Christian Dunn

It's time for a new look at Water Test.

WaterTest was built to analyse and record results for water testing at The Pool Clinic. As all of my programs are it was built for a purpose.
As we found it so usable and flexible for reporting on results from multiple pools and it's basic analysis provided a simple summary to assist the technician, I decided to share it online.
This led to multiple versions to improve the interface and resolve bugs users found to become the program available today.
Built in Visual Basic, WaterTest currently uses Microsoft Access Databases.
If you want to give it a try see the Software section.

In 2012 I am taking a fresh approach to water testing with TestWater.

The problem with all water test applications is they fail in a range of cases due to technical imprecision or qualification problems.

The biggest fault with testing is user error. Fingerprints on test tubes, incorrect doses of liquids, we can't help with that. 
The next is qualification and this is where TestWater begins. We have our results, but what questions do you ask the customer to ensure you offer the best advice?
Is it hot this week? do they have a salt chlorinator? is the pool green? Each of these questions actually has an impact on the recommendations for treating a swimming pool.
Did all of these questions get asked at the time?

The aim of TestWater is to take your water test results and apply the appropriate criteria and qualifications to give you the same quality of recommendation you would get in a pool shop.
Designed by someone who started working in the industry in 1996 and has performed thousands of tests.
Don't like the qualification rules? change them. Customise the program for your region, or your recommendations.

This has passed concept phase and is only just moving to early development so I can't promise all this in version 1 or 2012 but here is the vision.
The next generation application is .NET based and requires no installation so it can even run off a usb key for field staff using Windows 7 or 8.
It calculates the Langelier Saturation Index using complex mathematical analysis rather than league tables to improve accuracy and displays the results visually.
It will have the capability to perform Qualitative NOT JUST Quantitative analysis of information based on rules that apply to selected options.
It will have the capability to create, import or export these rules. Rules can be loaded from the internet and shared with others.
A future capability will allow both the options and the rules based on those options to be configured by users.
Data will be saved, shared and stored using XML.
WaterTest will be designed for individuals, organisations and pool shops with various capability for each purpose.
Basic testing will be available free.
Some new features, rules or options may be licenced or available for purchase and download online.

To show how things are progressing here is a sneak peak of part of the new test screen.
The final version may appear very different to this.

Yes, that does show LSI to 2 decimal places but the new mathematical algorithm calculates each variable with full accuracy producing an accurate LSI at 12 decimal places.
This really is not practical however as we are only looking at 0.3 to -0.3 so any value outside of that is a problem, but I can see the improvement when rounding is taken into account between the old and new versions.

So how do you find out more?

Watch this site for more information. To get first go at new applications sign up to become a member and get access to The Lab for all my pre-release or experimental software.
All dates are currently to be advised, but the software will be available to members first once it passes first stage development.

It's time for a new look at water testing.

TestWater is a brand new application built to analyse test results based on rules to provide detailed recommendations and a customised report.

My previous testing application, WaterTest, has been very successful but it's limitation was that it was developed with rules set by me. While suitable these were not flexible for other regions or climates and while it did calculate LSI it did not calculate it more accurately than 1 decimal place. There are also more factors your pool technician takes into account when testing your water than just the water results. These attributes such as the look of the water can have a large impact on the recommendations provided.

The problem with all water test applications is they fail in a range of cases due to technical imprecision or qualification problems.

The biggest fault with testing is qualification and this is where TestWater begins. We have our results, but what questions do you ask the customer to ensure you offer the best advice?
Is it hot this week? do they have a salt chlorinator? is the pool green? Each of these questions actually has an impact on the recommendations for treating a swimming pool. What are the recommendations for the water in your area? Does the tap water affect pH or TDS?

The aim of TestWater is to take your water test results and apply the appropriate criteria and qualifications to give you the same quality of recommendation you would get in a pool shop.

Due to the flexibility of rules we believe this program should be able to be applied to testing any water source as long as suitable rules are created. If you have suggestions or recommendations for changes to testwater to provide more testing flexibility let us know.

**Rules
All users can build up to 20 rules, download free rules or purchase rules for testing.
Pool Technicians, Pool Shops, Chemists, Water Specialists can create rules for sharing or selling.

**Specifications

The next generation application is .NET based and provides one click installation and automatic updates.
It calculates the Langelier Saturation Index using complex mathematical analysis rather than league tables to improve accuracy and displays the results visually.
It will perform Qualitative and Quantitative analysis of information based on rules that apply to selected options.
It has the capability to create, import or export these rules. Licencing controls the ability to modify rules. Rules files are in XML but content is encrypted for security.
Data is saved, shared and stored using XML.

TestWater has now been released.

Development continues. New features coming including test database.

Try it out at www.testwater.com.au

By now you have probably heard about the major Telstra Bigpond outage that occurred this weekend.

On Friday a user searching for contact details for Bigpond stumbled across a (what should have been internal) website providing access to the details of all customers on bundled packages (i.e. phone/internet), including some account passwords.

After notifying Telstra access to the site was immediately shut down.

From Friday until Sunday up to 1 million customers have been unable to access Bigpond account details or emails and over 60000 users have had their account passwords reset.

Welcome to what I like to call "Cloud and present danger". These days as more companies move applications online or into the cloud, it is important to consider the ramifications that those decisions may have. Previously we would have used virtual private networks or dedicated internal networks to access critical customer portals and information. As cloud hosted applications have become the norm I have seen a shift in the industry to using secure web portals rather than VPN or private networks to provide information to other sites.

Why? It is easier to implement, it works from anywhere and it can be faster to activate new stores and provide access to staff or customers. Unfortunately it also means if there is any breakdown in security including lost passwords or failure of secure logins, or an inadvertant change in settings by an administrator this means there is no second level of protection so instantly all of your companies critical data is visible online. In this case it could have been as simple as a system administrator disabling password security to test a feature which has caused this massive breach.

I am constantly suprised companies haven't considered this, especially in the light of some major privacy breaches in the last year. Protecting your data behind a VPN or private network ensures that even if there is a fault that enables all your information to be visible or insecure, then that information is only insecure within your corporate network, not to the outside world.

This does not necessarily apply to all applications and services but there are definitely some critical considerations when you are dealing with the personal information of your customers that all too frequently seem to be disregarded. As we move more of our personal information online, including health, the benefits and risks are only going to make this a more pertinent issue.

If you are one of the affected Telstra customers your services should be restored this evening, but expect some changes in light of this latest breach.

If you are a company owner considering moving your business critical applications into the cloud, think security. Your customers will thank you later.

A lot has been happening behind the scenes in my latest round of software updates at the new www.chrisdunn.name.

Becoming a member is free and only members get access to the software in the labs.

Recently Released to the labs

WyMI - A WMI computer auditing tool to allow you to retrieve information such as motherboard type, bios type, printers and print jobs. This includes the functionality in Network Monitor and Drive Monitor and supercedes them.

Recently Released from the labs

Network Monitor - A WMI monitor for network adaptors providing detailed information including IPs, adapters, gateways and MTU.

Drive Monitor - A WMI monitor for logical drives providing status and free space information.

Recently Updated

Print Queue Manager - Updated to resolve a logging issue for users of the free version.

New In the Shop

10-100 seat volume licences for Lookup and Print Queue Manager PRO at new lower prices.

If you haven't been following the news iiNet and AFACT are back in court again over the rights of the recording studios to report to an internet provider that a user is sharing illegal content and enforce action to be taken against the user.

ZDNet has been giving a great day by day rundown of the latest court action:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/high-court-day-1-iinets-control-over-choice-339327119.htm
If a user shares illegal media with a torrent application on their home internet connection and this is detected by the copyright protection groups such as AFACT and they report this should you be punished? Can your internet activity be filtered? This is where it all began. Does iiNet have the ability to control your actions with Torrent applications and sharing illegal media? Whose responsibility is it anyway? Should they be responsible for passing on to you threats or fines for sharing illegal media, even by accident? How could they prove it was you? Is iiNet responsible for providing you internet access or are they responsible for what you do with that internet access?

http://www.zdnet.com.au/high-court-day-2-iinet-says-afact-lawsuit-inevitable-339327224.htm
"No matter what kind of warning notice scheme iiNet put in place to stop users breaching copyright, if it didn't include an account termination threat, it wouldn't have been enough to prevent the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) from launching legal action" That pretty much sums up iiNet's case. At first they were told they should have sent a warning letter, so they agreed with that option, then AFACT wanted a notice of termination if illegal media not removed in days, then the ability to throttle connections or terminate your connection. Really? If iiNet had to do that, wouldn't you just use Telstra or TPG? So iiNet would end up losing customers.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/high-court-day-3-afacts-final-pitch-339327285.htm
While iiNet responded that it would cost them to police these actions, AFACT believes it is in iiNet's interest to stop user from using programs like BitTorrent because they are heavy bandwidth hogs and would save iiNet money. While iiNet believe they have no control over what you do on the internet, with programs like BitTorrent, AFACT believe that once you have been detected sharing copyrighted material and iiNet is notified that any further breaches are the responsibility of iiNet so they will have to take actions to stop you sharing.  Judgement in the case is expected in early 2012.

In the ongoing battle between Apple and Samsung there have been a number of big turns of event.

Samsung is now moving up the ladder as one of the largest mobile device suppliers in the industry.

This survey from the US indicates that in the smartphone hardware market Samsung now have 25% of the market. No surprise that Android is now on 45% of smartphones too.  Read more: http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/02/android-steals-blackberry-share-samsung-top-vendor-in-new-comscore-report/

Samsung released this great youtube ad at the time of the iPhone 4S launch which makes me laugh, especially as I have an iPhone and a Galaxy S II.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab may be available in Australian Stores shortly after Apple lost it's bid to keep an injunction on Samsung selling it's Apple competitor. Apple are planning to appeal to the High Court although they may not have much luck, and Samsung are planning to have the Galaxy in stores as soon as stock is available. Read more here: http://www.thegalaxytab.com/2011/12/01/australians-eager-to-buy-new-galaxy-tablets/

Siri-ously?

Siri for the iphone 4S looks handy and useful just like Voice Control, Vlingo and Pocket Blonde on my Android Galaxy S II but will you use it?
Personally I feel like a bit of a dick talking to my phone. I suppose I could work more in the car while driving but it does prompt you to check it's actions, a smart move so you don't accidentally send your boss a 2am drunk message, but a limiting factor as you have to take your eyes off the road. Your thoughts?

BlueStacks is an Android App Player for Windows.

Ever wanted to play Angry Birds on your laptop?

This is only still in the early stages so features are limited but I can see great potential for this app in the future.

www.bluestacks.com

I have just returned from travelling overseas (I landed four hours ago after a 17 hour trip on 3 trains and a plane.. and feeling it) but I wanted to share one application I found invaluable and some tips, from experience.

In this modern age we can get used to the services we have at our fingertips in our community but this can be a lot harder to figure out when travelling.

Heading to Japan I assumed internet would be fairly easy to come by. Interestingly many hotels do not have wireless still. Mobile roaming data is over $20/mb for Australians. Your best bet if you need to use your devices and have truly mobile internet is to walk into a phone store and rent a 3G or 4G dongle (most even have built in wifi) or sign up for an account (this is important).

When you do see free wi-fi, check it really is. Wireless was free on trains and in coffee shops etc but once you connected to the wireless you then needed to login to your provider, otherwise no access. Unlike here where free wireless means internet access. Without an account, and in some cases without a translator, this proved a little difficult.

There is of course always the internet cafe option. Very cheap, cheerful, usually found within a few blocks, often not very nice, unless you are at the airport.

My wife and I had this discussion packing for the trip. We have between us an iPhone, an Android phone, an iPad, a netbook, a kindle and a small android tablet. What do we really need?

The phones were in, as was the kindle (it has it's own 3G which is another story), but do we take the iPad or the netbook? The other android is kindle sized, so we decided it was out immediately. So why do we want it? Well we like to get into the action and explore new cities, so it is always great to book rail tickets, buy tickets for shows, get a map of the area and look up places to see the night before heading out into a new city. This can be painful on a phone. Without wireless I argued we should take the netbook as we can't plug anything else in and use it in the hotel room and we always had free (properly free) LAN internet. If we only had the iPad we could be in trouble.

This turned out to be correct but we don't really like using the netbook as much and unless we needed to book something big we do prefer to use our phones. So what I wanted was a way to make a wireless hotspot in our hotel room taking advantage of the free internet.  I didn't want to fork out for a rental dongle or a plan and all we needed was access at night.

First thing I thought was can I setup an adhoc network. Fired up the netbook, opened the browser, hit OK to connect and then set it up using the Wizard in Windows 7. Only the iPhone worked. Tried Wi-Fi Direct on the Android phone but the laptop was not compatible.

That's when Connectify came in (see my review here). Connectify is an application for Windows that creates a proper wireless hotspot from your laptop (not an ad-hoc one) and it just works. In each hotel I simply plugged my laptop in, resumed it from standby the night before, saw connectify start, opened the browser and walked away. I could leave it there my whole stay and every time we walked into our room we had wireless internet on all of our devices. I can't praise this more highly.

Lastly, the Kindle.  The Kindle Keyboard may look old fashioned but GET IT WITH 3G if you travel!! With this model 3G is free if you purchase the device with it built in and hidden in the experimental settings is a browser. While my wife loves to use it to read books at night, I should caveat, it is hers... I found it invaluable on our trip as I could steal it on long train rides to catch up on the news websites, we could do a quick search for maps, travel timetables or location suggestions as we travelled all for FREE on 3G.  Yes it is painfully slow at times and the browser doesn't work with lots of stuff but on a 2 hour train trip, I could afford to wait. I am packing it next time.

Happy travels.

Connectify is the ultimate mobile wireless hotspot maker.

Create and share a wireless network from your computer in seconds.

Easy to use and it works for all types of devices.

Many devices do not support ad hoc networking. Although the feature is available in Windows 7 it also requires a compatible device. New standards such as wi-fi direct are appearing but it is unlikely your current phone, tablet, laptop, desktop ... will support it yet.

Connectify provides an easy to use wireless hotspot right from your computer, no router required.

So here's how it works..

You need a computer running XP or Vista or Windows 7 which is connected to the internet and has a spare wireless card. If your current computer connects to the internet using wireless then you will need two wireless adaptors in the computer for this to work. Ideally you should have this computer plugged in to your internet connection by a cable. Start it up, name the wireless hotspot and specify a password. Pull out your devices and connect to the wireless network.

If your current internet router doesn't support wireless, why spend money buying a new router when you can plug in a computer with a spare wireless card and instantly provide wireless access for your house. Save money using your mobile devices on wireless and get faster downloads.

http://www.connectify.me/

 FlyScreen is a mobile app that gives you instant access to your favourite websites and services on your phone.

FlyScreen comes with a full list of built in integrations with social networking, SMS, weather, news feeds and more out of the box. As you can also include other widgets or XML feeds the configuration options are endless.

The best part of FlyScreen for me is the new feature for Android to show your updates on the lock screen of your phone providing instant access to important notifications and the ability to skim facebook or read an SMS without unlocking your phone. This provides even more information than the iPhone 4S does.

This is an application with great potential if it doesn't get swallowed up by Microsoft, Apple or Google.

http://www.myflyscreen.com/

You can also find FlyScreen in the Apple App Store or Android Market.