Block Twitter Timeline Images on Web

1.)  Install Adblock Plus.

2.)  Use this custom filter: 
##a.media.media-thumbnail.twitter-timeline-link.media-forward.is-preview

The Morning Stream for Android (unofficial!)

Here are my preferred methods for streaming The Morning Stream on an Android device.  (Disclaimer:  These methods will use data.  Use wifi if you need to.)


Watch Scott Johnson's Twitch broadcast using the Twitch App.  Simply install the app and use it to go to this channel:  frogpants_scott

The good:  You see the same live video feed that's available from frogpants.com/live

The bad:  The app won't run in the background, which means chatting on your Android device at the same time using IRC is not possible (on devices that won't let you run two apps in a split screen mode).  Also, and this has happened before, Scott may decide not to use Twitch when broadcasting.


Stream the audio using Alpha Geek Radio - Option 1:  The Web Player.   Simply go to this link in your web browser of choice and use the web app.  http://www.alphageekradio.com/p/talk-channel-1-mobile-player.html?m=1

The good:  Simple.  No installation necessary.  Depending on your browser, it may continue to work in the background.

The bad:  Your browser may not let it play in the background or may close itself due to Android memory management.


Stream the audio using Alpha Geek Radio - Option 2:  Use an App.  Alpha Geek Radio suggests using Tunein.  I do not.  It has lots of unneeded permissions, such as using the network to figure out your location, being able to read phone call status, and above all of that, it has ads.  The app is also very slow on my Galaxy Nexus, but your mileage may vary.  My preferred alternative to Tunein is to use ServeStream.  It's open-source, doesn't grab your location, and no ads.  Install it, and then download this file to your device and open it with ServeStream: http://listen.alphageekradio.com:8000/listen.pls

The good:  App is free, open-source, very few permissions, no ads.  Runs in background, so you can do other things (like chat!)

The bad:  You have to install an app, and use the playlist file instead of browsing a directory of stations.


Chatting
Whenever possible, always use an IRC client to join the Tadpool.  My preferred  Android IRC client is AndChat.  It's free, requires no unusual permissions, and has all the major features of AndroIRC without ads or location tracking.  Also, the nick autocomplete button is easier to press than on AndroIRC.  I think the only thing it doesn't have is a ping time indicator.


BONUS:  Playing the Podcast!
There are near-infinite ways to download and play the podcast on Android devices, and chances are you already have a favorite method that works for you.  Let me share mine.  I use a app called Netcaster.  You subscribe to the TMS RSS feed and use the app to download the podcasts as they are published.  The app is free, no ads, no crazy permissions, and lots of useful settings (like automatically downloading when attached to wifi).  It keeps track of which shows you've downloaded, listened to, and will remember where you left off, if you decide to switch shows (take that, Google Play Music!).  If you prefer using an RSS-style app on your device to manage your podcasts, Netcaster is pretty nice.

Stop Java updates from installing Ask.com Toolbar

Many of us have to use Java, which means we all need to keep updated with the latest patches (of which there have been many, with no end in sight). The only problem is that each time there's a Java update, the user is asked if they want to install the Ask.com toolbar. No wait, that's not what happens. What happens is that the user is asked if they don't want to install the Ask.com toolbar. When the update prompt appears, there is a checkbox that is checked by default to install the Ask.com toolbar. No one wants this software, but it will often appear on computers anyway because of this checkbox.

Now there are many ways to prevent this from happening (the best one being don't use Java. But if you have to use it...). My way involves making a small change to the Hosts file in Windows. Whenever Windows has to look up a web address, the first place it looks for is the Hosts file. Here's how to do it:

For the quick and easy way, I have a batch file you can download to make the fix.  Feel free to right-click the batch file and go to Edit to see the source code before you run it.
http://ubuntuone.com/5p1OZpm6SnOv8q1wxNgLQB

To do the fix yourself...

Go to the Run command and type this:
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

And click OK.

It will likely ask you to choose a program to open the Hosts file with. Choose Notepad.

At the bottom of the document, add this line:

127.0.0.1   rps-svcs.sun.com

Click Save, then close it. 

Each time the Java update tries to fetch the Ask.com Toolbar, it's going to try to go 127.0.0.1 to get it, and it'll fail.  It'll skip over that and install Java normally.  In fact, if it works properly, you shouldn't even be prompted for the toolbar at all!

If you ever need to undo these changes, put a # in front of that line, or delete it altogether.

I discovered this by flushing my computer's DNS cache just before running the Java installer.  Once it was installed with the Ask toolbar, I checked what addresses showed up in the DNS cache, and then started blocking them in my hosts file and reinstalling Java.  I had my computer search in Documents and Settings for anything containing "apn", which is what the toolbar's installer calls itself (apnstub.exe, specifically).  Once the rps address was blocked, the Java installer didn't even ask, and the apn stuff never downloaded.

Microsoft Security Essentials Correlation

So Microsoft Security Essentials failed to gain a certification on a recent, well-known  AV test.

That's unfortunate, since it's free, without subscription, and provided by those that make Windows.

Meanwhile, I saw this article, basically saying that the people behind the program AppRemover saw that on 150,000 or so computers, most of them were running Microsoft Security Essentials.

According to the CNET article, AppRemover is using it's data to claim that Microsoft Security Essentials is a “global leader in security suite market share.” 

There's a weird correlation, though. AppRemover is a program that, among other things, uninstalls security software. Presumably, the people using AppRemover have a reason for doing so, such as uninstalling antivirus software that they didn't want. If AppRemover is reporting that a majority of computers that had AppRemover used on them already had Microsoft Security Essentials installed, and the user is running a program that removes antivirus software, it would seem to correlate that the majority of people who use AppRemover on a computer with antivirus software already installed (as reported in the article) are using it to remove Microsoft Security Essentials more than the other antivirus suites?

Either that, or the computers measured have more than one antivirus program installed.

Ubuntu Tales - Custom Printing

When my fiancée asked what to do about wedding invitations, I told her (foolishly, perhaps) that I'd take care of them, instead of having them custom-printed. Fast forward a few months, and I'm deep into getting all the items printed. The problem I've been battling is custom page sizes in Ubuntu.

The documents I'm printing are PDFs sized specifically to the different paper sizes of the invites (5x7inch, 5x3.5inch,etc). I was able to print the actual invite cards without much hassle. The thing that made this so painless is Adobe Reader (and evince) have access to a custom print size called “5x7 photo borderless.” This allowed the document to print with images right up to the edge of the pages (if the printer loaded the paper properly).

The headaches came when I had to print inserts and RSVP cards that were 5x3.5. There's no option for borderless printing at this size. I was able to make a custom size manually and was able to print the pages pretty easily, but there's a few millimeters of border around the images. It's not a deal breaker, but I thought I could do better. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I could not get my HP 2512 inkjet to print without any kind of margin. I messed with custom page options, and I also messed with the HP device manager, to little avail. If the page size doesn't already exist and have a borderless option, I can't do it.

So I gave up and booted into Windows 7.

Interestingly, I had even less luck in Windows with this printer. I had to go through a big rigmarole to make a custom page size (I had to configure the “print server” with a new “form type”, none of which is intuitive). But even when I did that successfully, Adobe Reader would completely ignore the new page size I created. It would try to print to a 3.5x5, but because of the way the paper loads, I needed it to be a 5x3.5, and it would absolutely refuse my new custom page.

My fiancee's computer (running Windows XP) has a Dell inkjet that I tried out. This printer not only let me print to a 5x3.5, but I was able to do so without any border at all, just by selecting one checkbox, and it did a better job of feeding the cards in, so I didn't have to rotate it. Alas, even when selecting the highest print quality available, the image was not as dark as the invitations I had previously printed.

So the good news is that my headaches printing the custom page sizes weren't necessarily caused by Ubuntu but had more to do with the software and hardware of the printer itself. The bad news is I'm still going to be wrestling with printing the invitations a while longer.

Google Voice vs LG Cosmos

We use Google Voice at work for our on-call nurses. We used to use a third-party call center with live people to handle this. We would tell them each day what nurse was on call, and what message to say. They, more often than not, got it wrong, and we continued to pay for it (the bill to the third-party, and the lost revenue from a patient referral). When I learned about Google Voice, I suggested we give it a go and test it. They were so pleased with it that we canned the call center after only a week. I instructed the clerks how to change numbers and specify which numbers to forward to. And I haven't heard anything out of them for about a year or more.

Until today. We recently hired a new nurse and they were trying to enter her phone number into the list of available numbers to forward to. When you add a number to Google Voice, GV will call the phone number entered and ask you to dial on that phone two digits that are displayed on the computer screen, to avoid abuse of their system. I've never had any issue with this, but this new nurse's phone, an LG Cosmos, would not pass verification.

I suspect the problem was that GV could not properly hear the DTMF ("touch tone") tones. I adjusted the DTMF settings on her phone so that the tones would play longer. No go. I tried using her phone in speakerphone mode. I even tried using a website to play back the DTMF tones into the phone's microphone. Still nothing.

I then tried having GV verify my own personal cell phone. Worked the first time. Both the LG and my phone are both on Verizon. What's the deal? I started doing what I always do when I have no more ideas, Googling for answers, and found more similar complaints than actual answers. Then I ran across a post from someone who had an iPhone 4GS that couldn't get GV to verify the phone, but this person also had a fix - turn up the ringer volume. This seemed strange to me - why should the ringer volume affect the loudness of the DTMF tones? I tried turning up the ringer on the LG and it still failed. But now that I was in the land of trying-things-that-didn't-make-sense, I wondered what would change if the phone thought a headset was attached?

The LG has a standard headphone jack, so I just plugged in my earbuds and tried to verify again. Success! I'm not sure if this a failure of the phone, or Google Voice not being sensitive enough. I don't like the fact that there are no other ways to verify a number, and that I had to resort to a weird hack like this. Still, their service is free, and for a small business like ours, it works better than what we *were* using.

Xubuntu and the Keyring Manager

Whenever I have to use Xubuntu, it's usually because I'm refurbishing an old computer for someone to do basic web, e-mail, and maybe some word processing. Given that, I always set Xubuntu to login automatically. However, the NetworkManager app always gives fits about authenticating against the Keyring Manager when connecting to networks (especially wireless). So it might be an automatic login, but then you're immediately prompted for the SAME password when NetworkManager attempts to connect to a network.

I've Googled a lot trying to find good fixes for it, and there are plenty (some that involve installing a PAM module, which is a good plan, but convoluted). I've got my own, and it's super easy.

Assuming you've already set Xubuntu to auto login and you've rebooted your computer and are logged in, go to the Places menu and go to your Home folder. Go to View and check "Show Hidden Files." Look for a folder called .gnome2, open it, and then open a folder called keyrings. Open this and delete anything in it. Reboot. Once the computer reboots, you'll be asked for your wireless password. After you enter it, it's going to ask for a keyring/encryption password. Just leave it BLANK and choose "save." You'll get a warning that this stores your password in plaintext on your computer. Just say OK.

The ramifications of this are that wireless passwords (WEP, WPA, etc) are stored, but are easily viewable. It means that NetworkManager will work without a fuss, but someone could get on your computer and look at your wireless keys. If this isn't a problem, then this is a fix for the keyring manager problem.