Archives for the 'Technology' Category
Computer Repair Tools from the Kitchen
I was doing some repair work on a laptop computer today and realized I had not yet shared one of my most significant homemade tools for this kind of work. It’s simply an ice cube tray with each cube numbered in permanent marker.
I put screws and other small parts in the tray as I disassemble each section of the computer. If I’m following a numbered repair guide I try to match the cube number to each step. Otherwise, I just fill the cubes in numerical order as it makes sense. Reassembly is a snap and there’s no losing or mixing up those tiny screws.
Oh, and while I’m snatching kitchen items to use as tools, cookie sheets make great parts trays for longer-term projects. The whole project can be shelved to get it out of the way and then easily resumed without parts getting misplaced.
Loading WordPress’ Thickbox Only When Needed
I like to use Thickbox on my site to display images and videos in overlay windows. In WordPress, it’s easy enough to use wp_enqueue_script( ) and wp_enqueue_style() to load the built-in version of Thickbox. It automatically takes care of including jQuery, putting the css in the header, and the javascript in the footer.
But there’s no need to have the bloat of Thickbox and jQuery loading on all pages when most of them don’t even use it. That’s why Joost de Valk detailed a nice tip to only load thickbox when needed by checking the page content for references to it. All it takes is a few lines of code in your functions.php file.
Unfortunately, you end up with some broken images because the built-in Thickbox defines their locations in thickbox.js as relative paths: [ Continue reading Loading WordPress’ Thickbox Only When Needed … ]
GPS Geolocation in Safari on iPhone OS 3.0
I just updated my iPhone to the shiny new OS 3.0. Apple did a great job addressing a few shortcomings and adding new features. Others have already told about the common features so I won’t rehash them here.
But let me tell you about my favorite new feature: Safari can now get your GPS location via javascript! [ Continue reading GPS Geolocation in Safari on iPhone OS 3.0 … ]
Filling Mac Address Book Pictures with Gravatars
This is a multi-part tutorial series on using Gravatar from AppleScript to update your Mac Address Book pictures automatically. These pictures then sync to your iPhone for Gravatar goodness on the go.
I’ve had some AppleScripts to work with Gravatars and Address Book hanging around in rough form for quite a while. But I was recently prompted to clean them up and write these tutorials when Matt Mullenweg posted about Gravatar on his blog saying that “we need a better way to get Gravatars into your Apple address book / iPhone.” I hope that the documentation and tools from this project will be used for other creative Gravatar integration projects.
We’re about to put all of what we learned in part 1, part 2, and part 3 together to make our working script. [ Continue reading Filling Mac Address Book Pictures with Gravatars … ]
Detecting When Gravatar Has No Image
We’re on our way to building an AppleScript to update all of the contacts in your Mac Address Book with pictures from the Gravatar service. This is part 3 of the series.
Part 1, Gravatar, AppleScript, and Address Book Pictures, introduced the topic and ended with a short AppleScript to construct a Gravatar URL given an e-mail address.
Then in part 2, Setting an Address Book Picture with AppleScript, we built a script showing how to successfully set a contact photo in Address Book.
Now we need to detect when the Gravatar service does not have an image on file for a given e-mail address. [ Continue reading Detecting When Gravatar Has No Image … ]
Setting an Address Book Picture with AppleScript
In part 1, Gravatar, AppleScript, and Address Book Pictures, we covered the basics of getting a Gravatar URL with AppleScript. The end goal is to automatically update all of our Address Book pictures with Gravatars in one fell swoop.
There are a couple tricky things we need to solve to reach our goal. They aren’t difficult; just not well documented, if at all.
In this post I’ll show you how to update a contact picture with AppleScript. [ Continue reading Setting an Address Book Picture with AppleScript … ]
Gravatar, AppleScript, and Address Book Pictures
I’ve always been a fan of adding photos to the people in my Mac Address Book application. It’s a nice personal touch when the photo appears on e-mail messages from people I know. And now that I have an iPhone, those photos sync to the phone and show up in my contacts and when I get calls.
But wouldn’t it be nice if we could add photos to our contacts without doing them all manually? Well, that’s where Gravatar and a little AppleScript will do the job. [ Continue reading Gravatar, AppleScript, and Address Book Pictures … ]
WordPress & My iPhone in the Garden
I just had to try the new WordPress application for the iPhone. So I snapped a couple photos while out in the garden gathering lunch and wrote this post.
It connected to my blog effortlessly and allowed me to easily add categories, tags, and a photo.
Great job WordPress team!
I only have a couple minor gripes that I hope will be addressed later:
1. It would be easier to type if the application supported landscape mode and the wider keyboard that provides.
2. It’s too bad WordPress does not extract and store the GPS information along with the other metadata it grabs from photos.
I would love to hear comments from others who have tried it. How has it worked for you?
OS X Leopard, 16 Great Small Touches
Mac OS X Leopard has been running on my primary computer for a week now and I’ve had a chance to put it to the test in my daily activities. Much has been written by others about the some of the larger new features so I won’t bother boring you with more of that. However, Apple has done a wonderful job, as usual, with their attention to some of the little things.
So here are just a few of the smaller OS X Leopard features that stood out to me. I don’t claim they are undiscovered new things. In fact, some are well-documented. But they are nice touches that I’ve found particularly useful. [ Continue reading OS X Leopard, 16 Great Small Touches … ]
-
MacUpdate Promo Deal of the Day
