Spark Facts Tips

How to recover removed/deleted messages on Skype

2015-04-26T17:15:00.000+02:00

Everyone knows by now that your Skype logs all calls, chats, SMSes, file transfers, documents,videos,voicemails, messages (if your 'save chat history' option inside the privacy setting is set to true). All this data is stored in a database file, called main.db, that can be accessed using a SQLite app/command line/browser editor if you are using a MacOS/ Windows. If you are using Linux, you can use the package manager to find and install the SQLite packages. I love playing with Linux Puppy, it's one of the fastest Linux OS, the easiest to install as a Virtual machine (it takes 5 minutes!!!), it's fun, user friendly and full with apps. Getting the SQLite in here it's easy; go to Menu->Setup->Puppy package manager and enter 'sqlite' inside the search box; click on the package you want to install and automatically you'll be asked if you want to install any dependencies.

The main.db is including all the messages excepting the removed ones. :)

So... to recover the removed/deleted messages on Skype, you'll have to look somewhere else. It makes me smile every time when someone is deleting/removing messages on Skype, because there isn't such a thing as 'deleted' messages on Skype.

Think twice before sending any message in there because once is sent, even deleted after, will be stored on everyone's hard-disk, included in that conversation.

In addition to the main database file, Skype is storing the messages on dat files and here you can find the removed/delete messages.

How to recover removed/deleted Skype messages on MacOS.

Go to Finder -> Go to folder-> Enter "~/Library/"->Application Support-> Skype-> select the folder with your username->chatsync->here are the dat files stored, in different subfolders.

To get the right file you can check the date modified of the dat file and when ready, open the file in a text editor. Voilà! :)
How to recover removed/deleted Skype messages on WindowsOS.
Go to C drive->Users->Your windows username->AppData->Roaming->Skype->your skype username-> rest of the steps are the same as above.
Have fun!

NASA’s Hubble has the best evidence for an Underground Ocean on Jupiter's Largest Moon - Ganymede

2015-03-14T13:14:00.000+01:00

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on Earth's surface.

Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and for the search of life as we know it.

“This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in our own solar system. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth.”

Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and the only moon with its own magnetic field. The magnetic field causes aurorae, which are ribbons of glowing, hot electrified gas, in regions circling the north and south poles of the moon. Because Ganymede is close to Jupiter, it is also embedded in Jupiter’s magnetic field. When Jupiter’s magnetic field changes, the aurorae on Ganymede also change, “rocking” back and forth.

By watching the rocking motion of the two aurorae, scientists were able to determine that a large amount of saltwater exists beneath Ganymede’s crust affecting its magnetic field.

A team of scientists led by Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany came up with the idea of using Hubble to learn more about the inside of the moon.

"I was always brainstorming how we could use a telescope in other ways," said Saur. "Is there a way you could use a telescope to look inside a planetary body? Then I thought, the aurorae! Because aurorae are controlled by the magnetic field, if you observe the aurorae in an appropriate way, you learn something about the magnetic field. If you know the magnetic field, then you know something about the moon’s interior."

If a saltwater ocean were present, Jupiter’s magnetic field would create a secondary magnetic field in the ocean that would counter Jupiter’s field. This “magnetic friction” would suppress the rocking of the aurorae. This ocean fights Jupiter's magnetic field so strongly that it reduces the rocking of the aurorae to 2 degrees, instead of the 6 degrees, if the ocean was not present.

Scientists estimate the ocean is 60 miles (100 kilometers) thick – 10 times deeper than Earth's oceans – and is buried under a 95-mile (150-kilometer) crust of mostly ice.

Scientists first suspected an ocean in Ganymede in the 1970s, based on models of the large moon. NASA's Galileo mission measured Ganymede's magnetic field in 2002, providing the first evidence supporting those suspicions. The Galileo spacecraft took brief "snapshot" measurements of the magnetic field in 20-minute intervals, but its observations were too brief to distinctly catch the cyclical rocking of the ocean’s secondary magnetic field.

The new observations were done in ultraviolet light and could only be accomplished with a space telescope high above the Earth's atmosphere, which blocks most ultraviolet light.

Source: NASA

Hot gadgets

2015-03-14T12:45:00.002+01:00

Autonomous drones with GoPros

We've already heard about drones or camera-equipped drones but autonomous drones with GoPros is something new.

HEXO+ is a flying camera that follows and films you autonomously.

It will register your slightest movements and reposition itself constantly with the instructions you set via its Android and iOS mobile app, following you around automatically (http://hexoplus.com).

Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo is a voice-enabled, connected to the cloud, getting smarter assistant.

Controlled by your voice, it will listen for the trigger word “Alexa” with its far-field voice recognition, which uses seven microphones to hear you from any direction. You’ll then be able to ask “Alexa” questions about topics like information, news, music, weather, anything you'd usually search on Google. :)

You can also set timers, reminders and issue music requests (http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo).

Customisable smart 'lego' phone

Project Ara is an initiative to develop a modular smartphone with components that you choose

and can be swapped out at any time,allowing you to use your creativity and build your own smart phone with modules.

The "market pilot" for Project Ara is being conducted in the second half of 2015 in Puerto Rico.

Long-range 'Star Trek' walkie-talkie :)

A smart device connected to your smart phone that allows you to communicate via the app

with anyone, anywhere in the world, having also an OnBeep smart device (onbeep.com).

2015-02-22T22:52:00.000+01:00

There a few reasons why you might want to build your own distribution.
You could create a standard distribution, but with a desktop that you are more comfortable with.
You might need to put something small and lightweight together for an older computer.
You might need to build a live media ISO that you are able to carry around with you and to bring your favourite set of tools to bear when you need them.
SUSE Studio allows you to build a customised SUSE Linux installation using a web interface.
Start by setting up an account on the SUSE Studio website (http://susestudio.com).
You do this by following the 'Sign In Or Create An Account' link on the front page.

After creating a new account or using one of your existing social networking accounts such as Facebook, Google or OpenID , click on 'Create New Appliance...' functionality under the Actions.
On the next screen, choose the GNOME Desktop base template, making sure that you are selecting from the templates that relate to the latest version of SUSE Linux.
Scroll down to the bottom of the window to choose your architecture and then give your appliance a name and click 'ok'.

You will get a page as below and next step is to configure your appliance.

Start with the 'Software' tab. Let's say you'd want to add Office to your desktop, then type the word 'libre' into the search box. The packages are by default sorted by popularity; the OfficeLibre package will be displayed on the top of search list.Click the '+add' button to add this package.

Add Firefox too. You can also add extra repositories and even custom RPM packages.

Proceed to the Configuration tab and select the General sub-tab. In here, select your language and keyboard layout and leave the other options as default.

Moving to the Personalize sub-tab of the Configuration page, we can now add some custom branding. Upload/select your logo and background.

In the 'Desktop' sub-tab, you can select the 'Automatic desktop user log in' option.

In the 'the Appliance' sub-tab,you can define the parameters of a virtual machine that will directly boot within a visualiser, if you want to create a VM environment. Here, you can choose options such as allocated memory and set up the LVM partition arrangement.

The Files tab is worth a visit if you need to add custom files to the distribution. You can add single files or archives. For example, if you wanted to add a file to the desktop of every new user, you should upload it and specify that it should be placed.If you wanted to place a file within the home directory of the user that you have created called tux, add it to '/home/tux'.

Now you can move to the 'Build' tab. In order to create a traditional installation ISO, select 'Preload ISO (.iso)' in the Default format and click on the 'Build' icon.

This can take a few minutes to complete, depending on how large and complicated your custom image is.Once built, your appliance remain on the site for a few days and can be downloaded. The tab 'Share' allows you to share your finished appliance with other users.

Boot the finished ISO, same as any other installation ISO.

How many cells are in your body?

2015-02-01T00:56:00.000+01:00

There is no real consensus on the number of cells in the human body. Estimates put the number between ten trillion and one hundred trillion. The number of cells depends on the size of the person: bigger person, more cells. Also, the number of cells in our body keeps changing as old cells die and new ones form.

Cells come in different sizes, and they grow in different densities. If you used their density to estimate the cells in a human body, you’d come to a staggering 724 trillion cells. The mean weight of a cell is 1 nanogram. For an adult man weighing 85 kilograms, simple arithmetic would lead us to conclude that that man has 85 trillion cells.
We have 50 billion fat cells and 2 billion heart muscle cells…Adding up the total number of each kind of cell, the scientists came up with…37.2 trillion cells. This estimate is not including the microbiome - bacteria, fungi and archaea, microorganisms that share our body space.The human body contains over 10 times more microbial cells than human cells.

A cell can die in many ways - through infection, poisoning, overheating or lack of oxygen. An uncontrolled death is messy: the cell swells up, and its contents leak away. This may damage surrounding cells. But there is another way, programmed self-destruction, or apoptosis. Cells often choose to kill themselves. This controlled cell death is crucial for normal human development and good health throughout life. Liver cells last about a year and half. Red blood cells live for 120 days. Skin cells are good for 30 days. White blood cells survive for thirteen days. And it turns out that the great majority of cells in the human body are bacterial cells, and most are beneficial. It is hard to believe that the average adult loses close to 100 million cells every minute. The good news is that the body, through cell division, is replacing those lost 100 million cells every minute.

10 Quotes From a Sioux Indian Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About “Modern” Culture

2015-01-31T17:16:00.000+01:00

Luther Standing Bear was an Oglala Lakota Sioux Chief who, among a few rare others such as Charles Eastman, Black Elk and Gertrude Bonnin occupied the rift between the way of life of the Indigenous people of the Great Plains before, and during, the arrival and subsequent spread of the European pioneers. Raised in the traditions of his people until the age of eleven, he was then educated at the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School of Pennsylvania, where he learned the english language and way of life. (Though a National Historical Landmark, Carlisle remains a place of controversy in Native circles.) Like his above mentioned contemporaries, however, his native roots were deep, leaving him in the unique position of being a conduit between cultures. Though his movement through the white man’s world was not without “success” — he had numerous movie roles in Hollywood — his enduring legacy was the protection of the way of life of his people. By the time of his death he had published 4 books and had become a leader at the forefront of the progressive movement aimed at preserving Native American heritage and sovereignty, coming to be known as a strong voice in the education of the white man as to the Native American way of life. Here, then, are 10 quotes from the great Sioux Indian Chief known as Standing Bear that will be sure to disturb much of what you think you know about “modern” culture.

Praise, flattery, exaggerated manners and fine, high-sounding words were no part of Lakota politeness. Excessive manners were put down as insincere, and the constant talker was considered rude and thoughtless. Conversation was never begun at once, or in a hurried manner.
Children were taught that true politeness was to be defined in actions rather than in words. They were never allowed to pass between the fire and the older person or a visitor, to speak while others were speaking, or to make fun of a crippled or disfigured person. If a child thoughtlessly tried to do so, a parent, in a quiet voice, immediately set him right.
Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regardful of the rule that ‘thought comes before speech.’…and in the midst of sorrow, sickness, death or misfortune of any kind, and in the presence of the notable and great, silence was the mark of respect… strict observance of this tenet of good behaviour was the reason, no doubt, for his being given the false characterisation by the white man of being a stoic. He has been judged to be dumb, stupid, indifferent, and unfeeling.
We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild’. Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was it ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.
This concept of life and its relations was humanising and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled his being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave him reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all.
It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth… the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
Everything was possessed of personality, only differing from us in form. Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks, and the birds and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings of earth. We learned to do what only the student of nature learns, and that was to feel beauty. We never railed at the storms, the furious winds, and the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensified human futility, so whatever came we adjusted ourselves, by more effort and energy if necessary, but without complaint.
…the old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
Civilisation has been thrust upon me… and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.

This article was originally featured on Wisdom Pills.

How to enable the root account - Ubuntu

2010-01-27T22:56:00.005+01:00

In Linux (and Unix in general), there is a superuser named root. The Windows equivalent of root is Administrator. The superuser can do anything and everything, and thus doing daily work as the superuser can be dangerous. You could type a command incorrectly and destroy the system.

By default, the root account password is locked in Ubuntu. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the su command to become the root user. However, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges. This is where sudo comes in - it allows authorized users to run certain programs as root without having to know the root password.

Logging in as root may cause very serious trouble but if you really need to enable the root account you have to set a password for it using the command:

 sudo passwd

If you have enabled your root account and wish to disable it again, use the following command in terminal:

sudo usermod -p '!' root

Success!

Wednesday 27 January - Apple tablet event

2010-01-27T00:27:00.004+01:00

Wednesday 27 January, Apple will present the new iTablet. The new e-book reader, digital newspaper, music and video player, document-editor, your possible very advance work platform, the mysterious "iPad" will cost, according to the official Twitter page for Germany of MediaMarkt Company, 499 euro with Internet abandonment from T-Mobile and 899 euro without Internet abandonment.

Install MySQL on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

2010-01-17T12:42:00.060+01:00

On Ubuntu 9.10 you can install MySQL using :

Ubuntu Software Center, search for MySQL server and install it;
Synaptic Package Manager, search for MySQL and install MySQL-server package with the dependencies, MySQL-client , the libraries and other packages you would need;
Terminal, here you have to write the command(s) needed to install MySQL server;

If you choose the first two options the installation will be done automatically but you will have to set up a password after the installation is completed.

root/anonymous Password Assignment

shell> mysql -u root

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' =
PASSWORD('newpwd');

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'host_name' =
PASSWORD('newpwd');

Replace host_name with the name of the server host:

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR'root'@'127.0.0.1' =

PASSWORD('newpwd');

To assign passwords to the root accounts using mysqladmin,

execute the following commands:

shell> mysqladmin -u root password "newpwd"

shell> mysqladmin -u root -h host_name password "newpwd"

Is there a default MySQL password? According to the MySQL documentation if you didn't set up a password, the initial password when connecting to the server is blank.

It is possible when connecting for the first time to the server, using the blank password or when trying to set up a root password to get the following error:

ERROR 1045 : Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

If you don't have enough time to go back and forth to see what went wrong and how would you fix it, the best solution at this point is to remove your MySQL server and try the third option, use the Terminal to (re)install MySQL server.

This is the simplest, the fastest way to install MySQL server on Ubuntu 9.10:

Open a Terminal and execute the following command; you must have sudo privilege if you are a standard user to execute this command:
```
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
```
```
 
```

2. The installation will begin and you'll be prompted to set a password for the root user. Don't leave your password blank , choose a strong password and better do not forget it.

3. The MySQL server package is now installed , along with dependencies and client libraries and you can connect to the server executing this command in the terminal:

 mysql -u root -p yourpassword
 If you are using MySQL Administrator/similar tool you must fill

in: Server HostName (127.0.0.1),Port (3306),Username (root)

and Password (your password) to connect.

Online - the new way of watching movies

2010-01-15T00:41:00.001+01:00

Online and free – this is a new way of watching movies at home, a great alternative of dvd's, multimedia hard disks or downloads. Free movies sites are places where you can watch high quality full-length movies and the latest TV shows. I will post here 2 of those sites where you can see new movies like Daybreakers (2010), Avatar(2009) or your favorite TV show.

http://www.dakmovies.com/

http://movie4free.isgreat.org/

How to install and run Ubuntu 9.10 in VirtualBox

2010-01-10T14:52:00.001+01:00

If you have a Windows operating system on your desktop and you want to use in parallel Ubuntu 9.10 or other platform you can use virtualization. One of the new incredible features of Ubuntu 9.10 is UbuntuOne, your personal cloud where you can store and share files. I use VirtualBox, a professional virtualization tool, developed by Sun and freely available as Open Source Software.

VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

What are the steps?

Download the VirtualBox Open Source Software for the Windows platform from here;
Run the VirtualBox executable file you just saved on your desktop;
Follow the installation steps, if you have less experience with virtualization, keep the settings as default; when installation is finished reboot your PC;
Download the Ubuntu 9.10 also freely available as an Open Source operating system;
Open your VirtualBox tool and click New to create a new Virtual Machine;
Follow the wizard to create a new Virtual Machine, Ubuntu 9.10
After creating your virtual Ubuntu, click on Settings → System → Motherboard and set the Boot Order with CD/DVD-ROM as the first boot sequence;
Click on Storage → Attributes and add the Ubuntu.iso file on the virtual CD device;
Start the Virtual machine, it will boot from your Virtual CD device and start to install Ubuntu on your virtual partition; I can say it's the easiest and fastest OS installation;
After installing Ubuntu, go to the Virtual Machine settings and change the boot order to boot from your virtual hard disk;
If you want to use it in a Full-screen Mode , you have to install a few drivers for VirtualBox; go to System → Administration → Synaptic package Manager, search for virtualbox and install the following packages :

VirtualBox-ose

VirtualBox-ose-source

VirtualBox-ose-guest-sourse

VirtualBox-ose-qt

VirtualBox-ose-guest-x11

VirtualBox-ose-additions

VirtualBox-ose-guest-utils

12. The last step before enjoying your Full screen mode Virtual Ubuntu is to reboot your virtual machine.
Any comments/questions are welcome!

Data Mining with R - ebook available for free

2010-01-08T13:31:00.003+01:00

A new Data Mining book "Data Mining with R: Learning by Case Studies" by Luis Torgo is freely available for download at the book web site. R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics available as Free Software and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms and similar systems (including FreeBSD and Linux), Windows and MacOS.
Source: http://www.liaad.up.pt/~ltorgo/DataMiningWithR/

Is the Knowledge Navigator concept the ancestor of Apple Tablet?

2010-01-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

Apple will possible amaze the market with the new release of iTablet/iSlate in the beginning of this year. In 1987 Apple had a tablet concept called The Knowledge Navigator and described by John Sculley in his book, Odyssey. As we can see in one of the several concept videos produced by Apple, the Knowledge Navigator is a tablet style computer, opened as a book, with very advanced features including a multi-touch interface and a software agent as an animated character using a speech system and allowing the user to converse with the system; this animated software agent was criticized by many as being an unrealistic approach. The multi-touch screen presented in that concept was later included on the iPhone.
Is the new iTablet including a powerful speech system and an intelligent agent capable of learning from his interaction with the environment and using his knowledge to achieve his goals?This is a question I would like to have an answer for.

How to remove/erase your BIOS/CMOS Password on Windows, Ubuntu/Linux , BSD platforms

2009-12-26T15:26:00.003+01:00

BIOS password is stored in a non-erasable part of the CMOS ('BIOS memory'). If you have forgotten the Bios/CMOS password on your laptop/desktop, here is one 5-minutes-solution to remove it.
This solution was working for me on a Linux environment, Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala and is also working on a Windows, BSD environment.
CMOS is a type of battery-powered chip that holds data without requiring an external power source. In a laptop/desktop, CMOS holds the basic instructions the computer needs to initialize its hardware components and boot up. These settings are known as the basic input output system (BIOS) or CMOS settings.
Before trying to figure out where is your CMOS located and how would you safety remove it for 30 minutes, as a solution to erase your Bios Password, or finding out what is the backdoor password for your computer - some BIOS’ have pre-installed backdoor passwords, you can succeed using the CMOS password recovery tool 5.0. This tool works in Windows, Linux and BSD platforms.

For Windows follow those steps (you need to have administrator privilege):
1.Download the CMOS password recovery tool 5.0 freeware here;
2.Unzip the file;
3.Install ioperm driver - that gives direct port I/O access for specified ports to user-mode process – “ioperm.exe -i”;
4.Ioperm has to be running, start the service with “net start ioperm";
5.Run "Cmospwd_win.exe" file;
6.Restart your computer, press F2/other key to access your BIOS menu without any password.
The old password is erased and that took you less than 5 minute.
7.Uninstall the ioperm driver with "ioperm.exe -u", to increase your security.

For Linux/BSD follow those steps (you need to have root privilege):
1.Download the CMOS password recovery tool 5.0 freeware here;
2.Uncompress/untar your Tar file;
3.Open a terminal and write the commands to locate your file;
4. You have a few command options:
cmospwd /d ---> to dump cmos in ascii and scan code
cmospwd [/d] /[wlr] ---> cmos_backup_file write/load/restore
cmospwd /k ---> kill cmos
cmospwd /m0010011 ---> to execute module 3,6 and 7

If you chose “cmospwd /k “ as I did, you will have 3 options:
1 - kill cmos (also the date and time , this can be adjusted later);
2- kill cmos (keeping the date and time);
0 - abort ;
Your password is erased and you can access your Bios again.
Success!

Thoughts: between the law of attraction and the quantum mechanics

2009-12-23T23:19:00.004+01:00

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” Joseph Campbell

The universe is made of mass and energy, mutually convertible. According to some principles in quantum mechanics our thoughts have also energy and like atoms, are governed by the "like attracts like" concept of physics, attracting whatever is the person thinking of . The law of attraction says that if you really want something , believe in it and you are open to receiving it, you’ll get it and if you put a lot of attention and thought onto something you don’t want its possible you’ll get that also. So focus only on things that you want.
Our thoughts are deciding our future and what we have at this point in our lives is the result of our mind.
A person's thoughts will attract the people, the material things and the events in his/her life.
In David Bohm’s vision, a quantum physicist who made a number of significant contributions to physics, particularly in the area of quantum mechanics , the thought “is the whole thing - thought, felt, the body, the whole society sharing thoughts - it's all one process. It is essential for me not to break that up, because it's all one process; somebody else's thoughts becomes my thoughts, and vice versa. Therefore it would be wrong and misleading to break it up into my thoughts, your thoughts, my feelings, these feelings, those feelings... I would say that thought makes what is often called in modern language a system”.
There are many theories saying that the law of attraction is working but there are also the questions – why is there so much poverty, why is the hunger the gravest single threat to the world's public health, if this law is working?
There isn’t an answer for that but if I look back in my life I see achieving things that I wanted with my whole heart, things that I believed will come true, things that I put a lot of attention and positive thought into them.