This works on the server side, so there is no need for JavaScript support on the client browser.

The side effect of this is that I’ve had to re-visit all my previous posts to remove all the formatting I had manually applied.

When using BASH this way most of the HTTP variables are set as environment variables, and can be accessed simply. The exception is the HTTP POST data, this goes to the stdin stream.

There were some examples of reading stdin like:

and

However I found that these intermittently failed. I believe this is because at the point of execution you can not guarantee that all the data has been sent.

The solution to this is to use the CONTENT_LENGTH environment variable to read the correct number of bytes:

Google Calendar Sync can be configured to do a 2-way synchronization, or a 1-way synchronization (in either direction). It is very quick to setup, and has very few options that need configuring.

The only improvement I would like is support for multiple calendars. I would like 2-way synchronization for my work calendar, and 1-way synchronization from my other Google Calendars to my Outlook Calendar.

All requests to the original domain paul-turner.net are automatically redirected to the correct page on the new domain with a “301 Moved Permanently” HTTP header.

This means that all search engine traffic should be preserved, and the links updated over time.

This was achieved simply with mod_rewrite and a single index.php page:

Please update your links.

1. I don’t really like the hyphen in paul-turner.net.
2. It’s a little more personal.
3. I currently don’t own paul-turner.net.  (It’s owned by my web hosting company, although I have the option to purchase it)

Currently http://paulturner.me/ redirects back to http://paul-turner.net/ although I have been considering a swap over for some time now.

If I do this my thoughts are to use mod_rewrite with a single PHP program that accepts all the requests from http://paul-turner.net/ and responds with a permanent redirect to the same page on http://paulturner.me/.

Are there any implications in doing this?  I would think that this approach would update all the search engines over time.

What do you think?  Leave me a comment.

I have used them several times in the past and they have always been reliable and efficient. They have recently announced that they are no longer charging for postage in the UK.

This is great news!

This has worked fine for the Latin code pages (ISO8859-1, ISO8859-15), and for the double byte code page (cp950)  that have been tested.  However it did not work when I tried the UTF-8 Unicode code page.

The reason for this is fairly simple:

VB stores strings internally using Unicode, but assumes that the outside world is ANSI.

This means that Visual Basic will convert from ANSI to Unicode (UTF-16) when storing a string, and convert it back again when it is retrieved.

The ActiveX controls use the Microsoft Inet control to request data via HTTP.  This uses the GetChunck() method in the StateChanged event in order to read the data in to a string. This was the first cause of my problems as Visual Basic will automatically convert the data in the string to ANSI, which loses the Unicode characters.

The Inet control GetChunck() method takes two parameters; size and data type. The size parameter tells it how much data to read, and the data type parameter tells it what data type to read it in to. The data was being read in to a string (icString), but to avoid the conversion I had to change this to a byte array (icByteArray) to avoid the automatic conversion process.

So far so good. But now I had a UTF-8 byte array that I needed to convert in to a string without losing data in the conversion process. This was a bit of a sticking point as Visual Basics string conversion function StrConv() can’t cope with UTF-8 and none of the API calls I found to convert the string worked. You can assign a string equal to a byte array and no automatic conversion happens, but as strings are stored internally as UTF-16 this does not work.

I was nearly at the stage where I either needed to write my own conversion process, or re-develop the controls in another language with better UTF-8 support.

Then I found this solution:

This does not use any APIs but requires the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 Library or later.

Using this solution I was able to assign the original internal string variable to the result of this function and the rest of the code in the controls worked.

The ActiveX controls also read data values from the webpage and POST them back to the webserver.  The values are read via the DOM. These also need to be converted in the opposite direction, before they can be URL encoded.

This returns a byte array, and I pass it directly in to a function that URL encodes the byte array, returning a sting.

Many thanks to Tim Hastings for his solution, as this has saved me a lot of pain!

Basically it is a flat rate of 9p per minute whether you are calling a land line or another mobile phone, regardless of the network. Text messages are also reasonable at 6p each.

The service allows you to automatically top up your balance when a pre-set minimum is reached, so there is no need to worry about buying top up vouchers, and as it is aimed at family usage you can have multiple phones on the same account.

If you need to buy a handset then their prices do look more expensive than other service providers, so it will probably be cheaper to bring an existing handset or buy one elsewhere and take their SIM only option.

If you already have a phone that is compatible with the T-Mobile network then it should work, otherwise you may need to get your phone unlocked. Your existing provider may be able to do this for a fee, alternatively you can try and do it yourself. There are several sites on the internet that can give you the necessary information. One example is http://unlockme.co.uk/.