throk - a blog of immense importance

Life get's in the way

throk — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:00:15 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. According to Wolfram Alpha

3 years 4 months 13 days
1,230 days
175 weeks 5 days
3.37 years

A lot has changed, both for me and the technology of the interwebs. I really do want to post more on here, but it's hard to find the ~~time~~ energy.

This site runs on Drupal 7, I'm not even sure how long Drupal 7 is going to be supported. I'm not keen on moving on to D8 as the target audience has shifted from small to medium sized websites to larger corporate style websites. The administrative overhead and effort to keep that running is not appealing at all. To that end, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I like owning my own content, but I don't want to have to deal with constantly keeping up with updates and security patches.

It's important to me to have a website, to give back to the collective knowledge of the Internet. Hopefully I'll post some good content on here before another 1,230 days pass me by.

lazy

Regex (Regular Expression) to find the username of an email address

throk — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 20:18:12 +0000

.+\@

Given the email address username@domain.com`.+\@` finds username@

This only works if the email address is on it’s own line or if your using a regex on a field. I used it in Sublime Text to find the "username@" part of email addresses so that I could remove them and be left with only the domains.

regex

Why does the YouTube iOS app want to access my microphone?

throk — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 21:36:52 +0000

I thought it very strange that the YouTube app on my iPad was asking permission to access my microphone.

Does Google want to spy on me?

Is it some sort of auto-volume feature?

Answer: Voice Search

I did some Googling and I couldn't find a straight answer. I did some looking around and realized that the YouTube app, much like other Google apps, has voice search built in. This doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't used for spying on me or something, but I'm not a conspiracy nut and figure that it is what it seems to be.

It would be nice if Apple had a built in option to allow developers to explain why they need to access the microphone or need my location data when the little pop-up appears. It would put people more at ease. Don't get me wrong, having these privacy controls are great; however, it almost makes me more suspect when they pop-up without an explanation.

You can also enable / disable privacy settings in the Settings App

iOS

YoutTube

Streaming video on a Mac sucks: Use Safari

throk — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 18:42:07 +0000

Problem

Watching streaming video on my Mac, especially fullscreen, is horribly choppy and unwatchable.

Solution

Use Safari.

Streaming video on my Mac is horrible, from any website that uses Flash or Silverlight such as Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and Amazon. It's especially bad when watching fullscreen. Much of the content I watch is HD, which doesn’t necessarily mean its 1080p, it could be 720p. So watching fullscreen usually results in the video being displayed at double or even quadruple the resolution since my Mac’s display is 1920x1200. Which leads me to believe that it may have to work harder to display the content. Which shouldn’t be the problem since I probably have a more capable system than the average user.

After doing a little Googling a few months ago it became clear that both Microsoft and Adobe don’t really bother optimizing Flash or Silverlight to work well on OSX. And what little they do optimize is only towards Safari. Now I can’t recall where I read this information from, but my experience has proven to me that it’s the correct assumption. I don’t use Safari for anything except testing websites I’ve built and watching videos. I don’t have any extensions installed. So one could argue that my extensions for Chrome and Firefox could interfere. I only have 3 or 4 installed in the browsers so I don’t really buy that.

I hope this little tip makes your life a little less choppy and frustrating.

tip

Mac

Throk.com Reboot

throk — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:45:43 +0000

I’ve finally got the ball rolling and updated my site. I created a new theme, made some custom views, and cleaned up some old problems. I’ve still got lots to do, but I can safely say that I’m done with the essentials.

Along with the basic redesign I intend on actually keeping things up to date and posting all the things I always think about. It was my intent to make it simpler and more streamlined to post content in a beautiful way. I can’t help it, if I put something online it has to be pretty.

One of the main reasons my site sat without any updates was that I knew, whatever I posted would be wrapped in the ugliness of my previous design, which was just some horrible stock template. I intend on adding many new sections and specialized posts, harnessing the power of Drupal, I will have links, tips, how-to’s, and even a portfolio section for myself.

In the end, I hope that some people find what I have to offer interesting, helpful, and maybe even insightful. I wouldn’t have even bothered rebooting this site if it wasn’t for the people taking the time to comment. I’m already a busy person, combating 100’s of spam attempts per day, and the 100,000 spam comments in moderation wasn’t fun, but people that comment and give out those anonymous kudos really make it worth my while.

web design

(mt)

throk — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 04:03:27 +0000

I moved.

Media Temple

Resurrect? Maybe...

throk — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:35:34 +0000

I haven't done squat with this site in ages, can't really just bring myself around to deleting it and everything else. I would like to begin posting things again. (Who knows if that feeling will last) I feel like there is more relevance to blogs/personal websites now-a-days since no one really does it anymore. I'm not saying I'm going to post about my feelings or other boring crap. Who would want to read about that? I prefer to post things that I find useful for people. Little tidbits of info that I've had to learn the hard way. Wouldn't it have been nice if someone had posted that somewhere on the Interwebs that would make it easy to find?

thoughts

Reducing the size of PowerPoints: PPTX PPT

throk — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:55:01 +0000

This is a follow-up post to another one where I give a few tips on how to make PPTs smaller. It dealt specifically with how saving a PPTX to a PPT seemed to double the file size.

I discovered another reason why the file size can be so large in a PowerPoint. If you drag and drop pictures into the PPT, it seems to junk it up and never be able to compress the images down at all. To fix this, always use the "Insert Picture" menu item to browse to whatever image you need and then put it in the PowerPoint. You can delete all the pictures and then re-insert them by using the menu items.

By using the Insert Picture command, I was able to shrink a PowerPoint down from 15MB down to 3.3MB

PPT

Double Barrels of Fun

throk — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:06:14 +0000

Say hello to my boom stick!

I made this with Reel Director on my iPhone.

video

The Internet is a Mystery

throk — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:21:19 +0000

Download Video

This was an experiment using the new <video> element in HTML5. If you have a crappy browser and this just doesn't work you can use this link directly to the video.

17 Second clip from the System Crash: Break and Enter show on the Smithsonian Channel. Recorded Jan. 24, 2010. This clip is the copyright of the Smithsonian Channel, use of this clip has is with the understanding of Fair Use. So don't sue me or anything, even though the the Smithsonian is funded by the U.S. Government, so it should be cool. And they said it was cool.

video

funny

Automatically Update Copyright Year on a Website (For Dummies)

throk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:32:23 +0000

It may seem like a trivial thing to some, but many web designers, novices, and bloggers don't know how to have the copyright year automatically update on their website.

It's true that the year should really only be updated when the content has been updated, but for small business that don't get around to updating their content much. An ancient copyright year can look bad to prospective customers.

To show the current year, just use the following PHP code snippet.

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

The full thing (assuming the current year is 2010)

For more information see the PHP documentation about the date function.

web design

php

New Lens! 35mm

throk — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:20:37 +0000

I picked up a AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ($199) for my Nikon D60 and I'm stoked with it so far. I snapped a few quick pics of some things on my desk. I got this lens for two reasons, It is awesome for macro shots and it has excellent low light performance.

The shots below were with iso 100 and no flash!

These first few test shots are not at all encompasing all the uses of the lens, nor are they particularly good. I'm just really excited to have a different lens to give me the oppurtunity to take some more interesting pictures.

photography

Awesome Lego Matrix Stop Motion

throk — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:25:49 +0000

This is simply awesome.

VIA Wired Gadget Lab

AWESOME

Letter from Mick Jager to Andy Warhol

throk — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:37:40 +0000

My buddy Eric ( @wakeeze ) sent me this letter from Mic Jager to Andy Warhol asking him to make the artwork for their next album.

The cool thing is Mick gives Andy carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

click on the image to enlarge

AWESOME

FYI: Using Multiple apps on the iPhone to create cool videos

throk — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:20:36 +0000

By using multiple apps on the iPhone you can create some pretty cool stuff.

I routinely use multiple photo manipulation apps to create more interesting pictures to post on Twitter and BrightKite. This probably isn't a new idea to anyone, but I bet not as many people have experimented with a few of the different video apps out there. They are a great way to make your crappy improvised videos look more interesting.

I used the stock Camera App to record the video of a cup of coffee on my desk at work with the light glinting off the coffee as my fan disturbed the surface. I then used SlowMo [iTunes link] to slow the video down about 2.9 times normal speed. I then used ReelDirector [iTunes link] to put the beginning and end titles as well as the blur in/out effect. The beginning and end titles happen a little too fast b/c the clip is only 11 seconds long, but you get the idea.

FYI

iPhone

2 photos from today

throk — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:39:49 +0000

Erin helped me out at the beach to take a picture for a super secret project. While I can't show you those pictures, I figured I would post these two quick shots I took while we were down on 31^st street.

Pictures

Canuckastan UAV Program Stumbles in Early Efforts

throk — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:46:54 +0000

The Canuckastan Air Force suffered a major blow to it's UAV program in it's ongoing effort to "kick Quebec's ass", said an inside source.

I wonder if I could just write a letter to Quebec to just surrender. I mean, they’re French right?

-- Cranky Canuck

>> See the full story on the Canuckastan Press

funny

random

Pirate Guy

throk — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:51:06 +0000

I did this instead of doing work. Get the full size.

Photoshop

DestroyTwitter Theme: MeGyver

throk — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:25:43 +0000

This is the theme I made for DestroyTwitter, an awesome Twitter client built on Adobe AIR. I have to run DT with the large fonts on since I have 17'' MacBook Pro with 1920x1200 resolution.

Go give it a try: https://destroytwitter.com/themes/zk

Adobe AIR

theme

Twitter

Lil' Photoshop'n: Cool American Flag Picture

throk — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:06:20 +0000

I came across this image of an American flag taken by Arbyreed and I took a few minutes and tweaked it a little bit in Photoshop. The before and after are below:

Original/Before ( flickr page )

Mine/After ( flickr page | download full size )

Free

Photoshop

Quick How to Jailbreak iPhone with 3.01 firmware using a Mac

throk — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:39:28 +0000

Tip: One thing that I have noticed is that if you regularly use a Windows machine to sync your iPhone, it cannot be jailbroken with a Mac. I'm not entirely sure why.

You need:

redsn0w 0.8: You can get it off the official torrents on The Pirate Bay (WARNING: there is some wierd exploit happening on The Pirate Bay so I wouldn't go there for a few days) or you can download it from me (I won't have this up forever, so if it's broke tough luck)
Firmware IPSW (the 3.0 firmware) iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw : It's best to use the one already on your machine, but if you have some problems you can find links to all the firmware versions here: www.poorlad.com/iCommunity/
NOTE! As of right now you have to use the 3.0 firmware to jailbreak the 3.01. You can see why on the official dev-team blog.

Steps:

Read this entire post first, if that's too much trouble for you then you don't deserve any help.
Connect your iPhone to your Mac. (make sure iTunes is NOT running).
Turn your iPhone off.
Run redsn0w.
Point it to the 3.0 iphone firmware.
It's already on your machine located: HOMEFOLDER/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw
Your home folder is usually your name.
Follow the on-screen prompts/directions in redsn0w.
When you have to put your phone into recovery mode (or whatever it's called, the point where you have to hit the buttons on the phone). You will first hold down the top button, then you will press the bottom (home) button while still holding down on the top, then you will let go of the top. See below for more info.

Step 8 is where people have trouble so here is some extended info:

First of all, if it doesn't work, you can always try it again! So chill out!

I was having problems with jailbreaking 3.01 with the phone not restarting. The redsn0w program would just be "waiting for restart." The way I got it to work: It looked like the phone was just sitting there, so I unplugged it for about a second (maybe even less) and the screen went white. I then plugged it right back in and it proceeded to jailbreak the phone w/o incident.

If something messes up while trying to get the phone into recovery mode:

If it's not restarting or you don't get all the quick button pushing done just right, the phone might be sitting there with just a black screen. I mean BLACK screen, as in there is power going to the screen and it's showing black. DON'T PANIC! You will have to unplug the phone from your Mac and turn it on. You might have to hold some buttons down to get it back up. After it turns all the way back on, plug it into your computer and turn it off. Then you just have to start-up redsn0w and try it again. Don't get frustrated, if you can't get it to work right away, try it tomorrow.

Have fun!

Trusted resources:

iPhone Dev-Team blog: http://blog.iphone-dev.org
iCommunity: http://www.poorlad.com/iCommunity/

FYI

Mac

iPhone

Some Color resources

throk — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:05:14 +0000

colr.org

You can use a picture or website to create a color scheme from. You can also browse through user created schemes.

ColorToy

Browse through bright and colorful web-friendly colors.

Kuler

Adobe's color website. Not very user-friendly, but atleast it's pretty. The look of it reminds me of DestroyTwitter / DestroyToday. There is also an AIR app to go along with it.

Contrast-A

This one isn't a website, it's an AIR application. Contrast-A has a strong focus on accesability rather than style.

Any other good recommendations?

web design

Colorish

throk — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:58:22 +0000

Which one?

bored

Forgot about Ubiquity?

throk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:57:56 +0000

Have you forgotten about the Firefox plugin Ubiquity?

I did for a while, but I've been using it more and more and find it to be an invaluable tool.

I just used it a few minutes ago to translate an article that my friend @Tales tweeted about editing video on non-3GS iPhones.

I've also used the edit command to mock-up screenshots for a recent proposal. You can also use it to have a little fun.

If you haven't already, or if you did forget, be sure and check out Ubiquity.

FYI

tip

Working on a new design

throk — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:49:43 +0000

I decided to mock-up a new theme for my blog/website. This is still a work in progress, but I thought it would be interesting to post this now to compare it to the final theme.

Let me know what you think. I've only spent about 2 hours on it so far.

web design

throk - a blog of immense importance

Life get's in the way

Regex (Regular Expression) to find the username of an email address

Given the email address username@domain.com.+\@ finds username@

Why does the YouTube iOS app want to access my microphone?

Answer: Voice Search

You can also enable / disable privacy settings in the Settings App

Streaming video on a Mac sucks: Use Safari

Problem

Solution

Throk.com Reboot

(mt)

Resurrect? Maybe...

Reducing the size of PowerPoints: PPTX PPT

Double Barrels of Fun

The Internet is a Mystery

Automatically Update Copyright Year on a Website (For Dummies)

New Lens! 35mm

Awesome Lego Matrix Stop Motion

Letter from Mick Jager to Andy Warhol

FYI: Using Multiple apps on the iPhone to create cool videos

2 photos from today

Canuckastan UAV Program Stumbles in Early Efforts

Pirate Guy

DestroyTwitter Theme: MeGyver

Lil' Photoshop'n: Cool American Flag Picture

Quick How to Jailbreak iPhone with 3.01 firmware using a Mac

You need:

Steps:

Some Color resources

colr.org

ColorToy

Kuler

Contrast-A

Colorish

Forgot about Ubiquity?

Working on a new design

Given the email address username@domain.com`.+\@` finds username@