A Twitterpal, Hamish, asked me: How do you find so much great stuff, daily? He was referring to my Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. I was thrilled that he thought the links I find were great stuff. But I was also reminded that I’d intended to write a blog post about how I write the column.

Tech Universe as seen on the iPad.

I’ve been finding links for a couple of months now, and while it’s become a little smoother over time, I need more speed. At the moment it takes me several hours each day.

RSS feeds

The core of my process is approximately 40 RSS feeds from science or technology sites. NetNewsWire refreshes those feeds hourly, so if I have time I can quickly skim the articles quite often during the day.

iPad apps and Twitter

I also pick up links from my Twitterpals, from various News apps on my iPad, and from some saved Google searches.

If I’m on my MacBook Pro when I catch those items I just follow the same process as for RSS feeds. If I’m using my iPad at the time though I generally email the link to myself. Then when I’m back on my laptop I can follow up.

Collect and write

If I have time and my brain’s fresh then I collect and write the links in one go.

When I find an item that seems a likely candidate to appear in the column I double click the headline or press the right arrow key in NetNewsWire to open the item in my default browser, Safari.

I read the item and if I decide it’s suitable then I paste the link to a ‘probables’ file I keep in BBEdit. I also write the headline and the couple of sentences that will be published.

Sometimes though I’m tired and ‘braindead’. In that case I may just grab the link and a couple of sentences so I can go back later to write it up properly.

Select items

I read through an awful lot more articles than I ever use. Sometimes I read for personal interest. At other times I find the item wasn’t actually very interesting.

Some interesting but annoying items I can’t use fall into one of two categories:

1. Items that are just too complex to be able to express in a couple of sentences.
2. Items that are way over my head. I read them but only understand one word in five. That’s mainly some of the very much more scientific articles.

Edit and rewrite

I have to file my column ‘first thing’ every weekday. On very rare occasions I have everything all sorted the night before, but usually I rise early to edit and rewrite the items.

I tighten up the wording, rearrange things for more effect and brevity, and hone the headline. Occasionally I make a last minute swap to take out a ‘weak’ item and replace it with something more interesting.

Finally I look at the sequence. I try to start and close ‘strong’. Maybe there’s a natural progression I can use too, where some items have some loose relationship, so they belong together.

Handy Applescripts

Tech Universe as seen on an iPad.

Once I’ve finalised the day’s column I need to email it to my editor, save a copy to a reference file, add the items to a weekly blog post I build up and create a tweet with just the headings.

Each needs a slightly different format, but I invested a little time in creating a few Applescripts, so it takes only a click of the mouse to create the separate items.

This is a typical item, as I write it. I’ve removed the bulk of the text:

<p>FANTASTIC LIGHT: Photonics moves data using light … Broadband speeds willing, of course. <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/silicon-photonics-50-gbps/> </p>


My first Applescript copies all 5 items to a new empty BBEdit document, strips out the <p> tags, adds some extra Returns between each item, adds a header and footer.

I call it up through Keyboard Maestro which then takes the output, creates a new email message, correctly addressed and with a Subject that includes the date.

After checking the email I press Send.

Then I go back to my text file and call up more Applescripts through Keyboard Maestro. Each prepares the text slightly differently. One adds dates to each item, removes the <p> tags and adds all 5 items to my reference file. I can easily check that file to ensure I don’t use the same item twice, and to check that I have a good variety of topics.

Another script turns the set of items into an HTML list so it can appear on this blog. It also takes the URL and makes the headline into a link.

The final script assembles just the headlines, and capitalises them, ready for me to send a tweet once the column is published.

The hardest parts of writing the column are finding potential items and then writing a succinct and, I hope, interesting heading and paragraph.

I’m learning a lot though: both about trends in science and technology, and about writing in a style different from my usual instructional prose.

I’d love to read your comments on my Tech Universe column. Let me know in the Comments here what you think of it.

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Saturday morning my neighbour Oliver and I drove down the hill in search of iPads. After finding 30 people ahead of us at Magnum Mac I held a place in the queue while Oliver scouted out Harvey Norman.

A few moments later he called to say he was the only one there, and there were plenty of iPads in stock. With a friendly wave to the queue buddy I’d been talking to I went to join Oliver.

Within a few minutes, after considering (and in my case rejecting) various accessories, we were on our way home with our new goodies. The line at Magnum Mac was still to the door and didn’t seem to be moving.

My prize was the 32Gb 3G/WiFi iPad with a free Vodafone MicroSIM. Now I’m waiting for the Nutshell iPad case to be available — I have one of their cases for my iPhone and love it.

The biggest problem with the iPad: it’s addictive

I plugged the new device in to my Mac, did updates and synchronised it. That all went fairly smoothly. Then I spent a day and a half playing with it. It’s addictive. The battery lasts for a very long time — after around 9 hours use the charge was down to 25% or so and I plugged it in. There’s no reason to put the darned thing down.

My first, and so far enduring impression: I love it!

Other problems with the iPad

Some small annoyances did emerge as I used the iPad.

Keyboard layout

The keyboard layout is a little different from the iPhone. My usual hunt and peck is a little slower. Also, because the virtual keyboard is larger than on the iPhone I have to move my hand around a whole lot more. Sometimes my hand brushes a key as I move over it and I type unwanted letters.

Usernames and passwords

I synchronised the device; I didn’t restore my iPhone or iPod touch to it. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but I have to enter usernames and passwords into all the apps that require such things. I already did that on 2 other devices, can’t iTunes pass that information across too? I seem to need a lot of usernames and passwords, and these days they’re often reasonable secure. Talk about annoying!

App versions

Some of the apps I use have separate versions for iPad. I’ve had to buy a couple of updates. That’s OK, I don’t mind that. What I wish the iPad would do is scan the apps and tell me which ones have an iPad version / update. Instead I’m going to the App Store and searching manually. Tedious.

Oh, and most iPhone versions of apps look terrible when scaled up to iPad size, and don’t seem to rotate.

Gmail

I prefer to use the web interface for GMail. That actually works surprisingly well on the iPhone. On the iPad it does a gorgeous 2-paned layout, with the list of messages on the left and the full individual selected message on the right. It’s very nice. But I wish it wouldn’t:

• automatically select and display the next message after I delete the one I’m reading. I don’t always want to read the next message in sequence, and I save some as unread for later attention.
• revert to the Inbox all the time. I actually really only want to see a list of All Mail.

Switching from the Mobile GMail version to the Desktop version was a total disaster. It was impossible to properly select things or scroll.

Buzz Aldrin Portal To Science and Space Exploration

I bought the iPad version of this app as it looked interesting and I saw a few positive reviews. Obviously it works for others, but not for me. I’ve contacted the Helpdesk for support. For me it opens, displays no info and then quits if I try to select things from the toolbar at the bottom of the window.

An Aperture glitch

One other small problem appeared while writing this: I can’t seem to import screenshots straight into Aperture, as the iPad just doesn’t show up. I used Image Capture to import these screenshots, and then imported them into Aperture from my hard drive.

The fabulous iPad

I really only listed those annoyances above so I could get them out of the way. I love this iPad. It’s gorgeous. It rotates any which way. It’s fast. It has sound (my much-used 1st generation iPod touch didn’t have speakers).

Videos are fabulous. I can easily rest the iPad on my lap while I eat breakfast and watch a video. I plugged the iPad into small external speakers for extra volume while I listened to a podcast and washed dishes. That went well.

Osfoora for Twitter

The Twitter application Osfoora is excellent on an iPhone. On the iPad it’s magnificent. I prefer the light theme, rather than the dark one you see on their web page. Hold the iPad in portrait orientation and you see the timeline. Rotate it and it displays a 2-paned view. Photos pop up in a separate window.

I’m discovering all kinds of wonderful apps in the App Store. All the extra screen real estate makes a huge difference to how software can and does work.

If you don’t have an iPad yourself visit your local supplier of Apple products and try one out.

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I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Here are the links from last week.

Tech universe: Monday 19 July 2010

• PACK OF CARS: Hate driving round and round in parking buildings? In Budapest the Woehr Parksafe car parking system uses software controlling automated lifts and slides to pack 200 cars into a tiny space only 12 by 25 metres. 3D parking.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=x82lHVPkeF0

• ONWARD AND UPWARD: Computer chips are flat so there’s only so much you can fit on them. A new method of ‘growing’ wires to extend above the surface offers scope for a 3D chip with more power. 3D with everything.
• HONEY I’M HOME: The new Allure Mobile energy-saver thermostat tracks your iPhone When it detects you’re on your way home it adjusts the temperature to your favourite setting. Can it get the dinner on too?
• UNTRAINED PILOT: Spotter planes for Search and Rescue could use specialised algorithms, rather than a crew, to direct their search. An operator on the ground, who doesn’t even need to know how to fly, controls the plane and can analyse photos to find missing people. Why do they need full-size planes?
• BREATHE EASY: Mechanical ventilators are usually huge and can cost $30,000. Students from MIT have devised a $100 mobile ventilator from readily available parts that could save lives in emergencies and poorer communities. A nice application of the 80-20 rule.

Tech universe: Tuesday 20 July 2010

• VIBRATION CHARGE: Brother’s vibration-powered generators can replace AA and AAA batteries in low power consumption devices such as remotes. Shake the remote to generate power. A new excuse for channel surfing: fitness.
• VISA KEYS: The European Visa CodeSure card includes a 12-button keypad and screen. To buy goods online type your PIN into the card so a unique passcode appears. Use that passcode to authorise the purchase. What we really need is fingerprint recognition.
• 100GB BLU-RAY: Sharp are producing the first 100GB triple-layer Blu-ray discs, using the BDXL format. Each disc could hold around 12 hours of of terrestrial digital TV broadcasts. It’s a long way from the 1.4Mb floppy.
• SPACE JUNK MAP: Worried that one of your satellites in space may collide with something? The Australians have an app for that. Electro Optic Systems laser technology, used at Mount Stromlo observatory, can track space junk and tell you where it all is. For a fee, of course.
• PEDAL MONSTER: The Hanebrink All-Terrain Electro Bike is a monster, with a 14-speed gearbox, 50cm x 20cm tubeless tires, 5 Lithium Ion batteries, and pedals. It could carry up to 135Kg of cargo up steep terrain or deep into inaccessible areas. Zero-carbon emissions, but what about the sweat?

Tech universe: Thursday 22 July 2010

• NEXUS GONE: Google’s Nexus One smartphone has reached the end of a very short life. Few units were sold. After only 6 months, and in spite of good reviews, it is no longer available. Next.
• E-MOTION: As we move around our bodies could generate enough power to operate our various gadgets and devices. DARPA’s Energy Starved Electronics program is figuring out how to make it work. Are you a high-energy person?
• ROBOCHOP: It’s not uncommon to see helicopters around cities, but we expect a human to be at the controls. A recent full-size helicopter flight left decisions up to the machine. Scanning LIDAR fed information to a computer that chose flight paths and landing areas, avoiding obstacles too. A blue screen of death could be all too literal.
• ALUMINIUM CURTAIN: Imagine 250,000 aluminium panels hanging as a curtain. You’ll be able to see it soon: this kinetic art project will ripple in the wind, providing ventilation and shade to a Brisbane airport carpark. It’s strangely hypnotic.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nuZI4UIK68

• ALGAE-FUEL: Take a whole lot of algae, ferment it the right way and you too could be selling jet fuel to the US Airforce, just like Solazyme. Their algae-based jet fuel is clean and renewable. Clean and very green.

Tech universe: Friday 23 July 2010

• HARD EBOOKS: The next hardback you cuddle up with may be a Kindle. For the first time recently Amazon sold more Kindle ebooks than hardbacks, and the trend is accelerating. Who actually buys hardbacks anyway? When will ebooks replace paperbacks?
• TEAM TALK: In a disaster cell phone towers may be out of action — just when you need them most. Australian researchers have a system to let nearby cellphones form a temporary peer-to-peer network, without needing a tower. Better hope it’s not hilly though.
• NO QUEUE CARD: A smart proximity chip in the new Qantas Frequent Flyer Q Card identifies passengers and their flight bookings. RFID Q Bag Tags also replace printed luggage tags, making it easy to drop off and track bags. No queues with a Q card.
• 4D MINI-MOVIES: Atoms move a million billion times per second — impossible to see. Or they were, until the California Institute of Technology figured out how to take and build thousands of individual images into frames of a movie. They call the technique 4-D electron microscopy. Seen any good atoms lately?
• FASTER WEATHER: NIWA’s new $12.7 million supercomputer, called FitzRoy, has 100 times more power than their current computer and performs 34 trillion calculations a second. The new computer will help NIWA forecast the impacts of severe weather events and may even help to model the human body. There’s rain coming, I can feel it in my bones.

Tech universe: Wednesday 28 July 2010

• DIY SPACE: Fancy adding your own satellite to the gazillions of pieces of space junk orbiting the Earth? An $11,000 DIY personal satellite kit from Interorbital Systems includes batteries, antenna, solar panels and a microcomputer, and the company will launch it into space for you on its own rocket. Ready, set, go.
• HIGH ON GRASS: British Airways aims to turn potato peel and lawn clippings into jet kerosene. A new processing plant will take 500,000 tonnes of domestic and other waste each year and convert it into jet fuel. Every little bit helps.
• SMART AND COOL: University of Maryland’s new energy-efficient metal alloy absorbs or creates heat. Current refrigeration fluids contribute to global warming, but this “thermally elastic” solid coolant is almost twice as efficient. That means a lot of power savings and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Be interesting to see how else it could be used: chilly bin, anyone?
• CLEAN PAPER: Graphene oxide paper could be used for anti-bacterial bandages, food packaging that keeps food fresher for longer or even shoes that ward off foot odour. Researchers found that E. coli bacteria could not grow on the low-cost paper. Does this mean we’ll use less plastic? I’m all for it.
• NOTHING TO SNIFF AT: A $300 Israeli “sniff” device can be used to drive a wheelchair: two breaths in move you forward; two breaths out, move you backward. A small tube in the nose is connected to a computer that detects changes in air pressure, how long a sniff lasts, and how strong it is. Don’t sneeze, whatever you do!

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I’ve been listening to and watching podcasts for years now. In fact I started back when I needed to contrive a system of stars to help me manage what I’d already listened to. The problem then was that iTunes had only one set of options that applied to all podcasts uniformly.

Podcasts in iTunes.

And when you’ve been using software for years you don’t always realise that some of the more hidden features have changed.

That’s why it was only recently I discovered a much easier way to manage my podcasts.

Star system

I used to assign 3 stars or more to music I really enjoyed, 2 stars to podcast episodes I wanted to keep, 1 star to items I’d heard and needed to delete. Then periodically I’d locate all the 1-star items and remove them.

At some point though iTunes added the ability to set per-podcast options, and it passed me right by.

Set options for each podcast

iTunes per-podcast settings.

To set options for a particular podcast first select it in the list of podcasts. In my screenshot I’ve selected the Quirks & Quarks show.

Next click the Settings… button at the bottom of the window. Choose how often to check for new episodes, which podcasts to apply the settings to, and then how to handle new episodes by using the drop-down menus.

I find I want all new episodes of some podcasts and to manually select episodes from others.

Finally choose which episodes to keep: all, unplayed, or some number. I’ve now set most of my podcasts to keep only unplayed episodes.

What I’ve found is that now episodes I’ve listened to hang around for a Refresh or so and then just disappear. That may be because I’ve tried mainly manual refreshes since changing the settings. I suspect episodes are deleted after a scheduled refresh.

It’s an old habit to mark episodes I’ve listened to with a single star, now I can stop doing that. Whew.

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I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Here are the links from last week.

Tech universe: Monday 12 July 2010

• BULLET-PROOF LIQUID: Kevlar alone slows bullets, but add a special liquid and bullets don’t have a chance. The molecules in the liquid ‘custard’ lock together to stop the bullet when it strikes. Movie soundtracks may need to add a new ‘splash’ sound effect.
• SEAWATER AIRCON: The Bora Bora Intercontinental draws up cold seawater from a pipe that goes 1Km deep. It then uses the cold to power its air conditioning systems, saving around 90% of its energy costs. Simple, and very cool.
• BENDY BIKE: A British inventor has designed a bendable bike. Ride it as usual, then wrap it around a lamp post and lock it to itself. The bendable part is made of a series of glass-filled nylon sections. Clearly the product of a warped sense of humour.
• SPECCY 2 EYES: The Loreo Stereo Lens-in-a-cap attaches to a regular DSLR camera. It creates one photo with 2 side by side images for your 3D viewing pleasure. Special glasses not included.
• BROADBAND ON DEMAND: Villagers in rural Iwade in the UK wanted broadband, so they made it happen. They had potential suppliers tender and selected a suitable option. Now 40Mbit/s Internet is on its way. Where there’s a will there’s broadband.

Tech universe: Tuesday 13 July 2010

• MAGNETIC VISION: Wish you could see magnetic fields? Say Hello to the humble Robin. Cryptochrome molecules in the bird’s retina make magnetic fields visible as light and shade. A handy skill for a crimefighter’s resume.
• ZERO GRAV RADIATION SUIT: For some operations doctors must wear tiring and heavy lead aprons. The Zero Gravity Suit hangs from the ceiling of an operating theatre, and the doctor steps inside when it’s needed. No more heavy lifting required. Surgeons in spaaace.
• THAT FRESH CONCRETE SMELL: No need to worry about car exhaust fumes. Make roads from air-purifying concrete and they’ll suck up dangerous nitrogen oxides, releasing nitrates instead. The concrete includes titanium dioxide, and is self-cleaning too. Now, about the extra nitrates in the drains…
• REAL VIRTUAL CHESS: If you play chess on the Internet you’re stuck with a virtual chessboard. Unless you build an Internet-enabled chess board, that is. A webcam and projector let you move real pieces to play against an online opponent. Check.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxy01oAM68

• TECH TAP: Renshui’s Sunrise faucet has a built-in “smart chip” to control water flow and temperature, and a light to warn if the water’s too hot. Not yet Mensa-level smart, I think.

Tech universe: Wednesday 14 July 2010

• TRUSTING NEXI: Nexi the Robot just looks so, well, trustworthy. In conversation she uses gestures and nonverbal cues calculated to inspire trust. “Trust me, I’m a robot. I know what I’m doing!”
• T-RAY VISION: Laser beams and Terahertz (THz) waves combined “see through” clothing and packaging materials to identify hidden materials such as explosives and illegal drugs. T-Rays: the new X-Rays.
• EYE LIE DETECTOR: Pupils dilated? Taking slightly longer to read a text? These tiny indicators suggest you’re lying. A new eye tracking lie detector could catch you out. Watch out. Your next reading test may be looking for lies.
• FLYING TANK: Part helicopter, part tank, the 4-seater AVX Armed Aerial Scout concept takes off and lands vertically, cruises at 3,000 metres and reaches 130kph on the road. It travels 400Km on a tank of fuel. But will it actually fly?
• STRIKE TWO: Taranis, a long-range uncrewed strike plane begins flight trials soon. Computer programs allow Taranis to ‘make decisions’ and penetrate enemy territory stealthily. It’s behind you!

Tech universe: Thursday 15 July 2010

• RUNNING BIKE: Can’t decide whether to go for a run or a bike ride? You don’t need to choose. The ElliptiGO has 2 wheels, handlebars and huge pedals, but no seat. Ride it by ‘running’ on the pedals, to reach up to 40Kph. Weird, but in a cool and very clever way.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=67i6d9Hxjgg

• SEE ME, HEAR ME: Or at least, my clothes. Massachusetts Institute of Technology add graphite electrodes to synthetic fabrics so they can detect light and sound, and can even talk. Your whole shirt could be a microphone or a speaker. “Is that your shirt talking?”
• SEE MY SKY: See Mars in 3D or the whole night sky in 2D. The Virtual WorldWide Telescope uses terabytes of real images from ground and space-based telescopes all over the world. Space is big: vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big.
• 3D HEADACHE: About 1 in 10 of us can’t see straight: we can’t correctly process separate images that come from our right and left eyes. This causes problems if we try to watch 3D movies. So if Avatar gave you a headache, it may have been your eyes, not the plot that was the problem. The British Eyecare Trust has the details.
• SQUEEZE BATTERY: A small box with Xenon difluoride under a million atmospheres of pressure stores more condensed energy than any other battery ever built. Wonder how it would go in my iPod?

Tech universe: Friday 16 July 2010

• HEAVY WALKER: Kiwi invention the Rex Bionics exoskeleton lets wheelchair users stand and walk, even up and down stairs. At 38Kg it adds a bit of weight, but what’s a few kilos to be able to walk? It’s one giant step.
  httpv://www.youtube.com/user/rexbionics
• TINY CRAWLY: It’s strong but slow. A tiny robot centipede, with 512 legs carries 7 times its own weight, but takes an hour to move 1 metre. Being so tiny it fits through small gaps and could explore collapsed buildings. Or be used for surveillance, of course.
• HOT SHOTS: 5 micrometer infrared cameras detect body heat, so could be useful for firefighters or search and rescue. But they only work at a chilly -193 degrees C. Now German scientists can make them work at room temperature. They’re lighter, faster and easier on the batteries. Small enough to be carried by a robot centipede?
• WATERMARK KEY: Indian scientists have created a watermark that can prove a photo has not been altered, and then be removed. It calculates the parameters of every pixel in the image to create a key that can verify authenticity. Does it work for infrared images too?
• USB FOR YOU AND ME: Somehow a USB plug is always upside down when you try to insert it into your computer. The Flipper USB finally has a solution: it works either way up. Why did it take so long for someone to think of that?
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQr7_R-3SHM

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I hate ‘bad’ feedback. I hate it if I’ve done a training session and a participant tells me that something didn’t make sense, or was a waste of time. I hate that I’ve ‘failed’ and done a bad job.

But that kind of feedback is the most valuable and best feedback there is, because it tells me how I can do better, and I love it for that. I also appreciate the person who tells me where and how I can improve my work and so run a better business.

I like it that they care enough to spend their valuable time and energy helping me in my business. They’re giving me the opportunity to improve and grow, to shape my work better.

Hard as it is to hear criticism, my work is better for it and I’ve increased my skills as a result.

VaultPress hurdles

VaultPress is the hot new WordPress blog backup service from Automattic and I think I must be one of their most valuable customers right now.

Your blogs and sites are your livelihood. Are you protected? VaultPress is the only protection and backup service built on the Automattic grid that reliably serves over 11 million WordPress.com blogs and 250 million monthly visitors.

VaultPress success.

Why am I so valuable? Because although it seems every other customer who’s signed up so far is ecstatic about having their blogs backed up, for me it didn’t work. For a week or more.

I applied for a Golden Ticket as soon as they were announced, and was thrilled to receive one just a few days later. I signed up MacTips for the cheapest level of coverage.

Sign up troubles

Error on signup.

Except I couldn’t sign up. There was some problem they’ve now fixed, with the payment form. It didn’t matter whether I tried to select a (US) state or not, the form wouldn’t let me through, claiming I needed a state.

After several failed attempts I emailed the Helpdesk with some screenshots. The next day I was able to complete my signup.

Plugin install

I eagerly downloaded the plugin from my VaultPress Dashboard. It’s customised and unique to that site. Everyone gets their own plugin that includes unique coding to allow the backups to take place.

Installation was easy, and then I activated it. It was quite a buzz to instantly see the message that VaultPress was indeed backing up.

I felt a new sense of relaxed confidence that MacTips at least would now be fully and completely backed up with no further effort on my part.

An idle site

VaultPress Dashboard.

Except, actually, it wasn’t.

A little while later I visited my VaultPress Dashboard. On the Summary page it seemed that the version of my WordPress install wasn’t being recognised and there were no actual completed or partial backups.

I waited a while to be sure VaultPress had a chance to grab everything from my site. After considerable waiting, and several visits to the Dashboard, including logging out and in again, it seemed pretty obvious that things weren’t working.

Help

I fired off another email to the Helpdesk and received a reassuring response that they’d look into it. That took a while.

A week after first signing up, I still had no backups. We corresponded a bit and then things seemed to pick up. I emailed them:

VaultPress backing up.

I’ve just noticed from the VaultPress Dashboard that things appear to be underway now.

I don’t know if it’s something you did, but thought I should let you know that in the last hour I’ve updated my essential Bad Behaviour plugin to a version that just became available and deactivated the Simple Trackback Validation plugin as I realised I no longer needed it, having turned off trackbacks recently.

False reading

Except, uh oh… My next message told them:

It appears that in spite of seeing apparent backup activity, I still have no backups.

My site stopped responding

Before long the Helpdesk replied:

What we’ve been noticing is that on large database tables (such as your term relationships table) the backup will progress properly until some point, and then every request after that will timeout. Your site simply stops responding to us.

I thought maybe one of my plugins was causing a problem and deactivated a few, including the Yet Another Related Posts plugin.

Success at last

A successful VaultPress backup.

I’m thrilled to say that now finally we have success and MacTips is thoroughly backed up. But it seems that disabling the plugins wasn’t the factor that made the difference. The Helpdesk wrote:

I believe that the problem is with how were were making requests to your site. For irrelevant (and outdated) reasons we at one time had to make hundreds and hundreds of separate requests to get the full backups done. Since then we have made several advances in several areas, and we can now send many requests through just one connection. I believe that an apache module that your hosting provider has configured was seeing all of these requests and temporarily blocking our service mid-backup of your site seeing it as a form of abuse.  Now that we’re able to do more work in less connections we’re not triggering the modules defenses and things seem to be working.

I can also see that I should do a bit of tidying up at MacTips: 7 themes! 1215 revisions! 26 plugins!

It took a while to get this particular backup in order, but the Helpdesk folks were friendly and effective. I’m confident now, with the might of Automattic behind VaultPress, that I have complete backups of MacTips: themes, files, options, posts, the works.

MacTips represents thousands of hours of incredibly valuable work. It’s worth protecting.

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Twitter’s the place where I make my social media home. I seldom visit Facebook or LinkedIn, even though I have profiles there. No, short, sharp message exchanges with a community of friends and acquaintance is the thing for me.

But how best to use Twitter on my Mac?

Yesterday rate limits struck and I tried using the web interface, because my Twitter clients just wouldn’t work. My conclusion: the web is definitely not any way to try to work with Twitter. It’s clunky, annoying, and just unfriendly.

I’ve tried a few Twitter clients on my Mac, but find that no one is quite right for me. My perfect Twitter client would amalgamate features from several.

YoruFukurou highlights relates tweets

YoruFukurou drawer shows information.

Right now I seem to have settled on YoruFukurou, after recently using Nambu that I switched to from Tweetie.

It first endeared itself to me when I used Command + and the text enlarged. Hooray! I’ve had problems with text size in Twitter since I bought this new MacBook Pro a couple of months ago.

Badges on the avatars show status, such as unread tweet, doesn’t follow me, retweet. Press the Spacebar to go from one unread tweet to the next.

Open the drawer with any tweet selected and there’s information about the person, and easy ways to DM them, and check Follow status.

I also like the APIs left information at the bottom of the window.

A favourite feature is the way it highlights related tweets so you can easily see what a reply was actually replying to, for example.

In fact, there’s a lot I like about YoruFukurou. But it doesn’t seem to handle multiple accounts, and it doesn’t actually hide read tweets.

Nambu

Mute a user in Nambu.

I switched to Nambu when I bought the new Mac. I was hoping it would have better sized text than Tweetie (it doesn’t), but I liked its flexibility with multiple accounts.

I’ve only ever translated one tweet, as it happens, but Nambu has a command for that right on each tweet.

The delight of Mute became apparent when some Twitterpals were tweeting every moment (it seemed) of a soccer match. All I need to know about any soccer match, if I need to know anything at all, is who won. Nambu allowed me to Mute the user and to select the duration.

I love the way Nambu greys out read tweets and gives you a button to hide them altogether.

And the ability to open a new window to write a tweet is a gem.

But the largest font is still too tiny.

Tweetie

Tweetie lets you preview where a shortened URL will take you.

Tweetie also allows you to write a tweet in a separate window.

One of its great features though is being able to preview where a shortened URL will take you.

It’s been a while now since I really used Tweetie, so I can’t easily recall what else I liked about it. As I look at it now it seems a little feature-poor.

Put them together

I’d like a Twitter client that:

• has properly resizeable text
• previews shortened URLs
• greys out and perhaps hides read tweets
• puts useful badges on avatars
• highlights related tweets
• handles multiple accounts
• lets you compose tweets in a separate window
• lets you mute a user for a customisable amount of time

For the time being I’m sticking with YoruFukurou — being able to enlarge the font size is a winning feature, and it just feels good.

What do you like in a Mac Twitter client? What’s your favourite?

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I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Here are the links from last week.

Tech universe: Monday 05 July 2010

• BLOWN AWAY: Blunt umbrellas — a Kiwi innovation — withstand even Wellington gales. What it takes is double struts, floating ribs and special Blunt strengthening tips. Hang on! Brolly Sailing could be the latest Wellington sport!
• IBM IS SUPER GREEN: 17 of the 20 most energy efficient supercomputers in the world are built by IBM. Each system produces more than 773 Megaflops per watt of energy. Whereas I flop when I have no energy.
• 3D WATER TETRIS: Layer 3 artificial waterfalls and carefully time the drops. Then project images on the water to create a 3D display. So when do we get touchscreen? Video:
• DRIVER CHARGES: Washington, California, Arizona and Tennessee are setting up 15,000 electric vehicle charging stations. A charge could take as little as 15 minutes. A better buzz for drivers.
• DRIVE BY LASER: A vibrating vest and puffs of air on the face could allow blind people to drive cars, according to Virginia Tech. Sensor lasers and cameras help drivers ‘see’ where they’re going. Shouldn’t the tech be compulsory for all of us?

Tech universe: Tuesday 06 July 2010

• GROW YOUR OWN HOME: Urban designer Mitchell Joachim would like us to grow our own homes by grafting living plants together, using a special scaffolding. The homes would also absorb carbon from the air. Do we get architects, landscapers or interior designers to help?
• ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE: Microsoft InstaLoad lets you insert batteries in a device without worrying about which way round they should go. Both ends of the battery include both positive and negative terminals. Plug and play.
• TOUCHY FEELY: Put on 3D glasses and hold hands with a robot. This could be a new way of training doctors and others who need to learn how things feel during surgery or medical exams. The HIRO III haptic interface robot gives kinesthetic feedback through your fingertips. Not just cold hands, but steely.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxlYY0xo4gk

• YOU’RE SOAKING IT IN: Sand may be just the thing to keep your skin supple. Coating droplets of skin cream with silica nanoparticles lets researchers control how the skin absorbs the cream. Wait, there’s more: you can scrub and moisturise at the same time!
• ROUND CARBON: A new method for recycling plastic turns it into tiny spheres of pure carbon. The spheres can be used in paint, batteries and filters or many other things. In my day it was called soot.

Tech universe: Wednesday 07 July 2010

• SPACE BOMBS: In the 50s and 60s the Americans and Russians detonated hydrogen bombs in space. The Starfish Prime explosion was seen even in New Zealand. I have an idea: let’s explode a nuke and see what happens.
• SPLIT WHEELS: The HMK 561 electric bicycle’s carbon fibre frame splits each wheel in two. An electric charge stored in the frame drives the bike. There are no pedals either, just foot pegs. Footloose and pedal free.
• FAST FEET: Treadways motorised shoes aren’t exactly stylish, but they take the ‘walk’ out of walking. Powered by lithium-polymer batteries they’ll quickly get you from the bus to the front door. Then just sit back and plug in your feet.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB9Yrr25P8M

• CRIMINAL PLATES: Cameras in New South Wales detect car number plates that recognition software matches to a database. It’s the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. At 6 plates per second it can pick out plenty of infringing cars. The quick eye of the law.
• BLACK BOX CAR: The Intel Connected Car tracks how you drive. If you have an accident it can report back on your behaviour. It could also report potholes in roads, and stop you from driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Yaaay, the Nanny car.

Tech universe: Thursday 08 July 2010

• FIRST LIGHT: Europe’s Planck telescope operates at minus 273.05 C to survey the Cosmic Microwave Background. Its first full-sky image finally shows the structure of our galaxy. Old, cold and gold.
• EYE POWER: A Canadian filmmaker, known as EyeBorg, replaced his artificial eye with a battery-powered, wireless video camera. It runs for 90 minutes on a charge. He’s also planning a live feed to the Internet. What colour were those films he makes?
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UrlwCgL6N0

• EYE ON YOUR CAR: In Europe Audi Cam outfits car mechanics with a two-way radio and a headset video camera so you can watch and chat while your car’s being serviced. Oh no, a backseat mechanic.
• LAPTOP CAR: A little Mira electric car travelled more than 27 hours without recharging, powered only by laptop-style lithium-ion batteries. 8,320 of them. I reckon my laptop gets better mileage: it runs about 5 hours on one battery.
• MOUSE HANDS: Point, scroll, click — the ‘Mouseless’ computer mouse does all the usual stuff, but without the mouse. Instead an Infrared camera watches how your hand is moving on the desk. What we actually want: Look ma, no hands!
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHGODp0b8Ks

Tech universe: Friday 09 July 2010

• GET THE SHAKES: Care for a massage while you drive? The safety car seat vibrates for the entire ride, but if a vehicle moves into your blind spot one part vibrates more intensely to alert you. Driving home in rush hour could be more relaxing than you’d ever thought.
• WIRELESS PARKING: Sick of driving round and round the block to find a carpark? In Barcelona wireless sensors report vacant parking spaces to displays on the street or an in-car Navigator device. Network problems: the new cause of road rage.
• OOPS, IT STUCK: Researchers accidentally found a pressure-sensitive adhesive made from soya beans while trying to create an adhesive for wood. It’s cheaper and more eco-friendly than existing petroleum-based adhesives, and could be used for packaging tape or stick-on notes. Another in the grand tradition of accidental adhesive discoveries.
• ON YOUR BIKE: So long as you’re pedalling you might as well charge up your cellphone. The USB Bike Generator rubs against the bike wheel, produces electricity and provides power to USB devices. With a USB kettle you could make coffee while cycling.
• SMART BANDAGE: A Bacteriosafe smart bandage will detect and treat infection in wounds. Nanocapsules release antibiotics if a wound becomes infected and change colour to show harmful bacteria are present. Sickly green takes on a new meaning.

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Phishing emails are generally pretty boring: they dress themselves up to look like something they are not, such as a bank, hide links to evil sites that will steal your data, and that’s the end of it.

Flickr phishing.

Google Apps (Gmail) handles my email for me and kindly puts up an unmissable red warning when it thinks an email is phishing.

Today I received such an email ‘welcoming’ me to Flickr. I can see how it would suck in many naive email users.

I took a look at the source code, to see who was trying to steal my information this time. And laughed out loud. These phishers have a sense of humour.

Shady images

Here are some of the image filenames — very ‘shady’:

• email_shady_background.png
• email_shady_bottom_left.png
• email_shady_bottom_slice.png
• email_shady_bottom_right.png

Creative links

Each link went to a different domain name, and the main bad guys appear to be in Russia and Romania. But look at these gorgeous links — I’ve replaced each actual domain name with example.com below:

• <a href="http://example.com/hysterical.html">account</a> information.
• <a href="http://example.com/interfere.html">Add a buddy icon</a>
• <a href="http://example.com/tallness.html">Upload your first photos</a>
• <a href="http://example.com/nightly.html">Find your friends</a>
• You can <a href="http://example.com/gustav.html">customize these emails</a> or <a href="http://example.com/reselects.html">turn them off</a> at any time.
• read our informative <a href="http://example.com/chickadee.html">FAQs</a> or <a href="http://example.com/quiz.html">take the magical feature tour</a>.
• You can always <a href="http://example.com/eyepieces.html">customize these emails or turn them off</a>
• <a href="http://example.com/analyticities.html">Terms of Service</a> and <a href="http://example.com/deluded.html">Privacy Policy</a> and the Flickr <a href="http://example.com/terrify.html">Community Guidelines</a>

We look forward to seeing the world through your eyes!

My favourites are the last two: the deluded Privacy Policy and the terrifying Community Guidelines.

The truth of it

Oh, and just at the end, this incredibly truthful statement: We look forward to seeing the world through your eyes!

These phishers obvious take a lot of pride and pleasure in their work. I’m glad they’ve also given those of us who know a bit about HTML coding something to have fun with too.

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I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Here are the links from last week.

Tech universe: Monday, 28 June 2010

• COLD SCOPE: A telescope buried under more than 1500 metres of Antarctic ice! Pretty weird. The IceCube telescope is looking for neutrinos though, not stars, so the ice filters out annoying radiation. Cosmic.
• GOT LIGHT?: The Solar Spark Lighter is a small parabolic mirror with a tiny fork at the focal point. Add kindling and hold it in the sun; moments later you have fire. MacGyver would be proud!
• SWIM, ROBOT, SWIM: Researchers made a 35-centimetre-long articulated robot undulate through artificial sand. It ‘swam’ through just like the sandfish lizard that inspired it. The future of synchronised swimming?
• AUGMENTED DINOSAURS: Find books a bit flat? Hold the specially created ‘Dinosaurs Alive’ book to your webcam and see 3D dinosaurs roam across your screen. “Mummy, why are the books you had as a kid broken?”
• SMILING ICE-CREAM: SapientNitro’s vending machine only dispenses ice-creams if you smile. Facial recognition figures out if you’re smiling or grim. Smile, you’re on candied camera.

Tech universe: Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Supersonic green machine.

• LASER VISION: The Prysm TV shines lasers on phosphors to emit red, green or blue light. The laser phosphor display uses much less power for a sharper image. Do not look directly into the TV.
• STOP LIGHT: Aussie scientists captured laser light in a crystal and held it for a full second — 1,000 times longer than previously possible. Their technique could lead to faster, more powerful computers. Zero: the new speed of light.
• GREEN FLASH: Lockheed Martin designed a supersonic aircraft for NASA. This sleek craft with wings at the tail should reduce sonic booms and fly further on less fuel. More vroom, less boom.
• MAKE WINE NOT WAR: The Tempwave microwave ray gun is leaving its military beginnings behind to instead keep frost off sensitive crops such as grapes. So the hippies won after all.
• WINE CUPS: Plastic tumbler, wine, foil top: the Tulip supplies glassfuls of wine, in 3 styles, and hey, you can recycle the plastic too. Choose, booze, recycle.

Tech universe: Wednesday 30 June 2010

• 3D EARTH: 2 German radar satellites are working together on a mission to map the world in 3D, picking out height differences as small as a metre. When East meets West.
• SOCCER CALLS: There are 2 main techie ways to see if a soccer ball went into goal: using cameras or a chip inside the ball. Both alert the ref through an earpiece. Boo. Is that ref deaf?
• FOLDING FOIL: Folding things into intriguing shapes just got easier. A new alloy foil can be taught what shape it should be, then laid flat. When heated, the flat item folds up by itself. Stand back. It’s going to fold.
  

  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZf3lo-16wQ

• TWICE THE TRAFFIC: The T.25 Minicar is so small that 2 can fit side by side in one traffic lane, or 3 in a single parking space. So which driver feeds the parking meter?
• NUMB GUMS: Soon your dentist may dab a healing peptide gel onto a tooth cavity rather than drilling and filling. That really will hurt the dentist more than it hurts us.

Tech universe: Thursday 01 July 2010

• CAR AIR: Is it a car? Is it a plane? It’s both. The Terrafugia Transition parks in a regular garage, drives on a regular road, and takes off from a regular runway after unfolding its wings. Imagine the security check-ins!
• BIOTECH BEES: Several German airports are testing honey from local bees for toxins as a way of monitoring air quality. If the honey’s clean it’s given away for free. Ahh, the clean, fresh country smell of jet fuel.
• EAR AID: Soldiers using the QUIETPRO earplug hear speech clearly: a tiny computer filters out distractions such as gunfire and the noise from tanks. Now we just need special glasses to filter out the sights of battle too.
• READ THE VIDEO: Still no Kindle hardware in New Zealand, but if you’re using the app on an iPhone some books may now include video or audio. Shh, I’m trying to read this video.
• BUSINESS PAD: The Cisco Cius tablet runs Android, includes a camera, and is built for video collaboration in the workplace. Start your purchase orders now.

Tech universe: Friday 02 July 2010

• WALLET CRACKERS: The Kena Kai wallet includes RF shielding so thieves can’t read off data from any RFID-chipped cards you might be carrying. Keeping your wallet shut just doesn’t hack it any more.
• OW, IT BURNS: Some Sony Vaio notebooks are getting so hot the machine twists out of shape. Half a million notebooks could be affected, but a firmware update should fix it. Too hot isn’t cool.
• DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME: The US Military have a Bat Hook device. Fling it over an overhead powerline so the razor blade inside cuts through the insulation. It powers phones and other devices. Hey, free electri…BZZZT! Pfff!
• BOOM BIDI BOOM: Electric Potential Sensors detect electrical activity in the heart without being attached to the body. In fact, they can be up to a metre away. That’s nothing. CSI can probably detect it from a kilometre.
• THE KEY OF $: If you have some serious cash to spare you might like the Optimus Popularis computer keyboard. Each key is a programmable display in its own right. Handy for those ‘I’ve forgotten what language I’m typing in’ moments.

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