Category Archives: Software

Fixing the No such file or directory message while upgrading Oh My Zsh

This is the answer you’ve been looking for. Ever since I installed Oh My Zsh on my Mac, I’ve been greeted by the following message whenever I launch Terminal:

[Oh My Zsh] Would you like to check for updates?
Type Y to update oh-my-zsh: Y
/bin/sh: /tools/upgrade.sh: No such file or directory

I never really cared about it, thinking I’d eventually upgrade the whole thing. Except that today when I did try to upgrade I received this message:

You already have Oh My Zsh installed. You'll need to remove ~/.oh-my-zsh if you want to install

A quick internet search for updating zshell led me to the answer deep within the oh-my-zsh git page.

The quick solution is to add export ZSH=$HOME/.oh-my-zsh to your ~/.zshrc file. Save and then source ~/.zshrc. Answer Y to update and everything should work perfectly.

Dropbox vs Google Drive Pricing – Round 1

Google - Buy Storage

Google Drive is finally out and looking like a viable alternative to crowd favorite Dropbox. Although we’re sure to see a swift response from Dropbox, let’s look at the current storage plans offered by both:

Storage Dropbox Google Drive
Free 2 GB
+16 GB in referrals
5 GB
25 GB n/a $2.49/m
$29.88/yr
25 GB for Gmail
50 GB $9.99/m
$99/yr
+32 GB in referrals
n/a
100 GB $19.99/m
$199/yr
+32 GB in referrals
$4.99/m
$59.88/yr
25 GB for Gmail
200 GB n/a $9.99/m
$119.88/yr
25 GB for Gmail
1 TB $795/yr for 5 users
Team Edition
$599.88/yr for 1 user

How to Get 22GB of Free Storage Space on Dropbox

Follow these five easy steps to max out your free Dropbox account with 22GB of free storage space.

1. Open a Dropbox account

Just by creating a free Dropbox account you’ll get 2GB of free disk space plus an additional 250MB if you use my (or someone else’s) referral link.

Total so far: 2.25GB

2. Use your .edu email address to double your referral bonuses

20120309-83ebtg45ax64xjs81wfussu9r8.preview.pngIf you have a .edu email address, simply provide it to Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/edu and your referral bonuses will double to 500GB, giving you a chance to earn 16GB of free space.

Doing this will also retroactively double your free space from any referrals done previous to linking your .edu email address.

3. Use your referral code to get extra free space

Once you’ve created your Dropbox account and linked your .edu email address you’re ready to start inviting your friends, acquaintances and random folks to join the fun.

Find your referral code and give it your friends, add it to your signature, or even use it on an AdWords campaign. Anyone who signs up with your code will also get an additional 250MB of free space.

Total so far: 18.25GB

4. Complete the Dropbox questionnaire for an additional 890MB

20120309-m5up1wfm9pgurg9rw1g958nw22.preview.pngSimply connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts to Dropbox, follow @Dropbox on Twitter, tweet about it and answer one question for an additional 640MB of free space (128MB for each action, so you don’t need to them all if you don’t feel like it).

Then finish the seven steps of the getting started guide to earn an additional 250MB of free space.

Total so far: 19.14GB

5. Test the Dropbox Camera Upload Beta for an additional 3GB

If you’re feeling a little adventurous, give the Dropbox Camera Upload Beta a try and earn up to 3GB of additional free space.

This used to give you 5GB of free space but as the Beta has evolved and become more stable, new testers now earn just 3GB of free space.

The Dropbox Camera Upload Beta will automatically grab photos and videos from any camera/SD card/phone you connect to your computer and add them to a Dropbox folder. For every 500MB of photos you add, Dropbox will add 500MB of free space to your account (up to a total of 3GB).

Total so far: 22.14GB

So, there you go: just over 22GB of free online storage space in Dropbox, available on all your computers, phones and tablets as well as anywhere you have an internet connection.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment with your Dropbox referral link

3 ways to use Google as a dictionary

Use these quick hacks to use Google as a dictionary.

1. If you only want a quick word definition, prepend your Google search with define:

For instance, https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=define:animal will give you a quick dictionary definition, followed by normal search results.

Use define:search-term to get a quick dictionary definitionDefine animal  Google Search

2. If you want a more complete definition (encyclopedic, almost), you need to enable Google’s dictionary mode using one of these methods:

a. Use the following URL to access Google:

http://www.google.com/search?tbs=dfn:1

and enter the word you’re looking for into the search box.

You can also add your search term directly to the URL, thus:

http://www.google.com/search?tbs=dfn:1&q=animal

adding &q=search-term to your URL.

b. Add the following search engine to Google Chrome (there are similar ways to add it to Firefox):

Open the Chrome Preferences | Manage Search Engines page at: chrome://settings/searchEngines

(or right click inside the Google search box and select Add as Search Engine…)

and use the following values:

Name: Google Dictionary

Keyword: d

URL: http://www.google.com/search?tbs=dfn:1&q=%s

Add a custom search engine to your browser to quickly get dictionary definitionsAdd Dictionary Search Engine

Now, whenever you want to search for a word, simply type d in your address bar, press tab and enter the word you’re looking for.

Google is chuck full of information, if you know how to ask.Animal  Google Search

3. If you’re using Chrome, you may also install the Google Dictionary extension, available from the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, you can simply double-click any word on a web page and you’ll get a pop-up with the definition.

Double-click any word to get its definition.NewImage
Or click the toolbar for any other word.NewImage

So there you go, three cool ways to expand your vocabulary. What about you? Do you have any tips on using Google? Leave your comment below and share this article with your friends.

 

76 iPad apps for kids, as recommended by Robert Scoble’s Google+ readers

If you’re looking for some great iPad apps to keep your kids entertained, look no further than this list of recommended titles.

Over on Google+, Robert Scoble asked his followers about what apps their kids were using… I’ve compiled the list with descriptions, screen shots and direct links to the iTunes store for your convenience – and added a few of my favorites. Check the original article for comments and reasons for each title.

Continue reading 76 iPad apps for kids, as recommended by Robert Scoble’s Google+ readers

Integrating Buffer into your iPad Twitter workflow

Frustrated that you can’t use Buffer from within your media consumption apps? Zite? Instapaper?

Read on to learn how to integrate Buffer into your info-pr0n apps for easy one-click, queued tweets.

Buffer is a web service that lets you schedule your tweets so they are published at pre-set times throughout the day.
Buffer schedules your tweets

I regularly read Zite and Flipboard in the morning and retweet anything I find interesting. At night, it’s time for Instapaper. While browsing throughout the day I use the Buffer bookmarklet to make sure my tweets go into my publish queue. No such luck when using Zite, Flibpoard or Instapaper since they’re not integrated with Buffer.

So I end up publishing a ton of info early in the morning and late at night, which may not be the best approach.

How can I use Buffer from within Zite, Instapaper and Flipboard if it’s not integrated into them?

I’ve found a nice workaround using a web service called IFTTT (ifttt.com – If This, Then That) that allows you to create a workflow using a number of web apps, such as Delicious, Instapaper, Gmail, etc. [Hit me up for invites if you want to try it.]

The idea is to create a one-click workflow that allows you to share content through your Buffer queue without having to re-format e-mails, copy, paste or any extra steps you might be needing at the moment.

ifttt puts the internet to work for you by creating tasks that fit this simple structure:Using IFTTT to integrate Buffer with your iPad twitter workflowThink of all the things you could do if you were able to define any task as: when something happens (this) then do something else (that).

My IFTTT setup:

I’ve created two tasks that solve the Buffer issue for Zite and Instapaper.

I’ve connected IFTTT to my Delicious account, my Instapaper account and my Gmail account.

There’s 3 bits of magic that help make this happen:

  1. Instapaper offers an RSS feed of your liked items.
  2. Zite posts to your Delicious account using a via:zite tag.
  3. Buffer offers you an email address where you can send your tweets to queued.

Now, on IFTTT create two tasks:

1. Send Delicious bookmarks from Zite to Buffer:

if [there’s a new bookmark tagged via:zite in your Delicious account] then [send an e-mail with the bookmark from your Gmail account to Buffer’s e-mail address]

Now all you need to do to share articles from within the Zite app is click on the Save to Delicious button.

2. Send liked Instapaper items to Buffer:

Using IFTTT to integrate Buffer with your iPad twitter workflowUse a New feed item from channel to check your Instapaper Liked Items feed.

if [there are new items on your Instapaper liked feed] then [send an e-mail with the article from your Gmail account to Buffer’s e-mail address].

You’ll find your Instapaper Liked Items feed at the bottom of your Instapaper Liked page, where it says This folder’s RSS.

Just like any article in Instapaper and off it goes into your Buffer queue (please note that Instapaper takes a while to refresh your RSS feed, so this may not be instantaneous – not that it matters, since you’re queuing them for later anyway).

In both cases, set the e-mail’s subject to the title of the bookmark/article ({{title}}) and the body to the url ({{url}}). You can edit to your liking to add additional info to your tweets.

For Flipboard, we can take advantage that Buffer’s email address begins with “add” and the emails are formatted in a way that plays nice with Buffer. Simply select Email Link, begin typing “add” until autocomplete shows the Buffer address (usually at the top) and send away. (The reason I don’t use this same approach with Zite is that Zite truncates the article title when e-mailing).

There you go. Buffer integrated with my most-used info-pr0n apps. Sweet.

Use this link to create your own Buffer account and receive one extra tweet space in your buffer: http://bufferapp.com/r/e32e1

How do you integrate Buffer into your daily workflow? Let me know in the comments.

And if you enjoyed this post, please retweet it and follow me on Twitter @cgranier.

Creating a Shortcode for the Organize Series WordPress Plugin

Insert this code into your WordPress functions.php file (or custom_functions.php if you’re using Thesis like I am) to enable a quick way to display a series of articles created with the Organize Series plugin.

function get_thumb_series( $atts ) {
	extract( shortcode_atts( array(
		'ser_id' => false
	), $atts ) );
	if ('ser_id' == false){
		return false;
	}
 	global $post, $orgseries;
	$series_post = array();
	$posts_in_series = array();
	$settings = $orgseries->settings;
	$ser = $atts['ser_id'];
	$result = '<div class="episode-list">';
		$series_post = get_objects_in_term($ser, 'series'); 
		$posts_in_series = get_series_order($series_post, 0, $ser, FALSE);
		foreach($posts_in_series as $seriespost) { 
				$result .= token_replace(stripslashes($settings['series_post_list_post_template']), 'other', $seriespost['id'], $ser_ID);
		}
		$result .= '</div>';
		return $result;
}
add_shortcode( 'get-ts', 'get_thumb_series' );

Usage

On any post or page (and possibly anywhere else) where you want to list a particular series, enter the following shortcode:

[get-ts ser_id='n']

where n is the ID of the series you want to display (you can find this in the Manage Series admin page).

So, for instance, if you want to display a list of posts contained in a series with ID=10, you’d enter the following in the text of the post or page:

[get-ts ser_id='10']

Why and How did I do this

I’m using the wonderful Organize Series plugin on a site I’m working on to display hundreds of TV episodes together in a logical arrangement. As part of my CMS strategy, I needed a way to display the content of a series on a page that is not a part of the series.

Suppose you have all the episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” organized in a series so that you can jump from one to the next in a logical order and not be constrained by a blog’s chronological ordering system. If you want to create a page with additional info about the show, there’s no clear way to add the episode list to the page. This Shortcode will allow you to do just that.

The Organize Series plugin includes a file filled with useful functions (orgSeries-template-tags.php in the plugin’s folder). Figuring out how to put all that info to good use was a bit harder, since Organize Series now keeps all their support forums behind a pay-wall. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine solved that by letting me look at some older pages from back when the support forums where open.

Further help came from Aaron Jorbin’s post on WordPress Shortcodes – A how to by example.

The nice thing about this Shortcode is that you can edit the output to suit your needs. The reason I called the function get_thumb_series is that I originally wanted to generate a list of episodes with a thumbnail next to each one. I still haven’t done that, but there’s nothing keeping you from changing the function to return whatever it is you need. I’m currently using the default functions within orgSeries-template-tags.php (and the function itself is an abridged version of get_series_posts()), but will eventually add my own to return just the information I need about every episode (thumbnails, air dates, duration, etc).

I’ll add links to example pages once the site goes live. In the meantime, let me know if this article was helpful to you and feel free to post any fixes or updates.

TuneUp for iTunes Review

Is your iTunes library filled with tracks identified by “Track 01,” “Track 02,” “Various Artists,” “Unknown Album” and so on? Are your eyes sore from looking at all those missing covers when using Cover Flow? If so, then read on; TuneUp might just be the tool you need to clean up your music library once and for all.

TuneUp Logo

TuneUp is a music library management tool for iTunes that will help you identify all your un/mislabeled tracks, find missing cover art and even tell you when your favorite band is playing in town.

Once installed, TuneUp will launch itself any time you run iTunes and dock to the right of the iTunes window. Once there, a simple drag-and-drop from iTunes will get the magic going. TuneUp creates an acoustic fingerprint of each track and uses that to compare it against a massive online database of songs. It then uses this information to fill out the ID3 tags in your iTunes music collection.

So, how good is it? In short, it’s very good – almost magical. Users of the Shazam iPhone app already know what I’m talking about. That said, it’s not automatic, it won’t find every song and it won’t get every song right.

I ran an initial test with 101 unidentified songs. Nine minutes later it was done. On this first test:

  • 30 tracks were not found.
  • It tends to identify songs as part of compilation albums and not the original albums (this has been fixed in a more recent version).
  • It misidentified “Desert Rose (Melodic Club Mix)” as “Desert Roses & Arabian Rhythms” instead of “Desert Rose (Club Mix)” by Sting, from the album Desert Rose.
  • It correctly identified a number of obscure Venezuelan songs.
  • It identified a remix of Don’t Stop by No Doubt as a “Thunderclap” from a sound effects album.

After this initial test, I contacted the TuneUp crew to see what was up.

It turns out TuneUp creates its acoustic fingerprint using the first ten seconds of each song. This can lead to some interesting errors. In the case of the No Doubt song, that particular remix begins with a thunderclap sound – no amount of magic could identify it correctly. Shazam (on the iPhone) uses whatever part of the song you’re currently listening to, so the matches tend to be more accurate. It’d be nice if TuneUp randomized the part of the track it uses for fingerprinting. During informal tests, I found Shazam would give more satisfactory results than TuneUp; unfortunately, Shazam does not integrate with iTunes.

I was told a new version of TuneUp was available that gives you the option to avoid compilation albums so I downloaded it and ran even more tests.

This time I threw 442 tracks at it. It couldn’t find 46 and misidentified about ten.

Once again, it worked quite well, correctly identifying and cleaning most of my tracks. Even though it has a very good undo function, you can’t really use the Save All function. I felt much more comfortable making sure each song had been correctly identified (which of course makes the process a whole lot longer).

Of note during the extended test:

  • It correctly identified obscure groups like the Tufts Belzebubs (Go Jumbos!) and Venezuelan folk songs like “Alcaraván Compañero” (which I highly recommend you listen to).
  • Cat Stevens’s “Peace Train” from the album “Remember Cat Stevens” (according to Shazam) was id’d as belonging to the album “1971 – Das Jahr und seine 20 Songs.” I found that TuneUp’s database has a preference for non-US albums.
  • Several tracks were identified as another track from the same album. This is likely a problem with the database. Among these: “One Fine Day” id’d as “His So Fine” and “Who’s Got My Back” id’d as “Don’t Stop Dancing” by Creed.
  • “Azul” from Cristian Castro was id’d as “Azul Gris” – a different song from a different album by the same artist.
  • Sometimes, the images offered as album art were flagged as non-compatible. Picking a different image from the drop-down list usually cleared this issue.

All in all, TuneUp is an excellent power tool for your iTunes library. Be prepared to spend some time with your music library, though. In the end, you’ll be glad you did and your music library will be much more useful (and all that new album art? it looks great on your iPod!).

If I gave out stars on this blog, I’d give TuneUp 4 out of 5.

Available for Mac and Windows. Go give it a try… meanwhile, I’ve got 1700 tracks with no album information that need cleaning.

(Disclaimer: TuneUp gave me a Gold subscription so that I could perform this review. The free version is limited to cleaning 100 tracks.)

How to send group emails from your iPhone

UPDATED: Now works with most email services and eliminates the Invalid Address dialog box. Thanks to commenter YF, Luke for the fix.

Ever wanted to send an email or photo to a pre-defined group of contacts on your iPhone? This trick will let you create unlimited email groups (or distribution lists).

It’s a good thing the iPhone now has cut-and-paste, as it makes this trick a lot easier to implement. Here’s hoping the iPhone engineers don’t take three more revisions to add group emailing.

This trick was inspired by a workaround I found for Gmail back when it didn’t allow us to create groups or distribution lists (See: Creating distribution lists in GMail).

To begin, go into the Notes app in your iPhone and type all the email addresses you wish to include in the group, separating each with a comma.

UPDATE: Use the following format when typing your e-mail addresses to avoid the Invalid Addresses dialog or AOL/Comcast mail server errors.

name1<email1>,name2<email2>,name3<email3>,namen<emailn>

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Alternatively, you can type this list in your computer, copy it into the body of an email and retrieve it in your iPhone. The reason we need to type the addresses and copy them is because you can’t type commas in the email field of the Contacts app.

Select all the addresses and copy them to the iPhone‘s clipboard:

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Go into the Contacts application and create a new contact for your distribution list. Type the group’s name into the contact’s Company field. Use something simple to type later on, such as GF for your family group or GW for your work group.

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Paste the addresses you copied before into the contact’s email field and, if you like, change the field’s label to a custom value like “group mail.”

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Go into your Mail app and create a new message. Type the group name in the To: field until it shows up in the list below, then select it:

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

The group’s name will now show up in the To: field.

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Type your message and send it. The following dialog will pop up. Ignore it and hit Send once more:

UPDATE: With the updated instructions this dialog will not pop-up! Nor will you receive an error message from your ISP’s mail server.

Screenshots for article on using email groups in iPhone Mail

Presto! Instant distribution lists on your iPhone. The beauty of this trick is that it works anywhere you use the Mail app… so you can now send multiple photos to multiple contacts at once.

7 Missing Features from the iPhone 3G

Apple’s announcement of the new iPhone 3G puts to rest all the crazy rumors about new features it may include. Here are seven features I was waiting for but never materialized.

iPhone.jpg

1. Flash Support

The iPhone’s Safari browser still lacks support for Adobe Flash, so it seems connection speed wasn’t really the issue.

2. Cut-and-Paste

Nope. You still can’t copy-and-paste text in the iPhone. I’m guessing Apple has some security concerns about allowing cutting and pasting of data (and Flash applications. See #1 above).

3. Network Independent

There was no mention of offering the iPhone unlocked so that you can use it with your favorite GSM provider. Apparently it’s still AT&T only in the US.

4. Video or a Better Camera

The iPhone 3G still sports a 2-megapixel camera with no video support. Nokia offers a 5-MP camera with very good video support, so why can’t Apple?

5. Landscape Email

Why can’t I turn my iPhone sideways to read emails?

6. Wi-Fi syncing

Although Mobile Me will go a long way towards syncing the information on my iPhone with my desktop, I still don’t understand why the iPhone can’t automatically sync itself when it connects to my home wifi network. Why the need for a USB cable?

7. iPhone Modem

Why can’t I use my iPhone as a modem? It connects to the internet via cellular and it connects to my Mac via USB or Bluetooth… Then, why can’t it patch me through to the Internet?

In conclusion… other than 3G speed and true GPS, it doesn’t seem like the new iPhone does much more than the old one (which doesn’t make it a bad phone, specially at the new price; it just doesn’t make a must upgrade, since most of the cool stuff comes with the 2.0 software upgrade, available free for all iPhones).

Léelo en español en: 7 Funciones que le Faltan al iPhone 3G

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