Author Archives: rick

Splurging on a Mobile Phone

I’d never spent more than $500AUD, then $700AUD on a mobile phone before, but at my last job two people convinced me that my mid‑range Samsung S21 FE (price cut from $1000 to $700) was too slow even though it was still fairly new and highly recommended at the time. I decided to treat myself and… Read More »

Earphones

For travel and biking, I use Shockz headphones. They’re not noise‑canceling, quite the opposite in fact. This is crucial when riding a bike so you can hear traffic or even walking through the bus/train stations so you can hear the announcements – while still enjoying music or podcasts etc. The battery life is decent, though… Read More »

Polaroid Travel Power Adapter

A few years back, I bought a Polaroid travel adapter from Catch of the Day (bought by Wesfarmer’s and now closed down). It’s a genuine Polaroid product – they’re known for cameras but have dabbled in electronics. The adapter comes in a small bag with an Australian plug by default, and includes: It’s perfect for… Read More »

The Quest for a Better Headset

A few years ago, I had an old Hyper X headset that was great during gaming but terrible for daily life: I’d have to take it off every time I went to the bathroom or got a drink. Eventually one side snapped when I lifted it by one hand off my head to one side,… Read More »

SodaStream Upgrade

I used to hate my SodaStream. It was a clunky, expensive gadget that I barely ever touched – and the canisters weren’t cheap either. One day, my dad handed me a spare CO₂ keg he’d been using for his fish tanks to help grow the aquarium plants better. Since it was food‑grade (bought from a… Read More »

Lexus IS250 2007 touchscreen failed.

Edit: This replacement is still working as of 28/12/2018. Second Edit: This replacement is still working as of 2024. It seems to have failed after an unexpected very hot day. The touchscreen didn’t work except for incorrect (touched the bottom left on one screen and it pressed a button at the top right). Similar to… Read More »

Category: Car

Windows 10: KB3122947 Error 0x80070643

I’ve had this on almost all of my Windows 10 machines… The fix is: Open CMD as admin dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\c4a1b8896ce9fbfea96c1ee6890d52a5\windows10.0-kb3122947-x64.cab   Thanks to: Akash227 on https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3vibsc/win_10_kb3122947_error_0x80070643/

Outlook 2010 opens in safe mode only

Outlook 2010 for some people have started in safe mode only. Check to see if they have KB3114409 installed via Windows Update from 08/12/2015. I personally had 2 people in the last two days with this issue. It’s been pulled from Windows Update already.

Planning on doing basic reviews of places in Perth

These are personal opinions based on my experience(s). Ribs and Burgers – Perth, Cnr William and Wellington St’s. Good. Ocean Bar 1 – Scarborough. Good. Matisse – Scarborough. Not good. The Saint – Innaloo. Good. Botannica – Innaloo. Both good and not good. Greenwood – Greenwood – Good. …

Brakes for my Lexus

I took my Lexis IS250 to Lexus for the safety recall on the fuel line. While there, they notified me of wearing front brakes (which I was aware of). I do all my own minor services including cleaning and replacing my brakes, oil, oil filter and air filter. I rang around places in Perth where… Read More »

iPad. Why is it sometimes slow

I don’t own an iPad, so forgive me if this information isn’t useful to you. I often do work outside of work for friends and family. One thing I have been asked by two different people in the last two weeks is ‘Why is my iPad suddenly slow? Do I need a new one?” I… Read More »

File Transfer | The Cloud Calculator

I used this tool recently to calculate the transfer time of a zip file to an FTP server for a client. Worked quite well. TBH, didn’t actually confirm the time frame, but looks legit.   File Transfer | The Cloud Calculator.

Confluence and why I opted to stop using it.

The below is my opinion and my reasons for not using Confluence any more.   Check out their requests pages and feedback on Jira and you’ll find out how Atlassian simply piss off their users of the on premise version of Confluence. Pretty much any useful request comes down to: After feedback from many of their… Read More »

Category: Web

Another load of malware

Zbot, rootkit, Cryptowall 3.0 and other infections on a single Windows 7 PC. I was extremely lucky that this PC was on a separate network with no network drives back to the main network.   I had a client call up saying his computer was doing weird things. – First sign this is going to… Read More »

Install HHVM, Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04

I used the following guide to change from php-fpm to hhvm after doing some research on potential speed increase. The guide is great, however I may be changing back as for some reason I seem to have actually lost performance by changing over. Might be an incompatibility in a plugin or something in WordPress. Install… Read More »

How to make an OS X Yosemite DVD installer

I created a USB bootable Yosemite installer to update my friends Mac, however I want to use the USB for other things. The best thing I could think of was to make an ISO so I could use it again later, so I followed the guide below and then stored it on my server. Bucknasty:… Read More »

Google (LG) Nexus 4

I bought the Google Nexus 4 to replace my HTC Desire (the original one). I look after my tech gadgets, so it was still in working order to give to my mum. My uncle also wanted the Nexus 4 when I showed him comparisons and given we bought it knowing the Nexus 5 was going… Read More »

NAS4FREE upgraded to 9.3.0.2

I upgraded our NAS4FREE boxes to 9.3.0.2 this morning after doing a ‘test’ run last night on my home machine, well not really a test, it was a home production machine, but less important than work’s machines. The home machine went off without a hitch.   If you read the info when downloading the new… Read More »

Best free/home antivirus, best business antivirus

Updated: This is my opinion based on testing and actual use over several years. I’ve tried and every now and then test again. I also read reviews and tests online to try to keep up to date. For home users, I recommend sticking with Windows/Microsoft Defender. It’s been rated highly by independent testing and personally… Read More »

Apt-Fast – Ubuntu 14.04

So, I started using apt-fast quite some time ago and along with that, added aliases to my .bashrc file to speed up my updates. Guides on the internet seem to assume you have other packages installed and so their guides only half work. Here’s what I had to do in order to get it working… Read More »

Bit of fun with KEYHolder (Crypto Malware)

If you haven’t heard about the various crypto malware going around, I don’t know where you’ve been hiding. I don’t even like watching the news, but it’s been blasted all over. Essentially the malware gets onto a persons machine in different ways (email, websites, USB sticks etc) and starts looking for files on the local… Read More »

AWStats – Ubuntu Community Help Wiki

I wanted to have more than Google Analytics working for my site so I can compare and contrast the figures. I’m using Ubuntu so a basic search of awstats ubuntu found the following site which made it a breeze to install.   AWStats – Community Help Wiki.

Think hands free is safe? Think again.

As I always suspected, making things hands free, doesn’t make things safer. In my opinion, what makes it even more unsafe is that it can be more distracting as you need to learn things that are not something you use elsewhere. It’s not like when you pick up a phone (you do this wherever else… Read More »

Shellshock MacOSX Update

As per Arstechnica’s article, Apple has patched shellshock bash bug in OSX 10.7, .8 and .9. Get on it!   http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/apple-patches-shellshock-bash-bug-in-os-x-10-9-10-8-and-10-7/

Apache-redirect http to https

I don’t want the logins, or even the content of most of the sites that I manage to be available via HTTP, however as most of us don’t like having to add the HTTPS to the start manually, this works perfectly. General setup is Ubuntu with Apache2, MySQL, PHP5 and WordPress.   <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName… Read More »

[SOLVED] transmission-deamon issue after reboot

I was having this issue for so long. I often download Linux ISOs to test and learn differences between them. I’ve got lots of old PCs/Laptops laying around and Linux is a great way to give them new life. When I reboot my server, Transmission wasn’t starting automatically, yet before the upgrade to 14.04, it… Read More »

SpaceSniffer download

I used spacesniffer on servers and workstations/laptops to visually determine what is taking the most space. It’s like windirtree but is more visual. It supports viewing space via a path rather than root drive too which I find very useful at times. SpaceSniffer download.