I spent some time today battling to try to get RoundCube webmail to work well with:

• Windows 2008
• SQL Server Express 2008
• hMailServer
• IIS 7.0 With PHP

Well it took some fiddling but after some time I got it to work. My major issue seemed to be getting PHP to see MSSQL extensions. I found the documentation a little misleading not realising that you needed to install FreeTDS.

But after getting that setup all worked well will give it a try as a webmail client see how it goes if not might try migrating to Google.

I have ranted a lot in the past about Fasthosts and Streamline with poor customer service and bad uptime and what not. But today I'm proud to say I have something positive to say.

After slating Streamline for there poor uptime they made a suggestion that worked. I moved my MySQL database from one server to another, seems simple enough. But has moved me from 85-90% uptime to near enough always 100%

I am not sure what that says for people who don't have multiple SQL servers to move between but it atleast suggests if your having problems its worth uprooting and moving your db to another server. I also don't know what this says about the quality of Streamline servers.

None the less my first positive comment and about Streamline!

I was watching Would I lie To you on the BBC (Link) and something that astonished me is the Bible was produced in Cockney.

All I can say is what the? but if you are desperate to get your hands on this fine tomb then its available from Amazon

I was looking at my website and realised how bland all the websites I make are they don't tend to have many if any pictures. So I've decided to cram some in and ask for people to give me some pictures to liven up my website.

I'm no artist so please help a developer have a pretty site 

I recently graduated from the University of Hull with a Second Class Division One BSc Hons in Computer Science with Games Development. I graduated from the winter ceremony so my parents could be in attendance.

I wont say huge amounts about the photos, but this is me! This is before the ceremony and before the snow.

This is me and Ivan Zlatev, he is a close friend I lived with throughout University. For some reason in this photo my cape seems to be flying and Ivan has a blue gem on his suit. We wont question the wonders of photography.

Just a couple of shots of the ceremony, was really quite nice. Although me and Ivan were at opposite ends of the rows. Couldn't get further apart

Me cantering along the stage, didn't really give Nettles a chance to take a picture. It was the evil stairs they distracted me

Finally throwing mortar board in the SNOW!!! How about that Winter graduation 2010 at Hull snowed for a few minutes around the throwing! Shame the town crier wouldn't be quiet and stop us getting soaked

Happy graduation everyone!

For a few years now I have had hosting with Streamline.NET, but recently it seems to have got really bad. Luckily I don't use the domain for much other than a backup if something goes wrong with my main domains, www.StuartJames.info and this one www.MadTooey.co.uk where www.Tooey.co.ukis hosted on streamline and seems to be suffering some very appalling up times.

The original issue was in regard to the database just failing over and my MojoPortal CMS (ASP.NET) website failed to connect to the DB. Now it seems its got worse and is just down for long periods of time.

I contacted streamline about the DB that when they came to look at it a day later had been resolved (annoying). So I through up the issue of up time

 The issue has resolved itself, but I am very very concerned over the up time recently, the logs I have for the server are this:
2010-01-21 91.30
2010-01-20 92.47
2010-01-19 100.00
2010-01-18 96.77
2010-01-17 89.00
2010-01-16 100.00
2010-01-15 100.00
2010-01-14 97.80
2010-01-13 98.91
2010-01-12 100.00
2010-01-11 100.00
2010-01-10 90.82
2010-01-09 100.00
2010-01-08 100.00
This seems very unreliable

The issue has resolved itself, but I am very very concearned over the uptime recently, the logs I have for the server are this:

2010-01-21 91.30

2010-01-20 92.47

2010-01-19 100.00

2010-01-18 96.77

2010-01-17 89.00

2010-01-16 100.00

2010-01-15 100.00

2010-01-14 97.80

2010-01-13 98.91

2010-01-12 100.00

2010-01-11 100.00

2010-01-10 90.82

2010-01-09 100.00

2010-01-08 100.00

This seems very unreliabl

 Now me thinking this would get some response but instead I ran straight into a dead wall with this response:

Hi Tooey,

Thank you for your query

If you still encounter the same issue please let us know. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards,
StreamlineNet
Streamline.Net - The home of good value web hosting

I must admit to being a little shocked seems hosting companies no matter how small or how big dont really care anymore.

It is quite concerning since if I as a more advanced web user have problems I can imagine to think what sort of treatment and problems people who aren't quite as uptodate are having.

Seems the recession has taken the customer service budget

During the other night my download speed went appalling around 50KB/s I know a lot of people would think that was good but I'm used to 700-800KB/s. I decided to do a speed test with BT and got these results.

Specifically this is what I found:

Now I realise that connections speed vary but I would of thought that BT would expect a reasonable level of consistency in there connection expecting within 50% of there line expected rate. But it seems that BT take it all the way to 10% being acceptable.

Am I crazy?  or does BT really just not care ?

I have had many discussions with friends about using Advertisement on websites. Now Ill prefix this rant with a comment. There are some exceptions.

Today while being loured to find out more about someones work I stumbled into a horrible field of advertisement. This wasn't the first time today I hit this nasty screen with text everywhere and bright colours on what is a carefully themed dark site, but this website managed to get me to write a rant about it.

I have several times been loured by the promise of basically free money to advertisement services like Google AdSense and Bidvertiser but is it really worth it?

I have made several websites and hit the question so much with the temptation of earning a little from the website do you really earn enough to make it worth the damage it causes to your websites reputation? I know not everyone is as grouchy as me but I hate adds and really need to do something about it. A friend I know uses scripts to avoid seeing any adds so who are adds really helping?

I guess my query really is do you value your website? Is it something you care about and are proud of?

Now for me the answer is Yes. Websites aren't a 5 minute job they take time to make the theme the take even more to make the content. Are you really willing to alienate part of your perspective audience by adding some obscene adds to it?

Now I will go back to my original statement there are some exceptions I have seen some adds that are incorporated well but most aren't. I'm not really the one to write guidance about good adds but I can tell you one thing for sure you will never have good advertisement if you don't plan it into your theme. Not only that if you want it to be a great success then you need to choose your advertisement. That means goodbye AdSense goodbye Bidvertiser it's time for you to put the leg work into getting the money as well as what you think is getting you the money.

My conclusion is simple if you are determined to make money from your website via advertisement that goes against what I think makes a good website. Then simply think it through. Work hard on everything don't drop the ball for a few minutes of ease keep your website looking good and you never know I might click an add if you catch me before installing adhideing scripts.

Today when leaving Nettles we looked back to an odd site, Pixel in the window and Jasper on the gate door, how crazy is that?

While at work there has been some crazy things this was before the snow in january just before christmas