It’s always nice to kick things off with something of a little substance so I’m going to heartily recommend you give organ donation some thought in 2012.

If you already are a donor then jolly well done!

If you’re not then why not visit the UK Organ Donation website by clicking here (or on the button / logo below) and find out more…

I strongly believe the system should be “Opt-out” rather than it’s current “Opt-in” approach, why should we assume that everyone wants to be selfish, when I believe the vast majority of us would certainly want to help save someone’s life if there was any way we could.

2011 was so hectic I little time to keep my site updated, but I hope to get back in the saddle this year and get back into good blogging habits.

The truth is that with so much going on updates may not be as regular as I once managed, but I will do my best!

Anyway, a very Happy New Year to you and all those you hold dear!

Another great project by the Beeb that we can all support!

If you, or anyone you know, has an Android mobile phone please grab the, free & safe, “UK 3G Survey” app from the Andoid marketplace and help contribute to the first realistic picture of 3G coverage! That’s it, you need do no more, it’s all automatic once you download and install the app on your phone.

More here; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13874818

Not that I’m advocating anyone use Vista when Windows 7 is so superior in almost every way, but I did just come across a little problem and it’s slightly concealed solution!

It seems that Vista “intelligently” disables the “WLAN AutoConfig” service if it detects your system is not a laptop. This probably seemed like a great idea at the time, and does slightly reduce the attack surface of your system, but also makes it impossible to use wireless until it is re-enabled!

A common symptom of this problem is the message “Windows wireless service is not running on this computer” when trying to use wireless for the first time.

So, if you ever find yourself in this, increasingly rare, situation, just;

1. Click on “Start”, right click “Computer” and then select “Manage”.
(If prompted to “allow” the operation, do so).

2. In Computer Management, under “Services and Applications”, select “Services”.

3. Scroll down to the “WLAN AutoConfig” Service, double-click it and, in the window that opens, set it’s “Startup Type” to “Automatic”, then click “Start” and “OK”.

You should be back up and running!

Big news, but I have no idea if it is great news or terrible news.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/21/huawei_tube/

For me, on balance, I think it’s good news, but I suspect many will be horrified.

Anyway, it was bound to happen at some stage, but it looks set to happen very quickly indeed!

Yet another thing to love or hate about the 2012 Olympics!

OK, so everyone is suffering from increased petrol prices, but what can we do? We can’t control the price of petrol!

Or can we?

I am posting these two “angles of attack” on the problem and urge you to take both under consideration.

1. Exercise your buyer power to pressurise the major oil / petrol companies to lower prices.
2. Optimise your driving to maximise your own savings on fuel usage.

So let’s get to the nitty gritty!

1. Exercise your buyer power to pressurise the major oil / petrol companies to lower prices.

“Boycotting” fuel is foolish, we all need fuel, so lets just be intelligent with our buying patterns. There is a general strategy circulating which I fully support. If we all purchased fuel from Supermarkets instead of Petrol Stations we would be very effectively using our buying power to pressurise petrol companies. Why? Well supermarkets both offer petrol at a lower price to encourage repeat shoppers and often offer further fuel discount schemes for people who shop with them. Two good habits we want to encourage. Obviously supermarkets buy their fuel from oil / petrol companies, but they do so in bulk, and at lower prices than we can. Let’s use this. By buying petrol from the supermarket forecourt, rather than petrol stations, we can actually force the major petrol companies to lower their prices, to compete with these supermarkets, when they do this supermarket fuel will also come down in cost, as the supermarket buyers will demand this, and a positive reinforcement loop will begin.  It doesn’t matter which supermarket you use, any will do! I’m not biased!

2. Optimise your driving to maximise your own savings on fuel usage.

There are few well know ways of reducing your fuel usage, which I list here as a reminder for all;

• Style (Save up to 60%): HOW you drive is just as important as how far, best practice should include; Smooth acceleration, using the highest possible gear (without threatening a stall), brake as little as possible letting natural friction slow the car instead (specially on routes you often drive & know well).
• Air-con (Save up to 7.5%): Air conditioning is horrendously fuel inefficient, wear a fleece or wind the windows down (a little, as open windows decrease aerodynamic efficiency, also if very hot use air-con or windows down, never both!).
• Tyres (Save up to 2.5%): Lower tyre pressure = more friction = more energy needed. Keep your tyres inflated.
• Weight (Save up to 2.5%):  Less weight = Less energy needed. Empty that boot & don’t fill your tank when re-fuelling.
• Aerodynamics (Save up to 2.5%): The extra drag created by a roof rack wastes petrol, as does having windows open.

If you want to take this to the next level check out this wikipedia page on maximising fuel economy.

As you can see we could all be saving well over HALF our fuel costs, of course no one can realise all those benefits perfectly, but even a small improvement can save large amounts of money over a year. Why not try these and see how you go, it’s your hard earned money after all!

So you want to play with SSL certificates on Windows 2008 (R2)?

Well the you probably already know that SSL & Host Headers don’t mix in IIS 7 (well not via it’s GUI anyway!)!

But never fear, even though the GUI is pathetically incapable of working with host headers & SSL, you can achieve what you want via the command line;
_________
1. Within IIS  bind the certificate to all the sites you want to use it on (Host Header will be greyed out… hmph…).
2. Fire up good old “cmd” & go to “C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\” .
5. Run the following command for each website on the IP address that you want to use the certificate for (copy both lines):

appcmd set site /site.name:”<WebSiteName>” /+bindings.[protocol='https',bindingInformation='*:443:<HostHeaderValue>']

Replace <WebSiteName> with the name of the IIS site and <HostHeaderValue> with the host header for that site.

See, simple! There’s always a way!

For some time I have thought that someone should put together a driving communication etiquette scheme which builds on the basics of driving etiquette as laid out very well in the Highway Code & Debrett’s Driving Etiquette guide, and as I still seem unable to find any, I’m putting my thoughts down!

Please feel free to comment, and maybe we can build on / improve it!?

Driving Etiquette – Communicating / Signaling

1. Thank You:
- In front of you / oncoming: 3 quick flashes (or clicks) of your full beams.
- Behind you: Engage your warning / hazard lights for 3 “clicks”.

2. OK / Understood:
- In front of you / oncoming: 1 quick flash of full beams.
- Behind you: 2 quick taps of the brake pedal.

3. Go / I Give Way to You / Please overtake me:
- In front of you / oncoming: 2 quick flashes (or clicks) of your full beams.
- Behind you (overtaking):  Indicate left, move over to the left side of the lane & slow down.

4. Warning: (An accident / hazard approaching, or speed cameras etc)
- In front of you / oncoming:  2 long (0.5 seconds) “flashes” of full beams.
- Behind you: Indicate alternately left & right repeatedly.

5. Back Off: (You’re too close to me)
- Behind you: 3 taps of the brake pedal. (Repeated with a 2 second pause between.)

6. I’d like to overtake you please:
- In front of you (Obviously): 1 long flash followed by 2 short flashes, followed by one further long flash.

7. Turn your lights on:
- In front of you: 3 long flashes of your full beams.
- Behind you: Alternate hazard and brake lights 3 times.

8. You have a flat tire / your car is damaged:
- In front of you: 5 quick flashes of your full beams.

I think that covers it for now, I’ll add more as I think of them… Suggestions / amendments appreciated.