gHacks technology news » Joe

Amazon Kindle International Version review

Joe — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:25:36 +0000

I have longed for an ebook reader for some time, but the most popular one – the Amazon Kindle – has long been reserved solely for the US market. Whilst it has many competitors, like the Sony Reader, I had to wonder about how many titles were available for such platforms. I used to use my iPhone to read public domain books.

Amazon recently started exporting the Kindle to other countries, so I bought one. Amazon struggled to negotiate deals with European carriers, which was one reason why the Kindle was not already available to the European market, so instead, the Kindle roams from the AT&T network.

The features are fairly similar to those available to American customers. One can subscribe to and download newspapers, magazines and buy and and download books. One can’t, however, download the images inside the newspapers and magazines, browse the Web or subscribe to blogs. This is all down through a mobile internet connection, either 3G/GPRS.

The 3G coverage in my house is somewhat intermittent, although I still think it is just about tolerable. I find a 2G signal perfectly reasonable for downloading a book or browsing the Kindle store. I initially thought it strange that the Kindle lacks WiFi, unlike many of its competitors, but I have since realised that WiFi is unneeded.

As the mobile internet coverage is included in the purchase price of the Kindle, Amazon prevent users from browsing the web on it outside the US due to the high costs they would face. This would prove annoying to some users, although I imagine web browsing on the Kindle would prove clumsy, due to fact it’s black and white.

The Kindle can also play MP3s, so audiobooks, music and podcasts can be placed on it. I believe that you need to connect the Kindle to a computer to transfer them onto it. For books, magazines and newspapers, no computer is needed. Files can be coverted into Kindle format by emailing it to an address that will automatically send them to the Kindle (at 0.99USD/MB), by using a free Kindle email conversion service and transferring the files via USB, or by using software like Calibre. The Kindle handles the Mobipocket format, so you can get free public domain books from websites like Feedbooks and transfer them on.

The battery life is very good, due to the way text is displayed. E Ink, which the Kindle employs, has extremely low energy consumption. If you turn the wireless off, it can keep going for weeks without being charged. Charging takes a couple of hours, although the charger supplied is a US socket. It does charge via USB so this isn’t an issue.

It has a couple of other nice touches, too. One can annotate texts, have them read aloud via a text-to-speech feature (although this doesn’t work very well) and has a very attractive standby screen which rotates between different images of different writers and writing-related objects.

The International Kindle costs $260, plus postage and import tax. Altogether, mine cost around $340. This is equivalent to about £210 or €225; roughly the same as its competitors. The mobile internet is a big selling point which many competitors lack. They are only purchasable from Amazon.com, so any discounts or vouchers you may have for other Amazon sites won’t work. Also, books are only available from Amazon.com, so you pay notice the absence of the work of your country’s authors. I hope that eventually we will be able to relink our Kindles to our own national Amazon sites, although there is no certainty (or even indication) that Amazon will permit this.

Tags: 3g, amazon, amazon kindle, e ink, ebook, ebook reader, kindle, mobile internet

Quickly capture screens and share them on OS X with Skitch

Joe — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:20:44 +0000

Macs don’t have a PrintScreen button, and if we want to take a screen-capture, the default program we use is Grab. Grab is great in a few ways; you can choose to use a timer before a screen-capture is taken and it can be used to ensure only a certain area of the screen is captured. Unfortunately, after a screen capture has been taken, Grab lacks any features to edit it (eg cropping) and only lets you save it as a TIFF.

It can be somewhat cumbersome to capture a screenshot in Grab, and then have to move it into a program like Photoshop to manipulate it. And if you want to share the image, you have to change its format.

An alternative piece of software is Skitch, screen-capturing software for OS X. Skitch provides screen-capturing facilities similar to Grub, but integrates some editing tools and also provides tools to share the images.

Skitch allows users to draw on screenshots and annotate them, through placing arrows and text. One can also make images have a transparent background, crop images, add a drop shadow to them or rotate them.

One of the cooler features is the ‘drag’ feature. When a screenshot has been captured and edited, if you click ‘drag me’, you can drag the image to a folder, an email or to open in another program.

Skitch can export images as JPEGs, PNGs, PDFs, SVGs, TIFFs, GIFs and JPGs. It can also upload images to Flickr, FTP servers, WebDAV folders and skitch.com, their own image hosting service.

The software boasts many features and I find it much better to use than Grab, as there’s no need to have to use other pieces of software.

Tags: mac, os x, screen capture, screen capture software, screen capture tool, screenshot, Skitch, Skitch.com

XNJB: Transfer music to and from a MTP MP3 player on a Mac

Joe — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:21:14 +0000

When I switched to a Mac, I did not purchase an iPod for a few months. I previously had a Creative Zen Vision M media player. Unfortunately, this device was not mass storage, but utilised ‘Media Transfer Protocol’. Whilst several pieces of software on Windows provide the facility to move music to the device, OS X or iTunes has no integrated support.

Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is utilised on a range of devices, but especially so by Creative. Creative Zens (and their variants) utilise the protocol. Whilst the Creative NOMAD isn’t MTP, it too uses an awkward protocol not natively supported by OS X. The infamous Zune (in the eyes of an Apple fanboy) too uses MTP, however, Microsoft make it very difficult to transfer data to.

XNJB is a piece of software that provides a graphical front-end to a libnjb and libmtp: free and open source libraries that allow communication with devices like Creative NOMADs and Creative Zens. Unfortunately, neither support the Zune, due to additional restrictions Microsoft put in place. The libraries work on other POSIX operating systems, like Linux, but XNJB does not.

XNJB allows users to upload and download songs from their media players, for ID3 data to be edited and devices searched. All of this has to be done within the software; it is not integrated into iTunes or Finder.

The transfer of data felt a bit slow to me, but I expect this is primarily due to the messiness of my library and the nature of Media Transfer Protocol.

This software is, however, a useful tool when you first got the Mac. I do, though, doubt you could realistically continue to use a MTP device successfully with OS X. Naturally, you could use it inside Boot Camp or a virtual machine, but in my opinion, that too is not an ideal option.

Compatible devices are listed on their website.

Tags: apple, creative, iPod, libmtp, libnjb, libraries, mac, media transfer protocol, mp3-player, mtp, njb, os x, portable devices, xnjb

Cool uses of QR codes

Joe — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:40:35 +0000

In March, Martin discussed QR codes, a form of 2D barcode that phone cameras can rapidly decode, with appropiate software (which can be found easily on Google). The practical uses are for phone numbers to be quickly entered or websites to be quickly launched; QR codes can feature in magazines, websites or on packaging, for example, to take users to related mobile websites.

QR codes can also feature in much less conventional mediums, a few of which I will highlight.

In Japan, most phones come with integrated QR code readers and, as such, QR codes are slightly more prominent than they are in the EU and US. When you read Wikipedia’s article on QR codes, one of the first things you see is a picture of a billboard that features a QR code. Whilst this is definitely an interesting concept, I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable pointing my phone at random objects in the middle of a large city at night!

Another interesting example is a QR code t-shirt. Dozens of these are available; in fact, there’s an online shop who primarily sell such shirts. My favourite is the shirt to the right, which has a QR code which decodes to ‘Don’t miss me’!

The Pet Shop Boys used QR codes on one of their single’s, Integral artwork. Cooler yet, the song’s video too featured QR codes which could be scanned and led to their website and a campaign against identity cards in Britain.

I’m a big fan of ‘design’ QR too. This is where the barcode is made to appear to contain a picture. For example, the below barcode leads to a page on the BBC’s website:

This QR code leads to a company who specialise in the creation of design QR codes:

That same company worked on these QR code chocolates!

Have you seen any cool applications of QR codes?

Tags: barcode, barcodes, densawave, design qr, qr barcodes, qr code, qr codes, quick response code

Help the fight against phishing with Phishtank

Joe — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:13:48 +0000

For anti-phishing tools to work, phishing sites must be identified to analyse and to warn people about.

Sites like Web of Trust allow users to share information about phishing sites, but scores of similar tools exist and as it would be counter-productive for each to maintain their own database of phishing sites.

PhishTank centralises phishing reports and allows developers to use their data free-of-charge in their own applications, with manual or automatic download enabled (although the latter requires a free API key).

PhishTank offers a service a lot of web users will use without even realising it. Whilst certain tools might submit their data to PhishTank too, you can help your fellow web users and fight phishers through submitting data directly to PhishTank.

With a free registered account, reports can be submitted through a web interface or through email. It is extremely easy to send the next phishing attempt that manages to get through your spam filters to PhishTank. Providing you have that email address registered with them, all you have to do it forward it to phish (at) phishtank.com .

Whilst it might not directly benefit you to do so, you are helping users who might help you too. If nothing else, you are keeping your credit card interest rate down marginally, as your bank has to pay less out to compensate phishing victims!

Tags: anti-phishing, antiphishing, phishing, phishtank, Security, social-phishing, web of trust

Make Wikipedia more usable with Vector

Joe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:48:31 +0000

Wikimedia recently conducted a study into how to make their projects, like Wikipedia, more usable and user friendly. The study highlighted a number of interesting points, like that many users had never been to Wikipedia’s homepage, instead finding articles through search engines. These points have helped steer development.

One of the first things to come out of the Usability Project was a new skin. Wikipedia currently uses a skin called Monobook and has done so for over five years. Since Monobook was chosen, design trends have changed, as have web browsers and the way in which we surf.

The skin, called Vector, makes a number of changes. Vector gives the searchbar a more prominent location, declutters pages and looks much more modern. Basically, it makes it much easier to browse Wikipedia.

Registered users can choose a variety of skins and ‘gadgets’.

To enable the Vector skin, registered users need only go to the ‘Appearance’ tab in the ‘My Preferences‘ page and select Vector.

The usability project has many other plans, and aims to make editing more accessible. This is just a first step, but in my opinion still a marked difference.

Tags: skin, The Web, vector skin, wiki, wikimedia, wikipedia

Download and install Ubuntu faster with a Minimal CD

Joe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:21:47 +0000

I recently found the need to install Ubuntu on a machine with a poor CD drive (and no USB ports) that could not read large amounts of data, but could manage to read smaller amounts of data. As such, the machine could not read the 700MB but could read smaller amounts, like 10MB.

I found a bootable disc image smaller than 10MB which downloads the packages on the machine on which they’ll be installed, rather than having to burn them onto a disc and then run them. However, this method of installation also allows the user to only select the packages they want to download, which potentially dramatically reduces the size of the download.

This small disc obviously uses a text-based installer. Whilst this isn’t quite as user friendly, it ensures compatibility and can be used in many scenarios in which the alternative installation CD would currently have to be used.

Discs are available for 32-bit and 64-bit installs on PCs; 32-bit PowerPCs and patchy support is available for Sparc and 64-bit PowerPCs.

This seems like a much better way to install Ubuntu, because one can avoid pointless packages and the time needed to burn the 700MB image!

Tags: boot disc, booting, install, install ubuntu, Linux, Open Source, operating system, Operating Systems, ubuntu

Log in to websites with your site’s URL as your OpenID

Joe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:12:56 +0000

A few years ago, Martin covered OpenID, an open authentication system. Since then, it has become increasingly popular and a wide range of sites, from AOL to LiveJournal provide OpenIDs, and OpenID login is also quite common. OpenID is particularly popular for blog comments, with Blogger now integrating support for it.

An OpenID is an URL. However, using an URL like http://computerjoe.myopenid.com/ to log-in and post comments with just doesn’t look sophisticated. I much prefer to use my own blog’s URL to post comments and log-in; it pumps traffic to my blog and frankly just looks better.

Whilst you could run your own OpenID identity server to do this, this takes quite a bit of expertise to set-up and whilst it is probably more secure, it isn’t needed in my opinion.

It is possible to use a any identity server with your website’s URL. I personally use MyOpenID, but I log in to sites with joeanderson.co.uk/blog; not with computerjoe.myopenid.com.

This can be done by simply adding a few lines of HTML to your website’s .

For example, I put

Naturally, these have to be modified depending on your username and server, but the provider should provider the information.

There are several benefits using this type of OpenID identificatin. The main one is that it just looks better but the most practical one is probably that it allows you to change provider whilst keeping the same log on. So, if I suddenly decide not to use MyOpenID, I can change to any other provider but my URL remains the same.

Tags: authentication, authorisation, html, id, my open id, myopenid, openid, passwords, Security, username, web

A standard compliant web browser and editor: Amaya

Joe — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:18:57 +0000

Some web browsers don’t fully respect web standards and many WYSIWYG HTML editors produce absolutely revolting code. W3C set out standards as to how HTML (and XHTML etc) should appear and whilst some choose to ignore these, some are devoted to the following of these standards.

Sticking to standards can therefore lead to issues with certain web browsers, which lack support for the latest tags or render pages wrong.

The W3C therefore has its own web browser and editor which adheres to standards more than many browsers and supports certain new technologies others don’t, such as RDF annotation. This browser is Amaya, an open-source and cross-platform browser.

Amaya can handle a wide-range of open file formats, including HTML, CSS, XHTML, SVG and MathML.

The software integrates the browser and web editor: when you go to a web page, it can be edited inside the browser. It also instantly displays syntactic errors.

It also integrates the mark-up languages. For example, in a web page, one can write formulae utilising MathML or add SVG shapes inside the software.

Amaya is a reasonable WYSIWYG editor and a good web browser for developmental purposes. It is also good to produce rich web-pages, which include other pieces of mark-up than HTML.

Tags: Amaya, html, html editor, Linux, mac, Open Source, w3c, web design, web designer, web development, Windows, wysiwyg, wysiwyg editor, xhtml, xml

Who shares your shared hosting?

Joe — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:09:28 +0000

I host my website on shared hosting. My connection is too slow and unreliable to justify running my own server and I have no need to hire a dedicated server or a VPS. Consequently, many other websites are hosted on the same box as mine and I have often wondered their nature. In addition to curiosity, this could be used to check to see you agree with the ethical stance of your webhost, to check to see if any of the other sites drain resources (thus slowing your site) and to check for any possible security risks.

Every server has an IP address and using specialist websites, a list of domains which point to that IP address can be returned. Several websites do this, and many charge for the service.

If one types in a domain or IP address on myIPneighbors.com, the site lists other domains that point to that IP. It can be a little unreliable, though, no doubt due to the site’s heavy load.

I have already mentioned that this site does have practical uses. It’s interesting to see how packed your host’s server is, so you can see how good a deal you are getting, and what they are hosting. This could be useful as it’s something hosts rarely reveal but is very important to company’s reputations.

It could also make an interesting tool for doing investigations. Using it, you can see what projects companies are launching if they’re silly enough to put the domain on the same server.

Tags: ip, reverse ip, reverse whois, server, servers, shared hosting, web hosting, web hosts, whois

Take a blind test and change your searching habits

Joe — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:59:40 +0000

I use Google out of habit and because I have always thought it is the best search engine. I’ve never objectively tried to compare major search engines and as a result I haven’t changed.

Blind Search allows you to compare the results of Google, Bing and Yahoo. You search for a term in it, and it brings up all 3 results side-by-side, but you are not told which site is which. You then say which you think is better, and the names are then revealed!

After using the site a dozen or so times, a clear image of what is the best search engine for you forms.

I was surprised that Google was only best for me in about a third of searches; I found Bing’s results much more relevant. (The creator of the site works for Microsoft though; although it isn’t affiliated to them!)

They also offer an OpenSearch plug-in (so it can be added to Firefox’s search bar, for example) and a plugin IE8. It also works for image search. Unfortunately, the site currently only works in US localisations, so one can’t use it to search google.co.uk etc.

Tags: bing, Google, live.com, microsoft, Search Engines, yahoo

Easy No-CD and No-DVD for games on Mac

Joe — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:44:19 +0000

Computer users often hate having to have a CD or DVD in their drive to run a game. To circumvent this, images are often burned to hard drives or cracks used. Cracks are rapidly found for Windows, but it can be an extreme chore to find them for Macs.

EA use a product called Cider to power many of their Mac games. Cider basically adds a wrapper around the original PC game, and translates it on-the-fly to Mac. The recent release of ‘The Sims 3′, for example, works on OS X and Windows due to Cider.

Cider is likely to become more wide-spread. It saves game developers from having to develop ports, allows Mac and PC games to be released at the same time and ultimately little extra work must be put in to reach a larger market.

But Cider also allows certain Windows cracks to be implemented on Macs.

On OS X, Applications are actually just packages. If you have The Sims 3, for example, and go to the App and right click on ‘Show Package Contents’, and then choose ‘transgaming’, you will see a Windows folder structure. In there, all the files you’d expect to see are there. Basically, there’s a ‘The Sims 3.app>Contents>Resources>transgaming>c_drive>program files>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3′ folder.

The benefit of there being a hidden Windows folder structure in these apps are simple. If there’s a No-CD crack where you just have to replace a .exe, you find that .exe inside the Package and replace it. And then it works just like it does under Windows.

Tags: cider, cracks, electronic arts, mac, no dvd, no-cd, os x, the sims, the sims 3, transgaming

Read mailing lists with clogging up your inbox

Joe — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:20:22 +0000

Mailing lists still hold an important role in many free software projects and are a place where development is co-ordinated and support provided.

When you subscribe to a mailing list, you generally have the option of receiving every individual message or receiving a daily digest. However, if you need to read a few, this can still clog up your inbox.

Whilst you could read web-based archives, my favourite option is reading them though Gmane – an NNTP/mailing list gateway.

Gmane allows you to read newsgroups through a USENET newsreader (basic newsgroup facility is built into software like Thunderbird . I find this a more manageable way to read mailing lists, because the client threads them for me.

Gmane works both ways: it allows you to post to newsgroups through USENET too. All it does is the first time you try to post to a mailing list, it sends you a verification email to confirm it is indeed you.

Gmane also allows you to read newsgroups through RSS, so you could use a feed reader (online or desktop)!

There are currently over 10,000 mailing lists accessible through Gmane, ranging from the Wikipedia mailing lists to a blackjack group! To find groups, browse their website or browse their newsserver.

Tags: free software, Gmane, mailing lists, newsgroups, nntp, usenet

iPhones: they aren’t as bad as you think

Joe — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:46:54 +0000

A couple of months ago, I did something I thought I never would do: I bought an iPhone. Technology enthusiasts generally seem pretty torn about these devices: some see them as fantastic whilst others see them as an expensive device which isn’t very functional.

I, too, was torn. I vowed never to buy an iPhone, on account of their price and lack of certain features (saying that, I too vowed never to run Windows XP but I ended up using XP about 3 years after its release, in 2004). I was strongly considering a Symbian-based smartphone, generally seen as a phone of someone a little more tech-savvy than an iPhone user. When I got my iPhone, I was shocked. iPhones are actually very good.

Whilst they do have many little annoying flaws, such as the fact you can’t use a landscape keyboard to compose an email or SMS (not until the next version of iPhone OS, anyway), they are remarkably user-friendly and after a little jailbreaking pretty flexible. I have yet to find something I would like to do, but I can’t do.

LCARS theme on iPhone

I found the selection of applications, in the App Store and other unofficial places, absolutely amazing. I have many games – ranging from a mobile version of Sim City to an NES emulator – and I also have many tools and utilities, like a Google Docs editor, SSH terminal and SSH server. My only complaint with applications is how quickly you end up spending a small fortune in App Store: I still find it amazing I have to pay £5 for the official UK train network’s program.

Another popular complaint people have with the iPhone is the lack of hardware keys. However, I soon became accustomed to the touch screen, because it has somewhat of a LCARS feeling – especially after you install a LCARS theme! There are some hardware keys though: volume control, a switch to turn it on or off silent mode, the ‘home button’ and a lock button.

Still, the most popular complaint is the price. I find myself paying 35GBP a month and about a 100GBP lump sum. For that, 600 minutes and 500 texts. Pretty expensive, but I am quite satisfied with the data plan that is also included in that price.

So, do you have an iPhone? If not, why not?

Tags: apple, cell phones, cell-phone, iPhone, mobile phone, mobile phones, Nokia, smartphones

Catalogue your DVDs, games and book

Joe — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:58:48 +0000

Often you will be certain that you have a DVD but cannot remember where you placed it or if you lent it someone. The best way to keep track of your possessions is to catalogue them, allowing you to remind yourself of where they are, but also letting you quickly value them.

It may seem like a timely process, but software can quickly hasten the process and if you’re willing to pay $10-$20, you can buy hardware which will further minimise the needed time.

You must initially decide how you will input your possessions into whatever software you choose to own. Naturally, you can input the product’s details but this can be timely. Other options are to buy an inexpensive barcode scanner or some software even allows you to utilise your webcam as a barcode scanner.

With regards to software, there are options for every platform.

The de facto official cataloguing software for OS X has to be Delicious Library. Delicious Library allows you to search Amazon for items, through keywords, barcodes, titles, authors, directors etc., and then import the data, including the current price used versions sell there, straight into the software. Items can then be displayed in a number of ways, including an aesthetically appealing ’shelf’ mode which shows the picture of each item on a shelf and is at the item’s size. One can also rate items inside the software. Supported input modes are typing, scanning barcodes with the iSight camera (to varied degrees of success) or using their Bluetooth barcode scanner (which costs over $100!). It also allows libraries to be shared over a local network. It costs $40.

MediaMan is similar software for Windows. It too grabs data off Amazon, displays it in a ’shelf’-like view. It supports USB barcode scanners and webcams too. It works on XP and Vista, and also costs $40! Basically, it’s like Delicious Library for Windows!

GCStar is free and open-source cataloguing software, for Linux, BSD, OS X and Windows. The software can grab data from a host of sources.

I use a CueCat Barcode Scanner, which when modified works with all of the above software. It simply converts barcodes into keystrokes. You can pick one of these up for around �10, but ensure it’s modified or it won’t work.

Tags: books, catalog, catalog software, catalogue, catalogue software, cuecat, delicious library, dvd, Games, gcstar, library, mediaman

Win more eBay auctions

Joe — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:08:25 +0000

Pretty much everyone uses eBay, but it is often frustrating when you’re suddenly outbid on a rare or unique item. There are a number of strategies one can use to maximise the amount of auctions won.

Sniping is a practice that has been used for years and years. Originally this was a manual process, where users made a bid in the closing seconds of an auction. This naturally could prove risky, as internet connections can fail and bids can’t go through. Automated services also exist which are often more reliable but can prove insecure and often charge a small fee. A few years back, I used Hammersnipe which offers free sniping and I didn’t have a bad experience, although neither I or gHacks are providing a recommendation as I suggest doing a lot of research in any sniping service before you use them. This is seen as controversial, though.

One of my favourite tactics is to bid completely random amounts. Instead of 14.00GBP, I bid 14.01GBP. This is because that way, if someone had bid 14.00GBP, my bid would be counted as the maximum bid instead of theirs, event though it is only a penny higher. As many eBayers use this tactic, it may help to use more random numbers than 0.01GBP, such as 0.44GBP.

Incremental bidding, where you bid up 1GBP or a similar amount every time you’re outbid is pretty useless. You’re much better off making your maximum bid the most you’re willing to pay; eBay will automatically outbid anyone who makes a smaller bid. eBay will only outbid them by the minimum increment, so you won’t end up out of pocket

On another note, it is really worth using eBay’s best offer system. I have used this to purchase cheap mass produced foreign electronics sold in massive quantities on eBay. I managed to save 0.50GBP through making an offer on a piece of hardware which had a buy it now price of 10GBP. Not much, but a difference nonetheless.

Whilst I have given this advice with sterling, one can obviously do the same in any currency.

Tags: Advice, bid, ebay, eBay.com, online auctions, win auctions

Back up your files to a secure remote server with Carbonite

Joe — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:35:43 +0000

Everyone should back their data up in case their computer suddenly fails or is even lost or stolen. Many will back their data up on mediums like external hard drives, but it requires a certain amount of disciple to remember to hook your laptop up to one. Another problem with backing data up on such mediums is that they can be corrupted or lost. Since the advent of fast internet connections, it has therefore become possible to back data up on to online backup services.

There are two main online backup services: Mozy and Carbonite. Both offer a similar service: they upload files differentially and incrementally (as they are updated or made) to a server and those files can then be retrieved. Both are now also available for Windows and OS X. Prices are similar, although Mozy does offer users 2GB free of charge.

Carbonite offers a 15 day free trial, where you don’t even have to input your credit card information. This, like a regular subscription, allows you an unlimited amount of storage. Unlike a paid user, free trial users can’t upload music or movies, quite understandably. Paid users have no issue though.

I personally use Carbonite, but wouldn’t advise anyone against Mozy. Carbonite was quite simple to set-up, my only complaints are that it didn’t automatically configure the OS X firewall or my ports and a few minor user interface issues. I expect that it is much more polished on Windows, as their OS X version is a recent release.

Carbonite also provide remote access, so you can access your backed up files anywhere. This is useful if you need a file off your home PC at work, for example.

Uploading is fairly fast. After I configured my firewall and ports correctly, I managed to get a couple of gigabytes uploaded in one night. That is impressive considering I’m on a relatively slow (2Mbps downstream) ADSL2 connection.

Carbonite’s customer support solved any of my problems but I felt a lot of the dialog was scripted and for some reason it all seemed a little impersonal. Still, they provided me with solutions in a reasonable timeframe in a courteous manner.

Now, pricing. Carbonite is $55/year and Mozy (for home users) is $4.95/month. However, it is possible to easily save 20% on this through using Subscription.com . A couple of extra clicks can save $11 on Carbonite and 15% on Mozy. Go through this page for a Mozy and Carbonite offer code. I did this and found it a remarkably easy process.

Disclosure: Subscription.com reimbursed my purchasing a Carbonite licence under the condition that I reviewed it on my personal weblog. I was in no way required to show bias or blog about Carbonite on gHacks, I simply chose to as it’s a good service.

Tags: back up, carbonite, data security, discount, mozy, offer code, online backup, subscription.com

Play with and understand WiFi Positioning System

Joe — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:44:15 +0000

A few months ago, Mozilla generated lots of buzz through its Geode extension, which locates users through the WiFi access point they were using. Other popular tools have similar features, such as ‘Locate me’ on iPod Touches.

So, a very interesting question is how does such technology work?

They consult a service called Skyhook Wireless. They drive around settlements in several countries and record the GPS co-ordinates of where they pick up certain wireless access points, so when users send the access point’s MAC to them, it can return the co-ordinates. Many areas aren’t covered but if you would still like to use it, and let others use it, one can manually add details to the system. The same system is used to correct erroneous listings.

Many services already make use of WiFi-based location services.

For example, GPS units may struggle to provide an accurate location indoors or in an urban environment, but Skyhook Wireless doesn’t have this problem. Software like Google Maps on the iPhone use WiFi-based location in such scenarios.

Several online websites also use WiFi-based location services to return information based on the locality. Some are social networking, like brightkite and Fire Eagle to local search, although these services tend to be American. MyLoki is another service which relies on geolocation, and this allows location data to be exported to RSS feeds, Facebook or even Twitter. It can also grab data from ‘channels’ and plot things nearby on a map. These ‘channels’ include everything from Starbucks coffee shops to geotagged photos, Yelp reviews and cinemas.

Google Gears uses its own geolocation service, which websites like ITN use, but this is much worse than Geode/Skyhook, being accurate for me to about 150 miles instead of 15 meters!

Skyhook-based locations are built into the iPhone, the Opera web-browser and Mozilla Geode.

Privacy concerns are put to ease as data is only sent if you confirm the website can have access to it, and the software lets you specify how accurate a location you’re willing to send.

The idea of geolocation and WiFi positioning is fantastic. Eventually, it will allow you to open your laptop and then share your location with others, should you choose, or find the nearest restaurant in a distant city!

Tags: brightkite, fire eagle, geolocate, geolocation, google maps, gps, loki, mozilla geode, navigation, semantic web, skyhook, skyhook wireless, web 2.0, wifi, wifi based location, wifi positioning system, wps

Remote SSH: Run processes anywhere on different platforms

Joe — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:02:18 +0000

SSH is a way to remotely and securely access command prompt/terminal on another computer, giving you access to that computer’s files, services, network connections and programs.

Some services offer free SSH accounts, so you can edit and access files anywhere, host websites, use them as proxies (or IPv6 gateways) and some even let you run processes like IRC bots and compilers.

Generally, such free Shell accounts impose a monthly bandwidth quota of a few megabytes, so you don’t use too much of their resources. Some providers are more generous than others, though, and some charge for additional space and bandwidth.

Most SSH providers offer Unix-based hosting. Mitja Sladovic offers a very large list of such free providers.

The most popular service is the SDF Public Access UNIX System, established in 1987. Free users are offered email hosting (POP or IMAP), games, access to the text-based ‘Lynx’ web browser, web hosting, various network utilities and 80MB space. For access to gcc, php etc., one must a one-off fee of $36. In order to validate your account, and receive access to network utilities, one must send them $1 or €5 (in order to deter spammers).

Blinkenshell is another interesting option. Free accounts get 50MiB of space, access to several compilers, an IPv6 tunnel, hosting, email, IRC access and even the ability to have MySQL databases. One can’t use Blinkenshell for IRC bots, though. A few services do provide access to eggdrop, a popular IRC bot, such as Polarhome and aeshells.

Naturally, novices may struggle with such services as no graphical interface is provided. These services do, however, provide a rapid way to compile applications on different platforms (like Linux and BSD) and allow boring processes, like IRC bots, to run for you.

Tags: aeshells, blinkenshell, eggdrop, ipv6, irc, irc bot, Linux, polarhome, remote os, remote shell, remote-desktop, sdf, shell, shell account, ssh, telnet, unix

5 essential tools to learn a language

Joe — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:40:18 +0000

gHacks has a diverse range of editors, living in, amongst other places, the UK, Germany and Hungary. All write in the medium of English, but learning a foreign language is no easy task.

I am currently trying to learn French and German and often find myself using many computer-based resources to ease my learning, some obvious, like dictionaries, and some not-so, like podcasts.

Dictionaries

Different languages generally have different online dictionaries. For German, I often find myself using dict.cc, whilst for French, I use Reverso. The best way to find dictionaries is to Google, but one option to definitely consider is the ever-growing Wiktionary. Effectively every language has a Wiktionary and whilst it can be difficult to navigate, it is quite large and the range of languages makes it amazing.

Verb conjugators

Verbix is another web-based tool. It allows you to conjugate verbs, and even supports irregular ones.

The free web-based tool supports verb conjugation in 97 languages, ranging from Afrikaans, to Milanese, to Old English to Welsh! They offer Windows shareware which supports over 300 languages.

Verbix also offers a tool too which analyses text and guesses its language.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a very useful way to perfect your listening.

It is very useful for me to hear a native German or a Francophone to speak.

Browsing iTunes will obviously bring up many possibilities.

My suggestions? For German, use Slow German. For French, try One thing in a French day. Naturally, I can’t make suggestions for other languages!

Vocabulary trainers

One of the best ways to learn is purely to repeat.

Many vocabulary trainers are available. These allow you to input words, or use preprepared word lists, and then be tested on them. The trainers compile statistics so you can identify weak points etc.

For OS X, try the freeware Vocab. A wide-range of options exist for Windows users; ProvaLingua seems popular. Another option, which also works under Linux, is this program.

Wikipedia

I already mentioned that Wiktionary exists in many languages, but so does Wikipedia.

To improve your knowledge of a foreign language, try reading an article on your native language Wikipedia and then on a foreign one. It won’t be the same word for word, but many ideas will be similar so you should be able to pick out some key words.

Wikipedia is also a good way to find technical vocabulary in a foreign tongue.

Tags: dictionaries, dictionary, language, languages, learn languages, learn languages online, linguistics

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