Beware 0203 2907142 Microsoft Phone Scam

I had a phone call today from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, the phone display the number as 'unknown', which was a bit suspicious. The person did not speak very good english and said something about the phone call was about hackers of your Windows operating system. I explained that we did not use Windows, which he did not understand at first. I asked him for his telephone number and he said it was 0203 2907142.

I told him again that we did not use Windows, then he decided to hangup.

This was clearly some sort of scam to try to get me to go onto my Windows PC and then the caller would have most likely have gained access and then I would have been in real trouble.

Be careful, do not give any information to anyone claiming to be from a company that would like access to your PC.

Hopefully countries and governments will get together and seriously punish these criminals, not sure where the money goes to from these scumbag scammers, but it would not surprise me if it did not end up in serious criminals and terrorist bank accounts.

Safari iOS 8 - Search for text on a web page

I am getting a bit concerned with Apple, it seems they are making stupid decisions on software features. One of these is to remove the option to search for text on a web page in Safari on the iPad. There are some sites they tell you different ways to search for text, but they are all old and there currently is no way to do this. Come on Apple sort it out, have you started employing x Microsoft developers who have no idea on software?

Parallels Desktop - How to start in safe mode

I have recently updated my Parallels Desktop on my iMac to version 10 (which I am regretting), I have a severe issue with running my XP virtual machine, however than will be another blog entry at some point.

I wanted to start my VM in safe mode, but could not find any options in the configuration. The solution in the end is not elegant, but works. Here are the steps

1) Boot up your VM as normal.

2) While it is booting up try to close the VM screen using the red close button in the top left hand side of the screen. The following dialog should be displayed.

3) Select 'Shut Down', this will force the VM to shut down.
4) Boot up your VM again, because it did not shut down property you should get this screen.

5) Select 'Safe Mode' from the menu using the cursor keys (up and down keys).

How to find IP address from MAC address

To find IP address from a MAC address in Windows go to a dos prompt and type "arp -a", this will give you a list of IP addresses on the network with related MAC address.

Google Nexus Sim Card Size

I own a Nexus 4 phone and have come across a great phone deal and have decided to change, but when ordering needed to know which type of SIM card I needed. A brief search on net answered my question, the Nexus 4 takes a micro SIM card.

It seems the difference between a normal SIM card, micro SIM card and nano SIM card is just the size, there is no functional difference, so I ask the question why did they just not manufacture nano SIM cards from the start?

Lightroom - How to multi select photos to import on a Mac

I have been using Lightroom for a couple of years now and the other day I needed to import some photos from my camera, but I did not want to import all of them. I started clicking through each photo I wanted and quickly realised this cannot be the way to do it and what I wanted was a way to multi-select a load of photos. The way to do it is as follows:

1. In the import screen uncheck all the photos.
2. Select the first photo in the range, this is not clicking on the checkbox, just click on the photo and it will turn a light grey.
3. Hold down the 'Shift' key.
4. Select the last photo in the range, this will turn all the photos between light grey.
5. Now click on a check box of the last photo, this will check the tick boxes of all the selected photos.

Apple iWatch, who is wearing one?

Recently Apple launched the iWatch, I like Apple products and most of them if I had the money I would go out an purchase one. However, the iWatch is a product I cannot see me ever buying or wearing. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It looks too big on the whist. Some watches are meant to look big, but they must also be comfortable, but the iWatch looks too big.
2. I have a Smart phone, iPad and computer, do I really need something else going off with alerts? NO.
3. I see a watch as well as being functional it is also a piece of Jewellery, the iWatch does not come across as this.
4. I do not want something else to put on charge.
5. It's not cool.

With regards to the last one, I have not seen any popular celebs wearing one, or images of celebs wearing one from searching on Google. I would imagine if the iWatch was seen as cool, a lot of celebs would be showing them off by now.

I will start a list here of celebs, popstars and actors who seem to think the iWatch looks cools:

•