Blender Fox

11 Hidden Windows Secrets and Tricks

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Whilst primarily for Windows 7, there’s plenty of tricks hidden under the Aero hood.

11 Hidden Windows Secrets and Tricks.

xkcd: Sphere

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xkcd: Sphere.

Do you have the dumbest PIN in ATM history?- MSN Money

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Is your Credit/Debit/ATM card PIN in this list? Change it – NOW.

  1. 1234
  2. 1111
  3. 0000
  4. 1212
  5. 7777
  6. 1004
  7. 2000
  8. 4444
  9. 2222
  10. 6969

Do you have the dumbest PIN in ATM history?- MSN Money.

10K Training – Day 5: Getting Faster - Day 1

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Tracks: ZR (None - app playing up again), Endomondo (here, and here)

Disappointing today. My phone reset itself during my run, completely screwing up my stats.

Cookie Monster Puts Sweet Spin on Icona Pop's 'I Love It' [VIDEO]

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www.youtube.com/watch

Cookie Monster Puts Sweet Spin on Icona Pop’s ‘I Love It’ [VIDEO].

Zombies, Run! Audio Extraction Script

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Here’s a snippet to extract all the ZR zips. Copy all the zips onto your desktop and run this in a console window

for a in .zip do unzip -o $a -d <a class="zem_slink" title="Basename" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basename" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia">basename</a> $a .zip rm $a rm basename $a .zip/.json done

Now, each ZR zip contains the audio (as mp3s), plus a json file detailing what item ranges can be picked up during each block and with what probability. We don’t need this for what we are doing.

There’s also no telling whether or not Six to Start will start including other files within their zips, so rather than extract just the mp3s, I extract everything, then take out what I know I don’t need.

 

10K Training: Missed Run

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I missed today’s run due to a torrential downpour of rain. So I shifted my run to tomorrow. This means I’ll have three runs back to back - a jog tomorrow, a fast run (5 km @ 5:48 - 5:40 min/km), and my first interval run of the training (3 km @ 5:48 - 5:24 min/km).

The MyAsics website warns me against running “long distances in succession”. Well, I don’t really think 3k and 5k are significantly long distances, somehow….

Watch Every One of Doctor Who's 13 (Yes, 13) Regeneration Scenes

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Doctor Who. One of the longest running series to date with the same leading character and one of the only series with 12 actors playing the same lead character. And the story is seriously convoluted….

Watch Every One of Doctor Who’s 13 (Yes, 13) Regeneration Scenes.

Zombies, Run! Building Requirements &amp; Achievements

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I’ve started work on two FAQs which list the building requirements and achievements that can be unlocked in the game. The links are:

http://goo.gl/WdZsEV (Achievements)

http://goo.gl/VhwuCa (Building Requirements)

The information isn’t quite complete as I haven’t built all the buildings, or unlocked all the achievements. But it’s a start. I’ve made a guess on some of the requirements for some of the achievements, but they’re not confirmed. If you’ve unlocked any of the ones I’m missing, let me know, so I can fill the gaps.

Side Run #1

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Tracks: ZR, Endomondo

Not part of my training plan, but felt like I could go for a second round, so, what the heck, I went for it. Felt surprisingly good actually…

10K Training – Day 4: Preconditioning Phase – Day 4

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Tracks: ZR, Endomondo

The ZR app is still playing up, but only on the latest missions. I have a few missions to complete before then anyway, so I’ve raised a ticket with Six to Start about it.

As for the training. Today’s target: 8 km @ 7:12 - 6:38.

Achieved: 8.04 km @ 5:50

Next run, Monday - 5 km @ 7:46 min/km

Also, discovered that AKB48 is a nice band to listen to whilst running. Some comfortably fast beats to keep time to.

Related articles
 

10K Training - Rest Day #1

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Tracks: ZR (None, app still playing up on me), Endomondo

Today is a rest day. But I still ran. I decided to try Endomondo’s fitness scoring. The scoring is a 2 mile or 3 km run, and you are scored based on the time it takes you to complete the run. I scored 35.9, which for me classifies as “Fair” :-/

Back to training tomorrow. Day 3 target: 8 km @ 7:12 - 6:38 min/km

Related articles
 

Spain Crash: Driver 'Speeding At Twice Limit'

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Spain Crash: Driver ‘Speeding At Twice Limit’.

Training Plans on Endomondo

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Endomondo have started rolling out training plans for runners. These training plans are dynamic in that they update and change based on your progress and fitness.

You must churn out a certain mileage per week in order to qualify for a training plan. For example, I do around 15K a week, and therefore, Endomondo offers me a 5-15km training plan, but doesn't offer me a Half Marathon or Marathon training plan.

Here's an example of a training plan Endomondo offered me for a 10K. I'm not using this plan for two reasons. First, I'm already in the middle of a training plan with MyAsics, and second, this plan finishes in JANUARY and the earliest I can end the plan is October 25th, which is way beyond the date of October 6th when my first 10K race is.

EndoTrainingPlan

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Road Signs Tell a Story

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5fa4e4e689b6eb437d18a45e5064ecfc.jpg (816×566).

10K Training - Day 3: Preconditioning Phase - Day 3

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Tracks: Endomondo (no ZR track as the app is playing up on me yet again)

Today’s target: 5K jog @ 7:46 min/km

Achieved: 5.38km @ 6.58 min/km

Ran a LOT slower today. I wanted to pace myself for the whole 5K, but when you’re running in 33degC heat, any extended running is really difficult.

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TV on Google Play

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It would appear that Google Play now do TV shows. Kind of an “On Demand” thing. True, you still have to pay for the shows, but they’ve got some pretty big name shows there now:

And even for the learning types, they've got documentary series too: They're running a couple of free episodes at the moment via here.
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10K Training - Day 2: Preconditioning Phase - Day 2

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Tracks: ZR, Endomondo

This run was supposed to have been done yesterday, but I missed it due to the rain. Target today was 8km @ 7:46 min/km. I did 8.30km @ 5:49. The first 5k was fine - a nice, steady pace, but the last 3k I had trouble keeping the pace up. Next run is tomorrow - 5km @ 7:46 min/km

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Zombies, Run! | New Zombies, Run! missions are now available!

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The hiatus is over! We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming: Zombies, Run! Season 2. We have another ten weeks worth of new missions (30 in total!) to deliver to you, dear fans, so we hope you’re all caught up with the story. And if you’ve enjoyed the first half of season 2, just wait and see how much more epically bombastic things get in the second half…

If you already own a Season Pass Plus, all of these story and side missions will come at no extra cost to you whatsoever. You will simply need to head on over to the mission list, download the new content and away you go!

Earlier today we had a slight problem with mission downloads. We’ve since fixed the problem on our end, but if you’ve had difficulties playing the new missions, please delete them from the mission manager, restart Zombies, Run! and then redownload.

 

Don’t forget to check out the new achievements system over at the ZombieLink beta site. Can you collect them all?

Zombies, Run! | New Zombies, Run! missions are now available!.

Annette Fredskov: Accomplish your running goal | Most km (Running) Challenge | Endomondo

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Remember my previous post about Annette doing a marathon a day? (If not, it’s in the links at the bottom of this post)

There’s a challenge out now in Endomondo.

Annette Fredskov: Accomplish your running goal | Most km (Running) Challenge | Endomondo.
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Encrypted LVM -- Setting Up, Shrinking and Growing

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I’ve been tinkering with my LVM config and exploring, and trying to learn how to setup an encrypted Logical Volume, and then, how to grow and shrink it. I’d like to share my workings with you so you know too. This is a long article, so I’ve hidden it under a cut.

Remember, before you do ANYTHING that involves shrinking or resizing partitions on your hard drive, you MUST make a backup. Ideally as an image. If anything goes wrong, you will need to revert back to this image.

I’m not going to give you a background on LVM or crypt volumes. If you need that, try this link, this link and this link.

Firstly, let’s talk shrinking a volume. If you don’t have any room for an encrypted LV, then you must resize an existing LV. I’m resizing one of my LVs (which contains some videos from my dashboard camera), and reducing it by 10GB ("-L -10G" means “resize to -10G (e.g. 10GB smaller than it currently is.) “-r” means “run resize2fs to resize the filesystem inside the LV”. “-v” means “be verbose”

lvresize -L -10G -r -v /dev/HitachiVG/Dashcam

Once the resize is complete, we can create a new LV in the same Volume Group. Since I’ve just resized my other LV down by 10G, this new one must be 10GB or lower. Here, I give it a name (-n), tell LVM I want rw access (-p), to be verbose (-v) and specify a size of 10GB (-L 10G). I also have to tell LVM which volume group I want to put this new LV in (HitachiVG)

lvcreate -n CryptTesting -p rw -v -L 10G HitachiVG

Once the LV has been successfully created, we can now format the LV as a LUKS volume. Here, I tell it I want to use the AES crypto algorithm (-c aes) , and use a SHA256 hash (-h sha256). I also have to give it the mapping of the new LV (/dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting). A password will need to be set at this point.

cryptsetup luksFormat -c aes -h sha256 /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting

When the format is completed, I can now decrypt (open) the new crypt volume, giving the new name I want the decrypted mapping that will appear in /dev/mapper/ directory.

In the example below, once the mapping for the decrypted (volume will be /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest)

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting DecryptedTest

With the decrypted volume open, I can now format it. I’m using ext4 here, but you could use anything

mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

I’m creating a mount point manually here for the purposes of testing, but you can use cryptmount

mkdir /media/DecryptedTestMount

Mount the decrypted volume so you can start using the content

mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest /media/DecryptedTestMount/

At this point, you can work with the content. For this test, I’m going to create a 512MB file

dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/DecryptedTestMount/dummyfile bs=1M count=512

Now we can unmount the volume

umount -f /media/DecryptedTestMount/

(Optional) We can change the way we unlock the crypted volume by creating and adding a key to the crypted volume. I’m making a 409,600 byte key, but you can mess around with your own values here.

dd if=/dev/urandom of=./crypttest.key bs=1024 count=400

Remember that the key will unlock the crypted volume, so you should, where possible avoid having it accessible by other users. You should also lock it down - for example, by making it only readable to root (or whichever user is going to use the key)

chown root:root ./crypttest.key chmod 400 ./crypttest.key

Now we can add the key to the crypted volume

cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting ./crypttest.key

To test the key method works, we close and reopen the crypted volume, this time, passing the key file. This time, it shouldn’t prompt for a password.

cryptsetup luksClose DecryptedTest cryptsetup luksOpen –key-file=./crypttest.key /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting DecryptedTest

Mount to check the content is untouched

mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest /media/DecryptedTestMount/

Unmount

umount -f /media/DecryptedTestMount/

Now, we have an encrypted LV. Now we move onto shrinking the crypted volume. We will resize in the following order:

  1. Decrypted Filesystem
  2. Logical Volume
NOTE: there are pages which say that you also need to shrink the crypted volume, but other pages also say that the crypted volume doesn't actually store any size-related information. So take this following section with a pinch of salt. As mentioned at the start of the article, always make sure you have backups ready in case this goes wrong.

First, we must run a fsck on the decrypted filesystem

e2fsck -f /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

Now, we resize the filesystem. I’m resizing it down to 1GB

resize2fs /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest 1G

Close the crypt volume

cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

Now we resize the LV. You may get a warning here that you may lose data. You MUST make sure you have a backup before resizing.

lvresize /dev/HitachiVG/CryptTesting -L 1G

We close and reopen the crypted and decrypted volumes

cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest cryptsetup luksOpen –key-file=./crypttest.key /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting DecryptedTest

Because of the crypt resize the crypted and decrypted filesystems aren’t exactly the same size, so let’s make them match. If you don’t do this, any fsck you run on the decrypted volume will flag up as an error. This line resizes the decrypted filesystem to fit the space available for it.

resize2fs /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

Now let’s do a final fsck to make sure everything is OK

e2fsck -f /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

Now growing. Let’s say I wanted to grow the crypted filesystem back up to 10GB. This is easier because you’re making things BIGGER, not smaller. First, close the decrypted volume if it is already open

cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

Resizes must happen in the REVERSE order to the shrinking:

  1. Logical Volume
  2. Decrypted Filesystem
Resize the LV first

lvresize -n -L 10G -v /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting

Open the crypted volume

cryptsetup luksOpen –key-file=./crypttest.key /dev/mapper/HitachiVG-CryptTesting DecryptedTest

Resize the Decrypted file system to fit

resize2fs /dev/mapper/DecryptedTest

The filesystems are now grown

Zombies, Run!

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The beta version of the ZR website now houses achievements which you unlock as you progress. Here’s the details from the blog page

We now reward you for running certain distances or at certain speeds, as well as building your base in certain ways or even listening to the same song on ten consecutive runs — yes, we track all that and more! There are over 70 achievements to unlock, so getting all of them should take you quite a while, even if you’ve been playing Zombies, Run! from the start.

We designed these achievements not only to help you to explore everything Zombies, Run! has to offer, but also to motivate you to improve as a runner. Every achievement falls into an “early-game”, “mid-game” or “late-game” category so you can always feel you have a new task or milestone within your grasp.

A final category, “hardcore”, contains achievements for those who have done everything there is to do in Zombies, Run! but who don’t want to stop running. Things like running for a total of 1000 kilometers or collecting 500 supplies within a week.

The achievement list will not necessarily tell you how each one is unlocked. Some you’ll be able to guess from the name. Others you’ll unlock accidentally, but we have no doubt that the community will figure them out before very long…

Crucially, achievement unlock retroactively, so prolific Zombies, Run! players may have a bunch of achievements already - in fact, over 150,000 achievements have already been unlocked! If you don’t have any unlocked, you simply need to sync a new run in order for your achievements to be generated.

So head over to the Zombies, Run! Beta site and sign in to visit your Achievements page to see which, if any, you’ve already unlocked. And which you should work towards next…

via Zombies, Run!.

Here’s the achievements I’ve unlocked so far:

Missions:

Reporting for duty (Jul 25, 2013) - Congratulations, you’ve completed Zombies, Run! 5k Training! Your Runner training is complete and you’re ready to begin your duties in Zombies, Run!

Deja Vu (Jul 25, 2013) - Haven’t I heard this somewhere before? You’ve played mission one in both the Zombies, Run! app and the Zombies, Run! 5k Training app.

And so it begins (Jul 25, 2013) - Welcome to Abel, Runner 5. You’ve completed the first mission, but don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from.

Baby steps (Jul 25, 2013) - Five missions completed. Nice work! Keep it up.

Are fitness apps allowed to give this many feels? (Jul 25, 2013) - You’re getting the hang of this! Over half way through Season one and you’ve probably had your heart broken at least once by now. Keep going, the apocalypse may be grim but there’s got to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

So, that happened (Jul 25, 2013) - Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of Season one! Time to step it up and move on to Season 2…

Tenacious (Jul 25, 2013) - Ten Season 2 missions completed! You have made a great start, but there’s plenty more out there. Keep running!

20-20 vision (Jul 25, 2013) - Another ten Season 2 missions down! But you’re still only scratching the surface; this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Zombies Escaped:

Apprentice zombie escapologist (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve avoided your first zombie chase. That wasn’t so hard, was it?

Distance:

Weekly 10k (Jul 25, 2013) - 10k in one week is a good achievement for a beginner runner. You’re well on your way to greater and more exciting milestones, so keep it up!

Off the couch (Jul 25, 2013) - Sic parvis magna. Greatness from small beginnings. This 5k you just ran may feel like a huge accomplishment now, but one day you’ll look back on it, having completed your first 10k, half-marathon or marathon and see it for what it truly is. The first step to future greatness. Onwards!

Getting good at this (Jul 25, 2013) - Running a 10k without stopping is a great achievement, so congratulations! It takes stamina, willpower and determination to get through that wall and push yourself to keep going. Have you thought about a half-marathon next?

Weekly 25k (Jul 25, 2013) - Well done. Over the course of this week you have run a half marathon - and then some! Think you can improve your weekly distance beyond 25k? Worth a shot!

Half marathon runner (Jul 25, 2013) - You just ran 21.1km in a single run. That may seem oddly specific, but it’s actually the length of a half marathon. So congratulations, you just ran a half marathon! You’re getting pretty good at this running lark.

Weekly 60k (Jul 25, 2013) - Very impressive! 60k in one week is quite an achievement, so congratulations! How long can you keep that up for..?

The big fifteen-oh (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve run for a total of 150km. This is a great achievement! It’s also the distance between London and Badminton, as the crow flies. We’re pretty sure Badminton doesn’t have an airport, so this information is largely useless. But still, facts are facts.

My first ultramarathon (Jul 25, 2013) - You have run for a total of 50km, congratulations! Anything above the 42km of a normal marathon is technically an ultramarathon. Sure, you’re meant to do them all in one go, but you’ve made a great first step towards that, at least.

I would walk 500… kilometers (Jul 25, 2013) - The Pretenders seemed pretty keen to go for a 500km walk, but how about a 500km run? Doubtful. You’ve got the one-up on them in that respect. 500km is a very long way, you should be very proud.

Running Time:

Breaking in your running shoes (Jul 25, 2013) - You’re off to a good start! 12 hours is a commendable total running time, but we think you can do better. Keep it up!

28 hours later (Jul 25, 2013) - A total running time of 28 hours. Sure, we could have set this achievement to pop at 24 hours, but then we couldn’t make a Danny Boyle movie reference. And where’s the fun in that?

Long weekend (Jul 25, 2013) - 72 hours of running. That’s a long weekend’s worth. You could have spent that time flying to hotter climes or taking a relaxing trip to the countryside. But no. You decided to run. Good for you.

Running Pace:

Runner 10 (Jul 25, 2013) - Good start. You’ve run a mile in under 10 minutes. With more running you’ll keep improving that pace and get your stamina up!

Pace yourself (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve improved your running pace consistently for three consecutive runs. It’s great to see you improving so quickly!

Runner 8 (Jul 25, 2013) - An eight minute mile is a solid achievement, well done!

Running Frequency:

Regular runner (Jul 25, 2013) - Getting into the habit of running three times a week can be hugely beneficial, for many reasons. Not least of which being that you’ll be able to keep up with the weekly Zombies, Run! mission releases.

Every day ending in ‘y’ (Jul 25, 2013) - A whole week of daily running. Nice work. Are you training for something? If not, maybe you should consider it…

Supplies Collected:

Apprentice hoarder (Jul 25, 2013) - 100 supplies. Nice work. The people of Abel thank you for your supply-gathering prowess. And for not getting eaten on the way home.

Weekly shopping list (Jul 25, 2013) - Congratulations on finding 50 supplies to bring back to Abel this week. With your eye for useful litter, the Township will be in good hands.

Adept hoarder (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve collected 500 supplies. Careful, now. The people of Abel are starting to rely on you for their daily bread. If you were to get eaten by zoms now a lot of people would be left in quite a pickle.

Abel Township:

Apprentice carpenter (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve upgraded a building! Not an easy thing, considering Janine’s rather strict building codes. Watch out for splinters.

Give me your tired… (Jul 25, 2013) - There are now over 100 residents within the walls of Abel Township. That’s 100 fewer people wandering the zombie wastelands, waiting to become undead dinner.

Adept carpenter (Jul 25, 2013) - You’ve upgraded every building at least once and Abel is starting to look more like a bustling city than an island amid a sea of undead marauders.

…your poor… (Jul 25, 2013) - Abel Township has swelled to accommodate over 350 souls. This is quite a community you’ve got going here. Hopefully there’s enough food and beds to go around…

Happy chappies (Jul 25, 2013) - Morale in Abel Township is at 100%! The residents literally couldn’t be happier. And it’s all down to you. Runner 5, the ultimate morale booster.

Trains aren’t the only things that run on tracks (Jul 28, 2013) - You’ve fully upgraded the Training Area! There’s now room for almost every Runner in Abel to train all at the same time. Which means more training for everyone. You may want to avoid the other Runners for a bit. Just in case they want to, er, “thank” you.

All shacked up (Jul 25, 2013) - The communications shack has been fully upgraded! You’ve never seen Sam this happy. He’s been in there all week, testing out all the upgraded equipment with the unbridled joy of a puppy with a new shoe.

Music

(No Achivements Unlocked)

10K Training - Day 1: Preconditioning Phase - Day 1

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Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

My first run of my 10K training, and was pretty reasonable. Target today was to jog (not run) 5K at 7:46 min/km.

I ran 5.44K at 5:37 min/km. I ran at a pretty steady pace too. I’m pleased with this run.

No PBs today. Tomorrow’s target: 8K at 7:46 min/km

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Use the Decoy Effect to Your Advantage to Score Good Deals

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Use the Decoy Effect to Your Advantage to Score Good Deals.

Half Marathon Training

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If you’re training for a Half Marathon, you might want to check out August’s edition of Runner’s World, it’s a Half Marathon special.

You can find it in shops, or get it off Google Play here