JohnBs personal blog

You know those times when a client phones to say "i think my website is down, can you check for me?" and it turns out not to be a problem with their web  site, more a problem with their internet connection. Sound familiar?

ismywebsiteok.com is something i knocked up in 10 minutes to help in just these circumstances. It performs a cfhttp to the specified URL and checks it get’s a 200 response back - nothing flash, nothing clever - just a simple test from a remote server.

I’ve found myself in a position before when I’ve assured the client that their web site is fine only to find that there is a connectivity problem from the public Internet to the server but I was accessing it via a private network which was just fine…

If you have a Nintendo Wii then you really must watch this video - it’s a few months old but boy does it open up some great gaming opportunity for the Wii - Nintendo - you must hire this guy!!!

Well if you’re reading this then it’s worked. I’ve just migrated my blogging platform over to WordPress. After almost 5 years (First post Dec 16th 2003) of using Ray’s BlogCFC (a fine CFML blogging engine!) i’ve jumped ship - shock horror, to WordPress.

Once I’m sure it all went well i’ll post the export script I wrote - basically I tied into the (I think new) WordPress import/export functionality and wrote a CF page that rendered all my posts, including comments into format WordPress can import.

I think it may take a while for the aggregators to pick up as part of the process involved me changing the DNS entry for john.beynon.org.uk - so i guess most will be seeing the feature of Java - caching of the old DNS entry.

Thanks to my new desk neighbour Neil I’m trying to (re)discover what Twitter can do for me. I’ve been using Google Apps now for quite a while on this domain for Google Mail, Docs etc I’ve been using GTalk and it’s been working fine talking to existing Google Apps users and normal Google users but today I tried added the twitter bot, twitter@twitter.com with no success. It is supposed to authorize you straight away but I was having no such luck - so time for some digging.

It turns out that it’s pretty well documented, here and here - but what the heck are these SRV records, I’ve seen them but never used them before. Anyhow, I needed to add a few records to the DNS for beynon.org.uk - I’m use Windows DNS to manage my own DNS here’s what I ended up adding;

here’s the property tab for the record (click for larger image)

it wasn’t clear from the documentation how you add the first part of the record ie. _xmpp-server._tcp.yourDomainName.com on Windows DNS. Turns out you just need to edit the service field to be _xmpp-server, select _tcp as the protocol - you don’t need to enter your domain name anywhere.

Hope that helps someone.

‘Cos you should be! I am!

As I posted on Saturday I managed to pick up Wii Fit on Friday when it released here in the UK (damn, April has been an expensive Wii month what with both Mario Kart and Wii Fit releasing).

So is it any good? Well so far I can certainly feel it working. You start off with a centre of gravity test followed by a body test, you enter your height - it measures your weight and then tells you your BMI. Then the fun starts - you set a goal, telling it how much weight you want to loose over what period so it then tells you how much you have to loose per week…

Now for the activities. They are broken down into various categories, yoga, muscle workouts, aerobic Exercises, balance exercises. I’ll skip the first two, and talk more about the latter.

Aerobic exercises starts with Hula Hoop. It sounds silly but boy does it work - standing on the board you have to move you hips to get the hula hoop spinning whilst Mii’s throw additional Hula Hoops at you to catch and then get them spinning - time is ticking down and the number of spins is measured, I’m currently maxing out at 292 spins. Also in this category there’s Step (think Dance mat - on/off the balance board), Jogging - this is suprisingly effective with the wiimote in your back pocket and running on the spot….about another half dozen activities to unlock mind you.

Under balance, skiing - definitely harder than it sounds, ski jumping (crouch then extend) - and the table top. On the screen is a table with a hole(s) in it and you have to move your weight on the board to get the balls to fall through without them falling off the edge. And just like Aerobic, plenty more activities to unlock.

I think I need to get my other half off it now so I can have another go….

I recently received an invite for Woopra (woopra.com) - think live Google Analytics. It comes with a desktop app for Windows, MAC and Linux. Here’s what i’m currently seeing, click for a bigger image. Once I’ve got some more data in it, I’ll post a more thorough review.

Despite all the usual online outlets of Wii games being out of stock and only taking limit preorders, I was able to walk into my local Gamestation and but Wii fit as a surprise for my other half. Only managed a few games on it last night but boy can you feel what it’s doing - i’ll cover it in more detail after the weekened when i’ve had more opportunity to play….erm, excercise.

I’ve just updated the CF License Calculator to include the various flavours of BlueDragon as well as moving it to it’s new permanent home here rather than a single blog entry.

I’m no Flex developer but working in an office full of Flex developers is sometimes handy. So with the confusion of the EULA changes in ColdFusion I thought I’d whip up a quick (very) Flex app which makes things easy for you to calculate the number of boxes you need to buy.

DISCLAIMER: This is mean as indicative only, you should consult with your Adobe rep to ensure you are running within EULA terms.

NOTE: CPU count is based on PHYSICAL processors not the core count.

NOTE: The calculator has now moved here