We recently started an internal project and this time decided to use Adobe's Flex RIA (Rich Internet Client) technology for the front-end. We last used Flex on a project about a year ago and it is great for flashy web front-ends.

We have been developing mobile J2me apps, using CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration) and MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile)   for a while now but in the past our applications have been business apps and made extensive use of the high level api's provide

I don't know about the rest of Johannesburg but in Randburg it seems that Neotel keeps on digging up the same trench every few weeks. They have dug up the road and pavement at least twice in front of our offices and about three times on Main road.

I have been late for work now on more occasions than I care to count because of those guys laying out orange pipes.  Not to mention the wear and tear on my car from the tank traps that are left behind for unsuspecting motorists.

As a rule I prefer not to compile custom kernels on rpm and apt based distros unless absolutely necessary. If I know I am going to have to customise the kernel before hand, I prefer to use a source based distro such as Gentoo. That way there is nothing that gets in your way of the simple, make menuconfig=>make install=>make modules=>make modules_install=>mkinitrd (if necessary) recipe for success. Most times for debian and redhat based distros you can get by with just installing the kernel headers and then building your special module form there. 

Recently we had to take over a project where the original developers had decided to use Microsoft's active server pages (asp) as the development language. We had to temporarily maintain this site while it was re-developed in Drupal. Needless to say this was a nightmare.

By default Xandros Scalix edition runs the Scalix web front-end on port 9090. This is quiet annoying as in most cases the mail server is dedicated and you won't be running any other services on it. Least of all another web service running on port 80. In addition most clients expect just to type in a normal looking url and trying to explain port mappings to their users is just a pain.

Hardy Heron was officially released last week and has been receiving rave reviews across the Internet. I had upgraded my home machine to the beta version of Hardy about a week before the official release and must say I was impressed . I waited for the official release before upgrading my work laptop.

On my home machine I have been running Gentoo for years. Using Gentoo has been a real good, if some what painful way to learn how Linux works deep down inside and how open source applications come together to provide a complete solution . Over time though the productivity drain has just become too much. After my last kernel recompile my audio went. The latest alsa drivers would not work, so I thought - stuff it. Time to switch the last remaining computer to Ubuntu. Now I can have bleeding edge without the pain.

When telkom screws your Asterisk server

Sometimes you get a call for Asterisk support and you are told by your client that their Asterisk server suddenly stopped working which is weird because once Asterisk, or any Linux application, has been setup it just runs.

Recently we had to trouble shoot an existing IPCop installation at one of our customers which had started to misbehave following the numerous hard shutdowns caused by Eskom's load shedding.