Most recent blog entries

Today I am facing several down times 

It seems, that the new forum version causes somehow more problems in the virtual environment than the previous version.

I am already working on a solution to get Swyx Forum on it's own root server which promises much more stability. If this will work out as expacted/wanted, I will be able to move the site in one or two weeks from now (fortunately I have vacation during this time...).

If you feel like wanting to support me on this you can do so by becoming an official sponsor of Swyx Forum. It is just a question of money... (as always). At the moment the costs are not yet secured.

As I am going to update the forum module the following weekend, you won't be able to access it from saturday morning  presumingly until sunday afternoon. All other areas of Swyx Forum (projects, downloads, wiki, a.s.o.) will stay available during this time.

Hi everyone.

Due to a massive hardware failure in the datacenter of my hoster Swyx Forum (and lots of other pages) where down far about half a day. As Murphey tells us: everything that could fail will fail, it took some time to get the datacenter back to life.

Swyx Forum is available now again and I am looking forward to the weekend to update the forum module.

"Far out in the uncharted backwarters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."

This is the beginning of the first book of the only existing triology consisting of five novels:

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

If you grew up being somehow connected to technology this is for sure a very well known story for you. In fact I hardly know anyone not knowing it.

The story is from easy to complicated, from funny to bizzare. Over the last 20+ years it became nearly a religion to many people. Of course my bookshelf is the home of five paperbacks as well !

While spending some nice days in Read More »

Over the last days you might have exerianced this site to be very slow or not responding at all. My hoster just informed me that he had severe trouble with DoS Attacks on lot's of his machines slowing everything down. He told me that he "fixed" this now (I wonder how to fix DoS Attacks anyway... ).

So, if the page is slow please be patient, this is most likely because some stupid guys think they have to do stupid things.

This morning the Swyx Forum web server (i.e. the web application framework) hang and it took some time to get the IIS (web server) restarted. So please accept my apology for this. I will try to make sure that these kind of down times will be prevented in the future.

Is your daily work every day the same ? Did you get tired of it and want to learn and do new things ?

Maybe this one is of inspiration for you:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p4cP2oy4ebE

BTW: tomorrow is a national holiday in Germany (German Unity Day), so this is nearly like Morten's regular weekend starter blog

The other day a colleague of mine asked my for a favour to write a small function that strips the SIP URI from his caller list and redial list. At home he only uses SIP trunks to the outside world and therefore he always gets the SIP URIs into all lists.

Well, the result is the following piece of code that has to be copied into the gse script's Start block, and later on within the script, somewhere before the Connect To block you need to call the FixSIP function, best suited within a Insert Script Code block.

Feel free to use it where ever you like

Read More »

As Morten already has opened the fun section for the upcoming weekend, let's celebrate it !

This is my contribution to it   (Don't miss to watch BOTH movies!)

Again I want to inform you about the latest news of the Kinderhilfe Afghanistan (Sorry, but both links are in german language available only).

• Oberpfalznetz - Warnung vor Pulverfass Pakistan
• Mittelbayrische - Die Ansichten eines Unbequemen über Afghanistan

swyx-forum supports the Kinderhilfe Afghanistan. Read more about it here.

This small movie shows what really happend to Darth Vader after his battle star was destroyed by the rebells.

► Episode IV.V

Being already in the mood for some more good one's of Robin Williams I am pretty sure you will enjoy this very special version of "none-weapons-of.mass-destruction". This is definately one of the most brilliant ones !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL5qMobVS2U

Ever wondered who invented Golf ? This game where a few people with sticks in their hands hit tiny balls and run all the day after their these balls.

Well, my most favorite comedian, Robon Williams, tells the truth about this sport.

Lean back and enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X04wZpqx3U

Too many DVDs, and CDs and not enough time to rewind? Are your DVDs running a bit too slow? The DVD rewinder is the perfect solution! This novelty rewinder comes with the exclusive Centriptal Velocity Spindle providing the world’s fastest DVD rewind!

The DVD Rewinder is a great gift for the technical savvy, the couch potato, teens with too much time on their hands, and the gadget buff! Novelty for you or gag gift for a friend.

The DVD Rewinder has a great black and fluorescent green color scheme with high tech styling! The DVD Rewinder will spin discs backwards and plays a “rewind” sound. You can also record your own “rewind” sound which provides unending possibilities. For the tech hip, the DVD Rewinder also has an additional MP3 port and plays a separate “rewind” sound. Rewind all types of disc media DVDs, CDs, and Console Games. But not just novelty, the DVD Rewinder has utility. It has a ... Read More »

The last weeks and month I'd spent a fair amount of time on a redesign of the Swyx License Database. This weekend I have updated the productive system and am quite pleased with the results.

Two major "faults" had made the database very slow over the last years. As you all know the Swyx licenses are dongled with the hardware of the server machine. So, the first fault was to do all the hardware comparisons needed everytime one wanted to have a look e.g. on a customer. The second fault was introduced when implementing the SUS license management 2 1/2 jears ago. Because of a lack of time I had decided to make (intensive) use of "User Defined Functions" on the MS SQL server. In the beginning everything worked fine, but over the time, with more and more licenses in the database, the UDFs showed their major drawback more and more clearly: they became a performance problem.

So, if you ever have to design a database application, stay ... Read More »

Friday night I saw the movie Shut Up & Sing (just started here in Germany). A film about the Dixie Chicks, an american country band and in fact the most successfull girl band ever in terms of sold records.

During their Top of the World tour in 2003 the lead singer Natalie Maines said one sentence on a concert in London, between two songs, just meant as a joke. A sentence that changed her life and the life of her sisters. It was the evening before American and British troups invaded Iraq. She said that she's ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.

While being still on tour this sentence found it's way through the media back to the US with remarkable effects. I am not sure if this is a purely amerian phenomenon, but from my german point of view the reactions all over america are simply unbeli ... Read More »

Try this !

http://www.isnichwahr.de/r297535-Langeweile-beim-Shoppen.html

Just an idea...

I don't know if this is a pure german phenomenon but have you also ever wondered about all the christmas stuff already in the stores in august ?

Well, now there is an easy and purely logical answer to it. It's given a in short story (unfortunately in german language only - I hope you don't mind).

Richtiges Verhalten am Hindukusch - Wie ein Afghane unter Afghanen

Welche Regeln ein Zivilist befolgen muss, wenn er am Hindukusch unterwegs ist - und wer dort nichts zu suchen hat.
Eine Außenansicht von Reinhard Erös.

Ein Artikel aus der Süddeutschen Zeitung vom 24.07.2007.

BAYERN-Alpha - der Bildungskanal des Bayerischen Fernsehens - berichtet am Donnerstag, 19. Juli 2007, 20.15 Uhr - 21.00 Uhr in der Interview-Sendung "ALPHA-FORUM" über die Arbeit der "Kinderhilfe Afghanistan".

Details: ... Read More »