Technology and Entertainment is one of those areas where most people have something to say. Whether it’s the latest offering from Apple, cutting edge gaming or a new Movie, nothing seems to divide opinion quite as much.
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One of the most important factors when using Google Analytics is to get your stats as accurate as possible.
One way to improve this accuracy is to ensure that any visits you or your development teams make to sites are filtered out from the results.
Google Analytics provide some nice filtering tools for such work but unless you’re all nicely behind a single static IP address, learning how to prevent the results from being skewed can be hard work.
Even if your work place uses a static IP address, what if your team want to work on the site from other locations such as home or satellite offices? The answer is cookies!
Continue reading How to filter your own visits from Google Analytics
One of the biggest challenges for web masters running their sites on Windows 2008 is being able to produce regular automated backups of both the site and database.
Unfortunately as Windows based operating systems become easier and easier to pickup and use with their shiny graphics and user friendly design it seems the art of scripting or batch coding is becoming rarer. I thought I’d take the time to share with you a simple script I’ve previously written to be able to backup an IIS 7.5 website, it’s MySQL database and then compress it ready for download.
Continue reading Backup IIS 7.5 Site and MySQL 5.5 Database using Batch File on Windows 2008
The Billion 7800N is a very highly rated ADSL2+ Router and for good reason. Although slightly more expensive than a number of home use routers the Billion 7800N comes packed with many enterprise quality features that make it stand out.
It’s got N wireless with 3 removeable antenna, it supports a dual WAN connectivity that allow the use of both PPOE and PPOA connections and is incredibly stable. Sky Broadband insist that you use their routers and rightly or wrongly, this is not for debate here. It’s part of their terms and conditions and if you don’t like it, change provider. What I wanted to share with you is how I’ve managed to integrate my Billion 7800N into my home network, take advantage of it’s features and all without breaking Sky Broadband’s terms and conditions.
Continue reading Using a Billion 7800N with Sky Broadband Unlimited and MER
I love my Apple TV 2, I mean really love it. Thanks to a generous number of Apple iTunes Vouchers for Christmas we’ve watched numerous HD Movies using the little black box of goodness and all have been first rate in terms of quality and performance.
A nice added bonus of the Apple TV 2 is the ability to watch Movie Trailers that we used to goto the Apple Quicktime website to watch, but now in glorious HD through our home cinema setup.
So why oh why don’t the Movie Trailers stream very well? Have we got a configuration problem? Or are the Trailers notorious for being slow?
Continue reading Apple TV 2 Pausing When Streaming Movie Trailers
So when I heard about a shiney new sci fi series that would revolve around dinosaurs, my mind instanty went to Primeval and the feeling of disappointment I got as I watched poor CGI, poor acting and a story line that would send even the most understanding Sci Fi fan running for the hills. That was enough to put me off the series permanently and I never went back – even the clips I see from the later series make me cringe a little.
But this isn’t Primevil – this is Terra Nova and boy was I in for a surprise.
Continue reading Terra Nova Season 1
Finally… Netflix lands in the UK. Having signed up to the ‘email me when Netflix is available in the UK‘ distribution list, imagine my delight when I saw the email informing me that the superb movie and television service had started.
Add to that the fact that they are offering a free 1 month trial – why are you still reading this and not at the Netflix website signing up?
Continue reading Netflix Now Available in the United Kingdom
ARC or Audio Return Channel is one of those home cinema features that firstly most people don’t know what it is and those that do sometimes have a hard time getting it to work with their specific setup.
ARC is the ability to send sound in the oposite direction so that audio sources received direct on the TV (Terrestrial / Digital / In built Media Player) can be output on the home cinema AMP & Speakers instead of the in built TV speakers.
As it took me the best part of an hour to research / test this, I thought it would make a useful post.
This guide will walk through the enabling of ARC on my TV (LG 47LW550T) and my home cinema Amp (Onkyo TX-SR608).
Continue reading How to Enable ARC LG 47LW550T Onkyo TX-SR608
LG Dual Play is one of the flagship features of it’s new LW980T 3D TV range. In short, this means that instead of relying on traditional split screen gaming for people playing on the same screen, you can actually both see different full screens.
Sounds like magic? Not really – especially when you consider that you can actually use any LG 3D TV to get the same result. In fact, this process may work on ANY Passive 3D TV but as I’ve only got an LG 47LW550T to test it on – I can’t confirm this.
So let’s take a closer look at how we can make any LG Passive 3DTV play in Dual Play mode.
Continue reading LG Dual Play on ANY Passive LG 3DTV
Writing an advanced Proxy Pac File can be both time consuming and frustrating. The following is an example of an advanced Proxy Pac File that is capable of using a number of different Proxy Server addresses depending on both the source IP of the client and the destination. There are a number of additional factors to take into account when using this Proxy Pac File, particularly around the use of the myIpAddress function which is known to have mixed results around both incorrectly using the local loop back address (127.0.0.1) and IPv6 when installed. In my experience, this file has worked without problem – but your mileage may vary.
Continue reading Advanced Proxy Pac File
Planet of the Apes was both a set of movies and TV series that I didn’t really ever get into. Perhaps it was my age, or perhaps it was that I didn’t particularly want to watch something where grown up’s dressed as walking / talking apes!
Whatever the reason, my real first introduction to the concept was the 2001 movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter. I seem to recall it was ok, especially Tim Roth’s version of Thade and Michael Clarke Duncan as Attar but it wasn’t anything special.
So imagine my surprise when whilst working away from home I found myself at the local cinema deciding what to watch when I noticed Rise of the Planet of the Apes and even more so, bought a ticket and went to watch a late night showing alone.
Continue reading Rise of the Planet of the Apes