theo: Computers and Internet

Microsoft Sphere

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:55:37 GMT

This feels like it really should be a joke, but allegedly it's real.

Microsoft Sphere currently includes a "send to dark side" feature, and obligatory Pong game! Who comes up with this stuff, and how do I get to work there?! Sounds like a place where much jollity occurs coming up with ideas.

Full article: Microsoft's Sphere display in action

OCX wrappers for .Net - The joy of AxInterop

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:01:36 GMT

Another strange one that we've just come across which seems to have no useful online help about is why certain Property definitions are marked as ReadOnly when you drop an OCX into .Net...

Read the full OCX wrappers for .Net - The joy of AxInterop entry on theogray.com/blog.

BBC Owl

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:35:53 GMT

My Friday afternoon has just been made great - just spotted the BBC's Internet Blog using the Owl logo that took minutes to load from tape before making comedy beeping noises in the good ol' BBC Model B days.

ISPs responsible for copyright

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:09:49 GMT

What is actually going on behind all the smoke and mirrors of these "new" things the government is trying to force on the country?

One minute they're "consulting" on the idea, the next we're told that ISPs must do something to snoop on their customers, or have legislation forced on them, and that this is coming regardless of what anyone says during the consultation.

ID cards suddenly spring back to life with a new spin put on them, but with no change to the idea of storing people's personal data and biometric information in a system that "only the privileged will be able to access", and we're told that they are now definately happening regardless of what anyone thinks; last thing I heard nothing concrete had been decided about all of the additional data. A couple of days before, articles about NPfIT data being purposefully made available to trained receptionists just because no one else could be bothered to do an admin job, even tho the government promised that this would not happen, don't seem to even make it to BBC news.

And then there's all the other mini stories of the past few months along similar lines, but seemingly unconnected at the time.

What is the government really aiming for with all this?

Exchange 2007 OWA on Windows Server 2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:06:19 GMT

How to spend a few hours fighting with a new server. Thought I'd post this to help out any other poor soul that's stuck with the same problem.

The Setup
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running on Windows Server 2008, and having users trying to run Outlook Web Access (OWA).

The Problem
Only users that are members of the Administrators group can connect to OWA successfully.

The Resolution
Ensure that all users that need to use OWA are at least members of the Builtin\Users group.

Sounds simple right! Well for some reason, Microsoft have kindly changed the default permissions on the %windir% directory on Server 2008 so that "Authenticated Users" no longer have Read access as they used to on Server 2003. This means that anyone not in any of the other groups that has access by default can no longer read the ASP.Net ISAPI filters; so when the user logs in, IIS responds with a 401.3 to say Unauthorized: Access is denied due to an ACL. "Domain Users" do not have any permissions on the directory either, so newly created users in an AD domain will not have access by default (if OWA is running on a domain controller; hopefully they'll get this right when SBS 2008 finally comes out later in the year).

Geeky Facebook fun

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:21:42 GMT

OK, so I got bored today and added an innocent line into Someone's hosts file...
195.60.3.137 www.facebook.com

Which very innocently (and quietly) displays Facebook...

Watching Someone's face as they tried to get round it rather than go cold-turkey was immensly funny.

I know I'm gonna pay for this at some point, but it was worth it!

Long live the mac mini

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:55:50 GMT

I didn't exactly become a mac fixer overnight (it's been 10 years since I last did anything with Linux and fiddling was just too hard), but after a full reinstall everything works again.

RIP mini mac

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:12:36 GMT

Startup Mac

Switch Off
GOTO 10

Now to learn the ways of the mac fixer...

Microsoft Database Query Engines and Literals

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 10:48:31 GMT

OK, so not the most glamorous of titles for a post, but hopefully it covers the main point...

There's something up with Microsoft's database engines, and I can't easily find anything on Google about it so thought I'd stick a post together and see if anyone else has found the same problem. I have so far tried this against SQL Server 2000, Access 2003 and Access 2007, and all give the same result, which I can only guess is down to laziness in the query engine?

The idea: Add a literal string field to a resultset, based on the setting of a boolean flag in the data....

The setup:

CREATE TABLE [TABLE1] ( [Description] [nvarchar] (255) NULL , [Flag] [bit] NOT NULL )

CREATE VIEW Q_FLAGSET AS SELECT Description, 'Extra Info to display, ONLY when flag set' AS Result FROM TABLE1 WHERE (Flag <> 0)

CREATE VIEW Q_FLAG_RESULT AS SELECT TABLE1.*, Q_FLAGSET.Result FROM TABLE1 LEFT OUTER JOIN Q_FLAGSET ON TABLE1.Description = Q_FLAGSET.Description

INSERT INTO TABLE1 ([Description],[Flag]) VALUES ('Flag Is Set',1) INSERT INTO TABLE1 ([Description],[Flag]) VALUES ('Flag Is Not Set',0)

The Expected result from Q_FLAG_RESULT:

[Description], [Flag], [Result] 'Flag Is Set', 1, 'Extra Info to display, ONLY when flag set' 'Flag Is Not Set', 0, <NULL>

The Actual result from Q_FLAG_RESULT:

[Description], [Flag], [Result] 'Flag Is Set', 1, 'Extra Info to display, ONLY when flag set' 'Flag Is Not Set', 0, 'Extra Info to display, ONLY when flag set'

If you also include Q_FLAGSET.Description AS FlagSetDescription as part of the returned fields of Q_FLAG_RESULT, that field returns <NULL> as expected, which leads me to the workaround I have ended up using...

I added in a third query which returns the string liternal, so that Q_FLAGSET appears (to the Query Engine) to be returning data from a field, i.e.

CREATE Q_RETURN_LITERAL AS SELECT DISTINCT TABLE1.Flag, 'Extra Info to display, ONLY when flag set' AS Result FROM TABLE1 WHERE (Flag<>0)

CREATE Q_FLAGSET AS SELECT TABLE1.Description, Q_RETURN_LITERAL.Result FROM TABLE1 INNER JOIN Q_RETURN_LITERAL ON TABLE1.Flag = Q_RETURN_LITERAL.Flag WHERE (TABLE1.Flag<>0)

Soooo.... am I crazy to think the first setup should have worked? Is this "feature" of MS SQL Server and MS Access documented anywhere? I guess I'll just add it to the pile of wtf and get on with using the workaround.

Microsoft Gets F1 ECU Contract

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:26:03 GMT

Microsoft have been granted the exclusive contract to be the sole supplier of ECUs for all Formula 1 teams from 2008 to 2010.

The move to a single standardized ECUs (Electronic Control Units, responsible for a car's engine management) is part of the FIA's radical cost-saving package announced earlier this year for introduction in '08.

Should be interesting! I guess I could roll out all the old jokes, but you're thinking 'em anyways so I'll shut up and leave you with the full press release: World Motor Sport Council... and a cute pic to click which is much more interesting!

Just wondering....

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:26:13 GMT

With the EU planning to fine Microsoft $2.5m a day backdated until December 2005... what would actually happen if Microsoft refused to pay?

And if they do pay... what is that money going to be used for?

Okopipi

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 09:10:53 GMT

Great news for Blue Frog fans, and hopefully for everyone who wants to stop spam without resorting to useless ideas like blacklists.

Having seen Blue Frog give up the fight, a new open-source project called Okopipi (the local name for the South American Blue Poison Dart Frog) has been started. It will be based at least in part on Blue Frog's code, but will use a "peer-to-peer model with hidden decentralized servers" to help against DoS attacks.

Mark Joseph Edwards' comment about it sent a tingle down my spine:
"Now just for a second, while keeping in mind that Windows is used on roughly 80 percent of all desktops around the world, imagine that Okopipi were distributed with every copy of Windows. Imagine the impact that those millions of users could have on stamping out spam. Imagine Microsoft philanthropically backing the Okopipi project. Wow, what a great dream."

What a great world that would be for email!

Wanadoo broadband for £14.99?

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 12:48:36 GMT

I'm suprised it's taking the larger companies so long to drop their prices, but I was intrigued again to see one of them offering a £14.99 package. This time it was Wanadoo, who have matched Force 9's offering in terms of speed and bandwidth in the past, but still charged £17.99 for the privilege.

But it seems things are finally starting to change. Wanadoo's offering is now for up to 8MB connection (depending on your BT exchange) with a 2GB limit, all for the princely sum of £17.99 (£14.99 for the first six months). I'm guessing this means we're about to see a change across the market as this is four times the speed and twice the bandwidth compared to last year... fingers crossed...

Update: Force 9 now have a note saying that they will automatically upgrade people to 4MB and 8MB by April 2006 if you're on their PAYG package, but there is still a 1GB limit currently included in the standard £14.99 price.

Alternatively F9 also offer an unlimited package with up to 2MB bandwidth for the same £14.99 price.

Happy New Year to one & all!

Moving from BlogSpot to your own domain

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 20:34:51 GMT

Having decided to move the Eaton Bray news blog away from BlogSpot, the problem then was what to do with the old site in terms of redirecting the user, and search engines, to the new content. With 70-odd articles already added and indexed it seemed worth looking into.

A hunt around on google didn't give me much joy in doing anything except a <META http-equiv="REFRESH"... on every page to redirect to the root of the new site. I wanted more than that!

After playing with various ideas, I managed to work out how to also automatically redirect the Archive pages using the <$BlogPageTitle$> tag with some server side script (available below) to handle it under the new domain. So with these two parts I then had the following added into <head>:

<ArchivePage><META http-equiv="REFRESH" content="1;url=http://www.eaton- bray.co.uk/news/redir.asp? t=<$BlogPageTitle$>"></ArchivePage> <MainPage><META http-equiv="REFRESH" content="1;url=http://www.eaton- bray.co.uk/news/"></MainPage>

This was a good start, but I wanted to repoint the Item Pages automatically as well. Unfortunately, as far as I can see, there is no ability to do this, as you can only use the <$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$> tag within a <Blogger> tag, which in turn is only available within the <body>. So that's pretty much where the story ends, although at least to help users along I was able to add a redirect link for them to click if they want to:

<a href="http://www.eaton-bray.co.uk/news/ redir.asp?i=<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>"> <$BlogItemTitle$></a>.

For an example of that one in action, see Cheers! Villagers roll out the barrel. If anyone can work out how to get the item pages to automatically redirect (short of passing the title on again and doing a lookup to work out the new version to go to!) I'd be very happy to hear more ideas.

Finally, if you want the redir.asp script, you can find the main code here: download redir.asp source

New St Marys Village Carnival website

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 11:11:56 GMT

The new St Mary's Village Carnival website is now available for all to see! This has been an ongoing project for the last few months, and it's great to finally have it all done and available publicly for all to play with.

As part of the update, there's a new photo slide show for every Carnival since 2000 and a new Submit Content link in the bottom right hand corner of most pages. This link allows anyone with pictures or memories from any of the St Mary's Church fetes, or St Mary's Village Carnivals, to send them through to us very easily.

Take a look around the new site, and let me know what you think.

Tiscali Broadband for £14.99?

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 10:17:57 GMT

I noticed with interest that Tiscali Broadband have now decided to match the price of broadband providers such Force 9 with a £14.99 "Unlimited" package. I wonder if BT Broadband Basic will follow siut anytime soon?

This all sounds very nice until you read the small print, and you actually find that they are still only offering this with 1MB speed, whereas their close competitors like Force 9 are offering "Unlimited" broadband with a 2MB connection for the same £14.99.

FlashVars and IE/Mac

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:40:16 GMT

For the past few months I've been trying to insert Flash into web pages using valid XHTML which has been relatively easy, until I started using FlashVars to pass data in.

The standard XHTML is:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="movie.swf" width="xxx" height="yyy"> <param name="movie" value="movie.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="backgroundColour" /> </object>

So then comes the fun - using FlashVars to pass variables in, which as far as I was aware was a case of;

adding a query string to the value parameter of the <param name="movie"...>, and
adding the extra <param name="FlashVars" value="variables" />

Great, works in all browsers - IE/Win, FF/Win, Safari/Mac, FF/Mac... until you try it on IE/Mac and then the variables are not passed in... boooo!

Finally, figured that what is needed is the addition of a query string to the data parameter of the <OBJECT> tag, so in the end, we get;

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="movie.swf?variables" width="xxx" height="yyy"> <param name="movie" value="movie.swf?variables" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="variables" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="backgroundColour" /> </object>

And there we have it, suddenly IE/Mac springs into life and does as it's told!

I'm sure this is well documented somewhere, but I just hadn't got round to finding that documentation wherever it might live.

It's also a real pain having to duplicate these variables three times just so that all combinations of browsers work. By the looks of it, IE/Mac is the only one that uses the query string on the data parameter; then IE/Win uses FlashVars, and FF uses the query string on the <PARAM name="movie"...> tag (not sure which one Safari picks up on!)

Hopefully now that Microsoft aren't devloping IE/Mac anymore it will go out of use as people upgrade to a supported browser, but unfortunately the site this was being developed for could be accessed by various people that are still using IE/Mac as their main browser so the work had to be put in.

BT Broadband Basic Review - Update 2

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:01:31 GMT

Following on from my original Review of BT Broadband Basic, and my update in May, BT have seen the error of their ways and begun to allow users to send and receive email via Outlook Express or their email client of choice as part of their Broadband Basic package.

In addition they have given you the ability to use your own From address if you already have an email account; this still isn't as simple to set up as other ISPs as you do need to authenticate with their SMTP mail server using a BT Yahoo! email account, but it's much better than it was.

So if you're stuck with the BT Broadband Basic package, at least you'll be able to use it for the basics, but it's still worth looking into moving as soon as your 12 months are up, to both save money, and get yourself a less restrictive setup - Force 9 are currently charging £14.99 for exactly the same limits (i.e. 2MB bandwidth and 1GB per month usage) as the BT Broadband Basic £17.99 package.

Classic FM feed change

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:58:56 GMT

It seems that mms://audio2.musicradio.com/classicfm no longer works on its own in Window Media Player (WMP).

Luckily it is still possible to get everything working with the addition of a brief welcome now, using the following URL in WMP: http://audio.musicradio.com/Playlist.asx?show=5.

Infrared Mischief

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:03:36 GMT

Scott Pinzon gives some insights into security issues that he picked up at Adam Lauri's Black Hat Training class.

The first write-up was based on Wireless-LAN and firewall issues.

The second about the fun you can have with Infrared brought a smile to my face, remembering back to the days of those IR programmable Casio watches - back then most people just used them to annoy people watching TV, making it spookily switch off or change channel.

Lauri explained how someone that knows what they're doing, sitting in a hotel room, can use IR to;

Shift all the billing for mini-bar and pay-per-view movies from his room, to another guest's room
Set the system so no one at the hotel can receive any TV except pornographic channels
Wake up the entire hotel at 4:30 a.m. by making every room's television turn on
Spy on other hotel guests' Internet activities when they use the television's cable connection to access the Web or send e-mails
Find the names of all guests staying at a hotel and learn what they viewed, ate, where they called, and how long they stayed

For the full post, see I just made you pay my mini-bar bill (and I was really thirsty).

Classic FM in Windows Media Player

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:56:29 GMT

For those people who would rather just start up Windows Media Player and hit play than hunt around for the web page player for Classic FM, just open the following URL in Media Player from a shortcut or playlist or whatever else you fancy: http://audio.musicradio.com/Playlist.asx?show=5

UPDATE: URL changed from mms://audio2.musicradio.com/classicfm which is still correct in theory, but no longer works on its own; you now have to listen to the brief welcome each time the feed is played using the new URL :-/

Scrollbars as Sculpture?!

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 12:38:11 GMT

Jan Robert Leegte's 'Scrollbars' is a sculptural installation which references the architecture of software.

See http://www.druh.co.uk/medialounge/exhibitions.html. (via OK/Cancel)

No entries for June?

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 18:55:48 GMT

People have been asking why there are no entries for June, and unfortunately I just haven't had any time to keep my own sites up to date over the past month. It all started in early June with moving house and being without and internet connection for ten whole days(!), This was soon followed by running off to Evora for a wonderful time at Chris & Leslie's wedding, and finally finishing off yesterday with the village Carnival!.

Hopefully usual service can begin to resume now, with a completly new look expected very soon for the Carnival site (once it has been updated with all of this year's great pictures). I'll also be sorting out Chris & Leslie's wedding photos for their website and hoping that everyone starts sending their ones over very soon (for those of you who need it, email me for my new address).

I've also been sent some interesting news from a number of people regarding my Review of BT Broadband Basic, so I will be updating that very soon as well.

BT Broadband Basic Review update

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 21:19:09 GMT

My article reviewing BT Broadband Basic is still getting plenty of hits, so I presume that this is a problem affecting a lot of people. It would be great if more people could leave feedback about their experiences too, and share any other problems that come with using this ADSL package.

One other problem that has come up recently with the use of BT Broadband Basic is that it seems to have big problems downloading content from the Sainsburys To You website. Having seen the problem in action on various computers, I have tried the same web pages connected through different ISPs to prove that the problem only occurred on BT. In theory this should be another "technical reason" to move away from BT and onto another provider.

Bill Hill and OSPREY

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 21:09:09 GMT

Finally got round to watching the Bill Hill - A Hike Around Microsoft's Forests video on Channel 9 today. A lot of fun, and I'm also enjoying getting into his paper "The Magic of Reading" - OSPREY.

I've been interested in the idea of making content as readable on screen as it is in books for a long time, and now that things are really progressing with OSPREY and other technologies, I'm looking forward to not printing articles out anymore, and maybe buying myself a Tablet PC; I just wish I had the time to read more about these and other UI ideas.

Finally... perspective about Google Autolink

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 12:12:29 GMT

I've been waiting for something like this ever since the minor furore started about Google's new AutoLink toolbar feature.

Personally I'm not that thrilled about the thought of Google basically adding content that we have no control over; but Kottke's entry has given me a much better perspective on the whole issue.

It is really down to trust of a third party to do the right thing, in this case Google; I guess all any of us can do is wait and see.

Review of BT Broadband Basic

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:15:28 GMT

I have recently been helping a number of people upgrade from dial-up to broadband in the local area. Some of these have asked me for recommendations, and those upgrades have gone very smoothly; unfortunately one had registered with BT before ADSL was enabled at their exchange and was drawn into pre-ordering their BT Broadband Basic package.

The experiences so far with trying to get BT Broadband Basic working for this person have not been good, which has prompted me to write this review of the package so that hopefully other people are not drawn into the same trap.

BT Broadband Basic has been around since March 2004 from what I can tell, and seems to be BT trying to cut as many corners as possible to offer the most basic ISP package I have ever seen. They then feel it is right to charge the same as other providers who offer much more.

BT Broadband Basic Offering...

The offering seems to be:

Access to the internet for browsing the web

And that's it!

(Well, that was it, but things have now changed a little)

So What's The Problem?

On the surface of it, this may be fine for someone who has never used the internet before, or someone who only has a Hotmail or other browser-based email account.

The problem is that the people I am upgrading have all been using the internet for a few years through dial-up, and so have been using Outlook Express for their email, allowing them to write email offline and only connect to browse the web and actually send/receive email. In this way they don't tie up their phone line unnecessarily, and for those on pay-as-you-go, they keep their costs down.

BT Broadband Basic offers no outbound email server. Yes, that's right, BT Broadband Basic does not allow you to send email via an outbound SMTP server; something I at least had taken for granted with all ISPs that I've ever used. - Luckily this has now changed.

But Surely BT Broadband Basic Is Cheaper?

No!

BT Broadband Basic costs the same as much fuller packages from companies like Wanadoo, with ISPs like Force9 giving you much more for even less. At the time of writing, BT Broadband Basic costs £17.99pcm (for a 512K connection), as does Wanadoo (for a 2MB connection), with Force9 costing just £14.99pcm (for a 2MB connection, now with free modem and setup).

So How Does a BT Broadband Basic Customer Send Email?

The BT Broadband Basic website basically says you have two options - either use a web based email service to send email, such as BT Yahoo!, or pay an extra £1.50pcm to have access to an outbound SMTP server (now free, but you do still need a BT Yahoo! email account to use the BT SMTP server). So for the same service as Force9 are offering (at 4x the speed), you have to pay £4.50 extra every month. To get a similar package to Force9, you need to buy BT Broadband at £24.99pcm - £10 more every month!

Is There Any Way Around It?

Simply, don't signup to BT Broadband Basic, but if it's already too late, there are a number of options to try.

Set mail.btopenworld.com as your outbound mail server anyway. One thing I have found is that sometimes, this mail server lets you send mail anyway. This may be down to the IP address you receive when connecting to broadband; once outbound email is working, it seems to stay working until you disconnect.
A less annoying option, find a free email host that allows you to send outbound email even when connected through another ISP (most email packages like Outlook Express allow you to set outbound server authentication options).
Explain to BT that the lack of outbound email server is a very strong technical reason to move to another provider - ask them for your MAC code and talk to a new provider about transferring your broadband connection to them. BT will not allow you to get out of your contract within 12 months unless you have a good "technical reason" why they should let you go.

This last option is probably the best if you can convince BT about this "technical reason" for dumping BT Broadband Basic and moving to another provider.

Important: If you do this, make sure you don't just try and cancel BT Broadband Basic and then signup with a new provider as you will be without broadband for a few days. Make sure you get your MAC code which will allow you to transfer your billing to another provider, and so not interrupting your broadband service for more than a couple of hours while the transfer happens.

References

Service Migration - A good FAQ about the process of service migration, and what a MAC code is. This is Force9's explanation of it, but could equally be applied to your favourite ISP in most cases.
BT Broadband Services - Various information about Broadband

Comments and Feedback

As I said, this review was written through my own not-so-good experiences with setting up BT Broadband Basic. I would be very interested to hear other peoples experiences and workarounds, so please feel free to let me know using the comments here.

Updates

(23-April-05) BT Broadband Basic Review Update
(28-May-05) Force9 price now includes free modem and setup
(21-August-05) BT Broadand Basic now with SMTP server

TX Text Control - Mixing Portrait and Landscape

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 15:28:25 GMT

Anyone who uses TX Text Control, please come and vote at the Mixing Portrait and Landscape poll.

Making Adobe Reader Load Faster

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 20:38:55 GMT

Great post by Jonathan Hardwick: How to make Adobe Reader 7.0 load faster. Having lived with v6 for the last year, installing v7 and using these tips, it just appears; immediately; even after a reboot!

A Happy Christmas to one & all.