I wanted a headphone stand that was functional, was inexpensive, and somewhat matched the iMac black and silver theme. I found this at Sears:
And guess what. It was only $11.69. It’s actually a banana hanger! The headphones can rest on the banana hook on the front or on the top. There’s also a hook on the back for the cord which was really for the included banana slicer. That’s right, I got a headphone stand *and* a banana slicer. 
I released my first iOS app. It started as a project to simply learn about iOS development, but it has turned into a simple, straightforward utility that I believe is very useful for anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch that has a camera. It is a utility that allows you to compare two pictures at once. It provides up to seven such sets of pictures, and has functionality to associate a note with each set. It’s great for comparing two cars at different car lots, or comparing your cabinets with the different floors available at the store, or whatever you want to compare! Check it out at http://www.davtar.com/software/comparo.
One of our sons has a hard time sleeping. We’ve tried lots of things. He’s been through a sleep study, tonsils and adenoids were taken out, diet changes, etc. Next on the list was white noise. However, I didn’t want to spend the money on a white noise machine. So I made my own, complete with a clock and an FM radio!
It works! Perform this at your own risk; it’s unsupported.
First set up AFP: http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/
Then make sure you enable using unsupported volumes: http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/10/how-to-enable-time-machine-on-unsupported-volumes/
Now add the new-in-10.6 plist: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184462 . (This page actually has a script that sets things up for you; I haven’t tried it but it is a great idea.)
“Multitasking, folders, enhanced mail, iBooks, enterprise, Game Kit, and iAd.”
As my friend Ben said, “multitasking and iAd are KILLER features.” He’s right. Unfortunately iPhone 3g and iPod Touch 2nd gen won’t get multitasking (and some other things). I’m glad I spend the extra on the 3gs now!
Auto-bracketing is great for things like HDR, which I’d really like to get into more. I don’t necessarily like when it’s “overdone” (although sometimes it turns out pretty neat from an art point of view), but I’m really into capturing more dynamic range to make the photo look more like what the eye can see. Anyway, the D90 is capable of capturing three auto-bracketed frames at a time, and by default the photographer must press the shutter release once for each of those frames. If you don’t have a remote this can be bad news as pressing the shutter release can move the camera and make it harder to align in post-processing. However, I stumbled across a post that describes how to have the auto-bracketing happen with one press of the shutter release. I’ve reproduced the steps here just in case that forum goes away:
1. Press the BKT button and set the bracketing to 3F by rotating the main command dial. Using the sub-command dial set the exposure increment to whatever you like. I prefer 1 stop intervals.
2. Go to CSM c3 Self-timer. Set the delay time, 5 seconds should be enough to allow the camera and tripod to stabilize. Next, set the number of shots to 3.
3. This step is optional. Go to CSM d6 and set the Continuous Low shooting speed to 4 fps.
4. Press the Release mode button and rotate the main command dial until the self-timer icon appears with the Continuous Low shooting icon above it.
5. Press the shutter release button. After the self-timer delay the camera will perform auto-bracketing with one push of the shutter release button.
This is something that really annoys me, and Apple is doing it with the newly announced iPad. But it’s something that happens pretty much everywhere (windows, mac os, gnome, kde, etc.). If there were some configuration flag that turned it on or off as needed, then life would be grand. What is it? (more…)
For the longest time I’ve maintained my own ssh-agent management scripts. Every time I set up a new box I’ve had to go out and gather the information all over again. But no more!
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For a while now I’ve been tired of hitting ctrl-z every time I go to gmail to put vimperator into pass-through mode, and finally decided to see if anyone else had figured out a better way. I found it. (more…)
I’m looking for an internet connection faster than my 7mbps/768kbps DSL line. The upload speed is just way too low (as I do big remote backups and the like). I’ve looked around at fiber solutions but haven’t been able to find one that comes to my area.
Today I stumbled upon Prime Time Communications and thought I’d contact them about availability in my area. I filled out their availability form and clicked “submit.” 404 – Object not found.
So I filled out their support form and included my availability request as well as a note about how the availability form didn’t work. When I clicked “submit” it went to a completely blank (i.e., no source to the page at all) page. I tried again just in case, and it did the same thing.
“Wow, this is not good.” Next I tried to call their phone number. It started ringing after about 15 seconds (strange for a phone), rang about 4 times, and then a recording came on and announced something like, “All lines are unavailable.”
Prime Time Communications really doesn’t want to be bothered apparently.
