Windows XP and "invalid boot disk" message

This happened to the partner of a work colleague on his main computer.

Absolute bummer!

"Oh crap", I thought, "this might need a repair install..... *groan*"

But all is not lost!

Reboot the PC with the original XP cdrom.
Move through the screens till you get to the point of installing Windows XP, or using the "Recovery Console"

DO NOT choose the 'R' option to use the Recovery Console.
Just press Enter to install XP. (Don't worry - this is what this post is all about....)

Eventually, after accepting the license agreement and such, you'll be presented with a screen that shows you the current XP installation.

Here's where it all went wrong for my work colleague's partner.

There were no options to select the current XP installation. Bad news I thought. His disk is crapped out - looks like a new disk at worst, a re-installation at best.

But NO!

Somewhere in that series of screens will be something that shows what the current Setup thinks is the current disk configuration, and the current XP installation.

In the case of my work colleague's machine, his *external* USB drive was showing up as Drive C:
His recently bootable internal hard drive was showing up as Drive D:, and there was no identifiable XP installation.

"This is not right", I thought.

SO! What to do?

....
....
...
....
....
....
....
....
....

Yes. Unplug the external USB hard drive and reboot.

Lo and behold and thanks to whatever diety you worship!

His Windows XP PC booted just fine and dandy.

Plugged the USB hard drive back in, and everything was back to normal.

Good stuff.

Debugging an activex dll called from a classic asp page.....

in the Visual Basicv 6 IDE used to work so easily before all the security updates from MS made it a lot harder.

I had an idea for a web app that I could run on my webserver here, but wanted the flexibility of single-stepping through my code in VB6 instead of having to put lots of response.write statements in the classic asp code.

Basically, calling an ActiveX DLL requires the following code in the asp page:

<%

Dim oObject

Set oObject = Server.CreateObject("Project1.Class1")

Response.Write oObject.DoSomething

Set oObject = nothing

%>

That's all the asp page needs to be - the rest of the code is in the Class1 module of the Project1 project. All fine so far.

So anyway, to be able to actually debug in the VB6 IDE, you need to follow the instructions here:

But I still couldn't get it to work. Here's my solution:

Put a breakpoint on a line of code in your AxDLL.

Start your project (Ctrl-F5)

Start Regedit.

Find the Project1.Class1 key in HKLM\Software\Classes

Right click it.

Select Permissions.

Click Add.

Type "everyone" (the everyone group)

Click Ok.

Select the Everyone entry.

Click the Allow checkbox to the right of the Full Control label.

Click Ok.

Browse to the asp file in a web browser.
With any luck, the VB6 IDE will now be active and you can step through the code.

Press F5 to continue running and return the result back to the asp page.

You should see your results.

Now, stop your project.

Refresh the RegEdit page.

See how the Project1.Class1 entry has disappeared? Bummer isn't it? You'll have to go through the process of granting Everyone Full Control each and every time you run your AxDLL project, but hey, its a small price to pay to get it to break in the IDE from your asp page.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

Oh! And by the way, this is only meant for development on your local machine. Once you've got the AxDLL finalised, you can then compile and register it for real on your web server machine. Once you've done that, you'll need to give full rights to the HKLM\Software\Classes Project1.Class1 key to IUSR_???? and the NETWORK service - I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Glenda will do it herself...

I have heard of Glenda Watson Hyatt before.

I decided to type out the first paragraph of her most recent blog post using just my left thumb, as Glenda does. So here goes: current time: 5:05pm.

"In this economic downturn, it's easy to ignore and forget individuals who are truly in need, those who are struggling to find food to eat and a warm place to sleep. But, this is exactly the time when they are in need the most, to know that they are not alone and that others still care."

Time now: 5:08pm. (Italics and inverted commas added by me at the end) - I have no idea how Glenda manages bold and italics in a blog post.

Anyway, it took me just over three minutes to type that one paragraph with one thumb.

If you think you're having problems, spare a moment to think about all the other people in the world who have way many more problems than you.

He finally did it!

The Nearest Book

"Again, nothing by itself is a huge matter, but it adds up, and it's all non-billable."

from The Software Developers Guide, 3rd Edition.

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall or on your blog.

Its a bit of fun.
Grab another book and do it again.

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Human beings are the most....

pathetic species on the planet.

Why?

The only thing that separates us from the animals is our brain.
So why does that make us pathetic?

A little story first.

I was just outside, having a glass of wine and a cigarette, looking the the rain falling into our pool. (Sorry I don't have a picture - my camera is crap at night-time)

I saw a frog swimming around in our pool.

I thought, "what a great life you have - no societal worries on your back (or on your mind)"

As long as that frog has breath, it'll just do what it needs to do to survive.

Think about that for a moment.

Imagine this:

Don't go to sleep in your bed tonight.
Try and sleep outside (regardless of weather) or even, in the closest hallway or corridor near your bedroom. That's right - no mattress, no blankets, no covering whatsoever.

At the very minimum, I can guarantee that you'll want to keep your socks on (let alone a t-shirt and/or shorts) - trust me - been there done that.....:)

I wonder how long you'll last before you have to come inside into the warmth of your home, or your bedroom, let alone your nice soft warm bed.

Ok, now its a new day. Go out into the sunshine all day - forget the sunscreen, the hat, the long sleeves.

Now go to bed outside in the elements - with only socks, shorts and t-shirt (or as you did the night before)

Wake up in the morning - go out with no sunscreen, hat or long sleeves.

Do this cycle for a week.

Are you beginning to get a picture here?

We humans are completely reliant on our brains to get us through - we cannot survive the way we're made, nor the way our skin is, nor any natural way that you can think of.

If we are left to the elements without protection, we die.

We die.

Its as simple as that.

Yet a little frog in my swimming pool will be there tomorrow morning, just like the birds who sing in the trees, just like the Christmas beetle that flew past me this afternoon.

Their lives may be a lot shorter than mine, but at least they live their lives in the best way they can - to survive and to adapt to their surroundings so that they do survive.

I thought that was pretty special.

Can you survive this current global financial turmoil?
Can you adapt to the challenges that face you?

How?, you ask?

Use your brain, I say!

Your brain is the most specialised instrument you have - don't waste it!
Educate yourself - start today!

You can do it! YOU CAN!

Get out from in front of the TV.
Go for a walk around your local suburb.
Look around you.
Opportunities abound!

They absolutely do - you only need to remove the blinkers on your eyes, and see the world in all its splendour to realise that you absolutely can make a difference - not only to your own life, but to everyone around you.

And your brain is the thing that will bring you abundance.

That small grayish lumpy thing that sits inside your skull is the absolute key to all your dreams. Nurture it, feed it, do anything you can for it to grow and show you a whole new way of living.

You have the capability - you do.

Now, get out there and make the most of each and every day - because you have the most powerful weapon ever bestowed on a human being: the human brain.

You can waste and destroy it, or you can treasure and grow it.

The choice is yours, and yours alone.

So are you willing to move from pathetic to outstanding?

I am.

Come and join the journey - I would love to have you by my side.

Get your head out of your...

asinine thinking.

Global financial crisis?

You work, don't you?
You actually have a job, do you?
And you're doing it tough?

OMG.

You have no idea of how people who have a very limited income survive.

And yet you whinge and bitch about how bad you have it.

I'll say it again - OMG.

Get over yourself.

I had the absolute pleasure the other day of helping a family friend buy a new laptop.

This friend is 86 years old.

Read that again.

86 years old.

I'm "in computers". I don't have a problem helping a family friend buy a new laptop. I'll put in a couple of hours to help this family friend.

What absolutely blew me away was the "compensation" that this family friend paid me.

I was quite willing to do this for nothing, however, I received a card, with an amount of money inside, from this family friend.

Now, understand this.

This is a family friend. Not a relative. No ties to the family at all. And who is 86 years old.

This family friend, 86 years old, still found the money to give me for the work I did.

So I ask: if someone, at 86 years old, who doesn't work, and has no other income source, is actually prepared to compensate me for my time, what does that say about the rest of you who do have a job, or own a business, or have some sort of income, and you need something done?

Why won't you spend your money?

Ok, so you don't know how to do a certain thing. Ok - I agree. (Hell, I don't know how to change a fan belt thingy on my V6 Magna) but do I try and do it myself?

No I don't.

I pay someone to do it for me.

Granted, there are a lot of "cowboys" out there (in every industry), who will make themselves out to be your saviour, but, get some references.

Ask for references. Phone those references. Make your own decision about who you pay for whatever service you require.

But - if you want to keep it in-house, remember this: you're still paying, in time if not in dollars, for someone to do the work. And when the work required is not what you're actually paying that person for, and the result takes a day or two to resolve, have you really saved yourself any money?

What if staff can't print?
What if staff can't access the Internet?
Can you really wait until someone on staff who "knows" something, actually gets around to getting in and fixing whatever problem you have? (And what happens when they have to admit to themselves that they don't really know how to fix said problem, and have to call someone else to help them? Just to save you a few dollars, or more importantly, to hide their inadequacy?)

Its a false economy. And what about out of hours? Do you really want to call someone in of a Sunday evening (who purports to know how to do stuff) at 9pm? Are you willing to compensate them for their out-of-hours time? Are they willing to give up their Sunday evening to help the organisation out, just because they "know" a thing or two?

Probably not on both counts.

Back to our family friend.

Given that our family friend found the money to compensate me for my time, (without me asking) I will now say: "If you want something done, I will charge you."

Our family friend found the money (without being asked) - why not you?

I guess it comes back to my old time rant and rave. Education.

If you want to save money, then go and educate yourself about how to do something.

If you don't want to educate yourself about how to do something, then be prepared to pay someone to do it for you.

If you want a "multi-skilled" workforce, you need to spend money on training (education).

If you don't want to, or don't have the time to educate yourself or your staff, then be prepared to pay someone to do the work you need done.

Just like our family friend did. And who is up and running, with no problems, in the first instance.

Because this family friend called on someone who knew what they were doing, and, at the end of the day, were prepared to pay for it.

Are you willing to do the same?+

DES, the Delivery Express System for Australia Post Parcel Contractors,

is now ready for release!

After months of getting the software ready for commercial release, its now available.

Visit its website at http://des.ath.cx:8080

If you know your local parcel contractor, please let them know (and let me know too, because if they sign up, you win too!)


Cheers all round for everyone I reckon.

Have you seen....

it all before?

"While it’s likely that some people in your audience have seen almost everything, it’s also quite likely that there’s nothing (nothing!) that everyone in your audience has seen. There are going to be people who don’t get this reference or that reference. There are certainly going to be people who, given the needle in a haystack culture we live in now, just haven’t seen the particular idea you’re riffing on."

Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/seen-it-all-bef.html

And for me, this is the best part.

You now have an opportunity to tell your tribe about new stuff, stuff they haven't heard (or even dreamed of!) or stuff they thought was "so far out there".

Nothing is so far out there.

Form a tribe.
Be the voice of that tribe.
(People want to be led.)
Lead them!
Profit!

Can you get a tribe together?

Barack did it.

So can you!


Don't wait - start now!

You know, you really do have some good things going for you, whether....

you believe it or not.

Take me for instance.

I have never thought of myself as someone that others might want to hear what I have to say.

I have always, and I mean always, cowered in the back and tried to take the lowest profile.

In the last couple of days, I have put myself out there, and have had such great responses!

I just can't believe it!

For example:

• I am twittering with Robert Scoble who is in China no less (well, not without some problems)

• I am well on the way to becoming a "Compatriot" (a greyhair "consultant")

• I have an opportunity to become a "Geek on Call"

all because I put my "virtual" voice out there, contacted people, told them about myself.

People - you can do whatever the hell you put your mind to - truly - just get yourself out there.

Sign up for all the social media accounts you can find. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed...

Post your thoughts - interact with others.

You will not believe the contacts you will make.

And the best thing of all, there are others who think like you do! There truly are!

You are not an island - reach out to everyone else.

You'll be surprised (and pleased) where your online journey takes you.

Do it now - reach out with your virtual voice.

There are many who want to hear what you have to say.

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• China gags Scoble but blogging still lives

Thank you, thank you, thank you.....

Theodore Roosevelt.

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html

Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech:

"It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."


Well said.

We need more people like Roosevelt in this day and age.

Image via Wikipedia

I am really, really, really, really excited because...

I am working on something that I think will really fly.

I used to be an Australia Post Parcel Contractor, and with my background in computers, software and databases, I thought there must be a better way to sequence the parcels that I had to deliver than write them all down on a sheet of paper.

So I started with an Excel spreadsheet, where every location was on a separate sheet in the workbook, and every street was listed in delivery order within that location.

Each morning, I would print out my spreadsheet (20 or so pages), take them to the delivery centre, and then fill it all out with a pen. I would then take these sheets with me as I delivered the parcels, and then cross them off the sheet after delivery.

I thought there must have been a better way, and there was.

What did I have?

A big list of streets within my delivery area.
A set of locations - individual areas, connected by main streets within my delivery area, having a set of streets from the master list.
A delivery sequence, so as to minimise the time needed to visit each delivery point.

I came up with a computer program to help me with this, and I used it everyday from January 2007 to January 2008.

I am now in the process of finalising it for commercial release.

Its been a fun, if sometimes painful ride, (those van seats aren't the best !) but its almost ready to go.

So, if you're a parcel delivery courier, you might want to visit the website - regardless of where you live in the world.

Parcel contractors in Australia are paid per parcel. The cost for my system is just one parcel per day per month.

Keep checking the website, because I'll be putting more and more content there as the days go by.

Leave a comment here if you want to. I would love to hear from you.



What do you think?

If you really want to start a business on the Internet...

NOW is the time.

I've signed up for a no-cost training course called The Thirty Day Challenge #30dc

Its all done and dusted for 2008, but 2009 is looking to be massive!

Join Ed Dale, Dan Raine, Phill Mason, Caro and Robert Somerville (and all the rest!) and all the gang for a no holds barred, completely without cost training course on how to build an Internet business from the ground up.

And today's live broadcast from Ed hinted at much more to come!

So if you're looking to supplement, or even supplant, your current income, you simply cannot go past the 30DC

Check it out now.

Can you believe that these sorts of scam...

emails are still doing the rounds?

And worse still, that people are losing their hard earned dollars to them?

COME ON PEOPLE, WAKE UP!

If you ever, ever, *EVER*, *EVER EVER EVER* respond to crap like this, then you honestly deserve to be fleeced of every single last dollar you possess.

Whenever you get an email like this - DELETE IT.
I cannot be any more plain.

This is my education process to you.

I give it freely in the hope that you won't be fleeced by these.... well, this is a family blog.

Learn from this. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.

(Gee - the name Rothschild should be enough to make alarm bells ring!)

Dear Friend,

This letter may come to you as a surprise due to the fact that we have not yet met. Firstly, I have to say that I have no intentions of causing you any pain.

My name is Mr. Lionel Meyer Rothschild, a European merchant. I have been diagnosed with Prostate and Esophageal cancer that was discovered very late due to lack of caring for my health. It has defiled all form of medicine and right now, I have only about a few months to live according to medical experts. I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone not even myself but my business.

Though I am very rich, I was never generous, I was always hostile to people  and only focus on my business as that was the only thing I cared for. But now I regret all this as I now know that there is more to life than just wanting to have or make all the money in the world. I use to say to my self that if God should give me a second chance I would live differently from how I have lived. I was meditating on my hospital bed and something told me that God is giving me a second chance by keeping me alive though doctors said I
wont last long. I know my time is near, thats why I have willed and given most of my properties and assets to my immediate and extended family members as well as some few close friends.

So far, I have been able to give alms to a few charity organizations in the U.A.E, London, Sudan, Zimbabwe I gave donations to the Global Fund for Children, GCF and I met two people over the internet that have successfully distributed my funds to charity organizations in their country. Now my health is deteriorating so badly, I really need you to help me distribute the last of my fortune. I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth. You might be wondering why I did not pick my close relatives for this task, but I once asked members of my family to close one of my accounts and
donate the money there to a charity organization in Bulgaria. They closed the account but refused to donate the money to the organization, but instead shared the money amongst themselves. From the way they are acting around me, something tells me they want me dead so they can split my last remaining assets and money. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be content with what I have left for them.

The last of my money which is a huge cash deposit that I have with a
security firm will be put in your care if only you will agree and are capable of seeing this through. I want you to help me collect this deposit and dispatched it to charity organizations of your choice and let them know that it is I Mr. Lionel M. Rothschild that is making this generous donation.

I am writing this from my laptop computer in my hospital bed where I wait for my time to come. I pray for you to support and assist me with a good heart. I hope we can build a relationship based on trust because I want to do this by all means possible before I die.

But the choice is yours Please you can contact me through this email
address: 
Be blessed my beloved,
Mr. Lionel Rothschild.

I hate ads on my web pages so much, that...

I've decided to take control of my browser, and just not see them!

If you're running Windows, search for your hosts file.
(It may be in different places depending on your version, but its there. Click Search (wherever that is on your system) and just type "hosts" (without the inverted commas))

When its found, edit it with Notepad. You'll see something like:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost


At the end of the file, type in the following lines:

127.0.0.1 mjxads.internet.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pic.adbrite.com
127.0.0.1 ads.adbrite.com
127.0.0.1 banner.tattomedia.com
127.0.0.1 www.britepic.com
127.0.0.1 ads.socialmedia.com



with tabs (or at least one space between the 127.0.0.1 and the actual hostname)

Save the file.
Restart your browser.

Hopefully, you'll eliminate a good number of ads now.
Faster surfing - that's always good especially on a slow connection.

You can always find out other ad serving sites by looking at the source code of the web page, but I'll leave that as an exercise for you!

Let me know what you think.

Here's to faster surfing (which we'll need if the Australian Government goes ahead with its stupid mandatory internet filtering at the ISP level of sites it deems illegal or otherwise not in the best interests of Australians.....)

I was wrong...

about Barack Obama not winning the Presidency.

Congratulations sir.

Loved your use of social media to galvanise the voters.
That is what democracy is all about.

Global Cooling is Here....

so why are we embarking on a CETS? (Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme)

Global Cooling is Here

Now, I don't even pretend to understand the graphs and stuff on the website mentioned above, but its a damn sight more informative than our government simply "saying" that trading carbon emissions is the best way to stop global warming.

Honestly.

Think about it.

So a company has to pay to pollute.
If they're earning mega-bucks anyway, its just a cost to their business.
And the cost gets passed on to their consumers anyway!

Its really you and I who pay (eventually) for the pollution.

So.

Does an emissions trading scheme really help to reduce global warming?
I don't think so.

What do you think?

WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? This has got to be...

the biggest load of shit that I have heard in a long time.

McCain sends condolences to Obama | The Courier-Mail

Obama's grandmother, dying from cancer just hours before the US presidential elections.

I just don't understand.

Why not just after? Or a week ago? Or two weeks after?

Why just before?

If it looks like shit, and it smells like shit, it's very probably shit.

What do you think?

Here's a prediction - I really don't think that

Barack Obama will be President.

Why?

@Mobasoft: If what the zeitgeist points out is true, the establishment takes out Obama, and Biden takes over. Which makes sense to keep the status quo.

@Mobasoft: Four corporations own the entire media industry.

@Mobasoft: People are not put into positions of power in order to change things - they are put there to keep things the same. Sleep on it, it's true.

@Mobasoft: if 100% of us understood the first 20 minutes of this, oh what a vastly different place it would be - Zeitgeist Movie

@Mobasoft - Zeitgeist - Addendum

Monetary society? Might be good for some, but for most of us, no.... we don't stand a chance.

And even if Obama does actually become President, I really don't think he'll last too long....

This post was written on November 3rd, 2008, in Australia, by an Australian.

Some things just don't ring true.

Its no good saying "yeah, I knew he wouldn't get in" after the event....

I could be wrong, and I really hope I am, but..... I had to post this.

Educate yourself now.
Turn off the television news.
Ignore the daily newspapers.
Go to your local library.
Become an avid reader.
Talk to your much older folk.
Learn from history.

There is more going on in the world than you can possibly imagine.

ASK QUESTIONS - DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.

Self-education is the key.

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Have you seen....

Zeitgeist - Addendum?

At about 00:49:25, there appears this text:

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity... The country behind this propaganda is the US" Robin Cook Former British Foreign Secretary
who incidentally, committed suicide.

Or did he?



You decide.
You have the power to change what is going on.
You are not helpless.

Educate yourself.

Educate yourself now.

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If you're going to do anything at all, the only word you need is....

START!

I've been a big fan of Seth Godin for ages, after reading his "The IdeaVirus", published in Fast Company magazine so long ago that I don't remember. I'm sure I still have the issue somewhere, oh yes, here it is: August 2000




On Josh Spear's blog, http://joshspear.com/item/speartalks-seth-godin/, he talks with Seth about life, the universe and everything (well, almost)

One question and answer got me going:

JS: So, if you had a child, and he was about to embark on his/her first adventure in the digital frontier, what would your parting words be?

SG: Start.

I so wish I had given this advice to my kids when they were starting out.
Don't think too much, don't plan too much, (and as much as I hate paraphrasing another company) just do it.

So here's a new tag-line.

Just Start!

In these uncertain economic times, there's....

only one way you can possibly make any money.

And that is to "hitch-a-ride", so to speak.

Let me explain.

In 1849, miners in the California Gold Rush (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm)
needed supplies.... scroll down to "The Cost of Living" box.

Who were the suppliers to the miners?

Are you a supplier, or are you a miner?

Which would you rather be?

Someone who worked their fingers to the bone to eke out a living, or someone who saw an opportunity to provide much needed supplies and provisions to those seeking to make their fortune?

I know which camp I would rather be in.

There will always be miners, seeking that elusive fortune.
It stands to reason, there must also be suppliers for those miners.

If you have products or services that the miners need, who do you think will make money in the short term?

And when that gold dries up, go and find some other miners.

Its callous thinking, but so was the mindset of those who worked in investment banks and financial institutions, and who have put us in this current financial position.

So go get some of your own back.

The miners will always be there - they want the riches, but they'll need someone to help them along.

Vast opportunities exist, even in these uncertain times.

Let go of your fear, embrace change, educate yourself, and make a difference.

It is my fervent wish that you do so.

I was going to say "good luck" - but the luck we wish for ourselves, only happens when we actually take action.

I wish you all the very best in your endeavours.

You deserve it.

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Survive the Outbreak

There has been a lot of talk about interactive TV over the past few years.
It never happened because TV's don't let you interact (well, not simply)

But the Internet is completely different.

For example, we have a data projector connected to our PC which is connected to the Internet. We can see TV (via a TV tuner card in the PC), we can surf the web, we can play music via Windows Media Player (the PC is connected to our stereo) and see it all on the big screen.

The PC also has long leads for both mouse and keyboard (I haven't got around to wireless keyboard and mouse yet :) so I can sit on the lounge in front of a 6 foot TV screen and see everything!

But back to interactive TV / movies.

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

is one such website that allows you to control the outcome of what you watch.
See the trailer below, then visit

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

and try to survive!
Its great.




This is the future of entertainment people - trust me on this.
A lot has been said and written about this, but this is first example that has really got me involved (and I've been an Internet follower since 1997)

You will see more and more websites like this - all you need to do is revamp your viewing devices - get rid of that plasma or that lcd or that old standard CRT screen (TV or no) and install a data projector connected to your computer.

You'll get the *biggest* TV on offer for around $1500 (including pull-down screen) and you can use your existing computer as your media centre.

For example: I recently bought a new motherboard, 1.6 ghz cpu and 2 gig memory for AU$136.

$136!!!!!

If I didn't already have a "media centre pc", I'd be buying the following:

a) a 400w power supply (with case) - $<100
b) a TV tuner card (or USB tuner) - $<100

Put it all together, connect your Internet to this PC, and lo and behold, a complete digital entertainment environment for way less than $2000.

Way way way less than a plasma or lcd or what have you... and you can run so much stuff through it - make the PC the universe of your entertainment universe.

It *is* doable - its just the advertising from all the other "electrical retailers" that have you reaching into your back pocket for funds you don't really have - "x days interest free" - DON'T fall into their trap.

Let me say that again:

DON'T FALL INTO THEIR TRAP!

You can get the best entertainment centre for way way way less than what the major retailers are trying to sell you. Their advertising is very powerful, but you have the power too.

Do you know what it is?

It is the power to say NO.

If you have questions, I am here to answer them.

Go and have a look at

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

and try to survive, and leave a comment.

Cheers
Brad

Love your children

I have been so slack in loving my children.

I miss them so much.

The old song lyric from Joni Mitchell

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone? "

has never been more true...

Kids, I miss you, and love you more than I can say.

Googlewhacking

topological endomitirosis

A misspell of the second word but there you go...... :)

Try it - its fun

What is Googlewhacking?
Put exactly two search terms into Google and try to return just one result.

DIY Web Server site

Hmmm - I just can't decide to go with WordPress for the main site, or continue with the static PHP pages.

There are lots and lots and lots of themes for WordPress, but I just can't spend the time to download, install and activate every theme. Does anyone have any pointers to a really good one?
I like Mandigo, but.... hmmmm, some widgets only work on the blog template page.... hmmm.

Bradzo - Newly Licensed TV Doctor

Ok, so where's the nearest hospital?

Gotta get with those interns - stat!

:)

And as we wind on down the road...

Stumbling around the other day....

xkcd - A Webcomic - Classic

Haha! I knew it! We (baby boomers) are the best!
:)

Super fund loss

This really annoys me.

The last thing I did for money was delivering parcels for Australia Post. To do this, you have to create a company, register for GST and do all the other stuff that goes with all that.

Being a company director also means that you need to ensure you pay the 9% superannuation guarantee on behalf of your employees - in this case, myself and the other director of the company.

So we did that - I paid $3014 into my super fund to comply with the law. All good on that front - no trouble with doing that.

Today, I received my superannuation fund yearly statement for the year ended 30th June, 2008. I can see my deposit of $3014.73 - fees and taxes and charges took $452.21, leaving me with a nett of $2562.52.

All well and good I suppose.

But then, the next line item is:

Net investment loss -$1,800.86

leaving me with a nett increase of just $761.66 on my superannuation.

WOW! When I retire, that'll give me just 2.78 weeks of living on the single pensioner allowance of a measly $273.00 a week.

So for an entire year of working from 4:30am (yes, AM) to whenever it took to finish the days parcels, I managed to get an additional $761.66 into my superannuation. A whopping $14.64 a week.

I thought that super funds were supposed to earn you money over time.

Looks like the US subprime crisis is closer to home than anyone realises.

I wonder whether the executives of Lehman Bros and the like want to pay me the $1800 I lost because of the volatility of the share market, due largely to the crap decisions they took.

Thanks - you effectively ensured that I worked for $14.64 a week to help pay for my retirement, but you pocketed how many millions?

This kind of greed has got to stop. How much money do you "executives" actually need to survive day to day?

The gall of you is just incredible - how can you live with yourselves?

I am just disgusted with the lot of you.

All is not lost when you can do this...

If you thought the world was going to hell in a hand basket, this might ease things for you for a little while.

It brought a smile of wonderment to my face, and that's pretty rare these days.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

And I completely forgot!

arrr!
where's me buccaneers?
on me buckin' 'ead!

avast, me hearties!

Twitter Followers

I can't quite believe this.

Craig Beckta is following me on Twitter.

How bizarre is that? I didn't think I was worthy!

Craig is the author of "The Secret Affiliate Code"

Thanks Craig - I'm following you back now :)

DIY Webserver

Hi gang


It was fun, but DIY Web Server now has a new home:

http://diyws.ath.cx:8080

Check it out now! :)

Cheers
Brad

Mid life crisis

Hi gang

I'm having a mid life crisis - well, not one that includes buying fast cars, or leaving my wife for a younger woman....

I've finally realised what a great place the world actually is!

And am learning that each and everyone of us has something good to contribute to society, regardless of what it is.

And that people, the world over, are generally kind and good to one another.

And that, if you put yourself out there, you'll find that you can connect with all these good people, and lights come on in your life.

It does happen!

I admit - I don't get out much. A lot of my time is spent in front of the computer. But that time has allowed me to earn money doing what I enjoy - writing computer software.

I used to do a lot of that, but time has taken its toll. I'm not as fast as I once was, and there are other people who are coming up with stuff that just blows me away.

But the essence of that is this: while all these new things are very cool from a developers point of view, they don't make a blip on the radar of the very people who could benefit from this new stuff.

So, given my interest in trying to help other small businesses to at least survive (given these tough economic times) let alone grow, it gives me a chance to learn all I can about what is out there in cyberland, understand it, learn it and implement it.

Then, I can start promoting and selling these new things to other small businesses, at a reasonable cost - to them, and because I haven't had to spend my time developing new stuff, for me also.

Its a win-win situation, and one which I am really looking forward to.

So this is my mid life crisis - finally having the understanding about what I can offer the world, but how to go about it!

I am so excited by the possibilities, but it also drives me to distraction!
What to focus on first? What to learn, to give back to others?

I am in crisis, but I will get through it.

What about you? Where are you in life? Is there something positive you can show the world? If so, take the chance. You only live once - as someone famous once said - "Life is not a rehearsal" - forget the naysayers and dreamstealers.

Get out there and do it!

Here's to your success - in everything you do!

Bradzo has an epiphany...

I received an email today from some mailing list thing I subscribe to, and it told about signing up for an "exclusive, secret" interview with Tony Robbins.

In part, it said "Here is your rare opportunity to join Tony as he shares some of his most intimate and affecting life moments. But more importantly, he outlines the peak state achievable by all of us, the state of mind that can be triggered at will to generate the energy and momentum to achieve an extraordinary quality of life."

I really thought about this when I read it - and I realised that I'm always at that state of mind - its just that I don't take action!

So I thought I'd share my epiphany with you (and thanks Alex, I remembered your post immediately) - and its this:

No matter what we do in life, we can always achieve something special if we just get out there and DO IT

Life's short, right? You're a long time dead, right? What are people going to say about you in one hundred years time? Think about all the people that we still talk about today - Shakespeare, Mozart, etc.

They got out there, did what they LOVED, took the criticisms levelled at them, yet still, here we are, a hundred years later, and we still talk of them (and in the case of the above) still listen to their music, and read their books.

What does that say about finding mindset to just get out there and DO IT?

To paraphrase another well known personality, "I think there's something in that for all of us....." :)

One thing - if you haven't already, go and check out Oza's blog -
http://ozameilleur.com/blog/

Oza and Mudd always make me smile, and I can read the passion that just shines through - if we can all find this, imagine what a wonderful world we could be living in!

Say it once - say it again - who needs Tony Robbins!?!?!?!

I'd love to hear your comments.

Congratulations to Stephanie Rice

Stephanie Rice - World Record Holder and Gold Medallist - Beijing 2008.

4:35.11 in heat
4:29:45 in Final

6~ seconds!

Katie Hoff:
4:34.63 in heat
4:31.71 in final.

Katie took ~3 seconds off her heat time, but Steph took ~6 seconds off her heat time!

Brilliant performance!

Congratulations to all of you.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

QR codes revisited

Ok, I'll settle down a bit now... no use getting worked up - no-one gives a toss anyway.

So I went into my local newsagent yesterday, and saw the latest issue of the Trading Post.

Guess what was front and centre of the front page? Yep! a QR code!

I wish I had bought that issue to see what it was all about. Will try to get a copy this week.

Stay tuned.

Adobe Air looks like a really good platform on which to develop RIA's (rich internet applications)

I've downloaded the 60day trial and have created a very small browser based application that looks great and works like a dream. I will publish it soon so keep checking back here and I'll post a link to it.

You can also create desktop apps with it as well, and its also cross platform, so Linux, Mac and PC users can all use the same application. It increases your market reach which is something that I've been looking for for a long time.

If you use Twhirl, then you're using an application built with Adobe Air.

I will be paying very close attention to Air and see where it takes me.

http://www.adobe.com/products/air

Something to learn from our younger people....

Hi folks

Today I want to give some accolades to my step-daughter Georgia.

I have lived with Georgia since she was 11 - her mother (my wife Desley) and I met in 1999. We married in 2000, and Georgia was obviously living at home with her mum. Then I moved in as the "step-father" - well, as often happens we had a tumultuous relationship.

Well, enough of all that - Georgia has just grown and grown as a person and as a strong business woman. At just 20 years old, she has started her own business, and earns more than her mother and I combined.

http://www.georgiaclare.com.au

This current link goes to her recruitment agency page, but she has her hair extensions business too, but I can't find her hair extensions business website.

No matter - Georgia is just 20 years old, and she just gets out there and doesn't let *anyone* stand in her way of being successful! For someone in this day and age, I congratulate her, and wish I had her vision and passion and commitment.

We can all do this - we just need to let go of old preconceptions. Georgia just doesn't know how to fail - it isn't a word in her vocabulary.

If you get a chance, visit her website and send her a message.

Oza Meilleur

Hey folks

Want to be made happy?!

Check out Oza's blog.

http://ozameilleur.com/blog/

Visit and be happy!

QR Codes!

LOL!

Send me a message in reply to this one (above) !!!

Cheers
Brad

New Colour Scheme

Hi folks

Yep, I've changed templates yet again.
Just to keep it fresh, and you on your toes! :)

More later after I battle with Crystal Reports.

Hang on, maybe it isn't CR. Maybe its my database driver.

Currently using the SIB Provider from Marcio Wesley Borges that I bought
many years ago, and has been fine since, but no updates and sibprovider.com
doesn't exist anymore.

Perhaps its time to revisit ODBC - the free driver.

Will let you know how I go.

In the meantime, I'm having a glass of Shiraz - usually Merlot, but its the only open bottle! hah!

Thirty Day Challenge TV

Just watching the Thirty Day Challenge TV channel on Ustream.

Ed's got some great tips for Internet Marketing - if you've not signed up, go here,
and click the link you'll find there to take you to the signup page.


Everyone can do this! So can you.

http://30dc.ath.cx

Crystal Reports 9, Visual Basic 6 and Firebird

What is it with CR9?

All I'm trying to do is report on some records where my DATE_ADDED field is between two dates.

So I add a RecordSelectionFormula:

{DATE_ADDED} in date(2008,7,12) to date(2008,7,13)

but my OLE DB provider, Sibpro2.dll, gives me an error with the CONVERT function unknown.
I guess CR9 is generating a SQL statement that includes the unknown CONVERT function - probably valid if I'm using SQL Server (argh! Microsoft strikes again with non standard SQL extensions!) but I'm using Firebird.

Blah.

And I have to get this finished this afternoon.

The Thirty Day Challenge

I'm doing the Thirty Day Challenge this year.

I didn't do much last year, but this time I intend to attack it with a vengeance!
I want to make more money than I am now, and this is one way to do it.

The Thirty Day Challenge is all about teaching you the skills to market yourself, or your product online.

Go and have a look, and register - we're currently in pre-season, and the actual challenge starts on August 1, so there's not much time left to get yourself organised.

Go here and sign up - its free. Completely free training - your only cost is your time.

http://30dc.ath.cx/


To your success!

Chaos Trigger

Being a drummer from way back in the dim dark past, its only natural that my son would take over the sticks:

Introducing:

Chaos Trigger

http://www.myspace.com/chaostriggerau

Don't let the backgrounds and darkness etc bring you down - have a listen to their music - your head will eventually start nodding.....

And Chaos Trigger's music is actually - well, thoughtful, and structured, and has that "something extra" that a lot of metal bands simply don't.

Listen to Sciophobia for an example.

All in all, GREAT STUFF!!

I had the best time at their gig last Saturday 21st June 2008.

If you get a chance, go and see them.

Long time, no speak :)

Well folks, I'm back.

Out of the wilderness of a one man band, so to speak.

Got a j.o.b. A great job at that, but still, so few minutes at the end of the day to do what I really want to do.

No matter. Its all good.

So what's been happening with all you good people?
Leave a comment - I will respond.

Take care

Me.

Make it so!

Just read an article by Steve Pavlina - Cause-Effect vs Intention-Manifestation.
I want to try his idea out. Here goes.

My intention is for my software product, called Totally, to be a huge success. Make it so.

Hacking a binary file

I've been trying to hack a binary file.

The first two bytes in the file are a checksum - I think.
The next set of byte pairs point to text strings in the file. I've sussed these out.

However, even though I can find the first input screen on the hardware device that "runs" these files, I can't work out where the hardware device is getting the location of the first byte of this input screen. It's probably using an offset from a known location within the file, but my brain hurts trying to figure it out.

Anyone wanna help? :)

Totally Financial Reporting and XBRL

As the world turns more and more to XML as a form of data interchange, many products are beginning to export their native data into some form of XML to be consumed by other products.

One emerging XML standard is the XBRL - Extensible Business Reporting Language - see http://www.xbrl.org for more information. Basically, it is a method of being able to output financial information (balance sheet, profit and loss etc) to a format that can be read by other systems.

Some of the biggest names in the software industry are XBRL-enabling their applications - Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft etc. Here's the XBRL data for Microsoft for the 4th quarter of 2004.

We've decided to add XBRL support to Totally as well. Some big names in the financial industry in Australia also speak XBRL - the ANZ, Aussie Home Loans, Bank of QLD to name a few - the the full list here.

How will using XBRL help your business? According to xbrl.org, XBRL can speed up, reduce effort and increase reliability in accounting and auditing tasks. So instead of tediously having to fill out bank forms, just give them an XBRL data file.

This means less work for you (because Totally will generate the required information) and less work for the bank and who knows, the banks may even reduce their fees and charges! ;-) Everyone wins.

"Branding"

More on branding.

http://www.brandingblog.com/2004/11/marketing_in_20.html

This is quite thought provoking. How much it means to you is dependent on how you see your business growing over the next 3-5 years. Are you ready for more online communications with your customers?

You might even think of starting a corporate blog yourself - here, you can give your customers an insight into how you, as a business owner/manager, thinks about your company, its products and services, and how it presents itself to its customers.

There really is too much hype around products and marketing these days. I believe we are becoming quite jaded when we see the latest television commercials. I find myself saying "ho-hum" and quite literally tuning out. That's exactly the opposite of what the advertiser is trying to get me to do!

We all need more truth and honesty, instead of spin and deceit. I believe only those companies that open up and let their customers see them, warts and all, will be successful over the next 3-5 years.

If you've ever thought of new ways to reach your customers, then perhaps the online world is one place you might start looking into. Many options are available to get you started for free - http://www.blogger.com is one.

Anyway, read the article linked to above. I hope it fires your imagination.

Totally Intelligent Software Systems

Read an article today:

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/IntelligentSystemsPartI.asp

Intelligent Software Systems are those that present the most used options in a software package, whilst hiding others (although still accessible)

We'll be adding "intelligence" to Totally as soon as is practicable. I can think of a number of uses for it - when you ask for a list of customers, put the most used (or frequently accessed) customers at the top of the list. Saves you having to scroll through them all, especially when they're in alpha order. If you constantly send invoices to "Thomas, Brad" scrolling to the T's in an alpha ordered customer list is going to get on your nerves. Putting "Thomas, Brad" at the top of the list is going to ease the selection process.

More on intelligent software systems later.

Totally Customer

Here's the Customer window from a running copy of Totally.



Our customer screen shows general details, billing and shipping addresses, a list of invoices sent, payments received from, documents you've sent, and conversations had with this customer.

The good thing about Totally's design is that we can modify this screen very quickly, and just give you an updated Customer applet. No need to wait for the next version.

Would this suit you? We welcome your feedback.

Totally Aggregating Data

One of the nice things that we've built into Totally is an automatic aggregation of data items. Whenever you add a new customer who lives in QLD, Totally will add one to the total count of all customers who live in QLD.

Then, when you view the Information Dashboard, you can select your customer thing, and immediately review the numbers you're slowly building up.

For an example, have a look at this screenshot. (Click it to view a large version)



What is this telling us? That most of our customers live in NSW.

And this one.



What is this telling us? That most of our customers found us through word of mouth.

Options such as this are found in really expensive software, and now for the first time, you get it with Totally.

Small Business Security

If you're a snmall business, and you're connected to the Internet, you need to ensure you're protected from the nasties. Worms, virii, spam, etc.

Here's 10 top areas you need to consider to secure yourself.

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNCID=35&CIaNID=17248

What other issues do you see as being important?

I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Product "Branding" for small businesses

Since this blog is all about reducing costs for small business, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at some other areas of small business that should be addressed.

Today's topic: "Product Branding"

When you see this:



what do you think of? Nike?

There you go. One simple symbol that speaks about the entire company.

Wouldn't it be nice to have something about your company that is instantly recognisable? If you thought branding costs too much, have a read of this.

http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?id=135

We're going to be using this



as our "brand" - whenever you see this, you'll know that its all about "helping small businesses realise and build on their potential" and that "running a business means more than just doing the books"

What sort of symbol or brand could you use to get into the minds of your customers?

Totally - Thoughts behind it

Totally was born out of small business owners' frustration at having to deal with:

1. expensive software
2. having to buy a copy for every workstation
3. fees for every upgrade
4. a fee for phone support
5. software that only knows about itself

and a whole raft of others.

These points, predominantly, drove the development of Totally. Our mission was to find a way to provide a viable alternative to all the other standalone software programs out there, and sell it for a reasonable price. We think we've achieved that.

Ourt biggest contribution to the bottom line of small businesses is the initial purchase price (free of the "you must buy a copy for every workstation" syndrome) and the optional monthly fee.

We can't afford to just give it away. It is a business management type software, so to leave out some features for the free version would be silly. Small businesses have enough to contend with, without having to "work around" problems that arise simply because the feature is not present or disabled in free versions.

Have a look at Totally's home page for more details.

.:Totally:. - Report Printing

Yesterday I finally finished a generic print function that outputs an HTML table. Here's an example
Here's another (yes, its got one slight little problem)

Both of these were generated by the same function. This is great, because no matter which "thing" you're viewing, there only needs to be one print function. So that's out of the way.

Don't like the look of that output? Easy enough to change - I should probably make the colours a setting somewhere.

The "Knoppix" Linux distro - a real reason to change

Well, its taken a long time, but I've just found a *real* reason to switch to Linux for practically all my computing needs except developing software.

Knoppix - http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
is simply the best Linux distro I've yet to try. It boots off a cdrom (you'll need a computer capable of booting from the cdrom drive) and you can then install it to the hard disk by starting up a terminal window, su-ing to root, and typing "knx2hd" to start the install process. I just accepted the default answers, and I've got it up and running.

It comes with lots of applications - OpenOffice (MS Office compatible office suite), Mozilla (web browser), cd player, you name it - there's everything you could possibly need or want, and it all works fine.

I would really suggest you download the ISO image, burn it to a cdrom, and try it out. The fact that it runs off the cdrom means you can stick it in your Windows box and your Windows environment will still be safe - no need to install Knoppix in the traditional sense. Run it off the cdrom and see what its like - I just bet that you'll blow away your Windows partition and give the entire disk to Knoppix (eventually)

Totally - Accounting #2 (and a change of style)

More on Totally. Its coming along in leaps and bounds. I decided to write my own accounting module. My Mum and I (she's a bookkeeper) sat down one day and spent six solid hours examining exactly what is an accounting system. Once you get a handle on it, its really quite simple, even double entry accounting.

So now, with the help of the design of Totally's database, I've now created a stored procedure that builds a relationship tree for every "thing" in there. For accounting, that's great, because the stored procedure can generate something like this:

[Chart of Accounts]
-----> Assets
     -----> Current Assets
          -----> General Cheque Account
          -----> Petty Cash
          -----> Trade Debtors

etc - all without creating a specific procedure just to build this tree - the generic stored procedure builds it all for me. FIGJAM.

Totally is so close to release, and there's been a lot of interest in it so far by current customers and others.

I think its going to do quite well. ;-)


You may have also noticed that I changed the style of my blog. This one looks great.

Totally - Database Considerations

Well, this is interesting.

I went to create an installer for Totally that included the demo database I've been testing with.
The database was 143 megabytes - when compressed into the installer, the size of the installer was 51mb.

A bit large for a download. So, since I'm using the Interbase IBConsole to manage my databases, (but delivering the Firebird data engine via MSM's in the installer, which will read an Interbase database anyway) I decided to do a backup and restore.

I've imported around 22,000 MYOB customers into Totally's database, and then deleted them all during my testing, but the database size remained the same (143mb). What's interesting is that now that I've removed all the data from it, and only imported about 500 customers, the database size still remained at 143mb.

Now that I've done a backup and restore using IBConsole, the database is now at a nice tight little 1.7mb. Perfect for an alpha demo download!

Look for it online soon. ;-)

Until next time, its all Totally good.

Totally - Customer Applet

Had a brain explosion.

I've been stuffing around with a generic process to display "things" for far too long and have really begun to confuse myself.

So I thought, right, lets create an applet that deals only with Customers. So I did and it took about an hour. It loads up all the customers, lets you select one, populates the form, allows you to edit the details, and then saves those details back.

Done. Don't know why I didn't do this before. Its so simple.

And because its an applet, and because its called by its ProgID, its a simple matter to unregister the old one, copy the new one in, register the new one, and begin using the new one. Simple.

FIGJAM.
;-)

.:Totally:. Relationships

Excellent.

I've gotten relationships to work.

For example, if a customer has numerous invoices to pay, I've now added some logic to show those invoices on the customer form.

BTW - the customer form definition is an XML file - so if a field needs to be added, one just needs to edit the XML file. Simple. Dead simple. There's even an editor that's built into Totally that lets you add new fields to the form and you can drag the field around the form, then save it.

It is taking a long while to get right, but I can see a day when this will be a very good application.

Just need to feed myself in the meantime.

.:Totally:. and Quickbooks

Now this is groovy.

I just created a Quickbooks Clone as a Totally applet.
Will this be a good way to provide an accounting module for Totally instead of writing it all myself? Could be, could be.

Yes, you'll need a copy of Quickbooks.
Yes, that copy of Quickbooks needs to be running.
Yes, you need to have a company file open.

No, you don't need a fully registered copy of Quickbooks - a trial edition will do!

This is great.

The current Quickbooks Clone allows you to:
1. List all your customers and their jobs
2. Click on a customer and view all their invoices
3. Click on an invoice and enter a payment.
4. Add new invoices for a customer.

The other good thing about this is that we don't have to do a complete import of Quickbooks data directly into Totally and manage it ourselves. We just tell Quickbooks what to do, and it'll store everything we need. Then, at the end of the financial year, the Totally user can take their datafile to the accountant (who will have a properly registered copy) and be able to see all the data in that company file. The trial editions of Quickbooks don't show you anything if you have around 250 transactions.

Totally, using the Quickbooks SDK, can "see" everything. So we just need to mimic the data entry / display forms, and send that data to Quickbooks.

This also allows the Quickbooks Clone to call on extra applets that perform calculations etc on current Quickbooks data - all those things that Quickbooks doesn't natively support or offer. Great.

Caveat: This has only been tested on the Quickbooks Pro 2003 Australian Edition Trial Version.

.:Totally:. - Feedback!

This is great!

I had some feedback from a prospective customer!

Quoting Chowdhury:


Dear Brad:

Thanks for making me understand what "Totally" is. It would be a great software! Are u making it only for Australia? Since you are still in developing stage I would request you to make it (easier) for end user. Cause all these codes is out of our range.

I will check your webpage now and then. And will wait for an alpha/beta release to test.

Best of luck! You are doing a good work for people like us who are stuck in the middle of company operation and QB's understanding of these operations.

Yours,
Chowdhury.

Excellent!

Thanks Chowdhury!

.:Totally:. Installation

Here's a few thoughts on installing Totally.

Each copy will come with and install both the Firebird RDBMS and a pre-configured database so that it can be used straight away (unless I can figure out a way of getting the installer to only install the RDBMS if the user selects it)

If Totally is installed on all workstations within a LAN, then there are going to be multiple database servers running. This is probably not a good thing, but for standalone workstations, not needing to connect to a database across the LAN, this is required.

I think the best way to solve this is, when each user changes the connection to use the networked version of the database, then it should stop the rdbms service on that workstation. Or maybe, for failsafe, keep it running - for example, should the networked database not be available for some reason, then each workstation could have their own locally synced version.

Hmm - need some replication here! Oops - this is getting big. But there is replication software available? Yes I think so.

Oh well, forget about that for the time being.

To change the connection from the local database to the networked one then, there needs to be an option or a preferences dialog where the end user can change to the networked version.

It should enumerate all the LAN machines, and let the user select one. The connection string in the Totally.INI file should then point to the networked version of the database - but we still have a problem in determining the actual path to the db on the "server".

Perhaps Totally should also install a "listener" app that "knows" about the location of the database on that particular machine. When the user changes connections, it can query all the listeners - the listener will tell the workstation where the db resides on the server machine.

This is good, but how to install and run the listener service? Put it in the HKLM\....\Run key of the registry so it always starts up? Yes, that sounds fine.

Perhaps Totally can do it itself - instead of the listener. Yes, this is better. Totally needs to be running on the "server" machine anyway so that it can accept Jabber requests from the outside world - (for the publish / subscribe facility) which means any firewalls in place will have to forward Jabber port requests to the server on which Totally is running. Hmmm - that means the local LAN admin needs to do some setting up.

Oh well, for now, we'll just have to implement it using Internet Connection Sharing and ZoneAlarm - no external hardware firewall - need to write up some docs for that.

But wasn't one of the tenets of Totally going to be "Napster for business"? I can run PSI as a Jabber client, and I can still communicate via my LAN gateway machine, so Totally shouldn't have a problem either. NAT/ICS will take care of that for me. So it seems to be ok from a hardware firewall point of view also?

Need to do some more investigating.

.:Totally:. and Things and Applets

Hmmm - I was just looking at the menu structure to the Totally MDI UI, and it occurred to me that there is only really a need to show Things (Customers, Suppliers, Invoices, Emails etc) and Applets.

An Applet can process Things, so there isn't a need to have the UI cluttered up with menu choices to start this applet or that applet. This is a better design too, because then the administrator of Totally can decide to only allow certain applets to be installed on each end-users PC (in the applet-cache folder). If it's not there, they can't even see it. Yes, much better.

The only menu items that a end-user should see are those that allow them a bit of personalisation as to how their copy of the Totally UI looks in terms of background colours/images etc.

The only applets needed on each workstation are those that let the user choose which Thing or Applet to work with.

The current Things applet is called InternalMenu (I had this wild idea of being able to use the database schema to support Ingenieum menus) so began with that. It probably needs to be called something else now that I've had a bit of a think about it.

.:Totally:. and Banner ads

I had this crazy idea of adding an animated gif banner thing to the top of the Totally UI. This was really to prompt the user to register Totally, (and I'll keep this) but the other good thing is that any business that subscribes to the Total service can have their own banner ad appear on every other copy of Totally that is running.

With current banner ads, you actually need to go to a website to see them. As a business owner, which website do you choose to have your banner ad displayed? And can you be guaranteed that your target audience is going to see it anyway?

Basically, this is an idea ripped straight out of Opera's book. If they can do it, so can I.

So I need a URL inside Totally that will pick up a random banner ad given to PSI by the subscribed business, and each copy of Totally will pick a banner at random. Since the subscribed business doesn't pay for placement (only their monthly fee) there is no guarantee that their banner ad will always be seen. However, a better idea may be to rotate them.

Hmm - I'll have to look at Microsoft's AdRotator component. Must go do that now before I forget.

More soon.

.:Totally:. and Jabber

In order to communicate between instances of Totally, we'll be using the Jabber protocol. It's XML based, which is great. It also offers an SSL mode of connecting to a Jabber server, so for me, that's a good thing.

And because session ID's and digital certificates will only be known to the communicating copies of Totally, it'll make it hard for a cracker to connect to a running instance of Totally using some Jabber client. They'd have to work very hard in order to fake a connection - and what will they get even if they do? A whole stream of 128bit cryptographically secure data.

I think we're safe - but I've been wrong before.

More Ingenieum download requests are coming in

We've had more Ingenieum download requests over the past few days.

Thanks to Roman for wanting to be kept informed. Will email you soon Roman, with details of the new version.

I'd just like to know how one can get more hits on a website

a) without paying huge amounts of money
b) without spamming
c) without looking like a jerk

Hmmm - perhaps I need to post a few messages on that website about Windows desktop replacements. What was that URL? hmmm www.shellfront.org looks good.

Look for me there!

"Totally" is moving along well

Totally, the software portion of the Total small business service, is moving along quite nicely thank you.

Its great. I added a few silly little things that won't be much on the larger scale of things, but it makes the whole product look that much better.

1. Animated banner ads in the top right hand corner, just like Opera. Thanks to Stephen Lebans for his OCX to do animated gifs.
2. Easy ASP page invoking a COM DLL to accept data sent to it by a class provided by Eduard Morcillo (Edanmo) and allowing me to store registration details in my customer database without having to install Internet Explorer just to send a form, like other apps do.

But I'm having a lot of fun.

Now, just have to build it and you'll be able to download it soon.

Stay tuned.

Ingenieum's Page Generation

This is great. I'm getting so far along with the new version of Ingenieum.
 
Today I added another stored procedure to call on existing stored procedures that lets me get the entire content of the menu page in one call to the database.
 
Then, the entire page gets sent back to the browser with no extra processing needed by the script that gets the content - it is formatted by the stored procedure.
 
Brilliant! I am so happy.
 
 

New Ingenieum release!

We're working on a new release of Ingenieum.
 
We've also got a new website being developed now - it looks fantastic - congrats to Don and Sam for getting it moved along. Beej - your design has worked for the last 3 years, but we felt it was time for a revamp (love you btw) and we thank you profusely for the work you did in getting the current site together.
 
So, what's in the new release? In a word, lots.
 
1. A proper RDBMS instead of MS Access. We'll be using the open-source Firebird RDBMS - see http://www.firebirdsql.org for details.
2. Lots of page generation stuff will be inside the database in the form of stored procedures, so we can easily put the database on another platform (Linux, Unix, MacOS) and connect to it via PHP served by Apache! So if you've been put off by needing IIS, have another look at Ingenieum soon!
3. Getting Ingenieum to run on other platforms gives us a lot of scope to provide more and more functionality and services.
 
Stay tuned at http://www.ingenieum.com for more details.
 
 
 
 

Ingenieum Version Numbers

Before I forget, here's the most recent version numbers of the applications in the Ingenieum suite.
 
MenuServer - 2.0.0.12
Database Administrator - 2.6.0.39
Application Launcher - 2.1.0.125
Impero - 1.1.0.66
Impero Configuration Editor - 1.0.0.0
Reperio - 1.1.0.12
Reperio Configuration Editor - 1.1.0.9
Database Selector - 1.1.0.14
 
Unreleased software:
Ingenieum Web Admin - 1.0.0.0
 
 

Ingenieum's Licensing Functionality

Ok - I need to add license monitoring to Ingenieum.
 
Basically, the original premise of licensing was for CDROM apps. Now, it has to extend to websites as well.
 
The problem is that the original MenuServer only took licensing into consideration if the link that was about to be launched was an application (12345.ald) - now it appears that we have to use the Application Launcher to go to web sites too - therefore, the only way that licensing can work for the *current* version of Ingenieum's MenuServer is to force all websites to be opened in a new browser window.
 
So the item link must have an entry in the Program's tab - then, the link will be opened using Application Launcher, which will then use the AsynchDownload class to contact the MenuServer to say that a license needs to be checked out from the pool.
 
Then, when the next user requests that link, we can check the license pool and dishonour that request if there are no licenses available.
 
Hmmm - this should work out ok - as long as the end user administrator likes the idea of opening licensed web content in a new window. Must ask Anna about this.
 
So that's as much as I can think of at the moment. More later.
 
 

"Totally" - Totally new small business software

I opened a new business recently called Phoenix Software International.

Our first software product will be a thing called "Totally" - it is a totally new way of storing information about practically anything, be it customers, suppliers, inventory, whatever. It can even store full documents - you'll never wonder again where you saved that file.

I'm very excited about it. Its not due for release for a while yet. You will be able to use it on as many computers as you like (within the one physical location) with no registration/activation codes.

For small businesses just starting up, the total capital cost of purchasing several copies of some well known small business management software really starts to add up. For example, the most recent version of a well known application costs around $1000 - if you plan on having a computer for each staff member, then you'd be up for $5000 right off the bat, and then you have to register each copy. Bah humbug.

What will be in Totally?

All the usual business financial needs - invoices, payments etc.
A magnificent data management engine, multi-user from the word go.
A datafile that will never need to be restarted each year.
Unlimited access to upgrades.

In the future:
Business to business e-commerce out of the box.
Business to customer e-commerce out of the box.
Role / User based security, right down to the field level. If you don't want certain staff to see certain fields, you can restrict that too.

Document management - create new documents or import current ones and store them in Totally, not scattered all over your hard drive. Keyword searchable too!

Totally also allows you to download new "applets" as they become available. These applets can, because of the single data store, be built quickly and allow new ways of working with your data, turning it into real information.