Lastpass</h1> <article> <h1>Lastpass</h1> <p>cody — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:40:09 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="https://lastpass.com/">https://lastpass.com/</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>With so many websites how can I possibly keep all of my online accounts both secure and easily accessible? Lastpass.com is the answer to this question.</p> <p>Here’s the problem. It’s hard to keep track of all the great new websites and services that come out. Coming up with a unique password for each of these sites is even more difficult. Of course, you could just use the same password for each account, that would sure make remembering your login information easier. Unfortunately it would be very insecure.</p> <p>When you create an account on a website, you're trusting that company to keep the information you give them safe. Some of these websites are very insecure. Now lets say you're using the same password for every site. You find a new webservice and create an account using your global password. Now, if that site is ever compromised and somebody gets a hold of your email address and password, all they would have to do is check to see if it works for your Amazon account, Paypal, Gmail, and Facebook. In a matter of minutes all of your online accounts can be compromised.</p> <p>The secure alternative to this common practice is to use a different password on every site you login to. But how are you going to keep track of 100+ passwords? This is where Lastpass.com comes in. Lastpass is a webservice that records all of your websites, user account names, and passwords in an encrypted database. They offer plugins for every major browser that autofill all of your information for you after authenticating. If you need to use Lastpass on a public computer you can login to Lastpass.com and create a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet">bookmarklet</a> that will fill in all login information for you automatically. </p> <p>Lastpass is a great option for managing your online accounts. I highly recommend it.</p> <p><strong>Here are some articles and videos with more information on Lastpass:</strong></p> <ul> <li>An article about the recent Lastpass "hack": <a href="http://throwingfire.com/lastpass-disclosure-shows-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/">Why We Can't Have Nice Things</a></li> <li>Lifehacker's Gina Trapani on Lastpass (with Leo Laporte):<br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jwtv8BK95Ic&fs=1" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> </object> </li> <li>How to use the Lastpass bookmarklet on public computers:<br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AxR2FH1O83A&fs=1" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> </object> </li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>Windows 7 Won't Boot After Removing Ubuntu</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:56:01 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/bootmgr-missing.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>If you like Ubuntu and decided to try and dual boot it with your existing Windows 7 system, you might want to know how to remove it safely when you don't want it anymore. Sure you can go ahead and delete the various linux formatted volumes from your primary hard disk but that will also delete the GRUB boot loader, which took over booting Windows as well.</p> <p>In order to restore the Windows Boot Loader you need to unplug any additional hard drives (leaving only the primary drive with your windows install) boot up your Windows Install Disc and run a repair. Next, drop into the Command Line and run the following commands:</p> <p><div class="geshifilter"><div class="html4strict geshifilter-html4strict" style="font-family:monospace;">bcdedit /expect c:\BCD_Backup<br /> c:<br /> cd boot<br /> attrib bcd -s -h -r<br /> ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old<br /> bootrec /RebuildBcd</div></div></p> <p>This will backup the existing Boot Configuration Data and rebuild it. When asked to make sure to accept the Windows Install by typing "Y" for yes. you may also want to run a /fixmbr and /fixboot switch using the bootrec utility again. When you restart your Windows install should boot right up.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Alternativeto</h1> <p>cody — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:19:14 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="http://alternativeto.net">http://alternativeto.net</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Have you ever tried to find a freeware alternative to commercial software? You could try searching through Google, but Alternativeto has been set up for just such a purpose. This site has tons of great handpicked software. Each application has multiple identifiers, like license information and compatible operating systems. They also have an identifying logo, description, and normal taxonomy tags. Each application page lists all of the alternatives that match it. An alternative is any application that performs the same primary function as the application it is associated with. For instance, if you're getting tired of iTunes being slow you can search for iTunes at Alternativeto's website and you'd get a list of programs including: VLC, Songbird, and Foobar2000.</p> <p>What really makes Alternativeto useful are the community features. Registration with the site is very simple. It supports OpenID (including Google and Yahoo) and Facebook Connect. So if you have one of these accounts already registering for Alternativeto is a snap. After registering you can submit your own applications if you can't find them already on the site. Each app is equipped with a comment system. The other really neat feature is the rating system. No fivestar here, just a simple "Like" interface. If you like an app, click the heart and it gets added to your likes and gets a point. An application is ranked based on the number of likes it gets.</p> <p>Alternativeto categorizes its site by desktop / mobile apps, then based on platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, and Cloud).</p> </article> <article> <h1>Multiple User Profiles in Google Chrome for Mac</h1> <p>cody — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:24:36 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/chrome-multiple-profiles-mac.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>Creating multiple Google Chrome profiles is fairly easy on a PC, there's even a <a href="/blog/2008/google-chrome-multiple-user-profiles">program for doing all the legwork for you</a>. Not so for the Mac. I could not for the life of me find a decent tutorial on the web for creating multiple user profiles for Google Chrome on OSX, so hopefully this will help. We'll basically be writing a small shell script, which will act like an application for initializing a new Chrome profile and acting like a Windows shortcut thereafter. Here are the steps:</p> <p>First, open Script Editor (Command+Space > Script Editor)<br /> </p> <p>Now, lets say we want to add a new chrome profile for somebody named Susan. Paste the following code into the Script Editor, replace the name "susan" with the profile name you want to use.<br /> <div class="geshifilter"><div class="html4strict geshifilter-html4strict" style="font-family:monospace;">do shell script "/Applications/Google\\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\\ Chrome --user-data-dir=/Users/$USER/Library/Application\\ Support/Google/susan > /dev/null 2><span style="color: #ddbb00;">&1 &"</span></div></div><br /> </p> <p>Next, save the Script (File > Save As) in your Application directory. Name it something like "Google Chrome Susan" (replacing Susan with your profile name). Also, make sure to choose "Application" from the File Format drop-down list.<br /> </p> <p>Now you should see a new .app in your Applications folder with the name you gave to the shell script. You can run this application and it should initialize a new profile. Everything should be working now.<br /> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/Picture 13.PNG" rel="lightbox"></a></p> <p>If you want to make the new Script/App look a little prettier, you can copy the normal chrome icon to the new .app. To do this first select the regular Chrome Application and select Command+I (for Get Info).<br /> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/Picture 4.PNG" rel="lightbox"></a></p> <p>See the icon in the top left hand corner of the Info window. Click the icon and select Command+C (for Copy). Now go to the new Script/App and Get Info. Now select the icon in the top left and select Command+V (for Paste). The icon should change.<br /> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/Picture 5.PNG" rel="lightbox"></a></p> <p>Now just close both Info windows, and the app should have a new pretty Chrome icon.<br /> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/Picture 14.PNG" rel="lightbox"></a></p> <p>After waiting for Spotlight to index the new app you should be able to search for it without a hitch!<br /> </p> <p>The most helpful contributing source to this post was a Chromium support page: <a href="http://www.chromium.org/user-experience/user-data-directory" title="http://www.chromium.org/user-experience/user-data-directory">http://www.chromium.org/user-experience/user-data-directory</a>. I also learned about changing application icons from a post on this wiki page: <a href="http://wiki.unto.net/google-chrome-profiles-on-osx" title="http://wiki.unto.net/google-chrome-profiles-on-osx">http://wiki.unto.net/google-chrome-profiles-on-osx</a>. Hope this helps.</p> </article> <article> <h1>DeltaCopy</h1> <p>cody — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:26:00 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/deltacopy.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp">DeltaCopy</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Anybody familiar with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_backup">incremental backup</a> knows that the <em>de facto</em> standard of backup utilities is a program called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync">rsync</a>. This is an unfortunate truth for Windows user's however because rsync is primarily a unix/linux application. DeltaCopy is a Windows backup program that takes advantage of rsync.</p> <p>The application comes packaged as either an installer or stand-alone deal. Deltacopy is distributed in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client-server">client-server</a> model, so you have to run both the client app and the server if you want to do local backups (backing up to two local drives, as opposed to a drive on another computer).</p> <p>The backend of Deltacopy (rsync) is really what makes this application shine. Rsync uses a number of principles to make the backup process much faster. First it uses an incremental backup algorithm. This means that after the initial backup process is run, successive backup processes only back up data that has changed since the last time the process was run (this is an over-generalization as incremental backup can be much more complex than this). So how does rsync know if certain files have been modified? Well, there are a couple of ways. First, whenever a file is opened and modified, potentially several of its attributes can change, but most importantly (at least to a backup program), the last modified date and file size likely change. Rsync compares these attributes with files that have already been backed up and only updates files that have been modified.</p> <p>Another way rsync makes backup fast and efficient is by only updating the contents of a file that has changed. So for instance, if I have a large disc image of a DVD I have backed up to my computer and I recently changed the name of the file or modified its contents, rsync wouldn't re-copy the entire file, it would only make the changes to the file it needed to (I'm fairly certain that I have understood this concept properly, but if not, please leave a comment with correction).</p> <p>Another way rsync makes the backup process speedy is by compressing files before they are transferred. This is really helpful if you are copying to another computer either over a local network or over the internet as remote file transfer is much slower than local transfer. The smaller the file size (compressed) the smaller the transfer time.</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-other-screenshots"> <div class="field-label">Other Screenshots: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/deltacopyserver.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> <div class="field-item even"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/deltacopyserver2.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-slideshow-image"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Find and Run Robot 2</h1> <p>cody — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:11:23 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/FARR.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/downloads/FindAndRunRobotSetup.exe">Find and Run Robot</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Find and Run Robot 2 is the fastest application launcher for Windows I have ever used. <a href="http://desktop.google.com/">Google Desktop</a> fails in comparison when it comes to speed, and it doesn't make my CPU go crazy when indexing like <a href="http://launchy.net/">Launchy</a>. After adding a new directory to the list of folders to index, FARR picked up on the files I was searching for in less than a second. It really is stunningly fast. It registers on my machine as only taking up 12MB of RAM. Searching uses <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression">regular expressions</a>, so it does a great job of finding what your looking for even if you can only remember part of the file or program name. You can also type in the absolute path of a directory and hit 'tab' to autocomplete the name you're typing. Fast, intelligent, slim, easy to use. Wierd name, but function is all I care about. FARR FTW!</p> <p>**Update (5/28/2010)**<br /> After a short time having the application installed you are required to get a free license key to stop an annoying nag. This nag comes back after six months, then you have to get another key. After another six months you get a final key and the nag stops. This is pretty annoying. If you're using Windows Vista or 7 just stick with the Start Menu search bar.</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-other-screenshots"> <div class="field-label">Other Screenshots: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/FARR-general-settings.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> <div class="field-item even"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/FARR-search-folders.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-slideshow-image"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Disk Defrag</h1> <p>cody — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:52:34 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/auslogicsdiskdefrag.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10567503.html?part=dl-6267754&subj=dl&tag=button">Disk Defrag</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Every once in a while I'll find an article in my RSS feeds for an amazing freeware application that has yet to be added to my site. This is the best free disk defragmentor app for Windows. In a review by <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/6-of-the-best-defrag-software-downloads-668176">TechRadar</a> they gave Auslogics defrag app a 90% efficiency score. This is even more stunning when compared to the ever-popular <a href="http://redirectingat.com/?id=92X363&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.piriform.com%2Fdefraggler">Defraggler</a>, which only received a 62% score. Other than having the ability to very quickly defrag multiple drives at the same time, Disk Defrag also has the ability to optimize drives as well as your operating system by moving system files to the beginning of the disk. Auslogics Disk Defrag is a keeper, even if you just run it once to optimize your OS.</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-other-screenshots"> <div class="field-label">Other Screenshots: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/auslogics-settings.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Lala</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:31:23 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-website-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/websites/lala.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="http://www.lala.com/">http://www.lala.com/</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Lala is a neat online application that allows you to "upload" your music library and listen to wherever you go. Lala has an impressive method of accomplishing this. First it will scan your music library and rather than uploading each individual song over FTP, it will instead match as many songs as possible to it's already existing library, and if your songs match those that are already in their database, no upload will take place, they will simply add the song to your online library. Take it from me, this is an amazing time saver. The average internet connection has such a slow upload speed that it could potentially take days to upload an entire library of music online, if not weeks. This matching system take only a couple of hours. </p> <p>After "uploading" your music library, you can access all of your songs through Lala's website via an iTunes-esque interface. Very simple and awesome. It keeps your music collection secure online and best of all, it's free.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Unsatisfied With Today's Operating Systems</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:22:12 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/osx-windows-ubuntu.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>So am I! Windows, OSX, Linux, I'm not happy with any of them. I'm going to go through each Operating System and list some of my gripes and those aspects of each which I think should be incorporated together in a single stellar OS.</p> <h3>OSX</h3> <p>Has limited application support and a messed up windowing system, but great overall system integration. Everything is simple (double-edged sword) and the whole OS is very uniform. I like the uniformity of simplicity, but not the lack of configurability.</p> <h3>Linux</h3> <p>Also has a limited application library (yes, the repositories are full of thousands of programs, but I'm concerned with the ones that work the best). Linux also suffers from limited driver support (though Ubuntu was very compatible with my system, didn't have much fiddling to do after an install). Though with that said, my audio driver in Jaunty was quirky. I had about 10% of the volume control between 90-100 percent max where sound would go from mute to tolerable. Also, why isn't there integrated MP3 support out-of-the-box for Rhythmbox (or some comparison program). Linux Mint did this fine, but it seemed harder to install non-repository applications in Mint. Linux is nice for the most part, but if you run into a problem you end up spending hours on web forums sifting through dead-end posts from people with the same issues you're having. Too much of a headache. Not to mention the lack of a tolerable MS Office alternative. AbiWord, OpenOffice Writer, Google Docs, Zoho, none of them meet up to the MS Office standard. For a student this is vitally important.</p> <h3>Windows</h3> <p>What a love/hate relationship we have. XP, Vista, or 7? All have something to contribute, but lack a fully satisfying experience. Vista's networking is terrible, Windows 7 RC for me locks up when I even go near the start button, and XP is old. Each of these Windows versions freeze while doing normal computing, for up to several seconds at a time. I can't have it. So much time is lost waiting for Windows. Great application support! If you need an app to do something there's most likely a great free program for Windows that will do it for you. Best gaming experience with impressive DirectX innovations and graphics card support (though ATI still doesn't have a driver for 7 for my card). Great overall driver support too. But why so huge? A decent XP footprint after install before other programs was about 1GB. Why should an OS need 6GB, or even Windows 7's 8GB (and this isn't even considering the whole WSXS debate), before taking into consideration hiberfil and pagefile.sys (add another few GBs). Ideally I would like to see an OS exceed no greater than a 1GB footprint after initial install.</p> <p>Maybe I'm getting my hopes up but I can't wait for Google Chrome OS. Even if it can't serve as a better Linux alternative, it still offers hope for a more enjoyable experience than all of these failures. If you want to read about the differences (performance, gaming, etc.) between Windows XP, Vista, and 7, take a look at Techradar's <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/windows-deathmatch-xp-vs-vista-vs-7-615167">Windows deathmatch: Windows 7 vs Vista vs XP</a></p> <h3>**Update**</h3> <p>After installing some of the more recent updates from MS and allowing time for my Windows 7 box to index my files and cache thumbnails things are moving much more swiftly. Haven't had any slowness hiccups. It even installed my printer driver automatically. Awesome! Furthermore, my system drive was taking up about 16GB total with all of my necessary/basic applications installed. After turning off System Restore, clearing the latest shadow copies, and temp files, and excluding Hiberfil and Pagefile, my WIN7 system took about 9GB of space, still hefty, but I prefer speed to footprint, and Windows 7 delivers.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Foobar2000</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:46:09 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/foobar2000.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download">Foobar2000</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Are you fed up with iTunes? Well when the installation for updates was getting to be about 70MB, I decided to find an alternative. Why make people download a 70MB file to apply an update your application? iTunes doesn't just have a large footprint, it is so slow! It shouldn't take five minutes to start up a media player and listen to your favorite album.</p> <p>There are a lot of free media managers out there, all having their own followings and proponents. The main factor that I was interested in while searching for an alternative was speed. I'm am fully convinced that Foobar2000 is the <em>fastest</em> media player out there to date. The installer weighs in at a very reasonable 3MB.</p> <p>One of the greatest things about Foobar2000 is its customizability. You can make Foobar2000 look however you want. It has an amazing plug-in system that allows for a wide variety of extensibility. Out of the box foobar2000 can play many different file types.</p> <p>For a better Music Filter / User Interface I would recommend installing the <a href="http://yuo.be/columns.php">Columns UI Plugin</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Kings</h1> <p>cody — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:35:42 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/kings.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>I just finished watching the season premier of <a href="http://www.hulu.com/kings">Kings</a>, which you can watch until September on Hulu. It is an interesting theatrical modern paraphrase of the Biblical narrative found in <a href="http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=1+Samuel">1 Samuel</a>. I say this loosely, because it often strays away from the original narrative, though to be fair, I don’t think the authors intended to be faithful to the text, but rather to take advantage of a popular biblical story. Regardless, the show has some good qualities. Saul, King of Israel is replaced by Silas, King of Gilboa, with its capital in the city of Shiloh. The biblical David is represented by...David Shepherd, a soldier in Gilboa's war against a rival nation Gath. David is played by Chris Egan, who also starred in Eragon, and does a good job capturing the humility that King David exhibited before his crowning. In the first episode David appears to have taken down one of the enemy tanks, called a Goliath (go figure), just after saving the King's son who was being held as a hostage. This rescue earns David practical nobility and with the King's permission the heart of his daughter, Michelle (probably the "Michal" of 1 Samuel 18). Another interesting parallel is the man who represents Samuel the priest. A man named "Reverend Ephram <em>Samuels</em>" plays this part. Later in the episode Reverend confronts the King and quotes those famous words combined from 1 Samuel 15:23 and 13:14 respectively, "Since you have cast aside the word of the Lord He has cast you aside as King...God wishes a man after His own heart." Issues such as homosexuality, infidelity, evolution, secret second families, war, and the death of family are but a few included in this drama. The show is interesting and there are some neat parallels. I kept my Bible out to follow along and keep some of the poor representations in check. The show helped me to better appreciate the true biblical narrative. The episode concludes provocatively with King Silas witnessing a flock of butterflies literally surround David's head to form a crown (a story the King has told his people numerous times happened to him, signaling his divine appointment as King). Very cool.</p> <p>You can read more about the show here on NBC's website: <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Kings/about/index.shtml" title="http://www.nbc.com/Kings/about/index.shtml">http://www.nbc.com/Kings/about/index.shtml</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>7-zip</h1> <p>cody — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:45:58 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/7zip.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/download.html">7-zip</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>As far as file compression goes *.7z is one of the best. This application extends Windows' limited archive capabilities. I primarily use it for extracting archives that I download from the web. All <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> modules and themes come packaged in a *.tar.gz ("tarball") archive, so I'm unarchiving a lot. The interface is very simple and uncomplicated. Extraction time is minimal, and the installer throws some nice options into the right-click context menu. I've never had many problems with 7-zip and it's a great piece of software, especially if you don't want to have anything to do with shareware alternatives *cough*winzip*cough*.</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-other-screenshots"> <div class="field-label">Other Screenshots: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/7zipcontextmenu.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Drupal Contact Form and Google Apps Email</h1> <p>cody — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:03:03 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/contact-form.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>Here's the situation. I have a domain established that is set up with Google Apps. A particular email account created in GApps is working great, it can send and receive email fine. I'm using <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>, one of the best <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system">content management systems</a>, and its integrated contact form. For some reason when I associate this email address with the contact form, messages sent by the form are not received. So what's the problem?</p> <p>I have searched all over the place for an answer to this problem and none have been sufficient. My MX Records are properly configured (how else would I be able to send and receive mail?), the message is not going into my junk mail folder, SMTP module didn't help (I shouldn't have to use a module to fix this problem anyway), and having my host update the SPF records did squat.</p> <p>In desperation I contacted my web host (hostmonster.com) and the first tech I communicated with was not able to help at all. I submitted a ticket over the web explaining the problem and after some light dialogue my webhost quickly remedied the issue.</p> <p>Here was how the conversation went:</p> <p>Hostmonster: Since [domain name] mail is handled by Google, I recommend setting mail to be handled remotely to resolve the problem.</p> <ul> <li>My question is, why was this setting not enabled in the first place? Obviously if my mx records are pointing somewhere else I don't want mail handled locally...whatever</li> </ul> <p>After this change the contact form was successfully sending messages to my Google Apps email account. Unfortunately they were coming out in some really weird format. For hostmonster, email was being sent by the primary account username and the @domain.com portion was the mail server associated with the account. To fix this problem I had to add an email account under my web host that matched the email account name I was trying to send messages from.</p> <p>After these changes mail was being sent successfully, but man did that take unnecessarily long to figure out.</p> </article> <article> <h1>2 Essential Safari Plugins</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:59:01 +0000</p> <div style="float:right; padding-left: 15px;"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/blog/glimsandadblock.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a></div> <p>Since plugins aren't exactly programs, but rather extensions of programs I figured I'd post these together in the blog section.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.machangout.com/">Glims</a></h3> <p>A really awesome and versatile extension for Safari. Where most plugins for Safari are limited in scope, Glims is more of a combination of minor efficiency tweaks. Here are some of the tweaks I use the most.</p> <ul> <li>Being able to open Safari with all of the tabs from your last session</li> <li>Reopening the last closed tab (Command + Z)</li> <li>Faster switching between tabs ("," - previous tab | "." - next tab)</li> <li>Telling new tabs where to open (like the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1956">Tabs Open Relative</a> Firefox Extension, but with a few more options)</li> <li><a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27708/glims">Download Glims</a></li> </ul> <h3><a href="http://burgersoftware.com/en/safariadblock">Safari Adblock</a></h3> <p>Very similar to the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865">Adblock Plus</a> Firefox Extension but for Safari.</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://burgersoftware.com/en/safariadblock/download">Download Safari Adblock</a></li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>VLC Media Player</h1> <p>cody — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:49:13 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/VLC.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>VLC is an amazing light-weight media player. It's pretty versatile and can handle most file types that you throw its way. I like it for its speed, though I would say that its decoders aren't the greatest. I've found much better quality with paid-for apps. But hey, for being free it's pretty powerful.</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-other-screenshots"> <div class="field-label">Other Screenshots: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/VLC-preferences.png" class="imagecache imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop imagecache-imagelink imagecache-thumbnail-no-crop_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Soshiku</h1> <p>cody — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:48:09 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-website-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/websites/soshiku.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="http://www.soshiku.com">http://www.soshiku.com</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Soshiku is the best homework assignment tracking web service that I have discovered to date. The interface is straight-forward and elegant. It has options for creating different classes and assignments. Each assignment has a title and due date, and can contain notes, file attachments, and a task list. It also has some collaboration features, which I have personally not taken advantage of, but would be useful for group projects.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Just Color Picker</h1> <p>cody — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:41:59 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/justcolorpicker.PNG" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.annystudio.com/software/colorpicker/">Just Color Picker</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>I encounter so often a neat color on a website or desktop application and want to grab that color for use in my own graphics and applications.</p> <p>As a color-deficient individual I find this program to have a peculiar usefulness. When I come across a neat color and want to figure out exactly what color it is (ie. via HTML Hexidecimal or some other like manner) I use this free little application. Just Color Picker will allow you to zero in on a pixel and copy the color code equivalent to your clipboard. It's a very handy little tool.</p> <p>Just Color Picker is distributed as a stand-alone executable.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Grooveshark</h1> <p>cody — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:51:51 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="http://grooveshark.com/">http://grooveshark.com/</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Grooveshark is a pretty useful web application that allows you to search for and immediately play most songs. Seriously, though, to believe it you have to go to their site and try it out. Not only that but you can bookmark certain songs and revisit the page any time to listen to it, they provide links and a whole slew of other neat features. Some of the features include uploading your own personal music library and creating savable playlists (like iTunes, only you can choose ANY song you want, even if you don't own it!)</p> </article> <article> <h1>GIMP</h1> <p>cody — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:41:06 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-program-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/programs/gimp.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-program-download"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Download Link: </div> <a href="http://www.gimp.org/downloads/">GIMP</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>Gimp is an AWESOME image editing program. Though I'm sure I'm antagonizing a heated debate, Gimp is a sufficient alternative to Photoshop. So far I haven't come across a single feature that Photoshop has, that Gimp can't do, for free.</p> <p>Here are some of the tasks that I've accomplished by using Gimp:</p> <ul> <li>Creating Web 2.0 Text Logos</li> <li>Overlaying an Image with Text</li> <li>Creating a Silhouette from an Image</li> <li>Whitening Teeth in a Portrait</li> <li>Removing Red-eye from a picture.</li> <li>Creating Shapes.</li> <li>Creating Flames from Text</li> <li>And a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember.</li> </ul> <p><a href="http://gimp-tutorials.net/" title="http://gimp-tutorials.net/">http://gimp-tutorials.net/</a> has a lot of really powerful tutorials, as well as the tutorials section on Gimp's own website at: <a href="http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/" title="http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/">http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Plugged In Online</h1> <p>cody — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-website-screenshot"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <a href="http://godbyte.com/files/images/websites/pluggedin.png" class="imagecache imagecache-preview imagecache-imagelink imagecache-preview_imagelink"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-link field-field-website-link"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <div class="field-label-inline-first"> Link: </div> <a href="http://www.pluggedin.com/">http://www.pluggedin.com/</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>This is a great resource for Christians. Have you ever seen a preview for a movie and got really excited about it, but then were concerned about the nature of its immoral content? Well if you want to read a critique of the different moral areas that all movies touch on, check out this site.</p> <p>Talented movie reviewers from the staff of the familiar ministry <a href="http://www.focusonthefamily.com/">Focus On The Family</a>, lead by <a href="http://www.focusonthefamily.com/about_us/dr_james_dobson.aspx">Dr. James Dobson</a>, sit down and watch all newly released movies and analyze their immoral content.</p> <p>The categories that are addressed in all of the reviews include: Positive Elements, Spiritual Content, Sexual Content, Violent Content, Crude or Profane Language, and Other Negative Elements.</p> <p>While our culture would lead us to believe that media is non-influential, we know this is just not true. For Christians, this fact is particularly important, because we have a responsibility for deciding what we place before our eyes and allow to influence us. There is certainly value in this website for non-Christians as well, especially if you have children. Its helpful to know how much cleavage, nudity, skimpy dresses, torture, foul language, and other offensive content will be in a film you expose them to.</p> </article> </main></body></html>