BeBook 2
BeBook have sent me exclusive pictures of the new "BeBook 2". The new device seems to be a significant improvement over the first BeBook.
Continue readingCacti and Exim – a (mostly) complete guide – Part 1
I recently had to set up monitoring for a new Exim MX server at work. I wanted to make exim statistics available over SNMP such that I can easily hook it into cacti and nagios. Having recently been though the whole process from beginning to end, I thought I'd take the time to document the process, so that others can not only download and use my scripts/templates - but also modify it to suit their needs and learn some cacti whilst doing so.
Download my script and template: - exim_cacti_v1.tar.gz
Continue readingConnecting to the Internet via bluetooth using a Nokia on OS X
I recently got a new MacBook, thanks to my employer - Timico. Believe it or not, my previous laptop I ran Windows Vista on - and despite Linux usually being my OS of choice, I got on well with Vista. For me, things 'just works', and on that list of things that 'just work' was Nokia's 'One Click' internet access tool included in the Nokia windows software. This tool makes it dead easy to connect via bluetooth, it really was just a matter of selecting your network provider, and clicking a button.
I typed a few things into google to try to figure out how to get OS X to connect via bluetooth over my N95 or E71 mobile phone. I found all sorts of confusing articles suggesting I needed to download scripts and place them somewhere, and jump over a few hurdles. Frankly, I couldn't be bothered to mess about with that kind of thing, I wanted things to just work like they did in Windows.
Despite the confusion caused by the various articles on the internet, it's actually surprisingly easy to setup - so I thought I would document it here for others. Simply go to the bluetooth menu, and select to 'Set up a bluetooth device', follow though the obvious settings. The last step in the wizard has a tick box labeled 'Access the Internet with your phone's data connection'. Ensure it's ticked, and click next.
These settings are for Vodafone contract (PAYG is different apparently) in the UK, a quick google of something like 'GPRS settings <country> <provider>' should allow you to find the settings you need.
| Username | web |
|---|---|
| Password | web |
| APN | internet |
Save these settings. I like to have 'show bluetooth status in menu bar' and 'show modem status in menu bar' selected, that choice is yours. It is now as easy as going into network preferences (or using the menu status in the menu bar) and clicking 'connect bluetooth' to connect to the internet. This works perfectly for me in OS X 10.5.6.
regfly.com – an example of their support
Below is an example of regfly.com's shockingly awful support. I thought I'd document it here to warn people against using them. Can anyone recommend a decent low price SSL cert supplier?
Amazingly after all this, rather than fix the problem they just simply suspended my account. If they left a reply on the ticket explaining why - I couldn't see it, because I couldn't log in. I strongly advise people stay clear of this SSL cert provider, I guess it's very apparent why they are cheap.
Continue readingBeBook – The Milano Edition case
Someone from BeBook recently contacted me asking if I'd mind putting something up about their new luxury case. I agreed to do this not because they are paying me to (which they are not), but because my review of the bebook has helped a lot of people make up their mind about the BeBook, and because I genuinely like their product. I'd like to point out, just like I did in my bebook review, that I have no commercial links to BeBook -
Continue readingHibernate Tutorial part 4 – annotations and maven
In the last part of my hibernate tutorials I showed how to get a simple application inserting data into a database. This part doesn't expand on that in terms of features, in fact, this tutorial actually does less! However, the last tutorial required you to download a whole load of JAR files, and manage all dependencies. I did make this easy for you, by providing a single download and telling you exactly what you needed - but this time, I'm going to make it even easier! The purpose of this is to get you started with Hibernate annotations, and Maven. All you need is a text editor, a working Java 5 or higher install, and Maven.
Continue readingSymfonyCamp – Admin Generator Presentation
Symfony Camp 2008 ( symfonycamp2008 ) was good fun, even if I did have a hang over for my presentation. As promised, here is my slides and the demo setup containing sfExtJsThemePlugin - I also have an online demo that's currently working, found here:
http://www5.pookey.co.uk/farm , the dev controller is in place at http://www5.pookey.co.uk/backend_dev.php/farm
my slides are here:
The whole app can be downloaded here: htdocs.tgz. I know that it seems there's a database password in, but I've changed it since, so don't bother trying 
Getting started with Maven and Spring
This guide is a quick introduction to getting started with Maven and Spring, and shows the making of a "Hello World" application
The only requirements for this project is a text editor, a Java install, and Maven.
Continue readingBeBook review
This review is from a technical perspective. I got my BeBook mostly for reading things like RFCs, rather then for reading novels. Most reviews seemed to cover what the device looks like, and where the buttons are, which wasn't very helpful when I looked into buying one, I wanted to know how it preformed.
Continue readingHibernate with MySQL – a beginners guide – part 3
In part 1 and part 2 I showed how to get up and running with hibernate. This part continues from where we left off.
Continue reading