Now that I’m finished off a project for work that I had to complete after hours, I finally have time to myself again. I setup VMWare Server in Windows XP and install Ubuntu 8.04. The only thing I love about Ubuntu is how easy everything is to install and setup. It is however sad that there is still a misconception that working in Linux is so tough.

Setting up Ruby & Rails step by step:

The following commands must all be typed into a terminal obviously.

Step 1: Install Ruby, libraries and support documents

sudo apt-get install ruby irb ri rdoc ruby1.8-dev libzlib-ruby libyaml-ruby libreadline-ruby libncurses-ruby libcurses-ruby libruby libruby-extras libfcgi-ruby1.8 build-essential libopenssl-ruby libdbm-ruby libdbi-ruby libdbd-sqlite3-ruby sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev libsqlite3-ruby libxml-ruby libxml2-dev

Step 2: Download Gems

Download gems from: Gems Download

Extract the contents of the file and navigate to it in the terimal. Then excute the following command:
sudo ruby setup.rb

Step 3: Install Rails

Once gems has installed, execute the following commands in the terminal:<br />

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem
sudo gem install rails
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby mongrel capistrano

Ruby IDE:

Right now I’m testing out various IDE’s and Text Editors to see which is the best. Once I have decided which I’ll be focusing on I’ll post a HowTo on how to install it.

Well well, I finally get around writing a blog post. My first in almost two months. A lot of things have been happening over the last while and I’m hoping to get back to research and blogging again. Here’s a run down of some of the things I’ve seen or worked on in the last while.

LiNQ to SQL and LiNQ to XML

Well this is officially my current favourite technology. I recently had to complete a project in a very short period of time and I can’t assure you that these technologies are awesome time savers. To give you an idea, using LiNQ to XML and LiNQ to SQL I could export the contents of an entire database to an XML in less than 4 seconds! We’re talking about almost 27,000 entries in the one table!

Twitter

Now although I’ve been using twitter for close on a year now, the last two months have been the most important for me. I have made so many contacts and learned so much via the people I follow on twitter.
Wedding Planning

Now this is a time consumer My fiance and I are getting married in less than 11 weeks from now so we’re busy with final preparations and final planning for the big day. Although I’m super excited, I’m sure anyone who has been through this can agree that all we want now is for it to be over! So much stress!

Plans for the near future

Besides finally getting back to some general research, I’ll be getting back into looking at Ruby on Rails and MySql. There are numerous other things I want to look into as well. Other than that I have also been approached to help get a local drama group restarted and we are going to be meeting so select a play soon to get stuck into. Been almost a year since my last play so I’m quite stoked about it.

I’m starting to feel like a true Nokia fan-boy here but I saw something very interesting today.

Nokia recently announced plans to make Microsoft Silverlight applications available to all S60 operated Nokias. That would would mean almost the entire Nokia N-Series if I’m not mistaken which would be a huge leap forward. I am not aware of any applications that let you view or use Macromedia Flash technology on a mobile. Nokia also announced support for Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets.

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering next-generation media experiences and rich interactive applications. Silverlight is already powering thousands of applications around the world and organizations including Entertainment Tonight, the NBA and NBC Universal to deliver superior Web-based experiences to their customers. The arrangement with Nokia will substantially extend the reach of Silverlight by making the platform available for hundreds of millions of devices.

Personally, as a .Net Developer, this is exceptionally exciting and I cannot wait for this to become a reality. I already have an idea in mind and will start working on it ASAP and then maybe I can return this blog back to a development focused blog I unfortunately have not yet been able to find more information as to when this will be available. Having recently moved into my own apartment I have not yet replaced my ADSL connection and having to rely on a GPRS connection isn’t that great.

Good news however, I am getting a new work laptop within the next two weeks and I will be organizing a HSDPA connection so I’ll be able to post more ASP.Net related posts soon. I must however admit that the progress from Nokia’s side has truely won me back so far. Now if I could only get my hands on the Nokia N78 for a test run!

Microsoft Silverlight - http://silverlight.net/
Nokia Internet Tablet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800
S60 - http://www.s60.com/
Series 40 - http://forum.nokia.com/series40

The more I find out about this little gem the more excited I get. The possibility of me being able to afford it is a different story but a boy can dream can’t he?

Now as you can see in my previous post, Virgin Mobile told me that they have the Nokia N78 in stock, however, a Nokia representative contacted me this morning and it seems the N78 will only be available here from October this year. I have a sneaking suspicion that Virgin Mobile were confusing the N78 and N73 although the call center were pretty confident when I called them to inquire about the N78. However I’m going to go with what Nokia and said and I only expect the N78 to available from mid October from the major service providers in the country.

Nokia were kind enough to send me more information and images of the N78 so that I could give them to you!

Key features include:

• Integrated A-GPS
• Audio playback time up to 24 hours
• Music player with integrated FM transmitter (88.1 –107.9 MHz)
• CMOS 3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536) autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash and up to 20x digital zoom. Automatic tagging with capture location. (GeoCoding)
• 2.4″ QVGA (240 x 320) display with 16 million colors
• Mobile broadband with WLAN and HSDPA
• Multimedia menu and NaviTMwheel for accessing content
• Take up to 1500* tracks with you on a pre-fitted 2GB memory card
• Access your images, music, podcasts and videos remotely via the web

Below are two attachments for you to have a look at:

The Official Press Release
Technical Data Sheet

I am still awaiting replies from MTN and Cell C but as I previously said, I’m going with what Nokia themselves are telling me. I’ll post more information if I get any.

I am thoroughly impressed with Virgin Mobile. Not only were they the fastest to reply to my query BUT they also have the N78 IN STOCK!

Yes Steven We do have the Nokia N78 retailing for less than R5400

Time to check out Virgin Mobile!

Sad news from Vodacom for now. I just received a reply on my query regarding the Nokia N78. Here’s the response:

Dear Steven

Thank you for your email communication to Vodacom.

Cellular networks do not always approve certain handset models due to the fact it does not perform as well on their respective networks. The approval of any new handset on the cellular network is determined by the test it undergoes. We cannot confirm the date when the testing will take place for the Nokia N78.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at customercare@vodacom.co.za.

Warm Regards

Kaashief Nassiep

Email Contact Centre

So sadly it looks like it might still be a while before we see it. Still awaiting responses from MTN, Cell C, Virgin Mobile and Nokia

So I was dreaming of a new cellphone since my Motorola K1 is getting old now. I had a quick look at GSMArena.

Nokia:
Now Nokia and I have up and down relationship but most of my phones have been Nokias. And the one thing I must admit is that Nokias are reliable. I never had a problem with, the only problem I had with the N70 is that I felt it was so slow, other than that I cannot complain at all. They are durable and reliable phones that deliver on what they promise. I sometimes feel sorry for them since they are basically the Microsoft of the cellphone world and as such suffer unfair criticism at times. I too have been guilty of that, but as said, it was mainly because of my N70.

Nokia N78
This little phone looks brilliant! It is typical on the N-Series Nokia in that it comes with a ton of features bundled into a decent size phone. Here’s some of the awesome features in it:

1. Stereo speakers
2. ARM 11 369 MHz processor
3. HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
4. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
5. Symbian OS, S60 rel. 3.2
6. WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
7. 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels Carl Zeiss optics
8. secondary CIF videocall camera
9. Built-in GPS receiver
10. A-GPS support
11. FM transmitter

Thats a great list of features as far as I’m concerned!

Unfortunately I cannot find an exact local release date yet but I have sent emails to Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Virgin Mobile as well ofcourse to Nokia themselves. As soon as I have any feedback I will post it.

So I finally have a second to work on some blog related stuff. There are a lot of things I need to fix. I have also just upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 and it looks very nice so far. First thing to go are ALL of the widgets while I try sort some design things out.

Many reasons why the blog has been so quiet recently.

I have recently moved into my own flat and I do not have ADSL or HSDPA yet so now prime blogging and research time is gone, that should change in a few weeks or so hopefully. Other than that, I have discovered that trying to plan a wedding is in fact hectic. A lot more hectic than I had ever imagined.

Work is finally starting to get challenging since I the software side of the department here is breaking away to form a new company. I am FINALLY going to be working in ASP.net again and the ideas being thrown around are absolutely awesome! To top everything off I am probably getting my laptop soon and I’m starting to look into various options. I will finally be able to work from home or the nearest Mugg and Bean

You can now follow the Pro 20 Cricket on Twitter!

Personally I’m gonna love this cause I can’t always watch the cricket but now the cricket is going to come direct to my GTalk client which means I won’t miss a thing! Well done to whoever had this idea, it is an inspired one and something many of us will use!

If you haven’t joined up with Twitter yet then now is the time! Follow the Pro20 here: http://twitter.com/Pro20

EDIT: Marc Forrest will be covering the cricket and posting the updates

EDIT: This is the brainchild of Mike Stopforth. Thanks Mike!