Ever since I worked back on the helpdesk all those years ago [...]]]>

An all too common occurrence… Students have lost their thesis, major work or other assignments as they left their USB key in a computer lab or have suffered at the hand of data corruption (or even as I have done once, human stupidity).

Ever since I worked back on the helpdesk all those years ago where floppy disks and (dare I say it) ZIP disks were the rage, I have seen many cases of students losing their form of portable media and many hours work. Another case I see all too often is that form of portable media becoming corrupt or accidentally erased and once again a student losing enough time and effort to bring even the roughest and toughest blokes to tears.

So today I want to ask EVERY SINGLE UNIVERSITY STUDENT OUT THERE to supplement your portable media with a free account from Dropbox. Free accounts come with 2GB of online storage where you can store your files and transfer them between home and uni.

The key benefits of Dropbox include:

• You can’t lose the storage medium (save forgetting your account details) which means no more signs like this one up around uni begging for the return of a lost USB thumbdrive.
• Dropbox stores historical versions of a file so if you ever accidentally upload a corrupt version you can get the previous copy back so you have not lost all your work.
• You can sync Dropbox between devices such as the iPhone, iPad, home/work computers and so on to ensure that you can access your files anywhere and they will automagically be kept in sync.
• Files can be accessed straight from the web without having to download any special software while you are at uni
• Lastly you can created shared folders with your other group partners to share files that you are working on, no more emailing 30 copies around and forgetting which one is the most recent, just go to Dropbox and access the latest version or upload a new one. The version history is also a blessing for those doing group work after someone deletes a section which you worked immensely hard on and want to get back (can you tell I have experienced this one personally).

So please, save my sanity and do away with your USB thumbdrives, USB Keys, flashdrives, floppy disks, ZIP disks, and any other form of medium that can easily be lost and/or corrupted. A little time spent after each hard study session uploading your documents can save you many tears down the track and it is easy and most of all FREE!

I will happily admit that I am throwing in a referral link here so I can try to get some more free space on Dropbox… why, because I use it every day. So if you don’t have an account sign up for one today and protect your uni work.

To sign up to Dropbox and give me a few hundred extra free MB as a referral click here.

If you wish to visit Dropbox without giving me a freebie click here.

Stuart

(if you have read this far I congratulate you… I just wanted to say if anyone IS still using floppy disks or ZIP disks for storing essential (read ANY) data then I will cry)

Less than a week after [...]]]>

Recently I purchased 1Password for Mac as I now have my shiny new Apple MacBook Pro laptop. I have been an avid user of 1Password for quite some time now on my iPhone, iPad and windows PC so therefore it was a natural step to purchase it for the Mac.

Less than a week after purchasing 1Password a mate pointed me to an online deal where I could get a package of apps including 1Password that were all bundled together, however I was at a loss as I had just purchased the app a few days prior.

However after contacting Agile Support and speaking to Mike they were more than happy to issue me a refund for the original purchase so that I could purchase the app (indirectly mind you, from another company) at a discount. I can also happily say that Mike said “You made my day with your kind comment. ” as to the thank you email that I sent, so I can happily say that I made his day as he did mine.

I have to say… bloody exceptional support, they could have said no (and in fact were quite within their right to, I only contacted them on the offchance) however I can happily say they did me a wonderful favour and can not only regard 1Password as a great tool but also that they have wonderful support.

Stuart

However I do have one gripe. My [...]]]>

Last month PC Authority, which is now known as PC & Tech Authority released an iPad app which provides an electronic version of their magasine. For those of us that have iPad’s and have been craving some form of electronic version can now enjoy it to it’s fullest.

However I do have one gripe. My print subscription is coming to an end (I thought it was last month however it looks like I got the February edition of the magasine as well) and I noticed something quite disturbing. For the last few days I have been eagerly checking the PC Authority iPad app for the latest edition of the mag, much to my dismay I have still not seen it.

After going over to my folks place (where my paper edition of the mag is delivered) and realising that in fact the paper version of the mag was out some time last week I became disheartened. I cannot believe in this day an age that for something they are promoting so heavily, the paper version of the magasine is still released well before the electronic version.

What got my blood boiling even more as I read through the paper edition was the following image… (which for the record has the iPad application showing the February edition of the mag, which is still unavailable on the iPad itself) Nuff said I guess. I hope that PC Authority can pick up the game a little on release schedules. I realise it is early days but you would think this is one thing they would be trying to focus on especially around this time of the year.

Update: I can happily say that I just received the following email from Sam Grimmer who is the Creative Director at Haymarket Media. Awesome to see such a fast response.

Stuart

Hi Stuart
 Thanks for your mail. Just wanted to let you know that the Feb iPad issue is going
 to be available in the the next 36 hours. The delay is simply a function of Haymarket
 Media closing for the Christmas break. The print edition was sent to press on the very
 last day of last year and for reasons of quality control we produce the iPad edition in
 the week following the print deadline ie; while the mag is being printed and distributed.
 In this case, the break pushed the iPad production week back until the new year.

 

 All other iPad editions of PC&TA throughout the year will be available on the
 magazine's onsale date as you would expect. The only alternative for us would have
 been to delay the onsale date of the mag until now to guarantee a twin release.

 

 Thanks for your feedback Stuart. Clearly it would have been useful for us to state
 the Feb release date in the ad you refer to. I'm glad you are so keen to see the
 iPad edition!

 

 Best regards and feel free to send me your thoughts on the iPad edition. It's an
 exciting extension of our magazine and we will be adding more features and exclusive
 iPad content as we move forward.

 

 Best regards

 Sam Grimmer

To that end I thought I would take the chance to do a little bit of a roundup on how [...]]]>

Image Copyright by Apple, All Rights Reserved

Recently I attended the Asia Pacific Blackboard Summit 2010 in Cairns which was the first conference I had attended where I had my shiny new iPad with me.

To that end I thought I would take the chance to do a little bit of a roundup on how my iPad held up during the conference and my thoughts surrounding its usefulness as a tool for the professional at a conference. Prior to me getting too far into it I would like to say that I am writing this article after choosing to use my laptop as little as possible through out the conference so this article really is targeted at detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the iPad rather than a comparison between a laptop and the iPad.

Outline of my minimum requirements for connectivity during the conference:

1. Access work email and calendar as well as personal email and calendar
2. Provide basic remote support for any issues at the office
3. Take notes during the conference and meetings if required
4. Provide sufficient battery life to stand up to regular and at times constant use throughout the day without a recharge
5. Let me keep in contact with the rest of my life on a personal level such as Facebook, forums, reading the online news papers and so on and so fourth

Having said that there were a couple of additional nice to haves which, while not required, I wanted a device to satisfy which included:

• Entertain me on the flight to and from the destination (three hour flight)
• Provide entertainment during “slow” periods at the conference
• Enable me to do a bit of blogging if the chance arose
• Provide the ability to tweet through out the conference when such an appropriate time presented itself.

Interesting points I discovered:

1. I *had* to use my laptop once during the conference to do some advanced remote support for the office, this was things that could not be done on the iPad
2. The battery life on the iPad is spectacular, I put it through its paces for an entire day at the conference, then the three hour flight back home and still had 40% battery life remaining
3. The iPad is not built for extremely heavy use of the browser, if you attempt to open more than 3 tabs in the browser at most you are likely to get the message saying you are running low on the battery
4. There are a few applications which are immensely useful for the professional on the road which are outlined further below.

Applications I recommend:

• Evernote – A note taking application (which includes voice recording among with a lot of other features). Also provides the ability to easily sync the notes with your desktop when you are back at the office.
• LogMeIn – An application to have remote access to computers back in the office/home, obviously requires some prior setup to be completed so that the computers will be accessible.
• Twitter – The new twitter app available, nice and swish and worked like a dream.
• iSSH – For remote access to my webserver

In future will I leave my laptop at home and take an iPad in its place?

Personally, for a three day conference I would have no qualms in doing so. When it comes down to the punch however it would depend on a condition dictated by the workplace. If there was even the remote possibility that advanced remote support would be required there would  have to be a full fledged computer close by (such as a business lounge) or if a workmate had a laptop that would suit as well, otherwise I would still have to take the laptop.

For a three day conference I was quite content to keep in touch with the world through my iPad, granted when I was in my room I used my laptop a couple of times, but anything I wanted to do I could have easily done on the iPad without breaking a sweat.

Granted this is just one guys opinion but I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed with how the iPad held up over the three days. And I was stoked that I did not have to worry about the battery life, in fact it was the one thing that I was utterly surprised with in just how long the battery held up. I do apologise that I do not have specific timings but the usage tab of the iPad does not say how long the iPad has been in use for like the iPhone does.

I welcome your thoughts and questions on how you use the iPad (or similar) in place of a laptop at conferences.
Stuart

After trying several plugins (of which I have paid for and a lot really didn’t work) I have found one that I wanted to recommend in the hope that I can save others time [...]]]>

Integrating WordPress and Joomla is not an easy feat and it has taken me over three weeks to find this solution.

After trying several plugins (of which I have paid for and a lot really didn’t work) I have found one that I wanted to recommend in the hope that I can save others time and money. CorePHP has developed a custom version of WordPress that hooks directly into Joomla. The WordPress Sidebars are added as Joomla modules and the custom installation comes with a default theme that with a little tweaking should be able to fit into any Joomla theme.

You can see my integration on my Eccentric Reality Photography Blog, at this stage there are a couple of issues in IE due to my lack of skills in CSS but I am looking into fixing that shortly. I have decided not to turn on the categories syncronisation between Joomla and WordPress as I like to keep them separate however it is there as an option for those that would like.

So, if you are looking to try to get a WordPress blog into a Joomla site I can happily save you time and money and say that CorePHP’s WordPress Integration is well worth the $75USD. It takes them a little longer to update when a new WordPress version comes out, but the integration really does just work.

I do have to say you will need some CSS skills to modify it to suit your Joomla theme but that issue is going to arise for any type of integration between the two.

So, my hat goes off to CorePHP and I thank them for designing a solution that has stopped me from pulling my hair out.
Stuart

So rather than typing this post I decided that it would be appropriate to instead Dictate this post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Up [...]]]>

I sit here at my desk at home, using one of the wonders of modern technology. In order to assist me with my studies at University I recently obtained Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard Edition.

So rather than typing this post I decided that it would be appropriate to instead Dictate this post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Up until now I have spent around five hours training Dragon NaturallySpeaking and at this point I have to admit that I am quite happy with both the responsiveness and the accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

At this stage I’m still training the application to become used to my writing style as well as my personal language style, so as I Dictate more the application appears to be a learning to adapt to my speech patterns and become more accurate.

For sheer enjoyment I will probably write the majority of my posts using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for quite some time. The more that I can Dictate with the application of that will get (or so they tell me).

So for now I think I will sign off on my first post, and look forward to playing more.

Stuart