Going over your allocated bandwidth isn’t the best of surprises.

Orcon Widget for OS X – Download

I made this simple Widget a few years ago to keep track of my internet usage. Coding this up for my current internet provider, Orcon was a simple matter as their usage display mechanism on their website works by identifying your usage by the static IP you have.

The widget displays your total usage (uploads and downloads) and updates as frequently as Orcon updates their usage tally (in other words, it is not real-time).

Edit: Sorry, uploaded the wrong file before. Problem fixed.

Download the widget for Mac OS X

Extend the longevity of your Macbook charger and save some money while doing so.

The contraption

These Magsafe adaptors have been touted as revolutionary by the industry and myself as well, but their design still holds one downfall – As your wire twist and turns inside the shrink-wrapped sheath, the wires inside get twisted and eventually break right off.

Cue the ever-useful cable tie! Wrap it around the shrink-wrap sheath both on the Magsafe side and the adaptor brick side and pull it real tight. Done.

With the latest release of Chrome, my computer has become incredibly unstable, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

It’s like Missingno all over again!

The thing is, I recently upgraded my computer to a better one, and upgraded my ram. Now there was some ram I added in the past which was faulty, so a new batch came not too long ago, and initially, I thought the cause of these freezings was because of the ram.

But it’s not. It’s the stupid Chrome browser.

Here’s what happens – when I load up many tabs, and then change in between tabs, I get a full-system lock up, the graphics on-screen goes whacky, everything freezes. This isn’t the only instance it’s happened, but it’s the one where I can repeatedly replicate. I switched to 3 different ram sticks and the results were repeatable.

There are one of two things I can narrow it down to. Firstly, it could be because many pages are open, but secondly it can be due to rendering HTML5 pages (which I had open at the time).

It must be because they changed the Chrome logo!

Edit: Turns out it wasn’t just Chrome. Happens on Safari as well, and is most definitely related to rendering html5 sites.

Specifications
13″ Macbook Pro 2011
OS X Leopard 10.6.7
Chrome Version 11.0.696.65

I love my 2008 Metal Macbook.

I’ve had my October 2008 Macbook for a long time. In that time it has been a great work horse, however it’s lack of power is starting to tread on my productivity. So with the new Macbook Pro 13“ coming out with an i5 core, plus the great student discounts (and rebate offers) Apple had, I was enticed to get a new Macbook Pro.

Here 10 discrete differences that differ between my 2008 Macbook, and my new 2011 Macbook Pro:

• They keyboard keys are no longer smooth, but have a subtle roughness to them – good for preventing the keyboard from looking oily.
• There was a video some time ago where a dude filed the edge of his Macbook Pro off so it wouldn’t cut his wrist (http://cl.ly/5pYL – YT). Now Apple has done that for us; the new Macbook has a filed top edge of the bottom half of the body.
• A new typeface has been used on the 2011 model. The lettering seems somewhat thicker and bolder. Perhaps to let more of that backlighting through.
• The sound quality of the speakers are much better, better defined, more range.
• The Mini Displayport has moved from after the usb ports to after the USB ports.
• Kensington lock has moved to the other side of the Mac (the hole that no one uses).
• The cables used on the innards of the Mac don’t seem to be as durable as the one on the 2008 model. For example, the hard drive ribbon seems to be flimsier and thinner on the latest model.
• The magsafe rubber outer layer seems to feel cheaper. It has a rougher texture and doesn’t have the same flexibility as older magsafe cables. This is the same material they use to make the USB cable that comes with the iPhone 4. Maybe it’s to prevent the wire core from twisting inside the rubber sheath.
• All green lights on the Mac (magsafe, battery indicator, capslock), have a different shade of green. Has a greater shade of yellow.
• Earphone jack appears to be cheaper. No longer has a metal ring around the aluminium to prevent scratching. Inner part of the jack is clearly grey plastic.

I’m not sure if these changes are a result of a cost-cutting measure or a change for the benefit of the user. I did however also get a free red stuck pixel on my screen, but the good people at Apple offered me an exchange, the good folks they are.

With the recent devastating announcement made by Hamish and Andy that they are cutting their daily weekday show to a single show per week, I thought there must be a way to get a hold of all the old podcasts. Doing so will fully sustain my Hamish and Andy daily fix for another two years.

And there was a way! Albeit not a very efficient of mining all this podcast gold. Here’s how:

1. Find the Podcast RSS feed
Which (conveniently for you) is: http://austereo.castmetrix.net/rss/162129586585337877

2. Add it to Google Reader
My search for a program which was able to back-catalogue podcasts older than 30 days using that given rss feed was unsuccessful.

3. Show all items
Click on show all items at the top of the page.

4. Keep scrolling…
Once added to Google Reader, keep scrolling to the bottom of the page so older podcasts are retrieved.

5. Download
Find the podcast you want to listen to and either listen to it online, or download it and archive it on your own computer. The bad thing is that the mp3 information is not retained when you download it direct, so when it comes to cataloguing them, the release date, description, etc will be left blank.

(To download to your computer, right click on the link and select “Save Link As…”)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I was perusing the interwebs on a click-through adventure, when I stumbled upon Group On, a website offering kick ass deals. But this wasn’t the thing which caught my attention, it was the fact that the site looked familiar, and in some aspects of design, identical. Identical to Grab One.

Spot the difference — Hint: There are no differences

I believe that Grab One was highly influenced by Group On, as Group On seems to have been around much longer. So I’m speculating that Grab One copied Group On.

Here are some uncannily similar coincidences.

• The font used for the header logo is the same. Furthermore the first two letters are exactly the same, “Gr”.
• The menu bar is of the same colour and thickness.
• The colour scheme of the site is roughly the same.
• Social media icon placement is also in the same position, at the top-left of the page.
• The “buy” button/tag is extremely similar, with the placement of the pricing to the left and the “buy!” action button to the right.

I’ve just realised everything else is basically the same, except for the background, so I’ll stop writing.

You see, it is essentially the same site! Despite their similarities, I do think the designer did a better job at putting together GrabOne.

I was so excited when I grabbed this bargain USB from a store, but didn’t share the same feelings when I found that it wouldn’t fit in the USB port while the other port was in use.

The original enclosure, with DIY’d stick

So I took it apart. It was so slim, and without the casing it did manage to get along with my other peripherals plugged into the USB port. I grabbed some transparent heat-shrink from an electronics store, before toasting the USB drive with a hairdryer until the heat-shrink hugged the USB. In fact, at one point the stick got so hot that I feared that the solder on the board would liquefy and render my once operational stick, useless.