They can try to transition to the domain they most likely paid a metric buttload for, but the social bookmarking service del.icio.us is going to continue be named as such in my bookmarks. Stubborn indignation brings change, right?
Wallet has corrupted my data for the last time.
Jul 31, 2008
10:00 PM
For quite a while, I’ve been an advocate of the wallet/data security application “Wallet” by Waterfall Software for OS X. It has a quick and simple interface with great security and is very reasonably priced at $14.95. However, over the two years or so I’ve used it, it’s been a smooth ride other than for the fact that it will randomly refuse to open my .wallet database. Since I’m usually rather proactive with backups in SuperDuper, I could quickly revert back to a working version and shrug it off as a random computer glitch. It’s not like Microsoft Word or Pages hasn’t eaten an important paper once or twice before…
Early last week, the same problem occurred again – however I do not have the luxury of a recent backup to revert to. My most recent was from the beginning of June and I had made significant changes to the entries in the database since then. I emailed customer support from the Wallet developers and ten days later, I’ve heard absolutely nothing. As such, I’ve spent the better part of a day resetting various passwords via e-mail and reentering data into my new password/data management application of choice, 1Password.
1Password takes a much more logical approach to storing this data. It uses the existing secure keychain feature of OS X and repurposes that in a powerful interface. In my week of toying with it, it has worked quite well and is looks like it will be far more flexible a solution than Wallet for organizing and securing data. To migrate the old backup over, I exported the database as a tab-defined text file and imported it into 1Password. A cursory amount of reformatting of the data fields and notes and I’m good to go. My only concern is the GUI isn’t as pleasing to the eye as most other applications for OS X, but it could look like Lotus Notes on OS 9 for all I care as long as it works reliably.
My advice is that other Wallet users out there either keep ridiculously frequent backups of their database or to switch over the 1Password. I have no regrets at all about purchasing 1Password which is more than I can say about Wallet.
Apple iPhone – Cancel or allow?
Jul 22, 2008
10:28 PM
Oh, on second thought, don’t allow. I opened the mapping application and clicked the locate button because I actually wanted to be asked if I want to allow this application to know where I am. Yes, thanks. Apple recently mocked Windows Vista’s UAC security implementation, but the quirks of the new location-based are adding a pseudo-UAC experience on the iPhone.
Fix it, Apple.
On the other hand, I’m not having nearly as bad a time as most others are reporting with the new software and third-party applications. I’ve only had one random crash which happened with the WHERE application, but otherwise it’s been smooth sailing. The finance application from Bloomberg is fantastic – it gives charts and stock quotes alongside their news headlines in a simple and speedy interface. It’s one of the few that doesn’t seem to be simply a mobile-optimized website as its own application (I’m looking at you – BofA Mobile Banking). Here’s hoping that iPhone 2.1 software is released with a slew of bug fixes before I buy my iPhone 3G.
iPhone 2.0 Software and the App Store
Jul 20, 2008
11:36 AM
‘iPhone Dev Team‘ released the latest version of their Pwnage Tool yesterday which meant that I could finally upgrade my iPhone 2G to the 2.0 firmware. With the 2.0 firmware comes the biggest addition, the App Store – which allows third party applications developed through the iPhone SDK to run on users phones. Free and paid applications are available and the starting line-up of software is actually rather good.
Thus far, I’ve installed AIM, AOL Radio, Bloomberg News, Bank of America Mobile Banking, Evernote, Facebook, Mobile News by AP, NetNewsWire, Pandora, Remote, Twitterrific, Where, Whrrl and Yelp. In the short time I’ve played around with it, it seems that Bloomberg, Pandora and Remote will be the most useful. Bloomberg’s application offers a better way to interface with their news stories and market data (with support for landscape charting!). Pandora is a user-friendly client for the Pandora online radio service which works wonderfully. Lastly, Remote is an application from Apple that allows one to remotely control their iTunes library or Apple TV from the iPhone.
The firmware itself has been rather stable albeit a bit more sluggish that 1.1.4 but I assume that will be fixed in time. This software update will hold me over until I can buy the iPhone 3G (16GB white, yo).
Solution: Bouncing Dock Icon for Pwnage Tool 2
Jul 20, 2008
9:02 AM
Are you having an issue where the PwnageTool from the iPhone dev-team simply will not launch on your computer? For many, it just bounces in the dock for about three minutes and then does absolutely nothing (it sticks around in the dock except you will not see the open application indicator under it). This seems to be affecting primarily MacBook and MacBook Pro owners but it also is failing on some older PowerPC equipment.
It’s a pretty easy fix although.
Open ‘Activity’ Manager and show all processes (even root)
Quit the process named ‘ps’ (you will be asked for admin privileges)
You should do this while the PwnageTool is open. Also, you will need to ensure the folders \<user>\Library\iTunes\Device Support and \<user>\Library\iTunes\iTunes Software Updates exist on your machine.
To be quite honest, I’m not certain what the ‘ps’ process does and you should always take cautiou when fiddling with processes on your machines; however I have used this will no ill effects however I did restart once I finished ‘pwning’ the phone. Good luck!
EDIT (7/21): This bug has since been fixed in version 2.0.1, read here.
WiFi theft and the "linksys" question.
Jun 22, 2008
3:40 AM
The ubiquitous SSID that has been delivering free internet access since 802.11b, but many have argued whether or not this is theft of service or criminal behavior. Unsecured internet access points like a fresh out-of-the-box Linsys router will share your internet connection for anywhere from 50 to 300 feet, likely extending beyond the walls of your home. Without encryption and a password, something rather easy to configure, anyone with a WiFi enabled device is able to hop onto the network and use your internet connection. Most open access points are open inadvertently as a result of those not savvy enough to see multiple risk of an unencrypted wireless router running – a few are open because of generosity and invite users, but let’s be realistic.
Two questions are raised with this issue – whether it is legal to use an open wireless network without explicit permission of the owner, and whether it is morally ethical to use an open network. The former is simple and difficult to answer depending on how you look at it. The development cycles of technology have far outpaced the legislative cycle – this coupled with the ineptitude of elected officials with respect to the issue makes for an unclear legal standing for many activities such as this and file sharing. It’s not an illegal practice for one primary reason: there is no circumvention of a protection scheme or barrier to entry. When one looks for a network to connect to, an attempt to connect to an open access point is met with an acceptance of the request for an IP address by the router’s DHCP server. In cases where encryption technologies are present and a pre-shared key are required to connect, attempts to circumvent this security scheme are most definitely illegal as the operator of the network has done their due diligence to protect their internet service from theft. In this scenario, theft of service is occurring, in the former, not so much.
Is it ethical? Absolutely not. This is where I differ from most technology enthusiasts (read: nerdoids) insofar as I believe accessing an open home network is wrong because you are in some capacity depriving the operator of the bandwidth they pay for. The common analogy is that you’d think of a WiFi access point as a lamp in the outside someone’s home. Is it wrong to sit under the lamp to help you read? Absolutely not. But it’s a completely flawed idea because it failed to take into account usage patterns. Using an open network is consuming a portion of the avaialble bandwidth, for the analogy to work, you’d have to say the lamp grows dimmer as another user sits under it. Remember, most of the open APs you come across in a residential area are open out of ignorance to the security risks and/or because the user just doesn’t have the knowledge to enable an encryption scheme. The other argument is that anyone is entitled to use the network because the network is being trasmitted through their walls into their property or onto public property. Again, this doesn’t put the nature of the issue into perspective – and to get technical about it, the government owns and licenses the radio airwaves.
Simply put, using an open network is not illegal. It is not theft of service since a request for access is met with acceptance rather than rejection. However, it is unethical. Have I done it? Rarely, but yes. Does that make me a hypocrite? Probably, but it’s food for thought anyway.
Rather than driving around looking for open APs or leeching off a neighbors connection, just subscribe to mobile broadband. It’s really not that expensive…
Howto: Using OS X keyboard shortcuts
Jun 14, 2008
6:19 PM
Keyboard shortcuts make everything easier, although some newer users don’t know how to start or see it as too arduous a task and just stuck to the trusty ‘ol Commnad+C and Command+V. This is a short tutorial to help you get started with some shortcuts that will make using OS X faster and more efficient. The first batch are universal and do not apply to any one application.
You’ve most likely used Commnand+Tab to switch between applications on your computer, but a similar shortcut, Command+` (the key next the ’1′ key) will switch between application windows. This is quicker than using Expose if you just want to keep flipping back and forth between two large spreadsheets. Continuing with the window management theme, perhaps the most powerful shortcut is Command+H – hiding an application. OS X allows you to hide all and application’s windows until you call bring it back from the dock or by switching to it via Command+Tab. The main use of this is to keep your workspace clear and so that you don’t have to worry about how much you have open at any one time – for me, I have about ten to fourteen applications open at one time, some with multiple windows. Without using Command+H to hide some apps, using Expose would be unwieldly. Another related shortcut is Command+M which minimizes the foremost window. This is convenient if you want to leave some documents open but are otherwise distracting to your current work.
When you have multiple windows associated with an application open, you can close the current one by typing Command+W. This works in the Finder or just about anywhere else. This shortcut, combined with the four others previously mentioned tackles most of the common tasks related to window management in OS X and once you get used to them, will make you more efficient and quicker. The point of using keyboard-based shortcuts is to reduce your reliance on the mouse which in almost all cases is disruptive to your concentration and workflow.
In the next howto, I’ll take on the most useful and powerful application for OS X ever made – Quicksilver.
Howto: Create PDFs that scroll like butter
Jun 7, 2008
2:41 PM
I’m very into the whole idea of digitizing every paper document I receive in the hopes of achieving some sort of paperless nirvana. As such, I scan nearly everything into my computer using Adobe Acrobat Professional onto my computer and then either throw it on the server for archiving or store it on my laptop in Papers if it’s academic or frequently used. However, no matter what I do, these scans are outputted as PDFs which scroll terribly in OS X’s Quartz engine. I’m sure some of you notice that on OS X, some PDF documents scroll in choppy manner while others work perfectly. Rather than find the true root of the problem in Acrobat, I’ve resorted to using Automator to run the Acrobat output through OS X.
To do this, create an Automator workflow that starts with “Get Selected Items” so that you can simply highlight a few PDFs in Finder and execute the Automator action on it. Next, choose the “Set PDF Metadata” action and find some field to manipulate. I chose to do “Content Creator” since that doesn’t impact the document at all. Now, save the workflow as a plug-in for Finder. This action achieves the same result as opening the document in Preview and using “Save to PDF” from the Print dialog box.
Now when you want to ‘optimize’ these sluggish PDF documents, you can just select them, right-click and run your Automator action which will overwrite the existing file. It does lead to a file that is 1.5x the file size though.
I’ve included my Automator workflow script to the post for reference. Enjoy.
Automator Workflow – Optimize PDFs (place in /Users/<you>/Library/Workflow/Applications/Finder)
New Reddit killed my dog and slashed my tires…
May 26, 2008
5:17 PM
Reddit users are in a tizzy because of a redesign is, arguably, not as streamlined as before. Also, it seems to fail miserably in Internet Explorer 6 on Windows. The first argument can be remedied by going to Preferences, then checking the “compress link display” option. The second, well – you probably shouldn’t still be using IE6, but some don’t have a choice, which makes it a pertinent point of contention.
The question being overlooked is – won’t somebody think of the children? Oh, it doesn’t render well in Internet Explorer 5 for Mac.
Stop whining and update your browser.
Where Activision fails, Harmonix succeeds.
May 10, 2008
1:30 AM
In 2006, Activision acquired game peripheral manufacturer RedOctane and as a result, the rights to the ‘Guitar Hero’ game series. Whether or not this would be a productive move was to be seen. A few months later, Harmonix, the game developer of ‘Guitar Hero’, was acquired by MTV Networks. Neversoft took over development for ‘Guitar Hero III’ at Activision and the Harmonix developers were able to focus on new exciting projects with expanded access to music licensing opportunities through MTV and Viacom. One of these acquisitions made something revolutionary and one led to the dilution of a once-in-a-lifetime brand, guess which?
Activision killed the ‘Guitar Hero’ brand. With the release of ‘Guitar Hero III’, Activision made it clear they were interested in expanding the reach of the franchise by any means necessary. This meant they were going to make it available on every platform possible, whether or not it made any sense. The result? Guitar Hero on a keychain, Guitar Hero for BlackBerry, Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS, and more. By not innovating on the flagship product itself, Activision made it clear they were not committed to creating a compelling product that redefined the music space; just market penetration. The 100,000,000 USD acquisition was a boon for the shareholders of ATVI but a net loss for the consumer and game lover.
Harmonix, free to explore the music game genre which they made viable, churned out ‘Rock Band’. This new game title changed the what the public imagined a simple rhythm game could be by incorporating drums, vocals into the usual plastic guitar fare. Innovative hardware is not the only reason it has been so successful; Harmonix and MTV made downloadable tracks a priority and as a result, new songs are released on a weekly basis. As of the publishing of this article, 100 tracks are available for download by Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 users and over 10,000,000 songs have been purchased. Downloadable content was not new; Xbox Live users were familiar with map-packs and additional content game publishers made available for sale. PSN on Playstation 3 allows for similar functionality. ‘Rock Band’ as a game proved without a doubt that game developers had the opportunity to reach the consumer after the point of sale with compelling content and interactivity. Harmonix operates a user forum and a comprehensive site for players to explore and extend their game experience. At every point where Activision failed to capitalize on the brand they acquires, Harmonix nailed it. This is why ‘Rock Band’ will be the game title that reigns supreme: extensible, social, innovative.
The ‘Guitar Hero’ brand is certainly not dead, but is nowhere near as powerful as it once was due to the systematic dilution by Activision. Executives are Activision have indicated that the next iteration of the ‘Guitar Hero’ will most likely feature drums and a microphone; essentially making it a ‘Rock Band’ knock-off. That’s not quite ‘Guitar Hero’ anymore now is it?
Personally, I’m waiting for the ‘Guitar Hero MMORPG for Nokia N-GAGE’ to be released…