Subscribe RSS

Archive for the ‘How Tos’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Screenshots in Mac OS X

October 18th, 2009 by Austin McBrine-Ellis | No Comments | Filed in How Tos, Offline, Tech

A great feature of Mac OS X is the Screenshot feature.  It is more highly developed than Window’s rudimentary Print Screen, and the combinations in which you can use it make the possibilities endless. This does not need any download what so ever, which is great!

Here’s the 3 screenshot keystrokes for Mac OS X.  All of the screenshots you take will show up on your desktop.

  1. This takes  picture of your whole screen (does the same thing as Print Screen, but I think it’s superior because it saves the file at the same time instead of just copying it to the clipboard).
    Apple Key + Shift + 3
  2. Select an custom sized area by dragging with the mouse – select any area of your desktop.
    Apple Key + Shift + 4
  3. Your cursor will appear as a camera.  It takes pictures of the blue selected area that shows up when you hover over certain items.  It’s very handy for taking a picture of just one window or a certain area of the screen.
    Apple Key + Shift + 4 + Space
Share

Tags: ,

How to Jail Break your iPod Touch 2G

October 11th, 2009 by Severin Kempf | 8 Comments | Filed in How Tos

Warning: Jailbreak at your own risk! It is quite safe, because it is nearly impossible to brick your iPod, yet you will lose data that you had on your iPod, to save any important data, choose to back-up your iPod when restoring it.

When Jailbreaking, if your iPod won’t turn on, then use the restore in iTunes.

First of all I’d like to clear up a couple things.
JailBreaking is not illegal however things like ROMs are illegal, It is quite safe with no confirmed cases of an iPod Bricking.
and last of all there will be times you think your ipod is bricked, in this case use what I call the 3 Rs, Rese when t, Restore and Respond

Reset your iPod by holding the Power and Home Buttons, if you do not know what they are, you shouldn’t be trying to JailBreak your iPod, at the same time until your iPod seems to shut off in this case keep holding the buttons until the boot logo appears.
Restore on your computer.
And Respond on this post.

Disclaimer: My Daily Tech does not take any Liability to anything that happens while you are Jail Breaking your iPod.

Ok so when your ready to start Scroll down

Ok so first of all, you’ll need to figure out what firmware you have to do this

go on your iPod > Settings > General > About > look down the list until you find version.

Ok so now that you have your firmware version you need to determine if its newer than 3.0 e.g. 3.1.1, it is 3.0, or it is lower than 3.0 e.g. 2.1.1, 1.1.1

Ok well a redsn0w does not work with Firmware Version 3.1.1 so you’ll need to wait for them to update it.

Ok now your ready to start, You must have:

  • redsnow (the o like symbol there is actually a zero)  which can be downloaded from this site http://redsn0w.com/
  • You Current Firmware e.g. 3.0 (which I will be working with) Click here so you can download any of the available firmwares in the second drop down menu
  • an iPod Touch 2G
  • a USB to iPod Cable
  • iTunes (to restore your iPod) doesn’t matter which version.

Ok so

First of all, to make everything easier to find.
Put a New Folder on your desktop named “Pwnage”
Copy redsnow and your firmware to “Pwnage”

If you have firmware 3.1.1 you can either wait for a jailbreak to be released, or downgrade.
To downgrade:

ON COMPUTER:

1. Open iTunes

ON IPOD:

  1. Plug iPod into computer and then turn off.
  2. Make sure that iPod is turned off and plugged in.
  3. Put iPod into DFU mode. (Instructions below)
  4. Hold down power button for 3 seconds.
  5. Without letting go of the power button also hold the home button for 10 seconds.
  6. Let go of power button but keep holding home button until iTunes says it has found an iPod in recovery mode.
  7. You are now in DFU mode.

ON COMPUTER

  1. iTunes will say that it has found an iPod in recovery mode.
  2. iTunes will ask you to restore your iPod. Do not hit restore right away.
  3. Option-click restore on a mac and shift-click restore on a PC.  This will allow you to browse for a IPSW (the firmware).
  4. Navigate to your “Pwnage” folder and select your custom firmware you want to downgrade to e.g. 3.0.
  5. Hit Select
  6. Wait for your iPod to restore with your new… err old, firmware
  7. You now have a downgraded iPod Touch :D

If your iTunes returns an error message after going through the restore process, Such as “Cannot restore iPod Touch”, don’t fret you just didn’t put it into DFU mode. So Try again and follow the Instructions exactly as they say.

JAILBREAKING

ON COMPUTER

  1. Restore your iPod if you haven’t already. DO NOT sync anything with it after restoring.
  2. Open redsn0w
  3. Browse for the  Firmware your iPod is currently running.
  4. Wait for the IPSW to be Confirmed.
  5. Select wether to install Cydia or Icy (cydia and icy are like the installer app, they let you download content such as themes, apps, emultors and more) or both if installing both you may get error 20 when downloading content. Refer to trouble shooting for help.
  6. Make Sure your iPod is plugged into your computer, then shut it off (by holding the sleep/wake button until a slider appears on the screen that says “slide to power off.”) then click next.
  7. Quickly hold down the sleep button for 3 seconds the ipod should display the boot logo then also hold down the home button without letting go of the sleep button for 10 seconds, then let go of sleep and keep holding home button until the screen turns white, then you can let go.
  8. Redsn0w will now upload the 1st, 2nd and 3rd parts. Then reboot after uploading each one which will make the white screen flash.
  9. From here  on redsn0w will do the rest for you. It takes a while so just let it sit. It’s now uploading the ramdisk which will take a while
  10. It will also upload the kernel.
  11. Once the kernel is uploaded your done with the part on your computer.
  12. Just Click Finish. (BTW the finish button is normally at the bottom, it just glitched)

ON IPOD

Your ipod will now have a logo like the one below with a status bar.

and your done.

Trouble Shooting

Error – 20 Redo the redsn0w process and check only the cydia source and not the icy choice.
More trouble shooting items will be posted as problems develop, if you have a problem  leave it in the comments below.

If you liked this post or any others, leave some comment love, refer to friends and subscribe via RSS or Email!

Follow Me on Twitter @SeverinK

© All Text and Images are property of Severin Kempf and My Daily Tech if you would like to use any of the Images or text in this post please contact me via  email @ Sev.mydailytech@gmail.com

Share

Tags: , , ,

Customizing Firefox for Windows 7

October 9th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | No Comments | Filed in How Tos

When you install Firefox on your Windows 7 RTM installation, you’ll find that it isn’t exactly optimised for Windows 7′s Aero interface.

Firefox 3.7 will support Windows 7′s jumplists, and the theme will include more ‘glass’, but if you want to get the nice glassy look that 3.7 will sport right away without having to wait, you can get it right now on Firefox 3.5!

Firefox 3.7 New Theme

And we can get pretty much the exact same theme easily using the extensions I’m going to show you.  Here’s the final result:

Firefox 3.5 modded

Firefox 3.5 modded

So let’s get to work!

Strata40 by SpewBoy
Strata40 is almost a complete clone of the new Strata (as in – the name of the default Firefox theme)  for Firefox 3.7.  It doesn’t include the glass component though, so it sort of looks like it would if you were using Windows Aero Basic.

IMPORTANT: If you don’t do this, the theme won’t look right.  Go to the View menu and then go to Toolbars, and then click on Customize.  You need to switch a couple things around.  Move the stop button from its current position to directly after the address bar, and then put the reload button right after where you just put the stop button.

In this way they’ll combine, so that when a page is loading, it shows a red stop button that you can click to stop the page from loading, but when the page isn’t loading, then it turns into a refresh button.  Saves a ton of space, and looks great at the same time.

StrataGlass by SpewBoy
StrataGlass adds all the aero effects you could want to Strata40!  It is a great add-on, and is a must have for achieving that 3.7 look.  Don`t use StrataGlass with any other theme other than Strata40 because it will just give you an error.

Fission by zeniko
Fission adds the 2px little orange loading bar that runs just below the address bar in 3.7 to Firefox 3.5.  It`s really quite a beautiful little loading bar, and it gives you a neat thing to watch while your pages are loading.

Hide Menubar by yuoo2k
Hide Menubar does exactly what it`s called, and it does a pretty good job of it too!  It works like the way that the new menubar works in Internet Explorer 8: press alt, and then it shows up.

Tabs On Top UserStyle by SpewBoy
This actually isn`t an addon – it`s an UserStyle from userstyles.org.  It works with the addon called Stylish (you`ll need to install Stylish first for it to work).  I tried it in Greasemonkey and it didn`t work.  This adds a bit of a Chrome twang to the whole theme, and it`s easily togglable through the little Stylish logo on the statusbar, so you can switch between tabs on top and tabs underneath as much as you want.  A great little addition to the whole pack of plugins I`ve already provided.

Anyways, I hope that I`ve helped you, and I think that you`ll greatly enjoy your modded Firefox!

Share

Tags: , , , , , ,

Quick Tip: Faster Boot Times

October 2nd, 2009 by Michael Louie | 2 Comments | Filed in How Tos

If your like most people out there who are expieriencing an aging computer. You may want to try this quick tip on how to make your computer boot faster. (This method will apply for XP and Vista. )

Steps:

1.Click Start<Select Run

2.Type in msconfig

3. Wait for the following window to open.

4. Click on the startup tab. Your screen should look like this.

5.As you can see, these are the programs that startup with your computer which cause the delay. You may recognize some of the programs such as if you have a logitech wireless mouse you might see a logitec application in the list. Click the unnecessary programs that you won’t need to start up such as Quicktime or Messenger.

Be careful with what you uncheck. You can google the startup item if you aren’t sure what it is. Don’t ever uncheck important programs such as your wireless mouse’s program or your antivirus program.

6. Click apply then ok and you are done. You will be prompted to restart but that is your choice.

*Note: I am not responsible for any damage or incidents caused by this tutorial. Use at your own risk.*

This is a very basic tip and should not cause any harm usually. Though if you feel unsafe dont try it.

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,

How To Remove Windows Explorer / MSIE Browsing Click

September 11th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 1 Comment | Filed in How Tos

It can be quite irritating. There seems to be this clicking sound everytime you browse to a new folder in Windows Explorer or follow a hyperlink in either Internet Explorer. Wondering how to remove it? It’s quite simple.

Remove Browsing Click:

  1. Go to the Control Panel
  2. Open the Sounds and Audio Devices Control Panel App
  3. Go to the Sounds tab
  4. Find the “Start Navigation” Program Event
  5. Select “(None)” as the sound.
  6. Press OK, and you’re all set!  Enjoy.
Share

Tags: , , , , , ,

Add Custom Album Art in Windows Media Player

August 12th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 7 Comments | Filed in How Tos

If you have an album in Windows Media Player 11 that seems to have a hard time finding its own artwork/tags, there are other ways to find album art for these songs and add it to Windows Media Player.  We’ll walk you through it.

*NEW* – If you’re using Windows 7′s crappy Windows Media Player 12, check out my tutorial on how to downgrade to version 11 before doing this tutorial as the Advanced Tag Editor in version 12 has been removed!

So here’s our album with no artwork:

Now we can search on Google Images for an Album Art image file for this album.

Now download that image for the album you’re trying to find album art for and save it into a folder you can remember it’s in.

Bring Windows Media Player open again and right-click one of the tracks in your album.

Click Advanced Tag Editor.

Now, go to the Images tab, and click Add.  Find the album art image file you just downloaded and then click Open.

Select the image to be the Front Cover art, then apply/close the dialog box.  Your album art should now be on your album!!  Presto!

If your album art still does not show, then try right clicking the album in Windows Media Player and clicking Update Album Info.

Enjoy the Album Art!!!

Share

Tags: , , ,

OpenDNS – Hack your DNS

August 8th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 1 Comment | Filed in How Tos, Online

If you ever find that your computer takes forever to load websites, and seems to take forever at the “looking up domain name” stage of browsing, then OpenDNS could be the solution for you.

DNS stands for Domain Name Service, and basically it translates the human names for websites as we know them into IP addresses.

When you type google.com into an address bar, it talks to your ISP’s DNS server and gives you that domain’s IP, which then takes you to that site.

The problem with DNS is that sometimes the DNS server that your ISP uses has some records that are old  For example, if your site switched it’s IP Address, then it might take you to the wrong site.  So that’s when OpenDNS comes into play.

OpenDNS is probably the most reliable DNS service out there, while providing a whole whack of extras and tracking features that you can take advantage of.

Awesome Features:

  • Customizable Content filtering
  • Parental Controls
  • Anti-phishing
  • Caching speeds up load time
  • Typo correction auto-corrects the most common typos in top-level domains
  • OpenDNS Guide provides helpful search results when your users try to visit a Web site that isn’t resolving
  • Browser Shortcuts let your users map a short term to a long URL via the address bar, like typing “mail” to reach www.gmail.com

And all of these amazing features are all off-site, with limited to zero configuration except for changing your router’s or computer’s DNS server.  And this is made easy by on-site tutorials.

Try it now!

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Make a Webcam Timelapse Easily

June 18th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 2 Comments | Filed in Apps, How Tos, Tech

Wanted to make a timelapse of you doing something, such as putting lego blocks together or eating a cheesecake?  Now you can, and quite easily too, with the Timershot Powertoy for XP.

Requirements

  • Windows XP (I’m not sure that the Timershot powertoy works on vista – this is only tested with XP)
  • Timershot Powertoy
  • Windows Movie Maker (included with XP)
  • USB Webcam / USB Digital Camera

Steps

  1. Download the Powertoy and install it – pretty straightforward.
  2. Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Powertoys for Windows XP > Timershot and launch the application.
  3. The program will most likely start taking pictures right away.  Don’t worry about it.  Just set the capture rate as one picture every second, and set it not to just take one photo and replace that one, but to take individual photos each time, and so that way you’ll end up with the “frames” for your timelapse.
  4. Set a folder for the pictures to go into (not just your desktop – that will be messy !!! Remember , it takes 1 picture every second!!
  5. Now, point the webcam where you want it to take the timelapse , and away you go!
  6. Open up Windows Movie Maker (Start, All Programs, Windows Movie Maker)
  7. Go to the Tools menu, click Options, and click the Advanced tab.
  8. In the “Default Durations” section, decrease the Picture Duration to the lowest amount possible, and click OK.
  9. In the Capture Video section inside the “Movie Tasks” pane, click Import Pictures.
  10. Go to the folder you saved all your timelapse photos into, and import all the photos in that folder.
  11. Now, highlight all the pictures in the “Collections” pane (which is just right of the “Movie Tasks” pane) by pressing Ctrl + A, and then drag them to the timeline / storyboard below.
  12. In the Edit Movie section of the “Movie Tasks” pane, click View Video Effects (or just Effects, in Vista).
  13. Now, in the timeline / storyboard, click one of the pictures and press Ctrl + A to select all the pictures.
  14. In the “effects” window, click on “Speed Up” and hit “CTRL + D” to apply it to all the frames you have selected.If everything went correctly, each frame will now have a star at the bottom, indicating it has an effect paired with the frame. You can hit CTRL + D as many times as you want, if the video is still too slow.
  15. Now just hit Ctrl + P to save your movie, and share it with your friends or upload it to YouTube!

You can view  a couple sample timelapses I made myself:

Making Lego Structure

Cleaning up Lego Timelapse

Enjoy! Thanks to onlinephototutorials.com for the “Speed Up” enhancement to this tutorial.   Also, thanks to Microsoft for their great Windows XP Timershot PowerToy.
Jul 25th 2008
2 Comments
respond
trackback

Time lapse videos show motion over a long period of time. Set the camera on a tripod, switch it to manual focus, and you’re pretty much done. The hardest part is finding interesting things that will change over time, clearly. Many things change over time, in that you take one photo and they’re gone the next. However, things like clouds or stars are interesting as they move fluidly.

The goal of this tutorial is not taking the photos to make the timelapse, rather assembling the photos into a timelapse of high quality. Step One Before importing, set Windows Movie Maker’s “default image duration” to it’s fastest setting of 0.125 at “Tools > Options > Advanced”. First, you must import the necessary images into Windows Movie Maker. Hit “CTRL + I” and navigate to the folder where they are stored. Since Windows Movie Maker doesn’t support RAW or sizes about 1080p [1920x1080], I suggest you set your camera to the smallest JPEG size at “fine” or “high” quality. This means it won’t take as long to import all the images to your computer, it’ll take less space, and Windows Movie Maker will be faster. Import the JPEGs Step Two Under the “imported media” window, click on an image and hit CTRL + A to select all. Hold and drag the images into the timeline or storyboard at the bottom of the screen. Drag to Storyboard Step Three At the left hand pane, select the “effects” option under the “edit” category. Select "Effects" Now, at the bottom of the screen, select the “Storyboard” view. Select one of the images and hit “CTRL + A” to select all. Select "Show Storyboard" and select all

Step Four

In the “effects” window, click on “Speed Up” and hit “CTRL + D” to apply it to all the frames you have selected.

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »