This is just brilliant, a page that brings together all the restarts of the major operating systems. This includes several flavours of Windows and Mac complete with start-up BIOS screens and chimes.
Accessing Amazon RDS Instance from Remote phpMyAdmin
One of the great services offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) stack is Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). This is a properly managed database server that you can run alongside your existing application server instances allowing the load to be spread.
This all works well but management can be a little tedious especially if you have been used to managing your existing MySQL server through phpMyAdmin. However, do not despair as it is possible to manage RDS from phpMyAdmin running on a remote server and this post shows you how.
This article assumes that you already have both RDS and … Read the rest
3 Things Evernote is Missing
I an a keen and active user of Evernote paying for the service not just to gain access to the “pro” features but also because I want to repay Evernote for the use I derive from it.
That’s not to say that it is perfect though so here are three things that I would add to it from the normal to the whacky.
Better table support
Evernote has support for tables but it is pretty basic. Once created you cannot add new columns, change the width, add new rows anywhere but at the bottom and you cannot apply any styling … Read the rest
Magnetic Clasp for Chain
This just about squeezes into technology as a gadget (well it’s is my blog so I can cover what I like!). Recently the clasp broke on a chain and I looked at replacing it with the usual hook kind but the local jewelers wanted to charge me £20 for the privilege. I politely declined feeling that I could get it cheaper elsewhere and do it myself.
While searching on eBay I found a company selling magnetic clasps so I gave that I go and was really impressed. The clasps use rare earth magnets and are incredibly strong but easy to … Read the rest
Hat tip to Kernighan & Ritchie
My last post was all about what has changed in the world of databases since I graduated. This post is all about what hasn’t.
I graduated with a degree in Computer Science in 1988 and during my course we learn’t a number of programming languages including C. Then THE bible on the subject was by Kernighan & Ritche.
My younger son has just started his second year Computer Science degree and this year they too are learning C. When he told me this I mentioned the book and wondered if they would still use it. Yesterday was his first lecture … Read the rest
The Evolution of Databases
One of the beauties of a long career is that you get to see how things in your sector evolve over time. Being in IT is no different other than the phenomenal rate of change.
Nowhere is this more evident than in databases. When I started out in the late eighties I was a COBOL programmer working on hierarchical databases and specifically IDMSX on ICL’s VME platform. These databases worked on the basis of linked lists and you had to “walk” through a whole chain in order to get to the record you wanted.
Hierarchical databases were straightforward to learn … Read the rest
A great way to recognise and reward employees in a small business
This post could either be considered as being slightly late or very early but I thought that it was such a positive and interesting story that it was worth telling now.
A friend of mine who runs a small local business of about ten staff was telling me about their Christmas party. As they are mostly home workers and geographically spread they met in London for a meal. Before they sat down for the meal each was presented with two envelopes one containing £20 and the name of another employee and the other £100. The former was for secret Santa … Read the rest
What I learnt from my 2013 side project
In 2013 I worked on a side project, The Chubby Challenge, which I continue to develop and move forward. This was built in response to another goal of mine – to lose some weight. I have found in the past that like so many other things in life it is far easier to reach a goal if you are working toward it with others. So the idea is that you challenge others to see who can lose the most weight over a given period.
The system works well and was a great opportunity for me to learn a whole … Read the rest
Microsoft Accelerator – Demo Day Video
Spot me in this video with my usual wide grin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-fDt8XiRnw… Read the rest
The Easiest T&Cs to Accept
So I signed up for a trial of Adobe’s eSignature service Echosign today and was initially presented with the following screen asking me to accept their terms and conditions. I assume that the huge white space is where they were supposed to have been displayed. So I went right on and accepted.
The question now is where do I stand legally as I accepted a blank set of T&Cs can I be bound by the ones Adobe failed to display?
Discuss.
… Read the rest