Monthly Archives: April 2007

Vista: Still more questions than answers…

On the Sony laptops I’ve recently been struggling with is a Control Panel extension named “Software Updates”, which is generated by ‘\Windows\System32\ISUSPM.cpl‘. On one system (which I’ve done nothing with) this launches an application called “Software Manager” from, inauspiciously, Macrovision Europe Ltd (boo! hiss!). On the other machine, which I’ve done very little to, clicking this item from the Control Panel for the first time asked me whether the panel worked, or needed elevated privileges. How am I supposed to know? – I’m running it for the first time!

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By • Technology • 1

Sony VAIO VGN-N29VN & Vista Business edition

Today, two brand new Sony VAIO N29 business laptops running the Business edition of Vista. Herein is chronicled the sad events which followed…

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By • Technology, Thoughts • 0

Happy 25th birthday to the ZX Spectrum!

Happy 25th birthday to the ZX Spectrum – more on slashdot.

By • Technology • 0

Speed Demon

Several people had complained in the past that this site is a little slow… well, what did you expect from a passively-cool 300MHz MIPS processor?!

But, I implemented some of the great tips from this blog – notably installing the wp-cache plugin for WordPress, enabling caching in MySQL, and disabling some additional PHP options (although I doubt this last thing has any significant impact).

I dunno – perhaps it’s the Emperor’s New Clothes, but it feels faster to me!

By • Internet • 0

Vista design mis-features

Windows Vista? Microsoft Windows Vista? Microsoft Vista? What is this operating system’s name? In any case, it still has may niggly or broken features… I’ve noticed several strange behaviors of Vista since installing it to dual-boot on my MacBook Pro.

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By • Rants, Technology • 4

Wii Opera Browser released this morning!!

I just thought I’d mention it 😉

The new broswer requires a System Update, then an Application Update of the browser from the Shopping Channel.

The actual browser is (now) a joy to use – the (auto) scaling and scrolling work perfectly, there are no black borders, and the control bar can either auto-hide and be manually toggled. The entire UI is much-streamlined too.

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By • Computer Games, Thoughts • 0

One step forwards, two steps back – hardware support for Linux

We’ve recently been looking at buying a new low-cost server for running demos from. To reduce costs, we went for a standard consumer motherboard, and the system will, naturally, be running Linux.

I’ve become fairly disillusioned with the PCs in general (get a Mac!) and so I’ve not been keeping up to date with the latest developments in the PC world… what I found shocked me.

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By • Technology • 2

“Now, I am become Solaris, the destroyer of efficient coding”

A couple of weeks ago I attended the OpenSolaris stream of the Sun Microsystems’ “Tech Days 2007” developers conference in London (actually in a church at Westminster, just across from the houses of commons. In fact, whilst I was there I saw David Blunket being taken for a walk by his minder. His dog was galavanting around freely. This was also when the protesters were gathered outside trying to influence the vote over whether Britain should renew her Trident Missile system – and what a surprising eloquent, friendly, and outgoing group of people they were).

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By • Technology, Thoughts • 0