tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79106963745939522232023-11-16T08:03:59.571-08:00Mainframeguy Chyrps..........A place far far removed from my "real life" blog. In this one I strictly ..........wear my "Mainframeguy" persona and talk freely of geek matters, the aim ..........is to syphon such diversions from my personal blog elsewhere. ...................If you want more "digestible" blogging you'll find it easily enough!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-90433405638722721282012-09-08T19:47:00.002-07:002012-09-08T19:47:15.325-07:00A new level of commitmentOK 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!).<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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....<br />
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stopping now before this gets all whiny!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-16309279186252744412012-05-04T19:30:00.001-07:002012-05-04T19:30:18.416-07:00Pangolins in profusionA hundred of them to be precise. And you get precisely one pangolin for your pound, or free with any purchase.<br />
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Business seems to be picking up, or is it just that I am keeping myself busy TRYING to make it do so?<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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....<br />
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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!<br />
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But for now at least - it is a Bank Holiday and I should enjoy that!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-62887631289214737372012-02-17T18:48:00.002-08:002012-02-17T19:00:51.546-08:00Con-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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-92131644130978142192011-12-08T23:50:00.000-08:002011-12-08T23:57:47.243-08:00Top SecretI had never expected to be considering this as a dilemma presented within my urrent employment, but here it is...<br /><br />Due to work that came, ironically, from a contact I introduced myself, with a client in the field of "Conflict Management", and this in combination that the majority of their work is with the Metropolitan Police force, we are being asked to consider vetting of our profiles as they require it.<br /><br />It's unlikely to be to home office levels, though the relevant documents are labeled Top Secret" and no doubt I should not talk about the contents of the form - even writing this blog post could in theory jeopardise my position, but that's a risk I am very prepared to take.<br /><br />The subject had already been raised at a recent ADISA conference I attended so I am probably predisposed towards going ahead - but the fact is upon reflection I should much prefer it if I had someone working alongside me who could go through this themselves...... A suspicion of "the man" and selling out as part of "the system" remains a hard thing to shake....<br /><br />The Jury's out which way this may go at the moment.Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-85285426552771995172011-11-03T21:01:00.000-07:002011-11-03T21:12:33.453-07:00Richard StallmanAlan met him! this had to be recorded for posterity - this and the fact he is so DOWN Ubuntu and actually so RIGHT to be so.... the troubles I have had with DRM for Ebooks alone means I cannot but agree and am so ashamed to be posting this from an Ubuntu box...<br /><br />Must unearth my debian P3 and press it into service as my one of my remoting in boxen - then boot it when out of office and so give myself option for power down and use less on electricity bill... suggest we should have communal remote in box?<br /><br />Other brain stormed ideas for work are how-to (pictorial) on using not standed screens as way to use up Eizos<br /><br />a template for time wasting potential orders aftercare to provoke a put up or shut up but do not just say nothing!<br /><br />Alan to ours for those pictures?<br /><br />Take in my digital video cam as gift to comm-tech to keep this laptop by exchange<br /><br />make links on this profile for my really neat nanowrimo site and new eclectic blogging - my profile update was a failMainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-29385336850864207372011-07-27T20:56:00.000-07:002011-07-27T21:00:16.216-07:00my personal nightmare is in progress... see below.....<br /><br />Rubbish, evidence, L proceedings <br /> <paul.wrighton@gmail.com>28 July 2011 04:47<br />To: <limsakai@googlemail.com><alan@hipnosi.org><alan.buchel@gmail.com><spencer_marshall@hotmail.com><jaayjay@gmail.com><br />Bcc: <annie.rimmer@breathemail.net><robert@treenfamily.com><julie.obrien44@gmail.com><br />Folks, S especially,<br /><br />you know you have to sleep on something sometimes to remember what matters?<br /><br />you know how you have to be told what the issue is before you can work that out?<br /><br />WELLLllllll this morning I remember something<br /><br />I remember coming in to work and I remember moving THREE recycle bags<br />out of the way to park my bike - I think this was the weekend before<br />A1 got back - do you remember A2?.<br /><br />BTW I have not copied in Ilane on this email at this time having<br />nearly made her cry at work on Wednesday with the challenging nature<br />of her learning curve and my brusque and macho manner....<br /><br />BUT - and this goes out to S and A especially I believe it is<br />ESSENTIAL this matter is shared in full with all staff. I had no<br />proper awareness until after you had left with the SWEEEP evidences of<br />the specifics of the allegations - I think we all realise now how<br />serious this is!<br /><br />I have asked A specifically and he agrees we shall arrange all staff<br />meetings in future where something we do not want interns "in on" to<br />happen early or late so that we can cover VITAL stuff like this.<br /><br />S - bon chance mate - keep me informed please - those evidence<br />notes and the fact you are not staff means it is my cojones and rep on<br />the line out there (so don't fuck this one up)<br /><br />over and out - they say knowledge is power so now you know the picture<br />you are looking for and the three bags in question.....<br /><br />sigh - if only the shredding issue had been discussed at a<br />meeting, ah well - easy after the event<br /><br />... names and identifying features removed to protect the innocent<br /></julie.obrien44@gmail.com></robert@treenfamily.com></annie.rimmer@breathemail.net></jaayjay@gmail.com></spencer_marshall@hotmail.com></alan.buchel@gmail.com></alan@hipnosi.org></limsakai@googlemail.com></paul.wrighton@gmail.com>Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-15917788809448073712011-01-23T19:40:00.000-08:002011-01-23T19:41:47.884-08:00My other present (birthday)Just before Christmas I was registered as the owner of<a href="http://eclectic.me"> this site</a> - what a nice present, though I had no idea it could be done, thought ICANN had issues....Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-36449045900154305552011-01-22T00:46:00.000-08:002011-01-23T19:40:02.488-08:00What a good Christmas!A Bebook2 is not to be sniffed at, and I can <a href="http://mybebook.com/6-inch-ereaders/c14/p25/bebook-neo-ereader/product_info.html">read about it here</a> (too busy to play with it so far, this will help encourage me!)Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-7273068873200778572010-11-29T20:40:00.000-08:002010-11-29T20:45:34.586-08:00Yes, we have no computers!... and so it came to pass, that I extracted the last of the tested to boot boxen from the warehouse, and there were.... no more....<br /><br />Well, that's not quite true, since the flow is pretty constant. But the fact is there was a stock of two or three hundred, and all of those have been shifted over the year. This is helped by the fact I recently "homed" about sixty off lower spec. boxen with a project to equip the homeless with computing skills and, at the end, send them away with a computer!<br /><br />I love the idea of that project and am hoping to follow it and do what I am able to make it a success...<br /><br />I shall aim to post on the subject as and when...<br /><br />But for now I am left to contemplate the almost impossible to imaging possibility that we BUY some computers!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-82665156093052870272010-09-26T08:42:00.000-07:002010-09-26T08:45:44.047-07:00php hacking and quotesSOOOoooo the latest news on the Comm-Tech front is that we <span style="font-style: italic;">should</span> be sitting pretty to help with the local councils IT refresh this year. And to that end I have found myself hacking a piece of php half way to death for an applet to quote the price and email us when they give us the numbers and details to collect.<br /><br />I have almost hacked it back into life - it's a shame it was nice clean code until I came along!<br /><br />I shall be emailing them with a data destruct invoice an at the same time I shall let them know about the web-app and we shall see if the orders come rolling in, it would be really good if they do and especially gratifying if my App works and helps with the process (esp. since it means they can raise the PO when they make the request, so we should have no delayed invoices and payments will help with our cash flow!)Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-15115030706419011182010-09-17T22:52:00.000-07:002010-09-17T22:56:28.468-07:00Email EttiquetteUh Oh:- I just finished a website complete with new domain based email address.... and during the process I sent a number of emails to the addie which were, how to put it, less than tactful regarding the site ownership and development.<br /><br />And now the person who I assumed would be in sole charge of the mailbox, to whom the comments I made were appropriate, has left. The mailbox, however, remains and has been turned over to a rota of people to maintain, any one of whom would be perhaps upset by what I had to say (albeit mildly) I have no idea if she deleted the emails or not.<br /><br />Although I have the power to go in and remove them myself that is simply not right.<br /><br />There's a lesson here - and I thought I'd post it not just for the benefit of others but also to remind myself to watch what I email sometimes!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-58567165786449971222010-09-04T22:01:00.000-07:002010-09-04T22:03:00.154-07:00Some big stuff...I am hoping we'll be involved in the annual IT refresh for our local council....<br /><br />There was a fifty off order recently which I thought would clear all our most venerable boxen.... but I am chasing screens at less than £20 a pop to make it....<br /><br />Last but not least I am really hoping a mate secures a tender for many metric tons of REEE - and if he does that we can take a slice of the action....Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-66372653468118437222010-05-28T21:17:00.000-07:002010-05-28T21:22:01.304-07:00For my next trick...It has been a productive time at work, and now I am taking a weeks holiday.<br /><br />To earn it there were a few jobs I had to complete last week, and the upshot was I had to put together around thirty computer systems and repair about six. It was hard work to complete, but ultimately rewarding. At the same time the recycle side of things is picking up and there is a very good take up for our cycling collection trailer service, which I intend to place prominently on the website soon.<br /><br />But for now.... Holiday is the thing. I even shutdown my desktop so there could be no temptation to remote in and do a little more! I guess for the REAL guarantee of not doing so I should have to leave the data key with my work SSH encryption code behind, and that's not going to happen!<br /><br />OK, I shall only post from the weeks holiday if it is relevant to tech stuff, who knows, there amy not even be wi-fi at the Beadnell Towers!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-62264379342411581442010-05-19T22:06:00.000-07:002010-05-19T22:16:53.791-07:00Silver Surfers and Comm-TechA lesser known event is the upcoming "Silver Surfer's Day" on Friday. I thought Comm-Tech were sitting pretty with an invite to the local library where we could help and give some level of presentation or at least a presence. But on Wednesday morning I find an email from the librarian which indicates we are not actually invited! This is bad news since we cannot really host an event and it is too short notice now for me to find another organisation we can piggy back on - though I shall try.<br /><br />But we have still managed to come up with <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span>. I have a one page leaflet linked from our website and the unique offering which we are hoping will appeal is not only that we offer a very affordable computer but that we shall deliver and do a basic install for £40, using our new "cycle person". I'm pretty excited about our having a cycle delivery/collection option anyway, apparently they are tech enough to do the basic install "light" option and it means I can offer them a little more for those than the measley £20 for collections.<br /><br />I need to find out where we are sourcing them, but the idea is we supply these models complete with preconfigured pay-as-you go dongles so that they are online right off without the hassle of finding and ISP and doing things with their telephone or cable, and no standing bills if they do not take to it or stay a very light user. I guess the only downside would be someone with problematic mobile signal, but in our urban catchment hopefully this will not come up - and if it does we shall just have to deal with it then.<br /><br />I have taken the idea a little further and am wondering if we can come up with a "Silver Surfer Special" that is preconfigured to take them to the Archers listen again site and has bookmarks for SAGA holidays and discounted insurance etc. This does seem a little like taking the mick - but to really get that right I need the input of actual Silver Surfers groups, which is now hard to get, unless I gatecrash the library event. Or maybe I shall indeed find something at the last minute - watch this space....Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-2044308407478935922010-04-24T22:03:00.000-07:002010-04-24T22:18:22.084-07:00Open sorcery and a conceptual ideaThis weekend saw the first <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/event.php?eid=110968902269989&ref=nf">Comm-Tech event</a> which unfortunately I could not participate in due to double booking and child care issues. I'll find out how it went on Monday - hopefully the Ubuntu live CD's flew out and brought in £1 donations to cover their costs and the dozen or so computers and laptops we took down flew out at their knock down prices of £60 to £50 quids.<br /><br />We are hoping to have two or three people joining us on a more than voluntary basis for six months under a government work placement scheme (though this seems to have been put on hold for the election which is really annoying!) and one of the roles I am keen to explore with them is getting a blog and a little social networking going for Comm-Tech.<br /><br />Unfortunately I did not succeed in getting a recycling awareness leaflet ready in time after being defeated by the intricacies of "Scribus" for desktop publishing. I feel a little more inspired in that direction this morning, but with other commitments for my time - wanted to mention as an <span style="font-style: italic;">aide mémoire</span> in my blog though that I must remember to emphasise the values of comm-tech in the closing page of such a thing and mention how we strive for maximum reuse and sometimes place items for artists or blogs.<br /><br />Speaking of <span style="font-style: italic;">aide mémoire </span>and artists - I felt inspired in one other way. Thinking of the crate of archaic RAM we have in the warehouse it occurred to me that an artist could really create something with that perhaps? It is perhaps a little trite and I am not sure how it would look as a work (needs an artist to do that part?) but the fact that all this stuff could hold memories would give you an obvious title and I liked the idea that it was memories to be and yet that would never be because the format of the stuff is unusable now - with enough dedication ROM chips could be added or boards used that carried them and these would actually HOLD memories - old programs and code no longer in use.<br /><br />Anyway, I am going to email an artist who contacted us working on a sculpture and needing fifty odd old format tower alu. chassis. Eventually he went elsewhere when I told him we needed donations around a pound a pop to cover costs. But who knows, perhaps he can take that idea and run with it and we can see some unusual reuse of those memory sticks?Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-48519860993129912942010-03-29T22:35:00.000-07:002010-03-29T22:52:29.916-07:00The need for code - work blog and server thoughtsFrom time to time I almost feel a physical addiction to the "need for coding" similar to the driver or motorcyclists "need for speed" (though less alliterative!) and this has been with me for a week or two now.<br /><br />At the same time I may have the chance to build a new computer soon which is no doubt part of the mix. The itch gets strongest when it comes to wanting to upgrade and make <a href="http://didactic.me/chyrp_2.0GIT/?action=page&url=About-me">my literary blog </a>more "accessible" and at the same time I am painfully aware of the need for more marketting and a few website updates at work.<br /><br />So I have come to the decision that <a href="http://comm-tech.org">comm-tech</a> should have a newsletter mailing list and a blog and just maybe a portal to our customers' sites. I can see a few advantages to this although I have to admit to being uncertain how effective a marketting tool it may be. But better to try it and see than be suspicious of it and never know. Plus there is an added benefit that I shall be able to call on the resources of the Comm-Tech volunteers in a "safe" way and have them do the legwork. Rather that than set them loose on things like the hardware repairs - last week one of them managed to break an Apple G4 in for a new optical drive and it was pure luck we still had one in stock to offer replacement.<br /><br />How useful it shall be getting the experience of Chyrp! version 2 from an intital setup rather than an upgrade remains to be seen - a lot of the work of upgrading my own blog is the upgrade of the tools and preservation of the data.<br /><br />Moving house also presents it's own geeky challenges and I am working on those - my bright idea there is to locate a server at work and SSH Tunnel to it for access. I am taking that a step further and thinking about putting a beige tower PIII there too which was my debian box and dual boot just for photoshop - which I never seem to have used.<br /><br />Anyway - between all that hopefully the "need for code" I have been feeling will be satisfied!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-81286632394895084192010-03-11T21:35:00.000-08:002010-03-11T21:41:54.195-08:00Disposable income beckons - thoughts on bloggingOK, this is a slight variance from the geeky theme maybe.<br /><br />But I am moving out of my rennted accomodation and into a shared house situation. this means I shall, after at least four years without it, actually have MONEY to spend on STUFF. After too long without being able to build a current computer I shall be able to indulge myself with a laptop update and a new desktop... It makes me feel pretty geeky how excited I get at the prospect!<br /><br />And I am thinking, having discovered other blogs in the arena, that maybe I or me and my colleagues, ought to have some sort of blog on the topic of reuse and recycling of technology to help raise the profiile of <a href="http://comm-tech.org">Comm-Tech</a> where I work. then there is finding the time - this would be tough. And I know it is dumb to ask here since I am not convinced anyone much reads this blog, but the big question is whether anyone would read it, and, if so, whether it would serve Comm-Tech to good effect?<br /><br />Any feedback appreciated - mainly on the latter point (but if you have any recommendations for current technology that too, since I am woefully out of date.Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-10813655563428039202009-12-24T03:12:00.000-08:002009-12-24T03:13:39.422-08:00streamlineit happened - all tested to boot at Big Yellow!<div><br /></div><div>this place marker for reuse of blog as genuine tool for comm-tech.org</div>Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-43850291295175824722009-09-20T21:04:00.000-07:002009-09-20T21:08:06.327-07:00all change at comm-tech!Well, believe it or not I have now found myself sort of "promoted" at <a href="http://comm-tech.org">my place of work!</a><div><br /></div><div>When I say that it actually means my boss has resigned, but the consequence is that I both do his job and my own and that I also have his authority, more or less. Which means I have a say in what is actually kept at the Big Yellow among other things!</div><div><br /></div><div>I shall post on that once I am on top of things... hopefully before too long! Right now I need to busy myself with the building of a number of linux systems and an Optiplex 280 with XP for a custom order...</div>Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-85826664417385043702009-06-03T20:39:00.000-07:002009-06-03T20:53:18.774-07:00Big Yellow SPAM! and working in a warehouse of geekinessso... another month gone by and it's been interesting on the work front.<br /><br />I have lost track of the number of machines Ihave put together, suffice to say over a hundred; which averages out as perhaps five a day when I'm at work. But there's so much moreby way of geeky pleasures to be had that I feel really quite spoilt in that respect - as an example I have to assemble a tower with SCSI soon to wipe a server rack of 19 SCSI 36 GB drives. But the best bit is that every day is different.<br /><br />And why the title? Well if you look at the previous post you'll see there's a comment (SPAM). BUT the weird thing is that, unbecknownst to BYTWITTERINGSPAMBOT then in my new work I spend about a third of my time working on bulk stocks of geekiness (from thousands of Optiplex P4's through to XEON servers, a host of laserjets, and even oddities like a dozen Emacs, which is a heavy item, believe me!). So I shall leave the big yellow ad spam there... it is a new kind of targetted twitter SPAM and it gives me something to chat with the lovely people at West Norwood about in the imagined idle moment(which never comes of course).<br /><br />Oh yeah - and another good thing happened... I got paid! And that is not something to sniff at or take for granted. The real rewards are wanting to go to work when I wake and the sheer quantity of geeky goodness for reuse - far more than I can handle personally (so if you have an interest in any of it feelfree to comment and indicate what it might be!)Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-10236981164753489142009-04-23T17:02:00.001-07:002009-04-23T17:39:31.852-07:00HAVE JOB! (also Elonex and Twitter fail)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Following on from <a href="http://www.netuxo.com/index.php">my work placement</a> I'm starting work on Tuesday.<br /><br />I'm working at <a href="http://www.communitytechnology.org.uk/linux/">the place where BLAG grew</a> and I expect I'll be spending half my time at least during the first three months in a Big Yellow storage unit going through about two thousand machines sorting those that will post from those that will not and generally inventorying....<br /><br />I'll be a bit of an authority on the Dell Optiplex range in no time <img src="http://forum.osnn.net/images/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" class="inlineimg" style="vertical-align: middle; " /><br /><br />The other sides to the job should get real interesting once we get the incoming backlog under control....<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px;">The Elonex, now received after previous post) has turned out to ba a slight fail, but not in the way I expected.... Battery is fine and life is as expected for a netbook (around three hours casual use). However wifi is a pain in the ass and reception is far weaker than I expected. This is key for netbook technology.... Also the linux on there is locked down.... it's OK so far as it goes and can at least be used as a very low power way to check email, make casual internet queries, and leave an IM client up if I want one.... But I think I am going to have to invest again for my mobile computing requirments (luckily I can maybe afford to now!).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px;">Also I removed Twitter from this blog 'cause it started asking for a log-in, pain in the ass and if you ask me Twitter is a bit up your ass anyway! I'm only using it extremely occasionally (which is not what it's meant for) Sometimes I like to browse the Jack Schofield twitters, so I'll probably keep the account on - though I suspect you do not need an account to browse others - must look into that...</span></div>Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-74306553259675707692009-04-07T23:01:00.000-07:002009-04-07T23:08:00.545-07:00bye bye HP2133 - hello ElonexT1!OK - long time no post. But an update of sorts...<br /><br />The HP netbook was let down by the SUSE on there - turned out that a KDE rollout when applying all updates broke the wi-fi! Being a netbook recovery was no simple matter - although I ordered the DVD from support when I saw them reduced another £20 in Curry's that was it - I returned it for a refund. At least I had something for three weeks.<br /><br />Recently I won an eBay Elonex T1 netbook for under £100 and since that is half the price and older I shall not expect so much (esp. with 256 MB ram!). But we shall see when the delivery comes (I just paid).<br /><br />The sony Ereader on the other hand is a great little gadget and even has an SD slot to go with the flash memory, so you can carry pictures and not exactly view them, but get a sketch idea of what is on there - this is very useful to me since my daughter has a digital camera and I have to manage her picture filing - I used the (stolen) laptop for an SD slot before but now use this.<br /><br />I have taken my terrabyte Exchange server out of mothballs and am making good use of that to secore and archive now (after the theft). Only thing is I am worried about the electricity bill - so it is not on 24/7. Working on building a low power one or maybe using a G3 I could get... also on building a computer for my father - which will be a mammoth task as I want accessibility options for his limited vision...<br /><br />More soon on that I hope!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-8728288775576704692009-03-09T19:50:00.000-07:002012-09-08T19:59:35.905-07:00Things are looking up...<div>
bloody hell and this draft is over three years back!<br />
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Gateway to work...</div>
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And I am blogging as a break from writing my novel during the "CV surgery" (I came on this course with five CV variations all ready to go).</div>
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It is interesting to note that I can blog and access my personal sites... But if Iwere, say, to attempt to browse the Gumtree jobs category then my internet browsing would be blocked!</div>
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The IT department (cue laughter) are in hiding and they have cunningly made sure there is no identifiable office or signage to find them. But I know they exist (and I know they are thick) because I disabled a borked Windoze 2000 box with a BIOS password - and when I came back the next day the IT department had equiped said box with a mouse (it had none the day before)!!</div>
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there is more - but I want to get back to my novel writing inbetween providing IT support at varying levels to all the other people in here fighting the system!</div>
Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-65242205451580835922009-02-22T15:37:00.000-08:002009-02-22T15:43:11.337-08:00Retail therapyOk so now I have an HP netbook 2133 to replace the laptop - graphics and CPU are modest as could be anticipated, no optical drive ditto... But what to expect for £200? Anyway, battery life is adequate unmodified and it gets me online... A neat sort of gadget<br /><br />Another gadget added to my set is a Sony E-book I could not resist. Again £200 lighter, but I am hopeful this may effectively pay for itself over the course of four years in terms of E-books costing about 20% less than books at list price... now if only that reduced further I could be quids in. Let's just hope it outlasts four years heavy use!<br /><br />At least the retauil therapy makes me feel less awful about the stuff I lost in the burglary.<br /><br />Then again what with the replacement DS and the hotel and associate bills I seem to be facing a day of reckoning in excess of a grand... on the credit card.... and energy bills plus water rates are looming not to mention the car service....<br /><br />Man, i need work!Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7910696374593952223.post-29328266646443968502009-02-14T17:50:00.001-08:002009-02-14T17:52:48.065-08:00Oh bugger it - I got burgledlost three laptops and a webbook... but what hurts most - the DS I bought my daughter for Christmas....<br /><br />not going to mention all the non-geeky stuff they took (this IS the geek blog!).<br /><br />My own lappie was totally insecure - I hope they are decent crooks and wipe it and I am not about to have my identity stolen!<br /><br />But still - all I care about is my daughter's DS - what utter bastards :(Mainframeguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12454637101257936425noreply@blogger.com0