Recently, I dusted off an old SIM card to use in an old phone and found that it still had a SIM PIN on it. This wasn’t a big deal as I knew the PIN to unlock but having to put in two codes (one to unlock the PIN and another to unlock the phone) …
May 2013 archive
May 30 2013
Handy SQL Code Snippets
I admit that I can be a bit lazy with my SQL coding and sometimes I do borrow handy snippets to get the job done. I should probably have memorised some of these or at least turned them into functions that can be called when required but I’ve not managed that yet (on the list …
May 29 2013
A Faster Way to Google Now
If you’ve got a smartphone or tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or higher you should have access to Google Now which is Google’s response to Siri on the iOS platform. It’s pretty neat with its voice recognition and speech capabilities as well as anticipating your data requirements by showing you information cards after learning …
May 28 2013
Fitbit Dashboard Receives Metro Styling
A while back I wrote about how Fitbit developed a Metro app for Windows 8/RT which, in my opinion, did a fantastic job of aligning with the design language whilst still retaining the Fitbit identity. I think it is a great way to check my Fitbit stats without having to fire up and login to …
May 27 2013
Update – DisplayLink DL-195 USB DVI Adapter
Well, I did promise an unboxing for this gadget when it arrived but unfortunately it didn’t arrive in a box – just in a padded envelope. Furthermore, it has been promptly put to use at work after my new 27″ LCD monitor arrived (awesome!). Installation was fairly easy on my work issued Lenovo T520 as …
May 26 2013
Free Windows 8 User Guide
I remember back in the day of DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 you’d get chunky paper manual to learn about virtually every single bit of functionality. The vast majority of box heft would be due to the manual whilst the floppy disks would be a fraction of the overall weight. However, as the years have …
May 25 2013
Just Leave Legacy Hardware Alone or Replace It
I learnt this the hard way this week despite being the person who had previously fixed it. There is a reason why hardware is upgraded every so often particularly when newer interfaces supplant older ones (i.e. USB replacing those old COM and LPT/parallel/printer ports). These interfaces can often provide a higher level of compatibility and …
May 24 2013
Disqus Dampening Discussion
A while back I wrote about the issues I experienced migrating blog comments into Disqus – it took roughly a week for the process to finish. Unfortunately, that was beyond the 24 – 48 hour window estimated by Disqus due to a high volume of traffic. In fact, the status page still has the same delay notification …
May 23 2013
Incoming Gadget – Asus Google Nexus 7
Yes, I know – I already have a tablet in the form of a Microsoft Surface Windows RT tablet but in order to test out some of the integration features of some new Panasonic products coming my way (particularly the television, tough camera and 3D camcorder) I required either an iOS or Android device. I already …
May 22 2013
Quickly Minimise All But One Window
Here’s a quick tip for Windows users. You might rarely require this tip but it’s a feature in more recent versions of Windows that could come in handy one day. If you want to minimise all but one particular window you don’t have to go through each and every window and click the minimise button. …
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