Tuesday 26 August 2014

iPad tricks

Take a screenshot
If you need a screenshot, whether it's to prove your high score in a new game or to send an important chart to the office, taking one is quick and easy. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time. The screenshot will be added to your camera roll.
 

 Tap titlebar to return to top
Scrolling all the way up to the top of a long page can be irritating. That's why Apple included a shortcut: just tap on the title bar at the top of the screen to automatically jump to the top. This should work across most apps,
 

 Fast app switching
If you have followed the tips above then you will have seen this by now. Switching apps quickly is very easy. It's not necessary to close one app and then scroll through your apps to find the one you want. Just open the iPad's multitasking menu by swiping upwards with four fingers or double-tapping the home button. You'll see all of your recently opened apps. Scroll right and you'll see even more. Just tap the one you want to switch quickly. This is especially useful if you want to copy-and-paste between one app and another. Swipe one up to quite it.

 Copy/Paste
This is a tremendously useful feature. If you need to copy text between, say, a document and an email, just tap and hold on the text you want to copy. The word you have tapped will be highlighted and you'll see a bar with a blue circle on it at each end of the word. Drag these bars to select the text you want and then tap 'copy'. Then go to the app you want to paste the text into, tap and hold and then hit 'paste'.

 Zoom

Want to see something close up, then this feature might be for you.
This feature sits in the accessibility folder under general settings. when turned on, double tap on the screen with three fingers to zoom into a spot.
To navigate around while zoomed in, drag three fingers around the screen.
And if things still are not magnified enough, then double tap again while zoomed in with three fingers before dragging them up or down. This will zoom you right in and out of the action.

 Shake to undo
Made a mistake when typing and wish there was a handy undo button just like on your desktop word processor. Actually there is, but you have to get physical.
Simply pick up your iPad, hold it tightly and give it a rigorous shake. A box will flash up on the screen asking if you would like to undo the typing you have just inputted.

Double click the home button
Double click of the home button will bring up the multitasking bar, allowing you to access apps that are open, place a finger on them and the Apps will jiggle. Press the small x to close down an app in the bottom bar.

Reboot
Hold down the Sleep/wake Button and the Home Button  for about 15 seconds or until the screen goes black and the Apple logo appears. Wait a while and slide to switch on. all open Apps which are slowing down your system will be closed.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

HP X360 removing the base enclosure

Removing the base enclosure

WARNING:Make sure the computer is disconnected from power before starting.
Follow the steps in this section to remove the base enclosure.
Step 1

Remove the two rubber feet from the rear corners of the base enclosure.
Removing the rubber feet
Step 2

Remove four screws that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.

NOTE:The four screws in this step and the seven screws in the next step are different sizes. Take care to keep them separate for reinstallation.
Four screws locations
Step 3

Remove seven more screws that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.
Seven screw locations
Step 4

Starting with the edge of the base enclosure near the power button, carefully release the retention clips on the outer edges of the base enclosure from the top cover.
Releasing the retention clips
Step 5

Lift the base enclosure off the computer by prying it up and lifting...
Lifting and removing the base enclosure
...taking care to flex the base enclosure as necessary to remove the enclosure from over the HDMI connector.HDMI connector in the base enclosure
Step 6

Lift the base enclosure until you have access to the ribbon cable and its connector.
Base enclosure lifted to access ribbon cable and its connector
Step 7

Carefully lift up the locking bar on the connector.

CAUTION:Use care to prevent damaging the connector and ribbon cable.
Lifting the locking bar on the connector
Step 8

Remove the cable from the connector, and lift off the base enclosure.
Disconnecting the cable

Replacing the base enclosure

Use the steps in this section to replace the base enclosure.
Step 1

If installing a new base enclosure, remove the USB board from the inside of the old enclosure and install it on the inside of the new base enclosure.
USB board on the inside of the base enclosure
Step 2

Place the base enclosure over the computer so that the USB cable can be reconnected.
Holding the base enclosure open to access the ribbon cable and connector
Step 3

Insert the ribbon cable in the connector and push down on the locking bar to secure it.
Reconnecting the cable
Step 4

Replace the base enclosure ensuring that the HDMI connector fits in its intended opening on the side of the base enclosure...
HDMI connector in the base enclosure
...and lower the base enclosure onto the computer.Lowering the base enclosure into place
Step 5

Press down on the edges of the enclosure to snap it into place.
Snapping the cover into place
Step 6

Replace seven screws that secure the base enclosure.
The seven screw locations
Step 7

Replace the other four screws that finish securing the base enclosure to the computer.
The four screw locations
Step 8

Replace the two rubber feet.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Western Digital , Blue, Green, Black or Red what is the difference ?

Nothing beats a SSD Drive for performance but mechanical drives by Western Digital are much cheaper.

WD Blue
These are your baseline drives; typical power consumption, solid performance, good price. If none of the specific features of the other types stand out then these are the ones you want, they're ideal as capacity drives for a desktop for example.

WD Green
These are all about saving energy; they're not actually all that slow in practice for things like streaming, but for more random read/write they lag behind a bit, again not by all that much. The main benefit is that they save power and wear by spinning down when they can, this means they're basically best for things like backup drives which are only in use periodically (e.g - once an hour), if they're made to spin up too often then you obliterate any potential savings you could make, at which point you've got a slightly slower Blue.

WD Black
These are pure performance drives, all about speed. Their top speed for streaming isn't that much further ahead than a blue drive, but the main difference comes from it being generally more responsive. Basically if all you want is speed, but you can't afford an SSD with the capacity you need, then WD Blacks are for you. A good value gaming system can do well with an affordable SSD for OS and a few other bits and pieces you can fit, with a WD Black as your main drive for your games, for example by moving your Steam folder onto it, giving you good all round performance and capacity.
They also now have generous warranties (5 years), they're basically WD Red+, if you can take advantage of the extra performance that is.

WD Red
I think of these as a hybrid between Greens and Blacks; their power consumption is really good, but unlike the Green which is designed to save power between uses, the Reds are designed to just spin constantly for continual use/availability. They're quiet, responsive, and have good speeds, but most importantly they have an extended (3 year) warranty.
You could use them as system drives and they'd perform just fine, but you probably wouldn't be getting the most of their cost; they're ideal for often used NAS devices, I also like them for RAID setups, particular RAID-5 and RAID-6 since a bunch of them doesn't use tons of power, but they're responsive enough to handle the distributed blocks of data, parity writes etc.


So to summarise:
WD Black = Speed/high end use, extended warranty.
WD Blue = General use.
WD Green = Energy saving for backups or other less frequent use.
WD Red = Some energy saving, continual use, extended warranty, ideal for RAID.