Are you looking for the magic button in Google Chrome that will allow you to send the webpage you are looking at to a friend?

There isn’t one.

So lets make it in a few quick, simple, steps!

1) Open Chrome and Right Click on any bookmark you have across the top of your browser.

2) Click on Add Page

For NAME:
eMail Link

For URL:
javascript:location.href=’mailto:?SUBJECT=’+document.title+’&BODY=’+escape(location.href);

3) Save it!

Now when you need to share the latest Geek Fill posting or awesome Craft Beer discovery – just click “eMail Link!”

Getting a Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font error message? Let’s fix it!

If you have a form on a your WordPress website and are trying to prevent spammers  from flooding your site with deals on  – well, you know the kinds of deals they promote, get yourself a “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart” or a CAPTCHA.  You are undoubtedly familiar with CAPTCHA codes. They look like this:

Personally I’m a big fan of MM Forms so I’ll use that plug-in as my example but the theory is the same no matter what you use.

Easy enough to set-up: download it and FTP into your WordPress PLUGINS directory just like you have done for other plugins. I’ll use Filezilla in my examples. Its a great, FREE FTP program.

But do you do if you load your webpage and you get the dreaded “Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font…” error message? Well you could Google it – but the results are uglyyyyyy. Hopefully I can save you some gray hairs. Here we go:

The directions for MM Forms read:

1. Upload whole mm-forms-community folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Make following directories writable (chmod 777) /exports/ and /captcha/tmp /upload

Ok Wait . . CHMOD???

Its simple: “The chmod command (abbreviated from change mode) is a Unix command that lets a programmer tell the system how much (or little) access it should permit to a file. It changes the file system modes of files and directories.” Basically, you don’t want people visiting your website to just drill into any folder on your server and be able to run commands, upload files etc.

1. FTP into your website
2. Go to the folder you need to change (or check) permissions on.
3. Right Click on it.
4. In Filezilla the command to select is “FILE PERMISSIONS” – If you are using a different FTP program look for similar message.

And Ta-Da! Changing from the default of 755 to 777 is as easy as checking two boxes!

OK Done! Everything works, right? Oh wait a minute . ..  you load the webpage and get Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font in . . . error?

Usually this is caused by the permissions being wrong, the font files not being uploaded all the way or the font files being corrupted. Not OK. Let’s fix it!

Try this . .

1. Find the folder inside the the plugin you are setting up what has the actual font files in it. In our case, its in wp-content/plugins/mm-forms/captcha/gentium
2. Delete the .TTF and .VFB files. You’ll notice they are quite large compared to the other files in that directory:
   

And now for Trick #1.

99.9% of the time your FTP program is set to automatically decide how to transfer the files from your computer to the the server. 99.9% of the time you never have to change this setting. Welcome to the .1% of the time when you do.

In Filezilla, Select TRANSFER –> TRANSFER TYPE –> BINARY

Don’t worry about why for, or who what – Just select BINARY.

Trick #2 – upload the TTF and VFB files one at a time. Trust me.

Upload one, wait for it to finish (it will take longer than normal) and then check the filesize to make sure the whole file got to the server.

I repeat: check the filesize to make sure the whole file got to the server.

Repeat for your remaining files.

Cross your fingers.

Reload your webpage.

Sigh in relief. The dreaded Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font in . . . beast is no more!

And don’t forget to change your transfer mode back to AUTOMATIC!

Problem solved? All I ask for is Beer and Books. Beer and Books. (Kindle versions preferred)

Cheers!

If you have a jailbroken iPhone that is running the 3.0 and want to add MMS capability to it read on!

Start by connecting your iPhone to your PC and closing iTunes

Next, download this file: ATT_US-5.5 and save it to your desktop

Nowwe need to get to a command prompt.

• In Windows XP choose START – RUN – and type CMD the hit enter
• In Windows Vista chose START and in the “Start Search” box type CMD and hit enter

Now you have a Command Prompt window open like this:

Type the following string EXACTLY as show and hit Enter:

“C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1

If you get an error, you didn’t type it in exactly as shown above. If You hit Enter and iTunes opens – you didn’t type it in exactly as shown above.

Open iTunes manually

Select the iPhone you want to add MMS capabilty to. You can use the same computer to update several phones. I did both mine and my wife’s on my laptop.

Now press the SHIFT key and click UPDATE (Notice that I have not updated my phone to version 3.1)

In the bottom right-hand corner of the dialogue box is a drop-down box. Change it from “Ipod/IPhone Software (*.ipsw)” to “iPhone Carrier Configuration Files (*.ipcc)”

If you don’t have the ability to select “iPhone Carrier Configuration Files (*.ipcc)” then you missed something above. Most likely you didn’t enter the command correctly.

Select the file you download earlier (ATT_US-5.5) and you will see the progress bar zip by as the change is applied.

Reboot your iPhone:

• Hold down the Home button (that’s the big button in the lower front) and the Sleep / Wake button (that’s the little button on the top right) down.
• Keep holding until you see the screen go black and then the Apple logo appear.

Once the phone has rebooted go to your messaging and select a contact to send a message to.

You will see the camera icon is now available:

Tap the camera icon, take a picture or choose an existing one . . .

YOU Sir or Ma’am, are ready to send MMS messages on OS 3.0!

If you are running a WordPress website and have noticed that Firefox crashes whenever you try to add an image – here is the solution.

Just Disable Google Gears.

Go to Tools > Add-Ons, select Gears and ‘Disable’ it.

Fixed.

Sometimes when you want to upload photographs to online services or self-maintained systems like WordPress you may find yourself in the position of needing to reduce the file-size of the images. After all, your 8 mega-pixel camera takes pictures that are just that – around 8MB sometimes!

There are several programs you can use to reduce the file size of your images but if you have Microsoft Outlook installed then you have everything you need!

Here is a super-fast and easy way to reduce those image file sizes using Microsoft Outlook.

1 ) Put the original image files in one folder on your desktop.

2 ) Create another folder that will hold the set we will make. Lets name them “Start” and “Finish”

3 ) Open the “Start” Folder, and select all the images in that folder.

- Highlight them all, or select one and then CNTRL-A to select all, etc.

4 ) While all of the files are selected, Right Click and SEND TO –> MAIL RECIPIENT

5 ) The “Send Pictures via E-Mail” prompt will open. Choose “MAKE ALL MY PICTURES SMALLER”

6 ) Select the size you want, I usually use LARGE and I find this to be plenty of compression.

- In Vista the option for picture size appears as another window.
- In XP click the SHOW MORE OPTIONS link and the pop-up window will expand.

7 ) Give your computer a few seconds to work its magic. The more files you are reducing, the longer it will take. I have done over 100 at a time before – no problem.

8 ) An email message will appear with all of the reduced size files in the attachments area.

9 ) Select one of the attachments, hit CNTRL-A to select them all, and save them to the FINISH folder you created.

- You can also click once on one of the files, then right click and choose SELECT ALL
- Once all of the files are selected you can drag and drop them into the FINISH folder or cut and paste – whatever is easier for you!

Now you have a folder of images that are usually less than 100KB instead of 4-8 (or higher!) MB a piece.

How easy was that!

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by their users. You won’t find editors at Digg — YOU are the editor and decide what gets added or “Dugg.”

How do they do this? Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by people like you. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.

Take a Quick Tour of Digg if you have never used it before. I highly recommend creating an account so the website will remember your custom settings. If you are regular Digg visitor you probably check it every hour and know what’s going on in the virtual as well as the brick-and-mortar world well before your neighbor.

Here is a super-easy way to Tweet on Twitter what you Dugg on Digg.

Twiggit is an automated service that lets your friends on twitter know what articles you digg. Simply visit their website and sign up.

You only need to provide your Digg username, your twitter name and password and an email address.

Once you have done that, everytime you visit Digg and Digg and article, Twiggit will update your Twitter status with a link to the article.

And hey Twitter-folk! How about trying out the Tweet This feature for this post!

For many people the default setting in the Outlook calendar of 30 minutes time increments is not granular enough. For some, a 15 minute schedule is more useful. But the problem people run into with Outlook 2007 is trying to print showing 15 minute increments!

Need to print your schedule in 15 minute blocks? I’ll show you how in less than 2:

First off, lets make sure your Outlook calendar is showing the 15 minute day.

Open your calendar, select DAY or WEEK

Right click on the time bar to the left like this:

Select 15 Minute from the menu. Now you can see your daily schedule in the time increment of your choice. OK, lets get to the printing part.

In your Outlook Calendar select FILE –> PRINT and for the sake of this tutorial we’ll select a Daily Style – BUT WAIT! We need to DEFINE STYLES.. So click on DEFINE STYLES..

Then, let’s select Daily Style and choose EDIT like so:

And here comes the magic - reduce the time in the Print From – Print To range to 8 hours. For example, 9am to 5pm:

That’s it! That’s what you have been pulling out your hair over!

You can play around with other settings (I like really small fonts in my calendars) to customize the look and feel of your printouts. But just to show it really works, I present to you, an Outlook 15 minute day print preview:

Seems I’m free on the 17th . . .

Every once-in-a-while a tip come along that makes you say “Huh! I didn’t know you could do that!” This is one of those tips.

Did you know you can display non-consecutive days in your Microsoft Outlook calendar view? You can. Here’s how easy it is:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Switch to Calendar view
3. Click any day in the small calendar view on the left in the Navigation pane.
   (No Navigation Pane? View–>Navigation Pane –> Normal)
4. You will now see just the day you selected in the main calendar window

Now hang on Cowboys and Girls – Hold down the ALT key and click 2 or 3 or more days like this:

Holy Smokes! Look at the main window now – It’s the 3rd, 17th and 22nd – all in one window:

This will also work if you are viewing multiple calendars! Extremely handy when you want to see what everyone is doing next Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday . . . Or what you are doing for the next 3 Mondays and Fridays . . .Etc!

Play with it – you can select an entire week with random days attached . . . What do you think?!

I have already addressed how to update your Facebook status from Twitter, but in the comments I was asked if you could do the opposite – update Twitter from Facebook. Yes You can!

There is a Facebook application called fb2twitter that will automate the process. The application is not fool-proof but it commands a pretty decent user feedback rating. Read up on the user comments if you have any issues.

Here’s another way to do it:

Log into Facebook.

Click this link: http://www.new.facebook.com/minifeed.php?filter=11

You should get a page that looks like this:

On the bottom right-hand side you will see Subscribe to these Stories:

You want to save the address under My Status. That’s the RSS feed information we are going to give to TwitterFeed. So right click on My Status and copy the URL or click My Status and save the URL address from your browser.

Mine looks like this:

http://www.new.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=709745864&viewer=709745864&key=6673382bb3&format=rss20

Now head over to TwitterFeed and create an account or login (I just used my Google account information to sign in.).

Once signed in to TwitterFeed, create a new feed and you’ll get this screen:

Username and Password? Whatever you use to log into Twitter.

RSS Feed URL? That’s the address we got from Facebook.

Update Frequency? 20 minutes? 60 minutes? How often do you update Facebook?

Prefix each tweet with? Maybe “Via Facebook” or just leave it blank!

So you are officially addicted to Facebook and are ready to start your own “1,000,000 Sigs To Show How Awesome I Am” group.

Several people friends have emailed me asking how they can create their own group in facebook – I live to serve.

Advanced Facebook User? Want the Lightening-Fast Way To Create A Group? Just Click Here – Otherwise:

• Log in to facebook
• In the bottom left-hand corner is the Applications button – click it and select GROUPS

WHAT? You don’t have the Groups application? Ok, pump those breaks – let install it.

• Click the applications button and a menu will appear
• At the top of the menu select Find More
• There is a Search Applications box on the top right – type GROUPS and hit Enter
• You should see Groups come up in the top slot:

Click on it and ADD the Application.

Ok, back on track now? Were was I . .

• In the bottom left-hand corner is the Applications button – click it and select GROUPS
• Top right – Create A New Group:

And I’m going to leave you there! Follow the rest of the directions and you’re on your way to sharing pictures of kittens or masterpieces of Victorian Literature – whatever it is you fancy – with like-minded facebookers.