Boyd Chan

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting. In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA). I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets. I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics. I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

Most commented posts

  1. How to Find a Missing Fitbit — 241 comments
  2. Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale and the Cold — 88 comments
  3. How to Fix Windows Activation Error 0x80072F8F — 71 comments
  4. Why is GainSpan on my Wi-Fi Network? — 54 comments
  5. There Was a Problem Installing Mac OS X (Lion) — 48 comments

Author's posts

Oct 16 2013

Pinterest – Not Just for Sharing Pictures

There are lots of picture sharing services out there – Flickr amd Instagram come to mind whilst Facebook and Twitter are also popular alternatives. However, Pinterest is another alternative that is growing on the masses particularly when it comes to arts and crafts. That said, I’ve found another use for Pinterest – it’s great for …

Continue reading

Oct 15 2013

Test Drive Update 3 for Windows Phone 8

Something for Windows Phone 8 users out there. If you’re interested in trying out “Update 3” (also known as GDR3 previously) for Windows Phone 8 then you might be interested in checking out the Preview for Developers app which will enable your phone to receive this update ahead of the official roll out by carriers. …

Continue reading

Oct 14 2013

PRTG – Realtime Network Monitoring

Well, after the old Dynalink RTA1025W ADSL modem died and I took the opportunity to remediate several network devices in the process I lost the ability to measure network traffic. Most notably, I could no longer measure the amount of data being uploaded and downloaded over the ADSL connection via the new Billion 7800 DXL …

Continue reading

Oct 13 2013

Excel Spreadsheet Dates Out by Four Years

This might be a bit of an obscure issue but one worth keeping in mind. If you work with Microsoft Excel under both Mac OS X and Windows then you may find an issue with date values changing by themselves when you open them on the other platform (i.e. opening a spreadsheet creating in Mac …

Continue reading

Oct 12 2013

Check for Updates After Upgrading to Windows 8.1

Another short and sweet tip. With the general availability of Windows 8.1 almost upon us it is worth reminding everyone that if you already have Windows 8 then this is a free upgrade for you available via the Windows Store. Before you can execute the upgrade you may have to install some updates via Windows …

Continue reading

Oct 11 2013

Get a Firefox OS Smartphone

If you’re curious to try out Firefox OS but don’t fancy trying to shoehorn it into an existing device then the next best option might be to get a new device with this OS already on it. You may think that this could break the bank but you can actually get a device fairly cheaply. …

Continue reading

Oct 10 2013

Who’s Talking on Lync?

I wouldn’t have thought it but I am actually a big fan of Lync. For those of you who haven’t heard of Lync it could be likened to a corporate version of Skype with instant messaging, audio/video calling, screen sharing, content presentation and meeting recording capabilities. It can hook in with Active Directory to tie …

Continue reading

Oct 09 2013

Backing up to the Cloud with CrashPlan

Another quick update this time regarding data backups. At home we run a Windows Home Server which centrally stores our data whilst backing up our computers. I do take periodic backups of the server using standard hard drives which I store offsite but I have been wanting to have a cloud backup solution as well …

Continue reading

Oct 08 2013

TinyPic – A Quick Place to Share Images

Another quick tip. If you quickly need to share a screenshot or a picture and e-mail isn’t an option then you can use an online picture sharing service to do the trick. There are heaps of them including Flickr and SkyDrive but another one worth keeping in mind is TinyPic. It’s fairly simple to use, …

Continue reading

Oct 07 2013

Incoming Gadget – Lumix TZ40

Just a short update. My wife was after a camera with decent zoom but a still relatively slim. We have our Lumix FT3 tough camera but the zoom on that camera is fairly limited given that the optics are contained completely inside its body. Provided you can get close enough to a subject that’s not …

Continue reading