Ode to odeus Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

December 17, 2006

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 has been out for over a year now. I would say that it is quite possibly the worst piece of software to come out of Redmond for a very long time. I am amazed that they released it. I am mortified that they still haven’t fixed it. The bug that makes [...]

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Small company, complex IT

December 14, 2006

I was daydreaming today and I wondered just how many files actually make up the openxtra website. For a small site you would assume that wouldn’t be many? Well, I’ve counted and I got quite a shock. The website is made up of 4974 files. And that doesn’t count the databases. There are three of [...]

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The great domain telephone test

December 14, 2006

I wish I’d known this 3 and a half years ago When starting out in business or anything else where a website or email is important. I’ve got a bit of advice for you. I call it the domain telephone test. Get hold of a colleague or friend, ring them up and arrange for them [...]

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Samba Samba 75

December 7, 2006

More fun with GSM Modems. The Falcom Samba 75 behaves in the same way as the Samba 55, i.e. the CD doesn’t actually load the driver or the phone software so you still have to load them by hand, just like the Samba 55. Mind you the screen image of the phone that turns up [...]

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Another Gem: Sqlite

December 7, 2006

Open source software never ceases to amaze (and delight) me. I’ve found another gem, though not a network management package this time! Sqlite is an excellent embedded database. I’ve been playing around with it for the last week or so and I am really impressed with it. It’s quick, it’s simple and it just works. [...]

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Gadget Ahoy

December 6, 2006

I’ve been seeing lots of activity on the Desktop recently. Apple started it all off with their Dashboard built into OSX. All very impressive but hardly of much interest to Microsoft Windows users. Anyway. Google have brought out a similar system for Windows users called Google Desktop. It has been through a few versions now [...]

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Not the Dud but the Dude

December 1, 2006

Brendan from Sentinal was kind enough to point out a new open source network mapping tool. It looks really good and so far seems to work! It’s called The Dude, probably sounds better in an American accent, and I tried it on our test network with the following results. There are more screenshots on the [...]

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Strictly Fun Dancing with the Falcom Samba 55

November 28, 2006

Is it just me or does everyone find the Falcom Samba 55 GSM Modem a real pain to set up? Loading the driver is OK, but trying to get the Mobile Phone Tools to install is a struggle. I tried following the instructions on the CD to load the BVRP Phonetools, it seemed to an [...]

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Give me a boost Boost

November 28, 2006

I’ve not been programming full time since the end of 2002. Ah, those were the days…strong coffee and err RSI a plenty I am just about to embark on a heavy duty bit of programming, likely to last a few intense months. I’ll fill you in about the reason why in another post. Anyway, I’ve [...]

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You lucky people, yet more OSS

November 27, 2006

It is nice to see the open source network management community is still in rude health. Another network and systems monitoring tool has popped onto my horizon. Don’t know how I missed this one, it looks a goodie! Based upon the much underrated application server platform Zope, Zenoss sure does look the part. If the [...]

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