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.

Site by site plugin’s for Google Chrome

These can be a bit tricky depending on the site but if theres a site you always goto and it often has content you don’t want to see then they can be a great option. I have two installed but more can be found at userscripts.org.

• Hide NSFW stories on Reddit.
• Hide related (actually unrelated) images on imgur.com

Search around and if you’re looking for a specific site and can’t find it let me know. I can whip one of these up in about 5 minutes so I’m happy to do it.

Active content monitoring with DNS filtering

Don’t be scared of the title! This is a very easy thing to do! There’s a free solution called OpenDNS. You can make a few simple changes to your computer or router (there are complete instructions on the site) and then you can choose which types of content you want to block.

This isn’t a bad solution, I don’t use it personally but will probably start when my Son gets old enough to use the computer on his own.

Using a hostfile to block a large swatch of bad sites

I’m going to get geeky here and explain how DNS works and what it is. Every website has an address, instead of a physical address like 123 Sycamore its an IP address. When you type “todaywasawesome.com” into your browser your computer asks the DNS (domain name server) server for the adress to todaywasawesome.com. That address is 208.75.86.170.

So the previous solution basically looks for websites that have bad content and then will give the wrong address back to your computer so the page won’t load. Does that make sense?

K, well, a hostfile is sort of like a static DNS that loves on your computer. It tells your computer what the address for websites are without actually looking up what the address is.

Still with me? Great, so theres a public hostfile out there you can download and install that will block most advertisements along with adult content. This hostfile can be downloaded from mvps.org and the have installation instructions on that site.

Plain old ad block

Just about every browser has some sort of adblock that you can grab. I have mixed feelings about them because I don’t actually care about blocking ads, just ads with content that I don’t like. But you may find this to be a better solution.

You can find adblock for chrome here.

For help

If you need any help just leave a comment and I’ll do what I can. If you have an additions or suggestions throw them in the comments as well.

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.

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

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.

Step 1: Click on Sharing Settings

From Google Reader, click on “sharing settings”

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

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

Humor

• The End – November 27th 2006
• Sorry, The is under copyright – December 26th 2006
• A silly note – July 15th 2007
• An Exciting Business Opportunity – September 12th 2007
• A Traveler named Greg – October 9th 2007
• Naming Conventions – November 8th 2007
• Non-sequitur from me – January 3rd 2008
• Extremely Tactical – March 2nd 2008
• Musical Zombies – May 1st 2008
• A Case of Mistaken Identity – May 31st 2008
• Kodos ‘08 – Happy Voting – November 4th 2008

Inspirational/Informative

• Europe Trip – May 2007
• Road Rage: The cure – Follow up – March 22nd 2007
• Surviving a Zombie Attack – July 8th 2008

Photography

• Man on Fire and the Rorschach – March 9th 2007

Whoa, you made it this far! Im thoroughly impressed.

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.

Analysis

dpkg --set-selections < myapps.txt

This grabs everything that was selected in myapps.txt and loads it into the package manager.

apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

This basically says “upgrade all current packages and install anything thats been selected. This is what actually installs all the cydia apps.

rm /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist

This step is vital. This file is basically a cache of which applications are installed. This command deletes that cache which will be automatically regenerated with all of our selections in place.

killall SpringBoard

This kills the Springboard or iphone interface. It will automatically relaunch and generate a new com.apple.mobile.installation.plist. All done!

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.

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?