automaticable

Happy Download day everyone! This is an exciting thing on all ends, because not only is this my first techy blog on good ole automaticable, but today is the Firefox 3 Download Day!! There’s many plans going on, the biggest of all, of course, is the ability to pledge to download the new update today, in the next 24 hours, to be apart of the Guinness Book Of World Records 2008! That’s right, with the new release of Mozilla Firefox is trying to have the most downloads in a 24 hour period. When I pledged, just moments ago, there were 1,683,932 other pledges just like mine! So head on over to www.spreadfirefox.com and make your pledge today! While you’re there check out some of the other cool things happening. You can plan an office or school Download Fest where you all meet up on your lunch breaks and download the new Firefox 3, join some of the great Download Day groups on Facebook, or Myspace, or become a campus rep for Firefox! All of these things are very exciting and I want to encourage ALL of our automaticable fans to head on over and make the pledge to download Firefox 3 today and be apart of the magic happening all around the world!

Do you have secure, domain-specific passwords generated by PwdHash? Well, the handy Firefox extension just got an update that brings support for the latest Firefox 3– you can grab it here. This is one of the last extensions that I’ve been waiting for on Firefox 3. What extensions are you still missing?

Well, it’s all but confirmed now.  With Firefox 3 download day set to hit any time this month, it looks like the Firefox developers are preparing.  As a result, it appears that the final release of Firefox 3 hit the hardy-proposed repository this morning.  I installed the update, and am running it now.  Check it out:

And you can see the version string through Synapic Package Manager:

The latest in hardy-updates is “3.0~rc1+nobinonly-0ubuntu1″, but this version string is “3.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1″, clearly lacking any “release candidate” tag.  Could this be the real deal?  It was probably uploaded in an effort to make sure that Ubuntu users are able to access it in hardy-updates on release day, so they have a better chance at their world record.

If you want to download this pre-release for yourself, all you need to do is enable the hardy-proposed repository:

• Go to System > Administration > Sofware Sources
• Click on the “Updates” tab, and make sure the box for “Unsupported Updates” is checked
• Press “Close”, and let the package manager refresh.

Afterwards, you should see the update icon in your taskbar, with the latest Firefox 3 ready to go! Note, however, that the hardy-proposed repository does contain *unsupported* updates.  To be on the safe side, you should disable it after you install Firefox.

Has anyone else been running Firefox 3 yet?  Have you noticed any differences?  Mine feels a little faster, although that may be due to the fact that a few extensions are still incompatible.

While the majority of people browsing the internet use Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, these are not the only options available to surf the web. One browser I recently started testing that I have learned to love is Flock, a social web browser based on Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. A fusion of social networks, user generated media, and super-fast web browsing, Flock brings together the best parts of the web in an easy-to-use interface.

Above is a screen shot of Flock’s initial home screen. The only modifications I have made are to log in to a few of the social sites Flock supports, Twitter and Facebook. Flock also supports social sites such as Flickr, YouTube, and almost every blog platform you can imagine. Below I’ve outlined a few of the major functions of Flock, but with so many innate features it will be worth your while to check out the Getting Started page on Flock.com for additional information.

1. The Social Sidebar – After logging in to all of the sites Flock supports, tabs will be added to the People Sidebar for quick access. Here I have the “All” tab selected, which currently has a chronological time line of when all of my Facebook friends and Twitter contacts have updated. On top of simply knowing what their most recent update is, the Media button will be highlighted whenever new pictures have been added to one of your friend’s profiles. Also, if you have any private messages, pokes, or other notifications, each tab will highlight individually notifying you of the update. What provides the most convenience, though, is the ability to update your own status across all of your networks simply within the sidebar instead of visiting all of the different sites individually. As someone who recently joined Twitter and is getting back into the Facebook game, this saves me a ton of time throughout the day.
2. Media Streams – Flock makes it easy to find, access, and browse all different types of media in the integrated media bar. You can load up your own streams from any site that supports picture and video updates, as well as access automatic streams that come from the social networks you are a part of. An example of this is the stream I currently have running. Because I am logged in to Facebook, I can access pictures posted by my friends, any recent photos that are public, or just pictures of myself. In order to keep Facebook’s embarrassing photos from marring the reputations of any of my friends, I only have my photos across the top. If there is anything incriminating up there, ignore it. Thanks.
3. My World – My World is a unique homepage powered by Flock that integrates many of its best features in one place. As you can see, there are columns that show the most recent updates to your Favorite blog Feeds, your Friend Activity from any social networks you subscribe to, and your Favorite Media as defined through Flickr, YouTube, Picassa and more. There is also a Favorite Sites widget you can include to show a set of bookmarks you access frequently. All of this can be customized easily and works great as a snapshot of everything you define as important across all sections of the web.
4. Other Sidebars – Even though the only sidebar you can see is my People Sidebar, there are many more options available. Flock includes an integrated RSS feed reader, accessible through the Feeds Sidebar. Although I am a big fan of Google Reader for RSS, Flock’s integrated Feed Sidebar reminds me a lot of the Firefox extension Sage, which is super convenient as well. Another sidebar available is the Webmail bar, which allows you to get up to the minute updates from all of your webmail services at once. This is a great feature for someone like me who is forced to subscribe to Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail for separate work groups. Other sidebars available are a Favorites (or bookmarks) Sidebar, a Web Clipboard manager, an integrated blog editor, and an amazingly convenient and efficient photo uploader.
5. Firefox Extension Compatible – Because Flock is built upon the open-source Firefox browser, almost all of your current Firefox extensions will work with Flock, though currently Flock doesn’t support additional themes. This is a saving grace for any diehard Firefox fans, as you get to keep all of the customization and work you have put in to Firefox while reaping the benefits of Flock at the same time. Pro-tip: Instead of reinstalling all of your Firefox extensions, you can copy and paste your current Firefox profile folder into the Flock profile folder. Make sure to name your new profile exactly like the original one. It should look something like: p61rvkbt.default.

These are just a few examples of the many benefits of Flock. If you are a frequent social networker, media-guru, or just want to add some power to your Firefox browsing, Flock is for you. Although I am currently testing Firefox 3 at work and at home, I spend the bulk of my time browsing, Twittering, and Facebook stalking through Flock. As I mentioned earlier, there are a huge amount of features available in Flock, so check out the Flock homepage for more information.

As an added bonus, Flock is not only Windows compatible, but runs seamlessly on Mac and Linux machines as well.

I know there are many other browsers than the few mentioned above, so if you have had success with any other lesser known browsers, leave some words on your experience in the comments.

[ get flock ]

If you usually read automaticable through an RSS reader and have wondered why we’ve been so quiet lately…well, we haven’t really! WordPress recently upgraded their software which broke our RSS feed. To be specific, the WordPress 2.5.1 update broke all of the links pointing to our RSS feed don’t work, except /feed. Unfortunately, we’d been forwarding this to FeedBurner and Pheedo for all sorts of RSS magic. For now we’ve just disabled the FeedSmith plugin, which seems to fix it.

In layman’s terms– we’re back! If you are wondering what you missed, the list is below.

• Kyle wrote an article listing the Top 12 SOE Firefox Extensions. Check it out, it’s not just for SEO.
• He followed that up with a post regarding letters written to a journalist posing as a little boy from convicted serial killers.
• Kyle also joined Twitter. Let us know if you are on Twitter too!
• Following that was a review of the Iron Man movie that just came out.
• Brian opened the blinds right before finals began.
• Kyle announced his new SEO project revolving around Gibson guitars.
• Scott finished finals and is happier than a clam.
• And finally, Kyle reviewed the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Narrow Stairs.

So spend some time catching up. You know we missed you as much as you missed us!

Well, it’s finally here, the latest release from the Ubuntu team.  Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” is the second in the line of “long term releases”.  This means that Canonical and the Ubuntu team will continue with support and updates for 3 years on the desktop edition, and 5 years for the server.

If you’re ready to convert a new system today, the fastest way to get Ubuntu will be through torrents.  If you’re upgrading an Ubuntu system, simply open the Update Manager and it’ll show a new option to upgrade.  Make sure you’ve selected local repositories, because the servers are going to get hit hard today.

Be sure to check out the desktop feature tour.  And if you plan on burning some Ubuntu CDs, print off the CD album artwork for the cases.

About a month ago, I received a notice in the mail from my ISP, Insight, with news that they had been bought-out by Comcast.  They promised that there would be no changes in my service and the transition would be seemless.  Everything would work as it had, except they would charge a little bit more.  Great.

They’re in the midst of transferring services to Comcast, set to be complete sometime in April.  Everything was fine on our end until our internet went out a few days ago.  After a few hours of toying with it, I decided it had to be Comcast’s issue.  I tried rebooting the router, renewing the IP, and even connecting my computer directly to the modem– nothing worked.

Finally, I called Comcast and talked to one of their “specialists” from Indiana (better than India, right?).  He dialed into the modem, and was able to get a computer hooked up through the modem, but still not through the router.  We made an appointment to have somebody come out.

Two days later, somebody from Comcast came out and tinkered with things for about an hour.  With all of the toys in his magic bag, he still couldn’t get the router working.  Moreover, we were able to hook up a different router, and that one worked.  We chalked it up as a faulty router, and he was on his way.  But something was still fishy.

We bought the router about 5 months ago, and everything had been working on it perfectly.  I installed the DD-WRT firmwire for even more control.  Everything looked good on it, except we couldn’t get an IP from the modem.  After doing a little research, it seems that Comcast has some trouble with DD-WRT routers.  The solution was to change the router’s MAC address from the default DD-WRT address to something else.  Many users clone their laptop’s MAC, but I used one from an older router.  A quick reboot afterwards, and we’re back up.

It’s hard to say whether it’s an incompatibility issue, or Comcast is actively blocking this alternative firmware.  I’ve generally had bad experiences with Comcast, so I choose to believe the latter.  Anyway, I’m glad we got things worked out, because I wasn’t too excited about going through the warranty process with Linksys either.

You may have noticed a little downtime this afternoon.  That’s because we’ve upgraded the blog to use the brand new WordPress 2.5.  The change should go unnoticed for the casual reader, but the upgrade means many enhancements for writing and maintaining the blog.  Among the biggest changes:

• Simplified admin dashboard: The interface for writing and managing the blog has gotten a major face-lift.  What used to be cluttered is now much more organized and easy on the eyes.
• Integrated Statistics: We’ve been using the WordPress Stats plugin to analyze our visitor data.  Now it’s been integrated into the main dashboard for quick access.
• Better Photo Management: It’s now much easier to upload and add images to posts, without the need for additional plugins.  You can even create a gallery associated with a single post very easily.

The upgrade process was nice and simple, and everything seems to be working as expected.  We’ve also added a new subscribe link in the sidebar.  If you notice something wrong with the site, please let us know in the comments.

We’ve released our second iteration of Wosaic just in time for the Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois. At the Engineering Open House, we created over 120 mosaics for people, and won 3rd place for the non-technical theme.

This new release represents a major rewrite in the code for the GUI and general control flow. While this won’t be immediately apparent at first glance, this means major efficiency gains and better stability. You can now create multiple mosaics in the same session, and even cancel processing mid-generation. Also, the resolution parameters don’t take effect until saving, which means you can save a Mosaic at a variety of different resolutions.

For more details, check out the Release Notes, which also contains links to other useful wiki pages. Or, head straight for the download page to grab a copy of the latest version. Keep reading below for a walk-through to create your first mosaic.

Continue reading “Wosaic 1.0 beta– Faster, Cleaner Mosaics From Your Own Photos”

I just upgraded to Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 6 to start testing, and am delighted to try the new Firefox 3 beta.  Amongst other changes, I found this peculiar warning message when trying to view about:config.  In case you’re not aware, about:config allows you to change some backend settings to your Firefox profile, similar to the Windows registry.  When trying to navigate to the page, you get a warning:

This might void your warranty!
Changing the default values of these advanced settings can be harmful to the stability, security, and performance of this application.  You should only continue if you are sure of what you are doing.

It’s a useful message, as you can do a lot of damage with about:config.  But void my warranty?  Since when does Firefox ever come with a warranty?  Check out the screenshot for a closer view.