March 2011 archive

Japan Quakes of March 2011

Most people would have seen or heard the news about the quakes in Japan over the last couple of days and my wife and I were certainly not expecting to be experiencing it first hand on the 35th floor of The Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. There is nothing like the sensation of a building swaying from …

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Disable Keyless Entry Before Going on Holiday

Most cars still utilise traditional turn key locks in rider to restrict access and usage but a growing number of vehicles employ the use of keyless entry mechanisms such as the Toyota Prius and certain Lexus and BMW vehicles amongst others. Such systems usually include push button locking and the ability to start the vehicle …

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Save Cash by Booking Online

Another quick tip for today. A lot of companies these days have an online presence and, in the interest or keeping down staff costs, often refer people to interact online for things such as bookings, general information, transactions or support requests. Most of the time, whilst consumer can benefit from the convenience of using a …

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Shinkansen: High Speed Rail in Japan

I’ve always been fascinated with trains even when I was growing up and when I learnt back in school about the high speed rail services that operate in Japan I thought about how neat it would be just to hop on for a ride. Luckily, my wife and I are going on a holiday to …

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Beware of Facebook Offering to Switch Out of HTTPS

Facebook HTTP Fallback Message

Here’s a quick article for this evening. If you enabled the setting in Facebook to use HTTPS wherever possible you might find that when you attempt to use certain Facebook applications such as Networked Blogs (which I use to publish the blog to Facebook) it will come up with this screen: What people may not realise …

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Microsoft Wants to Say Goodbye to Internet Explorer 6

It might be hard to believe but Internet Explorer 6 is still alive and kicking ten years after it was released. Whilst IE has come a long way in terms of speed and standards compliance particularly in IE9 previous version left a lot to be desired. Needless to say, hanging on to decrepit software and forcing websites …

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Quickly Swap Screen Configurations Under Windows 7

Windows 7 Display Toggle

If you chop and change between external screens and data projectors you might be frustrated with having to go into the display properties in Windows and setting up the new device as a secondary screen and working some magic to get it all working. Generally, laptops have the ability to swap between several display outputs …

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Sometimes Unconventional Means Don’t Work But Don’t Be Discouraged

A few posts back I was looking into reviving a hard drive using unconventional means (in this case putting it in the freezer) based upon anecdotal evidence on the web that supported this method. Sometimes in technical support positions you have to think outside the square and when conventional methods don’t work there may be …

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Why I Won’t be Buying iPad 2

Today, a lot of people asked me whether or not I would be eagerly waiting to purchase an iPad 2 when it is eventually launched in Australia perhaps some time later this month (although last year’s delays for countries apart from the USA did cause some angst amongst customers). I was expecting to be asked …

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Is the Banning of Mortal Kombat Really a Victory?

The game Mortal Kombat has never been shy of a bit of publicity thanks to the level of gore contained within the game and ignited fierce debate with the release of its first instalment back in 1992. Sega was happy to release the game with the full gore and fatalities of the original arcade game …

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