class_navigation_for helper
# The css classes used are for use with the Blueprint css framework
def class_navigation_for(object = nil, options = {})
unless object.nil?
options = {
:class => ’span-24 class-navigation’,
}.merge!(options)
content_tag(:div, options) do
content_tag(:p) do
link_to “New #{object.to_s.titleize}”, eval(”new_#{object.to_s.downcase}_url”)
end
end
end
end
Rails flash messages dried up.
Im working on this so I can have less of this <%= flash[:notice] %> in my html templates.
def render_flash(flash)
[:notice, :warning].each do |key|
if flash.is_a?(Hash) && flash.has_key?(key) && !flash[key].blank?
content_tag(:span, :class => key.to_s.downcase) do
flash[key]
end
end
end
end
How to set your iPhone wallpaper from Safari
Open Safari and locate an image on the web.
Tap and hold your finger on the screen where the image
is being displayed. A menu will appear, tap save image. Press the home button on you iPhone to return to the home screen. Tap photos and select camera roll. Locate the new image(s) and select one, choose use as wallpaper. Another dialog will appear asking you to move and scale.
Once you have the correct position and size click done. You will now see your wallpaper when your lock screen appears.
DIY Desktop Virtual Reality Display on the cheap (Nintendo WII Only)
Johnny Lee, and his WIImote hacking tips has created a way to make 3D games (for the WII) a reality using DIY IR glasses. This is a really cool concept, the software tracks the movement of your head and adjusts the current display accordingly. I am definitely going to experiment with this technology.
You can also check out Johnny Lee’s website here.
Call for help! Ruby - On - Rails Shipping Gem
Hello everyone, I have been programming in Ruby using the Rails framework for a while now. However I have a situation where I am developing a shipping calculator for my applications using the Ruby “shipping gem”. The problem, at least I think, is the account number, username, password or all of the aforementioned attributes are incorrect. I have verified they are indeed correct and valid. I am getting an object returned to me in my code called the Shipping::ShippingError object. I am sure there is some kind of a message stored inside this object but I cannot access it because I think it is actually a Class. In short what I need to know is how do I, if at all extract the error from this Class? Object? so I can display it to the screen. Below is a code example.
The configuration file “shipping.yml”
#../../config/shipping.yml ups_account: XXXXX ups_user: XXXXX ups_password: XXXXX
The Shipping Controller “app/controllers/shipping_controller.rb”
#app/controllers/shipping_controller.rb
class ShippingController < ApplicationController
def quote
params = {
:zip => 54494,
:state => “Wisconsin”,
:weight => 1,
:sender_zip => 68801,
:sender_state = “Nebraska”,
:prefs => “#{RAILS_ROOT}/config/shipping.yml” }
@shipping = Shipping::UPS.new params
@errors = Shipping::ShippingError
#in the view we will show price like so @shipping.price
end
end
The view file “shipping/quote.rhtml”
Test Shipping This is a test of the UPS shipping code.Output = [<%= @shipping.price %>]
ff0000 Red Interactive - Hidden Character Codes
If you want to try a fun interactive chat visit Red Interactive. You can chat, and punch people, and even fly. This is a very fun site to visit. There are hidden characters in the site to. After some research I came up with all the codes which I am listing below.
Type any of the following codes into the chat message box exactly as shown on the left side of the equals sign below. Example if I want the camel I type “the last straw” exactly (without the quotes) into my message box and press enter ad my character will change. Have fun.
nay nay give me some hay = ed (Horse)
dead men tell no tales = nub (Pirate)
jiminy cricket! = hopper (Bug)
the last straw = cameljoe (Camel Man)
surley you jest = jester (Jester)
rumpelstiltskin is my name = unclesam (Uncle sam on stilts, he wont speak a word)
may i please have some blueberry pie? = gordon (Overweight man)
i shot a man in reno = jailbird (Bring back the convict, man with ball and chain)
i dreamt i was a butterfly = sun (Woman character that was removed, carries two fans)
eHow to find water in an emergancy
How to Find Water in an Emergency
This eHow has instructions for finding water in an emergancy. Water being so valuable it’s good to know how to find it in an emergancy situation and might sav your life.
I don’t know about step four?
Drink from your toilet’s reservoir tank as a last resort (”but not from the bowl“).
Preventing Bad Grease Monkeys from changing your prices in eCommerce sites
I spoke with Gina Trapani on Wednesday about my concerns on this issue. The problem is that many online shops are using hidden fields in forms to pass information such as pricing, shipping, and quantity to their online checkout systems. Now I love Google Checkout for its sheer simple integration methods, but there is also an option to auto approve the payment and this concerns me. So I am writing to you today to illustrate some of the methods I have came up with which will hopefully prevent this sort of attack. Here are three ways you can circumvent this little flaw in many online stores.
(more…)
Video wallpaper on any version of Vista or XP with VLC Player
A lot of people are switching to Vista for it’s great features. One of the great features is DreamScene which allows you to play high-definition video as your desktop wallpaper. I am stuck with XP for the time being and won’t be switching to Vista anytime soon. So I began looking around on the internet for an alternative to using videos as wallpaper. I found a quick tutorial on Digg on how to do just that. The best part about this little trick is that it will work on Windows XP, Windows Vista Home, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business Edition and maybe even a few other operating systems. Now I could link to the article and probably should, but that would just cause you to have to reload your browser and it’s really quite simple. So what I am going to do is try to illustrate the basic concept of this trick and also link to the article because there is a more in depth explaination of how to get this up and running. I have mentioned VLC Player in the past and many of it’s great features, but if you haven’t already downloaded your free copy the url is http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. Now to do this all you need to do is install VLC Player, open a video file, and right click and check “wallpaper” and thats it. You now have a beautiful animated background using video from your most recent vacation trip, or maybe your favorite movie. It’s that simple.
Bonus Tip:
More than likely you will not want your video to play just once when you are using it for this purpose. So you will need to tell VLC to loop the video in the playlist interface found under navigation in the toolbar menu. Also you may wish to disable the sound so it doesn’t drive you crazy after playing 99 times over and over. To do this goto audio and select disable. Thats it, you now have the great feature of DreameScene on your non-DreamScene compatible operating system.
Favorite picks for Open Source Applications
It’s no secret I love Open Source applications. Why? Well it’s really quite simple. When an application is Open Source you have much more control over how the application behaves and can easily customize it to your liking. Software that is not Open Source is similar to leasing a vehicle sure you own it, but you don’t have the right to fully pimp your ride. Below I have listed some of my favorite open source apps. Some are more promising than others and I am sure I have not covered all of the great open source apps out there. So to be fair if I missed any good ones please let me know in the comments.
- Firefox - Open source web browser with tons of great features, extensions, themes and more.
- Democracy Player - Open source media player that allows you to download torrents and play them in the same application. Democracy also supports a number of other great media formats.
- RSSOwl - A great little RSS reader.
- VLC - Handy video player that supports most video formats including Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, MPEG, VCD and etc.
- Audacity - Free audio editor packed with features. Enables copy and paste, audio filters and more.
- Notepad ++ Free full featured text editor. This one is great it supports syntax highlighting for 30 or so programming languages for all you programmers out there. Also see Scite (Ships with ROR) and Programmers Notepad.
- 7-Zip - Great little file archive tool that can open just about any archive file you through at it. Think of it as the swiss army knife of file archive utilities.
- Greasemonkey - Firefox Extension that allows you to execute your own Javascript files based on url locations. There are a lot of great Greasemonkey scripts already built that make this tool a must have for Firefox users.
Painless XML sitemap generation tool
Need an XML sitemap for your site but don’t want the hassel of doing it by hand? If so the XML Sitemap generator has got your back. The XML sitemap generator allows you to spider and create a sitemap for upto 500 pages and with their premium service you can create a sitemap for an unlimited number of pages. This is a really cool tool if you need to make a Google Sitemap for your site.
Going with the flow via Google TiSP beta?
I couldn’t believe my eyes this morning when I went to Google and seen a link stating “New! Get FREE breakthrough broadband with Google TiSP (BETA)” So I followed the link and found it to be a system for FREE wi-fi via the toilet. This is obviously somone’s joke but is it Google’s? I strongly doubt this is a real page made by Google. I am not sure whether their homepage was defaced or if this is just some sort of prank from our friends at Google. Regardless I took some screenshots as this page may not be up for long. See the screenshots below.
Link : Via Google http://www.google.com/tisp/
DIY Tip: Make your own magnetic acrylic Rubik’s cube
If you love the Rubik’s cube then why not make your own? Instructables has the low down on a low budget DIY acrylic see through magnetic Rubik’s cube project.
What you need: 27 3/4″ clear acrylic cubes are drilled with 108 3/16″ holes, fitted with 108 D32 neodymium disc magnets with proper polarities facing out from each, and assembled into a size-matched magnetic version of the original Rubik’s Cube.
The article explains how to plan the polarity of your magnets to ensure proper functionality. I thought this was very cool and really want to try it out. If anyone has already made one of these please let me know in the comments or send your photos to tips@timmatheson.com
Site of the day: Snacksby - Recipe search
Snacksby.com is an easy to use recipe suggestion search engine that provides quick, simple and easy to prepare recipes for those of you who procrastinate going grocery shopping. Simply enter the items you have on hand and Snacksby.com will make recipe suggestions based on those items. There are quite a few recipes available and some very interesting ones at that. Link
YouTube:Teach your self the “Ribbon Spread Card Trick”
Download of the day : Remove ads from MSN messenger with A-Patch
MSN has been tainted with ads in the contact list and message windows. There is a solution to removing these distractions for good over at apatch.org. A-Patch allows you to quickly select all the items you want to remove from your MSN messenger. You can easily remove items including ads, Whats Hot, Windows Live Branding and more. Via [apatch.org]
DIY Tips for a Spam-Free Inbox
Whether we like it or not, spam is a part of our digital lives. Personally I hate spam in my inbox. Guy Roberts, anti-spam research manager, McAfee, Inc. has some tips to help you avoid getting more spam with his DIY Tips for a Spam-Free Inbox.
- Never respond to spam. If you reply, even to request removing your e-mail address from the mailing list, you are confirming that your e-mail address is valid and that the spam has been successfully delivered to your inbox. Lists of confirmed e-mail addresses are more valuable to spammers than unconfirmed lists, and are frequently bought and sold by spammers.
- When filling out Web forms, check the site’s privacy policy to ensure it will not be sold or passed on to other companies. There may be a checkbox to opt out of third party mailings.
via [ Enterpriseitplanet.com ]
Security Tip: Better passwords with a CueCat (Windows)
CueCats are barcode scanners that were given away by Digital Convergence in the late 1990s. They were designed as a way for consumers to scan barcodes from magazines and other media and be directed to a website with more information on the product or service they scanned. The scans were encrypted to prevent law suits based on the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) of 1998. However they are still useful today as a low cost barcode scanning solution with a little hardware modification and or some free software known as CatNip which bypasses the encryption. The nice thing about these devices is that they type any scan into any field and press enter which makes them perfect for passwords. In this article I am going to show you how to take your modified or unmodified CueCat and use it to login to your computer via passwords encoded into barcode format.
What you will need.
1. A CueCat USB or PS2 will work.
2. A barcode (You can use one from an existing rewards card or make your own here)
3. An account to test it on before using this as your form of authentication.
Vista Tip: Restore the run command to the start menu
If you are using Vista you may have noticed that the run command is no longer visible in the start menu. Restoring this useful feature is easy. There are two ways to do it.
- Set your Windows Theme to “Classic”
- Or Right click on the taskbar. Click on the “Start Menu” tab and select customize. Navigate through the list and check the “Run Command” box. click apply and your done.
Google AdSense banning users from participation
Google AdSense banned me from participation in their program last summer. The resons to me are not clear but there seems to be a number of other people in the same boat. Appearntly I was banned for “fraudulent clicks” which translates into the same IP or computer system clicking on ads published by an AdSense account.
If you create an AdSense account at a public WiFi spot or a public network and someone else accesses your ads from the same network then you may appear to be generating “fradulent clicks” to Google and it wont be long until they ban you even if you did not intentionally click your ad’s. So what can someone do once they are banned from use of Google AdSense. Well according to Google they will not reinstate any previously banned accounts. Well I am banned and I plan to try and get unbanned from the program. I will be posting about it here to keep anyone interested up to date on my progress.
Google’s adress
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
phone: (650) 253-0000
fax: (650) 253-0001
I plan to call them this week and see what I can find out. If any of my readers have encountered this problem and have any insight on how to correct this issue please feel free to send it to tips@timmatheson.com