| Characters | Decimal | Hexadecimal | HTML Character Set | Unicode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| " (double quotes) | " | " | " | \u0022 |
| ' (single quotes) | ' | ' | ' | \u0027 |
| & (ampersand) | & | & | & | \u0026 |
| < (lesser than) | < | < | < | \u003c |
| > (greater than) | > | > | > | \u003e |
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
Did you know that Star Wars was a straight remake of Dambusters?
"How many guns do you think Gold Leader?”… “Say about 20 guns, some on the surface, some on the towers"
"I’m going to cut across the axis and try to draw their fire."
These dialogues taken from Star Wars during the attack on the Death Star were originally from the scene in Dambusters when the Lancasters were attacking the German dams.
The lasers shooting from the Death Star match the tracer fired from the Dams.
The scene cutting from the attack to the control room and back to the the attack are the same in both films.
In Dambusters the pilots use converging lights to gauge their altitude and in Star Wars the Navi Computer lines converge.
While writing this post I found this great piece on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMfBKrdErY
Have you spotted any other connections between films…
Do you remember when Sky launched their Digital satellite TV service and their promise of perfect digital picture quality compared to the analogue satellite TV service?
I'm sure that at the time the picture quality of the Standard Digital (SD) was more than adequate.
Recently Sky have been relentlessly promoting their High Definition (HD) service and have been telling us how it is so much better then the SD service.
It is true that SD now looks completely crap and when you watch any football match you will see that the players have a pixel halo around their bodies as they run across the pitch. But in reality the SD picture does not have to look so crap and it is more likely that Sky have reduced the picture quality of SD to make it look even more inferior to their HD service.
The irony is that Sky have reduced the picture quality of SD by increasing the compression and the allocated bandwidth is reduced leaving more bandwidth for HD.
My Crusade
My crusade is for Sky to restore the picture quality of the SD satellite TV service to the best possible quality.
If you agree then please leave a comment below...
http://www.asp.net/Ajax/Documentation/Live/overview/UpdatePanelOverview.aspx
An asynchronous postback behaves like a regular postback in that the resulting server page executes the complete page and control life cycle.
It makes sense that the whole page is executed on the server otherwise the child controls would not know what to show. The benefit of the partial page update is that the rendered content is not sent to the browser client which may be a performance benefit and of course page flicker is eliminated.
Nevertheless it must be considered that AJAX will not necessarily reduce the processor load on the server.
Post your ASP.Net and AJAX experiences in the comments below…
For some postings I am now using the Mail2Blogger email feature.
I just send an email to a special blogger email address and it is instantly published.
<b>Limitations</b>
There are some limitations...
Only plain text is published so any HTML formatting is lost.
I am testing if it is possible to add basic HTML mark-up such as <b>bold</b> in the email .
Images probably don't work.
Labels & categories are not supported.
Post your Mail2Blogger experiences and tips in the comments below...
If your network and another are both trying to use Channel 11 in close proximity to each other, neither of you is going to have wonderful performance.
The only non-overlapping 11b/g channels are 1, 6 & 11 but restricting to these channels is only useful in a non congested locale.
If as most of us there is competition for channel space in your area then choose 3, 4 or 8, 9 and at least part of your spectrum avoids the most popular channels.
Ch 14 also looks like a good bet if you can select it and it is unused.
In the UK we have a lot of mini roundabouts.
I don't have a problem with the mini roundabouts, I think they are great, but I do object to the way that through traffic approaches the roundabout at full speed with no regard whatsoever for vehicles which are already on the roundabout.
Vehicles travel too fast and can cover the distance on approach to the roundabout and then enter the roundabout in the time it takes for a another vehicle to enter the roundabout from the left.
My Crusade
My crusade is that when approaching a mini roundabout traffic slow down and not proceed at full speed against traffic which is already on the roundabout.
Do you think we need to change we use mini-roundabouts? Post your comments here…
Why do mobile phone SMS text messages cost so much to send per text?
SMS text messages can't possibly cost the mobile phone companies 10p or even 20p each!!
Origins of SMS
Way back then I was one of the first ever public users of the GSM network and deep inside my Nokia menus I found an arcane capability to send text message to other mobile phone users. I tested it by sending an SMS text to myself and decreed that it was just too difficult to enter a message using just the digit keys and it would never catch on.
The True Costs
The mobile phone companies must have also thought it would never catch on because they hardly advertised the service at that time or did anything to make the service easier to use.
Even the actual text message is sent using spare capacity in the mobile phone control network which is why the text message length is restricted to 160 characters. Thus SMS texts should be completely free because they don't cost the mobile phone companies anything.
The truth is that the mobile phone companies are desperate to charge as much as they can for SMS texts and they rue the day that it is was first possible to send an email for free.
My Crusade
My crusade is to reduce the costs to the public of SMS Text messages to as little as possible and for free if possible.
What do think about the cost of SMS text messaging? Post your comments below…
The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks.
A less complex form of NTP that does not require storing information about previous communications is known as the Simple Network Time Protocol or SNTP. It is used in some embedded devices and in applications where high accuracy timing is not required.
Synchronise the computer clock with a public Internet NTP Time Server to have constantly accurate time on your computer.
Synchronise a Windows domain controller with a public Internet NTP Time Server and all the computers on the domain will synchronise with the domain controller.
pool.ntp.org Project
http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/uk
The pool.ntp.org project is a big virtual cluster of timeservers striving to provide reliable easy to use NTP service for millions of clients without putting a strain on the big popular timeservers.
United Kingdom — uk.pool.ntp.org
To use this pool zone, add the following to your ntp.conf file:
server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 2.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 3.uk.pool.ntp.org
Set the NTP Time Server
To set the NTP time server(s) on a Windows computer run this command in a console window:
net time /setsntp:"0.uk.pool.ntp.org 1.uk.pool.ntp.org 2.uk.pool.ntp.org 3.uk.pool.ntp.org"
To check the result run this command in a console window:
net time /QUERYSNTP
Force NTP Time Synchronisation
The Windows Time (W32Time) service periodically synchronises the computer time but it can take some time to update for the first time.
To force the time to synchronise on Windows 2003 Server simply stop and start the Windows Time (W32Time) service.
On Vista stopping a starting the Windows Time (W32Time) service does not work but running net time /set in a command console window will cause Vista to synchronise with a domain controller.
Proof of Life?
I know that the computer clocks on my domain are accurately synchronised because I have a Casio Wave Captor 3053 radio controlled digital watch automatically which synchronises with the time calibration signals in England (Rugby) . Other time signals are available in Germany (Mainflingen), United States (Fort Collins) and Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_from_NPL
It is possible that in the UK the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) time signal is now transmitted from the Anthorn VLF transmitter near Anthorn, Cumbria.
More Net Time Commands
| Net Time options | Description |
| Net Time | Displays the time of your time server |
| Net Time \\computername | Displays the computer name time |
| Net Time /DOMAIN:domainname | Displays the time on a DC domain name |
| Net Time /domain/set | Sets computer time to match time on Domain Controller |
| Net Time /RTSDOMAIN:domainname | Displays the time on a time server in the domain name |
| Net Time /querysntp | Displays the SNTP source for the time server |
| Net Time /setsntp:ntpserver | Sets the SNTP source for the time server |
| Net Time /setsntp | Clears the SNTP source for the time server |
Useful Links
http://www.pool.ntp.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_from_NPL
Mastering the Windows Time Service
Do your serves run on time…
The Windows Mobile Start menu is familiar and powerful for launching programs but sometimes it can be just a little inconvenient to use the pointer to navigate those intricate menus…
What I need is an icon screen like the iPhone…
Have you tried Spb Mobile Shell 3.0? There are mixed opinions about this add-on in the Internet forums but despite certain shortcomings I am finding it really useful for taming my X1 Xperia and allowing me to make one handed phone calls.
Be warned though that a drawback for Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is that creating your optimum personalised setup takes a lot of tedious configuration.
Here is how my Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is configured on my SE X1 Xperia.
My preferred theme is Black.
Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is a very pretty program with very nice graphics and animations which perform well on the SE X1 Xperia.
The Spb Change Profile is much better than the Win Mobile default.
The Contacts Icon is the fastest way to one handily select your most often used contacts.
and easily call, SMS txt or email.
Use the fast keys to quickly select any contact.
and review recent calls.
Use the Launcher screen to create icons for launching your favourite programs.
Links
http://spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/mobileshell/
Do you use Spb Mobile Shell? Let me know…
