Tag Archives: Useful websites

Technology

Shopping around for a smartphone? Have you considered buying second hand?

Tuesday 7 May 2013 – 20:20

It used to be said that nobody got fired for buying IBM. These days it seems to be that, for non-geek consumers at least, the common denominator is iOS.

Now, before the Android and Windows Phone fans (Blackberry fans, anybody?) start flaming, let me explain…

My wife is not what you would call one of technology’s early adopters. To call her a laggard would be unkind but she only took her first tentative steps into social media last year and getting a smartphone was a big deal…

I consider iPhones to be overpriced but as I’ve never owned an Android phone I couldn’t really advise on alternatives. We did spend some time looking around in Carphone Warehouse but I had to leave Mrs W to it for fear of what I might say when the salesperson’s ill-informed “advice” got too much.

Android? Windows?

We liked the look of the HTC One X, but Mrs W was put off by some reviews on the ‘net (moral, never read reviews from non-tech writers…); some of the Samsungs looked OK too but whilst the form factor may have worked for my “man hands”, those of a daintier persuasion may find a large screen just a little too… large.

Indeed, far from helping my wife to choose a mid-priced Android handset, the experience actually swayed her towards the iPhone. I might have said take a look at Windows Phone 8 but my experience with Windows Phone 7.x has left me with little more than apathy for that platform (give me time, maybe I’ll be back in a couple of years if and when it finally takes off).

iPhone?

So, why not get an iPhone? After all, most of her friends have one. I’ve had one since the UK launch, either for personal use or for work. And “my” iPad seems to have become the family iPad now. I guess that means we’re pretty much an iOS household already.

But I still baulked at the price.

Buying second hand

Then, one of our friends mentioned smartfonestore.com. After waiting a few weeks for stock to come in, I managed to pick up a 16GB SIM-unlocked iPhone 4S for around £265, in mint (grade A) condition. Two days later and I had an SMS from Mrs W. saying how she loved her iPhone (yes, “love” was the emotion expressed by this non-geek consumer).

Ever since then, I’ve been admiring the 4S from afar, trying to convince myself that my Lumia 800 was better and that I could make do with the company-supplied 3GS. I tried to get myself another Grade A iPhone 4S but then, in a moment of weakness, I jumped for a Grade B condition unit instead. To be honest, when it arrived last Saturday, I couldn’t tell the difference!

SmartfoneStore send out the phones in their own packaging and both the iPhones I’ve purchased both came with a USB-dock cable and a SIM extraction tool. Mine also came with a screen protector and a bumper (although it’s not the Apple version, and not a great fit). I’ve yet to use the other side of the business (fonebank.com) but it may well be the destination for recycling my Lumia 800).

So now, we really are an iOS family. A 3GS, two 4Ss and an iPad.

(OK, so technically the 3GS is not mine – and I am considering replacing that with a cheap HTC Desire so that I can have a play with Android - but there are plenty of iDevices to go around…)

I’ve been impressed by SmartfoneStore (and remember, they were recommended to us by a friend too) so, if you’re in the market for a second-hand smartphone, they might be worth a look. Unfortunately there is no waiting list for a particular model to come into stock but you can register for notifications and soon enough, you should find something that suits for a lot less than the cost of a new handset.

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Technology

Useful links posts – where to go now

Thursday 31 January 2013 – 23:59

At the end of 2012, I said I would stop creating the monthly “useful links” posts that I’ve been collating for the last few years.  The information is still available – it’s just not in a blog post – the place to look is my Delicious feed (or via Twitter @markwilsonit, prefixed [delicious]).

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Technology

Short takes: cyber security; stock images; PowerPoint presenter view; smart TVs, iPads and YouTube

Friday 18 January 2013 – 12:00

Lots of ideas for blog posts this week but limited time to commit pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard for that matter. Here are the highlights of what might have been…

Cyber security

Last year, I assisted one of the lecturers at University College London (UCL) with some “expert” opinion on the bring your own device phenomenon, for a module as part of the MSc course in Human Computer Interaction. It seemed to go reasonably well and I was invited back to speak on this year’s topic – cyber security.  I can’t claim to be an expert, but I could present some supplier-side views on the UK Government’s “10 steps to cyber security” advice which seems very sensible but is also based on aspirational and tactical solutions which could be costly to implement in full, so need to be considered with an understanding of the relative risks and an eye to the future.

For anyone who’s interested, my presentation is available for viewing/download on SlideShare, although it’s very visual – full narrative is available in the notes.

 

Searching for good images

I’m a fan of full-page images on slides and limited text. I find it keeps the audience engaged and listening to the presenter, rather than reading pages of bullet points.  The down side is that it can be very time consuming to find the right images, especially without access to an account at a good stock library.

As my presentation to UCL was as in individual, not representing my employer, I was able to use images licensed for non-commercial use under Creative Commons and Compfight is a great tool for searching Flickr for these.  I’ve attributed all of the photographers used in the deck above, and if you don’t have access to iStockPhoto, Fotolia, etc. then this can be a good way to find images.

PowerPoint Presenter View

I’ve blogged before about PowerPoint’s presenter view and I’m amazed that more people don’t use it (although, the people who don’t are generally fans of dull corporate decks with lots of bullet points – yawn!). Somehow though, my PC had reverted to not using it, and I needed to Google to find where the option is in the PowerPoint 2007/2010 ribbon!  In the end, it was this Cybernet New post that showed me the important option: on the Slide Show tab, in the Monitors section.

YouTube smart TV and mobile apps

I wanted to re-watch a presentation that I’d missed last year and that I knew was on YouTube. Given that it was nearly an hour long, I thought the comfort of my living room would be a good place to do this, using the YouTube app on my smart TV. It was. At least until I lost the stream part way through and the Samsung YouTube app refused to play ball with the fast forward control. Another annoyance was that the “Watch Later” functionality in YouTube isn’t recognised by the a-little-bit-dumb app on the “smart” TV, so I needed to add the video to another playlist first.

Eventually, I finished up watching the second half of the video on my iPad. Here, again, it’s useful to know that the built-in iOS YouTube app is feature light and that there is a newer version available from Google in Apple’s AppStore.

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Technology

Formulas shown in Excel, instead of their results

Wednesday 2 January 2013 – 15:55

Every month or so, I have to create a report which is extracted from SharePoint to Excel, and then a couple of extra columns are added with information required by a colleague. The additional columns simply present existing information in a different format but, for some reason, after pasting in these formulae (which are just nested IF statements combined with some string handling functions), the formula is shown instead of the calculated result:

=IF(LEFT(L2,1)="A","Application",(IF(LEFT(L2,1)="B","Business",(IF(LEFT(L2,1)="I","Infrastructure","Error")))))
=LEFT(L2,1)&":"&RIGHT(LEFT(L2,SEARCH(">",L2,30)-2),LEN(LEFT(L2,SEARCH(">",L2,30)-2))-SEARCH(">",LEFT(L2,SEARCH(">",L2,30)-2)))

Last month, whilst troubleshooting the issue, I stumbled across a great blog post from Excel MVP, Purna Duggirala (aka Chandoo), entitled “Excel Formulas are not working?!? What to do when all you see is the formula, not result“. Today, I needed to find it again, so I thought I’d blog it this time!

Chandoo’s post lists a number of causes for this issue – mine was a simple issue of cell formatting – after pasting my formula into a new column, the cell is formatted as Text.  Switching the cell format to General, and editing the formula (no changes required, just F2 to edit, then Enter to commit), results in a calculation. Even better, Excel 2010 auto-fills and calculates the following rows for me!

The blog at Chandoo.org (tagline, “Become awesome at Excel”!) is packed with Excel advice and is definitely one to remember next time I’m having problems (or just want to do something a bit different in a spreadsheet).

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Photography Technology

Useful links: December 2012

Monday 31 December 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

After several years of monthly “useful links” posts, I’ve decided that this will be the last one – the plugin I use to read from my Delicious account and generate the post stopped working a few months ago, and the useful links can also be found directly (on my Delicious feed) or via Twitter (@markwilsonit, prefixed [delicious])

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Technology

Useful links: November 2012

Friday 30 November 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

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Technology

Useful Links: September 2012

Sunday 30 September 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

  • Rubular – Ruby regular expression editor and tester (via Kristian Brimble)
  • Classic Shell for Windows – Expose hidden features in modern Windows versions (via Scott Hanselman)
  • Traveline NextBuses – Useful mobile website for searching bus timetables
  • Baking Pi – Free operating systems development course for the Raspberry Pi
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Technology

Useful Links: August 2012

Friday 31 August 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

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Technology

Useful Links: July 2012

Tuesday 31 July 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

  • schema.org – HTML microformats for tagging web content, supported by major search engines
  • Kasabi dataset archive – Archive of datasets as when Kasabi shutdown was announced – see http://blog.kasabi.com/2012/07/16/archive-of-datasets/ for more info (until 30 July 2012)
  • “Debranding” a Nokia Lumia phone – I’ve not tried this (YMMV) but looks like a useful reference for anyone whose Lumia has been branded by their mobile operator (mine was bought SIM-only so isn’t) to get it back to a default Nokia state.
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Technology

Useful Links: June 2012

Saturday 30 June 2012 – 23:59

A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

  • UK train times – UK train times and detailed timetable information (platforms, non-advertised stops, etc.) – taken from the National Rail API used by many apps
  • TheBookYard – UK Apple spare parts and refurb specialist
  • Swivl – Personal cameraman for hands free video (spotted at Raspberry Jam thanks to Leon Cych)
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