Mac OS X 10.7 ‘Lion’, coming soon!

Apple announced a event called ‘back to the mac’ is scheduled for Wed Oct 20th. On the invitation to that event is clearly a Lion, which, if you ask me is clear evidence the next Mac OS version will be called Lion. 

What to expect? I would assume some UI updates, how extensive I don’t know. Other then that there hasn’t been many leaks at all so we’re left guessing :)

Also we should see updated macbooks, most likely the Macbook Air.

Free VOIP calling with Gmail, Google talk & Google voice

Today google announced they will be rolling out a ‘call phones’ feature to all Gmail users over the next few days. And Google voice users will be able to receive calls in Gmail as well. Nice!

Read more on the Original Google post

I can’t wait to have a working iPod touch again!

Two days ago I attempted to take my iPod apart to see if it was at all fixable, and while I was trying and trying to get it to come apart, I cracked the front glass and wrecked part of the plastic frame that holds it together. I knew I’d break it if I tried to open it, it’s just inevitable for me with something that small. But I figured it’s not working anyway so what’s there to lose?

Anyway, so once I finally got it open, I cleaned out all the dust and lint that somehow found it’s way in there. I looked around at the logic board and such, and couldn’t find anything that seemed broken/fried/waterlogged. So I decided to plug it in apart and see if anything would happen, and….. It came on! It came all the way on, backlight and everything so I shut it back of, finished cleaning it out and snapped it back together. I plugged it back in, again it came on, I let it charge and then I tried to swipe the unlock button. And it wouldn’t move. Thinking maybe I didn’t connect the touch screen connecter properly, I opened it back up (which this time was easy since all the glue was unstuck first time around) and checked, and it was, indeed connected properly. So then I realized I had destroyed it’s touch screen abilities by cracking the glass, as I made a crack the goes all the way from the top to the bottom of the screen, along with other smaller ones.

So…. Off to ebay I went where I found a front glass, touch screen and the plastic frame assembly is only $18 with free shipping! So…. That’s in the mail now, I’m anxiously awaiting it’s arrival, and fortunately it will be very easy to install. It seems the iPod goes together much easier then it comes apart.

And… I learned something while taking this apart: When Apple says ‘precision engineered internals’ they really mean ‘Lots of teeny-tinny-itty-bitty electronics glued into a super thin case using no screws at all to hold it all in’. So, in other words, unless you’re a surgeon, if you’d like to be able to take your device apart, look elsewhere. :)

Goodbye BumpTop!

Yesterday my iMac’s desktop went from 119 items to zilch, save for hard drives, which really don’t count as items anyway. I had been using BumpTop, which is a cool idea that turned my desktop into a 3D room with four walls and a floor where I organized my stuff. One of the best features was piles, which lets you pile stuff into little stacks. But…… The whole thing is very much like a real life desktop, as in it gets un-orginized quickly, that one thing you really need gets lost right when you need it, and it needs constant re-organizing to keep it from being one big messy pile of 3D junk.

So my new solution? Bury everything in folders, and use a search utility to get to everything. So far I have Quicksilver, Alfred & Google quick search box. So far I think Alfred looks nicest, but it does nothing with what it finds, making it no more useful than spotlight. Quicksilver can do the most but it’s not very intuitive and it looks outdated (which it is). Google’s Quick Search Box looks decent, is easy enough to use and can do some actions with what it finds, but not many.
Basically, I have two points here: 1. Please, please give me some more options for a search box if you have any. ;) 2. Until I find a better alternative, Quicksilver is what I’ll be using, clunky or not it is the most useful.

Gmail tip: Search archived email and nothing more

So, a friend of mine wanted to be able to search just archives, without searching all mail. 

The solution is to add this to the end of your search, without quotes: “label:all mail -inbox”

That removes the inbox from your search, and you just have to add any other labels you don’t want to show up with a subtraction sign in-front of them to the end of that.

Comment system is here (again)!

Welcome back to the Disqus comment system which I had set up on the old theme, and now I’ve finally got it over to this theme :)

Try it and see what you think, you’ll need to log in to post a comment, although there’s no need to make a new account just to comment on my site, you can just log in with your Facebook, Twitter or OpenID, and it will pull your name, info and Profile pic automatically.

You will notice the ‘{Number of} comments and {Number of} reactions’ link below each post, just click it to see the comments or post a comment :D

Picasa tip: Embed full size pictures

Ever wanted to link to or embed a full size picture from picasa web? Here’s how:

Go to “link to this photo”, and copy the embed code to wherever you’re embedding/linking-to it. It doesn’t matter what size you pick, as you have to manually change it anyway. Get the code, which, depending on the options you chose, will look something like this: http://lh6,ggpht,com/_i8tjQU6rloE/TCFKe3BxbyI/AAAAAAAAAVE/2-X9F-ls8WA/s800/Jack%20creek%20Panorama2.jpg  

Then, replace the number marked in bold above with a zero. (my ex is 800, yours could also be: 144, 288 OR 400). Now your link looks something like this: http://lh6,ggpht,com/_i8tjQU6rloE/TCFKe3BxbyI/AAAAAAAAAVE/2-X9F-ls8WA/s0/Jack%20creek%20Panorama2.jpg

Done!

Your image will now load the same size as was originally uploaded :) Enjoy!

It is also possible to use other sizes rather then full size. All sizes up to 1600 work. The number represents the width of the image in pixels. 0 loads the originally uploaded size, even if that is bigger than 1600px. Thanks to commenter stansult for pointing that out!