eugene gordin

I know the title rhymes, lets be honest – rhyming title – definitely the way to go. Today’s topic is VNC – virtual network computing – which is basically controlling one computer from another. Let me explain what this means with an example.

Imagine you needed to rip a cd to iTunes but had to leave for work. With VNC, you could put the CD in your computer’s CD drive, go to work, login to your home computer and start ripping the CD – you have complete control over your computer and see in a window at your work computer everything you would see on your screen at home. Its pretty amazing stuff, and all you need to use it is this guide, a turned on computer, and an internet connection.

VNC is free, and available for both OSX and Windows. Therefore, to avoid confusion, I have written two posts, one for OSX (which is below), and one for Windows XP users (which you can find here).VNC allows you to control any networked computer (PC or Mac) from within a window on your computer – all for free. Even though it sounds quite complicated, both setting it up and using it is actually quite simple (and impressive when people see you using it). VNC can be useful for a couple of reasons:

• working on your home computer when traveling
• working with a computer that has no monitor
• showing friends or family something on the computer

I want this post to be as simple and as visual as possible, so let me start by showing you what VNC looks like when its running:

As you can see, there is Windows XP running inside of a window in OSX, with a mouse and all (the resemblance to Parallels is there, but I assure you this is VNC). All I have to do is move my mouse and the windows mouse moves too, and when I type with my keyboard in the VNC window, its just like typing on the guest computer that I’m logged into. Its that simple to use. For reference, I will refer to the computer you want to log into as the server, and the computer you are on as the guest. Note: you can only control a computer that is on a network that you have administration access to – school and public networks probably won’t work. However, you can control a server computer from anywhere with an internet connection.
Here’s how we are going to set it all up:

1. Setup the server computer
2. Configure the hardware
3. Setup the guest computer

With all of that said, lets begin.

Step 1

The setting up the computer you want to access. One of the many nice things about OSX (10.4 Tiger) is that it has VNC server software built in. To activate it, go to System Preferences –>Sharing and check the box next to Apple Remote Desktop. Once you do that, a new window will open up that lets you configure VNC. Check the box next to the username that you want to use VNC with (probably your username), and also check the boxes so that they match the ones in the screen shot below.

The last thing to do on this window is to check the box next to “VNC viewers may control screen with password:” and put in your VNC password. Make your password is alphanumeric and something only you would know – it is the only thing between your entire computer and someone trying to get in!

Now we need to make it easy for you to access this computer from somewhere else. Although there are a variety of ways to do this, I prefer using a free service called No-Ip.com. Basically, this website allows you to create an easy to remember web address for the server computer. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Go to www.no-ip.com, click Sign-up Now!, and fill out all of the required fields
2. Click on the apple logo on the next page under select your operating system, download the client for OSX, and once its downloaded, install it.
3. Check your email for the account confirmation and confirm your account
4. After the webpage says that your account is confirmed, login with your email address and password on the no-ip.com site.
5. You should see a left hand column with Hosts / Redirects at the top and an Add link below it. Click on the Add link. On this Add a Host page, only input a unique hostname and click the Create Host button at the bottom of the page. With this hostname, the address to your computer will be: yourhostname.no-ip.info (much simpler than 54.223.2.134 right?).
6. Launch the now installed No-IP.com Update Client, (put in your computer password), and in the form enter your email address and password that you signed up with. Now under Host Names to Update you should see the hostname you chose when on the no-ip website. Check the box next to that hostname, and then click on the Daemon Tab (a daemon is just a program that runs in the background invisibly). On this tab click on update daemon settings, and start the daemon and enable the checkbox next to Launch Daemon at System Startup. Now close the No-IP Update Client. You’re all done with step one – onto step 2!

Step 2

Those of you not behind a router can go directly to step 3. This step only applies to those of you who are behind a router (if you are on a network with multiple computers, you are behind a router). The key to this crucial step is having access to the router – not physical but through a web browser. If you don’t have the username/pasword to the router, you should get access because otherwise this isn’t going to work and you can stop here.

There are lots of different routers out there, and a simple google search will tell you how to forward your ports. For your convenience, this site has instructions on forwarding the right ports for VNC for almost every router.

That link will explain how you forward a port in general for VNC. Here’s what you need specifically:

• Your local IP Address: Go to System Preferences –> Network –> Either Airport or Built-In Ethernet (depending on which one you’re using) –>TCP-IP. Next to IP Address is, well, your IP address. This is the address that you forward the ports to.
• Port to forward: 5900.

Once you forward port 5900 to your local IP address, that’s about it for step two. Make sure that if you have your firewall in OSX enabled, that you allow port 5900 to go through also. I know that some might have questions about this step, so please leave me questions in the comments section for this post, and I will answer them. Here comes the third and final step!

Step 3
This is the simplest of all of the steps. For this step, you should be on another computer i.e. not the server computer. If the guest computer is a Mac, download and install a program called Chicken of the VNC. If the guest computer is a PC, see step 3 for PC. Chicken of the VNC allows you to view the server computer.

Once installed, run the program and you should see a screen similar to the one to the left. Just click on the + button to add a new server, and then input the hostname you chose for your server computer in step 2. If you forwarded port 5900, then the corresponding Display number is 0, if you forwarded 5901, the display number is 1, and so on. Under password you input the password you chose in the system preferences in step 1. The rest of the options are self explanatory for the most part.

Click connect, and if you set everything up correctly, the server computer should be in front of you :). Enjoy.

PS This is one of my longest posts and covers a pretty complicated topic. I tried to make it as simple as possible, but I would love to answer any questions or clear up anything I brushed over. Thats what the comment link is for below 🙂

I’m back with the third and final installment of my series on essential software for all new computers. While the first and second parts of this series covered the basic necessities, this third part will cover software that is just good to have around (for both Macs and PCs). Lets start with software for OSX, and finish with a couple PCs applications.

For OSX:

Internet Telephone Skype: Skype allows you to speak to anyone in the world with a computer and an internet connection for free. You can also currently make free calls to any telephone number in the US, and make international calls for fixed minute rates. Video chat is also available. Application Launcher Quicksilver: An application launcher, Quicksilver can speed up drastically everyday tasks by allowing you to do a variety of things with simple keystrokes. Space Saver Monolingual: Monolingual is a must have application for all users that are, well, monolingual. Basically this program allows you to remove all of the unneeded language files except the one you need. It can save you up to 3GB of space! Notifications Growl: Growl is a notification system for OSX that can alert you about anything from instant messages, to finished FTP tasks, to a new song playing in iTunes, all with a beautiful customizable interface.

For PCs:

Archiver WinRar: WinRar is a replacement for windows compressed folder handling. It allows you to both create and extract all kinds of compressed filetypes. iTunes iTunes: There’s really no good reason to recommend iTunes except that its probably the best music player out there for windows. Also, I really like it because it gives Windows users a look into the simplicity that is Mac OSX.

Well that pretty much wraps up this series. I hope that it helped and if you know of any software that I missed, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll add it.

Welcome back for the 2nd installment of my essential software series. In this post, I will cover the must-have Windows programs that I would install the minute I had a new computer before me. First off, let me just say this part isn’t going to be nearly as pretty as the first part in the series, simply because it is only now that Microsoft is adopting larger icons for its programs. That said, lets begin:

Antivirus AVG: Grisoft AVG is one of the most powerful antivirus solutions for Windows offering a complete selection of tools and utilities to secure your Windows PC. Alternatives: McAfee, Norton Antivirus CD/DVD Burning Nero: Nero is a fully functional, CD/DVD authoring program that allows burning of data, video, audio, and images. It also includes all kinds of disc customizations, menus, etc. Alternatives: Easy Media Creator, Ashampoo Burning Studio, DiscJuggler Instant Messaging Trillian: Trillian is an instant messenger client that allows connections to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and other messaging services. See my post below for more information. Alternatives: Gaim, Miranda Security Spybot Search & Destroy: A free utility that is extremely helpful in both removal and prevention of spyware and malware. Every Windows PC needs this. Alternatives: Help yourself -Get spybot. Windows Defender: Microsoft’s solution to their own security problems. Its actually quite a powerful and useful program. Avoid problems – Get Windows Defender. Alternatives: Adaware Web Browser Mozilla Firefox: A skinable, secure, customizable web browser with tons of features, plug-ins, and anything else you would need. Be sure and install the adblock and tabbrowser preferences plugin I mentioned in my post below. Alternatives: Opera, Internet Explorer 7 FTP Browser SmartFTP: The simplest, most straight forward FTP browser out there for Windows. A must-have for anyone with webspace. Alternatives: CuteFTP, FileZilla Media Playback K-Lite Codec Pack: K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools and will play back all of your movie formats using Media Player Classic (a very good alternative to later Windows Media Players). Alternatives: XP Codec Pack, Codec Pack All in 1

Up next is part III in this series, which will cover software for both OSX and Windows that a new computer (and you) probably can live without, but shouldn’t.

Recently I have been seeing my friends purchase new computers, both Macs (hurray!) and PCs (alas!), and have been asked to put on their new computers software that I think every computer should have. And after I did this a couple of times in the past week, I noticed that I have a pretty set group of things that I believe every new computer should have.

I have gathered everything you need and will be posting it in this three part Initial Transformation series – the first on OSX Programs, the second on Windows programs, and the third on miscellaneous software that’s necessary for both. Without further ado, here are the Apple OSX Essentials:

CD/DVD Burning Roxio Toast: Though I don’t burn anything except data cds and dvds, Toast is the easiest way to create video dvds, music cds, burn images, and all of it with a really simple user interface. Alternative: DiscBlaze Instant Messaging Adium: Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. Alternatives: Proteus, Fire Windows Virtualization Parallels Desktop: The best and fastest program that to run Windows (or any other OS) on your intel Mac out there, hands down. See my post below for more information. Alternatives: Q, Crossover Office Desktop Manager Virtue Desktops: The amazing accessory to Parallels Desktop that allows you to switch between Windows and OSX like this. Alternative: Desktop Manager Web Browser Mozilla Firefox: A skinable, secure, customizable web browser with tons of features, plug-ins, and anything else you would need. Be sure and install the adblock and tabbrowser preferences plugin I mentioned in my post below. Alternatives: Camino, Safari, Omniweb, Opera FTP Browser Transmit: An amazingly simple, very pretty FTP Browser. If you own webspace, this is a must. Alternative: Cyberduck Media Player VLC: The media player to have to play everything from DVDs to Divx movies to simple AVI’s. Alternatives: Quicktime, Divx Player

Stay tuned for parts II and III for more OSX and Windows programs that are a must on any new computer!

I would like to introduce Mike Mieler who has a new blog called Mike Went West devoted to all things music – concerts, artists, shows, reviews, etc as well as a promised regular podcast with new music recommendations as well as his favorites from back in the day.

I like to consider Mike the go-to guy as far as getting the newest and best music out there. He is the person behind my Music to My Speakers post, who introduced me to emusic.com, as well as countless artists that I am now obsessed with (despite shrugging them off when first hearing them as he will tell you :)). So go visit Mike, and bask in the glory that is musical good taste.

Okay, so the title doesn’t make as much sense as it could, but basically I just wanted to rhyme. Today’s topic is all about instant messaging, and the better way to do it. There are two programs that I would like to talk about specifically – AdiumX (Mac OSX) and Trillian (Windows). In concept, both programs are very similar:

Both Allow:

• Chatting on multiple chat networks – AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc. without the individual programs
  
• Logging all conversations for later reference
• Customizing of the user interface
• Renaming of contacts
• File Transfers

Most people that I show these programs to are surprised that you can be on AIM without having to use crap from AOL, but I assure you that you can, and, in fact, should :).

Here are some of the features that I love best about each program.

AdiumX:

• The buddy list syncs with your address book (Real names are listed instead of screen names)
• Extremely customizable look and feel
• Tons of plug-ins, skins, message windows, etc

Trillian:

• Audio/Video Chat
  
• Tons of skins and plug-ins
• Multiple identities for multiple users

If you use any instant messenger, I highly recommend AdiumX and Trillian over the original programs.

P.S. If you would like your AdiumX contact list to look like the screen shot above, download this, unzip it, and double click on each file to install.

Though the majority of my posts have to do with some type of software, technology, or, for lack of better words, interesting find, this post can probably be classified as a tech tip. Today I would like to heed a warning to all of those people that like to live on the bleeding edge of technology, or those that just like brand new shiny things.

New tech hardware that is released on a massive scale – whether it be computers, music players, entertainment systems, whatever – is bound to have problems, bugs, and glitches whose tried and tested counterpart just simply doesnt have. Let me offer a simple example.

I purchased my Macbook Pro 1.83Ghz on the day that they were released, and my Macbook arrived in America from China in the very first batch. As content as I am with my MacBook Pro – which is amazingly content – it has had 3 major problems, all of which have now been fixed (for monetarily free) in both mine, and all new MacBook Pros. I say monetarily because although all three repairs were completely free, two week were spent without my MacBook, which was quite a hassle (thank g-d for my mini). In fact, apparently, with my Macbook, I got relatively lucky.

My point is basically this: if you buy a new model, or pretty much any new technological innovation, you immediately assume not only the inherent risk that all technology brings with it, but also the fact that you probably will run into first revision problems that all can and will be smoothed out after some time.

For some people, this inherent risk is worth having the latest and greatest gadgets out there. However, for the majority of consumers, its exactly these bugs/problems/hassles that need to be avoided, and therefore, this information should be kept in mind.

As a side note, I was thinking of creating a website devoted to offering people advice as far as when a good time to buy a new computer (mostly Apple Macs) would be based on the large amounts of facts, information, and speculation in the computer (Mac) world. However, since I don’t foresee myself creating this type of site anytime soon, if any of you are considering purchasing a new Apple product, let me know because now might be a good time to wait just a bit for the newest version/model/revision which very well could be less problematic, buggy, and hassle-ful. 🙂

As most people know, both Windows and OSX have tons of keyboard shortcuts built into them, all for the sole purpose of speeding up remedial tasks. Instead of listing all of the keyboard shortcuts that are out there, which you can find here (Windows) and here (OSX), I thought I would list the ones that I use on a daily basis.Global Shortcuts (windows users should use ctrl key instead of apple)
apple+c – Copies highlighted item
apple+x – Cuts highlighted item
apple+v – Pastes copied/cut item

apple+a – Selects all items
apple+s – Saves document/webpage/etc
apple+p – print document/webpage/etc
apple+w – Close current page/document/etc
apple+n – Open new page/document/etc
apple+q – Quit current program

apple+b – Bold highlighted text
apple+i – Italicize highlighted text
apple+u – Underline highlighted text
apple (hold) +click multiple objects – highlights multiple objects (not necessarily in a row)
shift+click – Highlights multiple objects in a row

Personal Favorite:
apple+t – open new tab in Mozilla Firefox (I use this one hundreds of times per day)

Apple OSX Specific:
apple+shift+3 – Take screenshot of entire display
apple+shift+4 – Take screenshot of sizable window
apple+option+esc – Force Quit Unresponsive Application
apple+tab – Switch between open windows
apple+delete – Send item to trash
F12 – Bring up dashboard (10.4 Tiger & later)

Microsoft Windows Specific:
windows – Bring up start menu
windows+e – Open new explorer window
alt-tab – Switch between open windows.

Those are the keyboard shortcuts that I use regularly, and can reallys speed things up when you are working. I also use a program called SizzlingKeys for OSX, which allows me to program my own keyboard shortcuts for controlling iTunes. That way, no matter what program I am in, I can play/pause/move to next track in iTunes with simple key combinations. SizzlingKeys is free, but if you want to enable the Pro features such as searching your library and playlists with shortcut keys, it’ll cost you $4.95. On my Macbook Pro, I have sizzling keys programed for:

apple+F11 – Play/Pause
apple+F12 – Next Track

If you can remember any of these, it will really speed up some of the repetitive tasks we all often have to do. Hope that helps!

So first off, some blog official business: I decided that I would steer away from daily postings, especially now that I am working and doing the whole jury duty thing.

That said, the first useless thing is a website called Sternest Meanings, which, believe it or not, is simply a chat window with a bot that takes what you send to it and creates an anagram. Useless indeed, but you can also add sternestmeanings to your AIM buddy list and IM the bot all you want whenever you want: uselessness at the click of a button.

Now, if you have a lot of time on your hands (and you’re done talking to sternestmeanings), you can enjoy this link, which will take you to a video of a guy who I’m pretty sure is the best Tetris player known to man. If you watch the whole game, which I did, the music and background gets just as intense as the game itself. Its pretty amazing stuff. And by amazing, I of course mean useless.

The third and final piece of uselessness, can be better described only by the image
below:

:

Though I am a big fan USB drives, and do love the occasional teddy bear, I’m pretty sure the guy who made this should be shot. My commentary cannot do justice to this little cuddly bear, so I’ll let you guys read Engadget’s post on the subject, entitled “USB Teddy Bear Holds Data, Scares Children.” Enjoy 🙂

So today I had a good friend call me with what turned out to be quite a typical situation. She was working tirelessly on her computer (a brand new macbook, for the record), and for some reason did not click save inside Microsoft Word. Low and behold, when she came back to her computer, the file was no where to be seen and all of her work was gone.

We have all lost work like this, and, although at the time its terrible, its actually (for the most part) preventable. Microsoft Word, as well as all of the other Microsoft Office applications have built it security options for situations just like this. Basically, Word can save your documents for you automatically at any time interval. These settings can be found in Word (or Excel, or Powerpoint) preferences, under the save tab. Just make sure to change the AutoRecover time interval to one minute and to check the box that says Always Create Backup Copy. Below is the screenshot of the window on a mac, though it should look very similar in Windows.

Also, while youre at it, make sure under the File Locations tab you add a location for AutoRecover files. That way, if you do lose a document, you will know where Word automatically saved it. Hope this helps!