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Playing around with my new HP TouchSmart IQ532
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Loading ...I recently got very sick of having one of those bulky computers sitting next to my table, sucking in air all day and making a lot of noice with it. Yes as you may have guesst I don’t have the latest version of a PC. Well any way since a few weeks I was looking for a all in one PC. Which to me means no seperate monitor, no computer and if possible no mouse or keyboard. Wtf, you may think does such a thing exists!
You are not alone. I wasn’t even sure if such a thing exists either. Well the first part of the quest was very easy, find a computer that does not have a seperate casing for the actual computer. So an all in one system. Well these things actually exists, I mean look at the iMac. So I know they are out there, I just don’t want an iMac because non of the software I use is available for it. And I’m not a big fan of the Apple company, but that’s a completely different story all together.
It was only a couple of days later that by accident I came accross a small poor quality video of the HP TouchSmart series. Which appearantly has been out ever since early 2007. These computers have everything build into the monitor, not just that but they are touch enabled. And I say touch enabled because they don’t have a touch screen in the traditional sense. The HP TouchSmart series has a shit load of LED’s build into the screen that detect where you press on the screen (and no you don’t even have to touch the screen for the LED’s to detect the touch).
Initially I was considering either a late model of the IQ500 series, which was brought out in 2008 or the IQ800 series which was brought out in 2009. The trouble with my little quest was that the 800 series is currently very hard to get. When I called several shops they could not get any computers in that series at all! So I ended up going for the IQ532, which was the best out of the IQ500 series currently available. And I can honestly say I like it, no more wires. And best of all you can choose to not use the mouse or keyboard. The touch part works pretty damn good, even with the onscreen keyboard that HP made for us as you can see in the screenshot below.
So I really like it, I mean the HP Touch application that is provided is pretty useless to me. But the idea of not needing anything and only having a single cable for your entire computer. Having bluetooth, WiFi and even a TV Tuner integrated is perfect for me. So just for you I have included some YouTube movies on the HP TouchSmart Series.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc1PYc0pIzw
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CStZZrkc7Ck
Setting up a mailserver, continued
In my last article on how to setup a basic mail server in debian using postfix and dovecot, I am now continueing on how to setup some basic spam filters. The reason to split this up, well I was stupid and assumed I wouldn’t need a spam filter yet. But I forgot that I also moved one domain to my new mail server that got 200 spam messages a day.
So now to repair my mistake I am adding the following features to my already existing mail server. To find out how to setup the mail server itself read my earlier article.
- Use spamassassin to mark spam in the header
- Change the mail delivery to dovecot LDA, this is needed for step 3
- Automatically move marked e-mails to the spam folder of the user
Sounds easy right. Well it should be 
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Netbeans 6.5 Final Release
A short while back I wrote a quick review on the beta of Netbeans 6.5 and that it had some issues. Since the final version was released some time ago I thought it was time for a new review. This time of the final version.
The reason for me not to write one straight away was simple, I first wanna play around a little to find all the pleasant features and those less pleasant ones.
Bigger, better, best
The first thing you expect is this new version to be bigger, better and the best one yet. Well it is bigger in size, with 190MiB for just Java development. So this means a lot more time downloading, but hey that’s a one time thing.
So lets move onto something more relevant. Is it better then Netbeans 6.1. Lets summorize some of the issues I had with the previous version and see if the problem is solved:
- It crashed when working on larger projects. This issue has been fixed, netbeans won’t crash or hang. Though on occasion the parser may crash. Disabling autocomplete and syntax checking.
- For some reason previous versions had difficulty displaying the names of parameters when using Java libraries. For as far as I’ve been able to determine this has been solved.
- The autocomplete completely fails in some more complicated web projects. Well I’m sorry to say this is still true. For some projects not only does autocomplete fail, but so does the syntax checker, both for the JSP files as well as the Java Source files.
So are there any other changes that would make you consider moving from Netbeans 5.5 to 6.5?
New stuff you will like in Netbeans 6.5
Well have there been any changes that would make you wanna switch to the new version.
- The new version actually has some basic debugging integrated of JavaScript. Though I haven’t got it working yet.
- PHP development is now support. Which is a big plus, but it still kinda feels like a cheap addon that doesn’t work perfectly yet. (Maybe in the next release)
- Thread debugging has been improved and made easier
Unfortunattely not all is good in the world of Netbeans. There are also some new bugs, some of which are really annoying.
- For some unexplainable reason adding of libraries by right clicking the ‘Libraries’ in the project view doesn’t work all the time.
- Like I stated earlier the code completion fails in some of the older Java project I’m working on. Not only does code completion fail, but the syntax checker tells me every single line is wrong. Even though the project compiles beautifully
As a final note: is it worth upgrading to this version. Then I’d have to say hell yeah, it’s a lot better then previous versions. If you are a PHP developer however I suggest not using it, for the moment. Especially when you are already using Zend-Studio, which is still a lot better.
Common memory errors in C++
When working in C++ you often get unexplained memory exceptions. At least at first it might seem like random and unexplained memory exceptions. But when you pay closer attention you notice that the value of the pointer actually has meaning.
At least it does when you are using the Visual Studio Debugger. Below is a list that I hope you will find useful with the most common memory exceptions and their meaning.
- Memory violation at address 0xcdcdcd
In almost all cases this means that the pointer has not yet been initialized. So if you see it you forgot to nullify the pointer or didn’t create a new instance of a class for it. - Memory violation at address 0xdddddd
The memory has been deleted but the pointer was not yet nullified - Memory violation at address 0xfeeefeee
This pointer is no longer valid. You basically already deleted the memory that the pointer is for. Thus creating an error since the pointer was not nullified properly. - Memory violation at address 0xccccccc (C++ v6 only)
The memory has not been initialized yet. Please do so
Knowing what a memory location means is the first half of solving the problem causing it. The second step is walking through the call stack to try and locate the actual location of the problem.
Some errors I always made were deleting a string in a calling function and again in the function being called. A big noonoo 
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Expressing your dislikes to your employer
One of the most complecated things in live is when you are no longer happy with the job you have to do. In this situation you can do one of two things. The first option is leave, there are plenty of employers out on the market and switching jobs is not that difficult. Another option is to try and explain why you are no longer happy.
I myself became less happy with the work place I had to work in. I no longer trusted my direct suprivisor because of false promises and the management, or rather lack thereof. I could have easily taken the first option, and may still do so. But I’ve decided to first give the suprivisor and the company a change.
What I am doing is having a talk with them about my problems with the job that I have right now. You might ask why not just leave. It’s probably the American way, thank god I’m not in America. Besides I do like the working environment. Hopefully this will solve the problems, but either way it’s best to first try and work it out.
If it doesn’t work out at least I can explain to any company asking why I left that I gave it a fair shot, which will probably help with getting a new job as well.
