Jul/090
Alarm now in beta!
I’ve finally released a beta of the Alarm program I’ve been writing.
Download it and take a look. It’s only been tested on Mac OS X 10.5, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t work in 10.4. There’s not, nor will there ever be, a windows version.
If you like it, please let me know. It’s free, not even donationware, all I ask is that you tell me that you like it. You can comment on this post if you like.
Please, also remember that it’s beta software, so if you find bugs (and you probably will), make sure you let me know what they are, as well.
So here it is, the DOWNLOAD LINK. Like I used to say to all of my customers when I worked for Uncle Tony’s Kebabs, ‘Enjoy’.
Jul/091
New Blog Theme
Occasionally I change my theme, and, while I know that you can see perfectly well what it looks like now, I like to include a blog post and a picture, for posterity. So here it is.
So what do you think? Do you like it? Better or worse than my last theme?
Jul/090
No Address Bar Chrome on Google Latitude for iPhone
Before you ask…
Here’s how to add Google Latitude to your iPhone as a web clip without Mobile Safari’s top and bottom navigation bars.
- On your iPhone, go to http://carbis.fu8.com/iPhone/latitude (the capital ‘P’ matters)
- Before you are redirected to the latitude page, quickly press the + button, and press Add to Home Screen
- If the icon loads with a black background, you didn’t quite get it before it redirected – try again
- Press Add in the top right hand corner
And that’s that. You’ll notice I also edited the ugly Latitude home screen icon so that it matches all of Google’s other web apps.
Hope you like. 
Jul/092
Latest Project – Top Secret (Door)
So here’s the idea for my latest project. It’s top secret. Don’t tell anyone, okay?
I know this doesn’t make a terrible lot of sense, but that’s all part of the mystery.
(click for a bigger picture)
What do you think?
Jun/092
How to use Google Apps Chat in Beejive / Adium / Pidgin
… or any third party instant messaging client for that matter. So that you can use Google Talk on your Google Apps domain on your iPhone (through Beejive or IM+), or through your instant messaging client of choice. Even iChat!
First of all, you’ll need to update your SRV records. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them before, it’s really easy. Log into your domain control, and, in the same way you would add DNS records, add the following SRV records (replacing domain.com with your domain):
_xmpp-server._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.gmail.domain. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.gmail.domain. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.gmail.domain. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.gmail.domain. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.gmail.domain. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
_xmpp-client._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 5 0 5222 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-client._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5222 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-client._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5222 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-client._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5222 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-client._tcp.domain.com. IN SRV 20 0 5222 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
The last five are the most important, and they’re not included in Google’s article on the topic. They are the part that lets you log in from a different instant messaging client.
Next, just add a Google Talk account, with the username being ‘username@yourdomain.com’ . It should all be good from there.
Let me know how you go, if this works for you (or if it doesn’t).
Jun/090
Gmail iPhone app, no address bar chrome
I love the mobile gmail. Even more than I love the iPhone’s mail app, configured to work with my gmail account.
That’s why I always use mobile safari to access gmail. The only problem is I always got the address bar and bookmarks bar at the top of bottom of mobile safari (these UI controls are called ‘chrome’), ruining the whole mobile gmail experience.
That’s when I noticed that mobile Google Talk, which I had added to my home screen, didn’t ever display the mobile safari chrome. The same wasn’t true for the Gmail site on my home screen – so I decided to fix it.
If you head to http://carbis.fu8.com/iPhone/gmail on your iPhone, then quickly hit the + button and add it to your homescreen before it redirects, then you too can have Chromeless Gmail on your iPhone.
Don’t be phased by the lack of icon. After you open the home screen icon for the first time, your iPhone will give it the right icon.
I hope this works for everyone, let me know if you have any trouble, or even if you don’t!
Jun/092
Post a tweet from an anchor link!
Wow! You’ve heard of mailto: links that automatically launch your mail client, and iTunes links that open the iTunes music store, but did you know that you could make a link that posts a tweet on twitter!
I discovered it when learning about Fussy Follow Friday on Matt Stratton’s blog.
First, an example: Click here to tweet!
And now, here’s some html how-to goodness:
<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=type twitter status here“>Click me!</a>
Of course, if you’re not signed into twitter, it will ask you to sign in first… but if you are signed in, it will post automatically.
Jun/090
Media PC (completed)
Okay, I’ve just about finished my media PC, just waiting on a few last parts from Umart. Here’s how things went in the end:
- Gigabyte GA-8VD667K Motherboard: already owned
- Pentium 4 3.0Ghz: $49
- Socket 478 Cooling Fan & Heatsink: $11.77
- 512MB DDR RAM: (already owned)
- 750GB SATA 7200RPM 32MB HDD: (already owned)
- SATA / IDE cross converter: $6.41
- PSU: Included in case
- Sony 20x DVDRW IDE: $36.50
- Asus 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card: $32
- CoolerMaster RC283 Media Case: $116
- Logitech X-530 5.1 Speakers System: $90
- BenQ G2400WD 24? Lcd Monitor: $350
- EVGA PCI GF6200LE 256M Low Profile: $86
All up it came to a total of: $777.68, a little over budget, but not too bad when you consider the size of the screen and quality of the speakers.
Without the screen or speakers, the whole thing only cost 337.68, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a mac mini. I hope you’re reading this, darling wife.
May/091
Media PC
I’m procrastinating from uni, so here’s the specs of the new media PC which I’m making for T & myself.
- Gigabyte GA-8VD667K Motherboard (already owned) link
- Pentium 4 3.0Ghz (approx. $50) link
- Socket 478 Cooling Fan & Heatsink (approx. $13) link
- 512MB DDR RAM (already owned)
- 750GB SATA 7200RPM 32MB HDD (already owned) link
- SATA / IDE cross converter (approx. $7) link
- PSU (already owned)
- Sony 20x DVDRW IDE ($36.50) link
- Asus 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card ($32) link
- CoolerMaster RC283 Media Case ($116) link
- Creative Inspire M5300 5.1 Speakers ($68) link
- BenQ G2400WD 24″ Lcd Monitor with D-sub, Dvi-D & HDMI ($300) link
Some parts are a bit of a hack together, I know, but I think it will do the job. Comes to a grand total of $622.50, including 5.1 surround sound and a 24″ monitor as a screen.
I’m thinking I will run Plex on it. Motherboard hasn’t been test on OSx86 (quite old) but I’ll give it a shot, otherwise Ubuntu.
Apr/093
Custom iTunes Genre Art and Language Names
Today I decided to make a custom genre icon for all of my Hebrew music. Here’s a good tutorial on how to do it: Custom iTunes 8 Genre Art.
Of course, all my Hebrew music has the genre ‘Hebrew’. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get the custom genre art to work! It would work if I used the genre ‘Israel’ or ‘Jewish’, but never ‘Hebrew’.
Then I cottoned on to something. I tried the genre ‘Italian’, and that didn’t work either. Nor did ‘French’.
In short, iTunes 8 custom genre art does not work with language name genres.
Hope that helps someone. Here’s what I ended up with.
iTunes 8 Custom Genre Art