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Showing posts from May, 2009

Replace your broadband provider's DNS servers with OpenDNS ones for more reliable service

I had an 'internet issue' last week when around 10am my connection to the internet was lost. Well not completely lost - my work PC (a remote box accessed via VPN ) was still working fine so I still had a connection (at an IP level), but I couldn't visit any websites. The problem was that Pipex's DNS servers were offline (I couldn't ping them) and it wasn't planned maintenance. So I replace them with settings for the free OpenDNS servers . These DNS servers are used by millions of people around the world, I suppose I've not migrated to them before because I've not had an issue until now. The migration couldn't have been easier - I logged into my router , accessed the 'internet settings' menu option, and selected 'DNS'. Then I unticked the "Automatic from ISP" box and entered the OpenDNS server details in the IP address boxes: The OpenDNS DNS server IP addresses are: Primary DNS Server: 208.67.222.222 Secondary DNS Ser

JSTL date comparisons with the current time (now) in JSPs

When you are coding JSPs and using the JSTL tags you will often be presenting information captured in a domain object, using the JavaBean-style getters to pull out the values within the JSP page. What do you do if you need to show some text if the date stored within the domain object is before (or after) the current time? There are many wrong or messy solutions - polluting the domain object by adding a method to 'get' the text to display, do the comparison in the controller and add the text to display to the request, etc. One clean way is to use the jsp:useBean tag to create a page-scoped variable containing the current date/time and then use normal JSTL to compare the objects. First create the page-scoped java.util.Date object (using jsp:useBean ), then use ${now} to reference the current date/time. This is a regular JSP object now and so the normal JSTL operators work with this variable: <jsp:useBean id="now" class="java.util.Date"/> <c:if te

Acer Aspire One: Backing up the hidden Windows XP factory image partition

My wife recently got the Windows XP 160GB version of the amazing popular Acer Aspire One (this seems to be the only netbook people ever have!). I'd heard from a friend that we should save off the backup image which is preloaded onto a hidden partition (called PQSERVICE). But how do you gain access to the partition in order to save it off? After much research I came up with the following options: Install Linux on a USB pendrive, boot from that, then save the partition using Linux tools Hack the master boot record to remove the 'hidden' attribute of the partition, then save it somehow Numerous other tough/dangerous/involved methods Follow my method below which is easy, safe and free! Here are the steps you need to follow to be able to save off a backup image of the factory install of your Acer Aspire One as well as save a copy of your Master Boot Record (MBR) incase your hard drive dies... Saving your hidden PQSERVICE partition Download the free version of Macrium Reflect

Easy, collaborative web UI mockups with Balsamiq

Every now and again you come across a tool that is so easy to understand, so fast to use and so effective at conveying it's ideas that you just have to tell people about it. One such tool is Mockups by Balsamic . It's a web page mockup drawing tool written using Adobe Air which provides a palette of HTML widgets with which to 'draw' your screens. It has a querky 'freehand' style which lends itself to conveying the components and ideas that a web page should have without forcing the designer to code it up in HTML (or for the customer to think that because the HTML is done, the app must nearly be ready...). Here is a very simple web page for search and listing users which I ' mocked up ' in less than 10 minutes: As you can see it's got a number of standard HTML widgets on it as well as a very useful 'post it' note allowing you to add distinctive notes and comments to the mockups themselves. So this in itself is enough to warrant using it to