Project management – a beautiful thing!

July 18, 2008 | Comment

I was sent this today and thought that it deserved a wider audience as it is all so true…

  1. It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.
  2. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it.
  3. You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
  4. At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.
  5. The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the situatee.
  6. A problem shared is
… Read the rest

Windows Virtualisation with Sun VirtualBox

July 4, 2008 | Comment

imageVirtualisation has become all the rage recently. Running multiple instances of a system on a single piece of hardware is a very compelling proposition as everyone try’s to get more out of their investments. While virtualisation is typically applied to server environments there is no reason why it cannot be used on a suitably specified desktop PC or laptop.

In the past I have tried out virtualisation using with Microsoft’s VirtualPC or VMWare’s offering but I wanted to give VirtualBox, principally because it is open source and I knew that it was available for Mac so if I move … Read the rest

Firefox Through a Prism

June 30, 2008 | Comment

image I have stated previously (here and here) that the main focus for my attention on my desktop and laptop these days is the browser as I have more and more of my key applications (email, calendar, documents etc.) in the cloud. This is all well and good but this has thrown up a number of issues namely: 15 years of working with Windows means I constantly press Alt-tab to switch applications only to find, now, that I didn’t want to do that as I wanted to remain in the browser; there is a large amount of wasted space … Read the rest

about:config

June 27, 2008 | Comment

image

The above screenshot is from Firefox 3 and is displayed when you go to the about:config configuration page. I like to see a bit of humour in development. This one has different messages too so you can enjoy time and time again and never get tired!… Read the rest

Xobni (L) LinkedIn

June 26, 2008 | Comment

image There has been a new update to the Outlook companion Xobni that adds information from LinkedIn. It can now import pictures from the business networking site and also provides (brief) details on the selected individual, typically their title and company. This clearly only works where the email address that they have corresponded with you matches the one recorded in LinkedIn, nevertheless it is still a useful addition.

The Xobni blog also suggests that future updates will provide further integration between the two services when you are logged in but stops short of saying what this will provide.… Read the rest

McGuider Update

June 7, 2008 | Comment

McGuiderSince my original post on the McGuider sat nav software for mobile devices I have had more of a chance to put it through its paces and I have to say that the results have been extremely disappointing.

I have now used it for about four routes that I do often and in half of those the McGuider route took me down a closed road. You might think that this is a problem with the maps but these roads haven’t been passable in years – in one case for 20 plus years.

I also did a comparison between the route … Read the rest

The first 10 applications you install

June 6, 2008 | Comment

There’s a couple of these surveys kicking around at the moment (here and here) to find out what are the first ten applications that you install on your mobile. Ever one to jump on the bandwagon here I present my top 10 for Nokia S60 3rd Edition:

  1. emoze – Free push email
  2. Handy Calendar – Replacement calendar with better interface
  3. Handy Safe – Secure password store
  4. Handy profile – More intelligent profiles, such as automatically switching to meeting mode when you have a diary entry marked as such
  5. Autolock – Automatically lock the keyboard after a set period
… Read the rest

McGuider Navigation Software on a Nokia N73

June 5, 2008 | 2 comments

Screenshot0011For a while now I have been using TomTom navigation software on my Pocket PC but have always wanted to reduce the number of devices I carry and wanted to get some GPS software on my phone. So when I saw the McGuider navigation software advertised on an eXpansys emailer this week along with a £10 discount I couldn’t resist.

When it arrived came the first shock. You get an mini-SD card containing the software and NOTHING else. No nice box, no manual, no quick start or installation guide, nothing. I guess this is how you keep the costs down. … Read the rest

How Do You Solve a Problem Like My PC?

June 1, 2008 | 1 comment

Under normal circumstances I feel pretty well equipped to sort out most problems with a PC whether they are hardware or software related, however, this latest one has got me stumped. For the last couple of days the machine has started turning itself off without any warning whatsoever – no error message, no blue screen, just no power.  It is this sort of problem that is hardest to resolve – where do you start to look?

I have uninstalled anything I added recently but that doesn’t seem to be it.

I have checked the event logs but there is nothing … Read the rest