Archive for the ‘Computing’ Category

Computer Clean-Up

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Quite Literally!

Often I get the odd computer/laptop to fix/install/upgrade etc. As Part-Of-The-Service™ I usually give it a physical clean too. Today’s specimen was particularly grotty: marked, finger dirt, sticky label) etc. With my “cleaning kit” I managed to get rid of it all and return it to a fairly respectable MacBook that someone else would be happy using.
 cleaning_kit.jpg
In the kit: 
  • Monster iClean (screen cleaner and microfibre cloth)
  • Maplin Label Remover (great stuff for taking sticky labels off virtually anything)
  • Ambersil’s Amberclens anti-static foaming cleaner (the real heavy-lifter here)
  • Cloth
  • Glass scraper handle with blade
Before and After:
keys_dirty.jpg
keys_clean.jpg

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Moving Blog?

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Wordpress LogoWell, I’ve only just started blogging and I’m looking dump our current blog platform! First of all though, I’m pretty impressed with Wordpress (the software we’re currently using) in its multi-user configuration. But I thought that I’d play the field a little and take a look at Movable Type LogoMovable Type: Wordpress’ main competitor I guess. Of course for folks looking on from the comfort of your office, living room or study, then all you need care about it how it looks — and that’s down to themes that people generously create in their spare time. But I’m a little more interested in how it performs “under the hood” both in performance terms but also user administration.
I must have spent a good three hours tonight getting Moveable Type configured on my Mac. Many build errors. As a little aside, if you’re looking to install this on a Mac you might find the following references helpful to save you the time that I’ve spent!
http://jayallen.org/journey/2006/04/dbd-mysql-build-problems-on-mac-book-pro
http://lists.mysql.com/perl/4018
http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/ (if you want Atom support)
So I got it up-and-running, and to be honest I wasn’t that impressed. I downloaded the beta version of their new version 4 and it looks much better, but it’s beta and I’ll not be running that on a production machine. So the bottom line is that we’re keeping Wordpress for the time being and once Moveable Type 4 moves out of beta I’ll take another look.
At least now I’ll invest some more quality time in some widget- and plugin-hunting for Wordpress to enhance(!) your end-user experience!

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iPhone

Friday, July 6th, 2007

iPhoneWell, this object of desire finally launched in USAmerica* this week. Most of the news that I read about it cites how folks are trying to break it. Either:

I just look forward to it being over here. That is, in Europe. Hopefully it’ll be iPhone v2 with all the bugs fixed and with 3G cellular data transmission. The USAmericans* have only “2.5G” versions of the iPhone with speeds only one-tenth that of 3G. I imagine that Apple will announce the 3G version and a European launch date exactly 30 days after the USAmerican* launch last week. Coincidentally 30 days corresponds to the warranty return period of the 2.5G iPhone of which Apple reportedly sold 500,000 in the last week.
Finally, who will be the sole UK provider of the iPhone? Vodafone rumors were rife in the last few weeks, but O2 have apparently come in as a late contender. Either way, it looks like I’m changing networks at Christmas time unless the two fruits can come up with what surely must be the most sought-after campaign for any advertising agency: Apple and Orange.
* Incidentally I notice that America has now become USAmerica in books and periodicals (at least the ones I read). I assume this is at the insistence of other North Americans, say for example, Canadians who want to make sure that a clear distinction is made.

Posted in Apple, Computing | 2 Comments »