How to travel and work at the same time

This is the first post of what I hope to become a series on travel, work and work while travel at the same time (as the title suggests) follow it on this link.

Some people think travel costs a lot of money, this is actually the opposite for me. It costs me more to live in my home town that I was based out of for the past 15 years than it does to travel to the parts of the world I went.

If you are from most North American cities, or western countries you will find that if you are willing to sacrifice a little privacy - travel, which includes accommodation, food, transport and luxurious extras will cost less than it does to simply live in that city or town.

At least this is true for me. This is how I did it:

Allow yourself to step out of your comfort zone - There are many aspects of life which are very comfortable in a home town or city, by stepping out of there you will find a much more rewarding life.

If you can live with fewer things you will find life less stressful, you can move about a city and between cities much easier and faster.

I am currently sitting in a hostel lobby (nice music) with all my things next to my side; two backpacks. Many people may think this isn't enough. But I have already lived for 2 months like this and never missed anything.

If you know what to take (which comes with a little thinking and experience) you will not need anything else. And remember that even if you do, most of the places you will visit in the world will have them for sale for either the same or less than what it costs in your home town.

Of the larger possessions that most North American cultures have are rent costs for apartment or home and vehicles. I gave up those two and noticed that my bank account started to grow.

This money will be important for your travels, because hostels normally cost under what rent daily cost amount you will see that you start spending less and actually saving.

Now that you gave up most of your stuff (this includes rent costs and vehicles) you can go to many places much faster and cheaper because you don't need to check any luggage. This is also important because there are many discount airlines that offer flights from $20 to $60 as long as you don't have luggage those prices remain cheap and worthwhile.

Be flexible - If you are flexible about where and when you can live a new lifestyle of travel. I choose my flights and accommodation based on lower price, this means that if I can get a $50 flight on a Tuesday instead of $100+ on any other day, I will book it and get to my destination twice as fast for a similar price as bus would cost.

I normally found that odd days like Tuesday or Thursday are cheaper than usual days, but this is simply a guide not a rule. If I can find a cheap flight or bus on any day that I am flexible enough I will get it. I also change hostels based on daily price changes and move to a new one if it costs several Euros less.

In the next posts I will discuss how to find a balance of work and travel, while staying fit and healthy at the same time.

Lisbon Portugal

I visited in October 2015 and here are some things to do:
Pastel de Belem
Sintra

12 History of Cryptocurrencies [Bonus lecture]

Lecture 12 in the series.

1. Traditional Financial Arrangements
2. Credit based systems
3.

[Source]

windows 10 rants problems, and improvements

First I should start with what I like about windows 10:

• Upgrade was easy and painless (and free!)
• Most of the controls, options, settings are the same, or easy enough to figure out
• Runs fast enough, if not faster than previous version
• Windows edge is good improvement from internet explorer
• Finally back to a normal start menu

Now the problems I've been having, and hearing about:

• Display drivers having problems, I've had witnessed my screen flashing numerous times. I had issues with screen freezing when I plug in my laptop power cord but when I unplug it is as if everything is still happening (i.e. whatever I clicked while it was plugged in and frozen did actually happen). I also heard of AMD display drivers having many issues with windows edge but I did not experience this.
• Recently noticed that when the screen saver comes on my CPU usage goes up - figured this out from the heatsink fans spinning very loudly and by looking at the task manager.

All in all a decent operating system. Fast and stable. That is all we really want, is that too much to ask (looking at you ubuntu)

Nexus 5 reboot loop fix

The power button gets dusty over time so the solution to fix the nexus 5 reboot loop is to user air dust blaster for computer parts, see example here:

11 The future of Bitcoin?

Lecture 11 in the series.

1. The block chain as a vehicle for decentralization
2. Routes to decentralization
3. What can we decentralize?
4. When is decentralization a good idea?

[Source]
[Download here]

10 Altcoins and the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

Lecture 10 in the series.

1. Short History of Altcoins
2. Interaction between Bitcoin and Altcoins
3. Lifecycle of an Altcoin
4. Bitcoin-Backed Altcoins, “Side Chains”

[Source]
[Download here]

9 Bitcoin as a Platform

Lecture 9 in the series.

1. Bitcoin as an append-only log
2. Bitcoins as “smart property”
3. Secure multi-party lotteries in Bitcoin
4. Bitcoin as randomness source
5. Prediction markets & real-world data feeds

[Source]
[Download here]

8 Alternative Bitcoin Mining Puzzles

Lecture 8 in the series.

1. Essential Puzzle Requirements
2. ASIC Resistant Puzzles
3. Proof-of-useful-work
4. Nonoutsourceable Puzzles
5. Proof-of-Stake

[Source]
[Download here]

7 Community, Politics, and Regulation in Bitcoin

Lecture 7 in the series.

1. Consensus in Bitcoin
2. Bitcoin Core Software
3. Stakeholders : Who’s in Charge?
4. Roots of Bitcoin
5. Governments Notice Bitcoin
6. Anti Money-Laundering Regulation
7. Regulation
8. New York’s BitLicense Proposal

[Source]
[Download here]

Ubuntu issues and problems

So after about a year of using my Acer Aspire laptop I decided to get myself a new solid sate drive to replace the hybrid drive. And with this I thought why not try installing Ubuntu instead of the ol' windows setups. Here's my experience so far.

My major issues that made the laptop unusable or simple irritate me:

• Mouse freezing! to fix: ctrl+alt+f[1-5] and then again with ctrl+alt+f7 to get back to gui
• Memorizing/Save the screen brightness upon selecting when adjusted [source]
• Better use of gpu, install best (even if proprietary driver) to use it better come back from standby mode when opening screen

Lack of things that I wish it had:

File manager:

• easier manipulation of saved favorites in connect to server -- modify this file ~/.cache/nautilus/servers [source]
• percentage of disk space used (on left side when clicking computer) -- see filesystems of system monitor

Update Aug 2015: I have upgraded to windows 10

does hubs.ly work after cancling or without hubspot subscription

So we use hubspot for couple things, and they use the hubs.ly URL shortner in social media posts.

I was wondering if those links would still work after cancelling our subscription, so far the information I got was Yes it will work. But no analytics on the links of course - since you cannot access the dashboard, naturally.

We will see if this is true, only time will tell. Updates coming in the next month (after migration to wordpress)

Let me know in the comments if you had experience with hubs.ly and hubspot migration blog to wordpress.

Thanks for visiting

6 Bitcoin and Anonymity

Lecture 6 in the series.

1. Anonymity basics
2. Overview of Bitcoin deanonymization
3. Mixing
4. Decentralized mixing
5. Zerocoin and Zerocash
6. Tor and the Silk Road

[Source]
[Download here]

Latest phishing email - Re; Proposal Penny Lee markweb06@outlook.com

As the title, this is the latest phishing email I got with the subject: Re; Proposal
from the email: Penny Lee markweb06@outlook.com
With attachment: DOC.pdf - https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/3308b7b049d73b589b40dbe8d8c6254280749395d8bcfb58524b7e95f6df015f/analysis/1426696615/

XMP toolkit 2.9.1-13, framework 1.6
This PDF document has 1 page, please note that most malicious PDFs have only one page.
 This PDF document has 10 object start declarations and 10 object end declarations.
 This PDF document has 2 stream object start declarations and 2 stream object end declarations.
 This PDF document has a cross reference table (xref).
 This PDF document has a pointer to the cross reference table (startxref).
 This PDF document has a trailer dictionary containing entries allowing the cross reference table, and thus the file objects, to be read.

Raw/original message: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=aLAKCxU8

Let me know what you think.

5 Bitcoin Mining

Lecture 5 in the series

1. The task of Bitcoin miners
2. Mining hardware
3. Energy consumption & ecology
4. Mining pools
5. Mining incentives and strategies

[Source]
[Download here]

4 How to Store and Use Bitcoins

Lecture 4 in the series

1. Simple storage (Availability, Security, Convenience)
2. Hot and cold storage
3. Splitting and sharing keys
4. Online wallets and exchanges
5. Payment services
6. Transaction fees
7. Currency exchange markets

[Source]
[Download here]

My simple git cheatsheet

Of course there are many of these out there but I just needed the simplest one so here it is:

got to the directory and do this:

git add --all .

git stage .

git commit

[add message and click control x, yes and enter]

git push

[enter your password]

done.

Hope this helped, let me know if there's anything wrong, different, etc in the comments below.
Using ubuntu 14.04 with git installed.

3 Mechanics of Bitcoin

Lecture 3 in the series

1. Transactions (Inputs and outputs.)
2. Scripts (OP_RETURN)
3. Application of bitcoin scripts (Smart contracts)
4. Bitcoin blocks
5. Bitcoin network
6. Limitations & improvements (Transactions per second, Crystallographic algorithms, Forks (hard and soft))

[Source]
[Download here]

2 How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization

Lecture 2 in the series

1. Centralization vs. Decentralization:

1. Who maintains the ledger?
2. Who has authority over which transactions are valid?
3. who creates new bitcoins?
4. who determines how the rules of the system change?
5. how do bitcoins acquire exchange value?

2. Distributed consensus

3. Consensus without identity: the block chain

4. Incentives and proof of work

1. How to pick a random node?
2. How to avoid a free-for-all due to rewards?
3. How to prevent sybil attacks?

5. Putting it all together

1. What can 51% attacker do?

[Source]
[Download here]

Smart Traffic lights are the way of the future

First came heard of this idea when I was attending a hackathon, that team won. I had a feeling I should join but they were a very large team already... Anyway, recently thought about it again and found globalnews and torontostararticles and after reading them I remembered what realization I had back in the summer, when self driving cars are allowed on the roads, they will work with the smart lights to coordinate the commute to be even faster! that is just great :)

Let me know what you think. Comment below.

1 Intro to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies

Lecture 1 of Preston University online course of the series

1. Cryptographic Hash Functions
2. Hash Pointers and Data Structures
3. Digital Signatures

[Source]

[Download here]

How long does it take to learn bitcoin?

First hearing about bitcoin in 2013, I had to do a lot of research which mainly consisted of wikipedia and bitcoin.it along with as many various youtube videos and other crypto related websites and videos from all over the web, and even in-person meetups.

Finally on Feb 16, 2015 Prinston University released a video with Ed Felton Lecture 1 — Intro to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies.

This is amazing, as far as I can tell it is the first of its kind course offered by a well known university and I can't wait to see the subsequent videos. I decided that I will review and understand what's in these videos in depth and since there are many sections in each video I used the youtube timemarks and links so anyone can reference the topics. Find those posts here.

Let me your thoughts on bitcoin and on the learning of these technologies in the comments.

Thanks for visiting.

State of communication - or how messaging apps work these days

Quick summary of best, most used forms of communication I am faced with in the North American culture:

Text - sms messaging
Facebook messaging
WhatsApp
Telegram
Google hangouts
Skype

All the above have web version, mobile app version, group chatting, read receipts (some with less detail) and some have conference call with video options


What else to be covered? how to combine them? which ones do you use? how secure are each of them? only telegram (from what I can tell) is open source, does this matter?

Let me know in the comments below

Reddit error page

Seems to change often

datalist html5 options limit

There seems to be a limit to the amount of options that can be provided for the datalist feature which is like a suggestion to textbox, built into html5. here's an example I use:

<datalist id="suggestions">
<?php
$getShows=getShows();
if($getShows){
foreach($getShows as $show){
echo '<option value="'.$show['showname'].'" >';
}
}
?>
</datalist>

<input placeholder="Search shows" id="q" name="q" value="<?php if(isset($_GET['q']))echo $_GET['q']; ?>" onkeypress="if (event.keyCode == 13) window.open('?q='+this.value,'_self')" list="suggestions" />
<img src="images/search.gif" onclick="window.open('?q='+document.getElementById('q').value,'_self')" style="cursor:pointer">

If this makes sense to you, know this; the limit from my testing for today's version of google chrome (40) is about 100, maybe 130 but didn't always work.

UPDATE Jan 28, 2015: It seems the issue was with the queries and there were too many for the server to load or something. Works with larger amounts (over 200).

Let me know what methods you use for this if any and if you use this feature. Thanks.

Je Suis Charlie Notepad plus plus update January 10, 2015 edition

I updated my notepad++ (which is one of my favorite free software, by the way) and something started typing on it's own!

I was able to capture some amateur video view it on youtube

Screen shot of the page:

The complete typed out:

Freedom of expression is like the air we breathe, we don't feel it, until people take it away from us.

For this reason, Je suis Charlie, not because I endorse everything they published, but because I cherish the right to speak out freely without risk even when it offends others.
And no, you cannot just take someone's life for whatever he/she expressed.

Hence this "Je suis Charlie" edition.
- #JeSuisCharlie


And I decided to see what's on twitter, after seeing some @notepad_plus tweets and their blog post:

The Notepad++ official site was hacked on 12th January 2015, due to its controversial new version 6.7.4 "Je suis Charlie" edition, released on 10th January 2015. The site was restored on the same day.
The binaries of this edition are on another server and they are not compromised (the SHA1 published on 11th January 2015 is always available on SF). The automatic typing in Notepad++ "Je suis Charlie" edition after installation is a feature. Sorry for the panic.

The message of the defacement accused Notepad++ of inciting hatred towards Islam and accusing Islam of supporting terrorism. The statements of Notepad++ "Je suis Charlie" edition support nothing but the freedom of expression and only that. The fact of Notepad++ supporting the "Je suis Charlie" movement has nothing to do with any accusation towards a specific community. In fact the "Je suis Charlie" movement in France, as far as I can tell, deserves no label of racism or of Islamophobia. I have many Muslim friends who are for "Je suis Charlie". And sincerely, I don't think that two extremist fools can stand for all Muslims or Islam itself.

If you don't like "Je suis Charlie" edition, that's fine. You can still use Notepad++ v6.7.3 - they are the same in terms of features and bug fixes. notepad-plus-plus.org could be hacked over and over again, but I will always find a way to distribute Notepad++ "Je suis Charlie" edition - that's my freedom of expression which I claim as my right. [Source]

Give me your thoughts in the comments.