Posts by P Taylor

Just as we said it would: HP clamps down on server fixers

Re: Interesting choice

Ive just gone to the HP support site and downloaded the latest Firmware DVD and PSP for a ML370 G6 and it downloaded fine.

Didn't ask for any auth, or serial number checks.

Maybe its not all kit...

I want to play with VMs

Vote for VMware.

VMware ESXi 5.1 is free, and supports up to 2 physical CPU's, and unlimited cores.

So I have a couple of old Dell 1950 servers with Dual quad core Xeon's and 32gb of ram. They can be had for under 200 quid on the bay of evil. Good cheap workhorses and great for running ESXi.

Dell 1950's use SAS drives, but you can also slot in regular SATA drives and they work just fine. So storage is cheap.

I personally prefer to use the Dell supplied ESXi 5.1, rather than the one direct from VMware. As the Dell version has all the management agents built in. Plus drivers for raid controllers, and fan controllers, etc.

Paris, because shes all Virtual.

Little devil: Electric Imp is an Internet of Things Wi-Fi PC-ON-AN-SD-CARD

Similar devices.

This is nothing new really. Ive been using similar devices for the last 4yrs.

The Lantronix Wibox for example. Much more expensive, but it does work in any environment you throw at it.

Paris, because her data bus would also be compatible.

Hey banks: Use Win XP after deadline? You'll PAY if card data's snaffled

Security updates ?.

Since when have banks been interested in Security Updates for ATM's anyway. Well never.

They are imaged and then rolled out. the ATM's then dial PPP over ISDN (In the UK) when looking up authentication, direct to the bank.

They have no internet access as such, and they are not part of a domain, so do not receive updates via WSUS.

I recently repaired some Cash Machines for a major high street chain (no names mentioned). And the units inside were clones, Intel Core2Duo running 1GB ram with XP SP2.

Yes, that's right SP2.

And we put our cards into these things !.

Peugeot 208 GTi: The original hot hatch makes a comeback

Re: Enough of the history!

Lets not forget the original Fiesta XR2. 1981 ?.

I had a friend that had one, and I must have been 18 at the time (wow that was a long time ago). It seems ubber quick back then, and it had amazing handling. It was an absolute hoot to be in.

But now when you look at it on paper, 0-60 was only 9.1sec !. Evidence that you don't have to go fast to have fun argument ?.

Re: The engine

I think the original 205 1.6 GTi was 110bhp, and the 1.9 was 120bhp.

Now this new 1.6 knocks out 200bhp, that's crazy. It must be a very highly stressed engine, which means it will last 5 mins.

Modern / young drivers also do not understand how to drive turbo charged cars. Hence all the blown turbos, and blue smoking cars.

Never use boost until the engine warms up. and let it idle for 1min before switching off. 2 Critical things to remember.

Microsoft does a U-turn, releases Windows 8.1 to developers early after all

How big !.

Downloading it now from TN.

At a massive 3.7GB !, how big !, just for an OS.

What happened to Windows just being 11mb and fitting on a few floppy discs.

Thought the PC market couldn't get any worse? HAH! Think again

Re: Crap makers

Don't forget Quality.

A friend asked me this weekend just to setup a new laptop for her daughter that she had purchased.

It was a Samsung large widescreen thing. Not sure of the model.

Anyway, it felt terrible to use. Cheap keys. The plastics used on the casing were thin, and very hard. With sharp un-finished edges. It was like it was made from a re-cycled American car dashboard.

And people pay 600 pounds for carp like that !.

Would have been better off buying a used HP Elitebook or similar.

Re: Not rocket science really, is it?

I have also seen quite a few friends now that have moved over to the Tablet culture, and at the same time have got around storage limitations by using a small & cheap NAS device. Or a external HDD connected onto their Router.

So now they have the convenience of a Tablet, and a large repository of storage if required.

Now that is a PC killer for the consumer market.

The corporate world is very different though. I would imagine many are like the organisation I work for in that we use many specialist applications that are not available on any other platform other than Windows.

As such as rely on PC's, and have to maintain them / replace when required.

Still need them here.

Cannot mention my organisation, but we certainly still need PC's.

In fact just last month i ordered 6,100 PC's from HP, so i must be HP's best friend right now. :-)

Google goes dark for 2 minutes, kills 40% of world's net traffic

We were warned !.

Someone typed Google into Google search didn't they ?. Come on, own up !.

Maurice did warn us about this some years ago.

Win XP alive and kicking despite 2014 kill switch (Don't ask about Win 8)

Re: 37%

Yep, ive also seen quite a few machines recently that only had SP2.

Thing is, XP will NOT pull in any security updates unless it has SP3. Since support for XP SP1/SP2 ended a long long time ago..

Re: More likely its the survey is trying to provide too many decimal places

Actually almost all Cash Machines are XP. Since they just use PPP over ISDN2e. They do not connect to the internet in any way.

Ive also deployed hundreds of Outdoor kiosks recently, again all XP. Security updates do not really matter, since its just a simply app that runs full screen, on a closed network with no web access or gateway.

I also know of a certain MoD site with over 3000 XP desktops. Again, internal security is not an issue since there is no gateway to the outside world.

Happy 20th birthday, Windows NT 3.1: Microsoft's server outrider

SP ?

The only Windows OS ever to get up to Service Pack 6.

By which point it was pretty darn good.

Microsoft Exchange: To host or not to host

Re: So, yeah

Well, given the 6 Office 365 "Reversals" I have personally done this year. Not so good I would think.

Small companies have been quick to realise the additional support Office 365 requires, especially if you have a high staff turnover.

Also...Need an important email recovered from a backup from say 3 months ago. Yeh, good luck with that too as one of my customers found out.

In House, all the way.....

BOFH: Don't be afraid - we won't hurt your delicate, flimsy inkjet printer

Costly Inkjets.

Years ago I got fed up with replacing Lexmarks, Epsons, and various cheap HP inkjets that fail after doing 20 pages.

So I purchased an old HP LaserJet 4L off ebay for 35 quid, including the toner.

The 4L is a slim and somewhat smaller laserjet so does not take up much room. Weve had that for maybe 5yrs now and its used daily to print stuff for myself or kids homework, and we have never changed the Toner !. Even works with our new Win 7 x64 machine too.

Microsoft: Still using Office installed on a PC? Gosh, you squares

Re: They're right...

Kingsoft Office Free is also very good.

It actually looks like Word / Excel and so on. Surprised MS have not tried to sue them in their normal fashion.

If you like your data US side, great.

A company I recently worked for moved to Office 365, thanks to management that had no clue what it really was..

The company that sold Office 365 to said company swore blind that the data would be Hosted within the UK on UK based MS servers.

Well.... after tracing IP packets, guess where all the data goes... Yup, the good ol USA. New York to be exact.

Oh, and their daily user support has gone up by over 20% resulting in the need for extra IT staff. Since there are constant daily issues with Office 365..

Ohh how I laughed...

On the upside, ive done 4 IT contracts this year so far on Office 365 Regressions back to in-house AD/Exchange.

Microsoft's murder most foul: TechNet is dead

Lost the Plot

Ive been a TechNet Pro Subscriber for the last 13yrs, and ive got to say, when I got the email yesterday from MS I nearly fell off my chair.

Are they insane ?, do they have no idea of what they are about to do ?.

Im beginning to think Microsoft have the same Board Directors as Blackberry !.

Busy few days ahead, downloading Everything from my TechNet account, and grabbing all my Keys.

Grrrrrrr.

Fingers crossed we all see a 180 on this.

Facebook's first data center DRENCHED by ACTUAL CLOUD

Fail of the Epic kind.

Fail....

That is all... Cannot say anything else, my sides are hurting too much !.

YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading

Always listening to customers.

Microsoft always listen to their customers. After all, they released Windows 8 and Office 365.

Oh wait.........they are not what we wanted either.

Nicked unencrypted PC with 6,000 bank details lands council fat fine

Data on Laptops.

"Perhaps the data should never have been on a laptop in the first place."

You would not believe how often it happens in this day and age. Mainly down to poor IT Management and implementation.

2 Places I have been to this week alone doing Break / Fix repairs., staff were storing data locally on their Laptops, and not on the File Server which they did have in place in the office.

They were doing Server backups daily, but it was pretty pointless as data was never put on the server and was just walking out the front door every day.

Scary !.

All major UK ISPs prepping network-level porn 'n' violence filters

Re: OpenDNS router updater

I think its a good thing really in this day an age. But I will still continue to use OpenDNS at home and in the SMB's I support to compliment any ISP filtering.

My son mentioned to me last week, that kids in his IT class were creating VPN connections to some free provider in the US. Then they were browsing what ever they liked, bypassing the schools internet filtering.

1. That's the schools fault for not locking down the PC's enough.

2. Kids are clever, and will always find some workaround, its up to us IT admins to outsmart the kids !.

El Reg drills into Office 365: Email migration

Not so 365

And today ive done yet another Office 365 to Exchange 2010 reversal.

Go figure....

El Reg drills into Office 365: What's under the hood?

Going back.

This whole Office/Exchange - 365 thing is going around in circles.

I was contracted in recently by two separate small companies (80 approx. staff), to move them back from Office 365 to their own AD & Exchange servers in-house. At the request of their directors.

The main reason from both of them. Was "Performance". Office 365 was just too slow, especially with large mailboxes. And also complaining of Spreadsheets that there were unusable.

One of my clients was also re-assured by the sales team that sold them Office 365, that their data would be stored within the UK. But simple traces showed it was actually being stored at a MS Datacenter in the NY area, USA.

As a contract Field Engineer, and speaking to lots of Clients, or rather them talking to me about their experiences with 365 from their perspective. I see it all going full-circle in the very near future.

Paris: Because she likes going in circles.

37,000-machine study finds most reliable Windows PC is a Mac

Its not all about hardware.

Most Windows crashes are Driver related.

My trusty HP Elitebook 6930p with a by-hand build of Win7 x64 with all the latest release manufacturer drivers never crashes or hangs at all. Certainly better than the 0.8 crashes per day they quote for the Mac.