I got up again early today, and had breakfast and generally caught up on a few things.  I wanted to also avoid the peek travel period as today I wanted to get around a bit more, and not walk about so much! (My poor feet couldn't take much more).

I walked out the hotel and headed straight for the Shimbashi station.  I purchased a pack of 11 tickets for 300yen journeys.  With these I was covered for reaching every area of the Tokyo metro limits.  I don't know why they say that getting your way around the Tokyo metro is so difficult, it's quite easy really.  The only trouble is the stations them selves.  I find them confusing and difficult to navigate through sometimes.

I hopped on the 'Ginza Line' and headed out to the Shibuya neighborhood.  The Shibuya neighborhood is famous as being 'groud zero' for the youth culture, and also for the Shimbuya crossing.  This crossing is often featured on TV with the flood of humanity that the green light unleashes every few minutes, beneath glowing neon signs that tower overhead.

I initially had a look at the Hachikos statue, the story of which reminds me of 'Gray Friars Bobby', then headed on up into Udagawacho and the stores.  Something I didn't realise is that most shops in Tokyo don't open until 10:00-11:30!  So I had a wander around for a bit and ended up in a Starbucks as the wind was chilly today.  Ok, so Starbucks isn't very Tokyo, but I have to admit that I like the late's!  After than I headed on out for another wander and ended up in Tower Records, and this store is the largest in Tokyo!  I eventually bought just on CD!  It was "Tokyo Luxury lounge 3" with is a dance/lounge/electronica fusion style album.  I also got a free promotional Daishi Dance CD, entitled It gets me downs" by Yoko Ota.  Sweet, will rip them to my iPOD later tonight.

I then decided to hop onto the metro again and this time get to the other end of the Ginza line, and head for Asakusa.  I however hopped off at Ueno instead which is in the Shitamachi neighborhood.  I wanted to go see the Ueno-koen (Ueno Park) and the numerous museums, templates and shrines.  I had a good wander around the park and took quite a few good photos.  There was a small market being held in the middle of the park and there was some really interesting pottery, and Japanese art for sale.  I entered the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it wasn't really for me.  It was a show on Japanese calligraphy.  Whist the writing is so much more elegant and artistic than any western language, I just couldn't really get into it with not knowing the language.  I appreciated it for it's art instead. but there is only so much writing you can look at.

It was getting on into lunch time, and so I headed out the south of the park and into Ueno Okachimachi Chuo dori, which was a bit of a down market collection of shops and stalls.    It was a little seedy but nothing to worry about, and I even had a chance to have a quick look into a "Love Hotel" where you can have a room for an hour or two, or the night *wink* *wink*.  As it was a bit seedy I did struggle to find somewhere where I wanted to eat, but eventually settled for this restaurant which was up on the 1st floor.  It not something I think as westerners we are used to so much, in that in Tokyo (and I'm sure the rest of Japan) there is always something on the second, third, fourth, etcetera floor of the building.  So, just because you can't see into the window doesn't mean that there is nothing there, or that it can't be any good!  Take my advice, look up and have a look at those doorways.  I again had the noodle soup with grilled pork dumplings.  Oh my, if I was to live here I'd probably get really fat, and have to become a sumo wrestler.  I do love Japanese food (except Sushi and Sushimi, as I don't like fish!).

I hopped on to the Gina line again and headed on to Asakusa, which is the low city of old Edo.  It's center piece is the Senso-ji temple.  There is a lot going on around this area, with loads of small stalls, shops, temples, shrines, rickshaw's and more.  Look out for the giant lanterns, and also throw a few coins into the temple grates and pass on a prayer.  I had a good mooch around the various stalls and was on the lookout for something to send home to the folks, but they didn't quite have what I was looking for (don't want to give it away, they might actually read my blog...*might*).

It was getting much colder now, and I was getting tired.  So I decided to head on back to the hotel.  I didn't want to do what happened last night.  I had planned to go to Roppongi last night for a couple beers, but fell asleep and woke up at 22:00!  So, got back today just before 16:00, and started to write the blog and upload some more of my photos.  You can see the photo's here.  Eventually I will get them added to my GPS tracking and have them push-pinned to the exact location on the map that they were taken at.

Despite getting up rather early today, I still didn't get out of the hotel until about 09:00.  It took me a while to get ready, and to write yesterdays blog entry.  It was quite a long one

My first goal today was to scope out the route from my hotel to the Tokyo main station, from where I will get the train to Nagano on Friday.  So I headed straight along side the train line, then headed straight up into Marunouchi district and headed into Tokyo station from the west.  After spending a little time figuring out the map, and wandering on over, I can tell that it's from platform 23 I need to depart and it is easier if I enter from the south east entrance.

That done, I headed on up the east side onto the 'Eitai-dori' and over into the Imperial Palace East Garden.  I have to say that it really is a nice place to wander around, and it would be much more appealing in the spring or summer.  I'd recommend it.  I've got some great photos and will be adding these soon.

I exited up by Takebashi, and headed for my second goal of the day.  Gadgets!

I passed through the 'Bookshop Neighborhood' and found some of the stores fascinating. I then discovered that there was a 'Sporting Good Neighborhood' and had a quick look in at a Solomon shop.  But really wanted to push on to the Electronics Neighborhood.

The stores here are amazing.  So many of them, and every single one of them is huge and packed.  What a place.  Makes everywhere else I've been look absolutely pathetic (thinking Totenham Court Road in London).

It was getting later into the afternoon, and I decided to have lunch.  Yum!  My favorite, Japanese noodle soup!  It is a little strange wandering along and seeing plastic models of all the meals that you can get!  I wonder how some 'slop' in the UK would look in a plastic model

After lunch, I wandered around the electric stores a little more.  But I was getting tired now, after all I had walked everywhere.  So I decided to head back, but via the sporting goods neighborhood to see what I could see.  Some of the stores I went in to were packed floor to ceiling with snowboarding/skiing equipment and gear.  It's no wonder the Japanese are mad for the sport when they can get all this in one small area.  Again, it knocks the socks of every other place I have ever been to!

I headed back down towards the Imperial gardens and headed down the Uchidor-dori and back towards Shimbashi where the hotel is.  I visited a couple convenience stores to buy some drinks and snacks for tomorrow.  Then back to the hotel.

Getting on the Hotel Internet

Man, the Internet connection here might be free but it's a right pain in the arse to get on!  You have to submit to a full anti-virus scan, which is done via a Web page and a few Active-X controls.  The firs trouble is that it's all in Japanese, so I didn't have a clue what to click on.  I then noticed that in the URL it does state that the "Language=jp", so I changed it to "en", and that did the trick.  However, it has to do a deep scan, and analyses all of the files on your HD.  Since I have a hell of a lot on my machine this took about an hour!  Yes, an hour!  So that was a right pain in the butt. Eventually I managed to get on though.

Plans for later

When I got back to the hotel it was only about 17:00.  The plan is to get the blogs and GPS tracking entries updated, and then head out for some beers.  My plan is to get some well earned rest and then about 21:00 head on over to Roppongi for some drinks and possibly a quick look at a club!  Looking forward to blogging about that.

  To view the GPS track interactively, go to http://wai.internetwideworld.com/GPSWebService/

I earlier posted that I was planning to go snowboarding for Winter 2008 in Hakuba, Japan.  Well, it's all booked!

My current work contract finishes on Friday 25th January.  So, on the Friday night I plan to go out on the piss with friends.  To fly to Japan takes 12 hours and you arrive the next day due to the time difference.  So, rather than flying on a Saturday and arriving on a Sunday, or traveling to London on a Sunday I thought that I would leave departing the UK until the Monday 28th.  I fly out with Virgin Atlantic on the Monday 28th to Tokyo-Narita airport and arrive the next day.

I've always, since I was a kid wanted to visit Tokyo.  This is the perfect opportunity to do so.  So, I've planned for a couple nights stay in Tokyo at a hotel near Shimbashi station.  I plan to do some of the usual touristy things, and more specifically since I am a geek who likes to drink I'll be going to Shinjuku for the gadgets and Roppongi for the nightlife.

Then on Friday 1st February I'll be heading to Hakuba where I'll be staying with Mitch who runs a backpacker hotel called www.snowbedstravel.com for 28 days.  Man are they cheap, and they come extremely highly recommended from "Rodo" a friend of mine.

You should check out the snow reports for the resort.  Oh my dizzy aunt, there is so much snow.  In the last 3 days there has been some 300cm of snow!

Then when the sad day comes on Thursday 28th February, I'll start heading back to old blighty.  It would be too much trouble getting from Hakuba easily and making the flight, so I decided to stay in a hotel near Narita airport for the night then fly the next day, the Friday 29th February.

Again, because of the time zone difference I'll arrive back in the UK, still mid-day on the Friday 29th February, just in time to go out on the piss with friends again

Let me know where you are going for this winter, or if you are heading over to Japan around the same time, let me know as I'm always willing to meet up.

An article located at http://etech.eweek.com/content/web_technology/top_web_developer_mistakes.html makes really good reading.  It's a slide show, but below is a condensed list of what the article says!

My additional comments are in dark blue, you got any?

1) Click, Click, Click - This is great, someone is at your site and they're ready to make a purchase. Here they go; one click, two clicks, three clicks, just one more! And.... they're gone. Maybe if they could get to where they wanted to go right away you would have made a sale. (I disagree slightly in that as long as the navigation is logical and correct then it should not matter to the user how many clicks...)

2) Just Click on the Magic Compass - It's great that new web technologies make it possible to add lots of cool new navigation and interaction techniques. But don't put access to important features and content behind a strange graphic or icon. People know how links work on web pages. Some icons might as well be in elvish.

3) Don't be too Graphic - The Following Web Content Contains Massive Image Files and Graphics That May not Be Suitable For Visitors With Anything But the Fastest Possible Internet Connections. Toning Down the Giant Graphics Files Is Advised For Site Developers. (This is becoming an increasing problem given that mobile internet is really taking off!)

4) Registry of Lost Web Sites - The legend of the Invisible Web Site. Unseen by search engines, web users or anyone who might actually use the services of the website. It uses the magic of enforced site registration to keep its valuable content hidden from all who might want to use it, especially those who want to give the owners of the site some business.

5) Sticking to the Script - Scripting languages are so useful. They make it possible to do lots of cool things in web design. Click this link for an example. Mmm, getting a script error. If only there was some other way to link to content, you know like an HTML link. Don't use scripting where HTML will work just fine.

6) Too Rich - Animation is great, when it comes to Saturday morning cartoons. On the web too many animations, Flashy graphics, spinning graphs and windows popping in your face is sort of like a sign saying, "Stay away". (100% agree)

7) Welcome To Our Site "image placeholder" - Here's a great idea for the budding web site and application developer. There's this technology that makes it possible to display information to visitors and users. It's called Text! And unlike images and animations used where text would work just as well, text will always show up.

8) What's Your Color Scheme? - Whoa, trippy man. I love the way the orange text looks on that purple background. Dude, that financial firm is just going to love this site design. Or probably not. Unless you're designing for a jam band or some other client that likes wild colors, stick to color matchings that are pleasing to everyone. (Obviously they didn't see the custom colours that I used on the TtG Brokers site )

9) Directionless Navigation - Wow, this site looks like it has lots of great content and products. But where is everything? Can't find related content? Where's that thing I saw the other day? I'm lost! Users of your web site shouldn't need a trail guide. Make navigation clean, simple and easy to find. (All computer users are very aware of hierarchical navigation [Windows Explorer] and also an address bar 'bread crumb', so play to their strengths!)

10) Can We Table This For Now? - Aren't tables great! They provide so much flexibility when laying out web content. And it looks so nice, at one specific resolution on one specific browser. At other resolutions, yuck! When using tables make good use of percentages and make sure the design looks good on all users screens.

11) Sloppy with Text - Wilcom too my grate neww web apliccatiun. Im a perfessinal web dervelper! The greatest coding skills won't help if your web content is full of misspellings and poor grammar. (Being dyslexic, I have no cammant!)

12) Click Here for Click Here - This is such a nice web application that you've built. It will really help our business deploy content to the web. And look it automatically creates links that say things like "Click Here", "More" and "Continue Reading." Now how do we change those to something more descriptive? We can't? Don't call us, we'll call you. (Use your Tool Tip and Alt tags!!!)

13) Putting up a Velvet Rope - This is such as cool web site, can I come in? Oh, you only let in people from the IE click? Us Safari geeks aren't welcome? And I was going to spend so much money. Don't you know that browser-specific web sites and applications are like so five years ago?

14) This is a Web Site, Right? - Now this is what I call a content rich site. Look at the useful information here. Let me click here, wait, this is a PDF document, and this is a Word document. I thought this was a web site, you know, something I could view in a web browser. (What is the point of providing a content managed Web site when half the content the user wants to view is hidden away in PDF and Word files?  I bet 90% or more of content in Word and PDF that are available on the internet would be easy to provide on a Web page and if it was users would read it more!)

15) Over-crowding - You know, when people say that something is like finding a needle in a haystack, they don't mean that in a good way. On the web, too many links and other components can make it hard for a visitor to find the content that they want.

I currently work for a company that uses Lotus Notes for email.  I simply can not stand using Notes for Email, it feels and is, in my opinion very old, antiquated and counter-productive.  I therefore break from the company policy and use Outlook 2003, with the Lotus Notes connector for Outlook.

I occasionally experience problems with the Lotus Notes connector for Outlook hanging on the message "Please wait while outlook shuts down".

Do others have access to your calendar or free/busy information (almost certainly!)? If yes then this is a known issue.

This issue can be resolved in two ways as detailed below.  First you need to kill the Outlook process, by using the task manager.  I have personally found option 2 to work best, as I do try to make sure that I am fully patched!

1. Make sure that Office, including Outlook is fully patched.
2. Start Outlook with the /cleanfreebusy command line switch.

I came across this news article today (BBC: World Economic Forum 2007) that goes some way to explain why Davos is very popular at the moment, and made me getting my booking that much harder.  Apparently the World Economic Forum have a meeting at the end of January in Davos every year.  Doesn't sound very economic to me!  How much does it cost for all of the delegate to travel and stay there?  Not very green either!  All that travel of the attendants, but also, what about all that extra food transport costs?  Surely it must make more economic sense to have the forum in a more eco/economic location!

I've used, implemented and developed on top of quite a few search engines over my time in 'cyber land'.  Like most people (according to the latest stats), I currently use Google for 'most' of my Web searches.  I always struggle to get out of the search engine exactly what I want.  It's often very difficult to enter the right terms or narrow the results down enough.  The answer to getting what you want out of a search engine is to learn how to use it's advanced features.  I've listed below all of the advanced features that I use on Google below:

 

cache:

Show the cached snapshot of a page
For Example: Cache of www.internetwideworld.com

The cache is the search engine's copy of a page in its index. Google typically caches the first 101K of a page and not the images. The links to the caches are shown in Goggles search results and Page Info button on the Google tool bar can be used to access any cache available for the page.

link:

List pages which link to a page
For Example: Backlinks for www.internetwideworld.com

The term "backlinks" is used to describe those links from external sites which point to the page in question. These links are also known as "Inbound Links" or "IBLs". "Outbound Links" or "OBLs" are links from your site to other sites. The search engine optimisation world places great emphasis on increasing the number of backlinks a site enjoys because Google's conceptual model uses backlinks as votes. In general terms, a site with more backlinks is more of an authority than a site with fewer backlinks. Not all backlinks are of equal importance. In Google the phrase "B.O." is used for "Backlink Obsession" as a humorous reference for webmasters and optimisers who fixate on gaining links. Google's use of the link command omits the "http" protocol.

related:

List pages which Google consider to be related to another
For Example: Related links for www.internetwideworld.com

Related (or similar pages) are worked out by Google's algorithm. This search command allows you to find pages which discuss a similar topic to a page you have already found. For example, a review of Product X is likely to have related pages which also discuss Product X but may simply just be various reviews.

info:

Find one specific URL in the search database
For Example: Page info for www.internetwideworld.com

Presents limited information about a particular page in Google's index. Typically the command shows the page snippet and title as well as links to the cache or related pages. Typing a fully qualified URL into Google's search produces the same page.

define:

Show Google's glossary definitions for a term
For Example: Define SERPs

Google lists definitions of the keyword harvested from authoritative glossary-esq sites. The definitions are presented in a bullet point format with a link to the authoritative URL in green below. This results page differs from the links to Answers.com in the top right of many standard search result pages.

site:

Restrict a search to a single site
For Example: Site search for www.internetwideworld.com

The site: command can be used in two ways; to restrict a search to one site or to list all the pages Google has indexed from one site. For example, site:www.internetwideworld.com google searches InternetWideWorld.com for the word google and site:www.internetwideworld.com searches the site for any page and therefore lists them all. The site: command can either include or omit the 'www' in a domain, omitting the www will return all the sub-domains from the domain which Google has found.

allintitle:

Restrict a search so that all the keywords must appear in the title
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld blog in the title tag

This advanced search command restricts results to those pages which have all the keywords in their title tag. The title tag is the mark up to put contents into the bar at the top of the browser (typically blue in Windows XP). The title tag for this page is internetiwdeworld blog really google.

intitle:

Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
For Example: Search for pages which contain internetwideworld in the title and blog in the title or body tag

Returns pages which have some of the keywords in the title tag. This advanced search command differs from allintitle: in that only the keyword adjacent to intitle: is included in the title tag search.

allintext:

Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld blog google in their body text

Returns pages which have all of the keywords contained within the body tag. This advanced search ignores the title tag which normally has a non trivial significance in Google's algorithm.

allinurl:

Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the page address
For Example: Search for pages with internet and wide and world in their URL

A page's URL is its address. The URL of this page is blog.internetwideworld.com/. This advanced search command returns only those pages which have all the keywords in their URL.

inurl:

Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld, blog or both in their URL

Lists pages which have one or more of the keywords in their URL. The inurl: command can sometimes be used to restrict searches to specific sites and directories. For example: inurl:internetwideworld.com/blog/ board will return pages with 'internetwideworld.com/blog/' in their URL and board elsewhere on the page.

OR

List pages which have at least some of the keywords
For Example: Search for george OR leithead

By default Google searches for almost all the keywords entered (some words like a, the, of, etc are omitted). The OR command is placed between two or more keywords and instructs Google to return pages which contain one or another of the keywords.

+

Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
For Example: Search for george, leithead and internetwideworld

Google purposely omits some words from normal searches but the use of the + command instructs the search engine to include them. For example, Google would treat a search for george the great as a search for george great as the is ignored but the phrase george +the great would ensure the word the was included.

-

Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
For Example: Search for pages which match leithead but which do not mention george

The - command creates a negative keyword which must not be present on any page Google matches with the rest of the query. For example, football -American is likely to return pages about 'real' football (soccer to you damned Americans!).

~

Enhance a search to include synonyms for a given keyword
For Example: Search for leithead, developer and any synonyms for developer

The synonym search is more like an associated word search. With the ~ symbol present before a keyword Google will return pages which contain the keyword or pages which contain words commonly associated with the keyword. Google simply looks as frequencies across the internet to determine which words are associated with which. Words associated with developer are: software and design.

*

Include a wild card match in your search results
For Example: Search for george, [something] and leithead

The order of keywords in a Google search is significant. Adding the asterisk * as a wild card to the key phrase instructs Google that one or more other words should appear in that location.

[#]...[#]

Search a range of numbers as a keyword
For Example: Search for leithead and a number between 1973 and 2006

The [#] values are replaced with numbers to form a range. For example, 1973...2005. Google will search for pages which contain numbers matching the first, the last or any number in the middle of the sequence.

daterange:

Restrict a search to any daterange
For Example: Search for search on pages which were indexed between September 1, 2005 and September 24, 2005

The daterange command restricts Google's search to pages published between two dates. The date format used in the Julian calendar rather than the traditional Gregorian calendar.

""

Restrict a search so that the keywords must appear consecutively in a phrase
For Example: Search for "george leithead"

The order of keywords in a Google search is significant but not sacrosanct. Searching for george leithead returns pages which simply mention george and leithead. The search for "george leithead" returns different results as only pages which mention george leithead as a complete phrase are listed.

date:

Restrict a search to a recent time frame
For Example: Search for george and leithead on pages published in the last three months

The date: command is used to restrict searches to either 3, 6 or 12 month periods. Pages which qualify are those which have been published and found by Google in the time period. Pages without a last modified header may simply be qualified by the date Google found the page first.

safesearch:

Restrict a search to exclude adult-content For Example: Safe search for girls

The safesearch command mimics the effects of enabling SafeSearch on the Google preferences panel and excludes adult related content. Unlike other Google commands it is necessary to leave a space between safesearch: and the keyword as placing the keyword directly adjacent to the colon results in odd (often adult) results. For example, safesearch:girls (safesearch is off in this example).

filetype:

Restrict a search to a given type of file
For Example: Search for PDFs contain the word search

Google indexes more than just HTML pages. A wide range of different file types, including PDF and .doc files, are found in the search engine. The filetype command restricts searches to documents which match the filetype extension.

You can tell roughly how old I am, as I was around when DOS was still the main Operation System (OS) and when Windows first hit these shores.  DOS did not have the nice GUI (Graphical User Interface) that we have all got used to with Windows.  As such, most of how I worked on the computer was with a keyboard.  Because of this I still use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, that have made their way from DOS into Windows and been added to since.

I was sitting with someone today whilst they were 'driving' their computer, and it was driving me a little mad.  What was doing it was that they were going the long way around to do some basic windows tasks, such as opening Windows Explorer, minimising every application one by one to get to the desktop, and more.  It wasn't their fault, it's just that like a lot of people out there, they are just 'expected' by businesses to know how to use a computer.  This therefore leads me to the keyboard shortcuts.

Below is a list of keyboard shortcuts that I frequently use (coloured Navy), along with others that exist.  It's probably not fully comprehensive, but pretty good.  They are also very, very handy to know if for some reason your mouse is not working, as you can do everything with the keyboard that you can do with the mouse.

Windows system key combinations

• F1: Help
• CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
• ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
• ALT+F4: Quit program
• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently

Windows program key combinations

• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+V: Paste
• CTRL+INS: Paste
• CTRL+Z: Undo
• CTRL+B: Bold
• CTRL+U: Underline
• CTRL+I: Italic

'Windows Key' keyboard combinations (XP)

• WIN+PAUSE/BREAK: System Properties
• WIN+R: Run dialogue box
• WIN+L: Lock your computer
• WIN+F: Search
• WIN+CTRL+F: Search for computers
• WIN+D: Minimise to the desktop, press again to restore from the desktop
• WIN+U: Utility manager
• WIN+E: Windows Explorer (*My favourite shortcut*)

General keyboard-only commands

• F1: Starts Windows Help
• F10: Activates menu bar options
• SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
• CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
• CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
• ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
• ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window - While in the task-switching window hold SHIFT to go right instead of left)
• SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
• ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimise, maximise, or close the window)
• ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimise, maximise, or close the child window)
• CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program
• ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
• ALT+F4: Closes the current window
• CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
• ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialogue box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialogue box and the main Notepad window)

Printing Commands

• PRNT SCRN: Snapshot the current Desktop view to the clip board
• ALT+PRNT SCRN: Snapshot copy the current active Window to the clip board

Mouse click/keyboard modifier combinations for shell objects

• SHIFT+right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands
• SHIFT+double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu)
• ALT+double click: Displays properties
• SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin

Shell objects and general folder/Windows Explorer shortcuts For a selected object:

• F2: Rename object
• F3: Find all files
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+V: Paste
• CTRL+INS: Paste
• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin
• ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object

To copy a file

• Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.

To create a shortcut

• Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.

General folder/shortcut control

• F4: Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer)
• F5: Refreshes the current window.
• F6: Moves among panes in Windows Explorer
• CTRL+G: Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only)
• CTRL+Z: Undo the last command
• CTRL+A: Select all the items in the current window
• BACKSPACE: Switch to the parent folder
• SHIFT+click+Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

Windows Explorer tree control

• Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection
• Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection
• Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection.
• RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child
• LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent

Properties control

• CTRL+TAB/CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Move through the property tabs

Dialogue box keyboard commands

• TAB: Move to the next control in the dialogue box
• SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialogue box
• SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button. If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current control is an option, this selects the option.
• ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)
• ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button
• ALT+underlined letter in dialogue box item: Move to the corresponding item

Now, I did not know that these commands existed, but I found them and thought that I would add them to the list.  You can tell I got the specific keyboard keys from a Microsoft friendly site.

Accessibility shortcuts

• Press SHIFT five times: Toggles StickyKeys on and off
• Press down and hold the right SHIFT key for eight seconds: Toggles FilterKeys on and off
• Press down and hold the NUM LOCK key for five seconds: Toggles ToggleKeys on and off
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK: Toggles MouseKeys on and off
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN: Toggles high contrast on and off

Microsoft Natural Keyboard keys

• Windows Logo: Start menu
• Windows Logo+R: Run dialogue box
• Windows Logo+M: Minimise all
• SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimise all
• Windows Logo+F1: Help
• Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer
• Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders
• Windows Logo+D: Minimises all open windows and displays the desktop
• CTRL+Windows Logo+F: Find computer
• CTRL+Windows Logo+TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray)
• Windows Logo+TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons
• Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialogue box
• Application key: Displays a shortcut menu for the selected item

Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType software installed

• Windows Logo+L: Log off Windows
• Windows Logo+P: Starts Print Manager
• Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel
• Windows Logo+V: Starts Clipboard
• Windows Logo+K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialogue box
• Windows Logo+I: Opens Mouse Properties dialogue box
• Windows Logo+A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)
• Windows Logo+SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys
• Windows Logo+S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

I've been working on a Web project for some time now, and I have since starting work on it had trouble with IE accessing the Web site.

The Web site is hosted locally on my IIS server (5.1 I believe).  For the project it was necessary to access the Web site using a custom host header name (accessing with something like http://mywebsite/).  For some details on this see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file.

However when I tried to use IE 7 (beta3), I kept on getting a prompt for authentication.  I entered my details, which failed and then got the classic error:

HTTP 401.1 - Unauthorized: Logon Failed

However, it worked OK for FireFox?!? This stumped me!

So I tried adding the site to my Local Intranet and Trusted sites.  No joy.
So I tried changing the settings for User Authentication to set it to "Prompt for User name and password" and all the other settings.  No joy.
I tried doing network packet tracing.  Was all OK.
I looked at the IIS Log files.  Was all as expected (obviously it showed a 401 error!)

I gave up for a while.  After all it was working with FireFox and I could continue development work.

Then I had to write some JavaScript code for the Web site.  As all Web developers out there know (or should know), IE and other 'mozilla' browsers implement JavaScript in different ways (just to make the developers life difficult!).  This was therefore a problem, as I couldn't dilligence test my JavaScript on the IE browser platform.  So, innevitably my code failed on IE and passed on FireFox.!

It was therefore time to try and sort this problem out.  After some more Web surfing, I managed to find this article by Microsoft that put me on the right track.

Apparently in one of Microsofts Service Packs (SP) they implemented a loopback check feature that was designed to help prevent reflection attacks.  Therefore, authentication fails if the domain name or the custom host header (in this instance "mywebsite") used does not match the local computer name (which I wont give away here!).

After following their resolution, I was now able to use IE to gain access to the custom host name!

I feel like a bit of a rant today, especially as I was sent a link to an IE bashing Web site this morning. 

I'm no IE zelout, as I personally think that M$FT and IE has caused a lot of problems for the Internet (what with implementing their own standards and compatiblities), but I do wish that people would give the real picture and let the end user make an informed choice, and not just say "IE will make your computer unsafe" then tell them to use FireFox.

I, like a lot of other people, are sick and tired of ALL of these browser bashing Web sites that actually do nothing but promote their favourite browser!  They highlight the number of secuity attacks and the features of the browser they reccomend.  This in it's self is fair enough, until you consider...

A LOT of the major anti-virus companies have stated latley that FireFox/Opera/etc have just as many security vilrnabilities as Internet Explorer (IE).  IE is only considered 'less secure' because of it's percentage market share (over 80%).  So, when/if FireFox get's the largest market chare, it too will become the most targeted browser and this be regarded as the most insecure!  It's a catch-22.

I personally think that browsers such as FireForx will be targeted more and more.  Why?  Well, it's all about the motives of the hacker.  The hacker wants to gain something from the user, be that thei bank details, or to hijack their computer to send spam.  The home user, where the main majority of FireFox users are based, are the easiest targets.  They are often the least security aware, are least likley to have anti-virus, anti-spyware or have Firewalls installed, never mind keeping all of these up-to-date.  Where as the corporate market, where the majority of the IE users reside, have the corporate anti-virus, spyware, and firewalls, all maintained and kept up-to-date.  So, the hacker community simple need to ask them selves the question.  Go for the highly secured and protected environments, or go for the easy targest.  Hmm.  I'll pick the easy targets, and therefore I'd go for FireFox

When IE7 first came out in Beta, there was a facilty where that when you closed the browser, all of the tabs still opened were saved, and when you re-opened IE7 you could restore all of the tabs.  Then in a later update to the beta, this feature dissapeared.  I must admit that I was well dissapointed, as I thought it was a brilliant feature.

Well, I was muching around with my setting's just earlier and noticed that the home page option in Internet Options was a multi line input. Hmm. I thought.  So, I gave it a bit of a try and found that you could enter multi lines of addresses.  Then when you start a new browser, all of these Web sites open up into new tabs.  Perfect!  If like me, you have a list of Web sites that you always want to view, and veiw regularly this is ideal.

There is a limit of 8 URL's that you can have, but I am sure that this is more than enough for people.

What are my list of favourite URL's? In order they are:

1. http://www.internetwideworld.com/Website/ (I get to my blog from here!)
2. http://footage.mcl-dev.com/TeamSheet.asp?tid=2
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/
4. http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Information+Technology
5. http://www.modaco.com/index.php?act=portal
6. http://www.google.com/reader/view/
7. http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/
8. http://www.giantgroup.com/

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop.  Now, to me, my laptop always does feel very, very hot.  So much so, that I can't have it on my lap after about ½ hour as it is simply too hot.  I just thought that the cooling wasn't up to much, and normally laptops do get quite hot.  Then a while ago probably like other people I started seeing on the Web details about Dell batteries catching fire.  Then Dell admitted that there was a problem and started to recall the effected batteries.  I found the recall site (find it here) whilst at work and emailed it to home.

About two weeks later, I have finally got my ass going and checked the battery.  Lo and behold, my battery is one of those effected!  Must admit that it does have me a tiny bit worried, as when I do use my laptop, I usually have it on for at least a few hours.

So, I've filled in the on line form, and I now expect a new batter to be delivered.  Below, is the email confirmation that I received from Dell.

===================

Recently M$FT recently released a new beta blog authoring tool, called Windows Live Writer. (Download here).  It appears to work with loads of different blog types, such as Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, Movable Type, Live Journal, dasBlog, Blogger and more.  The real difference, is that it is all tied into your Web browsers as a toolbar add-on!  I've really been getting into some useful toolbar add-ons, as you have probably seen.

Windows Live writer is more than your usual WYSIWYG editor.  It has features that provide spell checking, but also some more interesting features such as inserting maps from Windows Live Local.

I would love to put on in here, but for what ever reason, my current blog software and Windows Live Writer cant publish images!

I'm still playing around with it, and may post some more information about it later.

It's been a while since I posted anything.  The main reason is that I simply as yet do not have direct broadband access at home.  As such it's been incredibly difficult to keep my blog up-to-date.

However, all that is about to change.  I have a new job of which I started today.  So, my intention is to blog the day, so that it alows me to record everything and us it for reference.

Sorry.  I simply just haven't had any time over the last three/four days to post any real Whistler blog and snowboarding information.  I've really been going at the riding and partying hard over this period.  I hope to catch up with all of the blog information soon.

I thought that I would have a look at the locational statistics for my Web site.  Below is what I have so far!  Are you one of the locations?  If so, let me know, I'm interested to hear from you!  Leave a comment by clicking here!

Date Range: 15/11/2005 - 8/3/2006
Country/Region/City	Visits	P/Visit
Canada-Vancouver	112	10.23
United Kingdom-London	67	3.58
United Kingdom-West Langdon	48	4.98
Canada-Tsawwassen	23	14
United Kingdom-Milton Keynes	20	9.15
United States-Morristown	17	2.53
United Kingdom-Guildford	16	2.38
United Kingdom-Langdon	15	7.73
United Kingdom-Watford	12	1.42
United Kingdom-Leeds	12	1.92
(not set)-(not set)	11	4.27
United Kingdom-Elmers End	9	7.33
United Kingdom-Aston	8	6
United Kingdom-Slough	8	3.25
United Kingdom-Gurnard	7	3.86
United Kingdom-Huddersfield	7	3.71
United Kingdom-Millwall	5	2.2
United Kingdom-Winchester	5	2.6
United Kingdom-Stoke	5	3.6
United Kingdom-Wyrardisbury	5	2
United Kingdom-Gosport	5	2.4
United Kingdom-Woking	4	2
United Kingdom-Bletchley	4	1.75
Switzerland-Schübelbach	4	5.25
United Kingdom-Plymouth	4	1
United Kingdom-Birmingham	4	4.25
United States-Cary	3	2
Canada-Victoria	3	1
United Kingdom-Stevenage	3	4.33
Switzerland-Eschenbach	3	5.67
United Kingdom-West End	3	3.67
United Kingdom-Esher	3	5.67
United Kingdom-Glasgow	3	9.33
United Kingdom-Limehouse	3	3.67
United Kingdom-Edinburgh	3	2
Netherlands-Woerden	3	5.33
United Kingdom-Sheffield	2	1
United States-Hacienda Heights	2	1
Switzerland-Mühlehorn	2	9
United Kingdom-Cambridge	2	1
Switzerland-Weisstannen	2	3
United Kingdom-Upminster	2	2
United States-Saint Paul	2	36
United Kingdom-British	2	1
United Kingdom-Ealing	2	1
United Kingdom-Bristol	2	2
United States-Los Angeles	2	1.5
United Kingdom-Dudley	2	1
United States-Gig Harbor	2	1
Switzerland-Wald	2	9.5
United States-Glastonbury	2	1
United Kingdom-Welling	2	1
Switzerland-Bellaluna	2	2.5
United Kingdom-Northolt	1	1
United States-San Francisco	1	1
United Kingdom-Streatham	1	1
United Kingdom-Ropley	1	1
United States-Westerville	1	2
United States-Portland	1	1
United States-Bettendorf	1	1
United States-Suncook	1	1
United States-Pasadena	1	4
United Kingdom-Saint Helens	1	1
Spain-Barcelona	1	2
Italy-Rome	1	1
United States-Boulder	1	1
United States-Molalla	1	1
United Kingdom-West Dulwich	1	1
United Kingdom-Middlesbrough	1	1
United Kingdom-Letchworth	1	4
United States-Raritan	1	1
United States-Newport	1	2
United States-Seattle	1	1
United States-Union	1	1
United Kingdom-Litherland	1	1
United Kingdom-Camberley	1	5
United Kingdom-Preston	1	1
United Kingdom-Gateshead	1	1
United Kingdom-Liverpool	1	1
Canada-Nelson	1	1
United Kingdom-Crewe	1	2
United Kingdom-Manchester	1	1
United Kingdom-Catford	1	7
Indonesia-Denpasar	1	1
Canada-Airdrie	1	1
United Kingdom-Bolton	1	2
Canada-Woodbridge	1	1
United Kingdom-Bow	1	1
United States-Park City	1	1
United Kingdom-Lancaster	1	9
United Kingdom-Leigh	1	2
United States-Vacaville	1	1
United States-Seattle	1	1
United Kingdom-Saint Mary Bourne	1	1
United Kingdom-Lincoln	1	2
United Kingdom-Scunthorpe	1	1
United Kingdom-Chobham	1	1
United Kingdom-Mangotsfield	1	3
Finland-Kokkola	1	5
United States-Woodside	1	1
United Kingdom-New Malden	1	27
United Kingdom-Salford	1	1
United Kingdom-Upton	1	3
United Kingdom-Gotham	1	1
United Kingdom-Dundee	1	1
United Kingdom-Bracknell	1	1
Israel-Gevim	1	1
United States-Reston	1	1
Canada-Richmond	1	6
United Kingdom-Shooters Hill	1	1
Canada-Montréal	1	1
Hong Kong-Pak Sha Tsuen	1	1
United Kingdom-Misterton	1	4
United States-Elk Grove Village	1	2
United States-Denton	1	1
United Kingdom-Worcester	1	1
United States-Millburn	1	1
Switzerland-Le Grand-Saconnex	1	8
United States-Falls Church	1	3
United States-Hayward	1	1
United Kingdom-Aberdare	1	1
Japan-Yosida	1	32
United Kingdom-Sutton Coldfield	1	1
Switzerland-Glarus	1	9
Switzerland-Ebnat	1	5
United Kingdom-Baxterley	1	3
United Kingdom-Heanor	1	1
United Kingdom-Bickley	1	1
United States-Secaucus	1	1
United States-Brea	1	3
France-Giron	1	2
United Kingdom-Nottingham	1	1
United States-Boulder	1	1
United Kingdom-Gilling	1	1
United Kingdom-Chichester	1	1
United States-Long Island City	1	1
United Kingdom-Cheam	1	1
United Kingdom-Dagenham	1	1
United States-Camden	1	5
United Kingdom-Romford	1	4
United States-Tyler	1	1
United Kingdom-Staines	1	1
Taiwan-Hsinchu	1	2
United States-Southfield	1	1
United Kingdom-Send	1	4
United States-Denver	1	1
United States-Napa	1	1
United Kingdom-Brentford	1	1
United Kingdom-Halesowen	1	2
United States-Des Moines	1	2
United States-Rockville	1	1
United States-Westfield	1	3
United Kingdom-Barking	1	1
United Kingdom-Bagshot	1	3
Poland-Poznan	1	2
Japan-Musashino	1	1
United Kingdom-East Ham	1	1
United States-Erie	1	1
United States-Weehawken	1	1
Philippines-Palanas	1	1
United Kingdom-North Woolwich	1	2
United Kingdom-Hatfield	1	3
United Kingdom-Ashton-under-Lyne	1	1
United Kingdom-Snowshill	1	3
Canada-Sydney	1	1
United States-Keller	1	1
United Kingdom-Southall	1	1

Visits is the number of visits to my site from the country/region/city. P/Visit is pageviews divided by number of visits.

You may have noticed that I havent been posting any weather reports for the last few days!  There is a perfectly good reason for this.  I am currently back in the UK!

No need to worry though, on Wednesday 01 March 2006, I will be flying back to Vancouver and then back to Whistler again.  I will be staying in Whistler until the end of the season, or until the snow deteriates too much!

So, come back on the Thursday for continued weather coverage

Today I travel back to the UK for a 1 week quick trip.  Why you ask?  Well, I am one of these people who doesn't trust anyone.  As such, what with being away from my home in Birmingham, UK, I felt that I needed to go back half way through my trip to make sure things are all OK.  It also allows me to pick up my mail, ensure that everything in the house is OK, and that I have no unexpected bills!

Anyway,  the trip back started off with a bus trip from Whistler to the airport.  It felt like it took ages to get to the airport, what with setting off late and embarking on a tour of the city dropping people off at their hotels.  Once we arrived at the airport, I did my usual of getting checked-in quickly and through security, which I managed in double quick time.

I wanted to get something to eat and surf around the duty-free shops.  Vancouver airport, whilst a nice place sucks big style for duty-free and general shopping.  All of the decent places to eat are before security!  Also, the duty-free is extremely limited, and basically only perfume, chockolate, cigarettes and alcahol.  There was virtually no electrical goods at all, apparet from a couple watches!

So, my advice is that you do not plan to do any duty-free shopping in Vancouver airport!!!

The flight was OK, apparet from some whyney little kid who threw a massive tantrum for over 40 minutes before falling asleep.  The movies were poor though, so poor that I can't even remember what they were!

Got the tube from the airport and met up with MDO for a quick catch up, which was good.  After that got the train fron London Euston back to Birmingham.  Managed to snag 1/2 hours sleep at this point.  Was some 24 hours without any sleep!

For those who remember, I was in Scotland at the folks for Christmas.  Where I managed to leave my house keys!  It was a mission to get back into the house before flying out to Canada.  Thankfully that got resolved.  Anyway, I got my Mum to post the keys to my house, and the good news is that they were there waiting for me when I arrived.  So, thanks Mum!

You may have noticed that I have not been riding yesterday or am riding today.  That is because I want to go and see the Superbowl down at the pub.  This will be the first time in about 8 years I've managed to see the Superbowl on the TV live!  So, going to go hit Tappleys in about 10 minutes!

Go Seattle!

 

Well, as you may have noticed, there has not been any news in my blog for a while.  That's because our Internet access has not been available for a few days.  I'll try and get everything up to date.

The 27th of December was the day that I flew back from Scotland after spending Christmas there with the family.  It was actually a very good Christmas.  Anyway, I got everything packed, arrived in good time at the airport.  I somehow managed to get onto the aircraft first,and therefore got nicely settled, before take off.  The flight was quick and un-eventful.  I even managed to get off the flight first, and my baggage was one of the first bags to come out as well.  Even the train and bus ride home went well.  So, all good.

They say that bad luck comes in three's well, this is where it started.

I got to the front door and went to my bag to look for the keys.  Not where I put them.  So I pull everything apart to look for them.  Still not there.  Then the horror of realising that I had left them in Scotland dawned on me!  Quick call to my Mum confirmed that I had left the keys!  So, what was I going to do?  Tried the buzzer, no answer.  I tried calling the flat mates, none of them were in and were all away for Christmas.  So, a major panic ensued.  I was due to fly out to Canada tomorrow, but couldn't get in to pick up my gear or tickets.  More frantic telephone calls ensued.  About an hour later (standing outside, in the cold and snow), I managed to get in contact with the Landlord, who just happened to be in Birmingham and he would let me in.  Hurrah!  Canada is still on.  So about an hour later he arrives and I get in.  Thank goodness.

So, I was getting everything ready, and what with all of the travelling from Scotland and the waiting outside for a couple hours, I thought that I'd have a shower.  Bad luck strikes again.  Occasionally, there is not enough water pressure and the shower doesn't work.  Well, this was one of those occasions!

So, two bit's of bad luck already, where is number 3?  Come in number three, your time is up!

It has only just occured to my but the British Library provides FREE Internet access. Using it now! For what ever reason, it does however appear that their access and computers are a bit patchy! Some are SunRay computers with Netscape, some are regular PC's with FireForx, and some are completley unknown. Aw, who cares as long as I have access So, I can now pick up my email every couple of days or so. Excelent!

As I've quit my job, today is my last day!  The big problem with that, is that I will no longer have direct Internet access until I get over to Whistler!  *arg*

So, what am I to do?  Well, I have a couple options.

1. Try and snoop an un-secure Wireless network, around where I live (havent found any!)
2. Go round to my mates house Chad & Peter and use their Internet access every so often (will have to see what they say!)
3. Go to an Internet Cafe!

I think that option 2 looks the best!  Real trouble is that when I go to Scotland, the week before heading out to Whistler, I really will not have any internet access! :-(

In Internet Explorer, there is a restriction that limits the number of simultaneous downloads to two downloads, plus on queued download.  This is a real pain!  The following allows you to change this setting to me as many as you like.  I recommend 7, through personal experience.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). 
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings  
3. On the Edit menu, point to New click DWORD Value, and then add the following registry values:
• Value name: MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
• Value data: 7
• Base: Decimal
•  
• Value Name: MaxConnectionsPerServer
• Value data: 7
• Base: Decimal
4. Quit Registry Editor.

I thought that I'd try and drive some more activity to my Blog and share it out a little.

So, I thought I would sign-up to the Technorati network.  You can view My Technorati Profile

I came accross this, in one of the blogs that I subscribe to.  It's apparently inspired by Tristan Louis's research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, I've created this little applet using Technorati's API which computes and displays your blog's worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal.

You can find out "How much is my blog worth?" here: http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/

Oh, what a dissapointment.  I've managed to get a blog server up and running on my hosting service, and no-one has come to see it.

Hmmm.  Do you think I should advertise it?

Still, there is no real surprise.  I am after all just trying it out first before launching it.