I hope this greeting finds you and your family in good health and spirits.
Best wishes this holiday season!
// Toland and Om Nom (^_^x)
iPod nano Replacement Got Upgraded!
I sent in my first gen iPod nano I purchased on launch day because of the battery defect issue. Apparently due to supply constraints, we are getting upgraded to the current gen with twice as much storage!
Dear Apple Customer:
Thank you for participating in the iPod nano (1st generation) Replacement Program. Please find your replacement iPod enclosed.
Serial Number
Please note that your replacement iPod has a serial number different to that of your original iPod nano. In some case due to limited availability of replacement stock of iPod nano (1st generation) Apple may have replaced your iPod with a more recent iPod model of equivalent or better specification. Always retain a record of your serial number(s) for future reference.Warranty
Your replacement iPod product is warranted to be free from defects for 90 days from the date of service.To ensure that your iPod software is up to date, download the latest iTunes from Apple’s website at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download. Questions regarding the operation of your iPod can be answered at Apple’s online support site at http://www.apple.com/support/ipod.
Exclude WordPress Categories from your Main Page or Feed
So for a long time, I’ve gotten tired of having my Twitter logs fill my blog’s main page, and since I’ve winded down the HD-Trailers.net blog (moved everything to the main site), I didn’t want that to fill the blog up with Twitter spam either. But I love the archive ability of having my Twitter messages saved into my blog. It makes it a lot easier to search for stuff I’ve tweeted about.
After a bit of searching, I found this WordPress plugin: Ultimate Category Excluder. It allows you to exclude any category from your main page, feed, and archives.
As of now, I’ve excluded the Twitter category from the main page and feed, so it’ll still show up in the archives.
Pretty neat!
You are too awesome for Ping-o-matic.
If you’re trying to automate pinging Ping-o-Matic! via PHP/cURL, you may have hit into an issue where the response you get is:
You are too awesome for Ping-o-matic.
To fix this, all you have to do is add a user-agent to your curl options, e.g.
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0" );
Once you set a user-agent, you should be able to get a valid response and have the Ping-o-Matic service ping all the services for you. Of course if you run that script too often, they’ll probably reject your request and tell you to slow down.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-18
- Okay. After 3 days of repeat, I think I'm finally sick of The Dragonborn Comes song. http://t.co/PWSJ1Xth #
- Flight Control for free: http://t.co/8yc4bOYo #
- Haha! http://t.co/ZMKsAouO Cyanide & Happiness – Games at Work http://t.co/7EUDvBAb #
- @rothgar Haha. How do you distinguish between the 2 WBs? Don't want to mix up your white-brown and white-blue. in reply to rothgar #
- Is it a good sign or bad sign that Apple's Print Products service is timing out and taking 3x as long to create a new card via Cards? #
- Apple's Cards printing service really needs some optimization. They should group orders together & not auth every time. http://t.co/dTVLt33g #
- A couple of those are also duplicates because their server was randomly failing. And now my card is being declined. Awaiting call from HSBC. #
- @angelgrrl813 Like! in reply to angelgrrl813 #
- @hungtruong I'm surprised too! They usually do for my iTunes purchases, but since this goes thru the Apple store, things might be different. in reply to hungtruong #
- @ralphlee If you choose the latter, you won't go to sleep after absorbing a ton of calories. 🙂 in reply to ralphlee #
- @fearthecowboy http://t.co/pLLpm7BZ in reply to fearthecowboy #
- @rothgar I've always wondered the opposite: why rear windows don't have a dehumidifier. It's always worked better than a defroster imo. in reply to rothgar #
- @rothgar And by better, I mean faster. in reply to rothgar #
- @Cut_The_Rope Christmas arrived early! My wall of Om Noms! http://t.co/k1JTLPW8 #
- @Cut_The_Rope On my wall to my own personal Om Nom ball pit! http://t.co/k1JTLPW8 #WallOfOmNoms #
- @Cut_The_Rope On my way to my own personal Om Nom ball pit! http://t.co/k1JTLPW8 #WallOfOmNoms #
- @malcolli I wonder if you've hit into the same problem I did a couple days ago: http://t.co/A7dKe5DN in reply to malcolli #
- Tried to buy a greeting card 4x and failed all 4x via Apple's Cards app. 8 pending transactions showing on my credit card. #AppleFail #
- Apparently the best time to create greeting cards via Apple's Cards app is now. Still has a 25% failure rate, but beats a 90% failure rate. #
- Today's woot shirt is extremely cute! http://t.co/SfqmxfiJ http://t.co/FyrygUL8 #
- Has anyone else developing on the Kindle Fire notice that subpixels in portrait mode aren't quite aligned correctly? #
- @krunk4ever My red, green, and blue buttons are all slightly off vertically from each other in portrait mode on the Kindle Fire. in reply to krunk4ever #
How to change margins / paper size when printing to PDF on Mac OSX
So I was trying to save some D&D character sheets to PDF and noticed the bottom portion kept getting chopped off, while there was a big chunk of white space on the top of the page. What I thought would be a simple task of changing margins, turned out to be 30 minutes into searching online, without really finding a solution.
Coming from Windows, it took me a awhile to figure out that margins were set inside paper size, so I created a No Margin paper size following instructions from the help center (see below), but there wasn’t a way to choose a paper size from the Save as PDF… menu.
It turns out that Save as PDF… uses the default paper size set in your Print & Scan settings. If you go to Settings > Print & Scan, you’ll see a Default paper size near the bottom. Note, there isn’t a way to create a new paper size from this menu, but you can create one from any app that allows you to select a paper size from it’s print dialog (e.g. Safari)
From the help center:
Create a custom page size
If you want to print on paper that has an unusual size, such as an envelope or card, you may be able to choose the paper’s size from the Paper Size pop-up menu. To find the Paper Size pop-up menu, choose File > Page Setup. If you don’t see a Page Setup command, choose File > Print.
If you can’t find the size you need, you can create your own custom paper size.
- Do one of the following:
- Choose File > Page Setup. Choose Page Attributes from the Settings pop-up menu, and then choose Any Printer from the Format For pop-up menu. Choosing Any Printer ensures that your document can print on any printer that supports the paper size you select.
- If Page Setup is not available, choose File > Print. If you see a Show Details button, click it to show all available options.
- Choose Manage Custom Sizes from the Paper Size pop-up menu.
- Click the Add (+) button.
- Double-click the name of the paper size, and type a new name.
- Enter values in the Paper Size and Printer Margins fields, and then click OK.
After creating the custom paper size, go back to Settings > Print & Scan. You should now see the newly created paper size in your Default Paper Size drop down menu. If you choose the new paper size and try to Save as PDF again, you will notice that the new PDF will contain the new settings.
Hope this helps!
Apple’s Cards App NEEDS to Group Purchases
So as I mentioned a couple days ago, I’ve been playing with the Apple’s Cards App on my iPhone 4S and have been mostly satisfied with the experience so far, but I hit into a couple hitches today.
The first thing I noticed was the server was overloaded this afternoon. Half the time, I would get an alert telling me there was a problem connecting to the server and to try again later. But if I tap Buy again, it usually went through.
Then I got to a point where my card was being declined. I logged into my credit card’s website and looked at the pending transactions:
No, I didn’t create that many cards. Half of them are $1 authorizations. Of the remaining half, about 1/3 are duplicates from server failures, which I’m hoping I won’t be charged as these duplicate orders don’t show up under my account. The cards are $2.99 each + tax. If you want to deliver them internationally, it’s $4.99 + tax.
So I expected a call from my credit card fraud/security team, but that call never came. I eventually called customer support myself assuming that the flood of Apple transactions was the cause of my card being declined. After speaking with someone on the security team, it turns out there’s a limit of 25 transactions per day before my card starts rejecting additional charges. And each of those $1 authorizations count toward that limit.
Here’s my suggestion to Apple: Please group multiple card orders like you group iTunes purchases and make one charge at the end of the day. Given it’s the holiday season, the perfect time for someone to use your Cards app, sending out 13+ cards should not be uncommon and that assume I won’t be using the credit card anywhere else that day. Plus with your server issues, some charges are showing up twice. If needed, I can even create all the cards I want beforehand and then submit them all to be charged together, but that’s currently not an option via your app. This would not only avoid having so many transactions which would easily trigger fraud alerts, but you wouldn’t have to make so many separate authorization checks. Plus it’s better for you in the long run too, since you’ll be saving on per transaction credit card fees.
I’ve already submitted the same feedback at Apple – Cards – Feedback. Hopefully we’ll see this fixed soon before the holidays are over.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-11
- @rothgar It's all about findstr ;p in reply to rothgar #
- @hungtruong Isn't that bad since it might put on record you settled? in reply to hungtruong #
- @GuySrinivasan @ryandjohnson @0xFCAF If I had to pronounce it, it would be jay-sahn for me too. Guess that's what I've heard it called. in reply to GuySrinivasan #
- .@Spotify should allows us to star a song even if it's not in their or our library. Allows us to remember which song we need to purchase. #
- @jscott Is there still a valid reason to run Symantec these days? in reply to jscott #
- @jamapi @GuySrinivasan I think it's to annoy all the #FitbitHaters ;p in reply to jamapi #
- Fans of Mirror's Edge may want to check out the free app of the day: http://t.co/fSI8xfjC #
- @angelgrrl813 Calculating post sales tax what 2 items would cost at $4.29 each? Twitter should do math for you too. 🙂 in reply to angelgrrl813 #
- @rothgar Your #s would go up because you've switched to fiber optics. 🙂 in reply to rothgar #
Apple Cards App
Given it’s the holiday season, I got a chance to play with Apple’s Card app. Despite the greatness of iPhone 4S’ camera, it still wasn’t as great as my Canon 60D SLR, so I took the picture I wanted with my Canon and imported it into iPhoto. Like magic, it was on my iPhone Photo Stream moments later.
The app is still rather primitive. The selection of templates to choose from was decent, but still felt lacking. I didn’t really find a particular one that stood out to me, but I guess the card is really about the photo you’ll be choosing.
After you select the photo you want, it allows you to zoom and move around. I guess if you wanted to edit the photo, you can use iPhone’s new photo editing software, which is supposedly good, but I haven’t had a chance to mess around with it yet.
The text was where I found the app lacking. There was no way to choose a different font or change the font size. When I wanted something left aligned, there wasn’t an option for that. Given a box, the font, size, and alignment were unchangeable. It also wasn’t immediately obvious that some text can be changed, but I soon found out that any text can be changed.
You can enter a name/address to mail the card to, but it was a lot easier to pick the person out from my address book.
Halfway through making a card, but need to stop temporarily? No worries. The app allows you to save the card and come back to it later.
I was hoping they would allow me to use my iTunes credit to purchase these cards, but unfortunately it’s hooked up with the Apple store and not the iTunes store. After logging in, it showed me my credit card on file and ask me to enter the card security code.
Then ZOOOOOOM, off my greeting card goes. The total cost was $2.99 + tax and I got my receipt in my email shortly.
Update: They also need to fix their Online Order Status for Cards. I’m not even talking about the inability to cancel the order as I can see how once your order is submitted, it could be processed for printing immediately. What I’m talking about is there’s no indication which order is which. You can click on order details or print invoice, but the only info you’ll see is your own. The email they send you does include who it’s for, but even on that email, there’s no confirmation of the mailing address. You can open the Cards app and confirm the mailing address there, but there’s no order # in the app so you can easily look up the order status.
Things to know about your Health Savings Account when you’ve only been covered by an HDHP part of the year
Some of you probably read my article on Health Savings Account previously. Unfortunately that plan didn’t ultimately go through for a couple reasons.
When I was at US Bank, because of how relatively new HSAs are, not even the on-site manager quite knew what to do. They told me they’d get back to me once the other manager comes in on Monday.
I also found out I would be covered by my work health insurance shortly and that complicated things on how much I would be able to contribute. Because I was covered for 9 months of the year under an HDHP plan, I would only be able to contribute a that portion of the annual limit of $3,050. 9 months doesn’t quite get me to $2,500 which was the minimum balance to have my monthly fee waived at US Bank.
US Bank also didn’t have investment HSAs, which meant I’d only be earning a measly fraction of a percent interest rate. I’ve looked at a couple of investment HSAs and most charge a substantial fee for for the ability to trade stocks.
I finally got around to searching for more HSA providers. I was hoping Fidelity would have HSAs wince all my investment accounts are already at Fidelity. Fidelity does have HSAs, but they’re only for businesses. I found this rather useful site: Administrators Offering Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) which allows you to search for regional and national banks which provide HSAs.
After going through the list of Washington HSA administrators, most which were very poor at describing their HSA, I ended up on Saturna Capital. Their brochure and website was quite useful in explaining how HSAs worked at their bank.
They have a no-fee HSA account if you invest in any of their 9 mutual funds. No setup fee, no transfer fee, no monthly/annual fee. You also have the option of investing in any stock of your choice, where trades are at ~$15 each. Much more info is provided in their brochure.
So I’ve had a couple emails back and forth with Matt, one of their customer support reps, inquiring on certain aspects of my situation. Here’s what I found out.
- You don’t actually need an HDHP to open an HSA account, only to contribute to it. Transferring from another HSA is fine.
- The contribution limit is pro-rated on a monthly basis. Because I was under a HDHP for 9 months, I get to contribute up to 75% of $3,050 = $2287.50. I have till the tax filing deadline in April 2012 to make this contribution. Subtract the initial contribution Microsoft gave me of $1,500, I can still contribute $787.50.
- There are 2 ways to transfer an HSA from one bank to another. 1. Obtain a Trustee to Trustee Transfer Form from the new bank and provide it to your current bank. 2. First open an account with your new bank and provide the new account information to the current bank as part of the exit paperwork. One thing US Bank kept insisting was the latter option, when I kept trying to tell me that UMB required a Trustee to Trustee Transfer Form, which they weren’t able to provide me.
- You can find more info on their 9 mutual funds here.
- Unfortunately, I was not allowed to scan or even fax the documentation in because they needed my original paperwork.
I’ve already submitted my paperwork. Hope things go through smoothly.