November 2012 archive

Intermittent Keyboard Functionality with Microsoft Surface

Here’s a quick tip for those with Microsoft Surface tablets. You may find that despite the touch cover or type cover being connected that it may no longer register keystrokes or will do so intermittently. Removing and reattaching the keyboard might get you up and running again but this can become a bit of a …

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Nintendo DS and 3DS Game Case Solution

I am slowing amassing a stockpile of Nintendo 3DS games and I didn’t fancy having to carry around the containers for each separate game as they just end up taking up more space in my backpack. I was also wary of just chucking the cartridges in my backpack to float around and potentially fall out …

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Windows Phone 8 – Bing Beats Shazam

There’s an app for nearly everything these days but sometimes there are features built into the operating system that will do the job of a dedicated app. Shazam is one of those very popular apps which broke ground on the iPhone with its ability to determine what song is playing just by listening to a …

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Microsoft Surface – You’re Locked Out!

I think I may have let my Microsoft Surface run dry of power at some point over the weekend as I used it without a problem on Friday but my Surface refused to switch on Sunday and Monday. I believed that I had charged it up yesterday but it appears that I hadn’t connected the …

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Enable the Ability to Find a Lost Windows Phone 8 Handset

After you get your shiny, new Wiindows Phone 8 handset one of the first things you should do is enabled the ability to track it down should it ever become lost or stolen. For whatever reason, this is not enabled by default so here is how you do it. Tap the Window key to get …

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Nokia Lumia 920 Unboxing

As promised, here is the unboxing video for Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone 8 handset – the Lumia 920! Nokia is betting big on Windows Phone. While Nokia seems to have navigated the potential disaster of original Windows Phone 7 devices ultimately being stranded on Windows Phone 7.8 with some incremental updates the refinements incorporated into …

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And the Windows Phone 8 Handset is…

… the Nokia Lumia 920 🙂 I shortlisted three flagship Windows Phone 8 handsets as a potential new smartphone given my recent acquisition of a Microsoft Surface tablet and using Windows 8 on my desktop computer at home. For the record, there was nothing wrong with my Samsung Galaxy S III (which is going to one …

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Insider Guru Blog – Panasonic NR-BY552XSUA Inverter Fridge Review

Just a short and sharp update for today 🙂 I’ve updated the Insider Guru blogs page with my latest article for Panasonic Australia after a small break. I share my experiences with our new fridge and cover off some of the key aspects that I reckon regular people would think about when choosing a new …

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Audio Stuttering in Windows RT

I thought I would add my voice to the chorus of those concerned about audio stuttering in Windows RT particularly on the Microsoft Surface. I stock up on video podcasts during the week and I have noticed that audio stuttering and choppy video playback when using various apps including the Microsoft video app. This becomes …

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Scraping HTML Tables into SQL Server Using SSIS

At work, I am attempting to scrape a table off an intranet webpage so that I can import its contents into Microsoft SQL Server so I can obtain more frequent updates for a small but critical subset of data that I would normally only receive once a day. Using this information I would also be …

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