<p>The internet offers a double-edged sword for individuals and small businesses: affordability at the cost of technical expertise, or user-friendliness at a premium. This series aims to demystify the inner workings of key internet components, empowering you to make informed and cost-effective decisions, ultimately reducing reliance on expensive management services.</p>
<h1>Domain Names</h1>
<p>In this section, we'll dive into the world of domain names: what they are, what they <em>aren't</em>, and how to use them to your advantage.</p>
<p>Think of your domain name as the address of your online home. It's one of the cornerstones of your web presence, and potentially your business too. Once you've found and secured your ideal domain, holding onto it is crucial. Letting it expire could mean someone else snatching it up, leaving you without control. Even if you're working with freelancers, owning your domain is a wise move.</p>
<p>A domain name doesn't actually stick to your website or other online elements. It's more like a human-friendly signpost pointing visitors in the right direction, regardless of where your website is hosted.</p>
<h2>What is a domain name?</h2>
<h3>Top-Level Domain (TLD)</h3>
<p>This is the final part of your domain name, like <code>.com</code>, <code>.org</code>, or <code>.net</code>. There are also country-specific TLDs like <code>.co.uk</code> or <code>.ca</code>. The TLD is the most general part of the domain name, and it's the part that most people remember. For example, in <code>google.com</code>, the TLD is <code>.com</code>.</p>
<p>There are thousands of TLDs available, and new ones being created all the time. (Here)[https://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt] is a list of all the TLDs that are currently available. Some more unusual TLDs include <code>.ninja</code>, <code>.guru</code>, and <code>.pizza</code>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You could pick mybusiness.ninja and and be happy with it. It is worth mentioning, however, that <code>.com</code> is the most popular TLD and the one that people are most likely to type into their browser. If you're buying a domain, I recommend trying to get the <code>.com</code> version of your domain if it's available also. Even if you are going to use the <code>.ninja</code> domain for your main site, you should still get the <code>.com</code> version and redirect it to your main site.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Second-Level Domain (SLD)</h3>
<p>This is the part of the domain name that is specific to you. For example, in <code>google.com</code>, the second-level domain is <code>google</code>. It's the part of the domain name that you have the most control over.</p>
<h3>Subdomains</h3>
<h3>Second level domain</h3>
<h3>Subdirectories and Routes</h3>
<h3>HTTP and HTTPS</h3>
<p>The <code>http://</code> or <code>https://</code> that goes before your domain name in a brower isn't technically part of the domain name itself. It refers to the protocol used to access your website.
<code>http://</code> stands for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol" and means that the website was downloaded to your computer unencrypted.
<code>https://</code> stands for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure" and means that the website was downloaded to your computer encrypted. If someone was monitoring your internet activity, they could not see the data being downloaded.</p>
<h2>Buying a domain name</h2>
<h2>DNS (Domain Name Service)</h2>
<h3>NS (Nameservers)</h3>
<h3>A and AAAA Records</h3>
<h3>CNAME Records</h3>
<h3>MX Records</h3>
<h3>TXT Records</h3>
<h2>Proxies</h2>
<p>This is a more advanced part of domain names that is mainly for security and/or load balancing.</p>
<hr>
<p>If you're not a web developer, terms like DNS, nameservers, domains, and subdomains can sound technical and intimidating. However, understanding these concepts is crucial for anyone who wants to build a website or manage their online presence. In this article, we'll explain these terms in plain language and help you make sense of the different components that make up the internet.</p>
<p>DNS and Nameservers</p>
<p>DNS stands for Domain Name System, and it's essentially a directory service that translates human-readable domain names (like google.com) into IP addresses (like 172.217.10.174) that computers use to communicate with each other. When you enter a domain name into your browser, your computer contacts a DNS server to get the corresponding IP address, which then allows your computer to connect to the website.</p>
<p>Nameservers are the infrastructure that supports the DNS system. They're essentially servers that are responsible for storing and distributing DNS records, which tell computers how to connect to websites. When you register a domain name, you typically have to specify the nameservers that your domain will use to resolve DNS queries. Most web hosting providers offer nameservers as part of their service.</p>
<p>Domains and Subdomains</p>
<p>A domain is a unique name that identifies a website on the internet. For example, google.com is a domain name. Domains can be bought and registered through domain registrars, and you can use them to create a website, set up email addresses, and more.</p>
<p>A subdomain is a subset of a larger domain. For example, news.google.com is a subdomain of google.com. You can use subdomains to create separate websites or sections of your website that are related to your main domain. Subdomains can be set up using your hosting provider's control panel.</p>
<p>CNAME, A and MX Records</p>
<p>DNS records are used to specify how different types of requests should be handled for a given domain. There are several types of DNS records, but the most common ones are CNAME, A, and MX.</p>
<p>A CNAME record is used to map one domain name to another. For example, if you want blog.yourdomain.com to point to your WordPress site hosted at wordpress.com, you would create a CNAME record that maps blog.yourdomain.com to yourblog.wordpress.com.</p>
<p>An A record maps a domain name to an IP address. For example, if you want yourdomain.com to point to your web server's IP address, you would create an A record that maps yourdomain.com to your server's IP address.</p>
<p>An MX record is used to specify the mail server that should receive emails sent to your domain. For example, if you use Google Workspace for your email, you would create an MX record that points to Google's mail servers.</p>
<p>HTTP and HTTPS</p>
<p>HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the protocol that allows web browsers to communicate with web servers. It's the foundation of the World Wide Web and is used to transfer data between your browser and a website.</p>
<p>HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP that uses encryption to protect the data that's transferred between your browser and a website. When you connect to a website over HTTPS, the data is encrypted, which makes it much more difficult for hackers to intercept and steal sensitive information.</p>
<p>Proxies</p>
<p>A proxy server acts as an intermediary between your computer and the internet. When you connect to a website through a proxy server, your computer sends its request to the proxy server, which then sends the request to the website on your behalf. This can be useful if you want to hide your IP address or if you're trying to access a website that's blocked in your country.</p>
<p>Buying a Domain</p>
<p>If you want to buy a domain, you can do so through a domain registrar. There are many different registrars to choose from, but some of the most popular ones include GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Google Domains. When you buy a domain, you'll typically need to pay an annual fee to keep it registered in your name.</p>
<p>Once you have a domain, you'll need to set up hosting for your website. Web hosting is the service that allows you to store your website files on a server and make them accessible to the internet. There are many different types of hosting, including shared hosting (where multiple websites share the same server), dedicated hosting (where you have your own server), and cloud hosting (where your website is hosted on a virtual server). Your choice of hosting will depend on your needs and budget.</p>
<p>After you've set up hosting, you'll need to configure your DNS settings to point your domain to your hosting provider's server. This typically involves creating A records or CNAME records in your domain's DNS settings. Your hosting provider should provide instructions on how to do this.</p>
<p>Once your DNS settings are configured correctly, your website should be accessible using your domain name. You can then start building your website using a content management system like WordPress, or by coding it from scratch.</p>
<p>In conclusion, DNS, nameservers, domains, subdomains, CNAME, A, and MX records, HTTP, HTTPS, proxies, and buying a domain may seem like a lot of technical jargon, but they're essential components of the internet that anyone who wants to build a website or manage their online presence needs to understand. By learning these concepts, you'll be better equipped to navigate the online world and build a successful website.</p>


Websites for Non Web Developers - Part 1 - Domain Names

<h2>Hardware</h2>
<ul>
<li>Raspberry Pi</li>
<li>Micro SD Card</li>
<li>Micro SD Card Adapter</li>
<li>PC or Mac</li>
</ul>
<h2>Software</h2>
<ul>
<li>Rapberry Pi Imager (Installed on your computer)</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Process</h2>
<ol>
<li>Use your adapter to plug your micro SD card into your computer.</li>
<li>Open Rapsberry Pi Imager</li>
<li>Select your OS</li>
</ol>
<p>I'd suggest "Raspberry Pi OS". The regular version for a GIU and the lite version for no GUI.</p>
<ol start="4">
<li>Select your storage device. That being your micro SD card.</li>
<li>Click on the settings cog.
<ol>
<li>Enable SSH and allow password authentication</li>
<li>Set a username and password</li>
<li>Configure wireless LAN and input your Wi-Fi details.</li>
<li>Deselect all the settings under "Persistent settings". I've found these to cause issues verifying the installation.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Click "WRITE" and wait.</li>
<li>Once everything is complete, plug the micro SD card into your Raspberry Pi and power it on.</li>
<li>After a minute or so, open your Wi-Fi routers settings (Open 192.168.1.1 in your browser.). Find the Raspberry Pi in the list of connected devices and note down its IP address.</li>
<li>You can SSH onto the raspberry pi with <code>pi@192.168.1.40</code>. Just change "pi" with the username you chose and the ip address with your Raspberry Pis address.</li>
</ol>


Setting Up a Raspberry Pi

<h3>Get a notification when a long running terminal task is complete.</h3>
<pre><code>npx okimdone npm install
</code></pre>
<h3>Check npm packages to see if they are out of date</h3>
<pre><code>npx npm-check

**Options**
-u - Interactive Updates
-y - Update everything
-s - Skip unused
-g - Global
</code></pre>
<h3>Add things to .gitignore automatically</h3>
<pre><code>npx goops
</code></pre>
<h3>Make cool writing for terminals</h3>
<pre><code>npx figlet-cli &#x3C;text>
</code></pre>
<h3>Check node_modules folders on your machine</h3>
<pre><code>npx npkill
</code></pre>
<h3>Copy a react component smartly</h3>
<pre><code>npx generact
</code></pre>
<h3>Show .json files in the terminal all pretty like</h3>
<pre><code>npx fx package.json
</code></pre>
<h3>Show and manage system status</h3>
<pre><code>npx vtop
</code></pre>
<h3>See your current networks password</h3>
<pre><code>npx wifi-password-cli
</code></pre>
<h3>Make your localhost accessible to the world</h3>
<pre><code>npx localtunnel --port 8000

**Example**
`npm run develop` on a gatsby site
`npx localtunnel --port 8000` will give you a URL to access from anywhere.
</code></pre>
<h3>Generate an image of your code. This can take a while as it opens chrome.</h3>
<pre><code>npx carbon-now-cli &#x3C;file>

••Options**
-s - Line to start from
-e - Line to end on
-i - Interactive (Asks a lot of questions)
</code></pre>


My Go-To NPX Packages

<p>A few weeks ago, I came across a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_It_X7v-1E">coding experiment on YouTube</a> by Sebastian Lague. It's a simple simulation of an ecosystem. There are rabbits that hop around and find food and water. Then Lague adds foxes to the environment that eat the rabbits.</p>
<p>Each animal is what is called an 'autonomous agent'. Meaning that each animal is its own bit of code that makes decisions and performs actions by itself.</p>
<p>So as a fun project, I am trying to recreate and improve on the ecosystem simulation. I would love to do it in a 3D world with 3D animals hopping over 3D hills but my game development skills aren't quite there yet. So for now, I will be making a 2D version using technologies I am familiar with.</p>
<p>I am a web developer so I will be using Javascript to create and a web browser to render everything. Once I have a good system in place, I will start creating 3D assets and a world. Then I'll simply port the code in the 2D world over to the 3D one.</p>
<h2>Version 1</h2>
<p>I had no idea how to go about getting these little animals to move around the screen by themselves. So I tried to go as simple as possible to begin with.</p>
<p><img src="/img/blog/the-ecosystem-part-1/grid.gif" alt="the first version of the simulation on a grid"></p>
<p>Instead of an open world to move around in, I made a grid. Each purple dot is an animal. Every second, they pick either up, down , left or right and move that way. Cool.</p>
<p>The green squares are plants. The animals will check if a plant is near them before moving and choose to move towards the plant instead of in a random direction.</p>
<p>And that is as far as I got with a grid. I didn't like how restrictive a grid was. It's not really <em>simulating</em> anything in nature like that.</p>
<h2>Version 2</h2>
<p>I put my head down and got to learning about ways to make movement in 2D space look natural. Eventually, I settled on Reynolds Steering Behaviors for Autonomous Characters and started implementing it in a 2D world.</p>
<p><img src="/img/blog/the-ecosystem-part-1/version-2.gif" alt="gif of the original triangles moving around"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am trying to not get to technical in this article. Mainly because I want to show of the <em>creative</em> process and results instead of the code. Sometimes, though, it's hard to avoid.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The triangle animals here move more naturally by taking time to turn and accelerate to their maximum speed. The circles around each one represents their area of awareness. That is how far they can see to look for food. And the random line that keeps changing, emanating from them, is where they are wandering to.</p>
<p>If the animal can't see food in it's area of awareness, it will just move to a random place nearby. It will keep doing that until it finds a plant to eat. Then it will head towards that.</p>
<h2>Version 3</h2>
<p><img src="/img/blog/the-ecosystem-part-1/version-3.gif" alt="version 3 of the simulation"></p>
<p>This is the latest version of the simulation. I have come a long way since the first version but there is still so much I want to add.</p>
<p>Here is what is in this latest version:</p>
<h3>Gender</h3>
<p>Animals are either male of female. There is a 50/50 chance of either.</p>
<h3>Mating</h3>
<p>If a male has enough energy, it will look around for a mate. If it finds a potential mate, it will request to mate with them.</p>
<p>When a male and female mate, the female will become pregnant and give birth to a new animal.</p>
<h3>Genes</h3>
<p>Each animal is born with particular traits. Like their size, area of awareness, speed, etc.</p>
<p>When a new animal is born, its traits are randomly selected from their parents. So they may get their fathers speed and their mothers area of awareness for example.</p>
<h3>Emoji Mode</h3>
<p>Instead of the geometric shapes, everything is an emoji.</p>
<p><img src="/img/blog/the-ecosystem-part-1/version-3-emoji-mode.gif" alt="version 3 emoji mode"></p>
<hr>
<p>I will definitely be coming back to this project sooner or later. I'd like to add different shapes to the animals that are also part of their DNA. And I'd like to add terrain that influences them too. For example, add water where they can't go or long grass where they move slowly. Maybe this will be saved for the 3D version though.</p>
<hr>
<p>If you want to see the latest version of this sim, go to <a href="https://sim-3.now.sh">sim-3.now.sh</a>. This will always be the latest 2D version that I am working on beyond the versions in this post.</p>
<p>This blog isn't the place to go into the technical details of how all of this works. But if you'd like to learn more, let me know on Twitter or Instagram <code>@_samuelbeard</code>.</p>


The Ecosystem - Part 1

<p>I love the word “fail”. Not only is it a good search term on YouTube to return some funny videos but it also means something great.</p>
<p>If you have failed you have both tried something new and learnt from it. These two things are invaluable.</p>
<p>I’m twenty seven. And since I was about sixteen, I have wanted to have my own business and be my own boss. So over the years, I have started and ended many businesses. From freelancing to e-commerce to media.</p>
<p>I learned a lot of things by having these businesses. Every one of them failed in some way or another. Some due to my lack of knowledge, some my lack of bravery and some were not very good ideas.</p>
<p><img src="/img/blog/failed-businesses/fail.webp" alt="People fail forward to success"></p>
<p>Here are some of the bigger projects I have started over the years. How they failed and what I learned from them. My hope is that you can “pre-learn” these lessons so you don’t have to make the mistakes yourself.</p>
<h2>D7 Media</h2>
<p>Back when I was about sixteen, I was part of a church called D7 Church. It doesn’t exist now bar some remnants on old social medias that we forgot the passwords to.</p>
<p>At some point, I was put in charge of the media team. With a crappy camera and a complete ignorance of how young and dumb I looked, I would record the weekly news and other media-y things.</p>
<p>At some point I was creating things like motion backgrounds for the song lyrics during worship and other generic things like that. So I decided I could also monetise this stuff by creating a website and putting it all up for sale there.</p>
<p>This one failed quickly. “Why?” I hear you ask.</p>
<h3>I was sixteen.</h3>
<p>I had NO idea what I was doing and did no research on how to do it. I just started learning HTML and CSS to build a crappy website and stuck the stuff up there too.</p>
<h3>The stuff I was selling wasn’t that good.</h3>
<p>I didn’t really compare the stuff I was making to my competitors. I just made stuff. Looking back on it now, after learning more, creating more and being more self-aware, I can see that I didn’t stop to think about if people would actually want to buy my product.</p>
<h3>I didn’t know how to sell stuff online.</h3>
<p>This is the biggie. But there isn’t much to say about this one. If you are going to sell media online, don’t build the website yourself. Use Shopify or Wordpress with the WooCommerce plugin.</p>
<h2>True Vine Creative Studios</h2>
<p><img src="/img/blog/failed-businesses/tvcs.webp" alt="True Vine Creative Studios Logo"></p>
<p>After about a year of learning web design, I decided to start a freelance business. I mentioned it to my friends and family and charged tiny amounts of money to make them average websites.</p>
<p>This one never really failed as much as just fizzled out. I never took it further that those friends who were starting businesses at the time. Once they had their sites, I lost all my potential clients.</p>
<h3>I never really advertised my services.</h3>
<p>I didn’t have the guts to put myself out there. Maybe I didn’t think I was good enough. I got very few clients and most were friends who were just starting businesses and wanted just a one off static site with a contact form.</p>
<h3>I didn’t charge enough.</h3>
<p>I wasn’t really involved in the world of business or freelancing so when I saw people who charged upwards of £40 an hour, I though I could NEVER charge that much! Who would pay £1000 for a website? I didn’t know that <em>businesses will</em> because that is what a good website is worth to them.</p>
<p>No one saw my £100 for a website and thought that that was a great offer. They just saw it as cheap and probably low quality.</p>
<p>I charge £50 an hour now.</p>
<h2>Multicopter RC</h2>
<p>A few years ago, I was dying to create a business that made some passive income. Freelancing is great and all but you have to work for every penny you earn. An e-commerce business, on the other hand. Once that is set up, you just cash the cheques right? Especially if it is a dropshipping business.</p>
<p>I made an online store selling quadcopters and their parts. You know, drones.</p>
<p>Here is why it failed.</p>
<h3>I dropshipped from China.</h3>
<p>People expect to get what they ordered quickly. Even if the website says that it may take 4–6 weeks for their item to arrive, most people won’t read that. They will email you, and call you after a couple of weeks demanding money back or to know when their stuff will arrive.</p>
<p>I was on holiday in Rome when I got an angry call from a customer wondering where the stuff he ordered was.</p>
<p>So don’t dropship from China or some other far away place. Don’t use Ali Express. The market for that type of business is saturated too much by now anyway.</p>
<h3>I had an insecure website</h3>
<p>I didn’t really know what HTTPS was back then so I ignored it. Though nothing bad happened to me as the site was so small. Things could have gone bad if someone tried to hack the site.</p>
<p>They might have gotten my users personal details because none of it was encrypted as it was transferred from their computer to my server. I used PayPal to take payments to their card details WERE secure though.</p>
<p>Make sure you secure your site with HTTPS and other security measures. They are easy to implement and will boost your rankings on search engines. Or use a service like Shopify. Security is built in.</p>
<h3>I didn’t invest much money.</h3>
<p>I only invested enough to get the Wordpress site up and running. Maybe £50 in all, including the domain, WooCommerce theme and hosting.</p>
<p>All the products were dropshipped so I didn’t need to pay for them either. But I do wonder if I had bought a bunch of stock instead. Would that have motivated me to keep going too? If I had all this stock sitting around, would I have kept trying to get it out the door rather than give up when people started calling and emailing me?</p>
<h3>I didn’t to enough research.</h3>
<p>It was a good business to get in to at the time. Lots of people were getting into drones and other flying RC things so I think I could have found a place in the market. But I didn’t do enough research into things like competitive pricing, what exact products people were buying or where I can find these potential customers.</p>
<p>Do your research before you start an e-commerce business. Know how you will stick out from the competition and where your customers are.</p>
<h2>Strawberry Studios</h2>
<p><img src="/img/blog/failed-businesses/strawberrystudios.webp" alt=""></p>
<p>While I was freelancing as a web / graphic designer, my wife was doing the same as a photographer. And this business had potential. The lessons learned from my previous projects and the ones learnt here could have been applied here and got this thing going. But we had kids and that is what ultimately ended this business.</p>
<p>But here are some mistakes that we made in this business.</p>
<h3>We offered too many services.</h3>
<p>We offered branding and graphic design, photography, web design and a bunch of other things in between to all different sized businesses in different markets. We never specialised. We never got known for doing something really well.</p>
<p>We should have focused on a certain size of business in a certain area with a certain service offering but we decided to end the business instead because:</p>
<h3>We had kids.</h3>
<p>This isn’t a mistake or anything. But this is why we ended the business. I still had a full time job because Strawberry Studios wasn’t bringing in quite enough so we ended up with so little time to put into it.</p>
<p>If you know you are going to have kids in the next few years, plan the business around that. You can either half-ass two things or whole-ass one. We decided to whole-ass parenting.</p>
<hr>
<p>There are so many more lessons that I have learned through these journeys but these are just a few that are transferable into most other ventures I may find myself on in the future.</p>
<hr>
<p>What good came from all of this?</p>
<p>I still don’t run my own business full time. I am not yet my own boss.</p>
<p>But I do really like my job. I am a web developer. A job I got because I did the freelancing. It went on my CV none the less and potential employers saw that and gave me a chance.</p>
<p>I have learned so much more in the past two and a half years at this job than I did in the other businesses that I feel that I am ready to try again.</p>
<p>I might fail my next venture too and maybe the next. But each is going to earn me more and I will definitely learn more from them.</p>


Some of my Failed Businesses and What I Learned From Them

<h2>What is Cron?</h2>
<p>Cron is a job scheduler that is available on Linux and Unix operating systems. Simply, you tell it when to run a task and it will run.
Cron will run bash terminal commands that you set it to run but these can be set to run larger programs like python scripts, backup procedures, automation etc.</p>
<h2>Edit cron jobs</h2>
<p>In a terminal or on the command line, enter <code>crontab -e</code>. The <code>-e</code> means 'edit'. You can see what cron jobs are installed by entering 'crontab -l'.</p>
<p>Cron jobs have a particular format that describes the time in which they run then the command to run. A typical cron job will look like this: <code>0 1 * * * sudo reboot</code>.</p>
<p>Each number or asterisk represents a unit of time. Here is what each star represents:</p>
<pre><code>┌───────────── min (0–59)
│ ┌────────────── hour (0–23)
│ │ ┌─────────────── day of month (1–31)
│ │ │ ┌──────────────── month (1–12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────────── day of week (0–6) (0 to 6 are Sunday to
│ │ │ │ │ Saturday, or use names; 7 is also Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * * command
</code></pre>
<h2>Special Characters</h2>
<p>There are some special characters that can be used with the numbers to run commands at more specific times.</p>
<ul>
<li>Slash <code>/</code> - Used in the hour or minute place. It means EVERY.</li>
<li>Comma <code>,</code> - Used to create a list.</li>
<li>Hyphen <code>-</code> - Used to create a range.</li>
</ul>
<p>Examples:</p>
<p><code>15-45/5 * * * * echo Hello!</code> - Will run every 5 minutes between 15 minutes past and 45 minutes past the hour. This will run every hour.</p>
<p><code>0 10,11,12 * * 1-5</code> - Run Monday to Friday (1-5) at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00.</p>
<p><code>0 9-17 * * *</code> - Run every hour, nine to five.</p>


Cron Basics

<p>Here are two ways of receiving notifications from you Raspberry Pi Python scripts.</p>
<h2>Email</h2>
<p>Sending simple notifications to your email address is quite easy if you aren’t bothered about formatting text in fancy ways.</p>
<p>Here is the code to send yourself an email with a subject and a body:</p>
<pre><code>import smtplib
SUBJECT = "The subject"
MESSAGE = "The message"
msg = "Subject: %s\n\n%s" % (SUBJECT, MESSAGE)
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
server.starttls()
server.login("{EMAIL USERNAME}", "{EMAIL PASSWORD}")
server.sendmail("{FROM EMAIL ADDRESS}", "{TO EMAIL ADDRESS}", msg)
server.quit()
</code></pre>
<p>The above example uses Gmail’s server to send the email but you can use what ever service you use.</p>
<p>The <code>msg</code> variable just defines the subject of the email and the body separately.</p>
<p><code>{EMAIL USERNAME}</code> and <code>{EMAIL PASSWORD}</code> refer to your email servers details. In Gmail’s case, this is your Gmail email address and password.</p>
<p><code>{FROM EMAIL ADDRESS}</code> should be the email address you are sending the email as.</p>
<p><code>{TO EMAIL ADDRESS}</code> should be the email address you are sending the email to. It can be the same email address as you sent it with to send it to yourself. You can also send to multiple addresses with a list. E.g <code>["email1@example.com", "email2@example.com"]</code>.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Android Push Notifications</h2>
<p>If you want quick updates on tasks run and errors that your Pi has encountered, then download Simple Push on your android device. This app takes GET requests and sends you push notifications.</p>
<p>When you first open the app, it will give you a unique code. Keep this handy.</p>
<p>Here is the code for sending a notification from a python script to your phone or tablet:</p>
<pre><code>import requests
title = "A title for your notification"
body = "Your notifications main text"
requests.get("https://api.simplepush.io/send/{YOUR UNIQUE ID}/" + title + "/" + body)
</code></pre>
<p>For me, these two methods suffice for getting the information from my python scripts. If you have any other methods, let me know and I can add them to this post.</p>
