Just a thing that’s annoying me for a long time on Google Apps, my storage has run out after 5 years of usage.

There’s no way to purchase additional gmail storage on a per-user basis. You have to upgrade to the Pro version of Google Apps which is a pretty expensive commitment. The reason this annoys me is that you might have 10 users, in my case 2 of them have reached 99% of the limit, while the other 8 have only used 5-10% each.

The problem is that you have to upgrade every user on the site, so 10 users by $50 per year is $500 just to increase the storage on 1 or 2 users.

The other issue that has been bugging me since Google tidied up a lot of stuff around the Summer of 2011 is that I can’t be signed into 2 google accounts now at the same time, I have to switch. The net result of this is that I don’t use Google+ or YouTube much because I have to sign in and out. Of course I could have 2 browsers and sessions open but that is nusiance, the only real solution is some kind of account linking feature where you can be signed into up to 3 google accounts that you own and 1 of them is the default.

On landing on a page like Google+ it would pick up your default Google+ account rather than your Google Apps account. This is not a simple problem to solve. For speed purposes today I received a Google+ email notification so confronted with the hassle of signing out of my Google Apps account etc etc I just launched the Google+ App on my iPhone and had the job done in 10 seconds with not hassle.

Apple has delivered over 200 significant features to the iOS along with a new iCloud platform plus some significant additions to the Apple TV. Basically everything now works together seamlessly, no wires, no effort. Apple’s eco-system is entering a glorious period that will be free of the angst and recrimination associated with may of its previous incarnations over the years. They have basically removed dozens of barriers and “what if” or “if only” question marks that overshadowed many of its previous achievements.

So where to start?

I am uncovering new features organically by the day and getting used to the more obvious ones. The best format is probably a chart topper effort but the list is going to go a lot further than a Top 5..but here’s a start anyway

Apple TV Mirroring - on top of saving me €79 for a tv connection cable, mirroring actually gives the iPad a whole new purpose in life. We're already taking advantage of it for an interactive museum, it works so well out of the box it is uncanny.

iCloud - this changes everything, particularly the way the App Store keeps track of all your downloads and syncs them to your other iOS devices automatically. It does a whole bunch of other stuff too of course and its only the beginning.

Alert Notification Shortcuts - its only a small change but the miniature unlock sliders are convenient, fun and engaging. It speeds up general usage and reduces the number of dead clicks also by bringing you right to the point of action.

iMessage - Obviously a lot of people are talking about WhatsApp but iMessage is integrated with your SMS on the device so its much more practical and sustainable. Viber has a messaging service too after all, I don't use it, do you?

Camera Buttons - just a little common sense addition whereby the volume button can now be used to snap a photo, this solves a usability problem and also gives back the compact camera feel to the iPhone when being used as a camera.

By leveraging some of the best plug-ins out there WordPress can do 95% of most people’s CMS requirements without a single programmer writing a single line of code.

Here are my top 10 must have WordPress plug-ins as of 2011:

1. Post Page Associator
2. Under Construction
3. All in One SEO
4. Google Analytics
5. Widget Logic
6. Autohide Admin Toolbar
7. Facebook Social Widgets
8. Rocket Theme – Afterburner Theme
9. WP Touch
10. Star Rating for Reviews

http://www.channel-ai.com/blog/plugins/star-rating/

I used the article below to restore my Dreamweaver CS5 via the Windows registry, there is a bit more involved though so I have detailed additional steps.

http://www.josh.biz/technical-notes/back-up-dreamweaver-site-definitions-using-the-windows-registry/

Update: Unfortunately after all the effort this operation did not keep any of the usernames or passwords so it was of limited benefit after all that!

After loading the legacy hive to my windows registry and exporting the .reg file I needed to edit it in notepad and do a find and replace on the paths.

Once you load the legacy “NTUSER.DAT” file it adds paths to the .reg entry that don’t match the active HKEY_CURRENT_USER paths.

In my case I named the NTUSER.DAT legacy hive I uploaded as “x32 NTUSER” As far as I could see that is the only file that you actually need (the article on josh.biz suggests 4 hives need to be loaded).

I was transitioning from Dreamweaver CS5 on Win 7 Ultimate x32 to Dreamweaver CS5 on Win 7 Ultimate x64 I opened the exported .reg file in Notepad and replaced all the paths to:

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/x32 NTUSER/” with the correct path ”HKEY_CURRENT_USER”.

Unless this change is made then the .reg file cannot load into the correct location on the active OS. This also was a good opportunity to update all the local directory paths for all my sites which I did with another find and replace.

The performance improvements over the 3G were dramatic , and that may not be as apparent for iPhone 3GS owners. The 3G I had was slowing down significantly, and have installed iOS4 on it there was a noticeable degradation in responsiveness and battery life.

The iPhone 4 is noticeably heavier and slimmer than the older models, and looks slicker than the predecessor with its minimalist finish.

I did have an issue with dropping calls at the beginning, but this seemed to dissipate following the 4.1 software upgrade and also I added a slim protection case to the back of the phone. The case may have reduced the effects of the “death grip” problem where the antenna loses signal on contact with  a conductive surface like your hand.

Apart from some teething problems with calls dropping at the beginning I have had very little trouble with the iPhone 4.

Here are the main benefits:

• Up to 2 full days battery life under normal conditions, and the battery meter is very reliable and accurate
• Performance is snappy and responsive and particularly running demanding 3D games is a joy
• The high resolution Retina display makes fonts look great and improves the general image sharpness greatly
• Photos are still great, just like on the 3G/3GS but with higher resolution images (1600 x 1200 >> 2592 x 1936)
• HD Video (720p) is excellent and hugely useful for all sorts of situations
• The screen surface seems very durable and I haven’t put a single scratch on mine yet
• The mute switch on the side now stays in position now and doesn’t accidentally flick to the wrong position

Some areas that could be improved

• I tried the “Facetime” service using the front camera over a Wi Fi connection but it suffered from latency badly
• The weight of the device is heavier than most other phones on the market, this is a minor drawback
• Battery life has improved but ideally can be increased in future versions to 4 or 5 days

I have used a number of other phones including Samsung and HTC on Android and they are catching up with the iPhone, but there’s still clear daylight between the Apple device and the others which is partially down to the hardware and build quality, but mostly because of the iOS software and the regulation of Apps to ensure quality standards.

Overall the iPhone 4 is the must have communications device of its generation.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I received this coffee making machine as a gift from my girlfriend last Christmas, and it has proven to be one of those gifts that keeps on giving. Its definitely the best gift I have ever received!

The Lattissima is the ultimate in home coffee making appliances, and the flagship of the Nespresso range, costing between €350 and €400.

The Lattissima shares a lot in common with the iPad, its expensive and a luxury and doesn’t entirely justify itself, but its also hugely desirable and has an aspirational quality.

To own and use the Lattissima you need to join the Nespresso Club, this is the part of the gift that keeps on giving.  With Nespresso Club you feel you are becoming a coffee connoisseur and there is an exclusivity to the whole experience that I really enjoy. Everything from the packaging to the invoices and the brightly coloured “lungo” capsules all feels amazingly high-end and “reassuringly expensive”.

The machine works by filling a water compartment and attaching a milk jug, then you pop in your capsule and press go.

There’s no cleaning, no tidy up and yet the coffee is as good as you will get at almost any coffee shop or café.

Every month new flavours of coffee capsules are released, some of them are limited editions or special collections and recently a decaf capsule was added to the range. Nespresso Club is a well supported and well run operation and that keeps it interesting and new.

The only criticism I would have is the excessive pricing on their accessories range, they stock a stainless steel teaspoon at €14 per spoon which I find extortionist but obviously you don’t have to buy it!

The capsules cost about €0.40 each and I generally order about €60 worth of stock every 6-8 months.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

1. WinSplit Revolutions (Hotkey controls that let you quickly arrange and align your open program windows)
   Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
2. Image Resize (Adds a right-click Context Menu Option to Instantly Resize Images)
   Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
3. Clip Path (Adds a right-click Context Menu Option to Copy Directory Paths for File Attachments & Sharing)
   Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4. Stardock Fences (Create “fences” on your Windows Desktop to tidy up your icons in groups)
   Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
5. Disable Caps Lock (Turns your Caps Lock button into a shift button)
   Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Anyway it was time to invest in a proper hands-free kit, but I wanted to keep the jukebox functionality that I had become used to with my old iTrip.

>The Parrot MK9200i brings together 3 important features:

1. Proper Hands-free calls (integrated with car audio system)
2. Jukebox (play music through car audio system)
3. DC Charging Station (to keep the battery in juice)

The iTrip could charge the iPhone and act as a Jukebox, but audio was over FM so the listening experience wasn’t exactly amazing. Of course with a price differential of 500% there would want to be a serious upside.

I got my Parrot professionally installed at CarCom on Henry Street, Limerick. The total cost incl. of VAT was €270 and I left my car with them for 2 hours in the city centre to get installed.

The new Parrot is like an octopus in that it comes with a plethora of components, althought its a relatively neat and seamless install really.

• A mini colour display that sticks on the dash and lets you see what’s going on in the iPhone basically (also has an SD memory slot in the back).
• A central “CPU” box that is installed out of sight inside the casing of the dashboard (behind glove compartment in my Mazda 6 v.2003)
• A twin input stereo microphone that is wired above the drivers seat, near the rearview mirror
• An input controller with rotating knob for volume and scrolling plus 5 more buttons for call, hang up, prev, next, and play.
• A multi-connector lead that sits losely in my glove compartment with iPhone Dock, Line-in, and USB connections.

For anybody with the iPhone you really should upgrade the firmware on this Parrot, there are several iPhone specific performance fixes. At the time of writing the unit ships with software V 1.12 but latest available is 4 or 5 releases later at v 1.40.

Review – Pros

• The Audio is really great on playing music directly through the iPhone Dock connector.
• Microphone sound quality is excellent, other people can hear you loud and clear over the Bluetooth calling device. This was a major problem using a Jabra in-ear handsfree device previously and drove people crazy at the other end with distortion and interference.
• The twisty knob control works well for calling and navigating, so you can safely twiddle it while driving if you’re careful.
• The CPU stores all your numbers into its own memory and syncs regularly so you see all your recent Call History etc.

Review – Cons

• I have noticed some latency at times in the controls, you sometimes have to wait a couple of seconds for the screen to change and its not 100% responsive.
• €270 is quite a bit of money to spend for a lot of people, yet there are no realistic alternatives that I can see.
• The Graphical User Interface is a little confusing and could be a little more intuitive I would say, but the software updates might help this over time

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

On the 21st of May 2009 I got an ACL reconstruction operation on my left knee at the Whitfield Clinic (Waterford, Ireland) which was ably performed by leading sports injury surgeon Tadhg O’Sullivan. In this post I’m going to take you through my experience and hopefully help others with their operations.

The Hospital

I was blown away by the clinic when I went around the various sections of the building. Its less than 3 years old, a fully private hospital that is kitted out to world-class standards. Its like a very plush shopping centre, no hospital smell or noise anywhere. The building is full of light and has a lovely café/dining area as you come through the main central reception hall.

Now there is an issue with timing for my consultant Mr. O’Sullivan, and if you get an appointment for 11am you probably won’t see him until 1.30pm or perhaps even 3.00pm in the afternoon. Once you arrive armed with this knowledge you won’t become as frustrated and you may even time in your arrival a little late etc to counteract the painful waiting process.

The Operation

My girlfriend accompanied me on the trip from Limerick to Waterford and we booked a room in the Tower Hotel for that night so we wouldn’t have to trek home with me in a fragile state, post-op. (Its a basic hotel in a convenient location.)

Once I got to the Day Care Centre at the hospital I did some routine surveys and a nurse took all my vital statistics. One of the surgeons came in to mark the area to be operated on with a purple marker, this was strangely reassuring because it made sure there would beno mix-ups and they would operate on the correct leg!

I was given a robe to wear and special undergarments for the operation and then I waited a couple of hours for the surgery team to wheel me up to the theatre. At the theatre I met a friendly anaesesthist and soon I was out cold. The next thing I remember was waking up back in the same Day Care cubicle as before and starting to come to my senses. After that I was served tea and toast and the nurses began to assess my readiness for departure. As I looked quite pale they were afraid to let me stand up for a bit because it would be very hard to lift me up if I went down and it could also risk the integrity of the operation. When I finally got up to go they wheeled me to the car in a wheelchair. The first 24 hours are critical so its very important to get into cars carefully and keep the leg straight all the time and preferably raised.

Post-Op: First 24 Hours

My first night went fine as I had plenty of drugs in me and couldn’t really feel much. I was very hungry so I ate a prawn salad, biscuits and  tea. In the morning I continued with a full Irish. This was all a big mistake! Once the drugs began to wear off and the food hit my digestive system it was not a happy experience. I was sick most of that day and didn’t feel right for another day or so until all the drugs had passed through my system. Don’t eat much after your operation!

The leg looked pretty huge for the first while, there was a lot of dressing on it and a good bit of mess from the orange stain of the disinfectant coupled with dried blood etc. The leg was not a pretty site at all and soon it increased swelling to about double the size of my good leg, it was huge looking!

For pain killers I elected not to take the prescribed Diaphene, I tooke this before and it only made me feel worse as its very hard on the stomach and the head. Instead I took an Over-The-Counter product recommended by the nurse, Neurofen Plus. This drug was excellent with limited side-effects and very affordable/accessible too.

Post-Op: First Week of Recovery

Regular use of painkillersis vital for the first week, you need to take them all the time so that you can perform the initial rehab activities like straightening the leg and just getting around the place. I didn’t take much time off work, but I did work from home for a week. Ideally you would take 2 weeks off work and do as little as possible apart from the prescribed instruction manual of rehab activities.

I was not able to fend for myself during the first week that well, I needed my girlfriend to drive me around and get me things from the shop as well as household chores etc. The single most difficult thing with an ACL operation is the total inability to look after oneself for the first week or so. There’s no getting around the fact that you can’t get around and you can’t carry anything because of crutches. One tip I would offer is to use a small backpack to carry objects around the house while on the crutches…going up and down the stairs is another day’s work!

Life on Crutches: Week 2-6

Dr. O’Sullivan warned me not to walk on the operated leg until after my Week 4 check-up back at the hospital. He was adamant that I needed to use crutches for the full 6 weeks to ensure proper healing and mitigate against mishaps or an early recurrence of the injury.

Therefore I observed the exact procedure as per my instructions from the clinic. After week 3 I was able to resume driving and this was a great relief and brought things almost back to normal in terms of day to day living. I weaned myself off Neurofen gradually up to about week 4, by which time I wass just taking an occasional dosage if I felt in a lot of pain and couldn’t complete my exercises.

The most important exercise is the full straightening of the leg, this is mad difficult by the fluid from the swelling and the pain in the operated areas. If you do not do the straighening exercises the graft inside the knee will set in a slightly stretched position and then will be longer and looser in the final analysis, resulting in a less successful reconstruction overall. Daily living was difficult during the 6 week period on crutches, I was still dependant on others to cut the lawn, clear the dishes and wash my clothes etc. That’s the big problem with crutches, you can’t carry stuff from A to B.

Walk Before you Run: Week 7-14

Once the crutches were discarded life became much easier and I began to attempt some simple bending exercises to build up the hamstring and quads. Walking uphill and up flights of stairs was difficult at first and I chose to use an elevator at work much of the time. After about week 9 I started climbing the stairs and it is very good to build the normal function back into the quads and hamstrings.

Walking downhill and descending staircases is not recommended and can damage the joint. Its better to avoid this as much as you can for as long as you can because its the wrong type of movement. Lifting weights on a leg extension machine is also completely out and will only de-stabilise the knee.

As well as just walking around I took up regular Aqua Aerobics 3 times per week during this phase for about 5 weeks. Using an Aqua Belt you can float in a deep swimming pool and simulate a jogging movement as well as performing squats in reduced gravity mode. After the 5th week of Aqua Aerobics it was becoming too easy so I reverted to cycling and walking. I’m now ready to start jogging and a lot of the swelling and abnormality is gone from the knee, its starting to go back to the way its supposed to be. I have a check-up tomorrow with the surgeon so fingers crossed.

Taking it Easy: Week 14-30

I got my final “All Clear” from the surgeon during week 14 of my post-op and he advised me not to rush into running or walking just yet and to focus on cycling and low impact exercise. There was still a degree of swelling in the knee for a further 8 weeks at least before it started to look like a normal knee. There was also a tingling sensation at the front of the knee which was weird and my hamstring remained weak and small on the affected leg.

With the bad weather and the long nights of Winter I concentrated more on work during this period and just took it easy mostly. Rightly or wrongly I just didn’t do a lot of exercise for a couple of months and decided I would wait until January to kick-start my training campaign again, it is probably a combination of laziness and seasonal factors that account for this.

Building Strength and Confidence: Week 31-52

When I returned to regular exercise on January 4th 2010, I was quite unfit and not in great condition. My brother keeps himself fit and he came as my “Gym Buddy” for the first couple of months which was great. We just did strengthening and core body sessions at first so I could build up my basic fitness and confidence.

I continued to use the exercise bike mostly rather than running, which was still a little painful. With stretching and conditioning exercises I greatly reduced the stiffness in my affected knee and eventually began to do some light jogging in recent weeks. The initial feeling when out jogging was very disconcerting, and my natural coordination in my left leg was way out…its mostly psychological but I almost felt sick at times when I got back running on it, just the thoughts of it “popping” again I would imagine to be the cause of that.

From Week 38-46 I started attending a regular slot at Circuit Training and this has been fantastic for my confidence, fitness and coordination.

I’m now able to run at a reasonable pace again as a result and looking forward to building up the speed and intensity of my running. I hope to recommence contact sport again within the next 6 weeks and begin training with a team again in the next few days. If I find that the knee is unstable during the intervening 5 weeks I will have to re-consider my plans for playing contact sport, or at least defer them for a couple of months.

First Season Back (2010): Week 52 to 78 post-op

I am writing this update retrospectively and in less detail, but its worth documenting none the less.

After taking a reasonably relaxed approach to my rehab I finally engaged in a couple of competitive games with the club’s 3rd team in contact sport (hurling) in July-August 2010, a full 12-13 months post op. While me overall level of fitness was pretty dismal and I suffered a lot of psychological fear and anxiety during the games, the knee held up well mechanically.

I was basically afraid to go into full contact, even at only jogging pace or in a stationary position. I suffered a lot from flashbacks since I had the original injury, driving in the car to the game or watching sport on TV I would still wince and feel a flash of nausea at times. That stayed with me for well over 18 months post-op, talk about PTSD, it was almost 4 years after my injury before the psychological anxiety started to fade.

Second Season Back (2011): Year 2

I started back on a proper pre-season training campaign with the club’s 1st team in February 2011 with the intention of making a full comeback to top-level sport (back to my original level). I was hugely unfit starting back and about 15kg overweight, but most of my lack of in stamina and underlying conditioning was the most shocking aspect.

The pre-season training was exceptionally intense and gruelling and that probably helped me a lot in overcoming a lot of my fears about recurrence and my flash backs. Engaging in regular contact in a controlled environment outside of a competitive championship game is the way this happened, it was gradual. I built more confidence as I became fitter and as I engaged in more risky contact.

With the help of a good physio friend of mine I managed to get into good enough condition by Summer 2011 and played in several competitive games up to a certain level with the club’s 1st team. I did not manage to regain my full speed or aggression/competitiveness in the course of the season but I hope to return next season starting from a much higher base and at least get back to 95% of where I was. Having just turned 30 its not as easy but I feel I don’t have much mileage on the clock so I’m a young 30 in that sense having missed the bulk of 3-4 years at the real competitive edge in my late 20′s.

So that’s where my story ends for now, medically they would say I am a success story.

• I don’t have any pain or loss of function in the reconstructed knee/leg.
• The knee has proven to be stable even under pretty significant stresses, I am 95kg after all, and that’s when I’m fit!
• My only regret was that I didn’t get the op done back in 2007 when I was talked into just getting a cartilage repair
• So the conclusion is, if your doctor says you only “half-tore” the cruciate and you might be ok, then just ignore that and go to a recognised successful sport surgeon and get your ACL patched back together
• The ACL is a very black and white topic, its either stable or unstable, there is no in-between.

That finally gave me a chance to tune up my Dell XPS M1330 which is running on Vista Home Premium. My notebook is packed full of great hardware but I’ve struggled with Vista from the start, its not a great OS and will be very shortlived with Windows 7 around the corner. So I’ve put together my top 5 ways to improve Vista’s performance and make it a more acceptable OS to work with. Its actually working really well now for me.

1. Scotty Winpatrol – Shorten the boot time

   • My machine was taking over 6 minutes to get from powered on to being functional
   • Download and Install Scotty Winpatrol
   • Disable as many “Startup Programs” as you possibly can
   • I reduced my boot time to 3 minutes and improved overall running performance significantly

2. UAC & Notifications (Turn them off!)

   • You need to use Vista as an Administrator Account, normally that is the case by default
   • Click on the Windows Start button and type in “User Account Control”
   • Disable the feature and also disable the notifications => here’s a detailed article on how to do it

3. Turn Off Aero

   • Vista Aero is Microsoft’s misguided attempt to “out-wow” Apple’s OSX, its completely useless and eats resources and battery life.
   • I downloaded and installed the free Vista Battery Saver application (V. RC2 )
     • Installation Note: This open source software has a small snag in the install
     • Just as the installation is about to finish it stalls and the system tray icon appears
     • The program actually starts running before the install has finished
     • There’s a simple solution – kill the system tray iconby right-clicking and selectin “Exit”
     • Now just wait for the installation to finish!
   • Once installed this program cleverly disables Vista Sidebar and Vista Aero if you’re running from battery
   • This greatly improves battery life on the notebook and also the overall performance
   • Alternatively you can select “Windows Vista Basic” Colour Scheme from the “Window Colour and Appearance” section of “Personalization”

4. Use the “Text Search” Interface (Don’t Install Google Desktop)

   • Vista has a native text based search and command interface that you might not be familiar with.
   • Google Desktop has a very negative impact on both Vista and XP from my experience, better off using Windows Desktop Search on XP or the native search interface of Vista
   • Typing a text search for what you want to do is much more efficient than clicking through reams of folders or navigation structures, or icons.
   • In Vista, just click the “Start” button and start typing what you want to do
     • Programs: type the name of a program you want to run
     • Settings or a Control Panel feature that you want to access, just type it
     • Files or Folders: a fully featured desktop search
   • If you have Windows XP I would recommend installing Windows Search which is quite good also Install

5. Try using a flash drive for a “performance boost”

   • Microsoft have added a feature that allows you to utilise space on a USB flash drive to boost the system memory cache (RAM)
   • Simply plug in a compatible USB flash drive and the auto prompt will ask you if you want to
     • Only  a compatible flash drive will work, that means it needs to have good Read & Write speeds.
     • If you eject the drive safely the space will not be freed up on your flash drive, so just yank it out
     • There’s a max of 4GB on RAM with this so that’s the most you can achieve (On a 32-bit OS me thinks)