~ Ezra Moore ~

I was browsing lifehacker the other day and came across this little gem. Let me get this out of the way: I really don’t see a purpose to all this. With that said; who cares?! Font Capture is a nifty site that allows you to download a PDF template that amounts to a font drafting sheet, complete with drawing guidelines etc., that you then scan and upload back to the site, once you have drawn a representation of each letter in your own handwriting. What this ultimately amounts to, is a font based on your own personal handwriting. Free for your use. Give it a shot, and don’t be afraid to let me know what you would use it for in the comments.

First of all, lets get passed the ‘I knows.’

I know that GV is in Beta.

I know they just re-released the service.

I know they’ve been spending all their time on the Android/WM/iPhone apps.

and last but not least I know how much credibility is given to someone who whines about free services, but…

Where is my Google Voice application for desktop machine (Macs, Windows PCs, Linux)?

Ohh never mind, you are being abused by the FCC today.
My bad…

… instead of paying $100 for Microsoft’s USB adapter.

In this post you will learn how to use your Mac as a wifi bridge for your Xbox 360. You might consider doing this if your router is not in the same location as your Xbox 360.

What you will need:

• Your Mac.
• Your Xbox 360.
• A crossover Ethernet cable.

1. Open the Network Preferences pane from the System Preferences main window.
2. Ensure that Airport is above Ethernet in the list of network connections on the left. If it is not, click the gear (or settings) icon beneath the network connections box and select ‘Set Service Order.’ Click on Airport and drag it above Ethernet. Click OK.
3. Select the Ethernet connection from the left. From the drop down box labeled ‘Configure,’ select ‘Manually.’
   In IP Address: type ’10.10.10.2′
   In Subnet Mask: type ’255.255.255.0′
   Skip the box labeled Router for the time being.
   In DNS Server: type 208.67.222.222 (which is the openDNS nameserver, in case you were wondering).
   Leave the Search Domain box blank.
   Leave the window open.
4. Open a Terminal window. Terminal is located in ~/Applications/Utilities/, or you could simply do a Spotlight (CMD + Space) search for it.
   In the Terminal command line type ‘ifconfig eth0′.
   After typing that command the second line returned should start with the word ‘inet’ immediately followed by an IP address. Write that address down. Close the terminal window.
5. Return to the Network preference pane, in system preferences. 
   In Router type the ‘inet’ IP address you just copied down from the terminal window.
   Click Apply.
   Click Airport from the network connections pane at the left.
   Find the IP address for your Mac on this connection under Status. Write it down.
   Click Show All at the top of the window.
6. Click on the Sharing preference pane.
   In the left hand pane find ‘Internet Sharing’ and make sure it is UNCHECKED.
   With Internet Sharing unchecked, find the ‘Share internet connection from:’ dropdown box and select ‘Airport.’
   In the ‘To computers using:’ box select ‘Ethernet.’
   Now go back to the left-hand pane and CHECK the box marked ‘Internet Sharing.’
   Quite System Preferences.
7. On the Xbox 360 start at ‘My Xbox’ blade and find settings all the way to the right.
   Select ‘Network Settings.’
   Select ‘Configure Network.’
   Select ‘IP Settings.’
   Select ‘Manual.’
   In ‘IP Address’ type ’10.10.10.3.’
   In ‘Subnet Mask’ type ’255.255.255.0′
   In ‘Gateway’ type ’10.10.10.2′
   Select Done.
   Select ‘DNS Settings.’
   In ‘Primary DNS Server’ type the IP address of your mac. This is the address you were instructed to write down from the Airport section of the Network preference pane.
   In ‘Secondary DNS Server’ type the ‘inet’ IP address from the Terminal session on your Mac.
   Plug the crossover Ethernet cable into both your Mac and your Xbox 360.
   Select Done.
8. Select ‘Test Xbox Live Connection.’
   All the tests should pass with the exception of one NAT warning on the Xbox Live Connection portion. You will be able to play games online and take advantage of Xbox Live with the warning, but this can be resolved by forwarding ports:
   TCP 80
   UDP 88
   UDP 3074
   TCP 3074
   UDP 53
   TCP 53
   one way or the other to the Mac acting as the bridge, from your router. This is different for each model of router and beyond the scope of this article.
9. You just saved $100!

Growing up is more often about taking the instructions and helpful guidance you are given as a child and turning it into a set of standards on which you can base your own adult decisions, than simply obeying a command because you were instructed to do so.

Yum! Mom and Dad brought a whole box of peaches home from Chelan. Of course, they all got ripe around the same time that I decided ice cream was a good idea. Overall it was delicious, the base was a little light, but I will have to experiment with that in depth, so here is a tentative recipe.

Ingredients:

Ice Cream Base (Standard Ben and Jerry’s Base#1)
2 – Large Eggs
3/4 Cup – Sugar
2 Cups – Heavy Cream
1 Cup – Milk

Flavor:
2 – Ripe and delicious peaches!
1 TBSP – Sugar
A few drops of vanilla extract.

Whisk eggs together for 1 – 2 minutes in a medium bowl, until fluffy. Slowly beat in ice cream base sugar. Once all the sugar has been added continue to beat the mixture for about 1 minute. Mix in heavy cream and milk.

At this point I put the mixture in the freezer and prepared the peaches.

Run hot/warm water from the tap, and rub/tear/peel the skin from the peaches. There is probably an approved method for this, but I was in a hurry. One way or the other, peel those peaches! Since our peaches were not ‘free-stone’, in other words, the pits remain attached to the flesh, even when ripe, I simply cut slabs off the fruit since it will be mashed in the end anyway.

In a bowl add the fruit and the sugar for the flavoring. Using a potato masher (or a similar, possibly more appropriate tool) I mashed the fruit into small pieces with the sugar. This allowed a lot of the juice to mix with the sugar. This is one thing I would change, I would have mashed the peaches into almost a paste, to better distribute the flavor. Add a few drops of vanilla extract and mix it all up.

Now you’ve got your two components. Follow the directions supplied by the manufacturer of your ice cream maker. For ours I started the machine, poured in the base, then the flavor, and let it run for around thirty minutes.

I hope you enjoy. I’ll see if I can get a picture of the finished product tomorrow. Feel free to leave a comment if you enjoyed the recipe.

With regard to the recent crack of Windows 7 RTM (you know, the crack for software that hasn’t been released yet?):

Kali4 on downloadsquad.com had this to say:

Did I catch that right? My favorite lumbering unweildy grotesque giant of a corporation that takes forever to do anything and forever more to do it right; just floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee? WTF Microsoft! Are you going to make me actually RAISE my expectations of you? First Win7 looks like it might actuall be a win, Bing is a decent reinvention of Live Search, and now this beautifully executed move. Next thing I know, the price of OSs are going to drop…”

Ha-Ha…