bloggie blog

As an iPhone user, I’ve been intrigued by the changes AT&T has proposed in its data rates. “Intrigued” because it seems like that rare change that will benefit a ton of consumers. (See David Pogue’s take.)

However, I use a lot of data. Twice the amount needed to qualify for the $15/month savings that I’d hoped for. And since the new plans are capped, maybe it’s not worth giving up unlimited for any cap in order to save $5/month. The included graph shows my data plan usage from AT&T’s wireless account page. I’m at 400 MB/month pretty consistently. What’s your usage?

Over the last 3 days, I’ve had a lot of replacement parts to my black MacBook. Thanks to AppleCare and my 2 external backups, it’s been pretty painless, if a little time consuming. I got new RAM, and an unexpected boost from 2GB to 3GB. Then I needed a new hard drive, too, and an unexpected boost from Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Embracing change, I switched the DNS servers on our Time Capsule settings from Time Warner Cable’s default values to the settings over at OpenDNS. The internets have gotten peppier with every one of the above changes. Upgrading your RAM or your OS will probably cost most of you money, but you can all upgrade to OpenDNS for free … and I highly recommend you give it a shot!

Just be sure to write down your current settings so you can reverse them if it doesn’t make things peppier for you. (Sidebar: If you say it in French, a peppier might be the guy that walks around fancy restaurants to grind some pepper on your soupe or salade.)

I’ve created a bookmarklet to switch from IMDb to IMDb Pro more easily. If you subscribe to IMDb Pro, do this.

Drag this link [Pro] to your bookmark bar. This link will now switch you to the IMDb Pro version of any IMDb page, or it will take you to the IMDb Pro home page if you click on it when not on regular IMDb.

Now, you may be saying that this is useless because every regular IMDb page has a link to its IMDb Pro version. Yes, but with this bookmarklet, you can click on one reliable place, a place that doesn’t scroll, a place whose horizontal location is not dependent on the length of an actor’s or agency’s name, and a place not blocked by very invasive ads that IMDb sometimes puts up! It was the invasive Flash ads for Alice in Wonderland that drove me to develop this. If you use Safari, you can also use a keyboard shortcut to the first 10 bookmarks in your bookmark bar. Speedy!

I find this handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!

P.S. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of this bookmarklet, here is its Javascript code:

h=location.href;
w=h.indexOf("http://www.imdb.com");
p=h.indexOf("http://pro.imdb.com");
if(w==0){window.location=h.replace("www","pro")}
else if(p==-1){window.location="http://pro.imdb.com/"};

I wish you a wonderful year. I hope you can be happy, make nice progress on your goals, and always see things clearly throughout 2010 — and when you can’t do that, I hope it’s because you have something fabulous like a peacock feather blocking your vision.

I have had something blocking my vision for a while now. It’s half wonderful, half garbage, and it’s called my inbox. My email inboxes (are we all plural on that front nowadays?) are often full, but as of today, they are blissfully empty. It’s a new thing for a new year. So if you emailed me during 2009 and I didn’t respond, please accept my deepest apology and write back, because I ain’t looking back in my old messages unless I suddenly remember there’s money in there for me. Money or peacock feathers.

As mentioned previously, I downloaded a very fun iPhone app called iCaroler (iTunes link). It’s a great way to start the Christmas season! You play with carolers, muting or highlighting the Victorian singers in your choir while they sing very fun arrangements of some Christmas favorites. I don’t know why it’s fun, but it is!

It’s even better when multiple people play with your carolers. A friend squealed, “I love it!” after just a few seconds of setup between iPhones.

That was a few days ago. This morning she texted me: “I’m having serious iCaroler withdrawl!” Enough said — worth 99¢ right there!

Hey there, kids. I just switched from one server to another. It’s a faster, better server from the same company I’ve been with for years now, Joyent, formerly Textdrive, and they say it’s a good way to reduce spammers from using me to spam. (Apologies for participating unwittingly in advertising Viagra.)

I spent a few hours trying to make sure everything is right, but shoot me an email if you see anything not working here on kevinashworth.com, k? Thanks.

This is how I get street addresses from my home computer to my iPhone with ease.

The tricky part for most users is this one requirement: Have a server somewhere that runs PHP and that can send you email. If you have access to such a server, here’s an easy solution I call Mappie Map. It’s kind of like iPhoneSender, but you don’t have to type in an email address every time you use it.

1. Create a file in the html root directory of your server and name it iphone.php.

2. Edit iphone.php with this text (replacing YOUREMAIL with your actual email):

< ?php
function mystrip($s) {
	$s = trim($s);
	$s = str_replace("\xA0",' ',$s);
	$s = preg_replace('/\s+/','+',$s);
	return $s;
}
$to = "YOUREMAIL";
$address = $_REQUEST["address"];
echo $address . "<br />";
$subject = "Map: " . $address;
$address = mystrip($address);
$message = "http://maps.google.com/?q=" . $address;
$from = "Mappie Map YOUREMAIL";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo $address;
?>

3. Drag this link [Mappie Map] to your Safari bookmark bar.

4. Right-click the Mappie Map link in your Safari bookmark bar and select “Edit Address.” Replace YOURSERVER with the URL of your server root, such as www.FirstnameLastname.com.

5. You’re good to go! Click on the Mappie Map bookmark link after highlighting an address in your web page, a new window pops up showing the sent info which you must close manually, and you’ll soon get a message from Mappie Map. Just tap on its contents, and the address will now appear in your iPhone’s Maps app without you having to type it in.

I find this real real handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!

I am on Twitter: @kevinashworth. I joined Twitter long before moving to Los Angeles, long before it occurred to me that I could follow LA people in The Biz on Twitter. I joined in large part because I used to work with @livia, who is married to @biz, the founder of Twitter, and I went to a party at their apartment in Wellesley before they moved to California. Good people. So. I joined 546 days ago, according to whendidyoujointwitter.com. In comparison, the Twitterers I reference below all have under 150 days on the service. Not that length of time using Twitter matters much.

Anyway, over the last couple of months, lots of industry people have started Tweeting all the time. And it’s useful information for people new to LA. So I follow. But it’s dangerous. I think I have mis-Tweeted, and I think I crossed the personal-business divide. Damn, and damn. But I’m not the only one who is confused! Consider two Tweets from today:

@DanielleCasting: crashing an audition is possibly the worst thing you can do to yourself.. even if your agent tells you to give it a try..don’t do it!!!

@TalentAgentLA: RT @agentCESD So many actors have a magical best friend who is “slightly less attractive” but “gets out more than I do.” Voila, a crash!

Two talent agents encourage actors to crash auditions, but one casting director says never do it, no matter the aforementioned encouragement from your agent. Talk about confusing! Who are you going to believe? The answer might be this: Don’t crash Danielle’s auditions, and crash other auditions very selectively. But it can be confusing, this Twitterverse of ours. Next step for me is not to crash selectively, but to try to make amends for crossing the personal-business divide. Hmm. Tweet me your best ideas!

A bit of silly computerizing today. My dock spells out the word “SEXY!” and I agree, my desktop is sexy!

The photo is from my recent trip to Arches National Park, where we were mesmerized by this iridescent cloud as we stood under one of the “windows.” The icons are from Quicken, Entourage, Excel and Yahoo Mail! as a Fluid app. The only trouble with this lovely setup: the dock is too huge, but I had to magnify it for the screenshot. Enjoy! Now back to our regular dock size.

The new iPhone is good, so I think it’s time to tell all the world once again information that I find really helpful as I try to get around town. This is how I get street addresses from my home Mac to my mobile iPhone with ease.

Requirements:
0. Want to get a street address to your iPhone more easily.
1. Use Safari or Firefox on your computer at home. (IE is untested.)
2. Have a server somewhere that runs PHP and can send you email.

Basically, if you have access to a server, here’s an easy solution I call Mappie Map. It’s kind of like iPhoneSender, but you don’t have to type something every time you use it.

First, create a script file on your server and name it iphone.php:

< ?php
function mystrip($s) {
	$s = trim($s);
	$s = str_replace("\xA0",' ',$s);
	$s = preg_replace('/\s+/','+',$s);
	return $s;
}
$to = "YOUREMAIL";
$address = $_REQUEST["address"];
echo $address . "<br />";
$subject = "Map: " . $address;
$address = mystrip($address);
$message = "http://maps.google.com/?q=" . $address;
$from = "Mappie Map YOUREMAIL";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo $address;
?>

Then drag this link [Mappie Map] to your Safari bookmark bar and click on it after highlighting an address in your web page.

Of course, you’ll have to edit the bookmark first, with your server name; you’ll have to edit the other script with your email info, too. Once it’s running, click on the bookmarklet, a new window pops up showing the sent info which you must close manually, and you’ll soon get a message from Mappie Map. Just tap on its contents, and the address will now appear in your iPhone’s Maps app without you having to type it in. I find this real real handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!