One of the most asked questions I got from customer, in relation to their planned migration to Linux, is “Will Linux runs our legacy application ?”. And, 90% of the time, that legacy apps will be a VisualBasic 6 application. They feared that it won’t run on Linux, and their business will suffer.

I’ve always told my customers that “technical problems are not a problem“.
I can always help them find a solution for a technical issue. It’s the political ones that’s sometimes proved impossible to deal with
For example, once I met with a Canadian consultant, who happily informed me that he has been successful in making legacy apps running in older-than-dinosaur servers to talk with the web-apps on Linux, by creating a wrapper for these oldies. My inner geek bowed and saluted his hacking wizardry, and again my faith in our ability to overcome technical issues is strengthened.

Back to VisualBasic, what I did then is to observe their current situation. Each customer is unique, and a solution won’t always work for each of them. After the fact-finding session, then I usually able to prescribe the best solution for them.

Today I found one other possible solution for this.

Found a discussion on Slashdot, where it was noted that RealBasic is almost 100% compatible with VisualBasic and will run on non-Microsoft platform (even on Mac OS X).
Many will find its price (US$ 500) is way cheaper than to redevelop their corporate application.

Although not the solution for all, but it’s always good to have yet another choice, especially at this medium price range - it’s a clean solution and still affordable.

Just another reminder why I still check Slashdot from time to time — it’s not for the news, but the comments.
You guys rock. Thank you.

And to those looking to develop their corporate application - go web-based guys. Tying yourself to a single, proprietary, platform may prove very costly later.

And always, again, ALWAYS get the source code. Do not deal with a developer which will develop your corporate apps but won’t give you the source. Period.
You will thank me later for this, and when that happens, you may feel like transmitting a huge amount of money to my bank account. Don’t worry, it’s absolutely normal. In that case, just comment in this post, and you shall find my account details in your email in just a few minutes.

OK, gotta code !

I’ve found that my USB external hard disk (2.5 inch) doesn’t work on Powerbook G4. This is because Powerbook actually conforms to USB standard, and only provide 500 mA power to each of its 2 USB port. This, unfortunately, is not enough to power-up the hard disk.

A solution is to buy a powered USB hub; plug it to the Powerbook. Then plug the USB hard disk to the hub.

Another solution is possible though if you have a USB Y-cable. A Y-cable is a USB cable where one end has 2 connectors.
Basically, you plug the end with one connector to the hard disk, and then plug each of the other 2 connectors to Powerbook’s 2 USB port.

I furthered the hack by plugging one of the connector (because it’s not long enough to reach the Powerbook’s other USB port) to an unpowered USB hub, then I plug that hub to the other Powerbook’s USB port.

Since 2 USB port x 500 mA = 1000 mA, now it has enough power for the 2.5 hard disk.

I haven’t tried this trick with standard (3.5 inch) hard drive though.
You may have to use the powered USB hub, or, use the Y-cable and plug one of its connector to a desktop computer. Most desktop computers’ USB ports nowadays have enough juice to power even things that wasn’t supposed to be plugged there (USB-powered fan anyone?)

Anyway, HTH.