Archive for the 'tech' Category

02-04-2009

Drupal 6 Theming Cheat Sheet

Now that Drupal 6 has been out for almost a year, I finally got around to updating my Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet accordingly. Since it borrows from the Drupal Handbooks and API documentation, it’s available under the same Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Please contact me if you’re interested in translating the cheat sheet into another language and would like a copy of the Microsoft Word document used to create it. Also, let me know if you have any corrections or additions that you would like to see included in future revisions.

Posted by Matt in Drupal, cc, learning, tech | 9 Comments »

10-01-2008

Best Gadget I’ve Bought In Years: Acer Aspire One

I’ve been keeping an eye on the new generation of Netbook computers for a while. A friend bought one of the OLPCs a while back and another bought an Asus EEE. I almost bought one of the early EEEs, but I wanted to hold out for a slightly larger screen. I’m glad I did.

I finally bought an Acer Aspire One recently. After about a month of using it, including two weeks of traveling, I’m loving it. It’s super light, has a surprisingly decent keyboard, and even the battery life isn’t too bad.

In terms of technical specs, the Aspire One has a full-width (1024×600, 8.9″) screen, 1 GB of memory, and a 120 GB hard drive. The 1.6 GHz Atom processor isn’t a speed demon, but it’s not nearly as sluggish as I expected, considering the price. Speaking of price, they can be found for under $400.

My old Dell Vostro 15.4″ laptop was just too heavy and bulky to lug around much. I’ve finally started really taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi that’s available practically everywhere now. A lot of people ask me about it, when I use it in public. Several of the flight attendants talked to me about it while I was using it on the plane. There’s probably a huge market for this size laptop with airline employees alone. For anyone who lives out of a suitcase, especially a carry-on, it’s ideal.

There are only a few downsides I’ve run across, so far. The trackpad buttons are on the sides of the trackpad, rather than below it. Out of the box, that would probably be my single biggest complaint, except that I’ve been using a portable wireless mouse instead.

I got used to the keyboard pretty quickly, except for the Home and End keys, which require that you also hold down the function key. As a result, I’m not as quick at navigating through big documents as I am at a normal keyboard.

Finally, some applications aren’t designed to work on such a short screen. The width isn’t a problem, but height can be. Photoshop gave me a warning when I installed it, but it did still install; and I’ve been able to do what little I needed to do with it. The Windows version of the board game Ingenious installed, but the board doesn’t fit on the screen, so it’s basically unplayable. I suspect there may be other problem programs in the future, but those are the only two I’ve run into, so far.

Apparently netbooks are selling quite well. Now that I have one, I can understand why. The convenience far outweighs the downsides.

Posted by Matt in tech, travel | No Comments »

12-18-2007

Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

UPDATE: I’ve now posted an updated Drupal 6 Theming Cheat Sheet.

The Drupal Handbooks are an exhaustive resource for learning all things Drupal. Unfortunately, sometimes finding just the information you need can be difficult. The Theme Developer’s Guide alone includes 14 sections, most made up of additional sub-sections.

With that in mind, I put together a Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet that includes some of the most handy reference information for themers. The cheat sheet is specific to PHPTemplate, the most common theme engine for Drupal. The two page cheat sheet includes information on available variables, file naming conventions, sample code, and more.

If you have any corrections or suggestions for improving the cheat sheet, please leave a comment.

Download the PDF: Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

UPDATE: Horacio Salazar has translated the cheat sheet and posted a Spanish language version on his DrupalMex site.

Posted by Matt in Drupal, learning, tech | 20 Comments »

11-01-2007

45 Screencasts to Get You Kicking Ass with Drupal

I’ve been working a lot with Drupal lately. Drupal is a content management platform that can be difficult to learn, partially because it is so flexible and modular. Though the Drupal learning curve can be steep, the Drupal project founder and leader, Dries Buytaert posted a useful road map for getting you past the “I Kick Ass” threshold with Drupal.

Even with the road map, there’s still the matter of how to learn it all. There are Drupal books, Drupal podcasts, Drupal documentation, Drupal forums, Drupal IRC channels, Drupal groups, Drupal blogs, Drupal mailing lists, and more.

I’ve spent the last year or so developing a variety of Drupal sites both at work and in my off-time. I’m not an expert, but I have learned a lot during that time. For me, the various Drupal screencasts have proven to be one of the easiest ways of picking up Drupal concepts quickly.

Luckily, there are Drupal screencasts for practically every step along the Drupal learning curve, which I’ve collected below. One caveat: because the screencasts are free and produced by a variety of individuals, the quality can vary and some will definitely overlap in what they cover:

Installation and configuration of Drupal core

Node system

Block system

Users, roles and permissions

Installing contributed themes and modules

Upgrading, patching, (security) monitoring

Navigation, menus, taxonomy

Locale and internationalization

Drastically customize front page

see below

Theme and template modifications

Contributing documentation and support

How to Contribute to Drupal (slideshow, not a screencast)

Custom content types and views

Actions and workflows

Theme and module development

jQuery, FormAPI, security audits, performance tuning

Contributing code, designs and patches back to Drupal

More to Come

There are some gaps. For anyone who is interested in creating screencasts, the following topics from Dries’ list could use some more up-to-date coverage: drastically customizing the front page, security monitoring, security audits, performance tuning, locale and internationalization. If you find or create any screencasts covering these or other related Drupal topics, please leave a comment with a link.

This is my first of probably many Drupal-related blog posts. Subscribe to the RSS feed, if you’d like to keep up to date.

Posted by Matt in Drupal, learning, tech | 16 Comments »

08-02-2007

Humans Still Beat Computers at Some Tasks

I read that recently computers have “solved” the game of checkers, having now mapped out every possible game. That means that a human player’s best hope would be to tie a game against such a computer.

With that in mind, it’s nice to know that humans are still better than computers when it comes to certain tasks. Yesterday, I watched a Google Tech Talk given by Luis von Ahn, a computer science Ph.D., who specializes in harnessing the computational strengths of humans. The talk was not as dry as it may sound. In fact, it was one of the most interesting Tech Talks I’ve watched.

Von Ahn has developed programs and games to help thwart spammers and collect useful data for search engines and other databases. His reCAPTCHA program helps in recognizing classic texts for the Gutenberg Project in a very novel way. When users enter text into a reCAPTCHA script to prove themselves human, they are actually helping to recognize words that computers were unable to.

Von Ahn’s games pit players against one another in ways that allow useful data to be collected. Von Ahn does a much better job of explaining and demonstrating the games that I can. I recommend checking out his presentation (below or on Google Video). Or read the recent wired Magazine profile of von Ahn. Or play one of Von Ahn’s games online.

Posted by Matt in creativity, tech, video | 1 Comment »

05-26-2007

Cell Phone Security Tips

David Boch’s blog on Yahoo! Finance recently had an eye opening post about cell phone security. I consider myself relatively security conscious, but I hadn’t considered the potential financial consequences of a lost or stolen cell phone.

In addition to some harrowing stories of lost phones, the article also offers some basic tips for keeping yours safe. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s not in a cell phone company’s best interest to watch out for you, so be diligent in guarding and protecting your own phone.

Eileen Perrera’s story revealed what happened after her phone was stolen while she was on vacation. She filed a police report and contacted Sprint immediately, but then received a bill totaling almost $16,000. Sprint claimed to have never received the call from her reporting the stolen cell phone.

Eileen was able to submit proof from landline phone records that she had indeed called Sprint customer service. As her late fees piled up, the situation remained unresolved for months.

Since the tips in the post were a bit basic, I did some more digging and found a similar story on Bruce Schneier’s blog, which includes some good security tips in the comments.

Technorati Tags: cell phone, security

Posted by Matt in money, tech | No Comments »

05-01-2007

Video Translation Could Change How We See the World

I ran across a new service called dotSUB that streamlines the process for subtitling and translating online video. The site recently featured a Rocketboom episode explaining how the service works, allowing users to quickly and easily enter captions which are overlaid onto a Flash video file.

The captions also allow other users to translate the content into other languages. Once subtitles are entered, the new language is immediately available for viewing, since the original video is shown with the new language overlaid on top.

Unfortunately, dotSUB’s options for embedding video in other sites appears to be limited. I wasn’t able to embed the Rocketboom video here because it would break my template’s layout. However, it’s worth visiting the site to check out. I’m willing to bet that the options for embedding video will expand as the service matures.

I think dotSUB has some excellent potential. Off the top of my head, I could see it being useful for nonprofits, activists, language learners, and anyone with hearing problems. I’d love to see some good foreign language documentaries made available through the site.

UPDATE: Apparently dotSUB was listening (see the comments). A smaller version of the dotSUB player is now available, so I’ll include the Rocketboom video below. Try clicking on the up and down buttons (to the left of the speaker icon) to switch between the various subtitle languages.

Technorati Tags: languages, video, translation

Posted by Matt in communication, movies, tech | 2 Comments »

04-18-2007

Please Help Save Internet Radio

I’m a huge fan of music, but very little of what I listen to is mainstream enough to make it onto corporate radio stations. There are some good community radio stations in Austin, but even those can’t come close to the variety of music that’s currently available online.

Thanks to Internet radio, I’ve been introduced to a wide variety of new musical genres. I’m able to keep up with Hawaiian, ska, Asian underground, and electronic music. I’m also able to discover new music through streaming services like Pandora.

Unfortunately, the governing body in charge of copyright royalties recently decided to more than triple the rates Internet broadcasters must pay. Put simply, the rates are more than the total revenue for some stations and will likely cause stations and streaming services to cease online streaming altogether. PC World posted a story yesterday covering the latest developments in the fight to keep Internet radio alive. Hopefully it won’t be too-little-too-late, but please join me and take a moment to sign a petition to help save Internet radio.

Between the consolidation of radio stations, the RIAA suing music fans, and now this, it seems the music business is taking two steps back for every step technology takes forward.

Technorati Tags: Internet radio, petition

Posted by Matt in music, tech | No Comments »

04-04-2007

Thwarting Spammers Through Creativity

The ongoing battle against spam brings out some of the most creative problem solving in programmers and system administrators. Techniques like greylisting and bayesian filtering are applied in an attempt to keep the spam problem under control.

A recent behind-the-scenes blog post about The Architecture of Mailinator details some creative problem solving that went into the design of the Mailinator service. By foregoing perfect service in favor of near-perfect service, Mailinator is able to significantly alter its approach to the problem.

Now if this all sounds a bit shaky, as in we might just lose an email now and then – you’re right. But remember, our goal is 99.99% accuracy. Not 100%. That’s an important distinction. The latest incarnation of Mailinator literally runs for months unattended. We do lose emails once in awhile – but its rare and usually involves a server crash. We accept the loss and by far most users never encounter it.

Posted by Matt in creativity, tech | No Comments »

03-26-2007

Microsoft Bumbles Vista at a Crucial Time

I recently ran across a blog post entitled Vista – Arrogance & Stupidity that takes a look at Microsoft’s new Vista operating system and its flaws. The article does a good job of detailing why users and institutions may want to avoid Vista for the foreseeable future.

It’s an exercise in frustration to try to upgrade an XP computer to Vista. Few Vista drivers are available except for new devices designed for Vista, and manufacturers don’t plan any.

Even many current printers don’t have Vista drivers, and many never will. Developing Vista drivers and getting them approved by Microsoft is just too expensive.

Vista is effectively a Windows price increase. Vista Home Basic, shipped with lower cost consumer market computers, is rather minimal, This often forces a $79 upgrade to Home Premium (equivalent to Windows XP Media Center) or Ultimate for $139. Vista’s built-in Anytime Upgrade handles that – have your credit card ready. Actually all versions are on the machine but must be “activated”.

On a related note, Eric Steven Raymond recently wrote a detailed article entitled “World Domination 201” that explains the importance of operating system positioning as the world transitions to 64-bit hardware. In a nutshell, the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit processors presents a window of opportunity for competitors to overthrow Microsoft’s OS monopoly. The article goes on to outline a strategy that might help Linux to gain ground during the transition phase.

Technorati Tags: Windows, Vista, Linux, OSX

Posted by Matt in tech | No Comments »

03-13-2007

6 Sources for SXSW Interactive Panel Notes

I spent some time tonight tracking down notes from some of the SXSW Interactive panels. There are some panels I couldn’t attend because they overlapped with others and some I attended but wasn’t satisfied with my own notes. I’ve compiled a list below of six blogs that I found to have great notes.

In addition, the official SXSW Podcasts are already being posted. Unfortunately, the official podcasts get posted over weeks and months, so if you’re looking for specific panels it may be a while before they make it onto the site. The podcasts from SXSW Interactive 2006 are all online though and there are some definite gems in the bunch.

Unfortunately, the SXSW Baby Notes Exchange Wiki has seen almost no updates during the festival. The the wiki was a great idea, requiring a login goes against the nature of wikis and was apparently enough to keep anyone from creating or adding content.

Technorati Tags: sxsw, interactive, podcasts, panels, notes, Austin

Posted by Matt in Austin, communication, learning, reading, tech, wikis | 2 Comments »

03-07-2007

Wiki Patterns Site Collects Tips for Wiki Success

Wiki Patterns is a new site that is site attempting to gather some best practices or “patterns” to help make wiki implementations more successful:

Looking to spur wiki adoption? Want to grow from 10 users to 100, or 1000? Applying patterns that help coordinate peoples’ efforts and guide the growth of content can give your wiki the greatest chance of success. Equally important is recognizing anti-patterns that might hinder your wiki, so you can fix them or avoid them altogether.

Technorati Tags: wiki, patterns, collaboration

Posted by Matt in communication, tech, wikis | 1 Comment »

03-06-2007

Free Mindmapping Software, Today (3/6/07) Only

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Giveaway of the Day website lately. Every day, the site posts a new Windows program that is available for downloading free for just one day. The programs are fully licensed, though they must be installed the same day they are downloaded and are not upgradeable.

In the weeks that I’ve been checking the site, the offerings have been hit-and-miss, but today’s software looks interesting. It’s a mindmapping program called ConceptDraw MINDMAP Personal 4.

I’ve been using mindmapping software for a long time. Mindmapping has been especially useful for outlining my ideas before sitting down to write. I originally used Mindjet MindManager, but it has gotten to be too expensive, in my opinion.

Lately, I’ve been using the free, open source mindmapping package called Freemind. Freemind is slow to start up and a a bit clunky overall, but it is remarkably useful, especially considering the price. Still, I’m interested in giving MINDMAP Personal a try. I’ll be downloading it as soon as I finish this post.

Posted by Matt in business, communication, creativity, learning, tech, writing | No Comments »

03-04-2007

SXSW 2007 Stuff I’m Looking Forward To

I’ve done all my SXSW research. I’ve read the descriptions for the Interactive panels. I’ve watched the trailers for the documentaries that are part of the Film festival. And I’ve listened to at least a short snippet of each of the songs in the 2007 SXSW music bittorrent.

Here’s a short list of some of the stuff I’m most looking forward to:

Interactive

Kathy Sierra Opening Remarks
- Sierra is the primary contributor behind the excellent Creating Passionate Users blog and the innovative Head First series of technical books.
Open Content, Remix Culture and the Sharing Economy
How to Make Your Ideas Stick
- I haven’t yet read Made to Stick, but after reading an except online, it’s on my list to read soon.

Film

TWISTED: A Balloonamentary
- I’m a big fan of documentaries about niche subcultures, such as Trekkies, Word Wars, and Okie Noodling; so, this documentary about balloon sculptors is one I’m looking forward to.
Big Rig
- This is another niche subculture documentary, about truckers. It’s by the same people who did the excellent documentary Scratch.

Music

Overall, I’m a bit disappointed by the music this year. While Jim Bianco and Golem are artists I got turned onto by listening to the mp3s, most of the artists I’m looking forward to seeing are ones I was already familiar with. The interactive festival is bigger and better this year though, so it may make up for the disappointment of the music.

In addition to the official SXSW events, I’m also looking forward to the Drupal presentation at BarCamp Austin and the Lifehacker party.

Technorati Tags: sxsw, movies, music, interactive, documentaries, recommendations

Posted by Matt in Austin, movies, music, tech | 1 Comment »

02-27-2007

How To Simplify WordPress Upgrades Using Subversion

The WordPress Codex documentation site has a very handy page on Installing/Updating WordPress with Subversion. For anyone who maintains a WordPress blog, especially if you maintain more than one, it makes the process of upgrading a snap.

If you have command-line access to your web server, and if your server has the subversion (svn) client installed, you can take advantage of the easiest possible WordPress installations and updates. svn is a version control system designed primarily for developers, but also useful for end-users who just want an easy way to install and update software.

Posted by Matt in lifehacks, tech | 2 Comments »

02-21-2007

3GB of Free Music From 2007 SXSW Artists

My friend Jeremy just sent me the link to the 2007 bittorrent of South By Southwest music from various artists performing at this year’s music festival. It works out to be just over 3GB of free music. It’s a lot to weed through, but there are always some gems to be discovered. I previously posted some tips for making it through all the music in time for SXSW.

It’s a good idea to check the official SXSW site from time to time because they usually post another batch of additional music, as the festival approaches. And a batch of trailers for the film festival should be posted soon too.

Technorati Tags: sxsw, music, bittorrent, torrent, mp3, free, Austin

Posted by Matt in Austin, music, tech | No Comments »

02-14-2007

Do-It-Yourself Tendencies and Why Software is Hard

Salon has an interview with Scott Rosenberg about his new book, Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software. The book details the long development process of the Chandler open source software project.

In the interview, Rosenberg includes a quote that explains a phenomenon I’ve seen numerous times in my years in I.T., as programmers build their own software rather than learning to use off-the-shelf tools:

And programmers, as I quote Larry Constantine in my book, programmers are programmers because they like to code — given a choice between learning someone else’s code and just sitting down and writing their own, they will always do the latter. And the programmer who says, it will be faster for me to write it, rather than to learn it, is usually correct. Except that what he will write, most likely, is something that will work but will not have its rough edges worked out, will not have the benefits of a piece of software that has actually been used for a few years, where the bugs have been found and the users have given feedback and have helped you figure out where the problems are. So what they will often be handing you at the end of that I-can-do-it-faster-myself thing is something that works, but that is kind of a mess in certain ways. Whereas the thing that you were going to pull off the shelf, maybe it will take the programmers a while to learn it, but once they learn it enough to hook it up to this project you are creating, what they are hooking up will probably have a lot fewer problems.

Personally, I usually find it easier to learn how to use someone else’s software than to build my own. That’s part of why I’m a big fan of open source tools like PmWiki, Drupal, and WordPress. With them, I’m able to be more productive than I ever would if I had to design, code, test, and implement everything from scratch.

Posted by Matt in business, tech | 1 Comment »

01-17-2007

Give WordPress Developers Your Feedback

Anyone using WordPress may want to check out the recent call for ideas and feedback over at the WoredPress Development Blog. It’s a chance to offer some constructive and even not-necessarily-constructive feedback.

If you could add anything in the world to WordPress, what would it be? If you could name the thing that frustrates you the most about WP, what would that be?

Technorati Tags: WordPress, open source, blogging, software

Posted by Matt in communication, tech | No Comments »

01-12-2007

Optaros Report Catalogs Open Source Software Options

I just ran across a report on open source software via the Creative Commons blog. The report, prepared by a company called Optaros, includes a fairly comprehensive catalog and evaluation of over 250 open source projects. For anyone needing to evaluate or compare open source software options, the report is a great starting point.

There are many guides and catalogs for open source business software online and doubtless there are things to quibble with about Optaros’ take, but having a fairly comprehensive catalog in a nice looking 45 page PDF may come in handy at IT departments worldwide. Handier still, the CC license allows customization so long as credit is given to Optaros.

Technorati Tags: creative commons, cc, open source, software, reviews

Posted by Matt in business, cc, tech | No Comments »

12-01-2006

Shift Trick for Selecting a Range of Text

I recently learned a new trick in OS X for selecting text. Apple Matters had a post on 20 Useful OS X Tips that included the following:

To select a block of text, click the start position, then Shift-click the end position. Significantly, this doesn’t just work in editing applications like Word where you might be already doing it anyway, but it also works with non-editable text, such as a webpage in Safari.

As an added bonus, the same technique works in Windows applications as well.

I should have known that one, since the same trick is used to select a range of items in a list. Still, it was news to me that you could use it to select text. You learn something new every day.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first.