Following on from my last post [iCloud Notes in Mozilla Thunderbird (The Story)] here is my How To for using Thunderbird to sync, add and edit your iCloud notes. Continue reading »
Jan 042012
I’ve used ‘Notes’ quite a lot on my iPhone since I got my first one (an 8GB 3G) in 2008; usually for little reminders, shopping lists, a note of what Christmas presents I’ve already bought etc. When I was bought an iPad in 2010 you could sync notes between the iPhone and iPad using Apple’s ‘me.com’ service. I then started using ‘Notes’ for a few more things – common phrases I would need for work that I could copy and paste from Notes into other apps. Continue reading »
Nov 162011
I managed to record a scam call today. I admit that it wasn’t my best work, I didn’t even get to tell them I was on a Mac and I know their tricks… But still, it was a first attempt and I think I was concentrating more on getting it recorded than actually dealing with them.
I do like to think though that because of me wasting their time for 12 minutes it means one less person today will have been tricked. I provide a public service, don’t you know?!
Listen to it here:
Jul 152011
I’ve had a few issues with my MacBook Pro recently mainly, I think, because of low disc space. I ran Disk Utility (Mac equivalent of ‘chkdsk’ on Windows) and it informed me of some file system errors too. With OSX Lion arriving any time soon (and for the bargain price of about £20 ($29.99)) I thought I had better get things into shape before upgrading. In order to do this I needed to boot from the Snow Leopard installation DVD.
Here’s the scenario: My music collection is on my main Windows PC on the middle floor of my house. I do 99% of my work on my MacBook Pro either on the ground floor or the top floor of my house. I like my music but hate iTunes (only use it for syncing iPhone/iPad apps and backups) so using Home Sharing was out of the question – I cannot trust iTunes to look after my music collection properly plus MediaMonkey is so much better with regards to features and functions.
So, how do I listen to my music while I’m working? MediaMonkey doesn’t work too well in WINE, it’s OK in Parallels but running a 2nd OS solely for music isn’t ideal…
Sep 272010
I would hope that most of my friends and family would be savvy enough not to fall for something like this but, just in case, here’s a brief overview of an attempted scam some Indian bloke just tried. He wasn’t alone either, as I could clearly hear at least two other people in the background. Continue reading »
Mar 162010
Today I had a weird instant messenger conversation with my mate, ‘P’. ‘P’ does computer repair down south and often gets frustrated with people who pretend to know ‘computer stuff’ – I do too. It started of fairly normal (although unless you read any of our previous chats the reference to the XP DVD burning update might seem a bit random) but rapidly went a bit weird…: Continue reading »
Feb 052010
I’ve been brought up to use Windows. Well, technically I started with a Tandy TRS-80, moved up to a ZX-81, Spectrum 48, Spectrum 128 +2, Sega Master System, SNES and THEN a Windows PC (95, 98, Me, XP, 7)… None of that is relevant but may get some old geeks reminiscing a bit!
Basically, in my proper computing years I’ve generally been a Windows user and had no major issues with it. I wasn’t OS-ist (I even have friends who are black, erm…, I mean who are Mac users) I just used Windows.
At the end of 2008 one of my bosses gave me his MacBook Pro (see here for proof: “…5 years later I’m on my third MacBook, one has been passed on to a colleague…”) as my Windows laptop was ageing rather badly. OK, I pestered quite a bit too to see what all the fuss was about Macs!! Continue reading »
Sep 252009
I got an email today from the wonderful CCL Computers (that sounds more sarcastic than it actually is – they are a great company!) as a hard drive I bought from them failed during it’s warranty period. The drive turned out to be discontinued and so I was asked to find a suitable replacement around a similar price, which I did, and replied to their email.
This morning I had this in my inbox:
Hello MaFt
Thank you for your reply.
Your order xxxxxxxxx has now been amended for the HDD0133. All been well will be despatched this evening for delivery on Monday/Tuesday of next week. Could you please ensure that they will be someone their too accept and sign for the goods.
If you require any further help or assistance please do not hesitate too contact us back by return of mail.
Kind Regards
::name removed::
CCL Returns Department.
There are, technically, no spelling mistakes in there; so well done in that sense! However, I count 5 grammatical errors where the wrong word has been used. For someone speaking on behalf of a big company you’d think they would at least try and give a good impression!
I honestly wouldn’t normally nit-pick to this degree but 5 errors in such a short email did make me laugh!
Jun 102009
Anyone who knows me knows I like cheap. Even better than cheap is free. So it may surprise you that in a bizarre turn-around I’ve actually bought an iPhone app that was £5.99!
I like my music and I’ve been using Collectorz.com Music Collector for about 7 years now. MuC (as it is often referred to) is a fantastic piece of Windows and Mac database/collection software specifically for cataloguing CDs, LPs etc. It has a tonne of features that can be viewed via their website (I’m blogging this on my iPhone so am too lazy to fully review it!) but earlier today their ‘clz music’ app was finally added to the AppStore. So I bought it!
Now, instead of having to export my collection to HTML, format it, split it into groups by letter, upload and update the search database I can simply export it to my iPhone and view/search from there! It’s great! No more will I be rummaging around Discovery (local 2nd hand music shop) and end up buying a CD I already own (yes, I’ve done it a few times) or cursing the shopping center for no GPRS signal to check my collection online…
Oh, they also have software for movies, comics, books, photos most of which have iPhone apps to go with them.