Mister Nifty » Tech

Learn to program the easy way!

Brian Fegter — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:31:00 +0000

I just found this awesome software that teaches young people to program in a 3d environment. It’s called Alice. This is a great way to start learning the fundamentals of programming. If you have a private school, you can easily add a basic computer science class with Alice. It’s free and there are a lot of instructional materials available online. If you’ve ever had an itch to start programming, give Alice a try.

Go to Alice.org

Learn to program the easy way! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Sync Multiple Google Calendars to your iPhone iPad iPod

Brian Fegter — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:44:26 +0000

After searching through a maze of help documents from Google, I found this link that lets you choose which calendars get pushed to your iPhone/iPad/iPod

http://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect

It allows you to check off the calendars you want to appear in your Calendar app.

Sync Multiple Google Calendars to your iPhone iPad iPod is a post from: Mister Nifty

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My Favorite PDF Tools

Brian Fegter — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:30:12 +0000

Here are a few of the tools that I use to manage and create PDF files since Windows doesn’t have native PDF support. If you’re on a Mac, you can use the built in PDF functions via your print menu.

Printers

PrimoPDF (Windows Only)
OpenOffice – Native PDF capabilities (File -> Save As)

Converters

Neevia PDF Converter (File to PDF) – Includes password protection and multiple output formats.
PDFmyURL (URL to PDF) – Convert any website to a PDF

Viewers

Google Docs - Lightning fast PDF viewer that integrates right into Gmail. You can also upload your PDF files to Google Docs for safe keeping and collaboration.

Editors

PDFescape – Great for creating PDF files with form fields.

Tools

PDFCrack – Recover forgotten PDF passwords. (Linux only)

Let me know what PDF tools you like that I have forgotten or overlooked.

My Favorite PDF Tools is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Create An iPhone App For Your Church

Brian Fegter — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:48:23 +0000

ChurchDrop.com just featured a great tutorial on how to create your own iPhone app for your church. It’s practically free with a new web app called AppMakr. Read the full article here.

AppMakr is a free service that allows you to basically drag and drop an app into creation. The base cost to get your app to the iPhone is $99.00 for registering as a developer with Apple. There also may be some other costs associated with rebuilds of your app as well. Compared to what used to be over $1,000, this is a fantastic way to save money and get your church on the iTunes store.

Check out AppMakr

Create An iPhone App For Your Church is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Protect Your Laptop or Phone From Theft

Brian Fegter — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:50:02 +0000

Imagine all of your precious data stored on your laptop in the hands of an unsavory individual who has just stolen it when you went to get a refill on your non-fat, extra foam soy chi latte’ at the coffee shop. Until recently, there wasn’t really good way to find and retrieve your laptop without paying for expensive software.

My buddy Austin introduced me to this awesome open source (free) software for Mac, PC, Linux and Android called Prey. It’s a fantastic way to track down the crooks who stole your prized possession. You can enable your webcam remotely, log their latest IP address, triangulate their position to report to the police, and much more. Prey also offers a feature to turn off the computer, lock out certain data (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc), see what files have changed, and even give your nemesis a personalized message saying, “This is a stolen laptop which belongs to Me. Please contact me at: your@email.com to resolve this situation.”

I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t put this on their mobile devices. It’s not only available for laptops, but more awesomely, Android devices. This means that the punk who stole your smart phone isn’t really that smart when you track him down (with police assistance of course). There’s no risk to downloading Prey because it’s completely free. If you wish to upgrade to some more awesome features, there is a nominal Pro account fee structure.

Go To Prey Project

Protect Your Laptop or Phone From Theft is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Easily Encrypt Data On Your Thumb Drive

Brian Fegter — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:26:14 +0000

I’m sure you’ve wanted to be a spy before at some point in your life, especially if you love tech as much as I do. You could sneak around with encrypted files that rogue regimes want badly. Then, when you’re captured, you fight to the last breath without giving them your super-secret password and the world is saved. Psych. You’re still in your church office!

As much as we all would love to know about encryption, it is a very scary and cumbersome topic for us common folk. But thanks to one of my favorite programs True Crypt, it’s easy to hide and encrypt any data you want without even being somewhat of an expert on encryption.

I’ve seen many a church accountant backup their Quick Books files on a thumb drive without ever encrypting their data. This could be bad for a company or a church if that data gets into the wrong hands. So, in order to help you protect your files, I’ve put together this simple screencast to show you how to use True Crypt. You’ll be up and running within 5 minutes!

True Crypt runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux! Woo Hoo!

Download True Crypt

Easily Encrypt Data On Your Thumb Drive is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Help Someone Fix Their Computer Remotely

Brian Fegter — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:20:12 +0000

Have you ever been frustrated when someone asks you to help them fix their computer over the phone? It becomes a tedious task for them to explain exactly what’s on their screen. ShowMeWhatsWrong.com is a great way to see what’s going on with their computer. It’s super easy to sign up. You enter your name and email, and it generates a unique URL to share with your friend. Your friend then visits the URL and a screen recorder is built right into the website. In a matter of five minutes, they can record their screen (with audio) and it will be posted for you to see on your URL. Go give it a try, it works pretty slick!

Go To ShowMeWhatsWrong.com

Help Someone Fix Their Computer Remotely is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Full Screen Flash Video On Multiple Monitors

Brian Fegter — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:25:07 +0000

If you run a Windows based projection system with one or two extra monitors/screens, this hack might be useful for you. Whenever you play a Flash video full screen, any keystroke or mouse click on another monitor will cause the full screen view to minimize. This could be irritating if you are trying to play an internet video on one screen and push other media to another screen at the same time. Here’s how to safely hack the Flash player.

Download the replacement DLL (zip container) here.
Open an explorer window and go to C:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\
Rename the NPSWF32.dll file to NPSWF32.dll.txt to save as a backup in case the hack doesn’t work
Copy the new NPSWF32.dll from the zip container to the folder.
Restart your browser and viola! It should work beautifully.
If for some reason your Flash player breaks, go back to the directory and delete NPSWF32.dll, then rename NPSWF32.dll.txt back to its original file name.

Pressing escape will minimize the Flash player once it’s been hacked.

(via Lifehacker)

Full Screen Flash Video On Multiple Monitors is a post from: Mister Nifty

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My thoughts about the Apple culture

Brian Fegter — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:32:05 +0000

Before I begin, let me preface this post by saying that I own an iPod Touch. I’m very familiar with the ins and outs of Apple computers. I’ve worked on a Mac for several years and really enjoyed the experience. However, I’m not a die-hard Apple guy. I tend to see myself as a hybrid user. I really don’t care if it’s a PC (unless it’s Vista) or a Mac.

This Saturday the much anticipated iPad will be released to the public. I have several friends who are cult followers of Apple who plan on standing in line for hours to get their hands on this new digital treasure. The iPad is certainly worthy of buzz, but is it really worth taking an entire day to make one purchase?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the response to the iPad. The day it was revealed, the sun stood still for techies. It was said to be the death sentence for netbooks and a new era of gadgetry. I voiced/tweeted a skeptical opinion and was sharply rebuked by a couple of passionate Apple junkies. Later that day, someone posted that Steve Jobs has a way of creating things we didn’t know we needed. Three things in short happened that day across the US:

Mass hysteria over a new toy
Rejection of those who didn’t drink the Keynote Koolaid
Amenity was cast as necessity

Mass Hysteria

Companies like Apple love this because it drives sales. I watched people drunken with iPad glee the day of the keynote. I have scratched my head at mega lines of people outside stores to get their hands on the iPhone. Not to be offensive, but to me, it speaks of greed that so many have to be the first to get their hands on a product. The question that screams in my brain is, “Why can’t you wait until next week when there will be no line and you don’t have to look like a fool sleeping on the sidewalk to get a new phone?”

Whenever I see mass hysteria about a product, I refuse to buy the product for at least six months. This saves me money and helps me get a clearer perspective about the technology. Another reason I refuse to purchase immediately is that I don’t want to get caught up in technological classism.

Techno Classism

There’s a reason I don’t carry an iPhone. It’s not because I can’t afford it, it’s because I won’t afford it. I did a cost analysis of carrying an iPhone and it wasn’t worth the extra dough for me. However, I love the applications on the iPhone so I chose to go with a significantly cheaper refurbished iPod Touch. One thing that frustrates me about Apple is that they fuel techno classism. Their commercials are funny and extremely effective, but at the core are demeaning to millions of PC users who can’t afford the latest Apple fashion.

I see this type of demeaning classism bleed into the consumers. I have had people shocked that I, Mister Nifty didn’t have an iPhone. Though words never express the superiority complex that a percentage of iPhone consumers have, it certainly is felt by those who don’t carry one. I have been made fun of so many times because I still work on a PC. It’s humorous to me that those same people call me asking for help to navigate their Mac or make the keyboard and mouse feel more like a PC.

My point is, Apple has created a culture of trendy tech. I can do the same things on a PC that you can do on a Mac, but for less money and maybe my computer doesn’t look as pretty. I know I know….Macs don’t have viruses. Yes, they do, and they will have more and more in the next few years as Apple takes more of the desktop market share.

For me, I don’t do trendy. I don’t have to define myself by my gadgets and electronics. At the end of the day, the iPad is another toy. Sure, there are legitimate uses for it in the medical field and elsewhere, but the majority of people who buy will use it as a toy. Just because you buy the iPad this Saturday does not make you a superior human being. It just means you spent $500 bucks on an electronic amenity.

To all the Apple elitists: Why is it such a bad thing that I think the Android platform has huge possibilities? Why can’t I think other smart phones are cool without being branded as a nobody? Why can’t I speak freely about Apple’s prohibitive app store policies and share ideas of a freer app market? Why should I be shunned because I have a phone that can’t do my laundry? At the end of the day, our gadget batteries all go dead and we’re still human beings.

Amenity == Necessity ?

The iPad is an amenity. It’s a comfort electronic. When I read that Steve Jobs creates things we didn’t know we needed, I take a huge step back. This sounds an awful lot like brainwashing or really good marketing. What if we said the same statement about the government and politicians. That logic would be rejected. I’m not being conspiratorial at all, I’m just being real about the hype. When amenities are cast as necessity, people need a reality check.

You don’t need an iPad, you want an iPad. You breathed in and out before you bought your first Apple product, and you will still be kicking after Apple is long gone decades from now. The more you think that an electronic is a necessity, the more you will spend your money on first generation gadgets. I prefer to wait patiently, let the hysterical crowd work out the bugs, and then buy either a used or a second generation gadget at a much lower price. If tomorrow, I drop my iPod and the screen cracks, my identity will still be intact.

I like Apple AND PC Products

If you think I hate Apple products, I don’t. I just hate the aura that sometimes surrounds them in our culture. I will buy an iPad, but I won’t spend as much as the people on Saturday. I will probably buy an iPhone when they offer it with carriers which will drive down the prices (not a fan of ATT). I will buy an iMac next year for my web development business, not because it’s pretty or a status symbol, but because Apple makes excellent, quality products and there is some killer web dev software for Macs.

I will also continue to use PC because I can. When my PC crashes, I will reformat and start again, because I can.

Reality Check

Do you buy electronics because everyone else is buying it?
Do you judge electronics by appearance rather than function?
Do you have to have the latest and greatest brand name?
Do you research other options on the market before you buy?
Do you always have to buy first generation?

My thoughts about the Apple culture is a post from: Mister Nifty

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More Awesome Free Fonts

Brian Fegter — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:40:21 +0000

This is a great resource for web designers who want to embed nice fonts in their web designs without infringing on the EULA agreements of popular fonts. Font Squirrel provides a list of dozens of free fonts to use on commercial websites. There is a nifty generator that helps you embed the fonts in your site as well. If you’re not a web designer, you can obviously use these fonts on print collateral as well. Enjoy!

Go To Font Squirrel

More Awesome Free Fonts is a post from: Mister Nifty