Search Australia updated to easily provide calorie content of food.

A common search we're carrying out at the moment is the energy content of different food. Yes, we're dieting, so it does help if you can work out quickly the energy content of different food. For example, how many kilojoules are there in an apple?

Interestingly Google provides this information. The information returned is in Calories, but multiplying by four (actual conversion is to multiple by 4.2) is fairly easy and gives an approximation of the energy in kilojoules. (Note the use of the upper case in Calories. I've explained this below.)

I decided to make it even easier for myself and those using Search Australia. If you now enter the letter 'c' followed by a space and then the food item, you'll get the Calories for the food. There is a selection option which enables you to vary the size of the food item.

So now if you want to know the energy content of an apple, just enter 'c apple' in Search Australia and there's your answer.


Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

PS. When referring to energy content in kilojoules is easy. However, the terms calorie and Calorie are frequently interchanged and can cause some confusion. Calorie with a capital is 1000 calories. If the number you're expecting to see is out by a factor of a thousand then this is the reason. The energy content of food is often shown in Calories and kilojoules. If you see the energy content shown as calories, chances are it is an error and the word calories should have been capitalised. When we write about the energy content of food is it OK to use the word calorie, but do keep in mind when we are using the measurement of the amount of energy in a food item, we are usually referring to the Calorie value in capital 'c', because it is a more convenient smaller number. That is 1 Calorie equals 1000 calories. 1 Calories equals 4.2 kilojoules. 1 calorie equals 4.2 joules. 1 Calorie is also known as a kilocalorie.

MyAnswers: Apple iPhone iOS 7 error message, 'Safari cannot open the page because too many redirects occurred.' when opening cPanel.

The following MyAnswers solution 2396 is now available:

When trying to open cPanel using an Apple iPhone 4 running iOS 7 I get the error message, ' Safari cannot open the page because too many redirects occurred.' How can I work around this problem?

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au/myanswers/
(An Online Connections service.)

Windows Vista Internet Explorer 9 users will soon get the short shrift from Google apps.

Whilst I haven't noticed anything in the press with regards to Windows Vista users, Google has a policy of only supporting two versions of a browser. The current version and the previous version. Windows XP users already know how they were dumped by Google applications if they were using Internet Explorer 8, which is the latest version of Internet Explorer available to XP users.

Windows Vista is soon to be in the exact same position. Windows Vista can only use up to Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 10 was not made available for Windows Vista.

Microsoft will soon release Windows 8.1 and with the new release of Windows will come Internet Explorer 11. That means Google applications will stop supporting Internet Explorer for Vista users as well.

Microsoft are doing a great job of playing into the hands of Google, because Windows XP users, and soon Windows Vista users, will find it easier to switch to Google Chrome than to put up with the constant nagging by Google that they have an unsupported browser. And let's face it, given that Microsoft doesn't appear to care about 30-40% of their users and are prepared to walk away from them, why should users remain loyal to Microsoft.

If you're using Internet Explorer 8 or 9, now is a good time to start reviewing your browser options. Opera is pretty much dead in the water since deciding to move to Google's codebase and produced what could only be described as the most basic and barren browser you could find. Apple has stopped developing Safari for windows, so even though you can install it, I would recommend against it. Firefox is an option, but since Google Chrome has become the leading browser in many countries, Google Chrome for most users will be the easier decision.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.

Windows Phone 8 tile for web page shows how far Microsoft has to go with their mobile operating system.

Recently I created icons for Search Australia (www.JustLocal.com.au/search/samobile/) so people could pin the site to their home screen on an Apple device, an Android device, or the Windows 8 Start screen on a desktop, notebook or tablet.

For something that I think should be relatively simple, things can get pretty messy. For Apple's range of devices I had to create seven images which I thought was a bit over the top. Android simply worked with whatever I'd set up for Apple, so that made things very easy for Android. But then I decided to create a tile for Windows Phone 8. The more I read the more I realised it was best to skip Windows Phone 8. There isn't a relatively simple technique. You have to create a page to overlay your site and then only display the page for Windows Phone 8 users. Microsoft seems intent on making their Windows Phone 8 far more difficult than it should be. Hopefully in the next iteration of Windows Phone Microsoft makes setting up an icon much simpler but I don't expect it to be.

If you have a web site and would like to create an icon your users can put on their home page of Windows 8, Apple iPhones, or Android devices (but not Windows Phone 8) and don't know how, please feel free to contact me.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

MyAnswers: Hostgator.com error message: ERROR 500 - INTERNAL SERVER ERROR.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au/myanswers/
(An Online Connections service.)

Dell announces their Dell Venue Pro Windows 8.1 8" tablet is coming this month.

Dell on their .com site have now announced their 8" Windows 8.1 tablet with a price of $299 USD. Whilst there is currently no announcement for Australia, this would be one of the early salvos in the small form factor Windows 8.1 tablets.

Yes the tablet is small so working from the Windows Desktop will be an experience! Yes the tablets will come with limited in-built memory. Yes the tablets will use the slower Atom Baytrail processor (compared with the 'i' series running Haswell processors). But for those who wish to have portability and carry around their Windows based applications, we'll soon see a whole range of options.

I've tried Apple's iPad. I've tried an Android tablet. In both cases I've been disappointed. Th iPad went back and the Android tablet is rarely used. The time involved trying to do some of the simplest things I now do on my notebook computer was huge and largely wasted effort. The problem is the time involved in trying to use many of the tools and techniques I've created to assist me in my daily work, means a complete rework and different approach. I'm happy to put time and effort into reworking my approach, but the amount of effort put in so far has not achieved results and I simply return to using my ageing notebook computer because it just works and does what I need.

Acer brought out their 8" tablet a few months ago but the reviews on the screen quality weren't good. Acer also jumped the gun by using Windows 8 and not waiting for Windows 8.1 or Intel's new Baytrail processor. Dell's tablet runs 8.1 and only time will tell how good the screen is. But really that isn't what is important. Microsoft is releasing Windows 8.1 on the 18th of October and I'm fairly sure we'll see more options on small form factor tablets hit the market.

To me this feels like the early days of Windows. I really didn't think much about Windows until 3.1 was released. From that point on Windows to me took off. It feels like Microsoft and tablets have not been a good marriage and perhaps now Windows 8.1 will provide what I need. This isn't just about me because my business is just like many other businesses. What doesn't work for me usually doesn't work for others. So when I get to the point that the technology is working with you rather than making your life harder, then we're all ready to start moving forward. Only time will tell if it is time for us to stop treading water with Microsoft based products. 

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.