I’ve been running the IE7 beta on both my work and home PCs for quite a while now with no problems. So when my home PC offered to download and install the release version I was happy to allow it to do so. What a mistake that proved to be.

One of the very first things that I did was to listen to a programme on Radio 4 using the Listen Again feature. This brings up a pop-up screen from which you can adjust the volume, change the programme etc. This was all fine until I closed the pop-up window. … Read the rest

I am a big fan of Skype and have been using it more and more recently both for my contacts with family and friends but increasingly also for work. I have invested in a decent USB phone – one that actually looks like a phone rather than a plastic mobile with a USB cable on the bottom, and have been making business calls to clients both in the UK and abroad. To a small business such as AppSwing even the relatively small savings made by switching to Skype can make a very positive difference to the cashflow.

I was therefore … Read the rest

I’ve had some problems recently with diary entries in Outlook appearing one hour later than I thought I had created them. This caused much head scratching until I came across the following on the Microsoft support web site: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=910268.

It seems that Exchange has been hard coded to believe that there are only four weeks in the month of October and that the clocks go back one hour on the fourth Sunday of the month. Problem is that this year there are FIVE weeks in the month and this leads to the time being set incorrectly.

So what does … Read the rest

I’m told that if I include this link (Technorati Profile) in a post and “release the spiders” I am able to claim my blog on Technorati, so here goes…… Read the rest

You will no doubt have noticed the lack of website over the last couple of weeks. This was caused, initially, by my site being hacked (again). Normally it would have been a matter of ripping down the rogue code and plugging the gaps. However, this time my ISP (Easily) blocked the site and refused to give me access to make changes. Worse than that they were completely unresponsive when I requested assistance. There followed something of a Mexican standoff with Easily suggesting I move onto their one hundred pounds a month dedicated server solution and me telling them to get … Read the rest

At AppSwing we had an idea for an information and education website based around mobile applications, devices and peripherals. This required a new website design as we didn’t want it to look like the existing corporate site. While we have a very good designer that we use for the majority of our design requirements I was looking for a more cost effective way of achieving this.

During a previous net surfing session I had come across Template Kingdom who, as the name suggests, provide website templates. The twist here is that the designers are based in India and the price … Read the rest

I have long been frustrated by the Search capabilities of Windows XP. In particular I hate the multitude of hidden options, that stupid dog, so reminiscent of the hated paper clip, and most of all it’s seeming inability to search for something I know exists. The latter problem is exacerbated when trying to find text within a file. I have resorted in the past to opening each file by hand to find something that I know exists but Windows Search tells me is not there.
Today I decided enough was enough and did a search on a proper search engine … Read the rest

I just love these sorts of things – I needed to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a Flash equivalent and, as always, I didn’t want to spend any money on it as it was a one-off requirement.

My first port of call was Google which turned up a number of very fine looking packages that would carry out this function for me… at a cost. I was surprised at just how many products there were. I was just about to give up and put my hand in my pocket when tucked away at the bottom of a long article was … Read the rest

Something that has niggled me since I installed the first beta of IE7 was that while I could set the search provider box to something other than MSN I didn’t seem to be able to change to google.co.uk, which is what I really wanted. Why does this matter? Well notmally it doesn’t the search results from google.com will return what I am looking for quickly and easily. However, if I am looking for a product and, in particular, it’s price and availability then I want the results to be UK based – then it does matter. Actually, being English, I … Read the rest