Gmail Free Space Increases

Conclusion: Gmail give users about 0.2444 Kb of more free space every minute. That's about 351.936 Kb of extra free space every day. That's 128.544624 Mb of more space per year! that 99% of free accounts won't use! [Because, if you are at/near capacity, then you would probably pay for more space. Just my thinking..]

Figure 1. The "Lots of Space" section has numbers that constantly become larger values.

The Numbers:

Total Space (Kb)	At Time (minutes)	Kb Difference From Start	Overall Kb/min
10327895.150	0	0	0
10327895.398	1	0.248	0.248
10327895.642	2	0.492	0.246
10327896.374	5	1.224	0.2448
10327897.594	10	2.444	0.2444

Metaconclusion: But, I think they don't actually give every single Gmail account more space every second. More realistically, they just give the extra space once a year, and no user complains about having a little extra space. But, the process can be made even better. Those who don't keep their Gmail accounts constantly full to capacity never get an increase, until they actually need it. This saves many unnecessary processes.

Figure 2. Mid-left, you will see I currently have 10.1 Mb of space available to use.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Something New

Lifehacker is probably the best site to find productivity hacks, clever uses for items, and many other interesting topics that tend to make your life better. Today, I am going Lifehacker-diving again. A term that I just made up as I wrote the sentence down. It means that I am going to open up a whole bunch of different articles in different tabs, then just read through them all and possibly follow links to other websites.

Something I thought about doing before is just pasting every single article/link that I read. And, maybe, I'll precursor each of the titles/links with a plus or minus sign as my suggestion, and 0 for neutral (aka depends on reader preference). If the title isn't apparent in the URL, only then will I write it out.

Well, here it goes: (Starting with http://lifehacker.com)
[--] http://lifehacker.com/5941712/how-much-does-your-computer-stress-you-out
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5957553/stop-procrastinating-by-clearing-to-neutral [I do this already =]]
[+] http://www.asianefficiency.com/health/manipulating-bedroom-sleeping-temperature/ [I have performed many experiments with different sleeping arrangements. It is good to try out.]
[+] http://www.asianefficiency.com/habits/morning-rituals-revisited/ [Definitely]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971173/three-quick-and-easy-ways-to-quiet-your-mind
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5969720/how-can-i-deal-with-a-slow-internet-connection
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971740/what-else-can-i-do-with-my-new-ereader-besides-read-and-buy-books
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971340/how-can-i-get-my-unresponsive-friends-to-actually-return-my-messages
[+] http://blog.getresponse.com/best-time-to-send-email-infographic.html [Summary: Best times are 8-10am and 3-4pm]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5964285/whats-all-the-fuss-about-evernote-why-do-people-use-it [I am on and off with Evernote. I'm leaning to go paperless receipts with this rather than others though]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5666954/avoid-everything-buckets-aka-why-i-cant-get-into-apps-like-evernote
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5892905/the-secret-weapon-combines-gtd-and-evernote-into-one-synchronized-productivity-system
[+] http://www.thesecretweapon.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE3amWDQ2io (related)
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5955229/why-does-everyone-hate-windows-8-should-i-upgrade [I like Windows 8 and think it's great]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5967154/what-should-i-do-now-that-google-apps-accounts-are-no-longer-free
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5958893/why-its-worth-it-to-purchase-your-own-domain-name [I would like to purchase more domains. I have a list of excellent names to use.]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5905702/dropbox-google-drive-skydrive-and-others-pricing-per-gb-and-more-compared-in-convenient-charts [I currently use Dropbox, Box, Drive, and SkyDrive. Eventually, I may dish out for just one of them. I just haven't needed to yet.]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5959742/how-can-i-turn-my-mess-of-ideas-into-something-organized-and-useful [I've already been doing this, hoping to learn more, but this article can defintely benefit other idea guys]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5957559/how-do-i-answer-when-im-stumped-by-an-important-question
[+] http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/parasaurolophus.htm [I don't typically care for about.com, but this was linked in the article and was a good read]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5853250/how-to-sound-like-you-know-what-youre-talking-about-even-when-you-dont [Make sure you are confident when you do know what you are talking about.]
[+] http://tribalseduction.com/blog/5-ways-to-act-like-an-expert-in-online-communities/
[++] https://www.google.com/search?q=define+ad+nauseam
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5957605/does-it-matter-where-i-buy-my-music
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971711/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-promotions
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5967464/treat-your-freelance-work-like-a-stock-portfolio-to-meet-your-income-goals
[+] http://99u.com/tips/7258/Why-You-Should-Treat-Your-Freelance-Portfolio-Like-a-Stock-Portfolio
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5968613/what-lying-actually-does-to-your-brain-and-body-every-day [The article is pretty macabre. Seems like there is a lot of stress involved. I double-plussed this just because I feel others should have the great opportunity of reading it]
[++] http://lifehacker.com/5971473/how-to-tackle-three-of-the-toughest-interview-questions [Bookmarked. I am definitely going to read this at least two more times]
[0] http://lifehacker.com/5971774/zombies-run-turns-your-exercise-routine-into-a-game-is-half-off-right-now [I do like zombies. ..in the way that as long as they don't bother me, then I won't bother them =b]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5971452/how-i-learned-to-rely-on-my-own-memory-and-stop-depending-on-technology [I've worried about the use-it-or-lose-it regarding our brains. I like the poetry of the article. One thing I know I will forget if I don't write it down is thoughts right before going to sleep. I've told myself many times, "Oh, it's such a huge and awesome idea that I couldn't possibly forget it in the morning", but I do. =/ Then again, maybe I haven't worked hard enough to develop that memory skill yet.]
[-] http://lifehacker.com/5972105/should-i-wait-a-few-months-to-see-if-computer-component-prices-drop-or-buy-now
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5836879/what-stress-actually-does-to-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it [I've also read a lot about Nirvana and Zen and have been able to reach it; I have experienced complete inner peace before and have been able to train myself to completely clear my mind. If somebody asks me about it, then I don't mind sharing. One of the side-effects for me was that after learning how to reach Nirvana, for a while it was too easy to get in the state of mind again. I could be in the middle of a conversation and suddenly, I'm just free from the world, just, there. I'm getting tingling feelings just thinking about it. I find just regular meditation to be more useful for me (someone with very low stress. (people with higher stress should be able to complete clear their mind)). It allows my brain to wander and wonder. I like having thoughts flowing through my head, and being able to think subconciously. Right now I'm thinking it's kinda like knowing your brain is doing an automatic defrag, it's a good thing. I should write another post on just this one topic..]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5966433/how-to-get-an-energy-boost-without-caffeine
[+++] http://lifehacker.com/5965826/seven-productivity-myths-debunked-by-science-and-common-sense [This is the only three-plussed article. **hinthint** But, as always, remember to take everything with a grain of salt]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/282544/merlin-mann-presents-inbox-zero [Bookmarked to read later. Hopefully, I will learn something new. I already do my part to achieve Inbox Zero. I spread the word around when I can too.]
[+] http://lifehacker.com/5965334/how-to-motivate-people-to-do-things-they-dont-want-to-do [Good enough to want me to read two Wikipedia pages to read another day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_disclosure and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory only because I'm starting to get tired of all the reading now. Time for sleep soon.]
[Only eight more tabs to go, but it could easily turn into sixteen tabs]

Jk, just made a new folder for the rest of the tabs. I think I will try to do another post like this one. At least until I finish up all the ones I opened today.

=====================

Wow, I haven't done this much lifehackering in a very long time. Feels Good.

And now it's time for sleep. I lost two hours of sleep reading through all of these articles. Hopefully, a lot of REM so that these readings stay stored in my head.

~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - One conclusion that you can draw from this elongated list of links is that, if they all have one thing in common, then it would be that I'm interested in that topic. I'd like to hear other people's thoughts about the list.

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Random Ideas and Thoughts - 20121230

[0] First thing, a little blurt about the number in the title. It is the date format that I'm using and liking very much to organize all of my folder and files. They are all automatically sorted in chronological order because of the name. One example, I used to label my school folders as "USF 2012 Spring" and "USF 2012 Fall" and "USF 2012 Summer." But, first of all it is not in an efficient order. And secondly, it doesn't look very neat. Within the past six months I've transitioned everything to the style of "USF201201", "", and "". It is more efficient, neater, and doesn't lose much readability if you can recognize the 2012 year in there.

..Remember, all of the following are fragmented thoughts, random, and does not have a reason... completely unlike what I try to accomplish above with the year-month-day format. =b

[1] A rollercoaster ride that feels like it is broken (and may fall at any moment). When there is a real problem with the ride (how would they know?), the ride tells the potential riders that workers must break the ride more before riders can ride again.

[2] Full theme park that is purposely seemingly empty. Some park goers are actors/hires (theme park goers would never know about this part). Couples may want to team up randomly in the park with others so that they are not totally alone, but that might just be their mistake.

[3] What birds are poisonous? [I was playing a quiz game and was the first to know that platypus was poisonous. The question was something like, "Which of the following is poisonous?" Egret was one of the answers, then this thought occurred]

[4] Are there fish ball/cages like there are hamster balls/cages? Maybe the fish can learn to travel by shifting their weight?

[5] "I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet." [A quote I saw in a book. A good thought provoker]

[6] Hobby: Making lists with only one item. ["Hobby:" - kind of like xkcd style]

[7] App for how long you have been away from Facebook and/or Gmail. [There should be a high scores list also (and the ability to share with friends?)]

[8] Dubstep without echo is kinda like classical music. And vise-versa.

[9] Write a book called, "Dan Writes a Book"

[10] Redit for Research Papers. Thumb up and thumb down. [I believe there are social medias revolving around research..]

[11] Proxy for Twitter API calls. Twitter limits the number of calls a day from an IP, but if you keep switching the IPs when they fail, then you have have a whole lot more available API calls. This service can be made into an API.

[12] Web App: Display the bibliography for every page of the internet. Choose type from a dropdown menu. (20121201)

[13] Cloth that you can put on when you are wet, and stay dry and warm without worrying about the inside of cloth getting/staying wet.

[14] Moving shade. Ex: when sunbathing and you want to keep the sun out of your eyes only. [But, not touching you, I guess?]

[15] Clothes that don't turn inside out in the wash. A temporary solution would be to either stitch the main (large) opening clothes, or by just using a pin to keep it closed, that way the smaller parts of the clothes won't be able to go through and turn the entire cloth inside out.

[16] App using Windows live tiles: Simply Advanced Countdown Tile. Days until whenever.. Or weeks until whenever.. Or years until whenever.. Ability to add picture relating to event like birthday, holiday, anniversary..

[17] App for Windows 8: A piano lock screen. Play a song to unlock the screen. Future version (or paid version) would include different instruments.

[18] App: Top-down, zoomed out game. In order for your avatar to get from one town to another, the user must actually go on a physical run or walk for a certain distance to get there. Start off with small distances, gradually get longer for more advanced areas of the game.

[19] App: What if you could see/visualize smells, smell colors/sounds app. Hearing colors is possible to do now... Synesthesia. [Slogan: "Synesthesia, now available on your smartphone!" Introduce it during Synesthesia Awareness Month?]

[20] Going to do dishes in the sink? Then get energy back from the water you use! Same for shower heads, or any other place that you run water. Perhaps the base of a hose line?

Feel free to comment, email me, make use of these ideas (let me know how it goes), or brainstorm other things from these. Please try not to draw conclusions from this post, it is purely a thinking exercise, half of it unconsciously thought of. Words in square brackets, [], are what I added at the time of writing.

~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - Doing this also allows me to clear out much of my ideas folder, thus, forcing me to come up with new awesome random things. The several ideas I didn't share are ideas are ones that I have for a thesis/paper that I'm currently working on. They will be shared in a year or few.

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Top Five Predictions For 2012

Here's a link to an old blog post of mine, for the top five predictions of 2012.
http://blog.simplyadvanced.net/top-5-predictions-for-2012/

I'm going to have to start coming up with some for 2013. =]

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Minesweeper is NP-Complete!

tldr: Win a million dollars by finding a polynomial-time algorithm to solve Minesweeper, or by proving it can't be done. From the Clay Mathematics Institute: http://www.claymath.org/Popular_Lectures/Minesweeper/

I realize that the paper, "Minesweeper is NP-complete" by Richard Kaye, was first published in 2000, but the idea is new to me! I just found out about it yesterday when doing background research for a new app idea.

So, basically, Richard Kaye knew Minesweeper was hard, but wasn't quite sure how hard. He arranged mines on the board so that they would simulate logic circuits (AND, OR, NOT...). He then correlated the logic circuits to a previously-known NP-complete problem, SAT.

I found a version of Minesweeper online that allows players to write Java code in order to solve the game, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be working.

The reason I'm probably interested in this is because when I learned how to play this game many, many years ago (before I was programming), I started to write an algorithm for it. I thought, an algorithm is the perfect way to teach somebody how to do something -- it is all very logical. I shouldn't have to explain more.

References:
[1] http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/R.W.Kaye/minesw/minesw.htm
[2] "Minesweeper is NP-complete", Mathematical Intelligencer, vol 22, number 2, pp9-15, 2000.

~ Simply Advanced ~

ps - I'm very likely going to create apps that revolve around Minesweeper now. Actually, I was already considering it. That's how I found out about the NP-completeness.

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Future: No Time Cards, You're Being Watched

Ever get the feeling you're being watched? It'll pass, because you know for a fact that you are being watched, it is the future after all.

The future of work and productivity will include no filling out of punch cards or time sheets. Cameras with facial detection algorithms can easily recognize different faces. High resolution cameras can even read your fingerprints from across the room. These two technologies will detect entering and leaving of a facility. But, what about actual work? Employers want to know if employees are actually working or sleeping at their desks (sleep may be a good thing, just like watching kitten videos). Many companies (including Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler) are working on algorithms to detect when a human is tired, excited, or other range of emotions. This technology can easily be applied to workstations to know whether or not people are facing the proper working direction (computer or assembly line) and if their eyes are closed.

..just saying.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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New Android App: LTE Discovery

Published new Android app, LTE Discovery!

It automates discovery of new LTE coverage for Sprint, AT&T, Verizon. It automatically cycles airplane mode every thirty seconds in order to detect the faster network. If you don't have this app, then your phone will only check once every thirty minutes.

Current features include:
 - Audible notification
 - Record of discovered LTE GPS coordinates
 - Works with the screen off

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Coding All Day and All Night

I need to make an app that will sleep for me so that I don't have to. I'd rather be coding all day. There are so many exciting things to build that haven't been built yet. =]

Tomorrow, I'll be releasing LTE Discovery for Android. It automates everything you need to do to detect new LTE towers around you. The app will cycle airplane mode on and off every thirty seconds, for the first version. Then, each time LTE is detected, your current GPS coordinates will be saved for easy reference.

I have many exciting plans for future releases if the community likes this one. ;]

~ Simply Advanced ~

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How to Create a Hotkey to Double Click Using AutoHotkey

Just created a hotkey to double-click so that I don't have to use the mouse! It is very much worth it and will speed up coding. There are other areas that I will be more productive in also. Just can't think of them right now.

I used an awesome program called AutoHotkey to achieve this and many other create keyboarding shortcuts/hotkeys/scripts. The following code basically says, "if ctrl is pressed twice consecutively in less than 500ms, then click two times at the caret position."

Ctrl::
    If (A_PriorHotKey = A_ThisHotKey and A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 500) {
MouseGetPos X,Y
Send {Click  %A_CaretX%,%A_CaretY% 2} ; Moves the cursor
MouseMove (X),(Y) ; Moves back the cursor
    }
Return

• Instead of using "%A_CaretX%,%A_CaretY%", it is possible to hardcode an x and y value to click on.
• If you remove the line starting with MouseMove, then the cursor will move to the position the caret is at.

Let me know if this helps. =]

Disclaimer: I have not done an extensive test on all programs to see if this works. But, I know that it works in Notepad++, Eclipse, Notepad, and MS Word 2010. While typing this, the hotkey seems to return (aka double click) the top-left corner.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Idea: Windows 8 Shutdown Tile App

At the time of this writing there are no shutdown tile apps in the Windows 8 Store. Window's shutdown.exe can be found in %windir%\System32\ (typically, C:\Windows\System32\). Double-clicking on that will start the shutdown process.

Or one workaround involves:

1. Create a new shortcut on the desktop. Right Click -> New -> Shortcut
2. Point it to "shutdown /a /t 00"
3. Pin to the taskbar and/or the start menu for one-click access

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Idea: Everybody Wear Headphones in Speaking Class

Problem: I have to work with many groups of people and give presentations with them. A few members don't speak up so that the entire room can hear them.

Solution: My suggestions have been to practice presenting outside at least five meters apart from each other. Another suggestion is to make everybody in the group wear large headphones. This will force everybody to speak up and get used to speaking louder.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Highlight Text in PowerPoint

There is no easy way to highlight text in PowerPoint. There is an easy method for Microsoft Word. But, PowerPoint wants you to first draw a rectangle around the text and use the "Shape Fill" feature...

Please, somebody prove me wrong. Show me an easier way to highlight text in PowerPoint 2010.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Our Vibration Detectors

It seems more amazing that our ears can pick up vibrations that happen around us. More so than just saying that we can hear.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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