How to restore a Lenovo IdeaTab K3 Lynx 11.6-Inch 64 GB Tablet?

You may try first automatic repair.  If not, try to boot: Press and hold the power button until the tablet turns off. Press and hold the following buttons (in sequence) to boot into the BIOS: Power button > Volume Up > Voume Down. When done correctly, it will show you the BIOS screen. But instead of booting from a „real” Windows bootable CD, you need either: A repair disk provided by Lenovo (you need to contact Customer Support for this, but I failed in getting a CD from them). A repair disk made previously in Windows 8, by following these steps (you should do this as a pre-emptive measure).

Memories (on paper)

I was going through some memories in school, and I thought of the following – what’s the ratio between costs & benefits of doing: A group photo at the beginning / end of the school year / work year, given directly at the opening / end of that year. A photo with the participants at an event, be it low profile (a meeting in town with friends), or high profile (school banquet, Christmas party, New Year party, birthday, wedding, baptism). To me, the cost & effort is rather low, but the benefits are large. Also, it’s important that the memory is physical (on paper, in my hands). Sure, digital is fine, also, but physical is much better. There are options.

Why should you monitor your actions online?

Rescue-Time-Android-App

I do this:

  • RescueTime monitors pretty much every action I take, and while the data is locked in there (you need a premium account to see your own data in full details), I am confident I can/will take it out sometime in the future.
  • Last FM records every song I listen to on my profile.
  • I have a keylogger which saves every keystroke.
  • I have a clipboard utility which automatically saves the clipboard into a log file.

Why is this helpful?

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How to revoke access to a delegated GMail address you own, after you reach the limit of 10 emails?

Gmail has a nice feature: You can delegate access to your Gmail to another person so they can read, send, and delete messages on your behalf. For example, you can delegate e-mail rights to an admin in your organization, or you could delegate your personal email access to your spouse. The delegate can also access the other person’s contacts by clicking the Contacts link. Clicking the To,Cc, or Bcc links in the mail compose window will also bring up your contacts. You won’t be able to give anyone permission to change your account password or account settings, or chat on your behalf. You can specify up to 10 users. Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government customers can specify up to 25 users. (source & details) What happens when you get to 10 emails for which you have access? You can’t add other ones anymore. How to solve this?  Let’s say that emails 1@gmail.com, 2@gmail.com, 3@gmail.com … 10@gmail.com all give access to defaultemail@gmail.com. If you want to add 11@gmail.com, you can’t. The solution is to login as 1@gmail.com (or any other one in that list) and go to Settings => Accounts, and in there remove the granted access. In this way, you will be able to add 11@gmail.com, replacing the missing address. Unlike granting access, which takes a while to process, removing the granted access is instantly done.

Love Actually (2003)

Love Actually (2003)

I just watched Love Actually (2003). Quite a nice movie. Good watch. Some thoughts: Love is universal. I saw the movie and thought of different episodes in my life. It’s a difficult thing, not turning things into some cliché. Most of the things we do in love are embarrassing, to a degree. Actually, I’d go one step further and say that most things we do are embarrassing. It is a realistic movie. At times, porn-realistic. I also liked this song from the movie:

Let’s say you’ve got your WordPress web site hacked. What to do?

Today, one of my clients’ websites got hacked. The homepage was a simple text message, no page was accessible. What are the steps to make it back again the way it was before? Download WordPress from WordPress.org web site and put it again. Update the database, if/when requested. Recreate wp-config.php from wp-config-sample.php. Temporarily set a different theme (you will put it back again, of course). Check in admin if the widgets section of the web site has a malicious code (it was the case at my client’s web site). Check the homepage / other pages for malicious codes. If you have a database back-up, recover it from there. If there is still a problem with the site being hacked, recover all the files in wp-content folder from a back-up. Change the passwords of: WordPress admin / other admin-class users. CPanel. (if different than CPanel) FTP users. Install security plugins (more than one).

How to learn?

I liked the fragment from this article a lot: Nu o sa mai “tocesti” niciodata. Desi toata lumea stie ca la medicina pierzi noptile invatand, daca dai de un curs care trebuie tocit, evita-l. Cauta in schimb o carte despre materia aia care sa poata fi citita cu placere. Intotdeauna e una la biblioteca. Si o sa o citesti cu placere pentru ca oamenii care au scris-o iubesc ceea ce fac, iar dragostea trezeste interesul si pentru informatia cea mai arida. Prefera metoda asta chiar daca auzi ca la examen profesorul vrea sa scrii cuvant cu cuvant dupa cursul lui. Nu e adevarat. Iar in felul asta, facultatea o sa treaca foarte usor. (Vlad Stroescu on MedLive) What he says is the following – in school, you have two basic options: You can learn things by heart, forcing yourself to remember things. You can read things with pleasure, with enjoyment, being happy with what you read. Instead of focusing to remember most things in a text book, you should rather focus on reading things which give you pleasure. While most people would think that the first option is not only implied by default, but also mandatory, the author says he is comfortable to suggesting this as a viable alternative to memorizing things.

Double checking vs. Typing twice

Let’s say someone gives you a written note with a bank account. Let’s say you’re a teacher and have to calculate averages for 30 pupils from 4 different exams at a respected university. Let’s say you’re an accountant, and have 40 bills to put into an accounting system. Each of these situations should leave with little room for any error, and with big problems if you do something wrong (money are put into a different account, a pupil does not join the university and, finally, you do wrong things in accounting). How to make sure you’re right about inserting the data correctly? A classical solution would be „insert & check”. The thing is, most people would be affected by confirmation bias – „Oh, I wrote 19,275, and here it is on the original paper – 19,275. This must be right!”. Therefore, to be absolutely sure everything is correct, most people would check more than one time. But the final feeling would still be of uncertainty – „What if, still, I am wrong?”. I would suggest a solution which is more efficient time-wise, and, likely, with a better final peace of mine – „This must be right!”. The solution involves inserting the data two (at extremes, three) times. So, instead of making an Excel with all the pupils’ data, make 2 (even 3) Excel spreadsheets. In the end, there are automated solutions which check for differences. Even a fast ALT + TAB between two open windows with the same data should give a good result. In …

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How to pick a short, quality domain name which doesn’t exist already?

In the last years, I have bought getseoideas.com, fiieficient.com, getaresultnow.com, olivian.ro & olivianbreda.com. This year betterish.com, audithink.com, oliii.com. While they’re not the greatest web site one could have, they’re, as „betterish” implies, OKish and, at times, betterish than other options. How to create your own? Find a keyword which clearly defines your web site – SEO / efficiency / results / Olivian / Olivian / better / audits / Oli. Try to find an exact match domain. Olivian.ro is an example. Try to adapt the words using either of these methods: Add some letters – Oliii.com. For this, wordoid.com is an excellent tool. Add full name – OlivianBreda.com. Create complex sentences (I don’t recommend this method anymore, the first three web sites are closed, I don’t consider they represent my current ideas anymore -getseoideas.com, fiieficient.com, getaresultnow.com). Play with words – betterish / audithink (again, wordoid.com). Everyone would want o.ro or o.com, or something like that (very short). Even just SEO.com or results.com would be better. Since you can’t have this, try the next bext thing. Also see: 12 Rules for Choosing the Right Domain Name – Moz Seth’s Blog: The new rules of naming PS: Also see: Should I Rebrand and Redirect My Site? Should I Consolidate Multiple Sites/Brands? – Whiteboard Friday – Moz PS, 2015.07.30: Also see: Domain Name Generator For Perfectionists Business Name Generator & Domain Name Search PS, 2016.08.25: Also see: 8 Rules for How to Choose a Domain Name – Whiteboard Friday – Moz PS, 2018.02.05: Also see: Domain Search Bulk domain search – Cheap bulk …

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