Matt's Blog

Opinion: Screw Microsoft

2007-02-12T22:04:30Z

I saw this on a forum this evening and I have to concur:

I walked into Incredible Corruption this weekend keenly eyeing the Windows Vista stand they had setup displaying the different versions. Then I saw the price of Ultimate...

R5,399.95 (See the rest of the editions here)

WTF?! This is the retail price, but are they insane?! It's a good OS, but not _that_ good.

Digital Planet is cheaper; but still insanely pricey at R3,562.04.

Please put your hands up if you're going to/willing to pay this for it?

Vista Weather Gadget for South Africa

2007-02-11T20:46:07Z

If you've been looking for an alternative to the default weather gadget that comes with Vista, and doesn't work in South Africa, check this one from the Gadget Gallery.

A doctor to cure all ailments

2007-02-07T10:22:24Z

Spotted in Margate by Florian:

Hate Snap's link previews?

2007-02-01T18:08:30Z

Here's how to get rid of them.

GETIP: Vista Tip

2006-12-12T15:19:00Z

Windows Vista's new Network and Sharing Center that replaces the Windows XP Network Connections control panel is a great graphical representation for quick reference of your network setup:

I find it a bit cumbersome to use to find my currently assigned IP address. It takes 4 clicks (count them!) to find using the GUI.

In an endevour to speed things up; I created a simple batch file in my User directory with the following code:

ipconfig /all > C:/Users/%username%/ip.txt
notepad C:/Users/%username%/ip.txt

Save this as getip.bat; and then hit Start; type getip; Enter.

It'll show you a notpad window with the dump of ipconfig /all.

Possible Vista RTM bug?

2006-12-01T13:07:00Z

I've been running the RTM version of Windows Vista for about a month now. It has been pretty reliable except for the odd driver problem here and there.

If you've played with it, you more than likely know there's a new MMC snapin called "Reliability and Performance Monitor". It is intended to give you a birds-eye view of your systems stability since install, and rates it according to a score out of 10. Pretty cool...

When it works...that is:

Vista seems to think we're in the 70's!

One thing that could have contributed to this is me doing a System Restore this morning to roll back to before installing a crappy ATI video driver.

Anyone else seen this? Know where to report it?

Zune advert

2006-11-17T15:55:00Z

W T F ! ! !

Windows apps in Linux

2006-06-17T20:56:00Z

This is going to be significant:

Alky (pronounced "AL-KEE") is a tool that allows you to convert a Windows executable to a Mac OS X or Linux binary. We are focused on high-end gaming at the moment, though we will support other applications in the future. Our binary translation layer is already working fully for OS X and Linux support is in progress. Of course, Windows applications use a very different set of libraries from Linux or OS X applications so we are also working on a library called LibAlky that will provide those Windows libraries to the application.

UCP = LPI + Ubuntu Cert

2006-04-04T21:46:00Z

Ubuntu mailing list:

Today the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) and Canonical Ltd. jointly announced the development of a certification exam for the Ubuntu distribution. This certification exam will enable qualified candidates to demonstrate specific expertise in the professional use of Ubuntu <http://www.ubuntu.com>. The certification exam will be launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 16 - 19, 2006.

The Ubuntu certification will consist of a single exam on top of LPI's existing 101 and 102 exams. This will give candidates the advantage of an existing global standard, LPIC-1, plus the “Ubuntu Certified Professional” status. The exam is being developed by LPI's product development team and Ubuntu community members from around the globe. The
exam is expected to be completed in early May with the first paper exams being available in mid-May to qualified LPIC-1 candidates who are attending LinuxWorld Johannesburg. The computer-based testing version will be made available later in June through Thomson Prometric and Pearson VUE testing centres around the world. Initial exam price has been set at $100 US.

For more information, see
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntucert

I knew I should've done my LPI a while ago... Even more reason now.

iPod FM Transmitter

2006-03-12T22:03:00Z

Hopefully there are some South African iPod owners reading this. A question for you:

I've just bought myself an iPod and I'm looking at buying an FM transmitter.

Have you got any advice for me regarding which device is best and possibly what to look for in a FM transmitter? There are two that I can get here in ZA.... they are the Griffin iTrip Auto and the Monster iCarPlay Plus.

How much static do you pick up with yours?
What frequency do you tune yours to?

Share your Outlook (Express) contacts with Thunderbird

2006-03-04T16:28:00Z

Now instead of going through the rigmaroll of exporting your Outlook contacts to something (not totally proprietary) that Thunderbird can read, just reveal this *hidden* feature which allows Thunderbird to read your Outlook contacts:

from Chris Ilias' Blog

Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey (and even the Mozilla Suite and Netscape 7) can actually be set up to use your Outlook Express address book, and/or your Outlook Contacts list. It's just another one of those features that are not in the user interface.

To make Thunderbird use your Outlook Express address book, close Thunderbird, and add the following lines to your prefs.js file:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.description", "Outlook Express");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.uri", "moz-aboutlookdirectory://oe/");

For Outlook Contacts, use these lines:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.description", "Outlook");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.uri", "moz-aboutlookdirectory://op/");

One important note: in order for it to work with Outlook, Outlook must be set as the system default mail client.

A word of warning: after using this for a while I've noticed it makes name lookups _horribly_ slow. Use with caution. (I'm using Outlook 2003 SP2 and Thunderbird 1.5)

Songbird review

2006-02-09T15:22:00Z

No, this isn't going to be _another_ carbon copy software review with bullshit comments and touchy-feely stuff.

Ars Technica has already taken my thoughts and put them on the web in a much more succinct and precise way than I could have.

Read their comments here.

(...and it doesn't do DAAP.)

Quote of the day

2006-02-08T14:03:00Z

bash.org

Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders

Phishing Filter for Firefox

2006-02-02T08:01:00Z

I just discovered that Google has a very nice phishing filter extension for Firefox. They call it the "Safe Browsing" extension, and you can get it here.

One more reason not to use the fugly Internet Explorer 7.

Automatix (Automated GUI installation script)

2006-02-01T10:40:00Z

If you've installed any of the free Linux distro's like Ubuntu or Fedora you'll know that getting the multimedia codecs and such setup can be a chore on a new system. If you're an Ubuntu user, your problems are solved:

Enter Automatix: "...a graphical interface for installation of a lot of apps on Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu BREEZY ... and for tweaking a few things to get your Ubuntu box up and working in full throttle in the quickest possible timespan."

Brilliant. Great for all the clicky clicky people out there ;)

On a side note... It's awesome to see how the popularity of Ubuntu has sky rocketed in the last 12 months?!