Derek Watterson

Magic Trackpad Review

2012-04-02T13:23:38Z

I love the Magic Trackpad with all of it’s cool gestures but wasn’t excited about the $69 price tag. So I tried some apps to turn iOS devices into a trackpad. I learned those apps weren’t a real solution.

I’ve been dealing with a slight bit of carpal tunnel and figured if the trackpad would help with that situation it would be worth the $69. A week later I haven’t seen much relief, but it’s been very nice to use my left hand to do things when my right hand begins to ache. It seems much easier to be ambidextrous with the trackpad than it is with a mouse.

My biggest concern going into using the trackpad on a regular basis was the idea that the whole trackpad is a button. I love my trackpad on my 2007 Macbook Pro. I was actually concerned about upgrading to a newer macbook because I wasn’t sure if I’d like the idea of the whole trackpad being a button, mostly for the sake of clicking and dragging.

If you have the same concern you’ll be pleased to know that it take no time at all to get used to and it’s far better than the trackpad on my 2007 Macbook pro. I’m amazed how small my MBP trackpad looks now! For clicking and dragging it’s still just as possible to use one finger to depress the trackpad and another to drag, but it’s often easier to just push and drag with one finger. So much so, that I found my self trying to push and drag on my old trackpad. That’s when I realized I was hooked! I always hated using windows trackpads before. Now the situation will be even worse.

The quality of the trackpad makes it worth the $69. Probably why you see that most reviews are 4 or 5 stars whereas the Apple batteries and cords get 2 stars on average with high prices and low durability. The aluminum is beautiful and the glass is perfectly crafted to make it as easy as possible to point and click and drag & drop. The magic trackpad is a purchase that you wont regret!

Save Hardrive Space by Removing Mail

2012-04-02T12:59:45Z

Hard drive space getting tight? You may not be aware that you are storing large quantities of mail on your hard drive. I found out that I was using 12 GB of space for the sake of offline viewing which virtually never happens. If you’d like to reclaim that space you can go to mail preferences then to accounts and select “Don’t keep copies of any messages” under “Keep copies of messages for offline viewing”. You may choose to take a more conservative approach and select one of the other options. I ended up opting for the option of keeping all the messages but not keeping the attachments. That cut the footprint in half.

Drupal Module Path Check

2012-03-03T15:37:38Z

Ever upload new modules to Drupal but you don’t see the new module files taking effect? Chances are that you have more than one of the same module. You can check to see what the path is for a specific module using the pattern below and inserting it into a page.tpl.php or node.tpl.php file:

In this case I wanted to find the path to the active views module as I had uploaded a newer version but Drupal was still detecting (and using) an out of date version. This can happen when you have the same module uploaded twice because you have different file names or when the module is within child directories of the /sites/all/modules folder. The best practice for placing modules is to have contrib & custom folders within the /sites/all/modules folder and put the modules from the open source community into the contrib folder and to put your own custom modules into the custom folder. The “core” modules belong in the modules folder located at the root of the Drupal install. DO NOT EVER PUT CORE MODULES into the sites/all/modules directory!

Mouse Lite iOS App Review

2012-02-20T20:15:51Z

The Keyboard covers the splash screen so you can't use the program if you accidentally exit.

I was wanting to find an app that could turn my iPod into a trackpad as the magic track pad goes for $68. Apps that turn your iOS device into a trackpad are much cheaper, starting free and topping out around $5.

In the end I found that while it’s cool to use your iPhone or iPod as a mouse, the screen size and iOS features limit the trackpad functionality and an iOS device can’t be used as a replacement for the magic trackpad.

App Pros:

Quick connection. Install the software on your computer and the iOS finds your computer lickity split.
A lot of what you love. It double clicks with two fingers, scrolls with two fingers plus it will zoom in and out by pinching or anti-pinching.

App Cons:

The whole trackpad can’t click and so you have to click the on screen button to click & drag which I was never able to pull off successfully. Obviously this is just a limitation of the hardware.
Doesn’t work with keyboard combinations. I always use the apple key with a click to select multiple options or to open link in a new window. You can’t do that with this app.
STAY IN THE APP! If you leave the app then reopen it you’ll see the upgrade screen, but the keyboard covers it. You’ve got to completely log out of the app (pullup the multitasking list and remove the program) to use it again.
Multitasking Bar. If you start at the top and move your mouse down this will bring up the iOS multitasking screen. Can’t blame the app for this, just a disadvantage of an app over the trackpad.

Outside the Box Dropbox Ideas

2012-02-16T03:06:13Z

Dropbox is a fantastic tool for cloud services that allows you to keep files in sync across multiple computer & devices or to share large files. The files are encrypted and so the service is supposedly very secure. For free plans they only start you off at 2GB but you can gain an extra 250mb for each person you refer.

In case you don’t think your life could be any better by using dropbox here are a few things I use it for every day, some that you’ve probably thought of and some that are thinking “outside the box”.

Sharing large files using the public folder.
Sharing project files for collaboration.
Sharing a website dev environment (used together with WAMP or MAMP)
Accessing important files from a mobile device.
Keeping files that you want to have available on any computer or device.
Adding photos from your phone or mobile device to your computer (in place of USB cord)

I’d love to hear any other ideas out there. I’m also curious how Dropbox compares to SugarSync and how many of theses tasks SugarSync can also do as they give you 5GB right out of the box and 500 MB for each person you refer!

Manjar Blanco Recipie

2012-02-16T02:47:26Z

This is probably the best topping to have on a crape. We always call it Manjar Blanco but it’s also called dulce de leche. It’s one of my favorite recipies so I figure it’s worth sharing with the world:

Ingredients

Whole milk: 4 cups
Sugar: 1 1/4 cups
Vanilla: 1 teaspoon
Baking soda: 1/4 teaspoon

Directions

Add all the ingredients to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir well to dissolve the sugar completely.
Set the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to very low and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened and caramelized, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. May take up to 3 hours.
Transfer to a clean glass jar and refrigerate. Will keep for 1-2 weeks.

Lomo Saltado

2012-02-16T02:47:53Z

There may not be a food I love more than Lomo Saltado so I’m posting the Lomo Saltado Recipie for everyone who’s also a fan.

Ingredients

Beef tenderloin: 1 1/2 pounds
Oil: 3 tablespoons
Red onion: 1 thinly sliced
Garlic, minced: 2 or 3 cloves
Ajís amarillos or other chile peppers: 2 or 3 in strips
Roma tomatoes:3 in strips
Soy sauce: 1/4 cup
Red wine vinegar: 4 tablespoons
Salt and pepper
French fries, freshly cooked : 1.5 pound or Hot cooked rice: about 6 cups
Peruvian Mayonase

Directions

Cut the beef against the grain into strips about 2 inches long and 1/4 inch thick. Fry the fries or rice.
Heat the oil over high flame in a large pot or wok until it shimmers. Add the beef and stir fry until it is just cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to a plate.
You may want to add more oil to the pot or wok. Return it to high heat and add the onion, peppers and garlic. Stir fry until the onion is cooked through, but still a little crunchy, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir fry for about 1 minute more. Return the beef to the pot or wok and salt and peper to taste.
Serve the Lomo Saltado over the Rice or French fries- or both depending on how much you want to indulge. If you really don’t care about fat go ahead and add some mayonnaise… Don’t judge me till you try it!

Drupal jCarousel & Galleria CSS

2012-02-03T04:16:57Z

I was surprised that when using the Drupal jCarousel module with Galleria that the Galleria plugin didn’t apply a jCarousel theme in it’s implementation so it doesn’t work right out of the box. So I modified this CSS file (the default jCarousel CSS) to work with Galleria. All you have to do is replace the plugin file with this one. It should work for files that are around 70px wide. All in all I’m impressed with the Galleria plugin and have found plenty of uses for it from displaying a portfolio to displaying a list of vehicles (with and without the jCarousel plugin). Once you get past the learning curve of the initial setup and quirks (such as replacing the CSS) it’s the easiest and best way to setup a gallery in Drupal where you need to have thumbnails.

Firefox Keeps Crashing (Fix)

2012-02-20T19:12:38Z

Your productivity drops dramatically when Firefox keeps crashing so I was determined to find a fix.

UPDATE: In my case the problem was firebug. When a update for firebug came out my problem was fixed. I still recommend taking a look at your profile if your Firefox install keeps crashing even after reinstalling as everything pertaining to your computer is stored in your profile.

The solution lies within your profile. Did you know you had a profile? It’s a folder that stores everything unique to your browser and you can access it by going to the help menu then to “Troubleshooting information”. From there you’ll see a link under Application Basics to show your profile in the Finder.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was that I removed that kept Firefox from continuing to crash, but I took a good look at the directory and removed everything that I knew I wasn’t using such as plugins or addons that I had already uninstalled such as Fire Uploader & SEO quake. The result is that Firefox doesn’t crash anymore! I’m thrilled. Here’s the problems I was having so that you can diagnose whether or not this fix will help you:

Firefox would crash whenever I tried to open just about anything using flash. Firefox would crash when I tried to open pages with a lot of javascript. An of course Firefox would keep crashing when it was least convenient.

Good Value Hosting

2012-02-16T02:48:17Z

As a web designer I’ve been able to have experience with a with a wide variety of hosting providers and found it’s hard to find good value hosting. I’ve read all the articles about ***Sucks, Company X VS Company & written some too. After all my good an bad experiences with hosting I’ve come to the conclusion that good web hosting doesn’t come cheap! In fact, if you’re paying under $7/mo for your hosting and spend anytime on your own website, at some point you’re probably going to think to yourself, or more likley out loud, “My Hosting Sucks!”. And chances are you’ll be right.

Companies like GoDaddy provide cheap hosting and tout high uptime numbers when in reality they have their servers so loaded that most users are never going to stick around to see your webpage load. The bottom line is that if you or your business depend on the web you’ll need to be spending at least $20/mo on web hosting. You won’t be getting the most economic deal, but you’ll be getting the best webhosting value.

So the best value I know of is Rackspace hosting via Barton Consulting starting around $24/mo. The best part we (yes, I work there too) manage everything for you so you don’t need to know anything about setting up virtual machines are hard rebooting a server.