Updating Meteor Message Centre Number on Android ICS

PROBLEM:

"Update Error" displayed when trying to update the SMSC number with the Meteor Message Centre number +353857000000 on Android Ice Cream Sandwich


CAUSE:

The SMSC has to be encoded in PDU (Protocol Description Unit) format


SOLUTION:
Access the config setting by dialing *#*#4636#*#*, select Phone Information and scroll to the end of the page.
Enter the encoded Meteor Ireland message center number value: 0791538375000000 and click Update.
Encoded Format:

• 07 = length of number in octets
• 91 = international format (replaces the +)
• the rest of the number in decimal semi-octets. If the number of digits is odd, an F needs to be added.

(Encoded value obtained using converter on this page)


SOURCE:

http://blog.ginzburgconsulting.com/setting-smsc-number-on-an-android-phone/

How To Be A One Person Startup

There is an excellent article about the struggles encountered when thinking about building a one-person startup. The article covers myths such as:

• Enough time
• A good idea
• Money
• Lack of marketing/sales
• I can't quit my job

SOURCE:
http://www.intermittentintelligence.com/youre-a-developer-so-why-do-you-work-for-some

Google Wave & The Mythical Man-Month

Even Google can struggle with large team complexity and disparate spread of knowledge, as evidenced by this Dhanji R. Prasanna's blog post about his time on the Google Wave Team.


SOURCE:
http://rethrick.com/#mmm

Downtime, what to do and how to do it.

There's an excellent A List Apart article titled Fire Drills: Communications Strategy in a Crisis that details how to create a framework/protocol to deal with downtime. It describes how to create a work structure to handle the downtime including how to organise people into different roles, and how to communicate efficiently to the outside world about what is broken, and what is being done to fix it.
The key sentence for me is:

"The protocol makes these kinds of decisions ahead of time, reducing the cognitive load on the response team during the emergency"

Common sense but unfortunately not very common place. This is a very enlightening article, describing a somewhat simple framework that can be applied and scaled to companies/projects of any size.


SOURCE:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fire-drills-communications-strategy-in-a-crisis/

Interesting predictions about the tech industry

Tech industry predictions from Roger McNamee, incl the future of Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc.
HTML5 is the silver bullet apparently...

What 8 Bit Video games Can Teach Us About Usability

Great article over on spyrestudios about the usability techniques that the 80's video games of our childhood employed, within the constraints of limited resources:

• Use lack of colour to create atmosphere - Super Metroid
• Use vibrant colours and shapes to convey futuristic themes - Mega Man 3
• Use unconventional concepts to capture the imagination of the user - Super Mario 2
• Use colour to convey status changes - Mega Man 3, Super Mario
• Define a clear pathway of how the user progresses through the system - Super Mario

See the SOURCE link below for the full article.

SOURCE:
http://spyrestudios.com/what-8-bit-video-games-can-teach-us-about-design-and-ux/

Photoshop CS4 – Fix : Error: 148:3

POSSIBLE CAUSE:
Flexnet Licensing Service not running

SOLUTION:
- Start->Run, type services.msc
- Find Flexnet Licensing Service and right-click
- Click Start if possible, otherwise click Properties, and set service to run automatically.

Source:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375447

SQL SERVER – Fix : Error: 4064

SQL SERVER 2005 – Fix : Error: 4064 – Cannot open user default database. Login failed. Login failed for user.

CAUSE:
The default database for the user is not accessible, this stops the user from logging in.

SOLUTION:
- Login Prompt->Connection Properties Tab->Connect to database field
- Change the database name to master.
- Once logged in, update the user's default database:

ALTER LOGIN [user] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE = master

Source:
http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2008/11/04/sql-server-fix-error-4064-cannot-open-user-default-database-login-failed-login-failed-for-user/

Android - Why not to use a task killer

Looks like task killers on android are not recommended:

- By killing an app with a task killer, you remove the state information for that app, meaning the app has to be opened fully the next time you use it, instead of loading from where it was, thus using more battery.

- It also leads to possible instability by killing processes that may be shared by different apps.
- Android is smart enough to handle memory allocation.

via Droid Den:
http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer

Madgets - really cool physical controls for interactive displays

Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7

To add the QuickLaunch toolbar in Windows 7:

Solution:

- Right-click on taskbar: Toolbars > New Toolbar
- Enter the following path: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
- Click Select Folder
- Right-click the Windows 7 Taskbar again and select Lock The Taskbar from the menu to move to desired position.

Thanks to
http://windows7news.com/2009/01/29/enable-windows-7-quick-launch-toolbar/