I was fed up typing in the IP address of test machines that are on a different domain and dns within my network so decided to work out how to quickly switch to using that DNS when at work and back to dynamic when not.

It turns out to be really simple. The DNS being used is adapter specific which makes sense when you think of VPN and multiple other uses so you will need to know the name of the adpater you are using.

In my case it is “Wireless Network Connection”

netsh interface ip set dns "Wireless Network Connection" static <ipaddress>

to set it back:

netsh interface ip set dns "Wireless Network Connection" dhcp

netsh should be in your path so this can be run from any directory in the command line.

So one of the best apps that I have been using the is just missing on the iPhone, well the last time a cared to look anyway, is the native Google Reader app.

The iPhone version is just weak. An HTML 5 application that does the best a web app can do but is just nothing compared to native.

I don’t think it makes sense to go into the fine details of why it is better it just is.

Faster
Focused
Large text on the HTC Inspire screen is awesome

Native is the best option for now as far as I am concerned and the Reader app does not disappoint.

For the past 24 hours I have been using an Android phone rather than my usual iPhone. I have heard a bunch of people get caught up in the lack of apps debate.

It seems to me that counting apps solely based on number is crazy. If someone actually grouped the apps into same function, rated them and got rid of anything but the best 2 then I think the count would be much different.

I for one have only found 1 app missing that I want and need, netflix and I really only watch that on my iPad.

I am not going to worry about apps and focus on if the OS and the functionality in the apps themselves are useful.

For now, first impression is that I like the ios better but the large screen on the HTC inspire is awesome.

After using the iPhone for a whole 6 weeks now I am convinced it is a huge leap in technology that no-one will get close to in years.

In my opinion, the iPhone and the eco-system around it is the best implementation done by apple to date. It is the result of fine tuning their philosophy of building the hardware and the software with one dramatic twist. It is not their software that is selling the phones.

The app store is the single greatest move apple has made. I don’t know if they or any of the application developers make any money right now but they will.

Microsoft have had a decent operating system for many years and there are tons of applications that have been built on it. People do not know about them though and if you do find an app the process of downloading and installing it is a pain. This coming from a guy that develops software for a living is not a good thing!

Apple took a concept given to them by the community an implemented it from a user perspective perfectly.

From a developer aspect it seems like Apple are very restrictive but they have their reasons. The issue is that many developers are used to working in the Microsoft or Linux world where nothing is imposed on you. Just because Apple are different does not mean that they are wrong. Time will tell if their tactic is right.

As for the phone itself this one is the best one I’ve had. Proof is that I am using it to write this post. Try doing that on most other phones!

Windows does not really do a great job of de-fragmenting a hard disk and this is especially true when you are trying to get a Virtual PC image smaller.

I did some searching on the web and found this: Free Disk Defragmenter which seems to do a really good job.

It looks like at a low level it copies all the files from the main used area in a temporary space on the disk and then copies then back to de-fragment them. Simple, quick(-ish) and it works like a charm.

Using this and the compacting the VPC image post describing the use of the built in compacter took a 2.5GB installation down to 1.5 GB. Can’t complain at that!