Archive for the ‘ Technology ’ Category

Hacked… but Back!

Aye carumba! The site was down for less than 24 hours, but it was so unexpected and mysterious that it had me quite worried! It all started with an email I received that cryptically stated the following: Password Lost and Changed for user: admin. So I immediately tried to log in and… no such luck. I got my password changed and immediately upgraded to the newest version of WordPress. When I tried to verify the success of my upgrade, I suddenly couldn’t connect to the database and then all the pages listed under my user name at the hosting company were out of commission. We figured that out and got everything working again, but the database was still vanished. Thankfully, Jerry speaks Techie, so he contacted the hosting company and it was all restored! I’ll spare you the rest of the boring details, but I’m so relieved that everything’s up and running again!

Now, before I get hacked again or just lose everything out of pure bad luck, I’m going to back up the whole damn site!

While I’m doing that, why don’t you let me know what your favorite contact management system is… and what you think is the most *secure*.

2009
11/22
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Technology
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Sad Franklin on Constitution Day, Interesting Nature Photos, Health Care and more

It’s Constitution Day!  And all of Philadelphia’s libraries may be closing as soon as October 2nd.  I can just see Benjamin Franklin rolling over in his grave.  It’s a sad day when one of the institutions that helped form our society (and remains a necessary service) can be neglected in this way.

On the flipside, I think Mr. Franklin would love the citizen involvement with science that new software for Android phones (and soon iPhones) creates.  It seems anyone can access a database of information about a project and upload their own information about that project, complete with GPS coordinates and everything.

Nature is fascinating, and I like to look at the fantastic pictures offered by photographers.  One newly-photographed animal is the golden cat.  Apparently it’s quite elusive and we have little opportunity to study it.  Too bad – it’s such a beautiful specimen!  A less beautiful, but equally fascinating, find is this snake with a foot.  Yup – a snake.  With a single foot.  Kinda creepy?  Sure.  Fascinating and awe-inspiring?  You bet!  And here, just for fun, are some very cool pictures of all kinds of animals.

With the Planck telescope, we are beginning to be able to look back in time, thanks to the nature of light.  Since my understanding of physics is limited at best, I suggest you read the article for further information.  My lame attempts to summarize would probably be completely wrong.  But I understand planets… at least on a basic level!  And a newly discovered planet, Corot-7b,  seems to have a solid, rocky surface.  This isn’t to say it could support life or anything – just that it’s a rare find when most planets outside our solar system are gaseous.

And back to health care.  It’s a big topic, and worthy of much discussion.  This article takes us on a trip through government spending and asks questions about priorities.  I’ve always wondered why we spend inordinate amounts of money on military prowess, space exploration, etc. when we can’t even get our homeless off the streets and our sick taken care of.  Perhaps we should, as a society, reevaluate our values and priorities.  Because without healthy people and proper roofs over our heads, all the military and space spending won’t do a bit of good.

2009
09/17
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Technology
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Modesty, Flipping Pages Online, Showering into Sickness, and a (hopefully!) Good Read

It’s not often that we acknowledge how much we owe our success to others and sincerely express gratitude.  David Brooks offers up a fine example of America at its best, with grand achievements and modesty to spare.

Sick of reading boring news feeds?  Try Google’s new Fast Flip.  With an interface closer to that of an ebook reader, it makes looking at articles on the computer screen seem more natural.

It seems as though by cleaning yourself every morning under a stream of warm water, you might just be exposing yourself to bacteria that can make you sick.  Good to know, but I think I’ll chalk that one up to improving my immune system!

This graphic novel about a traumatic childhood seems like a touching tale with expressive visuals as accompaniment.  It might be worth taking a look at.

‘Tis all I have for today… make it a lovely one!

2009
09/16
CATEGORY
Technology
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Nearly a Y(Eee)ar!

It’s been nearly a year since I first cracked open the case of my Asus Eee 701SD.  At the time, the netbook was probably a middle-of-the-road option, as far as the Eee line goes.  I have used it as my main computer, running Ubuntu Linux.

I’ve been pretty tough on that computer.  I’ve accidentally dropped it multiple times.  I rarely turned it off, always running multiple Firefox windows with way too many tabs active (just ask anyone who’s looked at my desktop recently).  It’s kept up pretty well.

Recently, however, I’ve been waiting… and waiting for my windows to respond and the wireless network to reconnect.  And there has been a problem with the power cord connecting to the battery.  It’s been a bit of a drag.  And I realized that I’m expecting too much from that sweet little machine.  So I invested in a new netbook.  This one’s a little larger and has incredible improvements in hardware (it’s an Acer Aspire One).  I would have loved to get a newer Eee, since the new ones have improved so much.  They even have one that has a touch screen and converts into a tablet PC.  The new Eee’s have bigger hard drives (or solid-state drives), more memory, better screens, etc.  But they are difficult to find in local stores.  Between Best Buy and Target, there are a few models available for immediate purchase, but most models need to be ordered.  So, when looking for a product for immediate acquisition, I was forced to choose another brand (not that I don’t like Acer – they’re awesome, too!).

So after nearly a year of use, I have figured out where the Eee 701SD fits into my life.  It’s great as a secondary PC that can be easily transported and  connected.  As a primary computer, however, it doesn’t quite make the grade.  I’m sad not to use it all the time now, but it’s cute little screen will accompany me often while on the go.

2009
09/06
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Technology
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Gadget-o-rama!

I just recently purchased a Sony eReader (PRS-505).  My reasons are many, but most important are the portability of books (much like music and mp3 players) and the fact that with each new book I buy, I have to give up more space in my house.  I love using it – it’s easy to see the pages and to zoom if I need a bigger font.  Another bonus is that I can put all my downloaded knitting projects on the gadget, as long as they’re in .pdf format.

My major issue so far has been with the free public domain books that I have downloaded.  They come formatted as an .epub file.  And most of them have problems with the way the eReader reads the title and author for the library database.  The library reads this information from information in the .epub itself – not the title.  And many of the titles of my books were listed with incorrect capitalization or wrong authors.  So I had to figure out how to edit this information to make my library show titles and authors in a similar fashion for each book.  That led me to this page where a forum user explains his particular way of accomplishing this task.

For clarity’s sake, and so I don’t forget how to do this in the future (!), here is what I did.

  1. Download and install WinRAR.
  2. Navigate (in Windows Explorer) to your ebook file (.epub).
  3. Right-click on the file and select “Open With”.
  4. Select the last option, “Choose Default Program”, unless WinRAR is already listed – then just choose WinRAR.
    • In the “Choose Default Program” window, uncheck the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” check box. Then select WinRAR from the list of files. If it is not shown, click the “Browse” button in the lower right-hand corner of the window and navigate to the location of the WinRAR executable. It is usually located here: C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe
  5. Navigate in the WinRAR window to the file you need to edit.
  6. Open the file, edit it, save it, close it.
  7. Click “OK” in the window WinRAR pops up asking you if you’d like to update the file in the archive.
  8. You’re done!

Ahh… now my files all look alike!

2009
08/26
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Technology
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