EdZachary!

Zynga - Mafia Wars

2009-05-13T12:06:00.001-04:00

Here is a quick list of 50 friend codes for the Zynga Mafia Wars iPhone app. Feel free to add your friend code in the comments.

7102347864
5001654531
0901104463
6101261862
8000819594
3602842533
9400331712
1203697642
8800933041
1700961261

5601703949
6204040671
3504670508
3201085314
5203165209
5701434153
1401116964
3800840616
4902998205
4801093705

8803893084
5903834528
3201885364
1901747485
4403346668
3800150401
2600894762
4003874110
2102655819
1301426594

0101761915
7202726898
1700551250
6404432581
7803426376
0201500639
1501077079
8702573157
0601031004
2403670389

2102085781
2000604034
3301168869
5903984516
9003950336
9704271361
0601921183
2000244012
9704381350
8501659597

Rusty Trombone iPhone App

2009-04-03T10:31:00.007-04:00

This is what the app writer has to say ...

"Have you ever longed to play an old rusty trombone in a dark trash filled alley with a conveniently placed neon sign, which reads Rusty Trombone, with only a rat to keep you company? Who hasn’t? It’s a dream shared by people all over the globe."

Who is this guy kidding?? Come on ... a rusty trombone. The only person dreaming of a rusty trombone in a dark trash filled alley is some dude strung out on meth with a cheap $20 hooker. Am I the only one that knows what a rusty trombone is? If you don't ... check HERE.

The app sort of sucks for the most part anyway ... or should I say ... blows. Good thing it is free now. DEEEELETE!!

Mafia: Respect and Retaliation Friend Codes

2009-02-23T14:30:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick list of 50 friend codes for the "Mafia: Respect and Retaliation" iPhone app. Feel free to add your friend code in the comments.

99653
7193
4586
9138
9588
9705
7790
10927
13794
8224

13875
4840
12109
15862
18239
18517
19502
15813
20005
12038

22288
16497
24815
20408
5234
30285
28504
21780
32110
32737

11599
37750
21340
30057
15353
35693
42548
52058
56202
15409

50179
41542
11682
57084
49859
18273
20260
11302
18155
70294

iMob Friend Codes

2009-01-26T16:14:00.004-05:00

Here is a quick list of 50 friend codes for the iMob iPhone app. Feel free to add your friend code in the comments.

100 027 979
100 184 024
100 170 505
100 170 274
100 202 615
100 202 615
100 271 851
100 280 873
100 310 341
100 298 015

100 336 928
100 322 038
100 336 928
100 140 997
100 350 889
100 325 614
100 279 505
100 326 215
100 350 889
100 239 599

100 039 132
100 298 256
100 332 022
100 322 038
100 295 873
100 239 599
100 239 599
100 345 348
100 366 369
100 354 904

100 300 091
100 287 764
100 278 492
100 318 966
100 025 628
100 176 134
100 186 979
100 353 711
100 377 182
100 286 360

100 119 202
100 280 873
100 366 369
100 289 477
100 280 873
100 363 460
100 050 801
100 392 795
125 685 531
130 550 660

Shazam!

2008-07-25T12:22:00.008-04:00

Alright ... I'm not talking to the Billy Batson loving crowd here. I'm talking about one of the coolest iPhone 2.0 apps available right now. Shazam is a free utility that allows you to tag music. By tagging, I actually mean it is a music discovery tool ... and when I say music discovery tool, I mean that it can tell you the name/artist/cover art of music that it can hear. So far, I have had 100% success rate with this application in a variety of settings (car, restaurants, headphones)! Let me splain what I'm talkin' 'bout.

First, download the app via iTunes or the App Store on the iPhone. Once it installs, tap the icon for Shazam.

The app will launch and take you to the My Tags screen. This screen will show any music that you have tagged. Your screen will not have any tags if it is the first time you have entered the app and have yet to tag some music. If you want to begin identifying music, click the Tag Now button on the top right of the screen.

Once you have clicked the Tag Now button ... the magic begins. Shazam goes into Listening mode. It will listen for around 10 seconds or so and take a sample of any music it hears.

Once it has collected its music sample, it sends the sample to its servers for identification. It's a rather quick process I might add. It seems like it usually takes about 5 seconds or so. The phone will also buzz once right before it sends the sample.

Once Shazam identifies the music, it will show you the song info ... complete with artist, song title and cover art. You will also get some other options to buy the song from iTunes or watch the video on YouTube. You can also send the tag via email to a contact or add your own photo to the tag.

All in all, this application kicks ass. How many times do you hear a song and want to know what it is. Now you have a way! Start tagging yo!

iPhone 3G Countdown

2008-06-20T11:19:00.003-04:00

Thank you NetworkWorld for the countdown widget!

Come on Walmart ... What are you trying to pull?

2008-05-25T11:00:00.003-04:00

First it was those "crazy straws" shaped like a penis ... now this! Maybe I'm just a gutter brain ... but it is "hard" not to see a penis in this shirt graphic. Complete with a heart shaped sack! Awesome! For $6.88, you too can have your very own cock-n-balls t-shirt!

Liquid Gold!

2008-05-07T16:24:00.001-04:00

I'm not one for ranting usually ... but something bugs the crap out of me. We all complain about the cost of gas these days. I don't like it any more than the next super cool blogger guy. However, its not the only expensive liquid that pisses me off. What's the deal with printer ink for cripes sake?? Seriously ... why is it that an effing ink cartridge costs as much or more than the printer that I'm sticking it in ... the ink cartridge that is?

So I go into my local Office Depository store to buy a replacement cartridge and ... true story ... I go to the register to make my purchase and there is this lady there bitching about how all the ink cartridges that are on the shelf were expired. EXPIRED!!?? The poor guy that was dealing with her was taking it like a champ. I felt sorry for him. For some reason this lady was looking at the manufacture/warranty date on the box and kept telling the guy that it was an expiration date. I'm no genius, but I DO know that today's date is going to be greater than the date the package was manufactured. She went as far as to tell him that she just bought a cartridge from the store the day before and when she put it into her printer, her computer scrolled a message at the bottom of the screen telling her that the cartridge was expired. REALLY!!?? A scrolling message?? WOW! Grandma missed her meds that day. Try as the guy may, he could not convince her that there is no expiration for ink unless the package is opened and the cartridge used ... since technically the ink is sealed until the moment that you put it into the printer ... so it could perhaps dry out over time. The guy was nice enough to switch the ink cartridge for her and told her to come back if that scrolling message told her to.

This is why I'm HOT!

2008-05-07T15:43:00.003-04:00

I tell you what ... St. Johns County Sheriffs has some fly ass cars. Now THIS is what all good sheriff departments need ... SPINNER RIMS!!! Check this out ... it's dope yo!

R.I.P.

2008-02-18T17:41:00.003-05:00

Today marks the death of both the analog cell network and the HD-DVD. I can remember like it was yesterday when I bought my first analog cell phone. I feel old now that I reflect on the technology that has come and gone. Today is the day that the FCC blessed the decommission of the analog cellular networks. Carriers can now begin to shut down those networks. Goodbye brick phone ... my old friend.

Now that Toshiba has pulled out of making HD-DVD, that format is most certainly dead. I didn't even know ya ...

Quick Cheese Fondue

2008-02-14T11:06:00.003-05:00

Ah ... cheese fondue. It combines my two favorite things in the world. Cheese ... and a really sharp object (the fondue fork). Ever go to a place like the Melting Pot and wish you could make something similar at home? Hell no ... but here it is anyway. I'm only posting this because it is Valentines Day ... and chicks dig a good fondue and a vacuum cleaner for a valentines gift.

Here is a simple recipe that I thunk up all by myself. Tastes pretty good if I do say so myself. Hopefully you have a fondue pot ... if not, a double boiler will do. And if you don't have that ... then a regular sauce pan is fine. Just don't burn the cheese.

This is what you need for the magic to happen:

16 oz shredded Mild cheddar cheese
1 cup beer
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
pinch of black pepper

Put the fondue pot on the stove and turn it on medium heat. Pour a cup of the beer into your fondue pot and promptly chug the rest of the bottle. No miller lite or other crappy beer like natural light. A nice lager is good. Heat that up until it is nice and hot. Toss in the minced garlic and let that cook for a minute or two. Start adding your cheese while stirring a bit. Once you get all the cheese in and it is melting, add the worcestershire sauce and a little black pepper. Mix it up and make sure the cheese is melted. Take it off the stove and put it over the heat from the fondue pot base (I'm assuming that you have a sterno lit to keep it warm). Make sure you have some good stuff to dip into the cheese. My favorites are pumpernickel bread, granny smith apples, carrots and celery. Feel free to come up with your own stuff to dip.

The Anti-Valentines Holiday

2008-02-14T10:59:00.003-05:00

Funny email I received ...

Every 14th of February you get the chance to display your fondness for your wife or girlfriend by showering her with gifts, flowers, dinner, shows and any other baubles that women find romantic.

Secretly ... guys feel left out. That's right ... left out. There's no special
holiday for the ladies to show their appreciation for the men in their life.
Men as a whole are either too proud or just too embarrassed to admit it. This is why a new holiday has been created.

March 20th is now officially 'Steak, Hooter & Shut the Fuck Up Day.'
Simple, effective and self-explanatory ... this holiday has been created so you ladies can have a day to show your man just how much you love him.

No cards, no flowers, no special nights on the town the name of the holiday explains it all ... just a Steak, a BJ & Shut your mouth for the rest of the day! That's it!

This twin pairing of Valentine's Day and Steak, Hooter & Shut the
Fuck Up Day will usher in a new age of love as men everywhere will try THAT much harder in February to ensure a more memorable March! It's like a perpetual love machine.

The word is already spreading, but as with any new idea, it needs a little push to start the ball rolling. So spread the word, and help bring love and peace to this crazy world.

The State of America Today ...

2008-02-13T14:47:00.005-05:00

So I went to Home Depot to get a new lock for my door. I needed the key that I currently use to match the new door lock. No problem ... Home Depot can do that. I take it to the key area and ask the dude to re-key the lock for me. After a few minutes, he gives me back my box with the lock in it and then remembers that he needs to mark the fact that he re-keyed the lock and for the cashier to charge me for it. Now, I'm no spelling whiz or anything ... but shit ... at least I come close to the right spelling. Check out what the guy wrote:

"Rey Keyd" ... that's hillarious! Now, just too mention, the guy realized that he made a mistake in the "Keyd" portion because his original spelling was "Keed" ... and he quickly overwrote one of the Es with a Y. Much better!!

I always enjoy going to the Home Depot ... where they are always putting the POT in Depot. Word! Peace out!!

EdZachary! Webclip for iPhone

2008-01-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

OK ... so I was bored and decided I would create a webclip icon for EdZachary! and make it available for those interested. Load up the site on your iPhone and wait for it to load completely. Add the site to your desktop and you should see the new webclip icon! If it sucks, let me know. One of my buddies called it "shifty". I'll take that as a compliment for now since I feel proud of my useless crap. Enyoy!

Want to make your own webclip icon for your site? Go to the iPhone Dev Center website and read how it is done. Here is the rundown:

To specify a bookmark icon for all pages of a web site, place a PNG image named "apple-touch-icon.png" at the root directory of your web server - similar to the "favicon.ico" for site icons.

To override the site bookmark icon on a specific web page, insert a <link> element similar to <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/customIcon.png"/> within the <head> element of the page.

The bookmark icon dimensions should be 57x57 pixels. If the icon is a different size it will be scaled and cropped to fit.

Safari will automatically composite the icon with the standard "glassy" overlay so it looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application.

Make Free iPhone Ringtones using iTunes 7.6

2008-01-16T17:56:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to report that making free ringtones in iTunes 7.6 is still functioning after the software upgrade! If you need to know the steps, please see my post about how to create them in 7.5.

Make Free iPhone Ringtones using iTunes 7.5

I'm stoked that this still works. Right on playa!

*** UPDATE ***
This continues to work in iTunes 7.7 and iPhone 2.0!!! Kick ass!

Q&A with Head Honcho (aka "I followed your steps but ...")
Q: I try to sync, but I get multiple versions of the same ringtone. What's the deal?: 1. On the iPhone summary tab, uncheck the box for "Manually manage music and video"

2. On the iPhone Ringtones tab, check the box for "Sync Ringtones" and the radio button for "All Ringtones".

3. Sync ... your ringtones should be there.
Q: I have made a ringtone, but when I sync, it is not on the iPhone. Does that suck or what?: Yeah ... it does. Make sure that you have entries for Name, Artist and Album supplied for the ringtone. Doesn't have to be correct ... it just has to be there.
Q: I try and sync, but I get a message that says that I can't play this song on my iPhone.: This is probably due to the version of the firmware that you have and the version of iTunes that you are using. Try upgrading iPhone firware and iTunes to the latest versions or both.
Q: I try to use an M4P file and it tells me that it is protected. What is that all about?: Sorry, the file is protected ... nothing you can do about that. You can either find a piece of software that will strip the protection ... OR ... burn the song to a CD and then reimport it into iTunes as an AAC file.
Q: I can't see any file extensions. What do I do?: Windows users:

Open your windows explorer and select Tools-->Folder Options from the menu. Click on the View tab and uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types". Then click the "Apply to All Folders" button at the top of the screen.

Mac users:

Open finder and select song. Right click and select 'Get Info'. Under the Name and Extension segment, uncheck the box that says 'Hide Extension'. Extension is also visible there at all times, so you can always just edit on the spot.

**** UPDATE ****
Beegs posted a modified version that he says works for those of you having issues with the sync portion of the steps. Here is my rundown of those steps:

1. Under Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced, check the boxes for "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library"
2. Follow my steps on creating the 30 second clip and converting to AAC.
3. Delete the newly created AAC file from the iTunes library. Do NOT move the file to the trash.
4. Exit iTunes
5. Find the file in your iTunes music directory and move it to your desktop.
6. Rename the file extension from myringtone.m4a to myringtone.m4r (substitute 'myringtone' for whatever you want the ringtone called).
7. Double click on the .m4r file.
8. When iTunes comes back on screen, look in the iPhone ringtones tab to verify that the file is there
9. Sync

Copy and Paste for iPhone?

2008-01-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

What will the next iPhone firmware hold for iPhone. Will the "crazy that it is missing" copy and paste function finally show up? Ever thought of how you would implement it on the iPhone? This guy has ... Lonelysandwich

I have to say ... I buy it. That is a solid solution and I would use the hell out of it. Not too mention the video mock up is just damn funny. I love you ...

Insert Signature in PDF

2007-12-31T09:57:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted to insert a signature into your PDF? Why would you want to do this? Let's say, for example, you are a business traveler. Your company wants weekly timesheets, worklogs, status reports, whatever ... in PDF format. If you are like me, timesheets are generated directly into PDF and then I must sign these before handing them in. That's fine and dandy if you are working in your office. So what do you do on the road and can't print and sign but you still have to submit the PDF? I have a quick and dirty solution for you! After digging quite a bit trying to figure out how to do this myself, the solution is fairly simple. I use Adobe Acrobat 8 on a regular basis. I've seen many suggestions on the internets on how to insert a signature using the stamp tool. While this approach is OK, I found the results to be sub-par at best. My signature looked awful! However that stamp gets rendered, it looks like crap. So here is my suggestion. Follow these steps and you should get pretty good results.

You first need an image file of your signature available on your computer. Make sure that it is a good scan. I would suggest looking up how to do this on google or something if you are unsure how to do it. A couple tips on this ... don't use a fine point pen. Try and use either a felt tip or one of those gel ink roller type pens.
Open the PDF that you need to modify with your signature with Adobe Acrobat 8
Once the file has opened, navigate to the 'Tools->Advanced Editing->TouchUp Object Tool' menu item.
Once you select the TouchUp Object Tool, you will get a black arrow. Right click where you would like your signature to appear and select 'Place Image'.
You will get an open dialog box where you can select the signature image you created earlier.
When you select your file, the image will be inserted ... probably quite large. The image that I used wasn't particularly good. I didn't scan it ... good ol' GIS.
You will want to shrink the size down by grabbing one of the corners of the box and dragging the corner towards the inside of the image. You will know if you are doing it right as the mouse pointer will turn into a double headed arrow.
Now that you have the image sized, you will want to move the image to the spot where you would like it. In my case, right above the signature line. Now keep in mind that the image will block the line itself if you have placed the image over the line, so make sure that the image is above the signature line.
Save the updated file. All done. You now have a PDF with your signature on it.

You should be able to use a variety of image formats. It is your preference. I don't know if transparent gif files can be used. I honestly haven't tried or have needed them. If they do work, please let me know. There are also some vector image creation tools on the internets that you could use that may make your signature look more crisp. A tool like VectorMagic comes in handy.

A few things to mention, these instructions are for Adobe Acrobat 8 only. I haven't tried this in any other version of Adobe Acrobat or another PDF creation application. If you have tips or hints for other applications, please feel free to leave them in a comment.

iPhone wishes ...

2007-12-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

iPhone basically rocks. There are a few items that I would love to see though in future firmware updates.

Must haves!
- Copy/Paste: --> Where the hell is it?? That is tops of my list!
- Chat: --> Gotta have gtalk or iChat or something!
- Drive Mode: --> Seriously ... I want to be able to steal company secrets and take it home with me
- Delete Multiple Emails: --> Can't believe this isn't available
- Speed Dialing of some sort or Improved Favorites (voice dialing perhaps): --> I really don't want to click multiple times to get to a quick list of contacts
- Flash support in iPhone Safari: --> Really ... how can I get to the really good pr0n without that??
- Auto suggested words: --> I would rather click on the auto suggested word to insert it rather than clicking on it to not have it inserted.

Other Annoyances
A partial list from my buddy Rappin' Reggie. I'm inclined to agree with him on most of these. Although not high on my list ... I definitely would like to see them at some point
- Quick access to Contacts
- Save pictures sent in an email to your camera roll
- Email multiple pictures in a single email
- Customize email send and receive sounds
- Reorder of icons

Questionable iPhone Battery Life?

2007-12-13T17:52:00.001-05:00

I think we all know by now that the battery life on the iPhone isn't spectacular. There are small tweaks that you can make that will prolong the charge a bit ... like turning of wi-fi when you don't need it. Google how to extend battery life or something since I'm not writing this to explain how. What I would like to point out is that there are some great little USB external batteries/chargers that can really help out if you are an iPhone junky. Seriously ... I have a buddy that is constantly stroking his iPhone like it is an effing magic lamp. Anyways, I recently made a purchase of one of these USB devices. Works fantastic and it is small. Check out the Lenmar PPU2100B.

It will rape you in the ol' wallet to the tune of $49 ... but it is sweet. You can get 5 iPhone charges out of it per single charge. You can also use it to supplement your usage of the iPhone. You should be able to get about 50hrs of video playback from the iPhone by using this little guy. Who the hell does that anyways? I keep one of these little bastards in my gear bag at all times. I'm a huge fan of Lenmar batteries. I think they are super sweet. I use them in my digital cameras and video cameras with great results.

Make Free iPhone Ringtones using iTunes 7.5

2007-12-10T17:38:00.001-05:00

Since Apple was good enough to "break" their fix for creating free ringtones in iTunes 7.5, I figured I would go ahead and type up a quick how-to on creating your own ringtone. The trick is that you need to pick a file that is 30 seconds long or less. 30 seconds is plenty since your phone won't play any more than that anyway ... not to mention that iTunes won't transfer the song if it is over 30 seconds using this method. So now the problem is getting your hands on a 30 second clip from a song. Sure you could buy some nice little program or use a tool like Audacity to trim off a segment. But honestly, you can just use what is in front of you ... iTunes itself. I'll show you really quick how to make a 30 second clip in iTunes and then tell you what to do with that to make it a ringtone.

First off, you need to go into your iTunes preferences and make sure that you have the AAC converter turned on. To check, go into the iTunes preferences and click on the 'Advanced' tab. Click the 'Importing' tab and under 'Import Using' should say 'AAC Encoder'.

It's all set right? Sweet! Now pick a song that you want to get a 30 second clip from. Right click on the song and select 'Get Info' from the menu.

Just for simplicity sake, lets just say that you want the first 30 seconds of the song. You will click on the 'Options' tab and change the Start and Stop time. Click the checkboxes and change the Stop time to 0:30. Feel free to use any 30 second segment that you wish. Just note the start time and add 30 seconds to it for the stop time.

The hard part is done! Now just exit out of the 'Get Info' screen and right click on the song that you just modified and select 'Convert Selection to AAC' from the menu. Let iTunes work it's magic.

You will get a second song in your iTunes library ... but it will only be 30 seconds long! You can right click and select 'Get Info' and change some tags to make it easier to find in your iTunes library. I like to change the artist and genre to 'Ringtones' so that I know right where to find it.

Exit iTunes. Locate the file in your iTunes music directory and rename the .m4a extension to .m4r.

Once you have renamed the file, just double click on it so that it adds itself to your iTunes library again ... but this time as a ringtone!! iTunes will launch, and the ringtone you just created will appear in the Ringtones list. If for some reason you are having an issue with this the first time, you might want to check in your iTunes preferences and see if you have the “Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized” option checked. Having that checked will automatically create a ringtone folder for you.

An alternative to the double click method is to simply open iTunes, open your ringtones library and then drag the .m4r file from windows explorer or finder (on mac) into the ringtone library. Either method should work.

A lot easier than it seems. Let's see how long this lasts for. Maybe apple will realize they made a "mistake". Let's hope that it is just an effort to keep the masses happy. I for one make most of my ringtones from movie quotes. Can't do that with the official 99 cent way. Keep rockin' ding dongs!

Q&A with Head Honcho (aka "I followed your steps but ...")
Q: I try to sync, but I get multiple versions of the same ringtone. What's the deal?: 1. On the iPhone summary tab, uncheck the box for "Manually manage music and video"

2. On the iPhone Ringtones tab, check the box for "Sync Ringtones" and the radio button for "All Ringtones".

3. Sync ... your ringtones should be there.
Q: I have made a ringtone, but when I sync, it is not on the iPhone. Does that suck or what?: Yeah ... it does. Make sure that you have entries for Name, Artist and Album supplied for the ringtone. Doesn't have to be correct ... it just has to be there.
Q: I try and sync, but I get a message that says that I can't play this song on my iPhone.: This is probably due to the version of the firmware that you have and the version of iTunes that you are using. Try upgrading iPhone firware and iTunes to the latest versions or both.
Q: I try to use an M4P file and it tells me that it is protected. What is that all about?: Sorry, the file is protected ... nothing you can do about that. You can either find a piece of software that will strip the protection ... OR ... burn the song to a CD and then reimport it into iTunes as an AAC file.
Q: I can't see any file extensions. What do I do?: Windows users:

Open your windows explorer and select Tools-->Folder Options from the menu. Click on the View tab and uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types". Then click the "Apply to All Folders" button at the top of the screen.

Mac users:

Open finder and select song. Right click and select 'Get Info'. Under the Name and Extension segment, uncheck the box that says 'Hide Extension'. Extension is also visible there at all times, so you can always just edit on the spot.

*** UPDATE ***
For those of you that are experiencing a "worked the first time, but not the next" problem, Jonah posted a comment on how to get around the issue. It sounds like a good solution, so I'm incorporating it into the article here. Thanks Jonah!

"I think I found a fix. I did everything according to your directions (including the space before the extension). When I double click to get the m4r file, it still goes to the library and not the ringtone file. But, what I learned is, highlight the 30 second m4r file that isn't going to ringtone and is in your library and delete it. A message will come up asking, "Do you want to move the selected songs to the Trash, or keep them in the iTunes Music folder?" Click "Keep Files." Then go back and look in the folder and you will see the m4r file still there. Double click on it again and this time it will work. It has worked everytime."

**** UPDATE!!! ****
This process still works in iTunes 7.6.
Also this continues to work in iTunes 7.7 and iPhone 2.0!!!
So keep on rockin' it yo!

**** ANOTHER UPDATE!!! ****
For those people that are using iTunes 7.6 with iPhone 1.1.3 and are having issues with the sync, I tweaked my steps a little based on Jonah's comments and some forum postings I found. Poster Beegs then was gracious enough to tweak those steps ever so slightly and it works fine for him now. Here are those steps:

My original steps for 7.6/1.1.3
1. Under Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced, check the boxes for "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library"
2. Follow my steps on creating the 30 second clip and converting to AAC.
3. Delete the newly created AAC file from the iTunes library. Do NOT move the file to the trash.
4. Find the file in your iTunes music directory and move it to your desktop.
5. Rename the file extension from myringtone.m4a to myringtone.m4r (substitute 'myringtone' for whatever you want the ringtone called).
6. Double click on the .m4r file.
7. When iTunes comes back on screen, look in the iPhone ringtones tab to verify that the file is there (Do not sync!)
8. Find the file again in your iTunes Music/Ringtones Directory.
9. Rename the file from myringtone.m4r to myringtone.m4a
10. Sync

Beeg's steps that he says works for him
1. Under Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced, check the boxes for "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library"
2. Follow my steps on creating the 30 second clip and converting to AAC.
3. Delete the newly created AAC file from the iTunes library. Do NOT move the file to the trash.
4. Exit iTunes
5. Find the file in your iTunes music directory and move it to your desktop.
6. Rename the file extension from myringtone.m4a to myringtone.m4r (substitute 'myringtone' for whatever you want the ringtone called).
7. Double click on the .m4r file.
8. When iTunes comes back on screen, look in the iPhone ringtones tab to verify that the file is there
9. Sync

iTunes MP3 encoder lame?

2007-11-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

Is the iTunes MP3 encoder LAME or just flat out lame? Definitely just lame. Has anyone else noticed how crappy mp3's sound after you rip a cd? I never really noticed until I ripped one of my discs from a different application. What a friggin world of difference!! Now I have to re-rip all my effing discs again using LAME instead. I decided to run a quick test. I ripped a cd using the the iTunes encoder and then the same disc again using LAME. When played through iTunes, you really can't notice a difference. That is probably why I never paid much attention to it. It wasn't until I started mixing some of my older rips using another tool with the stuff I let iTunes import on my iPod that I noticed something screwy. My older stuff sounded much clearer and the tonal range much better. Not to mention that the overall sound wasn't anywhere as muted. Maybe I should say that they were also louder ... better word? For a while it was driving me up a wall trying to find a different mp3 encoder to use since I was on a mac. I didn't want to abandon my iTunes since I DO really like it. I didn't have much luck finding anything that integrated nicely with iTunes. That was until I was trying to update my Quicksilver version. I noticed that the folks over at Blacktree made a nice little iTunes LAME encoder. Enter iTunes-LAME. This little application is da bomb. It gives me everything that I'm looking for. The ability to use my iTunes and have a LAME encoder all at the same time. The downside that it does take a lot longer to rip a disc using this tool than the iTunes import ... but I don't care at this point. Check it out if iTunes mp3 encoder bugs the crap out of you too.

*** UPDATE:
So I suppose it is a little unfair of me to not include some way of doing this in windows as well. Really, it is as simple as using your CD ripper of choice (hopefully one with LAME support) and then using a neat little app that "watches" a folder where you are ripping to and syncing that with your iTunes folder. Check out iTunes Folder Watch. It has 2 modes. One is an automatic mode (so anything that you rip automatically syncs to iTunes) ... or the manual mode (which syncs at your request). Now have at it and stop using iTunes to rip your crap to MP3.

SeeqPod: Pure Genius or Devil's Plaything??

2007-07-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

I've been seeing a lot of internet babbling about SeeqPod. For those of you that haven't heard of this website, let me run it down for you in a nutshell. It is a music search engine that allows you to build a playlist and listen to songs it finds on the internets. Sounds really cool right! I think it sounds effing great ... but the people that have posted those songs may not think so. Let's say that you are using a hosting site that grants you a certain amount of bandwidth during the month. After you exceed that limit, you start being charged for extra bandwidth. So now SeeqPod can find these songs and the more people that use SeeqPod, the more accessible these files are on the internets. Some Joe Baloney that posted his favorite Metallica song that may never get any internet hits, may now all of a sudden be getting hundreds of hits a day ... and worse, may get a hit right in the ol' wallet at the end of the month. He'd be lucky to get past Lars Ulrich's wrath anyways.

So streaming some MP3 files doesn't sound so bad. Kind of like it. There are a few Firefox plugins that let you play MP3 files you encounter with an embedded player. These are just little one off sorts of things. The playlist feature in SeeqPod is nice since you can find enough material out there to last you for a long time. Instantly, you have people that want to download the files that they encounter. While SeeqPod does not allow you to download these files, it does tell you the location of where to find them on the internets. Basically you can type in the URL that you see and get to the MP3 file and download it. How quickly will SeeqPod be turned into a device for illegally downloading songs?? Now, I don't condone downloading MP3s, but I wanted to see how easy it would be to turn SeeqPod into an MP3 download tool. Took me about 5 minutes and it is cake. Here is how to use SeeqPod for downloading MP3 files:

I use Firefox, so these instructions are for firefox users. First off, go to www.seeqpod.com and do a search for some music that you would like to listen to. I did a search for Dream Theater (because they are da bomb). If anything is available, you will get a list of songs on the left hand side of the screen. That's all you need to do as far as SeeqPod is concerned. The rest will be up to you and your browser. Open up a second tab in FireFox and paste 'about:cache?device=disk' into the location bar (without the quotes). This should pull up your cache. Do a search in your cache (ctrl + F) and paste into the find box 'anonSearchPaginationFlash' (again, no quotes). Scroll through those results and look for links that have what you searched for (dream theater would be visible somewhere in the link). Click on the key link and it will load it as cache entry information. Click on the key link again and it will load the XML of the SeeqPod results page. Look for Location tags. Those will be the path to the MP3 file that you searched for. At that point, it is up to you how to handle the download. If I were a crafty person, I would just copy all the links and stick it into some sort of download.html file I created on my computer. Then I might just load that file in Firefox and use the DownThemAll plugin to grab all the files at once. This is just a concept, so if you want to experiment, go ahead. I'm not responsible for your downloading activity ... just sayin.

Is SeeqPod a great idea ... absolutely! Will it be used for illegal downloading ... certainly. Anytime a website that crops up that seeks out MP3 files on the internet, it will probably be put to use in a negative way. Haystack is another example of the streaming audio principle. It is a bit different, but again, very easy to download music off of.

If you are going to download something ... since it is so irresistible ... at least experiement with CD's/music that you already own. Not that it makes it any better, but at least you have dropped some money into the artists pockets for it at some point. That's a whole other can of worms that I'm not going to touch.

*** Note ***
If you do have an iPhone, then just find a song that you want to hear and then you can "share" the link. The share button just emails a link to whoever you want (in this case, the URL of the mp3). You can just email it to yourself and then using your email tool of choice, download the file from the link you just sent yourself. Very cake!

HDR Photography

2007-07-29T09:21:00.000-04:00

Those of you that know me know that I LOVE photography. I enjoy all type of pictures. I've always been amazed at what really great artists can do with a camera and a little creative know-how. Lately I've been really into HDR photography. HDR is one of those topics that can fuel some serious debate on what it really is. I won't get into all that crap because I just appreciate it for what it is and the artists ability to create some beautiful and funky looking pictures. I ran across one artists work that I really love. Trey Ratcliff posts some awesome photos on his Stuck in Customs website along with his name branded site. Take a look at his work! He even has a tutorial that walks you through creating HDR photos yourself.

Thank you Trey for the great photos!!

The Honest Boss

2007-07-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

This is the way all bosses should be!

The Honest Boss Interview

Funny Delta Commercial

2007-07-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

Yeah ... this is old. It's still funny as hell though.