July 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Skype Etiquette
Before you ring, You ping
Return calls (just like on mobile, see no.1)
Do not assume I’m there even if it’s Green
If you don’t have a camera, I don’t have a camera
May 2011
2 posts
February 2011
1 post
November 2010
1 post
3 tags
PHP MySQL localhost not finding socket on mac
On my mac, PHP wouldn’t connect to MySQL to “localhost” server. It turns out that when “localhost” is used, MySQL uses sockets instead of TCP/IP connection. Terminal mysql access to localhost was fine, which suggested that there’s nothing wrong with MySQL config. Only after a while did I think to look at php.ini to see if there are any setting there. Yep, my mac...
August 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Video: Gary Null Lecture - Change your life →
1 tag
Video: Deconstructing the myth of AIDS →
I came across this video that provides a view on AIDS I didn’t know existed. It’s long but worth seeing.
July 2010
2 posts
2 tags
On energy consumption of electric cars
We hear about electric cars more and more. Apple showed a Nissan Leaf iAd in their latest keynote. Australian agencies a looking forward to electric cars (CIO article).
There’s also talk about charging stations and distance one can travel on a 100% electric car. I am all for an electric car that drives quietly and without emissions.
However, as I think about it I realize that with electric...
4 tags
NearlyFreeSpeech.net DDOS effect
I’m using NearlyFreeSpeech.net (NFS) for some web and DNS hosting. It’s pretty cheap and has plenty of controls - just right for the technical person like me.
However, the recent DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack has shown me that their network is not resilient at all. Particularly, I’m concerned with DNS service. Commercial DNS offerings are meant to use...
June 2010
10 posts
1 tag
6 tags
3 tags
4 tags
Monetization idea for Vimeo, YouTube and others
“Paid Videos“ is where online video should be going. You can only get so far on advertising. Revenue share models based on ads don’t quite work. Main problem is they don’t encourage or sponsor original content. Another problem is that people don’t want ads everywhere.
Call me a cherry-picker, but I’m surprised big players like Vimeo and YouTube haven’t...
2 tags
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1 tag
From Keetra →
Great designs
2 tags
May 2010
8 posts
2 tags
Graphic: Wet Paint Poster for PaintAccess
Today is my graphic day. After the iPhone printable sheet I created a couple of graphics for PaintAccess.com.au. The result is available in the online store at this URL: http://www.paintaccess.com.au/products/wet-paint-warning-poster-set
Visitors can buy the printed graphics or download the PDF to print on their own printers
2 tags
Printable iPhone Template
If you do web development for the iPhone, you will find the printable template handy for sketching ideas before sitting down to design them on the computer. Because iPhone’s screen is so small it’s easy to get the proportions wrong and sketch something that will either not fit or be too small. To help jump-start the process, I’ve created a printable template with real-size...
3 tags
Building a dynamic menu in Shopify using Link...
Here’s the result of my mega-hackery to create a menu that can be easily maintained by adding and removing new link lists and items in them. I am a technical guy and was doing all of this as a big blob of HTML in a snippet that was included in every layout. Because there are less technical people who need to be able to manage the content, I’ve moved it all into the link lists which are...
1 tag
Handy iPhone Dev tips →
1 tag
How to cure cold quickly OR why you need to stay...
Last week I got a little bit sick. Caught a cold somewhere. It doesn’t matter where I got it. What matters is that I quickly realised that I’m getting sick and took some steps rarely taken by people in general.
What usually happens when you feel like you’re coming down with a cold? Not much. You go on doing what you do, hoping that it will be a mild episode. That means going to...
Watchtoolmantim:
Sonar
4 tags
Shopify Tip: Better Logos in Pixel Printer
Here’s a simple tip to make your Shopify invoices from Pixel Printer looking a bit more professional. If you use a logo, you know that it prints out all blocky. To add a bit more detail and a crisper look you should use a bigger image and scale it down in HTML.
As a guide, you should use an image about 3-4 times bigger. Screen graphics (PNG and JPEG) are roughly 72dpi (dots per inch). For...
3 tags
MongoDB OSX Launchctl Item →
I’ve put together a quick script to help launch MongoDB when OSX Snow Leopard Starts.
April 2010
11 posts
2 tags
On MongoDB
Recently I came across MongoDB (http://www.mongodb.org/).
It’s a database system without the SQL mumbo jumbo. You query for data using JavaScript syntax. This approach is another example why JavaScript will win and pretty soon everything will be written in JS, from front end to back end.
This is just a quick post to mark the fact that I’ve looked at it and am currently testing it...
4 tags
How "View Full Screen" Functionality Should Work...
There’s no agreement what it means for an app to go “Full Screen” on a mac. I didn’t test on Windows beyond “F11” in IE and Firefox.
The current state of “Full Screen” support is poor for those who have more than one monitor. Obviously, this is not a problem if you only have one monitor as “Full Screen” means “Take over my monitor...
3 tags
5 tags
Use SoX to convert audio formats in mac terminal
Use SoX (http://sox.sourceforge.net/) to convert Audio in terminal.
I found myself working with audio files that came in different formats. I needed them in OGG. Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), the super-powerful free audio editor does a good job, but in this case I was looking for a solution using the terminal (command line). After a bit of Googling I came across SoX. It allows me...
3 tags
Audiobook: Words That Work by Frank Luntz
Just finished listening to an audiobook “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear” by Frank Luntz.
Now I understand what words to (not) use when writing for the web and in general. This includes text for pages and advertising.
Frank explains through numerous examples how words save or kill political campaigns and corporate communications. It is pretty...
4 tags
I want PayPal automation
I want PayPal to provide the world with an API to administer the account and perform operations on it. The only API features available are for processing payments from users.
The available APIs are not enough. I need to be able to work with the account using the API. When running a business on PayPal, you want to move the money quickly. You don’t want your thousands sitting in the PayPal...
5 tags
Symbox: My PHP Symfony helper on GitHub
Today, I created my first GitHub public repository aimed at making new Symfony setups a bit simpler.
It’s called Symbox, and you can find it at http://github.com/AndreiRailean/Symbox
Basically, it’s an apache config file and instructions on how the directories must be structured so everything works without much effort. I use this approach on my localhost and a few other servers not...
4 tags
On Profile Pictures and Web System Trust
I like Gravatar (http://gravatar.com) because it allows usage of data without authentication. I tend to use the same picture everywhere: Facebook, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, YouTube. I like the fact that once the system knows something about me (my email address) they can go out on the web and get more information about me without my explicit involvement.
Most systems can’t get it together....
I discovered Node.js
Recently I stumbled upon a new creature in the programming world and got excited. The thing is called Node.js (http://nodejs.org/) and it’s a server-side JavaScript library/framework/server.
What got me excited was the fact that now the whole web applicatio stack can be written in JS: application, db, front end and the APIs. This means that the need to jump around between programming...
4 tags
Shopify: Things to consider before you sign up
Shopify charges commission on sales plus the monthly fee. The more you sell, the more you pay. You might think that 1% is not that much money (on top of 2.5-3.5% you will be charged for credit card transaction processing).
Orders cannot be cancelled
Occasionally you will have a bad sale where you’ll need to cancel the order and issue a refund. Surprise!!! You can’t cancel orders from...
7 tags
Idea: Gravatar-like API for Twitter user images
What if you could MD5 a users email address and ask Twitter for user’s image icon? In fact, this could also apply to Facebook, Google, Yahoo and others. Well, maybe not Yahoo as they are too paranoid.
Maybe Gravatar could be the world’s Avatar authority this way as well. At certain intervals they would fetch avatars from all major networks and use the most recent one. What’s...
March 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Rel=Canonical Snippet for Shopify Template
Here’s a quick snippet I put together to have each page be canonical to itself. I need this to avoid duplicate urls for same content, which often happens when there are GET variables involved for affiliate tracking etc.
It would be much nicer if there was a page_url variable like page_title. In that case it would be as simple as <link rel=”canonical” href=”{{ page_url...
2 tags
First impressions from using eLance.com
Recently I decided to give eLance.com a try for outsourcing a few things. It’s a good exercise for those wishing to increase efficiency. Being unable to meet the other side in person, you are forced to explain what you need. After initially posting my task description, I had to add to it about 5 times. Revisions were mostly targeted at weeding out those who don’t really read...
February 2010
2 posts
4 tags
Shopify Review: Good for Tiny Stores. Bad for Big...
Summary: I don’t like Shopify because their Checkout flow is weak in features and is not customisable. Recently I’ve put together www.paintaccess.com.au online store using Shopify. Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform. To launch, it was the best choice and it probably would still work fine for us if all we were doing is selling t-shirts to one-off customers. To start, I’ll...
1 tag
How to build a successful fiction writing career →
Simon Haynes explains how to build a writing career. Good information even for those who don’t intend to become published writers. Simon’s ideas are so easily digestible, I can see that he’s been writing for a while now and can express himself perfectly.
January 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Warning: Do Not Restore iPhone while Tethering
I often use iPhone Tethering to get to the internet. Today, I needed to restore my phone to unlock it from the network. Since on the mac it doesn’t feel any different whether you’re on tethered internet or on DSL (generally), I started the restore process without a second thought.
Your iPhone needs to talk to Apple iTunes servers before and after the restore. First it checks if...
3 tags
Shopify Breadcrumbs
Here’s a simple copy-paste code for Shopify breadcrumbs. On my system it lives in a “breadcrumbs.liquid” snippet and gets included from different layouts using “{% include ‘breadcrumbs’ %}”
<div id="breadcrumbs"> <a href="{{ shop.url }}">Home</a> {% case template %} {% when 'product' %} » <a href="{{ product.type |...
2 tags
Info about Domain Renewal Group scam
Domain Renewal Group is a scam
A week ago I received an official looking letter from Domain Renewal Group suggesting that I move my domain to them and pay $45 per year. I currently pay around $10 yearly.
It’s a scam on multiple levels. If you own the domain, but website management is done by someone else, then you should consult with them before making any changes to domain registration....
5 tags
New business model for Skype: Paid virtual calling
After discussing a few things Vika and I came up with a useful scenario where Skype could provide a whole new market of opportunity.
At present, Skype’s main source of income lies on the border between a virtual and physical worlds. Anything that crosses the boundary is usually charged for. This means if you want to call from your Skype client to a plain old phone, you’ll pay. If you...
December 2009
1 post
3 tags
Domain Hash Method
Here is a simplified way to verify domain name ownership by third party services. Method: Store a hash (e.g. MD5) of domain password in a TXT record in the domain zone. Example: blog.andrei.md TXT publichash:sha1:aaf4c61ddcc5e8a2dabede0f3b482cd9aea9434d When I go to a blog provider and tell them to use blog.andrei.md as a domain name, instead of just trusting that I own the domain, the...
May 2009
2 posts
Twitter is Prayer 2.0
This post is aimed at the religious crowd who don’t yet see the power of twitter. Actually, this is not only about twitter, and not only for the religious, but God has a permanent place in this story. You know how you wish that your brother became smarter or won that lottery? Or maybe sometimes you wish the the toothpaste didn’t have as much SLS (once you found out how bad it was)....
5 tags
Remembrance Weekend to replace ANZAC day and...
AU government has downgraded ANZAC day from holiday to ‘day of remembrance’ and thus you don’t get a day off work. I think ANZAC day is more real than Easter because it commemorates the participation in REAL events whereas Easter is a celebration of IMAGINARY or hightly distorted events. So my solution: scrape both Easter and ANZAC off the Australian public calendar. Setup a new...