How To Hosting Google Sites on own Domain

Create your website at Google Sites - sites.google.com

When finished design, Publish first. The website is now working on sites.google.com.

To connect this website with your domain name which you purchased from a Domain Registrar, do the following:
On the webpage on sites.google.com/, click on the Settings (Gear) icon
On the Settings dialog, click Custom Domains, then click Connect Domain.

Type in the domain that you own already.
It will check the validity of the domain. If ok, proceed to next step.

If you see this message "This domain is not verified. Please verify your ownership", then click on the link, otherwise skip this section.

This section will prove to Google you own the domain, by creating an extra TXT/CNAME record.
A new dialog will show two options: Domain or URL Prefix
Select the Domain option.

On the dialog: Verify domain ownership via DNS record.
1. Select record type. TXT or CNAME. I choose CNAME because my domain registrar only has this option.
2. Sign in to your domain registrar (e.g. CrazyDomains)
3. Copy the CNAME record below into the DNS configuration. 
i) CName Label/Host: asuiasiaafa
ii)CName Destination / Target: aoanofzdof.googlehosted.com
These two values (masked above) will be given by Google.
4.Press verify below.

Reminder: steps  2 and 3 must be performed on the Domain Registrars page, before coming back here to click Verify. By placing the above information on your Domain Registrar, this shows you have control of the domain name, hence proving to Google that you own that domain.

Follow the instructions below to complete the procedure.

Google Sites will show these instructions:
################
Connect to third-party domain registrar
- In a separate tab, sign in to your domain registrar’s website
- Go to your DNS settings
- Create a new CNAME entry
- Under CNAME value or alias, enter www
- In CNAME destination, enter ghs.googlehosted.com
- Note: Your domain registrar might require a full stop at the end
- Save changes
- Come back to this tab and click Done
################

The next section shows the steps for CrazyDomains as the domain registrar. Others may be similar.

Veed.io - An online Video Editing with AI-powered features

 Stumbled upon this online video editor platform while trying to condense video clips taken on my Google Pixel 7 Pro mobile phone. Few quick notes on some cool features that prompted me to share this experience here.

• Video Compression includes fps and framesize
• Free Account that is usable
• Upload and Download that are smooth
• Create videos by i) Recording ii) By Video AI (give a description and it produces a video)

Another reason that prompted this blog, is the rather un-intuitive layout and operations for the platform. But since it is quite a nice tool, I thought of giving more details here to make things easy for new users.

Video Editing Features:

FPS - for compression, use this to select a lower framerate. Choices are: 30, 25, 24, 10

Framesize - reduces the image to popular social media formats, eg: 

Timeline, splitter, cutter - for slicing and dicing

Voiceover

  

Some not so cool features:

- you get two free, anonymous, non-sign-in video uploads and edit. Then you need to create an account to do more. You can choose the free plan.

- The interface for the first two free videos are different. Subsequent videos need to be restricted according to the type of plan.

- Free plan features: watermark (based on your name), no privacy (anyone with the link can view your video), 720p, 10min duration per video, 1 GB per video, 20GB storage total.

Hints (for using a Free account):

- Give a short name, even a dot "." - so that the watermark is shorter.

- Permanently Delete video from your account if you want privacy.

How to start?  Create New Project

Must do this before it allows you to upload a video, and access the editing tools.

How to GET Video when completed?

Done -> Export

You don't download when you finished creating, editing, compressing the video. You have to EXPORT first. But how to export? You have to click DONE button, since there is no Export button. Then only click Export Video. The export process is where the final video is rendered, using all the changes that we specified.

How to download?

The typical Download icon does NOT download the video. You need to click on one of the 3 buttons below: MP4 (for video) or MP3 or GIF

How to get back to main page, after export and download?

Once finished, and you want to upload or start creating a new video, there is NO back to Homepage or project button. It seems stuck at the download page. So you need to click the VEEP word on the top left corner.

How to NOT Share?

For the free account, all videos are SHARED, unless you Delete Permanently.

Sharing happens automatically after the Export process is finished.

Below dialog shows different ways of sharing. 

Although the video is public, people can't see it unless you give them the link. 

Linux On Microsoft Surface Laptop

 Found some materials on how to do this.

Firstly the YouTube link with title : How to Install Linux on a Microsoft Surface (Ubuntu 22.04 Linux Surface Kernel)

https://youtu.be/6_EHEmz_j4o

Few things needed:

1. Linux Ubuntu Iso download
2. USB key
3. Software called Rufus

When the above are ready, then proceed

• Run the Rufus program with the USB key plugged into the computer.
• When prompted, select the Downloaded Ubuntu *.iso for Rufus. Basically Rufus will create a bootable USB with Ubuntu on it.
• Plugin the USB onto the Surface
• Boot up MS Surface, ensure boot configuration is selected to boot from USB drive.
• Go into Ubuntu installation, follow instructions to install, then Reboot

At this point, Ubuntu is installed, you can boot and login. However, lots of the Surface hardware features are missing, e.g touchscreen, rotation of screen. To get these capabilities, we need to modify the Ubuntu kernel by installing a special kernal

Go to Google and search Surface Linux.

Follow the instructions there.

Update 30 Mar 2024

The following is an attempt to make use of a LIVE Linux on a USB drive. The above discussion is still slightly relevant, but several road-blocks are encountered as discussed below.

 

Rufus vs Universal USB Installer (UUI)

There are various good reviews of Rufus which states some of its advantages, so I won't repeat here. From experience, I can say it is easy to use to write a Linux ISO onto a USB drive and it seemed fast. However, specifically with Microsoft Surface that I tried on, it failed to get pass the Secure Boot (Bitlocker) screen. I changed the options at the MS Surface boot screen on the Security menu, trying all 3 options including no security, but still it would not boot. (Please leave comment, if I did not use correctly - but you must have experience in using Rufus on MS Surface).

Note: I've checked with the Microsoft account specifically to this MS Surface device, and there is no BitLocker key. Yet the device was still unusable.

So then I tried the UUI - and it is similarly as easy to write a Linux ISO to a USB drive than Rufus. This actually was able to go pass the Secure Boot. At the appropriate boot up screen, we should select VTOYEFI option, then followed by "Enroll_This_Key_In_MokManager.cer".

SLAX vs Lbuntu

I chose SLAX because its ISO was under 500GB. After burning this into the USB using UUI, and starting up using the USB, it would not boot. The reason is that it appears UEFI is not fully available for some reason. Switching to Lbuntu instead, and using UUI, the USB was finally able to boot Lbuntu onto the MS Surface.

Now the next problem is that MS Surface Wi-Fi hardware may not have been supported by Lbuntu. So the next step is to find a Linux that supports MS Surface, at least for the Wi-Fi adapter.  

Wifi problem:

It seems that the Linux that I've tried, including Lbuntu and Ubuntu above does not recognize the wifi adapter hardware. From internet searches, it seems the hardware is Marvell branded wifi adapter. A few commands to check whether the wifi hardware adapter is detectable or not:

lspci

ip -a

It will be obvious if theses commands do not mention anything about any wifi adapters

Persistence

To consider persistence, that is keeping the changes made to the Live Linux, the overlayfs in Linux is used. A few good references include:

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/overlayfs-usage

https://linuxconfig.org/introduction-to-the-overlayfs

Security

 

Hidden Cameras

https://us.norton.com/blog/how-to/how-to-find-hidden-cameras - an excellent list of methods to identify hidden cameras 

Will have more in this article ......

iRiver IBC-R6 Bone Conduction Earphone - Manual and Review

 Recently bought this bone conduction earphone from the mature company iRiver of South Korea. You may remember iRiver from the days of really portable MP3 players, recorders and such. It is priced in the mid-range of 65,000 to 70,000 Won. The reason I chose this over no-brand or unheard-of-brands which are less than half the price is because it is from a South Korean company, rather than China. There are more expensive ones of course, such as Aftershock, which has been rebranded as Shokz, but I cannot justify the price to myself.

The first part of this blog would be showing the User Guide / Manual which is originally in Korean. The English translation (via Google Translate Camera function) is also shown below.

The review will be coming soon .... stay tuned

Grand Mafia Strategy

Rules

City Rules

This can be found in: Event Centre -> Governor's War Season 2 -> Battle for The City Hall -> City Announcement -> Check Announcement

Mansions

Level 17 - Get Babe #3 Julia

Campaign 

Normal vs Elite - both have 7 stages.

Each Normal stage has to be completed first, then only the Elite stage can go to the same level of stages.

Elite #5-12 - Bubba - Need Sparrow, Vinny, Mike, Nurse Doxxy, Nioh

Elite #7-12 - Anonymous - Need Sparrow, Big Shot, Bubba, Lok, Nurse Doxxy

Defense

Wall 

This is one of the keys to defense against attackers. The higher the level, the better.

In general, go to Investment Center to upgrade various wall defence items.

Within the Wall, the Traps also need to be upgraded.

Enforcers can be selected as Defensive Enforcers within the Wall. Some Enforces are better than others, e.g. Sparrow, @nonymous, Tony, etc.

Radar - built this structure to ensure you get notified when others are attacking you.

Enforcers should return home (from Robbing or other activities), once you know (from the Radar notification) that you are under attack.

Safehouse

Keep Enforcers and Associates in Safehouse if Turf is under attack.

Police Raids

Enforcer - choose the one that is under the Wall category, e.g. Tony or El Cortardo. 

Gear up the Enforcer - maximise the biker gear.

Jewels - biker attack and biker defence, wall defence and trap attack

Crew Defense buff - enable this under the Combat buffs

Specialties - normal or Governor - should be all Biker and Crew Def/HP

Reinforce vs Station

Station - will be based on our stats. We can also station our Underboss on the other Turf, but if the battle is lost, then we will lose the UB too.

Reinforce - based on the stats of the other player.

Construction

Workshop

Workshop has links to Set, Armory, Jewels

Materials needed for workshop items can be obtained from Kingpins. Click on Item -> Upgrade -> Select Missing Material -> Method of obtaining

Buildings:

Wall <- Workshop <- Smelter 

Training vs Hospital vs Diamond Production

For miniH:

To train T4 bikers takes 6 days 18hr, 240,000 influence Hll events

Given that stats are:

2 training, 2 diamonds

total associates 1.993m

hourly upkeep 5.053m

training speed bonus 229.3%

training time -69.63%

associates/session 15,747

---

hospital capacity: 566/791,764  318.8%  566

Robbery

Clothing to increase speed: electric gun, builder's shirt/boots, investor's trouser/dagger

Clothing to increase load: investor's trouser/pistol, builder's shirt/shoes/shovel 

Robbing efficiency - Level 4 resources:

Arms. 1.26m x 14 PTS / 126min = 0.14 pts/min

Metal 0.945m x 14 pts/ 96. min = 0.138 pts/min

Depot 1.26m x 14 pts/ 140mi. = 0.126 pts/min

Diamond  0.4725 x25 pts / 82mins= 0.144 pts/min

Enforcers

Specialties increase: when Exp level of Underboss is increased.

Enforcers level up when: attacking kingpins, go on campaign

Troops increase

- by Enforcer Rank increase

Items

Where to acquire the items that we need?

Go to Faction Shop -> Faction Shop to buy with coins.

Go to Faction Shop -> Broker to buy with gold.

The items are categorised in:

Premium: Direct/Random Relocator

Kingpins

Experience

DMG      L1 L2         L3         L4

1        819 1431 2304 3973

2       1638 2862 4608 7946

3       2457 4293 6912 11919

4      3276 5724 9216 15892

5      4095 7155 11520 19865

Governor's War Specialties

DMG L1  L2         L3         L4

1        492  858         1382 2383

2        984  1716 2764 4766

3        1476  2574 4146 7149

4        1968  3432 5528 9532

5        2460  4290 6910 11915

Please excuse the numbers above if the format is jumbled up. The first column is the DMG levels reading downwards. Across the columns are the 4 different levels.

The Levels L1-L4 are the levels of the Kingpins

The DMG is in the game, where if we have enough Energy, we can hit a L1 Kingpin with DMGx2 or DMGx3 etc.

The main question the table above tries to answer is: Should I hit on a L4 OR using the similar energy to hit a L1 by using DMGx4?

The answer from the table is hitting a L1 with DMGx2 or DMGx3 is better than hitting a single (DMGx1) L2 or L3. However, if you can hit L4, then it is better to hit 1 L4 Kingpin (Exp=3973) than hitting an L1 Kingpin using DMGx4 (Exp=3276). 

Governor's War

Events Sequence

Day1 : Robbery

Day2 : Street Sweep / Police Station - Kingpins, Action points, Police Stations, family currency/insignia

Day3 : Increase Influence - enforcer wheel, family currency/insignia 

Day4 : Speed Ups

Day5 : Kill Event / Massacre Day

Battle

L5 Police Station - Bruiser Square

T3: Bruisers 1.140m Hitmen 1.169m Bikers 0.588m Cars 0.151m

Our Side: Hitman Square  UB: Bruiser Mike. Call for Bruisers.  

T3: Bruisers 1  Hitmen 1  Bikers Max Cars 0

Enemy has:

L5 Police Station - Bruiser Square

T3: Bruisers 1.064m Hitmen 1.144m Bikers 0.425m Cars 0.0m

Our Side: Bruisers Square  UB: Biker Bubba. Call for Bikers.  

T3: Bruisers Mine Max  Hitmen 0  Bikers Others Max Cars 0

good win

Notes Nokia 8.3 Android 11

DON'T BUY - Mine got Overheated with no chance of recovery. Bad thermal design.

Recovery Mode

Forgot Password

Missing Back button

Wifi - Hidden and MAC address

Screenshot button missing 

This notes may apply to Anroid 11 mobiles in general, although the notes are based on my Nokia 8.3. This is because the Nokia 8.3 is running Android One, which is supposed to be an unaltered version of pure Android.

Recovery Mode

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

To enter recovery mode:

- plug in USB-C cable

- turn off the phone

- Press Volume Down AND Power button and hold for a few seconds.

Once in Recovery mode, the options are:

- START

- Restart Bootloader

- Recovery Mode

- Power Off

- Boot to FFBM

- Boot to QMMI

- 

Forgot Password

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

This will WIPE ALL DATA

- Go to Recovery Mode as mentioned above.

- Select Recovery Mode. The Android logo is shown

- Unplug the cable

- Press the Power and the Volume Up key once

- The Recovery Mode menu will show many options

- Choose the Wipe Data / Factory Reset

Missing Back button

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

By default, Android 11 hides the 3 usual buttons, including the Back button.

To enable these 3 buttons on Nokia 8.3 Android 11:

- go to Settings -> Accessibility -> System Navigation

- Choose between:

Gesture Navigation

3 button Navigation (includes the Back, Home, Apps buttons)

Wifi - Hidden and MAC address

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

Two important items when connecting to a Wifi on the phone is:

- using a Hidden wifi network

- using the Device MAC address, NOT Randomized Mac.

Unfortunately modern Android phone deliberately make these two security features very hard by HIDING the relevant settings.

On a totally new Android phone, with no SIM card, adding a Wifi network also seems to be a challenge. I forgot the exact details, but persevere and click through all possible options to add the first wifi network.

Before configuring the phone, ensure to 

i) change the network Wifi settings, to be it NOT HIDDEN temporarily.

ii) Add the MAC address of the phone

Then go into the phone and start Configuring:

- go to Settings -> Network and Internet -> Wifi

- Click Add Network at the bottom.

- Type in SSID, Security option eg WPA2, Password

- Click Advanced Options

--- In Hidden Network, change to 'Yes'

--- In Privacy, change to 'Use device MAC'

- Click Save and Connect.

Go back to network Wifi and change back to:

- Hidden Network enabled

Screenshot button missing 

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

In previous Android or other handset, the screenshot features is available in two places:

1. Swiping down from the Top of the screen will reveal apps settings like WiFi connection, GPS, HotSpot, Bluetooth, etc, AND Screenshot.

2. Pressing the Power and Volume Down button, will trigger screenshot.

However the above methods is no longer available in Nokia 8.3 running Android 11. It may also be the same for other mobile brands using Android 11.

The Screenshot however is still available in a new spot. This applies to whether using 3-button navigation or Gesture navigation. To trigger Screenshot, simply go to the screen that shows the multiple background apps.

i) Using 3 button navigation, the Background Apps is available by pressing the Squre icon button. Then the words Screenshot will appear on the bottom.

ii) Using Gesture navigation, the Background Apps is available by Swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen. Then the words Screenshot will appear on the bottom.

I can imagine this is a very smart and intuitive location, even though it is very annoying if we got used to the previous methods. It is intuitive because the Screenshot is taken for the whole screen. What better location than to put the Screenshot at the Background Apps area, where we can scroll through different Background Apps to take screenshot for.

NOTE: The word background does not mean wallpaper background. It means the multiple apps that we open, but it is hidden by the recent app. So these background apps are the ones still running but not on the front screen.