Tag Archives: Electronic Toys… er… Tools

Google gives me a Sad, Part II

Previously, I voiced my unpleasantness about Google discontinuing Reader.

Several of you who commented on that post offered alternative rss feed reader suggestions, as did several tech blogs I follow. The end of one particular tech article caught my eye. It was about creating my own syncing RSS reader.

Hmm.

Since I’m more a hands-on kind of guy, I started researching what it would take to host my own RSS reader.

And what do you know, there’s a project called Tiny Tiny RSS that is just that!

And thanks to a conveniently timed post on Lifehacker, I didn’t have to wade through it on my own. Kind of. Someone was nice enough to have documented how to do it.

Which I followed.

And now I have my own syncing RSS reader hosted on my own webserver! No more Google or any other third-party company to change their mind on discontinuing another piece of software I use.

Sadly, there is not a native iOS app. Yet. (There is an Android app.) But I’m betting that will change soon, especially with Google Reader being forcibly retired. And if not, I may just delve into learning how to create an iOS app and do it myself.

In the meantime, I can read it through Safari via iOS just fine with the help of a plugin in called “ttrss-mobile“. It works better than a couple of the apps I was using before, and I don’t have the weird switch over to Safari that I had to do to comment on some of the blogs I read. I did have to do a little odd configuration change to make it work properly. But that’s because I set up Tiny Tiny RSS a little… oddly. It’s how I do.

For tablet users, the native digest mode works well on my iPad. Once it was enabled, that is.

Hopefully this information will help some of you who are also experiencing the sadness of what will be the loss of Google Reader.

And as an added bonus, now I don’t need two separate apps to sort my regular RSS feed from the porn RSS feed. 😉

Until next time...
Erik

Google gives me a Sad

So I was reading my RSS feed today in my desktop browser, when this popped up when I refreshed the page:
no_more_google_reader_ed

What the hell, Google?

This gives me a sad.

no_more_google_reader-3

I have two different apps I use to read blogs on my iPhone as well that pull their data from Google Reader. Now I have to go find a new RSS reader for both my desktop use, and for reading when I’m on my iPhone.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Until next time...
Erik

Random Bits

The Husbear has been in bed almost all day today, with the exception of getting up a few times to throw up out of either the top end or his bottom end. I think he’s got the flu.

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In the old days, we had a bell that we could put near the bed and ring when we needed something. Today, we have text messaging.

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Aren’t moonbeams technically sunbeams? After all, it’s just reflected sunlight since the moon itself isn’t doesn’t emit light.

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What did I do before I had AirPlay? Especially since the receiver we has is AirPlay compatible? I can stream music and movies from my computer or my iPhone or my iPad directly to the receiver.

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Our buddy Dwayne moved into his new home here in Northwest Arkansas last night. We are glad he’s now living here in the area, and we’re glad he’s living close to us.

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I’m woefully behind on reading blogs. Well, some blogs. I’m using the shotgun approach to reading, and it’s not seeming to do me very well.

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I should just change my voicemail greeting to “Please hang up and text me.” I hate talking on the phone.

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My wounds from the glass shattering are healing nicely. As is the spider bite on my butt.

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When two men marry each other does anyone change their last name?

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Sometimes there aren’t enough hours in a day. Actually there’s enough hours, I just need to better manage my time.

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Has anyone actually ever tried to herd cats?

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Until next time...
Erik

Two Steps Back…

I feel sorry for anyone who received a new computer for Christmas that had Windows 8 pre-installed. Maybe “sorry” isn’t the correct word. Saying I mourn for them would be more appropriate.

Watch this. It’s totally worth the watch. Trust me on this.


(YouTube link)

That’s one way to do product testing. I do something similar myself. That, or I just hand the device to the Husbear and watch him. 😉

For several technical reasons, I am STILL using Windows XP on all but one of my seven studio computers. And the home computer is running Windows 7, albeit begrudgingly. Mostly because it came pre-installed and I felt no technical desire to roll it back to XP.

After playing with Windows 8, I have zero desire to upgrade anything to that OS. It feels clunky, at best. And the user interface is horribly ugly. Flat. Boring. It’s like taking a leap backwards and jumping into 16-bit land. Yuck. Add to that I had a similar experience as the lady in the video. I’m a tech guy, still! And I was sober!

And for all you die-hard Apple people who are thinking about saying “Get a Mac”: don’t. Unless you’re prepared to fork out for new hardware for me. To the tune of 8 machines. And don’t get me started on the lack of non user-upgradability of it. While iOS does what I need on my iPhone, as far as the desktop implementation goes I am still not a big fan. Maybe that will change in a few more iOS cycles. Maybe.

I am seriously considering switching over to some flavor of Linux, possibly Ubuntu. A slight learning curve for me, but hopefully in my advanced technological age it won’t be that difficult. And it works on all my existing hardware.

Until next time...
Erik

From 6 to 5…

This post is for Homer, since he likes reading about software version updates. 😉

After installing the latest, greatest, newly released iOS 6 on my iPhone 4S that all the techboys have been orally masturbating about, I quickly determined that I hated it.

Two big reasons: 1) the Apple Maps app that replaced the Google Maps app sucks sweaty Tijuana donkey balls; and 2) something in this update is sucking the juice out of my battery like Whitney sucking crack off the side of a bathtub.

It’s not like I really use the original Map app that much. But the little I did use the new Apple one convinced me I hated it. I know it’s early in it’s life, but it should have been an option. It looks like once again corporate politics gets in the way of user choice. Wait, it’s an Apple product. There is no user choice. 😉

But the battery drainage? Huge issue for me! In a matter of just two hours of not even using my phone, my battery was completely drained. Kaput! WTF?

So, I did a restore from backup via iTunes to see if maybe something loaded incorrectly when I did the original over-the-air update. Same problem.

Then I just nuked the entire thing and reloaded the OS without restoring from backup. Still having battery drain. Damn.

I did what any former tech guy would do. I rolled my iPhone back to iOS 5.1.1! So much better. No more Whitney battery drainage!

As it always seems to be with an iOS upgrade, it would appear I’m not the only one having issues with battery drainage according to most of the forums I went looking through. So I’ll just wait. It’s not like there’s really anything in this update that I just needed to have anyway.

If anyone else needs to go back to 5.1.1, what follows is how you do it. I had to Google a bit to find the information, so I thought I’d put it here in case I need to do it again. 😉

  1. Download the iOS 5.1.1 IPSW Firmware for your iPhone 4S from Apple’s download servers.
  2. Connect your iPhone via USB and launch iTunes.
  3. Put you iDevice in DFU mode. [Press and hold the Home button and the Power button at the same time. After 10 seconds release the Power button. Continue holding the Home button until iTunes displays a message telling you that it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.]
  4. Your iPhone should show up in iTunes. Hold down Shift and click on the Restore button, then point it to iOS 5.1.1 IPSW file. Then wait. And wait.

And hopefully you did a backup before you installed iOS 6. Because that’s what you’ll need to restore your information from it. Or else you’ll be reloading your apps and everything else from scratch.

Until next time...
Erik