Finding 3D Designs

Before you can send a design to your 3D printer you need to find one or create own, of course finding a design is usually easier than creating it yourself. So here are some websites to go to find a 3D design.

• Thingiverse – In my opinion this is the largest and best resource to find 3D printer designs. This is a great community with more and more designs uploaded everyday. You can just search a keyword of what your looking for and start scrolling. You can even create an account and upload your own designs.

• MyMiniFactory – Is another great 3D printing community and there biggest draw is that all design on the site are guaranteed printable objects. So on some sites when you are trying to print an object you can have print errors. This can be a great reason for a new 3D printer owner to get designs from MyMiniFactory because there guaranteed to print. They also have a store where you can buy printed designs.

• Pinshape – Is a great community where you can learn about your 3D printer and how to create 3D designs. You can also search for designs on the site and it has a nice feature of ratings so if your not sure if the design is good you can check the rating. Pinshape also has a store where you can buy printed designs. Or sell your own designs.

Printing a file you downloaded

Since I have owned my 3D printer I have ran into a couple issues when trying to print a design from one of the sites above. So here are a couple recommendations I have for you.

First, is when you first start off downloading designs and printing you want to make sure you understand what the technical terms mean. An example I have run into is when I am on Thingiverse for example and have found a design I like and want to print it, if I don’t check the print settings I can end up having a fail print. So when your about to download a design make sure you get the print settings. So lets say I wanted to print this Ethernet cable runners from Thingiverse. It is not as simple as just downloading the file and printing, you always want to try to follow the print settings for the design. So for the Ethernet cable runners design the print settings are as follows:

Rafts: Yes

A Raft is a horizontal latticework of filament that is located underneath your part.  Your 3D printed part will be printed on top of this raft, instead of directly on the build platform surface. Rafts are primarily used with ABS to help with warping and bed adhesion, but they can also be used to help stabilize models with small footprints, or to create a strong foundation on which to build the upper layers of your part.

Supports: No

In general, when your model has an overhang or a bridge which is not supported by anything below, you may need to use 3D printing support structures to be able to 3D print it. To find out more about when to use supports check the tutorial at all3dp.com.

Resolution: Standard /0.20mm

Resolution is one of the crucial factors to consider when evaluating the print quality of 3D printers, especially when determining whether a machine is a high-resolution 3D printer. But manufacturers use different methods to define resolution; layer height is one commonly cited standard. Usually the lower the resolution the more detailed a print is and the longer it takes. To find out more check out this site.

Infill: 50%

Infill refers to what is filled in between  the top and bottom layer of your design. Infill has two settings the percentage on infill which means the higher the percentage the more on the inside is filled in. The second is the infill pattern which is in what pattern will the infill be printed in. To get a good idea of what infill is all about and why it is important visit this site.

Hopefully this will give you a good start on printing designs with your 3D printer. This is the first post in a series on 3D printers so let me know if you have any questions. The next post will be on 3D printer software.

Belarc Advisor

Which is freeware software that gathers information on your computer and exports an HTML report for you to save or print. The report includes tons of information on your computer not just software. You also get the security benchmark, security update status, hardware infomation, software licenses, and much more. This is very useful if you want an all-in-one view of your computer. So here’s how to get Belarc Advisor and run it on your computer.

Warning: This software requires Admin rights to run!

Immediately after the analysis scan completes it will open the scan report in your web browser. This report contains almost everything about your computer starting at the top with a summary. The report does a good job of breaking up the information in subheadings. The summary contains the basic information like Name, Operating System and System hardware.  So you can also use Belarc Advisor to scan hardware to look for issues. The report even includes more advanced information including users accounts and locked status and network connection information. But if your like me and want a list of installed software, at the bottom of the report for me is a long list of installed software with app version and license information. The only downside I see in the app is it includes ads for their paid software but that is to be expected with free software. Hopefully the Belarc Advisor can help you like it’s helped me and let me know if you have any suggested software for me to review.

Requirements:
PowerShell – needed to run the script
Outlook – email client used to send email
Script – I will include the script is use in the description down below.

Get Started:
So to get started open you editor of choice I use Visual Studio Code but any editor will work. My script uses input boxes instead of using the PowerShell window for input. You can choose to do either however you want.
To setup an input box we use a function and variables to show the input box and record the results. I use this input box function on many of my scripts to improve the input options  if you like it feel free to use it for your scripts.

In the function shown you don’t have to edit anything but you can change the Title if you want to customize it. After the function we have to set the variables we are going to use to send the email.

The input variables I use are for the email recipient, subject and ticket number. Outside of the first two which you will want to keep you can add additional variables depending on the email purpose.

In the next part of the script you can set what you want to be in the body of the email and include any variables you have entered through the input box. This is just setting it as a variable right now and then it will be sent to Outlook to send the email.

The last part of the script is the most important, it takes all the variables entered and connects to Outlook and sends the values for each variable to the correct part of the message. The reason this only works on Outlook is because it is creating a Outlook specific object to transfer the variables into a new email message.

I found this online at Stack Overflow if anyone is curious about the Outlook connection.

The first lines creates a new object to connect to Outlook, it then sets the namespace to MAPI. The next two lines create the mail message and activates it so we can write to it. I also have a signature in my email so the next line gets the HTMLBody which before anything is added is just the signature that is preloaded on all new messages. In the next few lines it adds it all together, starting with the mail recipient, then subject, then body which includes the body and signature variables above and then saves the newly created email to be ready to send.

So now that we have written the scripts here’s what it looks like when running it:

After you enter the script in a PowerShell window the first input box asks for email address and enter the address and click OK.

Input Box to enter recipient email address.

Once you hit OK you will be prompted for the message subject the click OK.

Enter Message Subject

If you have another prompt like me enter the necessary information and click OK.

Then the Outlook new email box will open and with your data already filled in you can edit and then Send.

That’s it the script is now complete, a few things of note first this is an example and not how I use it in the real world in case you were wondering. Also this should work with most of the versions of PowerShell and Outlook so you don’t have to get the latest for this to work. If you want to just download the script instead of making it yourself a link to it is below. I hope this helps you automate your day and let me know if you have any questions or issues.

Send-Tix-Email.ps1

Most people are aware of the professional version of Visual Studio which is often used in application development. But the Visual Studio Code is an open source slimmed down version of the software, that Microsoft recommends in place of existing editors. And here’s why; Microsoft Visual Studio code has a plethora of features when compared to other editors. To start in Visual Studio Code, there is support for almost every major programming language. Several ship in the box, for example, JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML but more rich language extensions can be added through a plugin. This makes Visual Studio code a multi-use tool that can be used to write both JavaScript and PowerShell with only the change of a plugin.

Visual Studio Code Features

Visual Studio Code is open source product and is available on all platforms, Windows, Mac, Linux. That along with the extensible of all the addons you can use with Visual Studio Code it can turn into any editor you could want. You can also install themes and icons to make the editor look and feel the way you want. My favorite icon theme is Material theme which set a different material style icon for each of the different languages which makes it easy to determine what each file is in a folder.

Using Visual Studio Code

When you open Visual Studio Code you see the default layout for the code editor. On the far left side there are 5 icons. These icons are how you access most of the features of VS code. Starting at the top is Explorer which when click allows you to open a folder inside the application and access your scripts for there. This allows you to have project folder open in Visual Studio Code without having to go out of the editor to access files.

The next icon in the list is Search which is one of my favorite features in VS Code. The search box does more than a normal one. When you enter in a term in the box it searches through all files in the folder you have added to VS Code in the previous icon and looks through all the files in the folder for the search term entered. This can be anything from a variable entered in one of the scripts or a comment you entered. This makes life a lot easier than search each file individually.

The third icon is for Source Control and is where you can add source control providers for your scripts. This is another added benefit for coders who use source control with their scripts.

The fourth icon is Debug which is used anytime you run or debug a script, you can change settings like Breakpoints here or in the Debug menu. You can also install additional debuggers if needed through the VS Code extensions.

The last icon is for Extensions which is where you can see what extensions are installed or have an updated available. You can also search for and install new extensions from here. There also recommended extensions that are displayed which include the most used extensions.

Overall Microsoft Visual Studio Code is a powerful editor that is able to be used for many different languages. It can be tailored to the scripting language you want with one of the many extensions available to be installed. So even though I have only used Visual Studio Code  for a few months I am very happy with the experience and recommend it to anyone writing scripts.

This improvement should work on Windows 7 and above but I have only verified it on Windows 10 so your mileage may vary. So I have often found myself trying to figure out how to move files to a computer I am going to be remoting into normally to install software on it. But there is a setting in Remote Desktop to allow you to attach local drives to remote computers. And it even works when you RDP into a virtual machine and computers on other domains as long as you can connect to it. This is done through changing a setting in your RDP default connection. The location of the default RDP file is usually “C:\Users\Documents\Default” This file holds the default settings for your profile that RDP uses to connect to remote computers.

Enable RDP Drives

To enable to drives feature in RDP follow the steps listed below:

Now the next time you connect to a remote computer the drive/s you choose will connect automatically. Or if you have a removable drive to connect if you check the option “Drives I plug in later” any drive you plug in will be connected to the remote machine. And if you have many computers or servers to remote into you can setup specific RDP profiles for each type of remote machine and have specific drives connected for those machines.  Here is a video I made showing the process of adding drives and what they look like while connected.

Well now you can improve your RDP use and make things easier for yourself. I hoped this articled helped all you RDP users out there. I know it has made my life so much easier. Let me know in the comments below if you have any RDP tips or already use the remote drive feature.

The Windows 10 dark mode does not change all of the windows settings. The dark mode change will only affect windows that are part of the Universal Windows apps, so windows like PC Settings, Calculator, Alarms & Clock, etc. will be included it wont change File Explorer and other Windows desktop apps.

Before we get to making the change just an FYI this tutorial uses the registry which if you don’t know how to use can really break your computer. So think before you make and changes.

Now lets get started.

• First go to start search and enter regedit and click enter or select the result. Click Yes on the Windows User Prompt.

• This will open the registry editor from here go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

• Then go to SOFTWARE – then Microsoft – Windows – CurrentVersion – Themes – Personalize

In the right hand list look for “AppsUseLightTheme” if you don’t see it you can create the key by right-clicking in the window and selecting new-> DWORD32bit value.

Once you create the key or edit the existing one you want to change the Value Data to 0. This will switch the light theme to the dark theme. For the change to happen you will need to log off and log back in.

And that’s it after you log back in you will get the Windows 10 dark mode on your computer. If you every want to change it back you can just go back to the same registry key and change it from a 0 to a 1. This change will only affect your user account so if there are other people that login to the computer. The windows theme on their account will stay the same light theme for their account and if they want the dark mode they would have to do the same steps.

Windows apps after Dark Theme has been enabled.

Now you are using Windows 10 dark mode, and even though it doesn’t change every part of the OS it is a cool way to change your Windows 10 computer.

What is Mint Bills?

You may have heard of Mint an online service provided by Intuit, which lets you track all of your financial accounts and monthly spending. Well Mint Bills is another service and app they offer which allows you to add your accounts and pay your monthly bills automatically from your phone.The app also includes bill notifications so you will know in advanced that your credit card bill is new. PSA: Just to let you know the Mint Bills app works by having you log in to your bank and bill providers inside the app so the app can connect to those accounts. This is similar to the regular Mint app, but if you are not comfortable giving them this access them this app will not work for you.

How to use Mint Bills?

To get started you will need a Mint account, if you use there other service you can use the same account but if you don’t you will need to sign up. This can either be done through the app or if you would prefer you can setup your accounts through the mint website.Once your have a Mint account the next step is to add your accounts for your bank and bills. By adding your bank accounts you can pay your bills right from the app. To add your accounts is very easy, the app has builtin many common companies so when you pick your bill company you will normally just need to enter your login credentials from the company and the app will be able to connect to it. See below for the how this looks in the app.
Once you have all your bills added to the app now comes the cool part. When you open the app you first see your bills dashboard, this shows how much money you have in the bank account you added and the total amount of your bills and the number of due bills. This gives you a quick and easy look at your finances. From here by clicking on the bills section you can see your upcoming and paid bills. There is even a calendar view which will show the monthly calendar and your bill due dates. On your upcoming bills click pay will take you to a screen where you pick the amount and date that the bill is paid. Mint Bills app allows you to schedule your bill payments so you can pay your bills when it works for you. Once you have completed the payment process you will get a receipt as proof and the bill will be marked paid, even if you scheduled it for a later date.

Click to view slideshow.
The Mint Bills app has several helpful features including;

• Upcoming bill notification on your phone, you will get a notification in advanced of your bill being due so you wont be caught off guard and have a late payment.

• Free Payment Options: Provides free checking account payments and bill tracking for an unlimited number of payments per month.

• In app reports: Mint is known for their reports, the Bills app is no difference you can access reports on your spending categories for the month to help you manage your budget.

Mint Bills app is a great resource for anyone who worries about paying their bills on time. I personally have noticed that after using Mint Bills I have not had any issues with missed or late payments. So if you want an app to help you remember when to pay your bills this app takes it a step further by notifying about your bills and paying them right from the app. So go to your app store and try it for yourself.

When you hear the term God Mode it may make you think that it will make you computer amazing and fast. But actually Windows 10 God Mode is a cool name for creating a centralized table listing of all Windows customization options sorted by type. Now it may not sound as cool as its name but after setting up Windows 10 God Mode you will be able to access the computer settings a lot faster than the normal way.

Here is what Windows 10 God Mode looks like

Windows 10 God Mode is super easy to setup, I have mine on my desktop so I can access it very easily. You can put the shortcut anywhere you want on your computer. To make things easy open up Notepad so you can copy and paste the code you need to enable Windows 10 God Mode.

1. Copy the Bold text into Notepad:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Even though this hack is called god mode, you can change the name to anything. You could call it Hacker Mode or any other cool name you can think of. To change the name just delete GodMode in the front of the code before the period and put in whatever label you would like to customize the tweak to your preference. I like God Mode so I will keep it the same. Once you have the code in Notepad and made any change you want then we will create the shortcut.

2. Right click on a blank space anywhere on the desktop and go to new – Folder.

3.  Right Click on the New Folder and choose rename.

4.In the blank rename box copy the code from notepad and paste it into the folder name box.

5. Hit enter after pasting in the code to the folder rename box and the icon will change to a Control Panel icon and God Mode is now setup!

When you open the God Mode shortcut you will see a list of tons of settings you can configure for your computer. You can access any control panel settings from programs and features to windows firewall settings. The God Mode tweak will give you instant access to all your settings you for your computer. I hope this post has helped you enter God Mode and let me know how your God Mode worked in the comments down below.

Hacked – Mobile Game of the Week:

Hacked changes the way you code on your smartphone or tablet. The game has the look and feel of Tron crossed with Tetris. The game is created to help the player learn how to code and is based on completing logical problems with writing a code to solve the problem and complete the level.

The game has three different modes, first is the story mode where you play as a hacker who has to solve problems to improve the world. The story mode is very long and will keep you playing for hours and hours. If you want to try something different you can play in freestyle mode where you can write your own game and share it with other “hackers” to play, or you can browse games created by other “hackers” and experience what other people have written. This is another way to continue to learn coding techniques and see what other people have used to create their games. The last mode is called robot, in robot mode you can really show off your coding skills by creating an AI of a virtual robot and share your virtual robot to so everyone can see what you can do.

Click to view slideshow.

The app allows you to sign in with your Twitter account to create a profile and share your hacking success with your Twitter followers. Hacked also has in-app purchases of hackoins, which is the in-game currency and you can use them to open up additional puzzles or get help when your stuck on a level. The game may seem lighthearted and fun but the story mode makes the game more real and intense. As you try to save the world using hacking skills. The app is based around logical problems that are in most programming languages so this app can be very useful when trying to learn how to code.

So Hacked app is a fun and educational app that can help you learn the problem solving and logic skills needed to start programming and hacking. The app challenges you with harder and harder levels so you will not get bored with the app. So if you want to learn to code or be a hacker I would check out Hacked app for a fun way to learn on your phone or tablet. This is my game of the week pick and I hope you like it. Let me know if you have any games I should check out.

If you have missed it in the news several new vulnerabilities have become public for Adobe Flash. Once such vulnerability came out of the Hacking Team hack which uses an Adobe Flash zero-day exploit to install malware on your computer. Even though Adobe is continue to update Flash when new hacks are announced, Flash is still one of the most vulnerable applications on your computer. Because of this it is highly recommended to uninstall Adobe Flash and move on. With the use of HTML5 video by YouTube and other Internet video streaming services Adobe Flash has outlived it’s usefulness. That is why Mozilla Firefox is now disabling Flash by default and you have to manually enable Firefox for websites that still need Flash to run correctly. This is a proactive move by Firefox that has not been duplicated by the other browsers. And even though we can agree that Flash should be stopped, it is not easy if a website you rely on uses Flash for video or multimedia content. There are approximately 10.3% of websites that still require flash to operate correctly.

Error message in Firefox when accessing Flash content

So with everyone including Mozilla warning against using Adobe Flash, what can you do if a business or personal website you use relies on Adobe Flash?  The answer is not much if you have to use one of the 10 percent of websites that require Flash. This leaves us in a weird period where Flash is being depreciated from use by most websites and browsers, but is still required for some websites services like video streaming. This leaves end users in a tough situation where they have to deal with prompts and custom settings to enable Flash on their browsers to get websites to work. There is even a moment to get users across the world to uninstall Adobe Flash. To find out more about their mission check out Occupy Flash website.

So what should happen? Well unless we want to stay in perpetual limbo of Flash partially needed for websites and partially banned on browsers. The only way out of this limbo is to force / incentivize website developers to stop relying on the outdated and insecure Adobe Flash software.  This will be an especially hard and slow process for enterprises who have to spend additional money from already tight budgets to update their business web applications. And we all know getting businesses to spend money and make changes is a bureaucratic nightmare.

Even after going through the big issues with Adobe Flash and the drop in use of Flash. I still can’t give one solution for everyone. And I don’t think there is an easy solution except everyone agreeing to spend the money and update their websites with HTML5 or other new technology to stop the need of Adobe Flash once and for all. My recommendation for home users is to uninstall Adobe Flash or use Firefox with Flash disabled and see what websites you have to use that require Adobe Flash. If after uninstalling Flash you don’t find any sites that are not working then you can say goodbye to Flash forever. But if you find sites that you have to use and requires Flash then you have to think whether the Flash powered websites you use are important enough for you to take the risk and leave Adobe Flash installed. These are my thoughts on the issue of Adobe Flash, there may be other ways to continue to use Flash without the risk and if you have any thoughts or comments about this issue let me know in the comments below.