obachi.org » Technology

Google quick search box

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:36:07 +0000

Ok i’m not sure how I managed to miss this gem but anyway. I use the brilliant application (and everything else) launcher Quicksilver. Now there have been problems in compatibility with Snow Leopard (10.6) which for me at least have been sorted. Nicholas Jitkoff, the developer of Quicksilver, recently moved on to work for Google and he’s been busy.

Enter Google Quick Search box, a reduced functionality version of Quicksilver, themed with Google’s standard look and feel. it pretty much encompasses everything i used to do in Quicksilver an has integration with Google Mail/Google Apps and Twitter. So for now it replaces Quicksilver on my system. I don’t feel quite as bad since the same guy developed it.

Tom Tom, Co Pilot Live or Navigon Mobile Navigator?

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:35:04 +0000

For now I have to say none. I’ve only tested the app from ALK at the moment but with the amount of cash these boys are brining in on a daily basis they could at least do some work! We still don’t have live traffic information apart from Navigon. But then again Navigon can’t even be bothered to theme their screenshots in English!

I do like Co Pilot, mainly because of the price. I’m sure if Tom Tom dropped their price they’d be no stopping them. For now their are in it for the investors.

Unless I’m navigating to somewhere i’ve never been, google have the best solution for giving you what you want. Google Maps is my constant companion for my daily commute down the M62. It’s saved me hours! Come on guys, spend some of that cash making these apps better instead of recycling.

On a side note, the Tom Tom cradle with Google Maps is amazing!

Fixed problem with screensaver and login on OS X mobile account

nick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:21:22 +0000

If you have had the problem where your computer won’t unlock from the screensaver or log in from the login window you are not alone. I have experienced this many times.

If your computer is able to resolve the hostname of your server outside of the network but not able to connect to it’s authentication service then the loginwindow process will just hang. This will cause the screensaver login window or main login window to also hang. There could be a number of reasons this would happen. For example firewall issues connecting to your server or just that the server hostname resolves to another server outside of the network.

My particular problem was that godaddy’s wildcard DNS was resolving all addresses *.hostname.com to it’s advertising pages. So even though i had no entry for my server in global dns it would still resolve and attempt to connect. Removing the wildcard DNS in my godaddy settings fixed this instantly.

Finally got my iPhone 3G. Apple servers down for registering.

nick — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:22:55 +0000

Got a call from the o2 shop 30 minutes ago telling me my iPhone 3G 16GB is ready to collect! Straight in the car and within minutes it’s in my sweaty palm (we’ll not that sweaty). Now it seems that the Apple servers can’t cope with the registration of 100 000’s of iPhones. I now have no phone until it registers. Is there no end to this debacle!

There’s going to be some serious questions asked after this day!

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, o2

o2 are out of stock!

nick — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:05:55 +0000

Beggars, I knew it another company who can’t get it together to test an application before they put it live. Who makes an ajax application which you have to start from scratch if you get an error! They are now out of stock online, or so the site says. Bunch of muppets.

Guess i’m waiting for weeks now until they get their act together. Why did you choose o2 Apple?

I guess you have to wonder why 1.) Apple choose o2 and 2.) Why people are going to other providers. This happened at both the carphone warehouse and o2 when the original iphone went on sale in the uk. You’d just think that someone would have learnt. How did the site manage to be down all morning but still manage to process orders?

Tell you what, we’ll send a text message at 8am to everyone who has an iphone telling them we’ll give you a free upgrade! I wonder what will happen? Anyway, rant over! I wonder how much a vodafone contract is?

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, o2

o2 Upgrade shop still down. (Is this apple making us pay?)

nick — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:59:34 +0000

Well it’s still down an hour later. Have o2 run out of supplies and don’t know how to break the news? My only hope is that noone was able to order and there’s still plentiful supply.

It has however been reported that Apple are miffed to say the least at the use of the iPhone on networks other that their exclusive provider with only 15% of iPhone sold actually being used on the o2 network. it seems a bit strange to me for them to limit the supply of these phones. The upgrade can only be done when signing up to a new contract with o2, so why limit them?

The only thing i do know is that i want my iphone! I’m currently running on a dodgy nokia 1100 while my current 2.5G iPhone is in for repair. Help i can’t function without it!

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, o2

o2 can’t cope with the demand for iPhone upgrades

nick — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:54:45 +0000

I wake this morning to find the golden ticket text message in my inbox. o2 have released the upgrade for the iPhone 3G! Excellent i think, with the niggling doubt in the back of my mind. “They won’t be able to cope with the demand”. I sometimes hate being right all the time.

Many failed attempts and redirections to their ‘failback’ system has resulted in o2 pulling the plug on upgrades for now. We are only but greeted with a maintenance page. Come on o2, planning and testing!

We want our 3G iPhones now! I have a feeling i’m not going to make it into the first batch. A far cry from being the first in Leeds to get my hands on one!

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, o2

Google Checkout is live!

nick — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:22:51 +0000

I’d be interested to see how this fairs against the likes of paypal. Whilst i have nothing against paypal, with the mighty google in the picture i can see them making more that just a little impact in the world of online payment processing. The advantages of the google system is that it will link in with your adword campaigns, giving you free payment processing for every £x’s of adword ‘tokens’. As opposed to the likes of worldpay and secpay which charge per transaction, this is effectively giving you a load of free adwords tokens. Nice!

Google releases Google Calendar

nick — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 08:53:16 +0000

Google has just released Google Calendar. Finally! Check it out in all it's web 2.0 goodness.

Windows XP on a Macbook Pro

nick — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:24:11 +0000

Well it's happened. I think i felt a little sick whilst doing it but, i've installed XP on my Macbook Pro using Apple's Bootcamp

One thing which i'm reasured about is that Windows XP can't read HFS+ which means that it's not going to be doing any writing to my Mac OS X Partition. Nice.