stuart test blog

This is about to be huge…!

Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts
First commercially available surface computer from Microsoft breaks down barriers and provides effortless interaction with information using touch, natural gestures and physical objects.

Surface Computing Website: www.surface.com
First look at surface computing: http://on10.net/Blogs/larry/first-look-microsoft-surfacing-computing/

Sounds a bit over the top for my one-man company, but a PABX could prove to be useful for my home office. Fortunately there is a freely available open-source product called Asterix out there which I have been semi-fol owing for the last year. Recently I’ve read a bit about Trixbox which is built upon Asterix and is designed to make it reeeaaallly easy to setup your own PABX. Tony Hughes posted a tutorial on the Geekzone website to get this setup and has now moved the article to the Voip Users website. And just today I was reading Adam Jobbins’s setup using Slingshot’s iTalk service.

I happen to have an old PIII box lying around at home so (as soon as I get some time…) I might give this a go myself. Stay tuned for updates…

The latest derivative of Ubuntu has just been released – this one is called Ubuntu Studio and comes preloaded with audio, video and graphics editing applications. The website is worth checking – even just to see how cool it looks – but it’s just been Dugg so may be a bit sluggish for a while.

Ubuntu Studio

Since moving into the contracting/self-employed market, I’ve splashed out a bit on my home office setup. First I bought an HP Advanced Docking Station for my nx8220 notebook which provides full connectivity for audio, gigabit networking, DVI connector, plus a bunch of extra USB ports.

Then I invested in a new monitor to upgrade my 17inch Viewsonic CRT. I wanted to get as high resolution as possible, but the WUXGA (1920×1200) monitors were still priced out of my budget. So I went for a 20inch WSXGA+ HP screen which has 1680×1050 resolution. The first night I had the screen, I spent the night flying around the world in Google Earth!

To finish off my workstation setup I bought a Microsoft wireless laser desktop set which has all the new Vista compatible shortcut buttons, though I haven’t really used them yet – apart from the volume buttons.

Today I also bought myself a new chair, which replaces the broken one that I rescued from a tip two years ago! It’s amazing what a good office setup makes to productivity, I find that I can put a lot more work in when I’m in a comfortable environment.

Now I’m just looking for a new notebook, as we may need a second one in the near future. My requirements so far are:

• Must be compatible with my docking station – i.e. it must be an HP.
• Must have high resolution.
• Must have at least an Intel T7200 processor.
• Must have at least 1GB RAM, with a free slot.
• Must have dedicated graphics card with dedicated memory.

Some “nice to haves” are:

• 802.11 n (or draft-N?) wireless connectivity
• Must be reasonably mobile, i.e. no 17 inch monster displays on this notebook.
• 100GB or bigger SATA drive.
• Fingerprint reader, or other enhanced security.

Unfortunately, the current HP models that match my requirements are over $3000 which is getting steep, but there’s a bunch of new model just released in the USA which should bring the price down a bit when they reach NZ.

Good to see Microsoft and Apple working together to come up with an update for Vista that corrects some of the compatibility problems that have caused corruption on some iPods. You can download the update from the Microsoft Download Center.

Pulitzer prize winning photos in the Feature Photography section:

Awarded to Renée C. Byer of The Sacramento Bee for her intimate portrayal of a single mother and her young son as he loses his battle with cancer.

I try to stay out of politics in general for two main reasons – the first is that there is so much material out there to cover, that I wouldn’t be able to do it justice; and the second reason is that it just gets too depressing at times.

However when you see idiots like John McCain singing “Bomb Iran” to the tune of the catchy, old Beach Boys song, “Barbara Ann” then it’s time to call them out and just remind ourselves of how afraid we should be that people like this are trying to run the most powerful country on earth.

Unplugged McCain sings ‘bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran’

I was going to update my original post with this but I thought it would be easier to put it in a seperate post. Here’s how I updated the Simpla theme to have 3 columns with widgets.

First read this post: http://stuart.amanzi.co.nz/2006/05/30/new-simpla-theme-with-widgets/

Then edit the sidebar.php like this:

<div id="sidebar2">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(2) ) : ?>
    <li id="pages">
        <h2>Pages</h2>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>/">Home</a></li>
            <?php wp_list_pages('title_li='); ?>
        </ul>
    </li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(1) ) : ?>
    <li id="links">
        <ul>
        <?php get_links_list(); ?>
        </ul>
    </li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>

Then edit the style.css to get the two sidebars to show correctly: (just modify the stylesheet with the bits below)

#wrap{
    margin:0 auto;
    text-align:left;
    width:980px;
}
#content{
    font-size:1.2em;
    float:left;
    padding:1em;
    width:600px;
}
#content .wide{
    width:980px;
}
#sidebar{
    font-size:1.1em;
    float:right;
    padding:0;
    width: 165px;
    border-right: 1px dotted #ddd;
}
#sidebar2{
    font-size:1.1em;
    float:right;
    padding:0;
    width: 165px;
}

Then finally, you need to edit the functions.php file to reference both sidebars:

<?php
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
    register_sidebars(2);
?>

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I went to the Wellington Sevens tournament last night and it was great fun. We spent the first half of the night in the Delloitte Lounge and then headed intot the crowd for some mayhem. I snapped a whole bunch of pics which are now up on Flickr. Here’s some of the best.

(if you’re reading this in a feed reader, you’ll have to visit the site to see the slideshow.)

I’ve just installed some new updates on the server to enhance the performance.

Let me know if there are any issues.