Well, it’s finally happened. Google has dropped support in Gmail for the version of Gecko used by Mozilla Prism. This means that Gmail has to fall back on basic html mode. So, clicking on an email causes it to open up a new Firefox window for the email – rendering Prism completely unusable.

Of course, it was just a matter of time. Prism hasn’t been updated in almost 4 years – ever since Mozilla stopped developing an embeddable version of Gecko, and tied it into Firefox development. And, it seems like the idea of Site-Specific Browsers (SSBs) never took off.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the concept. For rich web-apps like Gmail, it just makes so much sense! I love having a dedicated Gmail window that is sandboxed from the rest of my browsing environment, giving me the full power of the Gmail web client, without having to keep my main browser signed into Google. It also means that I can put it up on it’s own monitor!

Fortunately, while the concept hasn’t really taken off, there is still a solution, at least for the Mac. For $5, I picked up a copy of Fluid, which allows me to set up a sandboxed SSB using a modern version of WebKit, giving me my Gmail app back. There are still a couple of quirks that I need to get used to, but it’s nice to know that I’m not going to have to drastically change my workflow.

Learned something new this week about (modern) cordless phones – they can interfere with wireless mice.

Customer had a problem with their wireless mouse (mouse + dongle, rather than Bluetooth). Whenever they were using it on their desk, it would act wonky, especially if a YouTube video was running, or the computer was under similar load.

Customer tried replacing both the mouse and the mousepad (in case something was screwing with the laser) with no luck, and the mouse worked fine on my workbench. So, I went over to take a look and check for sources of wireless interference. There was nothing obvious (no microwaves in the office, wireless router was on the other side of the room, etc.), but the customer had two cordless phone base stations on the desk. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I tried unplugging them, and all of a sudden the mouse started behaving properly.

Both phones were DECT 6.0, so *in theory* should not have affected the wireless mouse. That being said, most people only keep one on their desk, so perhaps something about the two being right next to each other was causing the interference? If anybody has any, I’d love to hear some theories on the phenomenon.

After spending a month trapped in certification limbo, I am happy to announce that I’ve officially finished my Windows Server 2008 certifications, giving me my MCSA: Windows Server 2008 and my MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008 certifications. This means that I just have to write two more exams to get to the Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 level, and then decide if I want to pursue an MCSE.

What was particularly fun about this set of exams was the time limit. I learned in early January that several exams that I needed to write were scheduled for retirement at the end of January. This meant that in order to get my credentials, I had to finish 5 exams in about 4 weeks. I did it by the skin of my teeth, with plenty of late nights and lots of studying.

I even learned something interesting about the Microsoft exam system. It seems that an exam’s retirement date is simply the last day that you can register to write it. You can still actually write it up to 8 weeks out (at least based on Prometric’s scheduling system), but there is no second shot if you fail. Going into this, I didn’t know that, so had to take a gamble that I would be able to write the last exam that I needed, the 70-643, which was scheduled to be retired on January 31. My options were to either write it in Kelowna on January 30, which in January is a dangerous drive from here, or to schedule it for February 4th and risk not being able to write it or get the credit.

I wasn’t willing to risk the Coquihalla in January, so I took the risk and wrote and passed the exam on February 4th. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. It can take 7 to 10 days for Prometric to report the results to Microsoft and get the exam added to your transcript. So, I waited patiently, if anxiously, until February 20, and still had not received a response. Worried, I sent an email to the appropriate department, who, after checking into it, promised to fix the problem within 3-5 business days.

As of last night, everything has finally registered properly in the portal, so I can breathe a sigh of relief, proudly display my new credentials, and move onto the next challenge.

For our son, we have a video baby monitor mounted over his crib so that we can keep an eye on him while he is sleeping. This way we can tell if he is tossing and turning, or if he is actually asleep. This is something that we have gotten very used to, and perhaps even spoiled by. When we are visiting his Grandparents, for example, and he is supposed to be napping in his playpen in the other room, he often doesn’t want to go down nicely. We can hear him if he cries, but if he is quiet, can’t tell if he is actually asleep. So, we wanted a video monitor that we can take with us when we travel.

His regular monitor is mounted to the wall, so we can’t easily take it with us, and a new monitor is fairly expensive – at least relative to how much we would expect to use it. So, I had to come up with another solution. Being a technical person, I have bins full of old, cast off and left-over parts, including about a half-dozen routers, and a couple IP cameras left over from an old project.

So, I pulled one of the routers, and one of the IP cameras – a TRENDnet TV-IP422W.

It’s a few years out of date, and only supports Wireless-G, and 640×480 video at 30 FPS, but the price is right. Not to mention, this camera has Pan/Tilt/Zoom, infrared night vision, a microphone, and an iPhone app – perfect for use as a baby monitor!

Unfortunately, while the camera does support ad-hoc wireless networking, it only supports WEP “security”. So, to make sure that we have a reasonably secure wireless network, I need to pack along the router as well. And, since I needed to use the router anyways, I figured that I would just connect the camera using the wired connection. It is significantly quicker, and I have always had trouble getting a decent frame rate from the camera over wireless. It also means that I can connect to the router using Wireless-N instead of Wireless-G.

So, after a bit of grief requiring me to set everything back to factory settings on all the devices, (That’s what happens when you use devices for various projects and just throw them back into the box without resetting them first), I plugged the camera into the router, configured a network with the necessary security settings, and connected up my old iPhone, which will be pressed into service as a monitor station when we travel.

It works great! just goes to show you what you can do when you have a few boxes of old parts lying around and can do a little bit of creative thinking.

EDIT: Forgot to add, you need to get the TRENDNet SecurView Mobile application off iTunes to support these old cameras. The TRENDnet SecurView Pro app only supports the newer ones. Both apps are free though.