Please see Scott’s post at http://www.vsellis.com/scott-recommends/make-a-donation-to-your-favorite-wordpress-plugin-developer-on-march-1st/ for the genius himself to let you know how to get involved.

What a brilliant idea. I for one had practically forgotten that I could and should donate if I’m using someone else’s efforts to ease my own blog needs. I heard some developers count themselves a success if they get to 1,000,000 downloads and have been paid 300 bucks! That’s hardly a fair rate of exchange for all that work!! They do this becuase they want to give to their particular blog’s community, maybe its time we gave back.

March 1st, put it in your diary!

The script simply outputs to the command window the syntax for a restoration script. Running this script from the command line, you’ll be able to control where this output goes rather than just being stuck with wherever I guess you want it.

Simply paste the following code to a vbs file of your choice then run it using the following command:
cscript <scriptname>.vbs //nologo > <target-filename>.vbs

Its a bit of a fiddle but it does mean this script is fire and forget. You’ll never need to change it if you server changes its name etc.

'Script to automatically generate a printer recreation script.
'The output of this script should be piped out to a .vbs file
'using the //nologo switch

Dim strDefaultPrinter

Wscript.Echo "'Automatically generated script to restore printers"
Wscript.Echo "'This script should be executed to recreate network printers only"
Wscript.Echo ""
Wscript.Echo "Set objNetwork = CreateObject(""WScript.Network"")"

strComputer = "."
strDefaultPrinter = "NotSet"

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_Printer")

For Each objPrinter in colPrinters
  If objPrinter.Attributes And 64 Then
    Wscript.Echo "' ** Local printer included for information only: " & objPrinter.Name
  Else
    strPrinterType = "objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "
    Wscript.Echo strPrinterType & """" & objPrinter.Name & """"
    If objprinter.Default = True then
      StrDefaultPrinter = objPrinter.Name
    End If
  End If
Next

If StrDefaultPrinter <> "NotSet" then
  Wscript.Echo ""
  Wscript.Echo "objNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter " & """" & StrDefaultPrinter & """"
End If

Well, that’s a bit of a mouthful. Let’s break this script down so we know what’s going on.

The first portion of the script (I’m ignoring the preamble comment lines) is all about setting up variable and strDefaultPrinter which will be used later to set a default printer if its needed. We also make sure the script’s pointing at the current PC.
Next, we call the GetObject function to climb into the guts of Windows and set ourselves up for asking it a question.
The next line simply asks for a list of all installed printers.

The rest of the script steps through the list (For Each…. Next) and runs a couple of “If” statements to work out if the printer’s local (add a comment line) or networked (add a line to recreate the printer) then finally if it is a network printer, is it the default one.

When we’ve finished the loop, we drop out to a final If statement, this simply checks if the default printer was set by one of the network printers triggering the change. If not, it does nothing, if there is a default printer set, it adds the line.

Well, that’s it for now. Please slap a comment on the post if there’s any part you’d like walking through. As usual, this script represents a collection from  a number of sources being skimmed for various lines of code.

Galleries
Whenever I save an image, why doesn’t the software ask where I want to put it?!? You can only create new galleries in iTunes, why? You end up with the Camera Roll being full and then you’ll never guess what? You can’t move photos at all, you’re stuck with them where the iPhone dumps them.

Copy/Paste
Nice but not consistent across apps. Windows had this in it’s first version pull your finger out Apple!!

Stylus Support
Where is it? You could lob loads of graphics and handwriting apps on the thing, make typing more accurate, loads of things!! Too afraid to look like an ipaq perchance?

I know I’m being terribly unfair to the iPhone, its a brilliant piece of kit and I really enjoy using it. I just feel that future versions would be improved if they could just take a look at the issues mentioned above. Oh and good luck with the iPad Apple!

That’s it, I’m done for now!

I was prepared for the novelty of owning a smartphone, I just hadn’t thought I’d be using it for anything other than wasting time. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been fiddling with the thing practically constantly when I have a bit of spare time, it was using it as a completely integrated device that took by surprise.

I’ve been using it to tap out quick emails at work (work based emails I might add), planning and confirming train times and blogging (I’m typing this on the iPhone while riding the train in fact!).
These were functions of the device that I’d been aware of but never really thought I’d be using quite as much. This thing’s going to have paid for itself through saved time and usefulness in no time at all.

My only reservation would be battery life, it’s not bad but it could definitely be improved. We’ll see how that plays out I guess.

Now if I could just stop people pulling my leg about selling out and getting an iPhone…

I’m off to play with this thing a bit more.

Just a couple of things (there always are with me):

Vodafone’s stores opening early
Well, yes. They’re opening early for a Vodafone shop but that’s hardly early for anyone else. 08:30 in the morning you say?!? My goodness! Are they in another time zone?

What kind of rush are they expecting?
The 3Gs has been available on pretty much any network you like except Vodafone for a few months now, is there really going to be a mad rush to get your hands on one? I’ll let you know when I’ve got mine!

Is the hype about the phone really justified?
I know people are a little disappointed with the battery life but what’s an iPhone really like to live with? Again, I’ll give mine a try and let you know what I think.

Beyond those minor concerns and questions, I think I’m in danger of enjoying the iPhone. Maybe.

That’s right, I’m finally catching up with everyone who downloaded them all months ago! If you’d care to join me in enjoying the GREATEST SHOW EVER! then please do tune in at 21:00, E4 on Thursdays for series three. If you haven’t seen the other two, get the boxed sets/download them etc. They’re brilliant!

Um…. I guess that’s it. Gimme a break, I’m ill!

Windows 7 is now on it and apart from a log in time issue (very, very slight and feels faster than it was in Vista), I’m still ridiculously happy with the purchase I made. I think this little thing’s dropped in price since I bought it so its now in total bananas territory price wise. If you can spare a couple of hundred, get an R3600. That’s all I can say!

OK, so Windows 7 on a TV. Bit weird not having any proper surface to run my mouse over (I really miss that!) but that’s my setup here in the ivory tower. The features available are pretty good and the OS seems stable enough even on the Revo’s limited shoulders. I think its the upgrade it was touted to be absolutely. Although I never really had that much of an issue with Vista, Windows 7 looks great and seems slightly easier to use. Maybe I’m just dreaming it because its a new OS. Who knows.

On to another rather interesting development, EVE.
The game’s been around for ages now and I knew I’d end up playing it at some point but I had no idea how soon it was going to turn out. As an experiment, I went to www.eveonline.com and downloaded a copy of the game (2 or 3 HOURS!!). The plan was to throw it onto the net top and giggle at the juddering frame rates. I stand corrected. It runs perfectly on the Revo without a single freeze or problem at all. That extra graphics power obviously came in handy. I wouldn’t want to try running it on a net book.

Its a bit confusing but I’ve only been playing the game about an hour so far so you can expect a learning curve. I’ll need to talk to my buddies about how you play it properly, I can’t seem to fly the ship straight!!