Tony Sutton’s Blog!

I’ve been using Navizon for a while - it’s a pretty good program where it display your location on a map and help you find stuff around you. However it’s pretty new, so they are lacking data.

And that’s where I come into this - using my phone (MDA Vario III), I install the Navizon software on my phone and loaded it up. It hooked up my WiFi and GPS. And it collect all mobile phone’s cells and WiFi point (secure or unsecure) and when I’m done with it, I upload the data to Navizon server.

They will generate a map of where the mobile mast are and any nearest available WiFi point. This will be useful for other people who doesn’t have GPS but using GPRS to search for the nearest stuff (i.e. pub)

Copied & pasted from their website - “Navizon is a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from Wi-Fi access points and Cellular towers to help the users find their way in most major metropolitan areas worldwide.”

And this is why I’m posting in here… got a mobile phone? Have access to WiFi (i.e. built in on your phone)? And have access to GPS (built in on your phone or bluetooth GPS) ? And do you want to earn some rewards?

If so, you can help! Sign up here, download the software (link here), making sure you download the correct phone software and away you go.

See here for a screenshot of the data I’ve collected. Green point is unsecured WiFi point, red is secured WiFi point and blue is mobile phone mast.

Pretty niffy, eh?

LogMeIn + PDA with Internet access = Geek dream

http://www.logmein.com

That allows me to “log on” to my home computer from my phone from anywhere as long as your phone has Internet access.

The speed is reasonable with GPRS, but I am sure it will be much better with 3G!

The freeware version is basic but it’s good enough for me anyway. There are few times where I need to access something but is not able to go home to get it. And this is where LogMeIn comes in.

Load up the software (via web browser on phone), log on, start remote desktop, get the file I need and either email it to my phone or copy it over. Success!

Today, I was at work with workmate to power on the servers as we shut them down for electrical work.

As we were powering them back on, some thing caused the network switches not to accept any network traffic for some reasons. Therefore we had the domain controller, the firewall and the DNS not communicating with each other, which was odd.

Then all of sudden, it worked fine afterward. And we don’t know what caused it, so it was a bit odd. Network guy is going to look into it.

Only one server had the PSU dead, but the 2nd one is working fine, so we will need to order a new one.

And the server room got a bit warm… the air con stopped working! So had to call out someone to look at the electricity supply.

Then one of the server was acting weird, where it doesn’t accept any logons for a specific software. After a few reboots and troubleshooting, the problem went away. *shrugs*

Finally, some computer, which will be used to enroll students next week, doesn’t work for some reasons. So more work on that.

12pm - 7pm. That’s how long we was at work trying to sort out everything. It’s weird that if you leave the servers running all the time,  it doesn’t give you any problems. But turn them off overnight, it acts up. The joy of computing.

So how was your Sat then?

Thank god it’s Friday.

We had a take away and watched rented DVD - Click - was a good film with a bit of a sad ending but spoiled it right at the end! Still a good show to watch. Not worth buying to own, but renting would be better.

Work was ok - we have half term next week and most of the people are on leave. I’m working all week as I don’t have any leave left until April. 2 months to go and counting…

Ohh, guess who got the new title of “Windows Live Butterfly” ?

Tomorrow, we’re going shopping to get the porch sorted out - pricing up materials, things we need to buy and hopefully ask a mate to help out with doing up a partition wall with door. Then get the walls painted and carpeted in the next few weeks time. We don’t want to leave it too long as the living room is still mess from the stuff we took out from the porch. Plus we have new sofa coming in soon, so yeah, we need to sort out the living room.

Time is limited and the only time we have all day is the weekend as we both work full day during the weekdays, so it’s difficult for us to do anything apart from waiting until the weekend. Hum ho, the joy of our own DIY work!

Cold tonight, going to snuggle up in bed and watch TV.

Now that Microsoft publicly announced about the bits that will come with Windows Vista Ultimate Extras, I can now talk about it.

So far, the public information are:

* DreamScene
* BitLocker and EFS Enhancements
* Hold ‘Em Poker Game

The thing I am looking forward to is the Windows DreamScene - will be doing a quick review on it shortly once I have access to it.

I’ve played Hold ‘Em Poker Game and while I have no previous knowledge of playing Poker, I learnt a bit and was happy playing it till I lost a lot of virtual money.

BitLocker and EFS Enhancements are something that I need to get my head round to as it’s something that I have not tried. But it should be good as it will secure your hard drive and keeping it safe from others whomtries to gain access to the data.

More later…

The restore to the Dell PC has gone well and I’m now typing from my Dell PC.

Can’t believe the amount of dust I’ve seen in my old PC, it’s nasty… need to clean it up and take it apart, and upgrade the missus PC if any. More likely the video card.

Right, here I go…. going to take apart my old PC and transfer everything to the Dell PC.

Wish me good luck!

Yay, the memory, which I won from eBay last Sat arrived today - all the way from USA. Pretty quick!

Installed it in the Dell PC and it works great. Now I need to plan the migration to the Dell PC from my main PC. Need to find out which hardware bits to keep and which bits to swap.

Then “donate” this PC to the missus as she is fed up with her old PC as the lame & cheapo hardware kept freezing/crashing. Then sell her PC bits on eBay or summat.

Am currently watching the NASA’s landing… but the bad weather has been delaying it and so far, it has been confirmed for 22:32GMT - hope it goes well!

Following my previous posting about finding the cheapest RAMBUS memory sticks and you pointed out that it’s very costly.

And I have to say that you’re right… around £150 for a 256MB!!

I’ve given up, got the model number and headed to eBay. Nothing. Checked eBay USA and there’s one - nearly new and working condition. 2x 256MB = 512MB (it has to be dual module) and it came as £100! Plus $30 P&P, which is about £15 P&P. So the total cost is around £115. Much better…

Now I hope it will arrive next week… so I can change my main PC to the Dell computer!

This is an interesting read on Bill gates and his thoughts on DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the future which affects videos and music.

I know I don’t do music, but I do watch a lot of videos on my computer and with the future of videos being available for watching on computer is very near, this could change the ideas of DRM.

It’s like going back to the old days when the CD writer firstly came out.

My first CD writer was an HP CD writer with the amazing 2x speed write and it cost me £250.

Then my DVD writer at £120.

And now, the brand new Blu-Ray Writer at 4x speed for an amazing price of £465!!

See here - http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1961 - LG GBWH10N 4x Blu-Ray Writer

Anyone going to buy it?

This is my feedback and mini review on the Windows Vista Ultimate RTM based on the build 6000 on my 3 years old laptop, a Sony Vario PCG-FR105.

It comes with the following hardware:

* Mobile AMD Athlon XP2000+ (around 1.67Ghz)
* 512MB RAM
* 40GB Hitachi DK23EA-40 4200 rpm HDD
* NVIDIA GeForce 4 420 GO

From the start of the setup up toward the end (after entering my username, wallpaper, etc) to the desktop, it took about 25 minutes, not bad considering it’s running on an 4200rpm laptop HDD (Hitachi DK23EA-40). I would suspect it will be quicker on a faster rpm and faster CPU. Still, it’s about the same install speed as the XP anyway.

When you reach the desktop, the first thing you will see is the Welcome Center, giving you all of the information to get yourself started with Windows Vista.

The first thing I did was to check to see if Vista recognised all of the hardware. And it turned out to be only one, which was the Motorola SM56 Speakerphone Modem. A quick visit to Windows Update found the driver and got it installed without any problems. It also have 4MB worth of updates to download which are standard:

* Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - Nov 2006
* Definition Update for Windows Defender

An instant protection for your computer with the latest updates as soon as you use it. Oh and another note about Windows Update… I do not have to visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com anymore as it’s now integrated with Vista under System and Maintenance. So one things less to visit.

The interface are pretty samey, but with more vibrant colours and easy on eyes. The Alt + Tab to switch programs/tasks are a bit same with better text & colours. But the new feature is Windows Flip - if your video card supports WDDM (Windows Driver Display Model) - usually on DirectX 9 supported video card, use Windows Flag + TAB to use the Windows Flip. It looks cool.

The start menu has been redesigned too. No more menu after menu, everything you need is in one start menu. Click ‘More’, and it will appearing the same Start menu window. Looking for a specific program? No problem, just type in the name of the program and it will find for you.

Straight to Window Explorer - it has the interface changed and it seems to be much easier to navigate around and finding the files I need quickly. If you click an image in Window Explorer, you will see that you can rate the image, give it a Tag (i.e. holiday, photo, Tony) for easy searching.

Configuring the network are much easier now with Network and Sharing Center. Everything you need to know are on one screen. Want to make your computer to share files on the network? Sure, just click it and select “On”. That’s how simple it is.

Now to games - all games has been given a big make up and it’s now more 3D with better colours and more “alive”. And there are some new games which are more suitable for kids, useful to keep the kids busy.

There are more to say about the new Windows Vista, but I think the review above are the most things that we would use.

For speed wise - I have not noticed any slowness when using the laptop with Vista. Programs loads up and close as quick as I see on XP. Left running as idle, it uses around 240MB, with OneCare beta running (which is a resource hog at the moment) and without OneCare, it sits around 200MB or so. I think it’s the same with XP… not too sure, will need to check. Obviously, it’s all depending on what drivers you have loaded up at startup (i.e. mine has the 56k modem driver, the firewall, the Windows Defender, etc)

Check out the screenshots at http://www.hypergallery.co.uk/vistabetas - ignore the other screenshots of the previous beta build - look on page 2 for build 6000 for the new screenshots.

Well, there you go, this was my “Mini Review” of the new operating system - Windows Vista Ultimate.

If you have any questions or want me to make a screenshot of something - let me know!

Our garage has a room where I can use my computer in there. But the biggest problem I faced with was no internet/network access as the garage is not attached to the house. With the scary thoughts of having to wire up a very long network cable from the house to the garage including drilling, I decided there must be a easier way to do this.

Then it dawned on me - I remember seeing on the news about “Broadband Over Power” - if it can be done, then there must be someone out there who created a Network Over Power. And there’s one!

The company who made the HomePlug technology, InTellon, did this and made Network Over Power possible. Then soon enough, most networking companies have the technology.

In the case for me, I purchased the Netgear HDXB101 Starter Kit, which comes with two Netgear HDX101 devices, a CD-ROM with the software to change the Network ID. This can give you up to 200Mbps of network connection which is fast enough for me.

I have taken some photos of the Netgear HDXB101 in action, including the configuration page so you can see what it looks like.

And now my feedback on this - I’ve found it very good. The connection speed I am getting in the garage ranges between 90Mbps to 130Mbps, depending on how much interference ad it’s good enough for me.

So if you want to do a quick job of setting up a network without the hassle of laying out cables and drilling holes, this is the best way to do this!

As of Oct 2006, this cost me £135 inc VAT, however the price will drop as time passes by.

Hs anyone used this and what are your thoughts about this?

Tomorrow is the final day for the old web server to be disconnected.

So I had the pleasure of doing this command via SSH session…

rm -R * /

I don’t know why but I was very nervous of doing that… lol but was pleased afterward.

Right, that’s sorted - one Draytek Vigor 2800 ADSL modem/router ordered and should arrive next day (tomorrow).

I’ve downloaded the manuals PDFs from their super slow FTP server and there are loads to read for setting it up and getting it to work. It’s worth it and I am looking forward to it. Yeah, maybe it’s the Geek™ thing, but hey.

And it’s like having my early xmas pressie!

Right, it’s time to pick up the missus from work then we’re off for dinner, if we can find somewhere that are not fully booked!