Category: Support

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 WiFi versus Apple iPad 2 WiFi

This comparison is not a death match between the two devices. This is simply a list of differences I noticed between them. I hope to help someone decide which device to get.

We already have iPhones and iPads, so I felt it was necessary to have an Android-based device to further round out our website testing.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a few things it does better, and a few things it does worse. Overall, as a computer geek, I love it and choose it over the iPad.

I did, however, recently purchase a tablet for a relative, and I simply could not justify getting them anything but an Apple iPad 2. I know without a doubt they will be able to use it and will not be calling me for help with something they can’t figure out.

Until Android devices achieve this type of simplicity, I’ll have to give the Apple product a leg up for novice users.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wifi Pros versus iPad Wifi 2:

Lighter

Battery lasts extremely long with the smaller screen

Much easier to read books with and hold for long duration.

Skyping is better with the smaller device because of how light it is.

Amazon App Store You get 1 free app each day that usually is a paid app. Also shows only apps that WILL work on my tablet.

Widgets on the home screen are useful by making it really easy to glance at important things like weather, news, and stocks.

All apps I use on iPad or iPhone are on the Android Market. Even most games I have are available. There are things that are not, but for me, the transition was seamless in this department.

Integration with Google is very convenient.

The on-screen buttons On the screen at all times, there is a back, home, list of recent apps, screen shot, and settings button. The back button seemed weird at first, but after using it for a month, and then going to an iPad and having to hit the master button to close the app, really highlighted having a back button OR a home button right there on the screen.

The screen shot button makes it WAY easier to take screen shots over using the two external buttons on an iPad. I found myself accidentally hitting it all the time though, so it does have its downfall.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 WiFi Cons versus iPad 2 Wifi

Crashes randomly. I’ve had it two months, and it’s crashed and rebooted itself 4 times.

Android Market does not tell me if apps are tablet or not, or even if they work with the app on the tablet. If you open the Android market via the web, it tells you if apps will work on your device, but it still does not do a good job.

Interface is not as simple as iPad. It took me a little bit to get my mind around the different sections to find things, instead of it all just being in one place at the same time.

No way to create folders for apps. This is ridiculous!

However, for me, the Samsung is the way to go. For novice users, I’d stick with the Apple product.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Jed Parmenter

Why should you help out web bots trying to scrape your data? Most users try to make their websites easy for search engines to crawl, but search engines usually only care about words and cache the entire page. There are other bots that look for specific data based on patterns it can find. Most of these bots get a bad reputation since you mainly hear about them when one gets in trouble for stealing email addresses that users leave openly on their website. Some users can get crazy and lock up all sorts of information bots would love, (including Google), such as user pages that hold information like post counts, game scores, or other statistics that can be used.

Making your HTML readable for web bots is generally easy. Most times you already iterate the data and put it in a way web bots can traverse it. We should always use plenty of ID attributes to clearly identify parts of the web page. This is especially important if you are not iterating data, like a user page, where you do a query at the top and place all the data appropriately. If none of the user profile has an id or another distinguishable feature, it might be difficult for web bots to find appropriate data. Also, make sure items are separate from their labels. Putting them next to each other can make it difficult to parse; a separate tag and the same parent is ideal.

Web APIs are also a great way for bots to use your data. Most sites already have RSS feeds for bots and users to use freely. Some sites even allow bots to freely use their site search engine, others ban it due to possible abuse. Since APIs like this are easy for bots to parse and less data is sent out, it can help both the website and the bot. If you make some sort of API, make sure all important information can be obtained from it.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

I recently visited my parents. As usual they always have some question regarding some issue they have encountered with their computer. This used to irk me, but anymore, I just bear it and grin as it’s usually something relatively simple (ie can you make that little icon on my desktop that takes me to Gmail again?) This time my mother was looking for a way to organize her pictures based on the date and time they were taken. Windows Explorer sorts alpha/numerically when you sort be name, but the program she used to import the pictures didn’t label them in a fashion that would allow this order to be chronological. Knowing that the file names were arbitrary forced me to rely on the EXIF data stored in the JPEG file. For those of you that don’t know, most all digital cameras these days store date and time information, among other data, inside the jpeg file itself. Assuming the date and time settings on your camera are correct, this information can be used to rename files using certain programs. One program I found online is called Siren.

This program is able to see the EXIF data stored in the photo and uses that to create a new file name based on whatever EXIF data you would like. As I said, I wanted just the date and time. To do this, in Siren, you first browse to the folder that contains the pictures you would like to rename. Next, in the expression box, you enter your file name. This can be anything you want, though to pull the EXIF data you need to use an expression variable. %Xdo%ncs.jpg in the expression box will rename all the pictures in the directory you’ve selected to YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg. With %Xdo meaning to use the pictures’ date and time stored in EXIF and “%ncs” meaning to give a unique name if two pictures were taken in the same second. You can add whatever you would like before the expression variables to even further classify your pictures (ie. Uncle_Bobs_Colorado_%Xdo%ncs.jpg). This would create file names like this: Uncle_Bobs_Colorado_ YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg.

As you can see, Siren can be a pretty powerful tool for renaming files. This was just a taste of what it can do. Extensive information can be found in the help section of Siren regarding all the other expressions that can be used. Hopefully this has equipped you with the knowledge to better tackle the endless help desk requests from family and friends.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Dustin Fry

I’ve used a few editors for various tasks, and each has advantages and disadvantages over the others. Personally, I’ve played with Dreamweaver, Notepad++, Sublime Text, and Eclipse. Some of these are a bit more popular than others. For more information, visit Wikipedia Comparison of HTML Editors.

Notepad++

I love how basic this editor is. I’m probably most familiar with this one since I’ve used it the most. I like the default functionality to duplicate entire lines or line segments. Not many others allow this full functionality. Also, if you highlight a variable or full word, it highlights all its other uses on the same document. This feature is great for when you are checking if you spelled the variable right, or when you are trying to follow along with code that has no comments. There is a nice plug-in manager that allows a few plug-ins. One item I really enjoy is being able to have a “project” which I can upload to a remote server. Currently, I have not found a single plug-in that allows both of these.

Dreamweaver

This one is probably one of the most common editors you will encounter when doing web development. It’s adaptable to multiple languages and usually comes with an Adobe package. The built- in project management is nice; it allows you to set them up with more features than you will ever need. I would like to see the projects be manageable in folders, which helps when you manage over 10 projects. The biggest downfall I found with Dreamweaver is that it slows my computer down quite a bit when I bring it back into focus after a few minutes.

Sublime Text

This is one of the newer editors I’ve encountered, and I still wouldn’t consider myself a pro at using it quite yet. When you open it up, it’s a very light-weight editor with the ability to add plug-ins. The plug-ins I found were extremely easy to develop with all sorts of documentation and code examples. There are already tons of plug-ins available. There is a project manager plug-in which I found very useful, but it doesn’t currently have all the features I’d love. However when speaking with the developer of the plug-in, he did mention he would be adding these features.

Eclipse

This was one of the first editors I used that offered syntax highlighting. Before that I was using… Window’s Notepad. Dreadful, I know. There are a few versions for various languages including Java, PHP, and C/C++. The project management was a very nice feature for me, and still is. It’s not a tiny editor, but so far I’ve never had it slow down my computer.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

Well this can and has happened to the best of us. We had a new tech working on a server, and he just disconnected instead of logging off. I knew there was a work-around to get in, and it took me longer than I felt it should to figure out. Most of the immediate stuff coming up in Google is all about Windows home server. In order to get in, you simply need to go to Command prompt, and run:

mstsc /v:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx /f -admin

Be sure to replace the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your server’s IP Address.

Once in, it is important you go straight to Task Manager and log off the other users. If you disconnect while logged in this way, you will be forced to hook up a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the physical machine.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Jed Parmenter

1. Open Ports – Ports are different doors to your computer. Each computer on the internet has an IP Address that is that computers unique Address. Similar to each house in the US has a unique mailing address for its zip code. Once you talk to a computer there are several ports or doors that are used to access it. For instance port 80 is for internet content, port 3389 is for remote desktop communications, port 21 is used for FTP.

   A good firewall is the best way to protect yourself from hacking attempts that take advantage of unguarded ports.

   A firewall is your first line of defense and it is very important in a business environment.

   There are three main types of firewalls you can use:

   • Software Firewalls like the one built into windows or Zone Alarm

     This type of firewall is better than nothing but it can easily be compromised via the other security breaches I will describe below.

   • Hardware based firewall built into your router

     This type of firewall is generally sufficient for the home network. Depending on the brand they can be difficult to configure or lack some protection so you should always do your research and make sure you do not buy the cheapest one you can find. You get what you pay for.

   • Enterprise/Commercial hardware based firewall

     The most superior of them all. This high end firewall is very complex and not something you should just purchase and try to setup yourself. These firewalls also have VPN support built in so multiple business locations can securely be on the same private network over the internet without fear of data snooping or loss.

2. Malicious websites – Websites can actually install spy-ware, Trojan horses and tracking cookies without your consent.

   Spy-ware is software that is classified as any piece of software that basically takes control of your computer behind the scenes to do anything from tricking you into buying fake anti virus software to sending emails to everyone in your list to spread itself.

   Trojan horses do as the name suggests, they allow a hacker direct access to your computer without your consent. From there they can snoop through your files, delete things pretty much anything you could do.

   Tracking cookies track your whereabouts and utilize that information to target pop-up ads while browsing the internet.

   The best way to protect yourself is to only access business oriented websites on your business network. Yes this sounds obvious but so many people think sites like MySpace, Face-book and other sites they happen upon via Google are safe.

   The next step is to always make sure your operating system and internet browser have the latest updates. Microsoft releases updates EVERY Tuesday. If you don’t notice an update being installed at least once a month you should make sure Automatic Updates is turned on. There are constant security fixes being implemented in all browsers.

   A popular misconception is that Apple computers have no worries. This is not true, so few people use Apples the average hacker is not targeting them because its a waste of their time. As Apple takes a bigger chunk of the market via phones, tablets and computer sales there will be a bigger threat. You should always been on guard.

   In a business environment you need a content filter. The content filter has very flexible settings. The filter works off national black lists that block users from accessing known dangerous sites. Also the filters can have white lists and restrict content on broad topics like gambling, nudity, games, etc..

3. Email Links – To this day malicious software installed on computers via links in email is still a huge problem. These links take you to those malicious websites I already spoke about and install things on your computer.

   The number one way to fix this is not to open emails from people you do not know or businesses you have never heard of.

   In a business environment an advanced firewall can also automatically filter out malicious emails.

4. Viruses – These days viruses are getting harder and harder to come by and usually are transmitted via one of the above security breaches. However these can still be transferred via files sent to you by people who do not know they are infected.

   A good virus scanner is the best way to protect yourself. AVG is a very reliable anti-virus and it is free. Microsoft has recently introduced Microsoft Security Essentials, which is currently rated #1 and recommended for all home use by Skynet Solutions.

   In a business environment we recommend purchasing AVG and utilizing the built in scanning of viruses in emails via an enterprise firewall.

5. Wi-fi – Yes your Wi-fi is not safe. Anyone sitting within range can break your encryption. Modern day encryption used by 802.11n is very strong and it would take 2 hours of sniffing your constant traffic to crack. However, it is possible and the risk should not be taken lightly.

   A good best practice is to limit the connections to your Wi-fi via Mac Address. This is just a barrier that will help. This again is not fool proof and only slows the hacker down.

   In a business environment there are two things you can do.

   • Setup a separate zone that is isolated from your internal network so even if compromised the hacker would not have access to your internal network.
   • Setup an encryption rotation server that will rotate the encryption key every 15-30min making it virtually impossible for any hacking attempt to succeed. This method requires a server and a domain controller.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Jed Parmenter