Gareth's Blog

Jessica Hakner is fundraising for Cancer Research UK

2011-04-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

Jessica Hakner is fundraising for Cancer Research UK, please donate generously, everyone has been affected by cancer in some way during their life, help Cancer Research UK improve things for sufferers and their families.

Case-mate tough case for Nexus One review

2011-03-25T13:50:00.006Z

Last week I left the nice little neoprene slip case that came with my N1 on the train, so needed something else to protect my phone.

On the way home I stopped in Tesco and bought one of those phone sock things as a temporary measure, just to prevent scratches from stuff in my pockets. But ultimately, I was going to have to scour the internet for something better.

I Googled, eBayed and Amazoned and managed to find a good selection including ones from Otterbox and Seidio, a seller on eBay even had the original neoprene slips, but they were in Hong Kong and quoting 25 weeks for delivery! So after reading a few forums and looking at prices I settled on the case-mate tough case from Amazon for £6.95 (£9.15 after shipping costs).

Anyway, time I got to the case in point (see what I did there?), the case itself comes in 2 parts:

A silicone skin that wraps around the phone, this covers the volume and power buttons, still allowing them to be depressed but preventing the ingress of dust into the small cracks around them, there are molded cut-outs for the microphone and connectors at the bottom, the headphone jack at the top and on the rear there are openings for the camera, flash, speaker etc. The silicone does seem to get a bit of pocket lint stuck to it, however not as much as cheaper skins I have had, also, less of the silicone is exposed due to it being covered by the next part.

A hard textured rubbery plastic shell that clips easily around the phone and the silicone skin, this provides extra protection and is pleasant to hold.

In addition to the case, the package contains a microfibre cloth and screen protector that is easily applied with the kit provided.

One of the main things I was worried about was adding too much bulk to the phone, as I tend to keep it in my pocket rather than a holster like some executive cowboy. Fortunately this worry has been laid to rest, the phone doesn't feel noticeably heavier or bulked out due to the additional protection. I took some rough measurements to give an idea of how much it adds to the dimensions of the phone, it adds about 4mm to the height, 4.2mm to the width and 3.5mm to the depth which I was surprised by as it doesn't feel like that much.

Looks wise I went for the black + black model, mainly because it was the cheapest, however there are more colour combinations available, with silicone and hard shells coloured differently. The image below shows some examples:

From a protection point of view, I hope I never need to put it to the test, but the coverage is good, with the hard shell protecting against dents and scrapes, the silicone to soak up shocks it should survive a few drops. You can place the phone face down on a flat surface without the trackball touching the surface which is great if it lands like that.

Conclusion:
All in all a good case for the price, offering adequate protection without adding too much weight or bulk. I would recommend and will also consider another for my next phone.

Blogger application for Android

2011-02-24T17:38:00.001Z

This is a quick post to try out the blogger app for Android.

I'm sure the app didn't exist last time I checked. Oh well, it seems to work fine on version 2.3.2 (Cyanogen mod 7 RC1).

Taking close-up pictures using your mobile phone and a magnifying glass

2010-12-29T10:29:00.003Z

I have been experimenting with the camera on my phone and taking quite a lot of pictures. Some of the pictures have come out very well.
For example:

I have the cyanogen mod rom, which makes quite a few improvements to the Camera application, making it quicker, allowing for adjustments to brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness, adding a touch to focus option and HD video recording capabilities. I have also used Adobe Photoshop Express for Android [link source: appbrain] to edit photos that I have taken on my phone without needing to do so on a desktop/laptop. Like this one:

But I was wondering how I could get even closer. Then Christmas came and I had a Victorinox SwissCard Lite[link source: Amazon] as a gift:

I wondered what would happen if I took a picture while holding the magnifying glass over the lens of the camera, and it worked pretty well as a closeup lens, it does reduce the depth of field, but I think I might be able to get some decent pictures with it, here is a quick experimental shot:

I think with a stronger lens I might be able to get even closer, I plan to try and find an old broken CD or DVD player and take the lens out of that (having searched the web, I can see that this has already been done with some success) however I will be keeping an eye out for different types of lenses to try out, so watch this space.

Please feel free to let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas for lenses to try...

Oracle PL/SQL remove duplicates from a table

2010-11-25T08:31:00.002Z

If you have an oracle database table with duplicates in, and you want to remove said duplicates then you can use something like this:

DELETE FROM myTable
WHERE ROWID IN (SELECT LEAD(ROWID) OVER(PARTITION BY myColumn ORDER BY NULL) FROM myTable);

Replace myTable with the table name, and myColomn with the column that contains the duplicates.

There are other ways to do this, please feel free to list alternatives in the comments.

Hope this helps.

How to: Switch Ubuntu Netbook Remix (NBR) to the Desktop version easily (10.10 Maverick Meerkat)

2010-11-25T07:02:00.001Z

If, like myself you installed the netbook remix of Ubuntu, though it was great initially, but the novelty wore off, then don't worry, you don't have to re-install, you can switch to the desktop version by following these easy steps:

1. Bring up your applications using the netbook launcher shortcut on the left hand side.

2. In the search box, top left type "login", this should bring up a shortcut to the Login screen configuration app, launch it.

3. Select "Unlock" and authenticate using your password.

4. You will see a dropdown control with "Ubuntu Netbook Edition", select the dropdown and click "Ubuntu Desktop Edition".

5. Log out and log back in and you should now be using the Desktop version of Ubuntu.

Hope this helps someone somewhere in some way, shape, form or dimension.

Android - keep the screen on when charging

2010-09-14T23:05:00.002+01:00

If, like me, you sometimes prefer the screen on your Android phone to stay on when it is charging, for instance, connected to the USB port resting on your desk at work, then this is how you go about it:

1. Press the menu key
2. Select settings
3. Tap Applications
4. Then Development
5. Now tick the Stay Awake checkbox

You've finished. Now, when your phone is charging, you can tap the power button to turn the display on or off. This doesn't affect the display time out when the device is not charging.

That concludes my first blog post from my Google Nexus One.

Installing Spotify (and WINE) on Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition (updated)

2010-05-15T17:52:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone. I have just installed Ubuntu 10.04 on an Acer aspire one and wanted Spotify on it, so here is how to do it.

Download the Spotify Windows installer from here.

1. Goto the accessories panel and run terminal.

2. Enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine

3. Type winecfg. This will bring up the configuration dialog for Wine. Under the audio tab un-tick the ALSA driver and tick the EsounD driver (this fixes a problame with playback stopping randomly when you are listening).

4. Close terminal.

4. Goto Files & Folders and find the Spotify Installer you downloaded.

5. Right click it and select 'Properties'.

6. Goto the Permissions tab and check the 'Allow executing file as program' check box and ok / save those settings.

7. Right click and select 'Open with Wine Windows Program Loader'.

8. Just follow the installation procedure as normal, then you're done.

9. Listen to some music.

Happy listening. Hope this helps a few people.

Update:
A native Spotify client is available on Ubuntu 10.10+, but until they figure out a reliable way of showing adverts it is for premium users only, as their visual ads are flash based.

Anyway, if you would like that version here's how you can get the Spotify Linux Preview installed.

1. Open terminal via Applications > Accessories

2. In the terminal window, enter:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Type your password to authenticate.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the text file that opens and add the following line:

deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

5. Save the file and close the editor, then at the terminal window enter:

sudo apt-get update

6. Then enter:

sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt spotify-client-gnome-support

You should now have Spotify Linix Preview installed. [source: spotify.com]

Spotify music service, free account without an invite

2009-10-11T17:49:00.000+01:00

I found this site with information about getting a free Spotify account without waiting for an invite, so I thought I would translate it (using my own words) in to English.

1. First of all you will nee to copy this link "http://tinyurl.com/spotifykontoc" and go to it using "http://unblocker.biz/".

2. Fill in the information using "PO1 3AX" as your post code.

3. When you have submitted the information you will have a Spotify account, but you need to login here and update the post code.

4. Now all you need is the software, if you haven't got it already, you can get it here.

Happy listening!

Stop Digsby starting multiple times in windows

2009-10-11T17:35:00.000+01:00

After installing Digsby, without the adware, I noticed that it was starting up twice during windows start-up. There is a really easy work-around for this (until it's fixed).

Using file explorer or my computer go to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" and delete the shortcut to Digsby from here. The next time you re-boot, Digsby will only start the once.