ATLChris.com » How-To http://atlchris.com Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:30:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How-To: Create Custom Share Buttons For All The Popular Social Services http://atlchris.com/1665/how-to-create-custom-share-buttons-for-all-the-popular-social-services/ http://atlchris.com/1665/how-to-create-custom-share-buttons-for-all-the-popular-social-services/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:03:53 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=1665 For those of you that follow me, you are probably already know that I recently redesigned my post footer. For those that don’t know a post footer is the area just below this post with the “Share It!” and “Related Post” sections. I took it on myself to create a completely custom footer area with share links to many of the popular social services available today. I like my blog to be different from the other gazillion out there, so I choose to minimize my plugin use and create custom solutions.

Most of the popular social service out there offer pre-made javascript buttons that allow you share your pages or articles on their service. While this does make it easy, there is one problem with using their code generating methods; you are stuck with their styles and icons. I wanted to use a custom style with a different set of icons. To accomplish this, I had to take advantage of the services various “URL” submission methods. All the services offer this method, but most of them are poorly documented and are hard to find details on. After spending hours browsing the web for the various “URL” submission methods, I decided that once I finished I would post them all together in one place so people can easily find them and create their own custom share buttons.

Below, I am going to offer you the various services URL’s and teach you how to use them on your site.

Twitter

http://twitter.com/home?status=[TITLE]+[URL]

Digg

http://www.digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

StumbleUpon 
http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Delicious

http://del.icio.us/post?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]]&notes=[DESCRIPTION]

Google Buzz

http://www.google.com/reader/link?title=[TITLE]&url=[URL]

Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]&source=[SOURCE/DOMAIN]

Slashdot

http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Technorati

http://technorati.com/faves?add=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Posterous

http://posterous.com/share?linkto=[URL]

Tumblr

http://www.tumblr.com/share?v=3&u=[URL]&t=[TITLE]

Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Google Bookmarks

http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&bkmk=[URL]&title=[title]&annotation=[DESCRIPTION]

Newsvine

http://www.newsvine.com/_tools/seed&save?u=[URL]&h=[TITLE]

Ping.fm

http://ping.fm/ref/?link=[URL]&title=[TITLE]&body=[DESCRIPTION]

Evernote

http://www.evernote.com/clip.action?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Friendfeed

http://www.friendfeed.com/share?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

Those are the URL's you need to know, now, I know some of you are say what do I do with them? These are the URL you link your social icons too. Replace [TITLE] with the title of the page or article. Replace [URL] with the link back to the page or article. Both of these values need to be URL in encoded for the submissions to process correctly. If you are using php, you can easily URL encode anything with:

<?PHP echo urlencode("VARIBLE"); ?>

If you are using WordPress, you can easily substitue the [URL] and [TITLE] values with WordPress codex functions. Below is the code you can use to replace the [TITLE] value:

<?php print(urlencode(the_title())); ?>

Now, the the code to replace the [URL] value:

<?php print(urlencode(get_permalink())); ?>

Now, lets take a look at it all put together for a general page with a "Share on Twitter" button:

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=This is the blog title.+http%3A%2F%2Fatlchris.com%2F1656%2Flink-to-page">
<img src="http://atlchris.com/wp-content/themes/ATLChris/images/twitter.png" height="18" width="18" alt="Share On Twitter" />
</a>

Now, a wordpress example. This example substitutes the [TITLE] and [URL] values automatically with the current articles information with URL encoding:

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=<?php print(urlencode(get_permalink())); ?>+<?php print(urlencode(the_title())); ?>">
<img src="http://atlchris.com/wp-content/themes/ATLChris/images/twitter.png" height="18" width="18" alt="Share On Twitter" />
</a>

I hope this helps to you create your very own custom share buttons. If you have any questions, please ask them below and I will answer them to the best of my ability. If I missed a service that you would like me to add, please leave a comment below.

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/1665/how-to-create-custom-share-buttons-for-all-the-popular-social-services/feed/ 34 Improve Your Writing With Wordy.com http://atlchris.com/1543/improve-your-writing-with-wordy-com/ http://atlchris.com/1543/improve-your-writing-with-wordy-com/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:55:25 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=1543 A few weeks ago, I discovered a site called Wordy.com. Wordy is a service based out of the UK that allows its users to connect with professional copy-editors to check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and structure in the users writing. The service is super simple to use, offers very competitive pricing, and has a large group of highly trained and professional copy-editors. Just a note on how friendly the people are, with in 24 hours of reporting a bug I found on the site, I had an email from the founder of the site offering me a free submission for assisting with the bug.

How it Works

How it works, is the user signs up for the site, and either attaches a common format document, or does a copy/paste right into to the site itself. Once they add text to the site, they are presented with 3 options: the option to choose either UK-English or US-English as the language; a type of text category; Notes to Editor. After filling in these sections of submission, they will confirm the order, and will be presented with a screen that keeps them up-to-date on the status of the submission, as well as a projected time till the review is complete. Once the review is complete, the user will be able to view the revisions, and either accept them or reject them. If they are rejected, you can add notes on why, and the editor will take another look at them. Here is a quick video that shows you how easy it is to submit content and review the revisions:

Review

At the time I am writing this post, I will have used Wordy a total of 7 times, ranging from a quick paragraph of website copy to a long winded 1000+ word blog post. Right up front, I will say, that I am loving this service for a few of reasons. First, is how easy it is to submit new content for review. You literally submit your text, answer a few basic questions, and click “confirm.” With in a few minutes, you have a professionally edited version of your submission, with details on the revisions. Second, is the review times, as I said in the last sentence, most submission are returned fully edited with in a few minutes. As of right now, a 400 word submission will be returned in approximately 33 minutes. It is hard to find a service these days that doesn’t require at least a 24 hour period for something to be reviewed.

The third reasons I am loving Wordy, is the pricing. Pricing is based on the total word count of the submission, but is very competitively priced. Prices are given in British pounds, but even with the conversion rate, things seem to be very competitively priced. My large blog post on the HP Mini 311 Netbook was run though Wordy, and it only cost me € 15.09 (just about $20.00 USD.) The final reason I am loving Wordy, is the quality of the editors. I have submitted profession text that I found on some major websites to Wordy to test the quality of the reviewers, and I was very pleased. One editor found some ways to improve a Wall Street Journal news article. I also find the copy-editors to be very friendly and they will work with you through multiple revisions.

The WordPress Plugin

Just recently, Wordy announced the new Wordy WordPress plugin, that will allow you to get instant quotes and submit blog posts to Wordy.com from directly inside your WordPress Blogs wp-admin panel. You can even require all the people who post on your blog to use Wordy via the plugin. Below is a video about the Wordy WordPress Plugin:

Final Thoughts

Why do I like Wordy? Well, as you can probably tell from reading this blog, I am not a professional writer. I blog because I enjoy it. With that being said, I would still like my posts to be free of grammar, punctuation, and structure errors. From emails, to website copy, to blog posts, and company newsletters, everyone who writes content that will be read by others should use Wordy. It will help you gain respect from yours readers, and will allow you to project professionalism through your writing. My final verdict, USE IT!

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/1543/improve-your-writing-with-wordy-com/feed/ 7 Display Your Feedburner RSS Subscriber Count http://atlchris.com/1001/how-to-display-your-feedburner-rss-subscriber-count/ http://atlchris.com/1001/how-to-display-your-feedburner-rss-subscriber-count/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:23:37 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=1001 Recently, I added my Feedburner subscriber count to my sidebar on the right. Since I did this, I have had countless tweets and emails asking me, how I am able to display it as a number and not as one of the Feedburner chicklets.

Let me start this off by saying that you have to use Google’s Feedburner service for this to work. In order for this to work, I had to insert some PHP code that takes advantage of the Google Feedburner API. The code below needs to be inserted in one of your template file, I suggest the header.php template file.

<?php
$apiurl="https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=feedburnerid";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $apiurl);
$stored = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$grid = new SimpleXMLElement($stored);
$feedcount = $grid->feed->entry['circulation'];
?>

In the above code, you need to replace feedburnerid with your feed burner id. This id can be found at the end of your rss address. i.e. My RSS address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/atlchris so my feedburner id would be “atlchris.” Once you have done this, you just need to add one more line of PHP code.

<?php echo $feedcount; ?>

This code needs to be placed where you want the count to appear. You can wrap this code with a div or span tag, outside the PHP brackets, for styling. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comment section below.

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/1001/how-to-display-your-feedburner-rss-subscriber-count/feed/ 0 Jailbreak You iPhone 3G with PwnageTool on a Mac http://atlchris.com/965/jailbreak-you-iphone-with-pwnagetool-on-a-mac/ http://atlchris.com/965/jailbreak-you-iphone-with-pwnagetool-on-a-mac/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:44:10 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=965 PwnageTool

If you are a subscriber to my blog, you know that recently (Why I decided to Jailbreak my iPhone) I jail-broke my iPhone 3G with the 3.1 OS. I wanted to walk you all through how to do this, and share my specific experience with you. The method I am going to take you through is for Mac users only. Doing it on Windows is a bit more difficult. My friend Matt just tried to Jailbreak his iPhone 3G w/ 3.1 software on Windows and had no luck. He finally asked if he could come over and do it on my Mac.

What You Will Need:

- Mac Intel Based Computer
- iTunes 9
- Download PwnageTool 3.13

Step 1: Sync & Backup!!!

I can’t emphasize this enough, plug your iPhone into your computer and allow iTunes 9 to sync and backup the iPhone completely.

Step 2: Open PwnageTool and select your iPhone Model

Once you have downloaded PwnageTool, click it and open it. They first screen you will be asking you what type of iPhone/iPod Touch you have. You have 3 choices, iPhone, iPod Touch 2G, and iPhone 3G(s). If you want to jailbreak just a regular 3G, select 3G(s) as your model.

PwnageTool 1

Step 3: Pwn Your Firmware.

The next screen you see, is where the PwnageTool is looking for your current firmware in the iTunes folder. It should find it automatically, then you just click on it and click the next button. If it doesn’t find your Firmware, it will ask you locate it manually. You can find it in here: Users/****/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates

PwnageTool 2 PwnageTool 3

After you locate your firmware, you will be greeted with a screen explaining that PwnageTool will create a jail-broken version of that firmware and will output it to your desktop. After you click ok, you will be greeted with another message asking you “Do you have an iPhone 3G(s) contract that would activate normally Through iTunes?” What this is asking, is do you have a normal AT&T contract for the phone. For most the answer should be yes, but if you have an unlocked phone, and use it on another carrier you will have to say no. Once you click Yes, PwnageTool will create your new custom firmware. This can take 5 to 10 minutes, so be patient.

PwnageTool 4 PwnageTool 5

PwnageTool 6

Step 4: DFU Mode

After your new custom firmware has been created, you will be asked if you have jail-broken this phone before. if this you your first time, just say no. Next, it will walk you through how to put the phone into DFU mode. To do this, dock you iPhone and Turn it off. Then you will need to hold the home button and the power button down for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, release just the power button and hold the home button alone for another 10 seconds. PwnageTool will notify you if you have done this correctly.

PwnageTool 8 PwnageTool 9

If you have, then you are done with PwnageTool, exit out of it and head over to iTunes. Once in iTunes, you should see your iPhone detected, but not fully accepted. It will ask you to restore the iPhone. Now, hold down the “Option” key on your Mac and click restore. You should be prompted with a “Choose a File” box. Browse over to your desktop and click on the new custom firmware.

Step 5: Enjoy!

Well, that is it, once your iPhone is restored, you will be good to go. You should see Cydia, the jail-broken app store on your iPhone. Now, just sync your iPhone to iTunes to restore all your data. There are lots of great jail-broken apps available, I will post a list of my favorite Cydia apps very soon, in the mean time, subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss out on future jailbreak posts. I will try my best to answer any questions you all have in the comment section below.

Other Great Tutorials

- Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1

- YouTube Tutorial

- YouTube Jailbreak On Windows Tutorial

DISCLAIMER: This tutorial is for learning purposes ONLY. I do NOT recommend you jailbreak your iPhone, it can cause it to be bricked permanently. I take no responsibility for what may occur if you execute the steps in this tutorial with your device.

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/965/jailbreak-you-iphone-with-pwnagetool-on-a-mac/feed/ 4 iPhone 3.0: Find My iPhone Feature http://atlchris.com/852/iphone-30-find-my-iphone-feature/ http://atlchris.com/852/iphone-30-find-my-iphone-feature/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:29:49 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=852 find_my_iphone

Lastnight, Apple decided to activate the “Find My iPhone” feature that was announced yesterday at Apples WWDC keynote speech. The “Find My iPhone” feature is a iPhone locate service that works through Mobile Me & GPS.

Say I misplace my iPhone, and someone who works at the establishment I left it at finds it, well most people would just look in the phone book and try to call someone like Home, Mom or Dad, well I lock my iPhone so they can’t do that.

untitled

This is where the new “Find My iPhone” feature comes in handy. I login to Mobile Me, and locate my iPhone on a Google Map. I have left my iPhone inside Lenox Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. Well it is inside  a steal building so it can’t get a exact location, just with in a hundred feet. Well that doesn’t help much because I visited like 20 stores while I was there.

untitled-2photo

Well this is where Apple took it a step further. Not only can you locate your iPhone, but I can also push a message to the iPhone saying if found please email me or call me at some number or email. Well, ring ring, my friend’s, who is with me, iPhone rings and it is the store manager from the Lenox Mall Apple Store letting me know he found my iPhone next to a iMac in the store.

Not to quote Staples, but “That Was Easy.”

I have played with the feature, and have no complaints, it works wonderfully. I was able to find my iPhone in side Lenox Mall and even in a parking garage outside the mall. This is a great feature, and probably the feature that put the biggest smile on my face during yesterdays keynote at WWDC.

WHEN YOU UPGRADE TO IPHONE OS 3.0 ENABLE THIS FEATURE IMMEDITLY VIA THE MOBILE ME SETTINGS ON THE IPHONE.

photo-31untitled-3

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/852/iphone-30-find-my-iphone-feature/feed/ 2 HOW TO: Backup Your Website to Amazon S3 (Automatically) http://atlchris.com/828/how-to-backup-your-website-to-amazon-s3-automatically/ http://atlchris.com/828/how-to-backup-your-website-to-amazon-s3-automatically/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 15:47:02 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=828 Some of you might not know this about me, but I am a successful web developer outside of this blog. I currently host and run 9 sites on my Media Temple (dv) server. One of my biggest concerns was how I can keep safe, up-to-date, and secure backups of my website files outside of my home. After turning to my good friend Google, I came across a couple of great articles from two local Atlanta bloggers about this topic. My friend Paul Stamatiou and Christina Warren both have written in depth articles on how they used Amazon S3 to securely backup their websites daily, which is where I learned to do the following.

While Paul and Christina’s guides are great, I wanted to further explore S3sync and give my experience using S3sync to backup my Media Temple (dv) server to Amazon S3. The steps I am going to walk you through are based on S3sync, a open source Ruby application, that will allow you to transfer files to Amazon S3 using secure SSL encryption. Let me start by warning you, that you need to know a bit about the UNIX commands. You will need a application like Terminal for OS X, Linux, or PuTTy for Windows to SSH into your web server. If you don’t know what SSH is, then this tutorial might not be for you. I will be using Terminal which is built into Apple OS X.

**It is very important that you use absolute paths through out this tutorial. If you are not sure what your absolute path is, enter “pwd” in the terminal window after you have logged into you server. For this tutorial, I am going to work directly from the root level.**

Step 1: Install Ruby

I could walk you through a step by step guide on how to install Ruby, but truth be told, I would recommend you check with your web host for specific instructions. For Media Temple, I would use these guides: (dv) 2.0 server or (dv) 3.0 server. The Media Temple Grid server comes with Ruby pre-installed so you can skip this step.

Step 2: Install S3sync

To get started, we need to connect to S3sync’s Amazon S3 and download the S3sync tar-file. Once we have done that, we are going to decompress it and download the SSL certificates for secure transfers.

Start by getting the S3sync tar:

wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ServEdge_pub/s3sync/s3sync.tar.gz

Decompress the tar file:

tar xvzf s3sync.tar.gz

Remove the S3syc tar file, get the SSL certificates, and decompress them:

rm s3sync.tar.gz
cd s3sync
mkdir certs
cd certs
wget http://mirbsd.mirsolutions.de/cvs.cgi/~checkout~/src/etc/ssl.certs.shar
sh ssl.certs.shar

Step 3: Setup S3sync

Next, we are going to make the directory that will store the backups before they are transferred to your S3 account. This folder will be inside the S3sync folder.

cd ..
mkdir s3backup

Edit the s3config.rb file, this is a step that only needs to be done with newer version of S3sync.

vi s3config.rb

You need to replace the confpath with this:

confpath = ["./", "#{ENV['S3CONF']}", "#{ENV['HOME']}/.s3conf", "/etc/s3conf"]

Now, enter your Amazon S3 account information into the s3config.yml file which we will create in the S3sync directory:

vi s3config.yml

Now that you are in the VI editor, hit the “i” key to enter insert mode then enter the following:

aws_access_key_id:***********************
aws_secret_access_key: ***************************
ssl_cert_dir: /s3sync/certs

If you are having problems with this step, look at the s3config.yml.sample file which comes with S3sync. After you have entered your Amazon S3 keys and the absolute path to your certs directory, you need to hit the “escape” key then “:wq” to save and quit the VI editor. If you are not sure how to use the VI editor, check out this resource.

Step 4: Write the Shell Backup Script

Now, you need to change directories so you are in the S3sync directory which is where we will create the backup shell script. I have said it before, but this is very important for the automation part at the end of this tutorial, use absolute paths in this script. For the script example below, I am assuming everything is at the root level.

vi backupscript

Hit the “i” key to enter insert mode.

!/bin/bash

echo `date` ": Deleting Previous TAR Files..." > /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Empty the backup folder of previous backups.
cd /s3sync/s3backup
rm -f *
cd /s3sync

echo `date` ": Beginning Backup Process..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Get the date.
NOW=$(date +_%b_%d_%y_%H-%M)

echo `date` ": Generating File Backup TAR..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Generate a tar-file of the server contents.
tar czvf websites_backup$NOW.tar.gz **********
mv websites_backup$NOW.tar.gz /s3sync/s3backup
cd /s3sync/s3backup

# Database Backup
DBNAME=**********
DBPWD=**********
DBUSER=**********

echo `date` ": Generating SQL Backup TAR..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Generate a tar-file of the SQL database.
touch $DBNAME.backup$NOW.sql.gz
mysqldump -u $DBUSER -p$DBPWD $DBNAME | gzip -9 > $DBNAME.backup$NOW.sql.gz

echo `date` ": Compressing 2 TAR Files Into 1..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Compress all tar-files in to 1
tar czvf server_backup$NOW.tar.gz $DBNAME.backup$NOW.sql.gz websites_backup$NOW.tar.gz

echo `date` ": Delete Individual TAR Files..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Remove individual tar-files.
rm -f $DBNAME.backup$NOW.sql.gz websites_backup$NOW.tar.gz

echo `date` ": Running S3sync Ruby Script..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

# Transfer tar-file to Amazon S3
BUCKET=**********
cd ~/
ruby /s3sync/s3sync.rb -r -v --ssl /s3sync/s3backup/ BUCKET:

echo `date` ": Backup Complete..." >> /s3sync/s3backup/backup.log

This script is not very complex but I will walk through it with you a little bit. All of the echo statements in the script are where I output the status of the script for debugging purposes. These statements are not required, but they might help you troubleshoot any problems that might arise.Make sure you replace the directory you want to backup, the SQL database information, and the Amazon S3 Bucket information where you see:  **********

The script starts by deleting the contents of the backup folder, which will contain the backups that were generated the last time the script was ran. Next, we will generate the date for labeling the tar-files. After that, it is time to compress the actual web server files into a tar-file. Make sure you replace the “**********” with the absolute path of the directory you would like to backup. Next, we will generate a tar-file with the contents of a SQL database. Again, make sure you replace the “**********” with your specific information. Finally, we are going to compress the 2 tar-files into one and transfer that tar-file to your Amazon S3 account. Make sure you edit the last occurrence of “**********” with the name of the Amazon S3 bucket you wish to save the backups in.

Step 5: Test the Script

./backupscript

When you start the script, you should see a fast scrolling list of files as they backup. When it stops scrolling, the 2 tar-files are being combined and transferred to your Amazon S3. This can take a few minutes, so be patient. If successful, the prompt will reappear in the terminal window. Now, you should see the tar-file in your Amazon S3 bucket.

Step 6: Automate the Script

Now, I am going to walk you through how to edit your crontab file to run the script daily at a time of your choosing. If you don’t know how a crontab works, check out this great crontab resource. The basic format of a crontab entry is:

*    *     *    *     *  command to be executed
-    -    -    -     -
|     |     |     |     |
|     |     |     |     +----- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0)
|     |     |     +------- month (1 - 12)
|     |     +--------- day of month      (1 - 31)
|     +----------- hour (0 - 23)
+------------- min (0 - 59)

Start by entering your crontab file:

crontab -e

There may already be some crontab entries in this file, so make sure you do not edit any of the current entries. Scroll down to the last entry and insert a new line. One the new line, enter the new crontab:

0    6    *    *    *    /s3sync/backupscript

This will run your backupscript at 0 minutes into the 6th hour of everyday. To change the time, edit the 0 for minutes or the 6 for hours (use military time.) This works off of your server time, so if your host is in a different timezone, the backup might not occur when you expect it to. Finally, make sure the path to the file is the absolute path.

Final Words

There are many local factors that can effect this script, if the script is not working, I would walk back through the tutorial, and make sure your file tree layout is the way it is suppose to be. Everything we created and edited in this tutorial, belongs inside the /s3sync/ directory.

One of the problems I struggled with, was that the script ran fine manually, but would not transfer the files to Amazon S3 when automated by the crontab. If this problem occurs use the “SET” command inside your script, and directly from the terminal and compare the environment variables (more on “set”.) Any differences you find might need to be annually adjusted in your script. For me it was the “PATH” varible.

I am not a pro with terminal, but I can try to help you troubleshoot any problems you might have when you setup your script. Just drop me a comment below and I will defiantly try my best to help you out.

Helpful Links

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/828/how-to-backup-your-website-to-amazon-s3-automatically/feed/ 30 10.5.6 OS X Update (Mail) Fix http://atlchris.com/608/1056-os-x-update-mail-fix/ http://atlchris.com/608/1056-os-x-update-mail-fix/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:53:39 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=608 Yesterday I wrote a long post venting about the issues that 10.5.6 has brought to me and to my Macbook Pro. I was having a problem with mail crashing every time I loaded a message with an attachment. Well, I am delighted to report that the issue has been fixed thanks to a user by the name of Til-Berlin on the Apple discussion forums:

In the end I found out that I have two Mail.app on my HDD. Apperently I was using a old updated (which reports also as 3.5). Deleting it and using only the one at /Programs solved my issue. I believe this is the application file from the Combo Update.

~ Til-Berlin (Link)

I looked at the version of Mail I was using from my Dock icon (Mail Menu > About Mail) and noticed that my version was 3.5 897.2/903.3. This is the problem. The current version of Mail is 3.5 903.3 only! I did a quick spotlight search on my mac to find 2 versions of Mail, one was the currupt one that I was using, and one was the good version (3.5 903.3.) I removed the bad one (3.5 897.2/903.3) and then added the good one to my dock, and opened it up. IT WORKED!

OS X Mail

Til-Berlin suggested to reinstall the combo update after all of this, but I didn’t have to do this.

I hope this helps everyone who is having problems. You can check out my other post with fixes and details on the problem here: http://atlchris.com/582/os-x-1056-i-hate-you/

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/608/1056-os-x-update-mail-fix/feed/ 8 HOW TO: Upgrade a (new) Macbook Pro to 4GB of RAM http://atlchris.com/499/how-to-upgrade-a-new-macbook-pro-to-4gb-of-ram/ http://atlchris.com/499/how-to-upgrade-a-new-macbook-pro-to-4gb-of-ram/#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:46:23 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=499

In this guide, I am going to show you step by step, how to upgrade to a 4GB RAM kit on a late 2008 model (Uni body Aluminum) Macbook Pro. I am upgrading my 2.4GHz/250GB Macbook Pro from 2GB of RAM up to 4GB. Th process is very easy, but you still need to take it slow so you don’t damage your beautiful Macbook Pro. I believe this same method will work on the new uni body Macbook too, but I have not confirmed this.

BEFORE YOU START:

I would recommend you do this on a table, in a uncarpeted room, doing this on carpet can create static electricity which can fry your whole machines. Also, make sure you shutdown, NOT SLEEP, your Macbook Pro. Finally, disconnect all wires (USB, Firewire, Power,…)

Start by flipping you Macbook Pro over. Be sure to put something under it so you don’t scratch it. I would use some sort of anti static cloth. I am using my neoprene case.

To open the Macbook Pro, flip up the small lever. This will cause the smaller of the 2 plates to raise gently. ** BEAWARE THAT IF YOU HAVE A LOCK ON YOUR COMPUTER THIS LEVER WILL NOT FLIP UP **

When the lever is at a 90% angle the cover should come off very easy. This will reveal the battery (right) and the hard drive (left.)

Apple actually includes some very basic directions on how to access the memory and remove the hard drive on the back of the battery cover. This is new, and pretty handy. I am glad to see Apple is opening up to the concept of laptop customization.

Remove the battery by lifting the clear plastic tab that is attached to it.

** BEFORE YOU PROCEED, TOUCH THE MEDAL FRAME OF THE LAPTOP TO DISCHARGE ANY STATIC ELECTRICITY YOU MIGHT HAVE. **

The memory chips are located under neath the larger cover so we will have to unscrew this cover to access it. There are (4) screws located on the underside of the laptop. The left most screw is a small screw, while the 3 right screws are much long. Make sure you remember which screws go where.

There are also (4) more screws under the cover we already removed.

Using a 1/16th phillips head screw driver. (A screw driver this small can be hard to come by. I bought this one at Lowe’s for $5.00 and it includes multiple size phillips and flat head attachments. I would start by loosening all the screws at once before you actually remove them.

In order to remember which screws go where, I will line them up off to the side in the same pattern as they were removed from the laptop.

Once all the screws are removed, lift the aluminum cover slowely, it might have some sticky glue like material around the edges so don’t pull to hard or you might bend it.

The memory sticks are located right in the center of the laptop. It might look like there is just one because they are stacked on top of each other.

On both the left and right side, you will see a plastic clip that looks like a ball. This is what is holding the memory in place.

Bend both of these clips out (away from the memory chip and the first RAM stick should pop up at about a 40% angle like the picture above. It is important to mentally make note of this angle because you will have to insert the new chip at the same angle. Pull the memory towards where the battery was removed from. **TOUCHING ONLY THE EDGES OF THE RAM STICK** Don’t bend the chip!

Once you have done that the second stick of memory will be revealed.  Remove this one the same way by bending the ball like clips out (away from the chip) on both sides.

The chip should pop up at the same angle as the first. Remove the chip the same way you did the first, but be careful, this second chip is much harder to get a hold of. Remember to only touch the edges of the chip.

Once you have removed both sticks of RAM, open up your new 4GB kit. I purchased a Crucial branded 4GB kit from NewEgg for just about $130.00 shipped.

Place the new RAM in at the same angle the original RAM came out. Note the notch located on the connector, make sure you line up the notch on the stick of memory with the notch on the connector. Make sure it slides into the connector so you can just barely see the gold contacts. This might take a little force, but don’t push to hard. Once you slide it in, push it completely down until the clamps snap into place. Repeat this step again for the 2nd stick of memory.

Once both sticks are locked in to place, it is time to start putting the computer back together.

Start with the larger of the lids. Line it up very carfully with the edges. Screw all (8) screws in about halfway. You want to make sure you all (8) screws are in before you tighten any of them down, this will help to pull the lid down just perfectly. When you are ready to tighten them start with the screws in the (4) corners.

Once you have replaced all the screws, put the battery back. Now that is done it is time to replace the small lid. Start by lining up the bottom of the lid (rounded corners side.) This side needs to go in first. When closing the lid, lower it slowely and close the lever as you push the cover down.

That is it, flip her (or him) over and power her up. The boot up Apple logo might show for a few seconds longer, this is expected because the computer has to analyze the new memory before it boots.

Once you have booted up the laptop click the Apple logo in the upper left corner and open “About this Mac.” If that says Memory 4GB, you are good to go.

I also have a guide on how to upgrade the memory on the old style Macbook Pro laptops.

Disclaimer

This article is ment as a nonprofessional guide. I am not garanteeing you will not damage your Macbook Pro. This is ment as a guide only, I recommend you get an Apple professional technician to install you memory upgrade. I am not to be held responsible for any damage you might cause to you Macbook Pro.

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/499/how-to-upgrade-a-new-macbook-pro-to-4gb-of-ram/feed/ 4 HOW TO: Create a WordPress Archives Page http://atlchris.com/375/how-to-create-a-wordpress-archives-page/ http://atlchris.com/375/how-to-create-a-wordpress-archives-page/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:17:54 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=375

I have received a couple emails from my readers asking me what plugin I use to generate my archives page. Well, truth be told, my archives page is not a plugin. I hard coded that page using WordPress’ built in template tags. Since there is a lot of interest in this page, I decided to post a walk through of how you can recreate my archives page on your own blog.

All of the code below is show via images for posting reasons. Click the images to view the high res versions of the code. If you would like to cut and paste code, find the link the the text file containing the full code in step 10. I would advise against cutting and pasting because this code is specific to my custom templete and will not display correctly on your blog. It is better to understand everything below so you can customize it to your site.

  1. The first step to creating your archives page is to understand how the WordPress template system works. I would recommend your read up on the WordPress documentation before you proceed. http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
  2. What you want to do now, is locate your template directory which is normally at: http://www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/yourtheme
  3. We now need to create a new file called archives.php and upload it to this directory. This file should be blank, but have the name and extension of archives.php.
  4. Open the file archives.php with a text editor so we can hard code the archives page in PHP. To start we are going to label the page as the archives template. Retype the below code into the very top of the archives.php page. This allows WordPress to link the template file to the page we will create later.
  5. Next, we need to enter the template skeleton into the archives page. This code is specific to your template. Every template page you have should have a basic structure built into it looking something like this:

    This is very important because this is what includes your header, footer, and any side bars your site uses. When we are done, if your page doesn’t have the correct header, footer, or the necessary sidebars, come back and look at your skeleton code and make sure it matches the other template pages. After you have correctly entered your skeleton code, you should know where the main content area is in the skeleton. For me, it falls between the header and the right sidebar.
  6. Now we are actually going to enter the guts of the archives page. I have 3 different types of archives sections: Archives by month, by tag, and by post. I am going to walk through these individually. All of these sections have a title wrapped in a <h2> tag. This creates the titles of the sections.
  7. The Archives by Month section is very simple. To auto generate the list of months, I use the WordPress tag “wp_get_archives(‘type=monthly’).” To learn more about this tag, check out: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_get_archives. This tag is very complex, so I would recommend you refer to the link above and explore all you can do with it by setting different attributes. The way I use the tag, is so that it outputs an HTML list item. To prepare for this list, I wrap the tag in a unordered list HTML tag of formatting purposes.
  8. The next section is Archives by Tag, to build this, I used the built in WordPress tag cloud function. The tag for this is “wp_tag_cloud(”).” You can read more about this tag here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_tag_cloud. I use this tag with no attributes set, but you can really customize how the tags are displayed by using different attributes that work with the tag.
  9. The final section is the Archives by Post which provides a nice organized list of all your post and the dates they were published. This part is a bit more complex because this doesn’t use a specific template tag, but is something I coded by hand. The best way to explain this one is to walk you through the code which I do below:

    If you want to adjust how the date appears, please check out the specifics of the_time tag here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/the_time
  10. Well, that is how to create the 3 sections individually, now lets look at the archives code in full. Keep in mind yours wont look exactly like mine. I have very specific formatting included in my page so yours will look a bit different from mine. TEXT VERSION OF COMPLETE CODE CAN BE FOUND HERE
  11. Upload the completed archives.php file to your template directory as discussed in step 2.
  12. Next, we need to create a page to associate this template file with. This is done through the built in WordPress admin panel.
  13. To start off you need to create a page using the WordPress admin panel. Login to http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/ from there you should see a button labeled “Write a New Page.”
  14. Now you will find yourself on the “New Page” edit screen. Start by entering the title: “Archives”.
  15. Now scroll down the page to the “Comments & Pings” section. In this section make sure you have bother boxes “Allow Comments” & “Allow Pings” UNCHECKED.
  16. Next, scroll down a bit further to the “Page Template” section and from the drop box select the archives.php file we created earlier.
  17. The final step is to scroll back to the top of the page and publish the page. Once you have published the page you should see the link to the archives page appear in your navigation. Now, depending on your template or not, you might have to setup a direct link to your archives page.

Well, that is it. I have included a couple of links to different WordPress articles concerning items I discussed above. I hope you are successful in creating your archives page, and I will answer questions and address concerns to the best of my abilities in the comments section below.

Additional Help

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/375/how-to-create-a-wordpress-archives-page/feed/ 4 HOW TO: Market Your Blog in 2008 http://atlchris.com/295/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2008/ http://atlchris.com/295/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2008/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:37:15 +0000 Chris Lentz http://atlchris.com/?p=295 Over the years, I have blogged, designed, and developed for many websites, and I have developed a very good knowledge of marketing on the internet. Being a blogger myself, I know how hard it is for present day bloggers to get noticed in the overly populated blogging industry of 2008.

On that note, I would like to present my methods of marketing a blog in 2008. There are hundreds of ways to market a blog these days and I am going to address a few of my favorites.

Create a Brand

Darren(link) of ProBlogger(link) recently posted an article and video about this topic. In his video he discussed how important it is to present yourself and you blog in a consistent way. Many bloggers these days think design is everything, and redesign every few months trying to keep their site new and fresh, while this can help, I feel it hurts more.

Your blog needs to be a brand, that is consistent with its topics, design, and marketing. I am currently in the process of developing a brand for this site. I have recently ordered business cards with the same logo and color scheme as the site, when it comes time to change the design of the site, I will not flip the design overnight, I will take small steps and transition my readers into the new design. Having a solid brand will help people to associate your content with a reliable source which will lead to more return viewers and increase viewership.

Technorati

Technorati.com is an excellent source for new blogs trying to break into the mainstream. A large amount of my sites traffic comes from Technorati, and its directory services. One of the first things any blogger should do when marketing a new blog is to claim it on Technorati and fill out the blogs profile completely with keyword rich descriptions, and associate it with a lot of different but targeted tags. Technorati is a great way to spread the word on your new blog, and it is totally free and mostly automated once you complete the sites setup.

Digg

Digg.com can be an amazing source for new bloggers, Digg can bring hundreds of thousands of hits to your site in a matter of a day if you have “great content.” While most bloggers already know about Digg and utilize it, many of them make the mistake of spamming Digg which will do nothing but hurt you when you really have an article that is front-page worthy. Don’t post every story on your blog to Digg, post the ones that you feel people will really enjoy reading. If your story is Digg worthy, let your readers Digg it and submit it, don’t force it on them. Submitting a story to Digg then shouting it out to your thousands of Digg friends will not get you on the front-page. Put a dig button at the bottom of your post and let your readers determine if it is Digg worthy.

Delicious and Stumble Upon

Some might get angry that I am wrapping these 2 up in to one bullet point, but they are both pretty simple and can show great results. Delicious is a social bookmarking website that allows you to bookmark of flag your site and its articles, then tag them. This only works because of the large amount of people that use Delicious on a daily basis. I flag all my articles with keyword rich descriptions and tags, then I let Delicious present the link to its many users.

Stumble Upon works in the same matter, but doesn’t work as well. Stumble Upon is good for quick short burst of traffic, but normally this burst will fade away very quickly. One of the great things about Stumble Upon is the campaign section of the site, that allows you to purchase hits for as little as $0.05/hit. These hits are targeted towards your sites subject matter, and can help to draw people in, but this can get expensive

Twitter

From the beginning, Twitter has been an unbelievable success. Every blogger out there should have a Twitter account. I use Twitter as a micro blogger and a discussion boards of sorts, but it can also be a great source for bloggers to broadcast that they have a new blog post to the masses. Pair Twitter with a web service called Twitter Feed and you have a great way to notify a lot of people about a new post, but as I have said before, don’t spam. Use this service tastefully or you will turn off you followers.

Trackbacks, Comments, and Forums

Return readers and RSS subscribers are the best kinds of traffic you want to see on your site. The only way you can get people to return to your site is to draw them in with your content and know that they share the same interest you are presenting on your blog. To find people that share your same interests, read/comment on other blogs & forums of the same topic and refer back you your own articles. Now, I am not telling you to spam your link all over the net, but if you happen to read an article about the Atlanta Falcons and you recently wrote and article about “Mike Vick and his dogs,” refer back to it in a tasteful way, to better the article, not to just flash it and spam it in the face of the viewers.

If you present your site in a tasteful way to people that share the same interest, you will see your RSS subscribers grow and you return traffic increase. This will also increase the number of useful comments your articles receive, which helps to keep people coming back. If people are passionate about the topic, they will voice there opinion, and return to the article to see what others have said about their comment.

Content

Finally, and probably the most important of them all is “great content.” People will not read your blog if your content is not presented in an easily readable way, and does not interest them. Your content needs to be fresh and you need to stick to a topic. ProBlogger currently has a great discussion on going about what “great content” actually is. Below is a snippet of the article, but I very much recommend you browse over the articles comments section and read how people define “great content” and voice your opinion about the subject matter.

Blogging advice articles all seems to include the matra – “create great content”. The theory goes that if you create great content people will come to your blog, link to it, pass it on to friends, bookmark it and your blog will grow.
~ Pro Blogger

It is important to present your “great content” in a smart way too. Use keyword rich titles, and don’t forget things like tags and categories. If you write “great content” and present it in a smart way, your readers will do all the marketing you need automatically.

I hope you found this helful, I am open to your suggestions. What methods do you use to market your blog? I truly believe that if you write “great content” and present it in a smart and pleasant way, your readers will do all the work for you.

Related Posts

]]> http://atlchris.com/295/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2008/feed/ 2