Monday, January 18th, 2010
Just got my new computer at work. First thing I did was chuck out the stock keyboard and replace with my favourite mac aluminium keyboard.
As usual when trying to get Apple hardware to play nice with Microsoft there is a little friction. In this case the keyboard doesn’t come with any mapping drivers resulting in the fact that some of the keys are messed up and in wrong locations. So we get to the point of this post. As I have had to do this several times now I thought I would post my solution so I dont spend ages searching each time.
The solution is to use the Apple Pro Keyboard Layout from parkernet.com.
For convenience I have taken the details on how to use the file directly from the stite: http://parkernet.com/applepro/
Download
Download the installation package Apple_Pro_KBD_v2 (250K)
System requirements
Windows XP or Windows Vista, 32-bit or 64-bit versions. Maybe Windows 7 RC but not tested. Apple Pro Keyboard or new aluminium Apple Keyboard. Untested with wireless keyboards but it should work okay.
Installation
After unZipping the Apple_Pro_KBD_v2.zip file, open the Apple Pro KBD v2 directory and run the Setup.exe installation file.
The installer will run and automatically install the keyboard layout .dll file into the correct location for your operating system.
To remove the keyboard layout simply run the installer again.
Configuration
Use the Windows XP Regional and Language Options control panel to select the new keyboard layout. Full details are included in the read me text file included in the ZIP download.
For those of you who want a step-by-step guide with pictures that you can print out, click here.
Sorry there’s no Vista step by step, but I have skillfully avoided Vista since it’s release.
Keystrokes
All keys now operate as per the legends printed upon them.
Shift-2 = @
Ctrl-Alt-2 = €
Shift-3 = £
Ctrl-Alt-3 = #
Tags: Apple, Hardware, Personal, Utility, Windows
Posted in Photos & Personal | No Comments »
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Well I guess im a little late to the party but I have recently discovered the joy that is Google Reader.
I never truly understood the purpose of RSS readers until I started to wonder how I could make my daily trawl of flash, flex, tech blogs faster and more efficient. It was then I re-discovered google reader (I had played with it before but didnt understand the purpose too much).
Needless to say it has pretty much transformed how I use the web. Now instead of opening 20+ tabs every day to check my favourite blogs I instead just add a subscription to the blog and then I am updated whenever there are new posts. Old concept I know but im amazed how I did without it until now.
There is one problem however. Im a little bit of a neat freak and I just cant stand seeing that there are unread items. This becomes an issue if you subscribe to a very busy site such as Gizmodo. If I leave it for a day or two without checking im liable to have 100 posts from that one site alone to read. As much as it pains me I have taken to reading about 10-20 from this site a day then clicking the “mark as read” button, just so that its nice and tidy :P
Tags: Personal, RSS, Utility
Posted in Photos & Personal | No Comments »
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Well I had mentioned this in a previous post but I thought I might as well add a separate post for it as its quite a big bit of personal news.
Today was my first day at my new job in Wilmslow (20 mins south of manchester) with a new startup named Playdemic.
I cant say what exactly it is im going to be doing yet but it will be Flash related as usual ;)
I will say however, that I am very excited however about the work and the working environment, im eager to get cracking!
Tags: Jobs, Personal, Playdemic
Posted in Photos & Personal | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Well, this is just incredible, I dont think in my lifetime I have EVER seen so much snow in the UK letalone the city where it NEVER snows, Manchester.
This picture from a work colleague illustrates just quite how much fell over night:
Also the snow is totally perfect for building snow women!
And its STILL snowing! I just took this one out the office window:
Its incredible, snow just seems to bring out some really primal aspect out in me, so excited :D
Tags: Personal, Photos
Posted in Photos & Personal | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Well after the thieving of my bike a few weeks ago I was offered a new bike as replacement by the insurance company, a Kona Shred, another dirt bike.
And here it is:
Doesnt it look mean?
I dont really need a dirt bike as im not exactly going off road in the centre of Manchester so I had a half-hearted go of selling it on ebay.
In the end I have decided that ill keep it as it is very shiney and im abit of a magpie :)
Tags: Personal, Photos
Posted in Photos & Personal | 3 Comments »