Dual Core Hotfix for XP - KB896256

Apparently there's a hotfix KB896256 for xp which enables better dual core performance for those who need it.. but some OEM manufacturers don't pre-install it! doh ..



first saw this on theinquirer.net which is a great tech geek news site. Looks like my Toshiba p100 doesn't have it based on a thread on notebookreview, guess i'll find out when it comes back from being serviced, it developed a bad block on friday, so it's being serviced....


so i'm back on a old ibook running OSX, how does it feel being back on OSX?
I have been using old mac's from hopme for a year... they are nice, but being a long time windows user.... i prefer it, especially when i'm developing...


which is why this patch interests me, i do a lot of Oracle and CFMX work, plus Mapguide, Postgres and a bit of Java, PHP etc... so my machine get's hammered now and then

John Howard's fake plane drama

Crikey as the scoop today on how the supposed plane drama john howard had in Iraq was a load of spin... i guess no-one's that suprised...

Howards C 130 dash all the angles

but obviously Kevin Rudd has got him completely spooked :)

what he has realised yet, is that it's true he's a clever politician as everyone says.... except it's more than people expected him always to be able to spin things and get away with it

so people always expect him to get away with everything.... it wasn't the detail, it was the mastery of how he did it that used to work....

but know people don't expect him to get away with it, the small little man is being exposed...

bring on the election, i want to be proud of Australia, not embrassed mr howard

Congradulations Mischa Long

My house mate Mischa Long made the Deans List for 2006 at ACU

well done mish!

Maitreya Festival feb 2007 photo's online

From Maitreya Festival 2007

such an awesome festival, Maitreya had brilliant music and a great mix of people... reminded me of parties going back a few years

St Kilda Fest 2007 Photos

St kilda fest 2007

Bluetooth remote controls for you PC

I have a sony Sony Ericsson Walkman® w800i and my laptop has bluetooth

what's really cool is you can use HID profiles and use your phone as a remote control, for bluetooth winamp for example.



there are a couple of tricks to know

firstly, you can find the remote controls under the entertainment menu on your mobile phone

secondly, in order to get it working on a toshiba laptop, you need to make a new connection to your phone, but not via the express method, use custom and select the HID driver

Toshiba Assist -> BlueTooth Settings -> New Connection





Make sure you select the HID (Human Interface Driver)



this secret to getting the bluetooth remote control working with a toshiba laptop and a w800i... otherwise you get a Bluetooth connection failed error, even when you can transfer files to your phone

IP to Country using Oracle and CFMX

Firstly download the IP-To-Country Database and unzip it

Then create a table in oracle

CREATE TABLE IPTOCOUNTRY(
IP_FROM NUMBER,
IP_TO NUMBER,
COUNTRY_CODE2 CHAR(2 BYTE),
COUNTRY_CODE3 CHAR(3 BYTE),
COUNTRY_NAME VARCHAR2(50 BYTE),
REGISTRY VARCHAR2(30 BYTE)
) TABLESPACE USERS;


ALTER TABLE IPTOCOUNTRY ADD (
CONSTRAINT PK_IPTOCOUNTRY PRIMARY KEY (IP_FROM, IP_TO)
USING INDEX
TABLESPACE USERS);

Load the data using the following sqlldr control file
(hint edit the paths)

OPTIONS (SKIP=132, DIRECT=TRUE)
LOAD DATA
INFILE 'C:\downloads\geoip\IpToCountry.csv'
BADFILE 'C:\downloads\geoip\IpToCountry.bad'
DISCARDFILE 'C:\downloads\geoip\IpToCountry.dsc'

INTO TABLE "IPTOCOUNTRY"
WHEN (1) <> '#'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' AND '"'
( IP_FROM,
IP_TO,
REGISTRY,
assigned filler,
COUNTRY_CODE2,
COUNTRY_CODE3,
COUNTRY_NAME)

then once that's loaded, you can then query the database, but you need to convert the ip address ( IE CGI.REMOTE_ADDR ) to a long ip format (ip2long in php, inet_aton in mysql), here's a CFMX library IPConvert for CFMX that will convert dotted quads to long numeric ip addresses and back.

then you just need to do a simple database query

<cfquery name="q_ip" datasource="oracle">

SELECT *

FROM iptocountry

WHERE ip_from <= <cfqueryparam value="#ip_long#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_NUMERIC">

     and ip_to >= <cfqueryparam value="#ip_long#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_NUMERIC">

</cfquery>

#q_ip.COUNTRY_CODE3# is the country name and #q_ip.COUNTRY_CODE2# is the two letter equivalent which can be used with thse small country flags or large country flags simply with the following code ("ZZ" are unassigned countries)

<fif q_ip.recordcount and q_ip.COUNTRY_CODE2 neq "ZZ">

<cfoutput>
  #q_ip.COUNTRY_CODE3#
  <img src="#q_ip.COUNTRY_CODE2#.png"
   width="20" height="13" alt="">
</cfoutput>

<CFELSE>

unknown

</cfif>

Postgres Double Quotes

I'm working a new project and i'm using postgres for the first time in a while...

I was experiencing very strange behavior, queries are only working if i double quote the column and table names.

I know this from autogenerating the query in pgAdmin III. I'm using CFMX and JDBC, but as always with a database, go back to the native db tools first to test a
problem

SELECT "USER_ID", "EMAIL_ADDRESS", "FIRST_NAME",
FROM "USERS";

works fine!

SELECT USER_ID, USER_TYPE_ID, EMAIL_ADDRESS, FIRST_NAME, MIDDLE_NAME,
LAST_NAME, USER_PASSWORD, DATE_CREATED, DATE_UPDATED,
DATE_LAST_LOGIN, DATE_PASSWORD, IS_ACTIVE
FROM USERS;

but this one fails with "ERROR: relation "users" does not exist"

I had been stumped for a while and i then I found the answer: http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread3102.html

The create table script had double quotes around all the column and table names and will only work as such as a result, "USERS" and USERS are two different things..

very intuitive... it's friday

My Rainbow Serpent 2007 Photos

Time for a new lens :)

I finally got a Canon 10-22mm EFS lens just in time for this years Rainbow Serpent Festival.

It's a great match to my existing 17-85mm EFS lens, but to be honest i barely switched lens the entire 5 days, wide angle rocks

From Rainbow Serpent 2007...

Really fun festival, great people, awesome vibe... the music was as usual a little dull for my tastes, progressive just doesn't compare to decent psy or dirty electro, it's always facscinating to watch the difference on the dance floor between the two style.

I know i slept thru some of the better music ;) but I am talking about the festival as a whole. Bring on the Maitreya Festival

I can't wait to see ANDROMEDA again, my personal music highlight at Soulclipse in Turkey

this weekend brings the return of the St Kilda Festival

Earthcore 2006 Photos

here's the result of me carrying round my camera at earthcore this year

hope you enjoy!