RicRac Developments

ITV Player for Samsung SMART TV

2012-10-02T04:46:00.002-07:00

I have just downloaded the new ITV Player for my Samsung SMART TV, the menu system works well and I can see the programmes available, but when I select a programme to watch a progress clock appears in the top right hand side of the screen and then the TV switches itself off! I've tried a few times and it keeps happening, I think I will have to wait for ITV to fix an obvious issue with their app.

Canon 650D at John Lewis

2012-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have been looking around for a while for a decent DSLR camera, after reading reviews I was looking at either the Canon 550D or the Nikon 3200. Then I saw that Canon had released the Canon 650D, reading the reviews of this camera I decided it was either this our the Nikon 3200. I went to John Lewis to have a play with these 2 cameras and after taking some shoots was much happier with the Canon, the Nikon 3200 seems much cheaper (as is), but the Canon ticked all the right boxes.

When it came to price John Lewis sold the camera for £620 with a 18-55mm lens and a camera bag, this was a deal up to September 26th. I could not make it to the shop before this date and thought I did not mind missing out on the camera bag, but the day after they did not include the bag and they put the price up to £650. Is this some sort of price adjustment to get rid of the Canon 600D, have they put the price up so they can later add a better discount? I don't know. Hopefully I will find a good place to buy this camera soon

Delphi RAD Studio XE3 now available

2012-09-04T05:04:00.004-07:00

Delphi XE3 has now been released. This version of the software development suite now supports Windows 8 and Mountain Lion for the Mac. This version does not include the ability to develop mobile apps, but it will come later, which will allow users to develop apps for iOS (iPhone, iPad) and for Android devices.

I am looking forward to having a closer look at XE3 in the near future.

Here is a link to the preview site
RAD Studio XE3

Open plan offices are bad for software development

2012-09-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

I work as a software developer and last year I moved job to an open plan office, which I thought was a good idea as I suffer from claustrophobia and did not like working in my previous office as it was completely enclosed with no outside windows, which cause some anxiety. Since I have moved to the open plan office there are some advantages and some disadvantages, particulally relating to my job role.

Advantages
1) The main advantage of my current office is that it has windows and a nice view.

2) It is easy to see if someone is in, although with using MS Lync you know if someone is available to talk.

3) More people on the same floor space. Putting separation between offices and corridors takes up more floor space.

4) Easier to change office layout. It makes it easier to move desks to a different configuration.

5) Can be an advantage if the manager is also in the ofice, they get a better feeling of how the office and staff are operting rather than being in their own office.

Disadvantages
1) The main disadvantage is the amount of noise, being a software developer you need to be able to concerntrate for long periods of time, up to 30 minutes if you are working on something complex. Constaint noise and people talking and even shouting causes breaks in concentration. This means a reduction in efficiency and a more likelihood of errors to occur.

2) Air conditioning causes confrontation between employees. People do like different conditions and temperatures, air conditioning is difficult to get right when there are only a couple of people in the room, but when there are over 30 there is more chance that someone will what it cold and some want it warm.

3) Lighting is similar to air conditioning, some people like it bright and some light it dark.

4) Less wall space, means you have less area to hang white boards and information. Currently where I work my team are in the centre of the office and have a very small area at one end (1.5m wide) to hang information on projects.

5) Video conference and calls are harder work because of the surrounding noise.

I conclusion open plan offices may work for certain industries and types of work, but I do not believe they are a productive environment for software development.

Excel 2007 problem printing fix

2012-02-09T05:10:00.000-08:00

Recently I have had problems printing spreadsheets from MS Excel 2007, the print preview worked fine but when the spreadsheet was printed out parts of the document were missing. After some research I found the problem was due to a Windows update (KB2596596). Removing this update fixed the problem.

PS3 Getting 3D working with TV

2012-01-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

I recently got a Sony PlayStation 3 and was impressed with the picture on my Samsung TV while playing some games, I also received Tron 3D on Blu-Ray, when I tried to view this it said it was not connected to a 3D TV, but it was. The solution after looking on the net was that the cable that ships with the PS3 is not the correct one for 3D TVs, you will need to purchase a special HDMI cable designed for 3D TVs, I would recommend this as it also improves the picture quality of normal viewing. Expect to pay around £40 ($60) for a good cable. I have seen the Sony HDMI cable for sale at £20 from Sainsbury supermarkets.

Security Shield - How I managed to remove this nasty fake program

2011-12-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

Security shield is a fake anti-virus program that tries to get your credit card details by displaying a well designed and professional looking screen that tries to sell you it's fake software by listing viruses that it finds on your PC which do not actually exist. This is a very nasty virus, which after looking at solutions the way that worked for me to remove it from a Samsung NC10 was to do a CTRL+ALT+DEL while the screen was displayed and locate the .exe that was running, this will be some random letters followed by .exe. Once I located the name of the file I search the registry ('regedit' command from the run menu) for this file, and deleted any reference to it. After restarting the PC everything seemed to work fine and was back to normal.

Samsung Smart TV - The Good and The Bad

2011-12-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have now owned a Samsung D6530 LED Smart TV for over 3 months now. I really like the Smart TV option which connects to the internet via my wireless router, here are my views so far with the applications available on the Smart TV option:
1) BBC iPlayer is great, it is the app I use most and works exactly how I want it too, this is so far the best app.
2) You Tube, this is one of the worst apps I have used and it is better to access You Tube from the internet option rather than using the app.
3) Love Film would be good but I decided to cancel the subscription because the choice of films was very limited.

So far the biggest issue I have come across using the Smart TV option is that I need a keyboard for using the internet.

I would like more TV companies like ITV and Channel 4 to bring out apps like iPlayer for the Samsung TVs.

Samsung NC10 battery problem temporarily fixed

2011-10-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

The battery on my Samsung NC10 has gone again, I think this must have fixed the problem temporarily, but after a few weeks the problem has occured again, I think the only real solution to this problem is to buy a new battery.

Samsung NC10 Battery Problem Fixed

2011-10-01T01:16:00.000-07:00

I have owned a Samsung NC10 netbook for the past 2 years, a couple of weeks ago I tried to use it and it was dead, I plug it into the power supply and left it to charge for a couple of hours. I then disconnected it from the mains and tried to switch it on, it tried to start up but after a couple of seconds went dead. I then connected it to the mains power supply again and it worked fine. The battery manager reported 0% charge, and on the front the green light was displayed, so I figured there was a problem with the battery.

The netbook was out of warranty, but I still tried calling Samsung customer support, they were very helpful and we tried a couple of things to fix the problem, but the conclusion was that I needed a new battery. From the link Samsung support gave me to a retail site a new battery would cost about £70 ($100).

I heard somewhere that putting the battery in the freezer might help, I was not sure whether I was getting this confused with rumours that this fixes damaged hard drives, but I thought I would give it a go. I put the battery in newspaper and in a plastic bag and left it in the freezer over night. The next day I took it out of the freezer let it stand for an hour, then tried it. Nothing happened and it did not work, so I thought that's it I need a new battery.

I left the battery on the side for a week, until the following weekend. I was about to look at purchasing a new battery when I thought I would just give it a go again. I started the netbook up without the battery plugged in and with it connected to the mains power supply, I then plugged in the battery and was surprised to see the red light on the front instead of the green, which indicated it was charging. I left it for a couple of hours and when I came back I could unplug the mains power supply and it worked!!!

I still think there is a problem because it seems to report 99% power now, but I can use my netbook without having to plug it into the mains power supply and this also saves me £70 for a new battery.

I cannot say whether putting it into the freezer was part of fixing this problem, or whether just unplugging the battery and leaving it for a week helped, but something weird happened that has fixed the problem.

Sysbase Advantage Database - Using triggers to keep a history

2011-09-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote an article about how to use triggers to keep a history of changes made to database records. This is very useful is you want to keep a trail of record changes for example I have used this to keep a trial of stock and where stock has moved from and to, also keeping a history of what has happened to a customer's order. I think most commercial databases would benefit from doing this and because it is done at the database end it means that once it is done it will always keep a history rather than writing logging into software applications. Click here to go to the article.

iPad - How to take a screenshot of the display

2011-08-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

While doing developments for the iPad it is often a user will report an issue or make a request. I've found that asking them to take a screenshot an emailing it a very useful tool on the iPad. To take a screenshot just follow these steps.

Press and hold down the home button, this is the button on the front of the iPad.
Press the power button on the top, this will cause the screen to flash confirming the screenshot has been taken.
Go into 'Photos' and you should see the image of the screenshot allowing you to email the image.

Samsung D6530 LED TV Review

2011-07-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a Samsung D6530 40 inch TV for roughly £750. The TV was delivered in a slim large box which was packaged well. The TV was quick to setup which took about 20 minutes, and required just a phillips screw driver.

The TV is very slim and the edge of the picture to the edge of the TV is very small both approx width of a thumb. The TV is supplier with a good quality brushed steel stand, I was glad not to get the black glass one.

Once I had connected the correct cables I switched the TV on and it soon tried to connect to my wireless router, I entered the password and it downloaded the latest software updates. After the TV had updated the software and restarted I started to play around with it. The TV picture is very impressive and could easily see it was better than other TVs I had seen recently, because it is LED I thought the black colour in the picture was very black. The HD channels looked great and there is a clear difference between HD and the normal channels. The sound is good but nothing special, I think I might look into connecting an additional sound system to it.

The TV is 3D so I bought some glasses, I believe this is a technology that needs improving, but compared to the cinema is OK. There is an option to convert standard 2D pictures to 3D, this option varies depending on the programme you are watching, but generally I think I will not be using this.

What I was most impressed with apart from the great picture is how it connects to the internet and my PC. Samsung have something they call Smart Hub, this opens a screen with loads of options. There is a panel that displays your apps similar to Apple products. There are various Apps like You Tube, BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Skype and Twitter that come pre-installed, out of these I think the most impressive is the BBC iPlayer app. The Smart Hub also gives you the option for something they call AllShare, which allows you to connect other devices to the TV wirelessly. I installed Samsung's PC Share Manager and selected the directories I wanted to see and started the server. I then went downstairs and there was a message on the TV saying that it could see the server, I could then play videos, music and pictures that where located on my PC on my TV wirelessly, which I think is very clever.

In conclusion I think my new TV is great, here is a list of pros and cons:
Pros - Fantastic picture, very slim, easy to use, internet connectivity.
Cons - 3D is OK but not great, remote control feels a little cheap.

Specifications

400 Hz
Resolution 1920 x 1080
Built in Wi-Fi
4 HDMI
USB 2.0 x 3
Freeview HD
3D with 2D to 3D conversion
Dimensions - width = 1248mm, height = 805mm, depth = 30mm max

News of the World rebadged to Sun On Sunday

2011-07-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

News of the Worlds owners News International are clearly planning planning on continuing producing a similar Sunday newspaper. They last week bought the SunOnSunday.co.uk and TheSunOnSunday.co.uk domain names so will really just rebadge the News of the World. It will be interesting how long News International will wait before producing the new Sun on Sunday newspaper.

How to report software bugs

2011-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have written an article about how users should report software bugs, here is a basic summary.

1) Do not leave out any facts.
2) Remember more information is always better than less.
3) When an error occurs, stop what you are doing and write down as much information as possible.
4) Make sure it is an error and not a feature.
5) Be very specific on what windows and buttons are pressed.

Click here to link to the full article

WordPress blog links not working

2011-07-07T05:11:00.001-07:00

On one of my wordpress blogs, all of a sudden the links to the blog articles did not work. Looking at the URL of the link it was adding a '/%' to the end of the URL. The way to fix this problem is to go into the 'Permalink' setting of the blog and change it. For some reason the setting had changed to custom and added a '/%' to the end of the URL.

Using iPad / iPhone as remote mouse

2011-06-16T02:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been doing some development work on the iPad and iPhone, while doing this I started thinking of ideas for my own App. One of the ideas was that the iPad touch screen works very similar to my MacBook's trackpad, but is larger, so I thought it would be great to be able to use my iPad as the trackpad for my MacBook, my first thought was how it would communicate between the devices and I thought Bluetooth was the solution. Someone has already beaten me to this idea and come up with an App that does this, it is called 'Remote Mouse', if you do a search in the App Store you will find it. You will also need to go to their web site and download the software that needs to be installed on the computer, it can also be installed on a PC. It does not use Bluetooth but uses WiFi, it is a clever app and I am glad I did not spend much time looking into developing one.

iWeb problem with jQuery

2011-06-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

I recently produced a web site using iWeb on the Apple Mac, it was a quick and easy way of producing a basic web site, which looks good. I wanted to make a couple of changes to it and have a couple of paragraphs expand when a user click a caption. To do this I used jQuery (innerfade), which I have used on other web sites, I found that jQuery conflicts with the iWebSite.js. To get around the problem I did the following:
<script type="text/javascript">
var $j = jQuery.noConflict();
$j(document).ready(function(){....
</script>
Using noConflict fixed the problem and the fade worked fine.

iPad Point of Sale Pros and Cons

2011-02-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

I have written an article on my main web site about using the iPad for point of sale (POS). Click here to see the article which gives some of the pros and cons of using this device.

Don't take iPhone Skiing

2011-02-23T04:49:00.001-08:00

I just read an article which says that iPhones do not operate below 0ºC, and Apple refuses to repair any phones which have breached this specification. In the UK in the winter months it often is below 0, this does mean that if your car break down or if there is a problem and you are stuck in the snow you are not meant to use your iPhone. This also means that you should not use your phone while skiing, this could be a safety issue as I believe having a working phone on the mountain to be a good thing. Last time I went skiing myself and other people did use there iPhones (3Gs) in below 0 conditions without any problem so this could be an iPhone 4 issue. Other phone companies like Sony allow operational use to -20ºC, I think it would be a good idea for Apple to produce a phone that can be used confidently in below 0 conditions.

Freeware Stopwatch App

2011-02-23T04:17:00.000-08:00

There is a freeware stopwatch application available from RicRac under the following link:
Freeware Stopwatch

This includes the following features:
- Start, Stop and Reset timer.
- Countdown timer.
- Minimises into the system tray.

This application is available for Windows.