CommsBlog

Welcome again avid reader,

Due to a very wet spring followed by a wet July, and a fantastic August, we have an abundant crop of Sloes this year. Sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn shrubs, and when ready to pick, show a white-ish blush on the otherwise deep purple berries.

These plum-like berries are very bitter, and are only used in Jams and preserves or as a core ingredient in Sloe Gin.

Traditionally you should wait for the first frost, or even place them in the freezer overnight, but after experimentation over the last couple of years I can categorically state that this seems to have no effect whatsoever, and just appears to be folklore!

My ‘Dengie’ recipe is as follows;

• 1 x empty screw-top wine bottle (or bottle with a cork that removes easy… e.g. Port, Sherry or Pineau)
• Fresh Sloes
• 1 x Small Wine Glass of Sugar (normal granulated is fine)

Method:-

• Clean and rinse the target bottle.
• 1/2 fill with Gin (use a half-decent Gin for best results)
• Tip the wine glass of sugar into the bottle
• Wash the Sloes
• Pierce the Sloes with a fork (a ‘Silver’ one is not mandatory – despite folklore!) and place in bottle till the Gin and Sloes reach halfway up the neck of the bottle.

Note: If the Gin reaches the neck before the Sloes, tip some away (into the next bottle obviously!) as the Sloes and Gin should reach the neck of the bottle at the same time.

Ongoing Care:

• Shake the bottles vigorously once a day for the first week (the sugar will settle, so try to get it evenly mixed)
• After Week 1, shake weekly
• Wait for at least 3 months then decant the Gin (minus the berries and any sediment – I use a fine mesh sieve lined with muslin cloth) into fresh bottles

Sloe Gin is best served as a sipping aperitif in shot-glasses, or over ice for a longer drink (or carried in a hip-flask for those cold winter mornings!).

I’m told that the boozy-Sloes can be used to make an interesting Jam/Jelly afterwards, but I haven’t tried this myself yet!

 

2011 Update

Hello again avid reader, here is a brief update to this post: Try adding a few crushed Damson’s to the mix to make it a bit sweeter and richer, or even replace the Gin with Vodka (again, a ‘good’ one!) to make Sloe Vodka.

 

Hi All,

After much messing around, I have jailbroken my iPhone 3G that I updated to 3.0 firmware on Friday.

Please note that if you want to copy my instructions and do this to your own phone YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

NOTE: These instructions explain how to JAILBREAK an iPhone 3G NOT an iPhone 3GS.

“Jailbreak” means you can run ‘unauthorised’ applications that are not in the Apple Store – It does NOT mean ‘UNLOCK’  for use on other mobile networks. Please don’t ask me how to do that.

Ok, first of all, go to http://redsn0w.com, follow the link and then download the 0.7.2 redsnow jailbreak app and unzip to a folder on your desktop.

Plug in your iPhone to the PC and ensure that you switch it OFF after you connect the USB cable.

Next run the redsn0w.exe file.

Browse to find your ipsw firmware file. This will be located in:-

 c:\Document and Settings\<your login name>\applications data\
     Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Update. 

I suggest you back up the ipsw file before you begin.

Click “Next” and ensure that you ONLY INSTALL CYDIA – If you install ICY, most of the dependencies get screwed up and you can’t download anything in Cydia.

Next follow the on-screen instructions carefully, which are:-

1. Hold down the power button till the Apple logo appears
2. Immediately hold down the Home button (whilst still holding down the power button) for about another 8 secs.
3. Release the power button, but keep the home held down for another 20 secs

During this process, the PC may install a new USB driver. If things seem to fail because of this, just start the process from the beginning.

Once the Jailbreak process starts DO NOT DISCONNECT THE CABLE OR INTERRUPT IT!

The whole thing takes about 5 mins.

On completion, go into Cydia and search for OpenSSH and install that, then install WhatIP – Once both are installed, run WhatIP to get the IP address of your iPhone and then use something like PuTTY to SSH into your phone to test it.

The username is “root” and the password is “alpine” (these are the default), if you have been successful, you should see something like this:-

Now you may ask yourself “What are the advantages” of this?

Well, some of the ‘cute’ things that Apple have now released in their 3.0 update were previously available via Cydia.

Along with these things (like Cut’n'paste, video recording etc), there are a lot of apps that Apple simply did not want users to have access to.

Fundimentally the iPhone is a Linux phone based on a Debian distribution, and because of this there are a whole raft of applets and tools that are being ported to work on this phone.

Here are some examples of the Cydia app’s that I’ve installed and use:-

“Make it Mine” - This overrides the carrier name to anything you want.

“WhatIP” (mentioned above) – Shows the IP address of your iPhone

“CompactTV” – Watch or Download South Park, Family Guy, Simpsons and American Dad

Hi all,

Having just upgraded to the iPhone, I then had the task of disposing of my old phone(s) – The problem is that the kids always want to steal my previous devices, but are on a different network to me.

One of the phones (a Nokia 6680) was SIM-Locked to Orange. This phone is of the type ‘BB5′, this means that the only way to unlock this till recently has been to take it to a shop. Well not any more!

This is the step by step guide to unlocking Nokia’s of the type: 6630, 6681, 6680, N70, N71, N90, N91

• Get a DKU-5 (or equivalent F-Bus) cable. The normal USB cable that comes with the phone is not suitable, it must be an F-Bus cable.
• Install Nokia PC Suite (any recent version)
• Plug the cable into the phone and then into your USB port and let your phone get detected.
• Close down any Nokia Applications that might start up.
• Right-Click on My Computer, and then on ‘Manage’
• Click on ‘Hardware Manager’ in the left-hand pane
• Expand the ‘Ports’ section and check which port the Nokia phone is on – NOTE THIS DOWN!

Ok – Next stage is to get the software.

You need to get the BB5 Calculator from here: http://users.net.yu/~dejan – [Direct Download LINK]

• Unzip the file to C:\bb5_unlocker
• Edit the “bb5_unlocker.cfg” file and change the COM Port to the one you noted above
• Double-click on install.bat
• Click on “READ PHONE”
• When it says ‘Done’, click on “MAKE LOG”
• Copy the xxx.log file (e.g. 317617303633274_BB5.log) from the /logs subfolder into the /psw folder
• Click on Exit
• Double-Click on BB5_calc.exe – it should say “Done”
• In the /psw subfolder, there will now be an xxx.psw file. Open this is in Notepad, and you will have all the unlock codes. You can either enter these manually, or :-
• double-click on BB5logunlocker.exe
• click on SP Unlock

Following these instructions, I managed to unlock two 6680′s in 2 mins flat!

Hello Avid Reader,

Yes… It’s true… I have succumbed to the coolest gadget of them all; The Apple iPhone.

I resisted for a while (mainly due to it only being available on O2 in the UK), but in the end managed to get O2 to take over our 12 phone contract from Orange, give us 3 iPhone’s and 5 Nokia E71′s (plus a couple of spare phones), and even pay our termination clause on the Orange contract. It just shows how desperate the carriers are to get you tied into a 2 year contract nowadays!

Anyway….

First impressions; As with all Apple packaging, you feel a little disappointed as it is always very minimalist, but once you start playing with the iPhone, you realise why it is so much better than the other touch enabled devices out there. I’ve had the LG Prada, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, and even the Samsungs with touch sensative buttons. I can honestly say that they are not even in the same ball-park as the iPhone.

Ok, onto the top free Apps (and as always, please feel free to comment with your fav’s as well!)

1. Free RSS Reader – forget the others, this does exactly what it say’s on the tin. Add all your favourite feeds, or browse to a site and it automatically detects any feeds that are available.  Supports Landscape
2. Google Earth – Just because it is sooooo cool to zoom in on your own house. Supports ’tilt’ view.
3. eBay – Yes… I do need to know what I am bidding on or selling 24/7 !!!!
4. iTranslate – this does need a data connection, but allows you to save phrases so that you can prepare for your encounter at the patisserie in advance! – Also has the ability to play the phrase (a little scratchy,  but still useful!) out of the speaker/headphones.
5. last.fm – Ideal for all those Audioscrobblers out there… plays your fave’s and lets you listen to the usual last.fm radio selections.
6. MMS – because the iPhone can’t do this yet!
7. VNC Lite – Allows me to manage a server remotely. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does let you do everything you need to in an emergency (e.g. Reboot the server or reload your software)
8. midomi – Remember “Shazam!”… well that cost’s £1.00 per go!… Midomi is *free* (and surprisingly recognised me humming the Godfather theme!)
9. Stanza – good intuitive eBook reader
10. GuitarChords – handy pocket aide-memoir for all your Guitar Chord needs
11. Ok, this one is a ‘Paid for’ (£2.99) application called TV Plus, but what a fantastic applet… this program allows you to view the TV listings for your region, and then instruct your Sky+ or SkyHD box to record it no matter where you are! It uses a pre-registered “My Sky” account name / password to log into Sky and then remotely instruct your Sky box to record!

Silly Stuff!

1. Pac Man Lite – Namco’s original, now ported to the iPhone
2. Jellycar – I can’t even begin to explain this… just download it and laugh!
3. Labyrinth LE – great use of the inertia sensors for marble madness fun.
4. Darts -yep… it’s Darts!
5. FS5 Hockey – Remember those happy days at the seaside playing Air Hockey with your sister!

Tips;

1. Removing an App or rearranging the ‘Desktops’

If you hold down your finger on any icon for more than a few seconds and all the icons wobble. Once they are wobbling, you can drag them from one ‘desktop’ screen to another. You can also delete them by clicking on the (X) icon in the top-left of the icon.

2. Drag an App to the far right-screen to create a new ‘desktop’ area.

Thunderbird Syncing

Ok, this is a problem at the moment, only solved by using 3rd party app’s.

Here is a solution for contacts only (calendar to follow shortly apparantly)

1. Install Funambol Mozilla Plugin into your copy of Thunderbird [link]

2. Install the Funambol iPhone app (just search for it in the Apple App store)

3. Create a free account at Funambol [link]

4. Enter the account details into the options page of Funambol on both the iPhone and Thunderbird

5. Click on Tools, Funambol Plugin on Thunderbird and click on ‘Click to Syncronize’ and wait to finish

6. Click on the Funambol icon on your iPhone and do the same

You can set Thunderbird to sync both the contacts and calendar, but only the contacts arrive on the iPhone at present. The Thunderbird client can also be set to sync automatically (but not the iPhone end)

Last Update: 11th Jan 2009

Hi all,

As a developer I tend to install an awful lot of freeware, shareware and paid-for applications on my PC in order to assist me with the day-to-day development of applications.

However… over the years I have noticed a trend where Microsoft themselves release a lot of ”applets’ under the guise of “Microsoft Research”, “Technet” or “SysInternals” (www.SysInternals.com is now part of Microsoft Technet)

I have compiled a (not exhaustive, so please contribute) list of my favourite utilities and applications which are mainly from Microsoft (with a couple from other sources) that enhance Windows XP and Windows 2003. I haven’t tested them on Vista (as I still don’t use it!), but I suspect most of them will still work.

SysInternals Applets

• Process Explorer – A proper replacement for Windows Task Manager. This improved applet allows you to explore each process properly (instead of just showing 20 copies of RunDll32.exe like Windows Task Manager does!)

• FileMon – This shows all real-time file activity (with the ability to filter). Without this application I never would have fixed the album artwork issue I had on my Media PC (everything showed up as ‘The Searchers’ !!!)
• TCPView – This displays a list of all open TCP sockets, their destinations and the application that opened them. Essential for tracking trojan or malware infections.
• ADExplorer – Ideal lightweight tool for exploring Active Directory or LDAP servers. Fast, portable and free!
• BGInfo – Great applet for Server Installations. You can use this tool to display the configuration (machine name, IP address, MAC address + much more) as the desktop background. Great when you are using a KVM to access multiple machines.

Powertoys / Control Panel Tweaks

• Sequoia View – An excellent tool for visualising the contents of your hard disk (and where all the space went!)
• ClearType Tuning Control Panel – ‘Tunes’ the ClearType fonts to make them work with your LCD Display
• Command Prompt Here – Add’s an ‘Open Command Prompt Here’ option to Explorer’s right-click menu
• TweakUI – this is the ultimate Windows XP powertool, letting you change *lots* of system settings…

Fun Stuff & Utilities

• Webcam Timershot – Takes a picture of from your Webcam and saves it to your hard disk at preset intervals
• Virtual PC – Lets you run Windows, Linux or even Windows Server on your PC as a ‘Virtual Machine’
• Zune Desktop Theme – Get a nice tidy ‘Black’ look to your Windows XP desktop
• Mount ISO’s – This applet works like Daemon Tools, allowing you to mount an ISO as a virtual CD Rom drive

System Application/Applet Replacements

• Notepad2 – Everything that Notepad should have been! Line numbers, syntax highlighting, plus much more…
• 7Zip – Everything that PKZip used to be…. the ultimate Zip/unzipper, and even supports all those nasty .gz and .tar unix formats as well!
• PuTTY – Forget Hyperterminal, PuTTY is a *tiny* Telnet application that also supports SSH, Serial and just about every terminal type you will need. Ideal to put on your USB key.
• UltraVNC – This is a cross-platform remote control application that works in the same manner as PCAnywhere or GoToMyPC, except it’s ‘Free’, fast and works with all the VNC protocols. This means you can effectively control a Linux box from Windows (and visa-versa) or even your server from a mobile phone!

I will be updating this list periodically, but please feel free to comment with some more suggestions!

Paul.