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UPDATE: Dell Warranty Woes

webjames — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:38:29 +0000

Well I finally got my Dell Mini 10v back for the second time – Good news they did replace the screen that they scratched. Bad news is that they managed to crack the case in two places.

One:

Right bottom side of the inner bezel

Two:

Lid of the laptop

I have tried calling Dell, but it seems that there is some staff training going on today. I shall try again on Monday. I am going to try and speak not to technical support – as I feel I have given them ample chance to fix this, but to customer services to try and see what other options I have.

I’ll post updates as I get them.

Dell – Warranty repair troubles

webjames — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:43:40 +0000

My Laptop – what a sticky situation

A picture of the sticky mess on my 'new' trackpad

I purchased an in warranty Dell Mini 10v or Inspiron 1011 Laptop

The problems I was having were:

Sticking keys
Loose USB ports
and a non functioning trackpad

After getting it back from the Dell warranty department my problems were:

A scratch on the LCD screen
Thermal paste splattered across the keyboard
Sticking keys on the keyboard
A large amount of stick glue on the ‘new’ trackpad

Thermal paste on the keyboard and Dell logo, and scratches on the screen.

It’s now in the process on getting collected for the second time. I’ll update this post as things develop.

Guide: favicon.ico / favicon.png

webjames — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:53:51 +0000

How annoying is Internet Explorer!

twitter's favicon

One many IE quirks is the fact that IE doesn’t support a favicon in png format. Working with .png is easier than working with .ico files and .png offers a higher quality icon than the .ico. So here’s how to get the best possible favicon, but also supporting IE.

Firstly you’ll be creating two favicon’s, one in .png format, and one in ico format.

.PNG

For the png’s i use Photoshop, or Paint.
Ensure your image in 64×64 pixels.
Save as favicon.png

.ICO

For the ico I use a fantastic website: http://www.favicon.cc/
Draw out your icon, the click the download button below.
Note: You can preview your icon as you draw it on your own browsers address bar.

Inserting your icon

favicon code seen in Dreamweaver

In the section of your html file insert this code:

This assumes that the favicon files are in the same directory as your html file.

And that’s that. All non IE browsers will be served the higher quality .png, and IE users will get the .ico file.

Simple yet effective.

An email to Steve

webjames — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:58:47 +0000

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple

I Just sent this email to Steve Jobs at Apple, we’ll see if he responds:

Steve,
Will MobileMe’s pricing be changing soon reflecting the current market and recognising the free services offered from the likes Google Mail, Dropbox, and Microsoft’s Skydrive/Live services?

An Apple fan,
James

The point I was trying to highlight is that Apples MobileMe no longer offers any advantage over its competition. The only service which is not available free from Apples competitors is a way of locating your lost iPhone.

Mail, Contacts and Calendars

Me offers a way of synchronising your mail, contact and calendars across all of your devices. This is nothing unusual, both Microsoft’s Live Mail, and Googles Gmail offer these services for free.

The better way to share photos and files

MobileMe also allows for an easy way of sharing your photos using their Gallery service, however Google’s Picasa, and Yahoo’s Flickr allow you to do this with some limits for free. In the Case of Flickr going pro allows you to share an unlimited amount of full resolution images for around $25 a year.

iDisk is Apples version of Dropbox, or Skydrive in the case of Microsoft, offering 20GB of storage. 20GB would be good for a free service, Microsoft’s Skydrive offers 25GB of storage with their new SkyDrive. However if you want to use the Live Sync utility, very similar to Dropbox this is limited to 2GB. Live Sync and Dropbox both allow one to synchronise ones files into the cloud, then download them onto a number of devices. I use Dropbox, and it is seamless.

Me.com

Me.com is a personal website hosting service. Me.com ties in closely with Apples iWeb application so in that respect it is good, that is if you use iWeb.

Google offer their own version again for free, where users can design their website online, using a basic set of themes and tools.

Both services are aimed at amateurs and those who want to get something up on the web quickly and easily.

Cost

At $99 this service isn’t going to break the bank – BUT with a host of, in some cases, better services out there for free why pay?

Gmail offers nearly 8GB of storage.
Dropbox a free account with 2GB
LiveSync another 2GB
SkyDrive 25GB or storage for your photos and files
Flickr free account offers unlimited storage of photos and videos, but has a monthly upload limit and a resolution view limit.

Conclusion

To make Apples MobileMe platform more competitive Apple needs to bump up the storage. 20GB shared storage between all their services is not enough, certainly not enough for a paid service. it would also be nice if it could be used for off site backups by tying into Apples genius TimeMachine automatic backup and versioning system.

Things have really moved on in the last couple of years and I think Apple have dropped the ball on this one.

Happy Birthday Nikola

webjames — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:03:01 +0000

Nikola Tesla at age 40

Happy 154th Birthday Nikola Tesla!

Well who would have thought it – Europe’s rival to Edison is 154 today. Well he would have been if he were still alive.

But why do we still celebrate his birthday almost 70 years after his death?

The Tesla Coil

Thinking of the name Tesla one immediately thinks of Tesla’s most famous though not most important invention The Tesla Coil.

Nikola Tesla sitting in his laboratory in Colorado Springs circa 1900

Alternating Current vs Direct Current / Tesla vs Edison

So now in the story Tesla has moved from Serbia to the United States and began work for Edison, working making improvements to the design of Edison DC generators.

After Edison failed to pay Tesla for the work Tesla left Edison.

‘the war of the currents’

And so begins the war of the currents. The war of the currents was between AC, or alternating current, and DC, direct current. With DC being promoted by Edison, Tesla arch nemesis. Tesla himself, standing firmly in the AC corner.

AC had one major advantage over DC, and that was the distance it would travel along power lines, 100s of miles, where as DC could only travel a few miles. At the time DC was the only current that would power the current electric motors, this however would change upon Tesla’s work with rotary magnetic fields. Edison publicly campaigned against AC and Tesla, stating that AC was dangerous, and demonstrated killing various animals using the current.

By the 1900 Edison had lost the ‘war of the currents’ to AC and Tesla.

Other Works

The Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade, Serbia

I am a proud owner of a ticket stub to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, where I visited last year. It was there I was lead to believe that had some of his theory’s such as the ‘peace ray’, or flying machine Tesla would be a house hold hero to rival the likes of Edison and superman.

“superweapon that would put an end to all war”

Tesla’s Teleforce, or ‘peace ray’ worked on the premise that if both sides had a weapon of huge destructive force, neither side would attack fearing the consequences. So in a sense it was peaceful, but really it was a death ray. The museum lead me to believe that this was a reality, and had almost entirely been realised by Tesla, however this was not the case.

The ‘peace ray’ was only one of Tesla’s theories, here are some more below.

Tesla's Theories and Inventions

Tesla was indeed a busy man, and because of his exceptional life, inventing many wondrous, and sometime fantastical things he deserves a louder mention in the history of electricity. After all without his input into the development of alternating current where would we be today?

So let us remember Nikola Tesla – Happy Birthday!