Tutorials


Remember The Milk – Web Based To Do List

By Ben Norman [n0rman0] on March 4th, 2010

Remember The Milk - New age to do lists

My memory is horrendous, no worse than that… Put it like this, I’m one step away from writing whatever I wish to remember in permanent ink on my forehead. Now, what was I talking about again?

All jokes aside, if I find anything that can aid me in my quest to be able to actually remember something, I’m certainly going to check it out. The other day I found out about a website called Remember The Milk which promised to do just that with a web based to-do list.

First things first – it looks nice and friendly. Who wouldn’t want to use a website with a cool logo like that?! The whole interface, right from the sign up page, makes you want to use it. All you need to do to get started is go through a standard “enter your email here” etc. and you’re set.

Right, so you’ve signed up and logged in, now what? Well that obviously depends on what you want to use the site for. I think there’re two main ways to use it; as an out and out to-do list, or as a replacement for your main calender. I already use Microsoft Exchange to sync my Google Calender to my phone and so am only really interested in the to-do list part. It works fairly well as a full calender, but Google tend to take some beating.

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Facebook App For iPhone Updated; Contact Sync & Push Notifications

By Euan Cowieson [BE77Y] on February 27th, 2010

Facebook App IconHello interweb, my old friend… I’ve come to speak to you again. So it’s been a while, huh? My apologies! Cyber-slapping in retribution aside, today I’ll be talking about one of the more useful iPhone apps – Facebook – and  more specifically an interesting update it has recently had.

So as I mentioned, the Facebook app had a major update, around a month ago (I know, I’m behind the times…. shocking effort…) which included the ability to receive ‘push‘ updates & synchronisation of the important bits of your Facebook contacts with your iPhone. In case you don’t already know, a ‘Push’ update is one that doesn’t require you to connect to anything to get it, i.e you can have your iPhone in your pocket and as soon as you get a wall post/ comment etc, it will instantly notify your iPhone and pop up a little notification – not unlike a text, for example. I wrote an article a little while back explaining push and so-forth for GMail on your iPhone, you can find it here.

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Linux. So what’s that all about?

By Euan Cowieson [BE77Y] on February 8th, 2010

Linux Distributions - which one is right for you?An operating system that’s able to be run from a pen drive? Yes, please! Ok, so right out of the gate it already sounds like I’m trying to ‘sell’ the idea of Linux to you. Scratch that. I do, however, think it is a very interesting concept, and the Operating Systems that are developed using the open-source Linux kernel are in themselves very intriguing, and altogether worthwhile.

Now then, to give you a brief overview, we have to go back to the 80′s. Its not been long since the founders of Apple Inc. and Microsoft went their separate ways, and home computing is still in its infancy. In 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU Project, with the vision of creating a free, open-source, UNIX-like operating system. However, even after years of development and an almost-complete operating system, the GNU kernel failed to get the required attention from developers to be completed. Enter Linus Torvalds (c1991). Linus took what was previously done under the GNU Project and created another project, that eventually became the Linux kernel. It’s that kernel that is still under development and iteration today, and that all Linux ‘flavours‘ must build upon.

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How To Use Your Xbox360 For More Than Just Gaming

By Euan Cowieson [BE77Y] on February 6th, 2010

Windows Media Centre Extender For Xbox360As many of you will already know , the Xbox360 is the best games console on the market. Alright, alright – calm down! I jest. It is, of course, entirely opinion whether you prefer the Xbox360 or the PS3 (or even the Wii!). But one thing is certain – the media streaming experience on the Xbox360 is fantastic.

If you’re like me, you’d much rather experience your pictures, music and most importantly, videos on your TV and decent sound system than on your PC/laptop – but you’re probably not a fan of having to move your machine over to the TV and fiddle around with cables and such. The easiest way for most people to get their content onto their TV/sound system (and by most people, I of course mean most people likely to read this kind of blog, ie. Xbox owners!), is to stream your digital content to your existing system (TV, 5.1, etc) – via the Xbox. This is handy, because it’s already in place, supports 5.1 audio and, of course, High Definition.

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Twitter – What’s It Actually Useful For?

By Ben Norman [n0rman0] on February 5th, 2010

If asked the question “do you have a Twitter account?” most people’s answer would probably be yes. Ask the question “what do you use it for?”, and many people have no idea. Until very recently (just before I decided to try out blogging in fact) I thought that it was a big waste of time, however I’ve seen the light (yeah I know I’m about a year late – leave me alone, I’m special!). Please remember that I’m still relatively new to Twitter, so if you think I’ve got the wrong idea about something please feel free to tell me what you think in the comments.

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Sync Your Google Contacts, Calendar(s) & Email With Your Mobile

By Euan Cowieson [BE77Y] on February 1st, 2010

Use Google Sync for Mail, Calendar & ContactsNowadays, most people will have heard the term ‘cloud computing‘ being bandied around like some generic technological buzzword, and won’t give it a second thought. What they don’t realise, is the potential that the concept of ‘cloud computing’ actually has. Today, I’ll be talking about one relatively simple (but important) extrusion of this concept  into our everyday lives, and how we organise them. It’s called Google Sync.

So Google Sync is a very handy service, provided for free by everyone’s favourite world-dominating company, Google. It basically involves a simple, singular, online place to store and interact with your contacts, calendars and email – and then have any combination of these sync with whatever devices you see fit. If you have a Google Account already, great – you can go start using these services right now! If not, you can sign up for one here.

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