Blog Archives
XBMC – Raspberry Pi – Working Youtube Plugin!
Revisions:
12/13/13: Initial release.
I am a long time fan of using XBMC on my Raspberry Pi. There is something very satisfying about watching Youtube on my TV on a mini PC that takes less than $3 of power a year.
However, sometimes when you are using the youtube plugin app inside XBMC, you may get an issue about an error and the video fails to play. This is so annoying. I spent hours of research and figured out how to get the youtube plugin to work flawlessly on both the raspbmc and also openelec. See below for more details:
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Google Print – Do You Use It?
Revisions:
12-31-12: Initial release.
So recently I had a family member ask me if it was possible to share a USB printer between two laptops, without having to disconnect the printer and connect from one laptop to the next.
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[Not-So-Much Weekly Wrapup] 3D Phones; iPad 2; April Fool’s Day
I’ve been so horrible at keeping up with my “Weekly Wrapup” of tech news. I guess I could come up with a long excuse about my dog eating my keyboard or something, but I won’t waste my time. I don’t have a dog anyway. Now to the news.
- HTC Evo 3D
- Apple Releases iPad 2 Ad: “We Believe”
- Google April Fool’s Day Gags
HTC Evo 3D
Sprint has announced the HTC Evo 3D, the second 3D smartphone in the US. I personally think 3D is just a gimmick to get people to buy, but this thing comes with some other goo-looking specs as well.
- Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC Sense
- Dual-Core 1.2 GHZ CPU
- 4.3 inch, glasses-free 3D display running at 960×540
- Three cameras: two 5 megapixel cameras on the back (for 3D stereoscopic images), and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front
- Weight: 6.0 oz
- Sprint 4G support
- Wireless Hotspot service can support up to 8 devices simultaneously
Google Chrome Extension – Stop Autoplay for Youtube Videos
Revisions:
2-26-11: Initial release.
So for the longest time, I have been a proud user of the Google Chrome browser. What I like about it is not just the minimalistic interface, the sandbox tabs, or the bookmark sync, but also the plethora of extensions readily available for the browser.
For me, I have a youtube account that requires daily activity to answer various youtube comments. What I hate doing is going to a video page, and have to manually click the play button to stop the video from playing. Isn’t there an easier process?
In fact, there is. There is a Chrome extension called “Stop Autoplay For Youtube”, and it does what it says. When you visit any youtube video, the video does not instantly play out loud, it is paused and buffering in the background.
For me where all I want to do is answer a quick comment, this works very well into my workflow.
Go to the link below to check out the sweet extension!
LucidChart Contest – Win Google Notebook!
Revisions:
2-5-11: Initial release.
2-7-11: Video posted.
Hi all,
LucidChart.com is hosting a contest until February 12th that allows all users to create a diagram and have it shared within the community. LucidChart will be giving away 100 notebooks, and I decided why shouldn’t I try?
The two categories are: Most Creative Diagram and Most Useful Template.
Please check out my Tunngle chart, and rate it! Thanks!
http://www.lucidchart.com/community/examples/view/4d4dcbef-a6d0-436b-93c4-2f570ac17605
[Computer Fix] How To Access Google or Gmail.com When Web Browser Refuses To Load Them
6-28-10: Initial release.
The other day I had to fix my cousin’s computer, and can you guess what the error was? Basically, she had told me that for the last 6 months or so, her desktop PC would not let her load Google or Gmail.com!
Can you imagine going 6 months without access to Gmail in your own house? I think I would suffer pretty badly!
Anyway, do you have this issue? Your computer is acting weird and you can’t access Google or any of the Google websites like Gmail.com? Well, guess what, the solution is simple if you know how to fix it.
This is the fix. You will need to verify your Windows HOST file, as it is possible that malware or other external programs have tampered your HOST file preventing your PC to access Google.com or similar sites.
This is how to perform the fix:
1) Open notepad.
2) Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
3) Open “hosts” file. You want to have the contents show up as below:
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
4) Make sure your host file looks like the default one above. Click on save, and now you should be able to access Google and Gmail now!
How To Become Self-Sufficient Knowledge Wise – A Rant
These past few weeks have been rough and I’ll shortly describe why. As they say, you are your own worst enemy and in this case I believe it is true. These last few weeks when I am not here posting an article, I am away at my computer conjuring new things in mind, and a lot of it recently has been involvement with Tunngle tutorials.
To those who don’t know what Tunngle is it is essentially another VPN solution. Think of it as a mix between Steam, Garena, and Hamachi all rolled into one and its great for playing LAN games over the Internet easily without trouble. This article is not to talk about Tunngle, but merely to express where most of my time has been lately.
Anyway, if anyone is familiar with Youtube, you can upload your own videos and if your videos are something that is important to people, you will bound to get questions. No tutorial or video I have seen is question free. There is always and I mean always that one guy in the crowd who needs clarification on something, even if it is obvious to the creator or to other people.
How Useful Is Google Voice? Enough to Make Free VoIP Calls.
When I first heard of Google Voice, I had NO clue what this was all about. Nada. I slowly found out information through the various postings online, then was finally moved to make an account. But then I started thinking. How useful can Google Voice really be for someone like me? Most people I know use a phone. Not an iPhone or an Android phone, but a regular phone. Some with unlimited texting, some without. What benefits are we (or just me) getting here? If I want to make a phone call, why would I ever want to make it through Google Voice if I could just dial away on my cell phone?
But then I found out that you could send free text messages. Hooray! That’s useful. But then I realized, it’s only free if its not forwarded to your mobile device. Ok, so I disabled my phone in the gVoice settings, but now what? I’m getting free texts, but only when I have wifi. So what else can I do with this thing? I don’t have a lot of phones that I want to sync with 1 number. I don’t get too many voicemails. Nor do I have a serious need to screen calls. And I don’t change my number, so this “universal” number isn’t a big deal.
But then I found something that would make this whole deal a little more worthwhile. Free calling from a computer. As a heavy computer user, making free calls from my computer would save a whole lot of time, plus it would allow me to keep my hands free off an actual phone. Can’t use bluetooth all the time, needs some recharging, plus my phones are never around when I need it.
Here’s how:
1) Make a Google Voice account. Then head over to gizmo5.com and sign up for an account there.
2) After signing up for Gizmo, you can download the software if you so choose (I did, but you can make calls via a web browser.) Then go to my.gizmo5.com, go to the settings page, enter your gVoice number, and enable the gVoice setting.
3) Scroll down and copy your gizmo SIP number. You won’t need to ever use this number again, just copy it for now. Go back to voice.google.com and set up a new phone via the settings tab. Use the SIP number from gizmo and set the phone type to gizmo.
4) Follow the standard Google Voice procedures to enable the gizmo phone. I downloaded the software, so it was easy to use the num keypad to enter the confirmation number.
5) Now you can go to gizmocall.com to test your mic, or use the gizmo program itself.
Here’s how to place a call using the Gizmo program.
Start the Gizmo program, and log into it. Then go to the gVoice page. Place a call like normal, but use the Gizmo phone instead of your normal phone. The Gizmo program should then ring, pick up and follow the standard gVoice phone call procedure.
Do NOT place a call in the Gizmo program itself, you will be charged. Make all calls via the gVoice site. Also, any calls made to your gVoice number will ring your Gizmo program, so you can leave it open if you want to receive calls.
And that’s it! For support, contact us or go to Lifehacker.
Voltaire.
Google Chrome – The New Browser from Google!
Guess what? – Google has released its own Web Browser!!! It is called the Google Chrome: logo to the left. GChorme is still in its beta development stage (v 0.2) but google is offering it for free download at their website. Here is the original link: http://www.google.com/chrome
The main aim of this browser is to improve security, speed and stability compared to existing browsers. There were also extensive changes in the user interface.
Its just 475 KB, so it will take around 3 seconds or so to install. Try it: it worked like a charm for me and with no errors, it even warns you if you visit porn or malware or phishing website. It’s API list contains these websites. It has tabs (which are a common feature in new browsers) and also a lot of plugins like JavaScript and Adobe Flash Player.
Popup windows “are scoped to the tab they came from” and will not appear outside the tab unless the user explicitly drags them out. It is not clear whether they also run in their own process.
One flaw which was found is that: “Aviv Raff located a flaw in Google Chrome that can “trick users into launching executables direct from the new browser.” The flaw involves bugs in WebKit and Java, the latter bug having been discussed at the 2008 Black Hat conference. Apple’s Safari is unaffected by this flaw, as it uses a version of WebKit that has patched the flaw; Google Chrome uses an older version that does not contain the patch.
Download it here: http://www.google.com/chrome
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