Blog

I decided I wanted to learn to paint, so I painted a mural in my basement! Check out this timelapse to see how I did it.

Looking for help on a project? Please feel free to contact me for a free consultation! I recently took on a task where I had to use an HTML web form, whose back-end is PHP, to fill out a PDF form. The entire process is extremely annoying, and I was really hoping to use some […]

In early 2021, I had the great opportunity to volunteer in an effort to make the shiurim (Jewish classes) of Rav Aaron Lopiansky more accessible to the public. The project required organization, technology architecture, research, vendor relationships, and more. Here’s the story behind Shiurim.EshelPublications.com! As of November 2022, the site houses the following: Over 5,000 […]

I had the amazing opportunity to be the alumni speaker at the graduation of the graduation of the Class of 2022 of the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Technologies. Pamphlet Transcript: Thank you commissioner Tamaro. Please welcome from the class of 2010 Mr. Jacob Binstein. Thank you all for allowing me to […]

The Central Jersey Diaper Bank has been slammed with hundreds of diaper requests due to COVID-19, and has truly risen to the task. In my previous blog post, I detailed how I updated, upgraded, and overhauled their technology stack to bring them up to the 21st century. Today, I’m happy to announce that we have […]

The Central Jersey Diaper Bank is an amazing organization that hands out literally hundreds of thousands of diapers, as well as wipes, formula, and many other items that parents need but cannot afford. The main project of the Anshe Emeth Community Development Corporation, the Diaper Bank has provides an invaluable resource for the community that […]

I have a lot of clients share files with me, and after the job is done, I tend to remove them from my Google Drive to keep it organized. I recently ran into a file that I couldn’t remove – the option was grayed out: Seemingly impossible to delete, the “Remove” option with the trash […]

I had the distinct privilege of being a panel guest for the International Center for Academic Integrity for a second time.

Need to move the X axis on an Excel chart up or down? Here’s how!

I had the distinct privilege of being a panel guest for the International Center for Academic Integrity. I provide here a link to the video stream as well as a transcript.

Skip Right to the Chase TLDR, here’s the code. If you want more explanation or how I figured out how to do it, see below. Just swap calls to specific browsers depending on which one you want. Browser Capabilities with Chrome and Firefox (Example: Running Headlessly) // Include the libraries – this will differ depending […]

A dead simple way to valide a JSON file against a schema, every time you commit it with git.

Here’s a list of 10 questions that I wish I had asked before starting my online degree program. An online degree is very different from a traditional degree – so make sure you’re going in prepared.

I had some difficulty finding resources for creating custom keyboards on Windows, so I wanted to write up a post on what I’ve found. Specifically, I wanted to create a Hebrew keyboard which was laid out phonetically (so the letter Daled, ד, which makes a “d” sound, would be typed via the “d” key). Although […]

Editable Photoshop Files: Wedding Pamphlet – Inside – Highlighted Wedding Pamphlet – Outside – Highlighted Note: I highlighted all of the areas of the inside document that you’ll want to change from my information to yours. For the outside, you’ll want to change the entire thing! Explanation For my wedding, I wanted to create a […]

I was recently given the task of migrating users and emails from one Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) account to another. Not between two users, mind you – between two completely separate administrative accounts. There was a domain name on one account (I’ll call it the “Source account” for simplicity and anonymity) to a new account (the “Destination account”). I found that although there are a bunch of articles online that mention Google’s email migrator service, and even an article with the same title as mine, I didn’t find much in the way of a step-by-step tutorial for moving everything over. Below is my attempt at one.

I was recently working with Amazon’s guide to setting up CodeCommit via HTTPS on Windows 10 (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/codecommit/latest/userguide/setting-up-https-windows.html), and I got up to the section titled “Step 3: Set Up the Credential Helper”. I ran the code they suggested: cd %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\AWS Tools\CodeCommit git-credential-AWSS4.exe Only to be greeted by this error: Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in […]

I recently worked with a client that had about 200GB of data, mostly smaller files like images or PDFs, stored on a web server. I used BitTorrent Sync to get all of that data from that server to a computer, with very little effort. When I began working with them, they didn’t have any backups […]

I recently worked with a client that had a custom-written application that used Actian Zen (previously known as Pervasive SQL) as its back-end database. I wanted to make a backup of the data – and not just a single, manual backup, but a nightly, automated backup. I developed a script that works perfectly for what […]

So you’ve made a Windows Image Backup – using the File History window in Windows 7, 8, or 10. Now you want to find out how large the backup is – so you right click and go to Properties, to find that somehow it’s…empty. If you wanted to take this huge folder and archive/compress it […]

I’ve been working with CrashPlan for about two years now, and I see it mentioned quite a bit on the HomeLab subreddit. I have the “Family” plan, which allows me to add up to 10 computers, and I use and abuse the unlimited backup space like there’s no tomorrow. Whenever I see CrashPlan mentioned, whether it’s a recommendation or a warning, I have yet to see a full write-up of the pros and cons of the system, so I thought I’d put my experience into a post. I don’t mean to advertise for it, nor do I mean to criticize it – I use it, and would recommend it to others, so long as the pros outweigh the cons. If the cons section seems far longer than the pros section, it’s because it’s difficult to say good things about backup software – best case scenario, it backs things up and doesn’t cause any problems – not a particularly riveting subject to write about.

A friend of mine recently signed up for an online class that requires software called Proctortrack. This software purports to be able to make sure a student isn’t cheating on an exam, using various methods like peering out of your web cam.

The problem? First, the whole thing is a ridiculous waste of money. From top to bottom, none of it really makes sense – it’s incredibly invasive: it tracks your eye motion through your webcam, it scans your knuckles as some weird form of identification, it uses facial recognition to make sure that you’re not someone else – and above all, it can be bypassed rather easily. I’m not saying I have a better solution to make sure that students don’t cheat on online exams – but this solution is intrusive, and the “Big Brother”-ness of it is so crazy it sounds like it must be a joke (like knuckle scanning, for instance).

I have updated this article on 12/9/2014, at the bottom of the existing article. Click here to skip to the update. Oh, come on, Daily Targum. I thought I was done with you. I thought when you finally got rid of Amani Al-Khatahtbeh (she also goes by Amani Alkhat), we wouldn’t have to deal with […]

Introduction PhoneGap/Cordova is a powerful tool that allows you to write applications in JavaScript and cross-compile them for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and a number of other platforms. I was recently given the opportunity to work with Cordova, and I found that the installation was both laborious and rife with error messages […]

Well, she’s finally gone. The Daily Targum has had its caucus, the 146th editorial board is now in place, and Amani Al-Khatahtbeh (she also goes by Amani Alkhat) is no longer employed there. But Amani couldn’t leave well enough alone, and decided to publish a blog on the Huffington Post website, entitled “An Inside Look […]

There have been a few updates to the story: 1/27/2014 | 2/3/2014 | 2/6/2014 The Targum is certainly trying to start the new year off with the same anti-Semitic junk they love so much. Today’s poorly-written diatribe is by a Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences senior majoring in planning and public policy. Her editorial […]

This seemingly random story was inserted on page 7 of the Targum, on a day when no other Israel-related op-eds were printed. The article talks about the plight of the Bedouins, who are about to get their houses taken over by the “evil” Israelis – how strange that they chose today to print this, in […]

Yet another example of the Targum editing an op-ed…except this time, it was actually a press release from the Rutgers Hillel. Rutgers Hillel Rabbi Esther Reed Sunday night, Oct. 6, very realistic “eviction notices” were placed under doors of student residence halls and apartment buildings at the University. They were so realistic, in fact, that […]

A new school year, and another opinion article modified by the Targum. I have noted where Aviv’s original submission was modified, by showing both her language that wa removed, as well as the language that the Targum injected. Earlier this week, I was woken in middle of the night by a phone call informing me […]

(Note: The opinions on this site reflect my own personal opinions, and not those of the author of the letter, Talia Greenstein) This letter to the editor has but one change, and yet, its impact is extreme – the Opinion Editor of the Daily Targum, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh (she also goes by Amani Alkhat), added the […]

Let’s examine a recent opinion column by Sabrina Szteinbaum. What’s interesting about this piece, though, is that it’s missing quite a bit from what was actually submitted. Take a look for yourself: It is a possibility that by mid-2014, Iran may have enough weapons-grade uranium for multiple bombs. It is a possibility that by mid-2014, […]

I recently embarked on a project to create an add-in for Outlook 2010, using Visual Studio 2010 and C# .NET 4.0. One of the things I wanted to do was run through selected emails in order to process them. First, I needed to know the number of items in my ActiveExplorer(): Outlook.Explorer explorer = this.Application.ActiveExplorer(); […]

It’s somewhat difficult to make demands on essays for students – demanding that they have 500 words, for example, leads to really, really, very, extremely superfluous lists of adjectives and describing words like this sentence to up the word count. Other teachers use the page count as a metric of completion. But what happens when […]

We’ve all been there – sitting in a math class, taking a test or quiz, and you completely blank out on a formula you know you should have memorized. It’s not that you don’t know how to use it, or where it’s applicable, it’s just that it’s hard to both learn a concept and memorize […]

I’m not a music person, but I’ve been asked many times to change the pitch of a song because it does not match or harmonize with the key of the voice of someone trying to sing along. This is a guide on how to do just that, starting from software installation and ending with a […]