DG834G: Site to Site VPN

A friend/colleague and I have just set up a Site to Site VPN using a pair of Netgear DG834G routers. Surprisingly easy to accomplish (as long as you have the very latest firmware) - strongly recommended.

As soon as we twigged that one of the ADSL lines was a dynamic IP, and set up the other end accordingly - it all clicked into place.

Of course, it took longer to dismember his mangled DG834GT (from Sky Broadband) and dig out the necessary settings to log in via the G.. but hey. You can't have everything!

It's not always the drivers fault..

Gah. A "quick" trip into a part of town I seldom visit was, yesterday, grossly delayed by the fact that a good sized portion of the city in which I live is now a 20mph zone.

Unnecessarily.

The (primarily) Liberal Demo-prat council have deemed that this will reduce speeding, hence cutting accidents and lowering pedestrian injury rates.

It won't. People who are going to speed will still speed. The 30 zones weren't enforced - nor are the 20s. Pointless.

I stick to the speed limits almost all the time, and yet, have to avoid pedestrians who simply walk out in front of me, without even looking to see if there is any traffic coming, on a daily basis. What happened to the green cross code?

Maybe if Jay-Walking was an offence (and actually enforced), it would have more impact on pedestrian injury rates..

Flips and Flops

In computing, "flop" is often used to mean "[fl]oating point [op]erations". The speed of computing systems can be measured in TeraFlops and so forth.

If this is the case, does that mean then, that we could call [str]ing [op]erations "strops"?

If so, would string operations performed by small children become TerrorStrops?

Composite (Web) Controls and INamingContainer

When creating a .NET 2.0, composite, web control - if you wish to handle events within your control (e.g. table with a built in "next page" button), remember to implement INamingContainer.

There are no methods to implement - just the interface itself, which notifies the runtime that it should enable the control to handle events itself (rather than simply defining event handlers to bubble them out to listeners).

Failure to do so results in 3.5 hours of stupifying, pointless, wasted investigation.

D'oh.

The Hogfather - Part One

Just watched the first part of the TV rendition of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

I was cynical about it.

I was wrong.

It's blummin marvelous.

Ho Ho Ho.

Novatech - the fall from grace

I used to hold "Novatech", the computer/etc retailer in very high regard.

However, things change.

Today I ordered a keyboard and some blank DVD media for "Fast-Track" collection. I paid. Everything was in stock. I received an email telling me to come and pick up my order in 30 minutes time.

I drove there (luckily it isn't far or I would probably still be there, fuming).

The keyboard wasn't in stock.

"But.. your website said 'one in stock', and told me to come and collect it. This suggests that you have one."

"Yeah. We do. But its assigned to another order."

Bunch of nobbers.

Gosh. Its been ages.

I haven't blogged anything for ages. Although if you actually read this, you might be grateful for that! It's not that nothing blogworthy has happened - its just that I've been busy and ill.

Avoid Gastric Acid Reflux. It's very nasty. Currently on my 2nd bout in the last six months, and have lost a stone in the last week - it DOES seem to be an efficient way to slim down!

According to today's Sun, Gordon Brown has admitted that he is no good at maths.

We could never have guessed.

His budgets are usually such logical masterpieces that.. oh.. no.. wait.. I meant deceptive masterpieces...