andrewiam.com Blog

A shoutout for collabedit.com!

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:00:33 +0000

I was looking for something other than Google Docs to edit text on with my classmates when I stumbled upon collabedit.com. This awesome service lets you collaborate on text files in almost every programming language. There’s a chat function, and basic editing is free. The man behind the site, Ben Noland, was kind enough to give me a free account for educational purposes. Thanks, Ben! Readers, don’t be afraid to try out the site and buy an upgrade!

Tea Party’s websites hacked

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:28:54 +0000

The trolls have done it again. Some of the Tea Party’s websites are currently being defaced with everything from hateRead the Rest...

The Pebble Smart Watch

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:00:35 +0000

Ever heard of the Pebble Smartwatch? It’s an awesome device that you connect to your Android phone or iPhone over Bluetooth. The Pebble will then show notifications and let you control some of your phone’s functions. Its battery lasts about a week, and this waterproof remote controller has an e-ink display with a backlight. The project is currently the most funded one ever at Kickstarter. Check them out if you haven’t already, then read on for some details you won’t find anywhere else on the internet.

First of all, the cable that comes with the Pebble is proprietary. It only charges the waterproof watch; to download apps to the watch, you need to the PC SDK or a phone with the Pebble app. Second, without a phone, the Pebble can show apps already downloaded to it. Third, through an iPhone, the Pebble will show some notifications, depending on what type of notification it is. I’ve asked them more questions, so stay tuned for more details!

A great Draw Something tip

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:48:33 +0000

Yep, I’m addicted to Draw Something on my iPod Touch. I get a leg up on the competition by using this trick. It’s not a cheat, but it might get you more coins faster.
What you need to do is go into your iOS device’s settings and go to General > Accessibility. Go to Zoom and turn it on. Also turn on triple-click zoom if you want. Now, when in a game, double-tap your screen with three fingers or triple-tap the home button to zoom into the screen so you can draw more detail. When you hold you finger at the edge of the screen, the zoomed section pans over. You can also pan around by holding three fingers on the screen and dragging them. Exit zoom the same way you entered it. I hope this tool can help you win omgpop’s challenges!

…and AT&T GoPhone just got a little suckier

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:14:26 +0000

I am a user of AT&T’s GoPhone service, otherwise known as “contract-free”, and good ‘ol Ma Bell just notified me I can’t have a data plan. Let me explain. I’m on the 10¢/min., 20¢/text plan. I also have a 10 MB data plan for $5/month. Since I rarely call and text, and have a budget of $100/year, this setup was perfect for me. Then AT&T just decided to rain on my parade by making the monthly data plans available only with a monthly talk and text plan, which starts at $25/mo. My budget is less than a third of that! One of Verizon’s contractless options, Page Plus, is now cheaper than ATT, and it has an unofficial “any-Verizon-phone-allowed” policy. Unless Ma Bell can sweeten my deal, I think it’s time to switch carriers.

Trident Mora Azul White review

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:00:54 +0000

This Mexican chewing gum (“chicle”) has an odd flavor. It starts off with artificial grape that is reminiscient of cough syrup. Eugh. However, that flavor gives way to a lighter and better generic berry taste. This flavor lasts about as long as any other average gum, and is just sweet enough. If grape-berry gum is your thing, then try this chicle out!

How to fight a speeding ticket

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:00:55 +0000

Every driver’s probably gotten a speeding ticket. Maybe you were late to something important, or you got that one “bad cop”. Either way, this tip may help you fight your case in traffic court. When you’re in front of the judge, ask the officer for proof that his radar gun was properly calibrated. In some jurisdictions, the original certificate of calibration must be presented, not a copy. If the police officer has the original, you’re out of luck. But if he only has the copy, you might’ve just dodged a fine. Just remember, this tip isn’t bulletproof. Don’t rely on it, ever. Simply use it if you’re in a jam.

Are web hosts FatCow and iPage the same?

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:00:01 +0000

While looking for a new web host, I noticed something very strange. Two hosting giants, FatCow and iPage, seem to be one and the same. The big giveaway was their rates pages. Compare them. ( FatCow’s page | iPage’s page ) They’re virtually identical! Even the URLs are the same! This seems very fishy to me. I know there are only a few web hosts that actually exist. All the other ones simply resell from the big companies. What I didn’t expect is that two giant companies are really the same. This fishiness, combined with the deceptive sale rates they have right now (the rate hikes up after the sale is over), means these two won’t get my business.

My app swore at me!

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:30:08 +0000

I have an app called CheckPoints. The app lets you check in to stores and scan barcodes to get gift cards. Today, I scanned my milk carton’s barcode and got an extremely rude message. Checkpoints told me the milk’s name was, in fact, “milk n***a”. You read that right. They dropped the n-bomb on me, and any other person over the age of four, that got that app and scanned that milk. This probably made it into the system because when CheckPoints doesn’t recognize a barcode, users have the option of submitting the product by taking a picture of it to be reviewed. This app notifies me that they review scans, and one of my previous scans has been rejected through that checking process. So how could they miss this profanity? Surely they have an automated filter. Shame on them. (I should note that CheckPoints doesn’t allow you to rescan barcodes, so I had to borrow my dad’s iPhone to get the profane message again.) View the full, uncensored screenshot.

This is the jug I scanned.

The offending message

Why your iOS device has such lousy battery life

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:00:14 +0000

I am a Yahoo Answers veteran, and I keep seeing the same question. “Why does my iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad die within x hours?” The answer is simple. With the iOS 4 update, Apple enabled multitasking, which means more than one app can run at once. What they didn’t tell users is that battery life and processor speed will go down if you let all your apps run in the background. To kill the apps, double-tap the home button and long press on one of the apps in the multitasking pane that comes up. Press all the red minuses. Each one of those apps was running in the background; sapping your iDevice’s resources. Whenever you press the home button when in an app, it will stay running and will show up in that pane. Kill apps often using this trick to keep your iOS 4 or 5 device in top shape!