Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Author: ryan

  • Tremors, emojis, and more – This Geek in Review for Jan 24, 2020

    Tremors, emojis, and more – This Geek in Review for Jan 24, 2020

    I didn’t get a chance to see it in the theaters, but I did watch it a lot on VHS. This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tremors. If you’ve never seen it, then as soon as you’re done reading this, go watch it. Tremors is currently available on Netflix. I should know, we watched it last Sunday night.

    Some people think I obsess about weird things, but I never thought about examining the physicality of whether the scissors emoji would actually work or not.

    What better way to kill time in an airport then playing videogames on one of the airport monitors.

    Popular tractors for sale are the newest tractors, but tractors that are 40 years old. Farmers are used to being able to repair their equipment, but the big tractor companies such as John Deere are making that increasingly difficult. Most repairs and modifications require a licensed mechanic at $150 per hour.

    Speed running is the act of playing through a video game as fast as possible. These usually don’t require much physical exertion, that is, until Nintendo released their Fitness Ring game for the switch. There are now people pushing themselves for over 24 hours at an attempt to finish the game as quickly as possible.

    I didn’t get to play with model rockets much when I was growing up, but I still new the name Estes. Model rocket pioneer, Vern Estes, celebrates his 90th birthday.

    I’m always on the look out for a good, monospaced programming font, and JetBrains Mono is my current favorite.

    We have to wait for the next season of the Mandalorian, but the internet will provide Mandalorian content in the mean time:

  • Working on my FREd Talk for #OETC20

    Working on my FREd Talk for #OETC20

    Come see me take the stage on February 11th at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference!

    The Art of Why
    2:15 PM – 3:15 PM
    A211

    If you’re not there I’m going to wonder why.

  • There is nothing wrong with Post-Its (well, except for one thing)

    There is nothing wrong with Post-Its (well, except for one thing)

    Do you need to remember the key sequence to do a task? Put it on a Post-It. Almost every program you use on your computer, whether it be a desktop or laptop, has keyboard shortcuts. These allow you to quickly accomplish a task, without taking your hands off of the keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts usually comprise a modifier key and another key. The most common modifier keys comprise the Shift, Control, and Alt key. On a Mac, the Command key (the one beside the keyboard that has what looks like a pretzel on it) replaces the Control key and the Option key replaces the Alt key. A modifier key is one that does nothing on its own. Holding or pressing the control key does nothing by itself. To use a shortcut, you hold down the modifier key and then press the shortcut key.

    You may already be using some shortcuts (C is the Control key, or the Command key on a Mac):

    • C-c – Copying selected text to the clipboard
    • C-x – Cut selected text to the clipboard
    • C-v – Paste the clipboard contents into the current application

    Here are some for the operating system:

    • C-tab – Switch between Applications

    For a browser:

    • C-l – Jump to the URL field, highlight the content. You can then start typing a new address
    • C-t – Create a new tab
    • C-PgUp/C-PgDown – Switch between tabs

    To find out more shortcuts, look at the help for the application. To help you remember the shortcuts, feel free to write the shortcuts on to post-its. Just don’t write your passwords down!

  • Y2K20 problem, Apple Computer, Airwolf and more – This Geek in Review for January 17, 2020

    Y2K20 problem, Apple Computer, Airwolf and more – This Geek in Review for January 17, 2020

    For those that can remember, January 1st, 2000 was the year that was going to crash computers, airplanes, and start World War III. The problem was that a lot of programs assumed 19 as the first two digits of the year. By using this assumption, programmers could save two bytes. Nowadays, two bytes is a rounding error with storage and memory, but in the 70s and 80s, every byte counted. To correct the issue, the good programmers switched the storage to 4 bytes, allowing the entire year to be stored. Unfortunately, there were some programmers that decided they had a better fix. Their fix was to assume that years 21-99 were in the 20th century, and 00-20 were in the 21st. The problem is that these programs are still running, and will think that next year is 1921.

    In 2000, Steve Jobs had only been back to Apple for 2 years and had already struck gold with the iMac. His next act was OS X, which he demoed 20 years ago. OS X is now called macOS, and every Mac, iPhone, and iPad uses it as their operating system.

    Speaking of the Mac at Apple, there is only one remaining usage of the word “Macintosh”.

    Here is the office setup that I need.

    The 80s were all about vehicles. Whether it was the General Lee, Kitt, the F15 in Top Gun, the top secret jet in Firefox, or the A-Team’s van, a lot of TV shows and movies had some cool vehicle. Not to be outdone, there was also helicopters. In a fight, who would win, Airwolf or Blue Thunder?

    The Sega Megadrive (Genesis for the US) can be used to create a pretty cool synthesizer:

    Did you know that there are secret codes that you can use to find movies and movies and TV Shows on Netflix?

    Do you have a lot of CDs you’d like to rip? And, do you have some Lego bricks? Maybe they could help you shuffle through the disks:

  • I don’t know the meaning of the word *overkill*

    I don’t know the meaning of the word *overkill*

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  • Shorten Amazon and eBay URLs with these two Chrome extensions

    Shorten Amazon and eBay URLs with these two Chrome extensions

    I spend too much time on Amazon and eBay, looking for stuff I don’t need but want. And, eventually, I want to share my finds with everyone. The problem is that the urls are longer than the bathroom line at a Journey concert. That’s where two handy extensions for Chrome come in to play.

    You can use any Bitly url shortener with Amazon, but the official Bitly extension wants you to create an account, but who needs another account. The Amazon URL Shortner for Chrome does one thing, and one thing well. When on an Amazon page, clicking the extension in the toolbar will create a shortened amzn.to link to the product. And, when on regular sites, it will create a bit.ly link, so win-win!

    You could use the previous extension with eBay, but the Short Item URL for eBay will give you a ebay.com/itm/ link. This is nicer for sharing because people know exactly what they are going to get when they click on it.

    Do you still use any url shorteners?

  • This week I learned that on iPhones without a button you can switch apps by swiping left/right on the illuminated bar at the bottom. Yet another reason not to force quick your apps!

    This week I learned that on iPhones without a button you can switch apps by swiping left/right on the illuminated bar at the bottom.

    Yet another reason not to force quick your apps!

  • Takes me back to my Top 20 days!

    Takes me back to my Top 20 days!

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  • Piracy, retro, flying cars, and more – This Geek in Review for Jan. 10, 2020

    Piracy, retro, flying cars, and more – This Geek in Review for Jan. 10, 2020

    For a blissful few years, the streaming shows meant subscribing to Netflix. Some would also use Amazon Video, because, why not? They were already paying for it with Amazon Prime. But then a lot of the media companies decided that they also need to get into the streaming game for those sweet, sweet subscription fees. So now we have Hulu, Disney+, AppleTV+, and HBO Now. This doesn’t include the “TV” services such as Sling and YoutubeTV. And coming soon is NBC’s horribly named Peacock (which, if they want to do it right, they need to get Katy Perry onboard for the song). All of these services are doing one thing, making piracy great again.

    I’m a big retro fan, which makes the list of 52 Fun Retro Facts I learned in 2019 even better.

    We didn’t get our flying cars by 2015, but that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine what they may have looked like.

    Over the years I’ve kept bookmarks with various services. One of the first services I used was Del.icio.us. This past week I found this gem from 2005, the Xbox 360 Has Nothing On Atari 2600.

    One of my favorite moments in the Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd was the robot at the end, and I’m not the only one who likes practical effects. In some ways, the ’93 Jurassic Park looks better than the more recent movies due to the mixing of practical and CGI effects.

    Have you ever wondered what the consoles do in the Apollo Space center? Now you do.

  • A bright star in the Star Wars universe

    A bright star in the Star Wars universe

    Just a couple of storm troopers working for what’s left of the Empire

    I finally finished the last 3 episodes of the The Mandalorian and I’m impressed. It’s easy to find fault in the Star Wars Universe, I’m looking at you episodes 1 & 8, and the internet seems to have a habit of magnifying the negative. So, today dear reader, I’m here to celebrate The Mandalorian.

    SPOILER WARNING, I may mention specific plot points and characters, so if you haven’t seen all 8 episodes, I recommend you do that post haste!

    The premise

    The Mandalorian takes place 5 years after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi. Although the emperor is dead, remnants of the Empire still exist. It is in this world where the protagonist of the story, the Mandalorian, take place.For some reason, the group of fighters called Manadalorians don’t have names. Throughout the season, our character goes by the nickname “Mando”, which rhymes with Lando, and that stands for… nothing but a terrible nickname. But we don’t have trouble, just Mando does.

    Mando works in his corner of the galaxy, taking on the jobs that are tough and pay well. This is where he takes on the job of delivery “the child”, which the internet has dubbed Baby Yoda all because he looks like Yoda. He doesn’t speak, but he does use the Force. Out here, the Force and the Jedi are still myths. Apparently Luke needs a better publicist. After rescuing the child, most of the season shows Mando on the run.

    Season 1 is in the bag

    I liked The Mandalorian a lot, minor quibbles about his name aside. It’s a gritty look on the Star Wars universe, where people are trying to survive. The first scene is episode 8 is my favorite scene of the season. If you have a passing interest in Star Wars, then you’ll want to watch the 8 seasons. They are all available now on Disney+, so you can join, watch the episodes, and then cancel. That was my plan, but now I think I’m going to watch The Clone Wars and Rebels first.