If you forget your microfiber cloth what do you intend to use to wipe those fingerprints off of your iPhone screen? Normally, I would end up using the bottom of my shirt or the sleeve (If using a long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt). However, I have found an alternate solution that will work as long as your hands are dry.

Use the bottom of your hand when it is rolled up into a fist.

I have very greasy hands most of the time because I touch my hair a lot throughout the day. It works surprisingly well when using my hand because that area doesn’t really get dirty. I’m not sure if this is just a way that only works for some people, but it works for me! The only problem is that it moves around the dust that is on the iPad. It’s only good when try to take off the fingerprints.

PS. I wrote this post while using my new iPad.

1. Click on the disk image you want to convert to highlight it.
2. On the menu bar at the top, click “Images” –> “Convert”
3. Make sure the Image Format is set to “DVD/CD master”
4. Save the Image where you want it to be located
5. Navigate to the Image you just created and change the file extension from “.cdr” to “.iso”
6. Burn it using Disk Utility and you should be good to go!

When you first sign up for Lala, you get a free 25 songs that you can use to play online for an unlimited time. You get to choose whatever 25 songs you want, but the points expire in a month so you better use them. Also, when you invite others to lala, you get a free 5 songs each time. You can also share songs on your facebook to let others listen to what cool song you have found. This is starting to sound more like a list, so I guess I should actually put it in a list, eh?

What you can do with Lala.com:

• Buy songs to play on the web for unlimited amount of times (10 cents)
• Buy songs to play on your computer AND the web for unlimited amount of times (around a dollar, more or less)
• If you already bought the web song, then you can buy the mp3 version for the difference.
• Share songs on facebook, twitter, email, etc.
• Play any song for FREE for ONE TIME (full song). After the first time, it will play a 30 second sample thereafter.
• Follow your friends and what what they are listening to.
• Lala shows new music as they come out so you can be up-to-date!
• Add songs to your Queue to listen to. Like right now, I added a bunch of random new music to my queue to listen to. If I like it, I make a note of the song for future reference (if I want to purchase it or not).
• Now, what about all those songs that I already own? Well Lala has a program called LalaMover that will search your iTunes library for music you already own and automatically add it to your Lala account for FREE.
• When you sign up for Lala, you get a free 25 songs for web purchase. For every new person you invite and accepts your offer, you get another 5 free web songs.

You know what? Why don’t you just go check it out? If you decide to get a Lala account, please click here so that I can get a free 5 songs! Now if you haven’t heard already (this is the reason I found lala.com), Apple has just recently purchased Lala.com so you never know what new features could be added, or if iTunes changes things up a little.

I’ve had many people come to me to unlock their iPhone 3G and 3GS. It is extremely easy with the new iPhone software thanks to geohot. I will give very simple instructions on how to unlock any iPhone 3G or 3GS that has the software 3.1.2 installed (currently the latest as of the date of post). To unlocked your iPhone, you need to jailbreak it first.

The blackra1n application that is installed on your iPhone

1. Make sure your iPhone has been backed up in iTunes before attempting this. The backup process should save your settings and contacts.
2. Check what software your iPhone is currently running by going to Settings -> General -> About on your iPhone. Check to see what the “Version” says. If it is 3.1.1 then you should update your iPhone to the current iPhone 3.1.2 by going through the software update. If the software you are downloading through iTunes is not version 3.1.2, then this post does not apply to you.
3. Download the software provided and available by geohot by going to blackra1n.com. There is a Windows and a Mac version available.
4. Run the program that you just downloaded and “make it ra1n” with your iPhone plugged into your computer.
5. Open up the Blackra1in application that was installed on your iPhone and select the packages you want. If you want to just jailbreak your iPhone, then just install the Cydia or Rock application. If you want to unlocked your iPhone, then select the Cydia or Rock application AND the sn0w application.
6. Install the applications and wait for it to finish. When done, you should have a working jailbroken or unlocked iPhone 3G or 3GS using firmware version 3.1.2.

If you have any questions about this then I would recommend trying to find the answers online because I just use the software.

What I saw when trying to add my printer... the printer was not listed, but the scanner was.

After receiving this wonderful printer of mine, I found out that my MacBook was not able to detect the printer. The printer was supposed to be detected by my MacBook through bonjour, but the only thing that showed up was the scanner, not the printer. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me, so I decided to look online.

That is when I ran into a forum post on the Apple Discussion board. This post had someone having trouble trying to connect to their MP560 just like I was. I tried everything the people suggested, but could not get it to work. Pahu, the person who was helping the guy out, was the person who also tried to help me. He suggested that I have CUPS installed from Canons website. I installed it, the printer still wouldn’t show up. He then asked me if I had firewall setup or Parallels installed. Well, I never had my firewall setup, but I do have Parallels installed. Apparently, Parallels has a known problem to block the protocol that some Canon printers try to communicate through to the computer.

My first reaction… I do not want to uninstall Parallels because I bought the program and I use it fairly often for work and school purposes. So, I searched once again and found another forum post. This one suggested that I stop a Parallels service that was running in the background by opening Terminal and typing “sudo launchctl stop com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon” into it, without quotes.

This is what you are supposed to see when adding the MP560 as a printer.

Well what do you know? I opened the “add printer” dialogue again and it showed up after a good 10 seconds. So, when installing the Canon PIXMA MP560 Printer on a Mac, make sure you have CUPS drivers installed, MP560 Mac drivers installed, and parallels service not running by using the sudo command mentioned above (or just not installed period). Also, to print double-sided you will have to select the “duplex printing” option in the printer settings when printing. Took me awhile to figure out, but a quick search of the printers manual helped me solve that problem.

Okay so this is a lot of information, but it’s mainly to help anyone who is having problems with the same printer. As an extra treat I should let you all know that there is an iPhone app that allows you to print photos from your iPhone to the printer, wirelessly. Of course you will have to be connected to the same WiFi as the printer.

The program comes with a free demo and pops-up with a notification every few times you use a feature. This notification tells you to purchase the program or continue the demo. I’ll deal with the demo pop-up for now until I can afford to buy it, but I am liking it a lot.

Another feature it has is maximizing windows to full screen. In the past, I have always had to drag the window to fit full screen, but it is a little time-consuming and irritating to do it every time. No, that green “+” button doesn’t do it for me. All I do is press “control+option+command+m” to get a window to fit the full screen. I LOVE IT! Programs like this make my life so much easier on my MacBook… since I use it everyday.

I hope find it as useful as I do. I know everyone has preferences and you might not even need this program, but give it a shot if you have had the same frustrations as me.

Go to their site and check it out!
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

Rock:
This is just like cydia, but way faster, cleaner, and much more intuitive. Anyone who has a jailbroken iPhone should download this in Cydia if you don’t have it already. It is call “RockApp” if you want to search for it.

Kirikae:
The best thing if you want to multi-task on your iPhone. If you are not too familiar with multi-tasking… then think of when you want to read an email, chat, and surf the web all at the same time. Well Kirikae lets you do that by pressing the home button twice so your apps don’t have to reload every single time you open them. Check it out by going here: http://www.cultofmac.com/kirikae-jailbreak-app-switcher-for-iphone-ipod-touch/16471

SBSettings:
Be able to turn off wifi, bluetooth, 3G, autolock, change the brightness, and a bunch more with just a swipe of a button. I don’t like going all the way to the settings in order to change it since I do so often. The apple blog site explains is use very well. http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/22/sbsettings-why-i-still-jailbreak-with-3-0/

Categories:
Organize your apps in folders. I don’t think I need to say anymore, but here is a link with more details.
http://www.topiphoneresource.info/organize-your-iphone-apps-with-categories-jailbreak-app/

QuickReply for SMS:
Don’t need to exit that game you are playing to reply to someones text with this app. Although it costs money, I think it’s well worth it.

MyWi:
Tether your iPhone so that you can access the internet with your computer by using your iPhones internet connection. It’s pretty sweet, but it costs money. I haven’t boughten it yet, but I might in the future. There is a free 10 day trial.

Well I hope you like these apps. Some of them cost money and I don’t remember which ones do. Right now I should be studying or doing some sort of homework, but it’s hard to when you have a vacation day on a wednesday with the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I got it for Curtis’ birthday and it makes me want to get my own Xbox, even though I don’t have any money. Oh, and my birthday was on November 3rd. I got a cool new snowboard called the GNU Park Pickle. Can’t wait to try it out. I also got this cool Magic Mouse for my Macbook.

Anyways, I’ll try to update more often. I always tell myself not to update because I could be doing something productive like accounting homework, study for statistics, or working on management material. I guess I will try to do that now.

Free Software

Dropbox – This is one of my favorite applications. It works for both mac and windows so either operating system can enjoy it. It is a program that uploads anything in your “dropbox folder” to your dropbox account online. You don’t have to press “upload” or anything. Whenever you are connected to the internet, it will automatically sync between your online and dropbox folder. I use this all the time for work since I don’t like the files system that my school has. You can download and view your files at getdropbox.com.

Caffeine – Makes it so your display won’t turn off with a click of the coffee cup icon that it puts on your task bar. Very handy when watching a video or reading something online. Sometimes the display will dim just a little bit when I don’t want it to. That’s when I use Caffeine.

InsomniaX – Soft of like Caffeine where it won’t turn off your display, but the point of this is so when you close your Mac, the laptop won’t go into standby mode or turn off the display. I use this for when I plug my computer to my TV to watch a show or movie I have on my Mac. I don’t want to see my Macs display when watching a movie on the TV display, so that’s why I find this handy. They have a better description on their site.

Reader Notifier – Do you use Google Reader for RSS feeds? Then this is essential for your mac. Reader Notifier notifies you of any new feeds that you have.

Quicksilver – Kind of like spotlight for your Mac, but incredibly nicer interface and has a lot more features. Search your mac instantly and open them in a snap. I’ve been using this to open files for school. I like to keep my Mac organized, but it sometimes takes a long time to navigate since I have so many folders. This makes it easier so I can just search the file and it pops up pretty fast. There are a lot more features that you should check out.

doubleTwist – Add media content to your non-iPhone devices with your Mac. It supports a wide variety of devices so check it out. I know it works for BlackBerry, Palm Pre, PSP, and Android. Plus it works somewhat like the iTunes store, but you can buy music from Amazon.

Well that’s all I have for now. You can browse some cool applications at macupdate.com. Let me know if you have any cool software for your Mac. I love trying new stuff.

I heard about Rangers Apprentice from visit in Oregon where the weekend was packed with things to do. Arrived Friday night with John, Lori, Thi, and Joey. Saturday, we played two-hand touch, had a fantasy draft, and hung out at the To’s. Sunday involved church, lunch, and a fun ride home. My fantasy team isn’t that good, btw.

The other day I went to a usability study for Microsoft. Got a program that I’m selling on craigslist for around $300. That’s about all I got.

I don’t exaclty remember the order we did things but the rest of the day consisted of the wooden roller coaster, eating in the parking lot, tea cups, lumber jack falls, the wild thing, and the wave pool. Sandy went on the roller coasters her first time and looked like she had fun. Good job, Sandy! My throught hurts from screaming, Haha.

Nhuy loved the tea cup ride. Jon and Louis were spinning it like crazy and she had her head back, relaxing. Someone threw-up, but I forgot his name. The wave pool was fun with goggles. I lost them for a minute. Found them on a kid wearing them. Afte I got them back, he kept calling me a liar yelling at his friends saying that they weren’t mine. He even asked to borrow then after all that. It all was really fun though. I had a good time and it seemed like everyone else did too. Thank you Louis, Huy, and Nhuchi for driving.

See Also:
Dirty water, fire on I-5, annoying bees, Red Vines, non spinning tea cup, Leilani’s lips, Oreo’s sandal tan, slow slide, Kyliente, out-of-water shivers, screaming, falling-star.