Blog Marco

I love reading about DIY (Do-it-yourself) projects. In this project Michael Davis built his own laptop tray for his car. In his creative but “ghetto” idea he created a laptop tray out of PVC piping, wooden boards and a little ingenuity and hard work. Why did he do it? Davis does a lot of travelling in his car and travels to many estate sales and auctions. He also often brings along his laptop to keep in touch, and to check what things are worth before buying them at estate sales, yard sales or bidding in auctions. Michael Davis has a broadband access card for his laptop, so he can get online from anywhere.

Davis had always wanted a built-in laptop / notebook computer tray for his car. The commercially made units are pricey and through a little research he found that several models cost close to $300.

Use Firefox or Google Chrome. Screw Microsoft Explorer. Last week they pulled this advertisement featuring ex Superman actor Dean Cain in "O M G I G P Internet Explorer 8 Puke Vomit Girl"

I was looking at maintaining some excel databases and I needed to delete the first word from every row in a certain column in Microsft Excel. I imagined myself going through every cell and deleting the dratted word but I thought a macro could do that. Better yet there is an excel formula which you can program to get Excel to delete and remove the first word from a cell column/row or even the last word depending on what you need:

Code for deleting the first word in a cell in Excel:

=RIGHT(C2,LEN(C2)-FIND(" ",C2))

Code for deleting the last word in a cell in Excel:

=LEFT(C2,LEN(C1)-2)

Learn a few useful keyboard shortcuts for your Windows key button (Win-key). Hopefully this will help save you time.

Windows Key + D = Minimise all windows and return the you to the desktop.
Windows Key + M = Minimise all windows.
Windows Key + SHIFT + M = Undo the minimise.
Windows Key + E = Open Microsoft Explorer. Some keyboards have a dedicated button for the internet browser - which may save you one keystroke.
Windows Key + Tab = Cycle through open programs through the taskbar, then hit Spacebar to activate the program you want. (Only works if you have Aero turned on in Vista - alternatively in Pre-Vista versions you simply use your Alt-Tab to cycle through programs)
Windows Key + F = Display the Windows Search / Find feature.
Windows Key + CTRL + F = Display the search for computers window.
Windows Key + F1 = Display the Microsoft Windows help.
Windows Key + R = Open the run window.
Windows key + L = Lock computer (Make sure you know your computer password before you execute this)

Have you ever what secrets lie in a laptop battery pack? Well I asked myself that exact question. What is inside my laptop battery pack? Well this is it (see photo above and video below). The pack is just a bunch of AA cells in a tight configuration, soldered together and packed in with some circuitry. Yep, just inexpensive AA's in a plastic casing. Why am I interested in this? My laptop battery pack used to hold about 7 to 8 hours of charge for my laptop (unbelieveable? believe it - its for the legendary IBM Thinkpad X40). Now, after 4-5 years it can only hold about 1.5 hours. So its time to find a replacement (or I can open it up and replace the internal rechargeable AA's myself if I'm brave enough). But I think i'll pass - I don't want to risk putting in a battery backwards or risking explosion while soldiering lithium batteries together. Perhaps buying a generic brand replacement would be cheaper than buying the genuine battery part.

Don't get want to get data charges from using your Nokia 6110 / GPS Phone? Turn off AGPS (Assisted GPS). If this feature is left on - it allows you to receive a more accurate location. GPS determines your location by communicating with three or more satellites in orbit around the Earth. GPS works great AGPS in relatively clear areas, like the bush or the suburbs, but they are easily confused in city centres where signals bounce off the tall concrete and glass buildings. This is where AGPS steps in: assisted GPS, sends the little bits of GPS signal that it receives to an assistance server on the Internet. In the case of the Nokia 6110, Internet connectivity is via your mobile network, which is where the Internet data charges come in.

Who needs adccurate GPS readings? Don't get those stupid internet data charges on your mobile phone by simply following a few steps to turn off some features:

How cool is this? MGM is selling off their Stargate prop department piece by piece... I guess after they've shut down and cancelled productions for Stargate SG-1 after 10 seasons and Atlantis for 5 seasons they've reasoned that these props belong to the loyal fans. All auctions start from 0.99 cents but many of them end up at a few hundred dollars for a hunk of painted artificial metal or wood artifacts. But hey - its as close as you can get to the real thing - you can relive famous Stargate SG-1/Atlantis scenes. As I write this the Stargate SG-1 Props: Goauld Ribbon Device is at USD$690 or AUD$1,018.45.... with a bit under 5 days to go. I'm guessing it will fetch at least USD$2,000+? C'mon, this device is iconic in the Stargate universe... It has been with the franchise since the original Stargate movie (I think). And they say that's its the only one being offered in the eBay auctions. they say its a "Metallic Working Ribbon Device. The device is quite heavy as it’s metal that’s painted silver. It has a switch on the base that when turned on allows the device to be activated by a wireless remote. Using the remote the light on the bottom glows on and won’t turn off till the button is pushed again." If I had some spare cash lying around I would definitely buy this prop...

Ok, before you go messing around with your registry make sure you back up and know how to restore your registry just in case anything goes wrong. This Vista registry hack will show you how to turn off and finally get rid of that annoying User Access Control (or was it User Account Control? UAC) dialog box that keeps popping up. You've probably tried this: Open up Control Panel, and type in "UAC" into the search box. You'll see a link for "Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off".

After you've backed up your Windows Vista registry, open up the registry editor by clicking "Start" and "Search" for "regedit". Once found, open up that registry editor.

Use the "Find" function to search for this: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Then find the key for: ConsentPromtpBehaviorAdmin

Change the DWORD entry from 00000002 to 00000000.

Once you've made this simple change in your registry, you won’t be bothered by that annoying User Account Control (UAC) popup anymore. Good luck!

No I don't mean using your home printer to print out a whole book using your own ink and printer. I'm talking about walking into your local bookshop and printing up a book on the spot using a machine called an "ATM for books" by Time magazine. Even if the book is not on the shelves and is totally out of print - you can have it instantly. Angus & Robertson became the first Australian book chain to install the "Espresso Book Machine" (EBM) aka the "storymaker", capable of printing, trimming and binding a paperback book on demand within minutes. The bookshop chain has initially planned for several hundred out-of-print or difficult to get hold of books to be available, but Angus & Robertson said the range would expand daily, reaching 10,000 within 18 months. They would cost the same as the current shelf price of paperbacks or less, the retailer said. Which is great news as a typical Angus & Robertson shop can hold just more than the 20,000 physical books and it gives them a competitive edge against significant threats from online sellers such as Amazon.

Which mobile phone should I buy? Should I base my decision on the mobile phone model type or the cellphone plan and the amount of credit I get during the usual 24 month contract?

If I base my decision on what type of phone - which mobile phone type of function should I buy and look for? A Camera phone - mobile phone with camera as key feature, although there could be other fuctions like music player, but less advanced? Music phone - mobile phone with music playback capability as key feature, although there could be other functions such as camera / but less advanced? Multimedia phone - mobile phone with equally good functions of camera, music and video? Or a Smart phone - mobile phone with PDA like function?

If I base my decision on the mobile phone plan what numbers and costs should I look at? What will be my usage like? How many minutes will I be talking on the phone? How many SMS' will I send? How much credit will I need? Am I comfortable with a two year plan? What is my budget for a phone?

Useless gadget of the day: Vacuum Dustbin. Instead of sweeping up the dust into a dustpan and throwing it into the bin, have a bin which as a vacuum inside it suck the dust into it? Sounds like a good idea but really, its a waste of electricity and a waste of space. Just use the good old dust pan and broom. OR why don't you just use a vacuum cleaner? They were trying to sell this crap on http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/ today. I've actually bought junk from that website - novelty items that aren't worth a penny. RRP $150 for the vacuum, but they're having a fire sale and are selling it at a bargain basement price of $20.

I love the Thinkpad line... MacBook Air may look sexy but on a practical level, perhaps its a little ahead of its time.

Video details: Viral Video parody of the MacBook AIR commercial sales pitch of having the whole laptop into a yellow envelope, but then having to contend with various USB connections - a little over the top, but nowadays USB connections are used for Mice, Keyboards, Printers, external Hard Drives, Cameras, Memory stock readers... Thinkpad 1 vs. Mac Air 0

I'm a bit of a bicycle enthusiast. I enjoy riding my bike for exercise and leisure. I did the Spring Cycle in Sydney in 2006 and again last year. The Spring Cycle is a 50km public cycling event in Sydney held annually in October riding from North Sydney to Sydney Olympic Park. It's been a while since I gave the bike a clean: especially the most important part of the bicycle: the gears and the chain. So now I have to learn how to lubricate my bicycle chain. And from my research and asking around (thanks to the helpful guys at the bicycle shop Cheeky Transport.)

So what grease do you use to lube a bike chain?

Did you know that a lot of our news are produced from News Releases? Some are pure news like reports from government and things. Some are commercial. You may be being sold a product without your knowledge. I was reading through the paper and I found probably the most unconvincing story which most probably originated from a press release. I thought they were going to talk about cycling around Vietnam but really they're selling some tech gear. Screw them. (Although for disclosure I do own a FreeAgent drive which does a pretty good job, but I own a JVC HD Camera and not the Sony HD cam as advertised by the article)

In March last year, documentary filmmaker David Smith had no intention of following 30 cyclists from one end of Vietnam to the other perched on the back of a motorbike.

But two weeks later, armed with a digital high definition camera and no script, that's exactly what he and his son Denby were doing.

This story sounds like something straight out of SciFi (Science Fiction). These mad European scientists have created a labratory which can potentially create a black hole (probably a 0.0000001% chance) and destroy all of Earth in the process. I say: go ahead... it'll be so cool to see a black hole in our lifetime!

A giant particle accelerator that mimics the effects of the Big Bang could destroy all life on Earth by sucking it into a black hole, a lawsuit claims.

Walter Wagner, who runs a botanical garden on Hawaii's Big Island, and Luis Sancho of Spain have asked for an injunction to prevent the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) starting up its Large Hadron Collider.

The accelerator, which will be the world's most powerful particle smasher, is due to begin hurling protons at each other at its base outside Geneva this northern summer.

Physicists hope the device, which has taken 14 years and $8.7 billion to build, will provide clues to the universe's origins by mimicking its condition one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Technology + Gadgets | 1 comment | read more »

Submitted by Marco on Wed, 02/04/2008 - 8:30am.