I've included a fix for the DSS benchmark. The code used to label modules for services opened cursors without closing them properly. This prevented the benchmark from running for any period of time.

I've included a fix for datagenerator that allows it to load the soe.xml and sh.xml file regardless of timezone the user is running in. I've also changed the default config file to a simple version to try and prevent this problem happening in the future.

I've uploaded some new builds of datagenerator and swingbench to try and sort out some issues with national language support and timezones... i.e it only worked in the UK. Obviously if I could persuade everyone to change to UK time not only would it solve my issue, it would help solve a lot of other problems (never let it be said I have a insular view).

Ive just recently managed to acquire a Nokia E61 and its fair to say Im very impressed. For those that don't know the E61 is a cross between a PDA and a phone. Its a little like a Crackberry in design with a minature keyboard instead of a number pad and a larger (wider) than normal display. Those that know me will say its just a fad Dominic goes through gadgets faster than a scotsman goes through iron brew. Well the truth off the matter is it does everything I need it to do well.

At the moment there are four main players in the portable OS market. Symbain, Microsoft, Palm and just recently Linux. It appears that Microsoft is winning the day certainly in Northern America. Even Palm who I never thought would put Pocket PC on one of their devices has rolled over and given into Microsoft. Symbian is doing well thanks primarily to Nokia in Europe and Sony in the East. Palm OS still holds its own thanks to the superb Treo device but I think its days are numbered as Palm gets closer and closer to Microsoft.

I think most people would argue the point who cares what OS a phone or PDA runs as long as it lets me make calls or check my email. Well it matters to me, my phone is probably the device I use second after the PC in a working day and I have real issues with Microsofts mobile offerings. They like they are simply a port of a OS with mobile/phone functionality bolted on as an after thought. Using the phone feels foreign its not at the heart of the OS, it sits at the side like the black sheep of family. Its a bland uninspiring experience, simple things are made harder than necessary and require a knowledge of how similar tasks would be done on Windows XP.

Back to the E61. The thing you notice about this device is its dimuntive size weight and thickness. Most devices that pack the same level of the functionality are usually brick size in terms of weight and size. The E61 has bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G support and a hold raft of additonal connectivity funtionality. The interface works well and benefits from bright and clear display. The small keyboard works as well as any other Ive tried, so well in fact this whole blog (and the one before) was written on it. The battery life of the device is surprisingly good, about 4 days between charges. The reason for this easy to find when you take the back off the cover... Its mostly the battery which takes up the space but this begs the question where do they put all of the over "stuff".

I had the choice of the Treo 650 and the E61 and I think I made right choice. Sure it dosent have a camera but then I dont need a low res camera and infact some of the places I have to work it means I dont have to hand my phone in at their reception. One area I had some concerns is software, Palm OS has a huge library of high quality well thought through applications and to be honest with you Symbian doesn't. However the default applications that ship with the Nokia E61 pretty much leave you with the question "what else would I need?". Well theres one piece of software I do need and thats a decent GPS package.

After looking around I decide on Route 66 it had reasonable reviews and it worked with the Nokia GPS reciever Id purchased. As a package it worked out much cheaper than the TomTom alternative. Installing Route 66 on the E61 has to rate as one of the most unpleasant experiences Ive had with a mobile device. After insisting on formating my mini SD card in the phone it then told me I needed at least 16MB of free space... I tried other storage devices with same result, clearly Route 66 need to do some work on the installer. Theres no excuse for this level of software quality. The solution was to manually copy the software onto the SD card and even then a hard restart was required. However once the software was installed it worked like a dream and demonstrates the power of the E61s processor.

With the GPS software installed I have about all I need from a single device. I recomend the E61 to anyone thinking of upgrading their phone and PDA.

One of the problems when buiding a bespoke application is that you can never find a icon that reperesents exactly the action you need. Sure there are hundreds of sites on web that have "free" icons but these tend to be designed for the desktop. You can sometimes find sets that look very professional and you'd be proud to have them in your application. However you still have the issue that you don't only need icons to represent "file open" or "delete record" but also ones to represent the new action that is going make your application a best seller and the last think you need is a icon that sticks out like an ugly sore thumb.

So your left with a couple of choices. Go ahead and build that expensive icon set and hope that no one notices your child like attempts at graphic design. Or bite the bullet and commit your self to buiding the whole set your self. Now this not something you should attempt if you have no artistic aptitude or are short of patience. To be fair I've always been interested in graphic design but have never had the inclination or need to commit to buiding my own icon set. That was until I started working on datagenerator and swingbench. Im a one man team and I know many of you will be questioing the sense in spending time working on icons when it could better be invested in fixing bugs or working on new features, however one of my objectives when I started working on thes projects was to touch on a number of disciplines that my day to day job (core database) doesn't allow.

So once you've committed yourself to building your own bespoke set what tools do you use. Well theres no shortage of tools from bespoke icon editors to top end tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Paintshop pro etc. I've shyd away from icon editors in the past simply because I find them to restrictive. You find yourself spending to much time trying reproduce effects such as shadows and gradients which are pretty much the defacto standard on a modern desktop. I use two platforms these days, My Apple iMac and a Linux notebook. If I was designing icons and other graphics for a living I would invest the big bucks for a product like Adobe Illustrator... I wouldn't even hesitate, from my limited experience nothing comes close, however I dont do this for a living and it doesn't make any sense to spend a couple of thousand pounds for a dozen icons (although if someone has a spare license lying around...).

Luckily the open source market has a number of alternatives that provide a viable alternative. i dont have the time to list the various projects building superb tools to compete with the various commercial offerings but two stand out. The Gimp (worth using just to shout accross the office "I working on the Gimp") and Inkscape. The Gimp is primarily used as a raster or digital paint tool as is comaparable to Adobe Photoshop. Inkscape is a vector paint tool and is comparable to Adobe illustrator in terms of use if not functionality, it also has the added benefit of working directly in SVG. Working in a scalable format, such as SVG, is a real asset to icon design it means you can work on a large scale and then shrink or enlarge your design with very little loss in quality.

So Ive comitted to Inkscape and Im very impressed so far. It appears rock solid, has ports for MacOS and Linux, has tools for viewing your designs as they would appear as icons and has some genuinely inovative features. However it does have some flaws.... The documentation is very weak, some of the dialogues are confusing at best and its not a native port to MacOS (that really would set the cat amongst the pigeons).

That set Ive started work and its pretty straight forward to put together some consistent icons. Ill post the results shortly... don't laugh

I've uploaded a new build of datagenerator (46). The update to this build is primarily to include new debug code to try and diagnose a issue with reading the default config files shipped with datagenerator. This prevents users from reading the data inside of the xml file. This appears to be a national language issue since the data is shipped in UK format. If you have this issue, uncomment the debug line in the shell script or bat file that starts datagenerator and post the output to me via the comments page.