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 …

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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. …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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. …

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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 …

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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 …

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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, …

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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 …

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