Author: jamesclay

Posted on

It’s crashed, it’s crashed…

Well maybe I should have been expecting it to do that, but my four year old iMac last night decided to throw a wobbly and fail to restart after crashing out.

Despite some attempts to start in safe mode, reset the PRAM, in the end I started it off in Firewire Target Disk Mode and connected it to another Mac. The result it looks like the hard drive is on the edge of failure. This is annoying as this was only recently replaced under AppleCare. My iMac is now out of AppleCare, so I am not sure what to do. The SuperDrive has also stopped working properly, well maybe it stopped working ages ago, I rarely use it, so perhaps I didn’t notice.

I am not sure what to do next, I do want to still use the iMac, but should I repair the drive or look to replace it. I would like to probably upgrade it to an SDD and then replace the SuperDrive with a standard HDD, but not sure if there is someone who can do that for me, or how easy it is to do myself.

Posted on

No 4G Nexus 7 for the UK

Nexus 7 2013

The new Google Nexus 7 is coming to the UK on the 28th August, however we will only be seeing the wifi versions, £199.99 for the 16GB version and @239.99 for the 32GB version. There is no news on the LTE (4G) version coming to the UK.

I really like my original Nexus 7, it’s my favourite travelling device, much easier to carry about than the iPad. It’s much more portable than the iPad mini and fits into more pockets and bags than the iPad (or even the iPad mini).

I don’t think I need to upgrade my existing 7” Nexus, though I do like the idea of the “retina” screen, but I do think having a 4G Nexus would be useful for travelling, without worrying about having to tether to my phone, so would consider upgrading it, if there was a 4G version available. I do think we will see cheaper and more widespread 4G over the next year or so.

Posted on

It just stopped…

Airport Express

My Airport Express working. Actually what happened was my TV which was connected to the Airport Express by wire couldn’t access the internet (so no BBC iPlayer for me then).

What I couldn’t fathom out was why it had stopped working, as I hadn’t done anything, I hadn’t done any updating, no re-configuration or changed any wires.

It was still broadcasting the SSID, so I first checked the wireless, devices connected to the Airport Express fine, however they got no internet access.

First did a hard reboot of the Airport Express, that didn’t work. So I did try and reboot the router and that didn’t work either. I was using a static IP address with the Airport Express, so I changed that to dynamic and the Airport Express ended up with a 169 IP address, a self-assigned address. So it wasn’t getting an IP address from the router, so I rebooted the router. No joy there.

The Airport Express isn’t directly connected to the router, it’s connected to an Airport Extreme which in turn is connected to the router. The reason is that there wasn’t a spare ethernet port on the router when I added the Airport Express to the network.

In the end I changed the ethernet port it was connected to on the Airport Extreme and guess what? Yes it all started working! So there was nothing wrong with the Airport Express, it was something else; the ethernet port on the Airport Extreme.

I have no idea why the ethernet port stopped working on the Airport Extreme. Well my network’s working now.

Posted on

What is Augmented Reality?

AR in Plain English

This is another of those really clever videos from the CommonCraft people, who take the time to explain what Augmented Reality is in plain English.

An introduction to a new technology that adds a layer of useful information to the “reality” we see on screens of mobile phone and computers.

Watch the video.

Posted on

How many adverts?

Broken Television

I’ve realised recently how little television I watch, but not only that how very little live television. If it wasn’t for the children watching Scooby Doo live then I would probably get rid of the TV licence!

In terms of pre-recorded stuff, the main avenues that I watch are BBC iPlayer, Netflix, iTunes and recorded television using my Elgato EyeTV tuner on the Mac. Reflecting I did note that I rarely watch ITVPlayer, 5 on Demand and 4OD.

4OD Logo

Watching 4OD on my iPad the other day I was slightly shocked, astounded and annoyed by the number of adverts. In one advert “break” there were seven adverts to “watch” before the programme continued.

Adverts on 4OD

As you might expect there was no way to “avoid” the adverts and as it was on my iPad I couldn’t switch to something else while they were playing.

I know really I shouldn’t be astounded, as 4OD is not funded by the licence fee, and when broadcast live there are also adverts. If I had recorded the programme then I could have fast forwarded through the adverts, or if I had bought the programme on iTunes then there would also have been no adverts.

I think my astonishment was more down to how rarely I watch advertisement supported television than the actual number of adverts.

Posted on

Tethering

Nexus One

One of the reasons I like and still use my Google Nexus One, despite it’s age, is that I can use it for tethering. I am also lucky to have a legacy mobile phone contract that means tethering is included as part of my monthly payment.

I actually thought that I had unlimited data, but when I was on holiday and I did a fair bit of video streaming over 3G I did for the first time ever get a text from my phone company telling me I was reaching my fair usage data limit. This actually surprised me as I didn’t think I had a data limit.

Generally the connection is very good with very little latency. I have encountered a couple of issues that happen enough to be annoying.

The first one is when the connection just seems to stop. I am assuming that this is something to do with the 3G connection, and usually very quickly it comes back. Can be annoying when streaming video or if you are in the middle of posting a blog post.

The second issue is that the 3G connection just dies and stops working. The only resolution is to reboot the phone and start all over again.

It is only a 3G connection and until there is a lot more 4G (and it is a lot cheaper) I think I will continue with my current solution. Battery life isn’t perfect, but it generally lasts me for my daily needs and when I need more juice I plug the phone via USB into my laptop.

I like tethering over a dongle as a dongle can only be used by a single laptop, whereas with my phone, my laptop and iPad can be used at the same time, really aids productivity for me.

Posted on

I don’t trust you….

Safari Not Connected

No not you, but my blogging platform… actually I do trust my blogging platform, what I don’t trust is my internet connection to remain stable and consistent as I write a blog post, so that when I click publish, my blog post is actually published and out there on the web and hasn’t just disappeared into the ether!

What happens is you write a blog post into your text field, click the publish button and you get a “you are not connected” error and all your hard work has vanished. Clicking the back button doesn’t resolve the issue. There is no draft saved and you are then faced with a choice, try to recall what you wrote, or saying stuff it and going out for a coffee.

As a result these days wherever possible I will avoid typing direct a blog post onto the web and will use my word processor of choice and then cut and paste into the blog post when finished.

It does remind in the past how word processors would often crash losing all your work and you were left with the same conundrum as above.

So remember save your work as you write.