I’ve been working at BKL tech for almost 3 months. In this time I have learnt a great deal about developing real software for real people.
This is not going to be a entry about deadlines and good project management skills as there are enough of those already and people still don’t listen to them.

In the development of software for accountancy systems, the fundamentals of accountancy are cast in stone, unlike other fields there are no real significant updates and the accountants in training are learning the same thing as the retired accountants have.

We at BKL tech are dealers of Access Dimensions, your complete accounting solution, yes I know every one has a complete this and complete that, but the difference is Access works, has worked and is working constantly. What I really like about dimensions is its API system, to those who don’t know, an API is a interface for a published software application that allows for a third party developer to go inside and use its functions for its self – that wasn’t a official definition, but hopefully you understand what I mean.

This type of design works best, especially in the accountancy field, as it really does open up great exciting new ways to process those ancient ways.

Allowing your app to allow access to your features is the way forward. Im not saying it should be open source, because even though you will feel good about it, someone else will feel even better once they have sold it!

Any application that has some weight should allow for third party apps to run from it.
I have a friend that wastes almost an hour a day inputting timesheets into her software. These timesheets are sent over by email from all the employees of the company around the world.

A web service could come into play here. You need an underlying database (preferably the target software systems one) and a nice ASP page with a good GUI.
Therefore allowing any of the employees to log in and add the timesheet there selves.

Okay that was an extremely simple example, but you should understand what I mean. Even at this low level of implementation it is going to work if the company making that target system allows for its application to tell the third party where to drop in the data.

Because i had finished uni (with a great result may i add!) i decided ill treat myself to a little present so i ended getting a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

The reason for this purchase was that i can have a portable computer, with a good battery life and best of all runs LINUX!
Running linux on the device allows me to convert this badboy into the ultimate computer security tool.
Getting to grips with the N800 was really easy and there are masses of information out there on how to set it up. i currently am running nmap, aircrack, and metasploit on the device.

There are 2 ways of hooking it up to the net, the inbuilt wireless or the bluetooth connection (to a mobile phone) the storage consists of internal memory store and 2 slots for SD cards (capable of taking 8 gig cards which allows for 16gb hdd)

Apart from using the device for system penetrating, its used as a mp3 player, move player and general web surfing. the n800 touch screen has excellent clarity and i have been told also that the display is way better than the Iphone.

Im very happy with this device, and the fact that its running linux opens up many many possibilities to software that can be ported over!

They are starting up in a new sector and they want someone to totally immerse themselves into it, and it looks like this is me!!!

More details to follow, but looking over the contract, im not sure if this new sector is hush hush !!!!

The project was :

Complete IT Solution for Small Rental Business System

When i meant complete, i meant complete.

Implementation Language : VB.Net / ASP.NET
Database: MySQL 5.0 Community Server

Basic Specs:

1. Rent/Return Stocks Items
2. Reserve Items
3. Search Stock
4.Add/Edit/Remove Stock
5.Add/Edit/Remove Members
6.Report on Sales

Advance Specs:

7. Barcode Scanning for quiker and accurate entry
8. Membership cards with barcodes relevant to members information
9. The Use of Amazon Web Services, to download up to date DVD title information
10.Email Merge for promotions

here are some screenshots of the finsished product

While searching i found IMDB.com (which happens to be a amazon company anyway!) and freeDB, originally i was going to use freeDB but the lack of data which i needed didnt really help me and the IMDB database interfaces where unappealing and i couldnt really find relevant documentation.

Roll on amazon, was first introduced to amazon web services in my “Principles Of Applications And Web Services Lecture”, for that lecture we were just dealing with the XML SOAP EDI approaches, but this got me thinking….

First of all, if you want to get your AWS interface up quickly, hope your requirements are not going to be a local VB2005 application because it has been hell trying to find some decent examples online.

when you do find a sample (especially on Here) you will notice that the WSDL is a older one and the methods used are now obselete!!!

i only ever used the one method, (itemlookup) there are plenty to choose from due to the vast amount of information that is stored in amazon.

The forums are helpful, sometimes!! because the majority of applications that people are using the interfaces for are either asp.net or c, which is probably better but hey, i like my VB!

i have finally completed the function and once you get it up and running you will be surprised how powerful this is.

Basic Steps Of the Web Serivce In Vb is as follows:

1.Add Web Reference To You Project, which at this moment in time is HERE

2.Import the reference to the top of your project imports myapp.com.amazon.webservices

3.produce a request that conforms to the standard, THIS site is excellent for helping with this, you can generate your own requests and apparently it used to script vb for you (it would be nice to see that again !)

4.produce a reponse handler so you know what to look for and use the data according !

I know how hard it is to find samples out there so if anyone would require one for vb.net i will be happy to supply as basic one!

loads of work going on at the moment what with Uni projects and halo9!

Started getting into my computer security again (new years resolution) joined up to the old forums again and started reading up, On the way out today i decided to turn on my carputer and see how many wireless networks i could find that werent encrypted

137 wifi networks, 74 were unencrypted!

Some people have no clue what so ever, it is so so so easy to just sit outside mr blogs house and sniff out the network packets, im not saying that its not possible if its WEP encrypted but it does deter the average wardriver!

Also the fact that the SSID’S are default “Netgear, Linksys, DEFAULT” immediatley makes the intruder suspect a default router password and username combination.
admin/password or admin/admin or admin/.. etc etc..

The reason why this is such an issue is that unless the owner of the router checks a log, or checks their router they will have no idea that someone else was using their bandwidth which could either be “kinda harmlessly” checking their email or launching an attack on another machine, turning off their laptop and walking a way not leaving a trace.

http://www.h9consultants.com

Ive been putting it off forever, finally had some time over the holiday period to update it, stripped the flash completley and went for the HTML CSS style, nice simple, still not 100% (problems with the PHP scripts)
looks fine, left the old version still up there just incase i need to show it to anyone.
Just a matter of time before i change my mind again!

Its a Flash Site, the project description was to update the site, conform to the new colours of the companys logo.

Ive been training in the techniques of KravMaga, for those of you who dont know what this it, Its the Isreali Close Combat Fighting System, Its what they train you in their army, The FBI and the SEALS use it, and its also whats used in the films Casino Royale and the Bourne Identity.
Some serious stuff Here, Ive been training with The only isreali instructor in England and been at it for almost a year
have a look
Now that i have reached p3 im able to go to the Czech Republic and continue my training with the Czech Forces,This also includes firearms training

Did you know that the laser that you get in your DVD RAM drive is powerful enough to burn through stuff

well thats my next project, James Bond eat your heart out!