Shonari » Tutorials

Google Style Business Card

Shonari — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:04:05 +0000

So after self proclaiming myself a web designer, I decided to get a few business cards printed in order to promote my services. I did a quick web search for unique designs and found a few but none were to my liking. I then stumbledupon a Google style business card that was absolutely stunning, I then decided to make my own. I used the same Google logo font (Catull), Same colors, font size relationships, search box, search results and all that good stuff. The result was this:

I have attached the original .psd in case anyone wants to make their own. I hope you like it. Cheers

Click here to Download Google Style Business Card PSD File

How to make Homemade Rum

Shonari — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:20:30 +0000

Ever wondered how they make that magical liquid that when drunk moderately makes your night better and in excess your morning worse? Well I have and I’ve decided to concoct my own version of rum just to see if I could. And let me tell you, its the best rum I’ve ever had…Well it comes close.

It is surprisingly easy to make your own rum, with just one stop to the local grocery store and a little light Googling one day, anybody can create their own alcoholic masterpiece. Many articles on the subject will tell you that you need fancy yeast, fancy equipment and fancy setup to yield the best tasting alcohol. They’re Right. But this one will come quite close to the real thing, drinkable but not sell-able.

Ok what is Rum? Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses and sugarcane juice by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak and other barrels (Wikipedia). The last part is what imparts the traditional color and flavor to the rum, the longer its aged the deeper the color and the more pronounced is the flavor. Our rum will not be aged cause it takes to long to get to the best part of the whole thing…drinking it. But if you made a lot you can put down a few in a wooden bottle or wine cask for a couple months till the flavor is to your liking.

So our Rum consists of the following ingredients:

Distilled Water (2 litres-your standard bottled water will do)
1 pack plain old bakers yeast
1-2 lbs sugar (granulated works best)
8 ounces of Molasses

With this quantity of ingredients the yield will be roughly 500ml (2 flasks) of high alcohol content rum (I don’t have any fancy gadgets to measure the actual percentage but its tastes really strong). This list of ingredients is no way gospel so feel free to mix and match the quantities to your liking. There are some things you will have to take into consideration that i will explain later.

There are two parts to this method, the fermentation and the distillation.

Fermentation

So you take the molasses, sugar and two thirds of the water and combine them in a suitable pot. Let it warm (hot enough to keep your finger in there, no more) and mix till everything is dissolved. You can turn it off at this point.
Remove half a cup of the mixture and mix in the bakers yeast. If you start to see the mixture foaming, then we’re in business.
The bottle that the water came in should still have one third of the water remaining. Add the yeast mixture to that and lightly shake.
Add the rest of the mixture from the pot to the bottle.
Now you need to make an airlock. This is a device that keeps oxygen out but allowing the carbon dioxide that is produced from fermentation to be released. To make this all you need is a balloon.
Find a balloon that will fit snugly unto your plastic bottle. Use a pin to bore a couple holes at the top of the balloon and then fit it it securely over the plastic bottle.
Let it sit for a few days until the bubbling stops or becomes very minimal.

Now some things to note:

The yeast is the workhorse of the whole operation, its purpose is to convert the sugar into ethanol (alcohol). The molasses, although it also supplies sugar is there to provide the nutrients the yeast requires to flourish. It is is not needed but the yeast works better in a nutrient rich environment. The molasses also provides the flavor of the rum, without molasses it would not be rum.

Distillation
Distillation is basically heating the ethanol to its boiling point where its turned into a vapor, it then travels though some apparatus that cools it back into a liquid. Surprisingly, the apparatus its quite easy to make, all you need are the following.

10ft of 1/4 inch copper tubing (Hardware store)
A couple copper couplings (Hardware store)
1 old pressure cooker (Mothers cupboard)
A two gallon bucket
Waterproof sealant (preferably silicon)

So all you gotta do is this:

Find an old paint bucket and wrap the copper tubing around it to form a coil. leave enough space at one end to fit unto the pressure cooker. Its good to cut off about one foot of tubing to allow for easy assemble and storage.
Bore a hole is the side, close to the bottom of the bucket, this hole needs to be big enough to push the copper tubing through.
Connect that foot of tubing to the pressure cooker using the couplings (I used some plumbers tape to make the seal tight)
Make a 90 degree bend in the copper tubing just about 3-4 inches from where it connects to the pressure cooker
Place the copper coil into the bucket and fit the end through the hole you made and use the sealant to make the hole waterproof.
Connect the coil to the foot of copper tubing using the coupling.
Next, Add the fermented mixture to the pressure cooker and cover with lid.
Turn your stove on high and get it warm then reduce it to a medium heat. There is a temperature that ethanol boil at but don’t worry bout that too much.
Add cold water with lots of ice to the bucket containing the coil. As the ice melts keep adding more.
After a couple minutes your first few drops will be popping out of the copper tubing at the other end.
The first few drops you discard, don’t worry about that too much but i heard the first few drops are bad so discard it.
After you get about 500ml of distillate you can stop the procedure and start cleaning up. If you changed the quantity of the fermentation mixture, once the drops become infrequent you can stop distilling. The distillation takes about an hour to complete after the first drop.

Some things to note:

The first few drops are said to be methanol, a form of alcohol that’s bad for you. But the quantities produced are not enough to harm you, Orange Juice has more methanol than this mix.

If you have any leaks you can use flour glue to stop it or food grade silicon sealant, but ordinary silicon sealant will do.

The rum that is produced is clean or a very translucent shade of brown. Oh its also very strong. It will taste strongly of Molasses and kinda oily. If you want to make its a bit more like say, vodka, just distill the rum two or three more times.

After yu have graduated from this you can make you own changes to the setup and recipe. Try honey instead of sugar and some fruits to the fermenting mixture. Whatever is to your liking and produces a good flavored alcohol.

NB: The distillation is the most delicate (and dangerous) part of the whole process. Ideally, you should use industry standard equipment and safe practices. Please employ as many safety precautions as possible and be very very careful. For safe distillations methods and plans please refer to websites that have mastered the art and have perfected safe methods of home distillation. I cannot stress this enough, attempt at your own risk.

An that’s basically it…homemade rum in less than a week. I have provided a gallery of the setup and also some very useful links. Cheers and remember to drink responsibly.

Guide to make an alternate pot distill: Amazing Plastic Still Clever Method of Making Spirit

Useful link for home brewers, various quantity calculators and lots of recipes from other home brewers: homedistiller.org

Making Marijuana Brownies

Shonari — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:21:53 +0000

Now i know many people hate the idea of smoking with all the talk of emphysema, cancer and the other health hazards of inhaling smoke. But its kinda hard to kick the habit with hardly any other safe and just as potent methods of getting high. Well I’m here to give you the easiest and ultimate recipe for making pot brownies.

Ingredients

One Brownie mix

3/4 Cups Oil

2 Eggs

A bag of Marijuana (Roughly 4-8 grams depending on strength required)

1/4 Cup of Water (Optional)

Directions

Step One: Grind up the Marijuana and add to a pot of the 2/3 cup of oil. Mix mixture while over a very low heat for 15 minutes. The Mixture should look dark brown almost burnt (You should have at least 1/2 cup of this liquid remaining. If not, top up with oil).

Strain off trash and collect the dark brown solution that remains. Don’t worry if pieces are left behind in it, you only want to remove the bigger more cumbersome pieces.

Now why oil and not water?

Well the thing we want from the Marijuana (THC) is insoluble in water but very soluble in oil, milk or any type of fat. So to get the most potent cake allow the THC to leech into the oil under a low flame.

Step 2: Follow the instructions as per the back of the brownie box/pouch.

Heat oven to 350 degrees for 9″ x 9″ pan, 325 degrees for 8 inch pan

Grease or spray with cooking spray bottom only of pan

Stir Brownie Mix, Water, Oil and Eggs until well blended.

Spread in pan, 9″ x 9″, or 8″ x 8″

Bake for 35 to 50 minutes, longer for the batter in the 8 inch pan.

Test brownies for doneness with wooden toothpick, inserted about 2
inches from edge of pan. Batter may still be a little moist, but will
be completely done by the time it cools.

Step 3:

Cut as desired and please dont skimp on the frosting…Add frosting! (frosting decreases the taste of the marijuana making it more sinister

To help you decide which method is best for you to get high, here is a list of pros and cons:

Method / Description	Pros	Cons
Smoking Burning the flowering tops and sometimes the leaves, and inhaling it into the lungs.	High is usually obtained in less than a minute because the smoke enters the bloodstream directly from the lungs	Smoking anything can cause severe medical problems, although less of the harmful materials are consumed in this method. Results will often fade after an hour or two.
Vaporization Heating marijuana to a point where it produces a vapor (a fine mist), then inhaling the vapor into the lungs. The vapor consists of the plant's cannabinoids, and is mostly free of contaminants. A vaporizer machine is usually used for this purpose.	Some people feel a greater affect than by smoking, and some use less product in this method than by smoking. Because the cannabinoids enter the blood stream directly from the lungs, The high is usually obtained in less than a minute (without the harmful toxins in the smoke).	Some people do not feel that same beneficial effects as they do from smoking; others say it uses more cannabis material than is economically feasible (for them). The vaporizer needed for this is too expensive for some. (Prices range from about $30 up to hundreds of dollars for high-tech versions. The marijuana plant material must be heated to a certain temperature to be effective, too high and the health benefits are negated.) Results will often fade after an hour or two.
Oil Cannabis flowered tops and leaves are filtered into its oils by a method using butane gas. Some patients may create a weaker oil using a "supercritical carbon dioxide extraction." The oil can then be inhaled using a pipe or vaporizer, directly added to foods or liquids, or for some conditions applied directly to the skin.	The primary benefit of this method is to convert leaf or inferior cannabis buds into a form that is safer to inhale or consume, without the tars and other plant materials inhaled when smoking. Inhalation methods (smoking or vaporization) usually take effect in less than a minute.	The extraction method uses highly flammable gases (such as butane) and can be dangerous, as well as too complicated for some people. The oil, some say, is messy and difficult to work with. Non-inhaling (eating or drinking it) often takes 30-90 minutes for the full effects to be realized. This method can be expensive to purchase or produce -- technicians say they produce "less than a gram of oil from each ounce of leaf and between 1 and 3 grams of oil from each ounce of...bud."
Tincture Cannabis flowered tops and leaves are soaked in an alcohol solution, transferring the THC and other cannabinoids to the liquid. The tincture is then used in various ways; added to foods and liquids, applied to the skin, or the patient consumes directly by drinking a small quantity or placing a few drops under the tongue (sublingual).	This method is used mostly by pain patients, who say the tinctures dull the pain without the strong psychoactive effects of other methods, because the tinctures are generally weaker in potency	This method often takes 20-30 minutes for the full effects to be realized. Many conditions do not find adequate relief from this product as it is too weak to produce some of the desired effects. The alcohol consumed in this method is undesirable to some.
Butter Cannabis flowered tops and leaves are simmered in butter (or vegetable oil) for several hours, transferring the THC and other cannabinoids to the butter. The solid plant material is then discarded. The butter, now a dark shade of green, is then used in baking such items as brownies and cakes, or added to such foods as spaghetti sauce or soup. The oily base of the butter is needed for the cannabinoids to properly adhere.	This method can create a product that delivers long results, lasting several hours. Tokers can modulate the results by eating smaller or larger portions, and can carry their 'stash' with them in public without being noticed.	This method often takes 30-90 minutes for the full effects to be realized. Proper doses are difficult to determine, and tokers often don't realize until too late that their portion is too strong or too weak. Eating too much can cause vomiting and knock you out for a couple hours.

Clone Chrome using Firefox

Shonari — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:01:31 +0000

After about three weeks of using Google’s Web Browser, Google Chrome, I have abandoned it and returned to my first and only love, Firefox. Chromes downfall for me was the lack of addons which would give it added functionality (firefox’s saving grace) and the fact that many little glitches were not worked out. But i still fell in love with Chromes distinct look and feel and its use of space. So after a little searching and hacking i finally got firefox to both look, feel and perform like Google Chrome with many of the standard Chrome Features enabled. Here is what i did:

1. First i got rid of the top main menu bar, didn’t see the purpose of it majority of the time as i rarely used the thing. To do this just download the Addon Hide Menubar and install

2.Next, I turned Firefox’s address bar into a search bar as well. It does this by default but it only shows the “I am Feeling Lucky” result of a Google search. To enable full search of words and phrases, do the following:

At Firefox address bar, enter about:config and press ENTER.
At Filter: field, type keyword.url
You should see a Preference name of keyword.URL in the list. Double click it, a “Enter String Value” input box will appear.
Replace the string with:
http://www.google.com.my/search?q=
Click “OK” button

3. Next I installed the Download Statusbar Addon. This is an excellent addon that replaces the default download window of firefox with a sleek, easy to use toolbar.

4. Then finally installed the theme Chromifox Basic. This theme mimics chromes light blue look perfectly and brings the cloning of Google Chrome to a near perfect copy.

Here is the final Product:

Some other features that could be added to make the transformation complete are:

Incognito Browsing: Stealther Addon (Now a feature of Firefx 3)

Speed Dial and Auto Dial Power Up Your Empty Tabs: Speed Dial Addon (This is now a feature of Firefox 3)

Google Chrome’s “omni bar”: Locationbar2

Prism Extension Turns Any Site into a Separate Application

Changing the Admin sending email address in WordPress

Shonari — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:08:45 +0000

This problem has been racking my brain for months. I finally stumbled upon the solution in the wee hours of the night.

Here is the problem.

Whenever someone submits a comment, sign-up as a user or does anything that requires wordpress to generate an email, the “sent from” address does not reflect the users domain name. For example, with this issue the send from address is normally “rootuser@host#.hostname.com or wordpress@domain.com“. This is the default “sent from” address.

Super Simple Solution

Add this code into your functions.php file located in your theme files:

function res_fromemail($email) {
$wpfrom = get_option(‘admin_email’);
return $wpfrom;
}

function res_fromname($email){
$wpfrom = get_option(‘blogname’);
return $wpfrom;
}

add_filter(‘wp_mail_from’, ‘res_fromemail’);
add_filter(‘wp_mail_from_name’, ‘res_fromname’);

And thats it! If you dont like simple then use the solutions below

Solution #1 (This solution came from a reader and worked perfectly):

If you use sender email as one of your domain emails, make sure you have either forwarder or mail box setup for that email. WordPress admin notifications is normally sent from wordpress@yourdomain.com and most of the time people don’t realize you have to actually make an email box or forwarder for wordpress@yourdomain.com that’s why when hostmonster checks your sender email and especially when you use yourdomain.com email and if it doesn’t exist, then hostmonster simply replace it with something like user34534@host456.hostmonster.com. Just make wordpress@yourdomain.com email or redeclare your own function wp_mail (original function can be found in wp-includes/pluggable.php) and replace $from_name = ‘WordPress’; and $from_email = ‘wordpress@’ . $sitename; with the name and email u wanna use. That’s it! Hope this helps, cause it’s annoying problem.

Example:

Replace ‘$from_name = ‘WordPress’’ With $from_name = ‘Admin’

Replace $from_email = ‘wordpress@’ . $sitename; with $from_email = ‘admin@’ . $sitename;

Remember the new email MUST be created in your cPanel. This may be an actual mailbox or a forwarder.

Here’s a second solution (Recommend solution #1).

Edit this file: /includes/class-phpmailer.php

(Please make a backup of this file!)

Go to line 75 (wp version 2.8.2) and edit what is inside the quotes to reflect the email address you wish to use.

It may say something like “user@localhost”.

And on line 88, put your email address again inside the empty quotes.

Note: This email address should have already been created in your hosts cPanel. Examples of email addresses: donotreply@domainname.com or admin@domainname.com

Save the changes and upload the file to the wp-includes folder, overwriting the existing file (you should already have a backup of the file on your computer)

And thats it! You should now have emails from your wordpress blog coming from user@domain.

Another possible solution can be found here.

How to send sms texts via email on your Blackberry

Shonari — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:17:52 +0000

Now I’m sure everyone is looking for some way to cut costs in the midst of this global recession. One way i do this is by using my unlimited Blackberry Data Service to send ‘free’ sms text to my friends and relatives. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Find out your the sms gateway for your receivers mobile network provider. Here is a list of sms gateways and their corresponding providers

For the Caribbean:

Digicel: areacode+number@digitext(countrycode).com

For example, Cayman would be: 345xxxxxxx@digitextky.com)
Jamaica: 876xxxxxxx@digitextjm.com

Cable & Wireless (Lime): areacode+number@txt2lime.com or areacode+number@cwmobile.com

Step2: Go to the email setup application from your blackberry and add an email address (if you havnt already) preferably Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. I find other private email adresses (mail@yourdomain.com), when passing through the blackberry server, pick up alot of extra garbage and as we all know sms texts have a character limit of about 160. So your original message may be truncated and replaces with alot of crap text.

Step 3: To your existing contacts, add an email address using the sms gateways provided here and in step 1

So for example, your girlfriends number (e.g. 1718-123-4567) add an email adress as 7181234567@smsgateway.com)

Step 4: Go to your blackberry “compose email” function and set your sender and reciever as stated above. In the subject put your name and in the body insert your message (please make it short, about 100 characters)

Step5: Hit send.

That’s it! Your contact should get the sms text in about a minute.

An extra step you can add is to go to your Blackberry account on the web and change you signature to tell the receiver not to reply to the number the sms text came from. Why? When an sms text arrives to a phone via email, a default number is normally seen example 555 or 444. Replying to this number will result in the loss of the message and you wont get it. So the person will have to reply using the number in their phonebook.

This is just a workaround for people on a prepaid service and dont have any credit.

If you want to create a “I know what you did last summer” anonymous sms text with no return email address or number, just go online and send email through one of the many anonymous emailers or use a disposable email address

Note2Email

Send anonymus email

Additional Notes:

If only some bored blackberry app developer would create a application utilizing this method they would make alot of people happy

How to make a Stumbleupon button in Google Chrome

Shonari — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:31:40 +0000

So you just found out about Google Chrome and you’re praising the internet gods for bringing you this browser to rescue from the perils of IE and Firefox. But then you found out about Chrome’s achilles heel, no Stumbleupon toolbar addon! I was just faced with this problem and i found a nice and easy work around. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Go to the web version of the stumbleupon toolbar by typing in the address in the address bar

Step 2: Log in with your stumbleupon username and password

Step 3: Click the star beside the address to bring up the bookbarks menu

Be sure to remove everything in the address bar AFTER http://stumbleupon.com/toolbar/Remove eveything there

Step4: Rename the boomark “Stumble!”

Step 4: Select the folder “Bookmarks bar” and hit “close”

And thats it! now you have your very own stumble! button for Google Chrome