Security Shield - How I managed to remove this nasty fake program

Security shield is a fake anti-virus program that tries to get your credit card details by displaying a well designed and professional looking screen that tries to sell you it's fake software by listing viruses that it finds on your PC which do not actually exist. This is a very nasty virus, which after looking at solutions the way that worked for me to remove it from a Samsung NC10 was to do a CTRL+ALT+DEL while the screen was displayed and locate the .exe that was running, this will be some random letters followed by .exe. Once I located the name of the file I search the registry ('regedit' command from the run menu) for this file, and deleted any reference to it. After restarting the PC everything seemed to work fine and was back to normal.

Samsung Smart TV - The Good and The Bad

I have now owned a Samsung D6530 LED Smart TV for over 3 months now. I really like the Smart TV option which connects to the internet via my wireless router, here are my views so far with the applications available on the Smart TV option:
1) BBC iPlayer is great, it is the app I use most and works exactly how I want it too, this is so far the best app.
2) You Tube, this is one of the worst apps I have used and it is better to access You Tube from the internet option rather than using the app.
3) Love Film would be good but I decided to cancel the subscription because the choice of films was very limited.

So far the biggest issue I have come across using the Smart TV option is that I need a keyboard for using the internet.

I would like more TV companies like ITV and Channel 4 to bring out apps like iPlayer for the Samsung TVs.

Samsung NC10 battery problem temporarily fixed

The battery on my Samsung NC10 has gone again, I think this must have fixed the problem temporarily, but after a few weeks the problem has occured again, I think the only real solution to this problem is to buy a new battery.

Samsung NC10 Battery Problem Fixed

I have owned a Samsung NC10 netbook for the past 2 years, a couple of weeks ago I tried to use it and it was dead, I plug it into the power supply and left it to charge for a couple of hours. I then disconnected it from the mains and tried to switch it on, it tried to start up but after a couple of seconds went dead. I then connected it to the mains power supply again and it worked fine. The battery manager reported 0% charge, and on the front the green light was displayed, so I figured there was a problem with the battery.

The netbook was out of warranty, but I still tried calling Samsung customer support, they were very helpful and we tried a couple of things to fix the problem, but the conclusion was that I needed a new battery. From the link Samsung support gave me to a retail site a new battery would cost about £70 ($100).

I heard somewhere that putting the battery in the freezer might help, I was not sure whether I was getting this confused with rumours that this fixes damaged hard drives, but I thought I would give it a go. I put the battery in newspaper and in a plastic bag and left it in the freezer over night. The next day I took it out of the freezer let it stand for an hour, then tried it. Nothing happened and it did not work, so I thought that's it I need a new battery.

I left the battery on the side for a week, until the following weekend. I was about to look at purchasing a new battery when I thought I would just give it a go again. I started the netbook up without the battery plugged in and with it connected to the mains power supply, I then plugged in the battery and was surprised to see the red light on the front instead of the green, which indicated it was charging. I left it for a couple of hours and when I came back I could unplug the mains power supply and it worked!!!

I still think there is a problem because it seems to report 99% power now, but I can use my netbook without having to plug it into the mains power supply and this also saves me £70 for a new battery.

I cannot say whether putting it into the freezer was part of fixing this problem, or whether just unplugging the battery and leaving it for a week helped, but something weird happened that has fixed the problem.

Sysbase Advantage Database - Using triggers to keep a history

I recently wrote an article about how to use triggers to keep a history of changes made to database records. This is very useful is you want to keep a trail of record changes for example I have used this to keep a trial of stock and where stock has moved from and to, also keeping a history of what has happened to a customer's order. I think most commercial databases would benefit from doing this and because it is done at  the database end it means that once it is done it will always keep a history rather than writing logging into software applications. Click here to go to the article.

iPad - How to take a screenshot of the display

While doing developments for the iPad it is often a user will report an issue or make a request. I've found that asking them to take a screenshot an emailing it a very useful tool on the iPad. To take a screenshot just follow these steps.

1. Press and hold down the home button, this is the button on the front of the iPad.
2. Press the power button on the top, this will cause the screen to flash confirming the screenshot has been taken.
3. Go into 'Photos' and you should see the image of the screenshot allowing you to email the image.

Samsung D6530 LED TV Review

I recently bought a Samsung D6530 40 inch TV for roughly £750. The TV was delivered in a slim large box which was packaged well. The TV was quick to setup which took about 20 minutes, and required just a phillips screw driver.

The TV is very slim and the edge of the picture to the edge of the TV is very small both approx width of a thumb. The TV is supplier with a good quality brushed steel stand, I was glad not to get the black glass one.

Once I had connected the correct cables I switched the TV on and it soon tried to connect to my wireless router, I entered the password and it downloaded the latest software updates. After the TV had updated the software and restarted I started to play around with it. The TV picture is very impressive and could easily see it was better than other TVs I had seen recently, because it is LED I thought the black colour in  the picture was very black. The HD channels looked great and there is a clear difference between HD and the normal channels. The sound is good but nothing special, I think I might look into connecting an additional sound system to it.

The TV is 3D so I bought some glasses,  I believe this is a technology that needs improving, but compared to the cinema is OK. There is an option to convert standard 2D pictures to 3D, this option varies depending on the programme you are watching, but generally I think I will not be using this.

What I was most impressed with apart from the great picture is how it connects to the internet and my PC. Samsung have something they call Smart Hub, this opens a screen with loads of options. There is a panel that displays your apps similar to Apple products. There are various Apps like You Tube, BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Skype and Twitter that come pre-installed, out of these I think the most impressive is the BBC iPlayer app. The Smart Hub also gives you the option for something they call AllShare, which allows you to connect other devices to the TV wirelessly. I installed Samsung's PC Share Manager and selected the directories I wanted to see and started the server. I then went downstairs and there was a message on the TV saying that it could see the server, I could then play videos, music and pictures that where located on my PC on my TV wirelessly, which I think is very clever.


In conclusion I think my new TV is great, here is a list of pros and cons:
Pros - Fantastic picture, very slim, easy to use, internet connectivity.
Cons - 3D is OK but not great, remote control feels a little cheap.

Specifications

• 400 Hz
• Resolution 1920 x 1080
• Built in Wi-Fi
• 4 HDMI
• USB 2.0 x 3
• Freeview HD
• 3D with 2D to 3D conversion
• Dimensions - width = 1248mm, height = 805mm, depth = 30mm max 

News of the World rebadged to Sun On Sunday

News of the Worlds owners News International are clearly planning planning on continuing producing a similar Sunday newspaper. They last week bought the SunOnSunday.co.uk and TheSunOnSunday.co.uk domain names so will really just rebadge the News of the World. It will be interesting how long News International will wait before producing the new Sun on Sunday newspaper.

How to report software bugs

I have written an article about how users should report software bugs, here is a basic summary.

1) Do not leave out any facts.
2) Remember more information is always better than less.
3) When an error occurs, stop what you are doing and write down as much information as possible.
4) Make sure it is an error and not a feature.
5) Be very specific on what windows and buttons are pressed.

Click here to link to the full article 

WordPress blog links not working

On one of my wordpress blogs, all of a sudden the links to the blog articles did not work. Looking at the URL of the link it was adding a '/%' to the end of the URL. The way to fix this problem is to go into the 'Permalink' setting of the blog and change it. For some reason the setting had changed to custom and added a '/%' to the end of the URL.

Using iPad / iPhone as remote mouse

Recently I have been doing some development work on the iPad and iPhone, while doing this I started thinking of ideas for my own App. One of the ideas was that the iPad touch screen works very similar to my MacBook's trackpad, but is larger, so I thought it would be great to be able to use my iPad as the trackpad for my MacBook, my first thought was how it would communicate between the devices and I thought Bluetooth was the solution. Someone has already beaten me to this idea and come up with an App that does this, it is called 'Remote Mouse', if you do a search in the App Store you will find it. You will also need to go to their web site and download the software that needs to be installed on the computer, it can also be installed on a PC. It does not use Bluetooth but uses WiFi, it is a clever app and I am glad I did not spend much time looking into developing one.

iWeb problem with jQuery

I recently produced a web site using iWeb on the Apple Mac, it was a quick and easy way of producing a basic web site, which looks good. I wanted to make a couple of changes to it and have a couple of paragraphs expand when a user click a caption. To do this I used jQuery (innerfade), which I have used on other web sites, I found that jQuery conflicts with the iWebSite.js. To get around the problem I did the following:
<script type="text/javascript">
  var $j = jQuery.noConflict();
  $j(document).ready(function(){....
</script>
Using noConflict fixed the problem and the fade worked fine.

iPad Point of Sale Pros and Cons

Currently the company I work for is developing an iPad application for point of sale. I have noticed various other companies developing such apps but how good is an iPad as a POS solution? I can see quite a few pros and cons. Below is a list of what I consider as the pros and cons, first pros:

• Hardware surprisingly is cheap for each unit, other units can cost a lot more.
• Company image looks good when using the most up to date system. iPad is a cool device and this portrays an image of professionalism.
• Ease of use, if the application is designed well it makes the sales person confident about the system. This also applies to other hardware but at the time of writing this the iPad has great touch screen technology.

And now the cons:

• The iPad is a very basic device compared to others, it requires more hardware behind the scenes.
• Because it is a desirable device, it is more likely to be stolen, either by employees or by customers who later on break in to steal all the devices.
• I am still not sure how robust the device is but unless you get a decent case or cover I can imagine it will start looking damaged with scratches quickly.
• Development is expensive, this is because Apple developers at the moment charge more than others. Also it requires web service development, so there is a range of developers required. This is not the case if you manage to find a suitable out the box POS system.

These are some pros and cons but I am sure others will pop up as time goes on. I am still not sure how the battery life will handle a day of using. Will have to wait an see.

Don't take iPhone Skiing

I just read an article which says that iPhones do not operate below 0ºC, and Apple refuses to repair any phones which have breached this specification. In the UK in the winter months it often is below 0, this does mean that if your car break down or if there is a problem and you are stuck in the snow you are not meant to use your iPhone. This also means that you should not use your phone while skiing, this could be a safety issue as I believe having a working phone on the mountain to be a good thing. Last time I went skiing myself and other people did use there iPhones (3Gs) in below 0 conditions without any problem so this could be an iPhone 4 issue. Other phone companies like Sony allow operational use to -20ºC, I think it would be a good idea for Apple to produce a phone that can be used confidently in below 0 conditions.

Freeware Stopwatch App

There is a freeware stopwatch application available from RicRac under the following link:
Freeware Stopwatch

This includes the following features:
- Start, Stop and Reset timer.
- Countdown timer.
- Minimises into the system tray.

This application is available for Windows.