inceptu ideas

'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer...'

I am sure that this is not the message the vendor intended to send to thousands of Sydney travellers last Tuesday.

There it is though, the exasperating Microsoft 'blue screen of death' we all know and love to hate, leaving countless passers-by wondering who is the least competent player here. The vendor? Sydney Airport? Microsoft?

We users have come to terms with the blue screen of death and live with it in our day-to-day computing endeavours.

What creative strategies we have developed to manage the problem, ranging from calling IT support to cycling the power switch. And we do it immediately!

Placing in public a product that not only runs the well-known risk of crashing, but has no-one or no way to correct such a problem immediately, is just plain risky.

I wonder how many people got the message 'incompetence' before this display was corrected?

Risk Management 101

The two classic risk management questions which should have been asked by the vendor before allowing this product into public space are:

a) what is the risk of this product failing, and
b) what is the impact of this product failing?

If risk and impact are low, the risk is inherently well managed.

If one of the answers is high and the other low, a judgement call is needed to manage the risk and its implications should be well understood.

This is clearly an example of high risk and high impact.

In this case, the vendor is probably getting the advertising it deserves. (Humbly in my opinion.)

...Robert

...yes I do spend my time on an eclectic variety of endeavours!

Here's a simple little gem of a way to make any or all of your internal web servers (ie 192.168.1.2) proxied back out through your main Apache server on 192.168.1.1. Both domain names must of course resolve to your single public server address (usually your router).

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.1:80 127.0.0.1:80>
        ServerName www.mydomain.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/mydomain
        DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.shtml
        LogLevel warn
        HostNameLookups off
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.1:80 127.0.0.1:80>
        ProxyRequests off
        ProxyPass / http://192.168.1.2/
        <Location />
                ProxyPassReverse /
                SetOutputFilter proxy-html
                RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
        </Location>
        LogLevel warn
        ServerName www.myotherdomain.com
        DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.shtml
        HostNameLookups off
</VirtualHost>

This last VirtualHost section can be repeated for as many webservers as you have on your intranet and which to make public.
Happy reverse-proxying!

My sincere apologies for an article that will add absolutely no value. However, I came across a wonderful little piece of trivia I just could not help but share.

Anyone who has had anything to do with digital media devices, especially digital cameras, would be well acquainted with the ubiquitous SD memory card.

They seem like they have been around forever even though we first saw them in 2000.

Now look carefully at the logo.

Notice that the 'D' resembles one half of an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. The 'SD' logo actually stood for 'Super Density Disc', Toshiba's failed DVD format.

I guess someone could not see the point in employing a graphic designer when they could borrow an old piece of work that already looked the part!

My thanks to Wikipedia for that wonderful piece of enlightenment!

It seems that Microsoft has a lot to answer for in creating a world of 'update paranoia'.

I remember the first time I received that New updates are ready to be downloaded message. I thought it was great, that Microsoft would provide me with a better version of Windows.

Now, more than 300 updates down the track I can honestly say that none of these updates has done anything at all to improve either my productivity or my experience of Windows. I can think of no other reason to carry on this practice other than that I am addicted!

I update Windows, I update Avast, I update my hardware drivers, I update my applications, I update my bios, I update my drive firmware and even my phone firmware.

Always looking for my next fix I scour the web for anything I can use to update something that already apparently works well.

To be fair, many of these updates have improved the way my PC works, the stability of my environment, added new functionality and given me confidence in knowing that my system is up-to-date.

But I can honestly say that in all thoses updates my experience of Windows has never changed…

…Robert

While driving to work today I realised that my in-car MP3/CD/radio system had not been used in more than a month. In a functional sense, I have been chosing recently to listen to MP3s directly from my new smartphone.

I have just become aware that I am a 'gadget churner'.

Being an early adopter requires an enthusiasm for something new, neat, quirky, novel or just plain different. Often, we put up with the most masochistic implementations of form and function just to be able to do something new. Like a new toy with no instructions, we explore - and then invent - ways to use our new gadget as a part of our everyday lives.

It is interesting to note the three clear stages of being a gadget churner.

Stage 1. The toy. Playing with our new toy just for the purpose of discovering everything it does.
Stage 2. The tool. Integrating our gadget into our everyday life.
Stage 3. The trash. Discarding the gadget in favour of something better.

The one to really look out for here is 'the tool', which has also been referred to as a 'weak signal' of future innovation.

The way we integrate a gadget into our everyday lives and derive real value is a clear sign that, in the future, others who are not as gadget-oriented will find value too.

…Robert

Today being the last Sunday in October heralds the beginning of Daylight Savings Time for us.

With it brings all the mucking about in moving forward all things which have clocks in them. Once this used to be a bedside clock and a couple of watches, but that has now extended to include all manner of gadgets and gear such as cameras, ovens, VCRs, radios, toys and so on. At least with modern computers we are spared the angst; they usually do this automatically.

As I have done in the past, I set the time on my new phone one hour forward before I went to bed last night. I also set the alarm for 7am as I needed to be up early.

But it transpired that my new smart phone had come of age and was daylight savings aware. It diligently moved itself one hour forward in the wee hours. A 6am Sunday morning rude awakening heralded the fact that my phone was now an hour ahead and smarter than I expected. Being woken an hour early was no big deal really.

However, I wonder how many meetings, plane flights, appointments and deadlines will be missed five months from now, when these new smart phones catch out the unsuspecting by moving the time back again!

At least I'll be ready.

It is not often - or at least not often enough - that I buy new toys. When I do, however, I have a knack for doing it well! I have just become the proud new owner of a Sony NW-E005F MP3 player.

The interesting thing about this cool new gadget is that I did something I said I would never do: I bought a digital rights managed (DRM) MP3 player. Well, enough pro's finally outweighed the con's. It hit my performance sweet spot so I now own a Sony DRM-based player!

Firstly, it’s a USB flash key with 2GB to play with, finally enough to at least keep me happy. Secondly, I can fit all of my favorite MP3s, both music and podcasts. Last and just as important, it is absolutely beautiful both in visual design and in the user interface.

Sure it has its con’s but for now I will put up with them because it ROCKS!

Douglas Adams once wrote, "Cleanliness may be next to Godliness, but tidiness is the the result of an SEP field".

Creativity in the office often goes hand in hand with a noted lack of tidiness. There will always be those who make it their responsibility to keep a sense of order and tidiness. To others, myself included, we are happy to make it Someone Else's Problem (SEP).

But what happens if you work in an office lacking an SEP field?

CHAOENTROPY: the place where chaos and entropy eventually turn the office into a non-functional tip of boxes, paper and broken equipment.

Today's mission, therefore, is to create a new office environment for everyone. One which is not only functional, but self-organising and regenerative.

In short, the challenge is to embody the new space with its own SEP field so that we can
all get back down to the business of being creative and messy again!

I have just experienced a day of getting my crippled laptop back to life again. It's no fun when you are trying to meet deadlines and fix your PC!

Eventually I had to resort to reinstalling XP - and my troubles went from bad to worse! XP refused to activate and promptly logged me off every time I tried to log in. It seems that because I had recently replaced both the motherboard and the hard drive, Microsoft refused to believe I was the legitimate owner of the XP license.

At least to its credit, Microsoft was able to fix the problem over the phone, but it took some time and a lot of numbers were involved.

Ah Microsoft, you've done it again!

Back In The Game

Well it had to happen: I have found myself back in the thick of things with TDA Tech Pty Ltd. 

With technology development based in Adelaide, Australia and manufacturing resource in Hong Kong and China, TDA offers a complete end-to-end OEM solution for trusted digital authentication.

Want to know more?

Visit http://www.tda-tech.com

Inceptu Ideas Forum Launched

The development of the Inceptu website is ongoing, and the site now hosts a new ideas forum. 

This is a place for people interested in ideas, technology and innovation to share ideas in a public space. Even if you are not interested in innovation and technology, please take time to visit anyway and let me know what you think.

Please visit http://www.inceptu.com/community/index.php

Monday 4th July 2005.

Launch Of Inceptu Website

It has been a long time in the making, but Inceptu is starting to form an identity and the website is now ready to bare all on an unsuspecting Internet.

Please peruse and let me know what you think, or let me know if you find anything that does not work properly!

Australian Federal Government Releases Copyright Whitepaper

The Government is aware some common personal uses of copyright material infringe copyright. Examples include transferring music from a CD onto an MP3 or iPod player or copying a television broadcast to view later. Those engaged in such uses do not believe they are or should be considered copyright pirates. Many observers believe copyright law should be reformed to reflect public attitudes and practices. Some interest groups feel a copyright balance might be better maintained in a rapidly changing digital environment if the Copyright Act were to include an open-ended ‘fair use’ exception that would allow the courts to determine whether a particular use of copyright material is ‘fair’ and should be lawful. Others argue the present specific exceptions in the Act should be amended to make certain uses of copyright material lawful.

In this "White Paper" the Federal Government is seeking submissions on ways of addressing these conflicting views and canvass options in this paper. In particular, they seek views on whether the Copyright Act should include more specific exceptions or a fair use exception which would facilitate the public’s access to copyright material. Submissions deadline is July 1st, 2005.

http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/agdhome.nsf/AllDocs/E63BC2D5203F2D29CA256FF8001584D7?OpenDocument