OK so this was the fateful weekend when I went the extra mile and paid the VAT myself! I realise that is not very technical or geeky, but it has scared the pants of me to expose myself that way (financially I mean, that was a bad metaphor!).
More tehcnically... it feels sad, but we have detsroyed around 65 terrabytes of data, but by piercing the drives, making them impossible to reuse, which is especially sad when some of these are rather rare 500GB SCSI drives which would have been perfect for refurbishing aging servers to live a longer and happier life.
Ah well, I guess I have to reconcile myself that reuse is a harder row to hoe in this world than I thought it would be when I started in my job. Or maybe I am just geting older and more cycnical?
Sorry for dearth of posts, not that nothing geekwirthy of note has happened, rather that too much has! Highlights were meeting Marth Lane Fox at Go On 2012, and recording my own winkball... Not going to mention the change of IP subnet mask and suchlike they did whilst I was on holiday, not to mention the two new servers.... I mean progress is great, but so is like TELLING people and ideally in advance! I was only out for two weeks so it must have been planned....
stopping now before this gets all whiny!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Pangolins in profusion
A hundred of them to be precise. And you get precisely one pangolin for your pound, or free with any purchase.
Business seems to be picking up, or is it just that I am keeping myself busy TRYING to make it do so?
More than likely also because we are at the start of a cycle for new internships, which is always challenging and all the more so because this time two of them needs special support. Although one has a support worker the other seems not to, or perhaps she is just less supportive!
But I am starting to get the idea that I can see limits inherent to the Comm-Tech model. Not only those from outside, like the need for active trustees who participate to bring us forward, but those inside. Primarily it is about communication and systems that support it.
I have long observed that IT tends to foster preservers of their own domains who are unable to share what they know and delegate. But this is not the way forward - that was why the mainframe paradigm (or whatever you want to call it) died.
We are meant to be much more open we should be able to grow past this critical and small size; so it is frustrating not to be able to....
And to add to my anxieties there is a slight prospect of having to work alongside "the beast who shall remain nameless" and that is in direct conflict with my ethics and would rule us out of the BAAN E-stewards programme, which I would personally like to see us join!
But for now at least - it is a Bank Holiday and I should enjoy that!
Business seems to be picking up, or is it just that I am keeping myself busy TRYING to make it do so?
More than likely also because we are at the start of a cycle for new internships, which is always challenging and all the more so because this time two of them needs special support. Although one has a support worker the other seems not to, or perhaps she is just less supportive!
But I am starting to get the idea that I can see limits inherent to the Comm-Tech model. Not only those from outside, like the need for active trustees who participate to bring us forward, but those inside. Primarily it is about communication and systems that support it.
I have long observed that IT tends to foster preservers of their own domains who are unable to share what they know and delegate. But this is not the way forward - that was why the mainframe paradigm (or whatever you want to call it) died.
We are meant to be much more open we should be able to grow past this critical and small size; so it is frustrating not to be able to....
And to add to my anxieties there is a slight prospect of having to work alongside "the beast who shall remain nameless" and that is in direct conflict with my ethics and would rule us out of the BAAN E-stewards programme, which I would personally like to see us join!
But for now at least - it is a Bank Holiday and I should enjoy that!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Con-Tech for teh future?
A period of ups and downs, with the highest up being the idea of simply offering a few tiers and giving them catchy names, hence we have Simply Silicon, Cheap as Chips, Savvy Surfer, and Deluxe Duo! Add to that you can open source your order for 20% off or bare-bones it for half price and you have our new marketing strategy - why we did not think of it a long time ago I have no idea!
On the incoming side we have managed to pick up a little with a client who has a little CSR going on, which is always gratifying, but then managed to loose out on a hundred screens and thirty printers due to throughput issues and Lambeth requirements - like buses they all came along at once, I must remember February through April is one of the busiest times for future reference!
We have just cooked up a hush hush plan to start a MFR and reclaim enough to make things sustainable - the only hitch is we do need about fifteen tonnes a week , which is a little challenging in terms the journey from where we are now!
Meanwhile I made my first attempted foray into the brokering of scrap world, but it's a tricky business to get assurance of proper handling and prevent possible exposure to costs - we know this stuff is valuable but it is like a closed world trying to get the dosh!
And on a side note I am hopeful there will be fruits form our ADISA membership, since they are slowly gathering steam as a professional body and Steve seems to recognise the value we have for him as members even though it is not immediately monetary (there's no way we could swallow the membership fees.
Last but not least I got the run around from Mercy but it has taught me valuable lessons about keeping clients adherent to our terms! The less said about that the better - it has been a while since I lost my cool with a customer, but she took me there!
On the incoming side we have managed to pick up a little with a client who has a little CSR going on, which is always gratifying, but then managed to loose out on a hundred screens and thirty printers due to throughput issues and Lambeth requirements - like buses they all came along at once, I must remember February through April is one of the busiest times for future reference!
We have just cooked up a hush hush plan to start a MFR and reclaim enough to make things sustainable - the only hitch is we do need about fifteen tonnes a week , which is a little challenging in terms the journey from where we are now!
Meanwhile I made my first attempted foray into the brokering of scrap world, but it's a tricky business to get assurance of proper handling and prevent possible exposure to costs - we know this stuff is valuable but it is like a closed world trying to get the dosh!
And on a side note I am hopeful there will be fruits form our ADISA membership, since they are slowly gathering steam as a professional body and Steve seems to recognise the value we have for him as members even though it is not immediately monetary (there's no way we could swallow the membership fees.
Last but not least I got the run around from Mercy but it has taught me valuable lessons about keeping clients adherent to our terms! The less said about that the better - it has been a while since I lost my cool with a customer, but she took me there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
