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Visual Studio Source Control and Dropbox!

Aug 12th
Posted by: jamesakadamingo | Tags: , ,
4 comments

Dropbox Platforms Image

Dropbox works on all three of the major OSes.

As anyone that reads this blog should realise (that’s if anyone is actually reading it, comment people please!), I am a Applications Developer.  I work for a large law firm writing Visual Basic .NET applications, along with a fair amount of SQL work.  However I also do a lot of personal development outside of work, building websites and applications for private contracts.  I wanted a similar Source Control solution to the one that we use at work (Source Gear’s SourceVault), but I wanted one extra feature!! Distributed Source Control!

For those that are not 100% on what Source Control is here is a little explanation.  Source Control systems are designed to keep a historical copy of your source files; whether they be source code, websites or even documentation. The crux of the matter is you “check” files in and out of the repository (the source control container), most systems also give you the option of tagging comments to your “check ins” so that you can remember what changes you made to your code!! The whole purpose of a SourceControl solution is to save you from disaster when it all goes wrong! Should you make a change that breaks your application, or need to roll back when the plan changes, you can simply pull out an historical copy of your file from a previous check in!

The other major benefit of Source Control systems is that they allow for collaboration between multiple developers. When Developer A checks out a source file to work on, the repository allows Developer B to access the file but it prevents him from checking the change in until Developer A has finished with the file.  Once both Developer A and B have both finished with the files, the repository offers to merge the changes together.  Some Source Control solutions store the details and content of the source files in an SQL database (as SourceVault does), however the tradition is to use a file structure (like SubVersion and Microsoft’s SourceSafe).

My custom SourceControl solution is SubVersion and Dropbox running on Windows 7!! Read More for instructions on how to re-create it!

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Random Tech: Like an SSD but without the price tag

Aug 7th
Posted by: jamesakadamingo | Tags: , ,
1 comment


Momentus XT Hybrid Drive

Momentus XT Hybrid Drive

I don’t normally do hardware reviews, but I decided that this was worth while.  I recently purchased a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive, not the best named piece of hardware but it does the job.

The Momentus XT, as the name implies,  is a hybrid hard disk drive. It combines a standard hard drive with some NAND flash memory, not that you can tell once you are booted into your Operating System.  The Momentus XT comes in three flavours 250GB, 320GB and 500GB.  Each flavour includes 4GB of NAND flash memory, which is used to hold all your most regularly used files.

4GB may not sound like a lot of space, but when it’s only being used to store the files which the OS uses the most it’s more than enough. In the case of Windows, it stores some of the page file and lots of DLLs (especialy the .NET ones!).  So my main problem, the speed at which Visual Studio worked, was solved just by caching the .NET frameworks!

One of the plus points of the HDD looking after the Flash storage within firmware, is that this drive will work on any machine that supports SATA! There are no special drivers so it will work with Windows, Linux, etc etc.

Now down to the numbers,  over a standard Laptop drive running at 5400 RPM I get around an 18% performance increase.  Where as an SSD would give me around a 20% increase, but for an extra £250 (for the most basic 250GB SSD)!!

My boot time is now around a minute, and resume from hibernate is a matter of seconds.   The proof that this drive gives a speed increase is my task bar on a clean boot. Normally you see Windows Boot, and then your Virus Scanner loads, followed by the firewall and slowly the rest of the tray icons. With the Momentus XT drive, the all load at once, and the system is booted as soon as you can see the desktop!!

All in all, the Seagate Momentus XT drive gave a massive performance increase to my Dell XPS M1530, and it only cost me £79 (delivered!) from www.scan.co.uk. Rather than £100s of pounds for the same size SSD.

For more info about the Momentus XT range take a look at Seagate’s Momentus XT Range.

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Random Tech: Speeding up Ubuntu 10.04 boot time

Jul 4th
Posted by: jamesakadamingo | Tags: , ,
No comments

Typically Ubuntu boots in around 15-45 seconds out of the box, but overtime this can change as you add more applications and the init scripts get bloated.  So here are a few quick tips to help you speed up Ubuntu’s boot time (I am using Ubuntu 10.04).

Start up

Ubuntu Start-up Applications

Remove unwanted items to speed up boot time

The easiest tweeks to make can be found in the “System > Preferences > Start-up Applications” menu.  On a desktop machine you are unlikely to need a few of the services, and on a server you are likely to need even fewer.

The applications which I have disabled are:

  • Blue-tooth Manager: If you don’t use blue-tooth then this service is a waste of resources!
  • Evolution Alarm Notifier: Personally I do not use evolution as a mail client, so there is no need for the notifier. Even if you do use evolution, you may not need the reminders!
  • GNOME Login Sound: As nice as that sound is, the monkey in the jungle gets annoying very quickly!
  • Visual Assistance: I don’t need the “accessibility” features.

You may find others that you don’t need, such as “Ubuntu One” which you might not make use of.

A good kick up the BUM

BUM or Boot Up Manager is a useful program that takes controlling start-up programs and services one step further.  You can use it to completly stop the CUPS (Printing) services and any other laptop only items if you are running a desktop or server.  It can be installed with the following apt-get command:

sudo apt-get install bum

I will leave you to decided which items to disable, as everyone’s Ubuntu installs can be different.

If you have any other speed-up tips please comment!!

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Random Tech: Synergy for Ubuntu and Windows 7

Jul 2nd
Posted by: jamesakadamingo | Tags: , , ,
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How many of us have got more than one computer on our desks? The answer is almost certainly a lot of us!  I have just set up my office in my new apartment (I moved on Monday!), and I decided that I didnt need to have to two keyboards and mice.

I have used synergy before, and have decided to use it again.  For those that have not seen synergy before, it is akin to a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse sharing hardware) but is purely software.  I can share a keyboard and mouse with any other machines on my network, they don’t even need to be in the same room (although what use that would be I don’t know!).  The best bit is that synergy is free, and runs on Linux, Windows and Mac, and takes moments to set up.

I have a Windows 7 laptop and an Ubuntu 10.04 desktop, synergy runs as a server on the laptop allowing the desktop to connect to it.  Installing Synergy on the desktop is easy, just download the installer from the Synergy website, as for Ubuntu just type:

sudo apt-get install synergy quicksynergy

Once installed you set up the server (in my case on the Windows machine) with a few simple clicks:

Synergy Screenshots

Synergy Screenshots

All you have to do is add the “screens” aka machines to the top list (Badwolf is my laptop, Paladon is my desktop : guess the naming convention!), then tell Synergy where the screens are in the links pane. You can get posh and set up the vertical positioning of the screens, e.g. 50% of the left of one is to the right of another, but I don’t see the need unless you have several machines.  This screen is accessed via the “Configure” button on the right hand screen shot.  Once set up click “Start”.

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TTPMO: Virgin Broadband are all asses

Jun 29th
Posted by: jamesakadamingo | Tags: , ,
1 comment

Well I’m writing this from the wordpress for iPhone application, as I currently do not have Internet access (apart from GPRS). I moved into a new house yesterday, with my lovely girlfriend Emma.

Last week I contacted Virgin Broadband’s “Home Movers Team” to inform that I was about to move house. I spoke to a very kind lady called Katherine l, who told me hat she would arrange for my service to be cut off from my old property in the morning and it to be connected in the afternoon. She also found that the previous tenants had not ended their contract, so she would get that sorted and call me if there were any problems. Simple aye?? Unfortunately not so.

Yesterday early afternoon I called Virgin’s “Quick Activation” team to get everything going. It seams I was with wrong team, so the put me through to Customer Support who spoke to me q while and put me back again.

Apparently Katherine never did anything, my service was still connected to my old flat, and the previous tenants service had no been removed. So the “man from India” (no racial slight intended) told me he “would submit the form, and contact me most quickly when he had the response from the requested form he had sent just now”.

An hours worth of phone calls later and I am told that the property has no Virgin Service (so what did they waste my morning disconnecting) and they must send round an engineer. Regardless of the fact that I have already connected everything and just need them to “flick the switch”. So I get Internet on Wednesday, and intend to get at least a months refund on Thursday once I speak to their complaints department!!!

Sorry if this post rambled but it’s hard to type a good one via an iPhone!!

UPDATE: Virgin Media tweeted back at me!! They said,

@jamesakadamingo Really sorry about the problems James, moving house is stressful enough. Do get in touch if you need further help. ST

I will get in contact with them, and see what ST can do to stop me being angry!!

Oh and look it’s a virgin service point in my flat how did thy get there, maybe it was ALREADY here?!?!

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