Posted by macbros | Under Announcement | 23 views
Wednesday Jul 1, 2009
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Happy 142nd B-Day Canada!
Lots of activities starting Already. You can see on the city cam at Officers Square and The Riverfront where the Fireworks will be at dawn.
I will be heading down to the riverfront later on today. Maybe check a few things out. I was expecting some company, but I don’t know if they plan on stopping in first. So I’ll be going to take some pictures and video. Hopefully I can use the camera settings correctly this time. LOL
OK. Top Hosting Center has moved my web site to yet, another server. This time it’s running on Cloud Hosting.
Cloud hosting is new and modern infrastructure and same technology that powers Amazon, Google services, online banking, and many others. Many other web hosting companies are racing to follow this trend as well. Top Hosting Center will adopt this infrastructure to remain globally competitive with their hosting services in addition to the improvements that they do with other hosting departments.
Websites in a cloud hosting operates on clustered servers where computing power and operations are not limited to a single server. Unlike the old hosting infrastructure, the security, hardware, and load balance are handled virtually, enabling websites to harness processing power of a number of servers in real-time.
I’m not holding my breath for this to be a good move. I’ve already been told that moving my web sites to another server way back in March would fix all the downtime problems before, and it ends up there were just as much problems and nothing really changed and site uptime was just as terrible as it was before they moved the sites.
So here we are again. Another site migration and more promises. All I can say is I hope they have it right this time. If they do, they’ll get the review and have their referral add back on the sidebar.
There is one things I’ve noticed about a plug-in. Seems they’ve shut off the ‘Get_Url’ PHP function again. I’ll be submitting a ticket when I get home tonight after my 4 hour shift. I have to get ready to go and catch my bus so I don’t have the time to deal with it at the moment.
Pffffft! New hosting server and already I’m having issues. Not off to a good start.
I’ve created a part of the site that you will be able to waste countless hours of your live playing games till you’re blue in the face. MacBros’ Games is open for your gaming entertainment pleasure!
I have several different categories of games for everybody to enjoy. From Action Games for the killer gamer to Dress Up games for the kiddies.
One of my favorite games already is the IncaBall game.
IncaBall Flash Game
I have actually wasted a few hours on this one already instead of working on fixing up all the other things that need to be added.
I believe that I can add a Ledger Board to display top scores for the games, so keep an eye on that as an upcoming feature.
There is a full voting system for users to vote on their favorite games so newcomers will know what ones are the favorite pics.
All the games are flash based games so you can play them in your browser, but most have the option for you to download too.
I will try and have new games updated every other day, so there will be 4-5 games added with each new update. So you might want to subscribe to the feed that is located on the gaming page.
Well there’s probably a lot more I could go on about the site, but why done you all just take a stroll on over and check it out for yourselves!
Wow! I was actually very disappointed when I received an e-mail from Rogers saying that they are going to discontinue the free Flickr Pro service. This is what they have to say in their e-mail.
Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,
We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.
Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:
• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo) • 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video) • Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)
If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free.
We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.
Sincerely,
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service
That to me is quite a kick in the teeth if you ask me.
I have 2373 photos on my account right now and I don’t have them stored on my hard drive. I know, stupid idea to put my trust in an online service to store my precious photos. Well, there is a way to get them all backed up to your hard drive or on DVD.
I will be using an application called Flickr Edit. It is a Java Based application that will allow you to backup all your Flickr photos to whatever storage media that you want to use. I’ll be downloading them to my hard drive so I can upload them to my own web site’s photo gallery. To download the application, just click on the Launch button below:
When you execute the application you will see a User button in the top right corner, when you click that it will open a browser window and it will have the authenticate option window from Flickr asking you to allow the application to have access to your Flickr account. Just click on the ‘OK, I’ll Allow It’ button to continue.
OK, I'll allow it
Once you successfully allow Flickr Edit to have access to your Flickr account, you will then see the following screen:
Success!
Once your done authorizing Flickr Edit, you can then go back to the application and start your backup process.
Now I have gone and opted to download all the sets. that way they are all manageable for uploading them back to My Gallery. Before you backup, I would recommend going into the preferences of the application so you can set it up for your own preferences. They are basic and straight forward so no further explanation is needed IMO.
Select Your Sets For Backup
Once I selected all the sets that I wanted to backup, I then proceeded with the backup options. I have chosen to back up to my hard drive like I already mentioned. There is an option to compress all the files into a zip file for those who want to save on file size. In my case I will be uploading them as soon as I download them all, so I will not be compressing mine, so I selected the ‘none’ radio button. Of course I also chose the location I wanted to download my files into.
Backup Options
Once I had my backup options I simply pressed ‘Start Backup’ and then the waiting process starts. Since I have so many files to download, it will take a very long time. Depending on your Computer Power and your Internet speeds, you can choose how many download process you want to run at a time. I left it at the default of 5, but you can go into the settings and lower or raise that number if you choose.
The Progress Screen
Just so you know. This application also allows you to edit images too. So you can still use it whenever you want even though your not using it to back up your shit.
So there you go. If your a Rogers Internet Customer, or have an ISP that’s yanking your Flickr Pro account out from under you, here you have a easy way to grab your shit before they cut you out completely.
Posted by macbros | Under Announcement | 216 views
Wednesday May 13, 2009
Don’t you just hate it when you go to do something, thinking that it will be a cinch and nothing really difficult to complete, and it completely becomes a task that you really wish you didn’t even start?
Well, that’s what I did!
OtherMac’s computer that he let me use till mine is fixed was filled with a lot of unknown processes running in the background, and there was a lot of hard drive space unaccounted for. Since this was just something to help me get a new portfolio put together again, since my older replacement computer wasn’t up to specs to run Adobe CS3 Master Collection, all I really needed was my media programs. A fresh install of the OS and a format should take care of all that, right?
OtherMac mentioned on his way out the door that he doesn’t have any install disks if I decide to format, but I knew/thought the Windowz XP install would automatically detect any needed drivers anyway.
Boy, was I wrong!
The install didn’t detect the on board network device, the on board sound device, or the on board video device. Notice I’m mentioning the ‘on board’ words. There was no actual manufacture names of the devices, therefore, no drivers that could be used. Because that would also explain the extra disk space that was unaccounted for. That extra disk space actually held the backup files because it is one of them PCs that are sold with all the crap on the hard drive instead of on an OEM CD.
When I did the fresh install, I opted for the, “ERASE EVERYTHING” option and started from scratch. Thus deleting all the driver information belonging to all the on board devices.
So when the OS was all installed, I could get online to allow XP to automatically get drivers because the network device didn’t have any drivers to work with.
The frustration set in and I couldn’t think straight. Thankfully OtherMac came up with the idea to swap the Network Card from my old PC and use it in his. It worked! I figure that while I’m at it I may as well swap my sound card into it also. I got Internet connection, XP updated everything, even the video drivers, and all is fine now. YAY!
It’s running a lot smoother now. I’ve re-installed Adobe CS3 Master Collection and now all I have t o do is start my portfolio creating again.
Even though it took me the entire day to do this, it was worth it. I’ve freed up a shitload of Hard Drive space, and things aren’t locking up on me any more. YAY!
But, let that be a lesson to you. If you plan on formatting, make sure you don’t erase the partition holding all the good shit, or at least have a driver CD handy. XP may not be able to update drivers when you don’t have an Internet connection.
Well, I’ve gone and done it.
Wow! I was actually very disappointed when I received an e-mail from Rogers saying that they are going to discontinue the free Flickr Pro service. This is what they have to say in their e-mail.
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