Pinwire.comSci & Tech | Pinwire.com

Dubious printer ‘Yellow Dot’ tracking

Tom McGuire — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:45:17 +0000

While bouncing around the web this morning, I was reminded how glad I am to have the freedom of browsing the web without the restrictions that some companies or countries are all to eager to throttle and control or modify the content you see. I made my weekly visit to TED.com ...

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Onclick Show Hide JavaScript with Timer

Tom McGuire — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:49:14 +0000

I was recently adding a new ‘feature’ to Pinwire with the intention of increasing donations to the site. My goal was to guilt people into clicking a donation button when instead, they may rather click a download button, and then after a few harmless requests, present them with the ‘real’ ...

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Texas Mason Flag Wallpaper

Tom McGuire — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:51:05 +0000

You may have seen the proposed credit card image that I worked on at Grand Communication this year in Waco Texas. Well this is a slight spin on that one. Mainly it’s missing all of the credit card placement items. It was high time that I made a Texas Mason wallpaper ...

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DJ Level 90 Live Dubstep Performance

Tom McGuire — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:48:29 +0000

Probably the best example of what a DJ could do at a show if they had the skills like this guy does. I always assumed that Dubstep was more of a mixing of completed sound clips and wub wub’s with some additional tracks and sounds and then gently blended live. Someone should ...

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Gear oil failures in windturbines

Tom McGuire — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:07:57 +0000

Here are some photos of what happens when transmission failures occur in windturbines. To date no gear oil has been invented to withstand the pressures produced within these transmissions. Most recently, the government gave Dow-Corning a big grant to work on it. Previously, many others had tried and failed. Read more about

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Emulate Droid or iPhone Browsers

Tom McGuire — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:59:01 +0000

This screen cast video example shows you how to install the Firefox add-on as well as extending its functionality by adding several dozen more browser user agent strings by importing an XML file into the UserAgent switcher Add-on. This Firefox plugin is also nice for testing how your website and ...

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WordPress Password Field Validator

Tom McGuire — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:48:49 +0000

I recently hit a wall with the Contact Form 7 plug in for WordPress. I needed to do something that the plug in is unable to do at this point. It is assumed that you have some clue what I’m talking about and are not afraid of getting ...

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Firefox surpasses Internet Explorer

Pinwire — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:27:33 +0000

Some time ago I added Google Analytics to Pinwire.com as well as all of our other web properties and I haven’t looked into it in some time. I ‘set it and forgot’ it. Now, this morning I took a look at the statistics finally and was surprised to find, among ...

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Cardboard Warriors

Tom McGuire — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:51:22 +0000

While this short has plenty of explosions and blood, the editing and lack of urgency are over shadowed by the audio and effects. Overall I feel it was well executed. Good use of ‘Shaky Cam’ and simulated recoil on the various weapons. I think I’ll start building my very own ...

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IPB Portal as Forum home page

Tom McGuire — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:11:58 +0000

If you ever find yourself in dire need of a commercial forum or bulletin board system you choices may be limited. If you need an open source or Free forum script you can always head over to OpenSourceCMS.com and browse the one’s listed there. The best thing is ...

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Why it’s important to use your own paths

Tom McGuire — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:07:57 +0000

I always watch my server logs for any suspicious behavior. And as usual, at least several times an hour, I see some poor ignorant script-kiddie poking at me trying to find some way to exploit my cluster. In this instance the attacker was looking for an installation of ...

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WordPress Popularity Contest Plugin Woes

Tom McGuire — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:00:57 +0000

This may seem completely out of the blue for most of you but I wanted to record this online so other WordPress users could find out how to apply this little fix. If you happen to use WordPress with the Popularity Contest plug-in you may notice that there is a percentage ...

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Terminator Re-Animated in Berlin

Tom McGuire — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:23:07 +0000

Ok, so this is a straight up image dump. I know I could probably take some time and comment on each image but I think the entertaining nature of them will allow you to fill in the blanks. Who knew that a Terminator (T-101) made a side trip to Berlin. This ...

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Word Smart Quotes and Pinwire Don’t Mix

Pinwire — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:42:23 +0000

By default, Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation marks ( ‘ or ” ) to curly (smart or typographer’s) quotes as you type. This is fine if you are only authoring your works for applications not relating to article marketing. When smart quotes are converted to HTML, the quotes are ...

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Google is blocking my IP from searches!

Tom McGuire — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:40:03 +0000

The strangest thing happened last night. I sat down to do some research on Black Hat SEO techniques. I was looking into if there were some Adsense CSS hacks or if anyone had ever come up with a way to use CSS to replace the Google JavaScript after it was ...

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Fun with Tilt Shift Maker

Tom McGuire — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:19:03 +0000

When I first saw what a Tilt Shift lens can do I wanted one! Then I saw the price tag. Canon makes several Tilt-Shift lenses. But where could I buy a cheap tiltshift? The wait is over. Now you can transform any photo into one that looks like it ...

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EveryDNS Webhop Tutorial

Tom McGuire — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:49:09 +0000

Have you ever wondered how to configure a domain so that it jumps to another? Well in this short tutorial we’ll show you how to do it using the free service EveryDNS.net. Hello again. This time we are going to do a demonstration on how to configure a Webhop domain at ...

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Make a sleeve for your Pen Mill or Barrel Trimmer

Tom McGuire — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:03:51 +0000

I finally decided to make an El Grande pen and quickly realized that I didn’t have any ‘perfect’ way to trim the barrel so that I could ensure a square fit after I assembled the pen. The first one I made looked pretty nice but the fittings had gaps between ...

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Rex Rod Photo Retouch

Tom McGuire — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:56:47 +0000

Quite often I am asked to do photo retouching for various friends and family members. Recently I did a touch up on a photo of a car belonging to my uncle Rex. I thought it may be nice to share the before and after for you to see. Here’s a quick ...

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Dell XPS G2 Laptop Teardown and Repair

Tom McGuire — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:43:50 +0000

My Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 laptop finally kicked the bucket but fortunately I had a warranty in place so I was able to get the parts to replace it. I made a little video and then also took some photos of the teardown as the repair tech did his thing. The ...

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Funny Access Point names

Tom McGuire — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:41:20 +0000

I was out and about today looking for a nice place to work on my WEP / WPA password encryption / decryption and found myself at Romes Pizza right next to Scooters Coffee on the corner of Parmer and 45 (620). Anyway. I opened up my wireless ...

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Modifying my User Agent to add access log spam!

Tom McGuire — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:03:01 +0000

As I was browsing around the interweb’s I stumbled across some website activity logs which showed browser User Agents as well as other non personally identifying information and I looked at it for a few minutes and saw the various web browsers that people are using and also their referring ...

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Wacom Vista slowdown

Tom McGuire — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:00:30 +0000

Wacom Woes! I recently installed Windows Vista and I noticed it was sluggish. So I continued with the installation of drivers and one of the first pieces of software I installed were the Wacom tablet drivers for my Intuos 3. I immediately noticed that when I tried to resize an open ...

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Rainbow Clouds over Texas

Tom McGuire — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:43:15 +0000

When I went outside tonight I looked up at the early evening sky and saw something interesting. Right before my eyes was this massive cloud to the west which was capped with brightly colored rainbow fluff! I snapped some photos and created this HDRI image which I feel shows the colors of ...

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BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It’s Spooky

Tom McGuire — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:33:06 +0000

Boston Dynamics keeps working on their BigDog quadruped robot, which will probably grow to be the future Star Wars AT-AT of the Pentagon. Its evolution since the last time we saw it is nothing sort of mindblowing, and a bit spooky. It looks like an actual biological quadruped. Seeing it climb ...

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Panorama of our backyard

Tom McGuire — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:22:14 +0000

In case you missed it, this is a panorama of our backyard to date. I watned to get a pano made before it get’s landscaped so that I can track the progress much like we have done with the house.Place your mouse over the image and click + drag. That ’should’ cause the ...

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I turned a pen!

Tom McGuire — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:10:50 +0000

I finally achieved one of my goals which was to be able to produce my own fine writing instruments. It has taken several years of preperation and lot’s of help from various family members to affoard the hardware to do it. The result is that I can finally make pens! The ...

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You might be a Game Artist IF…..

Tom McGuire — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:57:18 +0000

I dug this out of an old email that I got way back in the year 2000 from one of my buddies at Blizzard. If you think all professional athletes are “gay” because they slap each others butts. You think football is for “fags”. You spend a lot of time sitting ...

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How to make the Levels the Two Towers Way

Tom McGuire — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:12:57 +0000

I found this article through some obscure Google search a few months ago and felt that it may be useful for some of my friends in the game development industry. It is a description of the workflow that EA used for their Two Towers game. Overview Design the levels on graph paper Block ...

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Mia’s Sonogram – 37 weeks 3 days

Tom McGuire — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:48:05 +0000

New Sonogram of Mia’s face – 37 weeks & 3 days Currently estimated to be 7 lbs 0 oz. Profile of Mia’s Head Read more about Mia’s Sonogram – 37 weeks 3 days at Pinwire.com

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Garmin door to door

Tom McGuire — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:45:40 +0000

Most of you know by now that we have moved to Austin Texas. We drove Big Red (our Isuzu Rodeo) and used this Garmin Nuvi 350 to navigate. Here is a photo of the Garmin which shows our trip information from door to door. I’m not exactly sure how we were able ...

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Spam just got easier to fight!

Tom McGuire — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:25:22 +0000

I recently came across two website email services that are noteworthy. I think if you ponder the use of them you will think they are noteworthy also and possibly worth making a favorite. They are of course related to spam, the email not the food, and we all hate spam. I often ...

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Great panoramas of Paris France

Tom McGuire — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:41:27 +0000

I’ve been meaning to get these five panorama photographs of Paris up on Pinwire.com for a few years now and am finally getting around to posting them. They are pretty large and may take some time to download. I would be interested in knowing the locations where these were taken just ...

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Download Canon Software!

Tom McGuire — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:51:56 +0000

So, I started looking around for my disc which contained the software for my (Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera) Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera and I just can’t find it. So, how on earth would I get the software for the camera if Canon only offers the ‘Upgrade’ version on ...

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Footings timelapse movie.

Tom McGuire — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:51:54 +0000

We have officially started the construction of our house. In this short time lapse video, which takes place over about a 2 hour period, you can see the process of pouring the footings for the foundation. It’s basically a large solid concrete wall which they will later pour a slab ...

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Gathering For Gardner Paper Dragon

Tom McGuire — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:46:50 +0000

This is a wonderful optical illusion. This little dragon is made out of paper – you simply cut it out and stick it together, and stand it on a table or window ledge. But when you move around, the dragon’s head seems to follow you around the room. Have a ...

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What is HDRi?

Tom McGuire — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:06:41 +0000

High Dynamic Range or better known as HDR, has been a concept that seems to be so very misunderstood. Hundreds of web pages with 2D and 3D designers trying to understand and justify this paradigm shift that will change the way they think about photography and lighting in general. HDR is ...

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Best Image Resizer EVER!

Tom McGuire — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:42:45 +0000

This is a video presentation on content aware image resizing. It demonstrates a software application that resizes images in such a way that the content of the image is preserved intelligently. Wouldn’t it be great for this to be integrated into the next version of Photoshop! This unique algorithm developed by

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Your water bottle is killing you!

Tom McGuire — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:18:50 +0000

Here is more evidence of what I’ve been saying and coming to understand is a real threat to the health of everyone. I’m going to make a few statements that are opinion and may not necessarily be fact, but hopefully will illustrate what I am thinking. Here’s a little history of ...

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Mia sonogram video!

Tom McGuire — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:23:56 +0000

Introducing the all new McGuire 2007 model Mia! She’s a spry 8″ little lady and full of energy and cabable of acrobatics the likes of which you have never seen before! Enjoy the sonogram images from the ultrasound and enjoy the short action packed video! -Kiwe Mia sonogram video! at Pinwire.com

Convert your TiVo files to MPEG

Tom McGuire — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:05:32 +0000

Often I see something on TV and I record part of it using one of our several TiVo’s. I’m sure you guys do the same thing. So, here is a way to get that short video clip from your TiVo to your PC and converted for archiving. The resulting video ...

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Camping and Geocaching with a view

Tom McGuire — Sun, 20 May 2007 13:35:32 +0000

We went camping at Wheeler Gorge in Oaji California a few weeks ago and I completely forgot about these photos I took. We decided to take BigRed (Isuzu Rodeo) out for a spin and perhaps pick up a few Geocaches on the way. I didn’t use a tripod for these photos so ...

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DeskSlide for your desktop wallpaper!

Tom McGuire — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:40:18 +0000

DeskSlide is a utility for automating the wallpaper change on your desktop. It replaces your boring desktop wallpaper, also called background image, automatically at intervals of your choice, with your beautiful digital images. After installing Windows Vista and spending time clicking around through the factory wallpapers I decided that I wanted ...

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VMWare – OSX – CentOS – WinXP Mashup!

Tom McGuire — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:04:30 +0000

For those of you who don’t already know this, VMWare is a program that will make a virtual computer, or virtual machine. Meaning it will allow you to install an operating system onto your computer which is separate from your current operating system. I’ve been playing around with different OS’s for ...

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Configure FreeBSD as guest OS

Tom McGuire — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:18:39 +0000

I have been setting up several FreeBSD 6 guest OS’ using VMWare so that I can emulate a cluster that I am building. So here is a demo of how to configure VMWare. I’ll have another one coming soon which deals with setting up FreeBSD as the guest OS. Read more ...

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Hard Drives and Servers oh my!

Pinwire — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:06:07 +0000

After a long wait new parts are starting to arrive for my new project. Today my hard drives arrived via UPS. Sweet. My first batch of server’s have arrived. There are a few more parts on the way. This is what AMD processors look like when they come directly from the manufacturer. I will ...

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A little game for you

Pinwire — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:40:10 +0000

The rules are simple: Click and drag the red block, avoiding all of the blue blocks and the border for as long as you can. >> Play The Game << A friend of ours got a Wii and it came ...

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Styling your GPSBabel HTML Export

Tom McGuire — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:15:15 +0000

If you’re like me then you may want the output of your GPSBabel conversion to look a little more pretty than the default file. Fortunately this can be taken care of with a stylesheet. When you’re converting several hundred waypoints the default layout without any styles applied can be very ...

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Outside of our place

Tom McGuire — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:02:23 +0000

I was playing around today with some panorama software and found it very easy to put this together. Total time was less than 3 minutes and another few minutes to publish to the web. One tip for ya. You must use a tripod if you want to have your panorama turn ...

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How to share your Lightroom with other computers!

Tom McGuire — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 13:08:21 +0000

I have a few people that work on our photo library and it became very clear very quickly that with RawShooter getting farther away from reach that some workflow work-arounds would need to be addressed yesterday. So, I took things into my own hands and came up with a little short-time ...

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