Did you ever consider learning OOP (Object-oriented programming)? Or maybe you want just writte a little code in Java? But you don’t want build an Enterprise level Project or study 1 Day’s, how to start with a “hello world” Project? If you consider one or more questions with yes, BlueJ may be the solution to you.
In this article i will show you a small tool named “switcher”. Maybe you know the feature expose on mac OS S, Switcher enables this on Windows Vista and Windows 7 Clients. I guess if you install Switcher you never use “alt” & “tab” and “win” & “tab” again.
I use the following settings:
General = Default
Appearance = Default
Windows Style = Default
Filters = Default
Advanced = Default
Shortcuts Keyboard “alt” & “tab” and Shortcuts mouse “mose move at top-left of Monitor 1.
You can download Switcher for free at http://insentient.net/
For a Project I hade change the DNS Server settings on several client computers. All Clients hade fixed IP and DNS Settings on the clients and the customer want not to change to a DHCP. I can understand this approach because fixing the IP of computers can improve network security and awareness. My first approach was to look inside the GPO of Windows XP. And after 2 minutes searching look what I fond under: “Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Network – DNS Client – DNS Servers”
“ Defines the DNS servers to which a computer sends queries when it attempts to resolve names.
Warning: The list of the DNS servers defined in this setting supersedes DNS servers configured locally and those configured using DHCP. The list of DNS servers is applied to all network connections of multihomed computers to which this setting is applied.
To use this setting, click Enable, and then enter a space-delimited list of IP addresses (in dotted decimal format) in the available field. If you enable this setting, you must enter at least one IP address.
If this setting is not configured, it is not applied to any computers, and computers use their local or DHCP-configured parameters.”
After reading the description I Thanked this is it. So let me show you first the test environment. We got to server and a Client. The server running Windows 2003 and the client runs XP. The two servers (dc01.planetgeek.ch/ 172.16.111.120 and sql.platnetgeek.ch / 172.16.111.124) have installed DNS servers. The Client has only one DNS configured the dc001.
Setting up the new GPO and link it to the client pc.
Now we use the client to review the impact of this GPO setting. First we use the gpresut to look if the GPO was adapted.
After we are sure that the GPO was applied I do an “ipconfig /all” to check the DNS settings.
Okay it looks like the DNS setting is not applied. I checked the result several times, rebooted the PC, used netsh to look on the DNS settings and searched for event log entries. Then I tried nslookup on the console. Look on witch DNS server the request goes.
It looks like the network tools (ipconfig, netsh and the tcp/ip Settings gui) from windows XP did not recognize the GPO Setting. I guess if you use this in large company this will end up in a debugging nightmare. Normally I hate this Microsoft bashing, because the Company make good and stable products. But this time the guys from Redmond did a very lousy job.
Currently I’m in the refresher course of the swiss armed forces in Andermatt. So I get plenty of 
time to test my new Apple iPad. I have the 16 GB model without the 3G (UMTS) modem. I decide to buy the cheapest model because I think I don’t need much storage on my web tablet. The 3G option was for me secondary because I own a notebook with built in UMTS modem. As a side note you can use the freeware Connectify to switch any pc in to a wlan access point http://www.connectify.me/. Or create a wlan network proxy with an iPhone and the app NetShare (10$) from the Sydia store.
First I will make my coming out as an Apple fan boy. So this article reflects my personal meaning and may not be 100% objective. The physical dimensions of the device are 243mm x 190mm x 13mm. The weight of the iPad is 0,68 kg or 0.73 kg for the 3G model. By the way the 3g models have also an compass and a GPS module. The display is 9.7 inch and has a resolution of 1024×768 (132ppi). The battery live is beyond 10 hours witch is very, very, very impressive. There are only three points witch are semi optimal. The reflecting display is not my favorite option. And if you use the iPad in the Sun in became a little bit hot and shuts himself down. The iBook store of Switzerland only host’s only free book from the Gutenberg project. As you can imagine Nathan the wise from Lessing is note my favorite bed lecture.
My top 5 apps for the iPad are:
FunBox: It is an very simple app. There are 60 buttons each of the buttons play’s a funny sound.
fun box
GoodReader is for my case the best eBook reader for the iPad. I assume you don’t need it if you buy books in the Apple Store. At the moment I buy e-books on the Exlibris web store and print the Adobe DRM contaminated files to a pdf printer (Freepdf) and send it to GoodReader.
GoodReader
NewsRack (thx Dani for the hint) is very nice RSS reader. A very nice feature is the sync with the Google reader. The reader can cash posts and pictures.
PocketCAS is a very nice function plotter. Which is very usefully in my studies at the university of Lucerne
PocketCAS
Dropbox the best way to keep your files in sync.
dropbox
After all I like the iPad and give him 4.5 geeks from max 5 geeks
