Quote of the Day: Bankers

On a recent radio program discussion about the Irish consumer association
trying to get www.ifsra.ie to ban the introduction of 120% mortgages.

"A banker is a person who will give you an umbrella when it is sunny, then
ask for it back when it starts raining..."

start.com

I recently found out about start.com from a channel9.msdn.com video. Quite impressive for only 3 peoples work in the MSN team.

Its a web page that uses AJAX to fetch RSS feeds and MSN searches and display them in DIVs without refreshes or page jumps. The effect provides better usability.

You can pin any of the feeds to your "homepage" to make up a Sharepoint/DotNetNuke like module structure on the page. It works in Firefox too though.

Impressive, I'm off to have a look at the code in those .js files...

Two Computer Synchronization

Like a lot of people, I have a desktop at home and another system (a notebook) which I take with me on contract sites. There is also another PC usually provided for me by the company I am working for at any one time. I like my Thinkpad notebook, and I take it with me nearly everywhere, but I use my home setup for backing up my data (over WiFi network) and burning the backups to DVD-ROMs. The problem is, that nothing about today's Windows computers makes dual-PC work easy.

That's not to say it can't be done. Over the past year, I've experimented with several tools that make the two-PC setup a workable option, to the point that I don't have to think about it much anymore -- it just works. At least for now. Here's what I've learned along the way.

My notebook holds all of my work and personal files. Previously, when I wanted to work on my desktop, I would copy and synchronise all of my files between the two PCs. Then when I was done working, I'd synchronise again so that the notebook had my latest work on it. Add the 3rd machine in work into the equation and it’s a even bigger headache.

This was time-consuming and basically a real drag. But I've since discovered a live synchronisation utility called FolderShare that keeps the data files on my three computers in perfect sync'ed state (there's also a solid competitor, BeInSync).

Foldershare is free with some conditions (only 1 file can be transferred at a time and max 2 shared folders with 500 files). The upgrade is an annual subscription of approx €60

Now, every time I create or change a file on one computer, the changes are automatically sent over the Internet to the other PC. It uses encrypted Peer to Peer (P2P) technology to do this. It also works through the firewalls and proxy's encountered in both work and home environments using uPnP.

There is a web interface that allows remote access to each machine but I have not tried this out yet.

Some Developer and RSS Resources

Channel9.msdn.com

Has some good video interviews with developers and team leaders trying to
describe their projects inside Microsoft.

Dotnetrocks.com

Interviews available in MP3 format (with RSS feed for PodCasting readers)
which are geeky but light listening.

RSS Readers

www.RSSBandit.com
www.iPodder.org
omea reader (v2 has PodCasting RSS support)

An Post Rates Calculator

Found this calculator buried in the AnPost site which shows charges for
different weight packages to various countries.

<a href="http://www.anpost.ie/common/calc/rates_calculator.htm">Postage
Rates</a>

No latest Windows Mobile support (Magneto) for JAM from imate

I sent a request to i-mate support asking if they are going to release a ROM for the JAM to upgrade the operating system to the latest version.

I thought they would do this because they are good at releasing ROMs with patches and fixes for the JAM but it looks like they will not be releasing a upgrade and instead use the new OS to drive sales of their newer devices. Pity.

Here is the transcript of my conversation...

___________________________


You're now talking to Amal from 'Device Support' The topic is : Windows Mobile 5.0 support for JAM


Amal> Welcome to club i-mate support. My name is Amal, how can I help you today?
Amal> Hi Thwere ,,,
Amal> how may i help you?
Craig> Hi Amal
Amal> Hi Craig,
Craig> I was wondering if there will be a new ROM released for the JAM that supports the new Pocket PC OS, Windows Mobile 5.0 which Microsoft recently released
Amal> The launch of Microsoft® Windows Mobile 5.0 is great news for the i-mateT community as this more extensible platform will allow us to provide innovative new products more e asily than ever before and further enhance the i-mateT customer-centric experience.
Craig> I would expect your new devices to use it ok, but will the JAM also support it, perhaps by releasing a new upgradable ROM build
Amal> We need several months to add combine additional elements, such as the radio and Bluetooth hardware and software, we require to produce fully integrated PDA's and Smartphones. We will be launching some exciting new products that run on Windows Mobile 5.0 later in the year. We have made an assessment of our current devices and it is unlikely that current products will run Windows Mobile 5.0.

Best Out of Office Auto Replies

Best Out of Office Auto Replies

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to
get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the
office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.

3. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me
until I return from holiday on 4 April. Please be patient and your mail will
be deleted in the order it was received.

4. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged £5.99 for
the first ten words and £1.99 for each additional word in your message.

5. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is
unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending
again.'(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many
in-duh-viduals did this over and over).

6. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system..
You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in
approximately 19 weeks.

7. I've run away to join a different circus.

Ryder Cup Kildare 2006 House Rental web site

Golfs Ryder Cup is in the k club in Straffan, County Kildare in 2006. This site is now Live that offers accommodation for rental for the duration of the event

Ryder Cup House Rental

AllOfMP3.com cheap music with no DRM

Many articles written [1], [2] [3] about the legality (loophole-assisted at least) - of www.allofmp3.com

Download typical CD, high quality mp3 320kbps for about €2.20...

There is an iTunes like "Explorer" application that downloads the catalog from the site and allows direct downloads of entire albums and a much nicer interface to control the download process than using the site directly.

All files come down completely Digital Rights Management (DRM) free, so you can copy, burn, backup to your hearts content.

The only problem encountered was adding cash to the "my account" balance using a MasterCard. It returns a payment error. Visa card worked fine though.

[1] http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3info.htm
[2] http://techlawadvisor.com/blog/2004/04/is-allofmp3com-legal.html
[3] http://www.thetechguide.com/reviews/allofmp3/

.Net Provider Intro

Here is a good introduction to the .Net Provider Model which any .Net Developer can expect to see a lot of in .Net 2.0 and VS.Net 2005 due for release on November 7th 2005

Good Clips

Flash animation of life
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=ilovedeath_izolita

Good animated short about greed...
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=balance

Flash based batman game
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=batman44

Movie Clips

Soccer Skills
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=fussball

Jap Coke Ad
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=coke_wow_commercial71

Coats Magic act
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=coats

All these from the Full top 10
http://www.putfile.com/top10.php