1. Edit Your Post

Edit your post and on the bottom right there should be a link to “Set Featured Image”. (see below).

2. Choose Your Image

Usually, the featured image you want to use will already have been uploaded to the page. So select “Uploaded to this Post”. If no images are uploaded yet, you can use the next screen to upload as well.

Once You have found your image or uploaded it. Select it with a click and then click “Set Featured Image”. (see below).

3. Save Your Changes

Don’t forget to click update when you are back on the edit post page to save your changes.

That’s’ it!

On the contrary, having just passed GO on my mid-thirties, I’m fortunate to have been on ground level with joystick in hand from the beginning of Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation and Xbox. Back in the day I taught Bowser a thing or two about how to treat a princess. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start, isn’t nonsense to me, it’s nostalgia.

These days I’m constantly connected. As the director of a Web development team, the majority of my work is performed online. In the car I’m streaming Pandora through my iPhone. I have as many social media accounts as I do fingers. I can’t remember the last time I’ve watched television without my iPad in hand. And the vast majority of my precious “free” time is spent working on my Web site, northeasthikes.com.

If this is sounding all-too familiar, perhaps you’re also wondering what the long-term effect all this technology will have on our health? The abhorrent amount of time I spend sitting and staring at a computer, tablet, phone or television screen certainly can’t be a recipe for longevity.

Oh, sure, there have been studies, and studies of the studies. Google “health effects of technology” and it returns over 88 million results. But here’s the thing: as the first wave of generation tech, how can anyone know what the long-term effects on our aging process will be until we—well, age?

That said, there may be a way to have our tech cake and be healthy too. The next time you’re on a black-ops mission into cyber Afghanistan, or are defending a bag of Doritos from a zombie invasion, consider pushing pause on Call of Duty to answer the call of the wild. A recent Outdoor Magazine article explored research showing “…that nature can lower your blood pressure, fight off depression, beat back stress—and even prevent cancer.”

As an avid hiker, I’m a believer. The exhilaration of peering out from a mountaintop—legs burning, lungs clamoring for air, goosebumps raised—has a palpable knack for dissolving the stresses of everyday life, providing clarity of thought, and returning perspective. As good as HDTVs are getting, 1080p is no match for the restorative powers of real-D nature.

What I don’t understand is why more people don’t take a timeout to get outside? We know to reboot our devices when something isn’t working properly or the apps are sapping battery life—why don’t we do the same for ourselves? When I’m old and gray, I’m betting I won’t be wishing I could have one last crack at Bowser. More likely I’ll be pining for another trek across Katahdin’s Knife Edge, or to watch the sun set on the White Mountain’s Presidential Range.

These thoughts are what drive the development of Northeast Hikes. With the goal of promoting a sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities, we provide trail reviews for hikes across Maine and New Hampshire, as well as adventures along the Appalachian Trail. Please come check Northeast Hikes out, and consider taking a tech timeout this weekend.

Who knows? It could save your life.

The northern Presidential Range in New Hampshire’s White Mountains as viewed from Mt. Washington. From left to right are Mt. Clay, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison.

Winter hiking is twice as nice. This photo was taking on Mt. Lafayette’s Old Bridle Path.

No hiking bucket list in the Northeast is complete without a trek across the Knife Edge on Katahdin.

The Challenge:

1. Stop using the following Microsoft office products: Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
2. Any suitable alternative(s) to Microsoft Office must be cross-platform compatible (i.e. Mac and Windows).
3. Share and collaborate transparently with other people who may be using Microsoft Office products.
4. Alternative(s) must be free or significantly less than a license of Microsoft office.
5. Alternative(s) must be stable enough and user-friendly enough for end-user adoption.

I started my challenge on February 2nd after doing an analysis that would cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per year for upgrades and new licenses of Microsoft Office 2010. Let’s face it, times are tough and that’s not an insignificant amount of money. I’m a big believer in dogfooding, so I figured before I can recommend ditching Microsoft Office I would need to try it out myself for a while. So the 1st thing I did was go to OpenOffice.org and download the latest version for Mac.

It started out very promising. Files opened without incident and it looked pretty sharp. I was even able to quickly set my computer to open files associated with Microsoft Office with the new OpenOffice.  But things took a significant turn for the worse once I had to start working on files that I share with other people using Microsoft Office. In fact, the OpenOffice version of Excel, Calc, crashed between 15 to 20 times working on just one file that I received from our finance department. Not only did it crash repeatedly, but OpenOffice has this rather annoying file recovery Wizard that pops up every time it crashes. In principle, this seems like a good idea, but of those 15 to 20 crashes the wizard only recovered the file once or twice without crashing again; and only one of those recoveries that succeeded actually had the correct version of the file (without any lost work). Keep in mind, I wasn’t doing anything particularly challenging with the given spreadsheet. At one point it crashed 4 times in a row while I tried to change the highlight color of a few cells. I gave up.

To be honest, I thought my challenge was going to be over before it even started, but on the advice of a few friends I did some additional searching for some better Mac alternatives. I was able to find two other options, LibreOffice and NeoOffice. I eventually settled on NeoOffice for the simple fact that it appeared to be the most Mac specific port of OpenOffice. The newest version even incorporates many of the new the features of Mac OS X Lion, including full-screen, versions, and resume.  To my knowledge, the latest version of Microsoft Office does not even support those things.

The latest version of NeoOffice requires a donation for the download. I figured that as long as my testing went well I would be more than happy to spend $10 for the download, but for the time being I decided to stick with the free version, 3.2.1.

So far, after about a week of testing, I am blown away by the quality of NeoOffice. I was able to work on the finance spreadsheet with ease and send it back to the Microsoft Excel user who was none the wiser. I was even able to share a word document that needed comments with “track changes”. While I was unable to find the track changes menu or option, it automatically began tracking changes without any intervention on my part, which I considered to be fantastic!

So far, my only gripe with any version of OpenOffice is that they don’t seem to support .xlsx, docx, or .pptx saving. In other words, it’s no problem to open those file types, but they can only be saved back into the older Microsoft Office formats. While not a major issue for me, it could be a problem in certain environments.

I would love to hear from other people who have tried the same thing or are currently struggling with the same problem. If you have any tips or tricks, please share them in the comments. I will report back in the coming weeks with my additional findings. I’m also hoping to do some testing on the Windows side, but I’m not as concerned with the stability of OpenOffice on Windows as I am with the Mac.

You may have noticed that we changed our theme not too long back. We are running the Together theme by ThemeBrewers.com and now that we’ve had time to play around with it here and on our other sites we wanted to start sharing some of the things we really like about it starting with its ability to transform itself into lots of different looks with just a few clicks…

Global Theme Layout

The ability to set a global layout was one of the first things that really sold us on using the ThemeBrewer themes. Anyone who has purchased a theme somewhere only to find out that it would take an act of God or the very least help from one of your nerdy…errr…technically gifted…friends to get it to do what you wanted it to do should appreciate the incredible simplicity of radio buttons to change their layout. And better yet, you can wait to call in that favor from your own personal tech support until you really need it.

Per Page Layout

But what happens when you have some content that just can’t follow your global layout? Perhaps you have some graphics or other content that just doesn’t fit with the sidebar or maybe you need an extra sidebar for a particular page. That’s no problem either because each page can specify its own layout independent of the global option. Pretty cool stuff! And of course what makes us happiest about this whole process is we didn’t have to dig around in the theme code to make these changes.  And hey, it’s not like we’re lazy or we couldn’t write some code if we had to, but our TiVo might fill up and not record something important!  There are just some risks not worth taking.

We hope to delve into more of the cool features we like about ThemeBrewers themes over the next few weeks and we may even start tinkering with some of their other themes just to help us get familiar with, and test out, all the features. Besides, it’s always fun to redesign your blog, right?  Especially if it can be done quickly.

Let us know what you think in the comments and maybe even consider signing up for our newsletter.  We will be testing out a new WordPress newsletter application in the next few months, but we promise not to spam you. Optimus Prime would never allow it!

The instructions below are combination of how-to guides I have found online and my own personal experience setting up syncing between computers.  This guide is written from the perspective of using Ubuntu Linux, but the majority of the commands would be the same on any flavor of Linux or even Mac OS X.

In this scenario I reference two computers:

Server A: This server is the remote host (the one that will be receiving files)

Server B: This server is the connecting host (the one that will be sending files).

Goal:

Automatically back up/rsync a folder from one Web server to the other every 10 min. securely but without passwords.

Step 1: Generate SSH Keys

• Login to Server B (connecting host) as root
• cd /home/%user% or cd /home
• On connecting host (Server B), Generate keys:

ssh-keygen -t dsa
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_dsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
c1:17:3a:1d:d6:b7:ea:a1:d8:d7:38:91:76:02:d8:86 root@serverb.domain.com

Step 2: Create User on Server A

• Login to Server A (remote host)
• Create user on remote host: useradd %user%

Step 3: Copy Key Pair to Server A

• Copy Key pair to home folder of user you just created From Server B (connecting) to remote host Server A (remote)

scp /root/.ssh/id_dsa* root@servera.domain.com:/home/%user%

Step 4: Install Keys/Certificate

Login as rsync user on Server A (remote) (**Hint: This is the user you created in Step 2**)

cd /home/%user%
su %user%
if [ ! -d .ssh ]; then mkdir .ssh ; chmod 700 .ssh ; fi
$ mv id_dsa.pub .ssh/
$ cd .ssh/
$ if [ ! -f authorized_keys ]; then touch authorized_keys ; chmod 600 authorized_keys ; fi
$ cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys
$ cat authorized_keys

**Hint:  The last command in step 4 should list the authorized keys for that user.

Run ssh@%user%@servera.domain.com command from Server B (connecting). If it doesn't ask for a password, it worked!

Step 5: Install Rsync

Install rsync on source computer.  Instructions below are for Ubuntu.

apt-get install rsync

RSync Dry run

rsync -vzrtn -e ssh --delete %user%@servera.domain.com:sync_directory/ /path/to/other/directory/

**Hint:  Be sure that you are running rsync 3.07 or later. These options “- vzrtn” are what worked for me, but depending on what you need you may want to change them. Also keep in mind that the “- n” option is only for a dry run and should be removed when creating your script below in step 6.**

Step 6: Create Script and Cron Job

nano /bin/rsync.sh

Add rsync command. Be sure script is all on one line.

rsync -vzrt -e ssh --delete %user%@servera.domain.com:sync_directory/ /path/to/other/directory/

Step 7: Create Cron job

crontab-e

0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /bin/rsync.sh #Description…

The schedule above will run every 10 minutes.  There are lots of great articles online for how to modify Cron tab schedules to meet your needs.

Espresso Features

• Multiple Layout Options for Header, Content and Footer Areas
• Easy-to-Use UI for Theme Customizations
• Unlimited Sites
• Unlimited Updates via Automated Updates
• Optimized for WordPress 3.1+
• SEO Optimized and Developed to Work with WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast
• Custom Image Sizes with Image Regeneration Support
• Custom CSS and Styling Options
• 7 Widgetized Areas (one in the header, two in the sidebar, four in the footer)
• Multiple Shortcodes and more

Win a free Pro Membership

With the grand opening of Themebrewers they are giving away a free pro membership. All you have to do is go to the following link and enter to win.
ThemeBrewers Give Away

• CSS3 PIE: CSS3 Decorations for IE (Supports IE 6-8 and all modern browsers)
• CSS3 Generator by Eric Hoffman & Peter Funk (Supports all modern browsers with minimal IE support)

There are a ton out there for all sorts of variables, but these hit the mark quickly when it comes to the more common effects you would like achieve on your website.

The CSS3 PIE is especially great, for it’s quick easy set up and ability to satisfy IE 6-8.  However, I’ve been advised that it can be quite the performance hog in IE.  I researched it a little and came across this posting that gets into the details.  Does anyone know if there is a way to improve performance using CSS3 PIE’s HTC in IE?

See below for more CSS3 generators:

• 5 Time Saving CSS3 Tools and Generators
• 10 Useful CSS3 Generators
• 15 Best CSS3 Generators For Lazy Designers
• 20+ Free CSS3 Code Generators

That’s no easy task, but WordPress makes it a little easier when it comes to theme development. Here’s three steps you can take to make your themes a little better than before.

Step One: Proper Template Directories

This is more of a general step you can take, but still useful, and it’s as simple as creating folders to organize your files in. Many developers like to have seperate folders for JavaScript, CSS, and images. These are the folders that I use to keep everything in its place:

• /theme-directory/css/
• /theme-directory/images/
• /theme-directory/js/
• /theme-directory/includes/

That last one is important. Anything custom that i’m building for the theme, such as a meta box or option page for the admin section of WordPress, would live in this folder. I used to put some front end PHP in there as well, but more on that later.

Step 2: Registering your CSS and JavaScript

WordPress comes with several functions you can use to queue and load your CSS and JavaScript files. You can set a version number for the files, and even tell WordPress that a specific file requires a previously queued file before this one loads (for example, requiring that jQuery is loaded before a jQuery plugin your theme needs gets loaded).

Step 3: Use WordPress Template Files!

WordPress is built around themes and plugins, and it’s really easy to make your theme easy to manage if you use what has been given to you. The best example of this is the function get_template_part(). This function allows for you to split your template files into smaller more manageable blocks of code. For example, you can make a loop.php file that you can use in all of your template files and include it simply by calling get_template_part(“loop”). It’s just that easy! You can use this function to display any file you make in the main template directory, the possibilities are endless.

That’s all there is to it. Check out the following links for more information.

wp_register_script
wp_deregister_script
wp_enqueue_script
wp_register_style
wp_enqueue_style
get_template_part

If you want to find a website login in 1Password you have to unlock it an then start searching for where you want to go.

Some browsers like Safari have a keyboard shortcut ( option + command + \ ) to bring up the quick search called Go & Fill Login. Safari’s version looks like this:

Until just recently I had no idea you could do something like this in Chrome, with Chrome it is actually even easier. All you have to do is start to type 1password in the browser bar area. This will start the quick search for 1password right from their. You will have to unlock 1password before you can use this feature. It looks like this and is just awesome.

If you don’t already use 1Password I highly recommend it. 1Password has certainly made my life easier, you can even sync it between multiple computers using DropBox.

Get 1Password
How to install 1Password browser extensions: http://blog.agile.ws/1518190697/
Get DropBox

**WARNING: It should go without saying, but just in case, you should ABSOLUTELY TAKE A BACKUP before attempting any of the steps below.**

1. List Disks

Open the Terminal App and list your available disks by running:

diskutil list

Output:

Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            249.7 GB   disk0s2

2. Find Disk Identifier

The one you will split is probably called “Macintosh HD”, as shown above, although there will be 3 entries if you have a single partition. Each disk will have a disk identifier. Mine is disk0s2.

3. Check Min/Max Disk Size

Query your disk to find it’s min and max sizes by running this command and replacing “disk0s2” with your disk identifier:

diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 limits

Output:

For device disk0s2 Macintosh HD:
Current size:  249.7 GB (249715376128
Minimum size:  122.5 GB (122549932032 Bytes)
Maximum size:  249.7 GB (249715376128 Bytes)

4. Split your Boot Disc

Split your disk and make sure you don’t set your boot disk to less than the minimum. This can be run as many times as you want until you run out of space. In other words, if you want 3 disks instead of two split the disk again using the disk identifier of the newly created disk.

I want to make my boot disk 200GB and my Second (Lion) partition take up the rest of the space, about 50GB:

diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 200GB JHFS+ Lion 48G

The command causes the second partition to use the rest of the space on the disk, so just make sure that you specify a number, 48GB, that is less than the total available disk space after the split.

5. Dealing with Errors.

If you get an error like this then you should boot off your Mac’s startup disk, Open Disk Utility and click Repair Disk. Then re-run the command. You can even run it from terminal while booted off the install disc.

Started partitioning on disk0s2 Macintosh HD Verifying diskError: -9915: 
Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed

7. Now when I run diskutil list I see a new drive:

2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            200.0 GB   disk0s2
3:                  Apple_HFS Lion                     49.6 GB    disk0s3

8. If you have access to Mac OS X Lion you can now use this partition to install it.