SharpReader Display Issue...

SharpReader display issue? Luke! you don't use standard windows font colors for all yours texts. Using an iTunes WindowsXP theme, I cant see the address text. Click the below image for a larger version of the screenshot. Maybe this could be fixed in the upcoming release?

Mozilla Calendar on Firebird 0.7, Crash and Burn...

Okay maybe i'm doing something wrong. Am I the only person that can't get Mozilla Calendar running on Firebird 0.7?

I even installed 0.7 in a fresh folder and reinstalled calendar over the top. What gives?

mReader Usage

I know that a fair amount of people have downloaded mReader, but I dont know exact figures for downloads.

So, if you have downloaded and are using mReader, please drop me an email to let me know what you like, and what you think sucks. I know people using the SonyEricsson P800 have been having some problems, so if someone is successfully using mReader on this device I would be interested to know how you got it working.

I'm sorry, but iTunes for Windows Sucks

Despite being a Win32 developer and user, since OSX was released I always had an interest in Mac's. However, when it came down to the crunch and had to by a Laptop, I went for a Win32 ultralight over the 12" powerbook, purely because im too ingrown into windows to change.

However I was excited to see that apple had released iTunes for Windows. I figured that all apple software was cool, so I went and downloaded it to give it a try.

Boy does it suck. Here's why:

1. It doesnt support WMA. I am moving to the UK and am half way through ripping all my CD's to WMA so I can listen to them on my nomad and laptop.
2. It doesnt adhere to your selected windows theme, it goes ahead and uses an ugly grey (the grey color reminds me of windows98 grey), with aqua style scrollbars. This might look at home on a mac, but in windows it looks different to every other program
3. You can only buy music if you are in the US. Hello, there are more people outside the US than inside, let me buy music from anywhere, its not like your shipping it to my home address, its digital delivery.
4. [Ed: 19/10/2003] The maximize/restore button on the title bar doesn't adhere to the same standard as (almost) all other windows apps on the face of the planet. Come-on Apple, if your going to write windows software make it behave like windows software, There is literally no way of maximizing the iTunes window.
5. [Ed: 19/10/2003] There is no system menu on the iTunes window, so you cant right click on the title bar.
6. [Ed: 19/10/2003] Re-size icons when you are dragging in and out the window panes are a little hand instead of the standard vertical/horizontal resize bar.

I will use it for a while longer and see if there are redeeming features, but for now its a 1/10 rating. It's a shame, I really wanted to like this.

Mozilla Calendar / iCal

I have dumped my Opera / Outlook combination for my web apps on the new laptop and have gone for the following OSS alternatives.

1. Mozilla Firebird (Browser)
2. Mozilla Thunderbird (Mail & News)
3. Mozilla Calendar (Events / Tasks)

I have used mozilla a lot in the past (but not firebird), and opera was starting to get on my nerves with random crashes etc.

The beauty of using Mozilla Calendar though, is that it follows the open calendar format released by Apple with iCal. This means that I can subscribe to any iCal calendars I find on the web. Mozilla Calendar also allows you to publish your own calendar to an FTP or WebDAV server just in case anyone wants to keep in touch with your whereabouts.

So, now I am sorted! If anyone wants to subscribe to my calendar then click this link.

New Notebook Arrived

Wow, I'm impressed. I always figured that packages you are waiting for the most always tend to arrive the latest.

I was pleasently surprised on Thursday to have my Dell Lattitude X300 arrive 5 days ahead of schedule. So, from the time my order was placed till the time that the notebook arrived (including approval of finance) was only 6 days. That was even though I made a number of changes to the spec of the notebook.

Dell has a system that works, and im very impressed.

Testing new Server

I have finally got everything worked out with the new server. I almost lost my Movable Type mysql databases on the old web host. After fiddling around with different control panels I finally managed to get a dump of the old databases using phpMyAdmin. After that I uploaded the exported sql using MySQL Control Centre. Thank god for some excellent open source tools. Thanks to all who work on these tools, you saved me lots of work.

If this post works, it means everything is back to normal!

Another Big Move

I will be moving www.markallanson.net from its current server to a new server during the weekend. You may get a bit mixed up between old/new depending on how quickly your DNS gets updated. Hopefully there will be no downtime.

New Gadgets

Now that I have resigned I must get everything ready for the trip to the UK. My 2 main preparation items are of course, gadgets. Sold is my old Kodak DC3800 Point-and-click camera, replaced with an Olympus C-740.

3.2Mp, 10x Optical Zoom 3x Digital zoom (max zoom 30x). This camera rocks! Image quality is fantastic.

Second is the fact that I cannot live without a computer, seeings as I cant really ship my desktop over to the UK (well I can, but I dont want to), I have jumped in and bought a new Laptop. Pre-requisites: 1. must be an ultra-light. 2: Must have 802.11b/g.

So I splashed out on a new Dell Latitiude X300 Ultralight.

this thing is awesome. only 1.3kgs and 0.8" thick. Unfortunately it won't arrive for 10-12 business days.. Of course, being a geek I couldn't leave it at the base specs so I chopped and changed it a bit

• Out goes the 30gb HDD, replaced with a 60gb HDD
• Added an extra 256Mb Ram, taking it to 384Mb
• Out with the Intel PRO 802.11b mini PCI card, in with the Dell TrueMobileTM 1400 WLAN (802.11b/g)
• Swapped the CD drive for a DVD/CD-RW Combo drive

I already can't wait and I still have 9-11 business days left :)

Clarion Article coming Soon

Look for a Clarion 6 XML Primer that I am writing up, its going into the bits that the current release candidate doesnt document including how to access the DOM, plus some other tricky bits that are hard to pick out.

Should be done this weekend.