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censoredPersonal Web Filtering Options
Hero-in-the-graveHTC – You Owe it To Us
I spent $100,000 to save $20!Solar Power Still Sucks in a Big Way
greaderUnable to Comment on Google Reader -fix it!
gold-star-backgroundTodayWasAwesome – Best Of

Personal Web Filtering Options

I love the internet and I’ve always hated internet filters because they block stuff erroneously. However, I do try to avoid certain types of material online and so I’ve done a little work to make sure that I don’t see anything I don’t want to see. Here’s what I do along with some other options.

As a side note, anyone that knows me knows that I hate censorship in a government. What I’m trying to help people do is filter out the content that they personally don’t want to see. I would never impose censorship on anyone.

Read Personal Web Filtering Options

HTC – You Owe it To Us

On October 11, 2009 I rushed to get the HTC Hero on the first day it was sold. Eight months later that phone is now considered obsolete. Especially by HTC. First they took nearly seven months to update that phone from Android 1.5 to Android 2.1 now they’ve promised to never update it again.

One update is all they could give us? I really like my phone but when I bought it I thought that it would be updated for a long time to come. I had just come from the iphone where we got all the updates we wanted and when an update was released there was no waiting.

Let me cut to the chase,

Dear HTC,

You have abandoned Hero users. When we buy a phone we don’t just buy it for what it can do, we buy it for all that it will be able to do. Maybe you’ll be better in the future about keeping products updated (and updated in a timely manner) but for now you need to remember the people that made you money just eight short months ago. Here’s what you must do.

Opensource all the drivers for the Hero.

You make a lot of phones, I understand thats a big strain on your dev team to try to keep everything updated. That’s fine I guess. I’m disappointed but the least you could do is release the code for all the drivers. Be honest, there’s not a lot of proprietary value in keeping your drivers secret, especially for what is now considered an “ancient” phone.

Please do this, then I can compile from source myself with a 2.2 rom or a 2.3 rom or whatever rolls down the pipe. You want to abandon us? Fine, at least leave us with the tools to pick up the slack.

Signed,

Dan a, until recently, loyal HTC fan.

BTW, this isn’t a suggestion really, HTC required by law to opensource their kernel. I’m asking nicely but really they’re obligated to.

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Solar Power Still Sucks in a Big Way

I spent $100,000 to save $20!My numerous (and very vocal fans) will remember that I already wrote a post on how much solar panels suck. But someone who “works in the industry” told me how totally wrong I was. That post was from 2008 so technology should be totally different now right? Almost everyday there’s a story about solar panels reaching new and incredible limits in efficiency.

Please Solar, PLEASE!

I want it to work so bad. I would love to get rid of my electricity bill. Understand, I have a vested interest in solar power being awesome, if it were awesome then I could just throw some panels up and free myself of the utility company. Maybe one day that will be possible, please I wish it were. Even if I could cut it in half I would be thrilled.

So, let’s figure out what that would take. Because if it’s cost efficient, I will do it right now. Luckily for me there’s an organization that has done all the work for me and created a calculator using the latest in technology and current industry costs. Great.

Right now I use an average of 37 kwh per day. That’s slightly above average in the US (don’t ask me how my 1800 sq/ft home does that). Now to get half of that, now remember I’m using this calculator, I need about a 4.1 kW array. So how much does that cost? Luckily they have a calculator for that too.

It’s Totally Cost-Effective

think about how much money they'll save on storage!

So you're an investment banker huh?

So, the grand total is $32,800 to get rid of half my electric bill. But don’t worry, there are tax breaks for this, the federal government will give me almost 10,000 dollars so it ends up being 22,960.00 (I said almost 10,000).

Great, so now if I spend $22,960 to save $35 dollars a month I will recoupe my investment in about 60 years. That doesn’t include stuff breaking, or what happens if we get less than the optimal amount of sun. In reality it’s probably twice as much.

Sorry solar, until the cost is low enough that the investment can be recouped in a year, maybe two, you’re just not worth it.

Actually, I’ll go one step further and say that the government should stop paying people to throw their money away on a technology that isn’t ready. I’m all for more efficient panels and more research but right now it’s just burning money on a technology which probably is way worse for the environment to make than just burning the coal for the electricity.

Prove me wrong and I will love you. Until then, sorry solar, you suck.

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Unable to Comment on Google Reader -fix it!

I know a lot of people have have had problems commenting on reader because people haven’t setup commenting correctly. But don’t worry, its easy! First of all, if you can’t comment on someone’s shares, they have to fix it. So this guide is written to allow people to comment on your shared items.

Step 1: Click on Sharing Settings

From Google Reader, click on “sharing settings”

goto sharing settings-1

Step 2: Select Groups

Google reader uses your contact list and groups from gmail to manage contacts in reader. In order to enable commenting you have to add someone to a group that has commenting enabled. Before we move people into the right group we have to enabled group commenting.

Enable Commenting By Group

Enable Commenting By Group

Add People to Groups

You can manage groups through your gmail contact list, or from that same screen click on the people that you’re following and by each of their names will be a groups setting link. That same link is available from the shared page of each person. Add them to a group that has commenting enabled and you’re done!

Click Edit Groups

Click Edit Groups

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TodayWasAwesome – Best Of

Some teacher once told me I was worthless and would amount to nothing but look at me now, I have my own blog. I’ll prove him wrong. Sometimes people don’t appreciate my super extra greatness. Ordered by date you’ll find some of my “best ofs” enjoy!

Humor

Inspirational/Informative

Photography

Whoa, you made it this far! I’m thoroughly impressed.

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Backup Cydia Apps – iPhone

I previously wrote a post on scripting the install of Cydia apps but I since found a much better way to handle the problem. Its a lot cleaner but it still doesn’t backup cydia apps data. Instead it creates a list of stuff thats been installed and makes it really easy to reinstall it all.

Step 1: Backup Cydia Apps

To do this we’re going to need to fire up the terminal and create a file to store our list. This can all be handled with one command.

dpkg --get-selections > myapps.txt

Putting this code into terminal will create a text file called “myapps.txt” which contains all the selections you’ve made in Cydia. Use an ftp client to save this file to your computer and you’re done.

Most people at this point are now going to upgrade their phone, etc.

Step 2: Restore Cydia Apps

Now you’ve got a fresh iphone with a fresh install of Cydia. You’ll need terminal and probably SSH installed first before you proceed. Once done upload your “myapps.txt”. Using terminal navigate to the directory containing that file and issue the following commands. Note: the $ at the beginning of each line is just the prompt and not part of the commands.

$dpkg --set-selections < myapps.txt
$apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
$rm /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist
$killall SpringBoard

You’re all done! If you want to understand what each command does then read on.

Read Backup Cydia Apps – iPhone

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Enable USB on the Apple Tv

This guide only applies to the original silver Apple TV and not to the newer, black model.

The AppleTV is sort of a piece of junk unless you hack it so if you intend to actually get any use out of your apple tv you better do it. Here is how you enable USB so that you can play media off of attached storage (novel concept eh!).

Note: This Tutorial assumes you’re using AppleTV TakeTwo or the latest update (3.0). If you’re not sure run Apple TV’s update before starting

Step 1: Hack your ATV

This is a pretty easy process, you can find instructions here. You don’t actually have to install Boxee but follow the instructions except instead of creating a boxee USB you can just select “SSH”. Great, now to enable USB

Step 2: Install NitoTV

There are lots of ways to enable USB, trust me this is the easiest. SSH onto your AppleTV, download NitoTV and install it. Heres the code:

Valencia:~ ronin$ ssh frontrow@appletv.local
Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator)
frontrow@appletv.local's password:
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://nitosoft.com/nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ unzip nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ cd "nitoTV Take Three"/
-bash-2.05b$ sudo ./installme

This will install NitoTV and then restart your AppleTV’s finder, in other words you will have new options on your ATV menu.

Step 3: Prep for USB

Because the apple tv is purposely neutered you’ll need to snag the USB drivers from the 10.4.9 combo update. Heres the code

-bash-2.05b$ cd ~/Documents/
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/061-3165.20070313.iU8y4/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg

Step 4: Install USB support

Great, now the combo update has been downloaded to the Documents folder. Go to your Apple TV menu and go NitoTV -> Settings -> Install Software -> Smart Installer

This will take a minute but when its done you can plugin USB drives and your Apple TV will recognize it. Volia!

If your Apple TV doens’t recognize your drive try restarting your appletv either by typing “sudo reboot” or unplugging and plugging in your ATV.


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Surviving a Zombie Attack

This past weekend I met my niece for the first time. She’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, so innocent and so cute. As I looked down into her bright blue eyes all I could think was “How will you survive the future? How will you know how to fight off zombies?”

All purpose zombie guide

Unlike most guides which only cover one type of zombie eventuality I will be covering every kind of possible zombie attack. Everyone knows there are three types:

  • Biological Zombies – Zombies created by a virus, probably engineered by man.
  • Magical Zombies – Zombies created by a witch/sorcerer. This is actually the easiest to survive!
  • Apocalyptic Zombies – Zombies brought about by the end of the world. The Mac daddy of all zombie attacks and the hardest to survive.

So stay tuned for some updates and remember there are two kinds of people in this world: Those with a zombie plan and those without. Who would you rather be?

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