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

Sep 27 2012

An Alternative to Connecting MS SQL Server to Oracle

For a little while now I have been trying to get MS SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit to connect to an Oracle 10g database but have run into some issues doing so with some other more complicated solutions. My approaches to date have involved extra Oracle client software and working …

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Sep 26 2012

Major Milestone – 100,000 Visits :)

Okay, it’s time to blow the old trumpet here 🙂 Last night, the blog racked up its 100,000th visit to the site and 125,000 pageviews since things kicked off on 30/01/2010. That’s not too bad at all given that this started off as a bit of a hobby to help keep me in the swing …

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Sep 25 2012

Save Time Waiting in Queues With myRTA

Just a quick tip for today. I am currently in the process of selling a vehicle and have found that getting out to the RTA can time consuming. Driving out to the closest branch, waiting your turn to get called up to the counter, explaining what you want, filling in a form, etc. if your …

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Sep 24 2012

Electric Vehicles and Novated Leasing

While I am waiting for a new 2012 Toyota Prius to have its novated lease approved I thought I’d share a conundrum that I discovered when doing my research for a new vehicle prior to locking in another Prius. One option that my wife and I had on the table has to retain the 2008 Toyota Prius …

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Sep 23 2012

Incoming Gadget – Panasonic NR-BY552XSAU Inverter Refrigerator

Perhaps not something you check out everyday but something I thought worth sharing nonetheless. A while ago our Fisher and Paykel Q E442B fridge suffered from some unscheduled maintenance after its circuit had been tripped. While the fridge was repaired and has been working well for nearly three months, I thought it would be a good idea to …

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Sep 22 2012

An Easier Way to Friend People on Nintendo 3DS

Here’s a quick tip for Nintendo 3DS gamers out there. Friend codes can be a pain to swap particularly if you’re in a hurry but there is a quicker way to friend someone if they are in the immediate area. Just do the following: Tap the smiley face up the top of the dashboard screen, …

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Sep 21 2012

Boost Windows Security With EMET 3.0

Thanks to John Tomic for this tip. While Microsoft does a reasonable job keeping on top of the various security vulnerabilities found in its software your system will still be exposed to threats between the time they are identified (if at all) and the time when the patch is successfully installed. Like insurance, it can …

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Sep 20 2012

LIFX – A Smart LED Light Bulb

I had to share this because it really spoke to my inner geek. There’s a new project on Kickstarter wanting to raise funds for light bulbs. Sounds pretty boring but these aren’t just normal light bulbs nor are these your run of the mill LED light bulbs. These are Wi-Fi enabled, remote controllable, colour changeable light …

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Sep 19 2012

Enable Time Lapse Recording on Panasonic HC-X900M Camcorder

Here’s a quick tip if you want to muck around with the time lapse recording function on the Panasonic X900M camcorder. Out of the box, you can’t use time lapse recording as the option is greyed out in the record setup screen. This is because you need to  change the zoom mode from the default …

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Sep 18 2012

Old Printers and New Operating Systems

With Windows 8 almost upon us in terms of full public release and sale it’s worth giving a thought to printer compatibility. Simple tethered printers will usually be less susceptible to being left behind when operating systems are updated however multi-function and networked printers may not fare so well. For instance, I have an aging HP …

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