Rufan-Redi

More toys for my MCE

2006-01-09T18:42:00.000+10:00

My Media Centre (Windows XP MCE edition) has been ticking along quite nicely for the last couple of months.... in fact so well that there are only a couple of issues... too many remotes and not enough space to store stuff.To solve the problem with the remotes I've got a Logitech Harmony 880 - it's a very clever bit of hardware able to do a lot more than your average 'learning' remote... for

Jabra BT800: just keeps on getting better

2005-12-13T15:15:00.000+10:00

So far I'm very pleased with my Jabra BT800... makes life a lot more comfortable with the cellphone.It's good to see that Jabra continue to support users with the new v0032 firmware update which adds a few improvements;Faster audio transfer for Sony Ericsson phones Faster speech channel handling – the call is transferred to the headset faster Faster reaction on Key-presses during incoming call

Spring Clean the Laptop - Part II

2005-11-17T21:33:00.000+10:00

The saga that began with a need to reinstall my laptop has progressed quite nicely, and I'm very happy with the results.My backups didn't fail me, and my ability to track down old software CDs and serial numbers hasn't been compromised by the house move between getting the current machine and now.One thing I did forget to backup was a lot of the samed passwords in IE for various websites. Luckily

Big Brother 2006 - Applications

2005-11-16T23:50:00.000+10:00

Once again the Big Brother roadshow is underway. Similar process to 2005... there will be a roadshow and then the process of whittling the applicants down to the housemates we get to know.The site is back and ticking over nicely. The front end is showing it's initial simple face at the moment, but all the cool applications stuff is sitting there waiting to spring into life.As usual the core is

Beltane Trinity Craftings

2005-11-15T00:52:00.000+10:00

Finally I've got around to fixing up the site for Beltane Trinity Craftings. It's very early stages... a lot of content needs adding and some tweaking of the design (first website this designer has done) and page templates but it was a fun ASP.NET build.The whole thing took a day from getting the assets to launch (hosted as usual with HostingShop who do a great job).Behind the scenes is a simple

Worried about the SonyBMG rootkit ?

2005-11-12T11:27:00.000+10:00

If you're worried about the impact of the SonyBMG rootkit exposing you to trojans on your PC check out AnyDVD from Slysoft - allows you to not install the rootkit and still play the CD ;)Also check out Rootkit Revealer to see if you're already 'infected'.OSX users are also affected by SonyBMGs actionsSonyBMG are already under legal attack thanks to their actions. Meantime why don't we just vote

Blue(tooth) in the face

2005-11-06T22:10:00.000+10:00

I've mentioned in the past how I wish Bluetooth was better supported. Today I went searching for a way to make good use of my Jabra BT800 headset and my SE T610 phone. It was a search in vain.Specifically my goal was to be able to use my T610 as a webcam (with MSN Messenger) and the headset with Skype, MSN Messenger or any of the other SIP clients.I'm usually pretty good at finding things on

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - it doesn't have to be expensive

2005-11-02T12:44:00.000+10:00

The important thing to remember with website ranking on search engines is that nothing is going to change overnight. It’s a long, slow process of refinement and improvement as the web crawlers re-visit your site and gain a better understanding of it and how it relates to other sites. Unlike a TV or magazine campaign that can have a response within minutes or days a SEO campaign (like a brand

Spring Clean the laptop

2005-10-30T23:20:00.000+10:00

You know, I thought they had it tough in the Six Million Dollar Man. They had to take a wreck of a man and make it all high-tech and shiny (and nuclear powered!)They probably never had to content with rebuilding my laptop! There's a day of my life I'll never get back - but in the long run it's worth it, and I'd suggest everyone should put aside a little time each 6 months or so to go through the

First impressions (be careful with those domain names)

2005-10-29T09:31:00.000+10:00

Be very careful when you choose a domain name.... what exactly are you saying ?Some examples of what not to do !Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous: http://www.WhorePresents.com/. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island: http://www.PenisLand.net/.Need a therapist? Try: http://www.TheRapistFinder.com/.An Italian Power company: http://www.PowerGenitalia.com/.

diagnosing WiFi problems over the phone !

2005-10-28T22:51:00.000+10:00

I like a challenge. It's a bit of a character flaw but it's just how I'm wired.Setting up a wireless router when you have a PDF of the manual in front of you but the actual hardware is in another state - and of course at this point not set up so remote admin access is via phone using a human as an interface - is an interesting way to work. Luckily sometimes the remote interface is smart !Cat very

Follow the Flock !

2005-10-22T17:06:00.000+10:00

Combine an open source Browser, with Web 2.0 and some Venture Capitalists, throw in the Browser Wars, simmer and pull out.... Flock.Flock takes a slightly-behind-the-bleeding-edge version of Firefox and integrates into it the idea of a socially interconnected web - your Favourites feed straight from you del.icio.us account and it integrates from the browser with your Blogger (or other preferred)

Web 2.0 - a whole new meme

2005-10-21T20:26:00.000+10:00

web 2.0 meme map Originally uploaded by rufan-redi. Riding in on a tsunami of blog posts, inaccurate wikipedia entries in Klingon and Flickr photosets of the latest del.icio.us meme to make the front pages of the Fourth Estate comes Web 2.0.A marketeers dream of what venture capitalists want now that they've recovered from the '00 crash where the masses do all the work and then the mailing

Jabra BT800: whisper sweet nothings in my ear

2005-10-20T16:17:00.000+10:00

I got a new Bluetooth toy today (I love the idea of a world without wires) - a Jabra BT800 headset. It's very shiny !Even though it looks a little strange it's surprisingly comfortable and easy to use on the ear, and the built-in LCD which can show callerID or be used to configure the earpiece is very cool (in fact goes a long way to answering my critisisms of most BT headsets that you don't

Hailstone holes in the veranda roof

2005-10-12T17:50:00.000+10:00

Hailstone holes in the veranda roofOriginally uploaded by rufan-redi.I was sitting out in the garden today. Lovely weather. A good WiFi connection. Minding my own business and checking a few emails.The sky darkened (unusual for the Gold Coast in October) and about 10 minutes later golf ball sized hailstones punched throught the veranda roof landing where I had been sitting.For some reason the

Be safe out there

2005-10-12T12:07:00.000+10:00

The internet is a scary place (especially for Windows users), and there's lots of folks out there who want to mess with your machine - either because that's how they get their kicks, or because they've worked out a way to make a dollar at someones expense (usually yours).There are three things you need to worry about when you connect to the internet. It doesn't matter if you're on dial-up, DSL or

iTunes.... an exercise in frustration

2005-09-16T20:55:00.000+10:00

I've got an iPod. So logically I use iTunes to manage my music. And it's mostly pretty fine (apart from sometimes losing the star ratings or going off into its own little world for a few minutes ignoring all keyboard input, and the minimised toolbar interface isn't very good at aligning itself next to the systray) - in fact it's replaced WMP as my default audio player simply because it behaves so

Windows Update without IE

2005-09-16T18:46:00.000+10:00

A common complaint amongst the alternate browser set is that they still need to use IE to keep their computer up to date.Well, it's not actually true any more.... Simply visit WindizUpdate and all the Windows Update goodness (and for my machine at least a couple of extra device drivers that I'd not been offered via the more usual IE version). It's also open for third party hardware and software

I like stats, but I hate having to wade through reports to get them !

2005-09-16T16:23:00.000+10:00

Like everyone I'm curious about how popular my idle thoughts are, where people come from and where they go afterwards....If I hosted the blog myself on my server using MT or similar I could wade through my own logs to find this out, but let's face it.... it's just too much like hard work !Luckily for every need, there's usually an answer on the net, and My Blog Log seems to be pretty much it !

Thanks for the Memory !

2005-09-14T20:21:00.000+10:00

One lesson I've learnt over the years is that no matter how much RAM you put in a Windows machine.... a few months later you realise that it's about 50% of what you actually need to have in there.My old Vaio C1MT got an upgrade when it was 6 months old, my PowerBook has a similar experience (with both of those it turned out that you could put in twice as much memory as the manufacturer said), the

Making a perfect Media Centre....

2005-09-11T19:27:00.000+10:00

Aside from the basic hardware that you need to run a Windows Media Centre machine there's a big of a hardware and software learning curve to get the setup working sweetly. For different people the list will differ but I'll share some things I've found....HardwareThe biggest thing that I'd change with my initial setup is the fans ! The one on the video card is pretty noisy - and initial attempts

Trusted Computing....

2005-09-11T17:58:00.000+10:00

I'd love to trust my computer.Trust it to be reliable.Trust it to be virus free.Trust it to reject malware.The Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) promise us all that....Or do they ?Find out what Trusted Computing is really about, and then read some more about it at www.AgainstTCPA.com.

Pzizz - software to send you to sleep ;)

2005-09-10T13:24:00.000+10:00

It's not often I discover a bit of software that, quite literally, is a life changer. Pzizz however seems to be just that.Using a combination of soothing sound-scapes and hypnotic speech (with NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming - overtones) Pzizz helps lull the user into a sleep state and can be used to either encourage deep restful sleep, or guide them through an energizing powernap.While not a

I want more Bluetooth !

2005-09-07T22:15:00.000+10:00

Actually, what I want is a decent Bluetooth headset (ideally mono but can convert to stereo with a clip on or second 'dumb' earpiece wired the first) that I can use intelligently (and that's the optimal word) with my cellphone (currently SE T610), my iPod (I'll even put up with a small dongle until Apple pull their finger out and build it in) and my PC (for Skype or just listening without wires).

Upload and resize an image with ASP.NET (VB.NET)

2005-09-07T19:55:00.000+10:00

A while ago I needed to create a function to allow a user to upload an image and have the system resize it to a thumbnail - preserving the aspect ratio, while at the same time ensuring that neither of the maximum constraints of the thumbnail width or height where breached - and then save it to the server.The function had to be written for an ASP.NET server and ideally in VBScript to fit in with

Someone at Google needs to look at consistent implementations....

2005-09-03T20:07:00.000+10:00

There are some great features in the Blogger posting interface. And there are some great features in the GMail interface (especially they way it handles spelling checks !). While it's great to see them rushing to roll out new and innovative technologies (GMail has really shaken up the webmail market, and some clients as well !) and Gtalk has the potential for a shake-up in the IM world... but

My MCE Remote died today....

2005-09-03T19:30:00.000+10:00

.... but luckily there was a solution....it's been a little erratic over the last couple of days... sometimes not lighting up on the first press of a button and so I suspected the batteries, but a quick checked showed they where still at 80%+ (I love these batteries with the new-fangled touch meter on the side... it's a little thing but a great example or technology actually being helpful !)but

How long since Windows last fell over ?

2005-09-03T00:13:00.000+10:00

Thanks to the folks at Uptime Project it's a question I'll never wonder about the answer to again.....My VaioMy MCE machineit's only a shame that you can't create multiple machines under once account (would make it easier to manage a profile) but I guess if I wanted to track the laptop, the MediaCentre and the office machine together I could set up three accounts and put them together in their

Bluetooth integration for a Sony Ericsson phone !

2005-08-09T20:23:00.000+10:00

I have complained in the past about poor implementation of Bluetooth utilities under Windows when compared to OSX.Well, BluePhoneElite may well be the creme da la creme on OSX but on Windows it now has a serious competitor in the form of FMA (floAT's Mobile Agent) - a true example of how well Bluetooth can be implemented under Windows XP.It features all the things that seem obvious, yet missing

Emerald isn't here yet, and people are worried about Diamond !

2005-08-02T14:27:00.000+10:00

I don't get it. People are worrying about the next release of MCE - Diamond - when Emerald is what matters right now...why ?Because no matter what jam is promised tomorrow it's the bread and butter we have today which will generate WAF and help people consider an MCE solution (very much a niche like the MS Tablet PC platform) over a set-top-box and PVR combo.At the moment I can do out and get a

Gibberish in a Parallel VFD

2005-07-31T22:46:00.000+10:00

One of the problems I had getting my Media Centre PC all set up and happy was the VFD (Vacuum Flourescent Display). No matter what software I tried using I got garbage in the display after a few minutes.The solution to the problem came to me from the author of the excellent FrontView utility (one I'd recommend for any MCE owner who want's to display useful information on what their machine is

Tiger... a service pack or a big step forward ?

2005-07-22T13:50:00.000+10:00

After installing Tiger, downloading the first set of updates, rebooting, installing the second set of updates and then patching things like VirtualPC I was ready to start playing around with Tiger.It's nice. Don't get me wrong, but I think Apple have possibly over-hyped this creation. There is nothing that's a real show-stopped to make this worthy of the 'new release' title for me.It seems a

A Tiger By The Tail ;)

2005-07-20T13:41:00.000+10:00

Just because I'm using Windows as my primary environment again these days doesn't mean that my PowerBook has been relegated to book-end status. I got it a new present the other day... a Tiger upgrade.The install is slick and drama free (and fairly quick) even on my machine with very little free space.Then came the funny moment... 75MB of patches needed to get it all up-to-date. And those patches

It's like a PVR, STB, DVD and MP3 player. All in one box !

2005-07-08T12:52:00.000+10:00

I got myself a new toy to play with. A HTPC / Media PC setup (Windows XP Media Centre) to live in the living room and organise our viewing and listening.The current specs are:MotherboardFoxConn / WinFast K8S755A-6EKRSProcessor:AMD 64 3000+Memory:1GB (2x512MB DDR)DVD:Pioneer R+/-W Dual LayerHDD:WD 250GB 7200RPM IDE,2 x 300GB SATA plus external Maxtor 300GB. One of the SATA drives is in a 3.5" bay,

P2P will eat itself

2005-07-08T11:37:00.000+10:00

P2P seems like such a good way to distribute content - legal and licenced or ripped and stolen - but it suffers from it's very democratic nature.There are simply too many competing systems, too many versions of the same file and too many unstable connections to make it a practical and reliable way to distribute anything.Soluitions like BroadCast Machine (which still needs porting to IIS !) make

Instant Messenging.... and Spaces

2005-07-06T11:35:00.000+10:00

After using Jabber for a while, and communicating with my MSN using friends via Gaim I've admitted defeat and gone back to just using the MSN Messenger. Gaim simply wasn't reliable enough communicating with MSN.After the simple, tabbed interface of Gaim (and Adium on my Mac) the rather cluttered, multiple windowed, advertising bloated affair that is MSN isn't that much of a treat - taking up far

Finally ! Tabs in IE

2005-06-27T12:22:00.000+10:00

the one thing that Firefox and Safari could really claim as a killer feature over IE has now gone away. IE has added tabs (okay, while there have been third-party add-ons, these are from Microsoft and they are free)While it's a free add-on, it's not however with a little baggage.. although good, the implementation does have a few missing features at the moment (maybe we'll have to wait for IE7

who wants a set-top tower ?!

2005-06-21T22:08:00.000+10:00

Am I asking for too much ? I've got a VCR and a DVD player, and I was thinking that maybe I needed a PVR to make life easier as there's a lot of shows I'm watching delayed these days with work committments. Then I thought that maybe a HD Digital TV box would be good. Then I started looking at how it would all cable up to the TV and the number of remotes I'd need....And it was just too scary !So I

Those terrible clever folks at Microsoft....

2005-06-19T14:14:00.000+10:00

have been very busy on some new toys to delight developers and arty folks...I've been playing with a couple of new beta releases of upcoming Microsoft products aimed at very different types of people but which as a web developer are going to have an impact on my workflow...The first is Code Named Acrylic - in actuality version 3 of Expression, a Photoshop type tool Microsoft recently acquired and

WhyBother with WiFi when there's 3G-PS ?

2005-06-19T13:49:00.000+10:00

I've got a 3G (WCDMA) phone at the moment thanks to the nice folks at Three who are sponsoring BigBrother. It goes everywhere with me with it's handly little USB cable and my shiny Vaio.Before I had it if I was out and about and needed to get online to fix an emergency (or use Google to win an argument !) I had to try and find a WiFi hotspot which either only demanded I buy a cup of coffee or had

Am I a DSL addict ?!

2005-06-17T10:35:00.000+10:00

We've just moved. It was all a bit of a hurry with not much chance to plan ahead so hardly surprising that some things about it have been less than optimal.The worst one, for me, is the two week between asking to get the DSL moved and them getting it done.... you suddenly realise just how used to being connected you become.I'm sure in a decade it'll be an instant process (with whatever ubiquitous

Should networks make abandoned shows available for Download ?

2005-06-07T13:04:00.000+10:00

Recently there has been a bit of a surge in "abandoned" shows here in Aus, with poor performing content either being dropped our bounced about the timetable (often with little or no warning) so it's impossible to keep up.Luckily a lot of shows are already available here in Aus thanks to BitTorrent and similar distribution mechanisms, but recently there have been calls for the networks to organise

Hitwise BB05 Stats - 25 May 05

2005-05-27T14:09:00.000+10:00

Hitwise BB05 Stats - 25 May 05 Originally uploaded by rufan-redi. The widespread appeal of the latest instalment of the Big Brother series is further illustrated by its considerable online impact. After one full week of screening, Big Brother Australia became the 18th most frequently visited website by Australian Internet users and the most popular 'Television - Programme' website with a

so, who's trawling for spam today ?

2005-05-25T18:45:00.000+10:00

Spam is a funny thing. No-one really wants it yet it still keeps turning up. It may be selling V-i-a-g-r-a or phishing for our credit card details or (my favourite) anti-spam services and we (hopefully) delete it straight away (or better yet, report it to SpamCop).Spam works because they seem to have a robot army as large as the Google web crawlers just out there looking for idiots who post their

it's all pretty phishy

2005-05-25T13:41:00.000+10:00

If you're scared about accidentally giving out your electronic banking, PayPal or eBay login information by visiting a fake site (although if you're silly enough to click on a link in an HTML only email with dubious spelling then perhaps it's for the best), check out the Netcraft Toolbar - it gives you an instant rating on the site, and your reports can help others. Only available for IE but Now

Netscape 8 - an end to the Browser wars ?

2005-05-23T11:26:00.000+10:00

After a considerable drop in profile thanks to being cast adrift in an uncaring corporate environment, and a failure to actual produce any relevant product while Firefox surged from nowhere to the the pre-eminent IE competitor... Netscape is back.Netscape version 8.01 has just gone GA and it's a very interesting product. A tabbed browser a la Firefox and some of the IE bolt-ons (e.g. Maxthon or

BB05 Website Stats

2005-05-12T19:03:00.000+10:00

BB05 Website Stats Originally uploaded by rufan-redi. For the first week on a new site it's nice to see it storm the charts. Not without a hitch but pretty much stable and well behaved. Peaking well over 5000 page impressions a minute and sustaining 2 million plus impressions a day with peaks of 6000 concurrent web streams. Very happy with the site this year ;)

I hate CSS !

2005-05-10T21:00:00.000+10:00

okay, well maybe I don't hate CSS, but I really dislike the completing implementations and the work you have to do when putting together a marginally complex page and making it work for everyone.I like IE6 and it's strict mode - saves so much time over trying to build alternate style sheets for different browsers and platforms but even so it's not perfect. There are a few issues specific to

Return to the dark side ?

2005-03-26T20:54:00.000+10:00

Don't get me wrong. I love my PowerBook, and I think OSX is great. I first got my PowerBook when my old Vaio C1MT started to get a little slow and old.. and Sony in their wisdom decided not to ship lpatops in Australia with Bluetooth. But now with the advent of the tiny VGN-T27GP they seem to be taking connected mobile users seriously, so with VirtualPC not quite keeping up with my needs it

Cool windows app !

2005-03-24T22:54:00.000+10:00

One of my favourite productivity tools on OSX is QuickSilver ... a couple of key strokes to launch any application or open any document.Finally found a Windows app that's almost as good. It's called SlickRun from Bayden Systems.Rather than catalogue everything on the disk it operates using 'magic words' - predefined and user extensible shortcuts that you type in once hitting a keystroke to

Ooops - there goes my SQL Server database

2005-03-11T19:14:00.000+10:00

I had a very bad moment today. Possibly in the world order of things not catastrophic, but enough to really spoil my day.As a result of a series of coincidences that can never happen, can't be reproduced and may just occur again when I'm least expecting it my PowerBook suffered a hard-stop today. VirtualPC was open and merrily running a DTS Transfer of some tables in the SQL Instance. The world

Windows 95 - it just won't go away !

2005-03-05T18:07:00.000+10:00

I had quite a challenge today.... a friend who lives a thousand kilometres away had a problem with their laptop. It's a fairly reliable, although a very aged, ThinkPad.... and it always chooses to go wrong either when there is a deadline or overseas trip due. Today was no different.Windows started fine ... but no icons, Start button or other desktop accoutrements that are pretty critical to

Flickr: Image sharing

2005-02-26T17:01:00.001+10:00

Flickr is another example of a 'community' service (like Blogger and Del.icio.us. It adds a new dimension to managing and sharing information - words and pictures can be uploaded and categorised and shared around. All we need now is support for music and video and it's complete :) I'd like to see more integration - at the moment to share an image you have to upload it to Flickr and to share a

You can rely too much on technology

2005-02-26T16:30:00.000+10:00

Principal Originally uploaded by rufan-redi. It's really quite frightening... is this what happens when you can't take the spell checker from your PC into the real world ?What makes it even scarier is that the same mistake is in the Deputy Principals' parking space as well.Is my daughter going to the right school I wonder ?!

The Clie is dead. Wonder where PalmOS is going

2005-02-23T18:52:00.000+10:00

I've been a long term fan of PalmOS devices. Starting longer ago that I care to admit with the original 'geek tool' - a first generation Palm Pilot. Various mishaps and new toy frenzies later I was lured from the, then moribund, Palm hardware to the new Sony Clies - first an NR70V and then a UX50. Sadly the OS itself was lagging behind both the Symbian Smart Phone implementations and capabilities

VirtualPC Frenzy !

2005-02-18T22:48:00.000+10:00

I now have four VirtualPC instances running on my PowerBook. Three are actually useful and one will probably go as soon as I run short of space.WinXP Pro - this one is the main day-to-day environment especially now I've worked out how to run multiple IIS instances on it. IE6 and all the smart stuffWin2K - a bit of a personal favourite as it's the quickest and does everything. But it's my IE5

So, you want to run more than one IIS on WinXP Pro ?

2005-02-17T19:07:00.000+10:00

WinXP Pro is, in many ways, a huge improvement over Win2K. Admittedly in my chosen environment - running in VirtualPC on OSX - it's a little slower than it's predecessor, but turn off all the chrome and extraneous stuff and it's still quick enough.One thing that it doesn't support however is multiple websites defined within IIS. Well, that's what the paperwork says !As there isn't an 'official'

Virtually Pointless

2005-02-17T18:59:00.000+10:00

Just for a laugh I spent a couple of hours today installing SUSE 9.2 on my PowerBook. No, I'm not fed up with OSX, I just wanted to see how well VirtualPC handled it. All in all, it went surprisingly well - although it took longer to install than WinXP ! I chose the Gnome rather than KDE variant as I prefer that desktop, and more importantly it include Evolution which is a three-quarters decent

How big should my banner be ?

2005-02-11T12:29:00.000+10:00

I keep forgetting how big banner ads should be when talking to designers. Well, luckily I don't have to decide or remember because the nice folks at the Internet Advertising Bureau have decided for the good of us all - IAB Interactive Marketing Standards and Guidelines - Internet Ad Unit Guidelines. Thanks guys !

I could have got a Mercedes...

2005-02-08T19:30:00.000+10:00

... or are they going to call it an iBenz now it comes with iPod add on ? Actually, the budget didn't quite stretch to that so I had to settle for a Griffin Road Trip so I can take the iPod on the road with me. Great accessory, although it would have been neater if there was an option to position the mounting further away from the power outlet (maybe a curly power lead)... but given enough

Switchers - check here....

2005-02-07T22:08:00.000+10:00

Switching can be hard. I know, I've gone through it. But it's worth the effort. It's a shame I didn't find something like A mini-guide to Mac OS X when I first got my PowerBook.... would have made some of those moments of "...how the #$%^ do I do that !" so much easier.

no more powerbricks

2005-02-07T19:43:00.000+10:00

Splashpower promise a great future... no more lugging around power bricks to charge your phone, PDA and iPod just drop 'em all down on a Splashpad and watch them charge.Of course, we need Apple, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Palm and everyone else to incorporate this technology into their devices and hotels to start installing them in the rooms....Wonder if they have enough power to charge a laptop (

It's not a pod from the Nostromo

2005-02-07T17:31:00.000+10:00

Today I took my life in my hands, and got into something that looked like the hibernation pods from the Nostromo. Actually it was a Dry Water Massage system (now there is a concept to get your head around). The most relaxing 20 minutes I've ever spend in a shopping centre, and as an added bonus no scary acid slime spitting monsters when the pod opened at the end (well, no more than you usually

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

2005-02-05T23:34:00.000+10:00

Found this reference to Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts today.... it's not 100% complete (doesn't mention Fn-Delete for forward delete for instance) but it's really handy. I hate to think how you're going to have to speak to get the voice recognition in Tiger to make some of these happen (perhaps we'll all have to learn Klingon !)

Sneak peak of the 2005 look

2005-02-03T20:30:00.000+10:00

Just uploaded the first cut of the new look for Rufan-Redi for 2005. It's pretty much ready, just needs some fine tuning on copy and images. Not a single or javascript rollover ... it's 100% CSS ... and did I mention that I hate standards ! It's taken quite an effort to get it working in most of the browsers. It's not 100% (although it's valid HTML 4.01 and CSS) so still a bit more

OSX Apps that I can't live without

2005-02-02T20:02:00.000+10:00

Well, that's perhaps a little extreme (I did go without my computer for, like, a couple of hours once. But I didn't like it) After living with OSX for a few months now there are some apps that I do however find pretty indispensable... so, in no particular order, here they are: skEdit - HTML and text editor with syntax highlighting (for multiple languages) and built-in SFTP. QuickSilver -

New PowerBooks

2005-02-01T19:00:00.000+10:00

My Rev.A 12" PowerBook is starting to feel it's age. It might have 1.12GB of RAM - darn the soldered base RAM or I could have gone further ! - and the ageing G4 867Mhz of processor might not cut it in the PC world, but for OSX it's actually quite good. However, the new 15" models are really quite sweet... One of those with the faster 100GB HDD, 128MB of Video RAM and a full 2GB complement would

The Future that Never Was

2005-02-01T01:28:00.000+10:00

I know this is mostly about technology related stuff.... but I guess some t-shirts count ! Have you ever wondered what the world would have looked like if the set designers for Flash Gordon had their way, and the scientists of their day could actually deliver what the artists promised ? Well, The Future than Never Was takes that ideal into lovingly rendered detail and, well... all I can say is

Airport Express - WiFi for the Jet Set

2005-01-31T19:22:00.000+10:00

After resisting for a while it had to happen.... I've now got another lovely Apple logo'd white box to add to the collection. A shiny new Airport Express (AE) has pride of place, um, well, hidden out of the way down behind the TV and Stereo where no-one can see it. Like all good technology it's totally invisible in day-to-day operation as well as use. Turn on the PC, crank up the stereo and hit

RSS in a web page

2005-01-31T13:37:00.000+10:00

RSS (Really Simply Syndication) is a great way to share info, but unless you're into parsing XML can be a pain to display on another web page. If you're got the ability to install scripts and hack around it's no big deal, but there are some places where you're just a user and can't do that - Blogger for instance ! RSS Digest solves the problem very neatly... tell it the URL of the RSS feed you

It's just Del.icio.us

2005-01-30T15:30:00.000+10:00

Despite a very silly name (and URL), Del.icio.us offers a great service - centralised bookmarking that you can get at from any machine, and by using keywords share others explorations of the web to find interesting sites. By adding a simple link to your browser toolbar (IE, Safari and the various Mozilla flavours) you can instantly add any site / page you're visiting to you personal collection.

VirtualPC .... almost playing nice with Airport

2005-01-29T13:32:00.000+10:00

I got so excited today. Almost managed to get VirtualPC working with an Airport connection (rather than Ethernet) today, but... not quite :( Hopefully this will help ... maybe someone get get it working... First up, add a second IP address to the Airport adapter (multihoming is only supported in OSX 10.3 and beyond apparently)... in Terminal type sudo ifconfig en1 192.168.1.100 netmask

The Vaio saga (part II)

2005-01-28T16:03:00.000+10:00

Despite moving to the PowerBook as my primary machine while trying to find a Wintel laptop that excites me I've continued to try and get some sense out of Sony here in Aus as to why they don't even offer Bluetooth as an option across their model range... basically their response is that while Bluetooth is standard/optional outside Aus for this region it's not being considered and won't be

Enterprise Manager for OSX !

2005-01-28T13:10:00.000+10:00

One of the problems with switching to a Mac and still trying to develop against SQL Server is that you end up spending so much time back in VirtualPC. Turns out that there's a great multi-database admin tool native to OSX MacSQL from Runtime Labs let's you do just about anything you need against a SQL Server database (or Oracle or MySQL etc) either on the same machine or anywhere you have a

iLove my iPod

2005-01-27T13:43:00.000+10:00

Finally got myself a Christmas present ! a 40GB iPod. It's great. I wish I'd got one ages ago. Form factor is fine, charges up quickly and I can't believe just how quickly 10GB of music got rushed from my PowerBook to the iPod. Gotta finish ripping my CDs now ! I've ordered a RoadTrip from StreetWise so it can keep me company in the car as well ! The dog likes it as well, because with music I'll

Toasters and ice cube trays

2005-01-23T13:34:00.000+10:00

Just finished working on a great little site for Catherine Savard Advertising for a supplier for Hospitality supplies. Hospitality Warehouse is just getting some fine tuning and content loaded and it'll be released to the world. It was a great project - nice having everything designed (including the Content Management System !) up-front and able to pick it up and play. The site is deceptively

All play and no work...

2005-01-15T13:27:00.000+10:00

.... makes J a poor boy. So luckily, I've been busy over the last little while. Had an interesting stint working with an advertising agency in Sydney as a surrogate Technical Director on some interesting little projects they're doing for clients - ranging from touch screen Kiosk development through to an EDM solution. It was fun, but the commute was a killer ! Also finished up the applications

What more can I squeeze into my PowerBook

2004-12-20T13:20:00.000+10:00

Well, it must be Christmas - for my PowerBook at least ! Thanks to the nice folks at the best Aussie Apple supplier - Streetwise - I got some new toys today... an extra 1GB of RAM to stick into the PowerBook.. so after prising the old 512MB stick out I've now got 1.12GB or usable RAM. Which was very handy because in the same packages I got a copy of Office:mac 2004 Professional (apart from the

I think I might be switching !

2004-10-15T20:42:00.000+10:00

After having my trusty PowerBook for 18 months, and using it mainly to test web pages in Safari I decided to set myself a little challenge.... As an ASP/SQL developer could I actually make a Mac my primary machine.well.... it was kinda painful, but... the struggle seems to have paid off.First of all, obviously, you need a way to run IIS and SQL... that has to be VirtualPC. Currently running on my

Vaio - state of the art, or brain dead

2004-09-27T20:23:00.000+10:00

Looking around for a new laptop to replace the aging Vaio C1MT (mainly because although VirtualPC works okay on the PowerBook it's just too s-l-o-w to use as a primary development machine (and there's no 30 day trial on VPC7 unlike the rest of Mac Office 2004, so we'll never know). Anyway, back to the wonderful world of Vaio and the strange mindset that is Sony (at least in Australia) First up.

Gmail - how much spam to fill 1GB !

2004-09-25T17:56:00.001+10:00

Got an invite to join GMail today. Looks a bit slicker than Hotmail and Yahoo mail.... and I like the extent to which it makes use of DHTML and JavaScript to make the interface almost PC like. It's not exactly Safari optimised but they've done a darn good job. Only negative I can see.... you can't use a hyphen in email addresses, the only punctuation allowed is a full stop (period). I've not got

Hibernation

2004-09-23T18:29:00.000+10:00

What is it about hibernation in computers that seems to cause so much grief ? For years each release of Windows has offered a promise of instant-on, suspend-and-resume, safe hibernation... but while its improved with time I've still got machines here which for no apparent reason just hang when you ask them to suspend or hibernate - and no-one seems to have an answer :( I guess I'll have to keep

Do tuning utilities really help ?

2004-09-21T18:21:00.000+10:00

Had a PC that was getting very ordinary recently. Was slow to start up, slow to shut down and tended to wander off and think about stuff when I didn't want it to. Did the usual... Defrags and deleting old stuff, but... Didn't really help. So... Decided to try one of the various tuning utilities and see how well they actually worked... But just to make sure I Ghosted the machine first (so I could

Clients are so varied

2004-09-21T14:18:00.000+10:00

I was thinking about updating the website today, and trying to say what it is we actually do. It's surprisingly hard to come up with a simple answer. Clients include a couple of TV production companies (we build and manage websites for them), a very large advertising agency (where we do technical reviews and optimise code and databases), a PR firm (where we help them with physical marketing and

Green Light for Big Brother 2005

2004-09-21T13:35:00.000+10:00

After much speculation Endemol Southern Star and Network TEN have announced there will be another season of Big Brother. And so it begins again... first the application process, then we scope the changes to the website and start building. Wonder what the plans for the house at Dreamworld will be this year... There are a whole bunches of little changes I'd like to make behind the scenes on the

blogging from the garden

2004-09-21T13:23:00.000+10:00

A wireless network, a laptop and a lovely day on the Gold Coast (I know it's spring and the latent English me can't still get used to the weather here)... it's funny sitting here writing this entry thinking just how we start to take all this for granted. We moved recently and I had to go a whole couple of weeks without DSL... I was distraught. If it hadn't been for the Three phone I had on loan

Enforced security

2004-09-20T20:04:00.000+10:00

It's Monday, so it must be time for another round of spyware, spam and virus attacks in my inbox. Ah, but what's this.... up-to-date anti-virus, a firewall, intrusion protection and even WinXP Service Pack 2.... curses, no luck here malware, just move along now.... I take as much personal responsibility for the integrity of my computers as I can. A defence in depth strategy means I probably

A9 - redefining search, or invasion of privacy

2004-09-20T19:52:00.000+10:00

I'm just waiting for the hordes of privacy nerds to go up in arms about A9 - the latest attempt by Amazon/Alexa to be taken seriously in the search market. It actually seems to be a darn good engine, quick and relevant search results and some quite neat twists on the usual Google (still my staple) or Yahoo! results listing. The nervous minority might get twitchy about the extension to 'the web