Category: Tech

Custom Homepages

I was really inspired a while ago from a thread I read on the Local H Message board regarding browser homepages. For the longest time I have had my homepage set to Google. I could never really think of any resin to change it. But that thread made me re-think it.

When I sit down at my computer I don’t do searches all that much. I have a handful of websites that I go to everyday. In the past I would just type in the URL and go. But having a custom page with the links of my commonly visited websites saves a lot of time. Just middle click the links and they open up in a new tab.

This is pretty useful when your not always on your own computer. You can save your custom home page to a thumb drive, CD, or even upload it to your web server if you have one. This allows you to have access to all your favorite websites from any computer.

Below is a screen shot of my custom homepage that i built. Because I am such a Transformers fan I wanted to use an image of Megatron and Optimus Prime battling it out. With a little CSS I am able to make sure that no matter how big or small my browser window is the two will alwasy be fighting on the bottom right of the window.

I also use CSS to control the font and the link colors. Now your custom homepage dose not have to be this involved. It could just be a list of links you like to visit. It could be more involved with widgets, and backgrounds, and animations. Sky is the limit.

If you would like to download my custom homepage, Modifiy it, and use it for yourself you can by downloading it here. You will have to set the links in in the “index.html” file. Once that is done just point your browser to that index.html file.

My iPhone Experince (Part 1 of 2)

Last week my company cell phone died. It was an old BlackBerry 7100g. That BlackBerry and I never got along and I did not keep that fact a secret. So when it finally passed away this last week my boss offered to get me the iPhone 3G as a replacement work cell phone. I thought I might document the process we went through to get the iPhone, as well as my experience with it.

August 21 2008 – After calling our local AT&T dealer we were told we would have to go down to the store and order the iPhone. At the time they did not have any in stock. So we drove down and waited in line for half and hour. In our Juneau store there where only three people helping customers. When we were up to speak with a sales rep, she had us picked out the model we wanted and pay for the iPhone right there. We were told that we had save the receipt to be able to clam the phone when it comes in. (To me that sounds like a bit of BS. I mean, you spend 200 bucks on a cell phone, they can look up that you bought it or not.)  The rep put the iPhone on order. We were told it would take 10 to 21 days to get in and that we would get updates via e-mail.

August 22 2008 – Got an automated e-mail from ATT Order Status.

Your iPhone 3G order has been shipped and is on its way to the AT&T store in which you placed the order… You will be notified via email when it arrives. You will then have seven (7) days to pick up your order or it will be canceled…

August 26 2008 – Got another automated e-mail from the local ATT store

Your iPhone 3G order is ready to be picked up at the AT&T store where you reserved it.  Please bring your reservation receipt and a valid ID when you pick-up your order…

So less then ten days. That makes the whole experience a little more positive.  We went down to the local AT&T dealer and got my iPhone. They took it out of the box to activate it. They moved my old phone number over and that was that. The phone worked from that moment on.

At the end of the day when I got home, I plugged the phone into my computer. iTunes fired up and it started to download and install the new iPhone OS software update. I also downloaded one or two programs to try out. For me the whole process was shockingly easy, fast and painless.

I have been using the iPhone now for less then two day, but so far I am very happy with the experience. The brake out application for me on the iPhone has been “Notes“. Notes lends it’s self very well to anyone who is into the GTD system. In my first two days with the iPhone I have been using this program constantly.

I am a big fan of Things for the Mac. In the next few days I am sure I will pick up the Things program for the iPhone also.

I will do a follow up post in a few days. I would like to talk about things i don’t like about the iPhone (if any come up) as well as how I have been using it.

You Can RSS Google News

You can save Google news, as well as any Google news search as an RSS feed. This is hands down a very useful feature for people who visit their local newspaper website everyday because they don’t offer an RSS feed.

Living in Alaska, I have found myself wanting to read more about the local happenings and goings on. I am not a fan of visiting the Juneau Empire news papers’ website. The website has a horrible design that is hindered by the fact that I actually have to go visit the site and not just subscribe to an RSS feed like so many other websites these days allow.

I was just playing around with Google news the other day and saw the RSS icon show up in the URL bar of my Firefox browser. So I thought “Wouldn’t be cool if you can rss your searches?”. So I searched for Alaska in the google news search bar and sure enough, after the page loaded I saw the RSS icon. I click on the Icon, selected the RSS feed, and added to my Google Reader. It worked!

Floating Image Change For WordPress 2.6

I run or administer several WordPress based websites including this one. For the the last week I slowly began upgrading these sites from WordPress 2.5 to 2.6. The upgrade for me and these sites have been very easy. None the less, you should always do a backup before doing an upgrade.

I am writing this post because I noticed a change in how WordPress handles floating your images from version 2.5 to 2.6. If your using a custom WordPress theme and floating your image to the left, right, or center, you may notice that your text dose not wrap around your image like it used to. This is due to new class elements that are required in your CSS. You wont notice any of these image floating issues if your using the default WordPress theme. But many people are using custom themes. After plenty of troubleshooting and reading online about this I finally discovered the solution and thought I would share it. Just add the following code below anywhere to your CSS file for your WordPress Theme.

img.alignleft, div.alignleft {
float:left;
margin:0 0.5em 0.5em 0;
}
img.alignright, div.alignright {
float:right;
margin:0 0 0.5em 0.5em;
}
img.aligncentered, div.aligncentered {
text-align:center;
margin:0 auto;
}

Presto, that should resolve all your image flowing issues with the new wordpress 2.6.

Shortly after drafting this post up I discored I had been beaten to the buch by HackWordpress.com and WordPressrocks.com.

UPDATE: How to display the CAPTIONS for the image properly

.wp-caption {
border: 1px solid #ddd;
text-align: center;
background-color: #f3f3f3;
padding-top: 4px;
margin: 10px;
/* optional rounded corners for browsers that support it */
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-khtml-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
border-radius: 3px;
}
.wp-caption img {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0 none;
}
.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {
font-size: 11px;
line-height: 17px;
padding: 0 4px 5px;
margin: 0;
}

Add this to the end of your themes CSS.

Video Killed The Radio Star

I truly hate cable television. There are so many shows that are on T.V. that do little more then act as a tool to keep the masses parked at home on their asses. Cable T.V. is such a waist of time and a mental mind suck. This newly found hatred for the shows that I have no interest in seeing has been brewing for a while now and I’m slowly learning how to deal all the wasted time that goes with turning on the television. (see my post on Cognitive Surplus)

Yes, there is the occasional show that is worth watching. Shows like Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, The Dean Martin Show, Family Guy, and South Park, are all great shows. But are they worth planning your week around just to see them with commercials for products you really don’t care about jammed in-between the show every 15 minutes?

I think not.

To avoid this, I just wait till these shows come out on DVD. I am a big fan of buying shows on DVD. You can then watch them anywhere you want as time allows without having to interrupt your life or planning your day around when it airs. You also don’t have to deal with commercials when you by the DVD which to me is a HUGE plus to me.

Since my hatred for television program has been gowning, so too has my liking for podcasts. Podcasts consist of audio or video programs that you can download onto your computer or iPod and be played back whenever you like. There are programs on just about every thing imaginable and in my experience not just mind numbing tripe that seems to occupy 90% television today. It makes me wish I had an Apple TV to watch them on.

I am a big fan of tech news podcasts like This Week In Tech, Webb Alert, Tehzilla, and g4tv’s ‘The Feed’. I also enjoy a podcast on cigars call “The cigar Nation” and X-play’s gaming podcast. I want to encourage everyone to check out some of these podcasts. Especially those you who have a long commute to work. Podcasts; even audio books are a great thing to listen to.