Creating a Hashed Password for VNC

For an automated installation project at work I needed to set the password to an UltraVNC server running on Windows.  VNC is a remote desktop protocol and very handy.  For good reason the server's password is not stored in the clear, but rather a (now weakly) encrypted version.

Friday Tips

Welcome to another installment of tips on Friday.  First up is my own.

Yesterday while preparing to register my car, I remembered one tip I learned as a young lad and it has been helpful ever since.  At the time it was very California-centric, but it's likely the same bureaucracy has now reached much of the world.

Thoughts on Independence Day

This year as the fourth of July approaches I’ve been thinking a lot about my wild yet enlightened uncle Charlie.  Although I have several agreeable uncles, Charlie was the coolest of the bunch and as a young lad I looked up to him.

Corporate Influence on U.S. Government and Politics

By now if you pay even modest attention to current events in America you've probably heard a lot about lobbyists, “special interests”, and PACs.  These are the levers in which corporations and industry groups influence and often control the US Government, as we will discuss below.

Friday Tips

Every day on the net I run across a great many tips to make life easier, and I'd like to start collecting and recording the best so they aren't lost or forgotten.  Here is the first batch from the archives, I'll post newer ones each week until I run out.

"We'll Tell You Any Shit You Want to Hear!"

This is part two of a series on recognizing and managing misinformation in the media named, "Finding A Bit Of Truth In An Ocean Of Garbage."

You might be surprised to know that the trend of the American media becoming less and less trustworthy has been recognized for a long time.  As such, I'd like to introduce you to Network, a film that a majority of readers here are likely not familiar with.  Amazingly, over thirty years ago in 1976 this ground-breaking movie saw the future, described it perfectly, and gave us all a clear warning about what happens when society starts believing its own fantasies.

Finding A Bit Of Truth In An Ocean Of Garbage

As you may have already noticed, one of the most frustrating developments of recent years is the difficulty in obtaining reliable news and information from media sources, especially in the United States.  Paradoxically, while this would be expected in far-off lands with totalitarian governments, it certainly wouldn't be in those with a free press.  Yet I submit that keeping informed today is harder than ever, as we are inundated with information from every angle, the majority of it garbage.  I'll be examining this regrettable topic in a series of posts here at Geekademy, in hopes it will help others recognize the problem and avoid its consequences.

A Symphony of Science

Creations such as the Symphony of Science make a geek feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Enjoy this combination of great science, philosopy, music, and innovative techniques in creation of these fun videos.  Thankfully there are so many imaginative people in the world to keep things interesting.

Why don’t my floating-point numbers add up?

Recently happened upon this friendly site explaining the issues regarding floating-point math on binary computers and thought it useful.  As I'm sure you're aware it takes special talent to take a complicated subject and present it in an easy to understand fashion.

Iceland: Ring of Fire

Just stumbled upon new photos of the unpronounceably-named volcano currently erupting in Iceland.  I wouldn't normally devote a whole post to a photo or two, but these must go down as the most badass I've seen in a long time.

JPL Open House Happens This and Every May

If you're a geek living in Southern California or will be in the area later this spring, I wanted to give you a heads-up about a remarkable, free event that happens once a year at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Pasadena.  If you are not familiar with the facility, this is where NASA designs, builds, and manages its deep space fleet.

Why the Press Gets Science So Wrong

Money, of course, it's always money.  To misquote Master Yoda, sensational headlines lead to higher ratings, higher ratings lead to more advertisers, and more advertisers lead to more money.  Unfortunately quality and integrity are always the first victims.

Popular Science/Mechanics Puts Entire Archives Online for Free

The entire 137+year archives of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics are now online, including all the original ads.  Warning: you may not get much done today if you are a science and tech-nut like myself.  ;)

Go East Young Man!

AKA, go west young woman.  Growing up in Southern California I always wondered in the back of my head if something was wrong.  Why is it so hard to find a decent girlfriend?  And when I find one, why is there a line five-guys-long to talk to her?

Feeling Down or Angry? Get Some Perspective

We've all had periods in life where problems, mistakes, and/or idiots accumulate and drag us down.  Perhaps a relationship has just ended, or never even started.  Maybe you didn't get the job that was perfect for you, or did but lost it in the economic downturn.  Perhaps a very average person took pleasure in shitting on your dreams.  It's not fair, is it?

Hacking the Commodore 64 in Realtime

Just came across this fun geeky video of hacking the Commodore 64 in realtime.  I have a soft-spot for these old computers since I played with them as a kid.  Did you know they are still useful to students, even in this day and age?

Running Windows Services on Demand

If you happen to take a look at the Task Manager of a common Windows box you'll see tons of crap running, even before any useful programs are started.  Malware aside, what the hell is all this junk?

TesteMax: Ask Your Doctor if it is Right for You

I came across something hilarious this evening over at Nate Bloch dot com that could help many of our beleaguered brothers grow a pair, Testemax!

Freeing Up Time for Travel

Finding the time to travel when you are working is not always easy, especially if you are in the States or another country that doesn't appreciate the positive value of vacation on worker productivity.  Keep your chin up, because a few places are even worse.  In Japan for example, demonstrating the ability to suffer graciously is the best way to get ahead.  If that describes your situation, I can only recommend relocating permanently at the first opportunity.  ;)

Without further ado, here are my strategies to free up time for travel.

How to Travel on the Cheap

Perhaps you've read my previous manifesto on the importance of travel in a young geek's life, and are now excited about seeing the world.  Problem is, you're a broke college student, or worse.

Well, today's your lucky day because you've got "El Cheapón" on your side.  I've been around the world several times on a shoestring, and so can you.  It's simply a matter of priorities, and as long as you've got a job there's hope.  If not, don't feel left out.  Keep studying and improving yourself, and before you know it, you'll be slaving away like the rest of us.  Just file this info away for later.

No Sex in the Champagne Room

Some good advice from Chris Rock back in the day.

Twenty Tips for a Twenty Year-Old

Today, I came across several useful links for the young and young at heart on reddit and thought I'd share them.

Save Time and Space With Firefox Keyword Shortcuts

Did you know there's a great way to save time when searching the internet or calling up bookmarks every day?  Because we geeks search so often, the minutes sure add up.

In case you might be thinking, no, not the cumbersome and bulky toolbars companies are pushing these days.  Nor do I recommend using the search bar shown by default on the major browsers.  All any of them really accomplish is to waste valuable screen real-estate, space that could be much better allocated to whatever new fetish you're into this week.

Why Travel?

Travel.  Would you believe it saved my life?  So, it's a bit surprising to think I'd have to talk anyone into it.  After all, we frequently see our favorite stars and executives jet-setting around the globe on TV and movies.  Perhaps that's part of the problem; it's seen as something only the rich and famous do.  In fact, most people in the US don't leave their county, much less their country very often.  Worldwide, most are too poor to do more than dream about it.  I'm from Southern California, where a great majority of people I know consider a trek to Las Vegas once a year "travel."  Now granted, it's five hours away by car at top speed.  In other corners of the globe one might drive through two or more countries in that amount of time, so it's travel after all, right?   Yes, but not in the important sense.  At Geekademy, it's enlightenment we seek my young padawan, not distance.

Specialization: Risks & Rewards

So you are getting into technology.  Obviously if you weren't sharp enough for the challenges of myriad disciplines, software, and hardware you'd be off getting a job for a lesser mind and reading some other blog.  However your strengths set up a question which has ramifications for your career: do you focus on a specific skill/technology or instead stay current in as many facets as possible?  Geekademy has some ideas.

Indispensable Software

Below is a list of some of the best free and open source software available.  Software that has become indispensable in professional life.  I've chosen those that are cross-platform; learn them well, and you can use them on every PC (w/ Win/Mac/Lin) you come across.

For students, these are an amazing set of resources and tools to learn, use, experiment on, hack, disassemble, and contribute to.  Anyone with determination can be come an expert in any of the areas below and many, many more.  It's sure a great time to be a geek.

Why, back in my day, free(dom) software was almost unknown and there were no tools that made experimentation and research as straightforward as today.  ((shakes cane))

Why I don't allow Internet Explorer to run on any of my machines

In this our first article on Security, I thought it would be a good idea to help readers close the biggest vector (direction of vulnerability) through which they can be attacked by malware.

What I am referring to of course is the Internet Explorer (IE) browser, which is installed on every Windows machine.

"Using IE is like driving a car without brakes."
—ator1940 on zdnet.uk

Looking at the issue a bit more objectively, we see IE's problems are three-fold, partly of its own making, partly because of its popularity, and partly the fault of Windows itself.

Unlock Your Data with Open Software

So you're a rich and famous computer geek, or aiming to be one in the future.  Or, perhaps a broke high school/college student with dreams of conquest.

In any case, there's one potentially destructive addiction you may have acquired that needs to be broken sooner or later, and that is the use of closed, proprietary software.  The sooner we start moving ourselves away from it, the sooner we start protecting our hard work and experiencing the same freedoms that we enjoy in other areas of our lives.

Our Mission

I hesitate to use the word mission here as it has unfortunately been co-opted into suit-speak over recent years.  However with that caveat, the original meaning of the word still fits.

“Geekademy prepares geeks for benevolent world domination.”

A mission it is, to prepare geeks for world domination, or at the very least, a little deserved success.

Authors

A little background information on the author(s) at Geekademy.

FAQ and Glossary

FAQ

• Why do you use the dumb "www." prefix on the site?
  Because blogger forces us to.  :(
  
• Where did you get the idea for the interesting background (seen on the newest browsers)?
  It is my "reinterpretation" of an OpenGL application found on SGI Irix called Twilight, and done entirely with CSS.
  

Site Feedback

In order to discourage the hijacking of article threads I've created this page.

On many of the sites I've frequented in the past there was no good outlet for site feedback, bugs, or feature enhancements.  The result is that these type of requests end up in every thread, which disturbs the flow of conversation.

Please continue to post on-topic comments under each article.

Terms of Use

Conduct:

Comments are encouraged but will be removed if they contain any of the items below:

• Hate, harassment, et al.
• Spam, and/or off-topic comments solely designed to create links to another site.
• Illegal activities (assuming the law in question is legitimate)
• Excessive lameness or negativity.