Chris Pirillo » wireless-network

How to Turn Your PSP into a Wireless Digital Photo Frame

coupons — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:51:51 +0000

How to Turn Your PSP into a Wireless Digital Photo Frame is a post from Chris Pirillo

This is Firebucket’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:

If you have an old PSP lying around, don’t know what to do with it and you have an absence of photo frames, this might just be able to solve your problem.

If you have a Flickr account and a few pictures (or even hundreds), you can set-up so your PSP grabs those pictures from your account using an RSS feed and then play them in a slideshow.

So, here’s what you need:

A Sony PlayStation Portable with the latest firmware (recommended but NOT vital)
A Flickr account (www.flickr.com) with at least a few pictures to get you started.
Wi-Fi Connection in your home/office or wherever you are.
FeedBurner Account (www.feedburner.com)

Let’s get started, shall we?

Open your Flickr account, and tag some pictures with a unique name (like ‘pspfeed’) and take the RSS feed of that tag (You > Your Tags > Select the Tag > and then click Latest at the bottom of the page, next to geoFeed and KML).
Obviously, if you look in your address bar, you’ve got one HUGE address. Now, you could obviously use TinyURL, but FeedBurner is much better when it comes to a) shortening RSS feeds and b) managing them, so we’ll use that method. So, head over to FeedBurner and sign up; don’t worry – it’s free.
When you get to the ‘My Feeds’ page, copy and paste that RSS feed URL we took from Flickr earlier, and paste it into the ‘Burn a feed right now’ option, and click Next. Give your Feed a Name and a shortened URL (Example: Feed Title: My PSP Flickr Feed, URL: feeds.feedburner.com/mypspfeed). Click Activate Feed, and remember the RSS Feed URL you just ‘burned’ using FeedBurner.
Time to get the PSP configured. Make sure you have Wi-Fi all setup and enabled on your PSP (I’m not going to explain this because it varies upon your network, a simple Google search may be able to help you, though). Navigate to the web browser, and open up the address bar. Enter in the RSS Feed URL we made earlier, using FeedBurner, and open it. It will then prompt you to add this to the PSP’s own collection of RSS feeds, so you don’t have to type in the address every time you want to open the slideshow of photos. Exit the web browser and navigate to RSS Channel, and select the feed you just added.

Voila! The pictures that you tagged SHOULD be there, playing in a slideshow. I believe this also works with videos, and if you use a service that allows you to do this (take an RSS feed and place it into your PSP), you should really give it a shot. Hey! Why not even cover up the rest of the PSP (with something, but I have no idea what), and leave the screen showing, so people aren’t put off by the rest of the PSP.

You can avoid the entire wireless setup, and just throw some photos onto a memory card and load that up, like a traditional digital photo frame.

Installing the Time Capsule for Time Machine

Chris — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:28:14 +0000

Installing the Time Capsule for Time Machine is a post from Chris Pirillo

As I was stepping through the process of mounting the disc into the Time Capsule as a Network disc, I realized I had two settings that may have caused a conflict. I reset everything to the factory settings. The second time through, it warned me. The first warning asked me if I really wanted to configure it over WAN. More importantly, it warned me that I was assigning DHCP, when something else was already doing so. THAT is the kind of error checking I am talking about. It’s not an “oopsie” at all. It could have been… but this error reporting saved the day. I am overly impressed that this actually worked. It’s just… WOW. The Wow has finally started. *wink*

Setup is easy. All you need to do is plug all of the appropriate cables in for your network and then plug in the Time Capsule’s power cord. There’s no power switch, so it comes right on. A screen pops up when you insert the Time Capsule’s CD, and from there you click on the Time Capsule icon to install the update to your Mac’s AirPort Utility. The AirPort Utility serves as the primary software interface for the Time Capsule. Most of the software setup is easy, but a few screens might puzzle you if you’re not that network savvy.

One feature Time Capsule offers is the ability to add more storage via its USB port. We connected a simple USB flash drive (the “NO NAME” volume in the shot below), and it popped up almost instantly on the Time Capsule’s devices screen. The only stipulation is that you have to enter the Time Capsule’s password, which you establish during setup, before it will allow you to access the new drive.

More than just a wireless hard drive, Time Capsule is also a full-featured AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n technology. Experience a high-speed wireless network and a breakthrough way to back up all the Mac computers on your network. All in one device. Time Capsule uses the 802.11n draft 2.0 specification, so you can rest assured that it works with certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products. And it’s compatible with Macs and PCs that use 802.11a, b, or g technologies, as well as wireless devices such as iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV. Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily.

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Apple Time Capsule Unboxing

Chris — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:56:15 +0000

Apple Time Capsule Unboxing is a post from Chris Pirillo

I’m excited about my new Time Capsule. I’ve been through a lot of problems over the years when it comes to hardware and wireless networking. So let’s get this thing opened, and give it a whirl!

Backing up is something we all know we should do, but often don’t. And while disaster is a great motivator, now it doesn’t have to be. Because with Time Capsule, the nagging need to back up has been replaced by automatic, constant protection. And even better, it all happens wirelessly, saving everything important, including your sanity. Time Capsule includes a wireless 500GB or 1TB hard drive1 designed to work with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. Just set Time Capsule as the designated backup drive for Time Machine, and that’s it. Depending on how much data you have, your initial backup with Time Capsule could take overnight or longer. After it completes, only changed files are backed up — automatically, wirelessly, and in the background. So you never have to worry about backing up again.

Have multiple Macs in your house? Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Leopard-based Mac on your wireless network. No longer do you have to attach an external drive to each Mac every time you want to back up. Time Capsule spares you the work. Time Capsule is your one place for backing up everything. Its massive 500GB or 1TB server-grade hard drive gives you all the capacity and safety you need. So whether you have 250 songs or 250,000 songs to back up, room is the last thing you’ll run out of. And considering all that storage and protection come packaged in a high-speed Wi-Fi base station starting at $299, data isn’t the only thing you’re saving.

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My Linksys Router Problems

Chris — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:18:09 +0000

My Linksys Router Problems is a post from Chris Pirillo

It’s been so difficult to get back into the swing of things (really, this is the reason why I hate leaving home for extended periods of time). I’m taking care of tasks, one at a time – and realize I’ve fallen a bit behind.

What I didn’t need last night was my Linksys Wireless N Gigabit Security Router with VPN (WRVS4400N) dying on me. It’s pretty much a brick through no fault of my own. I plug ‘er in, possibly watch the lights dance, then witness her fade to black. That’s if the LEDs illuminate on power up in the first place. The hardware is hosed.

I purchased the router at CompUSA under the “All Sales Final” banner. Great! I’m not so sure I’m ready to turn around and get the same model now, given that it is likely to fail on me just as quickly. I haven’t gone through traditional Linksys support channels because at this point, it’s just as easy to replace it with something that works.

I’m taking any kind of serious recommendations for an equivalent replacement. This device had excellent configuration options, and quite a solid wireless range with the stock firmware.

MAC Address Vendor Identification

Chris — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:06:10 +0000

MAC Address Vendor Identification is a post from Chris Pirillo

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – I recently purchased a new router… a Wireless N. I now have better signal, and my network is certainly flowing faster. I was looking at my router the other day, and saw that I had an unknown MAC address there. What?? Thankfully, I know how to discover the identity.

A MAC address is the short term for a Media Access Control address. Every device has one. It’s an identifier, so to speak. It is a number that acts like a name for a particular network adapter, so, for example, the network cards in two different computers will have different names, or MAC addresses, as would an Ethernet adapter and a wireless adapter in the same computer, and as would multiple network cards in a router.

Luckily, I knew there are websites that can help you figure out what the heck a particular MAC address belongs to. So, I copied down the MAC addy, and off I went to coffer.com. I typed in the MAC addy and voila! The site told me what vendor (manufacturer) this particular MAC address came from. Hmmm. Microsoft? What the…. ohhhhh, right! The XBOX360! Ponzi turned it on the other day and used it to watch a DVD. Therefore, it connected to the network. I went down and check the XBOX, and yep. That’s the offending device.

You can also spoof a MAC address if need be. Years ago I had a different ISP who only allowed one device on the network to access the internet. They knew I had no other choice, as I told them right up front. I manually spoofed my other MAC addresses to make them appear to be the same as the original computer. That way, everything on my network could still access the Internet. Being a home office kind of guy, I didn’t have much choice!

Be sure to stop by and visit us crazy people in the chat room, or drop me an email. I love hanging out with everyone, and I love to read your emails!

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

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