Category Archives: computer tips

Google Refine / Freebase

It’s always fun to come across awesome new sites! I found Jeff Foster’s site Fatvat when I was searching for some info about Oracle and Larry, Prince Of Darkness… after reading about it on Engadget. Anyway, after all that, here’s some really cool stuff that should be very helpful to some of my database projects: Google Refine, an intro by Jess Foster http://www.fatvat.co.uk/Google Refine is a toy for playing with data, originally developed by the team behind Freebase. It’s a

How to change iTunes backup Windows 7? [SOLVED]

Here’s a great tutorial on changing the location of the folder that iTunes uses to backup iPhones/iPods/iPad. Change the Location of Your iTunes Backups on Windows Vista or 7 (iPhone and iPad) | The iPhone Guru http://www.theiphoneguru.net/2010/12/30/change-itunes-backup-location/Fortunately, Windows has a way of doing this using a concept known as symbolic links (symlinks, or in M$ speak, NTFS Junctions).  A symbolic link is similar to shortcut, but… Specifically, the folder to be moved is “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup”. Moving this off our your

Overcoming the Kindle Clipping Limit

The Kindle is a wonderful reading device, unfortunately it has some arbitrarily imposed limitations that severely impact its usability for serious study or research work. One of the most limiting aspects, is the limit on “clippings”. These are the exported text highlights that you make when reading a book. If you find yourself reading a book for an assignment or article and have been fastidiously making highlights of important sections, you may very disappointed  when you go to retrieve those

UnRAID preclear disk commands and notes (WD 2TB Green EARS drive)

Notes and misc info, some from the unRAID wiki/tutorial… How to preclear disk sdc preclear_disk.sh /dev/sdc How to save the preclear results (then accessible via network share “flash”) grep preclear /var/log/syslog | todos >> /boot/preclear_results_2011-03-12_WD2TB-Green.txt Samples results from: WDC_WD20EARS-00M_WD-WMAZA122XXXX Mar 11 12:59:23 Tower preclear_disk-start[2404]: smartctl version 5.38 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Mar 11 12:59:23 Tower preclear_disk-start[2404]: Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ Mar 11 12:59:23 Tower preclear_disk-start[2404]: Mar 11 12:59:23 Tower preclear_disk-start[2404]: === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Mar 11

Create seperate toolbars in Windows 7 (left, right, top of screen)

In Windows XP it was easy to add toolbars to the top/left/right side of your screen. Just drag a folder onto the edge of the screen and voila, your toolbar was there. You could auto-hide it, or lock it, or do just about anything you wanted with. Not so with Windows 7. You can only add additional toolbars to your primary taskbar. Furthermore, I believe that taskbar can only be at the top or the bottom of the screen. It

List of AMD Fusion Brazos: Zacate/Ontario Notebooks and Motherboards

Update 2011.Sep.8th very nice new AMD systems from MSI and HP released, they may make for nice budget poor-man-ultrabooks 🙂 Newegg.com – MSI X Series X370-206US Notebook AMD Dual-Core Processor E-450(1.65GHz) 13.4″ 4GB Memory DDR3 500GB HDD 7200rpm AMD Radeon HD 6320http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152288&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Notebooks-_-MSI-_-34152288&AID=10440897&PID=4095568&SID=Newegg.com – A great place to buy computers, computer parts, electronics, software, accessories, and DVDs online. With great prices, fast shipping, and top-rated customer service… HP Pavilion dm1 refreshed: pricing, release date, pictures, and hands-on preview | This is

Development tips and links for iPhone apps

Description: This is a an entry where I keep a list of misc development tips for iPhone app development. SDK XCode can’t find base SDK – Stack Overflow http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3034912/xcode-cant-find-base-sdkIf you can’t choose the SDK at the top left of x-code you have to first set the base SDK in the the project settings. Project -> Edit Project Settings. Then choose the “General” tab. At the bottom you can choose “Base SDK for all Configurations:” Buttons Improved Gradient Buttons http://www.iphone4gapp.net/improved-gradient-buttons.htmlThere are