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Sir Patrick Moore Dies Aged 89

Sir Patrick Moore, an inspiration to generations of astronomers has died aged 89. The Astronomer and Sky at Night TV presenter died died peacefully at 12.25pm on 09 December at his home in Selsey, West Sussex.

Sir Patrick Moore

Sir Patrick Moore was born on 4 March 1923, and presented the world’s longest-running television series with the same original presenter, having presented the show since 1957, which is acknowledged as a Guinness World Record.
His rapid diction and monocle made him a popular and instantly recognisable figure on British television.

Sir Patrick Moore was a former president of the British Astronomical Association, co-founder and former president of the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA), author of over 70 books on astronomy. As an amateur astronomer, he became known as a specialist on observing the Moon and creating the Caldwell catalogue.

His work has been an inspiration to generations of scientists and engineers, and particularly his willingness to admit that Astronomers (and by implication scientists and engineers) are not infallible. They make mistakes, but unlike politicians are honest enough to admit them.

Sir Patrick Moore Links and Credits

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Information Technology is Part of Your Core Business

While reading an article preview on Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think, we came across a comment by James Watson which deserves a wider airing. Actually warranting a post on its own, this response is about projects which are labeled as black swans, and is a reason why companies looking to engage in IT enabled transformation should take a deep breath.

If your company leadership is considering a strategic change of direction, planning on ditching your in-house custom software without taking the advice of the internal IT professionals, or without competent IT stakeholders at the highest levels of the organization, then you should point out this post to them without delay. Remember, Information Technology is part of your core business.

The issue is that in most non-software companies, information technology is treated like something separate from the business. The conventional wisdom of a decade ago dominates. That is, if your company is not producing software for sale, it shouldn’t be building software. It should be purchased, like Word or Excel.

This line of reasoning seems pretty bullet-proof until you dig into the details and it leads to a number of problems including the issues in the article. First, lets be clear, no company should seek to build software for internal use that can be purchased at reasonable cost and can can meet their needs without customization.

Secondly, companies should seek to purchase or otherwise acquire software that implements the generic functions and allows for powerful customizations. The issue arises when companies purchase something like SAP assuming that their needs are sufficiently supported by the software and that anything they need that is special will be supported by ‘configuration’.

What then happens is that the company realizes (after investing large amounts of money) that they can either make their business completely generic and lose all strategic advantage over competitors or they can pile on a lot more money to customize the hell out of it. Given the options, most high-level execs prefer more investment over losing strategic advantage. Some companies (I suppose) choose the other option and a lot of IT people think this is a good idea (it isn’t.)

You might be more likely to succeed at the project but the company will often be ruined in the process. In the ‘success’ example, I wonder how much of the companies strategic differentiation was sacrificed in order to avoid increasing scope. Alternately, the ‘success’ could be a shelfware system that is unusable because it doesn’t meet business needs. I have seen many ‘successful’ projects that produce no positive business value.

The true error is taking on a project based on false assumptions and magical thinking. Once that mistake is made, there are no good options. Companies need to stop thinking that information technology is separate from their core functions. Most information technology is only worth having if it is tightly coupled to the design of the business and often technology imposes fundamental constraints on business.

No project management methodologies or helpful tips will address this problem. Companies need to embrace technology and make IT a stakeholder at the highest levels of the organization for the kinds of problems described in the article to be fully addressed.

This comment by James Watson was cribbed wholesale from Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think by Bent Flyvbjerg and Alexander Budzier. Check out the full article and then quote James Watson to your company leadership!

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Maximum Size of a FAT-32 Partition

Have you ever wondered what the maximum size of a FAT-32 partition could be?

Do you have an external drive which needs to be accessed on different operating systems such as Windows and Mac OSX? Have you moved from Windows to Mac or Linux and find that you can no longer access the Windows (NTFS) drive you used for your media files? How about plugging your media library into the DVD or other player, but find that it can not read NTFS or one of the Linux formats? That means that you probably need to format your disk using FAT32.

FAT32 provides the maximum level of compatibility between OS X and Windows machines. OS X has the capability of reading and writing to FAT32 drives built into the OS, and naturally Windows can see these drives too. But what is the Maximum Size of a FAT-32 Partition?

According to Microsoft, when you use the FAT32 file system with Windows XP:

  • Clusters cannot be 64 kilobytes (KB) or larger. If clusters are 64 KB or larger, some programs (such as Setup programs) may incorrectly calculate disk space.
  • A FAT32 volume must contain a minimum of 65,527 clusters. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume that uses the FAT32 file system so that it contains fewer than 65,527 clusters.
  • The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).
  • You cannot decrease the cluster size on a FAT32 volume so that the size of the FAT is larger than 16 megabytes (MB) minus 64 KB.
  • You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process. Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup.
  • You cannot create a file larger than (2^32)-1 bytes (this is one byte less than 4 GB) on a FAT32 partition.

Remember, the maximum file size on a FAT32 drive is 4GB. So if you have a file that’s larger than 4GB, you can not use FAT32. It is not uncommon for raw HD video files to be much larger than 4GB, particularly when recording live events. If you are planning to access such video files on both Windows and Mac OSX machines, do not have access to network connectivity and want to avoid third party add-ons, then download the files onto a Windows NTFS drive which a Mac will subsequently be able to access (read-only).

So according to Microsoft’s calculations above, the Maximum Size of a FAT-32 Partition is approximately 8 terabytes.

For additional information about the FAT32 file system, see the links below:

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Windows 8 Launches

Microsoft has now announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8.

For people planning the move to Windows 8, you should be aware that there are three consumer versions: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT. Windows RT is a tablet and mobile focused OS which will only run on ARM-powered devices, while Windows 8 is a full-featured PC operating system aimed at x86 devices, powered by Intel or AMD chips.

For those who have not yet seen Windows 8 or read the reviews, the benefits are as follows:

  • It is sleek, fast and fun (on the right hardware)
  • Huge security improvements
  • Much faster boot up
  • Improved battery life for mobile users
  • It is Great for touch

Some people may take a little convincing of the benefits of the change to Windows 8, so on the down side:

  • Some users will miss the Start menu
  • It will not boot to the desktop
  • It needs a touchscreen/trackpad gestures/Touch Mouse to get the best out of it
  • The new style Modern UI will not please everyone
  • Some older CPUs won’t run it

The flashy new interface is in line with other tablet styles, so will require little training for novice users to get at the obvious features. For people who really can not live without the Start Menu, there is a basic alternative which you can display by pressing Win + X, which gives you quick access to:

  • Programs and Features
  • Power Options
  • Event Viewer
  • System
  • Device Manager
  • Disk Management
  • Computer management
  • Command Prompt (both standard and Admin)
  • Task Manager
  • Control Panel
  • Windows Explorer
  • Search
  • Run
  • Desktop

Windows 8 will run all software from the Windows Store and any third-party programs that you may have used in earlier versions of Windows. On the other hand, Windows RT only supports apps from the Windows Store and its built-in version of Office 2013.

Windows RT is aimed at the consumer tablet market, so is not so business orientated. As a full-featured operating operating, Windows 8 Pro offers Remote Desktop server, Active Directory domain support, Encrypting File System, Hyper-V, BitLocker and more.

Useful Windows 8 Resources

Other Windows 8 Reviews

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UK Patent Box for IP Holding Companies

From the 1st April 2013 the UK Government is offering a tax break for patent owners and Intellectual Property (IP) holders in a effort to encourage businesses to move to the UK. This so called Patent Box will reduce the rate of corporation tax payable on profits from patents and some other forms of IP.

While large IT companies like IBM and Apple have extensive patent portfolios, and may actively pursue patent acquisition as a potential revenue stream, the proposed patent box may provide a significant boost to acquisition. The proposal will apply to patent holding companies based in the UK, not just UK companies developing technology.

HM Treasury state

The Patent Box will encourage companies to locate the high-value jobs and activity associated with the development, manufacture and exploitation of patents in the UK. It will also enhance the competitiveness of the UK tax system for high-tech companies that obtain profits from patents.

Bizarrely, profits from providing software as a service will not be entitled to benefit from the reduced tax rate. That is profits from the sale of services which owe some of their value to a patented innovation. This could cause some anomalies, for example in relation to a software application which has a patented element; if the application is sold on a disk this would qualify under the Patent Box regime, but the same application provided say as a service from the cloud would not qualify.

It is suggested that companies may elect for a notional royalty to apply in this case, so we will probably be hearing more about this in the near future.

Patent Box Links and Resources

  • HM Treasury: Patent Box
  • HMRC The Patent Box: Technical Note and Guide to the Finance Bill 2012 clauses
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    Ada Lovelace Day

    Did you know that October 16th is Ada Lovelace Day? Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.

    Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, was one of the most picturesque characters in computer history. A brilliant mathematician, analyst and metaphysician, she is widely regarded as the founder of scientific computing:

    • Ada was born 10 December 1815, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron
    • She was strongly interested in scientific developments including phrenology and mesmerism.
    • Ada Lovelace died on 27 November 1852 at the age of thirty-six

    When she was just 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, at a dinner party and learned for the first time of Babbage’s ideas for the invention of a new calculating engine. Ada suggested to Babbage that she should write a plan for how his new Analytical Engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. The plan she wrote thereafter, is now regarded as the first “computer program.”

    All that people need to do to take part in Ada Lovelace Day is to talk about the accomplishments of a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths, whether in a blog post, Facebook update, video, podcast or other medium. Supporters can add their URL to the FindingAda database to make it more easily findable.

    So lets tell the world about unsung heroines in science or technology. Whatever she does, whether she is a project manager, sys-admin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, let us celebrate her achievements.

    Ada Lovelace Day – Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

    FindingAda database

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    5 Quick Tips for New iPad Users

    Have you been getting used to your new iPad and wondering how to do the simple stuff that is so easy on your Windows PC, iMac or Linux workstation?

    Here are five quick tips for new iPad users to help you get productive and make it work for you. they all work on iOS 5 & 6

    1. See all open iPad apps – To see all open apps displayed on the multitasking bar at the bottom of the screen either:
      • Double-click the Home button
      • Use four or five fingers to swipe up
    2. To close a running app – Touch and hold any icon on the bottom bar until the icons start moving, then tap the minus sign on the icon of the running app to close it.
    3. To switch between open apps – Use four or five fingers swipe left or right
    4. Close a book in iBooks to choose another – Tap the screen once and menu options will appear, then tap library in the top left corner to go back to he bookshelf.
    5. Download PDFs to iBooks via Browser – In iPad Safari tap a PDF download which will download and display in the browser. Touch the screen, and tap the “Open in iBooks” button at the top. When opened in iBooks, the PDF file is automatically added to the library.

    Practice the gestures, and the five quick tips above particularly the four finger swipe, and they soon become second nature. Have fun with your new iPad!

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    Update Atahualpa WordPress Theme

    Expert WordPress users and regular readers of this blog will know that we recommend updating to the latest WordPress version regularly, to ensure that the any known security vulnerabilities are patched. Many people also take that opportunity to upgrade their favorite plugins and theme to ensure continued compatibility.

    But what if you are using a highly configurable theme like Atahualpa? How do upgrade and yet keep all your custom settings, header images and favicon after the upgrade. The good news is that most of the theme settings for Atahualpa are stored in the database so that an upgrade will not lose that customization.

    So how do you update the Atahualpa WordPress Theme when the time comes?

    Before you update WordPress, your plugins or theme, backup your database, wp-content folder and wp-config.php files to make sure you can reverse out of the change in the event that there is a problem.

    If you have used custom header images or made any changes to the page code in the Atahualpa theme, or set a shortcut icon, Web site icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon (favicon) than you will need to use the manual method to update the theme. If you are using the theme with default header images etc. or have a quick way to restore them after an upgrade, then you can use the WordPress update facility. However, the way we recommend is to Upgrade the theme manually, as follows:

    1. Backup your database.
    2. Backup the wp-content folder, which contains your themes, favicon and header images.
    3. Download the latest version of the theme to your computer.
    4. Unzip the file and copy in your custom images and delete the ones supplied.
    5. Check for any Atahualpa theme patches and apply them.
    6. Update any code changes you made in the previous version (experts only!)
    7. Add any custom templates you use to the new theme folder.
    8. Upload the theme folder to the ‘wp-content/themes’ themes folder on your host.
    9. Activate the the new theme via WordPress Dashboard, and test.

    The new theme should now display correctly. But if you have a problem you can revert to the earlier version using Dashboard again. Common causes of problems are as follows:

    • Code customization which has not been correctly installed or has a negative impact in the new theme. Solution recheck the code is complete and in the correct location and retest.
    • Images using the full path name not displaying. Solution – Verify URL Names in WordPress options, or avoid using where possible.
    • WordPress menus not displaying. Solution – reselect the menus in Dashboard, Appearances, Menu.

    So now we know how to update the Atahualpa WordPress Theme, which should make the task easier the next time!

    Other Resources

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    Have You Updated WordPress?

    Unbelievable as it may seem, there are plenty of WordPress users who do not upgrade their installations to the latest version when they are released. This post should encourage every WordPress site administrator to Update WordPress as soon as possible.

    There may be a number of reasons why you might want to upgrade WordPress, including:

    • A security fix has been released
    • Some useful new functionality has become available
    • You have seen a message at the top of your Dashboard telling you that a new release is available

    The latest version of WordPress (3.4.1 at time of writing) comes with an impressive array of improvements including embedded Tweets, custom header from Media Library, and performance boosts under the hood, and of course all the latest security patches to ensure that your Blog is as secure as it can be.

    Twitter Embeds
    This is a great new feature which allows you to share Tweets with style. You can now embed individual tweets in posts, so that you can make a feature of a reference to another author or micro-blogger, or just highlight one of your own. Great for your personal marketing!

    It includes action links that allow readers to reply to, retweet, and favorite the tweet, all without leaving your site. To use the feature, all you have to do is paste a tweet URL on its own line. When you save the post, it will look something like this:


    This works with URLs from some other sites, too. For more, see the Codex article on Embeds.

    Choose from Media Library
    This useful feature of Custom Headers allows you to choose header images from your media library to customize your theme, rather than having to upload the same custom header image every time you check out a new theme.

    Live Theme Previews
    It is now possible to try out new themes and update the header and background before the theme is activated. This removes the panic to update those details as soon as you activate a new theme. Please note that this feature is only available for installed themes.

    You can also use the live preview mode to customize your current theme by using the Customize link on the Themes screen.

    Flexible Header Image Sizes
    If your theme supports the feature, you can now decide for yourself how tall or wide your custom header image should be. From now on, themes will provide a recommended image size for custom headers rather than a fixed requirement.

    Please note that not all current themes will support this feature, so contact your theme designer and ask them for the latest version of your theme.

    Performance Boosts
    Among the Performance Boosts available in the latest release of WordPress are the following:

    • Faster WP_Query – Post queries have been optimized to improve performance, especially for sites with large databases.
    • Faster Translations – The number of strings loaded in the WordPress front end has been greatly reduced, resulting in faster front page load times for localized installations. Also provides better support for East Asian languages, right-to-left languages, theme translations, and more.
    • Themes API – Key procedures in WordPress (WP_Theme, wp_get_themes(), wp_get_theme()) are faster, uses less memory, and makes use of persistent caching.

    For more information about WordPress see WordPress Codex – Updating WordPress

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    Is W32.Flamer Evidence of Cyberwarfare Activities?

    A number of commentators on the Net are suggesting that the recent malware infection in a number of Middle Eastern countries is evidence of Cyberwarfare Activities by a professional team

    Flame, or W32.Flamer, or skywiper may have been developed by a nation state as part of cyberwarfare activities, and is targeted at information gathering, rather than distruction of data. Analysts who have been decoding the computer worm have been unable to identify the source, but they say only a professional team working for several months could have been behind it.

    The CrySys Laboratory in Hungary was one of the first to attempt analysis, reported that: “The results of our technical analysis supports the hypothesis that skywiper was developed by a government agency of a nation state with significant budget and effort, and it may be related to cyberwarfare activities.”It is certainly the most sophisticated malware we have encountered. Arguably, it is the most complex malware ever found.”

    According to Symantec, W32.Flamer is a worm that spreads through removable drives. It also opens a back door into the users computer and may steal information from the compromised computer. Symantec Security Response is currently investigating this threat but has classified the Threat Assessment in the wild as Low.

    Damage
    Damage Level: Medium
    Payload: Opens a back door.
    Releases Confidential Info: Steals information.

    Although the rate of spread may be low, due to the propagation method, this malware is likely to attract a lot of attention and hot debate because of the potential for Cyberwarfare. Watch this space for more news as it emerges.

    For more information see: