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Adobe exploring new realms with future past releases…

from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

Since I receive mainly spam in my comment box (Akismet works great but still have to look through to double check) I going to try reducing it by limiting the ability to comment to registered users only.

Let’s see if that reduces comment spam. Apologies for the extra steps this involves.

Since my iPhone app folder started to become quite substantial (4.5GB +) I wanted to move these files without a lot of hassle.

It should be noted that my iTunes configuration is somewhat different due to the fact that I use Libra (http://www.sillybit.com/libra/) to manage a few different libraries on my Mac.

Since I already had all the audio and video files stored on an external drive I just needed to find an easy way of doing the same thing with my applications.

This is what I did:

- Move the ‘Mobile Applications’ folder to my external drive
- Open up iTunes to find that iTunes can’t find the files anymore and has no way batch changing all the links to the new location.
- Spend some time looking online
- Spend some more time not finding a simple solution
- Getting an idea for my own solution
- Creating an ‘alias’ folder by option-command dragging the copied Mobile Applications folder to the original location of the folder (in my case ~/Music/iTunes) and making sure the name says Mobile Applications
- restarting iTunes to find it’s having no problem finding the files and everything working like it should.

So there it is.. It was as easy as moving the folder and creating an alias in the original location, at least for me this worked…

Update: It seems the above steps led to my entire app library being copied to the iPhone (including the ones that I had previously removed but still had in the library). This could be because I restarted iTunes after copying and removing the original folder before I created the alias. So just keep in mind, that this could lead to you having to reselect which apps you want to copy to the iPhone, or like I’m doing in my case, take this opportunity to start removing the ones you don’t want to put on there anymore.

Today I enrolled into the iPhone Development Program. Since I have no objective C, C++ or C- knowledge I looked for tools beforehand in order to make the step into development simpler.

I found a couple:

• Titanium Developer | appcelerator.com
• PhoneGap | phonegap.com
• Corona | anscamobile.com

Now the difference between PhoneGap, Titanium and Corona is that both PhoneGap and Titanium are tools to help you write iPhone apps based on html and javascript including many of the popular libraries (prototype, mootools, jquery, etc.) thereby essentially removing the learning curve of iPhone dev for web designers. Also both are free downloads.

Corona on the other hand is a different matter all together. It let’s you write in Lua. Therefore Corona does have a learning curve, but (keep in mind I don’t know enough about iPhone dev to say this with complete certainty ) might provide more advanced development possibilities.

As of now I will start out using PhoneGap, and when things go smoothly and I have the time to mess about with the Corona Trail Download I might even purchase the Corona Package ($99) and use that since the Lua language seems logical and easy to learn.

I’ll post regularly with updates regarding my Dev journey.

Recently I launched the new website for Mew fans looking for the Mew – Live in Copenhagen DVD that is somewhat hard to find.

For more info checkout the website: mewlive.com

**UPDATE** Due to some IP changes (switching to dedicated IP) mewlive.com may refer back here. If it does, just check back later since it just takes some time for the new IP to propagate and direct you to the right page. all ok now!

Since March 09 I have been hosting my blogs EcoTipsForLife.com and my website move2create.com at MediaTemple.com

I have been using the Grid (GS) service and can report that I haven’t had any outages (that where not my doing of course…) or issues since.

Hosting is reliable, system maintenance is announced well ahead and often scheduled well in advance and customer service is very fast, responsive and helpfull.

All in all, I am a very happy MT customer.

On top of that I am only paying a total of $13.33 a month ($160/year) for their $20 a month Grid Service.

This is because I used the coupon “retailmenot” which takes off 20% of any plan for the life of the plan, and since I paid yearly the discount was quite substantial.

For more info or to order service from MediaTemple click here

This coupon will get you $50 off on new equipment at checkout and one free month of monitoring service from Frontpoint.com security.

Special offer code: R09WELCOME
Referral Code: 65c4a

I was creating a new website and decided to use a Website Baker template I had previously made as a base.

This template used the a bit of PHP code you can find on www.alistapart.com/d/randomizer/rotate.txt which automatically randomly rotates between images in a specified directory.

However for the new website this was not what I needed. I wanted to change the background of the page automatically, but not randomly.

My solution was the following.

Step 1: I modified Website Baker’s frontend.functions.php file, which you can find in the framework folder and added the following function to display the page id:

// Function for page id
if (!function_exists('page_id')) {
function page_id($spacer = ' - ', $template = '[PAGE_ID]') {
$vars = array('[PAGE_ID]');
$values = array(PAGE_ID);
echo str_replace($vars, $values, $template);
}
}

Step 2: I added the css code to the header of my index.php template file (this way the background image loads properly and I am easily able to use the page_id function):

<style type="text/css">
#my_div { background-image:url(<?php echo TEMPLATE_DIR; ?>/theimagesdirectory/<?php page_id();?>.jpg);}
</style>

and pointed it to the images directory containing the images.

Now I can just put an image into the images directory and name it XX.jpg (where XX is the corresponding page id) to control what image is being displayed for a certain page.

Of course there might be easier ways of doing this, but I am not a seasoned PHP developer, so I tend to go with whatever I can get to work….. and this is working great for my specific needs.

Tip: There are also several ways of using php directly in your css file. One way I have been using, since I need to compress the CSS file anyway, is to put this code at the top of your css file:

<?php

header('Content-type: text/css');

ob_start("compress");
function compress($buffer) {
$buffer = preg_replace('!/\*[^*]*\*+([^/][^*]*\*+)*/!', '', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(array("\r\n", "\r", "\n", "\t", ' ', ' ', ' '), '', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace('{ ', '{', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(' }', '}', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace('; ', ';', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(', ', ',', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(' {', '{', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace('} ', '}', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(': ', ':', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(' ,', ',', $buffer);
$buffer = str_replace(' ;', ';', $buffer);
return $buffer;
}
?>

And this in the bottom:

<?php ob_end_flush();?>

Change the extension of the file from .css to .php and load it in the header using: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo TEMPLATE_DIR; ?>/css/style.php" />

There are many resources (http://websitetips.com/articles/optimization/css/crunch/ and http://forums.oscommerceproject.org/index.php?showtopic=691&pid=6347&st=0 to name a few) which show you how to compress your css files in this way with the added bonus that you can then use php code within your css stylesheets.

Today T-mobile launched the first Android based phone: the T-mobile G1 by HTC.

More info here:
http://www.t-mobileg1.com/g1-announcement.aspx

and here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/09/
t-mobile_unveils_first_google.html

Device video here: http://www.t-mobileg1.com/default.aspx

As of last month I relocated move2create.com to it’s new home on my VPS I recently got from virpus.com.

As this was my first VPS I expected quite some work, but with the help of resources like vpsmedia.com/articles it proved to be less work then I had imagined. My experiences as a beginner VPS user with virpus.com have been excellent and would definitely recommend them.

GeekyNomad.com post can now be listened to through the service of Odiogo.com.

You can do this by using the “listen now” button or by using the “subscribe now” button in the sidebar.

Tip: Just wanted to include my experience regarding the plugin. For me it wasn’t immediately clear how I could manually determine the location of the plugin “listen now” button. Then I stumbled across a line in odiogo_listen_button.php (wp-content > plugins > odiogo_listen_button) which I had overlooked.

Around line 113 there is an option that says:

$odiogo_adv_options['manually_insert_listennow_link'] = false;

Set this to true and use the code:

<?php odiogo_listennow();?>

to include the listen button anywhere you want in your template files.

UPDATE: In one of the updates of de Odiogo button this feature (meaning $odiogo_adv_options['manually_insert_listennow_link'] = false;) was moved from around line 113 to around line 57.

A couple of months ago I got an email invitation for Naymz.com and decided to sign up.

Not having paid much attention to it for a while I recently stumbled across this post: http://collinlahay.com/2008/08/07/link-building-with-naymz/ on Collin Lahay’s website wich had some excellent tips on how to improve your Naymz profile.

After reading I decided to try and improve my own Naymz RepScore. The RepScore is a Naymz.com score system determined by factors like Profile Completeness, connections, references, ID verification, etc.

My starting score was a 3/10.

The following is a step by step detailing my steps that resulted in getting a good Naymz.com RepScore.

1. Create a free profile: http://www.naymz.com
2. Fill in as much personal/business information as possible, this includes:

1. Name, Residence, Occupation & Media
2. Your Resume, can even be nearly empty like Collin Lahay’s post mentioned
3. A Photo
4. Contact Information
5. Email adres | Add more of your emails for additional points
6. A short About… section

3. Add links from any personal, company and or blog websites you have (e.g. I also included a link to my Fotolia Portfolio). Also make sure to include the feed links if your blog and or website has them
4. Invite family, friends and colleages to join
5. Invite family, friends and colleages to leave you references
6. Add your “Tags”
7. Verify your identity | Now this was a very important step towards improving my score since this adds up to 250 points (for a RepScore point breakdown edit your Naymz Profile and click on “RepScore Details” and then any of the RepScore links). Naymz.com uses a service called Trufina in order to verify your identity.

   Now whether or not Trufina is truely insurance to prove “you are really you” is not really important at this point. Naymz.com uses it and it’s a good way to instandly improve your RepScore.

   Using the Trufina Coupon Code (c4ub8y3n | $3.95 discount) I found here I ended up paying only about $11 for both a “Trufina ID Badge” and a “Criminal Background Check” which I think is a good investment.

All in all the result was a RepScore of 8/10 as you can see on my profile here: http://www.naymz.com/search/thomas/korthuis/2071758 and all without paying the $9.99/m premium service naymz.com offers.

All this took me about 20 min. This time was also reduced because I already had a lot of info on hand from other social networking websites (e.g. my LinkedIn profile) as you may also already have.

Great video by Conservation International and Harrison Ford showing his (very) personal involvement.

Check it out: http://www.conservation.org/fmg/pages/videoplayer.aspx?videoid=30

If you are looking for more pictures like in the gallery feel free to visit my Creativity InMotion website at move2create.com and clicking on the “Photography” menu item in the top right hand corner.

A blog that attempts to provide you with useful examples and tips that could make a large positive ecological impact, although they are seemingly minor, quick and easy changes to your daily routine.

Found this video on www.instructables.com (http://www.instructables.com/id/E7OGJGKPAXEZ7BDYA9/)


The Hole – video powered by Metacafe

These are a few sites that offer discounted prices on great mac software:

MacUpdate – macupdate.com/promo

What makes this list different from other lists? Nothing!

These are apps I use on a regular basis. Some are free some are not and are listed in no particular order.

Free & Open source Apps:

• TacoHTML Edit (tacosw.com) – Simple, effective, fast HTML, PHP and CSS editing – FREE
• Camino Browser (caminobrowser.org) – Mozilla powered browser in the Mac style – FREE
• VLC VideoLan Client (videolan.org) – Video player that practically play and stream anything in most formats – FREE
• MPEG Streamclip (squared5.com) – Must-have for video editing – FREE
• ClipMasterCM (abracode.com/ClipMasterCM) – ClipMasterCM allows you to save clipboard content on your computer hard drive for later access. You may compile a collection of clips which will be available for pasting in any application via contextual menu – FREE

Shareware & Commercial Apps:

• Disco (discoapp.com) – CD Burning with lots of features and nice smoke effect – $29.95
• Yummy FTP (yummyftp.com) – Fast and simple FTP Client – $25
• VisualHub (techspansion.com/visualhub) – Fast conversion from nearly every video format to iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, Tivo, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash – $23.32
• More to come later

As of today geekynomad.com is being hosted by Site5.com. Because of frequent downtime, email interruptions, slow page loading, etc we have moved from ixwebhosting to Site5. As well as having faster load times than ixwebhosting they offer more features then the old provider.

Click here to view the Downloads page