Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Good to be back!


2010
02.28

If you came to this site in the last month or two you might have noticed some weird things happening.  You look at a post and then you are redirected to some random site trying to sell you something.  Turns out I got hit by a hacker targeting WordPress on Media Temple.  Almost 1/4 of all WordPress blogs on my host got hacked..lucky me!  If you are running WordPress don’t forget to keep up with security updates and keep your server perms in check.  I haven’t posted on johnarroyo.com for months because of work, but that also meant I hadn’t properly updated my WordPress installation in a while either.

If you were one of the unlucky folks who got hit with some sort of injection or other attack, check out these posts.  They’re helpful in cleaning up your site and keeping it secure.  If you didn’t get hit, be proactive with your site security!

http://ocaoimh.ie/did-your-wordpress-site-get-hacked/

http://smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com/2008/06/24/how-to-completely-clean-your-hacked-wordpress-installation/

I'm Back

BTW I hope you like the new look of the site, I changed my theme and customized it a bit…it was about time for a refresh :-)

Ogg Vorbis and FLAC in iTunes


2008
11.07

If you are using a mac or PC and want to add Vorbis (*.ogg) and FLAC (*.flac) playback to iTunes and Quicktime then these two apps are very handy. I just recently installed them and they work great. Fluke is used to add FLAC playback and XiphQT is used to add Vorbis playback. Instructions to install and use these apps are included on the Fluke and XiphQT websites.

FLAC and Vorbis are both open source compression formats. The popular mp3 and AAC (Apple) formats both have proprietary technologies in them. FLAC is popular with the classical music sect because it is a lossless format. 100% of the audio is preserved but less space is needed tp store it. Some popular artists like Brian Eno and Perl Jam have began to embrace FLAC as well. Vorbis is a lossy compression, like mp3, but it does not use propriatary technologies and some say it sounds better than mp3. For more info on these formats check out these links: FLAC, Vorbis.

Reason 4 Tips


2008
07.04

This is a good article on Reason 4 with some tips on how to take advantage of the new features and sound quality updates. I’m using 3 about to switch to 4 and found this simple article useful. Read it here.

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