The Exception to Every Rule

Hacking Bluetooth- pairing polygamy

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:29:00 +0000

It was a very quick service at the registry office. The pairing of my bluetooth mouse and my Windows laptop was a happy relationship that lasted for years. However, things started to break down when my mouse started seeing Linux on the side.

I had started dual booting Ubuntu as a second OS, but every time I switched operating systems, I had to pair up my mouse again which was becoming a pain.

It turns out that when pairing occurs, the couple take a vow in the form of a hexadecimal code that Windows keeps in it's registry and Linux keeps in it's file system, the mouse also keeps a copy, overwriting any codes that it already has stored. The trick is to pair the mouse with Windows, extract the hex code from the registry and manually place that code in the relative place in the Linux file system.

Now my mouse plays nice with both OSs, without any further configuring having to be done. A small victory for computing polygamy.

Step by step instruction are here on the Ubuntu forums. I imagine that the process is similar for other distros as well.

How to make your logo transparent in Google apps

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:08:00 +0000

This is one for the admins out there who are trying to make their Google Apps suite look good.

I and many others it seems have had trouble using a logo with a transparent background on their google apps domain. Some suggest hacking into the code of the page itself, but far easier is the solution I found here (as long as you have the appropriate software).

When I was saving the picture using Adobe Fireworks, the picture always seemed to lose its transparancy once I uploaded it. Instead, open the file in Photoshop and save it using "save for web". I have no idea what it does differently, but it worked for me!

Via: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Apps/thread?tid=5299fcb20c585b03&hl=en

Freemake is way more super than Super

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:26:00 +0000

I don't know how on earth I recommended SUPER in the first place. I must have been on some mindbending drugs at the time.

Anyway Freemake is loads better. Simpler interface, better presets, and a browser plugin that makes it easy to get web videos.

Freefilesync syncs files free!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:10:00 +0000

Freefilesync is my current favourite file syncing software. I use it to sync the work on my laptop with my user space on the network.

You can setup batch files to sync multiple folders at once, and it even features a real-time auto sync feature. Currently in active development too!

AutoIT gets it done

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Have you ever been asked to do something boring over and over and over again? Surely that's what computers are for? Microsoft's Office suite allows you to program it with Macros, and fortunately so does your OS.

AutoIT is a (relatively) easy to learn scripting language that is free and comes with its own development environment. I have recently used it to move files for users on my network so that their web bookmarks work properly.

Shortcut tool

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:11:00 +0000

In my organisation I make videos accessable to staff members via shortcuts to VLC on their start menus.

Yesterday I upgraded to the latest version of VLC and all of a sudden, none of the shortcuts worked anymore! Long story short, I found out I had to change the paths on all of the shortcuts to point to the right place. There were >100 shortcuts affected and no way was I going to start doing all of them individually.

That's where the imaginatively named Shortcuts Search and Replace comes in. With this tool its possible to search for a partial match in any number of shortcuts and change them accordingly. What's more- it's free!

Programming Languages for Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:27:00 +0000

I've been talking about the increasing importance of learning how to program at schools for a while now and recently the UK government has finally seen sense and changed the national curriculum to include computer science.

I've been looking at different programming languages to teach at our school and I have two that I'd like to show you today:

Scratch is a language developed at MIT to make programming work in a GUI, it's great because it has a friendly interface and allows kids to see what their programs do straight away. It's quite limited, but even within these bounds it's amazing what's possible! I've been very impressed with some of the games my lot have come up with!

For a more "serious" programming course, I've been using Microsoft's Small Basic. It too is a simple IDE that holds your hand a bit, but everything is text based, making it much more akin to "real" programming with C++ etc. It's based on the much maligned visual basic language but it's still good for teaching loops, variables and objects.

For the lazier of the IT teachers out there, Codecademy runs an online course that awards progress with badges and rewards. It reminds me a lot of the w3 schools online HTML training.

Wamp server makes setting up your own server easy!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:12:00 +0000

Have you ever been asked to install SQL on a server? how about PHP? Or apache?

All of these are amazing technologies, all available free to everyone as the building blocks that turn any PC with Internet access into a fully-fledged web server.

Once you've got them on your computer, and arranged with your ISP a static IP address, you can do lots of things without even the basic knowledge of the technologies behind them!

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

PS. Concerted effort to keep this blog more up-to-date. Kinda forgot about it!

Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:57:00 +0000

So I had an old laptop kicking around and I thought I'd have a look and see what Linux is doing these days and I've been very suprised...

The 9.10 distribution of Ubuntu has not only removed all of the things that made it horrible to have a linux PC but it has also put it into a neat and stylish, easy to install package.

I was astonished when I had to do the minimum of setting up on my old (well ok, not that old, but getting on a bit) Samsung Q35, everything from my correct screen resolution to my wireless card drivers was set up for me, and the ability to add more packages has never been easier, with far more commercial companies offering linux software than before (I'm posting this in google chrome)

PS. how time flies! sorry it's been so long!

I might not recommend it as a mainstream desktop OS yet, but if you want to resurrect an old laptop to use for the internet or blogging, I can firmly recommend Ubuntu, even if you're not particularly tech-wise!

Play it again, PDFSAM

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Admittedly, this application has a very specific use: Splitting And Merging (SAM) adobe PDF files. This is useful however when you'd like to remove a page from a document, or split a document up into smaller files for emailling. It's also useful for stitching them back together on the other end!

PDFSAM

ImgBurn Burns your discs

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:03:00 +0000

There is no finer program for copying and building cds and dvds than imgburn. I've used a few over the years, including clonecd (The company resposible for which has created my preferred image mounting software), and Nero (which, while great also costs money) and Imgburn presents the best and most flexible solution.

Typingweb makes you a better typist

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Despite being a trained professional, my typing speed is woefully low. It's normally ok as I'm not doing it in front of anyone but it can be rather embarrasing to have to type in front of a superior typist. Thankfully http://www.typingweb.com is a full zero-hero typing course, it's online and it's free! aewsoem!

Dirsynch pro

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Ever been frustrated by windows aborting in the middle of transferring loads of files?

Dirsynch pro is an excellent utility for copying files. You can also use it for backup and it doesn't flake out at what windows regards as a fatal copy error.

EDIT: freefilesync is my new recommended sync software

Multiple files you want to extract quickly?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Before I found this program, I had winzip and winrarinstalled, both with their little quirks and annoyances, and full of features I didn't want or need. Extractnow is a really good lightweight and simple unzipper that gets the job done well and quickly. just click and drag the files you want unzipped into the window and off you go. Works with .zip and .rar, and a whole bunch of others. It is, of course, free as the wind.

Displaychanger Changes your display resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:21:00 +0000

If you have old programs from the windows 95-98 era, a lot of them were hard-coded for super high resolutions of 640*480 or even a mighty 800*600. We've moved along since then, and this causes problems as below:

The answer to this is just to change resolution before you run the program. But isn't that just incredibly annoying? Wouldn't it be easier if the shortcut changes the resolution for you, runs the program, and changes it back again once you quit it?

Using display changer, you can do this. It's a free software that does exactly this. All you need to do is specify the resolution and the file to run, then make a shortcut that does it all for you!

Super is... Super!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Super is a free program that makes it very very easy to transcode video and audio files. You don't even need the codecs installed- Super will handle it for you!

Great for transcoding videos to .flv for upload to the web, or converting .wav files to .mp3

scroll to the bottom of the page to get the download link

Update: Super is no longer my recommended video converter

How to move your steam apps without having to redownload anything

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:27:00 +0000

My motherboard went and died on me so I had to replace it. Unfortunately due to the nature of computers, this meant a full re-install of the operating system. When it was all finished I was presented with a silky smooth clean install of Vista. Now came to loading my favourite apps back on.

On went firefox and Office and all the other gubbins, but when it came to Steam, I realised that I had 60GB of games, there's no way I'm downloading all that again!You would have thought this was an easy thing, to just copy the games over and all would be fine and well. Not so. If you login before you've done the tranfer, steam hates you and will present you with a load of problems like games installed but not working, half the downloads permanently on 99% etc.

Some forums recommend using Steam's built-in "backup" feature. Even if I had had the chance to use this, I'd have about 12 DVDs worth of Steam software lying around. Not ideal.

Actually the answer is simple: Install steam, but BEFORE you login close it down and transfer the steamapps folder from your old installation to your new one. Voila, it's like they never left.

The Future of Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Spotify is an online jukebox that streams it's music to you from the internet. Unlike others, last.fm and the late pandora included, it allows you to pick exactly the music you want to listen to.

It performs very well, even on a slow connection, and as usual, it is the best price: free!

A website is down! what do I do?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:49:00 +0000

Sometimes it is desirable to find out if being unable to access a website is something that is only happening to you, or if the site is down for everyone trying to access it. This can normally be found out by asking colleagues/ friends/ family/ pets whether or not they are having the same problem. Thankfully, social interaction in such times is no longer a necessity, as Isitdownforeveryoneorjustme can check it for you!

Add a bit of mac to your desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Although I'm not Apple's greatest fan, one of my favourite things about OSX is the shortcut bar along the bottom. It's a great place to launch frequently used shortcuts from without having to drill down into launch menus.

Thankfully, it's available for the PC, too!

There are many iterations available, for free or paid for, but my favourite by far is Rocketdock by punklabs. It's lightweight, easy, and discreet. Give it a go!

Browse picture collections like it's the 21st century!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:44:00 +0000

The web has been around in the mainstream for a good decade now, yet nobody has bothered to think of a way of viewing pictures online. Or have they?

Cooliris is a plugin for all sorts of browsers, which transforms your facebook albums or google image search results into a sumptuous, easy and very attractive picture wall. A great new way to view online photos.

"Secret" Windows 7 features

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Tim Sneath has written a pretty good rundown of features that windows 7 has, but you probably didn't know about.
(via Paul Thurrott)

What is this?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:41:00 +0000

This is a list of cool programs and articles that I've found on the internet and want to share.

If anyone remembers DownloadSquad before it got axed, it's a bit like that.