current Tech .info

tech today - thanksgiving week

2009-11-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

Well it's been about 11 days since my last post, and I apologize. Crazy week at school and at work. Anyway, time for some exciting tech news!

Preview the new Google search layout - cleaner logo, and permanent expansion of "search options" on the left-hand side - makes searches more easier and more efficient.
Upcoming Facebook IPO? - recent re-classifications of FB stock (class A and B) have led investors to believe that the stocks may go public soon.
ASUS motherboard now available with 2 USB 3.0 ports - if you're willing to give up 300 bucks, you can own the new technology capable of transferring data at a whopping 4.8Gbps! Learn more about USB 3.0 here.
Read all your PDF's in their unadulterated form on your Kindle - new software update does two things: allows the Kindle to read PDF without having to convert them first and extends battery life!
Expect even more unique image ads from Google - with its acquisition of Teracent, Google will be able to display ads that auto learn and self adjust to everything about you.

tech today

2009-11-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

DiamonDisc, new DVD that'll last 1000 years - company Cranberry has created new DVD made from synthetic stone that they say is not subject to heat, UV rays, or material rot.
Netflix, the iPod of broadband - CEO Reed Hastings explains that the cost of streaming media is going down, increasing their ability to compete with cable providers.
Google Chrome OS available next week? - at least this is what TechCruch is reporting - apparently you'll need a supported device to try it out though...
Android tablet to come out in 2010 - Innovative Converged Devices will produce the tablets available in 7, 11, and 15" screen sizes.
Will YOU switch from Microsoft Office to Google Docs completely? - good article over at Technologizer about the issues around Google's claim that it can replace Office for good.

lightbox, floatbox, shadowbox, etc.

2009-11-11T22:20:00.009-07:00

A while ago, I was trying to figure out how to implement a lightbox utility on a personal site. Coming from a total beginner's perspective to web design, it took a while to finally get it right. So I just wanted to document it for anyone who wants this neat feature on their own site.

A little history first. What is lightbox? It's a JavaScript (JS) application used to help display images and other files in a new window without having to leave the site you're on. Today there are many many variants of the code, and they are compared here. Personally, I have used both Floatbox and Shadowbox. These are both free to download for personal use. Ok, so most people can get this far; downloading the files. Now, here was the tricky part for me. What do I do now with those files?

You have to have someplace to host these files online. The reason is that every time an image is clicked it needs to refer back to those JS files to know how to display it. So where do you host the files? One popular free way was to use Google Pages to host the files, til Google shut down Pages and turned it into Sites, which doesn't allow JS or CSS file uploads. Besides that there are a number of file sharing sites online, free and for-pay. The problem with most of these sites is that they don't allow direct linking to the files, which allows someone to type in the link for the file and start downloading it automatically without going to a download page. For the free providers, this makes sense as they rely on the advertisements on the download pages to stay in business. A lot of these hosts also provide paid plans which then allow direct linking.

The next problem is being able to upload the JS files easily to the host. A lot of the lightbox builds, while considerably less than 1MB in total size, contain many files. While it physically possible to upload one by one, nobody wants to do that. So you need to find a host that allows FTP transfer so you can upload all the files at once. The combination of direct linking and FTP pretty much wipes out any free file sharing service. So the next thing you could do is sign up with a free web host. Most of these will work, but the reliability can sometimes be spotty. A free solution that I have found that works well is Dropbox. After the break, check out screen shots and more details about getting lightbox running on your site.
Go to Dropbox and install the program on your computer. Register, and then go to the already existing "Public Folder"

An easier way to get to this folder would be to double click the Dropbox icon in the system tray.

Now all you have to do is place your unzipped folder (Shadowbox or Floatbox, etc) in the Public folder. Dropbox will now automatically sync all those files online. For most of the lightbox builds you'll need to find out the direct link to two of the files (the JS and the CSS file).

Once you get those links you need to place a piece of code in the header part of your website. For the majority of lightbox builds the code looks likes this, with the names of the files (shadowbox.css, shadowbox,js) being replaced by the full direct link to wheres those files are hosted:

Ok, you're almost done. Now you just need to format the HTML in your image or other links to be able to take advantage of the lightbox properties. Most lightbox sites provide pretty good documentation as to how to do this, but I'll go ahead and include an example from Shadowbox. Here's the code I used for the picture above:

I had to add the "rel = "shadowbox[dropbox]" " to the picture's code. This will change slightly depending on the lightbox build you have, but the idea is the same. Well, that's about it. Hopefully you made it this far without getting confused.

tech today

2009-11-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Trouble for jailbroken iPhones - if you choose to jailbreak your iPhone, make sure you secure it or your wallpaper could be changed without you knowing to a picture of this guy.
Skype, Truphone, Fring, and now Nimbuzzout? - Nimbuzz's new VoIP client available on the iPhone; good rates and voice call quality, but how did this make it past Apple's app review and Google Voice didn't?
Latest in iPhone Nano rumors - supposedly coming to Verizon (gasp!) in 2010 and will be built by a different manufacturer, Pegatron.
Wave-like design coming to all of Google's apps? - screenshots of Google Wave's interface being implemented in Gmail and other apps.
Happy 5th birthday Firefox! - over 1 billion downloads and close to 50% market share.

tech today

2009-11-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 sales pretty good - 234% better than Vista
Blu-Ray to save Home Media Entertainment? - analysts predict that sales will level out and even start to grow by 2012
Find out how much Google knows about you - Google Dashboard is here; see all your accounts in one place (gmail, voice, blogger, picasa, docs, calendar, adsense, etc)
Hands-on with the new Dell Adamo - incredibly thin, awkward to handle
Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, coming to your HDTV - do everything that's important in your life from your living room

tech today

2009-11-04T10:38:00.001-07:00

Updates on the Microsoft Courier - explanations on how the UI actually works
Apple's apps pass 100,000 mark - over 2 billion downloads in only 15 months
Excited about USB 3.0? Bad news - not going to happen till 2011 with Intel
The Beatles' Apple - want to feel special? For only $280, you can own the entire Beatles' collection on 16GB green apple USB
HTC HD2 engadget hands on pictures - won't hit US till early next year, review to come soon

networking part 2

2009-10-30T12:18:00.004-06:00

Ok, so I said that I would write about how to have two routers on one network.

The problem: Just connecting a router with its default settings creates an additional network. This means that any device connected to the second router will not be able to "see" any devices connected to the first router. This prevents file sharing, hard drive sharing, and printer sharing.

The solution: Change the routers configuration and also how it's physically hooked up. Here are step-by-step instructions as well as a few pictures after the jump:

Find out both your first and your second router's IP addresses and make sure you'll be able to connect to the second router's interface offline.
Connect your second router to a computer without connecting the router to the network.
Go to the second router's interface (while offline) and turn off it's DHCP server (the function that allows the router to assign IP addresses to any device connected to it). It's usually under "Network Settings".
Change the second router's IP address to something within the first router's subnet. For example, if your first router's IP address is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.10.1 then you would change the second router's address to 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.10.2. You will need to restart your router after performing this step.
Connect your second router to the network by plugging the Ethernet cable into one of the LAN ports, NOT the WAN port (see picture below). Depending on your router, the light on the front panel indicating the internet connection may be RED instead of GREEN. That's ok.
Enjoy your unified network! (You may need to power cycle your second router once - unplug the power, plug it back in - before any devices connected to it receive internet connection.)

So how does this work? Well, you are essentially turning your router into a switch. So why not just buy a switch?? Well, they are more expensive than routers, and with a second router you can extend your wireless coverage. So that's it. Be sure to take a look at the pictures by clicking "keep reading..." to get a better understanding of the steps above.

Router, with power plugged in, connected to the computer but NOT to the network.

Router connected to the network through one of the LAN ports, NOT the WAN port.

Router settings - DHCP server disabled, and IP address changed

powerline networking

2009-10-28T20:38:00.003-06:00

Ok, so my wife and I moved into our "house" at the beginning of the semester. I say "house" because we share two walls of it with our neighbors in a 4-plex. But, we have an upstairs and a downstairs which we like very much. Right away I called and scheduled for Comcast to come install cable outlets so we could check our precious emails and tweet about moving in. Here's where having two stories becomes a problem. I had to decide where to put the jack where I would hook up the cable modem. Do I put it downstairs next to the TV, or upstairs in the office where my desktop was going? Obviously I needed to put it upstairs due to the fact that my desktop does not have a wireless network card installed. However, my setup is such that I also have a computer hooked up to my TV so that we can watch online content whenever without having to hook up a laptop. Then there's the PS3 slim which I would rather have a wired connection than a wireless one.

I'm the kind of guy that needs a wired connection when connecting to the internet. I know that wireless is pretty good nowadays but wired connections are just so solid. The answer seemed pretty simple. Just buy two cable modems; one for downstairs and one for upstairs. So I went to BestBuy, picked one up, came home, and hooked them both up...and found out that having two modems is not possible. I'm not an expert, but I got this much from doing some research and talking with a couple Comcast service reps: Comcast, along with pretty much every ISP provider, only gives out 1 IP address. And their system is only configured to work with one modem per IP address. So I was stuck. I tried asking my wife if she'd be ok with miles of network cables lining the walls...yeah right. It seemed the only choice was to suck it up and buy a wireless card for my downstairs computer and deal with the spotty connection as well as the occasional boot in PS3 online games.

To the rescue came powerline networking. There's a good article about the technology here, but basically, if you enable it, you can get a wired connection anywhere there's a power outlet in your house. Pretty awesome. So I returned the second modem that I got, and bought the Netgear Home Theater Connection Kit. And voila, wired internet connection downstairs. It was like magic. All you have to do with a powerline kit is this:

Plug the first adapter into a power outlet (directly on the wall, not in a power strip or surge protector) that's near your router (that's connected to your cable modem).
Attach an ethernet cable from your router to the adapter.
Go to a different room where you would like to extend the network to (living room, basement, etc), and plug the second adapter (with mine, it was the one with 4 ports) into an available power outlet (again, on the wall not in a strip) - preferably close to any devices you would like to hook up to the network (TV, computer, game console).
Plug in your devices and enjoy your wired connection - with the one I bought, it's ports gave the most bandwidth to the first one and less to the second, and even less to the third and fourth:

Because this adapter acts as a switch, anything connected to it is also connected to the network and therefore both of the computers upstairs and downstairs can "see" each other. Now, because of the Port-based QoS function of the adapter, you can see the second problem I ran into; give more bandwidth to the computer or to the PS3. I think this post is long enough as it is and will talk about how I figured out how I didn't have to compromise by adding a second router to the network (which wasn't an easy task), in my next post. Hope this was helpful.

cables cables cables

2009-10-27T17:31:00.004-06:00

The other day, I received my PS3 slim in the mail. I immediately proceeded to hook it up to my HDTV, when I realized that I forgot to order an HDMI cable to take advantage of my TV's 1080p resolution. I suffered for a few minutes with the AV connection till I could no longer stand it. I had to get an HDMI cable that instant (as well as a first game to play). The problem with buying HDMI cables at any store is the price they think the cables are worth. Here's a couple pics from Best Buy:

$80?? For a cable. I don't think so. If you do any searching at all on the internet you'll find great deals on cables. The first source I always go to is Monoprice.com. First of all their products are great , their service is reliable and their prices are amazing. The even have daily deals that make you wish they had a local store so that your shipping costs weren't more than what you're buying. Here's a few screenshots of HDMI cables from their site:

The first cable is your standard 6ft and the second is 12ft long - for $5! I've included links to these two deals; however, I'm not sure how long the first deal will last.

I hope no one ever buys cables for more than this. After looking at more sites I found even better deals. Here's one 6ft cable selling for - wait for it - a whopping one cent (plus shipping):

So anyway, back to the story: I went to Wal-Mart and picked one up for $20 with every intention of returning it once I received my order from monoprice. Incidentally, I also let my wife pick the first game for our PS3 (Up).

Bottomline: Do your research first before buying something at the store; a lot of times you can find it for a lot cheaper online without compromising quality.

current tech .info

2009-10-26T22:44:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone, here's another blog that I hope you'll find useful in keeping up with today's ever changing technology. On more than one occasion have I found myself searching for an answer to a tech question only to get an outdated response. I can't number the tutorials that I've read in hopes of solving a configuration problem only to see options that no longer exist or screenshots that make no sense, thus increasing my frustration. I don't think that I'm the only one who's experienced this, so I'm starting this blog to help out.

I chose ".info" as the domain because as Wikipedia defines it, this site will mainly be informative (at least, that's my hope). Besides answering technology questions I will also write about exciting events happening in technology today and offer my opinions. I do have a few favorite sites that I read daily and that I will link to often. Feel free to leave comments if you enjoy my posts, or to correct me, or to add things that I've left out.