Yovav (Jay) Meydad's Personal Blog

I have recently migrated my feedburner account to use a Google account. As a result the RSS feed url has changed to:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/jaymeydad

If you are a subscriber please make sure to update your RSS reader with this new address, and if you are not, you might want to give it a try and subscribe to it. For an unlimited time, it is free.

By default, Microsoft Entourage automatically adds a signature at the very bottom of an email thread. I reply to dozens of emails every day and for a long time I used to cut the signature from the bottom and paste it to the correct place.

You might ask yourself how come I kept doing this. Very simple, I just could not find the right setting under the Preferences pane that would change the behavior. There is also no setting related to the positioning of the signature under the “Signatures”window to address this.

I finally found the time and did some online research and was able find the answer. I figured others could benefit from this tip as well. So, here it is. To get Entourage automatically add the signature at the top of the reply/forward, make sure you have the setting as in the screenshot below.

Alternatively, you could upgrade to Outlook which is a much better email client for Mac and is part of the new Office 2011, or use a webmail like Gmail.

Update (1/26/2010):
There is a new iPhone app that eliminates the need to configure FStream. Read about it here.

Original post starts here:

This tip is mainly for Israelis and other Hebrew speakers who live abroad or just travel and want to listen to Israeli radio stations on their iPhone while on the go. Getting this done is pretty simple:

1. Install the free FStream application on your iPhone via the AppStore

2. Open FStream and set up your favorite stations. You can do it on the iPhone or you could use a web interface which makes the input process quicker (see instructions under the More -> Web Management tab inside FStream)

3. Last thing, make sure to turn on the “Cellular Network” option otherwise the application will only work when you are iPhone is connected to a wifi hotspot.

I have collected urls for some of the popular Israeli stations streams:

• 88fm – mms://s67wm.castup.net/990310006-52.wmv
• Galgaltz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/gglz
• Galatz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/glz-stream
• Reshet Gimel – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310004-52.wmv
• Reshet Bet – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310001-52.wmv
• Radio Tel Aviv 102fm – http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?clipmediaid=30795

Update (3/1/2009, thanks to Tal Barnea):

• Galgaltz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/gglz.asx
• Galatz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/glz.asx

I have found many other urls on different websites but those were broken. The streams above were tested and as of today (1/30/2009) (3/1/2009) are working.

If you know of other stations’ streams, feel free to add in the comments section.

Update (11/28/2009): I posted an updated list & more stations here.

I still come accross iPhone users that don’t consider jailbreaking their iPhone because “they can find all the apps they need in the AppStore” or “jailbreaking could break my iPhone”.

The truth is that Jailbreaking has become a very simple process thanks to application like QuickPwn (available for Mac & Windows). Once you do it, your iPhone becomes a much more powerful and customizable device than what AppStore applications offer.

Here are 10 good reasons, meaning applications that can only be found on Cydia (the “AppStore”/installer for jailbroken devices):

• QuickGold – the quickest way to call or email someone and launch applications. Much like Quicksilver for Mac OS.
• BossPrefs – the quickest way to change settings such as Wifi, Bluetooth, Brightness and others.
• Copy & Paste – Clippy or the hClipboard (more powerful than Clippy but not suitable for users with more than one keyboard)
• Snapture – full featured advanced camera
• Cycorder – video recorder with real-time compression
• MxTube – download YouTube videos
• Backgrounder – keep applications running in the background while using others (very useful for IM or a Twitter app like TwitterFon)
• iCallBR – delete individual entries from the recent calls history
• OpenSSH – access the file system so you could get videos off the device after downloading them using MxTube or recording using Cycorder
• HebDev – full Hebrew support for the iPhone and iPod Touch, free of charge.

These were only ten and I am sure there are many others that are listed under the different sections within Cydia. Feel free to leave recommendations for apps in the comments section.

Screen capture is a utility that I use daily. Ever since I switched from a PC to a Mac I was looking for one that has the same features as SnagIt, which is the best screen capture utility for a PC.

I tried many screen capture utilities for Mac OS. None of them support all four requirements which I consider to be a must:

• Capture multiple region types: selection (most important), full screen & window while providing a clear preview of the captured area
• Save in different file formats including PNG
• Capture video
• Fast and easy to use image editor, built into the screen capturing utility (no need to copy image to another application), that allows me to add basic elements like arrows, boxes and text to the captured image. I use this often to do quick and dirty mockups, report bugs and just take visual memos of stuff I see on the web

What I have found is that most utilities for the Mac support the first 2 requirements, a few also support the 3rd (Video) but very few support the last one (image editor) which is what I find to be the killer feature of a good capturing utility.

Until I discovered Jing, a freeware that has it all and more (like a one click upload of the captured image to Flickr).

BTW, it was created by TechSmith, the same company behind SnagIt — these folks clearly understand screen capturing.

You can download it for free here.

P.S.

PC users – You are not forgotten. Jing has a Windows version as well.

I was checking the new LinkedIn search feature earlier today and noticed that the results displayed once you start typing inside the people search box were covered by the 300×250 flash ad.

This issue exists on many web sites where Flash objects appear in the front, and cover dynamic HTML content. One example are pages that have embedded YouTube videos as well as Snap Shots that appear as a layer under the video player instead in front of it .

To solve this issue, you don’t need to be a Flash development guru. All you should do is make sure the Flash object (ad, embedded video player, etc.) has a transparent background. Depending on whether you are using the OBJECT or EMBED tag:

• Add the following parameter to the OBJECT tag: <param name="wmode" value="transparent">
• Add the following parameter to the EMBED tag: wmode="transparent"

Once you change your code, you should not see an issue similar to the one below.

Jason finally jailbreaked his iPhone and asked me yesterday for a list of recommended applications he should install. Instead of sending the list to him via email, I am posting it for everyone’s benefit.

I have plenty of applications installed, but the ones I use most are:

• Twinkle – an awesome twitter client with seamless camera & geo-location integration 
• TuneWiki – song lyrics displayed while songs are playing
• Capture – taking screenshots has not be so easy
• iLog – a rich call log util (make sure also to install the Call History Patch to increase the number of entries)
• Snapture – a better camera applications with zooming, color adjustments and more
• iPark – I am terrible at remembering parking spots
• Hebrew fonts & keyboard (by Hebrew 4 iPhone) 
• Fring – both as an aggregate IM client but mainly for Voip calls over Wifi
• and lots of games that my kids love to tryout, including Tap Tap Revolution (Guitar Hero using your fingers)

In case you are interested in the complete list, you can find it below. Putting it together was simple. I used Capture to take screenshots of the “Uninstall” tab. This way you can see all the applications installed, including those that don’t create an icon on the dock. You can also see the category each application belongs to, so you can easily find them under the “Install” tab.

Feel free to recommend more using the comments section. Enjoy.

No one can blame me that I am anti-Apple. I own more Apple products than Microsoft. I have 2 ipods, an iPhone, a Mac Mini in our house’s living room, I have some AAPL shares in my portfolio and recently I put my hands on a MacBook Pro. I thought that after 15 years or so on a PC, the time has come to fully migrate.

I’ve installed plenty of utils (thank you versiontracker.com). I’ve learned by heart tens of shortcuts. I’ve even got used to looking for the [x] button on the top left corner. But, after two weeks on a Mac as my primary work machine I have to admit that I still find it very difficult to get used to the fact that some basic applications, such that I have been using every day, are missing or partially available on a Mac, and that there is no good alternative. In many cases, I feel 50% less productive than I used to be on a PC.

Here are a few examples — in case you have answers or suggestions to some of these issues, please leave  them in the comments section:

1. Entourage is a terrible email client compared to Outlook. Plenty of basic features are missing (I don’t know where to begin…). It is also very slow and feels like Outlook Express v 2.0 to me.

2. Spotlight cannot index my Outlook PST files. From what I have been reading, the only way to overcome this issue is to import the PST files into Entourage. But then I would end up with a huge and slow inbox. Am I missing some hidden plug-in or am I expected to give up years of email archive?

3. MS Office in general, and PowerPoint in particular, for Mac is bad, really bad. On Powerpoint for example, If you need to edit/open/edit presentations made on PowerPoint you are in serious trouble. Fonts do no render properly, print is almost impossible and the overall experience is really slow. Yes, I have Keynote installed and it is amazing, but when you are part of a company that has a majority of PC users, I have no choice but using Office.

4. I need to have ability to run IE7 (or my favorite Maxthon). There are many sites that are not compatible with FF and Safari (at least Israeli ones). Also, my job requires me to look at everything we develop at Snap on all three browsers, especially the one with the largest market share. A side note: seems to me that Microsoft made a big mistake when it announced that it is not going to support IE for Mac OS any more.

5. My favorite desktop blogging client, MS Live Writer, does not have a Mac version. Anyone has suggestions for a really good alternative for Mac?

I know what some might say–just install Parallel and Windows on the Mac and use the PC apps that you like. But then I would work on Windows most of the day. Besides, what is the point. I could buy an apple sticker and stick it in the center of the cover of my IBM Thinkpad…

Several readers and friends have asked me for tips and suggestions on how they can improve their blog or how to start  a blog. I thought it would make sense to list what powers this blog.

• Hosting service – I host this domain on BlueHost.com were I get much more that what I used to get from my previous crappy provider. I get more space (disk space, # of domains, email accounts etc), better tools, good CS support and a good price.

• Blogging platform - I use WordPress.org (self hosted). In my opinion this open source blogging platform is the best. It keeps evolving, improving and it provides a large variety of themes and plug-ins which extends ever further the platform’s capabilities. I have tried using other platforms such as Typepad, Vox, Blogger and the hosted WordPress.com and none come close to the capabilities of a self hosted WordPress.org blog.

• WordPress Plug-ins - One of the great things about WordPress is the variety of themes and plug-ins. The control panel inside WordPress makes it very easy to activate/deactivate plug-ins or switch themes. Here are the ones that are currently installed:
  • SnapShots – The product I am very proud to be one of its creators, provides a better user experience and an entirely new source of ad inventory for every web site owners.
  • Akisment – eliminate blog comments spam
  • WordPress Blog stats
  • All In One SEO pack
  • iWPhone – A plug-in that automatically reformats your blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone.
  • AddThis – social bookmarking & sharing made easy
  • WordPress Database backup
  • Current theme installed is ISM – this might change in the future

• Other Sidebar widgets
  • Lijit – Search tools for a blog
  • MyBlogLog
  • Feedburner for content syndication (don’t forget to offer a “Subscribe By Email” option)
  • Site Analytics done by Google Analytics, SiteMeter with help from Lijit and MyBlogLog (all services show different stats for some reason…)

• Desktop blogging application – Windows Live Writer makes blogging very easy. I wrote in the past a detailed post, followed by another one, about it.

I hope it helps those who are currently blogging or about to start blogging.

I have noticed that one of the most popular sources of traffic to my blog is actually Google Images. Not surprisingly, users all over the world are searching for a David Beckham photo and they end up looking at my attempt to be a paparazzi.

I know it has been written in every basic SEO guide but I will repeat it again for those who might have forgotten. You can always use a "professional SEO software" that will do a lot of the work for you, or you can simply remember to set ALT text and a meaningful file name for images you post. That itself will do a lot.