Corporate IT systems 'not even halfway there': Gates

Microsoft founder gives parting shot at UK conference Read More

It seems they changed the interface slightly (after the nearly day-long failure and short shut down after ):


First thing, they changed the logo to Vodafone/ihug - another sign of what's to come in April.

Now instead of having a frame on top of the mail page all the time, the interface covers the entire screen for once - or at least 700px down - so people with high res screens still have plenty of unused real estate.
But - it only just fits in a 1024px-wide screen - so people still on their aging 800x600 or 640x480 screens will have a very screwed up webmail interface!

Icons now have text on the right (now we know what they're for!) and the main items have been shifted up.

Things that need fixing / improving (some were already there when they upgraded their very old webmail system):

• "Help" doesn't work (it worked before, the help page has disappeared)
• If you select a message once, deselect it, and try to select the same message again, it will fail to do so - a reload of Inbox fixes it, or select a different message and select it again. (stupid)
  
  Similarily, clicking "Select: All" selects, clicking it again looks like if they're selected but they aren't. Clicking it again doesn't "select all" no more.
• The Mac-like search bar doesn't work (very stupid)
• The password field screws up in IE7... the normal XP round password characters aren't there... strange...
  
  
• The Vodafone/ihug logo is fuzzy and it doesn't blend in well (don't be lazy... make a better suited image!). It should also say 'webmail' under it - makes more sense when it links to the webmail interface and also reminds the user that they are in the webmail service.

But (and it's a very BIG BUT) - it's WAYYYYYY better than what they had before - it's definitely catched up to today's mail services. Long time customers of ihug were hoping for it to come for years.

Hope the guys from Vodafone see this and hopefully fix things up! It would make the experience just that little better.
(and if you can, reduce the number of failures and shut downs... that would be VERY helpful. )

Read More

The proposed $45 billion acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft has created a tremendous amount of coverage, even in the main-stream media. Clearly, Yahoo as the world's most visited web-site, and Microsoft as the world's most successful ... (more in the full post)

Read More

This is so cool I want one.

From Scarab Aviation Labs based in Russia comes the Begalet - Universal Personal Transport.



It can be used on land, water and snow (with modification) and it can fly!

The craft weighs just 55Kg's when empty and can reach a maximum speed of 80kph on land and up to 160kph in the air (according to some reports). It seems to be a motorised paraglider but Scarab also have some fixed wing versions in development.

It uses a parachute in case of emergency landing when airborne and a bouyancy device to stop it sinking when on the water.

The engine delivers just 30hp with a range of up to 400km so it should be quite economical to run as well.

Read More

Tales from the world of ICT Read More

Finally Microsoft announced that Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 is now RTM

Thats all good, but, Vista SP1 wont be available to public until mid of March and also we beta testers, except for the Refresh 2 build, we havent recevied any builds for download. Many do believe that the Refresh 2 build is RTM.

I got this funny picture from Long,



Really funny

And one more thing is that Windows Server 2008 RTM images for both x86 and x64 are available in Connect for small period of time, but without product keys, lol. So, Go figure out how to use it without product keys
I hope there is minimum days for activating Server, but I haven't tried it out. It is also worth to note that x64 versions of Windows Server 2008 are now available in MSDN and TechNet subscriptions.

Read More

I was asked this and didn't know the answer, as the boxes I have had always have unique mac address, so it was never a problem... however it was pretty easy to change as detailed below:

Telnet to the DM, and type the following commands:

cd /var/etc
rm init
echo \#!/bin/sh >> init
echo ifconfig eth0 down >> init
echo ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx >> init
echo ifconfig eth0 up >> init
chmod 755 init
reboot

You need to change the xx:xx:xx to the mac address you want.  Then the box will reboot... and the MAC address is changed.   Easy!

Read More