If you have an online Mtgox wallet that you access by means of a home computer download and install the the the Google Authentication App. I’m not a big fan of becoming even more dependent on  Google but this is what is  supported by MtGox and will have to do for now unless you decide to buy a YubiKey which is a hardware implementation (via a USB key).

1. Download the  html5 google authenticator app here and  extract the files in into a folder of your choice. Then open the index.html in your browser.

You should have a screen looking something like this, with only the default google alice account.  Click the ‘+’ to create an Mtgox account and enter the PRIVATE Key here that you create at the MtGox site. Login to MtGox now to create this PRIVATE KEY.

2. Creating your Private Key. Log into your MtGox account and go to the Security Centre.

Click on the ‘Add New’ New Software Authentication System. This will bring up the screen shown below.

Print and Save this in a safe place! Take a screen shot of it as you will need to know and keep hold of your Secure Private Key for future reference. Do not Lose it!

3. Now enter this PRIVATE Key into the  place requesting it in the Google Authenticator. You should then have your OTP (one time password aka passcode) appear fro the MtGox account in Google Authenticator and the changes ever 30s.

4.Copy the OTP (also called the Code on the mtGox site)  from the Google Authenticator and  enter it into the 4th field at the bottom called ‘Code’. Then click on the ‘Save’ button.

5. Applying the Security.

Go back to the mtGox security centre. When you created the Private Key using the New Software Authentication System, the first entry created was the Auth Name. This was done automatically. In the screen above it it OTP#5059.

You can apply your OTP to the LOgin, Withdrawal and Security Centre.

Apply it to both the Withdrawals and Security Centre as shown in the screen shot below.  Why link this Google Authentication to the Security Centre. This is so that if someone does gain access to you email account the won’t be able to reset/remove  the security on your Withdrawals and thus steal your BitCoins and other Funds.

  You should now be able to sleep more securely knowing that your valuable BitCoins cannot be stolen should your email account used to autheticate you at MTGox ever get compromised.

Special thanks to BitCoinBull at BitCoinTalk.org for the original posting in the form and to G.Braad (me@gbraad.nl.) for compiling the Google authenticator for HTML5.

After many an hour of flying the delightful Blade Scout, I decided to get the Blade Eflite mCX after reading the reviews. In under two weeks of owning and flying this wonder, I can tell you it is

another flying marvel from Horizon Hobby. I really think this is the first helicopter to get, if you want to get into the pastime of flying remote controlled helicopters in a more serious way. With 4 channels you have full directional control.

It is a very stable flying machine and an absolute delight to fly indoors. I have heard that you can fly them outdoors in very light winds but I have yet to try this.

This is a full 4 channel 2.4 GHz radio remote controlled helicopter. This technology along with the marvelous 5-in-1 controller give you very precise control of the helicopter. It takes awhile to master the Mode 2 controller which while intuitive takes a light touch to maintain a constant throttle input while operating the rudder. It is vital to master this as lost of orientation will result in crashes.

At 28 grams it is heavier than the Blade Scout. While it is a very resilient little helicopter that will pick itself up and fly time after time, you – can – damage it in a crash.

mCX with white canopy

I have managed to snap a strut of the luminescent landing skid after I crashed my white bodied trainer mCX into the aquarium in a moment of confusion.  So practice and more practice while taking it easy is the way to go with this delightful helicopter. Practising precision indoor flying with it will give you months if not years of delight.

The Blade Eflite mCX like other 4 channel helicopters defers from the 3 channel Blade Scout primarily in it’s ability to fly sideways as well. This is how real helicopters fly. The mCX will never fly upside down as it is a fixed pitch helicopter. What this means is that the rotor blades are moulded so that they generate lift only whilst the helicopter is in a upright position. I don’t think it’s capable of doing a loop either but the jury is still out on this one.

One thing you should not do on this or any other Blade helicopter is touch the 5-in-1 electronic control unit with first taking the necessary antistatic precautions. Static electricity is very damaging to electronic components. Ground yourself before you handle the controller board.

Product Specifications

Battery charger for the mCX

I had a feeling all such IR ‘made in China’ clone helicopters that have filled the shelves in toy stores would have similar poor flying characteristics. I then remembered I had seen something called a Blade Scout in Daniel’s of Windsor. I did some quick research and found the Blade website . They seemed to be manufacturer of micro helicopters who supported their helicopters and had a wide user based. So I decided to pick up a Blade Scout CX after watching the official video and reading just a couple of reviews.

What can I say!  This little flying marvel does exactly what it says on the tin.  It is really a delight to fly and very easy to control. You can fly this flying miracle in the standard mode which I have tried and the expert mode (high rate), which makes it more responsive. It comes with a 2.4GHz radio control system and an onboard computerized Piezo gyro for solid directional control and stability. The ‘Air Tiger’ clone had this gyro stabilisation system with the crystal hand exposed on two wire from the bottom.. :/ and was nowhere as stable!

It’s light weight (just 17 grams), flexible canopy and bendy blades makes this flying marvel nearly indestructible. Just kill the throttle when you crash or get into trouble. It goes up rapidly, so be warned. You have to bring it down at a slower rate to avoid it falling out of the air like a stone.

I am delighted with this marvelous little helicopter. I am giving it to my cousins as a present. I have now got my brother the Blade mCX which is still in the box.

Horizon Hobbies, who made the Blade helicopters are an American company. I hope they will think about moving R&D and some of the manufacturing to the US and Europe. Because it is us, the users who support the Blade/Eflite helis from being overwhelmed by the 100% Chinese clones.

Well, perhaps Love/ Hate are  too strong a word. Especially since I am no techno geek or techno whizz and slow to make the  change from a proven and working system. Indeed my N95 came out in 1997 and we have only been together for 3 months. So I am not really up there with the latest technology. In fact the only reason I got it is that I felt it would be handy to be able to access the web via wifi.

So let’s start with the short comings of my Nokia N95.

• For one you can use it like a normal phone because the ear piece does not work 95% of the time. It’s a bug in the software that never seems to have been ironed out. You have to speak to your call either via loudspeaker or headphones. Shocking! A lot of people must have returned these phones for this reason.
• Volume control does not work – a design fault where the button breaks of it’s mountings. You can hover adjust the volume and leave it at a preset level using the external volume control cable. No ideal but a work around.
• Nokia has provided sync support only for MS Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes. This means that you cannot sync your calendar with open source email applications like Mozilla’s Thunderbird which is a pain. And please no one mention Google Calendar. We have already given Google too much power with near search engine monopoly, our addiction to Youtube videos that I don’t really want to hand them my Calendar.
• Not many applications out there, but I don’t find this to be a limitation as it does web, email, calendar and a couple of instant messenger programs.
• Some say it’s a bit bulky but I don’t find this a problem.

The things I like about the N95

• Pretty stable Symbian S60 operating system
• Decent SatNav and Nokia Maps
• Great sound system! Puts Apple iPhones to shame. You don’t need external speakers with this on to get the party going )
• 4 Gb memory for storageis sufficent and the apps cope okay with the 48 Mb internal RAM.
• Takes great pics with the 5 Mega pixel camera
• Plays Youtube videos well – Real Player
• Crystal clear and bright display
• Supports OggPlayer (free app. but they accept donations) which is great for Audio books – has independent volume control and fast forward/rewind which default Nokia Music Player lacked.
• Buttons – I like buttons. Nokia’s 3 lettered buttons suit me down to a tee.

Well, that’s be and my N95 in a nutshell. I am not looking to get another phone anytime soon )

Raketa-1 the original Rocket

A brief history of the Raketa (Rocket)

The Raketa was the first type of hydrofoil boats commercially produced in the Soviet Union. They were manufactured from 1957 until the early 1970s.
The first model, the Raketa-1, was built by Krasnoye Sormovo shipbuilding plant in Sormovo, Nizhny Novgorod. On its maiden voyage, on 25 August 1957, it carried 30 passengers from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan (420 km) in seven hours.

The Raketa Experience

I was in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia the summer of 2004 and had the privilege to travel on a raketa from Krasnoyarsk up to the town Divnogorsk where there is a massive hydro-electic dam built across the river Yenisei . The Yensei is a mighty river that makes our river Thames look like a stream. It rises in Mongolia and flows all the way to the Artic sea.

Raketa at Divnogorsk

 
The river after the dam is still over a mile wide at Krasnoyarsk and the water flows fast. There is a scheduled raketa service to and from Dyivnogorsk. The raketa trips are very popular with Russian tourists and locals. After queuing up for our tickets for which turned out to be a pointless exercise as everyone simply rushed to the gate as soon as the raketa arrived, we boarded. The only sell you tickets for the number of seats available. It’s probably to do with maintaining the stability of the vessel and the fact that the raketa won’t plane if it is overloaded.

The raketa was fast! Especially considering that we were going up river against a strong current. It made the other vessels look as if they were standing still. They views were spectacluar too. Dachas, farms, taiga (birch forest) meeting the river and of’course the spectacular views of the gorge itself as we approached Divnogorsk.

Me at Divnogorsk

The trip took less than twenty five minutes or so. It was smooth and comfortable all the way.

I had to re-install WSUS 3.) Sp2 and Monitoring on my SBS 2003 server after it broke when I tried to upgrade WSUS fro version 3.0 Sp1 to 2.0 Sp2.

These are the steps I followed:

Steps to Re-install SBS Monitoring

1. Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs -> Windows Small Business Server 2003 -> Change Remove ->
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Remove and continue the setup process.

2. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SBSMonitoring) -> Remove.

3. Delete IIS Virtual Directory

Open IIS, expand servername, Web Sites, Default Web Site
Deleted Monitoring. Backed up files in the virtual directory first.

4. Renamed the C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SBSMONITORING Folder.

5. Deleted the registry keys relating to Monitoring

A. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Monitoring
B. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL
Server\SBSMONITORING

6. Reboot the server.

7. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Windows Small Business Server 2003.
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Install and continue the setup process. I had an error message that

the system was unable to install MS SQL SP4. An error showed up on the install option.

8. 6. Rebooted the server.

9. 7. MSSQL$SBSMONITORING and SQLAgent$SBSMONITORING services started up on reboot.

10. 8. In Server Management Console -> Monitoring and Reporting: run the “Set Up Monitoring Reports and Alerts wizard”

Monitoring is now running but I have two errors relating to it in my system log file.

These are:

Event ID 120

The report server cannot decrypt the symmetric key. Most likely, the service account or password has changed. To continue, run rsconfig.exe to update the report server account information.\r\n
Event ID 140

The application domain WindowsService_5 failed to initialize. Error: Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.KeyStateNotValidException: The report server cannot access the private key for the service account. This key is used to decrypt the symmetric key that protects content in the report server database. This condition might occur after the password is reset for the report server service account. You must either restore a backup key or delete all encrypted content. —> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8009000B): Key not valid for use in specified state. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009000B) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo) at RSManagedCrypto.RSCrypto.ExportPublicKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.DataProtection.PreparePublicKey(Boolean repair) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() — End of inner exception stack trace — at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.<>c__DisplayClass1.<Run>b__0(Object state) at System.Security.SecurityContext.Run(SecurityContext securityContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.Run(ContextBody callback) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.GetEncryptionKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.ConnectStorage() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ServiceController.ServiceStartThread(Object firstStart).

I tried using the RSKeyMgmt tool but it just could not find the instance of MS SQL server on my machine. i.e <severname>\SBSMonitoring If any one has some bright ideas, I’d be happy to hear from them.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 installed without any problems after this.

The solution is really quite simple. Go to Start –> Programs –> Accessories. Launch Remote Desktop by clicking on the icon.  Then click on the Options button. You should then get the following screen come up.

Remote Desktop Settings

Select the Display tab and set the Remote Desktop Size to Full Screen (by moving the slider fully to the right).

If you want to have several remote desktop connections of varying sizes you can create shortcuts to the as follows:

Shortcut name:%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe /w:1600 /h:1200

Happy RDP-ing!

Launching off

The Beginning.

This was organised by members and Volunteers of the Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group(MWRG). The Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group arranged to have the Bray Cut which becomes the York Stream in the Maidenhead town centre cleared of  overgrowth,rubbish, dead trees and another debris which was restricting the flow of the water. I too part in two of the weekend sessions in August. It was hard but worthwhile work. A sterling fellow volunteer by the name of Stewart and I began the first session my clearing rubbish and other debris from the river by the  bridge at Green Lane. Stewart from the ROTA Group.

We had to be careful as we waded as the bottom was very silty in places. Indeed, I sank it at one point and was firmly stuck. I almost began to panic as I sank deeper and deeper and the water breached my waders!  After extracting myself and emptying my waders I carried on. We pulled out a bathtub, a suitcase (thankfully there weren’t any body parts inside), cars seats, car wheels and so much other rubbish like plastic bags and bottles, beer cans and the like. People are really thoughtless  . What really got my goat was a lot of the rubbish  around there.was left by fishermen. You’d think they would respect the environment more.

By the second day we were clearing the section of river called The Cut which flows through the Bray Nature Reserve. A really beautiful place. Here the clearance work consisted mainly of pulling out and cutting trees that had fallen into the river and which were restricting it’s course.  We managed to clear a decent 5 metre wide section along here.

Setting off from Green Lane

Off we go.

So in thanks and to to make people aware of the work they are doing, the MWRG organised the afore mentioned Canoe Calvadcade. I was lucky enough to be invited by a gentleman by the name of David who had a beautiful 13 foot wooden Canadian canoe. A piece of art really. You can see it the pics. It was a wonderful event with several entire families taking part. There was an inflatable Sevoylar Yukon paddled by a nice lady and her soon. I thought it was quite sturdy and stylish for an inflatable.

We started of at the bridge of Green Lane and followed the river all the way down to Bray where it joins the Thames. We then paddled back up a bit and got off at the Bray Marina who kindly let us use their pontoon and car park. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the water. We even managed to pick up a football and a pelican cone from the river on the way

My final thoughts.

I do support he efforts of the MWRG to make this section of water way navigable all the way to the town centre from Bray. But only for canoes and rowing boats. I think motorized boats, even small ones would disturb the wild life and tranquillity of this section of the river. There are a lot of bird species that seek refuge and breeding grounds along this selection of the waterway. This is due to it’s current relative inaccessibility to man.

Davids's Wooden Canadian Canoe

This year’s e-commerce exhibition was run at the London Olympia on the 19^th and 20^th October. By all accounts of those who had attended the previous years it was busier and better than the previous year.

Stands

Girls from the UKFast Host Stand

UKFast had one of the biggest stands there.

Besides the lovely girls on their stand and promoting their carbon neutral ethos, UKFast had these tips to share:

• Since August 2010 Google has changed it search engine model and organic searches now can return upto 7 results per page for the same website rather than the one as previously. A point worthy of some thought.
• Google’s addition of Twitter updates (which was implemented by Google autumn 2009) now means search results include relevant Twitter updates.

There were a lot of Online Payment Centre Solutions:

These were offering alternative solutions to the likes of WorldPay and RBS WorldPay.

• RBS WorldPay

Big UK players but didn’t have anything special for existing customers.

• In this picture above, the lovely Anapolia at the clickandbuy stand. They are a German company and say that they are the 2 largest online transaction processing company after WorldPay. Anapolia said they are different in that they can accept debit cards which are prevalent in German and through the rest of Europe.

• EVP International – a smaller Lithuanian company offering transaction processing with a special focus on central and eastern Europe.

• Packnet Services. Another online transaction processing company with a focus on

the US/UK market. They use a bank account to clear payments on behalf of customers.

• CreditCall Another world wide credit card clearance company.

Google

Attended a 30 minute Google – Intoduction to Google Products Seminar.

A well presented session. Gained some SEO tips regarding what Google look for when ranking your website, namely Page Relevance and Links to your site.

However Google admitted without confessing that they tweek the system as they think it right that billion dollar companies like Amazon for example should appear at the top of the organic search list for the search term – amazon.

Adwords –

Google said to be very aware of seasonal trends when running your Adword campaign as this will determine what users are searching for at the time. A good example given was Stena Ferries capitalisation of the air travel disruption by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud this year by running a tailored Adword campaign.

• Adwords should be compelling

• Ranking of Adwords is awarded for Relavance, Click Through Rate and the the Landing Page Quality.

My personal take – Adwords simply burns a hole in one’s pocket but there you go. Google says it’s all about market forces and how much it’s worth to you.

Display Ads – if you didn’t know, Google own Youtube

Youtube has a seriously huge audience (Google claims it’s the second largest search engine – a reflection of the society we live in today, I guess) and a company would do well to invest in producing and hosting entertaining videos. Google encourages E-commerce entrepreneurs to develop a Brand Channel.

According to Google internet use via mobile will overtake pcs by 2013.

SEO Guys – DotAgency

dotCompany http://www.bright-work.co.uk

I spoke with these guys extensively. The cool dude on the right is my friend Anthony. He uses DotAgency the for his emailing campaigns (Investment Banking Sector) and finds them cost effective at about 100 pounds a month for 25,000 managed emails. They are also doing SEO work. Speaking with them on Monday.

Rest of the Conference.

There were some interesting people doing very interesting stuff.

French companies had a strong presence.  These two lovely girls offered said they could get us bulk purchase of digital signatures at a very competitive price.

GlobalSign:

I spoke with Steve Bolton who said they can offer use competitively priced digital signatures for two web hosting servers.

i-kos

Richard Jones on the left from i-kos . He is very passionate about developing e-commerce systems for companies on the Drupal platform.

There was only one company that I saw selling middle ware solutions. This was Martin Gordon-Kerr at Orion Consulting. The said they can implement a full document management solution for companies. Have Hitachi and Oki Printers on their books.

Ran into an old colleague, James McCormick – with whom I used to work with at Pitney Bowes MapInfo. He is now at Gomez. These guys do web performance stuff and more which I will look into when I get a chance.

Lunch was a garlic bread, Hot American Pizza and coke. Take away style. I also managed to squeeze in a back massage which was nice A very worthwhile expo all in all.

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