07.02.08
Posted in Mac OS X, Philosophy at 12:43 pm by ryan
Why do I have Mail.app (Email), Skype, Adium (MSN + iChat) and Twitterrific all running at the same time?
Why does my iPhone have one icon for SMS’s and one for Email?
There are some interesting Wikipedia pages about Unified Messaging and Unified Communications, including:
Unified communications (UC) is “an industry term used to describe all forms of call and multimedia/cross-media message-management functions controlled by an individual user for both business and social purposes” [1]. This potentially includes the integration of fixed and mobile voice, e-mail, instant messaging, desktop and advanced business applications, Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, voice-mail, fax, audio video and web conferencing, unified messaging, unified voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler and more effective experience.
Maybe an iPhone and a Mac Book Air already qualifies as a “Unified Messaging System”. Fax’s are obviously easily directed to your email Inbox, but there is still something missing.
Sadly, it seems that Google is probably the best positioned entity on the planet to provide “Unified Messaging”. Just plug Google Mail into the gaim/libpurple multiple instant message interface instead of gtalk, and then somehow force the Skype guys to jump on the bandwagon and you’re done with the desktop/web side. Just need to figure out a way to handle SMS and voice.
Maybe the next “Hotmail” is in here somewhere… That simple idea that’s sitting right under our nose. That way that will we can ever so slightly change the way people use computers, that could potentially be worth something.
Permalink
06.22.08
Posted in Geeking Out, Ruby on Rails, Web at 7:08 am by ryan
Got all geeked out about two things today… One was a really strange bug on my Mac’s version of Rails… Had to patch the rails time.rb and conversions.rb to get it all worked out. If get an error that looks something like:
NoMethodError: private method `to_date’ called for Sun Jun 22 21:02:51 +0800 2008:Time
Then, you’ll need to patch Rails (or upgrade) in Rails Changeset 6099.
Second, I’ve been wanting to improve the way online times/dates are handled, and known this can be done via Javascript and storing times in UTC, but hadn’t see how easy this is. Just take a look at TheRailsWay.com’s “scribbish.js” file. The functions you’re interested in are:
- show_dates_as_local_time
- get_local_time_for_date
- distance_of_time_in_words
Permalink
05.16.08
Posted in Geeking Out, Web at 3:49 am by ryan
There’s a great Photoshop book called “The Photoshop Anthology“. I picked it up at Amazon a while back for $26 USD. The publisher sent me an email a few days ago announcing that the book is available for free download for the month of May!
If you’re been meaning to learn Photoshop, save yourself $26 and go download the PDF for free - right from the publisher.
Permalink
05.14.08
Posted in Geeking Out, iPhone at 2:07 pm by ryan
iPhone iPod Sleep Timer Found
The iPod app in the iPhone does have a sleep timer, it turns out. It’s just that it’s so well hidden that I’d never have found it without clues from elsewhere.
To set an iPod sleep timer:
- Enter the Clock application
- Tap Timer in the bottom right-hand corner
- Set a time using the odometer thing
- In the ‘When Timer Ends’ menu, instead of an alarm sound, select ‘Sleep iPod’
- Tap Start.
I had looked in the timer section of the clock app before — on the iPod, sleep timers are also set through the Clock menu item — but because I hadn’t explored the alarm-tone picker, I hadn’t spotted the ‘Sleep iPod’ option. Silly me, thinking that a menu wouldn’t logically contain 23 options all meaning ‘make noise’ and one option meaning ’stop making noise’.
Note that you cannot tell the iPod to start playing at a certain time. Though the Alarm function of the clock allows you to be awakened by any one of Apple’s canned ringtones, it won’t let you pick one of your own songs as the alarm sound.
Source: http://tinotopia.com/wordpress/archive/2007/07/02/iphone-ipod-sleep-timer-found/
Permalink
05.07.08
Posted in Geeking Out at 11:48 am by ryan
FYI, the Enterprise 2.0 conference is coming up. If you’ve abandoned Basecamp in favor of Email enabled Wrike for online project management, or any of the other Enterprise 2.0 tools, you should go vote for them!
Permalink
05.04.08
Posted in Geeking Out, Mac OS X, Web at 4:10 am by ryan
第一次我看过这个“twitter”的网站认为是很土，但是越看越喜欢。twitter 说他的用处是回答常问的问题：“你在干什么？”。对我来说，twitter 最大的有点是发布消息很灵活。自己已经用几个办法发布留言：
- Twitteriffic：”super lightweight” Mac OS X desktop Twitter Client
- SMS/Text Message: just text in any language to: +44 7624 801423
- Twinkle: iPhone geo-localized twitter client - who’s twittering near you.
- Web (Twitter.com): Of course, you can post directly via the website
- 也能通过IM留言，但是没有支持QQ或MSN。现在只有：GTalk，LiveJournal，和 Jabber
试试看！
Permalink
04.21.08
Posted in Geeking Out, Web at 9:20 am by ryan
Back in November I wrote about different Project Management systems that I’ve been experimenting with, primarily Wrike - at the time I noted several areas where Wrike was seriously deficient:
- Safari Support
- Time Tracking (by Task, by Resource, by Hour)
- Chinese and Japanese support in Input Boxes
- Homespun looking website with aliased graphics…
Not only has the Wrike team provided me with timely courteous responses to all communication, they’ve delivered on each of these issues.
Quote me here: “TODAY, Wrike has become a better Project Management solution than BaseCamp or GoPlan - Wrike’s got everything they’ve got, along with excellent Email integration that they don’t!”
Permalink
04.14.08
Posted in Geeking Out, Mac OS X at 1:08 pm by ryan
If you want to use an iWork Numbers spreadsheet as your desktop wallpaper, just save it as a PDF and then use iWork’s export feature. Note that you’ll get a bit hosed with the very top and bottom border of the spreadsheet (seems iWork just won’t give you control over the full background color) but you can get a result that you’ll probably be happy with.
The basic idea is to first use your screen resolution to calculate a custom “Paper Size”. For example, if you’re on a MacBook Air you’re resolution would be 1280 x 800, and at 72dpi, that would be 17.77 x 11.11 inches, or 45.15 x 28.22 centimeters.
You can add a shape to the background to set a custom size… Just don’t set Mac OS X to swap your wallpaper every 5 seconds or the system will crawl to a halt - at least if you’re working with PDF files…
Permalink
03.31.08
Posted in China, Shanghai, USA, iPhone at 10:31 pm by ryan
Call direct from your mobile phone. No calling card. Only 2x the price of Skype In, but better quality and you can call out!
在上海，申请中国移动的国际长途就发“3211”到10086。这样可以申请国际IP长途服务，每次拨国际电话号码，先拨：12593＋00＋国际电话号码，比如：
拨美国的“＋1－206－555－1212”，变成：
12593－00－1－206－555－1212
Give China Mobile a call and Sign-up for IP Int’l Long Distance. Just send an SMS containing only “3211″ to 10086. Each time you want to dial an Int’l number, just add: 1259-00, then the country code and the number.
如果你忘记你的密码，就发密码查询的拼音到10086，那就是：MMCX
If you forget your password, just send MMCX to 10086
如果要查你的账户还有多少钱，发“余额查询”的拼音到10086，那就是：YECX
If you need you current account balance, send YECX to 10086
Permalink
03.26.08
Posted in China, Shanghai, iPhone at 12:53 pm by ryan
If you’re a China Mobile user, you may or may not be aware that you can get inexpensive international long distance (国际长途）by dialing 17951＋00 then the country code and number you want to reach. You can actual save the full number in your address book (not like using a calling card) for the people you call most frequently and make the habit of saving a lot. Note that you don’t want to save this as the primary number in your address book, else you won’t be able to send text messages.
That is 2.2元／minute (See complete IP talk Rate Chart), compare this to the direct dial price of 0.8元/6 seconds - or 8.0元/minute, it’s a savings of almost 80%. At the currently miserable USD exchange rate, using “IP Phone” from China Mobile is just over USD 30¢/minute.
If you check the Skype Rate Chart, calling to a China Mobile phone is only 2.4¢/minute, so Skype In is still by far the cheapest way to talk to someone on your mobile for a long conversation. Here’s China Mobile’s post about Int’l Long Distance…
国际长途
您打给国外朋友的长途电话
使用方式
1、确认您的手机号码已经开通国际长途功能；
2、您可以直接拨打：
00＋国家或地区代码＋城市代码＋对方号码
或00＋国家或地区代码＋对方手机号码
3、也可以加拨17951进行IP通话：
17951＋00＋国家或地区代码＋城市代码＋对方号码
17951＋00＋国家或地区代码＋对方手机号码
标准资费
1、至世界各地0.80元/6秒，采用分时段及国家法定节假日资费优惠的办法；
2、加拨17951具体资费以当地移动公司公布为准
特别提醒
目前国际长途可通达世界上280多个国家和地区。
具体开通情况，请以当地移动公司公布为准。
Details at Baidu “Know” (chinese) on a variety of Int’l calling options.
Permalink
03.23.08
Posted in Chinese (中文), Geeking Out at 9:55 am by ryan
Baidu has put together an excellent Chinese to English dictionary. Apparently the source material comes from Dr.eye - 译典通. You can access it at dict.baidu.com. For example, I wasn’t sure how to translate withdrawal… This is often because there isn’t a real translation, but the following is pretty close… Nice job Baidu!
n.[U][C]
1. 收回;撤回;撤清;撤退
They are trying to negotiate the withdrawal of 20,000 troops.
他们正打算协商有关两万人的部队的撤军问题。
2. 退缩;退隐
3. 停止吸毒
4. 【商】提款
It is not the bank’s policy to deduct interest on withdrawals.
提款需扣除利息这并非是本银行的政策。
Permalink
Posted in Geeking Out, Mac OS X at 9:30 am by ryan
I like a lot of things about the Firefox browser, but wish it blended better with the rest of the Mac OS X operating system. Adium fits into OS X perhaps better even that iChat, but the Firefox icon looks downright fugly compared to Safari… Well, a designer named Adam Betts put together an more aquafied alternative of John Hicks original. Download the new Icons or check out Adam Betts’ original post.
To further enhance the look of your Firefox, try the Mac OS X themes available at TakeBackTheWeb. GrApple (UNO) helps FF fit in.
Permalink
03.10.08
Posted in Chinese (中文), Geeking Out at 5:50 am by ryan
If you need to talk about Knight Rider in Mainland China, you just need to know he’s called 霹雳游侠 (pīlìyóuxiá). This phrase will come in handy when you’re showing all of your friends “The Hoff’s” amazing “Jump Into My Car” video. Yes, the girls in the video don’t look 20, and yes, the Hoff is officially 56!
So, that brings up the topic of a role model - usually a 偶像 (ǒuxiàng).
Every now and then, you run into a kindred spirit, a “志趣相投的人” (zhìqùxiāngtóu)…
Permalink
02.12.08
Posted in China, Mac OS X at 8:12 pm by ryan
刚才碰到了怪怪的MAC OS X漏洞。我的设置助理不停着重新开始。很烦恼的一种问题～特别烦恼因为是新的一台MacbookAir笔记本。
终于查到了怎么解决这个问题。。。
1。启动的时候按“SHIFT”（等很长的时间～会启动超级慢）
2。别登陆！
3。按那个往左的箭号（back arrow）
4。按那个“重新启动”
5。等很长的时间～电脑会再来跑更新的程序
6。等等等～电脑会自动的重新启动～都会好了
原来的英文解释在AppleInsider.com的这里。
Permalink
01.08.08
Posted in China, Mac OS X at 1:27 am by ryan
If you use a Chinese, Japanese or Korean version of the Mac OS X operating system, you may have noticed that the filenames provided by the system are localized, at least under certain directories.
Pictures => 照片
Movies => 影片
Downloads => 下载
Etc… 等等…
If you also use software like VMware, or sometimes use the Terminal to manipulate these files, you can find it annoying that UTF-8 is still not supported everywhere…
You can duplicate the default system functionality of using english language (or roman character anyway) file names for your actual files, but then localize them so they aren’t so annoying to look at. For example, to make my Finance folder into my 财务 folder, I renamed the english version to “Finance.localized”, then created a .localized subfolder inside (mind the leading dot!) and then created a zn_CN.strings folder inside there. zh_CN.strings simply contains:
“Finance” = “财务”;
Restart your finder (killall Finder) or log out and log back in to see the changes. Enjoy your slightly more chinafied mac…
More information about the procedure is on the Mac Developer Connection website:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFileSystem/Articles/DisplayNames.html
Permalink
« Previous entries
]
