RobiNZ CAD Blog

Curing 'phantom screen touches' on an old Surface Book?

My Surface Book 2 is old, well out of any warranty, but still performs really well for my own needs. It's a home machine but can still run CAD, Revit, even (just) Microsoft Flight Sim, well enough to not consider a replacement. It was a little tight for storage (only 500GB on board) but a card in the SD slot doubled that for storing Flight Sim (about 450GB on its own)! The then phantom touch arrived... I didn't get a screen shot (below is my reproduction) but the other day on start-up it looked like a phantom finger was permanently... Read more →

iPhone sync to iTunes, no, no, no, yes! No

This solution from Get Satisfaction worked for me. I had a total refusal to sync until some direct to phone downloaded podcasts were deleted. my iPhone won't sync to iTunes - getsatisfaction.com In the end my issue was related to podcasts that I downloaded directly to the iPhone. This created a glitch of some sort. Once we removed the podcasts then the iPhone would be recognised in iTunes and would sync. My iPhone then sync'd successfully, wirelessly even, for about 3 days before the inevitable iTunes Sync Error. Apple iTunes, it just doesn’t work! Read more →

iOS Auto-Incorrect and the CAD user

A text telling a user to try a generic “caduser” logon on a spare machine* is foiled by iOS Auto-correct. I suspect it will forever be the Cashew workstation from now on. * It was logon specific network problems preventing access to a shared folder so cashew worked fine. Read more →

I’ll remember the day I got a netbook

It wasn’t that I waited for the Apple event, but the announcement of the iPhone 4GS (rather than some other sort of device) was part of the decision. I had been thinking about a mobile blogging solution. While you can do a lot with an iPhone, more with an iPad, my blog creation is pretty much all Windows’centric. I write about Windows apps so grabbing screenshots etc is best done there. I use Live Writer to compose posts locally (rather than TypePad’s web editor), use RSS Bandit Reader (which can sync with Google Reader but I prefer a local app)... Read more →

MindManager: Copy & Paste Marker Groups + Mac/iOS news!

I use MindManager Map Marker groups to mark topics (E.G. CAD platform in the map below). I was unaware you could copy/past them between maps until I saw a recent post on the Mindjet Blog: Quick Tip - Copy & Paste Marker Groups | The Mindjet Blog When creating multiple maps, the key to project efficiency is standardization. A quick way to standardize your maps is to create custom tags & markers that can be applied to a variety of different maps… MindManager 9 for Mac out, New iOS version coming soon… A Tweet this morning alerted me to a... Read more →

U.K. (proper) English iPhone auto-correct spelling

I have done this in the past but had forgotten how, so it’s here for next time that happens… How to change your iPhone or iPad to UK spelling If you get frustrated with the auto spell check on your iPhone Americanising all of your spelling, use this tip to change to the UK spelling format. Go to: Settings -> General –> Keyboard Click "International Keyboards" Click "Add New Keyboard" Click "English (UK)" This will add it to the list. Then you need to remove the US keyboard so click the "Edit" button on the top right of the screen.... Read more →

TweetDeck for iPhone 2.0 (finally)

TweetDeck is my favourite Twitter client on the desktop (below right) and its ability to sync settings with a mobile application is a major reason why. In fact I think Twitter's usefulness is dependent on TweetDeck columns displaying Twitter Lists, searches and tags. Add to that support for other social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare and TweetDeck becomes your social dashboard. Maybe that's why I've tolerated TweetDeck iOS even though it became the most unreliable and annoying application on my phone. It was long overdue for an update as didn't get on well with iOS4. Even if not crashing... Read more →

Taking notes, from Autodesk University 2004 to #AU2010

I’ve been using the notebook (right) for meetings since Autodesk University 2004. It’s apparent that I don’t take many analog notes as, seven years later, I have only just filled it! One reason it survived is I like the size and ring binding which allows pages to be torn out and filed/scanned. Was that my last paper notebook? An IT colleague noticed the old AU 2004 logo on that book recently and thanks to him I already have a replacement – from another conference - in the same format. Thanks Amit! It will last even longer as I typically use... Read more →

I'm a super-mobile user?

Robert Scoble’s measure is the “Folks with more than 100 apps” and I have 116. At a guess I reckon maybe 20% of those get frequent use with Tweetdeck, Typepad, LinkedIn and Facebook being the most used. I think TomTom is my most used non-web application. Strange thing is the least used mode for my iPhone is as a phone! @Scobleizer Robert Scoble So far I've found 35 superusers and started a Twitter list: http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/super-mobile-users (Folks with more than 100 apps) Read more →

AutoCAD for Mac and AutoCAD WS for iOS Devices Announced

Shaan has the details, Apple Mac + AutoCAD without the need for virtual machines and a hosted solution for the iOS hardware! AutoCAD for Mac and AutoCAD WS for iOS Devices Announced by Autodesk - Between the Lines “AutoCAD natively on the Mac is no longer a myth or urban legend like bigfoot, UFOs, and unicorns” “AutoCAD WS extends AutoCAD DWG to Apple iOS based devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and of course the iPad” Read more →