I started the download and install process for the latest version of the iPhone software last night. It said it was going to take 6 minutes to download the software so I left it for 20 minutes assuming that when I returned the upgrade would be finished.

It was finished all right, with a message that the upgrade couldn’t finish and a picture on the phone to plug it into iTunes. It already was. Did the usual messing with reboots to no avail. Tried with an old Apple dual USB & Firewire cable with no success. This was on an XP PC and the iPhone wasn’t even recognised.

I plugged the iPhone into the Vista PC, which didn’t even have iTunes on it, with the dual cable and Vista recognised it as an iPhone immediately and a message was displayed about how it was recovering with something called iRecover. Don’t know where that came from. Downloaded and installed iTunes onto the Vista PC and that recognised the iPhone and suggested it needed a restore. Fine, get on with it. iTunes downloaded the latest version of the iPhone software – 2.2.1 – and tried to install it but again it failed. Tried again but this time with the regular USB only cable and it worked OK.

Of course there were no apps on it nor the address book as it had been sync’d with an empty iTunes so I connected it to the XP PC and it restored itself back with all of my data and apps. Wheeew…

Someone asked me whether I knew the application TOAD, I do, and which is a database administration application and which used to work only with Oracle. Why were they asking me about an Oracle application when all we use is MS SQL Server?

Coz TOAD now does SQL Server as well as a few other database systems. I thought I’d see if I can get TOAD setup at home so that I can freshen up my knowledge of it. Easier said than done. If I want to run TOAD then it needs an underlying dbms to run on and it will almost certainly need that dbms when installing TOAD. So firstly see if I can get SQL Server. Did a search and Microsoft do an Express version for free, so I downloaded SQL Server 2008 Express. Ran setup and that didn’t install as it needed the .NET framework. Downloaded that quite quickly and let it install itself, which took ages doing god knows what damage to my registry. Tried to install SQL Server again and this time it wanted the Microsoft, or is that Windows, Installer 4.5. Downloaded and installed that OK. Then I found out that I needed to install Windows Powershell, which I did. Retried to install SQL Server and this time it ground to a halt with an error message that was about as user friendly as a cornered rat about my administrator username that I’d entered, or something like that. This is getting hard work.

Just had a look on the net and seems I’m not the only person who has run into setup problems.

Just read that the CEO of RIM, who make the Blackberry Storm, has said “software glitches on smartphones are now part of the “new reality” as firms rush device development in order to meet important sales days”. I assume that the small print on documentation with your new smartphone will say something like ‘the software on this phone, (which you had actually bought it for) may or may not work’. Good stuff.

I’ve just been watching a new release of The Who live at Kilburn (London) in 1977 and very good it is too.

I got the Blu Ray version which looks great on a large screen and sounds good when played through the stereo, jeez it’s better than that, it was like being at the gig ferchrissakes. I’d always read that this was a bad gig and there are certainly several mistakes and Townshend does sound annoyed but it’s great to see. In fact just about anything is good to see on Blu Ray, pump it through your stereo and it rocks. The DVD also includes them playing at a gig at the Coliseum (London) in 1969 where a lot of Tommy is played. They actually play better here, much tighter, but the picture quality isn’t great, in fact its blurred and the sound is a bit thin. There was no way that this show could have been sold seperatly, hence its inclusion as bonus material.

A few weeks ago I bought Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway. I had played the previous two Brothers In Arms games a few years ago, and they were pretty good. I installed it OK on the Vista PC and started it up and the introduction played fine, which lasted several minutes, then when the actual game started it crashed out. Tried a second time with the same result. Checked the box and it was supposed to be Vista compatible. I installed it on the XP PC and it installed and played OK, the introduction and the game. Dare I check it on Windows 7?