:neil_middleton

I have just finished migrating the main site's RSS feeds to use FeedBurner. The sole reason being that I can gather statistics on usage, and also to maximise compatability.

So, if you are using one of the RSS feeds, please update the URL that you are reading from.

If you've ever been playing with SELECT boxes and Layers, you know about the z-index bug that exists where a SELECT insists on being the highest element. I cannot remember how many times I have had to write code to hide SELECT boxes before showing a layer over them.

Well, it appears Microsoft have finally got off their arse and fixed it in IE7. Well, what can I say, just in the nick of time eh? Just in time for all those developers now thinking about RIA's/Flash/Flex

Does anyone know whats happened to Model-Glue.com? It's not looking too healthy right now.

Are you interested in cars and the motor industry? Fancy building next-generation applications, pushing CF to it's limits for companies such as Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo?

Yes? Well, currently we are looking for a couple of Senior Web developers to join me working at 2nd Byte in Surrey, UK.

We need people with guru level (enough to teach it) CF knowledge, Advanced Javascript, CSS, HTML, XML and SQL. Good working knowledge of SQL Server 2K and possibly experience of Flash and SEO. Additionally, knowledge of frameworks such as Model-Glue/Mach-ii is a big plus, as is exposure to Flex 2.

Additionally, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the ability to assist with team development and maturity, helping to improve standards, skills and our development environment.

If you're interested, please drop me a mail (with your CV of course) to neil.middleton at gmail dot com.

If you've been keeping an eye on the Flex 2 Beta you'd have released that it actually looks like quite a tasty bit of kit but maybe have not know where to start with regards to learning it.

Well, over the last few days I have been tinkering with Beta 3, and working my way through the included “Getting Started with Flex” tutorials that appear on the start page.

If you've not done Flex development before, these are a fantastic way of picking up some of the basics, getting you into using data etc quite quickly. After working only a few lessons through I was able to start making my own data grids and getting data into them. Note that I have done some Flash development in the past so the notion of dataproviders etc isn't new, so if you've come fresh from a CF only background, you might want to look this stuff up a bit when you come across it.

In short, after learning the basics, I am now at the tinkering stage where I am trying out my own stuff, and learning by doing.

After all the posts I have been making over the last few days related to Windows, I realised I didn't actually care when Vista came out. From what I can tell, there's nothing in it that lights my fire, nothing that I can see being a worthwhile upgrade.

Yeah, it's got some whizzy icons, and some security tweaks, but is it really the revolution that Bill is promising.

That said, I'll still probably have an install on my machine within a month of release

Anyone else think the same?

I had an experience over the weekend that got me thinking about the reputation that windows has managed to get itself for being unreliable, and not particulary powerful. The experience? Trying to fix my nieces DVD drive.

Basically the drive had stopped working, it wasn’t being recognised by the OS, but the hardware was still recognised in the BIOS and was still spinning up OK on boot. The problem? A dodgy registry key left

behind by some old third party CD software, something easy to find on Technet. Before fixing it though, I had been talking to one of the family who was trying to fixing it, and he was suggesting a full-on repair/rebuild of the machine in order to solve the problem.

Later on, this got me thinking…has Windows got itself a reputation because of the lack of education of it’s users (i.e not fully understanding the OS and how it works) or is it genuinely as bad as people make out?

My point is this, if Mac’s, or Linux or whatever was used by as many people as windows, and they had the same amount of knowledge as your typical Windows user, would they be as rated as they are? Typically,

every Mac or Linux user I know fully understands the machine and how it works, and how to get the best of it. Likewise, I fully understand my windows laptop, it’s nice and quick, and never crashes on me (nope, not even the software), but is that because of the fact that I know how to use it properly.

Now, I should point out that I am not some huge Windows advocate, it just fits my needs, I’ve used Linux and a Mac in the past, but right now, Windows is for me. But, if you were to give a Mac or Linux box to someone like my Grandad, who can crucify electronics at 50 paces, would he be able to work the machine as well as a Windows PC, and thus kill it in the same amount of time?

Still unsure what to say about these, but here they are:

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
* 1 GB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero.
* 128 MB of graphics memory.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability.

If you're anything like me you tinker with your Firefox nearly every day of the week trying out new extensions, trying new settings and just generally mucking about. Also, you'll find that every now and then your install just isn't as fresh as it once was. Well, I cleaned up my FF profile this morning and started afresh again, making using the browser all nice and shiny again. How did I do this? Well here goes:

1. Find your profile folder (should be in C:\Documents and Settings\#Windows Username#\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\)

2. Make a copy of the profile folder, then delete the original. Also delete the profiles.cfg and pluginreg.dat files in the Firefox Folder (up above profiles)), then run Firefox and create a new profile on prompt.

3. Copy from your original profile folder the following files/folders:

- bookmarks.html (Bookmarks)

- cookies.txt (Cookies)

- cert8.db, secmod.db, key3.db and signons.txt (Saved Passwords)

- search.rdf file and searchplugins directory (Search)

4. Go to addons.mozilla.org and re-install your extensions. You'll probably find yourself installing less that you had before.

Hopefully once you have done this you should have a profile resembling what you had, but without all the clutter. A couple of minor tweaks later on and you should be back exactly how you were.

883 million seconds, 1.4 million minutes, 245,280 hours,10,220 days….

Yup, I'm 28, which means I am a little older than I was yesterday. Happy birthday me.

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