Box.net now charging in Asia?

I was just about to log into my box.net account (from here in Taiwan) and was presented with the screen below on their home page, that - “Box.net has temporarily disabled free registrations. You can now register for a Basic package for only $10/year!”

I’ve just had a friend in the UK try the same thing and free registrations are still available. Is it possible that the free accounts in the UK are to go next? Can anyone in the US confirm that free accounts are still available over there? It might be time to register for a free 1GB account before they go.

Box.net homepage viewed from Taiwan:

Box.net homepage viewed from the UK

Geek Pillows Cases

Last week when our pillows cases weren’t dry following a wash, I did was any self respecting geek would have done, and used a pair of tech related t-shirts

Stepping down from Admin in Mac OS X

If you’re planning to reinstall OS X or move all your data over to a new account after hearing about how an OS X installer package can gain root access without a password, then don’t. There’s an easy way to turn your admin account into a standard account that is detailed on Mac Geekery. The steps are as follows (taken from the Mac Geekery post):

• Make a new user. Call it admin (or flyingmonkey, whatever).
• Make it an admin.
• Logout or FUS to the new admin user and strip your user of administrative rights.
• Logout of the new admin.

This exploit/feature is also discussed by Adam Knight on this week’s Mac Break Weekly.

New MacBook

A follow up to my post on Apple Support in Taiwan - the New MacBook arrived on thursday in a swap-out for the first one. So far everything is fine, I can’t fault it (hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself). This thing has to be one of the best purchases i’ve made, after putting 2gigs of RAM in here it is so fast. I just have to get a 2.5″ 120GB SATA HD now, which is proving hard for some reason. If you have an Intel based Mac don’t forget to check out Parallels. Now I just hope Apple doesn’t release a Core 2 Duo based MacBook so soon

XBox 360 owns Taiwan

I’m not sure about the rest of Asia, but in Taiwan XBox 360 seems to be everywhere. I’d always thought that the XBox didn’t do so well outside of North America and Europe. That probably explains why there’s a such a push for it here.

Some of the larger chain stores seem to only stock 360s and not PS2s or Gamecubes. Could be an exclusivity deal, or just that the other consoles aren’t profitable here anymore. Either way, there’s no mistaking that Microsoft wants it’s console to be popular over here.

This is one of the things I like most about Taiwan (and probably one of the things the locals hate the most), that you can see giant posters for games consoles and computer components on the street. I couldn’t imagine being on a UK high street and seeing a huge Seagate Momentus poster, or 3 storey XBox 360 ad.

TWiT Hoodies now available!

The TWiT hoodies are finally available, but now - after I have moved to Taiwan and warm clothing is the last thing I need Oh well, when I get back to the UK or some other (cooler) climate i’ll order one.

Just in case you didn’t know - TWiT (This Week in Tech) is a weekly technology podcast.

Redirects with .htaccess and Wordpress

Redesigning a static site as a Wordpress based site usually means that the page URLs will change. If any other sites are linking to the old URLs visitors who follow those links will receive a 404 error. If you have a custom 404 this isn’t so bad since the visitor will now be in your site and could presumably use the site navigation to find the page they were looking for. Although most people, including me, can’t be bothered to do this.

The answer is to have a redirect that forwards a visitor to the new Wordpress version of the page. For instance, if a visitor follows /old_page_name.html they will be forwarded to /wordpress_page_name

The easiest solution was staring me in the face when I had to do this today, but I found a few other methods of redirecting on the long way round.

Wordpress Page Template: Redirect to Page
This seemed like the perfect solution - to recreate pages, using this page template, with the same names as the old pages and have them forward to the new pages. It turned out not to work for this purpose though, as when creating permalinks Wordpress removes the full stops from page titles. So a new Wordpress page e.g. page_name.html would become page_namehtml (missing the dot). This page template still seems very useful, though, even if not for this purpose, so i’ve included it here.

HTML Meta Tag Redirect
The second method is based on using a HTML Meta tag to forward one page to another page. In order to use this method pages with the same names as the old pages would have to be created and then the following tag included in the <head> section of the HTML -

<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=”5; URL=url_of_new_page”>

This method would work, but it’s not really ideal having a ton of html files positioned around your site, for one it makes a mess and two they might be overwritten during a Wordpress upgrade. Read more about this method here.

htaccess
I should have used this all along instead of searching for another method, I have no idea how it slipped my mind.

If you use a custom permalink structure in Wordpress you’ll most likely already know about the htaccess file. This file contains directory-level Apache configurations that can set things like permissions for a specific directory, URL rewriting and among other things… redirection - Which is what we’ll be using it for. Simple redirection is enough for this purpose, all that is required is that the following line be added to the .htaccess file -

RedirectPermanent /some_page.html http://example.com/page_to_redirect_to

So now you can keep your clients happy and have all the old links redirect to their new location. More detailed information on simple and complex redirection using htaccess is available here.

The Best Tech (audio and video) Podcasts

So here’s my list of the best technology related audio and video podcasts. They have been chosen based on how frequently I listen/watch and the quality of the content - that’s informational/analytical and of course how enternaining they are, but not neccesarilly audio quality. Besides, all podcasts have thier bad days of audio quality now and again. So, quick and to the point (and in no particular order)…

Audio

Buzz Out Loud - One of the only podcasts here to be hosted in part by women (which makes a refreshing change), Buzz Out Loud is a lively (daily) podcast that features news, user calls (which are always entertaining) and emails. I first heard about this podcast when one of the hosts, Molly Wood, was a guest host on This Week In Tech (below).
The Linux Linc Tech Show - When the sound quality is good this is an amazing podcast. Featuring guests from Linux distributions and open source software projects it is always an informative show.
The Wizards of Technology - A weekly breakdown of technology news, although recently the weekly shows have been missed and a twice weekly (but shorter) show has been posted.
This Week in Tech (TWiT) - Surely needing no introduction? Started by ex-TechTV hosts and managed by Leo Laporte TWiT is a weekly analysis of tech news and trends. A definate heavy-weight in podcasting.
KFI Tech Guy - Leo Laporte’s weekly call-in radio show broadcast in Los Angeles. Due to this show being on the radio the content is not as in-depth as the others. Although, it is worth it for Leo’s news section at the start and there are some interesting calls.
Security Now - Hosted by Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson this podcast explores all areas of computer and network security. Every fourth show is dedicated to answering user questions. This is a really in-depth podcast with some subjects spanning multiple shows.
The Linux Action Show - Hosted by two guys who migrated from OS X to Ubuntu Linux this show doesn’t take itself too seriously, although it’s always very informative. The show consists of a news section, user emails, and features such as software comparisons and analysis of the various Linux distributions.

Video

CommandN - Released every Monday this video podcast is hosted by Amber MacArthur (who recently left TechTV Canada’s Call For Help) and Mike Laz. Tech news is covered, along with interesting web sites/services.
Diggnation - Covering the most interesting/highly dugg stories from Digg.com, Diggnation consists of beer and tech, the perfect combination.
Cranky Geeks - A weekly half hour rant about the latest tech news hosted by Head Crank John C. Dvorak. The show sometimes has show-length special features such as the MySpace/Blogging special.
DL.tv - Another show hosted by ex-TechTV presenters, DL.tv is a longer show focusing on all forms of consumer technology. Featuring news, reviews, interviews and viewer questions.
Hak.5 - One of the best independent video podcasts, Hak.5 features technology/hardware/programming guides and tutorials, basically anything geek.

Trulia Plugin for Wordpress

Update: The plugin has been released and can be downloaded from this page

Recently I was developing a website for a client who is a real estate agent. They wanted to integrate a property search into their site and after searching for an open service I came across Trulia, who offer free online services to estate agents and brokers.

Trulia offers integrated search and custom property feeds, but they also enable an agent to submit listings to the site via an XML feed. These listings can then be viewed on a Trulia map (Google Map) from within the agents website. Seems like a very nice feature for free.

Most of the sites I design are based around using Wordpress as a CMS. Although, I have never developed a Wordpress Plugin. So I have decided to create a Plugin that will enable real estate agents with Wordpress based websites, there must be a few of you at least ;), to generate Trulia formatted feeds (including property image uploading/resizing).

I have started development today and will keep progress updated here

Update #1: The plugin development is over half way there will hopefully be a release within the next week if I get enough time to work on it.

Update #2 (2006-10-01): Here

Apple Support in Taiwan

A bit of advice for anyone needing after-sales suport for a web-ordered Apple product in Taiwan - Don’t call the number listed on their site, call 02-273-83242 ext. 419. This is supposedly their head office in Taipei. After calling the contact phone number listed on www.apple.com.tw/store I was bounced around a few reps in China and received little help before being given this number.

It seems as if there is one person responsible for web orders for the whole of Taiwan, maybe something to do with the recent job cuts. I got decent service from the Taipei office and arranged a swap out for my new MacBook (which should arrive very soon - update to follow).

Update - The new Macbook has arrived and so far everything is all good.