A Break

14/05/2011 / Rich / No comments

Relaxing In The SunI’ve had three weeks off from blogging and I also took some time off from my job. During this time I did absolutely nothing, I went absolutely nowhere at all, and I did zero amount of work for my own company. I just relaxed and spent time unwinding in the sun, boy was it good!

I’ve now had just over a week back in the office and am still feeling quite relaxed. I’ve had a couple of days with a colleague who was down from Edinburgh, now whenever we meet up, whether it’s me going to Edinburgh or him coming here always tends to turn into a very boozy time! Needless to say this trip was no different. We had the added benefit of being taking out by my (and now his) supplier for IT Kit for a nice lunch.

So now I’m back in the swing of things, it’s now time to up my game blogging again! So keep checking back between Monday’s and Friday’s for some hopefully interesting posts!

Category: Uncategorized /

iPad 2 – First Impressions

14/04/2011 / Rich / No comments

So I have in my possession an iPad 2. Infact the first draft of this blog post was written on the very iPad in question. My first Impressions are: wow, oh my god and why didn’t I buy one earlier.

I didn’t need much justification to order one, simply put angry birds in high definition was enough. Although there are so many other things it will come in useful for.

I’ve been a bit eager however, I’ve opened it up and syncd it with my work itunes and laptop, which has no apps, no music and no videos, but when I get home I shall be reseting it, reaactivaitng it with my home machine which has everything on it from my iPhone, but I just couldn’t wait for that!

A couple of things I have noticed in this afternoons usage are the screen gets covered in fingerprints really easily and believe it or not Apple do not provide a cloth. The other thing is the spell check is just as annoying on the iPad as it is on the iPhone. What doesn’t it realise that if I have typed the same word three times with the same spelling I do not mean the word you obviously think I mean even though, it is a word and more importantly spelt correctly!

That is about all for now, will post some more thoughts and pictures when I am home tomorrow night.

Category: Tech Stuff / Tags: , ,

Anticipation

14/04/2011 / Rich / 2 comments

My Ipad2 arrives today. That is all.

Smiley Face

Category: Uncategorized / Tags: , ,

Top Five – Problem Solving Applications

13/04/2011 / Rich / No comments

I’ve decided I’m going to try and do a weekly top five. It could be anything from top five pubs to top five cars, to top five CPU coolers (or something equally techie) This week I am starting it off with:

The top Five problem solving Applications I couldn’t live without.

1) Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Free Edition
MalwareBytes Anti Malware Logo
I’ve not found many bits of malware that this software doesn’t get rid of on a full scan. Sometimes it can be made difficult to get it to run if the malware is that good at its job (or bad depending how you look at it) However if you do have difficulty getting it to run number four on this list may well help you out!

This needs to be installed on the machine with the problem, but takes twenty seconds to install, and then another twenty to download the latest updates

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

2) Firefox + AdBlockPlus + xMarks

Firefox LogoNot a problem solving tool as such, but I’ve listed this app plus two extensions as one app, as for me I don’t have FireFox without the other two. It makes life so much easier to have all your bookmarks and passwords synced from all my other machines. It means I have the guides for those not so familiar problems that I have seen and forgotten about in the past in the “how to” bookmark folder. It also means you can Google anything wherever you have an Internet connection!
I have it installed on my laptop, as I’m not sure how stable the extensions are in portable FireFox.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
http://adblockplus.org/en/
http://www.xmarks.com/

3) AngryIp Scanner
Angry IpScanner Logo
This IP scanner helps you scan a range of IP addresses that you define, Its amazingly helpful at tracking down routers, printers and other network kit that comes with DHCP setup by default. It lists the IP with the hostname next to it.

Can be run off a USB stick or installed. I generally have it on a USB stick. However keep in mind that overzealous Antivirus software may flag this up as a problem due to its nature.

http://www.angryip.org/w/Home

4) HijackThis
Malwarebytes Logo
HijackThis alongside http://www.hijackthis.de/ The website is a log file analyser, this will tell you from the log file that HJT creates what is good, bad and unknown files, registry keys and startup items. The app scans your hard disk and the website compares the log against the default options as well as what has been rated by users.

HijackThis can also be installed or run off of a usb stick. Which makes it very handy if the spyware stops you running from certain programs, you can just re-name the exe file and away you go!

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

5) NetStumbler
Netstumbler Logo
Is a wireless network sniffer, It helps establish the things that are causing your wireless problems. It tells you how many other networks in range are on the same channel, its signal strength, its encryption type as well as the signal degradation. Awesome bit of software, Never leave home without it when you don’t know where or what the problems you are going to be facing are!

There is a NetStumbler portable, however I do not think it is as up to date as the installable and I have never had much luck with the portable version.

http://www.netstumbler.com/

So that brings an end to the first top five, if you think there are other apps that should be on here or that I have missed let me know your thoughts!

Category: PC, Tech Stuff, Top Fives / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Internet Browsing

12/04/2011 / Rich / No comments

I use Firefox as my main browser, as do many other people in the world. However I have 3 Google email accounts that I use – My personal account, my work account and my own business account. Now these all play along nicely most of the time, until you need to login to the admin panel of one of the domains, or I need to login to one of the other Google domain accounts that I administer for other people and companies.

This then causes Firefox to throw a massive wobbly and the only way around it is to completely clear the cache, cookies and logins. Then you need to re-login in the correct order of accounts so that you get your iGoogle (which is only setup on one account) back.

I tried to use Internet Explorer (spit) as the browser that I used to login to the domain admin panels, however even with “delete browsing history on exit” button ticked, with all the options also ticked. For some reason it still kept me logged into accounts, which was a major pain when I needed to login to another account on another domain.

I tried Google Chrome however this didn’t have an option to clear the cache etc. on exit. Until I discovered the Click&Clean extension. This enables you to clear the browsing history and cache on exit. With the massive added benefit that it actually works!

So fair play to google (or actually www.hotcleaner.com) although unless something dramatically changes chrome will not become my main browser, but (for now) it is installed on both my machines.

Category: Me, PC, Tech Stuff / Tags: , , , ,

For Some Reason

11/04/2011 / Rich / 2 comments

Over the last few months, this blog (well richard-hickson.co.uk) has been attracting more hits from the US then it has the UK.

Stats

I’m not entirely sure why however seeing the above stats helpded me to make the decision to move to www.richardhickson.com, I believe there to be no issues moving things over to the new domain, however if you notice any problems leave a comment, send me a tweet or send me an email rich(@)richard-hickson.co.uk.

Ive also added google adsense to this site, in the hope of getting back some of the ever expanding bandwidth and hosting costs.

Thanks

Category: Tech Stuff, This Site /

Count down to San Fran

19/03/2011 / Rich / No comments

I’ve decided I’m going to lose some weight before I go to America for Stuarts wedding. So i registered on runkeeper.com and am appalled at my inability to even run around the block. I was knackered after ten minutes and had to stop.

Admittedly I hadn’t had a drink before I went and had had quite a boozy night last night so was quite dehydrated. But I’m not going to make excuses for myself; I currently weigh 220lb (or 15.7 Stone) I want to get this down to around 13stone.

So the plan of action is: a run three times a week, every week increasing the distance. My first run was today and I managed a measly 0.76 miles. This was when I was on the verge of passing out, drenched in lager smelling sweat. Having been appalled by my fitness level, it’s no wonder I didn’t enjoy my extremely short time playing football at the beginning of the season!

Needless to say, I’m documenting all activities on runkeeper.com and will give periodic updates on the new healthy me!

Category: Fitness, Me / Tags: , , ,

Results – At last!

10/03/2011 / Rich / No comments

I’ve had two massive results this week,

  1. Vodafone replaced my sure signal.
  2. O2 are replacing my sisters blackberry.

Vodafone Logo
The first result was achieved by simply cc’ing in the CEO of Vodafone (guy.laurence@vodafone.com) in an angry exchange with the Vodafone minions on their email support that takes the best part of a week to reply.

The angry email simply explained that after I had first tweeted them they advised me to use their support forum, the support forum then asked me to email them. The email exchange went on and on and resulted in me sending the below when they asked me to then phone them!

Hi Tony,

What other methods of communication would you like me to use? I’ve used your twitter channel, the customer service forum, email, and now you’re telling me to phone them? Shall I send a telegram and a postcard as well?

I shall be contacting watchdog about the rubbish customer service I have received and i have also CC’d the CEO of Vodafone UK.

Kind Regards

Frustratedly Yours

Rich Hickson

Needless to say, Mark Shaw from the CEO’s office called me promptly and within 3 working days of my angry email, I had a brand new SureSignal in my possession.

O2 Logo

The second result was a similar sort of thing. My sister had tried to get her almost brand new Blackberry Pearl 3G replaced under warranty after the charger port came out with the charger. O2 refused to fix it and actually sent it back with a lovely letter saying they basically couldn’t be arsed because it looks like its damaged! No Shit Sherlock!

So I slipped into email writing mode again, and fired off an email to Ronan Dunne – Chief Exec of O2 (ronan.dunne@o2.com) I didn’t have any account details for Liz. All I had was an aim, to get a new phone, a refund or the phone replaced. One politely worded letter explaining my sister’s distress, unhappiness, upset and a very strong feeling of being let down by O2 in the fact that they won’t repair a phone that’s under warranty.

A couple of days later, I received a phone call from a lady in the CEO’s office, who has organised a replacement blackberry to be shipped to my office tomorrow. We shall see if it turns up and they do as they have promised, but so far so good!

Now why does it take an email to the CEO to of companies to actually get a result? If people sorted this first time when it was logged then everything would be fine!

Category: Phones, Rants, Tech Stuff / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Rants

27/02/2011 / Rich / No comments

*Warning* my first post for a month and it’s going to be a big long and full of rant’s! *Warning*

PART1 – Fucking Vodafone Rant

#1 – Vodafone – Where on earth do I start? After posting this http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/06/08/vodafone-sure-signal/ and then following it up with a post here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/12/04/mobiles/ how much can things change in the space of six months?

My sure signal stopped working almost as I hit submit on the latest post. I contacted Vodafone about this first of all via twitter; they told me to log the problem on the support forum. Which I did, the support forum asked me a few questions, and then they told me to email support using the contact form on the website. This I also co-operated with and did.

I was expecting a quick turn around on this bearing in mind I have been passed from pillow to post. But no! I am now receiving an email from Vodafone about once a week asking me either some more questions or just fobbing me off.

Adding the shit service I’ve received personally to the awkwardness Vodafone gave us at work in moving 150 numbers from Vodafone to o2. I will not be renewing my contract with Vodafone when it finishes in July.

PART2 – IT Rants

Now I am meticulously tidy with my computer, some may even say a *slight/massive case of OCD (as posted here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/10/23/window-sizes-in-window-7/) However a few things are really pissing me off lately.

#2 – iTunes – Thee most annoying heap of shit software on the planet. Really fucks me off that you have to manage an iPhone using this software. When you update iTunes it changes your shortcuts (for example try pinning it to the start menu) Once you run the update its gone, now I don’t have only a few apps installed on my machine so to try and find the application again is a complete pain in the arse! Pinning a program to the start menu is just another fucking shortcut. Why not leave it there?

#3 – Adobe – This includes Reader and Acrobat! They are both a complete c*nt. Why on earth would you create programs that automatically create a shortcut on your desktop? Who on earth loads up adobe reader and then opens a pdf? Next to nobody I bet! That’s not to mention all the start-up entries and services they put into MsConfig.

#4 – Microsoft Word 2010 – Now this is one that is driving me mad when writing this post especially (I write all posts in MS word for spell checking.) The zoom, if you have word maximised and want the zoom at 100% it shows you two pages at once side by side, which I find very distracting. To get one page on its own at 100% you need to shrink the word window down. This is equally distracting if you have something open in the background that changes on its own accord – For instance TweetDeck, Facebook or even the windows 7 Wallpapers set to change of their own accord!

Now I know the first two may only be small rants, but when you’re so meticulously tidy with your computer, they need to be sorted out before I can carry on using it!

*Delete where appropriate

Category: PC, Phones, Rants, Tech Stuff / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Welcome Back

27/01/2011 / Rich / No comments

This on the other hand, actually put a smile on my face!

Category: Uncategorized /
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