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Welcome to my blog. This is mainly about IT, information management and Cyber Security with occasional forays into general technology, science and maybe even politics and beliefs.

I welcome feedback on this site and its content. Please use the contact form if you spot anything amiss with the site and use Disqus to talk about any of the articles.

There are 301 pages currently on this site. 235 blog posts, 60 knowledgebase pages, 6 about pages and 0 project pages.

Latest posts and knowledgebase articles


📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

Diigo Bookmarks 11/06/2009

<p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/no_tag'&gt;no_tag&lt;/a> </p> <ul class=‘diigo-highlights’> <li> <div class="diigoContent"> <div class="diigoContentInner"> Automation Analyst </div> </div> <ul class=‘diigo-sticky-notes’> <li> <span class=‘diigo-post-by’> &#8211; post by <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet">knightnet</a></span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/no_tag'&gt;no_tag&lt;/a> </p> <ul class=‘diigo-highlights’> <li> <div class="diigoContent"> <div class="diigoContentInner"> VBA Developer, Access, Excel, Front Office </div> </div> <ul class=‘diigo-sticky-notes’> <li> <span class=‘diigo-post-by’> &#8211; post by <a href="http://www.


📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

Diigo Bookmarks 11/04/2009

<p class=‘diigo-description’> Follow-on discussion about developments in IdM as a service </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/IdM'&gt;IdM&lt;/a> </p> <p class=‘diigo-description’> Interesting discussion on the development of IdM services. </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/IdM'&gt;IdM&lt;/a> </p>


📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

NewIT 11/04/2009 (a.m.)

<p class=‘diigo-description’> Follow-on discussion about developments in IdM as a service </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/IdM'&gt;IdM&lt;/a> </p> <p class=‘diigo-description’> Interesting discussion on the development of IdM services. </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/IdM'&gt;IdM&lt;/a> </p>


📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

NewIT 11/03/2009 (a.m.)

<p class=‘diigo-description’> Public, Private and Privileged methods and variables </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/javascript'&gt;javascript&lt;/a&gt;, <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/development'&gt;development&lt;/a> </p> <ul class=‘diigo-comments’> <li> <span class=‘diigo-post-by’> &#8211; post by <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/eliazar">eliazar</a></span> </li> </ul> <p class=‘diigo-description’> Nikon official codec for RAW (NEF) images. Allows Windows (Win 7, Vista, XP) </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/photography'&gt;photography&lt;/a&gt;, <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/software'&gt;software&lt;/a&gt;, <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/freeware'&gt;freeware&lt;/a&gt;, <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/windows'&gt;windows&lt;/a> </p> <p class=‘diigo-description’> An alternative to the Google provided content cache that provides a CDN for common JavaScript libraries such as JQuery.


📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

📖 Posts | 📎 Diigo | 🔖None

NewIT 10/27/2009 (a.m.)

<p class=‘diigo-description’> Organisation promoting standards for healthcare systems integration </p> <p class=‘diigo-tags’> <a style=‘color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;’ href=‘http://www.diigo.com/cloud/knightnet'&gt;tags&lt;/a&gt;: <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/work'&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;, <a href=‘http://www.diigo.com/user/knightnet/healthcare'&gt;healthcare&lt;/a> </p>


📖 Posts | 📎 Development, Microsoft, Windows | 🔖 Maps, Office, VBA

Nearest Postcode Search in Microsoft Excel

I need to find a load of addresses by proximity to a postcode. I have the addresses in a Microsoft Access database. Download Paul Jenkins’s UK Postcode csv and import into Access as a table Create a query on your own table adding the following calculated field: <pre>PCregion: Trim( Left( [My Table]![Postcode], InStr( [My Table]![Postcode], &#8221; &#8221; ) ) )</pre> Create a second query that joins the above query to the imported postcode table.


📖 About | 📎None | 🔖None

License, Copyright & Usage

Unless otherwise stated, the code, content and design of this site and all of the information on it is © Copyright Julian Knight 1990- 2023. The nature of a site like this means that it will reference many organisations and products. As such all copyrights and trade marks are acknowledged. If you think or know that any reference requires a specific acknowledgement, please get in touch and I will endeavour to put things right as quickly as possible.


📖 Posts | 📎 Blogging | 🔖 Blogger, Wordpress

Hello WordPress! My blogs now combined

I’ve moved my several Blogger blogs over to a single WordPress blog as I can take better control. Unfortunately, I’m guessing that some comments may get lost in the move – sorry about that. Anyway, you will now find blog entries about all areas of IT that take my fancy including Windows, Linux, Web & Office development, Identity Management and doubtless lots of other random stuff. My blogs are mainly for me so that I can keep things I’d like to remember (or rant about!


📖 Posts | 📎 Hardware, Linux, Virtualisation | 🔖 BIOS, OpenSUSE, VirtualBox

Flashing the BIOS from Linux (OpenSUSE 11.0)

I’ve been a bit quiet here recently because I’ve mainly been working with my business laptop currently running Windows 7. You can see more about this on my other blog – [Much Ado about IT][1]. However, the power supply on that died recently so I’m back to my trusty desktop which runs OpenSUSE 11.0 24×7. I managed to get hold of an upgraded CPU for this a while back but I’ve not really had an incentive to upgrade till now.


📖 Posts | 📎 Development, Windows | 🔖 BASH, Batch, Cygwin, Scripting

Cygwin BASH function to open the latest version of a document

One handy function I’ve added to .bashrc (so it is always available) under Cygwin (the LINUX command environment for Windows) works out the current working version of a document. It assumes that you keep copies that have a version number or date in the file name that will sort correctly. You can use it with an alias like this: If you name your documents sensibly such as “a-document-2009-07-20.doc” or “a-document-v01.01.doc”, then the latest version of the file will be opened in the default application


📖 Posts | 📎None | 🔖 Batch, Configuration, Cygwin, Scripting

Speeding up Cygwin

Yesterday I mentioned my success with Cygwin. One issue I did have though was with the speed of startup. It was taking 15-20 seconds to start a BASH shell. It turns out that this was a PATH issue. I went through my Windows PATH and cleared out the clutter. Now it takes just around 3-4 seconds for a full BASH login and less still for just running a script. I now find myself using the BASH shell for all sorts of things and I’ve set up a number of alias’s to switch to folders I’m using a lot and to open common documents.


📖 Posts | 📎 Software, Windows | 🔖 Backup, Batch, Cygwin, Scripting, Win7

Windows command prompt vs PowerShell vs Cygwin for remote backup scripts

I’ve been struggling with trying to get a new backup routine working for my Laptop. I should point out that I have several complex requirements for backup so my needs are probably not average. However, it really shouldn’t be this hard! I need to use a combination of BZR (Bazaar) for document version control and RSYNC (for files that don’t need version control and for those folders that might contain files too big for version control systems – around 1/3 to 1/2 available memory).


📖 Posts | 📎None | 🔖 Fail, Technorati

Nobody is listening at Technorati

I’ve had a problem trying to claim this blog at the Technorati web site. It seems that using Firefox doesn’t work and that in getting part the way through the claim process and then failing, I can no longer complete the process. No problem I thought, I’ll contact the Technorati support and they will help. Well think again. Despite several emails over the last few months (there’s no phone number), nobody has even bothered to reply.


📖 Posts | 📎 Development, Software, Windows | 🔖 Vista, Win7

Running Komodo Edit Open Source Code Editor Under Windows 7

The open source version of Komodo’s code editor and development environment Komodo Edit is a great tool for development. I use it for PHP, HTML, JavaScript and more. However, I haven’t done any serious coding for a while so I haven’t needed to run it under Windows 7 even though I had it installed. When I did, I was disapointed to find it behaving very poorly. It wouldn’t resize properly without messing up the screen.