Ooooohhhhh and also
Sunday 26 December 2004, 13:22 WST —
I also forgot something else that we use at work. For quotes, etc, we need to create PDFs at times. So if you’re in the same boat, check out PDF Creator. It’s a virtual printer, just print to it and it’ll make the PDF for you. Nice and easy.
The Opensource Office
Saturday 25 December 2004, 22:12 WST —
At work, we have a problem. Mostly the cost of software and trying to stay legal, in otherwords, we obviously can’t pirate software where a home user would. (Are you using a legal copy of Windows on your PC right now?). Unfortunately the cost of software is so high, especially when you need about 8 copys of everything.
So I’ve had to resort to finding cheap, or free software. For our server I already use Gentoo Linux, which in my opinion is a brilliant Linux distro, either for a desktop or server, simply because of the portage system. I have mentioned this before.
Redhat was my choice previously, but that’s only because I found it first when doing Linux server stuff. The work server was originally Redhat, however, after I had used Gentoo on my home PC for awhile, I had become a bit spoilt by the portage system. So when I tried getting MySQL, Apache, and PHP install on the old server and finding it more difficult than typing:
emerge apache
I thought, bugger it, and reinstalled the server with Gentoo.
Anyway, back to the subject. I’ve had to find cheap, or free software to do what we need done at work. So here’s the list of what I’ve found:
OpenOffice
This free bit of software is good enough to replace Microsoft’s Office software. Wordprocessor, spreadsheet, powerpoint, etc, it can open all those formats, although the version I have doesn’t support vertical text, it generally should be good enough without much hassle simply because the price is right.
Clam Anti-virus
You need a virus checker on your desktop and mail servers these days, without a doubt. This opensource anti-virus software is free and comes in linux and Windows variants. I’ve got our server scanning all incoming e-mails, and I’ll be installing the Windows client on all the workstation PCs.
HylaFax
I spent a long time trying to find a good fax solution for the company, but failed, the only one I could find that worked exactly how I wanted was ActiveFax, but there’s a problem with it, it’s $595 US dollars for a 5 person licence, and seriously, all I want is for network users to be able to print to a virtual printer and have it ask for the fax number (or use a phonebook) and send the fax. That’s it.
Luckly I eventually found HylaFax, you install this on your linux server, then you can install a Windows client (some of which however are not free), and bingo, you can send and receive faxes.
Well that’s it for now, I’ll post something more as it occurs to me.
One of the best quotes from a movie
Friday 24 December 2004, 09:48 WST —
There’s no earlthy way of knowing
Which direction we are going.
There’s no knowing where we’re rowing
or which way the river’s flowing.
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurrican-a-blowing?Not a speck of light is showing.
so the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of hell a glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?Yes! The danger must be growing
for the rowers keep on rowing
and the’re certainly not showing
any signs that they are slowing!
Christmas Cheer
Thursday 23 December 2004, 13:15 WST —
I’m now officially on holiday, the only real reason left to celebrate Christmas.
Google Suggest
Thursday 16 December 2004, 19:40 WST —
I suppose I better jump on the Google Suggest bandwagon. Although, technically, there’s nothing new to it, it is however, the first time I’ve seen the technology used, hell, I didn’t even know about the XMLHTTPRequest thingy until a few months ago.
When I first found out about XMLHTTPRequest I knew I wanted to use it in the work database. At the moment we use MS Access, which does a good enough job if the database is small and simple. However, as is always the way, the needs, or really, wants of the program grew. On top of that, add the fact that it was never designed by someone who knew anything about database design, you might get an idea of how bad this thing is. (Hint: The sales orders don’t use a 1 to many relationship for the order items, oh no, it’s quantity1, quantity2, quantity3, itemDescription1, itemDescription2, etc)
Anyway, the company is kinda learning that sticking to MS Access is not a good idea, we’ve had to look for other options. And of course that’s where we come to be doing the work webpage. Ahhhh, we can use a webpage, it’s not as interactive as Access, but still. Well, that’s when I learnt about XMLHttpRequest, and XUL.
So now, that’s the direction I will hopefully get the company in, barring a small amount of politics.
Anyway, that pointless rant aside, I notice that my friend hasn’t been updating his blog lately. Now I know something has to be wrong when I’m posting on my blog more than my friend who’s only been doing it for a month (if that). What the hell is going on WB?
Qmail POP, “unable to write to pipe”
Tuesday 07 December 2004, 21:34 WST —
Had wonderful trouble with the server at work today, wonderful. Had a very short power outage (like 3 seconds worth) of course this was enough to upset our un-UPSed server (the UPS has been on order for a month, and of course when we called up today they’ve lost the order). Anyway, I had this wonderful problem which the POP server said “unable to write to pipe” or something similar.
Well, if you’ve got the same problem, and like me, it’s got nothing to do with your maildir settings. Try checking the /var/qmail/control/me file (or whatever the hell it is), make sure you’ve only got one address in there, it doesn’t like having more than one.
Took me two hours that one did.
In other news, also work related. I’ve been working on the my work webpage, which I could use as a handy excuse why I’m not updating/working on this one, but I won’t. Anyway I’m actually quite proud of it, to be honest it’s nothing special, just a database driven by a PHP interface, but it works. I’m sure there’s plenty of security holes and bugs in there, but damn it, I made it. Direct Communications is the company, just in case you didn’t know.
Maybe I should do little code bits, I have no idea why, maybe moreso notes for myself I guess, but like most blog ideas I guess it really isn’t going to happen.
I’ve also bought a DVD burner, dual layer. Wooooo, but to be honest I don’t really have much of a use for it, except for backing up my harddrive, which I should be sorting out soonish, otherwise I’m sure I’m going to regret it.
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