FL Studio mobile HD App thinks you’re a pirate.

If you have FL Studio mobile HD App version 1.4 on your jailbroken iPad, you won’t be able to create or save projects due to DRM bug. As soon as you tried to do that you get redirected to a “don’t be a pirate, buy our software” page on Image Line site.  I actually purchased this App on the day it came out June 21st 2011, so it was somewhat upsetting to be treated like a pirate.

Problem was acknowledged by IL and they told me that fix has been released and awaiting approval at Apple’s App Store.

For some users of the combination FL Studio Mobile 1.4 / iOS 5.0.1 / Cydia app

-> If you have an official FL Studio Mobile registration, but still are directed here, don’t panic.
An update for FL Studio Mobile 1.4 will be available on iTunes in a few days from now.
The update will fix the reported problems for registration / save / redirection

If you haven’t switched to 1.4 yet, don’t! Wait for next version.

Electric Skateboard

Pretty neat idea!  Gives you 5-10 miles range on single charge, and has regenerative breaking.

DollyShield MX2 Controller

As promised I’m posting continuation of the DIY Camera Slider instructions, this one is about the electronics part.  As you probably already know I’m using DollyShield controller made form kit that was purchased from Dynamic Perception site.  I will give few helpful hints form my own experience as well as some modifications that you might need to make in order to get this controller working with your version of Arduino Uno.  Chris from DP site was extremely helpful with my questions, but it still took me a week to get mine working.

Site-wide issues after database migration

I’d like to issue an apology for the site readers. About 2 weeks ago I migrated all data to a new MySQL database, and while everything appears to be working normally some characters like apostrophes, quotes and other got screwed up. Haven’t noticed it until today, so I’ll try to fix it ASAP.

Update: Fixed (more or less). Thanks to this post. Solution was to comment these two lines out in wp-config.php

Update: Found a better solution. Pretty obvious, just run a query to replace weird Unicode characters with normal ones. This article has a guide on what to do, it worked better than the option that modifies wp_config.php file.
With one exception.  ‘Â’ character remains at the end of the line. I wasn’t able to find exactly what it is, it’s either EOL or New Paragraph, but this query will take care of it:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'Â', '');

Make sure you run it after you replaced all other characters like: “

iPad 2 w/ iOS 5 Jailbroken!

Finally untethered jailbreak came for my iPad 2 (iOS 5.0.1) and I rushed to installed in last Sunday.  Actually the hardest part was installing official Apple’s iOS 5.0.1, I spent hours trying to get it loaded but eventually it was done. Running “Absinthe” jailbreak tool was a breeze!  Huge respect to Chronic Dev team!!!

Wikipedia blacked-out. Protest SOPA and PIPA

As you probably aware Wikipedia has blacked-out all it’s English content today (Jan 18,2012) to protest SOPA and PIPA bills. These two are worst threat Internet freedom has seen to date. I applaud Wikipedia, Reddit and any other site that choose to protest today. And a huge fail goes out to Twitter for stating: “That’s just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish”.  I’ll just go out and say it, Twitter’s existence is meaningless waste of informational space.  Oh and Wikipedia is not a business…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

DIY motorized camera slider

(you can see video of this slider in action at the end of the article)

Idea behind it.

I built my slider based on Vimeos user “XCM” who in turn based it on Stage Zero Dolly.
Igus slider rail is main chassis holding everything together. Special platform attached to the igus carriage platform has geared motor and set of pulleys. It moves itself along HTD-5 timing belt that’s attached to the rail at each end with clamps. Whole system is driven by MX2 Dolly shield and Arduino.  It’s capable of capturing a movie while it’s moving horizontally or vertically (yes it’s that powerful) and controlling camera’s shutter for a time lapse photography.

Stock Photo: No Castle for you!

Microstock sites are making it harder and harder for photographer to submit images.  Many types of images are not allowed to be uploaded, including cars (not even drawings). Last night I got a letter from Istockphoto, notifying me that my image of Rakvere Stone-castle has been deactivated for legal reasons.

“Imagery of castles in Europe that are identifiable require a property release in order to be sold under our RF license. This includes imagery taken from within the property, castles that are the main focus, gardens and other identifiable parts.
We are sorry, we can no longer offer this file for royalty-free commercial use and have therefore deactivated it from the collection.”

Not even editorial images allowed.  However for non-european castles you can still submit images under editorial licensing.  Kind of sad to see how our civilization is loosing it’s freedom one lawyer at a time…

Cat cries tears

Recently I went on a week long vacation. My two cats were left alone with plenty of food and water, and I also was watching over them via security cameras.  This was probably the longest time they didn’t see a human being, so upon returning my cats were extremely happy. Those who say cats don’t have emotions, probably never had cats.  They can be sad and happy, angry and annoyed just like us.

However I never had any idea that cats can also cry. My oldest one (Alisa) sat near me and this is when I noticed here eyes were full of tears.  At first I thought there must be some eye irritation that’s causing this, but I couldn’t find any. She never cried before or after that time I came back home.

I looked up online and there were more reports of cats crying after being left alone for a long time.  I can’t say for sure what was the cause of Alisa crying, but I believe those were tears of tremendous joy and relive.

My little DIY was featured on Instructables front page!

I can’t believe it.  After I posted my DIY custom cable article here, I decided to post it at Instructables.com as well, and right away it was featured and then posted to the front page! Got me free Pro Membership for a year too! Wohooo! :)