The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
9
The Machine That Changed the World – Free Documentary Series
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
While I’m waiting on Apple to post the video from today’s WWDC keynote I’m watching a documentary series about the history of computers that someone linked to on one of the many RSS feeds I follow (probably John Gruber). It’s old, has a very over-dramatic voice-over but it’s actually very well done. I just finished the first part and am starting the second now. Here’s the links:
[tags]computers, documentary, history[/tags]
Jun
7
My Predictions for WWDC 2008
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 7, 2008 | 6 Comments
It’s become a little tradition on this blog that I post my predictions for all Steve Jobs’ big keynote events. In some ways this isn’t quite as much fun as it used to be because big Apple news tends to leak out these days. In the past making WWDC predictions was much more about imagining what Apple might do, rather than analysing rumours which is really what it’s about now. That’s still fun, but it’s more about logic than it is about imagination.
[tags]Apple, WWDC, WWDC 2008, Developers, Steve Jobs, Keynote, iPhone, predictions[/tags]
May
31
Spaces Finally Achieves its Potential
Filed Under Computers & Tech on May 31, 2008 | 1 Comment
This week’s 10.5.3 OS X Leopard update has finally injected some much-needed common-sense into Spaces. Spaces is one of the new features in Leopard and had amazing potential from the start, however, it had one massive flaw. Spaces is basically a re-implementation of a very very old idea, virtual desktops. The idea is simple, you have a different work-space for each of your separate tasks and switch between them as you move from task to task. This idea’s been around in the Unix and Linux world for decades. Apple just implemented it in a more user-friendly and sensible way. With the older implementations you had to do the switching yourself, in Leopard the idea is that the vast majority if your switches will be automatic so you don’t have to think about it. The other innovate Apple added is massive concerted effort to evoke the idea of a virtual grid of desktops which you move around in. Everything about the implementation re-inforces this metaphor and it works very well.
[tags]Apple, OS X, Leopard, Spaces, virtual desktops, 10.5.3[/tags]
May
31
This week’s Leopard update from Apple sparked a thought in my head that’s been brewing for a while now. Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie seem to have been on to something when they sang Every OS Sucks a few years back (lyrics – video).
[tags]Leopard, OS X, Mac, Apple, Vista, Microsoft, Linux, Three Dead Trolls and a Baggie[/tags]
May
29
Irish Broadband – First Impressions
Filed Under Computers & Tech on May 29, 2008 | 4 Comments
I’ve been holding off on this post for a while just to be sure I didn’t speak too soon. Simply put, I am delighted with IBB. They deliver what they promise. Simple as that. My traffic graphs are almost perfectly flat when downloading large files, and right on the money in terms of speed. This service bears all the hall-marks of a happy and un-stressed TCP/IP network. So far I have no complaints at all. The modem supplied works perfectly with my existing router, and I have no idea what support is like because I haven’t needed them.
Long may this continue!
[tags]Irish Broadband, IBB, broadband, internet, Ireland[/tags]
May
19
Making sorttable Work With AJAX
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on May 19, 2008 | 34 Comments
I’ve blogged about how great sorttable is before. I use it a lot in work and people love it. However, because of the way sort-table works normally it won’t work with tables that are not in the document when the onload event for the document triggers. What does that mean in real terms? It means that if you use AJAX to render a table it won’t be sortable even if you include the sorttable.js file and set the class of the table to sortable. A quick scan of the source code showed me the answer, you have to manually call the function sorttable.makesortable() passing it the table you just got back from AJAX. The simplest way to do this is to give your table an ID and then use:
sorttable.makesortable(document.getElementById('the_table_id'));
May
17
OS X Internet Sharing – Simple & Effective but not Perfect
Filed Under Computers & Tech, System Administration on May 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
I’m in the process of changing ISPs at the moment and have ended up without any broadband for a while. So, at the momet the only internet we now have in the house is my Three 3G dongle. It would be very mean of me not to share its rather slow and poor connection with the rest of the house so I decided to try out OS X’s built-in internet sharing feature for the first time. I have to say I’m impressed. You just choose which connection you want to share via which network connection and away you go. I shared mine over WiFi so I had a little more setup to do but not much. I just had to enter an SSID and a WEP Password.
Although it works well it’s not perfect. For a start only supporting WEP for the encryption is a poor show, you may as well offer no encryption! Even the WEP does not work reliably. From time to time other Macs can’t connect because of “incompatible security settings” and you have to re-start the sharing service. I also had a rather odd issue where I couldn’t share because my AirPort was automatically associating with my wireless base-station and there’s no way I could find of disconnecting so I could enable the sharing. I fixed the problem by turning off my wireless access point since it wasn’t connected to anything useful anyway.
I have a feeling sharing over ethernet would probably be a lot simpler.
[tags]OS X, OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple, Mac, Internet Sharing[/tags]
May
14
The Windows Dilemma
Filed Under Computers & Tech on May 14, 2008 | 4 Comments
A phone call I got from my Grandfather this evening set me thinking about OS choices for non-experts and Windows in particular. I’d been dreading and expecting this call ever since he got Broadband last year. Although my Grandfather was the first person in our family to buy a PC the internet is new to him. For a man of his generation he is a positive technophile. His first computer was an 80286 from Amstrad and he’s never been without one since. He’s always bought computer magazines and for a long time he was always the person in our family with the most up-to-date machine (I’ve taken over that position in recent years). When my parents (and hence me) were using a 386 he had a 486. He was also the first in our family to use Windows 95, and the first to get a Pentium processor. He was also the first, and hence only, member of our family to go Windows ME, so glad he took that bullet for the rest of us 🙂
Anyway, I think you get the point, when it comes to computers my Grandfather is no ordinary Grandfather, however, when it comes to the internet he is. Broadband only became available to him last year so he’s only had it since then. He’s in love with Skype, adores internet banking, and is getting to grips with email and googling. So what call did I get today? The call to say he’d been infected with malware, something calling itself WinFixer which is demanding money to fix what ever it’s broken.
[tags]Windows, OS X, Linux, Internet, Viruses, Spyware, Malware.[/tags]
Apr
30
OS X Leopard 6 Months On
Filed Under Computers & Tech on April 30, 2008 | 1 Comment
It’s hard to believe it’s only been six months since Leopard’s release. At this stage most of the commentary and reviews have been done and dusted for months and people are just getting on with using Leopard. Although it’s only been six short months we’ve already had two major updates to the OS and we’re expecting a third any day now. The reviews ranged from un-fettered admiration to utter condemnation. Reality is of course somewhere in between. I’ve heard a lot of comparison’s made between Leopard and Vista and at least one of them is correct. Like Vista, the first release version of Leopard should have been called a public Beta. Like Vista Leopard was late yet still only half-baked when it did finally ship. However, other comparisons to Vista don’t hold. Leopard has delivered substantial new functionality and it has done so without adding significant bloat. Sure, Apple’s list of 300 changes was hyper-inflated but there were still some real gems in that list. Also, Leopard runs just fine on my first generation Mac Mini which was underpowered even when it was new over three years ago!
The ultimate question is whether or not Leopard was enough of an improvement on Tiger to warrant the price of the upgrade? Are many of the new features actually useful or are they just eye-candy and fluff? Six months on I’m taking the time to reflect and ask myself which Leopard features I’d really miss if I was forced to down-grade to Tiger in the morning.
[tags]OS X, apple, Leopard, Tiger[/tags]
Apr
30
Configuring Your Eircom Router Securely
Filed Under Security, Computers & Tech on | 5 Comments
It seems like a long time since my first article pointing out the security problems with Eircom’s default wireless setup. At the time I got a few requests for screen shots but couldn’t deliver since I don’t have one of these Eircom routers myself. Last week a very kind reader contacted me and asked if I’d like some screenshots. I happily accepted and used them to illustrate this post showing the step-by-step instructions Eircom customers can take to improve their security. As always this post comes with no warranty of any sort. Although I am quite knowledgeable on these matters I do not pretend to be an expert and as this advice is free I will accept no liability what so ever for any undesirable outcomes which anyone may experience while following these instructions. I have of course done my best to ensure the instructions are clear, concise and correct. These instructions are for Eircom customers with the recent Netopia wireless routers Eircom provide as standard to home users.
[tags]Eircom, Wireless, Wifi, security, WEP, WPA, router, Netopia[/tags]