Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Hosting scare

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
22 February 2013
0

Whew! I got an email this morning telling me account was deactivated due to malware or a virus, which made me freak out a little bit.  I reviewed the email and thought that it wanted me to delete a file called “malware.txt” but as it turns out, that’s the file outlining which files might be affected.  Oops!  I called up my hosting company, JustHost (which used to be Super Green Hosting but was bought out by JH), and they re-generated the file for me.

This time I opened it up and reviewed the listed files… they were all WordPress themes or plugins, most of which were inactive anyway, so I deleted all but one plugin.  I carefully checked the PHP code for that lone plugin and determined that there was nothing suspicious.  This time when I called up JustHost, they were able to reactivate the account for me.  What a relief!

Just for precaution, I updated the password for my WordPress account to something more secure, so hopefully that will stave off future hackers.

iPhone camera blur

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
29 December 2012
0

Yesterday, my iPhone’s camera started acting up and wouldn’t properly focus. The result was what you might call “soft focus.”

cat napping with paw outstretched on laptop keyboard

I first noticed it when trying to take pictures of Missy being cute (and trying to take over my laptop).

cat napping with head resting on pillow

Subjects within about 6-8 inches came into focus, but anything further got blurry, like the background here.

cat outstretched on leg

After testing in daylight and various conditions, I confirmed that it wasn’t any number of factors – just a camera lens having issues.

How to guide: getting a Virgin Mobile iPhone 4/4S

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , , , , ,
19 November 2012
0

The past couple of days, my cousin and I have been trying to navigate the confusing world of contract-less iPhone usage.  After doing some research, Virgin Mobile USA appeared to have the best deal – as it stands, they’re offering $35/month for 300 minutes and unlimited text & data.  You can then save $5/month and bring it down to $30/month by signing up for automatic billing with a credit card or Paypal account.

screenshot of virgin mobile usa phone plans

From the website, it was unclear if we had to buy an iPhone from them or if we could get it elsewhere and then activate that device.  I called their customer service to ask and was told that as long as it was a new device that had not been activated with any other service, I could buy it elsewhere.  Wrong.  As it turns out, you MUST get an iPhone designated for Virgin (this maybe not be the case for an iPhone 5 though).  This was a hard lesson learned after trying to activate an unlocked iPhone 4 (no-go since it was not CDMA compatible) and even trying to purchase a Sprint iPhone since Virgin uses Sprint towers for their network.

Why all that hassle?  Why not just buy the iPhone from Virgin Mobile?  Well, most importantly it was due to price.  The Apple Store was selling an iPhone 4 for $450 while Virgin was charging $550.  Secondarily, it was due to timing – you get it at a store and the device is immediately in your possession, but you get it online and you have to wait for it to ship.  Since it’s the final weeks of fall semester for my cousin, she needs the phone more urgently so she can figure out why the bus never came or look something up/practice on the go.  Plus, she’s waited so long that she just wants to finally be using her new phone instead of pining for it.

So did we have to buy from Virgin after discovering the Apple Store devices were no use?  Actually, no.  As it turns out, Best Buy (and possibly other electronics stores) carry Virgin iPhones AND they were on sale for $350 a pop!  A quick search showed me that the Best Buy Mobile store in the mall carried them.  Happily, we went to purchase it there.  There was a slight hiccup when the sales associate told us they didn’t carry them, but when I mentioned it said they did online she went to the back and asked her manager, who was aware that they had the device in question.  Plus, we used our Best Buy RewardsZone card to get bonus points.  Yippee!  Make sure you check before going to the store and let the associate know the website indicated that they have the device if you’re rejected at first.

Now if you’re reading this soon after I post it, you’ll find that Virgin has actually lowered their iPhone 4 price to $350 as well, so you can get the same deal from them for now.  I’m not sure if this is just a promotional price decrease for the upcoming shopping craze, or if they might keep that price around longer.  If I were you, I’d snatch it while I can.

Rainbow steps

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: , , , ,
02 October 2012
0

If you’re ever in Times Square, check out the American Eagle shop and head down to the kids’ floor!

colored light steps from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Cartwheeling panorama

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
25 September 2012
1

You know the first thing I thought of when I found out you can do panorama shots within the iPhone’s native camera app?  Cartwheeling.  I was curious how it’d turn out, so this weekend, Panda and I gave it a try and it turned out to be pretty hilarious.  I guess next time I should go for burst mode with a 3rd party app instead.  Click on images to enlarge!

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

panoramic shot of potomac river

Kickstarter funding addiction

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
21 July 2012
0

For awhile I had heard whisperings of a site called Kickstarter, where you could use crowd-sourcing to help fund things, but I didn’t check it out.  I forgot how I eventually ended up visiting the site one day… I probably read an article that led me to look into it further.  Well, whatever the case, I found a gold mine of cool ideas that made me happy.  After browsing through a bunch, I ultimately decided to fund one called Twig.

It’s an ultra-portable USB charger and stand for your iPhone.  I hesitated at first because the new iPhone will be out in a few months (hopefully within 2!) and I plan on getting that.  As it stands, the rumors of a smaller charging dock is probably true, so this device wouldn’t work with the new iPhone without a converter of sorts.  Still, I really liked the idea and wanted to get behind it, so I went ahead and funded it.

Then I got one of the emails Kickstarter sends out highlighting some of their favorite projects and one of them really caught my attention.  This one, called the Lumi Process, is like the opposite of developing film in a darkroom.  Whereas traditionally you had to keep your negatives away from the sun, this process actually uses the sun to do the printing.  They have a special ink that reacts to sunlight and imprints itself into any fibrous material.  So the other cool thing is that you aren’t limited to paper like you are in a darkroom; now you can print on a wide variety of mediums, including various types of cloth and even wood.  Being the wannabe amateur photographer that I am, this fascinated me and I just had to get in on the action.

I’ve even got some ideas brewing for Kickstarter projects that I want to post!  It’ll be awhile before I’m ready for that stage, but I’m pretty excited and have done quite a bit of research to brainstorm some cool reward levels.  If you haven’t already checked out the site, you should, and maybe in a few months you’ll see of my projects up there!

The pleasure of organization

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
26 June 2012
0

A few days ago, I decided I had enough with my email.  With over 12,000 unread messages, it was way too overwhelming to handle.  What really tipped it over was the excessive spam messages that had started to make their way into my inbox.  Perhaps my account started to get corrupted after all these years – I’ve had this same address for at least ten years now.  Whatever the reason, with problems running rampant in the legacy account, I decided it was time for a change.

I got a brand new inbox and set my primary email to direct to it (the spam was going to my old Yahoo email, so I figured a new one would help eliminate the issue).  I have an email associated with this domain that I use for just about everything now and that one hasn’t had spam problems.  I then went through some of the newsletters and notification emails I get that I don’t usually have time for.  Some I unsubscribed from and others I directed to the original Yahoo account to help cut down on clutter in the new inbox.

automatic organizer aka otherinbox for yahoo mailI was pretty happy with this fresh start, but then I noticed something in my email account that I had never looked at before: Organizer.  It’s an app that works with my Yahoo account, helping me sort my emails by sender as they come in.  There are folders for categories like Finance, Shopping, and Social Media.  They basically set up a bunch of filters by default, to ensure that my main inbox stays clean.  I can check the other folders at my leisure and move messages around to fit my needs.  Each day, they send a summary email detailing what they filed away, highlighting things like offers and shipping info (if I had any tracking info sent to me).  I don’t really read that and just go through the folders myself, but I can see how it would be handy.

Now I have a refreshingly empty inbox and my daily intake of messages is something I can easily handle.  No more overwhelming feeling, no more dread at picking through the unimportant mail to find what I might actually still want to read.  Granted, I still have that 12k of unread messages waiting for me in the other account, but at least I can tackle that with more confidence when I have some time (and patience).  I put Organizer to work on that one too, so about half the messages got filed away into categories I can look into one at a time.  I’m so happy to be able to breathe a sigh of relief at this organizational nightmare!  We’ll see how many more years it takes before things pile up too much again…

iPhone downgrade

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
19 May 2012
1
iphone 3gs screen shattered from top left corner

There's even a chunk missing where you can see into the phone.

I’ve been using an iPhone 4 for nearly two years and I’d gotten so used to it that now that I’ve switched back to the 3GS, I’m really noticing the difference in performance.  Due to a couple of factors, I ended up trading my phone for a 3GS so my dad can use mine.  I had all but forgotten that the older model only has a camera on the back (and with no flash).  I’d gotten used to being able to take front-facing pictures and ones with flash or the HDR option.  The screen isn’t as crisp, but that doesn’t affect me much.

However, one thing that really bugs me is the slower performance and the shorter battery life.  These were both things I expected from my phone and I’ve been disappointed with the results.  The phone no longer lasts me through the entire day without needing a charge and things take way too long to load.  The screen isn’t as responsive either, but that could also be due to the delayed reaction from the processor.  Plus, I’m not used to the grip and dropped it within the first day of using it!  I was completely devastated that the screen got smashed even though it was barely a drop at all.  This never would have happened with my iPhone 4.

Thankfully, there should be a new iPhone coming out by the end of the year, so I just have to hold out for half a year or so until I can upgrade and get all my fancy technological needs satisfied once again.  Or, if I can manage to fix what was going on with this model, maybe my dad and I can trade back again until it’s time for that upgrade…

Handheld checkout

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , ,
24 April 2012
0

At Giant supermarkets, you can use these portable scanners to do a pre-checkout of sorts. Fun!

handheld scanner at giant supermarket

Smart devices

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
19 February 2012
0

You know, I think it’s time that the gadgets in our lives get extremely customizable.  Why is it that I can’t set my lights to turn off at a certain time or the toaster to start toasting just minutes before I get downstairs?  Why can’t I set my computer to turn itself off after that program is downloaded?  Seriously, with all the cool things that our electronics can do these days, I’m surprised that I can’t control them beyond the simple power button.  In fact, I think everything should not only be programmable to do what you want when you want, there should be an app that allows you to control it while away (like those apps for home security systems).

Imagine this: you start your day when your alarm goes off at a given time.  You like to snooze, so you sleep in a little more, but when the alarm goes off the next time, the lights have been set to turn on.  Now it’s bright in the room and you’re awake.  You get up and wash up as the toaster downstairs starts heating up the bagel slices you put in there last night.  The hot water dispenser doles out one cup’s worth of water, which brews the bag of tea you had waiting in a mug.  By the time you get downstairs, your breakfast is ready for consumption!  After scarfing down the bagel and sipping on your tea, you head out for work.  At the end of the day, you’re heading back and decide to use your phone app to have your water heater dispense another cup of hot water so you can get home to a warm cup ready for drinking.  You get on your personal computer and set it to turn off once all the files you’re uploading are done.  As you’re winding down for the night, you fall asleep in bed before you even realize it, but that’s ok because your lights turn off for you at midnight anyway.

How awesome would that be?  I don’t want my devices to be smart necessarily, but I want to be able to control them in such a way that they appear “smart” in a sense.  I really think we should be able to set things to turn off or on at a certain time or with some specified trigger.  Things would be so much more efficient that way!  It’s not like the technology isn’t out there already.  We have timers controlling things like when the sprinklers go off, so why not apply that towards any other technology we use?  I’m really looking forward to the day I can do that.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
First Prev 56789 Next Last