http://wallpaper.hellaphone.com/  This site is a great free tool to make custom wallpapers for virtually any cell phone. You can either upload your own image or link to one on the web. The phone I had to make one for has a front and inside image. The website created both images for me.

The free wallpaper tool is a great find and very easy to use.

The first big issue was the social networking plugin I was using had a server that was down, that is why I don’t have the bookmark links at the end of posts right now. I removed that and it sped up a little bit, but it was still lagging. This is when I discovered a downfall with WordPress.

Upon doing an audit of my WordPress, I found out that I had a bunch of plugins activated that I wasn’t using, some of which were calling 404 pages. This was draining my site big time and making loads take forever. Once I deactivated the unused plugins, load times dropped. This site still has a few issues that are causing a not-so-optimal load time, but it is more along the lines of normal now.

Firefox add-ons turned out to be my best friend for this task. I used FireBug and YSlow to determine the issues. Both these tools provided me with the insight I needed into my site’s issues and then with a few clicks, I was able to remedy the majority of the issues.

Now that those extra plugins and error pages are gone, my site is running much better. I am a little baffled as to what to do next. Some of the plugins I am using are pretty standard these days and I like them. They are Web 2.0 and are easy to implement via plugins in WordPress. The only downfall is now my site is calling out to multiple servers and loading tons of javascript code. The only workaround is to write these modules myself. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to write all of this custom interactivity myself, so for now, I will just sit back, be happy with what I have and wait for the developers of the plugins to eventually write lighter weight plugins.

I fought off buying Leopard as long as I possibly could. I finally broke down and purchased it from some pawn shop on ebay. The disc came in the mail and I quickly opened it up. From watching videos online, I was prepared for an easy process. However, when I opened up the package, I could not find a registration code or anything to input when prompted (turns out you don’t need one). This made me a little worried that I didn’t purchase a legit copy. Being from a pawn shop and $50 under retail value, I figured either the copy was stolen or a fraud.

After doing a full system backup, I put the dvd in my laptop and prepared to move foward. The DVD spun, made a few loud noises, repeated two more times and then ejected. I think I was scammed. I tried again… same result. I became very irritated, because I can’t really call Apple Support because I didn’t buy it from them. I can’t do much with the pawn shop either, they just sold it, they don’t offer support, and the fact that they only had 12 copies meant I probably couldn’t mail it back for a replacement disc.

So, I jumped online. Turns out many people have been having the same issue, put the disc in, and it pops back out.

Here are the possible solutions I found:

1. Burn a duplicate of the disc on another machine and then try the new disc
2. Have Apple send you a new disc
3. Burn a new disc image without the XCodeTools directory
4. Reset pram - reset machine, hold down control + option + p + r, let it chime three times
5. Boot from disc - restart, hold down c
6. Choose boot disc - restart, hold down option

Unfortunately, none of these worked for me, so I am sure others are stuck too, however, I did find a solution.

THE SOLUTION:

• I grabbed my wife’s 5 year old iBook and put the Leopard dvd in, and it worked! Sweet, one step closer.
• Then I grabbed a firewire plug and plugged the iBook into my MacBook Pro
• Next, I shut down the iBook and rebooted in target disc mode - hold down t while it reboots (must be plugged in through firewire)
• The iBook mounted as a disc drive and so did the dvd drive
• I opened up the dvd and ran the install process successfully

This process took a lot longer to install than it normally would. This is because the dvd player was running off of another laptop through the firewire connection. But it did install! The process was supposed to take about an hour as good ol’ John stated in the video. It took me about 4 hours. Almost 2 hours were spent trying to find the solution and prove that the disc was not a fraud and then a little over two hours for the 1 hour install.

Now, Leopard is installed and it is running great. I am cruising around the machine checking out all of the new features. So far, I like it, but the over powering drop shadows that they rave about are kinda cheesy.

Hopefully this will help a few get Leopard installed. As long as you have an older Mac with a dvd player, you are good to go.

What is the .ico extension?
Icons used for a web page favorite icon are .ico files. I am pretty sure it stands for icon. A .ico file is a windows format icon that can be used to label folders, bookmarks, favorite icon for web pages, desktop icons and the bar at the bottom of the window.

Can I just make a .gif file and change the extension to .ico?
Sure, but it won’t work 100% of the time. But don’t worry, making an icon is easy and free.

So, how do I make a real icon?
If you need a .ico file, simply download the free .ico plugin for Photoshop. Save it in {/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-ins/File Formats/} once it is in there, restart Photoshop. Now when you do a “save-as” you will have .ico as an option in the format menu. That is it, save it out and you are done.

The .ico file doesn’t work on my Mac…
The .ico will work on a Mac for somethings, such as a favorite icon for a web site. However, if you want to use your sweet new icon to label a folder, you need to create a .icns file. This is easy and free too. Download the img2icns application and then dump in you Applications folder, you may have to put in your admin password. Once it is in there, double click to open it. Drag your image file, no matter what it is, onto the target and let go. Done.

Enjoy your new icons…

Though, the study is informal, it is based on about a half million sites with a total of about 1 billion page views per month. So, informal, yes, but representative of fact, probably pretty close. Now that Apple has gained in market share, one would assume that Windows went down, but it didn’t. Turns out that Windows has stood strong at 91%. It is true that Apple has gained a share, if you want to listen to these numbers, but Windows has not dropped, therefore, the title of this article is false.

The article goes on to predict that Apple could gain up to 15% share potentially in 5 years. I see this as being possible, but not a guarantee. With iPods and iTunes becoming mainstream, people are accepting Apple products and getting comfortable with the ease of use. However, with prices still being through the roof compared to PCs on the market, the mainstream may just decide that even though they are using Apple products, the products are compatible with PCs, so why switch. It makes sense, Apple is sneaking into peoples’ homes but isn’t really driving a convincing campaign to capture the computer market.

I guess the real question is, does it matter what OS people use? I don’t think so. Now that everything is moving towards being web-based, the OS that people use will soon become irrelevant. As long as you have a web browser, you will soon be able to do absolutely all computer tasks online, including storage. With this being the movement, we may see less of an OS struggle and more of a browser struggle. This is when I predict we will see Google enter the arena of web browsers. They are already building plenty of desktop applications that are solely web-based so once they perfect that, we will surely see a gBrowser follow.

My ultimate dream is to just tell my fridge what I always want and have it do an autoreplenish order, and then be able to add impromptu items. Every Friday, my refrigerator places an order to the grocery store, then they send a delivery kid to bring me my groceries, which have already been paid for via credit card by my fridge. Then all I have to do is tip the delivery boy and eat. Gimme that technology, within the next 10 years please.

Phx Creative is undergoing a layout modification. The new layout will enhance the reading experience while also allowing for added functionality to the site. The hope is to launch the new layout very soon. Soon following, if not at the same time, will be full search capabilities. Google search is being implemented which will provide improved search accuracy.

If you are around during the switch, please be patient. More updates to follow.

I don’t have much to say, but this is absolutely hilarious, check out the full video at Layers Magazine.