I’ve slowly updated components of The $1K Home Studio over the last few years, but have never had a low-cost, DIY solution for disc replication. After playing with external CD burners and evaluating various proprietary hardware options such as the Aleratec auto-flip burner , MicroBoard tower replicators amongst many others, I decided that the current [...]
Archive for the ‘computer’ Category
The $1K CD/DVD/LightScribe Replicator: The DIY Guide To Manufacturing Your Own Discs For Less Than $1 Each
June 28th, 2010
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Mini-Review: Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse
March 31st, 2010
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Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr. My rating: 5 of 5 stars Meltdown is a evidence-based, academically credible, and brutally honest analysis of the causes and effects of economic depression faced in the United States since [...]
MacPort MySQL “Can’t find file: ‘./mysql/host.frm’” Error
March 31st, 2010
2 Comments
I recently set up a new Mac OS X Snow Leopard laptop for software development purposes. After going through my usual MacPorts installation and installed MySQL using the following steps sudo install mysql5-server sudo cp /opt/local/var/macports/software/mysql5/5.1.44_0/opt/local/share/mysql5/mysql/my-medium.cnf /opt/local/etc/mysql5/my.cnf sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5 sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql5.plist A few days past, and one day I notice [...]
Getting iTunes To Convert/Export/Bounce To Other File Formats
March 21st, 2010
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You’d think iTunes 9 would have a menu option to convert selected, non-DRM’d files to .MP3, .AAC and such. It doesn’t, but there’s a quick–if not silly–workaround to get iTunes to covert your tracks to a supported format. Mac instruction for iTunes v9 Open Preferences -> General -> Import Settings. Change the “Import Using option [...]
Get Your Kindle’s PID In 10 Seconds
February 16th, 2010
16 Comments
Rather than struggling with a bunch of old command-line scripts to calculate the Personal ID (PID) of your shiny new Amazon Kindle, I’ve released a super-freakin’-easy webapp to do it for you in a matter of seconds. No joke. Simply visit http://kindletools.prestonlee.com, follow the instructions, and be sure to gift me a short novel to [...]
Amazon Kindle 2 Review
January 27th, 2010
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The Kindle 2 is my first commitment to electronic books and e-ink screen. I silently waited until several generations of eBook readers were on the market–including the Barnes & Noble Nook–before making the decision to commit to Amazon’s Kindle 2. Physical Interface The 6″ e-ink display that looks just like the paper of a novel [...]
SEO Is Not A Product
January 4th, 2010
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One of my biggest business frustrations in 2009 has centered around Search Engine Optimization (SEO): peoples misunderstandings of what SEO fundamentally is, what it theoretically accomplishes, and the large number of shysters scaring businesses into pursuing activities not nearly as important as they are made out to be. Inquires usually go like this.. Preston, My [...]
Why Amateur Musicians Use Macs
October 21st, 2009
8 Comments
While discussing tonights U2 concert in Phoenix, I got into a HUGE argument with a Linux user over why amateur musician/producers would have to be mentally challenged for *not* making a Mac their first investment over Linux and Windows. Since the proof is in the ear pudding, I wrote, recorded and mixed this U2-inspired acoustic/vocal [...]
Google AdWords Account Access: A Cacophony Of Stupid
July 17th, 2009
5 Comments
If I haven’t blabbed your ear off already, OpenRain has a small business web presence product called the Online Business Platform. It’s a big deal as it’s fairly unique in many different ways. Anyway, the the upper service level options include consulting and advisement on advertising with Google AdWords, which means we generally need access [...]
Recovering A Corrupt OpenLDAP Database On OSX Server
July 8th, 2009
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Recovering A Corrupt OpenLDAP Database On OSX Server Last night we noticed some services provided by an OSX Leopard Server instance were not working correctly. The iChat, AFP and Web services were not authenticating. In Server Admin.app, the “Overview” tab of the Open Directory service reported… LDAP Server is: Not Running Password Server is: Running [...]
