Why Does my iPad Still Make Notification Sounds When the Volume is Down?

May 31, 2012 | Comment

Shsh!One of the things that has really niggled me about my iPad is that it continues to be bloody noisy even if you have the volume turned right down. While any music is silenced notification noises, bleeps and bings continue to come through at full volume – not good when you are trying to sleep.

It seems that because, as daft as it seems, notification noises are not controlled by the volume control. Notifications are either off or on.

All is not lost though as there are two ways (at least) of turning off notification noises – the first is … Read the rest

Yum! Raspberry Pi!

May 28, 2012 | Comment

Over the weekend my Raspberry Pi arrived and there was much excitement in the Thompson household.

For the uninitiated a Raspberry Pi is a cheap (c. $25) computer designed for schools and hobbyists that is about the size of a credit card. It comes as a bare board with all it needs around the edges, so there is a couple of USB ports, an SD card reader, power input, HDMI output, ethernet etc.

The fact that it is a bare board could be a little daunting given that  over the years you kind of get conditioned that PCs are delicate … Read the rest

The Gomite Tiltpod for iPhone

May 22, 2012 | Comment

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter (although my credit card  is less keen!) and this little beauty is the second item that I got through the crowd funding site. This is the Tiltpod from Gomite a small, portable tripod. The picture left shows it with the iPhone 4/4S adaptor but it is also available for “normal” cameras.

The great thing about the Tiltpod is its size, it really is small enough to slip in your pocket or clip onto a keychain meaning that there is no excuse for not having it with you when you really need it. The Tiltpod … Read the rest

Cregle iPen for iPad Review

May 14, 2012 | 1 comment

A while back I posted a brief note about the Cregle iPen, a result of my first foray into Kickstarter. At that point I hadn’t had much chance to try out the pen and said I would come back and do a proper review at a later date and this is it.

I was attracted to the idea of a pen for my iPad in order to be able to take notes in meetings and have a permanent electronic record, rather than to bring out any artistic side in me. So this review is very much biased to the … Read the rest

Pebble Watch for iPhone Passes $10M on Kickstarter

May 10, 2012 | 1 comment

Already the most funded project ever on Kickstarter the Pebble Watch for iPhone and Android has now passed the $10 million mark – 100 times the amount it was aiming to raise. Kickstarter is a great platform and I have backed a number of projects on it and will continue to look out for innovative things I can be an early part of.

Looking forward to receiving my watch too – glad I got my backing in early!… Read the rest

Hack Attack!

May 1, 2012 | 1 comment

You may have noticed that the site was off line for a period of about a week early last month which was the result of an attack by hackers. I have no idea why they would be interested in my site in particular other than it was there and it represented a small challenge. The attack was ultimately pretty devastating as several MySQL databases were deleted. The hacker then contacted me to try and get me to pay to sort out the problems that he had caused. But as they didn’t have the files they had deleted they had nothing … Read the rest

Why I’ll Not be Using Google Drive (and it’s got Nothing to do With Terms & Conditions)

April 27, 2012 | Comment

So this week Google finally got round to releasing its cloud storage option, Google Drive. Within hours of them doing so the internet was ablaze with outrage over the terms and conditions and just exactly what they could or could not do with your files once they are uploaded. Many used this as the primary reason for not using the service and instead sticking with Dropbox, Box, SkyDrive etc. I have, for me, a much more compelling reason not to use Google Drive – app support.

I have just over 20gb of storage with Dropbox, all of which I have … Read the rest

WordPress “Plugin upgrade Failed” Solution

April 4, 2012 | Comment

One of the (many) things I like about WordPress is its ability to be able to automatically upgrade both the core installation and the plugins. This can also be one of the most frustrating part of WordPress too.

Those that have attempted to update their plugins using the automatic option may well be familiar with the following:

Unpacking the update

Deactivating the plugin

Removing the old version of the plugin

Could not remove the old plugin

Plugin upgrade Failed

Searching the forums reveals lots of frustrated users and very little in the way of solutions. I was one of these … Read the rest

April Fools

April 1, 2012 | Comment

Google has really pulled out all the stops for April 1st this year – you can see all of them here but my personal favourite is Chrome Multitask Mode – it looks so useful!

However, the best of the lot today has got to be a reworking of the family favourite Hungry Hippos for iPad. I would definitely get this if it came out!

… Read the rest