It’s 2012 already. Do you reflect on what you have done in 2011? If so, how do you do that? Me, having kinda short-term-memory, resorted to my thoughts repository, a.k.a Twitter. I can go to Facebook of course, but Twitter is where I post my life updates most of the time. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy thing to do. In Twitter website, I cannot search for my all my tweets during the year 2011, or in other words tweets from January 2011 to December 2011. Couldn’t find any third parties app that can do this either. With Snapbird, I can only read my recent 3200 tweets, which seems like the limit of Twitter API call. If anybody knows how to achieve what I’m trying to do, please let me know!

In the meantime, to avoid “losing” my tweets anymore, I decided to backup my tweets. To do this, I created three tasks in ifttt:

1. Tweets to Dropbox. Everytime I tweet, a new file will be added to my dropbox containing the link the tweets.
2. Tweets to Google Calendar. Every tweet will be added to Google Calendar as an event. Kinda look messy in GCal website, but looks pretty interesting Lion’s iCal :D
3. Tweets to Email. I decided to make one more task to backup my tweets, to my email, since my Yahoo mail seems to have unlimited storage. I created a filter to move emails from ifttt to a folder.

All the services used are FREE. So what are you waiting for? Backup your tweets! :) You can follow me on Twitter if you like :)

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What is

Another weekend project of mine, my first HTML5 app. Aruku is a simple HTML5 Web app to make a request to alc.co.jp to translate Japanese from and to English. I really like alc cause the result of their translation is more useful than other services I’ve tried like Google Translate. The source is in my Github.

Demo

Open Safari in your iPhone/iPod, go to http://nicosakura.no-ip.info:8888/Aruku/

Screenshots

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It can be done using iMovie, but isn’t it cooler to do it in command line using FFmpeg :D Found a tutorial to slowdown video using FFmpeg:

1. First, install FFmpeg and mjpegtool. I used port. It took a long time though. Open terminal and run

   sudo port install ffmpeg mjpegtool

2. Use the following command to slowdown the video.

   ffmpeg -i source_video.mp4 -f yuv4mpegpipe - | yuvfps -s 30:1 -r 30:1 | ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i  - -b 28800k  destination_video.mp4

   The 30:1 is the frame rate. For the video sample in this post, I used 30:1 and 15:1 to slowdown the video to 30 and 15 fps.

Just be noted that you need to set the GoPro to record in r3 mode. Tried to speedup the video using the same command but didn’t work. Found another way to speed up, but that will be for another post :D

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Yeay! GoPro has arrived! Time to tinker with it! ^^ So far, very satisfied with this little monster.

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When I sort by kind in Mac’s FInder, I expect the folders to be on top of the list. But it’s not like that. I blogged about the workaround for this in Snow Leopard a long time ago. Fortunately, it can still be applied to Lion with two additional steps. So this is how to do it:

1. Open Terminal.

2. Type this command:

   cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/

3. Now, the file we want to mess around is the InfoPlist.strings. But unfortunately, this file cannot be edited directly using text editor in Lion. But no worries. Run this command to make it editable.

   sudo plutil -convert xml1 InfoPlist.strings

4. Now the file should be editable and readable. Use your favorite text editor and open InfoPlist.strings. I just used vim

   sudo vim InfoPlist.strings

5. Inside you’ll find XML document. Go to the following lines:

   <key>Folder</key>
   <string>Folder</string>

6. All you have to do is to add a space before the second Folder like this:

   <key>Folder</key>
   <string> Folder</string>

7. Save the file. Convert the file to binary again using the following command.

   sudo plutil -convert binary1 InfoPlist.strings

8. Restart Finder.

   killall Finder

That’s it!

Update with screenshots

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Had problem with curl from the Terminal just now. It didn’t send GET parameters after the first parameter. For example,

curl http://localhost/somemethod?param1=value_of_param1&param2=value_of_param2

param2 was not sent to the server. Took me some time to find the solution in Google. Thanks to this thread in curl-users mailing list, the solution is to simply double quote the url as follows

curl "http://localhost/somemethod?param1=value_of_param1&param2=value_of_param2"

Problem solved. Learned something new again today.

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VirtualHost with MAMP

Spent a long time to setup a virtual host using MAMP, turned out just needed to add the nonstandard port when connecting. For example,

http://virtualhost.local:8888

Step by step tutorial here.

Showing Git’s branch in Mac’s Terminal

1. Add the following to .profile file in your home directory

   parse_git_branch() {
       git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/\ →\ \1/'
   }
   export PS1='\[\e[1;37m\][\[\e[1;35m\]\u\[\e[1;37m\]@\[\e[1;32m\]\h\[\e[1;37m\]:\[\e[1;36m\]\w\[\e[1;33m\]$(parse_git_branch)\[\e[1;37m\]]$ \[\e[0m\]'

2. Logout then login. Or reboot.

Komodo Edit is a Cool Editor

I’ve been using TextWrangler as my default editor for some time, but I’m not really satisfied somehow. After looking around, some suggestions came out, like TextMate, Coda, Komodo Edit, etc. Since I cannot afford TextMate nor Coda, I gave Komodo Edit a try. And I liked it. It’s pretty light, fast, cool name, and has Project management. And it’s FREE. Remember, it’s not the Komodo IDE. It’s the Komodo Edit.

Use FileMerge to graphically compare or merge file or directories

In Mac, if you have installed XCode, you can use FileMerge to graphically compare file/directories. FileMerge can be executed from command line using opendiff

opendiff file1.txt file2.txt

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Tinkering doesn’t always have happy ending. Just like this time. As I posted before, I am using Tonido to create my personal cloud at home. Since we can mount Tonido shares as local drive, I was thinking of plugging my external drive which contains my iPhoto Library (yes, you can move your iPhoto Library to other places) to the Tonido server. That way, I thought I can have a centralized iPhoto Library to share and combine photos with my wife.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way. Every time I opened iPhoto with the library in Tonido shares, I got welcomed by an alert saying that the library is locked. After googling it, I found this in Apple Support Communities,

The linnux disks do not have the ownership and permission feature that the OS X Extended format does and that iPhoto requires.

So that pretty much ended my tinkering. Now I second thought my plan to get a Tonido Plug. I’ve been looking into QNAP as recommended by a friend. From the video, it seems like it can handle iPhoto Library just fine. Looks cool, but of course, it comes with a price. An expensive one for me.

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This month, I start working for Flutterscape. And since I got the luxury to work from home, I decided to redecorate the house a little bit to alter the atmosphere. Hopefully it can boost my productivity. 

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Just found this nice little app from the Mac Store: Go2Shell. From the app description,

Go2Shell opens a terminal window to the current directory in Finder.

Just drag the application to the Finder toolbar then you’re all set.

It’s FREE. Cute icon. Simple. Recommended.

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iMovie for iOS is a cool and fun app. And since it’s a universal app, you can just buy once to use both in iPhone/iPod and the iPad. I have it in my iPod Touch and I like it. But pity us iPad 1 owners, Apple excluded us from the joy. Try installing iMovie from the App Store in iPad 1, you’ll be greeted by a polite alert saying that it cannot be installed in your magical device. Then you might turn to uncle Google to find a way to circumvent this and found out that there’s a way to install iMovie in iPad 1 without jailbreaking. But as you read through the articles or experienced it yourself, there’s a problem with this method. You got an annoying authorization complaint from iTunes when you tried to sync your iPad.

I didn’t want to experience it. And since my iPad is jailbroken already, I searched for a way to install iMovie in iPad 1 with jailbreaking. Turned out it’s pretty easy. In short, it only takes three steps:

1. Get the iMovie.app folder.

   

   If you already have iMovie in your list of apps in iTunes, right click on it, then choose Show in Finder. Copy the iMovie.ipa to somewhere else, e.g., in your Desktop. Change the extension of it to .zip. Double click the zip file and open the folder in Finder. The file/folder we’re gonna need is the iMovie inside Payload folder.

2. Copy the iMovie.app to /Applications/ folder in your iPad.

   Many ways to do this. You can install OpenSSH in your iPad, then upload the file to your iPad using Cyberduck. Or you can copy it to memory card or external HD then plug it to your iPad using the method I posted before. Or you can simply use apps like GoodReader to copy the file to your iPad then use iFile to move the iMovie.app to /Applications/ folder. Whatever good for you.

   Note: Remember, it’s /Applications/ folder not /var/mobile/Applications

3. Reboot your iPad. You should see iMovie icon in your home screen.

But iPad 1 has no camera, so what’s the point, you might ask. The point is it feels easier to edit movie clips in the iPad than in the iPod Touch or iPhone thanks to the big screen. And since your iPod/iPhone can record videos, you can simply transfer those videos to your iPad using Camera Connection Kit and the USB cable.

What’s cool about this method is you won’t be greeted by the annoying authorization dialog when you sync your iPad to your iTunes!

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Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax created by John Grubber. From his website,

Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

So instead of using HTML tags, we can just use Markdown and convert it using the applications that support it. Unfortunately, no free apps for the iPad. But luckily, there’s one free app for the iPhone called Markdown Composer. For the functionality it gives, I don’t mind using the scaled version of it on the iPad.

Check out the basic of Markdown to find out how easy it is to compose rich text script.

What I like

What I like from Markdown is how easy it is to create multi-paragraph list. I always had trouble achieving this with HTML editor everytime I blogged in Wordpress. But with Markdown, I can create multi-paragraph list like this:

1. This is item number one

   This is the first paragraph in item number one.

   And this is the second paragraph.

2. This is the second item.

   This is the first paragraph in the second item.

by simply adding blank lines between items and indenting each paragraph with 4 spaces or 1 tab as the following

1.  This is item number one

    This is the first paragraph in item number one.

    And this is the second paragraph.

2.  This is the second item.

    This is the first paragraph in the second item.

Easy

Tip #1

Don’t you know that you can send markdown email to post to your blog in Posterous?

Tip #2

Since the Mail app in the iphone/ipad has no feature to attach picture (you need to go to Photo app, then send the photo), it’ll require extra steps to add picture to your rich text script in the iPhone/iPad. Once you get the HTML version of your script from Markdown Composer, select all, then copy it. Go to Photos app, choose pics you want to include, then send them by email. In the Mail app, you can paste the HTML script you have created. Move the pictures to where you want them to be. That’s it!

H_app_y MarkDowning

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So after more than a year of owning iPad 1, I decided it’s time to “abuse” it a little bit more by jailbreaking it. It came to my surprise that the process was very easy and fast. But why jailbreak you might ask. No, not to play flash or to install pirated apps. For now, two capabilities I expect from jailbroken iPad are:

1. Mount and read&write external hard drives/memory card using the camera connection kit.
2. Change the default browser to my favorite browser, iCab Mobile.

Before I explain the process, just so you know, my iPad is the wifi only iPad 1 with iOS 4.3.3. At the time of writing this, it seems like the jailbreak for iPad 2 is not yet available. And please remember, do this at your own risk! I’m not responsible for anything! :)

Backup the iPad

Always do this, backup your iPad using iTunes. Sync contacts and calendars. Backup photos as well.

Jailbreak iPad 1 4.3.3 using Redsnow

I just followed the instructions here. Very easy and unexpectedly fast. Only took around 5 minutes.

Install iFile from Cydia

Once it’s jailbroken, you’ll have Cydia App Store in your iPad. Open it, search for iFile, install it.

Install MobileTerminal

There’s a problem with MobileTerminal from Cydia. It keeps crashing. Turns out I need to install the latest version from the app, but not from Cydia.

1. Download the .deb file from here. Tip: you can download the file straight from the iPad using iCab Mobile or GoodReader which can be found in the App Store. I highly recommend both of them.
2. Open iFile.
3. Tap on the gear button at the bottom left to open the Setting, set the “Application names” to ON.
4. Navigate to /var/mobile/Applications/iCabMobile/Documents or /var/mobile/Applications/GoodReader/Documents. Tap Edit button at the top right, tap the circle at the left of MobileTerminal’s .deb file you have downloaded, then tap the copy button at the bottom right, choose copy/link.
5. Navigate to /private/var/root/Media/Cydia/AutoInstall. Create the directories if it doesn’t exist yet.
6. Paste the MobileTerminal’s .deb file.
7. Reboot your iPad.
8. MobileTerminal icon should appear. If not, check the Wiki page of MobileTerminal.

Mounting drive preparation

I followed the instructions given by Max Shay here, but instead of using PC/Mac to SSH to the iPad, I did everything straight from the iPad using MobileTerminal.

1. Open MobileTerminal, login as root.

   su root

   Then enter your password. If you haven’t changed the default password, it’s “alpine”. You better change it now.

2. Make /Volumes/EXT directory.

   mkdir /Volumes

   mkdir /Volumes/EXT

3. Make a link to /var/mobile/EXT

   ln -s /Volumes/EXT /var/mobile/EXT

4. Now follow the instructions by Max from number 9 to 13.

Mount the drive

Apparently, iPad cannot power external drive, so you need to plug the external drive to the PC/Mac while plugging to the iPad or using external power supply. But this method works with memory card as well (SDHC) so you won’t need to worry about the power.

1. Plug the external hard drive/memory card. If an alert saying something like not enough power, like I said, plug it to external power supply first.
2. Open MobileTerminal.

3. Check if the hard drive is detected.

   ls /dev

   We’re looking for disk1s1. Found it? Good. Not found it? Try unplugging and plugging again.

4. Mount the drive.

   mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT

5. That’s it! Now you can open GoodReader, and access the drive from there!

Unmount the drive

To Unmount the drive you’re gonna need umount command. But unfortunately for me, the command was not found when I called it in MobileTerminal. I needed to install additional app from Cydia.

1. Open Cydia.
2. Search for diskdev-cmds. Install it.

3. Open MobileTerminal, login as root. Then

   umount /dev/disk1s1

4. That’s it! Now you can safely remove the drive :)

Create shortcut to mount and Unmount

Typing to log in to root, mount, and unmount all the time is quite annoying. Good thing we can save all these commands in MobileTerminal. Add the following commands in MobileTerminal.

1. su root
2. mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT
3. umount /dev/disk1s1

That’s it! So anytime you want to plug your external drive, just open MobileTerminal, then run those three commands. If you plug memory card, usually Photo app will open and read the contents. In that case, you will need to Unmount it first before mounting it.

Good luck!

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