitor off will make the monitor itself last longer. Also, your monitor has a pretty good chance of using more energy then your computer itself.

Laptops

Laptops have a similar problem: Dust. But, here is another very commonly forgotten issue: Your laptop does not ventilate itself in the same way as your desktop. If you plan to leave your laptop on at all times, be sure it is on a flat surface. Also, laptop screens have this very strange habit of collecting dust, close the lid to reserve the lamp life of the backlight and to keep dust off.

Click here for laptop cleaning instructions

Energy Benefits

Ah, for those of you people concerned with saving people money:
Two newer computers, even three, inside your home will not make much difference at all in your power bill. Older computers (say, 2003 and before?) will use a considerable amount more because they do not have the power reservation technology included in modern PC’s.

If you are a large business with a few hundred computers, turning them off or having them go to sleep at night would be beneficial. Issuing a remote shutdown command (talk to your IT people) automatically at night on client computers when all employees are gone is an effective way of saving power. Then again, so is turning off the lights…

My little diddle:
Quite frankly, I live in an area with hydro-electric power, and I am not saving any animals by turning my computer off at night, our power is generated no matter what, and turning one computer off is not going to rescue the life of one fish. Turbines don’t really “slow down”, and we just over-generate power and don’t use what we don’t use. If you live in an area that does not use a green-friendly power source, you may feel that you have more obligation to put your computers into sleep mode at night. Ultimately, I can not make that decision for you (unless you are that sad and blindly follow all advice on the fallible Internet).

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Can't Beat Free: Microsoft Security Essentials for Antivirus

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

In 2009, Microsoft released it’s own free antivirus program. This is not the first time they have released an antivirus program, you may remember Windows Live One Care, a low-rate antivirus service. Questions arise about how good this free program really is, is it worth your time?

Interested in Security Essentials? Download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

It’s So Easy! (and all that 1, 2, 3 jazz)
In fact, you install it, update it, and it’s running. Though, it won’t leave “Orange” status (medium security risk) until you do at least a quick-scan. I now install Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on my client’s computer for the following reasons:
1. There are no license keys to bounce around, and it will not expire
2. It really is easy to use. Everything the average computer user needs is on the main screen… scan now, update… scan some more.
3. It sets up automatic scanning by itself (default is a quick scan at 1AM every morning)

The Technicle Technical Stuff in Testing
According to Av-test.org:

“We continued testing the detection rates of Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows XP. For this, we used our set of 545,034 current malware samples, including viruses, worms, backdoors, bots and trojan horses. MSSE was able to detect 536,535 samples what’s a very good detection score of 98.44 per cent.

In case of the ad-/spyware testset, MSSE detected 12,935 out of 14,222 samples what’s a detection score of 90.95 per cent. We found no false positives during our scan of 600,000 known clean files from Windows, Office and other common applications (as the majority of these files are from Microsoft, everything else would be a big surprise.” – Av-test.org

Unfortunately, the “Bad Behaviors” test did not do so well. Programs instructed to do virus-like things were not detected in any of the tests. Considering how many other free services do not even offer this type of detection, I don’t think it’s a major worry.

It’s a monopoly!
Based on my opinions
Microsoft will probably never start releasing free antivirus pre-installed in their operating systems. Nor do I believe that Microsoft will ever make a cooperate-network version of their antivirus, or a server edition. Although this would make things easier, one can imagine the monopoly issues attach to this type of concern. Much as I would rather know that a major majority of PC’s are running antivirus, further preventing massive spread, I like knowing that there are competitors still existing.

The Microsoft Advantage
Microsoft has a certain advantage with making their own antivirus program: They made Windows. And as such, I am sure that their program will soon offer advantages that directly implement into the operating system itself, speeding up detection rates and making it overall better.

Edit: Oh noes! A typo in my posts tile!
Original created: Feb 22, 2010 at 1:53PM. This edit Feb 28, 6:17PM.
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NPR's Science Friday: Lighting Up Leaves

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

Leaves on many plants are more amazing and much more complex then they look when holding them up close. Two physicists from Rockefeller University, Marcelo Magnasco and Eleni Katifori explore the complex maze-like layout of many leaf’s’ “veins”, which carry water and nutrients throughout the plant. See the original article and video from Science Friday’s “Video Pick of the Week”.

From NPR:
“Leaves have an intricate web of veins that transport nutrients and water and provide structural support. But what determines the pattern of venation? Physicists Marcelo Magnasco and Eleni Katifori, of The Rockefeller University, investigated this question using sophisticated algorithms and a little glow-in-the-dark dye. images courtesy of Eleni Katifori and Marcelo Magnasco. music by SYNTHAR. shot and produced by flora lichtman”
http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10277

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Google Buzz as The Next Big Thing?

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

Google Buzz could very well be the next big thing, or the next, and failed, Windows Live Space…

Variety of flavours for sharing
The amount of tools which could be used with Buzz, which are more than obviously targeted for marketing, surprised me. Google had a list of all the blog

Google automatically dug up a few things through information that I have [apparently willingly] supplied to them at some point in time. My chat status, Picasa account, and my Google Reader shared items are a given, but my old blog, my Youtube account, my blogger account, both aliases of my website… these were things I didn’t expect Google to say: “Oh, and you might want to add…”

This post is relatively special, so I am going to include photos!
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By zylstra555 at 2010-02-13
I never liked the way Google stretched my picture
By this, I mean that I never really liked any attempt at past creations of social networking by Google, from Groups to Web Tools (for online community development). Right idea, wrong approach? My hopes are that Google may come up with a service that I find easy enough to use, and with enough features to make it worth my while — let us move past this whole idea of being able to basically share the equivalent of emails publicly so that other people can make dumb comments about something you said — make this a useful utility that I will use on a daily basis that will help me to accomplish tasks.

I really hate Twitter
I hate Twitter so much, I only use it as a marketing tool to get more link backs to my website. I don’t even touch the thing, and it’s API sucks so much that it almost causes Apache to crash due to scripting problems each time I let my blog post to my Twitter account for me. Google Buzz almost seems like it may be the next thing in Micro Blogging.

Down to the basics, so far
What features does Google Buzz have?

I was surprised that they released Buzz in such an early stage of its’ development. Currently, it allows you to make public comments. It’s tied to your Picasa account, so I guess it’s already got some form of photosharing. It’s tied into your blogs, so it’s got that whole thing covered. I think Google is just trying to tie its’ features together into one big idea, but not one big service.

When I log into Gmail and click Buzz, I see this:
A screen reminding me that I can include my public tweets, Picasa photo albums, and Flickr photos.

Below that, it shows me that there are three people following me, provides a link to find people, and below that it has my last “Tweet” from my blog, a comment from a friend of mine, a reply to that comment, an excerpt (made by my blog software) of an article… you get the idea.
It’s nothing unusual. I think this is a strategy to prevent people from getting overwhelmed by this “brand new” thing in their email, and that features will be added overtime, much like other social networking websites.

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Social Networking: A Stalkers Tool

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

What do I use social networking for?
Finding people. It’s actually one of my more interesting hobbies. I just make an acquaintance with a person, and learn three facts about their: Their first and last name, and the area that they live in. Talk to them more, find out what schools they attended — where they may go to church.

I’m gonna get you.
MySpace is one of the best websites when it comes to really marking people down, you can narrow down people to many different aspects: The schools they attended, their religion, gender (of course), whether they smoke, ethnicity, “body type”, children… even height.

So What?
“So what?”, you say?
Seems I know where you get your coffee every day around 3PM. Also seems like I know where you hang out all the time, juding by your photos, and what people you are most often with. I know what your new car looks like, where you work, and where to find you about 80% of the time.

Employer’s Advantage
It’s like a background check. What jobs have they had in the past? Are their friends talking about criminal activity? Did they make a little post describing how they got a traffic ticket, and how much they hate the police, and how it “just sucks that those mother [truckers] are out to get you”?

What’s amazing, especially when it comes to teenagers, is how many people get themselves in trouble for bragging about something [stupid] they did. They want people to know, and they put it out in the public. Even more, teenagers that add sports coaches, teachers, and relatives are blindly giving these people direct insight into their life.
The perfect example of this:
In the month of January, a certain person in a certain town which I may certainly live in said something about a certain incident involving a certain drug being done at a certain place, at a certain time, on a social networking website. Somehow (my word pattern is important here), a certain educator stumbled upon a certain entry on this certain person’s page, or wall, or comment box, or whatever it may be. Obligated to report it, it caused a bit of a snafu and increased gossip and judging in the community.

It’s not just MySpace.
I titled this article “Social Networking: A Stalkers Tool” for a reason. This applies to Facebook, Twitter, MyYearBook, BookFace, SpaceMy, KnowEveryLittleThingAboutMe, and whatever else they can come up with. Even forums, and comment fields on blog systems and even YouTube videos result in these types of concerns with privacy. I’m not your worst enemy, the creepy guy that looks at you while you’re looking away is, and what’s worse: He has just as much access to this information as you or I do.

An even more key enemy:
Marketing. Especially with FaceBook, the information that you supply often gets sold to statistical data companies and often create ads targeted directly towards you. Social Networking media make a lot of money off knowing you. FaceBook had a very smart move in this direction: They got a whole bunch of users relying on their website, and made sure that people became familiar with them. Then, they changed their privacy policy to allow them to sell your information, as raw statistics.

So what do they do with all of this data?
Develop it, and sell it to ad companies. It’s hard to find good details about what and how they sell this kind of information, since most websites that use social networking to keep their users “in touch” with them don’t want you to fear using these websites!
One example, however, might be: Find out how many conservative women of an 18-34 year old age group attend a certain college, or what current Internet-Savvy age groups are smoking and where is drinking especially heavy. Ads can then be tailored to this kind of information.

You, and your friends, and your photos, and your videos belong to these companies that you upload your information to.

And now: The one major marketing tool we use on our website:
What did you think of this article? Do you have a story to share, an employer who “found out” about something on social networking, a breakup, or just a whole freakout by people who interpreted something wrong? Please use the comment form below to tell us about it!
How is this marketing? We know what pages users open, but we don’t know users are listening. Comments get you interacting, not only that, but you can subscribe to comments which get you coming back to our website… then, you see the “related posts” links start to fill up and find something interesting, and you click it! We got you to look at another page.

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Amtrak Ticket Pricing

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

How does Amtrak ticket pricing work?
Tickets on Amtrak for a short distance trip (100 miles, 2.9 hours) can vary a lot, from $19 to $45.
I found out how this works a while ago, and it made the pricing make sense.

Amtrak sells their tickets in groups, a former employee described it like buckets: The buckets have a certain amount of tickets in them depending on how many people that particular train can hold. Amtrak sells the tickets cheap at first, and as the train gets full, the tickets will cost more and more. Once all the $19 tickets are gone, it moves to $25, and $29, and $35 and finally up to $45 until it is full.
This is Amtrak’s way of preventing the trains from getting too full.

Did we help you figure this out? Or do you know something else about Amtrak? Or want to know another thing about whatever? Let us know! Comment using the field below.

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Amtrak: The Way to Travel?

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

What is it like to travel by Amtrak?

I have been taking the train “every so often” since December of 2008, when I found myself needing to get over the pass but did not want to deal with the Winter conditions over Stevens. So, from my perspective, I am talking about the 8 Empire Builder and the 7 Empire Builder.

The blunt, written impression: It’s GREAT! There’s more leg space that what I have between the couch and the coffee table!

The great:

  • Leg room. Large seats. Typically, on the routes I take, you don’t have to sit next to anyone unless it’s a holiday and things are full.Now, I can deal with sitting next to people, but sometimes it’s nice to sit by yourself. Who wants to risk sitting next to the smelly guy who’s shower broke last week?
  • The price. Amtrak prices for going from Everett to Wenatchee on a non-full train are $19. This, of course, is not a fixed price. The more people that buy tickets, the higher the price gets. Order in advanced and you’ll be fine. Pricing goes to $25-45, but it’s all dependant on how many people are on the train. Once again, it costs more to get on when there are more people (not the other way around).
  • The employees. All of them are incredibly nice, they typically aren’t uptight and they won’t try to rush you onto the train into a seat. Also, for people with disabilities they provide very kind, patient assistance (this bit came from my mother).
  • Quiet. The train is quiet, and you are expected to keep it that way too. Typically, there are many people sleeping on the train. Besides the inside, you can just barely hear the [relaxing] clicking of the tracks beneath you.
  • Bathrooms. Clean. (What else can you expect?)
  • Large windows. You can really see the scenery outside, who needs a GameBoy or DVD player if you’ve got scenery?

The not-so-great:
I feel a need to make the point that: There are so few things wrong with Amtrak, and the things that can be disliked have so little magnitude that you really shouldn’t care.

  • The seats are a little cardboard-like, but not horribly uncomfortable. It sure beats the bus, though.
  • Ticketing. To have it sent in the mail is $15, they don’t have a regular snail-mail option. If you live in an area that does not have a service station, or a kiosk to pick your ticket up from, you must do over-the-phone registration.
  • Julie, the automated computer system for phone registrations, was great until about October of 2009. They made it more complicated and a pain. Try and talk to a representative instead of the computer.

That’s about it. I love Amtrak, and have met so many people who have never taken the train before. Try it, I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

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GTA: San Andreas on Linux

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Jesse Zylstra

How can I play Grant Theft Auto: San n on Linux?

Some people have reported that the installer works just fine under Linux without any additional packages, however I suggest using PlayOnLinux to install this game. PlayOnLinux (PoL) can typically be installed via. the Package Manager.

Use PoL to install the game.
In PoL, press the “Install” button, and search for “Grand Theft Auto”… click “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, and press Apply. Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed in installing the game. You will be prompted for the amount of video memory that your computer has, you should know this number before installing the game.
Don’t bother installing a patch.

An error message will be displayed at the end of the installation explaining that the game has copy protection which, sadly, prevents it from working under Linux. You now need to replace the original game file with a patched one so that the game will start up successfully.

No-CD Patch for the game:
Click here to visit GameCopyWorld’s page *containing a download of a fixed version of the game’s executable file.
*PLEASE NOTE: GameCopyWorld contains racy ads with scantily clad women. If the boss is behind you, please be advised to wait.
On that page, locate the entry titled: “GTA: San Andreas v1.0 [ENGLISH] No-CD/Fixed EXE”, and click the floppy disk icon next to it. This entry should be the last one on the page.

A note about CD Patches: These sorts of patches are not really “illegal”, there isn’t really anything to technically make them illegal. You purchased the game, right? You aren’t redistributing it, are you? And certainly, you aren’t hurting someone by doing this, are you? Concerns about viruses with these sorts of patches are valid. The patch above has been checked for viruses and is clean.

Extract the archive that you just downloaded, put the contents on the desktop or in some sort of downloads folder for now. In a separate window, navigate to your home folder, press CTRL+H to un-hide all system items, and type:   .play   (this should highlight .playonlinux, if it does not, search for .playonlinux manually).

Navigate to the WinePrefix folder > GTASA > drive_c > Program Files > Rockstar Games > GTA San Andreas.
Inside this folder, you will see a file called gta_sa.exe. Back up this file somehow, in case the one you downloaded earlier does not work. You need to move the file to a different folder or rename it, it can not stay.

Now, go back to the archive you extracted and copy that file to the GTA San Andreas folder where the old gta_sa.exe used to be.

The NoCD Patch has been installed.

Other problems in the game:
Video Issues

This issue will occur on almost every system, no matter the graphics available. enter PlayOnLinux, click “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and press “Configure This Application”. Select “Forward”, and then “Configure WINE” and press “forward” again. The WINE Configuration window should now open, go to the Graphics tab. Uncheck “Allow Pixel Shaders” and set”Vertex Shader Support” to “None”

Sound Issues

If the sound is glitchy and stops working, enter PlayOnLinux, click “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and press “Configure This Application”. Select “Forward”, and then “Configure WINE” and press “forward” again. The WINE Configuration window should now open, press the Audio tab and uncheck “ALSA Driver” and instead, check “OSS Driver”.

Disclaimer: I am not necessarily an expert on this sort of topic (though, I might be and I could be lieing about it). I am not responsible for your own actions which could potentially destroy your own data, nor am I responsible for causing you to [somehow] break the law by advice I provide, or breaking terms of service to a third-party company. Base line: Don’t blame me.

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