snedden.net » Technology

Home Automation – HAH

charlie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:58:59 +0000

Moving into my new house has led me down the road of looking at home automation products. there is a wide avaried amount of stuff out there, but so far the best I have seen for a limited budget is the Home Easy equipment.

Readily available from your local DIY store; you can get your grubby little mits on a number of items, such as Dimmable Light switches, Central heating switches, out door switches etc. etc.

Dont be fooled though. My Local DIY store has two types of infra red controlled equipment and two types of RF contorlled equipment.

My first visit, I walked away with an infrared dimmable switch and controller, but after I installed the switch, it soon became apparent that the contorller did not work with it.

Varilight Touch/Remote Control

The Varilight alows you to control and dim your lights by touch or by remote control, it has a neat little learning cycle, so if you have a spare couple of buttons on your TV control, you can set it up. The bad thing was it came programmed to switch on when I fast forwarded the telly and off when I paused it.

Along side the Varilight remote control I purchased the Home Easy starter kit from the On/Off range.

“Home Easy is a wirefree range of products designed to remotely control your home, adding a new dimension to your daily living. This revolutionary new technology allows you to simply operate: Lighting, Appliances, TV/SKY/DVD, Heating & Door Access.”

I now have my remote control in the lounge and the On/Off kit in the bedroom, yes I am that lazy.

On the way home

Charlie S — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:48:56 +0000

So it’s time to start my merry way home. I wish I was merry, it would
make this bus trip a little more exciting.

I thought I was about to witness a horrific accident when some stupid
arse hole kicked his football in to the middle of the road. What a
pity some samaritan kicked it back when crossing the road.

Apple Confirms iPhone 4 – Here’s What You Need to Know

Charlie S — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:38:19 +0000

Get your grubby mits on an Iphone

Steve Jobs took to the stage a short time ago at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference inSan Francisco. While much of the fourth generation iPhones secrets were already known through a controversial Gizmodo expose, we didn’t have the details until now. So here’s the confirmation of the specs along with some surprises too – check out our iPhone v4 cheat sheet for everything you need to know down the pub tonight…

Prices – $199 16GB, $299 32GB | Available 24th June – Pre-order from 15th June (Inc UK)

Hardware

Powered by Apple A4 CPU (same as iPad)
IPS (in-plane switching) Screen – 960 x 640 – 326 DPI – 4x the pixel density of 3GS
800:1 Contrast ratio – 4x better than 3GS
802.11n Wi-Fi
40% More Talk time with new battery
Glass Front & Back
New Front Facing Camera – ‘FaceTime’ Video Calling (Wi-Fi only for now)
Rear Camera – 5MP (with backside illuminated sensor)
HD Video Recording – 720P @ 30FPS
Rear LED Flash
24% Thinner than iPhone 3GS
Micro Sim Tray
2nd Mic for Noise cancellation
Stainless Steel band around phone incorporates antennas
three-axis gyroscope – Gaming?
Up to 32GB of Flash Storage (no 64GB option)
Available in Black or White
3GS stays at $99

So, Blogging by email.

charlie — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:04:18 +0000

So I am just trying the blogging by email.

This way I can update quickly by my Iphone……..

Wimpy Media Player

charlie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:07:04 +0000

I have just reinstalled a copy of Wimpy player on the wwebsite www.theformicarium.com which is a website I host.

Lanos, a young communications company

charlie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:41:19 +0000

As a young company we are ambitious and work hard to deliver the latest technologies to Small and Medium sized Businesses at an affordable price. We invest our resources into research, in order to benefit our customers. We do our best to keep our finger on the pulse of the IT world and will inspire your business to find new opportunities.

BlackBerry

charlie — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:11:00 +0000

7100v used as Modem (Vodafone)

I have read all the threads on the subject of using the Blackberry7100v as a Modem – and managed it!
Vodafone is the carrier. And I use the the internet service
I Had to use Desktop Manager 4.0 as 4.X would not install the standard modem driver

I have set the connection – using the Extra Initialization String +cgdcont=1,”IP”,”internet”

I set the the TCP APN to Internet, username Web and Password Web

*99# to dial.

Connect the BlackBerry via the usb and then create a standard dial up, using the standard modem.

Hey Prendo it worked

Vodafone and Blackberry

charlie — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:53:53 +0000

With my new employer, I have been given a Blackberry, 7100v. Is that laughter I here, well it certainly was when I spoke with a Vodafone engineer. How Rude.

Any how it has OS 4.0.2.X so I am going to try an upgrade to 4.1.x as I can install Blackberry Maps and use a bluetooth GPS.. WooHoo I here you shout.

Cheap Personal VPN

charlie — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:44:18 +0000

So, I needed a VPN and my router did not support the creation of an incomming VPN connection. So I started digging around for VPN software and I stumbled upon www.logmein.com. Here they have a free to use VPN software called Hamachi it enables secure remote access to your network, anywhere there’s an Internet connection. I Think its pretty cool.