David Thacker Blog

How to get Fitbit and Pocophone F1 notifications working Latest :Update 24/May/2019 So the Pocophone has been now working flawlessly with the Fitbit and Notifications there have even been a couple of updates on both the Pocophone and Fitbit device and app. MIUI: 10.3.4.0 (Stable) Fitbit App: 2.94 Quick Apps 1.4.1.0 Fitbit Charge 3 SW: 28.20001.60.39 Under 'Settings'/ 'Manage Apps'/ 'Fitbit App'/ 'Other permissions' set to allow 'Home screen shortcuts' - I also allowed it to 'Show on Lock Screen' 'Battery saver' then set it to 'Battery saver (recommended)', If you continue to have issues set it to 'No Restrictions' Under 'Other permissions' allow 'Show on Lock Screen' - I also allowed it to 'Home screen shortcuts' Under 'Auto Start' Set this to 'On' 'Lock Background Apps' Set Fitbit app to Padlock, todo this, press the square button...

So with any car the first thing I like to find out is where are the jacking points is there anything special I need todo to get it in the air. Luckily the Swift is super easy, see below for a diagram from the users manual Option 1 – Centre Jacking points There are two ways the Front centre jacking point / Rear center jacking point. Option 2 – Sill Jacking points Sill jacking points

So you want to embrace a digital transformation and stop running your file server, mail server etc internally. Running all these systems internally has a cost on the workforce, as these systems age and grow they demand more attention. For us the GDPR caused us to look into all of our systems, understand where and what every bit of data we had and how we should deal with it. It caused us to ask the questions of do we still want to maintain these systems and be responsible for these systems security. Initially we looked into systems like, BOX, Dropbox, Amazon work mail etc.The problem with these systems they are disjointed, and the cost quickly adds up.   Then we looked into Gsuite, Office 360 and Zoho Office. Zoho office was the first one out it didn't seem a great set up for a business our size. Next was Office 360 it was a possibility  but as the Dev team use Linux it probably would not be the best fit. There was nothing wrong and for the windows users of the business it would...

When setting up a computer, especially a Family computer - you may want to block application installs if non admin or similar.  Now looking online this is possible if the application is installed via the windows installer -(  gpedit.msc) see link to use: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-prevent-users-from-installing-programs-in-windows-7 But for applications like Chrome & Mozilla Firefox and many others they do not need access to the windows installer to be installed. But what you can now do in the latest version of Windows 10 is to set up an admin account and enable 'Allow Apps from the Windows Store Only' See this guide on how to enable it : https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-to-permit-block-on-apps-installing-if-theyre-not-from-microsoft-store/ Now when you log into the user account they can only install apps from the windows store. So we are almost there. Finally what we need todo is block the windows store : https://docs.microsoft.co...

About this time last year there was a theft at my house. This can be disturbing and unsettling for many of us! So I decided that I needed some surveillance with the one caveat that I did not want to pay for a subscription. The Netatmo Presence seemed to fit the bill with its built in SD card storage and integration to and FTP server or dropbox. Over the last 12 months the Presence has got better and better with every software update. Beyond that I wanted a camera to keep an eye on my dog while I am not at home, I looked and looked and could not really find a suitable solution without a subscription apart from the Netatmo Welcome. Aesthetically the Welcome was not ideal as it was gold and not as subtle as I would have liked - but Functionally its perfect! in reality the gold is closer to silver than the pictures would lead you to believe at about 200 euro some may feel it is a little expensive but remember that there are no subscription fees so compared to a Nest camera within a year it...

Just a quick post as I have not had that much time to put into the blog.  When I first had a taste of a smart connected device I suppose it would of been the Chromecast I already had a FireTV and other digital tv boxes but never really thought of them as smart, sure the FireTV remote had alexa but i found little use for that 3 years ago. So I had the chromecast, it was cool how you could cast to it off your phone tablet or pc. But honestly it was not that easy to use that was until I got my first smart speaker a Google Home mini. This is where the chromecast came alive! Before I knew it i had a google home in every room! Beyond just controlling the chromecast we use the google home morning day and night. In the morning from waking up with an alarm through to checking up on traffic, news and weather. In the day to listen to my podcasts or spotify and in the evening to control the lights or the TV. Recently Netatmo brought google assistant integration it their security cameras both indo...

I have been playing around with the Netatmo Weather station for a few weeks now its a nifty bit of kit and I just wanted to share the Natatmo Weather map, its pretty cool as its all the weather stations in the Netatmo weather network. The unreliable stations are even filtered out! How cool. Zoom in on the map to find the location you are interested in!