How To Remove Encryption on Your Android Device

(Photo credit: marsmet474)

I wrote a while back how I had been using encryption on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (Sprint) Android device, but after a while it proved to be more trouble than it was worth. I am currently running CyanogenMOD 10.2.1 and I finally decided it was time to remove the encryption.

Before I go any further, it is important to note that I don't know of any way of doing this that won't wipe your device and remove any customizations. Therefore I STRONGLY recommend that you backup anything important before proceeding.

So first off, if you boot into recovery by holding the up volume + home + power when you start the device, you will notice that if you select the option to format data and cache it will error out with the encryption. That is fine for now, because we need it to error out so we can find the mount point in the log.

Second, you are going to need to have adb installed. You can find out how to do that here for Windows, or if you are using Ubuntu like me just run the folowing to install it:

# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

After that, do the following:

• Boot into recovery
• Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset
• Let it error out, then select Advanced > Show Log
• You should see something like failed to mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p12. Note: Your mount point may be different, use whatever the log says
• Plug your phone into your computer with the USB data cable
• From a terminal (or command prompt) run adb shell and you should get a prompt with a # symbol
• Next run mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p12. Note: Be sure to replace the path with the one you got from the log!
• After that is complete you can now reboot your phone.

Encryption will now be gone, and your phone will be factory reset.

Do you know of a way to remove encryption without wiping your device? If so, let us know in the comments!

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Top 4 Apps to Help Busy Moms Keep Tabs on Kids

Back in the good ol' days, moms could figure out where their kids had run off to by opening the front door, walking out on the porch and hollering their names as loudly as possible to get their attention.

These days, it's more challenging to keep tabs on kids, especially for moms who work outside of the home. Fortunately, with the help of some handy dandy technology—in the form of useful apps—working mothers have a virtual way of keeping a close eye on their kids, which doesn’t involve shouting out their names and startling co-workers.

The following four apps can provide working mothers with some much-needed peace of mind when it comes to keeping track of the kids.

Find My Kids ~ Footprints

This nifty app uses GPS in real-time and can help parents keep track of where their kids are going, as long as they are carrying their cell phone. The app can be used with any popular service and phones, such as T-Mobile cell phones. If a child is heading to the park to meet friends after school, the app also can confirm that she got there. The app is free to use but does require a subscription for the tracking feature.

Family Tracker

This app will not only keep tabs on the kiddos, but also the entire family. It features a separate messaging system that helps busy working moms contact their kids, and find out if and when they actually read the message. For moms who cannot resist the urge to call their child’s name, the app features an attention-grabbing siren sound sure to alert their son and daughter that mom is trying to reach them. The app costs $5.99 and needs to be purchased for each phone that will be tracked.

Sprint Family Locator

While many tracking apps require mom to have a smartphone, the Spring Family Locator can work on any Sprint phone, smart or not. Families can use a free trial of the service for 15 days, and then pay $5 a month to track up to four cell phones. For moms who are not quite ready to buy their child a smartphone, this offers them the ability to keep track of where their son or daughter is with a regular cell phone.

iHound Software

Most moms like it when their kids send them a text or call when they get to their friend’s house, or wherever they are heading. But as most moms know quite well, kids can be forgetful about doing this, which can lead to worry. The iHound Software lets parents choose to get an automatic email when the child arrives at the determined location. This way, mom is happy, and if the child forgets to notify her, he or she will not be mortally embarrassed when mom calls to check in.

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Awesome Script To Remove All Unused Kernel Images In Ubuntu to Free Disk Space in /boot

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I thought I had written about this in the past, but I guess I didn't as I couldn't find any posts about it here on Bauer-Power... I digress.

Anyway, the other day I had to install a kernel update on my work laptop that is running Xubuntu, and it wouldn't download because I had run out of space in /boot. That's almost always caused from having too many kernel image files saved there from previous updates.

Well I found a really cool one-line command that removes all kernel images except the current one. That command is:

export KERNEL="$(uname -r | grep -Po '([0-9\.\-]*[0-9])?')"; dpkg --get-selections | grep -E "linux-(header|image).*" | grep -iw install | sort | grep -v "$KERNEL" | grep -v "lts" | sed 's/install//g' | xargs dpkg -P

You can put that in a convenient script if you like for future use!

[Via Raymii]

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How To Change The Truecrypt Volume Password in Linux

I like to periodically change passwords on everything, especially on my personal email server. Changing passwords regularly keeps the bad guys, and the NSA guessing.

On my email server, the mail store is actually stored in an encrypted Truecrypt volume. Also, my email server is running on Linux so that means I have to do everything via a terminal.

So here is how I change that password:

With the Truecrypt volume dismounted run the following:

#truecrypt -C tc-volume.tc

Follow the prompts to change your password! Simple right?!

Make sure you change the volume name above with your Truecrypt volume name.

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How To Send Emails At A Specified Time In Mozilla Thunderbird

I prefer using Linux over Windows. I even use it on my work computer, and my preferred email client is Mozilla Thunderbird.

Well the other day I wanted to have an email send out at a specified time (Don't ask me why) and I knew I could do it in Microsoft Outlook, but I didn't have that. I had Thunderbird, and it doesn't have that functionality built in.

That's ok, because like just about anything else with Thunderbird, there is a plugin for it! The plugin I found that you can use to delay sending an email is called Send Later.

To schedule what time your email sends, draft and email like usual; then with the cursor in the message area press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER and the Send Later dialogue box pops up where you can schedule what time your email will send.

 

Once your email is scheduled, Send later will save it to your drafts folder until it is ready to send. It works like... well, like clockwork!

Do you ever have to schedule messages? Do you use Thunderbird too? do you use a different plugin? If so, which one? Let us know in the comments!

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How To Password Protect PDF's in Ubuntu

I mentioned a cool tool yesterday called pdftk that I use at my day job to merge multiple PDF documents into a single PDF. Well that isn't all pdftk can do! You can also use it to password protect PDF files for better security!

Let's say I have a PDF called sensitive.pdf with information I don't want anyone to see. I can protect it with a password by running the following command via the terminal:

#pdftk sensitive.pdf output protected.pdf user_pw SuperS3cr3tPW2014

If you aren't following the command above you input the original PDF (sensitive.pdf) and output a new PDF called protected.pdf and assign it the password SuperS3cr3tPW2014.

Now you can delete the original file and you can keep the new password protected PDF!

Do you do something else to password protect PDF's in Ubuntu? If so,  what do you use? Let us know in the comments!

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How To Merge Multiple PDF's in Ubuntu

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At my day job I work remotely for a company in California, while I now live back in Colorful Colorado. Working remotely in a different state has some challenges and advantages. One of those challenges is sending documents into the main office to be signed and whatnot.

Often times I have to scan certain documents into PDF's and combine them with existing PDF's to make one big document that I can send to my boss for approval. Since my work laptop is running on Xubuntu Linux, I have to do that with a special command line utility called pdftk.

Let's say I have three PDF's that I need to combine, they are named pdf1.pdf, pdf2.pdf and pdf3.pdf. Here is the syntax I would use to merge them:

#pdftk pdf1.pdf pdf2.pdf pdf3.pdf cat output merged.pdf

The new merged.pdf file will now have all three documents merged into one PDF in the order you listed them in the above command!

To install pdftk in Ubuntu just run:

#sudo apt-get install pdftk

That's how you merge multipl PDF's in Ubuntu Linux!

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