RichardPeacock.com

This is going to be slightly shameless self-promotion, but here goes.

Do you need a simple way to backup important files on your computer? 

Say you want run a backup every night of your music, documents, dropbox, etc, to an external hard drive.  And, let's say, automatically delete old backups so you only ever keep 30 days worth.

Well, that's exactly what my latest program, psBackup, can do.  It can also download a file from your web server every night too--  I use it with my module Daily Site Backup.

Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux/Unix.  You can try it out with the trial version, and if you want to buy it, it's only $4.99.  C'mon, support an independent developer ;)

Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Thanks,

Richard

So we all know we're supposed to have a different password for every site we go to, but of course no one does that.  Instead you end up using the same password for everything because its easier to remember.  The problems occur when your favorite website, knittin-for-kittens.org, gets hacked and your password stolen, and its the same password you use for your bank account.

What you need is a password scheme that lets you use a different password for every site you go to, so even if one gets stolen, it won't comproise all your other sites.

Here's the system I use:

Chose a random, nonsense "base" with both numbers and letters. Include at least one capital letter.  For example:  zh2Ms. 
This is just something you will have to dedicate to memory.  If you base it on a phrase, that can help.  Example: zebra have 2 Many stripes = zh2Ms

Next, add on the name of the site or service you are using.  For example...

gmail:         zh2Msgmail
facebook:   zh2Msfacebook
bank:          zh2Msbank

and so on.  Now you have unique passwords for every site you use, but you will always be able to remember them.

PS:  for the best security, you should really be using lastpass!  It's wonderful and free.
 

Attached File(s): 

getDueCoords.php_.txt

This post explains how, given latitude and longitude coordinates in Google Maps (specifically, in the Static API), how one can draw a bounding box around them, based on a distance in either miles or kilometers.

Let's say you already know the lat/long of a particular point on the map, and now you want to draw a box around it, or maybe you just need to know the lat/long coordinates of another point, so many km or miles away?  Well, this is the script for you!

Based on a script retrieved from here:
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?656315-adding-distance-gps-coordinates-get-bounding-box

The trick is that Google Maps wants you to provide it with the lat/long coordinates for each corner of the box.  After several hours of searching, I finally found a script which I was able to modify to give me what I needed.

Simply download the script linked at the top of the page, and then use the following code to create the image you see here. 

Enjoy!

    $lat = -33.872986011907216;
    $lng = 150.90904516601563;

    // Create the static map api image.
    $static_maps_url = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap";
    $static_maps_url .= "?center=$lat,$lng";
    $static_maps_url .= "&zoom=15";
    $static_maps_url .= "&size=300x300";
    $static_maps_url .= "&maptype=roadmap";
    $static_maps_url .= "&sensor=false";
    $static_maps_url .= "&markers=color:blue|$lat,$lng";

    // Figure out the corners of a box surrounding our lat/lng.
    $d = 0.3;  // distance
    $path_top_right = bpot_getDueCoords($lat, $lng, 45, $d);
    $path_bottom_right = bpot_getDueCoords($lat, $lng, 135, $d);
    $path_bottom_left = bpot_getDueCoords($lat, $lng, 225, $d);
    $path_top_left = bpot_getDueCoords($lat, $lng, 315, $d);
   
    $static_maps_url .= "&path=color:334433|weight:5|fillcolor:0xFFFF0033|";
    $static_maps_url .= "$path_top_left|$path_top_right|$path_bottom_right|";
    $static_maps_url .= "$path_bottom_left|$path_top_left";
     
    // Now, draw the image from Google Maps API!
    print "<img src='$static_maps_url'>";

Software License Fine Print

This code is licensed as-is, with no warranty or guarantee, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

You may use this code however you want, even in commercial products, but only if you include attribution to me, Richard Peacock, as the original author of this small portion of code, but not in a way that implies I endorse your project.

For example, on a Help/Credits screen:  Portions of this project were based on work freely obtained from these developers: Richard Peacock (http://richardpeacock.com), NAME HERE, etc.  These outside developers neither endorse nor support this software.

If you use this code, feel free to email me to let me know!  I'll include a link to your project here.

Attached File(s): 

Prefs.java_.txt

If you have done any programming for an Android phone, you've probably already used (or at least heard of) Android's built-in database option of SQLite.  SQLite is a fine system, but it can be cumbersome to work with, especially if you only need to store a few values. 

Enter your new best friend: Preferences.

Think of "Preferences" as a way to save data (like Strings) outside of your application.  It's like a database in that way, but it is much easier to put data in and get data out.  If you build a Preferences Activity at some point, then it will actually be using this very system-- but that's another blog post.

I have included my own class for working with Preferences.  It is linked at the top of the post.  To use it, instantiate a Prefs object like so:

Prefs prefs = new Prefs(context);
// Prefs prefs = new Prefs(this) will work 
// if you are within an Activity

Now, to store a String value, all you have to do is this:

String mUserNameString = "rpeacock";
prefs.setPreference("username", mUserNameString);

To retrieve that value later, even after the app has closed and restarted, all you have to do is this:

String temp = prefs.getPreference("username");

Isn't that easy?  More to the point, isn't that much easier than creating an SQLite object, constructing a query, executing the query, then closing the connection?  That's why I use Preferences everywhere I can.  It's also great for accessing values between Activities, services, etc.

The code I attached only does Strings, but you can easily extend it to work with any value.  Enjoy!

Software License Fine Print

This code is licensed as-is, with no warranty or guarantee, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

You may use this code however you want, even in commercial products, but only if you include attribution to me, Richard Peacock, as the original author of this small portion of code, but not in a way that implies I endorse your project.

For example, on a Help/Credits screen:  Portions of this project were based on work freely obtained from these developers: Richard Peacock (http://richardpeacock.com), NAME HERE, etc.  These outside developers neither endorse nor support this software.

If you use this code, feel free to email me to let me know!  I'll include a link to your project here.