Category: General

General Information

Fix Connectivity Problems by Power Cycling your Home Network and Computers

The Webernets0 comment

Unplugged

Power Cycling sounds like riding a bike really fast up a hill, but in the technology field it refers to a way to get everything back online when things aren’t working right, or you have to recover from a failure or freeze.

A Power Cycle is achieved by turning everything off safely, disconnecting the power sources, and leaving everything to sit for a in-determined amount of time (some say 30 seconds, some say 30 minutes).

I find Power Cycling makes all my devices talk to each other quicker. As I have a somewhat sophisticated home network, yanking the cord on everything from time to time allows new routing tables to be created, and old machines that are no longer connected to the network (That may have been a Master Browser (Machine that tells other machines where everything is located)) to be removed from the environment.

We’ll use my network as an example to go through the procedure, as things do need to be done in a specific order. Using a IP Scanner (There’s lots of free ones available – just Google IP Scanner) I generated this view of my home network.

IP-Scanner

To begin a Power Cycle, I turn all off the Computers and my Server off. Once they are safely and completely shut down I yank the power cords from the sockets (This is important, if it is still plugged in, there is still power going in, keeping things in memory – So YANK IT!). With my Laptops, I take the batteries out. Next, I shut down and unplug my WD TV media machines and the “Elements” hard drives attached to them. My iPhone and iPad are now shut down by Pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button (Power Button on top right side of device) for a few seconds until the red “slide to power off” slider appears, and then slide the slider. Lastly, My Airport Extreme Router, D-Link Switch, and ADSL Modem are all disconnected from the outlets.

Now I go throw a tennis ball with my Dog Benson for about 10 minutes. This allows plenty of time for any power left in the devices to drain away, and all caches and memory to clear.

Benson

After playtime I get ready to restart everything. First, I plug the modem back in and let it initialize and connect to the internet. Then I turn on my Switch, and my Airport Extreme Router is next. When they are all operational and happy, I turn my computers on one at a time, beginning with the one I use most, first (So it can become the Master Browser). Once it is up and connected to the internet, I turn the next one in my usage order on, and let it connect, then the next, etc, etc. Then, I boot up my WD TV Live Hub and reconnect the “Elements” storage drives, and lastly, I power on my iPhone and iPad by holding down the Sleep/Wake (Power Button on top right side) for a few seconds until I see the silver Apple logo appear.

Everything should be back up, running, and happy!

Some people will tell you there is no advantage to power cycling. I personally, do believe it helps, and if you are undecided, Try it for Yourself and make up your own mind! What have you got to loose?

 

Make Songs Play In Track Number Order Instead Of Alphabetically On iPhone, iPad and iPod using Play Order in iTunes

The Webernets0 comment

Aerosmith MelbourneI was lucky enough to go and see Aerosmith at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena – It was a KICK ASS show!

After the show, we really wanted to have a souvenir, and thanks to Youtube, we got one. Some other folks at the show recorded it on their phones and uploaded it. Using Flash Video Downloader I was able to download their vids, and using the awesome and FREE MacX Video Converter, I was able to save the audio from their video files to MP3, then to iTunes, and then sync the songs to our iPhones, so we have a playlist of the show. How cool huh!

The problem was, that the songs played in alphabetical order instead of the order they played the songs on the night (Track number order).

Grrrr!!!
I did the whole Get Info thing in iTunes and set the track numbers….which didn’t work….

iTunes Track NumberI sync’d and sync’d to no avail. And then out of the blue, I right clicked the playlist, and there it was….PLAY ORDER!

homer-woohooThis is SO hidden! I learned that if your songs are listed in alphabetical order in the album view in iTunes, with the highlight in the song name column, and you right click (command click) the playlist and select “Copy To Play Order”, and then sync your device your songs will play in alphabetical order.

Play Order

copy-to-play-order

If you want your songs in your playlist to play in track number order on your device, click and highlight the track number column in iTunes,

Play Order

Then right click (command click) the play list and select “Copy To Play Order”

Play OrderNow Sync your device…….

YAY!

Move and Insert Cursor anywhere in text on iPhone and iPad

The Webernets0 comment

magnifying-glass-icon

Have you ever typed out a bunch of words on your iPhone and wanted to go back and delete, change or insert something? There is an easy way to do it.

magnifying-glass-iphone

Just put your finger on the word or place you want to change, and leave/hold it there for a second or so, and a little magnifying glass will pop up. Without taking your finger off the screen, just move your finger left, right, up or down, and you will see the cursor inside the magnifying glass moving around the text. Just move the cursor to the place you need it to be, take your finger off the screen, the magnifying glass disappears and your cursor is right where you need it to be to make your changes.

Easily add Meta Tags to your music with Musicbrainz Picard

The Webernets0 comment

musicbrainz-picardThere’s nothing I hate more than dropping new music into my iTunes library only to learn once it has finished importing that it doesn’t have meta-tags (No Song Name, Artist, Album Title etc etc). So now, before I add new music, I run it through MusicBrainz Picard. Here’s the programs description from their site:

“MusicBrainz Picard is a cross-platform (Linux/Mac OS X/Windows) application written in Python and is the official MusicBrainz tagger.

Picard supports the majority of audio file formats, is capable of using audio fingerprints (PUIDs, AcoustIDs), performing CD lookups and disc ID submissions, and it has excellent Unicode support. Additionally, there are several plugins available that extend Picard’s features.

When tagging files, Picard uses an album-oriented approach. This approach allows it to utilize the MusicBrainz data as effectively as possible and correctly tag your music. For more information, see the illustrated quick start guide to tagging.

Picard is named after Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

To get started, download and install MusicBrainz Picard HERE. Once you are up and running, drop the music files you want to tag anywhere in the window. They will then populate the list on the left called unmatched files.

mb1

When you have finished adding files, click the line of text with the folder icon next to it that says “Unmatched Files” to make it active. When it is active it will become highlighted. Now, go ahead and press the “Lookup” button, and MusicBrainz Picard will start scanning your music and comparing it to their database for identification.

mb2

Once MusicBrainz Picard has identified the album and added all of the songs to it, the CD icon next to the album name will turn gold in color. If you don’t have all of the songs from the album, it doesn’t matter, you can still proceed, but the CD icon stays silver. The next step is to click Album Name next to the CD icon to make it active, and highlighted. You can now click “Save”.

mb3

MusicBrainz Picard will now write the Meta Tag Data directly into your music files. Once it has completed, you can close out of the program, and then drop your music files into iTunes, and everything will be correctly categorised and ready to play.

mb4

How to listen to 80’s Hairband’s Music and other Internet Radio Stations 24 Hours a day – Part One – On The Go

The Webernets0 comment

I just love the internet radio station 181FM 80’s Hairbands. I love all of those glam rock bands like Poison, Motley Crue and Bon Jovi. I find myself listening to it daily, and in a variety of places. It occured to me that not everybody is aware of internet radio, and the plethora of cool music that is available to you, so I thought I would put together a tutorial on how you can listen to any of the thousands of internet radio stations anywhere, 24 hours a day, and we’ll use 80’s Hairbands as an example.

Part 1 – If you want to listen in your car, or through your head phones on the go, your phone is the best bet. Navigate to the App store for your phone (I’m using iPhone for this tutorial, but Tune In has a Free app for Android, Palm, Blackberry and Windows phones as well – see HERE) and search for the FREE Tune In Radio App.

Once you have downloaded and installed the app, open it and press “Browse” down the bottom.

In the search bar that appears at the top, type “80’s Hairband”

181FM 80’s Hairband Station should be the first one, so click it, and it should start playing. With in seconds of pressing it for this tutorial, I was listening to Malmsteen….SWEET HUH!

At this point it is important to make the station a favorite, so each time you want to listen, you dont have to go through the whole searching routine. To make it a Favorite, press the “Heart” in the top right corner, and then press “Add 181fm 80’s Hairbands to Favorites”.

Another station I also recommend is the Hard Drivin Radio Networks “Big 80’s Metal“

 

How to listen to 80′s Hairband’s Music and other Internet Radio Stations 24 Hours a day – Part Two – At Work

The Webernets0 comment

In PART 1, we looked at how to listen to internet radio (specifically 181FM 80’s Hairband Station) on the go. In this part, we will look at two ways to listen at the office on your computer with a web browser, assuming your computer has sound capabilities. The quickest and easiest way to listen is to simply navigate to www.181.fm.

Once there, you will find a list of ALL of their cool stations down the left hand side. There’s SO much good music to listen to there. But if its Glam your looking for,  Just navigate down to “80’s Hairband”, and click it. A new window will open with a player in it, and it should start playing immediately.

Another way to listen to internet radio through your web browser is to go to Tunein.com, and in this case, again, we will search for “80’s Hairband” in the search bar at the top.

Once 181FM 80’s Hairbands appears, click it to open a new window which contains a player, and even the album art for the songs it is playing.