A friend of mine recently passed on a very handy tip.  It seems that Microsoft have built in a handy GodMode into Windows Vista and Windows 7.

GodMode is simply a custom folder with links to administration activities you normally have to click through several dialogs to reach.

At this point I should stress that if you use this to trash your machine you are on your own, so don’t blame me and be sure to back up your machine regularly especially just before you make any key changes to the way your operating system works.

So, to enable GodMode:

Access all windows admin settings from one place.

Create a new folder on C:\ or on your desktop and name it exactly as follows:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Be sure to get that exactly right or this won’t work.  Once the folder is created, you may notice a change in the icon, open the new folder and scroll through the many links in there, chances are you will find something useful.

Again, if you are not sure what something is for, you probably don’t want to go playing with it until you’ve done some key research.

Enjoy.

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10 years ago many people thought the world would end as all the computers went pop thanks the the millennium bug.  That all ended in a bit of a whimper of course, and technology progressed at an incredible rate.

We now have digital cameras everywhere and film has become a specialist market populated by the hardened stalwarts and artisans. Most mobile phones have digital cameras in them that is as powerful as the mainstream digital cameras of 10 years ago.

The Internet has given birth to ‘Social Scientists’ who are experts in things like Twitter and Facebook and offer wise words and direction for people looking to ‘connect’ with the world.

Flickr is now home to an incredible array of talent that has made good use of the new found freedom offered by advances in digital photography and the supporting software.

The personal computer has become small enough to fit into a pocket and even comes with the ability to make phone calls and send texts.  You don’t have to worry about asking directions anymore either since that same computer has GPS embedded and can direct you to the nearest coffee shop or bookstore, and when you arrive you can browse the Internet using the built in Wireless networking whilst sipping on your chockamockalatte with an extra shot.
Don’t worry about the website loading slowly since they are all smart enough to realise you are browsing on your… ‘phone’ and will resize to suit.  even if you do decide to ‘go large’ and use your netbook instead, the pages will still load quickly and thanks to a sprinkling of AJAX and Flash you’ll be enjoying websites that are functional, funky and fresh in no time.

Operating systems are not so boring anymore either we’ve seen Windows XP become a huge success despite many flaws, we’ll ignore Vista and instead Skip to 7 which has seen Microsoft reclaim some of the excitement we saw at the end of the last decade with Windows 98.
Linux has become mainstream and has seen huge success in the form of Ubuntu, and people all over the world have been reaching into cupboards and drawers to dust off the old laptops and PC’s giving them a new lease of life all thanks to the Open Source revolution.
Of course Apple still leads the way with it’s functional and sexy OS, it’s just a shame you need to spend a fortune on hardware to get it.

I can now load my entire album collection onto a tiny little storage card and pop it into my MP3 player of choice, which currently serves as a pocket size computer and phone too, and using Bluetooth I can chew through my collection anytime anyplace.

Suffice to say that the last 10 years has seen an amazing amount of progress which can only mean that the next 10 years are going to be bloody scary, and yet also exciting ;0)

Have a great new year folks!

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…responsible for launching space ships, some of the best code ever written, some of the worst code ever written and of course this blog.

people who know me, know I have a thing about coffee, I like variety and I’m fussy about the way it’s ground and the freshness of the roast.  I guess I have a touch of OCD when it comes to coffee.

until recently I’ve only ever had one place to get the best freshly roasted coffee to order. I’ve been happy with that supplier but this week a friend of mine introduced me to a second supplier and that is just the best pre-Christmas news a caffeine addict like me needs ;0)

So my friends, I introduce you all to the wonders of  hasbean.co.uk Has bean is based in Stafford in the North East of the UK, practically on my doorstep in fact.  Check out the website, you’ll find tons of information on a huge selection of coffees all ready to be roasted especially for you :0)

The guy’s at has bean clearly know their coffee and are determined to get it to you in the best possible condition.  the packaging is excellent, tough resealable packs that are really easy to open – no sharp implements required here kids ;0)

You can get the coffee in any form from green bean to your favourite grind and if my order was anything to go by you will get it fast as lightning too.  I put in a reasonably large order and it arrived safe and sound the very next day – perfect!  there are also some neat tasting video’s there too so you can really immerse yourself in the coffee taste experience.

You can follow hasbean on twitter too to catch up with all the latest coffee gossip if twitter is your thing.

I’m not endorsed or sponsored by Has bean, though I’m open to offers ;0P this is simply me letting you know that I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…. :0D

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It has been a while since I posted anything meaningful on the blog so I thought it would be good to stop by and take stock of things since my last posting.

Some of you already know that I recently had a fantastic opportunity to play the part of official photographer for the BBC Backstage team at TEDx Manchester.  The resulting shots are up on my flickr profile.
I was totally excited about the opportunity and had a great day shooting the guest speakers as they did their best to inspire the crowd.  The lighting at the venue provided a big challenge for me, keeping the ISO as low as I could and getting crisp shots was harder than I had hoped.  I managed to rescue just over 50 shots  for the day and  they appear to have been received positively by the people that matter: Jill and Joe public.
The stats on my flicker page went nuts for a few days and even after settling down my daily hit rate remains pretty high which is great and an encouragement for me to pull my finger out over the winter and put up some more shots.

Windows 7 has arived on the scene and my pre-order turned up in good time despite the bloody postal strikes.  Installing it was an absolute breeze and is more akin to Linux rather than the bloody awful long winded process you normally go through with Windows OS’.
Even more surprising was to have all the official drivers for my video, sound and mobo all install as part of the process rather than me having to go download them and install myself to the tune of several reboots.
A fully working Windows install with browser of choice (Firefox) installed and all drivers in place and up to date in less than an hour.  The last time that happened to me I was installing Ubuntu!
I’m loving Windows 7 more and more every day, stability and speed are excellent, I no longer groan if I need to reboot for some reason cos I know the OS will be up in seconds rather than minutes.  The UI changes are a HUGE improvement and just make me more productive straight away, Microsoft hit the mark this time leaving me with the same wow factor I got when I moved up to Windows 95/98 from the old 3.1.

On the gaming front, I’ve been busy playing Batman Arkham Asylum which is frankly nothing short of a revolution in gaming.  It looks good and plays better with some very nice touches that have me going back in for more even after beating the game.  I’ve also been checking out some of the cool indie games that have been popping up on the Steam network.  There sure are some fantastically creative people out there with some impressive ideas.  Recent favourites include Madballs, Quantz,  and Osmos.

I still haven’t finished my first book which is annoying me but mostly through my own indecision rather than any other technical or sinister reason.  My initial plan was to put together a collection of my best shots taken onthe battlefields of the first and second world wars.  The idea is to include a little bit of history along with the shot and short text describing my thoughts behind the shot.  I want to sell the book and have the proceeds all go to help for heroes a charity supporting injured troops in the UK.  The only problem is that I keep thinking the subject of the book is too dark and maybe people won’t buy it.  So plan B is to produce a second book that includes my best ever shots and sell this at the same time so people have a choice.
I’ve learned several valuable lessons in my photography this year.  I am my worst critic and by far the worst critic of my own work.  I listen too much to the voices of people who portray themselves as ‘experts’ and point out every little foible in every image.  By far the most important lesson I learned though, is that there’s no such thing as the ‘perfect picture’ and there never will be.  Photography is a form of communication, the photographer is trying to use the camera to capture a moment, and yet more than that, you try to capture everything that is in that moment, the image, composition, and emotion.  The Photographer wants to say something and whether the picture is perfectly focused/cropped or coloured is irrelevant, these are technical considerations that only serve to rob the viewer of the pleasure of viewing the picture and taking part in the experience.

In other news, I am no longer running netOxide.  I decided that it wasn’t for me in the end and I wanted to concentrate my energies in other areas, mostly photography, so I quit the company.  I’m glad to say that it continues though, my ex business partner is still running it and its getting a very strong customer base as well it should.
I’m on the lookout for another opportunity to use my photographic skills, I’ve a few ideas in the pipeline but for now I need to get the book(s) done and keep my eye out for another golden opportunity like TEDx.

I’m off for a very nice weekend in Wales to visit a very good friend of mine.  I’m hoping for kind weather so we can get in some photography and exploit the fantastic countryside Wales is blessed with.

This post is unoficially sponsored by Obadia Parker’s very fine rendition of Hey Yah which has been on loop through the whole thing and has left me in such a good mood :0)  Be safe, Be happy and don’t give in.  ;0)

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Regular readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Android and I’m forever trying out new apops on my G1, which is sadly getting a bit tired now that faster beefier phones are out.  That said, it is still holding on just fine and the market is still offering me enough goodies to customise it to my needs.

Recently I got hold of two very nice apps that have come to the market as part of the Android Developer Challenge 2 (ADC2).  The challenge encourages innovation and challenges developers to push the boundaries a bit further with the Android Framework.

Hoccer and FlickIt Lite are two apps that are set to add something interesting to the mix.

Both apps have the same aim – transfer data between users without the aid of wires, yet both achieve this in very different ways and with interesting results.

Hoccer allows you to broadcast an object to a group of people or a single person by either flicking your phone like throwing a frizbee or tapping it respectively, the recipient simply flicks the phone up to catch the ‘thrown’ item.  The idea is simple and yet very effective.  They have a test website that allows you to pick an item from your PC and throw it to an area (say the area you are in) defined by a radius selected on a google map. as soon as you send it you should be able to flick your phone up and catch the item.

I don’t know exactly how this works but a best guess would be that Hoccer broadcasts the data in a short data burst that allows people to catch the data within the short lifespan of that data, and it is short, if you are too slow the data is gone.  Obviously this helps get round a security issue as you won’t want your data floating about in the ether forever waiting for someone to grab it.

FlickIt also allows you to send data to other users, but this time via GTalk.  To send data you simply pick the contacts from your Gtalk contact list, they get added to a desktop surface on your phone you then pick either a contact from your phonebook or a picture (I expect the choice will expand sometime in the future maybe), this gets added to the desktop surface too and you then simply Flick It onto your chosen contact to send it to them, like flicking a disk on an air hockey table.  If the recipient does not have FlickIt installed they get a message letting them know you tried to send them something and encouraging them to go get FlickIt.

Initially I thought the look and feel of the FLickIt was a little boring but after using it a bit it actually grew on me and I like it for what it is, a very handy and very functional product that just works.

I see Hoccer appealing to many people because of the neat, though risky, gimmick of frizbeeing data around to groups of people, on the website they suggest sending out PDF’s during a presentation as an example, and tapping data like contact details between two people adds functionality that the iPhone folks have too.

FlickIt adds to that by allowing you to send data wherever you are to any of your Gtalk friends wherever they are and doesn’t require excellent timing or the risk of sending your phone on a one way trip without you ;0)

I like them both as it means I can transfer contact details about effortlessly and it makes my G1 even more useful than it already is.

Both are available on the android market.

FlickIT, Hocker, G1, ADC2

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