Adding system info to your desktop background
I’d seen this in the past at a couple of clients, but never was able to figure out how their admins had accomplished it. I assumed it was some sort of setting hidden very far away in the bowels of Windows Server. I was wrong.
All my server's info in the background image.
Business Objects XI 3.1 SP2 out soon
Judging from the fact that the release notes (S-ID required) have been released, it cannot be long before it’ll be available from the SAP MarketPlace.
Crystal Reports licensing headaches
I cannot remember where I picked up the link exactly. Since Ken Hamady has been drawing attention to the new licence terms, it is likely that I picked it up from his site. What am I talking about? The fact that SAP BusinessObjects is making it difficult for trainers and publishers (and the likes) to use screenshots of Crystal Reports. This article in ITWorld Canada explains the issue quite well.
Updated to WordPress 2.8
I just updated to the latest and greatest version of WordPress, version 2.8, i.e. Baker. Here’s a nice overview of the latest additions. One of the new features I really like is the ability to load JavaScript in the footer of your theme.
Gartner evaluates the reporting capabilities of nine BI vendors
Gartner put the reporting capabilities of nine BI vendors to the test a while back. The results can be found in a fairly elaborate, 28 pages long, report with the dramatic title Critical Capabilities for Business Intelligence Reporting. MicroStrategy Report Services gets its share of positive feedback in it, which is probably why it is available for free on the MicroStrategy web site. You can grab your copy here, after having completed the registration process.
Messenger + A-Patch + Messenger Plus! = Four
I’ve been using Messenger in combination with A-Patch (Allah is great) and Messenger Plus! for a long time and it’s definitely a winning combination. I know there are other IM tools out there. I’m not sure if they’d do the job better though. Does anyone have anything sensible to say about it?
Cognos 8.4 FP1 is out
A colleague of mine told me yesterday that Fix Pack 1 for Cognos 8.4 was released.
8.4 Fix Pack 1 is a version of IBM Cognos 8 aimed at upgrading existing Cognos 8 customers. It includes updates to 8.4 BI Server, Metric, Go! Dashboard, Go! Search and Go! Mobile.
And it only took around, what, four years?
I’m flicking through the notes I’ve been making for the past half year or so on the XI 3.x version of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, because I’m preparing for the upgrade exam (Wednesday is the big day).
Collecting dust
Everything collects dust. Including your CSS. Dust-Me Selectors is a Firefox add-on that helps finding your unused CCS Selectors in style sheets. Handy when optimizing and debugging.
Chrome Experiments
To show us what can be done with Javascript (and Chrome) Google has launched Chrome Experiments. A collection of unusual experiments that also work in other (good) browsers.