Safari 4 Beta

By now this isn’t new at all, But I have been using it for a few weeks now. The one thing I noticed is how fast it was. Safari always seamed to be a speedy browser. Since i started using Firefox, Chrome, and Safari more often during the day i started to wonder what some of the main differences were.

I’m not going to talk about the Acid 3 Test, nor about standards. What im going to mention here is performance in a system sense. Mainly how much memory these browsers are using.

Last week i was getting fed up with Firefox and it using close to 800mb of ram, this was due to a memory leak. I found that my updating to version v3.0.7 that the issues was more or less resolved. As I’m writing this Firefox is using 387mb of ram.

So I took all the tabs i had open in Firefox and opened/logged into the same sites in each of the browsers.
Read on..

Why DreamHost? I’ll tell you why!

Promo Code: 411a for a free domain name for one year with registration.

I have had a new people ask my “Why did you leave Media Temple?”.

Well to put it softly, I was unhappy. I moved to Media Temple about 4 years ago. I was at a host with a reseller account so i could manage multiple domain names, and at the time that was really the only way to do it. When Media Temple lowered there prices and offered Unlimited Domains for lightly less than i was paying i was glad to move. After all if its good enough for Sony, Nike, and Starbucks it should be good enough for me.

I didn’t have many problems in the beginning, nothing to crazy. The up time was great speed seamed decent. That was until this last year. I had a site completely disappear, At a charge of $10 an hour i could have my site restored from 2 week old backups. I was lucky and found an archive file under another domain name. I was told they cant create archives, i thought that was strange since i was able to make them. Nothing in there logs indicated this action even took place.

Next think i knew i was getting intermittent 500 Internal Server Error. Nothings changing on my end and of course it never happened when support had a look.

Next was the incredibly slow page load times. I’m talking 15-30 seconds to load the main page of my site. This i was told was doe to Wordpress Plugins. I already use page caching but considered there could be a rouge plugin aching for server domination.
Alas this was not the case.

I had the same slow load times for other sites i have and even a simple php file with a few functions on it.
Read on..

BUG Labs vs Liquidware

I have been a big fan of Make: and did some searching on modal based electronics and came across BUG Labs. Plug the bits together hook it to your computer and do some light programming and your creation is alive.

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine. Each BUGmodule represents a specific gadget function (ex: a camera, a keyboard, a video output, etc.). You decide which functions to include and BUG takes care of the rest, letting you try out different combination quickly and easily. With BUG and the integrated programming environment/online community (BUGnet), anyone can build, program and share innovative devices and applications. We don’t define the final products – you do.

Unfortunately for me the price seems a bit steep for the modules, $79 for a 2mp camera? $99 for a GPS receiver? there prices seem to mimic something of the actual product. Granted you can just plug a Garmon GPS into a pint and shoot Camera, but there are alternatives. Base Station + GPS + Camera + Viewfinder = $549 for a low resolution digital camera with GPS. you can buy a GPS so i think until the modules and base station become a bit more reasonable you won’t see me using them.

Liquidware on the other hand seems to be a bit better bang for the buck, not to mention it runs on the Arduino controller, Liquidware bases there system on a plug in component system as well but for $249 you get many more practical units that can be multipurpose.

I also like how the modules are not all dolled up and concealed behind a plastic case. Liquidware also seems to have a better selection of modules but not Camera or GPS modules, that’s not to say some Googling won’t find what you need. In a matter of minutes i found a number of Shields to be used with the system including GPS, WIFI, and Servo Controllers.

I would love to get a hold of some components and see what i can make.

Acronis Migrate Easy 7.0

I recently lucked out and managed to copy a bunch of data off of a RAID drive that was giving me Delayed Write Failed messages as well as making some non standard noises like clicking scratching and so on. So i bought a 1 Terabyte hard drive and began the process of copying everything from my old computer to the new one.

It took about a day to copy all the data (around 400 gigs) over the network, once everything was copied off I made sure all folders matched in size with original. I also found it was better to copy in smaller chunks. The network is slower than having the hard drive located inside the computer I didn’t want to change another error, although I did have a few . Read on..

MacFuse + NTFS-3G

If any one has ever had a PC and like most PC’s you probably had a hard drive. On that hard drive you may have had some Data. Like me i had Data on a Drive that was formatted in Windows NTFS. I also use a Mac at work. OS x is able to read FAT or File Allocation Table as i just learned. But im not going to explain the reasons on why NTFS is better than FAT16 or 32 or vice versa.

OS X is only able to look at a NTFS drive, it can not read data nor can it write to it. I saw in the “System/Library/Filesystems” profiles for other formats. I did some Googling and found an NTFS-3G package for Mac OS X, featuring automount of volumes and good integration with OS X.

In order to install NTFS-3D i needed to download and install MacFUSE. MacFUSE allows you to extend Mac OS X’s native file handling capabilities via 3rd-party file systems. MacFUSE on its own allows for command line access, not my thing.

After a reboot i tested the NFTS drive and was able to do all actions, Read/Write/Delete with no problems.

One thing to note if you have a hot swap drive on Windows it will not open on OSx unless you actually eject it, unplugging it will cause a “Unclean” removal and OSx will not read it. it must me Ejected in order to work!

I have not done a Speed test but i was pleased 400mb in ~ 1min.

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/2008/12/ntfs-3g-15130.html

DD WRT Saved my WIFI

Last year i bought the Linksys WRT150N 4 port Ethernet, with Wireless N. Shortly after Linksys released a Gigabyte version the WRT310N Router.  My wife’s Mac Book’s wireless connection was less than stable and would constantly lose connection.  The store said it had to do with the Mac Book and not the router, even thought the router was only 10 feet away.  We put up with the poor connections until i got a Mac Book Pro and we both had the same issues but never at the same time. Strange i thought.

Linksys support was less than steller. Couldn’t do anything unless i was at home, and when i was home they would not return my support request.  I was talking to the IT guy at work and he mentioned DD-WRT an open source firmware for various routers.

After flashing my router and setting up my port forwarding and triggering, locking it down.

I must say that the interface is much better and does not require rebooting the router after every change. You can simply apply and then save all changes after. It also uses an AJAX interface that makes things snappier.

Even if you don’t have any issues with your router i would suggest looking into DD-WRT, its said that a $60 router can have the features of a $600 router!

Ponoko – Lazor Cut DIY

Laser cutting seams to be all the rage these days. As it should, its really cool. There is a company called Ponoko that specializes in Laser cutting DIY. The basic idea is send them a picture, choose your material, and receive the cut product in the mail.

You can choose from Acrylic, PETG, Styrene, Hardboard, MDF, Plywood, Veneer MDF (Double-sided), and Whiteboard. You can choose to Cut Through or just etch the surface.

You can even draw a picture and upload a photo to there site if you don’t posses the necessary software to create your art. They have really detailed instructions and templates available to use.

There is a store to buy products from other sellers, or you can even sell your own. Think cafe Press for Lasers.

Check them out at Ponoko.

Google Chrome

I just installed Google Chrome and am writing this post in it. It has a lot of interesting features like dynamic tabs and most viewed pages and recently closed tabs.  i had a look at a few websites that i know had issues in other browsers and rendered fine. it also loads much faster the any of the other top 3 browsers. Unfortunately the BETA is only available for Windows.  At first glance it seams to be a Feature rich browsers with a minimal interface.

Download it.

iPhone comes to Canada!

The new G3 iPones were announced today and as a result has made accessing the Apple site and Rogers fairly slow and hard.

One of the coolest things besides the G3 speeds and the [[GPS]] is its enterprise ready so your exchange server account will work perfectly. You also have the delima of choosing black or white. What one will you choose?

Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again.

Source: http://www.apple.com/ca/iphone/features/