Thomas Nicholson

For Mother’s Day I got my wife a new digital camera and an Eye-Fi Share Wireless 2 GB SD Card.  Our last digital camera was stolen and I thought now would be a good time for a replacement.  One of the major issues my wife has is with me and the amount of time it takes for me to upload her photo’s to the family photo sharing website.  Since I don’t see me getting any better at uploading, I decided to get her an Eye-Fi Share Wireless 2 GB SD Card.

I first learned about Eye-Fi a few years ago on TechCrunch.  At the time the cost and storage didn’t make much sense.  But now that the price has come down and the storage has gone up it works out a little better. The Eye-Fi is a memory card for your digital camera that has built-in WiFi.  Once you configure the card to connect to your home wireless network, it will upload all your photo’s automatically to whatever destination you choose.  I have my card setup to use my home wireless network and my iPhone which I can run as an AP.  This allows us to take picture at home or on the go and upload them right away to our photo sharing website.

After playing with it yesterday I don’t know why I waited this long.  I got the 2GB version since I got the wife a point-and-shoot.  They also have a 4GB version if you need the storage.  The 2GB holds about ~1000 hi-res images from a 10 MP camera, so if she is out and about, it has enough storage to hold all her photo’s until she gets back home.  I can also add additional wireless networks to the card.  So if we’re visiting friends or family we can use there wireless networks as well.

• Easy to setup
• Uploads automatically
• Supports most photo sharing websites
• Not expensive when you think of the time saved uploading

Cons:

• Low capacity and slow write/read times
  
• Will suck battery much faster due to uploads
• Can’t upload to multiple websites at same time
• Configuration software only for OS X and Windows no Linux

If you have a digital camera with a ton of photos you’ve never uploaded?  If you just copy your photo’s from your SD card onto your computer but never post them online?  Your friend or partner depend on you to fill the void between photo’s on the camera and posting them online?  Get an Eye-Ficard.  It will save you so much time and works great.

Today PDAnet release 1.50 of there tethering software for the iPhone 3G which includes the ability to tether your iPhone to your computer over USB.  This is a major update since most of the current methods, including the previous versions of PDAnet, required you to setup an Ad-hoc network.  I already don’t like walking around with wireless (or bluetooth) enabled on my iPhone 3G and the last thing I want to do, when I’m trying to establish a secure network connection, is setup an ad-hoc network.  In this post I am going to share the process for getting an iPhone 3G working with PDAnet over USB.

Disclaimer

First I need to be perfectly clear that this how-to WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.  I strongly suggest that you wait until AT&T offers a tethering plan for the iPhone, which has been rumored to be in the works.  I am sure that waiting will have a bigger payoff, as you will not be voiding the warranty, and the solution should be easier then the how-to given below.

Requirements:

• Windows 32-bit XP/Vista (64-bit Vista Only)
• iPhone 3G (Firmware v2.2.1)
• iTunes 8
• QuickPWN 2.2.5
• Cydia
• PDAnet 1.50+

Step 1 Jailbreak iPhone

You will need to jailbreak your iPhone 3G since we are going to install 3rd party software.  This means software that is not approved by Apple.  To jailbreak your iPhone your going to need to download QuickPWN 2.2.5 http://blog.iphone-dev.org/.  Make sure you have updated your iPhone 3G to the current 2.2.1 firmware if you haven’t already.  You should also be connected to your Windows computer via the USB cable that came with the iPhone.  When you start QuickPWN 2.2.5 you’ll get a nice GUI.  Simply follow the directions.  I would like to point out that some of the steps you need to follow, to setup your iPhone 3G in various modes, are a little odd and you need to be quick.  For more information about jailbreaking your iPhone do a Google search.

Step 2 Update Cydia

After you jailbreak your iPhone two new applications will be installed on your iPhone.  The first is Cydia.  Cydia is the application installer we will be using in this how-to.  The other application is “Installer” which is another 3rd party application installer like Cydia.  Start Cydia on your iPhone it might take a minute as it will search for any updates available for the Cydia application.  If you get a message about updates available, install them.  For more information about Cydia you can do a Google search.

Step 3 Install iTunes (Required for USB)

To be able to tether your iPhone over USB you will need to install iTunes on the computer you plan to tether it with.  So if you don’t have iTunes on that computer install it now.  I installed it on my netbook so that iTunes sees my iPhone, but I don’t sync or have anything installed content wise, because I use my desktop for all my iPhone 3G backups and management.

Step 4 Install PDAnet (iPhone & Computer)

If your not in Cydia start it, from the start screen of Cydia go to “Featured Packages.”  Scroll down to “Commercial Applications.”  Select “PdaNet” and in the top right corner of your screen click “install.”  This will start the download and installation of PDAnet.  When the install is complete click the “Return to Cydia” button on the bottom of the screen.  You can now exit Cydia and return to the home screen.  You should now have an icon for PDAnet.

Computer:

You will need to install a PDAnet client on your Windows computer to tether over USB.  You can download the client software from the PDAnet website http://www.junefabrics.com/desktop/.  As long as you have iTunes installed you should not have a problem installing the PDAnet software.  When the installation is done you should have a new icon in your taskbar.

Step 5 Tethering it all together

Now you need to connect your iPhone to your computer with the USB cable that came with your iPhone.  Start the PDAnet desktop application if its not running and right-click on the PDAnet icon in your taskbar on your computer.  Click “Connect” and you will now be connected to the 3G network via USB.  You can test your 3G network connection speed by installing the free Speedtest.net application in the Apple Store.

Security Tips:

• Make sure wireless and bluetooth are disabled on your iPhone if they aren’t in use.
• Make sure that wireless and bluetooth are disabled on your laptop if your out in public.
• Use VPN and SSL whenever they are available.  3G isn’t secure its just obscure.

UPDATE:

Revised how-to to reflect current versions of iPhone 3G firmware 2.2.1 and QuickPWN 2.2.5.

I wanted to mention that PDAnet is a commercial application and is available as a trial for 14 days.  After 14 days all services are blocked accept for HTTP.  To register the full version, make sure PdaNet is connected, then go to http://my.iPhone on your computer. The cost of PdaNet is $29 per license.

Someone on Twitter was asking about screen capture software and I suggested Jing.  I haven’t seen to much information about Jing on the net so I thought I would write this post.  The people at Tech Smith.  The same ones that created Camtasia Studio, which is the program I use for all my narrated PowerPoints, and screen capture tutorials, created a project called Jing.  The mission of Jing is to make it simple for people to create content and share it immediately online.  So if your into creating screen captures and are looking for something easy.  Check out the Jing Project at http://www.jingproject.com/.

Back in 2006 I read about a new Web 2.0 company called SlideShare. The site hosts presentations that you can upload and share. The site converts your PowerPoint into a Flash slide show. I used the site for just over a year until I upgraded from PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007.  After that I was having issues with the lack of *.pptx support. They fixed that but I never went back to using SlideShare. I recently learned that they have a plug-in for PowerPoint 2007 that allows you to manage your slides from inside PowerPoint.   They’re also adding some nice features like Twitter integration. So when you publish a new slide, it will also send a Tweet about it.  As the new year has begun I am looking for ways to improve my work-flow to get more done.  I think I will start using SlideShare again and this new plug-in will make my work easier.

I know not everyone uses PowerPoint, but for the few that do SlideShare is a great way to share your content online. I have been waiting for Google Documents to have better “presentation” support but at this time its very poor compared to SlideShare.

So if you create PowerPoints, and want an easy way to share them, checkout SlideShare.  If your using PowerPoint 2007 get the “Ribbon” plug-in which is free.  If anyone is using SlideShare or another only presentation service I would like to hear about it in the comments. 

UPDATE: I would also like to let everyone know that to install the plug-in you need Windows .NET Framework 3.5 installed.

A couple weekends ago I decided to upgrade my main system to Ubuntu 8.10.  I have been testing it for a while on one of my other systems and thought now would be a good time to make the cut.  Since my main system is an Intel Dual Core 64-bit system, I downloaded the amd64 version of Ubuntu 8.10.  Everything was going well until I started installing third-party stuff like Adobe Flash 10[note 64-bit support came out the next day. meh].  It failed with an error “…x86_64 not supported.”  I started to do some searching and found a number of post from users having the same issue.  Not only were users having issues with Adobe software but other major third-party vendors too.  In my case I had to start over and install the regular x86 version of Ubuntu.  After that I was able install Adobe AIR, Reader, and Flash just fine.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have been really busy recently with work, teaching and family.  I have been spending a lot of time trying to build my “professional” social network.  I have been on-board for most of the fads like MySpace and others but realized I hate meeting random people.  But since taking the time to work on a “professional” angle, I have achieved better results and made some great contacts.

Read the rest of this entry »

I got a few emails over the weekend of people having issues with Ubuntu 8.10 on VMware .  From what I have read on both Ubuntu and VMware websites, the issues hasn’t been fixed.  The problem is after installing Ubuntu (which installs fine) the VMware Tools fail to install.

At this time I am not aware of a fix.  I am also not sure what VMware is planning on doing or if anyone is working with Ubuntu on the issue.  If you need to run a working Ubuntu desktop in VMware, I would stay with 8.04.1 for the time being.  I would only suggest people upgrade to 8.10 if they are doing an install onto a physical (not virtual) machine at this time.

I did try to install 8.10 in VMware Workstation 6.5 and got the same error during the VMware Tools install.  So again just stay on 8.04.1 for now and upgrade to 8.10 in VMware in the future.  If anyone finds a fix to this please post it in the comments.

Yesterday Ubuntu 8.10 was released and today OpenBSD 4.4 was release.  You can get 4.4 here if you haven’t already.  I know most people are into the Linux Kool-Aid pretty heavy now days but BSD does have it’s place at the table.

I like OpenBSD and FreeBSD but I like them in different ways from Linux.  I like Linux as a regular client or server OS.  But for infrastructure roles I’m a BSD fan.  DNS, Firewall, BGP, NTP, CSV, etc. when I have the choice I prefer to use BSD

So if you have been playing with Linux for a while, but never tried BSD, I would suggest you check out OpenBSD or even FreeBSD to see what they have to offer.

I didn’t see this post on Torrent Freaks until after I upgraded from 8.04.1 to 8.10 but I wish I would have.  In my hope to save others time and energy here is a guide on how to use BitTorrent vs HTTP/FTP to upgrade your Ubuntu desktop/server.

After taking a closer look at my upgrade it seems I did have some stuff break.  I have a rule that if it takes more than 30 minutes to troubleshoot/repair I just wipe the system and start over.  That is what backups are for anyways right?  It helps keep my “recovery” skills tuned.

Also if you haven’t checked out TF they have a pretty good site.  Remember to get good Torrent karma you need to seed until you have a 1.0 ratio.  I tried to give a little more and killed my seeds after reaching a 3.0 ratio.

This morning 8.10 was released so I downloaded the Torrents for both the Ubuntu and Kbuntu desktops and the Ubuntu server.  All the upgrades seem to have gone well. I will need to check to see, when I have more time this weekend, if everything is solid.  I did full backups before the installs so if needed I can rollback to 8.04.1.

Soon as I get the last upgrade completed I get an advisory for 8.10 (USN-661-1: Linux kernel regression).  Nice.