Entries filed under 'Technology'

Staying connected to home with LogMeIn

Filed under Technology, Applications on 23.05.08

Via the BBC, of all places, I read yesterday about the free remote desktop utility, LogMeIn. And after giving it a test-drive today, I’m smitten.

Available for both Mac and PC, LogMeIn is a remote control facility for your computers. After registering, you download and install an application on each machine that you want to be able to control. Then, when you suddenly realise you’ve left that important file on your home PC, you can log into the logmein.com site, select the relevant computer name, and take complete remote control of your other machine.

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How to disable visual voicemail on the iPhone for UK users

Filed under General, Technology on 4.03.08

As I prepare to jet off for a week in Texas at SXSW, one of the things on my ‘to do’ list was “figure out how to disable visual voicemail on the iPhone”. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of getting stung with a massive phone bill for downloading messages on a roaming tariff—but according to the internet, the only way to disable the service seems to be setting a password and then resetting the phone (so the phone effectively can’t remember how to connect to the voicemail service).

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How to find recently updated files

Filed under Technology on 13.02.08

One of the problems with not using a synchronization tool to manage your FTP transfers (or Subversion, for that matter) is that it is very easy to lose track of which files need to be copied to the live server.

I often start working on a small bug in a web app, only to find that by the time I’ve fixed the issue there are dozens of files open—but which ones were actually changed and need releasing to live? Quite aside from the occasional config setting that is different, it’s inefficient to upload the entire app every time I make a few changes.

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Process

Filed under Personal, Technology on 21.11.07

While it’s broadly true that we are all doing the same job, and—on many occasions—even using the same tools, we can never truly know whether we work in the same way; so I thought it would be interesting to discuss Process.

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What's on your clean machine?

Filed under Technology, Internet on 20.07.07

I’m configuring a new PowerBook for work (and a bit of personal use)—so far my download routine has been:

What are your first stops when faced with a clean install?

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Joe Hewitt on Firebug 1.0

Filed under Technology, Javascript on 30.01.07

Finally got around to watching the Yahoo! video of Joe Hewitt demonstrating some of the ‘power-user’ features of Firebug – pure awesomeness.

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Backing the right horse

Filed under Technology on 16.01.07

jQuery. Code Igniter. Expression Engine. XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Which horses are you backing?

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How to avoid 550 errors when switching hosting providers

Filed under Technology, Internet on 11.12.06

I’m in the process of moving my sites and my clients’ sites over to my MediaTemple (gs) account at the moment, and had been getting frustrated at repeated errors when trying to send email. I finally figured out last night what the problem was.

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Virtual Hosts and the proper way to work offline

Filed under Technology, Internet on 15.10.06

Like most freelance web designers, I often need to work on an offline version of a website; either at the start of a project while developing the site, or later on when I have to test new functionality without screwing up the live server.

Up till now, I had always been pretty sloppy about offline copies of my client sites. I’d have a bunch of folders under my local install of Apache, and to work on a particular site I would direct my browser to something like http://localhost/myclient/version2/index.php. The trouble with this approach becomes apparent as soon as you start using absolute paths, or PHP includes, or .htaccess redirects, or the <base/> tag, or a hundred other things that rely on the path to the website being predictable and constant. I found myself having to remember half-a-dozen different places I needed to change a pathname when I made the site live, or writing complicated switch statements testing whether the site was on live or localhost. Not good.

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Connect Mac OSX to BT Home Hub wireless

Filed under Technology on 5.09.06

This post is optimised for search to help other people having the same problem I just did, so you don’t have to spend hours on hold with BT.

If you look for information on connecting your Mac via wireless to a BT Home Hub (the cheap-looking white one, not the hi-tec looking grey version) the only page you’re likely to find is this one with instructions on configuring Airport.

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