Rough Cuts Ltd Blog

What do you look for when you're buying a new handset?  Good Camera? Screen quality? The more pixels the better? Battery life? Everyone hates poor battery don't they? Good Performance, so Processor speed and Ram? Many people look for these and also like their handsets to be well designed and good value for money. Which brings me on to a recent bargain I think I landed. In the black Friday sales a couple of weeks back. I nabbed myself a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge,  I'd always found Samsung flagship handsets to be a little overpriced. But I picked one of these up for £380. To say I'm happy with my phone is an understatement. I bought the gold one as I think it suits the premium design, but I appreciate beauty is within the eye of the beholder and many simply dote on the iPhone X design. Which is understandable. Anyway, I wondered in terms of specs, how does last years £380 flagship stack up against Apple's £1000 plus 2017 flagship? So I did a comparison and was s

So today I got myself a shiny new Samsung S7 Edge. We'd decided that my wife would have my old Huawei P8 and I would help her set it up later on in the day. When I got my new machine, I took out the Micro SD card from my old P8 and Sim and put them in the new phone. I did a complete factory reset on the old P8 and put it on one side for later. Then I spent all day playing with the Edge. Later on my wife returned home from work and I removed her sim from her old phone and put it in my old P8. Now, we had toyed with the idea of selling the P8 but eventually she decided she would take it. But hold that thought, because it's really important. From the fresh reboot (again, to re-iterate, this was many hours after a FULL factory reset) I set her handset up. For clarity, I used NFC. I held her old phone with it's back facing my old phone (my S7 was on charge not in the same place - there's been no NFC confusion here). I did the same process with my phone and all 108 app

I've just been directed to an excellent blog post entitled 'Superfly guy' from 2014 which strongly suggests that Drones will be the future of housing surveillance and surveying. From this, from the same author Tony Smith, recently tweets, asking .... #Drones were going to save the #socialhousing world, what happened to them? The tweet also contains a link to the original article, which is well worth a read here. http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/superfly-guy.html Now, I'm not sure how drones alone could save the social housing world especially with the current state of underfunded affairs. Nevertheless, the idea that they could, or should, save housing companies significant amounts of money and time by simplifying seemingly costly and time consuming survey work at height, is a realistic assumption and one that really needs to be addressed. The article also mentions very briefly, one of the major obstacles that I believe is causing drone

So, if you have a Retina display or a UHD display on your TV or your computer, you'll know just how amazing 4 and 5k can look. But if you've investigated UHD camcorders, you'll also have noticed how the market is divided. Cheap action camera's from China claim to record UHD content. But the results are lacklustre at best and downright ugly if we're being honest. Most struggle to process the data that's required fast enough, meaning blocky results and unsightly artefacts. At the other end of the market is the branded camcorders, and digital cameras. £300 seems to be the entry level, but the sky really is the limit. So what if you've got a standard iPhone or iPad? Something that might be a couple of years old, but only has 1080p or 720p options in the menu? Most apple devices have wonderful lenses on them, and significant processing power, which is whats required for recording 4k. Well, I may have some good news for you. Because of their processing capabil

So, after a week of some pretty challenging weather and flying, I've come to the realisation that it may be time to upgrade the trusty Phantom 3 professional. But what a decision this has turned out to be. After some estate agent work mid week, I returned to the studio to find that the capture was suffering from vibrations coming from the gimbal. This isn't the first time I'd seen this, but I thought I'd resolved it. Since then, I've stripped the gimbal down, found a fan with a couple of loose screws on top, and a worn part that is still rubbing against the gimbal arm, which I've bent into a better shape that gives the arm a few microns of clearance. I've reassembled it and done a couple of test flights and it appears to have fixed the problem. The video footage I captured was so still, my wife thought it was a photo until she saw the trees moving. I was able to find many usable clips from the work and put together a video which the client was happy wit

If your school has Chromebooks or anything that uses Google services, at some point, either as a head or an IT leader, you're going to realise you need to upload your entire school to Google Admin console. This can seem like an overwhelming task. You could input this information pupil by pupil (not advised) or you can upload a .csv ('comma separated value file' or 'spreadsheet').  Stay with me, it doesn't matter if you don't know what this means or not.  You also need to input every pupils email address, and create a unique password for them. Imagine trying to make 200-300 passwords up! Doing this manually is a wicked waste of any teacher or secretaries time. So I'm going to share my tips for simplifying this seemingly overwhelming task.  1 DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE Fig 1 Login to you google admin console. Click Add Multiple users. (see fig 1 - this option only shows up under USERS and the top level of the organisation).  Select add mul

So; family sharing. Setting up a family account with either Google, Apple or Microsoft has a number of benefits, for example locating your kids (and wife), controlling PC access, checking web history, setting parental controls and generally looking after your family online. Plus, the great benefit of sharing apps between a number of family devices. For example; Minecraft , which our family is heavily into, having built  @chester_craft on Xbox 360 and having over 2 million downloads via maps for minecraft on Android (Search Chester if you want it for free). We've used family sharing on Apple devices in the past, Downloading Minecraft on the Parent iOS device, and easily downloading it for free on a childs device. However everything over at Apple hasn't always been plain sailing, sometimes I've had problems with purchases, which have needed rectifying. Once my very young daughter inadvertently bought £12 of in app purchases (while in app purchasing was still in it&#

If your local ATM display showed that it had a virus would you be worried about your bank balance? I'd assume the answer is 'of course not'. As you'd know the bank would be keeping it safe. If the worry of a ransomware attack on your computer concerns you, then it's possible you may want to rethink the way you manage your files. Cloud based storage has existed in various guises for many years now. The first service I used was Dropbox. Google are now (in my opinion) market leaders in this respect, with Microsoft a close second. iCloud is sadly too dependant on Apple powered devices to be taken seriously, where as the other solutions are happy on a number of platforms; including Apple. If you still use 'my documents' or your home folder on your computer to store your most important documents, or worse still, your desktop, then ransomware will still most likely be a worry. This will be more true if you don't keep regular backups of your data. However, O

This is a question I get asked more often than most others. And for the part, I answer without thinking. Yes, I say, If you can fly one of the cheaper drones, you'll find the more expensive one's simple. And to a degree that's true. The smaller £30 drone's like the one I started with, the Hubsan H107 is a real handful. In fact the first time I took it out, a few days after Christmas (wihtout my glasses on) I lost sight of it at about 50ft, the wind got hold of it and I spent the next 40 minutes traipsing round a field looking for the little flashing lights, which fortunately, because of the quick loss and lack of power going to the motors were still flashing. (They usually only last 6-7 minutes). The reason the smaller drones are harder to control (and thus better to practice with) is because they don't carry any technology that would aid the pilot. No GPS, no ultrasonic or visual sensors, no altitude controls or compass, although the Hubsan does have a gyrosc

It's important if you're going to hire a drone operator that he or she, or the business that they represent are properly insured and qualified. I know this, and hopefully those who hire drone operators to carry out any work for them, know this as well. How you go about finding a legitimate drone operator is more of a quandary. There are now a number of drone registers appearing who will put the customer in contact of a legally qualified operator. Regardless of the size of the work or the location in the UK, these drone registers will point you in the direction, or let you search on their website for a local drone operator to you.  For those of us running a one man show; who look after the site survey, risk assessments, video capture, flight, equipment, video edit, final production and delivery, who can keep the cost low for clients, this is a considerable additional expense, especially if we decide to register with more than one.  But how do small businesses get fo

"Cramped and too blue" the old Rough Cuts HQ It's been a great year for Rough Cuts Ltd. In under a year from first becoming registered they've gone from zero turnover to some . In light of this success, and due to increasing levels of complaints from their employee. They're moving offices. From it's inception Rough Cuts has operated from a combination of ' the sofa' and the main offices upstairs in what was previously known as 'the old playroom'. Employee complained that it was too cramped, too blue and that the feng shui was all wrong, he said [quote] "I hate sitting with my back to the door it's creepy, and the blue, it looks like we stole it off the navy". Company directors maintain that the offices (at the time) we're fit for purpose and that 'employee' was the lead designer for the project some 8 months ago. Nevertheless due to increasing use of 'sofa' the business has acquired new property. Surr

Buying and setting up a new computer is a big pain in the bottom. If you're planning on treating yourself to a shiny new laptop this summer, then there is a whole host of things you'll need to do before you can start using it as your main machine.  I've just helped my two daughters set up their new machines and realised what a faff it is, if you're not really sure where to start. I tend to do myself a personalised 'to do' list, but, if, like my two daughters, you're at a bit of a loss where to begin, then hopefully, this might help.  1) Update The first thing the PC will most likely convince you to do, is several minor and perhaps major updates. If, (like me) you're a bit of a bargain hunter, then it's likely your PC will have been in storage for some amount of time. During that period, Microsoft boffins will have been releasing updates to their software, to iron out bugs and introduce improvements to make your machine, and millions like it, run

Sometimes, it's comforting to know that your loved ones are ok. Find my friends is a great way to do this on iOS, but Android solutions, until now have been somewhat convoluted. Some families have a mixture of iOS and Android users in them too, so a cross platform solution would be more useful. Glympse is a great app for letting a client or friend know where you are on your journey. You can share your location via whats app or text, but some friends I know have had problems seeing the location and it's available on both Apple and Google devices. Google have just stepped in with a fantastically lightweight application called trusted contacts. The fact that this is a separate app sits nicely with me, I like the fact that if I want to share my location, or check the location of a loved one, I can safely open this app, and action that need straight away. The options for 'Trusted Contacts' are really very straighforward, 1) Send an alert.  This will contact all o

Generally speaking, advances in software are usually worth adopting. Sure sometimes software fixes actually take a step backwards, but for the most part, updates tend to enhance interoperability. Over the last few years we've seen the introduction of DLNA. A universal platform for a multitude of devices to exchange information easily. In theory, this ought to allow your tablet or phone to cast media (from the Youtube app on your phone for example) to your DLNA TV (or DLNA ready Set top box.) Or files from a USB drive plugged into your router, to your devices around your home. However after a recent router upgrade, I found many of these services (I used more than I realised) stopped working. The chances are, like me your network is secured with a password. The chances are unless you've got devices over 10 years old, (March 2006 to be exact) these devices will be using WPA2 (not WPA). This technology encrypts your data, with a password to exchange across devices that use DLN

If you've a modern router, the chances are somewhere embedded in the side is a USB port. Perhaps you're using it for wireless printing? Perhaps you've attached a drive as a handy place to back up all of your vitally important files? Maybe you're using it for your Mac Time Capsule backups (anyone tried this; it ought to work shouldn't it?) Or maybe, you weren't aware you could? I have a wealth of important (to me) files backed up on a 500Gb Buffalo drive, in order of importance Videos of the children growing up (yes they're also backed up on Mega) The contents of my daughters old computer (ready for when we can get her a new one of her own) My Music (also synchronised with Google Music) My Photos (also synchronised with Google Photos) All of this data takes up over 250gb of a 500gb drive.  So when the new vodafone router wouldn't work with it, after I'd got my number back, I set about solving this quandary. On the first night this drive w

Watching the international space station pass over your house is exciting. Even before you start capturing the experience on camera, just knowing that this hulking great big metal mass is flying around the earth every 1 and a half hours, with people on board is extraordinary in itself. Tracking it as it flies over Paris at 200,000 feet as far as Poland and still being able to see it as it disappears into the distance is mind boggling. If you're in the least bit interested (and I've yet to meet anyone who isn't) then the first thing you need to do is check where it is, and if a visible pass is likely. These clear warm summer evenings are by far the best time to see it. However, it's not difficult once it comes into view. It's totally obvious as it looks like a star, that's moving fast! http://www.isstracker.com/ is a good place to start. but if you want an app, try ISS?   for Android. The orbit shows up as a sine wave on a flat map, but of course the orbit is