Month: March 2014

Posted on in Life

My London…

Whilst on my way home last night I was clearing the work brain reading (or more browsing) the Evening Standard, when I found myself reading a section called “My London”. I’ve read it before, I think, but recently I’ve been appreciating where I live and the ease of access I have to things much more than usual.

With such a great respect for how lucky I am to live in such an awesome city, I thought I’d share my favourite parts for others to agree, disagree or add to, in much the same way as the Standard does:

The day starts in…
Greenwich (well actually Deals Gateway, an oddly named pocket between Blackheath, Deptford and Greenwich) – For me ideally situated, close to my favourite areas and with transport links to everywhere

Magical market - Greenwich

The grindstone
CTO @ printed.com/goodprint.com (Tangent Plc), Great Portland Street, London – I absolutely love my job, enjoying every minute of it. I have the best team and we’re innovating and expanding all of the time!

Coffee fuel
Kaffiene, Great Titchfield Street – Amazing vanilla lattes and laidback atmosphere

Breakfast munchies
Scandinavian Kitchen – Just up from Kaffiene, the staff here are awesome.. They have a kind of boardroom area where I occasionally run our Scrums

Lazy lunch
Roka – It’s just cool

Favourite park
Greenwich Park – The place is tranquil amongst the chaos, and the view from the top by the observatory always impresses

Where I like to wander
Regents Canal – A walk up from Limehouse to Broadway Market on a Saturday, taking in Victoria Park and boating lake on route, endearing

Fun dining
Duck and Waffle, Heron Tower – Partly for the view of course, over-priced food but tasty and with delicious cocktails!

Favourite hotel
The May Fair Hotel – swish and pretentious! Really want to try out the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch though, potential to knock this one off the favourites list

Bar
Riding House Cafe – Semi-celebrity hangout, but this isn’t why I like it, it just feels good

Gig venue of choice
O2 Brixton Academy – This proves that size doesn’t matter!

Cinema experience
Everyman, Hamstead – The whole cosy feeling and table service make this an easy choice

Magical market
Greenwich – Again! I know most would say Camden or Notting Hill, but I love the size of this place coupled with the artistic influence and the boutique shops that surround it

Place yet to visit
Dulwich – Always told this is cool place these days, must head over and check it out

London pub
The White Horse, Parsons Green – Unfortunately don’t get over there much these days, but still love the vibe of the place when I do, especially in the summer when the crowds spread to the common

For now, that’s it… Any requests for other topics, let me know and I’ll do a part 2!

Posted on in OS X, Tutorial

How to share your Wi-Fi Internet connection on Mac OSX 10.9

Continuing in my usual vain of writing down things I do as I do them (Tech-related before you say anything!), even though I’ve done this a hundred times, I thought I’d finally list out the steps for others to do this…

Mac Wi-Fi to Ethernet

Connecting to the dusty old computer

  1. Head up to the Apple menu then click System Preferences…
  2. Select the Sharing icon (folder with a yellow diamond icon, no idea why!?)
  3. In the left listbox you should see Internet Sharing, click it
  4. You should now have options to connect from your Wi-Fi connection (if you’re connected via that, I hope so, as it’s the point of this post!). Select whatever you want to connect to, I use my Windows PC (I know, shock horror ok ok!) via Ethernet
  5. This does not automatically start the sharing, so go back to the listbox on the left and click Internet Sharing again
  6. You’ll now be prompted to Start Internet sharing or Cancel, I’ll leave that choice up to you!

Advice: Do not use Windows unless there’s a REALLY REALLY good reason, install Linux (Ubuntu dist is great) or SteamOS (if your machine is powerful enough). I have both, of course :)

Sharing Internet with your Xbox 360

I recently (thanks to the beauty of Facebook’s Groups and a very kind resident on my apartment complex) recovered my old game saves from my hard drive and took ownership of a replacement Xbox 360 after my old baby died a red-ring death early last year. However, since the Playstation has now taken ownership of the living room where the router resides, the poor old Xbox 360 is relegated to the bedroom and in need of some tender-loving Wi-Fi action!

Unfortunately, those amazing brains (serious sarcasm here) over at Microsoft didn’t include wireless capability when it first released or even on the Elite, and as I like to save a few pennies here and there, paying another £60 on a wireless adapter is unacceptable to me. Thankfully, Mac to the rescue again! Only this time there’s a little more to it…

  1. Connect the Mac to the Xbox 360 with an ethernet cable
  2. Follow the steps above to enable Ethernet
  3. Head back to the main menu by clicking Show All and then select the Network globe
  4. This dialog maybe locked, unlock it by clicking the padlock in the bottom left
  5. Select Wi-Fi in the left pane, and then Advanced in the bottom right corner
  6. Click the DNS tab and take a note of the numbers under DNS Servers (you should only have one set)
  7. Hit OK and then select Ethernet (or Thunderbolt Ethernet) and click Advanced
  8. In the TCP/IP tab, set Configure IPv4 to Off using the drop-down menu
  9. Click OK then Apply and quit System Preferences
  10. Now, switch to your Xbox, locate Network Settings (how you get there depends on the dashboard version you’re on), select Wired Network and then select Configure Network
  11. Set the IP address in the Basic Settings tab to Manual and enter 192.168.2.2 into the field
  12. In the Subnet Mask field, enter 255.255.255.0; also set the Gateway to 192.168.2.1 and press Done
  13. Select DNS Settings and insert IP address you noted down earlier
  14. Test the connection on your Xbox 360
  15. Play!

Obviously depending on what you are connecting to, you may have some problems. I’m happy to assist as I have most configurations (with various OS’s) at home. Just let me know and I’ll continuing updating the blog post.