Computing Trivia

Streaming video live is very useful as a way to allow remote viewers to participate in an event. Common situations suitable for live streaming are church services, weddings, sporting events where an individual desires to participate without being physically present. Youtube provides the ability to host live streams for free and without restrictions on viewership. You need to have a Google account. This tutorial assumes you already have a Google account. If you use Google mail (Gmail), you have a Google account. If your email ends in @gmail.com, you have a Google account. If you access your email by going to mail.google.com, you have a Google account. If your email app has the following icon , you ave a Google account. If you have an Android phone, you most likely have a Google account! Additionally, Google requires that the said account is of good standing. See these conditions .  To get started, log in to https://www.youtube.com and sign in (sign-in link is at top right)...

Using Larix Broadcaster , you can stream live video and audio from a smartphone running Android, IOS or Windows. The steps are: Download and install Larix from the link above. Configure Larix Test with the streaming server provided by whomever is hosting your live stream When requested, start sending your stream. Before giving details explanations of how to configure Larix, its important to note one of two things about the stream: Many people may be watching worldwide and its important to test and then, during the live stream, ensure only acceptable video and audio are sent to the server.  The Larix website illustrates the connection between your phone, server and the viewer devices.  Clear video requires planning your shot - from which direction? is the lighting good? will bright lights interfere? Is there traffic noise or other interference. Maintain your smartphone in  landscape orientation If more than one person are to stream to the same server, be on...

It's not considered a good idea to stop Windows from downloading updates. Microsoft did not provide a simple way to stop these updates that can sometimes consume valuable data bundles when you need the bundles for critical work. It is especially tragic when you have no way to obtain more bundles and Windows consumes the little that is left which you planned to use for some crucial work. Indeed it can be a nightmare. Apparently the folks at Richmond do not understand the computing environment is a lot of places on this earth so they more or less deleted the feature in earlier Windows versions that allowed one to stop updates.  Odd that the ransomware attacks are much more common in the developed world. This may be an indication that folks in developing countries are more adept at managing updates on their Windows machines.  This post deals with a single issue: How to stop Windows updates in order to save data bundles. It is crucial to turn on updates at least once a month ...

Code::Blocks is a useful IDE that can include compilers for C and C++. In order to use Code::Blocks for C/C++, there are two things to install and one to configure: 1. Download and install the gcc compiler by installing MinGW as described in this article  2. Download and install Code::Blocks from this site . A link to nightly builds is provided in case you want to try a very recent build but read the documentation first. Some versions come with the MinGW compiler and some do not. In this article, we assume you downloaded the version without MinGW. 3. Configure the compiler and build tools in Code::Block How to Configure Code::Blocks When you install Code::Blocks, it tries to detect the compiler. There is a long list of compilers it can use but our interest is MinGW and Cygwin because they are the most reliable, updated open source C/C++ compilers for Windows. For Linux, gcc is a core part of the OS and is installed by default. To configure Code::Blocks for MinGW proceed a...

The most popular open source C/C++ compilers for Windows are MinGW and Cygwin. MinGW is much less tedious to install hence I will start with this. Cygwin? Let's do that another day... Process of Installing MinGW 1. Locate the MinGW installer (let's assume 64bit) 2. Download 3. Run installer (assume on C:/MinGW folder 4. Configure PATH 5. Test How to Compiler and Build  a C/C++ Program 1. Write the source and save in desired folder (e.g. Hello.c) 2. Change directory to the one containing the source file 3. Run the Command Prompt, Power Shell or other shell such as Git BASH in this folder. [Shift+Right-Click will bring up a popup to allow the first two shells. Right-Click will allow you to run the Git BASH. See details below). 4. Issue the compiler command: gcc -o hello.exe hello.c  which means: Compile source file called Hello.c and name the output file Hello.exe 5. Run the output file as follows: ./Hello  Locate MinGW Installer  Google "mingw64"...