The IFX Group Technical Notes Page
The IFX Group has been providing training and technical support for many years. Our wide range of customers span in technical experience and knowledge from the total novice to the most expert in their respective fields. Our goal is to build up both knowledge and understanding.
We offer the following list of technical notes as our way of helping the members of the Internet community to be better informed and less likely to make ignorant mistakes in public. This is an open collection of technical notes on almost any topic of interest to IFX Group members and customers. We welcome any contributions and corrections you may have.
Jump directly to a specific section
- IPAD-OS Technical Notes
Information specific to the Internet Protocol Adapter operating system (IPAD-OS). - Linux Technical Notes
Information about using Linux including our favorite Linux Mint. - Web Technical Notes
Information for web developers.
General Technical Notes
- Tightening the Financial Belt Around My TV
It is called Cord Cutting. Over the years our home TV entertainment budget slowly grew. Our monthly cable/satellite TV bills went from about $20 a month to almost $100 a month. It did not seem all that bad at the time because each step was only a few Dollars extra and what is an extra $5 a month anyway? - Our Favorite Firefox Extensions
If you use the Firefox web browser you should also check out our list of extensions (add-ons) that we think makes the Firefox web browser even better. - The Gold Bar Logic Problem
Some people put total trust in their degree from a place of higher learning as proof that they know the answers. This is a sad artifact of formal higher education and is artificially limiting the creativity possible in the world today. Maybe after spending so much time and money taking tests where only one answer was accepted as correct, one mistakenly seeks to apply that pattern to the rest of life. - How Microsoft Helped Me Move To Linux
Microsoft is afraid of Linux. This much is well documented and yet Microsoft seems to be putting a lot of thought and effort into getting me to leave Windows and move to Linux by making my Microsoft Windows Experience so awful and sometimes painful that the only I choices have are between continued Microsoft branded masochism or finding something else. The following is my personal account of a few of the many things that pushed me over the edge. - Security and Virus Infections
Are virus infections related to virus scanning? If so, how can you protect your computer from infection? - Linux SMB/CIFS Shares
How to use Ubuntu Linux to combine Windows and IPAD-OS shares into one common place. - Life in Mexico
Knowing how someone views life can say a lot about them. This is a nice little story describing how we feel. - Useful Internet Safety for the Casually Paranoid User
I hear about the risks and I know the rules. The Internet is not a safe place. But there is a growing middle ground between safe and risk that always seems to step on my ability to just do what I want on the Internet. - TDBS:The Database System - Source Code
The eSoft TDBS option module is a programming language that is nearly 100% compatible with dBase III+ with extensions. This page has our list of sample and educational source code used for training our TDBS programmers. - Using LibreOffice for Automated Web to PDF Creation
Several of our web projects over the years have required some complex automation tasks. Most of those tasks can be addressed with a specialized combination of programs or scripts, but one task stands out from the rest and that is an automated way to turn a web page into a PDF. This task requires two different parts that rarely appear in the same place. - Going Linux
The steps to install Linux on almost any old Windows computer while keeping your ability to run Windows whenever needed. - Words of Love
This list contains transliterations of the phrase I Love You in different languages. We know there are more languages in the world than those listed here and there are many more ways to express this simple phrase. - Phi: The Golden Ratio
Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. But the fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics. - It Has Been Done
In Hollywood, it's pretty much agreed there are no new stories, only new treatments, new ways to execute the old stories. And then you do the sequel, of course. This is a list of the 36 dramatic situations compiled by Georges Polti. - How to protect yourself from Identity Theft
Identity theft has become a major crime threatening people everywhere. Thieves steal personal information such as credit card account numbers, bank account numbers, and social security numbers. Then they assume the victim's identity to open accounts and run up charges, or make fraudulent charges to existing accounts. - Letter from Martin Van Buren in 1829
Fighting new technology is a lot older than you may think. This letter from Martin Van Buren the governor of New York to president Andrew Jackson is one example from 1829. - A Technical Night Before Christmas
'Twas The Night Before Christmas as if written by a technical writer or a firm that does US government contracting. - Truth About Email Attachments
Exposes common lies about email attachments. - Software Developer Tips For Our Competition
Helpful hints for amateur and professional software developers to make larger, slower and less accessible programs. - Translation Rules
Some of the rules we have used to create machine translations - Truth About Hacking
Explains terms and history of hacking and how the IPAD-OS was created through old-school hacking.
Other stuff
- SPF Wizard
This is a simple setup wizard to ask some easy questions and tell you what to add to your DNS to use SPF to block theft of your domain name.
The majority of our informational documents are written or edited by Casey Sprangel, a published technical author. Find out more about his background and how his first book, the IPAD-OS Technical Guide, was made.
Please send any corrections or contributions to our technical support staff. The support address is on our contacts page.