What an awesome Internet application! IKEA created a site that responds to sound. When it "hears" sound, the characters move. When there's a rest in the song, they stop moving and revert backwards. Use their songs, or upload your own MP3.

http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/comeintothecloset2/site/default.html

I know it's only Wednesday, but I need to share some humor. I haven't been impressed with our local Apple Store, but here's proof that while they may not be geniuses, they are definitely courteous sales people. Unfortunately I can't embed this video, but it's worth the click:

The Geniuses at your local Apple Store are trained to be some of the most confident and unflappable retail employees in the biz, but how far can you push it? Can you order a pizza in an Apple Store? Can you take your wife on a date to one? Can you get your iPhone repaired dressed as Darth Vader? Can you bring your pet goat into the store? 

Comedian Mark Malkoff set to find out, and the answers are embedded in the video on this page...

http://www.cultofmac.com/how-far-can-you-push-apple-store-geniuses-before-you-get-kicked-out-pretty-far-humor/106147

Eric Butler announced the release of a new application this week, designed to expose the vulnerability of open WIFI networks. Unfortunately, his application simply makes it all that much easier for hackers and hacker-wannabes to steal your identity.

Firesheep is an extension for Firefox, the leading open source web browser. Using Firesheep, a hacker logs onto a wireless network, like one you'd find at Starbucks or Barnes&Noble. The hacker runs Firesheep and can see that you are on the same WIFI network, posting an update on Facebook. He double-clicks your name and is instanty logged into Facebook as you. He now has access to your private information, can change your password, and can post obscene status updates to your Facebook wall as if he was you. Not good.

This affects any site that uses "cookies" (pretty much any site you log into), and does not use HTTPS (SSL). This includes Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and many more. Note that while many sites may use the https:// connection to log you into the site, once in the information is transmitted by standard http:// protocol. That means that while your password was encrypted (secure) when you logged in, your cookies are still floating through the wireless network every time you click, just waiting for a hacker to grab and abuse them.

Please note this does not apply only to laptops. This is for any device you access websites with, such as iPods and iPads and even cell phones if you're connecting via WIFI. It also applies to apps such as Twitter and Facebook update apps.

The circus is coming to town! I logged on to their website and had so much fun, I forgot I was looking for their tour dates. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey site is an excellent example of making the site match the topic. When you log on to their site, you feel like you're at the circus. They use multimedia, both sound and video, effectively. The sound is there only to compliment the site; it raises excitement, but isn't annoying. That's pretty unique for a site that uses audio! And their video of the FUNundrum Show actually made me wish it would go longer. I'm an impatient person, and it's rare that I want a video to last longer than it is, I typically close them before they're over.

The site is a full, fun place to explore. My only critique is that I was so focused on what was happening in the main "ring," I didn't notice the side and bottom navigation bars at first and nearly missed a good part of the site. But I suppose that's a good thing, to have your audience so enthralled by the content they miss the sidebars?

http://www.ringling.com

We are pleased to announce that Reeves Digital Development now has BBB accreditation! Please see our review on the Better Business Bureau site by clicking the image below.

I'm still having fun with my iPad, but it's a frustrating learning curve. Understand my background, I've been on computers since I was 10, when my Hewlett-Packard engineer started me on BASIC programming. I've used computers when they had a little built-in black and green screen, Macs back when they were known as a Macintosh, every version of Windows since 3.11, and most recently my iMac. The iPad is yet again different from all of the above.

First, you don't have access to your filesystem (e.g., directories, folders, or for mac users Finder). You can't just save a file, then drag and drop it over to your desktop to use it. You have to carefully choose which app you're going to create in, and make sure that app will allow you to do with your creation what you desire. Most apps will save your file to a standard format such as PDF and let you email your file, some upload to Twitter or Facebook, but you are restricted by the app in what you can do with your file. Want to name your file? Not an option. Files are supposed to be mysteriously saved without you ever having to know anything about them such as what they're called or where they are located.

You may have heard that you can "sync" your files with iTunes. True, but it's not what I expected. In general, if you're going to transfer a file between a desktop and the iPad, you have to use iTunes. This means 1) your file must be in a format that iTunes recognizes, and 2) it is only placed where iTunes can access it. The upcoming release of iOS4 for the iPad in November may (?) change this, but for now, syncing means you can transfer iTunes files, and that's it.

Furthermore, syncing does behave the way I expected. When I plug in my iPad to my iMac, up pops iTunes, prompting the syncing. I go through and select what I want to sync, click "sync," and it appears to. However, anything that was not selected to sync, well, it doesn't ignore those items (for instance, books, music, videos, tv shows, etc.). If it's not selected when syncing, it's not interpreted as "ignore those items," but rather as, "I don't want those items on my iPad any more so delete them all."  What??? No, by not selecting to sync my iBooks, I meant they were fine as they were so don't waste your time or mine syncing them. Isn't that logical? Nope, iTunes thinks it means I don't want them at all, so they're gone. Thankfully the backup copy is still on my iMac, so I can waste my time at a later date putting them all back on my iPad. But in the meantime, they are no longer on my iPad.

I finally caved, a victim of really good marketing by Apple, and I decided that I desperately needed an iPad. Honestly? It was pure lust and greed. My husband has the iPod Touch, several colleagues have iPhones and iPads, and I just couldn't help myself. I bought it for the entertainment factor, with hopes that I could actually get some work on it while waiting for my kids at their various after-school activities. The entertainment factor works, as far as I've tried it. So far it's just been music (by the way, you play your music on the iPad with the "iPod" icon, not the "iTunes" icon) and books. You can read any standard epub book format in iBooks, and you'll find a good variety of free e-books at openlibrary.org and manybooks.net. I also installed the free ABC Player and can successfully watch tv episodes on it - the iPad has impressive clarity!

Something to understand about the iPad is it's not your typical mobile computer. It's more of a consumption toy, not a producing tool. The key is really in the apps you can get for it from the Apple App Store. While iPhone and iPod have tons of applications, really the iPad doesn't have the selection I expected or hoped for.

What has really disappointed me is the reliability and accuracy of the third-party apps. So far I've only downloaded 6 free apps and bought 3. I've done a lot of research on these apps, and read a lot of reviews. Again, the problem is the user base isn't out there, so there aren't always a lot of reviews or ratings available on these apps. The 6 free ones have been exactly what I expected, and I've been pleased with them. 2 of the 3 I paid for blatantly lied and misled me in what they have written on their App Store description. Why they haven't been pulled "off the shelves" I do not know. More on these in days to come, but heed the warning, Buyer Beware. They lie, and they get away with it, making money off the buyer's ignorance and trust.

Ok, iPads are very fun. This is being written on an iPad. Stay tuned for more about what the iPad does and doesn't do...

This information was sent to me by a colleague:

Rosetta is a program that converts older Power PC Mac commands to work with Snow Leopard on the new iMac's. It is also used with some other older applications but I installed it so we could import images from Renie's Epson 1600 scanner directly to Photoshop. That's the only use I had for it. Well, installing it is a mistake! Although it did work for the scanner, we found Photoshop became unstable and frequently crashed.

It turns out you can't uninstall Rosetta once it is installed so I spent the better part of a day on the Apple forum trying to figure out how to fix it. Someone from Apple finally sent me a terminal script that would disable it so I finally have it fixed but wanted to let you know so you wouldn't install it in the future. You probably won't need it but apparently it is used by some 3rd party plug-in's as well as TWAIN utilities for CS4.

FYI, without Rosetta you can still scan to a file on the desktop then open it in Photoshop so there is a work around for not using Rosetta in this application.

---

For enabling or disabling  Rosetta, access the Terminal application: Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Use the “Terminal” command to:
 
Disable:

sudo sysctl -w  kern.exec.archhandler.powerpc=/usr/libexec/oah/RosettaNonGrata

Enable:

sudo sysctl -w  kern.exec.archhandler.powerpc=/usr/libexec/oah/translate

Credit: Scripts from Marion Driscoll on the Apple Forum.

I love Skype, because it makes it easy and fun to keep in touch with my husband when he travels. It's especially great for my kids, because we can all see and hear their daddy for the whole conversation, and we can talk as long as we want for free. Needless to say, I was really upset when I just updated to Skype 2.8 and it told me I can't use it at home anymore on my iMac, which is the only computer (and mobile device) that I have that plays audio and video properly.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but I have a solution. The error produced by Skype stated that Skype does not work with private WIFI networks; specifically my home network could not be accessed because it is private and secure.  Huh? It has something to do with security, Skype on mobile devices, and wanting to make money. Not exactly sure how it all goes together, but it was enough to make me rather irate.

If you use Time Machine for backups, here's how you can get it working again. Drag the current Skype application to the trash. After deleting it, there are still random Skype files on your computer. Using Finder, look at your Hard Drive under Library > Preferences, and also Library > Application Support. Delete any files that have "skype" in them. Then do the same thing in the same two folders under your Users account. Using Time Machine, go back to a time before you updated to Skype 2.8. Click on Applications in the Finder window to locate Skype. Select the file and click Restore in the lower right corner. 

My "About Skype" window still says it's running 2.8, but the application also prompted me for updates, so I'm not sure if it's the current or the older version. That 2.8 makes me think there must still be another file on the computer I missed when I was cleaning up. Whatever. I can now connect to my home network wirelessly, and hopefully you can too.