Peter's Useful Crap

This article was written in collaboration with Thom.

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I cannot think of a single application or website that has improved my daily work processes more quickly and effectively than Dropbox. Dropbox combines elements of many different applications: SVN, WebDAV, online storage, network storage, music and file sharing, FTP, Flickr, and Google Docs, just to name a few. And it manages to do so with style and simplicity. It is non-technical and seamlessly integrates into my normal working environment.

Initially, Dropbox quickly addressed the hassle of trying to work on the same files among multiple computers. I have long been tired of e-mailing files to myself, manually uploading files to a server, or transferring files using a flash drive. Dropbox allows me to bypass these now archaic file transferring options.

Dropbox is currently in a beta stage, which means that for you to use it, an existing user must send you an invite or you must sign up on the wait list, then receive an invite from Dropbox itself.

Just a warning: this post is pretty long. There’s so much to say about Dropbox…

Click here to read the full post »

This is a guest post written by sleepy Thom. Check out his Muxtape.

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I’ve been using a little music sharing service called Muxtape for almost 2 months now. I first got the Muxtape lowdown courtesy of my closet-hipster pal, who I follow via my Tumblr. Since I fancy both music mixes and web applications, I gave Muxtape a whirl, and I’m happy to report that it does a pretty good job offering a crap-load of music while skirting copyright infringement laws. Aside from the aforementioned crap-load of music at your fingertips, the appeal of Muxtape comes from its simplicity.

Unfortunately, this same simplicity is what makes using Muxtape so freaking frustrating at times.

Basically, Muxtape allows a user to create a mix of up to 12 MP3s and share it with the world. If you just want to listen to Muxtapes, you don’t need an account. To play a Muxtape, select one of the coloured rectangles and click on a track. You will see the track load and then hear the musical goodness. There’s no rewind or fast-forward in Muxtape. Just play and pause. The idea is to listen to the mix from start to finish just like in the good ol’ cassette days.

In order to have your own Muxtape, you have to sign-up for an account. I think my biggest gripe over Muxtape is the uploading part of creating the mix. This aspect may be updated in the future, but currently, to create a mix, you have to painstakingly upload MP3s to the Muxtape server one MP3 at a time!

After this is done, you can share it with anyone via a Muxtape.com subdomain. This is all fine and good, but did I mention that you have to upload one MP3 at a time? And did I also mention that Muxtape’s servers went down last week and I lost my entire Muxtape, which I lovingly created one MP3 at a time? I didn’t lose my files because I had a copy of them locally, but I did lose my mix and a little bit of trust. I know this is a free service and blah blah blah, but it takes a freaking long time to upload a mix when you’re uploading it one damn file at a time. Come on, Justin, let’s see a batch uploading option in V2.0.

So how does Muxtape offer this service for free? Upon closer inspection of any Muxtape mix, you’ll notice a little Buy Now link. It’s not too garish, so it’s tolerable. If you were to click on that link, you’d be directed to Amazon.com. Apparently those Amazon affiliate links are working well for Muxtape seeing that it must require terabytes of disk space and hosting costs to run this service.

A nice feature in Muxtape is the ability to save up to 12 of your favorite Muxtapes on your account for easy access. If you don’t have a Muxtape memorized, bookmarked or favorited, it’ll be very difficult to track it down since Muxtape randomly displays active Muxtapes.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering why I’m still using Muxtape. Simply put, there is no other free service on the Interweb that can match the amount of music available on Muxtape. Sure, there’s no way to search for songs or download content. The playback options are limited. And yeah, you’re at the mercy of the creator on how long a track will be on his/her Muxtape. You’re also stuck with the seemingly random display of Muxtapes that are displayed on the site. That is, unless you have it bookmarked or “favorited”. But all these eccentricities are what make Muxtape such a unique musical experience. I found out about so many great artists and bands by listening to various Muxtapes. I mean, it’s obvious that each Muxtape creator had to spend a significant amount of time and a lot of thought composing their mix knowing that they had to upload tracks one MP3…

Addendum: Pete just informed me that there’s an iffy Muxtape search. I did a quick search, and it was effective to some degree. It listed Muxtapes that contained the search keyword, and not the actual songs.

By default, whenever you log in to your WordPress blog via wp-login.php, it loads the admin panel. However, if you’re using the Prologue theme or a similar theme that places the “write post” form on the front-end of your site, you probably want to present registered users with the front page instead:

(The screenshot above is a tweaked version of QuickPost, a nice Tumblr-like plugin that enables you to make posts from outside of your admin panel.)

The best thing to do is to simply place a login form directly on the front page of your site.

However, some people simply like to access wp-login.php directly, so you need to add one more piece of functionality. Using the login_form() hook, you can create a plugin to load the front page of a site after a user logs in.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Redirect user to front page
Plugin URI: http://www.theblog.ca/wplogin-front-page
Description: When a user logs in via wp-login directly, redirect them to the front page.
Author: Peter
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://www.theblog.ca
*/

function redirect_to_front_page() {
	global $redirect_to;
	if (!isset($_GET['redirect_to'])) {
		$redirect_to = get_option('siteurl');
	}
}

add_action('login_form', 'redirect_to_front_page');
?>

Note that you can change the value of $redirect_to in order to redirect a user to a different page (such as their profile).

Download the redirect users to the front page via wp-login.php plugin

August 16, 2008 update: here’s a more complex solution where you can redirect users by username, role, and capability

September 8, 2008 update: I’ve built a more fully featured version of the plugin that works in WordPress 2.6.2 and up and enables you to manage the redirect rules in the WordPress admin panel

Citizens Bank, which has long been my favourite bank, will be introducing a no-fee chequing account called the Global Chequing Account with unlimited transactions and no minimum balance starting September 16, 2008. I am especially excited about this because it is the perfect companion to their Ultimate Savings Account, which is a Canadian high interest account.

Regarding ATM service, within Canada you still have to stick to THE EXCHANGE Network, HSBC, and National Bank ATMs to avoid paying any fees, but this covers quite a lot of ATMs! An added feature with the soon-to-be offered account is that Citizens Bank will waive their portion of any international ATM fees (although the other bank might still charge you).

I’ve written a more full article on the high interest savings site.

Because I write a lot of posts related to phones, especially Canadian cell phones, I often get asked about SIM card options for people travelling to Canada. Here is the little that I know Please feel free to correct me if I’ve made any errors!

First of all, if you have an unlocked GSM phone, make sure that it runs on the North America 850 and/or 1900 bands (unlike the 900 and 1800 bands in Europe and many other places). If you have a tri-band or quad-band phone, you are OK.

Unlike many other places in the world, SIM cards don’t hang on popular Canadian retailers’ racks. Not only that, but the per minute and entry costs are relatively bad. So get ready to spend more than you would elsewhere and note that getting a SIM card isn’t exactly easy as pie.

Incoming calls on prepaid plans in Canada are not free. This is different from many other countries.

Also, Rogers owns the entire GSM network, so only Rogers, Fido, and many small players (some to be mentioned later) that rent Rogers bandwidth have SIM cards. Telus, Bell, Virgin, Koodo, and many others use a different network without SIM cards and thus force you to use their phones. Update: This changed in late 2009, as the major carriers Telus and Bell now offer SIM cards.

Your options to buy just a SIM card include:

• As of August 2011, walk into a 7-Eleven store and buy a Speak Out Wireless SIM card for $10.
• Walk into a Rogers retail location (if there is one near where you are going in Canada) and ask to buy a SIM card for $10. They might not advertise this.
• Find a SIM card for Rogers or Fido pay as you go / prepaid on eBay or Craigslist. You will pay between $10 and $30 CAD for the SIM card, but sometimes they have some airtime included. Remember to either leave enough time for shipping or be prepared to meet up with someone in person. Note that if you try to activate a Rogers or Fido card over the Internet, it might require a Canadian address and perhaps even a Canadian credit card.
• Look for a Speak Out Wireless or Petro Canada SIM card from someone else in Canada on this forum.

Note that with all options above, airtime is extra unless stated. In Canada, local pay as you go airtime costs between 20 and 40 cents per minute.

If you do not already have a cell phone, your best bet is to buy a phone + SIM combination (which dominates Canada) not from the big guy Rogers, but from the 7-Eleven convenience store or the Petro Canada gas station. You still have to pay at least $39 for the lowest priced phone, plus airtime. Having an existing phone and buying a SIM is much better. If you must go this route, try and find some Canadian friends who could use your phone + SIM after you’re done with it. 7-Eleven and Petro Canada’s services do have the best per minute rates, and their airtime lasts the longest before expiring, so take some solace.

Travelling to both the USA and Canada? Consider getting one SIM card for each country. Canadian SIM cards have awful US roaming prices. US SIM cards have slightly better Canada roaming prices, but they’re still quite steep

Making long distance calls while in Canada? National long distance call rates in Canada are not much more than the local per minute rates, but if you are doing much national calling or making international cards, buy a phone card (where you dial a local number and then the service prompts you to enter the long distance number) from a grocery or convenience store or sign up with an online service like justdial.ca. The reason for this is that international rates on Canadian cell phones are usually much worse than paying local per minute charges + the phone card charges.