Why the kindle doesn’t natively support drm free epub is a bit unusual but I assume it’s an attempt to try and lock you into using the amazon kindle store as oppose to other ebook stores.

Ideally there is a simple solution, simply configure an LDAP server, but unfortunately a quick call to the Wolverhampton uni IT service desk resulted in a few blank looks some calling of other colleagues and after some questioning asking what exactly LDAP which resulted in being told there isn’t an LDAP server within the university available.

Which would be fine except the GAL available through OWA should be workable as an LDAP but I can’t figure out how to get that working, so a quick google for “university of Wolverhampton LDAP” led me to this page here. I’m not sure this is meant to be publicly visible but it seems to be a set of emails between IT staff setting up the network at Wolverhampton university, and guess what, there IS an LDAP server.

So a quick bit of coding led me to create a search form for this database and the standard internal email directory. While this new database doesn’t have public search ability it does allow you to do a reverse search based on not only first name or surname, but also ID card number or university computer usernames. This is a feature that isn’t available on the default staff student directory, which does show card number, but you can’t search based on card number.

I posted the web search form on my site here. Which basically uses the following code in a form and bit of javascript. All together about 5 minutes work.

<script type="text/javascript">
function dosearch() {
var sf=document.searchform;
var submitto = sf.sengines.options[sf.sengines.selectedIndex].value + escape(sf.searchterms.value);
window.open(submitto,"","width=950,height=600,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no");return false;
}
</script>

<form name="searchform" onSubmit="return dosearch(); target='results'">
Search:
<select name="sengines">
<option value="https://secure.wlv.ac.uk/directory/?q=">E-Mail Directory</option>
<option value="https://register.wlv.ac.uk/ListAccounts.asp?nametofind=" selected>ID Number Directory</option>
</select>
For:
<input type="text" name="searchterms">
<input type="submit" name="SearchSubmit" value="Search">
</form>

One thing to note is that for the sake of security I haven’t copied or touched either database, I just used the currently online databases, as such a university login and password is required to use them, this is the same password used to log into the university computer network.

This isn’t so much a short story, but rather so engrossing that I just couldn’t put it down once I had begun. From the very first page I was sucked into the twisted world of Fight Club, it is a book filled with harsh realities and is not for those who with weak minds or stomachs… Engrossing read that is written in such an unusual fashion…

View all my reviews

The Mac App Store relies on an iTunes account for purchasing content, yet it doesn’t work like the iTunes store, there is no “basket” to add items to, you simply “buy”. This isn’t such a bad thing, it speeds up the process but sometimes people want an extra layer of security, the problem being there isn’t a confirmation screen of any kind. Click to buy is literally that, no screen that says, “are you sure you wish to purchase xyz?” Not even a screen that says “continuing will bill you £x, are you sure?” It just lets you buy, seeing as I don’t use the store this isn’t a problem for me, I just hit log out and I can’t purchase anything else till I log in, but it’s a strange way of handling payments. While it doesn’t affect me I just find the whole issue a bit silly, much like the concept of the store to begin with…

These are the steps:

1. Generate a UUID, by the commandline uuidgen in Terminal or by a web generator.
2. In iChat, File -> Go to Chat Room and as room name enter private-chat-UUID@groupchat.google.com where UUID is the UUID you just generated. Example of room name: private-chat-ff089070-ddd8-11df-85ca-0800200c9a66@groupchat.google.com
3. You can also check the autojoin checkbox when adding a chat room which will automatically open the group chat when you sign into ichat

It’s not a neat work around and the group chat name looks messy but it works fine for group chat. The problem I have with this is that if they can get group video chat working pretty much flawlessly why can’t they do the same with group text chat?

Now the only problem is getting video to work between ichat on the mac and clients on windows! If anyone knows how to do that, let me know please…

“Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?” said Zacharias Smith.
“Here’s an idea,” said Ron loudly, “why don’t you shut your mouth?”
“Well, we’ve all turned up to learn from him, and now he’s telling us he can’t really do any of it,” he said.
“That’s not what he said,” said Fred Weasley.
“Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?” inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko’s bags.
“Or any part of your body, really, we’re not fussy where we stick this,” said Fred.

Also there are trailers out for the next film, so cool!

Image via Wikipedia

At the latest Apple event the Mac App Store was finally announced, an app store for your desktop similar to the offerings available on the iPhone, iPod and iPad. But there are some typical Apple restrictions on what can and can’t make the app store but this one is just plain bizarre.

11.5

Apps that include games of Russian roulette will be rejected

Why does Apple have such a great fear of Russian roulette that they feel the need to specify a rule against it? Why is it so damn specific? Well there goes my Russian roulette iPad app idea that would have made millions.

Read the rest of this post here