Monthly Archives: June 2006

Google do spreadsheets.

Site Design, Software

Google Spreadsheets (yep, another Google Beta ;) ) looks great.

I’m not entirely sure how much use it will be to me, but for those without spreadsheet software, who may have a need to use it once in a while, I think this will be a great tool.

It’s not an original idea, though*. This kind of functionality appears in Microsoft’s Sharepoint Server 2007 Beta, but of course, that’s the kind of software you have to pay for – and far too complex / costly for the average user.

Whatever the level of user who is going to use this tool, I’m all for it. As long time readers will know, I’m a big fan of Google, and this is not doing anything to change my mind about that.

* Of course, Google could have come up with the idea first – I just don’t know.

So what am I up to now?

.NET, Avanade

Well, about 5 weeks ago I joined Avanade as a solution Developer, and since joining I’ve had all kinds of things going on – not least of which was a trip to Seattle for an orientation / training week. It sounds terrible, b ut is actually really good. I’ll be blogging about that later.
I start my first customer facing role on Monday. I’m not going to say anything about who it is for, or what it is doing, but it *is* going to teach me new skills, and give me the opportunity to meet some more of my colleagues “in the field”

Buffalo LinkStation as a SlimServer

General, Software

This post should prove useful for anyone thinking about using a Buffalo LinkStation to run their SlimServer instance. The advantages of doing this are:

  1. The LinkStation is a small and quiet device, so it can sit just about anywhere without being obtrusive.
  2. The SlimServer software runs quite happily on this unit, saving the requirement for a full-blown PC or server to serve media.

There are several ways to do this installation, but I found the following to be quite painless.

The first thing to do is the read the warnings and information on http://linkstationwiki.org/Projects/OpenLink Please take these warnings seriously. They DO matter.

Once you are happy that you know what you’re doing, you can move on to http://linkstationwiki.org/Articles/GeneralFirmwareFlash and start the actual installation. If you follow the instructions carefully, you should be fine.

To install SlimServer, follow the instructions from the heading “Getting SlimServer on the LinkStation.” at http://fieldnetworks.com/slim/linkstation3.html

Having installed the software, I had issues with several Perl modules not being in the new firmware. To remedy this, download MIPSelSlimServerModules, and copy them to the root (/) of the LinkStation. From there, unpack the package (tar –zxf mipsel-slimserver-modules-0.5b.tgz) and run install.sh (./install.sh). This should resolve dependencies for SlimServer version 6.2.2 and older.

That, all being well, should be enough to get you going.