If you are reading this …
By Seer | August 8, 2008
… the Wordpress application for the iphone works 
Topics: Site News, Software, Software News, Web News | No Comments »
Microsoft Fails To Follow Through, Again
By Seer | July 9, 2008
That lovely, big, cuddly, megacorp Microsoft is getting on my nerves recently. I am not one of those moron’s that hates Microsoft because I think it’s cool (though I could probably register high on many other moron measurements). I like a lot of Microsoft products, I have defended them in the past and I have praised them in the past. But these days they seem to have lost all coherence in some of their divisions.
I have bitched sometime long ago about the lack of content for all those poor people who have payed through the nose for a copy of Vista Ultimate (especially if they paid retail price… ouch!). For all those extra pennies paid for the ‘Ultimate’ version, what have they got in terms of value? A couple of very crappy games, video desktops, sound themes and disk encryption that about 0.0001% of the world might actually use.
But their latest loss of interest focuses it seems on Windows Home Server, which, as you might know I am in the process of resurrecting at home. Don’t get me wrong, the core product is superb. It runs on just about any old hardware thrown together, its backup and restore features cannot be beaten by any product on the market, and the remote RDP stuff is great.
But what could have been its crowning glory is the add-ins feature. They make it sound so simple! Drop in community written add-ins for extra functionality! Simply download to the \Software\add-ins directory and its ready to install in the WHS console. Yeah…. not so much!
I am yet to come across a useful add-in that doesn’t require some seriously hackery to install. For example, the add-in that probably 90% of users look for as soon as they get WHS is a torrent add-in. The most popular (in fact pretty much the ‘only’) is the uTorrent add-in. Let me give a brief synopsis of the installation procedure for that.
- Create a new admin account
- Download utorrent add-in
- Download Windows Resource Kit
- Download anyservice installer
- Download uTorrent
- Download uTorrent web gui
- Log on as your new admin account
- Install WRK
- Install uTorrent
- Configure uTorrent to use only ‘real’ paths instead of network WHS shares
- Extract and install the webgui
- Using a combination of WRK and the anyservice installer, create a custom service that runs uTorrent
- Configure service to run as the new admin user
- Registry hack for the service to run the correct .exe
- NOW you can drop your add-in into the folder and install it
- Finally spend several hours fixing permission issues and the like for the whole thing to actually work
This is actually one of the least technical installs! There are power saving add-ins that should be inbuilt functionality which require a combination of registry hacks and sysinternals to stop core processes from loading for christ’s sake!
The product has been out for a long time now and there are no ‘offical’ add-ins, the SDK is cursory at best. The problem here is that the product is SBS2003 with the appropriate apps hacked onto the top. But as I have said the apps hacked onto the top do a good job. The problem is that the add-ins are crippled by the fact this is SBS2003 with hacks, as there is absolutley no thought given to the under-the-hood framework needed to make this extendable. The apparent user friendliness (Microsoft’s supposed forte) of the WHS console is completely isolated to that part of the OS alone. Developers of add-ins are forced to hack their way through a mountain of unneccesary limitations and ’should-have-been-removed’ remnants of the business product to get anything to work through an add-in.
Just look at that routine for installing the uTorrent add-in… how many steps would your parents or grandparents get through before throwing the thing out of the window?
Topics: Operating Systems, Software, Software Rants, Windows | 3 Comments »
Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi Review
By Seer | July 7, 2008
It’s been a very long time coming but finally I have the time (thanks to a sleeping baby!) to finalise my words on these headphones with the thought they deserve.
Topics: Hardware, Hardware News, Hardware Reviews | No Comments »
Netgear WG311T Working on Windows Home Server
By Seer | July 7, 2008
OK, hopefully I am now back with a bitch bang. No really it’s a bitch and moan about Netgear drivers, but it’s also one of those rare situations where I can also offer a solution.
Having moved into the new house, my little Windows Home Server had been pretty neglected. It sat in the workroom at the far end of the house, powered down and twiddling it’s silicon thumbs. The problem was that I had cabled up most of the house for the other PC’s, but this poor neglected server was sitting gathering dust because it was just so far away from the switches and routers. I could not find a reasonable route through the house that would lead to my cat6 cable being anything less than 35 metres! Even then the cable would have to cause some ugliness I was determined to avoid.
Given my fairly crappy experiences with wireless range in recent years, I was reluctant to pay for a PCI card only to be dissapointed again. But in building a computer for a friend who had a wireless card (Netgear 311T) as part of the configuration I saw the reception was pretty respectable (60% signal). So I took the plunge and bought the exact same card to put into my WHS box.
I popped in the card, and then popped in the driver disc. Ran the setup, and got only good vibrations from the setup procedure, only to find at the end of it that no actual drivers were installed!
Having investigated further I found there was no support for server products which seemed a little odd to me. So i set about looking for the inf files on the disc only to find them non-existent. They are all wrapped up in an .exe file that I couldn’t extract.
Never one to take defeat so easily (especially when the store to return it to is over 60km away) I watched the setup and saw it temporarily extracted to a location which I found through a search for the .msi file that flashed up on the ‘Extracting’ progress bar. I then extracted the .msi using the ever useful msiexec command and finally found the inf’s. Alas, the driver would install via the inf file, but the device wouldn’t start. I download all the versions from 3.3 to 5 and all of them failed in the same way.
After bitching and ranting for a while, I thought I should see what method the various linux distributions were using for this card, figuring if they can hack the driver for Linux then it must be possible for Windows. At this point I learnt that Atheros make the actual chipset and that they had their own generic drivers available, however they were not easy to find. Finally I had to defile myself and my PC by going to that ad-ridden spamhole driverguide.net to find the drivers. After selling my soul i was finally able to download the driver and BAM! The card works flawlessly!
So Netgear, why hide your inf’s in a sealed .exe? Why not support server products? I understand that an enterprise server is not a good place for wireless, but what about all these home server products? And finally god damn it… why not just give us the Atheros drivers in the first place? They work better (75-80% connection) and dont install your crap little ‘utilities’ either.
Anyway no thanks to Netgear, I have a WG311T wireless network card working on Windows Home Server, I am guessing should work on any other server product too.
Topics: Hardware, Operating Systems, Software Rants, Windows | 2 Comments »
Yes I Am Alive!
By Seer | May 26, 2008
Just an update for anyone wondering about the lack of activity… I am alive and have 3 articles/posts plus a review of some really outstanding headphones all ‘almost’ completed.
But having just moved house 4 weeks ago and the birth of our first child (a boy!) 3 weeks ago, I hope you all understand it’s family first right now and normal service will be resumed as soon as I get some … zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Topics: Site News | No Comments »
The Ultimate iPhone Headphones Round-Up
By Seer | April 8, 2008
As I have lamented previously here on the site, the iPhone is a great piece of hardware let down (very surprisingly) so far by one thing, an almost total lack of fully compatible and functional headphones! Apart from the worthless white buds you get with the phone, there are very few headsets on the market which offer the full functionality the iphone should be blessed with.
So I dugg around and managed to find a few alternative headphones that offer superior sound quality to the standard headphones whist being fully compatible with the iPhone functions. Before I start the reviews let me just define what I mean by ‘compatible and fully functional.’
- The heaphone jack fits into the iPhone’s recessed port without an adapter
- The headphones have a mic that can be used to for calls
- The headphones have a button for accepting calls
- The headphones button can also be used to skip tracks
For bonus points:
- The heaphones have volume control
- The headphones stay in your ears!
For Perfection
- The headphones would be wireless!
So with that out of the way, the alternatives I found were:
- Etymotic HF2 iPhone Headphones Review Product Site
- Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4vi iPhone Headphones Review Product Site
- iSoniTalk Heaphone Adapter Review Product Site
- Griffin TuneBuds Mobile Review Product Site
As and when I receive the sample units for review I will update this article with the links to the review for each candidate. When all reviews are complete I will revisit this article with easy summary of all the alternatives to maybe pick a winner!
The reviews are based on several factors:
Sound Quality Music/Video - Obviously this is the most important thing about the headphones. After all that’s the reason we bought the iPhone right?
Sound Quality Calls - Again pretty important for a telephone.
Comfort and something I decided to call the ‘Ear Ejection Factor‘ (EEF) 
- Comfort is crucial, especially for extended listening on long trips. But what frustrates me more than poor music quality is the EEF. Headphones from every brand, designer and style seem to eject themselves from my ears. I cannot walk my dog without constantly adjusting and replacing most models of headphones into my ears! Nothing stays in them unless they are a design such as this. I have never found a pair of buds that stay in my ears for more than 10 - 15 seconds even when stationary!
iPhone Functionality - This relates directly to the list above of iPhone specific features that the headphones should have such as the mic and control button.
Design - Design has a lower importance than the other factors, but noone likes a bulky or ugly design.
For the music/video quality I will be using a set range of tracks and videos to test. The track list is designed to represent a varied selection of genres and thus musical challenges to the headphones whilst also being some of my personal favourites:
Massive Attack - Protection
Probably the most soulful and relaxing song in the universe from my all time favourite band. Though I say soulful and relaxing, it still has a strong baseline and very strong vocals
Portishead - Mysterons
I could name 10 or 15 pairs of headphones I have owned in the last decade that have not been able to handle the subsonic baseline of this track. Which is a shame as the melody of this beauty actually lies within that baseline
Leftfield - Melt
If ever there was a tune designed to wind you down from any level of stress, this is it. It is also dependent on faithful reproduction of its melodical ambience to really be appreciated.
Coldplay - God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
A truly classy guitar track which somehow manages to maintain a thumping rythm with romance. A few sets of headphones have struggled to produce the chorus cresecendo without distortion in the past, and if nothing else it always puts a smile on my face when blasted at high volume!
Stone Roses - Waterfall
A classic from the 90’s and my hometown
Review Links will appear below this point once they are up:
Topics: Hardware, Hardware Reviews | No Comments »
The Great iPhone Headphone Hunt
By Seer | February 29, 2008
Well the reader response to my previous post has been terrible so far 
But I have had some luck in locating some headphone options I hadn’t previously heard of.
Etymotic HF2 iPhone Headphones
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4vi iPhone Headphones
But then I also found another interesting solution which is an adapter that you can use with any heaphones to give you the mic and play control functionality! With the rather odd name of iSoniTalk Heaphone Adapter. You can check a review of it here
If you have used any of the above hardware, let us know how it they are in the comments below. I have emailed all the companies to see about a review and shall see whether they provide the goods for a full on showdown review here.
Topics: Hardware, Hardware News | 4 Comments »
Where ARE all the damn iPhone headphones!
By Seer | February 22, 2008
Seriously, why are companies not falling over themselves to produce fully functional iPhone headphones? The stock ones are as terrible as ever, but I am forced to use them fairly frequently. The main reason is that they act as a hands-free kit for the phone as they have the click button and microphone that enable me to make and receive calls. With normal headphones, every time a call comes in I am forced to fumble around, rip the headphones from the phone and then eventually accept the call (extra dangerous when driving!).
Why are the OEM Apple iPhone headphones so bad? Well for one thing, the sound quality is the usual tinny/baseless quality as normal ipod headphones, but the other thing is that they absolutely refuse to stay in anyone’s ear for more than 5 seconds. It’s not just me, I have asked maybe 6 or 7 people to test them for a little while and they all report the same thing… it’s like they were designed to actually repel ears! When driving, it’s almost to the point where I cannot look left or right at junctions without one or both buds falling out. So I have a choice of either not looking left and right (dangerous!) or fumbling around after the junction trying to find them again after they have fallen out (just as dangerous!).
When not using them I have a wonderful set of Sennheiser PMX70’s which are truly the best sounding headphones I have ever had the pleasure of popping in my ears. Unfortunately the band around the back of the head is really uncomfortable when lying down, reclining in a chair or generally sitting in any relaxed position. So I would like to get the OMX70’s instead as they would essentially cut out the only bad part of the headphones… the band, yet still stay in my difficult ears.
But of course then I would still be in the situation of having no hands-free iphone function and checking out the alternatives is a depressing alternative.
V-Moda were out of the gate early with some fully iPhone compatible headphones, but reviews are mixed. The sound quality and build quality seem to have a lot of question marks raised about them. They have the mic and the click button for full control of calls and music; the most thorough review I have see is Macgirl’s and I would be prepared to take a chance on them if they were so seemingly expensive for a dubious sound/build quality.
Errmmm and thats it! I cannot find a single fully-compatible alternative to these.
So here is the challenge for readers, and manufacturers. Tell me of some fully iphone-compatible headphones.
By fully compatible I mean:
- The headphone Jack Fits in the iphone without the need for an adapter
- Has a built in microphone that can be used for calls
- Has the music/phone control button (or similar implementation) that the OEM headphone have
For Bonus Points:
- They will be some "can’t-fall-out-of-the-ear" solution like the PMX/OMX 70’s above
- They would be cordless (bluetooth)
If you are a manufacturer, get in touch about a review and i will give them as fair and objective test as I can, and guarantee to sing your praises from the hilltops if they are suitably boombastic!
Topics: Hardware | No Comments »
Export Certificates Easily From One Keystore to Another
By Seer | February 18, 2008
Suppose you have website with secure shopping, then suppose it is distributed across many (14 in our case) servers, and that each of those servers has it’s own keystore with something like 35-40 certificates which are required for the various payment providers. Then suppose the enablement of a certain security feature in you web platform forces the use of a different keystore from that which currently stores your certificates. So let me see… 14 x 40 = 560+ certificates that need to be exported from an existing keystore and then imported into the new one. Running on Unix / Linux servers as we do, our main tool for certificate management is Java’s keytool (or ikeyman if someone needs a comforting gui). For those that have used it, you will know the tool is fine and easy to use if you only want to see basic information, or work with a single certificate at a time, but in this particular scenario I would have to hand export and hand import every certificate in the stores! Thats over 1000 commands needed 
So figuring I would try my hand at a little bit of shell script, I wrote a little utility with some perl help from my colleague and what we produced seems to work great!
Topics: *nix, Operating Systems, Software, Software News, Web News | No Comments »
What a Surprise!
By Seer | February 5, 2008
Everyone knew it was coming, and though I still struggle to fill 8gb very often, double capacity iphones and touches have finally been announced by apple.
Topics: Hardware, Hardware News | No Comments »