Tongfamily

Moving everything WordPress, MovableType site now closed for comments

2008-03-07T00:10:32Z

Well, I did the upgrade to MovableType 4.0 on this site and it seemed to fix just about everything! But somehow all files that are alphabetically lower than index.php got deleted! So I've had to rebuild the entire MovableType site on top of the new WordPress site, so all the links remain. The new is that you can access the WordPress site at http://tongfamily.com and you can access the Movable Type 4.0 site at http://tongfamily.com/mt.index.php. That MT site is now closed for comments.

For about a month, the original MT 3.31 site with all the broken links will remain at richtong.org and then it will go away.

Testing WordPress, Bluehost

2008-03-03T07:37:06Z

Well, its been ages since I've really touched my hosting (thanks Mark at TQHosting) or my blogging with MovableType 3.3. But last week, my 3.3 installation finally broke with all kinds of strange Perl errors, so it is either upgrade to MovableType 4.0 and do a clean install or figure out what's the latest. So, I just swapped to Wordpress and am giving Bluehost a try.

Instead of 500MB for $10/month which was an amazing deal back three years ago, Bluehost gives an amazing 1.5TB (that's right terabtyes!) or storage and they install Wordpress automatically. Also the cost is basically $95/year ($7/year) and they provide free registration (so you save $7/year for registration too). Quite a deal. It uses the same cpanel setup.

Getting over to richtong.com was a handy domain to mirror tongfamily before I do a full cut over. Upperhost.com seems to liek Bluehost although you can never tell with web site spamming whether these reviews are real or not.

Moving over was straightforward, with the biggest problem my using Textile 2 for text entry, but fortunately, there is a plugin that deals with that and putting things into plugins is super easy with wordpress. You basically put it into the /wp-admin/plugin directory and it detects it automatically. Same with themes, you just fine them and stuff them into the /wp-admin/themes directory.

The biggest problem I have faced is resetting my Scribefire since you have to look in ~/Library/Application/Support/Firefox/Profiles/*.default and look for performancing.* files and delete them.

ChinesePod

2008-02-27T14:46:38Z

Wow, finally a site that has it all for us lousy Chinese speakers at ChinesePod. I found it via iTunes and it has it all and it is free. For instance, look at the most popular intermediate lessons, it has both an MP3 podcast you can download as well as a PDF with English, pinyin and simplifed chinese. And the vocabulary is pretty useful and real world. Thanks guys!

Wyclef Jean and Keep Holding On

2008-02-27T14:45:09Z

OMG, I just love Sweetest Girl by Wyclef Jean. it is terrific Hip Hop for those of you who like that kind of stuff. Check out the video

I'm also listening to Avril Lavigne's Keep Holding On

Identity Theft, Fraud Alert and Credit Monitoring

2008-02-25T06:02:58Z

If you are unlucky enough to have your wallet stolen, it isn't the $50 in it, it is that the thief can sell your identity on the internet to just about anyone. So, what can you do about it. First, you can place a 90 day credit alert for free, but of course every thief in the world knows that. So after cancelling all your cards and changing your bank accounts, you need a longer term monitoring system.

These are really expensive for reasons I don't understand. Typically $80-$200 per month for just a database check, but that's the scam for these credit reporting agencies. You need a service that monitors all three agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Consumer Reports agrees that they aren't really that much protection mainly because if they use your social security number with a different name, the databases don't figure it out immediately and it can take 60 days for someone to report a new account.

Fightidentitytheft.com has a decent review, they appear fairly similar with a $25K reimbursement coverage and monitoring all the scores and also see their credit monitoring review

TrueCredit costs $15/month and monitors all three services and has a good rating. Underneath it is TransUnioin that provides this. You get a report from all three. It also monitors every business day. 5 out of 5 stars, but the most expensive. You do get unlimited access to your credit scores if you need that.
Citi has a $13/month service that covers all three as well. 4 out of 5 stars
Equifax also has a $15 service but you only get FICO and Equifax credit reports. 3 out of 5 stars

Then there are frad alert that comes from services that aren't owned by the big three. They basically layer the continuing 90 day realert for credit monitoring and a few things onto the services listed above:

Debix which is a more comprehensive system. It is not just reporting, it maintains your fraud alerts (you have to manually reactivate every 90 days the fraud alerts for all three services to keep it going). Besides wiping you off of junk mail lists, the main thing it adds is a special number you give all the banks. When they call, you have to type in a PIN to make sure it is really you. So folks pretending to be you can't run any transactions. It is $90 per year so a little cheaper too. What happens is that in your credit report, is the Debix number, then Debix has a find me feature that calls you at any of your numbers to validate this is right. It is definitely the cheapest service. The main knock I'd say is whether this is a legit company, there look like about a dozen sites in a google query on Debix that look phony and are positive reviews of the service, so beware.
Lifelock. I love this gutsy little startup. The president of the company puts his name and social security number on their site to show how safe it is. Like Debix, it sets a fraud alert on everything, they then remove names from credit card application junk lists, then you get the WalletLock which is an operator that will cancel all your cards for you. Otherwise, like Debix it is a layer on top. They do claim they will spend $1M if you are ever the victim, but its hard for me to believe that particular claim. It is mainly a timesaver over the credit agencies and the constant recycling of the 90 day alert is valuable
IdentiyGuard also monitors all three and is $13/month. 4 out of 5 stars. It has a couple of levles, but at $17/month, they claim they do monitoring, and also claim to monitor public records.

REI Deals

2008-02-25T05:23:13Z

Hey, if you are buying lots of gear, now's the time to do a few things. First, if you know an REI member, if you sign up this month for $20 fee, you get a 20% off for a non-sale item. So if you've been eyeing something that is $100, now's the time. Also REI Visa let's you save 5% on every non-sale REI purchase. It is also free and gives you a 1% rebate on other purchases. I've been using frequent flier credit cards, but if you have big dollar items, this can make some sense.

Headphones

2008-02-25T05:14:24Z

After our most recent trip, nearly all of our earbuds have simply died. Usually, the little cable breaks, so what to do if you need a lot of these and they take abuse. Headphones.com has some of the best reviews I've seen. It is how I originally got the Etymotic ER-6i and ER-4p and ER-4s. Sadly, I've lost one ER-6i and two have broken, so what are the best headphones now:

Ten Best Headphones

Most of these aren't practical for travel but the real winner seems to be the Shure SE310. It got 5 out of 5 (The Etymotics ER-4Ps are 4.5 out of 5, so close) and it comes in white. Amazon has them for $200 and the list is $299. While headphones.com has them for $250.

Entry Level

If you can't stand paying more for your headphones than your iPod or you've got kids who will likely rip and destroy them, then try the Sennheiser MX300 which lists for $10 and Amazon has for $9. They don't say it but I'd expect the white MX500 probably works just as well although it is $17 because of the color :_) and because there is a volume control on it. Macworld also likes the MX 500 and it is nice it comes in a little case too. iLounge also liked the MX 500 giving it an A- saying that while they are uncomfortable for long usage, they sound as good as the Apple ones. BTW, if you don't mind, you can get blue MX 500 for $10 from TigerDirect.com

If you want in the ear, so called in-canal headphones, these are a great step up and much less bulky that on the ear headphones, so a budget set would be then try the Jays j-JAYS which are just $50 and do have that snug fit and noise reduction. or the d-JAYS which sound better at $100 and got a 4 out of 5 rating.

Cracking Airport

2008-02-21T05:38:50Z

Well, this is sure confusing, I'm trying to get an older Snow Base Airport (not the Airport Extreme) to work right. Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5 comes with a new Airport Utility v5.2 to manage the Airport Extreme but not with the older Airports (code named Snow Base). In fact, this utility is really hard to find it is in /Applications/Utility/Airport Utility, but won't find old wifi Airports. Instead, Larry R. says you have to for:

Tiger 10.1

Download the old AirPort Admin Utility Version 4.2. This is impossible to find efficiently on the Apple site, but you get it at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airport42formacosx1033.html and you download AirPortSW42.dmg. Then you install it manually. Double click on the .DMG which mounts the file. Click on AirPortSW.pkg and select Show Package Contents. Go to the Contents folder. Double click on Archive.pax.gz which extracts an Archive.pax and an Archive Folder. Inside the Archive foldker look for Applications/Utilities and copy out the AirPort Admin Utility that is there. Don't just copy to the Utilities folder, but rename it to something like "Airport Utility v4.2" This doesn't work with Leopard however

Leopard 10.2

You have to run the Windows version of Admin Utility 4.2 (so you need Parallels) and this seems to work.

iStumbler, MacStumbler and Kismac

Debugging this stuff is easy for me on the PC as I know the tools, but on the Mac, life is different. First, you need iStumbler which is an open source tool that lets you discover what is on your network. Like Network Stumbler in Windows land. iStumbler only works against open networks, while Kismac sees invisible networks and will test encryption of WEP, WPA variety to make sure the passwords are good enough. Macstumbler is an older version if iStumbler from 2003.

God Dag. Kan du saga det igen

2008-02-21T05:22:52Z

Seems like everyone who skis is Swedish sometimes, so good to know from Speakswedish.co.uk some common phrases. I've no idea how to pronounce it, but "good day Sweden" seems like a good phrase to learn. When I was there, some other good ones are:

Swedish	English
ja	yes
nej	no
tack sa mycket	thank you very much
ingen orsak	you are welcome
god morgon	good morning
god formiddag	good midmorning 11-noon
god middag	good noon time
god eftermiddag	good afternoon
god kvalll	good evening
valkommen	welcome
hejda	goodbye
god natt	goodnight
jag pratar inte svenska	I speak little swedish

Total Eclipse on February 20-21

2008-02-21T05:17:39Z

Thanks to Sandy, we learned that there was a total eclipse of the moon. What an amazing sight. It was clear and we saw the moon literally go from bright to dark red in 10 minutes and then back again. NASA has a terrific site that explains it and tells you exactly when and what is happening. We were right there at 7:45-7:50 and saw totality. There is even a javascript lunar eclipse explorer application that will help you figure out where the moon is. How cool is that. You can actually go as far as a thousand years from now in 3000AD and see where the eclipse is.

If you missed it and live in North America, you'll have to wait for two more years until 21 Dec 2010 .gov/eclipse/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2010Dec21T.GIF for the next one.

Whistler Fun Stuff

2008-02-21T05:09:43Z

Beside skiing (did you get your Edge card?), there are an amazing number of fun things to do:

Sledding. They actually let you sled down when the lifts are closed. You can get it at Village Hardware Store. Sled at the base of Lorimer Road and then walk across the Bridge.
"Tubing" is open at 11AM-8PM and is just a short ride up. Edge card holders get a 25% discount
Meadow Park Sports Centre. This is a little bit of a drive, about six kilometers, but there is a pool with a river and also public skating 1-3PM.

As an aside, Whistler Village maps are appallingly bad. They don't list stores, only the big hotels and non of the streets are straight. Only Findwhistler.com has a haveway decent map. Search for a store and then it will zoom in to show you where it is.

Also the list of restaurants and things seems so short and strange, but for decent kid friendly places (re: has simple pastas for those with picky tastes as well as basic chicken and meats), here is a list in rough order of price and fun:

Teppan Village. This is dinner and show. There isn't pasta, but basic steak, chicken and seafood that is chopped and broiled in front of you. A terrific show and smell. It is always crowded with families as the flare of the grill is incredible and the individual chefs so friendly. In the Hilton at Whistler Village. Expensive for kids, but worth the show.
Trattoria di Umberto. This is just called the Trattoria in Whistler as there is also an Umbertos. Nearly impossible to find, it is between the Pan Pacific and it is inside the Mountain Lodge by the swimming pool, so just go to the Pan Pacific and look out. It is well prepared rustic italian food. The pasta is fresh and good. The wine list is nice. The main issue is that it is quite expensive, but the gnocchi is amazing.
Earl's. Amazingly, this large restaurant chain is actually pretty good. It is expensive, but its strength is that it has a little of every cuisine, so someone can have a Indian curry, while someone else has a steak and another person has linguine with clams. It is across from the Holiday Inn in the village and seems to be perennially popular.

Canadian roaming

2008-02-19T05:34:24Z

If you get to Canada often then there are two options:

If you have AT&T then get the AT&T Canada plan, they have a $4/month plan where roaming in Canada is $0.59 per minute and any calls from the US to Canada are $0.19/minute while and text messages to the US are $0.50 per message. You can turn this plan on or off, so essentially, if you do more than 10 minutes of calling at the $2/minute roaming rate, it makes sense to sign up. Only draw back is Canadians have to pay international rates to call you, but it is your phone number.
According to GeckoBeach a prepaid account makes sense if ou are using 30-50 minutes of air time. The best plan for folks that are going to Whistler or skiing would be the Rogers prepaid SIM with $100 prepay card. That's because all the other cards expire after 30 days and you lose the number whereas the $100 card lasts for 365 days. So perfect for the once a year trips to Canada. The airtime charges are incredibly confusing, but they are $0.25 for first five minutes a day and then $0.15 there after for calls to Canadian numbers and $0.66/minute for calls to US phones. So that means you should get a prepaid if you are going to call way more to Canadian numbers, otherwise, using the AT&T Canada plan makes more sense. In all cases, either plan is better than the rack rate $2/minute roaming that is really highway robbery. the big benefit of course is that you have a local 604 number so you feel like a local :-)
Skype. Skype is the other way. If you pay $36, then you get free calling from your PC to any number in US and Canada and you get a $12 credit for calling to other cities. You also can get a SkypeIn number (so your PC has a phone number :-) for $36. A pretty good deal.
Maxroam. John pointed this one out to me. It is fantastic because you can have multiple phone numbers attached to the same SIM, so it solves the having a separate sim for a bunch of countries. It is $30 Euros and you get a phone number in the US and can add 50 numbers from China, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan. So for instance a call to the US is ).67 Euros or about $1, so it is more expensive. A call to Canada is about the same. So it is expensive but convenient.

For your data devices like a Blackberry or an iPhone:

BlackBerry International is $64/month that gives you unilimited email in 140 countries for $70/month. This is only worth it for folks who are there for a week or so as the email traffic really adds up.
iPhone Global Data. This is $25/month for 20MB of usage in 3 countries including Canada, China, Australia and Hong Kong and India and most of Europe.

Flexcar now Zipcar

2008-02-18T07:32:30Z

Someone was asking me about cars and how to manage them. Well, if you live in Seattle, you can actually rent a car for $10/hour. it is something called Flexcar. You call a phone number or logon to the web, you reserve a car in any of most garages in Seattle, then you use it for some period and then return it. Incredibly convenient and you don't pay depreciation and most importantly, if you bike or take a bus in, you don't need to have a car. Pretty cool.

Flexcar is being acquired by Zipcar, so the rate structure is changing. For business, it is a $75 signup and then $25 per person, but the rates are a little lower at $8.95 an hour. For personal, it is $75, but there is a $25 credit if you are signing up in Seattle.

ISPs like Shaw block port 25 and break your email

2008-02-17T22:55:55Z

Argh, why do internet providers act so smart! Sometimes I can't seem to send email and right now I'm discovering that this is because certain ISPs will block the SMTP port 25 (send mail) and 465 (secure send mail), so mysteriously at some access points, you can send mail and at others you can't. Some great hosters like TQ Hosting allow SMTP on port 25 and 26, so if you find that you can't send, check with your hoster and see if they can't open up an alternative port for you for folks like this.

So those of you using Shaw as an ISP in Canada, beware, they are likely blocking port 25 which is why you can't send email via your hosting site or corporate site. AS hardathosting.com points out they are trying to prevet direct o MX spmming and open proxies and relays from "zombies" in their network. To get aroudn this you either have to have a nice hoster like that listed above, or you ahve to know the network you are on and thus the SMTP mail server you need to use. I'm sure another reason is that you have to have an email name to authenticate to an ISPs SMTP outbound mail server, so they feel like they have more control.

Also have heard that Comcast is blocking Bittorrent and some ISPs block skype. What an amazing pain. Like someone who sells gasoline telling you what kind of car to buy or someone who builds a highway what you can drive. Live free or die!

Beware don't get Mac Office 2008 Student Edition...

2008-02-17T22:48:38Z

Yikes, the Windows Student Edition was just cheaper, but Anandtech points out that this Mac version has a $130 student edition without Exchange support while the $350 version has Exchange support. I now own two copies of an absolutely useless Student Edition as a result. Arrgggh! There is an even more useless Special Media Edition which is $440 (can you believe that?) that has some sort of media cataloging application.

While this version is native Intel, it does lose VBA support so macros essentially aren't going to work anymore. And of course there is yet another new file format to deal with!