How To Sync Your Data Across Multiple Devices

True mobility in the digital age means having access to the critical information you need regardless of where you are or what device you're using -- whether it be your office desktop PC or your personal laptop or a smartphone or PDA. Besides having mobile Internet access, if you work on more than one device, you need some sort of syncing solution or strategy to make sure you always have the most recent files available.

Here are some ways to keep your email, documents, address book, and files updated wherever you go.

Web Apps and Desktop Software for File Synchronization

With file syncing software, you can be working on a document on one computer and then moments later log onto another device (laptop or smartphone, for example) and continue working on that document where you left off. That's right -- no more emailing yourself or having to manually copy files over a network. There are two types of file syncing software:

Cloud-based syncing services: Web apps like Dropbox, Apple's MobileMe, and Microsoft's Live Mesh synchronize folder(s) between your devices while also saving a copy of the shared folder online. Changes made to files in that folder from one device automatically get updated on the others. You can also enable file sharing, use a mobile phone to access the files, and -- on some apps -- open the files on the website.

Desktop applications: If you're not comfortable with your files being stored online, you can also install software that will synchronize files locally or over a private network. Shareware and freeware file syncing applications include: GoodSync, Microsoft's SyncToy, and SyncBack. Besides offering more robust options for file syncing (keeping multiple versions of replaced files, setting a schedule for syncing, compressing or encrypting files, etc.) these programs also typically allow you to sync with external drives, FTP sites, and servers.

More: Take a closer look these and other syncing apps in this roundup of the 7 Best File Syncing Apps

Using Portable Devices to Sync Files

Another option to keep your latest files with you at all times is to use an external device such as a portable hard drive or a USB flash drive (some people even use their iPods). You can either work with files directly off of the portable device or use software to sync between the computer and the external drive.

Sometimes copying files to and from an external drive may be your only option if you want to sync your home PC with an office computer and your company's IT department doesn't allow installation of non-approved software (they also might not allow external devices to be plugged, though, so it's best to check with them for your options).

More: Use a USB Flash Drive to Keep Essential Files Always Available

Keeping Emails, Calendar Events, and Contacts in Sync

Account setup in email programs: If your web or email host allows you to choose between POP and IMAP protocols for accessing your email, IMAP is the easiest for multi-computer access: it keeps a copy of all emails on the server until you delete them, so you can access the same emails from different devices.

If, however, you do use POP -- which downloads your emails directly to your computer -- most email programs have a setting (usually in the account options) where you can leave a copy of messages on the server until you delete them -- so you can get the same benefits as IMAP, but you do have to find and select this setting in your email program.

Web-based email, contacts, and calendars are probably the easiest way to keep your data updated across multiple devices -- since the information is stored remotely on the server, you just need a browser to work with one consistent inbox/outbox, calendar, and contacts list.

The downside is that if you don't have an Internet connection, you can't access your email on some of these services. Popular systems include Gmail, Yahoo!, and even the Microsoft Exchange version of webmail, Outlook Web Access/Outlook Web App.

Syncing with desktop programs: Both Google and Yahoo! offer synchronization with Outlook calendar (via Google Calendar Sync and Yahoo! Autosync, which also works with Palm Desktop). Yahoo! one-ups Google with its syncing of contacts and notepad information in addition to calendar syncing. For Mac users, Google offers Google Sync Service for iCal, Address Book, and Mail applications.

Special Solutions

Syncing Outlook files: If you need to synchronize an entire .pst file between two or more computers, you'll need a third-party solution, such as one of those found in Slipstick Systems' directory of Outlook sync tools.

Mobile devices: Many smartphones and PDAs have their own syncing software. Windows Mobile device users, for example, have Windows Mobile Device Center (or ActiveSync on XP) to keep files, email, contacts, and calendar items in sync over a USB or Bluetooth connection with their computer. BlackBerry comes with its own sync manager application. The aforementioned MobileMe service syncs iPhones with Macs and PCs. And there are also third-party apps for Exchange connectivity and other syncing needs for all the mobile platforms.

Full > http://tinyurl.com/ydhfrrcg

I'm more than just an engineer

*Most blog / website owners would be proud to have the numbers I have (Analytics)
I'm not here for the numbers, I'd like to help those that wish to learn. The rest can crawl back under a rock.
 There takes quit a bit more than reading graphs and familiarizing the lingo associated with your tasks to become proficient.

Oh this? Just an hour drive through a storm to get a little bottle.

How to Browse the Web and Leave No Trace

*YES, this is how it typically works out, Have a great day folks.

On today’s web it’s hard to set a (digital) foot online without it attracting dozens of trackers and log entries, as companies look to learn everything about you and sell that data on to advertisers. To hide you’ve got a few tools at your disposal, many of which we’ve talked about in the past, and all of which add up to a largely anonymous browsing experience. What we can’t do is promise 100 percent that you won’t be tracked—we’re not privy to the inner workings of the FBI or your employer’s IT system—but this is as much as you can do.

Every browser has some sort of private or incognito mode: When you close down an incognito tab, it waves its hand, Jedi-style, to convince your computer and the web at large that the browsing session you just finished never actually happened. 

None of your incognito-mode website visits are saved in your browser’s history, and searches aren’t stored either (at least in the browser—if you signed into Google before searching, they may be logged in the cloud).

Cookies and other types of local tracking data are wiped as well, so if you visit a news site in incognito mode first, and then in a regular tab, that site won’t have any knowledge of your previous visit—unless, as with Google, you logged in somewhere.

If you want to stay anonymous online though, incognito mode only really keeps you anonymous as far as your local computer goes. Your internet service provider (ISP) can still recognize your computer and the sites you’re visiting, and so can your employer, government agencies, and anyone else who might be listening in.

Sign into any site, though, and your cover is blown. Not just for that site, but also to any other partners that it shares data with. Facebook, Google, and other firms track you across multiple sites, so even if you only log into one account, other connected accounts can still be tracking what you’re up to online.

Incognito mode is best used when you want your browsing activity to be invisible to other people who use your computer, or who steal it, or who sneak on to it. It’s useful, but to be well and truly anonymous, you need a bigger cloak.

Complete article > http://tinyurl.com/ybgn89gc

Easy Android Clean Up (Updated)

*I'm "not" suggesting that anyone do this but I have tested the app. Keep in mind I burn up 3 or 4 phones per month with this or that testing.

Power Clean App

I don't like cell phones believe it or not.

Set up bar code mask characters [AX 2012]

*Of course I can't use it now that I've blogged it but I'll create a very twisted version of the same principle.

Bar code mask characters are alphabetical characters that are replaced with numbers when Microsoft Dynamics AX uses a bar code mask to generate a bar code. Use different bar code mask characters to generate different types of bar codes, such as bar codes for products, customers, or employees. A single mask character, such as a mask character that represents the item number, can add several characters to the bar code.

If you create all your bar codes manually, you do not have to set up mask characters or masks. If you manually create a bar code for a product for which a bar code mask is set up, mask validation is performed only for the check digit. If the check digit does not match the check digit in the bar code mask, you receive an error message that resembles the following message:

"Expecting check digit 8 but found 3."

1. Click Retail > Setup > Bar codes and labels > Mask characters.
2. Press CTRL+N to create a new bar code mask character.
3. In the Type field, select the type of mask character. Then, in the Character field, type a character between A and Z.
4. In the Description field, type a description of the mask character.

How to Read a Schematic

*To answer your question, if available, begin at the, "Legend". Any symbol on the print can be associated with its equivalent in the Legend. This is a skew off point but will suffice.
(I need to develop a code where as the person who asks these questions can interpret that I'm speaking to them)

Schematics are our map to designing, building, and troubleshooting circuits. Understanding how to read and follow schematics is an important skill for any electronics engineer.

This tutorial should turn you into a fully literate schematic reader! We’ll go over all of the fundamental schematic symbols:

Then we’ll talk about how those symbols are connected on schematics to create a model of a circuit. We’ll also go over a few tips and tricks to watch out for.

Suggested Reading

Schematic comprehension is a pretty basic electronics skill, but there are a few things you should know before you read this tutorial. Check out these tutorials, if they sound like gaps in your growing brain:

• What is Electricity?
• What is a Circuit?
• Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Ohm’s Law

Schematic Symbols (Part 1)

Are you ready for a barrage of circuit components? Here are some of the standardized, basic schematic symbols for various components.

Resistors

The most fundamental of circuit components and symbols! Resistors on a schematic are usually represented by a few zig-zag lines, with two terminals extending outward. Schematics using international symbols may instead use a featureless rectangle, instead of the squiggles.

Long winded full article > https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-read-a-schematic

8 Dangerous Side Effects of Fracking That the Industry Doesn't Want You to Hear About

*Back to the physical world.

With the recent confirmation by the U.S. government that the fracking process causes earthquakes, the list of fracking's deadly byproducts is growing longer and more worrisome. And while the process produces jobs and natural gas, the host of environmental, health and safety hazards continues to make fracking a hot-button issue that evenly divides Americans.

To help keep track of all the bad stuff, here's a roundup of the various nasty things that could happen when you drill a hole in the surface of the earth, inject toxic chemicals into the hole at a high pressure and then inject the wastewater deep underground.

But first, let's take a look at some of the numbers:

• 40,000: gallons of chemicals used for each fracturing site
• 8 million: number of gallons of water used per fracking
• 600: number of chemicals used in the fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as lead, benzene, uranium, radium, methanol, mercury, hydrochloric acid, ethylene glycol and formaldehyde
• 10,000: number of feet into the ground that the fracking fluid is injected through a drilled pipeline
• 1.1 million: number of active gas wells in the United States
• 72 trillion: gallons of water needed to run current gas wells
• 360 billion: gallons of chemicals needed to run current gas wells
• 300,000: number of barrel of natural gas produced a day from fracking

And here are eight of the worst side effects of fracking you don't hear about from those slick TV commercials paid for by the industry.

1. Burning the furniture to heat the house. 

During the fracking process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the well and contaminate nearby groundwater. The contaminated water is used for drinking water in local communities. There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near fracking areas as well as cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.

In 2011, the New York Times reported that it obtained thousands of internal documents from the EPA, state regulators and fracking companies, which reveal that "the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle."

A single well can produce more than a million gallons of wastewater, which contains radioactive elements like radium and carcinogenic hydrocarbons like benzene. In addition, methane concentrations are 17 times higher in drinking-water wells near fracking sites than in normal wells. Only 30-50 percent of the fracturing fluid is recovered; the rest is left in the ground and is not biodegradable.

“We’re burning the furniture to heat the house,” said John H. Quigley, former secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “In shifting away from coal and toward natural gas, we’re trying for cleaner air, but we’re producing massive amounts of toxic wastewater with salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials, and it’s not clear we have a plan for properly handling this waste."

2. Squeezed out. 

More than 90 percent of the water used in fracking well never returns to the surface. Since that water is permanently removed from the natural water cycle, this is bad news for drought-afflicted or water-stressed states, such as Arkansas, California, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas and Wyoming.

"We don't want to look up 20 years from now and say, Oops, we used up all our water," said Jason Banes of the Boulder, Colorado-based Western Resource Advocates.

The redirection of water supplies to the fracking industry not only causes water price spikes, but also reduces water availability for crop irrigation. 

"There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas," said Kent Peppler, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. "And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are."

3. Bad for babies. 

The waste fluid left over from the fracking process is left in open-air pits to evaporate, which releases dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain and ground-level ozone.

Exposure to diesel particulate matter, hydrogen sulfide and volatile hydrocarbons can lead to a host of health problems, including asthma, headaches, high blood pressure, anemia, heart attacks and cancer.

It can also have a damaging effect on immune and reproductive systems, as well as fetal and child development. A 2014 study conducted by the Colorado Department of Environmental and Occupational Health found that mothers who live near fracking sites are 30 percent more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects.

Research from Cornell University indicates an increased prevalence of low birth weight and reduced APGAR scores in infants born to mothers living near fracking sites in Pennsylvania. And in Wyoming's Sublette County, the fracking boom has been linked to dangerous spikes in ozone concentrations. A study led by the state's Department of Health found that these ozone spikes are associated with increased outpatient clinic visits for respiratory problems. 

4. Killer gas. 

A recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that homes located in suburban and rural areas near fracking sites have an overall radon concentration 39 percent higher than those located in non-fracking urban areas. The study included almost 2 million radon readings taken between 1987 and 2013 done in over 860,000 buildings from every county, mostly homes.

A naturally occurring radioactive gas formed by the decay of uranium in rock, soil and water, radon—odorless, tasteless and invisible—moves through the ground and into the air, while some remains dissolved in groundwater where it can appear in water wells. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer worldwide, after smoking. The EPA estimates approximately 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. are radon-related.

"Between 2005-2013, 7,469 unconventional wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. Basement radon concentrations fluctuated between 1987-2003, but began an upward trend from 2004-2012 in all county categories," the researchers wrote.

That trending period just happens to start when Pennsylvania's fracking boom began: Between Jan. 1, 2005, and March 2, 2012, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 10,232 drilling permits; only 36 requests were denied.

5. Shifting sands. 

In addition to all the water and toxic chemicals, fracking requires the use of fine sand, or frac sand, which has driven a silica sand mining boom in Minnesota and Wisconsin, which together have 164 active frac sand facilities with 20 more proposed. Both states are where most of the stuff is produced and where regulations are lax for air and water pollution monitoring. Northeastern Iowa has also become a primary source.

"Silica can impede breathing and cause respiratory irritation, cough, airway obstruction and poor lung function," according to Environmental Working Group. "Chronic or long-term exposure can lead to lung inflammation, bronchitis and emphysema and produce a severe lung disease known as silicosis, a form of pulmonary fibrosis. Silica-related lung disease is incurable and can be fatal, killing hundreds of workers in the U.S. each year."

"I could feel dust clinging to my face and gritty particles on my teeth,” said Victoria Trinko, a resident of Bloomer, Wisconsin. Within nine months of the construction of frac sand mine, about a half-mile from her home, she developed a sore throat and raspy voice and was eventually diagnosed with environment-caused asthma. She hasn't opened her windows since 2012.

Across the 33-county frac sand mining area that spans Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, nearly 60,000 people live less than half a mile from existing or proposed mines. And new danger zones will likely pop up around the nation: Due to the fracking boom, environmentalists and public health advocates warn that frac sand mines could spread to several states with untapped silica deposits, including Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Bryan Shinn, the chief executive of sand mining company U.S. Silica Holdings said in September that due to the fracking boom, they "see a clear pathway to the volume of sand demand that's out there doubling or tripling in the next four to five years."

6. Shake, rattle and roll. 

On April 20, the U.S. Geological Survey released a long-awaited report that confirmed what many scientists have long speculated: the fracking process causes earthquakes. Specifically, over the last seven years, geologically stable regions of the U.S., including parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, have experienced movements in faults that have not moved in millions of years. Plus, it's difficult or impossible to predict where future fracking-caused earthquakes will occur.

"They're ancient faults," said USGS geophysicist William Ellsworth. "We don’t always know where they are."

Ellsworth led the USGS team that analyzed changes in earthquake occurrence rates in the central and eastern United States since 1970. They found that between 1973–2008, there was an average of 21 earthquakes of at least magnitude three. From 2009-2013, the region experienced 99 M3+ earthquakes per year. And the rate is still rising. In Oklahoma, there were 585 earthquakes in 2014—more than in the last 35 years combined.

"The increase in seismicity has been found to coincide with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells in several locations, including Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio," the report states. "Much of this wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production and is routinely disposed of by injection into wells specifically designed and approved for this purpose."

For many years, Oklahoma's government has been reluctant to concede the connection between fracking and earthquakes. In October of last year, during a gubernatorial election debate with state Rep. Joe Dorman, a Democrat, Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, declined to say whether or not she believed earthquakes were caused by fracking. Fallin was re-elected.

But the government has finally come around. The day after the USGS report was released, on April 21, the Oklahoma Geological Survey, a state agency, released a statement saying that is it "very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those is central and north-central Oklahoma, are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells."

The same day, the state's energy and environment department launched a website that explains the finding along with an earthquake map and what the government is doing about it all. According to the site, "Oklahoma state agencies are not waiting to take action." 

Now there is a split between the state's governmental branches: Two days after the executive branch admitted that fracking causes earthquakes, the state's lawmakers, evidently unmoved by the trembling ground, passed two bills, backed by the oil and gas industry, that limit the ability of local communities to decide if they want fracking in their backyards.

7. The heat is on. 

Natural gas is mostly methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that traps 86 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. And because methane leaks during the fracking process, fracking may be worse than burning coal, mooting the claim that natural gas burns more cleanly than coal.

"When you frack, some of that gas leaks out into the atmosphere," writes 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. "If enough of it leaks out before you can get it to a power plant and burn it, then it's no better, in climate terms, than burning coal. If enough of it leaks, America's substitution of gas for coal is in fact not slowing global warming."

A recent international satellite study on North American fracking production led by the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen in Germany found that "fugitive methane emissions" caused by the fracking process "may counter the benefit over coal with respect to climate change" and that "net climate benefit…is unlikely." 

"Even small leaks in the natural gas production and delivery system can have a large climate impact—enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas," writes Joe Romm, the founding editor of the blog Climate Progress. "The climate will likely be ruined already well past most of our lifespans by the time natural gas has a net climate benefit."

8. Quid pro quo?

Finally, one of the more insidious side effects of fracking is less about the amount of chemicals flowing into the ground and more about the amount of money flowing into politicians' campaign coffers from the fracking industry.

According to a 2013 report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), contributions from fracking trade groups and companies operating fracking wells to congressional candidates representing states and districts where fracking occurs rose by more than 230 percent between the 2004 and 2012 election cycles, from $2.1 million to $6.9 million.

Full article > http://tinyurl.com/onell7x

Tell the Truth and fool the world, I'm more than just an engineer

*This is one of the things I've been amazed by my entire life. I've run ads on my website whereas the first person to click this or that would receive $1000, no one clicked it so I partied in Bangkok. I tell people that I will do freebies for viewing various videos, they don't. Perhaps this will explain why I'm still amazed.

 (To get these notions out of the way immediately, what follows may not apply to the answers to these two questions; “Does this dress make my ass look fat?” And; “Did you come?”)

These seven words have for me always held in them something deep and mystical. I can not recall when or where I first heard them, but they have stayed with me for as long as I can remember. A quick google search reveals that this saying is credited to Otto Von Bismarck who originally phrased it as; “when you want to fool the world, tell the truth.” I never knew it originated with Bismarck until a minute ago when I thought to search the phrase – as I knew it.

This aphorism exists on so many levels to me. It holds so many implications far beyond just the face value of its meaning.

To me, at least, it implies that we, as humans, have in our nature an inclination to believe the big lie rather than the plain truth. It implies that we find it difficult to believe someone when he or she is being unabashedly honest with us. (Think Chauncey Gardiner in Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There”) That we expect people to be, as a rule, less than forthright with us. Which, in turn, implies that we may now and then be less forthright with them. It also implies that telling that “little white lie” so as not to “hurt someone’s feelings” may, in any run, short or long,  be of no value to them – or you.

It implies that the easiest, least complicated, path to “get along” in this life is simply to just tell the truth – your subjective truth, as you know it to be. As you believe it to be. In your answers, your opinions, your actions. It implies that one will have an easier, calmer life if uncluttered by the “games” one must play and the “stories” one must remember and have to keep straight in order to keep up the lie. Any lie, big or small.

And, perhaps, all kidding aside, it does, after all, apply to the answers to those two questions at the top. If we really think about it.

This wise aphorism also implies that a delicious secret resides within the person who lives it.

Perhaps in these seven words there exists a blueprint for happiness and peace of mind?

I know this simple and elegant truism to be the way. And yet, as much as I try to live it, too many times I fall short – and those times when I do fall short I do a disservice to the person I fail to be truthful with – and to myself.

© tony powers

The Technology in US Currency

*Click the link I provided

https://www.uscurrency.gov/security/100-security-features-2013-present

Run Flat tires / How They Work

Though they first appeared in the mid-1980s, run flat tires (RFT) are now more popular than ever. With some auto manufacturers making them standard in new vehicles, more consumers are asking about run flats, their advantages, and how using them impacts driving.

WHAT ARE RUN FLAT TIRES?

Run flat tires are tires on which you can continue driving after a puncture so you can take time get to an auto shop or find a safe, level area to change your tire.

You can’t drive on them indefinitely, though. Check the manufacturer’s specifications to find out how fast and how far you can drive on your run flat tires. Bridgestone run-flat tires will allow continued operation even after a loss of some or all inflation pressure for up to 50 miles (80 km) at a maximum speed up to 50 mph (80 km/h.)

HOW DO RUN FLAT TIRES WORK?

There are two primary types of run flat tire systems: the self-supporting system and the support ring system.

In most self-supporting run flat tire systems, the tire features reinforced sidewall construction that will continue supporting the vehicle in the event of air loss. This construction allows continued operation after the loss of air pressure up to the speed and distance specified by the manufacturer.

Support ring run flat tire systems, on the other hand, employ a ring of hard rubber or another structure that can support the vehicle’s weight in an air loss condition.

Since they continue performing even though they’re “flat,” all run flat tires, regardless of the specific system type, may only be used on a vehicle equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). The TPMS alerts you as soon as one of your tires loses pressure. Without it, you might not know you were driving on an underinflated tire.

BENEFITS OF RUN FLAT TIRES

You don’t have to change your tire in dangerous or uncomfortable conditions. This is perhaps the biggest benefit of run flat tires and is the one of the reasons why they were designed. With conventional tires, you have to replace a flat on the spot or have your car towed.

In a puncture situation, run flats are more stable than conventional tires. Since they’re made to support your vehicle even when they contain no air, run flat tires will help you maintain better control in a complete air loss situation than conventional tires.

As consumers continue rating safety high on the list of features they look for in a vehicle, the popularity of run flat tires is expected to grow. Since run flat tires work reliably with interconnected technologies like TPMS, it may only be a matter of time before they become the norm rather than the exception in new vehicles.