Joomla ecommerce extentions

So I now need to start thinking about eCommerce and what is the easiest way of eCommerce with Joomla. Having a quick look I found JoomShopping which looked very easy indeed. I shall write notes down here to help remember things.

A quick look gives great first impressions. It's taken about 10 mins to:

• install
• setup category
• setup item
• create menu item which shows the categories
• tested buying
• paypal appears to be an option but needs looking into

Converting PDF pages into pictures (OS X Mac)

So one thing I wanted to do recently was to have all the pages of a 20 page pdf file as individual picture files. But how to do this?

Well, I found information on this forum. Half way down gr8tfly says to:

1. load up the pdf file (i loaded in Preview)
2. File > Print
3. Click on PDF at the bottom left of the print dialogue box

1. 
   
4. Select "Save PDF to iPhoto"
5. Click "Print"
6. Open up iPhoto
7. Eventually it'll load the pages in as pictures. You can drag these out of iPhoto and do whatever you want with them.

In theory, Save PDF to ......... should work, but for some reason it wouldn't ask me which folder to save it all in. Easier to work out with iPhoto.

HP Designjet 130 IP Address

One of the most annoying things I have to deal with is printers' IP addresses. This is especially difficult if the printer doesn't have a screen. Take the HP Designjet 130. It actually has a screen, but cannot represent digits. Not only this, but on top of this, it only has 3 buttons, none of which mention "setup". So, when the computer cannot send jobs to the printer how do you find out what is wrong? Well:

1. load up a browser window and browse to the last known IP address of the printer...
1. no response.
2. ping the IP address which you think it has......
1. no response.
3. hold in the power button (while it's switched on) and press the paper feed button 4 times!!!!!!!
1. it should print some (not sure how many) pages of information. 1st one has IP address.

I do remember wanting to write this down about 7 months ago but I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, here it is.

P.S. 

HP, could you please make the instruction number 3 in the list above more self-explanatory. i.e. have a button or just hold in the power button for setup printouts. 4 button presses is over the top.

Building a budget gaming machine Jan 2013 for less then £250

So, what with all the Christmas money (about £250), thought it best spent on a nice gaming machine. Where to start? Research:

• AMD or Intel?
• AMD is the cheap option, Intel the expensive. So, as it's a budget PC then AMD is first choice. If I had more money I'd go Intel.
• AMD just released FM2 socket A series, with APU (on chip graphics). After reading a few reviews this seemed the obvious choice.
• Go with cheap A4 chip or expensive A8 chip?
• basically I could buy a cheap A4 chip with good motherboard and good RAM or
• expensive A8 chip with cheap motherboard and cheap RAM
• I choose expensive chip. The only real benifit of an expensive motherboard is an extra 2 slots for RAM. But I think I'll only need a max of 32GB RAM for the near future.
• Chipset - A75 or A85X?
• I think the A85X is newer, but I like the fact that the A75 is cheaper and also has USB 3 native controller to make it more future proof
• both have SATA III support for fast SSD action
• graphics card or APU?
• after reading this nice review from Anandtech I wanted to go for the higher priced A8 chip, and when I get more cash, get a graphics card which uses crossfire.
• SSD or HDD?
• HDD are cheap and BIG! £40 for 1TB!
• I can't believe the price of an SSD (about £40 for 64GB). I can always plug an external one in for more storage, which isn't a priority. I want SPEED!
• Also SATA III is a must!
• 2 sticks of 4GB RAM, or 1 stick of 8GB?
• reading up on it, because the new motherboards support "Dual Channel" RAM thought it best to get two. Apparently works out at 1/3 quicker.
• Windows 7 or Windows 8?
• Windows 8 is the future. Also reviews say it's a little quicker.

So after scouting about in ebuyer.com I found:

£20 - Micro ATX case with 500W PSU

£75 - AMD A8 5600K 3.6GHz Socket FM2 Processor

£40 - Biostar HiFi A75S3 Socket FM2 motherboard

£40 - SanDisk 64GB Pulse SSD SATA III

£35 - 2 x 4GB DDR3 1866MHz RAM

£12 - Liteon DVD RW Drive SATA

----------

£222 - total!!!

So, when I get more money I can always:

1. Buy AMD 6670 graphics card
1. cheapest at the moment is £52
2. replace 8GB (2 x 4GB) with 32GB (2 x 16GB)
1. cheapest at the moment is £185!
3. Buy an AMD A10 5800K processor
1. currently £94

And these will be cheaper in the future.

I predict without the upgrades it'll last me 2 to 3 years (£220 / 3 = £73 per year), with the upgrades it'll last up to 5 years (hard to say what things will cost in 3 years time).

Just putting it together at the moment, will send some pictures and do some benchmark testing for games!

If anyone has any other recommendations, or perhaps what I should have done with the £250 then comment below.

NTFS drives read and write on Mac OS X 10.7

This is worth noting down for future referencing. A friend found a nice little article on how to get Mac OS X 10.7 to read and write to NTFS drives:

http://techbytesxpress.com/2012/03/13/ntfs-on-os-x-lion-10-7-solved/#

equipment booking system

Well, going over my previous post about booking systems it looks like my requirements are a little too niche. It appears there is no 'out of the box' solution. I shall review my needs below:

• booking multiple equipment at a time
• book day and time for pick up and drop off
• view availability
• 4 time slots per day
• all through online interface
• active directory logins

it appears jomrez is almost there, but lacks time slots and multiple items.

The only one which hints at all this is R&R, which is more of a custom build. No pricing up front, but they do demos. I shall chase this one up.

MacBook Pro left hand fan noisy

After turning on one of our 2009 MacBook Pro 17", after about 5 seconds, the left hand side fan would start making a buzzing noise. Thought it'd be something rattling around with it, or maybe catching a wire so I took it apart.

When I took the fan with the casing out I noticed nothing catching. It seemed to be rattling of its' own accord. I found this good post on how to fix the fan. Basically just take the two screws holding it together off. Then prize the fan off the motor.

Inside I found a little tiny bit of grit underneath the magnet on the main base. I tried to get it out but it proved pretty tricky. After 5 mins I got most of the bits out (very tiny bits), and I oiled the fan axle.

I put it back together and it worked a treat.

Thank you very much  ifixit.com and nofilmschool.com. This internet thing is very helpful.