My iPhone 5 together with Vodafone NL is nothing but problems. I have never had a phone with this many reception problems (not even the iPhone 4 with attenagate). Either reception is low or non-existant and when I do have reception, calls are dropped in almost 100% of the calls I make (it’s getting worse since the 6.1.3 update a couple of weeks ago). I literally made one call this week that wasn’t dropped in the middle of our conversation.
I never took these problems as really important, because I make most of my work-related calls using Skype and my house (and most friends’ houses) have full WiFi reception for data. But I always noticed that when my wife has full reception on her iPhone 4S (also with Vodafone NL) my phone has almost no reception and when my wife has less than good reception, my reception is gone and my phone just says “no service”.
But this week, it was really bad. One of the worst moments of my life took place and I couldn’t make an emergency call to 112 (911 for you americans), while in full panic mode I needed to get my sister-in-laws phone (iPhone 4 with KPN) to make this call. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of everything that happened this week, but I learned the hard way that I should never ever rely on this phone (and probably Vodafone) again.
I always thought you should ALWAYS be able to call the emergency number (it uses a different network when your default network has less than sufficient reception), but even that failed.
Python 3 version of pybonjour. Just some minor adjustments to the code and the installer to make it compatible with python 3.
I submitted this to a github repo, so you can easily download and install it. It is based on version 1.1.1 of pybonjour.
https://github.com/depl0y/pybonjour-python3
For work, contact with clients and keeping in touch with a lot of family I use Skype. Since a couple of years users are already moving away from MSN Messenger and more and more people are actually getting a Skype account and since the recent close of the MSN network, all people with MSN Messenger should be on the Skype network now.
But for my taste the Skype client is nowhere near good enough to use it for this variety of contacts. But what is wrong with it and what should be fixed to make it feel like a better fit for this job? Well, to be clear, I work with the OSX version of Skype most of the time, because that is the place where I do most of my work and contact (yes, also my work on Windows I do mostly on my Macbook Pro).
Continue reading “Skype, what I would fix/add” »
I once answered a question on Stack Overflow on how to turn your monitor off in C#.
It seems that the answer no longer worked on Windows 7 en 8. So here is an updated version, which works for me on at least Windows 7.
namespace MonitorOff {
public enum MonitorState {
MonitorStateOn = -1,
MonitorStateOff = 2,
MonitorStateStandBy = 1
}
public partial class Form1 : Form {
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int hMsg, int wParam, int lParam);
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
SystemEvents.SessionSwitch += SystemEvents_SessionSwitch;
}
void SystemEvents_SessionSwitch(object sender, SessionSwitchEventArgs e) {
SetMonitorInState(MonitorState.MonitorStateOff);
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
SetMonitorInState(MonitorState.MonitorStateOff);
}
private void SetMonitorInState(MonitorState state) {
SendMessage(0xFFFF, 0x112, 0xF170, (int)state);
}
}
}
As an added bonus I also added some code to turn off your monitor when you lock your machine (need to keep this app running of course).
Disable Office 365 password expiration
Published by Wim Haanstra in Uncategorized with No Comments
So, you got Office 365 for you and your employees, but then the strict nagging about password policies start. In some cases you just want it disabled and there is no way to do this by using the web interface.
So here are the steps you need to take to disable password expiration for one and for all the users in your Office 365 account.
First, you need to install 3 things. If you have already installed them, you obviously do not need to install them again.
- PowerShell, which is already installed on Windows 7 and can otherwise be found on Microsofts site.
- Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant – Link (3.9 or 5.6MB)
- Microsoft Online Service Module for PowerShell – Link (x86 version) – Link (x64 version)
Great, so you did all that already? Now let’s move on to getting those password expirations removed.
Now, go to your Start Menu and find the “Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell” item. Do not run the normal PowerShell, we need the Microsoft Online Services one. Found it? Now start it and enter the commands below in that PowerShell.
Connecting to the Office 365 servers
$cred=Get-Credential connect-MSOLService -credential $cred
After typing the first line, you will be asked to authenticate, you need to authenticate with a user who has administration privileges.
Disabling password expiration for all accounts
Get-MSOLUser | Set-MsolUser -PasswordNeverExpires $true
Disabling password expiration for one account
You might want to check first if the user already has it’s password expiration set. This is done quite easily
Get password expiration status for all users
Get-MSOLUser | select UserPrincipalName, PasswordNeverExpires
Get password expiration status for specific user
Get-MSOLUser -UserPrincipalName myemail@here.com | Select PasswordNeverExpires
Setting the password to never expire
Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName myemail@here.com -PasswordNeverExpires $true
So there you have it, just replace the myemail@here.com with the email address of the account where you would like to disable the password expiration.
I love games, I love the occasional shooter, and am a huge fan of city management games.
And because it a quiet season for games at the moment, I am looking forward to some cool games. So here is small little list.
| Gears of War Judgement | Gears of War has been one of my favorite Xbox 360 games since the first one was released. The guns give you exactly the right feeling when pulling of that one headshot in multiplayer. | Link | March 19th 2013 |
| Leisure Suit Larry | A kickstarter game I backed because of the nostalgia feelings I have for this game. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. | Link | Unknown |
| Planetary Annihilation | Once this game surfaced on Kickstarter a few months ago, it was a no brainer to back it. If you ever played Total Annihilation, you will probably love this game. | Link | Unknown |
| Sim City | The new Sim City looks awesome. The graphics are completely up to date again and the detail is astonishing. One of the main concerns I got about this game is that it might be to ‘casual’. I would really like to use my brain with this game. | Link | March 5th 2013 |
| Star Citizen | This is a kickstarter which tries to bring back the glory days like Privateer in a full-size space simulator. I always loved those games, so I backed it. | Link | Unknown |
| The Last of Us | A zombie survival kind of game, it looks really good and it seems they actually put some effort in the story. It does mean I have to actually buy a PS3 around that time, but this game might actually be a good excuse to do so. | Link | May 7th 2013 |
| Tomb Raider | Ow man, who does not love Tomb Raider. I think I played most of the games all to the end. The new release of Tomb Raider also looks very promising and I love the way they made Lara Croft a bit more like a normal woman. The quick-time events they added to the game might be a bit of a turn-off but we will have to see, once it is released. | Link | March 5th 2013 |
It seems that March of 2013 is gonna be a full (and expensive) month.
I recently came across this blog post, the author tries to describe how a manager/boss can keep their employees happy. I also have something to add to that blog post.
Currently I am working for a company as a software architect/engineer kind of guy and I have a company of my own which is growing as we speak. The cool thing about both of these jobs is that I get to do cutting-edge stuff. Working with modern technologies and mobile devices is a big hobby of mine and I really like to think I am quite experienced in it.
So what does motivate me?
- Don’t make me do the same trick over and over again
- Give me the right tools to do my tricks.
This is not only a high quality fast computer, but also the right IDE, third party libraries and test devices. These are probably the most expensive investments, but waiting for my computer to stop compiling to test some changes get me out of my flow. Sometimes projects consist of multiple project files that need to be compile to build me my executable, this can take anywhere from 2 seconds to 12 minutes.
Also, trying to get a mobile app running in a broken, slow and impossible to debug simulator is a pain in the ass and not one of the things I want to waste my time on, get me the devices them self so I can test them correctly. - Reward me accordingly
For my own company this is easy: I get a project, make an estimate for the costs and communicate those costs to the client. As long as my estimate is alright, the reward is OK.
Working for a boss, this is harder: we expect to be valued and love to receive some sort of reward when a project is completed before a deadline. I am not directly talking about a raise but there are many ways to reward someone for some hard work. - Keep my pay up to date
As a software engineer (as long as you know what you are doing) you get paid nicely, but we also like to grow. And while our experience is growing we also think we should be paid better. Even when payment is the last priority to keep me motivated, it does pay the bills. When my salary does not grow with my skills, I tend to start looking around for a better job which isn’t that hard if you’re a software engineer.
I don’t want to sound disloyal to my employer, because I hate switching jobs and like to do my best for them, but as soon as too many of those points mentioned above aren’t satisfied, we tend to start looking around.
I’ll just try to give a short introduction about why I got to this subject, for our more international users.
Last Sunday, November 18th 2012, one of the biggest murder cases of the Netherlands was finally solved after 13 years of detectives working on it. It was about a girl, 16 years old, that got raped and murdered in a big field after she went out to a bar. Several people were accused of murdering her, but they never could prove it and the case went cold for a long time. In some sort of last attempt, a large scale DNA search was initiated, asking 7300 men, all living within a 5KM radius of the scene of the crime) to deliver some of their DNA to the justice department.
Continue reading “DNA Database – Yay or nay?” »
Here I will list the the most useful Mac OSX tools I currently use.
| Name | Description | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airfoil | Airfoil is a tool I use to transmit audio from Spotify on my MacBook to XBMC on my Mac Mini (which is connected to the receiver). It supports AirPlay and you can transmit from a specific application. | $25 | Link |
| Cocoa JSON Editor | A very nice tool for developers, which allows you to import/paste Json and easily edit it and export an object model which can be used in Xcode. | $2.99 | Link |
| Coda 2 | Coda 2 is an awesome web editor made by the great Panic studio. Can’t do web development without it! | $74.99 | Link |
| CORD | If you ever need to connect to more than 1 Windows machine by using RDP from your Mac, this is the tool you need to have. | free | Link |
| Dockview | DockView adds an Aero Peek (Windows 7) functionality to your OSX dock. When you hover your mouse over your dock, you will see how many windows an application has open and you can select exactly which window you want to open, by clicking on the preview window. | $7.99 | Link |
| NameChanger | A very nice tool for renaming batches of files. | free | Link |
| Reeder for Mac OSX | The best and most beautiful RSS reader for Mac OSX. | $9.99 | Link |
| TotalFinder | TotalFinder extends the normal Finder. It adds tabs and other very handy options to your Finder. | $15 | Link |
| Tower | Tower is the Git client for OSX, have been using it since the first beta and never left it again. | $59 | Link |
| Transmit | Best OSX FTP client ever! | $34 | Link |
| Tweetbot | Tweetbot is THE Twitter client for OSX. It supports retina displays and and it’s as slick as the iPhone version of Tweetbot. | $19.99 | Link |
| Versions | Superb tool for when you work with SVN. | $39 | Link |
I will extend this list when I get more tools and experiences with them. If you have any tools I NEED to have, just post a comment!
I have been working on a project for work that allows users to specify when they are available to be planned for work shifts. It gives them the ability to specify patterns when they are available and adds this to our server using the WCF RIA service we put in front of it.
Using jQuery you can easily add, delete and update objects in the database.
For the layout I used the Twitter Bootstrap ‘framework’ as a base, with loads of adjustments and additions to completely fit our clients need.
The calendars you see there is a custom built jQuery plugin, the dots in the calendar are planned appointments.
Recent comments