RSS feed for InstantSpot site Aaron Lynch

Create a custom pod with Sproutbuilder

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:44:00 GMT

Sproutbuilder is a new application that recently rolled out in a beta status. Basically it allows you to create widgets in a pretty nice Flex interface.

From their howitworks page:

Building a sprout is easy. Choose from dozens of pre-built templates or start from scratch. Drag-and-drop shapes, text, images, video, and more. Then add components such as slideshows, jukeboxes, and countdown clocks, as well as interactive services such as chat (Meebo), phone (Ribbit), fundraising (ChipIn), and more. Once you’ve got your content in place, use advanced editing and navigation tools to perfect your sprout.

Ultimately you end up with an embed code, like this

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="180" height="171" id="sUAAKe0cDAJqAatXf"><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="align" value="middle" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /><param /><param name="movie" value="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/17661/load/UAAKe0cDAJqAatXf.swf" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/17661/load/UAAKe0cDAJqAatXf.swf" width="180" height="171" wmode="transparent" align="middle" bgcolor="#ffffff" /></object> <img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDE3OTA5NTUxMDcmcHQ9MTIwMTc5MDk1NTY5MSZwPTEyMDc*MSZkPTE4MjgyJm49.jpg" />

Now, to add it to your InstantSpot site...gotta tie that in right :)

Log in to the control panel and click on the Widgets section.

Then, once you are there, you can click to add a pod, reorder, deactivate, etc...

Then, on to the end result...go look at your Spot.

More on the Dell e1505n: This Laptop is Great!

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:07:03 GMT

Last month, we ordered a couple Dell e1505n laptops and this is going on the 3rd(?) week since we received them. We ordered them initially with 512MB of RAM since Dell was charging $200 for what you could get from NewEgg.com for a little less than half that.

Initial thoughts on opening the box..."Oooh Ahhh a new laptop!" Yeah, I was so happy to finally see my new friend. I have read that some people think these laptops are ugly, but I actually like the white "racing stripes" along the sides. Makes it look fast :)

This is my first experience with a laptop display like this. It is fairly high-gloss and very bright. My eyes like it, and the 1680x1050 widescreen resolution isn't too shabby either.

The lack of RAM (during the shipping time from NewEgg.com) wasn't nearly as unbearable as I predicted. I was able to run Apache/MySQL/ColdFusion/Eclipse for development, although I couldn't do much else :). But, 2 GB of RAM really really completed the package.

The Dell partion setup is a little odd. There are a couple fat 32 partitions that Dell includes that are for the MediaDirect boot option, but unfortunately this option does not work for the Ubuntu systems. (Why they left those partitions is anybody's guess). These are small partitions and not worth worrying about, since I got the 160gb HD! :)

I am really enjoying this new machine, there isn't much else to say except that Ubuntu works great out of the box (no surprise there), wireless, nvidia drivers, all working A-OK.

Synergy: Coolest thing ever?

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:26:22 GMT

My brother just recently bought a new system, complete with two 22" widescreen flat panels. In his new set up he now has two pc's, two monitors, one keyboard one mouse. What is a man to do? (no KVM's allowed). Well, he installed Synergy.

synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Hearing about his successful installation and configuration\, I decided I needed to try this out on my own setup.

Here is the way it was:

Generic Deskotp: Windows XP/Ubuntu 6.10 dual boot with two 20" CRT's, keyboard, mouse
Dell XPS laptop: Ubuntu 7.04 using its own built in display, built in keyboard,usb mouse

Here is the way it is now:

Generic desktop: Windows XP, one 20" CRT, keyboard, mouse
Dell XPS laptop: Ubuntu 7.04, one 20" CRT (I control this one with the keyboard and mouse connected to the desktop)

Installation is very easy after you get an idea of what Synergy needs to know.

Installation/Config on Windows machine (server):

Download the .exe from Sourceforge, install it, and then go to the application launcher in your Start menu. This will bring up the configuration window.

Select the "Share this computer's keyboard and mouse (server)" radio button. This designates the desktop as the server for your synergy setup.

Click on the "Configure" button and add two screens: one for the name of your current machine, the other will be the name of the other machine.

Next, set up your Links. In my set up the desktop is to the left of the laptop. Don't forget to do the inverse as well...the laptop is to the right of the desktop.

I also chose to enable autostart for this machine. (there is an "AutoStart" button in the configuration window)

Installation/Config on Linux machine (client):

(This is so easy its crazy.)

First: sudo apt-get install synergy

Last: run this in a terminal synergyc ipAddressHere (for example synergyc 192.168.1.100)

Thats it! Isn't technology cool?

Robots and main page accessibility

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 06:00:00 GMT

On my quest towards e-stardom (aka a relevant and content-rich website), I realized that the navigation towards my older "news items" was somewhat lacking. My solution for this problem was to create a side bar menu that would contain all of the news item titles in descending date order (aka newest first).

A day or two after this change, I began to notice a positive side-effect to including all of these titles as links on the main page...The robots (spiders) were crawling all through my site! I'm not 100% sure, but I can't imagine how this increased indexing would hurt my chances of being returned in some search results.

In a possibly related subject, a Google search for 'Aaron Lynch' now returns this page in the top 10 search results (#6 as of this entry) and an MSN search returns www.AaronJLynch.com as #3!

Does anybody want my autograph?

UPDATE 1/25/06: Either Google has changed my ranking somehow, or my switch to BlogCFC has harmed my accessibility somehow. I now turn up on like page 5 or something terrible. Back to the drawing board!