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Debian, VMWare and a letterbox view

I am really growing on the idea of virtualised OS’s.  For a recent uni subject, we have to use a virtualised environment, and its great.  No bullshit configuration of the host system or servers.  Everything is ready to go out of the box.

Except that due to my monitors 1280×800 non standard resolution, I learnt that just editing XOrg.conf and providing a new resolution would not do the trick.

As described here: Configuring The Appliance Debian, you need to run vmware-tools-config, to tell vmware of your new resolution.  I don’t know where it pulls the lists of resolutions from, so I updated /etc/X11/XOrg.conf and /etc/X11/xf86config-4 to include the 1280×800 resolution (just in front of all the prelisted 1024×768 800×600 640×480 bits)

After a restart of X (CTRL+ALT+Backspace), the new login screen filled the entire window.  On logging into Gnome, the picture went back to letterbox. To configure Gnome, go to Desktop->Preferences->Screen Resolution.

There should be a lot more there now than there were before 😉

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Flexible Reporting

I took the opportunity to listen to play back our interview notes from the first two meetings. Since I volunteered to do mock up reports to find out what extra data we hadn’t yet considered for the ‘domain model’, it made sense.

 
 

Shock horror, our tutors were right. There is a plethora of things that the client wants. They don’t know how to ask for it. But they are concerned with the demographic of memberships.

 
 

On a good note, the client has been good and got in touch with our host over the last week. The host has assigned the client a new account manager and I’ve been able to forward our requests, which are now sitting with their ‘technical department’.

 
 

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How to subscribe and export to a Google Calendar from Outlook 2007

This handy little page on the MS website, has steps to subscribe to a google calendar from within Outlook.

Transfer calendars between Outlook and Google Calendar – Outlook – Microsoft Office Online

I’m happy with this out of the box solution as opposed to the popular Remote Calendars option that doesn’t work with 07 straight out of the box.

Given I don’t use Google calendar that much thanks to my PDA, I still think its great to have a seperate repository and the means to keep themn in sync is most welcome.

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Mobile OS Love

or about updating the operating system on your Windows Mobile based phone.

 In the hunt for Windows Mobile 6, the next unofficial mobile operating system upgrade for the Dopod 838 Pro, I came across a few sites to help learn the process and terms involved in the upgrade.

 First up, although there is a Windows Mobile 5, there are different iterations of it, much like how desktop Window’s OS’s have Service Packs.  These are called AKU’s or Adaptation Kit Update and provide extra features or security fixes with each release.

My Dopod was shipped with AKU 2.6 but there was a subsequent 3.0 release which provided vast improvements.  This included upping to .NET compact framework 2.0, Internet Sharing (in place of the wireless modem program), an Javascript enabled Internet Explorer for AJAX based sites, better bluetooth support inc FTP for BT filesharing, vCards sent by SMS and WPA2 support.

You can read more about AKU’s, how to determine the version installed on your phone and the different releases available for Windows Mobile 5 here.

 I have since read there are AKU 3.2/3.3 versions out there too which improve on the wifi aspect.  More importantly though, you will need an updated v3+ AKU to upgrade to WM6 successfully.

 To upgrade to AKU 3.3 you can follow this post on the xda-developers site.  Beware, this isn’t a simple how-to, you’ll have to do some pre-reading to get the right software and know what you are doing before performing the upgrade.

 Acknowledgement: the links above were pulled from this discussion on the MyPDACafe.com site.

Ok, so now the first hurdle has been achieved, here are some discussion posts around WM6 on the 838 that I found useful

MyPDACafe.com :: View topic – WM6 “XDA Live” 0.1 for Hermes (Dopod 838pro) – Upg – links back to XDA developers but also demonstrates the use of the new rom

[REPORT ISSUES] WMXL v0.20 Released… – xda-developers – the main page for the newer release and a discussion of the issues faced.  There are potential issues with connectivity, not across the board, but some people are finding bluetooth headsets, wifi and hsdpa connections a little different.

Windows Mobile 6 Thread Links – xda-developers

XDADeveloperWiki – HTC_Hermes – great site for all sorts of HTC / Dopod info

 

The final considerations are finding a way to backup the existing rom, backup your existing data, applying the new platform and having a means to roll it back should it all go haywire.  This is no small topic in itself so I will post again once I found out some more.

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ActiveSync 4.5

Windows Mobile – ActiveSync 4.5 is now out of beta.  Best new feature is the means to have the phone use the PC’s net connection or the PC to use the phones connection without having to establish any PPP links.  Works over both USB and Bluetooth (haven’t seen reports about IR though I hope this is the same).

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And now, less of the same…

Yesterday began with adventures in HiFi.

 
 

This was good because the drones had alleviated my need to extrapolate the beginnings of a fine art form.

 
 

Then 4 wise men appeared. They thanked us for the food and left. Their gifts were going to some baby. I later heard only 3 of them reached their destination. The 4th guy spilt the oil.

 
 

If only time had a place within my spice rack. It would sit well against the tins of SPAM underneath. Why not, because? Yesterday, Ok!

 
 

HiFi, yeah!….. Your team member has lost the plot. Put it in the risk report.