Mighty Mouse Repair
When I mentioned my troubles with Apple's Mighty Mouse it seems I wasn't the only one.
A quick post by Bill Bradford shows that repair is possible.
Monthly Archives: November 2005
Mighty Mouse Repair
When I mentioned my troubles with Apple's Mighty Mouse it seems I wasn't the only one.
A quick post by Bill Bradford shows that repair is possible.
Building PHP/Paypal based web stores
I recently completed a tutorial at developerWorks on building a web-based store using a combination of PHP for the main code and interfacing with Paypal for obtaining payment for items.
The tutorial was the third and final part of a series on the topic. The code for the project and parts one and two were written by Tyler Anderson. The tutorial expands on the storefront created in “Create a Web storefront using PHP and PayPal, Part 1” and enhanced in Part 2 of this three-part series by integrating transactions, shipping, and e-mail functionality.
The code uses the new PHP Data Objects and although the code shows the use of the Derby database, I was able to make some simple changes to the code to make it use MySQL just as easily.
Make sure you read Parts 1 and 2 before moving on to Create a Web storefront using PHP and PayPal, Part 3.
Hosting Services and free software
I’ve started a new series, through the Free Software Magazine newsletter, on the use of open source technology by hosting services, including the ready-to-run applications such as WordPress, phpBB and Gallery.
The aim is to look at these individual products and how they can provide a quick and easy solution to building your websites, communities and brand.
The first in the series, an overview of FOSS technology in hosting services, can be read here.
You can also subscribe and get the newsletters sent to you automatically. Subscription is free once you’ve filled in a form
Microsoft opening Office formats
The big news today is that Microsoft is releasing Office formats as a standard. The headline doesn't necessarily match the reality however.
Microsoft are planning on releasing the standard for Office 12 documents, which will be based on XML technology, as a standard approved by the ISO. But are the ISO really a better alternative for releasing this information, than simply publishing the information themselves, online, for everybody to look at?
Why does a document standard need ISO approval?
Because doing so would make it much more likely to appeal to governments are large corporations which like to use standards to ensure interoperability.
Big brother by the back door
The UK is one of the worlds better known free societies, but in the name of technology we are beginning to lose our freedoms.
The recent 90-day debate for terrorists was partially justified through the need to investigate hard drives for offending material.
Now we have the possibility (or more likely probability) that we will have a national camera network designed to monitor number plates. The aim is to ensure everybody has insurance, has taxed their vehicle and ultimately, it would seem, that everybody keeps within the speed limits.
Virtualization abounds
Two years ago, if you asked about virtualization most people would respond with some comment about VMware, possibly Microsoft Virtual Server (which was in beta at the time) and if you were really lucky may have mentioned one or two other packages.
Today, virtualization is a byword for gaining greater efficiency and effectiveness from your hardware and there are many technologies vying for our attention.
Originally virtualization was a software technology, usually an application built on top of an existing operating system that could then be used to run other, multiple, operating systems. For example, you might run VMware on Linux and run Linux, Windows and Solaris virtual machines.
Suns adds more to OpenSolaris
I'm going to continue a look at the news that Sun made an announcement yesterday about some new features for Solaris and OpenSolaris.
I've just commented on the PostgreSQL component - now it's time to look at what else was in the announcement; this time with the OpenSolaris specifics.
The biggest component in the new OpenSolaris release is the inclusion of ZFS support. ZFS is a file system, but unlike other file systems it combines a number of advanced features into a single component to produce a very comprehensive and efficient file system driver.
Sun adds more to Solaris
Sun made an announcement yesterday about some new features for Solaris and OpenSolaris.
Most people are picking up on the inclusion of the PostgreSQL as an included and supported component of the Solaris operating system. Many see PostgreSQL as an interesting choice because it isn't MySQL, the most common and popular of the two choices.
I think PostgreSQL fits into Solaris for the same reason that OpenSolaris fits into the rest of the OS model - it's the less hyped, but exceedingly mature and capable alternative. Incorporating, and more importantly, supporting PostgreSQL on Solaris gives the OS another strong, open source, component that helps to make Solaris a sensible choice for web serving and as a general database platform.
Beyond The Big Three BSDs, BSD Alternatives
A while back I wrote an article for ServerWatch.com that covered the three main BSD distributions; FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. The article looked at the ‘other’ free software operating system range (BSD) and how it compared to Linux. I also looked at Mac OS X (or more specifically Darwin), which is based on NetBSD.
After writing that piece I was contacted by a few people who wanted to point out that there are some other BSD variants available. So I started looking around. BSD variants are much harder to come by in comparison to the hundreds (probably thousands) of different Linux-based distributions available.
The resulting piece is available now.
I started writing this piece many months ago, and since then OpenSolaris has been released. Perhaps a comparison between OpenSolaris, Linux and BSD is in order - let me know if you’d like to see this.