stigFromOslo.com

I am a fairly frequent user of Flickr. I use it to share my photos, and as sort of a backup service for photos I don’t want to loose. Currently I have almost 3500 pictures stored, and more are coming. I’ve been a paying customer – a so called “pro” for a little over a year, and I have no plans of canceling my subscription. However, there are a few key features I think is missing from this top of the line photo sharing service:

1: Support for RAW format

I shoot almost all of my photos in Nikon’s RAW format NEF. Only the pictures I take using my cellphone is directly converted to JPEG. The rest is stored in large files that I can do just about anything with using my favorite photo editing software. Problem is that Flickr doesn’t support these RAW formats. And since I use Flickr as sort of a backup service as well as a sharing service, I would really like to have my original files stored there as well. I have searched the web for an alternative or additional service where I can security store my originals, but to date all I have found are expensive services for professional photographers and that is not what I’m looking for. I don’t mind paying for the service, but I would like to be able to afford bread and butter as well…

2: Improved access control

Some photos are for everyone, some are just for me, and some are for a select few. With Flickr all you can do is share with everyone, with your friends, your family, or with no one.  I would like to be able to share my photos with the people I select. And I don’t want them to have to register with Yahoo! to gain access. Either by a unique link (like Google’s Picasa) or by email somehow. That way I control who has access my photos, and the people I want to share with can keep their personal info personal.

I’m trying to think of a third wish but I got nothing. Seems there are only two features I find missing on Flickr. Is it really that semi-perfect? Hm! Well, why not? Still, I’d say the two points I have are pretty important so I really hope to see them implemented soon. Or maybe someone has a tip for a different service I can use to fulfill my photo storage and sharing needs?

Thanks to a tweet from @WOMWorldNokia asking for tips, @tallboyz suggested i try this alternative install package for WordPress for Nokia. With my spirits renewed I removed all my previously installed packages (the WordPress package and all the Qt-stuff) and downloaded the new installer directly to my phone. It ran all right and as part of the install downloaded six other packages, presumably Qt-packages.

Upon completion I answered yes to start the program and since everything had gone so perfectly well so far I actually expected it to work. But instead I was left with a hanging browser and another application that wouldn’t run. I tried to restart the phone and run WordPress again, still no result.

But since the symptom was very much the same as last time – the app being installed but returning nothing when clicked to run – I tried to install the QtMobility package still laying around on my memory card. Again it installed fine, and the result was different: Nothing happened. Even after a restart the app did absolutely nothing when clicked.

I must admit – it is tempting to give up, but then again: I need to get this working! (BTW: This post is written on a regular PC…)

I still haven’t given up on findng a better alternative than MoPress for blogging with my Nokia N97 mini on a WordPress site. So today I did some more searching and found WordPress for Nokia. I recognized the page from my earlier searches, but since this thing isn’t even out of beta, my previous though was to find something else. Well, since what I found since wasn’t up to par I decided to give the beta a chance.

I downloaded the package and tried to install it, but was promptly informed that Qt was not installed. So I canceled and went hunting for this other little bugger. It wasn’t exactly easy to find, but thanks to some comments on the very site where I found WordPress for Nokia I found a link to some packages I think was released by Nokia.

The packages were different parts and versions of Qt, and thanks to some trial and error I found out that the package I was looking for was called Qt installer. It installed a whole lot of different things on my phone and I was starting to think that this actually wasn’t too bad. How wrong was I…

After installing Qt, the WordPress for Nokia package also went in without a hitch. But when it came to launching the app nothing happend. I tried to exit all other running programs, I tried running it twice, I even cold booted the phone; still nothing.

So I went back to the comments on the website and started reading. After a while I found someone who had experienced the same as me. They were adviced to install another package called QtMobile, and from what I understood that made everything much better. Someone was even kind enough to link to a zip-file containing this fix-all package. I installed it, and sure enough: WordPress for Nokia is now running on my Nokia N97.

One might think that the story ends here. That after installation I got my blog set up in a flash and that this post is written with a big smile using WordPress for Nokia. Alas – so lucky were not I. While the configuration page was simple enough to fill in, the program has proven completely unable to make propper contact with the website. All I saw was “connection timeout”-messages. After trying four different connections – wifi and GPRS/3G – it seems the app has finally recognized the presence of a WordPress system on the website I am directing it to, because now all I’m getting is a program that fails to respond. The last message I saw was “fetching user blog” or something similar, but as I’m writing this post WordPress for Nokia is running like a zombie process in the background. And since the only way to kill it is to power off the phone, and because I can’t save drafts with MoPress I feel kinda stuck. Thank the ghost in the machine for multitasking!

Yesterday I wrote about my misson to find an app for my new Nokia N97 mini that will allow me to post to my WordPress blog. After quite a bit more searching than I had expected, I found the application I am using right now: MoPress version 1.1. It was easy enough to comfigure and hasn’t given me any trouble yet, but it has more than a few short comings.

I believe I mentioned in my previous post that the scrolling doesn’t work as expected, and I stick to that. But the lack of tagging was wrong. Just below the content field is a text field for tags. I haven’t tried it yet (I will on this post), but I assume it works like most other tag fields.

The thing I have found missing today is the functionality to start a post, save the draft, and return to edit and finish it later. The same type of function would allow the user to edit already published posts. I would classify these as critical functions for a blogging tool. Wouldn’t you?

The mission to get the Nokia N97 mini to talk to WordPress continues. After some more searching on the Ovi Store I found an app called MoPress. It cost
me NOK 10, and after two attempts to get the store to accept my credit card, I managed to get the app installed. And this is my first mobile post.

So far so good, but does it look when it is posted? And will the Twitter plugin pick it up and post a new blog post tweet? To be honest I am not sure I have configured the Twitter plugin correctly, but that is a different story.

Right off I notice that the text field in this app doesn’t scroll properly. But that is a minor thing more important is: Does it post? Let’s find out!

Yesterday I got a Nokia N97 mini from my girlfriend (thank you ) as sort of a late birthday present. The Nokia N97 mini is marketed as the ultimate blogger’s phone, but is is really?

I am – as you obviously know – running this WordPress site. It is a standard stand-alone installation on a webhotel linux server with a few automatically installed plugins and a non-standard, automatically installed theme. The phone has several applications available both pre-installed and available on Nokia’s Ovi Store for blogging. And the “share online”-function has been an integral part of the Series 60 phones for several generations now. So getting the phone to talk to the WordPress blog should be a simple “enter your name, password and link to blog here”-type procedure, right?

Wrong! I have tried the pre-installed applications, I have tried searching Ovi Store for a tool for the job, and I have tried setting up Pixelpipe to do the job. All to no avail. No apps on Ovi seems to be able to post to WordPress, Pixelpipe along with the “Share Online”-function only allows for images, video and audio to be posted, and the WordPress for Nokia project I found thanks to Google is in beta and not supported by Seires 60 version 5.

The only thing I have gotten to work so far is installing the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin on the WordPress blog and access the admin pages through the phone browser. But that isn’t what I want! I want to be able to write my posts offline, save drafts, send them to an outbox, and have them posted either automatically or manually when I get to a WiFi network or a home network.

If you have any tips for an app that might work, or a config modification for the share online function that will allow me to post unlimited text (and media) to my WordPress blog – please leave me a comment, a tweet or a post on Facebook. I refuse to believe that Nokia N97 mini and WordPress won’t talk to each other.

Image: NightRPStar @ Flickr

Many, many times I have found my self searching the web for software that could help me transform my DVDs into AVIs and MP4s, yet never have I found anything that actually works the way I want them to. Either the program simply doesn’t work, or most frequently, the free version of the program only allows ripping of non-protected DVDs. Yesterday I found a solution!

Using DVD Shrink t0 “back up” the DVD to my hard drive I then use free version of WinX DVD Ripper to convert the VOBs to AVI or MP4. I know – this is using two programs instead of one, but it works and it even allows for one DVD to be ripped while another one is being converted.

The great thing about DVD Shrink is that it allows the user to Re-author the DVD. In other words, the user can select what titles to copy and in what order to place them, and to select what audio and subtitles will follow along. The result is a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS structure just like the ones you find on original DVDs, but the files are not protected and can be converted with a free DVD ripper tool.

The free version of WinX DVD Ripper can convert a non-protected DVD to any of the following formats:

• AVI (DivX or XviD with MP3 or AC3 audio)
• MPEG2 with AC3 or MP2 audio
• MPEG4 (or H264 with AAC audio for iPod/iPhone/PSP/etc.)
• WMV (version 1 or 2)
• MOV (MPEG4 with AAC audio)
• FLV with MP3 audio
• MP3 audio only

The great thing about WinX DVD Ripper is that more than one title can be converted per run, and each title is converted to a separate file. This is great for converting TV series where you want each episode to be placed in a separate file. It also allows you to select what audio and subtitle stream you want to go with your converted file, if there are more than one that is.

For more info on how to work DVD Shrink, check out DVDShrink.org’s tutorial on full disk copying or their basic re-authoring guide. These are the guides I used to get started. And if you want to download DVD Shrink, just search the web for it. There are plenty or download sites around.

Now, just to finish of, I feel the need to point out that I do not condone piracy and the unlawful distribution of copyrighted material such as movies, TV series and music. I convert my DVDs to AVI and MPEG4 so that I can enjoy them on my notebook and iPod. I do not convert them for illegal purposes, and I suggest you don’t either.

Image: Matt hamm @ Flickr

Last week Google went live with it’s latest addition to the social media arena: Google Buzz. In short, Buzz is a miro-blogging system much like Twitter and the news feed in Facebook, that allows the user to post text, links and images for their friends (and the public) to read, see and comment. You an also connect your other social medias to Buzz and have your posts from these systems displayed in your Buzz stream.

Now, I’ve mentioned this on several other occasions, but some things can’t be said often enough: What about the comment streams? When I post something on my Twitter it is copied to my Facebook profile and my Buzz stream, and people can comment and reply to my posts on the respective sites. But these comments aren’t linked to the other sites. And that is beginning to annoy me.

A conversation used to be carried out at one place at one time. With Internet relay chat (IRC) and instant messaging (IM) the “one place”-part was whisked out, and with email, SMS, forums and online social media the “one time”-part is also gone. What we are seeing now are single conversations being fragmented and split to different medias while they really would benefit from being carried out as one. And in order to have this done properly, all replies and comments spawned from the same post have to be duplicated to all the other participating streams.

Is this possible? Sure it is! Like everything else in the field of informatics, there are at least three ways to accomplish this. Are we going to see at least five attempts to solve it? Probably. And hopefully one will prevail as the best solution. I am even tempted to have a go at a solution my self, but I’d like to know if anyone else shares my frustration.

If you have anything to say in this matter, please to so at any of the social medias where I am currently signed in: Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, and of course, right here at my very own blog!

Foto: akeg @ Flickr

I am drafting a new website for some friends using WordPress, and for theme I chose Piano Black by mono-lab. The site is Norwegian and thus I had to translate the theme language pack. I followed Urban Giraffe’s Translating WordPress Plugins & Themes-guide and ended up in a flaming red fight with poEdit to get the program to read the theme language files correctly. Thanks in part to Gettin’ Geek’s post I finally worked out that in the path-tab in the New Catalogue-dialog you have to give the basepath to the theme (in my case “C:\Users\<myusername>\Documents\piano-black”) as the base path, then add the “languages” path AND the “.” path to the list of paths. Hope this can be of assistance to other batteling the same issue.

Anwyay, if you want to get my Norwegian Bokmal translation of the theme you can download it here. The zip-file contains the nb_NO.mo and nb_NO.po files. Beware of one issue though: A bug prevented me from translating the “% comments”-line. Since it is just draft I didn’t bother to debug the issue, but if you find a fix – let me know!

Foto: Mzelle Biscotte @ Flickr

A journalist friend of mine approached me with a question about whether it is smart or not to use encryption to secure email conversations with an anonymous source. In the article Story-Based Inquiry: A manual for investigative journalists by Mark Lee Hunter that he had read, the author claims that “secure email contact requires encryption, a method that stands out and can bring unwanted attention.” The author also points out that both the journalist and the source should “use mobile phones with prepaid cards”, and that the journalist should “lock up all material related to the source, ideally in a place that is not identified with yourself.”

While Mr. Hunter is right that encryption is the only way to truly secure email, his point about encrypted email standing out is only partly valid. If while looking through someones files, emails or computer in general, all an investigator can find is a single or maybe to-three encrypted emails or files among hundreds or thousands, then sure. That email or file is going to stand out like Rudolf’s big, red nose showing up at Easter. But if someone, like the journalist in this case, makes a habit of encrypting all his files and most of his email, then there will be a lot less suspicious about that one email to the anonymous source.

Another important point to remember though, is that the ‘to’ and ‘from’ addresses in emails cannot be encrypted. If they were, the email servers wouldn’t know where to send them or who the reply is going to. To cope with this, I would suggest opening anonymous accounts for both the journalist and the source so that the fact that the two people are communicating isn’t obvious. Then I would use encryption to secure the content of the emails. There are webmail services that offer both anonymity and encryption, but the encryption part can also be done offline by writing the content in a separate document/file, encrypt the file with your favorite crypto software, and just paste the ciphertext (the encrypted document/text) into the body of an email. This utilization of anonymous email accounts is equivalent to Hunter’s suggestion on using prepaid mobile phones.

There are several other issues to be aware of, though. For example, logging into a webmail service (or any mail service or other type of resource that requires authentication) can leave tracks on your computer which a skilled examiner can extract, forensically if so required. Necessary care should be taken whenever accessing an email account or any other resource that you don’t want to have associated to your name. (I’ll leave this for a later post.)

While I am on the subject, I would like to point out that if the journalist can find some way to solve the association issue, encryption can be employed to “lock up” any notes, documents, files, digital recordings or photos the journalist may receive from or create while dealing with the source. The same point about the single encrypted file standing out is valid for this material as well, but again – it’s hard to tell equals apart.

Issues like key how to exchange crypto keys/passwords and what encryption tool to choose are topics for later discussions. For now, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them right here at stigFromOslo.com.