Month: September 2014

There a many different ways to construct a fire pit, from a simple ring of stones to something with more modern aesthetic like this poured concrete version. While the project is labor-intensive, you can build it in a weekend for around $150.

If you’ve never worked with concrete before, this gives a basic overview on how to build a form, prep the ground, and pour concrete from a bag mix. These principles can be used for all types of indoor and outdoor projects, and you don’t need much more than a form, wheelbarrow, and garden hoe for mixing the concrete. You can see the full list of materials and a step-by-step tutorial at the link below.

Concrete Fire Pit | Home Made Modern

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via Lifehacker
Build a Modern Concrete Fire Pit from Scratch

While iOS 8 comes with plenty of advantages, upgrading to a new operating system is never without its drawbacks. Maybe battery life just ain’t quite what you’d want it to be, but we’ve got some tips to squeeze the most out of that sucker and stay juiced all day long.

Many of the features on your iPhone are handy if you need/want them. If you don’t, they’re just eating away at that precious battery life behind the scenes, and give you exactly zero help for your trouble. So shut ’em down.

Identify problem apps

One of the handiest new tricks in iOS 8 is the ability to see what apps are using the most battery life. You can check on your own personal problem children by going to Settings>>General>>Usage>>Battery Usage where you can find a list of apps that are chewing up your battery life.

Where you go from here depends on the apps in questions. You can always try to stop using the app so much, but chances are there are other measures you can take as well, like turning off location polling or push notifications. We’ll cover those a little later on, so just remember the apps that are topping this list and be sure to check back for new culprits whenever your battery life starts to sag.

Turn off parallax

Parallax is fun, but it’s the definition of "extra." And maybe it even makes you dizzy. Who needs it? Not you. You can turn it off in accessibility settings, by going to Settings>>General>>Accessibility and setting Reduce Motion to on.

Turn off AirDrop/Bluetooth if you’re not going to use it

AirDrop is great when you are AirDropping. The rest of the time it’s just fidgeting in its seat, looking for another device to play with. Turning it off is easy, just swipe up your Control Center, and hit the toggle.

Stop searching for Wi-Fi

There’s no need to have your phone searching for Wi-Fi when there’s no trusted network in sight. You’ll save yourself some trouble if you get in the habit of turning of Wi-Fi from the Control Center when you leave the house. Alternatively, you can go to Settings>>Wi-Fi and turn Ask to Join Networks to off. This way your phone will hop on Wi-Fi networks it knows, but won’t look around for more without direct orders.

Disable location services (for apps that don’t need it)

Google Maps needs to know where you are, yes. But Facebook? Hop over to Settings>>Privacy>>Location Services to get a full list of the apps that are asking about where you are. You can probably turn off about half, and cut down on a lot of GPS polling.

Turn off background app updates

Immediate app updates are rarely a huge deal, but having enough battery always is. Go to Settings>>iTunes & App Store and then scroll down. You’ll see Updates under Automatic Downloads. Turn it off. Just don’t forget to stop by the App Store and update manually now and then. While you are here you can also turn off automatic updates for music in order to prevent U2 albums from appearing on your phone now and in the future.

Turn off background app refreshing

The brutal downside of good multitasking is running things in the background (duh). But if you go to Settings>>General>>Background App Refresh, you can disable background-runnin’ for the apps that aren’t important. Or all of them if you want to go all the way.

Disable auto-brightness

Chances are, auto-brightness keeps you more well-lit than you need to be. You can shut it off and get your mood-lighting on by going to Settings>>Display & Brightness and flipping the toggle. While you’re there, crank that backlight alllll the way down, or as far down as you can handle. If you step outside, that’s what the Control Center is for.

Go on a push notification diet

Not every app needs to push its notifications; that stuff takes power. Go to Settings>>Notifications and scroll down to the Include section. Then go on a toggling spree.

Don’t push; fetch

If your email isn’t that important, or you have a couple of accounts, go turn the low-priority ones to Fetch instead of Push, which means your phone will go retrieve mail at set intervals instead of having it pushed to you every single time Uncle Harry or a spambot blasts you. This one is pretty dependent on how often you get emails and how crucial they are, so you’ll have to feel it out, but you can set to fetch in Settings>>Mail, Contacts, Calendar>>Fetch New Data

Turn off 4G (if times are tough)

Disabling 4G is going to hurt a little but, but desperate times can call for desperate measures and LTE is a battery-burner. You can choke off the data-hose by going to Settings>>Cellular>>Enable LTE/Enable 4G

And treat your battery right in general

But even without all these tweaks, it pays to treat your lithium-ion battery right from the start, especially if you have a new gadget. Just keep on scrolling down for our tips and tricks that’ll work for any phone.

via Gizmodo
11 Tips to Keep iOS 8 From Destroying Your Battery Life

When nuclear winter strikes, it’s highly likely that cockroaches and duct tape will be all that survives. But just because our new post-apocalyptic wasteland might appear bleak doesn’t mean it has to smell bleak, too. At least, that seems to be the train of thought behind the Duck Tape brand’s new line of scented tapes. Because why else would you ever buy scented duct tape? We decided to try a few rolls and find out.

According to the Duck Tape’s website, the scented duct tape is "sure to add a fragrant pop to your Duck Tape crafts, decorations, and repairs." And that "pop" comes in a wide variety of flavors, each one certain to transport you back to your marker-sniffing elementary school days. The new scents include bubble gum, cupcake, grape, lemon, mint, and orange cream.

First and foremost, let the record show that this sweeter smelling cousin to the handyman’s best friend is not for the faint of heart. In preparing for our smell test, I opened up about a dozen rolls of the stuff at my desk. This was, I soon discovered, a poor choice. Allow this excerpt from the Gizmodo group chat to explain:

With just one roll of tape open, the smell is arguably pleasant. Strong and a little too sweet, certainly, but nothing overtly offensive. But it’s incredible how much that scent manages to waft in all directions. After about ten minutes of messing with the rolls, I began to experience a mild burning sensation in my nose and throat. My desk mates were also less than pleased.

But potential loss of brain cells aside, Duck Tape mostly delivers. At first sniff, you can vaguely tell a difference between each type, and it’s not too hard to see what they’re trying to hint at—when you can see, that is. Our blindfolded volunteers had a hilariously difficult time distinguishing between various versions. Grape seemed to be universally easy to judge, but guessing the rest was a crapshoot.

So what would you ever actually need to use scented duct tape for? Well, nothing really. The scent seems to wear off after a few days, but just five minutes spent with the stuff was plenty for us. At about $7 a pop, it’s a fun novelty for Duck Tape enthusiasts and hoarders alike, but other than that, you’re probably better off sticking with the classic silver—a silver that’s mercifully scent-free. Your friends and family will thank you. [Duck Tape]

via Gizmodo
Scented Duct Tape Review: Why Is the Room Spinning?

The world of image editing has changed a lot in the past few years — you’re now about as likely to tweak a photo on your phone or tablet as you are on your PC. Adobe is clearly aware of this shift, as it just bought Aviary and its cloud-savvy image…
via Engadget RSS Feed
Adobe buys Aviary to bring photo editing to more mobile apps

If you’re the person friends, family and coworkers count on to fix their computers, you already know a portable USB toolkit is essential for repairs. GEGeek TechToolkit downloads hundreds of programs and updates itself.

We’ve covered portable app suites before, but GEGeek designed Tech Toolkit for computer repair technicians. It includes apps for finding malware and diagnosing computer problems. It also has portable versions off popular apps like Firefox and Reader, but mostly focuses on system diagnostic, malware removal and windows repair apps. The downloaded kit has over 250 apps.

Best of all: the suite always stays up to date. It uses Ketarin to find the latest updates for the included programs. Check it out at the link below.

GEGeek Tech Toolkit | GEGeek via GHacks

via Lifehacker
GEGeek Tech Toolkit Fixes Windows Computers and Updates Itself

Guess what? You all know that it’s coming, when it’s coming and where… That’s right! The Annual Oracle Bloggers Meetup, one of your top favourite events of OpenWorld, is happening at usual place and time.
What: Oracle Bloggers Meetup 2014
When: Wed, 1-Oct-2014, 5:30pm
Where: Main Dining Room, Jillian’s Billiards @ Metreon, 101 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (street view). Please comment with “COUNT ME IN” if coming — we need to know the attendance numbers.
Traditionally, Oracle Technology Network and Pythian sponsor the venue and drinks. We will also have some cool things happening and a few prizes.
In the age of Big Data and Internet of Things, our mingling activity this year will be virtual — using an app we wrote specifically for this event, so bring your iStuff and Androids to participate and win. Hope this will work! 🙂
As usual, vintage t-shirts, ties, or bandanas from previous meetups will make you look cool — feel free to wear them.
For those of you who don’t know the history: The Bloggers Meetup during Oracle OpenWorld was started by Mark Rittman and continued by Eddie Awad, and then I picked up the flag in 2009 (gosh…  6 years already?) The meetups have been a great success for making new friends and catching up with old, so let’s keep them this way! To give you an idea, here are the photos from the OOW08 Bloggers Meetup (courtesy of Eddie Awad) and OOW09 meetup blog post update from myself, and a super cool video by a good blogging friend, Bjorn Roest from OOW13.
While the initial meetings were mostly targeted to Oracle database folks, guys and gals from many Oracle technologies — Oracle database, MySQL, Apps, Sun technologies, Java and more join in the fun. All bloggers are welcome. We estimate to gather around 150 bloggers.
If you are planning to attend, please comment here with the phrase “COUNT ME IN”. This will help us ensure we have the attendance numbers right. Please provide your blog URL with your comment — it’s a Bloggers Meetup after all! Make sure you comment here if you are attending so that we have enough room, food, and (most importantly) drinks.
Of course, do not forget to blog and tweet about this year’s bloggers meetup. See you there!
via Planet MySQL
Oracle OpenWorld 2014 – Bloggers Meetup

Over the years, we here at Gizmodo have provided you many, many examples of scientifically backed evidence to shove in the faces of lunar landing conspiracists. But this one might be the most convincing of all: Engineers used 3D modeling to prove, once and for all, that Buzz Aldrin really moonwalked.

Using photographs, video, NASA documents, and maps of the Moon, a team from Nvidia rebuilt the entire lunar landing using the Unreal Engine. After that painstaking work was finished, they used the new GTX 980, sporting Maxwell GPU architecture to address some of the beef that non-believers have with the landing. Namely, the lighting issues. People think it was too well-lit to be real.

With a GTX 980 behind the wheel, there was enough graphical horsepower for the simulation to use Voxel-Based Global Illumination, or VXGI—basically, being able to show how the light from the sun would have behaved (even, in this case, without an atmosphere). VXGI breaks down the entire image into 3D pixels which can show how light is bouncing and reflecting off every surface.

Once the team had analyzed the way the light was playing across the scene, Nvidia’s Mark Daly saw something intriguing:

It was during this research when the demo team uncovered a big clue. A video clip that showed Aldrin descending the ladder had a bright spot of light that seemed to move every time the camera did.

"When the glow started moving, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s it,’" Daly says.

Was it an artificial light? Or – as one of NVIDIA’s senior GPU architects had suggested – was it a reflection from Armstrong’s bright white space suit? At first, Daly had dismissed the idea that Armstrong’s suit could account for some of the light illuminating Aldrin.

"You figure, ‘How much can some guy in a white suit contribute to the scene?’" Daly says.

Turns out, quite a bit. They could reproduce how that light illuminated Aldrin as he stepped onto the moon’s surface at the exact moment Armstrong snapped his photo. Inside a shot cited by Apollo 11 skeptics, Daly’s team had uncovered hidden evidence that the mission was real.

That’s right, Aldrin’s bright white suit acted as a bounce on the Moon, essentially "lighting" the scene. And that proves—YET AGAIN—that we definitely certainly and absolutely put men on the moon. [Nvidia]

via Gizmodo
New Simulation Offers Definitive Proof the Moon Landing Was Not Fake

MySQL upgrades are necessary tasks and we field a variety of questions here at Percona Support regarding MySQL upgrade best practices. This post highlights recommended ways to upgrade MySQL in different scenarios.Why are MySQL upgrades needed? The reasons are many and include: Access to new features, performance benefits, bug fixes…. However, MySQL upgrades can be risky if not tested extensively beforehand with your application because the process might break it, prevent the application from functioning properly – or performance issues could arise following the upgrade. Moreover, I suggest keeping an eye on new releases of MySQL and Percona Server – check what has changed in the most recent version. Perhaps the latest release has a fix for an issue that you have been experiencing.Upgrading one major version via SQL Dump:Upgrading between one major version covers upgrading from Percona Server 5.1 to 5.5 or Percona Server 5.5 to 5.6 and the same implies to Oracle MySQL.First of all, upgrading between one major version is neither straightforward nor risk-free. Initially you should read “Upgrading from Previous Series” documentation here and here. In that documentation, please place special attention to all of the sections marked “Incompatible Change” and check whether you may be affected by those changes. There might be configuration changes as well as variables renamed, a few older variables obsoleted and new variables introduced – so make sure that you adjust your my.cnf accordingly. For Percona Server specific changes please refer here and here for Percona Server 5.5 & Percona Server 5.6, respectively.Now there are several possible approaches you may take, where one may be more feasible than the other depending on the current replication topology and total data size – and one might also be safer than another. Let me show you an upgrade procedure… an example upgrading from Percona Server 5.5 to Percona Server 5.6.In general, there are two types of MySQL upgrades:In place, where you use existing datadir against the new MySQL major version, with just running mysql_upgrade after binaries are upgraded,SQL dump on an old version and then restore it on a new version (using mysqldump utility or alternatives, like mydumper).Also in general the second type is safer, but as you may expect a much slower MySQL upgrade process.Theoretically, the safest scenario is:Dump all user grants (using http://ift.tt/1mmsp1y)Dump all data (except the mysql database) from MySQL 5.5 into SQL dump and restore on MySQL 5.6Restore the user grantsHere’s a basic procedure (you should stop application writes before starting).1) Capture users and permissions information. This will backup all your existing user privileges.$ wget http://ift.tt/1mmspPa;
$ perl pt-show-grants –user=root –ask-pass –flush > /root/grants.sql2) Produce a logical dump of the 5.5 instance, excluding the mysql, information_schema and performance_schema databases:$ mysql -BNe "SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME NOT IN (‘mysql’, ‘performance_schema’, ‘information_schema’)" | tr ‘n’ ‘ ‘ > /root/dbs-to-dump.sql
$ mysqldump –routines –events –single-transaction –databases $(cat /root/dbs-to-dump.sql) > /root/full-data-dump.sql3) Stop 5.5 instance.$ service mysql stop
or
$ /etc/init.d/mysql stop4) Move old datadir (assuming /var/lib/mysql; edit accordingly to your setup):$ mv /var/lib/mysql/ /var/lib/mysql-555) Install 5.6 (simply as you would do when not upgrading). If you don’t use a package manager (yum/apt-get) then is likely that you need to run mysql_install_db and mysql_upgrade.6) Load the users back to new upgraded version of MySQL.$ mysql -uroot < /root/grants.sql7) Load the data back to new version of MySQL.$ mysql -e "SET GLOBAL max_allowed_packet=1024*1024*1024";
$ mysql -uroot -p –max-allowed-packet=1G < /root/full-data-dump.sql;At this point all tables have been re-created and loaded in MySQL 5.6 so every binary representation is native to MySQL 5.6. You’ve also completed the cleanest/most-stable upgrade path and your application can resume service – and for that reason it’s worth mentioning that this upgrade path is the same with either upgrading vanila MySQL or Percona Server. Further, you may upgrade from Oracle MySQL to Percona Server, for example,  upgrading Oracle MySQL 5.5 to Percona Server 5.6. Again, the MySQL upgrade path as described would be the same as Percona Server, which is a drop-in replacement of Oracle MySQL.“SQL dump” is also known as a logical backup. It is safer in the sense that when restoring, all tables will be created using the format of the new MySQL binaries you’re using, which bypasses compatibility issues in general. Still for large data like data in terabytes, gigabytes… this may be a very time-consuming approach. On the other hand, by dumping/reloading such large data sets, it is possible that you will be able to recover a lot of free space on the disk as the InnoDB table spaces will be re-created from scratch, thus optimized and defragmented. If the data was often updated/deleted, the benefits may be significant.Minor version MySQL upgrade within the same major version via In-Place Upgrade:This implies to upgrading within the same series e.g. MySQL 5.5.35 to MySQL 5.5.38 or Percona Server 5.6.14 to latest Percona Server 5.6.20.This is known as an in-place upgrade, where you just install a newer binary package and then run mysql_upgrade script, which checks and updates system tables if necessary. Still, with the in-place upgrade we highly recommend checking release notes for new features, bug fixes, etc. For Percona Server 5.5 and Percona Server 5.6, release notes can be found here and here respectively.For Percona Server we have additional documents describing some details when it comes to upgrading Percona Server with a focus on Percona-specific features that can be found here and here. This also covers complete In-Place Upgrade procedure with the yum/apt package manager.Also, to be on safe side you can do the upgrade with a logical dump using the earlier described procedure via mysqldump or mydumper program – where the former does parallel backups and restore and logical backup – and is the safest approach for the upgrade.MySQL Upgrade directly to the latest version by skipping one major version in between:This includes upgrading from MySQL 5.0 to MySQL 5.5 by skipping version 5.1 in between or upgrading MySQL 5.1 to MySQL 5.6 by skipping version 5.5 in between. Further, this also includes upgrading to MySQL 5.6 directly from MySQL 5.0 although there should be very few users still using MySQL version 5.0. This also implies to Percona Server.For the topic, we would assume upgrading from Oracle MySQL or Percona Server 5.1 directly to version 5.6 by skipping one major version 5.5 in between.Before anything, this is a serious upgrade, and a huge step over one major MySQL version. That is, it’s risky. Upgrading by using just binaries update is not supported and it’s not safe skipping major versions in between, so you should never do this from 5.0->5.5, 5.1->5.6, and surely not for 5.0->5.6. One problem is that not all changes in MySQL versions are backwards compatible. Some differences were introduced that may affect both how the data is handled, but also how the server behaves including both SQL language and MySQL server and storage engines internals. Another thing is that between MySQL 5.0 and 5.6 versions, a number of default setting variables were changed, which may result in completely different, unexpected behavior. For example since MySQL 5.5 the default storage engine is InnoDB and since MySQL 5.6 by default InnoDB will use a separate tablespace for each table and GTID replication was also introduced. But there are many more details which I won’t list here. All of those changes are described in “Upgrading from Previous Series” documentation as described above.It’s worth mentioning that upgrading by skipping one major version is highly not recommended. Upgrading from MySQL 5.1 to 5.6 shouldn’t be done in one shot. Instead, I would suggest upgrading from version 5.1 to 5.5 and then from version 5.5 to 5.6 and running mysql_upgrade at each step. That will cope with the changes in formats as explained in the manual.MySQL Upgrade Precautions:MySQL upgrade precautions are an essential part of the upgrade itself. Before you upgrade make sure you have thoroughly tested all application parts with the desired version of MySQL. This is especially needed for an upgrade between major versions or if you are upgrading by skipping one major version in-between (e.g. upgrade from MySQL 5.1 to MySQL 5.6).Make sure you read release notes carefully and that you are aware of all the changes. You can find Oracle MySQL 5.5 and 5.6 release notes as follows:http://ift.tt/15oFWXH http://ift.tt/1v0AJDM Percona Server specific release notes can be found below for same versions as described above.http://ift.tt/1uOhxKr http://ift.tt/1qRJiCo you are planning to upgrade to Oracle MySQL 5.6 or Percona Server 5.6 I would recommend first checking for existing critical bugs. Bugs you should aware of:http://ift.tt/1mmsqlW http://ift.tt/1uOhy0T http://ift.tt/1mmsphX http://ift.tt/1uOhy0V http://ift.tt/1mmsqlZ http://ift.tt/1qRJgKU Hierarchy:This is yet another important aspect of any MySQL upgrade. You should plan your upgrade along with an upgrade hierarchy. This is always recommend: upgrade your dev/QA servers first, then staging server’s before moving to production. In fact, you can spare upgraded instances where you have desired upgraded versions of MySQL and then test your application extensively.Once you are happy with the MySQL upgrade on your test servers, staging servers, etc., then you can begin the MySQL upgrade on your production servers. In replication environments we highly recommend upgrading the MySQL slaves first (one by one) and then finally upgrading the MySQL master. In reality,  you can upgrade one of the slaves first and run it for few days to be on safe side – all the while closely monitoring its performance. If you don’t have a replication setup it may be worth creating a replica to test the newer version of MySQL on it first. Once you are happy with the results you can upgrade remaining the slaves and finally the master. How Percona software helps you in a MySQL upgrade:In any MySQL upgrade, Percona Toolkit comes to the rescue. Percona Tookit contains a number of tools that help a great deal.pt-upgrade is one of such tool. It allows you to test whether the new MySQL instance handles some specific queries at least as fast as old version. There may be some substantial differences as the MySQL query optimizer has changed a lot between versions 5.1 and 5.6 and also data statistics may be refreshed, hence the query plan may change. You can check further in the manual about optimizer changes.pt-query-digest is another great tool that might help you in the upgrade. You can replay your slow query log against existing and new desired MySQL versions for before and after query performance validation.You can also benefit from Percona Cloud Tools for MySQL which is a hosted service providing access to query performance insights for all MySQL uses. You can signup for free now because this service is in public beta. Percona Cloud Tools, among other things, allows you to visually check your queries performance after a MySQL upgrade.It’s highly recommended to backup your data before your MySQL upgrade. Percona XtraBackup is free and open source (like all Percona software). It’s a hot backup tool which backs-up your data online without scarifying read/write ability from the database and it will backup your data with minor impact.Last but not least, You will find this post pretty useful, too: “Upgrading MySQL.” It’s a few years old but still very relevant. And also take a look at this informative webinar, “Upgrading to MySQL 5.6: Best Practices.” Both are from Percona CEO Peter Zaitsev.Conclusion: A MySQL upgrade might look like a simple task –  but actually it’s not. I’ve tried to cover most of the MySQL upgrade scenarios in this post that you will encounter. Again, I recommend to briefly test your application parts before pushing it “live,” otherwise it may break your application or part of it – or may minimize performance instead of a performance gain. Finally, I recommend having a downgrade plan in place before the MySQL upgrade just in case something goes wrong. Planning a proper downgrade procedure will minimize your app downtime when things go wrong. I’m looking forward to your comments and questions below. The post MySQL upgrade best practices appeared first on MySQL Performance Blog.
via Planet MySQL
MySQL upgrade best practices

If you’re spending millions of dollars to make a movie, it seems like it would only make sense to make sure everything is ready for day one of filming, right?. Apparently Hollywood doesn’t work that way, because as the designer of Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters reveals in this fun interview, they only started building the now iconic props two weeks before filming began.

As part of its continuing celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, the folks at Beyond the Marquee interviewed Stephen Dane who not only designed the Ecto-1 vehicle used in the movie, but also the proton pack and ghost trap props—some of the most recognizable film props of the past 50 years. Getting paid to turn an old ambulance into a ghost-busting car already sounds fun on paper, but hearing Dane talk about the process of building everything for the film (with some wonderful behind-the-scenes photos) somehow makes us even more envious of his career choices. [YouTube via Ain’t It Cool News]

via Gizmodo
Meet the Man Who Designed Ghostbusters’ Most Iconic Props in Two Weeks