LarZ' Blog

WordPress – Addthis facebook image – Automatically uses your featured image when you share on Addthis

admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:18:44 +0000

Addthis does not allow you to choose a thumbnail when you share with facebook. This little snippit automatically selects your featured image and uses it when anyone uses addthis to share.

Simply paste the following just after the tag in your header.php file in your wp-content > themes > yourcurrentthemename

ID ) ): ?>
ID ), ‘single-post-thumbnail’ ); ?>
”/>

I’m on wordpress 3.1.1 and this does the trick for one of my blogs where this is essential. I hope that it helps you guys.

Ipad2 – pre order date

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:01:05 +0000

I sold my iPad last week and oh man how do I miss it!? I got a decent price for it, but I’m sure the person I sold to feels they got it for a good price too. I sold it with a view to upgrading to the sleek new ipad2

I know the ipad2 release date in Ireland is the 25th of march, but does anyone know when we can start pre-ordering? Rumour has it that pre-ordering can start as soon as tomorrow, 11/03/2011, but I reckon apple will want to clear stocks of original iPads first so I’m not getting my hopes up…

I’m going to get the White one, with a case… That case looks fantastic doesn’t it?

Pretty excited now, but really missing my iPad

Iphone helmet camera (Gadget Wish)

ldusoswa — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:07:33 +0000

Would love a HD helmet cam that would be controlled via bluetooth from my iphone. The camera would store the data and all of that but i’d be able to watch back the footage on my iphone straight away. This would be ideal for in the car, on the slopes or on a bicycle. The iphone already has a great screen, i don’t need another one on my video camera. I wish this gadget existed

Testing WordTwit 2.5.1 on WordPress

ldusoswa — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:18:20 +0000

This should auto-tweet for me now. Which in turn will automatically add this to my Facebook. That’s the Theory anyways!

‘Tweet This’ Added, now gonna test WordTwit

ldusoswa — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:08:12 +0000

I added Tweet this, as although I already have social bookmarking and feed options, I think Twitter is as important, if not more important these days. Anyways, It took a little while to style it properly. It looks ok now. Not 100% happy with it but nobody reads this blog anyway! I installed WordTwit too… Settings for that were pretty easy, so let’s hope it automatically tweets when I publish a blog item. Here’s to hoping.

WordPress is a pain to upgrade

ldusoswa — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:20:22 +0000

Had to do an upgrade to get some of my old plugins working again… why they broke, god only knows… The instructions for upgrading manually are too simplistic. They don’t tell you which files you may wish to back up or anything. You practically have to know the architecture of WordPress to successfully upgrade it. Auto upgrade i hear you say? If only that worked for me… I’ve never gotten that to work. Before you say anything about FTP or DB details, I’m a web developer by trade. WordPress is kinda shit when it comes to any degree of flexibility. Anyways, Rant over, I just want to see if this auto-posts to twitter…

Top 10 iPad Apps – January 2011

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:32:13 +0000

No boring Intros – Straight into the iPad Apps:

#10 – VLC Player

VLC Player is fantastic. It allows you to put DivX and other movie formats onto your iPad. The iPad’s Screen makes this a must have. It has been pulled from the app store though. You have to be one of the lucky ones to have this app installed. For that reason it doesn’t really count as top 10. Here’s why it was pulled. It’s still available on jailbreak from cydia though.

#10 – Flipboard – http://www.flipboard.com/

Turn your twitter and facebook feeds into an easy to read ebook that updates itself like your facebook or twitter does. Very nice to read, you don’t need to open links, you can just view them inline. Comment, tweet and everything you’re used to on this brilliant App.

#9 – Ebay – http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/ebay-for-ipad/id364203371?mt=8

Dangerously addictive. So easy. I think everyone knows what ebay is at this stage. This brings it to iPad. Dare i say this app is better than the ebay website.

#8 – TV Guide – http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tv-guide-for-ipad/id379455139?mt=8

Check what’s on TV, get its information and even a little screenshot with this app. Hook it up to your sky account and you can even set your sky+ box to record when you’re not at home. A must have.

#7 – Harbor Master – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harbor-master-hd/id363658120?mt=8

Games don’t get much simpler. So easy, so addictive. I have this for iphone too, but it’s a lot nicer on the ipad’s big screen

#6 – Scrabble – http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/scrabble-for-ipad/id371808484?mt=8

Scrabble on the iPad is so much better than real life scrabble. Why? No more “That’s not a word!” or “You’re cheating!”. If the iPad accepts the word, you get the points. Pass the iPad to the next player and let them try to make up words. Must have App.

#5 – Construction Zone HD – http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/construction-zone/id323821903?mt=8

This is a true intelligence test. Great fun too. Try to get a perfect score in all and you’ll be scratching your head on many an occasion. Great for the technically minded, this is a well thought out game. I can’t wait for a sequel.

#4 – Train Conductor USA - http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/train-conductor-2-usa/id378772227?mt=8

Similar to Harbor Master, this game will make the clock go like it’s being powered by a hamster on red bull. Great fun game, well worth it.

#3 – Mirror’s Edge – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mirrors-edge-for-ipad/id363311002?mt=8

Haven’t had time to play this one much. Great graphics and innovative gameplay. This is a great game, although i don’t expect to see it on next month’s top 10.

#2 – GameForCats – http://www.ipadgameforcats.com/

Have a Cat? Get this app… It’s hilarious. Let your cat choose which level to play and watch them rack up the points on a very very simple concept. check this out on YouTube if you’re not convinced.

#1 – Facebook Friendly – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/friendly-plus-for-facebook/id382011064?mt=8

I know the iPad has a great screen and browser, but facebook is lovely and quick on Friendly for Facebook. It’s nicely laid out, and although i prefer to read facebook with Flipboard, I prefer to participate with Friendly.

I’ll update this list every month (under a new blog entry). Stay tuned. Next Month i’ll be focusing in on Irish Apps, as I’m based in Ireland.

Fantastic App for synchronising Files

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:36:36 +0000

Sync files to External drives, internal drives, memory sticks, network drives or even FTP.

I seriously recommend Allway Sync. So simple to set up, I use it at work and at home. It’s quick and easy. I set it to automatically do a sync when the PC is idle. I never notice it working, as i’m away from the PC. Because it scans automatically, it does it regularly, and it’s quick.

Get the software at http://allwaysync.com/. Very very simple, well worth the money. Only 20 Dollars. Best one I’ve used anyways.

eMachines 220/420 PC – windows xp can not be repaired

ldusoswa — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:48:45 +0000

For some reason the ‘recovery’ disks that came with a friend’s eMachines desktop pc can not actually recover anything! All they do is restore/write the factory settings on there, which is useless!

My friend has many great photos on their hard drive so when their pc wouldn’t boot past the windows loading screen they got pretty annoyed. It seems like explorer wont load up, so i tried all the usuals like:

1. Ctrl+Alt+Del – NOTHING
2. WIN+r to try force run explorer – NOTHING
3. There was mouse movement, but no more
4. Safe mode – same symptoms only at a lower resolution
5. Last known good configuration – NOTHING
6. Checked the BIOS to see if anything weird was up – NOTHING

Very weird and quite frustrating… Almost points to a hardware failure but let’s hope it’s not.

What i’ve done:

1. I’ve taken the hard drive out of the machine and put it into an external hard drive case.

eMachines' Hard Drive in external USB hard drive case (taken apart)

2. I have a secondary external hard drive on which i have created a folder to store the PC’s hard drive contents

3. Then i simply ‘recover’ the PC to factory settings and drag over the relevant data from the external backup

This is the 2nd time that this has happened to this particular machine so i am installing a nice little application called Allway Sync which will monitor folders and automatically back up those folders to the external drive, so if and when this happens again there will be no fiddly taking the machine apart and all that…

I could use system restore but i find machines like this grinding themselves to a halt if you let windows manage their recovery and repairs.

I don’t know if this will help anyone, but if you have any questions i’ll be happy to answer them.

Nokia n97 free software & applications

ldusoswa — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:36:26 +0000

I have been looking for free nokia n97 apps and have to say i’m a little disappointed. There’s not a lot to choose from especially when you compare to the iphone

That said the few that i have are great. Like google maps, facebook, techbuzz… actually that’s all i have… damn… i feel like i have a lot more, maybe because the n97 already caters for a lot of my needs by default… The only software that i really can’t live without on there is my TomTom navigator 6…

Does anyone know of any applications that are a must on this phone, and what’s the future of ovi like? are people developing stuff free apps?