Loosing that Bluetooth Mouse

For a year or so I've tried various different mice;  currently using a Logictech.  However randomly it would loose connection and the only way to get it back was to remove bluetooth device and add again.  I've updated firmware, drivers, etc but it still persisted.  Finally found the fix via http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/bluetooth-mouse-losing-connection-no-more/ by turning off power off setting in the control panel.

British Gas Remote Control Heating

I hadn't heard of this but its been trialled for a while by British Gas; last week it was soft launched within their service division and this weekend they have started the advertising.  Basically we get to control the temperature of the central heating over the Internet, from a browser or iPhone app.  And it works. 

It looks like the start of something that could be much bigger in terms of home automation too.  Will be interesting to watch it develop.

Ours was installed in about 90 minutes, very efficiently by a British Gas home service engineer.  He took time to explain how it all worked and tested things and connections.   Over the next few weeks the system will gather times and temperatures and we will learn what works best.  In advanced mode we can set temperatures for different times on different days - and hopefully - save some energy bills too.  You can do all the setup online at https://myhome.britishgas.co.uk/myhome and then do monitoring and controls online or with the app.

So - Week 1 tips -  The dashboard will show the outside temperature - but only if in Your Account details section you have the postcode - and there is no space in it, e.g. RG122BX not RG12 2BX.  Also, use Internet Explorer for full functionality.  Firefox 12+ seems to have some bugs here and there, IE seems to have the most compatibility.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i4vx9NC53RlhGeDJlvvqMHxZSl1g?docId=N0129531342011783802A

Portable Dropbox and Multiple Accounts

Here's a great portable app that lets you run Dropbox locally, and also lets you run more than one instance, so for example you could have a project based Dropbox and a personal based one.  I know you can use selective sync or sharing but you're never quite sure whats being shared and synced so this could be a good way to keep things segregated.  Each account comes with 2Gb free too of course. Get the software here, get a free account here.

New Router - Better than SuperHub and Apple Time Capsule

Having used a Apple Time Capsule for backups, I configured it to act as a main wireless router to replace the router capabilities of the Virgin Media Super Hub, which for my wireless wasn't so super.  It suffered poor coverage and frequent drop outs.

I set the super hub into Modem only mode (instructions) and let the Apple Time Capsule run the wireless network.  Recently this started dropping connections and the hard drive started getting errors on the mac backups so I looked at what I should replace it with.

I bought a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Ultimate Wireless N Gigabit Router from Amazon and flashed it with DD-WRT open firmware (follow this link and lookup 1043)  and am now seeing 20-30Mb wireless connections, which is about 2x the speed I was getting from anything else. 

One tip is to use PPTP VPN pass through on this modem you need to add some start up lines following this article.

Best ever marketing tag line?

Marriott quote on key cards for rooms.  "Walk in like you own the place".
Best ever line I've seen.

Getting Things Done - 2 minute rule

If you have read or follow the Getting Things Done method, you'll know about the Just do it when it takes 2 minutes.  Now and again you need to remind yourself how long tasks are taking you and I found this simple site, www.timer-tab.com after finding a chrome extension and then found it just works in any browser.  Its simple and does what it says, end of.  My favourite sort of site.

Running legacy 11.5.10 Apps on Windows 7

This took a bit of time to get the right components working for an old 11.5.10 install working on Windows 7 build PCs but you can use the following to get up and running with Professional / Core / Forms based E Business Suite applications.

Internet Browser - Firefox 3.5.19

Download and install locally.

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/localization#lega
cy35

JInitiator - 1.3.1.26 

Download and install locally.

http://metis.eur.nl/forms/jinitiator/jinit.exe

Fix for JVM - download jvm.dll
http://sathyabh.at/2009/06/27/fixing-internet-explorer-crash-on-launchin
g-oracle-forms-application-with-jinitiator/
and save to C:\Program Files\Oracle\JInitiator 1.3.1.26\bin\hotspot

Browser Plug In

Copy C:\Program Files\Oracle\JInitiator 1.3.1.26\bin\NPJinit13126.dll to
C:\[replace wth your installation direcory for firefox 3.5.19 above]\FirefoxPortableLegacy36\App\DefaultData\plugins