GeekwithEnvy

Windows

How To Make an LED Cube

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This is a great build video for an 8x8x8 LED cube by Kevin Darrah that I stumbled upon on the web. It goes over the basic build techniques  and shows you how to utilize a jig for assembling the LED arrays. As you watch the video you will quickly begin to realize that this project is not for the entry-level builder, clearly this is something that will consume a lot of your time and patience but the end result is awesome. Either way, it’s interesting to see how it all comes together.Blue LED in a cube

There are many Arduino builds out there that can be great for beginners. If you’re not familiar with Arduino then I highly recommend that you read this introduction to Arduino, it covers everything you will need to get up-to-speed on what it’s all about.

You can find many projects in the Arduino Playground, they include schematics and code to help you build cool stuff. If you want to make a much more novice-friendly 3×3 LED Cube you can use these schematics and code.

So what are you waiting for? Find a project and get building!

ASCII Art Generator

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ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange and it is a code that represents English characters as numbers in computers. There are a total 128 characters in standard ASCII and many of them can be used to create ASCII art, which is created by using the 95 printable characters out of the total 128.ASCIIHeart

You can easily piece together your own ASCII art by simply opening any text editing program but if you want a quick way to turn ordinary text strings into an ASCII art masterpiece, then check out this awesome Text to ASCII Art Generator by Patorjk.com.

Here’s an example of what one style of ASCII text art looks like. There are tons of different styles to choose from and there are even options to change format output.


 

/$$   /$$           /$$ /$$                 /$$      /$$                     /$$       /$$
| $$  | $$          | $$| $$                | $$  /$ | $$                    | $$      | $$
| $$  | $$  /$$$$$$ | $$| $$  /$$$$$$       | $$ /$$$| $$  /$$$$$$   /$$$$$$ | $$  /$$$$$$$
| $$$$$$$$ /$$__  $$| $$| $$ /$$__  $$      | $$/$$ $$ $$ /$$__  $$ /$$__  $$| $$ /$$__  $$
| $$__  $$| $$$$$$$$| $$| $$| $$  \ $$      | $$$$_  $$$$| $$  \ $$| $$  \__/| $$| $$  | $$
| $$  | $$| $$_____/| $$| $$| $$  | $$      | $$$/ \  $$$| $$  | $$| $$      | $$| $$  | $$
| $$  | $$|  $$$$$$$| $$| $$|  $$$$$$/      | $$/   \  $$|  $$$$$$/| $$      | $$|  $$$$$$$
|__/  |__/ \_______/|__/|__/ \______/       |__/     \__/ \______/ |__/      |__/ \_______/

You can also create images by using ASCII characters, you can use a picture to ASCII converter like Picascii. You can either enter a URL or upload an image to convert it to ASCII Art. There are even options for size and color plus an HTML formatter to ensure it looks correct when posting the art elsewhere.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Step Down

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Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer (57) has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft within the next twelve months. Steve Ballmer has been CEO of Microsoft since 2000, he filled the position after Bill Gates stepped down.

Although Microsoft has remained quite strong under Ballmer it seems that lately the software giant has been struggling with it’s identity. This change up could shake things up enough to push the company forward towards future innovation and hopefully we will see some strong results.

“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”

Steve has always been extremely passionate about Microsoft, as is evident in many of his early promotional videos and appearances for the company. I highly recommend you check out this video.

 

How To Boot to the Desktop in Windows 8.1

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Windows8DesktopBoot

The new Windows 8 Start screen is great but it’s not for everyone and having to click to get to the desktop just a waste of time if you never use it. Thankfully, there is a way to get past this and it’s built right into Windows 8.1. Yes, there are no secret codes, buttons or hacks necessary to accomplish this.

Just follow these steps:

  • Boot up your computer and click the “Desktop Tile” to enter “Desktop Mode”
  • Right-Click on the “Task Bar”
  • Select “Properties”
  • Select the “Navigation Tab”
  • Place a check in the checkbox next to “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in”
  • Click “OK”

That’s it, it really is that simple. Next time you reboot your computer it will take you right to the desktop, no questions asked.

Don’t have the Windows 8.1 Preview and you want to try it out? Microsoft has you covered on their Windows 8.1 Preview page.

 

 

How To Securely Wipe a Flash Drive

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Road Kils Disk Wipe ScreenShot
Screenshot of Road Kils Disk Wipe

Sometimes we just want to make sure that our data is wiped clean, not just deleted, but completely wiped out. There are many great ways to do this for hard-disk drives which we have covered earlier, but what about flash drives like USB sticks? Flash memory is not usually covered by software applications that securely erase hard-disk drives.

There is a great application out there that will get the job done and that’s Roadkil’s DiskWipe. The app is available for almost all Windows versions. Windows 9x/ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows XP, Vista,Windows 7, and Windows 8.

  • Once you download and extract everything, go ahead and run the program as administrator.
  • Next, select the drive you want to securely erase and choose then choose method you want to use. This application offers up two classic ways of wiping out data, the first is to fill the drive with zeros (zero-out), the second method is will just enter random data.
  • Once you have chosen your wipeout method, input the number of passes. The higher you go in passes, the harder it is to retrieve the old data your trying to protect.
  • Click Erase.

After the process is complete, your ready to go and the drive is ready for new data. Remember, that depending on the size of the drive it could take a while to perform a wipe. The number of passes will also determine erase time as well as the speed at which the drive operates. (usb 2.0,usb 3.0 )