Steven S. Ross

Pretty simple stuff, say you are using mysql administrator and you want to point it at a server that you have ssh access to but the firewall prevents you from making a direct connection over the internet (which it should).

Here is what you do (if mysql is running on its default port):

ssh -N -L3306:localhost:3306 username@server.com

You can also pass in a port variable if you are running ssh on a non-starndard port (which you should also do) all you do is add ” -p 1234” (1234 would be the port number where ssh is wanting you to connect)

Now just point mysql administrator at 127.0.0.1 and supply your credentials. Bang. You’re in.

So, maybe you have seen this Microsoft tool called Photosynth its pretty cool but, I think that Microsoft is trying to compete with Flickr or something instead of putting this technology to good use. If you watch this video (7mins) you’ll see the potential of this software. I think M$ missed the mark here, I certainly hope that photosynth is not the only project they are working on that will use Seadragon. Also sorry for us mac users, it only runs on windows.

Check it out for yourself, pretty slick stuff, push for a SWF or AJAX. Taken from the Juggernaut website: “The Juggernaut plugin for Ruby on Rails aims to revolutionize your Rails app by letting the server initiate a connection and push data to the client. In other words your app can have a real time connection to the server with the advantage of instant updates. Although the obvious use of this is for chat, the most exciting prospect is collaborative cms and wikis.” I can think of a few more uses as well! Check it out

So I spent about an hour setting up a new printer on my parents two windows boxes last night, It was a fancy schmancy network printer that even had WiFi built into it. So After the drivers were installed (its an HP by the way) I try to just go to the network settings on the computer and point the “add printer network printer” at it. No dice, I fiddle with it for about 10-15 mins and nothing, it won’t see the printer or if it does it asks me for a password to access it (apparently it was trying to access the card readers on the printer, bizarre).

So of course I end up looking through the manual and finally give in and load up the CD that came with the printer and there is a network setup program that you have to run from the CD. That really didn’t make much since to me but, it did work at least.

So enter my mac this morning, fire up the pinter prefrerence pane and of course when I click add printer there is the printer. Why is it so easy? Bonjour. Bonjour is a service discovery protocol that goes way back in the Apple OS. It makes it stupid simple to setup any network device and I wish that every OS on the planet had Bonjour integrated into it. Imagine how much less time we (us computer guru’s who support our family’s PC’s) would spend trying to troubleshoot add a silly printer connection.

You can read more about Bonjour and even add it to your Windows box (something I probably should have done) here: Read via Apple

Incase you missed it VMWare Fusion 2 Beta 2 is out (out yesterday). Seems like there are some nice tweaks and that resuming / suspending is even faster than beta 1. Also, sound is working again for me. I tested out playing a movie through netflix’s online viewer and the playback was very nice. I’ll give another update after some use.

This just came across the wire (my wire that is) hot way to view a site’s css definitions inline: XRAY: look beneath the skin

Nothing to type… just go see it. Wow. Make sure you click play (be patient, its worth it).

To steal two things from my co-worker Dan Skaggs (the term army proof for one) and the other is Buildix Super simple install of Subversion, Trac, Mingle, and Cruise Control.

Doubt me? On Ubuntu its as easy as “sudo apt-get install Buildix” done. Yep Done. I haven’t tried it yet but, check it out. Trust me it will save you time as I recently setup Trac and SVN the manual way.

Enjoy!

Pretty cool, stumbled upon this today. Seems that google has added photos to their maps via panoramio (their data provider I believe). Check it out (be sure to click “explore this area”)

:update: : you can also get wikipedia info on various sights… updated the link tag to auto check it. (if you don’t see it click on “more” then click “wikipedia” and “photos”.

Side note… looks like you can’t embed these yet.

Apparently google is upgrading gmail across the country at the moment. I guess 4:00pm EST is as good a time as any. The good news is that google apps for your domain (gmail) in particular looks to have received colored labels. Woot!

Well this info is probably old but, my server was having issues. So now you can read about if you missed it somehow.

Looks like Google finally fixed email address completion in Safari in their "New Version" of Gmail. Now I don't have to switch back and forth when I forget an email address. Yay!

I recently watched a great preso that was targeted for those that do podcast interviews but, those just looking to get good Skype calls may want to read on as well. First go get the latest version of Skype . You need at version 3.2 or higher (PC) or 2.6 or higher (Mac). This is because you need the latest high quality codec (I’m assuming you upgrade apps on a regular basis so thats not included in the steps below). The gist of it is that you should do the following:

1. Make sure you are using a USB headset on both ends and you position the headset’s mic above your nose (this keeps breathing sounds out of your recording but, keeps the mic close enough to get a good recording). USB provides a higher quality recording and produces less frequency noise than the standard headphone jack.
2. Port forward the Skype packets through your router to the computer on your network that is running Skype (you can get the port number from the advanced option in Skype’s preferences).
3. Shut down anything that is using CPU or bandwidth. iTunes, IM clients, anything that is robbing your machine of its bandwidth or speed. iTunes is the greatest offender.
4. Use the Skype profiler (options > advanced > “Display technical call info”). The mac will show a new window but the PC requires you hover over an empty area in the Skype application window (during a call).
5. Record your Skype incoming audio to a separate channel in RAW format so you can edit them individually. Only distribute files as mp3 don’t record mp3 due to it being a compressed / lossy format. This part requires a few more steps and some extra software. For the mac use “Audio Hijack Pro” for the pc use “Callburner”.

If you need the detailed info on how to record multiple channels go watch the end of the preso here (you can skip to parts of the preso using the right arrow on the video player). Skip to the part that is titled “Audio Hijack Pro” or “Recording Windows”: http://www.blogarithms.com/index.php/archives/2007/12/23/skype-for-interviews/

Happy Skyping.