Month: September 2007

Categories
technology

Vista mail client & other woes

I’m currently using Vista on one of my machines. It’s not going as well as I’d hoped. Sure, I’ve bitched on this blog before about the stupid shutdown menu but liked most other features of the OS. However, there are two things that really bug me.

  • The erratic wireless networking
  • The so-bad-its-not-true email client

We’ve both a vista laptop and a vista pc in Manifesto. We’ve noticed a range of wireless networking issues. When the vista laptop goes into powersaving mode it sometimes disconnects from the wireless network. It then fails to reconnect. We also had a wireless AP where the DHCP server wasn’t compatible with Vista. Try as we might, the machine kept returning from ipconfig /renew with a local address. Very frustrating. It’s to do with the BROADCAST flag in the DHCP discovery request. Vista assumes your AP supports it. Well many don’t and rather than degrading to a request WITHOUT this flag set in the event it can’t get a response it just assigns a local IP. Here’s what the Microsoft KB has to say.
While we’re on the subject it’s also got intermittent connectivity issues. Sometimes you get periodic connection issues. Seriously. It appears to be working, then you have to renew an address or restart and it suddenly stops working. This is down to more Microsoftian brilliance. Vista programmers decided to use an APIPA IP after waiting for only 6 seconds for a DHCP response. It’s in the Microsoft KB. This confuses the hell out of some routers.
Many more issues are catalogued here
I’m not sure if there’s a fix out for the email stuck in the outbox problem but it’s a pain in the butt to sort out. The solution is not for non-technical people and it’s amazing how easily this problem occurs. Just by using the software as intended, in fact! Then you’re into deleting hidden files and restoring folders. R found this terrifying and I don’t blame her. It’s difficult to see a broken email client (and it is broken) as progress.
The Windows Mail client is also obsolete with the introduction of live hotmail.
So now that we’ve moved to Vista I get much more phonecalls from the staff who can’t figure out why their spanking new machines aren’t working. Needless to say I’m absolutely hacked off that the latest and greatest from Microsoft has basic issues with networking and email. I know the programmers at Microsoft can and WILL do better!

Categories
technology

Free conference calling for facebook

Recently noticed that Iotum have released a free conference calling application for the facebook social network. More information can be found here
It’s currently only available to facebook users in the US and Canada but the next release will permit International conference calling to members of your social network. Throw in something like Skype Prime and you have the basis for an online consultancy. Network, refer, advise and receive payment all through the same social networking site. Potentially, the future of consulting 🙂

Categories
politics

The Little Run-down Country

To the tune of “The Ugly Duckling”


There once was a little rundown country
with fields of green and brown
And the other states of, with wealth so great said
Welcome to EC town
So we went with a swagger and a roll and a gait
and signed on the dotted line
So the poor little rundown country
a former colony with no wealth of its own
signed on the line
its future assigned
at a meeting they held in Rome.
yes a meeting, a treaty, a meeting they held in Rome.
So the poor little rundown country
finally had money to survive
The few rich made cakes
from overflowing butter lakes
and refridgerated everthing not alive.
refridgerated, yes refridgerated, we froze the bejaysus out of everything not alive.
(change in key)
All through the 70s and most of the 80s
we struggled and we scraped,
those of us with more, hid it all offshore
All through those years,
wealth was rare indeed
farmers made their livings from animals and seed
Til a proud and cunning king
who owned nearly everything
had a stunning revelation of the
power of low corporate taxation.
“Only the rich are saved
greed is good he raved
Invest in companies a chara
F*&king make it so O’Meara :)”
(change to original key and take deep breath!)
So the modestly wealth no-longer rundown country
with competitiveness statistics that enticed
Became the leading manufacturer, outside the US- in fact we were,
of everything from software to computer mice.
So our now quite wealthy little country
got the cash, we’d craved for years
When you’ve got BT’s, you’d never want for Sears
Debt seemed very cheap, twas no surprise to see
a million quid spent recklessly on a 4 bed semi-D
(long pause to reflect)
Oh there once was a little country, that refused to face the facts
The construction industry has sold half the country into a life of slavery
Hours of traffic jams, 2 jobs, no kids unplanned
and the promise of negative equity.
Yes the promise, the guarantee, the absolute irrefutable fact of impending negative equity.

Ah sure, I don’t mean it really. The government are as much if not more to blame 🙂
Apologies for the bad rhyming, I guess it’s the sentiment that counts. I’m buying a house at the moment and am totally fed up of the vested interests (aka auctioneers) telling me that

  • The market isn’t affected really, there’s a lot of scaremongers about.
  • Houses at this price level aren’t affected (lucky me!)
  • There’s a few years of boom to go
  • It’s a fair price, we’re only acting in the best interests of the seller
  • We’re taking the houses off the market, it’s always easier to sell in the new year and we’ll be putting the prices up I’m afraid.
  • There may be a dip but we’re confident of a “soft landing”

Cobblers, as they say. How is it that with supply outstripping demand by almost 2 to 1, thousands of empty houses and apartments all around the country, crazy multiples of income to debt and thousands of jobs dependent on a sector which has been showing signs of slowing down for over 18 months will there somehow be a miraculous “soft landing”. Caveat emptor.