A new year is almost year and I’m getting reminded to update my websites with the copyright years at the bottom…you know the Copyright 2000-current year.

Instead of manually doing this ever year, I decided to put in a snippet of PHP code to cover all my bases.

Here’s the code:

<? print(Date(“Y”)); ?>

Enjoy! And Happy New Year!

About 9 years ago, my 3^rd IT job surprised me by telling me to make my own ethernet cables. Normally, I pick up a catalog and order but I guess making cables adds to my skill set.

Where to begin? Ask someone who’s done it before. I was given a hands on lesson. Then it was time to make one. I guess I’m a good fast learner because it worked.

Today, I don’t remember what wire goes where so here’s my documentation/guide on making your own.

Step 1. Cut off 1” of the outside wire to expose the smaller wires inside.

Step 2. Straighten the wires in the middle.

Step 3. Arrange the wires and work them back and forth until they stay in order on their own.

Step 4. Trim the wire.

Step 5. Insert into connector.

Step 6. Crimp.

Step 7. Test

Here’s how to arrange the wires:

References:

http://www.groundcontrol.com/galileo/ch5-ethernet.htm

WordPress 3.1.4 & Arthemia Premium are compatible. I always get scared when updating WordPress so I do a full backup of my files and the database right before hand.

At the same time, I clear out the next 3 hours just in case something goes wrong.

Mobile applications are part of what people look for in websites…in particular your website. Most websites don’t look that great on mobile phones or other devices because of the small screens. I was using Carrington Mobile for the past 3 years and I figured I should look for another solution.

I stumbled on WPtouch by BraveNewCode. Like the Carrington theme, this plugin converts your WordPress website into a cool looking webpage for mobile devices.

There are a few things I really like about this theme:

1. The pictures are adjusted to fit the width of the device.
2. It looks like an iPhone app.
3. Easy to install.
4. The default settings are great.
5. Easy to use.

References:

http://www.bravenewcode.com/

Here are some screenshots from this site using WPtouch.

I decided to increase the width of my website to 1000px. This took a while to find all the proper widths in the Arthemia CSS file but I did it. One of the things I’m looking for is a way to show more than 12 random posts at the bottom. I’ve played around with the footer code but it doesn’t seem to want to come up.

For those of you who want to modify your theme, you need to make sure you modify:
navbar.png and left_stripe

I recently had the problem where my web browser will not open up Adobe Acrobat PDF files would not open in my web browser and also had the problem where my Word 2010 would freeze my computer when creating a PDF file.

I tried:

• Reinstalling the browser.
• Reinstalling Adobe Acrobat.

In the end, the solution was to disable Enhanced Security. Open Adobe Acrobat, click on Edit, then Preferences. Go to the Advanced Security category and uncheck Enable Enhanced Security.

Arthemia Premium theme with WordPress 3.1.3 works.

Update
There was a bug where I couldn’t use the Admin Bar where the Edit Page or Edit Post would disappear and only show Edit Category. This bummed me out because my other sites have this feature. I took some time to do a complete restore of the Arthemia theme. That didn’t work. I updated WordPress again. That didn’t work.

It turns out the the Video or Random Posts does not work well with the code. In turn, I stopped using the Video and Random Posts on my pages and posts. To do this, go to your Arthemia Options and then look under Under Single Post Page Settings and select Hide Video and Random Post Gallery.

This will add the Edit Page or Edit Post and Shortlink feature back to your pages and posts.

Santa Claus came early this year and brought me an iPod Nano 8GB (6th generation). Yes, it’s the multi-touch and it’s also in orange. I’m actually so excited about it that I haven’t connected it to my iTunes and wanted to write this post.

Here are the specs:
Size and weight

• Height: 1.48 inches (37.5 mm)
• Width: 1.61 inches (40.9 mm)
• Depth: 0.35 inch (8.78 mm)
• Weight: 0.74 ounce (21.1 grams)

Display

• 1.54-inch (diagonal) color TFT display
• 240-by-240-pixel resolution
• 220 pixels per inch

Application Specifications

• FM Radio
• Voice Over
• Photos
• Music Player (of course)
• Pedometer

When this model was first released, people started making remarks to turn it into a watch. Sure enough manufacturers started making watch bands that can hold the iPod Nano. I’ve taken a look a few of these bands and I’m not thoroughly impressed. Other than the HEX Nano watch band, the rest are bracelets where you clip on the Nano.

I tried to make my own. First, I tried to use a previous leather bracelet of mine but the current holes didn’t line up. Fail. Then, I tried fashioning a bracelet from a belt. Apparently, I don’t have enough tools to handle leather. Fail. Finally, I was searching on the web for a solution, looked down and looked at my power adapter. My power adapter had a rubber strip for cable management. Success!

I clipped on the Nano to the band, wrapped it around my wrist and “Tada!” Now I have a Nano Watch. I’m curious to know what you’ve done. Emails and comments are welcome.

Which iPod are you?

References:
Shop HEX
Apple

College students are spoiled with awesome technology. Every kid has a laptop, cell phone, PDAs…and I’ll stop before I show my age. Back to the point; I was browsing iTunes store and stumbled upon a really cool app–Eidetiq. Eidetiq is a phone app created by Chubby Weasel Technologies. At first glance this app records the class lectures (sound only). What good is that? There’s the voice recorder already in the iPhone. Eidetiq steps it up a notch by adding the ability to take photo snapshots of whiteboards and maybe your classmates’ notes while recording sound.

I’m sure Eidetiq comes from Eidetic. “Eidetic or photographic memory is popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume.” –Wikipedia

Replaying the lecture is easy. Select the lecture, press play. When you first replay the lecture, you’ll see the first picture taken as you start to hear the lecture. Then as the lecture progresses you’ll see the next picture at the point where you took the picture and so on. I wish I had this when I was in school…I might have gotten better grades.

The app is really easy to use and the desktop client to replay the lecture makes playback easy. The icons are a cool addition too.

While the main purpose of this app is to take notes for students, teachers and professors, I’ll use it in my daily work life where I need to take notes and take pictures of those whiteboards of some office meetings. No more inaccuracies in meeting minutes! Yes, I’m just a little bit excited.

I don’t normally give ratings but this app is definitely 4 out of 5 stars.

Here’s a description from Chubby Weasel:

Students, teachers and professors use Eidetiq to take notes, to remember facts and to catch missing points from lectures where audio recording is approved. With Eidetiq, you log your notes automatically so that you can concentrate on listening and interacting with your professor and class in order to retain what’s really important. You can use Eidetiq to record approved lectures, simultaneously capturing the audio and clicking pictures of important events. The pictures are synchronized to the audio, so that you can easily replay what was said during the time where you photographed the event. Professors and teachers use Eidetiq to capture what works in their lecture for future reuse, as well as to record photos of white board and overhead in-class work.

Using free software that you download on your laptop, the Eidetiq app automatically syncs to your Mac or Windows machine. On your computer, you can review your recorded lecture including photos timetagged to audio for better retention and clarification of important points. Collaboration and improved learning and study techniques will result.

Here are some features I’d like to see in next versions:

• Highlight the picture or mark it up
• Bookmarks in the lecture
• A way to search for lectures

References:
http://eidetiq.com

I ran into this error message while using iCal and Google Apps Calendar, “The server responded with an error. The server did not recognize your user name or password for account “email@domain.com.” Make sure you enter them correctly.

I checked my password several times. I even made changes to the iCal calendar and they made it to the server. It seemed like the connection was working fine but this error message kept popping up.

I changed my password on Google. I didn’t get the error message again. Here’s where I think there’s a bug. If you have a semi-colon ; in your password, you will receive the error message. I don’t know if any other characters are having problems.

Here are the instructions on how to setup Apple iCal with Google Apps:

To set up CalDAV support for Google Calendar in Apple’s iCal, follow these steps:

1. Open Apple iCal, go to Preferences and then the Accounts tab.
2. Click on the + button to add an account.
3. In the box that pops up, enter a description for the account and your Google Account username and password.
4. Under Server Options, add the following URL:

   https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM/user

   Replace ‘YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM’ with the email address that you use to log in to Calendar. Make sure to include the ‘@domain.com’ portion (which is @gmail.com for Gmail users) in this section. DO NOT substitute your username for ‘user’ at the end of the URL.

5. Leave the Use Kerberos v5 for authentication option unchecked.
6. Click Add.
7. Under the Delegation tab, select the calendars you’d like to add to iCal by checking the boxes next to them. You may need to hit refresh to get the latest list of calendars.
8. Add your email address to your Address Book card by selecting Add Email. You’ll be prompted to add your email address only if your address is not already in your Address Book.

You won’t be able to invite or email guests to Google Calendar events within iCal if your address is not in your Address Book.

Your Google Calendar will now appear in iCal’s list of calendars, and changes you make to your Google Calendar in iCal will be reflected when you sign in to Google Calendar.

Event information will automatically refresh every five minutes. You can change this interval by opening the iCal > Preferences > Accounts menu and selecting a new refresh interval under the ‘Refresh calendars’ drop-down. Keep in mind you can also force a refresh by selecting a calendar and pressing the Apple and R keys at the same time.

Calendars that are checked but disabled have already been added to iCal – you can remove them from within iCal.

References:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99358#ical