Q: When is an alarm not an alarm?

A: When you’re running an iPod Touch v2.2.1!

I had a situation the other day, when I had an alarm scheduled for a specific time, and prior to it firing, I received an updated Meeting Invitation courtesy of my Exchange link over Wi-Fi.

Because the Touch was displaying a popup on the screen, the alarm notification couldn’t appear and play the sound until after I had dismissed the popup – 30 odd minutes after the alarm was to fire!

Something to be aware of if you want to use your iPod Touch as an alarm clock to get you up in the morning…

Get a list of all checked out files from TFS

There are times in every TFS installation where you need to make sure that all your files are checked in. This could be when you are migrating servers, or even if you are leaving the company and want to clean up everything before you go. If you ever have a need to find all checked out files across all your Team Foundation Server workspaces, you should run the following command line program (assuming you have Team Explorer 2005 installed):

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\TF.exe" status /server:<SERVERNAME> /workspace:*

The same command should also work for Team Explorer 2008:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\TF.exe" status /server:<SERVERNAME> /workspace:*

Setting an Icon with the Autorun.inf File

Following my earlier post about setting a custom label for removal drives, I have taken this a step further and added custom icons.

To add an icon, copy the icon you like to the flash drive and then specify in the autorun.inf file:

[autorun]
icon=<local path to icon>

I have a number of flash drives laying around, so I made some variations of the icons in different colours. This way I can identify the drive I want by the colour of the icon. I have created five versions: red, blue, brown, cyan and green.

Download 

Download Flash Drive Icons

The original icon came from Frédéric Bellaiche at Quantum Bits and is licensed under the GNU GPL. This version therefore is also GPL’ed.

Rescue Your iPod Library When iTunes Swallows Your Tunes

Apart from having a cool icon, the software Music Rescue from KennettNet is one of those applications that you don’t realise you need until it’s too late. Basically it supports recreating your iTunes library when it gets toasted.

To do this, it is capable of actually recovering all the music on your device and placing them back into your iTunes Library. This can be useful if when your computer dies on you.

I’ve tried this software out, and it does what it says it does. It’s also a very easy program to pick up and use without having to wade through pages of instructions.

Refreshing email folders on the iPhone/Touch

If you have an email profile on your iPhone or iPod Touch talking to Exchange, your email folders might not synchronise correctly after you make changes. New folders seem to come through fine, but deleted or moved folders don’t seem to automatically refresh.

You’d think that deleting the email profile and recreating it (as a last resort) would sort out the issue, but it doesn’t.

In order to get your revised folder structure in the Mail Profile, follow these steps:

• From the main screen, go to Settings –> Mail, Contacts/ Calendars
• Select the account you want updated
• Turn off Mail synchronisation
• Go back to the main screen and run the Mail application, going into the mail account (there shouldn’t be anything here at this point)
• Go back to the main screen, go to Settings –> Mail, Contacts/ Calendars
• Select the account you want updated
• Turn on Mail synchronisation
• Go back to the Mail application and refresh – the updated folders should then be there

I hope this helps someone, as I had to search the web and experiment to get this working. Based on the evidence, it suggests that deleting a profile doesn’t actually remove the cached information from the device, so if you recreate the profile it stills picks up the information retained on the iPod Touch.

Wanted: Developers, Developers, Developers!

M-Com is hiring again! If you are a talented developer wanting to work on enterprise class mobile banking and payment systems see the opportunity here. If you or anyone you know are interested in applying, then please let us know via the email address on the linked page.

Windows Desktop Background #2

This shot is of the exterior of the Cadrona Hotel.

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The Art & Science of CSS from SitePoint

The folks at SitePoint.com are giving away their book “The Art & Science of CSS” free for the next couple of weeks.

This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical skills involved in using CSS to make attractive web sites, especially if you’re not the type who likes to learn by memorizing a formal specification and then trying to work out which browsers implemented it completely (does anyone enjoy reading specifications?). The only knowledge you’ll need to have is some familiarity with HTML. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provides developers with creative inspiration through practical examples.

To get the eBook (about a 23Mb download), you’ll either need to follow their Twitter or give them an email address. At 227 pages, this is no lightweight promotional gimmick, at first glance the book has some good content.

New Zealand Election - Decision 08

If you are wondering exactly which party to vote for this year, you should go along to Glassbooth. This is a site that by getting you to vote on the relative importance of issues and answering some policy type questions, can advise you on which electoral party best meets your personal preference.

In an election year in which parties have been relatively vague publicly about their policies, this is a good way to discover what they are actually standing for. You might just be surprised by the result that comes back to you!

Initially created for the US elections this week, it was recently expanded to include details of the New Zealand election (which is why the majority of the non-core functionality is still US-centric).

Windows Desktop Background #1

This shot was taken of the exterior of the Christchurch Art Gallery.

* Size 2592x1944