automating the world, one script at a time
Archive for October, 2009
A word on migrating WordPress installations
Oct 20th
One of the reservations I had about migrating this blog from WordPress.com to a hosted WordPress installation was the difficulty I thought I would have migrating all my content over. I also wasn’t sure if the same themes and widgets would be available to me. The concern around themes and widgets was put to rest quickly after a few short searches for the stuff I wanted.
I also read an article a few days prior about exporting the post content from the site using the export tool built into WordPress, so I figured that at least I wouldn’t have to retype or copy and paste all my articles back into the new blog.
After installing WordPress on my server (use bluehost.com for this, they are awesome) and doing some basic initial configuration of the admin user I headed over the import tool, also built into WordPress (smart guys, importing and exporting, who would have thought). I pointed the import tool at my exported .xml file and hoped for the best.
Now I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to exporting data from once system and them importing it into another. There are always issues. Not only was I pleasantly surprised when all my post, tags, categories and comments were brought across (with the timestamp data in tact no less), I almost couldn’t believe it when it asked me if I wanted it to attempt to fetch all my attached content and media as well.
What the hell. I clicked “Yes” and hoped for the best. Well blow me down. I actually had to double check just to make sure that my browser was in fact pointed at the correct site. The transfer was so painless and so complete that I literally didn’t need to do anything other than put a post on the old site informing everyone that the blog had moved.
High fives for all the WordPress developers. I am truly impressed.
Tale of the annoying Apple headset mic
Oct 20th
Does the placement of the microphone/volume control button on the Apple headset annoy anyone else ?
Maybe I just happen to have a very unfortunate set of bodily proportions, but the microphone/button placement on the headset cable always catches on the collar or my shirt when I am sitting down with the earbuds in my ears.
It catches just enough that I have to make wild neck movements to “unhook” it while I’m driving.
I have exactly the same problem with the headset that came with my iPhone 2G. Does Apple have it in for me ?
If they moved the button a few centimeters higher or lower it would solve the problem immediately.
MobileMe Media Sync — Apple Patent Watch
Oct 20th
File this under awesome x rad. Seriously, I find it so annoying when can’t carry on listening (or watching) to my current song or podcast when I move from one device to another. Sitting at my desk listening to a podcast on iTunes and switching to my iPhone when I have to dash off somewhere is mildly frustrating because I need to get to the correct podcast and then scan for the spot I was at before I can pick up where I left off.
With this I should just be able to pop my earbuds in and hit play on the head set control. It will save me time not only because I don’t have to find the right track, but I also won’t have to listen to the same parts of tracks again because I’m not sure where I was.
And I totally agree that Apple need to start working a little harder to earn my MobileMe subscription every year !
Synchronization of Media State Across Multiple Devices, one of the latest patents filed by Apple, aims to use MobileMe to make sure if you start watching a movie in iTunes or on the AppleTV, then switch to your iPhone, you’re at the exact same place in the movie (and back again) — with no USB sync required.
Last month, prompted by reader Seth Clifford, TiPb asked for just such ‘WhisperSync’ (to use the Amazon Kindle term) functionality. Not only would this be great for users with multiple Windows, Macs, iPhones, and/or iPod touches, but it would be a great way for Apple to add value to MobileMe, whose $99 a year is non-competitive to say the least, especially for Windows users (who don’t benefit from iLife, Back to my Mac, Mac sync, etc.) So, yeah, Apple — make this happen!
(Via The iPhone Blog.)
QOTD: John Lennon
Oct 19th
SIP clients for the iPhone
Oct 19th
For quite some time now I’ve been on the hunt for a decent SIP client for the iPhone. At one point I almost gave up completely as it seemed that the only people that were interested in releasing SIP clients for the iPhone were companies that provided a “pay for” SIP service. There was no generic SIP client that actually delivered acceptable voice quality.
I know there are some great applications if you have a jailbroken iPhone, but I was looking for something mainstream, especially if I was going to evangelise the solution to less technical colleagues and customers.
Having access to a corporate SIP service at the office I was keen to find something that worked really well, primarily because everyone that had a Nokia device running Symbian could make VoIP calls and I couldn’t.
There are now finally a handful of decent clients available in the App Store that do almost everything that I needed them to do:
- ability to use my own SIP server configuration.
- ability to use the built in address book.
- support for the G.729 codec.
- ability to make GSM calls from within the application.
Ideally, I’d also like the application to be free, but so far this hasn’t happened. All three of the applications that I feel are worth considering carry a £3.99 price tag from the UK iTunes store (click here for instructions on how to create a UK iTunes account without a UK credit card).
The only feature that all of the applications fall short on, is the G.729 codec support. With bandwidth constraints in South Africa G.729 compression for voice over IP has become commonplace.
After reading a few reviews and comparing feature lists I eventually settled for iSip, knowing that the lack of G.729 support would mean that I would be restricted in the destinations I would be able to call. After the initial configuration (which was incredibly simple) I was happily making calls to certain destinations. The call quality was excellent and connection time was extremely quick. The ability to have multiple profiles meant that depending on whether my iPhone was connected to the corporate VoIP network or a general Internet WiFi hotspot I was still able make calls without having to change settings.
I have put in a feature request in with the application developer, but as yet I have not received any feedback as to if or when this is a possibility. I know there are some licensing issues when making use of G.729, but I’m pretty sure they could just work that cost into the price of the application.
Below is a list of the applications that you should consider if you are looking for a Generic SIP client sans G.729 support:
|
|
|
I thought I would also make mention of Nimbuzz and Fring. These two applications are free in the App Store and they allow for custom SIP settings, but both require an active connection to their respective servers to “log in” and actually make calls. This results in a terrible speech delay and I’ve found them to be almost unusable. Others may have better luck. Also,most corporate VoIP networks probably won’t allow connections to the Internet, which renders the applications completely useless.
|
|
The quest continues…
Update: I received a response from the developers saying that they are in negotiations with the G.729 license holder and that they aren’t able to include support for the codec until they have concluded the discussions.
WolframAlpha hits the App Store for a whopping $50
Oct 19th
Wow. This is special. An app that costs $50 that bascially does what the website does for free. Let’s see how quickly the price of this app drops. Alternatively, I’m willing to bet that a pissed off developer will release an app that does almost the same thing for free.
Idiots.
WolframAlpha hits the App Store for a whopping $50: “
WolframAlpha, the computational searchable database that went live as a website a few months ago is now an iPhone app. ‘Fantastic!’ you might say. Youll take it? Just one thing though: It is $50! And it doesnt do much that the Web page doesnt. Is there something we dont understand here?
WolframAlfa $50 App Store link – via TechCrunch.
Tweak Quick Look to See What Files Are Inside a Folder
Oct 16th
At first I thought this might be very gimmicky, like many of the OS X window manager tweaks that are out there in the wild. This one I however found very useful. I’ll state up front that if you don’t often use quicklook, then feel free to ignore the rest of this article.
So what does X-ray mode do for Quick Look?
Instead of just seeing the regular folder icon in Quick Look, the folder icon will be semi-transparent, with previews of the folder’s contents visible in the Quick Look window. What’s more, the preview images will rotate automatically, moving through each item in the folder.
You can enable X-ray mode for Quick Look in a couple of ways, but the quickest and simplest way to do it is to simply turn on X-ray mode with a simple Terminal hack.
Fire up Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and paste the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1
Hit Return, then Alt+right-click on the Finder icon in your Dock and click on Relaunch. X-ray mode should now be enabled. Hit the spacebar when you’ve selected any folder in Finder to test it.
World Wide Web creator sorry for the ‘//’ and other things that don’t matter
Oct 16th
I found this pretty amusing. I mean really, what was he thinking when he decided to add the “//” to a URL.
If nothing else, hopefully it taught the world the difference between a forward and a backslash…
World Wide Web creator sorry for the ‘//’ and other things that don’t matter: “
Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with creating the World Wide Web, recently said that his only real regret about the whole shebang is forcing people to type out the (essentially unnecessary) double slash after the ‘http:’ in URLs. Speaking at a symposium on the future of technology, he noted (in reference to the dreaded marks) the paper, trees and human labor that could have been spared without them. Hey Tim: don’t sweat it! You’ve done us enough good turns that we’re willing to overlook it.
(Via Engadget.)
QOTD: Bill Watterson
Oct 15th
Bill Watterson: “‘Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.’”
(Via Quotes of the Day.)
Create a UK iTunes account without a credit card
Oct 15th
With the proliferation of iPhones, iPod Touches and more and more people using iTunes, I am regularly asked how I manage to get all the album artwork for all my music as well as being able purchase music and other content not available in the South African iTunes store. The simple answer is that you need an account in one of the iTunes stores outside of South Africa.
Apple closed quite a few loopholes that one used to be able exploit to achieve this, but fortunately there is still a way. I’ve taken bits and pieces from other websites and blogs and a little of my own experience with doing this and put together a step by step guide to get you to iTunes goodness.
- Fire up iTunes and click on the “iTunes Store” icon in the sidebar.
- Scroll right to the bottom of the page and click “Change Country”.
- On the next page, scroll to the bottom and select “United Kingdon”.
- Now go into the App Store and find a free app and “buy” it. Any app will do, as long as it is free. There are loads.
- The following screen will pop up. Click on the “Create New Account” button.
- On the next few pages you will need to agree to some terms and conditions and then fill in all your details. When it comes to the address, the only important thing is a valid postal code. Fill in a valid UK postal code that you know or get one from here: http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/.
- The last page you will be presented with will be the payment page. On this page select the “None” option.
Change Country
United Kingdom
Create Account
Payment method = None
You’re done creating your account. You may now go forth and make use of Genius, download artwork and purchase anything that is free in the music or app store.
If you’d like to buy content that has a price attached to it, all you need to do is redeem an iTunes voucher. You can purchase UK iTunes store vouchers from gamepointsnow.com. I’ve used them a number of times for Xbox live vouchers and iTunes vouchers. Very reliable and I have never had an issue. They make use of either Paypal or Google Checkout which both work with a South African credit card. You pay a small premium for buying from them, but it’s the simplest solution I’ve found so far.
Your voucher arrives via email within seconds and then you just click on the “Redeem Voucher” link in the iTunes store.
Right. You’re set. Time to starting fully enjoying the iTunes experience.
Old recipients in Apple Mail annoying you ?
Oct 15th
I’ve had this issue myself before and was recently asked by someone else how you can remove old recipients from the auto-complete drop down list that shows up when you start typing an address in Apple Mail. I never really bothered to sort the problem out and rather just worked around it. Now that I’ve figured out how simple it is to clean up this list, it’s probably something I’ll do a little more often…
Two simple steps:
1 – Click on “Window” on the tool bar (while Mail is your active application of course.
2 – Click on “Previous Recipients”
Previous Recipients
Now just select the addresses you want to remove (or possibly even add to your address book) an then the “Remove From List” button.
Remove the offensive addresses
You’re done.
Silicon Cape overview video
Oct 14th
An overview of what happened at the Silicon Cape event in a short Zoopy video.
You can also see Helen Zille’s and Dr Mamphela Ramphele’s presentation on the Zoopy site.
QOTD: Frederick Douglass
Oct 14th
In-house Radio.app in the works for iPhone and iPod touch
Oct 13th
Someone at Apple and myself are clearly on the same wavelength.
This afternoon while I was driving home and listening to a podcast on my iPhone 3GS, I mused about how awesome it would be if the 3GS had a built in FM radio, just like the new iPod Nano’s. I conceded that it wouldn’t be possibly as the required hardware doesn’t exist in the device.
Tonight, I see this article not only claiming that Apple are already developing the app, but the device has had the hardware in it for some time to enable the Nike+ functionality.
When this app is released it will truly make the iPhone the most versatile mobile device I’ve ever owned.
- Mobile phone
- Mobile computer
- iPod
- GPS
- Compass
- FM Radio
- Camera
- Video Camera
- Voice recorder
I know there are other devices out there that have all these functions, but not of them do it as well as the iPhone and none of them are nearly as sexy.
Awesome x Rad !
In-house Radio.app in the works for iPhone and iPod touch: “
Weve just received a tip that an iPhone radio.app is being developed in-house by Apple for use on the iPhone and iPod touch. From what we know, the app will be allowed to operate in the background like iPod.app and will offer the same functionality as the FM radio in the new iPod Nanos. The source mentioned that this application could also be incorporated into the iPod.app before release.
The holdup on this app is that Apple is trying to integrate the Mobile iTunes Store purchases into the functionality of the program. For instance, if you like a song you are listening to on the radio (and that station supports tagging and you are in the US), you will be able to push a button and see the song (and all of the information around it) in the iTunes Mobile store. With another click, youll be able to make a purchase. This is an extension of the Song Tagging feature used in the iPod Nanos. Perhaps they could even add some Shazam technology to help with those stations that don’t support tagging.
Though it wasn’t specified, the app will likely have the same Live Pause functionality that the Nanos currently enjoy.
Apple’s iPods and iPhones have been able to receive FM radio signals for some time now. The latest generation of iPhone and iPod touch can even broadcast FM signal, for instance to a car stereo. The ability of the iPhone and iPod touch to receive FM signals has been used solely in the implementation of the Nike+ ecosystem to this point.
This wouldnt be the first time Apple awoke sleeping hardware functionality from its mobile products. Apple sometimes chooses to leave hardware features dormant in their products until they feel the time is right. For instance, Apple didnt enable Bluetooth in its 2nd generation iPod touch until 9 months after it was released. Apple also hasnt enabled the 802.11N +5GHZ wireless networking (which we also hope to see updated shortly) in its latest iPhone and iPods.
The addition of an FM radio would eliminate that advantage from the ZuneHD over Apple’s line of Touch OSX products.
QOTD: Thomas J. Watson
Oct 13th
