Category: Tech Tools

Tools and tech tips to get stuff done (music tech has its own category)

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How To Add Free Filtered WiFi To Your Network

Update: Untangle recently released a very affordable “home” complete package. I’m going to reevaluate it, and update as necessary.

Well, like the title says. If you have a business or church that wants to have freely accessible (and filtered) wi-fi for guests, it’s not as daunting a task as you think. In fact, I can show you how to do it yourself… with stuff you probably already have laying around! You’ll need some computer skills, but nothing fancy. If you can use a screwdriver and know how to hook a computer up, you can probably do this yourself. Interested? Read on! Much thanks to the file people at Untangle.com who made this software package freely available for people like us!

First, we put together a list of things we’ll need.

  1. An old or used (preferably functional!) computer. You want something with at least 512MB of memory, a hard drive (10GB or more is fine) and a CD-Rom for installing the OS. 
  2. Wi-Fi access point (you may be able to use an old router if it supports AP mode)
  3. Small network switch (only needs to be 4 ports, but use what you can find)
  4. Some Cat5 ethernet cables
  5. Two PCI ethernet cards (preferrably Intel or 3Com, but use what you can find)
  6. A blank CD-R (or a 1GB thumb drive)
  7. Another computer with a CD burner
  8. Someplace to set the computer up and work on it (keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.)

Once you’ve assembled your stuff, you’re going to want to give the old computer a check-up to make sure it’s in good working condition. If possible, blow it out with compressed air. Make sure all the cables are connected. Make sure it has two open PCI slots for the network cards!

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Continue reading “How To Add Free Filtered WiFi To Your Network”

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Lessons Learned From Google Reader

You may have seen Youtube’s prank about shutting down on April Fool’s day. If you’re one of the users of Google Reader, you probably have heard that they’re really planning on pulling Reader down soon. Yup, they just decided one day that it wasn’t worth the effort to work on it… much less keep it going for the thousands upon thousands of users who rely on it (but they can afford to hire actors to pull an April Fools’ prank…) and thus we have people scrambling to find alternative ways to get the same things done.

As I got thinking about this (disclaimer: I had just started using Reader about a week before its demise was announced) a single thought popped into my mind:

What’s to stop them from pulling any of their other services for real? Or any other web service provider, for that matter?

Continue reading “Lessons Learned From Google Reader”

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Untangle Firewall/Filter Server

Update: Untangle recently released a very affordable “home” complete package. I’m going to reevaluate it, and update as necessary.

Sometimes, you take a good long look at the internet, and think “I could really do without it.” There’s a lot of nasty stuff out there, and if you have kids, there are some things they just don’t need to see. However, we know kids are curious, and more and more websites are pushing inappropriate ads to younger and younger demographics. I could go on and on about the depravity in commercialism today, but that’s for another post.

Specifically, I decided to build a Firewall computer to filter what comes into my home’s internet. For my sake, and the kids’! Most of our computers don’t run Windows (and therefore don’t need antivirus) but there are worse things to let in than viruses. So I went to Newegg, picked up a cheap barebones computer (only needed a hard drive and memory) and in a matter of an hour, I had a complete, functional mini computer for well under $200.

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Evernote with Autofill in Ubuntu

UPDATE: I no longer use Evernote. My account was compromised multiple times from overseas IPs, with no notifications from Evernote. It wasn’t until someone tried to sync a phone to my account that I was notified. I checked the logs, and discovered it had been accessed several times without my knowing. I cannot recommend using it any more. If you are interested in similar tools, check out NixNote instead. Plus, it runs in Linux or Windows. I’ve left this article up for reference only. Continue reading “Evernote with Autofill in Ubuntu”

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Resources for Music Ministers

I’ve been a church music minister/worship leader for going on 20 years now, most of my adult life. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make my job better and easier over the years. I’ve done it professionally for a good part of those years, but always in smaller churches. I like the dynamics and flexibility of smaller churches, and I wouldn’t want my music to come down to “do this, it’s what we pay you for.”

The downside to this is that small churches don’t have the budget to do all the cool new slick presentation stuff like you see on TV. I’m not going to debate whether or not those things are useful- in the right hands, they can be- but most churches can’t do them anyway because of the cost involved.

That’s where I come in. I’ve also been a computer tech for close to 20 years, and I know a lot about getting the most out of old computer hardware and software. Businesses are usually locked into using expensive software suites, but churches don’t have to spend big money to get useful tools. Still interested? Read on!

It adds up. For instance, upgrading old office computers to Windows 7 costs from $150 to $300. Replacing them is even more expensive, especially if you go with Macs. Microsoft Office can set you back $150 per computer or more, and if you use projectors in your service, the price of presentation software is astounding.

Granted, if you can afford to buy the best tools, so much the better. Most of us can’t, though, so we’re forced to either do without, or get creative! For geeks like me, the second option was always better.

I’ll deal with some of these problems in upcoming posts, but the first one I want to share with you is the foundation for reducing costs in computers. I highly recommend Ubuntu Linux, and more specifically, Ubuntu Studio for worship leaders. They are great operating systems for upgrading older computers that won’t run Windows 7. Why spend $500 on a new computer when you can get a modern, useful upgrade for the old one- and it’s 100% free!

Here’s a quick video explaining how to install Ubuntu on a computer!

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New WordPress Theme

You know, when I got into web design back in the early 90’s, it was nothing like it is now. You had to learn HTML because there wasn’t anything else. Now, we have downloadable customizable themes, and instead of being easier, I have to now modify something I didn’t design to make it look like I want.

Yeah, I know, whine, whine, whine. I’ll live. Meanwhile, here’s a cool live looping performer.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3joWYIUIAY&list=PL1C51681802E51D0A&index=14″ width=”800″ height=”600″]

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Tools of the Trade

So, you’ve decided to try your hand at writing something. More than a research paper that you have actually been managing through cheap research papers service anyway, – but something like fiction maybe. So, where do you start? Good question!

Writing, just like any other craft, goes easier and faster with proper tools. With that being said, there are as many ways to write as there are writers, and I can only give you information based on what I know and have used. If I’m writing a novel, or short story (i.e. something that requires plot) then I do my writing in two stages: Outlining, and the actual writing.

Outlining- Every good story needs organization. How can you organize? Characters, places, details, bits and clippings of inspiration, research notes, and the list goes on. Thankfully, there are some talented programmers who are also writers, and they’ve come up with some excellent solutions! Some of my favorites are:

Continue reading “Tools of the Trade”

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Installing Adobe AIR 2.6 in Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

Five years ago, I posted an article here on how to install Adobe Air (the discontinued native Linux version) on Ubuntu 12.04.

Everything that I had written here I decided to pull, because Adobe likes to do massive bulk DMCA Takedowns without actually verifying whether the reported page actually violated anything. They simply did a text web search, and smote down everything that looked even remotely offensive. And as an added note: this isn’t the first time they’ve done this with this exact page.

I can no longer recommend trying to get any Adobe products working on your computer for any reason. I realize that this page has helped hundreds (if not more) people to get Adobe’s horrible (and non-supported) Air platform working in Linux, just to be able to use third-party apps. But as useful as it might have been, I just can’t in good conscience help anybody with it any more.

Adobe falsely accuses me of stealing their property and has my page forcibly removed from Google searches? Yeah, okay, there’s enough links out there that I still got some traffic. I felt good in knowing that I was helping people (or so I thought). So I left the content up, exactly as it was, knowing that I hadn’t violated anything, in hopes that some people would still find it.

Fast forward a year, and I’ve been hit by another DMCA takedown, again from Adobe, for the same exact page. It’s become obvious to me that instead of making products that people actually want to use, they’re focusing their attention on punishing users who they think might have remotely stepped out of line. Now they’ve filed a complaint against my AdSense account, and are taking money from my pockets- and I still haven’t done anything wrong. At no point have I ever offered any of Adobe’s products for download here.

Google is as complicit in this as Adobe- don’t think I’m letting them off the hook. I went through their extensive review process last time, and they basically told me “Tough luck, buddy. Sucks to be you.” I’ll have a few more articles about how to break free from the many-headed Hydra that is Google in the near future. Their time is coming, as well. They can rot as far as I’m concerned.

Adobe can bite me. I’m through with them, and you should be too. As is fitting with a blog called “Living Outside the Box,” Here’s a non-extensive list of alternatives to Adobe products:

I’m sorry if you came here looking for help with getting Air to run on Linux. I really wanted to help you, but Adobe had other plans.

Please, urge your third-party developers to move away from anything having to do with Adobe. You’ll be better off for it.

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Shoot at the moon…

Up to now, I’ve used this blog for very simple, very ordinary things. However, as with all simple things, eventually it becomes time to see them grow to fruition. You take their little bloggy hands, and usher them out of the nest, free to grow in the big, wide internet world.

Basically, I’m going to work on my blog blog being able to make money.

Now, this sounds more horrific than it is. Just about every good blogger/writer/artist I know of makes money off of their website. I’m just going to keep it straightforward, no stupid flashing ads or anything like that. But my ultimate goal is to be able to write and make music for a living.

Today is the start of a new day. Here’s to change!

*clink*