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Was it ever this clunky?

By Dave F in Reader

Posted in Microsoft on October 22, 2009 at 7:07 pm

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I’ve managed to bust my Windows installation. Continual reboot time even in safe mode :-(. I tried a fast repair from the install disks but it still kept rebooting. Like a fool I didn’t try safe mode at this point but tried to manually recover a load of files now it’s a blue screen of death BUT I can get safe mode after a fashion. It keeps looking for an install for some package but if I ignore that I’m up and running - in 640×400 16 colours. Please excuse any typos it’s a job to see what I’m typing!!!
I’m looking for the package it thinks I should install, failing that I’ll try and rename the directory the (half?) package is in.
Wish me luck!

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QT Sockets - what it says on the tin

By Dave F in Reader

Posted in QT, Coding on October 15, 2009 at 11:24 am

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It’s surprising when things actually work like they should, so surprising that “It does what it says on the tin” is an effective advertising slogan! So it was a pleasant surprise when I chucked together some code to work with sockets using QT. In the past I have had to mess about with Winsock or Berkeley Sockets, set up local addresses, convert port numbers to n/w format (cue big endian / little endian innuendos), do unspeakable things with ioctl’s…. with QT it was just
SendData( char *hostname,  int port ,
                char *buf; int len){

    QTcpSocket socket ;
    char recv[1]; 

    // could set up events with signals and slots but not needed here

    socket_.connectToHost(hostname, port);
    socket.waitForConnected(TM_OUT);
    if (!socket.connected())
            return FAILED;

    if (socket.write(buf, len) < 0)
        return FAILED;

    socket.waitForReadyRead(TM_OUT);
    if (socket.bytesAvailable())
        return FAILED;

    if (socket.read(recv, 1)!=1 || recv[0]!=HOST_OK_HANDSHAKE)
        return FAILED;

    // could close but destructor will anyway!
}
And it works on Windows, Linux and Mac! Check it out at http://qt.nokia.com/ 

Now as long as my boss doesn’t read this I can tell him it took days….
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There, I Fixed It: a fine line from ingenuity to insanity

By Dave F in Reader

Posted in Funny, Coding, Uncategorized on October 9, 2009 at 9:45 am

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If you’ve never been to http://thereifixedit.com/ you’ve missed treat of ingenuity and stupidity. As a fan of Scrap Heap Challenge (http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/scrapheap2008/index.html) this kind of thing is obviously right up my street.

Unfortunately they don’t seem to have a best of, so just browse through the tags - my favourite is There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs ingenuity « which is a bit more positive than http://thereifixedit.com/tag/stupidity/

Maybe I should set up  site just for coding kludges, or maybe I should send in a pic of the leaf blower I tried to make by gaffer taping a bag over the outlet of my Dyson.

It’s a fine line from ingenuity to insanity  or indeed insanitary http://thereifixedit.com/tag/bathroom/

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Virgin TV is the Cat’s Whiskers

By Dave F in Reader

Posted in Digital TV, Apple on October 6, 2009 at 12:35 pm

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I remember, as a kid, my gran telling me about listening to the radio on a cat’s whisker crystal radio set.
She was telling me how the signal was so hard to find and would drift off as you were listening and I (in my youthful arrogance) declared I’d rather do without than endure the frustration. She tried to explain that it was both exciting to hear stuff and to fiddle - it was what you did (if you were part of the “new technology”) and the skill was part of the thrill. I remember it well because I think it was a very early experience for me of trying to understand a whole different experience and point of view.
However, maybe it isn’t such a different experience. I have been trying to watch “on demand” TV from virgin cable and yes it can be a bit fiddly to set up and there is a danger it may disappear in the middle of your program. Though to be fair only if you pause it, it tends not to un-pause and you have to re-start from the beginning, (not very) “fast forwarding” to where you were.
After three failed attempts to load the program I did think of giving up but by pulling the mains out of the box and shoving it back in (the only way to reset it) it did load and played OK - even with  short pause!
Most of us want it to “just work” but not many of us actually prefer going without to fiddling around to get it to work.
By the same measure, that state of the art Mac may never go wrong (?) but where’s the satisfaction compared to nursing my ancient Windows laptop into running anything?

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Keep your Focus

By Dave F in Reader

Posted in the web, music on October 1, 2009 at 6:18 pm

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I was at a classic rock night last night - The Strawbs, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash and Focus. There is always a danger with “old” bands that you’ll just see a load of hired hands turning out sad versions of old favorites however this was a good night. I have to say I prefer THE Wishbone Ash to Martin Turner’s - they didn’t quite catch the flame for me.

This isn’t a very IT blog entry but it is interesting to note that http://www.wishboneash.co.uk & http://www.wishboneash.com  point to different bands!

Anyway, shock of the night was Focus. Although to me Focus means Jan Akkerman and the bass player and guitarist were at least a generation too young to be Jan (in fact I believe the bassist is Thijs van Leer’s stepson!)  they were amazing. Thijs van Leer is the original keyboard player and founder and Pierre van der Linden is the drummer from the classic line up and they were quite brilliant. The youngsters were pretty hot too.  

They do play the weirdest music - rock / jazz / yodelling, weird but good. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9qx6ioDwP0&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSDDBiKJhc or just search you tube for outsearch for “focus new skin”  to see the current line up.

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