Server software outdated

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Jul 272006
 

When I look at the server-installations of most of our clients, I always ask myself: why on earth do they use the old version of this-or-that software package. Why don’t they just upgrade to the latest and greatest?
When reflecting this question onto myself: why don’t you just upgrade to the latest and greatest? Why is the Gallery2 software still not up and running?

On my laptop, I installed a fresh Apache 2.2, a fresh MySQL 5, a fresh PHP 5.1 (and 5.2 snapshot). On my laptop, Gallery2 runs superb, with the only exception that PHP can not be run as an Apache module but only in CGI-mode. This is because the DLL’s to run as an module for Apache 2.2 are not production ready yet. Only for Apache 2.0. When using the DLL’s from the 5.2 snapshot, it keeps complaining about not finding MySQL support. But it’s there in CGI-mode (with the same PHP.INI).
Anyways. You can see where this post is going. To be able to upgrade my server to the latest and greatest, I need to check whether WordPress (this blog) still runs, if the other stuff will keep running (phpMyAdmin, CopperMine, my Wiki, etc).

So there I have my answer. I’m only an individual with relatively little software that needs to be upgraded in a cascade of upgrade. Our clients have numerous applications on several servers, with different software suppliers, different support levels and don’t forget: their upgrades cost a lot of money. Mine only cost spare time.

I’m confident however that my software upgrade will be possible, since the key-applications are already functioning in the test-environment. When the time comes to upgrade the server, I will post a message here.

 Posted by at 20:59

AutoHotkey

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Jul 212006
 

At the client I’m currently working for we are converting an old client-server Forms application to the latest Webforms (10g). This is because Oracle (read the SoD) is deprecating client-server Forms in 2008.
To get the “we have no support” out of the critical path of the project, it was decided to automatically convert the application to 10g, thereby not losing anything that’s in the application now (but not winning anything either).
One thing that we could not provide, was the macro facility that their terminal emulator (the forms run on AIX) gave them. So I started looking for a macro-tool. Lot’s of them out there, actually. But not many of them have a macro-recorder. Only a scripting language. Hey, if that’s what I was looking for, I would just use WSH or Python, or any other well-known scripting language. No, I was looking for something with a recorder.

It turns out that AutoHotkey, a freeware tool, was my product of recommendation. It doesn’t look that smart or fancy, but it has a lot of features, it has good documentation, it has a recorder, it can emulate a mouse(wheel), custom dialogs, compile to exe, it recognizes graphical content (for use with remote desktop software that only sends screens) and I could continue the list for quite some time.

So if you happen to be looking for automation software, and don’t have a ton of money to spend, try AutoHotkey. If you look past the ugly GUI, you can see it’s a real gem. And apart from being freeware, it’s Open Source (C++) as well.

The sample below makes your mousewheel, combined with the Windows-key, a volume-control. How cool is that?

; Win+MouseWheel forward: Turn up the volume
#WheelUp::SoundSet, +1
; Win+MouseWheel backward: Hush!
#WheelDown::SoundSet, -1
 Posted by at 00:17

Virtual PC also free!?

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Jul 142006
 

Probably in response to VMware’s Server, Microsoft announced Virtual PC to be free from now on. But….you still can only use it to virtualize Windows, not for Linux or Solaris, like VMware can.

 Posted by at 01:39

Organize your desktop. In piles!

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Jul 052006
 

Most people have piles on their desks. Piles of paper, piles of magazines, piles of books. Loads of CD’s and DVD’s around their monitor. Or on it for that matter. So why not organize your desktop or the files on your harddisk the same way? But then a little different, but only slight. Watch this video. The software BumpTop itself is still a prototype, but you can read about it here (with hi-res versions of the video).

 Posted by at 00:20

ajaxWrite

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Mar 242006
 

Way ahead of Microsoft’s initiative to “give” us an online version of Office, the people at Linspire (Linux looking like Windows) give us ajaxWrite, an online word-processing application. Written with (you guessed it) the latest web-hype…erm…technology Ajax.
Their intention is to release a whole office-suite over the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye on their site (or mine). Best of all (you guessed it again): it’s free to use.

 Posted by at 07:30

Borland selling Delphi and JBuilder

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Feb 092006
 

Borland has decided to sell its flagship Borland Developer Studio (Delphi, C++ Builder and C# Builder) and JBuilder to concentrate resources on their Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). See this article on Computer Weekly, their press-release, or numerous weblog entries on the Borland site.
When Microsoft lowered its prices for Visual Studio, and other companies like Oracle and IBM are giving away IDE’s, whilst Borland only increased their prices, I knew something was going to happen. Now we all know what it is.

 Posted by at 09:37
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