Android apps #3: llama

Modern smartphones are great. All those apps, connected to the internet, retrieving information and letting you know about it with beeps and bongs.

The only downside is the inevitable beep in the middle of the night that wakes you up.

Enter Llama. It's designed to change the ringer and notification volumes depending on the time and where you are.

Previously I used Foxyring, but that used GPS data which sucks the battery dry, so I ended up just using the timers.

Llama however has a trick up its sleeve - passive scanning of cell towers (already known by the phone unless you've put it in flight mode). By using this instead of GPS, you can have some really nifty rules.

For instance I have my phone go louder when I leave home, and very loud when I'm working in the noisy Datacenter, but quiet at work and at home, and silent overnight.

It's highly configurable but the defaults are pretty useful.

Posted via email from Pio's work related musings

Android apps #2: Catch notes

For note taking I like keeping things simple such add just using a text editor, but there are occasions when it's useful to keep a photo (such as when you're at the datacenter and need to remember which nics you've just plugged in the back of a server) and text only just won't cut it.

That's where Evernote and my favourite Catch notes come in. They also have the added bonus of syncing with the cloud so it's easy to get the content when you're back at your desk again.

I prefer catch mainly because it can be moved to sd card (which breaks widgets) and it has a small lightweight widget for quick notes.

Well designed, easy to use and rather useful.

Posted via email from Pio's work related musings

Android apps #1

The first in probably infrequent series with the best free apps for Android phones. I've pretty much got "an app for that" and all of them free.

So kicking everything off is Jota, a text editor. Advert free, it does everything you want from a text editor in windows, let alone on a mobile phone.

Posted via email from Pio's work related musings

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

via macrium.com

The first in an intermittent series of posts for my top free PC tools concerns Macrium Reflect.

It's a great imaging tool (similar to Ghost) that can even do bare metal restores via a linux or WinPE boot disk (depending on hardware compatibility fo course).

The best news is they offer a freeware version, so there's no reason not to get it...

Posted via email from Pio's work related musings

Error: "The resource vswif0 is in use" when changing service console IP

When you try to change a service console IP from DHCP to Fixed, you'll get this error.

A simple workaround is to add a second service console with a new IP and delete the original.

Posted via email from Pio's work related musings