Why blackberries suck

Michael Dale

So I've had the pleasure of looking after some Blackberries and I just don't understand why anyone would purchase one over say a Windows Mobile device or an iPhone.

So here is my list of why Blackberries suck:

• The user interface on the phone feels like a palm from the 90s. The screen on the newer phones is better, but the interface is still really nasty, I hate that crappy ball thing they use.
• It doesn't sync correctly/at all. Do a quick google search to see for yourself. They just don't work correctly. Half the time the contacts don't sync wirelessly, the email reconciliation doesn't work (you know, when you delete an email off the phone it should also delete from exchange) and they don't activate quickly.
• Blackberry Enterprise Server is shit. There are so many hooks it requires into Exchange that it just isn't funny. Do an update on Exchange and you'll be spending the rest of the day trying to fix the BES user permissions.
• With an ActiveSync device (WinMo, iPhone etc) you don't need any extra server software as long as you're running Outlook Web Access, unlike Blackberry that requires the BES server.
• Security. If you're using a Blackberry your data must flow through the RIM Server Relay Protocol (SRP) system. Where as Exchange can talk directly to the Phone via SSL. So there are less security issues and you don't need to worry if the SRP goes offline (which has happened before).
• BES puts a lot of extra load on the Exchange Information Store as it polls for incoming messages.

I can't really think of much else. But yeah I really don't like looking after Blackberries and have no problems recommending the iPhone over it for business users.

If you think the only way of getting push email on your phone is via a Blackberry you are very wrong.

Bluetrait Board Dev Update

Michael Dale

I've had a chance to work on Bluetrait Board today. I'm hoping to have the next version out in a few weeks.

Version 0.6 should include the following updates:

• All new interface (thanks to Matthew)
• Full login system
• Pie chart break down for money spent
• Full Installer (I hope)

Yah should be cool. The program has been really useful in tracking what we spend. Maybe I should setup a full hosted version that people can sign up and use...I do have some spare web hosting.

Cleaning the Spam

Michael Dale

Well I finally got around to removing all the spam off my old websites, and I've disabled all the commenting. Awesome.

I also had some old contact forms that I was getting spam from too. These now have links to my main contact form.

My contact form also got a bit of an update, it now has akismet support.

New Dev Box

Michael Dale

Got myself a new dev box today:

AMD Phenom x3 8450 (3x2.1GHz)
2gb Ram 6gb Ram

Currently running Windows 2008 (for some Hyper-V testing). Seems to run pretty quick, just needs more ram ;)

New Server

Michael Dale

We're just in the process of replacing our server. Specs:

• Windows 2008 64bit (with Hyper-V for Web and VoIP)
• Intel Q6600 (Quad 2.4GHz)
• 4gb Ram (soon to be upgraded to 8gb)
• 2x300gb Raid 1 Boot drive
• 4x750gb Raid 5 Data drive

So email is currently down but will be back up tonight.

Don't buy seagate hard drives.

Michael Dale

I've just had another seagate drive die on me.

This time it was a 320gb SATA2 one, so pretty new. One of the chips on it died and there was an awesome smell.

We've had so many seagate drives die now it is not funny (2 this week). I've personally had about 5 this year.

Anyway as I've said before do not buy seagate drives, they just don't work.

We've been using Samsung drives, they're cheaper and work better than seagate drives.

Last week we upgraded housefiles to 4x750gb HDDs in Raid 5.

Bluetrait Board

Michael Dale

Right I wrote a small PHP program that manages who has spent what for our house.

It can be download here and requires PHP 5.2 and MySQL 4.1.

3 Million Comments

Michael Dale

I've noticed that the web server has been running slowly today.

Anyway I think I've found the problem. One of my old blogs sites is currently being spammed. Currently there are 3.3 million comments in the database!

EDIT: Problem fixed:

mysql> delete from comments WHERE id > 556;
Query OK, 3305122 rows affected (2 min 21.45 sec)

EDIT2: The spam has been coming from caravan.ru a Russian ISP (who's logo is very similar to optus' old one...).

iphone

Michael Dale

I have an iphone on the way. Native Exchange with push email support is going to be awesome.

Replacing wireless card in macbook

Michael Dale

I'd been having some issues with the wireless in my macbook for the last month or so. It was only picking up really strong/close wireless access points. I first thought it was a software issue as there have been some issues with mac os and wireless of late. Anyway I tried Windows XP and was getting the same problem. So after a lot of playing around I opened up the macbook to make sure that the antennas were connected correctly; they were. So tonight I tried replacing the airport (wireless) card with another one. The original macbook uses an Atheros 5006X wireless chipset (Mini PCI-E). I used a standard PC Atheros AR5006EG (ar5bxb61 (em100)) card and it worked straight away. The mac thinks it is the same card that was in it before, except that the mac address has changed and that the wireless now works! So it looks like the airport card was dead, sort of. But I'm happy now my wireless works. This macbook hasn't been all that reliable. I've had a dead hard drive, replaced the top casing twice, had my battery die and had the wireless die. Saying that 1st gen apple products are known for their issues. I will keep using macs for laptops and PCs for desktops.