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[SOLUTION] CKEditor svc.spellchecker.net Spellchecker in Drupal Causes Malware Warning

Ian Lee — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:29:06 +0000

This morning, a client noticed a malware warning from Google Chrome when they tried to edit an article in Drupal. It turned out to be a domain (svc.spellchecker.net) from CKEditor (a WYSIWYG editor) was the cause. After some digging around, here are 2 ways to disable CKEditor spell checker from running. Both methods solved the malware warning from Chrome for Drupal 6:

Method 1:

1. Go to /admin/settings/ckeditor
2. Select the profile that you use or go through all of them if you wish:
3. Click on “Advanced options”
4. Set Spell checker: No
5. Click Save
6. Clear cache just in case

Method 2:

1. Go to /admin/settings/ckeditor
2. Select the profile that you use or go through all of them if you wish:
3. Click on “Advanced options”
4. Add “config.scayt_autoStartup = false;” without quotes to “Custom javascript configuration” section
5. Click Save
6. Clear cache just in case

Based on the Chrome warning, spellchecker.net has been notified of the malware warning. Hopefully, there is a fix sooner rather than later so we can enable the spell checker for CKEditor once again.

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DepositPhotos.com – A New Source for Stock Images

Ian Lee — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:48:38 +0000

As a long time publisher in the digital realm, it’s always great to be able to shoot images myself that we use in articles, but most of the time, it just makes sense to buy an image. This frees up time so I can concentrate on the creation and publishing of the actual content instead. Over the years, I have been using iStockPhoto.com to purchase images for a publisher client. Recent policy and pricing changes at this royalty-free stock image site has encouraged me to look elsewhere for images.

Before I share my new source of stock images, let me share some thoughts on why we are looking for a supplement to iStockPhoto. When we first joined iStockPhoto, images used to cost about $1 USD / image for the lowest resolution size (which was higher resolution at the time than currently I might add). We mainly publish online so most of our needs are met by choosing the lowest web version. With increasing image prices and decreasing resolution size, it was time for me to find another source for royalty-free images.

The New Kid in Town – Real World Pricing

After extensive research, I found a newer player in town in for stock images; and they seem to be gaining traction pretty quickly. This new site is DepositPhotos.com. Although their portfolio is not as large as iStockphoto’s, DepositPhotos has plenty of high quality images to meet our needs nicely. Currently, their lowest web version (roughly 425 x 280 pixels) is priced at 0.5 credits. This works out to $0.50 USD / image. On the other hand, iStockPhoto low resolution images (also around 425 x 280 pixels) can be purchased at around 1 credit (about $1.50 / image).

I use the word about because iStockPhoto’s has a tired pricing structure. The larger your money deposit, the lower the cost / image. In fact, you can in theory be purchasing iStockPhoto images for $0.95 / image. But, there is a catch. In order to get this rate, you must deposit $20,000 USD! For users who purchase the $6 minimum buy in, it works out to $1.62 USD / credit. But, number 2, it seems that more recent images being uploaded by photographers to iStockPhoto are priced at 2 credits instead of the previous 1 credit. One credit images are becoming harder to source. So a typical 2 credit low resolution photo ends up costing $3.24 USD. If you make a $75 credit purchase, a 2 credit image would work out to be $3 USD. This cost 500% more than a similar resolution photo from DepositPhotos.com!

Sometimes, there’s a need for slightly higher resolution images (about 800 x 600) and at DepositPhotos, the cost is $1 USD. At iStockphoto, a similar sized photo can go for 3 to 30 credits. You do the math.

Check out the pricing structures yourself. Here is iStockphoto.com’s price guide. Here is DepositPhotos.com’s price guide. And remember that 1 credit at iStockPhoto.com typically costs more than 1 credit at DepositPhotos.com.

For the record, I do feel that iStockPhoto carry more images than DepositPhotos. I can remember 1 time in the last few months where I could not locate a suitable image at DepostiPhotos and had to resort back to iStockphotos. But I must also say that there has been times where I could not find a suitable image at iStockPhoto and had to shoot the image myself. Being able to obtain images from multiple sources is ideal for publishers. For me, having 2 stock image photo websites carries the benefits of both worlds – lower cost and more photo choices.

Demo Yourself – You Decide

You need to perform searches at both websites and see if results and cost / image meet your needs. The best thing is, you don’t just have to take my word for it. DepositPhotos actually offer a 7 day (5 images / day) trial with no resolution limits. Give it a go and let me know what you think! And yes, that is an affiliate link.

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[SOLUTION] How to Tether an iPad 2 to an iPhone (including 3G & 3GS) without Jailbreaking

Ian Lee — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:47:48 +0000

Mobile carriers that allow internet tethering gave iPhone users the ability to share their mobile internet connection with notebooks and tablets. This is game changing technology and has been proven very useful for users not near a Wifi hotspot or those who choose not to use a free hotspot connection. Currently, not many mobile carriers allow internet tethering so when Apple launched the latest iPhone 4 and recent iOS’s with the new Wifi hotspot feature, it was warmly welcomed as it allowed iPhone 4 users to set up their own mini Wifi hotspots to share internet connectivity. The bad news for 3G and 3GS users was that this Wifi hotspot feature was only available for the iPhone 4. So unless you jailbreak your older iPhone, there is no way for an iPad or iPad 2 to use the mobile internet connection from a 3G or 3GS iPhone…. until today that is. Well, not exactly today, but it is only now that I found out that iOS 4.2.1 has enabled Bluetooth tethering for iPhones (even 3G and 3GS). This means I can now share my 3G mobile internet connection with an iPad without having to jailbreak. This let’s an iPad 2 grab and share the internet connection from my iPhone; although I have not tested this with other devices, I assume this would work with other Bluetooth enabled tablets like the iPad 1 as well. Of course, this only works if your mobile carrier allow your specific data plan to tether. Read on for detailed instructions on how to tether your iPad to your iPhone 3G or 3GS.

Here are the instructions to tether an iPad 2 to an iPhone 3G or 3GS. Make sure you follow these steps in the correct order:

1. Turn on Interent Tethering on your iPhone 3G or 3GS
General >> Network >> Internet Tethering – On (this is important, otherwise, Step #2 may fail)

2. Turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone 3G or 3GS
General >> Bluetooth – On
Note: Your iPhone may be smart enough to ask you enable Bluetooth right at this step

3. On your iPad 2, turn on Bluetooth
General >> Bluetooth – On

4. Once Bluetooth is enabled on your iPad 2, you should see your iPhone in the iPad’s Bluetooth list. Click on it to connect.
Note: you need to click your iPhone that is listed on your iPad. Selecting your iPad on your iPhone will not pair the Bluetooth connection.

5. Once you select to pair, you will receive a pop up on both your iPad and iPhone screens giving you a 6-digit numeric code
Your iPad pop up will give you the 6-numeric pin and your iPhone pop will ask if you want to pair Bluetooth using this pin. It’s a good way to ensure you only allow the right device to share your iPhone’s internet connection.

6. Click “Pair” on both devices
That’s it.

Once the pairing is complete, you should see the Tethering / Paired logo in the Wifi icon area. Now, you should be able to access the internet as if you were connected via Wifi. What joy for some of us old time iPhone users.

As You Can See, I Have Internet Connectivity

Although 3G tethering is slower than most Wifi connections, it’s still very usable and allow you to use the internet anywhere you have a mobile signal.

I do not have access to an iPad 1 but a quick message to @JohnChow and @iPhoneinCanada confirmed that the iPad 1 also has Bluetooth. So Bluetooth tethering should work for iPad 1 owners as well.

Once the word gets out, especially in areas where mobile carriers allow tethering, I have a feeling the 3G version of the iPad is going to take a nose dive in sales. Who would want to buy a dedicated 3G version when you can either Wifi hotspot or Bluetooth tether an internet connection now? Sales dipping may not mean a revenue drop for Apple mind you. Somehow, I think this is a calculated move by Apple and the mobile carriers. I am sure there is profit to be made from enabling tethering. For instance, Fido and Rogers (in Canada) only allow tethering for users with a higher cost data plan of 1GB or more / month. Realistically, Bluetooth tethering is only necessary for older iPhones. As I mentioned, the newer iPhone 4 has the Wifi hotspot featured enabled so most users will tether an iPad this way. I am guessing the only time an iPhone 4 user would want to Bluetooth tether over Wifi tethering is when they want better security while tethering.

If you have an iPad 1 or 2 and an older iPhone, give this Bluetooth tethering a try, it works if you have installed iOS 4.2.1 or later. And if you have an iPhone 4, let us know if Bluetooth tethering works with your iPad. In fact, if you have multiple Bluetooth devices, do let everyone know if multiple devices can share the 1 mobile internet connection using the above method!

Apple gets a thumbs up from me for supporting long time customers. What do you think about this move by Apple to enable Bluetooth tethering for 3G & 3GS users?

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[SOLVED] Opengraph Drupal Module – Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_substr()

Ian Lee — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:15:27 +0000

Recently, because a client’s Facebook Share count disappeared, I decided to replace the Share button with the newer Like button. The Like button works but sometimes, the count was still defaulting to zero even though many users have Liked a specific article. To try and fix this, I wanted to add meta info to each Like button. Meta info will allow posts to Facebook to be associated with a pre-specified image, URL and other article properties. Without this info, sometimes the system picks the correct image but most of the time it does not. I was hoping adding meta info will resolve the zero count issue for the Like button. The solution was to implement Opengraph Tags to add meat info to the Facebook Like button. Essensially, Opengraph tags will tell Facebook’s that a Like button is specifically linked to a particular article along with it’s title, description, image, article type, URL and site name. The site in question is powered by Drupal so I decided to give the Opengraph module a try. The only problem was, during installation, I received a server error like so:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_substr() in path/sites/all/modules/opengraph_meta/opengraph_meta.common.inc on line 127

Searching and asking about this error code in the Drupal forums did not result in any resolutions. Then it occured to me that this error was a function error. So I thought it could be a web sever configuration issue rather than a Drupal issue. After sending a ticket to the server management company, I was told that we could fix this error just by including this module into PHP and doing a recompile. It took about 30 minutes for the entire recompile to take place. Only near the last few minutes did the website go offline for about 3 minutes. After that, the Drupal Opengraph Drupal module was successful installed and worked as indicated. Every article on the client site now contains 6 Opengrpaph meta tags and Facebook is indeed displaying the proper Like counts and image on a person’s wall after they have Liked an article.

If you are not seeing the Facebook Like button show the correct count or image,on your Drupal site, check out the Opengraph Drupal module. It just may solve your problem like it did ours.

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[SOLVED] Cisco Linksys E4200 Slow Upload Speed

Ian Lee — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:02:13 +0000

For those who have waited patiently for the Cisco Linksys E4200 Gigabit, Wireless-N, Dual-Band router to arrive in Canadian retail stores, your wait is over. Cisco officially launched the E4200 on March 27, 2011 in Canada. Before I publish a more detailed article about putting the unit through its paces in a real world environment, here is a quick tweak to speed up slow uploads through the E4200. Setup was easy and most settings can be left at the default level. But one particular setting at default resulted in a slow internet upload speed. The E4200 is currently the highest consumer grade wireless router made by Cisco Linksys so take advantage of the new options available in the latest Linksys firmware. Log in to the unit and under Applications & Games >> QoS ,there is a setting for “Upstream Bandwidth“. Default for this is “Auto“. Linksys has an online UI setup so you can see this setting here. When in Auto mode, I was only getting about 60% (1.6 mbps) of my maximum upload speed. Once I manually set Upstream Bandwidth to 10 mbps, I was able to reach my maximum upload speed of 2.5 mbps. If you are experiencing a slow upload speed with the Linksys E4200, try setting Upstream Bandwidth at 2-3 times your maximum upload speed and you may just speed up slow internet upload speeds.

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Kingston 32GB Class 10 SDHC Cards – SD10/32GB versus SD10/32GBCR

Ian Lee — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:32:44 +0000

It came time for me to purchase a new SDHC card and the requirement was that it had to be fast enough to cope with the high demands of dSLR burst-shooting and HD video recording. Given the current price point in Canada, the biggest bang for the buck for a branded SDHC card at this moment is a Kingston 32GB SDHC Class 10 card. For me, this card (including 12% tax) works out to be $2.66 / GB. Kingston is a reputable brand and their memory cards are significantly less expensive than the professional Sandisk Extreme line of memory cards. So after checking a few reviews and speed charts, I decided to buy the Kingston card and noticed Canadian retailers carried 2 SKU’s for this product; SD10/32GB versus SD10/32GBCR. In general, the CR version was about 10-20% lower in cost. Kingston’s website does not show any references for the lower cost CR version. The good news is Kingston support has confirmed that these two versions are identical products. The CR designation is “an international part number which is used for marketing purposes only. There is no physical difference as far as the actual product is concerned.” This was good enough for me. Once I receive card, I will post back about its capabilities for use in a newer dSLR. So if you are considering a Kingston 32GB Class 10 card for your photography and video needs, be sure to check and see if your retailer carries the lower cost SD10/32GBCR version.

***UPDATE***
November 17, 2010
So after receiving the product, I can confirm that although the UPC code says SD10/32GBCR, the actual SD card shows SD10/32GB (just like the image in this post). Looks like these 2 SKU’s are indeed used for the same product. Just find the lower cost version and purchase that one instead.
************

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The New AdSense Interface is Live Now

Ian Lee — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:11:38 +0000

Those of you who utilize Google AdSense to generate revenue are going to love the new AdSense interface. It’s clean, easy-to-use and most importantly, allows you access important information quickly. There are too many new and positive things to discuss here. You should go try it yourself. Just log in to your AdSense account as you normally do. You will be asked to try the new AdSense interface. If you do not get this prompt, there will be a “Try the new AdSense interface” link at the top of your screen after you log in. Happy AdSensing!

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Panasonic HDC-TM700 HD Camcorder Review

Ian Lee — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:02:07 +0000

This is a review post of Panasonic’s higher end, consumer level HD camcorder, the HDC-TM700 or what most owners just call the TM700. As a detailed write-up has already been published by Camcorderinfo.com, this review will not be getting into the nitty gritty but only discuss issues from a first-hand perspective of using this camera for a few months. Hopefully, anyone considering the purchase of this HD camcorder will find some real world user insights helpful.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Product Overview

The TM700 is slightly larger in size than your typical Canon or Sony consumer HD camcorder. Larger in the camcorder world means less shaking during handheld recording but because of the larger size, it also means it may be more difficult to reach some of the function buttons located in various places on the camcorder. Colour, noise and sharpness performance was very good for a model in this price range. In brightly lit outdoor conditions, vividness and sharpness of the TM700 is truly amazing. I have seen detail in some outdoor footages that I have never seen recorded with any consumer level camcorder on the market to date. The TM700 also performs very well with with low light recording. It is a little grainy but low light performance is significantly better than the Canon HFM31. Overall, the TM700 produced very high quality videos.

The two concerns from this Panasonic HD camcorder is the fan noise recorded into the footages and the jittering or vibration that occur in some recorded footages. I will get more into this below.

Note the TM700 is flash-based. It has an internal memory bank of 32 Gigs and an additional SD media slot so you can record to an external flash card if needed. There is also a harddisk sibling called the HDC-HS700. Essentially, these are the same camcorders except for the storage method.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Video Format

The HDC-xx700 line has a recording signal of 1080 / 60p and 1080 / 60i. Although this HD camcorder records in AVCHD format (MPEG-4
AVC/H.264 (AVCHD standard compliant) for all resolutions, the format for 1080 60p recording is not AVCHD standard compliant (even though it is AVCHD). Who would have known that there is actually a non-standard format of AVCHD. In the real world, editing software that is compatible with AVCHD may not be able to recognize 1080 60p video from this camcorder. Many Mac users have been pulling their hair out trying to find an easy way to edit these TM700 files without needing to convert prior to editing. My choice of editing software happens to be Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (for the PC), which is fully compatible with this non-standard AVCHD 1080 60p format. Thank goodness, I am a PC!

Most consumer HD camcorders produce files that are 1080 30p, 1080 60i, 720 60p or even 1080 24p. It’s difficult enough trying to edit HD footages but to be able to edit 1080 60p videos, Quad Core and lots of RAM is a must. I am using a Quad Core + 4 Gigs of RAM which works but what makes the editing easier was buying an Nvidia based video card. Premiere Pro CS5 can utilize hardware acceleration and offload some processing and exporting of videos to a compliant video card. Even if do not have an Adobe certified Nvidia card, here is a hack that allows CS5 to take advantage of the processing power of newer Nvidia video cards.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Handling and Usability

The TM700 has a 3 inch wide LCD touchscreen. Touch screen focus is easy and locks on to any subject that you touch. The video above shows a good example of this. There are many controls on this HD camcorder but you can choose to use iA (Intelligent Auto) mode, which works very well already, or you have the ability to tweak just about every setting that a typical user would want. The only function that I was missing was the ability to slow down the zoom speed when using the remote control to achieve those silky smooth slow zooming / panning shots for landscape shooting. Using the levers on the camcorder body to zoom tends to create slight movements in the recorded footage even when the camcorder is mounted on a fairly sturdy Manfrotto tripod. The only way to achieve the slowest zoom was to hand hold the camcorder and zoom out using the sensitive zoom lever on the top of the unit. But because of handholding and the sensitive lever (the more you move the lever, the quicker the zoom), the final footage is definitely not as stable as one taken with a tripod and using the remote to zoom out.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Image Stabilization

Panasonic has developed something called Power O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) in the TM700. There are 2 modes; Mode 1 is for normal shooting and Mode 2 is for recording while walking, which you will see in the video above. Both modes work fairly well when used correctly. The best image stabilization I was able to achieve was using either Mode 1 or Mode 2, mounting the camcorder on a tripod and then carrying the legs of the tripod and wakling. I even did a run sequence and the recorded footage was actually better than walking with the camcorder in my hands. The trick is to hold the tripod legs so your arms and elbows act like shock absorbers. I did not get a chance to include this sequence in the above video but holding the tripod while moving is a good technique to decrease camera shake during recording.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Highlights

1. Extremely High Quality HD Video: I cannot say enough of the high quality video capabilities. This HD camcorder has produced some of the best quality videos I have ever seen from a consumer level HD camcorder.
2. On-Board 5.1 Microphone: 5.1 microphones are not determining factors for choosing an HD camcorder but having one is neat when you are able to utilize it during playback if you have a digital surround sound audio system.
3. Lens Ring: There is a lens ring located near the front of the camcorder. You can use it to manually focus a scene or to zoom in and out. Very cool and easy to use, especially for manual focusing.
4. 1080 60p: For those who are looking for silky smooth videos, 1080 60p will deliver. As I mentioned in point #1, this HD camcorder is able to produce very high quality HD video.
5. Time Lapse Shooting: This camcorder can be set to shoot from 1 frame every second to a frame every 10 second, 30 seconds, one minute, or two minutes. You can get some pretty neat results with this function.
6. 18X Intelligent Zoom: Even though this camcorder has an optical zoom of 12X, Panasonic implemented something called Inteligent Zoom and allow you to reach 18X digital zoom without too much video degradation. This extra reach can be useful in many situations. I normally set my camcorders to only use optical zoom but because Panasonic’s Intelligent Zoom is so good, I can use 18X in confidence knowing that the quality in the final footage will still be acceptable.
7. Fairly Wide Angle Lens: Most consumer camcorders will not have as wide as a 35mm lens; the TM700 does. Without having to purchase additional adapters or lenses, this camcorder’s 35mm wide angle allow you record a fairly wide field of view. In other words, you won’t have to stand as far back to capture everyone in the frame during those family gatherings.

Things to Improve on the TM700

There are 3 things that stand out for improvement.

1. Jittering / Vibrating When Zooming Out: For some reason, I am seeing quite a few recorded scenes where I would notice jittering or vibration of objects in the scene when zooming out from 18X to 1X (or somewhere in between). This happens when OIS is on for both modes and even when it’s off. I see less jittering when the camcorder is stationary and mounted on a tripod but it’s still there. Panning does not bring out this problem, only during zoom outs. I have a feeling it’s the OIS coupled with zooming out coupled with the autofocus that is causing this issue. Many users do not notice this but on a 24 inch computer monitor and a 50+ inch LCD, the jiterring is there and very irritating. In fact, you can see the jittering I am referring to in various parts of the video above.
2. Fan Noise in Recorded Footage: Panasonic decided to use an internal fan on this HD camcorder. Perhaps a unit like the TM700 that records in 1080 60p requires a lot of cooling. The fan noise is not noticeable until you record in quiet environments and this does not have to be a super quiet environment either. In most of my indoor footages, I can hear the fan noise. Many owners have commented it’s a non-issue but I have analysed their files and the fan noise is definitely there. They just do not hear it or simply takes it as the typical white noise that is common among consumer HD camcorders. The only saving grace from the TM700 fan noise issue is that white noise produced by this unit is very low as compared to the other HD camcorders like the Canon HFM31. And because white noise is low, the fan noise sounds noticeably louder (probably also enhanced by the ultra sensitive on-board 5.1 microphone). Despite many owners saying they do not have the fan noise problem, I have ran footages from these same users inside Adobe Sounbooth CS5 and found fan noise in all of them. Adobe Soundbooth CS5 allow you to visually see sound in frequencies so knowing that the Panasonic TM700′s fan noise has a frequency of around 800 Hz – 1,000 Hz, you can clearly see fan noise in these so called “non-issue” recordings. It comes down to whether one can hear it and/or are bothered by it.
3. Zoom Out speed Control for Remote: As I mentioned above, I wish Panasonic would have included a function to set zoom speed on the remote control. Or at the very least, allow speed adjustments on the camcorder body zoom levers themselves (like available on the Canon HFM31).

Conclusion – Panasonic HDC-TM700 HD Camcorder Review

The Panasonic TM700 is easy to use, fun and capable of producing extremely high-quality videos. There are very few consumer HD camcorders that record in 1080 60p and this is one of them. In normal and brightly lit conditions, video footage is detailed, vibrant and extremely smooth (thanks to the 60p). I must say, the videos from the TM700 is one of the best I have ever seen from a consumer HD camcorder. For those of you considering the purchase of an HD camcorder, you can check out the video above. No post-processing was applied to the footage; only transitions and titles were added. Happy shooting!

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Highly Successful Brand Awareness Campaign of 2010

Ian Lee — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:09:23 +0000

Companies often pay top dollar to PR and media agencies for help to gain exposure and increase brand awareness. With so many self-proclaimed social media gurus and experts tweeting and connecting in Facebook, you would think there are more successful campaigns out there. This is just not the case. When a campaign is truly successful, it deserves a nod. So this post is dedicated to a highly successful brand awareness campaign of 2010 – The Anywhere Challenge by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG).

The Anywhere Challenge has Brought Great Excitement to Members

Like elemental Magnesium, online marketing campaigns and user contests are ubiquitous these days. Some perform well but The Anywhere Challenge put on by IHG has performed exceedingly well. There are still two weeks left in the contest and it has brought great excitement and user participation to IHG members.

The object of the contest is to bring awareness to the Hotels Anywhere program that allow Intercontinental Hotels Group members to redeem Priority Club Rewards points for any participating hotel, even competitors of IHG.

“Hotels Anywhere, is the first and only hotel industry redemption option that allows members to redeem loyalty points for more than 73,000 hotels all over the world, even our direct competitor.”

What a neat concept! I can now use my Priority Club Rewards points to book any one of the tens of thousands of participating hotels worldwide, including a direct competitor of the IHG family (Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn / Express, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge and Candlewood). Imagine if the airline industry also introduced a share-a-point system? There would be a lot more happier travelers out there.

The contest gives an opportunity for members to try and correctly guess a worldwide location for prizes and Priority Club Rewards points. Each new day of the weekly contest, members receive an additional clue along with a few photo elements that are revealed in a Flash based slideshow. Here is an example of what a typical week’s clues may look like:

To see the actual clue slider in action, you can view The Anywhere Challenge here.

Increasing Brand Awareness and User Engagement

There are a few online conversations that closely follow this contest but the most active one is located at FlyerTalk.com. Each day, many users compare and trade tips to try and figure out the answer. The contest has only been running a few weeks and the FlyerTalk.com thread has already accumulated over 3,000 replies and 500,000 views! In fact, this thread is so long, the administrators created a second thread to make it easier for users to discuss the remaining weeks of the contest. It is actually a surprise to see this contest getting users to talk more than just contest answers. Here are a few fun examples of users discussing potential future vacation travels and even a quick history lesson:

mealto – fun history lesson of Malaysia – addressed to the creators of this contest
gpapadop - contest inspired him to possibly visit a new location
Motors – attempt to crack the code by extracting images from the Flash file
imchaz – identified matching Shutterstock.com images used in contest
DealDetective – doing some great sleuthing
margharita girl - dashboard of answers and winners

With all of this attention on The Anywhere Challenge contest, there is no absolutely no denying that IHG increased brand awareness over the last few weeks. So does all of this extra awareness translate into?

Increased Brand Awareness is Always a Good Thing

It would be difficult for anyone not working at IHG to figure out their global sales but, I do know IHG has gained at least 1 more loyal customer. Not only did this contest allow me to earn a few extra points for my own Priority Club Rewards account, I now know I can use these points towards any hotel that is participating in the Hotels Anywhere program. In fact, the extra few thousand points from this contest allowed me to achieve Ambassador status so you can bet I am going to choose Intercontinental Hotels where possible on future trips to take full advantage of all benefits that come along with this status upgrade. This coupled with the fact that IHG has been running a Friends and Family discount deal over the last year has made IHG properties my first choice of hotels for all my travels.

During this worldwide economic downturn where hotels are no longer fully selling out rooms and are more often than not are selling them at a reduced rate, The Anywhere Challenge contest is a great driver to try and fill some of these unbooked rooms. Yes, IHG does give out massive points for this contest but if it brings in more customers, more often and helps to fill some of those empty rooms, it can only better IHG’s financials come year end.

For a contest that generates this much attention for IHG, a well-deserved pat on the back goes out to the creators of The Anywhere Challenge contest. This is truly a great example of a highly successful brand awareness campaign.

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How to Output Sound from Speakers and Headset Simultaneously

Ian Lee — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:09:20 +0000

Computers are a wonderful thing but sometimes, the simplest tasks seem to be the most difficult to accomplish. Have you ever been frustrated by repeatedly having to unplug your headset from the front of your computer just so you can hear audio from your speakers? Or are you savvy enough to have used a splitter so that both your headset and speakers output audio simultaneously. I am one to hate spending money on parts when there is absolutely no need to do so. So I am one of those who just plug in and unplug my headset. This workaround became such a chore and annoyance that I finally dug into my Windows 7 sound card setup and figured out how to output audio simultaenously from the speakers and the headset! It sounds like a silly discovery but for those of us who regularly use Gmail calling, Skype and various audio tools like Audacity (for editing our podcasts), this solution finally brought peace and harmony back to computing.

The following are instructions and screenshots of a Dell Vostro 410 with an on-board Realtek sound card and the Realtek HD Audio Manager. Your setup may be different and simultaneous audio output to speakers and headset may not be supported by your sound card, but for those of you who also have this common setup, here is your solution.

Step 1: Open Realtek HD Audio Manager

Step 2: Click on Connector Settings Folder Icon

- Check “Disable front panel jack detection”

Step 3: Make sure “Speakers” is set as default device

This should allow you to send audio to your speakers and headset simultaneously without needing an external splitter. Also, be sure to go into your settings and select a higher Default Format since most speaker setups will only have a medium setting and most headsets can deliver a higher audio resolution.

So enjoy using both your speakers and headset without ever having to unplug and re-plug in the headset jack. I know I am!

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Fixed: iPhone Duplicate Sent Emails End up in Outlook Inbox

Ian Lee — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:17:17 +0000

Since I have been using the iPhone 3G, email has been working perfectly until this morning. I have Outlook set to retrieve email via POP and my iPhone using IMAP. All of a sudden, I am receiving a copy of emails sent via the iPhone in my Outlook Inbox. This issue is definitely common, especially when connecting to a Gmail account using multiple clients such as an iPhone, web browser and Outlook. It is a known issue and well document here:

My problem is a slightly different as it is happening on a non-Gmail account and the problem was non-existent until today. After some digging around, it looks like my iPhone’s setting got changed. Not sure how or why but there is a simple fix. On your iPhone, go to:

Settings >> Mail, Contacts, Calendars, there is a setting called “Always Bcc Myself”

For some reason, this was set to “on.” I disabled this and all is well again, no more duplicate emails being sent to my Outlook Inbox when I reply to an email from my iPhone. If you are also experiencing this duplicate email issue when sending emails on an iPhone, try this simple fix.

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Canon Vixia HF M31 HD Camcorder Review

Ian Lee — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:40:15 +0000

This post is a review of Canon’s new mid-range HD camcorder, the Canon Vixia HF M31. As a detailed, technical write up on the pros and cons of this new HD camcorder has been published by Camcorderinfo.com, this review will deal solely with my first-hand experience of having used this video camera for a few weeks. Hopefully, others considering the purchase of an HD camcorder will find this article useful in their research. Note that the HF M31 / HFM31 (32GB internal memory) is part of a series from Canon that includes the HF M30 /HFM30 (8GB internal memory) and HF M300 / HFM300 (SD/SDHC memory card only).

HF M31 Product Overview

The new HFM line of HD camcorders from Canon is easy to use. The small size is great as a secondary camera for a camera bag already loaded with a large dSLR. But don’t let the small size fool you, this HD camcorder is a very capable piece of technology. Canon upgraded last year’s highly regarded HF20 and HF200 models with better image stabilization and a touchscreen LCD to produce the new HFM series. Colour, noise and sharpness performance was very good for a model in this price range. Image quality wise, Canon could have done better with low light performance. Having said that, indoor video quality was not poor but it also was not great; it contained a little more grain than I prefer and the image was not as bright as it could be. Overall, the HF M31 / HFM31 produced very high-quality videos.

HF M31 Compression & Media

The HFM series line of HD camcorders uses AVCHD compression (which is based on the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec) just like most consumer HD camcorders. It has 5 levels of HD quality settings but no standard definition recording just in case anyone absolutely needs this. At up to 24 mbps, we really did see very good quality image on a 50+ inch progressive LCD screen. Keep in mind that the camcorder’s three frame rates (60i, PF24, and PF30) can be used for recording with each quality setting. Do note that the PF24 and PF30 frame rates are not recorded natively. Recordings made using these frame rates are converted by the camcorder and recorded onto memory as 60i. In the real world, we saw good results from PF30 and would not consider using PF24 for any scenes with panning or lots of movement. In fact, just shoot at 60i as it has been around for a long time and very compatible across technologies. And, if needed, deinterlace the final video when you output from your video editing software. Note, to edit AVCHD files, you will need the right software and hardware. Even on a 64-bit quad core computer with lots of RAM, rendering out 1080p videos from AVCHD files required a lot of computing power.

HF M31 Handling and Usability

One of the biggest strengths of the HFM series is its small size but that is also its largest downfall in my opinion. Small size means you tend to use the gear more often; we all know how large cameras can sometimes deter it from being used. But small video cameras have a pitfall in that it is not as easy to get a steady shot. So I was quite surprised that hand-held footages were very acceptable. In fact, even when zoomed in at 15X optical (or even 60x digital), one press of the Power Image Stabilization button coupled with the right breathing and camera holding technique, you can get an extremely steady image. This is when the subject is not moving of course. By default, Dynamic Image Stabilization is enabled and this mode is meant for your everyday shooting. It does an ok job when used with care, even during a walking scene as you will see in the video above.

The biggest update from last year’s HF model was a new touchscreen LCD. Most controls are now accessed using the LCD screen. Think of it like an iPhone screen but less sensitive to touch. Images produced here are bright and saturated. The best use of the LCD screen has to be the focusing system. When face detection and tracking are enabled, the camcorder does a very good job at “finding” faces and making sure focus lock is on them. To override, just touch another subject on the LCD screen and the camcorder will lock and track this new subject. A segment of the video above will show you exactly how this works. The LCD focus system is probably the neatest and most useful update in this new HD camcorder.

Things to Improve on the HF M31

As mentioned above, I think low light performance and image stabilization could be better on this unit. But given all the pluses discussed above, I can live with some grain and a slightly darker scene during low light recordings. On the other hand, what I really dislike is Canon’s proprietary hot-shoe size. You have to buy proprietary Canon gear, such as microphones or accessories that attach to a hot-shoe because the shoe provided on this camcorder is slightly smaller than the standard size. You can always purchase a shoe adapter such as the ones found at DM Accessories but that adds costs and you may lose the “hot” side of things if you go this route.

The second thing that Canon should have provided was a mini HDMI to HDMI cable. If you choose to use HDMI to send a signal out to your TV or computer, you will have to purchase this cable as it’s not provided.

Lastly, when the camcorder is powered off, there is no locking mechanism for the image stabilization system. You should never shake sensitive equipment like a camcorder but even more so with this unit. You will hear the rattling of something loose inside. That is actually the image stabilization system! I am surprised that there is no way to park the mechanical parts of this system when the power is turned off on the unit. Once power is turned on, there is no more rattling as the stabilization system is activated and locked down.

Conclusion – Canon Vixia HF M31 / HF M 30 / HF M300

The Canon Vixia HF M31 is easy to use, fun and capable of recording very high-quality video. For a camcorder that records HD video at up to 24 mbps, I can live with, at least for now, a somewhat darker and slightly grainy image during low light shooting. In normal and bright light conditions, video footage is sharp, vibrant and smooth. For those of you considering the purchase of a new HD camcorder, you can check out the video above. All footages were taken on a cloudy day and no post-processing was applied; only transitions and titles were added. Happy shooting!

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