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Software Updates May 2014
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Monday, 05 May 2014 00:04
- Written by Christian Dunn
TestConnect - Networking utility for diagnosis of connection or performance issues with internet connections or websites has now been released.
TestWater - Version 2 development has now completed. Testing, website update and sample rule creation is now under way. Coming Soon.
The Utilities category in the software section has now been split into two new categories; System Utilities and Network Utilities.
Stalker Monitoring Feature Update
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- Category: Software News
- Published on Sunday, 16 March 2014 22:45
- Written by Christian Dunn
Monitoring is a constant process of learning and change.
Stalker Monitoring applications were built with the specific purpose of providing an easy to use monitoring application for servers targeting specific functionality. The user interface and design, largely unchanged, still suits this purpose providing an easy to use monitoring application requiring no experience in scripting.
As I begun scaling up the number of machines being monitored I discovered a number of limitations and recently I have introduced so many new features and new versions I decided to produce a new minor version release for all applications.
The latest changes focus on two key areas; flexibility and performance.
Stalker Monitoring applications are now faster and more efficient than ever and provide a wide range of command line and configuration options for system administrators looking to build custom monitoring solutions or integrate them into existing solutions.
Check out the latest versions today and read the online user guides for further information.
Service Stalker 1.5.2
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Sunday, 09 March 2014 02:49
- Written by Christian Dunn
Service Stalker has been updated to version 1.5.2.0.
This new version includes a hidden feature allowing an administrator to configure the application to monitor services on a remote machine. To retrieve services the application must run with highest privileges and have administrative rights on the target machines.
The online user guide contains additional information on how to use this feature.
Drive Stalker 1.2.2
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Sunday, 09 March 2014 02:46
- Written by Christian Dunn
Drive Stalker has been updated to version 1.2.2.0.
This new version includes a hidden feature allowing an administrator to configure the application to monitor drives on a remote machine. To retrieve drives the application must run with highest privileges and have administrative rights on the target machines.
The online user guide contains additional information on how to use this feature.
Process Stalker 1.3.4
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Friday, 07 March 2014 22:42
- Written by Christian Dunn
Process Stalker has been updated to version 1.3.4.0.
This new version includes a hidden feature allowing an administrator to configure the application to monitor processes on a remote machine. To retrieve processes the application must run with highest privileges and have administrative rights on the target machines.
The online user guide contains additional information on how to use this feature.
Danger, Will Robinson!
- Details
- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 27 January 2014 21:23
- Written by Christian Dunn
Admittedly I am too young to have been around for the original Lost in Space series which aired in the 1960s and the cult classic Space Odyssey 2001 which launched in 1968 when Hal uttered that most infamous line, "I'm sorry I can't do that Dave". Little did they know it would be more than 40 years before our IT began actually talking to us, yes I am referring to you Siri and your step-brother Google Now.
Stalker Monitoring Updates
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Sunday, 29 December 2013 22:13
- Written by Christian Dunn
Drive Stalker 1.2.1, Print Stalker 1.5.2 and Service Stalker 1.5.1 have now been released. This release brings them up to date with the features from the latest Process Stalker. The latest updates include the ability to include the computer name in a custom email subject and to generate an alert file which can be used for integration with other monitoring tools.
See IT through a child's eyes
- Details
- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 09 December 2013 00:44
- Written by Christian Dunn
I believe Newtonian mechanics is better understood by children than adults. Classical mechanics, based on the work of Isaac Newton is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces. Watching my 15 month old son play with a new toy he first starts by trying to understand how it responds. If he pushes it does it move? If he hits is does it make a noise? If he drops it, does it bounce? As he is now getting to the walking stage he has discovered things that he can walk with whether it be a walker, a push trolley or a tricycle. Once he can stand up and hold on to it, he pushes it in the hope it moves. If it doesn't (usually due to a wall) he pushes it a few more times often getting frustrated at it's failure to respond. Knowing that his parents can turn him around again, he often pauses to gain our attention for assistance, knowing that he can't resolve the situation himself. After repeated attempts, or unless he is turned around, he will give up and move on to the next object of his affection.
It is usually our lack of naivety that makes us think problems are harder than they are or impossible to fix. I know that if I hear the words "exchange is down" I will always pause for a breath before diving in as email problems can be complicated and time consuming to resolve. This assumption is based on experience but may not always be correct. It is amazing how many times re-mounting an exchange store or rebooting a server can resolve the problem. That 1 time out of 100 that you experience a damaged mail store that takes days to resolve is more permanently etched into my memory. The iconic British Channel 4 TV series, The IT Crowd, said it best with "Have you tried turning it off and on". While a traditional IT stereotype, like most stereotypes it is true in many cases.
TestWater 1.92 Release
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Tuesday, 03 December 2013 00:51
- Written by Christian Dunn
TestWater has been further updated!
The latest version of TestWater is now available and with the following improvements:
- Update database and improved functionality for creating customers and saving tests
- Update to allow 50 rules for all unlicenced users
- Enhanced Rules Editor with resizable HTML editor and advanced menu options
- Updated default rules
Development continues.
TestWater 1.90 Release
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Monday, 02 December 2013 00:59
- Written by Christian Dunn
TestWater now includes a database!
The latest version of TestWater is now available and includes a testing database to capture your customers and their tests (or just your own tests).
Also included in this release is a new set of default rules. These are for basic testing purposes only and a full set of rules will be available soon.
Development continues.
If you can make a coffee you can fix a server
- Details
- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 25 November 2013 00:32
- Written by Christian Dunn
In any IT department the only piece of equipment more valuable than the server infrastructure is the office coffee machine. When the servers fail engineers rush around in a panic, trying to find the guy who "knows what to do" and providing a general "we are looking into it" response to staff desperate to send that important email or complete that presentation for today's big meeting. This continues until someone can finally resolve the problem. Yet when the coffee machine fails, the department does not descend into the caffeine deprived anarchy we would expect instead it either gets promptly fixed or the staff resort to that archaic alternative, the kettle.
Considering that in this post Beyond-2000 society the coffee machine probably has more choice than the barista across the street, more computing power than a server in the early 1990s and more technology than your mobile phone in the year 2000 why is there such a difference in the approach and reaction to an problem?
Process Stalker 1.3.1.0
- Details
- Category: Software News
- Published on Sunday, 24 November 2013 14:50
- Written by Christian Dunn
ProcessStalker has been updated to 1.3.1.0.
This update provides the ability to insert a dynamic variable for the computer name into the email subject. Simply add "<computer>" into the email subject where you would like the computer name to appear and this will be updated when the email is sent.
In addition to this a new hidden feature has been added for integration with third party monitoring systems. Instead of sending emails, adding to a log file or sending a windows message using the hidden variable, AlertToFile, you can now specify the name and location of an html file that will be generated when an alert is triggered and removed afterwards. This file can then be picked up and inserted into ASP pages or into other monitoring systems for display.
Dimensions
- Details
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 23 November 2013 23:15
- Written by Christian Dunn
In this age of mobile devices every website must be able to cater for a wide range of formats from a small screen iPhone 4 to a premium Android phone to an iPad and laptop.
If you have been following my recent articles on building responsive websites or you currently are working to make your website more mobile then Dimensions is the tool for you. Dimensions works either in your web browser or as an extension in Google Chrome and allows you to test how your website looks at a variety of scales to suit different size devices and can even show how your website would look on those devices.
LucidChart for Chrome
- Details
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 23 November 2013 22:57
- Written by Christian Dunn
Visio users, the future is here. If you are like me and constantly need to generate functional charts, flow charts, mind maps or presentation images then you are probably a very familiar user of Visio.
Lucidchart is a new Chrome extension that provides all the same functionality online and offline. This fantastic tool has a very wide range of graphing options and pricing packages starting with free.
Aview ABC iView client for Android
- Details
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 12 November 2013 17:00
- Written by Christian Dunn
Aview is an unofficial Android client for ABC iView.
There has been much discussion and debate online about the ABC not producing an Android client for iView. While this is unofficial and likely to break when any updates occur this client is fantastic and is highly recommended.
This application works really well in my testing on all devices from phone to 7" and 10" tablets running Android 4.0 and up. This is one of the best unofficial apps I have tested.
Get Aview here | View iView here