November 1, 2008 - Reading time: 2 minutes

This is an (un)documented built-in feature on the iPhone 3G (i.e. phones with OS 2.0 or greater). Just prep your phone screen however you want it, then press the round application button and the power/sleep button at the top simultaneously (read: your phone’s only got 2 buttons, press them both). Hold the buttons for about a second, and if your sound is on, then you should get the obligatory shutter sound.

It’s a handy way to take screenshots!

Then the next question… how do get those pictures OFF my phone? Two easy ways: sync your phone (all the screenshots show up in your Photos application, just like anything you take using your camera). Or, view the photo in the Photos app, then email the photo to yourself. But this is a bummer because sometimes I’ve been unable to email the photo (Yahoo and a personal account).

You CAN sync up to any computer… if you plug your phone into any Mac computer, for example, iPhoto should be able to grab photos off your iPhone camera, but you can’t preview the PNG screenshots.

Don’t be afraid if you can’t see your screenshot! iPhoto can’t preview the PNG files, but you can drag them to the desktop and open them using Preview (or similar) to convert the file format.

October 29, 2008 - Reading time: 2 minutes

Trick or Treat! Since it’s Halloween, I thought it’d be funny to see what other tech tips are out there. So, here is the tale of my obligatory Google search for our site’s prized search term: “Tech Tips for Us”

Tech Tips for Catholic Teens — Ah, yes, FINALLY someone did what we’ve been meaning to do as a sub-domain for years! Why visit “catholic_teen.tipsfor.us” when you have “https://catholictechtips.stblogs.com/”? Other than the obviously strange preclusion about the target audience, the perfunctory cross fav.icon, and the notable omission about the hottest techie action for altar boys, the blog looks suspiciously similar to our own…

https://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/sql-injection.html This is a good site for people wanting to understand how to protect from MySQL database vulnerabilities… the Wiki article is also pretty good. I wrote a little article about MySQL Security that seemed a bit too geeky for this blog (I know, I know… I’m disappointing the fans). I think my favorite story about a site getting owned was when the Dremel site (famous for their moto-tool) was hacked via SQL-injection and the homepage ended up being replaced with an image of a Goatse-pumpkin. (Appropriately, the pumpkin was carved with a Dremel Moto-tool). Watch out boys and girls! SQL injection is not pretty!

LifeHacker.com — hey, this site looks legit. They even have a seasonal article about Do-It-Yourself Facial Prosthetics! They also have lots of old-school artwork with airships — the kind with little propellers that you see in Miyazaki films or in Smashing Pumpkins videos. I LOVE THAT!

October 28, 2008 - Reading time: 5 minutes

Many moons ago, I surveyed and wrote reviews for most of the free antivirus programs available. I covered ten different programs in detail, and even gave a few recommendations.

Major Updates

Since I wrote those reviews, many changes have occurred. First of all, many of the programs have received major updates. Both AVG and Avast now include protection against spyware, a welcome addition. Avira AntiVir has received a facelift, and PC Tools Free Edition has ascended a couple of versions, though I’m not sure it has added any features.

In the unchanged category, Comodo Antivirus is still slogging along on version 2.0 Beta, though I’m crossing my fingers that version 3 will be released soon, hopefully before the release of Windows 7. BitDefender 10 appears to be collecting virtual dust (their requirements don’t even mention Vista), Blink Personal Edition still remains largely (and unfairly) overlooked, and EAV Antivirus still isn’t worth using. Read more

October 27, 2008 - Reading time: 2 minutes

Well, since I’m on the topic this week, I thought I’d mention my main grievances with my iPhone 3G.

1. Short battery life. My Motorola Razor could last a couple days without charging… perfect if I ended up crashing at a friend’s house or forgot my charger while traveling. But the iPhone pretty much needs juice every night. Moreover is that it seems inconsistent with its consumption rate. I don’t really understand how and when it’s doing stuff on the sly… like I THINK I turn it off, but it might secretly be gathering whether reports from Cuba or calculating the Shopping Days Until Christmas. (see my earlier rant).

2. Text messages don’t display dates and times on each message. I’m pretty forgetful, so sometimes I want to look back and find out when I texted someone… e.g. “Where were you on the night of the 22nd?” “Uh… I was at home.” “WHEN were you home?” “Oh, I texted my friend at… uh… oh crap…” I can just see someone going to jail for this somehow.

3. Keyboard is Vertical only. The Texting and Mailing apps don’t let you rotate the screen so you can have a WIDE keyboard… they’re stuck upright and cramped.

4. Can’t copy and paste text. Like say I’m surfing the web (cool)… then I want to send that link to a friend… uh… simple, yet impossible.

5. You can’t download stuff from web sites and save them to a file system. Yar. Even if you download them on your computer, it’s a tangled web of work-arounds to get files onto your phone. I’m stuck even trying to get my photo libraries on my phone… I know it’s possible, but I was stumped for about 5 minutes, then moved on to other more important things… like being a consumer whore (har har).

-- Everett Griffiths

October 25, 2008 - Reading time: 3 minutes

As some of you know, I recently got an iPhone 3G. I really like it… such an improvement over my other phone. What really blows me away is the vast array of applications for this device. Seriously. Who the hell is writing these things? Here is my list of strange iPhone apps, in random order.

1. Hello Cow — It’s an app that moos at you. Ok. It’s an improvement on the programmer’s perfunctory “Hello World.”

2. Useless $1000 App — Well… they pulled this one, but some guy made an app that did nothing and he charged $1000 for it. Some rich fools patronized him. Why didn’t I think of that?

3. Call Checker — This “handy” app calculates whether it’s a decent time for you to call someone… it handles times zones and such. It sounds remotely useful until you realize that the built-in clock on the iPhone can easily display times in any city and in any time zone. An improvement would be if the app could sense the mood of the person you were trying to call, e.g. if they were out on a date, asleep, with their OTHER boyfriend, or whatever… THAT would be a cool app. This app, unfortunately, isn’t. Read more

October 25, 2008 - Reading time: 10 minutes

I think we can all agree that spam is evil. It’s awful. Deplorable. We all hate it, unless you are a spammer. And if you’re a spammer, you deserve swift, repetitive, merciless kicks in the junk.

Though we may never win the war against spam, we can still fight to reduce it. One effective way is to use a disposable e-mail address. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you need to provide a functional e-mail address for a temporary purpose – a web form, online shopping at a random store, posting in forums – but don’t want your e-mail address harvested and spammed to death. All you have to do is use a disposable e-mail address from one of the many services listed below, use it temporarily, and then forget about it! The possibilities, and the number of disposable addresses are endless. Read more