Geo-tagging photos on OSX with Picasa

Previously, quite a few times now, I've blogged about my woes with geo-tagging photos and getting them uploaded to Picasaweb with geo data in tact.

Well with Picasa 3.05 on OSX, importing recognises the geo-tag, and, sound of trumpets blowing... uploads intact to Picasaweb!

It looks to me like the little cross-hairs symbol in the lower right of a thumbnail indicates geo-tag. Click on the thumbnail in Picasa, then do apple-I (get info) and you see the geo-tag:


In Picasaweb after the photo is uploaded

Connect to hotspots using iPass on iPod Touch

Now that I have an iPass account, and I got it working on my MacBook, next challenge was getting it going on the iPod, then I can listen to music and catch up on the news.

The basic process is the same as for using iPass on OSX, except that for the iPod client there's no domain field. So this time the fields look like

UserName: domain.com/username
Password: what the IT guys gave you

Some times you get your credentials in the form of an email address and password so this forms the basis of what you do.

After you've put in your credentials in iPass, save them.


Then go to the wireless control preference and connect to the hotspot

Go back to iPass, press 'Login' and after a few seconds you should be good to go. You'll know you're in if it says 'synchronising data'.

Connect to hotspots using iPass on OSX

Well finally I've got connecting to hotspots using iPass on OSX working. We have a corporate account with iPass, and I installed the software. After much much trial and error, I got some settings that work. Hurray! Now I can use the Internet while mobile and it doesn't cost as much as 3G, especially abroad.

Whe you install the sofware put in your credentials as shown, or, if you get it wrong or need to check something, you can see them from System Preferences.

UserName: domain.com/username
Password: what the ITs guys gave you
Domain: domain.com

Some times you get your credentials in the form of an email address and password eg

user@domain.com

so use those bits as your credentials. Sample screenshot above.

Now, click on the fan symbol on the menu bar, and select a hotspot. In the example below I use MOBILE which is Swisscom.


What should happen is that the iPass client should kick on and log you on. Sometimes this doesn't happen, so if it doesn't, go back to the airport fan, turn airport off, count to ten, and turn back on again.

UPDATE: Sometimes iPass doesn't connect at all and just seems to go to sleep. If this happens, you may need to quit the iPass application, and relaunch it. It doesn't have a 'quit' button, so what you can do is use Activity Monitor, click on iPass and press 'Quit Process'.


Then go to System Preferences, click on iPassConnect and it should re-launch.

Enable root on Android including Cupcake using OSX

Howto enable root on Android including Cupcake.

You need a tool called ADB - Android Debug Bridge

1. get the SDK from Google from here
2. expand the zip and copy it someone handy. I chose /Applications/Android/SDK/sdk_1.5r1
3. turn on USB Debugging - go to settings>applications>development

Connect your Android by USB to your Mac and type the following:

/applications/android/sdk_1.5r1/tools/adb shell

gets you a command prompt '#'

# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
# cd /system/bin
# cat sh > su
# chmod 4755 su
# exit

and unplug the USB.