No Fixed Agenda

Keyboard Shortcut to Minimise Remote Desktop

2011-01-19T12:09:00.003+10:30

I’m a fan of keyboard shortcuts…

When in remote desktop, it is difficult to use the keyboard to return to the local computer unless you are logging off (by pressing CTRL-ESC to get to the start menu).

In the remote desktop session, Press CTRL-ALT-Pause&Break. This will do the same as clicking the “Restore Down” button on the yellow bar in Remote Desktop. You’ll now be able to ALT-TAB between windows on your local PC, with the Remote Desktop session being just one of these.

Press CTRL-ALT-Pause&Break again, and the Remote Desktop session is restored to full screen, and ALT-TAB will now be between windows in the Remote Desktop machine.

Yay!

Been there, seen that...

2011-01-07T22:00:00.006+10:30

Songs In Code

2009-08-21T13:02:00.006+09:30

These were tweeted today - I liked them so much I wanted to capture them in one place for posterity. For more, go to http://twitter.com/search?q=%23songsincode#search?q=%23songsincode

this.CanTouch(false); Stop(DateTime.Parse("Hammer");

assert Soon(you.isHome());

if (you == 'The Piano Man') {you.SingUsASong(tonight, 'Oh, la la la, de de da');}

you.my.Girl.EyeColor = Color.FromRgb(139,69,19);

streets.each { assert it.name == null }

Time-based Manipulation of VOB Files

2009-03-17T09:48:00.008+10:30

Editing DVD VOB files can be a royal PITA.

I had a DVD which was a copy of a VHS tape, produced by a simple copy in an LG RC-195 DVD/VCR combo unit. The tape was of a TV show which is damn near impossible to buy now, and all the reviews of the DVD version claim it has been badly edited. Even the VHS drops the main title sequence from all but the first episode.

So - I wanted to create a backup of the tape, but also make it a bit more intelligent and be able to access the individual episodes. The primary problem was episodes were split across multiple VOB files - so I needed a tool which would treat these as a single data stream and allow time indexing into it.

Media Coder is the only tool I've found that allows setting time-based start and end points. Alas it didn't want to play nicely with joining across the multiple VOB files, particularly with the time indexing past the first file. It supposedly supports joining files, but I had no success with that.

Enter VOBmerge. This handy little tool allows multiple VOB files to be joined into one large file. It's very quick, and I also discovered that Media Coder was much quicker in transcoding from the merged VOB file than from the originals - plus it seemed to be producing smaller results at the same settings - approx 160meg XviD avis versus the approx 200meg when transcoded from the original VOBs.

[Aside: someone suggests 'copy /b A.vob + B.vob merged.vob' gives exactly the same result!]

While this is ongoing, I was happy with yesterday's progress. Next step is to join the original title sequence onto each episode, and instead of transcoding to XviD, preserve the footage in DVD format so I can create a custom menu for the DVD.

Rubber Duck Debugging

2009-03-11T14:06:00.003+10:30

Priceless. http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html

We called it the Rubber Duck method of debugging. It goes like this:

Beg, borrow, steal, buy, fabricate or otherwise obtain a rubber duck (bathtub variety).
Place rubber duck on desk and inform it you are just going to go over some code with it, if that's all right.
Explain to the duck what you code is supposed to do, and then go into detail and explain things line by line.
At some point you will tell the duck what you are doing next and then realise that that is not in fact what you are actually doing. The duck will sit there serenely, happy in the knowledge that it has helped you on your way.

Works every time. Actually, if you don't have a rubber duck you could at a pinch ask a fellow programmer or engineer to sit in.

Auto Self-Service/Diagnosis

2009-01-29T14:34:00.005+10:30

I'm pondering the merits of buying an ODB II code reader, in order to be able to service & diagnose problems with our cars. Jaycar have one for $129 - which is quite a lot to shell out for something I may decide isn't really how I want to spend my already limited time.

In the first instance, I might try a $10 can of contact cleaner & give the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor a clean to see if that helps at all.

However, it's still cheaper than having the local AutoMonkeys clock up labour hours trying in vain to diagnose a problem that they don't really care about all that much... Alas, erratic idle behaviour or stalling in our current 45.7 degree Celsius heatwave falls into the "too hard basket" for most people.

Programming Aphorisms of Strunk & White

2009-01-16T10:19:00.002+10:30

Drawing an interesting analogy
http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/programming-aphorisms-of-strunk-and-white

Origami CD Case

2009-01-15T08:57:00.001+10:30

Very green. Very cool. Very handy!

http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/680-How-to-Make-a-Folded-Paper-CD-Case

ADSL Speed Testing

2009-01-15T08:29:00.005+10:30

Download/upload test: http://www.ozspeedtest.com/

Distance from Exchange:

Use http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/ to find your exchange
Use Google Maps to compute the approximate distance to your house
Use http://www.internode.on.net/residential/internet/home_adsl/extreme/ to convert distance to theoretical speed (under ideal conditions).

Downstream Attenuation:

Find the "Downstream Attenuation (dB)" figure from your modem's stats page.
divide it by 13.81
Use http://fremnet.net/article/216/adsl-theoretical-speed-calculator or the excel spreadsheet on which it is based.

All of the above is approximate & theoretical, and only reflects the performance between your house and the exchange you are connected to. The network performance beyond your exchange, and the performance of the sites you are visiting is another story entirely.

The CIMM - Capability Immatturity Model

2009-01-08T13:49:00.003+10:30

What's worse than ad-hoc? The four levels of software immaturity - negligent, obstructive, contemptuous, and undermining:
http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1996/11/xt96d11h.asp

Based on http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/977/1/12.7_immaturity.pdf

NEETS - United States Navy Electricity & Electronics Training Series

2009-01-06T13:17:00.005+10:30

http://www.phy.davidson.edu/instrumentation/NEETS.htm

The Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS) was developed for use by personnel in many electrical and electronic related Navy ratings. Written by, and with the advice of, senior technicians in these ratings, this series provides beginners with fundamental electrical and electronic concepts through self-study. The presentation of this series is not oriented to any specific rating structure, but is divided into modules containing related information organized into traditional paths of instruction.

The series is designed to give small amounts of information that can be easily digested before advancing further into the more complex material. For a student just becoming acquainted with electricity or electronics, it is highly recommended that the modules be studied in their suggested sequence. While there is a listing of NEETS by module title, the following brief descriptions give a quick overview of how the individual modules flow together.

Editing Video footage from a DVD Camcorder

2008-12-23T10:30:00.004+10:30

A major drawback of camcorders which use mini DVD discs rather than MiniDV tape is editing - the camera records the footage as a standard DVD VOB structure, and so is not in an edit friendly format.

I've finally found a freely available solution that doesn't plaster nasty watermarks all over the footage - VirtualDubMod. It requires an additional codec to support DV, but it is quite simple and well described on videoforums.co.uk

Once the footage is converted from VOB to DV format avi, it can then be edited via the video editing software of your choice. I normally use Pinnacle (which seemed OK) but also wanted to try out Microsoft Movie Maker since that is what my parents will most likely use. The first converted file I tried opening caused it to crash - but that's probably a separate problem :)

Slow Read/Write CD/DVD Behaviour

2008-12-15T09:21:00.003+10:30

I was having problems with single layer DVD burns taking ~50 minutes on my Dell Vostro, when they should have been taking about 8-9 minutes. After some research, I found the culprit - The IDE interface was in PIO mode rather than Ultra DMA.

Windows XP is set to put an IDE interface into PIO mode after a few timeout errors. This is apparently what happened to me after attempting to read a CD with some significant errors on it.

The easiest way (at least for the standard Intel controller) to clear the PIO mode problem is to go into Device Manager, open up the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, check which IDE channel is in PIO mode then uninstall it. Then go to the top of the list in Device Manager, right click and select Detect new hardware. A few reboots are also par for the course in Windowsland...

meme #42

2008-11-14T22:32:00.002+10:30

Inspired by Michael Davies & others to:

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

My Result: "Sometimes this is natural and clear; at other times it can be cryptic." The C Programming Language, 2nd Ed. by Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M. Ritchie.

I'm a bit disturbed that this was the closest book...

ECMA Standards

2008-10-22T09:51:00.003+10:30

http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Standard.htm

Shows ISO/IEC equivalent specifications, and if they are freely available or not. Standards include:

ECMA-262 (ECMAScript Language Specification - JavaScript 2.0 will conform to this spec)
ECMA-334 (C# Language Specification)
ECMA-335 (CLI)
ECMA-372 (C++/CLI Language Specification)
ECMA-376 (Office Open XML File Formats)

Financial: Comparing Companies & Services

2008-10-09T12:46:00.006+10:30

Useful sites for research & comparing companies & services:

Cannex: http://www.cannex.com.au/ Covers Insurance (Health, Life, Car, Home & Contents), Loans (Home, Car, Personal), Finance (Credit Cards, Savings Accounts)
Bank Accounts and Fees: http://www.infochoice.com.au/ or http://www.ratecity.com.au/
Broadband: Research & Compare Plans at http://www.whirlpool.net.au/, and check distance from exchange/speeds at http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/
Phone Plans (Fixed, Mobile, VoIP): http://www.phonechoice.com.au/
Private Health Insurance: http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/
Current Petrol Prices: http://www.motormouth.com.au/
Historical Petrol Prices: http://www.aaa.asn.au/issues/petrol.htm
Vehicle Prices/Specifications (New & Used ): http://www.redbook.com.au/ and http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/
Gas & Electricity: http://www.goswitch.com.au/

BSB Numbers

2008-09-16T16:00:00.004+09:30

Have a BSB Number, but don't know which institution it's for? Try this handy little website: http://bsbnumbers.com/index.php

Main weakness I've seen is the suburb lookup only reports major banks - it's doesn't list credit unions or building societies.

Stack Overflow

2008-09-16T10:41:00.004+09:30

I think Stack Overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/) has a lot of potential.

It'll be interesting to see how it scales from an initial successful beta where the participants are probably a pretty cluey bunch, to open slather. I'll be watching with interest (and chipping in where I can) - a good way to share and learn.

Why Make me Reboot, part 2

2008-05-27T11:16:00.002+09:30

Just found this article & utility, which backs up my opinions. I'll have to give it a try. http://exodusdev.com/products/WhyReboot/

What I want, but don't need

2008-01-10T12:10:00.000+10:30

Rush Bobblehead Dolls. OK, so they are clutter and dust collectors, and I don't really need them, but that doesn't stop me wanting them or putting a smile on my face. Financially, I can think of ~~better~~ more responsible ways to spend US$80 too. ($19 for shipping? Erk!)

Software Install Hell - Why make me Reboot?

2007-12-12T09:42:00.001+10:30

Rant of the Day - why the hell do so many applications require a reboot of your PC??? After having to reboot my new PC a dozen or so times last night just trying to uninstall 2 programs and install 2 new programs, I got pretty damn annoyed. As a home user, this was just an annoyance - for businesses with a large network, this could be a serious productivity impact issue.

So, why are these reboots necessary?

Googling revealed some Windows reasons, but apart from the "overwrites file in use" one, most seem to fall back to the installed program asking for the reboot. So why do the programs themselves think a reboot is needed? I can think of a number of alleged reasons:

The install overwrote a file in use, so it is Windows that wants to reboot
The reboot isn't really required, but the developers are just being paranoid
The developers didn't spend the time to remove the need for the reboot
Fundamental issues at the operating system level. Given the number of programs that don't need to reboot (some doing complex OS level integrations), I doubt this is the case

Reboots after uninstalling is an even bigger mystery to me - unless Windows is keeping a log of old file versions and trying to restore the previous version, the "overwrote file" shouldn't be an issue now. But if more than one update has occurred to the file in question, then this is just fraught with danger - which version do you revert to? I'd think the answer here is "don't do it!"

I think you should be able to just install some software, and it just works. No reboots. Even if it's necessary, be polite - don't force me to reboot.

From my experience, it seems to be commercial software that is more likely to exhibit this nasty behaviour - Open Source or software by 'enthusiastic individuals' seem less prone to require reboots. Is that because the former is more complex, or that the latter communities care more (or maybe get frustrated enough to spend the time to avoid the reboots).

Maybe in the commercial software development world, the issue of reboots fall into the low care factor category, as Company X assumes that their software gets installed once and that's it. Well, the reality is when I get a new PC and start installing dozens of my preferred programs, I get mighty annoyed having to reboot for every program thats so self-important that it thinks it's the sole reason I have a computer. Well, I'd like to point out that firewalls and anti-virus do NOT qualify for this - in fact you are a necessary evil and I'd happily dump in a nanosecond if it wasn't for all the cretins out on the net wanting to hack and wreck my PC.

Since I haven't seen much of a discussion about this previously, I'd be interested to learn more about the main reasons reboots are considered to be required, and how common this problem is on different operating systems - Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Excel Macro weirdness

2007-12-05T13:06:00.000+10:30

Excel is pretty good most of the time, but this is just weird. Apparently having pagebreaks in a print preview can seriously mess with macro performance. See Slow Response, Memory Problems, and Speeding up Excel for details.

Green Gadget of the Day

2007-12-05T13:02:00.000+10:30

On the "gotta get me some of that" list...

Mains Power Meter ($39.95)
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MS6115

This intelligent power meter simply plugs into a normal power point (GPO) and turns it into a real-time power monitoring outlet. You can enter the local price of your electricity and the meter will tell you exactly how much the appliance is costing to run. In addition, the power meter tracks the power used and can display the instantaneous voltage or current being drawn as well as the peak levels that have been drawn. The meter has backup batteries so it will not lose the stored data during a blackout or moving from point to point. Simple to install and a valuable tool for monitoring you power consumption.

More On "The Future of Software Development"

2007-12-05T12:46:00.000+10:30

Alex Iskold wrote an interesting article on The Future of Software Development. My former colleague Michael Davies observes that it doesn't mention Open Source, and makes some good points regarding the higher abstraction level.

From my time using C# and .NET, java, etc., I think the libraries themselves present us with a major challenge - how the heck to easily find what you need, so you don't end up re-inventing the wheel? The libraries are now so large, there is a very good chance that there is something that will help make your current coding task easier - finding it is another matter altogether.

Ideally, a constantly active search, using the current method being written as context, could provide the developer with a ongoing list of possible library code to call upon. The results could be broken down into logical categories, to help the developer interpret how the results might be applicable.

Think of your garage - there's lots of tools in there (since I moved house I can't even find many of hem now!!), and lots of different ways to use the tools you probably haven't even thought of.

StarOffice now available via Google

2007-08-16T20:52:00.001+09:30

According to this Australian IT article, Google are now making StarOffice freely available.

StarOffice is Sun's commercial version of the freely distributed OpenOffice suite. It has more features than OpenOffice and typically includes technical support from Sun, though the free Google version won't.

There are various articles to compare the OpenOffice, StarOffice and MS Office suites - such as this one from opensourceacademy

I'll have to give it a go sometime.

As one door closes, another opens

2007-07-31T22:05:00.000+09:30

Today was our last day with Mother MOTO. I still find it hard to believe that I was there for 11+ years. I learnt lots of new things, but most of all got to work with a great group of people - and that's what I will miss the most.

On the plus side, I'm writing this on a crusty 'old' notebook that work decided to auction off - which I picked up for $51. (Yes, that's fifty one bucks.) Dell Latitude, 500MHz, 256 Meg RAM, 20 Gig HDD, 802.11b wireless. OK, so it's no rocket, but good enough to set up as a games machine for the kiddies. Also good enough to surf the web from the comfort of the lounge room in front of the TV and remain semi-sociable with the family.

So it's now time for the next great adventure - I should be able to say within the next week or so to where...

MOTO-RAZR'd

2007-06-14T08:02:00.000+09:30

Well, at long last it's finally happened. After 11 years and 3 months with Motorola, they have announced Adelaide Software Centre to Close. Or the same thing from a different new site.

Oh well, on to the next great adventure...

Believe it or not...

2007-05-25T15:06:00.000+09:30

So, after 11 years working for Motorola, I have at long last been on a project that has resulted in a real product that I can say to my friends "this is what I helped make". Woohoo! There's even a nice brochure.

So what the heck is it you ask? Well, think of it as a kind of "email over a 2-way radio network". We wrote the 'email' application.

[edit: forgot about the 'previous' project from which MOTOTRBO evolved - the Hong Kong Police's CC3 system]

[edit: also forgot about the ill-fated FLEXgate^TM smartcard product. Damn shame, probably one of the most technically challenging and stimulating things I've worked on. Great team of engineers too!]

William Lucas

2007-03-27T10:44:00.000+09:30

William Lucas Haines was born on March 26th 2007 at 1:24pm. He weighed in at 6lb 7.5Oz (2.934 kg).

Rachel is recovering well, and is up and mobile already. She is just dying for a decent feed!

So far, William has had a couple of little feeds, and a first bath which he cried through, but his favorite pastime so far is sleeping. He and Dad had a good sleep last night, but Rachel didn't get any sleep at all - must be something about hospitals, as she did the same thing when Amelia was born. (Yes, I did get up during the night to help with nappy changes, feeding, etc - but I'm lucky to be able to get back to sleep very easily)

Charlotte and Amelia came in yesterday to see Mummy, Daddy & William - Charlotte was happy to look at him a few times and showed some interest, but Amelia didn't really care at all - she was far more interested in being carried around the corridors by Papa and Pa! I guess little babies don't rate very highly in the life of a 21 month old.

Pause, Rewind, Replay

2007-03-15T09:56:00.000+10:30

Go to the official Rush website, and check out the first single "Far Cry". 'nuff said.

Ever wondered how fast your real internet access is? Go take a SpeedTest. I now need to figure out why my home connection is so slow - in theory it should be able to do 14mpbs, but yesterday I was getting 1mbps at best! The monitored alarm is the most likely culprit. Finding the time to investigate however is another story entirely.

Test for Echo...

2007-03-14T09:31:00.000+10:30

Well, this is my first ever attempt at blogging. This was prompted by Rob & Candi's cool idea of setting up a CarePage after the recent birth of their 3rd son. It seemed like a nice way to be able to share news without worring about accidentally leaving anyone off of the email chain. Of course, CarePages is somewhat us-centric, so I thought I'd check out what Google had to offer...

Other recent excitement in my life includes:

moving house (yes, we are still unpacking boxes!)
buying a new VCR/DVD Recorder combo unit yesterday (it's hooked up and playing, haven't tried recording anything yet)
impaitently waiting for the release of the brand new Rush album "Snakes & Arrows". The first single "Far Cry" is naturally already on YouTube, and lots of news is on RushIsaBand