From Belgium to the UK... Normally I fly with British Airways to Heathrow, but this time I thought to try the Eurostar (a high speed train).After I arrived at the Bruxelles (Midi/Zuid) station I had to go to a "yellow" door (Eurostar entrance). The passport control is pretty much the same as when you fly by plane, but the queus are not so big. You only need to be 30 minutes in advance, so that's also nice compared to the 2h in advance with a plane.I was a bit early and went to an ice cream bar. I know somebody who would kill for some Haagen-Dazs ice cream... so Natalia here's a picture of a place full of it! Of course I had to taste some of it and I must admit it's pretty good ice cream ;-)The travel itself was very nice and quick. One stop in Lille and some time later we were already in London. We didn't get some food in the train, but you could go to a part of the train where they offered some drinks and snacks.I arrived in London St Pancras at 20h (UK time) and had to take the underground (called Tube) to London Victoria. All went smoothly and some time later I checked in into the Victoria Park Plaza hotel. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me I got an "Executive Room Package". I don't know what it means yet, but apparently you've some more advantages. I'll find out soon ;-)I'm staying in the Victoria Park Plaza hotel because we start our second 3-day European Application Express (APEX) Training Days on Tuesday. Some people who subscribed for this training were also on our first training in Brussels. I look forward to meet them again and of course I'm curious to meet the new faces.But now I'm going to search for these advantages and have a look at London!Update: Update of train station name after comment of Jason. (Thanks Jason!)
A few weeks ago I went for a new smartphone. I had a look at the iPhone, but that wasn't an option. In Belgium you're not allowed (due to the law) to bundle the physical device and the mobile contract itself. So there're no official iPhones in Belgium yet. Some people have a "hacked" version, but I didn't want to go for that.The main features I want in my smartphone are:Mobile phone (surprisingly)
Agenda
Contacts
GPS Navigation
Wifi
Easy synchronization with my MacBook Pro
At the end of 2006 I bought an HTC P3300 and I really liked it (see blog post). I could have kept that one, but I decided to have a look which new devices HTC had available. In a years time a lot should have changed. I saw some good reviews of the HTC Touch Cruise (P3650), the follow-up of the HTC P3300, so I decided to give it a try.I bought it and I really like it. I had some problems with it in the beginning, finally called support and they told me I had to go for a new one. Went to the store, got a new one (excellent service!) and it had the same problem. The big clock (HTC Home plugin for the Today screen) wasn't showing although it was installed. HTC Support told me to do a hard reset, but that didn't help. Finally I found it myself; if you install that HTC Home plugin manually again, it works flawlessly. I guess the first device would have worked too ;-)Even if the iPhone was available in Belgium, I think I would still go for the HTC Touch Cruise as I prefer to have a navigation system (gps) in my mobile phone. I was really impressed with the iPhones touch screen, but HTC has something similar, it's called the TouchFLO, so I can navigate with my fingers now too. The HTC Touch Cruise has a nice big screen and also supports 3G. The full spec you find on the htc website.To synchronize my contacts and calendar with my MacBook Pro I use Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. It works really well. My iCal, Address book and Tasks get nicely synchronized.
FULL [VM].Windows.3.1.VMWare-MaLiBu-REQUEST
While the Belgian people were enjoying their Friday night, the APEX Development team made APEX 3.1 available as a download. You can download it here.I upgraded my local system to APEX 3.1 successfully, although I had one little problem.Below the steps I followed:1) Download and unzip APEX 3.12) Read the Installation Guide3) Upgrade my configuration (a MacBook Pro running OSX Leopard with a VM (VMWare Fusion) with Oracle Linux, Oracle DB 11g, APEX 3.0.1o11g> sqlplus / as sysdba SQL> @apexins SYSAUX SYSAUX TEMP /i/That step took about 10 minutes and ran without a problem.As I upgraded my current version, the installation also upgraded my workspaces, which you can see in the screenshot at the end.4) APEX runs in my configuration with the Embedded PL/SQL Gateway. So my next step was to upload the new pictures that come with APEX 3.1 into the database.The Apex Development Team made a script you can run to do that step.o11g> sqlplus / as sysdba SQL> @apxldimg /your_dir_where_you_unpacked_apex_31_zipThat script gave me a little problem. As I downloaded and unpacked the zip in OSX I put the apex installation directory on a shared folder so my Linux VM could see it.Due to permissions I got following error:Of course this is not the APEX Development team fault, it's just due to my configuration. To correct this step I copied the directory to my /tmp on Linux and then the install of the images worked correctly.4) Test the new version of APEX 3.1Great! It works!I also tried to run some applications I had in my workspace, most of them worked correctly, but for some I had problems with the template. For ex. an application with the Red Theme didn't show up correctly. I had to delete the theme and create the Red Theme from the Repository again to get it looking nice again.Before we can upgrade our live servers, we need to make sure all our clients will follow too... Hopefully sooner than later as I think you can't miss the new features introduced in APEX 3.1!
In case you haven't heard, in preparation for the fall term, Information Technology Services (ITS) is moving from Solano Hall 2nd floor to Lindero Hall and Trinity Hall. In collaboration with colleagues in Facilities Services, as of 5PM today we've completed approximately 50% of our move. Most of our furniture has been moved, and about 1/2 of our equipment has been moved and is ready to be set up again. The majority of ITS teams, including Application Services, Information Security, Project Management, most of User Services and Web Services, as well as the entire IT leadership team, are moving into the 2nd floor of Lindero Hall. We expect the move to be completed in the next few days. Our Infrastructure team has moved into an adjacent shared workspace in Trinity Hall. The Solution Center call center will remain in Solano Hall 2nd floor until a suitable workspace is prepared on the first floor of Lindero Hall this fall. Please be aware that students, faculty and staff seeking in-person assistance with campus technology issues should visit Solution Center support desk at Broome Library 1350 during regular Library hours. Our close partners in technology Teaching & Learning Innovations (T&LI) remain in Solano Hall. The Faculty Innovations in Teaching (FIT) Studio and Teaching & Learning Innovations staff offices are located in Solano Hall on first and second floors respectively; please contact Jill Leafstedt (jill.leafstedt@csuci.edu) with any questions. Thank you for your support and patience as we complete this move to make room for additional faculty- and student-centered workspaces in Solano Hall, Del Norte Hall and the Bell Tower. ITS expects to resume full operating capacity later this week once the remainder of the move is completed. As always, you may call the IT Solution Center at 805-437-8552 to request technology support or to report problems, or visit the IT Solution Center self-service portal for 24-7 assistance. 2ff7e9595c
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