* Posts by geekclick

105 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2010

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Inside the real-world Double-O section of Her Majesty's Secret Service

geekclick
Pint

Perfect Friday reading..

Great article, very interesting :)

Sophos antivirus classifies its own update kit as malware

geekclick
FAIL

Easy to resolve...

1. Turn-off 'on-access' scanning in all of your Anti-virus and HIPS policy.

2. Go to the Update Managers in your Enterprise Console, right-click your Update Managers and choose 'Update now'.

3. Wait for the update manager to finish downloading the latest updates (Download status changes to Matches)

4. Edit all of your 'Updating' policies in Enterprise Console. Click on 'Schedule' and change the check for update time to 5 minutes.

5. Wait 8-10 minutes.

10. The number of false-positive Virus/Spyware detection should start falling.

11. Enable the on-access scanner when the number of false-positive detection has fallen significantly.

12. If there are any computers still showing the false-positive alert then they have either not received the latest update or the 'on-access' scanner was still enabled when they tried to update. The above steps can be repeated for just those computers.

Taken from: http://www.neowin.net/news/sophos-releases-update-causes-mayhem-for-corporates

Resolved for all our users this morning, saves having to run a command on every machine....

Google+ claims 100 million 'active' users

geekclick

Have it and use it...

About once a week whilst sat on the lav and want to look through something other than facebook, my kindle book, twitter etc I dont have any/many personal contacts on there so the stuff i do see is more fulfilling than facebook....

'How I CRASHED my bank, stole PINs with a touch-tone phone'

geekclick

XKCD warned of this...

http://xkcd.com/327/

Freeview kit to require retune tomorrow

geekclick

RE: Why is shopping classed as "general entertainment"?

You have met the fairer sex right?

'Over half' of Android devices have unpatched holes

geekclick

Unbranded...

My Droids have always been unbranded non carrier specific jobies, i get firmware updates fairly quickly.... but then i am still tied to the device manufacturer so before the fanbois jump in and point that out, it makes you no better than me...

New guide: Bake your own Raspberry Pi Lego-crust cluster

geekclick

How many lego blocks..

hold it all together? This is important stuff El Reg!

Blighty battles Oz for stratospheric supremacy

geekclick
Thumb Up

I really want to have a go at this...

Would be awesome to have a picture hung on the wall in the living room of space taken by something i have built...

Sysadmins: Your favourite tool's now ready for, er, fondling

geekclick
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Re: Prior art

Genius! Why did i not think of this? *fires up spare laptop and digs out the binos*

Emotional baggage

geekclick
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Re: I love my Wenger Backpack

+1 for the Wenger.. I have one provided by the company and it is fantastic, i travel to europe at least once a month and it easily swallows 2 laptops, tablet, chargers and cables, clothes, food and i generally have space left for a trinket or two for the wife, go and try one out before dismissing ;)

Chick-lit star snubs Menshn.com password flaw alert

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Just had a quick poke at the site...

Wish i hadnt wasted the bandwidth!

NASA captures mind-bogglingly gorgeous solar video

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New desktop image

Thanks for that :)

Cambodia set to boot out Pirate Bay co-founder

geekclick

Re: Quick...

Even that has its downsides, such as cohabiting with Assange(tm)!

Apple Mac OS X Server for Mountain Lion review

geekclick

Re: SMBs?

Whoah there... I thought we (specifically you and i at this point in time) were discussing the merits of Mac's in statups/SMB's vs PC's and the TCO of Mac's vs PC's and not the usability/suitability of Mac OS X server (of which I will admit I have limited exposure too)

My career does include extreme use of Windows Server platforms, UNIX (more specifically SCO) and Linux. In terms of client side its much of the same with the inclusion of OSX and thus Mac's... I have also been involved in start ups and SMBs...

OS X Server could be constructed with the use of Voodoo and Whitchcraft for all i know... But my point was about SMBs and TCO....

geekclick

Re: SMBs?

Does a career spanning more than a decade count?

geekclick
Go

Re: SMBs?

I guess there is always a first for everything....

But i do object to the TCO argument of Mac's vs PC's. On the whole it is BS speaking from my experience..

geekclick
Meh

SMBs?

I have yet to come accross an SMB running 10 or so Macs! Pricing for SMBs is critical, 10 Windows Laptops/Desktops is a damn site cheaper than 10 Macs/Mini-Macs/Mac laptop things!

But i can see a use for those who exclusively Mac machines (See this weeks Open and Shut) at home who want something a bit more indepth..

Brummie plod cuffed in Facebook troll hunt

geekclick
Pirate

Re: The Somebody Said Something Unpleasant To Me Act 2012.

Sounds relaxing....

geekclick
Happy

Re: The Somebody Said Something Unpleasant To Me Act 2012.

Actually i called you obtuse!

I stopped short of calling you a dick but implied your behaviour was dick like....

geekclick
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Re: The Somebody Said Something Unpleasant To Me Act 2012.

Don't be so obtuse....

Simplifying the way these guys went to town on her as "Someone said something unpleasant to me" is idiotic at best.

Just because you are on the internet does not mean you have the right to behave like an utter cockwhisk!

Or did you miss the various case of kids/tennagers/REAL FUCKING PEOPLE killing themselves over cyberbullying!?!?

In the words of Will Weaton "Don't be a dick!"

Mars rover will.i.am 'cast: A depressing day for space and technology

geekclick

What is your problem exactly?

So will.i.am wants to not niche himself to STEM but include the arts as well?!?! Grow the fuck up Lewis!

The Oatmeal hits $850,000 goal for Tesla museum

geekclick

Re: WOW so a guy does something good for Science....

Cheers for the tip *fires up browser and points to the googlesphere*

geekclick
WTF?

WOW so a guy does something good for Science....

And already the el reg commentards have loaded the sh1t throwing cannon!

I for one welcome our entertaining do gooder Tesla obsessed fund raiser! Would we rather the site was turned into a shopping centre or a restaurant?

Donated and hope i get the chance to leave Blighty and visit it someday!

Behold: China's robot noodle army!

geekclick

Re: Eh?

Did you read the article?

Deadly pussies kill more often than owners think

geekclick
Thumb Up

Re: Efficient killing machines....

One of my two love to terrorise the neighbors American Bulldog (the damn thing is the size of a small horse ffs!).... We also have a Jack Russel who lives in fear of both of the cats!

geekclick
FAIL

Re: That usually means they like you

No it doesn't. When a cat brings you a dead animal or leaves a bit for you to find its to demonstrate what bad ass killing machines they are..

See http://www.cracked.com/article/226_6-adorable-cat-behaviors-with-shockingly-evil-explanations/

or http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cat_kill

geekclick
Happy

Efficient killing machines....

Deadly all of them, sharp teeth and claws, fantastic reflexes, nine respawns and agility beyond the kin of mortal species. Not only do they kill indiscriminately they will also eat their owners if said owner dies locked in the house with their precious furball before the body is cold.

I love cats, i respect their total and utter contempt and disdain for everything.

IT support bod? Whatever you earn, it's not enough

geekclick
Go

Re: helpdesk staff

See thats the other thing, our Helpdesk system is tied to AD so that when the user calls the Analyst takes their name and it auto populates; Email, Mobile, Desk Phone and PA if appropriate into the ticket along with all the asset numbers for equipment they have been issued. This should be basic stuff for a hell desk system yet no one seems to bother!

Having served time on helldesks and further up the chain the issue is generally the "gamification" (what a shit word) competing with an Us vs Them approach. No one whats to work as cohesive unit learning off the other etc.. Internal IT politics can be blamed for this but generally because the managers employed to run these teams couldnt know Command Prompt from Powershell! The reason the non techies are running a techie department? Generally the beancounters who dont want to pay for someone who knows what they are doing or other management types setting up job for their management type mates!

geekclick
Happy

Re: helpdesk staff

That is a specific 1st Line function, anyone not doing that should be marched, anyone who doesnt think to ask that should be sacked on the spot, ridiculed and subjected to a stoning in the office carpark.

Thing is its hardly surprising he has a cob on when you are stuck dealing with things such as this on a daily basis:

User: "My PC wont come back on when i wriggle the mouse"

IT "Is the Screen on?"

User: "Yes the light flashing"

IT "Ok is the PC on?"

User "Yes"

IT "Are you sure?"

User "Yes i never shut it down"

IT *through gritted teeth* "Ok well humour me and check"

Line goes dead...............

Fuckwits!

IT departments are BRATTY TEENAGERS

geekclick
Happy

Dear Mr Mueller

Please head to this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/27/bofh_2012_episode_7/

Read and digest.

geekclick
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Grrrrrr......

IT Departments behave like bratty teenagers by insisting they know best and must always figure out their own way to get anything done,

Yes, because thats what we are paid to do, i dont wander down to the beancounters office and tell them that they are running our VAT return wrong, why should they come up to IT and tell us that the way we are allocating space on the SAN isnt optimal.. If you approach IT and say i would like X implimented IT will look at what X is, how it fits in and then determine the best approach to ensure that end of world type cockups do not ensue, they are the ones who will issue a P45 if we cock it up so why shouldnt we do it our way ensuring this doesnt happen?

Such behaviour, he believes, is not very helpful to businesses and syadmins should therefore remember think back to the time in their twenties when they finally figured out their Dads did know a thing or two and listen to more experienced folks about how to get stuff done.

What happens if the IT dept is all in their 20's? But also, the same applies in the opposite direction.. Just because you dont know how it should be done, doesnt mean the way we are doing it is wrong...

Mueller's preferred method of administering this kind of tough love is to point out that IT isn't actually about technology: helping a business do business better is the goal. He therefore preaches ignoring the potential of the gadget you just bought, downgrading your opinion of your own ingenuity and realising that you cannot devise a way to get stuff done as well, quickly or cost-effectively as a standard process.

BS, no such thing as a standard process, process should be written according to the task at hand not according to a task roughly of a similar nature! As for the gadget remark... Gadget demand is generally driven by management types who want the latest iToy or whatever because thats what all their management type golf buddies have! Most places i have worked IT arent allowed gadgets unless management are bored with the ones they already have and dish them out as hand me downs and consider it a "treat"..

“You need to shift mentality into a mode where you deliver capabilities 100% successfully every time, to deliver results to the businesses,” he told a BMC event in Sydney today. “You cannot approach IT randomly because there is too much complexity and change. You must have an orderly, repeatable way of doing things.”

Generally IT do, again its the management and middle management types who end up trying to drive the unorderly through, normally to suit their own petty ridden agenda.

That mentality means process, process everywhere, plus heavy emphasis on configuration management so that you can always pinpoint just what's going on in IT and how it applies to the business.

This sounds like a line spun to management by a sailes driod to convince them to take a product they dont actually need!

It also requires a mindshift away from caring about kit and instead focusing on applications, because all the kit in the world is merely a tool that end-user wield to spend quality time in apps.

BS, you have to care about the kit, if you dont, your "quality time in apps" will not be quality it will be headache inducing and full of issues! This also sounds like a line to get IT to buy management iPads!

Which is not to say Mueller is entirely opposed to a pleasant morning spent trawling through log files: he just wants that effort to create information that advances the understanding of how IT powers the business.

No its done to understand what is going wrong and fix it so that its right.. Most people in IT understand how it powers the business already because people ring you when it doesnt work or when it doesnt work how they need it to!

Mueller is not, it needs to be pointed out, grumpy with IT departments alone. He also showered marketing teams with scorn, proclaiming they expect the impossible from IT almost as soon as they hear about a new gadget.

Its not just marketing, see above!

He also said there's room for some geeky fun in IT, thanks to the trend towards “gamification”. That trend, he said, can motivate IT workers by giving them the chance to top a leader board for user satisfaction.

This might work for a helldesk/1st line team where their stats are their crust but to those of us above that we dont play games with systems, its an easy way to end up in the unemployment line!

End-users, he added, could be offered game-like processes to make sure they do things properly and don't wander off the beaten paths in ways that make extra (and stupid) work for IT teams.

This line read to me as "End users are idiots, treat them as such" which is a fair point i guess, but then according to Mueller I am part of the problem not the solution!

Sysadmins! There's no shame in using a mouse to delete files

geekclick
Meh

Re: Windows using Idiot here...

Then you are..

A: Not a sysadmin

or

B: Not trying hard enough or never have anything to do that would be considered tricky..

Exchange 2010, most stuff is and can be done via GUI, if you want to restore a mailbox from a DPM backup then PowerShell is a MUST!

Want to see who has a file open and locked to them from a network share? Command prompt all the way..

It is horses for courses but to get to sysadmin status and not be at least proficient in both GUI and CLI is foolish...

No offense but i see too many boys and girls taking the first step in IT and not have the first clue about command prompt and or powershell, it makes me sad..

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean review

geekclick
Trollface

Re: Better put the kettle on

ICS released 8 months ago, yet it took 5 months to reach my phone!

JB now released, look forward to using it in March 2012 when I finally get the upgrade.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN my phone is not compatible!

You going back in time then Mr?

O2, GiffGaff network goes titsup for unlucky punters

geekclick
FAIL

Psssst..... We have 200 engineers dedicated to network performance

This is the message currently being displayed on the o2 website under all of this:

Making calls and using data

05:40 - We're continuing to drive the recovery of this issue with our support teams and vendors. We're working to restore service as quickly as possible. Unfortunately we're unable to confirm any timescales for service restoration at this time. We'll let you know as soon as we can. We apologise once again for any inconvenience this incident is causing.

03:25 - We're still working with our support teams and vendors trying to restore service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused whiile this recovery work is in progress. We'll provide further updates as soon as we can.

01:00 - We can confirm that the problem with our mobile service is due to a fault with one of our network systems, which has meant some mobile phone numbers are not registering correctly on our network. As a result, some customers are having difficulty making or receiving calls, sending texts or using data. We, and our central supplier, have deployed all possible resources and are working through the night to restore service as soon as possible. We apologise again to customers affected and will provide further updates as soon as we can

23:00 - Our engineers and vendors are continuing to deal with the problem as a priority and we hope to restore full service as soon as possible.

19:00 - We continue to manage the problem on our network that is affecting some of our customers. Customers may still be having difficulty making and receiving calls, sending texts or using data.We are sorry for any inconvenience. Our engineers are dealing with the problem as a priority and we hope to restore full service as soon as possible.

16:45 - We're currently seeing a problem on our network affecting some of our customers.As a result, you may have difficulty making or receiving calls, sending texts or using data.Our engineers are dealing with the problem as a priority and we hope to restore full service as soon as possible.

Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world

geekclick
Happy

Anyone who works "in IT"..

Should carry a USB CDRW/DVDRW drive by default. My laptop has no optical drive built in but came bundled with a USB one, has been one of the most handy peripherals i have ever kept in my kit bag! The time of the built in spinning storage (both HDD's and Optical) is nearing its end but bundling a USB one with the machine should be the standard.

For all those knocking on about USB drives etc, when was the last time you installed an OS from one? Its a ballache in the extreme hence why OS discs are still discs....

Disappearing space dust belt baffles boffins

geekclick
Alien

Aliens did it!

That is all....

HTC bags UK win in patent war with Apple

geekclick
Thumb Up

Ahhh a ruling that makes sense

At long last, happily from the UK for a change :D

Samsung fails to stall Galaxy Nexus sales ban

geekclick
Stop

This whole patent thing is a joke..

Honestly its getting a bit much now and they are all as bad as eachother, oh you designed a device with round corners, oh you put a search function on a device, oh you wanted your phone users to slide to unlock etc etc its fucking rediculous, i am all for protecting things and stopping out and out plagerism but fucking really, its getting stupid!

*apologies for the language but it is really boiling my blood these days!

'Inexperienced' RBS tech operative's blunder led to banking meltdown

geekclick
Pint

Sky News Qiuoteing el Reg

Was watching last night during the 23:30 Press Preview. They were quoting el Reg and even mentioned the site and commended them for the story! Beer all round boys :)

Stephen Hawking to demonstrate speech via brain scan

geekclick
Happy

Science is cool

That is all...

Assange: Australian neglect made me flee to Ecuador embassy

geekclick
Facepalm

Re: Bail terms

"It's hard to see how bail terms that prohibit requesting political asylum is not a violation of human rights."

Erm they don't, they prevent him from leaving a specific address between specific times. Applying for asylum isn't what has broken the terms, staying out past his curfew is....

Samsung S3 finally catches up with the Palm Pre - if modified

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I was kinda disapoint..

Not to see wireless charging on the S3, it would have iced the cake for me!

Reseller kingpin: My rise from school disco boss to FTSE 250 biz

geekclick
FAIL

Re: Eastwood boy done good

or rather Einstein was....

I happen to be dyslexic as well!

geekclick
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Re: Eastwood boy done good

As was Einstien apparently!

Will UK.gov crack down on itself for missing Cookie Law deadline?

geekclick
Meh

Will el reg ..

Be compliant on time? Thats all i'm interested in :)

Had the marketing guys quiz us about this the other day as the web team had been hassling for permission, its a royal pain the ass!

Man sues pr0n starlet after Twitter rejection

geekclick

Its Rule 34

no exceptions....

Google Drive Issues on Mac

geekclick
WTF?

Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

At its best, that wasnt a review it was whinge about being a fanboi in the extereme, i expect this sort of reporting from the Daily Mail!

I have my G drive installed, syncing and working fine accross 3 Windows machines (one laptop and 2 desktops) and an 2 Android phones!

El Reg, cut this nonsense immediately!

Samsung S III to enter Galaxy next month

geekclick
Happy

Bonza!

I have been putting off my upgrade for this..... It had better be the SGS3 or Samsung will forever be off my Christmas Card list....

Death Star SUCKS PLASMA FROM SUN in NASA riddle vid

geekclick
Thumb Up

Re: Emerging from Sun?

WOW i am not the only person to have read The Moat in Gods Eye after all!

NASA plans manned Deep Space Moon outpost

geekclick
Coat

RE: You cannot simply boost the ISS to HEO..

Should that not be:

One does not simlpy boost the ISS into HEO (Mordor)

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