A fix for Synctoy 'failed to create the provider' error message

If you use Synctoy, and you install Samsung Kies Software, you may be in the same boat as me.

I started getting the message 'failed to Create the provider' while trying to sync my folders.

This is the fix, courtesy of 'Lior Messer' on Microsoft Forums:

Do a "Repair" for "Microsoft SQL Server Compact" and "Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0" ...

Original forum post here:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/synctoy/thread/2af85e52-1f02-4b3c-a4aa-57545b874782

However, all I had to do was uninstall Synctoy and anything that mentioned "Microsoft Sync Framework" and reinstall, as I didn't have the Synctoy V2.0 media, just a new installer for 2.1.

and all is working fine for me again now....

WebOS 2.0 from a developer's point of view

Since HP bought Palm, I've been looking into webOS, and I have to say it's impressive. Not least from the perspective of a web developer like me.

This is because the SDK is powered by web technologies - HTML, CSS and Javascript

Here's a quick rundown:

http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1603&Itemid=27

but also you can include C or C++ libraries (plugins) with the use of the PDK so using OpenGL the creation of 3d apps and games should be a snap for any decent developer (still a bit over my head though)

So with webOS 2.0 that's coming soon, web developers will be able to write services that run on webOS devices using the node.js runtime environment.

Here are some more details on webOS 2.0:

http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2109

If I had spare cash (which I don't - who does these days?) I would get me a palm device and get programming..... but then I'm still waiting for my Android device as well !!

P.S. The webOS emulator uses virtualbox so should theoretically be a lot faster than the Android Emulator which I found extremely unusable. But I haven't tried the webOS emulator yet so it's just speculation.

accessing WMI with Python

http://timgolden.me.uk/python/wmi/index.html

Here's a 'Cookbook' of examples

http://timgolden.me.uk/python/wmi/cookbook.html

our VPS is down because of wait for it..... bad luck...

"On Monday night, we had a DDoS against our London 3 site causing widespread outaging into the early hours.

As a result, the datacentre powered down a number of servers to try to alleviate the scale of the attack. But it continued into Tuesday until their network operations staff built suitable filters to clamp the incoming traffic.

Two out of nine of our UK servers are still offline with corrupted filesystems and our engineers are trying to recover as much data as possible. Unfortunately the datacentre pulled the power to the servers rather than the expected method which is to disconnect the ethernet connection.

We will continue to recover what we can from those two servers and make it availble to you. However in the interim, I recommend that we get fresh VPS's setup for you so you can restore from your most recent backup.

- Steve"

UNFORTUNATELY I BELIEVE THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I'VE HEARD ALL YEAR !!!

A great article about 'Fake Difficulty' in Games

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty

Make a bootable USB installer for Windows XP, Vista, 7 with WinToFlash

http://bigbrains.com/2010/03/make-a-bootable-usb-installer-for-windows-xp-vista-7-with-wintoflash/

How to remember your dreams, and how to have more vivid dreams

I've noticed something lately about my sleeping patterns and vivid dreaming. Now whether it's because they are actually more vivid or if it's just because I remember them more strongly I'm not sure, but it does seem to work for me.

If you find you don't remember your dreams, give this a try (it might work) - but remember that interrupting your sleeping patterns a lot can be dangerous for your health long-term:

I discovered this completely by accident, but seems to work:

Ok, let's say you're due to wake at 8am (like me) and you have to do something before 7, let's say you need to drive somewhere or let the dog out or whatever, if you're awake and up (even if sleepy) for more than 5 or 10 minutes (or maybe more) and you get some light stimulus (I once watched a half hour episode of some comedy show), if you go to sleep for about an hour after that you may, like me, have very vivid dreams during the hour, that you can remember strongly. If this is not the case for you then I'm sorry but this just seems to work for me.

I would imagine if you try to do this every day it won't work (your body will adapt), but it happens by accident when you randomly change your morning routine like I do once a month or so.

I think that basically if you're woken up mid-dream or if you change your patterns a bit then you remember the dream better, but if it's during the night it definitely fades. Whereas I dreamed something a few days ago using the method above and can still remember 90% of the dream.

I hope this has been some use to you dreamers out there... Let's just hope you don't just have a strong nightmare...