Tag: Technology

6 November 2017

Complete Backup and Restore of an Android Device

If you are upgrading an Android device and want to cover everything (and pedantically save the entire history/setup of your phone), for example installing a new ROM in your phone, upgrading the phone or going from an old phone to a new one, here are some notes I have put together about the process I use. What do you want...

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

15 January 2017

1965 Zephyr Deluxe Caravan Restoration

These are the before and after photos of our 1965 15″ Zephyr Deluxe Caravan. It was apparently stored in a shed for 20 years so apart from some general decay, some borer and a bunch of broken and missing stuff, the layout and fittings were mostly original. We had it mostly as we got it for a couple of years...

Categories DIY Projects/Projects/Retro Caravans Comments: 0

27 April 2016

9 Simple Tips for Smart Phone Photography

I have some good camera gear, and many of my favourite photos are ones that I have taken on SLR, with carefully chosen aperture, speed and composition. But there are some that still really like that I have taken on my old pocket Casio 2 Megapixel camera, and still quite a number I’ve take on my phones over the years....

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Photography/Social Media Comments: 0

19 April 2016

Upgrading a 5 Year Old Samsung Galaxy S2 to Android M

I needed a phone for my son as he had been given an older ZTE V795 phone running Android Gingerbread. The ridiculous thing about this is that besides the fact there is really no way to easily upgrade or change out the ROM on this phone… you can’t even update the current setup as any ‘play store’ updates fail even...

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Projects Comments: 9

17 February 2016

My Photobooth Project…

I needed a photobooth for my wedding (this was one of my few assigned wedding tasks!). You know, one of those ‘take a few photos of guests, and print them’ sort of thing, like the early film ones . Early on, I built up a list of things I really wanted to achieve with it, as there are many options...

Categories Entertainment/Photography/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

27 January 2016

How I manage and share 1000s of digital photographs

People often ask me for the best way to store their thousands of photos, and I’ve tried a bunch of ways in the past. I take masses of photos (SLRs, Action Cams, Pocket Cams and phones), and running my own commercial (colocated) server has allowed me to use applications such as Gallery, Piwigo and other server apps to store, manage and display...

Categories DIY Projects/Photography/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

3 March 2015

Tips to create easy Tag Cloud Artwork

You’ve seen them… those pictures made up of lots of words. You can create these pretty easily at Tagxedo, but it is handy to have a few tips as to how to get the best out of it. They make great family presents, and you can use all the words that are personal & meaningful to the person you are...

Categories Education/Entertainment/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

3 July 2014

Dashcams… and the $80 Mobius

The proliferation of small sports cameras, ‘dash’ cams and security cameras has meant that Youtube abounds with footage of incidents, near misses, ‘oh %$#@’ moments, and just generally people and drivers doing stupid things. Camera technology has improved markedly in the past couple of years, with prices coming down, quality and resolution improving and the merging of use with model...

Categories CCTV/Opinion/Technology/Vehicles Comments: 0

26 February 2014

Samsung Galaxy S5 Release, Impressive?

I see the S5 has just been announced by Samsung finally at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona & and it will be available in NZ on April 11.  I have been looking over some of the features after having an S4, Note 1 & 2, and various other Android phones. There are some incremental improvements and a few new...

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Opinion Comments: 0

19 February 2014

Linked-in Collec…Connecting

Connecting to people on social media has its place, and I have been using a number of social platforms over recent times for rapid viewing of up-to-the-second information and keeping in touch with more people that it would otherwise humanly be possible. Facebook over the past few years has improved their privacy settings (enough that I will actually use it...

Categories Opinion/Social Media/Technology Comments: 0

7 January 2014

iPad and iPhone tips

Just a repost from a technology site.  I guess if you have an iPad these are useful things to know.  I think they have hyped it up a bit… they aren’t exactly ‘mind-blowing’!  Interesting and mostly helpful all the same.

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

28 November 2013

Bitcoin…. it’s not magic

Bitcoin has been mentioned in the mainstream media recently as a ‘new form of electronic money’.  It sounds impressive, but the way it works as a system of ‘money’ is actually not that impressive and easy to explain if you take the ‘tech’ side away.  

Categories Technology Comments: 0

20 November 2013

Living with Windows 8 Mobile

I’ve had the (dis)-pleasure of being forced into a new mobile for ‘real-job’, and after a bunch of to-ing and fro-ing with our IT management, Windows 8 has become the mobile operating system of choice. We are moving from a Blackberry environment, but I was fortunate enough to be able to run my own Android phone until recently.  As a...

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

14 November 2013

Zoomy taxi app is a game changer

I don’t often have a need to get a taxi these days as I am less out and about than I used to be, but when I needed to drop my Holden in for a service, I jumped at the chance to call a taxi via the new Zoomy app taxi service.

Categories Technology Comments: 0

14 November 2013

Should I buy a Chromebook for my child’s schoolwork?

This question gets asked of me a lot in the local area where I live. Most of the local schools ‘require’ some form of personal computing device for each child now (beyond about the age of 10+) and Chromebooks are an often recommended solution with the alternative being the iPad or a full laptop. I’m sometimes not even sure if...

Categories Education/Technology Comments: 0

18 July 2012

My Favourite Android Applications

These are all the apps I use right now (not all of them though, that would take quite a while)…some I use more on the tablet, some are not free, and some are widgets only. I’ve tried to note in the detail all this information.

Categories IT & Networking/Mobile Phones & Android/Opinion/Technology Comments: 0

11 July 2012

Cheap APad WonderMedia Tablet firmware upgrade

A cheap APad WonderMedia Tablet firmware upgrade. It is marked on back as APad Starter, WonderMedia WM8650. Installed Universal Uberoid WM8650 firmware.

Categories IT & Networking/Mobile Phones & Android/Technology Comments: 0

3 November 2010

Network Bridging in an Ubuntu desktop/server

Requirement is have two or more network cards on a server that do the same job as a network switch.

1000base switches are more expensive than a few NICs and spare PCI slots (although the bus may not be up to all that traffic). The Desktop is running LTSP so Gigabit Ethernet is a much better experience for the clients.

Categories IT & Networking/Technology Comments: 0