Michael Dale

With the work I've been doing with the Sydney Business Exchange website, I've decided that all my PHP applications need to be able to talk easily with each other over the internet.

So I have been working on a new Client/Server SOAP system to allow this.

The first program to include this will be Bluetrait 2.1.

The ultimate goal (with Bluetrait anyway) is to be able to push users/posts etc to client sites. The client sites will also be able to push information back to the Server, such as events from the event viewer.

I've decided on using SOAP as I have used it before with a .NET mobile application and it seems to work well.

For the SOAP class I will be using NuSOAP, but it is possible that I could use the built in PHP5 class (although then you need to make sure the extension is installed).

More here

It's finally done, well version 2.0 anyway. I've got lots of things I want to do with 2.1 :)

So I've had an annoying week of stuff breaking for no reason.

• My desktop computer is getting some weird graphical interference. It seems to occur on either of my monitors at random intervals, yet it never happens on both. I've swapped the video card and tried different monitors, still not working! So I think it might be my motherboard, need to do some more playing around with it.
• My iPhone headphone connector no longer works, so I've got to get that swapped this week.
• I tried upgrading the ram in my MBP, but it looks like there is a compatibility problem with the ram. So it crashes all the time, grrr.
• And last my Amp just died! Luckily it is still under warranty so I've taken it back it to be fixed.

So yeah, no idea what is going on with all my stuff! Stupid technology, I should get out of IT 

Max's Mum has just started her own Real Estate business called property by Annabel. Stuart did the design and I setup the CMS, so it is running Bluetrait 2.

I upgraded from my white macbook the other day (10 days ago :p) to a MacBook Pro 15" (base spec: 2.4GHz, 2gb Ram, 250gb HDD, Geforce 9600 256mb).

I picked it up from the online apple store for $AU2699 (refurbished model, but in perfect condition) and it is great. The screen is much better than the old macbook and it can play some games too.

I'm currently dual booting Mac OS and Windows 7 Beta.

Photo

I just picked myself up an old PowerBook Ti off ebay (yes I like collecting random old stuff), and I was surprised how fast it was.

Specs:

• G4 800MHz
• 512mb PC133
• Radeon 7500 32mb

I installed Leopard on it via Firewire (off my iBook G4) and it works really well. The screen is great and it is more than fast enough to browse the internet on with multiple tabs.

So I've finally got the confirmation that I am eligible to graduate.

So I have a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, awesome...

I've just released the first version of Bluetrait Money Hosted.

You can sign up here.

 Well it looks like we might not need to move at this stage. Which is awesome...

So I've had the pleasure of looking after some Blackberries and I just don't understand why anyone would purchase one over say a Windows Mobile device or an iPhone.

So here is my list of why Blackberries suck:

• The user interface on the phone feels like a palm from the 90s. The screen on the newer phones is better, but the interface is still really nasty, I hate that crappy ball thing they use.
• It doesn't sync correctly/at all. Do a quick google search to see for yourself. They just don't work correctly. Half the time the contacts don't sync wirelessly, the email reconciliation doesn't work (you know, when you delete an email off the phone it should also delete from exchange) and they don't activate quickly.
• Blackberry Enterprise Server is shit. There are so many hooks it requires into Exchange that it just isn't funny. Do an update on Exchange and you'll be spending the rest of the day trying to fix the BES user permissions.
• With an ActiveSync device (WinMo, iPhone etc) you don't need any extra server software as long as you're running Outlook Web Access, unlike Blackberry that requires the BES server.
• Security. If you're using a Blackberry your data must flow through the RIM Server Relay Protocol (SRP) system. Where as Exchange can talk directly to the Phone via SSL. So there are less security issues and you don't need to worry if the SRP goes offline (which has happened before).
• BES puts a lot of extra load on the Exchange Information Store as it polls for incoming messages.

I can't really think of much else. But yeah I really don't like looking after Blackberries and have no problems recommending the iPhone over it for business users.

If you think the only way of getting push email on your phone is via a Blackberry you are very wrong.