ianhulme.net
Web Design & Photography
(Cheshire, UK)

January 30th 2007, Windows Vista is now available to the public.

Click here for more details.

With over 500 courses nationwide, JPD Training Ltd’s website was time consuming to update, and when problems accured they were manualy changed, this has all changed!

Using a mySQL database to hold all the course details, and specially designed pages to produce the specific courses (also stating where sold out) depending on which page the user is viewing. All this is integrated into a bespoke shopping cart facility where the user can then decide on whether to pay through an invoice or securely pay using their credit or debit card via PayPal. All this is easily maintained using specially created querries in JPD’s current database to extract the relevant information needed.

Click here to view the listings and cart facilities, DO REMEMBER THIS IS A LIVE SITE, so do not make bookings unless you want them.

After finding out that the license file had been corrupted for the network managed antivirus, I had to get a new license emailed out from Symantec. Sounds easy?

After being on hold for 30 minutes, I finally got through to Symantec where I had to go through the usual steps of giving the serial numbers and company details. Then we got round to trying to sort the problem.

So another 30 minutes goes by, I go through the steps they said to remove the corrupted license. They then ask me to ring their licensing department to send a new license file. Another 30 minutes later, I’m through to technical help again! Talking to someone new. I explain what I’ve been through to them once and tell them I was told to ring this number and ask for licensing. So, after about 2 hours on the phone (on hold and talking) they said they would get in touch with the licensing department and ask them to email it across. It should arrive Monday.

With Windows Vista Less than a week away many people will be considering whether to make the upgrade? I will be getting a new machine soon, so it include Vista, looking forward to it.

As Computers progress through the years all components have greatly improved, I remember at college going and buying a 2Gig Hard Drive for £50, which at the time wasn’t to bad.

We’re now in the days where you can pick up a relatively high spec computer, but what about storage? I am a firm believer that storage is key, and for someone in my line of work, storage on the move is very important. Here’s what options are available.
External Hard Disk Drive, the highest in capacity for your money, but can be a bit on the big side. Not ideal if your contantly on the move, and HDDs aren’t really designed for the contant movement, being knocked around can cause fatal problems.

Pocket Drive, unlike the External HDD, the Pocket Drive is designed to be on the move. Most boasting a light weight and small design, but the price can be in the region of £50 plus. These can be quite expensive depending on the storage required.

Flash Drive, also known as a pen drive, these are very small, around the size of a lighter, and range from £5 depending on what size you’d like, Currently the largest i’ve seen is 4gig for £21.99. The only problems i have found with flash drives is that they can be damaged, or lost.

Which one then?
Flash Drives suit my needs, i currently have 3 512mb drives, 1 for software, and 2 for work. They work for me, but i will be getting a larger size soon. It all depends on what your demands are, for lite office work that you’d like to take home the Flash Drive would be the way, if you were a graphics designer you may want a Pocket Drive or possibley an External HDD. The Main thing would advise is not to rely on what you get, back it up regulary.

My recent assignment for British Transport Police, provided some good shots, helped by good weather and excellent locations.

These shots will be used by British Transport Police’s PR department, as well as being made into a panel for the Mid-Cheshire Railway Exhibition that launches at The Salt Museum, Northwich on 19th January for 4 months. For details visit www.cheshirerail.org

The Northwich Mail dated 5th January 2007 carries a two page feature “Rail display is just the ticket” with a number of my photos attached to the story about the forthcoming Railway Exhibition. This launches at the Salt Museum, Northwich on 19th January 2007. Visit www.cheshirerail.org for further details.

Will you be upgrading to Vista? or just buying a new PC from your favorite retailer?

Here’s What to look out for. There are four different versions, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. All boast Microsofts most secure windows ever, aswell as advanced searching options and IE7, but most users will be opting for the higher packages.

For Your Home

For the home user “Basic” probably won’t be enough to fill your needs. Most people use their PCs as media centres to watch their TV and Films, Premium would be the one for you including all the media functions you’ve come to expect as well as the added function of connecting to your XBOX 360 (via wired or wireless) to view your programs on your TV.

For Your Business

The Business People out there will be wanting to protect against failure, advanced networking and Remotely connecting to your office when your out and about. Vista Business would be your version. Although Business doesn’t come with the entertainment applications, so those long train rides will be quite dull.

For Everything

Vista Ultitmate is for the Person who wants everything (myself included), From the Media experience to the networking and remote desktop, Ultimate includes everything with one little extra, Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption. BitLocker Drive Encryption is a hardware-enabled data protection feature that addresses the growing concern that corporate and customer data could be accessed from lost or stolen computers. By encrypting the entire Windows system volume, data is better protected, which prevents unauthorised users from compromising Windows file and system protection on any lost or stolen PCs. Using BitLocker also helps your organisation comply with data privacy regulations.

The Specifications

After Choosing which version of Vista you need, you may need to upgrade?

Windows Vista Capable (minimum)

• modern processor (min. 800MHz)
• 512MB system memory
• DirectX 9-capable graphics processor

Windows Vista Premium-Ready (recommended)

• 1GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1GB system memory
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics w/ WDDM driver; min. 128MB graphics memory; Pixel Shader 2.0; 32 bits-per-pixel
• 40GB hard drive with 15GB free space
• DVD-ROM Drive
• Audio output
• Internet access

for more information visit the Windows Vista Get Ready website