I made some time and fixed the permalink issue we had. Somehow the setting got flipped in wordpress. So posts with links to other posts such as the holiday specials should be working now.
I stil have not figured out why our tag cloud is borked. Hopefully I will get that straightened out soon.
On another topic, I did a post last year about my eyeFi card. Now that Apple has added Photo Stream sharing that workflow is even more useful. This year I was able to share Christmas related photos with family straight to their iPads. Saving me the trouble of burning and distributing discs of photos. I am loving it!
Before iCloud there was MobileMe from Apple. I had setup my google mail account to download my MobileMe mail via pop3, set it to read status and archive past inbox. So I had a nice hidden searchable backup in case MobileMe lost my data.
Like most folks I moved my MobileMe to iCloud. Turns out starting Dec 21 the pop3 access quit working. Best I can tell is iCloud is now only supporting IMAP syncing.
So how to restore my backup. After talking with @johnfbraun I gave the forwarding option in iCloud a try. It works when paired with an appropriate filter rule in gmail.
In iCloud go into preferences via the web page once logged into mail at iCloud.com.
In the general tab, check the box to forward and enter your gmail or google apps email address.
Do NOT check the box delete after forward if you want to still interact with that mail through the iCloud account on your devices.
Next go to your gmail. Go into the Mail settings and filters.
Make a filter based on the TO: matching your @me.com address.
Use the actions to Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label
You want to use a label so you can quickly jump to all mail that came to your iCloud account.
That is it. Works fine for new mail, though we have noticed a few delays in mail making it over to google. Perhaps Apple is batch processing forwards.
I made a brief tutorial on two factory authentication here on the Friends in Tech Blog last December. So I wanted to make a follow up post for this December.
In the previous post I mentioned you can use two factor authentication with Paypal, World of Warcraft and Google. There are a few new places that have added the feature.
Logmein for remote access lets you set your account to send a code by sms to your cell phone. This even works with the iPad application Logmein Ignition. Just start to log in normally. As soon as you enter your password it will send a code and prompt you to enter the code as received on your phone.
** UPDATE CORRECTION** Logmein lets you email a code. Just tell it the email address matching your phone’s sms address and you have SMS based codes.
Yahoo just added sms code authentication to your account as well. You need to log into Yahoo, on your name and choose to enter your account settings. Once in scroll down to the Sign-In and Security section. Click the Setup your second sign-ing verification. Now you can tell it to send to your phone as an sms code and even force prompt you for the answers to your secret question instead of the code. The point of two factor though is to tie something you know (password, question answer) to something you have (your phone). So I opted to use only my mobile phone number for verification. From now on when you log onto Yahoo from a new device or computer it will also send a code to your phone.
Personally I like Google’s two factor implementation best out of those targeted at the non uber geek set. But even SMS is better than passwords alone.
Today was the annual Christmas cookie event of my nieces coming over to make cookies. I always take photos for them. This year it was easier than ever. I used an Eyefi X2 pro in my Canon camera. That is setup to sync automatically onto my iMac into iPhoto. Now that Apple has put out iCloud with Photo Stream anything that imports into iPhoto is propagating to my Photo Stream. Then I can easily show them off to the girls within a few minutes of shooting a photo.
GeekTool has been around for years for the Mac. It is a great utility for overlaying information onto your computer desktop. Recently it was released through the Mac App Store. A friend of ours Don McAllister of Screencastsonline.com also recently did a members introduction show to GeekTool.
I have been playing a lot with IFTTT.com and Yahoo pipes. But what if we want to monitor some site and web service statuses directly and have it show up on our Mac desktop all the time?
That is where GeekTool comes in handy. Just add a couple of Shell Script objects to your desktop. Make sure to set the display status to feedback image, choose a reasonable refresh period and a suitable title via the override text fields as seen below.
Here are two shell scripts. One monitors status for a WoW Realm I made for some friends. The other is the example of monitoring the FiT Web site status via downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
I know it is way early. But my dad gave me one of these Swiss Army Victrorinox multi-tools years ago. I had actually lost mine. At the time I lost it they had quit selling the tool. But it has been back for a while and I have a replacement. The thing I like about this design is that when you fold it out to use a pliers nothing else is in the way. A bit reversed from cheaper design. It is even solid enough I have used it as a hammer before.
Yahoo pipes has been around a number of years. I have only played a little with it up until last week. I discovered a new site called ifttt.com (If This Then That). IFTTT lets you perform various actions based on what data is detected in various online sources. Those sources can be RSS feeds, mail matching tags in your gmail etc. You can have it send you sms, email, google talk IM and various other alert actions.
We accidentally let the friendsintech.com domain name expire briefly. Fortunately I noticed it fast enough to get it renewed. So I wondered how could we detect when the site is not available. I am sure you have seen www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com for checking if web sites are really down or is it just a problem on your end. A great way to check site status.
So it made me wonder. Can I scrape downforeveryone for site status using a yahoo pipe and feed that to IFTTT for automatic alerting?
The answer is yes. The real work is all in the yahoo pipe. You can find the FiT pipe: HERE at Yahoo.
Let’s get back to some BASICs. Commodore BASIC to be exact. This week I stumbled onto the iDevice (iPhone, iPad) app called “Hand Basic.” This is currently a free C64 BASIC emulator, complete with ability to save programs. You can even move them in and out of iTunes to backup and share them. If you make any good ones, post a link to the files in the comments to this post so others can download and drop them onto their app to try out. I am not sure sid audio is supported in the Hand Basic app. Otherwise it’s awesome.
There is another app that has been around for iDevices for a while called “Commodore 64.” It is $4.99 USD and comes with some installed games. It is not as friendly to actual coding though it does have a built in BASIC emulator now. The emulator does not let you save, load or share program files.
What if you do not have an iPad or iPhone? You can try out more C64 emulator projects.
C64 Walkabout Podcast – it seems on hiatus. It sounds stellar, write the hosts to show support.
Keep in mind there is a huge C64 enthusiast world out there, just google it. Plus I have it on good authority the rebooted C64 from Commodore USA should be coming out soon. So crank up the 80s music and get back to the BASICs.
If you need a little C64 Christmas Spirit, please check our our holiday special from last year. A Geek Christmas Story.
Do you have a problem like I do? Remembering to do the things necessary in a geek home like checking UPS batteries, smoke alarms etc?
Try making a sub calendar in your favorite calendar app with recurring reminders. That will help you group all recurring tasks together and hide them from view as needed. But even with alerts those are easy to ignore on their own. I then used a google doc to make a form that records the results in a spreadsheet. Now I can track exactly when I did the various items on my list.
Really you should perform backups on a regular basis. But the fall is a good time to get started. I picked up one of these NewerTech Voyager drive dock to make it much easier to slap in a sata drive and backup the large files I tend to neglect in my regular backups. Things like audio and video project files. These unit come in a variety of configurations. I picked up the quad interface because I use firewire 800 with my large external RAID drive where I keep my big files like my iTunes library, final cut and audio files. But you can even get one in a new USB 3.0 configuration.
Just remember to use something like a Brother Ptouch labeler to label your drives with what you have backed up on them.
I learned about these great cleaning cloths from Clayton Morris. I went and picked up the three pack of cloths from Home Depot’s cleaning supplies department. They are large enough and made slightly different than most microfiber cloths. So a couple of quick swipes and your iPad screen looks new again as it takes all the finger prints away. You can find them over at Home Depot for about $6.
I grew up with the Commodore Vic 20, then the C-64 and my last Commodore machine was an Amiga 1000. So you can imagine the temptation I feel in getting one of these NEW rebooted Commodore 64 units due out this year. You can find the units and watch for them to go on sale over at http://www.commodoreusa.net/
I am a big fan of two factor authentication where possible for high value logins. This is where you enter a changing number to go with your password. This number comes from a device you carry with you. In particular I use the free Verisign mobile token on my iPhone. They make it for many other cell phones. You can install and use it for free with services like paypal, ebay, some banks and even with the free service called PiP (Personal Identity Portal) from Verisign.
You can get a pip account and use it for any site that supports openID. Giving you two factor authentication even for a lot of blog commenting and forum systems. PiP can be found at: https://pip.verisignlabs.com/
Verisign has a quick demo video of the mobile token on youTube. Check it out and add some extra protection to your accounts. Especially if you use eBay or paypal.
I have an older WindowsXP based Media Center pc made by HP. It is the model z545. This is a discontinued unit which is too bad. I liked how the black case fits right in with your entertainment gear.
Last night my wife says the remote control quit working. This happens now and then, but a simple reboot usually fixes it right up. This unit is connected to dual Directv receivers. I found to my dismay when the system rebooted it claimed something was corrupt and could not see any tuners. Spending my weekend rebuilding the OS was not something I looked forward to.
After some poking around here is what I did to fix it. Otherwise it was time to look into a Mac Mini as a media center. I just liked having my xbox360 be able to pull tv from the directv over my network.
The media center stays powered on all the time. So it can record shows at any time, keep the guide updated etc. So I turned it off and unplugged it. Charge can build up in hardware. Since things were working and suddenly quit this was the most likely main issue.
I found I still had two older movie programs installed. Cinemanow and Movielink. Cinemanow tends to update itself every now and then. It was one thing acting odd and we don’t really use them. So mark these for uninstall.
Since I was getting messages about corruption and suspect Cinemanow did something I rediscovered System Restore Point. This is something I have always ignored.
So after the full power off and leaving unplugged to discharge for 15 minutes I restored to a system point from last month. Then I uninstalled the unnecessary extra media software that might try and update components in the future. Rebooted and everything was working again. Both the unseen hardware components and software component corruption was all fixed up.
We updated our FiT wordpress tonight. Also we added the good iPhone iPod plugin. So check our the site from your iPhone or iPod touch.
We did retire the forums. No one had the time to keep them updated and spam hack free. Right now we may consider using Disqus for commenting instead of the native wordpress comment system to offset the shutdown of the forums.
Look for an increase in posts on. Variety of different topics. Some will be just blog posts. Others may new audio or video.
I had been waiting on Belkin to get this unit out since I heard of it. Finally on Monday I stumbled onto it at the Apple Store. It is a nice little three ac outlet travel surge strip with two additional USB charging ports. It will even charge Motorola phones which are notorious for only charging with units made just for them.
Many of us have or are new owners of the Nintendo Wii. A wonderfully fun gaming console. Even my wife loves it. Well loves to kick my butt in bowling anyway.
We like to see our friend’s Miis next to us when we bowl rather than randomly generated Miis. I talk about how to setup your Miis to Mingle on your friends Wii consoles without having to actually send them your Mii itself.
Victor Cajiao and George Starcher review the Eye-Fi SD Card. The Eye-Fi is a 802.11G wireless memory card. It lets you upload your photos to your computer and even sharing sites like Flickr straight from your camera as you take photos.
There are times when you want to give out a phone number but you do not want to give out a live direct number. This happened to me when making some contact information cards for the library classes I volunteer teach. I certainly did not want to be giving out my cell phone number to just anyone who showed up for the classes. So I dusted off something I setup a while back. Grandcentral.com.
Grandcentral is now a Google owned property. It lets you pick a phone number you can keep effectively for life. The fun then begins. You can import the contact information from your computer and teach it how to route calls based on who is calling. So you could setup one number and if it is your spouse it rings your cell number and work number effectively forwarding the call. If it is an unknown stranger you can have it go to voicemail instead. Then Grandcentral will even email you a link you can click to play any recorded voicemail. Optionally you can have it SMS your cell phone to notify you of voicemail.
You can setup rules so certain contact numbers only get forwarded to certain real numbers for you such as home, work and cell. You can do this by grouping those contacts as well.
So if you have need to share a common number but want the control to protect your direct number privacy then Grandcentral is a great tool. It is free so create an account and give it a whirl.
PS You can even change the routing rules based on callerID from the call logs. So if someone starts bugging you, just route them to call blocked… =)
The other day my dad got me some new type nimh rechargable batteries from costco. They are called Eneloop made by Sanyo.
I have been using them for several weeks now. Both in my Altec Lansing inMotion ipod portable speakers and in my Canon S2 IS camera. They last amazingly long and recharge way faster than my Energizer batteries. Usually the energizers can go dead within a few days. They also take over 30 minutes to charge on their own 15 minute speed charger. The eneloops can last over a year charged without use. They even come charged in the package. I also just charged a set of four AAs in 10 minutes on my Energizer charger.
They just rock. Finally what rechargeable batteries should have been all along. I definitely recommend these to anyone who wants to be a little green and not use disposable batteries.
