Posts by Tezfair

No shoes for little Timmy, Mama needs a new 10TB hard drive

Re: I'm gonna go ahead and...

That's really interesting, as I just replied to Jason7, that we never get a seagate failure, yet WDs do all the time, you say the opposite. Bizarre.

Re: Just a shame...

I would have seagates over WDs any time. I had to send back a new WD 6Tb as it was having issues. A client server was supplied with 5 x 1Tb WDs enterprise, as each one failed we replaced it with a Seagate. The server hasn't been in production a year yet and so far 3 have been replaced.

Having dealt with as many hdds as I have had curries, seagates come top for me, whereas we have a dedicated returns procedure for WDs as we send so many back.

Sage advice: Avoid the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – it knackers our accounting app

I ran version 19 of instant accounts for years until I went to W10 and it refused to work. I had to upgrade to v22 (or stop supporting W10) so this is almost old news to me

NASA starts countdown for Cassini probe's Saturn death dive

Wrong move

I think it should be flinged into space to forever roam for humanity.

Ransomware scum infect Comic Relief server: Internal systems taken down

mountain out of a molehill

"We have been working with a specialist cyber security company to assess the situation in detail and are taking proactive steps to augment our security.

"The attack appears to have been isolated and at present we have found no evidence that any information or data has been stolen. However, we are continuing to carry out a thorough forensic investigation of all our IT systems to assess the full extent of the situation and are taking additional precautions to protect the security of all the information that we hold."

Talk about waffle, let me reword this,

"Someone opened an attachment without thinking, we got hit, so we are in the process of searching and deleting the recently added files, restoring a backup and getting on with life."

Its ransomware, not espionage for goodness sake

Really – 80% FTTP in UK by 2026? Woah, ambitious!

This can only mean one thing....

Another 50p (or more) increase on the quarterly bill every 13 months to cover the Openreach costs.

Childcare app bods wipe users' data – then discover backups had been borked for a year

I remember a few times as a breakfix engineer going on site and whilst it wasn't part of the job, I would always ask what backup they are running and just have a peek. Number of times it had failed was quite surprising. Usually due to capacity issues or changed paths / shares etc, but a classic was a FAT formatted USB HDD. All was fine until the backup hit 4Gb as a filesize - pretty much a week after being set up.

Windows 10 now rules the weekend, taking over from Windows 7

Back to school deals

I would imagine that a fair % will be new laptop buys with 10 pre installed as the little darling go off to college / uni. Looking through suppliers, the 'Windows 7 downgraded' kit is becoming rare.

FireEye warns 'massive' ransomware campaign hits US, Japan hospitals

Strong push on zepto yesterday. All clients had labels.zip flooding in, and typically one decided to open it. The servers honeypot alerted me and I managed to contain it within 3 minutes.

Client refuses to ban zips files.

Brit network O2 hands out free Windows virus with USB pens

They got a USB Pen, I got flowers

no seriously, bunch of flowers arrived today from HP / Ingram

Email proves UK boffins axed from EU research in Brexit aftermath

F*ck 'em

It's really simple. Gov takes a big axe to Corp tax, 0% for biz turnover to say £100k, sliding scale then to top tier, science industry has very low rates. This attracts investment across the board in the UK due to better rates. It might initially yield less tax at the beginning, however as the UK recovers, the employment rate goes up and they get their tax back via PAYE / VAT etc

I see the EU imploding in the next 10 years so the faster we can draw talent to our shores the better the country will be long term.

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Re: I wonder...

"How about these anti-burglar devices that mimic the patterns of a TV?"

My neighbour has one across the street, it's fake as hell as it unbelievably obvious it's not a TV due to the colour changes being far too slow to represent a TV

No, the VCR is not about to die. It died years ago. Now it's VHS/DVD combo boxes' turn

Transfer those tapes

Earlier this year I finally got around to converting VHS to digital. It was a real eye opener. Most of the 3hr tapes had stuck together so I was having to wind the tapes end to end before I could play them back, but quite a few snapped.

The small camcorder ones I was able to recover most of the kids when they were little. School plays, holidays, birthdays etc, however due to the age of the tapes and the VHS machine, the quality is somewhat lacking but at least I have something.

So, if you have old tapes, get them transferred asap.

You can buy Windows 10 Enterprise E3 access for the price of a coffee

Re: And so it begins

"$7 a month, that's cheap! Until you realize that you'll be paying that $84 per year, every year. That is $252 for the OS alone, over the (industry standard 3-year) life of an enterprise computer."

Don't forget that's per user per year. Multiple that by the number of users that use the same computer and it's going to get a whole lot dearer.

Farewell to Microsoft's Sun Tzu: Thanks for all the cheese, Kevin Turner

2007 was the turning point

Once MS stopped listening to what the market wanted and did their own thing, people started to look at alternatives.

Win 10 Anniversary: 'We're beginning to check in final code' says Microsoft

watermark

Still appears on mine - Build 14383.rs1_release.160701-1839 and over on zd forum others say it still appears too.

Only thing I dislike with this style of upgrade is that I have one program that has to be reinstalled each time.

Attention, small biz using Symantec AV: Smash up your PCs, it's the safest thing to do

I ditched SBE last year when they split the suite up and the price doubled, however I continue to use SMSMSE, but for the AV I now use Avast business free. Between the two different companies I have not had any issues.

Dell confirms price rise post Brexit vote as UK pound stumbles

Its all b*ll*cks. Dells are already made elsewhere in the EU and no doubt being purchased in that currency.

This local council paid HOW MUCH for an SD card?!

why i hated being a sales man

I once worked in a computer shop in the late 90's and an old chap came in one evening wanting a CDrom audio cable (remember them?). There was no price but thought it was only a few quid. Shop owner said £25. I tried to tell the old man quietly to wait until the following day and go to a bigger store in town, but he was desperate for it and brought it.

Never been so embarrassed to sell something.

TeamViewer denies hack after PCs hijacked, PayPal accounts drained

Happened last week

Client of mine said she had a pop up appear and got in touch so it's been happening for at least the last 6 days.

Super cool: Arctic data centres aren't just for Facebook

Missing a trick

Data centres should tie in with the NHS (bare with me). Hospitals have to be hot all the time, and servers have to be cold. Why not colaborate and build small data centers in the grounds of hospitals and essentially the hospital pays a share of the electricity costs in return for the heat. Saves on fuel costs for the hozzy and electric costs for the DCs.

Revealed: How NASA saved the Kepler space telescope from suicide

awesome

Need to make a movie with keanu reeves as Charlie

Catastrophic 123-reg VPS cockup deletes Ross County FC website

cloud goes pooooof

Shows how easy 'your' files in the cloud can be removed overnight.

That aside, (I have no clients nor interest in 123) i'm surprised 123 are saying 'tough' to those without a backup. As it was their fault they deleted the files, they have a moral obligation to undo that damage.

Web backup biz Monster Cloud monstered after monster price hike

Re: nothing new

Teamviewer did the same recently. v10 and earlier was a one time fee to upgrade, now v11 onwards it's a monthly subscription and for me the upgrade has jumped from around £150 / year to £672.

TalkTalk broadband customers continue to flee

poor speeds

I have 3 x customers that have TT business via a reseller and the speeds are untenable for all of them. I'm in the process of getting on of them out of the contract and also upgrading to fibre with BT

BT hauled into Old Bailey after engineer's 7-metre fall broke both his ankles

no offence taken, however imagine a job where you are standing most of the day, maybe walking around offices, up and down corridors / stairs. Lugging equipment or when on call, walking from carparks to offices. 2 miles might not seem far but over a day that is exceeded so I have to now pace myself.

I broke my ankle back in 2014 and it's still painful and limits my ability to walk (2 miles is my limit before the pain is unbareable) or climb ladders etc. Basically this engineer is now a deskjocky. I hope he gets / got a decent payout as his life will be radically changed. Mine certainly was.

It really is time to sort out your professional indemnity insurance

Most likely this will be deleted

but I get my PI PL and EL through www.warrantyindemnity.com and has been cheap over the years. In fact some other insurance company at xmas (co-op I think) tried to beat it but they couldn't and gave me £50 vouchers. no interest in the company, just a user.

Server vendors? Pah, they're mere resellers

diminishing sales

The more companies move to the cloud the less 'sales' there are. Whilst it's easy to sell a couple of thousand blades in a data centre at near cost, I imagine there will be a time where 'physical servers' will become a niche market.

Aluminum-wrapped robbers fail to foil bank

probably worked at home

Most PIR sensors seem to work on movement of heat, so guess they thought the banks security was based on home security systems.

Hubble spies supermassive black hole in surprising spot

My theory on black holes

I reckon that black holes are the hoover of the physics universe. Eventually it sucks everything up and converts it back into it basic form, so all the bits / atoms that make the periodic table are pulled apart into the sub particles / neutrinos / quarks (or what ever it's called) and you end up with a soup of matter with no form. Eventually the black hole(s) collapse as there is no further matter to convert and you end up with a universe of 'nothing' which eventually goes boom and you get the big bang and it all starts again.

We wrap our claws around latest pre-Build Windows 10 preview

Bad version

I had to roll my insider preview back as the graphics locked up or the login screen hung. MS seems to be going backups again.

Ransomware now using disk-level encryption

I wonder if it only encrypts the boot drive. Might be worth revisiting folder redirection to another drive (or server depending on scenario). Either way it's getting more of a headache.

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Re: Contempt for your customers is the wong way to go

"Windows Server 2008 is the same kernel as Windows7. Not Windows Vista."

R2 is more like Windows 7, the first 2008 is a vista clone. Not sure about the kernal, but there is a visual difference.

Lonely bloke in chem suit fuels Mars orbiter

Holy Hell

Bet your spell checker was having a melt down as you wrote this article.

German mayor's browser tabs catch him with trousers down

language

Seems odd that all the tabs in in English yet he's a German. Don't they have German sites over there?

Locky ransomware is spreading like the clap

docm's deleted

Been a run on docm emails across my clients so I have currently banned them - specifically the filters are deleting them. I'm not aware of any user that would need a macro enabled document to be emailed to them and given the risks, anyone that has to send one can rename it.

Gotta be brutal to save my clients.

Microsoft Office 365: You don't need 27 floppies, but there is desktop friction

Re: 2013 / 2016 / 365 for small businesses

I install a shed load of single Office 201x and I do is make a one-time-use outlook account which i then write onto the card along with the password. It adds maybe 10 minutes to the installation, and granted, it doesn't scale well, but it's worked for me in the past.

Lenovo: China biz down, PC and mobile down

Not surprised

I have seen a significant drop in quality with Lenovo the last 6 months. PSUs failing, hdds going south and laptop keyboards falling apart. It's now got to the point where we are looking to go with another brand.

Interestingly, with Think products they send the part to you, but Edge has to be shipped to Germany. Imagine how much it cost to send a laptop to Essen to replace a broken laptop keyboard.

BT broadband is down: Former state monopoly goes TITSUP UK-wide

Clients down in Devon, Cornwall, Leicester and Edinburgh. Looks like BT are getting on top of it as our connections are coming back up.

Windows 10 will now automatically download and install on PCs

Gone back to 8.1

Upgraded to 10 on main machine at Christmas, all seemed fine, then mid Jan noticed that my accounting software started to play up. Sage would run but the page selecting tabs were all white, so considerable time is spent trying to guess where the tab is (I also did graphic driver updates, and downgrades to earlier versions). Then my payroll software refused to run, throwing .NET errors all over the place, and the other week I wanted to update my Garmin, but the garmin software refused to install.

In the end I went back to 8.1 (multi hdds in PC)

I don't have anything fancy on my machine, I simply reflect other businesses, but my view on 10 is that it's ok for consumers, but dangerous for businesses.

As far as I am concerned, Windows 10 is still in beta

Cloud growth? Take a number, Microsoft. Two engines have stalled

Ribbons then downhill

Lets face it, MS have lost the ability to listen to what the market wants. We were happy with toolbars, so were forced to ribbons. We were happy with the start menu and we got blocks. All these years latter MS will not admit they got it wrong and resolve the issue, meanwhile other OS's are mopping up the people that are willing to try other things.

These days MS are all about squeezing as much out of enterprise as they can. I recall quoting a SQL server in 2012, 30 users and would have cost IRO £7000. In the end the client went to a CPU licensed 2005 version for £1000. Now support is finishing for SQL 2005, I dread to think what the license will be as they have now expanded to 60 users.

Sad so say that MS have peaked. XP / server 2003 was their glory and anything they try these days will fail.

Roll on business grade software for Linux.

Backblaze big data restore. Get this: it involves disk drives

Hmmm

No mention that the data is encrypted. Bugger if it's not and is lost in transit. And the format and send back could leave sectors open to extraction in future reuses.

Good idea (potentially) poor execution.

Microsoft struggles against self-inflicted Office 365 IMAP outage

I feel their pain (the engineers actually)

I did an exchange 2016 update earlier this month which pretty much killed exchange and IIS. Despite restarting all the 'disabled during the update' services, the server remained borked. Fortunately I left the update until after a full backup which I then used to restore the VM.

Not done the update yet, still testing the 'before update' and 'after update' VMs

Back in December, KB3114409 munched it's way through a lot of my managed Outlook 2010's rendering them all 'safe mode', so who's in charge of testing the patches these days?

Women account for just one fifth of the EU’s 8m IT jobs

none issue

So, there's not that many women in IT, but surely thats their career choice. How many male nurses are there in hospitals? bet not as many as women. Well duh.

Microsoft: We’ve taken down the botnets. Europol: Would Sir like a kill switch, too?

Over Christmas I saw a huge drop in spam across all my clients systems and that remained low until 'businesses' went back to work. You could argue that the spammers were also having a break, however I prefer to think that since most businesses would have turned off their PCs for two weeks, thats why all the bots stopped working.

So I would say it would be a good idea if Windows alerted the end user to 'bot activity'. i'm not sure if making changes automatically would be legal, however there is a lot of ignorance in businesses PCs - 'it's someone elses responsibility so i'm not touching it', so anything that makes people aware can only be a good thing.

Competition watchdog to rubberstamp BT gobble of EE

glad I jumped

Went to three, and although it hasn't been as good a service that EE provided (less coverage, I live in the country), the biggest plus's is that I now only pay £20 a month for just about all I can eat on monthly (from £39), and a 1Tb data alllowance a month.

Who's laughing now, doubters? Cloud makers rake in £75bn in sales

So....

As a reseller, I put my clients into the cloud, take a small profit and then never sell anything to them ever again. Good business model for me - not

Windows for Warships? Not on our new aircraft carriers, says MoD

Re: Ah joke wallpaper ...

Ahh yes Johnny. Must remember to fire it up before new year ;-)

Microsoft steps up Windows 10 nagging

Better expect some invoices then

If my clients go to work and discover any machine has been upgrade without authority, they better pay my invoices for reverting the computer back and expect a computer misuse knock on the door. And no doubt the clients will be seeking damages for lost work.

I know for a fact that one of my clients with 60 desktops (workgrouped, no domain, multiple external users), they run software that fails to run under 10. Been there, tried it.