Chris Curtis dot Org Chris Curtis dot Org: Entries covering web development, technology, news, and more. 2012-03-08T04:19:08Z Copyright (c) 2012, Chris Curtis ExpressionEngine tag:chriscurtis.org,2012:03:08 Simple Embedded Media tag:chriscurtis.org,2012:/4.1217 2012-03-08T04:17:06Z 2012-03-08T04:19:08Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> Homemade Samoas Bars tag:chriscurtis.org,2012:/4.1216 2012-02-19T17:29:47Z 2012-02-19T17:34:48Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> Connect to a Hidden WiFi Network with Android tag:chriscurtis.org,2011:/1.1215 2011-12-30T18:41:25Z 2012-02-13T22:44:27Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ I got a new 5th Gen Airport Extreme for Christmas and went about setting up my local network again.  I decided to run the wireless network as closed/hidden so that the SSID isn’t broadcast.  This worked fine for all my many devices except my Android phone, which would list the network as “not in range” when it was hidden even though the phone might just be a couple of feet from the basestation.  After a fair bit of searching around, I came across this post which held the key.  What I did to get things to work:

1. Install HiddenSSID Enabler from the Android Marketplace
2. Enable your WiFi network to broadcast its SSID temporarily
3. Turn on WiFi on your Android device and ensure you connect to your network successfully
4. On your Android device, open the HiddenSSID Enabler app
5. Enter your network/SSID name and click the “Enable Hidden SSID” button.  There is no feedback given that anything happened.  Don’t panic.
6. Turn WiFi off for your Android device
7. Disable SSID broadcasting on your router again
8. Turn on WiFi on your Android device and it should now connect to the hidden network

No guarantees this will work for you, of course, but it’s fixed things for me.

]]> 1080p Does Matter tag:chriscurtis.org,2011:/4.1214 2011-12-19T00:21:50Z 2011-12-19T00:22:51Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> OS X System Icons tag:chriscurtis.org,2011:/4.1213 2011-11-02T23:11:03Z 2011-11-02T23:39:04Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> Ejecting a Stuck Disc in OS X tag:chriscurtis.org,2011:/1.1212 2011-05-19T00:21:46Z 2011-05-19T00:29:48Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ So, I popped an old burned-DVD disc into my MacMini today, but nothing happened.  The disc wasn’t mounted, DVD Player didn’t start up, nothing.  I’ve had similar things happen in the past and usually I can get the disc to eject either via iTunes or the Disk Utility or if somehow that doesn’t work, then rebooting and holding down the mouse button to force the disc to eject.  Well, those things didn’t work this time.  Neither did any of the other usual solutions.  Even using “drutil” via Terminal didn’t do anything at all.  Needless to say, I was very frustrated after an hour spent trying all sorts of things with none of them working.

Finally, I came upon a DVD stuck in MacBook Pro post over on Silvermac.com, that provided the solution I needed.  As I mentioned to a buddy, though, even though the trick worked, it boggles my mind that the way to “fix” it was to physically restrain the disc from spinning long enough that the computer went, “Crap, something’s wrong!  I better try and eject this disc.”  As if that isn’t what I’d been trying to tell the computer via 147 different ways for the last hour before that.  *sigh*

]]> Tankadins in Cataclysm tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/1.1211 2010-12-05T19:24:12Z 2010-12-11T18:56:13Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was turning into a WoW blog. =)  Anyway, with the Cataclysm expansion releasing on Tuesday and thus all sorts of changes coming up, I figured doing a sort of summary post of links to useful resources would be, well, useful.  This will definitely be an evolving post that I’ll add to as I find new resources.  This is geared towards protection-specced paladins.

Enchants and Other Enhancements @ Righteous Defense
Xayton’s Tank Guide (Cata) @ Official forums
Tankadin Rotations @ YouTube
Pre-Heroics Tank Gear List @ Righteous Defense

]]> New Dungeon Levels tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/4.1210 2010-12-01T20:48:41Z 2010-12-01T20:49:42Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> Save the Words tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/4.1209 2010-11-23T09:17:00Z 2010-11-23T09:19:01Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> SpriteMe tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/4.1208 2010-11-12T00:25:33Z 2010-11-12T00:27:35Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ # ]]> Return of the “Movies” Section tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/1.1207 2010-11-11T21:20:16Z 2011-04-21T19:08:18Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ A long time ago, I used to have a “movies” section on this site where I kept a (manually updated) list of the movies and TV shows in my collection.  Not super useful to most visitors, I’ll admit, but I always found it nice to have and it did come in useful to help make sure I (or someone perhaps buying something for me) didn’t pick up duplicates accidentally.  The library slowly got rather out-of-date, though, as I’d get new DVDs, sell or trade off old ones, and just forget to keep it updated.  So, I took it down.

More recently, I’ve been making digital copies of my media and keeping them accessible from the Mac Mini I have set up in my living room.  I use the Plex software on the Mini to make it into a fantastic “Media Center”.  All the movies and TV shows are easily accessible via a beautiful interface and as an added bonus, I can run Plex as a client in my bedroom and access all that content remotely if I want!  It’s a wonderful setup.

I’ve thought for a while that it would be cool to figure out how to export my library content as XML or something and then write a little tool that would parse it and be able to display it on this site. But it never got beyond the idea stage.  Then I found out about Plex Export, a tool written by Luke Lanchester that grabs info from your Plex library and makes it available on your website.  So, naturally, I jumped at it.

My newly-reopened Movies & TV section is the result.  It is, of course, available in the site main menu, as well.  Enjoy!

]]> Plex Export tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/4.1206 2010-11-11T06:23:54Z 2010-11-12T00:27:55Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ Plex library. I think I'll definitely be trying this out to bring back my old "Movies" section! # ]]> The Ballad of G.I. Joe tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/4.1205 2010-10-23T21:24:00Z 2010-10-23T21:28:02Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ fantastic cast. # ]]> Holy Paladins and 4.0/Cataclysm tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/1.1204 2010-10-22T18:13:24Z 2010-11-26T05:39:25Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ First, let me just state up front that I have no personal experience with this yet.  Holy has been my offspec for Teneral for quite a while, but I haven’t messed with it since the patch, though I’ll likely be rectifying that today.  Pre-patch, when I read about the upcoming changes, I didn’t really know what to think.  Adding some new abilities is good and it’ll change things up for us, but it just doesn’t seem nearly as “cool” as changes for some of the other healers.  Priests in particular seem to have gotten a lot of neat new mechanics.  (Hmm, perhaps I’ll have to make a Worgen priest after Cata releases…)

So, anyway, 4.0.1 released and healadins went about speccing, instancing and raiding.  Then they shouted, “WTF?!?”  After the patch, there were a lot of holy paladins very unhappy with things.  Kurn posted some initial thoughts and Janyaa said “4.0 Healing is a Joke and Holy Paladins are the Punchline” among many others.

Since then, there have been several hotfixes that adjust things around and it sounds like the situation is now much better for healadins.  Janyaa posted again in a much better state and Kurn discussed it, too.  There’s also a nice post over on bubblespec with some tips/thoughts.

So, I’ll be trying it out myself and we’ll just have to see if I decide to stick with Holy as my offspec.  I actually have never tried Ret if you can believe it and this might be a good reason/opportunity to do so.  I mean, I have pretty much a full 264 set sitting in my bank for it already…

Update: With patch 4.0.3a out now, there have been quite a few additional changes.  Check out Kurn’s What Holy Paladins Need to Know for 4.0.3a for some more info.

]]> Paladin Tanking in 4.0/Cataclysm tag:chriscurtis.org,2010:/1.1203 2010-10-12T07:24:52Z 2010-10-14T01:25:53Z Chris Curtis http://www.chriscurtis.org/ With 4.0.1 releasing tomorrow (er, later today), I thought it might be useful to post some info about Paladin tanking with all the changes.  Yes, there are changes.  Lots of changes - to basic core mechanics of what you’ve done for several years.  Thankfully, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

For general patch change info, you can check MMO-Champion’s recap post.  For a summary of new/changed abilities for Paladins, check the Paladin Class Page at MMO-Champion.

Now, for what you really want to know, I’d recommend hitting up Knaughty’s 4.0 Tankadin FAQ - Protection Paladin Basics thread over on Maintankadin.  It’s still a work in progress, so keep that in mind.  It does have info about suggested specs, rotations (we have more than one rotation now!), etc.  He also has an Advanced thread started, but it doesn’t actually have content yet (if you’re viewing this “in the future”, I’d wager it’ll have good content for you by then).

Update: We’re also going to need to look into reforging some of our gear to increase our Mastery - sculder posted a thread aimed at assisting with that.

Enjoy (re)learning a lot of how to play your class! =)

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