What to do in the event of your account being hacked

Whether you're checking your email or browsing a social network site, and notice strange activity with your account, then it has most likely been hacked.

If this has happened to you, the easiest thing you can do is change your password and make it a lot stronger. It should contain a combination of at least 1 capital letter, number, and special character.

For example, Anime_ruleZ003 (a completely made up easy to remember password).

If your account is ever gets hacked again, make your password even stronger.

***Never share your password with anybody (even if you trust that person), if you do share it, change it within a timely manner***

Tips to a successful semester

It's that time of year again, when it's time for everyone to start school again. Every school year or semester is different, therefore you must do different things to survive if you begin to struggle.



Here is some advice based on my experience that may help you...

• Take plenty of notes, if you are allowed to use a laptop in class use that (you'll remember more info that way). Chapter outlines from the textbook website can help you with note taking.
• If you miss class, ask someone in your class or send a mass e-mail to  your class mates asking for a copy of their notes to study with, or you can post your notes to a web site (where ever you're hosting them) and share them with your class. Use this to start a study group.
• If your school offers free tutoring, use it. Sometimes the tutors explain what you're having the problem with better than the instructors. You can also ask your instructors for help as well.
• Go to class. Some classes don't take attendance and some students will take advantage of that, then pay for it when they accidentally miss a quiz or an exam.
• If you are taking an online class, although you don't have to go to a physical class room, it's double the work. You will usually have deadlines and a semester cut-off date (no homework, projects or exams are excepted after this date). Don't wait until 1-2 weeks before the cut-off date to start doing your work. You should pace your self, for example, if you have to do work based on a 12 chapter book, spend 1-1.5 weeks focusing on one chapter at a time, that way you can meet all of your deadlines on time and will have completed all of your work before the cut-off date.
• When book buy-back comes around, keep the books based on your major. For example, if you're majoring in computer science, you would keep all of your computer books as a references and get rid of the other books that you don't need. Believe me, I've had to go back and purchase books that I wish I didn't sell back. Don't let anyone borrow or steal your books.
• Most importantly, pick a good time during the day/night to study. Study at least 30 min - 1 hr a day, and increase the time when preparing for an exam. Practice exams are good for studying as well.
• If you're stressed out because you have a lot on your plate, or you're not doing so good in one of your courses, go ahead and withdraw from that course while it's still an automatic W (before it becomes an WP or WF). That way, you shouldn't have any problems with financial aid if you're getting it (based on your school); Be sure to talk to someone in your financial aid office about their policy on withdrawals.

As promised, some useful tips and advice. Although this guide is primarily aimed at college students, high school students can use these tips too.

The Future of Cell Phones Plans

It would seem that this is the future of cell phones.

Check this out below



See how far we have come in the past 20 years?

Video Games: Most Annoying Way to Die/Lose #2

Don't feel like you're by your self if this has happened to you. In some video games such as this one, where you are confident and a above-average gamer who collected special items throughout the game, this scenario proves to be embarrassing when you're trying to show off or become irritated when that was your last life and your game is over, knowing that it was because of something small/simple.

Even if you're annoyed or ready to throw the controller, just know that you have acquired great knowledge from your experience and will do even better the next time (or time after that), so pick up the controller and "Game-On". - Gamer Queen.


Most Annoying way to die #2 from animedragonfighter on Vimeo.

Has this or something similar happened to you?

CSS3 layout for HTML5

Here's a pretty neat CSS layout I worked on last week for one of my websites. The main content has a water marked paper image. The color theme is based on a dark blue.
This was done in HTML5, so there's a header, nav, section, aside and footer element. All of these elements have unique ids, and sits inside a div (id="big_wrapper"). So if you are just starting out in learning HTML5 or testing a page and want to attach some quick css3 code, this will be a big help.

*{
 
 list-style-type:none;
 margin:0px;
 padding:0px;
}

body{

 
 font-family: Arial;
 font-size:14px;
 color:#303030;
 background-image:url('images/background.jpg');
 background-attachment:fixed;
 
 
}

header, nav, section, aside, footer{
 display:block;
}



#wrapper{
 
 width:1000px;
 margin-left:150px;
 background:white;
 background-image:url('images/paper_background.jpg');
 background-attachment:fixed;
}



#top_nav a, #main_footer a{
 color:white;
 text-decoration:none;
}

#top_nav a:hover, #main_footer a:hover{

 text-decoration:underline;
 color:yellow;
}



a{
 text-decoration:none;
 color:#303030;
}

a:hover{
 border-bottom:1px #303030 dotted;
 font-weight:bold;
 
}

#main_header{
 background-color:black; 
 text-align:center;
}

#main_content{
 /*float:left; */
 width:560px;
 margin:10px;
 padding:10px;
 text-align:left;
 line-height:20px;
 background:white;
 border-radius:15px;
 box-shadow:5px 5px 5px #080808;
 float:left;
}

#main_aside{
 float:left;
 width:320px;
 margin:10px;
 padding:10px;
 background:white;
 border-radius:15px;
 box-shadow:5px 5px 5px #080808;
 
}

#bod_content{
 background:white;
 background-image:url('images/paper_background.jpg');
}

.news_content{
 text-align:left;
}

.h3_eye_catcher{
 color:green;
 text-align:center;
}


#top_nav{
 color:white;
 text-align:center;
 text-shadow:1px 1px 3px #080808;
 padding: 10px;
 font-weight:bold;
 margin-bottom:10px;
 box-shadow:0px 3px 10px #080808;
 font-size:16px;
 
 /* Beginning of Gradient */
 
 background-image: linear-gradient(bottom, #0B0142 48%, #2107B5 95%);
 background-image: -o-linear-gradient(bottom, #0B0142 48%, #2107B5 95%);
 background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(bottom, #0B0142 48%, #2107B5 95%);
 background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(bottom, #0B0142 48%, #2107B5 95%);
 background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(bottom, #0B0142 48%, #2107B5 95%);
 
 background-image: -webkit-gradient(
  linear,
  left bottom,
  left top,
  color-stop(0.48, #0B0142),
  color-stop(0.95, #2107B5)
 );
 
 /* End of Gradient */
 
}

#main_footer{
 clear:both;
 background:#2107B5;
 box-shadow:0px 5px 10px #080808 inset;
 color:white;
 text-align:center;
 padding:10px;
}


   

Be sure to change the images and name your "id"s appropriately. You can play around with this code and change it to your liking.

Note: This code is not perfect, but it is a good starting point.

The very first thing you should do once you purchaced a new computer

When you get a new computer and turn it on for the first time, you're ready to either get to work, play around with it or start having fun.

However, problems will arise later on and you may need your recovery discs. You don't have them so you go to your manufacturer to order them which cost too much money.

Although you can press either F10/F11 at Start up, it's also best that you create your own recovery media. This recovery media will have everything you need from the start-up repair to the drivers you need.

Some computers have their own recovery media creation software, while windows 7 and 8 have one too.

If you just purchased a new computer, or have a computer that isn't having any system problems, you may want to go ahead and create your recovery discs.

How to recover files from a computer that won't boot into windows

Something happened (your computer isn't booting into windows or won't turn on at all) so you took your computer to a shop, and a technician tells you that chances are all of your personal files will be erased.

Then you realize, it's either been a while or you never did a backup of your personal files. Then there's the overwhelming fear/emotion of losing your documents, videos, music and photos.

Here's how to back up a computer in this current state. You will need to take out the hard drive and hook it up to a working machine, copy your personal files on there using this, an IDE/SATA to USB adapter. The IDE/SATA to USB adapter is not limited to just the hard drive, you can use it to test other drives such as an optical (CD/DVD) drive or use them externally.


or use one of these, a Hard Drive (HDD) Docking Station

These devices support both IDE and SATA interfaces. If you are unsure how to uninstall the hard drive from your computer, check your computer's service manual for specific instructions.

Another tool you can use is a Hard Drive Enclosure Case. You will have to already know your hard drive interface size. Remember the size of laptop hard drives are smaller.

These are perfect for creating your own external hard drive, or treating one of your old hard drives as a backup device.

Either way, any of these devices will save your life and your personal files.

Note: You will have to take your hard drive to a professional data recovery business if your hard drive is damaged or broken.

Finding Decently Priced Replacement Laptop Screens

Uh Ohh... I know the feeling all too well when a laptop screen is cracked, and the replacement prices are horrifying, depending on where you buy them.

When I contacted my manufacturer to price my replacement screen, I was shocked at how much I would be paying through them, which was well above $400 for a replacement screen at the time.

Whether you are taking it to a shop or replacing it yourself, you will actually save a lot of money purchasing them from amazon.com or ebay.com.

Another way to save money is to purchase a broken machine and salvage it for parts (assuming that the screen is good). Warning: Never buy a broken laptop that shows signs that it was dropped and suffered significant damage from that drop.

Below are some selections from amazon.com (you can edit the search results by editing the text in the search bar)

Video Games: Most Annoying way to Die/Lose #1

I'm sure this has happened to some of  you. Accidental Slippage.


Most annoying way to die #1 from animedragonfighter on Vimeo.

Use Task Manager to See which Programs are hogging Resources

Whenever your computer starts to run sluggish or hang, you may want to check the performance status of your machine and see what program/process is using a lot of memory.

1. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. In Windows XP, you can do this or just press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

2. Click on the performance tab, look at the status of your CPU and your memory (if you're an advanced user, you can just use resource monitor).

 

3. Then click on processes tab, you can either filter by cpu or memory usage. You can do it based on your performance observation. If the program using a lot of resources one that is rarely used or not needed, then you can uninstall that program.

Use System File Checker to fix System errors

System File checker is a special tool. It checks the system for corrupted files (whatever's causing a problem), then replace the corrupted file.

**** To do System File Checker in Windows XP. You must have the Windows installation disk of the exact version of XP you're using (Home, Professional, OEM, etc)****

1. Open the start menu, go to Accessories then Open Command Prompt as an Administrator.
2. Then type the command sfc /scannow in the command line and press enter.

 

 

This should help eliminate any system files issues your machine is experiencing.

 

 

 

The dell that had no power

I recently worked on a Dell Deminsion 2350, that would not power on at all.

The first thing that I did was open the case and check the Power Supply Unit (PSU) connections to the motherboard. The connections were tight, the computer still didn't power up, although I seen a lit light on the motherboard I wanted to confirm my suspecions of a faulty power supply unit.

So I went and purchased another dell machine to salvage parts from. This dell gx model (GX 520) I bought did not come with a hard disk drive (HDD). So the first thing I did was take the HDD out of the deminsion 2350 and put it in the gx 520. At this point the gx 520 decided not to power on, then I could smell something burning and immediately unpluged the machine. So I swapped out the PSU in both units, and the Deminsion 2350 powered on for the first time in weeks.

However, when I pluged the molex power source into the HDD, the deminsion 2350 didn't power on anymore. And gave the same burning smell. Turns out, the HDD is bad. So I put another HDD in and installed windows and the computer is currently functioning normally (just like a new computer).

This is more proof, that little things can cause big problems.

Stellar Evolution

Protostar phase – when the materials are collapsing

The process that forms a star is known as Gravitational collapse. The gravitational force gets stronger when the particles go up. The gravitational force is proportional to the density. If the density goes up so does the gravitational force and vice versa. The gravitational force changes within the cloud. Gravity is pulling all of the material towards the center so the density of all the particles is increasing. The temperature (measure of average energy of particle) is also increasing. The pressure is also going up. The particles are moving faster and there will be collisions. All we need to remember is that the gravity, density, temperature and pressure are going up.

·         Temperature, density, pressure increase

o   For example letting temp increase (adding energy), if we have water that’s very cold, it’s ice and when it melts it’s a liquid. Notice how water moves more freely. Then when water boils it turns into a gas. Once we add energy to the gas, it then becomes plasma; at this point it is no longer water and cannot turn back into water because all of the molecular bonds have been broken.

o   So we have a molecular cloud and a high density region, as everything is pulled together it forms a star. Note that this is done at a very high temperature

o   Plasma is a collection of positively and negatively charged ions.

o   We should think of a proton as also hydrogen. A proton is hydrogen that has been ionized (because the electron was removed) because the proton is the nucleus.

·         Plasma core forms

Main sequence

·         Fusion begins at core

o   Hydrogen begins to fuse

Nuclear fusion

o   Nuclear – pertaining to the nucleus

o   Fusion – to combine

o   Nuclear fusion is combining particles of the nucleus

o   So how many types of particles are in the nucleus? Only protons and neutrons, but we will be concentrating more on the protons

o   The reason for this is because the number of protons lets us know what element we’re working with.

o   The protons must be in a higher temperature in order to fuse. When the two protons collide and fuse together, that’s what drives a star.

o   Stars have a plasma core, which are the protons of hydrogen

o   What is taking place is conservation of energy: E = mc2 (Energy = mass * speed of light²)

o   Energy must be injected in the protons to pull them apart. As energy goes up, the mass goes up. This only applies on a molecular level.

o   Nuclear fusion is taking place in the core. Anytime a reaction takes place, energy is released in the form of photons.

o   What is the problem with fusing two protons together? They will still try to push each other apart which  is an instability. The universe does not like to be unstable. The solution is that one of the protons changes to a neutron and the instability disappears because we no longer have like charges.

Hydrogen fusion

o   Our sun has a constant outward flow of energy.

o   Is the sun losing mass? The sun and all other stars are constantly losing mass, due to the fusion taking place inside them.

o   Hydrogen fusion produces helium

o   All stars begin on the main sequence

o   Hydrogen takes place at a lower temperature because of the electromagnetic force

o   Every second our sun converts 700 million tons of hydrogen to 695 million tons of helium. The missing 5 million are the photons that are released.

o   Fusion moves farther away from the center, and this has a huge change on the star. The only change that happens is the location of the fusion.

o   The rate at which the fusion takes place is the same but the amount of material being fused goes up

o   When a star begins to run out of hydrogen at the core and the fusion moves outward.

o   As the star gets bigger the density decreases and the gravitational force is getting weaker

o   After the star leaves the main sequence, then it enters the Giant phase

o   The longer the star is in the Giant phase, the more the helium increases (the star is getting thicker). Hydrogen fusion starts at around 10 million kelvin, helium fusion begins around 100 million kelvin. ***Helium requires higher temperature because they have more mass and are more positively charged and are hard to run into each other.

o   A molecule of helium is heavier than a molecule of hydrogen

Helium fusion

o   Takes place at a higher temperature because it has more protons

o   A change takes place in the star, then the star begins to shrink

o   When helium fusion begins, the star begins to shrink

Proton-proton chain, CNO cycle

o   If the temperature is below 18 Million Kelvin it’s the proton-proton chain, if the temperatures above 18 Million Kelvin is the CNO cycle

Giant phase

 As the star gets bigger the density decreases and the gravitational force is getting weaker.

o   Increased outward pressure

o   Star gets bigger, brighter and cooler

o   After the star leaves the main sequence, then it enters the Giant phase

o   The longer the star is in the Giant phase, the more the helium increases (the star is getting thicker). Hydrogen fusion starts at around 10 million kelvins, helium fusion begins around 100 million kelvins. ***Helium requires higher temperature because they have more mass and are more positively charged and are hard to run into each other.***

o   A molecule of helium is heavier than a molecule of hydrogen

Helium flash ends giant phase.

Anything less than 8 Mass is Low Mass, anything greater than 8 Mass is High Mass. The temperature needed for hydrogen fusion is 10,000,000 kelvin, for helium fusion 10,000 kelvin is needed.

Low mass stars

o   Planetary nebula

o   White dwarf, gas shell

o   For a low mass star, when the helium fusion begins, it becomes unstable.

o   This disturbance causes the fluid within the star to move towards the outer edge which causes problems

Wind

o   The particles in the air running into us (migration of particles).

o   In the low mass star, the outer 1/3 of the mass is ejected. This is known as a massive wind (something like a solar flare). This process is known as Planetary Nebula

o   If the star is a low mass star, it will most likely be a Planetary Nebula

Planetary Nebula

o   ***The star is a (star) white dwarf with a gas shell around it. This takes place after helium fusion

o   All stars produce absorption spectrum. The white dwarf is giving off energy which is injected in to the gas shell, this causes the gas shell to grow, which then the gas shell produces an emission spectrum.

o   The emissions spectrum tells us the composition of the gas shell.

o   When the white dwarf runs out of energy and is no longer glowing, it then becomes a black dwarf.

o   The brown dwarf is when the gravity is pulling together initial material and there’s not enough to create a star. Brown dwarfs form at the early stages of stellar evolution. Basically, brown dwarfs are failed stars.

High Mass stars

o   Supernova

o   Fusion processes

o   High mass stars are more stable

o   A high mass star goes through several additional fusion products

o   The final product of helium fusion is carbon. Carbon builds up around the core, and then it starts to fuse.

o   Hydrogen fusion starts at the core then moves away, which produces helium. Helium fusion starts at the core and then moves away, which produces carbon. Below are the fusions in order…

§  Hydrogen

§  Helium

§  Carbon

§  Neon (heavier than oxygen)

§  Oxygen

§  Silicon

§  **Iron fusion does not take place in a star because, the temperature is too high and iron absorbs energy, and the star begins to collapse (leads to a super nova).

o   As the star gets bigger, the fusion pressure decreases.

o   A low mass star isn’t able to produce multiple fusion process and generate a high enough temperature to produce carbon.

o   Our sun is a low mass star

o   The death of a high mass star is going to be die when the fusion rate decreases

o   While the star is collapsing, the outward pressure is decreasing and the inward pressure is increasing; this causes the star to explode, which causes a Super Nova

Forces and particles

Star forms a plasma core > Fusion takes place > Hydrogen fuses > The Star is then on the Main Sequence and is stable > Then the Giant phase takes place

 

·         There are four forces of the universe

o   Gravity – attractive force between massive objects

o   EM – force between charged particles

o   Strong Nuclear – an attractive force that hold together protons and neutrons

o   Weak Nuclear - W and Z

·         Photons transmit information

·         When we look through a telescope we look at a universe the way it was in the past. For example when we look at the sun, we’re not seeing what the sun looks like right now, we’re seeing how it looked 8.5 minutes ago.

 

Force	Particle
Strong Nuclear
Weak Nuclear
Electromagnetic	Photon – carries info about the electromagnetic force across the universe
Gravity

 

Real Particles and Virtual Photons

·         Real – can be observed and is a product of a physical reaction. For example, starlight.

·         Virtual – cannot be observed and is a result of the environment. For example, a clear plastic box with metal shavings move around when a magnet is waved around it. Notice how you don’t see anything moving the shavings.

·         The photons is the messenger for the electromagnetic force

The Graviton

·         Deals with the gravitational force. We can’t see the force that brings objects down towards the center

Gluon

·         Deals with Strong Nuclear and uses W and Z particles

Particles

·         Real particle – one that can be detected and is the result of a physical process. For example, light from a star.

·         Virtual – one that cannot be detected and is the result of the environment.

Matter and Anti-Matter

·         Matter – protons and electrons.

·         Anti-Matter – positrons (opposite electrons [it’s dark twin] but has a positive charge) and anti-proton (opposite protons [it’s dark twin] and have a negative charge)

·         Matter and anti-matter come together all the time; the particles just annihilate and release energy. Nothing like Science Fiction movies/novels.

Integer and half-integer Spin

·         Spin – describes how particles interact with the environment

·         Spin 0 particle always looks the same to its environment. It will be a sphere with a single color.

·         Spin 1 particle looks the same once when it turns 360.

·         Spin 2 particle looks the same twice when turned 360.

·         These are all integer spin particles.

·         Spin ½ particle is a fractional spin particle.

·         Integer spin particles are called bosons

·         Fractional spin particles are called fermions

·         The Pauli Exclusion Principle – two things can’t be at the same place at the same time. For example everyone is using light to see, with no interference. Photons (that are fermions) are excluded; however, photons (that are bosons) are not.

·         Pauli – are fermions

·         No Pauli – are Bosons.

Uncertainty principle

It’s impossible to know the exact position and velocity at the exact same time of individual particles. We find things by either catching a signal from them or bouncing a signal off of it. For example, light is bouncing off of it, and that signal you to see it. Another example is looking for keys in a dark room, and using a flash light to bounce the light off of the keys. The two main signals (ways) we use are light and sound. Radio waves the wavelength will be a meter or longer. The size of a molecule and visible light reflects off of the atmosphere, which causes the sky to be blue. The blue wave is reflected much more. This same process makes the sun look red at sunset (on the horizon).  The sun looks yellow overhead because the thickness of the atmosphere filters the light and makes the sun appear yellow. A small particle is knocked and it’s behavior changes. A signal of a high energy is used to find particles and this changes its behavior.  The uncertainty principle is the observation changing the behavior of a particle. This apply only to things on the atomic level (very small in size).

·         Trying to measure individual particles

o   Observe something you have to bounce a signal off of. The signal must have a smaller wavelength than what you are looking for

·         Position and velocity

·         Proton beam

o   Once you find the individual proton, you knock it out of the beam and change it’s behavior.