Posts by Anne Hunny Mouse 36 posts • joined 4 Jun 2009
When 95 launched the price of RAM increased due to demand.
Price rocket after Kobe earthquake.
Seem to remember paying around £100 for a single 8Mb SIMM.
So 2Gb would have been extortionate even if you could find a machine to take it
We used to use the metal backed asset labels which were hard to remove and left a mark if someone removed one.
However, these were deemed too expensive and replaced by standard plastic labels which can be very easily removed, leaving no trace on the equipment.
It won't stop you running rm * in /usr/bin
Thankfully it will still let you run most of the OS commands you have just deleted...
... Giving you a chance to retrieve most them via FTP (symbolic links don't work well) from it's sister server on another site until you can do a restore from tape.
Good test to show your backups for the backup server work
Knew of a UK Gov related data centre which regularly had accidental shutdowns as the shutdown button was where you would expect door release to be.... In addition it was the data centre without resilience as they were too tight to pay for it.
On another note, recently picked the locks on some Telecoms NTE cabinets that nobody had keys to.
One was in the process of being removed, the other needed the coaxes switching and hadn't seen an engineer for years
It happens with our Sh1trix XenApp servers, not sure if this is recommended design.
Bad news is that it is still Sh1trix, which is also now horribly expensive.
Outlook annoys me as unlike most apps which remember the last save location, Outlook always reverts to your Documents folder on startup
My local CCG made everyone go electronic, the argument being someone would have to approve the request and avoid over ordering of medicine. I doubt this happens much, if at all.
As said elsewhere, the secure nature of the prescription pad adds to the cost.
Certain members of society are keen to get their hands on blank pads so they can create their own prescriptions (or sell the pads to others so others can).
In some areas / clinics the printer trays for prescriptions have locks on to deter thieves.
We tell users constantly not to go to us direct and go through the help desk ( lots of things can be fixed by lots of people in our team, it prevents queue jumping, may be on holiday). That way it's logged, more than one one person can pick it from queue
1st line to user: Sorry, don't no anything about that. I would contact X direct....
"We used to have a GSM gateway but binned it in the end as call costs via SIP carriers dropped through the floor."
Same here. Support was terrible from the provider and even the rates we started getting on ISDN circuits were cheaper than the gateway. The rates available on SIP are even lower.
I think the GSM gateway business has largely disappeared. We told the company we weren't using it and they were supposed to collect but never bothered. It went in the WEEE skip.
From experience most web designers are only interested in making the site pretty with little thought of usability or any understanding of code.
This they will stick any old code in without checking it worked. Many designers I knew used to disable the script error pop up so they wouldn't see the error...
The best one was a site that complained they never got any messages from their contact us page.
I pointed out that the submit button had no script associated with it so iit would never send an email
:facepalm:
Our help desk has 3 specialities:
1) Answering calls but not logging or telling users to contact us direct. The user then contacts us direct, which they shouldn’t do and then get told to log it with the help desk. At this point we found out they had contacted the help desk.
2) Totally ignoring users emails ( probably deleting them). Normally find out when the user forwards the original request.
3) Logging things which shouldn’t be logged (some seriously stupid non IT stuff).
They have excelled in getting such talented staff.
Despite being 3 levels of hierarchy above them I log more calls than some of their staff...
19 years since I ran NMR as a post grad. Day to day work was on a 250 MHz and 400 for more specialised work (often used by the supramolecular group).
I can remember Glaxo getting the first 750 MHz machine in the UK
around 94-95.
It was taken out of action for some time after the photographer taking publicity shots got closer than allowed and the magnetic caused their equipment to smash into the machine...
Apple did allow MacOS on non Apple boxes.
Before Jobs came back and secured investment from Microsoft (check the iMac launch event video), Apple kept themselves afloat by flogging the Tanzania motherboard with PPC CPU to beige box firms to make Mac clones.
The Mac magazines at the time recommended them over the Apple ones.... (better price, spec and build quality)
Apple were saved by relaunching as a lifestyle brand
But Apple did allow their OS on generic boxes once.
Before Jobs rejoined (and Microsoft invested to help bail them out), Apple kept themselves afloat by selling the Tanzania motherboard to beige box companies to make Mac Clones.
At the time the Mac Mags recommended buying them over the Apple ones.
One of the things reported on PM on Radio 4 that early on when people scanning boarding passes were getting incorrect destinations on the screen. They reported that someone flying to Sweden got 3 different incorrect destination when the card was scanned.
It was also reported that at least initially BA's phones weren't working at Heathrow but I would have thought they would have had some local survivability in place if the phones couldn't register to the systems at the data centre, with a backup local breakout to PSTN.
My best (albeit poor) guess that it is more likely to be network related. Faulty router(s)?
I haven't used Avaya Red for a few years (but I still get called for advice) and it was a great product for Contact Centres with bullet proof reliability. Was never a great fan of the Nortel stuff though.
In the middle of the roll out of CUCM and not impressed, in some ways our retiring ISDX is better....
I haven't thought much of Lync either and unsure of Unify's direction post take-over. I've been doing telecoms long enough to know there is no perfect product out there and I also know it is a dying industry and look at other options.
This bankruptcy has been coming for a while due to the loans / credit coming to an end and needing renegotiating. It's not as final as a UK bankruptcy and several of the US airlines have been in and out of Chapter 11 over the years (I think they all the major ones filed for Chapter 11 after Sept 11).
The difference with Nortel is that they previously had to sell most of their assets after doing an Enron and surviving on credit which disappeared with the financial crisis.
I think we will have to wait to see the extent of the free Windows, will it be limited to certain editions and/or licensing models.
Will you have the ability to register for the update but apply it later? (receiving a key?).
I think their intention is to try and use OneDrive. Office 365, the Store and selling data mined from Cortana (or using it for targeting ads) for at least home users and possibly SME's but I cannot see larger businesses using those services.
For the hardware makers they don't necessarily have to provide working drivers and software for Windows 10 for old kit which generates sales of new printers etc.
The Kindle Touch 3G is currently showing as unavailable and they don't know when it will be back in stock on the Amazon UK site . http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-Touch-Screen-Display-Globally/dp/B005890FOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1346401683&sr=1-1
Maybe it's getting an update but it's a relatively recent model.
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