Justin Germino Ramblings

This weekend I bunker down to catch up on some SANS training before my class expires, so I won’t be able to get as much Guild Wars 2 time as I normally like.  I have been learning more about mobile device security lately as it has become an interest of mine, learning very much the specific vulnerabilities and functionality differences of Windows 8 phones, Blackberry OS 10, Android and iOS operating systems, what makes them tick and how to secure them.

Meanwhile, I find myself realizing that nearly everybody I talk to and have heard from including instructors in the course rave about the Windows 8 phone interface, that it is the best interface out on any mobile device I keep hearing.  So many say it blows away iOS, Android and Blackberry as an interface, and the only thing that prevents it from becoming widespread is really the lack of applications and general support from software companies.

This makes me really want to get my hands on one, it’s too bad I can’t get Microsoft or Nokia to send me a review copy of one of their Lumia phones so I can play around with it and give an actual hands on review of the Windows 8 OS myself for my readers.

So when I woke last weekend to find my computer crashed there was multiple layers of damage, first off the power supply failed, this caused some sort of spike to damage the liquid CPU cooler I had that was some factory default set and not a brand I could identify.  This also corrupted my SSD drives so they couldn’t be recognized by the BIOS.

I replaced the power supply not realizing my liquid CPU cooler was hosed at first because the fans on the CPU cooler worked, it was the cpu cooler itself that was out of commission.  A quick boot to even the blue screen of death and the CPU overheated causing my screen to mash before the PC powered off to save itself from going Chernobyl.

I wound up buying both a Corsair TX850 power supply and the Corsair Hydro H60 Liquid CPU cooler and I can tell you I am very impressed with both products, though I have only been using them for a few days.

Replacing the CPU cooler was a cinch, and I was able to salvage one of the extra fans from the old cooler so I could have 2 fans on the radiator.  With the new power supply and liquid CPU cooler I can tell you that my CPU stays in the 335 degree Celsius range when under casual usage and goes about 40 when running some intensive games. This was much better than my older CPU cooler which allowed my CPU to get up to 55 degrees Celsius.

I did some extensive prime95 CPU load testing and some other testing constantly churning the CPU up to 4.4ghz (this is a core-i7 2600k) and the temps still stayed at a decent 43 – 53 range and that was at sustained max load.

At $64.99 the Corsair Hydro H60 is a very reasonable priced liquid CPU cooler and what strikes me is how amazingly quiet it is, I couldn’t even tell my PC is on really with 4 case fans (2 on both sides of the CPU Cooler radiator, 1 side and 1 top), it makes less than 50% of the noise of my old CPU cooling solution.

Highly recommended if you are in the market for a new Liquid CPU Cooler and it supports both Intel and AMD chips having the appropriate mounting brackets and supplies for both types of chipsets and motherboard sockets.

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Today I am accompanying my wife as she hunts for gems at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show which is an annual trek for her.  I like going and am hoping to find some geodes for the boys to bring home, where they can crack open with a chisel and see what minerals are collected within.

My wife is on a quest for Tanzanite this year, I remember when she got a great deal on a 23 carat Kunzite a few years back when I went, was such a beautiful stone and she got the vendor to give like 60% off the asking price.

Meanwhile, now that my computer is back up and running I have a ton of product reviews to catch up and work to queue for the week, will be spending many an evening trying to catch up over the next few days.

It has been about 2 weeks since I managed to procure any new 5 star cards, but my current deck is doing pretty well in Elemental Kingdoms.

With my rank staying around 100 in the PVP battles, I continue to try to see if I can get my hands on an Ice Dragon or some 5 Star Forest cards other than the Fire Kirin’s.

I don’t have enough cards that have immunity to all spells, so when I am up against some opponents who have many cards with abilities they can be tough.  The 3 Taiga Generals though make quick work of any opponents who don’t have a stack of immunity to all spell cards.

I am looking to build a stronger Forest deck next as I keep looking for more cards in towers.  I spend about 15-30 minutes per day just keeping up with the treasures and the daily check in, it is a fun distraction when I am waiting an an office or before bed or 1st thing in the morning while I am drinking coffee.

Like most people you get stuck using the Windows partition manager only to find that it has many limitations and may not work or do exactly what you ant it to do other than formatting, splitting a drive and creating partitions with some loose flexibility around growing and shrinking if the data isn’t used and there is free unallocated space.

Well EaseUS has a free program called partition manager free which has some great tools in the free edition and even more tools in the premium version.

The software was easy to download and install, but like many free versions of products it will try to install other software you may not want.  Make sure you pay attention and always choose custom installation and uncheck any unwanted software that will get installed automatically if you just do an express install. 

Starting up the software and you get yourself a few simple options to choose from, Partition Manager, Backup and Restore and Data Recovery.

As with any tool that handles your partitions I wanted to test with creating partitions, resizing partitions and merging partitions back together to see if data would all move properly.

I first created a partition by splitting one of my SSD drives into multiple partitions.

I basically split my G: drive into a 60GB and 25GB partition separately.

After the partition is created, you can see the volumes below.

I formatted the partition played around with some data, then decided to go ahead and merge the 2 partitions together while data was still on both formatted partitions.

All you have to do is right click on the partition, select merge partition.

And then choose which partitions you are merging back together.  You have to click apply changes at top left after you click OK or the merge never happens, it took quite a bit longer to merge the partitions than to creaate and format them, but took about 10 minutes to merge the 90GB back together.

When I merged the partitions I did not lose my data but it did create a sub folder under the drive root folder that had the original partitions contents.

This basically means it creates 2 sub folders, 1 for each partition you had prior to merging and keeps the original content in each folder so you can sort through later.  There was no option to just migrate all data to parent folder but this is a very easy manual step and the ability to merge multiple partitions together is a great feature and helps if you are like me and constantly create new test partitions for Virtual Machines or test builds and want to merge them back when you are done with them.

Overall I was impressed with the partition software in how it allowed me to create and do away my partitions when I was finished with them, I was able to merge and put partitions back together without losing files and this utility even let me reclaim space from a VM drive where I over-allocated too much space originally to a VM that didn’t need that much space.

I had a great weekend playing traditional Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition with my boys a few days ago.  Now that Oliver is 7 years old he can read and write and do much of the hit point addition/subtraction during combat himself and he loves having a dry erase board and drawing the number of opponents, locations of where everybody is at so I let him be the one to chart out the combat on a white board as it helps keep him more engaged.

I dug out my old excel generators that I created back in 2001/2001 which were so incredibly clever and complex, one was my gem generator.  Rather than have generic gems, I created a generator that calculated the type of stone, carrot weight, cut type or uncut and value using several tables from the Dragon magazines and Dungeon Master materials and this wound up to be a very easy way to instantly create many many gems for treasure hoards.

This was one of my many tools, I had so many and wanted to create an actual iOS or Android application that can leverage these tools, it may be something I look into as a Dungeon Masters companion, the key would be make the tools and generators compatible with any game system, not anything specific to D&D 3.5 rules, so it could work with just about anything.

This may be a project I pursue in the near future for fun.

Your children are growing up in the age of consumerism, and they will start noticing money at an early age. When they’re young, money is an abstract concept: it’s green paper handed across counters and registers, or plastic cards that adults swipe in machines that let them buy things. But as soon as kids start asking questions or showing interest in how money works, it’s time to teach them a few basic concepts.

It’s not always easy to explain savings, budgeting, and bargain shopping to a 5-year-old, but if you incorporate lessons into everyday life, your children will start to understand the principles of good money habits that will shape them into financially responsible young adults.

Give Them an Allowance

The allowance question is an ongoing debate that will never find a universal solution, but the most important thing is to find a method that works for you and your children. Allowances can be one of the easiest ways to teach them about money management. Whether you attach it to chores, hand it out with no strings attached, or come up with a list of “super chores” they can do to earn money, use their allowance to practice saving, budgeting, and to teach them where money in the “real world” comes from.

Take Them Shopping

When you go shopping with your child, take the time to show them price tags and coupons. Explain why you buy the brands you do, and have them help you find the best deals. When you get to the register, instead of letting them ogle the candy display, have them count out the proper change or hand the money to the cashier to give them a hands-on learning experience.

If you have older children, have them help you shop for more complicated things. When you call for auto insurance quotes in Calgary, have them help you find the best deal for the best price. Have them compare online deals to the prices in store, and include shipping expenses and the cost of gas in your calculations. Get your children involved in family purchases, and they will begin to understand the value of wise spending.

Open a Bank Account

Most banks won’t have a problem with your child opening an account as long as you co-sign. Help them start their own bank account, and then make regular trips to deposit money so that they can see the gradual increase in their account. Show them how interest and savings work. Make sure you let them withdraw money occasionally so that they’re not just depositing money into the unknown—children will lose interest in the abstract. But if they can see the numbers on their bank slips go up and down, they’ll start to grasp the idea of saving and spending.

If you don’t feel comfortable with your child having a bank account, try the same teaching method with a piggy bank instead.

Let Them Borrow Money

If your child wants a specific toy or game desperately but doesn’t have enough money saved up for it, consider letting them borrow money from you to pay for the item. Having them save until they have enough to pay for the item themselves is one way to teach them good money habits, but you can also take the opportunity to teach them about loans. Lend them the money and then have them pay you back with their allowance or money they earn from extra chores. Set up a plan with them before you let them purchase the item, and make sure they understand that getting the toy now means their income will be reduced for the next few months until they pay you back.

Be careful—you don’t want your children to learn that it’s ok to borrow money anytime they want (when they get older, “toys” will become boats, RVs, expensive cars, etc.). Make sure you use this method as a one-time lesson about the consequences of borrowing money, not as a guaranteed way to get what they want.

Let Them Make Mistakes

If your child wants to buy a toy that will either break easily or won’t bring them the satisfaction they think it will, let them. If you let them make small mistakes now, they’ll be less likely to make bigger mistakes in the future. Take the opportunity to teach them why such-and-such a purchase was an unwise decision, and help them see what a better option might have been (saving their money, buying a more versatile item, saving to buy a more expensive, resilient version). They will learn to spend their money with the future in mind rather than on a whim.

It is never too early to start teaching your child about money. Make sure they know where it comes from—it doesn’t grow on trees, and machines don’t just spit it out when you want to buy something. Teach them how to save, how to find good bargains, and how to be frugal and savvy with their limited income. Make the abstract concrete, and turn your mini-consumers into mini-financial gurus instead.

About the Author

Melanie Hargrave is a wife and homemaker whose family is her pride and joy. In addition to spending time with her husband and daughters, she loves reading, blogging, and giving her children opportunities to learn by teaching them life lessons from companies like Anthony Clark Insurance.

The American West has long been an enticing destination for adventurers of all kinds. The region brims with hot spots ripe for exploration, so finding a quality experience is easy—the tough part is narrowing the list down. If your travels take you out West, take the time to explore these destinations:

Crater Lake National Park

Image via Flickr by Odalaigh

Many of the most enticing destinations in the American West are attractive for their sheer scope—the region’s landmarks, like its legends, are larger than life, such that they simply must be experienced in person. Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park is no different. The lake itself, a 2,148-foot deep body of water set in a caldera, or collapsed volcano, is among the country’s most beautiful natural sites. Besides its enormous size, the lake is famous for its deep blue hue and clarity, both of which are also best seen first-hand.

The Grand Canyon

Image via Flickr by isaac.borrego

Another landmark that’s noteworthy for its colossal size also happens to be perhaps the most famous natural landmark in America. Arizona’s Grand Canyon is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and is a popular centerpiece of many Southwestern vacations, for good reason. Photographs alone cannot convey the grandeur of its rocky depths, whose existence represents millions, if not billions, of years of geological history.

Canyonlands National Park

Image via Flickr by ethanbeute

The Grand Canyon may be the Colorado River’s crowning achievement, but the waterway’s beautiful handiwork can be experienced further north, as well. In particular, consider a trip to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. The sprawling park encompasses a variety of unique landmarks and regions, including the Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. Furthermore, for the seasoned desert traveler eager to see as many sights as possible, the famous Bryce Canyon is just a four-hour drive away.

Yosemite and Sequoia

Image via Flickr by Lo Scorpione

One needn’t necessarily crisscross the country to experience a variety of natural wonders. Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, two of America’s most prized parcels of wilderness, are within easy reach of one another near California’s Gold Coast. The former is among the country’s most famous parks, and boasts sparkling waterfalls, rugged gorges, verdant meadows, and more within its 1,200-square-mile expanse. Sequoia, meanwhile, is best known for (and named after) its enormous redwood trees, which are by far the largest in the world.

The Western Cities: From Las Vegas to Seattle

Image via Flickr by Salim Virji

The American West is famous for its legendary wilderness, but city slickers can enjoy many rich experiences in the region’s urban offerings, as well. The West’s big cities are colorful, unique, and packed full of prime sight-seeing opportunities, from Las Vegas’ bright lights and casino strip, to San Francisco’s beautiful coast and Golden Gate Bridge, to Seattle’s thriving culture and Space Needle. Any one of these cities would make a great vacation spot by itself; better yet, with the help of a Hertz car rental, one can embark on a good old-fashioned American road trip from city to city.

With the holidays coming up, now is the perfect time to chart your own sightseeing expedition across the American West. Take the time to visit one or more of these destinations, and embark on an unforgettable Western adventure!

Author Bio:

Randy is a freelance writer based out of Brooklyn, New York. He spends most of his time trying to stay ahead of news world with interesting and informative articles, all the while entertaining the world at night with his music and art.

Thinking to save money on your auto insurance by using one of those devices you plug into your car which monitors your driving habits?  I did this myself with my current insurance provider to save the extra change, but when I had access to the DriveSense analytics it made me stop and think a little bit and consider if I am really sure I want this much data shared?

How Much Are You Sharing with Insurance Companies?

Well, if you have one of those tracking devices installed in your car which monitors everything from your driving speed, averages, miles, trips, location and any harsh events it can detect.  You pretty much are giving a fully detailed roadmap (pun intended) of all of your driving habits.

A quick test to a local store yesterday and it shows I drove 2 miles, had an average speed of 31mph and hit a max speed of 48mph during that 2 mile trip.

I also get a GPS map showing me the exact route I took with the time I left and the time I shut off the car.  You get a full log of all your trips, miles driven and can track if you have any harsh events.  I don’t know what classifies as a harsh event as I haven’t seen any on my record, but I assume it is excessive speeding or something along those lines.

However, I found a glitch in the DriveSense because it doesn’t always track car speed properly, we take a truck to California periodically and this truck really can’t go above 90mph, occasionally I get up to 95 on the 75 I-8, I know it is speeding but it is abandoned and helps shave a few minutes off of a 6 hour drive.

Seeing that the car monitor recorded me at speeds of 128MPH was absurd, as this truck can’t even hit that speed and I have never even hit 110 before in any car in my life.  No chance I was doing 128mph so the technology must be reading the speedometer improperly or something here.  Note, the monitor thinks I was going 128MPH yet there was no "harsh event" flag, if I saw any speed really reach that I would think it should flag as a harsh event in my opinion.

You can see that my average miles driven is quite a bit lower than the average DriveSense user over the past 20 days.

I can even see where my 3 cars are parked right now by logging into this site, so it kind of acts like a stolen theft device if a car thief forgets to remove it, or removes it after their trip, it can lead police right to the last location the car was parked before the device was removed.

You can even setup alerts for exceeding a specific speed or harsh driving patterns (again, not sure what classifies as harsh driving). 

This however, I see as a great feature for parents of teenage drivers, you can get driving patterns and reports while your kids are behind the wheel, know that they are going where they say they are going and get a report if they are being reckless and speeding behind the wheel so you can help reinforce safe driving conditions before they get into an accident.

So yes, by having your driving patterns analyzed it may lead to savings on your auto insurance at the loss of any sort of privacy around your driving habits, hopefully by having a clean driving pattern this should lead to savings and lower premiums as a result.  You also gain the benefit of monitoring the vehicle if you have children who drive your car, but is it worth the insurance company knowing everything about your vehicle, where you go, how fast you go, and every aspect of what you are doing with your car?

It also poses a security risk if the site should be exposed, it could allow targeting for theft, break ins and more.  Should someone learn that you use this insurance company and service they may be able to find out when you are not home and break in…etc.  The data could be stolen, shared at any point like any other online data and these are all things to consider when installing a device that monitors your every driving habit just to save a few dollars with your insurance company.

For the record, I do have these installed in my own vehicles because I love reviewing and testing all new technology and I wanted to learn more about it.  I am not endorsing any insurance company whatsoever, just merely stating my opinion and views on insurance companies that monitor your car habits.

If you’re searching for a great new way to promote your brand, YouTube is available to all businesses both large and small. Creating your account is easy and once it’s set up, it’s free to upload your videos to your YouTube account. It’s also free for users to watch your videos, which encourages more people to view and share them with others.

Creating videos and uploading them to your YouTube channel is a great way to promote your business but that’s the easy part. You may find getting people to view your content a bit more challenging due to the incredible number of videos posted to YouTube on a daily basis. There are countless videos available on just about any subject you can think of, so getting people to notice yours is the challenging part but it can be done.

You can’t just post your videos and wait for people to find them. You’ll need to put some time into promoting your YouTube channel to encourage people to watch your videos but it’s well worth the effort. Here are some ways to increase YouTube views and draw more attention to your videos.

Add Links Everywhere

To promote your video, add a link on your website, in your email and on other social networking sites leading to your YouTube channel. Place links everywhere it’s appropriate and you’ll greatly increase your exposure. People will click on the link and if you have an interesting title, thumbnail and description, many of them will view your video to see what you have to offer and this will increase your YouTube views. In your video descriptions, add a link to your company’s website to make it easy for people to learn more about your brand. This will generate more interest in both your videos and your website.

Copying and pasting URLs is outdated. Users want and expect the convenience of using links and when you provide them throughout all your content, where appropriate of course, it encourage people to click on the links.

Be Creative

Creative content will drive visitors to your site faster than other types of content because people are attracted to things that are unique. Visual content appeals to your customers better than written content but no one wants to see the same old boring thing all the time. They want to watch videos that offer fresh and exciting content. When you create a video that appeals to your customer’s emotions, it helps to build trust and good relationships that turn followers into loyal customers.

While you do want your videos to show creativity, they also need to be short. Two minutes is the average length and it’s just enough time to engage the viewer and make them interested in your product but still short enough to not turn off or aggravate users.

Promoting your brand on YouTube has many benefits and it’s very easy to do. It’s a great way to create a buzz about your company and share information that will generate interest in your business. You can maximize your marketing efforts when you extend your marketing strategies to include YouTube and you have many ways to promote your videos to increase your views.

About the Author

Ethan Young is considered an expert in his field and he has years of experience creating and posting YouTube videos.