Tim Banks » Personal

First post from WordPress on the iPhone

timbanks — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:33:29 +0000

I have had the WordPress app on my iPhone for months and never actually opened it up. I decided that today would actually be a good day to check it out since I am planning on making a post about the new HDR photo feature in iOS 4.1.

I have found the app to be a little sluggish when changing views and saving information. I would rather it show some sort of message instead of just hanging.

Below I am just testing out the ability to and images and such.

Testing the iOS 4.1 HD video upload to YouTube

timbanks — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:12:25 +0000

Today Apple released iOS 4.1 for the iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G. One of the noted features was HD video upload to YouTube. I have uploaded a couple videos to YouTube in the past and the quality was far from desired. After the installation I took a quick 20 second video of the view from my porch outside. I selected the option to upload to YouTube and let the phone go to work.

The upload process was actually pretty quick. The video is was 6.8 Mb and it took about a minute or 2 to upload. As soon as it was uploaded it was viewable online which was pretty nice. Below you will find the video that I uploaded.

The first thing I noticed was that the 720p option was not available to select. The phone can apparently support up to 720p recording so I am confused as to why it didn’t upload in 720p. Other than that the video turned out pretty good. I think this might be a nice feature to actually use in the future.

UPDATE: It looks like the 720p option is now available. It must take a little extra time for some processing to happen on the server. This is exactly what I was looking for when Apple first announced the ability to upload straight to YouTube.

Ridiculous RAM Requirement when signing up for DSL Service

timbanks — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:58:00 +0000

I was recently trying to find the best price for internet service in my area and came across a question asking me how much RAM my computer has. I was surprised by the options in the dropdown.

32MB, really?

Luckily I had at least the minimum requirements.

Changing the battery in my 2004 Infiniti G35 6MT

timbanks — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:48:00 +0000

I recently replaced my battery in my 2004 Infiniti G35 6MT and found the lack of instructions annoying so I am posting the steps I took to replace the battery. I hope this helps others that either don’t live next to an Infiniti dealer or just want to do it themselves (I fall into both categories). Any image can be clicked on the get a larger version.

Step 1

Remove the rubber lining around the battery cover that is closest to the windshield

Remove the rubber lining from the edge of the cover

Step 2

Remove the pins from the battery cover using a flathead screw driver. These should pop out rather easily. There should be 5 that you have to remove.

The 5 holes where there are pins to remove

Use a flathead screwdriver to remove the pins

Step 3

Remove the battery terminals from the battery using either a wrench or a socket. The negative cord should be easy to move out of the way, but the positive cord was a little tougher since it had some extra hardware on it.

The negative terminal has been removed and moved to the side

Preparing to remove the positive terminal

Step 4

Unplug the two plugs from the bottom of the positive cord in order to maneuver it out of the way a little better. Using a flatehead screwdriver push in on the little bracket that is holding each plug in place.

Push the clip in to remove the plug

The first plug has been removed

Both plugs have been removed and the main terminal is moved to the side

Step 5

Unbolt the crossbar holding the battery in place. I only unbolted the end that is clearly visible and then unhooked the other end by twisting it around until it came unhooked.

Unbolt the crossbar holding the battery in place

Step 6

Remove the battery. This can be tricky since there is very little clearance. You may need to bend the plastic covering a little in order to have enough room to get it out.

Very little clearance to move the battery out

Now that you have the battery out, you should be able to reverse the steps to put everything back together. Back in step 1 when you are replacing the pins, make sure to slide the pin up a little before pressing it into the hole. The image below should help out.

Keep the "disc" of the pin around the middle when you insert it into the hole

After I got everything hooked back up I fired up the car and I was back on the road.