Software Archive

Sat Nav and delivery companies being rubbish

By
Andy
 – August 23, 2009Posted in: Software

I’ve been having no end of problems recently due to delivery companies and sat navs. We’ve started ordering our shopping online which is great because it means we don’t have to drag two kids around the supermarket, plus the delivery charge is about the same as what we’d pay in fuel to get there. The problem is that because our house was only built two years ago and essentially nicked the postcode from a farm in the middle of nowhere we normally have to wait until the driver gets lost and then phone us up so we can give them directions to wherever their sat nav might have taken them to.

The problem isn’t just the sat navs (or the owner updating them either) since I’ve just bought one myself and even though it’s brand new, it hasn’t got our postcode in there. This is no great loss as I just told it we lived near where the house is and usually I can find it from there! Mine doesn’t have the postcode in because the sat nav data is based on that released in 2007 by the mapping company and this shows where most of the problems are coming from – utdated mapping data and reliance on the postcode.

Delivery companies are getting to be really bad at this – I’ve had companies where I’ve told them that the house is new and to ring me for directions but they ignore the delivery instructions and just get lost. It happened again with the worst of the bunch – DHL on Friday with the most important delivery of all – my new laptop.

DHL outsource small deliveries to local white van men and while I was at work waiting for my laptop, I’m pretty sure that I saw one of these white van men driving round in circles looking lost and ringing someone on his mobile. I don’t know if that guy did have my laptop and if he did, I don’t know who he was ringing (not me) but once again my delivery never got to me.

If ParcelForce and Royal Mail weren’t so expensive I would try and use them whenever possible as they tend to know exactly where the addresses are and if they can’t deliver something (usually beacus you’re not in) they at least tell you and you just nip to the sorting office to pick it up. You don’t spend the next week trying to get your “next day” delivery sent again.

Google UK as Search Provider in FireFox bar

By
Andy
 – August 19, 2009Posted in: Software

Firefox is awesome. As I use the keyboard and keyboard shortcuts more than I use the mouse, the Firefox search box is more accessible to me than the Google Toolbar. Problem is that it uses Google.com as the Search Provider and not Google UK, which is useful for some searches, and pretty much the same as .com for the rest and unfortunately FireFox doesn’t provide a way to edit it to .uk.

After years of just doing my search and then clicking on the .com bit of the search URL and changing it to .com, I finally decided to do something about and found this post on Chaos Zone which has a link to let you add Google UK as a search provider. Don’t forget to move Google UK up the search provider list so it’s your default. Simples.

The 15% VAT Change: Software development lessons learned

By
Andy
 – November 28, 2008Posted in: Software, Web Development

With the suprise announcement that the government is going to reduce the VAT rate to 15%, there was much media coverage about how this may or may not help the economy, whether the high street will actually pass on the savings to consumers and as per usual, nothing much about how this affects the IT services that support the ever-increasing amount of small businesses that are moving online.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in suffering a feeling of dread when I heard that the new rate is going to go into effect on the 1st December 2008, leaving us just 5 days to plan, implement & test any changes that need to be made. For the majotity of the businesses I run sites for, this was a minor thing since I tend to follow these simple rules:

  • Store the VAT charged with the payment record – don’t rely on coding to calculate it post-transaction
  • Store the VAT amount in a configuration file or database value – never hard code it

In these cases all I need to do is change the VAT amount on the morning of the 1st and everything will be fine. There is one company though that wasn’t so easy to change.

VAT & Services
Our primary client, Medicology, provides services in the form of training courses. People decide to book onto one of their courses, usually well in advance and they receive a 28 day invoice which is then paid. In this companies case, the tax point (the point at which the VAT is calculated and paid) is the point at which the course is run. This has major implications for them:

  • If a customer had booked onto a course in September, they would have been invoiced at 17.5%
  • However, if the course they are attending runs in January, they should have been invoiced at 15%
  • This would therefore require the original invoice to be credit noted at n17.5% and then a new invoice generated at 15%

This was potentially devastating for the company as they may have hundreds of invoices, some paid, some unpaid which need credit noting, re-invoicing and in some cases, refunds issued and new payments taken.

Luckily, due to the short notice, the HMRC has said they will waive this process and let the existing invoices stand. This will save the company hundreds of man-hours and thus thousands of pounds. From a customer point of view, they are not loosing out by paying the extra VAT since the majority of courses are paid for by the NHS Trusts who can claim back the VAT, whatever the amount.

I will be keeping a close eye on the press for what will happen in 13 months time when the rate will increase and my guess is, the government won’t be so kind about letting people off paying additional VAT. In this case, their courses running in 2010 may have to be re-issued so as soon as the new VAT rate is announced, I will be making changes ot the system to calculate the VAT amount based on the tax point as opposed to the current amount.

I just hope they decide the amount sooner rather than later

MS Access won’t open the ODBC Window

By
Andy
 – June 27, 2008Posted in: Software, Windows

We use MySQL Databases with PHP front ends for pretty much all our organisations needs but occassionally we need to get something done before I can come up with a system for it. The most recent example was the collection of Contact data which would eventually be integrated into our main Customer database.

We let our Admin staff loose on the collection process and as I didn’t have any input, they used MS Excel to store the info. Now the time has come to add the info to our main MySQL Database and process it for any errors. To minimise the amount of work I’d have to do I wanted to use both Access and PHP to do some processing and data manipulation so I installed WAMP on my laptop and the Mysql ODBC Connector.

After loading up Access, I tried to connect to the MySQL table I’d created but after choosing:

File > Get External Data > Link Tables…

After choosing “ODBC Databases” from the Files of Type, nothing happens.

Turns out it is the “wonderful” Norton Internet Security at work again. You can fix it through the following method:

  • In the System Tray, double-click the Norton icon
  • Click Norton Internet Security.
  • Click Settings.
  • Click Additional Options, then Virus and Spyware Protection Options.
  • Click Miscellaneous.
  • Clear the Turn on scanning for Microsoft Office Documents check box.

Close Access if you had it open and then open your DB again. Should work fine now.

Still getting General Failure messages in Firefox

By
Andy
 – March 27, 2008Posted in: Email & Spam, Software, Windows

In a previous post I wrote about Outlook, Firefox and “General Failure” messages and a solution to stop these messages from appearing. I’ve just had an update to Firefox and had to go through the same process again because the error messages were coming back. This time it didn’t work though.

A bit of poking around the interweb has given me this little gem though. Basically it has to do with DDE, an old method of allowing applications to communicate with each other. The simplest thing to do is disable it for Firefox:

  1. Go to Control Panel -> Folder Options -> File Types.
  2. Click on: Extension: {NONE}, filetype: Firefox URL
  3. Click on Advanced
  4. Click Edit
  5. Uncheck the “Use DDE”, and OK twice.
  6. Repeat 2-5 for the the following:
    1. “URL: Hypertext Transfer Protocol”
    2. “URL: Hypertext Transfer Protocol with Privacy”

Hopefully this one should fix the problem permenantly

Outlook, Firefox and “General Failure” messages

By
Andy
 – February 23, 2008Posted in: Email & Spam, Software, Windows

Update There is a new solution at Still getting General Failure messages in Firefox

Original Post

This problem occurs when you click on a link in Outlook and the page opens in Firefox but also creates an error message along the lines of:

General Failure. The URL was:
“http://www.devblog.co.uk”. The system cannot find the file specified.

I think that this problem only occurs in Outlook 2007 but I could be wrong. Anyway, the problem appears on both XP and Vista and in both cases the same registry fix will cure the problem. Usual advice: back up the registry and important data and if it all goes wrong, moan to someone else!

Go to “Start > Run” and Enter “Regedit”. Or in vista I think you can just type “Regedit” in the box at the bottom (I can’t be more specific, I left my Vista laptop at work). When you’ve got regedit open head to the following path:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec

Open the key “Default” which should have the value of “”%1″,,0,0,,,,”. Delete the string of crap and save it then exit Regedit. This will stop the warnings from popping up.

A quick warning though – If you tend to switch the Default Browser between Firefox and IE (for banking reasons or website testing such as myself) then when you switch back to FF the problem will come back and you’ll have to edit the registry again.

Windows Vista vs Fedora Core 8

By
Andy
 – February 21, 2008Posted in: Linux, Software, Windows

A few weeks ago I was taking a look at Windows SBS 2003 vs Fedora Core for using in the office as a primary all singing, all dancing server and for my particular needs, Linux won. Since then I have had the chance to spend a few days having a first look at Windows Vista and Fedora Core 8. This was not an intentional thing, I’d downloaded Fedora to install on the box I’d set aside for the new server and instead of going for the minimalist text based installation, I installed it as a usable desktop machine as well. At the same time I was given a couple of laptops running Windows Vista Business to set up for a remote user, plus a spare that I’m hanging on to so I can support Vista. This means I’ve had a chance to play with fresh installs of both, trying them out for the all major things an OS does:

  • Setup and configuration
  • Intuitivity of UI, usability and increasing productivity
  • Software installation and built in functionality

As with the previous article, this isn’t meant to start a massive OS war in the comments section. I like both Windows and Linux and my choice of OS is only determined by the job that particular installation will be performing: I wouldn’t try and use Linux as a home entertainment/gaming machine and I wouldn’t use Windows as a web server. It’s just an evaluation for a particular task: a desktop machine for a Web Developer to use during the day, i.e.

  • Browsing the web, checking email and various other standard Internet tasks
  • Coding and testing of said code (usually on a separate machine)
  • Dealing with other standard document types (.doc, .xls, .pdf etc)
  • Listening to the radio online or MP3s when it’s quiet

As far as this goes, it’s a pretty even match. Anyone doing my job can easily install either Windows or Fedora and have it up and running within the office network without any issues. The Fedora installation procedure has come a long way in recent versions and it’s much simpler for the novice than it used to be. Windows is also a breeze and even though this one came pre-installed, looking at the various screenshots and reviews, the most trouble a novice would have would be getting the PC to boot from the right media.

So, UI, usability and productivity. This is again a tie in my book. Both operating systems are based around principles we’ve been working with for nearly 20 years such as Menu (Start or otherwise), Task Bar, Windows etc…. Which ever OS you use, they’re all there in one place or another and the only complication is finding the bit you’re looking for. For users such as myself where getting to know new software interfaces and systems it’s not something I worry about. I’m going to skip productivity at the moment as this is something that is affected by a number of factors:

  • The software you’re using to do a particular job
  • Dealing with bugs and cliches when or if they crop up
  • Intergration with other systems used in your particular environment

The only one I will touch on is the last point. In the SME and in particular within my job role, we tend not to use a whole raft of Windows and Office technologies all interconnected with various Server and Client technologies. From this point of view, the need to be on a Windows platform is minimised and the technologies we employ all have open source equivalents that can be used in a mixed environment (Samba etc).

After a week of testing, I’ve come to a few conclusions:

  • Fedora is a very good operating system but unless you have a specific need, there’s not too much to tempt me away from the safety net you get by running everyone on Windows. If you need to upgrade and want to save a bit of cash, take a look though.
  • Windows Vista has some good user improvements and a very refreshing UI. Unfortunately after 6 or so years I was hoping for more of a leap from XP than a new paint job. If we get new machines running Vista then that’s fine but otherwise, I’m not forking out for it

Uninstall “My Sharing Folders”

By
Andy
 – February 21, 2008Posted in: Software, Windows

If you’ve installed Windows Live Messenger, Live Writer or something else that has installed the “My Sharing Folders” icons and shortcuts every-bloddy-place, have a look at the site below to get rid of them all:

Winhelponline.com

Works a treat.

Problem installing Windows Live Messenger

By
Andy
 – February 21, 2008Posted in: Software, Windows

I’ve just re-installed everything on my laptop and the last thing was to get rid of the built in XP messenger and then install the latest Windows Live Messenger. After downloading the WLinstaller.exe and running it I got the following message from the Windows Live Installer

It looks like you’re offline.

To install Windows Live programs, you must be online.
Please connect to the Internet, and then try again.

At first I tried the usual things:

  • Disable the firewall (temporarily…)
  • Switch from FireFox back to IE and check that “Work Offline” is disabled
  • Check I was actually still online…

None of which worked. Finally I found the following work-around:

  1. Download an older version of MSN Messenger (File Hippo has archives)
  2. Install the older version
  3. When you start it up, it’ll inform you that a newer version is available
  4. Install this one and everything will run fine

Ta da!

Now Playing list has gone from Windows Media Player

By
Andy
 – February 5, 2008Posted in: Software, Windows

OK, this annoys me all the time because someone will borrow my laptop to watch a DVD in WMP, close the “Now Playing” playlist pane and I can never find how to get it back again. Here’s how you do it:

Click on the drop down arrow under the “Now Playing” tab at the top.
Click on “Show List Pane” and it will come back.

Now I know where to find out how to do it when I forget next time

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