Visual Studio 2010 is released today so I thought I'd download it from the MSDN site and have a look. Of course, so is everybody else in the world and the download is crawling. Thinking there must be a way to get it quicker, I turned to google and found this site, which must be Tip of the Decade. I've gone from 7hrs remaining at about 20KB/sec to 336KB/sec and 1hr left!

Credit goes to http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/11/20/speed-up-and-download-faster-from-microsoft-msdn-downloads/

In order to speed up the MSDN application downloads, the developers or subscribers need to make sure that the web browser will always connect and access to US-located servers. Following the following steps to achieve this:

1. Edit the HOSTS file located at %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts by using Notepad or any other text editor (make sure that you have Administrator Rights when using Vista with UAC turned on).
2. Add an entry to the HOST file for the global US Microsoft server: 207.46.252.185 global.ds.microsoft.com
3. In Internet Explorer, add https://global.ds.microsoft.com to the list of Trusted Sites (located in Tools > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites).
4. In Internet Explorer, always allow cookies of https://global.ds.microsoft.com regardless of privacy policy by going to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy, and click on Sites button. Enter the URL (https://global.ds.microsoft.com) to Address of Website and click on Allow button.
5. If the download has already begun and half way through, suspend the MSDN download and select or activate “Place application shortcut on the desktop” in the Microsoft File Transfer Manager Options in order to resume later.
6. Open command prompt and run the command “ipconfig /flushdns” or simply reboot the computer
7. Start Microsoft File Transfer Manager from the desktop to resume download from MSDN.

I received a phone call today from HSBC. Let me rephrase that, I received a phone call today from somebody who claimed to be from HSBC.

As an IT professional, security is always at the forefront of my mind, so when asked to supply details like my date of birth etc., I was more than hesitant to give these out. I politely declined and told them that as I couldn't be sure of who they were, I did not want to answer, unless they could prove to me that they genuinely were HSBC. He wouldn't do this as he "didn't know if he was speaking to the correct person so couldnt divulge any information" which left us in a bit of a standoff.

I've experienced this with other establishments before, and it strikes me that there is a simple solution. When I set up my online banking, I created a password which I use for online/telephone banking authentication. Surely, the easy way around this would be for them to allocate a password/passphrase from their side, and then quote this to you when they call, this way you know it's them you're speaking to* and not some scammer. The password/phrase wouldnt be anything sensitive, just something to prove they were who they said. I realise this is another thing to remember, but it would be worth the effort for piece of mind.

Anyway, the call ended and I hung up and checked the number in google, it does appear to be a HSBC number, but when I called them on their main line and asked what the call was about, there was no record of any outstanding calls which leads me to believe either a) It was a scam, or b) HSBC don't know what their other departments are doing, neither of which fills me with confidence.

Surely this would be a no brainer to implement and stop any risk of fraud?

* Unless, they've been hacked and have all of your details, in which case you're screwed anyway!

Just a quick tip for anybody trying to set up POP3/IMAP email on an iPod Touch/iPhone. I've tried this several times and after getting a peculiar error about failing and asking me if I want to try again without SSL, it usually just ends up hanging up on Verifying POP email....This can go on for minutes and nothing seems to be actually going on. How long should it take to verify the POP server? Two seconds?

Anyway, today I decided to wait it out on the basis that something must happen eventually, after all, these were valid POP settings! About 10 minutes later, my POP settings are verified and I can see my inbox!

Why it took so long is still a mystery! but hopefully this may help people who've gone through the same as me.

It always makes me laugh when I buy something new and see how dumbed down the instructions are. After getting a new replacement Viewsonic monitor today, I saw this one which is the best I've seen in a while!

How stupid do these people think we really are? :)

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to buy a new mp3 player. The first one I bought must have been well over ten years ago (Anyone remember the Creative DAP jukebox? ) but since then I've really only listened to music by mobile or on the home PC. Although I had my eye on an iPhone at one point, the total cost seemed a bit over the top (and I've still got 10 months left on my current contract!). Instead, I plumped for a new iPod Touch and I have to say, its a fantastic little device. Although I'm not a big fan of iTunes on the PC (I prefer Windows Media Player) it works really well on the iPod. It's nice being able to buy apps/music straight from the device assuming you have a WiFi connection of course.

After much deliberation I decided that the 32Gb model was essential as this offered the best price per Gb by far :) I've loaded about 80 CD's so far and still have 75% free. Of course to go with such a great device I needed a good pair of headphones. The ones that come with it are pretty basic.

A bit of searching on google found some candidates and I eventually went for the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi pro 5. They are expensive but sound awesome. They are a little fiddly 'til you get used to them and I found them regularly dropping out of my ears, but once you get used to putting them in, they do a fine job.  I even went to the gym today and managed to keep them in for an hour without any dropouts :)

If you notice a lack of bass, its more than likely that you havent got a snug enough fit. I found a few reviews of people complaining about bass response, and I'm sure this is the problem. Having a tight fit makes a huge difference and they supply a range of interchangeable covers to suit all sizes of ear as part of the package!

It's been a while since my last blog entry. Work has been even more hectic than usual but hopefully over the worst!

I stumbled across this today and thought it was worthy of posting here :) It brought a smile to my face after a hard day at work!

Just before 1:00am in the morning UK time, I was playing on PGR 4 on the XBox 360 when all of a sudden, I heard a loud roar and the whole room appeared to shake for a couple of seconds. As we've had a lot of high wind lately, I initially thought that this might have been a strong gust. I had a look out of the window back and front and it seemed very eerie and still outside, no sign of any wind at all.

I thought nothing more of it and went back to play on the XBox. I guessed that I'd probably imagined it as I was getting tired by this point. I just started to play again when in walks my wife (who looked like she'd seen a ghost!) "What was that?" she said.  After I realised I hadn't imagined it, we initially thought it could have been an explosion or a plane crash. I looked outside again, and by this point, half of the street were out in their dressing gowns staring around in disbelief! That's when I realised it had been an earthquake.

We we're both a little shook up and we went downstairs and put TV on and sure enough, breaking news was that an "Earth Tremor" had been felt across many parts of the UK. It later was revelead that the epicentre had been near Lincoln and it measured 5.2 on the richter scale.

In talking to people today, it has amazed me how few actually noticed it. Obviously, I was awake so I was more likely to, but I'm sure it would have woke me had I been a sleep. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. I can't even begin to imagine how awful it would be in a stronger one.

This was something I imagined I would never experience, so if we can have an earthquake in England, who knows, maybe it'll be Boro's year in the FA Cup! (something else I thought I'd never experience!)

If you've read my previous post, you will have seen how I recently discovered a way to post a picture from Flickr, directly to my blog, using the MetaWebLog API.

I promised that I'd write up how do this, so here you go. It's fairly straightforward to do and should only take a couple of minutes.

Step 1

Go to http://www.flickr.com/blogs.gne, logging in if necessary. You should see a screen like the one below:

Click "Set up your blog" to continue

Step 2

When asked for the type of your blog, select MetaWeblogAPI enabled blog and click Next.

Step 3

Enter the appropriate details for your blog. The API endpoint is the base URL for your blog with metaweblog.axd added to the end, so if my site is http://www.tumelty.com/blog/, I would need to enter http://www.tumelty.com/blog/metaweblog.axd

Remember to add the directory if your blog is not in the root of the server. 

Step 4

Confirm that the details are correct. If you get an error at this point, check the URL you entered and your username and password. Remember that these should be the ones you use to log into your blog, not your Flickr username/password.

If everything looks good, click "All Done" and you're done! 

Step 5

This screen should confirm that your blog has been successfully added. You can now play about with the templates, or choose one of the preselected templates.

To post an image to your blog, open it up in Flickr, and click "Blog This" in the toolbar. 

Hope this is useful! 

Yorkshire Dales
Originally uploaded by paultumelty

I was on Flickr today and I noticed that there was a feature which enabled you to send a picture to your blog.

Metaweblog was one of the listed compatible API's and I know this is what is supported to enable Windows Live Writer to work, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Hopefully this will work!

EDIT: It did! and I'll be posting an article explaining how to set this up soon... 

Today saw the much anticipated release of "Join With Us" the new album from The Feeling. Ever since I listened to their first album "Twelve Stops and Home" I've been a huge fan and was looking forward to this a lot.

So what's it like? Well, there are a few tracks that will be familiar to fans. "I Thought It Was Over", the new single, hasn't been off TV and radio in the last fortnight, so you've probably heard this one a lot! It's quite dancy and upbeat, just what you want to start an album with. Also, "Join With Us" and "This Time" have both been on previous CD single releases, although these versions are definately more polished.

Of the remaining tracks, the stand out ones for me are "Without You", "I Did It For Everyone", "Turn it Up" and "Won't Go Away", all great songs and potential singles.

Filling in the gaps are "Spare Me", "Loneliness" and "Connor" which although far from awful, might take a while to grow on you.

I was a little dissappointed with the final track, "The Greatest Show on Earth". The title promised a lot and I was expecting something along the lines of "Blue Picadilly" but in comparison it seems quite weak, I was also slightly dissappointed with the Bonus Track, "We Can Dance", it just doesn't do it for me.

In conclusion, a follow up that could even came close to matching the instant likability factor of the first album was always going to be difficult, there are definately some promising tracks here and after a few listens, it's definately growing on me. It doesn't have the same feel as the first album but it is still distinctly the sound of "The Feeling".

Overall Rating 8/10 

Click here to preview the tracks and buy online in .mp3 format.