Posts by rory dobson

Is it a NAS? Is it a SAN? No. It's Synology's Rackstation 'NASSAN'

Re: "Far cry from the prosumer NASes upon which Synology built its name"

We've bought two pairs of Synology devices over the years. Pairs because our data centre is split over two sites for load balancing and DR. We've had very mixed results with two recent high-end rackstations.

We tested, and built, the devices served the users as expected, and all was good.

For the testing and data load they shared a rack and replicated like good little bunnies, and I was happy.

Then we split them up, put them 200 miles apart on a 100mbs WAN - 8 (visible) hops - and it all went to rats.

Synology help has not managed to resolve, and three months on we're still manually copying files because the replication won't do a delta.

Don't get me wrong, the users are still happy, but I'm not.

There's a reason my BigNameRebadged filers cost 6 times as much...

Apple KILLER decloaked? Google lovingly unboxes Nexus 7 Android 4.3 slablette

Re: It only just clicked - YESS AND NO!

Yes, PCs are lasting longer - at work what I used to depreciate and replace over 5 years now is re-lifed for at least one, maybe two more years. Processor power has overtaken software load in all but the top end games. And now I'm buying tablets too, but they live hard lives and I depreciate over 3 years...

No, think about home users. At home I have four people, one "games" PC (5 yrs) and one media PC (3yrs) and one netbook and we all share them. Tablets - we're catching up, but counting phablets (5.1 inches must count right?) we've gone from zero to three in under a year, and I expect there'll be at least two more next Christmas. I think that's why the outsell will continue: PCs are predominantly shared *home* resources, whereas tablets are *personal*, and we're still playing catch up!

Whatever, tablets should keep outselling until the inventories are more balanced - then we'll see!

France's 'three strikes' anti-piracy law shot down

Seriously?

I still rent DVDs because I cannot justify the over £30 travel/admission to a cinema for my family. Bonus: cheap snacks, no rustling papers, no kids squeeking. I'm far from the only person I know who does this (I have a daughter who has the job of cueing the Film past the enforced rubbish while drinks/snacks are sorted)

I will ALWAYS buy the CD for music - and I buy far too many, often on import - because I want to be able to play on ANY of my devices - PC, laptop, MP3, HiFi, car (MP3), phone, tablet (not prepared to use "cloud" anything, proprietory formats or iTunes).

Sheep may be the most common variety of consumer (particularly those farmed by Apple), but as usual it's the paying customers who get ripped off by DRM.

EA Origin vuln puts players at risk

Re: Shame.

I won't install Origin, and that rules out EA games.

My loss in one respect.

My security in another...

Are your servers PETS or CATTLE?

Battery hens?

I'd have though battery hens are a slightly better metaphor than cattle and pets, as they are really interchangeable, and can be treated as disposable in large quantities. You don't want to think about the life of a factory farmed chicken...

Anyway, everyone could keep them (almost anyway - a small outdoor space is all that is required) but most folks don't need so many eggs, or to be tied down, and prefer to buy the product in small quantities.

Kept in homes (small businesses) they get named and nurtured.

On smallholdings (large businesses) selling a few eggs they get managed, and looked after humanely

But on factory farms (resellers/cloud/multinationals) they get the heck managed out of them!

Shiny, shiny! The window's behind me...

Re: Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather...

Absolutely Venus in Furs - humming all the way through until I saw the video and realised it wasn't TVU.

Didn't even recall the nonsense at the bottom after listening to the first 20 seconds (all I could stand). I am heading towards the top of the 40's but even so, the only other "Shiny" track I could recall was "Shiny Happy People" - REM.

Currently the "Best of Velvet Underground" is in rotation on my (non fruity) MP3 player... 8GB or random, but tonight on the commute I'll dial up TVU for some nostalgia.

SimCity to teach SimMaths and SimScience at school

Wonder if...

...the .edu version will be free from the horrendous DRM that the general release version appears to be saddled with?

From what I've read, punters cannot play off-line (at all, as in ever), cannot install on multiple machines they own, and are forced to play in a persistent multiplayer universe with other punters affecting their citystate. Add in no save and revert option, and no matter how good the simulation, the real world reviews (i.e. not the leaching gaming press) are going to be looking grim.

So bright side up: this edition could be the only thing that turns a profit for this version of SimCity.

Explosion of DANGEROUS IT GEAR injures and CRIPPLES MEDICS

Re: normal people prefer to talk than to type.

Only for your experience of normal.

I would rather *not* talk to MOST people... if I could possibly avoid them.

Google makes money on Nexus 7... just

Re: Ye Typo

Of course most of the UK don't use thee, thou, thine much if at all now (especially not in church) but in at least one geographic area it is still common, even the norm: the small isles of Orkney.

Conversations between 30/40/50 year olds can be a little like dropping back a hundred years linguistically - and that's without the increadible accent!

Windows 8: Thrown into a multi-tasking mosh pit

Stealing focus...

...is the biggest BUG left in MS-Windows. Quite WHY MS have never fixed this nonsense I don't know.

Flashing on the bar - fine, poping to front and then taking the next "o" I type as OK, well that's just plain wrong, and gets me in trouble at least half a dozen times a day.

Of course learing to type without looking down would help... but where's the time for/fun in that?

Multiwindowmultitasker all the way...

Whitehall hopes to shave 'conservative' £100m off PC bill

You would be shocked...

I buy as close to 100% off frameworks as possible - for a start it's MUCH faster!

I've seen several equivalent or smaller Gov orgs that didn't know about frameworks, let alone use them.

I spread light where possible.

There is...

It's called Buying Solutions (at least I don't think the name has changed in the last year).

Very useful they are too!

Loads of framework contracts for just about everything ICT types could want (and way more too).

Just avoid the SPRINT 2 framework like the palgue unless you've already got comparative quotes!

There is a Scottish version too - Procurement Scotland - with a slightly narrower remit.

Simple...

Install Office and have it run, quickly, regardless of LAN / WAN or other connectivity/traffic...

Cloud it and suffer whenever things change. And because everthing changed for everone, at that time the LAN, WAN and Internet pipe will already be stuffed beyond capacity.

That completely ignores the economics of Office365 which I had to research last year... and ran screaming.

Not sure how it is for other IT managers, but my LANs, WAN and Internet links are the most expensive parts of my infrastructure, and are all, always, teetering on the ragged edge of their capacity as more and more systems and services are "cloud", "on-line", "browser enabled" and "Web service" based.

Does "the business" understand what is proposed?

Thought not.

Nope - £500 is not enuff...

Sadly, by the time I load all the required software, including security, a suitable laptop (tough enough, light enough, etc. as defined by Gov procurement I hasten to add - although I agree with current choices) is north of £600 before MS costs are added. Of course you *have* to buy with them with an MS license, which I then have to throw away under the terms of my enterprise agreement... sigh.

At least we sweat ours. Some folks still replace every 3/4/5 years automatically: we run things until they die in service, or fail during upgrade (hello Win7 - looking at you).

That said - an average cost of 666 is is only interesting because we don't know what the figure includes? Deployment? Software? Build? Disposal? It's either good value, or just not great depending on the answers!

Gov's 'open data' strategy: It'll cost too much and won't work

No shit sherlock...

There's a very good reason that "we" IS/IT professional in Government have reservations: it's a clusterf*ck waiting to happen that we, as professionals, cannot recommend to our organisations due to the increadible risk and sky high cost (both money, time, and the ditto lack of same on the business critical projects that will have to get bumped in order to do this nonsense).

There's a very good reason that the big consultancies will say it's possible and bid like pigs at a trough: it's a clusterf*ck waiting to happen that means they'll be rolling in change control gravy for a decade before the Auditors pull the plug... and then criticise the commisioning Gov Officials (us) for the mess.

It's a lose lose situation - Please, please, won't someone think of the taxpayers...

UK.gov 'pay as you go' IT services cloud to float in March

Not quite that simple...

Although I agree in principle (about not running hundreds of exchange servers), centralising them into clouds does not in and of iteself make savings at any point.

First, you are increasing WAN networking load and potentially increasing bandwidth to another party. WAN costs are easilly the most expensive commodity I buy (off framework), and bandwidth is always at a premium. I have three "cloud" options available on current Buying Solutions frameworks, and even with staff and license reductions, none would "save" enough to pay for the bandwidth hike alone, let alone the change costs. Don't think the Audit and Risk groups would approve the move to a system with so many single points of failure for ALL systems either!

Second, we're all at the virtualisation and storage centralisation game now, and x86 hardware is phenominally cheap for the loads we can run. Our DMZ servers cost 1/10th (invoice price, not depreciated) than the 6 year old kit they replaced last year, and are way more powerful and vastly more power efficient. If it's "outsourced", however you figure that, you ARE paying profit margins... the providers are in this for their shareholders, not the public!

But I do agree about the ill-though out projects! THAT is where the real waste lives, breathes and lines corporate pockets.

Ofcom rules on Clarkson strumpet gag

Good Grief!

Common sense actually prevailed!

Google's Street View spycar clocked in London

Inverness - me on bike...

Yep - one passed me cycling in to work on Monday this week...

...maybe I'll get my 15 minutes!

Asus' Atom-powered Eee PC spied on web

So do we get...

...a new curvier companion model to complement the new curvier hardware?

Someone sultry on the beach perhaps...

Mmmmm... sultry...

Eurostar cancels 29 Feb 2008

re: But they can't cancel it!

...and Mine!

11th birthday!