I need about 1 -2 hour for a basic server setup without any major security settings. For my new template I’m currently working on I needed 1-2 hours. Creating a WordPress theme will cost me about one hour. So why did I have to waste 6 hours of my life?

How it began

We just had some major problems in our World of Warcraft guild and after some discussion we renamed the guild, people left, people joined. Since we achieved everything in WotLK we prepare for Cataclysm and just slack around. So it was no big problem to manage everything.

Since we are basically a new guild we needed some basic stuff like a BBS and a Portal system to recruit new people. After some discussion – and by god I did everything I could but I lost – the guild lead decided that we will go with phpBB and EQDKP.

If you don’t know them let me give you a brief explanation.

phpBB

It is a open source bulletin board that is used by many people and sites since it is easy to setup and doesn’t require any special system. Most cheap hosting services will do the job.

Some of use remember phpBB as the biggest security hole you can rip in your server beside phpmyadmin.

EQDKP

EQDKP is a CMS and DKP system used by many guilds and clans in nearly every game. The funny thing is that it is not just sloppy coded it is even more insecure than phpBB. Just read the installation instructions and you’ll get an idea.

Why the…

Why do we use this combination? Short answer: because no one gives a damn shit when I try to explain the alternatives. I have to admit that they would require a bit more effort to get everything running.

Comparing Joomla to phpBB / EQDKP is a joke. Reading a documentation how to post articles vs. “post” – you get my point? So why do we use it?

Because there is a theme that fits our needs, looks great and will only take us minimal effort to change everything we don’t like.

If you want to take a look at the “great looking theme” check out the demo site and select Bad Cataclysm.

Testing everything

I installed everything on a local test machine powered by Debian Lenny and everything worked.

So I didn’t expect much trouble setting everything up on our vServer.

As always I went with my default installation featuring lighttpd, MySQL, PHP5.

I even created a emergency plan since I expect our server to be hacked at least once a month. You just won’t get it secure with those two “applications”.

Setup

Funny stuff. After installing everything I could not log in the new installation. I tried it 4 times, reinstalled the vServer, deleted everything, downloaded the software 2 times,… nothing worked.

After some time I was really pissed and installed a conventional LAMP.

And it worked.

It looks like EQDKP requires some rewrite magic that is active in Apache by default. If you use a DNS name you need Apache if you just use an IP you can use lighttpd. I don’t know why or how it works and I really don’t want to know.

Everything I am now interested in is a drink, something to eat, a great movie and someone who developed this shit to punch him as long and as hard as I can.

To do this you need a permission modification power of 100. This is reserved to your Server Query Administrator. Your normal administrator account doesn’t work. This account only got a modification power of 75.

There is a easy way and a ugly, nearly not documented way. Let’s stick to the easy one. Add your administrator account to Server Query Administrator group.

Open your Query Interface in your TeamSpeak3 client and use the following commands.

login serveradmin “password”
use sid=1
servergroupaddclient sgid=2 cldbid=2

Remember that a / for example in your “password” needs to be escaped. If your password is 123/abc you use 123\/abc.

sid is your virtual server ID.

cldbid is the ID of your administrator account.

After this is done just go in your Server Group, browse your Guest account and check b_virtualserver_client_list

Now you are set and everything should work.

Btw. the error message you get if you have to do this is

“Error Code: 2568 insufficient client permissions (failed on clientlist 8474/0x211A)”

If you want to know what permissions you have to set in addition to this one browse the FaQ. b_virtualserver_client_list is the only setting you need Server Query Administrator privileges.

After you have done this I suggest your remove your account from the Server Query Administrator group.

login serveradmin “password”
use sid=1
servergroupdelclient sgid=2 cldbid=2

Have fun with TSViewer. Now you can check if there are too much people that will annoy you before you join TS3.

I was looking forward to the announcement and keynote for one reason. To know if I’ll stay with T-Mobile or get a carrier that also sucks but costs less. If I’d be interested in the iPhone 4 I think I’d stay with T-Mobile just to get my hands on one first.

iPhone 4

I love new toys. Hell I am a geek, how couldn’t I love new, shiny stuff? The iPhone 4 focuses on video calls, multitasking and improved media support. Do you remember what I said what I don’t need on a phone? Right. Everything the iPhone 4 has.

It is okay for me. I see the advantages of the great display and I love the new design. But this isn’t enough for me to get one. My 3g works fine and with iOS4 I get all features I want.

I also understand why Apple put so much effort in video calls and better camera support. Because it is what nearly everyone wants. It was a wise decision and I believe they did a awesome job. iMovie for iPhone really has potential.

iOS4

PDF support! WIN!oneELEVEN!

The global Inbox also is pretty cool

What will I do?

As I said. I’ll get a new contract from another provider that also sucks but costs less. On 12 July I’ll be able to unlock my iPhone “the legal way”.

I want a 3g flat and I want unlimited talk time to all carriers. Currently I pay nearly 110€ a month for my contract. (a little company discount included)

With our company contract and o2 I’ll pay 30.50€ a month for the same features. Plus I can use tethering without an additional fee and – this is an important and – I get a free second SIM card I can use in my notebook or iPad the same time – yes I do not have to turn my iPhone off! – to surf the web.

I save 80€ / month. This makes 960€ / year. Buying an unlocked iPhone 4.x will be something around 1000€ -1200€. Talking about a 2 year contract I’ll save a lot of money if I see the need to upgrade to a current model. Maybe the 2011 iPhone will have something new I like or the next generation iPhone OS will just not work on my 3g. This is what I’d consider a reason to upgrade my iPhone.

So time to say good bye to T-Mobile. We didn’t have a great run and I’ll never miss you.

How we use and control computers changes. Look at the iPhone and iPad. Two great examples. You have nearly no storage, you have no real hardware interfaces except some buttons and a touch screen. And yet you can do everything with those devices.

No matter if we talk about spreadsheets, image editing or games. There is a web application that is capable of most stuff you need. And most of the applications – those that are developed by established companies – provide nearly all features your current desktop application has.

Why web applications became famous

That’s a easy questions to answer. At least for me. You get – most of the time – a free application that is a real alternative to your desktop application when we talk about features. Sometimes they even provide more options like PDF export – something Microsoft Office cannot do.

If you even start to pay for some additional services you get a lot of stuff you probably don’t need.

You don’t have to worry about updates, if the software works with you new operating system, how to install your new application and where you should store your files and how to create a reliable backup.

Operating systems are an important point. You can use your web application from every system with a current browser. While your friend works on a document using Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8 you can use your iPad and when at home your Linux box.

Applications always look the same, feel the same and have access to the same files without the trouble of synchronization.

Sounds like web applications are awesome, right? No.

Storing your files

Your files – most of the time – are stored on a server you cannot access. You don’t know what the company will do with your files or if they are encrypted or at least stored in a way that no everyone can access them.

Backup solutions are not really practical nor given in every application.

You have to trust the provider that he is able to handle your files. This also means that storing files concerning your clients or files with internal informations about your company should not be created using web applications.

Security

You don’t know how your files are stored. But a bigger problem is that you don’t know how secure your connection is. Even if you use https – only one person editing or downloading your file that doesn’t use a secure – let’s pretend https is secure – connection and your files maybe gone.

Security problems with web browsers? Never heard such a rubbish,..

Usability

Most web applications are designed by people that are great programmers. Sadly you get something like vim or emacs if you let those people make usability decisions.

“hey hitting [crtl]+[alt]+[x] [d] [f] [e] [b] [crtl]+[alt]+[b] to save a file is totally logical and practical.”

Just a random sidenote: Never ever let programmers make decisions about user interfaces. There is a reason why interface designers earn a lot of money.

One big advantage of most applications – and a reason why the iPhone became so successful – is that you have the same widgets, shortcuts and designs in every program. Yeah it is cool to build a custom UI. It totally makes your application stand out. But it sucks.

And that’s what most web application designers do. They open Photoshop, add a lot of Ajax and after they are done, they brighten colors. Tada: something that is supposed to be a user interface.

How to use web applications in your company

That’s a tricky question. If you already have a server you just setup a webserver and tell your development team or the company you hired to create your application that you want a web application because your employees should be able to work from home using their web browser.

Remote access will be easy. But this isn’t solving usability problems. Even if they create a great interface. Your people will always need a Internet connection to work. This is not always possible. I know that Gears exists. But I didn’t see one big project using it. And I don’t believe I’ll see many.

Using web applications on your own server should solve the security problem. Enough money should solve the usability problem. But after all that fixed: you could just have paid for a real desktop application written in QT, Java or whatever and saved some money.

Small companies

If your company only has one or two employees or if one or two people will work with a program and maybe even use the same workstation you’ll definitely save money if you get a desktop application, especially if you don’t even have a server.

Big companies

I don’t believe that there will be a big difference.

• Server: used for both types
• Administration: clients need administration. Applications are managed in a central place. No difference.
• Network: desktop applications win. You know, I can write a document without a Internet connection.
• TCO: about the same I’d say

There are no real advantages for big companies. At least none I see.

One man businesses and private users

Give it a try but be sure that you don’t post your client informations on your Facebook wall or the naked pictures if your girl friend on Tweetpic.

The smaller and less business orientated you are, the bigger is the chance that you’ll be happy with web applications.

Hybrids

In my opinion “hybrids” are superior. You have a web interface for some stuff and can accomplish basic or advanced tasks, depending on how important it is to be able to access data without your desktop application that will synchronize with your web service.

A great example is Google Reader. You get a web interface that works and you get desktop applications if you want a application that integrates in your working environment. If you are not on your system you can still use Google Reader.

Conclusion

I don’t see everything moving to web applications as some people do. They are fun and they are useful but they don’t work in every situation. If I’d have to guess I’d say that we’ll see much more hybrid applications the next few years.

What features do you get if you use MobileMe?

• online storage
• calendar push / synchronization
• mail push / synchronization
• contacts push / synchronization
• online picture gallery
• tracking your iPhone / remote wipe
• back to my Mac

That’s a good set of features. You get everything that is necessary to keep your iPhone and your home and office computers synchronized. Plus some other stuff that can be handy.

But since we live in 2010 you can get nearly everything and much more as a free service.

I talked to some friends and they asked for alternatives to MobileMe. They own a iPhone but it is not critical that they always have up to date, live synchronized data that works reliable with a 99% uptime. They just want it as “handy addon”.

Since we live in 2010 you get nearly enterprise grade services for free. Let’s take a look.

Free services today

Back in 2000 when Internet spread there were many free services that sucked. They were unreliable and didn’t work as expected. You could only use them as a student that didn’t depend on it.

I think I don’t have to tell you that most of the popular free services today are great. They are used by many people because they are stable, fast and get the job done.

Trust

Switching from MobileMe to other solutions is a big step. You have one account provided by one company you trust.

Replacing it means that you’ll have many accounts provided by many companies. But can you trust them not to sell your data? Can you enter a phone number of a client or a appointment with the address attached without fearing that the data will be spread across various marketing services?

We live in 2010. You can. If a company would start selling your private data they’d be dead in a matter of hours after it is published.

Look at Navigons move to remove the paid application and replace it with the free one. So much bad press.  Even if they didn’t deserve it, they are on the ground, bleeding and people kick them in the ridges hoping they’ll die. Of course they won’t but hey – who cares.

Take down a company that did something you don’t appreciate was never so easy. And for some people it is a holy crusade.

So let’s close this and say: You can trust companies like Google. You know, they tell you their slogan “don’t do something evil”. Do you really believe they would lie to you? Sorry, could not resist,… Let’s be honest. Every company can sell you. They won’t if they think for two cent.

Replacements

Looking for some replacements is easy and challenging. There are many alternatives and providers offering a service or a part of it for free. Picking the right one is the trick.

You have to consider some points and make sure you are okay with them.

• You will have to create multiple accounts
• You have more configuration to do
• You won’t get “remote wipe” and “locate my iPhone”

If you have no problem with those three points go for it. If you really think locate my iPhone will help you one day stay with MobileMe.

If contact informations on your iPhone are so sensitive that deleting them on your calendar and waiting two minutes for your iPhone to synchronize is not fast enough you should get your own OSX server and never ever write something in a ordinary calendar because there is also no remote wipe.

Calendar, Contacts and Mail

That’s pretty easy. Go for Google. You’ll get everything and can connect your iPhone using the exchange protocol. You won’t notice the difference. Just make sure you keep your calendars private and don’t publish them. This would truly suck.

Google provides tools to synchronize everything with Google Calendar. No matter if you use iCal, Outloook, iPhone or Android. You can synchronize it. You can even get a application written by them if you believe it will be better. Hint: don’t go for it. It is not necessary.

Trust

Google is a big company that knows nearly everything about you. But they showed that they are reliable. If you trust Apple you can also trust Google. The chance that they sell you are the same.

And remember: They sell you premium services for your company. You can go enterprise without anyone noticing that you use Google.

Mails

I think we all have an existing email account or two. You can either let Google collect them or you can go the geeky way.

Setup z-push to push all your mail accounts to your iPhone. Without any server and storage between. Your account, your server, your push solution. It looks funny, even if I haven’t tried it myself. I know that it works since a friend is using it and I’ll try it myself the next few days.

Contacts

It looks like you cannot directly synchronize your contacts with Outlook. There are several 3rd party applications but I have no experience with them and I won’t recommend one since I cannot promise that they won’t trash your Outlook database.

Online storage

I love the fact that I can just upload a file, click “give me a link” and send it to someone. There are many ways to share files online.

Upload sites

Just use rapidshare, uploaded.to or on of those free file hosts you all know. Your data will be available for some days and people downloading it will be bugged with advertisements, waiting times and no available download slots. It isn’t fun at all but it works.

Get a server

If you have too much money just get a vserver by a hosting company. You have to configure it, you have to manage it, you have to reinstall it after it is hacked and used for warez distribution,… but hey: get your own server. It is cool and all the kids are doing it

Okay no more joking. If you share large files, if you need a lot of storage and if you need them to be available all the time either get a server hosted by someone else or if your Internet connection is potent enough host it at your basement.

Just keep three things in mind

1. you should be qualified to setup and run a server
2. you won’t have 100% uptime
3. you should really be qualified to setup and run a server

Running a server isn’t a joke and it requires a lot of work compared to other solutions.

Dropbox

Get Dropbox. You get online storage and synchronization across your computers and even get a application for your iPhone. It is limited to 2GB until you start paying but it should be enough for most users.

You can share files, collaborate and even have a undelete function if you accidentally delete something you need.

Dropbox is a great service and I love it.

Online picture gallery

Get flickr. You know it. It works. I don’t have to say much about it, don’t I?

Back to my Mac

This is a tricky one that you won’t get if you have no clue about computers.

The easiest way to get back to my mac is a VPN. I use IPsec since it is supported by all devices I use. Some people will prefer OpenVPN and that’s just fine.

Now if you have no idea what I’m talking about just go for something proprietary like Hamashi. It is used by gamers all over the world and it looks like it works.

What we get?

Everything. Except remote wipe and locate my iPhone. But I think it is fine. You’ll save 80€ a year.

Migrate your data

If you are using MobileMe and want to switch over to Google you don’t have to copy and paste your data. Migrating your iDisk to Dropbox is easy. Just drag your files.

This is not possible for a calendar and contacts. But there is a easy trick. Setup a computer to synchronize your MobileMe contacts and calendar with Outlook or iCal. If everything is stored on your system just synchronize it with Google. Migrating your stuff doesn’t require black magic. It is a matter of clicks.

So don’t give me this “it is so much work” shit.

You’ll have to create 3 (or four) accounts. You have to invest 30 minutes in configuration. And you save 80€ / year.

New toys for me

I ordered a SpeedPort W920V, 3 WirelessBridges W101B and 3 SpeedPhones 300. A lot of new stuff to play around with. But the best thing is the SpeedPort. You can easily flash a original firmware from AVM and you get a working FritzBox 7570. Only thing that doesn’t work are the LEDs. They changed the layout. Really,… intelligent.

Why should you flash your brand new router?

That’s pretty easy. The original T-Com firmware sucks and is cut down in functionality. After flashing your FritzBox you get a lot of nice things like fax support, VPN, IPv6,… you name it.

If you are German you can use the same application I used. It’s called ruSpeedPortUploader. The author is working on a new tool so I don’t know how long it will be available.

When I find some spare time I’ll provide a English guide how to use the tool.

Magic?

No, no magic. I’m pretty sure it is only a simple put with $ftp application while the router is booting up and listening on the Eve IP (192.168.178.1) for incoming connections uploading a firmware.

It is important to use 192.168.178.1. T-Com changed the LED layout. They changed the default IP address. They didn’t change the Eve IP. You won’t laugh after half an hour trying to upload your firmware to a not existing IP.

What currently stops me from say “hey just use a ftp application and upload the firmware” is that you can do a initial configuration if you use ruSpeedPortUploader. I didn’t investigate if you need to configure everything or if you get some default settings.

Some warnings

Some random stuff I noticed while flashing the router (I’ve read some boards to know how I can recover the system if I brake it)

• read the documentation
• follow each step
• don’t mess around with default IPs. Someone knew why the initial configuration suggests 192.168.178.1
• extract the kernel.image from the firmware file you downloaded. do not upload the whole firmware
• you can always upload a firmware as long as you don’t touch the MTD2
• read the documentation

Flashing your W920V with a AVM firmware does not require some deep knowledge in black magic. Just some reading.

How does my setup look like

I have the W920V in my basement and 3 wireless bridges connected. Two offices with one desktop and one printer in each office. And my private office with one desktop one notebook and two servers.

Three phones with 3 different numbers are connected. Every phone has its own number and an own answering machine.

I configured two fax devices sending new faxes to two different mail addresses (one fax = one mail address).

Everything works fine

except the bridges. From time to time (5-7 days) the bridge will just lose the connection to the W920V. No big problem, you just have to restart it. But it sucks.

I don’t know why and I have no idea where I should start my troubleshooting.

I have to admit that a FritBox is an impressive piece of hardware. I remembered AVM for their great ISDN cards but since I got DSL I was not interested in AVM. Looks like they managed to survive and still deliver great products.

Random notes

Some random stuff about the hardware

• wifi signals are very strong
• Speedphones seem to be build by Siemens
• wifi bridges suck
• WDS is a nice idea but I want to know what my hardware is doing
• you can easily attach a switch to a bridge and connect more than two systems. (T-Com tells you you can only connect two)
• 300MBit wifi =~ 100MBit cable network IF you have a good reception.
• no matter what logic suggests: wifi reception has its own laws
• you don’t have to set your router to wireless a/n. You can also use b/g/n. It doesn’t matter.

The hardware is really okay. Especially if you look at the price.

What’s next?

I won’t change much. I’ll take a look at the new firmware supporting IPv6 and wait for the iPhone App to arrive.

In the meantime I’ll wait for the Navigon select Telekom edition download to finish and give mobile navigation on my iPhone a try. I am not really a fan and I believe I won’t become one. But since it’s free why shouldn’t I take a look?

Oh did I mention that I took some time and worked on a theme? Should be up next week. Need a logo and convert my layout in a WordPress theme.

My point of view

I don’t like flash. I recently uninstalled the Flash plugin in my browser. After tweeting this I received some – let’s call them unfriendly – DMs that I have no idea what I’m talking about and that I should just shut up.

Let me give you a short version what I really think of Flash

IT JUST SUCKS

I said I’ll go with the short version. If you want more details read on, if you don’t care skip to the next headline.

Everything Flash does is consuming valuable system resources. I still work with my HP/Compaq NX7000. I have a Pentium M 1.5GHz, 2GB Ram and a Radeon 9200 mobile graphic chip. This notebook works for me. I can do all my work, I can surf the web, work on my projects and do everything else except browsing websites that use Flash.

Okay enough drama. I can, of course, browse pages that use Flash. But my CPU is running at 100%, my battery runs dry and my legs are warming up.

I have only seen one website I find at least a bit useful using Flash and that’s YouTube. Yes I know there is Vimeo and other sites that do exactly the same but let’s just stick with the big one. I can live without YouTube. Yeah, call me crazy but this is no joke. I am still not as 2.0 as I wanted to be and somehow I am thankful that I missed my goals. I don’t feel the pressure to publish new content, to take a vacation from Twitter or to run away from my blog.

Short version as conclusion

I don’t use Flash, I don’t like Flash, I don’t need Flash.

Maybe now some of you understand why I don’t care about iPhones and iPads without Flash.

Mac improvements are coming

You may ask why I write this post and that’s okay. I just hit word 346 and still did nothing beside flaming Flash. There is an article on AppleInsider and I just cannot resist writing a comment that wouldn’t fit in the comments on AppleInsider.

I won’t comment Jobs statement that Adobe is lazy. I know many things I’d call them, lazy is not included.

“If Flash stayed stagnant, it would certainly go away,” he said. “But it’s not going to stay stagnant. We’re going to keep innovating.”

Flash is innovative. Great joke. What’s the next one? Windows is the best OS for every task?

What can Flash do?

• act as a media player for sites like YouTube
• eat up a lot system resources
• crash
• security holes for free
• you can create advertisements using many sound files so you cannot surf the web without muting your speakers
• always require an update when you need fast access to your browser

Yeah Flash is innovative and China is a democracy.

Why did Flash become famous?

There is only one reason why Flash became famous. Well, maybe two, but number two is YouTube and I am sure they would have found another way to deliver videos.

Back in the dark days of the internet there was only one easy way to create interactive content. Flash. Everyone started using it, many people were not happy but there were no viable alternatives.

Some competitors appeared but they had no chance. Requiring additional addons, new development environments and a total new syntax without giving something back, no overvalue, is no way to attract developers.

Why Apple is doing it right

Apple is going for HTML5. With HTML5 there is no need for Flash if you want to provide videos for your users. And as I just said, this is the only reasons why we still see Flash on websites (okay maybe also because some people still didn’t get that Flash sucks and that there is no reason using it). Webdesigners understood that using standards is a good idea. And now they’ll get a alternative that will work on standard compliant browsers. What do you think they’ll do?

Many users are not happy about Apples decision. I can understand this. I don know what sites they are visiting but if they think they need Flash I can understand it.

But thinking about future Apple is doing it right. They don’t waste resources on a technology that should be dead for at least 5 years now. They work on a new technology that will bring benefits for everyone using it. They focus on standards that can be used by everyone.

That’s what I call innovative.

How to test new software

If I test a new server software I start my good old IBM T21 notebook, login and run one of my shell scripts “createvserver foobar 10.0.0.3” and after a short time I have a new shell and start installing the new server.

I downloaded Teamspeak 3 server 32bit, unziped it and started the server

Error

I love it when the first lines include a error messages and a notice that you will only have limited functionally.

root@ts2test:/opt/teamspeak3-server_linux-x86 # ./ts3server_linux_x86
Logging started
2009-12-23 14:06:58.260466|INFO    |ServerLibPriv |   | Server Version: 3.0.0-beta5 [Build: 9462]
2009-12-23 14:06:58.261447|INFO    |DatabaseQuery |   | dbPlugin name:    SQLite3 plugin, (c)TeamSpeak Systems GmbH
2009-12-23 14:06:58.261798|INFO    |DatabaseQuery |   | dbPlugin version: 3.6.4
2009-12-23 14:06:58.281278|WARNING |Accounting    |   | Unable to find valid license key, falling back to limited functionality
2009-12-23 14:06:58.284054|ERROR   |Accounting    |   | failed to register accounting service
2009-12-23 14:06:58.285546|ERROR   |ServerLibPriv |   | Server() error while starting servermanager, error: instance check error

This is everything I got.

Doing some research I found a problem that was similar. After running TS3 as root you cannot just start it as a user because you don’t have permissions to write / read / delete a file in /dev/shm TS3 creates.

Got you

Reading the problem with the solution to delete /dev/shm/foobar and everything should be okay I noticed why it cannot work on my test system.

Using Linux-vServer you cannot just mount a tmpfs or create files in /dev/shm. So Teamspeak3 will not work in a vServer. Running it on my host system works. So definitely the problem is /dev/shm.

It took nearly 3 days to find a answer. It was a common problem and many people ran into it. Especially those who just own a vserver with root access. If you register your Teamspeak3 server for free and add a license file to your installation it works.

If your server finds a license TS3 doesn’t use /dev/shm anymore.

Short explanation

The guys from Teamspeak really use /dev/shm to check if there is only one instance of your server running. This is what you are allowed to do with the free version without the free license.

I don’t believe that I am the only one who thinks that this is one of the stupidest ideas ever.

License

There are three different ways to run your Teamspeak3 server.

1. Without a license. You can run one server with 32 slots I think
2. With a free license. You can run ten servers with 5xx slots
3. You pay for it.

No matter what some marketing guys try to sell us – you register your server for free to get free features you don’t have without registering your server. And if you don’t register your server you have to deal with obscure programming mechanics that cause errors on many vservers / wanna be root servers.

After all those bullets on my list why I don’t like Teamspeak there is a new one on top of it.

Configuration

You can configure you server using your client. This is basically a great idea. The webinterface just sucked.

But sadly the new configuration is no advantage.

• if you add a group you have to set 100ths of different privileges
• if you want to add users to a group you have to use strange tokens (long strings) or drag & drop them – come on. drag & drop? 2 windows needed to add someone to a group?
• if you are looking for something trivial like “only this group should be allowed to join that channel” – it isn’t implemented or hard to find
• 50+ new features / buzzwords no one knows

Configuring TS3 is not funny. I’d rather configure sendmail.

The only good thing is that the client finally got a nice look & feel.

Crashes

Some of my friends that are still into hardcore gaming reported that some games just crash or disconnect while running Teamspeak 3 (client). I don’t see how anything like that can happen if they didn’t screw up the client but it seems to be a common problem shared by many people.

I’m looking forward to some solutions, bug reports and flame wars on their forums.

Best idea ever

Release a beta and take down your site and support forums. I cannot say how impressed I was by that decision.

Let the users fight against our software till one of them gives up or cries around in other support forums so we won’t have to answer questions and help those guys who test our software.

Nearly as intelligent as a bug tracker that is only for internal use,…

If you don’t want to try TS3 but want a conclusion how it feels using the client and server: it is like Windows ME and AOL Dialin Software having a retarded baby that was dropped to often.

It doesn’t matter if we talk about software or hardware – 30 days of constantly using something before writing a review should help to lower the count of posts that start with “yeah you know I thought it would be cool but it just sucks”.

Back to topic: Windows 7

It works. No joke. It really works – not one crash in 30 days. Enough information, we talk about a Windows system, this is more than you can expect. Okay enough joking and flaming.

Installation

Installing Windows 7 only needs some clicks. If you create a “USB installation device” it is done in 15 minutes. It recognizes most hardware if the system is not bleeding edge and not from yesterday.

A really cool feature: if you install new device drivers you don’t always need to reboot your system. Install your driver and it works.

Drivers

The system recognized most of my hardware. Since Windows 7 drivers are not available for everything I just used Vista / XP drivers and most of the time it worked.

But that was a exception. Most hardware was recognized and installed correctly.

Eye candy

After many years with Windows XP on my notebook I like the new look.  It is not as colorful as Vista – thanks god – and it also doesn’t require much system resources. The only difference I see after turning off all the stuff is that the system is using 60MB less memory and the fan keeping my graphic card cool runs less often.

Taskbar

The new taskbar is great. I know the application icons so I don’t need names. I have more space in my taskbar and I can really use it. One of the disadvantages of Windows was always that it didn’t support virtual desktops out of the box. I found myself not missing them with the new system.

Another great feature is the preview of your application when you choose a window. I don’t know how but they really did a great job.

Window Manager

Sorry if I don’t use the right term but I am a long time Linux user but I think calling it window manager works.

If you want a window on one half of your screen just drag it to the right or left side and *tatatatadada* your window is maximized using half of your screen. You think this is a useless feature? I love it. Copying many files from one folder to another or watching a video while surfing is done with 2 mouse movements. No resizing and other annoying stuff that takes valuable time if you do it twice a hour.

Application support

Every application I use works without problems and without some additional work like granting permissions. That’s the nice part.

After closing some applications Windows always tells me that the application doesn’t respond – well how should a already closed application respond?! Taskmanager says “no process there anymore” – it is a bit confusing and bothersome but that’s it.

New “security” model

I didn’t really get it till now. UAC or whatever it is called. I am administrator and I am not allowed to browse and edit the whole filesystem.

Yeah I know that there are people out there that don’t know a **** **** and will break a system by looking at it. But I know what I am doing.

If I copy a application to C:\Programme I want to edit the .ini. I don’t want a system that doesn’t allow me to edit it. I am the administrator, if I am dump enough to get a virus I deserve pain.

I also want to browse my application data in my user folder to backup and restore configuration files.

I could live with the fact that the user I create while installing Windows is a unprivileged user. It would be secure and I’d have to grant myself administrator access. If I work as administrator and fuck it up – yeah I know I repeat myself – I deserve pain.

My vote in the category “most annoying feature ever”: UAC. They did it wrong in Vista and in Windows 7 it still sucks.

Conclusion

You’ll need some time to get used to it but I suggest you give Windows 7 a try. It works and provides some new features you’ll miss if you got used to them. In 30 days if found only one annoying thing: UAC. But I believe this is something we’ll be able to deactivate – no matter how, no matter what it costs, it will be gone.

I won’t compare Windows to Linux or OSX. Linux on a desktop is nothing I’d use anymore and OSX is just superior to both of them when it comes down to usability and stability. But if you need or want a Windows system you now don’t have to vomit every time you start your system.

Installing WordPress has nothing to do with black magic. 5 minutes and everything works. After those 5 minutes the hard part begins. We want a Warcraft related template. A dark style not this parchment stuff you see everywhere or something neutral white. We are not settled if we go with a Lich King theme, something from classic or Cataclysm based.

After 2 hours we had nothing. Not one theme that worked and looked great.

So we decided to go with a comic based theme. Something totally different. After some research: still no themes that would work for us.

I am honest – I didn’t install or use WordPress for some time now but when did theme authors stop publishing their work? There are many sites that provide free themes but they either suck and don’t work or the site is down (404, 403,…)

Is there really no option than creating a new theme?

I currently work on a theme for my private blog, it is – like installing WordPress – no black magic required as well but it has to be done. It consumes valuable time.

Some years ago I always found a great theme for WordPress, no matter what I looked for. When did this change? Are all theme authors now running a business and only sell their themes? Did 12 year old “web designers” create so much trash that you cannot find awesome work anymore? Or is WordPress just dead and no one cares to design new themes? *scnr*

NP: Paula Cole – Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?