Graham Robinson

Turning pc on and off by mobile phone

// July 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing, Website

Achieving something good today…

I’ve been looking for a way to get access to the files on my PC without wasting power keeping my computer on 24/7. The easiest way to do this is to keep the PC off all the time and find a way of turning it on without being in front of it.

The way I achieved this was by

Turning on Wake on Lan on the computer
Forwarding port 7 on the router to my computer
Installing a PHP script on a webserver that sends a ‘Magic Packet’ that turns on the PC
Slightly modifying the script to ask for a password

And for turning off the computer

Installed Switch Off
Set Switch Off to start as a service
Turn on the web interface of Switch Off
Turn on authentication
Forward the port in Switch Off options to my computer on my router

So I can now grab my mobile phone and, with very little data, type in mywebsite.com/switchon and mywebsite.com/switchoff (obviously the real links are a bit deeper and hidden than that)

Paint Shop Pro – Problems with tags

// June 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing

I’ve tried to do some editing of my Holiday photos today but it seems to be hopeless.

PSP (Paint Shop Pro) 11 strips out all the tags and exif (data embedded into the photo) information from the picture. This gives me a catch 22.

If I put the GPS and tags onto my pictures first, and then edit them, PSP removes them.

If I edit my pictures first and then run the GPS program it fails as it can’t tell when the picture was taken (due to ‘data taken’ being deleted from the photo).

So it looks like a long wait for a fix. There is even a new version of PSP out, but that costs £40 and I wouldn’t even know if it fixes the problem.

iPhone

// June 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing

Even if I wanted an iPhone it was always worth watiing. Now with announcements like http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/iphone-3g-is-finally-official it shows it’s worth it

Geotagging – Flickr Maps

// May 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing, Website

I’ve been having a play with photo maps in the last couple of days, playing with applications and website widgets that show maps. I’ve tried trippermap on www.mediaguy.co.uk/map.

The biggest problem I’ve found is that the best photo site bar none is Flickr, that’s where all my photos are and just about everyone else in the world. Flickr is owned by Yahoo and Yahoo maps are rubbish; you just can’t zoom in at all.

Example: Best quality Yahoo map | Best quality Google map

So Google Maps (and Google Earth) are the best mapping sites on the interweb, but I’m going to use Flickr. I’m obviously not the only person with this problem so other people have combined the two! Yipee!

I’ve got into the tagging / geotagging lark. Hopefully tomorrow my datalogger will turn up. It’s a very small GPS that simply records where you’ve been. Once you have taken some pictures you download the photos to the computer, download the datalogger information and then some software looks at the date and time of the photo and where you are. Magically every photo knows where it is on the map.

When we go to Greece hopefully we will have a proper map, and I’m really looking forward to showing it off.

Barenaked Ladies and Museums

// March 30th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing, Days Out

A few things to catch up on since the last blog…

The head of school is back on Monday so the things mentioned in the password protected posts should start to move along from the 31st. There seem to be people who we barely know coming out of woodwork to give support and to quote someone from the school “He won’t be without ammunition will he?”

I have a new favourite song of the moment. It’s only 1 minute 45 seconds long and I’m sure my father (as he works in Physics at a University) will appreciate it.

The big bang theory

Yesterday we went to the Archaeology, and then the Maritime, museums in Southampton. It’s one of those things that you don’t ever get round to doing until you have someone visit. No-one was visiting, but we just thought that 4 years was a bit long to not go and see it. Both places were very interesting and worth the visit, we just should have gone earlier I think.

Finally, I’m having another go at touch typing. Every time I try and learn how to type I fail. I think the big problem is that because I know were all the keys are and I type so fast that I can’t de-program myself into doing it properly. There are certain finger positions for each key and because I don’t use them I type very fast but with very little accuracy. I’ll demonstrate by not using the backspace key

Finally, I’m having another go ast touch typoing. Everyt time tI try and learn how to type I fail. I thinkg the nig problem is that because I know where all thekeys are and I type so fast that I can’t de-program myself into doing it proerply. There are fertain findger pisitions for each bey and becasuse I don’t use them I type fvery fast but with very little accusracy. I’ll demonstrate by not using the backspacekey.

The other thing I’m bad at doing is that I read ahead and end up putting the first letter of the next word in front of the word I should be typing. “fertain finger” is an example.

Anywho. The sun is shining, the blog is on a new version and we’ll get round to booking our holidays soon.

I facebooked your mum

// March 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing, Personal

I do love the new PG Tips advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPWwUm656iQ

Also, I’m fed up of mistyping mediaguy.co.uk nearly every time with medaiguy.co.uk (because my left hand and right hand hit the keys at the same time) so they both now work.

http://www.medaiguy.co.uk/2008/03/22/i-facebooked-your-mum/ 

Latest progress with C#

// March 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing

I’m starting to get somewhere with C# now.

I started learning this language with learnvisualstudio.net, a video-on-demand type site that shows you how to do things.  It is good and gets you started very quickly but doesn’t really explain much. I’ve coupled this with with a For Dummies book and a Microsoft Base Class Library book to give me an idiots guide to why things work (dummies) and lots of example code (class library). These books have cost quite a bit, but altogether it has given me the help I need.

At the moment I’m trying to build a anything-in-anything-out style loans system. I’d written one in PHP already for someone at work so it helps me build a real-world project but without having to worry about requirements or design (as I’d done it already). At the moment it is looking like this

Plenty of work to do, but at least it actually looks like it could do something.

Funny stats

// March 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing

You find google doing some strange things when you search for as much as I do, but one of my flickr account statistics made me find out that a google search for

archos web browser

Doesn’t actually bring the Archos web browsing plugin as the number one result. The number one result is actually my Flickr photo of the web browser. Strange world.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=archos+web+browser 

* Obviously the result of the above link may change over time 

Learning

// February 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing, Work

It’s been an interesting week for me and mostly about learning new things.

I had a talk with the IT depearment’s human resources person last week about progression through ISS. It wasn’t a job interview but a ‘what can you do’ talk. I think this is a great idea as people on the main campus never actually see us down here and it takes something like the Flash video before people realise you can do something clever.

In the meeting was a person from the web applications team and it was an oppotunity to see what they know, so that I would know what to learn. As it turns out that seems to be .net.

ASP.net is a programming language by Microsoft. People don’t use it because people use PHP. This website is written in PHP. It’s free. Microsoft stuff costs money. Businesses have money, businesses use Microsoft. You see where I’m going with this.

Fortunately Microsoft seem to have been kind. They have ‘express’ editons of their software that are free so that people can learn how how to write in their language before paying for the software. So I’m having a go at that.

Also below you might have seem that I’ve been playing with iFrames. The most interesting thing I’ve learnt about iFrames is that if you put something in the middle of it then the RSS readers and other readers pick it up.

<iframe src=”bbc.co.uk”>This is an iframe for the bbc.co.uk website</iframe>

On another note, I’m sorry Mum. I’ve written another blog post that you (and everyone else who actually reads this site) doesn’t understand.

Geek Alert: It’s a thing of beauty

// February 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing

Being valentines today I obviously have to mention Amy as my beauty but we do have another here at the moment for the geek in all of us