Fedora Linux System Requirements and Download Location of Various Versions

February 7, 2016 Michael Strejcek 1 Comment

There are many articles that offer great uses for an old PC. Recommendations include utilizing the old PC as a home server, adding additional Network Attached Storage (NAS), experimenting with other free operating systems (i.e Linux), donating extra computer cycles to science through distributed computing projects (i.e BOINC or SETI@Home), and of course for use as a secondary computer. These articles inevitably mention different Linux distributions (i.e. Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, Lubuntu, Sl ackware, etc) as a viable alternative to the Windows OS. If you blindly go this route you might spend several … Read the rest

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Blogging, Hosting

Best Web Hosting Performance and Feature Comparison; IONOS vs BlueHost vs DreamHost vs HostGator

January 31, 2016 Michael Strejcek 4 Comments

There are thousands of options when choosing a web hosting provider. Among the web hosts I’ve seen most often publicized are HostGator, BlueHost, DreamHost, and IONOS Hosting. Although I am currently using IONOS Hosting and have very been happy with it I am strongly considering switching to DreamHost or BlueHost after comparing the features offered, the performance of each host, and writing this post. Below I compare the features publicly advertised by each of these web hosting providers and I summarize the testing I performed to evaluate the non-publicized web hosting performance, namely network latency &

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Automation, Blogging

Increase Words Per Minute Using Android’s Speech to Text

January 24, 2016 Michael Strejcek 1 Comment

The other day I was watching “Alex & Emma“, a movie about an author who hires a stenographer to help him write a book in 30 days so that he can pay off his gambling debts and avoid bodily harm. As I’ve been writing more, I began to wonder what similar tactics I might use to increase my productivity. In the past I’ve used Android’s Speech to Text feature to quickly compose texts and I began to wonder whether I could exploit this feature to compose longer blog posts, at what rate, and at what accuracy.

The Experiment

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VBA

Save and Retrieve VBA Variables in the Windows Registry

January 17, 2016 Michael Strejcek Leave a comment

There will come a time in Visual Basic for Application (VBA) programming when you will want to save a variable that you are able to modify whose value remains persists between sessions. Such a variable is particularly useful when saving users specific settings in your application, maintaining software license keys, or storing anything else you may wish.

One way of doing this is to save the variable within a hidden (or very hidden) worksheet and hope the user doesn’t corrupt the data. Another way of doing this is to save the variable to a file and retrieve it later as … Read the rest

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Gambling, Probability

You’re a Sucker for Chasing New Powerball Jackpots

January 10, 2016 Michael Strejcek Leave a comment

… and so am I.

While news of the astronomical Powerball jackpots are showing up everywhere, little is mentioned of the Powerball game changes on October 7, 2015 that are driving them up. At that time the game was modified from a pick 5 of 59 white balls & 1 of 35 power balls (59/35) to a pick 5 of 69 white balls & 1 of 26 power balls (69/26) an the odds of winning went from 1 in 175,223,510 to 1 in 292,201,338 respectively. The $2 ticket you purchase today has less chance of winning than one purchased prior … Read the rest

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Blogging

Social Media Profile Links Boost Google Search Ranking

January 4, 2016 Michael Strejcek Leave a comment

You may (or may not) know that Google uses inbound links to your site to gauge it’s popularity and relevance. The most popular and relevant content shows up on page one of Google search results, while less popular content is pushed down in the ranks. The other day I was to pondering the possible effect on Google Search rankings of inbound links from social media profiles and I inadvertently set up an experiment when I set up social media profiles for my site and experienced some impressive results.

Background

In February 2014, I set up a simple site as a … Read the rest

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Blogging

Blogging Income Potential and Best Practices, an Examination of SmartPassiveIncome.com

December 31, 2015 Michael Strejcek 3 Comments

As I begin to dip my toes into the blogging world, I wonder what success might look like and what techniques or best practices might be used to get there. I began to think of those blogs that I subscribe to and what insight I might be able to extract and derive from publicly available data. This immediately led me to ponder Pat Flynn at SmartPassiveIncome.com (SPI) as he routinely publishes his income reports. These income reports coupled with his publicly available RSS feed gave me some unique insight into the posting quantity & frequency, effectiveness of different media types … Read the rest

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Cooking, Olive Oil

Is Your Dinner Ready When the Smoke Alarm Goes Off… Too?

December 27, 2015 Michael Strejcek Leave a comment

Then, chances are you may be cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil… too.

There’s a craze among my family and friends over the health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and we are using it on everything. Many of us (myself included) have even purchased specialized sprayers for their misapplication in the kitchen. On several dining occasions I’ve witnessed (and participated in) a new cooking ritual where one team attends to the home’s smoke alarm, windows, and doors while the other operates the oven door. This highly choreographed act opens along with the windows and doors, hits its crescendo during … Read the rest

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Automation

Protect Your Personal Cell Phone Number and Email Address with Proxies

December 21, 2015 Michael Strejcek Leave a comment

I was thinking about how I might handle work related correspondence over the upcoming holiday. On one hand, I don’t want to repeatedly jump on my work computer to check work email and voicemail just in case something important comes up and I don’t want to experience the anxiety of not knowing. On the other hand, I don’t want to broadcast my personal cell phone number and email address as a means of contacting me while I’m away and risk having those be abused as a primary means of contacting me for future work related issues.