March 2008 - Posts
Oh, PLEASE can someone do this to the iMacs in one of those swanky graphics design offices!
There are more April fools geek pranks here
Owen says I am “Wild and Crazy”. Really? Who knew.
Yes, I will be attending this year’s MVP summit in Redmond. I missed the last one because of the house move that was going on (still is to some extent).
This year Microsoft have given us method to be able to split out compentencies officially. Before, I simply “Bunked off” going to sessions with the SBS guys and snuck into the ACES studios, drank beer, chatted, played Flight Simulator and was generally merry. The SBS MVP’s could never understand why when I came back to them I had a big grin and was swaggering a little. Now they know.
Anyway, I am rambling as usual. Bottom line is that as soon as the MVP team figure out why I can only select from the SBS tracks, and not both compentencies, I will sort out exactly what I am doing at this years summit…. but I expect to be with the Games for Windows guys for at least one day (and one night <<<< beer session)!
For those interesting in learning more about Windows Small Business Server 2008 living in the UK or Ireland, you should seriously consider coming to the
Irish Microsoft Technology Conference on the 2
nd and 3
rd April 2008.
There are 8 Tracks and 40 sessions to see on various technologies, including my own presentation on Windows Small Business Server 2008.
Yeah, I know… lots of iPhone posts, but I just can’t help myself.
I just implemented this fix on Brian’s blog on version 1.1.4 and it improves the number display dramatically on irish iPhone’s. (Not just mobiles) Thanks Brian (and the guys that fixed it). With this and my previous post, everything is perfect now.
Right then…. I have been playing around with the iPhone in a big way. One of the most irritating things with the device is that the contact association to a phone number is screwed up. Apple have not fixed it, but a great community member Tim Schuerewegan has. (Give him your money).
Essentially the issue is this. A contact that calls you comes up as one number and when they text you they come up as another. One has the international number +353 XX XXXXXXX and the other just 0XX XXXXXXX. This makes life miserable as the only real work around was to add both numbers to a contact, which is just plain silly.
So, in yet another reason to have an unlocked iPhone, here is the way to fix this in baby steps:
- Unlock your phone, using ZiPhone.
- Open up installer, click on Sources, Click Edit, Click Add, type in http://i.unlock.no and click ok. The installer will refresh the sources at this point.
- Click on Install. Scroll down until you see Unlocking Tools and select that.
- Scroll down again and select ZiPhone iBricker Fix. Click Install.
- Power OFF your phone by holding down the top button.
- Power back on your phone.
- On your PC, download iPhoneBrowser from here. Install this utility. Run this utility.
- Connect your phone to the PC and then you should be able to see something like this (Note the important bit in red) If you dont see that, and all these folders, you did not get the ZiPhone iBrickr fix installed correctly:
- Next thing to do is go to Tim’s page and download the PhoneNumber Dynamic Library. Then follow the instructions in his readme. I am copying them below for ease of looking in one place:
- Create a directory named "Support" in the /System/Library/Frameworks/AppSupport.framework/ directory on your iPhone.
- Copy the contents of the "AppSupport/x.x.x" (where "x.x.x" is your iPhone's firmware version) directory in the zip file to the /System/Library/Frameworks/AppSupport.framework/ directory on your iPhone.
- Copy the contents of the "AppSupport - Support" directory in the zip file to the /System/Library/Frameworks/AppSupport.framework/Support/ directory on your iPhone.
- Reboot iPhone. |
Once you do this, your phone should be able to receive a call from someone and a SMS message and show the persons name / picture as you would expect to happen. (Without the need of having two numbers against the contact).
Hope this helps others!
Nick
Thanks to Eric down under for emailing me this:
http://www.thechancer.ie/2008/03/14/ichancer-bring-on-the-freaks/
Thank god theres still some semblance of sanity back home and we didn't go the way of the Yanks and Brits in queueing for days for a poxy phone!
See pics...O2 have set up crowd control barriers on Grafton st.......6 people queued, the earliest 1 hour before the shop opened!
The whole thing has been a mighty flop! I'm delighted that people haven't been taken for fools!
_______
People were probably doing the same as me and sourcing phones from abroad. Yeah, you heard that right, I do have a few iPhones here now… and they are all unlocked and on other networks. All that is needed now is for one of the other service providers to give an unlimited data package for a decent price and everything will be perfect.
Oh, and I was talking to someone that works in O2 the other day. It turns out that the staff are being fed a load of marketing rubbish about how the release was amazing and they sold out of phones…. well… it is easy to sell out of phones if you only order in a handful 
OK, right after I posted that last comment about the iPhone they then go and announce
this!
Apple iPhone will support Exchange Activesync! Nice… so maybe I may buy one… and hope that some clever person will come up with flash support?!
You know, I was so close to being convinced I should buy an iPhone when they are released next week here in Ireland. Even though:
- During the life of the iPhone and signing up with 02 Ireland, I would have to spend at least €1669.00. With that money, I could get very drunk at least 66 times and would enjoy it more.
- I am limited to a mere 1GB of data per month without extra charge! – Listening to the 02 rep trying to justify this on the radio amazed me. Did she not understand that half the personal emails I receive contain at least 2MB of Porn attachments! How would I survive. ;)
- No Visual Voicemail (until 02 decide they can be bothered). – Silly decision… another reason to buy a hacked iPhone.
Yet… none of these reasons were going to be good enough for me not to be sucked into the first 02 shop I passed and end up walking out with an iPhone. No no…. the reason is:
Steve Jobs has decided that the Flash is not suitable for the iPhone!
What a crock. That means that I cannot use the iPhone to control a Netstreams DigiLinX system around the house… Grrrrr.
I read this earlier on another forum, and just now Susan posted about the same event.
While Mark Russinovich is a lovely guy and a great draw to that event, you may also be interested to know that one of the other panel members is Mark Minasi. Twice the reason to be tuned in!
Great story from engadget.
Apparently some Audiophiles could not tell the difference between Monster Cables and coat hangers.. I love it.
By the way… along the same line… can anyone recommend me Component cables that work well and don’t cost 100 Euro per meter?
For a couple of weeks I have been bitching to my friends on Mark Minasi’s forum that Vista SP1 file copy across my network, especially to my Windows Home Server, was slow. By slow I mean 200K per second, I could download faster than that!
Mark suggested to me that I play around with the TCP settings, and sure enough I am now getting rocket speeds across my network. Mark also pointed out that I really should have known this as an administrator of his forums… why…. well, it was in his last newsletter which I forgot to read… ooops 
You should read that edition of the newsletter for the settings you can try and the reasons these settings are needed.
Whilst you are there, make sure to sign up to the newsletters!
It is worth mentioning a couple of blogposts by Josh Kewley on Netstreams DigiLinX IR issues. I have exactly the same issues, along with my
already mentioned IR passthrough issues, and am looking forward to updates from Netstreams that solve these issues.
I Are In Control. Or Not.I Are In Control. Or Not. – Volume Control
in the World Hairdressing Championships in Chicago! Not once.... but twice in two categories - Full Fashion and Fantasy. I just this second got this MMS picture of Amanda (in the middle) with Sarah, her twin sister, and Joe, her partner!
Yay!
