Non Responsive Task Bar in Windows 10 Build 10586

After recently updating to the Windows 10 Build 10586, my Windows Start Menu and Task Bar became unresponsive to mouse clicks. After researching on various forums, most users recommend a fix via the Powershell commands, but it did not work on my PC. However I managed to find a forum comment that recommended a simple fix by using the Command Prompt. This solution worked for me:

Step 1) Run Command Prompt as Administrator.

Step 2) Enter the following command: sfc /scannow

Step 3) Reboot your PC and after rebooting, you should see that the taskbar and start menu is now responding.

Early Bird Discount for IoT Courses in Feb and Mar 2016

Sign up for the following IOT classes in Feb and March 2016 before end of January and receive a $300 discount off the published course fee!

IOT101 Programming Internet of Things (IoT) using Raspberry Pi (S$1897; $1597 after discount)

• 16-17 Feb 2016
• 7-8 Mar 2016

IOT102 Programming Internet of Things (IoT) using Windows 10 IoT Core (S$1897; $1597 after discount)

• 18-19 Mar 2016
• 28-29 Mar 2016

For the IOT course, you will receive an IoT Kit* (which you can keep after the course). The kit includes:

• Raspberry Pi 2 
• Raspberry Pi Casing 
• Raspberry Pi Power Supply - 5V, 2A
• Micro-SD with Adapter 
• PiCam for Raspberry Pi 
• Bluetooth 4.0 dongle 
• WiPi Dongle for Raspberry Pi 
• Adafruit Pi Cobbler Plus Kit – Breakout Cable for Pi 2 
• NXP NFC Expansion board for Raspberry Pi 
• 16x2 LCD Panel with Backlight 
• PIR Sensor 
• Ultrasonic Sensor 
• Potentiometer 
• Breadboard 
• Jumper cables 
• Gas Sensor 
• Temperature Sensor 
• Breadboard 
• LEDs

* Items in the IOT kit may vary from time to time

New Course! - HRD001 - Introduction to Raspberry Pi (half-day)

Announcing a brand new half-day weekend course! - HRD001 Introduction to Raspberry Pi. This course provides a fundamental jump start and introduction on using the Raspberry Pi as well as some cool projects that you could get started with, without any programming experience! In this fun-filled 4 hour course, you will learn the followings:

   • Setting up the Raspberry Pi
   • Preparing the SD Card
      o Booting up the Raspberry Pi
   • Configuring the Raspberry Pi
      o Troubleshooting
   • Using Linux on the Raspberry Pi
      o Command Line
      o Built-in Utilities
   • Installing the Apache Web server on the Raspberry Pi
   • How to expose your Web server to the world – how to configure your router for port forwarding
   • Video Streaming from your Web cam

What is so cool about this course is that you can bring home your very own Raspberry Pi Jumpstart Kit!

The Raspberry Pi Jumpstart Kit contains the followings:

• Raspberry Pi 2
• 8GB Class 10 Micro-SD Card with Adapter
• 2 Amp Multi-National Micro-USB Power Adapter
• Raspberry Pi 2 Casing

Note: Participants are required to bring their own laptop for the course.

Click here to view the Course Information.

New Lineup of IOT Courses!

We are happy to launch a new series of IOT courses for 2015 & 2016! The following new additions to the current IOT 101 - Programming Internet of Things are:

IOT 102 - Programming Internet of Things using Windows IoT Core (2 days)

IOT 103 - Programming littleBits using Arduino (1 day)

IOT 104 - Programming Internet of Things using Arduino (1 day)

Visit courses.clarencechng.com or learn2develop.net for more details about the courses!

September Course Schedule for Programming Internet of Things (IoT) Course

Glad to confirm that the next 2 run of the Programming Internet of Things Course is on 8-9 September and 16 and 18 September!

Join us and you will get to bring home the Raspberry Pi IoT Kit!

UPDATE: The course date on 10 and 11 September has been pushed forward to 8 and 9 September due to Polling Day on 11th September 2015.

Course Fee

S$1897 (nett; no GST)

If your company is sponsoring you for the training, your company can enjoy 400% tax deductions/ allowances and/or 60% cash payout for investment in innovation and productivity improvements under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme. For more details, check out the Productivity and Innovation Credit page.

Schedules

Start Date	End Date	Details	Category
Thu Sep 10 2015 CONFIRMED	Fri Sep 11 2015	PDF
Wed Sep 16 2015 CONFIRMED	Wed Sep 16 2015	PDF
Fri Sep 18 2015 CONFIRMED	Fri Sep 18 2015	PDF
Thu Oct 01 2015	Fri Oct 02 2015	PDF

Venue

Bayview Hotel Singapore
30 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189621 

If your company requires in-house training, you can contact us to customize the topics to meet your training requirements. We train worldwide! We have conducted customized classes in the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Review: Apple Watch

It has been 5 days with my 42mm Space Grey Apple Watch Sport and I'm really amazed with what this watch could do. As an ex-Pebble Watch user, I'm used to the larger screen environment and the Apple Watch is pretty comfortable for me. I would have regretted badly if I went ahead with the 38mm. The screen on the Apple Watch is a high pixel-per-inch display that produces sharp texts and images. The user experience of switching between apps is seamless, by using a field of bubbles that represent apps that allows easy rearranging and appropriate for small screen sizes like that Apple Watch. Allowing users to make phone calls and speech to text messages on the watch are also great features to have as they are definitely useful when driving.

Furthermore, what makes this watch unique from Pebble is the ability of tracking your heart rate on the go. This allows more accurate health and workout measurements. With the Activity app, it motivates me to do my daily workout to reach my goal such as standing for a period of time or doing some activities to burn off calories. Everyday, I would get several notifications to remind the remaining time to reach my workout goals.

However, there are a fews things that I disliked about the Apple Watch. On the software side being OS version 1.0.1, the Apple Watch lacks many functionality. I can hardly find anything useful to do on the Apple Watch aside from doing quick messaging and phone calls. Using 3rd party apps such as Instagram and Twitter is unnatural on the watch as the screen is too small for such purpose. The app performance on the Apple Watch is very slow. Launching apps takes time to fetch data from the iPhone and most of the time on the watch, you would be seeing a spinning icon. Technically speaking, it would be faster to reach your phone from your pocket to view the app than to wait for it load on the watch.

On the hardware side, the battery life on the Apple Watch is decent for normal use, but not for intense use. Having used the Pebble Watch, I'm very used to charging my watch once a week, but with the Apple Watch, I have to charge it once a day. It is also true that the Apple Watch relies heavily on the iPhone for communication. For example, the built-in running app that allows you to track your progress relies on the GPS on the iPhone to work accurately. However, when I'm jogging, I don't enjoy bringing my phone along. I simply want a wearable that can track how far I ran and track my progress without needing my phone. I really wanted an Apple Watch with a built-in GPS.

However, with most of the cons mentioned in this review, it could be simply be solved with the next version of the OS. During WWDC, Apple has announced the Apple Watch OS2 that brings new and greater features to the watch, and I look forward to the update that could bring a huge performance boost to the watch.

Flight Locater supports Apple Watch!

I have updated my Flight Locater App on the App Store to add support for Apple Watch! Now users are able to view their flight information such as departure gate number, gate terminal as well as departure timing right from their watch! The Apple Watch app also displays popular airline logo such as United Airlines, SouthWest Airlines and many more!

Link to App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flight-locater/id963958849?ls=1&mt=8

Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2 Beta

At BUILD 2015, Microsoft released more details on Windows 10 for IoT devices, which includes Arduino, Intel Galileo as well as the Raspberry Pi 2. On their website, they have beta images of Windows 10 for the IoT devices and it is available for download for users who have signed up for Microsoft Connect. They have released a full set of instructions to get started with, which requires you to have a PC running Windows 10 build 10074 and later. I will leave the relevant links down below for your reference.


Setup Windows 10 beta on Raspberry Pi 2: http://ms-iot.github.io/content/win10/SetupRPI.htm

Sign up for Microsoft Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/windowsembeddediot/SelfNomination.aspx?ProgramID=8558

Image Credits: Engadget

M1 launches Voice-Over LTE in Singapore!

For iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users using M1's 4G data plans, you can now choose to make higher quality phone calls using your 4G LTE network.

Navigate to your Settings App --> Mobile --> Enable 4G --> Voice & Data.






M1's Public Announcement:

https://www.m1.com.sg/AboutM1/NewsReleases/2015/M1%20to%20offer%204G%20Voice%20calls.aspx

Next Run of Raspberry Pi Course on 15 April 2015 (Wednesday)

Do join us for the next run of the Raspberry Pi course in Singapore on 15 April 2015 (Wednesday)! You will get to learn interesting topics, such as building your own camera surveillance feed, setting up Apache and PHP server, sending tweets using the Raspberry Pi, programming scripts to display texts on a 16x2 LCD display and many more! Please refer to the schedules section below for more information about the course!

New Topic! You will learn how to configure and get started with using the NXP NFC add-on board for the Raspberry Pi and scan for NFC tags! You will also learn how to get real time stock quotes and display it on a 16x2 LCD display (See Video)!

Each participant will get to
bring home the following:

1) Raspberry Pi Model B Version 2 

2) Official Raspberry Pi 5V-2A Power Supply

3) 8GB Micro-SD Card with SD Adapter

Participants will need to bring their laptop for this course.

Course Fee

S$799 (nett; no GST)

If your company is sponsoring you for the training, your company can enjoy 400% tax deductions/ allowances and/or 60% cash payout for investment in innovation and productivity improvements under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme. For more details, check out the Productivity and Innovation Creditpage. 

Schedules

Start Date	End Date	Details	Category
Wed Apr 15 2015	Wed Apr 15 2015	PDF

Venue

Bayview Hotel Singapore
30 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189621