How to Publish an NFT on OpenSea: Step-by-Step Guide

📁 Prerequisites

Item	Description
MetaMask Wallet	A crypto wallet to create and sign your NFT
ETH or MATIC	Needed to pay gas fees (ETH for Ethereum; MATIC for Polygon — which is often free to mint)
NFT Content	Your digital asset (image, video, audio, 3D, etc.)

---

🛠️ How to Publish an NFT (on OpenSea)

✅ Step 1: Set up MetaMask Wallet

1. Go to https://metamask.io and install the browser extension.

2. Create a new wallet and save your recovery phrase securely.

3. Add some ETH to your wallet (buy or transfer from an exchange like Coinbase or Binance).

⚠️ For Polygon (cheaper), you’ll need MATIC tokens and to switch your network in MetaMask.

---

✅ Step 2: Connect MetaMask to OpenSea

1. Visit https://studio.opensea.io

2. Click Profile (top right) → Choose MetaMask

3. Approve connection in MetaMask — your OpenSea account is now tied to your wallet

---

✅ Step 3: Create a Collection (Optional)

• Go to your profile → My Collections

• Click Create a Collection

• Add:

  • Logo

  • Description

  • Royalties (% you’ll earn on resales)

  • Blockchain (Ethereum or Polygon)

---

✅ Step 4: Mint (Publish) Your NFT

1. Click Create (top menu)

2. Upload your file (image, video, audio, or 3D model)

3. Fill in:

   • Name

   • Description

   • External link (optional)

   • Properties, levels, unlockable content (optional)

   • Blockchain: Ethereum or Polygon

4. Click Create — your NFT is now minted!

✅ On Polygon, this is free. On Ethereum, you may need to pay a one-time "initialize account" fee if it’s your first time.

---

✅ Step 5: List Your NFT for Sale

1. Go to your newly minted NFT page

2. Click Sell

3. Set:

   • Price (fixed or timed auction)

   • Duration (e.g., 7 days)

4. Click Complete Listing

5. MetaMask will pop up → sign (and possibly pay gas fee if on Ethereum)

---

🎉 Done! Your NFT is Now Live on OpenSea

• Share your NFT link on social media, Discord, or marketplaces

• Buyers can now purchase it directly from OpenSea

---

🧠 Tips

Tip	Why It Matters
Use Polygon for low fees	No gas fees to mint or list NFTs
Add royalties	You’ll earn % on every resale
Include unlockable content	Useful for private files, perks, etc.
Verify NFT visibility	May take a few minutes to appear

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

✅ Gasless Minting on Polygon (via Rarible or Mintable)

🧭 Why Polygon?

• No gas fees (for minting, listing, or transferring)

• Fast and low-cost transactions

• Fully supported on OpenSea and Rarible

---

🔧 Option 1: Rarible on Polygon (Lazy Minting)

How to Mint:

1. Go to Rarible.com

2. Connect your wallet (e.g. MetaMask)

3. Switch network to Polygon (you can use Rarible’s prompt)

4. Click "Create"

5. Choose Polygon as the blockchain

6. Upload your file, add title/description

7. Enable "Free minting" — this is Rarible’s version of lazy minting on Polygon

8. Sign (gas-free) — your NFT will be visible on your Rarible profile

After Minting:

• Your NFT is lazy minted, but still appears on-chain via Polygon metadata

• You can list it on Rarible immediately

• It will appear on OpenSea automatically after a short delay (indexed by wallet)

---

🔧 Option 2: Mintable (Gasless Store)

How to Mint:

1. Visit mintable.app

2. Create a "gasless store item"

3. Upload your art and metadata

4. Choose Gasless (Mintable Store) option — no crypto or gas needed

Notes:

• NFTs minted via Mintable’s gasless store are minted off-chain until purchased (like lazy minting)

• Once sold/minted, they can be transferred to OpenSea, but won’t show immediately unless manually imported

---

🌐 OpenSea on Polygon

• OpenSea natively supports Polygon

• Go to OpenSea, connect the same wallet

• Switch network to Polygon

• Your Rarible Polygon NFTs will show under “Collected”

• You can list them for resale on OpenSea, zero gas

---

💡 Tips

• Rarible lets you set royalties and collection metadata

• You only pay gas if you mint on Ethereum — Polygon is gas-free for mint + list

• No bridging required if you mint directly on Polygon

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. 

Google Drive Desktop - Different modes of Syncing and Offline

 A bit of background first on Google Drive:

Google Drive have been in existence over many years. It's basically an online, browser based, file storage where you can drag-n-drop any files from your computer onto the webpage of Google Drive. Then there are specific Google office apps which are equivalents to Microsoft Office such as:

Docs (like Word)

Sheets (like Excel)

Slides (like Powerpoint)

.... and even better new apps like: Forms, Drawings, etc

Basically Google Drive allow you to have a file system / file storage plus working on some of those files online from a browser webpage.

Google Sync

Then came the little technology that allows us to install a component on our computer, which then automatically syncs between Google Drive and our computer. This means that we see the Google Drive files and folders on our computer, through File Explorer - as if those Google Drive files are on our computer. 

The reason for this blog is that the Google Sync technology has undergone a few iterations with new names and so creating some amount of confusion. Every few years coming back to this technology again, the name has changed. I may be mistaken, but I roughly remembered the earlier name as Google Sync -> then it became Backup and Sync -> now it became "Google Drive Desktop"

Google Drive Desktop

This post is about the new syncing technology called Google Drive Desktop (now that we are sort of clear on the history) and we won't mention the previous products from this point on.

Installation

Simply open your favourite browser and search engine and type: Google Drive Desktop

Then click on the results as shown below.

Installation Problems

It is worth mentioning a few of the installation problems I encountered which does not seem to have a specific or logical solution - but I managed to solve it and will share it here. 

The problem occurs after installing the Google Drive Desktop, the little icon in the taskbar is visible but nothing much else. There is a button or link to prompt us to sign in to our Google account or sign in to Google using the web browser or various other ways to prompt us to sign in to Google. But after signing in, still there are no options in the Google Drive Desktop taskbar icon except to sign-in. So I encountered this loop where I keep signing in and there are no results after that. Right click on the taskbar icon and select Preferences, and a window seems to pop up and disappear immediately. There is also a new icon on the desktop itself, and that also prompts us to sign-in, again repeated sign-in had no results.

You may also see the 'Success!' message below after each sign-in attempt, but we may still get nowhere, i.e the Google Drive files is still not showing in our local computer.

Here are a few things I tried that may in combination provided the solution:

- Restart your computer, perhaps do this two or three times.

- Definitely try signing in two or three or more times after each step.

- When there is an opportunity to sign-out, then completely sign-out of any Google accounts.

- Finally when there is an option to 'Disconnect' from Google Drive, then click Disconnect (this may appear in a smaller window)

Summary - keep on trying various things to sign-out, disconnect etc and signing in again until it works.

Installation Working

When the installation is successful, then in Windows File Explorer, it should show the Google Drive like this:

Syncing Warning

1. By default all files in MyDrive on Google Drive will be synced and appears in File Explore on the local computer

2. Deleting a file on the local computer, e.g. through File Explorer, will ALSO delete the file in the cloud Google Drive.

For my usage, I prefer NOT to sync everything between the Google Drive and my computer, so I prefer to choose which folders in Google Drive need to be synced to my computer.

The next section will discuss more on how to configure the other modes of syncing, and not deleting the files on the cloud when the local file is deleted.

"Set up offline access" - Right-click on the file or folder you want to make available for offline use. Next, choose "Available Offline" under the "offline access" menu.

Syncing with Offline access

Several modes are described here:  https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9308619

Essentially with the offline access mode, we can work on the documents while temporarily not having internet connection. For example, this could be on a flight, in a park, in a coffee shop where we don't trust their public wifi, etc.

1. Working with non-Google files (ie not Docs, not Sheets, etc)

Assuming Google Drive for Desktop is installed, open the Google Drive folder. Select the file or folder to be accessed offline. Right-click on it, and select Drive File Streama and then Available offline.

2. Working with Google files (eg. Docs, Sheets, etc)

Install the Google Docs Offline extension. In Drive, click Settings, thenSettings.
Go to the Offline section, check the Create, open and edit your recent Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files on this device while offline.
Right-click a file and turn on Available offline.

3. Working on mobile phones

On your mobile device, open the Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides app. Tap Menu and thenSettings. Turn on Make recent files available offline.

Syncing Mode Preferences

As shown below, there are at least 3 different syncing modes. To come to these options, right click on the Google Drive Desktop taskbar icon, then select Preferences.

1. Google Drive - My Drive - Stream files

The files are mostly in the cloud (not on our computer). But when we need to work on the files with no internet connection, we can make the files and folders available offline. See section above about working with offline files.

2. Google Drive - My Drive - Mirror files

The files are stored both in the cloud of Google Drive and also on the local computer. The files on the local computer are available to work with, even when there is no internet. There is no extra steps to make these files to be offline, since there is always an offline or local copy already.

3. My PC - This option allows us to select files or folders originally on our local computer already, to be stored / backed-up on the cloud. Click on the Add Folder button to select which existing local folders should be placed on the cloud.

When everything is working, opening the taskbar icon for Google Drive Desktop should show something like this:

Setting up a Secured Email Server

 This article is Work In Progress....

There are lots of good info on the web about setting up email servers. So this article will start with some links to those sites.

References:

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-your-own-email-server/

Mail Server - it looks like the most popular on is 'hmailserver' - https://www.hmailserver.com/download/

Metaverse and the Bitcoin Blockchain CryptoCurrency

 Metaverse - What is it?

The metaverse has been around for a few decades in one way or another. However it is not until recently when Facebook chief - the Zuck - announced the new name Meta for his company that the Metaverse has come into heightened attention. Here are some definitions of the Metaverse typically found on Google search:

Wikipedia - "A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. In futurism and science fiction, the term is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets"

Nvidia - "The metaverse is a shared virtual 3D world, or worlds, that are interactive, immersive, and collaborative. Just as the physical universe is a collection of worlds that are connected in space, the metaverse can be thought of as a bunch of worlds, too. Massive online social games, like battle royale juggernaut Fortnite and user-created virtual worlds like Minecraft and Roblox, reflect some ..."

Bybit - "Living, working and playing in an alternate reality requires funding, and that means cryptocurrency. Just as there are several metaverses to use, there are also multiple cryptocurrencies. Understanding the options, differences, and pros and cons f each one can help you make the best investment decision for your needs.

When I first encountered the hype about the Metaverse, it sounded very much like Virtual Reality (VR) - which was the big thing touted in the late 80s and early 90s. VR has not really taken off in the big way, although there are definitely some tangible benefits realised. Things like pilot training simulators and immersive technology certainly have their niches. There could even be a revival in the form of Google Glasses and the Oculus devices. Thinking a bit deeper, VR is usually associated with the technology that allows the  3D immersive experience. Although the implementation of the Metaverse is  also dependent on technology, the Metaverse is much more than about the 3D reality aspect - but it seems to encompass all aspects of the virtual world itself, including commerce, way of life and much more in this alternative metaverse.

The life and commercial aspect of the Metaverse is where cryptocurrency comes in. The quote by Bybit above says it precisely. What currency is better suited to a virtual meta world, then a virtual meta currency embodied by the cryptocurrency blockchain?

Here are some of the up and coming cryptocurrencies that may follow the development of the Metaverse:

ALIEN WORLDS (TLM)
Atari Token (ATRI)
Bloktopia (BLOK)
Boson Protocol (BOSON)
CEEK VR (CEEK)
Chromia (CHR)
CryptoPlanes (CPAN)
DEAPcoin (DEP)
Decentraland (MANA)
inSure DeFi (SURE)
IOTEX (IOTX)
METAHERO (HERO)
MINIGAME,
MRE
METAL
NJF
Polygon (MATIC)
Radio Caca (RACA)
RMRK (RMRK)
Sandbox (SAND)
Solana (SOL)
SQUID,
Starlink (STARL)
TERRA VIRTUA KOLECT (TVK)
Theta Network (THETA)
Torum (XTM)
UFO Gaming (UFO)
Verasity (VRA)
Victoria (VR)
Vulcan Forged (PYR)
WAX (WAXP)

DVB-T + DAB +FM - Software survey

 Bought an el-cheapo Digital TV (DVB-T) USB stick which also has Digital Radio (DAB) and FM Radio - what more could I ask for?

Actually I would ask for an actual software to come with that. As with all things in Ebay, there is a reason why they are cheap. The advertisement itself shows nice and flashy TV pictures on a software. It's only in the fine print of the Package contents that says the software is a Trial Version. I did read that in the ad, but subconsciously put that aside. So now, I'm left with a USB stick with drivers installed but nothing to play with. I don't think I want to touch Windows Media Center, though I guess that is an option to some people.

So the point of this post is to collect and comment of my research on the software that can work with the newly acquired DVB-T stick. Here goes..... (perhaps starting with the paid software, then saving the best free ones for last).

DVB Viewer - http://www.dvbviewer.com/en/index.php?page=features

Cost around 20Eu - which is not a bad price. However there are paid add-ons such as Media Server add-on and Video Editor add-on. On Screenshot pages shows it looks very professional. The Features pages is very comprehensive and also list a lot of TV cards that it supports. Unfortunately mine is a generic brand and I don't expect to find it on the list. The payment is by bank transfer and you put the description of the bank transfer as DVBViewer + email. So it feels quite old school and an independent developer (not a commercial company), and this is one of the positive point for me.

AltDVB - https://www.videohelp.com/software/ALTDVB

Looks like it is free and is under active development, since the last update at the time of writing is May 2021. It's meant to work with DVB-S (Satellite, meaning worldwide signals are available. The T in DVB-T stands for Terrestrial, meaning the local stations). It's 11Mb, its portable, and it has a whole list of Changelog and Release notes. It has its own YouTube subscription channel to explain how to use it.

ProgDVB - https://www.progdvb.com/progtva_download.html

There is a paid version with the title name and there is also a free version called ProgTV. The free version won't support recording and is around 11Mb. It's supposed to let you watch digital TV and listen to radio channels. The paid version supports IPTV, DVB-S/S2, DVB-C (cable) and more.

Media Portal - https://www.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal/about-mediaportal

This looks like a very complete media center - a full fledged solution. So its ability to play DVB-(C/S/T) is almost drowned out by all the other features. Incredibly, it's not only free but it's open-source too. When it comes to popular software that non-technical people use and download, there is generally a risk of using Free software on the internet. However when a software is open source, like Media Portal, the risk is reduced because the source code is available for the world to see. (this is a general statement about truly open source software and it is not an assessment of the security and safety of using Media Portal). Only drawback is that some DAB (digital radio) functionality may not be fully supported yet.

Review - Antec C40 CPU Cooler

Is a CPU Cooler really necessary? Is it all hype? Or does it actually work? Or will it be much better than the stock CPU coolers that come together with the original CPUs.

In this simple, unofficial review of the Antec C40 CPU Cooler, I hope to answer some of those questions from my experience with this product. Firstly, for all the official information, please go to the following sites, so I won't repeat the stats of the device in this post:

https://www.antec.com/product/cooling/c40

(Apologies for not having a real photo of the actual cooler. I was too excited to install it before thinking about taking photos. The product link should have many photos of this product)

Why do I need a CPU cooler?

My Windows PC has been turning-off by itself at irregular and unpredictable times. Sure most of the times it is because of Windows - and I am never shy of blaming Windows because most of the time it is Windows' fault. I've checked for drivers incompatibilities, new programs that may cause crashes, anti-virus/anti-malware, plugins misbehaving, Windows Update. But none of this were the reasons. Good for Windows that it is not the problem this time. 

By the way, the effect is not really the PC 'crashing'. What happens is that while working on the PC, the computer literally turns-off or powers-off, the same effect as if someone just pull out the power plug. 

So this can only be two things:

• Power Supply Unit
• Overheating CPU (either motherboard or CPU triggers a shutdown to prevent damage)

The Power Supply Unit problem will be very difficult to check. Perhaps qualified electricians can use a multimeter to check a few points (DO NOT TRY THIS). But most PC enthusiasts way of testing is to try a different Power Supply and see if the problem exist. In addition, this problem happens at totally different activities while working on the PC. 

Although it looks random, the pattern of the auto turn-off problem emerges. It happens when the computer is left running for some time. It may also happen when doing heavy browsing. It feels more and more like a heat problem. But SpeedFan program says the temperature is between 45-60 degrees. This does not seem to be overly critical although it is high. 

Then one day I rebooted, when into BIOS and check the temperature from the BIOS stats, and it is 80'C degrees. Obviously SpeedFan is wrong! The PC is placed at a corner next to a tall filing cabinet, which I thought would have sufficient airflow since it is not tightly cramped, but apparently not. Bringing the PC out of the corner, and removing the side panel of the motherboard reduced the temperature to 60-70'C degrees.

So definitely temperature is the most likely culprit. Although 60-70'degrees may not cause the problem anymore, but I would need to place the PC back to its original position, hence I thought of purchasing another CPU Cooler to replace the stock standard CPU cooler that came with the original CPU.

CPU Socket Type

My desktop PC is based on an AMD APU (CPU + graphics) of FM2 socket type. So I did a whole lot of research of price vs functionality of CPU coolers before selecting this. What I did not realise that was motherboard was FM2+ socket type until after the purchase. However it turns out to be fine since FM2/FM2+ are compatible not only in terms of the motherboard but also the Antec C40.

In fact the Antec C40 is compatible against a variety of AMD CPUs(see product link above or specs in the images above), but it is also compatible with some types of Intel CPUs. For the Intel CPUs, Antec C40 provides an extra harness / frame to screw onto the motherboard (screws provided), on which to secure the CPU cooler. In addition, Antec C40 also comes with a thermal paste, which MUST be applied between the CPU and base of the cooler when installing it.

Product Selection

So apart from the price / functionality, why exactly did I choose this among the many other choices:

• Antec seems to be a specialised brand when it comes to CPU cooling. Other brands which I seriously considered were Coolermaster and Thermaltake.
• The Copper base was an important point for me.
• The weight of the cooler - it is not the lightest but quite reasonable given the dimensions.
• The cool factor from the blue LED lighting.

Installation

Before installation of the Antec C40, the original stock standard AMD CPU cooler fan has to be removed. These are the steps I follow - and I do not guarantee any safety  - please read other instructions or manuals before doing this.

Uninstalling the AMD stock standard CPU cooler:

1. Switch of the PC and all connected equipment.
2. Unplug everything connected to the PC.
3. Open the CPU case and make sure you touch the metal from to unearth any static charge.
4. Reposition the CPU case in a comfortable position, with proper lighting, so it is easy to work with.
5. Gently move any wires aside.
6. Unlock by pressing the lever on one side of the AMD stock standard CPU cooler. This type of cooler is extremely easy to remove. Once unlock, gently and lightly tilt both ways to let the CPU cooler unhinge from the motherboard latches. NEVER EVER use force. If anything does not move, just tilt or change some other position.
7. As you lift up the old CPU cooler, you will see some old thermal paste on top of both the CPU and the base of the old CPU cooler. Clean the thermal paste on top of the AMD CPU by rolling the tip of a cotton butt on it.

(Old AMD stock standard CPU. The best thing about this is the super easy way to install/remove due to the excellent lever design. The Antec C40 on the other hand is hard to clip on, and even harder to unclip to remove)

Installing the new Antec C40

1. Unpack the Antec C40. 
2. Ignore the screws and square harness. Those items are for Intel CPUs.
3. Test Run Only: Gently lower the Antec C40 on top of the AMD CPU. Practice to latch one side of the CPU Cooler onto the motherboard around the CPU - just to experience any challenges or difficulties. Get a feel of how difficult or easy it is to secure the latch but DON'T do the actual attachment yet.
4. Use the thermal paste supplied by Antec and squeeze a light amount on top of the AMD CPU. Gently spread the paste with the thermal paste tip, then use a small flat thin cardboard to evenly spread the paste on the CPU. 
5. Get the Antec C40 cooler AND REMOVE THE THIN FILM from the base of the C40 cooler.
6. Lower the C40 down on top of the AMD CPU. In my case, lowering the side opposite to the latch until it hooks onto the CPU edge was actually quite easy - to this at an angle.
7. When one side is latched, then very very gently tilt the CPU cooler to be horizontal, to latch on the other side, in order to clip it on. This is the hardest part. You need to apply force, but applying too much force may damage the CPU.
8. When securely attached, close the PC case, attach the PC components again, restart the PC and go to BIOS screen.

Problem Solved

Is a CPU Cooler really necessary? Is it all hype? Or does it actually work? Or will it be much better than the stock CPU coolers that come together with the original CPUs.

YES, it is necessary. No it is not hype. Yes it does work. Yes, it is definitely better than the AMD Stock Standard CPU Cooler.

Actually the first time I installed it, the BIOS showed 80'C degrees. That was totally unexpected. At least if it was like 60-70'C degrees, that would be similar to the old AMD CPU cooler - that would be understandable. But why would the new Antec C40 produces 80'C degrees when first installed. After checking this and that, with the PC case still open, there seems to be  a shiny border between the CPU and the base of the CPU Cooler. Then the shocking realisation that I actually forgotten to remove the thin film packaging on the C40 cooler's base as described in step 4 above.

So after uninstalling the new C40 cooler (uninstalling is even more difficult  when trying to unclip the new C40 cooler), remove the thin file at the base of the cooler, then reinstall everything again,  the PC was rebooted. Now the very good surprise was that the temperature is hitting about 40'C degrees only. What's more when I place my hand near the CPU cooler fan, it is actually cool air, instead of the hot air I previously felt.

When Windows was restarted, running many applications, browsers, etc to test, the temperature was much lower than with the previous old AMD cooler (actual numbers given by SpeedFan were wrong in absolute terms, but the temperature readings are significantly lower with the new Antec C40 cooler). So the conclusion, at least on my particular AMD FM2 system, the Antec C40 cooler definitely show a dramatic reduction in CPU temperature and the PC does not switch off by itself anymore.

Below image shows the Antec C40 in all its glory (PC case is open)