Category: Technology

Site Issues

Starting this afternoon I’ve been experiencing a few issues between some WordPress code and using PHP5. It seems when I use PHP5, my default version for some time, I experience a rather large error that according to WordPress.org seems to be possibly related to Magic Quotes or a rogue plugin, however it is occurring on my theme test site as well so I’m not so sure about plugins being the cause. So in an effort to get some stability I have reverted to PHP4 and I’m about to upgrade WordPress and see if I can sort out this problem.

Problem Solved
As I have been noticing it appears to be related to magic quotes, I attempted to turn it off in .htaccess but this appeared to just make it angry, however adding

ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime','off');

to my wp-config.php file fixed the problem.

By the way if you have this problem do not copy my code listed above as the quotes will turn into invalid characters, you’ll have to type it out yourself.

5 underrated Applications that I insist you try

This is more of a list than a review of each product, there is plenty of information out there on them for you to find.

1. AntiVir
Everybody loves their favourite anti virus program and many refuse to use any others, this creates a scenario where someone is using 1 anti virus application for years, the problem with this is no anti virus application stays on top for more than a year, you can bitch about how yours has been the best for years but those are the facts, many people are caught out when a virus gets through their anti virus defenses simply because they refused to change and keep up to date with current trends.

One high flier this year is AntiVir by Avira, AntiVir is similar to AVG in it’s simplistic nature and like AVG has a free version and several paid versions, it shines in scan times and detection rates, however you must watch out for those false positives as it does have a high false positive rate, this can be fairly easy to detect as those usually have no information in the virus database. I have not been able to try out their Firewall that is included in the Premium Security Suite however I have experience with the web filter and have found it incredibly effective, say goodbye to Antivirus 2008 trying to install itself because AnviVir won’t even let the page open and will instead put up it’s own page explaining the situation.

2. ImgBurn
I feel that this burning program doesn’t get the credit it deserves, it’s simple, fast and has the advanced features that you would not normally find in a free product, it’s the perfect application for burning a slipstreamed Windows installation yet can also burn the latest Linux ISO with only a few clicks.

3. FileZilla
FileZilla is an FTP application, again, simple, fast, highly customisable.

4. FoxIt Reader
This application has come a long way in a short time, it is a free alternative to Adobe’s PDF reader and works very well, I have not come across a PDF document that has not displayed properly. The speed has to be experienced to be believed, it absolutely flies, not only that but it works perfectly on fairly old computers as well. PS. Watch out for their sneaky install program in version 3, it tries to install toolbars and shortcuts, just uncheck them when you see them.

5. DownThemAll!
A simple download accelerator add-on for Firefox, some of us with high speed broadband connections need to utilise multiple download streams at once, the selections of software can be quite daunting, ranging from spyware/adware infested to down right intrusive and buggy. DownThemAll! is donationware, this means that on the main window, their is a link to donate to the application’s developer, it works great for multiple stream downloads with no fuss.

Windows 7 at the PDC

For now I do not have access to Windows 7 so I can only go on other peoples’ experiences and of course the live stream of the Microsoft PDC, but so far it looks amazing, take a look at some screenshots here at my favorite tech site, Neowin.

From a UI standpoint I am very excited about the possibilities that will be available.
From a web developer standpoint I’m eager to learn how it fits in with Windows Azure and the cloud computing vision.

I hope to do a review once it is available and look forward to other peoples’ reviews, expectations and experiences.

In other news I put Xubuntu on my laptop, I’m actually using it at the moment, It’s a great OS to run when you have an older PC, in this case 4 years old, my laptop maintenance guide will be up soon, I’ve been meaning to finish it but it’s one of those articles you can take forever to write if you wanted to.

I have decided to put up interesting facts, the first fact is that my review on D-Link SharePort on the DIR-655 has had the most views of any posts, you guys seem to like it so I will hopefully bring more of the same in future reviews.

Windows Vista SP2 release before Windows 7

Earlier this week Microsoft stated that Vista’s Service Pack 2 will be released before Windows 7. As Windows 7 will be released in the second half of that year it has caused many to be worried that Microsoft are rushing SP2.

I don’t believe this will be a problem and I certainly don’t believe Microsoft would be rushing this, to release a Service Pack within a year was common before Windows XP and has happened since, things have changed and Vista SP2 is not focused on the amount of features and deep fixes that have been needed in Service Packs in the past 6 years.

Windows XP SP1 had a reasonable time frame of just under a year, however it was fairly rushed and rightly so, but there were no issues caused by rushing the update. SP2 of XP took quite some time (2 years since SP1) and this was due to the radical changes in the OS that were proposed, new device drivers had to be made, this led to more and more testing and in the end it was a significant change, but with the amount of changes you would expect from 2 Service Packs, released in the same amount of time. Windows XP SP3 is again more of a roll up release that was not necessarily needed due to Windows Update, it was delayed because Windows Vista needed more resources at the time.

Windows Vista SP1 was like the Windows XP SP1 in a way, there were necessary changes that needed to be implemented and they were implemented fast, just over a year from the Retail release date and it was finished and ready, no rushing was needed.

Os Collection – Part 3 – MS-DOS 6

I figured I’d make less of a review and more of a guide this time around, MS-DOS is really only necessary to use when you are installing Windows on top, or if you need to use a boot disk.

This guide is very image heavy, so click below to open it, it may not be dialup friendly.

Continue reading Os Collection – Part 3 – MS-DOS 6

D-Link DIR-655 Router and SharePoint/SharePort

Update 16th January 2010: 1.33b01NA has been released.

Update 2nd November 2009: All users having issues with SharePort, check out this post for the latest information.

Update: Make sure you read the comments below to find out anything new about this feature, many bugs has been fixed since the original release, as of August 2009 Firmware 1.32NA FINAL is the latest firmware, read about it and download it here.

I have owned a D-Link DIR-655 router for the past year and it is by far the best router that I have ever used, although I did pay $150 more than what I have paid for a router before, so I’ve gotten what I have paid for.

Starting with the version 1.21 Beta 04 of the DIR-655 firmware there is now SharePoint functionality available. SharePoint as the media and other sites partially call it or SharePort as it is called everywhere else including the software itself is a way for D-Link products to share a USB device over the LAN, i’m going to try to not confuse you any further so I will refer to it only as SharePort from now on.

SharePort is an interesting feature that I actually wanted to be able to do a few years ago, by sharing USB devices from a computer so they can be used on another PC as if the device was actually plugged into your PC. D-Link have finally brought this technology to life in a limited fashion with SharePort.

Continue reading D-Link DIR-655 Router and SharePoint/SharePort

First WordPress Theme

I decided that I would give a go at writing an ambitious WordPress theme that hopefully will be much different from most WordPress themes, the general layout is familiar, but with little twists so I hope to bring something different to the WordPress community.

I have hit many snags along the way but so far it is W3C compliant and works in IE 7 and 8, FF and Safari/Chrome, however it looks shocking in IE6 using IE NetRenderer

I started writing this post 3 days ago and forgot what else to write about.

The site design is a bit over the place still, it’ll be cleaned up over the next few days after it has been finished.

New Windows 7 Screenshots at ThinkNext

Looks like ThinkNext have their hands on a copy of the 6780 (M3) build of Windows 7 and have show much more of Windows 7 than we have been able to see recently. You can view them here. The screenshots have now been taken down by Microsoft: http://www.thinknext.net/archives/2281.

Going by looks, not much has changed since Vista yet, however it seems a bit glassier, apart from the changes I have mentioned previously Calculator has had a face lift in what I can only say is a good move.

It looks as though the Control Panel items have undergone a change again, though in most cases they are still fundamentally the same.

Internet Explorer 8 is included, not much of a surprise there, it should be fairly complete by the time Windows 7 is out of Beta.

Most importantly UAC appears to have been toned down extensively in Windows 7, hopefully that doesn’t compromise on the security that was originally intended.

Not much info yet, however they intend on releasing a video soon.

Ribbon UI in Windows 7 M3

It appears going by the 2 images that have so far been released showing Paint and WordPad that Microsoft have decided to extend the Ribbon UI used in the Microsoft Office Suite to the included applications in Windows 7.

It’s a small change, but it shows that with Windows 7 Microsoft are willing to try new things. The Ribbon is a fairly handy part of the Office UI, in the case of WordPad it will allow people who are familiar with Word use WordPad much quicker.

I don’t believe the use of Paint will be more productive necessarily, as previously in Paint there was only 1 layer to most of the functionality, however the upside is that this allows Paint to increase in features if necessary without having to have yet another UI change.

Overall I believe it’s a nice addition to the Windows UI, even if it only affects a few applications, I look forward to seeing more of Windows 7 Milestone 3