James Titcumb

Just a quickie mainly for my own reference. If you get this message:

The repository returned an unknown project. Please update the repository attributes.

The fix is pretty simple, but is not obvious unless you know it’s there… Just right click the task list query that has the error, go to “Repository” then “Update Repository Configuration”. Not sure why it happens, but it happened to me and this fixed it. Bling.

Wow – Life has been really busy, and I haven’t blogged here in almost 2 months – sorry folks! This is just a quick update to say that I’ve got a few posts already lined up so make sure you’re subscribed to my feed! Watch this space…

I didn’t even think you could do this:

UPDATE table SET something = REPLACE(something,'oldtext','newtext');

How handy! For replacing text in MySQL tables that is… not for anything else really.

Last night I read Linode‘s announcement that they have opened a new data centre in London, and jumped at the opportunity. I’ve been using Linode since January this year, and their VPS hosting has been absolutely trouble-free. Not only that, they have probably the best administration interface I have ever seen. It’s easy to use, clearly labelled and very well laid out.

In addition they have given me probably the best customer service satisfaction of any company I have ever used. Their ticket response time for me has been consistently under 4 minutes, which is hugely impressive. I’m not the only one who is praising them, they’ve received good praise all over Twitter, with response times of 4-6 minutes.

I highly recommend using Linode if you’re thinking of getting a VPS – and if you do decide to sign up, please use my referral link!

Or my code: 939c7865b8818f015533efae7b06cdb06f9b59be

And as a side note, as my IP has changed, it will take another 24 hours or so for the DNS to propogate probably, so hold fast until then everyone!

This bears slight resemblance to the already widely publicised anti-trust/monopolising cases against Microsoft for bundling their own software with their OS, without offering the alternatives (read here (Windows Media Player) and here (Internet Explorer)). Admittedly, the competition for browsers and media player software is much higher than instant messaging software, but it’s slightly related.

Many Windows users will have already seen this install software, which is now downloaded every time you want to update a program, such as Windows Live Messenger. The program itself isn’t my concern, rather the automatic ticking of nearly every other Windows Live software on the list. I only wanted to update Windows Live Messenger, yet the program had automatically selected Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar, Writer, Family Safety, Office Outlook Add-on and Office Live Add-on for additional installation. That is an extra 128mb – a paltry amount, by most accounts, yet still an amount I have no need for.

To rub salt into the wound, post installation the default option is to change your search engine as well as fix your homepage. Rumours on the Internet are that if you do not remove the “Set my homepage” link, then the program installs an additional program that forces your homepage to stay the same; apparently (although I have not had first hand evidence) to the extent of not letting the user change their homepage for themselves. The idea behind it is to stop spy ware changing the homepage, yet this seems counter-intuitive to not allow users to change their homepage at all… As I said though, I cannot confirm the legitimacy of this rumour, so it may be speculative.

To summarise, Microsoft shouldn’t have these additional pieces of software automatically selected for installation – a less savvy user (family members come to mind…) might not look at this list and add these unnecessary pieces of software to their system.