03 June 2011
02 June 2011
FREE Android Apps
[ UPDATE: apparently the app access is restricted in South Africa so if anyone is willing to try this fix or this one please let me know if it works and I'll credit you for your pioneering tendencies ;)
END OF UPDATE]
I'm a bit of a fan of ANDROID even though I don't yet own an ANDROID device (note, I said "yet").
There was recently a special on at Amazon that allowed any ANDROID owner to get a free "Plants vs. Zombies" download - not sure if it worked outside of the US, but it was a great offer (saving you around $3).
Since I'm a big fan of free, I decided to include a link to the current list of FREE games available for ANDROID users. Please comment below if these work for South African users if you try them out?
Click here to go to the free Android Apps (as far as I can tell, they're free ;))
END OF UPDATE]
I'm a bit of a fan of ANDROID even though I don't yet own an ANDROID device (note, I said "yet").
There was recently a special on at Amazon that allowed any ANDROID owner to get a free "Plants vs. Zombies" download - not sure if it worked outside of the US, but it was a great offer (saving you around $3).
Since I'm a big fan of free, I decided to include a link to the current list of FREE games available for ANDROID users. Please comment below if these work for South African users if you try them out?
Click here to go to the free Android Apps (as far as I can tell, they're free ;))
30 May 2011
A friends' burden
A friend that I grew up with (we were born around the same time, went to the same schools, had brothers the same age that were also friends, etc.) has just given birth to a little baby boy today at 8:19am. It's her third baby and also third son.
Usually this wouldn't be something to blog about since most people at some stage of life have kids.
In my friend's case, however, her experience is something altogether unique and altogether heartbreaking.
Near the beginning of her pregnancy she and her husband learned that their child would be born with a severe heart defect that would mean he wouldn't survive. They were faced with the agonising choice of whether or not to accept the medical prognosis and keep the pregnancy or to terminate.
There are going to be people that argue for both options and in every case there will be a moral justification for it. Having been through a similar circumstance and having faced the same decisions to make I can appreciate how difficult it is to even have to be considering those options you previously thought were never going to be options. I know our personal experience doesn't equate to their nightmare but I believe we can still empathise.
Usually this wouldn't be something to blog about since most people at some stage of life have kids.
In my friend's case, however, her experience is something altogether unique and altogether heartbreaking.
Near the beginning of her pregnancy she and her husband learned that their child would be born with a severe heart defect that would mean he wouldn't survive. They were faced with the agonising choice of whether or not to accept the medical prognosis and keep the pregnancy or to terminate.
There are going to be people that argue for both options and in every case there will be a moral justification for it. Having been through a similar circumstance and having faced the same decisions to make I can appreciate how difficult it is to even have to be considering those options you previously thought were never going to be options. I know our personal experience doesn't equate to their nightmare but I believe we can still empathise.
29 May 2011
Great Nando's Value!
There's a new meal at Nando's for R24 - strips, rice, and veg. This is comparable to my favourite meal, strips & rice, and at R24 as opposed to R39 (for the latter) it's a great deal.
Kat & I share this and a large wedges and a KFC coleslaw for a total of R24 + R20 + R10 = R27pp. A great, wholesome meal (especially compared to other takeouts) for under R30 each ... And it tastes great!
With a Discovery Vitality Card you also get up to 20% back in rebates so it's a fantastic deal!
27 May 2011
Today is FRIDAY!!
And to honour our dearest Rebecca Black I am referring your attention to this crazy internet phenomenon. Her original video has over 150 MILLION hits (that's like almost half the current USA population). If you factor in all of the covers and spoofs and such*, this is easily closer to (possibly even over) 200 MILLION hits. That's quite an achievement!
* by such I mean videos like a slowed down version (why make it 5 times longer?) and sped up version, which together have added on another TWO MILLION hits on their own. I can't completely fathom this!
I have to confess that I actually rather enjoy the original song; well, it gets under your skin at any rate :)
Enjoy the weekend guys!
ScreenTeamShow:
("yesterday is today if you go back one day")
* by such I mean videos like a slowed down version (why make it 5 times longer?) and sped up version, which together have added on another TWO MILLION hits on their own. I can't completely fathom this!
I have to confess that I actually rather enjoy the original song; well, it gets under your skin at any rate :)
Enjoy the weekend guys!
ScreenTeamShow:
("yesterday is today if you go back one day")
24 May 2011
Web2Pin - send BlackBerry PIN messages via the web
http://www.web2pin.com/web2pinfree.aspx
* To find out a PIN type mypin in a message box on the BlackBerry handset and the autocorrect will pop up with the PIN of the phone.
(I'm interested to see if I can find a way to feed in parameters to this solution to have automated scripts ...)
Golden Oldies: Crazy Vintage Ads
Life today is no longer simply about climbing the corporate ladder: it's evolved into a fast-paced digital information era where social networking is king (in fact, it's so important to be noticed that some idiots are planking themselves to death just to receive a 'like' from a total stranger on the other side of the planet, but that's another story altogether).
It sometimes pays to look back on life and see how far we've come (or how far we've strayed). I present to you my Golden Oldies of the Advertising Era!
It sometimes pays to look back on life and see how far we've come (or how far we've strayed). I present to you my Golden Oldies of the Advertising Era!
 |
| I don't know if this is a (c) violation but am presuming it's not :) |
FREE: Necrovision - The Lost Company (game)
Oltman has alerted me to a free game on promotion TODAY: Necrovision - The Lost Company.
If you want to grab it, go over to Green Man Gaming, sign in or register, and claim the game using the promo code listed below.
http://www.greenmangaming.com/games/action/necrovision-lost-company/
GMGY1-PROMO-TREAT
If you want to grab it, go over to Green Man Gaming, sign in or register, and claim the game using the promo code listed below.
http://www.greenmangaming.com/games/action/necrovision-lost-company/
GMGY1-PROMO-TREAT
20 May 2011
BlackBerry, white screens of death, and swollen cellphone batteries
I've touched on this before but this time around my problem has been much more severe. The BlackBerry would white screen almost daily, sometimes more often than that, and I wouldn't be able to reuse the phone until I had taken out the battery and rebooted while plugged into power. This hinted at a battery problem but I wasn't entirely sure so I first tried to reinstall the OS to see if that fixed it. It didn't. After some more troubleshooting etc. I've since replaced the battery and that seems to have solved the problem.
Interestingly, when I removed the old battery I noticed it was slightly swollen in the centre which I had always thought was normal, but it actually turns out this is the sign of an overcharged battery. Although most of the sites I've referred to say it's not dangerous, they all agree it can't be fixed.
A simple rule of thumb (pardon the pun) is if you can spin your battery on a flat surface and it spins for quite a while, it's got a bit of a swell which means damaged cells. If you spin the battery for about half a rotation before the friction slows it down then the battery is pretty much flat (physically, not chemically) and that's fine.
So if you're having white screen problems on your BB similar to mine, try checking out your battery.
Go on, give it a spin!
Interestingly, when I removed the old battery I noticed it was slightly swollen in the centre which I had always thought was normal, but it actually turns out this is the sign of an overcharged battery. Although most of the sites I've referred to say it's not dangerous, they all agree it can't be fixed.
A simple rule of thumb (pardon the pun) is if you can spin your battery on a flat surface and it spins for quite a while, it's got a bit of a swell which means damaged cells. If you spin the battery for about half a rotation before the friction slows it down then the battery is pretty much flat (physically, not chemically) and that's fine.
So if you're having white screen problems on your BB similar to mine, try checking out your battery.
Go on, give it a spin!
Delete FUTURE events and remove duplicates on GOOGLE CALENDAR
I haven't been able to find any meaningful advice on how to delete future-dated calendar entries. I acknowledge that such a need would be more of a power user requirement but if you're ever going to dabble in synchronisation with Google Calendar then you will more than likely encounter a situation where a recurring calendar entry has been repopulated as a string of independent events that potentially go on "forever".
Obviously if you only have a handful of entries like this then it's probably easiest to just filter your calendars that you show on GOOGLE CALENDAR and then manually delete the entries you want via AGENDA VIEW. If, on the other hand, you have scores or hundreds of such entries (if it's repeated daily or weekly) the quickest way to do this (and cheapest) is via a tool called GCalToolkit, using the free Online Tool.
GCalToolkit for Google Calendar remedies
GCalToolkit is a Power Tool for Google Calendar that helps to remove duplicates from your Google Calendars and also cleans up failed imports / syncs in a few clicks.GCalToolkit comes packaged in a few options including a free six month trial download for Windows, a Full subscription-based license (one or two years), and a limited online tool. For my own needs I found the online tool was good enough and did what I needed and in fact this is the major selling point for me: specifically, the online tool can be used on Mac, Linux, Windows, etc. Of course the offline versions offer a few more functions than the online tool.
The website for GCalToolkit lists the features as follows:
- Remove any number of duplicate events in minutes
- Clean up failed Syncs/Imports with ease
- Delete events between specified dates
- Delete events by the date they were created in Google Calendar
- Delete events based on text/dates filters
- Undo any Changes you make (windows software only)
- Search/Replace text in the Title, Summary, Location fields (win only)
- Save/Continue an editing session (please see "Google Quota" below)
- Need GCalToolkit to do something else? Let me know.
- FREE TRIAL - Online Tool max 500 events / Windows software max 6 months
- In a rush? Don't trust yourself to get it right? For $99, I DO IT ALL FOR YOU!
To use the online tool (which I recommend) you will need to associate the service with your Google Account. Check it out and see for yourself how useful it can be. I strongly recommend (as does the developer) to backup your calendar(s) first (check here for tips on how to do this). Of course, remember to disassociate the service when you're done if you feel security-conscious although I think it will time out automatically after twenty minutes.
19 May 2011
BlackOps: That GOOGLE Calendar syncing feeling (and how to remove that pesky BB Default Calendar)
[ UPDATE: you can also try "RSET" in step 4.1 below ]
[ UPDATE 2011-12-05: have added in steps for OS6 ]
(If you're looking for the BBM Groups fix, go here)
Sometimes things can go wrong when you're sync'ing your BlackBerry calendar with your GOOGLE account and when things do go wrong, it can be really messy and especially difficult to fix.
Let's presume you're having one of the following problems:
[ UPDATE 2011-12-05: have added in steps for OS6 ]
(If you're looking for the BBM Groups fix, go here)
Sometimes things can go wrong when you're sync'ing your BlackBerry calendar with your GOOGLE account and when things do go wrong, it can be really messy and especially difficult to fix.
Let's presume you're having one of the following problems:
- Multiple entries in your GOOGLE / BlackBerry CALENDAR
- Synchronising not working properly
- Need to reinstall calendars
- Migrated accounts
- Have a pesky DEFAULT calendar you want to remove
There are a few things you can do to fix these problems.
GOOGLE CALENDAR: How to back up
I won't go on about how awesome Google Calendar is. All I'll say is, it's so awesome that sometimes you may find a need to back your calendars up just in case they might die (especially if you're going to be fiddling with sync programs or trying to fix messed up app's, etc.).
GOOGLE has offered a wonderful feature to do this without you having to do much!
Presuming you're signed into your Google Account, just go to https://www.google.com/calendar/exporticalzip and the ensuing ZIP file will have all of your calendars saved as separate ICS files! Nothing could be easier!
Note this will only give you access to calendars to which you have permission to make changes and manage sharing. It will not export calendars in your Other Calendars.
Thanks to this page for the hint :)
GOOGLE has offered a wonderful feature to do this without you having to do much!
Presuming you're signed into your Google Account, just go to https://www.google.com/calendar/exporticalzip and the ensuing ZIP file will have all of your calendars saved as separate ICS files! Nothing could be easier!
Note this will only give you access to calendars to which you have permission to make changes and manage sharing. It will not export calendars in your Other Calendars.
Thanks to this page for the hint :)
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