File Too Large? JustBeamIt

October 22, 2011 – 8:33 am

justbeamit.comOne of the things I have never understood is the 50 MB limit many email systems put on file transfers. Unfortunately, when you try to send files like videos, it isn’t hard to go over the limit. If you find yourself in this situation, surf on over to justbeamit.com and give it a try.

You just drag the file you want to send (or browse and select the file the old fashion way) and you get a link to share with the person to whom you want to send the file. That person just clicks on the link and justbeamit.com will transfer the file.

In addition to sending files up to 2 gigabytes, your file is also encrypted for security. One thing to remember is the the browser window must be left open until the transfer finishes. So bookmark the link and give it a try the next time you have to send a large file. One more thing – the service is free – as in beer!

Click here to visit justbeamit.com

Copy and Paste Exactly – If You Want

October 12, 2011 – 15:00 pm

OSX LionI have always subscribed to the “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” school of thought. That is why I am not quite sure I agree with the way that Lion now handles the keyboard commands for copy/cut and paste.

Apple has always followed the same copy/cut and paste convention as the Windows world. You simple used Command-C (Windows: Control-C) for for “copying” and Command-X (Windows: Control-X) for “cutting” (moving an item from its current location to some other location).

Under Apple’s new Lion convention, you have to “Think Different.” The “Command-C” combination still copies the item to the clipboard but the pasting process is different. You can still press Command-V to paste and copy the files but to move the files you now press Command-Option-V.

If you include the “Shift” key when either copying or moving files, the file’s permissions and other attributes are moved along with the file. I know some of you are saying “the file what??”. Well, sometimes when a file is moved or copied the owner of a file and who has the right read or write to the file are changed (actually it is read, write and execute). By using the “Shift” key you have the option to “Paste Exactly“, which preserves all file attributes.

What Is Good For The Goose . . .

September 22, 2011 – 6:46 am

News HandoffNow this is classic!! WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lashed out at a British publisher for releasing drafts of a memoir without his approval Thursday, saying he did not author the book or get the opportunity to check it.

Read the Full Article

What Is The Biggest Power Hog In Your Home?

September 15, 2011 – 7:16 am

cableboxAre you are as tired of high electric bills as I am? I have tried turning off lights, caulking windows, insulating pipes and putting a blanket on my hot water tank. None of these measures really seem to have an impact on my bill.

This morning I was watching CNN and Clark Howard, the consumer advocate, came on to do his little 30 second money saving spot. He looked directly at me and said, “Hey dummy, the cable box is the number one power hog in your home!” (Well kinda) That’s right a recent study found that set top boxes like your cable box or DVR are sucking the dollars out of your pocket every month at a rate far higher than any other appliance.

The solution, hook these boxes up to a power strip and hit the switch when you leave the house – at least when you are going on vacation. Who would have figured???

Avoiding Cell Phone Messages

September 11, 2011 – 22:10 pm

Voice MailI hate listening to voice mail messages – especially over and over again for friends that I call often. Thankfully there is a way to avoid listening to your buddy’s cute little voice mail message for the 100th time or any other message. Unfortunately, the key to press is different with each company. The are as follows:

* for Verizon

1 for Sprint

# for AT&T

# for T-Mobile

Obviously, the flaw in this technique is you have to know which carrier that person uses.

The solution is to use the “one-star-pound” technique:

First, press 1. If it’s Sprint, you’ll get the beep, and you’re done. If you hear an error recording, go on:

Next, press *. If it’s Verizon, you’ll get the beep. If not:

Finally, push #.  You’ll get the beep for T-Mobile or Cingular.

Got it? Simply try one/star/pound.

Extender Printer Toner Cartridge Life

September 5, 2011 – 20:42 pm

TonerMany printers just stop printing when the toner cartridge reaches a certain point, even though toner is still present.

Try this trick before you ditch your old cartridge. On the toner cartridge, there are two small windows on each side where the printer can look inside and gauge the toner level. Place a piece of black electrical tape over the windows. The printer will read the toner level as full and you can get a little more life out of the cartridge.

Whitaker v. Commonwealth of Virginia

July 19, 2011 – 20:19 pm

Dr. Jack Call of Radford University, located in Radford, VA, has been kind enough to allow me to re-publish an article he wrote concerning legal issues pertaining to fleeing subjects in high crime areas. As usual, Dr. Call’s article is very insightful and practical for the cop on the street.


Dr. Jack Call
Reasonable Suspicion Based on Flight in High Crime Neighborhoods:  Whitaker v. Commonwealth
687 S.E.2d 733 (Va. Sup. Ct., Jan. 15, 2010)

by Jack E. Call
Professor of Criminal Justice
Radford University
E-Mail:  jcall@radford.edu

The authority to stop persons based on reasonable suspicion was created by the landmark Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio.[1]  In Terry, the Court indicated that reasonable suspicion could not be based on a mere hunch.  Reasonable suspicion must be based on “specific, articulable facts.”

In Illinois v. Wardlow,[2] the United States Supreme Court expanded on what constitute “specific, articulable facts.”  The Court ruled that police officers had reasonable suspicion to stop Wardlow, who had run from the police when they approached him while he was in a group of young people assembled in a high crime neighborhood.  Wardlow was very important because it established that in determining whether they possess reasonable suspicion to stop someone, the police may take into account that the incident in question is occurring in a high crime neighborhood.   The Court concluded that “officers are not required to ignore the relevant characteristics of a location in determining whether the circumstances are sufficiently suspicious to warrant further investigation.”

Wardlow is also important because it established that presence in a high crime neighborhood, combined with flight from the police (at least “head-long flight”), provides reasonable suspicion to think the person fleeing has committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime.

Prior to Wardlow, I used to tell my students that in order to possess reasonable suspicion to think a crime had occurred, was occurring, or was about to occur, the police probably needed to be able to identify what the crime was.  This would be a practical way of determining when the reasonable suspicion threshold had been crossed.  If the police could not say (reasonably) what crime they thought the suspicion person was involved in, then they probably did not have reasonable suspicion.

Arguably, Wardlow suggests that my observation was inaccurate.  Since the high crime neighborhood in Wardlow was characterized by substantial illegal drug activity, one could argue that the police had reasonable suspicion to think Wardlow was in possession of illegal drugs, but he could just as easily have been fleeing because he possessed an illegal firearm or had recently committed some other crime.

In Whitaker v. Commonwealth, the Virginia Supreme Court applied the Wardlow decision.  Richmond police officers Lindsey, Young, and Gilbert approached Whitaker and three other men who were gathered on a public sidewalk in an area known for high drug activity, in front of a chain link fence with a house behind it.  The officers were in plain clothes and in an unmarked police car but were wearing placards that said “Richmond police” on them and had a foot-high badge on the placards.  The placards were visible from both the front and back of the officers.  The officers approached the group to inquire about trespassing because an occupant of the house behind the fence had lodged complaints with the police about trespassers on the property.  Lindsey went to the front door of the house.  He returned to the group about 90 seconds later.  As Lindsey approached the group, Gilbert asked him where Whitaker was going.  Whitaker was proceeding away from the group on a bicycle.

Lindsey ran after Whitaker on foot.  Gilbert and Young tried to pursue him in the patrol car, but soon parked it and also pursued on foot.  Whitaker quickly abandoned his bicycle and began running.  He ran around a couple of houses and a church and jumped over two fences.  Two of the officers observed Whitaker holding the right pocket of his jacket as he ran.  The officers thought this suggested that there might be a gun in Whitaker’s pocket.  After running about two blocks, Whitaker slipped on some loose gravel and Lindsey caught up to Whitaker and knelt on him to keep him from getting up.  All three officers arrived on the scene shortly thereafter.  While they were handcuffing Whitaker, he tried to reach into his jacket pocket.  When Lindsey told Gilbert to be careful because Whitaker was trying to get something out of his pocket, Whitaker said. “Sir, I’ve got a firearm in my pocket.”

The officers retrieved the firearm, arrested Whitaker for carrying a concealed weapon, searched him, and found marijuana, cocaine, and $713 in his pants pockets.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Whitaker was not seized until the officers completed handcuffing him.   At that time, the officers had reasonable suspicion to think he had committed a crime.  The Court could have based this conclusion on the fact that Whitaker ran from the police while in a high crime neighborhood, because that was all the U.S. Supreme Court required for reasonable suspicion in Wardlow.  However, the Court did not determine whether this alone was sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion because it pointed out that there were other suspicious circumstances as well – Whitaker’s abandonment of his bicycle, his holding onto his jacket pocket as he ran, and his telling the officers while they were handcuffing him that he had a firearm in his pocket.

This part of the Court’s opinion is relatively straightforward and unremarkable.  There should be no surprise that the Court found reasonable suspicion to justify a brief seizure of Whitaker on these facts.  However, the next part of the opinion is a little less straightforward and potentially more noteworthy.

Whitaker argued that the drugs and money found in the officers’ search of him after they handcuffed him were inadmissible because they were the products of a search incident to an illegal arrest.  The U.S. Supreme Court established in Chimel v. California[3] that the police may search a person they have arrested and the area within that person’s immediate control without a search warrant.  However, in order for the search to be valid, the arrest must be valid.  Whitaker argued that “[i]t is not a crime to possess a weapon … and without verification that he did not have a weapons permit the police lacked probable cause to arrest him for violating the concealed weapons statute.”

The Court assumed, without actually deciding, that Whitaker was under arrest when he was searched.  The Court concluded “that Whitaker’s arrest for carrying a concealed weapon was lawful because it was supported by probable cause supplied by his spontaneous statement that he had a firearm in his pocket. This statement justified the search of his person for other weapons, during which the presence of the drugs was disclosed.”

If this statement is taken literally at face value, the court appears to be saying that once Whitaker said he had a firearm in his pocket, the officers possessed probable cause to arrest him for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.  Of course, it can be argued that Whitaker’s flight from the officers, his attempts to hold onto his jacket pocket, and his effort to get the gun while he was being handcuffed, combined with his statement to them that he had a firearm, support a reasonable inference that Whitaker was trying to keep the officers from finding the gun because he did not have a permit to carry it.  That may be what the Court meant, but unfortunately it is not what the Court said.  The Court does not refer to any of the other facts in the case to support its conclusion that the officers had probable cause to arrest Whitaker for carrying a concealed weapon.

Does this case establish a presumption that a person carrying a concealed weapon is doing so without a permit?  While the opinion in Whitaker could be read to provide an affirmative answer to this question, it seems more likely that the court was simply not as careful in its language as it meant to be.  The more reasonable interpretation of the opinion is that a statement from a suspect that he has a weapon in his possession provides probable cause to arrest that person for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, if the statement occurs in circumstances that provide reasonable suspicion to detain the person temporarily.  In the vast majority of situations, the reasonable suspicion to stop the suspect should justify a detention (short of arrest) long enough to permit the police to run a records check.  The records check would confirm whether the suspect does or does not have a carry permit.  Of course, if the suspect does not have a carry permit, he could then be arrested.

[1] 392 U.S. 1 (1968).

[2] 528 U.S. 119 (2000).

[3] 395 U.S. 752 (1969).

Google Takeout

July 14, 2011 – 13:19 pm

GoodleThe Big G has introduced a new product called Takeout. Basically what it does is take all of the data that you have stored on Google and compress it into a ZIP file.

You have to select the services you want to download including data from sites like Buzz, Picasa Albums, Contacts, Stream and your Google profile.

Google will zip it all up into a .zip file and you can download the file to your computer. Once you have it on your computer, just unzip it and and you can view or edit the info then import to whatever program you prefer.

I think this service is invaluable for moving information like your contacts, which are saved as a vCard file. Once you have your contacts in a vCard file, you con import them into Outlook, Windows Mail, or Thunderbird. This can be very useful for migrating your data. This service is FREE as in beer so check it out!

Visit Google Takeout

Useful Websites

May 22, 2011 – 14:51 pm

Useful WebsitesBuild a Website

Need to start a website? Give Bluegriffon a look. If you can use a word processor, you can build a website. Just place your text, pictures and other elements on the page and the program does all the background coding for you.

It also supports the latest in Web standards and technologies. Check it out.

Visit http://bluegriffon.org/

 

Upload Large Files

If you try to share a file that is over 10 megabytes, most email programs will choke. Uploadingit.com, a free website gives you 10 gigabytes of storage space but your file sizes are limited to 200MB.

It also lets you upload multiple files at a time. To share a file, just select it, click the triangle to the right, copy the direct link and send it to your friends. They’ll be able to view and download the file.

Clicking the triangle and choosing Properties lets you password-protect or lock the file. You can also send a link to a folder or multiple selected files. Just use the More Actions options at the bottom of the screen.

Visit http://uploadingit.com/

 

Diagramming Program

Diagram has all the common diagramming symbols. You can use it for decision flowcharts, networking, finances and more.

Just drag and drop symbols to place them. You can add text, links, color and whatever else you need.

Your diagram can be saved to and opened using the XML format. You can share projects through email and social networks or just print it.

Visit http://www.diagram.ly

 

Fix Up Your Resume

The site scans your resume for the elements of a good resume. It will suggest improvements and show you sample resumes.

Visit http://rezscore.com

 

Sending Bulk Email

Dada Mail lets you send out announcements or set up a discussion list. Members can opt-in or opt-out. There are a ton of features but check out the instructions before you get started to make sure you can handle the setup.

Visit http://mojo.skazat.com

Get A Handle On PDF Docs

May 16, 2011 – 9:43 am

CrocodocI use PDF files almost every time I send out files. I love using PDF files because they can be secured, they are small so they send well via email and they can be opened on any computer. They also retain the original document’s text, fonts and images.

Unfortunately, a PDF document’s strong point – security – is also its weak point. They are great for sharing finished products but they are not so good for collaboration since you need special software to make changes to the document. In addition, filling out a PDF form can prove to be a real challenge.

This is where crocodoc.com comes to your rescue. You can add comments and highlight sections of the document. It also makes filling in form information a breeze. After you make your changes to the PDF, you can download the document or shared it using a Web link. Your co-creators can go the site to see your comments and add their own.

The service is free (a in beer) so check it out.

Visit crocodoc.com/

Read a Book On Your Schedule

May 11, 2011 – 16:59 pm

Daily LitDo you remember when you used to wake up in the morning and wonder what you were going to do that day? When was the last time that happened? Relaxation seems to be a thing of the past for a lot of us. Fitting things like reading a good book into my schedule just doesn’t happen.

When you can only find a few minutes for yourself each day, it can be hard to find the time to read.

Wouldn’t it be great to pick a book you want to read then have a small portion of the book sent to you every day by email? Well now you can.

Each email should take about 5 minutes to read. You can pick the time and frequency of the emails so that it fits you schedule. You get to pick from a wide range of books so there is something for everyone. Best of all it is free (as in beer). Check it out!

Click here to visit: http://www.dailylit.com

Charting Made Simple

May 1, 2011 – 10:50 am

Google Image Chart EditorIf you are putting together an annual report or a grant request charts are a must. They even come in handy when the kids are doing school projects. Most of us turn to some software program like Microsoft Office for Windows users or iWorks on the Mac platform but they can be a little bit of an overkill for most of our projects. Wouldn’t it be nice to have simple charting program?

But alas – where can we turn? Google, of course. Google’s Image Chart Editor is a breeze to use and you can generate just about any type of chart. Just enter the chart information using the simple features and you are off and running.

Once you create your chart masterpiece, Google gives you a link that you can send via email or embed in a website. Like most things Google, it is free (as in beer). Check it out.

Visit imagecharteditor.appspot.com

Interior Design Challenged?

February 14, 2011 – 10:01 am

Autodesk HomestylerI am very good at recognizing when someone has decorated a room nicely but I have trouble visualizing a finished product when I attempt to decorate a room myself. The Autodesk Homestyler helps me out by letting me build a 3-D model of my home that I furnish and decorate. It even lets you move walls around.

So if you are “interior design challenged” like me check out this great website. It is FREE (as in beer) so you have nothing to lose.

Visit Autodesk Homestyler

Organize Your Information With WikiCards

February 7, 2011 – 6:00 am

WikiCardsIf you are organizationally challenged, you can find tons of help online. Although there are many sites that help you manage your calendar or your to do list, WikiCards helps you manage all of your information. It is more than just a to do list manager, it is a powerful online organization system.

Just register for an account and start creating information cards. In typical internet fashion you can label the cards with tags and groups. Just right-click your card and select a group. Don’t worry though you can always change your mind about the groups that you place your cards in by simply dragging them between groups. You can even click and drag the mouse to select multiple cards and edited multiple cards.

What makes WikiCards so powerful is the search feature. You can also share you cards. Best of all, it is all FREE (as in beer). Check it out.

Visit WikiCards.net