ACS, Ethics and IT “Professionals”

April 30, 2006 at 10:44 pm | In Technology | 1 Comment

I’m going to join the debate on Australian Computer Society (ACS) membership that Mitch Denny has started.

I’m not currently a member, but my tertiary course is accredited by the ACS – so if I were to fork out the money, I could be a member.

The ACS has a Code of Professional Conduct and Professional Practice which incorporates the holy list of ethics that Mitch was asking for.

Mitch asks the question What does professionalism get you? and I think this excerpt from the Code sums it up:

One of the hallmarks of a profession is the commitment by its members to high standards of professional conduct.

The [code] is designed to provide members with authoritative guidance on acceptable standards of professional conduct and practice within the IT industry.

The Code should be approached as a set of guidelines of acceptable standards of personal behaviour and methods of practice within the IT industry.

The Code may be quoted by an expert witness giving an assessment of whether certain conduct was good practice. 

Even if you are not a member, a court of law may call on an ACS member as an expert witness in a case of professional negligence.

Tom Worthington (a former ACS president) has a blog feed and an article on Ethics and the IT Professional as it was introduced to me at university.

Vista/IE7: Changing the default search provider

April 30, 2006 at 8:59 am | In Windows Vista | 2 Comments

Search is everywhere in Windows Vista. There’s a search box at the top of Internet Explorer and just above the Start button.

Vista Search Provider

But if you just can’t get used to the default Windows Live search, then don’t fret. Head over to Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer 7.

Add your own Search Provider

You can also add a search provider to any search engine you like using JavaScript. Checkout the OpenSearch specification for more information.

window.external.AddSearchProvider(‘URL’)

Search my site

Click to add holliday.com.au search provider

Example

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/“>
    <ShortName>Holliday.com.au</ShortName>
    <Description>Holliday.com.au Search</Description>
    <Url type=”text/html” template=”http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}%20site:holliday.com.au” />
</OpenSearchDescription>

Vista Fix: No sound through speakers on Dell laptop

April 30, 2006 at 8:24 am | In Windows Vista | 62 Comments

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 which has the SigmaTel C-Major Audio device.

SigmaTel C-Major Audio Device

The Vista 5365 installer doesn’t have the drivers included but Windows Update includes a version. This version will install and work fine with the internal laptop speakers.

However, when you plug headphones or speakers in – they don’t work!

Downloading and installing the latest Audio drivers for Windows XP from the Dell support site will fix the problem though.

Workaround: Vista 5365 Explorer runs really slow

April 30, 2006 at 8:20 am | In Windows Vista | 2 Comments

On Build 5365 of Windows Vista there is a bug with SearchIndexer.exe which causes it to crash continuously and slow down Windows Explorer. Thankfully I found a fix on this forum.

SearchIndexer has stopped working

Symptoms

  • Windows Explorer is really slow. Folder contents take forever to display.
  • File | Save As../Open.. has a lag of about 5 seconds.
  • You keep getting the “SearchIndexer.exe stopped working and was closed” errors

Causes

  • System Locale is not English (United States)

Workaround

Change system locale to English (United States)

  • Go to Control Panel
  • Under “Clock, Language and Region” select “Change the system language”
  • Select the “Administrative” tab
  • Select “Change System Locale…”
  • Change the current language to “English (United States)”
  • Restart when prompted

 

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