Case 2: Scaling & Multiple Monitor Support on VNC
Well after some interesting and less than satisfactory attempts to get VNC to work with all the bells and whistles is appears I am at a crossroads of choices. Having tried TightVNC, VNC (proper!) and UltrVNC it seems that none of these flavours have managed to unite on some sort of standard and operate together with the nice parts of each one. Yes, I know its open source and these things take time but from what I have managed to unearth it appears that some of these implementations have had functions (read: nice toys) for ages that other VNC incarnations have only just thought about. Take scaling for example. Using the viewer that comes with UltraVNC I am able to scale my 1600 x 1200 screen onto whatever size window I wish from any location but you try doing this with VNC and lets just say FAT CHANCE!

From what I can make of this it appears VNC has triumphed in one area .....multiple monitor support, having come of age in version 4 (still in Beta) this version at last has multiple monitor support so you can see both images side-by-side on the one viewer. OK its doesnt feel like it does when you are on your desk but it does the job.

Now this is where the problem starts. I want multiple monitors AND scaling so I can see both screens and have them scaled to a decent size to use on a 1024 x 768 at work. Answers on a postcard.......or failing that leave a comment.

- posted by Dyehouse @ 7:54 AM 0 comments

 
Case 1: iPass, iPaqs and Bluetooth hell
Bandied around the press for what seems like eons mobile internet is SLOWLY gaining ground since GPRS came along.  I don't know much about the US side of the pond but here its all still too expensive and its about time that someone started leading the pack by dropping prices and letting the customers include people who get paid less than a small countries GDP a month! 
 
Anyway these ramblings of a fool do have a point.  Here I am at work trying to get a Bluetooth iPaq bonded with a Sony Ericcson V700i (or something like that, I lost the ability store information when my brain turned to jelly after 5 minutes or being radiated by mobile devices!).
 
So I crank up the iPaq, a noble old model which was pioneering with its Bluetooth support (read: full of dodgy crashes).  After entering the code about 5 times wrong we were in and attempting to bond with the V700i.  Now this little beauty was bleeding edge and so the problems started.  The original Bluetooth manager (I am told after trawling Google with my umpteenth search) only supports a maximum of 6 or 7 profiles (read: Bluetooth services).  This V700i with its flashing lights and annoying short sleep time has a battery-sapping 13 services! Thats more services than the A1!  So needless to say the bonding of these devices was as successful as an chocolate fireguard.
 
It wasn't all bad however, as we did manage to find a T610 and a Nokia 6310i from people who had kindly left there Bluetooth on, can you say 'Toothing' to another employee without risk of being fired?  The best part was when we attempted to use said Nokia for dialling via the iPaq it tried on its own, no bonding and no codes required.....someone left a big hold in that Bluetooth implementation.
 
After ditching the Bluetooth for good old IR we tried again this time it send the correct signal and the v700i dialled away ony to throw up a '678 No Answer' error which as any RAS admin will tell you is like saying 'Its not working', so here is my first plea for help, anyone got any ideas or fixes for me then please leave a comment.



- posted by Dyehouse @ 3:55 PM 0 comments