How to "Undecline" or Re-Hire A Programmer After Declining Them on Odesk

If you have sent a provider (say, a programmer) a job offer, perhaps you later withdrew it. But then, you decide you will offer it to them again. Here is how to do that:

1. Go to Messages tab
2. Find the corresponding emails in your Sent folder (they will start with "Offer: [Job title.]")
3. Go to the first message (it was sent by you.)
4. Click on the link where it says "view offer."
5. It will say how to resend an offer.

How to fix mvn --version or -v Not Recognized Error in Windows but you have Netbeans 7 or higher

I earlier had a difficult time trying to set up Maven for Java. However, Maven does come bundled with NetBeans's newer versions (as of this writing.) Here's how to fix the error that cmd or cygwin does not recognize Maven.

First check whether your netbeans has Maven available in the first place:
From http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12579496/maven-in-netbeans-7-1-1 , user 'baba' :

Netbeans uses an embedded Maven installation.
Open Tools->Options->Java->Maven
where you can see the maven binaries.
If you open the Maven Home dropdown menu, you are going to see a Bundled one (the embedded), and a list of the other maven binaries (for you -> none).
The binary of the bundled maven install is in:

<netbeans_install>/java/maven/bin/mvn  

If you don't have that, your Netbeans hasn't got Maven. Head over to https://github.com/tamingtext/book and see "Building the source."

Next, get into your command prompt of choice  (for me it's currently cygwin; the default for most is perhaps Windows Start > Run > type "CMD"). Run mvn --version. You should get something like the following:

Apache Maven 3.0.5 (r01de14724cdef164cd33c7c8c2fe155faf9602da; 2013-02-19 05:51:28-0800)

Maven home: C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.4\java\maven

Java version: 1.7.0_51, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_51\jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: Cp1252
OS name: "windows 8", version: "6.2", arch: "amd64", family: "windows"

 If not, you'll have some things to fix. ETA, 10 mins.

The things I had to do were make variables, and point them to specific places. Let's start with the"path" variable. You may see it online in other help articles as PATH or something else, %PATH% or so on. For my own purposes, I found it via the following on Windows 8: hit Windows key (on keyboard) and Pause/Break at the same time. This should get you to "System." Then go to "Advanced system settings", which should be on the right hand side in Windows 8. This will take you to the screen "System Properties." From there visit "Environment Variables," which should be near the bottom of the window.

In the new Environment Variables window, you will find two possible variables to make: user variables and System variables. We will only be concerned with System variables for now. So go to the "Path" variable, you will likely need to scroll to find it. There is also PATHEXT, but ignore that. Click to edit "Path." It may  be helpful to copy-past the contents into notepad (NOT ms word.) You'll see that Path contained many 'paths' to different areas on the C drive. They are separated by a ";", except at the end when a ";" is not necessary.

Now that you found your "Path" variable, you're ready to make a new directional toward your maven installation that came bundles with Netbeans. You first need to find you Maven bin. For me, it was at C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.4\java\maven\bin. Luckily Win8 does have a great search capacity, so try searching for "maven\bin" exactly. (I bring up search via putting the cursor in the upper right hand corner, then looking for the magnifying glass symbol.) You may find a small little file called "mvn" under results, hover over it to confirm that it is maven\bin. Alternatively, you can use
Netbeans uses an embedded Maven installation.
Open Tools->Options->Java->Maven
where you can see the maven binaries. >> again, and just find the location that way.


Once you get that location, copy and paste it into your Path variable mentioned earlier. Remember you can use Notepad or similar to edit it more easily, and separate them with ";", except at the end. Go ahead and save that and hit ok on the System Properties screen as well.

Next, restart you command terminal if it was already open. Just close all instances, then reopen. Perhaps even check the Task Manager to make sure your terminal isn't running. Then, open a new instance. Type mvn --version again. You should get a better message new, saying something similar to

Apache Maven 3.0.5 (r01de14724cdef164cd33c7c8c2fe155faf9602da; 2013-02-19 05:51:28-0800)

Maven home: C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.4\java\maven

Java version: 1.7.0_51, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_51\jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: Cp1252
OS name: "windows 8", version: "6.2", arch: "amd64", family: "windows"

from last time. However, there is a decent chance it will tell you that JAVA HOME is not pointing to the right pathway. So if that's the case with your setup, let's continue.

Go back to System Variables and check to see if you have a JAVA_HOME variable. If not, you'll need to make one. Either way, fill it with the location to your Java installation bin. The best option is to point it toward your JDK, not the JRE. The JDK, as far as I know, has both the virtual environment you'll need, but the Java language itself. So it has the best of both things.

To find your JDK, search java.exe, using the same search method as last time. I personally found 79 matching files for the term, but what we want is the java.exe in the JDK folder, NOT the JRE's. In Win8.1 and perhaps others, you can hover over the results to see their full file paths. For me, the JDK path was C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_51\.

If you absolutely cannot find your JDK folder, perhaps you don't have it; download it from the oracle site.

After locating the JDK path, put it in the JAVA_HOME system variable.

After this, once more make sure you have no terminals open, then open a new one. And after running mvn --version, your run of Maven should be a success!

Lil Hamsters Ready for New Families!

Greetings! We are pleased to announce that our baby hamsters are ready to find new, loving families to live with.

We will be relocating them by January 4th (you may pick them up then or earlier.)

**Please remember you will need to actually bring at least a cage, water system (bottle or bowl) and a wheel for your new hamster. Those three things are your "coupon" for a $3 hamster :)

We will be releasing 1 hamster per cage. You may purchase as many as you'd like, just let us know how many to hold, and what type.

Text us for further inquiries: (661) 513-3792

**Hamsters must be accounted for by end of day on Jan 2. We will confirm you selection the same day. You may specify which type you would like, or just make an appointment. Then you may pick them up on or before January 4th.

Please see the video for colors. We will try our best to determine which are male and which are female. We make no guarantees and you are welcome to take your pick once you see them for yourselves :)

How to Make Bullet Points Smaller Font in Kingsoft Writer

In Kingsoft Office/Writer 2013, if you are getting huge bullet points (compared to MS Word, for example) here's how to fix that:

1. Right-click on the offending bullet point
2. Click Bullets and Numbering
3. Click Customize
4. In the "Customize Outline Numbered List" window, select Font
5. If you are writing in text font size 14, try size 8 for the bullet points. Where it says Size on the top level, select 8.
6. Select OK and exit all windows accordingly

How to Create a Playlist in VLC

For this guide, I will assume you already have a folder with correctly numbered VLC-playable videos.

1. Add one of the videos to VLC (you can just play it, or select VLC first as default if not already done so.)
2. At the bottom of the VLC window, you should see a Play button (basically a triangle pointing sideways.) To the right of that, click the little icon that has a bullet-point and list. If you hover your mouse, it will likely say "playlist."
3. Click that.
4. Now you are in the Playlist mode. Add your other videos. If they arrive out of order, you may sort them. To do so, click along the top row where it says, "Title." There are other options to sort, such as by duration and ID. You may get even more by right-clicking along the aforementioned row.
5. Then click, along the top-most bar, "Media" then "Save Playlist to File." Choose a location where you want to be able to click-and-run the file. 
6. Done!

[Using VLC 2 and Windows 8]

How to Download Udacity Educational Videos and Skip Quizzes

Udacity is a great place to learn computer-science related topics. Sometimes the quizzes get in the way, however, and you don't want the playlist to pause every time. Here's the link to get around that -

https://www.udacity.com/wiki/downloads

As you can see it's perfectly legal and they're cool enough to provide it to everyone.

Let's look at how to download, and which files are necessary:

Downloads are separated into Units, Problem Sets, Office Hours and Subtitles. For an example of what I mean, check out the great Computer Science If you are only looking for the main part of the course, only page here: https://www.udacity.com/wiki/cs101/downloads#units

If you are only looking for the pain part of the course - the video series, then only download the Units. Unfortunately, as far as I know, you have to download the Units one by one, of which for the CS101 course, for example, there are 11.

[As of writing, I did look for a complete DL from PirateBay and Kickass torrents, but none are available for the term "Udacity."]

If you have downloaded all the Units, then that is great for a general overview. In CS101, I only want the overview, because I am learning Ruby on Rails, not Python. However the CS concepts are similar, so I watch them anyway for the main points.

The Problem sets are like homework. Haven't yet checked out "Office Hours," but if you have, please mention what they are in the comments! I'm guessing it's just Q&A of popular questions from Udacity students.

If you want to take the courses with quizzes etc., just head over to Udacity!

How To Skip Pandora Video Ads on iPhone

Using iOS 7 and the latest Pandora of today, here's how to skip those annoying video ads.

1. When an ad comes on (the video type which hijacks your screen), pull the top-view down (as if checking old text messages etc.)
2. With your finger still having control of the pull-down screen, keep it down near the bottom of the screen, hovering. DO NOT let go of the pull-down screen.
3. The ad should go away at this point.