Turning a $35 Raspberry Pi Into a Weekend Media Server
A weekend spent turning a $35 Raspberry Pi into a living room media box with Raspbmc, including the power supply mistake that cost me an entire evening.
Tutorials
Tutorials
Backing Up My Instagram Photos This Week
Instagram's confusing new terms of service scared half the internet this week, so I finally got around to backing up three years of photos with Instaport - here's how it went.
Two Days Into Windows 8 and I Still Can't Find Anything
I paid the $39.99 and spent Friday night upgrading my aging ThinkPad to Windows 8. Two days in, here's what actually happened once the install finished.
I Tried Every Map App Tim Cook Told Us To Use
The day Tim Cook apologized for Apple Maps, I spent an afternoon actually testing the four alternative apps his letter told everyone to download.
Google Drive vs Dropbox: Early Thoughts
Google Drive's been out for a couple months now. I've been using it alongside Dropbox to see what actually sticks. Here's what I'm finding.
Setting Up the Raspberry Pi That Took Three Months to Arrive
A walkthrough of finally getting my long-delayed Raspberry Pi board up and running, from imaging the SD card to first boot, including the power supply mistake nobody warns you about.
Optimizing Images for the Web (So Your Site Doesn't Take Forever to Load)
A practical rundown of picking the right image format, actually compressing your files, and other basic tricks to keep your page weight down for visitors still on slow connections.
Git Branches, Without Losing Your Mind
A follow-up to the basic Git post from a couple months back — this time covering branches: creating them, merging them, deleting them, and a simple workflow that actually keeps master clean.
Regex for People Who Keep Copy-Pasting It Off Forums
A no-nonsense intro to regular expressions for beginners, with two patterns you'll actually use: trimming whitespace and validating an email address.
Getting Started with CSS Media Queries
A hands-on walkthrough of CSS media queries and basic responsive breakpoints, prompted by rebuilding this blog's layout after testing it on an iPhone 4S and a new Kindle Fire.
Setting Up a Cron Job to Automate Your Backups
A walkthrough of setting up a cron job on a Linux server to automate a nightly backup script, including the gotchas around cron's stripped-down environment and silent failures.
JavaScript Closures, With Actual Examples
A practical look at JavaScript closures using two real examples: a private click counter and the classic loop-variable bug that trips up almost everyone at some point.