Monthly Archive for February, 2006

Windows Mobile v5 – First Thoughts

Published on February 28, 2006 in Computers and Internet. 0 Comments
I mentioned a while ago that I purchased the Windows Mobile 5 Operating System upgrade for my PDA, a Dell Axim x50v.

The upgrade was a fairly simple affair. Backup your personal information using ActiveSync, upgrade to ActiveSync v4.1, then pop the WM5 CD in to your PC and follow the prompts. After upgrading the PDA’s ROM and a few resets, the PDA was running WM5 and looked very good on it!

I’ve been using WM5 for about 6 weeks now and have found it a nice improvement over WM2003. The interface is tidier, the ability to use all memory in the PDA as one giant "block" (as opposed to juggling between "Programs" and "Storage) and the new Windows Media Player is a nice addition.

However there are some problems, some of them real pains.

Application Compatibility is one. I needed to purchase an upgrade to many of my favourite apps, and some (such as OnSpeed) are still not available for use under WM5. This is par for the course with all new O/S though and I guess will change in time.

Battery life seems to have been halved when using Wi-Fi. Whether there is some "tweak" that I’m not aware of in fixing this – I don’t know. But with Wi-Fi turned on I can literally sit and watch the Battery meter drop by the second. Where as I’d charge my PDA once every fortnight or so, I’m now having to do it once every other day.

Finally – ActiveSync crashes. A lot. I mean, every other time I cradle the PDA it needs a reset to do a sync. Initially Sync startup also seems slower.

The forums across at AximSite seem to mirror many of my problems, so it’s not just me!

So after 6 weeks I’d give WM5 a thumbs in the middle. The benefits from upgrading are obvious to me, but if you are considering it – wait until the majority of these bugs have been fixed or a workaround found.

PCI-X

Published on February 27, 2006 in Computers and Internet. 2 Comments
Had a crash course today in the PCI-X standard and it’s compatability with PCI cards.

A customer needed an external SCSI connection installed in a Dell PowerEdge 2850 server to enable it to talk to a shining new Iomega REV Autoloader. So off I trundle with a bag full of PCI SCSI cards I had in stock, expecting one or all of them to be suitable.

The PowerEdge 2850 had a PCI-X riser board. Now I’ve read enough about PCI-X to know that it’s backwards compatible with PCI cards. No problem – I thought.

Except this riser board has little keys (or notches) preventing me from inserting any of my PCI cards into any of the slots. Grrr!

Much frustration ensued, until I found a superb document at http://www.digi.com/pdf/prd_msc_pcitech.pdf explaining the different revisions of the PCI standard and that 5v PCI boards could not be used in 3.3v slots – I’d imagine they blow up nicely if you do!

What cards did I have with me? 5v cards of course.

The funniest (or most scary) bit of this story is that between us, the IT Manager at this site and I had suggested that by cutting a gap into one of our old 5v boards with a hack saw – we could make it fit. With hindsight it’s a crazy suggestion but only now do we realise that those little gaps on PCI cards are there to stop idiots pushing them into slots where they will blow up…

MSN Spaces through Firefox

Published on February 25, 2006 in Computers and Internet. 1 Comment
Have I mentioned how horrible I find using MSN Spaces through Firefox – my web-browser of choice?



You obviously don’t
get the lovely Microsoft only picture facilities with Spaces that you
get when using Internet Explorer, and the Windows Media Player playlist
facilities go out of the window too.



But what really
annoys me – is the inevitable time-outs that frequently seem to happen
when entering or editing a blog entry with Firefox, that don’t occur
with IE. I get caught out with it time and time again. I enter loads of
hyperlinks into my ramblings – hit the "Publish Entry" button – and ten
minutes later MSN Spaces loses the lot. Gaaaah!



Of course the
simple solution would be to fire up IE anytime I want to edit my blog,
or make a clipboard copy of the HTML before I hit that "Publish Entry"
button. But do I…?

Looking at the Ricky Gervais Podcasts

Published on February 25, 2006 in TV, Music, Radio and Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
I’ve been listening to the free Ricky Gervais Podcasts over at Guardian Unlimited ever since Ricky Gervais filled in for Jonathon Ross on his Saturday morning
BBC Radio Two show over Christmas. I was literally in tears with laughter listening to those shows and their ridiculous content, and the Podcasts always bring a
smile to my face as they play in the background of the office whilst I’m tinkering with a PC or two.

Apparantly,the show has now made the Guinness Book of Records for the most popular Podcast in the history of the ‘net. What’s more, because of the success
of the show, Gervais and Co. are to continue recording the show but released as paid-for content The price is about £2.50 per show if I the rumours are true.

This will be a good test of whether there is a future in charging for content available on the Internet. I know many people turn their noses up at paying even the modest sum for services on-line (after all, it’s all supposed to be free – right?) but I am happy to pay small sums for content if they show a good level of quality.

Then again, I’m the sort of person who actually makes donations to developers of freeware applications I frequently use. I figure that Iuse it, I’d love them to continue developing it for me, I’ll pay for it!

Tom Baker ‘Phoned Me

Published on February 8, 2006 in Computers and Internet. 0 Comments
Had a ‘phone call from Tom Baker today. Yes, the Tom Baker. Dr. Who and the voice of "Little Britain".

A customer had sent a text message to my office landline rather than my mobile ‘phone. It had then been routed by BT Text and delivered to me as a voice message with the dulcet tones of Mr. Baker.

Naturally, once I’d realised this was possible I was texting the office number with all sorts of phrases I always wanted Tom Baker to say to me in his distinctive voice! Go on – text "The Daleks have captured Vicky Pollard and are threatening to exterminate her" to your home number now…