Zac's Tumblr

Jailbreak tweaks I'm using

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:22:58 +1100

Auxo - Re-imagined multi-tasking bar with app previews. Also with quick access to shortcuts like bluetooth, wifi, etc.

Auxo NCLike - Much nicer theme for Auxo

Bolt - Hide the battery save for a bolt when charging. Keeps the percentage indicator.

Blackout - Force black status bars

BrowserChooser - Allows you to use Chrome as default

ChargingBackground - Hide the battery and or show wallpaper when charging

F.lux - Adjust the hue of the screen to make it easier to read before bedtime essentially. From the same makers of the well loved Mac App.

Forecast - Display weather on the lock screen

iFix Brightness - Fixes a brightness bug in Cydia after a respring

LandscapeVideos - Force videos to always play in landscape, no need to unlock the phone and rotate.

LiveClock - Makes the clock icon update in real time

MapsOpener - Open Google Maps app by default over Apple Apps

NoCamSound - Because I hate the fake shutter sound

Openother - I use this to open Fantastical when clicking the Calendar icon using this hack. Advantage is you still get the live icon showing the date on your home screen.

Springtomize 2 - I used this to hide the dock and also the AM/PM on the time from status bar

Unfold - A new way to unlock your screen, with a concertina fold

Zeppelin - Hide / edit the carrier info.

Victoria Police released an official statement today expressing...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:45:02 +1100

Victoria Police released an official statement today expressing their concern over the directions quality of iOS6 Maps.

Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue. Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.

The poster above is my response. Remember Wolf Creek? (Original poster here)

“You win” Charlotte Dawson in hospital after Twitter abuse

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:51:23 +1000

“You win” Charlotte Dawson in hospital after Twitter abuse:

A while ago I wrote about fighting to stop an imminent suicide. We were lucky and she lived.

Once again internet trolls have struck again and someone has participated in the unthinkable - a genuine attempt at ending their own life. People on Twitter are currently in shock that such trolls live amongst us but I believe one of the key quotes from my original article needs to be brought back into focus today:

Even in the fourth century B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges. That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn’t be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly. […]

Psychological research has proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior.

It’s not so much that newer and meaner people exist around us, it’s that the internet provides a tool for anonymous slander without the possibility of culpability. Remember, and help your internet neighbors remember, that such troll behavior is not normal public thought - and as such should be taken with the smallest grain of belief.

We are so much better than the distilled worst elements of humanity unleashed by a system of anonymity.

Enable AirDrop on older Macs and over ethernet

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:35:21 +1000

Enter this in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1

Then restart finder, voila.

Forget torrenting, move to Usenet

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:30:23 +1000

Torrenting is ridiculously slow, the files are inconsistent and seeding a decent ratio is required. All of this changes with Usenet. Here I shall outline the ultimate setup.

Buy a Mac Mini as your at home server. You could keep your laptop open all day at home but who wants to do that? It’s time to have a cool media center / always on server doing work for you. They can be found nice and cheap on the Apple Store refurb section from time to time and are completely fine purchases - that’s where I got mine. You’re going to want to max out the RAM too, due to it’s always on nature - check out Ramcity for that.

Download SABnzbd+ and install it. This is like Transmission (torrent app) but for Usenet files, plus it maxes out your download connection and no seeding is required. Brilliant.

Download Sickbeard and install it. This app is considered alpha and thus reasonably tricky to install yourself as has no easy to install binary, or simply, an app as you’re use to installing but stick with it. That video goes to great lengths to explain how to set up this Python scripting application using Git, Terminal, Cheetah and other things you’ve never heard of before. Once installed the video will also run you through how to add your existing shows to the database. Even if you have a complete series you can add a show and get Sickbeard to add the full episode name - one of my favourite features.

Download CouchPotato V2 (forget V1, V2 is perfectly stable) and install it. Same great video host as the previous installation walkthrough for Sickbeard. This app is remarkably easier to install and is more like a traditional app that you’re used to.

Buy Qouch for your iOS device ($2.99) and follow the in-app instructions to add your Sickbeard installation - for Movies, your Couch Potato installation (for TV) and your SABnzbd+ installation (for downloads / queue). Now you can manage those while out and about.

Download Prowl onto your Mac and buy Prowl for your iOS device ($2.99). Also download Growl to your Mac ($2.99). Now you can have Prowl push your Growl notifications on your Mac to Prowl on your iOS device - allowing you to know when out and about that you have a new movie and or tv show waiting for you at home.

Now that all the apps are installed you will need a couple more things to make them actually run. For a Usenet server I recommend the Supernews Super Special ($10 a month). For providers NZBs’R’us and Binsearch are free but I also reccomend buying the NZB Matrix lifetime VIP membership for a one off cost of $10.50). Usenet apps allow multiple providers.

Lastly, viewing your content. Whilst VLC is free and plays most codecs I highly recommend you check out Plex. So much prettier, all it requires is to use the “Movie (Year)” file name convention so as to properly index and categorize your media. The Plex iOS app is only $4.99 and, with proper router port forwarding, allows you to watch your media on the go - great when used in combination with Prowl notifications for when you just can’t miss that latest episode.

"And this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with..."

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:42:27 +1000

“And this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers. This might be someone you’ve known for years. Someone very, very close to you… Or maybe you shouldn’t bring me every little piece of trash you happen to pick up.”

- Remember this quote from Fight Club?

Aurora shooter used an AR-15.

Increase the barrier to (violent) entry

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:02:00 +1000

Last night a man shot dead 12 people and injured 59, at a movie premiere.

On the 15th of Feb this year I made the following post:

Reddit: He had a locker next to mine in highschool, wish I got to know him better

I just scanned all 572 parent comments (at the time of commenting) and not a single post on reforming gun laws. I’m both saddened that this indicates nothing will seemingly change in the near future (in this regard), and surprised that not one other parent comment exists. If I can buy a gun, I can shoot someone - If I can’t buy a gun, I can’t shoot someone.

Sad comment on America imo.

Edit:

School shootings in Australia (can not carry guns), all time: 3

School shootings in America (can carry guns), all time: 237

That is a sample average 13.49 deaths higher than us.

As for last nights tragedy - Roger Ebert sums it up best:

Should this young man — whose nature was apparently so obvious to his mother that, when a ABC News reporter called, she said “You have the right person” — have been able to buy guns, ammunition and explosives? The gun lobby will say yes. And the endless gun control debate will begin again, and the lobbyists of the National Rifle Association will go to work, and the op-ed thinkers will have their usual thoughts, and the right wing will issue alarms, and nothing will change. And there will be another mass murder.

That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection. The United States is one of few developed nations that accepts the notion of firearms in public hands. In theory, the citizenry needs to defend itself. Not a single person at the Aurora, Colo., theater shot back, but the theory will still be defended.

I still maintain that if you make it harder to buy a gun, gun violence declines.

Update: A CBS broadcaster has since called the shooting a “natural disaster”. So it goes.

Chrome extensions I'm using

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:32:06 +1000

1Password - The very best password management app - you will never regret your purchase of this app. Browser extension also allows you to autofill address / card details on shopping sites. Very handy, very secure.

AdBlock - Because nobody likes ads.

Ghostery - Blocks tracking data around the web.

Google Reader open entry in background tab - God I’ve wanted this for a long time.

Imgur uploader - Right click, upload (transload essentially). Imgur is probably the least obnoxious image host out there atm, and is essential for submitting to Reddit.

iReader - It’s like Safari’s Reader function for Chrome. Also helps to parse multi-page stories for use with..

Pocket - It’s like Instapaper 2.0. My favourite thing is its ability to store video, not just text.

Reddit Enhancement Suite - Allows infinite scrolling and expands image links whilst doing so. Indispensable.

Reddit’s orange envelope - See if someone replied to you on Reddit without actually visiting the site every 5 minutes. Wish the icon could just appear when you actually have mail but I guess Chrome extensions can’t operate that way.

Tracking Token Stripper - Removes those ugly ‘UTM’ urls you get when clicking a Google Reader link.

WhatFont - Identifies fonts on sites, very slick.

YouTube options - Gives you a swathe of cool settings. I prefer to set viewing size to auto dependent on quality and to remove several ui elements of the site for a much cleaner viewing experience.

Ukraine to get high speed rail

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:49:24 +1000

Ukraine to get high speed rail:

So out of curiosity I crunched some numbers.. the Ukraine rail system should be (give or take, calculated via highways, not as the crow flies) ~1645kms.

A Bris-Syd-Mel high speed train (which would alleviate the world’s busiest domestic air corridor) would be ~1796kms (using same lazy calculation).

This difference is only ~151kms.

Now get this, the GDP of Australia is 874.4% larger than Ukraine! We’re at $1.146 TRILLION and they’re only at $117.6 Billion.

So, where is Australia’s east coast high speed rail network?

I find it amusing to think that this crack in the train...

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:58:15 +1000

I find it amusing to think that this crack in the train platform, about to be renovated, is the perfect umbrella holder - that post urban renewal it will be too perfect, too smooth to hold my brolly.

Unintended usefulness in something determined as broken and in need of repair. Where the “fix” actually renders my niche use case ineffective.

All change as progress?

My top 4 favourite Instagram photos from my friends. I’ve...

Sun, 06 May 2012 19:43:00 +1000

Untitled - LauraLegge

Foggy Highway - Innerwesty

(title 2 big, see blog) - Thingamabobby

Urbanite - Mattrobs

My top 4 favourite Instagram photos from my friends. I’ve heard the criticism of portfolios being cliched to feature iPhoneography but I’m convinced brilliant imagery is still possible with so finite a medium. Read clockwise:

Radiolab Presents: 99% Invisible One of my favourite episodes of...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:36:06 +1000

Radiolab Presents: 99% Invisible

One of my favourite episodes of one of my favourite episodes. The first story explains why the sound a vice grip makes is related to the sound your iPhone makes when locked. An excellent introduction to the world of interaction audio design.

F*ck you, pay me = Mandatory viewing. AKA why every designer...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:33:23 +1000

F*ck you, pay me = Mandatory viewing.

AKA why every designer should have a lawyer.

Stop pasting full names when copying an email address in OSX Mail

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:39:00 +1000

Stop pasting full names when copying an email address in OSX Mail:

The Terminal hack I’ve been waiting for

The Listserve

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:43:46 +1000

The Listserve:

This is an e-mail lottery. One person a day wins a chance to write to the growing list of subscribers. It could be you.

Very cool random email a day service, been some really interesting messages so far.

It’s free, so why not sign up - who knows when it will be your turn to say something to (currently) 13626 strangers?

The in-app tax

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:36:00 +1000

Apple is rejecting apps that use the Dropbox API because when signing up to their site as a user has the option to buy more space, circumventing Apple’s 30% cut of in-app purchase.

My question is, is the Pebble Watch planning on paying Apple its dues?

"If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control..."

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:17:47 +1000

“If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital.”

- John Irving

How to extract stuff from iOS apps

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:11:00 +1000

Find the app you want in iTunes, right click, show in finder
Copy to a secure location, like your desktop
Change the extension from .ipa to .zip, then unzip

Note: if you want to open the PNG images you find, you will need to “uncrush” them via this free utility.

Nike advertising nails an emotional connection to their product

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:32:44 +1000

Nike advertising nails an emotional connection to their product

Good to see Dreamhost have a sense of humour.

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:10:46 +1000

Good to see Dreamhost have a sense of humour.