Fixes on my apps

It has come to my attention that some things in my apps are not working. I am working on some updates that will fix most if not all those issues. I thank anyone who has sent in a bug report because I cannot fix problems I don't know about. Due to my busy schedule I do need some time to actually build and test the new patches but they are making progress.

To those using my apps and having some issues I ask that you try them again after their next update as that should fix most if not all the issues I am aware of.

I also ask anyone using my apps in another language than English to report any errors in translation since I am unable to afford professional translators.

I would also like to give credit to certain customers of mine that have voluntarily translated some of my apps both in part and as a whole. You deserve recognition and I willing to put your names in a credit if you permit me. However, I will not publish your name or other information without your consent. If you wish to have a credit either on this blog or imprinted on your translation then all you need to do is send me an email specifying what to publish.

If anyone has bug reports I want to hear them. Though I would prefer said reports in an email rather than a review so I can converse with you and replicate your issue on my bench where I can begin working on a patch.

I am open to suggestions and requests as always. My contact page is here.

I appreciate your patience as I balance this development, University, and my current employment.

An open letter to fellow Android app developers

Dear Android App developers,

    As all app developers find out eventually, the app manifest file specifies certain properties about your application, one of these things is where the application shall be stored on the users device. As some users know, Android supports using external storage such as an SD card, but they soon find that only some apps are able to be moved to the SD card. This is completely up to us, we decide how our apps are stored. The user may not be aware of how this works but aside from rooting their device they have no choice if we don't allow them.

    This feature of Android was intended to allow developers to ensure certain applications are on storage that is typically soldered into their device. This is really good for applications such as custom launcher screens, live wallpapers, custom keyboards, and background services. Apps that need to be accessible at all times should be stored on the user's internal storage, however this storage is very valuable because it cannot be upgraded. Most applications such as games, many social media apps, web browsers, some media players, and most utility tools like databases and tutorials should allow the user to store them on their SD card. My two apps for instance are very tiny to install but they are set to prefer the user's SD card, the user is allowed to move them but by default they shall not take up any valuable space on the user's internal storage, we developers should allow the user to move the app to their preferred storage whenever possible and some apps should prefer the external storage as mine do. Most users won't move our apps to the external storage but for the users with limited space, a large SD card, and/or basic technical knowledge the option to move apps to the SD card is a welcome freedom and will allow them to keep your app even after their internal space is used up.

    The SD cards are getting cheaper and many Android phones and tablets accept them as storage. Allowing the user to choose which storage will hold our apps is a basic courtesy in my view and most of the time the user will leave the apps installed to their internal storage so there is little reason to force the user to keep their app library on the internal storage unless the app is something like a background service program or a keyboard. Developers don't need to rebuild their apps to allow users to store it on the SD card, I can conform that you merely need to change one line in the manifest file. Here is a link to Google's documentation.

    Please allow users to move our apps to their SD cards, it's easy in nearly all cases as you only need to change one line in one file. Allowing users the option to move the app to the SD card but installing to the internal storage by default won't harm their performance in any way but it does allow them to use cheaper storage on apps that take a lot of space. The only time a user would have an issue is if they unmount the SD card or put the phone into USB storage mode (to my knowledge this is deprecated by MTP), in this case the app would be temporarily unavailable until the SD card is mounted again along with everything else on the SD card such as their media library. Most if not all users who know how to put an app on the SD card will also know about this issue with the SD card when it's unmounted and would not find it an issue, and with MTP the majority of users won't ever have their SD unmounted unless they are swapping it for a larger one, in which case they would also be copying all their data to the new card.

    If we allow users the option to save their stuff to the SD card then they can save their valuable space for apps such as keyboards and will be able to keep our apps longer than apps that hog the internal storage. Since I have made this point, I will continue to allow users to move my apps to their SD card, with the exception of certain services which need to be always there. Any games and apps I make that can be stored on the SD card will be either set to prefer the SD card or merely set to allow the user to move them at their digression, and other than a keyboard or launcher there really isn't much out there that needs the internal storage. It doesn't take very long to add a single line to the manifest or gradle file that allows the app to be moved to the SD card.

An open letter to hardware manufacturers

Computers run on electrical energy, and most if not all the energy that runs their processing circuitry gets converted into waste heat. A computer with an under-powered cooling system is at risk of failure from overheating if it ever runs a program that puts a load on it. We don't see machines burning out often under load anymore because modern components have protections built in that will throttle down their speed if they run too hot and shutdown if they cannot keep themselves below the rated maximum limit. This does not give you a license to be lazy and pair a powerful component like a high end CPU with a poorly designed cooling system because the component will be slowed by thermal limits and the user will have wasted their money on an expensive part that will never reach its full potential. Users are not always told by sales people to consider their cooling solution and will therefore buy a computer that is heavily bottle-necked by a poor design, and any attempt by people like me to explain this is met with skepticism and in some cases accusations of brand loyalty against their decision. Users deserve to get their full value from their purchases and they aren't always educated on the complexities of picking the best product, this is not their fault as few people are an expert in all fields and most typically defer to those they trust such as you, the manufacturers.

I get that many users want thinner and lighter machines that are more powerful, but these are mutually exclusive traits. Most users will think that a MacBook Pro with a Core i9 will be faster than my desktop Ryzen 5 1600X due to the fact the laptop has a Core i9 but they'd be surprised when they end up thermal throttling and my much cheaper desktop takes the lead. You can have a powerful machine but if it cannot run at full speed due to thermal throttling, not only will it be a waste of money but it will also have a shorter service life and lose performance per watt ratings and therefore get less done with a given power supply. Many users are unaware of this fault of their gadgets, and won't notice until a properly built machine is shown to them. This ignorance it not their fault, and it's something we all need to help with. This however does not mean that you should sell them a shiny machine that won't perform at its full level.

In a laptop or small PC, keep thermals and power usage as a top priority and use parts with a lower TDP and increase the performance of the cooling system. Doing so will allow the machine to run faster, quieter, and more energy efficient. My PC for example has a CPU cooler that's about double what's required as that was the only cooler in stock at the time. Due to the overkill nature of the cooler, my CPU fans never spin up past 20% and my machine is quieter than an otherwise equal machine with a smaller cooler. This also leaves headroom to overclock and squeeze out a tiny bit more speed. My laptop suffered from overheating and a similar cooling system to the MacBook Pro line, I modified the cooling system, replaced the thermal compound, wired the fans together, and separated the intake and exhaust vents, and the result is a machine that is 10 degrees Celsius cooler, quieter, and more stable than the factory configuration. I should not have had to modify my laptop but it shows the gains are not only for an enthusiast machine as my laptop is never used for heavy loads now that I have a desktop. Users typically don't have the skill to pull off such a modification (I barely did), it's up to you to make a good product that won't need such a drastic step to keep it running as advertised.

I'm not asking to have the thin and light machines and tablets discontinued, I get that people like them, and I may buy one someday. What I'm asking for is appropriate design that takes engineering over a check box an a spec sheet. A user will be better served by a product that has a less powerful and power hungry CPU and GPU if their machine cannot cool the more powerful one. Maybe a user is better off to go with a dual core CPU on a small laptop than the six core inferno that will bake after a second or two of moderate load. Please design your products to run cooler and more efficiently before you slap a hot running CPU inside to check a box. I humbly ask that you be transparent about how and why devices run and why a more powerful CPU is not always faster. It makes the job of local nerds much easier when we don't have to explain the laws of thermodynamics to explain why a machine is running loud, hot, and slow.

I am humbly asking that you put engineering above the spec sheet, market cooling and/or real world performance as much as you market the weight and size. And maybe you'd consider making enthusiast and professional grade machines again, but maybe more professional or enthusiast grade with matching cooling, power, and balanced part selection. What used to be common sense should be common once again.

Two apps on the store, one to go.

I have been posting lately about my apps being placed on the Play Store. I have now released my second app through the store. First I released Crypto Helper to the store and despite having no advertising it got downloads in countries I forgot I released it in, Although I have yet to make a single cent on it because I put it on sale from the beginning. I then released my second app, Genetic Helper, which is now available through the Play Store.

While I made these applications for private usage amongst my friends I decided that I would share them with the world free here on my blog, and then I figured I would invest a few dollars to buy a developer membership with Google and release the apps on the store where they would be easier to download. I am hoping to eventually make my initial investment back on my apps, but I am unsure if that will happen. I the mean time I hope to have them up and in view of any employers I may work for in the future as a means to demonstrate my progress.

Here is some images linking to the store pages for Crypto Helper and Genetic Helper:

My first Play store listing.

I found my app Crypto Helper on the Play store, it's not exactly easy to find unless you know what to type in but perhaps with time and search engine optimization I can move it up a few in the listings and maybe get a few downloads.

I have decided to put it on sale for free, I can always make it free later but I cannot go back to paid so a solution that allows me to weigh my options while allowing early users to use it is to make a sale.

Download it on the Play store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dalton.cryptohelper

Lessons from building a PC.

For a while now I have been using my desktop PC as my main system, I prefer my laptop to my phone, and my desktop to them both which seems backwards compared to the popular trend of smaller and lighter computers and favoring phones and tablets running phone software over traditional computing powerhouses. As a programmer, hobbyist, enthusiast, and gamer I cannot understand this trend of ditching traditional computers for phones, though I can understand wanting a small and light laptop at the expense of power, though I cannot understand why a PC is neglected in that case as a general work horse to cover for the lack of power in the laptop.

I built my PC long before I needed it, this was due to all the parts I wanted going on sale at the same time for deals that I could not pass over. I built it with expansion in mind as things like RAM are very expensive right now and I don't need them just yet.

Specs:

1. CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 1600X not yet over clocked
2. GPU - AMD Radeon rx 580 8GB GDDR5 - Sapphire Nitro version - You need a GPU to add a screen to Ryzen at least when I bought it
3. 16GB DDR4 RAM configured as 1x 16GB Corsair vengeance RAM with the lowest latency I could find
4. 512GB Samsung PRO M.2 SSD, NVMe based
5. EVGA 1000 watt PSU similar to this but the mother board connector is not detachable.
6. All resting on the ASUS ROG Strix B350-F full ATX motherboard which was the cheapeast in stock at the time due to the sale.

Although I should have used 2 or 4 sticks of RAM with less capacity if I wanted to stay within recommended configurations, I left 3 slots open for expansion when the cost falls, and I bought 16GB when I only really need 6 or 8GB because 16GB sticks should have plenty of capacity for my future expansion once prices fall.

My CPU came without a heat sink and the only one in stock large enough to handle a future over clock was the Corsair H100i v2 AIO water cooler, the sale made it the same price as an air cooler so I was happy to take the aesthetic upgrade. Six cores are nice but I only ever use 3 so accidentally leaving a heavy application running makes little to no perceivable dip in performance for me.

About six months before building the machine I purchased the power supply, this was because I had some cards to try out in a loaned machine with a power supply barely big enough for its modest CPU. I had no idea how big I needed for this rig I would build but I knew I going to have multiple GPU's installed so I went overkill with a 1000 watt unit. The advantage despite the price of a vastly over sized power supply is the unit's eco mode which powers off the fan below a temperature threshold rarely powers up the fan unless the entire system is under an artificial stress test load. It's also got plenty of room to expand and remain in the most efficient part of its efficiency curve.

The SSD was the right price, thats the only reason I bought it. As a 512 GB pro model with very good speeds it has a hefty price tag normally but I got it for less than my vastly inferior SATA based SSD. It was less to buy this SSD than to buy the consumer model which was not on sale at the time.

My GPU handles loads quite well, I notice buttery smooth game play even with a spare monitor connected for other programs like recorders with noise levels low enough my CPU fans drown out the GPU fans. The only game it has trouble with is Factorio, I don't think this is a fault of the card or my CPU because my vastly inferior laptop is exactly the same with the stuttering and 56 FPS maximum. This was not an issue until a certain upgrade, and the game is in preview so I expect this is an optimization issue and not a hardware or software issue. I purchased an AMD graphics card because although the gap between AMD and Nvidia is narrow I hear more efficiency in computing on GPU from AMD than Nvidia, and since I built this rig as a work station and not a gaming machine I prioritized computing over gaming. I also purchased an AMD unit because of crossfire which is more friendly to me than SLI due to less restrictions on hardware and software. I am impressed with the cooling system but I feel my airflow needs tweaking as I can feel hot spots under the card where there should be cool, fresh air. This issue will be rectified once I get some new case fans and move one cable that is blocking one of the card's exhaust areas.

My only issue with the motherboard is the placement of the PCIe slots, I wish they moved the SSD space down and moved the full sized slots up exactly one spot so that I could physically fit 3 cards in my case without an extension cable. Moving the PCIe slots would also allow a better view of the LED lit chipset heatsink which is decorative and would be nice to see rather than hidden by the video card.

I learned that sometimes following the manual is a bad idea, my AIO cooler manual says to hook the two fans into the pump block and plug the pump into the CPU fan header but this draws too much current for my motherboard and it's better for BIOS fan control to hook the two fans into the CPU fan headers and the pump block into the dedicated AIO pump header. I also learned how much more pleasant gaming hardware is to work with than the hardware in typical consumer computers, my memory was not installed correctly when I pulled it to work on something near by to lower risk of damaging my only memory module, and some POST code lights helped me figure out it was a memory issue and re-seat the module, there was no video output so those lights saved me a lot of trouble. A luxury I did not have on any consumer machines I've worked with.

This project taught me about cable management and airflow, and I'm about to make a serial port and SATA bracket for my micro controller programming and RAID with my hard drives in their external enclosure. I also learned to check ho many drives physically fit into a computer case before buying it but I still did not have much choice at the time. the case i have will only hold 4 desktop drives but it would fit 5 or 6 mobile drives.

Added support for all my Andorid apps.

Rectified an installation issue in Numberwiz which had it's API versions slightly out of whack, it would've worked for anyone on android 7.0 or higher but since it doesn't have any issues supporting older Android versions I decided to make it work on my device and many others running Android 4 or higher.

More importantly I added support for Multi Window mode on Android 7.0 on all 3 apps (Genetic Helper, Crypto Helper, and Numberwiz) i also made them support Multi Window for Samsung devices running below Android 7.0. I feel it may also me supported on most Multi Window capable devices but I can only verify on the devices I have.

Here are some screen shots of the multi window support on my personal Galaxy S5:

Numberwiz sharing screen with Crypto Helper.

Genetic Helper and Crypto Helper sharing screen time.

Links are the same as always:

Download page and checksums here.

Direct download for Numberwiz: https://goo.gl/IF9lfF

Direct download for Genetic Helper: https://goo.gl/z35evC

Direct download for Crypto Helper: https://goo.gl/0L10ob

Enjoy!

Lessons from buying, breaking, and fixing my laptop PC.

My laptop is an ASUS K501-UX, I have mixed feelings about the machine. They are nice for battery life considering its processing power. I have attached images of my rework on the unit below.

My model shipped with:

• 6th generation (Skylake) dual core i7 6500u CPU
•  8GB DDR3 RAM, Nvidia GTX 950m GPU
•  128 GB m.2 SATA SSD
•  1TB SATA mechanical hard drive

I imaged the SSD onto an external to preserve factory settings before installing Linux Mint on the first day I had it, I have used the Windows drive for a while and although Windows 10 is much better than previous versions I still prefer Linux Mint for several reasons ranging from software architecture to my preferred look and feel.

The modifications I made to the machine are as follows:

• Replaced the mechanical hard drive with a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SATA based SSD
• Upgraded the thermal paste (I'll explain later)
• Soldered the smaller fan to the main board
• Fixed the audio chips after solder exploded onto them

Replacing the hard drive and installing Linux onto it was my best decision with this machine, I used the new SSD as my Linux boot disk so I can easily put Windows back onto the smaller SSD if I so choose as I still have the disk image floating around my collection of hard drives. The Samsung SSD I installed is fast and saturates the SATA bus it's connected to allowing real world performance in the order of 450 to 499 MB read per second, not overly impressive compared to an NVMe SSD pulling more than 3 gigabytes per second read speed but the limiting factor here is the SATA bus and not the SSD.

Linux boots fast, and its quite stable on this machine. When I first had it there were some idiosyncrasies but an update a while ago made these disappear. The only issue I have so far is with the GPU which isn't surprising given Nvidia's attitude toward Linux and the fact that this machine has a hybrid graphics solution courtesy of Nivida's optimus technology. One is the integrated GPU that comes fixed to the CPU, it's slower but less power hungry than the discrete graphics processor which is slightly unstable on this unit. The issues have been largely fixed but I cannot put the machine to sleep if the Nvidia chip is running or it'll crash my graphical interface. However, Linux is still working fine and I can access it via the network over SSH, but having one GPU break the interface and render the machine unusable is not something a user wants to deal with. There are a few theories to the underlying cause, one of which was presented b a colleague who's got some experience with this issue and he thinks it might be a quirk with hybrid graphics and Intel's Skylake lineup, he reasons the CPU generation has other GPU related issues under Windows so this might be a CPU thing under Linux. Fortunately this is rarely an issue as I never use the discrete graphics unless gaming and plugged in to the power supply and the integrated Intel graphics are perfectly stable and they're fast enough for most uses. Since I rarely use the dedicated GPU, I don't bother activating it and therefore it's not worth the effort to troubleshoot it for the once per year I might use it.

I have noticed a flaw in this model though, I have had two of them because a power surge broke one of them. The surge was caused by a faulty UPS which was ironically supposed to protect them from such surges. I've since recycled the faulty UPS. Due to the fact I've owned two identical machines, I know this flaw is not a defect in my unit but either a design flaw, oversight, or some kind of independent fan control that fails to do its job properly. The flaw involves the small fan, this model has two fans and the small one will never activate even of it shuts down due to overheating. This happened to me 5 or 6 times and it took a while to narrow down the issue to overheating. The hinge exhaust design looks appealing and leaves room for ports but it can easily be made to not work properly as hot air can be sucked into the cold air intake and the entire system can be restricted by the closed lid. My model comes with a large intake on the bottom to help reduce the issue but I'm still not very fond of the design for laptops with a thermal output above the "thin and light" laptop range.

Once I found that the motherboard never sends power or signal to the fan on both units I have owned, I took matters into my own hands and soldered control and power wires from the working fan to the not working fan and now they both spin up together. I should have used good quality solder as my solder had an air bubble which exploded and propelled solder into the case, I tracked it all down and the only glob that proved to be an issue was one that shorted my audio chips. I eventually ended up having to pull apart the cooling system to access the audio chips and fix the short circuit which is why I replaced the old thermal compound since it cannot be reused after the heat spreader is removed. I found that this laptop had really poor thermal compound which applied badly, the quality was comparable to what one might find in a MacBook Pro which aren't known for having goo thermal performance. After the modifications and repairs to my cooling system, the temperatures dropped by 10 degrees. Crashes due to overheating no longer happen. My fans spin less because the load on one fan is split between two. And my battery life increased by 30 minutes, a five percent increase in battery life is quite a large gain from merely improving the thermal performance.

What I learned is that laptops in general are not designed for performance, and after market desktop PC thermal paste is a significant improvement over the factory applied paste on this machine and many other models. Checking if your fans work is a must and knowing how to get them both to work is also ideal.

My next laptop will be checked and stress tested on the first day I own it, and I will also consider upgrading the thermal paste if needed and maybe fixing the fans if they don't work as advertised.

Inside the back plate. mostly plastic but at least it won't burn you when the unit runs hot like my old MacBook did.

Inside with new SSD before cooling upgrade.

The fan that would not function

The power wire I soldered to the working fan.

Soldered the power wire to the not working fan

My makeshift cable management

Added the PWM control line jumper from the good to the bad fan.

Close up of my mistake attaching the control wire, and I also noticed the fan plug was broken so I made it work.

Both wires on the working fan side. That was an easy joint relative to the rest of the procedure.

My GPU with bad thermal compound, I had to scrape it off because it was hard as a rock, that's not what should be expected. Scraping thermal compound off a GPU with exposed SMD parts on the package is really risky and I took great care not to damage anything.

Please note: This WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY and also annoy anyone working inside the machine later in its life. Do this at your own risk. If you do this, unplug it from power in case you short something, use anti-static equipment, and don't repeat my mistakes like accidentally breaking the fan's plug or having solder explode onto the motherboard. But you should only do this if you know what you are doing and are prepared to take the risk personally, you'll have nobody to blame except yourself if it fails to boot. This isn't trivial maintenance or upgrades such as blowing out dust or upgrading the storage respectively.

Why everyone needs to care about digital security.

Imagine this, you're out and about, having fun or working (or having fun while working), and you get pick-pocketed, your wallet is safe and your phone is still with you but something is not right. You were not physically stolen from but ALL your data was stolen by someone, could be a government (your own or another), a prankster, a small time crook looking to make a quick buck by selling your banking info, or worse, someone unknown with some motive that requires your private data.This happens to people all the time and most don't know, most that do know don't care and those that do care don't get digitally pick-pocketed.

Back in 7th grade I was talking about digital privacy and security, and to my shock everyone who heard was poking fun about that topic.Having a passcode on a device is just a good idea, and so is disabling any applications that are known to steal one's data. Despite thinking privacy is old and obsolete, everyone who was there got really upset at the prospect of giving their device and passcode to another person in the room. They understood that privacy is needed from each other but didn't seem to care about their data being taken by a company or government (foreign or domestic). Interesting how the conversation changes when the privacy scope switches to the immediate and close rather than the long term and remote.

Odds are if I asked you to unlock your house for me that you'd flat out deny me, same goes if I were to ask for your computer password, phone passcode, or any web login you have. So if you will not immediately and gleefully hand over at least read only access to every file attached to you (this includes that porn stash you'll never admit to) then why would you allow that digital pick-pocketer to gain entry?

Of course I asked that question rhetorically as blogs are not always interactive. My point is clear: "exactly what right does anyone, anyone at all have to gain access to ALL of your data? I think they have the same right as the government: exactly zero right to your data and your life."

I've been told the same things many times by members of the general public and my friends that hear me talk about this. Most people usually say to me that they would be mad if I or another civilian stole their data but wouldn't even lift a finger to stop their government, another government, border agents, or the cops from spying on them. Their reasoning is that they have nothing to hide and therefore nothing to fear, this is wrong on both of the points made.

1. Everyone hides something, that's why you have a code and don't allow access to strangers. Maybe it's your banking info or that porn stash you never admit to having, maybe a naked selfie you took or an essay you no longer agree with.
2. You always have something to fear, how do you know what data will come back to bite you later? The answer is that unless you have the omniscience of a god then you never will know what can come back to bite you later.
3. You don't know that you have nothing to hide because you don't know the thoughts and motives of everyone who is interested in your data.

Privacy cannot happen without strong security which starts with safe usage practices and a strong passcode that you regularly change.

If you have even one password, then you have something you're hiding. I'm not accusing you, we all hide something, you can abide by the law and still have privacy and anyone who tells you different is either delusional, misinformed and deceived, trying to keep you in the dark so you're easy to take advantage of, or connected to a spy agency.

If the government can get in, then a hacker can get in the same way, and when the hacker gets in they'll look like they are with the government and make off with your data unsuspected of any crime. If you still think that it's alright for the government to spy on you and me then that news flash should hopefully awaken you to the real danger of bad security.

To protect yourself. use good passwords, and maybe a password manager such as KeepassX which also helps against keyloggers so they can't steal your code by watching the keyboard, and then educate yourself on your device's vulnerabilities so you can learn to cover them. Educate yourself on your local laws, where I live last time I checked the cops cannot force me to give my codes without a warrant and even then I can remain silent waiting for my lawyer to help though you may be in a different situation. Consider having a fake login that will access a fake folder with random data that is meaningless when used (generic pictures and music, fake names in your contacts. etc...), this will throw off a thief and will allow you to trick a cop or illegal searcher.

A note to parents, teachers, and concerned, caring adults on digital content accessed by young people under their care.

The Internet is a scary thing to many, this technological wonder can carry any digitized data between any computer systems connect to it. This rightly worries many concerned adults as they don't feel they can fully protect their very precious minors, after all it's easier to protect our youth from physical threats than threats they can call up from anywhere in the world at any time.

My age at the time of writing this post my age is about 18 and a half. I recently was a minor under my nation's legal system. And as someone who recently was a "kid", I can better understand the mind of the type of child I was than many others who give you advice, and I also understand security and administrative control concepts since I was already learning about technology and cyber security. Parents, teachers, and other adults who care about children and teenagers under their care are rightly concerned with the content and communications these youngsters receive on their many devices. I am of course referring to the worry of a child or teenager accessing content such as pornography, ultra violent games and movies, bad sex advice, racist ideology, and other content that worries you; I am also referring to worries of communication between vulnerable minors and creepy individuals such as bad influences, those helping them to go to parties you'd never allow, cyber bullies, predators, and other people you fear contacting minors under your care.

There are three main ways to stop these situations from arising, I call them methods 1, 2, and 3 respectively for this article.

1. Technologically - stop their devices from allowing objectionable content and communications to be processed by means of net nannies, Internet filter's, parental spy-ware, parental controls, and more.
2. Physically - keeping a close eye on the screen of the device by somehow stopping it from being used where you can't see, like putting it on a password.
3. Morally and mentally arming the minor - teaching the minor why and how to avoid and deal with the filth I mentioned earlier.

For the sake of this article I'll refer to all caring, care giving adults in charge of minors in any way as parents. I'll refer to all minors that live under a parent's care as minors while ignoring minors living independently as no parent currently cares for them.  I will refer to those in junior high as adolescents and those in high school as nearly adults, while ages 13 to 18 collectively will be referred to as teens or teenagers and primary school age minors will be referred to as children. I do this to refer to each step of a child's life by the responsibilities expected of them.

First I'll explain which methods are not practical and why before I explain one solution that can't be circumvented by crafty thinking, and the information I'm sharing may surprise you.

Using a Internet filter, parental controls, and other technological methods are pointless against a minor with any brains in their head at all, If my parents had tried to use a technological method to restrict my access to the Internet they would've failed miserably because I would've spent less than five minutes and broken through the Internet filter. The worst nightmare to a parent using technological methods to control Internet usage is a minor who has heard of TOR, VPNs, and other forms of encrypted tunneling services which will render your Internet filter and remote network monitoring completely and utterly useless. It used to be complex to use tunneling features but today we have many cheap or even free services that allow their users to turn them on and off as easily as changing the volume on your device.

There are many ways a minor can access the Internet without your knowledge. In my home town we have an amazing library with free and fast Internet and public computers with nearly unlimited time for free, and most if not all of your minor's friends have Internet access. This means that you cannot even hope to physically control your minor's access to technology no matter what you do or what the salesman for the cyber security firm tells you, a minor who's looking for access to technology has many options such as borrowing a friends computerized device, public computers, or they can save and buy their own computer from one of many cheap sources. Though physically controlling your minor's Internet access is better than using a Internet filter because you can watch them as if you were watching them in other activities, an older minor such as a teenager or near adult would spend little effort in circumventing you. The only to fully control their Internet access is to track their location in real time and check on them in person randomly which I could still stop you from doing unless you have one of those GPS enabled anklets for criminals which I'm sure would be slightly illegal to use.

The only way to truly protect your minor is to teach them from childhood the difference between right and wrong to the point you are more than confident they would be safe if you had no access to them as you cannot possibly protect them forever. Teaching a minor between the ages of 13 and 18 right and wrong is not easily done as they start to develop their own individual identity and become less impressionable to their parents while being exposed to new temptations and new peer pressure, and to top it all off their brains develop somewhat oddly as the receptivity to rewards (think dopamine rush) goes way up at the same time the sense of risk goes way down and their high level reasoning (morality, long term planning, etc...) is not as strong or as fast as their emotional response. I recently went through that phase, but my parents drilled a strong sense of morality into me from childhood which I still use every day and it kept me from getting sucked into the wrong crowd. My parents were not perfect, they made many mistakes as any human parent would, but more important than their relatively small mistakes is they were wise and loving enough to raise me to be a good and moral person. To give you an idea of our family handles morality, my family members and I have all left money (in cash, sometimes hundreds of dollars) out in the open and have never once had one of us intensionally steal one cent, we may be able to literally leave money on the kitchen table without it getting stolen but you don't necessarily need to be able to do that to protect your minor. My parents know that I would never cross the proverbial line, and they know that I'd come to them for help if I needed it, they were never worried about me on unrestricted Internet access as they knew I knew how to stay away from danger and that I would come to them right away if I messed up.

Kids need to be taught right from wrong and then allowed some freedom under your watchful eye so you can diagnose any issues before they get to take on a cold and unforgiving world. Once your minor becomes a teen they are no longer under your control, even before they can drive I be be almost certain that they could find a way to get around if they wanted.

Here's a thought experiment for you to think about: if you left your teenager alone for a few days whether it was planned or unplanned what would happen? Once they get access to shady individuals around them you cannot be there to stop them, you must be sure that you can rely on them to protect themselves and tag you in if needed, kids of course are different from teens and it's rare to find one that can adequately take care of themselves for longer than a few hours, but they still need to be trustworthy enough to leave for a few hours as that's basically what happens on the Internet since there is no possible way to be sure you are in control of what they see and hear.

Bottom line: you cannot successfully protect your minors be acting as a helicopter and hovering over them, they or their friends can and will circumvent you, rather you should be there to be tagged in when they are stuck and they should share a mutual trust that they won't seek out bad things and that you will love and care unconditionally enough to help them if they come to you. You cannot stop your minor if they intensionally seek out bad things, you're not fighting them in that case but rather fighting everyone they have met. Basically unless your minor is too lazy to buy or find another device (not likely by the way) and you can out smart every security minded programmer and enthusiast such as myself, then you are trying to stop a train. I don't care what the security company or school cop says, I can bypass any security you can find, I'm a nice guy and would never knowingly use my skills for evil but I cannot stop someone from learning or deceiving me into thinking I'm doing the right thing. I'm also not the only one out there with the capacity to overwhelm your efforts and punch holes in your Internet filter like it was paper, not all of them are so protective of others and some are downright nasty, but even they cannot easily harm you or your minor without your minor's help.

If you want help from a genuine person, my inbox is open. I check it as often as I can, and I will be candid with you. neuronmaker@gmail.com

Numberwiz updated

Minor bug fixed on the trigonometric function feature, and some functionality with decimals in the many functions. more is to come. The new apk file has replaced the old one.

Download link is on the Hash sum page, and here: https://goo.gl/IF9lfF